The One With the Briar Patch

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Arriving on Disney Property

This morning I was up at 10:00 thanks to my mom waking me. No big deal though, I had been having weird Sex and the City dreams all night. I think I married Aiden and I don't even like John Corbett. That house was doing weird things to my sleep patterns! I got up and had some chocolate Lucky Charms and a piece of carrot cake with water for breakfast. I took a shower at 10:45 and right when I got out we got a call from my Aunt Stacy back in Brooklyn. She said that New York was having an extreme heat wave and there had been a tornado in Brooklyn. What?! I looked it up online and saw that there had been a Tornado in Bay Ridge, where we always go to eat and where all of our doctor's are. Crazy! It's funny because everyone always gives us a hard time for going to Orlando in the summer. Family and friends always wish us luck not melting on the sidewalk but on all three of our trips (in 2005, 2006, and now 2007) there's been CRAZY weather in Brooklyn (extreme heat waves, days of endless rain, TORNADOES!) while we were calm and comfortable down in Orlando.

Dad and Mike on the monorail

It took me a while to get ready. As much as I love getting all dolled up, I hate it. Doing my makeup isn't so bad but I HATE blowing my hair. UGH. Anyway, I slowly got ready in my room while I watched Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. My little cousin loves these shows so I watch them with her when I babysit but I don't normally watch them. The only "kid" show I like is Drake and Josh on Nickelodeon. However, the TV reception throughout the house was really bad and the only four channels that were actually clear were the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, E and TLC. Nothing was on the other channels so I settled on Disney. And you know, when in Rome... Anyway, when I was done getting ready I blew my hair in mine and Mike's bathroom. It was HOT in there. For some reason the air-conditioning didn't work great in our bathroom and blowing my hair just steamed up the room ridiculously. UGH, it was so uncomfortable.

Main Street USA

I was done getting ready by 12:40 (see, I told you it took me forever!) and was ready to go. Mike had gotten up around a half hour before and was dressed and ready, as was everyone else. Dad, though, wanted to watch the end of the Walker Texas Ranger movie he was watching on TBS. Oy. Today was our first Magic Kingdom day, let's get going! He was set on finishing the movie so I just watched Drake and Josh in my room.

Cinderella's Castle and Main Street USA

We finally left at 1:00. I was so psyched! We drove over to the Magic Kingdom and parked somewhere. I have no idea where we parked but there was a waiting tram ready to take us to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We hopped right on and were some of the last people to do so. Two minutes later the conductor called for no further boarding and the tram starting moving, right as a few people decided to toss their kids into a full row and then climb on themselves... while the tram was moving. Stupid, stupid people; they're everywhere. Anyway, it was a quick ride but it was HOT out! Man oh man. Whew. At least we got a little bit of a breeze as we rode along on the tram. We were at the Ticket and Transportation Center in no time and got right onto the monorail. I love the monorail! I really couldn't have been more excited.

Adventureland

The monorail ride was short and we were at the gates of the Magic Kingdom within minutes. The bag check and turnstiles were empty so we were through there in no time and I loved every minute of it! The Magic Kingdom is the quintessential Disney park but back in 2005 I hadn't loved it. I liked it, but I sure as hell didn't love it. It actually kind of bored me after a while and I got annoyed more than I had a good time. I'm not sure why but it just didn't click with me, or any of us. None of us really liked it. But this time... this time I was determined to LOVE it! That was really my outlook for the entire trip. This trip wasn't even supposed to happen. After our trip in 2006 my dad had wanted to go elsewhere this year but we were back and I was going to make sure to take advantage of it. I wasn't going to complain or be annoyed and I was going to have FUN. And it worked... most of the time.

Adventureland

As soon as we started walking down Main Street mom started singing "I'm walking right down the middle of main street USA... it's the heart of America, the heartbeat of a holiday." I love that song! See, getting in the spirit really does help. We walked around the main hub for a while before the heat got to us and we walked down Main Street through the stores on the left side of the street. We always like to split the Magic Kingdom up into two days - one day to do the left side of the park (Frontierland, Adventureland, Liberty Square and as much of Fantasyland as we can) and then a day to do the right side of the park (Tomorrowland, the rest of Fantasyland, and whatever else we missed). Today was our left side of the park day. We wanted to get fastpasses for Splash Mountain so we headed towards Frontierland, passing through Adventureland first. I love the theming in Adventureland, it's so tropical and pretty. I especially love the flowers and plants.

Splash Mountain

We made our way over to Splash Mountain and the area was mobbed! The Magic Kingdom was definitely packed. The lines really weren't too bad at most rides but we were used to Epcot where everything is huge and spread out. The Magic Kingdom and its walkways are so small that all you see are walls and walls of people. We'd just have to deal with it; this was the Magic Kingdom and I was going to love it! We made our way over to the Splash Mountain fastpass machines and got fastpasses with a return time of 4:55 - 5:55. Not too bad. Done with that we headed back towards Adventureland. Pirates of the Caribbean had a forty-minute wait which was insane to me! In 2005 we had literally walked right onto the ride. Damn Jack Sparrow - he completely rejuvenated interest in the ride! We figured it would always be crowded due to the renovations so we just got on line. At least it was indoors and air-conditioned.

Mom on line for Pirates of the Caribbean

It was actually a pretty fun wait. I loved looking around at all the little details and I made sure to take some pictures. There was only one incident on the line here and it was the only incident we experienced with rude guests. Well not so much rude as just completely clueless ones. About five-minutes into the line everyone was standing around and waiting, and there was a little area where you could sneak through to move up in line. Of course no one was doing that because you obviously have to wait on line in order to get on the ride. Well, one family from Brazil didn't think so. Two teenage girls slowly but surely snuck their way up in front of a good twenty families and then motioned for their entire family of five other people to come join them. Nope, wasn't happening.

Captain Jack Sparrow!

Everyone tried to tell them to move back but they didn't speak English (or just pretended not to) and gave everyone blank stares. No one was doing anything so I just had to. I wasn't going to be rude about it but I simply slipped past everyone and went and stood in front of the two girls, leaned my arm again the wall to block them and just stood there, not letting them by. I let everyone who had been on line in front of us go ahead of me and then when my family caught up with me I rejoined the line. Everyone clapped, it was so funny! I didn't want to be rude to the family from Brazil, but this is America. I know you don't have to wait on line in a lot of South American and European countries but here in America we wait on line and it's helpful to learn the customs of the country before you come here, just as us Americans are expected to do when we travel out of country. There was no way this family was getting ahead of us. Sorry.

Pirates of the Caribbean

We finally got to the front of the line after only twenty minutes. That wasn't bad at all! We climbed into our boat and were off. This was one of the rides that I didn't like in 2005. I remember crying hysterically just being on line for it in 1992 so I didn't go on it then, and we didn't have time to go on it in 2001. So 2005 was the first ride for all of us (except for my dad who had gotten to go on it in 1992 while my mom waited with Mike and I in the gift shop) and to me it was just a waste. Nothing happened and it didn't live up to the hype. This time, though, I LOVED it! The renovations were great! They really livened up the entire ride. I love the waterfall special effect with Davy Jones right at the beginning of the ride... how cool is that?! And the Johnny Depp animatronic looked just like Johnny Depp. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and we all really loved it!

Dad getting some water in Frontierland

After the ride we decided to just walk around and see what we wanted to do. Mike wanted to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad so we backtracked to Frontierland and saw that the line was ninety-minutes long for a simple runaway train ride. No way! Mike loves that ride though, so we said we'd come back later and try to get fastpasses. We continued walking and stopped for water at a cart, and then made our way over to Liberty Square. I HATED walking past the Haunted Mansion since it was down for renovations. That's one of my all-time favorite rides! It's without a doubt my favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom and I wasn't even going to get to ride it! Grrr. Next time, next time.

Fantasyland

We made our way over to Fantasyland and everything was pretty crowded. I really wanted to go on Peter Pan since it's one of my favorite Disney movies and I read the book every summer before we leave. There was a forty-five minute wait though, and no one wanted to wait. Snow White also had a long wait (forty-minutes) so we bypassed that line as well. I really wanted to go on all of these rides! The Fantasyland rides are classics and I love them but mom, dad and Mike think they're baby rides and could care less about going on them. Next time we go to Disney I have to bring my little cousin with us so I can use her as an excuse to go on everything!

Mom and I on line for Mickey's PhilharMagic

We walked past Mickey's Philharmagic and there was only a twenty-minute wait so we got on line. I love the posters in there, they're so cute! I always have to make sure to take pictures of the Ariel and Genie posters since The Little Mermaid and Aladdin are my two favorite Disney movies. The line went by pretty quickly and I just wish they'd do more with the pre-show. Disney's usually great with pre-shows but this one sucks. Everyone just squishes into a huge room and stands there while an audio track plays the voices of Mickey and Minnie. Boring. At least it was only a fifteen-minute wait before we were taking our seats. I can't even describe how much I absolutely LOVE this show. I LOVE IT! A LOT! I grew up with Disney, mainly the late eighties and early nineties era musicals, all of which are featured here. I literally grew up watching The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast over and over again, and this show just completely epitomizes the magic of Disney for me. And yes, I'll admit I cried. I got teary-eyed during the "Part of Your World" scene and then completely lost it during "A Whole New World." And then, even more surprisingly, I looked over at my mom and she was crying too! She said it was the Lion King scene that did it for her since she loves that movie. So Mickey's Philharmagic had us all in tears. Now that's magic. Oh, and the special effects can't be beat.

On line for Snow White's Scare Adventures

By the time we got out of Mickey's Philharmagic it was 3:00 and there was only a twenty-five minute wait for Snow White's Adventures. Perfect! We headed over there and got right in line. There was a woman in front of us who was by herself and she kept looking around for someone. We kept getting closer and closer to the front of the line and she kept looking and looking for someone. When we were only a few people away from the front of the line she told me that she was waiting for her husband and kids and asked if it would be OK for them to meet up with her. No problem. I know things like that bother a lot of people, but it really didn't bother me. Her family was all going to sit in the same car anyway, so who cares if they waited on line or just met her at the front? It didn't make the line any longer for us. I got to talking to the woman and she and her family were from Zimbabwe! How cool is that?! I've always wanted to visit Africa so I thought it was awesome and I loved her accent! She was so interesting to talk to. Her family finally met up with her a few minutes later and he husband looked just like Seal. They were such a cute family and talking to this woman helped the already short line (it was only fifteen-minutes long) go by even faster.

Snow White's Scare Adventures

When we got to the front of the line we all hopped in our car. I was in the front, Mike was in the middle, and mom and dad were in the back. I love this ride! It's very cute. I haven't seen Snow White in the longest time but the story itself is a good one. I have to watch it soon. Anyway, the ride was a lot shorter and darker than I had remembered. A lot of scenes are just pitch black with not much going on. Regardless, though, it's a good ride and is always a must-do on each trip. When the ride was over we decided to get something to eat. Yes, it was only 3:30 in the afternoon but we were all hungry and figured why not. I'm not thrilled with the table service restaurants in the Magic Kingdom. We tried Crystal Palace for lunch in 2005 and hadn't loved it. There wasn't much to choose from and it was way overpriced. I've heard pretty good reviews of Tony's but everyone always tells me to skip it when they find out I'm from NY. You can't beat NY Italian! And then there's the Liberty Tree Tavern, which I think is overpriced for some Turkey and Stouffers stuffing.

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe

So Cosmic Ray's it was! I had eaten there with school in 2001 and remembered it being pretty good. Plus we had fun watching Sonny Eclipse so I figured it would be a good place to try again. We headed over there and it was packed! I really wanted to sit in the room with Sonny Eclipse but there weren't any tables so we got a table in the back near the bathroom, overlooking Cinderella's Castle. It was empty back there.

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe

Mike and I went to look at the menus even though I already knew what I wanted, and then he saved the table while mom, dad and I went to get the food. The lines here were so crowded! To make things worse, the CM taking our order forgot an extra burger that we had ordered so while we were waiting for our food my dad had to wait for whoever was ordering to finish and then cut in and added the extra burger on. What a pain. Anyway, we checked out the toppings bar and got some drinks and then brought it all back to the table. Mike got a veggie wrap, dad got a double bacon cheeseburger, I got a cheeseburger and my mom got a plain hamburger. The food was pretty good! Mike loved his veggie wrap. He definitely enjoyed his meal the most. My burger was pretty good, too. Not the best (you could tell it was cheap meat and not a sirloin burger) but not too bad. We all enjoyed our dinner here and it was cheap!

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe

While we were sitting there a little girl who was probably around twelve went over to sit at a table with her family and she was crying. A bunch of CM's were following them and trying to talk to her. It turns out she had fallen near the bathroom and cut her leg. The CM's there did a great job of cheering her up and they cheered up her parents by giving them dream fastpasses to be used throughout the day. When we were done eating we went over to the bathroom and the floor was SLIPPERY! Everyone was slipping and sliding around, and I saw more than a few kids fall. It was an accident (and a lawsuit!) waiting to happen. Anyway, we were done eating by 4:30 and our Splash Mountain fastpasses weren't good until 4:55 so we decided to walk around Tomorrowland a bit. It kept getting darker and darker out and looked like it was going to pour! We just hoped it would hold off until after we got to ride Splash Mountain since it would suck to not get to use those fastpasses! We were lucky though and it didn't rain all night. It actually only rained twice on our entire trip but more on that later.

Mike on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority

The Tomorrowland Transit Authority didn't have a wait (as usual) so we decided to give it a whirl. I love that ride! It's a fun, relaxing way to spend a few minutes and I have the funniest memories from it. We went on it twice in 2005, and the second time we all fought over who would sit going forwards once we were already in the car. So halfway down the platform my mom and dad hopped out, right before the door of the car closed and jumped in the car behind us. Well, at least dad did. The door closed right before my mom could get on it! Then she went to get into the car behind him and the door closed right as she had one leg in the car. She had to hop over and get in. A word of warning: Don't do that! Once you're in a car, just stay there, haha! Everyone was fine and no one got in trouble but it was the funniest thing ever and I have the greatest pictures ever from that whole experience. OK, moving on.

Dad on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority

We all got in a car (the same car!) and took a journey above Tomorrowland. I really do love this ride - the sights, the narration, the quiet whirring of the vehicles as they speed up. I love it! I especially love going through Space Mountain. I love when it's hot out and then you slowly make your way through the freezing ride, hearing everyone's screams and shouts along the way. It's the best! After the Tomorrowland Transit Authority we walked around Tomorrowland a little more. We mainly just took in the sights and decided on what we wanted to do when we came back to do everything in Tomorrowland. It kept getting darker and darker and we just kept our fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain. Luckily it didn't! Then we started making our way back over to Frontierland to use our Splash Mountain fastpasses.

Getting fastpsses for Big Thunder Mountain

When we got to Frontierland we were within the window to use our Splash Mountain fastpasses, but Mike really wanted to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad so we headed over there. There was only a twenty-minute wait listed but the line extended all the way out past the sign so we knew it was a MUCH longer wait and we decided to get fastpasses. There was a return time of 6:00 - 7:00 and it was 5:00 now so it wasn't bad at all. As we were getting our fastpasses we heard the CM at the front of the ride say that the time was wrong, and there was really a ninety-minute wait. Well that's a big difference!

Mom and dad on Splash Mountain

After getting fastpasses we made our way over to Splash Mountain where the line was huge. I was so glad that we had those fastpasses! We were able to walk right through the entire line and were stopped right before we got onto our log. One thing I noticed was the woman in front of us. She was on line with her young son who looked to be around four, and through the entire line she walked in front of him and not once looked back. She didn't care where he was or what he was doing. He was a well-behaved, cute kid, but wouldn't you be nervous about not knowing if your little son was still there behind you? It was weird. Anyway, we were on the ride within ten minutes.

Mike on Splash Mountain

Mike and I sat together in the third row and mom and dad sat behind us in the last row. As soon as Mike as I went to get into our row we saw a huge clump of wet hair and grossness on the seat. Ew. The same thing had happened in 2005. We've always noticed that the Magic Kingdom is the dirtiest park of the four of them. It was SO gross. I used my shoe to brush it onto the floor of the log and just hoped it wouldn't come back for a visit. And then we were off... Besides the dirtiness we always find on this ride, it's a great one! Not many flumes are ten-minutes long. It was a ton of fun and the four of us cracked up the whole time! And I got DRENCHED going down the drop! The drop itself never gets anyone wet but it's those damn water cannons that erupt as you go down the drop. I got off the ride completely dry in 2005 so I wasn't at all expecting to get this wet. I actually had to ring out my hair and shirt when we got off the ride. At least it felt good!

Mom and dad waiting for the Country Bears

Splash Mountain had only taken up twenty-minutes of our time so by the time we got off we still had forty-minutes before we could use our Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fastpasses. We walked around Frontierland for a while before seeing that the next showing of the Country Bear Jamboree would be starting in fifteen-minutes. I was so thirsty but there weren't any drink carts around so we just headed into the show. We waited around in the pre-show room for a good fifteen-minutes, just relaxing and enjoying the air-conditioning. There were lots of kids going crazy and running around in there, it was cute! I kept getting thirstier and thirstier but I was afraid everyone would be let into the theater right after I left to get a drink and I'd miss the show, so I just waited around and dealt with it.

The Country Bear Jamboree

Eventually we were let into the theater and we let everyone go in ahead of us since we didn't care where we sat. We wound up sitting on the left side of the fifth row and had a perfect view of the stage. We have a lot of the Country Bear Jamboree on tape from our trip in 1992 and I used to watch that tape over and over, so I always knew the parts of the song we had on tape by heart! It's always fun to see the show in person and look for the parts we have on tape. In 2005 I had loved this show as much as I did back in 1992, but this time it was just OK. I hate country music, it's just not my thing, so after ten minutes of a bunch of redneck bears singing old country songs I was ready to jump ship. It was just so long, haha! It might have had something to do with the fact that I was so thirsty and annoyed, but the show just didn't do it for me this time. It was a good way to get out of the heat and waste some time, but it's not a must-do.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

When the Country Bear Jamboree ended we headed back out into the heat and I was finally able to find a cart selling water. Whew, I needed that! Then we headed back towards Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We were five-minutes early but we decided to see if the CM would let us on anyway. No luck. You can use your fastpasses all day after they've reached your time window, but those CM's are strict about letting anyone on early. You won't get on even a minute early! So we waited around for five minutes and just hung out and took a few pictures.

Mom and dad on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

When we were finally let through the gates, we walked all the way through the empty fastpass line. So it may be a pain having to just wait around for your exact fastpass time but it usually DOES help to clean out the line. We were on in no time, and mom and dad sat behind Mike and I. It was one of the most fun rides of the day! In 2005 I hadn't loved the ride. It was just a runaway train ride and wasn't anything special. It's still very tame and nothing spectacular, but it's just plain old-fashioned fun! There were lots of kids on the ride and everyone was having a great time! Mom, dad, Mike and I cracked up through the whole thing and I have the absolute FUNNIEST video of all of us on it! I loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and had a much better time on it than I had in 2005!

On Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!

After the ride we decided to call it a day. We all ran into the bathroom and then started to make our way out. As we were crossing the bridge from Adventureland into the main hub, though, we saw everyone crowding around and watching the sky. I asked someone what was going on and they said that the space shuttle was about to launch from Cape Canaveral. How cool is that?! All three years that we've been in Orlando recently there's been a space shuttle launch that I've missed. We all missed the one in 2005 but at least mom and dad had been able to see the one last year. This year I was determined to see a launch and that's exactly what I did. A few minutes after we found a spot on the bridge, we saw a white line slowly streak across the sky. Everyone was clapping and screaming. It was the coolest sight! I've always been fascinated by space and space travel, so getting to see a space shuttle launch firsthand was honestly an awe-inspiring experience. What an amazing thing to see!

The space shuttle launch

At 7:10 we finally made our way out of the park. We got onto a waiting monorail and were back at the car in no time, making it home by 7:45. All in all, our first day at the Magic Kingdom had been absolutely amazing! I was determined to have a better time at the Magic Kingdom this time than I did in 2005 and I really did. I loved it and couldn't wait to get back! I finally felt the Disney magic at its signature park. The fantasy was alive and well at the Magic Kingdom and I really did feel like a kid again. It was great! When we got back to the house we all hung out and watched So You Think You Can Dance. When it was over we played California Rummy and mom won. Then I took a shower and watched Conan and Roseanne in my room while I braided my hair. I had a lot of trouble falling asleep that night. I just tossed and turned in bed for hours, until I finally fell asleep at 3:00.