Disney 2009, Day 4: Magic Kingdom, Round 2

As most parents know, the Magic Kingdom has the most for smaller children to do, so we went back there on Tuesday, our fourth day of Disney. Ran a little late again (we were all starting to get very tired, so slept a little later), but still managed a good bit in the morning. First, our traditional morning ferry ride:



We've been using the speeder bike pictures at the Studios as our "how is Luke growing" picture, but it occurred to DH that we could also probably use a picture of him at the ferry rail as well. I haven't yet gone back through the older Disney shots yet to find some comparison photos, but I will.

We never even touched Fantasyland on our last visit, except to use it as a connection to the other side of the park, so we headed there first for a ride on my favorite "non thrill ride," Peter Pan.



I thought the view as we went under the sign was pretty neat, so I snapped that one while we were there. And one day, I'll figure out how to get a better photo of Luke/us in the ship vehicles. They're really cool looking, but almost impossible to photograph if you are in them. After that was it's a small world. Did get some okay shots inside, but none really worth sharing.



After that was the one ride Luke has consistently asked for over the last year: the carousel, or more specifically "the horseys." We made a specific promise on Sunday to do it the next time we came, and we bypassed it for Peter Pan since it fills up quickly. So we *had* to get it in before lunch.



And as usual, he was more fascinated by the mechanism that makes the horses jump than anything. That's the child of 2 engineers for you. The mirror shot didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped, but it will do. We had to get moving for lunch, since the Street Party was taking up the entire hub again, and we had to at least get near the hub to get to the far end of Main Street. But we did pop in the hat shop briefly (Mom was looking for a new hat), and Luke decided to goof off (sorry, couldn't help it).



And got a quick shot of the rear of the castle on the way by.



After that, off to Tony's Town Square, one of our most favorite restaurants. Our reservations were for the very first seating at 11:30.As usual, the Dapper Dans opened the restaurant with a couple of songs, a round of Happy Birthday for another guest ("How old are you now?" it's not polite to ask a lady how old she is, "how much do you weigh?" LOL!), and the traditional final song, "Bella Notte."



They did have a little competition from the Street Party (which we had to go around the long way to even get to lunch because, once again, they were taking up the hub, then end by going down Main Street, right past Tonys), but they did great in spite of all the racket.



Forgot to take pictures before we all started eating, but I did remember in time to get some decent shots. I had the chicken parmesan, DH had his usual spaghetti and meatballs (those meatballs are bigger than golf balls!), and Mom had the shrimp scampi, all wonderful. Luke had pizza again (nothing different from last time, so no picture), but he sure didn't eat much. And for the first time on our vacation, we got dessert! Mom ordered the tiramisu, which I normally don't care for (don't like coffee flavored anything), but the coffee flavor was very light, and the marscapone was sweet enough (sometimes it's not, IMO) but not overly sweet. Very well done.



I originally ordered the gelato, since I don't think I had ever tried it, and I asked our server if she recommended the chocolate or the vanilla. She recommended the Chocolate Bomb instead, since it had some of both. The menu described it as "a scoop of chocolate and vanilla ice cream covered in a rich chocolate sauce." I found that description rather.... lacking compared to the reality. Our server did much better. A slice of cake topped with a scoop of chocolate and vanilla gelato, covered in a chocolate shell. So it is gelato, not just ice cream? Yep. And it's only $1 more than the bowl of single flavor gelato. Sold! Quite yummy, I must say. Even DH ate some. I will definitely be having gelato in the future.



Tony's has the added advantage of being right by the entrance/exit to the Magic Kingdom. You don't have to walk past a bunch of attractions in order to go take a nap. A couple hours and a good nap later, we were refreshed and ready for more. We got there a little earlier than usual, and Luke really wanted to do a roller coaster, but when I checked Big Thunder on the tip board, it had a 45 minute wait. Too long when I knew we could do better later in the evening. The tip board did say that the Barnstormer kiddie coaster at Toontown only had a 10 minute wait, so we went there instead. (It's such a kiddie coaster that even DH will ride it! Luke started on it when he was 2.) The wait wasn't even 10 minutes, so we rode twice before dinner.

Dinner was at another favorite place: Casey's! One problem, as usual: no Luke food. DH and Luke walked over to Tomorrowland to snag some chicken from the Starlight, while Mom and I dodged the stupid Street Party (again!) to order hot dogs, chili, and mini corn dogs at Casey's. But as far as Luke is concerned, the best part of Casey's is sitting in the "bleachers" and watching old black-and-white sports themed Disney cartoons. I even picked him up some popcorn as a special treat for the occasion.




By this point, we had spent several hours at the Magic Kingdom without doing Buzz. Well, we can't have that, now can we? LOL This is the best shot I managed on Buzz the whole trip, and I had to majorly tinker with it to make it look this good. Didn't do very well with these shots for some reason.



I can't remember now if we rode once or twice, but once Luke had it out of his system, he was ready for more Big Thunder Mountain, but he did allow me to snap this shot of a Mickey icon manhole cover on the way:



Much of the park was nearly empty by then. Got in 3 rounds of Big Thunder before it was time to head out. There was no parade that night, but there were fireworks. We did our patented "sneak off through Adventureland, check and see if Pirates is busy, then get out of the park before the fireworks are over" move. Once again, Pirates was empty. The next day was a "napless day," so we needed to get to sleep, but an empty Pirates of the Caribbean was just too much to resist! We weren't even sure if they were open, but the cast member said they were. In fact, he closed the door right behind us. We were the last riders on the last boat of the night. How cool! Luke enjoyed the view of the fireworks from DH's shoulders as we raced to get to the gate before the end of the show. We didn't quite make it, but we were close enough not to be caught in the crush of people.

Naturally, Luke announced that he needed to potty about the time we got on the ferry, which prompted us to learn something new: there are restrooms at the TTC! As you come off the ferry (or the monorail), there is a building to the right that houses restrooms and vending machines. As we headed to the trams, Luke noticed what he called "Elephant Mickey."



Well, he's got a point! From there, it was tram to car, car to hotel, and bedtime. We had a busy day planned next!

In our next episode: Disney 2009, Day 5: Animal Kingdom.