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- DAY 3: DECEMBER 19, 2011 -
Wakey wakey! It's day 3! The wait is over! Two people's dreams are about to come true (mine particularly, haha, I sound biased enough, don't I? ^^). The exhilaration of going to Magic Kingdom was so overwhelming that I even picked out my best outfit I brought and dressed up, considering I'd go to the most awaited site I'd ever always dreamed of going.
Shortly after munching on our breakfast we brought the night before, we got on the 9.05 am shuttle to Animal Kingdom. You ask, why Animal Kingdom? When we're actually scheduled to go to Magic Kingdom today? It's simply because there was no morning shuttle to Magic Kingdom, so we needed to drop by at Animal Kingdom before transferring by Disney parks transportation to the ultimate destination.
From Animal Kingdom, we hopped on the free Disney bus to Magic Kingdom: Transportation and Ticket Center. From there, we needed to catch a monorail that would take us directly to the entrance of the happiest place on Earth.
Finally, after hours of chartering transportation, we made our way to Magic Kingdom! Just like any other Disney parks, Magic Kingdom's interior began with a street famously known as Main Street USA, where vintage buildings along the way greeted the visitors.
At the end of the street stands Cinderella's Castle, Magic Kingdom's grand icon towering up to the sky. It took me a moment tor realize that the castle was completely different than the one in Disneyland. That one would be Sleeping Beauty's castle. Anyway, before the castle was also an iconic attribute dedicated to Walt Disney himself, the statue of "Partners".
Time showed 10 in the morning! Still way early in the morning to start the rides! But I was fully aware that the later the day gets, the more crowded the park would be. So, I would just get started hopping on some rides.
1. Haunted Mansion.
This is basically one of my most favorite rides in the park. I always love the creepy, horror theme, but despite all of those chilling atmosphere, I believe the imagineers still somehow wanted to maintain the made-for-kids kind of sense in this dark ride. What made the experience of getting on it even more epic was the fact that I got on it ALONE. Me, alone on the doom buggie that took me on a tour to get close-up look to the ghosts. I failed to persuade Elda to come along though, but at least I survived this ride!
2. It's a Small World
Can't help but to post some images of this cute ride that I took
The ride is similar to the one in Dufan. I remember Elda hesitating to get on the ride (again??) after I bluffed that there would be a high plunge somewhere inside the ride. Elda seemingly expected that we get on her favorite pale blue boat, which we actually did! Anyway, overall, it was a pretty playful and soothing ride (a nice place to cool ourselves due to the hot weather outside)
3. Peter Pan's Flight
A lot of people said it's one of the best rides in the park, and I can't help but to agree! Peter Pan's Flight really gave you the sensation of flying in a much less extreme way (unlike bone cracking roller coaster).
Then we strolled around a little bit to Adventureland. Too bad they don't have Indiana Jones the ride here unlike the one in Disneyland.
After 3 rides, we paused for a second and strolled for a bit. When we arrived at the entrance of liberty square, I spotted the first cast character: Tiana! I've always adored Tiana and seeing that the movie The Princess and the Frog was considerably new, it'd certainly be great to get a closer look at her. After all, she's one of my most favorite Disney Princesses.
We had a short conversation with her and not to mention, took a picture! Thanks Tiana! Tell Naveen I say hi!!
When we got to Tomorrowland, Elda and I saw this little open gig where Chip and Dale were seen dancing. To be able to take a picture with them, apparently I needed to dance along with them, well, with at least one of them, Chip.
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It was 12.15 pm and we were quite hungry after hanging around. We thought of stopping by at the nearest restaurant, food court, or food stall. Since we were in Tomorrowland at that moment, we made our way to futuristic-themed food court Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. The place was hella packed but Elda and I managed to find ourselves some seats and munched on hotdog and fries, while watching an an audio-animatronic alien performing some recorded blues and songs. It took me a while to realize that the “alien” who was performing was actually not a cast character donning a costume, but rather an audio-animatronic. Where else can you find a cafe with an audi-animatronic playing the music instead of a live performer other in a Disney park?
After the lunch, we moved on to riding some more rides.
4. Carousel of Progress
Still in Tomorrowland, the ride was not definitely a go-through kind of ride. It was somehow designed like a rotating mini auditorium resembling how a carousel worked (that's how the ride possibly gained its name). The mini auditorium was an enclosed compartment attached to a track which revolved around 4 dioramas. It was more of a diorama/audio-animatronic show following the theme of modernization. So each set of diorama represented the setting of a specific era (that's why it's called carousel of progress) chronologically. For example, the first diorama depicted early 20th century when much of the technology wasn't fully developed. The next dioramas then displayed how the technology has much escalated to finally the recent one that incorporates flat TV and video games.
5. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Waited for over an hour for this only to get beaten by Elda. Her score was much higher even though she allegedly only 'shot randomly to million directions' in the ride -_-
At around 3.00 pm, we paused our rides-activity for a moment to rush to Main Street USA to get a good spot for “Once Upon a Christmas” parade. Elda and I quickly secured our spot in front of Cinderella's Castle.
After the parade, Elda and I were merged into a group of crowds who went all the way into Cinderella's Castle. It was actually a good chance to take a closer look of the interior of the icon of Magic Kingdom.
After the parade, Elda and I were merged into a group of crowds who went all the way into Cinderella's Castle. It was actually a good chance to take a closer look of the interior of the icon of Magic Kingdom.
Then we continued on!
6. Pirates of the Caribbean
Although the ride concept was similar to “It's a Small World” much to my surprise, there was a slight plunge in this ride to add the excitement/tension, and the whole theme was of course darker due to the interior which closely resembled to the movie setting. The song and some funny scenes add the playful vibe in this ride.
7. Snow White's Scary Adventures
Scary level = kids
8. Jungle Cruise
It was somehow very impressive. I've been on this ride before and it never failed to amuse me with the typical witty tour guide that brought us on a boat ride around the lush jungle. There was a bit of a surprise in the end that I never thought of having ;) and I'm pretty sure that element was quite new.
9. The Enchanted TikiRoom
Last time I saw the show was over ten years ago on my first trip to Disneyland. If you think seeing animatronic birds representing various nations isn't amusing? Then think again. P.S: You'll probably get even much more impressed since the birds are rather intelligent.
10. County Bear Jamboree
It's basically a show about audio-animatronic bears having a gig and singing some folk, country songs. The highlight would be when the female bears emerged and sang their part. One of the lines was “The men who turned me on, turned me out”. LOL. Seriously Disney, the existence of the particular line in family-targeted park totally WINS.
11. Stitch! The Great Escape
The ride was so-so and was very quick. We luckily got to go in real quick despite having no fast-pass. Elda and I were fidgety to find out that the seats were equipped with over-shoulder restraints despite being the ride was in an enclosed room, unlike a roller coaster. I had a feeling that the entire room or the platform was going to spin or turn upside down a la Roller Coaster so at that moment, I was thinking to exit the ride quickly before the show began. But I was convinced that there would be no such elements would be featured on this ride, considering all the riders were children and it was...after all...an enclosed room.
12. Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
The ride officially became the last one we got on to in Magic Kingdom. Apparently, we didn't make the wrong decision of choosing this ride to be last one. Actually it wasn't fully a ride, but merely a show that involved audience's participation. Following the end story of Monsters Inc movie, the monsters were in need of human's laughter from which they collected the energy to power Monstropolis. Basically, the show was like a normal stand up comedy show, except the comedians were interactive monsters on the screen. The highlight would be: “What's the Capital of Egypt?” “It's E!”)
Despite having our twelfth ride to be our last one, it didn't mean it concluded our night. The time was 8.25 pm and we walked to Pinocchio Village Haus at Fantasyland to help ourselves with Panne Pasta and orange juice.
While we were munching on our food, we constantly glanced at our watches to make sure we didn't miss “Wishes Fireworks”. An hour later, after we were done, we rushed to get the best spot (which was right in front of the Cinderella's Castle).
The show was absolutely stunning that the whole visual and the overwhelming music brought chills to me. Not to mention, Cinderella's castle became the “screen” as projector reflected images and video on its grand exterior. The technology was simply mindblowing. The whole event then concluded with fireworks launched up in the sky. It was exactly the very moment when I felt like my dreams had come true: to be able to feel the magic of Disney.
Right after the show was done, everyone marched to the exit since the park would be closing very soon (in about an hour). Thinking we still had some time, Elda and I entered the Emporium giftshop (the vintage building whose picture I featured at the beginning of the post) at Mainstreet USA, where I bought Thumper plush and a cute, pink Minnie pen.
However, problem ensued when Elda and I got separated (the second time after the "tragedy" of airport monorail after we touched down at Orlando), and to make matters even worse, our the shop happened to be a signal-less area (the only bad thing about Disney park). In results, I had to come outside to contact Elda, but Elda was unreachable. We managed to find each other somehow.
It wasn't just the only problem that closed the day as we realized that the last and only shuttle that would take us from Transportation and Ticket Center (where we caught a monorail to get to Magic Kingdom entrance) to our hotel, would depart at 10.55 am. When we were on the ferryboat to Transportation and Ticket Center, it was past eleven already and we were hopeless on the thought of not being able to get a free ride back.
However, once we got to the parking lot of Transportation and Ticket center, we agitatedly approached rows of shuttle parked there. But none of them was our shuttle (the shuttles we saw took a different route, not passing our hotel), and that means, our scheduled shuttle already left us behind.
Later on, one of the shuttle buses nicely offered us a ride back to the hotel. We thanked him profusely and in the end, we gave him quite an extra tip.
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At 11.30 pm, we arrived safe and sound to the hotel room and cleaned up, preparing our energy for tomorrow, Seaworld! That night, Ardy and Aymee would be arriving in Orlando (too bad they missed all the fun in Magic Kingdom). Finally, after four hours of waiting for them to get to the hotel, I picked them up at the lobby at around 3 am.
Overall, the visit to Magic Kingdom visit was truly an embodiment of dreams come true. Call me a kid, but I even went squealing all the way when I first entered the park. It was a disbelief, considering it was one of the places I'd always been dying to go to. The day really left me with a distinct impression and I somehow hoped I would be able to experience the same thing all over again :)
- To be Continued
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