Disney World! (Day 4)
It was Day 4 of the big trip to Disney World and today's park was the Magic Kingdom.
I saw something at the store which expressed a little bit about how I felt...
Why for? My parents were driving up from South Florida to meet up with me. This was the first time I've seen my dad since Thanksgiving and his first time meeting my friends. At last...my L.A. and Florida worlds will have truly collided!
We began the Magic Kingdom day by grabbing a quick breakfast at the Main Street Bakery. In addition to getting some breakfast...we got quite a bit of attitude from Paola the cashier. She had quite an issue with Ted trying to get his cast member discount. It's like we were asking her to pull out money from the cash register to give to us. Yeesh...not the most magical way to begin the day!
At the very least, we got some useful advice from the napkins...
Sorry Donald, no scraps for you!
The first attraction of the day was Stitch's Great Escape!, the show that replaced one of my personal favorites, Alien Encounter.
To put it simply...it's Alien Encounter...dumbed down...to the point where you leave going, "that's it?"
Oh how I miss you, Alien Encounter! So what if Alien Encounter was a bit on the scary side!? At least it had a little oomph to it as opposed to this one which had little nudges on the shoulders and a big waft of the smell of chili dog up your nose. Blarg...
A little trip to the gift shop by the exit brought about the discovery of a peculiar pin...
And Leland doing his best Jack Sparrow...
To cleanse the palate of the Stitch, we moved on to Space Mountain (YAY!) and the Carousel of Progress (YAY!). Carousel is cheesy, but you can't help but sing along to "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!"
We took a little jaunt on the "Ride Formerly Known as the WEDWay Peoplemover" (now the Tomorrowland Transit Authority)...
...before we made our way to Liberty Square...where the group finally got back at me for sticking my video camera in front of their faces so much during the trip...
We hopped over to Splash Mountain next...
...where the wet factor wasn't as bad as the Kathy Griffin...I mean, Kali River Rapids...
And we had some fun on Big Thunder Mountain...
After a trip to "it's a small world" (we discovered that the title is supposed to be all small caps...go figure!), it was time for our early dinner at Cinderella's Round Table.
There, my parents met up with all of us...
What a dinner it was! None of us had been there before, so we didn't know what to expect. The food was good and the little mini-show was good. As Tim pointed out, there may have been a little bit of a mouse problem...
...but the Fairy Godmother assured us all would be well...especially when she gave Leland her magical touch...
Everybody pretty much gave the place a thumbs up...
And what's that? A creamy dessert?
...nah...it's the horseradish and cream for the tasty prime rib that a few of us had. Delcious!
HERE was dessert...
Chocolate Mousse Cake! Hooray!
We all went to Mickey's Philharmagic next and got a little 3D...
I highly, highly recommend this next time any of you go to the Magic Kingdom. I loved this even more today than the first time I saw it. It's such a great smorgasbord of Disney characters old and new. And it's got lots of Donald Duck, one of my favorite characters who we just don't see enough of anymore...
I finally gave into my boycott and tried out the Winnie the Pooh ride. I've had a grudge against this ride ever since it replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at the Magic Kingdom. However, thanks to a cast member's tip, I saw a little homage to Toad at the Pooh Ride. There's a pic in the ride that shows Mr. Toad handing a deed over to Owl. Awww...
Frankly, Pooh's no Toad, but I'll still help him out if he's ever in a pinch to get out of his "hunny hole..."
...please...don't read into that. I beg you...
We all checked out the Wishes! fireworks show before we took advantage of our extra "magic hours."
As the night drew to a close, we hit Adventureland and saw Jungle Cruise, the Aladdin Magic Carpets, and the Pirates of the Caribbean...
Now, I've gone on and on before about how much better the Disneyland version of "Pirates" is compared to Florida's, but after riding the Florida version tonight..."Pirates" is still a damn good attraction.
The Jack Sparrow additions work well here too. But I'm still creeped out at how lifelike the Jack animatronic looks!
We did one more trip to Tomorrowland before we left...
...hitting Space Mountain for a 2nd go-round. We also did the Buzz Lightyear Space Rangers attraction where I proved once again that my aim is awful. It's even harder when you're working solo steering the vehicle and firing at the targets. I'm not even going to share my score.
All in all, it was another VERY productive day. In fact, we've hit pretty much all of the major spots at Disney World.
So, tomorrow, it's time to go off property to hit Universal's Islands of Adventure!
I saw something at the store which expressed a little bit about how I felt...
Why for? My parents were driving up from South Florida to meet up with me. This was the first time I've seen my dad since Thanksgiving and his first time meeting my friends. At last...my L.A. and Florida worlds will have truly collided!
We began the Magic Kingdom day by grabbing a quick breakfast at the Main Street Bakery. In addition to getting some breakfast...we got quite a bit of attitude from Paola the cashier. She had quite an issue with Ted trying to get his cast member discount. It's like we were asking her to pull out money from the cash register to give to us. Yeesh...not the most magical way to begin the day!
At the very least, we got some useful advice from the napkins...
Sorry Donald, no scraps for you!
The first attraction of the day was Stitch's Great Escape!, the show that replaced one of my personal favorites, Alien Encounter.
To put it simply...it's Alien Encounter...dumbed down...to the point where you leave going, "that's it?"
Oh how I miss you, Alien Encounter! So what if Alien Encounter was a bit on the scary side!? At least it had a little oomph to it as opposed to this one which had little nudges on the shoulders and a big waft of the smell of chili dog up your nose. Blarg...
A little trip to the gift shop by the exit brought about the discovery of a peculiar pin...
And Leland doing his best Jack Sparrow...
To cleanse the palate of the Stitch, we moved on to Space Mountain (YAY!) and the Carousel of Progress (YAY!). Carousel is cheesy, but you can't help but sing along to "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!"
We took a little jaunt on the "Ride Formerly Known as the WEDWay Peoplemover" (now the Tomorrowland Transit Authority)...
...before we made our way to Liberty Square...where the group finally got back at me for sticking my video camera in front of their faces so much during the trip...
We hopped over to Splash Mountain next...
...where the wet factor wasn't as bad as the Kathy Griffin...I mean, Kali River Rapids...
And we had some fun on Big Thunder Mountain...
After a trip to "it's a small world" (we discovered that the title is supposed to be all small caps...go figure!), it was time for our early dinner at Cinderella's Round Table.
There, my parents met up with all of us...
What a dinner it was! None of us had been there before, so we didn't know what to expect. The food was good and the little mini-show was good. As Tim pointed out, there may have been a little bit of a mouse problem...
...but the Fairy Godmother assured us all would be well...especially when she gave Leland her magical touch...
Everybody pretty much gave the place a thumbs up...
And what's that? A creamy dessert?
...nah...it's the horseradish and cream for the tasty prime rib that a few of us had. Delcious!
HERE was dessert...
Chocolate Mousse Cake! Hooray!
We all went to Mickey's Philharmagic next and got a little 3D...
I highly, highly recommend this next time any of you go to the Magic Kingdom. I loved this even more today than the first time I saw it. It's such a great smorgasbord of Disney characters old and new. And it's got lots of Donald Duck, one of my favorite characters who we just don't see enough of anymore...
I finally gave into my boycott and tried out the Winnie the Pooh ride. I've had a grudge against this ride ever since it replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at the Magic Kingdom. However, thanks to a cast member's tip, I saw a little homage to Toad at the Pooh Ride. There's a pic in the ride that shows Mr. Toad handing a deed over to Owl. Awww...
Frankly, Pooh's no Toad, but I'll still help him out if he's ever in a pinch to get out of his "hunny hole..."
...please...don't read into that. I beg you...
We all checked out the Wishes! fireworks show before we took advantage of our extra "magic hours."
As the night drew to a close, we hit Adventureland and saw Jungle Cruise, the Aladdin Magic Carpets, and the Pirates of the Caribbean...
Now, I've gone on and on before about how much better the Disneyland version of "Pirates" is compared to Florida's, but after riding the Florida version tonight..."Pirates" is still a damn good attraction.
The Jack Sparrow additions work well here too. But I'm still creeped out at how lifelike the Jack animatronic looks!
We did one more trip to Tomorrowland before we left...
...hitting Space Mountain for a 2nd go-round. We also did the Buzz Lightyear Space Rangers attraction where I proved once again that my aim is awful. It's even harder when you're working solo steering the vehicle and firing at the targets. I'm not even going to share my score.
All in all, it was another VERY productive day. In fact, we've hit pretty much all of the major spots at Disney World.
So, tomorrow, it's time to go off property to hit Universal's Islands of Adventure!
2 Comments:
At 11:52 AM,
Gary Green said…
How fun! I went on Alien Encounter back when it first opened and let me tell you it was NOT scary in the least - sad, actually, but I heard they then closed it and added some more chills. Stitch does nothing for me. Your mom is as cure as I remember when I met her. Who are all the cute boys with you???
At 7:51 PM,
Stephen said…
You're damn right - I found out tonight that Alien Encounter is no longer there, and what the F*** do I want to see some boring Lilo and Stitch crap for ?!! I adored that ride, I fail to understand how feeble the people's constitution was who whimpered that it was too scary - THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT of that ride !! It's like going into KFC then being given a duck drumstick cos customers have complained the food is too chickeny.
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