Latte Lover
<font color=green> in charge of the credit cards a
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2003
- Messages
- 1,335
Monday 17th October 2011
We started the day with cinnamon buns for breakfast, warmed up in the microwave. Yum!
Then drove to Wilderness Lodge to meet the others. We will be staying with Joh and Gary later on in the week so we were on their reservation which meant we were allowed to park at Wilderness Lodge. We met up in the lobby and then walked down to the boat dock to catch the boat to the Magic Kingdom.
Here we are at the boat dock. Notice how it is still almost dark. Yes, even I can get up early when we are in Florida!
This really is a lovely relaxing way to get to a park. The boat goes directly to the Park too, rather than the TTC.
We watched the opening ceremony where Joh unfortunately dropped her camera and broke it. I know how upsetting and frustrating this can be as I did the exact same thing on our last holiday.
After the ceremony we went through to Main Street.
During the morning we picked out our must-do rides and were pleased to find most had little or no queue. We used fast pass for some including Jungle Cruise, which was the exception to the rule as, even with FP, still had a 20 minute wait.
Oh look, more giraffes!
We stopped for lunch at Columbia Harbour House. Tuna sandwich for me, shrimp and fries for Tony and chicken strips for everyone else.
After lunch came our challenges!
This trip, we all have to experience a ride or show in the Disney Parks that we have never done before. For Tony and me it was Country Bears Jamboree. Oh my goodness, it was dreadful! I nearly fell asleep. However, plenty of people in the audience seemed to love it, judging by all the singing and clapping that was going on. We had to take a photo as proof that we had seen the show and didnt just sneak out the side door (which was tempting, I must say).
While we were doing Country Bears, Gary, Joh and Daniel did Hall of Presidents as their challenge.
While waiting for it to start, Daniel asked why they HAD to do it. Because its our family challenge said Joh. So are all these people doing their family challenges then? he asked.
Taking a nap in Hall of Presidents
We left the park around 2 pm. Tony and I went back to the Sheriton, made some coffee and sat out on the balcony and read our books. The others all had shopping to do.
We all met up again at Uno Chicagos for dinner.
A cheeky-looking Nat with a lemon-drop martini
Shrimp and lobster pasta (very good)
Salad
Pizza
Peanut butter pie.
We then made our way back to Wilderness Lodge to catch the boat to the The Magic Kingdom. There was already a boat docked for The Contemporary so we decided to run and catch that one and walk to MK.
As we approached the dock at Wilderness Lodge we were aware that there were a good many mosquitos about thousands of them in fact. In all our years of coming to Florida I have never seen so many, not even in the summer. We got on the boat and the driver joked and said You think this is bad, wait until you get to The Contemporary. Oh my god! It was swarming! There were millions of them! We all ran from the boat along the dock, shrieking and flapping our arms, spluttering as we spat the horrible things out of our mouths. We must have looked such a sight. Away from the water, it was much better, thank goodness, and we walked without incident to The Magic Kingdom, which takes about 10 minutes.
It was incredibly busy. In fact we all agreed we had never seen the park so full before.
The boys
We walked up Main Street and elbowed our way to a place near the hub to watch Wishes and The Magic, the memories and you show. This show is so clever! Images are projected onto the Castle and it all comes together so well. I really was impressed.
Wishes was as excellent as ever.
We watched Mickeys Philharmagic and then rode Buzz Lightyears Space Rangers Spin.
We tried to go on to Space Mountain, as we had obtained Fast Passes earlier, but it was closed due to a technical fault and didnt re-open all evening. Poor Daniel was so disappointed as he had been looking forward to this all day.
We left the park and caught a Disney bus back to the Wilderness Lodge as we just couldnt face all those mosquitos again! We had quite a wait for the bus though, and Tony and I didnt get back to the Sheriton until midnight.
Tomorrow: Seaworld , T-Rex and Ghirardellis. Oh and a bit of shopping.
We started the day with cinnamon buns for breakfast, warmed up in the microwave. Yum!
Then drove to Wilderness Lodge to meet the others. We will be staying with Joh and Gary later on in the week so we were on their reservation which meant we were allowed to park at Wilderness Lodge. We met up in the lobby and then walked down to the boat dock to catch the boat to the Magic Kingdom.
Here we are at the boat dock. Notice how it is still almost dark. Yes, even I can get up early when we are in Florida!
This really is a lovely relaxing way to get to a park. The boat goes directly to the Park too, rather than the TTC.
We watched the opening ceremony where Joh unfortunately dropped her camera and broke it. I know how upsetting and frustrating this can be as I did the exact same thing on our last holiday.
After the ceremony we went through to Main Street.
During the morning we picked out our must-do rides and were pleased to find most had little or no queue. We used fast pass for some including Jungle Cruise, which was the exception to the rule as, even with FP, still had a 20 minute wait.
Oh look, more giraffes!
We stopped for lunch at Columbia Harbour House. Tuna sandwich for me, shrimp and fries for Tony and chicken strips for everyone else.
After lunch came our challenges!
This trip, we all have to experience a ride or show in the Disney Parks that we have never done before. For Tony and me it was Country Bears Jamboree. Oh my goodness, it was dreadful! I nearly fell asleep. However, plenty of people in the audience seemed to love it, judging by all the singing and clapping that was going on. We had to take a photo as proof that we had seen the show and didnt just sneak out the side door (which was tempting, I must say).
While we were doing Country Bears, Gary, Joh and Daniel did Hall of Presidents as their challenge.
While waiting for it to start, Daniel asked why they HAD to do it. Because its our family challenge said Joh. So are all these people doing their family challenges then? he asked.
Taking a nap in Hall of Presidents
We left the park around 2 pm. Tony and I went back to the Sheriton, made some coffee and sat out on the balcony and read our books. The others all had shopping to do.
We all met up again at Uno Chicagos for dinner.
A cheeky-looking Nat with a lemon-drop martini
Shrimp and lobster pasta (very good)
Salad
Pizza
Peanut butter pie.
We then made our way back to Wilderness Lodge to catch the boat to the The Magic Kingdom. There was already a boat docked for The Contemporary so we decided to run and catch that one and walk to MK.
As we approached the dock at Wilderness Lodge we were aware that there were a good many mosquitos about thousands of them in fact. In all our years of coming to Florida I have never seen so many, not even in the summer. We got on the boat and the driver joked and said You think this is bad, wait until you get to The Contemporary. Oh my god! It was swarming! There were millions of them! We all ran from the boat along the dock, shrieking and flapping our arms, spluttering as we spat the horrible things out of our mouths. We must have looked such a sight. Away from the water, it was much better, thank goodness, and we walked without incident to The Magic Kingdom, which takes about 10 minutes.
It was incredibly busy. In fact we all agreed we had never seen the park so full before.
The boys
We walked up Main Street and elbowed our way to a place near the hub to watch Wishes and The Magic, the memories and you show. This show is so clever! Images are projected onto the Castle and it all comes together so well. I really was impressed.
Wishes was as excellent as ever.
We watched Mickeys Philharmagic and then rode Buzz Lightyears Space Rangers Spin.
We tried to go on to Space Mountain, as we had obtained Fast Passes earlier, but it was closed due to a technical fault and didnt re-open all evening. Poor Daniel was so disappointed as he had been looking forward to this all day.
We left the park and caught a Disney bus back to the Wilderness Lodge as we just couldnt face all those mosquitos again! We had quite a wait for the bus though, and Tony and I didnt get back to the Sheriton until midnight.
Tomorrow: Seaworld , T-Rex and Ghirardellis. Oh and a bit of shopping.
Shame about SM for the boys! 
