Disney World Trip - Magic Kingdom

I started typing up this post, having planned on doing one post with tips on making the most of a Disney World trip, when I realized that I have way more to say than will fit in one post. So, instead of one post about Disney, I'm going to give you one for each day of our trip. Sorry if you only like house updates, come back in a week or so. :) I started looking at my pictures and realized that there were just too many fun things to share to fit it all into one post. So, without further ado: Day 1 Magic Kingdom.

um... actually let's start with our flight out of Houston :) 

I got off work an hour early last Tuesday so we could make our 8:30 flight to Orlando. We parked in the economy lot and took the bus in, first tip: take a picture of the little piece of paper they give you in case you lose it so you can find your car again. Anyways, we got there with plenty of time planning on eating dinner at the airport. There used to be some pretty nice places to eat at the Bush Intercontinental Airport... all the food sucks now. Warning to anyone flying in or out of Houston: Don't plan on eating there. We ended up at some restaurant with mediocre food. I was trying to make the best of it and telling LJ how my wrap wasn't that bad when I found a piece of grass in my food. Now, I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "Kris, that's probably just some weird sprout"...well you decide, I say grass:

Ewww...

But we weren't going to let that dampen our spirits. Here we are waiting for our plane to board:

(Get used to the 'close up because we're holding the camera ourselves' shots - it was a two person trip, that was the only option most of the time)

I was like a kid...well, like a kid on their way to Disney! Taking pictures like a crazy person. I like this one of Houston from the air:

We arrived on time in Orlando and went and checked in to the Disney's Magical Express area. Here's the first real Disney tip: It's so convenient to stay in a Disney resort. We stayed at the All Star Music resort and it was really a great experience. If you stay at a Disney property they get you to and from the airport for free. If your flight gets in before 10 pm (ours did not) and you reserve your Disney's Magical Express ride ahead of time then you can even get them to get your luggage from the plane and take it straight to your room. I can imagine that this is a great perk if you're traveling with a couple small children. Anyways, the All Star resort is the lowest priced Disney resort, it's basically the same price as staying at a Holiday Inn off the premises. The rooms aren't big and the beds in our room were both twins, not queens (booo) but it saved us SO much time. Here's our room:

If you're goal is to see a lot of Orlando and do a lot different things (beach, Sea World, Universal, ect) then a resort may not be the best option. But if your there purely to visit Disney World then I wouldn't do it any other way. 

There is a food court at the resort that you can eat at, we stopped by for breakfast on our first day...and didn't do that again. We split one breakfast plate between the two of us and I had a coffee and LJ had a soda and the total was $22. Seriously? That's a little much. Luckily I had brought a box of granola bars, thinking to pack them in my purse for snacks, what we ended up doing is eating them for breakfast each morning. After breakfast we went to wait for a bus to take us to Magic Kingdom. One of the advantages of staying at a resort is that you get to either enter in an hour early or stay a couple hours late at one of the parks each day. We planned our days around which parks we got the extra hours in. Well, know this if you stay at a resort: everyone else does the same thing so the bus line for that particular park will be longer that day. Here is my tip: bring granola bars for breakfast and eat them in the bus line. While everyone else wastes time on an expensive sit down breakfast you can be one of the fist ones to the park. Here's LJ and I waiting in line, see how happy I am? It's because of the coffee ;)

And off to Magic Kingdom we went. It was wonderful, so empty (well as empty as this park gets). Here's LJ and I on the people-mover ride in Tomorrowland...see all those empty seats behind us?

It wasn't THIS empty on most of the rides... little kids just aren't as interested in the people mover ride... but you get the point. Our original plan was to hit space mountain first, getting a fast pass if the line was long. Well, we just walked onto it three times before moving along, no fast pass needed. The longest wait we had all day was for the bus that morning. Not saying some of the most popular rides didn't have a 30 min wait... but they also had fast pass. I don't know why anyone waited in line. The ride would have a fast pass that let you come back and skip to the front in 30 mins or you could wait in the real line for 30 mins...who is choosing the real line??? We would just grab a fast pass, do a less popular ride and then come back and jump to the front. I don't understand the general public sometimes (I sound like an old man right now).

For lunch we went to Tortuga Tavern, the mexican food place by Pirates of the Caribbean. LJ got nachos and I got the taco salad. LJ got our food while I went to grab a table. When he brought me my lunch I took one look and was disappointed...

Meat in a shell??? How is that a salad??? Oh, there is a toppings bar you say? Let me check it out:

Much better. :) Crisis averted (yes, that's a lot of cheese...so sue me)

Soon after lunch we had actually done almost every ride we were interested in. Didn't expect to get it all done so fast. Had a map and a game plan and everything, but the park was so empty it didn't matter. Well, we decided that instead doing everything twice we would head over to Downtown Disney to check it out and eat dinner. Here is another tip: There is no direct transportation from any park to Downtown Disney. Does that seem dumb to anyone else? The fastest way to get there is to take the monorail from Disney to a resort and then get on the bus from the resort to Downtown Disney. It's annoying but there you have it. 

Downtown was fun. They have a lot of cool shops, like the worlds biggest Disney store and a lego store (right next to one another). Here's the disney store behind a lego display.

LJ and I both agreed that kids these days have way cooler toys. I loved the architecture legos they have now:

While LJ thought the lord of the rings sets would have been fun to play with as a kid:

We had dinner at T-Rex cafe, which is pretty neat inside. Here I am with a T-rex:

LJ had fish and chips (no pic) while I had mushroom ravioli...it was delicious (and prettier in person, this lighting was weird).

For dessert we had this ice cream/fudge/whipped cream thing that was SO good.

After dinner we made our way back to Magic Kingdom in time for their evening shows. The park was already decorated for Christmas and it looked so pretty!!! I love the icicle lights on the castle:

The show where they project different stuff onto the castle was probably my favorite. It was Christmas themed as well. Here or some of my favorite pictures. The gingerbread version makes me want to build a Disney castle out of gingerbread. :)

And of course there were fireworks at the end:

I have to say, watching the show at the end with LJ was one of my favorite moments of the trip. We'd just spent all day at my favorite park, had really good food, got to ride everything, had a great spot to watch the show, and had most of our trip still ahead of us...definitely one of those moments you just want to stay in forever. :)

I'll leave you with a cool picture of the castle I took as we walked through to go do more rides after the show. The extra hours for Magic Kingdom are 8pm-12pm and so we stayed a while and enjoyed it. I will say this though, they didn't check tickets or make anyone leave at 8, so I get the feeling that if you're there in the off season you can probably stay the extra hours and no one will notice...but don't tell them I told you. ;)