10 August 2013
Day 2 (Magic Kingdom & Downtown Disney)
"Time to meet Mickey"

A nice lie in until 7:30am today and then off back into The Magic Kingdom where we rode Tomorrowland Speedway. Josh has loved this for years but this was the first time he could ride a car on his own. Jack loved his ride with Joanne and his Mickey Mouse in pyjamas teddy which he has insisted on bringing into the park to show 'real Mickey'.
Tomorrowland Speedway has been one of my favourite rides at The Magic Kingdom for years and is the ride that most reminds me of the first time I came here with my Dad in 1988. It's one of those iconic rides that you always see featured on Magic Kingdom promotional stuff and back in 1988 it was just as exciting seeing that ride for the first time as it was seeing Cinderella Castle. It's so great just ambling around that track checking out Space Mountain and Cinderella Castle as you go. Good times!
Then...after riding that....the highlight of the whole trip for me!!! A Tropical Fruit Smoothie! YAY! These are just delicious and perfect in the Florida sunshine. Well....it was a highlight until I left Jack to look after it while I took Josh on Space Mountain.....I enjoyed the nice, warm dregs in the bottom of the cup when we got back...Thanks Jack....maybe next time ;-)
After some back twitching fun on Space Mountain it was time to head down Main Street USA to meet 'The Boss'.....Mickey Mouse.
En-route to there we took in a quick parade where Mickey saw Jack's teddy and did a 'cradling baby in arms pose'. Very cool!
We had fast passes to meet Mickey which we collected on walking in the park and we were straight in. This was worlds away from the last time Jack met Mickey, he was straight in there giving hugs and high-fives, not apprehensive at all. Thanks to us having PhotoPass+ we are going to have some fantastic photos when we get back to the UK.
Next up was a quick train ride over to Frontierland so we could get lunch at Pecos Bills. Very very busy but at least the boys ate all their lunch which made a nice change.
Straight onto Splash Mountain again after lunch. I think it's been refurbished because everything looked like brand new and as usual, the kids loved every second.
Next up, Pirates of The Caribbean. Great new misting effect at the start with the scary main dude (sorry, i'm not up on the Pirates movies) from that movie being projected onto the mist as your boat goes through it. That ride was massive fun as always. I always remember seeing the huge boat at the start of the ride shooting cannons and being amazed that stuff like that is possible on a ride. Also, the fact that you've just come inside from the blazing sunshine and find yourself in a scene from the middle of the night and can actually believe it to be the case is incredible. And this ride is 40 years old which makes it even more impressive.
Jungle Cruise next. I haven't ridden this for years and years and Joanne had never ridden it even after coming here all these years. The usual stuff....cheesy jokes, animatronic animals, the kids looking bewildered at people laughing at the jokes. It's good Magic Kingdom history but think we'll skip it for the rest of the trip ;-)
It was getting REALLY hot now so a quick stop by the Main Street Bakery for a Starbuck's Frappuccino and we were outta there.
Monorail over to the hotel and into the pool. The boys are obsessed with this pool and I think they'd rather be in there all day than riding the attractions.
We took our first ride out of Disney tonight but not too far. A quick meal at TGI Friday's then into Downtown Disney to get squirted by a larger than life Stitch at World Of Disney then to Cooke's of Dublin to try our first ever deep fried Snickers bar in donut. We'd been craving this after seeing it on an online video. It was nice, not brilliant, just OK. Won't be getting another....there's better treats out there.
Quick stop at Ghiradelli's for a small bag of dark chocolate with sea salt caramel squares then home to bed.
I have a feeling this holiday is going to fly by in the blink of an eye :-(