The events of this post took place on Wednesday, August 6, which was over two weeks ago, which means I really need to stop getting so behind on posting. Nevertheless, here it is, my experience at Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida.
To get the Magic Kingdom, you first have to take the tram from the parking lot to the monorail/ferry entrance. By now, we've figured out that to get on the tram the first time, your family needs to s-p-r-e-a-d–o-u-t to ensure that you aren't stuck in a non-existent line between two cars where you will thus not get a seat. We opted to take the ferry because my mom said she'd never taken it and because we figured it would be less busy because it takes longer to get there than the monorail. Which, in retrospect, means they probably took about the same time either way. We took the monorail three more times that day though, so it was nice to do something different. It was a fairly uneventful ride, but soon enough, there we were, at the Magic Kingdom, with Cinderella's castle in sight.
We started our day on the "Jungle Cruise" in Adventureland. Our skipper was Michael (not Fernando) and he was rather entertaining. The jokes were corny, of course, but it was cute. I found a script for "Jungle Cruise" online, but it must be outdated, because most of the jokes he used weren't on it. I don't remember what they all were, but my favourite was at the end when we were about the get off the boat and he said "you'll see a dock on your left and a dock on your right. Don't get confused, those are what we call a paradox".
As we got in line for the ride, the cast member standing there gave my mom a little plastic red card (no, not another Dream Fast Pass, unfortunately) and asked her to hand it to the cast member at the ride. So that's how they determine the wait times! My brother also got one at the "Monsters Inc" show later that day. I wonder if this happens to most people, or if we were just super lucky?
Next up was "Pirates of the Caribbean". Another gentle ride, with one drop. It wasn't much of a surprise though, because we could hear the people screaming in the boat ahead of us. I recognized quite a few of the characters from the movie, so that was cool. Too dark to take any good pictures though.
Then we made our way over to the "Enchanted Tiki Room", which was "Under New Management". It was a nice show, featuring at least three recognizable voices: Phil Hartman (you may remember him from such television shows as "The Simpsons" and "Saturday Night Live"), Jerry Orbach (Lumière from "Beauty and the Beast"), and Gilbert Gottfried (Iago from "Aladdin").
We decided to get a Fast Pass for "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" and then went to the "Country Bear Jamboree". It was kind of freaky. My mom said it was much more impressive back in the eighties.
At 12:05, we went back for "Big Thunder Mountain", which was a pretty cool ride; it was a roller coaster without really being a roller coaster. There were a few times when I half-screamed, because I thought we were going down a big drop, but then we were just turning around a corner again. Couldn't see anything because I wasn't wearing my glasses. Don't know why I listen when people tell me not to wear them, they stay on my face anyway.
Ever since I'd heard of it, I'd been telling my family that we should totally visit the "Hall of Presidents". Which, come on, obviously no one wants to go there — bo-ring! No one else really seemed all that excited about James K. Polk or Millard Fillmore, but when we found ourselves in Liberty Square, walking by the "Hall", we all ran inside. It was the coolest place there, and I mean that in a temperate sense. The theatre was about full, surprisingly enough. The video at the beginning was a little lame, but it instilled a sense of… wanting to do something in me. It also made me want to be there when they were signing the Declaration of Independence. That would have been pretty cool. The closest I can get to that though is "Pepper's Adventures in Time". That was always the best game. I just have a thing for the olden days.
And then, for the grand finale, they lifted up the screens to reveal all forty-two presidents standing on the same stage together, and then a roll call. Murray? Present. Okay, so a little boring in concept, but actually pretty cool. The presidents that I know what they looked like looked pretty good for the most part. Plus, when they called a president's name, the others would all turn to look at him. And when George Jr. was doing his speech, everyone else was blinking and moving their hands or feet. It was pretty detailed and cooler than expected. Though I couldn't help but feel if you had all these dudes in the same room for real, they would've been having a party. Or a giant wrestling match. Either way. Also, Keith Moon should've been a president, so they would be like "George… Washington… [him: hmm]… John… Adams… [him: [nods]]… Keith… Moon… [him: DSLKFJSLKCMSLWOLKAFJ!]". Although, actually I'm sure old Keith would've played along and waved and bowed like a proper gentleman.
By then, it was 12:00 and we went home for the next six hours, since we would then be out of the heat during the hottest time of the day. Turned out not to be the greatest idea. I don't know about everyone else, but I was even more tired the rest of the day. We were all kind of miserable after that, I think.
We came back and headed for the "Haunted Mansion". It was really hot, even moreso than it had been the past few days earlier in the day, or at least that's how it seemed. Waiting in line for so long, constantly fanning and spraying ourselves with our "misters". After what seemed like much too long a wait, we were inside the cool mansion. Once again, temperature-wise. Though, I guess you could say it was actually pretty cool. Not too scary, but the Pepper's ghosts were pretty neat, especially the one that joins you in your car at the end. Unfortunately, knowing how the effect is achieved makes it much less impressive (thanks a lot, "Magic School Bus"), but it's neat to see it in action.
We'd been playing a game during our Disney stay, trying to find the worst place to work in the park. At the one ride that my brother insisted everybody that came there had to go on, we found it. No, not the parking traffic guard, the dancing cowboys, the dancing Donald Duck — they weren't it. Forget the stupid costumes and singing and dancing and being in the heat — the song would drive you crazy. I'm referring, of course, to "It's A Small World". Just waiting in line for the twenty or so minutes hearing the song over and over would drive visitors crazy — imagine being there every day, all day listening to it. The ride itself was alright, nothing special.
After a too long excursion to find a bathroom (Magic Kingdom didn't seem to have that many), we went to see "Mickey's Philharmagic". Of all the Disney 4D films, this one was my favourite. It had scenes from the great Disney films of my childhood: "Beauty and the Beast", "Little Mermaid", "Peter Pan", and "Aladdin", in 3D. Would have to say that covers my three favourite Disney films. The best part had to be during "Part of Your World" when there were a bunch of jewels and things floating around and you could see all the little kids reaching up, trying to grab them.
After that, we had our supper: french fries! Which had also been our lunch the day before. And pretty much every meal we ate at the parks. French fries, french fries. So many french fries. I didn't complain, because I hardly ever eat them, so 'twas fine for me, but I think everyone else was pretty sick of them.
Next up was the "Tomorrowland Indy Speedway", a car racing track that was more track than racing. It was pretty simplistic, there was only one pedal and you couldn't go very fast. And even if you could, you were stuck on a rail. Kind of lame.
Next up was the "Tomorrowland Transit Authority", which was just a nice little ride that took you all around Tomorrowland. It was a nice break, but nothing too exciting. We were able to see the Magic Kingdom at sunset though, which was pretty cool.
We were all rather miserable by this point, and my dad ending up sitting outside while the rest of us went in to see "Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor". It was surprisingly great and I did actually laugh. They had a screen that had the monsters on it, telling jokes, as well as another screen that would show members of the audience. At the beginning, as people were settling down, they showed people with humourous captions beneath them. The second and third persons they showed were my mom and brother (who was "hiding third eye under hat"). There was another person who "felt a sudden urge to get up and dance", and they actually did it, eventually.
During one of the routines, they picked people out from the audience to play people from the movie and they'd tell them to do certain things, like make a scary face or "become invisible". Throughout the show, they picked on one guy ("that guy"), who was a great sport about it, talking about how he stinks and things, but at the end, he got a nice big applause. I can't much explain it here, I wonder if they have any videos of it on YouTube? Of course, every show is different, because you have different people. Nevertheless, great show, and we were lucky enough to get all people who participated.
When we left the show, it was dark out. There were a few other places in Tomorrowland that we wanted to go to, but we realized that trying to leave at 10:00 after the fireworks would be hell, so we left at 9:00, and caught a little bit of the beginning of the electrical light parade.
Three days of theme parks non-stop tires you out and I think we were all glad to be back at the hotel. I just wish we weren't all so miserable at the end of the day, but we learned our lesson: do not, under any circumstance, leave Disney World!