Tuesday 30th March 2010

We nearly didn't get into Disney. Just as we were arriving I read the small-print on my barcoded print-out, and discovered that in order to claim our tickets we needed photo ID. I hadn't brought my driving licence with me, and Hubby Dearest's driving licence is an old-style one which doesn't have his photo on. (It doesn't have the correct address on it either, but he refuses to renew it for political reasons.) We went ahead and rolled up to the ticket booth anyway, and luckily Clarence from Cincinnati, Ohio, who processed our tickets, was prepared to overlook our lack of proof of ownership of the bar code.

He also spent about five minutes lecturing us on what was great about each of the Disney parks. It reminded me of the time I was an Avon Representative in Llanaelhaearn and several of the elderly ladies on my round used to invite me in and have me discuss the products with them for half an hour. I obliged because I knew they didn't see anyone from one week to the next - and because they would buy pretty much anything I recommended. One major difference, I suppose, from octogenarian Clarence and Mrs Beti Ifans, is that Beti didn't have a line of fifty people waiting to buy tickets from her.

Strolling past Clarence we thought we were in. But not yet! First we had to practice our queuing skills by waiting for the ferryboat which would take us across the lake to Magic Kingdom. We had already practiced enough, I felt, having experienced the traffic jam on the way to the car park, and then waiting for the "tram" (golf cart) which would take us to the ticket gate. The ferry was great, though, and we did finally arrive at the gate. It took us over an hour from leaving our resort (five minutes from Disney property) to actually walking up Main Street USA.

We managed to squeeze in seven and a half rides/shows (Swiss Family Treehouse was so dull it doesn't count as a full activity) during the six hours we were in Magic Kingdom. Not bad when the shortest waiting time was half an hour, but we achieved this largely by splitting up, with Hubby Dearest taking Hari and Gwen on the more scary rides (like the Pirates of the Caribbean which goes over a 14 foot waterfall), and I took Ceri on rides that were about my upper level of scariness (Cinderella's Carousel and It's a Small World).

We saw no parades or characters, and we left at five because we were hot and tired and a hard audience to please. It's not that we didn't have a good time, because we did, but perhaps it didn't live up to all the hype and excitement. I have some great memories of Disneyland in Califormia, and even Paris was OK, even if it was all in French, so maybe I was expecting too much. Gwen took some good photos but she's asleep so I can't ask her to upload them.

Still really excited about our new timeshare. We have a voucher for a free week which runs out in 18 months, before we will get the chance to use it. Anyone out there interested in a free week in Orlando? Just come in the middle of winter when Disney's Magic Kingdom is slightly less of a manic kingdom.