disney world: magic kingdom

Despite a minor case of food poisoning in the night after visiting Epcot Future World and World Showcase, I gathered enough energy after resting the entire morning afterwards to make my way to Magic Kingdom. Admiral Joe Fowler dropped me off at the entrance at slightly past 2pm, leaving me only a few hours of daylight to explore the vast theme park.





There are many ways to explore the park. My original plan was to take the train once around the perimeter of the Kingdom before zooming in to the various lands within. However, thanks to the little episode of stomach discomfort which wasted three quarters of my day, I skipped the choo-choo ride and went on foot targeting the specific attractions I've marked out on my guides books. Another alternative was to take a leisurely cruise on Liberty Belle which I passed too.







I got a request from Tudi to take a snapshot with/of Tigger but he was nowhere to be seen. I ended up queueing up inside the Town Square Theatre to visit Mickey's Studio and to steal a quick photo with him and his girl.





So well. This is the only photo of myself from the entire week's stay in Orlando. At least I got to pose with the two famous mice as a remembrance of my magical experience in Disney World although I could have done without that spastic smile and pale green sickly complexion.



I stood overlooking the Main Street for a while, slightly nervous about making my way through that mob of people to Cinderella's Castle. It wasn't too bad after all once I merged into the crowd as there was lots of street entertainment to watch and shops to zip into along the way. I did a detour into Adventureland and checked out the cleverly built Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse that involved climbing flight after flight of stairs.







Once inside Fantasyland, I was so tempted to join the queues for kiddy rides that take you soaring through the air on Dumbo the Flying Elephant, galloping on Cinderella's carousel, spinning in a teacup in the Mad Hatter's tea party, rolling, bouncing and floating along with Winnie the Pooh or flying with Peter Pan through Neverland. Again, due to time constraints, I settled for one with the fastest moving queue - "It's a small world" indoor musical waterborne voyage through a series of animated tableaux where the insidious theme song sung by the colourfully costumed miniature characters in their Munchkin-like voices stuck in my head for hours to come. I also caught the 3D film at Mickey's PhilharMagic concert hall starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and many other most loved Disney characters such as Ariel and Aladdin just to name a couple, that reminded me of several of my favourite cartoons I loved watching as a kid before moving on to Tomorrowland.



They've got some serious rides here at Tomorrowland that I'd have liked to take if I had another day's time to spare. Instead I opted for tamer activities such as a sit-down interactive show at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor where the hilarious jokes told by Mike Wazowski made me laugh til my sides almost split. I also went for the very educational Carousel of Progress where an animated legendary Walt Disney figure took us through transformations in domestic lives driven by technological advances over time.



Still in my learning mood, I visited the Hall of Presidents Museum and watched the multimedia historic film showcasing the trials and tribulations of the early days of the United States. The film ended with a stage line-up of audio-animated figures of every US President from the first President George Washington to the current Barack Obama. A ride through the Haunted Mansion was next where I had the whole Doom Buggy to myself and had to constantly brace myself for the sudden appearances of headless brides and floating apparitions.





As the park slowly got enveloped by the darkness of night, brightly lit floats of towering proportions carrying Disney's most loved characters filled Main Street in the Electrical Parade.





As the last of the floats disappeared, we were promptly treated to a stunning display of magical lights projected onto Cinderella's Castle perfectly choreographed with accompanying music. With no stable surfaces to support my camera and not much light, these are the only ones out of perhaps 80 photos taken that are clear enough for public consumption.



The Wishes Nighttime Spectacular rounded up the night for all park goers and I dragged my reluctant self back to the hotel to pack for the morning flight home.