Friday, October 5, 2012 was a very busy day for us in Walt Disney World. We started our day at the Magic Kingdom where we started off taking pictures of the Halloween decorations in the main street area as you walk in. We then went over and got our daily card allottment for the Merlin game that was added recently to the Magic Kingdom. We then did some browsing in several of the stores on Main Street USA.
For a change, we decided to start in Adventure Land and we went on the Jungle Cruise which had only a 10 minute wait followed by "Pirates of the Carribbean" which we walked right on to. It was then time for lunch which we had at the Columbia Harbor House which is located near the Haunted Mansion. I had the combination fish and chicken nuggets with broccoli as well as the apple turnover for dessert. Right after lunch we walked over to “Peter Pan’s Magical Flight” and got fast passes. The time for the fast passes was 1:20 - 2:20.
“The Haunted Mansion” was our next stop and we took the scenic route line which is the one with the gravestones, etc. We didn’t have much of a wait for “Haunted Mansion” and when we were done we went on “It’s A Small World” which had only a ten minute wait time. This attraction isn’t nearly as annoying as it used to be since most of it is just the rhythm of the song and not the incessant chanting of the words to the song like it used to be years ago.
We then walked through Fantasyland which was the busy place to be as Winnie the Pooh and “Mickey’s Philharmagic” each had 40 minute waits. Instead we went to Tomorrow Land and went on one of my favorite attractions: “Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress”. I think this attraction could use a bit of an update but it is still a great feature and you can’t help but get that song stuck in your head. We then went on Buzz Lightyear which I always do horrible on with the scoring but my mom got the highest score you can get on the game. She’s not quite sure what she hit to get the score of all 9’s but it was pretty funny.
With our fast passes we returned to Peter Pan and rode my absolute favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World. The ride moves so quickly and is in a darkened environment so pictures rarely turn out which is a shame. We then grabbed fast passes for Winnie the Pooh and did some shopping in “Sir Mickey’s” which sits somewhat behind the castle.
Returning to Tomorrow Land we saw “Stitch’s Great Escape” during which we saw a family who had made their own Halloween Disney shirts that looked great. We then went to the “Monster’s Inc. Laugh Factory” which is always funny. It was then time to return to Winnie the Pooh and with our fast passes we basically walked right up to the ride and got in with almost zero wait, which is unusual, even for a fast pass.
At this point it began to rain in the Magic Kingdom, but we were set to leave anyway as we boarded the monorail and departed at the “Contemporary” resort as we had 5:00 PM reservations at “Chef Mickey’s”. We got there about a 1/2 hour early and the restaurant hadn’t even opened yet so we did some browsing in the shops in the Contemporary and I bought several of the exclusive pins at the Contemporary gift shop which is one of the best places to buy pins in all of Walt Disney World.
Chef Mickey’s is always fun no matter how old you are. At this meal, which is a buffet dinner (or breakfast as they also do the same event for breakfasts), five Disney characters come and spend time with you where you can get your picture taken with them right at your table. It is Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto and at certain intervals they stop taking pictures and lead the audience in singing and dancing with your napkin in your hand over your head. Each of the characters was great and I got some really nice photos with the characters.
Downtown Disney was our next stop and we did some shopping in stores such as “World of Disney” (which I still can’t get used to--it’s big but I never find great stuff there), the Pin shop, the toy shop, and the Christmas shop. By then we were tired and headed back to the room for the night.