2016 Disney Day 2
Friday morning, we headed to our first park at WDW – Magic Kingdom. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with WDW. I like the Disney movies, don’t we all, but I didn’t know what all the fuss was about. When we walked in to Magic Kingdom at 7:30 for breakfast at Crystal Palace at 8:00, the streets were wet. It hadn’t rained. It appears they wash the last day’s bloodshed, er, littering, away for the next round of chaos, er, Disney memories. Every one of the WDW cast members (for the unknowing, everyone from the janitor to the singers in shows are called cast members) provided nothing but the absolute best customer service. Answering questions without scoffing, directing us without judgment, and just all around being pleasant. I doubt they “pay them to be happy.” There really must be something special about the people that WDW recruits. We could easily scoff at the cost of the trip, but the cast members really make sure us newbies don’t feel stupid. And that deserves an award. I’ve also observed that it takes a lot of people to make such a wonderful experience happen. People are the core of what makes this business work – sound familiar? All of us at our jobs are what make the world go around.
What could be distracting from the visit is the amount of people. Holy cow there are a lot of people. This trip was in late January, when one would expect the park to be slow. Apparently it was, compared to the busy season. I’m not sure that I could have the patience to wait for 1.5 hours for a 3 minute ride in the busy season. We got into most rides or shows with less-than-a-minute to less-than-a-20-minute wait, but we avoided the 60 minute rides or used Fast Passes. That said, I would say that the WDW crowd, like the cast members, are quite a polite bunch. Lots of ‘excuse us’ and sorry. Everyone was there to have a good time. I have a hypothesis, though. I think the WDW crew member attitude rubs off on everyone, at least the American speaking people. There’s a ripple effect that transcends through the guests, which is a wonderful accomplishment that WDW should be proud of.
One of the events we did was an interactive Beauty and the Beast where kids and adults were picked to play part of the cast of the story. Emalee had the best roar, so she was picked to be Beast. She did great.
We got to meet Alice and the Mad Hatter, both of them played their part wonderfully and were a riot. I laughed at all of the stuff they said. I had to explain to the girls that we probably won’t see that movie until they’re older.
The Tiki Tiki Room got the best of Eva, who fell asleep during the show. We found a nice place to sit out of the rain so we could all rest for a bit mid-day.
Dinner was great. We went to a different, much fancier, resort for dinner. We met the cast of Cinderella. My favorite character was Lady Tremaine – played the part very well. She had me laughing so hard I could hardly take the picture.
Breakfast – Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom – Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger
Dinner – 1900 Club at The Grand Floridian – Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine (Evil Step Mother), Anastasia (Red Headed Step Sister 1), Drizella (Brown Headed Step Sister 2)
