FLORIDA: There’s a Buzz about Florida’s Magic Kingdom

It’s day two of Bev Fearis’ 21-day tour of Florida and a big one for her son Freddie. It’s time to enter the Magic Kingdom, but it’s not Mickey he wants to meet.

The courtesy bus to Disney from the Sonesta Suites leaves at 7.25am, which seemed ridiculously early, until you remember that those of us still on GMT will be waking up in the early hours. This morning it was 5.30 (better than yesterday’s even less sociable 3.45am), which gave us plenty of time for a buffet breakfast before the bus arrived.

We thought we’d be the only ones on the bus, but it was over half full. It dropped us at Epcot, from where we boarded the free Disney Monorail, then another, to the Magic Kingdom. The crowds were already gathering around ticket desks and there was a buzz of excited anticipation, and even more so when we heard the "choo choo" of the Magic Kingdom steam train as it arrived on the track above us with Mickey and friends on board.

Tip 1: queue in the middle section of the ticket gates and you’ll get to see the characters as they greet the crowds. We queued on the right and didn’t have a good view.

When the gates opened, there were more smiley greeters (human this time), waving and welcoming us down Main Street towards Cinderella’s Castle. The place was spotless, immaculate, and especially so when you remember this park has been here even longer than Seaworld – since 1971 to be precise.

Taking the advice from all the guide books, we had mapped out our course and prioritised our rides. With a three-year-old obsessed (and I mean obsessed) with Buzz Lightyear, we made straight for Tomorrow Land for Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Freddie’s eyes popped out of his head and he almost tripped over his crocs with excitement as he raced to the entrance. No queues, we hopped straight on and blasted a few alien life form and the Evil Emperor Zurg. Freddie was in charge of the controls, while Mummy and Daddy fired the guns. It was fun.

When we came out, space ranger Buzz himself was posing for photos and Freddie got to meet his hero in the flesh, proudly showing him his Toy Story T shirt and giving him a ‘high five’. That photo (below) is now the screensaver of both sets of grandparents.

Tip 2: don’t go to a theme park until your child is at least 40 inches tall. Frustratingly, we realised on arrival that Freddie is only 39 inches tall, which meant he couldn’t go on a fair number of the rides. Saying that, it turns out he’s a bit of a scaredy cat and even some of the rides designed for little ones made him freeze with terror.

Tip 3: don’t go to a theme park with a child without a grandparent, aunty, uncle or au pair. The alternative is that you have to go on all the scary rides on your own, which somehow makes them all the more scary. On Space Mountain, a completely dark roller coaster and one of the originals, I felt a bit silly on my own as I screamed. The only good thing is that sometimes ‘single riders’ get to jump the queue by filling a vacant seat.

By the time we got to Fantasyland, the park was feeling busier, but no way near as crowded as it gets in the school holidays. Here, it’s more kiddy-friendly, with a Winnie the Poo story-telling ride, a similar one dedicated to The Little Mermaid, and the old favourite "It’s a Smallworld" – a gentle and heartwarming boat ride through different countries but with a very, very annoying theme tune.

Frontierland seemed the best place to see the Parade, so we grabbed a bite to eat (the food here is considerably better than at Seaworld but still mainly burgers, pizza, chicken and fries) and settled on a wall with a Mickey ice cream. The Parade had all the usual characters, and Woody and Jessie too. Freddie shook hands with Woody but was a little upset that he didn’t get to ‘meet’ Jessie, who was busy working the crowd on the other side of the pavement. We clapped, danced, and cheered with everyone else.

Click here to sample the Disney Parade

The Jungle Cruise in Adventure Land is still one of my favourites. Our guide was very amusing, although I think most of our fellow ‘cruisers’ were Spanish speaking so we were the only ones getting his dry humour.

Warren went on the Rocky Mountain Railroad, which had the longest waiting time we’d seen all day (50 minutes), so I took Freddie off for a stroll and came across a fabulous show in front of Cinderella’s Castle. Peter Pan (another Freddie favourite) and Wendy were taking on Captain Hook, Mickey and Minnie were dancing, little fireworks were going off and as Freddie danced on my shoulders I felt a real warm glow. The Disney magic doesn’t die, even when you’re a cynical old adult.

We stayed for the 8pm fireworks and as we stood in Main Street, watching the sky light up around the Castle, Disney worked its magic again and for 10 minutes we forgot about our aching legs and blisters and exhaustion. As we rushed to catch the monorail back to Epcot for the 9pm bus back to our hotel, we wished we’d booked a room at one of the Disney properties. Next time..

For more info, see
www.visitflorida.com and www.visitorlando.com

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