First day, first ride of my last trip. That trip also happened to be the first time I traveled with extended family and I was the primary planner, eager to see all my plans get put into action (hopefully smoothly). We went to MK at rope drop and went straight to. . . . Aladdins carpets! Not exactly anyone's rope drop first choice, but it's the first thing you encounter heading back to Adventureland & frontierland and we had a 3generation group, so it's something we could all ride.
I ended up in a carpet with my 9 year old daughter do 4 year old niece (her first Disney trip) and it seemed to be taking while to start. Then we see Aladdin and Jasmine enter the ride area! They walked all around the ride, waving to all of us. . . Then Jasmine walked up to our carpet and asked to sit with my niece and daughter! Aladdin sat in the next carpet up with my 6 year old son and my husband. We didn't know they ever did this, and we basically visited with them the entire ride!
A Photopass photographer took lots of shots and after the ride they took the kids by the hand and walked our whole group of 12 over to the nearby meet & greet area for photos and autographs. Absolutely magical beginning for us!