That was one expensive holiday!: Day 3 – Magic Kingdom

[wickesy]

Once again we were awake early and by 7:30 we were both up, washed and dressed. The plan for this morning was to visit Magic Kingdom so we left the room at 8:00 and even though Dad had to go back to get my hat which I had left in the room we were still at the TTC by 8:30. There was a short queue for the monorail but we were at the turnstiles by 8:45 and for the first time ever we were in time to see the opening ceremony.





Once the park was open we made our way round to Fantasyland and, as Pooh was not open our first ride was Peter Pan’s Flight. From there we went back and rode Pooh and Snow White in quick succession before moving on to It’s A Small World, where I was given a red tag by the Cast Member at the entrance and asked to give it to the Cast Member at the loading dock in order to help them measure the queue time. I’m not sure it helped them that much because at that time of the morning it was a walk on anyway!

We were all done in Fantasyland by 9:30 so we wandered round to Frontierland to get Fast Passes for Splash Mountain. As we walked past the big drop we noticed a log come down empty, a couple of half full logs came down and then another empty one. The ride entrance was showing a 20 minute wait time but I decided not to bother with the Fast Passes and go through the standby entrance instead. It turned out to be the right decision as the ride was virtually a walk-on.

We got soaked both at the start of the ride and at the drop and, because I had been brave enough to put my arms up for the drop we decided to buy the ride photograph.



After the wash cycle it was time for a tumble-dry so we went over to Big Thunder Mountain which again was showing a 20 minute wait time but turned out to be more like about 10 minutes.

We rode Thunder Mountain and walked round towards Pirates of the Caribbean, pausing along the way to see if El Pirata y El Perico was open today. It wasn’t actually open at that time but we could see that it would be opening so I decided that we would go there for an early lunch once we came off of Pirates.

Pirates was also about a 10 minute wait and I think the Davy Jones water effect was missing from the start as well. We came off of Pirates and went back to El Pirata and once it opened about 5 minutes later both Dad and I had the Beef Tacos with rice and a coke.

After lunch we went back to the hotel for Dad to sort out his hearing aid, which was playing up due to the soaking on Splash Mountain and then made our way out to Wide World of Sports as I wanted to see if I could collect our tickets for the baseball game that we were going to on Tuesday. I was told that ‘Will Call’ was not available until the day of the game so we came away empty handed and made our way over to EPCOT for a forum meet that was taking place at Rose & Crown at 2 p.m.

We parked up in Create 42 and made our way to the UK pavilion arriving at the Rose & Crown at about 1:30 p.m. The pub was crowded but just as Dad had been served with our drinks a group of people at one of the tables asked me to take their picture and once I had obliged they said that we could have the table as they were just leaving.

We met up with the others from the forum and had a chat for an hour or so before going our separate ways.

Dad and I had a wander around MouseGear and then went off to find our Leave A Legacy tile. We eventually found it and I made a mental note of where it was so that I could find it a bit easier next time.

We then left the park and made our way back to the hotel to get ready for our reservation at Jiko at 6 p.m.

At 5:00 we went down to the bar for a pre-dinner cocktail; a strawberry basil lemonade for me and a margarita for Dad, and then at 5:45 we went to check in for our reservation. We were given a pager but we had barely sat down when the pager went off signalling that our table was ready. We were shown to our table and introduced to our server, Khatuna, who went through the menu with us and explained what was what. For starters Dad had the Taste of Africa, which was a selection of four dips with bread and I had the Chef’s Specialty Flatbread, which was bacon and sausage. For main course we both had the Tanglewood Chicken. Dad had a glass of Chocolate Block red wine and I had a glass of Brampton’s Unoaked Chardonnay. For dessert Dad had the Allspice Cake with berries and I had the pistachio crθme brulee and we had a cup of coffee each. The total bill was $120, which was expensive but, we thought, well worth it.

We were both completely stuffed so we waddled back to the room where we just relaxed for a while and did a bit of internet surfing on my laptop ($9.95 for 24 hours). We were in bed at 10:00 safe in the knowledge that tomorrow is a shopping/rest day.

Tomorrow: Day 4 - Shopping

[Ilovesnowwhitej]

Wonderfull pictures, what a brilliant day you both had. I have noticed your taste in drinks have upgraded; Chocolate Block red wine and I had a glass of Brampton’s Unoaked Chardonnay.

[Isafari]

Loved reading about your day
We've never seen an opening ceremony yet but I'm going to make an effort to see the MK one next visit.

[wickesy]

Loved reading about your day
We've never seen an opening ceremony yet but I'm going to make an effort to see the MK one next visit.

It's quite ironic that we never saw it the two visits when we stayed at the Contemporary Resort 10 minutes walk away but on this trip when we stayed at AKL (just about as far away as you can get and still stay on-site) we saw it twice.

[dave&pauline]

great day and pics

[nannav]

we didnt see any opening ceremonies with four kids under four we didnt get out too early even though we were up at silly oclock maybe next time as we hope to stay onsite