We were heading back to the Magic Kingdom after breakfast. Gotta run to breakfast, ya know!
click to enlarge - Can I
have their energy? Please! There are lots of thumbnail pictures that link to full size pictures in the page. Scroll down to see them.
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We were heading
back to the Magic Kingdom after breakfast. Gotta run to breakfast, ya know!
click to enlarge - Can I
have their energy? Please!
On the way to the car to get
to the Magic Kingdom, Louisa helps her littlest sister out.
We went directly
to Dumbo for Julia as she was disappointed the other day when she did not have
a chance to ride. Amazing that it has this fascination for young kids. 30 minutes
wait for 2 minute ride in a fiberglas elephant! Waiting in line was a study
in eager kids and bored parents.
Click to enlarge -Mary waiting
toride Dumbo and too cute for words!
Click to enlarge - Marie, Julia and Louisa
in a Dumbo (Julia picked it out because of the pink hat)
Click to enlarge - A rare picture
of me! I'll try to get the equivalent video frame grab from that camera pictured.
We started checking out the waiting times on the Fantasyland dark rides. Peter Pan's was the shortest. I finally gave up trying to videotape rides after this one. I was so busy trying to get it on video that I did not get to enjoy it. As we were waiting in line we saw the character Aladdin jump to the front of the Peter Pan line with a friend.
We hit the
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh next. (Mr. Toad was replaced by Pooh a couple
of years ago). It was very cute and had the best Pepper's Ghost illusion I have
ever seen of Pooh starting to dream. The Hunny Pot Ride vehicles even have their
own motion during some scenes. They bounce like Tigger or float along as if
in a stream when appropriate. This ride caused a frenzy of Pooh merchandise
buying at the gift store stuck onto the exit.
Click to enlarge - Julia in the gift
shop at the Pooh ride
We hit Small World again with no wait at all. Louisa was starting to get very bored with it. Julia and Mary love it. I think a few dinosaurs would have satisfied Louisa!
I sent Marie
with the older girls to Tom Sawyer's Island for lunch at Aunt Polly's while
I took Mary to Buzz Lightyear to pick up Fastpasses. As I walked away from the
Fastpass machine some people walked up to me and handed me their fastpasses
good for RIGHT NOW! They had to go do something else. Thanks! Mary and I headed
in and had a great time shooting everything we could. Five minutes later we
were heading back to meet everyone else back on Tom Sawyer's Island. We did
not have much time to explore as our fastpasses were good in about an hour.
We walked around a little bit and headed back to Tommorrowland.
Click to Enlarge - Louisa and Julia
having a bird encounter on Tom Sawyer Island
Click to Enlarge -Mary and Louisa
on the barrel bridge on Tom Sawyer Island
We all rode the Buzz Lightyear ride next. What happens when you take a standard Disney dark ride and attach lasers to the vehicle and allow the vehicle to spin under rider control. You rack up points while riding! Everyone came away from this one with a smile.
We were standing right next to something I had been wanting to see since I was four years old. The Carousel of Progress – There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow and THAT is the song that embeds itself into the brain! Everybody loved this show and I hope it can survive. Even little Mary can sing the song!
We continued
with our odd crisscrossing of the park and went back to Fantasyland to visit
Ariel's grotto - Another wet playground. This time we were ready with swimsuits.
Ariel the Mermaid was on hand for greeting. Louisa and Mary were not interested.
Julia was interested but shy. We got an autograph but no picture because Julia
would not let go of me so I could take the picture.
Click to Enlarge - Mary (with pieces
of Louisa on the left and Julia on the right) at Ariel's grotto in the Magic
Kingdom
Our backtracking across the north side of the park led us back over to Splash Mountain. A parade was in progress, which was interesting to see as we fought our way around the crowds. At Splash Mountain we used the "baby swap" because Mary was too little. I waited for an hour at a playground by the exit while Marie took the other two on the ride. Louisa again loved it. Julia liked the animatronic parts but not the drops. She was still drawing pictures of the ride days later. When they finished, I passed Mary to Marie and went in the exit with Louisa so I could ride (this is the "baby swap" and is standard on height restricted rides). Louisa loved it again. Julia did not want to ride a second time.
Another Jungle Cruise ride followed. Louisa was apprehensive about the snakes in the temple portion this time.
We had to
get out of the park by 6 because it was closing for the Mickey's Not So Scary
Halloween Party. We decided to go over to Epcot for dinner on the monorail but the girls were bone tired. We
did not do anything except eat and look at the dancing fountain and neat fiber
optics in the sidewalk.
click to enlarge - Louisa and
Mary trying to catch the lights in the sidewalk.
The girls
woke up during dinner and were happy to be riding in the monorail. Here are some infrared pictures
from inside the monorail.
click to enlarge - Julia
with her Pooh light spinner and Louisa
Click to enlarge - Mary
Click to enlarge - Mary and Louisa
at the end of a busy day. I use this picture as an example of the reason to
take a stroller to the Parks even if you have older kids.
After packing that evening, I went over to Pleasure Island by myself while everyone else went to bed. I wanted to see the Adventurer's club. I spent about 1.5 hours in the club. It was neat and the only thing I thought was interesting at all on Pleasure Island. I also picked up a copy of the Haunted Mansion CD when I finally figured out to get it at the Disney Forever kiosk. I had been looking in the stores.
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Last modified 05/02/02
This document copyright © 2001 Kirby A. Bartlett-Sloan