I chose to do Magic Kingdom for the second day of my trip. Epcot’s evening Extra Magic Hours helped pull away guests and many people who arrived over the weekend have moved on to another park. It was still very crowded because it was Spring Break and the week before Easter. It was very cold outside in the morning. The max temperature of the day was 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the mean temperature was 54 degrees Fahrenheit. Magic Kingdom opened at 7am for Extra Magic Hours like it had been all that week. My friends and I were through the turnstiles at 6:45am and watched the welcome show at the train station.
After the show, we headed into the park down Main Street USA
The plan I set up for the morning was to tackle much of Fantasyland and then head over to Frontierland and Adventureland. In Fantasyland, most of the attractions are relatively short that experience long wait times later in the day. I asked my friends before we left to Florida if they were interested in doing Enchanted Tales with Belle. They were not interested in that, so that was eliminated from the morning plan. The first attraction we headed to was Under the Sea in New Fantasyland.
We got there at 7:08am and were on the ride by 7:11am.
I thought it was a good ride. There have been a lot of opinions about New Fantasyland, but I feel like I couldn’t give an opinion since it isn’t done yet. All there is right now is one attraction copied from Disneyland, an extra Dumbo, and two dinning services. I am going to wait for the Dwarfs Mine Train to open and then pass judgment. The next ride we went on was Winnie the Pooh.
We got in line at 7:20am and we walked on. Before the trip, none of my friends saw the old Winnie the Pooh movie that the ride was based off of until I showed it to them about two weeks beforehand. I feel like they appreciated the ride a bit more after watching the movie. (My friend took a picture on ride)
After Winnie the Pooh, we then headed to Peter Pan. We got in line at 7:30am and sure enough we only waited 5 minutes. While we were in line, a lot of people came into the line which easily made the line size double. I would like to say that the people were probably coming from Enchanted Tales with Belle.
I forgot that my flash was on while I was on Peter Pan. Oops.
After the ride, we went on It’s a Small World. Frontierland and Adventureland weren’t open yet since it was still Extra Magic Hours. We got there at 7:40am and it was a walk-on. I didn’t know at the time that the Sherman brothers also wrote It’s a Small World. What’s even more interesting is that you can overlap the songs It’s a Small World and One Little Spark and the songs are synchronous.
We got off of the ride at about 7:53am. We then waited by the new Tangled theme area for the rope drop into Liberty Square. I thought the detail in the Tangled area was very good.
At 8am, the CMs let the guests into the west side of the park.
As we walked toward Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we noticed that Splash Mountain wasn’t operating for the time being. Once we got to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we acquired FastPasses for the ride and then got into the standby line. We got in line at 8:07am and got on ride at 8:12am.
After Big Thunder Mountain, we headed into Adventureland.
The first ride we went to was Jungle Cruise. We got there at 8:22am and it was a walk on. I forgot our skipper’s name, but she did a good job.
The next ride to tackle was Pirates of the Caribbean. We got there at 8:35am and again it was a walk on.
We got off the ride at 8:44am and decided to head back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. As we were walking to the ride, we noticed that Splash Mountain just opened.
Splash Mountain is one of my favorite rides at Magic Kingdom. To me it’s more than just a flume ride, it has a flowing narrative and fun story. I told my friends that we should do this now since there was no line, even though it was about 40 degrees outside. They agreed. We got in line at 8:48am and walked on.
Last time I rode this ride in 2000, I remember there were not lap down bars in the boats(or logs). Disney probably had issues with people standing during the ride. The girls let my other friend and I take the front row of our boat. That wasn’t a good idea. Since more weight is on the front end of the boat, more water will come up and get you wet. The girls got most of the water.
Before I went to Florida, I found out about the Attractions Plus photo card you could buy. With this card, you can have as many digital on-ride pictures from any of the parks during your stay. The cost of this pass was about $45. We forgot to buy it when we were at Epcot, but we remembered later in the day at Magic Kingdom. I was lucky enough to keep the picture number for Splash Mountain.
We got off of Splash Mountain at 9:08am. We then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to use our FastPasses. The stand-by time was at 40 minutes. We got on the ride by 9:14am.
By riding this right after Splash Mountain, our clothes became drier. After Big Thunder, we walked across Frontierland to go ride another one of my favorites, The Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square.
We got to Haunted Mansion at 9:27am with a posted 10 minute wait. The new interactive queue was up at Haunted Mansion, but the issue is that the line splits in two. Thus, only one of the lines will be able to experience the interactive queue. The line that doesn’t experience the interactive queue has a little shorter line. We decided to do the interactive stuff since the line was short anyways and we were able to slowly walk through the new stuff without stopping.
We got in the doom buggies at 9:42am. I really liked the features that were addind in 2008 or so inside Haunted Mansion.
We got off of at 9:47am and started heading towards Tomorrowland. Before we got into Tomorrowland, we stopped to go see Philarmagic. I remember this building used to have the Lion King show in it. There are still videos on youtube that have the entire show. We got there at 9:52am.
I was impressed with the show. It is a great addition to Magic Kingdom. We got out of there at 10:10am. We then continued our trek to Space Mountain.
We got there at around 10:17am. Once we got there, we grabbed FastPasses with a return time of 1:25pm. The standby time posted was at 80 minutes I believe. My friend really wanted to stand in line because the last time she was here 4 years ago, it was closed for refurbishment and it is her favorite ride. I was a bit hesitant at first, but we decided to wait in line.
What was nice was that we got off of the ride at 11:27am. We forgot to pick up the attractions plus card again and we forgot to keep the number of our picture. We then headed over to Buzz Lightyear.
The posted wait time was 70 minutes, but we didn’t mind since before Space Mountain we had been doing everything with little to no wait. We got in line at 11:40am. We were able to make the time fly by playing 20 questions. We got on the ride at 12:37pm, a 60 minute wait.
We yet again forgot to get the picture numbers for this ride which was a bit sad. Next, I wanted to go on another one of my favorite rides, the TTA People Mover. I enjoy it because it is very relaxing and gives you some nice sights of Tomorrowland. TTA was a walk by which we were on the ride at 12:50pm.
After the people mover, the time was just after 1pm. We watched the dance party going on in Tomorrowland until our FastPasses were ready. We also got in on the action.
Once 1:25pm hit, we went over to Space Mountain to use our FastPasses. The standby wait tie was at 140 minutes. The FastPass distribution was giving out passes with a return time of 7:55pm. We got on the ride at 1:34pm
After Space Mountain, we finally bought the Attractions Plus Card, so we can start getting on ride pictures.
(I did manage to take a picture of Space Mountain from the Crystal Palace)
It was getting close to our 2:20pm lunch reservation at Crystal Palace. I came up with a thought of getting a FastPass for an attraction before we ate. Then, we could use the FastPass right after eating. We agreed to go on a second time on Splash Mountain. The girls went to the Crystal Palace while my other friend and I went to Splash Mountain to get FastPasses. At this time it was jammed, Winnie the Pooh was experiencing an 80 minute wait, Under the Sea was at 120, Peter Pan was around the same time, and It’s a Small World was at 40 minutes. My friend and I got FastPasses for Splash Mountain with a return time of 2:40 to 3:40pm. My friend and I went to the Crystal Palace to met up with our friends.
We were let in about 5 minutes early and were seated at our table. Our server Tamy was great. She gave me the recommendation to mix the BBQ sauce and honey mustard to have a Polynesian sauce. I had a lot of ham, roast beef, salad, chicken, and salad
At the Crystal Palace, we were able to meet with characters from Winnie the Pooh. It was fun to interact with these characters as they came to your table.
The desert was very good as well
We were done with our meal at the Crystal Palace at 3:45pm, we are already 5 minutes late for our FastPass deadline. So we started to walk a little fast over there.
We walked a little fast to Splash Mountain and got there at 3:53pm. We were still let into the Fastpass line, which was nice of them. The girls let my friend and I sit in the front row again, but this time at the drop, the girls were able to block a lot of the water entering the side.
After the ride, we decided to take a ride on the Railroad to Storybook Circus.
We got into Storybook Circus and decided to go on The Mad Tea Party. It was posted at a 40 minute wait. While the girls got in line for the Mad Tea Party at 4:35pm, my friend and I got Fastpasses for Dumbo. The FastPass for Dumbo and Barnstormer aren’t on the Fastpass system. For example, you can get a Dumbo, Barnstormer, and let’s say Buzz Lightyear FastPasses at the same time. Our fastpass return time was 6:05pm.
We got Fastpasses for Dumbo and were planning to get Fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear as well until the girls called. They said that the line was moving a lot faster than expected and we should get back. We went in line with the girls and were on ride at 5:00pm.
After the ride, we headed over to get FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear. At 5:07pm, the return time was at 8:25pm (That’s a long time for Buzz Lightyear). With the FastPasses, Fastpasses for Carousel of Progress were printed as well. FastPasses for Carousel of Progress are pretty much worthless since the ride is always a walk on attraction. Since we were still waiting for the Dumbo FastPasses to be used, we went on Carousel of Progress. I had never been on the attraction previously. I thought it was a good way to take a break. The song is very catchy. (I didn’t take any pictures of it)
After Carousel of Progress, it was time to use our FastPasses for Dumbo.
We got into the line at Dumbo around 6:15pm and were on at 6:23pm.
After Dumbo, it took us a minute what to do next. We decided to go back to Tomorrowland to ride Astro Orbiter. The ride had a posted 40 minute wait, but we didn’t mind since we had done so much already. We got in line at 6:32pm with the magical red time card (lol).
We got on the ride at 6:57pm, almost half of the posted wait time. It was a bit crammed for two college guys to share one vehicle. The views from Astto Orbiter were great.
After Astro Orbiter, we decided to just walk over to Fantasyland to ride the carousel. There was no wait for the carousel, but we were some of the last people to get on. Thus, we got stuck with the small horses on the inside of the carousel. I wanted to get Cinderella’s horse, which is identified by a golden ribbon tied to its tail. It is one of the horses on the end of the carousel.
We got off of the carousel at 7:21pm. At this point, we went through the castle to go on the hub. By the time we got there, the hub was very crowded and starting to line up for the parade at 9pm.
Since my friends were tired, we decided to grab a spot to sit for the Main Street Electrical parade. While we waited, the girls saved our spots while my friend and I got ourselves a Mickey Pretzel. I totally forgot about the Dole Whips, I would have gotten one instead. After we got our snacks and finished them, the time was 8:20pm. The times for our FastPasses for Buzz were coming up. My friend and I stayed in our seats while the girls went on the ride and got themselves a snack.
When they were coming back, they were stopped for a high school marching band playing on the parade route. After they were gone, they were able to come back. By the time they got back, it was too late for my friend and I to go on Buzz Lightyear before the parade. Thus the parade began. My camera died right after I took the first picture of the parade. Thankfully, my friends were happy enough to take pictures since I had been all day.
After the parade, my friend and I quickly went to go on Buzz Lightyear with FastPasses that were a little expired. The CM let us on with them. After the ride, the CM working at the pictures desk was impressed with our picture.
We got off the ride at 9:46pm. I totally forgot about the projection show on the castle before the fireworks. My friend and I were able to meet up with the girls and we were able to watch the last 2/3rds or so. The show itself was very impressive.
After the show, it was time for Wishes
After Wishes, we all decided that we wanted to ride Space Mountain one more time. By the time we got there, it was shut down for some weird reason. Luckily, the ride did open up again and we were able to ride Space Mountain for our third time.
After Space Mountain, we agreed to call it a night. We looked through some of the shops on Main Street for a bit and left at 11:50am. We were at Magic Kingdom for about 17 hours. We really needed to get to bed soon since it would be yet another early morning the next day.
You really lucked out with such a short wait on Peter Pan! It seems like that attraction's queue is always at least 20 minutes long, even during EMH. The bottom picture you have of It's a Small World with the platypus, hula girls and little mushroom huts is always one of my favorite places to take a picture ~ the little faces on the mushrooms are sooooo cute 
The picture from later in the day looks like everyone is having fun.
