First timers trip to the magic - Day 7

[MorningGlory]

Cast

Me. Paul. 34. Chief planner and taxi driver. Scared and excited at the thought of the big coasters.

DS9. Paul (now called junior for the sake of this report). Absolutely bursting at the thought of Disney. As scared as his dad of the coasters but isn't showing it (yet).

Dad. 60 something. Doesn't know how he is going to handle 9 hours without a cigarette!

Brother. John. 45. Possibly the most excited of us all. Definitely looking forward to meeting Mickey.

Day 7 - Wednesday 20th June 2007

Despite the best laid plans, the itinerary really started to go awry after today. We had planned to do AK, and Dad and John were supposed to be accompanying us however despite repeated attempts to wake them by phoning and banging their door, they had still not stirred by 10am so me and junior decided to make haste. We began the short drive along Buena Vista Drive past Downtown Disney when I had the sudden realisation that we had a breakfast booked with Chef Mickey today at 11:15, and it was supposed to be Magic Kingdom day!!

So, a quick discussion and change of plans later, and we were pulling into the car park at the Magic Kingdom (I had written down our parking lots on the back of junior's autograph book but don't have it to hand - im sure it was Grumpy though, as I remember the tram attendant joking we would be VERY grumpy if we managed to forget where we parked lol). We decided we would wait for the boat to take us over, as we would be getting the monorail over to Chef Mickey's so we would be able to try that out then. Once at the boat dock, we got our first good view of the Magic Kingdom;

And the opulent Grand Floridian Resort;

Our boat for the short crossing was the 'Admiral Joe Fowler', whoever he was....

Some more photos from the crossing;

Back on dry land, we joined the short queue to enter the park. Already we could feel the tingle of excitement as we heard the music playing in the park, and the throng of people at the other side of the gates. In we get to the park, and we get our first ever view of Main Street, USA

As you can see, it was just a little busy lol.

Hand on heart, I can honestly say that no amount of pictures or stories can ever do justice to the feeling I got walking up that street. It felt surreal and.....I can't think of another word that can do it justice.....it really was MAGICAL! My skin was prickling and the hairs on my neck and arms felt as if they were sprouting out. Even knowing that we were in a rush (it was now about 10:50), we just couldn't help but dawdle as slowly as possible, trying to take everything in.

Here's junior feeling mightily pleased to be there;

Kevin and Kathleen had bought him the t-shirt the night before at the wrestling, a Samoa Joe one (Umaga from WWE's brother, if anyone's interested lol!). It was about 2 sizes too big but the only one they had, and Paul insisted on wearing it! Hehe.

When we eventually reached the top of Main Street, we couldn't believe our luck - there was a show in progress on the Castle steps, and it had tons of characters that Paul loves in it - not least Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Smee!;

And of course, Mickey, Minnie, et al;

This really did add to our amazement and we knew at this point that the Magic Kingdom was something totally different altogether. All of the parks are great in their own way. Some for rides, others for shows. But the Magic Kingdom, I felt, has a complete atmosphere everywhere you go. It was electric. We had been toiling a little lately, especially with the heat and stuff, and this morning was no different. I'll be the first to admit that I would have been glad of a non-park day today and just lazed around the hotel pool sunbathing, but after just 20 minutes I felt that I didn't want to be anywhere in the world except there. In fact, we were really quite disappointed when we realised that if we were going to make breakfast, we were going to have to beat a hasty retreat right now for the monorail, and so with a heavy heart we turned our backs on the Castle and headed down to the exits.

A short journey later, and we found ourselves in the lobby of the Contemporary. I must admit, I was mightily impressed by the Contemporary, any photos I have seen really don't do it justice. It was very light and airy, and seemed to be full of life the moment we stepped off the monorail. I was beginning to get a really good feeling about our breakfast. I should mention at this point that, had we not missed an ADR at Boma earlier in the holiday, we would have probably given Chef Mickey's a miss today and just grabbed a bite to eat in the park. Junior even went as far to suggest it. That would definitely have been one of the biggest mistakes of the holiday, and there was a couple.

When we approached the counter to be seated, the lady behind it was giving us quizzical looks when we announced we had an ADR for 11:15. She checked her computer....and there was no booking. And even worse, I had forgot to bring a note of the reservation number. A few more key presses, and she then informs us, much to my embarrasment, that our ADR was for 11:15 tomorrow!! Arghhh! Me and junior had a short discussion that went something like;

J: I told you it was tomorrow!

Me: No you didny!!

J (laughing): Aye I did!

Me (blushing and turning to the lady): Sorry

'Haha, no problem' she said. 'We can fit you in anyway since your here'

Woohoo, result! (although i'm still not accepting that junior told me. I managed to convince him that he thought he told me, but forgot to mention haha!)

Just at this point, I hear someone behind me say 'Come on the hoops!' (I was wearing a Celtic training top, which probably gave me away as a Celtic supporter haha). I turned to see a CM with a broad smile and, dare I say it, a Scottish-looking appearance. Sure enough, James informed us he was from Glasgow himself, now staying in Tampa and had been a CM for a few years. He then proudly showed us his Celtic crest tattoo on his ankle lol!

After some laughs, jokes and stories, James showed us to our table and explained to us how things worked. Our server came over, got our drinks order, and we headed off in search of food. Again, just like everything else had impressed me the moment we set foot in the Contemporary, there was a bountiful variety of stuff to eat and, despite it being a late sitting, was still remarkably fresh. We filled our plates and headed back to our seats and, before long, the characters arrived for some fun, laughs and pictures;

I couldn't resist, and had to get in on the act with Mickey;

There's no point denying it....I was having great fun

The lady at the counter gave us some clean table mats, with all the characters on it and their autographs to take with us, which I thought was a really nice touch. Junior loved them and made sure they got packed away safely later that day as another gift for his wee sister.

A fairly long monorail ride later (I thought there would be a monorail going from the Contemporary straight to MK, but soon realised you had to do the full circuit), we were back at the Magic Kingdom. We headed back up Main Street a little quicker this time, and when we got to the top we found the Family Fun Day parade was starting;

cont;

 

[MorningGlory]

cont;

We then had a look at the Mickey and Walt statue;

Before walking round the side of the castle in the general direction of Mickey's Philharmagic, as I had decided this show would be a nice way to continue the magical feeling we were having;

I was really surprised when we approached Mickey's Philharmagic and a CM informed us that the next show would be starting soon, and we can just go in and join the queue! Sure enough, 10 cool, relaxing minutes later and we started to file into the theatre. I remembered a tip (from UKDEB im sure - thanks ) about standing on the right hand side of the doors before you enter, so that you get seated closer to the back of the theatre. We ended up with a great seat close to the centre of the row, around 5 rows from the back and settled down to watch what was definitely one of THE best 3D shows we had seen all holiday! Because I had read so many good reviews about it, I had one of those horrible feelings where you realise it might have been built up too much and you're about to suffer disappointment. Definitely not the case with this though!! It is an absolutely wonderful piece of film, we were both completely taken in with it.

Grins plastered over our faces, I decided that we should head for Tomorrowland and try out some of the rides there as I thought junior would enjoy this area best, the intention being to explore the rest of the park after our midday break.

We headed over to Buzz Lightyear and decided to get fastpasses as the wait was 50 minutes, and the fastpass return time was only for 40 minutes later (go figure! lol). We had a wander around the area and took some time out to share a coke in some shade and before we knew it our fast pass time was up. We headed back over to Buzz and into the fastpass queue, which was only 2 people short of the standby queue!! Realising that something was obviously wrong with the ride, as the queue was barely moving, we decided to head back out and have another wander around. We were able to get another fastpass, so got one for Stitch's Great Escape and then took a wander over to the Tomorrowland Railway, and let the train take the strain while we took some photos and enjoyed a bit of shade;

We both really enjoyed this ride, the view of this area of the park and beyond is great, and a very relaxing way to spend some time out of the sun.

Afterwards, we decided to see if the queue at Buzz had got any better. To our relief, the fastpass queue was practically walk-on, although I did have time to take this pic of Buzz as we shimmied past the standby queue (damn, gotta love fastpass! ), wishing us well on our way to infinity.....

and knowing when to take pictures without the flash

Buzz is of course comparable with MiB in Universal, although I think MiB is definitely more engaging. It is still great fun though, and junior really enjoyed it until I *cough* beat him again and was again, this time wrongly I might add, accused of cheating!!

After all, i'm sure I told him he was supposed to keep his finger on the trigger......

Still some time before our fastpass was due, we decided to head round to the Laugh Floor Comedy Club, which was starting in 15 mins, so we joined the throng of people queueing to be entertained. And entertained we were!! This was really great fun, much better than I thought it was going to be. They picked on this one guy all the time and he was a brilliant sport, always pulling faces and doing mad actions when the spotlight was on him. He got almost as many laughs as the jokes, which were funnier than I was expecting!

Our fastpass was now ready for Stitch, which is one of the rides which I didn't really know what to expect. By the time we left it, the only thing I had got was a stomach-churning smell and a sense of bewilderment

What exactly is the point of this 'attraction'? Stitch's Great Escape - okay that tells you something about it. And honestly, I did get the gist of it. I just ended up with the feeling that, with such an elaborate set-up and the restraints that press heavily on you when your seated, there was nothing much to it at all....


Except.....


That damn stench!! Seriously, that really turned my stomach! The whole thing was so inane, it had achieved something of a cult status between the 2 of us by the end of the holiday. It was easily the most pointless, dumbest, stinkiest ride in the whole holiday. Once the smell had subsided (about 5 days later lol!) we looked back on it and laughed. Hard! There is just something about the Magic Kingdom, as im sure most of you have already experienced I don't think anything could have dampened our day there.

After Stitch, we decided to head back to the hotel for a breather as the skies were now looking a bit threatening and we had done a fair bit of walking around since we set out this morning. The plan was to come back later in the evening for Wishes, but Paul insisted on going in the pool for 'only an hour'. After 3 hours of trying to coax him back out again, I gave it up as a bad idea and decided we would use up the meal credit Virgin had given us. With the promise of dinner, Paul got out the pool and joined us for what was an unexpectedly delicious feast!! They had loads of stuff to eat, including 2 different roasts, loads of veg, 2 kinds of soups, several desserts, ice creams, etc and plenty of assorted accompaniments. I ended up plumping for a succelent few slices of perfectly cooked roast beef, mashed potatos, green beans and gravy for main, veggie soup for starters and a double helping of cheesecake base, choc mousse centre with cream on top!

Bring on the calories!!

We hit the hotel bar for a few hours afterwards and caught up with our new friends Amy and Joe, and Kevin and Kathleen turned up as well!

A great end to a wonderful (albeit too little time at MK) day!

Tomorrow - Epcot!! - and loads more pics!

 

[scottishsue]

Another excellent report and pics Paul !!

(just makes me want to go back again right NOW) !!

 

[carolfoy]

a wonderful report paul, i can't believe it took a whole 7 days to get to the MK!!! did you not learn anything here? theres a reason why its called the MAGIC kingdom!
i was with you all the way through that, love chef mickeys, love tomorrowland train, and buzz, also hate Stitch!

 

[cazzie]

There is nothing quite like the Magic Kingdom what a fantastic day and you certainly packed a lot in it.

 

[natalielongstaff]

fancy getting your ADR wrong you definatly had a magic day though !

 

[Minniespal]

Another great report. Once again with lovely photos.

 

[jockey]

Great report! Love the pics too

 

[irongirlof12]

what a great day, and your piccies are fab

 

[Donnababe]

Wahay. You're back. Thanks for the great pics.

How did you find the food at Chef Mickeys? We want to do a character dinner but have been leaning towards Crystal Palace because of the more positive food reviews. I'm torn because I'd love to CM, but it does sound a little choatic.

 

[florida sun]

Great report and wonderful piccies Paul

 

[MorningGlory]

Thanks again for all the nice comments everyone

It's been a bit of a mental weekend and I haven't had a minute's peace. However, i'll definitely try to get days 8 and 9 up between today and tomorrow (hopefully!).

Donnababe, we definitely would recommend CMs. The food was wonderful and plentiful, even though we had such a late sitting. Although admittedly we don't have any other character breakfasts to gauge it against.

We will definitely do it next time we are there.

 

[SusanEllen]

Paul, I am enjoying your trip reports. You don't spare the details of your feelings while doing an excellent job of describing the action. What good traveling companions you have, especially the delightful Paul, Jr.

BTW, Joe Fowler was an admiral in the US Navy during WW II. He was a trusted advisor to Walt Disney and oversaw the construction of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

And about that special feeling in the Magic Kingdom--John Hench, the master Imagineer, says that's no accident. He calls it the architecture of assurance. Great care has been given to make every building angle, layout, color, music choice, CM persona and costume--well, everything there--give us all the feeling that we are safe. I suppose that's why so many people describe their Magic Kingdom experience as it being one of feeling that they are children again when they are there. Works for me.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your adventures. Thanks for writing about them.

 

[mark&sue]

really enjoying your reports.

With regard to the stich ride I get the feeling Disney wanted to keep the gist of the original ride which was at this location, Alien Encounter. This ride without fail scared children (even adults). They kept the same seats. I doubt if we will go on this again as for us it just doesn't feel right.

Looking forward to your next instalment.


Susan

 

[SusanEllen]

I'm sure (other) Susan is right about Disney taming the Extra-terroristrial Alien Encounter by retheming with Stitch who's lots cuddlier than the AE monster.

FYI: The seating in the round actually pre-dates Alien Encounter when the auditorium was used for other outer space "journeys"--first Flight to the Moon and then Mission to Mars.

Susan (in the US)

 

[arieljasmine]

Great day. Pleased that Chef Mickeys could fit you in, it sounds great. I think we will be going there next year. I have not been on the Stitch ride because the Alien Encounter version terrified me (claustrophobic) but it sounds like I'm not missing anything!

Laur's