Day Five, Wednesday 3-29-06 Magic Kingdom
Me: Female, 36 only 2nd time at WDW.
Wife: Female, 46, used to live in Florida and visited WDW all the time.
Premium Package: including 3 TS or CS meals per day, unlimited recreation
and selected tours.
Today was a very special day! I had been planning a special surprise for the Wife for months and had a very difficult time not telling her what it was. The wife was out of the country for her birthday last year and didnt really get to celebrate her birthday. So, I decided that this was going to be her Birthday Day! I am a horrible secret keeper. However, this time, I managed to do it. She knew that something was up today, but she didnt know what.
First though, we had 9:30 ADRs for Lilo and Stitch Breakfast at Ohana. Stitch is the wifes favorite character, so I certainly wanted her to have her special day start with Stitch! I even got her a Stitch T-shirt to wear for the day.
We hauled ourselves out of bed around 8:30 and caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom. From there, we grabbed the monorail to the Polynesian. It was quite an easy trip. Getting from resort to resort takes a bit of planning and time, but its really not a big deal.
We walked into the Polynesian and were hit by a wall of people. Damn this place is crowded in the morning! I waited in the long line to check in, while the wife found an empty chair to collapse into. I finally got to the front of the line, only to find out that they didnt have our ADR! Panic time! The CM told me that they were full that morning and not taking any walkups. Thankfully I had my trusty print-out of all of our confirmation numbers and so we were able to be seated at our original ADR time. Phew, first crisis of the day adverted. I also made sure to tell the CM that it was the wifes birthday, so she got to wear a flower lei.
We were seated within 15 minutes of checking in and it was a blessing to get out of the loud lobby. Why do parents let their little darlings run in very crowded locations, screaming like banshees? I highly doubt that they are allowed to do that at home. At least I hope not!
Anyway, we escaped the banshees and were seated at a table right next to where the firepit is. It was a great table and we had a very nice waiter. He brought us coffee and orange juice as well as a large platter of fresh fruit and muffins. The fruit was excellent, very juicy and perfectly ripe.
Stitch, Lilo, Mickey and Pluto were making their rounds and it was fun to watch them interact with people. At one point, Stitch was on the far side of the restaurant and apparently it was time for Stitch to take a break. Well, he didnt want to and was running away from his CM. The CM picked Stitch up and carried him off stage! It was so funny!
While we were watching all of this, our breakfast platter arrived with Mickey waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage. I thought that the waffles and the scrambled eggs were the best. The wife was still having tummy troubles, so she didnt eat much.
We got our pictures taken with all of the characters and within an hour of being seated, we were ready to head over to the Magic Kingdom!
I had been planning with
Jane of Gifts of A Lifetime or an appropriately named Gift of a Lifetime for the wife. I dont want to tell the details here because I dont want to ruin the fun for someone else. I can HIGHLY recommend Gifts of a Lifetime for any incredibly wonderful surprise that youd like to do for a loved one. All of their pixies were perfect and the whole event was absolutely amazing.
The trick of the day was getting the wife to the Wishing Well by the castle at 11:30, which is where and when the event was going to start. We were a little early, so I stalled by taking pictures of Dumbo and slowly meandering towards the castle.
Finally, we got to the wishing well and the start of her surprise.
The wife was thrilled and both of us enjoyed participating in the event. If youd like more information on this, feel free to PM me.
We rode Buzz Lightyear and the Haunted Mansion as part of the event. I love the Haunted Mansion and for once, we didnt get stuck in the ride!
The event ended back at the Wishing Well where Birthday Presents were waiting for the wife. I had gotten her Disney Stock from
One Stock and a personalized Pluto watch from the
Disney Store. She loved both gifts. Yeay!
While we were on the event, we had stopped at the Liberty Tree Tavern and made lunch ADRs for 1pm. So after dropping the gifts off at the front of the park so we didnt have to lug them around all day, we headed over to LTT for a delicious lunch.
LTT is our favorite place to eat in the Magic Kingdom and we werent disappointed. Since were on the Premium plan, we get an appetizer, entrée, dessert, non-alcoholic drink (soda, tea ect) and a specialty drink like a smoothie or latte with each meal.
We each got ice tea, mine not-sweet, the wifes sweet. This is the only place in the MK where you can get sweet tea and the wife absolutely loves it. She also got the Patriots Punch, which is an orange ice type drink. Its very cold and very good.
For lunch, I had the crab cake appetizer (scrumptious)
and the wife had the salad with roasted garlic buttermilk dressing. I had the Colony Salad for my entrée while the wife had the Tri-Corner.
She was surprised that the coleslaw was directly on the sandwich, not placed next to it. We both remembered that the last time we were at LTT four years ago, that we were surprised about the coleslaw placement then too! I think that we will remember for next time.
We were pretty full, but of course we couldnt pass up dessert. The strawberry shortcake called my name, while the caramel apple tart was what the wife wanted. They were both absolutely scrumptious. Of course, since it was the wifes birthday, she also got a chocolate cupcake with a candle on it, plus a group of waiters to sing Happy Birthday to her!
After lunch, we did some more pin shopping at the Trading Post, well, the Wife did some pin shopping while I sat outside and listened to people screaming down Splash Mountain. Since we were there, we stopped in to the Country Bear Jamboree! This show has been discontinued at Disney Land, so it was great to see it at the World. We sang along to the songs and I think that we were the only ones to do so! Singing along is half the fun of the Country Bear Jamboree, especially the Blood on the Saddle song. Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves and I have a feeling that other people in the audience enjoyed us too.
The wifes tummy was becoming a major problem for both of us, so after multiple bathroom stops, we headed over to first aid and got some medication for her. Heres a tip, First Aid, located right next to the Crystal Palace will give out individual packets of common medications, like Motrin and Imodium. So, we got a few packets of medication and crossed our fingers. Thankfully, one dose seemed to do the trick.
We then rode Space Mountain, which seemed faster to me than I remember. I tried to figure out where the TTC is inside Space Mountain, but I couldnt find it. Id love to ride the TTC sometime when Space Mountain isnt operating, since they turn on the lights inside. It would be neat to see whole ride.
We rode the train around and then rode Jungle Cruise a couple of times. Jungle Cruise is our favorite ride, mostly because of the CMs. We know the entire spiel by heart, but we still laugh at all of the jokes. Jungle Cruise was even better when the CMs were allowed to go off script, but its still good.
We had 7pm ADRs at the Crystal Palace for dinner, but the wife didnt want to take a chance with her tummy issues. So, I had a Dole Whip instead. I now understand all the fervor over Dole Whips. OMG, it was so tasty. I got the pineapple/vanilla swirl and it tasted like a pineapple cream cycle.
After the delicious Dole Whip, we sang along with the Tiki Birds. I like the new management, but there is something to be said for the nostalgia of the original Tiki Birds.
Part of the Premium Plan includes Preferred Viewing Areas for Wishes and Illuminations. The PVA for Wishes is at the Plaza Landing. We got there around 8:30 and scouted out perfect seats. The only problem was a tree blocking part of the castle, but that was really no big deal. While we were waiting for the fireworks, I sat and stared at a popcorn stand and considered getting popcorn for a good thirty minutes. The crowd by the castle was so big that the thought of fighting my way through to get the popcorn, was less enticing than the thought of tasty popcorn munching during fireworks. The Plaza Landing area was delightfully uncrowded and just lovely for watching fireworks. Wishes, of course, was wonderful. The wife even got some very good pictures of the fireworks and the beautiful colors on the castle.
After Wishes, we settled back in our quiet area and watched the crowd fight for the entrance. After awhile, we left through Tomorrowland and I think we rode Space Mountain again. We got our EMH wrist bands at the Columbia boat landing (no line for wrist bands) and then ride BTMR. Riding BTMR at night is so different than during the day. Woo! Its much more exciting.
We were pretty tired by this point as it had been a very long day. So after one last ride on the Jungle Cruise, we picked up our packages at the front of the park and caught the bus back to CSR. The bus was waiting for us when we got there, so it was a quick and easy trip back to the resort.
