Today we are completing the Fab 50 Quest at Magic Kingdom and much more. Along with our daughter, this is our 4th park in just over 2 weeks, but we saved the best for last. Check out our latest adventure at Magic Kingdom in Disney World!
Planning the Fab 50 Quest and More
We plan to do 3 things today. 1) Complete the Fab 50 quest around the park. 2) Our daughter wants to ride Space Mountain for the 1st time. 3) And the Walt Disney World Railroad is finally back open after being closed for 3 years. So, we are definitely planning to take a trip around the park. Also, we plan to arrive late morning before our lunch reservation at 12:15PM at Liberty Tree Tavern. So, we’ll see how much we can do before lunch, and we’ll try to finish up in the afternoon, before we have to drive home. It’s a sunny day and we’re looking forward to completing the Fab 50 quest and more at Magic Kingdom!
Getting into Magic Kingdom
Getting into Magic Kingdom is difficult on a normal day because you can’t just park and walk in. And today is more difficult. We get to the park by 10:30AM and get standard parking. We then hop on the tram which drops us off near the transportation ticket center. But it is really windy today, so the ferries aren’t running this morning. And that means the line for the monorail is very long. Someone tells us we can take a bus, so we decide to do that. But it still takes us about 10 minutes to board. We get dropped off near the entrance and then have to walk to the gates. However we are finally on Main Street a few minutes after 11:00AM.
It’s pretty crowded today, but before we do anything we want to get our picture taken in our secret spot. Past the plaza restaurant are some gardens that always have PhotoPass photographers. And we find one and she has no line. So we pose for a few pictures. They even have a cute Mickey heart prop we get to use. This is a great place to get pictures with the castle and much less busy than Main Street. With an hour before lunch, we are already near many of the Fab 50 statues and ready to start our quest.
The Fab 50 Quest
Across all 4 Disney World theme parks are 50 golden characters added as part of their 50th Anniversary Celebration. What has made finding them more interesting is now that we have the new MagicBands, they interact with the characters. Paired with the Play Disney Parks app, you can collect them with the new MagicBand+. You can read more about them at: Golden Sculptures for the Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary | Walt Disney World Resort.
So, in the last few weeks, we have collected all of the golden statues at the other 3 parks. You can read about each here:
- 1st Time Using MagicBand+ at Hollywood Studios
- 1st Time Experiences at Animal Kingdom
- International Festival Of Arts & More At EPCOT
Even though there are 50 golden characters, there are only 36 statues because some have more than one. And even though we have found 17 statues, we have actually found 25 characters at the other 3 parks. However, that means the majority of statues and characters are still here at Magic Kingdom. In fact, there are 25 characters alone at Magic Kingdom, on 19 different statues. That’s more than the other 3 parks combined! So, we have our work cut out for us today. The good news is most of them are near Cinderella’s castle, and we’ve already collected one.
Collecting the 1st half of the Fab 50 Characters
On our way in, we already collected our 1st characters, Lady and the Tramp. They were right in front of the railroad in Town Square when you enter the park. But now close to the castle, we have to collect the rest. We’ve seen some of the statues before, and we know where to find them. So, we head to Tomorrowland to find Stitch. And as I get near my MagicBand+ vibrates and the lights spin and glow white. He is on the wall just past Tomorrowland Terrace still in sight of the castle. And after waving in front of him, the MagicBand vibrates, and I can see I’ve collected him on the Play app. Heading back to the castle, we find Dumbo with Timothy the mouse on his nose.
Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire show is going on in front of the castle, so it is a little crowded. Not to mention they roped off sections in front of many of the statues. But we are able to still wave and collect Mickey and Minnie Mouse right next to each other. And in the next section we see Goofy and Pluto also next to each other.
On the other side we collect Donald and Daisy Duck in separate statues. And then easily find Chip and Dale on 1 statue in the next section. However, as we leave the main hub, we have to look up to find Tinkerbell in a tree. This may be the hardest one to find in this area.
Finding the last half of the Fab 50 Characters
We then head to Adventureland to find some others. On the way we know Pooh and Piglet are in front of The Crystal Palace restaurant. But Abu from Aladdin may be the hardest to spot. He is actually on the sign for Adventureland! And once past the sign, we are able to find Orange Bird near Sunshine Tree Terrace. At this point, we have found 14 of the 19 statues and we think we can still find the rest before lunch.
We head back past the castle to Fantasyland. Right in front of the tea cups ride, we spot Cheshire cat in a tree. And the Mad Hatter is real close to the cat. Farther in Fantasyland in the new section just past the Seven Dwarfs mine ride, we find Pinocchio. And near him we also find Lumiere and Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast on 1 statue . That just leaves 1 more.
We have to backtrack to find the last statue with Jaq and Gus from Cinderella. They are on an east turret in front of the castle. Rather than a statue, this one looks more like a plaque on the wall with the 2 mice holding up a golden “50”. A fitting end to our Fab 50 quest, and we still have 15 minutes to lunch.
The Festival of Fantasy Parade
We get to the Liberty Tree Tavern with over 10 minutes to spare. But just in front, it is roped off for the Festival of Fantasy parade about to come through. We go ahead and check into the restaurant, and wait for the parade. This parade showcases the movies we’ve all fell in love with. And the first float full of roses has Belle and the Beast waving to the crowds lined on either side.
Next we see Cinderella with her prince, followed by Princess Tiana and hers. Then we see the Frozen float with Anna and Elsa. All of these characters wave and blow kisses, and the kids and adults are waving back. And from the here the floats get more intricate. We see the Tangled float with Rapunzel waving upfront and Flynn Rider swinging back and forth on an axe. This is followed by Ariel from the Little Mermaid sitting in a shell flapping her tail.
We see Wendy and the Lost Boys walk by before Peter Pan on Captain Hook’s ship. And then probably our favorite float was the dragon Maleficent that actually breathes fire. About this time our table is called and I go to check-in. They ask if everyone is here, and I tell them we’re watching the parade. They ask if we’d like to watch the end of the parade, and we say yes. So, we continue as Snow White and the seven dwarves walk past waving.
And the finale has Mickey and Minnie in a hot-air balloon. And behind them we see their pals. Chip and Goofy on our side give our daughter high fives as they pass.
Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
After the parade we head inside the restaurant and wait for our name to be called. We chose to make a reservation for this restaurant because the food is good, plentiful and reasonable (for Disney). And we didn’t eat breakfast, so we’re ready for the family-style servings. The meal starts off with some bread and butter followed by a large salad to share. The main entree is a family-style platter of roasted turkey, pot-roast and oven-roasted pork. It comes with mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing and macaroni and cheese. Beverages are also included with plenty of choices.
It’s way more than we can eat though it is all-you-care-to-enjoy. Though we fill up on the tasty pot roast, turkey with gravy and fixings. But we save some room for the Oooey Gooey Toffee Cake dessert. This toffee cake covered with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce is also really good and a large portion. We do our best but are full and ready to enjoy more of the park.
Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade
We get out of lunch, and there’s another parade! This time it’s Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade. It’s only 2 floats but has all the main characters. On the first float we see Goofy and Pluto upfront with Minnie waving up top.
The 2nd float has Donald and Daisy upfront and Chip and Dale in the back. On top of a large present with a “50” emblazoned on it is Mickey Mouse himself. We feel so lucky to have seen both parades, especially not planning them. Makes us think we should plan to see more parades next time we come since we love them so much. But now we’re off to do Space Mountain.
Space Mountain
Our daughter has gone on all the rollercoasters at Disney World except for Space Mountain. Though we expect a long line, we tell her we will ride it. And he line starts outside and weaves toward the entrance. At a posted 50 minute wait, I go ahead and get in line while they head to the restroom. But by the time they come back, I’ve barely moved and the sign now shows an 80 minute wait. This seems to be consistent the last few big rides we’ve had to wait for. And we wait 20 minutes before we even get inside. So, we decide to find a way to entertain ourselves in line.
On the Play app there is also a Rocket Race game you can play while in this line. You can play with multiple players and it has different activities you do to gain power and unlock achievements. There are even codes you can enter while walking through the line. You can spot these codes on the walls and other areas as you walk through the line. It’s a good thing we played the game since it takes us 90 minutes to get on the ride. But our little daredevil has now done all of the rollercoasters at Disney World!
Walt Disney World Railroad
After Space Mountain, we head to one of Becky’s favorite rides. The Walt Disney World Railroad just reopened less than 2 months ago, after being shut down for 3 years. So we head back to Town Square to the main train station. We take the ramp up to the top and a couple minutes later we see the train coming. Once we board, we sit back and enjoy the narrated ride.
Not only is this a relaxing ride that goes around the whole park, but it essentially goes behind the main attractions. We head through Adventureland to Frontierland we’re there’s a stop near the closed Splash Mountain. And once past Big Thunder Mountain, we pass over a bridge to a secret section of the park.
I fondly remember this section behind the park and its secret props. We pass an Indian village, some snakes and some alligators among other things. And then we stop at the Fantasyland stop to get more passengers before heading on. We pass through a new tunnel near the Tron ride about to open soon. And before we know it, we are back at the main train station. The round trip takes about 25 minutes and we’ve now accomplished the 3 things we set out to do today. So, we exit the park to the monorail and take the trip back to our car.
Summary
We spent about 6 hours at Magic Kingdom today and it was truly magical. We started off completing the Fab 50 Quest to find the 19 remaining golden statues. There were not only more Fab 50 statues here, but some were challenging to find. And before lunch we got to see the Festival of Fantasy parade which was wonderful. Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern is always good and filling. And after lunch we got to see Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade. We really couldn’t have timed it better and loved both parades. Our daughter also rode Space Mountain for the first time. And we finished our day with a ride on the Walt Disney Railroad.
It was a perfect ending to our day, but we plan to be back soon. We got a passholder preview for the new Tron Lightcycle / Run ride next month!