An Evening of Magic at the Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom
Cash and I are not exactly morning people. We like to wake up slow, get some breakfast in us, and start the day’s festivities at like, 11 am, at the earliest. You won’t see us rope dropping very often (though stay tuned, because we’re going to sacrifice it all later this week to ride Seven Dwarves!). Our sweet spot is in those evening hours when the air is cool, and everything is lit up and sparkling.
This last Saturday, we left our house at 3pm, and arrived in the MK parking lot at 4. After walking about 2000 steps to the Travel and Transportation center (anxiously awaiting the reinstatement of the trams later this month), instead of hopping on a ferry or monorail to the Magic Kingdom, we boarded the monorail bound for the resorts. It made one stop at the Polynesian, then at the Grand Floridian, where we got off.
We walked into the lobby and were immediately enchanted. The entrance is on the second level of the hotel, and below in the lobby, there was a 40 foot tall tree covered in ornaments. A musician sitting at a piano was playing live Christmas music, and then we spotted the object of our visit…the famous gingerbread house. The Grand Floridian gingerbread house takes months to build and contains 800 pounds of flour. I’ve been wanting to see it for years, so I’m really excited we got to see the special 50th anniversary version this year. It’s absolutely free to visit, and you can even buy a treat from a shop directly in the gingerbread house (though we skipped that part, the line was pretty long).
After we visited the gingerbread house, we hopped back on the monorail for the Magic Kingdom. We walked into Town Square just at 5:00 as the flag ceremony was beginning. We were pretty hungry, so we headed straight for Sleepy Hollow for a spicy chicken waffle sandwich. I also had my heart set on getting a Jingle Bell Sipper this year, but when I got to the window, found out that they had already sold out for the whole year a few hours earlier. The waffle sandwich was delicious, at least.
I also am determined to find a Disney ornament for the tree this year and really want one featuring the castle, so we wandered over to Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in Liberty Square…and didn’t find anything. I did fall in love with a Sleeping Beauty ornament, but I didn’t want one that was quite that movie-specific, so we skipped on buying anything.
FDR’s Portable Telegraph in the Hall of Presidents
The park was pretty busy and all the wait times were mostly above Cash and I’s threshold of 30 minutes, so we decided to go to the Hall of Presidents since it was one of the few attractions we hadn’t done. In the lobby, they have items from past presidents on display while you are waiting. Once in the theater, they have a movie on a giant 180-degree screen that highlights the office of the president and goes through a high-level timeline of US history. At one point, the screen lifts, and an animatronic Abraham Lincoln gives his Gettysburg address. The animatronics can stand and sit and are pretty lifelike! Later, you get to see all of the presidents (including current President Biden) in their animatronic form, dressed in period-appropriate clothing. Cash and I both enjoyed it, and it was a great way to pass some time while we waited for peak ride times to pass.
The fireworks display at Magic Kingdom is really special
After that, we were able to ride Pirates of the Caribbean with only a 30 minute wait, with just enough enough time to make it over to the castle area for the fireworks show. It was pretty packed, but we were able to snag a spot right about in the center of the square, to the left a little. People were mostly super polite and friendly and in a great mood, so that helps when you’re standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with a lot of strangers. Unfortunately, after waiting 30 minutes, right when the show started, the man in front of us put his child up on his shoulders and blocked the view of about 15 people behind him. We all had to scramble fast to rearrange ourselves, with people moving strollers and checking with each other to make sure everyone could see. I’m so thankful to those people around us; but let this be a PSA not to put your children on your shoulders (if they can’t see, you can certainly hold them!) and not to move around too much during the show. Just moving a few feet can easily block the view of multiple people behind you. About halfway through the show, the guy’s wife decided to move around so they could take pictures and we all had to rearrange again, as it completely blocked Cash’s view of the castle. It was really frustrating, but we loved the show despite it all, and we cheered like crazy when Tinkerbell flew down from the castle (my favorite part)!
After the fireworks were complete, it was about 8:15 and we still had almost two hours until the park closed. We hustled out through Liberty Square and over to Big Thunder Mountain, which is Cash’s favorite ride. We rode it once (and got the back row!). He was so excited, I swear he talked for 30 minutes straight about how much fun he had.
To quote Cash, “Dole Whip tastes like you’re on vacation.”
We were feeling a little peckish so we decided to try out the egg roll stand near the entrance to Adventureland. I’ve been hearing about this place for years and always wanted to try it. They like to mix up the menu often, but almost always have the Cheeseburger egg roll, which is a favorite. For our visit, they also had a special 50th anniversary egg roll, so we got two of each so we could run an official taste test! We loved them both. The cheeseburger was especially good with the garlic aioli sauce, and the 50th anniversary roll had Pastrami and was excellent with mustard dip. We walked around the park a bit, I wanted to ride The Little Mermaid, but it closed down right before we got there. Somewhere in there we also made a stop at The Aloha Isle for Dole Whip, because of course.
After we finished snacking, we went back to Big Thunder Mountain and got to ride it three times in a row without waiting hardly at all! Since it wasn’t busy, we made a request or two and were able to compare riding at the front, middle, and back of the roller coaster, and can unequivocally say that the very back seat is THE BEST. It’s hard work doing all this research for you guys, but we are up to the challenge.
One cool thing to note: We got off the coaster at 10:02 and felt lucky that we got to ride it that second time in a row. But when we walked back by the entrance, we noticed that they were still letting people on! That’s what prompted our third ride, where we were the last group to get through. So if you’re closing the park down, feel free to try and squeeze in one more ride! On the way out, all of the food stands were closed, of course, but the shops on main street were still open for purchases, the castle was lit up, and we were able to stop into the restrooms before the walk back to the car. Obviously you want to be respectful of the cast members, but they sure don’t rush you out the door.
And that concluded our magical Christmas-y evening at Magic Kingdom. We are planning on doing a similar evening trip to Epcot later in the month, because this went so well. We are also (as mentioned) going later this week to Magic Kingdom to test out rope drop and the new Genie+ service, so we can let you all know how it works, and give our opinion if it’s worth purchasing. Happy Holidays!