Meeko's Walt Disney World Trip 2004
After two days and visits to EPCOT, Downtown Disney, and the Animal Kingdom, there was only one day in the parks left.
After a long good nights sleep, 5am would be the early beginning to the last full day of my trip. After getting ready for the day, I headed from Port Orleans French Quarter to the Riverside for a change a change of pace from eating breakfast at the same place every morning. I got a bit of food and headed to a window seat where I could see the early light of dawn shimmering on the water. After breakfast, it was back to the French Quarter to catch an early bus over to Extra Magic Hour at the Magic Kingdom.
After arriving at the park, the crowds were held in the area in front of the railroad station until rope drop. As I waited, I noticed a number of little girls in princess dresses all over the place waiting for the princess breakfast at the Castle I suppose. There were lots of little Auroras, as ell as a few Cinderellas, Snow Whites, and even a little Alice in Wonderland. Finally, the rope was dropped and everyone entered on to Main Street. I walked straight down Main Street and while most of the crowd turned off near the Plaza Pavilion (on their way to try to be first on Space Mountain no doubt), I headed to the Castle and, beyond that, Fantasyland.
After strolling through the Castle Courtyard, I was on my way to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, or at least I was until I noticed the wait for Dumbo looked very short. Now, I almost never do this ride since the lines are always so long, but I just couldnt pass the opportunity for a short wait on it. The views of Fantasyland form those flying elephants are just wonderful, so Im glad I finally got a chance to see them again after not seeing them for longer than five years. After that, I did make my way over to Winnie the Pooh for a storybook ride in those giant bouncing hunny pots. The Mad Tea Party would be my next stop. There was no line at all to speak of, so the only wait was really just walking through the queue. After the ride, Tomorrowland would be my next destination to see if I might be able to get Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin before the rest of the park opened. When I got there, the ride had still not become operational. Evidently the ride had some sort of technical problem and did not open that morning. Oh, well. Instead, I headed over to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority for a breezy trip through the land. When the TTA train came into the station, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah began playing making the opening of the park. Very cool. I thought I had heard that the Timekeeper would be opening at 9am that week, so I headed over to that area. When I got there, there were benches pushed in front of the attractions doors and no signs of it opening. It turned out that the ride would not open until 10am. Since Buzz was still closed, I headed back to Fantasyland taking the path from Belles Fairytale Gardens to the Castle Courtyard. When I got there, I checked the wait times for some of the attractions and decided on Mickeys Philharmagic. Even though the line stretched throughout the queue, it was constantly moving. It gave me just enough time to be able to see all the theming in the queue I had missed in December. The show was a lot of fun, maybe even better than I remembered.
After Philharmagic, the next attraction on my itinerary was Goofys Barnstormer, another ride I hadnt done in a couple of years. It would have to wait though since Toontown wouldnt open for another 20 minutes. Since I had some extra time on my hand, I headed over to Ariels Grotto to see how the lines were. I had never met Ariel at her Grotto before (the only time I had met her before was with Prince Eric at MGM Studios about 10 years ago) and I was still in the process of trying to get pictures of as many of the princesses as I could. Having gotten photos of Jasmine, Belle, Aurora, and Snow White all at EPCOT earlier in the trip, I only had two more to find. The sign at the Grottos entrance said that the wait was only 10 minutes, so I got right in line. When I got in front of the line, Ariel was very nice and posed for a photo. After that, I noticed that the wait had gone up from 10 to 30 minutes just in the time I was waiting in line. It looked like I had gotten there just in time.
A few minutes before Mickeys Toontown Fair opened, I made my way to where there was already a crowd waiting for rope drop. At 10am, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Max, Pluto, and some other characters came out and lead a small parade down the street. Goofy and Max broke off and started over to the Barnstormer and then got into the first car and rode it. It was pretty surreal seeing Goofy and Max actually riding the ride. It was pretty funny and a cute way to open the land. Soon it was my turn and while there werent any characters in my airplane, it was still a lot of fun.
After that, I headed over to Toontown Hall of Fame to see if I could get a photo of the only princess I had not met so far this trip- Cinderella. The lines were a bit longer at the Hall of Fame than when I went there in December, but the line to the Cinderella room was actually very short compared to the others. After a short wait, I was able to meet her and take her picture. With that, I managed to meet all six of the fairytale princesses in one trip- a first for me! After that, I caught the train at the Toontown Railroad Station and rode it all the way to my next destination- Frontierland.
From there, I took a walk down the wooden boardwalk that runs by the Rivers of America. There were dark clouds off in the distance, so I decided to take a ride on the Liberty Belle Riverboat just in case the weather turned stormy later. The ride was fun as usual even though Tom Sawyers Island was under refurbishment at the time and some of the sites were behind scaffolding. As the boat was passing Frontierland, Shaker from the Country Bear Jamboree ran down the boardwalk and waved to us. It was pretty cute.
After the boat ride, it was off to Grizzly Hall for the Country Bear Jamboree. It had been a few years since I had seen it and I guess I had forgotten most of it. It was nice, but not as good as the Christmas version. The show ended and I headed over for lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Because of my touring plans, this was the first time I had eaten a meal at the Magic Kingdom in 10 years. I was very pleasantly surprised by the restaurant. The food was good, and I got an upstairs table with a view of the Rivers of America. After lunch, it began pouring rain and everyone ran for cover near the Hall of Presidents. After a few minutes, the rain stopped and I headed back down Main Street, making a few quick stops in the Emporium and then to the Expo Hall to make my usual check for Princesses. There was none to be found though; only Gov. Ratcliffe from Pocahontas was back there. Having finished my morning at the Magic Kingdom, I headed back to the bus stop and back to Port Orleans.
