Going to college far from home definitely more than just a change of scenery, for I hadn’t seen my family in almost two months. However, this makes visits absolutely priceless. To celebrate my 19th birthday, my Mom and sister Harper flew down to Gainesville, and we all agreed upon spending a day at the happiest place on Earth: Walt Disney World.
Sorry, Dad… this is a girls’ weekend!
Despite having EPCOT ranked as my favorite of the four parks, we agreed Magic Kingdom since it has the most rides; it’s easily the most bang for your buck. Also, a single-day, single-park ticket isn’t cheap. Since it’s October, ticket prices cost more than usual thanks to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. After all, the House of Mouse loves capitalizing holidays.
Waking up at 6:45 a.m. is crucial for anyone eager to ride the brand-new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (cough, cough, us) because there are only two possible ways to ride it, with the first being by securing a spot in the virtual queue at 7:00 a.m on the dot. Unfortunately, all the spots were filled up by the time we logged on to the Walt Disney World app at 7:00:01 a.m. At this point, we resorted to the second option, which meant paying for Lightning Lane passes.
Buying three Lightning Lane passes wasn’t cheap, but it guaranteed us a time slot to ride Tiana and skip-the-line access for an additional ride that isn’t considered an E-Ticket attraction; we selected the one and only It’s a Small World.
After getting ready at maximum speed, we made a quick pit stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. From there, we drove to the Magic Kingdom parking lot, took a tram over to the security checkpoint, and boarded a ferry at approximately 8:30 a.m. The five-minute ride directly took us to the park entrance, and we scanned our tickets without any issues.
From there, we had to be strategic. The park doesn’t officially open until 9:00 a.m. for guests not staying on Disney property, but you can walk down the Main Street shops and crowd around Cinderella’s Castle. For us, this meant it was time to creep up as close as possible to the Tomorrowland entrance. Because two “priority” rides were on that side of the park (Space Mountain and Tron Lightcycle Power Run), we wanted to get in line for whichever of the two had a shorter queue.
At 8:55 a.m. precisely, Mickey and Minnie take the stage, welcome all their friends, and two minutes later, we speed walk to Tomorrowland. Unfortunately, Space was down and Tron already amassed an over two-hour wait. Plus, our other priority – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – was on the opposite side of the park, so we’d be wasting time by checking it off first.
Time to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephantin Fantasyland!
Harper and I rode Dumbo for nostalgia, and it had a five-minute wait. It’s unironically a good ride and served as the perfect warmup for our day. After Dumbo, we decided on riding the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which I’d never done before because (a) it wasn’t open when I visited Disney for the first time in 2011 and (b) the line was at least 90 minutes when we went in 2019. Luckily, the wait time posted read 55 minutes, and it took us half an hour to get on the ride. I enjoyed it more than I expected since the ride was smooth, and the animatronic dwarfs looked amazing.
The app alerted us that Space was now up and running again, so we backtracked to Tomorrowland and got on the ride in 20 minutes or so. This ride is timeless and never fails to impress me. I’ll never get over the fact that its top speed is 27 mph!
With Space done, we now set our eyes on Tron. The wait on the app said 85 minutes, so we decided to stick it out since Harper said that when she visited in the spring, a 90 minute posted wait was really a 40-minute wait. It took us 40 to 45 minutes to get on the ride, and boy was it worth it! I’ve ridden 51 roller coasters up until that point, and this was my first ever motorcycle-styled coaster. The launch absolutely rocked. So far, Tron claimed our “Ride of the Day” title.
It was now time for a snack break. All three of us got Mickey pretzels as we made our way over to Frontierland for Thunder. We waited around 35 minutes for the wildest ride in the wilderness and treated ourselves in Adventureland to some Dole Whip afterward.
Next, we used our Small World Lightning Lane scheduled between 1:55 p.m to 2:55 p.m to skip the 20-minute wait and as we traveled across all seven continents in a boat. I unironically adore this attraction and it’s somehow my favorite of the non-thrill rides at Magic Kingdom. I guess it’s the geography nerd in me.
Now it was time for Harper’s favorite relaxing ride: Tomorrowland Transit Authority’s PeopleMover. This was another walk-on attraction, and it didn’t even require us to use our Lightning Lane passes. Two chill rides in a row definitely helped break up our day.
We considered riding Haunted Mansion, however, the influx of Disney Adults for the Halloween event brought the wait time to one hour, so we passed. Instead, we returned to Adventureland, this time for a ride on the timeless Pirates of the Caribbean. This was a 30 minute wait, and it flew by due to the queue. Pirates never fails to impress me, and it’s insane how it’s over 50 years old.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was next on our agenda, and it served as the perfect “filler” attraction before it was time to get in line for Tiana at 5:35 p.m. at the earliest. We still had one hour to spare, so we walked down Main Street and treated ourselves to some popcorn.
The time had finally come for Tiana, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. For starters, Splash Mountain holds a special place in my heart considering how I rode it on repeat when I visited Magic Kingdom 13 years ago. I initially was unenthusiastic the retheme due to my love for Splash, however, my skepticism slipped away as soon as we boarded our eight-person log.
Tiana breathed some much-needed new life into the park’s one and only log flume; the combination of joyous music, cutting-edge animatronics and vibrant greenery vastly improved upon what Splash had to offer. Hands down, this wins the “Ride of the Day” title!
In less than 12 hours, I rode 10 rides, ate some killer snacks, and enjoyed a fabulous day with my mom and sister. I highly recommend paying Magic Kingdom a visit with the girls, whether they be family or friends, and hope you will have as magical a day as the three of us did if you plan on paying a visit to the House of Mouse in the future.