Sep 204 min read

September 2024 Trip Report - Day 1 - Magic Kingdom

Welcome back to the trip report!

Day 1 - Magic Kingdom

Although we had park hoppers, our first full day at Walt Disney World ended up being a Magic Kingdom day based on Lightning Lanes I was able to pre-book and projected crowd levels being low. Because the Halloween party had already started as well, we had to choose our Magic Kingdom evenings carefully because it often closed early for the party. But today was not one of those days.

We got up, refilled our refillable mugs with caffeine, dumped the contents into our insulated bottles, and got on the bus. We missed the first bus because it was already full of ECVs but got on the second one. I had a Lightning Lane single pass for Tron, so we headed there. I've seen the construction and the pictures, but I was not prepared for how large that whole entry plaza is, and how awesome it is. I really like the music too. We rode our first ride, got off, and got pixie dusted by a Cast Member to turn around and ride again. We were thrilled! It's a very fast ride. I wasn't prepared for the speed, but it was super fun and feels tamer the second ride around. Great ride. Not in my top 3, but still, great.

Tron Lightcycle Run riders speed by the walkway

After this, I had Lightning Lanes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (we got the people behind us to say "yeehaaa" with us, and Haunted Mansion. In between rides, we were a bit hungry, having skipped breakfast, and stopped in Pecos Bill to share some chicken nachos. The air conditioning in Pecos Bill is so nice!

The Cast Members on Haunted Mansion were in high form. After riding that, we wandered to Liberty Square where the Liberty Belle riverboat was just starting up. She makes a lot of noise these days, huffing and puffing, so I asked a Cast Member about it who said she always made a lot of noise, but maybe more these days because she's getting old. She's also just being maintained now until she's retired when the Rivers of America go away to create Cars Land. It was kind of a sad moment. I get that Rivers of America are an unused part of the park, and that the Liberty Belle and Tom Sawyer Island are definitely not very popular, but they are very scenic, and the Liberty Belle is like an icon. I hope they can find a new home for her.

The Liberty Belle riverboat chugging along for the last few weeks or months of service

Anyway, it was getting hot. The entire week was in the very high 80s or low 90s with humidity well above 70% most days, and I could feel it. We took the boat launch over to Wilderness Lodge resort, and even the boat felt hot that day. We got lunch at Geyser Point which was very nice, if very hot. Service was excellent, and the view of Bay Lake was fantastic. My drink, Huckleberry Punch, was something I'd been looking forward to because I love huckleberry, but while it was good, I could not taste the huckleberry. Oh well. The food made up for it. We shared shrimp on a wire, Peking ribs, and crab cakes, and the Peking ribs were the star of the show. The sauce was amazing. My mother liked that they were on the dry side and couldn't stop speaking about them, while I prefer my ribs a bit fattier. Overall, really good meal and I would recommend in a cooler time of year.

The view from Geyser Point

It started to rain while we were at Wilderness Lodge, so while we wanted to find the Railroad room, we skipped on that, and caught a bus to Disney Hollywood Studios, from which we got on the skyliner back to Caribbean Beach resort.

It was after 2 in the afternoon at this point, and we took our afternoon break in the pool. It thundered here and there, but nobody really cared. Around 5 o'clock, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom because I had my Lightning Lane for Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and we couldn't miss that. I loved Splash Mountain, and the first time I rode Tiana's, it was hard to not visualize where the old scenes were. But I really do like how they did the drop, and the finale scene is enough to blow me away, so I rather liked it. After Tiana, I grabbed a Lightning Lane for Pirates and we rode that as well. After this, it started to rain again and we feared they would cancel the fireworks, so we slipped out before them. Once again, we'd forgotten dinner, so we grabbed a bite at Old Port Royale at Caribbean Beach resort. This time I had some chicken tenders and fries and I feel like mom had just a little snack. It was pretty difficult to work up an appetite in the heat. While at Old Port Royale, we could hear the EPCOT fireworks, which was pretty neat.