August 13, 2002 Magic Kingdom 'Ohana MK for SpectroMagic and Fireworks

Woke up everyone by 7am for another morning at the Magic Kingdom.  Ate breakfast in the room and caught the first boat at 8:30am.  It is great being able to just roll the strollers on the larger boats - Strollers are the only reason I don't care to ride buses too often.   We arrived just before opening, and quickly zipped through security.  The lines to get in were pretty short, especially all the way to the left side.  We were only the third family in our line.  Starting to get the hang of using the APs and finger scanner.   Since our wait at the rope drop on Sunday, I knew we had a couple minutes so we stopped for pictures with Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter.  I know the girls had just seen them yesterday, but we wanted to get pictures too!  :-)  They were happy to see them again anyway... Headed down mainstreet and on to Frontier Land arriving just as the rope dropped.  Nice timing!  :-)  Followed the crowd to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad (Brinn's favorite).  I think everyone went on Splash Mountain, because BTMR was a walk-on twice!  I tried to get a fast pass for SM before riding BTMR but the machines were down.  I picked one up after the first ride and then took Maddy on BTMR again.  Brinn was already on with Kristen.  Our FP time for Splash Mountain was about 45 minutes away, so we headed over to Adventure Land.   E M P T  Y  !!!!   Walked on the magic carpet rides twice, then on to the Jungle Cruise.  Toured the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (first time I ever did this) and then hit the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Kristen had brought small flashlights for the girls and we let them point them inside the boat during the very dark times.  This helped Maddy quite a bit.  By the end she was very happy with the ride, but the dark start freaked her out a bit.  Captain Hook, Smee and Wendy were near Pirates, and we jumped in line to see them.  Wendy was just leaving as we got our turn, but she did sign the girls shirts but no picture.  Hook and Smee where great and took a couple pictures with Brinn and Mommy.   Maddy was NOT interested in getting a picture with Hook!  :-)  (Can you say Screamfest?)  We didn't push it! Time for our fastpass at Splash Mountain so back we went.  Picked up a Fast Pass for another trip on Big Thunder first and then zipped past a jillion people in the standby line to do a walk on.  I love Fast Pass.   The drop on this ride freaks Brinn out a bit, but Maddy LOVED her first time.  She was laughing like crazy after the big drop.  Time for a potty break and a snack before jumping back on Big Thunder Railroad again.  Maddy really warmed up to this ride.  I think its her new favorite as well.  An aside about the potty breaks -- Add Madison to those young ones that a tramatized by those super powerful self flushing toilets.  She now will NOT go in the park restrooms.  Duh Disney.  Duh.

After some quiet time, we got ready to head to 'Ohana's for dinner.  It was still pretty stormy out, but the worst of it held out until about 30 seconds before we got into the Contemporary to catch the monorail.  Those 30 seconds drenched Kristen and I as we ran full speed into the Contempory Resort from the boat launch!  That A/C sure is chilly when you are soaked!  :-) It continued to pour as we took the Monorail to the Poly.   There were a couple lightening strikes that had everyone pretty nervous.  Made it to the Poly in one piece, and checked in at 'Ohana.  Seated quickly and the food and service was great.  The steak was wonderful and I loved the Tiger Shrimp.  Yum!!   The girls posed for a few pictures with the Tiki Gods and enjoyed making faces along with the statues. The rain had cleared up a bit but it was still pretty cloudy.   We headed for the Magic Kingdom to finish off our day.  Had some time before Spectromagic, so we took the girls back to watch the Merlin show, ride the carousel and small world.  Then we headed off to find a good spot in Frontier Land.  It is less busy in Frontier land and we found a great spot and I went and bought the Ice Cream I had promised earlier in the day.   The parade was wonderful, and the look on Maddy's face was probably the best part.  She just loved it (as did Brinn).  It was much busier than last year in the same location.  The people were REALLY pressing in around us.   We relocated to watch the Fireworks, and had a wonderful view of Tinkerbell's flight.  We were pretty much directly in front of the Castle, but we soon found out this was NOT a good fireworks location.  The Fireworks were too low behind the castle.  We didn't mind too much though.  It was still a wonderful show.  Waited a bit for the crowds to disperse and enjoyed watching them clean up after all the slobby people with those HUGE vacuum cleaners.   Took our time heading up Main Street, and then went out to wait in line for the boat.  Watched the Electical Water Pagent right in front of the MK while we waited in line.  Boat was crowded and we ended up standing in the front.   Everyone was pretty tired and we were headed to Animal Kingdom in the morning.  Decided to pass on our Breakfastosaurus Ressie since the kids would NEVER get up that early, and not be miserable after such a late night.    Note to self: Don't schedule 8:10am breakfast at a park the night after seeing fireworks in MK!  :-) Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom

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