The One Where We Went "Home" - Part II
As we walked up, we could hear music starting – the Disney Dreams show was starting up on the Castle stage! We ran up to where a small crowd was forming just as the show was beginning. I thought it was really cute, especially the way the characters’ eyes blinked! Els particularly enjoyed seeing Donald Duck for the first time!
(Anyone else think Mickey looks like he's had a few too many in this pic?!)
The show encountered a technical difficulty about halfway through and had to be abandoned – never mind, it was nearly lunchtime and neither of us had had anything to eat all day so we were starving. We walked up towards Pinocchio Village Haus, which was today’s choice, and grabbed a FP for Peter Pan on the way since it already had a huge queue.
Pinocchio’s was pretty full when we went in, as we’d hit it at peak lunchtime – however, we managed to spot a window table overlooking Small World and we grabbed it before anyone else could! For full details and photos of Pinocchio’s Village Haus, see my dining report!
After lunch, we walked out onto the first ride we saw, which happened to be Snow White’s Scary Adventures. I’d suddenly turned into one of those people who wondered onto the first ride they saw…yikes! Ahh who cares, we were having a lot of fun! It was about 10min wait for Snow White which was quite short and we didn’t mind waiting because – well, we were in Disney!! So Snow White turned out to be my very first ride in the World! For some reason, I can’t remember any of it!
Next, we decided to ride Winnie the Pooh which was right next door. For the middle of the day at Fantasyland, I thought the queues were quite good! We queued for about 10mins here too, and although I tried to spot Mr Toad handing over the deeds to Winnie, I couldn’t see him – maybe next time! I thought this was a very cute ride, and of course, it includes my main man Eeyore! Any ride that includes Eeyore has got to be cute!! At Pooh’s Thotful Shop, I wanted to buy everything I saw with Eeyore on… Els had to drag me outta there! Although I went in plenty of times, I never did buy anything from there!
Our FP time for Peter Pan still wasn’t up, so we decided to go into Mickey’s Philharmagic. I couldn’t really remember what this was about, only that it was some sort of 3D Show, so off we went inside anyway – whatever it was, it was a nice escape from the scorching heat! We only had to wait until the show before us finished, and we were in. We chose seats middle-back since I had on my itinerary cards that the best ‘view’ was from there. This show/attraction is incredible. I loved it, and everytime I think about it it makes me ‘homesick’. If you’re a big fan of the Disney movies and Disney songs then you’ll love this. Els loved it since Donald Duck is the star. My only complaint is that it should be longer! I won’t spoil it for anyone that hasn’t seen it, but it featured all my favourite Disney songs. 11/10 for this ride – my favourite. We both really really enjoyed this one and it was something I wasn’t expecting.
We used our FP up on Peter Pan, which is more or less the same as the Paris one, but I still think it’s really cute. For some reason this ride attracts a large queue in both Paris and Florida. After Peter Pan, I really wanted to see inside Mickey and Minnie’s houses! So off towards Toontown we went!
Their houses were really busy at this time so we sort of whizzed through them a bit and didn’t really appreciate the detail – I think I was also in the ‘see as much as I can in one minute’ hyper mode!
Kicking back at Minnie's!
Pal Mickey was telling him something at the time! (You can see Pal Mickey's LGMH! No one spotted it though!)
Where the Magic happens!
We skipped the Judge’s Tent as it was a large queue and we had plenty of time to meet the Big Cheese. We popped our heads into the Hall of Fame, but every group of characters had long waits so we skipped it for now. We noticed the little train station so we decided we’d take a trip around the MK before going back to the room. Just as we were queuing up, we noticed a lot of characters come out sort of behind the Judge’s Tent in a hidden place. Before it was out of the way, there wasn’t many people there, so we ducked under the railings of the queue and headed out to where the characters were. I’m so glad we did as we got lots of character photos! I’d made a conscious decision earlier not to bring my autograph book today, so although I got photos, I never got autographs!
Geppetto & Pinocchio
King Louie
Brer Bear
Penguin
King John
After getting all the characters, we decided to head back to the hotel as we both wanted to change and shower before our first ADR tonight at Cinderella’s Royal Table. It was also EMH night at MK tonight until 1am so it was best we at least refresh up a bit if we wanted to stay out.
We made our way slowly towards the exit, stopping at a few shops along the way, but buying nothing except for an autograph book! I’ll be ready next time!!
Cute shop!
The bus soon came along, and not too crowded either, and we were back at ASMo in no time. We refilled our mugs again at the Food Court and went up to shower and change. I wanted to wear my new Disney t-shirt which I thought was perfect at Dining in the Castle! Our luggage was thankfully in our room when we got back, so we unpacked a bit as well so we could shove our cases out of the way. We were back on the move in no time, and down waiting for the bus to come and take us to the MK once again. We were running a couple of minutes late, and by the time we got to the Castle we were around 10mins late. I was worried they’d turn us away, but the girl at the podium was lovely and was very excited about our DLRP Jack pins. In we went and queued up to have our photo taken with Cinderella – I was really excited about this meal. For a review of our experience in the Castle and some food photos, see my Dining TR!
I didn’t want to come away from the Castle, but we had to – and anyway from what I could see, Spectromagic was coming around! We sneakily stayed at the top to watch and film a few minutes of it from a good vantage point, before a CM spotted us and made us go into the crowd below – pah! After the parade had stopped and before the crowd began surging back into the park, we made our way through into Tomorrowland. We went straight on Buzz, which we like in Paris and it was just as fun except the guns don’t move much. Of course, Els beat my score! Space Mountain had a long wait on it, so we moved quickly over to Stitch. I didn’t like the queuing bit for this ride. I hate rides where you have to queue, pre-show, queue, pre-show, ride… when we finally got on the ride, I thought this was going to be a good one! To tell the truth, I came off not having a clue what it was about! It just didn’t do much, and the burp thing on my seat must not have been working as I didn’t smell the chilli burp much (not that I’m complaining!) – this ride could be so much better and we felt really disappointed in it. Not worth more than a 5-10min queue.
From here, we headed for Monsters Inc Laugh Floor which also had a pre-show, but then we were straight into the ride. Els twigged what was happening as some seats had mics on them, so he guided us into some seats on the sides. We both thought this show was funny, and Els really liked it! Definitely a good one and we both came away laughing. As we stepped back outside into Tomorrowland, I could hear the Wishes music and a couple of fireworks going off – I didn’t want to spoil the show by watching it halfway through and not having a very good vantage point, so we hopped on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority whilst Wishes was going on. No queue for this at all and it was nice to have a little relax and be whizzed around Tomorrowland. I was waiting the whole time for the little person to say ‘Paging Mr Morrow, Mr Tom Morrow’! I liked seeing inside of Space Mountain and hearing the cars whiz about in the dark!
When we came off, Wishes was nearly done, so got our EMH wristbands and we looked about a few shops for a while, making our way slowly in the direction of Fantasyland.
Sampling the merchandise - I really wanted this hat!!
We went on a good couple of rides here all with little or no wait, Winnie the Pooh again, Mickey’s Philharmagic, Small World, Peter Pan, as well as having a look in a couple of more shops. We were both really tired having got up early and been on the go all day, so we decided to head back – it was around 12am anyway. We went around Liberty Square and took a few photos of the Castle changing colours from the Bridge near there.
We spotted a Photopass photographer in front of the Castle and there wasn’t many people there so we decided to wait to have our photo taken. We’d pre-bought the Photopass CD before we set off from home so we were determined to have our photo taken wherever possible to make sure it was worth the $100 we paid. Whilst we were waiting, I tried my hand at a couple of arty shots with the little statues.
When we saw the photo that he’d taken, I was really pleased with it, it’s one of my favourite photos of us. There’s no one much about and I love the colours of the Castle.
We took a couple more photos on the way out and went to wait for our bus.
I was expecting a frenzy for the buses but our bus was quite empty. I was so tired I fell asleep on the bus back. As soon as my head hit the pillow back in the room, I was asleep.
Tomorrow: We take on the Magic Kingdom… commando style!
I was terrified that was going to happen to me! 
, so put the words "wet and wild" into the internet . . . well you can imagine what popped up on my screen!! I panicked and started deleting everything as fast as I could and managed to delete my entire inbox and all my morning work!!!!!
The limo and gift basket surprises for Els were lovely. Kx
