I might offend some fellow Disney fans with this but I am not a lover of Magic Kingdom. Zero out of 5 of us would list it as our favorite Disney World park. So when we had one park day planned on our most recent trip and decided to go to Magic Kingdom, our kids were surprised, and maybe even a little skeptical.
We went in this time with a loose and unconventional plan. Our focus was on shows and entertainment and seeing what rides we could get on along the way. This plan turned out to be a huge success for our family.
Since we were staying at a Disney resort we were able to use the half hour early park entry. We lined up with the rest of the crowd to rope drop Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Some of us were more excited than others.
Our kids are pretty good at keeping up with the crowd, so that half hour got us through Mine Train and onto Space Mountain before the regular opening caught up with us. We slowed down and took the time to meet Buzz Lightyear. Then we walked back to the hub for the castle show. It was SO. MUCH. FUN! K was thrilled to see Rapunzel, and A about lost it when Louis the alligator played his trumpet.
We mobile-ordered nutella waffles for a snack. We devoured it faster than was probably necessary and we headed over to Frontierland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean.
After Pirates we picked up dole whips (raspberry/pineapple swirl is the best) and headed to Liberty Square to secure a spot for the noon parade. Let me tell you, despite waiting in the shade, we were reminded that Florida in August is no joke. Our kids were about ready to call it when the parade started. This was our first viewing of the Festival of Fantasy parade, and it did not disappoint. The ruffians from Tangled were our family favorite!
The sun was so hot afterward that we headed to Philharmagic just to cool down a bit. Donald had A and K in such giggles that it was worth more than the air conditioning! We rode It’s a Small World, then Carousel of Progress (A’s new favorite!) and then decided it really was just too hot and headed back to the resort for some swimming. Yes to park breaks on hot afternoons!
After supper in our room we bussed back to Magic Kingdom. The kids hunted down some of the 50th anniversary statues with our MagicBand+. Ethan took J and K for another ride on Space Mountain while A and I went to try to pull the sword out of the stone. Then we headed back to the hub to secure a spot for the Enchantment fireworks show. This would be our first in-the-park viewing of the Magic Kingdom fireworks, so we put a little extra wait time into staking out a spot to watch.
After the show, we decided to push through and get on as many rides as we could before park close. And we hit a lot of them! Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in about an hour and a half! Magic Kingdom won us over this trip.
Follow along on our visits to other parks by clicking on the Theme Parks tab above.
