MAGIC KINGDOM

In total we went to the Magic Kingdom 3 times – 2 full days and once late on to catch the fireworks. If the kids are at the right age (as our are, at 7 and 4) they will absolutely love it there. The setting around the Cinderella Castle is excellent and the various themed areas around the park are so well thought out.

As with all of Disney, the attention to detail is amazing – they seem to do so many things that they don’t really need to do but the extra thought turns the place from being very good to amazing.

While the Magic Kingdom is big it is also very popular – we read that the best thing to do is get there very early (before the park opens) and then get in as many of the popular attractions as possible in the first 2 hours before the queues get too big – we did this both full days and it definitely is worth the early start.

On our first visit (which was just in the evening including the fireworks) we were pretty disorganised and with hindsight we should have planned out the few hours we were going to be there much better. We spent too much time zigzagging around and not so much time on rides and in shows. However, that first evening served as a good ‘reckie’ and made it much easier to plan for the other 2 days.

On the fireworks we made a bit of a mess getting into a good position – it seems the best place to see the fireworks (which were at 9pm – we’re unsure if this time varies through the year) is along Main Street. We were at the back of the castle when the fireworks started and really the castle is part of the overall effect – we ended up looking left to see the castle and right to see the fireworks which was not ideal. Also – as the Magic Kingdom has only one exit, after the fireworks thousands of people were all leaving at once through the exit and the queue for the paddle steamer and monorail to get back to the car parks was huge. If we had been next to the exit watching the fireworks instead of round the back of the castle we could have been in the car in 15 minutes instead of an hour and a half.

On the other two days (and this sounds a bit dull) we found we got so much more out of the Magic Kingdom because we spent an hour or so reading up on what to do and looking at the map the night before. Working out which attractions to go to first, which FASTPASS rides to get first and things like which rides the kids can and cannot go on because of height restrictions needs quite a lot of thought. Also – not all attractions and rides open at the same time – it is a pain to run to a ride like the Jungle Cruise to find out it starts at 10am!

Here’s a quick rundown of the things we did at Magic Kingdom and what we thought:

AdventureLand

• Swiss Family Treehouse – a walk up and around an amazing man-made tree. It looks absolutely real! Not much good for our kids as they were not familiar with the Swiss Family Robinson story. Only takes 10 minutes though and no queue.
• Magic Carpets of Aladdin – a tame ride. Seemed to have very big queues for what is an average ride
• Jungle Cruise – we didn’t actually go on this boat cruise – but we watched the paddle steamer. Probably a good one to do towards the end of the day as it looked quite relaxing!

FrontierLand

• Splash Mountain – absolutely brilliant log flume ride. The 5-story drop is a real heart-stopper but the quality of the ride around beforehand is very very impressive. We did it 2 or 3 times and the kids (and us) loved it every time. Huge queues so FASTPASS is a must
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – Rollercoster ride. Pretty fast and exciting ride. Perfect for the kids – not too scary but a thrill nevertheless. Big queues.
• Tom Sawyer Island - You take a raft across to an island in the middle lake - there isn't that much there but is quite and a nice break from the crowds.

Liberty Square

• The Haunted Mansion - the kids quite enjoyed this and we are glad that we went as the special effects are absolutely amazing - slightly lost on the kids but we were very impressed.

Fantasyland

• Mickey's PhilharMagic - a 3D show (quite new I think) which is totally amazing. The quality of the 3D effects (seen through 3D glasses) is extraordinary. All the senses are used as you smell food and even get wet. We went 3 times and would still go again!
• Cinderella's Golden Carrousel - actually a pretty standard carousel (not even one of the steam driven ones) but it is very popular
• Ariel's Grotto - one of the many 'character meetings'. Alice really loved meeting Ariel - there was a long queue but it was worth it for her to meet one of her heroines! Try to get to it when it first opens.
• Dumbo Flying Elephant - standard ride really but seems to get very long queues - kids enjoyed it but it isn't that memorable
• Fairytale Garden - a small show in lovely corner of FantasyLand. Belle tells the story of Beauty and the Beast and gets members of the audience up on the little stage to help. The actress playing Belle when we went was a class act and ad-libbed her way through it brilliantly. At the end she goes to the right-hand side of the stage (as you look at it) and signs autographs and poses for photos. There is a bit of a rush for this and we got the impression she doesn't stay the whole time so be ready at the end of the show to get in the queue! Alice (and Oliver) adored this show - a definite for all young girls!
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - we can't remember much about this ride so it can't have been that exciting!

Mickey's Toontown Fair

• Minnie's Country House - a really cleverly constructed house and we were lucky that Minnie was there at the time to sign autographs (not sure if this is true all through the day)
• Toontown Hall of Fame Tent - there are 3 separate queues for character meetings inside the tent - Princesses (Cinderella, Belle etc), Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Winnie the Pooh with friends. The Princesses queue was 45 minutes long when we first went so we gave it a miss and went back first thing on another day which worked well
• Donald's Boat - a big adventure playground which the little ones seemed to love - our 2 were a bit too old for that
• The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm - A tame (and very short) rollercoaster which is probably aimed at kids younger than ours - fun nevertheless

TomorrowLand

• TomorrowLand Indy Speedway - didn't actually go on this ride but to be honest it didn't look like it was worth the wait in the long queues (it is not a FASTPASS ride)
• TomorrowLand Arcade - lots of pretty good arcade games. We didn't stay long as you can go to an arcade anytime!
• Astro Orbitor - you have to go up in a lift to get to this ride and so you are pretty high up - worth doing just for the view.
• Tomorrowland Transit Authority - this elevated trip around the Tomorrowland area (including part of the Space Mountain ride) is sedate and interesting - got the kids asking lots of question about transport
• Space Mountain - we didn't do this big rollercoaster ride as we thought the kids were too young (and we are chicken!) but heard people raving about it
• Stitch's Great Escape - this is a new (and heavily promoted) attraction. Easily the most disappointing attraction in the whole of Disney that we came across. It is really unclear what is going on - we didn't get it at all and so the kids stood no chance!