The Keys to the Kingdom

This morning, we woke up bright and early and headed to the Magic Kingdom for a special Keys to the Kingdom tour. As it turned out, today was one of those days when they open an hour early for Walt Disney World resort guests. We spent the hour browsing the shops in relative peace and quiet, met a few more classic characters, and even took the opportunity to ride the PeopleMover, which, here in Walt Disney World, is called Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It was a very pleasant way to begin what would be our most magical day yet.

We checked in for our tour about twenty minutes early, giving us ample time to begin getting to know our fellow tourists. We were joined on the tour by eight fun, and friendly people who share our love for Disney and our curiousity about how it all works. Sorry, but in order to preserve the magic for those of you who do not share our curiousity, we will not be divulging any backstage secrets on this site.

The tour began with an walk down Main Street, U.S.A., and a discussion of the writing that appears in the windows on the third floor. These windows serve as a kind of "opening credits" for the show that is the Magic Kingdom. The names are those of key players in the creation of the park. The town itself is built to look like Walt Disney's childhood hometown in Missouri.

We then visited the "Partners" statue. In this statue, Walt Disney is holding Mickey Mouse's hand. Our guide told us of a little girl's exhuberant reaction to the sculpture: Upon seeing it, she yelled to her mother, "Look, Mama! It's Mickey Mouse's daddy!" We all smiled over the appropriateness of the child's description.

After an insider's look at Walt Disney's favorite ride, the Jungle Cruise, we stopped for lunch at the Columbia Harbor House Restaurant. Unless you happen to be taking a tour that includes lunch at this restaurant, we recommend that you skip it. The food was edible, but the dining room smelled strongly of fish, and Kala's ham-and-cheese sandwich had some sort of very sweet broccoli coleslaw on it, which she scraped off after the first bite. Still, we enjoyed our lunch break because of the delightful company. We were seated with a nice couple from New Jersey who were very curious about Disneyland California. We enjoyed describing for them the differences and similarites between Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as Disneyland Paris, which we had visited last year on our honeymoon. Their interest seemed to be piqued, and we wouldn't be surprised if they were to visit both other parks just to see for themselves.

After lunch, we entered the Haunted Mansion, dwelling place of 999 happy haunts...of course there is room for 1,000. Yeah, yeah, you know the one. The outside architecture of the mansion was very different from those in California and Paris, but the inside was very much like the California version. Our tour guide pointed out a few "Hidden Mickeys," as well as a hidden peace sign on the back of one of the spiders.

After these attractions and some more top-secret backstage stuff (We told you, we're not telling!), we concluded our five-hour walking tour right back where we started. It was a wonderful tour and well worth the money (especially with our Disney Visa 20% discount), but it left us in desperate need of a nap. We took the next bus back to our room, so that we could rest up for dinner. We had grand plans!

We awoke from our nap late for our planned departure time. We had been told by Stephanie (You remember Stephanie, right? She was the amazingly helpful concierge who, by the way, went all the way over to the Animal Kingdom to replace our broken souvenir bottle because we didn't feel like going back.) that we should allow an hour and a half travel time to get to the Polynesian Resort, where we had reservations for the 'Ohana Feast. We took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and, from there, took a boat over to the resort. We arrived in plenty of time to be seated at a lovely table for two with a spectacular view of the fire pit, where skewers of pork, beef, turkey, and shrimp were being roasted. We also had a fine view of the area where, periodically, the children were invited out to play games and compete with hula hoops. It was a charming show. The meal was like a buffet served right at the table. It started with a carousel of rice, salad, chicken wings, stir-fried vegetables, and fried wontons and continued as our server brought skewer after skewer to tempt our palates.

At the conclusion of our meal, our server presented us with yet another anniversary cake (free dessert rocks!) as we were serenaded by the "Big Hawaiian Guy" himself. It was wonderfully romantic. One server who passed by our table commented that we were "a beautiful pair of lovebirds."

We had planned to return to our hotel after dinner and make it an early night, but, feeling refreshed by our nap and thoroughly satisfied by the feast, we decided to return to the Magic Kingdom for the nighttime parade and fireworks show. We had been saving those for Friday night, but it just seemed the perfect way to end such a magical day and evening. As we approached the dock, we were delighted to see a show we had not expected: Disney's Electrical Water Pageant. Completely unknown to us, this is actually the oldest parade on Walt Disney World property and consists of fourteen barges carrying musical, animated light shows past the resorts along the Seven Seas Lagoon.

Once the Electrical Water Pageant had gone by, our boat was able to transport us back to the Magic Kingdom. The SpectroMagic parade dazzled our senses as electrical representations of our favorite moments in Disney movies whirled by in waves of lights and music.

The "Wishes" fireworks display lit up the night sky over Cinderella's Castle as Jiminy Cricket introduced audio clips from Disney classics. It was a beautiful spectacle, yet it didn't quite measure up to the small-town Fourth of July exhibition we witnessed in Montana three weeks ago. Still, it was a fitting end to a wondrous day.