Carnival Sunshine Trip Journal: Part 2 – Disney’s Magic Kingdomfeatured
I’m convinced nothing good ever happens before 7:00 am.
On my normal, non-traveling schedule, I don’t even wake up for work before 8:00 am. So when Stephanie found some last minute breakfast reservations for the Be Our Guest restaurant at 7:40 am and jumped on them, I wasn’t entirely excited. Wasn’t this supposed to be a vacation? Are you supposed to wake up earlier than you do at home when you’re on vacation?
Stephanie had us up by 6:00 am and wanted us out of the hotel by 6:30 am. I tacked on an extra ten minutes to that because not having a cup of coffee in hand within 15 minutes of waking up makes me, like, 60% less productive. We hopped in the car and began the 20 minute ride to the Magic Kingdom.
Premium parking is, apparently, a thing now. It gets you a closer parking spot and a bottle of water for the cool fee of $35. We opted for the regular $20 parking and in the first of a string of favorable happenstances, we were directed into a parking spot towards the end of an aisle, where a tram was waiting and took us directly to the Ticket and Transportation Center.
The sun wasn’t even up and we were already on the tram!
The park was open to resort guests and dining reservation holders at 7:00 am and wouldn’t open to the general public until 8:00 – you had to prove a reservation or a resort stay to get anywhere near the monorail, ferry or bus. We quickly passed that check and hopped on a bus that took us directly to the Magic Kingdom gates, where we swapped our email ticket vouchers for real tickets and made our way into a rather empty park.
We got to the Magic Kingdom gates just in time to catch the sunrise over the Grand Floridian
A few days after Christmas, Magic Kingdom was still decked to the nines in holiday cheer
Good morning, Magic Kingdom!
In the early morning hours, the park was only open to resort guests and guests with early dining reservations
A series of events that should have taken us much longer just fell into a ton of luck, and after snapping a couple of pictures, we strolled up to the Be Our Guest restaurant exactly at 7:40 am.
Florida Humidity – 1, Nicole – 0
The best part of early entrance to the park: unobstructed castle shots!
We haven’t spent much time in the Fantasyland extension since it was built – we haven’t done anything Disney beyond a Halloween or Christmas party since 2012 – and Stephanie was really excited to dine in the Beast’s castle. Beauty and the Beast is one of her favorite Disney movies and the reservations still seem difficult to come by in peak season.
The entrance to Be Our Guest restaurant
Check in was outside the restaurant, where a host gave us a menu and directed us inside, where we were handed a plastic rose to track our breakfast to our table. All of the breakfast options are a flat $24.95 and include an entrée, a drink, a fruit cup and a plate of pastries to share for the table.
Much like the movie, the entrance to the Beast’s castle is very dark!
Once you place your order, the cashier will hand you a plastic rose, which will help the servers find your table
The decor and detail of the restaurant were kind of amazing
We quickly placed our orders and found a table in the ballroom section (you can also opt to sit in the West Wing, or in another room that has some character theming but an otherwise sterile feel). The musical score from Beauty and the Beast plays softly in the background while servers bring out food in rolling glass display cases. The experience was nice enough, but this meal in no way lived up to a $24.95 per person price tag. The pastries were stale, the fruit was too soft and our entrees, while satisfying in portion and unremarkable in flavor, weren’t exactly high quality or innovative fare. It was just okay. You dine at Be Our Guest for the experience, not the food. But that seems to be the case at a lot of the Magic Kingdom eateries these days – the prices seem much higher than we remembered them and the quality didn’t seem to increase with the cost.
Pastry plate for the table
Open-Faced Bacon and Egg Sandwich
The grand ballroom
The enchanted rose is prominently displayed in the west wing
After breakfast, we tried to get on as many rides as we could, walking on the Journey of the Little Mermaid, Haunted Mansion, the Walt Disney Railroad and It’s a Small World before using our Fast Passes to walk onto Peter Pan’s Flight and Dumbo the Flying Elephant. But by 10:00 am, it was impossible to get onto anything without a Fast Pass or spending an hour and a half in line.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
An empty queue at Journey of the Little Mermaid (also the only empty queue we saw for the rest of our trip)
It’s a Small World
Haunted Mansion
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
We knew the parks would be busy this week, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like what we saw in Magic Kingdom. To say crowds were heavy would be an understatement. In some stretches, it was impossible to move because there were just so many people. At another point, we had to wait 20 minutes to get on the People Mover (a ride we’ve never seen any wait on period). The lines for every major ride extended beyond their queues – a castmember would stand with a stake marking where the line began, often times a few yards down from the ride.
Holy crowds, Batman!
The line for It’s a Small World got so long, a castmember had to hold a sign to where the line started…yards away from the entrance
We gave up on rides by late morning, opting to walk around the park and enjoy the beautiful weather, the spirited ambiance and take some pictures. We snacked on soft pretzels and eased the heat with Dole Whip Floats. But by 2:00 pm, we just couldn’t do it anymore and we headed out. We talked about coming back later for Wishes or to do some more rides since the park was open until midnight, but I think we all knew that we probably wouldn’t make a return.
Always let your conscience be your guide
Even though the park was packed, it was still a beautiful day to be outside!
Astro Orbiter
Splash Mountain
A day in Magic Kingdom wouldn’t be complete without a Dole Whip Float!
This is probably my favorite viewpoint in Disney World. I stop to take a picture every time!
Hey, look! More people piling into the park!
At least you’re fun to take pictures of, Magic Kingdom
Not totally ready to call a draw to our day, we rode the monorail for a bit, even taking a ride on the Epcot line to see what the lines looked like over there, with the park being the avoid park on the crowd calendar for the day.
On the plus, there was no line to get onto the monorail at the TTC
The Epcot monorail took us for a loop around Future World before returning us to the TTC
It might have been difficult to call a close to a day in a Disney park in the early afternoon with the cost of tickets being what they are, but I think we were all at peace with it. With the drive in from Atlanta the day before and the early wake up, we were so wiped out and we really wanted to be bright eyed and fresh for our day in Epcot the next day.
Until next time, Magic Kingdom! (But next time will *not* be in the week between Christmas and New Years)
So we left Magic Kingdom in the rearview mirror and headed out to the outlets, where we always find the best deals on Tory Burch. Don’t get excited though, because, spoiler alert, we couldn’t find parking and gave up after a half hour. Everyone who wasn’t in line for a ride at Magic Kingdom was apparently at the Orlando Premium Outlets. We ran our errands to pick up last minute odds and ends for our cruise and we headed back to the resort to relax and watch terrible movies.
A relaxing evening at the Omni was the perfect end to this crazy day
It might not have been a totally satisfying Disney day, but for us, it was a perfectly satisfying vacation day.
