Day 6 - 12/19/96Go Back to Trip Report - Part IVWell the weather predictions came true. We woke up to temperatures in the low 40's with wind chills in the teens! Yeeoow! We bundled up in turtlenecks, sweaters, sweatshirts and coats and headed for early entry at the Magic Kingdom. We decided to drive over to see how that mode of transportation compared to the boat and it ended up taking just as long if not longer. It was really sad to see parents taking kids into the park that were in shorts. There was one poor little girl in the monorail that was so cold she was crying and begging her parents to warm her up. They promised to go back and change clothes after their character breakfast. We walked in to an almost empty park. We saw Tigger by Tony's Town Square restaurant so we stopped to get his autograph then proceeded to Fantasyland for Dumbo. We went through all of the rides in Fantasyland several times with no wait at all. We then headed over to Toontown Fair for 3 more rides on Barnstormer. We took turns riding in the front and back just for the heck of it. We did Tomorrowland Raceway again for the kids then headed to Space Mountain. The kids didn't want to ride so Susan took them to ride TTA. I was shocked to find a line for the ride but it was due to them only having the right side open. As I rounded the corner at 9:00, they opened up the left side and the line quickly vanished. I rode the left side this time and didn't really notice a difference from the right - still rougher than I remembered at Disneyland.
We then headed over to Adventureland and rode Jungle cruise. There was no queue at all and boats were leaving with just a few people on them. We hopped on and Brian volunteered to drive the boat so he was given the title of "skipper". The CM maintained he was still the "captain" and directed Brian on the fine points of driving a boat on a rail. Of course Brian thought he really WAS driving which made his day! He was sure that he was the first kid ever to pilot a Jungle Cruise boat. Jungle Cruise is nice but once is always enough for me. We then did Tiki birds, which was packed due to the weather. However, towards the end, a dozen or so folks did get up and leave. Why anyone was in a hurry to get back out in that mess is beyond me. We then did Pirates again and then headed over to Liberty Square to catch the Haunted Mansion. By now it was after 11 so we went into Columbia Harbor House for lunch. The kids had hot dog meals, which included hot dogs, cookies and a drink. We both had the chicken baskets with hot chocolate all around. Total $18. We walked around the corner to Fantasyland to catch the Lion King show. For the first time, we were able to get near the front so we could actually see the preshow with Rafiki, which was nice. The show itself is good, especially for Lion King lovers. We then headed over to Frontierland. We rode Big Thunder Mountain with a 5 minute wait and then donned our ponchos for a ride on Splash Mountain. This was the first time I had been able to ride Splash with no wait without sprinting there right after the rope drop. We picked up Brer Bear's autograph outside the ride exit then climbed the stairs to the WDW Railroad. We rode the train all the way around to the front gate and departed. We took the express monorail back to the TTC and were able to sit up front with the driver. He gave the kids honorary monorail co-pilot certificates which are now part of our Disney treasure. We then drove back to the camper to thaw out before heading over to Epcot for our dinner reservations at Chef's de France.
We arrived at 15 minutes early than our 5:45 pm seating time but were seated immediately. I had the veal chop, Susan chicken in a pastry dish. The food was wonderful. It was so good that I even ate the spinach on the side and I haven't eaten spinach in over 25 years! The sauce on the veal chop was sooo good that I probably would have eaten anything smothered in it. They had a nice kids menu as well. Both Brian and Katie had the fried orange roughy kids meal which included french fries, drink and ice cream. Susan and I finished off our meal with some fancy sounding desserts, which too were very good. Total for the meal was $80. We then picked up where we left off with our tour of the World Showcase at the Moroccan pavillion. While there, we lucked up on the show of the Houzali Troupe. These guys were like nothing I had ever seen before. They combined tumbling, acrobatics, fire-eating and some body contorting into an amazing show. This one guy put a glass of water behind him and then bent over backwards, picked it up in his teeth and drank it, all while remaining on his feet. You'd have to see it to believe it. Kind of like the little spineless gymnasts you see on TV but much more amazing.
We backtracked to France and picked up our passport stamp, saw Impressions de France, and then walked through the French bakery. There were some really good looking fat pills here folks. We headed over to Great Britian and Canada to finish out the passports then proceeded to Journey Into Imagination for another Figment fix. We finally were able to talk Katie into HISTA again and she came out loving it. She had perfected her thumbs in the ears, fingers over the eyes technique to the point where she was almost fearless. We stopped and did Spaceship Earth on the way out, more to warm up than anything else. We then headed back to Fort Wilderness. I had promised the kids all week we would go to the campfire but for some reason we just hadn't gotten around to it. Tonight, Mickey's Christmas Carol was on and they really wanted to see it so we put on even more clothes and headed over to see it. There were 5 people there when we arrived, but by the time Mickey was over 30 minutes later, we were alone. The kids enjoyed it and I was able to keep my promise so it was worth it.
Tomorrow the sixth and final part of this trip report. Yeah! It will include our impressions of the character breakfast at the Soundstage Restaurant at MGM, the MK Christmas Parade and our impressions of our first ever viewing of the MGM Sorcery in the Sky fireworks.