Disney Trip 2013 - Magic Kingdom Part 1

This is the third post of my Disney Trip report – click for post #1 and post #2!

Magic Kingdom has always been my favorite park. I also think it’s the most magical park since it’s the one with the giant castle in the middle of it. Because the trip was for Emily’s birthday, I wanted to do something really special for her. I gave her some options and she picked getting turned into a princess at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. My travel agent scored us an 8 am appointment on a day that the Magic Kingdom didn’t open until 9! So both Emily and I were really looking forward to this day.

We got up early because we had wanted to get to the buses by 7 am. The dresses at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique are very expensive so I had gotten Emily a Sophia the First dress before we had left home. She was very excited and very awake due to a

good night’s sleep.

We didn’t have to wait too long for a bus and we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom. It was a little bit of a walk to get to the front of the park and then we took the walk down Main Street. The park was very empty since the only people allowed in were people with reservations. It was getting close to eight so we just made our way to the castle. I got very teary eyed as Emily saw the castle for the first time. I had been waiting for that moment for years!

Once we were in the castle and at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, it didn’t take too long for Emily to be assigned a fairy godmother-in-training (FGIT) to do her hair. She picked the hairstyle that was a bun because it was the one that came with a crown.

I was concerned that her hair wasn’t going to be long enough and that she’d want to take it out right away. Luckily I was wrong on both counts. The FGIT teased her hair and was able to get it into the bun. While she was working on the back of it, another FGIT came over to do her makeup. Finally a crown was put in her hair and a Mickey head barrette in the back. Then came the glitter. Lots and lots of glitter hairspray in her hair.

She was so excited to see herself in the mirror once she was done. It was only about 8:30 when we were all finished. Since the park didn’t actually open until 9 we had some time to kill. Luckily there was a gift shop right behind the castle that was open. They did have photopass photographers there, but Emily didn’t want to get her picture taken. She wanted to look at the toys. She spotted an Ariel / Eric dress up toy like the Minnie Mouse one she bought the day before and she just had to have it.

Once we were done in the store, we just waited by the rope and looked out at Fantasyland. I went to the front of the castle to see about taking some pictures but then I heard the music start up. I hurried back to Todd and Emily, and a few minutes later we were on our way.

An aside here, planning and knowledge is really helpful when you go to Disney World. There is so much to see and do, plus some rides / shows fill up really fast. Even though we used a travel agent, I like reading up on Disney World. So I knew some things that really helped make our trip go smoother.

Because I had read up on all things Disney, I knew that we should head to Enchanted Tales With Belle first thing. I’d heard that this attraction could get backed up with long wait times really fast. Since we were already in the middle of the part, we were one of the first people in line. It’s more of a little show than a ride, because the premise is that we are going to go

back in time to the day that Belle and Beast fall in love through a magical portal in Belle’s father’s cottage. We surprise Belle by acting out the story of how she and Beast first met.

Emily and I had watched the YouTube video of this attraction so we knew what to do. We were taken through the portal and into Beast’s castle. The cast member in charge helped the Wardrobe give parts to everyone. Todd was picked to be a knight and because of my lovely soprano voice I was picked to be the wardrobe. Emily wasn’t picked but was able to get a part and she was a dish. We did the story and then we all got our picture with Belle (I didn’t get mine on our camera and we weren’t using Photopass +).  I had to rush to the back of the room so I could get Emily’s picture with Belle.

From there, we went walked onto It’s A Small World and Dumbo. We also got to ride on the new Little Mermaid ride which was cool. Emily wanted to ride on the Tomorrowland Express, so Todd took her on that because I

had no desire to ride one of those little cars by myself. Apparently, Emily is not a very good driver and kept

crashing them into the walls.

For my Fastpass + selections, I opted to use them for meet and greets. Our first one was over at the Fairytale Hall to meet Snow White and Rapunzel. It was neat to touch our magic bands to the Mickey head and have it turn green. We had a very short wait before we were taken in to see the princesses.

I had arranged the Fastpass + so we had another one to meet the other pair of Princesses, Cinderella and Aurora. All the Princesses were really sweet, though my favorite (and Emily’s) was Rapunzel. After we finished with the princesses, we got some lunch.

Since we were still in Fantasyland, we went to Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch. I think I’ve eaten there every trip I’ve ever taken to Disney World. Emily was starting to hit that wall, so we decided to head back to our room. Emily napped, Todd vegged out and I took a swim. We headed back over to the Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon for more park time.

Up next post – Magic Kingdom Part 2!