Day 15 -- Orlando, Florida
Thursday 7/12/2001
Excursion: Disney's Magic Kingdom
Today we got up early to take advantage of the "early bird" special at the Magic Kingdom. We'd be allowed to enter the amusement park one hour before the general public. We woke up at 6, ate breakfast, cleaned the trailer a bit and headed out around 7:10am. We took a local bus from our campsite loop over to the Marina at the campground, from which you can take a boat over to the Magic Kingdom entrance. The boat arrived at 7:35am. Not sure if this was the very first one because the pier was empty when we got there. It took about 15 minutes to get over the lake to the main entrance. In theory, the theme park was supposed to open around 8am, but even though we were 10 minutes early it looked as if others had arrived before us and been let in. Perhaps we should try to get there even earlier the next time?
Getting ready to board the boat by the Marina of Fort Wilderness
The sun was shining and we had a few puffy clouds. We decided on a common rendezvous point in case we got lost. We broke up into two groups: Lilly took Karl and I walked off with Erik and Isabella. Our first ride was the Space Mountain. The wait was only 15 minutes. As we stood there in line, I walked off to get "fast pass" tickets for Buzz Lighyear's new ride. Our first ride on Space Mountain was great fun. We rode on the left side as you come up to the boarding area. Buzz's ride was also fun; you got to shoot at targets while sitting in a little cart. We ended up coming back to both of those rides several times afterwards. We found the right loading area of Space Mountain to have a better roller coaster track. Highly subjective, of course. Either way, Space Mountain is a fun ride even if you go over and over.
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We met up with Lilly and Karl around 10am and ate a little fruit snack and then parted again. We took a jungle boat ride and walked the Swiss family tree, both of which were fun. We ate lunch at the rendezvous point. As we were wrapping things up, it started to rain. We headed for a small pavilion just next to us and managed to get a bench before the rain started to pour down. At that point the pavilion filled with people. The ceiling leaked water which dripped near our feet.
For the afternoon we tried to get a ride on Splash Mountain, but the wait was about 3 hours even with the fast pass. We took the circle train around the theme park and it gives you a nice view of things. We also took a raft over to Tom Sawyer island. It was fun. We did not get to explore it much before the rain came back. We seated ourselves on benches by a fort on the island, but were asked to leave by the Disney folks when the rain picked up. We got wet by having to walk to the raft again. By the time we got onto the return raft it was pouring down again. We got really wet, but walked back to meet up with Lilly and Karl, albeit a bit late.
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We thought about what to do next. The rain intensified and helped us make up our minds: it was 3:15 and we wanted to head back to the campground. We made a brief stop to buy postcards. Karl, Erik and Lilly got yellow Disney rain coats for free, much to the latter dismay of Isabella. Not because she liked the yellow color, but just because they got something and she did not. The rain water was warm, and so was the outside air. We headed back with the boat and then the bus at the campground. The rain had stopped, but it hung in the air. It could break out again any time. It felt good to come back to a trailer rather than a tent; we camped in a tent here 7 years ago and went through more than one rainstorm.
Heavy afternoon rain falls over Main Street USA in Magic Kingdom
We ate dinner at the trailer: salmon. We had pecan pie for desert; very good. After that Erik did the dishes, although he was not very happy about it. We then visited the pool and the evening movie which is next to the pool. After that we went to bed.