The Poprik's Go to Disney - Part 3 The Magic Kingdom

On the second day of our Disney adventure we went to the place that the kids had been talking about for a year - The Magic Kingdom!! We were a bit tired from our late night at Epcot so we didn't get to the park right as it opened like we had planned. We did get there pretty early and rode the tram up to the monorail station thinking that we were still early. Well The express monorail was packed and the line was huge, so we ended up cheating and taking the resort monorail. It was really fun to get to see the resorts and we actually made it the park before we would have on the express.

Once we were inside the park, we grabbed a locker and posed for a picture.





We decided to start our day in Tomorrowland. We started with the Tomorrowland speedway and let the kids drive us around for a change.



Rowan was a very enthusiastic driver, while Alan didn't like how jerky the cars were.



One of the bad part of being a family of 5 is that one person has to ride alone sometimes. Usually Rowan and Alan were small enough that 3 of us could cram into one seat, but for this one Ashley drove alone.


The next ride was Space Mountain and then on the Astro Orbiter.





The kids really liked most of the rides in Tomorrowland, except for Stitch's Great Escape. It is very dark, the rides presses on your shoulders and you can't see as a crazed Stitch spits in your face. Not a family favorite at all.
I was really surprised at how much the kids liked the Carousel of Progress. The would even start singing the "Great big beautiful tomorrow" song randomly while we were walking around. The Peoplemover was another surprising favorite and the little ones liked riding that while Ashley rode Space Mountain.

I had 2 favorite attractions in Tomorrowland. The first one was the Monsters, Inc laugh floor. It was really silly and cool how the monsters interacted with people in the audience. The kids loved it and it was nice to be inside for a bit. The second one was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

This one was a lot of fun, and it was kind of like being in a video game.



Alan took his shooting very seriously.


and so did Ashley!


After we finished up in Tomorrowland, we headed up to the lockers to grab out our lunch. We found some chairs in the shade on the second floor of the Main Street train station. We got to have lunch with a great view of Main Street and do some people watching before we boarded the train and headed over to Frontierland. We rode the Big Thunder Mountain railroad and Splash Mountain. The kids loved these rides and we ended up riding them over and over, especially Splash Mountain. That ended up being our favorite ride on the trip.

From here we headed over to Adventureland and rode the Jungle cruise and Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride.
David and Ashley were hoping to be hit by the spitting camel.



Then we headed over to Pirates of the Caribean so that Ashley could get her dose of Johnny Depp in. It was actually a lot of fun and very cool to see what the ride was like after seeing all the movies.


After spending some time walking around the Johnny Depp shrine (Pirate of the Caribean store) we headed over to Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion. This was another unexpected favorite. The kids all loved how silly this ride was and we rode it over and over again before heading over to Fantasyland.





We were really excited about Fanastyland so we ran over and rode the Dumbo The Flying Elephant ride. This is basically the same ride as the Astro orbiter and Alladin's Flying carpets, but the kids still wanted to go on the elephant.



Afterwards we caught the next showing of Mickey's Philharmagic. Alan LOVED this 3d movie. I am not sure that I heard him laugh so hard during the rest of our trip. It made me want to copy this movie and bring it home for him to watch everyday.


Afterwards we were getting pretty hungry so we headed back to Liberty Square. The Liberty Tree Tavern is a sit down restaurant that has one of our favorite things- New England Clam Chowder. Well it is a bit pricey and we really didn't feel like going in to a table service place, so we went to the Columbia Harbour House around the corner. It has the same food, but is counter service and much less expensive. I got the same soup for half the price and we didn't have to wait for a server to get it all ready for us. I really liked this place and definitely plan to go back there on future trips.

After dinner we decided to finish up what we could in Fanastyland before the parade and fireworks shows.
We had to ride It's a Small world and sing along before we rode the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan's Flight.

Ashley on It's a Small World


David and Alan on Peter Pan's Flight



We were able to squeeze in Snow White's Scary Adventure before heading back for another turn on The Haunted Mansion after dark.



Afterwards we headed over to see the Main Street Electrical parade and then a new show with projected images on the castle before the fireworks.

Castle at night.


Afterwards we rode Splash Mountain a few times while the crowds cleared out. this was definitely our latest night and we didn't leave the park until almost midnight!
It was a jam packed day and we were tired as we headed back to the monorail to take us to the parking lot. We needed to get some sleep because the next day was on to Hollywood Studios!