Mackflava99
07-18-2011, 03:56 PM
Day 6 – Magic Kingdom
Before we went to bed the previous night, I informed my family.
“tomorrow is my day, so we will be going to Magic Kingdom, but we won’t be going there until 1pm, but we will be staying late. Get some rest, and be dressed and ready at 10am.”
That’s all I would tell them.
I got up, went for a long walk and took some pictures of the lake in the AM. I also went for a quick swim before returning to the room at 9:30 to see how ready everyone was. To my surprise they were up and ready to go..
So I told them the plan-
10AM – we have a family Bocce tournament.
11Am – we will have a family Shuffle board tournament.
I had gotten some Vinylmations as prizes.
We actually started early. We picked teams: Taylor and I vs. Mackenzie and my wife. One bad trait I taught my kids is to 'trash talk” so they were going at it.
We won bocce very easily, actually my wife did very well, but I play a lot and even when I wasn’t trying as hard, Taylor would egg me on. It was much more competitive than I anticipated. I guess the Italian in all of us was exhibited.
Next was shuffleboard, 2 years ago on a cruise, Taylor had won a family shuffleboard tournament, even though she wasn’t as good, her opponent (my nephew Jake) had accidently knocked himself out of the points and she won by default.
They were killing us, and by all means we should have lost, but the last round, we scored a ton and they hit the dreaded “-10” space. We swept the tournament, but my plan was to give each of them a Vinylmation because I really don’t collect them, plus I didn’t want to deal with the moaning …
Either way we had a lot of fun, but it was starting to get HOT and humid with alot of clouds.
We went to Contempo Café, got a quick drink and then got on the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom.
Many people say this, but I will repeat it ,because it is true. It does not really feel like you are at WDW until you hit Main Street. I had never really come to the park this late, but I must say it wasn’t as crowded as I had expected. I ran to Splash Mountain to get us some fast passes. And met the family at the Jungle Cruise.
The line wasn’t too bad, we did the jungle cruise, then Swiss family Robinson treehouse , which meant more to them than previous trips because we watched it on the way down in our car. I think Disney needs to re-release it, because knowing the story gives so much more to this attraction.
We then grabbed a Dole Whip ( not my last one ) and went to ride Pirates of the Caribbean (only an 8 minute wait) and then it began to rain and rain. We were prepared so we popped open our umbrellas. But there was a 15 minute period where it was a monsoon.
We hid out over where they have the Jasmine meet n’ greet. While waiting, we met a CM named Mckenzie and she was originally from a town close to us. We asked her if she knew my niece Ashley and she did. Small world !! ( not the ride, this is an exclamation..)
I then sprang surprise #2 of the day- we had late lunch reservations at Cinderella’s Castle !!
While my wife and I had eaten dinner there many years ago, My kids had never been to eat at the castle, so I wanted to get it in before they got too old. The entire experience was terrific. They walked in, we met Cinderella, and then they gave us our seat . There was some mix up because they kept asking about our food allergy. ( we don’t have any) Apparently, the reservation had us having a food allergy, so the chef came over and talked to us. I felt bad , he was very nice , but we did not have any allergy. Every princess came over and sat with my girls, they had just a wonderful time. The food was pretty good too. The castle is gorgeous and everyone needs to do it.
The rain had subsided, so next stop was Princess Tiana from “princess and the Frog” and had to stop for a photo. The twins were very happy to see her and the line was light. We next went to the Country bear Jamboree.
A few days prior, Taylor had hurt herself at the pool and had a small cut on her foot. Mackenzie told me “ There was a puddle of blood on the ground” and I replied “ was there Blood on the saddle? Was there blood all around? ”
It wasn’t a bad cut at all , so she was exaggerating, but she didn’t catch on to my Big Al reference.
“what saddle?” ? “ was there a great big puddle of blood on the ground?” “ what are you talking about dad?” …”There was blood on the saddle , and blood all around, and a great big puddle of blood all around ? wow !” While Taylor caught on right away, Mackenzie had no idea. She never really liked the country bears, she always said it was boring.
While we were watching it, as soon as Big Al came on, she realized what I was doing. Now she loves the country bears…amazing.
Next, haunted mansion (I loved the new queue) Hall of Presidents and the riverboat. Note: the lines were very good, I guess a lot of people left.
We then walked over to Philharmonic, while entering the theater, we had some people who didn’t want to “ move all the way down” , they didn’t speak English, but either way, they were being a pain, they started sticking their middle finger at the CM…. I feel bad that some people just cannot be polite.
We went on Snow White(for the last time I guess ) and Dumbo . We had some snacks and then went over to get a FP for Space Mountain, went to see monsters inc , Stich and Astro orbiter.
The rain was on and off, and we lucked out being first in line for the AO. Normally it’s not worth the wait. But you could see a lot of the new construction from up there. Myself and the kids went to see Carousel of Progress (my wife refuses to go because she thinks the father is a male chauvinist)
Then we were trying to decide which place to have dinner, we ended up walking all the way back to Columbia Harbor house. Sat upstairs and had a great meal while people watching. It was getting dark, we walked back and used our FP for space Mountain, We did the people mover 2 times, then we walked over to look at the posters describing what the new Fantasyland will look like. Went on peter pan, passed on Small World ( my day ..) and made our way over to Splash Mountain.
We still had out fast pass for SM. Wishes was starting, everyone was rushing to watch it. We got to the queue and the wait was 10 min. Anyway, Splash is our all time favorite. We went on, got wet ( but we were already soaked from the rain. ) and as we returned, no one , was in line, no one. I asked the lady if we could stay on. She said, “of course !!”
So we went on 4 times. We would have done it again, but the queue suddenly got crowded, and my knees were hurting. Splash does not work well for tall people.
Next we went on the Jungle Cruise inthe dark. I must say, there is nothing like it, actually I think its better at night. We also had a great guide , which makes or breaks the ride. We grabbed another Dole whip…I am sorry I just LOVE them…and walked back.
My kids have NEVER been to the park this late, it was a first for them. Nor do they usually stay up later that 10 so they were beat.
We walked back to the BLT, ( very quick walk) and they crashed.
My wife and I had to pack, because the next day was move day.
Observations :Rain seems to scare people. We were very prepared and it helped. The park was crowded early but it was very, very uncrowded the rest of the day. I have not had such an easy day in the MK since we came in early November once.
After Wishes, as we were walking back, we saw some totally cool light show on the castle. It had colors, shapes, patterns, I had no idea what it was. Does anyone know what it’s called? Is it the “kiss goodnight?”
Tomorrow : The Move
Before we went to bed the previous night, I informed my family.
“tomorrow is my day, so we will be going to Magic Kingdom, but we won’t be going there until 1pm, but we will be staying late. Get some rest, and be dressed and ready at 10am.”
That’s all I would tell them.
I got up, went for a long walk and took some pictures of the lake in the AM. I also went for a quick swim before returning to the room at 9:30 to see how ready everyone was. To my surprise they were up and ready to go..
So I told them the plan-
10AM – we have a family Bocce tournament.
11Am – we will have a family Shuffle board tournament.
I had gotten some Vinylmations as prizes.
We actually started early. We picked teams: Taylor and I vs. Mackenzie and my wife. One bad trait I taught my kids is to 'trash talk” so they were going at it.
We won bocce very easily, actually my wife did very well, but I play a lot and even when I wasn’t trying as hard, Taylor would egg me on. It was much more competitive than I anticipated. I guess the Italian in all of us was exhibited.
Next was shuffleboard, 2 years ago on a cruise, Taylor had won a family shuffleboard tournament, even though she wasn’t as good, her opponent (my nephew Jake) had accidently knocked himself out of the points and she won by default.
They were killing us, and by all means we should have lost, but the last round, we scored a ton and they hit the dreaded “-10” space. We swept the tournament, but my plan was to give each of them a Vinylmation because I really don’t collect them, plus I didn’t want to deal with the moaning …
Either way we had a lot of fun, but it was starting to get HOT and humid with alot of clouds.
We went to Contempo Café, got a quick drink and then got on the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom.
Many people say this, but I will repeat it ,because it is true. It does not really feel like you are at WDW until you hit Main Street. I had never really come to the park this late, but I must say it wasn’t as crowded as I had expected. I ran to Splash Mountain to get us some fast passes. And met the family at the Jungle Cruise.
The line wasn’t too bad, we did the jungle cruise, then Swiss family Robinson treehouse , which meant more to them than previous trips because we watched it on the way down in our car. I think Disney needs to re-release it, because knowing the story gives so much more to this attraction.
We then grabbed a Dole Whip ( not my last one ) and went to ride Pirates of the Caribbean (only an 8 minute wait) and then it began to rain and rain. We were prepared so we popped open our umbrellas. But there was a 15 minute period where it was a monsoon.
We hid out over where they have the Jasmine meet n’ greet. While waiting, we met a CM named Mckenzie and she was originally from a town close to us. We asked her if she knew my niece Ashley and she did. Small world !! ( not the ride, this is an exclamation..)
I then sprang surprise #2 of the day- we had late lunch reservations at Cinderella’s Castle !!
While my wife and I had eaten dinner there many years ago, My kids had never been to eat at the castle, so I wanted to get it in before they got too old. The entire experience was terrific. They walked in, we met Cinderella, and then they gave us our seat . There was some mix up because they kept asking about our food allergy. ( we don’t have any) Apparently, the reservation had us having a food allergy, so the chef came over and talked to us. I felt bad , he was very nice , but we did not have any allergy. Every princess came over and sat with my girls, they had just a wonderful time. The food was pretty good too. The castle is gorgeous and everyone needs to do it.
The rain had subsided, so next stop was Princess Tiana from “princess and the Frog” and had to stop for a photo. The twins were very happy to see her and the line was light. We next went to the Country bear Jamboree.
A few days prior, Taylor had hurt herself at the pool and had a small cut on her foot. Mackenzie told me “ There was a puddle of blood on the ground” and I replied “ was there Blood on the saddle? Was there blood all around? ”
It wasn’t a bad cut at all , so she was exaggerating, but she didn’t catch on to my Big Al reference.
“what saddle?” ? “ was there a great big puddle of blood on the ground?” “ what are you talking about dad?” …”There was blood on the saddle , and blood all around, and a great big puddle of blood all around ? wow !” While Taylor caught on right away, Mackenzie had no idea. She never really liked the country bears, she always said it was boring.
While we were watching it, as soon as Big Al came on, she realized what I was doing. Now she loves the country bears…amazing.
Next, haunted mansion (I loved the new queue) Hall of Presidents and the riverboat. Note: the lines were very good, I guess a lot of people left.
We then walked over to Philharmonic, while entering the theater, we had some people who didn’t want to “ move all the way down” , they didn’t speak English, but either way, they were being a pain, they started sticking their middle finger at the CM…. I feel bad that some people just cannot be polite.
We went on Snow White(for the last time I guess ) and Dumbo . We had some snacks and then went over to get a FP for Space Mountain, went to see monsters inc , Stich and Astro orbiter.
The rain was on and off, and we lucked out being first in line for the AO. Normally it’s not worth the wait. But you could see a lot of the new construction from up there. Myself and the kids went to see Carousel of Progress (my wife refuses to go because she thinks the father is a male chauvinist)
Then we were trying to decide which place to have dinner, we ended up walking all the way back to Columbia Harbor house. Sat upstairs and had a great meal while people watching. It was getting dark, we walked back and used our FP for space Mountain, We did the people mover 2 times, then we walked over to look at the posters describing what the new Fantasyland will look like. Went on peter pan, passed on Small World ( my day ..) and made our way over to Splash Mountain.
We still had out fast pass for SM. Wishes was starting, everyone was rushing to watch it. We got to the queue and the wait was 10 min. Anyway, Splash is our all time favorite. We went on, got wet ( but we were already soaked from the rain. ) and as we returned, no one , was in line, no one. I asked the lady if we could stay on. She said, “of course !!”
So we went on 4 times. We would have done it again, but the queue suddenly got crowded, and my knees were hurting. Splash does not work well for tall people.
Next we went on the Jungle Cruise inthe dark. I must say, there is nothing like it, actually I think its better at night. We also had a great guide , which makes or breaks the ride. We grabbed another Dole whip…I am sorry I just LOVE them…and walked back.
My kids have NEVER been to the park this late, it was a first for them. Nor do they usually stay up later that 10 so they were beat.
We walked back to the BLT, ( very quick walk) and they crashed.
My wife and I had to pack, because the next day was move day.
Observations :Rain seems to scare people. We were very prepared and it helped. The park was crowded early but it was very, very uncrowded the rest of the day. I have not had such an easy day in the MK since we came in early November once.
After Wishes, as we were walking back, we saw some totally cool light show on the castle. It had colors, shapes, patterns, I had no idea what it was. Does anyone know what it’s called? Is it the “kiss goodnight?”
Tomorrow : The Move