Magic Kingdom

We didn’t have a lot planned for our days at the Magic Kingdom.  Our plan was to arrive fairly early each day and just enjoy the atmosphere of the park at Christmas time.  We also wanted to make sure we got to see the Magic Kingdom Christmas parade, which is one of our favorites.  As it turns out, our first day at Magic Kingdom was December 19th, which was also the day that the refurbished Hall of Presidents opened.  I ducked in to catch the first show.  Overall, I think they did a good job with the refurbishment.

On a different day, we had a chance to ride one of the Main Street vehicles.  We see them but hadn’t taken the chance to ride one.  While it did slow down our start to touring that day, it was a ton of fun!

It also got us above the crowds to get some different perspectives on the park.

We found a new favorite snack while on this trip, the pineapple upside down cake topped with Dole Whip!

We made sure to take in the Festival of Fantasy parade, which has a great sound track (in our opinion).  Plus, who doesn’t love a fire-breathing dragon?

We noticed on this trip that Space Mountain was having lots of problems.  During a few of our many trips on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, we noticed the lights on and the ride not operating.  In some cases, we saw people that were awaiting evacuation from the ride.

The last thing we wanted to do at Magic Kingdom was to see the Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade!  We caught it on the last day before we headed off to Miami.

We incorporated visiting some of the Disney resorts into our trip.  We wanted to see the holiday decorations, including this great gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian.

We also stopped over at the Wilderness Lodge to see the Christmas tree there.  We even discovered a Photo Pass photographer taking pictures by the tree.  Since we were dressed up to go to dinner, we took some family photos by the tree!

For our family, no trip to Walt Disney World is complete without a dinner at California Grill, located on top of the Contemporary Resort.

We usually order the cheese platter at dinner, if only for the entertainment factor of trying the cheese and discussing what we think the cheese tastes like.  The commentary usually doesn’t contain the words like “smoky” or “aromatic.”  Some of us actually use phrases like “cured in a dirty sock” or “buried in the wood pile for years.”  It can be entertaining.

I planned to order the California Roll here, but they changed this menu item into two separate rolls: a California Roll and a Shrimp Tempura Roll.

Nancy ordered the Swordfish, my younger daughter ordered the oak fired fillet, and I ordered the bison.  All were delicious.

My older daughter asked for and received a special vegetarian/vegan menu.  She was allowed to choose 4 items from the menu for one price.  She choose the Vegan Pho (Top Left), Vegan Roll (Top Right), Vegetarian Black Truffle Selezione Pasta (Bottom Right) and Heirloom Tomato Flatbread (Bottom Left).  She enjoyed the pasta the most and the vegan pho the least.

California Grill is always a family favorite.  We’ve got a couple more visits scheduled before our annual passes are done!

Here are the other parts of the trip:

Planning | Travel | Hollywood Studios | Magic Kingdom | Epcot | Animal Kingdom | WDW Part 2

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