Our "Extra" time in the Magic Kingdom!
We had done what we wanted to here, so we decided it was time to get back to the MK and get our Extra Magic Hour bracelets. We made it back to the Contemporary where I convinced everyone it would be faster to walk then take the monorail back to the MK. Since we had never made that walk before, I had no actual knowledge if this was true or not or even how long of a walk it would be. Katie and I started out ahead of the slow whiny walkers. We kicked a rock around between us. Since Im a bit faster walker than the others, even when weve walked around all day I guess, I took some time to look at the Memory Bricks. All I heard behind me was, how much further and are you sure this is faster? Gee whiz! When we finally made it to the entrance of MK and we had to get in line before entering the MK to get our Extra Magic Hours wristband. First, we had to present our room key which they put in a reader, and then were told that we could get our wrist band. There was a very short line at the time and the poor girl handing out wristbands in the back of the line was overlooked since everyone got theirs from the girl closer to the front of the line. Tina and Kammie were whining that their feet hurt so much from all the walking. We decided it was time for a break.
We headed on over to Adventureland and got us a Dole Whip from Aloha Isleno trip to MK is complete with out it! We were sitting down enjoying our pineapple-y treat by 8:09 p.m. After relaxing our feet for a while, we went across the walk way to the Bwana Bobs kiosk at 8:28 p.m. Kammie has to go there every trip and I buy her a little trinket, usually those wish anklets. I bought us both a romance onewith pink beads in between the shells.
Next stop Tomorrowland! As I was snapping a shot of the signage everyone asked didnt I already have several pictures of that same signage? Well excuse a girl for taking pictures J At 8:40 p.m.we made it to the People Mover, since we needed more off our feet time. We enjoyed the whipping around of the People Mover without the long line, and Tina told us that this was probably too much of ride for her mom to handle. Next in Tomorrowland we went to do Buzz Light Year Space Command. Now the time was 8:50 p.m. I hadnt rode Buzz Light Year since the first time I did after it opened. I just dont do so well with arcade games, and the spinning around in the ride can make me nauseous. Katie and I rode together and Tina and Kammie did. I forgot how colorful it is inside. This time was a riot. Katie started spinning us around in the spaceship and I told her she had to stop, cause I wouldnt feel real well if she kept doing it. I told her I could move us around to the different targets, and since I would be in control my head would know which way we were moving and when and I wouldnt get sick. Guess who won?! I did with like 400,000 points, and everyone else was below 40,000 points. Now the ride will be a must do next time we come back. We stopped at a kiosk between Buzz and Space Mountain where Tina found a Star Wars Mickey and decided it was the perfect gift for the little boy back home.
We decided there was time enough to ride Space Mountain and then we could watch Wishes! We entered Space Mountain at 9:13 p.m., made past the Command Center and were just about to get in the actual queue to ride, when it broke down. The time is now 9:36 p.m. and they are not sure how long it will take to get it running again. A cute guy CM came over and told us that the reason the ride was stopped is that there were too many vehicles in the waiting area, and that if another one were to come in the area there would have been a crash. The system is set up for this and so when that happens the track locks up and stops everything. They now have to go around checking everything out and then unlocking each point. It was weird because the lights had to be turned on in order to do this. So no more could we watch the giant cookies float above us, but we could see the track and it was pretty cool. We decided to stay in line, and with in twenty minutes it was working again. Once again we enjoyed the opera music stylings of a one Miss Katie.
Once we exited Space Mountain we ran over to catch the end of Wishes! Then we asked Tina what she wanted to ride, since we would all have a chance or two more in this park and she wouldnt. She asked what was around and so we told her we were next to Fantasyland and so she wanted to ride Pooh. As we were walking back towards Space Mountain to go to Fantasyland we saw the tall skinny alien from Lilo and Stitch. The statue where he is all decked out as a tourist. Tina hands me here disposable camera and has Kammie stand on one side of the alien and her on the other side. They took two pics, one with them sticking their tongues out and one where they were each kissing one of his cheeks. So much for the germophobe!
After entering Fantasyland we got right in line for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at 10:18 p.m.. Tina was in love with this ride, especially when we hopped around with Tigger. She decided that this was her favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World. Next we went to ride the scary Snow White ride and warned Tina it might be too scary for her J She liked it, but it didnt measure up to her Pooh ride. It was already 10:51 when we went to see Mickeys PhilharMagic. Mmmmm, more delicious smells from Lumieres feast! We headed over to the Happiest Cruise That Ever Set Sail and rode Its a Small World at 11:13 p.m. Tina said that she was now happy because she saw a hippo and was no longer upset that we didnt go on the safari at AK. Whew! Everyone wanted to ride Peter Pan next, but I had to tell them Id wait for them after the ride. I had to go to the bathroom and couldnt wait any longer. It was kind of weird yet serene walking around the MK in the dark when everything else but the rides are gearing down. I knew the bathrooms were close to Pinnochios Hause, but not quite sure. There were a couple of CMs cleaning up together so I asked them where the rest rooms were. They pointed me in the right direction. After I had used the facilities I headed over to the Peter Pan ride to scope out a good place to wait for the group. Soon I heard the girls calling my name and noticed that they had gone to the second chunk of the queue, but were still on the outside of the line. So they told me to duck under and get in line with them, after all everyone else does it. Tina was telling me that the guy behind her got pushed into her and grabbed her butt. She thought it was funny at first, but was feeling a little creeped out when all the guy could do was talk about it. After all she didnt come down to WDW to get felt up in line for Peter Pan J We were flying around by 11:45 p.m., and I took some pictures, but only when I could just make out the outline of Tina and Kammie behind us. I didnt want to ruin others rides because of the flash photography. We wanted to hit Splash Mountain before we left, but Tina didnt want to get wet. Tina decided that it was time she left, after all she had to go alone to a Resort that was not on the monorail. Us girls decided that even if we all had to go back separately to a non-monorail resort, we wouldnt be too worried about itafter all it is WDW. Wed still be cautious of course, but not too worried.
The three sisters headed off for Splash Mountain. Its just so much more fun in the dark! After we got off we decided that our feet would probably only be good to get us back to the room and that we were going to go. However, we heard Kammies name being called out behind us. We all looked back and saw it was Stephanie (younger cousin on our dad's side) yelling and she was with Mary (our aunt, Stephanie's mom, dad's sister-in-law.) It was weird actually seeing a family member inside the parks. They had just Splashed down too and wanted to go next door to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I usually dont ride this ride, because I hate the long wait in the heat. Since it was night and the crowd was considerably thinned out I had no qualms about riding. So there we were Kammie, Katie, Mary, Stephanie and I. Not exactly small girls like we all once were. They decide to put all five of us in two rows. You know a rowabout the size for two adults, maybe three skinny non-hipped kids. Mary wanted to ride with Kammie, so poor Stephanie was squeezed in between my big hips and luckily a much smaller Katie. We had so much fun and learned that this was the first time that Stephanie had ever really rode a roller coaster. She was always afraid that shed fly out. I told her she was safe, there was no way she would be able to escape being trapped in between Katie and I. That made her laugh and she rode sometimes with her hands in the air even! Probably because I hadnt been on the ride in awhile, it seemed a lot more fun than I remembered and lasted longer than I remembered. Then we rode Splash Mountain again. Here Stephanie and Kammie sat in the front, Katie and I in the middle, and Aunt Mary in the back. I got more pictures and Stephanie held her arms up during all the dropscool kid!!! This was at 1:30 a.m., and we got to stay in our log and go around again, because there was no line the second time. The third time we came around however the line was back and it was time to depart. Kammie wanted to buy the picture, since it would have Mary and Stephanie in it too and she had lots of money still, because Katie was buying everything for her.
Stephanie wanted to ride one more ride, but we all convinced her that they were shutting everything down now. Our feet were throbbing. We decided it was time to leave as the park, as it was now 1:59 a.m. and we were pretty sure thatthe park really was closing (although you cant tell, because the lights are still twinkling and no ones yelling closing time!.) On our way out Kammie bought us three girls a frozen lemonade. I let Stephanie have a drink of mine and then offered Mary one. Mary said no, because she was getting a really bad cold, and she had got it from Steph. Great, I hope I dont get sick! I dont even remember parting ways with Steph and Mary, just the concentration it took to get up to the Resort Monorail platform. As we got up there, the monorail was just taking off. We went all the way to the end of the monorail line, and as it pulled up we pulled ourselves on. We had the whole cab to ourselves so Katie went to one of the benches and laid out, while Kammie laid out on the other one and I just stayed seated by her feet. As we start to go the monorail driver tells us that this is the last monorail of the night. Yikes! We couldnt believe it, what if we had gone on one more ride, we would have missed the monorail, and then what would we have doneah, but we were too tired to think of what might have been. We were actually kind of giddy to have been on the last monorail of the nightbe the last stop of the nighthad stayed out that whole time and gone to three parks in one daywhat an accomplishment, and no naps either J We finally drug ourselves back to our room at 2:30 a.m. We tried to quickly and quietly get into bed to knock back a few Zzzzzs.
can't wait to read more!
