Morning in the Happiest Place on Earth! Magic Kingdom, FL

Magic Kingdom, FL

We slept like logs but still woke up at about 450!!! That was about it for sleep. Anyway, we had a good breakfast and then set off for the Magic Kingdom at about 730. It was already pretty hot and the sky was blue and cloudless. We knew we were going to the water park by lunchtime so we had our swimming costumes on already.
There were plenty of cars in the parking lot when we arrived at around 8am. We knew it was going to be a very busy day – level 9 on the crowd barometer (which goes from 1 (low) to 10. In fact the park opened early today at 8am so we should have been there about an hour earlier in order to be right inside by then. However, we decided it was our first day and we were going to take it steady.
Had already been texting with Lu who was coming on the same BA flight we took yesterday. Only difference was she was a BA Silver level FF and therefore had lounges e access. So she’d been enjoying a little free BA Prosecco before take off.
So, took the monorail from the Magic Kingdom parking lot into the park. A few differences over the years in security… now you get your bags quite thoroughly searched before entry.
Walked with real pleasure down Main Street USA, one of our favourite areas and so perfectly themed on the turn of the 20th century American town, that probably never existed outside the movies. Unfortunately!!!! Just lovely. Wonderful flowers and landscaping wherever you look. And so very clean. great to be back.
We enjoyed our rides in the Magic Kingdom. Winnie the Pooh, Its a Small World, BigThunder Railroad, The Haunted Mansion, Journey Under the Sea with Ariel, Peter Pan…. queues were building steadily as the morning went on but we had our fastpasses and they worked well for us. We took it steadily, had some breaks for drinks….it was scorching hot. I mean it must have been 35C. Boiling.
By 1130ish we had reached the end of what we intended to ride today and so we set off back to the car and drove to Typhoon Lagoon, one of the Disney Water Parks. That was absolutely bombed too but no matter. We dumped our stuff on a couple of loungers and launched ourselves onto the Lazy River, our favourite part of Typhoon Lagoon. A word about the Disney Water Parks. They are just beautiful. Forget about seeing hideous structures of plastic and cement, chutes, ladders and stairs. None of that here. Everything is landscaped to the max in the theming and literally lives in the landscape. So, the theming of Typhoon Lagoon is that there has been a typhoon and ships and pirates have been washed up in Orlando and that as the storm ebbs, a pirate lagoon is left behind. There are a number of water chutes plus a truly massive wave pool that actually hosts surfing competitions, plus the lazy river. The lazy river is a long current driven pool that winds through the park amidst exquisite landscaping and there are a few surprises along the way caves, squirts, drips, torrents etc. You just clamber onto a large inflatable ring and drift around. We must have spent 2 hours just going around. A circuit takes about 30minutes. We also went in the wave pool and had a little doze on the loungers.
We left at about 330 and we were en route to the apartment to drop Daisy when we had a text from Lu to say she was already through immigration and on her way to the exit. WOW!!! The immigration department must have read my blog and rearranged the system!!!!! So, we did a quick u turn and headed for the airport. Picked Lu up and back to the apartment, unpacked and sat around chatting. So lovely to have her here and be all together. Now the holiday will really start.
In the evening we drove to Downtown Disney for dinner at Raglan Road, Irish pub and restaurant. We’ve eaten here before and although the food is nothing particularly special other than huge portions , the atmosphere is great and they have live Irish music and a very talented dance troop. We enjoyed the entertainment from the bar and then had dinner. I had cottage pie which was fine. Daisy had a nice looking chicken pie. Bob had fish and chips and Lucy had a fisherman’s pie. It was just too much food though. Thank goodness we didn’t have starters!!! Average price was about 20 dollars each.
When we left it was thunder and lihtnin and heavy rain. The usual Florida summer tropical weather. Ready for bed, all of us.