There and Back Again: A Disney Tale- Part 5

WDW Poly Princess

Needs a Disney Fix
Joined
Jul 17, 2000
Messages
4,873
Concerning Our Cast:
Crystal (WDW Poly Princess)- Turning 23 on this trip, my 5th trip to WDW, 3rd solo trip.

Kiki- Friend from Orlando who makes a cameo appearance as our superhero, Airport Transport Girl.

Katie- Twenty-something friend who lives just outside of Orlando. We met on an online horse message board about ten years ago, and have been in touch ever since.

JP- Katie’s brother, who I’ve talked to online for years, but have never met until now.

~*~*~*~
Part 5:

“Apparently, there is nothing that cannot happen today”- Mark Twain


Remember that wakeup call I set for 6:50? Either it never happened, or I was sleeping like a rock and totally missed it. Through some stroke of Disney Magic, the phone rang randomly at 8:30, and nobody was there, but at least it woke me up! I threw on some clothes and ran down to the Intermission Food Court for breakfast (biscuits and gravy and a bottle of water- $5.63), which I took back up to my room so I could sit in bed and watch WDW TV while I ate. I flipped on the TV, and there was a commercial for Dixie Stampede on, with my friend Tiffany in it! (She actually works at the Dixie here in Missouri where I used to work, but they use the casts pretty interchangeably in the commercials.) I couldn’t believe that here I was in Florida, and there was Tiffany, who has always wanted to come to WDW with me, right there with me!

I didn’t really unpack anything last night, so I called Bell Services to come pick up my suitcase, and set off for the bus stop to go to MK! I was way too late to make the opening ceremony by now, but that’s what long trips are for, right?

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SO cute window display someone downstairs in my building had set up.


I had an awesome bus driver on the way to MK. He filled us in on lots of WDW trivia, like…
* WDW is twice the size of Manhattan Island, or about the same size as San Francisco
* On your way to MK, you might drive by what looks like a parking lot, which is marked “STOL”. It’s a little runway- “Short Takeoff and Landing”, and was actually the very first thing built at WDW!
*Buena Vista Drive is named after the street that the Disney Studios are on in California

He told us a lot more, but somehow that all slips out of my brain too quickly!

I got to Guest Services about 10am to pick up my new Annual Pass ($531.46 for the Premium Annual Pass, including tax, although this may have changed now that they have MYW) Half of my future children’s college tuition later, I had that pretty annual pass in my hand, and was off to Mickey’s Philharmagic! This show was SO good, even better than my expectations! Everything about it is perfect, and I had tears in my eyes half of the show (shut up, I’m a girl.) My favorite part is definitely the flying carpet. Whee! Sorry, Legend of the Lion King, but I’m glad to see you gone.

It was HOT this morning, so my next stop was the nice dark, cool Pirates of the Caribbean. I had just rounded the corner in the line where you can first see the boats, and the guy behind me goes “Oh, it’s a RIDE?”. No, sir, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom are here to reenact the movie in person. (Hey, wait a second, I LIKE that idea an awful lot!)

Next stop was the Haunted Mansion, always a favorite, and then the Enchanted Tiki Room. I know that the Tikis are a love it or hate it attraction, but I can never resist at least one visit every trip. I could sit around listening to the Tiki Gods sing “In The Still of the Night” all day, but it’s a quick show, so it wasn’t long before I was waving goodbye to Jose and the gang, and on my way across the street to the Swiss Family Treehouse.

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The Swiss Treehouse is one of those attractions that I’ve just never gotten around to doing. Usually when I pass by and think “Humm, that could be fun”, my feet are too tired for me to find the motivation to climb up a bunch of stairs, so I always end up skipping it. So, this made two new attractions for me in just a couple of hours!

The treehouse will never be a favorite of mine, but it’s worth going through at least once. It was pretty crowded today, despite the relatively small crowds in the park, so I’d hate to see how smushed it gets in there on a busier day!

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Next Stop: the wilds of the Jungle Cruise! Are you brave enough to come along? Not everyone who has gone before us has made it back!

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Take your time in the JC line, there’s some hilarious stuff!


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Following in the cool bus driver’s footsteps, I had a great skipper for the Jungle Cruise, too!

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Look, the back side of water!

I was ready to see my old friend the Wilderness Lodge, so it was time to head for the front of the park! I cut through Liberty Square, where I noticed that you can see the Contemporary from here, which totally goes against that thing you see on the net a lot about only being able to see the Contemp from Tomorrowland! Gasp!

I swung through the Emporium on my way out, and they have so much cool new stuff! I could easily spend a TON of money here, if only I had a ton of money to spend! Since I’m on a budget, I just looked around, making mental notes of things to look for when I did my big shopping spree at World of Disney later in the week. My favorite thing was how cool all the Nemo toys looked all lined up on the wall!

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Bye, Magic Kingdom! See ya real soon!

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(It’s illegal to have a post about the MK without including a Castle photo.)

Up Next: The Wilderness Lodge!
 
Those pictures are awesome ....thanks for the report and the photos....
 
I am a happily-married woman and mother to 3 "love of my life" kids, but your posts make me realized I could SO enjoy a solo "mom time" trip to WDW!! *sigh*...maybe someday! :goodvibes

Great writing - great pics! Thanks for posting!
 















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