Day Six - Parks & Resorts

Today we celebrated DD2's birthday. At first, we thought we only need to get one birthday button, which we did first thing in the morning at MK. But, when we hit AK later that morning, a CM told us that every park has its own birthday button.

The mission was on.

Today was EMH for MK, so we hit that park bright and early at 8 AM.

ABC was also filming in MK today (and tomorrow) for the ABC's "live" Christmas parade from Disney World. Live my butt. This is a totally simulated parade in a simulated fantasy environment. They can't even let a parade be a parade. The Main Street was sectioned off for the "parade". Everyone was told to keep off the street and filming did not start until everyone has done so. Then, the announcer told everyone to cheer. The first float came down the street. Cut. Street sweepers came out to clean up the street. Thirty minutes later, the second float came down the street. Repeat the process several times over throughout the two days of filming process. They can't leave a parade alone and just let it run its course? Macy can do it, why can't Disney/ABC? Weird.

After couple hours @ MK, we headed to Animal Kingdom. Boy, DW and I were disappointed. This is just a glorfied zoo with some shows and couple rides. Many sections are very confusing and seem to have been put together as an afterthought. There was not much of the "Disney magical feeling" anywhere in the park. It's a sad combination of a cheap local zoo with a carnival on steroids. DDs enjoyed it though, since there are animals. But, kids, I can take you to the local zoo and it is cheaper! Glad that we changed our plan and decided to see AK today rather than tomorrow, our last day. Would hate to end our WDW vacation on this note.

In midafternoon, we headed back to WL to get the DDs changed into their Cindy's outfits. Then, it was off to GF for the 1900 Park Fare dinner. The dinner brought disney magic back for us after a disappointing outing to AK. One of the special magic moment was when I noticed Sleeping Beauty, out in the hallway, peaking into the dining room. There was no line for her and she seemed bored. So, I took DDs to see her and she and the girls spend some time talking and twirling around in their dresses.

The mission continued with the birthday button acquisition.

After dinner, we made a quick trip to Disney/MGM to pick up the birthday button from that park. How disappointing. All the other parks have special birthday buttons marked with that park. Disney/MGM has just a "congratulations" button with WDW lettering/logo. Nothing on it about birthday. Nothing on it about Disney/MGM. How lame.

We wrapped up the day by going to Epcot and walked the World Showcase.