Walt Disney World: Day Two -- The Magic Kingdom

Naturally, because I didn’t bother to set the alarm clock in the room, I didn’t properly set my phone alarm. And, of course, because I wanted to get up by 7, I slept through until 7:40. But you know what? It was vacation, and as much as I wanted to get to the park early, I wanted us to have an enjoyable vacation. So, I shrugged it off. We got ourselves moving, got our comfortable shoes on, and headed down to breakfast.

The hotel had a nice little breakfast buffet. However, unlike some of the hotels in and around Disney World, the Best Western charges for the buffet. In addition, the Best Western also employs the somewhat wacky age designations that Disney uses in its ticket sales, because prices vary for the buffet, depending on the child. Once again, 10 year olds are presumed to eat like adults, so get charged the adult price. Of course, if you’re in a position where you’ve befriended your waiter or waitress, he or she might not charge your 10 year old the adult price for the buffet. Not that that actually happened, because I wouldn’t want anyone to get in trouble. I’m just posing a hypothetical, that’s all. But, hypothetically, it always pays to be friendly and polite.

Anyway, we were on the road to the Magic Kingdom by 9:00. We could have taken the hotel’s shuttle, which ran on the half-hour. But we were just as happy that we didn’t have to rush to catch a bus, and we didn’t have to worry about having to wait thirty minutes for the next bus. We liked the sense of controlling our own schedule.

We got the the Magic Kingdom parking lot, parked (in Pluto 18 – always remember where you parked the car!) and were headed towards the transportation center by 9:15.

The transportation center is where you get to choose your means of access to the Magic Kingdom – monorail or ferry. The monorail (one of Walt’s dream-methods of conveyance) leaves the Center, cuts through the Contemporary (which is pretty cool to see) and arrives at the entrance to the park. The ferry cuts across the Seven Seas Lagoon, one of Disney’s waterways, and gives you a nice view of the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian. Either way gets you to the same place, and each way is enjoyable, if for no other reason than you’re heading towards the Magic Kingdom.

We picked the monorail for our first trip in, and it was a blast. There is something unique about riding a “train” through the center of a hotel, where you can see the guests eating, shopping, and hanging out below you. We pulled up at the station and, finally, headed in.

It was wonderful. Jake’s eyes were wide with anticipation, but no wider than mine, and each one of us had that “happiest-place-on-earth” grin on our faces.

We approached the entrance gates and met the first major change created by the 9/11 attacks: a bag check, which is an unfortunate, albeit necessary, addition to the Disney experience. Once we cleared that, however, we were able to use our prepaid, super cool admission cards, confirmed our fingerprints, and headed in.

Main Street, USA was as wonderful as I remembered. The view of Cinderella’s Castle from Main Street was equally thrilling. It was great to be back!

The first thing we saw was Goofy -- in the flesh (so to speak) -- signing autographs, and meeting and greeting the kids. Jake grabbed his autograph book and grabbed a spot in line. Unfortunately, Goofy had been out there for a while by the time we got to him, so he was ready to take a break. The Cast Member assured us that Goofy would be back in just a few minutes, but Jake was not in a mood to wait with all of the Magic Kingdom waiting for him. So, we just watched Goofy hop and skip towards Tony’s Town Square Restaurant in that Goofy way of his. This simple scene brought us one of our enduring memories of the whole trip.

As Goofy skipped along, a little kid about 5 or 6 years old broke free from his mom and ran behind Goofy, trying to hop and skip along with him. Unfortunately, because the kid was so short, and was running just behind Goofy, Goofy didn’t see him. As a result, when Goofy made a sharp skip-hop to his left just as the kid made a little skip-hop to his right, Goofy’s foot and the kid’s legs became entangled and down goes Little Kid. Fortunately, the child was fine, and Goofy was fine, and the Cast Member escorting Goofy made an appropriate fuss over the child. And us: we were left with our first memory of the Magic Kingdom being that of Goofy drop-kicking a child across Main Street, USA.

We did get a nice picture of Jake sitting next to the Goofy statue in front of Tony’s.



This is the first of many, many photos we took in the Magic Kingdom.

Which brings me to the Disney Photo Pass. After we took our first couple of pictures, one of the Disney photographers approached us. These photographers provide a nice little service, so let me digress for a bit of detail. Disney has really perfected the digital photography thing. As a result, they have bunches of "official" photographers stationed in various key areas throughout the parks. The first time you’re approached, the photographer will hand you a little plastic credit-card type pass, with a bar code on it. He or she will then scan the bar code into a hand-held device and you’re registered. Then, every time you have a Disney photographer take your picture, you hand them your card, they scan it, and your picture is saved to their master computer. You can then order prints of your favorite pictures.

This is a great thing for a number of reasons. First, you’ve got a professional photographer, with professional equipment, taking your picture at the best locations in the park – Cinderella’s Castle; the giant golf ball at Epcot; the Tree of Life in the Animal Kingdom, and so on. Second, your whole family gets to be in the picture, so the photographer is not left out. Third, and this is the best part, instead of just getting one or two prints of a favorite picture here and there, Disney has this great option available to you, which they don’t trumpet, but which they readily talk about if you ask. For $99 (which is not that much at all, considering that you pay between $20 and $30 for each print), you can purchase a CD with all of the pictures taken by Disney Photographers at all of the parks. Not only that, but Disney provides you with the necessary waivers so that you can take the disc to your local Walgreen (or wherever) and print out your own prints there without the usual hassle you’d ordinarily get for printing out “professional” photos. So, no matter how many photos they take (we took over 50; we were told of another party, which had been at Disney for a month, having over 400 pictures taken), you can get them ALL for $99. It’s a great deal, and I heartily recommend that you take advantage of it. But note: you can only get all of your pictures at either the photo center at Epcot, or at one of the resort hotels (I believe it's the Grand Floridian, but Epcot's worked fine for us.) If you go to the photo center at any of the other parks, you only get the photos taken there that day. Take the extra trip to Epcot to get all of your pictures.

Anyway, we met our first Disney photographer outside the character breakfast at the Crystal Palace buffet. We got a couple of great shots there, before we headed off to Adventureland.

Now, we only had a loose plan of attack for each of the parks. I know that some folks have carefully scripted battle plans, but we just wanted to enjoy the days. There were certain things that I knew we wanted to do, but we weren’t wedded to doing them in any particular order. We planned on hitting specific things, in a relatively logical sequence, so as to make the most of our time in the park. I figured going clockwise from Adventureland made the most sense, so that’s what we did.

Before we got too far, we ran into Rafiki just past the entrance to Adventureland. With only two other kids in line, Rafiki became our first official character. Jake grabbed his autograph book and got in line. It was great to see him so excited about such a simple thing; he’s at that perfect age for Disney – young enough to enjoy the simple pleasure of meeting the characters, old enough to carry the memories with him for the rest of his life, but not too old to think he’s too big for it all. (Of course, if he’s anything like me, he’ll never think he’s too big for it!)




After Rafiki, it was off to the Swiss Family Treehouse. Even though Jake never saw the movie (I actually remember seeing the movie – at a drive-in! – when I was about Jake’s age), he was nevertheless impressed with the Treehouse, and how it was set up. It really is a pretty neat thing to wander through, and we enjoyed it as our first stop.

From there, it was off to the Jungle Cruise. It’s a fun ride, mostly because it’s so corny. You’ve got Disney-fied “exhibits” along the river trail and an amusing running commentary by the boat’s captain. If you like corn-ball humor and silly fun, the Cruise is worth the wait.

The same is true for the Pirates of the Carribbean, although there’s far less humor and far more exhibits here. It’s hard to believe that the popular movie was spun off from this ride because the only thing they have in common is pirates. (I understand that they’re going to update the ride with references to Captain Jack Sparrow and the other folks from the movie, but, at this writing, that’s only a rumor.) However, even without Captain Jack, the ride is pretty neat. It’s not a “thrill” ride in the same vein as a roller coaster, but it is thrilling to ride along the river in the dark (especially with a kid who doesn’t know what to expect), and to watch the pirates do their pillaging, and listen to the cannons roar and have the water splash around your boat. This is another “classic” Disney ride that’s worth the wait.

Pirates now empties out into a gift shop, so after this ride (and most others these days), we had to convince Jake that the time for shopping would be later, that we didn’t want to have to carry things around all day, that he might see something he liked better later on – all you parents know the drill. He was pretty good about it too, although it was very difficult for him once he saw the pirate pistols on the rack. Jake loves his toy-gun collection, so the unique pirate pistols were an immediate draw. (We eventually wound up with one of those, and more.) However, with most of the day still ahead of us, he understood that no one wanted to be carrying weaponry around as we navigated the park.

Our next stop was a monumental one for Jake. Big Thunder Mountain. Roller Coaster. And it was his first.

It took some convincing; he really, really wanted to do it, but he was also really, really nervous about doing it because he didn’t know what to expect. His primary concern was: “It doesn’t have any loop-de-loops, does it?” When we explained to him that any ride that has only a lap-bar, and not an over-the-head shoulder bar, most likely does not go upside down, he was somewhat more willing to entertain the notion of actually riding the coaster. He did, and he enjoyed it, although he wasn’t quite sure that he wanted to do it again. Still, it’s a wonderful memory for me, explaining to him the thrill of the ride, and sharing with him my own memories of my first roller coaster ride (I was thirteen and rode a rickety old coaster at the now defunct Bertrand’s Island in New Jersey). For Jake, he can always say that his first “real” coaster ride was Big Thunder Mountain in Disney World.

After Big Thunder Mountain, we debated about whether to ride Splash Mountain. It wasn’t the fear factor at play in that one. It was the water factor. Although it was 85 degrees that day, none of us really wanted to get soaked at the bottom of the flume ride, so we ultimately decided against Splash Mountain. Instead, we wandered over to The Haunted Mansion. (We stopped briefly at the Shootin’ Arcade. With a ten-year old boy, you almost have to! It’s actually a fun little diversion and gives the parents a few minutes to sit while the kids pick off vultures, cacti and train cars with electronic bullets.)

The Mansion is yet another ride that inspired a movie (one of the few Disney movies I haven’t actually seen, but from what I hear, I didn’t miss much). This ride is in the same family as the Pirates of the Caribbean in that it’s more about atmosphere and mood than it is about actual speed and thrills. It’s good for spooky chills, and, if you’ve got a child with a vivid imagination, it works wonders. One of the neat little facts about this ride is that it’s the only one in the Magic Kingdom where the Cast Members who work it do not smile. At all. Ever. It’s a subtle but effective little feature.

From the Mansion, we went to the Hall of Presidents. I remembered two things about this exhibition from my previous trips, both of which I wanted Sue and Jake to experience. The first is the vision of Abraham Lincoln standing up and addressing the audience (yes, Disney makes that happen). The second is the full array of all of the presidents standing, or sitting, before you. When they first revealed the presidents, Sue let out a gasp and whispered, “My God!” Disney makes the display quite impressive. Even though it’s a bit slow for the kids, the Hall of Presidents definitely gives you a sense of history, and a sense of pride, in this country, and, for me, it’s an experience worth undertaking.

It was about 1:00 pm when we got done with the presidents. With 4:45 dinner reservations in Cinderella’s castle, we didn’t really want to eat a full lunch, and we also wanted make sure we got the twisty-turny rides out of the way before dinner. So, we decided to alter our clockwise rotation a little bit, and headed directly over to Space Mountain, in Tomorrow Land. We also figured that this would be our best chance of convincing Jake to ride Space Mountain. Fresh on the heels of Thunder Mountain, we thought his adrenaline would still be pumping enough to make getting him on the ride an easy task.

As we approached Space Mountain, I wasn’t yet sure how the lines were going to be. We’d had about a 20 minute wait on the Jungle Cruise and Thunder Mountain, but only about 10 minutes for the Pirates, and 5 minutes for the Mansion. (Yes, this is the beauty of traveling in the off season.) As a result, we hadn’t had any opportunity to use Disney’s Fast Pass.

For those who don’t know, the Fast Pass is Disney’s take on a new practice that many parks use to speed folks through the lines. Here’s how the Fast Pass works, in a nutshell. At any Fast Pass ride or attraction (not all of them are – your daily schedule for the park lists which rides are Fast Pass rides, a list that can vary from day to day), you take your admission ticket and slide it into the Fast Pass machine. The machine then returns your ticket and also spits out a stub with a pre-determined period of time on it (for example, from 1 pm to 2 pm) during which you can return to the ride and wait in a significantly shorter line. For instance, if you show up as Space Mountain and you see that there’s a 40 minute wait (most rides post a wait time showing how long it’ll take you to get into the ride), you can opt for the Fast Pass. You get your Fast Pass ticket and come back during the time window stated on the ticket. When you get back, you’ll find that the Fast Pass line is significantly shorter than the regular line.

There is a tipping point in whether or not to actually get a Fast Pass. Based on my limited experiences during the off season, I found that it made sense to get a Fast Pass only if the wait time was more than 20 minutes. This is because the Fast Pass usually spits out a time that is about 20 minutes – or longer – down the road. So, if you have to kill twenty minutes waiting for your Fast Pass time, you might just as well wait in the line for the ride. (That also helps you resist the temptation of spending money at the food stands or the gift shops while you’re waiting for your Fast Pass window.) However, if the wait time for the ride is 20 minutes or more, it makes sense to get the Fast Pass, because the longest I waited in a fast pass line was 10 minutes. (This time may be longer in the high season, by the way. However, over in Epcot, we got Fast Passes for Soarin’ when the wait time was 60 minutes. We took our dinner break and came back during our window and waited ten minutes in the Fast Pass line. The main line still had a 60 minute wait, so it was well worth it to Fast Pass the line.)

The Fast Pass is a wonderful innovation, and far too few people take advantage of it. (This fact is actually a good thing for those of us who want to take advantage of it!) We walked past literally hundreds of people waiting in the “regular” line as we Fast Passed past them. With so much to see and do, the Fast Pass helps you get it all in while still giving you the chance to ride the rides you want to ride. Don’t hesitate to take advantage of the Fast Pass when you get the chance to.

Meanwhile, back at Space Mountain. There was only a 10 minute wait, so we hustled right in. Of course, we had to convince Jake that this was a good idea every step of the way, which wasn’t easy. Fresh off of Thunder Mountain, he was starting to get that nervous feeling back in his stomach. “I don’t know, Dad. I’m not sure.” But we just kept pumping him up: “It’ll be fine, it’ll be fun. You’ll love it, it’s in the dark, you won’t see anything.”

As we approached the capsules, I realized that I’d forgotten that this was a single-file ride. You don’t sit side-by-side, but one-after-the-other, which is kind of neat. In addition, it’s three people to a capsule, so it was nice for us, with Jake in the middle. As we got launched into the mountain, all I could hear, in addition to Sue’s screams of exhilaration, was Jake yelling, “What did I get myself into?” over and over again. It was pretty funny.

As we disembarked from our capsules, we kept pressing Jake for how he felt. He finally grudgingly admitted that he’d actually enjoyed the ride. We didn’t know how much, however, until we got outside. We were hanging around by the entrance to the ride as we discussed our next stop when a lady came up and asked us if we’d like to use their Fast Passes for the ride because they’d decided not to go. When we asked Jake if he wanted to do it again, he said “Yes!” without hesitation. So, we did Space Mountain back-to-back, and Jake was in his glory.

We next went over to the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. I had not intended on stopping there because I didn’t think Jake would be interested. See, although Speedway looks like a go-kart type track, it’s really not. You drive Indy-type, gas-powered cars along a roadway, but each car is on a track-type path from which you cannot stray and top speed is about 10 mph. I thought that Jake would be much more interested in a go-kart he could drive anywhere on the track but I had forgotten the attraction to a 10-year old of actually being behind the wheel of your own car, even if the car is confined to a track. The prospect of driving a mini-Indy car (even in the limited way permitted by the Speedway cars) was something Jake was really looking forward to, so we each grabbed an Indy car and did the Speedway. It was actually a lot of fun, and we all had a good time.



It was from the Speedway track that I saw the next ride we tried. I saw what looked like another roller coaster from the Speedway, but I couldn’t figure out what coaster track I was looking at. As it turns out, I’d caught a glimpse of The Barnstormer at Goofy’s Wiseacre Farm, which is in Mickey’s Toontown Fair. Because Jake is 10, I hadn’t looked into visiting the Toontown Fair because I thought that Jake might think himself too old. I was right about that, because he was a bit reluctant to wander into the Fair, but I urged him on, explaining that I found another coaster that looked pretty neat.

The Barnstormer is a short little coaster. It lasted maybe 60 seconds, and is clearly designed for kids, but it was a fun ride nonetheless. A nice little hill, a couple of nice twists, and some great Disney imagery along the way make for a neat little ride.



For older coaster aficionados, it’s probably not worth more than a ten minute wait. But for breaking in a coaster novice, like Jake, it’s worth at least twice that because it’s pretty harmless but still exciting. We enjoyed this ride, too.


From here, we hit the Mad Tea Party, which is the traditional “spinning cups” ride you see at most amusement parks and fairs. There’s something exciting about spinning your family ‘round and ‘round that continues to make this ride popular, and we always hit a version of this spinny ride whenever we can. We actually hit this ride at the same time as the character parade on Sunday, so there was virtually no line. (We had already decided that we probably weren’t going to any character parades unless we were so exhausted we needed to rest. Taking a tip from Frommers’, we figured the lines at the rides would be far shorter during the parade – and they were.)

We had a quick snack to tide us over to dinner before heading over to It’s a Small World. Yes, we did it. I think you almost have to. And yes, it’s still way-too-cute, and yet strangely appealing. And yes, we were all singing the song during quiet moments for the rest of the trip. But the visit to the Kingdom wouldn’t have seemed complete without doing the ride. By the way, as you set sail, make sure you look at the command bridge that spans the water way. The folks who monitor the boats coming and going were laughing and waving and making a big deal about our departure; they really were having a good time, which was kinda nice to see.

From here, we went to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic. This is, by far, one of the best 3D movies I’ve ever seen, and you should not miss it. (There’s a 3D movie in each park, but this one is the absolute best and if you have to pick one, this is the one.) You enter through a nicely designed classic theater entrance, select your new-style 3D glasses from a tray just before you get to the theater doors, and then wait just outside. Here’s an important tip for this, and all, theater shows: DO NOT BE THE FIRST IN LINE to get in the theater. Once inside, you have to move all the way across the theater and fill in seats from the end, through the center, and then to the other end. If there is any kind of crowd whatsoever, you will be stuck on one-side of the theater for the show, rather than in the middle. To me, the middle seats are the best, so as you enter the theater, hang back a little and pick a row that is already starting to fill up with people. That way, you have a better shot at those center seats.

I won’t spoil the show for you. Suffice it to say that the 3D images of some favorite characters, and some favorite scenes, together with some of Disney’s best music, makes for a very enjoyable show. I heard many kids excitedly gasp out the names of familiar faces as they appeared on the screen. The film itself, which is about 10 minutes long, is great right up to the last moment. I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn’t enjoy this show. I know we did, because we saw it twice!

By the time we got done with our second viewing, it was time for our 4:45 dinner reservation, so we headed over to the castle. Not having dined in the Castle before, we didn’t know quite what to expect, but we dutifully arrived about 15 minutes early, just to be safe. As a result, we experienced the benefit of an early arrival for an early dinner reservation. The cast members took us right in. Unbeknownst to us, we were not going to be escorted right to our table. Instead, we were introduced to Cinderella herself! What’s more, it was just us and Cinderella. No line. No waiting. We had her all to ourselves!

Cinderella was absolutely beautiful. She carried herself with the elegance you would expect from a real princess, and she focused her attention on Jake, who (much to his surprise) was delighted at the attention he received from the beautiful princess. She happily signed his autograph book, chatted with him, and posed for pictures with us all. She was very sweet and very personable, and she made us all feel as if we’d actually met a princess.

Which brings me to another tip if you want to spend a little extra time with Cinderella. I would definitely recommend an early dinner reservation at the Castle. We had a good five minutes of uninterrupted time with her before the next family arrived. In contrast, by the time we left after dinner at about 6:00 p.m., the line for Cinderella was at least 10 deep. While I’m sure they were all treated very nicely, I doubt very much that they each received the personal attention that Jake did simply because so many folks were waiting for the princess by 6:00. (Of course, it may be different during the high season, but even then, I’m guessing most people won’t be eating dinner at 4:45, which will make your lines shorter.)

The dinner itself was actually better than I expected. The food was really tasty and very well prepared. I had a pork loin dinner that was delicious. The service is attentive and friendly, and we were addressed as “My lord,” or “My lady,” which is a nice little touch. Our server was more than happy to accommodate our requests, from additional condiments to pictures of us at the table. It was a wonderful experience, and well worth repeating. However, I do understand that the dining plan has now changed, so everything is now on a fixed price basis. Still, the experience of being in the Castle is well worth it, and I would definitely recommend it.

The dinner break refreshed us, so we decided to wander around and do some of the shopping we had promised Jake while we waited for the fireworks show, which was scheduled for 8:00 p.m. That brings me to a tip that I found particularly useful when it came to shopping for souvenirs. I know that, with kids, there are many different ways to allocate money during vacation trips. This is the method we used, which was most effective for us. We knew that we’d be at the parks for five days, so we gave Jake $100 when we arrived ($20 a day) and told him that he could use it to buy whatever he wanted on the trip, but that once it was gone, he would get nothing more. When we left for the park each morning, he would ask me to bring some (not all) of his money, and I carried it for him. If he wanted something, we would take it out of his stash for the day. This worked great because Jake became far more selective with his shopping. He would ask us our opinions about what to buy, but when the choice and the money was ultimately his, he became very particular. He also wound up bringing almost $50 of the $100 we gave him home with him.

Jake selected a pirate gun and a revolutionary war era rifle as some mementos of his trip. We also wandered past the stocks in Liberty Square, visited the Christmas shop nearby, and had some silhouettes done as well. We had some time, so we wandered back over to Tomorrowland. We already knew that Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin was closed for refurbishment, but we were going to try The Timekeeper ride and Stitch’s Great Escape. We found Timekeeper closed (I’ve heard that it’s closed for good, too), but we did hit Stitch’s Great Escape. This “ride” was different, and kind of fun. It’s not really a “ride” as much as it is an “experience,” and it was actually quite entertaining. There’s a somewhat lengthy backstory involving training as an intergalactic corrections officer of sorts, and the capture of Stitch, who is apparently a very frightening critter to have in custody. Once again, I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that there are some wonderful sensory effects in this ride and if you sit back in your seat and take it all in, you will be pleasantly surprised.

After Stitch, there was nothing left that we wanted to do at Magic Kingdom that day except watch the fireworks. Well, okay. Let’s be honest; after a full day at the park, there was nothing else we had the energy to do but sit on a curb along Main Street and wait for the fireworks. We hadn’t wanted to wait in the 40-minute line for Peter Pan’s flight; we’d skipped Splash Mountain on purpose; we’d decided to skip the Railroad around the park, and we hadn’t wanted to ride most of the traditional amusement park rides, like the carousel and Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. So, all in all, by the time the fireworks rolled around, we’d had a jam-packed day of fun and were happy to be waiting for the show.

And what a show. Do not miss the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. You may believe that you’ve seen fireworks before but, unless you’ve seen the Macy’s Fireworks on the Fourth of July in New York City, you’ve never seen fireworks like those in the Magic Kingdom. And when the fireworks form the backdrop to Cinderalla’s Castle, and it’s ever-changing colors, it is an experience that cannot be duplicated, or rivaled, by any similarly themed show anywhere in the world.




Take them in. Absorb them. Enjoy them. And don’t blink, or you’ll miss Tinkerbell, who actually flies from the top of the Castle to the trees below. It’s an amazing experience.

After the fireworks, we made our way to the docks, where we took a ferry back to the transportation center, then grabbed a tram to the car. We made our way back to the hotel (watch for the cops if you’re driving yourself. It’s a 35 mph speed limit here, and they apparently love to catch the tourists leaving the parks at the end of the day). We dropped Jake’s arsenal in the room before retiring to the bar for a nightcap and a few minutes to unwind. (Jake, ever the energetic one, ran off to the arcade room next to the restaurant where he played video games to wind down.) Finally, we headed up to the room, where we collapsed into our beds so that we could recharge and be ready for a day at Epcot.