GOODWILLHERDING - Day 1

[GoodWillHerding]

Day 1
Crystal Palace breakfast, magic kingdom and Disney springs

Our first full day! As predicted we were up way before the sun, about 4am- that’s ok because you don’t mind when you are about to go to the most magical place on earth!
We are staying in 2 2 bed villas in old key west, my eldest daughter has her boyfriend with her and they were asleep in the lounge- cue me trying to work out the American coffee machine in the dark- needless to say it wasn’t long until we were all awake.
At 5am we were all day drinking said coffee when we heard the deafening honking of a car alarm, Dave (my husband) shot out of the door to check whose car it was only to discover that it was my sisters who is in the other villa. She hadn’t realised her baby had pressed the panic alarm in the key fob she was distracting him with! Good morning old key west!
Anyway, we still managed to be a few minutes late for our Crystal Palace reservation, sometimes on that first day you forget how long it takes to actually get in the the magic kingdom from the parking lot, they were very good and told us they honour reservations for an hour so we were allowed in anyway.
The decorations are up for Halloween 🎃 and it really is lovely to see it all , magic kingdom wasn’t too busy and we were able to join the line without any trouble.
We had a lovely server who sat our huge party accepts two tables, we saw piglet, eeyore, Pooh and. Tigger, they all spent a good amount of time with the children and we got some great pictures though it’s a shame photopass are not in there taking pictures apparently for health and safety.
Food was a buffet style with obligatory mickey waffles and french toast, the food was hot and tasty and the restaurant clean, our refills were filled regularly and we didn’t feel at all rushed, really a perfect start to our holiday.
We had fast passes for space mountain, Peter pans flight and dumbo and speedway. Sadly space mountain was down and all fast passes cancelled, Rihanna ( niece) was mega disappointed at this is her favourite ride, it was beginning to get very hot, we decided a little go on small world to include the younger children would be good. We were on in about 15 minutes and feeling the Disney love, next saw speedway and I endured my 12 year olds terrible driving- am sure I have whiplash 😆made a mental note to discourage applying for driving listen at 17 🤣.
We also did laugh floor- a favourite of mine, very pleased not to be picked to be ‘that guy’, my husband is always chosen for that stuff 😆
At about 1pm we decided to head back to OKW via the shop to spend a snack credit on frozen lemonades and ice creams - loving the dining plan!
We went to guest services and cashed in the refillable mugs, also had to sort out with front desk who was in which villa so we had appropriate access- 90 minutes later 🙄we were taken in to the shop and the cm scanned two bottles of water on our magic bands as snack credits to make sure they were working- I told her we didn’t want two bottles of water but she told me not to be silly about it ( more about this later)
Anyway pools were shut due to ‘inclement weather’ so we came back to the villas and got ready for Disney springs.
We took the bus to Disney springs and the children used a quick serve for blaze pizza- a warning here- know what you want before you go in to the restaurant as they rush you a lot and when trying to support 7 kids to order their food I got a bit stroppy! Mum, little sis and I had chicken guy, the sandwiches were amazing, a good use of credit I’d say
We headed back to the bus after collecting our gift cards from world of disney( incidentally only available to uk guests and they have a Union Jack on- we were told to keep ours&#128522, that shop is so huge, threatened to put a tannoy out for the teens if they didn’t turn up
at agreed time- unsurprisingly they were there 😆 ready to put a tannoy out for me 😲.
Bus service is a little patchy so after some delay we were on our way and collapsed in to bed- best feeling ever!
Tips from today- iced water is not that readily available- take a receptacle and don’t rely on cups as you may have to queue for hours- they give you water but it’s a waiting game.
Cool towels are a must- really helped the children to manage the heat.
Busses at night are dark and cold so take a cardigan
When someone tells you not to consider hiring a buggy for your fit five year old- ignore them, we spent the first three days carrying our son and he is fit, plays football, karate, swims, rides his bike all the time - it’s just hot and tiring and not worth the arguments to encourage walking!
Tomorrow is Hollywood studios and prime time 😁