I was still waking early and after the morning routine I headed off to the OCCC, having a chat with my wife during the walk. At least at that time of the morning (around 7:30am) the air was cool and the walk was comfortable, sidewalks all the way and an over bridge to cross I-drive.
Today also started with a keynote, mainly around the features of Windows 8, and then it was time for a session on IPv6, and a workshop on running windows servers on the Azure platform. But today the sessions and labs were secondary to the evening’s entertainment. So after the conference wound down for the day, I headed back to the hotel and had a short rest before driving up to the Polynesian hotel, where I had a dinner reservation at Kona. I checked in at the podium, and headed to the Tambu lounge, where I ordered a Lapu Lapu but had to pop back downstairs to go to the ATM as I was starting to run out of cash.
The Lapu Lapu is a mixture of Rum, Rum and fruit juices and has a great taste, but is on the strong side so beware, after a short while of sitting and sipping, looking at the castle from my seat at the bar. The buzzer went off and I took my drink and headed back to Kona.
It only took a moment to order as I had already looked on line a few times at the menu so I had what I wanted in my mind before I even left the UK. I was last here for dinner in 2008 when I headed over for the Goofy Race and a half challenge (or my mid-life crisis as my wife calls it), and we both loved the pineapple bread with macadamia nut butter, now sadly the pineapple bread is no more, replaced by a good light white loaf, but the butter is still as good as I remembered, whipped butter with chunks of nuts included. Starters was the pot stickers which are served with a great sauce and chopsticks, it was wonderful and tasty, quite light and went down well with the bread and butter.
For mains I had gone with the new York teriyaki strip steak, served with mashed potato and broccoli (which was the 3rd time in 2 days that broccoli had been the green veg, as it had been the only option at lunch that day), but this was sprouting variation and by far the best of the bunch.
During the meal I started chatting to the father on the table next to me, they were from Pennsylvania and it was a large table of him, his wife, his parents, his 2 children and another family with a young girl. So 9 in total on his table and 1 on mine, but as is the way with large tables although I arrived after them, my plates arrived first.
Once the meal was over I decided that I would forgo a dessert as I had an idea that today’s dessert would be a dole whip, but not down at captain cooks, no I would head to the Magic Kingdom as it was only 9pm and the park was open till midnight today. So after paying and saying goodbye to my neighbour I headed for the monorail.
The journey was quick and I had not brought a bag this evening so avoided the bag check and head through to Town Square, first stop was City Hall to get my birthday button. Even at 42 there is something nice to have people wish you a happy birthday, and then I headed up Main Street just as the Main street electrical parade was leaving the hub, and wow what a crowd this evening, The park was solid, The only other time it had felt this full was on our Christmas trip and that was the Saturday night before Christmas. So the walk was slow, and by the time I go to the end of Main street and it became so solid that it was not really possible to walk anymore, so that’s where I stopped as the announcements started for Magic, Memories and You which would be starting in 10 mins, so it was a short wait before the show.
Now this was the first time for me to see the show on Cinderella’s castle, having only seen the Disneyland version before. The WDW version is better as it was able to hide the castle at times, and the new summertime section was fun, but I do wonder if it could just use generic photo’s as I did not hear a single voice noticing that they were on the castle?
After the show finished it was only a few moments before wishes started and that is a great show and one to get the emotions flowing.
Once the fireworks had stopped, the whole park seemed to want to leave, and I was almost carted away with them, but I did manage to slide off to the right and headed past the Crystal Palace and into Adventureland. First stop was Aloha Isle, as even after 10pm it was still warm, so it was time for a Dole Whip Float. Pineapple juice topped with pineapple dole whip, delicious and cooling. First ride was through the archway, the Haunted Mansion. This always was a good attraction and with the updates last year it raised its game. The interactive queue actually seemed longer than the basic one, but also seemed to not be working totally, there seemed to not have bubbles in the bath, but maybe that is just turned off late at night.
The ride was fine, and I do love the new interactive hitch-hiking ghosts at the end, but I did get the balloon again. After the ride I headed back towards Adventureland, stopping to chat with Cast Members on the way and look for pin trades, I also noticed the new Sorcerer’s of the magic kingdom window just by the archway, it seemed to be an interesting game and I would try to have a go when I returned on Friday.
Next stop was the Jungle Cruise and we had Jennifer as our tour guide tonight, she was great hitting all the puns, but there were also a lot of the boat who had ridden before so some jokes were pre-empted. This was followed by Pirates of the Caribbean and then as I wandered up toward Splash Mountain the end of the path was roped off and the Main Street Electrical parade had made its way back up from Town Square again. I now think that I have seen MSEP more times than Spectromagic now and would like to see them swap back, but I am always a sucker for a parade.
Once the parade had finally finished it was almost midnight, so I did just have a wander through the stores, first was the Frontier trading post, for a few more pins, then Ye Old Christmas Shop where I got a Wall-E and Eve decoration, but the staff there seemed to not want to serve me as there were only 2 tills working and both seemed to have guests with very complex orders that were taking forever. But I did finally get the ornament and headed back down the Main Street stores, having a look in the Emporium and jewellers for some additional items but still failing to find what I was looking for. As I left I headed down for the resort monorail and headed back to the Polynesian which was empty by the time I arrived, I found the car and headed back to the hotel for a few hours’ sleep before the conference continued tomorrow.
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