We were so thankful to wake up to sunshine on Tuesday! The thought of walking around with 3 kids in the rain was NOT on the top of my to do list. It was even a little cool, which was nice!
Our first park of the trip was Animal Kingdom. We knew we needed extra time to see all of the new things at the Magic Kingdom, so we took advantage of our park hoppers and went to Animal Kingdom just for the morning.
The biggest key to not waiting in line at Disney is getting up early. No matter what you do the rest of the day, if you are there when the park opens, you will be ahead of the game.
With the quick service meal plan, we didn't technically have enough meals for breakfast, but with the girls sharing food, it allowed us to have some meals to use on breakfast. However, on days that we go to the parks, we do not go sit down and eat breakfast anyway. Chad and I get up, get ready and he heads to grab whatever we need for breakfast and most importantly his coffee. I wake the girls up and getting ready is pretty easy since we lay out clothes the night before on park days.
A great perk of staying at the Pop Century Resort is a dedicated bus line. You hop on the bus and don't have to make any other stops. If a park opens at 9, you need to be at the bus line around 8:15 to get the first bus. We missed the first bus to Animal Kingdom by about 30 seconds! AH! Once they start to pull away, they will not open the door for you!
Waiting on the 2nd bus...
Magic Bands! I loved the magic bands! Your room key, park ticket, fastpasses, meal pass and credit card - all on your wrist!
The new fastpass system only allows you to have 3 fast passes per day, and they must be at one park. There were not that many rides at Animal Kingdom that we wanted to fastpass, so we saved those for the Magic Kingdom. We knew that meant we would have to wait in line at the Safari line, but we knew it should be our only long line of the week. It ended up taking about 40 minutes, but was totally worth it. The ride is about 15-20 minutes long.
Mya was very excited to go on her "first" ride. The kid had been on this ride 2 times before, but doesn't remember it at all.
So our basic gameplan at Animal Kingdom is:
get there as soon as it opens and go straight to the Safari ride (missing that first bus, put us about 20 minute behind, which increased our wait time significantly at that ride)
If we were staying all day, we would have gotten fast passes for Safari and Everest for sure. Since we only had the morning, we skipped Everest and went to the Nemo Show, which is always fantastic.
My favorite show at any of the parks is the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately it was closed this trip. :(
Our kids enjoy DINOland USA. We normally eat there.
Hanging out while the big kids ride!
Animal Kingdom is also a great place to meet characters since it is typically a little less crowded. I find that the ride lines are longer though maybe because there aren't as many rides as other parks.
After Addison and I rode Dinosaur (Addison was not a fan), it was 1:30 and time to start making our way to the Magic Kingdom.
Going to 2 parks in one day was a little different. We are used to running in when the park opens and having our normal routine. (Seriously folks, we've only been 3 times. You'd think we've been 25 the way things are so "routine!") We had a little time before dinner at the castle. I found a great spot for the parade (right on the circle in front of the castle) while Chad took the girls on a much anticipated ride of the teacups.
The afternoon parade at the Magic Kingdom is great! Good seats for the parade ALWAYS require getting there early! People that come up at the last minute and try to squeeze in on top of us, drive me crazy.
This is as close as we got to Anna and Elsa all week! Their line at Epcot was 3 hours with no fast pass option. NOW, they are at the Magic Kingdom and you can get a fast pass. Bummer!
Our thought on characters - in the past we have spent a lot of time waiting in line to see characters so they can sign an autograph book that our kids never look at... Our amazing travel agent, Courtney, gave us personalized pillowcases for each of our girls. I loved the idea. Now the girls will have something they will actually be able to see all those signatures. We also were very flexible - if the girls didn't want a signature, we didn't wait in line.
After the parade, we checked in at the castle!
When we told Addison we were going to Disney, her first question was, "Do we have to eat with the princesses?" On our first trip we were told the Princess breakfast in Norway at Epcot was amazing. We made reservations for 8:30AM. Unfortunately, we stayed up for the fireworks at Magic Kingdom the night before, so the 6:30 wake up call came VERY early. Addison was 3 and was a mess. It was our last day and she was so tired. We were running through Epcot to get there on time and it was going to be 103 degrees that day. It was a Norwegian buffet and Addison was a VERY picky eater. She didn't eat anything and it cost us over $100. After that experience, we said we would never pay for a character meal again. Especially because if you ask our kids if they want to eat with characters or ride rides, they always say ride rides.
Since we don't do character meals, I'm not sure why we (I) wanted to book the most expensive one. It turned out great though. Our reservations were at 4, which was perfect.
We walked in and waited in a short line to meet Cinderella.
After meeting Cinderella, you are seated upstairs. The menu had good selections for kids and adults. Then Cinderella's visiting princesses come around to each table. Even though we thought dinner would be too early, we ended up with our food around 5:00.
Lucy loved her wand!
Sleeping Beauty chatting with Lucy!
Dinner was fun! The girls loved it, we were relaxed and the food was good!
That evening we had fast passes to Buzz and Space Mountain so we headed to Tomorrowland.
Fast passes and rider swaps are the key to not waiting in lines, especially with the 3 fast pass rule.
For instance, Chad got a fast pass to Space Mountain and then got a rider swap for me. A rider swap is for families that have little ones so that each parents doesn't have to wait in line. The rider swap is good for 3 people and uses the fast pass line. The new fast pass system has made the fast pass lines much quicker. Before you could use your fast pass from the time printed until the park closed. Now with the times frames being more strict, it cuts down on the amount of people able to use it at once.
Addison didn't want to ride Space Mountain, but if she did, she and I could have ridden with just using 1 fast pass.
Also, do not wait until you get to the park to schedule fastpasses - most will be gone or you will only have late night options. You can start scheduling them 180 days in advance online. I HIGHLY recommend doing this!
While we were riding Space Mountain, the girls enjoyed the Incredibles Dance Party. Mya was really in to it!
One of my all-time favorites - the people mover!
Next we went over to the Buzz Lightyear ride. (Everyone had fast passes.)
After Buzz we went to the Laugh Floor - always great and not a long wait.
Bad thing about fast passes - sometimes you walk more than you normally would. Our next fast pass was Thunder Mountain Railroad...on the other side of the park. It was a nice stroll over there though since most people were getting ready to watch the parade.
We had 2 fast passes to Thunder Mountain since we needed to ride 2 & 2. Addison and Chad went first.
Mya and I were up next. She was SOO excited for her first roller coaster.
The people at the front let her through, but right before we got on, a lady wanted to check her height. She was less than 1/4 inch away. Everyone around us was like, "let her ride! She's fine!," but the lady wouldn't budge. I was frustrated that we had made it that far and we had to walk through the car and walk out of the ride. The people at the front of the ride should have checked her instead of letting us get that far. I ended up taking Addison on it again. Thankfully Mya didn't care too much.
Even though it was after 8:00, we wanted to check out the new Fantasyland. The Dumbo ride had been moved - now there are 2! One for fast passes and one for stand-by. There is also a play area to wait, or so I'm told. I can do fast and looping rides, but not round and round, no matter how slow.
Seven is an important age at Disney - Addison could ride things alone while one of us rode with Mya.
Lucy was amazing the whole trip. She was very flexible about when, how and how much she slept.
Another key for us was having 2 strollers plus the Ergo. While Addison would never typically ride in a stroller, on late nights it was worth it. Unfortunately, you have to fold up the strollers on the bus rides, but after that, we were thankful to have the strollers. Most evenings Lucy would be asleep in the Ergo, Mya asleep in one stroller and Addison resting on the way to the bus in the other. It also provided plenty of space to carry jackets, diaper bag, snacks and water.
We drug ourselves out of the park at 9:30, knowing we had to be up early the next morning. So hard to leave when the park is still open. :)
Day 2 - first park day - Done!
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