After swimming at the hotel and grabbing a bite to eat, we once again set out for the Magic Kingdom. When we arrived at the Transportation and Ticket Center, we once again parked in the Dopey section, but this time we were close enough to walk, so we did that instead of taking the tram, knowing it would make leaving at night much easier. We hopped on Monorail Pink, and were soon back at the Magic Kingdom.

Our first order of business at the Magic Kingdom was to get a Splash Mountain Fastpass. Since everyone was lining up on Main Street for the Magical Moments Parade, we went up to the Main Street Station, riding the Lilly Belle around to Frontierland; you know I always love a good excuse to ride the train. As we approached Frontierland, we caught a glimpse of the parade as it was entering the park into Frontierland. When we got to Splash Mountain, the sign said the standby wait was 20 minutes, so we decided to skip the Fastpass and get in line. As it turns out, the wait was less than 10 minutes, so we got on even faster than we had thought. I realized that the short wait time was due to the parade, and I hoped we could make it over to Big Thunder Mountain before the parade ended, but as we rounded the first outdoor turn on Splash Mountain, I could see that the parade had already ended. As always, we had a fun trip that ended with our being thrown into the briar patch, but we survived, along with Brer Rabbit. By the time we got off the ride, the standby wait was back up to 50 minutes, so we were there at just the right time.

The final drop on Splash Mountain

We stopped off to see the Hall of Presidents, just to see what they were showing until they add George W. Bush in the fall. As we entered the lobby, we were quite surprised to see several of the characters inside greeting guests - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto. It is getting to the point where you rarely see Mickey in the Magic Kingdom, except for in the judge's tent at Mickey's Toontown Fair or in one of the parades or shows. As it turns out, the show was the same as the Bill Clinton version, except that Clinton no longer speaks and has been moved from his old position at the front of the stage to the rear. The space where Clinton once stood is now empty, so it appears that Bush will stand in that same place to make his remarks. The bust of George W. Bush that Blaine Gibson sculpted was on display in the lobby, and I'm always amazed at how lifelike his sculptures appear. After the stirring remarks about slavery by Abraham Lincoln, we looked around in the Liberty Square shops for a while. Laura found a cooking set that she thought she might like as her anniversary present, since I wanted her to pick out something.

We then went over to Space Mountain to get a Fastpass there, and our return time was 6:30, so we had a few hours to kill. We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, another of those quite simple rides that I greatly enjoy; I still wish this would be a future transportation system in our cities. After a longer than usual wait for this attraction, we got the usual grand circle tour of Tomorrowland. As we were approaching the end, the ride came to a sudden stop, and I was delighted to hear the late Jack Wagner telling us to stay in our seats; they have replaced is narration in most places, but he still can be found in the parks. We had seen some pretty rowdy teenagers, and the Cast Member had encouraged everyone over the speakers more than once to remain in their seats, so I guess that someone had either remained standing or had jumped out of their car. We saw a Cast Member start walking the track, and he didn't come back before the ride started up again, so we were wondering if he had escorted the offending parties to Security. After our longer than usual ride on the TTA, we looked at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, but the standby wait for it was 45 minutes; it had only been 30 minutes when we got on the TTA. We went to Main Street and looked around in the shops for quite a while, and then we went to Advetureland to get a Dole Whip; we had tried to make them at home with the recipe from the Dole website, but they didn't quite turn out right, so the real thing was quite good. While we were eating, the rain started once again, so that it rained every day we were at the parks. Laura was ready to ride something, so we went back to visit those rowdy Pirates of the Caribbean once again, and as before, we found almost no wait. After we had finished sacking the Spanish Main, we thought about riding the Liberty Square Riverboat, but we skipped it when Laura realized we were probably too late to get one of the chairs; we were getting tired of standing. We instead took another trip through the Haunted Mansion, having a shorter wait than before; it appears that no one was using Fastpass for this attraction, and it really wasn't necessary. We then wandered through Fantasyland a bit, looking in the shops there, before walking back over to Tomorrowland to take a ride through Space Mountain. With our Fastpasses, we only had to wait about 5 minutes, which really isn't bad at all, considering the number of people we walked past in the standby line; I really felt sorry for them, but they had the Fastpass option just like we did.

Cinderella Castle

After hurtling through the cosmos, we decided to eat supper, since at least one of us was starting to get hungry. But before we left Tomorrowland, we got Fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear, just in case we decided we wanted to ride that later. We ate at El Pirata y El Perico in Adventureland, and I was glad it was open after it had been closed for a while; I only wish the Timekeeper attraction in Tomorrowland had been re-opened as well, but I guess you can't have everything. After our meal, we went back to the shop in Liberty Square to get Laura the cooking set. Then we decided that we had enough time to ride Buzz Lightyear before finding a spot for the SpectroMagic parade; I was hoping they would still have it, since the rain was off and on. At Buzz Lightyear, we joined the fight to rid the Galaxy of the evil Emperor Zurg. I scored 140,000, and Laura scored a quite respectable 32,000, so we did our part to help Buzz.

For SpectroMagic, we found a place in front of the Bake Shop on Main Street. Since the Bake Shop and surrounding stores were closed for refurbishment, we were able to sit on the ground under their canopy. That worked well until right when the parade started and a woman came and stood right in front of us, as if she couldn't see us there. Now I always try to be a polite person, but I said a loud "Excuse me", which was all it took for her to move out of our way. Next time we'll remember not to wear our special shields that make us invisible to other parade watchers; I think we had those on when we were watching Tapestry of Nations at Epcot as well. Sitting under the canopy also protected us from the light rain, which continued to fall. After the parade was over, an announcement was made for those of us waiting to see the fireworks to stay out of the street so that those wishing to leave could do so. As it was still raining, Laura and I found a table under an umbrella at the Plaza Restaurant, since we had a bit of time remaining before the fireworks began. When it was just about fireworks time, we took our place in the center of Main Street; I was finally glad I had carried the umbrella around all afternoon, since we were able to watch the fireworks mostly dry. I thought it was interesting that they had an alternate announcement that didn't mention Tinkerbell, since she didn't fly due to the rain. Because of the trees in the hub, we couldn't quite see all the projections on the castle, but we could see enough of the castle to enjoy the color changes that accompany the fireworks. We love fireworks, especially when they are at the Magic Kingdom.

We had decided earlier that after the fireworks, we would hang around on Main Street for a while, perhaps looking in the shops, to give everyone a chance to leave so that we wouldn't have to be herded like cattle onto the Monorail. Because it was still raining, we decided to go back over to the Plaza Restaurant and sit for a while, to give the shops a chance to clear out as well. Once the throng of people on Main Street had diminished, we started making our way back toward the train station. We stopped at the jewelry store, because Laura had a few things she wanted to look at there, deciding on an ankle bracelet. We also went in the Main Street Gallery, where I got the new biography on Ub Iwerks. Then we had one last ride on Monorail Lime, where there was still a small crowd. It was quite nice to bypass the still large crowd waiting on the parking lot trams, so that we could just walk a short way to our car. We then made the drive back to our hotel for the night.

So there you have it for our most recent Walt Disney World trip. There's more that happened, but it was mainly just the stuff about us getting back home. The kind of stuff that most people only want to read as a cure for insomnia. So suffice it to say that we made it back home safely. I'm certain we will make another trip to Walt Disney World, although I can't say when. Until then, we will be enjoying the memories we made on this trip!

- Story and Photos Steve Burns
Posted

Steve is a three-time Disney Store National Trivia finalist and webmaster of BurnsLand, home of Steve's Disney Railroad Adventures.

E-mail Steve at steve@startedbyamouse.com, discuss this article in the StartedByAMouse.com Disney Discussion Forums or use the Talkback feature below.

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