Magic Kingdom Day One

Hey all!! Finally getting around to blogging about our trip to Disney World at the end of June!! We had the absolute best time at our favorite place. I thought I'd recap the trip, day by day and share some tips, food reviews, etc. So, let's get started!!

We took the Allegiant flight from XNA into Sanford which is about a 40 minute drive from Orlando. We like the allegiant flight because not only is it cheaper, it's direct and the flight times are so much better. We left XNA at 8:00 am and arrived into Sanford around 11:00. Our Disney travel agent always arranges a private driver to take us from the airport to our hotel and it's the best thing ever. He was ready and waiting on us with car seats installed and TV's playing Disney movies. We hopped off the plane and less than 15 minutes after landing we were in the car and on our way. It's about a 40 minute drive from Sanford to Disney. 

This time we decided to try a new to us Disney resort--The Riviera. I've had my eyes on the Riviera since they were building it. The Riviera opened up in December of 2019 so it's a very new hotel. When Scott and I went to Disney last August, we had dinner at the Riviera and we loved the resort and knew we would want to stay there the next time we went to Disney. We wanted plenty of room space for our family of five and the Riviera has very spacious 1 bedroom villas. I did a tour of it on my IG highlights if anyone is interested in taking a look. We had plenty of space and, as silly as this sounds, I loved having a washer and dryer in our room. I did two loads of laundry every night and had hardly any dirty clothes to bring back home. It was fantastic! We also pre-planned a Walmart delivery order to be able to stock our kitchen with everything we needed which was great. Our room had a balcony and every night Scott and I would unwind from the day by enjoying our beautiful view with a glass of wine while the boys were snoozing away in their own separate beds. Literally could go on and on about this resort. I highly, highly recommend it. 

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived so we left our bags at the hotel, grabbed a Lyft super quick and headed to Magic Kingdom. We should have just waited on the bus to pick us up at our hotel--I don't really know why we decided on a Lyft but we didn't like it. Scott and I have done Lyft's at Disney before but never to Magic Kingdom. It dropped us off where people have to park their cars when they take their own cars to Disney. We ended up having to walk quite a ways to either the monorail or the ferry to get us to MK. We took the ferry and it was fine but the whole thing added 20-30 minutes to getting to the park whereas if we had just waited for the bus it would have dropped us right off in front of the entrance to MK. Lesson learned. All was well once we arrived though! The first thing the boys wanted was a balloon so that's what we did. 

We got our balloons and Bennett was dying to go inside the castle so we headed that direction, took a peek inside, then decided to hop on Dumbo as our first ride. Scott and I made the decision to start our first day with all of the sweet little rides to ease the boys (mostly Bennett) into them. We quickly learned how much Wells loves rides and that he has zero fear. We ended up riding most of our favorites that first day. The park wasn't as crowded as we anticipated it to be and we never had to wait in line for more than 20 minutes so we were super pleased by that! By the end of the day everyone was starving because we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast other than a big snack of popcorn and cotton candy in Storybook Circus. We were excited for our dinner reservation at The Plaza Restaurant so we could get some good food and sit down in air conditioning. It was very, very hot.

Scott and I had eaten at The Plaza before and we really enjoyed it. You can't beat the location--right in front of the castle. The food honestly isn't anything super special but it is good and, again, the location. After doing my homework on Disney Food Blog when it came to all the best things to order at all the restaurants, I decided the Roast Beef Au Jus was the way to go. Scott and I had a lapse in judgment and decided to share the sandwich. We always share meals when we eat out because the portions are always huge but we forgot that is not the case at Disney. The portions at Disney are appropriate sizes for one person so our shared meal was absolutely not enough for the both of us. It was DELICIOUS and I wanted more. We were both still hungry after so we got an ice cream Sunday which was also super yummy but I was still hungry afterwards, ha!! Campbell, Bennett, and Wells must have really enjoyed their meals too because they all three ate every single bite which never happens. Overall, I love this restaurant for a good meal in MK and I will always recommend it! 

After dinner we were all sweaty and tired from a long day so even though it was a little early, we decided to head back to our hotel. We took the bus this time and it was much better than the Lyft. 

Our groceries we had ordered were waiting on us when we arrived. A bellhop insisted on bringing them to the room for us. He was so nice and happy and chatty and I just loved him. I had ordered some K-cups and as I was unloading them I casually mentioned that I wouldn't need them since there wasn't a Keurig in the room and he said "Oh do you want one? I'm sure I can find a Keurig for you." Ten minutes later he came back with one!! There's nothing like that Disney service!! He officially made my mornings better. We got the boys bathed, asleep and before long Scott and I were right behind them, crashing from a fun first day at Disney.