This post was written by Greg, with photos and comments by Maria.
Day 9 of our Disney World vacation. Today we decided we would return to the Magic Kingdom once more (making it the third time) to perform a "greatest hits" version of the park where we would revisit our favorite rides/attractions.
We started a little slow this morning and ended up missing the bus for the first time this week. Rather than waiting a half hour until the next bus to the Magic Kingdom, we decided to drive instead. It would cost us to park, but we could leave at any time, which was definitely appealing.
The entrance to Magic Kingdom - look at that beautiful blue sky!
We arrived at the park and paid $12(!) for parking, then rode the parking lot tram to the front of the ticketing area followed by the monorail to the park. That made three vehicles just to get to the Magic Kingdom.
We went right into the park and headed down Main Street with Maria and the boys doing pin trading along the way. We headed back to Frontierland towards Splash Mountain. We passed by an old-fashioned shooting gallery and I'd read that first thing in the morning they often "prime" the guns with a free game. We picked up the guns and sure enough, they were working. So we spent 10 or so minutes having fun shooting targets for free.
We resumed our course back to Splash Mountain, one of the rides we all enjoyed the most, and walked right on. Maria & Spencer sat in front, while Colin & I sat in back of the log boat with 2 rows in between us. I had read that the back seats were dryer and so we laughed as Maria & Spencer got pretty soaked by the splashes while we got lightly sprinkled.
A view of a boat going down the 50-foot drop at the end of the ride - whee!
Here you can see Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the distance as well as a sign for Splash Mountain.
After exiting Splash Mountain, we went immediately over to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to ride that again. This was the kid's favorite ride in the park. Again we went right on. After the ride, the boys wanted to go again, so Maria took them while I sat out and waited. I used to like the ride, but now all the turns just ended with me squishing or getting squished by the other person in the car.
After that we went to my second all-time favorite, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This time the head of Davy Jones floating over the cart was working, unlike the previous time we went on the ride. It was really cool because you see him talking to you and then you float right through the "screen" which turns out to be mist. Later on in the ride we passed Captain Barbarossa who had knocked his hat off and it was sitting over his face while he commanded cannon attack on a Spanish fort.
We next headed across the park to Tomorrowland. On our way we stopped at the front of the castle where they were just starting a Celebration show with many of the Disney characters and lip-synching dancers.
The castle makes a spectacular backdrop for a show!
Dancing princesses, to make all the little girls in the audience happy
Pirates, to make all the little boys in the audience happy
When the show was nearly complete, we left and went to the Buzz Lightyear ride. I was hoping to do better with my shooting this time now I knew what to expect, and ended up doing much worse. Maria did somewhat better from her first ride, but in the end none of us really felt like the aiming system works very well.
This giant Viewmaster on the way in to the ride was so cute!
Next we headed back to Fantasyland to watch Philharmagic again. It was still fun the second time. I love the 3D in this film as well as the finale where Donald gets shot out of the screen and crashes into the back of the theater.
The railing was shaped like a musical staff, which the boys had fun playing in while waiting to go in to the show.
Those look like some pretty fierce animals, all right!
Hmm, looks like Colin isn't the true King of England.
Looks like Greg isn't, either!
Nor is Spencer . . . but he gets extra points for effort!
Next we headed to the back of the park through Toon Town and took a ride on the train from the station there. This was the last "ride" we intended to take at Magic Kingdom that we hadn't done yet. We rode it around back to Frontierland and went back to visit Tom Sawyer's Island. Spencer really wanted to go back and explore the island some more. The rest of us were less enthusiastic, since it was very hot, but we wanted everyone to leave happy and feeling like they'd done everything they wanted to.
This shot is for Greg's brother Jeffrey, to remember the time they both went around Disney World taking photos of all the Kodak Picture Spot signs.
Colin lusting after the frozen lemonade Spencer was drinking
Our view from the train
Two hot and tired boys who were glad to be sitting down!
After 20 minutes on the island, with the kids exploring trails and playing on a barrel bridge, we rode back across on the raft. It was lunch time and we decided to leave the park and find lunch elsewhere.
Approaching Tom Sawyer's Island from the ferry
The guys in the middle of the barrel bridge
Spencer ran across the bridge an extra time. He thought it was really fun!
We hit a parade on the way out that forced us to divert into shops to make our way down Main Street. At the end of Main Street, we had to wait for all the floats to exit before we could leave the park ourselves.
Lumiere on a float. It's not every day that a candle waves to you!
We got back to our car, left the park and went to eat at a Cracker Barrel. We all had a good lunch with a nice ice cream sundae that we shared afterward.
After that we headed to an outlet store that Maria had learned about that had a bunch of clearance items from the Disney World souvenir shops. She found a nice Tinkerbell shirt, and we found a Star Tours droid pack (so I could have a figure representing every park at Disney World after purchasing another figure pack earlier in the week). Spencer also bought a Han Solo and Luke Skywalker pair of Mr. Potato Heads. Looking a bit around the outlet mall, there was nothing else that appealed to us so we left (picking up some chocolate croissants at a shop there for breakfast the next morning).
We went back to Downtown Disney for the last time. Now that we had some potato heads, we went back to the toy store there that had a bulk build-your-own Potato Head section with lots of exclusive parts. We figured we could pack in a lot of those parts in a bulk box without having to buy the body and other basic parts. There are all sorts of Disney-specific items there to build things like Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Incredible, Tinkerbell, and tourist items like Mickey balloons, Mickey ears, Goofy hats, etc. After the first pass we realized we had more than would fit in one bulk box. Then we found an over-sized Mr. Potato Head container that could hold about three bulk boxes worth. So we went crazy and grabbed every random piece that we thought we might want. After filling the new container, we still had parts left over, so we got another normal bulk box alongside that. Even then we still bought one piece separately that wouldn't fit in either container. It was a ton of Potato Head pieces and made me question how we'd pack them all home.
Some more cool shots from Downtown Disney. This one is above an entrance to the Disney store.
This is above another entrance.
This is a life-sized Lego family - so cool!
Next we went back to the Lego store where the kids played for a bit and Colin bought himself a t-shirt. Then we went back home, where we had an afternoon rest and the kids had lots of time to play with their new Potato Head parts.
Colin showing off the giant Mr. Potato Head that we packed with parts
Mr. Incredible and Buzz potatoes
This one was pretty entertaining - Spencer put on the giant Mr. Potato Head's oversized eyes and mustache.
A scene Spencer set up, with Luke ducking Darth Tater's lightsaber
Later that evening, we went to eat dinner at a restaurant bar behind our building at the resort. We had planned to go back to the Magic Kingdom for the firework show that night after dinner, but the food we ordered took forever to prepare and come out to us and we were barely in the car before the fireworks started. We made it to the parking lot of the park and watched the last five minutes from the front of our car before going back home to bed.
Day 9 of our Disney World vacation. Today we decided we would return to the Magic Kingdom once more (making it the third time) to perform a "greatest hits" version of the park where we would revisit our favorite rides/attractions.
We started a little slow this morning and ended up missing the bus for the first time this week. Rather than waiting a half hour until the next bus to the Magic Kingdom, we decided to drive instead. It would cost us to park, but we could leave at any time, which was definitely appealing.
The entrance to Magic Kingdom - look at that beautiful blue sky!
We arrived at the park and paid $12(!) for parking, then rode the parking lot tram to the front of the ticketing area followed by the monorail to the park. That made three vehicles just to get to the Magic Kingdom.
We went right into the park and headed down Main Street with Maria and the boys doing pin trading along the way. We headed back to Frontierland towards Splash Mountain. We passed by an old-fashioned shooting gallery and I'd read that first thing in the morning they often "prime" the guns with a free game. We picked up the guns and sure enough, they were working. So we spent 10 or so minutes having fun shooting targets for free.
We resumed our course back to Splash Mountain, one of the rides we all enjoyed the most, and walked right on. Maria & Spencer sat in front, while Colin & I sat in back of the log boat with 2 rows in between us. I had read that the back seats were dryer and so we laughed as Maria & Spencer got pretty soaked by the splashes while we got lightly sprinkled.
A view of a boat going down the 50-foot drop at the end of the ride - whee!
Here you can see Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the distance as well as a sign for Splash Mountain.
After exiting Splash Mountain, we went immediately over to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to ride that again. This was the kid's favorite ride in the park. Again we went right on. After the ride, the boys wanted to go again, so Maria took them while I sat out and waited. I used to like the ride, but now all the turns just ended with me squishing or getting squished by the other person in the car.
After that we went to my second all-time favorite, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This time the head of Davy Jones floating over the cart was working, unlike the previous time we went on the ride. It was really cool because you see him talking to you and then you float right through the "screen" which turns out to be mist. Later on in the ride we passed Captain Barbarossa who had knocked his hat off and it was sitting over his face while he commanded cannon attack on a Spanish fort.
We next headed across the park to Tomorrowland. On our way we stopped at the front of the castle where they were just starting a Celebration show with many of the Disney characters and lip-synching dancers.
The castle makes a spectacular backdrop for a show!
Dancing princesses, to make all the little girls in the audience happy
Pirates, to make all the little boys in the audience happy
When the show was nearly complete, we left and went to the Buzz Lightyear ride. I was hoping to do better with my shooting this time now I knew what to expect, and ended up doing much worse. Maria did somewhat better from her first ride, but in the end none of us really felt like the aiming system works very well.
This giant Viewmaster on the way in to the ride was so cute!
Next we headed back to Fantasyland to watch Philharmagic again. It was still fun the second time. I love the 3D in this film as well as the finale where Donald gets shot out of the screen and crashes into the back of the theater.
The railing was shaped like a musical staff, which the boys had fun playing in while waiting to go in to the show.
Those look like some pretty fierce animals, all right!
Hmm, looks like Colin isn't the true King of England.
Looks like Greg isn't, either!
Nor is Spencer . . . but he gets extra points for effort!
Next we headed to the back of the park through Toon Town and took a ride on the train from the station there. This was the last "ride" we intended to take at Magic Kingdom that we hadn't done yet. We rode it around back to Frontierland and went back to visit Tom Sawyer's Island. Spencer really wanted to go back and explore the island some more. The rest of us were less enthusiastic, since it was very hot, but we wanted everyone to leave happy and feeling like they'd done everything they wanted to.
This shot is for Greg's brother Jeffrey, to remember the time they both went around Disney World taking photos of all the Kodak Picture Spot signs.
Colin lusting after the frozen lemonade Spencer was drinking
Our view from the train
Two hot and tired boys who were glad to be sitting down!
After 20 minutes on the island, with the kids exploring trails and playing on a barrel bridge, we rode back across on the raft. It was lunch time and we decided to leave the park and find lunch elsewhere.
Approaching Tom Sawyer's Island from the ferry
The guys in the middle of the barrel bridge
Spencer ran across the bridge an extra time. He thought it was really fun!
We hit a parade on the way out that forced us to divert into shops to make our way down Main Street. At the end of Main Street, we had to wait for all the floats to exit before we could leave the park ourselves.
Lumiere on a float. It's not every day that a candle waves to you!
We got back to our car, left the park and went to eat at a Cracker Barrel. We all had a good lunch with a nice ice cream sundae that we shared afterward.
After that we headed to an outlet store that Maria had learned about that had a bunch of clearance items from the Disney World souvenir shops. She found a nice Tinkerbell shirt, and we found a Star Tours droid pack (so I could have a figure representing every park at Disney World after purchasing another figure pack earlier in the week). Spencer also bought a Han Solo and Luke Skywalker pair of Mr. Potato Heads. Looking a bit around the outlet mall, there was nothing else that appealed to us so we left (picking up some chocolate croissants at a shop there for breakfast the next morning).
We went back to Downtown Disney for the last time. Now that we had some potato heads, we went back to the toy store there that had a bulk build-your-own Potato Head section with lots of exclusive parts. We figured we could pack in a lot of those parts in a bulk box without having to buy the body and other basic parts. There are all sorts of Disney-specific items there to build things like Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Incredible, Tinkerbell, and tourist items like Mickey balloons, Mickey ears, Goofy hats, etc. After the first pass we realized we had more than would fit in one bulk box. Then we found an over-sized Mr. Potato Head container that could hold about three bulk boxes worth. So we went crazy and grabbed every random piece that we thought we might want. After filling the new container, we still had parts left over, so we got another normal bulk box alongside that. Even then we still bought one piece separately that wouldn't fit in either container. It was a ton of Potato Head pieces and made me question how we'd pack them all home.
Some more cool shots from Downtown Disney. This one is above an entrance to the Disney store.
This is above another entrance.
This is a life-sized Lego family - so cool!
Next we went back to the Lego store where the kids played for a bit and Colin bought himself a t-shirt. Then we went back home, where we had an afternoon rest and the kids had lots of time to play with their new Potato Head parts.
Colin showing off the giant Mr. Potato Head that we packed with parts
Mr. Incredible and Buzz potatoes
This one was pretty entertaining - Spencer put on the giant Mr. Potato Head's oversized eyes and mustache.
A scene Spencer set up, with Luke ducking Darth Tater's lightsaber
Later that evening, we went to eat dinner at a restaurant bar behind our building at the resort. We had planned to go back to the Magic Kingdom for the firework show that night after dinner, but the food we ordered took forever to prepare and come out to us and we were barely in the car before the fireworks started. We made it to the parking lot of the park and watched the last five minutes from the front of our car before going back home to bed.
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