Disney's Princess Half Weekend Recap Part 3: Post-Race

Again, sorry for the delay.  To reward you for your patience, you get this extra-long, jam-packed with photos super post.  Everyone buckled up?  Ok, here we go ...

Sunday
After cleaning up surprisingly quickly, given how tired we all were after the race, it was time to get our Magic Kingdom on.  We took a Shades of Green bus to the Magic Kingdom transportation center, where we could catch the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.  I was actually pretty excited about a monorail ride -- no visit to Disney World is complete without a monorail ride!

A line halfway down the ramp from the platform was NOT what we wanted to see

Unfortunately, a lot of other people also had the brilliant idea of taking the monorail to the Magic Kingdom at approximately 11am. We figured the wait wouldn't be too bad, given typical Disney efficiency, but apparently something had gone very, very wrong in the monorail command center.  We made it up to the platform without waiting too long, and positioned ourselves right in front of gate so that we would be sure to make it on the next monorail AND get seats.  And then we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.

Heidi and Diane do not like to be kept waiting

Finally, monorail blue came to rescue us!

Hello, monorail!

And then, after sitting in the station for a few minutes, monorail blue left without taking any passengers.  Drats!  Just as Disney was about to have a monorail riot on its hands, monorail orange saved the day.

Hooray!

When we finally made it to the Magic Kingdom, we went straight for Tomorrowland and the People Mover, which we knew would have no line and would give us time to sit and contemplate our lunch plan.

Welcome to Tomorrowland!  Wait, weren't we here six hours ago?

We chose Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe as our lunch stop.  The food was decent, and some of the theme details in the restaurant were pretty cool.  There were three "bays" where you could order food: Bay 1 for chicken, Bay 2 for burgers, Bay 3 for sandwiches.  My favorite part was the condiment dispensers, which made an air hissing noise when you released the pump.

Cheeseburger + fries + Diet Coke = happy post-race Jess

After lunch, we continued our strategy of prioritizing short-wait rides that let us sit down and hit the carousel.

Diane and Heidi on their fearless steeds

One of my better self-portrait attempts, if I do say so myself

After our carousel ride, I couldn't resist a Sword in the Stone photo op.  There's actually a better photo of the three of us fighting over the sword, but I don't have it at the moment.

What can I say? Runners aren't known for their upper body strength

Still in Fantasyland, we hit two of our classic favorites: It's a Small World and Snow White's Scary Adventures.  I'm told that the Snow White ride absolutely terrified me when I was a small child, but these days I find Small World much scarier.

I'm always amazed at how this ride pulls off awesome and creepy at the same time

We were very excited to get the "Dopey" mine cart

Poor Prince Ferdinand--possibly the most often overlooked Disney Prince

After Fantasyland, I insisted on visiting Frontierland so I could go on my favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  So you can imagine how heartbroken I was to find this:

No Thunder Mountain?!

Fortunately, a quick trip to Adventureland and the Jungle Cruise quickly turned things around for us.

Finally!  We spent a long time in line last year but gave up after hearing about an indefinite repair time

Watch your step!

Happy Jungle Cruisers

What was that?!

The tour was pretty much hilarious.  The script was great, as was our guide's delivery of all the ridiculous puns.  Although sometimes it seemed like the three of us were the only ones laughing ...

For those of you who aren't yet aware of this, you should know that Diane has a HUGE crush on Aladdin.  She waited in line for an hour to get his autograph.

Diane finally made it to Agrabah!

While we waited, we hit a souvenir stand, where Diane bought a Princess Jasmine tiara to wear during next year's race.  When the nice cashier lady heard us talking about our Prince crushes, she gave us these:

Walking around with these got a lot of "congratulations" from park employees.  I think she forgot to tell us something ...

Waiting makes me hungry.  Hooray for pineapple froyo!

The actors' ability to interact with park goers and stay in character was pretty amazing. This became especially apparent when Heidi asked if we could get a photo of Diane alone with Aladdin.

Aladdin and Jasmine both signed Diane's Tiara.  I was afraid things were going to get violent.

There are no words

Our day ended with one last stop -- character greeting time with Belle, Aurora, and Cinderella.  Heidi had picked up an awesome souvenir for her boyfriend, who is not nearly familiar enough with Disney Princesses, and we wanted to get it signed so that it would be all authentic-like.

Again, their ability to stay in character was amazing.  Belle kept asking everyone where their Beast was, or whether that was their Beast taking the photo.  We also each got a picture with our respective princess character.

After our princess visit, we headed back to the hotel for what might have been the highlight of the day -- our second annual pajama/pizza/Oscar party!

Beware of hungry runners

Have I mentioned that I love dominos?

Watching TV from bed is awesome

We spent about two hours watching red carpet coverage and eating pizza before promptly falling asleep once the ceremony started.  I think we all at least made it through Billy Crystal's intro.

Monday
Our flights didn't leave until mid-afternoon, so we decided to hit one last park before we lift Disney.  After dragging ourselves out of bed and having a cold pizza breakfast, we headed to Epcot.

Returning to the scene of the finish line

We arrived just after the park opened at 9am and managed to hit Epcot's top three attractions with very little waiting.  First up was Soarin', where they simulate flying over various parts of California.  As usual with Disney, the attention to detail was amazing.  Not only did they move the seats and adjust the airflow to make you feel the wind in your face, they also pumped in pine tree and orange scents!  Next we went to Test Track, which was just as fun as I remembered it.  Especially the high-speed lap around the banked turns on the outside of the building.

Our last ride at Epcot was Mission: SPACE.  This is the one where they create a "green" version and an "orange" version after the original ride proved to be way too intense for some people.  We, of course, opted for the more intense "orange" version, which meant that we got to spend our ten minutes in line being warned repeatedly about our impending doom, and asked even more frequently whether we were sure we wanted to do this and not switch to the "green" mission.  We stuck with our decision, and I am so glad we did.  I thought this ride was AMAZING (although I think Heidi and Diane disagree with me).  They put you in a dark little pod complete with barf bags, assign you roles that involve pushing buttons as you light up, and then spin you around in a centrifuge so that you start feeling the G force as if you were actually blasting off, going weightless, and landing on Mars.  I actually couldn't tell we were spinning except when I had to look to the side to press the navigator's buttons in addition to my pilot buttons, since we were one crew-member short.  I loved it and can't wait to ride again.  Heidi and Diane felt sick.

Before leaving for the airport, we stopped in Mexico for lunch, and then hit a final souvenir store for those essential last-minute Disney purchases.

Nothing cures motion sickness like tacos and margaritas!

And that's where this year's Disney adventure ends.  I already can't wait for the 2013 race!