kimmy

Day 3: the magic kingdom

IMG_1202 by kimandchris.

As you can see above… coast to coast jet lag always seems to creep up on you two days after you arrive at your destination. Our “late” start at 10am was still way too early for me… but what can you do? :) Mr. M had been up extra early (7am) to finish up some work online and send it off before the start of the day… so his cup of morning Coke was well deserved!

We’ll label today: “the rain day.” The rain was expected, we planned for it (thanks for the travel umbrella Dad!), and it was luckily warm enough to deal with. Knowing this in advance, we decided the Magic Kingdom should be our next park to tackle… well, that and the impending Super Bowl MVP parade helped our decision just a little bit!

We arrived at the park around 10:45, and were immediately faced with hundreds of Steelers fans who had lined Main Street after a swift drive from Tampa. I asked Mr. M if he wanted to stay and wait, since the parade was scheduled to start sometime after 11am, but he pointed towards the rides, and off we went. In passing the time board, we saw a 5 minute wait for Space Mountain… so in true teenager style, that’s where we headed first.
My creation: Space Mountain by kimandchris.
Sure enough, we got to Space Mountain, walked through the enormously long queue and waited about 2.5 seconds in line before jumping in our bobsled. (Yes, since Disneyland is my reference point, I’ve come upon the annoying habit of labeling everything in Anaheim terms. Therefore, a single seating arrangement ride is a bobsled, like on the Matterhorn.) Our eyes didn’t have much time to adjust to the light before leaving for our gentle journey into space, so let’s just say Mr. M had quite the fun ride in the front seat! After one round, we hopped back through the exit and returned to ride again… only this time I was in front. As you can tell from my crazy photo above, I also had the pleasure of the front seat, and light sensitivity.

Next stop… Buzz Lightyear!

IMG_1209 by kimandchris.

This would have to be Mr. M’s favorite ride at Disneyland I’m sure… as he loves the fact that it’s a giant video game, and that there’s an underlying competition among everyone riding… especially with me.

IMG_1212 by kimandchris.

However, unlike the version at Disneyland, this ride only allows you to buy your photos (not email them) and doesn’t highlight your score, just your rank. You can only imagine the disappointment felt by Mr. M… I tried to cheer him up with a ride on “Stitch’s Great Escape” — and that helped quite a bit.

We left Tomorrowland and decided that we’d try to tackle Splash Mountain before the rain started coming down. On our way, we hit the revised Tiki Room (yeah… too much Iago, not enough tiki!) along with Jack Sparrow and Pirates of the Caribbean.

On our way out of Pirates, I heard the familiar “parade announcement” come on the loudspeakers, and realized that 10 feet in front of us there was a big crowd. I broke out the camera and jumped into place just in time to watch Santonio Holmes ride by on his convertible MVP chariot. Great timing, and we didn’t have to spend any time waiting for him to drive by! We’d spend the rest of the trip listening to people butcher his name time and time again… “We saw San’Antonio Holmes at the park yesterday!” or “I was 5 feet away from Santino Holmes – we’re such huge Steelers fans it was awesome!” Yeah… huge fans, I’m sure. We got pretty bad at hiding the laughter on a crowded bus by the end of the week.

IMG_1214 by kimandchris.

So after the 15-second parade… we did what every person does on a rainy cold day in Florida… we went on Splash Mountain. Now, while the wait says 5 minutes, it really means “no one is in line, because you’d be stupid to get wet on a day like today.”

IMG_1215 by kimandchris.

So in good ‘ol silly fashion, we walked right onto a log and in doing so, caused the entire sky to erupt! I broke out my blue Disneyland poncho for the ride so that both Mr. M and I had a full water shield on the ride. We didn’t get wet… but seconds before getting in line for Thunder Mountain, I made Mr. M buy himself a poncho for the rainy day ahead.

And it was a good thing that we did that… since it didn’t stop raining until 5pm. And by raining, I mean it was so wet and that poncho was so neccesary that I didn’t reach in my bag for the camera for the rest of the day! Luckily for us, the rain didn’t get in our way, and we were able to enjoy the rest of the rides in the park with no hassle whatsoever, and left the park around 5pm.

For dinner that night, I had made reservations at BOMA, an African-inspired buffet at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We bus-hopped via the Magic Kingdom, and got the chance to see some of the zebras in the savannahs before we arrived as well.

And when we got there… oh boy did we eat!

IMG_1217 by kimandchris.

The plates above only really show 1/5th of the food that we consumed that night… oh my what a spread! And any buffet that has a hummus station gets huge rewards in my book! :)  Our favorite dishes included peanut rice, fufu and any of the sauces that went with the steak… oh my goodness it was wonderful! I was so happy to find the recipes to most of these dishes when I got home, so I’ll be sure to share them when we recreate our African buffet sometime in the future!

IMG_1219 by kimandchris.

And to end the night… we had to bus-hop back to our hotel via Downtown Disney. They had opened a new HANES store where you can design your own t-shirts with graphics and words of your choice. Mr. M created this gem for me… but I wouldn’t let him buy it for $30. And so it goes…

4 Comments

  • virginia

    seriously. you make me want to take a plane to orlando right now! or at least contemplate driving to our CA Disney haven some weekend soon… hmmm….

  • Julie

    Um, I am SO jealous that you were at the MVP parade! I mean, I wouldn’t go to Disney for the parade as opposed to say, the Superbowl or any Steelers game in general, but that is still pretty darn kick-ass!

    I’m surprised so many people were mispronouncing his name; I’ve never heard anyone say it as anything other than Santonio even here in D.C. where people don’t care at all about the Steelers.