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| Yep, those are Mickey and Donald shirts |
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| Obligatory castle shot after entering |
The heart of the magic of Disney World is the Magic Kingdom, and the heart of the Magic Kingdom is Fantasyland. We love the Magic Kingdom so much that we planned to spend two days there and we didn't even have any little kids with us. Since we had the extra day to spend, we decided we were not only going to hit our favorite attractions, the New Fantasyland attractions, the new Storybook Circus area, but also all of the "unpopular" attractions--the ones like Country Bear Jamboree, Hall of Presidents, Liberty Belle riverboat, the Enchanted Tiki Room, and the Carousel of Progess--that everybody usually skips. We planned to split the lands up, with Fantasyland and Tomorrowland the first day, and Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square the second. We were surprised to find that we only had time for Fantasyland the first day! We were also surprised to find out how much we loved all of the new attractions.
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Our reserved FastPasses for the day were Enchanted Tales with Belle, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, and Space Mountain, so we headed straight to the back of the park as soon as we entered and walked right into Maurice's cottage (have I mentioned how much we loved FastPass+?). I won't go into the minute details about the storytelling experience with Belle, and don't google it or anything, because spoilers abound, and you want to be surprised (there is a magical surprise! And some fantastic animatronic characters--and Belle!) We enjoyed it all the more because we hadn't peeked online at all and had no idea what to expect.
The girls were chosen to take part in the story (my oldest daughter was the Wardrobe, my youngest was Mrs. Potts), and if your kids (or you!) want to get picked, just be sure to be super animated and into it when the cast member is handing out the parts. If you don't get chosen for a main role, don't despair--at the end, they ask if there's anyone who wants to be in it who didn't get a part, and they have multiple silverware and napkin roles they can hand out. (There was a tiny little 3-year-old girl in a Belle costume who stepped forward at that moment and grabbed the silverware prop. Her parents were shocked!)
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| Belle and her Wardrobe |
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| Mrs. Potts pours (with assistance, hehe) |
If you want your photo taken by PhotoPass with Belle, be in the show. The audience doesn't get a photo op. The whole thing took 20-30 minutes, but we were cycled through three different rooms with three completely different settings, so we were never bored, and Belle's story was charming, mostly because of everybody else who was in the story besides Belle--and because of Lumière, who was amazing. Afterward, Belle really took her time with the "actors" in her story, posing with them, talking with them, and--in the case of the little 3-year-old with stars in her eyes--holding her on her lap and hugging her. It actually was enchanting, just like its name says. It's Disney at its best. Don't miss it because you think it's just for little kids.
We kind of regretted getting the FastPass+ for Ariel's Undersea Adventure because there was no line. We tried to play the crab game in the queue, but we couldn't figure it out, and the ride only took about 5 or 6 minutes. Still, that's pretty long for a dark ride, and I thought it was really a step up from the old classic dark rides like Peter Pan. The girls were unimpressed. I guess Enchanted Tales with Belle was really a hard act to follow.
Be Our Guest
It was time for our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest, so we walked right past everyone in line with umbrellas to keep the hot sun off their heads, and were seated at one of the best tables in the restaurant, in the back of the ballroom by the big windows, with a perfect view of the whole room. We took a few minutes to walk around and check the place out. It was so well done! The ballroom looked exactly like the one in the movie, with the painted ceiling and the huge chandelier. Again, I don't want to ruin the surprises, but watch the windows, the portrait over the fire, and the rose, and wait a little while, especially after the lightning, to see what changes. Disney did such a great job recreating the Beast's castle and we were so glad it was open for lunch or we would never have seen it--dinner reservations are booked up for months ahead of time (we were offered lunch reservations as a bonus for being some of the first people to test MagicBands. Disney magic!)
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| Watch the portrait carefully! |
Our only disappointment with Be Our Guest, and it was a big one, was the food. Two of us got the ahi salad and we couldn't even eat it, it was so fishy and old-tasting. We didn't like the salad dressing, either, and we'll eat anything. The vegetable quiche was bland and unappealing, and it was served with salad with the salad dressing on it that none of us liked. We did like the soups. We tried the potato leek and the French onion and I'd recommend both. If (when!) we go back for lunch, we will only get soup. Also, we thought our seats were in the best location--the beautiful ballroom--because the West Wing was very dark (but that might be nice at night), and the third room, the Rose Gallery, was a yawn (it looked like any other quick service venue). Request the other two rooms if you have a choice.
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| Inedible ahi salad but yummy potato soup |
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| Boring quiche and salad |
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| Beast's castle is in the "distance." Guffaw. |
I also just have to say that the outside version of Beast's castle, which is supposed to look like it's in the distance, just looks like a dinky little toy castle. Remember the first time you saw the far-away version of Hogwarts at Universal and it took your breath away? Don't expect the same reaction to Beast's castle. We snorted. We also weren't crazy about all of the fencing around the New Fantasyland area, hiding the construction sites, but appreciated the holes in the fence, high and low, for taking peeks at what was going on.
It took us almost until sunset to ride all of the Fantasyland rides, meet the Fairy Godmother, Peter Pan and Wendy, and dance with Goofy during the Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it! Street Party. One of our favorite magical moments of the day was when Goofy saw my oldest daughter from his float in the parade and swooned over backwards, leaning on the railing for support and reaching out to her with his arms. She had worked with Goofy when she was "best friends" with Pluto at Disney World years ago when she was a cast member. As soon as the float stopped, he jumped down and hugged her and they danced together in the middle of the street. And I took a hundred pictures of it. It was so fun, so funny, so magical (although the little kids who were desperately trying to get Goofy's attention might not have thought so). So much Disney magic in one day!
Storybook Circus
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| Interactive Dumbo queue with games & AC! |
The last area we visited was the Storybook Circus. We had mixed emotions about even seeing the whole place, especially since it replaced Toon Town, which my kids grew up with, but mostly because we knew it was really designed for younger children. But Disney did it again. And we loved it. It might even be my favorite spot in the whole Magic Kingdom now. The theming was so immersive that you felt like you had walked back in time into the 1940's when the circus was in its golden age. Instead of buildings, there were circus train cars and big top tents, and there were two Dumbo rides, with a fantastic interactive queue inside a big top tent in the A/C!
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| The Dumbo attraction cast member costume |
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| Peanut shells and elephant hoof prints! |
And instead of looking costume-y and forced, everything looked real, and as if it had been there forever--the vintage posters, the signs, the cast members' costumes, even the cement sidewalks (which had "peanut shells" in them). We rode Dumbo and Goofy's Barnstormer (w
hich is the same ride, except for the location of the queue, but is now called The Great Goofini) and checked out the Big Top Souvenirs and Pete's Silly Sideshow, where you can meet Donaldo, Goofini, Minnie, and Daisy, although we chose to skip that line. We didn't want to leave, but it was finally time to wrap up our day and go to the Wishes Dessert Party at the Tomorrowland Terrace.
Wishes Dessert Party
The dessert party is something I'd been wanting to do for years and could never either afford or get reservations for, so I was thrilled when it was available our first night in the Magic Kingdom, but I'm just going to say in all honesty, it was not worth the wait. True, we had an unobstructed view of the fireworks and could sit down right up until the minute they started (when everybody moved to the railing), but the desserts were just so-so, the atmosphere was very fast food-ish, and the view of the fireworks was from the side, so our grand photos of fireworks above the castle turned into photos of fireworks to the side of and behind the castle. It was definitely the best view of Tinkerbell I've ever had, though. For the three of us, it was 83 bucks, and I would rather have spent that on something else. We are happy just standing in the middle of Main Street with the crowd, watching the fireworks above the castle, and that view doesn't cost any [extra] money.
Our first day in the Magic Kingdom would have been a frantic, rushed day if we had only had one day to spend there, but knowing we were returning the next day gave us the freedom to take our time, meet characters (Fairy Godmother was a first!), have plenty of PhotoPass pictures taken, dance in the parade, and enjoy our meals (we especially loved our seats-with-a-view in Pinocchio Village Haus at the window above It's A Small World and sipping on La Fou's Brew at Gaston's Tavern). It ended up being my favorite day of the five we were at the World. I'm not a kid any more, and I didn't have any young kids with me, but the Magic Kingdom makes me feel like a kid again. And it almost, just ALMOST, made me forget about the heat. But not quite.
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| LaFou's Brew was delicious but the cinnamon roll was meh |
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| The view from our table in Village Haus |
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| Ta-dah! We did it! |
We kind of regretted getting the FastPass+ for Ariel's Undersea Adventure because there was no line. We tried to play the crab game in the queue, but we couldn't figure it out, and the ride only took about 5 or 6 minutes. Still, that's pretty long for a dark ride, and I thought it was really a step up from the old classic dark rides like Peter Pan. The girls were unimpressed. I guess Enchanted Tales with Belle was really a hard act to follow.
I also just have to say that the outside version of Beast's castle, which is supposed to look like it's in the distance, just looks like a dinky little toy castle. Remember the first time you saw the far-away version of Hogwarts at Universal and it took your breath away? Don't expect the same reaction to Beast's castle. We snorted. We also weren't crazy about all of the fencing around the New Fantasyland area, hiding the construction sites, but appreciated the holes in the fence, high and low, for taking peeks at what was going on.
It took us almost until sunset to ride all of the Fantasyland rides, meet the Fairy Godmother, Peter Pan and Wendy, and dance with Goofy during the Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it! Street Party. One of our favorite magical moments of the day was when Goofy saw my oldest daughter from his float in the parade and swooned over backwards, leaning on the railing for support and reaching out to her with his arms. She had worked with Goofy when she was "best friends" with Pluto at Disney World years ago when she was a cast member. As soon as the float stopped, he jumped down and hugged her and they danced together in the middle of the street. And I took a hundred pictures of it. It was so fun, so funny, so magical (although the little kids who were desperately trying to get Goofy's attention might not have thought so). So much Disney magic in one day!
