A Disney Day

Yesterday morning, we drove over to the Magic Kingdom for the day. We parked in the Simba lot and, for the first time, I believe, we were not directed to park in a space that was the furthest from the trams but ended up almost at the end of the row closest to the trams - that helps tired feet at the end of the day!!

Given that we are headed into the holiday weekend, we expected the park to be very busy. It wasn't bad but I suspect that was due t the early Magic Kingdom closing to make way for the evening's Christmas Party (A sign by Guest Relations noted the party was sold out). We were unable to fit on the tram that was there when we parked but another was right behind it.

The line for security was practically non-existent and that was a surprise. There was a long line for the express monorail so we opted to take the resort monorail. I think that turned out to be a longer option since, in addition to all the resort stops which we expected, our operator had to reset his computer by turning the monorail off completely and then restarting it.

Magic Kingdom had opened at 8 this morning but it was closer to 9 by time we entered the park. Our first stop was at the Main Street Bakery where we each got an espresso (I'm not crazy about Starbucks coffee but can tolerate the espressos) and a breakfast sandwich. They were out of our first breakfast sandwich option so we ended up with a second choice option. We took our food outside and sat at a table by The Plaza Restaurant.

With breakfast complete, we were already 1/2 hour into the time for our first fast pass. We headed over to Big Thunder Mountain and were very quickly through the line and on the train even though only one side was running at the time.

While waiting for our second fast pass, we went to the Hall of Presidents. The first thing that struck us as we entered the theater was the presence of two uniformed security guards - one standing on each side of the theater. I'm not sure why they were there. We found the reformatted presentation to be very different than we expected and almost as though there was another message being delivered. Still, I enjoyed it and was glad we had gone. Regardless of one's political views and whether or not you believe the audioanimatronic of the current president is an apt depiction, I would suggest you see the new version.

By time we exited the theater, it was time for our Pirates fastpass. I was hoping the ride was open since it was not operating when we passed by on the way to Big Thunder but it was and we were quickly through this line.

As we exited, I made a luncheon reservation for Kona Cafe for a couple of hours later. I wanted to see the Jingle overlay of the Jungle Cruise. I didn't have a fast pass and the listed wait time was 30 minutes which changed to 40 as we approached. Still, we decided we had time so got on the line. While on line, the wait time changed yet again to 60 minutes. We stayed in it - it was a pleasant day and we had nothing pressing to do. We were finally on the ride and enjoyed it.

By time we got off this ride, it was time to make our way over to the Poly for our luncheon reservation. We headed to the boat ramp and enjoyed our cruise across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the Poly. We walked over to the restaurant and, though we were early, we were seated immediately. My spouse had a salad and I had squash soup along with the pot stickers. We took the monorail for the return trip to the Magic Kingdom.

I just recently learned that we were eligible to upgrade our annual passes to include admission to the water parks for no additional cost but only had until the beginning of January to do so. Once we got back to the Magic Kingdom, we headed to Guest Relations. Although we had to wait about 10 minutes, we quickly had the change made to our tickets so we may be planning some intermittent water park visits over the next year.

Back in the park, we went to Monsters Inc which was the usual presentation. We were going to go on the Tomorrowland Speedway but one look at the line convinced us that the 20 minute listed wait time was inaccurate. While we were discussing this, the listed wait time changed from 20 minutes to 60 minutes which is more what the line looked like. Instead, we went on the PeopleMover. Our last prebooked fastpass of the day was for 7 Dwarves but we still had some time so we headed to Under the Sea with a listed 20 minute standby time which turned into a 30 - 35 minute wait. By time we exited, we were able to go on 7 Dwarves. We were quickly through that line and had a great ride.

As we exited, I was able to book a fastpass for It's A Small World with an entry time within 5 minutes. We headed over there and did our tour with the dolls. As we exited that ride, there were only 2 rides with fastpass availability left for the rest of the afternoon and I wasn't interested in either of the fastpass options so we began to head to the front of the park.

We stopped in several stores along the way and got held up by the Party while trying to cross the street. We ended up walking out with some fudge (which we didn't even eat yet) and a new salad fork/spoon set. The monorail was very busy but we were able to get on the second one. At the tram area, the tram that was ready to leave broke down and we needed to wait while they brought in a new tram and switched all the existing passengers to the new tram and then go the broken tram out of the way. Finally, we were on the tram and back to our parking space for the ride home.'

Overall, another nice Disney day!!!