Another early morning run around the estate next door got today underway. With Charlotte still in bed, I headed to downtown Kissimmee with the parents. On the way we drove pasts some old haunts. Including the Oaks Gold Club, where Simon Purdon & I managed to sink a golf cart in quick sand on the 18th so many years ago.
Kissimmee itself is very picturesque though the main Broadway is very small. They have an Amtrak station that runs in between Broadway & the park. The focal point being the railroad in the town it would seem.
On the way back we picked up some supplies from Publix. The sun had decided to stick it's head out so I was straight outside when we got home.
We decided to grab a cheap & easy late lunch from Chic-Fil-A. After downloading the app we found our nearest drive through & set off. This is where everything went wrong. We drove through a torrential downpour for around two hours. The app gave a Zip code in the middle of no where. We returned home, then went to another location. After going through the drive thru, they didn't give us our entire meal so we had to double back. Needless to say we were at a pretty low point when we returned.
At this point had we not already booked a dinner at Disney that came with a $50 cancellation fee we may have just stayed in for the night. As it was, we headed to where dreams come true. Magic Kingdom, & the day got a whole lot better.
Not a drop of rain did we get for the rest of the day. First we made our fast pass stop off defeating Emperor Zurg in Buzz Lightyear's laser adventure. Charlotte clearly isn't competitive as she only scored two thousand odd to my eighty five thousand! The photo & video that came from the experience was very amusing. Our next stop was to reconvene with the parents to set sail on the High Seas on Pirates of the Caribbean. Having been on this ride before the establishment of the film franchise, it was interesting to see how they had linked in to it. A lot more Jack Sparrow though no Kiera Knightley, disappointing. The ride was as fun as ever of course. We had some time to kill so in time honoured fashion we went to see the country bear jamboree. This attraction has been open since the very beginning at Disney. It was nice to go back & relive some memories of times gone by. Speaking of which, our final fast pass pick of the day was Ol' Thunder Mountain Railroad. Such a good high speed ride but with out the gut wrenching drops of roller coasters that I struggle with. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Charlotte even left dinner early to ride a second time!
After thunder mountain we used the newly refreshed fast passes to go on the Jungle Cruise. Nothing scary about this ride even though the sun had come down. It's 12 minutes & s*** jokes, sarcasm & puns galore. Right up my alley. If English isn't your first language avoid this ride.
Lorna had chosen to have dinner in the Patriot tavern, once again, drawing on past experiences. With a naval, early settlers feel the building to eat in is impressive alone. The all you can eat food though is tremendous. Turkey, beef, pork beans, sweetcorn, mac & cheese, & mashed potato rounded off with a cream and cake. I was stuffed by the very end. As we all started to feel the effects of the food, it was nearly home time. As we were waiting for Charlotte anyway. Alan, Lorna and I went on the people mover. Another 'ride' I enjoyed as a kid. Discussing what's going on now & the future of the park, & how it all linked into Walt Disney's idea of a future city.
No matter how old you are, your never too old for Disney.