On our first day at the parks we went to Magic Kingdom. We used Undercover Tourist, not only to get a great deal on our park tickets but also to get lots of tips on what were the best days to go to each park. Quite simply, the best tip we received for the entire trip was to try to plan a very early morning breakfast at Be Our Guest Restaurant. Magic Kingdom opened the day that we went at 9am, but we had made a 8:10am breakfast reservation which allowed us to enter the park at 7:50 am. We rented a van and carseats at the airport and traveling to Magic Kingdom was the only day that was a bit difficult. Even arriving earlier than most people it was still of a bit of a headache because you had to park at the Travel and Transportation Center, than take the bus/monorail/ferryboat to the entrance of Magic Kingdom. Then as you enter each park you need to go thru security and bag check (which is a great thing to have, but can be a bit of a hassle). From parking in the parking lot to getting through security/bag check took us about 25 -30 minutes, so we were glad that we had left our hotel just past 7am. It was amazing to be in the park so early while Main Street was nearly empty! What a magical moment for our family to see the Castle and everything all together.
We walked thru the park to get to Fantasy Land where the Be Our Guest Restaurant is. To get this early morning breakfast reservation before the park opens you need to make your reservation 6 months prior to your visit. We were definitely glad that we had taken the time to do this! Not only do you make your reservation 6 months prior, but then 30 days prior to your reservation you enter your food order. I thought this was a bit silly, but it streamlined the experience because the second that we sat down they were already wheeling our breakfast choices to the table. The venue was unbelievably beautiful and really made you feel like you were in the Beast's Castle. The meal was ok, nothing spectacular, but the magical experience made up for it all.
We finished breakfast around 8:45am, and were thankful that the entrance to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride (the newest ride in the park) was ride outside of the restaurant. There was already a line forming (simply from the people who had had morning breakfasts as the park had still not yet officially opened). Once the park opened and the ride started we got onto the ride in less than 5 minutes (which was fantastic since the ride had about a 45-90 minute wait time for the rest of the day). We also got a Rider Switch pass, which is the next best thing about our Disney Experience.
A Rider Switch pass is what you can use when you have members in your party who are not able to go on a ride that one adult needs to stay with. So for example on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride our 15 month old could not go so I went with our 3, 5, and 7 year old as my husband stayed with the baby. As soon as I finished with the older kids than my husband was immediately able to go back on the ride through the fast pass line with 2 children. You do not have to use your Rider Switch pass immediately as they are good for 7 days, so we did save some from our first day at Magic Kingdom for our second day.
Also, since we did not go to the parks during a very busy time of year we followed the tip to get all allowed 3 fast passes early in the morning. One you are done with your first three fast passes you can get another one (and then another, and another) throughout the day. Because of this option we used Fast Passes or Rider Switch tickets for probably 90% of our rides during the trip. I think the longest wait we ever had was about 10-15 minutes.
When we would use the Rider Switch Passes my husband and I would also take the other children who were not riding again to go on other rides near by. When my husband took our oldest two back on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride I checked out the Carousel with our youngest two!
Our 3 year old had been so excited to ride Dumbo, and it was definitely one of his favorite rides (I think he rode it FOUR times!). We did not have a fast pass for that so we headed to Dumbo right after we were all done riding the Seven Dwarfs Mine ride and had only about a 5 minute wait. Also, talking about little kids, we were very impressed with how many rides we could all go on together as a family. We do have tall children, but our 5 and 7 year old could pretty much go on every ride and our 1 and 3 year old sat out only about 2-4 rides per day.
After Dumbo the oldest kiddos went on the Barnstormer Roller coaster as I explored the Casey Jr. Splash N' Soak Station with our 15 month old. My husband and I both mentioned that we loved these little one on one moments to watch him explore things and have fun!
After Barnstormer we saw that the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride only had a 5 minute wait time (we used the Disney World App throughout the trip where you can manage your Fast Passes and also see Wait Times for each ride). We headed over to Tomorrow Land since Buzz Lightyear is one of our 5 year olds favorite characters. This was a fun ride for our entire family to go on together.
Next, we headed back to FantasyLand for our first official Fast Pass and went on Peter Pan's Flight, which was a great ride for the whole family. Just across from Peter Pan's Flight was It's a Small World which only had a 10 minute wait time so we headed there next.
By then it was about 10:40 am and we had already gone on EIGHT rides (more than some people get on during an entire day!). We decided to take a nice break for a snack (which by the way I packed a cooler of water bottles, snacks and lunch for EVERY day which was a big money saver for our family).
We walked around Liberty Square and then went over to Adventure Land to walk thru the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I had just finished reading the Swiss Family Robison as a family read aloud in January so our boys thought this was simply amazing! They commented on EVERYTHING! "Look, it's Falcon's Nest!" "There is Fritz and Ernst's room!" "Mom, look at their Kitchen, it's just like the book!" It was a fun moment for me to watch a story unfold in a magical way for them all.
Our baby, being the fourth child has always been pretty good at sleeping wherever he needs to, but he did completely fantastic during this trip. He would take a 30-40 minute nap here or there 1-2 times during the day in the carrier or in the stroller. Since he is our only child who still naps, him being able to sleep wherever really helped us to spend more time at the parks.
We had a little bit of time before our next Fast Passes so we caught the noon time parade by the castle. It was a lot of fun to see so many characters all together.
We then headed back to Frontierland to go on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain (both which we had Fast Passes for and then also got Rider Switch Passes to go on a second time).
The big kids really wanted to try to go on Space Mountain next so they headed over there with my husband and I took the little ones back to Dumbo and to the Mad Tea Party.
We got back on the monorail around 5:30pm, and headed back to our hotel! For being at the park for 10 hours, and getting to go on 14 rides with four kids 7 years and under I was pretty impressed with how the day went!
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