Day 2 Dealing with Jet Lag and Magic Kingdom
Image via Wikipedia Our second day we knew would be tough, had a good nights sleep but today is the day jet lags hits so we decide to take it easy. Women, unfortunately, for relaxation like to go shopping…not sure how that works but hey gotta suck it up…
Walmart is just down the road so we saddle up in the SUV and head on over. An hour spent walking the aisles and we hadn’t gotten through them all, sheez, they build ‘em big. Eventually we do get stocked up and head back to the villa and stash all the goodies away. We’ve no intention of cooking at all on this holiday but you do need some essentials, water, fruit, oreo cookies 
At this point I have to say I’m loving my phone, a Nokia 6110 Navigator which has a GPS. Loving it! Maps are accurate (using Nokia maps) directions are good and easy to understand and we haven’t gotten lost at all! Still have a map as backup, as you never know but hey technology works!!
Magic Kingdom today, we have dinner booked for the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom, its a character meal so looking forward to seeing the reaction and getting the photos. Dinner is for 6pm so plenty of time to laze around the pool, except for we decide to wander over to Magic Kingdom aand laze around there instead.
Its hot, very hot today, plenty of sunscreen on and water at the ready, we decide to head up to Frontierland and check out the rides there. Just as we arrive the Toy story parade is moving along, this is a small parade with the characters singing and dancing but great for the kids to see and you get to interact more than with the large park parades.
Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are the biggies here but of course the queues are 1hr long and all the fast passes are gone… and its only 1pm… We’ll come back early another day to grab these. Timing and planning your trips to Disney does take some thought as there is nothing worse than hanging around in a line in 90f heat for 1hr.
Best option we found on this and previous vacations was to hit the parks early i.e. opening time, leave at midday for a few hours to recover and relax and then go back for the evening.
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First day at Magic Kingdom part 3
After our relaxing break back at the villa & pool, we decided to head back to Magic Kingdom. From the car park we decided to take the monorail rather than the Ferry, takes about the same length of time, although the monorail I think runs more frequently as there are just two ferries.
Anyways, once inside we head for Tomorrowland as the “Speedway” had been spotted earlier and had to be treid out by our son who was entranced by the idea that he would be driving a car! Bit of a line before we got in but its good fun espcially trying to “crash” into the wife who was inthe car ahead of us.
After Speedway we went for Buzz Lightyear “Space Ranger” Spin, this is a good “shooting” game with little laser guns attached to the cabs that you sit into. Lots of Buzz Lightyear stuff to be seen and examined before and after the ride.
Time for some fun for the adults! Space mountain height restriction meant it was just Wifey and myself could go on it, it has a single rider line so we went in separately, walked straight up, pass all the people in the queues (love that feeling!!) and then just wait for a single spot to open up which happens quite quickly. the ride itself is showing its age and is getting quite rough and “jerky” not the Space Mountain of 5 years ago at all.
By this point, it was getting dark outside and nearly time for the Fireworks, so we made our way down to the castle found a good spot, bought some ice cream and settled in to watch the fireworks. Found this on YouTube. Enjoy
Dealing with the Florida heat in Disney.
We had figured that it was going to get quite hot in Disney, we were there in June after all and it didn’t disappoint! 90F (32C) as an average day time temp!
Booked a pool home for this reason. The plan was to get into the parks early, while cooler and less crowded. Stay around until 12noon or 1pm and the then head back to the villa or more precisely the pool, grab some food, some rest and laze around or in the pool for an hour or two.
Then once refreshed hit the parks again around 3 or 4, by this time many of the folks that that been there since morning are leaving and it gets less crowded. As far as I know, pretty much all the Disney tickets allow you to exit the park and re-enter the same park on the same day. Plus at this time of the year the parks stay open quite late (except Animal Kingdom) so its good to take a break.
Definitely need to keep hydrated, we found freezing bottles of water the night before and bringing them into the park helped quite a bit and much cheaper than buying in Disney! Despite all the dire warnings you’ll see on websites you can bring your own drink & food into Disney and it does help cut down on the cost.
Pop into the shops when ever you can (not to buy anything!), or the underrated exhibits/attractions, they are air-conditioned and can be a very welcome break from the heat.
First day at Magic Kingdom part 2
Image via Wikipedia Main Street, Magic Kingdom at the opening is a wonderful place to be. Most of the staff are out of their shops in their costumes welcoming you to the park. If you’ve arrived early enough you’ve seen the opening ceremony with Mickey and co arriving on the steam train, its worth the early start if your children love Disney characters.
We’re here with our 4 year old so we’re taking it slowly, decide first to head to Dumbo, had an idea he’d like the flying elephant ride and boy were we right. Success!
Next Peter Pan ride, loves the book, its a short ride but has all the characters, again success! Mickeys Philhar Magic was next, why it is not called Donalds PhilharMagic is beyond me! Kinda odd for himself, the idea of wearing the large glasses for the 3-d effect took him a while to get used to. But he loved the music and the various antics that donald gets up while Mickey is “away”.
Mickey Mouse is a particular love so we have to go and see where Mickey lives. Over to Toontown to see Mickey and Minnies house, while there discover that you can actually get a photo op with Mickey and Minnie pretty much all the time. Get there early, the queues get quite long as the photos take a while. They do Photopass and your own camera. this is in the Judges tent. Other characters especially the various princesses (Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella ) show up in the princess room, needless to say our 4 yr old son had absolutely no interest in the girlies!
Goofys Barnerstormer is a cute little rollercoaster in this area, a good introduction for the young uns
By this stage it was getting pretty hot and we’d been in the park for 4 hrs so time for a break from the park and from writing this! See y’all for the next entry
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