Holidays at Disney, Day 4: Woah, Oh, Oh, it’s Magic Kingdom

Cinderella Castle

And so the final day had come and I had saved the best for last for today would be Magic Kingdom day.

I was able to rest up a little bit longer as early entry would be at 8am.  Tonight the park would be open until 1am, but I also ordered Genie+ again as I didn’t want to have to wait late into the night to hit my favorite rides.  I also bought a Lightning Lane for Seven Dwarfs’ Mine Train, Magic Kingdom’s newest roller coaster.

As I expected, the place was a zoo prior to rope drop.  But I figured everyone would head to the Mine Train, leaving me free to visit Liberty Square and Frontierland where my favorite rides were located.  To my shock, only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland were opened up at early entry.  I thought that to be a poor business decision and a puzzling one.  Every other park opened in its entirety so I couldn’t understand why only part of the Kingdom would open. 

As my favorite sections wouldn’t open until 9am, I went ahead and rode one of the WDW originals:  It’s a Small World.

It’s a Small World

This is a slow-moving boat ride that takes you through the countries of the world where scads of animatronic children sing the titular song.  It’s syrupy sweet and shares a message about world peace since “it’s a small world after all”.  I was really struck by how much animatronics had evolved since this ride.  The robots are pretty primitive and seem more like oversized toys, but, at the time, this was undoubtedly cutting-edge technology and would lead to much greater advances.

Eventually, the rest of the park opened and I headed off to Frontierland to visit one of my two favorite rides:  Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain

Splash Mountain was inspired by the Brer Rabbit sequences from the controversial 1946 movie, “Song of the South”.  It, too, will eventually be shut down so it can be overhauled into “The Princess and the Frog” so this was likely my last go round in its original incarnation.

Splash Mountain and Haunted Mansion are my two favorite rides in all of WDW and I could spend a day just flipping between the two and consider it a day well spent.  I enjoyed the leisurely float as I watched Brer Rabbit outsmart his nemeses, Brer Fox and Brer Bear, time and again before plunging down the 50 foot drop into the Briar Patch just in time to see Brer Rabbit’s neighbors welcome him home with “Zip a Dee Doo Dah”.

Seven Dwarfs’ Mine Train

From Splash Mountain it was back to Fantasyland to enjoy the Seven Dwarfs’ Mine Train.  It wasn’t that bad of a coaster, but it wasn’t spectacular.  Though it was amusing to watch the Dwarfs work their mine before heading home to dance with Snow White.

After the Dwarfs, it was off to the Hundred Acre Wood to experience The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  Hop on a honey pot and experience the stories of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too.  It’s a quick ride, but an entertaining one for the young ones.

Under the Sean–Journey of the Little Mermaid

Then it was off to Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid which tells an abridged version of “The Little Mermaid”, but leaves out the darker moments to keep from spooking the children.

From there, I moved right along to Tomorrowland where I took a break by riding The Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover.  This is a slow moving cart ride that transports you around the Magic Kingdom, gives you a little history of the park, slips you inside Space Mountain, and is just an all around good way to people watch.

Space Mountain

Then I went to over to Space Mountain.  It’s an oldie, but a goodie as you ride a single car into space and enjoy a rollicking roller coaster ride in pitch darkness.  I’ve heard the coaster only moves at a top rate of 25mph, but feels faster due to your not being able to see anything.  It’d be interesting to ride it with the lights on and put that to the test.

I then started making my way over to Adventureland, pausing in front of Cinderella Castle (pictured at the top of this article).  If the castle looks familiar to you history buffs, it’s because it was patterned after Neuchwanstein Castle, one of the castles of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  Fun fact:  each Disney park in the world has its own unique castle.

I wandered past Jungle Cruise, astounded at its popularity.  Waits never seemed to get lower than 90 minutes.  I imagine the new movie has something to do with it plus a friend of mine told me that some Christmas stuff was added to the ride for the holidays.  For myself, I consider it a meh ride at best and one I would have ridden only if the line were short.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Instead, I bypassed that and went to Pirates of the Caribbean.  Yes, it’s the ride that gave the world Captain Jack Sparrow and launched a lucrative franchise.  I floated around and watched a battle on the high seas and watched pirates loot a town that was going down in flames.  Captain Jack popped in from time to time and even warbled “A Pirate’s Life for Me” as you exit the ride.

Then I was off to my other favorite ride:  Haunted Mansion.

Haunted Mansion

Enter the home of Master Gracey for a chilling (albeit Disneyfied) ride through a haunted house.  I’ve always been amazed at the depth of detail in this ride.  It begins in the foyer of the mansion where a picture of Master Gracey ages from a young man to a skeleton in front of your eyes.

From there you enter the stretching room where you see the untimely ends of some of the mansion’s past residents.  After escaping you get on your doom buggy to ride through the mansion where creepy events unfold around you.  One of my favorite moments is the séance where the disembodied head of Madame Leota (voiced by Eleanor Audley, the voice of Maleficent in “Sleeping Beauty” and the stepmother in “Cinderella”) summons the spirits.

Soon you ride past a ballroom where the ghosts whoop it up in a party except for the two engaging in a duel.  Eventually you make your way through a graveyard before picking up a hitchhiking ghost as you exit.  For some extra fun be sure to ask a cast member about the legend of Master Gracey.

Eventually I made my way over to Epcot for another early dinner at the San Angel Inn in the Mexico Pavilion. 

San Angel Inn is another intime dining experience.  I started with a bowl of Sopa Azteca which was a spicy red soup with tortilla chips and followed it up with a main course of Enchiladas con Pollo.  Very satisfying meal.

Then I took a ride on the monorail over to the Grand Floridian.  This is Disney’s most luxurious hotel and the last thing on my Disney bucket list is to stay one night at this hotel.  Brenda had tipped me off that the Floridian goes all out for Christmas and indeed it does.

The decorations here are what I expected to see all over WDW and its centerpiece was an authentic gingerbread house.

After enjoying a quick blast of Christmas cheer, I returned to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy Disney at night.  The Kingdom was getting ready to do the first of two fireworks shows and I maneuvered through the crowd to enjoy Pirates and 3 straight runs on Splash Mountain (where I also enjoyed watching the fireworks).  From there it was off to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as I roared through the mountains on a train coaster.

Disney was hosting an early New Year’s party so the crowds weren’t really dissipating much.  In terms of endurance, I had the juice to go all the way to closing, but my poor feet were throbbing.   Small surprise after being on my feet from before sunup to well after sundown and walking an estimated 60 miles over 4 days with little downtime except for sleep.

I took one final ride at Pirates and decided to call an end to the day.  I caught the bus back to Coronado Springs.  When I got back to my room, I slipped off my shoes and peeled off my socks and just knuckled my tired feet and it felt fabulous.  Soon after my lights were out.

The next morning I packed up, boarded the Magical Express, and began the trek home.

It was a grand adventure and I look forward to my next adventure in WDW.

A Cavalcade of Christmas, Part I: Storm Front in Storm Lake

The Gables on Geneseo

Today the road has brought me to Storm Lake, IA.

December has arrived and that’s my favorite time of year because it means that Christmas is just around the corner.  It also means it’s time for my favorite B & B review as I pick an inn just to find out how it does Christmas.

This year I decided to do something a bit different.  I’ve packed my month, weather permitting, with a series of Christmas activities so I welcome you to the first part of the Cavalcade of Christmas.

As I just stated my Christmas reviews always do depend on the weather and I’ve been fortunate to have reasonably good weather except for that blizzard that chased me from Des Moines to Decorah a few years back.  I thought I would be fortunate again this year as weather seemed reasonably decent heading into this first inn, but at the 11^th hour, the Storm Lake area was hit with a Winter Storm Warning.

Now the real issue of a storm is simply driving in it.  But if I could beat the storm then I could simply watch it from the comfort of the inn.  This, of course, meant heading down to Storm Lake a night early which would mean having to spend an extra night in a comfortable bed & breakfast.  Oh, me.  Oh, my.  What a horrible fate.

So I dashed home late Friday afternoon and threw a bag together and began the drive to Storm Lake.  It was a very pleasant drive, though I could feel the temperature plummet from the lower 40s of Omaha to the chillier temps of the small Northwest Iowa town.

Storm Lake has a lot of personal sentiment for me.  My grandparents lived here for many, many years.  My parents, older brother, and most of my aunts and uncles were born here and one of my cousins is the current county sheriff.  I spent a great deal of time in this town in my childhood, but haven’t been back much since I moved to Omaha in 1993 as my grandparents relocated to Papillion in 2000.

A lot of feelings and memories washed over me as I drove down the main drag on a frosty Friday.  The streetlights were decked out in Christmas lights and decorations.  Though not the same as the old-fashioned decorations I enjoyed in my childhood, they still retained that special small town quality.  Unlike many of the small towns I’ve passed through on my journeys, Storm Lake has managed to maintain a pretty vibrant economy and even build on it with the addition of a water park.

I pulled over just past the main drag to call The Gables on Geneseo to see if I could extend my stay from one to two nights and was relieved and delighted to find that I could do just that.  I pulled into the driveway, walked to the porch, rang the bell, and was greeted by Pat and Chris Mullaney, the owners of The Gables on Geneseo.

The Gables on Geneseo is an 1895 Queen Anne Victorian mansion built by Lewis Metcalf, who made his fortune in gold and livestock.  For a man of his success and wealth, his home actually had a mortgage of $5,000 on it at the time of his death.  It is believed that he may have refinanced the mortgage on several occasions to fund other business ventures.  The house went through a long period of abandonment before being turned into apartments, then dorms for Buena Vista University students, then was sold to a couple in 1974 who turned it into a B & B.

When I first heard of the inn, it was known as Metcalf House, but the owner ended up selling and relocating.  Then the Mullaneys purchased the property and spent the next 4 years restoring it to its original splendor and it is a beauty.

The house is full of fine oakwork, stained glass and beveled windows, and possesses a large foyer with a comfortable living room with soft leather chairs and a fireplace and a massive wraparound porch around the front of the house.  But it also had a special feeling for me when I entered.  It was just like being back at Grandma’s house.

 

Chris led me to my room, the Vista Suite.  This is the inn’s largest room and is considered the honeymoon suite.  This is the biggest and most comfortable room I have enjoyed yet and at a great value.  It’s a 4 room suite with a sitting room that has a mini-fridge and Keurig, a bathroom with a 2 person jacuzzi tub, a comfy living room with cable TV and some movies, and a master bedroom with a private balcony and an oh so soft bed.

 

Once I got my personal items stowed away, I headed out to visit Santa’s Castle.

 

Santa’s Castle is THE Christmas event in Storm Lake.  Housed in a former Carnegie library, it has entertained thousands of visitors since its creation back in 1962.  It was the brainchild of Bob Laird, the director of the Chamber of Commerce, who bought a set of animated elves and, with the help of Chamber members, displayed them in a vacant building.

Since then Santa’s Castle has grown to include over 70 finely detailed animatronics, some from as far back as the early 1900s and valued at $300,000 which makes it the most extensive and valuable collection of vintage animation in the Midwest.  It is also the home to two highly detailed model train sets.  The Castle also has Santa tracking maps, a scavenger hunt, and children can even write letters to old St Nick who will write back.  The jolly old elf himself is even on hand to visit. This is a wonderful family event that can be enjoyed by the young as well as the young at heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Castle.  The detail of the animations is astonishing and I marveled at the beautiful winter scenes as well as the amusing animations as I watched kids (as in young goats) anxiously await Santa, dogs baking in a kitchen, Santa’s reindeer bobbing their heads in time to great Christmas music, and families (real ones) enjoying that special sensation that can only be caused by Christmas.  I even took part in the scavenger hunt which involved finding a series of stuffed elephants.  I’ve always been pretty good at finding Waldo and hidden pictures, but they were really creative with where they hid their elephants.  If you find yourself in or near Storm Lake this holiday season, visit Santa’s Castle.

 

After my visit to Father Christmas’ abode, I returned to the inn where I enjoyed a long hot soak in the jacuzzi tub before climbing into bed for the night.

I can’t remember the last time that I slept so well.  I didn’t wake up until 7:20am and that is late for me.  I puttered around until 8:30am before going down to the dining room for an amazing breakfast prepared by Pat and Chris.

This is easily one of the top meals I have had with bananas mixed with a bit of cream and brown sugar, sausage links, Kilkenny Eggs, rosemary potatoes, asparagus, and a homemade, fresh out of the oven,  cinnamon pecan roll.

 

With breakfast tucked away, I decided to make a brief visit to the cemetery to visit the graves of my grandparents.  Snow and freezing rain had started so I had to make the visit brief as the icedrops stung something fierce.  I returned to the inn and just relaxed the day away with reading, writing, a bit of gaming, and a touch of movie watching.

Periodically I glanced out the window and watched the ice drizzle transform into snowflakes.  When I left for church, I found that it was the heavy, wet kind which makes it easy to clean off the car, but a swamp to drive through.

I had been looking forward to worship tonight as I would be attending St Mary’s for the first time in 25-30 years.  This was the family church for my grandparents, mother, aunts, uncles, et al.  My grandparents had been pillars of the church and one of their closest friends, and frequent dinner guest, was St Mary’s long time pastor, Msg. Ives.  This friendship was created due to the fact that my great aunt, Laura Kacmarynski, was the housekeeper for Msg. Ives for nearly 30 years.  As my uncle, Tom, said, “I remember having holiday dinners over at Msg. Ives’ on many occasions.”

Msg. Ives was once told he had two guardian angels watching over him and he needed it as Msg. Ives, from the stories I heard, was the single worst driver who ever got behind the wheel of a car.  Grandma told some great stories of his wretched driving over the years and I completely believe in his need for the dual angels on his shoulders because it seems only God’s divine protection could protect Msg. Ives from the holy terror of his driving.

More memories washed over me as I attended church this eve.  They still had the Stations of the Cross I remembered from my childhood and they were always my favorites as the paintings depict the Stations as if they were taking place in modern times.  I had forgotten how small the parish was, but it was like coming home as it still had that warm, intimate feel.  I also noted that a tradition begun by my grandparents was still in place and that’s the congregation holding hands for the Our Father.

Father sped through the service due to the weather so I found myself back on the road looking for a bite to eat.  Surprisingly, quite a few businesses were still open and I found a Mexican restaurant called Plaza Mexico to have some supper.

As I walked through the door, I realized this had been the local McDonald’s once upon a time as I would have recognized those doors anywhere.  As I perused the menu, a dish of chips and homemade salsa were brought to the table.  The salsa was nice and chunky and had just the right amount of zip.

I opted for the Burrito de Fajitas.  Now the menu said it was a giant tortilla, but I didn’t stop to think how big that might be.  It was about the size of a footlong Subway sandwich, but stuffed with strips of beef, bell peppers, beans, and rice.  I was not able to finish it, but what I had was mighty tasty.

Then it was back to the inn where I found a plate of oatmeal raisin cookies waiting by my room.  I bit into one.  Mmmm!  Still warm.  Then I went to my room where I gamed, took another long, hot soak, and went to bed.

When I woke up in the morning, I peeked out the window to see that the snow had pretty much stopped, but was being blown a bit, and that the roads had been cleaned.  I went downstairs to breakfast where Pat and Chris had another great meal waiting for me and I also learned that Pat had cleaned off my car which was greatly appreciated.

Today’s meal consisted of a raisin scone, dish of fruit with melon, grapes, and strawberries, Orange French Toast with holibread, bacon, and an apple cider shake (which was awesome).  Another blissful meal and it was time to go.

 

I was truly glad to have come down early for I would have missed out on a lot of memories and fun if I’d been forced to cancel. Storm Lake is definitely worth a visit during the holiday season and Gables on Geneseo is worth a visit any time of the year.  It’s beautiful, spacious, comfortable, and you’ll get to experience some of the finest breakfasts in the whole state of Iowa.

Until the next time, happy travels.