Honestly, Day 2 at the parks was hands down my favorite day (if you ask me what park was my favorite park, I’d tell you EPCOT but favorite overall day- Magic Kingdom takes the cake, hands down).

We had just the most magical day top to bottom. To get to Magic Kingdom, we had two modes of transportation- one by boat directly from our hotel across the lagoon to the front of Magic Kingdom. This required us to break down the stroller, so we decided we would take the boat back at the end of the day and chose to tram from our hotel, directly to Magic Kingdom, which took 7 minutes. This was easier for the morning, because as mentioned before, my kids slept through their 4 am (CA time) wake up call.

Similar to EPCOT, we entered the park early for early entry and immediately found a Joffrey’s cart for chai and some breakfast donuts! On this day, because we have most of the same rides at Disneyland back home, I did not purchase any lightening lanes for Magic Kingdom. Thanks to my OCD research, I had the list of the top rides I wanted to get on (some new ones as well as old) and we really cruised through the whole day.

The only reservation we had, was a 3 pm reservation for Cinderella’s Royal Table– which is the restaurant inside the castle. Reservations are booked months in advance ( I ended up getting lucky about 2 weeks before our vacation and booked it immediately!) and they do require you to pay in full upon booking. It is also character dining, so it is on the more expensive side but the experience is HANDS DOWN the most magical thing EVER, especially if you have a little girl who loves princesses! More on the experience once we get to it in order of our day!

We went immediately to The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train because I read online that the line gets long and it being new to us, I wanted to start the day off strong. Avery and I got in line (it has a 38” height requirement) so Jaxson and Joey stayed behind. It wasn’t until we got closer to the front of the line that we realized it was a rollercoaster, Avery immediately started crying that she didn’t want to go on, so we got out of line pretty quickly lol. If you’re a Disneyland local, it looked similar to our Thunder Mountain rollercoaster, which Avery has refused to go on as well lol.

So after that, we walked to The Little Mermaid ride, which is a replica of ours, BUT Disney World has an entire little town dedicated and themed to the little mermaid, which I absolutely LOVED! Another little tidbit that beats Disneyland is hands down the queues for each ride. As your walking through the line to the ride, it already feels like you’re on the ride. They’re so immersive and decorated! Before walking into our clamshell for the ride, we walked through Ariel’s Grotto, full of shipwrecked treasure and thingamabobs. It was so cool! I could have just hung out in this little corner of the park all day honestly.

Outside of the ride, you could then enter a separate line to walk into Ariel’s Grotto to meet her! This was super cool because they allow you to meet her in her mermaid form, which Disneyland no longer does. Avery was so excited and couldn’t stop staring at her glittering tail! Across the way, they had Eric’s Village Market full of little snacks and drinks, but just the whole area made you feel like you were in the movie and just right outside Eric’s castle!

After embarking from meeting Ariel, we went TomorrowLand and watched the Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor show, which was super cute and new to us! Next, it was straight to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN! Avery actually strongly dislikes this ride back home (which is a bummer because it’s my favorite ride), but she shocked me and actually wanted to go on it for me, which was so sweet! Similar to mermaid, I was so impressed with the line itself (which we walked straight through without stopping until we boarded the ride), but the line queue was literally a shipwreck that you walk through to get to your boat. Absolutely loved.

From there, we went to The Magic Carpets of Aladdin (a Dumbo style ride) and then ventured over to Haunted Mansion! Something that shocked me about this one- they didn’t do a holiday version of the ride! During the Halloween- Christmas seasons at Disneyland, they transform Haunted Mansion to a Nightmare Before Christmas ride, which we love!! Disney World kept Haunted Mansion as is, which is still obviously amazing. I will say that their mansion is much more mansion like lol. It’s definitely bigger and you spend some time on the ride in the “outside” area of the mansion, before even entering the “mansion”, which was really fun!

Next we ventured back to FantasyLand for It’s a Small World and then the Prince Charming Carousel. After that, it was getting close to our lunch reservation and Joey decided that he wanted to surprise Avery with a Bippity Boppity Boutique makeover before her royal dining plans. You usually need to have a reservation for this experience, so I recommend getting one! We got lucky and they were able to squeeze Avery in for a makeover. We actually brought a dress from home, but you can also purchase princess dresses inside as well. She got her makeup, hair, and nails done and then we went straight to meet Cinderella for a photo shoot before walking the winding staircase to the top of the castle for lunch!

Lunch was truly unbelievable. It is a 4 course meal and while you’re eating, different princesses are walking around and will come to your table to interact which was hands down the most magical part of the day. Avery was in awe the entire time. Entering the castle, everyone who dines there gets a portrait with Cinderella downstairs, and then once you’re upstairs and seated, there are 4 princesses that rotate throughout the meal. While we were there, the princesses featured were Ariel (in human form), Merida, Aurora, and Jasmine. We bought Avery a little princess journal in EPCOT that she had for the princesses to sign, which made her so happy and was actually our first time doing an autograph book for her. I recommend doing it at Magic Kingdom if your child loves character interactions! During your meal, they pass out little plastic star souvenirs to everyone seated at a table and then they have a “wish ceremony” where the lights go off/on and they play music and everyone is told to hold their star to their hearts, make a wish, and then hold the star up to the sky. It’s so cute and special for the kids! Avery now has her wishing star sitting on her bookshelf in her room.

On our Magic Kingdom day, the park actually closed at 6 pm for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party, which we did not buy tickets too. We left Cinderella’s Royal Table at around 4:30 pm and walked to Belle’s cottage for the Enchanted Tales with Belle show, an interactive show with Princess Belle where little ones get to act out and play characters from the story. This was a blast! Avery was picked to play Chip the teacup and then also, as a surprise, was also THE BEAST! It had everyone in the audience laughing seeing this little girl in her princess gown and hair playing the beast! We had no idea what we were in for when we got in line but walked away so happy we did it and that our girl had that experience acting on stage with Belle!

Afterward, we went to the Winnie the Pooh ride and then my husband bribed Avery to go on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which we do have at Disneyland, but Avery is so afraid of it that she refuses (I actually don’t like it either, so we usually skip it). Joey really wanted her to be brave so he ended up getting her on it and then got her a Tiana toy immediately afterward lol.

After that, it was nearing 6pm, so we made our way out towards Main Street USA to shop on our way out!

After shopping, we walked to the dock to take the boat ride back to our hotel. Once we got to the hotel, we changed into warmer clothes and then went to Disney Springs for dinner and dessert!

It was such an amazing day and truly one I will never forget!

Rides We Loved

+ Under the Sea : Journey of the Little Mermaid

+ Pirates of the Caribbean

+ Magic Carpets of Aladdin

+ Haunted Mansion

+ It’s a Small World

+ Prince Charming Regal Carousel

+ The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Shows We Loved

+ parades : we caught a miniature parade going through AdventureLand on accident which was really cute, but if you love parades, definitely check the app for parade times so you know where and when to be places for the best view! We didn’t sit for any this trip because we usually always watch the new parades at Disneyland and the only nighttime parade they had at the time of our trip was for the Halloween Party, which we didn’t have tickets too.

+ Enchanted Tales with Belle : hands down a 10/10 experience. For boy and girls! There’s roles for everyone to play and it’s so fun to sit and watch your little one acting in front of an audience!

+ Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor : such a cute little animated show! It’s set up as a comedy show where different monsters (Mike Wazowski is MC) come up on stage to tell jokes, there’s a laugh can that fills up as the audience laughs, it was really cute!

+ fireworks : Disney firework shows are hands down unbeatable. Again, because of the special ticket event, we did not stay for fireworks but our hotel had firework viewing from the beach every night, so we definitely did not miss the firework show entirely! If you’re staying in the park for fireworks, I’d definitely recommend watching!

Where We Ate

+ Breakfast : Joffrey’s To-Go cart for a chai tea latte and some breakfast burritos.

+ Lunch : Cinderella’s Royal Table (100000/10 experience)

+ Dinner : because of the early park closure (6 pm) we went to Disney Springs for dinner and ate at Terralina Crafted Italian Resturant .

+ Dessert : so when we went to Disney Springs on our first night for dinner, we walked by a place called Gideon’s BakeHouse that had a line around the entire building and then some, and also had “bouncers” in the front only letting a certain number of people in at a time. We were immediately intrigued so my husband asked one of these “bouncers” what the place was and they showed us a menu and basically told us the deal. It was a specialty cookie and cake bakery that had a waitlist and typically sells out every night. For that night, the waitlist was full and you couldn’t even get in line unless you were already confirmed for that date. So we joined the waitlist for two nights from then and make it on for after our Magic Kingdom day. If you like cookies, these are AMAZING!! And the entire experience of getting into the bakehouse is pretty unique, although I will say the inside is kinda creepy lol. Linking the store for you to take a look!

*packing tip- depending on time of year (we were there in October), days are usually warm but things cool down at night. We wore warm weather clothes into the parks and then I packed pants and jackets to change into for everyone for later if it did cool down.

Next up, a round-up post about our final day at the parks- Animal Kingdom!