wow... You go on and on about loving SpectroMagic, but Illuminations is just meh? Whatever, dude.

Well, eexccuuuuuuse Meeeeeeeeee!

Markkkkkkkkk Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 10- The dream ends

So, it now amounts to being the last day I have at Walt Disney World and I chose to spend it at The Magic Kingdom. A someone early start and checking out of the hotel was first on the agenda as I left my bags and headed to Magic Kingdom. My goal was to ride things I had missed and to re-ride some of my favorites.

Upon arrival I headed to Frontier Land and rode the Jungle Cruise. The line was short and I got on a fairly good skippered boat. Its really a step above the Disneyland version in most ways except for the intimacy I find here. I thought the inside temple scenes were great but fairly underused as there seemed to be many dead spots in the ride. But it was a beautiful area and the queue was nicely detailed.

Next up was Big Thunder Mountain, which was in rehab until the day before. The line was small and it was weird being in such a long extended inside queue for BTMRR. The loading area was also fairly bizzare being indoors. The ride itself was bizzaro Big Thunder with elements that are familiar but not quite what I know it to be. It was a quick fun ride and I liked the finale much better there. I missed seeing the goat though...

I headed to the Country Bears to take in one last show and ran into "Woody’s Roundup" which was just a small parade with the Toy Story Characters and some cowboy & cowgirls hoofing around. I didn’t stay to watch. At Country Bears it really took me back to the 70's when I was a kid and it was so sad to see the bears in such a state. TLC is needed badly.

After biding the Bears farewell I went to have an early lunch over at The Plaza Restaurant again. I had my Cheese Steak Sandwich, fries and an Ice Tea, which would be my last meal at Walt Disney World. After a really great meal, I headed to the castle to watch "Dream Along With Mickey" in its intirety. Its really the best Mickey show I’ve seen in forever and the animated heads is just mesmerizing. Seeing it on video doesn’t even begin to give you an idea of how amazing it looks. Its extremely natural - just amazing.

Mickey and the gang dancing away.

Melifecent shows up.

All is well when daytime fireworks go off.

After the show I made my way to Tomorrowland for another run on Carousel of Progress, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and then back to Main Street where they were having the Family Fun Day Parade which is just a group of families and some characters marching down Main St., from what I saw of it. Sadly, this isn’t something you’d see at Disneyland, I would think.

Carousel of Progress and Me!

Sorry, I love these raised walkways... <3

Family Fun Day Parade.

I spent some time at the castle just looking, taking some pictures and admiring it. Inside the breathtaking mural and they had just taken down the walls inside the courtyard where the crane for the Christmas lights was sitting, so I could now walk down the side pathway towards Tomorrowland. The walkway had a "wishing well" of sorts that was pretty neat.

A well with no echo, nor singing.

Just a small part of spectacular Cinderella mural.

Fantasyland was pretty busy by now so I re-road "Mickey’s Philharmagic" and headed to Mickey’s Toontown Fair. Mostly just to take pictures but I was on the lookout for a box set of CD’s featuring some of the music of Walt Disney World and I had not remembered where I saw it until I was back there and I found it in the Circus tent store. So, with the box of cds containing "The Festival of the Lion King", "Wishes", "Spectromagic, "Illuminations" and "Disney’s Magic in the Streets", plus a few Pins of the various theme park logos, a Souvenir Picture book and two more CD’s - The Official Soundtrack and the special "Events" CD that has the Hallowishes, and the Dream Along With Mickey Show.

Time went by quickly this day and I had to be back at the hotel for the shuttle back to the Airport. So, with a very heavy heart I made my way to Town Square where I had just enough time to see some of the Disney Dreams Come True Parade. So I waited and the clock ticked and ticked and ticked and the parade wasn’t coming. It was started at the other end of the route and the time was getting to be late, so I moved to just below the train station and the music came on. Down Main Street came Mickey’s float and this would be the last experiance at Walt Disney World (That was "Magic" at least)

I waited until the float was nearby before exiting the park. I got to have Mickey wave at me. (Yes, he did!) And got to hear a bit of the touchingly ironic parade song as I walked out about Disney Dreams do come true, and for the previous 10 days - that’s what I got.

It surely felt like a dream....

"Just believe and your dreams will come true"

Though this wasn’t the true end of the trip, I’ll leave this as the cliffhanger...

Next - the insane trip back to the hotel, the flight back home and my final comments.

To be continued...

The end...

So, 10 days at Walt Disney World came to a close a lot faster than I would have wanted. My trip back to the Hotel where I was supposed to meet up with the Magic Shuttle that would take me to the airport. Of all days, the transportation was wonderful and had really no problems at all. This last day, when I have to be back at 4pm to meet the 4:10pm bus, things made an ugly turn. First the bus shows up, then the lady driver, who was fairly elderly to be driving, starts talking to another driver - time is marching. Then she fills out forms, It’s now 3:45pm. Then she begins to pull away but stops to let other people on, then someone in a wheelchair rolls up and she stops and opens up the back, lowers the ramp and loads the person. Then the ramp, on its return, get’s stuck, so she spends a few minutes fiddling with it. We THEN finally get moving and she ‘s driving extremely slow - other busses are passing us. We finally get to my hotel at 4:00pm, where I have just enough time to get my carry on bag and the Airport shuttle bus then shows up and leaves within a 5 minute period.

It was an odd flight home. I sat next to the window over the wing and saw the sun set and the stars come out. It was a beautiful image.


At the airport - final picture. :(

So, that’s that.

The wrap up:

I would have to say my favorite park is the Magic Kingdom, for all the reasons I love Disneyland. Its like a bizzaro version but takes all the elements of Disneyland I love and appreciate and expands on it in many ways. My favorite ride at Magic Kingdom? That’s a tough one and I doubt I could truly pinpoint just one. If any "The Country Bear Jamboree" was probably my favorite mostly for the nostalgia. Though it was in dis-repair, I was happy to see it again. Mickey’s Phillharmagic was great and as was The Carousel of Progress.

In order of preference:
1. Magic Kingdom
2. EPCOT
3. Animal Kingdom
4. Disney MGM Studio

I will say, there isn’t much between each park and how much I liked them. I think they’re pretty close in my appreciation scale. The beauty of Animal Kingdom, especially at night is spectacular, as is EPCOT on many scales. MGM was also more fun than I thought it would be.

Food - Hands down - BOMA was the meal of the trip with the Hoop Dee Doo Review a close 2nd.

Attractions - Besides those mentioned in Magic Kingdom, Expedition Everest is just a fun ride - short but thrilling and is themeing is amazing. Rock and Roll Rollercoaster at MGM was a ton of fun and I wish I’d rode that more times. EPCOT was great all around, but I enjoyed Test Track and Mission Space totally. Really loved the flooded building of "It’s a Small World."

Parades and Shows - Love, love Spectromagic. The Lion King show was a ton of fun. Wishes and Hallowishes were spectacular. Dream Along with Mickey was so much fun and I loved the moving mouths and eyes.

Highlights:
- Walking down Bizzaro Main Street
- Space Mountain with the lights on
- Spectromagic and the change of lights from white to color and back again.
- Memories of Country Bear Jamboree and The "People mover"
- How large EPCOT is.
- Wonderful food at the Food & Wine Festival
- A great "hard-ticket" Halloween Party with awesome Parade and Hallowishes.
- Animal Kingdom in the evening.
- Tower of Terror
- Huge smile and happiness on day 1 walking into the park and the ride on Tomorrowland Transit.

The down side:
- Disappointed with Great Movie Ride
- Time went by too fast
- Missed a lot at the Halloween Night
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid show sucked
- Studio Tour is short and disappointing.
- Deterioration of the Country Bears

The biggest disappointment of the trip was Photopass. I took about 50 pictures using the Disney system, mostly because I wanted some awesome nighttime shots of Space Ship Earth, Everest, Cinderella’s Castle, Tower of Terror Etc. And what I got were 48 or so really bad pictures. Most of them are just face shots of me and some background. They were all TERRIBLE. I was shocked when I came home and signed on the website and found horrible shots of me. Maybe 2-3 were decent and those shots, oddly enough, were taken by some very cool CM"s who were really helpful and chatted with me, instead of the "Stand there - <Click>" type situation.

So, that just about wraps up my trip report. 10 days at Walt Disney World seemed like 10 minutes. It was a trip long time coming and I look forward to going back very soon. I really missed it after I got back and long for a return. Nothing I was told or learned about WDW over my lifetime so far prepared me for what happend on the trip. It was beyond what I thought it would be and I was not disappointed, although I wish I would have had the opportunity to experiance it as a child and had been a regular visitor to see the many attractions that are long gone as has been the case with Disneyland.

All in all, I give Walt Disney World, as a first time visitor - a solid 9 out of 10. I can’t wait to go back!!

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting.