DAY 6 – Magic Kingdom – 24,972 steps

The really wonderful thing about staying at the Contemporary, is that we could just walk over to the Magic Kingdom. Bright and early, the six of us gathered up in the hotel lobby and made our way over for rope drop.

We rushed right to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and got ourselves in line. The wait wasn’t too awful by Disney standards, and there was a lot of neat theming along the way. Maya and Ian were especially enamored with the Dwarfs’ giant cache of jewels.

The ride itself was nice enough. It is part roller coaster, part dark ride, and I think for my part, I wished for more excitement out of the roller-coaster parts. Sean commented that the ride car kind of swings as you round corners, it makes for such a smooth ride, that you don’t feel the same forces you would feel while riding a more standard coaster. At any rate, it was sufficiently fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

From there, we went to Space Mountain, and oldie but a goodie. Much energy was spent, mostly by the kids, deciding how we would group ourselves up to ride each ride. Maya and Ian bickered over who got to ride with Lolli and who got to ride with Pop, just like they had bickered over who their parent ride partner would be for the previous portion of the trip. With ride arrangements made, we road single-file through the darkness of Outer Space. That’s the neat thing about this coaster. Because you cannot see what’s coming, it feels kind of exciting, even though its top speed is only something like 27 miles per hour, which is straight up pokey by thrill ride standards.

Meals while in Disney, but especially on this particular day, were sort of uncoupled from normal meal times and often were referred to as “time to eat” rather than something so specific as “breakfast.” After getting a couple rides under our collective belt, it was time to eat. We took the kids to Gaston’s Tavern for an absolutely enormous cinnamon roll (with extra icing) and a LeFou’s Brew, which is (according to the menu) a slightly toasted marshmallow flavored frozen apple juice topped with passion fruit-mango foam. I remember the kids both liking it. Maya, being Maya, ate her entire cinnamon roll. It was insane. Ian made a valiant effort, but I think Sean wound up helping him with it. [Sean: I did help him with it. Gaston’s cinnamon roll’s have a butterscotch sauce on them and while I like butterscotch I didn’t care for it on my cinnamon roll.]

Sean meanwhile went by Friar’s Nook and fetched a cold brew coffee for me and an order of sausage and gravy tots for the two of us to share. It was bliss. I could consume the iced coffee (which was unmarred by cream or sugar) quickly enough for it to not be a hindrance to our future ride plans. The food was delicious and just filling enough that I didn’t walk out feeling uncomfortable. It was a good start.

Next, we went to ride Peter Pan’s Flight. This is an older dark ride. After climbing aboard a pirate ship, you ride gently through scenes from the Peter Pan Disney movie. You start out flying over London before eventually making it to Neverland. [Sean: April caught herself singing the music to this ride a few days after our return.]

We followed this up with a ride through the It’s a Small World attraction. This is the colorful, multicultural fever dream of a ride that people seem to either love or hate … or maybe tolerate. Little dolls sing and dance in costumes and scenes representative of their various homelands. All the lands are united by the song, “It’s a Small World After All,” and I won’t lie, while I appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the ride, I was pretty all done with that song by the end of it.

After an uplifting song of unity, it was time to go visit the Haunted Mansion. This is one of Sean’s favorites, registering high on the nostalgia-meter for him. It was fun watching the kids as we made our way through the line and the introductory parts of the attraction. You could see their mounting sense of apprehension. Neither would admit to being more than a little nervous, but I think they were.

The ride itself is quite tame. After starting your journey in a room that stretches and a spooky narrator (your “ghost host”) tells you about the place, you board your doom buggy and it careens you through various haunts. We saw Madam Leota’s head in a crystal ball, the ghostly dining room, and the black widow bride. I watched a special recently about this ride, and they talked about the push-pull between wanting to make the ride scary or funny. In the end, they did both. The first part of the ride is all gloomy scenes and a sense of foreboding. Then you burst into a graveyard party fully of grim grinning ghosts. It’s a riotous and lively turn. This ride is so weird, and I just love the fact that it exists at all in a world so fully populated by princesses and friendly cartoon characters. As your ghost host tells you, beware of hitchhiking ghosts. [Sean: I lament that Disney can’t/won’t see past their own intellectual property these days and create engaging rides that aren’t set in one of their movies.]

The kids wanted to ride the carousel, and other than one of the horses evidently belonging to Cinderella herself, it was pretty much just like any other carousel. [Sean: It is however over 100 years old, having been originally built in 1917 and bought for Walt Disney World in 1967.]

The Mickey’s PhilharMagic show was more fun than I had been expecting. It was a 3D show, so we were all given “opera glasses” at the start. Poor Donald Duck, who has a knack for getting himself into trouble, decides to put on Mickey’s sorcerer’s hat and of course, things go sideways. He finds himself inserted into various animated sequences he has no business in (swimming with the Little Mermaid, for example). Maya and Ian were delighted with the show. The 3D effects had them grabbing for things that weren’t there, but then immersive little details like aromas and squirts of water had the kids yelping with glee. [Sean: Magic Journeys, RIP.]

Ian and Maya were ready to ride another ride, and even though we had dosed both Sean and Maya with Dramamine, Sean and Helen decided to sit out the Mad Tea Party which is an Alice in Wonderland inspired teacup ride. The remaining four of us squished into a teacup and let her rip though. The kids seemed to have fun, and no one barfed, so I guess we did ok.

We disembarked to find that Sean had purchased another item from his must-have snack list: a Cheshire Cat Tail from the Cheshire Cafe. Ian wasn’t a fan of the tail (it’s kind of a doughnut texture, and he doesn’t really eat doughnuts) and I was still full from breakfast, so Sean and Maya largely took care of them.

We stopped in to let the kids race cars around the Tomorrowland Speedway. Ian drove Pop around, Maya drove with Lolli, and Sean was my chauffeur as always. The kids got to experience a slight sense of control since their gas pedal did function, within limits, and I think they enjoy that sort of thing.

Because Ian didn’t really have a treat earlier when everyone else was enjoying their Cheshire Cat tails, he had a Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream. And then we cleaned up to ride Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. In this one, the theater revolves around four scenes displaying different generations of a particular family enjoying the technological advancements of their particular eras. All of it is underscored by the song, “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.” On one hand, I think the kids thought the show was boring. On the other hand, I have routinely caught Ian singing that catchy little tune ever since. [Sean: The song is written by the Sherman brother’s who are responsible for many of the songs in Walt Disney World, including It’s a Small World and the Tiki Tiki Tiki Room.  They had a real knack for writing catchy songs that stick with you long after you have left the park.  It turns out that most of my childhood favorites revolve around attractions with catchy tunes.]

We took a spin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. This slow-moving elevated tram gave us a good tour of Tomorrowland. Again, I think the kids were sort of disenchanted with the lack of “thrill” in their ride.

Lolli and Pop keep to a fairly special diet, and so they hadn’t been partaking in all the sugar-, salt-, and fat-laden foods that we’d been consuming all morning. Instead we stopped at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe to find something more befitting their normal eating habits. While there, we got an order of chicken fingers for the kids to split as well to carry them through to our too-early-for-dinner, too-late-for-lunch restaurant reservation later on. As everyone ate, Sonny Eclipse played his astro-organ and sang us some tunes.

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin was our next destination. This was another target shooting ride. Sean and I wound up riding this one together, and I have to say, I think this one is more fun with a kid in the car with you. [Sean: I had a blast. I have no idea what April is talking about.]

At this point, we needed to get over to the Polynesian Village Resort to line up in time to maybe get a seat inside Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto for some fun tiki drinks. We hoofed it over to the monorail stop and waited. And waited and waited. Eventually we were told the monorail was down and we’d need to go line up to take the ferry boat over to the resort instead. We dutifully hauled ourselves into that line and waited and waited. While we were waiting, it seemed that the monorail had resumed service. Sigh. Once we finally boarded the ferry boat, gotten to the right resort, and gotten ourselves into the building, Trader Sam’s was already at capacity.

Instead, we puttered in the lobby till our 4p dinner(?) reservation at ‘Ohana. This was one of the best meals of our trip. Sean and I started our meal with fallback cocktails (since we hadn’t gotten to try any at Trader Sam’s). They were divine! And they were huge! Our waiter called all of us “cousin” and was as patient with our children as a person can be. Our salad had a lilikoi dressing and the breads were very flavorful. Pot stickers and noodles and chicken wings came next and believe it or not, the noodles were the star of the show. Next, we were served chicken with chimichurri sauce, peel and eat shrimp, and teriyaki beef. All of it was good, but the shrimp were the best. I think that’s mostly what Maya wound up eating for her dinner (since she so thoroughly hates grilled food). I was dying by then, but wasn’t quite dead enough to not at least nibble at the most divine bread pudding I may have ever tasted. [Sean: It’s all you can eat and after 2 refreshes of the noodles I was uncomfortably full. They really were that good. I still ate most of the bread pudding because it was incredible.]

We had a little time before we needed to head back to Magic Kingdom for the Disney Very Merriest After Hours holiday celebration, so we took the monorail back to our hotel to change clothes and unwind a little. It felt like it wasn’t very long at all till we were all back on our feet and walking back to Magic Kingdom for the evening’s festivities.

We started our evening by grabbing a few photos and then riding the Jungle Cruise, which, with its holiday overlay applied, became the “Jingle” Cruise. Our guide was hilarious – full of the puns and holiday humor. It was maybe a little hard to see all the animatronic jungle life in the dark, but the sparkles and Christmas lights made up for it.

Because the kids are bananas for the thrill rides, we next went and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. This one was actually pretty fun to ride at night, with the park all illuminated, especially for the holidays.

From there, it was officially party time. After being asked to show our wrist bands about a jillion times, we made our way to Pinocchio Village Haus for some hot cocoa and cookies. After this, the kids – Maya especially – begged to ride the carousel again. I think Ian was into it because it would give him another chance to ride Cinderella’s horse. Alas a couple of twenty-something women apparently barreled ahead the moment they opened the gate and got to the horse before Ian could.

Even before the carousel, the kids were single-mindedly focused on getting more Mickey Mouse ice cream bars, especially Maya who hadn’t had a chance to have one yet that day. But we kept having to put it off to make different scheduled events. The first of these was the Mickey & Minnie’s Very Merry Memories show. It was a signing, dancing, caroling stage show right in front of Cinderella’s castle. Despite having to stand there and watch, the kids did seem to enjoy it. Maya sang a little, Ian danced a lot. Clarabelle Cow was the sequin-bedecked diva unveiled toward the end of the show.

Almost as soon as the show was over, we turned around and got ourselves into position for the big draw: Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade. By now, the kids were apoplectic about their lack of Mickey Mouse Ice Cream bars, and so once Sean had us parked, he went to find them some. Unbeknownst to us, Lolli and Pop had gone out to find some as well. It was the most wonderful time of the year for Maya and Ian because between Mickey Mouse ice creams and ice cream sandwiches and pop corn besides, they had all the junk food they could handle, and more.

The parade was actually really, really neat. Sean took video of it, and managed to save me a few screen captures from it. It’s a good thing too, I didn’t realize he was taking video only and that no one was taking still photos. Characters galore waved at the crowd as they passed by. Santa came through. Giant nutcrackers in heavy wooden shoes clop clopped down the street. It was pretty amazing to see.

We attempted to take the kids to see Santa again, but the line was so long and moving so slowly that it just didn’t seem worth it, especially since they had had such a good visit with him the day before.

And so we lined ourselves up for the evening’s big show: Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks Show. Fireworks accompanied holiday projections on Cinderella’s Castle. Tinker Bell flew in. Music blared. We had watched the fireworks from the balcony, but that was nothing compared to sitting down by the castle with all the sequenced sound and light and exploding fireworks all around you.

By the time the fireworks show was over, we were all beyond exhausted, and with the lovely “snoap” falling around us, we made our way down a very festive Main Street toward the exit.