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Old 9 Aug 17, 03:26 PM  
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BevS97
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The Dibb made me do it -Day 15 - An evening in Magic Kingdom

Today’s plan’s were to get to Magic Kingdom quite late, and stay for the fireworks. I was hoping to arrive after the worst of the heat, when things were starting to cool down.
We had a really lazy morning, we didn’t even go to the pool, the girls slept until 10 and we weren’t really up and ready until 11:30. We had nearly run out of food in the room, so Phil and I walked down to the Boardwalk Bakery and picked up some pastries and danishes.
While we were eating our pastries, we talked about what we wanted to do before Magic Kingdom. I needed to go to the shops for more food supplies, and wanted to take a look in the Premium Outlets. The girls have pretty much spent their money, so they weren’t interested in shopping. We decided to split up. Phil and I went to the shops, and they took themselves off to Epcot. Katie is going to write about their afternoon in Epcot, which I will add later. It would appear they took quite a few Photopass photos.

Phil and I went to the Premium Outlets, I’d really fancied a Vera Bradley purse (wallet), but hadn’t seen one I liked at the other outlet. I didn’t really see one I liked here either, so I' decided that they probably weren’t going to work for me. The American wallets don’t seem to hold a lot of coins, and obviously with having pound coins, I find I need space to carry quite a few coins, so wanted one with a larger coin section.
We had a quick look in Sketchers, mainly to avoid the very brief rain storm, and then I thought I’d look in Fossil. It’s not a shop I’ve really looked in before but they had some gorgeous pink purses and I was able to find one with a larger coin section. It was marked at $55 but it was $18 when I paid for it. I think 50% off and then an additional 20%. I am quite pleased with it.
We had a quick look in the Disney store, but I didn’t really see anything I wanted. I did notice they had quite a few of the Dooney and Bourke Bags in and they were about half price or less.
We wanted to get to Magic Kingdom, and we needed to to to Publix, so we just walked pretty quickly around the rest of the shops. I do need to make one more shopping stop but we weren’t going to have time today.
We found the Publix behind the Premium Outlets, and bought some basics. We only really bought water, bread and sandwich stuff, crisps, breakfast food, one ready meal, but it came to $80. It seems like every time we’ve gone in a Supermarket it’s cost $80.
As we left the Supermarket, a woman approached me. She was on her cell phone, telling her mom that they were going to come and tow the car as it was broken down, then she asked me for cash to get the bus to Florida Mall. She offered me a Starbucks giftcard for the cash. It was a very odd story, and I was immediately suspicious. I don’t like to think the worst of people but the story didn’t add up at all, so I told her I had no cash and just got in the car. I am pretty sure it was some sort of scam, but I didn’t really get her story. If your car was broken down here, wouldn’t you just wait near it for the tow truck? She mentioned her daughter but there was no sign of the daughter. Anyway, I didn’t give her anything but it’s the first time I’ve encountered anything like that in Orlando. Maybe I’m wrong and she was stuck but I really don’t think so.
We went back to the Boardwalk to drop off the food and the car, and then we got the bus to Magic Kingdom. We were the only people on the bus, so we got a private ride there!
We arrived about 3:20, so I thought we’d either have missed the parade or we’d see the very end, but we found the girls right at the end of main street and they said it hadn’t started yet, it had been delayed due to rain. They had a great spot, right on the corner, but it was in full sun. My plans for a cool evening visit were thwarted right from the start, we were melting before the parade arrived. But when it did arrive, we had a great view.

Things were going great, Rapunzel waved hello.

and then her float stopped, and her music stopped too.
She chatted with us for ages, admiring the girls ears, and talking to the boys on her float about them

After about 5 minutes, this guy turned up.

I think Rapunzel was going to try and fix it with the frying pan!

There was much crawling under the float by engineers.

Flynn was now admiring the girls.

After about 10 minutes, they had hooked up a tow line and it was towed very unceremoniously through the rest of the parade!
The rest of the parade was full of performers who looked very hot and tired, but they all kept dancing throughout.

This Lost Boy was funny, he sneeked up behind the CM and then got a proper telling off!

The ‘2 for the price of 1’ dwarf costume!


As the parade ended we just dove straight into the closest shop (the Confectionary) to get out of the heat. We were melting! We walked up Main Street and into the Bakery (Starbucks) for a drink. I used to love the Main Street Bakery – I do like a Starbucks but it has lost some of it’s charm I think.
We all got a drink and then we went to the little side street for a sit down and cool off. Even on a very busy afternoon, this spot was empty.

There were some picnic tables free, but they were in the sun, so we sat on a little bench right at the end of the street and cooled off. After we’d cooled off, we walked up past the castle to the 7 dwarfs mine train. We had a fast pass to use.

We passed this show on the castle stage, although we didn’t stop and watch


We had a bit of a wait to get on the Mine Train even with the fast pass. Just before the train, they sort the parties into Odds and Evens, so that the Odd Parties are seated with other Odd Parties and there are no gaps. I thought this was clever.
We were under strict instructions from Molly – hands up and smile at all times. I think I managed it!

Our next fast pass was for Pirates of the Caribbean, so we walked around that way, with a brief stop at the Tangled Restrooms.
We had quite a long wait for Pirates as well, the fastpasses were obviously getting us into a shorter queue but they definitely weren’t removing all queueing. I had my camera with me, so tried to take some photos on the ride. They need a little photoshopping I think!

We survived our encounter with the Pirates,
and had a little sit down and think about where to go before our Big Thunder fastpass. The obvious answer, The Tiki Rooms!


The Tiki Rooms was the perfect choice, as when we came out it was time for Big Thunder Mountain. We walked over there, and again, had a little queue, but we were soon boarded. No photos from this as there is no ride photo – a good thing as I definitely didn’t smile through this one! It’s one big seat and I was next to Molly, so the lapbar wasn’t really holding her in, and we were both just sliding all over the seat. I think she was squashed quite a lot. I definitely prefer individual seats and lapbars! It’s not a particularly big coaster but it was very rough as we slid back and forth. I’ve ridden loads of times but that seemed worse than usual, I think because Molly and I are such different sizes.
We were all hungry, so we walked back to Columbia Harbour House, and on the way I made a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear for 7:30. As we passed Haunted Mansion, we saw it only had a 20 minute wait. Katie is terrified of this ride, she’s never ridden it, and for a long time wouldn’t even look at it. She was initially scared by a video when she was tiny and it’s stuck with her. I hadn’t made a fastpass as I knew she wouldn’t want to ride it, but as we passed I mentioned the queue was short and if she wanted to we could do it after dinner.
We went into Columbia Harbour House, and she was getting very fidgety, didn’t want to eat anything and generally anxious, then she said, lets just go and ride it now and then I can enjoy my dinner.
So we were straight back out and into the queue before she had time to think about it.
She’s about to study Set Design, so we looked at all the quirky things in the set on the way in, she loves this kind of stuff so it’s really up her street, and it kept her distracted.


We were quite lucky as the queue was short, and we were ushered straight through the holding room into the stretching room. Katie was squeezing my hand pretty tight at this point. Once we were actually on the ride, she relaxed a bit although I can’t say she enjoyed it. We did both scream at one point when something popped up in front of us, but then laughed as it was so silly.
After the ride, we had to have a celebratory photo. I know for many this is a small ride, but for Katie it had become a real nemesis, and for her to ride it was a huge deal, this is a relieved looking Katie, who immediately said, “Ok, I’ve ridden it, but I don’t think I need to ride it again!”

Ghosts successfully survived, it was definitely time for dinner now. We have a standing order at Columbia Harbour House, the girls get Sweet Potatoes from the stall outside, and Phil and I have Tuna Sandwich and Clam Chowder. However, the Sweet Potatoes have moved to a different around the corner, and I thought I’d try a new option, Chicken Pot Pie. Molly and I had Chicken Pot Pie, Katie had the Shrimp and Fish Platter and Phil had the Clam Chowder and some of Katie’s fish. I was a bit disappointed if I’m honest. The Pot Pie wasn’t as nice as I’d hoped, and the pastry was very crumbly which made it really hard to eat. I think I should have stuck with the Tuna Sandwich. As we finished our meal, I checked for the exact time of our fastpass, and realised I’d lost wifi and it had never actually finished booking. It was 7:30 and I thought the fastpass was for 7:35, so we’d obviously lost that slot. I managed to rebook it for 8:15, and we walked over to Tomorrowland, We saw Pooh and Tigger walking through the park, Molly high fived Tigger and he put his arm around her and walked with her for quite a while. I only managed a blurry photo as I was a bit unprepared.

We rode the TTA while we waited for our fastpass,

The castle was looking very pretty with the sunset behind it.

After the TTA, it was time to ride Buzz. We had a long wait in here, so long I was starting to worry we would miss the fireworks. We did get boarded eventually, I didn’t really play I just took photos. Which was hard as Phil is serious about his Buzz and he kept spinning the car when I least expected it!
I quite like this one though

After the ride, we walked back towards the castle. They were directing everyone behind Main Street towards teh entrance hub. It was a bit confusing, one CM said that was the way to the exit and for the fireworks to go back to the hub, so we did, and then the next CM said no, everyone had to go down the path and we could watch the fireworks from Main Street.

We did go down to the bottom of Main Street, and found what I thought was a pretty good spot.

Unfortunately, when the show started, the view looked more like this


I was a little bit frustrated, but poor Molly couldn’t see a thing. She hadn’t even realised there were projections on the castle until the very end of the show. She was very disappointed. We can try and go back but I’m not sure how we prevent the iPhone situation from happening again, even if we were nearer the hub.
I couldn’t really see, and I hate standing for ages as my back and feet start to hur so I went and sat on a curb to wait for the end of the show. I was quite shocked at how many people starting leaving with 5 minutes to go. I know the bus queues are long, but surely if you’ve stayed for the show you want to see all of it (and I realise that’s ironic since I was sitting down). I also saw someone get down on one knee and propose right at the finale of the show which was lovely.
As we had watched from near the exit, we were quite quickly out of the park and to our bus stop. Where we waited, and waited, and waited. 3 buses for the Swan and Dolphin came and went. The last time the Swan bus pulled up there was literally noone waiting for it. We had seen multiple buses for all the other resorts. People started murmuring and then complaining. Eventually we asked one of the cast members what was going on, and they said we’d have a bus ‘soon’, still quite a few buses pulled up for other resorts, but eventually we did get a bus, and were on our way back home. It was a bit of a frustrating end to what had been a really good day.

Edited at 03:29 PM.
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