Day 1: Half day at the Magic Kingdom

After a long break from the parks, we were itching to head back. This time around, we made a visit to cheer on some of Michelle's classmates who were participating in the Disney World Marathon Weekend. This gave us a perfect excuse to visit the parks for another three days (which actually was cut to two days). We made the drive to Orlando on Friday with plans to catch the marathon on Sunday morning. This time around, we stayed at Rosen Shingle Creek. This place was pretty much an all inclusive resort, but as always, we were too preoccupied to actually check out the grounds. We checked in around half past noon, dropped off our luggage, looked out the room window, and wait straight to the Magic Kingdom.

Typical Florida weather is as atypical as weather can get. While it tends to hover around 60-70s, it does fluctuate on a nearly weekly basis. Luckily, skies were clear this time around and spontaneous purchases of Disney ponchos weren't needed.

Routinely, we rode the Peoplemover as soon as we arrived, which was pretty much a walk on.

While we were still in Tomorrowland, we decided to check out Stitch's Great Escape for the first time. In this attraction, you are touring a space prison facility where offenders are teleported here for processing and storage. The main area had the tourists situated around one of the teleportation tubes. For some odd reason, we had to be restrained in our seat. I found this pretty inconvenient in the event that a criminal alien were to escape the teleportation tube. During our visit, a level 3 alien was being sent here, which happened to be Stitch. When the prison staff saw him, they didn't see him as much of a threat. I assume none of them saw the movie where he pretty much destroyed everything. Somehow, Stitch was able to escape is tube and was free to roam the room...while we were all constrained. Honestly, who thought it was a great idea to imprison us while the prisoner runs loose. Eventually all ends well and the cast members finally let us go. By the end of it, I wished I had seen Alien Encounter.

Wanting to defend myself during the next alien prison breakout, we trained at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (I prefer the name of Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters in Disneyland). On this ride, I tend to do more blasting and less spinning.

Someone didn't want to share her score

One of the many things I have yet to experience was catch a ride on the Liberty Belle. Unlike the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland, the Liberty Belle can be boarded at night since Fantasmic doesn't hog up the river at night.

Fortunately, we caught the last departure of the Liberty Belle for the night. With no one coming on board, we stuck around the exit for quite a while absorb the ambiance and light.

We had some time to kill before it was time to use up our Fastpass for Space Mountain. So we visited Main Street to do a little bit of window shopping.

As we headed towards Space Mountain, my hunger got the best of me. By then, we were checking out options of dinner. Along the way, we passed by The Lunching Pad, which primarily offered hot dogs.

After leaving Space Mountain, we lined up at The Lunching Pad. We overhead a mother behind us convincing her family that there might be better options other than hot dogs. Just hearing that convinced us as well, so we went out looking for another place to grab a meal. Along the way towards Autopia, we spotted Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Here, there were three different areas where you can order different food. The types of food at each location escapes me, but we ordered the half rotisserie chicken and a side of chili fries. In comparison to the hotdogs we almost had for dinner, you get much better value at Starlight Cafe.

With just a few minutes before the fireworks, we finished up our meal and scouted a location. Given the time and our current location, we wouldn't have been able to get to our usual location in front of the Crystal Palace restaurant. Instead, we just walked towards the hub to see if we could find a decent spot. In the end,

Good enough for a handheld...

Just passing by...because we didn't book a dinner reservation 6 months in advance

We checked out what was offered in Gaston's Tavern and I was drooling over the cinnamon roll. In terms of what you can make with cinnamon, cinnamon rolls are the bees knees. Sadly, I didn't order one. I also found it misleading that I couldn't get an alcoholic beverage here.

I minutely prefer the older hairstyle. That one was true to the movie

After Little Mermaid, things were winding down for the park and for us as well. Not in much of a hurry to leave, I took a few shots around the carousel. After shooting for about 5 minutes, a cast member asked us to make our way towards Main Street.