Walt Disney World Vacation (2025 Edition) – Magic Kingdom

After an amazing first day at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios, we were set to spend day two at Magic Kingdom, which thankfully was right across from our resort. This park has usually been the highlight of our trips, but with Universal Studios Orlando coming up on day three, we were under much less pressure to make our visit to this park perfect. It did not matter in the end, as this park never seems to disappoint. So join us on our stress-free, relaxing, and extremely eventful trip through Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom is my favorite park at Walt Disney World (WDW). Although the girls tend to prefer Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom is nostalgic for me, not just because it is almost a carbon-copy of Disneyland in California, but also because I have so many great memories of visiting this park with my family when I was a kid. As my girls are sick of hearing, my brother and I spent way too many hours riding Space Mountain or just chilling on the PeopleMover in our youth. As stated before, because The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was supposed to be the highlight of our trip, there was no need to be extremely efficient in making sure Magic Kingdom was perfect. Having said that, there was one thing which was non-negotiable: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Since the update from Splash Mountain, which I always loved but also understand the reason for the change, the only way you could get on the ride was to get a spot in the virtual queue (meaning no standby line) or pay for a single-ride Lightning Lane. This meant that, starting at 6:59am, you had to continually refresh the virtual queue for the ride so that at 7am you could lock in a window (group) to ride during a specific time; this is the same for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT. And you had to be quick on the refresh; Flynn (Rowan) told me all the morning groups got booked within four seconds. Thankfully, we were quick on the draw, getting in Group 40, which ended up being around an 11:30am callback time.

Other than that, I was up early for my normal pre-park routine, waking up the girls shortly after for theirs. After grabbing the girls’ croissants and our virtual queue group for Tiana’s, we hopped on the bus and enjoyed the five-minute drive to Magic Kingdom.

For anyone who has been to Magic Kingdom at WDW, you know there are three ways to get to the park: Monorail or bus from a WDW resort or taking the ferry from the other side of the Seven Seas Lagoon. Since Shades of Green is not technically a WDW resort, we had to take a bus to the dock and then take the ferry over. The girls and I loved the ferry ride over to the park, so not a big deal at all. But as hard as they tried, they never saw any alligators in the lake, missing out on the $5 prize I offered up for spotting one in the wild (they tried again on Tiana’s and The Jungle Cruise, which did not count).

Today’s schedule was fairly easy: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train after rope-drop, then head to the Haunted Mansion and/or Pirates of the Caribbean, and then play it by ear as our Lightning Lanes came up. We did not initially sync up any of our Lightning Lanes with the Rowans, but this changed once we rode the Tomorrowland Speedway.

After speaking with another family going through the same WDW trials and tribulations as us (ride plan and kid’s packing list of snacks, drinks, and medicine), the rope dropped and we headed to our first ride. After about ten minutes of a semblance of a line being formed, we waited about ten more before our turn to ride. As always, heading straight to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was the right play, as the line quickly swelled to 90+ minutes and never got below 60 during our time in the park. Enroute to the Haunted Mansion, which I noticed was closed before we got there, we hopped on the five-minute wait for It’s a Small World.

Not sure what happened while we were singing across the world, but the Haunted Mansion was up and running by the time we were finished with our second ride. We immediately walked onto it, which is just as amazing as ever; unfortunately, because we did not have to wait in line, the girls were unable to play with the gravestones and sarcophaguses in the outside queue (*shrug* the things I complain about).

After we hit Pirates of the Caribbean, Elaina started craving her beignets. She enjoyed these so much the last time we were at WDW, we learned to make them together at home. She just knew there was going to be a stand serving them close to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and she was correct. After quickly devouring her three beignets for a late breakfast, nothing else at WDW tasted quite as good to her.

Seeing an opportunity to ride Space Mountain on a short wait time (again, the My Disney Experience app is both a blessing and a curse) but not wanting to walk all the way across the park, we took the Walt Disney World Railroad to spare our feet a little.

The last time we rode Space Mountain, Gabriella was five years old and did not enjoy the speed, drops, darkness, or loud music throughout the experience. Not so much anymore, as her and Elaina were both shouting “More! More!” as we got off the ride. While it does not even go upside down, the girls could not get enough of this ride, as we went on it two more times throughout the day.

After we got out of Space Mountain, we received our callback to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but still had to ride our first Lightning Lane of the day, Tomorrowland Speedway. Although the girls wanted to go straight to Tiana’s, I explained one of the reasons we went to Tomorrowland was to ride our Lightning Lane and to start reorganizing our schedule to sync with the Rowan’s.

They had never been on it and loved the ride, which interestingly enough was the only attraction Gabriella was not tall enough to ride by herself. Additionally, it allowed me to start shifting our Lighting Lanes, which helped to align our next Space Mountain adventure with the Rowans.

Heading over to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, this was a chance to see if Disney had botched the update from Splash Mountain and the animated characters from Song of the South. Growing up in a fairly multicultural area, I did not really understand the racial stereotypes in the movie, and, at least to me, they certainly were not present in the ride. So having Splash Mountain as an integral part of my childhood, I was a bit disheartened by the change. But at least it was updated to The Princess and the Frog, which is one of the most underrated movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios, with a great story and animation on par with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Either way, it was not going to ruin my childhood.

Although I think WDW did a good job with the update, especially with the music accompanying the story, the girls were not impressed. They did not like the fact the story takes place after the events of the movie, which I guess I can understand. But Elaina went a little too far after seeing Tiana’s hair (a bob cut) in her explorer outfit though, declaring that “Tiana got ugly.” Ouch.

Tiana was redeemed in the scene at the end of the ride though, as she was back in a beautiful gown with her normal haircut. It just seemed like a real nitpick for my girls to focus on.

As much as I loved the original, they did a very good job with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and highly recommend you go on it, either through the virtual queue or on standby.

By now it was starting to get hot out and the girls needed a break, so we stopped at the Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch. Keeping the trend alive, one meal filled us all up, with me getting the leftovers; this was as planned, and I had Cliff Bars to ensure I did not starve.

Seeing long midday wait times, the girls and I decided to head to Main Street for some shopping. After not finding anything to buy (even the girls thought the merch was too expensive), we gravitated towards the Main Street Confectionary for some sweets.

The girls got some chocolate covered strawberries while I purchased the biggest chocolate chip cookie they had; I would have preferred a sugar cookie, but the only ones they offered were tiny.

Seeing a slight decrease in the wait for The Jungle Cruise, we headed over to Adventureland. The wait time had dropped to 50 minutes, so we took the chance on getting it in between some of our Lightning Lanes. It worked out very well, as we only waited about 30 minutes. And the attraction is just as good as ever, so it was definitely worth the wait.

Elaina eventually wanted more beignets, so we headed back to the stand on the border with Frontierland. If it seems like the girls had a lot of sweets during this trip, you would absolutely be right, but I was quite okay with it for a few reasons. First, we were on vacation, so we all knew we were not eating pork tenderloin (thank God), white rice, and broccoli for every meal, and instead letting go a little. Second, they were rigorously flossing and brushing their teeth twice a day (which they normally do, but I gave the process some extra attention). Lastly, they were easily burning off the added calories, walking an average of 11 miles a day at the parks. We had it covered. Sometime after this we went on Space Mountain again, as well as the Carousel of Progress. Not only did they actually enjoy the latter, the girls were singing the theme song the rest of the day, while stating that Grandma’s timeline was “cray cray.”

By this time of day, standby wait times across the board were around 30 minutes or more for every ride, so we were just trying to find rides close-by to occupy our time until our next Lightning Lane came up. This included going on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, which is essentially a worse Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and the Swiss Family Treehouse.

These led up to our next Lightning Lane, the Mad Tea Party (aka the Teacups), where the girls flat out told me to spin it as fast as I could. Be careful what you wish for. After having a lot of trouble walking straight after exiting the ride, Elaina called my performance a “ten out of ten” whereas Gabriella could only say “fast.” Mission accomplished.

While waiting in line for photos in front of the castle, the girls took a short break to eat some popcorn and cotton candy. We had been walking all day, so even if it was to wait for pictures, the girls were happy for the pause. This also led to one of the funnier moments of our trip, when a toddler dressed liked Rapunzel and eating a churro jumped into our family picture. Although we never got a photo with her as proof it happened, the girls referred to her as “Churro Punzel” for the rest of the trip.

Before the fireworks show started, we headed back to the Main Street Confectionary for more strawberries and that sugar cookie I was dreaming about, and then took full advantage of most of the park’s population being in front of the castle.

Heading over to Tomorrowland, we first went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, one of my favorite rides from my childhood, where my brother Michael and I would literally ride it for hours during extended hours at the Magic Kingdom. We used our Lightning Lane to get in line for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, only to immediately notice the wait time for Space Mountain was at ten minutes. The girls did not even wait for me, jumping out of line and heading over to the coaster. After riding it a third time, the girls were tired and wanted to go home. We had a full and amazing day, and I had no issue leaving a little early.

Having said that, immediately upon exiting the attraction, the standby wait line for Tron Lightcycle Run dropped to 60 minutes; it had been 80-90 minutes all day. I casually asked the girls, “This is your last chance… wanna?,” to which they replied with a resounding “Yes!” During this queue, Elaina asked that I downloaded an app called Heads Up!, which is basically Headbanz for your phone. We had a lot of fun playing this game in queue lines for the rest of the trip, which helped us immensely in passing the time. After only about 30 minutes, we were on the ride and absolutely loved it. The coaster was fast, smooth, and was completely on-theme with the Tron movies; I had to explain the concept of the movies and lightcycles to the girls, but they said it made complete sense once they were on the attraction. After finishing the day on a high note, we were ready to go back to the resort, talking and laughing about our great day the entire time.

So far, we were two for two at the parks, having an amazing time at Magic Kingdom. Although we did not get to ride everything (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Astro Orbiter were both closed for refurbishment), we did get to go on everything we wanted that was available. We even had a Lightning Lane for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh later in the evening, but the girls were good with ending on Tron. Gone are the days where they have to do absolutely everything or the day was a wash, which is a sign of maturity for them and a great relief for me. It is tough planning and executing these trips, but if my girls are happy at the end of the evening, it makes it all worthwhile. We were not stopping there though, as next up was something new for us all and the highlight of our trip: Universal Studios Orlando, specifically The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Thanks for checking in on us.

Cheers!