7th Time's a Charm - November 2021 - Day 1 Magic Kingdom & Disney Springs

[Rebecca_]

Index is here

At 2:30am I woke up but managed to get back to sleep for a couple more hours. At 4:45am we were both wide awake and ready to start the day. The plan for today was Magic Kingdom for early entry which was from 8:30am, but I've read online they let you through to Main Street even earlier so I was keen to get one of the first buses. I checked the app and there was a Magic Kingdom bus due at 7:05am so we started to head towards the bus stops around 10 mins before.

I then realised I left my mask in the room so had to run back and grab it. We got to the bus stop and the line was quite long so we weren't expecting to get on the first bus. As expected they stopped allowing people on at the family in front of us. 5 minutes later another bus arrived and we were finally on our way to Magic Kingdom after 2 years away. The bus took about 20 minutes from our hotel. When we arrived we had to queue at bag check as they hadn't started letting people through just yet.

At 7:45 we started to move and had to queue up again at the tapstiles. At 7:55 they started letting guests tap in and minutes later we were in. It was such an amazing feeling to be walking down Main Street again!

Now, with hindsight we should have headed straight over towards Fantasyland and starting queuing with the early entry guests but we didn't... We just couldn't resist some empty shots up by the castle and then joined a shortish queue for some photopass pictures.

We headed over to queue for Fantasyland at around 8:15 and the crowd was massive. At exactly 8:30 we were allowed through and naturally almost everybody headed towards Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We joined the end of the line which already was round by Storybook Circus and showing a 55 min wait. Again... with hindsight maybe we should have given up and hit some of the rides which were walk ons. But we decided to stick it out. The wait time was pretty accurate and we were off the ride at 9:20.

From here we headed over to Winnie The Pooh which showed a 25 min wait (this also accurate). We then did Mad Hatters Tea Party, Dumbo, The Barnstormer and Journey of the Little Mermaid which were all 5 minute waits. By now it was 10:45am and we were getting hungry so decided to head for a snack. I had mobile ordered a waffle from Sleepy Hollow earlier and J got a cinnamon roll and LeFou's Brew from Gaston's which cost $13.35. I forgot to snap a photo of mine but I had the fresh fruit waffle sandwich - it cost $8.83 including tax and was delicious.

After this we had a quick look at some merch and checked the app to decide where to head next. The queue were starting to get long now but the people mover was showing a 20 minute wait so off we went to Tomorrowland. The wait time jumped to 25 mins just as the joined so we gave up and went to Space Mountain instead, which was showing a 45 min wait. They were using one track solely for the lightning lane and the other just for standby. After around 30 minutes in the queue we entered the room where you can see the ride vehicles so I thought the 45 min wait was going to be about right. But then the ride broke down. Specifically just our track - the lightning lane side was still running just fine. Nothing happened for about 15 minutes and then the CM started moving people to the other side. We ended up waiting 70 minutes for this ride in the end because of the breakdown.

We went on Tomorrowland Speedway after this. While we were queuing for this it started raining (I came prepared and brought my raincoat). We hoped it would just be a quick but unfortunately it rained for the rest of the day. After Speedway we headed over to Haunted Mansion which showed a 55 minute wait. This probably wasn't the wisest choice as I think everybody went to indoor attractions because of the rain. But it's one of J's favourite rides so we just decided to queue.

After this we went to Big Thunder Mountain as it was only a 30 minute wait. This was fun in the rain but I definitely think Paris' version is better. Following this we were both soaked so decided to call it a day. We had managed to ride 10 attractions which we were pretty happy with. We had originally planned to head to Disney Springs straight from here but decided to stop back at the hotel to quickly change into some dry clothes. I wanted to look in the Emporium on the way out but it was far too busy so we gave it a miss.

We left the park at 3:45pm and joined a very long line for the bus back to Movies. A bus arrived a minute later but as expected we didn't get on. We were waiting about half an hour for the next bus - 2 came at once so we got straight on and managed to get a seat at least. We were back in our room at 4:35, quickly got changed then headed back to the bus stop. The Disney Springs bus was due in 15 minutes so we had a little browse around the gift shop while we waited.

The bus to Springs took just over 20 minutes so we arrived at around 5:30pm. We headed straight to Blaze Pizza for some dinner. I love this place. We ordered 2 build your own pizzas and one large fountain drink which cost around $27 dollars after tax.

We then headed to Planet Hollywood to collect our free magic bands from attraction tickets. It took about 15 minutes and 3 staff members as nobody knew how to do it!

It was still raining at this point so we didn't fancy staying too long. We had a quick look in Uniqlo and World of Disney but didn't buy anything. We've been taking pictures of things we like and then plan to come back to buy the things we want the most next week. We headed over to the bus stop and arrived back at the resort at 8pm. We watched Harry Potter and relaxed for a couple of hours before going to sleep at 10 ish.

The plan for tomorrow is Animal Kingdom for early entry. Thanks for reading!

[JudeB]

Your photo of the castle is lovely! Those pizzas look delicious- we’ve never managed to try them yet, but hope to go in July.
Look forward to following your trip report. Enjoy.

[mick]

A good first day with lots done shame about the rain 😞

Joan

[LOU,]

You managed a lot at the magic kingdom, considering how long you waited for the rides. LL sounds like a good idea. Pizza looks very nice x

[OB1LukeLucas]

So lovely to read about Magic Kingdom it sounds like you had a great day even with the rain! All your food pictures look fab, I miss Gastons….my cinnamon roll from Asda this morning is just not the same

[SuziQz]

Shame about the rain but lovely to be back in the parks. Have a great time x

[CrazyBaby]

Wow you managed to get a lot done in MK for your first day. Shame about the rain but as I always tell myself it's a different type of rain, ha ha.

[orlandoamber]

Love Blaze Pizza! A shame about the rain but you’re at the magic kingdom so it’s not so bad I guess

[loves2plan]

Must be lovely to be back. The fruit aaffle at Sleepy Hollow is one of my favourites, and I love Blaze pizza!
Hope tomorrow is a bit drier for you

[Mortimer Mouse]

So lovely to read about your trip and interested to hear your experiences of wait times for the rides, as we do not plan on buying Genie+.
Thanks for posting.