18 Dec 2016
Once done, we drove over to EPCOT. The plan was to move over straight away to Magic Kingdom, spend the day there then return in the evening for the fireworks.
Straight away we could see that the park was busier, being the weekend before Christmas, the main crowds were all coming in to finish off the weekend. This was even more evident when we moved over to Magic Kingdom. To do this, I'd assumed that you could still get the monorail straight from EPCOT to Magic Kingdom, but this is no longer the case.
Instead you have to travel back to the ticket centre, then get a train or ferry over to the magic kingdom. This time we went via ferry.
Once in Magic Kingdom we could see the crowds increase.
Above is part of the crowd for Splash Mountain.
Wait time for Space Mountain stayed over 60 minutes all day.
We queued for a coffee.
And as we got our coffee, so the parade was starting outside.
The parade included a very good large dragon which was to fight a prince.
I'd managed to get a fastpass on my phone before we arrived at MK so we did manage to do one ride for real (Pirates of course).
Quite a close Depp-a-like outside the Pirate ride.
The rest of the day we wiled away doing all the more unusual things like the train, the people mover and something called the Carousel of progress which was a sort of animatronic look at home life through the years. It's in tomorrow land and I must admit, in all the times I've been to MK I don't think I've ever see this presentation.
By the evening it was pretty busy in MK as there people were arriving for the Christmas Party which was starting at 7pm.
We headed out soon after to go back to EPCOT.
The fireworks started at 9:30pm, so we had time to get something to eat beforehand. Then we waited for the fireworks to start.
Then it was back to the car.
Once back home, we had a quick tot up of all the parking fees we've paid over the holiday.
Turns out we've paid $143.54 just on parking.
That's for the following:
2 x EPCOT - $40
1 x Magic Kingdom - $20
1 x Hollywood Studio - $20
2 x Universal - $40
1 x Gaylord Palms hotel (for ICE show) - $23.54
The only place we didn't pay parking for was Sea World (as it was included in the tickets we bought).
Just heard an odd noise outside, on investigating I found it was pouring down with rain. It's been very hot all day - unseasonably hot. The average temperature is supposed to be in the mid 70s. But the temperature today was in the mid 80s. The car said it was 78'F when we got back into it at 10pm this evening. It's been very sultry all day.
FULL PHOTO ALBUM : https://goo.gl/photos/yXhKxeEYMRR2dAVU9