July Trip Report #2

After watching the sunrise over Cocoa beach we when back to the hotel, had breakfast and set off for Saratoga Springs. We had a nice drive over and found the resort with no problems. We checked in, grabbed our resort parking pass and found that our room was ready. This was our first DVC stay. We had a two bedroom unit with a full kitchen and laundry. Of course the room had a number of hidden Mickey’s. Some were obvious

but others were more subtle.



The rest of the morning was a little busy. We drove over to the TTC and purchased our park passes. I bought an annual pass because I will be coming back in January. Now that I had the AP we set off on the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom to pick up a “Tables in Wonderland” card at city hall. By now it was nearly time for lunch over at Whispering Canyon. We dashed back to Frontierland and grabbed some Splash Mountain fast passes before taking the boat over to the Wilderness lodge.


Whispering Canyon is always fun and has become the “must do” restaurant for us. Our waiter, Rafael, was a riot and the food was tasty as always. After lunch we finally had a chance to slow down and enjoy the day. Upon returning to the park we took in Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and the Hall of Presidents.


I had not seen the Hall of Presidents since 2002 and I must say I was very pleased with the refurbishment. The video portions of the attraction looked great and the presentation kept a more focused look at the Presidency. The only thing I might have changed is during the introduction of the Presidents they would very briefly shine a spotlight on each of them. Because the Presidents were not in historical order it was sometimes hard to follow. Brighter lighting might have helped. When visiting this attraction be sure to look closely at the portrait on the right side of the theater entrance for a hidden Mickey on Washington's sword.

Later in the afternoon we rode Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters. Exiting the ride we found it was raining pretty hard so we dashed over to the Carousel of Progress, an attraction that I have not seen since ’76. The rain had not let up and we found Tomorrowland flooded with 4 inches of water. When the rain did not let up we took off our shoes and walked toward main street. The water remained over our ankles all the way to the Terrace Noodle Station. Clearly there is a drainage problem here. After some shopping we left the park in search of a grocery store in order to stock up the kitchen. Mike Fess had tipped me off to Publix grocery and we drove straight to it with any problem.

Back at the room we cooked a green bean casserole for dinner before returning to the Magic Kingdom for extra magic hours. We arrived just in time to view the Spectro Magic Parade from the raised train station platform. We took in Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and Buzz Lightyear before watching wishes. Next we worked our way counter clockwise back through the park. Grand Prix Raceway, Tea Cups, Philharmagic, Snow White, Pirates. After Pirates I was looking forward to an evening ride on the Jungle Cruise but we found they had closed in down for the night. In fact by now it was near closing. On the way out I stopped at Aloha Isle for a Dole Whip float.

Training Update:

I have begun hitting the pavement again. I went wogging with my daughter on Aug 1st and 3rd for 4.5 miles each time. I am pleased that I can put two solid miles of running together. My current jogging pace is between 12 and 13. My foot remains a bit sore, so after the wogs I am icing it down and taking ibuprophen. The plan is to wog every other day this week and over the next couple weeks begin increasing the frequency and distance of these workouts. I feels good to be out there again. As long as I keep steady and do not over do it I think I will be fine. I also have some added motivation, I have scheduled a physical for late this month.