To make up for sleeping in yesterday, we got up much earlier today, and made our way to the Magic Kingdom by about 10am, and stayed there all day. Anna has decided that it is her favorite park, so we wanted to make sure we had a lot of time there to see everything she was interested in. They didn't have the Main Street Electrical Parade tonight for some reason, so I imagine we will go back at some point to catch that.
Photos: today only, all days
We saw lots and lots of attractions today, but the biggest hits were:
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- Mickey's Philharmagic – This was a 3D show, much like the ones offered in the other parks (Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in Epcot, the Muppet show in MGM, A Bug's Life in Animal Kingdom), but Anna and I both though this was the best one of the bunch. It was hysterical, and very well done. (How do those glasses work? It's apparently not through polarization.)
- The Tomorrowland Transit Authority – I went on this ride with Mom, Dad, and Andrew when we were here many years ago, when it was called the Wedway People Mover. It starts off slow, but speeds up and quickly speeds you on a very gentle, enjoyable ride through Tomorrowland, taking you inside popular rides such as Space Mountain. It was a lot of fun, especially to see the rides we'd already been on, from a completely different perspective.
- Dreams Come True Parade – We got good seats along the parade route. The floats, characters, dancers, and the entire experience were just magical and fun.
We also went to Storytime with Belle, where Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) told us the story. Anna really likes Belle, so it was fun to interact with her for a while. I took lots of pictures of this, since Anna is such a fan. We also rode the Mad Hatter (aka "the teacups"), Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and the river raft over to Tom Sawyer Island.
A major highlight of today, and of the trip so far, though, was our dinner experience. We ate at the Royal Table inside Cinderella's Castle! In reality, this is just a nice restaurant in the castle, with the addition of a complimentary set of photos with Cinderella (taken before you eat), and a show with the Fairy Godmother while you're eating. The inside of the castle was beautiful, so Anna and I lingered a bit so we could enjoy it. Anna was brave and ordered a Crab and Corn Chowder for an appetizer, as did I, and it was great! For our entrees, I had prime rib (so-so) and Anna had pork tenderloin, which was quite good. I finished off with a "Blueberry Buckle," (lemon ice cream on top of a crusty blueberry muffin, it seemed) which was delicious, and Anna had a strawberry sorbet.
After eating there, we headed on over to Tomorrowland, where, among other things, we rode the previously-mentioned Tomorrowland Transit Authority (awesome). It was nearing 7pm by this point, and Anna was tiring quickly, so we nearly decided to go back to the hotel, to the point where we were almost ready to go through the exit turnstiles. Anna changed her mind, though, so we went back in to see the electrical parade and the fireworks show. We went shopping a bit and rode the Adventureland Jungle Cruise first, then picked a comfy spot on the curb on Main Street USA where we intended to watch the parade, which was only about a half hour away. At that point, we overheard someone say that there wasn't going to be a parade that day, so we checked our schedule and found that they were absolutely right! We decided to cut our losses and go back to the hotel at that point, rather than waiting an extra hour and a half to see the fireworks show which we've seen already, and which we'll see again later in the week.
When we got back to the hotel, we went to the main building to pick up some packages. First, Anna ordered us some costumes(!) for a special "Mickey's Not-so-Scary Halloween Party" which we're going to this Friday evening, and we had some boxes waiting for us from some gift shop purchases we'd made in the various parks. (If you stay on the Disney grounds, any time you buy something in a gift shop, you can choose to have it delivered to your hotel for you, if you'd prefer not to carry it around for the rest of the day. How awesome that is!)
Tomorrow, we are scheduled to go to MGM Studios again for the full day, but we saw a lot of it on Saturday, so we might head out early and go back to another park. We shall see!
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