First star to the right and straight on til morning
November 8th 2015 was our arrival day at Walt Disney World, the place I had dreamed of since my early childhood, sleep was expected and we did not even try. So because we weren't even bothering trying to sleep it hardly mattered that we left for our 5am flight way way too early at about midnight the night before. Why did we leave so ridiculously early? Well there were a few reasons, one we kept forgetting this was considered a domestic flight so we didn't need to be as early, but more so because we were getting a free ride and this was the time that worked out best for that. We got to the airport around 1am and managed some sleep in the airport due to everything being closed and therefore having nothing to do. Let's be honest though even if things were open its not like the buffalo airport has much going on, this is an extremely boring airport so BRING ENTERTAINMENT!
The flight was smooth despite having a minor lay over in Chicago we managed to arrive at MCO just before 11am. We were ahead of schedule before I noticed all the cool shops this airport had to offer. The Orlando airport is definitely the coolest airport I have ever been in. In the air port I bought my sparkly Minnie ears, ears are of course a Disney trip must have. My best friend who was already at th parks thought it was weird I got my ears at the airport so lets talk about where to buy your ears. The airport and the park charge the same price so there is no cost benefit in pre-buying ears so basically what it comes down too is if you want to already have your ears on when you arrive or if your OK buying them in the park. The park does have a mini store that is technically outside of the park just after security but before you entire on to main street where you can also buy ears so you would technically have them prior to entering the park. Another thing to consider when deciding where to buy your ears is that stores in the park will have a larger selection of ear styles. So if you want character ear hats or specialty ears such as Christmas or Halloween you are better of waiting until inside. With this being my first visit I wanted my ears already on for the magical express and arrival, I also wanted more traditional ears so airport ears were a perfect buy but in the future I may wait until inside and choose more non-traditional ears. Just a few things for you to consider.
When we arrived at our resort which was All Star Sports we quickly checked in and went to drop our things off in our room. After dropping everything off we went straight to the bus to the Magic Kingdom!
We got through security and into the Magic Kingdom quickly and within moments were standing on Main Street USA. WOW, all the pictures do not fully capture Main Street. With it being Christmas time they had a giant Christmas tree in the middle of town square where Pluto and Marie were doing meet and greets. Main Street was bustling with high crowds in part due to the ABC Christmas special which was filming. The positive energy you feel walking into the kingdom is indescribable, it really is magical.
Being back a head of schedule we decided to explore Main Street while we waited for our fastpass to meet Mickey. I am sentimental and sometimes traditional so I decided we couldn't do anything within Mickey's kingdom until we had met him. With so many shops to explore and so much to see time flew by and soon it was time to head back to the Town Square Theater to meet the mouse himself.
Mickey can talk, which I wasn't expecting! And as previously mentioned he's also bilingual which just adds to the cool factor! I focused on not getting over whelmed and crying as it was our turn to meet Mickey, he congratulated us on our anniversary which was actually at the end of your trip but we wore our pins throughout the trip.
If you are celebrating a special event during your own disney trip be sure to tell the cast member checking you in as you will receive a pin highlighting your celebration and it really does add some extra magic. Throughout our trip so much happened that we ended up with quite the collection of pins. When you wear a celebration pin it opens conversations, brings well wishes and in the case of my best friend who celebrated her birthday during our trip lead to an entire bus singing her happy birthday!
After meeting Mickey we had about an hour until the festival of fantasy parade and about an hour and a half before the start of our next fastpass so we used this time to get involved with the Sorcerer's of The Magic Kingdom game. It was a really fun time filler and I would definitely play more on future visits when I am not trying to squeeze as much in. After beating a round of Sorcerer's we used a snack credit for ice cream at the ice cream parlor on main. The ice cream parlor on main offers both Tofutti and Rice Dream vegan ice creams and has chocolate and vanilla. I got one scoop vanilla and one chocolate I believe both were Toffuti but I dont really care about which brand I get as long as its vegan so I just asked for 1 scoop chocolate and 1 vanilla of the vegan ice cream. It was the best vegan ice cream I have ever had so I highly recommend making time. Once we had our ice cream in hand we found seats for the festival of fantasy parade. While our area wasnt bad one thing that must be said is PLEASE USE COMMON SENSE if you are the row closest to the street, standing on the curb sit your butt down! people behind you especially little people of all ages want to see too! If your in the front sit, if your really tall let someone really short stand infront of you, common sense, common courtesy.
The Festival of Fantasy was the coolest parade I have ever seen and my personal favourite of all the Disney parades. I would say making time to watch this parade is a 100% must do especially for first timers.
After the parade we went to do rides during our trip we used fastpass+ strategically but even in stand by lines we did not wait longer than 30 mins for anything! I will definitely do an entire on optimizing your fastpass selections in my planning series. In the evening we met up with my best friend and rode some more rides leading up to Celebrate the Magic and Wishes.
After Wishes the Magic Kingdom was in extra magic hours meaning the park was open later than usual but I was tired and so we went back to the hotel shortly after wishes. A magical end to a magical day.
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