Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Five

Note: I’ve broken Day Five into a few bites for ease of digestion.

Magic Kingdom. Kids loved it, of course. The Weather Fairies graced us with some blessed cloud cover in the afternoon, so it was not so brutally hot. It took a full ten minutes for my camera lens to clear after I took it out of the backpack.

Lovely effect of fog on lens.

We started out with the train tour of the park, then headed for Frontier Land.

Boo and T-Bear on the train.

Boo pretty much had his fill of exciting rides at Sea World, but T-Bear eventually agreed to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (twice) and Splash Mountain (my favorite). And, of course, you can’t keep Brother and Papa off of any exciting ride. We all went on Pirates of the Caribbean, but T-Bear and I skipped The Haunted Mansion, T-Bear waiting anxiously at the exit for Papa, Brother and Boo to return safely from their adventure (Boo wasn’t scared at all, and had a great time).

T-Bear anxiously awaiting his family's safe return.

We had sticker shock for lunch. In addition to being exorbitantly expensive, the meals are just too bloody big for anyone with a normal appetite to finish. Too much food and overpriced is a deadly combination. It just sucks a little part of my soul away to pay that much for a meal and then to have half of it wasted to boot. Dinner wasn’t quite as bad, because we ordered fewer meals and shared them. Still expensive, but not as much went to waste. Done grumbling now. Note to self; check out other diners’ meals before ordering, so I know how big the portions are.

Other stuff we saw and did (in no particular order): Swiss Family Tree House, The Magic Carpets of Aladin, The Enchanted Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, The Hall of Presidents, “it’s a small world”, Peter Pan’s Flight, Cinderella’s Golden Carousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Pooh’s Playful Spot, Donald’s Boat (Boo got completely soaked), The Barnstormer, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway (I just about passed out from the fumes…can’t they convert to electric or propane?), and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

May I just pause a moment and say how mind-boggling huge is Disney’s … I don’t even know what to call it. It’s kind of a city with no permanent residents whose sole industry is entertainment and retail. I honestly had no clue how many parks and attractions and Disney Stuff there was here, or how long it would take to drive from one end of Disney to the other. You could spend a month here and not see everything. I can’t imagine what that would cost.

Overall, it was a very successful, very full seven-hour day. No melt-downs, and T-Bear's BS stayed pretty well in check. I've pretty much concluded that heat pushes his numbers higher, and I'm just not that great at estimating carbs on the fly. But, I managed to stay pretty stress-free and enjoy a great day with my family. What else can you ask for?