My husband and I doesn't usually spend an entire day at the theme parks. We often go for a few hours, or half a day, taking our time at a relaxed pace. There's no reason to rush around all over the park when you have an annual pass and live close enough to come back every weekend if you wanted to. But this weekend we had a friend visiting from out of town, and this friend had NEVER been to Orlando, NEVER been to Disney, and was SUPER excited about visiting Magic Kingdom. So, we packed a backpack like the tourists do and planned for a whole day at the park.
We stopped for breakfast, which means we didn't get to Disney until about 11am. We decided to park at Epcot and take the monorail to Magic Kingdom so our friend could at least sneak a peek at another park. She bought her ticket, proudly put on her "1st Visit" button, and we boarded the
Tronorail to Magic Kingdom.
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| Duffy(s) on the monorail |
At the Transportation and Ticketing Center, there were huge lines for both the ferry and the express monorail to Magic Kingdom. So we decided to skip the lines and hop on the resort monorail instead. The resort monorail stops at the
Polynesian and
Grand Floridian before stopping at Magic Kingdom. We had just left the Grand Floridian station when our monorail came to a stop on the track. The driver said we had to wait for the monorail ahead of us to leave the station. No problem, this happens all the time. I was entertained by two kids who had chosen to seat their
Duffy dolls next to me and were busy trading pins with each other and other passengers. A few minutes later, another announcement came on. This time, the driver said that the monorail ahead of us was having some trouble and needed to be towed out of the station....and that we could be stuck here for an hour. We couldn't reverse back to the Grand Floridian station because there was already another monorail behind us. We were TRAPPED!
When we finally pulled in to the Magic Kingdom monorail station, about 40 minutes later, I headed straight to guest relations. I knew Disney would compensate us somehow for our wasted time stuck on the monorail. And I was right. We were given a
fastpass that could be used on any 1 attraction we wanted. Not too bad, I guess, considering most of the wait times were well over 40 minutes anyway. We entered the park and decided to head over to Adventureland first.
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| Dole Whip swirl! |
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| Dole Whip menu |
While my group explored the Swiss Family Treehouse, I sat near the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and savored my very first Dole Whip. Pineapple and orange soft serve swirled together for a deliciously sweet treat! After grabbing some fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise, we walked past Capt Jack Sparrow as he entertained a small crowd, and we hopped a boat on Pirates of the Caribbean. We then strolled over to Big Thunder Mountain for more fastpasses, stood in line so our first-timer could buy a turkey leg, then ate a big lunch at Pecos Bills Cafe in Frontierland. I really love their barbecue pork sandwich with French fries, and my husband always gets a cheeseburger that he piles high with mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes from the toppings bar.
After lunch, we went back to Jungle Cruise to redeem our fastpasses, then took a ride on the Haunted Mansion (which doesn't offer fastpasses). We walked back towards the Castle and cut into Fantasyland. We picked up fastpasses for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, then watched Mickey's PhilharMagic. While we explored Mickey and Minnie's houses at Mickey's Toontown Fair, my husband ran back and grabbed fastpasses for Peter Pan's Flight. We decided to use our fastpass from guest relations to meet Mickey Mouse. There aren't usually fastpasses for character meet-and-greets, but our special ticket from being trapped on the monorail gave us VIP access to the front of the 35-minute line. Yeah! After taking photos with Mickey, we hopped on the Walt Disney World Railroad back to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain. The wait time was 40 minutes, but our fastpasses had us riding in less than 10.
We walked back through Fantasyland and into Tomorrowland, where we picked up fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and hopped a ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover. Soon it was time for the Main Street Electrical Parade, so we headed over to Cinderella's Castle to grab a good spot. Even though we arrived at the parade route 40 minutes early, there were still a TON of people already there staking out their spots on the pavement. We squeezed into the crowd and waited. The parade was great, as always, and we decided to stay where we were and wait for the fireworks show. I ran over to Casey's Corner on Main Street U.S.A. to buy some sodas and corn dog nuggets for my group. The fireworks were amazing, of course, and I even got a little teary-eyed when Tinkerbell flew down from the top of the castle. Disney magic, gets me every time!
After the parade and fireworks, we went back to Fantasyland to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, and It's a Small World. Then back to Tomorrowland for Buzz's Space Ranger Spin. Perhaps you notice that there were a few big rides that we missed. We didn't go on Splash Mountain (it was closed), Snow Whites Scary Adventures (line was too long), the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (our guests didn't speak much English), or Space Mountain (they also don't like roller coasters). But we did a lot, and our first-timer had a great time. We left the park completely exhausted
and satisfied. It had definitely been a busy day, and a lot of fun, but I don't expect we'll be spending an entire day at one of the parks again soon!
@FunLifeOrlando insider tip: Fastpasses have specific time frames in which you can return to ride. However, you don't have to necessarily stick to what it says. For example, if the fastpass tells you to return between 3:30 and 4:30 pm, you can actually redeem it anytime you want after 3:30 (even 9pm!). So don't feel obligated to rush around trying to make it during the exact time-frame. You can't redeem the fastpass early, but you can redeem it late!
