Our First Orlando Visit- Day Three- The first Magic Kingdom day!

[dreamisawish]

Our third day was our first early start, and we were out of the hotel and in the uber by 8:00am. We had a 9:30 reservation for Be Our Guest, and I thought we had left in plenty of time, and yet really we only just made it on time! Probably because once again we did a little detour- this time to The Grand Floridian to get yet another boat!

Grand Floridian was stunning, as I knew it would be, and a stay there is definitely on the bucket list!

The boat over was a really relaxing way to get to the Magic Kingdom, as the boat was almost empty and we had some lovely water views.

Once we were in Magic Kingdom we power walked to Fantasyland, where we did a quick detour to Seven Dwarves to get a return time- our first use of the DAS- before heading in for breakfast. Using the DAS was so easy, you always have to find the person with either an iPad or a phone looking device to get a return time.

We did have quite a queue to get into Be Our Guest, we probably waited about twenty minutes before we had our turn on the touch screens. Then we had some problems with our screen not registering our touches, and then not taking payment. I do think Disney should have foreseen that people aren’t quite cashless yet, especially not tourists who often exchange money. We did have a cash card, but that was rejected, and the cast member didn’t know what to do with us. Eventually she managed to get our card to work on a another machine and then we were inside.

Breakfast was pricey considering we weren’t on the dining plan, but I hadn’t been able to get hold of a lunch reservation. I was lucky enough to get a breakfast reservation, considering we booked 28 days out! But walking in to that ballroom and seeing the windows and the ceiling made it all worth it.

Emily was very impressed by the way the waitress cast member ‘magically’ found us without knowing where we’d be sitting, and then we both shared out the breakfast’s we’d ordered. In the rush to order on the new machine we’d forgotten to re-input the grey stuff cupcake, but we had so much food anyway it was for the best!

By the time we left Be Our Guest it was time for Seven Dwarves, and I was pretty nervous! I tried not to look at the cars going around the track too much before we got into the fast pass line because I knew I might chicken out. I said as much to Emily who was laughing at me, especially when we noticed how many small children were around us in the queue and were looking unphased! I resolved that if I hated it I would close my eyes and never go on it again.

I needn’t have worried! I loved it!

It was having absolutely the time of my life! I think even more so then Gringotts, as I wasn’t quite as scared as that ride had made me, I had my eyes open and was laughing and screaming the whole way around.

Once we came off we both knew we would want to have another go later. I was extremely grateful for the DAS for allowing us this kind of freedom, we would never have been able to go on SDMT if not for the DAS as I would not have been able to stand for that long. I did feel a bit guilty though thinking about the ease of us getting a return time while others waited in the stand-by queue. In the end though I was like ‘I’ve never once gained anything by having a disability, it’s literally been a hinderance by entire life, and if this disney trip DAS is the one good thing I get for it then I better make the most of it’.

Basically what I’m saying is we went on SDMT twice that day!

After this we got a return time for Ariel, only a ten minute wait, so we got some water and came back. I do love my dark rides, and this one was a lot of fun- though we have to admit that Ariel is a bit creepy right? A bit too uncanny valley for me. Ursula is amazing though!

We also had fast passes for Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise.

I have to say splash was another one I had problems with, I was so scared! Watching the people scream down the drop curdled my stomach and even though I knew I wanted to experience it I was very worried I’d hate it. I am big fan of animatronics and I’ve always wanted to see the ones in splash mountain- plus I knew in advance it was a 13 minute ride, and I am a fan of the longer rides.

I think the first time we went on this wasn’t the best time, because on literally every drop I would tense thinking this was ‘the drop’. I spent the whole ride in knots worrying about what was around the corner. When we got to the bit that said ‘the bad place’ and the people behind us started getting ready, I was going ‘no, no, no, no’. Emily was keeping me grounded laughing at me again!

After all was said and done it wasn’t half as bad as Jurassic Park! Emily thought Splash was a lot more intense then Jurassic, but for me after jurassic this was a walk in the park. It definitely gave me that feeling in my stomach but jurassic made me worry I’d fly out of the boat!

Though I did have my ears on and they flew off! I caught them just as they came off the back of my head! Lesson learned- don’t wear ears on the fast rides!

We had some time then before our next fast pass so we headed back to Seven Dwarves to get a return time and then wandered into Tomorrowland. I’ve always wanted to go on the Carousel of Progress so we did that. It was definitely one of my favourite things we did that day, I loved the history and the whimsy of it, and we spent a lot of the day singing ‘there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow’. I actually would have gone round again, but we were getting hungry.

We stopped in Cosmic Rays and this is when we got one portion of chicken strips and fries- which was massive! Definitely enough for the two of us, and chilled for a bit, before we went back to SDMT to go again.

After this we headed over to pirates and asked for a return time and the lovely CM there took a look at both of us and said ‘don’t worry about returning, just go through the fast pass entrance now’, so that was a lovely magical moment. Pirates is probably one of the only rides which is better in Paris in my opinion, but its my favourite ride of all time and I collect the ride photos from pirates from each trip to compare each of my trips in a photo album, so it was a must do for us.

Though I have to say the place they take the ride photo in Orlando is very odd, after the photo was taken I turned and said to Emily ‘was that a photo? but we weren’t doing anything!’ and she believed it was probably a lightning effect. Well once we got our photo we released it had been a camera flash! What an odd place to put a camera, everyone looks so confused!

Then we went and got a return time for Splash mountain, Emily really wanted to go around again, and headed to Jungle Cruise. I knew Jungle Cruise was a must for me, it’s such a classic and a ride that we don’t have in Paris, not that if we did I’d understand it, and I love the dry humour. I hadn’t told Emily what to expect, so she was quite shocked by the jokes, especially when we were told to ‘get out’ at the end. Her face!

We headed over to the Haunted Mansion. We got into our doom buggy, went around the corner to the bit with the door knockers and then just stopped. I thought this would probably just be for someone to enter or exit the ride with mobility issues and we would going again in a few minutes but nope! We were stuck for about 30 minutes in the end. I was convinced we would be evacuated, they did turn the lights on and the music off for a time. I got the fright of my life though before the lights had come on when a light which had been creating shadows on the wall in front of us suddenly drew towards us and I peaked around the doom buggy only to be tapped by a cast member with a torch saying ‘make sure to stay inside your doom buggy’! I almost jumped out of my skin.

Anyway the ride did start up again eventually, it seemed to take many tries, we had a lot of false starts. I had one of the best moments at any disney park though when they did start up again every single person on the ride whooped and clapped and the whole way round everyone in the neighbouring buggies were laughing and singing. It felt like a real moment of camaraderie. The cast members on the way out where high fiving us all and congratulating us on ‘making it through’, it was a great feeling.

This meant by the time we left it was dark, which was a shock to our system!

Two days later Tim Tracker posted a video and in it he walks past the Haunted Mansion and comments that it appears to be down! That was us! If this is the closest I ever come to meeting the Trackers I’ll take it!

The time we spent in limbo on Haunted Mansion had given me a lot of time to go for a fourth fast pass, as Haunted Mansion was our last one. We got one for Winnie the Pooh for later that evening.

By now we were due back at Splash so we went and did it again, and in the dark it was a different experience altogether, but I was a lot less tense of each drop this time and really got to take in the scenery. The only downside to doing Splash in the dark is you will probably never get dry afterwards, something we only realised afterwards. We got a lot wetter this time as well, and I got a big splash directly in my eye on that bit when you are about to climb a lift hill and the boats coming down splash you.

We got a return time for Big Thunder after that, I suppose I had been bolstered by the fact I had loved every ride we’d been on so far. I’ve never even managed to do Big Thunder in Paris! This was only a 30 minute wait so we hung around and did some window shopping before going on. I only realised recently that we never got a photo for this one, oh well, I was screaming the whole way round. We couldn’t see too much of where we were going and that really scared me, but I also loved the excitement. My voice was hoarse after this one!

After this we headed to Winnie the Pooh, and got a return for the tea cups on the way. Winnie the Pooh was really sweet, I loved the jumping part! If I had my way the whole ride would be in that motion, it was a lot of fun.

I managed to snag our fifth and final fast pass of the day after this- for small world. Emily wasn’t convinced, but I insisted it was a classic. Of course we have done this at Paris but how can you pass it up?! You need to do it once per trip to appease the Disney gods!

I think I like aspects of Paris’ small world better, especially the whole outside queue and facade, but this one held up as well. I still maintain small world would be better with a pirates style small drop at the end, but if it was up to me all boat rides would have a small drop, including living with the land, so maybe it’s best disney don’t hire me as an imagineer!

After this we did our return for the teacups, and then it was fireworks time!

I really burst out crying when Tinkerbell did her flying, I knew it was coming but I hadn’t told Emily so she was very impressed! The whole show was amazing, and it really sunk in that I was actually in Florida, after so many years of waiting and hoping I could eventually go. I was very teary the whole way back down main street.

I decided not to take photos through the whole display, as I would rather 'live' the moment, but I got a few from the start!

We ended up staying on Main Street a good forty five minutes after the fireworks ended to let the crowds clear a bit and walked through the emporium- and this was where I made my first Disney purchase of the holiday! The donut ears! I’d seen them on Instagram before going and I knew I wanted them, so I couldn’t help myself when I saw them. We also got two ‘first visit’ badges and a ‘I’m celebrating our 2019 visit’ badges from the lovely cast member who served us!

A picture of the donut ears from wdw news today!

After this we finally did head back, though the queue for the ferry and monorail was still all the way out of the queue sections. I turned to Emily and just said ‘pick a queue’ and we ended up in the one for the boat to Fort Wilderness lodge. We got to see the Seven Lagoon Electrical Pagent, our boat following the light show over the river bridge and towards Fort Wilderness lodge, and from there we got an uber.

This is Disney's official photo because my iphone camera was not up to taking photos of these in the dark!

Yankee doodle was stuck in my head the rest of the night after this, and the light show was such a magical end to a perfect day! This probably was not the fastest way to get home, but we got to see another hotel, so that was a plus! We both were impressed by FWL, but it’s not really my style as much as Beach Club or the Grand Floridian.

We didn’t make it back to Cabana Bay until almost 11pm that night. We didn’t just do rope drop to fireworks, we did rope drop to fireworks and then some!

It was an exhilarating day though, and we had so much fun! The DAS allowed us to get a lot more done then we ever would have without it. I do feel like in it’s current form it’s a easy abused system, we even saw some people abusing it, using return times without the DAS user being there, etc. Also it makes things very easy, I could see abled bodied people wanting it as well. It makes me wonder why disney can’t ask for medical proof when issuing them, as I would have had no problems giving them a hospital letter.

Disneyland Paris actually does ask for medical proof. Even though I knew we weren’t lying and I did need the DAS I did feel like we could have been fakers, and how would they have known? Anyway, I’m very grateful for the DAS for really allowing us a lot of freedom. The lady who granted us it told us it would mean a lot more walking for us, as you need to go to a ride to get a return time, and I hadn’t thought much of that at the time, but believe me, it does mean a lot more walking. Not a problem for me, but something to consider.

We did over 23,000 steps today!

[Cinderella]

Great day 👍

[mick]

What a fantastic day you got so much done really glad you both enjoyed yourselves


Joan

[Floridafour]

Aaah what a great (and long) day. Thanks for posting 🙂