Jake and I were up and out at 7.15, over to MK, parked in Aladdin 203, on the ferryboat, down Main Street and into Space Mountain by a few minutes past eight o'clock. There were a fair number of people who had the same idea as us, and so we didn't get onto the ride for about twenty minutes or so. Despite, this, when we did get aboard, we still hadn't quite woken up.
Off Space, it being EMH, most of the park was still to open, and certainly the other two mountains on our list were off limits, so we headed in to Buzz to do some Zurg-blasting. Turned out that we were still struggling to keep our eyes open.
Two rides down, and time for a drink before waiting for the rope drop / walk through Liberty square and Frontierland. We headed to Big Thunder, and pretty much walked straight on there, before heading across to Splash where the wait had only got up to five minutes according to the posted time.
By the time the big drop came around, we'd pretty much woken up this time.
So, three mountains, plus Buzz all done, and it was only half past nine. A quick walk through to the back of Adventureland and we went on Pirates. Advertised at 10 minutes, but the queue was 20. I can't help but think that the Imagineers have a tricky one here. So they updated the ride by putting a few Jack Sparrow figures into the old scenes, and it is a much loved traditional ride. And hey, it was even the inspiration for the hugely successful movie franchise so surely they have to keep it, but it feels a bit tired to me. Tricky one.
Anyway, once we'd Pirated, I put in a request for the Hall of Presidents which Jake agreed to. As always when I get my way with this one, I think it is just great. I think Jake even enjoyed looking at the exhibits whilst we waited to go in.
Once we'd listed to the stirring and patriotic stuff, I declared that we needed to do something in Fanstasyland, and the only ride with an acceptable queue was Small World, so in we went. It was worth it for the personalised goodbye at the end if nothing else. Another sneaky bit of smart Magic Band technology.
Final stops before departing were more photos of the castle as we headed down Main Street (I'd been taking them every time we passed it during the morning) and as a special treat, a photo with Roy on his bench in Town Square.
And that was a pretty good morning in the Magic Kingdom.
As for the rest of the day, we went to the Studios in the afternoon. Made Jake go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid and sit through the whole show for the first time ever, went and used more fast passes on TSM - Jake keeps winning, I watched the current show in One Man's Dream, which is a trailer for the upcoming Pete's Dragon movie - looks OK but I can't see it doing great business, and we went to see the Beauty and the Beast show. First time we'd seen it in ages and great as ever.
It started raining whilst we were in the show and was chucking it down when we came out. No buses back to Boardwalk and boats not running due to storm risk. We walked back and got soaked.
In the evening J&G had dinner at Artist's Point (about which they gave a good report). I gave them a lift, and when I got back, Nicky and I walked over to the Yacht Club. Plan had been to eat in the steakhouse, but they couldn't seat us straight away, so we went into the Crew's Cup bar next door for a drink. Ended up ordering appetisers in there. Then more drinks. Then more appetisers.
Somehow never made it to the steakhouse, but had a very nice evening!