127 THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH

My legs and feet were feeling surprisingly good today when I started out.  I flat out forgot to take my prescription this morning, which isn’t a major problem, but I seem to have less pain when I do take it.  It’s not a painkiller, just a drug to remove Uric Acid from my system.  By the time I remembered, it was too late as it needs to be taken with food, and I couldn’t for reasons I’ll outline later.

The decision was to get busy with the Disney passes, so I headed off to Disneyworld, Magic Kingdom today.  My Uber driver was nice, but despite him asking and me answering several times that I was going to The Magic Kingdom, we ended up at Epcot.  Not a major deal, except it meant a long monorail ride to get there.  I didn’t want to use one of my passes on Epcot at this point.

So, now, I am finally here after a monorail ride and a ferry boat ride.  This is the biggest difference between Disney Florida and Disney California.  In California, there are a couple of spots where if you look closely you can see the freeway and the outside world.  In Florida, you are a long walk or shuttle from the parking lot to a choice between a monorail or a river boat ferry ride.  I opted for the boat.  That gets you totally immersed in the magic and cannot see the outside world.  There’s even a no-fly zone over the park.

Finally, I was in after using my pass and giving my fingerprint.  As luck would have it, just as I got in to Main Street there was a character parade going by.  It was very busy inside, I guess because of the Martin Luther King Day holiday today.  Although, later as I was leaving and commented on it, one of the hosts said it was kind of a slow day, about average.

I am not much of a ride kind of guy, but there are two I was really looking forward to going on again.  One was the Pirates of The Caribbean and the other is The Haunted Mansion.  The wait time for the Haunted Mansion was over 2 hours and I’m sorry, I’m not standing in line for that long for anything.  Pirates of the Caribbean was worse at over 2.5 hours.  So, they didn’t get ridden.  I did go on the Riverboat Cruise and I was first in line for that.

A lot of memories came back of places I had seen on previous visits.  There are some exhibits that have been removed, but I can’t for the life of me remember what they were.  There were new additions as well, again, not sure which ones, but I’m betting the Little Mermaid is one.

What really convinced me that is was very busy, other than the hoards of people surrounding and bumping into me, was the 90-minute wait to get into every restaurant.  Even from the ever-present vendors carts there were 20- and 30-minute lines.  I really needed a bottle of water, but again I’m not standing still for that long.  A soft pretzel would have been great too.

Instead I toughed it out with no food or water for the 10 hours that I walked today.  If I haven’t lost weight when I get home, I’ll be pissed.  I’ve only eaten breakfast and dinner each day, except yesterday when I had lunch too.  I have not eaten any junk food either other than a pretzel, butterbeer and a lemonade at Universal.

In any case, I saw pretty much every attraction at Disney and there were a few that were closed for servicing.  There was lots of doubling back and forth as well, to get better views.  So today, I finished up with another 1000 photos, back over the 20-mile mark at 22.3 miles today.  My feet are sore tonight, and other than walking downstairs for dinner in a few minutes, I’m not going anywhere tonight.  Well, at least I don’t plan to at this point, but one never knows.

It may be the “happiest place on earth” for sure, but by the time I’m finished putting on all these miles, limping badly and in pain, I’m not so particularly happy.  But I love the fact that I’m here, I’m doing it and I’m more or less able to do it.  I haven’t resorted to a motorised cart yet.