DAY 5 Thursday, July 14 (The Magic is back in full force!)
Today is the day that the Disney Magic returned for us. We opened the MK up at 9am and had our family photo taken on Main St with the castle in back of us and on the right side of the castle going towards Tomorrowland. We often had to use the left and right ramps of the castle due to the center being closed off for Cinderellabration. From there we went to Dumbo which was virtually a walk-on. Then we went to Peter Pan’s Flight – walk on, then It’s A Small World – walk on. I took a lot of digital pictures in IASW, around 80. Next was Mickey’s Philharmagic which was a walk-on also. I was pleasantly surprised to see Disney use some of the same technology that was used in Stitch’s Great Escape. I won’t say anything else to spoil the fun. After the show we went to ride the Carousel where we were first in line for the next group. We were extremely pleased to have done all of this by 10:30. It was going to be a grand day indeed.
We looked around some of the Fantasyland gift shops and then decided to head towards Tony’s Town Square for lunch. As we passed the entrance to Adventureland from decending the left castle ramp, we notice a woman character standing on the bridge to Adventureland talking to several people passing by. We stopped and got some photos and autographs for my 2 DDs. Her name was Dr. Miranda (I forgot her last name and she only signed my DDs autograph books with an R and a lipstick kiss). I told my DW, now this is a
real character. LOL. A picture of her is posted below. Could it be that this is just a character made up for the parks or does she exist in a Disney movie??
When we arrived at Tony’s Town Square, the CM greeter outside said that they were opening in a couple of minutes and we could wait inside. We would be the first people to be seated for the day so we relaxed on the benches in the restaurant lobby. All of a sudden, the Disney Barbershop Quartet appeared in the lobby and started singing, drawing a crowd from the photo services next door. Unknown to me or my DW, but they do this everyday to announce the opening of the restaurant. They announced our name and we were promptly seated. Our server came over and took our drink order while the Quartet sang by our table. It was really quite special and unexpected to experience this, away from the crowds and heat of the day. Lunch was enjoyed by all.
After lunch, we headed towards the hub into Liberty Square to the umbrella cart for my 2 DDs to have a mini umbrella personalized. On our last visit, the cart was located to the left of the Liberty Square entrance. It was moved to the right to make room for a silhouette cut-out stand. We wanted to do this at a later time for our 2 DDs but forgot to.
We then decided to take an afternoon break at the Poly and were able to catch a boat ride back instead of going on the monorail. This was a great change of pace from riding the monorail all the time where it was relaxing and offered a great cool down. We went in the Poly volcano pool for a little while until some lighting started out of nowhere, where we had to clear the pool deck. We rested up in the room for a little while, to eventually head back to the MK to pick up the mini umbrellas.
As we got the umbrellas, we headed into Frontierland to witness square dancing between some CMs and Country Bear characters. We would be too late on the return if we got FPs for SM since we had a PS for diner at 1900 Park Fare at 7pm, so we headed into the Caribbean Plaza. We tried to get photos and autographs with Mr. Smee and Capt. Hook but it started to rain and thunder so they left. Deciding to make our way out of the park, we strolled through the shops on Main St. and do some more penny pressing.
After making a quick stop to the room to unload some bags and the strollers, we were on our way to dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Our table was in the wing near the alternate exit doors, where it was very warm because of the close proximity to the automatic hotel door entrance. We complained a little and the manager came over and said that “the A/C was on high and that they were working on a 6 month plan to take care of the heat. By January it should be a lot cooler”. I was not so sure that I should laugh. Oh well. The food was very good but the selection seemed a bit less than what I remembered from 2 years ago. My favorites are still the prime rib and the mashed potatoes. The character interaction with my 2 DDs was great as usual.
After dinner we stopped by the GF gift shop and did some more penny pressing on the way to the monorail. We got off at the MK but realized too late that we were too hot and tired from dinner so we took the boat back to the Poly where we just made it for the electric water pageant. Then it was back to the room and do a little laundry to call it a night at 1am.
PiratesFan
