Today started by getting everyone up and moving so we could head over to the Wilderness Lodge for our breakfast ADR at Whispering Canyon. Now we've never been there for anything but breakfast, but always have a good time at this restaurant. Our family fits in there well since we are all just as sarcastic as the people working there. Needless to say, our waitress had a lot of fun with us for breakfast. Jenea likes ketchup with her eggs (I know, gross right?) and found out after we got our food what happens when you ask for ketchup at Whispering Canyon.
After a fun and filling breakfast, we wandered the lobby and grounds of Wilderness Lodge before leaving the cars, hoping of the boat to the Magic Kingdom. The boat ride from the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness has always been a favorite of mine, it's very relaxing no matter what time of day.
Upon reaching the Magic Kingdom, we of course took some photos in front of the Main Street Train Station, then proceeded up Main Street towards Cinderellas Castle. Again, our group consisted of 9 people, and we were going to see how touring the parks together would go. Which usually meant that everyone was at the end of Main Street and Jeff's up by the Emporium taking picutres of signs. We found out on this trip that touring with a large group is not something to do if you'd like everyone to have a great time all the time. There are too many opinions from 9 people inside a Disney park, but we made the best of it, splitting off from the group later in the week, and having a fantastic time together.
Anyway, from the hub, we headed towards Adventureland, and on the way, I happened upon the Dapper Dans, who were taking a photo with some other guests. I sat and waited patiently, and when the couple was done with their photo, but the Dans were all still together I simply held up my camera and said, "Smile fellows!" Which they of course did to give a great photo with a fun memory.
In Adventureland, we hit the Swiss Family Treehouse, the Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean which were all of course some fantastic attractions. I was of course ten steps behind everyone shooting endlessly. After Pirates, we headed into Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. As much of a fan of this attraction as I am, I would 100% always prefer it at night. It takes on such new life after dark when the lights come on that it's a must do every time we are there.
Heading from there towards the Haunted Mansion, we stopped and wandered through some of the shops, which is always a fun stop in my opinion. The Haunted Mansion was in the middle of a refurbishment while we were on our trip. I found out that two weeks after our trip, the new interactive queue and the new hitchhiking ghosts were open and amazing. It just figures that I wouldn't get to see that since Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite attractions in the Magic Kingdom, nevertheless, it was a great ride as usual.
Since our last trip before this one wasn't since 2008, we hadn't seen the updated Hall of Presidents, so we thought we would go check that out. I think that's it's quite a bit more powerful that it was before, mainly the intro and new narration I think. Working our way out of Liberty Square towards the hub with a destination of Tomorrowland, we stopped to watch the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! show. It was pretty cool not having seen it before, but later in the week when we'd seen it several times, the music started getting a little old.
It seems like I can't do anything in Tomorrowland unless I first go over a ride Space Mountain. I'd have to say that it would probably be a tie between Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion as my favorite Magic Kingdom attraction. So a handfull of our group caught a ride of Space Mountain and then we all went over to ride Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger's Spin. Surprisingly this was my first ride on this attraction as well! Which is a real shame as I had a ton of fun on the attraction and playing the game.
From here we made our way back up Main Street, back towards the boats. I hung around the Monorail track with one eye waiting on the boat, and was able to shoot some photos of the monorails.
From there we headed back to Wilderness Lodge to get our cars. We headed back to the resort since we are strong advocates of the afternoon break, even if it's only a small one. We got some lunch at the food court at POFQ. I have no idea what everyone dislikes about this foodcourt, it's smaller because the resort is smaller, smaller means less selection, it's just logic but yet people says that it's not good. I thought all the food we had there all week was perfectly fine. The po-boys we had for lunch on this particular day were quite good I thought.
After a dip in the pool and some goldern hour shooting, we headed back out to Disney's Hollywood Studios for a few attractions. Hitting the Great Movie Ride and Toy Story Mania, we didn't spend a whole lot of time there since we would be back later in the week.
That concludes Day 2's post. I hope you are all enjoying the report so far. If there's anything you'd like to see different or would like to see something added, feel free to suggest it. I'm always open for suggestions to make this blog exactly what my readers want.
Be sure to check out the other parts of this trip report here:
One Year Later - 2011 WDW Trip Report - Day 1
4 comments:
Lots of great pictures! I agree - large groups are difficult sometimes. When we go with our friends, our group is seven people. Takes some work keeping everyone happy. :)
Oh, I love all your photos. Such great composition and detail!
I really like the food court at POFQ - I thought it was really good when I stayed there.
Steve, I was really happy to be there with that big group, but touring together was just impossible. Halfway through the trip I decided for everyone that we should all split up into smaller groups the remainder of the trip. Since we still had ADR all together, we'd have something to talk about. And behold, Jeff knew something for once because everyone had a much better trip experience after that stress of touring together was removed. :)
Amanda, Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoy my photos. I totally with you on the food court too. It's not near as big as any other moderate resorts food court, but it's the smallest moderate so shouldn't that be expected? lol. I thought the selection was right on the money. Beignets, Po-Boys, and the IMO the second best pizza on property next to Via Napoli. Yep! I said it! lol. Thanks again. :)
I agree about the large groups.....like meeting people, especially the flickr folks that we have all met through our love for Disney photos, but I find sometimes, the large groups make it take longer getting the photos taken I had planned for a particular day. I like your suggestion of meeting for dinner :)
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