Florida Surprise: Magic Kingdom

We woke up early to get to Magic Kingdom before it opened for the day to squeeze every possible minute of magic out of the day. We were able to quickly gobble down breakfast at our hotel (Mickey waffles, of course) and catch the resort bus to the park, arriving before it opened.

We got through the security lines and into the park fairly quickly. This allowed us to enjoy part of the daily welcome show and get some photos in front of Cinderella Castle before Main Street was too crowded.

From the minute we stepped into the park, Elia was enchanted. I loved watching her take everything in. I knew we would have fun but experiencing Disney with her was more fun than I could have imagined. I decided that we would just do whatever she wanted all day long and it paid off. Seeing what she was interested in and what rides she liked and what attractions and characters she was drawn to was the best part of the day.

What We Rode:

1. Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
2. Enchanted Tales with Belle
3. Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid
4. Peter Pan's Flight
5. Dumbo the Flying Elephant
6. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
7. Mad Tea Party (aka, the Magic Tea Cups)
8. Magic Carpets of Aladdin
9. Jungle Cruise
10. Swiss Family Tree House
11. It's a Small World
12. Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid (Again)

Because we were staying at a Disney resort, we were able to book our FastPasses up to 60 days ahead of our trip. If you're not familiar with FastPasses, you basically go into a special line during a reserved time frame so you get into rides without such a long wait. You can book up to three at a time and once you use them all, you can added more, one at a time through the My Disney Experience app, throughout the day. I snagged FastPasses for Enchanted Tales with Belle, Journey of the Little Mermaid, and Dumbo ahead of time and shuffled some things around during the day to get more rides in.

My favorite ride was Peter Pan's Flight, same as when I was a kid. It's nostalgic for me, Peter Pan was by far my favorite Disney movie as a kid plus I remembered the ride fondly from childhood trips to Disneyland and Disney World. To my delight, Elia loved it too, deeming it her favorite ride in Magic Kingdom.

Another highlight of the day was seeing Elia meet different characters. Before the trip, I did not think she would be interested in meeting any characters but got her an autograph book, just in case. She was a little hesitant at first but meeting characters ended up being one of her favorite parts of the trip. While we didn't meet so many characters at Magic Kingdom, meeting characters became her main goal at Epcot but more on that later.

Who We Met:

1. Belle
2. Ariel
3. Anastasia and Drizella
4. Aladdin
5. Tinker Bell
6. Elena of Avalor
7. Cinderella

I was really impressed by the character meet and greets. They were more that just photo ops, each character spent a good amount of time with each child. They were so friendly and made Elia feel so comfortable and special.

Elia says her favorite character to meet was Elena of Avalor because "She's the best! I love her!" but she hadn't heard of her before we met her so... who knows. Elena was very sweet though. In my recollection, Elia liked meeting Tinker Bell the best. Tink told her that she was in the middle of a game of tag with Peter Pan and asked Elia to tell him he was "it" and stick out her tongue at him. Elia thought that was hilarious.

We had a very full day and after much fun, we headed to our dinner reservation at Tony's Town Square, inspired by the restaurant in Lady and the Tramp. We were happy to rest our feet for awhile and the food was pretty good. After dinner, my mom and Linda departed, they both had to get ready to head home. We had such a fun day exploring the Magic Kingdom with them!

Elia and I weren't quite ready to call it quits so spent the next few hours exploring more and meeting a few characters I mentioned above. We also decided to stay for the nightly fireworks show. It was a beautiful show but too loud for Elia so we ended up sneaking out part way through. We headed back to the hotel for the night and collapsed into bed, exhausted and happy.

What a fabulous day we had at the Magic Kingdom!

Next up, I have more magic to share about our day at Epcot. See you real soon!