Day 1-Magic Kingdom
Today was our first full day and it was an early start with a 6:55am alarm! Even though yesterday was extremely long and I didn’t get to bed until after midnight, I needed to get up early for two reasons: to make our first Lightening Lane reservation AND to take advantage of early magic hours at Magic Kingdom. Did you know that staying on site at any Disney resort (yes, even Disneyland resorts) you get into the park 30 minutes before park opening? It’s an amazing perk of staying on site!
I got on at 7:00am and made our first Lightening Lane reservation to meet Mickey Mouse at Town Square for 10:30-11:30am. Typically this isn’t the first reservation I would have made, however mom recently had surgery and was restricted on what rides she could go on (had to be easy-no jerking movements or roller coasters) as well as how much she could walk around the parks. Since we were going to the Halloween Party tonight, we knew that we were going to go back to the room in the afternoon to rest, so I booked this thinking we would meet Mickey and then head back to the resort (which didn’t end up being the case).
We got coffee at the Polynesian Resort and then hopped on the monorail to head over one stop to the Magic Kingdom and got there by 7:30am! First thing that we did was take pictures at the castle while the park was EMPTY! Like seriously, it was soooo empty-it didn’t seem real! Afterwards, we headed over to Tomorrowland and started the day on one of our favorite rides…walking straight onto the People Mover! After we enjoyed our tour around Tomorrowland, I noticed that Buzz Lightyear had a 5 minute wait, so I hopped right on (it was also a walk on).
Then we headed over to Fantasyland and walked onto both Dumbo and Little Mermaid. Afterwards, was one of the coolest experiences of our trip…we ended up right behind Cinderella’s castle to take pictures when the announcement came over letting the guests know that the Thunderbirds were about to fly over the castle. We watched them from behind the castle as they flew over twice (in two different formations) for an early celebration of Veteran’s month.
Afterwards, we rode it’s a small world and decided what we wanted for a (very early) lunch. Pecos Bill quick-service was the final decision with me getting the taco trio and mom getting the southwest salad with chicken. This isn’t my personal favorite quick service, but it was good and not too heavy (I only ate about half of my meal) and had plenty of indoor seating!
It was almost time for our Lightening Lane reservation to meet Mickey, so we shopped along Main Street and headed up to the front of the park. I got to have my first character hug in over four years and I was SO happy! Mickey was looking very dapper in his 50th outfit as well. We finished up our morning by watching the castle show, Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire, (highly recommend) and then headed back to the room to rest for the afternoon before the Halloween Party.
After a few hours of {much needed} rest, it was time to get ready for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party! Before headed back over to the Magic Kingdom, we stopped at Tambu Lounge by Ohana at the Polynesian resort to get mom a spicy margarita and I took some pictures with a photopass photographer outside. Then we hopped on the monorail and headed over to the Magic Kingdom where we went in at 4:00pm and got our wristbands and treat bags. While we were headed over there, I was hungry and decided to mobile order from Casey’s Corner to eat after getting out party things! There’s just nothing like a hotdog (or corndog nuggets) from Casey’s on Main Street!
We started the afternoon off strong by riding Peter Pan (Lightening Lane-definitely not worth the standby wait in my opinion), watching Mickey’s Philharmagic (one of my favs), and riding Haunted Mansion (another Lightening Lane). After that, the exhaustion started to set in. Mom was dying to have a turkey leg, so we went over to Fantasyland and got her one and sat down to enjoy it.
Afterwards, we were going to go back on the Peoplemover and had a celebrity sighting! Michael Buble was there with a VIP tour guide and his family to enjoy the party. I honestly don’t think anyone else recognized him and they seemed to be having a great time! We got on the Peoplemover and as we were getting off, he was getting on. When I worked at Disney, I always enjoyed seeing celebrities living “normal” lives, and this was no different.
It was almost 7:00pm, which is when the trick or treating begins and the official start of the Halloween Party, so we headed to Starbucks to get a pick me up and then went over to Adventureland to start trick or treating. I’m not kidding when I tell you they will LOAD YOU UP with candy! You get huge handfuls at every stop. We went on Pirates since they had the Halloween overlay with real pirates throughout the ride and it was SO MUCH better than the regular ride. We trick or treated some more and made our way back to Tomorrowland so that I could ride Hyperspace Mountain while mom rested her ankle. It was pitch black and the music was pumping and it seemed super intense, but it was really fun!
By 8:30pm, we were absolutely exhausted and even though we hadn’t experienced most of the things at the Halloween Party that we wanted to, we decided it was best for the remainder of our trip to go back to the hotel and get some much needed sleep. Not going to lie I definitely had some FOMO and may have shed a few tears on the monorail back to the resort, but it was 100% the right decision after running on two nights of less than 6 hours of sleep each.
Overall, our day was a really great day and staying at the Polynesian Resort made it so easy to just go back to the room and rest when we needed to. Although there were some things that I didn’t get to do that I wanted to do, there was so much that we did get to do! The park was basically dead for the first couple of hours, so we were able to walk onto so many rides and I was able to navigate Genie+ pretty well too! Stay tuned for our day at EPCOT with the Food and Wine festival…
