The Flower and Garden, Work and Play Trip – Day 5

This morning, I headed to Magic Kingdom for the early morning hours. Every morning, the parks open 30 minutes early for Disney Resort Guests and guests of several other select non-Disney Resorts. After getting ready, I walked to the Boardwalk Inn and Villas to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom. The Swan and Dolphin provides transportation to all the Disney Parks, but the bus to Magic Kingdom drops you off at the Ticket and Transportation Center, where I would have to take the monorail or a boat to the park. The Disney Resort buses take you to the bus stop at Magic Kingdom. Now, the drop-off at Animal Kingdom is closer to the entrance than the Disney bus stops, so my advice is to take the free bus or Uber to this park. If you are going to either Epcot or Hollywood Studios, there is a boat that is shared with Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club and Disney’s Boardwalk Resorts. Or if you want, you can walk to either park. It is about 1/2 mile to the International Gateway entrance (located between the United Kingdom and France pavilions in the World Showcase) or a little under a mile to Hollywood Studios. I prefer to walk unless it’s the end of the night and my feet are killing me, as both are very nice relaxing walks. Once I got to Boardwalk, I caught a beautiful sunrise with the Skyliner in the background.

I arrived at Magic Kingdom shortly after 8 a.m. and stopped to get a coffee at the Main Street Bakery. Then I found a place to relax until the park officially opened at 8:30. With the early entry, park guests are let on to Main Street to shop, get coffee, take pictures, or sit until the early hours rope drop.

This morning, I was able to score boarding group 1 in the virtual queue for Tron, so I headed to Tomorrowland to wait for my group to be called. While I was waiting, I rode Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. As I was coming off the ride, my boarding group was called, so I headed over to Tron to get in line. This ride does not have a stand-by line. You have to be on the My Disney Experience right at 7 a.m. to try to get a spot, if you are successful, then you are given a boarding group number. If you are unsuccessful, you can try again at 1 pm as long as you have entered the Magic Kingdom sometime before 1. When your number is called, you have an hour to return to get in line. I love getting early boarding groups for this ride, as there is never a line, and you pretty much get to walk right on the ride. When you get a boarding group that is called later in the day, sometimes the line can be quite long.

When I got off, I walked through Fantasyland toward Haunted Mansion to ride it before the line got too long. Notice the lack of people in Fantasyland. I hardly ever see it this empty. I have been pleasantly surprised by the fairly light crowds up to this point, but I expect the crowds to start growing this weekend since next weekend is Easter. I think that having an early Easter this year may have helped keep the crowd low this week, as I feel that a lot of the schools that would normally have Spring Break this week might be coordinating it with Easter next weekend.

When I got there, the wait time was listed as 20 minutes, but it was actually a walk-on, so I was on and off in about 20 minutes. Haunted Mansion is one of my all-time favorite rides here, so it is a must-do every trip.

At this point, my plan was to ride It’s a Small World and then make my way toward Adventureland, but as I walked past Peter Pan’s Flight, the posted wait time was only 30 minutes. A lot of times, the posted wait time is longer than it takes to board, so I decided to time it to see just how long the wait was. I was on and off the ride in about 20 minutes. After getting off Peter Pan, I was going to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, as the wait for that was only listed as 35 minutes (another ride that hardly ever has that low of wait time), but as I got in line, it broke down, so I decided to go ride the Carousel instead. I haven’t ridden this in several trips, and it was fun watching all the little kids’ eyes light up with delight; it brought back fun memories of riding it with the boys when they were little. Next, I rode It’s a Small World. This is another must-do for me every trip, and I think I see something new that I have never noticed before every time I ride it.

The Darling Children - Peter Pan's Flight — The Darling Children – Peter Pan’s Flight

I was starting to get hungry, so I walked through Liberty Square on my way to Adventureland to get lunch from the Spring Roll Cart. I had the combo, which is one cheeseburger spring roll and one pepperoni pizza spring roll. The cheeseburger spring roll is always there, but they rotate the second one every so often. I found a place to sit tucked away in a little nook Adventureland. Then I got a Strawberry Dole Whip for dessert from Sunshine Tree Terrace.

At this point, the crowds were starting to pick up a little bit, so I decided it was time to leave the park. I walked to the Frontierland train station, where I could see the work being done in the queue for the new Tiana ride that replaced my forever favorite ride, Splash Mountain. Then, I took the train to Fantasyland before slowly making my way out of the park. I stopped in several of the shops along the way and also got Photopass pictures in front of the park.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure — Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

One of my must-dos on this trip was to see the Easter Egg Displays at the Grand Floridian and Contemporary. When I left Magic Kingdom, I was going to walk to the Grand Floridian, but as I was leaving the park, the boat to the resort was getting ready to leave, so I hopped on it.

Once I got to the Grand Floridian, I decided to walk around and explore for a while. I got a Kona Longboard from Beaches Pool Bar and Grill and found a table overlooking the water to enjoy it.

Then I made my way inside to check out the Easter Egg Display. The eggs were amazing, all with so much detail.

Next, I took the Monorail to the Contemporary. I only found two eggs on display in one of the stores on the main concourse level, so I didn’t spend much time here and left a little disappointed. I feel like such an idiot, though, as I should have asked someone or googled the location, as there was apparently a big display down in the lobby. Totally blond moment, but, oh well, maybe I’ll try to get back here another day. If not, then I’ll have something new to see on a future spring trip.

Once I got to Epcot, I stopped for more Photo Pass photos. Since I was wearing my Figment shirt, of course, I had to have one in front of the Figment topiary. Then, I got a snack from the Trowel and Trellis, one of the Flower and Garden Festival Food Kiosks. I had the Impossible Farmhouse Meatball, which is served on Lentil Bread and topped with Spinach, Marinated Vegetables, and Creamy Herb Aioli, and a Brew Hub Strawberry Heatwave Berliner. I found a table in the shade on the Mexico Pavillion terrace to people watch and enjoy my food. The meatball had an excellent flavor, and the aioli really brought it all together. The Berliner had a very nice strawberry flavor and was refreshing. I would get both of these again in the future.

As I walked through Epcot to return to my resort, I took some more pictures of the topiaries. For the full photo album of the topiaries, check out my album 2024 Flower and Garden Topiairies.

Once I got back to my resort, I relaxed by the pool for the rest of the afternoon, where I made a new little friend.

This evening, I got back to Epcot to watch Les Raftsmen’s last set of the night. Then found a place to sit and wait for Luminous The Symphony of Us, the nightly fireworks show. When Marc and I watched it a couple of months ago, we watched from in front of Japan, which is an excellent location. Tonight I decided to watch them from in front of the United Kingdom. This was one of my favorite places to watch a couple of the previous fireworks shows, Epcot Forever and Illuminations, and it didn’t disappoint for this show either. Actually, anywhere along the World Showcase Lagoon, where you don’t have trees above your head and you can see the fountains in the middle of the lagoon, should be a good spot. Another great thing about this location is that it is very close to the International Gateway. This is where I needed to exit to walk back to my resort, so it was a quick getaway once it was over, and I didn’t have to fight the crowds.