This is part two of our three part series on our Disney-centric vacation. Previously, I took you on a tour of the Art of Animation Resort. Today, I’ll be walking you through our day at the most magical place on Earth, the Magic Kingdom. I visited the park on Thursday, March 10th with my wife and two-and-a-half year old son (his second visit to the Magic Kingdom – I know, he’s spoiled).
When we visited the Magic Kingdom last April, the central hub area was stilled walled off and on-going renovation and expansion. I was excited at the prospect of no walls and seeing the completed work. As we strolled down main street I was delighted to see the construction walls had been removed and the new castle towers, but to my dismay a very large crane was positioned immediately behind the castle. Oh, well, what can you do?
About four weeks in advance I was surprisingly able to make a relatively easy reservation for 8:30am at Be Our Guest before the park opened at 9am. This is one of my favorite tips – book a breakfast reservation before the park opens and get inside before anyone else. That way, when the rides open you’ll already be inside the park and can knock a few out before lines build up.
After eating breakfast at Be Our Guest, our first ride of the day was Peter Pan at around 9am. I didn’t want to waste a Fastpass on it and I also wanted to see the new queue enhancements (which you don’t see when using FP+).
- Advertised wait: 5min
- Actual wait: 10+ min
Second ride of the day was Little Mermaid, which we walked right on with no wait.
Our first Fastpass use of the day was for Jungle Cruise at 9:50am, which was under refurbishment when we visited last year and I couldn’t remember the last time I had been on it. I loved all the corny jokes and my son liked pointing out all the animals.
Fastpass #1 – walked right on.
After disembarking the ship, we headed for the Swiss Family Treehouse and walked straight through the attraction.
The first “new to me” ride of the day was the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. I have to say, this was the most surprising ride of the day as you can really get your carpet bouncing, not to mention the camel that “spits” at you adding another fun element to the ride.
Wait time: 10 min
Next, we walked over to the area besides Splash Mountain and just behind the Frontierland Train Station so my son could meet some of his heroes: Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. Apparently, Henry does not get enough hugs at home because when he finally met Jessie he latched on to her and would not let go for a solid two minutes.
Wait time = 20 minutes.
We took a lunch break at Pecos Bills. One order of fajitas was enough to split between the three of us and allowed us to save one of our quick service dining plan meals for later.
It was quickly approaching nap time, so instead of leaving the park like we did last year, we opted to take a raft over to Tom Sawyer island wait. We explore the island for a little while and I took some pictures of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Wait = 5min
Here’s a tip for those of you visiting the Magic Kingdom with toddlers that want to find a quiet place for them to nap. There is a restaurant on Tom Sawyer Island (across the water from the Liberty Belle dock) that is only used during the busiest times of the year. There are rocking chairs, shade, and a nice breeze. It was the perfect place to relax for an hour. While sitting there I used the My Disney Experience app to reschedule our Pirates of the Caribbean FP+ to later in the day. After Henry woke up from his nap, we took the rafts back to mainland.
Follow our path for the first half of the day in the diagram below (red, blue, black, repeat).
We walked over to the Frontierland Train Station and hitched a ride around the park all the way over to the Main Street train station.
Wait time = 5 min
We used our second Fastpass of the day to meet Mickey Mouse in the Town Hall Theater. Henry loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at home so when Mickey asked him to do the hot dog dance they do during every show I thought that was pretty awesome (dad moment). I also like trying to figure out how the magic is created. Mickey now talks and moves his mouth. I believe the cast member in costume doesn’t operate anything inside the head, I am guessing there is a two-way mirror and an operator sits behind the glass pressing buttons to operate Mickey’s functions, as all of Mickey’s reactions seemed to be slightly delayed.
- Approximate time = 2:00pm
- Posted wait time = 25 minutes
- Actual wait after using Fastpass = 10 minutes
After meeting Mickey, we got back on the train and returned to Frontierland station.
Next, we used our third and final Fastpass that we had reserved days in advance on Pirates of the Caribbean at around 3:10pm. I was a bit nervous that this one might be too scary for our two year old. I had showed him the video of the ride on YouTube. He did great, if he was scared he didn’t show it.
- Posted wait time = 25 minutes
- Actual wait with FP+ 5-10min
By this point, I couldn’t hold back any longer. I needed something I had been craving for over a year. I needed a dole whip!
Wait = 10min.
After finishing that delectable treat, I stood in the FP+ kiosk line to get another FP+. Probably the most frustrating wait of the day, watching people scroll through all the selections and just being made at the fact that I still I can’t use my phone to select a new FP.
Wait = 15 minutes.
I reserved us a FP+ for Enchanted Tales with Belle but we had a little downtime so we stopped and rode It’s a Small World (5 min wait) and the Carousel (5 min wait).
Around 5:10pm we used our fourth Fastpass selection at Enchanted Tale. We walked right in but it looked like we could have done the same without FP+. Perhaps this was a wasted Fastpass selection?
After watching Henry play the salt shaker in the retelling of Belle’s story (the most elaborate meet and greet/pay to get your picture taken ever) we strolled over to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe.
Feeling refreshed, we wandered over to the Buzz Lightyear meet and greet so Henry could meet his other hero. He doesn’t show much interest in TV but Henry could easily sit through an entire Toy Story movie if we let him.
Wait time = 15min
I was disappointed going into the day knowing that Buzz Lightyear ride was down for the week for refurbishment. But as we walked by I noticed that the ride was running and open despite everything including the Disney app saying it was closed. No FP available for it though so we waited in the standby line for roughly 10-15min. The big Buzz figure in the queue was covered up and we had a brief stop at the end of ride that you can see below:
I always love to take a spin on the classic People Mover but we noticed the vehicles were stopped and before too long they were evacuating riders. No People Mover for us on this trip.
Next, I scheduled our fifth and final FP, this time for Haunted Mansion. Miraculously, there wasn’t a wait at this kiosk.
Around 7:20pm we made it across the park to the Haunted Mansion. I was also nervous about taking a toddler on this ride but I think he is too young to truly understand what is going on, not to mention he was pretty tired by this point in the day.
At this point we briefly split up. My wife and son rode the Liberty Belle (and he fell asleep while on it). I had a choice: Splash Mountain or Thunder Mountain. I wanted to do both but knew I might only get to do one before my duties as a father and husband forced me to leave the park. I opted for one of the best designed rides ever: Splash Mountain. 25min wait.
Splash Mountain ended up being my last ride of the day. We soon after left park. The wait for the bus felt like the longest wait of the day, maybe was around 20 minutes.
Whew! What a day!
The best kind of tired.
I also wanted to mention I fooled around with the Touring Plans app during the day. It was pretty cool, especially how they give you advice about whether to get in line now or wait until later. Touring Plans is pretty impressive, but they don’t know everything, like the fact that Space Ranger Spin opened. They were also predicting a crowd level of 7 out of 10. I’d say it was probably a little less crowded than expected.
Overall, I’d say it was a very successful day at the Magic Kingdom. We were inside the park from around 8am to 8pm which is a lot longer than last April when Henry was only 1.5 years old.
The day in general was much more fun than when we went one year ago as this time he knew who most of the characters were. I will admit though, walking around the park all day is tiring by itself, but with a two year old it is utterly exhausting. My advice is to plan a nice relaxing day following your visit to recover and recuperate. You don’t want to over do it.
Stay tuned for my trip report on our three night cruise aboard the Disney Dream.
P.S. Sorry for the length of this trip report. I’ve been going to fewer parks lately and therefore doing fewer trip reports, so I decided I might as well make this one epic. Plus, if you were asking yourself if you should take your two year old to Disney, I hope this helps you answer that question.
It’s a shame the People Mover was down, it’s a fantastic experience for everyone, regardless of age. I hope they never remove it.
Overall, in my opinion, the Magic Kingdom has never looked better than it does right now.