No telling how far I'll go solo - Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

[arisser]

I woke up feeling super refreshed and as though I'd managed to sleep all the way through to morning. And then I looked at my phone and it said 3:35am. At first I thought there was no way I'd be able to get back to sleep so I started pottering around, and about five minutes after I got out of bed, there was a power cut! It was still completely dark outside so there was no way I was going to be able to carry on unpacking and so I got back into bed and forced myself to try and sleep. It took a little while, but then I slept right through to my 6am alarm (and the power had come back by then too!)

Plan for today was Magic Kingdom, and I had a very ambitious EMH rope drop to fireworks plan in mind. Considering I still felt rubbish from the travel stress yesterday, I was already doubtful as to whether I'd achieve this. But I wanted to try!

My plan to hit rope drop was immediately thwarted as I didn't make it onto a bus until 7:25, making it 7:50 by the time I was in the queue for bag check. Why is it you always pick the wrong queue in these situations? I was stood there for what felt like ages, feeling like all the other queues were going quickly while I didn't move at all. It probably didn't take all that long but I was really excited and impatient to get into Magic Kingdom!

I got through bag check and went to the park entrance, scanned my magic band, and...nothing. The cast member tried a few times but it was still flashing blue so she called her colleague over, who said there were no tickets linked to my magic band! I started to panic even though I knew I had definitely purchased tickets as part of my package. The cast member said the hotel had probably forgotten to activate the tickets and sent me to the will call counter to resolve this. The guy at will call could find no record of me having any park entry tickets either. I showed him my email confirmation showing the 14 day Ultimate Ticket and he was as confused as me. Apparently, he couldn't fix this.

I got sent to yet another queue with a pass for expedited access, but there was no cast member around so I just had to line up and wait. I was getting really annoyed that I was going to miss all of EMH. I know it was nobody's fault but it also wasn't mine and I was getting super stressed out. Eventually a cast member at guest relations found my tickets, added them to my magic band and gave me two extra fastpasses to, in his words, "make up for the time you spent in line when you should've been sprinting to Seven Dwarves Mine Train". In the end, I got into the park at 8:50.

It turned out I timed it just right to still see the Welcome Show, so I lingered around to watch this before going to get some food.

I had a reservation at Be Our Guest for breakfast but I'd forgotten to grab a cereal bar from my room to tide me over so I bought an iced chai latte and a slice of lemon pound cake which I ate half of and saved half until later.

I had prebooked fastpasses today for Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear laser blast. The slot for my first one had opened and so I headed towards Big Thunder Mountain - or tried to, but I quickly realised I had no idea where I was going! I found it eventually, and went through. Initial thoughts were that I didn't enjoy it as much as the one in Paris, but in hindsight I think this might be because I was in the very back row. The trains are so long that by the time I reached a drop, the train had already slowed down because the front was going uphill again. It was still good fun though!

Now, I got the timing of my reservation at Be Our Guest mixed up and thought I still had time, so I popped into Storybook Circus to meet Donald and Goofy which had a ten minute line. I like the photos I got, but I did feel super awkward and very conscious of the fact that I was a lone adult meeting two people in costume 😂

On my way out, I checked the MDE app and realised I was already ten minutes late for my reservation and had no idea where Be Our Guest restaurant actually was! I managed to find it and luckily wasn't too late to be let in. I'd preordered food, which helped, and was sent straight through to the dining room. Confused, I asked a cast member who told me to take a seat wherever I liked and my food would find me by magic. I was sceptical, especially since I ended up in one of the side rooms, but she was right! I had the croissant doughnut which was delicious, and got an entire tray of six (!) pastries to myself. I can't comment on how these were because I put them in my bag "for later" and as of the time of writing, haven't eaten them! I will probably have them for breakfast tomorrow.

Space Mountain was up next and I skipped a 95 minute queue with my fastpass. In the queue I started to feel sick. I'm a huge ride wimp and I think it was just nerves, but I needn't have stressed. All I knew about this ride was that it is tamer than its Disneyland Paris counterpart. I found this true, but it was just about at my perfect thrill level! I screamed all the way through but they were mostly fun screams, haha! I was super happy with the ride photo for this one. I don't know the two guys I rode with but I love how we're sat in order of how excited we look 😂 The dude in the middle did comment that he was a bit worried, since he couldn't tell whether my screaming was enjoyment or genuine terror.

I had about 45 minutes until the window for my Buzz Lightyear fastpass, so I decided to stay in Tomorrowland and ride the People Mover. This is the sort of lame stuff I love so I was super excited and it didn't disappoint. I could've ridden around on this a few more times but I had places to be - namely Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast!

I wanted to catch the 12:30 showing of the Move It Shake It street party. I'd been texting my best friend on and off all morning - she's my usual Disneyland Paris travel companion - so I asked if she wanted to watch too. She did, of course, so I video called her for the whole thing. It was really nice to share it with her and we chatted for about 30 minutes after it ended too.

I still had both multiple experience fastpasses to use so I put the first to very good use skipping a 110 minute wait on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. This made my tummy flip more than Big Thunder and Space Mountain and it was super fun, but also so short that I would never consider queuing any length of time for it. I did love the video you get sent to your Memory Maker though!

On my way out I decided to see what fastpasses were available on the app, and I spent most of the afternoon scanning one, booking one, and so on. First was Monsters Inc laugh floor which I loved and think is such a clever attraction concept. Then I booked it's a small world, but had to modify this because I realised the main parade would clash with it! In this spare time I rode the carousel just to take some selfies, then grabbed a parade spot.

Just before the Parade, a couple were having some pictures with the Photopass photographer and the guy got down on one knee! I normally dislike the idea of such public proposals but they seemed genuinely thrilled and the crowd went wild.

I was a bit disappointed in it's a small world. I loved the Disneyland Paris version so much I even got a tattoo of the ride exterior. The WDW one just didn't have the same magic for me. I continued booking fastpasses on the fly - grabbed a Pirates of the Caribbean pass for an hours time. By now I was really struggling in the heat and my energy levels were getting as low as my phone battery (7%! Luckily I had a portable charger), but a pineapple float from Aloha Isle was just what I needed. I used mobile order, which worked perfectly.

I drank this while wandering back to the castle as I was just in time to watch the very sweet, very fun Mickey's Friendship Fayre.

If I was disappointed by the WDW version of small world, Pirates made up for it completely. I enjoyed this so, so much. And I was in love with that smell.

On my way out I got a fastpass for Jungle Cruise. This was originally for 7:15 but a few minutes sitting and refreshing, I managed to modify it forward to 6:20.

I still had one multiple experience fastpass to use and I was deliberating what to use it on. I knew I'd be back in Magic Kingdom for the Disney After Hours event later next week so would have plenty of chances to ride everything again. Eventually I decided on Big Thunder Mountain because I was much closer to Frontierland than my other options; Space Mountain and Mine Train.

I went on and got to sit somewhere in the middle of the train this time, which I enjoyed a lot more than sitting right at the back. When we climbed to the peak of the biggest hill, the train came to a sudden stop and then slowly rolled back just a couple of inches before jolting still again. We were stuck! We spent a few minutes sitting up there and the couple a few rows ahead of me told me that this was the third ride they'd been on today that had broken down! They must've been cursed 😂 On the bright side, the view of the entire park was really nice from up there as the sun was slowly starting to set and after a short while the ride started again and was a ton of fun.

The sunset was starting to look really pretty so I had the idea of going up the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse to try and get a nice aerial view of it. As I walked over, the Country Bears were out and, since I hadn't seen the show yet, I popped in to see it. Well. What can I say about it? I found the whole thing so bizarre!

I came out and carried on towards the treehouse as the sun was starting to go down.

Sadly, there wasn't the amazing view I was hoping for but it was still pretty.

Time for Jungle Cruise. This is a ride I had only done in Hong Kong Disneyland before. They had options there for a Cantonese, Mandarin, or English speaking skipper but even choosing English there was a bit of a language barrier so I was excited to try it again here. It didn't disappoint. All of the jokes were really funny to me and it was just a really pleasant attraction!

It was totally dark by this point so I knew it was time to get a spot for the fireworks. I hadn't eaten since breakfast besides the pineapple float - probably because it was so hot and I just didn't feel hungry! Even though I had enough pastries stashed in my bag to feed a small family, I wanted something savoury so I did a mobile order for some chilli cheese fries from Casey's Corner and started to head over.

These were soooo good and made me wish I'd bought the whole hot dog meal combo. I finished them and my free iced water (I didn't think Florida water tastes as bad as I'd been warned so that was a pleasant surprise!) and went to stake out a decent spot on Main Street. The photopass photographers were out and since I was waiting anyway, I joined the queue.

This bit of my trip report is probably the hardest because how am I supposed to choose which photos from Happily Ever After to post? It was so, so good. I started crying at the Moana bit and didn't stop all the way through. Complete Disney magic. And I'd done it! I'd lasted from rope drop to fireworks on my first day!

The crowds to get out were horrendous and I was getting really concerned about getting caught in them so I dipped out to the side and headed where least people were going to just sit and wait for some people to leave so I could get out without a stampede. This happened to lead me towards Jungle Cruise which was a walk-on. Why not? We had a really fun boat this time.

I did Pirates again too, because that was only a ten minute wait too. By the time I'd finished that, it was just gone 9pm and the park was closed! I had lovely, clear walkways and a half-empty Main Street on my way out AND I'd scored two extra rides. Bonus.

I got the bus back to All Star Sports, popped into the shop to buy some hand sanitiser (I think I lost mine on Space Mountain!) and a bottle of Fanta and then headed up to the room.

I'd had such an unbelievably good day! All the stress of the morning with my tickets was completely forgotten. I showered and settled down in the room to finish writing yesterday's travel day trip report before bed.

[Beth_Disney]

What a nearly perfect day. Shame about the faff with the park tickets but the extra fast passes were a nice touch.
Following along

[JanetteP]

What a super day, although I don't know how you managed a whole day - something I've never done, always had a break - you certainly made the most of it. Reading along

[IBEX23]

Shame you had a rough start with the tickets but it looks like you more than made up for it.

Great first day

[7SeasSailor]

I'm impressed that you managed to stay so late on the first day.

[scottishnellie]

Wow you’ve got some stamina!

Shame about the ticket issues early doors but you soon got over that. Loving your report! X

[Orlandoguy]

What a busy first day you had, try not to stress just relax and enjoy yourself , and you will have a ball

[Cinderella]

Great day👍

[Palm trees]

Wow that's a great day, I've never had enough energy to do that much.

[mick]

A great day apart from the problems with your tickets at the start of your day

Well done on lasting all day

Joan