It’s a MAGIC Kingdom

Tuesday 18, 2016                                                                                            Most Recent Posts:
Fort Wilderness Campground                                                                           Through Epcot to Beaches and Cream
Walt Disney World, Orlando Florida                                                                 Sunday in Disney World

 

 

This morning is one of the coldest mornings we’ve had in Florida.  We are seriously bundled up with three layers each.  David even has on his Churchill Manatoba Polar Bear visit heavy duty hoodie.  But the boat is standing room only.  Everyone is looking for MAGIC.

 

 

We arrive and take the standard picture in front of the Mickey flowers and the train station.  But what am I holding you ask?

 

It’s my genuine first ever Florida Resident’s Annual Pass to Disney World.  Of course I choose the least expensive one which gives me admission to any park and every park all day every Monday Through Friday other than holidays.  That’s why we come on Sunday and stay until Saturday.  But for $276 (this year) that’s AMAZING.  A one day ticket otherwise is, give or take, $100 unless you can get some sort of a deal.   I am a happy Mouseketeer with my hooded sweatshirt, polar fleece pull over and gloves.   It’s only 9:00.  Can you see that cute little Mickey face on the card?

 

Inside the Magic Kingdom we make the cardinal tourist mistake of sauntering down Mainstreet instead of going lickety split over to the most popular rides since we haven’t done any fast passes.  We really do know better but we got distracted with deciding  “do we ride the fire engine down mainstreet” or do we watch some of the kids greeting Minnie and Goofy?   These are tough choices for sure.

 

 

 

 

Not sure how Goofy can be in two places at once but I don’t have to stand in line to have my picture taken with him just outside the Train Station.

 

 

 

One big benefit of skipping the fire truck is that I notice the sign on the Firehouse.  I’d forgotten completely that last year when we were here, we watched kids playing the free interactive adventure game played throughout the park.  It looked like great fun but we didn’t find out about it until the end of the day.  So today we head into the fire house to sign up.  The game, we are told, combines aspects of role-based games such as Dungeons and Dragons (which I’ve never played and David “thinks” he “may” have played years ago), with Disney characters and theme park attractions. In the game, you help the wizard Merlin keep evil villains from taking over the Magic Kingdom.  All righty then.  Confidentially, it sounds to me like they are trying to get a leg up on the nearby Harry Potter but it sounds like fun and so we take our free map and our free cards and off we go.  By the end of the day I am totally hooked and can’t wait to come back, finish this set of cards and get the next.

 

Our first tasks are in Adventureland.  We again get distracted on the way there since we have to walk all the way down Main Street.   First the Main Street Trolley show stops to sing and dance for us.  What do they sing?  DUH!

♬ ♬   “Clang, Clang, Clang went the Trolley,
ding ding ding went the bell,
zing zing zing went my heartstrings,
for the moment I saw her I fell” ♬ ♬

Anybody but me know all the words to tons of songs for the 19-teens and 20’s??

 

 

 

After standing around for the fun performance we are colder than we were walking so we duck into some of the shops along Mainstreet.  They are all connected together inside which is intelligent merchandising but has the added benefit of allowing us to walk some way down Main Street toward Adventureland inside.

On my Sunday post, Jackie asked me what ears I am going to buy.  Actually I don’t buy any.  I have a Minnie Mouse ear Santa Hat which I got the year we spent my birthday in Disney World.  I wear it around the Christmas holiday every year whenever we go anywhere.  It’s great fun.  But can you guess which one I probably would buy if I were getting ears?

I know you can guess which shop we paused in the longest.   Right you are, the sweet shop.

 

 

Yum, chocolate covered pineapple sticks being mde before our eyes.

 

 

Mickey Mouse carmel apples in white or milk chocolate.  SWOON!!

 

Back out on the street we head for the bakery which doesn’t have indoor tables so the chocolate croissants have to be eaten outside.  But the coffee and hot water will warm us up.  

 

 

I just love the buildings on Main Street and its little alley ways.  We’ve just come back up this little one when from out of one of the doors comes a giant bundle of balloons walking right toward David.

 

 

Although I know it can’t compare to Beaches and Cream, I make a mental note of the location of the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor.  Here they do not have soft serve (oh sacrilege), the ice cream is hand scooped.  Ahhh the Magic Kingdom where neither pastries nor ice cream has calories, fat or sugar.

 

We turn off Main Street to take the bridge over to Adventureland.  Thus, we pass the Crystal Palace. Gorgeous!

And should you ever want to eat there, I’ve included the menu for you.  Amazingly they are ALWAYS busy busy busy.  I’ve never been inside so I only know its beauty from the outside.  One day I’m going to come to Disneyworld and spend at least 4 days in the MAGIC KINGDOM alone so I can do all the things I’ve never taken time for like look inside the Crystal Palace.

 

 

 

Yes that’s right the breakfast buffet is $30 for adults and $18 for children.  (I don’t believe in the $.99 ridiculousness.)

Maybe on that same trip I’ll splurge and we’ll have dinner here just so we can be with Winnie the Pooh.  But soft serve ice cream?  Really??

 

Here we are at the bridge between Main Street and Adventureland.  There are fish in the water and birds in the bushes.

 

 

 

 

We are on the look out for the Sorcerers Brass Circle which is the symbol of the game.  We find one just inside Adventureland but when we use our “keys” (magic bands) to open the portal, we are told “Sorry this is the wrong one go to….and then a picture.  In this case it’s a fire place.  Lucily we have a map with clues.

 

Since we are directly across from The Pirates of the Carribbean, we check out the wait time.  Only 20 minutes.  I’m ok with that.  But David wants to see Captain Jack Sparrow, also across the street.  So we’ll do that and then come back to “Pirates”.

 

Captain Jack’s first mate is gathering all around and asking if any would like to join the crew.  This pirate looks ready.

 

 

The captain comes out and explains some of the technical aspects of pirating and of sword play.

 

 

And now for the test.  Each pirate to be must match swords. 
Those who are successful are signed on.  The crew is gathered and off they go.
Yo HO Yo HO, A Pirate’s life for me.

 

We return to ride the Pirates but the wait is now 45 minutes.  Oh well.   Not today. 

 

Instead we go into the Enchanted Tiki Room which has no wait.  It’s animatronics with singing birds, singing aligators and singing African masks.

 

After this we check the fast pass kiosks and find that there are none for the rest of the day for Pirates or the Jungle Cruise which we’d also like to do.  Buzz Lightyear is closed for “refurbishment”  So is the Liberty Square Riverboat.

So what now? 
A Magic carpet ride in the Magic Kingdom looks like fun.

 

 

 

And it is fun.  Up in the air we go over Bagdad on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

 

After reading the stories in my childhood, I’ve always wanted to fly on a MAGIC Carpet over Bagdad.  And here I am.

 

 

Camel rides?   Now that would be fun too.

 

 

The morning has flown by and it’s time for lunch.  We have brought our own but the Tortuga Tavern has tables by a fireplace which today would feel wonderful except it’s the portal we’ve been looking for.  We get a ring side table and watch the other sourcerers take on the villain.

 

 

And now it’s our turn.  Nancy and Bill show up at the perfect moment to get some pictures of us at the portal.  Thanks Nancy.  Not sure how we were signed up since David’s key opens the portal but my cards are the ones we have to use to smash the villains.

 

Ok which of our sorcerer’s tricks should we use here?

 

I hold the chosen one out to defeat the villain and YEA!   We’re successful, are threatened with future horrors  and sent on to our next portal challenges.

 

David and Bill study the skills of the really accomplished sorcerers.  Not sure you can see the bags each of them is carrying on his shoulder but they are filled with pages and pages of Sorcerer cards 12 to a page.  These guys have been playing this game for so long they are  nearly Wizards.

 

If I didn’t have SO many T-shirts already…………………..

 

 

For the afternoon we’ve decided to watch the mid day parade, Festival of Fantasy so we wander back down Main Street to see where we might want to be when it comes by.

When we go by this store Bill tells us that when Walt Disney was alive the apartment at the top of Cinderella’s Castle was reserved for him and that this building was where he would meet with members of his staff.  If the light in htis window was on, he was there and available.  We find out the most interesting tidbits from Bill and Nancy’s Disney experience.

I zoom in for a close up of the lamp.

 

We  have finished all the Adventureland locations of our Sorcerer’s quest and the last one told us to go down Main Street.  So when we walk by the Emporium, David and I find the circle and I stand on it.  The portal is in a painting on the wall.

 

Back outside, we ask about the direction of the parade and are told it starts up by the castle and comes down Main rather than starting near the train station.  We don’t want to be at the end so we walk back up Main Street.  I could walk up and down as many times as anyone wants to.  I just love the architecture of the buildings.  They are so turn of the century small town America.  Although I doubt any town was ever as fancy as this one.  The clock even tells the correct time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty hard to walk up the street when the balloons are there.  This bundle is even bigger than the one we saw this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we reach the bridge we find the Main Street Philharmonic is giving a show so we stop and watch.  Philharmonic is an odd name for a brass  and drum corps.

 

 

 

 

 

That thing sticking up in the air to the right of the castle is a crane being used by painters working on the back of the castle. Several things in Disney World parks are closed for renovation this week and proibably throughout the winter which appears to be when they do whatever major work needs to be done in preparation for the summer crowds.

The trumpeters each play the instrument of the person next to them. 

 

 

Up on the Palace Stage the show Dream Along with Mickey has just started. We decide not to move into the crowd since we can see it quite well from here and all the actors are miked.

The story it seems is that Donald Duck no longer believes that dreams can come true.

 

Mickey, Minnie oofy and friends are going to show him how wrong he is.

 

 

 

 

After all, dreams came true for Cinderella and Snow White and Sleeping Beauty – right?

 

But then the bad guys show up of course.  Looks like Donald’s gone over to the dark side with his hook.

 

 

Then the real Captain Hook comes out with Smee.  Donald has his side kick too, Goofey.

 

Of course Peter Pan shows up to battle Hook.

 

And then………….there is always the evil queen

 

By now Donald has seen the error of his ways  and even he is believes that Dreams Really Do Come True which of course decreases the evil witch’s power and she goes off in a huff and a puff of smoke.

 

Always a Happy Ending in the Happiest Place on Earth.
I know I haven’t even gotten to the parade but this post is long enough so next post will be the paradeS and the FIREWORKS!

 

Everybody Happy? Well I should Say!

THE END