On the way to Columbia Harbour House, Buzz wanted to stop in the Pin Shop in Frontierland. We still had those Disney Dollars that we had gotten each other for our birthday to spend, and Buzz figured that this would be a good place to look for something to get with them. I looked around for a little while before deciding that Id rather do some exploring in Fronterland until Buzz was ready.
An attempt at still life.
I had never really noticed this view of Frontierland before. I wish I had noticed that the sky was blown out in the picture so I could try again, so this will have to do. While exploring, I noticed Donald Duck in his Davy Crockett outfit doing meet-and-greets and got in line.
A view of the Riverboat from the line to see Donald. As you can see, it was already decorated for Tianas Riverboat Jubilee. Im still a little bummed were not going to be able to see that in December.
Oh well.
While in line, Donald had to leave for a quick break to kiss Miss Daisy. The CM with the duck really played it up, saying that he wanted to see smiles from anybody despite Donalds absence. For those who werent smiling, he threatened that theyd be sent to the Hall of Presidents. In his own words, It never has any lines. Theres a reason for that.
Donald Crockett himself.
By now, Buzz was ready to move on. He ended up getting a Toy Story pin that said Happy Birthday on it, which seemed pretty fitting for the trip.
The Hall of Presidents itself. Despite Donalds CMs deterring words about it, it was still one of our main priorities of the day since we hadnt seen it since its re-opening. Well get to that later though; its lunch time now.
Columbia Harbour House is one of our favorite counter service restaurants in Magic Kingdom. The foods pretty good and its not usually too crowded either. Before the trip, I was excited to hear that they had added a shrimp basket to the menu. I love shrimp and knew that was exactly what I wanted for my birthday lunch. I was fully expecting to get some little popcorn shrimp that youd expect to find at Long John Silvers or something, but it turned out to be a bunch of large fried shrimp plus lots of fries and coleslaw. It was even better than I had hoped for! It was really very good too. I was surprised and happy.
Buzz got the chicken nuggets with High School Musical apples (Apparently, the side of apple slices now come in a bag covered with pictures with pictures of the High School Musical characters, prompting a running joke of calling them High School Musical apples. In case you were wondering, they dont make you spontaneously break out into song or dance
), and he said that it was good too.
Usually, Columbia Harbour House is great because theres a bunch of seating upstairs that nobody seems to use. Well, this time it was packed! Weve never had trouble getting a table up there, but we did this time. We did finally manage to get one, but I was pretty surprised, especially since the park wasnt that busy today. I guess the word must have finally gotten out about this place.
After lunch, our Fastpass window for the Jungle Cruise was open, so it was back to Adventureland for us.
Care for a free kitten?
Welcome to the Africa. Its not exactly Kilimanjaro Safaris, but its still fun nonetheless.
Im sure that you already know the joke. If not, I wont spoil it for you.
Entering mysterious Shir Lee Temple.
Our intrepid driver guides us safely through the elephant pool. Maybe its just me, but it feels that the Jungle Cruise skippers seem to have become less playful and more deadpan over the years. I dont know if its part of the act, but the last few skippers weve had have just made it feel like they really hate their job and are sick of the ride. Todays skipper was ok, but did seem to have the same attitude.
After leaving the jungle, we headed back towards Frontierland to see if Big Thunder Mountain was up and running again. It turned out it was, but now Splash Mountain was broken. Seemed like a bad day for mechanical troubles on rides- first Barnstormer, then Big Thunder, then Splash.
The ride was great. I knew we couldnt top our last ride on it at Christmas at night complete with Wishes fireworks bursting above us during the rides finale, but it was still great fun. Its one of my favorites in the park, probably #2 after Peter Pans Flight, so Im glad we got to ride it after all.
Before moving on, we got a few pictures of the mountain. Of course, the obligatory shot of the train barreling through is a must.
By now, we had less than 30 minutes before the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade stepped off, so we decided to make our way to Liberty Square to find a spot. Along the way, we caught a brief glimpse of the Notorious Banjo Brothers and Bob entertaining the crowds already along the parade route.
Next chapter: Celebrate A Dream Come True
I know she is replacing the Up characters soon. 
Glad that you're enjoying the TR so far and hope you enjoy the rest too. 
After the ride we decided to head back to Frontierland to wait out the remaining time until we could ride Big Thunder.
The CMs couldn’t seem to promise when it would be open again, but assured us that we could come back and use our Fastpasses later even if the ride wasn’t open until after our window was closed
which caused us to miss our fastpass time for the Indiana Jones ride. Well, they told us we could still use them but when we finally got off IASW Indiana Jones was broken down. 
