#USAnumber3- Helen&Andy Nov 18 - Day 9: Magic Kingdom and Fantasmic

[HelenJNT]

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Day 9 - Magic Kingdom and Fantasmic

Day nine already? How did that happen? This trip was really flying by, and it was dawning on us (well, me, really) that we hadn’t actually seen any of the evening shows or fireworks yet and if we wanted to do so, we were going to have to step on it. Andy was less bothered than me, as we have seen them all before many times, but we were into the second week now, the jetlag was passed, and really we had to have some kind of attempt at staying up past 10pm!

First things first though – we were off to the Magic Kingdom today. We had to make the most out of the day as there was a party there that evening, so we knew we were going to get booted out at about 16:00. It’s quite hard having a trip at peak “holiday” time with Magic Kingdom closing early seemingly every other day, as it really hampers your ability to plan or just hop about depending on what you feel like doing. For example, leading up to this trip, we thought we had made peace with the fact that our last night of this holiday was going to be in Epcot and not Magic Kingdom, for the first time ever, as we had done Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party last year and whilst we had fun, it felt like an expensive thing to repeat so soon.

As we were getting ready to leave the room, Andy wanted to pay off some more of the room bill. It wasn’t much actually, probably only the tip from Le Cellier and a few bits here and there. We realised that due to the fact that we hadn’t spent that much thus far in the trip, we were, well, in the black. He said that actually he felt a bit Epcotted out and that if we wanted to, we had enough money to do the Christmas party on our last night?

It seemed to make sense, as Magic Kingdom had been so busy on the times we had visited thus far on the trip, plus our Seven Dwarfs fast pass had been rained off, so we agreed that this would be a sensible splurge (ha) and added $250 in cash to my bag. That’s a lot of money when you think about it, but just a drop in the ocean when it comes to looking at things through a Disney lens. Luckily, our next trip (ooh, spoiler) isn’t during party season so we won’t have all this to contend with.

By 08:30 we were on a bus to Magic Kingdom, standing room only as usual…

Look at those blue skies! It was going to be another beautiful day.

Busy already though…

Our first stop was the big Christmas tree in Main Street. You don’t stand a chance of having a photopass taken here during the day or evening as it is always mobbed, so we got in the queue.

It was only short, one group ahead of us. It was already blisteringly hot, and we were getting quite uncomfortable waiting, as the group having their photos done were taking their sweet time to get every possible configuration they wanted.

Then, when it was the next family’s turn, the photographer apologised and said she was going on a break. Ehh, what? It was only 09:05 and the park had opened at 09:00! Oh.

We waited around for 10 mins or so but there was no sign of the photographer, so we agreed to take matters into our own hands and we took it in turns with the ladies ahead of us to take photos with each other’s phones. To be honest, I think they did just as good a job as the photo pass photographer would have done so we were happy enough.

Next up, into City Hall to buy our tickets for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Never been in here before! We rapidly parted with our hard-earned cash and had the tickets added to our magic bands. Simple.

Main Street was heaving, and it was hot, so we took advantage of the air con and walked up through the Emporium instead, marvelling at some of the festive gear in the shops…

We had a reservation for breakfast at Be Our Guest at 09:30 so we weren’t in a mad rush to ride anything, and instead, headed to the grass to the right of the hub where we could see a photopass photographer with barely any queue. Good tip that, as the ones on Main Street are always really busy.

There were a couple in matching t-shirts ahead of us and when it was their turn, the man whispered something to the photographer under the guise of stashing his bag out of shot. She nodded, and he passed me his mobile phone which was primed and set to record. Andy was like “what the heck is going on here” but I knew immediately, and got ready.

And….

It was a really beautiful proposal (she said yes) and I hope I did it justice on the video. Not going to lie, it made me unexpectedly emotional and I was glad I was wearing sunglasses as my eyes got a bit leaky. Just one of those really magical early morning Disney moments. It was nice as there was no-one else around apart from us and the photographer so it wasn’t like one of those massively public ones where everyone cheers. I was also glad I was wearing sunglasses as the girl’s newly acquired rock was blinding. Not envious at all, no…….

Our photo was nowhere near as exciting, but hey, we got to pose with a frame.

I pulled myself together and we headed on over to Be Our Guest for breakfast. Now I know I said in the last trip report that I was done with Be Our Guest, that the quality was poor and it was just a stressful experience but the breakfast options in Magic Kingdom are so few and far between (Be Our Guest is usually less of a scrum than the Main Street Starbucks) that we didn’t really have a lot of choice. Plus Andy loves that cronut so much that he feels it is an adequate trade-off for my inevitable rage.

I had the Feast a la Gaston and it was perfectly OK. Apparently when I did the pre-order for this meal (even though it is quick service, you can pre-order meals at Be Our Guest 30 days in advance) I had known that future me would have been grateful for some booze to ease the experience, so I it was a nice surprise when I remembered that I ordered us a couple of bellinis as well. Yum.

This worked out well on the new dining plan - where you can have an alcoholic drink included in the package -– as I know from experience that hot beverages and juice are all self-serve from a counter so this was a no-brainer as we managed to get three drinks for the price of one. Don’t judge me, you all do it.

Next up was It’s A Small World, for (I think) the first time on this trip. The wait time was signposted as 20 minutes, but it actually ended up taking 30, which felt like a really long time. As you can see, it was busy.

And hot.

We were lucky enough to share our boat with some of the loudest and most racist Americans we’ve ever encountered. They treated us to a full directors cut audio commentary of the ride and I ended up taking some video of it as I couldn’t believe some of the stuff they were coming out with. I posted this on my Instagram stories at the time but won’t put it here – family forum and all that.

Ugghh the creepy clowns…

Next up was our first fast pass of the day, and it was a good one – Splash Mountain.

This is probably the ride I still get most nervous about in Disney and I don’t know why as I have ridden it a ton of times but that doesn’t make the drop look any less scary – even though I know it’s actually shorter than the Jurassic Park ride in Universal.

Loved the fact that they were handing out these bags to pop your phone into. Super idea and saved me scrambling around to wrap them up in my handbag at the last minute.

Yeah, we got wet.

I love this photo, only because you can see Andy’s little drenched face in the reflection of my glasses.

Hehe. I always make him sit on the right in the log which he hasn’t sussed yet, but it is because I know he’s therefore going to take the brunt of the waterfall and splashes that come down when they’re queuing you up for the final part of the ride. *taps nose*

I’d managed to get us back to back fast passes for Splash and Big Thunder, so after a quick restroom stop, we were straight in to the wildest ride in the wilderness.

Also, the sweatiest ride in the wilderness. The queue for Big Thunder is a bit punishing as a lot of it is exposed and then even when you get inside, there’s no air con.

I saw this dude when we were in the queue…

Seeing as we were in Frontierland and didn’t have another fast pass for an hour, we grabbed a couple of drinks and had a photo pass pic done.

…and I dragged Andy into the Country Bear Jamboree. He loves it really. Well, he loves the opportunity for a mini nap anyway.

Look how busy it was. Packed out. Never seen it that busy before.

On a roll, I decided the next thing had to be the Tiki Birds, so we cut through into Adventureland and managed to walk straight into a showing.

I know it’s completely bonkers but is an absolute must-do for us. In fact, I am wearing my Enchanted Tiki Room t-shirt today as I write this.

We wandered out from Adventureland into the hub and were immediately confronted with all kinds of commotion. We’d seen a sign on the way in saying that filming was taking place that day, but we hadn’t really paid it much heed. However, this was a full-on production; turned out the Disney Christmas Special was being filmed today.

There were tons of people gathered around trying to get in the background of the crowd shots, and a little stage with really hot and bright lights. I have no idea what channel this was shown on (probably a Disney one... McFly...) but there is every likelihood that Andy and I will be featured walking past gawping, gurning and taking photos. Fame.

I thought I recognised the female presenter straight away but wasn’t 100% sure as she had her hair tied back, but Instagram later confirmed for me that it was as we thought – Sarah Hyland, who plays Haley Dunphy in Modern Family. She was just as tiny and beautiful as you’d expect. Poor thing looked so hot and bothered though, and had a make-up artist on hand constantly dabbing at her with powder. Clever Instagram followers also told me who the guy was, and I had never heard of him, sorry! Jordan Fisher, anyone? (I’ve just Googled him, and he has achieved rather a lot for someone who was born in the year I started my GCSEs…)

We watched for a little bit but decided it was too hot to be hanging about, plus we definitely weren’t the requisite “perky millennial” demographic who had clearly been hand-picked to feature in the crowd scenes, so we shuffled off towards Tomorrowland for our Space Mountain fast pass, stopping for some photo passes on the way.

Re: Space Mountain, I keep thinking that when the opportunity arises, I should go in the front of this ride, but I always bottle it when it comes to it, and make Andy go first!

There’s something about Space Mountain that makes me feel a bit icky these days. Not just the motion of the ride, more the fact that we rode it in the light last year and I saw first hand all the dust and how minging it was. Feeling flung around and fearing for my teeth is bad enough but now I have first hand evidence that I’m also consuming the entire contents of a hoover bag whilst doing so? Eurgh. And, you’re welcome.

Peoplemover next. I don’t have many photos of this as I decided to take some video instead, purely to post it on my Instagram stories, to make the folks back home envious (it worked). Wish we were there now…

Continued below...

[HelenJNT]

We were pretty happy, we'd got loads done this morning, and even managed all three Mountains!

It was 14:15 now and time for a Magic Kingdom first for us – we were going to have lunch at the Jungle Navigation Co Skipper Canteen. I’d read a lot of positive reviews of this over the past couple of years and we were excited to finally be eating there!

We checked in at the podium and were asked to sit in their little atrium waiting area til our table was ready. It was hot in there.

Bang on time though, our buzzer went off at 14:30 and we were led to our table. Considering it was late in the lunch window, the place was really busy with barely a spare table. I guess they still get a lot of walk-ups. At first glance, the place reminded me significantly of Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom – same sort of atmosphere, decor and detailing (although not Asian, clearly).

Loved the Jungle Cruise details on the menu!

Clearly, I should have been #makingmemories all about our romantic theme park restaurant lunch (cough) but in fact, one of the stand-outs from this meal was how fit our server was. No, I can’t remember his name, and I wasn’t able to sneak a photo (although I did consider it, purely for trip report purposes) but, well, he was lovely <insert inappropriate joke about having a fumble in the jungle>. Sorry.

Drinks arrived – this was mine, and I think Andy had something similar. The beer selection here was really good actually. We were also informed that if we wanted, we could have a starter and a main rather than the usual enforced dining plan restriction of a main and a dessert. What a game changer. However, ironically, this was the only restaurant we’d eaten in where I had a clear idea of what dessert I wanted going in, so it left me in a bit of a quandary. I suggested to Andy that one of us should order a starter and a main, and the other a main and a dessert and we would share the starter and dessert. Genius.

Well, it was, until we both realised the starter we really fancied was a bowl of the soup of the day - cream of pumpkin. Ha. Yeah, soup – on a 31c day – with two spoons please! What a pair of loons. However, the soup was really, really good. I think FW (fit waiter) said it was the same one as they sometimes serve in Narcoossees or Citricos or somewhere like that, and it was definitely Signature standard. Yum.

For mains, there was a lot of pork and scary sounding seafood on the menu so that counted a lot of it out for Andy and he ended up going for a chicken and tofu noodle dish, which he liked. I actually really wanted the seared beef salad – it appealed most to me from the menu, and I had seen a couple being taken out to other tables and it looked lush – but I had heard such rave reviews of the chicken dish that I felt compelled to give it a try and see what all the fuss was about.

It was just OK. I’m not the biggest fan of chicken on the bone, and there was a lot of bone <insert fit waiter joke here>. It was kind of like a chicken kiev that had been cooked for too long, so all the moisture had oozed out. And I really didn’t like the sauce – it said on the menu it was chilli sauce, but it was more like a super sweet hoi sin sauce. It was so sweet it made my teeth itch, and I struggled to get through it. So, on balance, no, I wouldn’t order this again – lesson learned to not be a sheep and stick to your gut instinct.

Dessert was the fabled Kungaloosh (two spoons, please). I’m too young (at last! ) to remember the Adventurers’ Club which is referred to in hallowed whispers on so many Disney forums, but I was excited to try the dessert nod to the famous drink. Described as “an African inspired chocolate cake with caramelized bananas, cashew-caramel ice cream and coffee dust”, it was really nice. I let Andy take most of the cake - I’ve already voiced my opinion on cake – and I snaffled the bananas and most of the ice cream. It was delicious!

All in all, this was a pretty good meal and we’ll be back – for both the food and the rather attractive staff. I know opinion is divided over booze in the Magic Kingdom, but I am sure Walt had bigger fish to fry than worry about me enjoying a bellini with breakfast and a really nice beer with my lunch. I’d recommend this for anyone looking for a bit of a break out of the park without actually having to leave it and go to a resort. The menu might be a little adventurous for kids, but it definitely hit the spot and I am looking forward to trying the steak salad or the maybe even the pork <insert joke about the fit waiter> next time.

I took a few pics, including this wonderful one of Andy who was waiting for me to come out of the loo.

Have I mentioned “texting chairs” on here before? Those benches and sofas you see in shopping centres, always littered with men staring at their phones, texting their mates, refreshing the football scores on their phones whilst waiting, Miss Havisham-like, for their womenfolk to finally emerge from Zara on a Saturday afternoon. Andy is no stranger to a texting chair.

During the meal, we’d been monitoring the ride wait times and they weren’t looking good. We managed to snag a fast pass for the Magic Carpets, so headed on over there.

I know it’s a kid’s ride, but we really like it! The views from Dumbo are better, but I like the added jeopardy this one has with the camel which spits water at you.

Clearly, I was melting when I took this photo, not to mention how awfully dry my hair looks. That sun is brutal!

It was 15:54 (thanks, photos) at this point and we knew the park was opening up for that evening’s MVMCP so decided it was time to make our way out of the Magic Kingdom before we were unceremoniously removed.

We walked what always feels like a marathon to the bus stops. It’s not that far is it? But I do remember when we were staying at the Caribbean Beach and that was the furthest away stop at the Magic Kingdom and feeling like the bus stop was a speck on the horizon which just kept getting further away….anyway, as luck would have it, a bus for the Swan & Dolphin was just pulling in, so we decided to get onto that rather than hang about and wait for a Yacht & Beach one.

It was nice to walk through the Swan again, the air con there smells insanely good and instantly takes us back to our honeymoon. I still have a little bottle of the shampoo that was in the room there which I sometimes take out for a little sniff if I am feeling nostalgic. Sad and weird, I know.

I took this photo because it was a bit of a joke on our honeymoon that this damn place was NEVER open in the mornings when we wanted to grab a coffee on our way to the parks. Well, it was today. At 4.30pm. Right. We didn’t stop and buy anything out of principle – those decade-long grudges go deep.

We’d been debating on which evening show to go to this evening, and finally decided that our plan for the evening was to go over to Hollywood Studios and finally tick off one of the evening shows – Fantasmic. We toyed with the idea of getting the boat from the Swan, but you, dear readers, were at the forefront of my mind, and there was something we needed to do.

For some reason, one of the things I still get asked/reminded about (apart from *that* Star Wars photo, or the unfortunate boobs/Primeval Whirl incident) is this photo, from 2016.

New readers will not be familiar with this but let’s just say people found the fact that we did some DIY photoshop (as there was no-one around to take the photo) and my, erm, leaning stance to be hilarious. Strange people. Us, I mean.

So, there was only one thing for it, and it was to try and recreate that photo. It took a LONG time trying to work out where to stand in order for it to have the continuity it needed, and once again, we failed. But we had fun doing it. I present to you, the class of 2018:

We were lucky to get this shot actually, as pretty much the moment we had taken it, darkness fell. Sunsets happen so quickly in Florida, literally blink and you miss it. In the ten mins it took us to walk from the Swan to the Yacht & Beach boat dock, the sky was pitch black.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t score a fast pass for Fantasmic, and this was to be the first time ever that we had just done it as standby – we usually do the meal deal thing – but it hadn’t really worked with our plans this year to be a little more relaxed and try and take the days as they came, which would make you laugh if you saw my spreadsheet. Not as intense as some I see posted on here but still a forensic level of planning.

Hollywood Studios was even more mobbed than Magic Kingdom had been. We walked up through the shops on the right hand side as you come in, not really shopping for anything but just taking a look. How cute are these highlighter pens?

Same as last year when we were here during the holiday season, Hollywood Studios really go to town on the festive fun. It’s funny seeing the scary old Tower of Terror façade all done up like a Christmas present.

Less funny looking at these crowds. Yuckkkkkkk. Thanks again, MVMCP.

We made our way through eventually, and up to the Hollywood Amphitheater for Fantasmic. It was 20:30, so the show wasn’t due to start for 30 minutes but it was already filling up. Bearing in mind I am now writing this report from photos alone, I had a bit of a double take when the next photo in the album for today was this one:

I promise I’m not a creepy stalker. Once I knew I was going to abandon note-taking, on about day three, I was taking random photos as prompts and also time guides of where we were when, not really intending to use them in the trip report. My memory is pretty good, but admittedly, I didn’t think it was quite going to take me (…checks…) 37 weeks to write the lion share of this report. Hopefully I’m doing it justice anyway.

And, yes, in case anyone wondered, there are restrooms at Fantasmic. I know this not only as I have photographic evidence, but also because I was sat on the wall there for quite some time as Andy went about his…pre-Fantasmic ablutions. I’d been waiting so long that I’d actually convinced myself that I’d missed him coming out and was panicking about where he was. Yeah.

Eventually Andy turned up, and we were squished into a row with about a million other sweaty people who looked about as pleased to see us as we were to see them. We don’t consider ourselves to be party poopers – all the time – but there was no way we could be faffed with joining in a Mexican wave. Soz.

Anyway. Have some Fantasmic photos….

Even though we were bang centre, we were pretty near the front, which we knew was going to cause aggravation when it came to getting out. The boats back to the Boardwalk area stop at about 10pm I think, so unlike the buses, they really will desert you and leave you to walk. I know it isn’t far, but it’s something to bear in mind if you intend to get a boat at park closing – our advice is not to bother.

It took us over 45 minutes to get back down to the main hub of the park and then we inched along, literally inch by inch out towards the temporary bus stop area. The crowds were worse than times when I have left a concert at Wembley and tried to get on the tube. We were packed in like sardines and could go nowhere, We were basically restricted to going as “fast” as the slowest toddler at the head of the pack. It was hot, horrendous, and definitely the lowest point of the trip. Not a pleasant experience for anyone, so I can only imagine how awful it was for people who are scared in crowds. I’ve seen way more space and patience at Paddington even when all the trains have been cancelled in rush hour.

The problem was that the walkway to the buses is penned in both sides by construction hoardings, and so there was nowhere to go. And the temporary bus stops were jammed in together, so it was really hard for people to tell which stop was which, and where to join a queue. I’ve never ever been so grateful about the fact we were able to walk somewhere. The queues for the Port Orleans Riverside and Pop Century buses were hundreds of people deep. I heard some horror stories from people on Instagram who said it took them about three hours to get home that night, which, with tired little kids, can’t have been any fun at all. It was a far cry from previous trips where we just stepped out of the park and the bus stops were right there.

Finally, we made it past the bus stops and to the relative quiet of the path back to the Boardwalk. We were exhausted – we’d been on the go more or less solidly since 08:00 and it was now knocking on midnight. I was beginning to wish I’d had a nap in the Country Bear Jamboree too. There aren’t any photos of this trek as I was too tired, it was too busy, and I simply couldn’t be bothered. I’ve just realised we didn’t have any dinner on this day either – those meal credits were really racking up…and I do apologise to those of you who are probably clutching your heads in frustration with us.

So, there we go – bit of an epic day this one – it’s taken me forever to write it up so thanks for sticking with me if you’ve made it to the end. On the whole, we had a great day – Magic Kingdom was brilliant fun - but as you’re probably realising, Hollywood Studios during a refurb, was not the one on this trip. Hilariously though, we’re back there tomorrow morning, so I do hope you join us, as it can now be found here

[minnie52]

Thank you for coming back to this! Love reading your trip reports!

We were also there this day and saw this filming- I however had no clue who they were or what it was - mystery solved!

[jemima2]

Adore your trip reports, thanks x

[eleele]

A great write up, thank you, they do take ages don’t they and this day was epic.

Loved the fit waiter jokes and the Swan & Dolphin photo

You do pack a lot in to each day, I’d have given up well before you two did!

Really enjoying the read, keep ‘em coming!

[Floridafour]

Just read through days 8 & 9, so glad you are back 🙂
You have a fab memory, the ‘texting chair’ haha, my hubby knows that chair well. Thanks for posting 🙂

[Redrach1903]

Ah I remember the proposal! Such a lovely moment to be involved in!

You got lots done in MK, despite the crowds!

Sorry your main wasn’t that great at JSC. The pud looked delicious though! Totally loling at your fit waiter quips! Hahahahaha! Does A read these?

Yet again the boardwalk photos have me pining massively

Ugh those crowds getting out of DHS sounds awful. Such a boost being able to walk!

Another brilliant day all round! Xxx

[Goldia]

BOG breakfast has gone up in my opinion too now that they serve a Mimosa. Thoroughly enjoyed that on our first MK day. County bears and Tiki Room on the same day...It must have been busy in MK. Shame about all the construction and the long walk out of HS, you had a pretty good view of fantasmic though.

[Silvercat]

I LOVE your trip reports, they are so funny and entertaining! If ever we are in a Disney park anywhere in the world at the same time, I am finding you and giving you a big hug, whether you like it or not! (Not in a stalkery or assassiny kind of way, I hasten to add!)

[HelenJNT]

Originally Posted by minnie52

Thank you for coming back to this! Love reading your trip reports!

We were also there this day and saw this filming- I however had no clue who they were or what it was - mystery solved!

See more...

Thank you! It's actually all written now, I just need to get it posted.

Ahhh, yes, there you go! Pleased to have been of assistance!