I left early in the morning (after waking up at 6 AM), and arrived at the Swan Resort shortly after 9:30 AM. I was able to check into my room there and then, which is a first for me at a Disney resort as usually I have had to wait until after 3 PM in the past. It took a while to get to the Magic Kingdom (the bus went into a "holding pattern" as another bus was parked in the specific spot he wanted - so we waited, and waited...) and I meet up with Mousekedude, Mouseoholic and F1gment shortly after 11 AM. Shortly after that, we met up with NaCler and his mom. And - after a late sleep-in, a 5 mile run and some swimming - the double-boilers eventually added their presence to our fold, increasing our merry band of Mayhem Marauders.
The park was very busy (largely due to the Parade Show taping) and the lines were long. Once the taping ended, the lines got longer. 50 minutes for the HM?? A line for the peoplemover? Really? The peoplemover? In all my life, I have never seen a line for the peoplemover! We managed, however, to ride many of the attractions thanks to our efficient use of the fast pass systems before the meet-up dinner:
Carousel of Progress
BTM
POTC
ETR: UNM
Philharmagic
IASW (they did that before I arrived - TG!)
Splash Mountain
And since I bring up Splash Mountain, I do have a picture of those of us who were brave to ride Splash Mountain given how weather was beginning to chill a bit as the sun was going down:
That's Amy and Mousekedude in the second row, and you can clearly see me in the first row. Oddly enough, somehow I came out less damp than those behind me. While Amy and Mousekedude were not amused, I think Boilerdude summed it up beautifully, "There's no requirement for you to be their human shield."
We crossed over to the Polynesian Resort via the boat launch and ate dinner at O'hanas, which was my first time at this fine dining establishment. It's a family dining style that features an incredible variety of food - salad, sticky wings, pot stickers, broccoli and noodles, and various meat. They come by these tables with these two feet long skewers (which I'm sure are more fatal to run with than scissors) and drop off a pile on your plate of beef, shrimp, chicken and pork. It was bit overloading for food. Before the food arrived, we even all got to talk to Len90 via cellphone, but I had to unfortunately had to cut the call short with Mark86 has they started to dump mass loads of meat in our plates (sorry, Mark86!). The dinner conversation flowed quickly and we even had a member join in the floor show (way to go, Amy!). In fact, the talk (and a little difficulty in getting the bill) nearly made us late for Dole Whips and Fireworks on the beach at the rear of the Polynesian.
But we did make it in time for the fireworks and got our Dole Whips to boot! Afterwards, we headed back by monorail to the MK for the 11 PM MSEP. As we were entering, the park was really emptying out - before the parade even started! We got a great spot for the parade, arriving just minutes before it started! After the parade was over, even more people streamed out of MK, and yet the park was open until 1 AM!!! I don't know when closing became 1 AM, because when I bought my ticket they told the park closed at midnight, and so did they tell us on the bus as well. But then again - who cares? We got an extra hour we didn't know!
After the parade, we were down to six of us: NaCler, the double-boilers, the Mousekecouple, and myself. Amy and F1gment went back to their hotel as it was late. The six of us covered a lot of the park, including:
BTM
HM (no lines now!)
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Peter Pan
Dumbo
After that, we left the park and said our farewells: the Mousekecouple took their bus back to their resort, and the rest of us took our bus back to our hotels along the EPCOT resorts area. The next day, after waiting for the rain to end first, I headed back to Jacksonville. The weather got a bit cooler, and I just saw on TV that there's an "arctic blast" coming that will be some seriously cold weather to my fellow subsonicers still at WDW for the rest of the week - I bet Boilerdude is going to regret packing all those shorts and only one pair of jeans. Next time, I think boilerbabe will need to check his packing before they leave.
