Orlando Adventures - Day 6

Click on the photo to be taken to the first in the set of today's photos.

After much deliberation this morning, we decided not to ditch the rest of the family and do our own thing. At least, not entirely. My original thoughts were to just go to Animal Kingdom regardless of what the rest wanted. Epcot yesterday was just too crazy and unproductive.

But when I found out they were going to Magic Kingdom and I felt a little bad about not letting the cousins have more time together...(and I really favor the Magic Kingdom so I was wanting to go back there too...and test my hypothesis that it would have been the better park to visit yesterday...) we decided to rejoin the throng and make it another massive gathering in the park. We were short 2 people this time as they wanted to go fishing instead. But a 10% decrease didn't seem to really make that big of a difference. Or did it?

The Magic Kingdom was absolutely insanely crowded today. And we tackled things differently this time that made all the difference in the world.

Rule #1: If you're hungry you stop and eat where you are regardless of what the rest of the group wants to do. Everyone else will go on and leave you but we'll regroup later if we want to.

Rule #2: We don't have to do everything together unless it's convenient. Smaller groups are more agile and can have more fun. Grouping the kids by size/interest and providing enough adults per group for kid management makes for more efficient use of time and energy.

We split up, regrouped, changed groups, etc. multiple times during the day. All without too much trouble. We had a few snags of confusion where the crowds were heavier or where communication was difficult due to noise, but we made it through.

We did begin the day with a special trip to Epcot (just Me, Adam, Rachel, Tammie, and a couple cousins) to ride Spaceship Earth as we had promised Adam. And this time my screen worked. Not that there was anything particularly exciting about the video that plays (just your face on some animated characters). It was the principle of the thing.

Then we hopped on over to the Magic Kingdom, where dreams come true. (It says so on the sign so it must be true. Does that count as a written contract? I may have to visit guest relations to find out.) Our special trip to Epcot cost us 2 hours, so when we finally got in to MK we needed to eat. The rest of the group that got there first had found a perfect corner by Space Mountain right by the railroad tracks that we had all to ourselves.


The view from our private picnic area.

While waiting for everyone else to get off Space Mountain we grabbed some Fast Passes and some of us went on Tomorrowland Transit Authority (I miss the People Mover) followed by Carousel of Progress, then Buzz Lightyear.



By this time some people in our group had mature Fast Passes for Thunder Mountain. Instead of trying to hike across the park we were going to take the train around. Unfortunately the 3:00 parade was starting and the train was put on parade delay. Everyone got on the train anyway while I tried to make it by foot so I could drop off some stuff at the locker. I had to fight my way through parade traffic (I've decided that parades are evil) and everyone beat me there anyway. I grabbed Fast Passes for Splash Mountain and the whole group found their way on to Thunder Mountain's Fast Pass line (some extra Fast Passes magically appeared making it possible for those of us without them to still ride...maybe that counts as a dream coming true).


Just after getting off Thunder Mountain.

Then we split up again to go ride Haunted Mansion. Wait times for the most popular rides today were over an hour. Mansion was about 40 minutes with no Fast Pass. We went anyway. Some rides you just have to wait in line for. Then the kids and I managed to break away from everyone else and go get a Dole Whip Float. Mmmmmmmm! Then Tammie found us and we rode Pirates.

Dinner was at the Columbia Harbour House, my new favorite restaurant in Magic Kingdom. We (just the 5 of us at this point) found seating up stairs that was so peaceful and had an awesome view out over the river. The food was excellent too. It's counter service so the prices weren't too high either. I'll be going back there as often as I can.



Our Fast Passes for Splash were ready after dinner so we made our way there and found that everybody else was also on their way. So with just a 1-2 minute wait we were able to all ride together. Well, in 2 logs of course. Adam and I got to sit in the very front and while we didn't get soaked, everything from the shoulders up got really wet.

Then I took our kids and 1 cousin over to Space Mountain to ride with our Fast Passes. To make the trip easier we used the train. Adam was a little upset with not being able to ride Thunder Mountain in the dark (I was telling him how fun it is and now that's his newest thing to keep asking for), but we'll do it another day. After Space we rode Autopia (not the right name for it in MK, but I'm calling it that anyway).

It's now getting to be 8:00-ish and the kids are starting to get tired. Some of the group was going to go home and I had planned to stay in the park with a few of the older kids who wanted to stay until 11:00 closing. Unfortunately, there weren't enough seats in the cars going home early to take everyone. So I drove home with them with the intent on returning. But by the time we fought our way through another parade crowd (now I'm hating parades with a passion), stopped at the candy store to get a treat, caught a monorail back to the parking lot, and a tram back to the car, it was nearly 10:00. Forget the return trip. This was a one-way trip home.

All was not lost though. The kids got to finish things off with a dip in the pool (it's pretty cool out at night, but the pool is bathtub-warm so it's still fun) and I found that work had lined up some things for me to do (not the best way to end the day, but better to have the time to do it at night than burning morning hours with it).

Tomorrow we are definitely doing our own thing. Not necessarily because we want to split from the group though. Everyone else is going to Hollywood Studios, and except for a couple things we haven't seen we really don't need to spend the entire day there again. Instead we are going to a water park with the plan on joining everyone in the later afternoon or early evening at Hollywood Studios.