R. and I went to Disney's Magic Kingdom on Sunday. We had about as good a day there as it is possible to have.

It didn't look like it was going to start that way. We left my parents house a bit before 8 to get to the park in time for the 9:00 opening. As I have said here before, my number one tip for getting on a lot of rides in the Disney parks is to get there early.

It was raining a bit when we left the house, but the forecast was that the weather would clear during the course of the morning. Things started to look bad as we made our way down Route 535, since it really started to rain cats and dogs for a bit. I started to get a bit nervous as we approached Disney property and was trying to figure out what we were going to do if the heavy rain continued.

It was at that point that the Tiki intervened on our behalf. As I pulled into my parking spot, the rain slowed to a mist and stopped soon thereafter.

The early bad weather really worked to our advantage. Not many people ventured out to the Magic Kingdom in the rain, so we virtually had the park to ourselves until around noon. We walked onto every single ride we did until lunchtime. Because of this, we managed to do almost every attraction in the park. We got to do every ride we really wanted, and a lot of others.

A few other highlights. R. got to meet Peter Pan, Wendy and Stitch and got pictures and autographs with them. We had a very nice lunch in the Columbia Harbour House in Liberty Square. The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World suggested this place because it tended to not be crowded and it had choices other than hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken nuggets. The Guide hit this one right on the head. We had a nice quiet lunch. R. had mac and cheese and I had half a sandwich with a cup of New Engand clam chowder. Everything was very good, and made for a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the park.

We left the park around 5 to go back to my folks house. We had some dinner, then decided to go back to catch the Spectromagic parade and the Wishes fireworks display. Both were spectacular. We hung out while the crowds cleared, had a snack and bought a few pins and headed for the monorail.

There were only a few people waiting for the monorail when we got there, and as the train pulled up I got the inspiration to ask if we could sit up front for the ride. The attendant said yes and we rode back to the Transportation and Ticket Center with the operator, who was very sweet to R. The ride topped off a near perfect day.