Day three started with a quick breakfast in our room (glad we packed those breakfast bars), after which we packed up and caught the monorail to the Transportation and Ticketing Center. Here we switched to the other monorail line and rode over to Epcot. I’m sure there’s cost issues, but I wish WDW would go ahead and build monorail runs to the other two parks. It’s such an efficient and fast way to get around. While the busses work, nothing beats the monorail.

Right away I noticed that the entry lines at Epcot seemed not to move as quickly as they had at the Magic Kingdom and MGM. Cynthia took the kids and went around the bag check lines and went ahead and entered the park, while I waited to have my bags searched. Once we got in, we looked at the “Leave a Legacy” monuments for a few minutes, then moved on towards Spaceship Earth (or “the big golf ball” as we came to call it). Noticing that the line was practically non-existant, we opted to go ahead and ride.

I’m continually impressed and amazed at the ingenuity in the design of various attractions and rides at Disney. One thing Disney is very good at is moving people through processes efficiently. Walt himself had a fascination with mass-transit and it lives on in the design of attractions such as Spaceship Earth. Instead of individual cars and the normal stop/start of the loading and unloading process, SE utilizes an endless train of cars that never actually stop. When you enter the attraction, you step onto a circular conveyor belt and have around 60 seconds to enter the next open car before it disappears into the void. Occasionally the ride has to be stopped to accommodate guests with special needs, but by and large the ride continually moves, increasing the effective “throughput” of people per hour. The exiting process at the end of the ride is similar, but in reverse.

The ride itself is interesting, taking the rider on a journey from pre-historic times to the future, explaining how various forms of communication developed. Along the way the car is turned left or right to show various auto-animatronic incarnations of the scenarios the narrator is explaining in the speakers embedded in the headrests of the car itself. The ride twists and winds its way up inside of the big ball until it reaches the apex, then the car turns a full 180 as it begins its descent back to ground level. All in all an interesting “dark ride”, but unfortunately it’s showing it’s age a little. It would be nice to see the later portions updated a bit to more accurately reflect the impact that the Internet has had on human communication over the past decade.

After Spaceship Earth we were exited near the entrance to Innoventions East. The main focus of this exhibit seemed to center around computer based simulations and multi-player interactions. The boys played a 4-player game of Toon Tag, where each player chooses one classic Disney character (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy or Donald) and runs around in a virtual playground trying to “tag” the other players. Michael was Goofy and Matthew played Mickey. Madison found some single-player more suitable for a 4-year-old and played those while the boys and I looked around.

The next game was called “Robot Challenge”, and was designed to teach about the different properties and uses of plastic while letting players design and race their own virtual Robots. Michael played this one, creating a robot he named “Creepy Bruiser” and came in 6th (out of 12) in the race. After exiting the game area, the kids were allowed to collect pieces and build their own robot character to take home.

At this point we needed to high-tail it to Norway in the World Showcase portion of Epcot to make our lunch reservations at Akershus castle. We were set to have lunch with all of the Disney Princesses, but the problem is we didn’t know where Akershus and Norway were. As it turns out it didn’t really matter that we were ten minutes late for our reservation, as it seemed that everyone else there had the same reservation time as we did. We ended up having to wait 15 or 20 minutes to be seated.

They called our name and led us into the banquet area, stopping for a quick visit/picture with Ariel from The Little Mermaid. The boys weren’t too interested in getting pictures take with her, but Madison was all smiles. We found our way to our table and tried to make out the Norwegian menu to find something to eat for lunch. Michael quickly found Spaghetti and Meatballs on the menu. I went with something called Kjottkaker, which turned out to basically be a traditional Norwegian meatloaf. The deserts came on a single plate for everyone to try. My favorite was the Lingonberry Tart.

During lunch we were visited by Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Prince Ali (Aladdin) and Jasmine, and Belle (from Beauty and the Beast). Autographs were obtained, pictures were taken. Madison wasn’t too sure about Ali, but warmed up when he told her a couple of jokes.

Once we finished lunch, we decided to explore the remainder of Norway as long as we were already there. We found the Maelstrom boat tour of Norway, which included an indoor ride aboard dragon-headed boats traveling among the Vikings and Trolls of 10th century Norway. After the boat portion of the ride we were presented a short film about Norway and it’s people. Of course, after exiting the attraction you’re dumped directly into the gift shop where we saw interesting things such as candy and troll dolls from Norway.

On the way out of Norway back towards Mexico, we passed a full-sized version of a Viking ship and a replica of the Gol Stave Church.

Of course, on our way into Mexico the kids immediately spied the street merchant selling various trinkets, and had to try on the giant sombreros. Each wanted one, but since we couldn’t figure out how to bring them back home on the plane, we decided to just take pictures and move along.

In Mexico we found an Aztec pyramid and wondered up the steps to explore what was inside. Just in the doors we found a Mexican marketplace, with artists practicing their art making various things from pinatas to hand carved and painted animal figurines. We got in the (short) line for “El Rio del Tiempo”, which is a “Small-world”-type boat ride through past and modern Mexico.

After the boat ride we watched a glass blower making a small glass Pluto figurine which the kids really found interesting. Cynthia bought a souvenir while we watched and then we headed back out into the bright sunlight to plot our next move.

We decided to make our way back to Futureworld to see some of the pavilions there, choosing the leave the remainder of World Showcase for another day. As we made our way back across the bridge to Futureworld, we visited a hat stand and Madison picked out a pair of Tinkerbell-styled Mickey Mouse ears and Cynthia bought a Princess visor. Michael bought a flashing necklace with some of his Mickey Dollars.

The first Futureworld pavilion we came to on the west side was the Imagination pavilion, where we were just in time to catch the next showing of “Honey I Shrunk the Audience.” This turned out to be a 3-D movie type attraction, very similar to Muppetvision 3-D. They took things a few steps further, shaking the whole audience seating area during the “shrinking” process. There was a snake sequence that was a little scary, but the thing everyone remembered was at the end when the huge dog “sneezed” on the audience. We walked out a little damp from the dog snot. Eww.

Next was the Land pavilion, where we took one look at the line for Soarin’ and immediately went and got a fast pass. As we were about to leave the building to go on to the next thing, I happened to stop by the Land Grill restaurant and checked on reservation times, and as luck would have it they had an open slot for 6:00. I put us down, since we had a great time there last trip and didn’t currently have plans for dinner.

Everyone wanted an icecream walking to the next building, so we bought a snack and sat on the freshly mowed grass to enjoy it. The day had begun to warm up and it was really nice outside. The kids ran around a little after finishing their icecream while Cynthia and I rested on the lawn.

The next building we came to was The Living Seas. This building was still being renovated, so the main entrance was closed off, but there was a temporary entrance around to the side (through the obligatory gift shop). We saw a line forming for Turtle Talk with Crush, so we decided to go ahead and queue up, knowing that it wouldn’t be getting any shorter. While we ended up having to wait about 15 minutes, it went fast and they funneled us into a small theater. The kids went to sit down front will all of the other younger viewers and Cynthia and I stood in the back.

The theatre was modeled as though you are looking into a large fish tank, although it ends up being a projector screen. When the crowd finally got settled, Crush the Turtle (from Finding Nemo, computer generated on the screen like in the movie) came out from behind some seaweed and said “yo”. There was a Disney cast member with a handheld microphone down front that ran the show and interacted with Crush, seemingly from a script, when suddenly Crush asked if anyone had any questions. He pointed out kids by the color of their “shells” (shirts) and actually answered their questions and joked with them. He taught them all how to say “dude” and told them that they should say it as much as possible for the rest of the day (ha ha). The whole show was very well done and very entertaining; the kids really enjoyed it.

After the Crush show, we spent 45 minutes or so walking around the various aquariums looking at many varieties of fish, sharks, jellyfish, sea horses, manta rays, etc. There was an interactive area for kids to explore and play around in, and an upstairs level for seeing manatees, turtles, and other sea life.

On our way back towards The Land pavilion, we wondered through Innoventions West, another interactive area with various displays. We saw exhibits on the land, played new computer games, saw displays on fire safety and played on a real fire truck.

The time for our fast pass on Soarin’ was up, so we headed quickly across the walkway to The Land and went to the head of the line. Fast pass is the way to go on the more popular attractions; while the normal queue was at 70 minutes at that point, we waited less than 5 minutes for our turn.

Soarin’ was by far one of our favorite attractions at Epcot, if not the whole trip. First you sit in seats where your feet can dangle free, then when the ride starts they swing you out in front of a giant IMAX screen that completely fills your range of vision. It simulates hang-gliding over 12 different areas of California, from a stream in a forest, to an orange grove, to skiing down the slopes of the Rockies, to sailing over the waves off the coast. As you go from environment to environment, the ride gently swings left and right, wind blows in your hair and the smells match the screen. The orange grove was my favorite.

The ride culminates in flying down Main Street USA of Disneyland and over Cinderella’s castle during the fireworks show. Absolutely exhilarating!

After our flying experience on Soarin’ it was almost our time for our reservation for Dinner, so we rode the escalator upstairs and checked in at the counter. Ten minutes later we were seated at our table. The Land Grill is a rotating restaurant that slowly revolves over the Land’s boat ride below. There are various scenes, from the fields of a farm to the desert and a jungle.

The food at the Garden Grill is almost exclusively grown right on site in the special hydroponics areas of the Land pavilion, and was some of the best we had all week. It was served family style, and included fresh catfish, chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, etc. Very, very tasty, and all you could eat. During dinner, Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Chip and Dale came around for autographs and pictures. Just as we were finishing dinner the restaurant completed its revolution bringing us back to where we started.

Leaving the Land, very full, we stopped at a souvenir stand so that Matthew and Madison could follow Michael’s earlier lead and get flashing necklaces, since it had started getting dark. We knew the fireworks show wasn’t too far off, so we wondered back to World Showcase to find a good spot before the crowds started getting big.

We went to the right this time, into Canada, and took up seats on the shore of the lake. Michael, Madison and Cynthia held our spots while Matthew and I went exploring Canada. We saw the totem poles and wondered through the gift shops (lots of hockey stuff, eh), and then walked on towards the UK. We ended up finding a slightly better spot to watch the fireworks show, so we radioed the rest of the crew to meet us there.

Illuminations, the fireworks show at Epcot, was spectacular. It included lots of music, lasers, fireworks and exploding things over the lake, dancing fountains, and a large Globe on a barge that showed images from around the world before opening up and showering the sky with fireballs and more fireworks. It was neat being around a lake and having the whole show take place in the center rather than far off like at a traditional fireworks display.

After the show the park was officially closed, and the mass of humanity made its way towards the gate. Once we exited, we hopped aboard the trusty monorail and made our way back to our hotel, where the kids promptly crashed. It was a very full, very fun day, and we were exhausted. And there was still so much in Epcot we hadn’t seen!

We started off our first full day in DisneyWorld by eating a quick breakfast of pop-tarts and breakfast bars in our room, and then got dressed and ready to head off to MGM Studios.

While we were aiming to get there when the park opened, our objective this trip was not to kill ourselves trying to do everything or cram everything into one day. Last time we went to DisneyWorld, it was a 4 day trip, and it’s just about impossible to do everything in 4 days. It’s impossible to do everything in 2 weeks, but if your objective is to do most of the major attractions and have a somewhat leisurely pace about doing it, give yourself a week. The Magic Kingdom will be two days easy (especially if you have kids under 10). EPCOT is like two parks in one, so two days there. The Disney-MGM Studios can be done in a day, and Animal kingdom can pretty much be done in a day. By the time you throw in other things like a swim or two at the resort pool, a trip over to Disney Marketplace or Disney Quest, or any of the other many attractions, you’re at a week. We were there for 9 days this go-around, and that worked really well.

We took the bus from the Grand Floridian over to MGM studios, and landed at the park around 10:00. After navigating the entry gates and bag search (and a quick restroom break), we were on our way down Sunset Boulevard. Madison found a pony in front of one of the gift shops and we had to stop for a quick “ride.”

(don’t forget to click on the thumbnails for larger versions of the pictures)

We took a right at the end of Sunset and wound up at the entrance to the Rockin Roller Coaster. Having ridden this ride before, I was fairly certain that Madison wouldn’t be interested, but I thought the boys might. So we decided to try out “Parent Swap”.

Parent swap is where everyone waits in the line for an attraction, and then when you get up to the front you tell the Disney Cast Member that you want to swap parents on this ride. One parent rides with the kids that want to ride the attraction, while the other parent waits for them with the child that isn’t big enough or doesn’t want to ride. Then, when the first group gets back they “swap” and the second parent rides while the first waits with the child that didn’t want to ride. Pretty cool system.

Well, it turned out that Matthew had second thoughts once we got into the queue, and decided not to ride when we got up to the ride. So I went with Michael, and Madison and Matthew exited with Cynthia.

Michael and I had a blast (zero to 60 in less than 3 seconds — woo!). After we exited and looked at the silly photos that they took of us on the ride, Michael decided to ride it again, this time with mom. So Matthew and Madison and I went looking around while they took their turn (the line was really short, less than 5 minutes wait). We found a popsicle stand and got a couple of ice-creams.

As we headed back across the center plaza towards Muppetvision 3-D, we ran into Chip -n- Dale, and Minnie Mouse and Goofy. Autograph books in hand, the kids got signatures from all and I snapped the pictures.

I also had a chance to find out about a new service at WDW, Disney’s Photo Pass. This is a much better way of handling pictures than the usual, obtrusive park photographers that stop you as you’re walking into the park and try to up-sell you into some ridiculously priced package.

The way it works is the first photographer you run into gives you a small card (your Photo Pass) that is barcoded. Then they take your pictures (several shots each) and scan your card. As you run into other photographers, you have them take your picture and scan your card. There are photographers in several places, usually near landmark “picture spots” and wherever characters are signing autographs.

The trick here is there’s no high-pressure sales going on. They simply shoot and scan your card. Then, when you get back home you can log into disneyphotopass.com and type in your ID from your card. Up pop all of the pictures that have been taken over the course of your trip, for you to browse and edit. You can add titles, character signatures (they’ve already been pre-categorized with the right signatures for the characters in the shot), make greeting cards, etc. Then you can pick the best and order packages to be printed and sent to you. Pretty neat.

Muppetvision 3-D was very cool, we all got a little wet when Fozzy Bear sprayed the audience with his flower boutonniere. After that, we were dumped out on a back street near Al’s Toy Barn, where Buzz Lightyear and the Green Army Men were taking pictures and signing autographs. Yes, the Green Army Man signs his name — wait for it — “Green Army Man.”

We stopped in Al’s Toy Barn (the gift shop) and the kids used some of their Mickey Dollars to buy a souvenir or two. Mickey Dollars is a great idea I got off the Internet back when we were planning our trip. Here’s how it works: Cynthia and I made up a currency-looking Dollar bill (with Mickey Mouse on it) on the computer that we called a Mickey Dollar, and then printed out several. In the weeks leading up to our trip, whenever the kids did their chores or special things around the house, they got Mickey Dollars instead of real cash (therefore, they’d save it for the trip, not try to spend it beforehand). By the time we got on the plane to go, each boy had about 37 Mickey Dollars, and Madison had about 30. Over the course of the trip we didn’t have to negotiate or deal with “I want this, I want that” at all the toy shops; the kids were in charge of their own budget. This ended up working really well. Anyway, the boys bought Buzz Lightyear cell phones and Madison bought a Ballerina Minnie Mouse.

We made our way over to the Star Tours ride and took a short interplanetary hop, Star Wars-style (and the requisite trip through the Star Wars themed shop afterwards), and then noticed that it was probably a good time to head back to the hotel for a little rest before making our dinner reservations at Cinderella’s Castle.

We caught the bus back and decided to have a dip in the pool. There are two pools at the Grand Floridian, one calm large pool in the middle of the resort, and another slightly smaller pool on the South side that has a huge waterfall, a slide (a long water park-type slide, not the little backyard kind), and a zero depth entry (that’s where one end of the pool gradually goes to zero depth and you just walk out, instead of the normal 3 foot with a ladder or steps). The boys and I played in the pool, waterfall and slide for a while, and Cynthia and Madison went and found the hot tub at the other pool. Fortunately, all the pools are heated, so even though it was in the high sixties, it was still very nice for swimming.

After about an hour of that we met back in the room, got dressed and caught a monorail back over to the Magic Kingdom. This time after clearing “customs” we went directly to Cinderella’s castle for our dinner reservations. We got pictures with the princess herself, then were seated in the main banquet room for a very nice dinner (rotisserie chicken, pork tenderloin, hot dogs, ice cream), complete with a short show featuring the Fairy Godmother and the mice from Cinderella.

We walked around a bit and explored the castle after dinner, then made our way over to Fantasyland where first on the agenda this night was the Dumbo ride. I sat that one out and took pictures while Madison flew with Cynthia, and the boys rode together.

Afterwards we rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, which consisted of a ride through the storybook in a honey pot that spun, bucked and wiggled. I managed to snap a picture of the whole crew, one of the few that has me in it. Madison had to have a Pooh Lollypop after that. Next was a little playtime in the 100 Acre Wood playground, and then another spin on the Teacups.

As we wondered out of Fantasyland back through Tomorrowland on our way to the exit, we ran across the Indy Speedway, and took a ride in the cars. Matthew actually drove one solo, and did a pretty good, if not overly careful, job of driving!

We decided not to stay for the crowds, er, fireworks this evening, and opted instead to go ahead and catch a monorail back to the hotel. Turns out we had a pretty good view of the whole show from the monorail as it made its way around the Seven Seas Lagoon. Once back at our hotel we grabbed a couple bottles of milk for breakfast the next morning (utilizing that fridge in the room) and headed back to our room. About 30 minutes of the endless-Disney-cartoon channel and it was lights out.

Now that we’re back and settled back into the grind of the day-to-day, I thought I would take a few minutes and document our trip to Disney World. Over the next few days I’ll post a journal of what we did along with a select group of pictures (we took over 800!) If time permits I might even edit together a little video. We’ll see how that goes. Anyway, welcome to our February 2006 trip to the “Most Magical Place On Earth”!

Our trip began rather early, 5:15 to be exact. The plan was to get up early, pack up quickly and be out of the house by 6:15 so we could be at the airport parking by 7:00. Our flight was at 8:30, and with the logistics of getting all our baggage from the shuttle parking lot to the check-in counter, I knew we’d need the time. Well, needless to say we didn’t get on the road until 6:30, but made it to the airport by 7:15. Fortunately, everything went smoothly and we were able to park, ride the shuttle to the terminal, and check-in with about 15 minutes to spare before boarding.

Here are a couple of snaps of us waiting in the new American Airlines terminal B at DFW. Click on any of the pictures to see a full resolution version.

Our plane boarded quickly and we had seats up front, so we were in the last group to board. But that meant we’d be the first off once we arrived in Orlando.

The flight was uneventful; Cynthia read, Michael listened to his iPod and watched the scenery outside, Matthew took lots of silly movies with his camera and listened to his iPod and Madison watched a movie on mine.

iPod with video, best invention ever.

Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of it, but we took Disney’s Magical Express from the Orlando International Airport to our resort. This is a really neat service offered to guests staying on property at WDW. Prior to your depature, they send you special luggage tags to put on any checked baggage before you get on the plane. Once you get to MCO, you simply go downstairs to the transportation counter and check in, then get on the bus to your resort/hotel. Later on that day, your bags “magically” arrive in your room. In our case, we spoiled a little of the magic; the bags came so quickly we were still in our room when they got there.

We arrived at Disney’s Grand Floridian around one o’clock (local time, Plano Time + 1 hour). It’s quite a site pulling up to the GF: it’s turn-of-the-century Victorian architecture is quite grand in it’s splendor. It’s a beautiful property.

I checked us in and although our room wasn’t guaranteed to be ready until 3:00, they had us all set and issued our keys immediately. Room 8324 in the Boca Chica building. A short walk across the courtyard and around the main pool and we found our room on the third floor, just around the corner from the elevator. Our hotel was situated on the east side of the property, just on the west shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon. Although our room was a “garden view” (read: slightly less expensive than “lagoon view”) the view was very nice, and we could walk out of our building to watch the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom or see the Electrical Water Pagent on the lagoon itself.

Our room was very spacious, larger than any room we’ve had at Disney to date. It had two very fluffy queen-sized beds and a daybed, which Matthew promptly claimed. The bathroom area had two sinks, and the toilet/shower was a separate room, which I like since the shower doesn’t end up fogging up the mirror over the sinks. Our room hadn’t been upgraded to include a refrigerator yet, so I called down to the front desk and they promptly delivered one.

We unpacked and decided to head out to Gasparilla’s for a bite to eat, since it had been too many hours since our pop-tart at 6:00 AM Texas-time.

One of the cool things about the way we booked our trip turned out to be the Disney Dining Plan. Basically you pay for a meal plan up front, and then you don’t have to worry about nickels and dimes at each meal. The plan is based on the number of nights of your stay, and for a set daily rate (different for adults vs. children) you receive a credit for a snack, a counter-service meal and a table-service meal. A snack is something like a box of popcorn or an ice-cream. A counter-service meal includes an entree (hamburger and fries, for example), a drink, and a desert from any of a (large) number of eateries both inside and outside of the parks. A table-service credit gets you an appetizer, an entree, drink and desert from most of the sit-down restaurants on property.

At first this sounds like “sure, pay up front and end up paying more when you’re there”… but in reality, if you know how the eating works at WDW (and we did, having been numerous times before), this is a great deal. At each meal we ended up having more food than we could eat (often taking the deserts with us for snacks later), and at each meal we never had to worry about what the cost would be. This was great at sit-down restaurants, since we never had to look at the prices of the entrees. It can throw some serious cold water on the experience to eat a great meal at Cinderella’s castle and then get a bill for over $200 at the end. Our table-service credit worked for just about anything on the menu (in fact, we never ran into a situation where something wasn’t covered). The credit also covered gratuity, so there was literally no out-of-pocket at any of our meals. I imagine the waiters and waitresses like this plan too, since they get an automatic 18% tip on the bill.

We actually ended up our trip with two table-service credits and one counter-service credits left over, and never paid for food the whole time (apart from the occasional lollipop or candy-type item). I did the math once we got home: our meal plan for the whole family (5 people, 8 days) was just over $1000. Had we paid cash for the meals we ate, it would’ve totaled over $1450. That’s not including the 3 credits we had left over. I thought it was a great value.

After snagging a lunch at Gasparilla’s at the hotel, we went back to the room to grab our jackets and backpack and head to the Magic Kingdom. When we got back, there was a My Pal Mickey sitting on one of the beds with a couple of balloons. Madison went straight to it and was so excited! Pal Mickey is a little Mickey Mouse that you carry around Disney World, and he tells you about things, sings songs and tells jokes. It’s really cool, and works a lot better than I thought he would. The only downside is he seems to eat batteries faster than he should. I changed the batteries at least three times during our trip. By the way, earlier I had the concierge send up the Pal Mickey to our room as a surprise for the family. I love the concierge service!

One of the (many many) reasons we chose to stay at the Grand Floridian was the fact that it’s a monorail resort. Meaning on the monorail. Meaning one quick ride to the Magic Kingdom. No Bus. No long walk. Way cool. If you go to WDW and plan to stay at one of the deluxe resorts, stay at either the Contemporary (only if you can stay in the tower, though, don’t stay in the garden wings, they’re too far from the main building), the Polynesian or the Grand Floridian. For getting around, the monorail is too convenient. The busses, while efficient, are always too crowded and too sparse.

One quick monorail trip and we were standing at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom! Once we managed to navigate the “let’s look in your bag to make sure you aren’t carrying anything dangerous into the park” stop and the “place your first two fingers in this biometrics reader so we aren’t getting ripped off by you giving your ticket to someone else” stop we were in the park.

On our way down Main Street we stopped in the Emporium gift shop and got Madison an autograph book and pen, since she hadn’t been before (the boys both had their autograph books from our trip back in 2002).

We saw a barbershop quartet and listened for a bit, then made our way to the end of Main Street, right in front of Cinderella’s castle, where we decided to watch the Cinderellabration show.

After the show we shot north to Fantasyland, where the first item on the agenda was the Teacup ride. Being her first ride, Madison was a little apprehensive, but once things got “spinning” she warmed up to it quickly! Matthew talks about it here.

Next we traveled over to Toon-town, which is an area of the park aimed at younger kids (i.e. Madison’s age). We saw a number of things including Minnie Mouse’s house and rode a roller coaster, the Barnstormer. Madison wasn’t too sure about that until she found out it was perfectly OK to scream your head off. Then she had a blast.

We rode the train around the park to Frontierland, and then the boys and I took a spin on Big Thunder Mountain. Awesome coaster, the boys loved it so much that I sat with Madison and Cynthia went on it with them a second time. The crowd was very low and the wait time was about 3 minutes.

After that we happened on Woody and Jessie (from Toy Story 2) and got autographs and pictures.

The day was wrapping up, so we headed over to the castle to grab a spot to watch the fireworks show “Wishes.” I think it’s the best MK fireworks show yet. Some of the shells were so bright, it looked like daytime in the park!

I snapped this really cool image of Michael in front of the Castle as it was changing colors prior to the show.

After the fireworks show, the entire population of the Magic Kingdom shuffled towards the gate, and although crowds seemed to be low earlier, whenever you pack that many people on Main street, it’s a bit crowded. We caught the monorail back to our Hotel, and since it was only 8:45 local time (7:45 to us still), we decided to grab dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe. Steak and Shrimp, Yum!

Well, that and a lot of fun and good memories… Pictures to follow.