Before leaving the hotel this morning, we called the dining line on our phone and made Priority Seating arrangements for our dinner that day, which would be at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. I'd never eaten in Crystal Palace before, and was eager to try it.
After our typical morning routine, we hopped in the van and headed out to Walgreens, where I dropped off yet more film. I didn't know the names, but the women who worked at the Walgreens photo counter were beginning to be old friends to me by now.
We parked at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) and took the express monorail to the Magic Kingdom. I'll be honest; Magic Kingdom is not my favorite park at Walt Disney World. It has more kid-themed attractions, some of which are becoming a bit dated, than the other parks, and it's usually more crowded than the others (depending on the day of the week). Still, it was a Disney park, and the Magic was there. I just love walking out from under the train station and seeing Main Street and the castle; it's the most special part of MK, the part which most people associate with Disney Magic more than anything else.
Our first stop was City Hall. We had purchased E-Ride Night passes on Sunday, from the Guest Services desk at our hotel, and tonight was the big night. Even though it was first thing in the morning, we were eager to exchange our plastic cards for the wristbands that would entitle us to remain in the park for three hours after it's official closing time. We asked a Cast Member, and were told where we could get our wristbands, and that the table wouldn't be open until 4pm.
No problem; we had plenty of time, and lots of film to burn.
We took a few pictures of Main Street; Frank must have panned the camcorder over the whole street twice before we moved on. Frank posed for a shot with the Partners statue, I posed with the Mickey and Minnie topiaries, and we moved on into Tomorrowland.
Tomorrowland is my favorite part of Magic Kingdom. We rode Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin (first time), saw Alien Encounter, rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (also first time), and headed out for Space Mountain. The park was deserted, by MK standards. Everything had been a walk-on so far; there were no lines, no waiting, just walk right on in and get on the ride. But Space Mountain decided to change that for us. It had a short line, but, as we got to the halfway point in the queue, the ride broke. So we stood there. Having been to Disney many times, in both on- and off-season, Frank was quite accustomed to waiting in line for a ride. And although I've only been there half as many times as he has, I'd waited in my share of queues, as well; so when Space Mountain broke, and we wound up waiting about 40 minutes for it, neither of us even thought about getting out of line and moving on.
When it did finally run, Space Mountain was as good as I remembered it.
It wasn't quite time for lunch yet, but we hadn't stopped for breakfast that morning, so we were staved. We stopped at the Lunching Pad and got a couple of smoked turkey legs (what happens to the rest of the turkeys?) The turkey leg was something I'd never tried at Disney, and had heard people raving over for quite a while. Frank had gotten one at MGM just the other night, and said it was fantastic; so, of course, I had high hopes for this turkey leg. They were promptly dashed, however, when I took my first bite. The taste was fine, but it had to be the toughest, stringiest piece of turkey I've ever eaten. Frank said his was just as bad.
Well, I like to think of myself as a fair man, I figured I'd try another one later, just to see if this one was anomalous.
Thankfully, I had packed some of those disposable handi-wipes for just such a greasy-hands emergency.
After a quick bathroom break, we walked through Fantasyland to get to Liberty Square. Our objective: the Haunted Mansion. Not very scary, but definitely a fun attraction. I usually spend the ride quoting from the Ghostbusters movies (He's right here Ray. He's looking at me!)
I've been on that particular boat ride before; it goes out through the Seven Seas Lagoon and across Bay Lake. But this year, it also made a stop at the Fort Wilderness campground, which I had not seen before. I guessed that Disney had consolidated the two boat routes, one to Fort Wilderness, one to Wilderness Lodge, in order to save a few dollars. After all, those boats are pretty expensive to run, and if they're only one-quarter full during the day, that translates into a lot of wasted money. So we got a longer ride than I expected, but this didn't concern me, because it allowed me to see some parts of Bay Lake I'd never seen before, and to take pictures of them.
The Wilderness Lodge is one of Disney's masterpieces. I'm never less than awed when I walk into that soaring lobby, with it's faux wooden columns (I think they're real wood, but with steel hidden inside), the incredible fireplace, and the stream running right through the middle of it. The outside portion, with the waterfall, the pool and waterslide, and spectacular panoramic view of Bay Lake, is equally awesome.
I always take lots of pictures of the outside. I rarely get any pictures of the inside to turn out, however, because it's too dark, and I can't find a place to set my camera for a long-exposure shot. Oh, well... maybe someday.
After WL, we were still in a mood to explore resorts, so we took the boat back to MK, then hopped aboard the resort monorail. We got off at the Polynesian.
Before Wilderness Lodge, Before Coronado Springs, before Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans or the Swan & Dolphin, there were the Monorail Resorts. And king among these resorts has always been the Polynesian (Poly to it's friends). Poly is a world unto itself; getting off the monorail immerses you in the South Pacific, with music, architecture, food, and landscaping that are all designed to make you forget that you're actually in central Florida. No, instead, you feel as if you're in one of the many magnificent island chains that dot the southern half of the Pacific ocean.
We shopped in the gift shops, of course, and checked out the menu at Ohana, the nice restaurant on the upper level. We planned to eat there sometime before we went home. Then we went outside to explore the grounds a little. Our fist stop was the big pool on the shores of Bay Lake... and what a pool it was! I'm not an expert on Poly, but I don't believe that pool existed the last time I'd been out on the resort's grounds. Huge, blue, and equipped with a terrific water slide, the pool was situated next to a bar, and had a zero-depth entry (read: a concrete beach) facing the lake. Walk out of the pool, keep on going for fifty feet, and you're on the beach at Bay Lake. The whole thing made me want to dive right in, especially considering the 90-degree heat that day.
I wasn't happy about having to trek all the way to the other side of the World (literally!) for a cold drink, but since I was there, I made the best of it. I got a root beer float. I have to admit, Pure and Simple has some of the best root beer floats I've ever had.
As 4pm came and went, we again embarked on the epic journey from one end of Walt Disney World property to the other, returning at length to the Magic Kingdom, where we went to the designated table to get our E-Ride Night wristbands. Then we shopped a little in the Emporium. When our 5:30 PS at Crystal Palace was near, we made our way there, making sure to show up early. Crystal Palace is one of the more popular places to eat at MK. It's a character meal, populated by the Hundred Acre Wood Gang (Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, et al.), and is also a very pretty place with a very tasty all-you-can-eat buffet. We wound up having to wait a few minutes on the front porch of the restaurant, which I enjoyed, because the view of the castle was fantastic, and I got some great pictures while I was sitting there.
When we did get into the restaurant, we immediately started chowing down on the prime rib, roasted duck, and other delicacies. As I put a duck drumstick on my plate, I remarked to the CM who was slicing the prime rib, "Hey, I just had my picture taken with this duck at Chef Mickey's a couple of nights ago!" Her response: "No, no, no, that's a totally different duck!" We did wind up getting pictures with all the characters.
Our dinner was excellent, and we enjoyed it for quite a while. Afterward, we wandered past the castle and back into Adventureland. I wanted to try some pictures from a high vantage point, and the only one we could think of was the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse; unfortunately, other (real) trees partially blocked the view of the castle. Oh, well, the treehouse is fun to walk through, anyway.
We browsed the shop behind Aladdin's Magic Carpets for a little while. It was getting close to the park's 7pm closing time now, so we decided to try Pirates of the Caribbean, since it would not be open for E-ride night. We managed to get on it just before park closing.
Our next stop was Big Splash Mountain.
The last time I'd been on an E-Ride Night, back in 1997, I rode splash mountain... and got so wet that I was dripping on the pavement for a half-hour afterward. And it had been cool that night, so I was very uncomfortable. Tonight, though, I made sure to sit in the back of the boat, and wrapped my camera up tight in plastic. Somehow, though, I didn't get more than a light spritzing.
The people in the front seat, however, got deluged.
I also made sure to make the most terrified face I could manage during the final drop, in anticipation of the automatic picture. Frank, sitting next to me, had more of a 'Yahoo!' face. I liked the picture when I saw it; I bought it, and filled out the form to have it sent to my hotel room.
We wandered around a bit after that, stopping to shoot at the Frontierland Shootin' Arcade (how much longer before political correctness forces that attraction out?), and took the time to shoot some night pictures of Big Thunder Mountain and the Liberty Belle Riverboat. Then we went through the Haunted Mansion again. We also stopped to try some night-time castle pictures, but I couldn't find a good place to rest my camera for the long exposure, so none of them turned out the way I hoped.
Passing through the circle in front of the castle, we noticed that there were characters present there for guest photos, so we paused to have pictures taken with Mickey. Then we continued on into Tomorrowland.
I shot a couple of pictures of Tomorrowland at night, all lit up and mostly empty, before we rode Buzz, TTA, and Alien Encounter.
On our return to Main Street, we got pictures with Goofy and Pluto, before getting a snack; Frank opted for a hot dog from Caseys Corner, while I went for a root beer float from the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor. Frank seemed to enjoy the dog, but my float was quite inferior to the ones I'd gotten at Epcot.
E-Night was drawing to a close, so we headed down Main Street toward the exit; I stopped to have my picture taken with Roy Disney, and try for a castle shot from the balcony of the train station (which didn't turn out bad, except for the flagpole running down the middle of it). And just like that, E-night was over.
The one remaining detail for the day was to make another run to Walgreens to pick up my current batch of pictures, and drop off another couple of rolls. Then it was back to the hotel, and the day was done.