Let The Memories Begin! – Day 18
Today is our last day in Orlando and we will be leaving for New York tomorrow. We decided to spend the day at Magic Kingdom. We set off after having breakfast in our room. ZA had them take-out from the food court as we still have excess quick service credits. He explored our resort a bit and the surrounding was quaint and beautiful. It is a pity we did not have time to explore it.
When we arrived at the Ticketing and Transportation Center, we could tell that the park was very crowded. We have expected this and have pre-booked FastPass+ so that we need not jostle with the crowd. Our first stop was to meet Magician Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theater. Dressed in his finest magician duds, Mickey Mouse greets guests in his rehearsal room amid posters, steamer trunks and stage props from his magical career in theater. The greatest magic is this Mickey can actually speak and interact with guests. Ashley was fascinated as she had her photos taken with him. This is the last activity in our to-do list and the rest of the day will be spent repeating some of our favourite rides.
We proceeded to get a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before going over to Fantasyland. The line at It’s A Small World was short, so we went for the ride once more. ZA dozed off while Ashley was still enthusiastically pointing out all the countries. Disney is very organised. Despite the crowd, it was not chaotic as the cast members lined the path to direct guests so that we could all have a clear pathway.
(ZA : It’s a small song is really very soothing)
We returned to Be Our Guest for lunch. I managed to get another FastPass+ reservation much to Jarod’s delight. Once again, we walked right in, bypassing the long line of people. We ordered Potato Leek Soup for all of us using our snack credit. For our mains, ZA had the Roast Beef while the rest of us had Croque Monsieur. We had different selection of cupcakes for dessert. The food was still good as ever.
After lunch, we rode Peter Pan’s Flight. Next, Ashley wanted to do Enchanted Tales With Belle again. ZA was not so keen as he said that the only role worth getting was The Beast and they would choose a boy for the role. We also wanted to prepare Ashley that she may not be chosen again for any role. She was determined to do it again. We tried very hard to figure out how the screen (The Magic Mirror) before us turned into a door which opened to let us in but we failed. To our surprise, Ashley was chosen to be The Beast. She was beaming with excitement when she roared like The Beast. They did the story with Belle and Ashley got to dance with her as she was playing The Beast. All the children receive a bookmark from Belle and get to take a photo with her. When Ashley posed for the photo with Belle, all the audience went ‘aaaawwwww’. We couldn’t help smiling looking at our little girl. We went to ride the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Ashley just couldn’t get enough of this wild ride and wanted to repeat it later.
We stopped at The Main Street to get an Ice Cream Sandwich from Main Street at the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and Frappuccino from Starbucks. The Ice Cream Sandwich is freshly made. You get to choose 2 cookies and ice cream flavour and it was huge. We sat by the pond to enjoy our snack and it was so relaxing. Next, we went over to Tomorrowland to watch Monster Inc Laugh Floor, a live comedy show starring characters from Monster Inc. As we have not watched the show, we could not appreciate some of the jokes. We also did Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin again and Jarod emerged the top scorer for the ride. He was determined to defeat ZA who won the last time and he did it! We proceeded back to Frontierland again for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We had 4 FastPass tickets and Ashley would ride twice, once with Jarod and then me. There was no time for any other activities and we had a quick dinner at Columbia Harbour House. We would very much loved to have the Funnel Cakes again but found no space in our stomach for them. Disney has kept us full all the time with all the meals and snacks. The free Dining Plan was really a bonus and we love every bit of it.
After dinner, we bade goodbye to Magic Kingdom. While we all felt sad, I had our final event lined up next. We headed to Contemporary Resort for the Pirates n Pals Fireworks Voyage which we have pre-booked. After checking in at the desk, we were instructed to wear a bandanna like pirates do. We were assigned row 9 on Smee’s boat which was great as Ashley did not want to be on Hook’s boat. Soon, our evening’s host, Patch arrived. He invited us into the room where there were drinks and snacks. We were told that we could take them with us on the boat. The treasure chests were filled with pretzels and dubloons and the freezer filled with ice creams. While we helped ourselves to these sugary treats, Captain Hook and Smee appeared for photos. Soon, we assembled according to our boat and Patch chose the pre-determined first mate and handed him the flag for him to lead the rest of the party. Ashley was disappointed that she was not chosen. We made out way from the Convention Center out to the boat docks located near the pool area. We boarded a pontoon boat where we were greeted by Patch. We had a very good view of the Magic Kingdom. Our voyage was filled with jokes and laughter amid birthday and anniversary celebrations. We were impressed that the timing was perfect on each occasion, the lights on the boat go off and the Electrical Water Pageant and Wishes fireworks started. The view was spectacular. We were fortunate to get assigned row 9 as the odd numbered seats faced the lagoon and had better view. After viewing the fireworks, we were brought back to Contemporary Resort. On our way back, we played several games to win treasures. The first person to get the correct answer to a Disney movie wins a prize. Ashley was so anxious to win something and she did it by answering the question to the name of Jafar’s pet in Aladdin. She won a pirate’s beach ball! When we reached the dock, a special guest was waiting for us. It was Peter Pan! Ashley had wanted to meet him and had dressed up as Tinkerbell. It was a fun experience and Patch was an excellent host. It was the perfect way to end our trip in Orlando.
On our way back to our hotel, Jarod told Ashley that he had a surprise for her – something that she had wanted from his room. We were puzzled and had no clue what it was. He had not bought anything at all to our knowledge. It turned out that he had gotten a pirate’s yoyo from Patch before he disembarked. He is indeed a good brother to Ashley. We struggled to pack our luggage as there were many additions within 10 days in Walt Disney World. Ashley watched the ‘fireworks’ on our headboard one last time before we went to bed.