A Big Splash and we are in the laughing place

One of the highlights for us of Monday in Disney was the gentle but fun ride called Splash Mountain. As the name implies you get wet as you are riding this log flume, but even more fun is had in being fully engaged with the story of Brer Rabbit, his friends: Brer Bear, Brer Frog and his nemesis Brer Fox all from the stories of Uncle Remus in the film Song of the South.  This means getting to sing along to that jolly song Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.

Arriving at the Magic Kingdom

 

We left the hotel room at 8.15am and went down the one floor to the Monorail, which pulls in on the second floor of the hotel. We were on the Monorail by 8.30am and got to the park just before 9am.

Early arrival at the park means being there with lots of other excited people looking forward to a day of fun and laughter. 

The main entrance to the park leads into Main Street with its oldy worldy facades in front of real shops selling all types of Disney merchandise. Leading up, past the statue of Walt and Mickey, to Cinderella's castle.


Drew took a lot of photos of the Castle and what each of them shows is the amount of detail that has gone into its design and layout. They include some mosaics with the story of Cinders. For more photos click here.ext 

Onto the Rides

 

Our first ride, as I guessed it would be. Was the gentle ride through a Small World, accompanied by the singing of the song 'It's a small world after all' in multiple languages. A song which embeds itself into your mind, so you end up randomly singing it hours and days later.

The next ride was our pre-booked 'FastPass+' on Splash Mountain. FastPass allows you to pre-book rides (up to three a day in the first instance) so that you enter the FastPass entrance rather than the queue for 'Stand-by' entry. In the case of Spalsh Mountain, one of the popular rides standby was already 90 minutes even at 10am. For comparison A Small World was 10 minutes wait.

The ride was great fun, and we got plenty wet as we went around. Drew and I can be seen immediately after the soaking. It looks like I am enjoying it, and I am - in Florida weather this will soon dry off.

As we were in the area of the Park called FrontierLand we decided to take the opportunity to go onto another of the rides. This one Big Thunder Mountain only had a standby time of 20 minutes, so we joined the queue.

Big Thunder Mountain is a traditional rollercoaster with lots of bends and turns, drops and quick switches in direction. But due to the Disney Magic it is also a very detailed representation of Gold digging in the 1800s. These details make the wait go by quickly, if you don't know the ride you can click here for the first of a number of photos I took as walking along the queue. 

Drew is a little nervous of rides like Big Thunder Mountain, but instead of avoiding them he has learnt over the years to throw himself into them. And this he did. On this ride this involved Drew screeching loudly at every twist and turn. The young man in the carriage in front had to stick his finders in his ears given the sounds Drew (and I) were making.

Keeping to the theme of Roller-coasters our next FastPass got us into Space Mountain in TomorrowLand. This ride takes you 180 feet up before plunging you into darkness of twists and turns. It involves quite a lot of screaming.  

By this time the temperature had risen to 89F and things were a little sticky. Using the wonderful Disney App, we were able to see where the shortest standby times were in our part of the park and headed for the Monsters Inc - Laugh Floor, this was nearby, was air-conditioned and only had a 20 minute wait. Even though the laughs were targeted at a younger age range than ourselves they were still very funny and involved the monsters interacting with members of the audience whose image would suddenly appear on the screen. Thankfully not something that happened to me or Drew, but it did happen to the man sitting behind me, much to the embarrassment of his wife who wanted to hide herself - which the monsters' found even more amusing. This theme of 'two way' screens appears in other places in the parks, and always seems to work really well.


Our third FastPass of the day was for Pirates of the Caribbean. This ride in unusual as instead of being created based on Disney Films, as many of the rides are, the ride was created first and then, given its popularity, a whole range of films have been made on the back of it. Currently this stands as five films (one having its opening earlier this year). Of course subsequently the ride has been updated to take account of the emerging themes of the films. What I understand my arty friends (and software designers) would call developmental iteration. 

So we walked over to AdventureLand and enjoyed the ride, joining in to the iconic : 'Yo Ho. A Pirates Life for me. It is not the most exciting ride, but is always great fun, especially for the more enthusiastic people on the boat, as you can see in the picture.

A Country Bear signing autographs

Our next stop was an entertainment that we had not visited before in FrontierLand, we only went in to while away a few minutes before lunch, but we laughed at laughed at it. This was the Country Bears Jamboree a musical extravaganza of Animatronic bears leading a hoe-down. For those who want to hear more there is a video on You Tube.

Lunch   

When planning for the holiday Drew mentioned he had pleasant memories of a lovely meal at the Liberty Tree Tavern when we visited in 2004. So we looked to book dinner here - however the dinner menu is far less inciting than the Lunch menu, so we decided to invert our regular eating pattern and enjoy Lunch at the Liberty Tree. It was a good plan as the food was excellent.

We had booked our table for 1.30pm and were say within five minutes of arriving. We perused the menu and made our choices.

Drew opted for a traditional country dish of the Sweet Corn Fritters with House-made Pepper Jelly. The fritters were nicly fried and worked well with the jelly, which Drew warned me would be to sweet for me (I don't know if this means he enjoyed it so much he didn't want to share, or if it was genuinely sweet.)  

I went with the traditional New England Clam Chowder, this had little hexagon shaped saltines on top. The chowder was think, full of clams and delicious and the saltines gave a crisp texture which complemented the chowder very well indeed. 

Drew then went on to a main of burger (the third one this holiday!) which was an Angus Chuck Cheeseburger topped with Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Tomato, and Lettuce served with Fresh Fruit. There was an option of fries or fruit and much to the waitresses and my surprise, Drew opted for the fruit. <<Co-pilot's note: I would dear readers like to point out that I was equally flummoxed by the question. I just had to know what fruit they would give me.>> The fruit turned out to be a mix of Melon, Watermelon and grapes, an unusual combination with a burger. 

My mains was the house-special of Pot Roast served with Mashed Potatoes and sweet corn. I spent many a year wondering what a Pot Roast was, until I finally had one in 2002 in Santa Barbara. It is just an american way of talking about a piece of what we call roast meat, so no surprises. Though this particular beef pot roast was cooked until the meat could be shredded with a fork and came with a rich beef gravy.

After Lunch

I mentioned Fastpass and the Mobile App earlier. Once you had used the last of your three fastpasses for the day you are eligible to book another one. This can be done in the Mobile App or on devices distributed about the park. While having lunch we opted for Mickey's PhilharMagic for after lunch. This 4D concert takes themes from various Disney films and sees Donald Duck trying to follow with the music. This is very funny, but also amusing.

Next we walked down to the area between the Caste and Main Street where we could get a good view of the Festival of Fantasy Parade. These wonderful displays of Disney characters are the highlight of the day. To see the joy of the children looking up at their favorite characters is a joy in itself. But seeing your own favorites, and new characters too, is all part of the fun. 

The parade included old favorites like Donald and Daisy Duck, Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, Belle, Ariel, Sebastian, the seven dwarfs, Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee and Tick-Tock the Crocodile. Alongside characters Drew introduced me to in the last year to prepare me for the holiday including Elsa and Anna from Frozen. 

Then there were characters completely new to me (at least in a Disney contexts) like Tiana, Flynn Rider, Rapunzel, and the Scottish Merida. Then, most amazing of all, was a huge fire-breathing, clockwork dragon. The whole procession being brought to an end by Mickey and Minnie giving us time to sing: 'M I C K E Y M O U S E - Mickey Mouse' 

The sense of celebration is intense and I can not describe the emotions the parade draws out, including us joining the back of the parade and walking/dancing behind Mickey and Minnie. Do I feel like I am a child again, well yes, and do you know what - I really enjoy it.