Mike & Family - January 2006

The Cast: Myself, 37 (my 9th WDW trip), DW, 36 (5th trip), my Dad, 62 (12th trip), and DD, 6 (3rd trip, spoiled brat!!LOL!)

Day 1 Jan 31-Feb. 1, 2006: This is the second year in a row that we went to WDW during Super Bowl week. For some reason, the Phila. school district schedules Thursday and Friday of that week as teacher "in service" days, which means no school for the kids. What better way to take advantage of an off-season long weekend at our favorite place in the world?

After some discussion, we decided to take our daughter out of school on Wednesday so that we could squeeze an extra day in. DW is pregnant (due in June), and we probably won't be able to have a proper vacation for awhile after that. We flew out Tuesday night on Air Tran.

The flight to MCO was one of the best we've ever had. We were sweating out a predicted snowstorm for that day, but it fizzled out and we left right on time, and we made it to MCO a half-hour early! My father decided to splurge on a rental car, got a great rate trough National. National is located right in the MCO terminal, we walked across the street, picked a car, and were on the road about 45 minutes after we landed.

Check-in a Pop was a breeze, we got a room in the 60's, about a 30 second walk to the food court. It was about 11:30 at this point, we went right to bed after unpacking.

Mickey woke us up at 8 AM on Wednesday. First stop-Chef Mickey's! We drove to the TTC and took the local Monorail to the Contemporary. The restaurant was typically hectic, with characters and kids running to and fro, but the food was good (and very filling, a recurring event on this trip), and the atmosphere got us ready for the rest of the day at the MK.

After passing through the turnstiles, we saw the boss, Mickey, posing for photos and signing autographs in front of his topiary in front of the train station. From this message board, we learned of the Photopass CD offer, so we grabbed a couple of PP cards and lined up!

After that, I eagerly awaited my first glimpse of the newly decorated Castle. We had been to Disneyland last August, and while their Castle is the original and very cool, Cinderella's Castle never fails to take my breath away. In fact, after seeing DL's squat castle, Cindy's looked downright huge! The 50th anniversary decorations were impressive, and I don't take to Castle changes very well ( I hated the Cake Castle back in the 90's, and when Stitch TP'd it a few years ago, I was very angry!)

After our requisite 30 Castle photos, we lingered on Main St. for once, admiring the detail of the buildings (I had a Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom with me, it's like the Keys to the Kingdom tour without the tourguide). We met the Mayor of Main St, two female "citizens", and enjoyed a show put on by CM's who danced and sang around the horse-drawn trolley. We had never seen this during our prior visits, and we enjoyed it very much. We were home!

The MK was pretty empty on this day, a Wednesday in the off season. We got some up-close photos of the Castle without other folks in the foreground (every trip we end up with about 50 Castle pictures, from all angles and lighting!)

We finally decided to hit some attractions, and our first stop was the Country Bear Jamboree. My daughter had missed this before, and enjoyed it immensely. She started calling everyone in our party Liverlip, after the famed Bear performer. (We stopped that pretty quickly!) We really had no plan for the day, except that we had a 6:30 ADR at the Crystal Pace. We headed to Fantasyland, rode Small World, Peter Pan, Snow White, and Philharmagic (our favorite 3D movie of all the parks), the we went to Tomorrowland. Sadly, Buzz was closed for rehab, but we went on the Stich ride (DD was not too impressed, I personally thought it could be improved) and rode the TTA. We crossed back to the Castle forecourt, where we caught Cinderellabration! My DD, a huge princess fan (of course!) was entralled, and the adults enjoyed it too. Next was a quick snack at Columbia Harbor House, where I had to convince my Dad not to pay for his meal and had to explain the Dining plan for the 20th time!!! Next up was two spins on the Haunted Mansion, my favorite ride (and climbing on DD's top 10 list), then a visit to the Hall of Presidents. Even though we were not hurrying around the park, my party (except for me) decided that this was a perfect nap opportunity! I still enjoy the show and never fail to be amazed by the audio-animatronic Presidents.

We did some souvenier hunting, then headed to Crystal Palace for the Pooh character dinner. Another buffet, another room full of hyper active kids, harried parents, and photo ops. We loved it! The food was again very good, this buffet featured hand-carved prime rib, Thai mussels, and several other foods you wouldn't expect to find. The characters did not rush away from the table and interacted with my daughter AND my dad, who still is a bit of a ham.

After dinner, we still had about a half hour until park closing, so Dad and I ran off to Splash Mountain, while my wife and daughter found a bench to rest and watch Wishes. The was no line for Splash, it was a chilly evening, and we decided to sit in the back of the log, thinking that we wouldn't get too wet. The big splash at the end didn't get us, but as we were taken up the first hill, a huge wave from another log going down the big drop nailed us! We were soaked and shivering, we still had 5 minutes, so we jumped on Big Thunder to maybe dry off a bit. Riding BTTM with my dad brought back some fond memories, and seeing the fireworks over the castle as we sped around the track is something I won't forget.

We headed back to Pop, relaxed a bit, and got ready for Disney Studios, our next park.

Page: 1, 2, 3, 4