It's all about the mouse - 1st August 2018 day 1 MK and DS

[Goldia]

Welcome to the It’s all about the mouse trip report. We are a family of four and this is our 4th trip to Orlando. I'm Abby, my DH is Dave and our children are Max (13 at the time of the trip) and Kate (11). This trip is all WDW and we stay inside the Disney bubble for the entirety of our holiday.

If you haven't read the travel day it can be found here

In the night I woke up a couple of times, firstly at 2.30am. I went to the bathroom. I felt like it took me really ages to get back to sleep, but Kate said that when she woke up in the middle of the night I was snoring so maybe I slept more than I thought .

In the end I got up at 5.30am, Dave was already up and reading his kindle. We both had coffee. We pootled around a bit and sorted out the cases, showered and got ready. We made our way to the bus stop at South Point Road and had a 4 minute wait for the bus. It was around 7.30am and we knew at this point that we were going to miss the Welcome Show at the castle so me and Kate were feeling a bit grumpy. Given we’d been up since 5.30am I was a bit annoyed really that we’d wasted time in the room.

I had made little postcards to remind myself of our daily itinerary and so today we had MK planned, with fast passes for Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, plus a lunch reservation at Crystal Palace.

This was a day that was pretty much set in stone in my mind, then locked down with concrete and encased in a bullet proof vest. There was going to be no changing of these plans whatsoever!

The reverse of the little cards had my timings plus snacks or characters I wanted us to try and meet! Not all of that actually happened as you're about to find out.

The bus came and it was one of the weird ones with the purple seats so we were facing eachother.

We tried to cheer ourselves up on the bus and not be too grumpy.

I may have moaned that I was facing backwards and this was not to my liking as I wanted to see the MK sign coming towards us . It seems silly now! In the end we didn't ever pass under the sign due to the construction that was going on.

We were both feeling really proud of our ears, mine were made by Dibber MariaLynda, they were super comfy and I got loads of compliments from people about them. In the end, rather than trying to explain that I was a member of this really helpful forum where people shared disney planning tips and that I'd won them, I just said that I was really lucky as a very kind and clever friend of mine had made them for me as a gift.

Kate had wanted to make her own Pooh and Piglet ears and we spent a good few weekends finding the materials and trying not to get too frustrated when they weren't perfect! They survived the travelling and both Pooh and Piglet thought they were great.

We finally arrived, well it wasn't that long and I have made no note of bag check or the scanning of magic bands so that must have gone smoothly. The Let the Magic Begin Show had been and gone without us, but we made our way up Main Street and were at Cinderella’s Castle by 8.05am so just missing rope drop and the opening show.

We went over the Adventureland Bridge, this was very slippery and a couple of times I nearly slipped on the wet wooden boards. The rest of our trip there was a walkway on top of the boards so maybe they knew it was a bit slippy and were sorting it out.

There were no people in Adventureland, cast members were out waving at guests with their big Mickey hand gloves. It’s lovely walking through the empty park, I’d love to say we took our time and took in all the sights and sounds, but we didn’t as we were on a mission . Our first ride of the trip was to be mine and Kate’s favourite – Splash Mountain. As usual this was awesome.

The posted wait time was 10 minutes, but it was a walk on. The boats were mostly going round empty. We had a brilliant time singing along. I’d forgotten to ‘duck and cover’ on the big drop and ended up with a face full of water…won’t make that mistake again this trip. This is one of our traditions, we love the ride, we don’t mind getting wet butts or splashed and so don’t bother with poncho’s, but we’re not massive fans of having a face full! Well, in my excitement I forgot the ‘duck and cover’ routine and the other 3 thought it was hilarious that I was the only one who ended up with dripping wet hair! You have to time the ‘duck and cover’ because obviously you need to get your pose for the photo sorted on the way down!

After Splash we went over to BTMR and this also had a posted wait time of 10 minutes but was again a walk on. A great little ride and we screamed along with everyone else on the wildest ride in the wilderness.

We then made our way back to POTC another 10 minute posted wait that was really a zero wait. This was our first glimpse of the red head in her new role. It’s such a fun ride we all enjoy it.

We've absolutely no idea where the camera is though and we don't exactly look like we're enjoying ourselves but I can assure you all that we are!

On our way back towards Fantasyland we stopped off at the Haunted Mansion, it was supposed to be a 15 minute wait, but we were only 5 minutes until we were in the stretching room.

After that the kids were desperate for breakfast, but It’s a small world only had a wait time of 5 minutes and so nipped in there. This was the same as all the others and in fact no wait at all. Max was with us so not sure why his name was missed off!

As we came off the ride it had just turned 9.30am and so our first fast pass for Peter Pan had opened up. I managed to convince the kids they could wait for breakfast until after the ride.

6 attractions before 10am is not bad! We had only had to wait once and that was for 5 minutes. We were feeling on top of the world!

There was only 1 option for breakfast...Gastons Tavern. Dave, Kate and myself shared the cinnamon loaf with an extra pot of icing.

Max had a chocolate croissant as he doesn't like cinnamon. We also had 4 cups of iced water.

This was really the perfect start to the holiday. I really love the cinnamon, warm, gooey, tasty loveliness.

After breakfast we made our way around the corner to Under the Sea. I absolutely love this ride, in fact it may well be my favourite of the clamshell rides. It’s so pretty in there, you get loads of the great songs and we’ve never had to wait for it.

We went further over into Storybook Circus. The kids love the Barnstormer even though it’s a kiddie coaster. We lucked out and got the back 2 rows! They thought this was brilliant. Max and Kate rode together at the very back, with me and Dave together just in front of them. This is a tight squeeze to get in but it’s fun.

Then it was time for our 2nd fast pass which was the Winnie the Pooh ride. Trying to take a selfie but struggling!

In the little shop afterwards Kate spotted an autograph book that she liked the look of so we snapped that up as we knew we’d need it for lunch.

We had little look in some of the shops around the castle and then we watched Mickey’s Philharmagic.

We made our way past the sword in the stone heading through the castle.

On Main Street and had a mooch around the Emporium, the park was filling up and we were getting a bit hot so a little break for some browsing was called for.

We saw a bit of the trolley show.

It was around 11.45am and we were deciding where to go next. We went to the sweet shop at the start of Main Street and watched the cast members making the candy apples.

We wandered over to Tomorrowland and went on Peoplemover. I managed to catch the cone going round.

We saw lots of the Incredibles Expo from the ride and had a good look over Tomorrowland. There were a lot of Incredibles themed photopass opportunities which I made a mental about to return to later.

As we came off the ride the 12.30pm Move It, Shake It dance party was just starting in front of the castle so we watched some of that with the plan of checking in for our 1pm lunch at Crystal Palace after the dance party.

It was very cloudy now though and then the heavens opened and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down, so we made a dash for Crystal Palace and made it just before everyone else had the same brilliant idea! Even though we checked in 20 minutes early we only waited 5 minutes until we were called in.

Our server was a really nice lady who allowed me and Dave to have an alcoholic beverage as well as a non alcoholic drink. So we both had a glass of white wine and an unsweetened ice tea.

Max had a coke and it looks like Kate had a pink lemonade from the photo.

Dave and myself had a salad plate as our starter.

I had lots of the peel and eat shrimp, they were lovely.

Kate went back for some when she saw mine, I don't know why she was partitioning her food so much.

Words can't describe Max's first plate...

We tried to encourage them to put a little more on their plates, but I think they enjoy the walking back and forth too much!

Eeyore was first up.

The carved meet here was lovely. Dave had some of the beef.

I had some pork and salmon, both were fab.

Piglet was pretty impressed with Kate's ears.

Not quite sure what Kate was thinking of with this plate.

We sent her back and she made a better effort with beef and rice.

We managed to persuade Max to have some pork.

Pooh was also pretty impressed with the ears.

The puddings were also calling us. Kate managed a whole one of these...We will get into our stride with the food eventually!

Max found the ice cream there's a brownie underneath.

My slightly fuller plate.

Then Dave came back with this little lot!

Max discovered there was chocolate ice cream so went back for more.

Tigger was the last character.

We weren't rushed at all here, in fact the server told us to take our time and brought refills of the soft drinks.

The bill was settled and we probably spent around and hour and a half in there.

I decided I needed an extra pudding before we left.

It is a fab first buffet meal and we would happily return the characters are fun the food is tasty and it's a great spot inside the magic kingdom.

By the time we came out the rain had cleared up and there weren’t even any signs of wet patches so it can’t have lasted long.

We were a bit full and didn’t fancy a full on ride straight after that little lot for lunch so we went on the Carousel.

We were trying to decided whether to sack off the 7DMT fast pass that we had for 3pm and just go back to the resort for a swim. Indecision ruled and we wandered back to Storybook Circus and caught some of the Main Street Philharmonic Orchestra. These guys were great and the crowd was really getting into the songs. Some of the little children were dancing and we had fun watching and listening to them.

We went a little early to 7DMT and the cast member checking magic bands turned the blue light green for us!

We were on and off just as the 3pm parade was hitting Main Street so we slowly wandered down Main Street watching the parade.

We left MK and spotted one of the monorails with the Incredibles ads on.

We got the bus back to OKW. There was a baby with a really stinker of a nappy, the man holding the baby was helping him to dance up and down which really helped the smell to be spread over the whole bus! We were glad to get off for the fresh air.

We quickly changed into our swimming stuff and went to the main pool and chilled out. The kids spent all their time in the pool. I had about a 30 second dip in the water and then dozed on a sunbed in the shade. Dave tried out the sauna and Jacuzzi. The Lifeguards announced there was inclement weather on the way so we quickly grabbed our stuff together and started the walk home. The rain came down again on the way back and it was particularly spikey rain which actually hurt when it landed on you! We ran the last bit back to the room.

By now it was around 5pm and so we showered and got ready to go out for some dinner. Given the poor show for QS last night we decided we should head over to Disney springs for the evening as we really fancied pizza, plus I've been desperate to try out Blaze!

We caught the bus as it was still a little drizzly when we left the room and it’s a shorter walk to the bus stop. When we arrived at DS it had stopped raining and we wandered over to World of Disney and I picked up the $200 gift card.

At Blaze the ordering process felt a bit confusing as we were very tired. We ordered 2 pizzas for 2 QS credits, the kids picked out the toppings so we ended up with meat feast pizzas really.

We also let them have the drinks rather than ordering alcohol.

We easily found a table outside and had about a 5 minute wait for the pizzas.

When the first pizza was ready they buzzed and so we started on it while waiting for the 2nd. Photo fail here, totally forgot about it until we'd all had a slice.

The 2nd pizza was yummy too and I managed a photo before everyone dove in.

We couldn't finish it though so took home leftovers that were eaten the day after as a mid afternoon snack.

Then we wandered over to the waterfront and to the Jock Lindsey hangar bar. This was pretty quiet really and we sat out looking over the water at all the lights of Disney springs listening to the music from the stage round the corner.

A couple of photos of the menu for you.

Max had a sprite.

Kate had a coke.

I had the perfectly poolside, Hendricks gin, St Germaine liqueur, lemon juice and tonic...a very posh G&T, it was lovely. Yes the glass is leaning, it’s not my photography skills!

Dave had jocks old fashioned, bourbon, cointreau, bitters and soda water. This was yummy too.

The bill came to $32.20.

We tried to catch the boat back to the resort, but were told the water levels were too high and the boats weren’t sailing. So we ended up back on the bus.

We had a new voice message on our answerphone, this one was from Mickey saying he hoped we’d enjoyed his Philharmagic show earlier in the day. I do love all the messages you get it’s so cute and at the end of the day listening to them while we’re putting on our PJ’s was a real treat.

The kids were in bed by 10.30pm and we quickly followed. We’d done pretty well to last through, well I’d had a bit of a nap in the afternoon but the others hadn’t.

Statistics for the day:

Credits Used
2 snack, 2 QS and 4 TS. So, majorly down on the snacks as we have 8 per day

Credits Remaining
110 snack, 52 QS and 52 TS.

Parks: 1
Rides: 11
FP: 3
Characters: 4
Steps: 30,981 - yes a whopping 30,000 steps.

And that's the end of day 1! What a day The alarm is set for 5.30am tomorrow, that’s earlier than it would be for work! We were hoping to make it to not 1 but 2 EMHs with HS opening at 7am and Epcot opening at 8am.

[DisneyDaffodil]

What a busy first day, great fun though. 30,000 steps helps burn the calories too (that’s my excuse for eating more anyway 😀 )

[Cinderella]

Great day 👍

[Pussycat Doll]

Great day and great looking food!

[Hel22]

Really enjoying reading your report, looking forward to next instalment 😀 You certainly packed a lot in on your first day Fab!

[i love jack]

Great first day, food looks lovely and well timed at lunch to miss the rain!

[Palm trees]

What a fantastic day, you got so many rides covered really early on!

[sha9]

Your itinerary did make me laugh. We met a woman in Be Our Guest when they had the IT issues who was panicking a she had a very specific plan and this delay was messing with it! I’d have thought she was a Dibber but she was American.

[Fuellady]

You were flying through the rides this morning... 6 before breakfast was it? What a great day.

Kate looks so happy meeting the characters at Crystal Palace. Love both of your ears too.

Busy day, no wonder you were shattered by the end of it.

[yellowrose78]

Fab first day, you did loads, love Crystal Palace, looked like you had a great time in there