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August, 28, 2008
On Thursdays, the Magic Kingdom opens an hour early for resort guests – also known as Extra Magic Hours. So we headed out extra early to arrive for rope drop at 8am. This day we planned to do Fantasyland, or as Alex refers to it – Katie rides. It was a bit muggy and humid and although it wasn’t overwhelmingly hot, I felt like I was sweating all day because of all the moisture in the air. It had rained earlier in the morning and everything was a bit damp in general, just sort of one of those sticky days, I guess.
Once in the park, we headed straight for Dumbo. We got in line right away and rode probably 3rd or 4th circuit of riders. Katie loves this ride, but in line for it she kept saying she wanted to ride “the horseys” first instead. The horseys = carousel. We made her do Dumbo first because for some unknown/unexplainable reason, Dumbo is always, always busier, and if you don’t do it first you can end up waiting for hours. This year we actually got Sean to ride too. Last year he chickened out because of the height. Alex talked him into riding with him saying he could control how high the ride goes with the joystick on the console of the ride vehicle. They rode near the bottom the whole time. I was so cracking up! I took this photo of them from the elephant in front of them. Alex just didn't want his pic taken at all. Toward the end of the ride some mechanism in the ride syncs up all the elephants though and they all went up to the highest height and then back down despite what anyone was doing with their joystick. Sean was a little annoyed at this, but seemed to survive the experience okay.
After Dumbo, we did in fact do “the horseys” next. The best thing about this ride (if you ask Katie) is that you can see yourself in the mirrors on the inside of the ride. She kept pointing to herself and telling me to “look at me riding”. Sean didn’t want to repeat any rides we had done previously in the trip, so we did Snow White’s Scary Adventures next. It was okay, but I’ll never understand why they made a ride of only the scary parts of a movie beloved by little children. Katie did okay though, it helped that mostly the scenes were stationary and not moving, so I think it was easier for her to know they weren’t “real”. By this time in the trip she was getting much better with the “in the dark” rides too, so that also helped. After Snow White, I convinced Sean we should do a few rides that we had done before just because we could and we liked them, so we did Peter Pan again and It’s a Small World again. Katie announced that “It’s a Small World” is her new favorite ride and we heard the song again and again from her many more times throughout the day and the trip.
I think we also did Mad Tea Party and maybe Indy Cars, but I cannot remember for sure whether I’m remembering this day or a different one, and I know we did Pirates of the Caribbean in there somewhere too. Katie loved Pirates, even though it was in the dark and there was a small drop and a sort of scary light projection. She loves Jack Sparrow – crazy girl, she is only 4, and already knows a man she wants when she sees him. *sigh* She wanted to do it again as soon as we finished it, but our stomachs were a growlin’ so instead we headed over to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. Sean had the Anchor’s Aweigh tuna salad sandwich. I had read online that this sandwich was really, really good. Sean said it was pretty good, but didn’t live up to the hype. I’m not much for Tuna salad myself, so I had chicken fingers, which were pretty standard chicken fingers. I think the kids had chicken fingers too, and we once again did the 3 credit counter service meal to serve 4 here.
If you ever eat at Columbia Harbor House – go upstairs to eat your food. The downstairs area is much more crowded and upstairs is much calmer. We found a spot to sit overlooking the Haunted Mansion ride and it was a nice break from the crowds and the heat. Added bonus was that we could see as we were finishing that the wait time for Haunted Mansion was only 10 min. Since Alex and I had done the ride a few nights ago when we had our EMH night, I knew the ride would probably be too dark/scary for Katie, but there were no drops/heights/roller coaster features that would freak out Sean. I offered to Sean to watch Katie while he and Alex did Haunted Mansion, which was nice for him because most of the time it worked out that Alex and I would do something and he and Katie would wait for us. Off they went, and both enjoyed Haunted Mansion.
After Haunted Mansion we decided we were a bit tired from the early rising and decided to head back to the hotel for our usual nap/rest/pool time. We had to come back to Magic Kingdom by 4:50 for our reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern too, so leaving early was a good idea.
When we came back later in the day for the LTT dinner, boy was it sweltering. So hot – just the walk from the front of the park to the restaurant about killed me (or so I thought). Luckily, we got right in to eat, so we didn’t have to stay out in the heat for long. The food was really good too. It was comfort food really, mashed potato and several kind of meats and good salad. The apple cobbler a la mode was exceptional too. I’ve heard that they are discontinuing the character part of this meal come January 2009 – and it is really a shame – this was our favorite character meal. Probably because Minnie Mouse took a few minutes to warm up Katie from across the table and then pose for some pics with her. Katie then decided she wasn’t too scared of the characters anymore and posed with Goofy and the Chipmunks too. Too bad my darn camera took awful pictures because the lighting was so dark and my autoflash sucks. Did manage to get this one good picture of “the guys” post dinner outside.
After dinner we caught the Woody’s roundup parade and Katie yelled, “Look, its Jessie” about a million times in my ear until I thought I would go insane. She had a great time though. Right about this time we began to notice that the clouds were really threatening and downpour was imminent. We looked for an indoor attraction and came up with the Country Bears. After the Country Bears, still no rain, but a really nice cool breeze was coming in – it felt great. We decided to do the Tiki Room next as it was also indoors and we were beginning to feel a sprinkle or two. After the Tiki room birds told us to “get out!” it was really comfortable outside, though it didn’t look like the rain had ever come. It was probably 75 though with much less humidity than before – almost heaven. We did the Hall of Presidents, where I swear I had to fight not to sleep, even though there were some interesting moments.
After all that we decided to burn some snack credits at the Sleepy Hollow snack stand. All week we had trouble using up our snack credits, we so did not need them, but we figured we had them, might as well use them. Sean had one of those big ice cream cookie sandwiches that Alex and I had the other night at the EMH. Katie, Alex and I all had a single scoop of ice cream. Yummy, but my waistline really should have passed, especially after all the apple cobbler a la mode I had eaten at LTT. After our ice cream we headed out of the park again and back to the hotel where we swam for an hour or so before bed.
Once in the park, we headed straight for Dumbo. We got in line right away and rode probably 3rd or 4th circuit of riders. Katie loves this ride, but in line for it she kept saying she wanted to ride “the horseys” first instead. The horseys = carousel. We made her do Dumbo first because for some unknown/unexplainable reason, Dumbo is always, always busier, and if you don’t do it first you can end up waiting for hours. This year we actually got Sean to ride too. Last year he chickened out because of the height. Alex talked him into riding with him saying he could control how high the ride goes with the joystick on the console of the ride vehicle. They rode near the bottom the whole time. I was so cracking up! I took this photo of them from the elephant in front of them. Alex just didn't want his pic taken at all. Toward the end of the ride some mechanism in the ride syncs up all the elephants though and they all went up to the highest height and then back down despite what anyone was doing with their joystick. Sean was a little annoyed at this, but seemed to survive the experience okay.
After Dumbo, we did in fact do “the horseys” next. The best thing about this ride (if you ask Katie) is that you can see yourself in the mirrors on the inside of the ride. She kept pointing to herself and telling me to “look at me riding”. Sean didn’t want to repeat any rides we had done previously in the trip, so we did Snow White’s Scary Adventures next. It was okay, but I’ll never understand why they made a ride of only the scary parts of a movie beloved by little children. Katie did okay though, it helped that mostly the scenes were stationary and not moving, so I think it was easier for her to know they weren’t “real”. By this time in the trip she was getting much better with the “in the dark” rides too, so that also helped. After Snow White, I convinced Sean we should do a few rides that we had done before just because we could and we liked them, so we did Peter Pan again and It’s a Small World again. Katie announced that “It’s a Small World” is her new favorite ride and we heard the song again and again from her many more times throughout the day and the trip.
I think we also did Mad Tea Party and maybe Indy Cars, but I cannot remember for sure whether I’m remembering this day or a different one, and I know we did Pirates of the Caribbean in there somewhere too. Katie loved Pirates, even though it was in the dark and there was a small drop and a sort of scary light projection. She loves Jack Sparrow – crazy girl, she is only 4, and already knows a man she wants when she sees him. *sigh* She wanted to do it again as soon as we finished it, but our stomachs were a growlin’ so instead we headed over to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. Sean had the Anchor’s Aweigh tuna salad sandwich. I had read online that this sandwich was really, really good. Sean said it was pretty good, but didn’t live up to the hype. I’m not much for Tuna salad myself, so I had chicken fingers, which were pretty standard chicken fingers. I think the kids had chicken fingers too, and we once again did the 3 credit counter service meal to serve 4 here.
If you ever eat at Columbia Harbor House – go upstairs to eat your food. The downstairs area is much more crowded and upstairs is much calmer. We found a spot to sit overlooking the Haunted Mansion ride and it was a nice break from the crowds and the heat. Added bonus was that we could see as we were finishing that the wait time for Haunted Mansion was only 10 min. Since Alex and I had done the ride a few nights ago when we had our EMH night, I knew the ride would probably be too dark/scary for Katie, but there were no drops/heights/roller coaster features that would freak out Sean. I offered to Sean to watch Katie while he and Alex did Haunted Mansion, which was nice for him because most of the time it worked out that Alex and I would do something and he and Katie would wait for us. Off they went, and both enjoyed Haunted Mansion.
After Haunted Mansion we decided we were a bit tired from the early rising and decided to head back to the hotel for our usual nap/rest/pool time. We had to come back to Magic Kingdom by 4:50 for our reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern too, so leaving early was a good idea.
When we came back later in the day for the LTT dinner, boy was it sweltering. So hot – just the walk from the front of the park to the restaurant about killed me (or so I thought). Luckily, we got right in to eat, so we didn’t have to stay out in the heat for long. The food was really good too. It was comfort food really, mashed potato and several kind of meats and good salad. The apple cobbler a la mode was exceptional too. I’ve heard that they are discontinuing the character part of this meal come January 2009 – and it is really a shame – this was our favorite character meal. Probably because Minnie Mouse took a few minutes to warm up Katie from across the table and then pose for some pics with her. Katie then decided she wasn’t too scared of the characters anymore and posed with Goofy and the Chipmunks too. Too bad my darn camera took awful pictures because the lighting was so dark and my autoflash sucks. Did manage to get this one good picture of “the guys” post dinner outside.
After dinner we caught the Woody’s roundup parade and Katie yelled, “Look, its Jessie” about a million times in my ear until I thought I would go insane. She had a great time though. Right about this time we began to notice that the clouds were really threatening and downpour was imminent. We looked for an indoor attraction and came up with the Country Bears. After the Country Bears, still no rain, but a really nice cool breeze was coming in – it felt great. We decided to do the Tiki Room next as it was also indoors and we were beginning to feel a sprinkle or two. After the Tiki room birds told us to “get out!” it was really comfortable outside, though it didn’t look like the rain had ever come. It was probably 75 though with much less humidity than before – almost heaven. We did the Hall of Presidents, where I swear I had to fight not to sleep, even though there were some interesting moments.
After all that we decided to burn some snack credits at the Sleepy Hollow snack stand. All week we had trouble using up our snack credits, we so did not need them, but we figured we had them, might as well use them. Sean had one of those big ice cream cookie sandwiches that Alex and I had the other night at the EMH. Katie, Alex and I all had a single scoop of ice cream. Yummy, but my waistline really should have passed, especially after all the apple cobbler a la mode I had eaten at LTT. After our ice cream we headed out of the park again and back to the hotel where we swam for an hour or so before bed.
4 comments:
These are so fun to read! Sounds like things went really well most days.
I'm loving your trip reports! I'm leaving for Disneyland on Saturday and cannot wait. It's been 2 years since we were last there. Can't wait to read about your castle breakfast. =)
LOL, I ALWAYS fall asleep in the Hall of Presidents, in fact, I go there to rest.
I can't believe it is Day 6 and no giant Katie freak out! This trip has gone amazingly well, thanks to your planning.
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