Day One at Disney World...since we were staying at The Walt Disney Resort I had the luxury of flying in in the morning and still having a full day in the park. I took a 9am flight to MCO (Orlando Airport) which arrived around 11am I then proceeded straight to the Magical Express (a bus service for people staying at The Walt Disney Resort Hotels) it is a free service. Even if you don't know what flight your on make sure you sign up for this service...you don't even have to use it but if you don't sign up for it you don't get the luggage service (they pick up your bags from the carousel) and if you end up taking the express you have to wait in a LONG line to get your tickets to get on. Since I had my ticket I walked up and they scanned it and I was almost put on a bus right away. Sometimes even if you have everything ready you still have to wait 20 minutes or so for your bus. It takes about 45 minutes from MCO and as I was arriving on the bus so was my friend who was staying nearby for a Orlando wedding.
I used the online check-in so my room was available prior to arrive at the resort I was staying at the Pop-Century Hotel. We went straight to our room and changed for our day. Our package was 4-Base tickets, 3 nights in the hotel, and the dining plan. Since we were hungry we decided to go to the food area at our hotel and got what we wanted to eat, our meals included a entree, dessert, and drink. We also picked up our complementary unlimited drink refill mugs that came with our dining plan they are about $15/per mug without the dining plan, great for those coffee drinkers. After our meal we headed straight to the Magic Kingdom bus.
One great thing about staying the resort is your room key is also your resort tickets, meal plan, and can also be your credit card. As soon as we got into the Magic Kingdom we did what everyone needs to do we got our ears, I was disappointed to find that Disney now charges to get ears with your name on them...it was truly disappointing to me...however since we had our buttons on that say we are celebrating our birthdays they gave us our embroidery for free as a "Magical Moment"
Since we are staying in the Disney Resort hotels we get the benefit of "extra magic hours" which means for the us the park was open until 3am since normal closing time was midnight for non-Disney hotel guests. So our ride game plan was always first go get space mountain fast passes then go around the park hitting all the shows and rides that had less than a 20 minute wait...this is also smart because not all things are open during the Extra Magic Hours. Also the Extra Magic Hours change in each park each day sometimes they are 1 hour in the morning and some are 3 hours in the evening but never the same park the same night so check the calendar...in the summer they also add the extra magic hours to the water parks.
Since fireworks were around midnight we headed to the California Grill in the Contemporary Hotel around 9pm for our reservations they take the dining plan but its two sit down dinners per person but so worth it because if you are there during the fireworks they will hold your food and you can go to their outside walkway and watch the fireworks from there with the Magical Music. Below is a view from the walkway.
After we had our lovely Filet Mignon for Dinner we received our desserts which we absolutely decant and we were very very very full but running late because we wanted to get back for the Main Street Electrical Parade. Here are our desserts.
When we got back to the park we just missed the beginning of the Main Street Electrical Parade which I still think is the coolest parade they've ever had.
After this we literally walked in the Disney Circle doing all of the rides that you usually have to wait hours for like buzz lightyear, peter pan, and space mountain...as well as we repeated our favorites like the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain...we went on some rides we wouldn't have normally gone on like Astro Orbiter...Although it was open on this trip this is a great time to hit dumbo for nostalgia because it too hard to get on it during normal operating hours. One huge thing to remember is since we got back at 3am there was NO food for us and that includes drinks so if you know your going to be hungry MAKE SURE you buy some sort of snacks and water at the shop so you won't starve because it happened to me on a trip before and it was no fun!...
If you have any question please feel free to comment or message me!
-Tanya
I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat
