Disney 2009: Friday

Today was Magic Kingdom day! It started off rainy and chilly and ended just plain chilly. The park was very empty and we didn’t have much of a wait getting on any of the rides. Since Monday will be my birthday and I’ll be picking up my Birthday Fun Card ($75 gift card courtesy of Disney) then, we skipped most of Main Street (except for a breakfast of pastries and chocolate milk at the Bakery) and headed straight to Adventure Land. We had no intent of getting on the Jungle Cruise, but one of the Cast Members goaded us into it. We did have a good time and stayed dry for the most part since the boats are covered. John completely forgot about the oh-so-painful bad jokes.

The rain was coming down harder when we exited Jungle Cruise, so we made a run for Pirates of the Caribbean. By the time we were done with Pirates, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. We didn’t want to do Big Thunder Mountain in the rain, so we headed to the rest of Frontierland for the Country Bear show and Haunted Mansion.

We continued on to Peter Pan’s Flight and Snow White’s Scary Adventure. By now it was 12:30pm and we were starting to get hungry — off to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe for lunch! After lunch we headed to Toontown where we met the Disney Fairies (Tinkerbell, Irridessa,and Fawn) and the Disney Princesses (Aurora, Cinderella and Belle), and then rode the Goofy’s Barnstormer mini coaster. It’s tiny, but fun.

From there we rode the Walt Disney World Railroad back around to Frontierland for a ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The parade started during our first ride, so with everyone in the park watching it we were able to get a second walk-on ride on BTMR. Rather than ride it a third time, we took a second ride on Pirates while we waited for the parade to finish it’s route. We stopped for photos of the castle and a ride on the Teacups.

We rode Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin twice (it was a walk-on both times). As we came out the second time we found Buzz taking pictures over by the Carousel of Progress, so we stopped for one. Since we were there, we decided to ride the Carousel.

It was starting to get really chilly again so we skipped Space Mountain to head back to our resort to change into jeans before dinner in Epcot at Chefs de France. This was our worst meal so far. The food was “ok”, definitely not great. We had to wait 40 minutes after our reservation time to be seated, and we didn’t get great service. This restaurant is overrated, and we didn’t feel that it deserved the wild praise that it gets on the various Disney boards. I have a feeling everyone on the Dining Plan goes there because it’s expensive, but we didn’t think the food was worth what the cost would have been. At least we tried it though.

We finished dinner around 9:30 and took a leisurely stroll around World Showcase with a stop in Italy for wine. We decided to stop by Test Track for a spin before going “home”. Unfortunately Test Track was down for repairs, but we decided to wait it out. We waited for over an hour, but they got it running at 11:01pm (1 minute after park close) and let all of us who were waiting in for a quick ride. Test Track is very cool at night, although it was a bit cold.

We headed back to the resort for a couple of drinks and then called it a day.

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