Day 4

After getting his autograph and photo, we headed over to Adventureland for our first ride of the day, Jungle Cruise. This is a very gentle ride but the Cast Member driving the boat tried his hardest to keep us amused. Do they have a script or do they make it up as they go along?

Next came the Enchanted Tiki Room. Well this is one show that we won't make the mistake of seeing again. We all had stiff necks from looking up at a bird's backside and San thought that the thunder and lightning effects were real and it was raining outside. She was very surprised to see that although it had gone dark whilst we sat inside, it wasn't raining, (nor was there a volcano in the middle of the Magic Kingdom)!

We then went Pirates of the Caribbean where we found a huge queuing area with hardly any queue; this ride must get really busy, and as we got further inside we could feel the temperature dropping. We had ridden Pirates in Disneyland Paris but this one was a lot longer with a huge lagoon, however we were disappointed that there was no drop. (We did find plenty of drops on the next ride though.) As we came out of Pirates, via the Pirate shop it had gone dark and Adventureland was all lit up with torch-topped streetlights, which gave off a nice Indiana Jones sort of glow.

Beth was getting bored by now so we headed over to Fantasyland with the intention of riding Winnie the Pooh, but as the wait was now 45 minutes and she was already bored, she settled for Cinderella's Golden Carousel instead. By now, people had started to head towards Main Street for the first Electrical Parade at 9.00PM, so we managed to ride the Carousel twice with no wait.

Whilst the first Electrical Parade was taking place, we took the opportunity to ride The Haunted Mansion. Beth actually rode the Phantom Manor with me in Disneyland Paris, albeit with her eyes closed, (but she can still tell you all about the ride in the minutest detail), but the sudden howl of a werewolf as we approached the huge forbidding gates scared her, and she chickened out at the last minute. She ended up waiting outside with Rachel, who was also too chicken to ride, (which I think would have been even scarier than the going on the ride!), and watched the Electrical Parade from afar.

The Haunted Mansion is better than the Phantom Manor, in Paris, as it has more special effects, particularly the ghost passenger. I was in a Doom Buggy all by myself, so I had plenty of room for hitchhikers. (Aren't I brave?) As we came out of the Haunted Mansion, all in one piece to Beth's surprise, the Electrical Parade was in full swing so we rushed over to Frontierland and Splash Mountain, which isn't the easiest ride to find in the dark, especially when you're dancing to the tune of the Electrical Parade! We still ended up waiting about twenty minutes but the queuing area is quite nice and kept us entertained. It must have been about 10 O'clock when we actually got into our log because as we climbed for the first drop we could see the fireworks of the Fantasy in the Sky display exploding high above the Castle. Although this was a nice touch we had planned on seeing the fireworks from the ground and had forgotten all about them in our rush to get to Splash Mountain. Beth, however though that the fireworks were part of the ride and declared that Splash Mountain was her favourite ride and that it was ZIPADEEDOODARTASTIC, (which I gather is a huge compliment).

Straight after Splash Mountain we went to choose a spot for the 11-O'clock Electrical Parade, as we had seen earlier how crowded Main Street gets. We chose the Castle end of Main Street, right by the popcorn stand at the entrance to Adventureland and plonked ourselves on the kerb. We had quite a job keeping Beth awake at this point, despite our offerings of hot dogs, fries, coke and even a light-up Minnie wand. (I think we will watch the first parade next time, as we will not be so tired.) Suddenly all the lights went out on Main Street and we could hear the music getting louder as the parade approached. We just managed to keep Beth awake long enough to see the parade.

First along the street was the Blue Fairy - she was as tall as the buildings on Main Street, and she was leading the procession of many HUGE characters. Each float was lit up by thousands and thousands of tiny lights, which seemed truly magical in the warm darkness. The music was extremely catchy, and made you smile, grin, then do a big cheesy - it was so infectious. Float after float wound their way down Main Street - Dumbo's train decked with Pink Elephants on Parade, Cinderella's Coach, an enormous Pete's Dragon (complete with a real "Pete" on top!), the dwarfs with a mine truck full of diamonds driven by Dopey in a miner's helmet, strange turtles, butterflies and other creatures from Alice In Wonderland, Peter Pan and Captain Hook on a gigantic galleon, with Tinkerbell flying around the mast.

Walking along side the floats were all the characters, dressed in costumes decorated with tiny bulbs, shaking people's hands - OOH - we shook Pluto's and Dale's hand (I think - he had a black nose!).

Dancers were twirling and swirling between each float, again with beautifully decorated costumes, and in the darkness of the Magic Kingdom, which was only punctuated by the lights from the parade, the dancers seemed to be walking in mid air - floating down Main Street! Words cannot paint this picture in anyone's imagination. A video or photographs could not do justice to this multi-sensory experience - you just had to BE there!!! There were lots of people still dancing and skipping way after the parade finished and the last refrains had faded away!

We now have the music from the Electrical Parade as our Start Windows tune on our computer, so we get to hear it each time we switch the PC on. Incidentally, our End Windows tune is a snippet from 'The wonderful thing about Tigger. `

After the parade we decided to avoid the rush of people leaving the park by perusing through the shops on Main Street. Beth was now fast asleep in her pram so we could spend as long as we wanted.

San bought a snazzy T-shirt with matching cap which both carried the slogan "I'm never growing up". I bought a curly tail Tigger pen, with which I wrote my notes for our trip report.

We then caught what turned out to be the last ferryboat back to the TTC, and as it was still very busy in the car park it took quite a while to get out - so much for missing the queues! We then managed to get lost trying to get back to International Drive and ended up going past a telegraph pole shaped like Mickey's Ears that looked spooky all lit up. I thought I had fallen asleep at the wheel and was having a Disney dream, a bit like Homer Simpson in the episode when he dreams of his bed. (There I must add my comparison with Homer J Simpson ends, honest.) We ended up following a sign for International Airport as I knew the way to I-Drive from there, but we didn't quite get that far as I soon spotted a sign for International Drive. What a relief! There was a set of roadworks on the way back to I-Drive that became a landmark in the days to come, as I knew I had to turn left just after them to reach the Southern end of I-Drive. I dread to think where we would have ended up if the roadworks had finished half way through our holiday!

It is very easy to find the way to Disneyworld but finding the way back to your hotel, especially a hotel off-site, was a completely different story. I was the only one awake as we headed back to the hotel and once I got to SeaWorld I was able to relax and start to reflect on another satisfying day. We got back to the hotel at about 1.30AM and weren't best pleased that there were no parking spaces left near our room, so I had to carry Beth from the other side of the complex. The late night dash for a parking space was to become a feature of the hotel as we found out in the days ahead. Needless to say we were all giving it the big Z within minutes of arriving back in our room.

Tomorrow:- Animal Kingdom