Day Two: Sunday, October 5, 2014
Surprise, surprise, our little 5 AM alarm clock didnt let a little thing like flying to another state stop him. Shortly after five oclock, Matthew stood up in his crib and announced he had a wet diaper, that he was hungry and that he was done with this whole crib business. I was almost immediately excited to get to the Magic Kingdom, so I didnt mind that much. I got up with him, changed his diaper, got his shoes and jacket on and put him in the stroller. We walked out into the chilly dark morning and left the girls to get some more sleep.
I pushed him down to the main building when I discovered the one flaw in the Landscape of Flavors food court: It doesnt open until 6 AM and doesnt serve hot food until 7 AM. Well, so much for my typical pot of coffee before six. To kill the 45 minutes until coffee, I took Matt over to the playground area in the Nemo section. That didnt last long because without two adults to man the top and the bottom of the slide, it took about five minutes before Matt banged the crap out of his face. Time for Plan B.
We went over to the Cars section which he had liked on our post-dinner stroll the previous evening. Thats when Matt discovered his absolute favorite attraction at Disney World: a bunch of rocks on the side of the path. He spent the next half hour making piles of rocks while I surfed my phone on the resort wi-fi and counted the minutes until coffee would be served.
At five to six, I put him back in the stroller and headed back up to the main building. We got distracted by a Cast Member who was power washing the walkway by the pool. Matt thought it was so cool. Eventually, we got up to the food court as they were unlocking the doors. I got him a banana and a blueberry muffin for us to share and I filled my mug with coffee. We sat at a table for awhile until Matt made it clear he was bored. So I grabbed a couple bagels and a milk for Rachel, refilled my coffee mug and Jenns and we headed back to the room.
Jenn was already showered and Rachel was in the bathtub when we got there. We crammed down our light breakfast and got ready for the day. We loaded up my backpack with all the essentials and stuffed the stroller full of whatever would fit. After spraying down with sunscreen, we walked down to the buses and got on one of the first Magic Kingdom buses of the day. There were a lot of likeminded early risers, so I wound up having to stand.
This revealed a major flaw in our stroller design. The latch was flimsy to begin with, but after we stuffed every nook and cranny of the stroller full to the brim with stuff, it no longer worked at all. I was trying to hold the whole thing together with just the strength of my hand, but it was starting to unfold every time the bus braked. Thankfully, we had bought a Munckin travel diaper changing kit that had a heavy duty strap with a clip on it that we used to secure the stroller together. Turned out to be one of the most useful items we bought for the trip and it is was only like $15. It wound up helping us change diapers all week, and keep our stroller from falling apart. Good deal.
It wasnt long before Cinderellas castle peeked out in the distance. It was great watching my daughter light up at its sight. The bus parked and we scurried off to the early entrance for those with morning restaurant reservations. This was the first time we had ever scheduled morning reservations, but I dont think well ever do it any other way now. It is so magical walking into the park with hardly anyone there. The sun had come up on a perfect day without a cloud in the sky. We were all giddy as we walked up Main Street to the castle and our reservations for Cinderellas Royal Table.
We parked the stroller and got in line for our photo with Cinderella. We pointed out Gus and Jacque hiding in the rafters to the kids as we waited. We also discovered the trick that kept Matt occupied in every line throughout the trip. Jenn let him use her iPhone to play the Peek-A-Boo Kids app we had purchased for $1.99. It worked all week. It was worth so much more than two dollars.
After our pictures with Cinderella, we went upstairs for breakfast. What a wonderful experience! The room is gorgeous, the food is great and I cant think of a better way to start a morning in the Magic Kingdom. Every time a new princess enters the room, there is a royal announcement and the room applauds. Our daughter was all smiles the whole meal. Her brother made it clear real early that he was not excited about meeting princesses. All week long, he liked the characters in costume but was absolutely frightened of the pretty girls in make-up. Thats my boy, I guess.
Jenn took him down to the bathroom to change his diaper and let him run around out in the area by the castle while I stayed with Rachel to meet a few more princesses. As it got close to 9 AM, we went downstairs and joined up with Jenn and Matt. It wasnt long before the cast members dropped the ropes into New Fantasyland and the race was on to Enchanted Tales with Belle! We rushed with all of the other families who had gathered after breakfast trying to be the very first into Belles cottage. It turned out we were second, but it didnt matter because you need a group of 20 before they let you in for the first performance. So, we really didnt need to rush, but it was fun anyway.
After a bit, enough people joined the line behind us for us to move into Belles fathers workshop where the magic mirror opened up and took us to the Beasts castle. What a cool effect! We walked through the door and met up with the Wardrobe to get dressed for our parts. Im not sure how they make her look so real, but theyve come a long way in the animatronics engineering at Disney. I got picked to be a knight and Rachel got selected to be the Beast!
We went into the drawing room for the performance. I guess the animatronic Lumiere was really cool, but I couldnt really see him as I had to stand in the front corner of the room to play my part of a suit of armor. Oh well, thats the life in show biz
Rachel had a blast as the center of attention dancing with Belle. Matthew seemed to enjoy watching it from the back with his Mom. All in all it was very fun way to kick off our day in the Magic Kingdom.
With that done, we headed off to the Little Mermaid area, bypassing Gastons Tavern for the time being. We wanted to ride the Little Mermaid ride on stand-by as we were using our Fastpasses for other things when the park got more crowded. The wait time was posted at 20 minutes when we arrived, but we really walked right through the queue and on to the ride. Let me say, this was one of the rides we were most looking forward to riding while we were planning this trip. All of New Fantasyland had come about since our last visit and we were excited about all of it. But, since our little girl is such a Little Mermaid, this ride really took the cake when we were researching/daydreaming about our first time in New Fantasyland.
Unfortunately, it didnt really live up. It was ok. It just wasnt that spectacular. It didnt seem to have the magic of the older rides nor did it have any special pizzazz for a new ride. It was just sort of there. Matthew didnt really like the dark parts of the ride either. Oh well. You cant win them all.
Thankfully, afterword we used our first Fastpass to meet Ariel in her grotto, and that was exactly what our Little Mermaid wanted. She was positively star struck. It was very cute to see, especially in her Little Mermaid dress that her mom had made for her. Rachel has always complained about the store bought princess dresses that they are itchy. So, Jenn made her three dresses for the trip with no itchy factor at all. Yay, Mom!
After that, we ventured into the Storybook Circus area. It was past 10 AM now, and there was still hardly anyone in the park! It was also a lot cooler than we had expected. When we were planning, we had envisioned the kids clamoring to get into the splash area by the Casey Jr. trains, but it was a little chilly for that. We rode Dumbo and I took Rachel on Barnstormer. Both kids enjoyed Dumbo, but Rachel hated Barnstormer. She adamantly told me she did not want to ride any more roller coasters. Ever. I told her shed probably change her mind in a few years. We will see.
After Barnstormer, it had warmed up enough for Rachel to play in the water at Casey Jr. Matthew was still completely not enthused about getting wet, though. Thankfully, he played with the magic wand his sister had gotten at breakfast while she splashed. We had her take her dress off and had her swimsuit underneath for an easy transition. Once she was done playing, Jenn took her into the nearby bathroom to change and I changed Matthews now overflowing diaper. Let me state for the record just how happy I am as a father that every single Mens Room at Disney is outfitted with ample changing station areas. Ive been too many places where this isnt the case. It is frustrating. Disney knows what its doing, though, so I shouldn't be surprised.
With everyone fresh and dry, we left the Storybook Circus area and shoved off to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Matthew had started to get cranky and we found out why on our way over to Winnie the Pooh. He fell soundly asleep in his stroller, something he never does. Apparently all of the action and lack of napping over the past few days caught up with him and he passed out completely at 11 AM. We decided to have Rachel and I ride Winnie the Pooh with our Fastpasses while Jenn pushed Matthew around.
That is when we first discovered there was an issue with Rachels Fastpasses. Her band wouldnt scan at Ariels Grotto, and now it wouldnt scan on Winnie the Pooh. Thankfully, the cast member let us through and we had a fun ride together. Afterwards, she went back on with her mom and we hoped her band would scan this time. It did not. The cast member looked up her itinerary to find it was blank! She had no Fastpasses at all even though I had stayed up until midnight two months prior to get all of our Fatspasses ready for the trip (and still couldnt get one for Anna and Elsa, but I digress). Again, the cast member let her through and she had another great ride with her mom while I pushed sleeping Matthew around the gift shop.
After Winnie the Pooh we headed over to the Rapunzel bathroom area to look for Pascal and keep busy while Matthew slept. After we found Pascal hiding in an upstairs windowsill, Jenn and Rachel went on Its a Small World as the stand-by line was fairly short. I pushed Matthew back over to the nearest Fastpass kiosk in Fantasyland next to Mickeys Philharmagic to try to sort out Rachels issues. After waiting through the line, I was told I needed her Magicband in order to do anything. So, that was a pointless twenty minutes. If you cant tell, we werent exactly wowed by the Fastpass+ experience. Im sure theyll eventually get the kinks worked out
but that didnt help us.
I went back over to Its a Small World and met the girls coming off the ride as Matthew woke up from his impromptu hour nap. I explained that we needed to go back over to the kiosk to sort out Rachels Fastpass issues, but we were starving at that moment, especially little post-nap grumplepuss. So we went over to Columbia Harbour House for lunch. Jenn took the kids and sat down and I waited in an interminable line for food. I love Columbia Harbour House, but I got unlucky and wound up in the slowest food line Ive ever seen at Disney World. Thankfully, this was an anomaly and we got it out of the way early on this trip. Eventually I got my kids Mac and Cheese meals, and the chicken and fish for Jenn and I and scurried over to my starving toddler.
Everyone wolfed down everything in nearly complete silence. We were hungry, and the food at Columbia Harbour House continues to shine. Its one of the best counter service restaurants on property and hands down the best at the Magic Kingdom. Do yourself a favor and work it into your plans if you can.
With everybody fed and happy, Jenn and I discussed our options for the afternoon. Originally, we had planned to ride Peter Pan after lunch and head back to the resort for a nap. However, since Matthew had just napped, we decided to stick around for the parade at 3pm and just ride it out through dinner that evening. The first order of business, though, was to get Rachels Fastpasses worked out. We went back over to the kiosk next to Mickeys Philharmagic and waited in line once again. Once we finally got to the front, they scanned her band and my band before asking to scan Jenns band, as well. After some more waiting and fumbling around with the app on one of the machines to no avail, I was taken over to the side by a cast member with an iPad.
Jenn took the kids over to the carousel in the meantime while I spent far longer than I expected getting to the bottom of the issue. It turns out that because Jenn had been the account that wed purchased our resort tickets through, she had been the person assigned to control the kids itinerary. So, while my account had been connected to her, I had not been given permission to change Rachels Fastpasses. So, back in August when I had waited until midnight to make our Fastpass selections, I should have been logged in as Jenn and not as me. I did not know that, nor was I informed at any point in the process. I made our selections for our Entire Party not realizing that only was referring to Jenn and I and not the kids. Since Matthew was under three, it didnt matter because he just rode with Jenn and I no matter what. But Rachel had her own itinerary and it was completely blank. So, one by one, we had to go through and add her to all of our Fastpass selections for the week. What a painstaking process.
Thankfully, the cast member was very professional about the whole thing and worked very hard to get it all corrected. As an apology, he gave us all a full day Fastpass to meet Tinkerbell after asking what other things we might want to do. That was very nice of him and I applaud his efforts. I do not applaud the Fastpass+ system, though. Like I said, theyll work out the kinks eventually, but I didnt want to spend 45 minutes adjusting my daughters Fastpass selections while on our first real day at the park. I thought the idea of the Fastpass+ system (at least as it was billed to guests) was to spend less time attempting to get on rides at the park. This was not how it worked out.
Anyway, with all of that done, we decided to hop into Mickeys Philharmagic as the show was about to start. This movie is still a lot of fun. Matthew loved it, even though he wouldnt wear his 3D glasses. Apparently a blurry Donald Duck is all he needs. He absolutely loved the bubbles and the water and everything about it. It was a nice way to wind down after the unexpected hassle at the Fastpass kiosk.
After that, we went over and rode Its a Small World as a family on standby. Matt really liked all the animals. I just liked being on it with my family. There is something about the classic rides that just cant be duplicated by the new attractions.
It was getting closer to parade time, so we headed toward the front of the park to use our free Fastpass to meet Tinkerbell. We had gotten very lucky with the weather. No clouds, nice breeze, low 80s. It was perfect. But, being from Michigan, we were starting to feel the sun just a bit. We stopped and bought a large Mickey Mouse cup of iced tea and some ice cream. When we got over to Town Hall, Matt needed a change, so I took him to the bathroom while Jenn and Rachel met Tinkerbell.
After that we relaxed on the porch outside of Town Hall, sipping water and eating caramel corn from the nearby Confectionery waiting for the parade to begin. If youve never done this, let me recommend giving it a shot. The people watching at the center of Main Street USA is pretty good. It was also nice to get off our feet and relax in the shade for awhile. Matt and Rachel ran around and played while we relaxed. It was a good afternoon.
As the parade traffic started to pour in, we ultimately left the shade of the veranda to get a better view along Main Street. We were not disappointed. The Festival of Fantasy lives up to its name. One of the best parades with some of the coolest floats (and dragons) Ive ever seen. It was worth skipping our resort downtime.
After the parade, we went over to Peter Pan for our Fastpass (plus? minus?) ride. This ride is such a classic. It was a lot of fun despite the ride breaking down for a few minutes toward the end. This actually seemed to happen quite a lot this trip. Not sure if the rides are getting older or America is getting fatter, but something is going on. Anyway, It was fun to ride in our pirate ship as a whole family.
We had less than an hour before our dinner reservations at Tonys Town Square at that point, so we made our way back toward the front of the park and got some water and took a rest at Caseys Corner. By the time we got down to Tonys, the days activity was starting to weigh on all of us. For the record, it is important to go back to the resort to rest in the afternoon. Of course, its also important to see the afternoon parade if you can, so choose wisely. Its easier to stay all day on your first day in the park than it is your last.
We got seated fairly quickly at Tonys and we thankfully got to stay in the air conditioned indoors right next to a big window. We could continue to people watch on Main Street while being completely comfortable. I ordered the NY Strip Steak. I forget what everyone else had, but the steak was good. I wouldnt say Tonys had the best food of the trip, but It was pretty good. It was just nice to eat on Main Street.
After dinner, it was time to head back to the resort. Matt started to get pretty cranky, so we headed to the bus and an early bedtime for him. This time, Jenn took Rachel down to the pool while I stayed up in the room with Matt. I was almost asleep by the time they came back. It had been a terrific first day in the parks. We couldnt wait to see what lay ahead!