May 8th DAY 5: Ohana Means Family

Brrrrrrrrring!…

Brrrrrrrrring!…

With the incessant ringing and delightful wake up message of Stitch, we are ready to begin day 2 of the super-expedited tour of Walt Disney World with my dad and Debbie. After we get so fresh and so clean clean for the day, we head out to the ASS’s End Zone (really does that ever get old? I think not) for some breakfast. Mark had the French to….

*Static and Flickering*

Hello! It’s Mark. You know, Beth’s boyfriend? I’ve hijacked this trip report because I wanted to write one. Don’t worry, Beth will be back for another soon enough. For now I’ve taken over just like Dr. Seeker did to Mrs. Huxtable in Dinosaur. So sit back and enjoy the delightfully spelling error and tiggirl-ism free trip report.

So where were we? Oh yes French toast. Delicious. Beth had biscuits and gravy while we waited for John (Beth’s Dad) and Debbie. We enjoyed our breakfast while John drank his coffee despite the fact that it was just north of 340 million degrees outside. He says it keeps him cool… *shrugs*. Not too sure how that works.

Anyways, today was our day at the Magic Kingdom. Because of how cold it was yesterday, we decided to bring our sweatshirts along just in case (and thus insuring it will be insanely hot… stupid Murphy’s Law). We tried to find a place to stash them at the Magic Kingdom, but apparently they thought it was a good idea to remove all lockers from the park. We finally found a place that was outside the gates. We even got our locker for free because Beth was able to name 3 of the 7 dwarves. Perhaps taxing for the feebly-Disney minded, but a walk in the park for my adorable little geek. After playing Jeopardy for our free locker they gave us our key (key? What is this 1980? Who uses keys for lockers anymore… psh), we stashed our outerwear and galavanted into the park.

Outerwear propperly stashed, we're ready for our day at the Magic Kingdom

Our first order of business was to get John a birthday button for his 50th. He actually turned 50 last November but his birthday was passed over because he was taking care of Beth’s grandparents and their declining health. So we’re celebrating 50 now! Woohoo! We made a bee-line for Space Mountain. It was a pretty short wait and John really seemed to love the cheesy “curved-glass, move-y star and floating spaceman” effects in the queue. I personally think the queue is in need of updating between lame stars, video cameras in the exit and ball pen near the entrance. But it’s still better than Rockin’ Space Mountain… ZING!

After Space Mountain we headed over to the west side to round out the Magic Kingdom’s mountain range. Splash Mountain had just gone down, so we skipped it and hit Thunder instead. We went back to Splash and it was still down so the girls went to the restroom. In the meantime I talked to the cast members about how I work Splash here in California and they explained that they were in the process of resetting. I knew it should only be a few more minutes. The girls returned from the restroom and the ride had re-opened! Beth thinks that flushing the toilet must have fixed the problem. Heh… flushing cleared the log jam… It’s low brow I know, but it’s just my style.

So with the mountains in our rear view mirror it was time for more coffee for John. This is what happens when you tour around with people from the almost great white north. After quick coffee break, it was time for a foot stompin’ good time at the Country Bear Jamboree. Beth and I went last time we were here, but John and Debbie had not seen this show since it closed in Disneyland. Can’t believe it’s been over 6 years! The country bears ended and all the clappin’ and laughing at the raccoon in that bears hat really worked up an appetite! Beth and I got some lunch at the Columbia Harbour House. Beth had a salad and I had a tuna sandwich with some chili. It was very, very good. Too bad Disneyland can’t have decent food like this.

The quintessential "WDW Picture"

After our nosh, we hit Pirates so John could see the new Johnny Depp animatronics. It seems that the final AA of Jack Sparrow looks better than it’s Disneyland counterpart, but that could just be because it’s further away and the whole scene makes more sense. After Pirates we walked back through Adventureland and grabbed ourselves some dole whips and floats. It was Debbie’s first. I know its appalling that somebody has never had one before. We don’t have the vanilla swirl dole whips here, but Beth says we should because they are divine.

We went to Fantasyland hoping to ride Mickey’s Clean Bathroom Experience (Philharmagic) but it had just closed and people were pouring out of the theater. I swear it was like Pamplona and the running of the bulls except replace bulls with sweaty, tie-dye-tank top wearing tourists. So instead we decided to head back to Tomorrowland to ride the MILF (hehe), TTA and the Carousel of Progress. After that Beth and I stopped for a snack on pretzels. Sweet cream cheese for Beth and spicy cheese for myself. We did this while John and Debbie rode on Stitch’s Great Waste of Money. At this point we hopped a bus back to the ASS for some naptime before our dinner reservations at… drum roll please… OHANA! Beth and I had this last time we were in Florida and fell in love. So we decided to do this to celebrate John’s birthday.

Nap times over and we’re starved! Time for Ohana. We meet up under the giant star on the ASS’s backside (Man I’m on a roll…) then go catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom. The bus ride was uneventful, but the monorail to the Poly was much more exciting. As we are waiting to depart the Contemporary, there are many announcements being made about either sitting or hanging on if standing. So after a one hour lecture on how to ride the monorail safely from Jack Wagner, we take off! Zoom! WHAM! What the hell was that? Oh yes it was 12 year old kid who thought he was too cool to listen to the safety spiels and fell flat on his derriere when the monorail zoomed towards the TTC. He wasn’t hurt and had the most sheepish look ever. I thought I was going to burst with laughter and had to bite the insides of my cheeks to restrain myself in front of the kid’s family. We all had a hearty guffaw when we departed the monorail.

Before it was time to check in for our dinner arrangement, John bought Debbie a beautiful necklace (I think it was a palm tree) from the art store downstairs near the Poly’s lobby. While we were in there an Italian guy came in with his family and bought something that cost well over 20 thousand dollars. His kid was a brat, but I guess when you’re that rich you don’t have to pay attention to your children. At this point I’m sure Beth would like me to note that I was “freaking out” because it was almost time to check in. That’s probably pretty accurate. You see I love to plan and can be pretty anal retentive about things like this. So we went upstairs to check in after John and Debbie promised to meet up soon.

We were soon seated by our cousin and had a great view of Cinderella Castle which was perfect because Wishes would be starting in just under an hour! How perfect for John’s birthday. I don’t think I can stress how great the food is at Ohana. The BBQ chicken wings, steak and pork are excellent! The salad and potatoes are to die for as well! Words just cannot do this place justice. Great atmosphere, great food, and an awesome view of the Magic Kingdom and Wishes.

Before Wishes we got to see the Water Pageant from where we were sitting and of course were entertained by that lady who I swear did way too many drugs in the 70’s. Beth enjoyed some very, very expensive tequila that was 100% blue agave and we called it a night. We took a bus to Downtown Disney and caught a connecting bus back to the ASS so we could hit the hay and prepare for our big day at Epcot.



***Beth breaking back in here... Didn't Mark do an awesome job?! Sorry this one took so long to get posted. We've been waiting for Mark to add in pictures of the day but he's been so busy with school and workin' for the mouse that he hasn't had the time. So I added some today from work but all I had here were the Photopass pictures from this day. Anyway... give Mark a round of applause because that was an awesome post! I think I may be out of a job... he could be better than me!***