Knowing we needed to return to the hotel early to pack for our flight to Washington the next day, we had previously chatted about the last park we’d spend time at. Water parks were ruled out as we needed all our stuff to be dry before packing. Therefore we had previously decided our last hoorah in Florida would be a return visit to Magic Kingdom. To ensure success we had already booked three fastpasses (the max permitted) for our three favourite rides at Magic Kingdom. These were Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Buzz Lightyear Shoot-em-up. We were first offered passes late in the day at 9pm, way after we’d want to be in the park. Our second option was 9:30, 11:30am and 12:50pm which were much more to our liking and suited our schedule perfectly.
The plan was set, we’d look for some characters that Luke still wanted a signature and photo with. His list comprised of Donald, Daisy (duck), Goofy and top of the list was Minnie Mouse. We sped across the park looking for the location we’d find the characters in. It was a little tricky as they were inside due to the heat and the length of time they would spend signing each day. When they’re outside they’re much easier to see and locate. Suffice to say we eventually found them and Luke had a picture with each and obtained four more signatures in his autograph book.
From there we walked around to Big Thunder Mountain, as we entered the queue line, we began remembering the rain we’d experienced the previous time we’d queued for this ride. The fastpass queue was a wonderful experience as the regular line had taken a boredom generating, mind boggling 2 hours or so including the stop for rain!!
After exiting the ride, we pondered what to do so I suggested due to lengthy queue times, we head for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. This was a walking tour / game that you played around the park. A Disney type of tracking and training if you have ever played that. In brief the park is divided up into zones, where the theming fits the rides. e.g. Frontierland is where Big Thunder Mountain was located, where as Space Mountain is in Tomorrowland. In total there are six zones in the park and there was a game to play in each of the zones. We were sent by Merlin to Liberty Square to begin our game. At first Matty didn’t want to play but then he enjoyed looking for the seal (a giant metal disc) set into the ground and the keyhole shaped activation device. Luke’s park entry card had been chosen by us to work the keyhole activation devices, something that pleased him no end. We eventually found the first seal and stood watching the animated sequence where Merlin explains that one villain after another wants to rob the crystal from the castle in Magic Kingdom.
To stop this we had to follow the five part story, casting spells with our cards of power to save the day. This was interactive as we held the spell cards up, a little camera used photo recognition to identify which card we’d played and then to heap the results of the spell card onto the villain. e.g. I had princess rose petals, which rained rose petals down onto Ursula (from Little Mermaid). Since we were all searching for the seal and keyhole, to advance the game, Matty soon decided that it would be competitive to be the first person to have located the next part of the game. He dashed about looking for it, using the map we’d been given that identified the rough location of each seal. We only had time to complete one zone’s game before our next fastpass was ready to be used.
Space mountain was a source of shock, joy and pride for us. Shock not because Matty was to ride the front of the car but because Luke agreed to ride the car behind us by himself. Space Mountain has three people to a car and two cars joined together one behind the other. We rode Matty, Liz, myself and then Luke. Liz had hated being at the front before so Matty took that spot. I then wanted to be close to Liz and Luke in case they needed a hand to be held or an encouraging word. Lizzie was fine with me holding her shoulder and to our surprise Luke said he’d been fine by himself. This was a shock as I was expecting some tears.
As we’d not arrived as soon as our previous fastpass had been active (each fastpass having an hours window of use), we then immediately queued for Buzz Lightyear’s shoot up ride. Again we remembered the length of time we’d previously queued but appreciated the speed of the queue line this time around.
To his disgust and total surprise I beat Matty’s score. To say he wasn’t happy was the understatement of the year. If there’d have been an umpire he’d have called for the scores to have been verified and reviewed!!
Despite me having taken a picture of the ride score on my phone he refused to believe either Lizzie or myself telling him that I’d won.
Leaving the park we decided to take the steamboat cruise back to the car parks rather than the familiar monorail.
We’d chosen not to carry lunch into the park but instead to travel light and have lunch out afterwards. We headed to CiCi’s pizza buffet and takeaway. We’d passed loads of these pizza joints on our travels but hadn’t visited one assuming they were all carry out only. It was the longest pizza buffet you’ve seen. There were six sorts of pasta, stuffed crust pizza, three types of veggie pizza including Mac Cheese pizza and then five meaty pizza, salad bar and refillable fizzy drinks like in Harvester (but they had seven choices). Lastly there were three choices of dessert. Matty was in a state of excitement and wanted to try everything except the salad bar! We all ate plenty eventually finishing with a warm cinnamon roll.
Returning to the hotel we’d decided that I’d take Matty out for a mooch around the outlet village opposite, to allow Lizzie time to pack without boys squabbling and being noisy or annoying around her. When we returned she’d pretty much finished but we realised that a security tag was still in a sports top we’d bought from the Nike Store. I ran back with the thunder rumbling around me and a few rain drops falling to heighten the threat of getting soaked. I successfully had the tag removed and returned to our room triumphant. Finding that Lizzie was pretty much finished with packing I asked if we could travel 25 minutes up the road to a different outlet village to look for a pair of trainers in the Nike store there. The potential saving was so immense, that it made it well worth the journey.
Luckily we found a lovely pair of trainers in my size!! Matty found a top and Luke some shorts. Poor Lizzie was the only person it seems not to have wanted or purchased anything. The outlet village was still busy and was open until 11pm !!!!!!!!
We returned back to the hotel getting some petrol on the way back, needing to be up for our flight at 5am.