Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 10 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

In another change from our usual Labor Day Weekend modus operandi, we decided not to go immediately to one of the theme parks this morning. Instead, we walked over the Swan hotel across the waterway from the Boardwalk to grab a light breakfast and from there continued walking to the Fantasia Gardens and Fairways mini-golf course. The Fantasia side is beautifully designed and fun to play, but difficult! The Fairways side looks like a real golf course (and is supposedly even more difficult). The shaded areas of the course were cool, but by the 18th hold the late-summer Florida sun was beating down and we were sufficiently hot and sweaty for the walk back to the Boardwalk.

After a quick cool-down and re-prepping in the hotel room, we hopped on the bus to the Magic Kingdom, which was going to open until 3am (!) for Extra Magic Hours. Arriving at the Magic Kingdom (it’s so nice being able to skip the ferry/monorail sometimes) we found it all decked out in fall/Halloween decorations (in preparation for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party evening events). Starting in TomorrowLand, and continuing our plan of doing stuff we haven’t done recently, we rode the Astro Orbiters (I attempted to take a panoramic shot from my iPhone, see the gallery below), relaxed on the PeopleMover (formerly the TomorrowLand Transit Authority, I still miss getting to see inside Space Mountain), raced on the Grand Prix, and rode Space Mountain (ok, yeah, we do that all the time but we have to ride that one).

We then took a new (to us) walkway behind the Grand Prix, along the railroad tracks to the back of the new FantasyLand (formerly Mickey’s ToonTown Fair). From there, we hopped on the train and rode it back over to FrontierLand where we snagged FastPasses for Splash Mountain later that evening. Then we walked all the way back to the front of the park to witness the 5pm Flag Retreat Ceremony, something else we had never seen in all our years of coming to Disney.

Our plan for dinner was to eat at the Tortuga Tavern in AdventureLand, but to our dismay it’s only open “seasonally” and was closed. Instead we ate at the Columbia Harbour House in FrontierLand before heading back to Splash Mountain to use our FastPasses. Another closure! Bad weather was apparently moving fast into the area so the ride was closed (although we were assured our FastPasses would be valid any time once the ride re-opened). The dark clouds were rolling in quickly so we took refuge in the Hall of Presidents, another attraction we hadn’t visited since 2009). We spent the rest of the evening dashing through the rain (which cancelled the 9pm parade), hitting the indoor attractions like the Country Bear Jamboree, PhilharMagic and the Winnie the Pooh ride (again, new to us since we last rode it).

Luckily, the weather moved on and we were able to enjoy the new Celebrate the Magic projection show on Cinderella’s Castle following by the evening’s fireworks. The projection show is pretty amazing. Here’s the Wreck-it-Ralph sequence (as recorded on my 300HS):

With the weather cleared up, we decided to try and use our Splash Mountain FastPasses as the last ride of the evening. While going on Splash Mountain wasn’t new, riding it at night for the first time was a cool experience. To finish up the night, we walked back to the front of the park and staked out some spots in front of the train station to watch the second parade (which wasn’t cancelled) after which we hopped on the bus back to the Boardwalk.

Tomorrow we finish up at Animal Kingdom and then head home.