Chef Mickey's

The day before we left for Orlando, J. R. was looking at dining reservations and saw a 7AM opening at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. Chef Mickey's was usually a 'must-do' for our family trips, as it was Alex's favorite breakfast place. But when we booked our trip, there were no openings, so we had decided to pass on it this time, but luck shined upon us with a last-minute cancellation. So we changed our plans for the first morning, rising early and driving to the Contemporary for a character breakfast. After filling up on Mickey waffles and bacon and eggs and Krispy Kreme donut holes (as well as meeting Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto), we made our way to the Magic Kingdom parking lot and the monorail ride to the Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom a few minutes after eight, which was rope drop and we made a bee-line for Tomorrowland while everyone else was heading to Fantasyland and the new Snow White ride. Space Mountain was a walk-on, so we rode that twice, then took a spin on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger spin. Heading to Fantasyland, the line for the new Snow White ride was only 60 minutes, so we stood stand-by for that. The ride was fun, but incredibly short given how long the wait was. After finishing Snow White, we waited in line for Pooh, and then, feeling a little tired on our feet already after 100 minutes of queue line, we took in Mickey's Philarmagic, which gave us a chance to sit down and get off our feet for awhile. After Philarmagic, we were refreshed, so we stood stand-by for Haunted Mansion, which was only around 30 minutes and Pirates of the Caribbean, which was only around 20. Feeling a little hungry, we sought out the Dole Whip stand, where Janie had her soft-serve pineapple and J. R. had a pineapple drink. Rebecca shared both.

After sitting and enjoying our treats, it was almost time for our first FastPass+ of the trip, which was a 12:55 run through Space Mountain. We had purposely arranged our FastPasses for the mid-afternoon, figuring the mornings would be less crowded, and that paid off. There was a 30 minute wait for the PeopleMover, and since we had some time to kill, we took a quick trip around Tomorrowland before our third Space Mountain encounter of the day. After that, we took a walk past the Beast's castle to the Little Mermaid ride, then has a cup of LeFeu's brew and a cinnamon roll at Gaston's pub. Walking towards our next FastPass at Splash Mountain, we got caught up in the parade crowd, so we found a place to stand behind a family sitting at the ropes and watched the 3PM parade.

Long Lines and Late Dinner

Janie and Rebecca took on Splash Mountain, then we stood in the 65 minute stand-by line for Big Thunder Mountain. The line moved incredibly fast which seems to show the new FastPass system has solved the problem of slow-moving standby lines caused by too many FastPass returnees. The new system effectively limits you to three FastPasses per day unless you want to stand in a 10-20 queue to get another at a kiosk. On previous trips, we would probably have used 5-6 FastPasses in a day. We were getting hungry so we decided to get a late lunch at Tomorrowland Terrace. The chicken finger meals we ordered were much bigger than we expected with eight tenders per meal and that was over-filling, especially with a buffet dinner planned for the evening.

That put us at our final FastPass time of the day, which was a 4:55 run through Snow White. Again, the ride was enjoyable, but when compared to the length of Big Thunder, seemed lacking. Following Snow White, we took in the Hall of Presidents to sit down for awhile and then we did some of the lesser Tomorrowland rides, like Stitch's Great Escape and the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. Janie and I both think those rides are dumb, as must most guests as they were walk-ons, but Rebecca wanted to see them both.

We had a late dinner reservation at Liberty Tree tavern. The food there was very good, especially the turkey and beef brisket, but we wished we had not filled up on chicken fingers as we didn't really get our money's worth from the all-you-can-eat family style serving. After dinner, it was fifteen minutes to Wishes, the nighttime fireworks. Janie and J. R. wanted to stay, but Rebecca was really tired and didn't want to stand around, so after a late night the night before, an early morning and a promised early morning the next day, we decided to skip the fireworks and head for the tram to our car for our return to All-Star Sports.