[dmallan]

DAY 3 – Thursday, January 10th

We have another long day planned for today, starting with breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We get up around 8:00 and are on our way to the bus stop by 8:45. We take a bus to the Magic Kingdom, then the monorail to the Grand Floridian. We have some time before our 10:00 reservation, so we walk around outside a bit. We are disappointed to see that they are renovating inside and the entire lobby area is covered from ceiling to floor with huge plastic tarps. We had hoped to take some pictures inside, but outside pics will have to do. Once we check in at the desk, our wait is under 10 minutes and we are seated. Our server, Joan, is very pleasant. She takes our beverage order and points us in the direction of the buffet. Before we know it Mary Poppins comes over to visit and we take some great pictures.
The food is wonderful – the selection is fantastic – and the characters stop by often. In addition to Mary Poppins, we have our pictures taken with Pooh, Tigger, Alice and the Mad Hatter. Total cost for the 5 of us is $101.13. We add the tip and make it $120



After breakfast we make our way back to the Magic Kingdom via the monorail, and head for Adventureland. We get a fastpass for Jungle Cruise and scoot over to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we head back to ride Jungle Cruise. The captain has all the usual corny jokes and Tom and Jeff are just loving it, but unfortunately he is having problems with his microphone. It only works half the time and is breaking up the other half. But he makes it through and gets a round of applause for his perseverance from everyone on board. We then head to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The wait time is listed as 20 minutes, but it ends up being more like 45 minutes and the whole time we have a very large foreign tour group in front of us (henceforth known as the blue-shirts) who are loud and obnoxious. It makes the 45 minutes seem like hours, but we are finally on the ride. We find out later that Tom and Liz were taking some awesome videos of the ride! Very fast and fun! Now we go to Liberty Square to see the Hall of Presidents and the Haunted Mansion. It’s always fun to see the old favorites! Not too long of a wait for either one. The line for Haunted Mansion seems long, but it moves along pretty quickly. Then we head for Fantasyland. We get fastpasses for Peter Pan’s flight and then Jeff, Katie and I ride It’s a Small World. We all go in to see Mickey’s Philharmagic, and then Jeff and I ride Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel and Liz, Kate and Tom ride the Mad Tea Party.



Then we walk into Tomorrowland. The first attraction we hit is Space Mountain. The wait is not too long – under 20 minutes, I guess. Then we do the Carousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Stitch’s Great Escape. We then head back to Fantasyland and ride Peter Pan’s Flight. It is almost 6:00 and we are getting hungry, so we go back to Frontierland and eat dinner at Pecos Bill’s. Jeff and Liz have a cheeseburger, Tom has a bacon double cheeseburger, and Katie and I split a chicken wrap. With drinks the total comes to $37.09. We find a table outside and then decide it would be a good spot to watch Spectromagic. After we finish eating, we get a spot right behind the stone planter near the steps. There are already some people sitting on the side facing the street, but from where we stand, we can see right over their heads. The parade starts at 7:00, but by the time it gets around to us, it is almost 7:30. After Spectromagic we walk toward the castle and find a spot to watch Wishes fireworks, which is just about to begin. We are not in front of the castle and so the fireworks are off to our left, and there are some trees in front of us, but we don’t mind because we’re in our own little space and not in the middle of a huge crowd. After the show we wait for a bit in the hub, take some pictures of the castle and then make our way down Main Street to get to the busses. Again, we wait for some time for a bus. We finally end up taking a bus that only goes to All Star Sports. When we get there, we get off and made our way across the parking lot to our resort and then head to the food court for some ice cream. It is 10:15. We get a couple sundaes and tom gets a salad. Total is $14.81. Another fun day!

The best thing today was…Thunder Mountain & Space Mountain
The worst thing today was…waiting in line for Thunder Mountain
The funniest thing today was…Tom and Tigger at breakfast & the Jungle Cruise tour guide
Today we tried…Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare
And the result was…fun and delicious!
The most magical moment today was…Mickey’s Philharmagic and Spectromagic