The day was here, the first full day of Disney. We were like kids in a candy store. Excitement was our names! This was the day we’d DO MK like we’d never DONE MK before. I was armed with a touring plan of cosmic proportions. I had taken everything I’d learned on the DIS, sprinkled in some TGM info, subtracted everything that we didn’t want OR need to see and finally added Unofficial Guide info from the past 5 years of books, which I had bought and read cover to cover… not once, not twice, not thrice… Over and over baby! After all was said and done, I had myself a princessjv touring plan of extreme proportions. Although this plan was still in need of testing, to verify it’s validity… I had high hope that I was in possession of THE PLAN!
I threw my boy a bowl of Crunch Berries Cereal in a Mickey paper bowl. I needed my lil’l guy to be charged and ready to rumble. Sugar cereals are generally a NO NO on the home front. But we were in DISNEY. We were in our home away from home, where some rules don’t apply. The whole No sugar cereal rule was left at the gates. It was time to get energized!
Backpack filled with all of our touring necessities, we were armed and dangerous and out the door. Goal in hand was to catch the 8 AM MK bus. Wouldn’t you know she was pulling away as we rounded the corner to catch her. A minute earlier and we would have been home free. SNICKERDOODLES! At least we were first in line for the next one. The next one, which didn’t come for 20 minutes... the next one.
I was anxious to get going. I wanted to get to the park and get there fast! As soon as the bus came to a complete stop in front of us, I did all I could not to pick up Lil’l Diz and bring him onto the bus. I think I held myself together, all things considered. We of course took the first forward facing seats spotted, in order to make a quickish exit of the bus.
As the massive line behind us continued to load beyond capacity; men, women and children were all for themselves. Our driver was going to load that bus until at least one persons butt was smack against his face. He motioned more and more people to join him. Under no circumstance was he going to leave not one man…er child behind. When we reached our breaking point he let the doors shut, stepped as hard as he could on the gas and watched in the rear view mirror, as the long line of standing passengers swayed backwards.
When we arrived at the MK, we quickly exited the bus. Pulling lil’l diz, hand in hand, I reminded him that we needed to get a move on it and move fast. That sugar cereal needed to take effect and help his slow moving feet rumble to the entrance. In the distance we could hear the train and I knew that the MK opening show was either beginning or ending. We cleared security and veered to the farthest left turnstile, which had the shortest line. We were able to just meet up with the crowd as it was moving underneath the train station. Sadly we missed the full hoopla, but I promised lil’l diz that we would aim for it, yet another day this week.
Mainstreet was quickly becoming filled with people. Some poor souls took to the bait and stopped to pose with the characters that already had lines forming. Not Us though. We were smarter and moved ahead, as fast as we possibly could. Lil’l Diz only one time said that we were walking too fast. I reminded him that if he could stick to getting to where we were headed, and continue our fast pace, he would be rewarded by riding a lot of rides with hopefully no wait.
When we reached the castle entrance we hit ropes and could no longer go forward into Fantasy Land. The CM on guard told the crowd that that entrance to Fantasy land would not be opening for a while. I then made the decision to enter Fantasy Land via Tomorrowland/Cosmic Rays area. Dumb, Dumb dumb! This was so much longer than I thought it’d be, in the moment of my decision. I didn’t make that mistake twice and won’t make it again.
We had a few minutes to wait before they dropped the second set of ropes were to drop. This was good, because it was hot already at 9 am and we were hot and out of breath from the speed walk in. I did a final check of our ride order and whispered to lil’l diz where we were headed, and noted NOT to repeat it loudly. We didn’t want any stragglers on our tails. As the CM moved the rope to the side, we and many others were off to our destinations. Ours of course was DUMBO.
Wouldn’t you know it…We were lucky enough to make it on the first loading! Yippee! I attempted to snap some pictures before I sat down, but the camera wasn’t working right. ???? Turned out that I had the camera on video, no wonder it wasn’t snapping… it was video taping. This proved to be a technical issue, which I encountered several times that week. After several times of attempting to snap a picture, but videoing instead, I wizened up and started checking the camera before attempting the picture. Only took me several days of user error before I wizened up!
I won’t give our exact ride plan… because I am using it again and again… but I will tell that it really did work. We finished Fantasy Land in a little over a half hour and headed over to and rode the Tea Cups and still made it to the opening of Toon Town, and rode right behind Goofy on the Barnstormer for the first ride.
Next we headed over to our first MICKEY meet of the trip. Literally walked right up and were directed to go back and see the MAN. Lil’l Diz had his birthday button on and Mickey pointed at it with a thumbs up. Lil’l diz told Mickey that he was at WDW for a special surprise birthday trip and started in on a play by play of how the day before played out. It was priceless. Mickey stood there, nodding his head as my sweet boy spilled his guts. Not once did Mickey try to interrupt and move us along. He was there to listen that was clear. Mickey wanted to hear the story. My ds was not shy to give him all of the details.
From Mickey it was time to move on, while we waited for the next train to come, I let lil’l diz play in the fountains Toon Town Tug Boat. I warned him that we would be moving towards the train, as soon as we heard it round the corner. My ds was fine with that, he just wanted to cool off a bit in the water spouts. I didn’t blame him, as it was just after 10 AM and it felt like it was already well past 90 with thick humidity!
Our morning was working out perfectly! We literally went on and off rides and waited no more than 2-3 minutes to load each.
UP NEXT: Will our morning continue to go with ease? Update of sorts Pg 21 & Pg 23 the morning continues
I understand what you've gone through, because I've lived it. You're an amazing woman for being able to write it all out and share it with us. 
I've enjoyed reading about your surprise trip & am looking forward to more... 
We had virtually no waits there this time too 
The "princessjv touring plan of extreme proportions" is turning out exceptionally well! Love it! 
