"Party of 12 please" Day 13, a little magic and a lot of p

[BevS97]

Thursday, 4th November

The plan for this morning is to get up early and get to Magic Kingdom in time for early entry. We are all up early, but unfortunatly we can't find anything we need, including my hairbrush and since I was standing with wet unbrushed hair, this turned into a bit of a crisis - eventually the brush was found under the bed, along with a lot of other things - we think Molly had been finding things and stashing them there.
Hair brushed, we can leave. We get the bus to Magic Kingdom and enter the park just before 9 - so not particularly early.

On the way into the park, we see loads of characters, so Katie stopped to say hello to Wendy



We then set off in search of some breakfast - we didn't have long as we had to meet the gang at 9.45 at City Hall. We had planned on going to the Main Street Bakery, but it was heaving - line right down Main Street, so we walked round to tomorrowland, but nothign suitable there - back past the castle



You would think the park was quiet today, looking at this photograph, but you'd be wrong...


and over the bridge towards Liberty Square - we managed to get some muffins and cookies at the Sleepy Hollow place just over the bridge, but I have to say I was surprised at the lack of breakfast options in Magic Kingdom - I've never really thought about it before, but it was hard to find anything suitable.

After we'd eaten, we headed back to our meeting place, and found the rest of the gang and got our name tags for the tour - the name tags were really cute with Peter Pan on them.


We had to wait for 2 other families to join us before the tour could start, and one family was really late, so we had quite a long wait, but just when we were ready to leave, the tour guide appeared all flustered and told us that there was a problem, our tour of the highlights of Magic Kingdom was cancelled because Peter Pan had stolen Captain Hooks' Hook, and if Hook didn't get it back before noon, he was going to destroy the Magic Kingdom. Obviously we were all most upset, but we told her that we would help her find the hook and save the Magic Kingdom - she was qute relieved to hear we could help!

Peter had left us a few things to help us find the hook, and we had to scour the area and find what he had left for us.


I'm not sure how much detail to go into here - I'll tell you the first clue, so you get a feeling for what we had to do, but then I'll just give you highlights of the rest, in case you want to take the tour yourself.

Clue 1: Go to the center of all the lands, and find Walt and Mickey hand in hand. Choose the character you want to be and bring them to life for all to see.

So we had to head for the castle, and find the statue, then everyone had to choose a character and act like that character and when we had succeeded we were sprinkled with Pixie Dust and we read the next clue.

The clues took us into Tomorrowland, looking for hidden mickeys, on the TTA, crawling past Sonny Eclipse, Hop Skip and Jumping, playing follow the leader through to Adventureland... I shall stop briefly here, while we were playing follow the leader, one of the children in the other party fell and grazed her knee - I wasn't massively impressed with our guide, she didn't have any sort of first aid kit and didn't really seem to know what to do - it didn't seem to be a bad graze, so a few plasters were found and we continued on, but at some point between there and the end, the little girl and her family left the tour as she was upset. I am not sure when they left, they just slipped away quietly, but the end of the tour is the best bit it was a massive shame that she didn't make it to the end.

Here we are hopping, skipping and jumping


We made it to the end of the tour, and we were in a small private area sort of behing the christmas shop in Liberty Square. We had to find the hook so we were searching everywhere but we still couldn't find it.
Just when we were starting to wonder where else to look, we spotted movement in the trees, and suddenly Peter Pan and Wendy were with us.

Wendy was rather cross with Peter for stealing the hook and putting the Magic Kingdom into danger, and they had a bit of a row.


but fortunately, with their help we were able to find the hook and the Magic Kingdom was saved.

We had the usual photographs and autographs


As a thank you for saving the Magic Kingdom, they asked us to join them on a ride, and we all walked round to Philharmagic - Just walking their was brilliant, we were strolling along chatting with Wendy and Peter and everyone was looking at us, I really felt like Royalty. If anyone asked Peter for an autograph he would say 'Sorry, I am with these special guests right now, but I will see you later at Pirates of the Caribbean' and that was that.

We got round to Philharmagic, and went in the Fastpass entrance, I'm not quite sure why but we waited for the following show, so while the first show was on, we were left alone in teh waiting area with Peter and Wendy for ages - I don't know how long the show is but it must have been 10 or 15 minutes. They were very entertaining, chatting with all the kids (and the adults) and telling stories. Then when the doors opened, they took the kids with them and we all went in and sat in the front row.

During the show, there is a Peter Pan segment and the entire auditorium burst into applause, I looked along to where Peter was sitting, and I really wish I had taken a photo - he was sat on his haunches on the chair in a very "Peter Pan" pose and he was clapping and giggling like mad, very excited to see his big moment on the screen.

After the show, we came out of the auditorium and waited to one side while the crowd left, then we were all presented with certificates for helping to save the Magic Kingdom, and we had to say goodbye to Peter and Wendy.
All in all it was a very very magical morning and I would highly recommend it to anyone.


After our rather exciting morning, we were all in need of a sit down and recharge of the batterys - so we headed to our new favourite place, Mrs Potts Cupboard for ice cream sundaes.
I seem to think we spent quite a long time eating and just chatting about our exciting morning - we were all on a real high.

This morning on our quest for breakfast, we had been told that Stitch would be opening later on today, so we decided to see if it was open - it was but the lines were 55 minutes and there were no FastPasses so we decided not to bother. The entire park was really really busy today, the busiest that I have ever known Magic Kingdom so we were a bit unsure what to do next.
Neil had heard that Jungle Cruise had been refurbished, so we decided to try that, it was posted as 15 minutes, so we decided that wasn't too bad. Molly was asleep, so Phil walked round to Big Thunder Mountain to get Fast Passes while we got in the '15' minute queue . It was probably closer to 30 minutes and one of the longest lines I've ever stood in at WDW - if we came when every day was this busy then I think I would have a very different impression of Disney holidays, we have definitely been spoiled in the past.
Eventually, we make it aboard our cruise, and much to Neil's dissapointment nothing has changed from previous years. We had quite a funny guide, but towards the end of the cruise we got stuck in a traffic jam and she ran out of material (unless that was her material ? ) so she started to sing - it was quite bizarre...

Anyway, we returned from the Nile and the Amazon, and headed over to the Mountain. The FP's had a very short time on them, or the queue for Jungle Cruise was even longer than I thought, because by the time we got there our time was up.

We headed into the ride, leaving Molly with Dave and Bev, when Katie changed her mind and decided she didn't want to ride it. She was quite adamant and refused to join us. I was really disappointed as I knew she would love it - so I asked her to come and hold my hand as I was scared - for some reason this worked, and she agreed to come.
we walked past an enormous queue (boy was I glad for Fast Pass) and straight onto the train.
Katie was being quite brave but said she was going to hold onto the bar very tightly and not let go. So, we go down the first drop and she has her hands way up in the air and is screaming 'yeah'

Its safe to say she really enjoyed it I was all excited to buy her a ride photo since it was her first ride, but unfortunatly they don't do ride photos, so we are pleased to have this one that neil took on the way round.

We came back out and let Dave and Bev go in and do the ride, and we waited with Molly and the kids. While we were waiting, I saw someone walking by that looked familiar - it took me a while to work out why I knew and then I couldn't remember a name, so I am saying to Michelle - look look - there's those people that we know, you know the people from the beach, and I'm shouting at those people 'Hey people' (honestly, hey people... )

anyway, Michelle knew Gail and Nigels real name, so she was able to shout at them, and they stopped to say hello and tell us all about their holiday.
We stood outside BTMR for quite a while exchanging storys and catching up.
We were starting to get hungry, so we (Bev, Phil, Katie and Molly) said our goodbyes and headed off - we popped into our favourite place, Columbia Harbour House for a bite to eat. By this point in the trip I was getting really tired of fried food, so I was really excited to discover I could get a tuna sandwich and a cup of chowder ( I love this chowder) - actually I was really really excited, way more excited than a person should get over a tuna sandwich but it was really good and just what I wanted. Phil Molly and Katie had fish and chips - just what they wanted but fried.

We headed out of the park after eating, when we spotted a must see character _ pocahontas nd Meeko - you have to understand that Katie LOVES pocahontas so we have to do/see/buy anything Pocahontas.

We stopped to get an autograph and a photograph, and then caught the bus home.

As we walked through the reception at Port Orleans FQ, the guy at the DVC stand spotted us, and he shouted out, 'Hey Katie, I just heard you guys saved the Magic Kingdom - Well done guys'
Katie was really impressed that he had heard all about us and our day!

We had a sleep/swim and got changed for dinner, and then we drove to the Contemporary (there is the most fabulous shortcut from Port Orleans, you can head up past Fort Wilderness and you come onto the road just past the Magic Kingdom Toll Booth - but that's beside the point)
we met everyone in the Outer Limits Bar again, and I was really fancying another of those expensive godiva cocktails, but unfortunately the bartender was no where to be found.
We were seated in Chef Mickeys at a fantastic round table right by the window just as Wishes was finishing - we just saw the very end of the fireworks, but you could tell the view would be spectacular from here.

It is brilliant sitting at a round table rather than a long one, really socialable and really added to a wonderful atmosphere at what was almost our 'last supper'. Chef Mickeys is a buffet and the food was good (although some disagreement on the well doneness of the steak - it was fine for me but I like mine quite rare, those who like well done were not too pleased) but that minor point aside, the food was great, and we saw loads of characters by the end of the evening I think we had seen them all about 4 times - including a very rare sighting - the Duck himself.


We had a lovely meal and then all headed home and I started to think about that awful thing - packing...
I decided it could wait until the morning though

[Orlandobelle]

That Tour is top of my 'to do' list for next visit - think I've leftit a bit too late for this time

Brilliant Bev thanks

[Guest]

Tour sounds brilliant and I'm sure kids would love it...if I can persuade DH to return thats on my to do list...great report beV

mnis

[AlisonB]

The tour sounds great Bev!

[Guest]

The tour sounds like a must do. What a great day you all had. Heather

[Mike]

Thanks Bev!.. what a full day! Respect!

I like the idea of the tour, but I'm not sure what my DD and DS would make of it... maybe...

Mike

[ANGEL]

oh! do you think Becky is too old for the Peter Pan tour Bev?...

it sounds so lovely...

[janeywaney]

What a fantastic day you all had.
Jane

[Scotty]

DH has just agreed to do the tour in Feb. It sounds great.

[Guest]

I love the BTMRR pic.

The tour sounded good fun!