Wed 10/25 Thu 10/26 Fri 10/27 Sat 10/28 Sun 10/29 Mon 10/30
10/27/00 Friday
Kirby, Marie, Mary, Julia and Louisa in front of Walt and Mickey
(I don't remember all those other characters being there!)
This was
the Magic day. Finally we would be visiting the Magic Kingdom. We breakfasted
over at Crossroads Shopping Center again and we were at the park about
an hour after it opened. This was going to be a short day at the park because
we had to be back at the hotel for the first CCAI dinner. We figured that
leaving around 3 would give us enough time to register for the reunion
and get ready for dinner at 5.
Tram to the Transportation and Ticket Center. Then the choice of Ferry or Monorail. We decided on the Ferry because of the crush of people heading to the Monorail. Although I am a rail fan and had been studying up on the history of the Monorail, the practicality of getting started with touring prevailed. We pushed the strollers onto the ferry and it cast off within 5 minutes. I could see that we still would not have been on a Monorail had we chosen that route.
A few minutes later we were through the turnstiles and under the train tracks and emerged onto Main Street U.S.A.
I was a bit disappointed because we could not yet see the castle because of the offset of the two underpasses. Then I realized this was a deliberate design to make the discovery of the vista up Main Street even more dramatic.
I asked the girls if they recognized the place from their video. (Disney Sing along Disneyland. Yes, I know the parks are different but the girls don't really understand that there are several parks).
Marie had
to go in the Camera Center for more film. Goofy was greeting to one side.
The girls were more interested in exploring the statue of Goofy seated
on a park bench. A little less intimidating, I guess. Louisa climbed up
on the statue and within a few seconds the statue spoke "Hi, I'm Goofy!".
Louisa was down in a shot, but laughing. Julia had not come over to the
statue yet and Louisa let Julia discover the speaking on her own. Lots
of giggling. Louisa also started collecting acorns and chasing birds.
click to enlarge - Hi! I'm Goofy!
I was soaking it all up. This was marvelous. We went to the center of the square and discovered the statue of Roy Disney. I was glad to see this as the "silent partner" he deserved a credit for his contributions.
I wanted to take the trolley to the hub, but that would have meant the old stroller fold again. We walked but I was able to see a trolley close up as it passed us a few minutes later.
I was surprised at how short Main Street was. I was again blown away by the details. I could tell from the flags and music that it was indeed always Independence Day on Main Street.
We got to the hub and decided to go ahead and have our picture taken by the Disney photographer in front of the Walt and Mickey statue.
From the hub, we noticed most people were heading toward Fantasyland or Tomorrowland and very few were heading toward Adventureland. We instantly steered the strollers toward the jungle. As we passed under the "Adventureland" sign, I noticed that our soundtrack had been adjusted again for the jungle setting as music surrounded us from unseen speakers.
We parked the strollers in front of the Swiss Family Treehouse but decided on a potty break before heading into the tree. As I was waiting for the girls I noticed that the rest rooms also had an entrance into Frontierland. This was my first realization (even after years of reading books and memorizing maps) that the Magic Kingdom's size was deceiving. It seemed larger than it actually was because of the ingenious use of theming and traffic planning.
We headed back to the Swiss Family Treehouse and started up. What FUN! Again imaginative detail in every crook and nanny (er..) nook and cranny. I loved finally hearing the Swisskapolka in the proper context. I really hope they don't turn this into Tarzan's Treehouse like they did in Disneyland.
The girls had fun with their disposable cameras. We got a goodly number of real dud pictures but occasionally they gave us a very good picture.
The Treehouse exit was right at the Jungle Cruise entrance so into that line we jumped. The wait was less than 5 minutes.
How do those Jungle Cruise hosts keep from going crackers from telling those bad jokes over and over? Gad, some (most!) of them were real stinkers. I was grinning and groaning through the entire experience, though.
Having already experienced Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safari, it was very interesting to experience the hoakiness of the Jungle Cruise.
I did find it odd that political correctness finally made it to the Jungle Cruise. Every video I had ever seen of the Jungle Cruise, including one on the Sing-Along-Songs Disneyland video, would show the "shooting" of the hippos. The guns are gone.
I did not expect the dark section in the temple. Louisa, who had been enjoying the cruise up to that point, was upset by the snakes guarding the treasure in the dark. The boat came so very close to them it was disconcerting. I had to remind her it was all make believe.
Next up was the Tiki Room - Under New Management. I liked it very much, but I couldn't pay as much attention to it as I wanted to because Mary and Julia were both scared, particularly by the goddess rising out of the center of the room. We were in the front row and thus right next to her. Marie wanted the old version of the Tiki room. Louisa was really getting into the magic now and loved everything about the show. She even appreciated the "magic trick" at the end where the birds make the audience disappear. (a nice touch I was glad to see held over from the original version of the show).
So far we had experienced three attractions in a row with little or no wait. This was GREAT. Time to head on to Pirates which looked like it had no line as well.
Pirates had no line because it was CLOSED. ARRRGGHHHH!
We started
on by when suddenly a group of young men in costume popped out from a door
in a fence and laid a tarp on the ground. Music started up that was louder
than the usual background music and the young men started into a fantastic
display of acrobatics. Louisa was bored by them (she was hungry and hot)
but the rest of us thought they were great. I gave Louisa a cookie and
also pointed out to her that Captain Hook was wandering around as well.
(the cookie worked but she was not impressed by characters).
click to enlarge - Adventureland Acrobats
The acrobats packed up their tarp and we turned to head on when I happened to glance at the entrance to Pirates. People were going in! Once again there was no wait whatsoever, so we breezed right through the queue, which was the most elaborate queue I had ever seen. I had mixed feelings over missing its details (!).
Julia still had trouble with dark rides, but she also was fascinated by many of the scenes, particularly since she has seen video of the Disneyland version. Louisa kept saying to her sister "Remember that? There's the doggie with the key." and such.
Once in the gift shop at the exit, I started asking cast members about the CD with the soundtrack of the entire ride on it. This CD and the Haunted Mansion version need to be publicized better. The Cast Members thought they knew about it, but couldn't quite remember how to get it. I generally got directed to the standard selection of CDs in each gift shop I visited. It turns out that the CDs are a special selection on the Disney Forever CD kiosks, but I would not find that out for a couple of days.
Louisa and Mary had a great time going through the Pirates merchandise. In seconds I had one daughter with a hook instead of a hand and another with a pirate hat.
We circled around the transition area from Adventureland to Frontierland. Crowds were now starting to build up and the Splash Mountain area was mobbed. This was disappointing because we had had such a great time so far with not having to wait in line for anything. We pushed on through to Liberty Square.
We found ourselves
in front of the attraction I had been wanting to see since the original
one opened in Disneyland when I was a kid. The Haunted Mansion. I had been
anticipating this one so much I even belonged to an email mailing list
just for the Mansion. http://www.egroups.com/group/hauntedmansion
I knew every
secret I could glean out of a great web site http://www.doombuggies.com.
All I needed to do now was ride it. First we had to handle the "apprehension
factor". Marie handled that by simply moving us on into the line. Louisa
knew what it was and was grinning and trying to keep the secret. Julia
kept asking "What's this line for?".
We were fortunate in that the Mansion line was still pretty short. We had about a 5 minute wait. Too short in fact to take in some of the queue details. Then a Cast Member opened the door with "The Master will see you now."
I guess I was spoiled by all the video and praise for the Disneyland Mansion. The dinky little foyer, just large enough for the next stretch room group, seemed less themed than I thought it would be. I liked the changing portrait, though. We were ushered into the left Stretching room and I took a look around. Almost too late I realized I should take my hat off so I could look up. The Cast Member obliged my silent wish when he intoned "Please step to the DEAD center of the room". Julia told us she did not want to ride. We told her it would be OK.
The most disappointing part of the entire mansion for me was the lack of Disneyland's changing portrait corridor. We just got in a simple queue to get on the doombuggies. I took Mary and Louisa. Marie took Julia.
My two quickly discovered that it wasn't really scary. Mary hid her head in my side a couple of times but was OK otherwise. Louisa was fascinated. I just kept looking at the detail everywhere.
The pop ups in the attic startled even me, even though I knew they were there. When we entered the cemetery I gasped. It was wonderful. The ghosts rising from the gravesand the little bits of action going on everywhere. I loved our hitchhiking ghost.
As we left, Louisa ran over to investigate the invisible horse pulling the hearse. I went up to two cast members and told them I had a fantastic time and that I was on the haunted mansion mailing list. They loved having feedback and they wondered if we were going to be attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that evening. I told them I wanted to but we did not have time.
We pushed on. I looked for a gift shop or something with Mansion souvenirs and was surprised to NOT find any. Marie had moved on ahead while I spoke with the cast members, so I could not look very hard. We went through a wide doorway and suddenly were in Fantasyland.
Crowdedland could have been an alternate name. Where did all these people come from? On our right was Peter Pan's Flight with a 45 minute wait. Small World was on our left with a 10 minute wait. We parked the strollers and got in line for Small World.
As we made our way down the ramp to get on the boat I could hear the Small World music but it wasn't very prominent. Louisa was bored by the ride itself. Julia and Mary loved it. The music in the ride itself did not seem very loud. It was just "there" - part of the experience. As we left the building I was surprised because the song had NOT embedded itself in my brain.
We ended up
passing up nearly everything in Fantasyland. The lines were almost always
posted to be 30 minutes to an hour. Julia got a look at Dumbo and started
pestering us to ride. Looking around I could see Ariel's grotto. That one
I wanted to put off for another day. Julia was a BIG Ariel fan. I could
see that would be a real time waster. We forged ahead and noticed that
the Mad Tea Party had only a 15 minute wait, so on it we jumped.
click to enlarge - Louisa having fun in a teacup
click to enlarge - Julia, Mary, and Kirby in a teacup
Next we peeled
off to Mickey's Toontown Fair and Mickey's house and Minnie's house. Everybody
loved these, even our thrill loving Louisa (who was usually bored in the
smaller attractions). Julia went crazy over the detail, though. She was
so excited that we lost her for a few minutes as she raced on to see Minnie's
house when we were finished with Mickey's house. We skipped meeting the
corporate rodent because we had met him the day before and we knew now
that the girls were NOT really into the characters.
click to enlarge - Mary and Louisa in Minnie's living room chair
Across the
street from the Mouse Houses was Donald's boat, a playground with water
jets. It was warm so we let the girls run wild although they were chilled
the rest of the day. The next time we visited the park we took swimsuits.
We ran into several other CCAI families there and all us parents stood
around talking while the kids went crazy.
click to enlarge - Mary and Julia get wet at Donald's Boat
click to enlarge - My drenched girls
Fortunatly we had some spare clothes with us so we changed the girls clothes in Tommorrowland. Julia was real keen to ride the Speedway but the line was way too long. Everyone got back in the strollers and we decided to check out the lines for other Tommorrowland attractions.
Buzz Lightyear - packed. Space Mountain - girls too little and packed. Alien Encounter - too scary. So we were down to Timekeeper, Carousel of Progress, or the Tommorrowland Transit Authority. I looked at the stroller and poor Julia was fast asleep. We decided to ride the TTA. I hoisted the sleeping one out and carried her on board.
The Tommorrowland Transit Authority gave a very nice overview of Tommorrowland. I loved it. The two girls that were awake were a little apprehensive when we went into the dark of Space Mountain but I got them interested in looking around.
It was about 2 p.m. and we wanted to leave about 3 so we could get ready for the welcoming dinner for CCAI families at the hotel. We did a little window shopping along Main Street and noticed that people were gathering curbside for the afternoon parade. Maybe we could see it!
We had to stop at the Camera Center to pick up our picture from the hub. I found a bench and sat with the strollers while Marie went in to pick it up. By the time she got back out all three girls were asleep. It was right at 3 and we seemed to be at a perfect spot to watch the parade. After 15 minutes had passed and there was no sign of the parade except for the Fire Engine carrying a family that seemed to be the day's guests of honor we decided to go ahead and leave. I took a look up Main Street as we left and I could see the parade was just entering the hub. Oh Well.
We stopped
at McDonalds on the way back to the hotel for some fries. I let Marie out
at the front door so she could run upstairs for a short nap while I registered
us for the reunion. I was glad to see that Raymond and Daphne were able
to make it.
click to enlarge - I was finally able to meet Xiaoning of http://www.chinasprout.com
click to enlarge - Julia ready to party
click to enlarge - Mary ready for the party.
click to enlarge - Nyahh Nyahh! (Mary)
The welcome dinner for CCAI was by the pool area. There were hundreds of families spread out over the tennis courts and lawn. Pickings were slim for vegetarians but we managed. Josh and Lily saw us and recognized us.
Lots of "pool
toys" were given out for the kids. Sand buckets and little plastic fish.
click to enlarge - Julia decides to use the sand buckets as a drum set.
We ran across one other family from our travel group. None of the others was able to make it unfortunately.
The wife of the Chinese ambassador (Madame Qin) was there and the next thing we knew we had been plucked out by Lily to be photographed with Madame Qin for Chinese News Media
As Madame
Qin came around behind our table, Louisa managed to fall off of her chair
(she was standing to try to see everything) and was caught by Madame Qin.
click to enlarge - Madame Qin
The girls were restless after dinner so we started wandering around taking pictures and half listening to the announcements from Joshua. We started to look at the pool (the girls got all excited about the pool) and suddenly I realized I did not know where Louisa was. She zigged when we zagged and with hundreds of people around we managed to lose each other. My first fear was that she fell in the pool so I circled the pool looking for her. Nothing. Joshua then made an announcement that they had found a lost little girl. Louisa managed to keep a cool head and told somebody she was lost. Several people also told us that they recognized Louisa (probably from the web page).
We went up to the room and changed into swimsuits and headed back down to do a little swimming, although I found it to be a little chilly in the wading pool. The main pool was a little better.
Louisa had
trouble getting to sleep that evening because the ghost host at the Haunted
Mansion had said "now a ghost will follow you home". I had to remind her
that it was all make beleive. She remembers the ghost host and still asks
me about the ghosts now and again, although she wants to go back on the
ride now.
Last modified 12/05/01
This document copyright © 2000 Kirby A. Bartlett-Sloan