Wake up! We’re at Disney World! Are you excited??

Since this is our first day at the parks and we have some newbies in our travel group, we must go to the Magic Kingdom first! That’s the iconic Disney World park, so you first timers out there planning your trip itineraries should definitely plan to go there first. Otherwise, we normally just plan our park order around the crowd levels or on which day we can get the critical ride FastPasses for. However, it’s always exciting to go to the Magic Kingdom, regardless.

So, let’s go! Don’t forget your Magic Bands and sunscreen!

To go to the Magic Kingdom from Pop Century, the best way is just to take the free Disney shuttle bus from the front of the resort. Along the way, we can pop (no pun intended) into the food court to grab a danish or something for breakfast. That’s what we usually do.

Yea! The bus is here now, so let’s go to the Magic Kingdom! It should be about a half-hour ride from here.

While we ride, let’s take a look at an overview map of the Disney parks so that you can get an idea of where each one is in relation to each other.

There are the 4 theme parks – Magic Kingdom at the top, Animal Kingdom to the middle left, Epcot near the center, and Hollywood Studios south of Epcot.

Then, there are 2 water parks – Blizzard Beach to the lower left near Animal Kingdom and Typhoon Lagoon to the lower right near Disney Springs.

Disney Springs is a huge shopping, dining, and entertainment complex, similar to City Walk at Universal, but much bigger. It’s not labeled on the map, but it is that area just below the Typhoon Lagoon label.

The Pop Century resort is at the bottom center under the Hollywood Studios label. Do you see the little bowling pin? That’s us. So, right now, we are basically going from the bottom all the way to the top of the map to Magic Kingdom.

We’re here at the Magic Kingdom! So exciting! Look how beautiful the Magic Kingdom entrance with the train station is. Quick photo! Cheese!

As beautiful as it is here, wait til you get inside! Let’s go in and soak in all of the magic!

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Goosebumps! As you round that corner at the beginning of Main Street, you finally get that view of the Cinderella Castle in the distance. No matter how many times I’ve seen it now, I still get chills. I think this is the moment when it finally hits me that we’re finally here, after all the months of planning. It never gets old! Let’s soak it all in! We’re here! We’re at Disney World!!

For the newbies in our group, let’s take a really quick lap around the whole park so you can get an overview of each land. We’ll go through each one more in-depth later.

Phew! Did you catch everything? This place is huge!

Let’s head towards our first FastPass ride. It is for Space Mountain, so we have to go to Tomorrowland, to the right of the castle. This is a fast, indoor, dark coaster! Are you ready? First ride at Disney!

That was fun! Don’t forget to scan your ride photo onto your Magic Band!

While we’re in Tomorrowland, and we still have time before our next FastPass window ends, let’s do the People Mover ride. This is a slow tram ride that goes above and through the Tomorrowland area/rides. There’s usually no line for it, so we like to go on it to sit for a bit while we plan our next steps.

As a bonus, right now, you can see the construction for the new Tron coaster that will be opening soon. That ride looks awesome! It’s the same one that’s at Shanghai Disney already, so you can look for YouTube videos. We can’t wait for it!

TIP: The three big rides that we usually like to get FastPasses for in this park are Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain. They are the main rides that generally will have long lines. Their FastPasses usually get snatched up pretty quickly, so you really have to hop online right at 7am ET on the day that your FastPass booking window opens to grab them. Look for them in the order that I just mentioned. Mine Train always runs out of passes the fastest. I like to get them for as early as possible so that we have more time in the day to get our subsequent passes after we use up these first three. Of course, your FastPass selections may be different depending on the interests of your group, but if you are interested in riding any of the popular ones, you definitely should get FastPasses for those.

Well, the other fun ride that we like to do in this area is the Buzz Lightyear one, but there’s usually a long wait for it, so we’ll try to get a FastPass for it later. They often still have passes for this ride the day of.

Right now, we need to head over to our next FastPass for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train over in Fantasyland, which is right behind the castle. This is one of my favorites! It’s a fairly mild, medium coaster, so it’s a good beginner coaster for the little ones, as long as they’re tall enough. If you can get everyone in your cart to sway back n forth when you’re inside the central part of the mine where the dwarfs are singing, you can make your cart swing! It’s super fun, one of my favorites. Let’s go!

Wasn’t that fun?!?

While we’re in Fantasyland, let’s do some of the other rides in this area too. There are many iconic ones, like Dumbo, Teacups, and It’s a Small World. This is the land that has the most rides for the little ones, though, they’re fun for kids of all ages. There are several play areas, snack stands, and gift shops, as well. The theming of Fantasyland is so cool. Look all around as you’re walking in this land.

By now, you’ve probably noticed the little castle up in the distance. Yes, that is the Beast’s castle!

If you’re a Beauty and the Beast fan, like I am, you definitely have to check this out. Even if you’re not, check it out anyway. The theming is amazing inside! The castle houses the Be Our Guest restaurant!

This is one of our favorites for lunch. It is considered an a-la-carte counter service type for lunch, but prix-fixe table service for dinner. I recommend doing lunch here as a more reasonable option. You still have a good selection of sandwiches and other delicious entrees that you won’t get at other counter service restaurants, and you get to go inside to see the castle! It’s worth it just to see that!

You’ll enter in the main ballroom, but you can also walk around to see the Library and the West Wing rooms on both sides as well. Don’t forget to find the enchanted rose in the West Wing.

TIP: This restaurant books up right away, even for lunch. If you want to eat here, hop online right at 7am ET on the 180-day mark when your dining reservation window opens, and look for this one first!

Doesn’t it look incredible?!? The food was delicious too!

TIP: When you book a FastPass, you are assigned an hour window for it. That means you can go ride that ride anytime within that window. However, usually, they still let you scan in 5 minutes before and 15 minutes after that window. It’s at the discretion of the cast members, of course, but it usually works. So, even though we typically book our initial three FastPasses back to back, there’s a good chunk of time in between to do other things, if you time it right. You can hit one ride at the beginning of its window and the next one towards the end, and still have time to eat lunch in between, for example.

OK, let’s make our way over to Frontierland for our next FastPass at Big Thunder Mountain before it expires. I know that we’ll pass a lot of things along the way, but we’ll come back to them.

TIP: It’s better to do your initial three FastPasses as soon as possible so that you can get your next one before passes run out. FastPasses for the more popular rides can run out. After you’ve used up your first three, you can go into the MDE app to see what’s still available. You can only get one at a time for the rest of the day, either at this park or another park, if you plan to park hop. You can get the next one as soon as you scan into the current one, even if you haven’t ridden it yet. I like to scan in and start looking for the next one as we’re walking through the queue to the ride. I try to get one for a nearby ride whose FastPass window is coming up soon so that we’re not locked into waiting too long to use that one. However, if you get lucky and see one for a popular ride that’s usually out of passes already, grab it no matter what time it’s for, assuming you actually want to ride it. Don’t hesitate or refresh your screen because it will be snatched up really quickly.

OK, we made it all the way to the other end of Magic Kingdom. Let’s ride Big Thunder Mountain!

That was another fun coaster! It’s a little jarring at spots, but still another one of our favorites!

While we’re in Frontierland, let’s check out Splash Mountain next door. This is another iconic ride, as long as you don’t mind potentially getting wet. It’s a nice, mild ride through the Briar Patch, until… that final drop! Think you can handle it?

Haha! What do you think?

There are several other attractions and dining spots in this area as well. If you want to go exploring, take a raft ride across the river to Tom Sawyer Island. If you want to sit awhile and soak in some A.C., go watch the Country Bear Jamboree show. If you’re hungry again, there are several dining options, though our favorite is the Pecos Bill Cafe. Just explore. You’re in the great frontier, after all!

By now, it’s almost time for the afternoon parade. It starts right near here at the back of the park and goes down the path between Frontierland and Adventureland towards the front of the park. You’ll see people starting to sit along the sides. If you’ve never seen it before, then you definitely should.

I think we should get a snack and find a spot for the parade too. The hardest part may be deciding on which snack. There are so many iconic snacks to choose from – Mickey pretzels, ice cream bars, popcorn, candy, and more. Our favorite near here is the Dole Whip, a refreshing, sweet n tangy pineapple soft serve. Yum!

TIP: Many of the food stops have Mobile Ordering now. Check your MDE app and see if that location is listed in the Mobile Ordering section. If it is, I highly recommend you buy your items in the app, so that you can just go up to the pickup window, instead of waiting in the long lines to order.

OK, now that everyone has their snacks, let’s watch the parade for a bit!

Wasn’t that cool?

Well, while we’re in Adventureland, let’s do some of the rides in this area. We managed to grab a FastPass for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride before, so it’s time for that. There are many attractions in this land – Jungle Cruise is hilarious if you get a good boat skipper, Tiki Room is a classic Disney show and good for more A.C., Magic Carpets of Aladdin is similar to Dumbo and suitable for the little ones, and Swiss Family Treehouse is good for the climbers in the group.

The Skipper Canteen restaurant in this land offers many delicious options, including some more interesting flavors that you may not find in other theme park restaurants. We like eating here.

Now that we’re done with Adventureland, let’s go back to Liberty Square. We skipped that whole area when we were making our way to Big Thunder Mountain earlier. We got a FastPass for Haunted Mansion, which usually has a long wait. Ready to be spooked?

Liberty Square has several good restaurants too. Columbia Harbour House is a counter service with several unique options. We like the lobster roll here. Liberty Tree Tavern has tasty Americana fare, which is a-la-carte for lunch and prix-fixe for dinner. At dinner, it’s an all you can eat Thanksgiving dinner feast, so make sure everyone is hungry. If you go, make sure to get the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake for dessert! So good!!

All of the restaurants that I’ve mentioned so far are good options for dinner, and we’ve eaten at all of them before. For this trip, we were lucky enough to get a reservation for ‘Ohana at the Polynesian resort, so we’re going to wait for that. No more snacking for now! ‘Ohana is another one of the very hard to get restaurants. You need to reserve that right when your booking window opens as well. It’s one of our favorites though, so I always try to get it.

In the meantime, we have just enough time to go back over to Tomorrowland and do the Buzz Lightyear ride that we skipped this morning. That’s the last of the favorite rides that we haven’t done yet today in this park.

Who got the highest score?

OK, I think we covered enough of Magic Kingdom for now. There are still several areas to explore, a few rides we didn’t get to, and lots of snacks to try, but that’s to be expected. This park is huge. You can’t do everything in one day. If you have enough park days during your trip, Magic Kingdom would be the park that you allocate two days for.

For now, it’s time to head over to the Polynesian resort for dinner, but we’ll come back afterward to catch the evening fireworks show, Happily Ever After. It’s really cool! Everyone has to see it at least once per trip!

As we head down Main Street to leave, we have to stop for the obligatory group photo in front of the castle! It’s so beautiful when it’s lit up at night!

The best way to get to the Polynesian from here is to take the resort monorail right outside the park. It forms a loop from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary, Grand Floridian, and Polynesian resorts. We like to hop on the monorail to check out these resorts whenever we have time. They have several good restaurants, and during the holidays, they’re always decorated so beautifully. You do not have to stay at that resort to go there to dine or explore. In fact, some of the best restaurants are at the resorts, so we like to check them out whenever we can.

Who’s hungry? Once we get to the Polynesian, we have to make our way over to the check-in desk for the ‘Ohana restaurant, which is on the second floor. ‘Ohana is an all you can eat family-style restaurant where they bring the food to your table. There are dumplings, wings, teriyaki noodles, chicken, beef, and shrimp from the grill, and the famous ‘Ohana bread pudding. Pace yourself!

Stuffed yet?

The Polynesian has a beach at the back of the resort with a view of the Magic Kingdom in the distance. You could watch the fireworks from there too, but you’d only see the fireworks and not the projections on the castle. The projections are a major part of this new fireworks show, so I recommend you see it from the front of the castle first. It’s a really neat show and a cool way to wrap up our day at the Magic Kingdom.

Let’s go back! It’s so convenient that the monorail stop is right outside of the resort.

TIP: Even if you don’t have a park hopper ticket, you can go back to the same park that you were at that day. So, like today where you were at Magic Kingdom, you can leave to eat at a resort, then go back to the Magic Kingdom again within the same day. You just can’t go to a different park if you didn’t have park hopper tickets.

The Magic Kingdom is so beautiful when it’s lit up. Let’s go find a good spot along Main Street to watch the fireworks show. Make sure to choose a spot that has a close enough view of the front of the castle to see the projections.

Here we go!

Wasn’t that awesome?!?

Well, time to head back to Pop for the night. We had a fun day! Hopefully, you did too. What was your favorite thing about the Magic Kingdom?

TIP: The mass exodus after the fireworks show is crazy!! The shuttle buses back to the resorts will have long waits too. We recommend two possible options. If the park has late hours and you’re up for it, then just stay at the park for at least another hour or more. This way, the exodus crowds will thin out a bit, and you can do some rides in the meantime with shorter lines.

Otherwise, if you want to leave now, take a Lyft instead of waiting for the shuttle buses. The best way to do that is to request your Lyft for pickup at the “Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort” when you get to the exit of Magic Kingdom. Then, after the security gates, take the sidewalk on the left, following under the monorail tracks straight ahead to the tall, round building in the distance. That’s Bay Lake Tower. By the time you get to the front lobby area, the Lyft should almost be there to pick you up. That’s the closest resort to the Magic Kingdom that they can pick up from. They can’t get to the front of the park. Likewise, if you ever want to take a Lyft to the Magic Kingdom, have them drop you off at Bay Lake Tower as well, and then walk over. It’s only about a 10 minute walk, depending on your speed.

Rest up for more fun tomorrow! Goodnight!