Pete the DISney nut
Official NUTcase
- Joined
- May 5, 2001
AKA Look at all the lovely people!!!
Saturday 16th dawned lovely and hot and sunny - and after the usual procedure of showering, breakfasting and getting our gear together we headed towards the buses and off to the Magic Kingdom we went - fully aware of a few things:
1. The top temperature - according to the weatherman - was going to hit 89F at 4pm. Huh! I can tell you it felt hotter than that at 11am!
2. Today was a Busy day in the MK - more of this later.
3. Today was also the start of Spring Break and there will be, as we were reliably informed, a lot of American visitors to the MK today.
The bus duly came - after a little wait - and we were off to the MK and a full day of excitement.
We got off the bus and, after going through the standard security process - hastened by myself having everything open for them while waiting to be seen - we were in and standing at the bottom of Main Street looking up at the Castle, we got an overwhelming rush of what can be best described as WOW!!! It truly is a wonderful sight and what helped was the weather - this was at just before 9am and the weather was so warm and the smells were wafting and there was a load of characters about greeting people - to one side there was Aladdin signing autographs, just behind him was Captain Hook and Smee walking around shaking hands, there was the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland, Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit from Song Of The South, Timon and Rafiki from the Lion King, and I am sure I saw the Genie from Aladdin at one point. There was also Alice herself walking around as well.
The last time we were there we never saw any characters at all so to see that many that early was so cool so - guess? - the camcorder came out and we spent just a few minutes catching the atmosphere and videod the characters doing the usual. It was lovely, just seeing them all and the sounds, I am smiling as I am writing this. It just made it all the more special.
The park did not seem that busy so we decided to do some rides and headed firstly towards Haunted Mansion - a favourite of ours but it was deadly (sorry, no pun intended) quiet. We were able to walk on immediately and into the car we got. I love the attention to detail on this ride and I don't know if it was me but the ride itself seemed a little longer this time. Probably just my memory, but it did seem different.
We decided - again before we left the UK - to take today slowly with it being a full day (the park was due to close 10pm) so we wandered around and soaked up the glorious weather and the hidden features of the park we had missed the last time so we walked slowly up towards the hub and saw they were getting ready for a forecourt show. Excellent, we said in unison, so we staked a place (in the shade, the sun was getting hotter!!!) and had a liquid break.
Does anyone else find they drink a lot more when they are in Florida? I mean, I drink quite a lot of soft drinks but Tracy normally finds she can go for a while without having a drink but we were matching each other drink for drink throughout the whole holiday. Also, and apologies for this, but we hardly had to go to the toilet for the business which makes me wonder where it goes
Anyway, I digress. What do you mean, no change there then?
I got us an ice cold bottle of pop each and drank them while watching the stage get set for the show and I decided to flex my creative muscles and video the show - for the memory. We had not watched the last forecourt show, which we were quite upset about, last time around so we decided to capture it for posterity.
It was a lovely show - and the scene where the Princesses come out near the beginning with their respective partners - I have to admit brought a lump to our throats. Tracy and I talked about this a few times since and we have come to the conclusion that those people who are inside the costumes must bake because the heat was going up and up and up - it was only 11am and the temperature already felt as hot as the weatherman said it was going to be at 4pm. Lovely jubbly!!!!!!
Anyway, we went from there to Tomorrowland and grabbed a turkey leg and a large drink each and spent a little while just admiring the view and watched the hordes of people milling around and queueing for Buzz Lightyear so we got FP's for this and went for a journey on the TTA - a blessed relief from the heat of the day and - joy of joys, it got stuck!! Just as we were going round the corner into Space Mountain, the cars came to a halt so we were in the shade and sitting down, a lovely gentle breeze blowing in our faces. Heaven.
We were stuck for ten minutes and once the cars came back to the disembarkation point, we decided to go round again!! Well, you have to don't you. So we went round again and we were hoping for a repeat performance but, alas, no luck. Never mind.
We got off and it ws time for our FP at Buzz so we walked over and - horror of horrors!!! - the queue for the Fastpass at Buzz was absolutely HUGE!!! Plus it was in the full heat of the sun and no shade was to be found at all. Never mind, we thought we would wait. Good job we did, too because barely two minutes later, we saw a Cast member come along the line and ask those waiting who had a fast pass for after 2pm to come back at that time. And guess what?? We went from out in the sunshine into the ride!! Honestly. Three quarters of the people who were waiting obviously had tickets for the ride - fastpass tickets - which started after 2pm. Exactly what we thought. So we went into the ride and - naff scores later, not that we were bothered - we headed back towards Main Street for the afternoon parade.
We had heard good things about this parade - both from the sites and from books we had read - but nothing prepared us for what the parade actually consisted of.
We got to Main Street and decided to sit on the left hand side of Main Street itself on the corner so we could have the floats coming round the corner and have the castle in the shot as well - yes, I definitely wanted this on video (with it being a special parade and all) - so we sat and watched life go by some more and waited for the parade to come.
The music started - which is quite something in itself - and before long the parade itself came to where we were sitting and it is, I think, one of the ncest parades we have seen. It is such a picture and the footage I was able to capture is absolutely amazing.
It is a truly stirring parade - well worth catching to those who are about to go over there The idea is truly novel: simply the Disney characters are inside huge snow globes and these move slowly along and the story behind the parade is all about sharing dreams and, if you share them, they may well come true. I cannot praise this enough.
After the parade had finished, we went to the Crystal Palace for a character dinner we had booked a couple of days before. This was another first and I definitely recommend this to anyone. The restaurant is gorgeous inside and, with it being an all-you-can-eat buffet, the food is plentiful to say the least. The fact that the food is very varied and incredibly tasty helped.
The characters inside were the A A Milne characters - so I had me photo taken with Winnie, Tigger and Eeyore. The meal was wonderful and the interior is so nice - it felt so comfortable and our server -Al - was spot on. He really added to our enjoyment of the meal and the interaction of the characters was the icing on the cake.
From the Crystal Palace, we emerged into the sunshine just in time to get settled for the night time fireworks and parade so we got our spot in front of the castle and waited for the fireworks to start.
It was lovely waiting there, soaking up the last few rays of sunshine and enjoying the warmth - the temperature had dropped slightly from the heat of the day. There was a lot of people around still but it did not seem to be overly busy. The video camera came out to capture the display and I still cannot work out how Tinkerbell can find the courage to go down that guy wire and once the fireworks started it was so nice to see the fireworks come over the castle the way they do. Mind, we only saw the tail end of the display with any clarity - unfortunately, the castle obscured some of the display but this is a minor gripe. It certainly did not spoil our enjoyment in the slightest.
After the fireworks finished, we turned round and kept the same spot we had for the SpectroMagic parade. Boy, what can I say about this parade. It is spellbinding, amazing, awesome, superb. I hope you get the picture.
This is one amazing parade - definitely eye-candy. Right from the beginning when the music starts to the ending the floats go by in a dazzling array of hundreds upon hundreds of twinkling lights all set to make your Magic Moments pins react to the parades at set times. And the floats themselves are true works of art. Our favourites - and the ones which come out best on the video - are the Cinderella coach float, the Fantasia float, the Little Mermaid float and the front float with Mickey on it. He actually looked right down the camera at one point.
Another aspect of the parade that makes it special is the music itself. I would love to know where they get their ideas from for the music because it complements the ideas behind the parades so well. We loved this so much, it was a shame when the final float passed by us.
Well, as they say, all good things do come to an end, so once the parade ended, we got our stuff together and started the walk down Main Street which in itself was a picture with all the lights framing the buildings so, armed with the camcorder, I decided to walk slowly down and film the sights we walked by.
I know I have said this before, but Tracy's mum buying us the camcorder was without a shadow of a doubt the best present we have ever been bought. The pictures we were able to capture are truly stunning and,once we got to the bottom, I turned round and got a tremendous view of the castle - a beautiful deep purple colour - and the lights from the buildings gave us one of those postcard moments which gave us another of those perfect moments.
We arrived back at the hotel and, after a journey to the room by yours truly to pick up our mugs, we had our hot chocolate and lazed in bed watching Pepper Ann and began to get excited about our next day - THE highlight of our holiday; a journey to Discovery Cove and the dolphin swim.
Lights were out by 11pm and we zonked more or less straight away.
COMING SOON: Discovery Cove and we think we have made another friend. Or three.
Saturday 16th dawned lovely and hot and sunny - and after the usual procedure of showering, breakfasting and getting our gear together we headed towards the buses and off to the Magic Kingdom we went - fully aware of a few things:
1. The top temperature - according to the weatherman - was going to hit 89F at 4pm. Huh! I can tell you it felt hotter than that at 11am!
2. Today was a Busy day in the MK - more of this later.
3. Today was also the start of Spring Break and there will be, as we were reliably informed, a lot of American visitors to the MK today.
The bus duly came - after a little wait - and we were off to the MK and a full day of excitement.
We got off the bus and, after going through the standard security process - hastened by myself having everything open for them while waiting to be seen - we were in and standing at the bottom of Main Street looking up at the Castle, we got an overwhelming rush of what can be best described as WOW!!! It truly is a wonderful sight and what helped was the weather - this was at just before 9am and the weather was so warm and the smells were wafting and there was a load of characters about greeting people - to one side there was Aladdin signing autographs, just behind him was Captain Hook and Smee walking around shaking hands, there was the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland, Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit from Song Of The South, Timon and Rafiki from the Lion King, and I am sure I saw the Genie from Aladdin at one point. There was also Alice herself walking around as well.
The last time we were there we never saw any characters at all so to see that many that early was so cool so - guess? - the camcorder came out and we spent just a few minutes catching the atmosphere and videod the characters doing the usual. It was lovely, just seeing them all and the sounds, I am smiling as I am writing this. It just made it all the more special.
The park did not seem that busy so we decided to do some rides and headed firstly towards Haunted Mansion - a favourite of ours but it was deadly (sorry, no pun intended) quiet. We were able to walk on immediately and into the car we got. I love the attention to detail on this ride and I don't know if it was me but the ride itself seemed a little longer this time. Probably just my memory, but it did seem different.
We decided - again before we left the UK - to take today slowly with it being a full day (the park was due to close 10pm) so we wandered around and soaked up the glorious weather and the hidden features of the park we had missed the last time so we walked slowly up towards the hub and saw they were getting ready for a forecourt show. Excellent, we said in unison, so we staked a place (in the shade, the sun was getting hotter!!!) and had a liquid break.
Does anyone else find they drink a lot more when they are in Florida? I mean, I drink quite a lot of soft drinks but Tracy normally finds she can go for a while without having a drink but we were matching each other drink for drink throughout the whole holiday. Also, and apologies for this, but we hardly had to go to the toilet for the business which makes me wonder where it goes
Anyway, I digress. What do you mean, no change there then?
I got us an ice cold bottle of pop each and drank them while watching the stage get set for the show and I decided to flex my creative muscles and video the show - for the memory. We had not watched the last forecourt show, which we were quite upset about, last time around so we decided to capture it for posterity.
It was a lovely show - and the scene where the Princesses come out near the beginning with their respective partners - I have to admit brought a lump to our throats. Tracy and I talked about this a few times since and we have come to the conclusion that those people who are inside the costumes must bake because the heat was going up and up and up - it was only 11am and the temperature already felt as hot as the weatherman said it was going to be at 4pm. Lovely jubbly!!!!!!
Anyway, we went from there to Tomorrowland and grabbed a turkey leg and a large drink each and spent a little while just admiring the view and watched the hordes of people milling around and queueing for Buzz Lightyear so we got FP's for this and went for a journey on the TTA - a blessed relief from the heat of the day and - joy of joys, it got stuck!! Just as we were going round the corner into Space Mountain, the cars came to a halt so we were in the shade and sitting down, a lovely gentle breeze blowing in our faces. Heaven.
We were stuck for ten minutes and once the cars came back to the disembarkation point, we decided to go round again!! Well, you have to don't you. So we went round again and we were hoping for a repeat performance but, alas, no luck. Never mind.
We got off and it ws time for our FP at Buzz so we walked over and - horror of horrors!!! - the queue for the Fastpass at Buzz was absolutely HUGE!!! Plus it was in the full heat of the sun and no shade was to be found at all. Never mind, we thought we would wait. Good job we did, too because barely two minutes later, we saw a Cast member come along the line and ask those waiting who had a fast pass for after 2pm to come back at that time. And guess what?? We went from out in the sunshine into the ride!! Honestly. Three quarters of the people who were waiting obviously had tickets for the ride - fastpass tickets - which started after 2pm. Exactly what we thought. So we went into the ride and - naff scores later, not that we were bothered - we headed back towards Main Street for the afternoon parade.
We had heard good things about this parade - both from the sites and from books we had read - but nothing prepared us for what the parade actually consisted of.
We got to Main Street and decided to sit on the left hand side of Main Street itself on the corner so we could have the floats coming round the corner and have the castle in the shot as well - yes, I definitely wanted this on video (with it being a special parade and all) - so we sat and watched life go by some more and waited for the parade to come.
The music started - which is quite something in itself - and before long the parade itself came to where we were sitting and it is, I think, one of the ncest parades we have seen. It is such a picture and the footage I was able to capture is absolutely amazing.
It is a truly stirring parade - well worth catching to those who are about to go over there The idea is truly novel: simply the Disney characters are inside huge snow globes and these move slowly along and the story behind the parade is all about sharing dreams and, if you share them, they may well come true. I cannot praise this enough.
After the parade had finished, we went to the Crystal Palace for a character dinner we had booked a couple of days before. This was another first and I definitely recommend this to anyone. The restaurant is gorgeous inside and, with it being an all-you-can-eat buffet, the food is plentiful to say the least. The fact that the food is very varied and incredibly tasty helped.
The characters inside were the A A Milne characters - so I had me photo taken with Winnie, Tigger and Eeyore. The meal was wonderful and the interior is so nice - it felt so comfortable and our server -Al - was spot on. He really added to our enjoyment of the meal and the interaction of the characters was the icing on the cake.
From the Crystal Palace, we emerged into the sunshine just in time to get settled for the night time fireworks and parade so we got our spot in front of the castle and waited for the fireworks to start.
It was lovely waiting there, soaking up the last few rays of sunshine and enjoying the warmth - the temperature had dropped slightly from the heat of the day. There was a lot of people around still but it did not seem to be overly busy. The video camera came out to capture the display and I still cannot work out how Tinkerbell can find the courage to go down that guy wire and once the fireworks started it was so nice to see the fireworks come over the castle the way they do. Mind, we only saw the tail end of the display with any clarity - unfortunately, the castle obscured some of the display but this is a minor gripe. It certainly did not spoil our enjoyment in the slightest.
After the fireworks finished, we turned round and kept the same spot we had for the SpectroMagic parade. Boy, what can I say about this parade. It is spellbinding, amazing, awesome, superb. I hope you get the picture.
This is one amazing parade - definitely eye-candy. Right from the beginning when the music starts to the ending the floats go by in a dazzling array of hundreds upon hundreds of twinkling lights all set to make your Magic Moments pins react to the parades at set times. And the floats themselves are true works of art. Our favourites - and the ones which come out best on the video - are the Cinderella coach float, the Fantasia float, the Little Mermaid float and the front float with Mickey on it. He actually looked right down the camera at one point.
Another aspect of the parade that makes it special is the music itself. I would love to know where they get their ideas from for the music because it complements the ideas behind the parades so well. We loved this so much, it was a shame when the final float passed by us.
Well, as they say, all good things do come to an end, so once the parade ended, we got our stuff together and started the walk down Main Street which in itself was a picture with all the lights framing the buildings so, armed with the camcorder, I decided to walk slowly down and film the sights we walked by.
I know I have said this before, but Tracy's mum buying us the camcorder was without a shadow of a doubt the best present we have ever been bought. The pictures we were able to capture are truly stunning and,once we got to the bottom, I turned round and got a tremendous view of the castle - a beautiful deep purple colour - and the lights from the buildings gave us one of those postcard moments which gave us another of those perfect moments.
We arrived back at the hotel and, after a journey to the room by yours truly to pick up our mugs, we had our hot chocolate and lazed in bed watching Pepper Ann and began to get excited about our next day - THE highlight of our holiday; a journey to Discovery Cove and the dolphin swim.
Lights were out by 11pm and we zonked more or less straight away.
COMING SOON: Discovery Cove and we think we have made another friend. Or three.
