Doodle & Peg Do Disney: Back to the Magic (Kingdom), Gingerbread House and Disney Springs

We all woke up around 5.30am, excited and ready to go. Well, when I say all, I was awake from 3am nursing my insect bites (honestly, every single time I get bitten to death regardless of and precautions/ medicines/ supplements I take. Those insects clearly have poor taste as I have that much wrong with my body that even the zombies on The Walking Dead would avoid me as being tainted meat!) and Steve would have slept until 10 if we hadn’t woken him! Anyway, we were happy with the early start as we always go to The Magic Kingdom on the first day, and because extra morning hours for onsite guests were extended for the holidays, the park officially opened at 8am. We knew that they’d let people in early to queue at the entrances to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland (the only areas of the park open for the early hour) so we planned to take the first bus and give Steve chance to grab his essential Starbucks fix before we could get to the rides.

After a bit of unpacking, we were all ready to leave. We spent a few minutes taking in the sights and smells of the Jambo House lobby (it really is the most magical resort and feels so homely to us, and the Christmas decorations are sensational) before starting our journey. We had a car included with our flight as it was booked as a Virgin Holidays fly drive (much cheaper than booking the flight alone even with the upgraded insurance…it is sometimes worth checking) but as we didn’t want to pay the hefty cost to upgrade to something that would fit all of us plus our luggage in, we opted to pick it up the day after we landed from the Disney Car Care centre and drop it off the day before we departed at the same place. This meant we could either take the bus or use an Uber/Lyft to get to the park. If it had been any other park, I think we’d have opted for Uber/Lyft as the girls were very concerned about being squashed up to others on the bus, but as we’d have had to get dropped off at the ticket and transportation centre anyway and travel in from there, we decided to risk it. This probably wasn’t our best decision. The bus was completely rammed, and whilst everyone wore masks lots were the thin, fabric ones which made the girls quite worried. We luckily managed to stand near the middle doorway and form a kind of circle around them which made them feel a bit better, but we were all glad when the journey ended.

Luckily, the sheer joy and excitement of being back at the gates to the kingdom soon washed any worries away. Queues were big and there were a lot of people pushing in, but there was such a lovely feeling of excitement and anticipation in the air that it really didn’t matter. We were home.

Walking through those gates again for the first time felt like a dream. The castle looks absolutely stunning and set against the Christmas decorations it just felt as though we’d walked into a fairy tale. Steve set off for his coffee and we headed towards the Fantasyland entrance. We had a rough plan of what we wanted to do which was to start at 7 Dwarves Mine Train and head to Peter Pan and possibly Speedway (the girls love it…my body doesn’t!) in the first hour before hopping over to Jingle Cruise and Haunted Mansion once that part of the park opened up.

Amazingly the plan worked perfectly, and aside from the toe equivalent of white finger from the vibrations caused by pressing the Speedway pedal, life was great. We even managed to sneak onto Pirates of the Caribbean (despite the girls being terrified to try it for no real reason!) as there was only a 15 minute wait. Queues weren’t too big at all, but a short while later the queues for both Jungle/Jingle Cruise and Seven Dwarves were huge, so I’d definitely suggest rope dropping those if you don’t want to pay for Genie+/ Lightning Lanes. Masks are mandatory in all indoor queues/ inside any buildings, but we wore them a lot of the time outdoors too, only taking them off if we had plenty of space around us. It wasn’t a problem at all as although it was hot, it wasn’t humid.

Most guests followed the mask rules, but Cast Members were constantly having to remind people to put their masks on in queues and these people would often remove their masks again as soon as they couldn’t be seen. I read a tweet before our trip from a CM who told a guest they had to put their mask on, so the guest put it in their mouth and swallowed it. I wasn’t sure I believed it at the time, but after witnessing so many entitled people who felt the rules didn’t apply to them during out trip, I definitely do now!

We decided to watch the early Christmas parade as we wanted to head over to the Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread house in the afternoon. Normally we watch from Main Street, but we were concerned about the crowd level (I’m not COVID paranoid by any stretch, but the last thing we wanted was to end up with it during our trip and spend all our time in a hotel room), so we opted for a nice, shaded spot just outside the Christmas shop. The 50th cavalcade came past just as we were getting sorted, and we absolutely loved it. For the cavalcades they don’t rope anything off, and you just get told to stay to the sides, and you feel really close to the characters. There is still lots of interaction from both dancers and characters, although they obviously keep their distance, and the costumes are beautiful.

We mobile ordered some loaded nachos and mac cheese from Pecos Bills and just had time to eat them before the Once Upon a Christmastime parade. This parade is the same parade they have at the Christmas parties, but once the parties end, they have the parade in the daytime up until New Year’s Eve and although it’s been modified, we still absolutely loved it. Some of the princesses did look a bit worse for wear though. Clearly COVID has taken its toll on them too.

We decided to leave the park after the parade and head over to the Grand Floridian to see the gingerbread house. We used the new walkway, and even with Winnie and her little legs, we got there in 10 minutes. It’s a lovely walk and something we’d definitely do to get to the parks if we were staying there.

The gingerbread house was beautiful and decorated in the 50^th colours which made it seem even more special. The tree at the Grand Floridian is also amazing, but I have to say I prefer the decorations at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I think maybe because it’s quite dark, the lights stand out more and seem more magical. 

Anyway, the girls wanted to buy some, so we queued up and bought some gingerbread biscuits. What I didn’t realise is that they’re actually made of solid gold. Well, that’s what I’m assuming after finding out that despite being buy one, get one half price, they still cost $17!

We then went to collect the car. Front desk rang Alamo for us who sent a shuttle bus to take us to the car care centre. It was really quick and easy, and we were driving back to the hotel within 10 minutes of arriving there. The girls had time for a quick swim before we got ready to head to Disney Springs.

Now, in the past Disney Springs has had a Christmas Tree trail near to Earl of Sandwich where you can stroll through and see all the different Disney themed trees. This year, because things are different, they decided to spread the trees out around Disney Springs, I’m assuming in the hope that it thinned the crowds out.

They were wrong!

I have never seen it so busy. You literally could hardly move. It was so crowded, and people were pushing and shoving their way through to get anywhere. It really wasn’t enjoyable at all and even with masks on, the girls were getting anxious, so after seeing a few of the trees we decided to get take away fish and chips from Cooke’s of Dublin and find somewhere less crowded to eat them. Luckily, there was an empty bench close by, so we perched there, ate our food, and headed back to the hotel and decided we’d avoid Disney Springs for the rest of the trip.

We settled in for an early night ready for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios tomorrow (the Christmas offerings finished much earlier this year, so we needed to squeeze everything in). As we were getting into bed Polly asked if we could please go to Tusker House for breakfast at

Animal Kingdom the next day. I obviously hadn’t booked it (because even with 2 years of the most meticulous preparation, you know one child or the other is going to throw you a curveball) but when I checked the app, I found a few times available so grabbed one, because who doesn’t want chicken curry for breakfast!