So, now that we were in Disney, we had to figure out which parks we wanted to see. Since I skeeve at water parks - I call them hepatitis parks - those were a no-go. Also, we had been to the NC Zoo a million times and, for all intents and purposes, Animal Kingdom is like that except Mickey walks around wearing safari clothes. So Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios it was. Again, let me remind you that I research the hell out of everything so I spent my fair share of time consulting various "expert" websites as to which parks on what days. Since I knew we'd be spending Thursday at Magic Kingdom for CSC's birthday, and we wanted to spend at least 2 days there, it was a matter of starting or ending with MK. After going back and forth and checking out the Extra Magic Hours and so forth, we decided to say, "what the hell", and do MK for 2 and a half days.
The day we arrived in Orlando and checked into our resort, we made good, immediate use of the hotel transportation to MK. From Art of Animation, the ride was about 20 minutes, so not too bad. I have to say it's pretty cool to come up to the gate and hear "Welcome to the Magic Kingdom" over the bus loudspeaker. The sign into the park is still the same and it's at that point that your inner child can't help but bust out of you. It really is magical....
Because of the beauty of the Magic Bands (more specific info about those later), they are all you need for your trip to Disney. When you first visit any park, you have to set up your bands by tapping them to the Mickey until he lights up green and then choose a finger to set your print. It's just another added bit of security to make sure no one else but you can use your band to enter any park. It is really cool.
Once in, you need to do the obligatory photos in front of the train station and Cinderella's castle - I highly suggest investing in the Photopass before you go. There are photographers all over all the parks who will take your pictures for you using a professional camera. They will happily paparazzi you and your family wherever - even with your own camera if you prefer - and all you need to do is have them scan your magic band. You can see the photos by logging into your My Disney Experience account.
So, I like to think I had perfect timing, but I have to admit that it was purely coincidental that we happened to walk into the park just in time to get pretty good viewing for the 3:00 parade. It was a great way to get reacquainted with MK and see all the characters. I'm not going to lie - I did fan girl out just a little when I saw the characters in the parade. Even going so far as to wave to them and call their names in the hope that they'll see me and wave. The Magic Kingdom brings that out in you.
I had already set up some Fast Passes for some of the rides in Tomorrow Land, so we headed over there, met Buzz Lightyear, The Indredibles (who by the way were having a dance party!), rode the People Mover, and checked out the Monsters Inc. and Stitch "rides". Monsters Inc - pretty cool - the monsters tell jokes and interact with the audience. Stitch - kinda weird.....Stitch burps in your face and "spits" on you.....it's nasty. With our Fast Passes, we rode Space Mountain, Tomorrow Land Speedway, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Before we left, we took in the view of Cindy's castle all lit up. There was the Electric Light parade coming up, but we decided to do that on a different night - we were all kind of tired from the travel and excitement of day one.
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| Riding the People Mover |
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| Everybody dance now! |
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| CSC wearing her "1st Visit" button and telling us how cool it was that Mr. Incredible kissed her hand while they danced. |
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| I have no idea what the hell I was looking at. |
Coming up next - Our day at Epcot!
