Back to the Magic - Day 2 the Magic Kingdom

[BevS97]

After a long journey, I was somewhat regretting booking fastpasses for our first day, but not only did I have fastpasses booked, they were for things that would be hard to change, such as the 7 dwarves mine train, and Anna & Elsa.
In the event, we still woke up fairly early, and were all quite pleased to see we had some animals outside of our ‘standard view’ window. Just at the side we can see the edge of the Savanna, but the giraffes seem to like it at the fence and they have been there quite a lot.
We can see these guys as well, which are a form of antelope but we can’t identify them from our handy check list.


We drag ourselves up very slowly, and decide to drive to the park so that we can drive to the shops later for some snacks. In the daylight, and without cases, the car doesn’t seem to bad. It’s got quite a lot of legroom, and power everything. But the boot is very tiny.
We head to the Magic Kingdom, via the steamboat. Since we normally take the bus, we haven’t done this for a long time.
It’s a lovely view with the castle in the distance,

but I am also intrigued by the new construction at the Polynesian. These are DVC units, but I don’t they will have 1 beds or studios in them, so I don’t think we will be staying in them anytime soon. They do like rather lovely though.


We dock, and do the usual, bag check and through the gates, except the gates have all changed now with the magic bands. It’s easy enough, except I still haven’t decided the best place to wear the band so I don’t end of twisting my wrist to match Mickey to Mickey.
We have 5 minutes until the end of our first fastpass slot, so no time to take a photo, or enjoy the view, it’s straight up to Fantasyland. The new area looks very impressive, from the moment you see the initial wall. We quickly find Belle’s storytime and make it just in time. This is a new show for us, and it’s very good. Molly gets picked to play the part of Maurice, who is in jail and has to shiver a lot. She is of course, superb

and after the show, she and Katie meet Belle.
(These are photopass photos, now available instantly for your viewing pleasure )


As we were quite late to Belle, it’s already time for the 7 dwarves mine train. The standby line is over 70 minutes, so it was rather nice to just walk straight in. We barely have to queue at all, and we are on the ride. No photos here , I was hanging on. This is a ‘kids coaster’, but it’s rather nippy, a distinct step up from Goofy’s barnstormer but not a full blown Big Thunder Mountain. I really loved the quieter bit in the middle with the dwarves singing.


(faked photos at the end of the ride )

We now had a little wait until our fastpass with Anna and Elsa. I must agree with those who say the fastpass changes the way you do the parks. Whilst I loved that we had them, and could walk straight on, we did spend more time looking at the watch and deciding what we could do that fit into various timeframes. Maybe we will be more relaxed about that as the days go by.

We decided to explore the new Fantastyland as we had never seen it before. We had a look in Gaston tavern, and I was tempted by a Cinnamon Roll, but we have lunch booked and we didn’t want to be too full.

However, Molly really fancied a Mickey Bar, so we bought ice creams and sat in the shade for a while.


After our Mickey Bars, we decided to do the new Ariel ride, this had a 30 minute queue posted outside, but I don’t think we waited more than 15 minutes. The queuing area was also inside, and in the cool so it was quite pleasant to wait and look at the decorations they had put in. I only had my small camera out today, so couldn’t get great photos due to the dark, but there was plenty to see.

The ride is very cute, it’s not a thrill ride, but it’s fun and very pretty. It’s a bit like the Haunted Mansion but with a much friendlier storyline.
After Ariel, we weren’t far from the old Toon Town, which has now been renamed Storybook Circus. This has a new entrance way, and we passed a clown who was just putting away his things. It appeared he had been doing a show.

Dumbo was listed as 15 minutes, so we headed in, when we got inside we were told we didn’t need to wait and could go right through but Molly fancied a look at the play area, so we had a seat for 5 minutes while she played. I think the play area / waiting room is a great idea. After she’d explored the playroom, we went outside and straight onto Dumbo.

There are a lot of people in the park today , but we haven’t had to wait much for anything, although to be fair we weren’t doing any of the big rides.
From Dumbo we could see this new structure , and we were curious as to what it was.

Molly fancied a ride on the Barnstormer. That was showing a 20 minute wait, but the queue looked much longer than that, and it’s all outside, so we decided not to wait. Instead, we walked along the path to Tomorrowland.


We were intending to ride the tomorrowland transit authority, but we discovered it was closed. We also located the new structure, it appears to be part of the revamp to Astro Orbitor.
We had a little browse around the shops, and Katie spotted some lovely clothes that she fancied. She thought she had quite a lot of spending money, but it won’t go far on Disney clothes….
It was nearly time to meet Anna and Elsa, so we walked back to Fantasyland and straight in the FP queue. I don’t know what was happening with the standby line, but I couldn’t see any sort of queue. I think it must have been closed, as there were a few cast members but no sign of the public going in. We went in the standby line and it was totally deserted, we were the first people in the line. We were very quickly brought through to meet Anna and Elsa, and the girls had a lovely chat with Anna about ice-skating, I thought the characters were good with the kids, but there is no way I would have queued for hours to meet them,


Maybe I’m being fussy but these Photopass pictures seem awfully dark. Fortunately, I took one as well.
.
We exited Anna and Elsa though the inevitable gift shop and I was very pleased my girls don’t love Princess dresses anymore, The Anna dress was $64 and it was really cheap looking, I wasn’t impressed at all. I’ve bought quite a few Princess dresses over the years, and I’ve never seen one that just looked like printed plastic before. I’d have found it hard to spend $64 on that, although I know plenty will.

[BevS97]

After the show, it was time for lunch at Be Our Guest. We got there at 1.25 for a 1.30 fastpass and I thought we might have to wait, but there was no queue at all., All the stress about getting the fastpass and it was quiet… That;s fairly typical. We waited a short while to get into the room where you place your order, and because we wanted to pay cash we had to order at a normal till. This was a bit of a shame because I’d have liked to see the electronic ordering and also because the girl on the till got our order wrong, which we didn’t realise until the food came. We all ordered our food, and Phil asked for Tuna Nicoise Salad and we all commented on his French accent. I was stood at the till with my travellers check in hand, when she asked me to touch my band which I did. I thought this was so they could find our table, but it turns out I’d just paid for the meal on our room charge. I didn’t have to enter my pin either, which is strange as I’d had to enter a pin for 2 much smaller purchases. It wasn’t a big deal but if I was going to room charge I could have used the electronic till.
We went through into the main restaurant which is very impressive looking, I’d fancied eating in the West wing but it was full, the main dining room was very large and noisy, so we ended up in a smaller room, with a statue of Beauty and the Beast. It was very pretty, but no special effects such as the snow at the windows.

Our food took a little while to arrive, and when it finally did Phil had Croque-monsieur. checking the receipt that’s what we had paid for. I am not sure how that happened, as we could all distinctly remember Phil’s fancy french accent asking for Tuna Nicoise.
Phil decided to just have the Croque-monsieur rather than waiting for a salad, but I was a bit disappointed that no-one seemed to concerned.

Definitely not Tuna Salad.
Katie had braised pork, beans and mash

and Molly had the braised pork but with fries.
.
All in all, I’m pleased we tried it but I expect we will be back to our favourite Columbia harbour house in the future,.



After lunch it was about 2:30 and to be honest, we were all shattered. After a very long day yesterday, and quite an early start, I was finished. Molly wanted to do ‘just one more thing’, but I felt it was probably time to go…
We did see the Ugly StepSisters on our way out, and I don’t think we have ever met them before, so we decided to stop for a photo. There was a short line but it wasn’t too bad. They were very funny, completely in character. They told Katie she was dressed for a tea party and should invite them to tea, but Katie said No, and so they took offence. It was funny.

We headed out down main street, which was getting very busy with people waiting for the parade. I had a little look in the Main St Bakery / Starbucks. I’ll have to have a proper look later, but I was a little bit disappointed, it seemed more Starbucks and less Main St than I was hoping.
We took the monorail back to the carpark, and then decided that we were really too tired for the shops so we just came back to the hotel. Molly was desperate to try the pool, but as we arrived at the hotel the heavens opened , a real thunder and lightening storm. We had a rest and the rain stopped so we went down for a swim which seemed to revive us all.
I had a coupon for Mimi’s diner, so we headed along to the Loop, only to discover it was closed. In the reaches of my memory I think someone had told me this before, but I’d obviously forgotten. we ended up at Johnny Rockets at the Loop which was very nice. Molly had hot dogs, Katie and Phi l had burgers, and rather randomly I really fancied the Egg Mayo sandwich so that’s what I had, and it was really nice.
After dinner, we popped into Walgreens and picked up a few snacks, then it was back to our hotel and I think we were all asleep within minutes

[collybird]

I have to agree the food at Be Our Guest is nice, not great. We are going back again this year but for the atmosphere more than the food!

I haven't seen the magic shot with Sebastian before, very cute.

Great that you managed to get the two bit hitters (Mine Train and A&E) out of the way on the first day.

[Pussycat Doll]

Lovely day, looking forward to more, Pussycat

[MrsBC]

Glad your hol started at last! Must admit although I'm looking forward to our BOG dinner, it's more for the castle than the food.

[BriarRose]

Excellent first day at MK, it is always tough the first day to stay too long in the parks.

We have done BOG at night a couple of times but might try as a QS next time. Great photo's as usual

[Milner]

Great day.

[KarenG]

Hi Bev

There is a Mimi's (next to) up at Winter Garden Village, which is really really close from AKL. If you hop onto the 429 (new road by CSR) and head North, it's right off the road. There are a couple of tolls but the roads always deserted, and I love the peeks of backstage Disney you get. Don't miss the unexpected view across miles of flat Florida to the entire MK resort area - it's surprising how far north you go when you see that.

We almost always pop up here now rather than the 192. Feels a bit less touristy and the Old Navy and Target are great

wintergardenvillage

[MFras23]

Another lovely day bev

[Ycryan]

Fab day x