Sunday, June 5, 2011

Orlando vacation day 1 - Magic Kingdom

It was Magic Kingdom (MK) day.  The title of this post should be "How to cover Magic Kingdom in 1 day" because we pretty much covered everything in this park and skipped the things we knew were not worth doing or really silly.  Our knowledge from Disney Land helped in deciding the ride options and hope this post helps you decide what to avoid and what are the must rides.

Even though I couldn't sleep much the previous night, I had to wake up at 6:45 am for 8:30 am shuttle but I was extremely excited to start the day and trip at MK.  Me and my brother got ready by 7:30, headed to breakfast, and got on the 8:30 am shuttle sharp.  The bus actually took us to the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) which is the hub to catch the transportation to all the parks.  We took the monorail to MK and began our adventure.

I have been to Disney Land before, so I knew what to expect from this park, but it was still exciting and breath taking to see the magic of this park :).  Our main goal of the day was to cover the 3 most popular rides first before noon in order to avoid the rush hour and then cover all the other rides accordingly as we can.  With that in mind, we headed straight to Space Mountain and got through the ride in 10 minutes which is more likely to increase as the day progresses.  To be honest, I felt this ride had a lot of turbulence compared to the one in Disney land.  It was definitely longer and had a lot more drops, but it was more darker than the other one.   Right in the Tomorrowland, we also covered Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin which is another fun ride and we got through the line in 5 minutes.  We were at the park right at 9 am, so that's why the park was not crowded yet.  There are two other rides in Tomorrowland which you do not, I repeat, do not want to waste time on.  There is Astro Orbiter and Tomorrowland Speedway.  Astro Orbiter may look cool but it's just a spaceship looking ride that goes up and down in circle and Tomorrowland speedway is a go-cart ride, only that it's the terrible version of the go-carts which goes at 5mph speed.  Don't waste your time on these rides, instead, stand in line for other better rides.

Then we head to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which is about 10 min wait time.  This ride seems faster and longer than the one in Disney Land but it was really good.  Right next door they have Splash Mountain which I have never been on despite having been to Disney Land twice, so I was looking forward to it.  The only thing I was concerned about is whether my brother will be able to go on this ride or not b/c he had dislocated his shoulder couple of months ago and the ride had a 5-story drop at the end in the water.  To make sure it'll be ok for him, I go on the ride first while he waits outside.  The wait was only 15 minutes so it wasn't big deal.  I enjoyed the ride so much and the drop was pretty smooth too, I got a fastpass for me and my brother so he can also come with me again :).  While we wait for the fastpass time, we got pictures with goofy.  Also in the nearby area, the Hall of Presidents show was playing which we went to.  It was a really nice show with combination of a short film and presentation of all the presidents.  After the show it was already time for our ride, so we headed back to Splash Mountain.  By the time we got out, it was noon and the crowd had tripled in the size than what we saw at 9 am.  If it's this crowded on weekday, I don't know how crazy it is on weekends.  Right across from Splash mountain,  they had Tom Sawyer's Island.  It's basically a small island created with kids' play area as well, but if you miss seeing this one, you won't miss much :P.

We were pretty much done with everything in Frontierland so we headed to Adventureland which also had couple of good rides.  First, Pirates of the Caribbean ride which only had like 5-10 min wait time.  It's a slow boat ride and very impressively created.  This ride was also longer than the one in Disney Land.  After this, we tried to go to Jungle Cruise ride but there was just too much wait, so instead we got a fastpass and headed next door to see the Swiss Family Treehouse.  This is, as the name says, a treehouse with bunch of stairs, but built nicely.  It was already 2 pm, so we decided to sit out and eat lunch.  The area behind the Hall of Presidents theater is really nice so we sat there and had quick bite in 20 minutes.  We took a lot of snacks with us and made penut-butter-jelly sandwiches which was pretty filling.  The next door restaurant Columbia harbor house gives you water if you ask them (unlike other restaurants that point you to buy water bottles).  After quick lunch, we headed to Jungle Cruise ride with fastpass and enjoyed it thoroughly.  This one was also bigger and better than the one in Disney Land by showcasing more animals.  It was already 3 pm and time for Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade which was fantastic.  These parades always make me happy and smile because it's so lively and all the Disney characters are part of this parade.

After the parade, we headed to Fantasyland where we first saw Micky's Philarmagic 3D show.  It's really nice show, so don't miss it if you have time.  Next we were able to get through Snow White's Scary Adventures ride because we got help from one of the service agents so we didn't have to wait in line.  Um..you won't miss much if you don't go on this ride.  To be honest, Fantasyland is full of kiddie rides but I even enjoy them except those carousel rides which are truly for kids.  I really wanted to go to Peter pan's ride since it was one of the popular rides.  There was 40 minutes wait for Peter Pan's Flight, but while my brother waited in line for this ride, I ran to get the fastpass for Big thunder mountain railroad since we both enjoyed that ride a lot.  Right across from Peter pan's flight, they have It's a Small World boat ride which had about 20 min wait but the line goes through pretty fast.  After much denial, and little more convincing, my brother agreed to come on this ride with me.  The first thing he said is that all this ride has is bunch of dolls, that's it!  Well it's not just bunch of dolls, but they have created a culture, an environment from each country with these dolls that makes it very unique.  I really enjoyed this ride and I am sure most of the people will.
After the ride, we headed straight to Dream along with Micky stage show.  We stood little bit away from the stage because it was hot as hell and we really needed some shade.  It was still very enjoyable.  We went for our second round of big thunder mountain railroad and then went to Haunted Mansion.  All of those who are afraid of dark places, get nightmares, can't see scary movies, can be part of this ride.  This ride is not SCARY at all!! In fact, it's a fun ride with a lot of things to watch.  So don't miss it.  We still had 2 more things we wanted to catch before the fireworks which was Stitch's Great Escape and Monster's, Inc. Laugh Floor.  Stitch's Great Escape was a really nice show but here are some things.  It's really loud at times and it gets completely dark at times which I didn't really like, but if your kids are not afraid of darkness for few minutes then it should be ok.  On the other side, there is Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor which you do not want to miss.  It is hilarious 3D/digital stage show where Mike (from Monsters, Inc. movie) interacts with the audience.  It is very cool technology and you will walk out laughing hard.  This time we did not go to Tiki show, because we had seen this show before and thought of skipping it in order to cover other things.  If you haven't seen it, do go watch it because it's one of the nice shows that MK has in this park.

It was already 8 pm by the time we got out and my energy was down, my legs were killing me, and I was ready to see the fireworks. which was still an hour away.  We sat really close to the kingdom for good view of the fireworks.  Magic, memory, and me started around 8:45/50 pm followed by the Nighttime Spectacular fireworks which was truly spectacular.  As soon as the fireworks ended, we raced to get out of the park and head to catch the monorail....can you imagine everyone in the park trying to get out at the same time?  We had to catch our shuttle from TTC at 10 pm and for that we had to get on monorail.  It took us 10 minutes just to get out of the park and then another 5 minutes for monorail, add another 10 minutes of travel time and finally we are at the TTC to catch our bus at 10 pm back to hotel.

We came back to the hotel around 10:30 pm, freshened up little bit, ate maggie noodles, I wrote up the highlights of the day and finally went to bed around 12:30 am.  Oh yea, I forgot to tell you guys that we knew that we would be coming back from parks pretty late, so we brought a lot of maggie noodles with us so we can make it in the room.  It was very handy.  Going to bed at 12:30 am but tomorrow will be little easy as we have decided to go to Universal Studios where the shuttle leaves around 9:25 so I get to sleep little bit more...yay!  Nonetheless, it was a loooong day!!  Hopefully tomorrow is short day compared to this park.

Untili then, see ya!

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