Vacation day two. Today we hit the Magic Kingdom. At first everything was fantastic. No trouble getting there at all, our hotel is very nicely located near everything. Really, in the off season everything is easy to get to no matter where you are. 15-20 minute drives are the norm.

We took the car to the parking lot, which to take a tram to get around in, then you take either the monorail or the ferry to get to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. The kids loved all of this. The liked the castle and we headed to Fantasy Land. JC declined on the tea cups at first and I thought we might try them later. To my supize he wanted to do the kiddie roller coaster. I gave it some thought and decided to let him go one with me. It was very short, just ten or fifteen seconds once it starts moving and then it is over. He was getting ready to panic when it pulled back to the start and then he was all smiles. It waa perfectly timed. I asked if he liked it. "Yes!" I asked if he wants to ride again. "No!"


After that we had a similar experience with the tea cups and I thought he was finally coming out of his shell. The we did the long train ride around the park but we had to get off at the front gate because JC was not happy about that. Back at the front gate we went to Tomorrow Land and Monster Laugh Floor, which was a hit. We did the Buz Light year ride which also worked out well though JC started to withdraw. He started acting up badly in the Carousel of Progress and we had to leave right after it started. He ran into the real life Buzz Lightyear at this point and JC wanted to see him but changed strategies and hid behind me once we got to the front of the line. For an hour he wanted to go back and have another crack at it but I wasn't buying it.


We had a 4:20 dinner reservation for a character meal at the Liberty Tree Tavern and we had a lot of time to kill and not many rides left we could consider. The Philhar- Magic was excellent as always. Ice cream, a parade and a lot of walking around filled out the rest of the afternoon. At this point I started realizing that Melissa was being unusually good the whole trip so far. In fact, she was pretty much a perfect little angel. I started feeling bad at this point about the things I can't take her on because JC is acting up. But Melissa got to meat a lot of Disney characters at the character dinner and she had a blast. It was a family style meal but they still braught her a huge bowl of mac and cheese she really wanted. I must say, the family style thanksgiving cuisine was excellent. I was really suprised at just how nice everything was. And you can actually get sats there as opposed to Cinerella's Crystal Palace which looks nicer but is a buffet. JC hid under the table for the whole meal of course. Nothing unusual there, at least, nothing we aren't used to. The rest of us had a great time.


I got some good video of the electric parade at night and the fireworks were as spectacular as we remember even though it was kind of obvious a section of the fireworks weren't working. But nobody cared and Melissa enjoyed both. JC hid for the parade and slept through the fireworks. Sigh.