“Could It Be Magic?” - Disney Trip: Part 2

Welcome back to the second part of my series on our 2019 trip to Disney World in Florida. (You can read part one here.)

As I mentioned in the first part of the series, my wife Bridget sprung this trip on me four days before we were set to fly out of Omaha. 

That pretty much meant I was along for the ride. My job was to relax, take everything in, and have a good time. 

Since Neil, Theresa, and the kids had been to Disney World the year before, they were seasoned hands at all of this. 

Early Wednesday morning the experience shifted into gear, the accelerator was punched, and our Disney journey lurched forward. 

I’d slept fitfully during the night. The shot of ZzzQuil before bed didn’t quite do its job. As a result, I was ready to leave the hotel behind, start the day, and see what Disney World was all about. 

We made our way to Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park at 7:45 a.m., parked in the lot, and took a ferry across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. 

You’ll notice my brother-in-law was wearing a Batman t-shirt. When I saw him in the hotel parking lot, I quipped, “Sir, you’ll have to replace that DC shirt with a Disney-approved Marvel shirt before entering the park.” 

(We thought it was funny... )

We had a breakfast date with Belle. 

At that point in the day, the park was sparsely populated. The grounds at Magic Kingdom offer a bucolic fairytale that is both impressive in scale and charming in look. 

We were only five minutes into the park experience when my nephew Blaise asked, “Are you having a magical experience yet, Jonny Boy?” 

I like that cynical bug. Listening to him is like listening to my conscience. 

The “Be Our Guest” breakfast is one of the toughest reservations to get at Disney Parks. As you can see on the menu, the price for kids is $15 and the price for adults is $28. 

Bridget, Neil, and I ordered the “Feast a la Gaston.” Scotland got the “Fifi’s French Toast.” Blaise got a bowl of Fruit Loops. If I recall correctly, Theresa got the “Open-Faced Bacon and Egg Sandwich.” They also bring out a couple rectangular plates of pastries to the table. 

(Let's face it, $15 for a kid-sized bowl of Fruit Loops is insane, but we're making memories, so...)

Scotland's french toast meal looked good. It offered ample portions (a much better value than the Fruit Loops, in my opinion):

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the vaunted “Feast a la Gaston”:

Neil and I both questioned whether “feast” was the correct modifier for the meal. You can see him looking dumbfounded in the picture below. Throughout our time at Disney, Neil and I referenced the “Feast a la Gaston” when analyzing any meal we had at the parks. 

(I was completely amused by all of this... it is totally fascinating how easily you get swept up in all the mood and ambiance.)

Before we go any further, I should note that throughout DisneyParks, the ambient music playing is all thematically correct. Everything is coordinated really well and provides a nice soundtrack for your experience. 

After our “feast,” we went on our first ride of the day, which was the “The Haunted Mansion” attraction. 

As many of you know, our family spends a lot of time (every Sunday, pretty much) at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch each fall (it is a Halloween-themed amusement park near Omaha). 

The Haunted Mansion ride felt like a luxury version of the haunted house at Vala’s — with round cars taking you around a spooky mansion with ghostly apparitions and gothic statuary. I liked it. 

Keep in mind that we had a 7-year-old, 5-year-old, and almost-2-year-old in our group, so we tried to do a mix of rides/shows that would appeal to everyone. 

We had a FastPass+ for The Haunted Mansion ride (which means you can skip the normal lines for a ride) — the FastPasses+ for our trip were scheduled before we left home. (Guests staying on Disney properties can book their FastPass+ selections 60 days before their park visit.)

I should probably address the MagicBands I mentioned at the end of the first part of my blog series on our trip to Disney. 

MagicBands store your park tickets digitally, allowing you entrance into the park. (On your first visit, you also provide a fingerprint that accompanies your MagicBand.) The MagicBand also served as the keycard for our hotel room.

You use the MagicBand to check in at FastPass+ entrances. They have scanners you touch them to, and if you have a valid FastPass, it turns green (“go”). You can also connect your Disney PhotoPass images to your account. When you have your photo taken by a PhotoPass photographer, they will use a scanner to read your MagicBand, and those photos will show up in your account. (You’ll see several of our PhotoPass images in my park-related blog posts.) 

MagicBands also function as a payment method, allowing you to charge food and merchandise to your Disney account. 

The MagicBand has a RFID chip embedded in it. One cool — but freaky — surprise was that there is a long-range reader that reads the chip (on attractions that take photographs of riders) and those photos show up in with the PhotoPass photos. We were surprised to find photos and videos in our account that we hadn’t used the FastPass+ on.

You can order your MagicBand ahead of time and it will be mailed out. You can select the color and personalize them with your name on the back.

When I told my friend Jason about the MagicBands a couple days ago, he worried it could cause attendees to spend too much money at the park (“cha-ching!”). He has a point. It was so easy to think, “That’s a really cool ‘Star Wars’ t-shirt and all I have to do is scan my MagicBand and enter my PIN to get it!”

True enough, but Bridget and I are disciplined with our money. (I did use the band to get my breakfast at the hotel... and to buy a “Toy Story Land” t-shirt during our trip to Hollywood Studios.)

If you go the route of MagicBands, be judicious with your spending. That said, they were really handy to have during our stay. 

Pro Tip: I inadvertently put my Apple Watch up to the scanners. I was told that they actually have a “MagicBand attachment” for Apple Watches that you can buy. I'll have to look into that next time...

The next attraction we visited was the “Pirates of the Caribbean” section of Magic Kingdom. The ride has been operating at Disney World since 1973. 

In essence, it is a nice, genteel boat ride through a bayou to an underground tunnel/cavern system.  

After the pirate-themed ride, we traveled back to Main Street and Cinderella’s Castle. Throughout the day, they have shows in front of the castle, along with street parties and parades on Main Street. 

It’s pretty fun to see all the wild outfits (matching shirts and mouse ears) people wear in the park. The entire effect is something akin to a religious experience.

As a newbie to Disney World, I was initially stunned by the garish nature of it all. But as I took it all in, I started to think to myself, “Why aren’t Bridget and I wearing mouse ears and matching shirts with ‘Disney Trip 2019’ screen-printed on them?” 

The next stop was “Peter Pan’s Flight.” It was a fun ride the whole family could enjoy. You are on flying boats suspended from above (three seats across) that take you through a world of glowing dioramas. A good family ride (I wish it was longer). 

Here is a pic of Bridge trying to wrangle a squirming Anson as we waited in line for the ride: 

Bridget and Neil waited in line while I went with Theresa and Scotland to the adjacent Fantasy Faire store. I probably should have purchased a pair of BB-8 or Chewbacca ears to put in my “Star Wars” room. 

We had a lunch at Casey’s Corner, one of the quick-service restaurants in the Magic Kingdom. 

Pro Tip: While we found the Disney World app to be glitchy, if you could get logged in, you could order your food ahead of time for mobile pickup at select restaurants. This was super helpful because you could skip the long lines in many instances.

We had these ginormous hotdogs there (along with French fries). You’ll notice Bridget holding a frozen lemonade in the picture below. That is called an Odwalla Mint Julep Lemonade Slushy… and they are crazy delicious. I think Bridge had like eight of them during our stay.

There were also a couple of ladies who came out and told jokes while we ate: 

Our post-lunch visit was to the “Tomorrowland” section of Magic Kingdom — the futuristic part of the park. 

We had a FastPass+ for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin ride. The ride itself has you sitting in cars that you can spin around in at any point — using guns with red “laser dots” to shoot targets as the car moves throughout various sections with targets. 

It was a pretty fun ride (although it was hard to hit the targets with the laser dot). This pic shows what you had to hit (the circles with the "Z"):

This photo shows Bridge and Scot in action as we traversed the ride (she looks intense, right?):

The next attraction we tried was the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. It was a relaxing ride in cars around the Tomorrowland facility. While on the ride, we noticed some construction happening in Tomorrowland and found out from an employee that it was going to house a “Tron” lightcycle ride in the future. 

Since Neil and I big fans of “Tron” and “Tron: Legacy,” we were super excited to hear about the ride. The employee informed us that the ride would be similar to one at the Shanghai DisneyLand. 

This video shows what the ride will be like:

Once the PeopleMover ride concluded, Bridget bought snacks at Auntie Gravity’s Galactic Goodies. Blaise and Scotland had hot fudge sundaes, Bridget had a chocolate shake, and I had a strawberry smoothie. 

Check out the Mickey Mouse-shaped sprinkles in Bridget’s shake: 

There aren't many plastic straws on Disney properties. Instead, they encourage the use of paper straws. While I appreciate the environmentally-friendly aspect of this move, paper straws are “super hard” to suck anything through. Moreover, the more you use them, the more the tube starts to collapse under the deteriorating effects of saliva and lip muscles. 

After our snack, we exited Tomorrowland and returned to Main Street for the parade. 

This blog won’t do justice to the “throng of humanity” traversing the walkways at Disney each day. It is a really impressive sight. 

My nephew Anson is a big fan of Mickey Mouse. You should see his face light up when we turn on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for him to watch. He had ample opportunities to meet Mickey and get his picture with him during our stay in Orlando. 

The first of these involved a trip for a photo session with Mickey and Minnie Mouse near the entrance of the Magic Kingdom at Town Square Theater. (We used one of our FastPass+ selections for this.)

We decided to check out the railroad next. Unfortunately, it was closed (the employee manning the dormant train was the one who informed us about the new “Tron” ride coming to the park). 

While we were there, Chicken Little walked through. Some people get excited to see Mickey Mouse. I was more excited to see the star of the relatively obscure Disney movie “Chicken Little” (which, in my opinion, is completely underrated). 

Bridget took this picture of me with Chicken Little (not the most flattering picture of me — I need to do some sit-ups and eat a salad occasionally):

Mickey’s PhilharMagic was next on the agenda. It was in an air conditioned theater — where we got to sit. And that sounded good to me. It was almost 5 p.m. and I was starting to fade from all the walking and sunshine. 

Mickey’s PhilharMagic is an animated presentation that employed 3D glasses. 

Then it was across the street to the “It’s a Small World” ride. Having never been to Disney World, it seemed like a necessity to try this one out. 

It’s a boat ride through rooms with dioramas full of cherubic animatic puppets moving to a perpetual loop of the song “It’s a Small World.” The air was humid and still on the ride — not doing much to help my heavy eyes. 

We went back to Tomorrowland after “It’s a Small World” and watched another theater-based production at Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. As I write this, it seems like we all must have been fading a bit because we kept choosing to do things with chairs and air conditioning. 

The show was pretty funny (and they used a joke Bridget submitted via text). It might be a bit too “participatory” for those who don’t like cameras randomly including them in the hijinks. 

It was time for dinner after the “Monsters, Inc.” show concluded. 

While we were at Disney World, as I mentioned earlier, the Walt Disney World app allowed us to pre-order meals at the eateries in the various parks (a handy tool that also allowed you to peruse the menu without having to trek long distances to see what what being served). 

We preordered dinner from Pinocchio Village Haus. It was a spot with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. I ordered the flatbread pizza. Bridget had fries to eat. 

It was after dinner when Anson had a major “blowout.” Neil took him off to the restroom for cleaning. Poor guy. We think the tap water Orlando (which has an odd taste and smell due to high sulfur content) might have disagreed with him. (It was initially used to mix his formula — we used bottled water thereafter.) 

Neil and Theresa told us how wonderful the closing show is at Cinderella Castle, so we setup camp for the 9 p.m. show. Bridget had brought along glow sticks for the kids. I crafted this set of ears for Scotland:

The show did not disappoint. It is terrific — incorporating stylized video projection on the castle with music, sound, and fireworks. 

My friend Mike Jones was also at Disney World during the time we were there. He mentioned on Facebook that the entire presentation was superior to the one he had seen a few years prior. 

It’s definitely a must-see event when you visit Disney World. 

Roughly an hour after the fireworks show started, they had a “sing-along” projection presentation on the castle. Here is an image of Elsa for the anthem “Let It Go” (a song we heard a lot during our stay):

On the way out, we did a bit of shopping along Main Street. Bridget tried to find us matching shirts we could wear on our next excursion to the park. Unfortunately, the stores didn’t have many XLs in stock (an issue we ran into at the parks during our stay), but they do offer a lot of fun merch at Disney World. 

We concluded the night with ride on the monorail to the parking lot. Bridget is a huge fan of mass transit (she likes to ride the light rail system anytime we are in a city that offers it). 

I’ve gotta say, the first day at Disney World was pretty great. Bridget and I have a number of friends who go each year. I never really understood what the appeal was until I experienced it for myself. 

The whole thing manages to magically cast its spell on you. I had a nice first day at Disney World — a great start to the trip. 

Pro Tip: Another advantage of purchasing the PhotoPass is that the photographers can digitally add items to your photo. We didn’t understand why the photographer was arranging our hands weirdly until we saw the finished photo on the app.

Next up: In Part 3 of my “Disney Trip” series of blog posts, you’ll get to find out why Scotland decided to "toilet paper" Mickey Mouse:

Previous post: "Surprise! We're Going on Vacation!" - Disney Trip: Part 1

Read the next post: “Hope ‘Springs’ Eternal” – Disney Trip: Part 3