Monorail, boat, bus?

Hollywood awaits so we chose to take the bus to Hollywood instead of our morning boat ride to the Magic Kingdom.

Each park has it's central theme point and here it is the big hat! This is my method of always finding my way back to the exit because I sure can't rely on my sense of direction.

There is no need to stand in line for pictures with the characters on this trip. We just walk on by and snap someone else's children.

Hollywood is a much slower paced and smaller park and there is plenty to see and do. It was a most enjoyable day.

For lunch we stopped at the Backlot where our friend Marcia works. All the kids there are crazy about her. I learned a lot about the exchange program with various colleges and all the students that come to Disney to intern. So much goes on that I knew nothing about.

On our fifth and final day we caught the boat back over to the Magic Kingdom since we had not ridden Peter Pan, Snow White, or the train!

 Talk about some magic! What had been decorated for Halloween had now been transformed into a Christmas theme. I don't know what happened to Thanksgiving.

I realized for the first time that they are completely reinventing the Magic Kingdom which first opened in 1971. It should be ready in 2012. I can only imagine how spectacular it will be.

We boarded the train and enjoyed a ride around the park that was already getting quite busy since it was a Saturday morning. We couldn't spot anything we had missed!

We do love public transportation so we hopped the monorail for a last visit to Epcot. We had been in the campground for four days and hardly got to see it at all and yet some people go to camp and never leave the campground. We were a little shocked that we had to pay for wifi and then they give you antiquated equipment to connect through a modem. One of the park managers picked us up at a bus stop one morning and gave us a ride to the next stop. He assured us the equipment is changing but we appreciated the ride and did not complain about the 9.95/day charge for it!

 Our final stop was Downtown Disney where anyone can visit and shop. We wanted to go to Disneyquest and play on the virtual reality boat where we could shoot pirate ships. What fun!

We have had a blast and can hardly wait to return. The lines were not especially long. I think 15 minutes is the longest we ever waited and we did grab a few fast passes. We were not the only old people riding the kids' rides because I think everyone becomes a kid again when he steps onto Disney soil.