It’s Zoe’s first full day at Disney World! In this post we cover a rarity for us—a leisurely day at Disney World. We begin with a late arrival to Magic Kingdom and end with a late afternoon back at the hotel for Zoe’s first pool time.
A Run Around Hourglass Lake
This was our first morning waking up at Pop Century. Zoe had a brief stir about about 5:30AM, and by 6:30 I was still awake so I decided to go for a run around Hourglass Lake, the lake between Pop Century and Art of Animation.
I love this run, and I always tell myself I’ll do it on a trip, but I rarely actually do. When I’m traveling by myself, I’d rather sleep or be really early for rope drop. It’s a scenic run, though even at 6:45AM I found myself struggling in the Florida heat and humidity.
The loop is 1.3 miles, and you can cut it down via a bridge in the middle. I wound up getting in 1.9 miles before Zoe woke up just after 7AM. I noted the Skyliner line didn’t change much between 6:45 and 7AM for the 9AM Hollywood Studios open. It’s the sort of thing you’d like to check out before your own Hollywood Studios day (ours is tomorrow).
Our plan was a leisurely morning with a late arrival at Magic Kingdom. With both of us showering and getting Zoe ready, we weren’t out of the room until about 7:50AM.
Breakfast and Heading to Magic Kingdom
We waited about ten minutes for our mobile order breakfast to be ready, and Zoe got to try Z’s first Mickey Waffles! The seitan scramble and apple danish were fine, but back in the day we had more options, including a veggie omelet. We noticed throughout the trip that vegetarian options had been cut or simplified since our last visit, a big disappointment after Disney had started to make strides in this area the last few years.
After breakfast we regrouped in the room and then hustled to catch an 8:40AM bus to Magic Kingdom—another time the bus tracking in the app was spot-on.
We were in one of the charter buses Disney has been using. These buses are higher capacity than the regular buses with social distancing, and they make up for the reduced capacity of those buses. They’re more straightforward to load, as well, with guests just being told to fill every other row while we were visiting.
By 9:02AM we were in Magic Kingdom, ready to start our day.
Taking It Easy in Magic Kingdom
Our goal for this day was to keep it easy and enjoy things. We had another Magic Kingdom day later in the trip for more hardcore touring, today was just about getting adjusted.
We started with Haunted Mansion, which we’d hoped could be Zoe’s second ride (PeopleMover was yesterday), and which had a ten-minute wait. We walked right on at about 9:09AM. Like a lot of rides, Zoe didn’t have much of an opinion at Haunted Mansion, which I suppose is better than being terrified by it.
Peter Pan’s Flight had a 20-minute posted wait, and we decided to see what that was like. We’re not big on waiting in lines (who is?) and this was our first visit without FastPass+, so we were interested to see how well the line moved.
It turned out that 20 minutes (wound up actually be 19) in a moving line isn’t so awful. The queue was entertaining enough to keep Zoe from getting bored, and it was just nice to not be sitting there wondering when you’d move again. We boarded the ride at 9:38AM.
Next we decided it was time to learn about rider switch (sometimes called rider swap). We’d used it some years ago when traveling with young relatives, but we aren’t experts on it.
Our first attempt was at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We went to the Cast Member with the iPad at the ride entrance, and she told us the procedure there was to wait in the outside portion of the line and they’d give us the switch pass when we got to the entrance.
Well, the outside portion looked really long and we had a baby that was ready to eat and take a nap, so we went to Space Mountain instead. At Space Mountain, they gave us the rider switch pass without first waiting in the outdoor portion of the line.
As the trip went on, we found this varied ride-by-ride and probably Cast Member by Cast Member. It’s always going to make sense to at least visit the CM at the entrance with the iPad first. If they setup the pass, great, if not, then you just wait in the outdoor portion.
I waited 35 minutes for a posted 40-minute wait at Space Mountain, boarding at 10:28AM. Emily nursed in the Baby Care Center (in Tomorrowland, next to Carousel of Progress) before getting Zoe to nap outside in some shade.
We’ll probably write more about the Baby Care centers later. Emily spent more time in them (nursing, mostly). We only visited two—Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Hollywood Studios was busier so we didn’t get as much out of it, but Magic Kingdom was pretty empty and very convenient. These centers have private areas for nursing, changing tables, and some additional relaxation/feeding space. They also have basic baby care items for sale.
With Zoe still asleep, I had time to go snag a first visit button from Guest Services at the front of the park and to ride Tomorrowland Speedway (10 minute wait, on at 11:10AM).
Before Emily used her rider switch pass, we decided to eat lunch. It was only a few minutes wait at 11:15AM before we were inside Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. This is where we found the first thing in Disney World that Zoe really liked—Sonny Eclipse, the animatronic performer at Cosmic Ray’s.
I’ve always thought Sonny was underrated, so I really liked that Zoe had so much fun watching him perform. Emily and I had Impossible burgers (Cosmic Ray’s used to have a decent vegetarian sloppy joe, we miss the variety).
Along the way, I’d noticed in the My Disney Experience “My Plans” section, the Rider Switch pass had a return time of 2:32PM listed. An instagram follower pointed out to me that this was an error and it should have been usable around the time I was estimated to get off the ride.
As expected, the let Emily ride when we were done with lunch. Later on my passes didn’t even have times associated with them, so I think this was just some sort of oddity at Magic Kingdom (or maybe select rides). Emily was on the ride right at noon after a 5-minute wait using Rider Switch.
While she did that, I gave Zoe some more crawling time in the shade near the former Stitch’s Great Escape! building.
On the topic of rider switch, we often would use our rider switch pass much later than when the first person rode. Often we’d each have rider switch passes for different rides (each person can only have one at a time, though) and then use them back-to-back. I’m not sure if Disney expects you to use it immediately. If we had to, that wouldn’t really change things too much, particularly in the middle of the day.
At this point in the day (after lunch), it’s time to knock off whatever short waits you can find and, additionally/alternatively, to do your best to stay out of the heat. When FastPass+ was around, this was when you could usually ride a bunch of Fantasyland rides with back-to-back-to-back-to…(you get it) FastPass+ reservations, now you just hope for 5-15 minute waits.
We were able to get on Dumbo (posted 5, actual 8 at 12:30PM) and Ariel’s Undersea Adventure (posted 10 actual 9 at 12:42PM). After that it was mostly 20-minute waits, so we headed for some no-wait options.
We walked onto the Liberty Square Riverboat at 12:57PM. The indoor portion, which would have been a nice spot to escape to the heat, was still closed. Zoe and I enjoyed some of the scenery, but it was time to eat so Emily nursed much of the ride.
Still working to beat the afternoon heat, we headed to Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room next, at about 1:35PM. This was one of the few things Zoe definitely liked. Zoe got a kick out of all the animatronics overhead.
After that it was time for another nap and rider switch at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I took Zoe over to the restroom area next to Splash Mountain. There’s fans here and actually a mostly quiet shaded spot by the payphones except that it was next to a loud Cast Member door that got used a lot.
We had a small handheld fan for Zoe, but the big overhead fans were good for keeping us cool while carrying Zoe and allowed us to conserve the handheld fan’s battery life.
The nicest thing about the daytime heat and action was that if we got Zoe right to the end of a 3-4 hour awake window, Z would be zonked and just fall right asleep when we gave the signals that it was time (facing inward in the carrier, singing the lullaby, shushing).
The worst thing, nap-wise, was it was impossible to get more than one sleep cycle in. Zoe’s sleep cycles are 37 minutes. We got a few naps around 45 minutes, but never more than a full hour. This definitely contributed to some of our bedtime troubles.
The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad wait was posted 30 minutes but actually only 4 minutes. That’s a pretty huge discrepancy. Usually I wouldn’t comment on the operations aspect of that, but the Splash Mountain wait was 70 minutes, having the Big Thunder wait more accurate could have taken some of the pressure of Splash.
Emily took the extra time to run some errands, like getting us coffee, and after Zoe woke up I walked on via rider switch at 2:41PM.
At this point we were thinking of heading back to the hotel. We’d checked off a few essential boxes and wanted Zoe to have pool time. We decided to finish with one more ride, Jungle Cruise, which was a posted 40-minute wait.
When the parks reopened, Jungle Cruise was one of the rides impacted most by social distancing, and its waits skyrocketed relative to the rest of the park. Now, with changes being made to the ride giving it even more buzz, it’s having no trouble sustaining that imbalance.
The end result is there isn’t a great time to ride it. It’s a long ride, which means if you head to it too early you run the risk of other waits jumping while you’re on it. Not wanting to deal with the headache later in the trip, we hopped in line at 3:01PM.
A lightning delay had all the outdoor rides at Magic Kingdom closed. We planned to give up at 4PM, which was coincidentally the exact moment the ride started again, after about a 45-minute delay and we boarded at 4:14PM.
On the way out of the park we stopped at the baby care center to change a diaper and nurse, and then we grabbed a photopass shot on our way out. Zoe was tired from the long day and short naps and squeezed in another nap on the bus ride back to the hotel (10-minute wait, boarded 5:08PM, back in room at 5:30PM).
Recapping This Magic Kingdom Visit
8AM - Magic Kingdom Open
8:40 - Board bus to Magic Kingdom
9:02 - In the park
9:09 - Haunted Mansion (posted 10, walk on)
9:38 - Peter Pan (posted 20, actual 19)
10:28 - Space Mountain (posted 40, actual 35)
11:10 - Tomorrowland Speedway (posted/actual 10)
11:18 - Lunch at Cosmic Ray's
12PM - Space Mountain (rider switch)
12:30 - Dumbo (posted 5, actual 8)
12:42 - Ariel's Undersea Adventure (posted 10, actual 9)
12:57 - Liberty Square Riverboat
1:35PM - Enchanted Tiki Room
1:57 - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (posted 30, actual 4)
2:41 - Big Thunder (rider switch)
4:14 - Jungle Cruise (posted 40, actual 73 with lightning delay)
5:08 - Board bus back to Pop
5:30 - In room at Pop
If this were our only day at Magic Kingdom, we wouldn’t be happy with it. But with another full day, importantly a day that would include rope drop, ahead of us, this was a pretty good day.
Back at Pop Century
After Zoe woke up we played around the hotel room a little then spent about 30 minutes in the splash area and the pool—Zoe’s first pool! Zoe had a lot of fun, though we had to keep an especially watchful eye to stop Z from trying to drink the water.
Disney has infant life vests available at every pool, but we were comfortable just holding Zoe. That’s maybe something we’d change in the future, since we didn’t really think of the life vests immediately.
We waited 10 minutes for dinner in the cafeteria around 7PM, and after that it was time for Zoe to go to bed.
I begged Emily to walk the Pop grounds herself (and to visit PETALS!!), or maybe to visit Epcot, but she insisted she was tired and would rather stay in, so I headed to Epcot.
I didn’t do much of interest (walked around, had a beer, rode Spaceship Earth), so I’ll just share my Skyliner travel times. I left the room at 7:33PM, boarded with no wait at 7:36PM, arrived a Caribbean Beach at 7:39PM, boarded to Epcot after a 4-minute wait at 7:44PM, arrived at Epcot at 7:56PM.
Heading home I waited 11 minutes, boarding at 9:57PM, and with no waits at the transfer station I was back at Pop at 10:15PM.