Walt Disney World Trip Report: The Magic Kingdom

To continue the rundown of our holiday trip to Disney World, here's what we got up to on our first day at the Magic Kingdom.

Matt was wide awake around 5:30, and we wanted to get to the park in time for the opening ceremony, so we had breakfast in the room, achieved a reasonable level of caffeination, then headed to the bus stop.  It was 7am.

At this point, I wasn't sure about the timing of Disney transportation, so the goal was to have plenty of cushion.  The bus arrived at 7:23, and we pulled up at the Magic Kingdom at 7:30.  The park opened at 9.  Needless to say, we had cushion to spare.  The good news is that there was plenty of people watching to do before park opening, including some awesome DisneyBounding.

One of the things I was looking most forward to was the Magic Kingdom opening.  In the months that led up to our trip, I couldn't manage to watch it on YouTube without crying.  You know how emotional reactions often diminish with repeated exposure?  Not so for me and Disney, it seems.

Here are a couple of clips from the show.  You'll notice that the crowd MOVES pretty much as soon as Mickey stops talking.

And we were off, heading into the park, down Main Street, and into Fantasyland.  We started at Peter Pan's Flight and walked right on.  The interactive queue was fun - Matt recognized characters from the movie and chatted about them the entire way through, and Erik's shadow experienced some trouble with a lantern.  When it was our turn, Matt was nervous about the flying boats, but he felt secure knowing that we were all able to sit in a boat together.  The ride tells the story of the animated movie.  It's super quick, but I love how the boats fly you over both London and Neverland.

Next up was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  There was a short, quick-moving line here that didn't feel at all like a wait.  My favorite bit was that the queue showcases one of the best parts of the Winnie the Pooh movies - the interaction within the pages of the stories themselves.  Into a hunny pot we went and through the story of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.  Matt wasn't wild about the heffalumps and woozles dream sequence, but he loved the part where the track is designed so you feel like you're bouncing along with Tigger.

  

Back from the Hundred Acre Wood, we strolled over to Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid.  The best part here was the way the cars and visuals create the feeling of going under the water; you ramp down and backwards as sea foam is projected onto the ceiling.  Scuttle's commentary bookends were cute, too.

Even though we had a FastPass for Enchanted Tales with Belle for later in the day, there was no wait time when we walked by.  It felt as though we were making really good progress, so we decided change our FastPass and  visit Belle while we were right there.  Belle has always been my favorite Disney princess.  She's odd and always has her nose stuck in a book; that's pretty much my jam.  So I got a little dust in my eye when the mirror transported our group to the day Belle and the Beast fell in love.  Anyone who wants one gets a part in the show, and all three of us ended up participating.  Matt volunteered to be Philippe the horse, Erik got picked to be a suit of armor, and I was picked to be the wardrobe.

I was thrilled that all the planning with the intention of avoiding lines and long waits was actually all working.  But my enthusiasm was starting to read like "LET'S CHECK ALL THE THINGS OFF THE LIST!"  so we stopped in at Gaston's Tavern for a little break.  We ordered a LeFou's Brew and a cinnamon roll the size of my head to share and found a cozy spot amid the antler decor.  LeFou's Brew is slushy apple juice with toasted marshmallow flavoring and passion fruit-mango foam on top.  The drink was intensely sweet.  I'm glad we gave it a shot, but I'm certain it won't become a must-have for us on future trips.

Attitude adjusted, we headed to Storybook Circus.  However, after a brief inspection, Matt was decidedly not down for Dumbo, so we skipped it.  He expressed interest in meeting characters, so we walked a few steps over to Pete's Silly Sideshow and hopped in the line for Minnie and Daisy.  The wait was long, though, so Matt decided fairly quickly that he wanted to do something else.

After a chat outside, we decided to  do the Barnstormer.  I'm still trying to understand the logic that went into Matt's giving Dumbo a thumbs down and yet being cool with the Barnstormer, but I was super proud of him for giving it a try.  It was the little dude's first roller coaster! Super cool!

On our way to Columbia Harbor House for lunch, we stopped in at Mickey's Philharmagic.  It wasn't on our list, but it was a fun little show, and I'm very glad we did it.  Matt developed an immediate interest in the sorceror's hat, and when he got one with mouse ears later he took great pleasure in pretending that it was mischievous and in need of a proper chase.

Lunch was yummy.  I was excited to try the lobster roll because I'd never had one before.  I still feel like I really haven't, but it was a pretty tasty seafood salad sandwich.  If you visit, definitely find a table upstairs away from the hustle and bustle.

We made our way to Adventureland after lunch.  By this time, lines were starting to get long, so I was really happy to have our 12:15 FastPass for Pirates of the Caribbean.  I'd made a note not to sit in the first two rows since people have been getting soaked on the ride since the refurb, but we ended up being put in row 2.  Fortunately, there was just a little splash, and we were in good shape.

The afternoon's plans, it seems, led us to do a bit more crisscrossing than I'd recommend.  Our next FastPass was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, so we headed over to Tomorrowland.  We had lots of time to spare before our FastPass window opened up, so we did Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor.  Erik was onscreen a lot as Sully, and he played the part very well.  Very funny and unexpected - another one I'm definitely glad we did.  By the time we were done, we could head over to Buzz Lightyear.  Although Matt didn't seem wild about it at all, he repeatedly said later that Buzz was his favorite part of the day. 

We decided that our FastPass for the Jungle Cruise would be our last thing in the park for the day, so we walked back over to Adventureland with lots of time to kill.  We stopped by the hub briefly to take a few pictures of the castle and the Partners statue, then decided to get a Dole Whip from Aloha Isle.  This treat has a cult following, and, like the LeFou's Brew, I'm glad we tried it, but I don't know that I'll need to grab one again.

Since we still had time to spare, we checked out the Enchanted Tiki Room.  I'm honestly not sure what to say about it.  We all sort of wandered out of there with "what just happened?" expressions.  Birds, man.  It was so weird, I think we're going to have to do it every trip.

Tiki shenanigans complete, we took a trip through the Swiss Family Treehouse, and then it was time for the Jungle Cruise, or Jingle Cruise since it was wearing its holiday gear.  Our skipper was funny and punny, and I'm so glad that's how we ended our day in the park.  I can't wait to go back to try out the Skipper Canteen restaurant, which opened shortly after our trip.

We walked back through the park to the Wilderness Lodge boat, catching a bit of  a parade on our way down Main Street, and ended the day with a reservation at Whispering Canyon Cafe.  Matt still occasionally bellows for the ketchup at dinnertime.

Next up: Epcot!
In case you missed it: Planning and Arrival Day

Word for the Year 2016

New Year's resolutions are not for me, but last year I decided to choose a word for the year to help me focus and prioritize.  My word for 2015 was adventure.  To me, that word represented a desire to get out, explore, and make memories, and I think we did exactly that.

So I'm going for round two in 2016.  My word for this year is content.  When this word first struck me as a contender, I thought, "Nah, where's the potential for growth in that word?"  But the more I considered it, the more I realized that my attempts at growth have far too frequently come from a sense of comparison or competition or "If I work really hard and fix/accomplish/achieve this, things will be right and good."  Approaching it from that direction is unsustainable at best, self-flagellation at worst, and more often than not has led me to do things that don't really make me better and certainly don't make me happy or good for the people I love.

Maybe the biggest adventure of 2015 was letting go of some of the junk that left me feeling used up and empty and giving due attention to the people who matter most and the actions that make me feel like the best version of me.  Maybe things right now are, in fact, right and good, and maybe it's worth saying that out loud while also digging in from a place of kindness and love to make them even better.  So being content in 2016 doesn't mean sitting around and being okay with whatever but rather getting intentional about being comfortable in my own skin and waking up to the best of where I am right now, both geographically and a bit more figuratively.

That feels big and vague, but I've got some concrete ideas on how to start.  I'll be learning how to take a compliment ("Thank you" is allowed.  Deflection is not.).  The Team Hammonds adventuring will continue with a focus on exploring things close to home and learning to love where we live.  And I want to build on the "document and share things better" plan that I began last year, both here on the blog and on Instagram.

Happy 2016!

Walt Disney World Trip Report: Planning and Arrival Day

Ask me a few years ago if I would ever plan a family trip to Walt Disney World, and the response would have been a resounding NOPE, not gonna happen.

Although I grew up quoting Disney movies and wearing out the Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid soundtrack cassettes in my parents' car stereos, I had a vague yet overwhelmingly unattractive idea of what a Disney trip entailed: oppressive heat; seas of sweaty, stressed people; overpriced everything; and a pre-travel planning process that looked something akin to another full-time job.  Couple that with my husband's social anxiety, which can make sprawling, crowded, unfamiliar places the stuff of nightmares, and it was a clear no-go for us.

The more Matt began to connect to Disney, though, and the more we saw the stories Disney weaves from a little one's perspective again, the more that definite no began to shift until it became a full-fledged member of the maybe list.  And for me, even a maybe warrants extensive research, itinerary drafting, and general playing around to sort out whether it's doable.

Early on in that research process, I came across Shannon Albert's WDW Prep School, a website dedicated to helping people plan Disney World trips.  I pored over each post and listened to her podcast WDW Prep To Go every time I was in the car or flying solo in my kitchen.  Shannon's infectious enthusiasm for Disney and her six-step planning process led me, quite unexpectedly, to fall in love with Disney World and to feel confident in booking our family's trip for December of this year.

We decided on a December trip because we wanted to experience Christmas in the parks.  However, we selected dates that would get us there in between the heaviest crowds around Thanksgiving and the Christmas-to-New Year's surge.  Our final plan included five nights at the Wilderness Lodge with three park days, plus tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party on our final night.

On Monday, December 7, after a year of planning, Erik, Matt, and I walked into the Wilderness Lodge for the first time.  From the very first cast member's "Welcome home," we truly felt it.  We'd found a second home.  It's not an exaggeration to say that this trip changed our lives.

Our arrival night was low-key.  We settled into our room and tried to assess how the hotel's DVC expansion might affect our trip (short answer - other than a not-great view and a sweet little treat from the hotel management, it didn't), then we headed to dinner.

We had a 6:40 dinner reservation at Chef Mickey's, so once we were all set in the room, we headed down to the boat dock for a ride over to the Contemporary.

On this first ride, we swung by Fort Wilderness first and got to watch the sun set over Bay Lake.  I hadn't anticipated using the boats as much as we did throughout the trip, but we did come to rely on them pretty heavily, and they were absolutely a highlight of our Disney routine.

Chef Mickey's was, for us, a great first meal.  Matt has an affinity for the main Disney gang and had received both a surprise invitation letter from Mickey the night before our trip and a welcome box of goodies in our room, so getting to begin with The Mouse himself, as well as Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto, was perfect.  It didn't hurt that, the rowdy dining room filled with families helped to mask his post-car-ride squirreliness, too.

Well-fed and grinning from ear to ear, we headed back to the Wilderness Lodge for the night.

This is Part 1 of our trip report.  As I continue the write-up, I'll add links here to each day's post.  Next up: The Magic Kingdom.  Stay tuned!