Day 5: Back to The Magic Kingdom
No trip to Walt Disney World is ever complete without at least a second visit to the most magical place on Earth. Fortunately on the final day of our trip, the clouds cleared up. In addition, the crowd metric rose a bit too. We must have been really tired the previous night because we didn't get to the Magic Kingdom until well past 11. Having done most everything, we took the time to enjoy the sights and sounds.
The first ride we went on was the Haunted Mansion due to the relatively short wait time. I personally don't think that queue additions were necessary here. Although they do spice things up, there really isn't much time to interact with the new elements given how fast the queue moves, that's unless if you don't mind having people pass you in line. This time around, I really noticed how dark it is on this dark ride. Although the Haunted Mansion is a dark ride and is the home to 99 happy haunts, my eyes had a difficult time seeing the details on this ride. With how dark it was, I didn't even attempt to capture anything with my camera.
As always, food tends to be the last thing on our minds once we enter a park, but after a while it gets to us. So after checking out of the mansion, we took the monorail over to the Polynesian Resort to have lunch at Kona Cafe. When we arrived shortly before 1 PM, there was no wait to be seated. As we were deciding what to order, I took the time to take some pictures of the menu. Eventually, two separate cast members showed up telling us that we were free to take home the menu, in which we did and proudly pinned it up on a wall. We eventually ordered the Polynesian Plate Lunch, featuring a grilled teriyaki steak with grilled pineapple salsa (served with sticky rice and pasta salad).
After stuffing ourselves, it was time to head back to the Magic Kingdom. We wanted to go on splash mountain, but since we recently ate and haven't waited an hour yet, we just watched other people get drenched. We then made a quick stop at the other end of the park to ride Peoplemover. On Peoplemover, there is a long stretch at the very beginning to look down Tomorrowland or lament as to why it was removed from Disneyland.
We then went on a ride we both haven't been on in a while, which was Astro Orbiter.
With signs that the sun was going to set within the hour, we wanted to just enjoy the views on Main Street, U.S.A.
After enough people watching, we took the grand circle tour on the Walt Disney World Railroad. Our final destination ended up being Frontierland, where we arrived just in time to use up our Big Thunder Mountain Railroad FASTPASSes. In comparison to the version at Disneyland, I think Magic Kingdom takes the cake for both the queue and ride experience. I'll make the final verdict when I get the chance to ride both versions back to back. With the one at Disneyland in a long refurbishment period, this totally scientific experiment will have to wait.
We then gravitated towards Adventureland and rode The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, a spinner-type ride. When elevated, you can get a good glimpse of the Cinderella's castle and a view of the building that houses the Enchanted Tiki Room. We never did see the Enchanted Tiki Room in Florida, but at least we missed the "Under New Management" disaster that literally ended in a fire. Since we had to get back to real life the next day, we slowly made our way to the exit.
Along the way, Michelle recognized this castmember from online videos and chatted with him for a bit.
Around the time we were about to leave, the Electrical Parade was passing down Main Street. As we were making our way down the sidewalks closest to Emporium, there was a set of display cases that were dressed to scenes from Mickey's Christmas Carol.
With a two hour drive ahead of us, we left quite early at around 8 PM. By then, we were already looking forward to our next visit.
Next up, the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend!
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