Another day dawns and it is going to be a long one we are heading to Magic Kingdom for EMH tonight. The kettle is on for the tea and we are trying to figure out what to do for the early part of the day.
Decision made we are going to head to DHS and see how it goes from there.
We park the car and wander towards the park. You will have noticed by now that we hardly ever take a tram we enjoy the walk in and at studios the security bag check hardly ever has a queue when you walk.
Into the park and we head for Toy Story Mania to see if we can get a fastpass (who are we kidding) the stand by is already at 60mins and the fastpasses are for 2.30pm onwards, well thats out the window then. We pootle on down to the Backlot and head in for the tour, I like the backlot but think I prefer the way it used to be. Star tours is out because Joe is not good with simulators so we head over to Muppets always good for giggle (Up Chuck) it is still amusing. We decide to head back to the resort for an early lunch.
Lunch finished we go back to the car and head up to the Florida Mall always good for a little walk round and the occasionally thing can be picked up last time we got a light weight tripod for the camera. OH NO Harry and David's has gone what happened there?
It is getting late in the afternoon so we head back to the hotel and take a wander over to Riverside just for a little walk.
Back at the room it is time to get ready for our evening so we have shirts to iron.
Some of you will remember that it was our 25th anniversary in the July and we had decided to celebrate it on our holiday in WDW. We have a reservation booked at the California Grill at 7.45pm hopefully we will be seated in time for Wishes.
While talking through what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go to celebrate Joe came up with a brainwave. We met at High School so how about dressing in our old school uniforms for the meal. This took some doing as the only thing either of us had from the original uniform was a school tie and a prefect badge both of which were Joe's. We set about getting shirts, trousers, skirts and blazers. Joe's mother was heading up to Scotland to see some friends and so she was roped in to purchase another school tie and now the only thing we did not have where the school emblems for the blazer pockets. In the years since we left the school they no longer wore blazers and so we could not purchase these, we had a picture of the crest but every place we tried said they could not do it. We were just about to give up when Joe found an American badge making site that had no lower limit on the amount of order and so we decided to give it a go. We sent a picture of the crest to them and how many we wanted, to our amazement they sent us a quote to do the work and instructions on what to do if we wanted to purchase. Everything now in place deposit paid by paypal we sit back and wait, then we get an E-mail from the person who is making the crests for us to get details of colours for certain parts, the crests are made and a picture is E-mailed to us(these things look as good as the originals) the payment is made and now we are just waiting for the crests to arrive. There is a parcel waiting for us a couple of days later and to our amazement it has come from Poland, an American site and a Polish seamstress have completed our plan.
Dressed in uniforms we head over to the Contemporary and sign in at the desk, while waiting for the lift to come we chat to another couple who are also waiting, they want to know what the crests are and so begins an evening to remember.
We are seated straight away and the hostess wishes us a Happy Anniversary, We are not right beside the window but the table has a great view of the castle. Joe ordered some sort of squash soup and I had a lump crab stack. Just as this arrived Wishes kicked off the music was piped into the restaurant quite low but still you could hear it and you could go out onto the terrace to watch if you wanted to, we decided to stay were we where as the fireworks were going offset to the castle (still the place to see them is the bridge in front of the castle) and so the view would not have been any better from outside. Our server was very nice and I am sorry I cannot remember his name he came back and took our orders for dinner. Joe had Buffalo and I had fillet steak with PURPLE potatoes. Just before dinner was served the restaurant manager came over and wished us a Happy Anniversary that was a nice touch we thought. Dessert and finally I hear you say some pictures, we are not used to taking pictures of our food.
Joe had Banana Caramel
and I had the cookie platter.
After we had finished we ventured out onto the terrace to take a few pictures, it had to be done I mean when do you get the chance of taking a picture of the castle from this height.
and Space Mountain.
The water pageant was still on Bay Lake so we stood and watched that, no pictures everything was streaky.
We leave the car and walk into Magic Kingdom, we are getting a few enquiring glances but after the first few we didn't notice all that much. Over to the TTA I love riding this at night but it was not running so into Buzz instead. We wander through Fantasyland and I think about the Carousel but not in this skirt, so on to the Haunted Mansion and then over to Pirates the park is nice and quiet, there are still quite a few people about but nowhere near the capacity of the daytime.
Joe decides that he would like that shot of the castle that we have during the day at night and so we position ourselves in front of the castle with camera pointing skyward, you would not believe how many people came through that drawbridge at looked up to see what we were doing while we were waiting for the castle to change back to its natural white.
Some people even approached us with their photopass in hand for us to take a picture of them, you should have seen the look on one woman's face as I explained that we were guests as well, it was all good fun. That picture out of the way we headed over to crystal palace for this one.
It was well after midnight now and we were starting to flag so we wandered over to the brigde at Tomorrwland and took these before we headed out of the park.
Back at the hotel Joe checks his phone and we have a message from Soarin. Hooray the number was right but its too late to do anything now so I will ring her tomorrow when she finishes work.
We have had a wonderful evening the food was excellent we no doubt will visit the California Grill again sometime for dinner and we will definitely do Magic Kingdom again for EMH.
