Hello,
This forum has been so insightful and helpful for my honeymoon planning that I thought it would be fun to do a trip report. To give some background, my wife and I both are huge Disneyland fans and go multiple times a year, I have been to Disneyworld once about 7 years ago (but not to the Magic Kingdom Park), she had never been to Disneyworld. We got married at the Disneyland Hotel and flew to Orlando the next morning.
Arrival Night:
Dinner: Jiko
What an amazing meal. We loved the place including the culturual representatives, the food, desert, and the mint tea. We had never had African food before, but this ended up being our favorite restaurant of the whole trip!
The timezone change and travel was not kind to us as we ended up doing our first day in the parks off of 3 hours of sleep! Most of it seems like a blur but we had an amazing time.
First Day:
Magic Kingdom
Rides
Space Mountain
This ride was so much fun. It is so much better than California's version. The theming was much more than California's "Starfield" theme. The ride queue was amazing. The drops and turns on it were steep and were very thrilling. I much prefer this to California's version which goes up a lift then just more or less goes down a helix for the whole track. I will miss this one.
Haunted Mansion
This was even better than the Disneyland version. The intro with the Hallway and upside down staircases was incredibly creepy. Definitely a plussed version of Disneyland's and the clear winner in our eyes.
Its a Small World
This ride was about 70% of what Disneyland's version is. I will say the Rainforest area in Florida is way better and a lot of the set pieces had more movement than Disneyland's. Disneyland's version just has more figures and more space so ends up being the winner for us.
Mickeys Philhar Magic
We really enjoyed this show it was nice and had a lot of Disney animations in it and good 4D/3D effects. There was no wait too!
Carousel of Progress
I absolutely loved this ride. I tend to really enjoy the Walt Disney attractions including Mr. Lincoln and this was no exception. It was a really nicely put together show and I am so thankful I got a chance to see it. I hope this one never leaves, the animatronics, dialogue, and characters were great.
People Mover
I always saw the tracks for this at Disneyland. I never knew how much fun a ride like this would be. We had a blast, it was so relaxing and we loved how you got to drop into each ride. I really wish Disneyland would get this back.
Splash Mountain
This ride had much better animatronics and maintenance than Disneyland. It feels like a better maintained and developed version of the Disneyland attraction. I do end up preferring the flow of the Disneyland one more, however this was a great ride and I loved being able to sit side by side vs Disneyland's logs where it is one in front of another seating. You definitely have more random moments where you get wet on this Splash vs Disneyland.
Space Mountain (again)
After Splash we used Fastpasses to go on Space for the 2nd time and were lucky enough to do the other track. It was definitely varied and we really loved it just as much as the first track.
Food
Breakfast: Cinderella's Royal Table
It was so much fun that both of our first time's in Magic Kingdom was started by us being at Cinderella's Royal Table, in the center most seat, right next to the window. We have never done character dining before and it was so much fun meeting the characters and hearing their comments about us being on our honeymoon. I know people said the food here is mediocre, but I took the waitresses recommendation of Steak and Quiche (as did my wife) and it was delicious. We absolutely loved the food and the experience is something we will never forget, very special.
Lunch: Casey's Corner
Based on QS recommendations I chose Casey's Corner and Mobile ordered during the parade. The Corn Dog Nuggets and Loaded Fries were awesome and really good finger food.
Dinner: California Grill
When we arrived at the contemporary by monorail (there was rain by this point) (the whole transportation thing at Disneyworld is very confusing) it took us a while to find the place. We did not realize you have to go downstairs to go to a restaurant at the top of the hotel. When we got down there we realized that the restaurant had a strict dress code. We both had packed nicer clothes but were not wearing them on this day. Luckily the staff was friendly and took us in. I have to see, of all the restaraunts we went to, this ended up being our least favorite. I heard it was a special romantic place but the atmosphere and the food just didn't do it for us. I got the Pork Shank and the wife got Bison. Both were OK and weren't bad, but they just were not that memorable. We got to see the show Happily Ever After from the balcony which was nice, but the restaurant itself I found to be below average. We spent a lot of money on dining this trip and this was the only place I felt was not worth what I paid.
Shows
Hall of Presidents
Loved this show and we felt it was like a kind of sequel to Great Moments with Mr Lincoln. It was magnificent to see all the presidents in motion and giving speeches.
Happily Ever After
We watched this from the Contemporary viewing deck while it rained and music was piped in. I am not a huge "fireworks person" at themeparks. I heard the show was supposed to be pretty good. I didn't dislike the show but it felt like a bit too generic for the both of us. I didn't like how it was just generic Disney movie songs as the soundtrack. We just felt like it was going through the motions. We liked the fireworks and are thankful we got to see them, but it was nothing I'd feel the need to see again.
Overall thoughts:
We had an amazing time and had a lot of great memories of this day! I feel that Magic Kingdom does many things much better than Disneyland. The size and space of the park is enormous vs Disneyland and we never felt that the park was crowded in any of the sections. Wait times also were very managable. The people including both the employees and the visitors were much nicer and friendly than those in California. The shopping and food options are done much better than Disneyland and there is a wider variety of both food options and merchandise. MK's Tommorowland felt like a real futuristic place with a lot of movement and attractions, where the Disneyland one just feels lacking and dull.
I will say I do end up preferring the theming of Disneyland's Frontier, Adventureland, and Fantasyland to MK, but DL is also so small that it is easier to theme vs Magic Kingdom. I will take MK's size and uncrowded feeling over Disneyland's theming any day though. I actually really enjoy how different each park is despite being considered similar, it gave us a sense of both excitement and deja vu. I will give my thoughts about the other attractions when I do the trip report for the second day we visited MK.
The Sci-Fi Diner is my family’s favorite place to eat at HS! We love the theming (the kids really love eating in the car), my husband is a sci-if nut so he loves the movie clips, and the food has always been good for us!