The first thing you’ve got to remember about Disney World is to pace yourself. This is a mistake that a lotta first timers make. You’ve got all these unbelievable rides and cool stuff to do! But if you try to do it all at once, you’ll be sleeping like a baby by lunch time…
~ Disney World “The Voice of Experience” advert, circa ‘96
I never actually thought I would make it to the Magic Kingdom. Somehow it was easier to get to all the other Disney parks – even Tokyo, than it was to manage to get myself to Florida. But there I was, bouncing around a hotel room early in the morning, on the one day so far that has not been abnormally cold, getting ready to board the resort bus one of only two major Disney parks I had not yet been able to visit. It was all I could do not to just grab Amras by the hand and run to the bus station.
Of course, it helped that the resort we were staying at had a garden that was full of various statues of Disney characters so I was able to zip from one to one taking creatively staged photos. Including one of bowing to Mufasa that I am rather pleased with.
Finally we made it to the Magic Kingdom. For the first time in ages, I didn’t cry when I saw the castle, I just stopped and stared at it. Because it was huge. I thought I knew Disney, I really did, but I was floored by the size of this park. I have never seen one so massive, and there was no way we could have done it all in just one day. We got there shortly after the park opened, but by noon we had barely even scratched the surface of Fantasyland let alone even ventured into the other areas. Even the Fantasyland here was huge!
Once we got ourselves oriented we did head for our first Fastpass, which was the Haunted Mansion, on the outside it looked very different from the ones I was familiar with, but on the inside it was the same well loved graveyards and ghouls as in California. I still find myself surprised that I remember so much of the script, considering it’s not necessarily my favourite ride (that honour stands with Big Thunder Mountain, which doesn’t have a script).
We wove our way from Big Thunder back through fantasyland, where I had my inner child set free by Peter Pan’s Flight, which much to my delight had a full interactive queue, unlike the one in California. The line wove through the Darling nursery, with Tinker Bell darting across the walls creating interactive shadow butterflies and shadow bells you could ring with your fingertips (seriously, how did they do that?). We did have a bit more adventure than we expected as we got stuck on Peter Pan, unfortunately not over London which would have been pretty magical, but the ride stalled just as we were getting to the exit, we still hear the soundtrack behind us, and next to us Captain Hook was endlessly trying to escape from the crocodile – but the ships were not moving. It was only for a few minutes but it was none the less a new addition to my roster of “fun and unusual Disney experiences”
Then it was once again out into the Florida sunshine – which was thankfully actually warm today. The park was crowded, but amazingly not overly so. We were able to weave our way through very easily. Some lines were definitely on the longer side, but not terribly so. One of the first things we noticed was that at least one of the character meet n’ greet lines were much shorter than expected so we were able to meet both Elena (whom I am not actually familiar with as she comes from a tv series that doesn’t’ seem to air in Canada) and Cinderella, who was by far one of the best cast members I’ve ever seen in the role.
It’s difficult to know where to start when you’re exploring a park this big. Do you go to Pirates first or to Space Mountain? Do you use your extra fastpass on the seven drawf’s mine train? Or on Big Thunder? Where do you start.
For a long while we bounced from photographer to photographer. Since we bought the Memory Maker pass every photo that was take by the park photographers and every ride photo we got was already paid for so hunting out new opportunities to add to the collection was a fun way to spend the time.
But eventually we did start getting hungry, so we headed back in the direction of Main Street; while we were trying to decide whether or not to meet Tinker Bell before or after lunch (our fastpass for her line was for 12:40) we ended up stumbling directly into the morning parade! Definitely a stroke of luck, because if there’s one thing that Disney knows how to do it’s Parades. This was just a little mini one, only three floats, but definitely still counted as a parade, and since we were down at the beginning of main street, we actually ended up standing right where it came out of the gates. Utterly brilliant.
Once the street party had moved on, we were still trying to decide on when we wanted to eat vrs when we wanted to meet and greet my favourite fairy. But looking up at the wait time for Town Hall, where we were scheduled to meet Tink just after noon, we realized that the wait time was only 15 minutes, there is absoluetely not point in wasting a fastpass to bypass a 15 minute line, so we swapped the pass out for a chance at Buzz Lightyear’s Toy Story adventure later in the evening and popped into the standby line for Tink instead. The line zipped through the comparatively reserved Town Hall before entering into a room that had been painted to look like giant blades of grass, where a cast member asked us
So we need a few things before we can make you fairy size so you can see Tinker Bell…we need faith trust and what’s the third thing…?
And all the kids in the room (and yes, us too) cried out in their most excited voice
PIXIE DUST!!
And the room suddenly lit up with pixie sparkles as the hidden door swung open to reveal Pixie Hollow.
Thank you Disney, for always thinking of the most magical way to do the most mundane things, even just opening a door.
Tink was definitely “new” Tink, more chirpy and friendly than her classic counterpart, but she said I was a flower fairy so I can’t really fault her.
Once we’d left Pixie Hollow (and returned to our normal human-type size) we went next door to Tony’s Italian restaurant, for those of you who know Lady & the Tramp, yup it’s that Tony’s! We even had spaghetti and meatballs, although we didn’t find ourselves eating the same strand ;). Once we finished lunch we realized that we still hadn’t seen much of the rest of the park so we made our way to Tomorrowland for our slot at Space Mountain, which – as it always does – reminded me that I still love dark coasters. The version in Florida did not feel as fast as the others I’ve ridden before, but the effect was the same, twists and turns through the darkness that require you to have total faith in the machinery.
Frontierland, where we lingered in the cool damp air of the line for Pirates of the Caribbean (a ride photo for which would later should up in our Memory Maker account with neither of us having any idea how it got there), before heading over to Big Thunder to use the free fastpass we’d been given because of our loss of Beauty and the Beast the day before. Still by far my favourite ride in the park, I will always be willing to wait for “the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness”…but getting to practically walk right on? Yeah, that’s definitely a bonus.
It was far too soon that sunset began to gather around us, we had one last battle on Buzz Lightyear’s (which he won, by totally unfair advantage *Ahem* more on that eventually) – before heading back to Fantasyland to see the Fireworks.
Oh. My. Goddess. I’ve seen fireworks, I’ve even seen Disney fireworks, but these fireworks? These put everything to shame. The stars shattered into millions of flashing sparkling pieces, fire glowed and music soared, and suddenly it didn’t matter that there were thousands of people crowded around me. None of it mattered. Nothing mattered. I started crying, I couldn’t stop crying…and just when I thought that it couldn’t possibly be any more perfect…there she was…on sparkling incandescent wings…Tinker Bell flew. I first saw Tinker Bell fly when I was just little, and ever since then….ever since then seeing her makes me that little girl again…and if I wasn’t crying before, watching her soar up there in the giant follow spot, the tears definitely came.
Because after all these years I still remember just how hard you have to wish…
Because Tink still flies…
And I will always believe