2BoysMum&Dad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
In my hand-written notes I made at the end of Friday 23rd July, I spookily gave the days report the heading The Calm Before The Storm, only because it was the day before we flew out to Florida and didnt think at the time it was really a very good or apt title. I have decided to name all the parts of my trip report The Calm Before The Storm Tour, in honour of the climax of our trip - Hurricane Charley which gave us an extra day in Florida.
Sunday 25th July (A Magical Day)
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
As expected, I woke up early for local time 4.30am. I was the first to awake and knew I would be unable to get back to sleep again. Was this because my body was telling me it was really 9.30am or because we were about to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom?! I set myself the task of tidying up the room sufficiently for the maids visit later. I put small valuables in the room safe - theme park tickets, passports, airline tickets (least valuable! After all, who cares if we are stuck in Florida forever!). Michael woke up next followed by Piers and finally sleepyhead Daddy. We debated the subject of breakfast and spent quite a while organising what should go in our bags for our first ever magical day out. We werent particularly hungry at this stage and all agreed wed be happy to get something to eat at the Magic Kingdom.
We left CBR at 7.30am, headed for the Ticket & Transportation Center at the Magic Kingdom. The size of American parking lots never cease to amaze me. The shear amount of the planet space they occupy for just one venue is quite daunting! We hop onto one of the car park trams which take us to the TTC. Getting from your hotel room to the Magic Kingdom by car is quite an experience in itself! On the tram, we are treated for the first time to the obligatory safety information and banter from the tram operator standing at the back and via a recorded message which was to be semi-engrained in our brains by the end of three weeks! From now on, I will automatically never let children travel on the outside of a tram and take small children by the hand when alighting from the vehicle (even if they are not mine!!) before embarrassingly returning them to their parents!!
Sundays are Early Entry days at the Magic Kingdom (at the moment). By the time we arrived at the TTC buildings it must have been around 8am and there were queues of people waiting to be allowed on the monorail or ferry. Only those who could prove residency on Disney property were being allowed through. Surprisingly few people were going through (to our delight of course) and made us feel very important leaving those big queues behind us! We hopped onto the monorail and it didnt take us long to arrive at the happiest place on earth. I was facing backwards for this trip which I cursed myself for at the time normally like to see where I am going! On the way back out, I was only able to get a seat facing backwards again. I then realised I would have seen the castle from the monorail if I had faced forward on the way in and then glad I had face backwards! Why? My dream over the last six months was to catch my first glimpse of the castle after walking through the main entrance of the park with lovely clear blue skies in the background. I was not disappointed!
Excuse me while I wipe a tear from my eye, this brings back lovely memories! :cry:
When we arrived at the entrance I got out our most precious possessions, our WDW 10-day passes. Then I realised the security chaps were checking bags and I wouldnt need the tickets for a minute. I was very surprised at how unthorough the bag checks are! They could easily miss a small knife or gun, what were they actually looking for?
Next job, getting through the turnstyles and figuring out how to make this two finger gesture machine work! Our four WDW tickets had a different Disney character on each. I was rather disappointed Michael didnt want to be Mickey Mouse (with the name thing and all), but wanted to be Goofy. Piers didnt get a choice, he had to be Donald Duck as that was the only child ticket, but he was happy with that. There was no way Trevor was going to be Minnie Mouse, so he got Mickey, and I had Minnie. It all worked out ok and everyone was happy with their tickets! Dont you find that its often these little details you remember most!
I assume the finger recognition thing links the owner to the ticket and I was later EXTREMELY glad I decided to allocate tickets to people before we went through a park for the first time. If I had given Minnie to Michael just to get through the gates quickly then to discover he would be stuck with her the rest of the holiday, we would be in severe trouble and he would have sulked forever!
Anyway, back to Main Street USA. The park was not particularly crowded at this stage, well not by WDW standards anyway. I was prepared for the worst regarding crowds today, it was likely to get very busy, being a Sunday and EE day. After the emotional first sight of the castle (see above) and obligatory photograph of the family, it was definitely time to find breakfast. I knew there were places to eat along Main Street and we found the nice bakery (with attached lovely gift shop) halfway up on the right. Be warned though, particularly if you have children! This place has half a ton of very enticing glass souvenirs, all very pretty and shiny! There was also a huge glass castle (about 3 foot high), great if you have several thousand dollars and the means to get it home!
Breakfast was finally dealt with and we managed to drag the kids away from the shinies in the shop! I deliberately did not have a touring plan like the ones in the back of the Unofficial Guide. One of the best bits of advice from the DIBB was not to try doing everything, take it easy and enjoy ourselves. This is our first visit to WDW (and Florida) and I wanted to take in the atmosphere and have a good look around the park as much as enjoy doing the rides themselves. Also, with kids, I believed it would be impossible to do one of these touring plans successfully without driving ourselves nuts and turning a great holiday into an intensive army training session! I did, though, have a wish list of things to do. The kind of rides I liked the sound of were Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Tomorrowlands Transit Authority as this would take us around some of the park and actually inside some of the rides for a better look. The TTA actually goes inside Space Mountain and you can see the cars going around inside the mountain.
Trevor on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority
Astro Orbitor in the Tomorrowland part of Magic Kingdom, taken from the TTA
So, our first port of call was Tomorrowland (to the right of the castle) and we saw that the Buzz Lightyear queue was relatively short and moving fast. This was great and we did it again immediately. We had a chance to discuss proper strategy this time and make sure we all knew what we were supposed to be shooting at! Got our first taste of a ride stopping in mid-ride, which helped our scores no end! We were in the dark tunnel bit (with stars moving passed) for a couple of minutes before the cars moved again. Right, what next? The Timekeeper had nobody waiting outside at all, so that seemed a brilliant idea! Fun thing to watch, you stand in a large room with nine large video screens encompassing the walls and you get a couple of robots hosting the show, one called 9-eye. The video screens are supposed to be what this robot sees when it is travelling in time.
Trevor looked at the map and decided he liked the look of Frontierland which was over the other side of the park. As luck would have it, we were passing the castle as a crowd was gathering. Decided something must be happening so we stopped. We were in exactly just the right spot to watch a show in front of the castle. I took some pictures and we then carried on to Frontierland.
We actually ended up in the Liberty Square area and decided to do The Haunted Mansion. A few months ago, I took the kids to see the film by the same name knowing there was an attraction at WDW with this title. Apparently, the film makers made the film based on the attraction. If someone had described this ride to me in more detail, I would never have done it! As it happens I really liked it. You are in a safe large seat which totally surrounds your sides, back and up over your head. It turns in a few directions as it travels along the route to face you in the right direction of the action. I was expecting creepy hands to crawl up my back or something, but it never happened!
We never actually got to do anything in Frontierland today, it would have to wait for another visit. We had lunch at a nice Tavern in Liberty Square, very highly recommended. The food and service were excellent. The Liberty Square Riverboat ride was just a few steps away, so we caught that with no problem and a very pleasant trip around a large island and took some pictures.
Liberty Bell Riverboat boarding point
The boat does a circular tour and moors back here, but you exit the boat from the lower deck to below where you board.
At this stage, we decided we were very tired and wed do best going back to the resort and getting some rest or having a swim in our pool. But we now had the problem of dragging Piers away from the bridge in front of Splash Mountain. Every time a boat comes down the shoot a squirt of water sprays into the air. Every third squirt the water sprays much bigger and over anyone standing on the bridge. When you are hot and tired, this is great fun to experience! Piers announces he wants a go on Splash Mountain. I foolishy thought thered be no queue because I saw an empty boat and an empty row of seats in another boat :rollseyes: !! So, we walked around to the entrance to see the queuing time was 45 minutes and we werent going to do the Fast Pass on this as we were trying to get out of the park!
On the way passed the Pirates of the Caribbean, we noticed there was a wait of 25 minutes. I thought this might be a bit too long but Trevor wanted to do it! Now, this is a turn up for the books and one of many comments from Trevor that surprised me. You will all remember how I have been going on about how he was not going to enjoy this holiday and how he was going to moan all the way around all the parks all day every day! His argument for doing this one now is that it did look quite interesting and it would be one less ride to worry about for the next time we visited the park. So off we went to queue. There is a long queuing path inside the building and plenty of queuing space outside undercover. Luckily the queue wasnt out of the building at the time and the queue inside was moving at a steady pace. This was good and one of my favourites. On a par with the Haunted Mansion.
Believe it or not, we ended up doing the Jungle Cruise too! So much for exiting the park! The quoted queuing time for this one was only 15 minutes and was definitely a nice little ride. Funny though, we were convinced it felt far longer than the wait for the Pirates of the Caribbean! The Jungle Cruise is good. The tour guide does a funny act, ducking at various stages and funny banter as we sail along the river. As we get to within striking distance of docking, she starts asking where people are from. Turns out more than half are from England (not even other parts of Britain!).
Off the Jungle Cruise and we are DEFINITELY on our way out now. Oh no! Trouble ahead, heavy crowds down main street! Yup, youve guess it, weve hit the wait for the 3 oclock parade! Trevor goes into doom and gloom mode saying we have no chance of getting through these crowds and starts getting really grumpy! We have a toilet break and drink from the water fountains between the Crystal Palace and Main Street and have a look at the map. Looks like there is no other way to the exit other than down Main Street. A tip I read elsewhere later said why not try walking through the shops DOH! Why didnt we think of that. Actually the crowds only took up most of the pavement and there was still space to walk behind people. I told Trevor it was nearly 3pm and this was one of the major things at the Magic Kingdom and now that we were here it would be great to watch it. And, anyway, while we were walking along we got to a spot in the crowds where we could actually get a very good view and the kids could sit on the edge of the pavement oops, sorry sidewalk.
There was a row of children seated in front of me with various parents standing around. Suddenly I saw movement on the road ahead in front of the castle, coming round from the right of the roundabout! It was Mickey! (Sorry, another lump in the throat moment, pause to get a tissue!). I said to the children on the ground I CAN SEE MICKEY!. One girl in particular got very excited and really got everyone in the right mood. She pointed and cried out to every character she saw as soon as they appeared from the roundabout, imagine her excitement as they all came passed directly in front of us!
I know most of you will have seen this parade and this is one of the images which is greatly shown on tv and videotapes advertising WDW. But, I thought this was a particularly good picture (even though it is very wonky!), so had to post it! Just really shows what a great spot we got!
One thing worth remembering is that if you do plan to watch the 3pm parade and then leave the park immediately a huge proportion of the crowds have the same idea! Its a perfect time to queue up for some of the other attractions and to leave the park if you do not want to watch the parade.
We move along with the throng towards the exit/entrance and then decide this is a bad idea. We stop for a few minutes under the railway station (where the lockers are) for a breather and rest away from the direct sunlight in order for the main group of people leaving to leave. We head for the monorail and end up with a seat facing backwards again. As I mentioned earlier, I got a great view of some of the rides and the castle as we sped away and was really grateful that I got my first view of the castle this morning how I wanted it!
Back to the Ticket & Transportation Center, to the car, back to CBR and straight into our swimming pool! (Notice how I achieve so much in that last sentence I am really proud of myself!
I must be slacking!!).
We spent an hour or so in the pool and had a great chat with some other people. Someone we got talking to was there with his wife and nine year old granddaughter. They were from somewhere up north and had flown from Manchester, Club Class on Virgin. A special treat for the granddaughter. There was another man there with his family from Toronto. The three of us had a good gossip about the differences between the US, Canada and the UK, including taxes, Blair, Bush, road tolls, house prices and touring holidays. The granddaughter of the man from England had seen a six foot snake slide along the patio area of the pool just before we came along! Eeeek. This is our first full day, does this mean we are going to encounter huge snakes every day?!!
Finally we were getting hungry again so we dragged the kids out of the pool. The pressure was now on me to decide where we were going to eat, being the WDW expert of the family! I said we should really visit Epcot and we could eat there. I had earlier explained about being able to re-enter any WDW park on the same day. You are normally advised to get your hand stamped as you leave the first park, although your ticket should register the fact that you have been somewhere once already that day and not knock off a second day off your allowance.
Epcot is a very short drive from CBR, in fact you can see and easily hear Epcots night-time fireworks from CBR. As soon as we came up to the overgrown golf ball, Trevor noticed the escalator rising up into its interior. Looked interesting and the queue was minimal, so we did this immediately. It was Trevors idea, he said he wanted to do it because he had sore feet! Thats got to be the first time I had ever heard that reason for doing a ride! Anyway, the rest of us were happy and it looked intriguing. As with many Disney stories explaining a big issue like the story of mankind, the big bang and origins of the universe etc, much detail was left out or barely covered which Trevor often complained about throughout our holiday. I tried my best to explain to Trevors over scientific and expansively detailed storage device of a brain that its impossible to make attractions the way he thinks they should be done! Despite his opinions, he did still enjoy this attraction anyway. You have to bear in mind that everything at Disney has to appeal to such a wide group of people. In fact, they have to appeal to the widest group of people you can imagine! Everyone from every walk of life and every age group is going to be at WDW and creating attractions that will appeal in some way to everyone must be very difficult.
We then headed for the World Showcase, with a meal in mind. I explained about having to have a drink in every country for a good friend of mine who I had never met and we decided to start anticlockwise so we would definitely get to see the UK today. As we approached, Michael spotted signs for McDonalds, we thought oh dear but that would do in emergencies if necessary (Michael doesnt eat much other than fries). I headed up some steps towards what I thought must be the UK because I saw a red telephone box! No, it was part of Canada! Back down the steps and then I heard a very distinctive sound. I had never heard them before but due to the location and what I had seen and read on the DIBB, this could only mean one thing OFF KILTER WERE PERFORMING! Suddenly my heart rate went up and I felt myself strangely drawn to this very attractive group of hunky men (for some reason!!). Unfortunately, we decide (Trevor decides!!) we dont have time to listen.
Trevor then also decides for us that, actually, theres not much point eating at the Rose & Crown if we have booked to eat there next week, so we carry on walking. Finally make it to Morocco and an interesting looking restaurant. Luckily there are a few things on the menu that the kids will eat so we all get happily fed. Whats more, we are just in time to see Illuminations. It wasnt a perfect view, a couple too many trees in the way, but not too bad if you dont mind missing a few fireworks set off at a certain height. This was from the hedges by the lagoon in front of the Moroccan restaurant we had just eaten at.
The kids are extremely tired and we are pretty exhausted too. Better be off now back to CBR. Looks like we are getting into bad habits. This is the second time today we have tried exiting a park at the same time as nearly everyone else! Will we learn before the end of the holiday? I hope so!
Well, what a day weve had and what a great way to spend our first full day in Florida! Been to MK, done that walk up to the castle first thing and ended by watching one of the best firework, light and pyrotechnic displays on earth in Epcot. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
Back to the Caribbean Beach Resort for bed! Well, actually, not for me. You see, I had some writing to do. Theres this odd group of people back in the UK who all know each other really rather well, despite the fact that most of them have never met each other and they are expecting me to report back every detail of my holiday! Finally got my notes finished and I am asleep almost before my head hits the pillow! See you tomorrow!! ZzZzZzZzZz
Sunday 25th July (A Magical Day)
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
As expected, I woke up early for local time 4.30am. I was the first to awake and knew I would be unable to get back to sleep again. Was this because my body was telling me it was really 9.30am or because we were about to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom?! I set myself the task of tidying up the room sufficiently for the maids visit later. I put small valuables in the room safe - theme park tickets, passports, airline tickets (least valuable! After all, who cares if we are stuck in Florida forever!). Michael woke up next followed by Piers and finally sleepyhead Daddy. We debated the subject of breakfast and spent quite a while organising what should go in our bags for our first ever magical day out. We werent particularly hungry at this stage and all agreed wed be happy to get something to eat at the Magic Kingdom.
We left CBR at 7.30am, headed for the Ticket & Transportation Center at the Magic Kingdom. The size of American parking lots never cease to amaze me. The shear amount of the planet space they occupy for just one venue is quite daunting! We hop onto one of the car park trams which take us to the TTC. Getting from your hotel room to the Magic Kingdom by car is quite an experience in itself! On the tram, we are treated for the first time to the obligatory safety information and banter from the tram operator standing at the back and via a recorded message which was to be semi-engrained in our brains by the end of three weeks! From now on, I will automatically never let children travel on the outside of a tram and take small children by the hand when alighting from the vehicle (even if they are not mine!!) before embarrassingly returning them to their parents!!
Sundays are Early Entry days at the Magic Kingdom (at the moment). By the time we arrived at the TTC buildings it must have been around 8am and there were queues of people waiting to be allowed on the monorail or ferry. Only those who could prove residency on Disney property were being allowed through. Surprisingly few people were going through (to our delight of course) and made us feel very important leaving those big queues behind us! We hopped onto the monorail and it didnt take us long to arrive at the happiest place on earth. I was facing backwards for this trip which I cursed myself for at the time normally like to see where I am going! On the way back out, I was only able to get a seat facing backwards again. I then realised I would have seen the castle from the monorail if I had faced forward on the way in and then glad I had face backwards! Why? My dream over the last six months was to catch my first glimpse of the castle after walking through the main entrance of the park with lovely clear blue skies in the background. I was not disappointed!
Excuse me while I wipe a tear from my eye, this brings back lovely memories! :cry:
When we arrived at the entrance I got out our most precious possessions, our WDW 10-day passes. Then I realised the security chaps were checking bags and I wouldnt need the tickets for a minute. I was very surprised at how unthorough the bag checks are! They could easily miss a small knife or gun, what were they actually looking for?
Next job, getting through the turnstyles and figuring out how to make this two finger gesture machine work! Our four WDW tickets had a different Disney character on each. I was rather disappointed Michael didnt want to be Mickey Mouse (with the name thing and all), but wanted to be Goofy. Piers didnt get a choice, he had to be Donald Duck as that was the only child ticket, but he was happy with that. There was no way Trevor was going to be Minnie Mouse, so he got Mickey, and I had Minnie. It all worked out ok and everyone was happy with their tickets! Dont you find that its often these little details you remember most!
I assume the finger recognition thing links the owner to the ticket and I was later EXTREMELY glad I decided to allocate tickets to people before we went through a park for the first time. If I had given Minnie to Michael just to get through the gates quickly then to discover he would be stuck with her the rest of the holiday, we would be in severe trouble and he would have sulked forever!
Anyway, back to Main Street USA. The park was not particularly crowded at this stage, well not by WDW standards anyway. I was prepared for the worst regarding crowds today, it was likely to get very busy, being a Sunday and EE day. After the emotional first sight of the castle (see above) and obligatory photograph of the family, it was definitely time to find breakfast. I knew there were places to eat along Main Street and we found the nice bakery (with attached lovely gift shop) halfway up on the right. Be warned though, particularly if you have children! This place has half a ton of very enticing glass souvenirs, all very pretty and shiny! There was also a huge glass castle (about 3 foot high), great if you have several thousand dollars and the means to get it home!
Breakfast was finally dealt with and we managed to drag the kids away from the shinies in the shop! I deliberately did not have a touring plan like the ones in the back of the Unofficial Guide. One of the best bits of advice from the DIBB was not to try doing everything, take it easy and enjoy ourselves. This is our first visit to WDW (and Florida) and I wanted to take in the atmosphere and have a good look around the park as much as enjoy doing the rides themselves. Also, with kids, I believed it would be impossible to do one of these touring plans successfully without driving ourselves nuts and turning a great holiday into an intensive army training session! I did, though, have a wish list of things to do. The kind of rides I liked the sound of were Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Tomorrowlands Transit Authority as this would take us around some of the park and actually inside some of the rides for a better look. The TTA actually goes inside Space Mountain and you can see the cars going around inside the mountain.
Trevor on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority
Astro Orbitor in the Tomorrowland part of Magic Kingdom, taken from the TTA
So, our first port of call was Tomorrowland (to the right of the castle) and we saw that the Buzz Lightyear queue was relatively short and moving fast. This was great and we did it again immediately. We had a chance to discuss proper strategy this time and make sure we all knew what we were supposed to be shooting at! Got our first taste of a ride stopping in mid-ride, which helped our scores no end! We were in the dark tunnel bit (with stars moving passed) for a couple of minutes before the cars moved again. Right, what next? The Timekeeper had nobody waiting outside at all, so that seemed a brilliant idea! Fun thing to watch, you stand in a large room with nine large video screens encompassing the walls and you get a couple of robots hosting the show, one called 9-eye. The video screens are supposed to be what this robot sees when it is travelling in time.
Trevor looked at the map and decided he liked the look of Frontierland which was over the other side of the park. As luck would have it, we were passing the castle as a crowd was gathering. Decided something must be happening so we stopped. We were in exactly just the right spot to watch a show in front of the castle. I took some pictures and we then carried on to Frontierland.
We actually ended up in the Liberty Square area and decided to do The Haunted Mansion. A few months ago, I took the kids to see the film by the same name knowing there was an attraction at WDW with this title. Apparently, the film makers made the film based on the attraction. If someone had described this ride to me in more detail, I would never have done it! As it happens I really liked it. You are in a safe large seat which totally surrounds your sides, back and up over your head. It turns in a few directions as it travels along the route to face you in the right direction of the action. I was expecting creepy hands to crawl up my back or something, but it never happened!
We never actually got to do anything in Frontierland today, it would have to wait for another visit. We had lunch at a nice Tavern in Liberty Square, very highly recommended. The food and service were excellent. The Liberty Square Riverboat ride was just a few steps away, so we caught that with no problem and a very pleasant trip around a large island and took some pictures.
Liberty Bell Riverboat boarding point
The boat does a circular tour and moors back here, but you exit the boat from the lower deck to below where you board.
At this stage, we decided we were very tired and wed do best going back to the resort and getting some rest or having a swim in our pool. But we now had the problem of dragging Piers away from the bridge in front of Splash Mountain. Every time a boat comes down the shoot a squirt of water sprays into the air. Every third squirt the water sprays much bigger and over anyone standing on the bridge. When you are hot and tired, this is great fun to experience! Piers announces he wants a go on Splash Mountain. I foolishy thought thered be no queue because I saw an empty boat and an empty row of seats in another boat :rollseyes: !! So, we walked around to the entrance to see the queuing time was 45 minutes and we werent going to do the Fast Pass on this as we were trying to get out of the park!
On the way passed the Pirates of the Caribbean, we noticed there was a wait of 25 minutes. I thought this might be a bit too long but Trevor wanted to do it! Now, this is a turn up for the books and one of many comments from Trevor that surprised me. You will all remember how I have been going on about how he was not going to enjoy this holiday and how he was going to moan all the way around all the parks all day every day! His argument for doing this one now is that it did look quite interesting and it would be one less ride to worry about for the next time we visited the park. So off we went to queue. There is a long queuing path inside the building and plenty of queuing space outside undercover. Luckily the queue wasnt out of the building at the time and the queue inside was moving at a steady pace. This was good and one of my favourites. On a par with the Haunted Mansion.
Believe it or not, we ended up doing the Jungle Cruise too! So much for exiting the park! The quoted queuing time for this one was only 15 minutes and was definitely a nice little ride. Funny though, we were convinced it felt far longer than the wait for the Pirates of the Caribbean! The Jungle Cruise is good. The tour guide does a funny act, ducking at various stages and funny banter as we sail along the river. As we get to within striking distance of docking, she starts asking where people are from. Turns out more than half are from England (not even other parts of Britain!).
Off the Jungle Cruise and we are DEFINITELY on our way out now. Oh no! Trouble ahead, heavy crowds down main street! Yup, youve guess it, weve hit the wait for the 3 oclock parade! Trevor goes into doom and gloom mode saying we have no chance of getting through these crowds and starts getting really grumpy! We have a toilet break and drink from the water fountains between the Crystal Palace and Main Street and have a look at the map. Looks like there is no other way to the exit other than down Main Street. A tip I read elsewhere later said why not try walking through the shops DOH! Why didnt we think of that. Actually the crowds only took up most of the pavement and there was still space to walk behind people. I told Trevor it was nearly 3pm and this was one of the major things at the Magic Kingdom and now that we were here it would be great to watch it. And, anyway, while we were walking along we got to a spot in the crowds where we could actually get a very good view and the kids could sit on the edge of the pavement oops, sorry sidewalk.
There was a row of children seated in front of me with various parents standing around. Suddenly I saw movement on the road ahead in front of the castle, coming round from the right of the roundabout! It was Mickey! (Sorry, another lump in the throat moment, pause to get a tissue!). I said to the children on the ground I CAN SEE MICKEY!. One girl in particular got very excited and really got everyone in the right mood. She pointed and cried out to every character she saw as soon as they appeared from the roundabout, imagine her excitement as they all came passed directly in front of us!
I know most of you will have seen this parade and this is one of the images which is greatly shown on tv and videotapes advertising WDW. But, I thought this was a particularly good picture (even though it is very wonky!), so had to post it! Just really shows what a great spot we got!
One thing worth remembering is that if you do plan to watch the 3pm parade and then leave the park immediately a huge proportion of the crowds have the same idea! Its a perfect time to queue up for some of the other attractions and to leave the park if you do not want to watch the parade.
We move along with the throng towards the exit/entrance and then decide this is a bad idea. We stop for a few minutes under the railway station (where the lockers are) for a breather and rest away from the direct sunlight in order for the main group of people leaving to leave. We head for the monorail and end up with a seat facing backwards again. As I mentioned earlier, I got a great view of some of the rides and the castle as we sped away and was really grateful that I got my first view of the castle this morning how I wanted it!
Back to the Ticket & Transportation Center, to the car, back to CBR and straight into our swimming pool! (Notice how I achieve so much in that last sentence I am really proud of myself!
I must be slacking!!).We spent an hour or so in the pool and had a great chat with some other people. Someone we got talking to was there with his wife and nine year old granddaughter. They were from somewhere up north and had flown from Manchester, Club Class on Virgin. A special treat for the granddaughter. There was another man there with his family from Toronto. The three of us had a good gossip about the differences between the US, Canada and the UK, including taxes, Blair, Bush, road tolls, house prices and touring holidays. The granddaughter of the man from England had seen a six foot snake slide along the patio area of the pool just before we came along! Eeeek. This is our first full day, does this mean we are going to encounter huge snakes every day?!!
Finally we were getting hungry again so we dragged the kids out of the pool. The pressure was now on me to decide where we were going to eat, being the WDW expert of the family! I said we should really visit Epcot and we could eat there. I had earlier explained about being able to re-enter any WDW park on the same day. You are normally advised to get your hand stamped as you leave the first park, although your ticket should register the fact that you have been somewhere once already that day and not knock off a second day off your allowance.
Epcot is a very short drive from CBR, in fact you can see and easily hear Epcots night-time fireworks from CBR. As soon as we came up to the overgrown golf ball, Trevor noticed the escalator rising up into its interior. Looked interesting and the queue was minimal, so we did this immediately. It was Trevors idea, he said he wanted to do it because he had sore feet! Thats got to be the first time I had ever heard that reason for doing a ride! Anyway, the rest of us were happy and it looked intriguing. As with many Disney stories explaining a big issue like the story of mankind, the big bang and origins of the universe etc, much detail was left out or barely covered which Trevor often complained about throughout our holiday. I tried my best to explain to Trevors over scientific and expansively detailed storage device of a brain that its impossible to make attractions the way he thinks they should be done! Despite his opinions, he did still enjoy this attraction anyway. You have to bear in mind that everything at Disney has to appeal to such a wide group of people. In fact, they have to appeal to the widest group of people you can imagine! Everyone from every walk of life and every age group is going to be at WDW and creating attractions that will appeal in some way to everyone must be very difficult.
We then headed for the World Showcase, with a meal in mind. I explained about having to have a drink in every country for a good friend of mine who I had never met and we decided to start anticlockwise so we would definitely get to see the UK today. As we approached, Michael spotted signs for McDonalds, we thought oh dear but that would do in emergencies if necessary (Michael doesnt eat much other than fries). I headed up some steps towards what I thought must be the UK because I saw a red telephone box! No, it was part of Canada! Back down the steps and then I heard a very distinctive sound. I had never heard them before but due to the location and what I had seen and read on the DIBB, this could only mean one thing OFF KILTER WERE PERFORMING! Suddenly my heart rate went up and I felt myself strangely drawn to this very attractive group of hunky men (for some reason!!). Unfortunately, we decide (Trevor decides!!) we dont have time to listen.
Trevor then also decides for us that, actually, theres not much point eating at the Rose & Crown if we have booked to eat there next week, so we carry on walking. Finally make it to Morocco and an interesting looking restaurant. Luckily there are a few things on the menu that the kids will eat so we all get happily fed. Whats more, we are just in time to see Illuminations. It wasnt a perfect view, a couple too many trees in the way, but not too bad if you dont mind missing a few fireworks set off at a certain height. This was from the hedges by the lagoon in front of the Moroccan restaurant we had just eaten at.
The kids are extremely tired and we are pretty exhausted too. Better be off now back to CBR. Looks like we are getting into bad habits. This is the second time today we have tried exiting a park at the same time as nearly everyone else! Will we learn before the end of the holiday? I hope so!
Well, what a day weve had and what a great way to spend our first full day in Florida! Been to MK, done that walk up to the castle first thing and ended by watching one of the best firework, light and pyrotechnic displays on earth in Epcot. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
Back to the Caribbean Beach Resort for bed! Well, actually, not for me. You see, I had some writing to do. Theres this odd group of people back in the UK who all know each other really rather well, despite the fact that most of them have never met each other and they are expecting me to report back every detail of my holiday! Finally got my notes finished and I am asleep almost before my head hits the pillow! See you tomorrow!! ZzZzZzZzZz
