Too scary, too hot & too splashy - Orlando May-June 2022 - Day 1 (Magic Kingdom)

[sheluk]

Day 1 – Tuesday 17th May 2022 – Magic Kingdom

Travel day is here

Day 1

Today was our first park day and first trip to MK with the kids. Early entry was at 8.30am with normal park opening at 9am and our aim was Seven Dwarves! It was also our first day of using Genie plus, as we had bought it for the entire trip before leaving the UK.

I woke just after 2am – illness strikes again, so it didn’t surprise me at all when the kids started making noises in the living room around 3! Richard was not impressed & I had hoped they’d sleep in a little after such a late night for them, but I guess it was around 8am UK time… and they were sharing a bed… need I say more!

I got up with them, or rather went to lie on the sofa bed with them, around 3.30am and put the tv on very quietly. I was very conscious of our neighbours, the kids less so. I had thought they might like to walk round the resort in the dark and explore a bit but all of my clothes were in the room Richard had gone back to sleep in so that wasn’t an option. Poor planning and all that…

It was remarkable how time went though. Between faffing, finishing unpacking, sorting the park bags, feeding the kids and then us and having my Disney coffee… it was soon 7am! Time to leave the room.

This coincided with Genie+ first selections so wasn’t well timed by me. I did secure Thunder Mountain for 10am though so was happy with that!

We headed down the lift into the lobby which smelt and look so lovely. We stopped at reception to mention a mattress topper for the sofa bed and to ask someone to take a look at the leaking bath.

We walked round the pool on the way to the boat dock and as soon as Charlie saw the pool he was desperate to use it. The lack of sleep meant he was very upset about this so it took some consoling to get him to continue to walking to our destination of the boat dock.

When we got there at 7.15 there were two families already waiting so we joined a queue behind them, they said the first boat yesterday was 7.45 so we thought we had plenty of time. I took the kids and left Richard waiting and went to explore a bit more. The kids were enjoying spotting the animal “tracks” on the floor. We’d only got to the geyser and a boat showed up. A 100m spring wasn’t really what I wanted at 7.25am and it was already HOT.

The boat from/to Wilderness lodge and Magic Kingdom always has a red flag so was easy to spot. One is larger and you don’t have to collapse prams, one is smaller and you do. We got the larger one which was really handy given all the bags already laden under the double buggy.

It was a lovely way to travel and arrive at Magic Kingdom. Its quite surreal to go the way round the Contemporary that it does and I’ve never realised some of the rooms it has in its outer building (still mean to look if they are Contemporary or DVC Bay Lake Tower).

5 minutes later we had arrived. We jumped off and went through security then bag check before joining the queue to scan in. It was one of those queues that split into two the closer you got to the tapsiles so that was handy.

Just for any families benefit who haven’t been since the new security is in place (we hadn’t), everyone had to walk through the scanner one at a time – I basically pushed the kids through one behind the other – and they took the double buggy off to the side. Sometimes they insisted on seeing in the bags underneath, but after a while we clocked that if you carry them through the scanner with you then the hand search doesn’t usually happen. That was much quicker although you still have to take out everything from under the pram.

We often had a waterproof bag with spare clothes for the kids, water macs and bits in that lived under there all the time apart from swapping out for clean things. Richard’s backpack which was full of our fans, cooling towels, snacks, first aid kit etc. Then a plastic bag full of extra waters.

Richard also has his bum bag / fanny pack with wallet, camera in & I had a small bag or bum bag with my / the kids essentials in. it was a lot, but we really needed it.

ANYWAY, I digress, we scanned through for the first time – LOVE – and headed up Main Street.

Now, in all my planning I always thought the entrance would be the grand reveal and the kids would squeal and I’d feel a million dollars. Ha. In reality, Charlie was obsessed with the park map we’d just given him and Penny just wanted to balance down the tram lines in the floor. I was trying my hardest to get them to have the “moment” but it was a lost cause. Honestly, KIDS.

I did manage a photo.

Even before we’d got much further than the confectionary the kids 3am start (and lets face it, my 2am’er) was starting to show. By 8.05am we were in the queue to the right of the castle for Fantasyland. It was a decent sized queue. They were both getting a bit upset saying they were TOO HOT and TOO TIRED. It was extremely hot stood there without shade. A snack helped but they no doubt could have both done with a nap at this point.

Neither of them are used to sleeping in a pram, not having done so since they were babies so the “lean back and close your eyes” didn’t really do the trick – they’d much rather just wind each other up by touching / looking / laughing at the other and waiting for the opposite member to cry before crying themselves at getting told off.

So, anyway, back to Fantasyland. Lets bring it back to the fun stuff.

Now, if you’re at early entry you want to be there 30 mins before.

We had dawdled a bit on Main Street but even then we were probably 50 people behind where we would have been had we powered through. I thought we’d spend a while soaking up the atmosphere but given how the kids were we decided to just try and get something “done”.

At 8.25 exactly they started letting the crowd through past the carousel and up to Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We followed the majority of the crowd and went left (big tip from another day at Early Entry, go right round the carousel). But when we got to the ride – and Richard takes no prisoners as chief buggy pusher (it was too heavy for me most of the time with two decent sized kids in and all the bags!) – the queue was already snaking outside the ride.

Plan abandoned we carried on to Peter Pan. We left the pram in pram parking, Charlie hopped out and I carried Penny into the queue. It’s a lovely queue – we’ve always done fastpass through it, so it was genuinely nice to get to experience all the little magic touches. We were on by 8.45 and off by 8.50 (see, still those exacting notes!) and it was a big hit.

We decided to go straight into Small World opposite next and it said a 10 minute wait. This is Richard’s dads favourite ride and always makes us think of him.

Now, another tip – don’t do Small World during early entry. It is a looooong ride so you use up your precious minutes quickly. We also got caught a bit in an offloading delay at the end, so it was 9.15 by the time we got off and the park had officially opened.

We decided we wanted some food / sugar pronto to pick everyone up and Gaston’s was only round the corner. We took it in turn to use the restroom with the kids as this queue was mega long at around 20 minutes.

Richard grabbed a seat with the kids and I ordered a coffee ($3.49) and the cinnamon roll with extra frosting, of course ($6.79). This went down extremely well and if it was up to me I would have ordered two

We were in two minds what to do now and Penny was asking for a nap once again so we headed to Frontierland and she fell asleep quickly this time.

I pushed Penny around for a bit whilst Charlie & Richard had a go of the shooting game. Nice touch that its now free.

Our first Genie+ was now ready and Penny was too small to ride anyway so we headed there. We stopped at the entrance and explained we wanted to use rider switch so they put a rider swap onto Charlie’s ticket. Still hadn’t bought Magic bands at this point… (this becomes a saga so you’ll see me mention it a fair few times).

Charlie & I went on first whilst Richard took a sleeping Penny to find some shade. Charlie absolutely loved Big Thunder – it was a big favourite the entire holiday for him. Hands in the air too!

I went to switch with Richard who was on the rocking chairs by the water – a lovely peaceful spot. Well it would be if Penny hadn’t woken when he’d stopped walking and she was hysterical. He thought she’d calm down for me but she was genuinely so upset. I pulled her out of the pram in the end and just held her until she’d exhausted herself and eventually agreed to a snack.

An American older lady there with her grown up kids came over who had been sat nearby and exchanged (nice) eye rolls with me and commented on how determined Penny was and that it was lovely hearing an English voice again.

The boys were back now and once they had tapped in at Big Thunder I had booked another Genie+ for the Little Mermaid ride at 10.45 (aware that’s not its full name). Penny has recovered from her too short nap and was much happier by now, reallllly enjoying herself. Although she had found Urusla TOO SCARY, but I get that, she is scary.

Again, after tapping in there I had booked the Speedway, so we headed in that direction. Luckily it wasn’t too far but that is the thing with Genie+ - you do backtrack round the park depending on availability.

Without Genie+ then I would have either rope dropped Big Thunder at 9am, OR just carried on doing Fantasyland.

I sat with Charlie and he did the driving and I did the peddles as he couldn’t reach. We were laughing at Penny behind us as we couldn’t even see her behind the steering wheel. They both loved this and it became a firm favourite, but Charlie still preferred Big Thunder.

Cool to see Tron up close too.

Whilst we’d been walking over to Speedway I had put in our first mobile order for Caseys. We are big fans of the hotdogs from there and have tons of good memories of eating there -including the night we got engaged – posh, eh.

Once the kids were back in the pram I pressed the button on the app to say we were there, as its such a short walk. For anyone that doesn’t know you can pre-order and estimate your time of arrival.

I had ordered us a footlong hot dog with fries, a small chilli cheese dog with fries and corn dog nuggets with fries. I’m sure the corn dog nuggets used to just be a snack – we really didn’t want the third lot of fries, but it didn’t seem an option not to get them. There was also no drink included which I’m sure there used to be before Disney cut backs but again, might be mis-remembering that.

This was $36. Apple pay wouldn’t work for me on the app at all but by selecting credit card and then the same card anyway it worked no problem on my phone. We had linked up our Nationwide credit card before we left, which doesn’t charge for foreign transactions.

Interestingly Apple pay worked perfectly on my phone for everything else just not the MDE app.

It came up that it was ready just as we got through Tomorrowland so that was handy. We spotted a table just outside of the ice cream parlour so Richard and the kids grabbed that and I went to collect. You just go in and wait by the number given on the app and they either shout you by number, or if you’ve missed your number you just go up and show them your order.

This worked pretty efficiently and I was walking away with our food pretty quickly.

All of us really enjoyed our food and the corn dog nuggets were the surprising hit. I got a brilliant pic of Charlie digging in.

I had also brought chopped up cucumber and strawberries with us (from the Publix shop) so that was a nice healthy fix in the heat.

Right was we finished all the music for the midday parade started. We quickly made a decision to walk through the emporium – hello air con – and watch it near the exit. We had always planned to leave after lunch and get the kids down for a nap.

We walked through as quickly as possible but really we would have had time to look around and crucially, BUY magic bands, so had lots of time to kill at the top area near the fire station.

Eventually the parade showed up and we really enjoyed it. I know its shorter than it used to be but felt a good length in the baking sun. How do those dancers cope in the costumes?!

The characters got a few waves out of Penny from her pram but Charlie was just so tired using the hood for shade. He did talk about who he had seen quite a lot that evening so he’d clearly taken more in than we thought he had.

At 12.37 we left Magic Kingdom. A red flag boat came in quickly and we sat in the back which was shaded but had a lovely breeze. Another big boat too so no collapsing the pram and 7 minutes later we were back at Wilderness Lodge.

We headed straight for the room and I bathed the kids and put them down for a nap. Richard had a shower too and then had to go pick up the car, so got his bits together and headed out.

We checked Uber and Lyft as he needed to get to the Universal Hard Rock Hotel to collect from Avis and it was around $22 which didn’t seem bad.

I sorted out our bags from the day and spend 10 minutes on the balcony with a sugar cookie. It was so deliciously warm sat out there.

I woke the kids after an hour and bribed them to get up with sugar cookies and swimming. I creamed everyone up – although Penny turned down the cookie for her beloved Sorreen (that we’d brought with us).

My notes say again how glorious the weather was.

We headed to the splash pad area first and Charlie adored it. So happy just going down the water slides and using the water cannons. Penny wasn’t wanting to participate though declaring this TOO SPLASHY so just happily walked round the outsides of the shallow part of the splash pad with me.

They asked to move to the main pool so we did, I dumped our bag and grabbed some towels on a chair nearby and we headed in. The water was lovely, it felt like the outside to water temp was the same and no transition.

The pool itself was relatively busy with music and games that were just finishing.

Penny stayed close to me but Charlie made a little friend quite quickly – still all close by - then announced he wanted to go on the main water slide that goes into the pool. I was relieved it was closed as going separate ways around water, when I’m by myself, wasn’t an ideal situation. He is a good swimmer but still needs arm floats and of course he’s only 4.

We found ourselves checking out the hot tub then and a life guard wandered over saying he couldn’t believe we were in there. A common theme of conversation was how it was unseasonably hot for May. Like its usually hot, but not THAT hot. Once he heard our accents he was telling us that he has spent some time in Liverpool.

After that it was back to the main pool, then finally the splash pad.

Around 4.45 we decided to head back upstairs and got back the exact same time Richard did. He had stopped at Aldi and Walmart for some additional bits we wanted after picking up the car.

He had text me saying there was no one at the Avis desk when he got there at 2.30. He rang a number that was available and someone showed up a short while later and gave him the keys to the car – a Kia Sorrento 7 seater. We had heard so many bad things about picking up from Avis at this desk so were a bit nervous but Richard’s assessment was that the Kia was “alright” so that did us fine. We were actually very pleased by its trunk space in the end.

It only had half a tank in it so they told us to just return it the same way.

Richard then asked about the car seats we had pre booked. The guy had asked him if he wanted to drive to Portofino and collect them, for some reason they were there, but Richard politely told him to go and collect them as he didn’t know the roads/area. Richard had checked out the car whilst he waited.

We still aren’t sure if we’d use Avis again. The customer service wasn’t great and the car wasn’t the cleanest, but it was significantly cheaper than a lot of other options so who knows.

The kids had their second bath of the day and I prepped some food for dinner. Richard had brought back a cooked chicken so we just had that with salad, bread, crisps etc. We just didn’t fancy more fast food after hot dogs at lunch and couldn’t be bothered to go very far either.

Soon enough we were packing up the park bag ready for the next day. The kids were put to bed just before 7pm and we showered. I spent a fair bit of time washing, drying and straightening my hair for an early start the next day.

Everyone was super tired and all hopeful for a better night’s sleep. We watched the news for a bit – love a bit of CNN when we are in the US, and by 9pm we were asleep again.

Join me for day 2 – Animal Kingdom and a crazy early entry of 7am!

[ClaireNJ]

Originally Posted by sheluk

Day 1 – Tuesday 17th May 2022 – Magic Kingdom

Travel day is here

Day 1

Today was our first park day and first trip to MK with the kids. Early entry was at 8.30am with normal park opening at 9am and our aim was Seven Dwarves! It was also our first day of using Genie plus, as we had bought it for the entire trip before leaving the UK.

I woke just after 2am – illness strikes again, so it didn’t surprise me at all when the kids started making noises in the living room around 3! Richard was not impressed & I had hoped they’d sleep in a little after such a late night for them, but I guess it was around 8am UK time… and they were sharing a bed… need I say more!

I got up with them, or rather went to lie on the sofa bed with them, around 3.30am and put the tv on very quietly. I was very conscious of our neighbours, the kids less so. I had thought they might like to walk round the resort in the dark and explore a bit but all of my clothes were in the room Richard had gone back to sleep in so that wasn’t an option. Poor planning and all that…

It was remarkable how time went though. Between faffing, finishing unpacking, sorting the park bags, feeding the kids and then us and having my Disney coffee… it was soon 7am! Time to leave the room.

This coincided with Genie+ first selections so wasn’t well timed by me. I did secure Thunder Mountain for 10am though so was happy with that!

We headed down the lift into the lobby which smelt and look so lovely. We stopped at reception to mention a mattress topper for the sofa bed and to ask someone to take a look at the leaking bath.

We walked round the pool on the way to the boat dock and as soon as Charlie saw the pool he was desperate to use it. The lack of sleep meant he was very upset about this so it took some consoling to get him to continue to walking to our destination of the boat dock.

When we got there at 7.15 there were two families already waiting so we joined a queue behind them, they said the first boat yesterday was 7.45 so we thought we had plenty of time. I took the kids and left Richard waiting and went to explore a bit more. The kids were enjoying spotting the animal “tracks” on the floor. We’d only got to the geyser and a boat showed up. A 100m spring wasn’t really what I wanted at 7.25am and it was already HOT.

The boat from/to Wilderness lodge and Magic Kingdom always has a red flag so was easy to spot. One is larger and you don’t have to collapse prams, one is smaller and you do. We got the larger one which was really handy given all the bags already laden under the double buggy.

It was a lovely way to travel and arrive at Magic Kingdom. Its quite surreal to go the way round the Contemporary that it does and I’ve never realised some of the rooms it has in its outer building (still mean to look if they are Contemporary or DVC Bay Lake Tower).

5 minutes later we had arrived. We jumped off and went through security then bag check before joining the queue to scan in. It was one of those queues that split into two the closer you got to the tapsiles so that was handy.

Just for any families benefit who haven’t been since the new security is in place (we hadn’t), everyone had to walk through the scanner one at a time – I basically pushed the kids through one behind the other – and they took the double buggy off to the side. Sometimes they insisted on seeing in the bags underneath, but after a while we clocked that if you carry them through the scanner with you then the hand search doesn’t usually happen. That was much quicker although you still have to take out everything from under the pram.

We often had a waterproof bag with spare clothes for the kids, water macs and bits in that lived under there all the time apart from swapping out for clean things. Richard’s backpack which was full of our fans, cooling towels, snacks, first aid kit etc. Then a plastic bag full of extra waters.

Richard also has his bum bag / fanny pack with wallet, camera in & I had a small bag or bum bag with my / the kids essentials in. it was a lot, but we really needed it.

ANYWAY, I digress, we scanned through for the first time – LOVE – and headed up Main Street.

Now, in all my planning I always thought the entrance would be the grand reveal and the kids would squeal and I’d feel a million dollars. Ha. In reality, Charlie was obsessed with the park map we’d just given him and Penny just wanted to balance down the tram lines in the floor. I was trying my hardest to get them to have the “moment” but it was a lost cause. Honestly, KIDS.

I did manage a photo.

Even before we’d got much further than the confectionary the kids 3am start (and lets face it, my 2am’er) was starting to show. By 8.05am we were in the queue to the right of the castle for Fantasyland. It was a decent sized queue. They were both getting a bit upset saying they were TOO HOT and TOO TIRED. It was extremely hot stood there without shade. A snack helped but they no doubt could have both done with a nap at this point.

Neither of them are used to sleeping in a pram, not having done so since they were babies so the “lean back and close your eyes” didn’t really do the trick – they’d much rather just wind each other up by touching / looking / laughing at the other and waiting for the opposite member to cry before crying themselves at getting told off.

So, anyway, back to Fantasyland. Lets bring it back to the fun stuff.

Now, if you’re at early entry you want to be there 30 mins before.

We had dawdled a bit on Main Street but even then we were probably 50 people behind where we would have been had we powered through. I thought we’d spend a while soaking up the atmosphere but given how the kids were we decided to just try and get something “done”.

At 8.25 exactly they started letting the crowd through past the carousel and up to Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We followed the majority of the crowd and went left (big tip from another day at Early Entry, go right round the carousel). But when we got to the ride – and Richard takes no prisoners as chief buggy pusher (it was too heavy for me most of the time with two decent sized kids in and all the bags!) – the queue was already snaking outside the ride.

Plan abandoned we carried on to Peter Pan. We left the pram in pram parking, Charlie hopped out and I carried Penny into the queue. It’s a lovely queue – we’ve always done fastpass through it, so it was genuinely nice to get to experience all the little magic touches. We were on by 8.45 and off by 8.50 (see, still those exacting notes!) and it was a big hit.

We decided to go straight into Small World opposite next and it said a 10 minute wait. This is Richard’s dads favourite ride and always makes us think of him.

Now, another tip – don’t do Small World during early entry. It is a looooong ride so you use up your precious minutes quickly. We also got caught a bit in an offloading delay at the end, so it was 9.15 by the time we got off and the park had officially opened.

We decided we wanted some food / sugar pronto to pick everyone up and Gaston’s was only round the corner. We took it in turn to use the restroom with the kids as this queue was mega long at around 20 minutes.

Richard grabbed a seat with the kids and I ordered a coffee ($3.49) and the cinnamon roll with extra frosting, of course ($6.79). This went down extremely well and if it was up to me I would have ordered two

We were in two minds what to do now and Penny was asking for a nap once again so we headed to Frontierland and she fell asleep quickly this time.

I pushed Penny around for a bit whilst Charlie & Richard had a go of the shooting game. Nice touch that its now free.

Our first Genie+ was now ready and Penny was too small to ride anyway so we headed there. We stopped at the entrance and explained we wanted to use rider switch so they put a rider swap onto Charlie’s ticket. Still hadn’t bought Magic bands at this point… (this becomes a saga so you’ll see me mention it a fair few times).

Charlie & I went on first whilst Richard took a sleeping Penny to find some shade. Charlie absolutely loved Big Thunder – it was a big favourite the entire holiday for him. Hands in the air too!

I went to switch with Richard who was on the rocking chairs by the water – a lovely peaceful spot. Well it would be if Penny hadn’t woken when he’d stopped walking and she was hysterical. He thought she’d calm down for me but she was genuinely so upset. I pulled her out of the pram in the end and just held her until she’d exhausted herself and eventually agreed to a snack.

An American older lady there with her grown up kids came over who had been sat nearby and exchanged (nice) eye rolls with me and commented on how determined Penny was and that it was lovely hearing an English voice again.

The boys were back now and once they had tapped in at Big Thunder I had booked another Genie+ for the Little Mermaid ride at 10.45 (aware that’s not its full name). Penny has recovered from her too short nap and was much happier by now, reallllly enjoying herself. Although she had found Urusla TOO SCARY, but I get that, she is scary.

Again, after tapping in there I had booked the Speedway, so we headed in that direction. Luckily it wasn’t too far but that is the thing with Genie+ - you do backtrack round the park depending on availability.

Without Genie+ then I would have either rope dropped Big Thunder at 9am, OR just carried on doing Fantasyland.

I sat with Charlie and he did the driving and I did the peddles as he couldn’t reach. We were laughing at Penny behind us as we couldn’t even see her behind the steering wheel. They both loved this and it became a firm favourite, but Charlie still preferred Big Thunder.

Cool to see Tron up close too.

Whilst we’d been walking over to Speedway I had put in our first mobile order for Caseys. We are big fans of the hotdogs from there and have tons of good memories of eating there -including the night we got engaged – posh, eh.

Once the kids were back in the pram I pressed the button on the app to say we were there, as its such a short walk. For anyone that doesn’t know you can pre-order and estimate your time of arrival.

I had ordered us a footlong hot dog with fries, a small chilli cheese dog with fries and corn dog nuggets with fries. I’m sure the corn dog nuggets used to just be a snack – we really didn’t want the third lot of fries, but it didn’t seem an option not to get them. There was also no drink included which I’m sure there used to be before Disney cut backs but again, might be mis-remembering that.

This was $36. Apple pay wouldn’t work for me on the app at all but by selecting credit card and then the same card anyway it worked no problem on my phone. We had linked up our Nationwide credit card before we left, which doesn’t charge for foreign transactions.

Interestingly Apple pay worked perfectly on my phone for everything else just not the MDE app.

It came up that it was ready just as we got through Tomorrowland so that was handy. We spotted a table just outside of the ice cream parlour so Richard and the kids grabbed that and I went to collect. You just go in and wait by the number given on the app and they either shout you by number, or if you’ve missed your number you just go up and show them your order.

This worked pretty efficiently and I was walking away with our food pretty quickly.

All of us really enjoyed our food and the corn dog nuggets were the surprising hit. I got a brilliant pic of Charlie digging in.

I had also brought chopped up cucumber and strawberries with us (from the Publix shop) so that was a nice healthy fix in the heat.

Right was we finished all the music for the midday parade started. We quickly made a decision to walk through the emporium – hello air con – and watch it near the exit. We had always planned to leave after lunch and get the kids down for a nap.

We walked through as quickly as possible but really we would have had time to look around and crucially, BUY magic bands, so had lots of time to kill at the top area near the fire station.

Eventually the parade showed up and we really enjoyed it. I know its shorter than it used to be but felt a good length in the baking sun. How do those dancers cope in the costumes?!

The characters got a few waves out of Penny from her pram but Charlie was just so tired using the hood for shade. He did talk about who he had seen quite a lot that evening so he’d clearly taken more in than we thought he had.

At 12.37 we left Magic Kingdom. A red flag boat came in quickly and we sat in the back which was shaded but had a lovely breeze. Another big boat too so no collapsing the pram and 7 minutes later we were back at Wilderness Lodge.

We headed straight for the room and I bathed the kids and put them down for a nap. Richard had a shower too and then had to go pick up the car, so got his bits together and headed out.

We checked Uber and Lyft as he needed to get to the Universal Hard Rock Hotel to collect from Avis and it was around $22 which didn’t seem bad.

I sorted out our bags from the day and spend 10 minutes on the balcony with a sugar cookie. It was so deliciously warm sat out there.

I woke the kids after an hour and bribed them to get up with sugar cookies and swimming. I creamed everyone up – although Penny turned down the cookie for her beloved Sorreen (that we’d brought with us).

My notes say again how glorious the weather was.

We headed to the splash pad area first and Charlie adored it. So happy just going down the water slides and using the water cannons. Penny wasn’t wanting to participate though declaring this TOO SPLASHY so just happily walked round the outsides of the shallow part of the splash pad with me.

They asked to move to the main pool so we did, I dumped our bag and grabbed some towels on a chair nearby and we headed in. The water was lovely, it felt like the outside to water temp was the same and no transition.

The pool itself was relatively busy with music and games that were just finishing.

Penny stayed close to me but Charlie made a little friend quite quickly – still all close by - then announced he wanted to go on the main water slide that goes into the pool. I was relieved it was closed as going separate ways around water, when I’m by myself, wasn’t an ideal situation. He is a good swimmer but still needs arm floats and of course he’s only 4.

We found ourselves checking out the hot tub then and a life guard wandered over saying he couldn’t believe we were in there. A common theme of conversation was how it was unseasonably hot for May. Like its usually hot, but not THAT hot. Once he heard our accents he was telling us that he has spent some time in Liverpool.

After that it was back to the main pool, then finally the splash pad.

Around 4.45 we decided to head back upstairs and got back the exact same time Richard did. He had stopped at Aldi and Walmart for some additional bits we wanted after picking up the car.

He had text me saying there was no one at the Avis desk when he got there at 2.30. He rang a number that was available and someone showed up a short while later and gave him the keys to the car – a Kia Sorrento 7 seater. We had heard so many bad things about picking up from Avis at this desk so were a bit nervous but Richard’s assessment was that the Kia was “alright” so that did us fine. We were actually very pleased by its trunk space in the end.

It only had half a tank in it so they told us to just return it the same way.

Richard then asked about the car seats we had pre booked. The guy had asked him if he wanted to drive to Portofino and collect them, for some reason they were there, but Richard politely told him to go and collect them as he didn’t know the roads/area. Richard had checked out the car whilst he waited.

We still aren’t sure if we’d use Avis again. The customer service wasn’t great and the car wasn’t the cleanest, but it was significantly cheaper than a lot of other options so who knows.

The kids had their second bath of the day and I prepped some food for dinner. Richard had brought back a cooked chicken so we just had that with salad, bread, crisps etc. We just didn’t fancy more fast food after hot dogs at lunch and couldn’t be bothered to go very far either.

Soon enough we were packing up the park bag ready for the next day. The kids were put to bed just before 7pm and we showered. I spent a fair bit of time washing, drying and straightening my hair for an early start the next day.

Everyone was super tired and all hopeful for a better night’s sleep. We watched the news for a bit – love a bit of CNN when we are in the US, and by 9pm we were asleep again.

Join me for day 2 – Animal Kingdom and a crazy early entry of 7am!

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Oh I love a first day in the Magic Kingdom, you can’t beat it, I’m always up super early 🤣🤣
I love Peter Pan & Hubbie loves Small World too
Can’t believe Penny turned down a sugar cookie for malt loaf, healthy girl
What a lovely first day you had, the hotel & pool look amazing
Love the sunrise photo 😎
Must’ve been so nice to catch the boat back to WL
X

[Disney_Jess]

What a brilliant day! Magic Kingdom always has to be day 1 for me as well - I’m taking my boyfriend for the first time in October, so I’m hoping he has “the moment”, but I doubt it 😂

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Ah reading this gave me all the feels... is there any better start to a trip than Magic Kingdom?! But absolutely appreciate the honesty regarding your first walk down Main Street... you build it up so much in your head but it never quite hits the mark when kids are involved!

That photo of Charlie and the cinnamon roll... calling it early as one of my fave of the whole report!

So amazing that Charlie loved Big Thunder so much too! I'm so hoping we can get our Charlie on the DLP version next month but he has become much more nervous of rides in the last couple of years so I am setting myself up that he probably will refuse!

So great to see Genie+ working so well for you, you achieved so much in just a few hours! You are my guru on this now, will be making notes ahead of our next trip!

All in all a perfect first day what with swimming time too, the kiddies did amazing to last as long as they did given the very early start and the previous long travel day. Can't wait to read all about your AK adventures next!

[EssexSue]

I'm sorry but I had to laugh about you wanting the perfect shot and Charlie playing with the map and Penny on the tram lines. Given the time zone and the heat you all did brilliantly. X

[Goldia]

After such an early wake due to the dreaded jet lag I think you all did really well to make it until lunch! Poor Charlie having to walk past the pool in the morning and wait until the afternoon, my kids always used to love the pool the best. It sounds like a brilliant morning and lots of fab rides. Plus you managed the perfect breakfast and lunch, with the cinnamon loaf and chilli dog!

Thanks for mentioning the red flag tip for the WL boats, that has been mentally noted. I'm so excited for our first MK day. I've left it until day 3 as we dont check in to CCV until day 2 and I wanted my first MK of the trip to be from the boat from WL so we will have a little bit of a wait. I think it will be worth it and likely I will have a few tears just like your daughter 🤗 a little bit out of tiredness and a lot as a result of finally being back.

[mick]

A lovely first day


Joan

[prettymiarose]

Really enjoying your TP! I have the same photo of me with my dad on the car track when I was around Penny’s age! Warning! I love to drive fast cars now It’s nice to hear an honest report with young children. Our two are teens now but we remember the learning curve in keeping everyone happy! Looking forward to day 2.

[Lisa29]

What an early wake up for you!

Great first day though, you got a lot done. The afternoon swimming and peace on the balcony sounds amazing.

Looking forward to your AK day x

[Rescuer]

A lovely first day in Mk. My Ds was always obsessed with the pool over parks when he was little.

It’s great having the boat from Wildnerness Lodge to Magic kingdom.