#USAnumber3: Helen & Andy - Nov2018 - Day 1: Epcot & Magic Kingdom

[HelenJNT]

Index is here

Previous day is here

Welcome back to my trip report! Firstly, a disclaimer. Normally I like to have a good ¾ of the report written before I start posting, but this time I really haven’t had the time to do it. We got back, and it was full-on with work for a month, then it was Christmas, and now I am full-on with work again (I write for a living, so the LAST thing I want to do at night is more of the same - I already have claws where my hands should be) and we are also chocka with various birthdays and other weekend adventures this month. So there will be a lag between posts, which, let’s face it, is annoying for all of us. Sorry. I’ll try and do better once we tip over into February and things calm down a little.

You don’t have to put on the red light…

If you remember in the last instalment, I mentioned the adjoining door between our room and some complete strangers. Well, as it turns out, the noise leaks through the wall like a sieve and we could hear Every. Single. Word that our neighbours uttered when they crashed into the room at midnight. There must have been about 45 of them crammed in the room, kids of all ages and poor Dad desperately trying to attend to each one. Much like painting the Forth Bridge, only 2,468,973 times noisier.

So that was midnight. Then, I woke again at 03:30 to a red light blinking away on the phone next to my face. Voicemail. Panicking that “something” had happened – despite the Wi-Fi working fine on my mobile and any number of the messaging apps I had on there being a far more logical way of getting hold of me – I decided I needed to listen to the message then and there. If only to stop the red light from blinking. Turns out it was a voicemail from the charming lady who had checked us in the previous night and she just wanted to wish us a magical stay. At 03:30. I can only guess that there is some sort of push functionality on the voice messaging system at the Beach Club or something.

Despite the bed being one of the most comfortable I have ever slept in (not actually that difficult a feat given that I live in hotels a lot of the time for work and the beds are invariably made of bricks), I was wide awake again at 04:30, and realised that that was me done. Andy, however, was still snoozing away and I envied him.

Born of frustration
The time difference when we arrived in Orlando was only four hours as the UK clocks had gone back, but the East Coast ones were yet to change. So, it was really 08:30 in my head. I suddenly remembered that Andy had been saying he was desperate to get Bon Jovi tickets, which were going on sale at 09:00 UK time. He was convinced the time difference would mean he would be awake to buy them but given that he looked like he had pricked his finger on a cursed spindle or something, I didn’t think it was likely.

So, being the good wife that I am, I crept into the bathroom, put the light on, and proceeded to use my phone to register for the Live Nation pre-sale for the tickets. So far, so easy. It was then just a case of refreshing the page and waiting for the pre-sale to launch.

Bingo! There it was. I was transferred to TicketMaster where I confirmed several times that I was not a robot as I blearily clicked on photos which contained traffic lights, and proceeded to watch a spinning wheel determine whether I would be able to get in the queue or not. Finally, I was in, and the “best available” tickets were north of £250 each. NOPE. Sorry Andy but no-one wants to see Bon Jovi that badly. I then went back to the pre-sale page to see if the tickets for Coventry were any better (so random, playing Wembley, and, errr, Coventry). Back to the robot thing, back to the spinning wheel. Nothing available.

This loop happened several times and I was getting increasingly frustrated. Then, finally, it happened! I found some decent tickets for about £120 each. Swapped screens quickly to check where the seats were (cos we are too old for standing now…) and they looked good and I went to buy them but then they weren’t there any more. AAaaargh. Back to the start again and here began another 45 minutes of trying and failing.

By this point I decided I had had enough of being a good wife and decided to go and wake Andy up so he could try. After all, I didn’t really care whether we got Bon Jovi tickets or not, but I knew he wanted them, which is why I tried. He was less than thrilled to be woken up, despite having slept solidly for eight hours. Rude!

I kept trying for the tickets and finally some OK ones came up. I tried to pay (ignoring the fact I was doing it over hotel wi-Fi, I was beyond caring by this point) and it wanted my TicketMaster log-in. Oh. I didn’t know it. I hadn’t bought tickets for ages. Request new password. No email arrived. All the while the countdown clock was ticking away, and I was losing the tickets. Nope. Gone. Email arrives. Reset my password. Try to log in. It doesn’t recognise my payment details. AAARGH. Reset pass word. Go back to the main page. Confirm I am not a robot. Refuse to pay £500 for a pair of tickets. Repeat ad nauseum.

By this point I was at boiling point and there were some raised voices (serves you right, neighbours). Andy tried reading out his credit card number to me several times to see if we could put his payment details into my account, which means not only are we on unsecured Wi-Fi, the Walton family in the room next door probably heard every detail of Andy’s Mastercard. Several times over. Computer said no.

By now time was getting on and it was about 06:30. I’d spent two hours trying to buy tickets and was at the point of screaming. Andy finally found some for about £400 for the pair and I was at my wits end, so said if he just bought them, I’d pay for them as his Christmas present. He then ummed and ahhed as to whether this was what he really wanted for Christmas, and finally decided he didn’t (although he hadn’t actually said at any point prior to this what he might have wanted as an alternative gift). So, we didn’t buy the tickets. The end.

I went into the shower to cool down and get my head into the first day of the holiday, which, let’s face it, hadn’t really got off to a shining start.

We both managed to get ready relatively quickly, and left the room at about 07:40. It was extra magic morning hours at Epcot and we were excited!

The Boardwalk looked beautiful and peaceful this morning – nothing like the previous night.

We were two of only a few people out and about, just us and a few joggers. We took the really short walk to the International Gateway (about five minutes from door to door), stopping to take a few photos on the way.

I feel compelled to point out that I do indeed have scratches all over my face - this is what happens when a crazy Siamese cat uses your head as a springboard during the night, not, believe it or not, due to carelessness with straightening irons...

We saw lots of construction on the way – the back of the Ratatouille ride in Franceland, and the first of what was to be a million gondola pillars. They’re literally everywhere around the World, and pretty unsightly.

We tapped our bands for the first time, I had my bag searched, and we were in! We were walked up to the end of the pathway where it meets the junction with the bridge, and held there until the park opened. There were maybe 50 people in front of us, and it was starting to get HOT.

Stop right there, thank you very much

At bang on 08:00, we were ushered into the UK pavilion and let loose. I hadn’t been able to get a fast pass for Frozen Ever After at all, so our plan for day one was to ride it during EMH. We power walked all the way to Mexico – which is further than you think from the International Gateway, and there was one poor lady standing there with it all roped off and she told us Frozen was down.

Whaaaaaat? No! It couldn’t be! There we were already a bit sweaty as it was humid, and we didn’t quite have our Florida legs on yet, and we were being told the ride was down? What to do?

We weren’t sure how long it would be down for and there is nothing else to do in the area during EMH so we turned around and decided to high-tail it over to Soarin’. Of course, this meant that we were going to be behind all the others who had come in via the main entrance and it was a pretty frustrating feeling. We did see a comfortingly large swathe of people in the distance charging towards Norway so at least we knew we’d manage to get ahead of them.

We power-walked on jelly legs (mine – Andy seemed to be annoyingly unruffled) over to Soarin’ and joined the back of a 20 minute queue. Which was odd as it was only 08:15 but there you go.

Whilst in the queue we fired up the app and saw that Spaceship Earth and Test Track were also down, which meant there were only about three rides operational during EMH. Bad form, Epcot.

As luck would have it, as we neared the front, a cast member called down for a “party of two” and we quickly pushed ourselves forward. We were so lucky on this trip – “party of two?” happened on about 60% of the rides we queued for, to the point that Party of Two almost became the title of this trip report.

Soarin’ is a great way to cool down when you’re all hot and bothered. We were in the centre(ish) but the images were all still pretty bendy. We didn’t care though – I think it is part of the charm.

After we disembarked, we hopped on over to Livin’ With The Land (not literally hopping although I definitely still had some lactic acid going on in my calves). It’s not really a destination ride for us – I always feel sorry for the swarms of fish crammed into the tanks – but it’s a good sit down, plus we were mindful of the fact that with three of the headline rides down for repair, wait times for this were likely to build quickly.

Living his best life here

You’re welcome

Somewhere beyond the sea, somewhere waiting for me...

Next up, we wandered over to The Seas, where Nemo was a walk-on. After we’d ridden it, we went and looked in the aquarium which was completely new for us – I don’t think we’ve ever bothered before.

We enjoyed it though, seeing all the sharks and the turtles zooming around. I think I got a bit carried away as I have hours of video footage of blurry fish on my phone which I can’t quite bring myself to delete, you know how it is.

Arf.

Yeah.

We saw that Turtle Talk With Crush only had a five minute wait but I am never sure how accurate that is and we only had 15 minutes before our breakfast reservation so we decided to pass on it.

When we got outside, we saw that Nemo had suddenly rocketed up to a 30 minute wait; I guess the main rides were still down then.

We just pottered about, watching the monorail roar overhead, and went for a look in Mousegear. I still can’t believe I hadn’t been in there til last year – they have some really cool stuff. It was too early in the trip to shop though, and neither of us really saw anything we wanted to buy. I did like this t-shirt and might have considered it had it been in any colour other than white (as Henry Ford almost said), but they didn’t.

‘Cause this is (Garden) Griller! Griller night…

It was 09:45 now and time for our breakfast reservation at last! We were absolutely famished as it was a long time since we had had the meal on the plane the day before. We were headed for the Garden Grill, which we were excited about.

When I say “we”, I clearly mean “I”, as Andy didn’t have a clue. He was consulted about meal choices but didn’t really care as long as he got fed and we didn’t spank a fortune on tips or waste precious park time gadding around to get to restaurants.

Previous trip report readers will know that Andy and I don’t really do so well on the table service dining plan as we find it cumbersome and too much food. We don’t really subscribe to spending hours planning the best value meals and properly maximising it (despite/because of it being free) so we agreed booking a daily meal wasn’t for us and we would just dip into it when we felt like it. We made sure we had $80 or so per day put aside for tips just in case and that was about it. I’m sorry – I know our slack attitude to it isn’t the done thing on here, and I fear I would get flamed if I ever did a food report, but there you go.

We check in and are given a buzzer which goes off really quickly. As we are being shown to our seat, the host asks me where we are from, and I reply “near London”, and ever the professional, he flashes me a perfect Hollywood smile and says sincerely “oh yes, I think I’ve heard of there”. Haha.

We’re seated on the second tier of the restaurant, next to the kitchen door, which is a bit of a shame as I think it lacks the atmosphere of the booths on the lower tier. However, we are never the people who ask to move, so we let it go. Our server, Steve, is absolutely fantastic. An older gentleman, so happy and friendly. We both order orange juice and I order a coffee too.

Before long, the drinks come out, but Steve has brought the POG juice rather than orange juice. We’ve had POG before and to be honest, don’t really understand the hype. It’s always a bit warm and tastes much like Reef, the alcopop I drank too much of during my student years. Maybe that’s why neither of us are that keen on it. Steve quickly realises his mistake and tells us to keep the POG juice and that he would bring us some orange juice too. I am mega thirsty (sounds like a rubbish Transformer) so neck both the POG juices and my coffee.

First up is a bowl of fruit and the fabled cinnamon sticky bun. Unlike my husband, I am not really motivated by pastry, but I am ravenous so we both dig in. Let me tell you, this thing is fabulous. Just the right mix of soft and crispy and absolutely drenched in oozy, runny icing. It’s warm and sweet and just the tastiest thing.

The fruit cuts through it nicely and we are both in food heaven. It’s so good I am already regretting the fact that we only have one breakfast reservation here.

We’re still plugging away at the bun (as it were) when Steve brings the main course over, the breakfast skillet.

It has scrambled egg, sausage (yay), bacon (yayy), tater tots (yayyy, first ones of the trip) and some Mickey waffles. Steve brings a pot of runny, green looking salsa, explaining it is made exclusively from produce grown from the Livin’ With The Land greenhouses – it is utterly delicious and I really wish I had asked for the recipe. Unusually for Disney, it has a little chilli kick and goes beautifully with the eggs and tater tots.

Andy leaves the sausage and bacon as he doesn’t eat pork, and gets stuck into the eggs and the tots. He doesn’t like savoury as much as I do, so he gets bored quickly and retreats back to the comforting cosiness of the sticky bun.

Between us, we eat the entire skillet with the exception of the waffles, which we are too full to contemplate. The sauce for the waffles is hazelnut flavour, which I can’t abide, so the waffles and sauce are left untouched. We finished the fruit though – well done us.

As you may know, the Garden Grill is a character meet. For me, I was less interested in the characters and more interested in the tater tots (I am sure you can buy a t-shirt with this slogan on Red Bubble, and if not, you should be able to).

Readers of last year’s report will recall our first character meal didn’t go swimmingly when I ended up accidentally punching Mickey Mouse on the nose. Luckily, I hadn’t been barred, and during the course of the meal, the characters made their way round.

First up was Chip, or Dale, we didn’t know which. We asked, and apparently you can tell them apart by their noses, but we were still none the wiser. The good thing about the characters here is that it isn’t a large restaurant (its like an eighth of the size of Tusker House) so the characters roam about freely and play and interact with the guests. We then saw Pluto, who was energetic and good fun, followed by either Dale or Chip (still none the wiser).

I’m sure some photos of me with the characters exist but they must be on Andy’s phone & he’s not here right now so I’ll add them later.

As ever, Mickey Mouse was the last one to come round, and I can only think that perhaps I haven’t been forgiven for the Tusker House incident, as he sauntered straight past our table and to the family on the next one.

Oh. See ya real soon, then Mickey? Errr. Nope. He didn’t come back. We didn’t want to make a scene or have him dragged out again as it would have been really awkward so we just paid the bill and left. But had we been desperate to meet him and get a photo, I would have been pretty narked.

Anyway, the bill came to $100 inc. a 20% tip for lovely Steve. Expensive maybe but we were stuffed and the quality of the food and the service had been fantastic so we weren’t unhappy about it at all. I would happily have breakfast there again, and wished we had booked it twice.

Cont. below...

[HelenJNT]

You got a fast car
We consulted the app and it was nearly time for our Test Track fast pass so we rolled out of the Garden Grill – which is very disorientating when you are walking backwards, the restaurant is revolving, and you’re stuffed full of fried grub - over towards Test Track.

Hilariously (ahem) we saw that Living With The Land (yep, I’ve typed “Loving With The Land” every time so far) was now down as well. They’d got Test Track up and running but everything else bar Figment and Nemo were now closed.

As expected, the queue for Test Track was pretty mega. The Fast Pass line took longer than average but it wasn’t long til we were in the room designing our cars.

The family ahead of us hadn’t paid any attention to the instructions and had taken up a screen each rather than one between two or three, and they had spread out all along the row meaning the cast member thought they had messed up and had to escort the people behind us back out again to wait for the next intake. Gutted.

We designed a suitably ridiculous car, and then carried on queuing. It felt like it took a really long time. Finally, we were up, and remembered to tap our bands on the way into the car.

However, as you can see, it didn’t marry up, and we never got the photo of us. The ride itself was good, well, as good as it can be when you’ve got a skillet-load of bacon and egg rattling around inside you, and we enjoyed it – even more so as we hadn’t got to ride it last year on our Thanksgiving trip.

By now it was 11:00 and given the prohibitive wait times for the rides which were open, we were feeling ready for a proper drink. We looked at the map and tried to figure out where the Festival Centre was. This was our first experience of the Epcot Food & Wine Festival and we were intrigued. Although I have to be honest, we weren’t that hopeful as we had never bothered queuing for any of the food booths at the Flower & Garden festival, and everything we’d sampled the previous year at the Festival of the Holidays had been pretty terrible.

We walked past the soon-to-be Guardians of the Galaxy ride (ex. Ellen’s Energy Adventure) and marvelled at the construction. This photo doesn’t do the size of it justice – the hoardings are about 20’ tall.

She never drinks the water, makes you order French Champagne
The Festival Centre is tucked away in a corner behind Mission:Space. Is this where the Body Wars ride was, back in the 90s? Or was that where Soarin’ is? I can’t remember. Anyway, it doesn’t really feel in the centre of anything and like a lot of Epcot at the moment, feels like a bit of a waste of space. I don’t know what we were expecting but it feels like a conference centre, pretty soul-less and with some harsh neon light.

Still stuffed from breakfast, we decided we didn’t have room for a beer, and so a mimosa would be just the thing. We made for Shimmering Sips (which I couldn’t say even when sober…. Simmering Ships) where they had a variety of overpriced mimosas – basically cheap sparkling plonk with various flavour syrups. You know when you KNOW you’re being ripped off but its Disney, so you just go with it? Andy chose a blood orange mimosa and I went for the Key Lime one.

Turns out (surprise!) that key lime and white wine are not a winning combination – which was a disappointment as I usually love anything lime flavoured; I’m the weirdo who likes green Starburst the best. It tasted like a weird cider. The blood orange one was far nicer, so obviously I made Andy swap with me. He said he didn’t mind – maybe he was just feeling guilty about the Bon Jovi debacle earlier in the day. Or, more likely, he didn’t mind.

For want of anything better to do, we found a nice bench, drank our drinks, and watched a wine tasting masterclass that was in full flow.

If there’s anything more boring than attending a wine tasting (soz) then it’s watching other people attend a wine tasting. I’d love to say we learned lots of interesting facts about wine, but we didn’t. We felt a bit weird sat watching from the other side of a trellis, so heaved ourselves up and carried on strolling round.

There was a big Ghirardelli stand with a load of photos about the history of the brand, which we pretended to be engrossed in for a bit before admitting we were there for the same reason as everyone else – the free caramel square they were handing to people.

The busiest stand was the annual passholders one where people were queuing to collect a free limited edition chopping board or something, and then that was it, we were back at the start. Oh.

Evidently, because there’s nothing better to do with a full stomach that now has a questionable mimosa sitting on top of it, we decided to ride Mission:Space. Not the Orange version though; we aren’t total idiots.

We had a fast pass for this ride, which was due to open up in about 15 minutes, but the standby line was only five minutes, so we cancelled the Fast Pass and walked straight in.

I’m not going to lie, I was pretty put out that I wasn’t the Commander this time. Not that it makes a difference, but you know…. I was the navigator and Andy was the pilot. As we were taking our seats, he confesses that he wasn’t listening to a word of the pre-show (I am not sure where his brain takes him sometimes) and he didn’t know what to do, so wasn’t it lucky that the buttons to push light up at exactly the right time, eh?

We emerged feeling mildly queasy (I had had to close my eyes for some of it so there was no way we were tempted to do the Orange side) and decided we had had enough of Future Earth.

We made our way to World Showcase and decided to be totally rebellious and make our way anti-clockwise. What?!

Feeling hot, hot hot
Have I mentioned yet that it was really bloody hot? We weren’t prepared for it at all. I know what you’re saying, I can hear you at the back - “you HAVE visited Orlando before, right?” Well, it was a lovely solid 25c when we were there in the last two weeks of November last year – and for me this had been a game changer. I had really enjoyed wandering round the parks in the sunshine but without getting all sweaty and annoyed. This year however, despite being there only two weeks earlier, it was the same type of weather we had experienced in May and June. 30c+ most days, which would have been bearable, but it was HUMID as hell. So humid. I don’t do well in this kind of wet heat – the heatwave this summer nearly finished me off, and as a result, I was struggling. I was sweating everywhere and constantly feeling my mascara dripping into my eyes. Gross. I mean, still better than being at home, but, well, yuck.

Blame Canada
So, by lunchtime I was feeling pretty wiped out and certainly very icky. We hadn’t even walked around that much. However, our first destination at World Showcase was one of my favourite ones – Canadaland! I love the Canadian pavilion – regular readers will know it has more to do with the restaurant and the shop and less to do with the featured film - I’d see the film there more often if there were seats. Story of my life these days.

With a newfound spring in my step, I was excited to see what was new in the Canada shop this year. It’s my favourite place to buy sleepwear and I am never disappointed. Indeed, there was a great new selection this year and I came away with some new PJ bottoms with bears on them, and a long sleeved t-shirt to be worn for lounging around the house. Hell, I’d wear it outside the house, but Andy raised an eyebrow when I said that.

I drew the line at a bear onesie though – for either inside or out. I opted to have the package sent back to the hotel rather than lug it around World Showcase with me – staying on site is awesome.

There’s a little stall outside the Canada pavilion as well that sells a few oddities and more standard Disney focussed things. They had a nightshirt there that I really liked the look of, which is odd as I haven’t worn a nightshirt since I was about 12 but there you go. That got added to the purchases too, but I had to carry it as they didn’t do the resort collection service from the stall.

We walked all the way through Englandland and arrived at the International Gateway. Andy and I just looked at each other and knew what the other was thinking. Neither of us were really feeling Epcot that morning, which was a shame as it was our first day of the holiday and we should have been on top of the world. Or, World. But we had underestimated how much the heat was going to take it out of us, and we hadn’t really had the most rewarding morning at Epcot what with Frozen being closed and having to do the sprint to Soarin’, plus all the other rides being down.

We were going to do something completely out of character for us, and go back to the hotel. What?! In the middle of the day? Surely not!

I think had we needed to get a bus out to the hotel it might have been a different story and we would have kept on trucking, but the fact we knew we could be back within our room inside ten minutes was a dealbreaker, we cancelled our Spaceship Earth fast pass, and we left the park.

Shouting lager, lager, lager, lager…
Despite only being a short trot away, it was a slow stagger in the heat. We had probably overindulged at breakfast and it was taking a long time to go down.

However, it transpired that we felt we could fit in a wafer thin beer, and so made for Hurricane Hanna’s, the bar at Stormalong Bay, the pool complex shared by the Yacht & Beach Clubs.

It took us a while to work out how to get into the bar area, as it involved going through a security gate, having our bands scanned and being given a paper wristband by a boy dressed as a sailor. Only in Disney. Or maybe not…

When you read pages like the Disney Food Blog, I think it gives you high expectations. I’d read several reviews waxing lyrical about Hurricane Hanna’s and I was excited to try it out.

What I wasn’t expecting was that it would basically be a little shack on the corner of the pool complex with only about six tables (all with those massive high chairs that are impossible to get on if you are under 5’ 4” and then once you’re finally up there, your legs are swinging away like Donald and Jacqueline in Benidorm, as you use every inch of willpower not to let your thighs flop over the edge. Just me?).

Comfortable it ain’t. However, there is a fully stocked bar and a great cocktail list.

Despite the sub-header, we don’t actually like lager, but I couldn’t think of a retro song lyric about pretentious craft ale. Andy ordered a Sam Adams seasonal, which was a dark beer, and I had a Hurricane Reef which was a lovely fruity IPA. Very tasty.

Sitting in a sedentary manner in the sunshine with a seat (albeit more like a child’s high chair) and a cold beer, this felt much more like being on holiday than powering around Epcot and forcing ourselves to have a good time.

We sat and watched the world go by for a bit, wondering if anyone ever shops at those random Pearl stands, and had a good giggle at a little boy who was properly freaking out at the seagull which was trying to nick his chips.

Had it been comfier and less like a pit stop, we could have easily whiled away the rest of the day in the bar. However, we had agreed that we should spend the rest of the day in the Magic Kingdom. It’s Andy’s favourite park and he always feels that he hasn’t really got into the Disney spirit until he’s seen the castle. I get it and I was keen to get there too.

We went back up to the room and tried to have a nap, as we weren’t sure how late we were going to be. Napping is nothing new for Andy, he is a champion napper. However, it is completely alien to me. I think I nap maybe once or twice a year and it is usually if I am poorly or hungover. I have enough trouble sleeping at night without borrowing sacred night-time rest and using it in the afternoon! So, colour me surprised when I managed to doze off for a full 45 minutes. Shocking behaviour and one that has probably got you checking that this is actually one of my trip reports and not someone else’s.

Waking up somewhat refreshed and as though the breakfast had finally started digesting, we got ready to head out to the Magic Kingdom. I had a quick shower and got changed, but Andy didn’t bother. We left the room at 4pm and made our way downstairs and out the other doors to go and investigate where the bus stops were. Turned out, not far. Down a little wooden walkway, and there they were on the left.

Whilst not as organised as the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus stops where there is a separate waiting area for each park and people queue in a civilised manner, the one at the Beach Club similar (although less civilised, for some reason – more of a free for all). There were three waiting areas I think, one for Magic Kingdom, one for Animal Kingdom and one for Disney Springs (and presumably, the water parks, when they are open). There are signs everywhere telling you if you want to go to Epcot or Hollywood Studios that you need to walk or get the boat, no buses run to either of those parks.

Apparently I have no photos of this but I am sure there’ll be some later on in the report.

We only had to wait for a couple of minutes before a Magic Kingdom bus arrived, and we managed to squeeze on and get the last two seats. It was one of the older style buses that had the 4 seats at the back that faced each other, and I ended up face to face with a snotty kid who had all manner of gunk flowing freely from his nose. Like the kid from Bad Santa only with significantly less charm. Gross.

Cont. below...

[HelenJNT]

Home Sweet Home

As the bus pulled away past the Contemporary and into the bus stop, it really felt as though we had never been away. We were home! We were also pleased to see there were more people leaving than arriving so maybe we were hitting the Magic Kingdom at a good time.

I went through the bag check and scanner and met Andy by the turnstiles. We were through fairly quickly and then we were in. I love that feeling of emotion you get when you first walk through the tunnel that brings you out on to Main Street – such anticipation and happiness.

Despite only being the 1st November, all of the Hallowe’en decorations had been cleared away and replaced with the Christmas ones. We would have liked to have seen Hallowe’en but the dates didn’t work for us.

The tree wasn’t up yet though, and we stopped in the spot at the top of Main Street to have a memory maker photo taken, which was promptly sent to various folk via the magic of Whatsapp. It was also at this point that I received a message telling me we had had a big win at work on a bid that had taken over my life for several months earlier in the year, so I truly could not have been happier at that moment in time.

Prior to leaving the room, I had looked at the app and managed to snag us a Fast Pass for Buzz Lightyear, so Andy was thrilled as this is one of his favourite rides.

We walked up Main Street and into Tomorrowland. Look at the sky; you can really feel that humidity.

I remember having a little debate about whether those silvery blue rocks have always been there, as despite feeling like we know the parks pretty well, neither of us had any recollection of seeing them before.

As soon as we tapped in for the fast pass, I was straight on the app again to try and get something else, scoring a Pirates fast pass for about half an hour’s time.

We rode Buzz and again I was convinced that Andy had been sneakily reading up on it as he managed to score 20k right off the bat. Naturally I was suspicious and couldn’t believe it was pure luck – he had to have had an evil plan, right?

I decided then and there that I was going to be irritatingly non-competitive. Unlike me but I think Andy enjoys my childish strops when I lose at something, so I just decided - for the first time in my life – that winning wasn’t everything and I was just going to enjoy myself. Although that was sorely tested when Andy kept spinning the ride vehicle around just when I had trained my laser on a bullseye. Hmmmm.

I like to move it, move it
We emerged from Buzz and once again the humidity hit us in the face like one of those hot towels you get in Indian restaurants. There was only one thing for it and we headed to the Peoplemover to cool down. It was a walk-on, which was a far cry from the last time we were here, when we had to queue for ages to get on it.

We loved zooming around the Peoplemover – sure it’s kitsch and probably a bit mystifying to new visitors but it has huge sentimental value for me. Plus, it’s a long ride and it is great to feel a breeze in your face, not to mention get some great views of inside Space Mountain and outside of the castle.

Once we emerged from the Peoplemover, it was time for our Pirates fast pass, so we made our way over to Adventureland to go and check in on those really bad eggs.

Again, once we had tapped in, I was straight onto MDE to see if we could bounce straight into another fast pass, and as luck would have it, I picked up a Jungle Cruise one which was starting in about 15 minutes. Magic Kingdom was being far nicer to us today than Epcot had been!

I’d never noticed in the queue before that there are cannons that are aimed squarely at those getting into the ride boats – how cool is that?

Grainy photo as it was dark, and my iPhone camera isn’t as good as it once was. Also, we had the new Redhead scene which looked good, if not all that different to before. Nice hat, though.

We had ten minutes or so before the Jungle Cruise fast pass opened up, and while we knew we could probably tap in, we opted to go and watch Splash Mountain for a bit.

Andy particularly enjoyed it when we saw someone sail past wearing one of those massive plush Goofy top hats….which promptly flew off, probably lost for all eternity, when he went down the drop. Silly man – those things cost a fortune.

It was really enjoyable and chilled just standing there watching people go down the drop, but it was time for our Jungle Cruise fast pass, so we doubled back and went and got in the queue.

It’s such a slow loader that even with a fast pass it always takes a good half hour to actually get onto the ride.

Once we’d checked in, well in the groove, I checked the app and managed to get a fast pass for the Barnstormer. This fast pass roulette was serving us really well today; as long as you don’t mind what you ride you can have quite a fun day as you never quite know what is coming next.

We weren’t fussed about riding any of the big headliners as we had fast passes for them all later in the trip and we were having a ton of fun just spinning the wheel and picking the one that had the earliest start time.

The Jungle Cruise must have just tripped over to the Jingle Cruise – it’s amazing the way they manage to get everything decorated, literally overnight.

The Christmas jokes were just as cheesy as I remembered from last year – “fleas navidad” being a particular favourite of mine.

The end of the ride was really backed up, I guess from mobility impaired people needing to get in and out or something? Whilst it was quite pleasant sitting there, it was clear after ten minutes or so that our skipper was running out of jokes and she was getting more dry and a bit bored of us.

Once finally off the boat, we headed through the hub and over into Fantasyland for the first time this trip.

No time to stop and look though as we had a date with Goofy.

Once tapped in, we spun the Fast Pass roulette again, and ended up with one for Buzz Lightyear again, for about 30 minutes time. Perfect!

As we were queuing, a cast member came up to ask if he could measure the little boy’s height to make sure he was tall enough to get on the ride. The kid looked the guy straight in the eye and shouted “But I’m twenty-five!” in a perfect Scarlett O’Hara drawl. It was a hilarious moment and Andy and I were killing ourselves laughing. Every once in a while, later on the holiday one of us would look at the other and go “but Ah’m 25!” and we’d crease up again.

I think we have only ridden the Barnstormer once before, and Andy was saying he had no recollection of riding it at all. I said I thought it as a bit pony, so I was a little taken aback when it went as high and as fast as it did. Apparently someone (of course it wasn’t me, hahaha) yelped “ooh I don’t like it!” during one of the swoops and Andy was wetting himself laughing at me. Can’t think why.

We nearly ended up going round again as we struggled to get out of the train – I know it is designed for kids but those seats are small.

Even though earlier today we thought we’d never want to eat ever again, we were starting to feel a little peckish. Not enough for a full on meal, but just something. Andy does this thing where he says something completely nonsensical and then gets mad at me when I don’t understand what he’s saying, like I’m being deliberately obtuse. I promise I’m never putting it on. Here is a prime example:

Me: I’m starting to feel a little hungry
Andy: Yeah me too. Do they do those hand platters here?
Me: “Hand platters?”
Andy: Yeah, you know, hand platters
Me: Nope.
Andy: (exasperated) You do. You know, the things at the other park.
Me: Nope
Andy: The small food like we saw this morning at the other place. Epcot.
Me: (lightbulb): Oh, you mean the Food & Wine festival stuff?
Andy: Yes! Hand platters. (mic drop)

I had to stop walking for a moment as I was doubled over with laughter. Hand platters. I ask you.

Sadly, on account of there being no hand platters at the Magic Kingdom, we had to make do with something else.

We weren’t far from Cosmic Rays, and given that we hadn’t been there since 2016, it was high time we paid Sonny Eclipse a visit. The ordering system there is always a bit bewildering and the place is so bright and noisy. All we wanted was a couple of drinks and a quick service meal to share.

I sent Andy off to find a seat while I queued for the food. I opted for six nuggets with fries and a Sprite as a meal, and used a snack credit to get Andy a Minute Maid Lemonade. All the hoo hah about plastic straws didn’t seem to be an issue – in all the parks apart from Animal Kingdom, we never had an issue with getting a straw or not be offered one.

I went to find Andy via the toppings bar where I picked up some buffalo sauce for the nuggets (RIP vat of plastic cheese), some mayo and some ketchup. I’m not a fan of ketchup but Andy likes it. We shared the meal and hauled our drinks down – it was 8pm but still super humid and we were really thirsty.

Oh, and we enjoyed watching Sonny Eclipse for a bit as well – a true random Disney legend.

We rode Buzz again and it was a good job I had decided not to be competitive (hehe) as Andy won again as I gritted my teeth.

It was now just after 8pm and we felt like we had plenty of gas left in the tank but didn’t want to risk being caught in the post-firework scrum so decided to be sensible and call it a night.

On the way out, I called in at Starbucks as I knew there was a new You Are Here mug with Tomorrowland on it. Seeing as we have collected all of them for the past few years, I wasn’t passing this one up and although I knew I had a couple of weeks to get this one, I thought it made sense to stop in and get it now when we were on the way out of the park and I wouldn’t have to carry it about with me.

The queue didn’t look that bad…but my god, it was horrendously slow. It took over 30 minutes to get to the counter, by which point, I had assumed that Andy – waiting outside for me – had probably given up and gone to get the bus. The problem was that it was 45 minutes before the fireworks and so the queue was about 30 people deep, but each of those appeared to be ordering for every person in their wider family so each person was requesting at least four drinks. Then there were the people who were barging in to request iced water so distracting the few cast members who were actually making the drinks. No sense of urgency anywhere. I considered sacking it off and just getting the mug another time but I am nothing if not a completer finisher, so I was determined to see it through.

The positive was that I was queuing behind a couple of Scottish guys who were giving a perfect disparaging commentary on everyone and everything around them, so we got chatting and had a bit of a laugh at least, which passed the time. Finally, I paid for the mug and decided at this point that I had waited long enough so might as well order a drink as well, which was a stupid mistake as I then let myself in for another 15 minute wait.

Didn’t manage to take a photo of the bloody mug though, did I? Ha. Here’s a lovely photo of a box. Will stick a pic of the mug in the next post.

I decided to get a new Refresher drink, a Mango Dragonberry. I have no clue what a dragonberry is but I like mango and it sounded cool. As I was waiting for it, one woman was ferrying about 30 coffees out to her family and I can’t recall why but she was super annoying. I do remember that there were a couple of drinks that had either been made incorrectly or not been claimed so when she didn’t think anyone was looking, this woman scurried up and helped herself to them as well. Good god.

Finally my drink was ready and I was not prepared for the fact that it was going to be neon purple. I tried not to think about the additives that I was about to consume, and had a sip. It was far too sweet for me to think about ordering it again but it was OK and I did manage to finish it on the way to the bus stop.

Given that I didn’t take any notes, I have no idea how long we waited for the bus. It must have been a while as I do remember we got chatting to a lovely family from <insert American city of your choice> who were really nice but ever so shocked that we visit WDW so frequently from the UK. They said they had been to London and really liked it but wouldn’t want to spend longer than a weekend there. I quite agree.

The bus dropped off at the Yacht Club before the Beach Club and here we saw something we see on every holiday – the couple getting off at the wrong stop, realising, and sheepishly hopping back on to the bus again. How this happens is a little odd to me as I don’t think it is something we would ever do, but watch out for a future trip report where I do just this – I’ve tempted fate now.

Ever grateful for the fact our room was only a skip away from reception, we were back in the room by about 9.30pm and I think, asleep by 10pm. Not bad for a first day – I feel like we covered a lot of ground, had a nap, had a beer, and took advantage of a quiet Magic Kingdom. We clocked in at just over nine miles according to my phone and over 10 miles according to Andy’s watch so not sure what was going on there but with over 21k steps recorded on his watch we were pretty pleased with Day 1.

Essential stats:

Join us for Day 2 where we visit Toy Story Land for the first time, which can now be found here

[loldis]

I saw this pop up as "do not read" - do you know how tempting it is to sneak in and read it?

Chip has the brown nose, like a chocolate chip. Can't remember who told me that (probably a CM) but it's stuck with me for years. Glad you loved the breakfast.

Great first day, love all the FP hopping - that's definitely how to do MK.

[sheluk]

Wow what a first day!

Yes to breakfast at GG- we loved our visit last year. Also lucky to get one of those booths. Can’t wait to go back!

Sounds like you made the right decision leaving Epcot. I saw it coming in the sweat fest build up you mentioned.

And first evening in Magic Kingdom is just magic! Some great fastpass skills shown there & apart from the massive queue at Starbucks sounds like a wildly successful evening.

Here’s hoping work and your social life calm down in Feb for the next instalment

Also, if you get chance would love some thanksgiving related tips as looks like we will be covering that week (as our final week) next year. Thank youuu xx

[Redrach1903]

Omg what a faff with the tickets! I could feel the frustration!

Such a treat being able to walk along to Epcot. The Boardwalk is sooooo beautiful!

Question – has Frozen moved to Mexico? Seriously though, what a bummer it was down! Not a great start! Yay to Soarin' though!

Can't believe you have never checked out the aquarium before! I love it! Especially the rescued manatees! Love the Bruce pics! I can never get in about cos of all those pesky kids that seem to hang around

Totally agree about the dining plan. It's too much planning (and I like to plan!). We will defo do QS if we ever stay onsite again!
Oooof that cinnamon bun looks AMAZING! So glad you enjoyed the breakfast and Chip is the one with the brown nose (chocolate chip – see?).

Very happy to see the annual Canadian PJs were purchased, very cute!

Well done on the nap. Although 45 minutes is pretty pathetic in my book Hahaha! Seriously though, it is nice to sometimes just take some time out and chill rather than feeling like you have to stay in the park!

Ahhh MK Love that Photo Pass you got at the top of Main St! Such a keeper!

Ahahahahaha hand platters! Oh Andy! What a lad!

Such a lovely night at MK, you were so lucky with the Fast Passes. Hilarious that you rode the Goofy coaster together! Hehe!

Thanks for sharing, I can't WAIT for day 2! xxx

[mick]

A great day
Crikey it was hard work trying to get tickets I would have given up long before you did


Joan

[Cazzius]

Bad Epcot, don't they know you have a plan and rides that need to be ridden?

Your breakfast at Garden Grill looks really good and is now firmly on the list for our next trip. Can't believe Mickey blanked you though, how rude!

"She never drinks the water, makes you order French Champagne" nice to see a bit of Ricky Martin, Livin La Vida Loca make an appearance

A shame that Epcot was letting you down today, but at least it meant you were able to check out Hurricane Hanna's, have a nap and head off to the Magic Kingdom feeling refreshed.

Good work on the FP+ roulette, lots of fun rides with hardly any waiting.

OMG, the "Ah'm 25" comment would have had me in fits, did you crack up in the queue.

What's the new mug like? We already have Magic Kingdom but there's no harm in getting the new one just in case.

I swear Starbucks at Disney has the slowest staff. Don't know why as they are super busy but I would hate to see that lot working in one of the London City branches of a morning.

Hand Platters?! Excellent.

[moosha]

I could feel your pain at the ticket (not)buying debacle...I spent an hour each on three consecutive mornings last summer trying to buy Twenty One Pilots tickets. Then after school each day I found myself on the receiving end of a minor teenage strop as Seren couldn’t understand why I hadn’t just been able to get them 🙄. Got there in the end but those ‘I am not a robot’ things are the work of the devil and pre-sales are not what they once were...back in the day you were pretty much guaranteed some good tickets by 9.05 at a reasonable price. Very frustrating start to the day for you.

Shame Epcot wasn’t behaving itself either, what a pain that so many rides were down. Epcot has definitely become my least favourite park and Future World is really in need of some new rides. Glad you enjoyed your breakfast though, the cinnamon bun looks great.

I love the idea of FastPass roulette, sounds like a fun way to enjoy an afternoon at Magic Kingdom.

The Starbucks in the parks (especially Magic Kingdom) are always so busy, we tend to have at least one Starbucks coffee a day at Disney so I dread to think how much of our precious holiday time was spent in those queues (although in fairness I tend to send Mat in and have a browse in a nearby shop). Gotta get those mugs though, last year I had to get all four new park ones and I also got the Florida ‘Been There’ series one with all the writing on. I’m sure there are a couple more new ones for this trip too (there’s definitely a Been There’ Universal one that’s on the list.)

The hand platter conversation had me laughing out loud 🤣 and the kid saying he was 25 would have had us in hysterics too.

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to more (when you get a chance) . I know how it is, I’m further behind than you on my August report .

[Palm trees]

Respect for the sustained, if unsuccessful, effort to get the tickets! It sounds like a great first day even though Epcot was a bit of a fail in parts. We've got garden grill booked for our next trip and I'm looking forwards to it even more after reading your report.