The One Day Fabulous Adventure!!!

[SamIAm21]

Preface:

In September 2004 (yeah I’m going way back), I decided it was time to make plans for the trip to WDW. I had heard so much about it over the years, but always had other vacation obligations and my DD would turn 5 in 2005, so it seemed like the perfect time for her to make her first trip to “The World”. I started reading and lurking at the DIS, bought a couple Disney Guides; official, unofficial, abridged, unabridged…you know the whole collection. The year progressed and I charted our course, planned which day to do what park, chose our dining locations, made ADRs and finally September 2005 rolled around.

Now, this trip included, Sam40, DH46 and DD5 (Megan). Throughout the whole year every time I would mention WDW and its many facets, my DH would cringe. He would literally turn a sort of ghastly grey and then proceed to tune me out. I didn’t talk about it a lot, maybe once a month as plans progressed or when I was feeling particularly ornery… DH has a similar reaction to the words Chuck E. Cheese.

Now DH is an outdoorsman, if he can hunt it, track it, or catch it -- he will. His favorite pass time is sitting in a boat, hoping to catch that elusive 8lb large mouth bass (I’m convinced it doesn’t exist). DH does not like so-called theme park type vacations, but decided he wanted to go to Disney because the one thing he does love more than fishing is DD5 (and I guess I fit in there somewhere tee hee). He wanted to see her see The World! What he failed to inform me of was that he was going to otherwise make this trip really hard on me for even proposing it in the first place. As the days grew closer, I became more and more excited, DD5 was several levels of excited beyond that and DH grew more and more dour. I think he secretly hoped that Hurricane Rita would put the kibosh on the whole trip. I kept saying, once he gets there, he will love it, once he gets there, he will love it, and it became my daily mantra. I even offered early on to set him up with one of the fishing tours that they offer at The Contemporary. I think I may have even chosen The Contemporary for that reason. I think he thought he might actually catch the 8-pounder while in Disney and then have to throw it back. He took a pass on the BASS Fishing Tour.

Long story, short. He didn’t love it, he hated it from just about the moment we opened the door to our 11th Floor Magic Kingdom view at the Contemporary. He made me pay all week by being apathetic and generally just a big PITA. So much for a fun vacation? DD5 was nonplussed by his attitude, but I wanted to strangle him. It’s just not his thang!

On the plane home, I told him not only was I disappointed in his behavior all week, but that I fully expected a complete and total DO-OVER without him! That do over is coming in the form of a full week at Disney later this year in November and the day’s visit we made last week. I really wanted to experience the Magic Kingdom again without the pain in my posterior, so while on a visit to my parents in Tampa, I decided to take a day (and a breather from the ‘rents) to visit the Magic Kingdom. I just want to enter Main Street and stand there and look. I was so busy last time, trying to sell him on it, that I don’t feel like I had a chance to enjoy it myself. So, this time I did enjoy my whole day!

The one day adventure begins:

Cast: Mom = Sam
Daughter = Megan

It started out with a two-hour drive from Brooksville, Florida (a town north of Tampa). I had hoped it wouldn’t take quite that long to drive there, but there was a lot of fog in the morning and traffic on US27 and the Irlo Bronson (192) was pretty heavy. Oddly enough though, the minute I merged onto World Drive, traffic seemed to disappear! Pixie dust moment for me! I am truly impressed with the ease in which you can drive inside the World. I’m sure it gets crowded, but that morning, it was light and the area is so well signed that you can’t hardly get lost. The signs were clear and easy to read, there wasn’t a moment where I felt like I was lost. We pulled into Port Orleans/French Quarter at approximately 9:15 a.m. I took a quick look around the resort and I liked what little I saw. The resort is compact, but in a good way, and it was very quaint. We weren’t able to get a room so early in the morning, but I decided that I would like to stay here again to get a better feel of it.

We meandered to the bus stop and the day seemed so full of promise and I couldn’t wait to get it started. The bus was pulling up right as we walked up, which was another pixie dust moment. Megan’s favorite Disney character is Tinker Bell followed closely by the Princesses, so I felt like maybe Tink was just as eager to see us as we were to see her! The bus ride was short and let me tell you, these bus drivers know the back roads around WDW. It really didn’t take more than 20 minutes! I was impressed. Our bus did make the stops at Port Orleans Riverside and that gave me a good chance to see just how large that resort is. It made me thankful I was staying down at the French Quarter.

So, finally, here we were, standing at the gates of the Magic Kingdom. I was so excited and Megan was beginning to wonder about ole Mom. I was misting up at the grandeur of it all and I knew it would be a great day. We stopped and got a stroller to ease my pack mule burdens and take a load off Megan’s feet for the day. As we walked out onto Main Street, I did what I said I would do! I stopped and just took it in for a moment. I noticed lots of characters standing around and a long line had formed for Minnie Mouse, but as we only had one day, we merely snapped some quick pics and moved on. Lines for characters would have to wait for the next vacation. The Magic Kingdom was pretty crowded by this time (10:00 a.m. or so) and it grew more crowded as the day progressed. I wasn’t quite used to this amount of people as we were last there in September and the parks were a lot less populated, but I just went with the flow and checked my Type A personality at the door. We stopped and got the obligatory picture of the castle, a picture of Meg with Walt and Mickey and then went straight for Fantasyland. I took the back way around as I wanted to find Belle’s Story Time Garden and I can see why I missed it last time. It’s just a small area, but it was the perfect size for story telling. The show didn’t start for about 30 minutes, so we walked over to The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and it was just a short wait, so we went to visit our old friends from the 100 Acre Woods. Megan wanted nothing to do with Snow White’s Scary Adventure, so that was one line we would not have to wait in that day. After seeing Pooh and his friends, we grabbed some Fastpasses for PhilharMagic and walked back over to see Belle. What a cute performance by all the volunteers in the cast. The guy they chose to be The Beast really hammed it up and it made it fun for everyone. He was pretty easy on the eyes too if you know what I mean (don’t tell DH I said that…).

From there, we were off to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cup ride and what a blast that is. This is one of those rides that Megan loves because she can make Mommy really dizzy and a wee bit nauseated. How many times do you get to inflict pain on your parents and they laugh about it? So, we spun spun spun and I found that if I just concentrated on her face, I didn’t get too woozy. I think the best part of Disney for me is seeing the unadulterated joy on my daughter’s face. This type of laughter, joy, and happiness is not always found in day to day life of school, bus rides, and homework, but it’s a whole solid day of it while at the Magic Kingdom.

We really wanted to ride Dumbo after the Tea Cups, but as we passed back through Fantasyland, the line had grown to what I estimated to be at least 40 to 60 minute wait. They need to Fastpass the Dumbo ride. I love Dumbo, but I wasn’t going to wait an hour to go around in a circle for three minutes. I told Megan that no matter what, we wouldn’t leave the park that day without riding Dumbo, but it would have to wait til later. We stopped in Tinker’s Treasures for a few new jewels on the old crown and a veil. Boy that was a new twist, veils for the crowns?? I thought of ZZUB at that point and thought to myself, they really know how to suck the money right out of my wallet. Oh well, it’s one day and Disney is no place to be frugal. So, a few jewels and a veil later, I was on my way to PhilharMagic with a very happy princess in tow. If you miss PhilharMagic, you have missed a big chunk of what makes the Magic Kingdom so magical. We really love it and have a whole little routine. We grab for the pies and the jewels, and we “look left and look right” when Simba sings and we duck when Donald flies over our head at the end. I won’t give away what happens at the end for all the folks who have never been, but just remember to look behind you as Donald flies over your head. Enuf said!

Now as we made our way toward Liberty Square, we passed it’s a small world and Peter Pan’s Flight. Both had huge lines and we could not FastPass Peter Pan as we could only FastPass one attraction every two hours. So, we were going to have to wait til later in the day (more like evening) to ride those too. As we rounded out of Fantasyland and into Liberty Square, I made a beeline for the Haunted Mansion. I wasn’t that interested in it before reading 1000thHappyHaunt’s trip report, but now I was going to see what it was all about and pixie dust rained on us again as the line was only 15 minutes. Score! Megan was pretty apprehensive, but I told her that it was more funny than scary, but I got “the not so sure I believe you” look. She took it like a trooper though and I sort of coached her through the lights going off on you, the room moving downward, but I didn’t want to give it all away, so I left the hitchhiking ghost part out. I really enjoyed the Haunted Mansion. Standing in line for the HM is fun because of the funny gravestones and the Cast Members are totally “in character”. I love when they tell you to move up and take up all the “dead” space around you. One of the cast members in the queue said, if the person in front of you isn’t smiling, you aren’t standing close enough! Now, that’s a good way to make friends!! Everyone got a good chuckle out of that and we all moved forward. Once inside the Doom Buggy, she relaxed and started to really enjoy the ride. I tried to take everything in and I really loved the special effects. Megan was a wee bit distressed at the ghost sitting between us at the end, but honestly, she even took that in stride when she told the ghost, you aren’t coming home with me Mr. Ghost, so you just get back in the mansion! It was then I realized that she’s a pretty cool kid. She didn’t really want to do the HM, but she went because I wanted to and managed to enjoy it. She told me, Mom, Mr. Disney would never do anything to scare me real bad. So, I figured it would be okay. Now that’s a precious thing when a child trusts someone like that and someone she’s never met in person mind you!

Before the trip, I asked Megan if we could ride BTMRR and I told her it was like a super duper Goofy’s Barnstormer. She loves roller coaster and she agreed. So, we walked over to Frontierland for some FastPasses. Frontierland was by far the most crowded area of the park. It was jammed. I must have said excuse me, pardon me, and so sorry was that your foot?? about 1,000 times that day. We got the FPs for BTMRR and stopped to watch the folks on Splash Mountain. I think we can conquer Splash on our next trip and Megan said she might even be ready for Space Mountain by then (yippee!!). In order to escape the insanity of Frontierland, we moved down into Adventureland and I wanted to do Pirates of the Caribbean one more time before they close it and fix it up. It’s due to reopen in July with the premier of the new Pirates of the Caribbean Movie. I can’t wait to see the new updated version in November!! On POC I encountered the “Magicless Mom”. A magicless Mom is someone who sits in your boat and proceeds to tell her son, how it’s all just robots and none of this is real and then goes into great detail about how these pirates are all just machines, even the parrots and the dog, and the cats the pirate is trying to get drunk, are all just robots. Now that’s not really fire, it’s just red cloth being blown around to look like fire. Man that really sucks the magic right out of the ride. Really, if you think your child is going to be frightened by a ride, don’t ruin it for everyone around you by trying to “explain” the whole thing! That was a real bummer and since the line was only five minutes long, we went around again without the magicless Mom.

By this time, we were getting a wee bit hungry and decided we would scoot back around to the Pinocchio Village Haus. It was a good choice as Megan loves Mac N Cheese and considers it food of the Gods. So, with mac n cheese in hand and some chicken tenders for Mom, we got a wee bit of pixie dust again when we were able to get a table right near the windows that overlook small world. Megan felt this was the best lunch she ever had. The cool Mickey shaped plate (bowl??) contained mac n cheese, Mickey crackers (think Goldfish crackers) and strawberry jello. When you’re five years old, this is some seriously good eats! I usually have to prod her along to eat, but she whipped through lunch and was rarin to go. Small world and Peter Pan’s lines were still really long, so we made our way back to BTMRR and I was became a wee bit alarmed that this may cause our lunch to suddenly reappear, but it was really great fun. Megan loved this ride, much to my delight. I don’t give her enough credit and tend to err on the side of caution, but she really loved it! So much so that we ended up riding it again that evening two times in a row. I got to see a different side of her that day. I was a bit of a chicken type as a child. I didn’t really want to venture too far out of my comfort zone, but she really has some “fire” inside her. BTMRR was by far her favorite thing that day. I told her we would come back in the evening because I had heard it was even more fun to ride at night!!

All day long we had been seeing kids with their faces painted and this is another one of Megan’s favorite things, so we wandered back toward ToonTown to the Paint Shop. She chose a Tinker Bell face, and although she was pleased with the results, I had seen other “Tinks” that day with nicer paint jobs. I think our “artist” was getting toward the end of her shift and was just getting a wee bit tired. Now this is a pretty costly little treat at $12 to $15 per face, you’d think they wouldn’t skimp on the glitter or detail? So, while we were in Toon Town we rode Goofy’s Barnstormer and found it ultimately unsatisfying after surviving BTMRR. As we de-planed from GB, Megan said Mom, I don’t think I need to ride this anymore. I’d rather ride BTMRR. Ahhh… my little girl is growing up! We had already seen Minnie’s House and Mickey’s House on our last trip, so we decided to skip it this time around and once again traversed through F-land (yeah, I’m even getting tired of typing it all out) and I made my way to A-Land and over to the Dole Whip stand. I was dead set on trying this much loved pineapple treat on this trip to MK and I have to say that is some pretty good stuff. I’ll be heading back that way again in November. We grabbed our Dole Whips and made our way through one of those “magic passageways” that transport you instantly to another part of the park. I call them restroom portals! We went through the A-Land to Liberty Square restroom portal and found a great spot to watch the Share A Dream Come True parade. As we watched, I chatted up a great cast member named Adam. He was treasure chest of Disney information and his pin lanyard must have weighed more than Mr. T’s gold necklace! We bumped into Adam again later in the day and I told him we’d be on the look out for him again when we visit in November. He was really a pleasure to talk to and if you see him, tell him Sam and Megan from Chicago said hi!

After the parade, we moved back through the restroom portal into A-Land and rode the Magic Carpets and then went to the Enchanted Tiki Room, which was a lot more fun that I expected it to be. Actually I wasn’t sure what to expect, but given that it is under “new management”, I decided what the heck and we had time to kill before our dinner reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern. We’ll be sure to catch this again in November! So after a few laughs with the birds, we once again crossed back through the magical restroom portal into Liberty Square for dinner. Now usually, I don’t recommend dining with a room full of rodents and canines, but this time, it was going to be a good thing. The Liberty Tree Tavern character dinner features, Minnie Mouse, Chip & Dale, Pluto and Goofy (are we sure he’s a canine??). The food at LTT is really good and the restaurant itself is very charming. It’s a lot more subdued than Chef Mickey’s and it’s “all you care to eat” table service, which means there’s no cumbersome trips back and forth to a buffet line. After a long day in the park, it’s quite a nice thing to be waited on. The cherry on the top of the cake for me though is the sweet tea. Honestly, this is the best sweet tea this side of Cracker Barrel. Megan, of course, loves the mac n cheese. It’s a little bit like a mini-Thanksgiving type meal. The characters were really in good form that evening with kisses and hugs all around. I think Chip even kissed me on the head at one point. Megan got a few licks from Pluto too! Does anyone else crack up when Pluto signs your autograph book by holding it on top of his nose?

After dinner, we walked back to F-Land for a ride on “it’s a small world”. On our last trip in September, I was so busy snapping pictures, that I never really had a chance to see everything going on all around me. I put the camera away this time and just tried to take in as much as my eyes could possibly look at. Although some find this ride extremely annoying, I find it sort of uplifting and I walked out wishing the world could be as wonderful a place as this ride portrays. I think it can be best described as being hopeful for a time when we can all come together like all the little dolls in the scenes. When we exited small world, the sun had set and it was time to see if we could finally get on the Dumbo ride. It was still a bit of a wait, but at least the sun wasn’t beating down on us while we waited. I had never noticed before, but from the Dumbo ride, you can see down the Street (through Tomorrowland I think) and you can see the Contemporary all lit up across the lake! We stayed at the Contemporary during our September trip and I felt sort of nostalgic about it. I really love the CR and hope to stay there again sometime. We had a Magic Kingdom view and that was a definitely pixie dust highlight of the trip.

As we passed to and fro though F-land all day, we noticed that Peter Pan’s flight was always at least an hour’s wait. I like this ride, but honestly? An hour!! So, what else could we do but head back over to BTMRR for the ride I had promised Megan. The stroller was practically vibrating with excitement all the way back into F-land! The stand by wait time listed was 20 minutes, which was great! We got into line and we were at the loading gate in about 12 minutes! Another dowsing of pixie dust from our friend Tink as she must have known how badly Megan wanted to ride again! Now from the time BTMRR launches to the time it stops again back at the loading platform, Megan screams and screams and screams. I just laugh and laugh and laugh at Megan. She said her favorite part of the ride is when her butt flies up out of the seat! So, as we exit the ride I look back over my shoulder and notice that the stand by sign has been adjusted down to 10 minutes and I figure, that really means only like 5 minutes. Now my daughter has just said something so funny that I feel it needs to be rewarded with another go round on BTMRR. As we are coming down the ramp, she says to me, Mom, that ride is WICKED COOL!! I just stop and looked at her and I said, where on earth did you hear that expression? I think for a moment she thought I was mad about it as her faced sort of paled… She said, that little boy over there just said it! I just bust out laughing and she cracked up too. We are from Chicago, not Boston and “wicked” anything isn’t in our daily vocabulary. I just said well if you like it that much, let’s go again. You would have thought I had just given her $1 million. Her face lit up and off we went for our third trip on BTMRR that day.

Well that last trip around was enough for me as my stomach felt it like it had been shaken and not stirred!! So, we set off through Frontierland and I noticed the ropes going up for SpectroMagic. I was excited and sad all at the same time. Our day was quickly coming to an end. We got some drinks and sat down on the ledge right outside the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon. It was really some prime real estate at this point because neither of us had to sit on the ground and we were very near a “restroom portal” that dumped you out in A-Land and with a quick left and 20 yards, we were right back in front of the castle. We watched Spectromagic with what I considered to be wonderful front row seats. I didn’t see much of it last year because I was furiously trying to take pictures and movies and really, life shouldn’t always be viewed through a camera lens! I just sat and watched and relished the fact that here I was in Disney World with my Megan on my lap and we were cuddling, laughing and just “being”. There’s a few times in each day at Disney where you realize that there’s no where else on earth you’d rather be. This and the BTMRR “wicked cool moment” are just two examples. Just that feeling of pure happiness. As soon as the last float passed, we beelined through the portal and quickly made our way over to the bridge to Tomorrowland for Wishes! This is a great spot to watch the fireworks as Tink flies directly over your head! Now I know that Tink can fly with ease, but dang she literally jumps off the edge of the castle from the very top spire! That little pixie has guts!!! Wishes was spectacular as usual and I really listened to it’s message. You have to find ways to make your dreams come true, there’s no giving up! That’s a great way to end the day. Such great affirmation.

I was quickly becoming a wee bit melancholy because as I watched Wishes I realized that this day was nearly over. But, wait, there was still one thing on our list we hadn’t done yet!! Surely, the line must be shorter now, surely we can fit this in before the park closes!! After the conclusion of Wishes, I nearly sprinted past Tomorrowland, past the Teacups, past Winnie, past Dumbo, no time for Ariel now, and back to Peter Pan’s Flight! The line was still long, but not nearly as bad as it had been all day. What else was there at this point, so who cared if we had to wait 20 minutes. We jumped on our flying ship, through Michael & John’s room, out the window, over the streets of London and into Neverland! We ended our day singing You Can Fly You Can Fly, You Can Fly! Now it was just going to be the long walk back to the bus stop for the French Quarter. We made our way down to Main Street and stopped in at the Bakery to pick up some Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats and some drinks for a bed time snack at the hotel room. I stopped in front of the train station, gazed up the Street at the Castle and said, see you soon! We’ll be back in November.

The bus ride back to the hotel was uneventful and we made our way through the resort grounds to our room. I have to say, that our hotel room at POFQ was spotless. Not a speck of dust, not a thing out of place. The room was smaller than our room at the Contemporary, but we were only going to be sleeping and dressing there the next morning, so it totally fit our needs. It was really quite a lovely room overall. The beds were very very comfortable and sleep came very quickly for both me and Megan. We slept pretty late the next morning with no place we really had to be. So around 10:00 we made our way over to the Food Factory. I still had one more pleasant surprise waiting in the form of beignets. I had to stop myself at three. I could have eaten three more, but my good conscience wouldn’t let me! You would think being in Disney, Megan would want a Mickey Waffle or something out of the ordinary, but she had her usual Froot Loops. She was excited because Stanley was on the TV at the end of the room. Simple pleasures! From there, we walked around the resort, checked out the pool for future reference. She gave the pool area a thumb’s up, so I guess this would be a good choice for our stay in November.

We walked to the car and drove over to Downtown Disney. We didn’t get to explore as much as we would like as I had promised my parents we’d be back in Brooksville by early afternoon. We stopped in at the Lego store, the Princess store, World of Disney and my favorite, by far, Basin. Everyone has their vice and my happens to be bath products, soaps, bath fizzie bombs, and body butters, etc. Basin is nirvana to someone like me!! So, our adventures in Disney have ended for now. Sorry this was so long, but I enjoyed reliving it! I’m back at work here in cold Chicago and I will be looking forward to my next trip in November!!

 

[Bunchkin]

Great trip report!! I'm so glad you and Megan had such a great one day trip! You did a ton!!
On our last trip I tried to do the same as you and just take it all in, all the magic that is, that I missed the prior trip by taking pictures and such. It's such a great feeling!

Too bad that on your last trip DH didn't try to have fun, he should of done the fishing. Maybe that would have at least put him in his element. Luckily my DH loves fishing and WDW, so this next trip I promised him a fishing excursion. He'll be happy and I can go shopping!!

Thanks for sharing! I really love detailed trip reports, it makes me feel like I'm there!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for sharing.