In part two of four Magic Kingdom blog entries, we visited the Haunted Mansion and rode the riverboat!
After the Jingle Cruise, we met up with Emily and Misha for lunch at Columbia Harbor House. It is a seafood restaurant. There were some problems getting our order but eventually we got it and sat down for lunch. Felix was already really tired! I put him under the table with Lulu, while Callie stayed in Karin’s lap. I took a cell phone picture of them at lunch. Felix was so good, as were Lulu and Callie, because we had ibis birds stalking us for our leftover food! But no birds were harmed, and no poop was eaten!
We kept texting the Tolles and Deanna and Chris throughout our day, but they were too busy to meet up with us. While we were eating lunch, Deanna was right next door at the Hall of Presidents! But we still didn’t see her. There’s just too much fun to be had—or too much to handle with all the crowds and activity!
After lunch, our reservations for the Haunted Mansion were available, so we headed over there. That ride requires people to get out of their wheelchairs, and Brad just didn’t have the energy for that. So he stayed behind and mostly rested while I rode with Karin, Emily, and Misha. He did take a few pictures of the mansion and us outside of it in black and white, though!
The Haunted Mansion ride was really fun! Before you get on the ride was the worst part, in the stretching room. The room itself is OK, but at the end of the narrative there is a loud scream. Karin warned me it was coming, so I had my hands over Felix’s ears, but he was still scared and it made me cry 🙁
The rest of the ride was really fun, though, and not so scary! I was worried it would be a scary ride for the dogs, but all the illusions were really only scary to humans, not to dogs! I rode in the same car (“doom buggy”) as Karin and Callie Mae, who showed Felix how to relax for the ride.
I was a little afraid of Felix falling out of the ride vehicle, so I held on tightly to him, but I didn’t need to. He was even fine when the ride vehicle flipped around backwards and leaned really far back! It was a fun ride!
We were in need of a break after that, so we headed to the Liberty Square Riverboat. We thought that would be a nice relaxing ride. We found the accessible entrance hidden way to the side along a stone wall, and hung out down there waiting for the boat to come. We had a great conversation about the Whill wheelchairs with someone else while we were there. The woman was in a power wheelchair and interested in the remote driving feature of the Whill for her husband, who is going blind and using a power wheelchair. So we were able to show her the features and everything.
Below are the pictures Brad took of us going down to and hanging out in the waiting area.
We got on the riverboat when it arrived, and boy was it loud!!!! Emily had ear protection for herself and Lulu, but the rest of us were stuck with the loudness (Brad says he had earplugs, but didn’t mind the engine rumble enough to use them). But it was still a lot of fun. It was really nice to see the scenery around Tom Sawyer Island. You can take a raft ferry to the island, but much of the island is not wheelchair accessible, so we wouldn’t be able to see it without the riverboat.
Below are the pictures Brad took of us on the boat. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s part three of our Magic Kingdom day!
