Day 3, December 4 (Saturday): Also known as the, "Day the Marauders shut down the Magic Kingdom???"
Proposed Itinerary:
9:15am: Breakfast at Kona Cafe
10:30am-11am: Enter MK
Noon: Thunder Mountain FastPass Meetup with the Mayhem Marauders
4:30pm: Space Mountain FastPass Meetup with the Mayhem Marauders
7pm: Leave for the Poly
8:20pm: Dinner at 'Ohana with the Mayhem Marauders
10pm: Dole Whip Meet on the beach of the Poly.
10:30pm-11pm : Travel back to MK
11pm: MSEP with the Marauders
11:30pm-Midnight: Whatever mayhem we can find in the Park
**NOTE: The Mousekecouple created an elaborate treasure map (placed inside the awesome chests that are shown on the Crafting thread) listing several meet-ups during the day. What is listed above are the ones that Mom and I tried to make it to. There are others that we did not get to but you will read about on other reports, I'm sure.
What REALLY happened:
My mother and I have never tried Tonga Toast. This was the trip that would have rectified that situation, however, staying out late and having a few drinks the night before with a long day ahead made us put this off until next trip. We opted for breakfast at the Captain's Grille in the hotel instead. Especially when we were able to get a reservation for 8:15am. We then knew that there was a chance we could get to the MK about rope drop time. While I am a little sad that we didn't try the TT like every good DisneyNut should, I was very happy by the breakfast buffet at the CG. It was very close to what is offered at the Crystal Palace for breakfast sans characters.
After picking up everyone going to the MK staying at the EPCOT resorts (Len - WHY do they have ONE bus picking up 5 resorts??? INSANE!), we got to the MK about 9:05am. No rope drop but at least the park was still relatively empty:
Notice no hanging decorations over Main Street...
Darn that parade...
We made sure to stay away from the mass of people in the hub and headed for Adventureland. First up was Jungle Cruise and its 5 minute wait. We got the Irrawady Irma boat for anyone who is interested. Then it was onto Pirates. This was a walk on as both sides were open.
So, it's about 10ish and roughly 50 degrees outside, what would you do next??? Yep, we did Splash Mountain. Now, Mom is NOT a thrill ride person by any means and it took A LOT of persuading for her to ride SM with me, but she was a trooper. In all my years going to the MK, I have never seen Splash as a walk on... hmmm... maybe this is due to the cold temperatures and water surrounding the attraction... nah, it's just sheer luck! We get to the CM and I notice that row 1 is empty. Being the gracious son that I am, I ask the CM if we can have that front row so that my mother could have a nice unblocked view of the ride (
). She protests a TAD but I end up pushing her in that direction. Before we climb in she notices a
slight puddle of water on the seat and on the floor of the log. I quickly dismiss that as nothing but a little condensation and off we go! (
)
I think she enjoyed the ride... what do you think???
Of course we got soaked... not from the initial hit on the water from the sides but from the wave the came over the front of the boat and landed squarely in our laps. I don't think my mother is speaking to me to this day.
To get dry we figured that we should stay indoors. Off to the Country Bear Jamboree! The only reason I wasn't excited about going during Christmas time was that I knew they would be doing the Christmas show at the CBJ... I was surprised when there were no lights on Melvin's antlers. Even more surprised when they came out singing those great songs that we all know and love...
After the bears we hit the Frontierland Trading Post to see if we could find any vinylmations that my kids would like. They had a clear plastic case with 3 figures and a mystery box! But alas... nothing good for the kids, our random numbers had failed us. We then went off to the Haunted Mansion and it's 10 minute wait. While there I got a picture of the wonderfully themed queue and the gravestones:
No, do not adjust your computer screen... that is what you see now as you enter the Mansion.
Here is a look that we got later on in the day from the other side:
We are now just a mere 45 minutes away from meeting up with the Marauding Crew! There was a meet at 11am at Casey's Corner, but my mother is not big on hot dogs, a trait that did not pass down to me, thank goodness. So we decide to carry on a tradition and eat at the Columbia Harbor House. She always gets the chicken strips/nuggets and I usually get what sounds good that day. I opted for the fish and chips this time. We ate upstairs and took our time as the meet up was about to begin...
To be continued...
