February Florida Fun - Day 4, Magic Kingdom, Olive Garden again and Fantasmic

[Eccle]

For once we were up and out more or less to the planned time! We headed to the Magic Kingdom, and got parked up not too far a walk from the TTC. Through security, and we decided on the ferry to go across, which I always think is a nice way to see Magic Kingdom.

We were up by the castle by about 8.50 in time for the new opening show, we weren’t rope dropping anything major today so didn’t need to be at the front of the crowds! We watched the show from the back of the Fantasyland crowds, it was quite nice but I think I preferred the old version with the train at the front of the park, though I can see it makes sense to spread people further in rather than having the stampede down Main Street.

Once the park was open we walked over to Storybook Circus and the Barnstormer. On our last trip we had pretty much had exclusive use of the Barnstormer when we went there at rope drop, and David and the boys had gone round as many times as they wanted to (I sat it out that time as I was pregnant). It was busier today and though it was a walk on, there were other people too. Not busy enough to need rider switch though! I enjoyed it, but always think it’s surprisingly fast!

We then headed back to Fantasyland and went to meet Ariel, with only a minimal wait. She was the first face character we had met this holiday, and despite the fact she is one of Sebastian’s favourite princesses (the list varies, but she is normally at or near the top!) all of the boys went really shy and wouldn’t talk to her or go near her. Poor Ariel! Having said that, I don’t think she was as good as some of the princesses at trying to engage them. We eventually managed to get them in a photo, and we also got the standard comment about her having a friend called Sebastian too.

We carried on to Under the Sea, which was a walk on although it took about 10 minutes to walk through the queueline, I don’t know why they don’t have short cuts they can use when it’s quiet. We all enjoyed it. We then debated what to do next. I had planned to get to the Storybook Circus character meets for when they opened at 10, but it was a little early for that, so we headed over to It’s a Small World which had a 15 minute wait. With hindsight, we should maybe have done Dumbo then gone straight to the characters. The wait was actually a little less than it said, and we had our tour around the world. Alex describes it as the scariest ride in Disney World! I’d forgotten how long the ride itself was though, so by the time we finished and got back over to Storybook Circus, the characters were pretty busy and both sides were showing 15-20 min waits. We carried on anyway and went to Goofy and Donald first.

We were almost at the front when the cast member told us that Goofy and Donald were going to have to go and check on their “circus items” (she actually made the inverted commas with her hands and said it with a slightly questioning tone!) but would be back soon. They were clearly refreshed by checking on their circus items as Goofy was very bouncy and enthusiastic. As we were leaving the queue for Minnie and Daisy seemed to have dropped slightly so we ran round (why do you have to go through the gift shop twice!) but it had grown again and we probably waited 20 minutes in the end. Daisy and Minnie were both lovely, and Daisy was very pleased that we had a toy Donald with us, and Minnie enjoyed seeing the small version of herself that Barnaby had.

We were now into our first Fastpass window, for Enchanted Tales with Belle. By now it was very crowded so we fought our way back across Fantasyland. We had a short wait in the fastpass queue before going in. Thanks to an incredible roar, Alex got chosen to be the Beast, whilst Sebastian was a salt shaker and Steve was one of the guards. When we went last time, they had tried to encourage all the children to have a part, but this time after the allocated the main parts they only briefly asked if anyone else wanted a part. Alex did a good job as the Beast (I think he did slightly shock Belle!) and it is a nice experience.

We were now just about in our fastpass window for Peter Pan, so were able to go straight there. Although it’s a nice ride, I wouldn’t want to queue for a huge length of time for it as it is over very quickly.

(Alex got so many comments from cast members on his banana top today!)

After this we had a bit of time before our final fastpass, and it was now very hot and very crowded, so there was no chance of getting on anything without a big wait. We went for a snack break to the Plaza ice cream parlour. David had a doughnut sundae (which was lovely, I wished I’d ordered it), I had a cookie sandwich to share with Barnaby as he isn’t always a big ice cream fan, Alex had a double cone and Sebastian had the children’s cone, it came to $22. We managed to find a table outside to sit down and have them. We also saw some of the Move it Shake it parade.

We carried on down Main Street to our last fastpass, meeting Mickey. Even with the fastpasses we had quite a wait. On our last trip we had really enjoyed meeting talking Mickey, and the boys were looking forward to it, and today was also Anna’s birthday which was one of the reasons I had planned this fastpass for today. So I have to admit I was a bit gutted when we went in and he had lost his voice.

When we came out, Pluto was in the centre area and the kids wanted to see him so we did that, then headed to the exit. As it was Valentine’s Day, I was a little disappointed there didn’t seem to be anything special going on in the park, the only thing I saw was a carriage in Fantasyland you could have a photo with.

We decided to go to Olive Garden again for food as we had enjoyed it the other day, we were seated without much of a wait and they gave us a big table in a side bit which was good. The bill was just under $60 for the 5 of us, a little more than the other day as David had gone for the Tour of Italy but still good value I thought.

After food it was back to the villa for a break, before heading into Hollywood Studios for the evening. We arrived at about 6pm, and the parking booths were unmanned (though we had already got parking from the morning). We got a good parking spot near the front of the standard parking and headed into the park, stopping for some photos on Hollywood Boulevard.

I had booked fastpasses for Fantasmic after we finished in MK. Fantasmic was at 7, so we walked straight round and went in, we were seated almost all the way around the far side. I love Fantasmic and always enjoy seeing it. It was also whilst in the Sebastian seating area on our 2011 trip that we decided our boys name for our then unborn 2nd baby would be Sebastian (it was already on our shortlist, he isn’t just named after a singing crab!) It was nice to see Moana added on the boat in Fantasmic too as she doesn’t appear anywhere else.

It took quite a while to get out of Fantasmic as we were so far round, but we eventually made it back to the bottom of Hollywood Boulevard. As the kids were still holding up ok and the crowds didn’t look too bad for it, we decided to stay for the Star Wars fireworks. We moved a bit further up Hollywood Boulevard and positioned ourselves at the back of the crowds waiting, just outside the shop. We saw Disney Movie Magic (which I had forgotten was on!) and then the Star Wars fireworks were at 8.15. They were pretty good although I prefer Fantasmic. The park had closed at 8, so it was straight to the exit when they finished, and as we were near the back we didn’t have any difficulty with crowds and were soon on the way back to the villa.

[Goldia]

Oh I didn't know they had added Moana to the boat! I love fantasmic and can't wait to see it again, DD is disappointed she can't meet Moana at least she will be able to see her from afar.

Your DS looks so cute as the beast, on our first trip to wdw my DS was picked it was awesome, he was a bit shy but I loved it. DH was also a guard. It sounds like you had a fun time at MK in the morning, nice to not have to race with all the rope droppers and to just take your time and enjoy it all.

[Milpston]

Another lovely day. I'm really looking forward to Fantasmic. I've still managed to not look at YouTube or anything. Looking forward to the next installments

[Eccle]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Oh I didn't know they had added Moana to the boat! I love fantasmic and can't wait to see it again, DD is disappointed she can't meet Moana at least she will be able to see her from afar.

Your DS looks so cute as the beast, on our first trip to wdw my DS was picked it was awesome, he was a bit shy but I loved it. DH was also a guard. It sounds like you had a fun time at MK in the morning, nice to not have to race with all the rope droppers and to just take your time and enjoy it all.

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It is a shame Moana isn't anyway else in the parks, my older two would have liked to see her (or at least say they wanted to then go shy and not talk to her!)

I think Alex enjoyed being the Beast. I was a bit surprised he wanted to as at 9 he is generally in quite an anti girl stage!

There's definitely something to not always rushing to the headliners at rope drop, some of my best memories from our trips are when we've done something less popular first

Originally Posted by Milpston

Another lovely day. I'm really looking forward to Fantasmic. I've still managed to not look at YouTube or anything. Looking forward to the next installments

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I'm sure you will enjoy it, Happily Ever After has just edged it for me, but I do love Fantasmic

[collybird]

That’s great that you managed to nab F! FP so late in the day. A lovely story about Sebastian’s name too! And I didn’t know that Moana was on the boat now, that’s very cool.

[Mortimer Mouse]

Another good day despite the crowds.