Florida Road Trip 4: WDW Day 3 The Magic Kingdom

Our last full day at WDW on Thursday 21 February 2008 started with the boat ride over to the Magic Kingdom from the Wilderness Lodge. WDW opened an hour earlier today so we modified the touring plan of day 2 of the Unofficial Guide's touring plan. This was partly because not all the rides opened early, something we didn't find out until we arrived and which caused us some quick replanning. So the first part of the day went like this:

• Watched Monsters Inc Comedy Club (which was very funny and interactive with audience members; we also missed a rain shower while in this show)
• Watched Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (which shows 'progress' in decade intervals, albeit with a big jump at the end to 'tomorrow')
• Rode Splash Mountain (Kieren and I were in the back seats and he couldn't see where we were going when we went over the big fall which scared him a bit)
• Rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which both kids loved)
• Rode Pirates of the Caribbean
• Took the Jungle Cruise
• The kids had photos / autographs with Captain Hook and Mr Smee
• Lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant (which had shots from Lady and the Tramp around the walls, including Tony's Restaurant where the dogs had dinner in the movie)
• Kids had photos / autographs with Jiminy Cricket who was outside the restaurant

We then boated back to the Wilderness Lodge for an afternoon sleep. This coincided with a heavy rain storm, continuing our run of good weather on this trip. After this well needed break, we boated back over to the Magic Kingdom where the fun continued until late into the night:

• Took the train around the outside of WDW to Mickey's Toontown Fair
• Lined up for Olivia to have photos / autographs with Ariel (we lined up before lunch but ran out of time)
• Had dinner
• Watched the evening parade (which was a fantastic light show)
• Went over to Tomorrowland so Kieren could buy a Stitch (which he later left in his bed in our Florida City hotel and which had to be posted back to him!)
• Watched the evening fireworks (which were done in the best Disney traditions, very well integrated with the soundtrack / music and a highlight of Tinkerbell flying over the park)
• Did some retail therapy to get some more souvenirs / reminders of our wonderful time at Disney.

It was very late and we were very tired by the time we caught the boat back to the Wilderness Lodge. In some ways WDW reminded me of The Truman Show, or maybe it was the other way around. There's a lot of 50s and 60s nostalgia and reminders of the good old American days. However the gloss and attention to detail of Disney pulls it off. The parks were always spotless. It must be one of the few places in the western world where staff haven't been cut in search of profit margin gains. In addition to the cleaning / rubbish picking up staff around the parks, we noticed the other staff would quickly pick up any litter etc. A high proportion of the staff were also in what would be their 'retirement years' elsewhere. They all seemed to be there because they enjoyed their jobs, which may relate back to Disney's selection processes aimed at ensuring their employees embody the Disney philosophies. It seems to be working!

There's a quick selection of photos from our Disney adventures (sans captions at this stage) online here: http://picasaweb.google.com/malcolmdonna/WaltDisneyWorld.

Malcolm