We arrived at the “Happiest Place on Earth”- Disney’s Magic Kingdom Orlando. There is a special feeling when you are here! Our favorite thrill rides are Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad, but of course we have to go on the classic rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s a Small World, and Haunted Mansion.
It’s a Small World–unfortunately, Orlando does not theme it for Christmas as they do at Disneyland in CA. Disappointed that I didn’t hear Christmas carols in the various languages instead of the Small World theme song.
The thrill rides and classics did not disappoint. We went on them with and without Fast Passes by timing them right. Wait times go way down during the fireworks show, and take a while to increase significantly afterwards. Early morning arrival is also key for low wait times. We got in additional classic Disney rides such as Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride, and even the Carousel without Fast Passes. We even explored a while on Tom Sawyer’s Island.
Walking through Cinderella’s castle to Fantasy Land you see these beautiful mosaics!
The rides that did disappoint were Tomorrowland Speedway, Mad Tea Party (cups and saucers), and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. I thought the speedway ride had been updated, but evidently not. The tea cups have been tightened down so much that I won’t bother going on them anymore. 🙁 This used to be my favorite ride from childhood, and introduced both Abby and Richard to it. We have the best pictures of them laughing on the ride! So sad that people are too stupid to just leave the wheel alone if they can’t handle spinning rides, so Disney had to continue to tighten the wheels more and more. After riding the Toy Story Mania in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger ride was quite disappointing. I couldn’t tell where my laser pointer was to hit targets. The area was open to too many other laser guns. It was more fun to just make our vehicle go in circles.
We thought we would use three of our ten days at the Magic Kingdom. It is fun to walk around here at night and it is the main park. What a perfect way to end our ten days of Disney, right? Well, after one mid-afternoon till 11 PM at the park and another day that was an early morning start day, we didn’t feel the need for a third day. The thrill rides would be the only ones we would do one more time. It wasn’t worth it to us since we had already done them two or three times. Nor did we feel it was worth the number of people at MK and all the strollers, scooters and wheelchairs. Animal Kingdom is our favorite. Plus with all the animals there, every day is different. Animal Kingdom will get an additional day!
Our last ride at Magic Kingdom was the Carousel. I think of Mary Poppins and the Carousel scene that leads into the horse race and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. Besides who doesn’t love to ride a carousel with a good moving horse!?
We caught portions of the parade each day by accident. It wasn’t something that we wanted to “get a spot” early to view. Other attractions are more available during parades, fireworks, etc.
When you drive to the Magic Kingdom you have to take a tram from the parking lot to the monorail OR to the ferry- time and weather permitting. We took the monorail to the park, but when we were leaving the second day in daylight, we took the ferry for a different experience and view.
