Day Three - Magic Kingdom / Epcot / Magic Kingdom

We woke up at 6:00 a.m. to shower and prepare to be on the bus by 7:25 to the Magic Kingdom for the rope drop for extra magic hours. At 8:00 am the park opened for Extra Magic Hours with some fanfare and we made a beeline for Space Mountain. For the morning Extra Magic Hours, only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland is open.We walked right onto Space Mountain and really didn't enjoy it as much as we hoped. It was too dark for us to really enjoy the ride, we had to brace ourselves for the hard turns we couldn't see coming. We then walked over to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and walked right onto the ride. That was a lot of fun, but my fierce ray-gun skills dominated Beth. As we exited the ride, we spotted Stitch and had to take a picture of Stitch taking Beth away from me.We took the long way around to Fantasyland and got our picture taken in front of the Castle. We took a lot of pictures of the castle as we walked through it. We sent evil looks towards "It's a Small World" as we made our way to Mickey's PhilharMagic which is a 3D movie. This really battled Muppets for our favorite 3D movie as we watched a little kid that fell out of her seat while trying to grab everything that came off the screen. We then walked over to Snow White's Scary Adventures, but it was in the process of being evacuated at the time because it was broken down. Boo.

We then backtracked to Tomorrowland (the quick way this time) and waited 10 minutes to go on the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. The show was funny, but not that funny. We then made our way up to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and rested for a few minutes as we zipped around Tomorrowland.

Adventure land was our next target. We just missed a show of the Tiki Room so we grabbed a Citrus Swirl (like a Rainbow Cone) andwatched kids have fun at Woody's Hoedown show next door in Frontierland. We then saw the TIKI TIKI TIKI TIKI ROOM show and I wanted to steal some of the decorations off the wall.

We then wandered Frontierland and Liberty Square as I took some pictures with my camera and Beth took pictures of me taking pictures. As it started to drizzle, we escaped to the Haunted Mansion. We stayed dry and cool on the not-so-scary ride. One tip that saved us some time on this ride: when you go into the "stretching room" go towards the wall where there is a eye-level red light (its under the picture of the lady with the umbrella) that door opens to get to the ride and if you are right there, you'll get on first before the rest of the room.

So we decided the day before that one umbrella was not enough for us. That being said, we walked out the Haunted Mansion and busted out both of our umbrellas. We windowed shopped around Liberty Square and checked in for our ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern at 11:30 and was seated promptly.

I had the William Penn Chicken Pasta which featured apple wood smoked bacon, marinated chicken, and basil with a creamy marinara. Beth had the New England Pot Roast that featured braised beef in a cabernet wine and is served with mashed potatoes and garden vegetables. We loved our dinners: the Pot Roast was very tender and delicious and the pasta had excellent flavor and texture. For dessert, we had Three-Chocolate Brownie and the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake that was rich and delicious. Our server was from Pittsburgh and was very cordial. After lunch it stopped raining and we made our way down Main Street to do some shopping, including getting a set of ears for our buddy named Guy.

From the Magic Kingdom, we took the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then took another monorail to EPCOT. While I found the bathroom, Beth got fast passes for Soarin'. We then made our way to World Showcase and started touring it in a counter-clockwise fashion. This then begins my final chance at drinking around the world.
We skipped over Canada (just like life...eh?) and made our way to the UK. I grabbed a pint of Bass Ale and we wandered the shops and gardens in the UK and saw Mary Poppins in the process. We then made our way over to the France. I stopped to ponder a non-functioning camera before we made our way to the alcohol stand. I grabbed a Kronenbourg 1664 and Beth got a Grand Mariner Orange Slush. We had a nice picture taken at the fountain but the shopping in France was not too cool. So we finished our drinks and made our way over to Morocco. Morocco was a really cool place, but they were out of beer! So we got the "Sultan's Coloda" and the both of us split it. The shops in Morocco were cool and the architecture was very interesting. They even have a fez house.We then made our way to the Japan pavilion. We took some time to look around the shops and displays here because of the crazy Japanese toys. We rested to watch the drummers because I needed to nurse my Kirin beer a bit and Beth needed to get off her feet.
After the drummers, I stumbled with Beth over to the American Pavilion. We both relaxed in the air conditioning as Scott had a Sam Adams (worst beer of the day). We sat around as I sobered up a bit. He was beginning to get tipsy after a few beers in the heat. We then made our way to Italy and I had a Moertti beer and watched Sergio the Juggler and was thoroughly entertained. We then walked over to Germany where I had already been the previous day. Beth bought a wonderful engraved glass for her Dad for father's day.

We then made the long walk to China. The architecture was very beautiful and the shopping was interesting. I bought a Tsing Tso beer and some egg rolls. As we sat there near the pond, a lady walked up to me and said, "Oh no, it looks like a bird pooped on you." A bird poop streaked down my back. But would a little bird poop stop me from finishing my challenge? Hell no! So we got up and Beth walked while I shambled my way to Norway. We looked for some type of Viking Mickey shirt or something cool, but nothing even remotely close to our price range. So I bought a Carlsberg beer and stared at the beautiful Stave Church and gave Beth photo advice. At this point, I'm drunk-ish. Eight beers in about three hours in the heat took its toll on me. We went back to Mouse Gears in Future world, but after not being able to find a male pink shirt (damn you gender stereotypes), I got a "retro" Mickey shirt.

With a clean shirt on my back, I shambled less now as I walked with Beth to Soarin'. This time we waited 20 minutes in the not so fast pass line. However, Beth got a seat with a working fan/scent thing and she smelled the ride the way it was meant and didn't sneeze once.

We then got to the monorail and hurriedly took some pictures of the big beautiful ball. So we took the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then onto the Magic Kingdom. I changed out to a faster speed film for the evening and we made our way and grabbed some curb around 7:30 pm outside the Emporium on Main Street. I grabbed some hot dogs from Casey's Corner for dinner and we had a nice romantic dinner sitting on the curb of Main Street USA. We took turns taking pictures as the other saved the space on the curb.Cast members brought out games and hula-hoops to help keep kids occupied as they waited for the parade and fireworks. We were hanging out with some young families that were seated around us. I tried to do the hula-hoop, but got showed up in a big bad way.
SCOTT fails VIDEO
The SpectroMagic parade was as cool, if not cooler, then we thought. The floats are lit up with dancing lights and they dance down Main Street. At the end of the parade, we jumped in behind it and walked to basically right in front of the castle so we can watch the Wishes fireworks show. We sat our butts down and waited for a fewminutes before it started up. It was as awesome as we heard. Very moving. After the show, we just hung out at the castle and relaxed. We had nowhere to be and we didn't care to fight the crowds. We saw the "Kiss Goodnight" and just soaked in the Disney magic, among the vacuums clearing the streets.

We took a bunch of pictures and Scott started talking with the Disney photo CM named JC. He struggled to shoot with my old film camera for a frame. We walked down Main Street illuminated by these great white lights. I wondered if this is what was like to walk around the White City back in the worlds fair in 1892.

With our feet in some serious pain, we both shambled out of the Magic Kingdom, just missing the bus back to Pop Century. 15 minutes later and we are getting on the bus for a nice quiet ride back to the hotel.

We were surprised by balloons and a card signed by Mickey and Minnie congratulating us on our wedding. I showered and Beth began to pack up the room. We collapsed in bed around 12:45.

Hours awake: 18h:45m