Day 2 - Magic Kingdom
It's amazing how much work you return to after 10 days away. Sorry I've been slowing in posting this report.
TrentMom - the service fee covers a server who brings your drinks and clears your tables. I'm going to say it might have been as low as 5 or 6%, but it still is something you don't pay in any other food court that I am aware of. Obviously, you don't get the service either.
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom in plenty of time to see the park opening ceremony. This despite the fact that the finger imaging thing didn't seem to recognize my father. After several attempts the cast member overrode something, and ushered him through. It is always great to hear the opening at MK. It makes you smile if you are a Disney fan. This day was no exception.
My daughter wanted to ride Space Mountain with her grandparents so we headed for Tomorrowland. A lot of folks went with us. It seemed to take longer in line than the other times I've gone to Space at Park opening. Still the ride was good, and the line was relatively short, and we were off for Buzz Lightyear at about 9:20.
I have to be one of the worst players at Buzz Lightyear. I can never seem to find where my laser is firing. But I did manage to beat my mom, but my wife ended up our top scorer, which pleased her. After Buzz, I headed to get a Peter Pan fastpass, while the rest of our group looked at our pictures and met me at Winnie the Pooh.
Pooh had a short line, and we completed the ride just as Toontown was opening. So we headed to Toontown, and walked onto Goofy's Barnstormer. Obviously, Barnstormer is nothing compared to Space, but as the first roller coaster my daughter ever rode it still has a special place for all of us. We enjoyed the quick fast ride.
We followed with a walk through Minnie's house decorated for the holidays as an added touch, and made our way to the Character greetings in Toontown. Since Toontown had only been open for about 15-20 minutes, I didn't expect such long lines. Well actually only the Princess grouping had a long wait (45 min) so we avoided that. We did get to see Minnie and Daisy (why is she never around?) in one grouping and then Mary Poppins, Chip & Dale, and Pluto in another grouping.
After that we were excited to find Chicken Little just as we were exiting Toontown. As my daughter got her first autograph from Chicken Little, I set out to get fastpasses for Splash Mountain and met my family back at Peter Pan. We took our tour over London and off to Neverland. I think Peter Pan is one of the better dark rides at Magic Kingdom. Maybe its because it was always a story favorite of mine as a child.
Next we rode It's a Small World. The ride had been closed when my parents were with us two years ago, so my daughter wanted to be sure they got to experience it this time.
We had lunch at Columbia Harbour House and used our Fastpass at Splash Mountain immediately afterwards. Well we were diverted for an autograph with Brer Fox on the trip through Frontierland, and my daughter and father shot at the shooting gallery on the way. Splash continues to be one of my favorite rides in all of WDW. I think it magically combines the Disney animatronics in many fashions, and adds that little bit of thrill adventure to go along with it. We did get more wet on this ride than normal, but the weather was cooperating.
The wait for Thunder Mtn was more than 30 minutes and we decided to call it a session and head back for an afternoon break. My daughter had been suffering from a little bit of a cold before we left, and we didn't want her to play herself out early. Plus we are big fans of afternoon breaks. We planned to return that evening for Spectromagic and Wishes.
On the way out, we got a few more autographs and pictures as Captain Hook and Smee were in Adventureland.
My grandparents arrived from Southern Florida later that afternoon and we had made a last minute decision to have dinner with them. We wanted to eat early, so we would be sure to be back for Spectromagic and Wishes. I called Disney Dining about Tuesday before arriving hoping to get a reservation at Maya Grill, but was told that they didn't start serving til 5 o'clock. We wanted something more in the 4:30 range. The representative suggested Trails End because it was close to Magic Kingdom and was a buffet. We shouldn't have any trouble eating and getting back in time for the parade. The trouble was I'm sure the rep told me Wilderness Lodge. So we arrived at Wilderness Lodge and quickly found out that Trails End was at Fort Wilderness. And the chaos began. They held our reservation at Trails End, but traveling by vehicle, and then by internal bus at Trails End, left us with even less time than originally hoped for, for dinner. Trails End does a nice American food buffet. Carved Meats, Fried Chicken, ribs and a great variety of good fresh vegetables. But by now I was worried about getting through the internal bus system, back to the Transportation and Ticket Center Parking onto a tram, onto the monorail and into MK by 7 for the parade. Then I decided to send the family by boat from Fort Wilderness and they could secure the place along the parade route, and I would make the rest of the journey. We planned to meet somewhere in front of Casey's. It worked well, they got there with plenty of time to spare, and I made it about 10 minutes before the start of the parade. We even got a place directly across the street from Casey's.
Regarding Trails End, I would recommend it to anyone at MK, who wants to leave the park by boat travel to Fort Wilderness have dinner and head back to MK. Its a good buffet reasonably priced and within a short boat ride of the park.
We stayed where we were after the parade, which was magnificent as always. I love the music for Spectromagic, my wife just loves the lights. And about 10-15 minutes before Wishes we headed out into the middle of Main Street for the tremendous firework presentation. Wishes began four years ago, on the night we left for our first family journey to MK, and I've always loved it. We've watched it from a lot of different places and angles. Being back with a straight on view of the castle seemed to make it more amazing once again.
The park stayed open for EMH, but we were tired and had an 8am breakfast reservation at Animal Kingdom to look forward to.
