Day 09 - Magic Kingdom

Summary: Magic Kingdom today. Headed off a little later than planned though we did get the Virtual Queue for Tron. Got to the park and hit some of the bigger rides, including Tron, which was still as good second time around. Caught the parade as the weather was pretty much roasting degrees celsius for most of the day. Home for a quick change before we headed back to Magic Kingdom to go to Ohana for dinner. Exceptional food and everyone loved it. Planned to go back into Magic Kingdom afterwards but decided on just a walk instead as there was lots of food for dinner, before heading home for the night.

Oh man it was a tough one this morning. Alarm set for 06:45 to get a Virtual Queue for Tron at 07:00 (it used to be 06:30, but I like to live dangerously). I was so tired last night and fell asleep twice while writing yesterdays update which is probably why the spellings atrocious so trying to do as much as I can throughout the day. Full day ahead, capping it off with dinner at an amazing Disney restaurant called Ohana where we could possibly get a view of the fireworks over Magic Kingdom while we eat (fingers crossed). Back to the present for now, got a slightly later group number for Tron so I was able to go back to bed for an extra wee 30 mins! Everyone loved the cold coffees yesterday so Grace claimed my coffee cup, from this point on to be referred to as Tallboys (as that’s what their brand name was). I think the special ingredient is the flavoured creamer which is amazing but you just can’t get at home and we’re not going to be able to bring them back due to space, so we’ll get it in while we can.

On to Magic Kingdom, we bumped into a boy and his mum and upon finding out we were from Scotland she said that was her dream destination. Yeah sure lady. The boy was asking if we’d seen the Loch Ness monster too and they told us they were going to ride Tiana’s today - so jealous - it’s not open to the general public until Friday.

We opted for the Ferry to MK as we had some time before Tron. The weather was pretty hot today so the Ferry was a nice trip over with some views including the Polynesian Village Resort where Ohana is - looks like a really nice hotel on the water (if you can afford it).

Ice Ice baby

Headed towards Pirate of the Caribbean, a usual first ride, while we waited for Tron. Passed by some iced water tanks to fill out water bottles, which was great to know. I mean the other water fountain stuff is ok because we have the flavour sachets (which I will be bringing home - lots of), but the iced stuff stays cold for hours in our bottles, not that it ever lasts that long.

Pirates, weve done it before so theres just a collective score now. One thing I didnt remember from last time is the smells that they use at certain parts, they use the similar scents in Soarin’ and Flight of Passage and its amazing but for some reason Disney haven’t managed to bottle and slap a label on it yet.

Overall: 7.5

Tron at this point was up so made our way over to the opposite side of the park. I managed to film the cool intro that they have where the wall in front of you magically transforms into a room, the build up of the ride is so good. Only small criticism is thats its over too soon, but still a great ride.

Overall: 9

Grace’s new super power

Ping pong back over to the other end of the park yet again for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We wanted to do all the bigger rides today as we had a shorter window, so couldnt get through everything. We’ve had the GoPro with us and for most rides at Disney, you can film them as long as you dont use flash. Now for the last few days the GoPro has been conking out (possibly due to overheating or battieries (also I do have spares). Everytime it has switched off however, Grace says that theres something wrong with it only seconds before it happens, like she has some psychic power. So we told Grace shes banned from being near the GoPro or even talking about it going forward, hopefully now the batteries will last forever!

Overall: 8

After Big Thunder we had Seven Dwarves (and yes, it was on the opposite end of the park, more or less), but decided on a quick pit stop at Golden Oak Outpost to try Tiana’s Famous Beignets which is a new food item for Magic Kingdom (though not in Disney), to celebrate the new Tiana ride. We had to try them out as well as the Frozen Lavender Lemonade that they had advertised with them. The Beignets were ok, we had been forewarned that they could be frozen beignets (which they were), instead of the made from scratch ones from Port Orleans Riverside. We had a trip to Port Orleans planned to get the Beignets at some point, so we can compare with these ones. The Lemonade however was the best frozen lemonade drink Ive tasted, and well definitely be getting that before we go home.

A quick walk around the Swiss Family Treehouse from the old Disney movie. I suppose you had to have seen the movie to appreciate what is was all about, but it was essentially a large tree house with a lot of steps. Kids were a little bemused, but the views from the top of the treehouse were great.

- Gerry: 6
- Ann: 5
- Patrick: 5
- Robert: 6
- Grace: 3

Seven Dwarves Mine Train. I put a new battery in the GoPro and kept it away from Grace as much as I could and it worked! Only the parade to film before it switches itself off again and well be golden.

- Overall: 8.5

The Parade

The Parade kicked off around 3pm, so we got into a good spot to get some decent photos (and film if batteries/Grace permitted). We didnt get the Parade in last time as it was rained off, so good to get to see it today. Loads of colourful characters and songs and managed to get some good photos and about half of it videoed, and it was all wrapped up with Minnie and Mickey on the last float. Which reminds me, we haven’t really dont any character meet and greets yet, but that’ll be what the second park visits will include, well except for today.

Haunted Mansion after the parade. Managed to get some ride photos this time, though didnt know where to look so Im looking a little lost.

- Overall:: 8

Another one we didnt try the other day was Micky’s Philharmagic. 4D show, with Donald Duck losing Mickeys sorcerers apprentice hat and being transported throughout different Disney movies to try to reclaim it, accompanied by some classic songs from each. Another example of them updating attractions as this one now had Coco in it, so good that they can keep things fresh for people who been before.

- Gerry: 7.5
- Ann: 7.5
- Patrick: 6
- Robert: 7.5
- Grace: 1

Really low one for Grace as her glasses were slightly damaged so had to resort to her sunglasses, and that in a dark theatre was a bad combo.

So it was getting well into the afternoon and we thought wed head back to the hotel and freshen up for our dinner this evening, and since it was near MK we could maybe go around the park and get in a few more attractions. So thats what we did, and even managed to get to Walmart between times to pick up a new keyboard to get around my laptop issues (it will fix them but wont be able to fully resolve it until tomorrow, so most photos are still from my phone and photo pass today).

Guess who’s back, back again…

And when we parked back up in the Magic Kingdom car park we released in was only a short 10 minute walk to the restaurant! It had cooled down a little once the afternoon and the hotel grounds were lit with large paraffin torches, which looked amazing. Checkin at the restaurant and didnt quite get a window seat to view the fireworks, but I don’t think that matter to us too much, the food was some of the most delicious food we had seen yet. It was served family style, which basically meant we could eat as much as we wanted. And there were steaks, shrimp, grilled chicken, Asian noodles, gyozas, vegetables, sesame chicken, fresh salad, this weird but tasty Hawaiian bread and honey butter (Ill stop before I sound like the guy from the larder in the Shining). We all loved it and did manage to glimpse some of the fireworks so was a bit of a winner tonight. All stuffed from too much food, we decided against going back into the park for the last hour, and headed home. Not an early rise tomorrow so thats good, then we get ready for our rescheduled Universal/Island trip.

Todays Stats

- Step Count: 19.5k
- Starred Rides: Tron
- Total steps: 162.4k
- Total miles: 69.8 miles