When you think of Walt Disney World, you probably think of Magic Kingdom, because why wouldn’t you? The Magic Kingdom is definitely WDW’s most popular park. It’s the original East Coast park and the one with the most magic in it as far as classic Disney characters go (though there is always magic in every Disney park!). The responsibility of covering our experience in the most famous Disney World park made me a bit nervous to write my post. To be honest, I was probably a little mentally blocked from writing all the Disney posts at all!
We planned our entire trip around Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary celebration, which unfortunately is ending on April 1, 2023 after an impressive 18 month run. Some of what we did at Magic Kingdom (and throughout our whole trip) was 50th Anniversary-specific, but most everything we did was not and will still be available to experience if you visit after the The World’s Most Magical Celebration ends. And while Disney World’s 50th is coming to an end very soon, it will be replaced by a celebration for the Disney company’s 100th anniversary, which has already begun over in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Note: Most of the Disney 100 festivities will be hosted at Epcot.
If you’re looking for an organized, well thought out, planned to the “T” day filled with Genie+ time slots or a solid game plan, this is not the blog post for you. We decided early on in the trip that we would be “DFW” (down for whatever), so we just went with the flow every day. That meant there wasn’t always a logical order to our plans, but there was always a method to the madness. If you want to see some videos and follow along with us on our day through Instagram, the Magic Kingdom highlight is found here. Note: our second Magic Kingdom day is included in the same highlight.
A short guide to the Walt Disney World app, Genie, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lanes: Throughout all of my Disney World blog posts, I will be referencing our use of the Walt Disney World app. We used the app to unlock our hotel room, place mobile orders at Quick Service and Table Service restaurants, check wait times, locate character meet and greets, find our way around the parks and resorts, and give cast member compliments. The Walt Disney World app is free and can be downloaded through the Apple App Store for iPhone users and Google Play Store for Android users. Disney Genie is a free service offered through the WDW app that helps you plan your day by taking into account your preferences and must-dos. We did not use Disney Genie during our trip. Disney Genie+ is a paid “skip-the-line” service that applies to most of the rides (but not all) in the four main Disney World parks. At the time we were there, Disney had not yet introduced surge pricing for Disney Genie+, so a single day cost $15 per person. As of now (March 2023), Genie + is also subject to surge pricing. We only used Genie+ one day of our trip. Last, but not least, Individual Lightning Lanes are a la carte “skip-the-ride” perks for rides not included in Genie+. There are only a few attractions on property that offer Individual Lightning Lanes. Those rides are Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios, Avatar Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom. We ended up purchasing all four at one point or another during our trip. One more ride, TRON Lightcycle Run, powering up in April 4, 2023 at Magic Kingdom, will also be added to this category when it opens. Unlike Genie+, Individual Lightning Lanes have always operated with a surge pricing model.
We got up early enough to take advantage of early entry into the parks, which is a perk to staying at a resort or hotel on property. Resorts eligible for this perk at Disney owned and operated resorts, the Swan and Dolphin, and select Disney Good Neighbor hotels. Geared up in our first ears of the trip, our birthday buttons, and full reusable resort cups of Diet Coke, we were ready to make the most of our first day Disney day! My ears were from Disney’s collaboration with Make-A-Wish (a portion of the proceeds went to the charity) in their signature blue, and Mary Ellen’s were classic Minnie Mouse ears.
The first thing we did when we got into the park was take pictures in front of the castle. Most people take pictures further away from the castle towards Main Street and the ‘Partners’ statue, but we discovered that the closer to the castle you get, the less people will be in the background of your pictures.
Pro tip: You can still get a wide picture if you’re closer to the castle trying to avoid the crowds. Put your iPhone camera on 0.5 lens to get a wide shot.
After snapping the pictures we wanted, we took the walkway between Cinderella Castle and Tomorrowland to have our tickets scanned for early entry. Our goal was to get to Seven Dwarves Mine Train first because we had read that it’s generally the ride with the longest wait time in Magic Kingdom. However, once we got there, the line for Mine Train was already around 60 minutes long. We decided to keep an eye on the wait time and ride later in the day.
Venturing elsewhere in Fantasyland, we waited in a shockingly short line for Peter Pan’s Flight. Across the way from Peter Pan was It’s a Small World, which was practically a walk on with only a 10 minute line. While we were in the line for Peter Pan’s Flight, I explored the Genie+ feature of the Walt Disney World app and saw that there were Individual Lightning Lanes for a few of the big rides, including Seven Dwarves Mine Train. The Individual Lightning Lane price for Mine Train was only $10 each and we decided it would be worth it. I ended up purchasing the Individual Lightning Lane (LL) for 4:00 that afternoon, which was the next available time slot.
From Fantasyland, we made our way over to the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square. The ghostly manor only had a 30 minute wait at the time, so we went for it! The Haunted Mansion is an attraction that utilizes an Omnimover ride system, which was developed by WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises for the Ford’s Magic Skyway attraction at the 1964 World’s Fair. Since Omnimover rides are continuous, the cars, or “Doom Buggies” as they are called by your ghost host, in the Haunted Mansion don’t stop to let you on and off. Because of this, the cars will sometimes pause when cast members are helping a handicapped person on or off of the ride. We ended up stopped in the ballroom room scene for a little bit, which allowed us to notice all the details and Easter eggs.
Pro tip: We utilized the Walt Disney World app throughout the day to check wait times in the park. Back in the “old days,” you would have had to find a physical tip board in the park to check wait times, so the app was a lifesaver this day and through the whole trip. Though we didn’t use the free Disney Genie feature, we did use the Tip Board section quite frequently.
After we finished at the Haunted Mansion and rode Pirates of the Caribbean in Adventureland, we made our way back to the castle for the Mickey & Friends Cavalcade. The one we saw was decked out for the 50th Anniversary, so I’m sure they’re going to either bring back the old Cavalcade or bring in a new one centered around the 100th Anniversary of the company once the 50th Anniversary celebration is over on March 31, 2023.
From the castle, we headed to Tomorrowland hoping to take advantage of the short wait time for Space Mountain. On our way there, we had to stop at the famous purple wall to take a few photos. They even had a rainbow Mickey up in the area, but I’m not sure if it was from Pride Month since it was it was the beginning of July or if it is up all year long. I still loved seeing the representation though. After finishing our pictures, we skipped over Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor due to the long wait and made our way to Space Mountain, where the wait was 50 minutes. At this point, we were starting to believe that the posted wait times were more than the actual wait times. We were pleasantly surprised at not having to wait as long as the posted wait time and had a blast zooming through the stars!
After we finished at Space Mountain, we enjoyed a relaxing ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. While in line for the attraction, I had a great conversation with the cast member working there because they grew up in the same area of Brooklyn that I lived in for two years. It really is a small world after all! I really enjoyed the PeopleMover because we got a fantastic view of Tomorrowland. We even spotted Stitch on the Tomorrowland stage doing a meet and greet! The ride’s narration had recently been updated to include the newest ride in Tomorrowland, even though it was still under construction at the time. We were also surprised and very excited to get a chance to see them test run TRON Lightcycle Run while we were passing by on the PeopleMover. We will definitely be back to try it out one day!
Famished and hot, we decide to eat in Tomorrowland before tackling the rest of Magic Kingdom. Aside from our three table service reservations, we ate at counter service restaurants for majority of our meals. We also made good use of the mobile order feature of the Walt Disney World app. We learned quickly that placing your order when you’re ready to eat doesn’t always work out. You want to book earlier in the day so that you can snag whichever arrival window works best for you. We made it a habit of ordering our food while we were in line for a ride (usually right before lunch) and selecting the time for pickup window for when we figured we would be through the line and off the ride. We ended up only having to wait 5-10 minutes at the most for our food once we selected “I’m here, prepare my order” after entering the quick service location. Mobile ordering was super convenient and easy — we highly recommend using it instead of waiting in line at quick service locations!
This day, we ate at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. We both ordered the 1/3 lb Angus Cheeseburger with fries and sodas. When Mary Ellen was picking up her food, a very sweet cast member saw her birthday button and gifted her with a mini chocolate cake. What a sweet surprise! Cosmic Ray’s also has fantastic views of the castle to enjoy while you’re cooling off and fueling up to continue on with your day.
Rested, full, and ready to continue on with our day, we found a less-crowded path along right side of Cinderella castle towards Fantasyland. We stopped at Cinderella’s Wishing Well make a wish. We also took a minute to create a video for one of our friends to wish her a Happy Birthday! After making it to Fantasyland, we took advantage of the short wait to meet a couple of our favorite princesses, Rapunzel and Tiana, at Princess Fairytale Hall. We had a great conversation with Rapunzel about our birthdays. I almost wish we could have gone back to see her when I had my Rapunzel outfit on later in the week! From there we rode the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel since there was no wait. The Carrousel is very charming and a classic part of the castle.
We decided to continue the classic Fantasyland magic by going to a showing of Mickey’s PhilharMagic. This attraction is a 4D show that features Donald Duck making his way through a handful of classic Disney movies. Hilarity ensues! The show is full of laughs and some pretty cool 4D effects, including scents and a splash of water. The show has been a Magic Kingdom staple since 2003, but was recently updated in 2021 to add the music of the Disney/Pixar movie Coco. I would definitely see it again, especially as an excuse to sit in the A/C for a bit on a hot July day! We went under the castle to see the incredible mosaics that line the gateway and tell the story of Cinderella. While you can’t walk through the castle at Magic Kingdom as easily as you can at Disneyland because the doors close during stage shows at the Magic Kingdom, it’s still worth it to take the time to see this incredible artwork. There are even real 24 carat gold pieces embedded in the design!
We walked onto Main Street, USA and stumbled right into what would be one of our favorite moments of the day. At various times during the day, the Casey’s Corner pianist performs in front of Casey’s Corner at the end of Main Street. We were were so lucky to hear the TikTok sensation, Grayson, perform that day. I had been seeing him all over TikTok before we left for our trip. He is so talented and is able to play practically any song requests from classic Disney movie songs to music from past fireworks shows and even songs Disney Broadway musicals. He is also known for picking up incredibly fast tempos, as seen on TikTok. He was so kind to take the time to talk to us and, after noticing our birthday buttons, ask to play us “Happy Birthday.” He performed a fantastic rendition of Happy Birthday that made our day and maybe even our week!
We stuck around to listen to Grayson play and were pulled into a fun “guess the character” game with Felix and Lexi, two fabulous cast members who work at Casey’s Corner. The game involved guessing a random Disney character from a flipbook and answering a couple of trivia questions about them. If you answered the questions correctly, you got to pick a prize. We both won a free Large Diet Coke, which was much-appreciated. Our knowledge of The Emperor’s New Groove and other underrated Disney movies came in handy here! We hung around for a little bit to talk with Felix and Lexi and had a great time getting to know them! Getting to chat with them was definitely one of our top memories of the day and one that we couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip. Even though it was only the first day, we already knew that our favorite moments of the trip were going to be the small and unexpected things, like interacting with all the cast members and taking in the live entertainment that most people don’t know or talk about (for example, the pianist at Casey’s Corner or the pianist at the Grand Floridian that I’ll talk about in a later post).
By then it was almost time for us to find a spot for the big 3:00 pm parade, called the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Before securing our spot, we strolled through the gift shops on Main Street to if any of the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary merchandise piqued our interest. I was on a mini mission of my own to find a specific shirt for my dad’s friend, so we briefly looked for that as well. From there, we picked out our spots to watch the parade. I think we got pretty good spots for grabbing them at the last minute! We had such a fun time watching the parade and seeing all of our favorite characters.
Directly after that parade, the Dapper Dans were scheduled to perform so we stayed to watched them sing. They were such fun to watch and very interactive with the crowd. I love a good barbershop quartet! They even added in a little tap dancing, which is always a winner in my book. We definitely enjoyed our two hour break from the rides to take in all the live entertainment, but it was time for our Lightning Lane at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so off to New Fantasyland we went!
We were very confused on how it all worked, but the cast member working the entrance was very helpful and after a short wait we were able to redeem our Lightning Lane passes and get in line. Unfortunately, as soon as we reached the cave entrance the ride was shut down due to lightning being spotted in the area. We were concerned that our Lightning Lane would be useless because they shut down the ride, but after talking to the cast member, we were assured that our lightning lane passes would be valid for the rest of the day and we wouldn’t have any problems doing a re-entry scan at whatever time we decide to come back (as long as the ride was up and running).
Since most of the rides we hadn’t done were shut down since they’re outdoor rides, we decided to use the time to grab our first Dole Whip of the trip at Aloha Isle in Adventureland. I got the classic Pineapple Dole Whip swirled with vanilla soft serve, while Mary Ellen got the Tropical Serenade. We hope this one sticks around even though it was a 50th Anniversary-specific treat because it was so good! It was Dole Whip Coconut over POG (pineapple orange guava) juice with a pineapple upside down cake cake pop. After we finished our goodies, it was still misting and thundering, so we decided to head indoors to see Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. I’m not sure if it was my first time seeing it, but it definitely felt like a new Magic Kingdom experience for me. Fun Fact: The birds in the Tiki Room were the first-ever Audio Animatronic figures ever created. The success of the birds led to the creation of more complicated figures for other classic Disney attractions that we know and love like It’s a Small World and Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.
When the weather cleared, we used our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Lightning Lane passes. Overall, I thought the ride was nice, but I don’t understand the hype around it. I still think Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Space Mountain are better rides. I would definitely do it again using Lightning Lane because I felt like the $10 was worth skipping the 120 minute wait.
It was time for New Fantasyland. The expansion of Fantasyland opened in later 2012, but this was my first time visiting. The last time I was at Magic Kingdom the area was under construction, so I was really excited to finally see it in person and explore both Belle’s and Ariel’s worlds. We walked around Belle’s provincial town for a little bit to take everything in. Unfortunately, there were still COVID restrictions in place, so we didn’t get to see Gaston outside his tavern or visit Enchanted Tales with Belle. Plot twist: we actually did get COVID while at Universal/Disney, but we definitely thought it was a sinus infection/allergies until we got back from the trip and felt even worse! After seeing the Beast’s castle, we moved on to Eric’s castle and Ariel’s Grotto to ride the Little Mermaid attraction. The line was a little long, probably around 30 minutes, and the ride was cute, but I’m not sure if I would go out of my way to do it again. I wish there was more we could do in that area, especially around Ariel’s area.
From New Fantasyland, we moved on to Frontierland and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad since the wait time was down to 55 minutes. We soon discovered that the wait time was incorrect, and unfortunately waited much longer than 55 minutes. Between the heat, exhaustion setting in, and the children who were getting cranky from missing their nap times running rampant through the queue, our annoyance level was at its peak for the day. If we hadn’t grabbed a couple of Diet Cokes right as we were getting in line, we would not have made it. After making it through the queue and very much enjoying the ride itself, we decided it was time to eat some dinner to avoid getting “hangry.”
We walked back over to Main Street to grab some corn dog nuggets, fries, and a little more caffeine from Casey’s Corner. Because it was getting close time for the fireworks show, the area was pretty packed, and we ended up eating our food on top of one of the trash cans next to the restrooms on the side of Casey’s Corner. It wasn’t very glamorous, but we were laughing about it the entire trip and still to this day. While we were eating our dinner, we decided to forgo the fireworks that night and come back on Saturday, after our day at Typhoon Lagoon, and instead finally get a chance to ride Splash Mountain while the wait time was lower. A day at Magic Kingdom is never complete without riding Splash Mountain at least once, especially since we knew there were talks that it was going to close soon to make the change over to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. After dropping into the laughin’ place, we stopped in the gift shop where they display the photos from Splash Mountain and I finally found and bought the hat I loved that so much when we were at Disney Springs.
Around this time, we decided to call it a night. We could have taken advantage of the extended hours offered to Deluxe Resort guests, but made the call to save our energy for Animal Kingdom. Extended Evening Hours are a perk of staying at a Disney Deluxe Resort or the Swan & Dolphin Reosrts and allow guests to stay in the parks 2-3 hours past closing time. On the way out, we placed a mobile order at Main Street Confectionary to grab some sweet treats to eat back at the resort. We both got the Mickey Cereal Treats. Mine was decorated for the 50th Anniversary, and Mary Ellen’s was decorated to look like a classic Mickey.
One final note of the day: Disney placed 50 golden statues throughout the four parks of favorite characters as part of the World’s Most Magical 50th Anniversary Celebration. The majority of them in Magic Kingdom. As of this point, it is unclear if the statues are going to stay up after the 50th Anniversary celebration is over, but I wanted to share pictures of the statues anyways because we had fun searching for them throughout our day. Tinker Bell was the most difficult statue to find because she was practically true to size and up in a tree! We ended up having to ask a cast member for assistance with finding her.
Our favorite unexpected moment on this day was our time at Casey’s Corner. I already knew I wanted to catch the pianist at Casey’s Corner, but everything that happened after that added another layer of magic to our trip. After an exciting and successful day, we felt like we set the energy (and our expectations) so well for the remainder of our trip. It was such a fantastic and magical day!
Some more snaps from our day at Magic Kingdom:
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