4 posts tagged “magic kingdom”

I know I'm a little late, but I wanted to update on my weekend.  Friday night I hung out at my parents house after work because my grandparents had come down for the weekend to watch the Kentucky Derby and place bets at the nearby dog track (they do this every year...my grandmother just LOVES the Derby).  I ate dinner with them and then came home to watch my Friday night shows.  Tadd got home from work shortly after I got back and we just vegged and watched TV for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning I went shopping for the finishing touches for our costumes for Joe's graduation party that night at Betsy & Richard's.  The party was school-themed and guests were encouraged to come in costume, so I decided to go as a librarian and Tadd went as a gym teacher.  I picked up some track pants on clearance and a soccer whistle for Tadd's costume, and some fake glasses and a scarf for mine.  I got home and cleaned a bit, then started getting ready for the party.  My brother came by to tag along to the party.  He decided to come last-minute, so he threw together a "school sports fan" costume by wearing a Boston College t-shirt, visor, and one of those giant "#1" finger things that people wave around at sporting events.  

Despite the fact that I really wasn't in a party mood for most of the day, we ended up having a GREAT time, as we always do at Betsy & Richard's parties.  As a matter of fact, we were among the last to leave at the end of the night and I didn't go to sleep until around 3:30am.

Sunday we got a late start, but we decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours.  This is going to sound really strange, but I totally rediscovered the Hall of Presidents.  I know I had seen it before when I was very young, but it's one of those things in the MK that I always forget about completely.  I know it has the reputation of being the biggest snoozefest on property, but knowing that I hadn't experienced it in probably 15 years, plus with how much I love history, I decided to give it another try.  The waiting room is really neat...it's like a portrait gallery of various presidents, with a glass case on one wall containing all sorts of presidential artifacts. 

There's also a small domed rotunda in the center of the room with the presidential seal on the floor.  The show itself starts with a short film about the trials and tribulations of America's history and how it shaped us into the country we are today.  Then the curtains raise and you see all of the presidents in all their audio-animatronic glory, some are seated, some are standing.  All are in the contemporary fashions of their day.  The announcer goes through and introduces each of them, which takes quite awhile, but what I LOVED was that throughout the introductions, the animatronics stayed subtly animated.  They would randomly tap their feet, shift their weights, twiddle their fingers, etc.  When it was their turn to be announced, they would nod their heads slightly at the sound of their name.  And their heads would turn based on where the spotlight was at any given time.  Very subtle stuff, but quite effective and realistic.  We were seated close to the back, so I told Tadd I want to do it again and sit closer so I can take in the details better.  After introductions, Dubya gave a brief speech, followed by Lincoln.  It got me wondering...I wonder how soon after the new president is elected will they have their audio-animatronic added to the show.  I'm actually really excited about that, not just because I'd rather hear someone other than Dubya speak, but just because I want to see what they do next with this attraction to keep it current.  If we renew our passes as we plan to, we will very likely be able to see the new addition.  Anyways, all that to say that I give the Hall of Presidents two thumbs up.  No line, nice and cool, relaxing, great for history buffs, and you just HAVE to appreciate the amazing job the Imagineers have done with the audio-animatronics.  If you only have one day to do everything in the Magic Kingdom, this is easy to skip, but if you've already seen all the major attractions a million times, this is a HIGHLY underrated show.  A true hidden gem!

In the spirit of trying things we usually skip over, we also decided to give the Liberty Belle a try.  That's the giant white steamboat that sails around the Rivers of America.  This ride wasn't quite as big of a hit, but we were able to get some great shots of the Haunted Mansion and Thunder Mountain.  It wasn't bad, but not all that exciting either.  I much prefered Hall of Presidents.  We also did Tomorrowland Transportation Authority, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Carousel of Progress.  Believe it or not, this was Tadd's FIRST time on CoP!  With as many times as he and I have both been to MK (he used to WORK there, for heaven's sake), I couldn't believe it.  He thought it was hilarious how at the end, in the pseudo-futuristic-1989's-version-of-ultra-modern scene, the daughter says that she can't believe that there was ever a time when people lived without car phones.  That part REALLY needs to be updated.  Anyways, we ended our day with the Philharmagic 3-D movie, which I am a total sucker for.  I just think it's too cute!  Especially the part when Donald Duck is trying to fly with Peter Pan & Tinkerbell.  Anyways, it was a really relaxing day.  It was pretty crowded, but pretty much everything we did had no line because we totally avoided the most popular attractions.  I think the longest we waited was 15 minutes for Pirates (but since the line is inside and air-conditioned, we didn't mind a bit...it was HOT outside!).

I can't believe we're almost halfway through the week.  It always seems like the first few days of the week fly by, and then the last half of the week just drags.

Well, our marvelous and much-anticipated date night didn't quite go as planned.  Anyone who reads this who lives in Central Florida probably knows why.  It poured buckets most of the drive to WDW Saturday afternoon.  By the time we arrived at the Grand Floridian Resort, the rain had stopped, so we decided to go to our dinner reservations at the Grand Floridian Cafe and see how the weather was afterward to decide what to do.  We really enjoyed our dinner...I started with the mushroom soup, then for my entree had the chicken in a wine sauce with spinach, fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, and roasted onions in a delicious vinaigrette.  Tadd had the french onion soup, then the shrimp & prosciutto penne in an asiago cream sauce with asparagus tips.  Everything was very good and the service was top-notch.

The weather was still holding up when we finished dinner, so we walked down to the boat dock at the back of the resort and caught the next boat launch to the Magic Kingdom.  We had a 20-second shower while we were on our way on the boat, but I had hope that things were clearing up.  We got through the turnstiles and to the end of Main Street when the skies opened up again.  We made it to the covered passageway between Adventureland and Frontierland and had to take cover.  After about 20 minutes of intense wind, a deluge of rain, and crazy lightning and thunder, there was a lull.  So we, unfortunately decided to try to make our way out of the park.  The main reasons we wanted to go to MK that night were to see Wishes and Spectromagic, neither of which can go on in the rain, so there unfortunately wasn't much reason to stay if it was going to storm all night.  What a bummer...  Tadd said he'll make it up to me and I at least have Flower & Garden Festival to look forward to next Saturday.

Various other things going on:

The compressor in my car decided to die last week, so we had to spend $400 for another.  Luckily Tadd was able to replace it himself on Sunday, or it probably would have cost three times as much.  But it's really nice to have air conditioning in my car again.

Fantasy baseball is going great!  I'm in first place in our league.  Go Chase Utley!

I reached the 90-day point at work.  Got my benefits packet, but still no 90-day review.  Hopefully they will schedule one for me soon.  I'm definitely in need of a raise!

Thanks to anyone who did a no-rain dance for us last night.  It worked!  We weren't completely dry...we got a few drizzles here and there, but it really wasn't bad at all.  I never even had to open my umbrella once.  We had a fantastic time!  Rick hadn't been to MK in almost a decade, so it was fun showing him all the things that had changed.  The place was nearly deserted.  We literally had the place to ourselves almost all night!  The longest we had to wait was 5 minutes for Space Mountain and Peter Pan's Flight. 

And, just like last year, the fireworks display was worth the price of admission itself.  I swear, I could watch that show again and again and again.  The thing I like best about it are the theatrics.  They actually crafted a storyline that the pirates, led by Captain Hook & Captain Jack Sparrow, are trying to take over the castle, but King Triton (Ariel's father in The Little Mermaid) steps in to defend it.  They actually stage a pirate ship battle off of the castle.  The only mediums they use to convey the story are light effects projected on the castle, audio, and pyrotechnics...complete with very realistic-looking cannonball blasts off of the sides of the castle.  It might sound strange, but you just have to see it to believe it.  It's just incredible!  Rick got some video of the show with his cell phone, so I'll see if he will send it to me so I can post it here.

I finally got around to uploading a few pics from our Disney weekend.  We went to the Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom on Friday night.  I LOVE fall/autumn decorations, so I really got a kick out of how great Main Street looked with all the Halloween decorations!  They really went all out with the decor this year.