Nervous Dad's first trip report Day 5 MK

**conan617** · 10-27-2011, 12:31 AM

Let me start off by apologizing for taking longer to get this out than originally planned. I had a trip report put together, but it was short and so many details were left out. Instead I am opting to post my detailed journal and hope you will excuse my weak writing style and the fact that some of the details contained within are very pedestrian to most of the readers on INTERCOT. Anyway, thanks for reading….here we go.
Cast
Me – the nervous Dad and narrator
Kelly – the Mother of my beautiful children
Matthew – age 11
Mara –age 7

Pretrip report link
http://www.intercot.com/discussion/s...d.php?t=184956
9/25/11
Today is Matthew’s 11th Birthday! We will be spending the day at the Magic Kingdom with a birthday dinner at Chef Mickey’s in the Contemporary Resort. When we awake there’s a message on the phone for Matthew. Goofy is on the voicemail and he sings Happy Birthday to Matthew! We’re out of bed around 6:30 AM and out the door a few minutes past 8AM. We arrive at the Ticket and Transportation Center around 8:30 and Matthew and Mara really want to ride the Monorail, but there was a cast member at the entrance ramp directing everyone to the ferry since the Monorail was not operating. Matthew was a little disappointed, but I told him that we could take the Monorail over to the Contemporary for dinner and then back to the Magic Kingdom afterwards. Matthew has on his birthday button and cast members are wishing him happy birthday all throughout the day. Matthew made the comment at one point during the day that “more people had wished him Happy Birthday today than the rest of his other birthday’s combined.”
As we board the ferry, the kids get their first glimpse of Cinderella’s castle in the distance. The day is already starting to warm up and the humidity is very high. The ferry ride across the Seven Seas Lagoon is a pleasant ride. I snap a few pictures while Kelly and the kids sit on one of the benches and try to stay out of the already glaring sunlight. We disembark and make our way through the bag check and turnstiles.
The Magic Kingdom has been decorated for Halloween and the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I made the kids stand in front of some of the decorations so I can take a few pictures and then we walk through the causeway and pick up a few maps. On Mainstreet USA, the Halloween decorations are out in full force. We stop by the town hall and see if we need any of the buttons they are handing out (we don’t) and then I make the kids stop again for a picture on Mainstreet with the castle in the background. The kids are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the park and all the options before them and they’re not quite sure what they want to do first. I told Matthew that it was his special day and he could choose what we would do. He consults his map and decides the first thing he wants to do is visit the Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland.
As we arrive, I estimate we are at the first show of the day and I would guess there was a total of 30 people in the preshow area. We all enjoy the preshow and then enter the laugh floor while random people are shown on the screen and with funny captions like “will treat the audience to churros” and “feels the urge to get up and dance”. The show progresses and the next thing I know there is a bright light shining on me and my picture is on the big screen. I was chosen to be “That Guy” for the rest of the performance. The Laugh Floor was great and a cast member gave me sticker after the show that says “I was That Guy at the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor”.
After the Laugh Floor, we went over to Stitches’ Great Escape and walked right in. Then Matthew wanted to go on Buzz Lightyear’s Ranger Spin and we walked right on to that as well. Mara rode with me and I think we both scored Space Scout on our first trip through. As soon as we were done, we looked at our picture on the photo wall and went back around and got back on again. This time I scored Space Ranger 1st class.
The Carousel of Progress was next. I enjoyed it for nostalgia’s sake, but the “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” song got on Matthew’s nerves. When the Carousel was done we hit Space Mountain. Both Matthew and Mara were very apprehensive about riding, but we told them that their Uncle Rob had chickened out when he was a kid and they could rub it in his face if they rode. The wait was only a few minutes and we were off into space. When the ride was over, both Mara and Matthew were beaming and exclaiming how much they loved it and how they couldn’t wait to call Uncle Rob. After Space Mountain, Mara drove me around the Tomorrowland Speedway while Matthew drove Kelly. By this time we were hungry so we grabbed some burgers at Cosmic Rays. After lunch we hit the tea cups (why we did this right after lunch I’ll never know) and Mara and I had our cup spinning so fast, I couldn’t see anything. Then we rode Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan (we should have used fast passes) and then Mickey’s Philharmagic, It’s a Small World, and The Scary Adventures of Snow White. Kelly commented after It’s a Small World that the ride needed a “small refurbishment” since some of the dolls didn’t kick while Can-Canning or blink with both eyes. The ride is almost 50 years old, but this one is not currently meeting Disney standards. It started Raining while we were waiting for Snow White, but had pretty much stopped by the time we got out.
Liberty Square was up next and we grabbed a funnel cake and some coke and rootbeer floats. We wanted to try the Hall of Presidents next but it was experiencing technical difficulties so we headed for the Haunted Mansion. The kids were nervous again, but we reassured them that it was all fun. We tried out all the cool things in the graveyard and then into the mansion. Mara thought the hitchhiking ghosts that switched our heads were coolest part and she excitedly told Kelly about what happened. We tried for the Hall of Presidents again and this time it was good to go. We were getting close to having to head to Chef Mickey’s so we rode the river boat around Tom Sawyer Island and then made our way back to the park entrance.