Post by disnifiedmarge on Dec 30, 2012 19:08:14 GMT -5
Saturday 12/22/12 Day 2
We got to MCO 30 minutes early. Thanks Spirit! We needed a real cup of coffee by then, so we walked the entire length of the airport to the Starbucks. Seattle's Best just wasn't going to cut it. I found a statue of Goofy along the way. It made me so happy to be in the land of Disney characters, even if it was only the airport ones. Then we hopped on the Magical Express & were quickly transported to Old Key West. Our 1st floor studio (2915) was ready. It's not too far from the Hospitality House, so we did a quick shopping trip @ Conch Flats for the essentials (beer, wine, half& half, cheese, crackers, salami) and hauled them down Peninsular Way to our room. The bags had not yet been delivered, so after a bite to eat we headed out, intending to go to the Magic Kingdom to do the "get acquainted" loop on the monorail. Our bus stop is fairly close to our room, and a MK bus came along right away. It stopped at 4 other OKW bus stops, and by the time it got all the way around to the Hospitality House I had to use the ladies room. So we disembarked and I dashed into Olivia's real quick. Mickey just shook her head and sat patiently at the bus stop. Let's say this is not the first time she's had to wait for me to make a dash to the potty. (Ok,this is a tangent, but I may have to write a guide called The Bathrooms of Walt Disney World. It could have ratings for cleanliness, size, accessibility, etc. A retirement idea. Believe me, I have done a lot of research!). When I came out, of course we had just missed a 2nd MK bus. But along came a bus to Epcot, so we switched the transportation plan in a jiffy and hopped on. After all, we like to say hi to The Ball AND The Castle on our first day, so this gave us a perfect opportunity. It's only a 5 minute bus ride to Epcot from OKW. We considered catching a ride on Spaceship Earth when we arrived, but the magical app on my phone said the wait time was 25 minutes so we opted for the monorail to MK instead. It will no doubt be a walk-on ride at another time. I consider the monorail an attraction, and happily recited the announcement to stand clear of the doors in English and Spanish along the way.
The 1st thing I noticed after we switched to the MK express monorail were the gorgeous Christmas decorations at the Contemporary Resort. There was a very tall tree looming at the front entrance that I knew would look dazzling at night. The entrance to MK was beautifully decorated with ornate garland and scads of poinsettias. Another tree decorated with very big, brightly colored balls stood in front of City Hall. An American flag flew at half staff right beside it, paying respects to the fallen from Newtown CT.[img src="http://
As is becoming our 1st day tradition, we had a quick lunch at Casey's as we made our way down Main Street USA. Neither of us eats corn dogs in real life. But on our 1st day of Disney, corn dog nuggets are a must-have!
Next we wandered through Tomorrowland back to New Fantasyland. I stopped to take a picture of a sky writing plane that was typing out Jesus Loves You. I thought that was a lovely pre-Christmas message (although I remember seeing similar messages in the sky when we stayed at BLT during the summer of 2011). Found a nice Christmas topiary of Mickey & Minnie in Santa hats, surrounded by red poinsettias. Beautiful. Then saw really Jetson-like landscaping on the trees near Auntie Gravity's. Disney just does all the little things that make your experience magical. I love it.
To me, New Fantasyland is colorful, whimsical, and kid oriented, like it should be. We shopped & looked at all the new attractions, stores & restaurants. Grabbed fast passes for Journey of the Little Mermaid for this evening. Double Dumbo looks fun & reminds me of my baby sister when we were kids. She loved that ride. We peeked into the " still under construction" area which will become a 7 Dwarves themed Mine ride. Now THAT I will have to ride! Mickey got a fancy dipped caramel-chocolate-Reese's pieces apple that she really enjoyed. when we got around to Gastons Tavern, I got a LeFous Brew- a really yummy treat made of frozen apple juice, a hint of toasted marshmallow, topped of with a mango froth. Very sweet and tasty. Beast's Castle looks amazing and appropriately ominous, and houses what I hear is an excellent restaurant called Be Our Guest. [img src="http://
We wandered and shopped, taking in the sights and feel of MK, not needing to do much of anything but just basking in the joy of being there. We did take a relaxing ride on the WEDway, or Peoplemover as it is now called. Then we went to the show at Carousel of Progress. That is one of my favorite Disney attractions, but I do wish they would update the final scene to include some 21st century technology, clothing & hairstyles. I don't want Tomorrowland to completely turn into Yesterdayland!
As the dinner hour approached, we decided to stick with our plan to go to Big River Grille & Brewing Works at Disney's Boardwalk. It would mean riding the bus to and fro so we could use our Mermaid fast pass, but to us that is all part of the experience that we love. The lobby over @ Boardwalk was amazing, as we knew it would be. There was a giant gingerbread house, and Mickey & Minnie were there in front of a gorgeous Christmas tree, offering photo opps to all guests. We didn't want to wait in line then, but would return after dinner to have our picture taken with them. They were so cute making giggle and kissing sounds. Mickey loved when I said Mickey, meet Mickey. They hugged & it was really fun, magically set up by a cast member named Emily who knew we had to catch our bus so she made our photo time happen before the characters went on break. A nice boy named Dawson from the family ahead of us in line was kind enough to take our picture. We had a beer Sampler, salad & chicken nachos at Big River. It was a good meal and our server Alana was very knowledgable about the beer.
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We returned to MK, caught the train at Main Street Station, and rode all the way around to Fantasyland. Experienced Under the Sea with Little Mermaid. It was cute ,colorful, and energetic. Like Pooh, but in clamshells. Did some more shopping at MK, got a new tree ornament at the Christmas Shoppe. Then we caught the end of the Holiday Celebrate the Magic show in front of the Icy Castle. It's hard to capture the shimmery, dazzling look of the icy castle at night, even with a good camera. It is super sparkly and amazing! We called it a night before Holiday Wishes and made our way home to OKW on a pretty empty bus. We were in by about 10:30 pm.
it was a glorious first day of vacation.... Clear blue sky, delightful chilliness, perfect timing, easy flow, lots of fun. LOVE LOVE LOVE it here!
