Saturday, October 3 - Keep running

That pesky mouse.

Why is it, on every trip I have made to WDW that same mouse calls so darned early in the morning and shakes me out of a deep sleep? Does he get some sadistic pleasure from it? Oh well, I'm up now.

As soon as I moved I realized something was amiss. Perhaps it was pushing Nat around all day in a stroller when she's really too big for it. Perhaps it was that wild and woolly ride on CTX. Whatever it was, something had made me strain my back. No big deal, mind you. I could tell it was a muscle problem, not a spine problem, but I was very stiff nevertheless. I dragged myself out of bed, took a shower and got dressed. It was easier to wake Nat than it usually is at home. (Now why do you suppose that is?) We strolled to the food court for breakfast. For those who are not familiar with Disney's All Star Resorts, they have a food court as opposed to any restaurants. I have found these food courts to be, in general, very convenient. They have a nice variety and the prices are reasonable (by Disney standards, at any rate). Nat had a bagel, I had cereal and we shared a fruit bowl.

The plan for the day called for us to go to the Magic Kingdom and make use of the early (7:30) opening available to on-site hotel guests. I can almost hear a bunch of WDW veterans out there screaming "Are you NUTS? The Magic Kingdom on a Saturday? It'll be wall to wall humanity!" Well, I know. My original plan was to do AK again Saturday morning and the Magic Kingdom Sunday morning. Unfortunate that plan was stymied exactly 60 days ago. Nat wanted to do the character breakfast at Cinderella's Castle. This particular character breakfast is the most popular and difficult to get reservations for. I called 60 days in advance as soon as I could for Saturday - just in case. Then the next day I called to make Sunday reservations. Except I forgot. Forgot until 11:00 in the morning that is. That's right, you can start making reservations at 7:00 AM 60 days before you plan to go, and by 11:00 they were already sold out. Thank goodness I thought to make the Saturday reservations. So there we were, headed to the Magic Kingdom on a dreaded Saturday. At least we could get in early.

Even though we had a car I decided it would make more sense to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom (MK). I had learned from our previous trip that driving to the MK is not a good idea. The parking lot for the park is actually located quite far away at the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC). This means that if you drive you must park at the TTC and take a monorail or ferry to the MK. If you get there when it's crowded you have to park, take a tram to the TTC, and then a monorail or ferry. It's a real hassle. If you're staying on-site you have Disney transportation available, sometimes by ferry or monorail but usually by bus. It is much easier.

The bus to MK pulled up right on time at 7:00. The bus driver on the way over was quite funny. At one point she said "The use of cell phones and pagers on this bus is prohibited. You're on vacation for cryin' out loud!" That got a good laugh from her passengers. In general I have found the bus drivers at WDW to be among the funnier employees.

We pulled up to the main gate at the MK at about 7:10. One thing I had learned from my many years as a Southern California resident and frequent Disneyland patron is to never get in line at the first gate you see. The lines at the MK gates are fairly evenly distributed because people are arriving from many different areas, but the longest lines were still the ones on the side where the bus dropped us off. So I led Nat to the other side, where the lines were considerably shorter. As luck would have it, this took us over to the area where our brick on the Walk of Fame is located. We took a few minutes to look for the brick and it was actually Nat who spotted it.

We got in line and a few minutes later we were in the park. It was another beautiful day with blue skies and puffy white clouds. Unfortunately, it was still very hot. Even at 7:30 in the morning I was sweating.

I had toyed with the idea of taking Nat on Space Mountain. I know a lot of people would think it's a bit much for a 5 year old, but Nat loves roller coasters and has been on some that are actually more radical than Space Mountain. Of course they weren't in the dark. I also recalled that the seats in Space Mountain only held one person, so I wouldn't be right next to Nat. I couldn't recall if she would sit directly in front of me, which would be OK, but I didn't want to chance it. So off we went to Fantasyland instead.

The lines in Fantasyland were pretty short. I assumed that Nat would want to ride Dumbo and I figured that should be our first stop, but she was not interested. OK, we did Peter Pan's Flight instead. We loved it, as usual, although Nat was a bit scared (also as usual). I noted the plywood up in front of the old Mr. Toad's Wild Ride which has been closed in favor of an upcoming Winnie-the-Pooh ride. Too bad it wasn't open yet, I'm sure Nat would love it.

After flying with Peter Pan, Nat and I agreed that a little culture was in order, so off we went to It's a Small World (IASW). Now, IASW is not my favorite attraction at WDW (that song! That SONG! THAT SONG!) but I have started to enjoy it more since becoming a father. I missed it on our last trip (Nat and Andie went on), but we all experienced the Disneyland version in '97. Floating on that boat with Nat, seeing the look of wonder on her face with all the lights and bright colors reflecting in her eyes really brought home to me why I enjoy these kinds of experiences so much with my kids. As a Southern California native I grew up loving Disneyland and I'm now enjoying introducing my kids to the same joy. Oh sure, there are lots of other experiences I have enjoyed with my kids in the past and intend to enjoy in the future, but going to a Disney park is something that brings out the kid in me (not that I need that much help) and makes me feel like I'm sharing part of my own youth with my kids.

After IASW we did the Carousel. I was a little leery of the Carousel because I wasn't sure if I could lift Nat on to a horse with back in pain, but Carousels are a must for us whenever we travel to someplace that has one. And of course Disney's are among the best. It turned out not to be a big problem - Nat was able to climb on the horse with little assistance and getting her off the horse after her ride took little effort. In fact, climbing into the boat on IASW caused more pain.

There was nothing else in Fantasyland Nat wanted to go on right then ("Are you sure you don't want to go on Dumbo?" "Yes." "How about Snow White?" "No." "The Teacups?" "Not right now." "OK...") There was still plenty of time before the park would open to the general public, so I figured we could go to the Timekeeper in Tomorrowland.

We had never seen the Timekeeper before. It's one of Disney's patented "Circlevision 360" movies with a twist. Instead of your run-of-the-mill travelogue kind of adventure, the Timekeeper sends you on a trip through time. Your guides are The Timekeeper, an impressive audio-animatronics robot voiced by Robin Williams and Nine-Eye, another robot with 9 eyes through which the audience gets to experience the adventure. I found it to be quite an enjoyable show. Nat liked the robot, but she seemed to fluctuate between being bored and frightened by the film.

After the Timekeeper it was time to head over to the Adventureland gate in order to get wet at Splash Mountain. Nat had been on a log flume on our trip to Wildwood Beach and she loved it. I figured she would really go nuts for Splash Mountain. We waited for a few minutes at the Adventureland gate, then they dropped the rope. The first thing I noticed: no more "dash for the splash". CMs now lead you in an orderly fashion to the most popular attractions. I for one think it's a great improvement.

As we made our way to Chickapin Hill Nat spotted a cart selling Cowboy hats. I told her we would pick one up after riding Splash Mountain (SplM). Nat was excited about SplM until she saw the big drop. Then she demurred. "I don't want to go on it". Now, I am not one to force a kid to do something they don't want to do while on vacation. Sure I wanted to ride SplM, but I wasn't going to force Nat to ride it if she was scared. Regardless, I talked her into it because I knew for a fact that she would love the ride. I told her "If you still don't want to get on when we get through the line we won't do it". The wait was only a few minutes so I figured it was worth the risk.

The portraits of the cartoon characters in the cheery queue area seemed to calm her nerves, so we boarded. All fears were immediately washed away. While we were riding I realized that the reason she was scared was because she thought you went under water after the big drop (anyone who has seen SplM can understand why she thought this). I assured her that, no, you don't go under water. After floating around experiencing the cheery Song of the South vignettes and a few small drops, the music turned scary, the mood somber, and our "log" started descending to the big drop. "Here we go!" Then Whoosh! Splash! We were back at the bottom of Chikapin Hill. "Let's do that again!" Nat squealed. Obviously, Daddy knows best. I told her that we couldn't go on again right then because we had a breakfast date with some princesses. Maybe later.

On our way out of Frontierland we bought her that bright red cowboy she saw on the way in. She was absolutely thrilled.

We had 9:30 reservations for character breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT) in Cinderella's castle. While we were waiting in the lobby I realized that, for some reason, the flash on the camera wasn't working. Disaster! It's Andie's camera and I recalled her telling me that the flash stops working when the battery gets low. I asked the CM at the reservation booth for the location of the nearest camera shop. Luckily it was right around the corner. The man at the camera store (booth, actually) tested the battery and said it was fine. That could only mean there was something wrong with the camera. I couldn't chance it so I bought a disposable camera with flash ($17, thank you very much). Then, after we were given our slip ("royal invitation") to be seated Nat realized that we left her autograph book at the camera store. Disaster again! I explained our predicament to the same kindly CM and we dashed back to retrieve it. Camera and autograph book safely in hand we joined Cinderella for breakfast. As a side note, the camera later worked fine. Oh well.

Andie and I had been to CRT on both of our previous trips, Thanksgiving 1997 and March 1992 (when it was still King Stephan's Banquet Hall. Why the restaurant in Cinderella's Castle was named for the King in Sleeping Beauty was a mystery that had been perplexing Disneyphiles for years.) In 1992 we were there for dinner, and last year for lunch (Nat was able to greet the characters in the lobby before lunch). I don't recall the food from that first trip, but I think we were unimpressed. The food for lunch the year before was downright awful. Well, now that we've done breakfast there, all I can say is that Cinderella definitely knows how to do breakfast. Nat had a waffle with eggs and bacon (OK, I ate the bacon), I had eggs, bacon, potatoes and custard stuffed French toast. The eggs were good and the bacon nice and crispy. The potatoes weren't to my taste, but the French toast was awesome! It was the only thing I ordered seconds of. Unfortunately it was so filling I could only eat one of the two extra pieces I got.

The characters on hand were Peter Pan & Wendy, Belle (I wanted my picture taken with her ;-), Snow White and, of course, Cinderella. The cast was, as always, wonderful. Our server Judy was friendly and efficient. All in all, the character breakfast gets a big thumbs up from me. If you have kids, especially a princess-loving little girl (aren't they all?), it's an absolute must. Remember to make those reservations 60 days in advance, and call first thing in the morning!

We were done with breakfast about 10:30. According to my plans we needed to leave the MK by about 11:30 and the park was getting crowded, so we had enough time for one good attraction. I suggested the Haunted Mansion (HM). Nat had never been on HM, but she loves Pirates of the Caribbean so I thought she would love HM as well. In my mind I never thought of HM as being all that scary, but Nat was actually quite scared by it. Not screaming at the top of her voice "Get me out of here!" scared, but rather hide your head in Daddy's lap for most of the ride scared.

Andie and I rode HM on our trip in 1992 but we didn't ride last year so I didn't recall what the WDW version was like. The exterior of the building is, of course, very different. I have read comments on the Internet by people claiming that the HM at MK is virtually identical to the one in Disneyland, so I was surprised by how different they are. I have to say that the HM at WDW is slightly better.

I didn't want to have to rush out of the MK so we started making our way out after HM. We strolled and weren't in any great hurry. We were just enjoying a wonderful moment together. When we reached the south end of Main Street I noticed that the stable was open. Now, Nat absolutely loves horses, so I figured we could drop in and visit. The horse (whose name I forgot) seemed to take an immediate shine to Nat (maybe it was the cowboy hat) and the CM in charge of the stable was very nice. I don't know if he was just trying to be kind, but he said that the horse rarely takes to people with the gusto with which he seemed to take to Nat. After bidding a reluctant farewell to the steed we left the MK.