Magic Kingdom & Old Town

Once again we awoke reasonably early and whilst Anita and the kids stayed in the room and partook of their peanut butter sandwiches and milk for breakfast, the rest of us went off to the Ponderosa. After stuffing myself with bacon, eggs, potato bites, sausages etc I decide to take a banana. I don't really like bananas but Anita does. So I secrete it in my shorts. We leave with me feeling like a real thief. When we get into the car, everyone unloads a certain amount of fruit from their clothes, or handbags. I'm not the only one!

Anita, Andrew & Lauren are collected and off we go to the Magic Kingdom. The car is parked and we take our place in the queue. We get through the gates to find that we are in another queue, this time we have a choice. We can either get the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom, or take the ferry. We decide to take the ferry, and the view is quite spectacular once you get out into the lake. You can see the castle from a long distance away.

Andrew & Lauren at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom.

The Magic Kingdom is made up of various "lands", each with a theme. They are Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Mickey's toontown fair, and Liberty Square.

The roadway is made of bricks with family names and dates that they visited the park. It looks just like I imagined it would. We decided to make for a couple of the big rides at the back of the park, which will be very busy if we leave it too long. Off we go to Frontierland. Splash Mountain is our first port of call. The queue is quite small and we all get aboard the log flume fairly quickly. The ride is basically the story of Brer Rabbit, or Song of the South. It was really magical. Then there is the drop, which is quite breathtaking. We go off and view the photograph. We decide that it is not too bad, so get copies. We are then quite surprised when the Disney Operative who is taking our money offers us the chance to collect the photographs later, and somewhere else. They will arrange for them to be shipped to the Main Gate area where we can collect them on our way out. What a super idea.

Everyone enjoying Splash Mountain

Then to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This again is a roller coaster, but with a runaway train theme. We speed around and I don't know if it was where we are sitting, (right at the back) or what but we really seem to be flying around the track. Once we finish, the kids want to go back on. There is little or no queue so we decide to go again. This time I decide to video the whole event, so that if you watch the holiday video it will seem like you are going on the ride. It actually comes out fairly well. We decide to save the rest of Frontierland for later, and head off towards Adventureland.

Russell has advised us of a really good ride called Pirates of the Caribbean, so that will be where we go next. It is a pleasant boat ride, which takes you through a series of animatronics showing how pirates might have lived (well if Disney had anything to do with it). Funny story, there is one place where you view some women chasing some pirates around. Apparently when the show was first put together it was the pirates that were chasing the women around. Disney got into a lot of trouble of this seemingly sexist show, so changed it to the way it is now.

Another fairly good show to see here is the Tiki Birds, which are now controlled by those two birds of Disney fame, Zazu (from Lion King) and Iago (from Aladdin). A little silly but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Off we go and this time it is to Fantasyland. We go on the "It's a Small World" ride which is very silly. The music must be the most mind numbing song I have ever heard, and it goes on and on and on and on...... (Point of interest - At Christmas 1998 Lauren was given to her by her Nanny (thanks Mum) a musical Yo-yo which played this ****** tune.Fortunately it has been lost! But Oh Calamity again it has now resurfaced. It's original disappearance having nothing to do with me, I might add.).

The other ride that we really want to do here is the Peter Pan's Flight. Whilst we are queuing to get onto this ride disaster strikes. However I have to take you back to before our journey to the "colonies" begins. Our very good friends June & Mon have offered us their Video Camera, which is so much lighter than ours is. It is far more compact, and easier to use. It is this one that I'm using to film our exploits. As I said disaster strikes, and the camera takes a flying leap off my shoulder and down to the ground. Fortunately the camera still works but we can no longer zoom in and out. To say that I was slightly annoyed with myself would be a slight understatement. Anita, who I thought would blow her top, shrugged it off and said, "well it's insured, so what's the problem." We enjoy the ride, in which you appear to be flying. There is also a ride upon visit to the world of Snow White, which when it was first opened must have been the first of its kind. We then decide to go to tomorrow land. To get there you can go by balloon; well you travel in a balloon shaped gondolier, which is about 40 feet up in the air. Just what I need with my fear of heights. Still I manage to travel all the way across; fortunately looking at the ground through a smalllens cap has its upsides.

We arrive at tomorrowland and decide to go on Space Mountain. Brigitte and Joy don't want to go on this ride, which is another roller coaster, only this time in the dark. We start to queue. Andrew begins to get a bit worried about the ride. It is not helped by a small Mexican girl screaming for her Mum at the beginning of the queue. As we move down the queue the little girl's screams get worse, and louder and louder, even though we are moving away from her. All of a sudden she really starts to wail, and then runs through the crowd pushing her little sister in a pram before her. "Mum, mum, wah wah...." she carries on and on. She pushes past us, and we hope that all will be quite from this point, however Mum has got on the ride and the little girl has to be taken back, still crying to wait for her mum. Andrew himself has now got into a bit of a tizz. He decides that he really doesn't want to go on this ride, so Russell volunteers to take him back. So Lauren, Anita, Chris and I all jump aboard. Again what a super ride.

3 O'clock and there is the parade. This was one part that we felt was not as good as we were expecting. About half an hour before the parade the route is to be followed by the parade is walked down by some "coaches"(Disney employees not quite ready to be part of the parade), and every so often they stop and talk to the crowd. When they got close to us we find out what they are doing. Ever so often the parade will stop and the kids can join in with the characters and dance. Lauren is picked out to join in with the Little Mermaid. The coach's name is Christian, and he is definitely a bit light on his loafers, if you know what I mean. He takes them through the dance steps, and then moves on to another group a bit further down.

When the parade comes around and stops Lauren jumps up and joins in. Regrettably we don't get much video of this. The rest of the parade as mentioned is a bit disappointing. All the waiting for twenty minutes. Still we can say we've seen it. There is one repetitive song, which is used as the parade goes around the course called "remembering the magic". Off we go with the kids singing this tune, again and again, and again. There were a few other things to do, which we did, and then we decided that it was time to leave. We jump into the old A-wagon, and head back to the hotel, and a change of clothes.

Dinner is now much in need, so we head off with nowhere really in mind. By we in this case I mean us, the Starlings, and Russell & Brigitte. Joy & Chris want to go off on their own, but it is mentioned that we are going to go to Old Town once dinner is finished. We approach a Burger King, and Russell suggests we stop here. Anita is not sure, she doesn't really like Burger King in this country, feeling that it is a poor substitute for Macdonald's. Well she is very surprised when the burgers appear. They are much, much nicer than even Big Macs in this country. Very, very tasty. The meal is consumed with an unbridled passion.

Off we go to Old Town. The first thing we see is a series of three towers, which appear to be attached together by cables. When we get closer, it is actually a "ride" of sorts. Basically you, or a group of you, can get hitched up between the two front towers and then you are dropped and swing around. The towers are probably two to three hundred feet up! We all decide that it would not be our best interests to have a go on this. I mean "SPLAT" seems a word that could well be used at this point.

Old town is basically a shopping area. There are many wonderful shops. Russell and I stop off and have a beer, whilst the rest of the group continue on. The bar is very much like the cafes that you see in a lot of the fifties and sixties American movies. It almost makes me feel that I'm In Mel's Diner from Happy Days. We then race to catch up the rest. Andrew & Lauren have found a brilliant shop, which sells nothing but puppets. The Owner/salesperson gave them a show with a few of the puppets. This is what they decide to spend some of their holiday money on, puppets. Well after watching the same show I relent and the kids buy their puppets, Andrew getting a Granddad Puppet and Lauren a Grandma. They are really chuffed over this. We walk on and suddenly realise that it is very, very late. We head off back to the hotel, and our waiting beds. However Andrew and Lauren decide that Grandma and Granddad will sleep with them, so climb into the bed with their respective puppets. This means that there is not a lot of space in their beds, tonight.