Travels N'at 2019: Disney World - Monday, 25 February 2019

After getting so little sleep the previous two nights, it was a treat to sleep through til nearly 8:00. What a feeling to wake up rested.

Dressed, ate breakfast, and boarded the bus to Magic Kingdom. Our first Fast Pass was Aladdin's Magic Carpet. It was a fun one, but really geared for kids, although we had a good time making the carpet go up and down quickly.

Mouse Ears and a Princess Medal adorned the Principessa today.

Fast Passes are great if you can plan ahead. Since I had only decided a couple of weeks ago to join Amy, we couldn't get on some of the really, really popular rides with a Fast Pass and the waits for some were over 3 hours. Too much time in line. Our strategy was to check the wait times and head to the lowest ones as to not waste time.

Next up was the Pirates of the Caribbean. It was just about 11 and since the wait time was only 35 minutes, we opted that over the Fast Pass we had for 11:35. Probably the only wrong decision of the day. The wait was more like an hour and we missed seeing one of my former students perform at noon. But the refurbished ride was fun and entertaining and nice to see that it had been reimagined. Pirates now carry off buried treasures instead of women and Jack Sparrow has been added.

Had a bit of free time to kill so we headed back to Fantasy Land and rode the carousel. Someone wouldn't turn around to get a picture.

After checking wait times on the Disney app we headed to Under the Sea, the adventures of the Little Mermaid. How did I miss this movie. We named our pool cleaner Ariel at Amy's suggestion, but I never knew how infatuated she was with the character as a child. It was a cute ride in a clam shell and the music was taken from the movie.

We thought we could catch the Hall of Presidents, one of my favorite attractions so we headed back to Liberty Square only to find out that the show started in 19 minutes and was 23 minutes long. That didn't fit our time frame as we had to be at the castle at 2:25. So we moseyed around through the Christmas shop where I was quizzed on Disney princesses. I didn't do well, so I guess I have a slew of movies to watch.

Then it was time for lunch with royalty. This has to be a dream for every little girl and, unfortunately, we never did it with Amy as a child. But her time had come and I was glad she could add me to her reservation. We entered the castle and waited for a bit until we met Cinderella.

Cinderella was charming and transitioned so well from the little girls all dressed in princess costume to two adults like us.

We were finally "invited" to dine and we went up to the royal dining hall.

Our first course was the charcuterie plate with delicious cheeses and a bit of fig jam on one.

Brought back memories of when Amy was Snow White one Halloween. The next course was Beef and Shrimp. This was absolutely delicious and the beef was so tender and cooked just right.

Ariel was quite excited to see Amy's medal and to learn that she was Ariel for the Half-Marathon.
Dessert was a citrus chiffon cake with raspberries for me and a chocolate mousse for Amy. It was just great to see that all that she ate was gluten free.

Feeling quite full and not wanting to disturb the stomach contents we headed over to TomorrowLand and opted for the Carousel of Progress and People Mover rides. Both were calm and allowed for digestion. Feeling a bit daring and not seeing any rides that had short wait times we headed for the Astro Orbiter, a similar ride to Dumbo, Flying Carpet, etc. No one told us, tho, that if you choose 2 people in a car, that you would be pretty much like being one person. It was the epitomé of mother daughter bonding.

Back to AdventureLand for our jungle cruise. What a hoot! The "captain" of the boat was just so punny that we groaned and groaned at her commentary. Really a good tongue in cheek attraction.

We had about 25 minutes before our last Fast Pass and the Tiki Bird Show fit perfectly. This was one of my father's favorite attractions as he loved Hawaii. It really hasn't changed since its inception. Only bad thing is that you get the Tiki Bird Song stuck in your head.

And then it was time for Splash Mountain. This is a park favorite and was a great way bring our rides to the end. I am so surprised that this attraction hasn't been challenged considering is based on the Song of the South and Bre'r Fox and Bre'r Rabbit. It is a fun ride and interesting at night. To say wet is an understatement.