2008 Disney Trip - Day 3

Our second park day was spent at Magic Kingdom. It was much cooler… but with the coolness came a lot of rain. In fact, it never really stopped raining until later in the evening. It was still a nice day. Magic Kingdom has a ton of stuff to do indoors which makes it easier to manage rainy weather.



Magic Kingdom also has the most fast pass attractions of any park… and I took complete advantage of this. The four of us were there for the rope drop and I took off immediately to get fast passes for Space Mountain. Whenever I was able to get another fast pass… I would leave the group and go get one for another attraction. I am not kidding… but by mid afternoon… I had fast pass tickets for seven attractions in my pocket. That night we rode a lot of big rides with pretty much no wait at all. Good stuff.



We had dinner at a place off of Main Street called the Crystal Palace. This is a buffet restaurant… but with Winnie the Pooh characters. As you’ll see by some of the pictures… both Emily and Aaron loved this aspect of the meal! Also, Uncle Kevin… who is known for his quick wit… also joined in on the fun. He had something different to say to all four characters:

To Piglet: ‘I am a big fan of your work.’ (Piglet was his favorite Pooh character as a kid) To Pooh: ‘You need to lay off the honey, you’ve been packing on the pounds recently.’ To Eyeore: ‘I see the Prozac is working for you.’ To Tigger: ‘You need to remember to take your Ritalin.’ Funny stuff.



I also experienced a first in Magic Kingdom. A couple of years ago, they redid the ‘Alien Encounter’ ride and re-themed it as a Stitch attraction. I gotta tell you, it was pretty lame. It could’ve been much, much better than it was. I actually liked the old attraction better than this one. I would grade it a solid D. They need to just completely rethink this space for a better attraction.

We stayed for ‘Wishes.’ Disney does a tremendous job with their fireworks. It was the first time we had stayed for Wishes since 2005. Magic Kingdom is just so huge and it’s opened the longest of any other park on a normal day. It makes for a long day… it still remains my favorite theme park.

I’m a huge fan of Adventureland. We had a terrific Jungle Cruise guide this time around. She had some great lines that I hadn’t heard before… like when we sailed through a dark and creepy Asian temple… she started eerily singing ‘It’s a small world after all…’ That cracked me up. She also said something like ‘If you think this ride is boring then go check out the Hall of Presidents and come back… then we’ll talk.’ She finished up by saying: ‘Enjoy your stay in the Magic Kingdom… where your dreams come true. Then the park closes… and MY dreams come true.’ I continue to enjoy other Adventureland attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room and one of my favorite attractions on Disney property: Pirates of the Caribbean. Magic Kingdom continues to amaze me in its’ scope and creativity. As an aside… it was probably Emily’s favorite all around park as well.