Magic Kingdom… the most magical place on earth… where dreams come true…
The last few mornings have been foggy, like really foggy, where you can hardly see the car in front of you foggy. It starts to clear up around 9.30 am but it makes it hard to have great first impression of the park when you can’t see it! (The bottom image was taken an hour later)
Today was Magic Kingdom Day and it certainly didn’t disappoint! Beautiful princesses, thrilling rides and the most spectacular fireworks display you have ever seen! So, during my research (which took weeks mind you) I had read that the 7 dwarfs mine ride was the hardest one to get onto. And if you didn’t arrive early, it could be up to a 2.5 hr wait! So, of course we arrived at the park at 8 am, hoping to get somewhat up the front of the line. Now, those of you that know me, know I can be slightly competitive… this was my challenge. I’m happy to say that I won and we were 2nd in line and rode the first train of the day. Now, I had also read, that you could scan your park ticket at the end of the ride, and if you had Memory Maker (you purchase this before you arrive and whenever you have a photo taken in the park by one of their photographers, It gets downloaded into the app. You are then able to download the high res images to keep. A great investment considering each photo to purchase is a min of $15) would receive the coolest video of the ride. I couldn’t find where to do this when we got off so asked one of the staff. She said that that was not true and that I needed a magic band. What the?? After explaining that we had just waited over an hour to ride for that video she said that if i went and purchased one, she would give us a fast pass to hop straight back on. (I forgot to explain this yesterday to those of you that have not visited Disney before. Every day, you are allowed 3 fast passes. This is something you book in advance, and allows you to skip the line for that particular ride, at the time you have chosen) Yay! Pixie dust! (another Disneyism. translation – when a cast member does something nice its called pixie dust). Of course I rushed to the nearest store, purchased my magic band and off we went! See the cool video below.
Luckily the park was still fairly uncrowded so we were able to get onto the next few rides without more than a 5 min wait, Barnstormer x 2, Ariel’s grotto and the tea cups all done by 9.45 am. Somewhere however between the Test Track and Haunted Mansion, Ayrlie realized she had lost another tooth. That’s 3 in two weeks. We couldn’t find it and decided that we would write a letter to the Tooth Fairy when we go home explaining what had happened. I’m sure she will understand. I had heard that Tales with Bell was a really lovely play so we headed there next. We were sprinkled with more pixie dust when both kids got picked to act out characters. Apparently it’s a reenactment of the Beauty and the Beast with the kids playing vital roles. Benjamin was picked to play Philippe the horse and Ayrlie was the Beast. They did such a great job and at the end, only those who acted in the play, were able to get a photo with Belle….. and after a little begging so was I. (she is my favorite princess and I know the move off by heart).
Magic shots… If you have memory maker, another one of the cool features is Magic Shots. This is where they can add a character to your pic and as you can see, its heaps of fun.
After a lot more rides, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean it was time for Mickey’s Very Magical Christmas Party. It goes from 7 pm – 12 am but we’ll see how long we can last. But at least we get hot chocolate, cookies, parades and fireworks! There are more images to come on the Christmas Party but with the computer I’m using at the moment, it takes me a good 4 hours to edit the images just for these blog posts. So stay tuned for some more visual beauty when I get home.
The fireworks and light show on the castle were second to none, truly breathtaking. The kids lasted till 11.30 pm. I think it was the dance party that took it’s final toll… surely not the 15.5 hours or the 17 km we have walked today!
