nadroJ
CF Legend
Right, this is going to be a bit of a long one seeing as I was there for two weeks and we did lots!
You can also expect a few awful photos taken by yours truly thrown in.
Anyway, I'll break it down into the days we did parks, unless you are all extremely interested in the few shopping trips I indulged in in Orlando, which I doubt you are ;].
Ok then, Day One.
We headed out to Orlando on the 27th December but our first full day was the 28th which we spent at the Magic Kingdom, so I'll start there =D
Basically, I knew the weather wasn't going to be blazing sunshine, but our first morning in Orlando there was actually frost on the cars. Frost. In Orland. What?! Hmm, I guess it's going to be colder than we first thought *goes back inside to grab extra jacket*.
When we got to the park there were a few cars there, but nothing that suggested the heaving crowds we would later encounter throughout our day. So we got onto the trams that take you to the monorail/ferry stations and it was freezing. Like, bitterly cold. I was a little downhearted but only as downhearted as you can get when you're heading towards a day at the Magic Kingdom.
We chose to take the ferry over as, as a family, we feel this is the most magical way to get across the water. At least for the first time anyway. I find it all quite exciting hehe =D Again, I can't describe to you how bitterly cold it was, my hands and feet were blue!
Anyway, we finally got into the park and once we'd gone under the station it became apparent that we would be in for a day of queuing, the park was rammed. We headed straight into Main Street for the necessary photo taking/ character meeting before making our way over to Splash Mountain.
As we walked towards Frontierland, the sound of overly cheesy, happy Disney music began to creep up louder and louder behind us. This can only mean one thing. Parade. Usually, if it were just my immediate family we would take this as a sign that the queues were a little bit shorter because everyone would stop to watch, however I was there with my entire family, including a few first timers and some younger ones. I think this parade was called the Block Party or something similar? Anyway, I usually think parades are pants but this one was pretty great, it really got everyone into the mood and there were a few characters I'd never seen before (Sebastian, which is quite possibly the funniest costume ever!). The parade stopped around the hub, which is where we were when we got caught up in all the Disney madness and suddenly found ourselves dancing in a street party with the likes of Jessie, Genie and various people on stilts in silly costumes. Again, I usually just ignore this sort of nonsense but it was a really good way to get everyone in the Disney mood to start the holiday.
When we got to Frontierland you literally could not see the ground you were walking on because of the crowds, so we grabbed a FastPass for Big Thunder and ran straight to the front of the queue for Splash Mountain which had just opened. It broke down. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long and after about 10 minutes we were going again. Hooray! I like Splash Mountain, tis a shame that Disney withdrew Song of the South for being racist =[
Anyway, the rest of the day basically consisted of fighting our way through crowds and queueing for silly amounts of time. I've only ever been in May or July and have only ever really queued 20 minutes maximum for everything, but today 50 minutes was a short queue to us, unluckily. We did get a fair bit done, but due to the crowding rides such as Haunted Mansion, which I feel requires a bit more time walking around and taking in rather than being rushed through a queue, were spoiled in my opinion.
All the Fast Passes by the time we had used our ones for BTM had gone past 10pm so we saw no point in getting any others and just faced the queues. We ended our day with some delicious cinnamon buns in a little bakery at the end of Main Street, which itself was beautifully lit up all Christmassy with fake snow, how romantic.
Manic, knackering, yet still amazing and magical first day in Orlando!
You can also expect a few awful photos taken by yours truly thrown in.
Anyway, I'll break it down into the days we did parks, unless you are all extremely interested in the few shopping trips I indulged in in Orlando, which I doubt you are ;].
Ok then, Day One.
We headed out to Orlando on the 27th December but our first full day was the 28th which we spent at the Magic Kingdom, so I'll start there =D
Basically, I knew the weather wasn't going to be blazing sunshine, but our first morning in Orlando there was actually frost on the cars. Frost. In Orland. What?! Hmm, I guess it's going to be colder than we first thought *goes back inside to grab extra jacket*.
When we got to the park there were a few cars there, but nothing that suggested the heaving crowds we would later encounter throughout our day. So we got onto the trams that take you to the monorail/ferry stations and it was freezing. Like, bitterly cold. I was a little downhearted but only as downhearted as you can get when you're heading towards a day at the Magic Kingdom.
We chose to take the ferry over as, as a family, we feel this is the most magical way to get across the water. At least for the first time anyway. I find it all quite exciting hehe =D Again, I can't describe to you how bitterly cold it was, my hands and feet were blue!
Anyway, we finally got into the park and once we'd gone under the station it became apparent that we would be in for a day of queuing, the park was rammed. We headed straight into Main Street for the necessary photo taking/ character meeting before making our way over to Splash Mountain.
As we walked towards Frontierland, the sound of overly cheesy, happy Disney music began to creep up louder and louder behind us. This can only mean one thing. Parade. Usually, if it were just my immediate family we would take this as a sign that the queues were a little bit shorter because everyone would stop to watch, however I was there with my entire family, including a few first timers and some younger ones. I think this parade was called the Block Party or something similar? Anyway, I usually think parades are pants but this one was pretty great, it really got everyone into the mood and there were a few characters I'd never seen before (Sebastian, which is quite possibly the funniest costume ever!). The parade stopped around the hub, which is where we were when we got caught up in all the Disney madness and suddenly found ourselves dancing in a street party with the likes of Jessie, Genie and various people on stilts in silly costumes. Again, I usually just ignore this sort of nonsense but it was a really good way to get everyone in the Disney mood to start the holiday.
When we got to Frontierland you literally could not see the ground you were walking on because of the crowds, so we grabbed a FastPass for Big Thunder and ran straight to the front of the queue for Splash Mountain which had just opened. It broke down. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long and after about 10 minutes we were going again. Hooray! I like Splash Mountain, tis a shame that Disney withdrew Song of the South for being racist =[
Anyway, the rest of the day basically consisted of fighting our way through crowds and queueing for silly amounts of time. I've only ever been in May or July and have only ever really queued 20 minutes maximum for everything, but today 50 minutes was a short queue to us, unluckily. We did get a fair bit done, but due to the crowding rides such as Haunted Mansion, which I feel requires a bit more time walking around and taking in rather than being rushed through a queue, were spoiled in my opinion.
All the Fast Passes by the time we had used our ones for BTM had gone past 10pm so we saw no point in getting any others and just faced the queues. We ended our day with some delicious cinnamon buns in a little bakery at the end of Main Street, which itself was beautifully lit up all Christmassy with fake snow, how romantic.
Manic, knackering, yet still amazing and magical first day in Orlando!
