Obligatory Castle picture

Obligatory Castle picture, originally uploaded by eblackwell.

From a different angle

Elphie finds ducks along the canal.  She almost did a perfect point! I don't this dog has any more dreams to come true.

On the boat ride over to Magic Kingdom, John started his old trick, and I'm telling you right now that if my beloved husband doesn't stop taking my lovehandles and making them into a puppet mouth with a voice that goes, "Hello, I'm Roley!  Thanks for bringing me back here where you eat and make me bigger!"...  the gators are going to get a good meal!  ;)

Get breakfast at Main Street Bakery.  The woman at the register hands us the long receipt with all the blah blah blah on it, and says, "While you're eating your breakfast, read this book."  We laughed because it was funny, but John actually followed her advice for the heck of it, and here it had a 20% coupon for the main stores!  We had to use it by noon, so we got John a really nice hat. And I got a Christmas mug.

On Main Street, I played around with the PhotoPass photographers as they took family photos and trying to get the people to give a natural smile.  I'd come up behind the photographer and without their knowing it, I'd form devil horns.  The surprise of it would make the family grin and the photographer snapped the shot.  I got a picture of a Main Street car coming my way and then id an overdramatic jump out of the way, like I was in danger of getting hit.  The driver, Rebecca, luckily had a sense of humor and cracked up; she said she should take my picture as the car was getting closer and I did a mock "splat" on the windshield.  She was great fun!

Unfortunately, the photographer we got, Justin, was a big blah.  He had sunglasses on, cutting off personal contact, and was giving off a horrible attitude.  Not rude or anything, just uncaring.

We got Space Mountain fast passes, and then rode the PeopleMover (TTA) with its new spiel.  We didn't like the new soundtrack; all the futuristic part of it is gone.  I did like the character voices going with their rides and that they called it the PeopleMover, but it would have been better to put the 2 parts together.

We rode Buzz Lightyear, and John cheated AGAIN. (snicker)  Actually, I took time to get a picture of him.  In the end, he pointed out the scores on the sign: I'm a pilot, hon, and you're a piece of---  LOL!  I took a photo of the Hidden Stitch on the mural and then saw the photo of Stitch on the ride.  Nice!

We took our spin on the Carousel of Progress, especially so I could see the Walt footage first, and for the first time, I found out the 40/50s section was John's favorite.  After the modern scene, he complained that they took out the last scene where the apes take over the planet.

John wasn't feeling well, so we gave his fast pass to someone and I went in alone.  I liked how they added the games for people to play while in line, and the new graphics.  The ride is the same, of course, although I wish they could have added the music.  Still, all the changes were good until you walk out.  Those rocks are really old, and the black cloth over the monitor section is really lame!  They should have upgraded that with everything else.

Next, Laugh Floor.  I never noticed it has a "view" of Monsteropolis or whatever the city is called.  One of the creatures forms a Hidden Mickey with his shadow during the "mike check", and they had a great interaction going with this woman, Allie from Australia, that shows off how quick thinking the guy on the end of the technology is.  They also talked to this guy who I joked with John looked like Gilligan in the later years.  A minute later, the monster in the show said, "I'm just glad Gilligan finally got off the island!" A little boy that they talked to had to be coached on his answers which he gave by pressing his mouth against the mike so his voice boomed around the room!

With the time we had left before lunch, we saw the updated Hall of Presidents.  I didn't think I'd like some of these changes, but instead, it's the best it's been since it opened!  The new movie with the new art and story that focuses on the Presidents is great, and giving Lincoln a solo focus at that moment with the Gettysburg address not only fits the moment perfectly, it harkens back to when it was the original Mr. Lincoln attraction.  Washington's small speech and the upgraded animatronics are wonderful.

Then it was time to head for The Wave (menu) in the Contemporary.  We grabbed the monorail to there, and by coincidence, Monorail Black pulled up to pick up the Blackwells!  It had been really foggy in the morning, but it cleared out pretty fast and turned into a beautiful day.  We saw the new large Mickey wreath on the Contemporary; I'm hoping we can get a better picture of it later.

We never ate at the Wave before, and we really liked it.  Our waitress, Giselle, had a good sense of humor, the food was delicious, and the place looks good.!