A Last Resort

Today was our last day (for this trip, anyway) to enjoy Walt Disney World, and we chose to return to the Magic Kingdom. Is anyone noticing a favorite starting to emerge?

We didn't want to leave without seeing the Country Bear Jamboree, especially since it no longer exists in California. The show was as much fun as we remembered, and we clapped along as the Country Bears sang of heartache and true love. Outside the theater, Andy sat down with Shaker for a game of checkers. Andy was winning hands-down (paws-down?) when he had to give up his seat to a little boy, eager to play and have his picture taken with Shaker.

On our way out of the park, we stopped to ride the Carousel of Progress, an attraction that Walt Disney himself designed and presented at the 1964 World's Fair. The Carousel shows one family's experiences with the changing technology of the twentieth century. It has undergone changes since Walt's time, but it still carries his idealistic spirit of innovation.

After our brief morning visit to the Magic Kingdom, we had lunch and then set out to explore some of the other resorts on the Walt Disney World property. Our faithful readers will know that we have a certain affinity for oversized representations of everyday objects (i.e., "giant stuff"). Thus we headed over to Disney's Pop Century Resort, a value-priced hotel complex featuring enormous models of twentieth-century icons. Each decade is represented by a few defining items. The '70s has mood rings and eight-track tapes, the '80s has Pac-Man and Rubik's Cube, and so on. The music broadcast in the public areas also reflects the temporal themes.

We also found time to check out Disney's All-Star Movies Resort, which features colossal statues of characters from favorite Disney films such as Toy Story, Fantasia, and 101 Dalmatians. Combining our love for all things gigantic with our love for all things Disney, well, this was certainly our kind of place! We look forward to exploring the other Walt Disney World resorts on future visits.

We did get to see one more resort before we leave tomorrow, as we had dinner tonight at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. The Lodge was designed as a composite of several National Park lodges across America and includes hot springs and geysers like those we saw at Yellowstone. Of course, the thermal features at Yellowstone were natural, but that's just nitpicking.

The Cafe was a lot of fun and something we look forward to enjoying again with children someday. Contrary to its name, the Whispering Canyon gets quite loud and raucous as servers and patrons shout out orders and requests. Joining the crowd of partiers, we tied our napkins around our heads like bandanas and shouted along. Whenever anybody made the mistake of asking for ketchup, he would soon find every bottle of ketchup in the room delivered to his table. Diners were encouraged and even coerced to get up and dance, ride stick ponies, and sing favorite songs at the tops of their lungs. We managed to get nearly every person who passed by our table, waiters, guests, and children, to take a picture of us. And again, at the end of the meal, we were presented with a free piece of cake for our anniversary, which we've been milking all week.

It's been a fun week here in Walt Disney World, and we are a little bit sad to see it end, but the road (and Grandma Vera) beckons, and we must be on our way.