This is the third part about our trip to Disney World. You can read parts one and two if you would like to catch up.
A trip to Disney World with a little kid would not be complete without going to Magic Kingdom. I mean, if it were just Lindsey & myself? Yeah, we would probably have gone to Hollywood Studios, but c’mon, Payton (and okay, me too) have to experience Magic Kingdom!
I thought Magic Kingdom was pretty cool. Yes, it is geared towards little kids (and so many of the things there are probably a little outdated–I mean, how many kids watch Dumbo–not the live-action one, but the old cartoon?). And yet the park has a charm to it.
We started out by hitting up the Mickey Mouse music show. I am not sure what it was called, but it was one of those 3-D shows, where they also blow air at you, or spray water. I guess we can call that 4-D or whatever. Payton would not keep the glasses on, so I am not sure what she could see, but she seemed to enjoy it.
After that we hit up It’s a Small World (I guess some people find it cheesy, but Payton really liked it). We did the Little Mermaid ride, then the Winnie Pooh thing. We also did the teacups, the Buzz Lightyear ride (I only scored like 70,000), and the Dumbo ride. We ate lunch at Tomorrowland.
Once the girls took a nap, Adam & I went to ride Space Mountain. It was a cool ride. I wish we could have hit up a few more of the bigger kid rides. Maybe next time.
We did have a slight scare before the Buzz Lightyear ride. There was a guy in front of us in line and he kept leaning back. He was fairly tall (probably 6’3ish). At first I thought he was just stretching, but then it was clear that something was wrong. He fell backwards and smacked his head off the bars (you know, the metal bars that guide all of the people through the line). I had to push Payton out of the way so he did not land her. Adam and I checked on him and he was not responding. Fortunately some of the other guests were either doctors or paramedics, they rushed in to help. After a minute or two, the man came to a little bit. It was pretty scary.
Lindsey and Kayla took the girls on the Magic Carpet ride while we got something called a Dole Whip? These were a new thing to me, but the Dole Whip was worth missing out on a magic carpet.
We tried meeting Minnie Mouse again, but that did not go well. Payton did not freak out and scream as much (she even gave her a high five), but it was still not pretty.
Later in the day, we decided to do the Jungle Cruise. It was like an hour wait and the crowd was pretty tight together. It was a tough one and I thought Payton or Em may end up going crazy during the wait. The ride ended up being a bit of a letdown. I mean, the animatronic animals were cool, but we were seated right by the engine of the boat and we could not hear the tour guide.
As the day wound down, we made our way to the town center spot to see the fireworks, we left. It was a long day, open to close. Payton definitely had a good time, as did I. Lindsey was a little upset that the Princesses were not walking around, instead they were all in different areas where you had to wait in lines for them.
I want to talk about Disney World for a second. You always hear about the service aspect of Disney. Especially when you are in the service industry. Well there is a reason that Disney is the Gold Standard. Damn! They deliver. As I said in part one, they were over the top with how they treated us over the ticket thing. They were not in the wrong at all and yet they treated it like a huge deal and wanted to fix it for us.
Another service moment was when we got food at Animal Kingdom. My pizza was not ready and they were so upset that they made me wait a few minutes. I was apologized to like five times and they gave me some free food for the wait.
Also, any cast member you spoke to was very helpful. They answered questions and did whatever they could to help you out. Completely opposite of what you see at lesser parks.
One more quick service related story. At dinner at Magic Kingdom, while I was in line waiting for our food, I was amazed by the set-up. I mean, it is a true line. There was a guy just putting parsley on the plates and when he got low on parsley, he yelled something like “low on parsley” and someone came running up with a backup parsley! It was just such a well oiled machine. Then I watched as the manager walked through and he started helping expedite the checks. He handed a lady her food and she was like “I was supposed to get a bottle of water.” He did not look at the check, he did not argue with her or mention that she was not charged for water. He just grabbed a bottle and gave it to her with a smile.
I know people like to complain about the prices at Disney. I mean, the food is expensive. The three of us spent about $40 each time for food. We do not spend that when we go to Applebees (and at the one place, the food was basically Long John Silvers). However, you pay those prices because of the service. $22 for parking? Yep, but that pays for all of those cast members. I would imagine that their bottom line from the parks is not that much.
That was our trip to Disney World! Next time we will go for a few more days and see the other parts. Stay tuned for part four, which will deal with our final day in Orlando and our trip home.
