Today was Magic Kingdom day. We were up at around 7:30 AM and met for breakfast just after 8 AM. One of the cool things Norm did was get us a 50% discount on all hotel food, so our meals were cheap. So we ate a cheap, but yummy breakfast and then headed out to where the shuttle buses were to pick up a bus to the Magic Kingdom. After some brief line confusion (but others, not us) we hopped on a bus and made it to the Magic Kingdom just in time to catch the end of the opening ceremonies.
The first thing we did was head over to Space Mountain. Kelly and Vicky shopped while Norm and I waited in line to ride. It was fun, but I was spoiled after riding the Rockin’ Roller Coaster yesterday. After the ride, we met up with the ladies and then headed to Buzz Lightyear, which is an interactive ride, and quite possibly one of Norm and Vicky’s favorites. After that, it was on to the Haunted Mansion, one of Kelly’s favorite rides. She could barely contain herself, walking over there. There was really no line to speak of and we got right on the ride without a delay. My favorite part of that ride is the singing statues. Long time readers of this blog will recall that I suspected one of those statues followed me to an Orioles game back in the summer of 2006.
From the Haunted Mansion we made our way over to It’s A Small World. I can’t remember the last time I’d been on that ride. I spent most of the time taking pictures. (Norm and Vicky were constantly talking about how they weren’t taking enough pictures, so I was trying to make up for it.
Kelly wanted to go on the Snow White ride, and while we waited in line for that, Norm and Vicky went looking for hats. Specifically, they were looking for the hand-embroidered mouse-ear hats. Alas, as they found out, they stopped hand-embroidering the hats a month ago. Norm seemed particularly annoyed by this.
We stayed in Fantasyland for a while, riding the Winnie the Pooh ride, and then took in Mickey’s Philharmagic 3-D show, which was a good one. I’d seen it once before last year. While on that ride, I took what I thought was my funniest picture. I attempted to take a picture of me being frightened by all of the scenery. Norm, observing my attempt at a self-portrait, decided to interject himself into the pictures, with what I think is hilarious results
Vicky needed some water after that ride, so we stopped briefly for some water and then used our Fast Passes for Peter Pan. We were all getting pretty hungry and so we stopped to get some funnel cake after Peter Pan. Kelly did a little bit of shopping. I attempted to feed a friendly duck some funnel cake and got “yelled at” by a Disney employee. (Norm says I got yelled at; I claim that he simply suggested that I didn’t feed the duck.) After a quick bathroom break, we headed over to Pirates.
Pirates of the Caribbean is one of Kelly’s favorite rides. I don’t think the ride takes Fast Pass, but it wasn’t very crowded at all. We managed to zip through the extremely long queue that they have set up for it in no time. I snapped a few more photos while we waited in the line. I have to say, however, that I liked Pirates better before they modified it to better match the Johnny Depp movies. It’s still a fun ride, but it’s just not quite the same. Also, the Magic Kingdom version of the ride is somewhat different than the Disneyland version and I like the latter better. But it was still fun.
After Pirates, we made our way over toward Big Thunder Mountain to get some Fast Passes for later. We wandered around the park for a while, at some lunch, and took pictures in front of the castle. Then Vicky and Kelly decided to do some more shopping while Norm and I went on Big Thunder Mountain. It started raining on the way over there. Big Thunder Mountain was, for some reason, probably the longest line we waited in. The standby line was 70 minutes and the Fast Pass line probably took 10-15 minutes. It was a fun, relaxing, and fortunately, most of the rain had stopped by the time the ride was over. We wandered back through crowds of people, half of whom were caught out in the rain and had shuffled into various shops looking for Disney ponchos. We met up with Kelly and Vicky and headed back to Tomorrowland.
We needed a break so we rode the People Mover, which was relaxing. Then we went to the Carousel of Progress. I’d been on it last year and I took the opportunity to nap. And nap I did, through the whole thing.
Norm had been prodding us for silly one-liners for the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor show. Kelly and I had no one-liners, but we went to the show anyway. Actually, it was pretty funny and pretty impressive how they make the animated hosts and comedians interact with the audience. At one point they ask you to text jokes to a number. Norm texted one on behalf of Vicky and hers was the first joke read by the comedian. “This one is from Vicky from New York,” he said. The four of us were visibly pleased.
As the day wore on we rode the Jungle Cruise. We also walked by an area near the castle where crowds had gathered to watch the Osmond’s (all of them, I think) being filmed for something. There they were, just a few yards away from us. The park closed at 7 PM today because of a special event this evening, so sometime around 5 PM we started making our way out of the park. We went through several shops and I got some chocolate fudge in one of them. Then we left the park and caught the bus back to the hotel. Norm had made reservations at a restaurant that I’d been too once before and really enjoyed–a buffet. We decided to rest for a few hours before heading off to dinner.
Rest we did. Kelly and I fell asleep almost at once, and when I woke up an hour or so later, I felt sick–nauseous. I lay in bed shivering, certain I was going to be ill. We told Norm and Vicky that we’d have to skip out on dinner (I felt terribly guilty for that). More than likely, I was just dehydrated. I drank a lot of water and the shivers passed and before I knew it, I felt completely better. Eventually, I ate a hot dog and some fries (Kelly had eaten a bit earlier) and we invited Norm and Vicky to come to our room to hang out when they got back from dinner. Norm brought beer with him and he and I drank through the six-pack while sitting around talking. Vicky went to bed and we continued talking until about 1:30 AM. We decided to meet for breakfast at 8:15 tomorrow morning. The plan is to spend the day at Epcot. Sickness aside, today was a really fun-filled day.
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