Monday morning started with Mickey calling me at 6:00 AM. How can he be so happy at 6:00 AM? Did the necessary morning stuff and poked our head out the door. 37 degrees. BURRRRRRRRRR. Is this really Florida? Got dressed accordingly. Thank God we looked at Accuweather.com before our trip and packed sweatpants and sweatshirts. Headed down to the front desk where we counted down the booting of the computers. 7:00 AM finally hit and we were able to purchase our E-tickets for that evening. SQUEEEEEEEAK, that must be our Disney bus to the Magic Kingdom for early entry. Arrived on Main Street at 7:25 and it never fails, for when I look down Main Street to CindyâÂÂs Castle, a tear wells up in my eye. THIS IS TRUE DISNEY! Headed to Buzz Lightyear for back to back rides then over to Astro Orbitor (note, do not attempt Astro Orbitor in shorts and a tee-shirt when it is 40 degrees out) I can still see that poor lady in my dreams. Line for Pooh was 30 minutes so we fast passed it and went to Small World then the Liberty Belle. I really liked that boat ride. Then it was back to Pooh. I was kind of bummed because I heard you could smell the honey when you go past that part in the ride but we didnâÂÂt smell anything. The crowd was starting to build so we decided to people watch while looking for a place to eat breakfast. I tried at various places to get in as a walk-up but nothing panned out. We ended up taking a boat ride back to where we had stayed in September, Fort Wilderness, where we had breakfast at the Trails End Restaurant. Got there 10 minutes before last call. You gotta try their breakfast pizza. YUM.
After breakfast, we wandered around Fort Wilderness in the petting zoo. It was so cool seeing Minnie the cow but even cooler when she came over to see me when I called her name. The little kids standing around thought it was also cool that the cow listened to me. We were able to feed the goats and see the horses and pigs. This is a great place for kids to visit. We walked around the marina area and saw the tree that grew around the lawnmower. Again, it was nice to take SLOW strolls around and look at the little things. Caught a bus back to Dixie and âÂÂrestedâ again. At 5:00 we went back to Magic Kingdom and headed toward the circle in front of CindyâÂÂs Castle where we staked out our spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. The spot we picked was right under the guide wire that Tinkerbell flies down. We people watched and played cards and Mancala. My wife and her fanny pack are prepared for anything. We caught the show that takes place on the castle stage and enjoyed the color changes on the castle as the sun fell. We met some very nice people (theyâÂÂre always nice when theyâÂÂre there early) while waiting. Two of them were Bonnie and David from the state of Washington. We chatted about various things and helped them save some seats for the rest of their party that went off to Space Mountain. By the time the parade started, it was jammed packed and the last minute people were up to their shenanigans. They were no match for the seasoned veterans before them as we and the folks next to us strongly encouraged them to move along. As people were trying to scramble for last second seats, they ended up seeing an alley to the road between my wife and Bonnie. The rest of the sidewalk was wall to wall people (10 and 12 deep). I sarcastically made a comment about charging cookies for people to pass between us trying to get to the street when all of a sudden, a Nestle TollHouse Cookie (still in the wrapper and warm) was handed to me. Talk about Disney Magic! When one of the floats came by that had characters walking next to it, my wife noticed a little boy of about 4 or 5 years of age a few rows behind us straining to see. She immediately called for âÂÂjust the boyâ and he climbed over a few people to get to her but it was well worth it for him (and me). He was able to get high fives from all of the characters that came by and just seeing the look in his eye was Disney Magic for me pure and simple.
When the parade finished it was time for E-night. This was the biggest disappointment of the trip in my humble opinion. We went to Buzz and got right on because they opened the fast pass entrance at exactly 9:00 PM and they were checking wristbands. We hit Alien Encounter without a wait also. Then we started noticing a disturbing trend. Lines were forming for all of the E-night attractions. Not just small lines, but 30-45 minute ones. It was already approaching 10:15 and the line for Space Mountain was at 40 minutes. Buzz was just a little shorter. We knew Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was being refurbished so we decided to see the Country Bear Jamboree. When we got there a CM was standing outside explaining that the attraction is closed so they could change over to the Christmas theme show. The Haunted Mansion was also closed. That left only 6 of the 9 advertised attractions open. We were told that Pirates of the Caribbean was open so we went there and walked on for 2 rides. We headed back to Tomorrowland and found the lines were even longer than before. 10:50 and E-night was done for us. I will probably attempt E-night again but only when we go in September. Never on a holiday week. ThatâÂÂs all for part 3. Part 4 will be "Tuesday, From Characters to Fireworks".
Adam aka Big Dude
After breakfast, we wandered around Fort Wilderness in the petting zoo. It was so cool seeing Minnie the cow but even cooler when she came over to see me when I called her name. The little kids standing around thought it was also cool that the cow listened to me. We were able to feed the goats and see the horses and pigs. This is a great place for kids to visit. We walked around the marina area and saw the tree that grew around the lawnmower. Again, it was nice to take SLOW strolls around and look at the little things. Caught a bus back to Dixie and âÂÂrestedâ again. At 5:00 we went back to Magic Kingdom and headed toward the circle in front of CindyâÂÂs Castle where we staked out our spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. The spot we picked was right under the guide wire that Tinkerbell flies down. We people watched and played cards and Mancala. My wife and her fanny pack are prepared for anything. We caught the show that takes place on the castle stage and enjoyed the color changes on the castle as the sun fell. We met some very nice people (theyâÂÂre always nice when theyâÂÂre there early) while waiting. Two of them were Bonnie and David from the state of Washington. We chatted about various things and helped them save some seats for the rest of their party that went off to Space Mountain. By the time the parade started, it was jammed packed and the last minute people were up to their shenanigans. They were no match for the seasoned veterans before them as we and the folks next to us strongly encouraged them to move along. As people were trying to scramble for last second seats, they ended up seeing an alley to the road between my wife and Bonnie. The rest of the sidewalk was wall to wall people (10 and 12 deep). I sarcastically made a comment about charging cookies for people to pass between us trying to get to the street when all of a sudden, a Nestle TollHouse Cookie (still in the wrapper and warm) was handed to me. Talk about Disney Magic! When one of the floats came by that had characters walking next to it, my wife noticed a little boy of about 4 or 5 years of age a few rows behind us straining to see. She immediately called for âÂÂjust the boyâ and he climbed over a few people to get to her but it was well worth it for him (and me). He was able to get high fives from all of the characters that came by and just seeing the look in his eye was Disney Magic for me pure and simple.
When the parade finished it was time for E-night. This was the biggest disappointment of the trip in my humble opinion. We went to Buzz and got right on because they opened the fast pass entrance at exactly 9:00 PM and they were checking wristbands. We hit Alien Encounter without a wait also. Then we started noticing a disturbing trend. Lines were forming for all of the E-night attractions. Not just small lines, but 30-45 minute ones. It was already approaching 10:15 and the line for Space Mountain was at 40 minutes. Buzz was just a little shorter. We knew Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was being refurbished so we decided to see the Country Bear Jamboree. When we got there a CM was standing outside explaining that the attraction is closed so they could change over to the Christmas theme show. The Haunted Mansion was also closed. That left only 6 of the 9 advertised attractions open. We were told that Pirates of the Caribbean was open so we went there and walked on for 2 rides. We headed back to Tomorrowland and found the lines were even longer than before. 10:50 and E-night was done for us. I will probably attempt E-night again but only when we go in September. Never on a holiday week. ThatâÂÂs all for part 3. Part 4 will be "Tuesday, From Characters to Fireworks".
Adam aka Big Dude
