Our Walt Disney World Jubilee: Day 6: Feb 8th 2006 Hug Your Mayor Day!

After sleeping in and a yummy breakfast of a chocolate croissant (me) and cinnamon rolls (Mark and Matt) we decided we’d go back and explore some more of the Magic Kingdom. Especially since it was so nice outside. It wasn’t hot by any means but it was sunny and warm enough to get rid of the sweatshirts fairly early on in the day.

Magic Kingdom! Here we come!

Nothing beats getting into the parks for free. We’re all going to miss that benefit next time we go… but its for the greater good.

We headed up Main Street and saw the fireworks for Cinderellabration. We never actually saw the whole show but it was kind of neat to see the castle explode with pyro randomly through out the day. We also ran into the Mayor of Main Street and his wife. They were hilarious! They both shook Matt’s hand and congratulated him on getting an “A”. He was wearing an Angel’s hat. They commented how Mark didn’t look fat at all. Mark was wearing a Fat Wreck Chords (a music label) hoodie. And the Mayor told me I needed to give him a hug. He assured me it was “Hug Your Mayor Day” but I didn’t see any signs saying that or anyone else celebrating that holiday. Still, who am I to disobey the mayor? We thought they were both a hoot!

Cinderella Castle explodes with pyro.

The Mayor and his wife congratulate Matt on his well earned “A”.

You know, Disneyland’s Main Street had a Mayor during the Christmas season… and he was terrible! Matt and I saw him and we thought he was some wacko who made their own “Disneyland Mayor” costume. It even had a silhouette of Mickey’s three circles… but they were all lopsided and misshapen. This mayor was MUCH more dignified.

We headed to Tomorrowland and if you can believe it we rode the TTA again. We all really miss the People Mover. We rode Space again as well and then went shopping. Mark got dehydrated space rations. Chocolate ice cream. He’d never had it before and he was very intrigued so he bought some and shared it with Matt and I. Mmmm! It reminded me of when I was a little kid at the Seattle Science Center. We all agreed it was pretty tasty… for dehydrated ice cream. (How do they do that?!) We made a quick stop to mail off some post cards to family and friends before Mark and Matt were lured away by PUSH. I swear… those guys have an infatuation with trash cans.

Come on now… those are the coolest costumes ever.

TTA all the way!

We’re ready to blast off into Space. Mark looks surprised at the picture even though he’s the one that took it. LOL!

If it’s good enough for the astronauts, its good enough for us! Now… where’s our Tang?

Wish you were here… but you’re not. So here’s a post card!

Mark is now convinced Al Lutz is a child and in WDW. Well…

We rode Haunted Mansion. It was… interesting. I liked how their boarding area didn’t have a vast pointless chasm beyond the doombuggies. Some of the doors in their hallway were cooler than ours like the one that had the hands reaching out from the top, pulling the doors in. Creepy! But the séance circle is blah compared to our new and improved one and the singing busts just look sad. I did like how you see Little Leota while you’re still in your doombuggy. At least people don’t stop on the speed ramp and walk backwards trying to get a better look at her and causing you to trip on them.

Random and totally off topic question: Why is it that WDW had SOOOOOO many speed ramps and moving walkways and they all work. Yet Disneyland has about 4 and can only keep 2 working. Does Disneyland just do a poor job of keeping them maintained? Are people who visit Disneyland dumber and therefore get stuck more often in the speed ramp, breaking it? Does WDW have magical Speed Ramp powers that keep them in tip-top shape? We can’t even keep the escalators in our parking garage working! What’s the deal?! That said… I completely enjoyed all the speed ramps and moving walkways at Disney World.

This isn’t a great picture of The Haunted Mansion but I put it up because I injured my head just to get it. Ouch!

We decided it was time for a little Big Thunder and Splash as neither had a long wait. For some reason we all like to squish into one car on Thunder. I like the flooded town. The first time we rode it, Mark and Matt weren’t paying any attention and they missed it. I made sure to point it out this time. Splash was a walk on and we were debating on whether or not we had time to do it because we had reservations at Whispering Canyon Café for lunch. We decided to do it anyway. And we got very wet.

Isn’t this the way old miners ride in trains?

Happy and dry in our Splash log… but not for long. That guy in the back wishes he was cool enough to be in our group.

Sure it looks pretty now but 5 seconds later a log came hurling out of Chick-a-pin hill and caused a huge wave that drenched us.

I’m all wet!! Or I was practicing my “Get away from me, paparazzi!” look for when I before rich and famous. Mark’s still smiling because the water didn’t mess up his hair. LOL!

The beautiful view from the top of the drop. I quickly shoved the camera under my shirt after this picture and buried my face in Mark’s shoulder.

And it’s a good thing I did that too because I stayed fairly dry while the boys ended up looking like this.

We rushed to the boat dock to take a boat to the Wilderness Lodge for our lunch. And we waited and waited. Mark started to get very antsy because he was afraid we’d miss our reservations. I tried to assure him that even if we were late I was sure we could be seated and if we couldn’t then oh well, we’d either wait or go somewhere else. I don’t think I helped much… he was still antsy. And that’s ok because that’s Mark and I love him that way. We finally made it to Wilderness Lodge (WOW! It was very beautiful!) and we were late for our lunch but it wasn’t a problem at all because we planned for a late lunch and there were TONS of open seats. Because we had lunch late Whispering Canyon was a lot more… whispering than I expected. Still we all really enjoyed ourselves. Our waiter introduced us to “Squeaky the Mouse” and asked us to share some food with him. We all ordered the “All You Care to Eat Skillet” and bottomless milkshakes. I had creamsicle flavor and Mark and Matt had chocolate. We all fell in love with the mashed potatoes and ate quite a bit of those. Unfortunately none of us got to test out the bottomless shake theory because none of us ever reached the bottom of our first shake. Maybe that’s what they meant? At any rate it was really good and we were so full the rest of the day we never ate dinner. We decided that next time we’re going to come back when it’s more rowdy cause that’s how we like things! Maybe we’ll do breakfast or dinner next time.

Mark and Matt bond with Squeaky.

Word up, yo! Matt shows us how to keep things real at the Whispering Canyon.

Matt also shows us how to eat while leaving a blob of mashed potatoes hanging out of your mouth. This takes practice people. You can’t just do that with out proper training. You could injure yourself.

After lunch we explored the hotel for a bit. I would be hard pressed to decide which hotel I like more, the Wilderness Lodge or the Grand Californian. Both are very beautiful and remind me of the Seattle area.

Look! A Totem Matt!

They have a freakin’ geyser in their lobby!

The lobby from above. Oh yes… we used the fancy elevators.

The pool area.

Mark and I attempt to look posh enough to afford this hotel… I think we pull it off until…

I squeal “Beaver!” and point excitedly to the handrail in the elevator. Oh well!

There are few things better in this world than a nap in the sun after gorging yourself on BBQ and milkshakes.

Just one last picture of the awesome chandeliers before we go.

We decided we’d take the boat back to MK and then take monorails to Epcot. It was a bit breezy but it was sunny so we sat on the outside portion of the boat but we were close enough to the inside that we could feel heat. Oh and we got to ride Monorail Pink! Hurrah! The only thing that would be better would be if they made a Monorail Pink and Black. How awesome would that be? Ok… maybe its just me.

On the way back to the MK Mark turns to me and says “I have to make poopy.” and that put me in stitches. Good lord can that boy make me laugh. “No really Beth, I have to make poopy!” LOL!

Everyone cheer for Monorail Pink! Wooo!

Once we got to Epcot and Mark… um… took care of business we rode Spaceship Earth. YEAH! Chili’s baby back ribs! We took time to really explore The Land (Ok, WDW Soarin’ CM’s have the coolest costumes EVER! I don’t know why but I love them.) and the Living Sea pavilions which we hadn’t had a chance to try yet. Mark and Matt went on Mission Space again. I decided twice in a vacation was plenty enough for me and sat that one out. We decided to head back to the hotel because it was late by that time and we had a busy day planned for tomorrow.