Thanksgiving at Disney: A Trip Report - Day 6 - FastPassing Fantasyland

The first half of this post is going to be about how we FastPassed Fantasyland. The last two posts took you through our first two attractions, I'm going to speed this up and give you a rundown of how you, too, can make it through most of Fantasyland, new and old, by lunch or just after. I know the MyMagic+ is changing things with FastPasses, but until the changes are in effect, this is a pretty solid plan that's worked well for my family.

To recap: we started the morning at Magic Kingdom by watching Rope Drop.  LaRae, the kids, and I made our way over to New Fantasyland while Randy took a quick route around to grab FastPasses for Peter Pan's Flight. It's essential to grab a FastPass first thing before you ride anything else. We practically walked on at Belle's Enchanted Tales and then walked straight to Ariel's Undersea Adventure which due to the early hour did not have a long line yet.

From there, we spotted Gaston but didn't stop to say hello. We did pause for a moment to watch him interact with guests, and he's a hoot! My favorite characters to watch are Cinderella's wicked stepmother and stepsister, but Gaston is quickly climbing the ladder to being my new favorite. I love it when the villains can make guests laugh without scaring the young ones!

My what a guy that Gaston! 

Where does Gaston meet guests? Right outside of his tavern near his
gorgeous likeness. ;-) 

After our first two attractions, it was already time for our Peter Pan's Flight FastPases.  We rode it (my absolute all time favorite Fantasyland attraction) and immediately got another FastPass, this time for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh which came with the usual bonus FastPass but this time for Dumbo! Always grab another FastPass, and always grab one for a queue that's usually over 30 minutes long. Even in Peak Season, we don't stand in long queues as a general rule. The Dumbo FastPass was in about 10-15 minutes' time (seriously), so we went over to Storybook Circus to look around ride the new 2-sided Dumbo! Afterwards our FastPasses for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh were due, so we got to ride it before lunch.  Randy "ran" to grab a Barnstormer FastPass, and then we headed to lunch at Tomorrowland Terrace.

Storybook Circus - that's my family in the shadows (LaRae is wearing pink).
Great example of how I should have better composed some of my photos... 

Randy and Katelyn - I was riding in front of my family's 2 elephants,
raising my elephant with one hand while turned around taking photos of
them behind me! Neck strap on the DSLR was definitely being used! 

LaRae and Joshua

Now I'll pause to point out a few glaring issues you're probably noticing by now. We did not ride It's a Small World or Prince Charming Regal Carrousel because those queues are typically short, and we knew we'd stop by them at some point during our trip. Planning ahead when you're on a long trip is definitely a good plan. Our goal this morning was to hit all or most of the big attractions. We also missed the Mad Tea Party because it's not a must do for anyone in our family. It's a "maybe if the mood strikes one of us when we're passing it and the queue is really short" type of attraction for us. Even missing these, we're hitting what we love and big attractions though.

Storybook Circus

Om nom nom!

At this point the crowds were really picking up. That's one of the reasons I like to eat at Tomorrowland Terrace: it's like most of the crowd walks past and doesn't realize it's there! Besides, it has the good honey mustard (the pump not the pre-made cups), so I'll eat there all day, any day. The best part though is the view of Cinderella Castle. While it was a bit windy during lunch, we got to have a gorgeous view on this sunny day in November.

Our lunch view!

The Barnstormer Reimagined

After lunch we used our Barnstormer FastPass and then took the Walt Disney World Railroad to Frontierland. Take the time for the train, folks. It's relaxing, gets you off your feet, and gives you a different view of the Magic Kingdom.

Pirates of the Caribbean had a HUGE line, so we decided to wait. I had never been on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin (always the photographer). Randy said he'd go grab FastPasses for Jungle Cruise while the rest of us stood in line to ride together. He even took the camera to document my first ride on the Magic Carpets! (This is where our rule becomes more general because we stood in line for what felt like forever!) While in line I did discover that I could tweet, Facebook, and Instagram quicker using the free wifi than the 4G network.

I PROMISE I pulled the bun down and put it lower half an hour after this!

Look! I'm on a magic carpet!

We have a lot of photographic evidence of me on this ride. :) 

For those who are in the Cult of Orange...

I promise that Jungle Cruise is my sister's favorite ride! ;-)

Flight completed, we used our FastPasses for the Jungle Cruise. I'm telling you, we were masters of FastPasses this day! Then we walked right in to the Tiki Room, no longer under new management, and decided to head back for a rest before shopping in Downtown Disney that evening. On the way out Randy stopped in the Harmony Barber Shop for a haircut, and we all watched and begged him to let the stylist put confetti in his hair. He politely declined but was a good sport about the audience. A quick ride on the ferry to the TTC, and we on our way to a well-deserved nap at our resort!

Randy getting his haircut. She was super friendly and funny!

We all loved riding the Ferry!

Join us again on Monday for some shopping in Downtown Disney.