I should probably keep going with this...
Part 5: A Slight Change of Plans (or, I KNEW I should have turned right at Osceola...}
In spite of my rather late bedtime, I set an alarm for 7:30 in the morning, and sure enough, the alarm did as I said and not as I meant, and actually decided to go off at 7:30. Since I'm not exactly the type who does the whole "bright and early" bit (pick one, you're not getting both,) I hit the snooze button for an extra hour (I use my Windows Mobile phone as an alarm, and you can tell it how long you want it to snooze for, from 5 minutes all the way up to the "Rip Van Winkle" setting if you've decided to give up on doing anything productive for the rest of the decade. I then slumbered semi-blissfully unaware as the ropes prepared to dropthroughout the land, and I wasn't going to be at any of them. Finally 8:30 rolled around, and it was time to get up and figure out what I was going to do for the day. Aside from planning to be at the Magic Kingdom for the evening EMH, I hadn'r really planned anything specific for the day yet. After taking a look at the schedule, I decided that I would head for Epcot first, then to MK later in the day. In theory, at least. That plan lasted for all of... well, about as long as it took to get to the bus stop.
I grabbed a few things to put in my LGMH-equipped monopack to take into the park (I figured it might be a bit more socially acceptible than a purse)and headed out the door, not bothering to give more than a passing thought to breakfast (I'm not much of a breakfast person anyway, so most days on this trip I didn't eat until later in the day.) Since I hadn't exactly paid attention the evening before when I checked in, I ended up wandering around the hotel grounds a bit before I actually managed to figure out where the bus stop was (it's in the back, over near the restaurants, for anyone who's wondering.) Eventually I found it, and after a few minutes of waiting, the bus arrived... for the Magic Kingdom. Since I was already getting a bit of a late start, didn't really know my way around the place yet, and wasn't really all that set on my plan anyway, I went ahead and hopped aboard the bus. As it left, I saw the Epcot/DHS bus pulling in right behind it. Oh well, there's time for that later.
As discussed above, the bus stopped at two other hotels (the Regal Sun and Doubletree,) and by the time it eventually made it's way toward the TTC, it was fairly crowded. When we got there, it turned out that the drop-off point was a fair distance from the monorail entrances, and it was going to take a bit of hiking to get there. Once I finally figured out where I was going, I saw that there were a number of people waiting for the monorail, so I decided instead to just take the ferry into the park. After all, as a Disney World first-timer, wouldn't it be more magical that way?
As I boarded the ferry, I saw the monorail approaching on the track.
As the ferry departed from the dock, the Magic Kingdom began to appear off in the distance.
On the boat, I noted that the flag seemed to be a couple of stars short for some reason. I didn't find out until later (in a random trivia thread on the Theme Park Strategies board) that the reason for this is because older style flags are considered "pennants" and do not need to be retired at the end of the evening.
As the ferry came closer to the Magic Kingdom, I got this picture, which seems to make it look like the castle is sitting right next to the train station. Finally, the ferry arrived, and it was time for the first glimpse of Main Street decked out in Holiday splendor...
As you can see, I didn't exactly have the park to myself that day. I ended up cutting through the shops on the left side of the street to get past some of the crowds. It's kind of odd how the forced perspective on the buildings makes the decorations look like they're hung a lot lower than they actually are, doesn't it?
The obligatory castle shot. Doesn't look quite so big from back here, does it? Then again, I'm used to the
Disneyland one which is much smaller...
As I made my way to the end of Main Street, I headed first toward the Adventureland side of the park, intending to make the Jungle Cruise my first ride. I found that there was about a 20-minute wait, so I grabbed a Fastpass (with a fairly short return time) and headed next for Pirates of the Caribbean. Along the way, the Pirate Tutorial was just beginning, and I very nearly got run over by Jack Sparrow. Who does he think he is anyway, some sort of pirate? PotC was a walk-on at this point, but there seemed to be a back-up of some sort at the unloading queue, and a bunch of boats ended up waiting in the jail room for about 10 minutes while they got it sorted out. Finally, they managed to get things sorted out, and I was off to find the Haunted Mansion, which turned out not to be where I had expected it based on my previous trips to Disneyland, just a "this area is under refurbishment" wall.
After just about accidentally wandering onto Splash Mountain (also not exactly where I would expect it to be) I eventually found my way around the lake to the Haunted Mansion, where I took the first of what would be several rides on this during the trip. The wait was short (and I don't think I ever waited more than about 5 minutes or so to ride it.) By the time I was done with that, it was time to head back to the Jungle Cruise with my Fastpass.
Running them down the side of Splash Mountain, on the other hand, is perfectly OK.
I can't say that I'm all that familiar with the standard Jungle Cruise spiel (I only got to ride it once on my last Disneyland trip) but I could tell there was plenty of improvising going on here. He let a ten year old "steer" the boat and frequently commented on her driving skills. Things were going pretty well right until...
...These baby ducks showed up right near the unloading dock, at which point he knew he had been completely upstaged, and just gave up, apparently overwhelmed by the sheer cuteness of it all. He even "complained" to the unloading CMs about it.
Anyway, after the Jungle Cruise I next headed toward Fantasyland to grab a Fastpass for Peter Pan (with a return time a couple of hours away) and with some time to kill, I went to see Philharmagic next. Since I have some eye problems that prevent me from being able to "see" 3D movies much of the effect was lost on me, but the kid in the seat next to mine sure seemed convinced. After that, for some unknown reason I next headed toward Small World, fully aware of the dangers that await inside...
Just as I got there, the clock scene went off signaling Noon. I think it took about a 20 minute wait to actually get on the ride at this point.
While riding, I made a number of attempts to take photos inside the ride without using the flash. My camera doesn't do a great job of this, but occasionally gets one or two good pictures. Here's the one that turned out best from the ride. After sailing happily around the world (others might insert other adjectives there,) we got to the end of the ride... and promptly got stuck again at the goodbye room. It took about 10-15 minutes before we were able to unload from that point, and if I had been in there much longer I think there's a good possibility I might have gotten the "please remain seated" spiel stuck in my head for the rest of my life. I suppose that given the alternatives that wouldn't be so bad.
Next on the agenda was lunch, so I headed over toward Columbia Harbor House, where I got the fish and chips for lunch (or breakfast, as the case might be.) The place was busy, but kept things moving (a CM was directing traffic) and I was able to get food fairly quickly. I found the fish and chips to be so-so, and I've definitely had better (then again, with some of the places we've got for fish 'n chips here in the Seattle area, we're a bit spoiled in this regard.) Columbia Harbour House is an interesting little place, but it can be just a bit hard to find your way out of (I somehow ended up taking a set of stairs which was roped off at the lower floor, but not at the upper floor.) Eventually I found my way out and headed back to use my Peter Pan FP, but didn't realize I still had an hour left before it was usable until the CM pointed it out. I blame lack of sleep.
With more time to kill, I headed toward Tomorrowland, and made a beeline for the TTA. I had been on the Disneyland Peoplemover once before it was removed (and I really wish they'd hurry up and bring it back), and wanted take a ride.
I think this one of about five photos total that have me in them from this trip. Next time if I'm still traveling solo, I should make sure to use Photopass...
For some reason, Space Mountain seems a lot farther away in this shot than it actually is. All the Forced Perspective tricks Disney uses sure seem to mess with your head after a while...
As we went of Space Mountain, I happened to catch the train passing by. Kind of an odd thing to see in Tomorrowland, don't you think?
After getting off the TTA, I saw Buzz Lightyear visiting kids and briefly thought about getting in line, but decided against it (well that's what I'll claim, but in reality I was probably just getting lost trying to find the CoP line. Oddly enough, I never actually made it onto CoP on this trip...)
After that, I next headed over toward Space Mountain for what would turn out to be my only ride of the trip (and what would have probably made a much better use of a Fastpass than Peter Pan, come to think of it) but not before wandering through the arcade a bit to check it out. I've always been something of an arcade junkie (in fact, I have an arcade machine here in my office at home) but since I generally try to avoid spending time playing video games while I'm on vacation, I didn't bother actually playing anything. After that, I got into the standby line at Space Mountain, which took about 30 minutes of waiting. I actually got a call from my Mom just before boarding (apparently outer space has great wireless reception these days) but it was too loud to really hear, so I told her I'd call back afterward.
Based on reading here I had heard all the rumors (since confirmed) about the Space Mountain rehab coming up, and although I didn't feel like the ride was all that bumpy (as some people had talked about) I found the really loud lift chains to be particularly distracting and an immersion breaker. I have been on the updated Disneyland Space Mountain several times (it was the only ride we needed to use a Fastpass on during that trip,) and the difference between the two is pretty clear. On one hand, I can see the need for the rehab to get this back into shape, but on the other hand, there's something to be said for some of the older rides like this one, and keeping things entertaining without all the bells and whistles. I guess I'll have to see what the new Space Mountain ends up looking like when all is said and done, but I'm just glad I got a chance to ride this one at least once before it gets redone.
Anyway, since this is starting to get long at this point, I will leave off here for now, and finish off Day 1 in the next post...
Coming Up: Part 6 - Can't I Get Just a Little Bit of Pixie Dust Here? (In which a Fastpass turns out not to be so fast. Also, who's going to run out of juice first, me or the camera?)