9/14/5

Today is my second day and potentially my last day at the
Magic Kingdom.
When I planned my vacation, I left my Friday without any adr's yet, and then
I have my morning also free on Saturday.

Today I decide to skip breakfast and have a early lunch with the dinning
plan.  I am online at the bus stop.  Its
9:20 and already feels hot, this is
not going to be a nice day for running around.

Terrie from the Travel-wdw group reminded me it is supposed to hit 95 today
when I posted my wow its so early and hot today.  But I think its that old
its not the temperature, but the humidity thing :)

A lady on the bus line kept wondering how when she was in front of me, kept
winding up behind me.  Her daughter answered that she is so busy with her
cell phone that she didn't notice the line moved and she didn't, but I did
:)

Got into the
Magic Kingdom and took care of my obligations of hat buying,
and had them shipped back to my hotel. Now a quick walk up main street to
adventureland to either Tiki or Jungle cruise.

Tiki room was about to start to I went in there.  Still haven't seen the new
preshow when they changed from original show to under new management.

got out of Tiki room at 10:25, went to Jungle Cruise, saw the line was very
long.  However Fast pass showed a return time starting at 11, so I got my
first, and as it turns out, my only fast pass of my trip.

Since I skipped breakfast, figure this was a good time to get a early lunch.
One the list of things I wanted to try and eat at is pirate perico place.  I
knew this might be closed for it being off season, but went there anyway.

Well, guess what, it was closed, heading to Pecos Bill which I had in mind
and the sign suggested to go to.

I am now  a Pecos Bill fan for its fixing bar. I love cheese fries and enjoy
onions on my burgers.  While I am getting my food, I am looking around,
trying to figure out a place to eat.  I don't see any tables.  I asked the
person who served me and she pointed me to the other room.  Well the tables
and chairs are just out of view site when looking in that direction.

I also realize I am sucking down my diet coke more then eating my hamburger.
Yep, definitely the hottest day so far of my trip.  I also notice allot of
small birds flying around the floor trying to eat any food on the floor.
The place just opened, but I am sure by the end of the day, they will be
eating well ;)

Someone else responds to my boy its so early and already feel so hot email
message telling me its going to be so brutal today.  Thanks Donna, I knew it
was going to be hot in
Florida, I guess I was just spoiled so far on this
trip :)

 I did have my fan mister, but hardly used it.  I kept it in my back pack,
so either the batteries died when the unit was somehow switched on inside.
The water leaked out until I decided to place it in a sealed gallon size zip
lock bag.  Towards the end of the trip, I didn't even pack it anymore.

One of the things I carry with me everyday is my Brita water bottle.  Even
with this, the first time I filled it up at a park, the water still tasted
funny.  But on this hot day, just as long as its wet, its ok.

The line for Jungle Cruise grew longer in the 1/2 hour I was gone, but with
my FP, I walked right on, after a CM carefully inspected the time on my FP.
I guess I have been on this too many times, I knew all the bad jokes by
heart :)

Its now
11:15, going to march across the park to Tomorrowland.

Taking a very slow walk going into all the shops on my pressed coin mission.
I pass Mickey's Philharmagic a little past 12 and decide to do this again.
I sit down in the theater.  A lady sits down next to me with her baby on her
lap, a crying, kicking baby, so I get up and move a couple seats away.

At
12:20, I walk pass Snow White.  The sign says zero wait, but the line is
into the street.  Not sure what is going on here, maybe the ride is
temporarily down, and they didn't open up the queue properly yet, so the
line
looks long, so I say later to this.

When I see the sign for Cosmic Rays, I know I finally made it to
Tomorrowland.  Its
12:30, so even stopping to go on Philharmagic, only took
me an hour to go from Adventureland to Tomorrowland, that's slow for me.
Didn't buy anything but press some coins whenever there was anything I liked
and I must have hit every shop in-between the two points.

First ride was Buzz Lightyear, scored 30,900.  Was a walk-on ride.

12:45, went on Carousel of Progress.  I was surprised to hear when they said
no videotaping, but wasn't concerned, since I have this already on
videotape.
As we go through each scene, I realize they added a new voice, a crying baby
throughout the whole show.  Wait, that's not in the show, its a audience
member.

(climbing on soapbox)

I will admit, I don't have children, but my brother has three kids and we
are
a close family.  When one of my brothers kids were in a public place like a
restaurant and one of his kids (when they were babies) started to cry, they
just didn't let them sit there and disturb everyone, they took themselves
out
with their crying baby to try and quiet them down.  We were respectful of
others enjoyment

When did parents stop being respectful of others?  I admit
Disneyworld is
for children, and big children. But still letting your kid scream in shows,
at restaurants, and not care about how you are disturbing others??
Sometimes I think some parents block out their childs screams and just worry
about their enjoyment, not worrying about anyone else.

(getting off soap box now)

Went on stitch next.  No wait and not worth repeating.  I do admit how they
have the stitch animated looks nice.  Next up is either my 2nd Mickey bar
(day 4, snack 2, I have allot of snacks to catch up on) of my trip or TTA.
Not sure which order.  Did I say today is a very hot day?  Mickey bar was
first.

Its
2 pm, rode TTA.  Need I say this was empty.. or should it be assumed so.
Rode TTA and its now
2:10time to scope out a seat on Main Street for the
3 PM parade, or will have to wait for the 3:10 parade... whoops, that's
another Simpson episode. :)

Its
2:20 and just a couple are sitting out a spot for the parade already.  I
find this nice little spot in front of Casey's.  There is a tree to my left
for blocking out the sun, but clear view overhead to see the floats. I sit
and wait and  watch other people taking up spots.

One of the Disney survey people decide to ask me some questions.  But I
asked him one first.  Is this a good seat for the parade?  He goes yes, but
if I moved a store or two down to my right, I will get the air conditioning
from the store. I decide to stay put and answer his questions.

While waiting,  I use the fan mister. It feels good for a couple of seconds,
but I am not feeling so bad without it, so I put it away.

This is my 5th major trip to
Disneyworld with a camcorder.  Holding a
camcorder on short rides is no big deal.  On parades and stuff, my arms tend
to get tired from trying to hold my arms still for so long.  For this trip I
bought myself a monopod.  Its just like a tripod, but as the word 'mono'
means, its just one pole instead of three.  The monopod handles the weight
of the camcorder, but still allows you to move it around.  I will use the
camcorder with the monopod to record the parade from the seating position.
I
am right on the curb, so others call look over my head and see the parade.

The CM's in the street invited kids from the audience to play soccer with a
large ball.  This seemed ok as there was no serious accidents when the ball
went into the audience, the people sitting on the curb waiting for the
parade to start.

While waiting for the parade, only got kicked in my back 1/2 dozen times
from the people behind me, but what worried me the most was a kid with a
large lolly pop over my left shoulder. I kept worrying that he would drop it
on me.

Here's a interesting question I was thinking to myself, from which direction
does the parade start from? Do they start it from the location by the
firehouse and walk throughout the park or do they end up there?  I remember
the light/float parades start down by
Main street, by the entrance, but
everyone's attention seems to be at the castle end of the street.  The
parade
marches down
Main street from the castle to the entrance.

Its now
3:30, parade is over.  What to do now? I head back to Snow White to
see the status of that is.

Line for Snow White is still too long to wait.

Like I mentioned before this is my 5th real trip, but I did do MK once
before Epcot opened, on a day trip.  So really this is my 6th trip to MK.
Either because it was dark, or the island was closed, but for one reason or
another, I never made it to
Toms Sawyers Island..... till now :)

Before I left on this trip, I looked to see what was closed for rehab.  One
of the things was the Liberty Sq River boat.  Now I remember from a past
trip, this was also closed and they closed the island because they drained
the water from around the island. But not this trip :)

I went on the raft and watched how he maneuvered it from the dock to the
island.  One thing I couldn't figure out, the steering paddle that the cm
seemed to hap hazardly move in the water. Did that really steer the raft? or
were we really on a submerged track and they did this just for show,
including tieing it up when we docked.  Who knows... who cares :)

I started to explore the island.  Aunt Polly was closed.  I explored my
first tunnel.  This was fun.  It is so dark inside that you really need to
place your hand in front of you to feel your way around.  I walked around
the fort, tried to shoot the guns, it just makes a sound.  Walked over the
barrel bridge and was just having fun here.

My camcorder has a feature called nightshot for low light scenes. And it has
a infrared light to help light up a close scene under very dark conditions.
I only had a minute or two left on a tap and decided to use it on one of the
tunnels, to record it.  While I am walking and viewing what my eyes cant
see, but the camcorder does, from out of the darkness, a small child decides
to go backwards from the exit to the entrance of the tunnel, so in my video,
out of nowhere, you see a small girl appear out of nowhere.... too funny ;)

Its getting close to 5 and I have
6 pm ressies for Crystal Palace.  I get on
the Roy Disney pulled wdwrr at 5 and take it back to
Main St.

I get up to the window to check in at CP, and I hear a familiar story like I
heard over and over where ever I ate at.  "Sorry, you don't have a adr? we
are fully booked, but if you come back after 8, we might be able to fit in
you in"  That was for others, for I made my adr's over a month ago, well
not all of them ,still my 6th unplanned day to deal with, but heck this is
only day 4, no worries.

Got my seat quickly, and told them I am familiar with how this works and
headed over for my first plate.  Like I thought to do when I was at
Hollywood and Vine, I left my baseball cap on the table, and took my
backpack with my camcorder and accessories with me to get more food.

Another bad parent thing happened here.  At a table near me, a baby maybe 2
years old ?? took the dish holding the bags of sugar and non-sugar
substitutes, dumped them in front of her, and started moving them around in
front of her, dropping most of them on the floor. I shook my head in
disbelief. I wonder if they let her dirty their home like that just to keep
her entertained.  I just hope the family left a decent tip for the crew that
will have to clean up after their ill behaved child.  Well, at least she
didn't tear the packets open.

The characters walked by me, some shook my hand, others just waved hi.  Even
another one walked behind me, tapped me on the back, trying to make me feel
better, probably thinking I was eating alone and feeling bad about it. :)

Its 6:40 and I just finished eating at cp, had prime rib, roast turkey,
garlic roasted potatoes, corn bread, chicken, etc.... you all know the food.
Cinderellabration starting at the castle but I am across the street from
Casey, too lazy to run up the street :)   wishes is at 9 tonight, id leave
the park, except I probably wouldn't come back, and the bag check was very
through this am, and was very annoying. going to rest and walk off the food
:)

Wind up back in Tomorrowland, no wait for Buzz Lightyear so I try and better
my score, get 122,600 this time.

Terrie emails me and tells me to "Aim for the Z at the top  of the volcano
and the one in the room before the rocket at the bottom of the meter." AFTER
I get off the ride a second time.
:)   After I tell her she told me after I
exited the ride, she says go on again, but this time the line is out the
door.  Guess not this trip.

Walking through Tomorrowland, I walk but Indy speedway and decide to do
that.  I only did this once years ago. Now I remember why I don't bother
with
this in years, I was barely giving mine throttle and I was still catching up
with the car in front of me:(  And at one point a car 3 cars in front of me
broke down and I stopped where I was with some distance between me and the
car in front of me, and of course cars behind me were starting to back up
too.  Not that these cars go fast, but I never got to give mine full
throttle cause I would catch up to the people in front of me.

Heading to Snow white to check out the line again.  This time, the line
isn't
too long at all, maybe a couple of minutes. So I entered to wait to finally
ride this.

Another bad parent story.  A couple in front of me went to board with their
7(?) yo daughter, who right before she went to board the ride, got terrified
out of her mind.  She grabbed onto the gates entrance to hold onto for dear
life because she was too scared to go on this 'scary' ride.  The mother
tried to console her, that the ride isn't scary at all.  Yea, I am thinking
to myself, then why do they call it Snow White's scary adventures.? :)  Ok,
I know its not scary, but this scene is playing out and no one else is able
to get on or off the ride, they are holding up the line.. well the line is
just me, but still ;)  Finally the CM intercedes and tells the parents, that
they must do something, they are holding up the line.  The mother relents,
she will be with the daughter while the father rides alone.

Its almost
8 pm and thinking about where to watch Wishes from.I head towards
the castle. There is a path that run along the castle moat and there are
some benches here. I see the castle clearly, and thinking if this is a good
place to view Wishes from.  I am soon answered when  a cm pushes everyone
down the path to a eatery called Sleepy Hollow.

I hear the parade, Spectromagic, starting and I realize I am very close and
have a unobstructed view of the parade where it crosses a bridge.  I didn't
plan on recording Spectromagic, but place my camcorder on the monopod and
video tape the parade.

After the parade was over, the seating area cleared out and sat down waiting
for wishes.  My view of the castle is good. So I sat and waited for Wishes
to start.

Wishes started and I knew I was in trouble, for the fireworks are not shot
off by the castle.  Sure if you are in front of it, it seems like it, but
from the sides, it is way back somewhere.  I make a mad scramble to where
the Liberty Bell is, where there is a break in the trees to view most of the
fireworks un obstructed.

Wishes is over and I am heading back to
Main Street to leave the park.  But
something strange is happening, more people are heading towards me then
leaving with me.  It turns out that tonight is EMH night for MK.

I think about staying another couple of hours, but I am tired, I spent the
whole day here.  Maybe if I remembered tonight was EMH night in MK, I would
have left the park for a break in the middle of the day, but I am done.  Not
much else left to see or do, I head back to the hotel and inside for the
night at 10.

One thing though... it did cool off :)