First day at our first park! Also known as the day everyone matched but Daniel...
Becca and I planned our park days and fast pass selections a couple months ago and decided the first day should be Magic Kingdom because, you know. And I booked as many character meals as I could since the sit down credits count toward those. I got us in at Chef Mickey's for breakfast!! I managed to get a 7:10 reservation so we could get into the park early.
Chef Mickey's
So here's the story: the night before, I asked the concierge how we would make it to Chef Mickey's in time for our 7:10am reservation. He said there's a breakfast bus that runs and will be here about 6:45. I didn't think that would be enough time, but he assured me it was only a 20 min drive and to let the bus driver know where we were going. So.... the morning of, I told the bus driver exactly that and he looked at me like I was speaking Greek. He told me not to worry, he'd handle it. As we neared Magic Kingdom, the driver got on the speaker and said he would drop us off at the door after dropping everyone else at the park. He was really great about it, super nice. That concierge was way off, though, cause we didn't get there until 7:20 and then had to get into the Contemporary and up to the restaurant. Thank God they still let us come in cause they're not required to hold your spot if you're more than 10 mins late. Whew.
I thought this would be a highlight for Jake, and it was, but the other kids loved it too!! I was most surprised by how excited Will was and I guess not really that surprised at Maggie's excitement, which reached peak when she met Minnie. Allie, as expected, was afraid of the big animals. Except Pluto. She did warm up to him a little. We had such a good time and the food was yummy too. Plus, I'm a girl who loves a good theme and I appreciated all the attention to detail.
The only bad thing about eating here was that it was sensory overload for me a little bit. Some of this was probably amplified by being late, I'm sure, but everything happened so fast. We barely finished our family photo the restaurant takes when our table was ready; when we sat, the characters started visiting almost immediately. In fact, the boys missed Mickey because they were at the buffet getting their food, but he did come back by later. We hit a small break between characters and I went to the buffet for my and the girls' food, then more characters came. I was barely getting bites in between each, but I had to stop b/c we wanted autographs and pictures. After we saw everyone- Goofy, Donald, Minnie, Mickey & Pluto, I ate as fast as I could between, but I wanted to take it all in. Then the payment system was broken, so we had to manually give info. for our meal plan credits. Then after everyone had to potty, we finally left and headed for the monorail. At this point, not only did we miss getting to the park before it opened, but Steve & Becca beat us there! It just took us so long.
Still, starting the day at Chef Mickey's really was an exciting way to start our first park day, our day at Magic Kingdom! And because the monorail goes through Chef Mickey's, we were able to ride it into the park! I loved this mostly because it's the only chance we had to ride the monorail.
Magic Kingdom
We have arrived! First thing we had to do was stop at guest services to get a pass that allowed us to use a stroller in the lines. Each ride has stroller parking, but there was no way we could hold Maggie in every line all day long. And we wanted to bring her walker but there was no good way to carry it around and I didn't want to risk leaving it unattended at any point. Our travel agent told us to get this pass. Fortunately it didn't take too long, but by the time we met up with Steve & Becca, they had already ridden a couple rides with their kids. About that time, we realized our sticker allowing us to use the stroller in line was ripped off. We had to go all the way back to guest services to get another one. Daniel, the girls and I headed that direction while the boys stayed back with the 'G' fam. When we reached the castle, there was a princess show going on, so Daniel told me to wait there while he ran to get the pass.
Kinda rough start to the day, but we were still having fun and excited about being there. Will did not like Space Mountain the first time because it was his first roller coaster and with it being dark, he couldn't see and therefore expect anything. But as the day went on, all he talked about was riding Space Mountain again. So there's that. Maggie enjoyed pretty much everything, as always. Jake walked the whole day without complaint and Allie did really well, even getting in a small nap. We at lunch at the Pinocchio Village Haus, a quick service restaurant with your typical burger, fries, sandwiches, etc.
Sometime after lunch, we went to the race track- the go karts. I didn't really catch the name of the ride 'cause I waited with Maggie & Allie while everyone else rode. We took a nice little break in the semi-shade and even sparked conversation with another mom that came along with her little one. After the was tea cup time and while everyone enjoyed it, Maggie got such a thrill out of this ride!! I loved watching her.
Headed to the Seven Dwarves Mine Train fast pass- all the kids but Allie rode and loved it. As Daniel hopped in the fast pass line to take his turn, Becca and I saw a small line which happened to be for Anastasia and Drizella, so we decided to wait. When our turn came, they signed our books and asked us questions then Jake just starts talking about Star Wars with so much excitement! Anastasia took particular interest in him and his war of the stars and this whole exchange ended with Jake getting engaged, promising Anastasia a castle, a ring and a song plus getting a kiss on the cheek! It was the cutest thing ever. Lots of pictures, but wish I had video. It was adorable. Then Mr. Casanova was walking along a wall next to an ice cream cart and just asked the guy working there for some ice cream. Daniel told him no, not right now. Then the guy just hands Jake an ice cream for free! Quite the afternoon for our little Baker. :)
Then we took our newly engaged 3-year-old along with the rest of our group to see Enchantments with Belle. I really enjoyed this. The line wasn't too long, then you go in a large group to see a little show with Belle and get pictures with her afterwards. Steve got picked again to be a knight! Apparently this happened last time he was at WDW, ha! I wish they did an interactive show like this with all the princesses. Or at least the ones that don't already have a big stage show like Frozen and Ariel.
Maggie had to lean in and hug all the princesses
We passed by Belle's castle after this and I really wanted to go into the Be Our Guest dining hall, but we could not secure reservations. I thought maybe they'd let me in just to take a tour, but nope. On the way, the guys stopped in at Gaston's Tavern and while waiting outside, this couple came up and gave us a this huge cinnamon roll muffin thing! They had an extra and just wanted us to have it. :) I wish I had taken a picture, it was huge.
Aladdin's Magic Carpets, dinner at Cosmic Rays then girls went to meet princesses and guys headed off to ride Dumbo and Barnstormer. A few pics from those adventures:
Aside from those already listed, we rode/saw: Space Mountain, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, Carousel of Progress, Under the Sea- Journey of the Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (I went to the Hall of Presidents during this b/c I wasn't feeling well.), Peter Pan's flight & Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. We missed Splash Mountain b/c someone got sick during our fast pass time and they shut down the ride and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We ran out of time for Philharmagic, it was that or meet princesses at the end of the night.
This really was a great day!! Exhausting and we missed some things, but so much fun. It really could not have gone better. So grateful to do this with my kids!! I'll try not to be so winded with tomorrow's post, but no promises. ;)
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