DAY THREE - MAGIC KINGDOM DAY THREE - MAGIC KINGDOM
AUGUST 2, 1997, SATURDAY
Up early and ready to go. I’ve got to admit it: the Magic Kingdom is my favorite. I may be a middle age lady, my daughter says "old lady." But I can be a teen again when I enter the Magic Kingdom. We had 1:00 PM Priority Seating for lunch at the Crystal Palace restaurant. A quick stop at the cart near Tony’s Town Plaza: soft drinks for the girls, a cappuccino for me, and pastries to hold us over a couple of hours. We then grabbed the train for Frontierland. It must have been an early opening for TMK today. The line for Splash Mountain is already close to two hours long. I like the ride myself, but not that much.
Not only is August the hottest month to go to Disney World, it has also got to be one of the most crowded. When we here last November, it was crowded the day before, the day of, and the day after Thanksgiving. But the rest of the week, we just about walked onto any ride we wanted. But not this week in August. There were lines for everything. I swear, the next trip we take will be in November again or in January. But then again I only got to take this trip because of the F.O.P. convention and that was in August. So I better not look a gift horse in the mouth, should I.
Anyway, we decided to take Thunder Mountain Railroad first this morning. There was a line, maybe a 30-35 minute wait. Amanda does not "do" roller coasters. I could not convince her that this wasn’t a real coaster. So she sat on a bench while we waited and then rode the ride. This has been Christi’s favorite ride since she was four years old. That year I think we rode it ten times in three days. I love the scenery, the atmosphere, and the excitement of this ride, too. On this particular ride, I held onto the front bar of the train car. Christi kept screaming with enjoyment and then alternately yelling at me "Are you okay, Momma?" She didn’t know whether to have fun or to worry about me. But I am just not going to pass up at least one ride on the railroad when I’m here.
(I guess that I should add here that I had major surgery seven weeks before we left on this trip. I had a ruptured disk removed from the cervical area of my spine. More pain before the surgery than I have ever had in my life and then a painful recovery from having the front of my throat cut open. My neurosurgeon almost had a cow when I told him that I was going to Walt Disney World for eight days. But I told him that the trip was planned and paid for before I met him and knew I was having surgery. I did promise not to ride any really rough rides. And for the most part, I was good. For this ride, I put on a cervical collar once I was on the ride. Also because I know this ride so well, I was able to anticipate the turns and turn my body into them.)
After Big Thunder Mountain , we went to see the Country Bear Jamboree. I HATE Country Music myself. But these animatronic bears are so realistic and so much fun. We watch the show at least once every trip. I knew that Amanda would love the show. I had felt very guilty when we left her by herself for us to ride the BTM. She did love it and I got some great video of the show for us to show her mother back home.
We then walked over to Adventureland. We rode Pirates of the Carribean. This attraction is marvelous. The atmosphere is simply great. I enjoy the song and the entire ride. We then saw the Tikki Birds at the Tropical Serenade. I have loved that show since I was a 21 year old myself. Before the show, there was an announcement that the attraction would be closed the next week for an unknown amount of time for "extensive renovation and re-tooling." I hope it is as good or better when it re-opens. We lucked out with fairly short lines for both of those attractions. The Swiss Family Treehouse was closed for renovations, so we could not take Amanda up inside for a walk through. I hope it reopens soon.
It was getting close to lunch now, so we walked across the bridge from Adventureland to the Crystal Palace. This is probably just about Christi’s favorite place to eat in the Magic Kingdom or anywhere else at Walt Disney World. The building itself is really beautiful. My fifteen year old daughter is one of the most fanatic Eeyore fans around. The food here is an all you can eat buffet. The food is plentiful and good. Pooh, Tigger, and (of course) Eeyore come around while you are eating to visit and allow photo taking. It is $17.95 per person and we think it is well worth the price. The air-conditioning is also very cool after you have been outside.
After lunch, we walked back to Adventureland. We rode the Jungle Cruise first. It is an old ride and those that like excitement and thrills seem to bypass it. But it is really very pretty and the "skipper’s" spiel is always funny. On a hot day like this, the breeze off the water is a welcome relief after standing in lines. Our trusty little fan bottles were hanging from our necks, as usual. We then walked over to the Splash Mountain line, but once again it was over two hours, more like two and a half. It will have to wait again. So we walked over to the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon Revue. If you love music and like silly magic shows and really corny jokes, this is a GREAT place to spend an hour. Christina and Amanda had never seen this show before. We had a good table right in the middle of the first floor. Christi was looking at a map of MK at one point and became the butt of the "professor’s" jokes. It was great fun. I was videotaping at one point and he told me that I was going to have to go back home and watch the tape to see if I was having fun!! Christi kept telling me that it was a lot like ("but not as good, Mom") Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue. You must realize that this is high praise from my daughter because she thinks that the Hoop-Dee-Doo is the best part of every trip we make to Orlando.
Next we walked over to Liberty Square. (You may be noticing a pattern. The "left side" as you enter MK is my very favorite. I love Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square. I keep telling myself that I will vary my route, but it always falls back into the old patterns.) First we rode the Liberty Square Riverboat and took in all the sites and listened to the corny spiel. Then I made the girls accompany me to the Hall of Presidents. Christi can never understand why mother makes her do something educational on every vacation. It is the same when we do the Alamo in San Antonio or a museum in some other city. I enjoyed the Hall and maybe the girls learned something. A moderately long wait for the Haunted Mansion, but then we were inside with all of the neat ghosts. Amanda had never ridden a ride with such effects. I find myself looking at each ghost and apparition and trying to figure out how they did that one. I have read some explanations on the Internet and am still amazed at how realistic it all looks.
We decided that if we were going to try Splash Mountain, we better go check again. There was a parade going on and we thought it might be a little shorter. It was, a little. The cast members said that the wait was approx. one hour. It was about 6:30 PM and we had 9:30 PM Hoop-Dee-Doo Reservations. We decided to wait and make it our last ride of the day. It turns out that they missed by about twenty minutes. We had been in line about 40 minutes when it began to rain. At first a light rain. Well, we were not going to give up our places for a little rain. After all, we were standing in line for a ride where you are guaranteed to get wet. And we had made it almost halfway to the entrance. As we passed the halfway point and got closer to the doorway, the rain intensified. As time passed, it became a full blown thunderstorm. We were under the trees and approaching the door. We were wet to the skin. No piece of clothing was dry and we had put on our rain ponchos!! For the first time since we arrived in Florida, we were COLD. But we were almost to the entrance. No one else was leaving line. Especially those as close to the door as we were. By now, we had been in line for about an hour and ten minutes. I was not very worried. I had my camcorder, my 35mm camera, and my wallet inside a big vinyl bag with a zipper. Both girls, though, were carrying cotton Pooh backpacks as their purses. I took each of their cameras early in the rain and put them in my vinyl bag. We finally made it inside and on the ride. It was fun, as usual, but I did question our sanity for what we went through to get on it. I insisted that we buy three copies of the photo that is taken when you make the final plunge. One is framed in my office today. We were lucky enough when we finally got on the ride to be in the first two seats of the log. We look like three drowned rats, but with big grins on our faces. We deserved that photo!! After our drenching, we took off at a leisurely pace for the front of the park. We hoped to dry off some along the way. It didn’t work. But we made it out to the boats for the trip to Fort Wilderness.
Friends of mine from home had arrived the night before. They are a married couple who are both police sergeants in our department. They do not have any children. Bob was going to be the other delegate at the FOP convention with me. Debbie is also a member of FOP, but was along on this trip with her husband for the fun and vacation. Debbie and Bob had spent their first day at WDW by themselves, while I went off with the girls. But we were all scheduled to meet and go to the Hoop-Dee-Doo together. This would be their first time at the dinner show, though they had been to WDW together several years earlier. When we got to Pioneer Hall, Bob was picking the tickets that I had ordered three months earlier. We had to wait about thirty minutes for the show to start and I kept hoping that our clothing would dry (the rain had stopped), but no such luck. The girls and I were wearing waffle texture cotton Disney polo shirts (Tigger and Eeyore for them and Mickey for me) with jeans shorts for the girls and long jeans for me.
I could not have done better if they let you pick your table, which they do not do. We had a front row table against the stage. I am assuming we got the good table because there were five of us. The spot where a sixth chair would be was against the edge of the stage. So we had the best view in the house. I was really happy about this because it is Christi’s favorite event and it was the first time at Hoop-Dee-Doo for Amanda, Bob, and Debbie. At the beginning of the show, before the food is brought out, the performers begin the show with a few jokes, introductions, and songs to get the audience in the mood. The performers actually come out into the audience. One of the female actors stopped by our table and put her arm on my shoulder. When she felt my wet clothing, she reached out and touched the two girls. We were shivering under the air conditioning of Pioneer Hall. Immediately, she wanted to send us some table cloths to use as blankets. I told her that we would be okay. But she offered twice more to do so at later times. It is nice to know that the cast members of Disney have that concern for guests.
The show was as great as ever and we all enjoyed it immensely. We had to take the boat back to the Magic Kingdom to pick up the bus back to the Courtyard. It was after midnight before we made it to our rooms to sleep and get ready for another day.
One last note, I should have been worried when we were standing in that thunderstorm. I thought I was so smart because I was carrying a vinyl tote bag. But the rain had seeped inside through the cloth edges of the zipper. Everything inside was soaked: the extra batteries and film, the Magic Kingdom maps and info, and my wallet and all its contents including cash and traveler’s checks. The cotton lining of the bag had just soaked up and held all that moisture. I spread everything out before going to bed and just hoped it would dry. But the humidity was something near 90%.