Winter Break 2025. Part 2. Magic Kingdom.
Thursday
Today was our first Disney day and we were spending it at the Magic Kingdom! Before this trip, while planning, we opted to purchase the Premier Pass. If you pay attention to Disney news at all, which I’m sure you all do, you’ll know that a few months ago Disney released a new pass where you are able to use the Lightning Lane for every ride once, at any time you choose. This is opposed to the regular Multi Pass where you have to book specific times for your rides (and you can only book one at a time) and sometimes don’t even get to ride all the best rides because the passes sell out. This also means that you are constantly on your phone all day booking rides and running around to different lands whenever you can get the next soonest ride return. I’m not saying this is bad, and this is how we’ve been doing Disney for years, but because we only had 2 park days this time, and I didn’t want to stress, we got the premier pass. More on that later.
Tzvi went with the girls to grab a quick to go breakfast at the coffee shop in the lobby and I went to pick up the stroller we rented. For the parks I rented a Double Bob because it is a monster that is the easiest push in the world. Hallie got Fruit Loops and Madeleine said she didn’t want any Fruit Loops, so Tzvi didn’t get her one. Makes sense, right? Wrong.
To get to the parks today we ordered a Minnie Van. These are suburbans that are decorated as Minnie mouse on the outside. We have seen these around the property for years, but have never taken one. You can only take them if you’re staying on Disney property, and for Magic Kingdom, they are the only car that can take your straight to the entrance, as opposed to other ride shares and parking that takes you to the transportation and ticket center, where you have to then take the monorail or boat to the park. Skipping that saves a good half hour. The van also has TV’s inside playing Minnie mouse cartoons and has car seats as well. It’s great. Our driver said he had been with the Disney company for over 20 years, driving over 10 years. Before he drove he was an ice skater in Disney on Ice! He said he’s traveled the world with Disney and visited all of the major cities in the US.
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom, walked through the entrance, and Hallie pulled out her Froot Loops. Well, as you can imagine, Madeleine immediate insists she needs Froot Loops and she’s starving. So, we had to go to Starbucks on Main Street to get her a bagel. The line was at least 20 minutes. Madeleine got a bagel that she had about two bites of, but Hallie got a bagel with cream cheese that she ate, so I guess things worked out. So much for saving time though. No one had the hustle in them. It was frustrating.
Finally it was time to start our rides, totally unplanned! We were free to live our lives! It was already after 10, so it was a late start, but we did well. We started with Buzz Lightyear, People Mover, the Autopia Speedway (that we NEVER do), and Tron. Space Mountain was down, but we hit it later. Somehow between using Madeleines Magic Band, and a rider switch, I was able to ride Tron three times – once with Hallie, once with Tzvi, and once with Hadar. It’s not necessary to ride 3 times, but hey, if I paid for it I’m doing it. It’s great. Hallie was nervous but she loved it. We did Tea Cups, Dumbo, Goofy’s Barnstormer and Seven Dwarves Mine Train before stopping for lunch.
Lunch was a multi-step ordeal since we needed to get Madeleine pizza and then went to Colombia Harbor House for salmon and fish and chips. It’s been years since they’ve had the tuna sandwich there, but I’m still devastated every time.
After lunch we did Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Small World and the Merry go Round. Tzvi, Hallie and I did Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the newly rethemed Splash Mountain. It’s the same ride, just themed differently. It was really beautiful. While I miss Zip A Dee Doo Dah, I think it was a nice retheme. Madeleine was too scared to do Pirates so I had to sit that out because there was no time for me to do it. Hallie loved Pirates and thought that every time Captain Jack Sparrow popped up it was a real person. Gotta love the innocence. We also hit the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Jungle cruise, and of course Dole Whip and Tiana’s Beignets.
At 4:40 we had to leave to go to the Grand Floridian Hotel for dinner. We took the monorail over and met my parents who had flown in that morning! We were obviously late so I was running. Dinner was at Narcoosees which is on the water. It was a good meal, but long. Two tables away there was a family with a husband wearing a kippa, but they were eating the regular food. The food was pretty good. There was this great chickpea tart, but I guess the rest wasn’t that memorable. We then left my parents and went back to the park for fireworks.
We got back and Hadar and I ran to do Space Mountain while Tzvi took the girls on Little Mermaid. At this point I also realized I left my Minnie ears on Space Mountain. They said they would look for them, but I never saw them again. Sad.
We met behind the Castle and opted to stay there to watch the fireworks. We didn’t get to see the projections on the castle, but I couldn’t walk all the way around to try and get a decent spot for the fireworks, and it was actually very nice watching it from that spot. It was kind of tough because you had to keep turning your head – some of the fireworks were in front of us over the castle while some were behind us over the back of the park – but it was really uncrowded so that was nice. We got Mickey Pops and enjoyed the fireworks. After they were over we hit Mickey’s Philharmagic. It was so fun watching Madeleine reach out to grab the 3D stuff. Then we closed the night with Haunted Mansion.
Before the night was over we took som photos behind the castle. I think the Photopass woman was bored and didn’t really understand how we were all related, so she had us take some weird photos.
We walked down Main Street where Madeleine purchased her first Dumbo of the trip. Yup, that’s right, I said first. I went to City Hall to try and fill out a form for my ears and then I decided to go to the Confectionary to get the candy popcorn I always get. Usually I get there and there’s no line. Well, apparently people found out about this because the line was SO long. I wasn’t giving up. Tzvi got a Minnie Van with the girls and asked if they could wait for me and we’d tip him extra. I got popcorn with melted chocolate, M and Ms, and oreos. It was delicious and well worth the wait. I ran back to the Minnie Van and we headed back to the hotel.
We checked into our new room. Now we are connected on the 5th floor, near my parents. We have a view of the front of the hotel and can see Tower of Terror. My parents have a view of EPCOT.
After the kids fell asleep, Tzvi decided that he wanted to go out to Trader Sam’s at the Polynesian. So we took a four dollar Uber at 11:30pm and got to the door at like 11:37. They didn’t want to let us in because last call was at 11:35pm. I was like are you kidding me. They were telling us we could get beer or wine and we said no. Then someone else came and said we could come in but had to be out in 20 minutes. We said no problem and took a seat at the bar. We didn’t get to experience the fun show-like stuff, but it’s still a cool place to have a drink. I got a mojito and Tzvi got An old fashioned type-drink that had a Knob Creek bourbon that they make special for Disney World. The guys next to us were talking to the bartender all about collecting Tiki Mugs, which is apparently a very big thing. So we had a nice drink for 15 minutes and Ubered home. Nice way to cap off the evening. Successful, efficient trip.
Good Magic Kingdom Day.