GA and FL Day 8 - Late to the Magic Kingdom

February 12, 2013

Let's start with some pictures of Fort Wilderness...

Pioneer Hall at the Settlement

A playground at the Settlement near the dock

The dock where you can catch a boat to Magic Kingdom or the Contempory and Wilderness Lodge Resorts

 

 

We went to the Magic Kingdom today.  We felt like amateurs when we showed up at the extremely crowded park just 15 minutes before open.  At Fort Wilderness there are 2 boats – one for Magic Kingdom and one that goes to the Wilderness Lodge and Contemporary.  We didn't know until we got to the dock that the one for Magic Kingdom doesn’t come until 30 minutes before the park opens.  We decided to wait for the Magic Kingdom boat which was a mistake.  We should have taken the other boat to the Contemporary and just walked to the Magic Kingdom.  We were lucky to get past the bag check before the park opened. 

Uh oh!  Our view of the crowd as we approached the Magic Kingdom

First glimpse of the new Fantasyland

We rushed straight to Belle’s Enchanted Tales, which is the latest popular (and super low capacity) attraction.  We were too late though, the line was already up to 80 minutes.  So, we hit Dumbo instead.  Now that they have the second Dumbo and the new attractions, it isn’t too busy anymore.  We rode on Barnstormer a few times, Winnie the Pooh, tea cups, the carousel and the Little Mermaid before stopping at Gaston’s Tavern for Le Fou’s Brew (which was really good – the toasted marshmallow taste makes all the difference!)  None of the kids liked it though.

A peek at the construction of the Seven Dwarfs mine coaster.  This will really make the New Fantasyland look cool!

 

The new Dumbo rides and play area

The play area inside the Dumbo tent

 

The Barnstormer



The girls spun me on the Tea Cups



Half the fun of Winnie the Pooh is the interactive line

The theming for the Little Mermaid ride is very nice.  Much better than at Disneyland!

 

 

The Seven Drawfs rolloercoaster being constructed in the background

The village outside the Beast's Castle including Gaston's Tavern

La Fou's Brew didn't go over well, but the cinnamon roll did!

 

The new Be Our Guest restaurant.  We didn't even take a peak inside.  Look at that line for lunch!

Max didn’t want to go on Haunted Mansion, so I took him and Zoe to get some fastpasses while the rest of them went on the ride. 
Even though I read so much about Disney, I didn't know about the new interactive line at the Haunted Mansion.  We almost skipped it as it split, but fortunately Jacob picked that side.  It was pretty cool, especially since it was a surprise.

I think the new policy of enforcing the one hour time frame for the fastpasses is good.  It keeps the fastpass line from getting too long and probably allows them to hand out more of them overall.  It also keeps Marc from running all over the park collecting fastpasses for later that we never end up using.

 

We had lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern.  I had the BLT, which was fine except that I didn’t like the bread it was on.  The best part about lunch at LTT is the dessert.  That Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake is delicious and so rich that sharing one for the whole table is fine.  After lunch we went on the Jungle Cruise which we all enjoyed and then we headed back to Fort Wilderness to rest.  Of course instead of resting we went swimming and did laundry instead.   The kids loved the pool and the slide.

For dinner, we just grabbed some carry-out food from Trail's End.  Then Kyrie stayed at the RV to do homework for her next conference while the kids and I went to the campfire show and movie.  The campfire show was a lot of fun.  I recommend it even if you are staying at a different Disney hotel.  I’ve been to a couple of the ones at the other hotels and they just don’t compare at all.  This one had Chip and Dale (which Zoe calls "babies"), and a musician, and plenty of sing-alongs and dancing and fun for the kids.  We bought a bag of marshmallows for roasting and then soon it was time for the movie.  It was Jungle-to-Jungle.  I’m not sure if I ever saw it, but it was good.  Eventually, it was starting to get too late for Zoe, Ella, and Max so we didn’t get to see the end.  We’ll have to rent it sometime.