I don't care if it's been nine years since we went on this trip. I'm going to finish this blog anyway.
After our usual late start (how anti-touring plan!) we make our way to the Polynesian, where we split a bowl of overpriced, yet tasty, chicken chow mein and vegetable chips. Ah, to have to pay for our own food again! How the mighty have fallen. Finishing up, we toddle off to the Magic Kingdom for some quality ride time.
It's a nice day, and the crowds are not too oppressive. Also it doesn't rain on us, which is always a plus. We manage to finish off all the Fantasyland rides in short order, and, breaking with our usual counter-clockwise tradition, we decide to be rebels and go to Tomorrowland next.
Our favorite ride there, that's not at Disneyland, remains the Peoplemover, which is, of course, not called the Peoplemover there. But, for those of us who kick it old school, it will always be the Peoplemover. As usual, we have a moment of silence as we pass by the model of the City of the Future, which was Walt's final dream, which was summarily dismissed as soon as he died. And that's why we don't have flying cars today.
After I beat Mom at Buzz Lightyear again and we once again decide to skip Stitch's Great Escape, we cross the hub and finally catch a showing of the (relatively) new forecourt show, "Dream Along With Mickey."
The new articulated heads now add a greater element of verisimilitude to all the characters. It also ensures that, just like with real people, you'll pretty much always get someone with their eyes closed in any photo. The show involves that wacky madcap Donald, who apparently doesn't believe in the power of dreams--a Dream Atheist, as it were. The others are shocked, and determine to show the power of dreams by sharing their dreams...which just happen to involve Princesses and Pirates! Who would have thought? You know, they ought to have some merchandise about those things. I bet it would sell well.
What I find really amusing, is that they looked at the guy in the duck suit, and said, "you know, it's probably not hot enough, in Florida, in the 100 degree heat, for you to be dancing and gyrating around--let's add a hat and a longcoat on top of it!" Anyway, Donald has a good time as a pirate, until Captain Hook shows up and shows off his new face, which appears to me to be sort of a segue from a full head costume to a complete face character. Certainly his head is a good deal smaller than it used to be.
Eventually, it all becomes too silly for Malificent who shows up to take over everything...because if you lose your belief in your dreams, evil women will come down from Alaska and take over everything! Wait, that was another story...
Ultimately, good triumphs, and Malificent slinks away, down but not eliminated, as she promises to be back the next time someone's faith in their dreams wavers, or the next election. Whichever comes first.
After admiring some pavement-painters decorating the hub, we continue on our way to the left side of the park, and enjoy the Country Bears and manage to stay awake for a change.
After going to Tokyo Disneyland, I'm always hoping for a House Curry restaurant right outside Country Bears, but no.
Finally, the line for Jungle Cruise shrinks to the point where we feel like waiting in it. The skipper is a little better than last time, probably because the heat isn't quite as crushing, but it still wants for some improvement.
When you think about it, that hyena and the zebras in back are pretty brave, considering the rhino's probably going to lose interest in the treed guys soon and look around for something else for lunch.
After that ride, oddly enough, we began to get hungry ("them's good eatin'!") so we decided to try the (relatively) new sushi bar back at the Polynesian. Since Mom hates the walk up the ramp to get to the monorail, we try the boats which are closer, but definitely not the speediest way of getting around. In the daytime, it's ok, but I refuse to take the boats at night, generally, when they turn into what we lovingly refer to as "The Mosquito Express."
The sushi bar is only open at night, as it's a coffee bar in the daytime, and when we got there, we were the only ones. The sushi menu is fairly limited, but the quality is good, and you can also order anything off the menu from the adjoining Kona Cafe. Although there were a few things that looked good, some included the spicy tuna about which we're not crazy. The sushi chef's name appeared to be Elwood from his tag, which we thought was a little odd for a sushi chef, but we don't discriminate.
We sampled the crab cake roll, and the sashimi platter, with the duck potstickers from Kona. Everything was very tasty, and in particular the rice was cooked well, which was a relief from the sub-standard rice we had on the cruise. It wasn't all that cheap, but at least the portion size was reasonable, and not like 1 piece/$5.
After that, it was Extra Magic Hours back at the Magic Kingdom, so we monorailed back again and finished up Pirates of the Caribbean and a few things we hadn't done yet, and wandered around looking in the stores and things.
Eventually we were forced to call it a night and wandered back outside to the monorail station...where a huge line had built up. Apparently there was some sort of malfunction with one of the monorails, and we had to wait until they carted it off and brought up another one, which took about 1/2 hour. So it was some time before we made it back, which only forestalled the packing we had to do, in preparation for the flight home the next day. Which is why I was wheeling some of our luggage over to the bell station at about 3am, for them to hold onto until we were ready for our Magical Express.
Tomorrow: Journey's End.
