Disney World – April 2013
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Prologue
So as you may have noticed, we have a tradition of taking one “BIG” vacation every year, in addition to our many smaller trips. We take turns picking the destination for this, though we’ve tended to rotate between beach, national parks, and Disney World. (Stay tuned for something very different next year though!) This year it was time to head back to Florida to see the Mouse!!

This would be our 3rd Disney World Vacation as a family, though we’ve snuck in a few mini-trips on visits to my family as well. And it would be Owen’s very first Disney World trip!

There was much debate and decision-making on when to go and where to stay, but we finally settled on late-April (hoping for warm but dry weather, and lower crowds than we were used to in the summer), and staying at the Yacht Club (thinking it would be convenient to be close to Epcot, and that the kids would love the Stormalong-the-Bay pool)

Much research and planning began, and slowly the countdown of months creeped into weeks, and then finally days. It was almost time to go to Disney World!!!

Chapter 1. Can we Beat the Blizzard??
Oh wait, I think I used that as my Chapter 1 title for a trip report a few years ago… WHY do we have such bad luck with the weather when we are trying to get out of town??? Yep, the day we were scheduled to drive up to Denver (for an early morning flight to Orlando the next day), a blizzard arrived. Talk about stress! I thought surely our vacation was doomed, but we made a last-minute decision to head on up to Denver early in the day (instead of later that night) in hopes that we could cross Monument Hill before the worst of it came. Monument Hill is the highest point we have to cross going to Denver, and the interstate through here almost always closes for a time in bad weather.

The only problem with this plan was that I had expected to have the whole day to finish packing, run errands, etc. Suddenly I had about an hour. It was a chaotic frenzy, but somehow, long-story short, we made it to our hotel by the Denver airport without any major problems. We had lunch at a restaurant across the street after checking-in (didn’t want to venture farther than we had to in the storm). It was nothing fancy, but finally we all began to slip into vacation mode, with the stressful morning behind us. There was no way to know if the storm would clear in time for our flight to get out the next day, but at least we were there, and if our flight was canceled, it was now the airline’s problem to solve, not ours.

But the afternoon creeped by in the confines of the hotel. I took the kids swimming for a while, and Brian got some work done. Unfortunately this meant he was going to have to bring his work laptop along on the vacation, since he didn’t trust leaving it in the car all week. For dinner, we considered going over to Village Inn, about a block from the hotel, but the weather was particularly nasty by now. The hotel was serving a free hamburger-and-hot-dog type of dinner in the lobby, so we settled for that instead, even though we don’t usually eat that kind of food. It actually ended up being just fine, and we talked to a lot of other guests while we ate.

I was periodically checking the status of our plane, thanks to United’s mobile website. Many of the flights into and out of Denver had been canceled today, stranding both travelers and aircraft all over the country. Fortunately, our plane had spent most of the day flying back and forth between Texas and Michigan, and wasn’t due in Colorado until early the next morning. With the weather expected to clear overnight, it seemed that it would have no problem being ready for us by 8am tomorrow. We were really about to be on our way!!!

Chapter 2. I Just Want to GET THERE!
Day 1. Thursday

Most of our traveling was pretty uneventful. We took a 6am shuttle from the hotel, checked-in, found our gate, ate some breakfast, boarded, and endured the 4 hour flight. It was a little delayed, but after the chaos yesterday’s poor travelers had to endure, I knew better than to complain. Owen even slept for quite a while, which was good. But by the time we got to the Magical Express area in the airport, we were already almost an hour later than I had hoped to be. We were loaded onto a bus pretty quickly, but it was still another 20 minutes before it left. Then it made a stop at Port Orleans Riverside before taking us to the Yacht Club.

My plan had been to be at the Yacht Club by 3pm, but it was well after 4pm when we finally checked-in. So something in our afternoon plans was going to have to be sacrificed. We had a dinner reservation in Epcot at 7pm, and I had planned on swimming for a couple of hours in the afternoon before heading over there and doing a couple of rides before eating. In hindsight, we should have just gone swimming and saved the rides for another day.

But I was feeling so antsy by now, and just wanted to BE THERE!! Being at the hotel wasn’t good enough, I wanted to BE in Disney World! And if we swam, we were only going to make it over there in time for dinner. So I convinced everyone to skip the pool today and head straight to Epcot. Afterall, we had plenty of swimming time scheduled for tomorrow afternoon….

So we found our room and dropped off our carry-on bags (our checked luggage would be delivered to us later, directly from the airport – love not having to deal with baggage claim!) Our room was in a great location – it was directly off the main hall (ground floor), basically the very first room you can reach from the lobby, but being at the very end of the main hall it wasn’t likely to be noisy outside. We really couldn’t have asked for better. Later in the week as we explored, I realized that many of the rooms were down very complicated mazes of hallways. So glad ours wasn’t! My request for “Close to Transportation” must have paid off! My other request had been for a daybed, which we also had. Owen really loved having his own “little bed” all week.

Then we grabbed a quick snack/lunch at the Beach Club Marketplace, and made the short walk to the International Gateway entrance at Epcot! This was one of the main reasons we chose this hotel. A 5 minute walk to Epcot, and a 10 minute boat ride to Hollywood Studios. For Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, we would have to rely on the buses though.

I had never actually been to the International Gateway, though I had known of it’s existence for many years. For some reason I pictured it being much smaller. And much less busy! It was packed. We made our way through though, and were ready for our first stop – the United Kingdom area of the World Showcase. WHO could we possibly be interested in seeing here???

Chapter 3. An Evening of Ups and Downs
POOH!!! That’s who we were going to see here. And Tigger too! I had only recently learned of their meet-n-greet in one of the UK shops and was anxious to meet my favorite character, and see how Owen would react too. I was so nervous that he would be afraid of the characters on this trip. Just weeks ago, the Easter Bunny had sent him into a screaming frernzy.

There was only a short line, maybe 5-10 minutes. Unfortunately, as we were the very next in line, they announced that Pooh and Tigger were leaving for a short break. Rats! Owen had been watching the other kids hugging and posing, and seemed almost ready to do it. But I was worried the sudden lull would cause him to either lose interest or get scared again. It was really only a couple of minutes until they came back though.

At first he didn’t want to go up to them, and knowing better than to push it, I told him we could just stand back and wave while Lily went up to meet him. He was only okay with this for about 10 seconds. He started crying and I thought even that was too much, but I quickly realized that he was actually crying because he WANTED to go meet them!!!

Slowly, cautiously, he approached. Tigger even got down on a knee so he didn’t look so intimidating. We were able to get a good family picture with them from the Photopass photographer, and get autographs! It ended up being a great character experience. I just wish I hadn’t been so busy with Owen – I didn’t end up getting any shots with my own camera. But it was fun. And the greeting area was made to look like Christopher Robin’s bedroom, a much better backdrop than we usually get at character meals. Maybe this is the way to meet characters afterall… we had several character meals planned but I knew going into the trip that we may end up canceling some of them, depending on how things went.

Despite the somewhat unexpected heat and heavy crowds, we were all on a high as we headed into Future World. We liked looking at all the Flower and Garden Festival topiaries, and stopped to admire some. Owen really liked the Captain Hook and Tick-Tock ones. He wanted to stop at the Oz playground as we passed, but I convinced him to wait until another day when we had more time.

I definitely wanted to do the Seas ride tonight, since that’s where we were eating dinner. And I was hoping to do one more. I thought about Figment, but as we were coming into Future World, Owen was mesmerized by Spaceship Earth so we decided to make that our first ride. It’s always been one of my favorites.

Well, I said this would be an evening of ups and downs, the Pooh meeting was definitely an “up”. So you know what’s next. Owen starting freaking out as soon as we got in line (well there wasn’t really an actual line, but we had to walk through part of the queue area.) We’ve known for some time that he gets very nervous trying new things, like rides, but usually once we are on it and moving, he’s fine. So I was sort of prepared for this reaction, but still a little frustrated by it.

He was still screaming his head off when we loaded into our car. As I expected, he quieted down once we got going, but never really relaxed throughout the whole ride. He asked every few seconds to “go back”, and I kept assuring him that we were on our way back, just had to see a few things first. The only part he really liked at all was at the end where they tilt you back and you can see the stars. We had told him before the trip that we wanted him to try everything (that was reasonable) once, and then he could decide if he wanted to do it again. He said he definitely did NOT want to do this one again, lol! Oh well. Hopefully he would relax more throughout the week as he got more experience with the rides.

We played around in the activity areas at the end of the ride for a while, but I knew if we were going to have enough time at the Seas that we would have to get going soon. Again, heading into the queue he started throwing a fit. An even bigger one this time. I’m sure all the CMs and other guests were thinking I was the meanest parent ever at this point, but I also knew he was never going to get over this irrational fear without some help. So, I really did drag him into the clam-shell kicking and screaming. Much like before, he calmed down almost immediately, but also like before, never seemed entirely comfortable in the situation. He did like looking for Nemo in the different tanks though. And was seeming a bit cheerier by the time we got off the ride to explore the aquarium.

We had about 40 minutes before we needed to go to dinner, so were able to pretty thoroughly explore many of the sea-life exhibits. Owen was having a blast, Lily unfortunately was a little grumpy. We really should have brought some water with us, we made several trips to the water fountain but I think dehydration, combined with fatigue was greatly affecting her mood. We saw some cool stuff though. Owen really liked the shark playground, even though we did lose him for a few minutes. I was glad we had decided to put a tag on his back with our phone numbers. And he also saw a diver in one of the tanks who came over to the window to wave at him!

Our dinner reservation was at the Coral Reef, which is inside the Seas building. We checked in about 10 minutes early, and the place was so packed! There had to have been at least 50 people waiting in the very large lobby for a table. The kids were at the end of their rope by now. And it ended up being almost 30 minutes before we were seated. Lily was in such a bad mood that she actually embarrassed us in front of the host who seated us. This wasn’t how I was hoping this trip would start! Maybe rushing over to Epcot without our planned swimming break had been a mistake afterall…

But they both came around a little once we were seated and had drinks, and shortly food. Overall, we liked the restaurant. As I expected, the atmosphere reminded me a lot of the one we have at the aquarium in Denver, just a little darker. The service was pretty good once it got going, and Brian loved his food. Mine was a little spicier than I would have liked, but still had a good taste.

So we were all feeling a LOT better by the end of the meal. And I will count this as some of the first (of many) lessons learned on this trip. Clearly, I shouldn’t have been so impatient to get to the park, the downtime at the pool would no doubt have done us all good. What is it they say? Patience is a Virtue… But another good reminder was that even the bad times don’t last forever. There were many moments leading up to, and in the early parts of dinner, where it just felt like the whole vacation was surely ruined. But by the end, we were all happy and laughing together. This too, shall pass…

Unfortunately, it had taken a LOT longer than I expected, so Illuminations was already starting by the time we came out. I had hoped to be out of the park and safely back to YC by then, since Owen had already told us he was scared of the fireworks. But since it was so late, I didn’t want to have to wait around until it was over to make the journey back to the International Gateway. This was one time that it would have been better to be leaving on the buses from the front, at least we would have been going AWAY from the fireworks on the way out! But, somehow we made it. He spent most of the walk with his head buried in my chest crying, but would occasionally look up for a second and seem completely fascinated. But then terror would take over again. We would have to make sure not to get stranded in Epcot after 9pm again. (Haha, well that’s what I was thinking at the moment anyway. It would turn out to be a totally naive plan)

Finally back at the hotel, we got unpacked, settled in, and to sleep as quickly as we could. And ordered room service for breakfast. We wanted to be at Magic Kingdom by the time they opened at 9am, and thought that was our best bet for food, since none of the restaurants in the hotel opened until 7:30. We arranged it for 7am, thinking that would give us plenty of time to slowly get ready while we ate, and thinking the kids wouldn’t even have to get up quite that soon. In hindsight, I do wish we had tried Captain’s Grille like I had initially planned, it would turn out that their buffet was very good and very fast and we would have been just fine. But, as always, hindsight is 20/20!

Chapter 4. No Sleeping-in Today…
Day 2. Friday
At 6:35am I heard a knock on the door. Well, sort of. I thought I was still dreaming at first, since I wasn’t really awake yet. But it was persistent, and what were they saying… something about dining? Room Service wasn’t due for another 25 minutes, but as I stumbled to the peep-hole in the door, that’s definitely who it was. I scrambled to make myself decent enough to answer, thinking I could just grab the cart from him, wheel it inside, and quickly send him on his way before anyone else woke up. Well, I’ve never ordered room service, for some reason that’s how I THOUGHT it would go. Live and learn, I guess.

As soon as I answered, he bellowed out in a thick British accent that he was coming in to set up breakfast for us. Before I even had time to protest, he was in the room, turning on all the lights, giving us a very loud update of the days news… so much for a calm relaxing morning and letting the kids sleep a little longer! It took him almost 15 minutes to get everything set up, and of course the whole time we’re feeling a little awkward that we are not exactly “presentable” to a stranger. To his credit, he didn’t let our clothing-state phase him one bit. But he probably laughed about it later. The food was fine, but for the 2 credits it took from our dining plan, I honestly would have expected a little more. And it wasn’t quite the simple solution I had been looking for, we’d have to try the other alternatives and hope to find something better for sure.

Thanks to our earlier than planned start, we were at the bus stop by 8am. And to our luck, a bus came almost immediately. We made one more stop at Beach Club, but were still to Magic Kingdom almost 40 minutes early! I hadn’t really meant to be THAT early, but the buses can be so unpredictable that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

But I was shocked at how busy it was! In the past, even when we’ve only been 15-20 minutes early, it had been almost empty in the holding area inside the turnstiles. It was already shoulder-to-shoulder people! WTH??? So it was a tedious wait. And then we were a little disappointed that the opening show was the really short one, where they mostly just come out and do the countdown, no songs or dancing. We’ve always really enjoyed the full show, and that was the main reason I wanted to be there in time for rope-drop today. Oh well. As crowded as it was apparently going to be, probably good that we were getting an early start at least.

Chapter 5. Fantasyland!
We headed straight towards Fantasyland, always our first destination in Magic Kingdom! I was hoping to ride Pooh first, and after having shown Owen You-tube videos of it before the trip, optimistic that he wouldn’t be as scared as he had been last night. He still got a little nervous going through the mostly-empty queue, but not as bad as before at least. Overall, he did pretty well on the ride, and seemed to really enjoy certain parts of it.

Afterwards, I knew he was eying the carousel, but I also knew we needed to get through a few of the more popular attractions before it got any busier. We made a quick bathroom stop, which turned into a very long bathroom stop, due to some miscommunication about where to meet up afterwards. That was frustrating, now we were several minutes behind where I had hoped to be by now. And with the crowds steadily increasing, those minutes mattered! Fortunately, there was still just a short wait for Peter Pan so we went ahead with it. Owen was feeling a little more confident now, and liked seeing Captain Hook throughout the ride. He mostly knows him from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, though we did watch Pater Pan several weeks ago.

Next was It’s a Small World! This was always one of Lily’s favorites when she was younger. Again, he cried a little getting on, but also again, relaxed and did fine once we got going. WHEN is he going to learn to trust us getting on these rides?? He enjoyed it, but I could tell by now that the constant stress from his fears was wearing him out a little. So it was a good time to go watch Phillharmagic. We assured him that it was only a movie, which seemed to be a great relief. He does LOVE watching movies! He didn’t try to grab at all the 3-D stuff that came flying at us like Lily always does, but he did laugh pretty heartily several times, so I think he really enjoyed it.

Earlier, I had picked up Fastpasses for Ariel, but it wasn’t time to use them yet so we went ahead with the Carousel. This was the one ride all morning that he showed no hesitation at all with, finally something he is familiar with, lol! (They have one at our zoo, which we are members of, so he has ridden it several times). Afterwards, I thought we would have just enough time to visit Pete’s Silly Slideshow, and maybe grab a Fastpass for Barnstomer before our Ariel passes expired. But, the layout of New Fantasyland is still not clear in my head, and we ended up right in front of Ariel instead, with no good way to get to the other parts. As luck would have it, our Fastpasses would be good in just 2 minutes, so it made the most sense to go ahead and do that one now. And just hope that the line for Barnstormer wasn’t too long by the time we found our way over there.

I thought the new ride was very well done, reminded me a lot of the Seas with Nemo ride. But as usual, Owen threw a screaming fit getting on. And of course, ended up doing okay. This pattern was getting old, though. I was starting to notice something, the queues that were darker and more heavily themed scared him a lot more than the ones that were lighter and more open. So maybe he’d be okay with Dumbo, at least. Afterall, he had been talking about the flying elephant ride for many months.

Which actually ended up being our next ride. It was a long walk to connect to that part of Fantasyland, it looks like when it’s all done it will be easier, but for now we have to go around the long way. Not only have they added a second spinner to Dumbo, but there is now an inside play area where you can wait until it’s your turn to ride. Owen LOVED this. He would have been happy to stay and play all day. nice to be able to take a break inside where it’s cool too, man was it HOT already! Wasn’t April supposed to be cooler than June?? After playing for a while, we convinced Owen that we should move on to the ride. As I suspected, he wasn’t nervous at all getting on this one. I think being able to see the whole ride from the line helps. He does NOT like surprises or uncertainty. Hmmm. No wonder, it must be genetic, lol!

So Dumbo was a huge hit. It would turn out that any Dumbo-like ride was a favorite of his, and there are several variations of it around the parks. We were close to Pete’s Silly Slideshow, and having had a character-greeting breakthough with Owen the night before, I was anxious to try our luck again. We had a choice of Donald and Goofy, or Minnie and Daisy. He has been a huge Goofy fan for many months, so that’s where we went.

It was a really awesome experience! Owen LOVED Goofy, and he was so sweet with both of the kids. He even gave me a new pen (to keep) when our autograph pen was malfunctioning. I got quite a few pics on my camera this time, but was quite distressed later to realize the Photo pass ones never showed up in my account! They were able to locate them for me eventually though. Then we moved on to Donald. He was a lot of fun too, and Owen wasn’t showing any hesitation at all – YAY!!! I had worried for months that the characters would be a no-go on this trip. Instead, it was going to be the rides that were our challenge.

The Meet-n-Greet has you exit right into the large store, of course. I had been hoping the kids would save their money for a few days at least, but Lily was having a fit for a Duffy Bear, and Owen latched on to a remote-control monorail car. So we went ahead and let them make their first gift-card purchases. The CM checking us out even got Duffy all dressed in his new outfit. She carried him out of the store, and hardly put him down for the rest of the week! (you’ll notice she’s holding him in almost every picture from here on) I had initially said that I absolutely wasn’t going to let them buy anything for the first few days, but being able to have her constant companion with her for most of the trip actually ended up being a very good thing, and she was a lot less anxious about wanting to shop constantly as long as he was in her arms. Another lesson learned. Sometimes, you gotta give in. It all works out. Remember that.

It was getting close to lunch time, but we still had time for the Barnstormer. So far, we hadn’t waited more than 5-10 minutes for anything. Which was great, except that I couldn’t figure out HOW??? The place felt packed. People everywhere, to where you almost couldn’t walk without constantly bumping someone. It had never “felt” this crowded on our summer trips. But these people didn’t seem to be adding to the wait times at all, it’s like they were all just standing around taking up space, but not riding anything. Very strange.

Owen actually made the height requirement for Barnstormer, and knowing that he tended to like fast rides more than dark rides, we decided to give it a try. He did totally fine getting on, of course, since it was an open queue, and you could easily watch the whole thing in line. It was a short but fun roller-coaster, and Owen seemed pretty proud of himself afterwards!

Chapter 6. Plans “Derailed”, but it “All Works Out”
Our plan now had been to ride the Disney World Railroad back to Main Street (it would get us there fast, and Owen loves trains anyway), meet Mickey Mouse at Town Hall, then we had lunch reservations at Tony’s Town Square. Would have worked great, except that the Train was closed for the day, some kind of problem with the track. Rats!! So we would have to make a long and crowded (and HOT) walk back to Main Street. By the time we got there, we didn’t have time to wait in the line for Mickey, and the Fastpasses being offered probably wouldn’t still be good by the time we were done eating, though we took them anyway just in case. But what to do with the extra 20-25 minutes we now had before our reservation? There wasn’t really anything to do nearby, and we didn’t have time to wander off very far. These were the kind of timing dilemmas I had hoped to avoid by making such detailed plans. If only the train hadn’t been broken down!

Well, we went ahead and checked in for lunch early. She warned me that they might not be able to seat us until our reservation time (and were telling people without a reservation it would be a 50-60 minute wait!) But, luck smiled on us and we were called after only about 10 minutes, long before our reservation time. Things moved quickly after that, we placed our order, got our drinks, appetizers, and food all within about 20 minutes! THIS is how meals are supposed to go, not the tediously slow experience from last night. What a relief. And we all felt so recharged afterwards, that’s why I love table-service meals so much. And the food was GOOD! I had read so many bad reviews of the place that I almost canceled it several times, very glad now that I didn’t. I had the eggplant and it was delicious!

Afterwards, thanks to our good luck and quick service, we were easily still within our Mickey Fastpass. Although now the standby wait had inexplicably dropped and it didn’t hardly even matter that we had one. Too bad it wasn’t that short before lunch! Oh well, at least we were meeting him. It was another great character meeting.

He was very happy to see that Lily had Duffy (Duffy is Mickey Mouse’s teddy bear), and he had lots of hugs for both of the kids. We got a family picture done, I don’t know why I didn’t get one with just the kids but we would have another chance later. On the way out, I thought I’d stop by the Photopass center to get my Photopass Plus card that I had pre-orderd. It turned out to be a very long, frustrating, and tedious ordeal, and I was wishing I had saved it for another time. But Brian and Owen had fun dancing outside, and even went over to meet Pluto when he came out, all while I was in line. Lily happened to be inside with me when they found Pluto so she missed him, but I assured her we would see him again. But it wouldn’t be the last time they met Pluto without her…

Finally, it was time to head back to the hotel for a much-needed break. It was getting hotter by the minute, and Brian and Lily were looking forward to some time at Stormalong-the-Bay, after I had convinced them to skip it yesterday. Unlike our good luck with the bus that morning though, it was a VERY long wait to get a bus back to Yacht Club. But they should still have plenty of time to swim, and Owen to nap.

Chapter 7. WHY didn’t I let them swim yesterday???
I hurriedly shooed Brian and Lily out the door once they were in their swimsuits, because I knew Owen would have trouble getting to sleep with commotion in the room. Sure enough, almost as soon as they were gone, he was out. But then they came back after about 10 minutes with bad news.

Stormalong-the-Bay was closed for the rest of the day, some kind of mechanical problem. AARRGG! The universe was punishing me for having gotten so hasty and skipping swimming yesterday. And to make matters worse, while yesterday and today had been unseasonably hot (GREAT swimming weather though), the forecast for the next 3 days was unseasonably cold and rainy (HORRIBLE swimming weather). Very frustrating indeed. Well, they spent some time at the quiet pool which was very close to our room, and had fun, but it was still a bit of a bummer.

We consoled ourselves with the knowledge that the extended forecast called for more hot weather later in the week, so we WOULD get a chance to go to Stormalong-the-Bay, even if it wasn’t until the second half of our trip. I had thought about letting Owen swim a little after nap, but since the fun pool wasn’t open, it didn’t seem worth it. I hoped I wasn’t making the same mistake I had yesterday by rushing back to the park instead. I’ve mentioned before that I learned a lot of lessons on this trip, but the tricky thing about lessons is that they can also be misinterpreted. (On the way here, I had just been finishing up the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series, and had a sudden flash to the scene where Tricia says that after making each mistake once, she learned that sometimes you should definitely go back for your bag, and sometimes you should definitely not. The moral being, just because a decision led you wrong once, doesn’t mean it isn’t the right decision in a different situation. Well I hoped this was the right situation to be making the decision in, at least.)

So after Owen woke up, we headed on over to Epcot. Almost immediately it started raining. Not very hard, and I suspected it wouldn’t last long, but we put on our rainjackets anyway. Had a hard time getting Owen to put his on, then later he didn’t want to take it off even though we were inside! He has a special brand of stubbornness.

Chapter 7. An Evening Tour of the World
My main goal for tonight, other than dinner in Mexico, was to see the American Adventure show. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid, or at least a teen. Somehow we never seem to have time for it, and I thought Lily was old enough to appreciate it now too. There was a show at 6pm, and we were just a few minutes early. In the lobby of the American Pavilion, the Voices of Liberty were performing! I had heard about the group several times, but never managed to hear them. They sure lived up to their reputation! Even Owen was mesmerized by their singing.

Then it was time to head on into the theater. We rushed directly to the front, but it seems there was little competition. I don’t know why no one ever thinks to sit in the front row- there is nothing worse than having a large head in front of you, especially with small kids! But at almost every show we went to, we had it to ourselves.

The show was just like I remembered it, but somehow seemed different too. It’s interesting to see how your perspective changes as you grow up. Scenes that had always just seemed like a random jumble of entertaining characters and events now seemed so much more significant. It was completely awe-inspiring for sure. Even Owen loved it and barely moved a muscle the whole time. Brian had never seen it (that he remembered) and was quite impressed too.

When we came out, the Village People were doing a concert, so we stuck around and participated in the YMCA song. Lily was a little embarrassed by us, I think. Owen was mostly distracted by some of the Toy Story topiaries nearby, and loved all the Hula-hoop fencing around them. But finally, it was time to start heading on around the circle to Mexico.

On the way, we made brief stops in Africa to play the drums, and in Germany to watch the model trains. Had a bit of a hard time getting Owen to move on from that one! While we were admiring some of the character topiaries in Italy, a Photopass photographer found us and took several unique shots with us around the topiaries and other foliage. It would have been better if Owen was in a less-grumpy mood at that point, but he got some good ones of Lily anyway.

The we cruised on around to Mexico. Lily really wanted to look in Norway for the sword and shield she had seen 3 years ago (and later regretted not buying) but I convinced her to wait until after dinner at least. We rode the boat ride in Mexico, Owen did okay but was still a little nervous getting on, as it was a little darker.

Afterwards, there was a very long line to check-in for dinner. This was the first trip that we experienced that, and it would happen at about half of our meals. Either their check-in system is just too slow, or they are overbooking the restaurants. In the past, we’ve almost always been able to walk right up to the counter with little to no wait at all. But we finally got checked in and seated. I forgot how DARK the place is! It’s a cool atmosphere, but hard to even see the menu, much less each other. Dinner was pretty good though. Mine was a little more bean-heavy than I would have liked, and I was kind of wishing I had taken her up on the (off menu)cheese-enchilada. It still didn’t take nearly as long as last night’s dinner, so hopefully we could easily get Owen out before Illuminations started.

We stopped in Norway so Lily could get her sword and shield, and Owen too. At this point, it was closer to continue on the same way around the World Showcase to get back to the IG, since we were more than half-way around. But Owen, who apparently has a very good sense of direction, kept arguing that this was NOT the way back to our hotel! (Since he knew we had come from the other direction) I think he thought we were trying to trick him into staying for the fireworks.

Brian and Lily decided that they did want to stay, so Owen and I went on ahead without them after they found a good viewing spot. As we came out of the IG, Owen really wanted to take the boat. It’s much fast to walk, but we weren’t in a hurry so we went ahead and rode it. It was probably good, because the fireworks started almost as soon as we got on, but between the commotion and noise of the boat, Owen didn’t even notice. I thought they were all over by the time we were dropped off at Yacht Club, but as we were walking off the pier towards the building, they started up again. And he totally panicked!

He made a mad dash for the building, screaming like a banshee the whole way. We got more than a couple of strange looks as we ran, him way ahead of me, like he was being chased by a demon. Maybe staying so close to Epcot wasn’t a good idea afterall…

But he was fine once he reached the safety of the building, and Brian and Lily were back before too long so that we could settle in for the night. All in all, it had been a great first (full) day. Looking forward to the adventures that tomorrow will bring!

Chapter 8. A Magic-Hour Morning
Day 3. Saturday
Today we were headed to Hollywood Studios, for the first of several planned “extra-magic hour” mornings. So the park would be open to resort guest (including us) at 8am! Having found the room service situation a little stressful yesterday, we decided to do something much simpler today and grab some quick breakfast sandwiches from the Beach Club Marketplace. Brian especially detests most counter-service meals, but there just weren’t any other options so early in the morning. And even they didn’t open until 7am, so we still felt a little rushed.

But soon enough we were on the boat to DHS! Owen loved riding the boats all week, and we actually had really good luck with them, never waited more than a couple of minutes for one, and the boat captains were always a lot of fun. We made a quick stop at the Swan/Dolphin, and then we were there!

But again, I was disappointed to see how crowded it was! Morning Magic Hours are supposed to be almost empty but the whole entry area was packed with people already. It was a few minutes until 8am, but it looked like they were already letting people in. Brian and Owen were headed for Toy Story Mania, while Lily and I were off to do the thrill rides – Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster!

When we made our first family trip in 2008, Lily was tall enough, but ended up being afraid of the big rides, so we skipped them, thinking there was always next time. But by the next time, in 2010, I was 7 months pregnant. So while she had a blast doing all the thrill rides for the first time, I had to sadly sit on the sidelines and watch. FINALLY I was going to get to do them with her! It felt like this was a long time coming.

Fortunately, while the entrance area was super crowded, it seemed most were heading for Toy Story, leaving Sunset Blvd pretty empty. No idea how Brian and Owen would fare over at Pixar Place, but we were ready to ride! Except that Tower of Terror wasn’t. They were having some issues, but the CM seemed pretty optimistic that it would open soon, so we went on over to Rockin’ Roller Coaster instead (fortunately right next door)

I had never ridden this one before, and it was a lot of fun! You are being whisked across town to go backstage at an Aerosmith concert, and the coaster itself is a lot like Space Mountain. But more neon-glowy things everywhere. An adrenaline rush for sure! Tower of Terror was still not letting anyone in, but we went ahead and got in the short line, and within a minute or so we were moving – good timing indeed!

I had forgotten how much fun this one is, I hadn’t done it in years, probably not since college. I think it is Lily’s very favorite, she just loves the feeling of being weightless! She said she wished there was an express line that skipped the whole movie-part so she could just get dropped over and over again as many times as possible, lol!

We thought about doing one of them again, but by the time we were done, both lines were at 30 minutes already. It was still a little before 9am, so I decided to go ahead and line up for the Buzz and Woody M&G, thinking we would at least beat the masses, since that one tends to get a very long wait quickly. They wouldn’t be out until 9:15, and we ended up being first in line! I called Brian to come meet us there.

Turns out Toy Story had NOT been a hit with Owen. Again, he panicked in the queue, but never really got settled for most of the ride and was pretty upset by the end. He was still seeming a little shaken by it, and Brian was clearly a little drained from the whole ordeal. Afterwards, they had gone to their now-common fallback plan, and found Pluto. Again, without Lily. Oh well.

Soon, we were taken inside to get ready to meet Buzz and Woody. Owen was more nervous than I thought he would be, having done so well the characters up until now. But once he saw Lily going over to them, he was right on her heals! Another fun character experience, and this time for characters none of us had ever met before! The line was always so long, and Lily was just never quite interested enough to justify it. But Owen is a huge fan of Buzz, right after Lightning McQueen and Jake. And he seemed to get a lot of special attention from Buzz, so it was neat.

Next it was time to head over to the Animation area. I had very carefully planned our morning itinerary from here out, knowing that it’s easy to miss stuff here if you don’t, since so many of the attractions are shows that only happen at certain times. First stop was the Disney Junior show! They had just recently re-done it with the newer characters. The only ones that Owen would know (other than Mickey and friends, of course) was Jake. But that’s his absolute favorite, so I knew it was worth it just for that! He definitely got a BIG smile on his face when Jake, Izzy, Cubby, and Skully finally appeared! And even better, they dropped gold doubloons from the ceiling! Well, okay they were really gold circles of paper, but the kids had a blast collecting them.

I rushed us out of there a bit though, since I was hoping to make the 10:30am Animation Academy class. Lily had been really excited about this for several weeks. When we got in line, the CM warned us that it would be very close – we might not make it into this next show! I wasn’t sure we would have time to wait for the 11am one, so I was very relieved when we were the last family let in. Owen and I had to sit on a bench in the back with a lap board, instead of at a real desk, but at least we made it in.

It was a fun class, we learned how to draw Tigger! Well, Owen kind of did his own thing, but he stayed pretty well entertained with drawing at least. Brian and Lily had been up in the very front, and we all proudly showed off our drawings to each other at the end. We also watched the Magic of Animation show. Good, but for some reason I thought they would have changed it a little since last time. I mean, I like MuShu and all, but it seems like they could rotate out different characters every year or two.

We played around in the animation area for a little while, doing some of the computer activities. The characters meeting there were Wreck-it-Ralph, and Sorcerer Mickey. Both had a long line and didn’t interest the kids so we didn’t meet them. It was about time to head to lunch anyway, we had our first character meal today at Hollywood and Vine. The food is always pretty terrible here, and Owen wouldn’t know most of the characters, but there was exactly one character that I was hoping would make it all worthwhile. And we were certainly not disappointed!

Chapter 9. It’s JAKE!!

We had to wait a while on the patio to be seated at H&V, the kids were running around and playing, periodically stopping to press their face against the glass, on the look-out for characters. Owen was getting a little distressed that he couldn’t see Jake. I assured him that he was in there. Finally, right as we were being seated, I felt a tap on my shoulder from behind. I turned just in time to see Jake duck behind a nearby post.

I got Owen’s attention, and I’ll never forget the huge smile that erupted when he realized that Jake was playing peek-a-boo with him! It was as perfect as anything could ever have been. Owen was laughing hysterically, and totally awe-struck when Jake came closer for pictures and autographs. Definitely worth the whole meal for those few minutes.

The rest of the meal was uneventful, and the food was as bad as I remembered, but I’m still glad we did it. Owen wouldn’t go up and dance or join the parade though, like I had hoped. Lily always loved doing that when she was younger. I should have picked up on his lack of comfort with being in a large crowd of people dancing with the characters.. might have opted to change some plans later in the week. But oh well.

Afterwards, I had been planning to take Owen back for a nap, but he really wanted to stay to see the Beauty and the Beast show with Brian and Lily, so we did. unfortunately we weren’t quite early enough to get the front row, but still got decent seats. He ended up really enjoying it. I should have figured. He seems to really like the shows, and we never had any trouble getting him to sit through one all week. Another thing I learned this week, don’t underestimate his attention span!

Time to head back now though. We had probably our longest wait of the week for a boat, maybe 2 minutes, lol! Sure wish the buses were this fast. Back at the hotel, Brian wanted to nap too, so I took Lily to the pool while they slept. Stormalong-the-Bay was open today, but it was pretty cool and windy. Didn’t want to miss any more chances though, so we hung out and explored for a while. I will say that the pool is a lot of fun, but it doesn’t have the same relaxing-vibe that both the Polynesian and Caribbean Beach pools did. I think it’s because it’s so tedious to get around, with having several un-connected pools, and only a couple of entrance/exit areas. But I was glad we got to spend at least a little time here today.

Chapter 10. A “Cool” Evening for the Castle
After everyone woke up, it was time to get dressed for Royalty! We were having our traditional dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table. Lily, having outgrown the Princess-costume stage, had chosen instead a fancy blue party-dress. And Owen was wearing simple white polo with khaki pants. It was actually the most dressed up I had seen him in over a year, so we all laughed a little at how cute he was.

As we got to Magic Kingdom, I suddenly wondered if we had dressed well enough for the weather though – it was downright chilly already! We did have the rainjackets with us, we could get a little warmth from them if necessary. And we did end up wearing them for a while later on. So much for April being pleasantly warm, so far it had either been as hot as summer, or cold. No happy medium. We took the train to Frontierland, at least it was working today – yay!

My goal for the evening was Adventureland, and we started off with the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Being a Dumbo-clone, Owen was not scared at all, of course. That seems to be his type of ride. Next we did the Tiki Room. I hadn’t done it since it had gone “back to original management” (well other than as a kid). Overall all, I think I like this version better, though I did have a few moments of missing Zazu and Iago. Owen was a little nervous at first, but I think he enjoyed it.

We still had some time, so we explored the Swiss Family Treehouse. Owen was begging to ride the Carousel though, so we stopped there next on our way through Fantasyland before checking in at the Castle. We didn’t have a long wait to meet Cinderella in the lobby, but it was quite a while after that before we were announced to go to dinner. Several people that came in after us were called first. We always seem to have the worst luck with that here!

When we were finally called to go upstairs, we were seated in one of the side, elevated areas. Somehow, in all our previous trips we had been down in the middle section, so it was neat to do something different. Although, I’ll always be a little jealous of the tables right by the stained glass windows. We sure got lucky on our first trip here! Sitting right by the windows as night was falling, and the awesome dinner show that the Mice and Fairy Godmother used to do…But that was a Magical evening that will likely never be duplicated.

Just for Fun – 2008:

Anyway, back to the present. The kids were both in a goofy mood, and played a little more wildly than I would have liked with the swords and wands we were given. Hopefully they didn’t bother the nice couple at the table next to us too much. The usual procession of princesses started coming around. Neither of the kids are particularly interested in them right now, but smiled politely for a picture at least. Well except for Snow White, Owen decided to be humorously stubborn and not get in the picture, though much later he regretted it and shed a few tears over it even.

All in all, it had been a pleasant evening, but I was starting to think as we left, that maybe in the future I won’t quite consider this the non-negotioable must-do of every trip. Not having any little girls who are in awe of the princesses, or the Castle in general, and having done it so many times already, perhaps it’s time to try some other things in the future. But good that Owen got to do it once I suppose. It felt like so much was different this trip. We were different. Things that had once been Magical, were “just okay” now. But we were also finding Magic in new, unexpected places. Again, I felt like I was learning so much. Lessons about life, lessons about our family.

I always underestimate how long this meal takes, and by the time we left, the Main Street Electrical Parade was already well-underway. We might have been tempted to stay and watch some if it hadn’t been so COLD! And we weren’t really dressed for it, plus I could tell the kids were wearing out.

Unfortunately, our bad luck with the returning-buses held, and we had a LONG wait. Such a long wait that by the time it came there was a huge crowd of people and it ended up being packed with standers. Since we had been waiting almost the longest, we got a seat though.

On the way back, both kids were falling asleep on my shoulder, even though it actually wasn’t any later than they are used to going to bed at home. And Brian looked like he was fighting to stay awake too. Our plans for the next morning included another early-opening (EMH) at Animal Kingdom. Another 6am alarm.

I asked Brian if he thought that was wise, seeing the current state of our two kids. He admitted that he didn’t think it was.

Well, there was no point in going to Animal Kingdom tomorrow if we weren’t going to make use of the early-entry, since the park would be a little more crowded than normal for the rest of the day. But what to do tomorrow then? We decided on Epcot. I’d have to re-arrange some dining reservations. And we had planned to do Epcot the day after tomorrow, but we likely wouldn’t want to do it two days in a row… and if tomorrow’s early Magic Hour was seeming unreasonable, it was likely that the other 3 I had planned wouldn’t pan out either.

So it began. The great shuffle. After months of carefully planning every park day (taking into account crowd predictions and park hours), and coordinating all of our dining reservations (22 of them!), it was all about to fall apart here on Day 3. Breathe. Just breathe. As I was learning, we were different than we had been on previous trips. Our needs were different, what we enjoyed was different. Maybe it was time to break out of the mold.

And hopefully we would be able to regroup and re-plan on the fly!

Chapter 11. A Laid-Back Morning at Epcot.
Day 4. Sunday

So, having given up on my early morning plans the night before, we slept in a little today, well if you count 8am as sleeping in, lol! I didn’t manage to get a breakfast reservation at Captain’s Grille (it seems the mobile app was blocking out anything within the next two hours), but I was somewhat optimistic that we’d be able to get seated anyway. I was right. They weren’t very busy at all, in fact. The buffet was really good, one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve had! Even Brian, who usually hates buffets, enjoyed it a lot. It wasn’t huge, but had good variety and everything was so fresh. And it was fast. So we were on our way to Epcot shortly after they opened at 9am. So much for my die-hard rope-drop strategy though, we were going to have to go-with-the-flow a little more today.

We made our way slowly towards Future World, and headed for the Epcot Character Spot first. Lily still hadn’t gotten to meet Pluto (since Brian and Owen kept meeting him without her) and none of us had met Minnie yet. The normal location is still under construction, and it took us a while to figure out how to get into the temporary location. Turns out we walked right by one entrance to it when we first got to Future World, oh well! There still wasn’t much of a wait. Actually, it seemed like the crowds had really dropped off today, at least it wasn’t bad yet.

We had 3 nice meetings with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. It’s so much fun to see Owen interact with the characters now that he isn’t afraid of them! And I’m also very glad that Lily still enjoys them. Not so much the princesses, but she still has a soft spot for the furry ones.

Since we had missed rope-drop, I ran over to Soarin’ to get some Fastpasses. No way was I going to stand in line for an hour! The others went on over to Figment and were playing by the fountains when I found them. When it was time for the ride, Owen did surprisingly well. I thought we were going to be in for another meltdown as we first went into the building, but he quickly got it together and for the first time, didn’t freak out getting onto one of the indoor rides. Progress!

I still miss the original Figment ride, but this newer version is pretty cute too. Afterwards, the kids played for a while in the Imageworks labs, there is always so much fun stuff to do in there!

Then it was time to head to The Land! Looking back at my pictures, I can’t figure out if we rode Soarin’ first (with our Fastpasses), or if we did the Circle of Life movie first. But, I suppose it doesn’t much matter. We did both. I know a lot of people think the movie is too preachy, but it does make some good points, and I think it does so in a pretty uplifting and inspiring way. We always enjoy it, anyway.

We had to use rider-swap to do Soarin’. We actually all had fastpasses, but this way Lily would get to go twice, and by the time I went, I think the FP may have been expired anyway. I sent Brian and Lily first, and Owen and I visited Sunshine Seasons for a snack. I let him have a juicebox, possibly his first one ever, and he was totally amazed. I think he gulped it down in about 10 seconds, lol! And was like, “Wow, that was GOOD!” afterwards. Better not make that a habit! I had been planning to take him on the Living with the Land Boat ride while we waited, but it had a strangely long wait. (So much for it not being busy…) We never did end up getting to do it this trip, bummer.

After Brian and Lily finished, we traded off. Lily was ready to ride again, and Owen was really wanting to go to the Oz playground. So we agreed to meet them over there when we were done riding. Even with a FP, Soarin’ takes notoriously long. It’s so much fun though, I still think it’s my very favorite ride! The possibility of moving to California had been raised shortly before our trip, making it seem even more significant.

By the time we were done, it was almost time for lunch. I had managed to re-arrange our lunch ressie at Chefs de France for today, but we were going to have to hurry to make it! And it was again, shoulder-to-shoulder people everywhere. Seemed to take forever to get to the Oz playground to pick up Brian and Owen. Where did all these people come from? So much for the quiet morning.

We made it just in time though, and were seated right away. Last time, this had been one of my very favorite restaurants, so I was looking forward to getting to do it again. The kids were pretty worn out though, and the meal would feel a little more rushed and stressful this time. At one point I had my bread sitting upside down on my plate, and I think I terrified a poor waitress, who quickly informed me that it was very bad luck to do that, and insisted that I turn it over at once! The veggie lasagna was very good, just like before, though we passed on the yummy chocolate cake for dessert. Lily and I were trying to stick to one dessert/day, and with everyone being so tired, I figured it wasn’t worth spending the time right now.

A good lunch, but not the re-creation of our previous one that I had been looking for. I know, I know, I’ve learned that lesson by now!

When we came out, it was pouring rain. We donned our rainjackets and headed back. Fortunately, we were not far at all from the International Gateway so we were at the room, and in bed, pretty quick. Well, both kids were anyway. I think Brian went to the gym for a while.

Chapter 12. Hoping the Weather Doesn’t Spoil our Evening…
Once they woke up, we hung out in the room for a while. It had been raining most of the afternoon, so swimming hadn’t appealed to anyone. After a while, we wandered down to the lobby. I was hoping to visit the Photopass desk to ask about the Goofy pictures that were still missing from my account, and they kept very limited hours here. We were right in the middle of them, finally.

Brian took the kids outside while a very nice Photopass CM helped me. We did finally find them, thank goodness! I kind of got the feeling that she was not at all familiar with the parks, and didn’t even seem to know most of the characters. She tried very hard, but I was a little surprised that a Photopass CM would be so unknowledgable. We still had a little time before dinner with that sorted out, so the kids looked around in the Marketplace for a couple of small souvenirs, and we wandered around outside some more, under the covered areas since it was still raining off and on.

At one point, Owen and Lily cuddled in one of the deck chairs watching the rain. Instead of picking up my somewhat-annoyed attitude towards it, they smiled and said they were having “bonding time”. That lightened my mood immensely. Why life had chosen my long-awaited vacation week to continually break-down everything I thought I knew, and start teaching me from scratch, I don’t know. But it sure seemed like it was all week.

Finally, it was time to go check in for dinner at Cape May, right in the Beach Club. It was just a short wait for a table, and we helped ourselves to the buffet. Again, I was a little nervous taking Brian to a buffet as he tends to dislike them, but once again this one ended up being a hit! They didn’t have a ton of vegetarian options for me, but I found enough and it was good.

It had seemed like the meal was going quickly, and I thought I allowed plenty of time with our reservation, but suddenly it seemed like we were running late if we were going to make it to DHS in time for Fantasmic! So we quickly finished up and headed for the boat dock. On the way over, the boat captain mentioned that Fantasmic! would be starting soon, and at first seemed hesitant to suggest that we would still be able to make it, but considering the weather… the park had probably cleared out considerably so it was unlikely that it would be full. They would just need to run. There was a light misty rain still, but probably nothing to threaten the show at least.

They, because of course, there was no way Owen was going to be okay with that! I had actually been thinking that he and I might do something totally different tonight – either swim or go to another park. But it wasn’t exactly swimming weather, and he was really wanting to meet Lightning McQueen. So that was our agenda for the night here.

Brian and Lily took off sprinting as soon as we left the boat. They ended up not only making it, but getting the best seats in the house – front and center! Meanwhile, Owen and I slowly worked our way towards the Cars greeting area. Well okay, I actually had no idea where I was going so most of the time we were aimlessly wandering. For some reason I just can’t wrap my head around the layout of DHS, it’s so confusing! But Owen was liking the experience of just seeing everything, so we were in no hurry anyway. DHS is a neat park to be in at night, with all the lights.

Finally, we stumbled upon Lightning McQueen and Mater. The whole area was completely abandoned, except for the Handler, and a Photopass photographer. So they were pretty excited to see Owen come up! Unfortunately, Lightning McQueen and Mater were LOUD! I hadn’t been expecting that, and it was almost too much for Owen. But since there was no one else waiting, he could take his time and slowly work up his courage to approach. The Handler was really awesome, he spent a long time with Owen showing him different parts of the Cars and reassuring him that they weren’t scary. Owen never really relaxed the whole time, but he has talked about meeting them non-stop ever since, so he must have enjoyed it despite being a little scared.

We didn’t really have any plans after that. He wasn’t seeming tired yet, so there was no reason to rush back to the hotel ahead of Brian and Lily. We wandered around some more, and finally he decided that he wanted to meet Buzz and Woody again. (Couldn’t talk him into giving Toy Story Mania another try, lol!) There was a bit of a line this time, but with nothing else to do we decided to wait in it. He had fun playing around all the Toy Story stuff in the queue, and even played with some of the other kids while we waited too.

He was much less shy this time meeting them than he had been before, and this time there was a Photopass photographer here. Afterwards, it was about time to head for the front, and I got a text from Brian that they were on their way too. We were at the boat docks first, and a boat was there, but we didn’t want to get on without Brian and Lily so I thought we’d just wait for the next one. It turned out that they came just a couple minutes later, and the boat hadn’t left quite yet, so we just made it on! Unfortunately during the time that we were waiting, Illuminations had started. And even from a different park, the fireworks were enough to send Owen into a frenzy. Sigh. I suppose going downtown for the 4th of July will be out of the question this year.

In my shuffled plans, it ended up working out that we would be going back to DHS tomorrow, for the morning AND evening actually. I had tried to avoid overdoing one park in a short period of time, but what can I say. That’s how it ended up, so we would be right back there in a few hours! This would end up feeling like the whole “DHS-part of the trip.”

Chapter 13. No, Sulley, Don’t Leave!!!
Day 5. Monday
In my newly-shuffled plans, it ended up working out best to go back to Hollywood Studios this morning, even though we had just been there last night, and had already spent one morning and evening there, AND were already committed to being there for this evening too. The only park we hadn’t been to, and might have considered instead, was Animal Kingdom. But it was Earth Day, and there were a lot of special events going on that we weren’t particularly interested in. So there wasn’t any point in putting up with the increased crowds. And we wanted to save the rest of our Magic Kingdom and Epcot time until closer to the end of the trip. So, DHS bound we were, again!

For breakfast, we did the buffet at Captain’s Grille again. This time I had a reservation, though again they weren’t very busy as usual. The kids liked that were seated next to the 3-D murals of the sea, complete with a lighthouse and ships that moved back and forth! The food and service were great again. This place was probably the winner of the trip in terms of usefulness, not sure what we would have done without it!

I did want to be at DHS in time for rope-drop today, so after letting everyone take a little easier yesterday morning, I got them going more quickly today. Again, I think we were let in a few minutes before the scheduled 9am opening. Today, it was Brian’s turn to go with Lily on Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster. (Since we were planning to spend 2 mornings here, this seemed easier than dragging Owen over there for child-swap)

Owen and I didn’t have much of a plan, like last night he was interested in seeing McQueen and Mater again, and I hoped they wouldn’t be as scary in the daylight. We took our time wandering over there, at least now I had some idea where I was going. Another family walked up about the same time as us (there wasn’t anyone else in line) and I held back to let them go first so that Owen wouldn’t be rushed. He was still amazed by them, and a little hesitant, but not as nervous as last night. He was especially interested in McQueen’s mouth today, and spent several minutes touching it and trying to look inside. I think it was good that he got this second chance. Like I mentioned before, he has talked about getting to meet them many, many times.

He had also been asking to meet Stitch, who was supposed to be appearing by The Hat shortly, so we wandered over there. I saw several characters out, with pretty long lines, but no Stitch. I asked a CM near one of the lines about Stitch, but she wouldn’t give me any info, and was a little curt with me about it. A second CM wasn’t much more helpful, and also rather curtly informed me that the line for “her character” was closed, when I suggested to Owen that we get in that one instead. Well… this wasn’t going so great.

We hung out for a little while, but still no sign of Stitch, and Owen was getting restless. So we decided to go to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground instead. We should have another chance to meet Stitch later in the week at Magic Kingdom, anyway, or so I thought. I should have known, the playground would be his favorite part anyway! He LOVED all the play areas in each of the parks. He was a little nervous at first of the tunnels, since some of them had growling noises in them, but had a blast running up the stairs and going down the slides over and over again.

Finally, after about an hour, Brian called, and I told them to come meet us at the playground. They of course, had a great time on the thrill rides, and were even able to do each one twice with only a few minutes wait! I was a little jealous, Lily and I hadn’t even been able to do that on an EMH morning. Well, maybe that was a sign that the crowds were finally starting to drop off some. Though I felt like I’d been fooled a bit in the first hour at Epcot yesterday, too.

On our way to the playground, I had picked up a Toy Story Mania Fastpass for myself, hoping I’d be able to go later after we all met up. By the time they got to the playground, it was only 20 minutes from my FP window. The Monsters Inc characters were nearby, and I thought maybe we could go meet them, then let the kids play some more while I went to Toy Story. Lily was being difficult though, she wanted to play NOW. Which meant they would be done and ready to move on to something else about the time my FP was active.. finally I convinced her to let us do things MY way, even if just for a few minutes.

So we headed over to find Mike and Sulley! Monsters Inc is one of, if not my very favorite Disney movie so this is always a must-do for me. And I especially have a soft-spot for Sulley. I had a bit of a secret agenda though... I had been looking forward to getting a family picture with them, because I knew it would end up being one of a very few pictures that we had managed to re-create on every trip. And thought it would be cool to do a side-by-side comparison of them. “Monsters Through the Years”. There was a short wait, but not too long. As we were almost to the front, the CM announced that Sulley would be leaving in 5 minutes, and only Mike would be available for pictures. OH NOOOO! My plan was foiled if we couldn’t get the picture with both of them.

I usually don’t mind people taking their time with the characters, but boy was I sending evil glares at the family in front of us as they lollygagged around with them. The clock was ticking… would we make it??? We did. Just barely. As soon as they even started walking away, I ushered us in before anyone could say otherwise. The CM looked at her watch kind of grumpily, and announced that we would be Sulley’s last family. Whew! But I think she was annoyed with us, so I didn’t want to bother her with asking to get a picture with our camera, for fear she might change her mind and send him away. I would regret that later. But for now, I was happy to get a picture from the Photopass photographer, and enjoyed watching Owen meet them for the first time. Sulley even bent down and gave him a hug!

2008…2010…2013

The timing was perfect, my Toy Story FP would be good in 5 minutes, so I sent Brian with the kids back to the playground. The CM at the line was being a stickler as always, and made several of us stand right at the entrance until the clock rolled over to exactly 10:35am. (Brian claimed to have had a much more laid-back one who let him in early, but I’ve never seen one, lol!)

I always enjoy this ride, though is still baffles me that people are willing to wait an hour or more to ride it. I don’t like it THAT much, for sure! But with a 5-minutes FP wait, for sure. Last time, in 2010, I was so happy to have not only beat my previous score, but also beat Brian! This time I did even better, around 135,000 I think! But man, my arm was TIRED afterwards!

Chapter 13. A Little-Tiny Lightning McQueen
By the time I got back to the playground, the kids were able to be convinced that it was time to go. But for once, we didn’t have any very specific plans. We explored some of the Streets of America, paying special attention to the San Fransisco scene, and wondering if our very-near-future might find us living there.

As we wandered, we passed MuppetVison, and in the absence of anything better to do, decided to give it a try. I’m SO glad we did! For some reason I never think I’m going to like Muppet things that much, then I always end up loving it. Sort of a nostalgic blast-from-the-past, I guess. We sat in the front again, and this ended up being one of the highlights of Owen’s day. He laughed and laughed, and even tried reaching for stuff several times. Again, really glad I didn’t turn my nose up at this like I was first inclined. I really need to learn not to shun things I don’t know.

Lily had been interested in meeting Phineas and Ferb, who were right next door, but there was a REALLY long line, and she decided she wasn’t THAT interested. We were also right by Mama Melrose, but it wasn’t time for our lunch reservation yet, and in fact they wouldn’t even be open for almost 30 minutes so there was no point in just standing around. Brian kind of wanted to do Star Tours, but of course Owen wasn’t tall enough. The app on my phone said the wait time was only 10 minutes though, so I sent them ahead and told them to meet us back at Mama Melrose in time for lunch. (Never been a big Star Wars fan for some reason, though I love sci-fi in general, so I wasn’t sad to miss it)

Owen and I wandered around some more, and ended up going into a nearby gift-shop. Immediately, he found the Lightning McQueen stuff. He only had 5 dollars left on his gift card by now, which was exactly the cost of a small matchbox sized Lightning McQueen that he became attached to. We looked around the store some more, but he did not waver, he wanted THAT Lightning McQueen. Even though he has about 6 others at home, in varying sizes but all at least a little bigger than this one.

We walked up to the cash register about the same time as an older woman, who was with a couple of kids. She was seeming a bit disorganized, and they hadn’t really settled on what they were buying for sure. But for some reason, it didn’t occur to her to offer to let me go first. So we waited, and waited, and waited, while they changed their mind several times.. and the CM looked at me very apologetically. Fortunately, we weren’t in any hurry so it wasn’t a big deal. As they were checking out, the parents of the two kids came up and were clearly exasperated that Grandma was spending both time AND money, AGAIN, buying more stuff for their kids. I gave them a sympathetic smile when they apologized to me as well for the chaos they were causing.

While we were waiting, Owen asked me over and over again if I had “lots and lots of money” to buy his car with. It may not have seemed like much, but that little matchbox car has become his most prized possession. He will not go to bed without his “little-tiny Lightning McQueen”, and is always still clutching it when he gets out of bed in the morning. He was content after this to sit on the sidewalk waiting for Brian and Lily to return, zooming McQueen all over the place.

When they returned, it was time to check in for lunch. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed that the check-in line had gotten so LONG! Once again, I was completely baffled by this phenomenon. It never took us more than about 10 seconds to check-in at the host stand, HOW could the line possibly get this long and move this slowly? By the time we got up there, we were 15 minutes late for our reservation. Fortunately, we were called to be seated after only a few minutes, which was good because Brian had been complaining that he was STARVING for most of the last hour. Those people that say 3 Table-Service meals a day is too much food… obviously don’t know him, lol!

This is another restaurant that gets pretty terrible reviews, but it was our 3rd time eating here and we’ve never found any reason to complain (well other than the long check-in line today). But in general, it tends to be pretty fast. The food is nothing fancy, but it’s good.

After lunch, we had no other plans or anything else to do. Lily had at one point been hoping to see the Disney Channel Rocks show this afternoon, but sadly it was cancelled just a few weeks before our trip. So we headed on back to the Yacht Club. So far, it had been a little warmer and drier today, so there might actually be a decent chance to swim this afternoon if the weather held out and nap went well.

Chapter 14. Not Exactly the Life of the Party
I swore before this trip that I would NOT wake Owen up from his nap unless we were absolutely in danger of missing a dinner reservation. But after almost 3 hours, I admittedly got antsy. The weather may not have been perfect, (still a little cloudy and cool) but it was much more swimmable than the last few days and we were about to miss our chance! It took some serious work, but I finally convinced him that the pool was worth getting out of bed for.

FINALLY, on Day 5 of our trip, he was getting to swim in the famous pool, which was half the reason we were staying here. Better late than never, I guess. He spent most of the first hour playing in the sand. Part of the pool is set up to look like the beach, with a sandy, zero-entry water area. The bottom of the pool in that part is even sandy. Myself, I’m not such a fan of sand. But Owen likes it. I’m pretty sure the only blister I got on my foot the whole time came from walking around in in for so long that afternoon though!

We did try to go over to the small pool in the base of the ship (across the main walkway) that has the slide. Owen did the little slide over there once, and did not like it at all. So we came back to the sand. (I know both Brian and Lily did the big slide several times during the week and really liked it, but I was never with them so I’m not really sure when or on which day. Personally, I won’t do any slide that is enclosed, as the first half of this one is.)

The sun only peeked out periodically, so after a while we were feeling a bit chilly. Owen was even starting shiver, though of course he wouldn’t admit it. There are several hot tubs scattered around the pool, so we decided to go warm up. They don’t keep them all that hot, so there aren’t even any age restrictions. Though we still couldn’t get Owen to put more than his feet in. I think we still kept him mostly warm by occasionally dripping hot water all over him. He didn’t mind that so much.

While we were in the hot tub, another family that had just arrived was finding out how difficult it can be to get dinner reservations last minute. The mom apparently “knew” one of the cooks at Captain’s Grille, and was thinking that would be enough to get them in somewhere, but of course she was disappointed. I think they managed to find something really late over at the Swan or Dolphin. While I had been rearranging lunch and breakfast reservations like mad the last few days, I had left our dinner alone, since those are so much harder to come by.

Eventually, our pool time had to come to an end, as we had our own dinner to get ready for – at Yachtsman Steakhouse! This was our “nice dinner” of the trip. We got dressed and ready, and checked in just a few minutes early. Again though, it was a while before we were seated. And several parties that got there after us, and seemed to be about the same size as us, were seated first. I guess I just don’t understand how this whole seating and reservations thing works. It doesn’t seem to work very well sometimes, though.

Overall, the meal was fine. A little slower than I would have liked, since I was trying to keep Owen under control in the very dark and quiet restaurant. Brian later said he didn’t think he’d do it again though, especially not for 2 credits. But the kids did like the paint-your-own dessert plate. Our waitress brought one out for Owen since Brian didn’t order a dessert.

It was already after 9pm by the time we left… one would think we were just making the short walk back to our room for bed. But, no. We had much more ambitious, and crazy, plans than that for the evening. It was evening-extra-magic-hour at Hollywood Studios. Yes, I know, we’ve spent a LOT of time there already, and done every ride and show we could possibly want to… but I recently learned that pmEMH there means that something special is going to happen… A Disney Junior Dance Party!

All of Owen’s favorite characters would be leading a party inside the building where they do the Disney Junior show. As much as he had loved the characters all week, he was sure to have a blast here! I had already planned on sleeping in tomorrow so it didn’t matter how late we stayed out. Just once, it was worth it for a special experience.

We got there just after the party had started. But as we were going in the door, Owen froze. Inside, Jake and Mickey were happily dancing with a whole room-full of little kids. Owen wouldn’t move. Are you kidding me?? This looked like SO MUCH FUN!! I had been looking forward to it for weeks, and had rearranged our whole schedule to be able to do it. He LOVED the characters, why would he want to miss this kind of opportunity??

We finally got him into the building, but he refused to even go more than a foot past the door, much less dance or interact with the characters. Not even getting a balloon-sword helped. Well, this was turning out to be a bust. Finally, we got him to at least join a Conga line behind Jake, but he clearly wasn’t enjoying himself. The combination of so many people, it being dark and loud, and late… it was just too overwhelming I guess.
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After about 30 minutes, Lily was getting bored, so I took her over to do Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster one more time, since they didn’t have hardly any wait. It was fun getting to do them at night, so at least all was not lost with this late-night jaunt to the park. Brian stayed with Owen at the party a little while longer, but soon gave up and they went to watch the Little Mermaid show instead. That’s actually one of Brian’s favorites (who knew he was a Princess-lover??) and we hadn’t had time for it yet. It seemed to suit Owen better than the party did anyway.

When we met back up again, at was after 11pm, and with the dance party a total failure, we decided to call it a night. On the way out, we did stop and listen to a few songs by the Mulch, Sweat, and Shears band. Owen liked that better than the party for sure. We didn’t get to bed until almost midnight. If the evening had been more of a success, I would have been fine with that. But now I was afraid I had ruined the next day, and for no good reason. OH well. Live and learn I guess! Yes, universe, I know. I’m listening. Sometimes the best laid plans…

Chapter 15. A Different Sort of Morning, and Lunch Around the World
Day 6. Tuesday
Knowing that we would likely stay out late the night before, I hadn’t planned anything for the morning. In my original plans (before I knew about the party) I had hoped to make early EMH at Epcot, but that of course wasn’t going to happen. Though no one slept as late as I had hoped. We were all waking up a little before 8am, despite having been out until almost midnight. And everyone was hungry.

We got up and dressed pretty quickly and walked over to the Boardwalk area for breakfast at Kouzzina! I had never eaten there before and was hoping we’d have a chance to try it while we were here. And it was a beautiful walk, Owen especially liked going over the bridge by the Swam and Dolphin hotels. The cold and rainy part of our trip was over, according to the weather forecast. Should be nothing but hot and sunny from here on out.

We really enjoyed breakfast here, they had some more unusual things on the menu than we had been eating at Captain’s Grille. Not really exotic, just a unique twist on normal things. So far we had found 2 really good places in this area for breakfast, and since we hadn’t been making it to morning EMH much anyway, my frustration that they didn’t open early enough ended up not mattering.

We didn’t have any plans after this, other than needing to be in Magic Kingdom for dinner. And since we were off to a late start, I wasn’t sure it was going to be worth it to come back in just a couple of hours for a break. So we decided to do things a bit differently today. It was already plenty hot, and the kids were anxious to make use of the great swimming weather. We could spend an hour or two at the pool, then head over to Epcot for lunch, work our way around to the front, and then take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. Then we’d still have a couple of hours there before dinner.

Unfortunately, when we got back to our room, the maid was already in there working. I had thought about putting up the “Do Not Disturb” sign before we left to keep this from happening, but hadn’t really expected her to come this early. Rats! So the kids impatiently ran around in the outside courtyard near our room while we paced the hall and waited for her to be done. One time she came out and scolded the guy next to our room (I guess she had done his room already) for leaving his dirty clothes on the floor. Yikes! I hate to think what she thought of our room! We tried to be less conspicuous after this, lest she realize it was OUR room she was cleaning and give us a lecture too.

Finally, she moved down the hall and we quickly snuck in before she could see us. We ended up having a really nice morning at the pool. The kids mostly played in the sandy area building sandcastles. I was starting to think I liked this pattern… sleep until we wake up, take a leisurely morning at the pool, then head to the park later. Of course, there was no telling what kind of heat and crowds we would be facing at Magic Kingdom by mid afternoon, that’s usually about the time we are leaving! But it would be interesting to try this once, at least.

By noon, we were all starting to get hungry again, so got ready to go. We decided that since we were going to skip our usual afternoon break (and Owen’s nap) that we should bring the stroller. We hadn’t used it so far, it had just seemed easier to let him walk or carry him for a few minutes when need be. But he would probably take a nap in it today. We had only brought the umbrella stroller, which is a pain to push, but had seemed so much simpler to travel with than our giant Bob stroller.

This would be our first non-table-service meal, and I was worried it wouldn’t go over well with Brian. As part of the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot, each of the countries had set up snack kiosks, with small-portion samplings of some of their popular foods. A few were more dessert-like, but they all had several meal-type foods too so I was hoping we could make it work.

Our first stop was Morocco. Brian got the Lamb Kabob, and Lily and I each got a Baghrir. We found a standing table by the water, and even in the shade – perfect! We were all stunned at how GOOD the food was! We thought this might be an interesting way to eat lunch, but we didn’t expect the food to be anything outstanding. We were pleasantly surprised. And the Mint Iced Tea really hit the spot. No great surprise though, Owen was already asleep in the stroller.

Next we stopped at Hanami in Japan. Brian got the Chirashi Hanazushi, Lily and I shared a Yakisoba Pan. It was sort of like Japanese pan noodles on a hamburger bun. Sounds odd, but boy was it good! Quite possibly the best thing I’d eaten all week. And again, we lucked out with another standing table by the lagoon.

In Italy we had a very tasty Lasagna Primavera, I think Brian had the Asparagi con Aragosta. It was really hard to decide by now which had been our favorite. And my fears about this lunch not being a hit with Brian had been completely unfounded, he was loving it! He decided to call it our “walking lunch”, and his only Facebook post of the week would be to brag about how good it was. Still learning. And starting to be less weary of trying something new and different. Even if it seems to be against everything I thought I knew about the “right” way to do things.

We made two more stops before we were too full to eat anymore – China and Mexico. I had the Pan-fried Vegetable Bun in China, and a Guava Custard in Mexico. At every stop, we were easily able to secure a standing table with a nice view, and usually in the shade. What a great experience! (And once the dust settled, we had spent 22 snack credits, Yikes! At least we wouldn’t have a bunch left over this time.)

Chapter 16. Rockets that Fly off the Ride…
We were at the entrance to Future World by now, and made our way slowly towards the front for the monorail. Owen woke up as we were coming under Spaceship Earth, and there we saw Daisy and Goofy. They each only had a short line so the kids wanted to see them again.

Owen had been fascinated by the monorail all week, and was excited that we were finally getting a chance to ride it. There was a monorail boarding as we came up and we just barely made it on. We had very similar luck at the Transportation and Ticket Center transferring to the Magic Kingdom monorail.

Somehow in my preparations for the day I hadn’t brought nearly enough diapers for Owen. I guess I wasn’t used to being gone more than a few hours at a time. So I knew we’d need to stop by the Baby Care center before getting distracted by anything else. As I suspected, the park was pretty packed by now, but we were on such a high from our great morning and lunch that it didn’t phase us much.

With that taken care of, we headed into Tomorrowland! I had been hoping to save this for a night, but I was starting to realize we probably weren’t going to be spending much time here after dark, since Owen was so terrified of the fireworks. Our first stop was to grab some Fastpasses for Space Mountain! Another one I hadn’t done since I was kid, and I was excited to finally get to do it with Lily.

We thought the PeopleMover might be a good way to introduce Owen to the area. He liked it, except for the part where it goes inside Space Mountain. I think he thought it was putting us on the ride! He loved the parts where our car sped up and went fast though. Maybe he’ll be a thrill rider one day.

I wanted to be sure we got to do Astro Orbiter, since I thought Owen would like it, being very Dumbo-like. The line said it was 30 minutes, longer than we are usually willing to wait, but the app on my phone said 20 minutes so I talked everyone into doing it anyway. Brian was worried that this one would be scary for Owen, as it’s faster and higher. He did have a couple of brief moments in line getting upset, but got over it quickly.

While we were waiting, I think Brian freaked out another little girl in line. He started telling one of his famous “tall tales” about how this ride used to be so much faster, and the rockets would often fly right off the ride and go soaring up in the clouds. He ended it with saying he “thought” they had slowed it down since then, though! Her eyes got pretty wide.

It turned out I was right, Owen LOVED it! He took off for the rockets as soon as he saw them, and had almost climbed into ours by himself by the time I caught up with him. And squealed with delight the whole ride. At least we’ve found something he likes on this trip – outside rides that go around in circles, ha!

By now, our Space Mountain Fastpasses were good. I sent Brian and Lily ahead, after getting a rider-swap pass. I really should have been saving my Fastpass-obtaining abilities since I always used the rider-swap pass instead. But I probably wouldn’t have found a good use for it anyway. Owen and I mostly hung out, and got a Mickey-pretzel from Cool-ship. We rarely buy snacks in the park, today had been quite the day for it though, lol! And after seeing these on a blog, I had been looking forward to one for weeks.

When they were done, Brian and Owen headed off for the Speedway while Lily and I went back to the Mountain. Again, I had forgotten how much FUN this one is! I think it’s my favorite roller-coaster here. (Though Soarin’ still gets my vote for best ride) And they are all so well-themed inside. I was actually a little sad that in the Fastpass line we didn’t get to do any of the interactive stuff in the regular queue.

We all met up again afterwards, Owen had loved the Speedway, and since there was still plenty of time before dinner we went to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. Somehow we had never done this before, and since I LOVE Monsters Inc I was determined to make it over there this trip. I know a lot of people seem to think it’s dumb, but we all really enjoyed it. I thought the parts with the audience members participating were hilarious. Although we probably got lucky and had several people that really got into their “parts”. It would be fun to do this one several times just to see how different it is with different people.

We still had time for one more thing before heading for Fantasyland, and I suggested Carousel of Progress. Strangely enough, as a kid I had absolutely loved this, but hadn’t done it since. That was becoming a theme of this trip, it seems. To my surprise, everyone else was excited to do it too. I definitely noticed its age more than I had in the past. I’m actually a little surprised that Disney hasn’t maintained it a little better, but we all still had a good time and it was fun to relive some memories from my own childhood.

Chapter 17. A Special Guest of the Beast
It was already now after 6pm, and we had a very special dinner at 6:45. At Be Our Guest, in the new Beast’s Castle! This was probably the reservation I was most excited about, and had been the hardest to get. We stopped at the Fantasyland restrooms so that Lily could change into her “yellow dress“, again not a costume, but definitely evoked a bit of “Belle“.

There was a very long check-in line, and further frustrating things was that it was not very well organized. I ended up being cutoff several times due to the confusion about where the line was supposed to be. But finally we had our pager and waited on the bridge. Owen had fun running around all the gargoyles. When it was time to be seated, Lily was asked to carry the candle!

We were immediately amazed as soon as we stepped inside. I had seen lots of pictures, but they didn’t even begin to do it justice! Total awe, no other way to describe it. And I was glad that we were seated in the Ballroom. The West Wing looked cool, but nothing could compare to the Ballroom. Shortly after we were seated, the Beast made one of his periodic walks through the restaurant. We would be able to meet him in his study after our meal. I really like that, a chance to meet a character at a meal, but without the stress of constantly being on the lookout for who is approaching your table. It was a good compromise for our family.

Our waitress was offended that Duffy didn’t have his own seat, so she actually brought him a high chair. Lily had been getting a little crabby, and this seemed to help her mood some. The food was fine – nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about for sure. Obviously, you are eating here for the atmosphere and overall experience a lot more than for the food. Although the strawberry cupcake was pretty tasty. It was actually the only cupcake I had all week.

Once we were done, we went to greet the Beast! We were the only ones in there, so we could really take our time. Owen got nervous- not only was the Beast bigger and more intimidating than the other characters he had met, but the room was pretty dark, and that always put him on edge. So I sent Lily up first, thinking he would change his mind once he saw her.

It turns out that it was really good that she went by herself first. The Beast was so thrilled with her yellow dress! he made some kind of hand-gesture to the CM’s and pointed to her, and they said “Oh, you think she looks like Belle?!?” He emphatically shook his head yes, and covered his face a little like he was suddenly shy. Then he took her hand and danced her around in a circle a few times. It was priceless. She may think she’s “too old” to be a princess, but the smile on her face proved otherwise.

By now Owen had relaxed a little, and we were able to get a family picture too. A very successful dinner for sure, so glad we got to experience it!

It was late by now, and I didn’t think it was worth wearing everyone out any more to stay late. So we took the train from Fantasyland back to Main Street. Owen had insisted on pushing his stroller instead of riding in it all the way back, and we had several very-near collisions. Sorry to anyone that happened to be in New Fantasyland that night, lol!

The parade was getting ready to start, and there were actually several open spots right against the railing of the train station that would have made for great viewing. I was briefly tempted to stay, but the kids were clearly exhausted. Not worth it. That’s what I had to tell myself all the way out to the bus. And the typical issue with returning buses from Magic Kingdom, well I’m not even going to talk about it this time.

All in all, this ended up probably being our best day of the trip. I had worried that the dance party the night before, being a total flop, would also ruin today. But in some ways, I’m really glad we did it simply because it forced us to shake things up a little and do something different today. I don’t think we could get by with skipping Owen’s nap everyday, but it was nice to break out of our routine for once.

Another thing I was starting to notice from this trip, was that trying to recreate our favorites from the last few years was leaving us all feeling a little empty. I was definitely enjoying doing a lot of childhood favorites that we hadn’t done in a decade or more, but our best times had been when we did something totally new and different. So many lessons learned on this trip, this was definitely one of them.

Chapter 18. “Hey Tigger, Come Up Here!”
Day 7. Wednesday

We were finally going to Animal Kingdom today! I had wanted to go on an EMH morning so that we’d have an extra hour and hopefully beat some of the crowds, but everyone had been seeming so worn out that by now we had given up on EMH completely. According to my TouringPlans app, today wasn’t supposed to be very busy, so hopefully it would be okay.

We had breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe first. We did this on our first trip too and it worked out pretty well. Owen was a little scared of the thunderstorm inside when it started, but once he calmed down I think he enjoyed all the fun stuff to look at. And it’s nice that they are on the Dining plan now.

By the time we finished eating, the park had been open for almost 15 minutes so we needed to get moving! Brian and Lily were headed for Expedition Everest, and I told them to grab me a Fastpass for later if it looked like the return-time might work out. There was a another Dumbo-clone here – Triceratop Spin, so Owen and I were headed for that.

I had been expecting Brian to call or send me a message when they were done, and I thought Owen and I would go meet them. The wait time posted on my app for Everest was still only 5 minutes, so I figured by the time Owen and I rode Triceratops they would be done. But we still hadn’t heard from them. We wandered around Dinoland for a bit, and noticed that Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore would be greeting at Discovery Island in just a few minutes. No one was in line yet, and Owen really wanted to see them again so we waited by the gate.

A few minutes later, the character handler came over, and noticed that Owen was wearing a Tigger shirt. I hadn’t even thought about that yet! In the distance, we saw Pooh and Eeyore come out of a building and walk down towards the greeting area. When Tigger appeared, the handler called down to him and asked him to come up to the line. Turns out he wanted Tigger to escort Owen personally down to the greeting area!

First there were hugs, then Tigger took Owen’s hand and together they walked down the very long and winding path to the “green house” (as Owen called it) where they did the pictures. The rest of the line followed along behind them, almost like a parade. Owen looked a little tense the whole time, but I could also tell he was soaking this all up, and of course talked non-stop about it for a long time afterwards! I LOVE special character interactions like this, and was so glad that Owen got to have one on this trip.

So we got some good pictures with Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. We had met Pooh and Tigger once, right after arriving on our first day, but since then Owen had relaxed around the characters so much more that I was glad he got to meet them again. And I had never been to this greeting area at Animal Kingdom, nice to know where it is now!

As we were leaving, I finally got a message from Brian. He had apparently been trying for some time to reach me, and they were already headed to Dinoland to find us. We must not have been getting good cell service in Animal Kingdom because we had issues like this several times while we were there.

I took Owen to the Boneyard while we waited for them to catch up with us, of course he had a blast running and climbing on all the ramps, stairs and slides. Who needs rides, he’d be happy with all the playgrounds! They soon joined us and both kids played for a while. I now had a Fastpass for Everest, but with the morning so far having progressed much more slowly than I expected, it wasn’t looking like there was going to be time to make a second trip over there. We really wanted to make it to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and do the Safari. Brian was also wanting to do Dinosaur, which was near the Boneyard, so I sent him and Lily over there while Owen played some more. So much for me getting to do any of the thrill rides here again, maybe one day!

We headed towards Africa next. When we got to the Safari, it was temporarily closed, but still giving out Fastpasses, so we took some then went to the train for Rafiki’s Planet Watch. I really enjoyed this area on our trip in 2008, and was sad that we never made it over there in 2010. So I was determined we weren’t going to miss it this time.

We ended up at the back of the “pack” getting off the train, but instead of rushing through the path to get to the Conservation Station building, we held back until most everyone else had moved on. So we had some time to ourselves, looking at some of the exhibits along the way. And had a very nice chat with one of the older CMs about some of the animal footprints in the sidewalk. He seemed to especially take a liking to Owen.

Inside the building, we looked at some of the reptile exhibits, and did a “Sound Theater” that taught us about the rainforest. A Sound Theater is a small, dark room with lots of headphones. When we put them on, it was really like being IN the rainforest. Pretty cool! And I was surprised that the dark didn’t scare Owen.

Outside, the kids wanted to do the petting zoo. At first Owen was frustrated that he couldn’t quite seem to get a hand on any of the animals, since he would always get timid at the last minute. Then, while he was looking the other way, one accidentally plowed right into him and they almost both fell over! He was a bit stunned, but it also seemed to shake the hesitation out of him. Afterall, he had done more than touch one, he had survived a major collision with one! So it must not be that bad.

He got to pet all sorts of things – goats, pigs, donkeys, I think, and saw a cow too. (He’s been fascinated by cows since he was a baby for some reason) I would have liked to spend more time here, but if we were going to have time to do the Safari before lunch, we would need to hurry.

Sidenote – in general I am in favor of the new policy enforcing Fastpass return times, but this was one of several instances where I felt a little annoyed that we couldn’t use them late anymore. Sure would have been nice to just save them for after lunch and be able to take our time here! But, I do get why it makes sense in the big picture, so it’s just an inconvenience we would have to deal with.

We were glad to see that the Safari was up and running again when we got back. The standby wait was over an hour though – sure glad we planned ahead a little! The Safari is one of the few rides that the Fastpass line goes right alongside the Standby line, it’s just much shorter. And we had to endure a lot of angry glares from people that had been waiting MUCH longer than us, and were still no where near the front. Maybe they had their reasons for not getting a Fastpass instead, but I suspect that many simply don’t know how the system works. Oh well. Their loss, I guess.

Our Safari leader was very good – that makes such a difference in how the trip goes! And we got to sit in the very front. She was witty and enjoyable to listen to, but you could also tell she really knew her stuff. We saw TONS of animals, more than I remember seeing before. Maybe because it was later in the day, we usually do the safari first thing in the morning, but it was now almost noon.

I let Lily do the camera for this one – she had unfortunately left hers in the room today so asked if she could have mine. She exclaimed after a few minutes that “This is aweomse, it’s JUST like Coconut Safari, but in REAL LIFE!” Apparently that’s a game she plays on the computer. I didn’t think she played that many computer games, but I guess that one sounds pretty harmless, at least. So we had a really good time.

Chapter 19. Things are Not Always How I Remember Them…
But it was almost time for lunch when we finished. Which was at Tusker House, always been one of my favorites. I’ve mentioned before that many of the restaurants had very long check-in lines, even for reservations, but this was by far the worst. It extended out all the way past the restaurant and was almost blocking the main path. There were probably close to 100 people in that line – it was the craziest thing I have ever seen! And most of it was in the sun, no shade at all. Ugh. A CM periodically went down the line making sure that everyone had reservations, no point in standing in it if you didn’t. By the time we finally made it to the check-in desk, we were 20 minutes late for our reservation. And then it was another 15 minute wait for our table. While we were waiting, and in line to meet Donald, we got scolded a couple of different times for standing someplace we shouldn’t or leaving our bag in the wrong place. Everyone here seemed a little grumpy and uptight.

Finally we were seated. I was so parched, I just wanted a drink! But it was another 10 minutes before our waitress showed up. Oh, and first I was scolded again for asking for a booster seat for Owen, didn’t I know you couldn’t possibly put a booster seat in a chair without arms??? Well I’d been doing it all week, but never mind that. Our drinks still weren’t even here by the time we returned from the buffet. This wasn’t shaping up to be the best meal experience. And too bad, because it’s one I always look forward to. The buffet options were a little disappointing too, maybe we’ll give Yak and Yeti a try next time instead.

The characters were fine I guess, they seemed a little rushed, like snap-the-picture-and-go, but maybe they were also picking up on our less-then-Magical attitude at the time. At least they all came quickly, within a few minutes of each other, so we weren’t disrupted continually throughout the meal. I guess character meals just aren’t our thing right now, I would have died form shock if I’d heard myself say that 5 years ago!

So, by the time that was done, Owen was clearly ready for a nap. Brian wanted to see the Lion King show, and Lily decided to stay with him. I don’t feel like we had nearly enough time here. On our first trip, we dedicated 2 days to Animal Kingdom, and thought that was too much afterwards. But one day clearly wasn’t enough, especially since a “day” for us is really only the morning. Maybe once Owen is older and doesn’t need a nap we can make it longer. I suppose we could have brought the stroller and let him nap in it, but doing that 2 days in a row would almost certainly not have been wise.

The bus ride was tedious, first a long wait, then it made 4 other stops before dropping off at Yacht Club. A shared bus between Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Swan, Dolphin, Beach Club, Yacht Club, and Boardwalk seems like a bit much to me. So, for the most part I have to say that our Animal Kingdom morning didn’t quite live up to my expectations. We did have a couple of really good experiences, but a lot of frustrations as well. Although Brian and Lily did really enjoy the Lion King show, and Lily even got to be IN part of it – I think she was pulled aside at the beginning and taught a dance, then had to teach it to a section of spectators later. She was pretty happy about it. I had been worried that she might be jealous of Owen’s special encounter with Tigger, and was very glad that she had something special happen today too. But, to her credit, if she was ever jealous she never let it show anyway, and seemed genuinely happy for him when he told her about it.

While Owen napped, I was getting caught up on pictures. I had worried for a couple of days about some pictures that never showed up in my Photopass account, and went ahead and filled out a “missing pictures” form for them today, since it was almost impossible to catch the Photopass desk in the lobby at a time when it was open. Sadly, it was two of the sets I cared the most about – our pictures with Monsters Inc, and the pictures with Beast from Be Our Guest. They did end up finding them after several days, but I’m a a little annoyed that in our week-long trip, they lost THREE sets of pictures. This is the 5th Photopass CD I’ve ordered, and up until now had never had a single picture get lost. Something seems to be lacking somewhere, recently.

After Owen woke up from his nap, there was time for more swimming. And more playing in the sand. Very glad that we were finally getting some good use out of the pool on a regular basis. I had almost started to forget about the bad luck we had with it during the first half of our trip.

(Lots of pool pictures to make up for the fact that I have almost none for the rest of the day)

Our plans for tonight had still been a little up-in-the-air. I had originally planned to have dinner at Biergarten in Germany, and thought it might be a good night for Lily to do one of the Phineas & Ferb missions. But Brian was also really wanting to see Wishes, which, as luck would have it was at 9pm tonight, instead of the usual 10pm. It would be nice to catch it on a night when they didn’t have to stay out so late.

But of course this wasn’t going to be an option for Owen, as terrified as he was everytime we got caught by Illuminations, there was no way I wanted to be stuck inside Magic Kingdom with him after they started. So it would be easiest if we could have dinner somewhere close to Magic Kingdom, but not inside it. Then after dinner, we could go our separate ways. But getting a dinner reservation last minute can be tricky, and the only thing I could score was The Wave, inside the Contemporary. I didn’t know much about it other than it gets pretty “meh” reviews, but the location was good so we took it. And it was indeed pretty “meh”. A pleasant enough experience, but not something I’d be jumping at the chance to do again.

Sorry, I don’t seem to have any pictures for the rest of the evening, oh well!

I had originally wanted to stay at the Contemporary, after having fallen in love with it when we did dinner and a fireworks cruise there last time. But Brian talked me into the Beach Club at the last minute (right before I booked it last summer), then we later changed our minds to the Yacht Club. Part of me had felt like, ever since, that I “lost” that vacation at the Contemporary though, since in my head I had thought for 2 years that we would be staying there this time. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about going to dinner there, I was a little afraid I would be resentful of our choice, since by now I had decided that I didn’t care much for Yacht & Beach Club.

But I’m actually really glad we came here tonight, because something about it didn’t quite “click” either. Maybe I would have liked it better than YC, but after tonight I realized that nothing is ever going to compare to the Polynesian again. I told Brian on the way home, that if we ever come back, I’m done trying out new resorts, we’re going back to the Polynesian!

But anyway, back to the present. After dinner, Brian and Lily headed over to Magic Kingdom for the fireworks, Owen and I wandered around inside of the Contemporary for a while, and later rode a loop on the monorail. He was really fascinated by the fact that it came right inside the building. I had heard there was an observation deck to watch Wishes, and was wondering if there was any way Owen would be up for it. I hadn’t been able to find it while we were wandering around, but as we were coming back on the monorail, I spotted it from the outside and realized how to get to it. I had been hoping that there was at least part of it that was inside, where you could just watch through glass, but there wasn’t. We stood outside for all of about 3 seconds before he panicked and made us go back in. Oh well. It was a worth a try anyway.

Slowly, we started heading towards the bus stop, though I made sure the fireworks were done before we left the safety of the building. For once we had decent luck with the bus – not only was one loading when we got there, but Brian and Lily were just about to get on it! So I’m a little ashamed to say we ducked under the railing for the line and joined them.

To be honest, this really wasn’t one of our best days. BUT, there were still a lot of good moments, and I did really enjoy the downtime after dinner just casually exploring with Owen. Sometimes being forced to slow down and just see the world though a child’s eyes can be an adventure in itself. And if there had been any lingering doubts over whether I should have stood my ground about staying at the Contemporary, they were gone now. After months of obsessing over it, it was like that desire disappeared in a puff of smoke, after just a couple of hours there. Again, I felt like I was learning so much on this trip. Learning life lessons, learning things about myself.

Chapter 20. A Morning of Unreasonable Expectations?
Day 8. Thursday

After once again being out a bit late last night, I gave in and decided I wouldn’t set an alarm. If someone had told me a few months ago that I would do this so many times on this trip, I would have thought they had completely lost their mind. But I was really making an effort to be newly flexible.

Once we did get up, around 8am I think, we decided to go over to Kouzzina, on the Boardwalk, again. Hmmm, I can’t remember if we walked or took the boat this time, I’m guessing we probably walked though. Breakfast was good, again. Then I KNOW we did take the boat afterwards, to Epcot! I felt like we hadn’t had hardly any time here at all yet, despite the fact that it was the closest park. Glad we would have another morning, but worried that since we wouldn’t be getting there until well after opening that we wouldn’t be able to get everything done. We actually thought about doing another swim-in-the-morning day, and going to Epcot later. But in the end, we opted to go for the morning and do our usual break in the afternoon.

Our main goal for today was Test Track. We hadn’t seen it since it was re-done last year. But on the way in, I got it in my head that I NEEDED to do Soarin’ again too. I sent everyone else ahead to the Radiator Springs Playground near Test Track (knew Owen would LOVE this) while I made a Fastpass run. To my surprise, they even went ahead and gave me the rider-swap ticket even though the rest of the group wasn’t even with me. This was one time when saving my fastpass for another ride would have been useful, but I didn’t think about it in time and ended up with 3 Soarin’ fastpasses. That we would never use.

Once I met up everyone else, we went over to Test Track to get a rider-swap. They were much stricter about it here than at Soarin’, and watched carefully while Brian and Lily went into the queue before they would give me the ticket. I guess I’m glad it was a much more relaxed procedure at Soarin’, or I wouldn’t have gotten a second ride today.

Owen and I went back to the playground (he had NOT been happy to leave it earlier). He was happy playing for quite a while when I got a text from Brian. Thinking they must be done (the wait was posted at 15 minutes, it had been about that long), I was a little confused by the message. It said “We need our tickets.” I asked for clarification, but never got any. After a few minutes, I suddenly remembered that in the new queue for Test Track, you design a car, and it saves it on your park ticket to be used later in the ride! Well, why was he asking me for their tickets??? Even Lily had been keeping up with her own the whole time.

Except that I had made a Fastpass run earlier. And hadn’t given anyone’s tickets back. OH no!!! We waited over by the ride for a few minutes thinking maybe he was going to send Lily out to get them, but I never heard from him again. Eventually we gave up and went back to the playground. Hopefully they had worked something out.

Time passed, and more, and more. It had been almost an hour! Was the posted wait time really THAT wrong?? Finally they came back. Fortunately, Brian did happen to have Owen’s Key to the World card, and even though it didn’t have any park tickets attached to it, it still worked for the ride. Phew!

By now, I had to admit that my Soarin’ plot was simply not going to work. We would have to head over there immediately, leaving no time for anything else. And we still hadn’t done Mission Space or Universe of Energy. And Lily wanted to meet Duffy (the big one), after carrying hers around all week.

So, realizing that once again, my haste had gotten the better of me, I resigned to skipping a second turn on my favorite ride. And we headed towards Mission Space. Those Fastpasses would have been much better used on Test Track, oh well. Apparently I still have some lessons to learn. Oh, and I did still have a rider-swap ticket for Test Track, but having been on the playground for over an hour, I thought it was time to get Owen inside someplace cool. We could come back and use the rider-swap ticket later since it didn’t expire.

When we got to Mission Space, the standby wait was 40 minutes, a lot worse than I was expecting. So we picked up a Fastpass instead and went on over to Universe of Energy. Now, before the trip, I had said that I didn’t think we should do this ride with Owen. Too much of it was dark, there were animatronic dinosaurs, and it was nearly 40 minutes of being trapped in a moving vehicle with no way out. Sounded like a recipe for disaster with him.

In my very-detailed touring-plans, we would have had time to do it twice, once for me and once for Brian, since we both really like it. But that was when I had assumed we would be making use of a lot more EMH, and NOT sleeping in at all. There was no way we had time for that now. And it was SO HOT! I just wanted to get Owen inside someplace, and at least it would be cool in there…

(For some reason, in all my trips to Disney World, I never seem to get any pictures over here. So I’m cheating and using one off my Photopass CD.)

Maybe he’d be okay. A lot of it was just a movie. And he did fine in the pre-show area, didn’t even argue when we sat down on the ride. Not that it looked like a ride, it just looked like a theater. This was a very mean trick and we should not have played it on him. That’s what I was thinking as it started. He did fine at first.

Until we went into the room with the animatronic dinosaurs. And there were tears. Lots of them. And begging to “go back”. And a very terrified little boy. To his credit, he didn’t quite have the meltdown I had feared, complete with kicking, screaming, and flailing. But I was feeling pretty awful by now. WHAT WAS I THINKING??? WHY did I think this would be okay? It had been a morning of unreasonable expectations, it seemed. When was I going to learn???

But, as I had learned on another difficult episode this week, also at Epcot, the bad times don’t last forever. Even when something seems completely hopeless and ruined, it can still turn out okay. Those minutes may have seemed like an eternity, but we DID finally leave the dinosaur room. And he calmed down. Had a few other minor boughts of fear, but he also enjoyed parts of it too. And I was SHOCKED when our car pulled back into the entry room. There was NO WAY that had been a full 37 minutes, surely we had another 15 or so to go…HOW HAD we done this?

So despite the rocky start, we were feeling pretty good by the time we left, and Owen was feeling quite proud of himself for having conquered “the dinosaur ride”. Sometimes, I guess you have to overcome a little adversity to feel like you’ve really achieved something.

It was now time for our Mission Space Fastpasses. Brian didn’t want to do this one, as he is very prone to motion sickness. Actually, none of us had ever done it before. I was determined that I was only going to do the “mild version”, but as we were going into the line, Lily convinced me to go for the more intense one. I guess it’s not fair to say “she convinced” me, but she was ready to do it by herself whether I went with her or not. The thought of letting her go on possibly the scariest ride here, alone, was far more nerve-wracking than just doing it with her. So we went. Hopefully I wouldn’t regret this!

And they are NOT KIDDING when they say it’s intense, holy moly! It was fun, I think I’m glad I experienced it once, but man. I think once is probably enough. At least for a very long time. For most of the ride I felt like I couldn’t even breathe, and felt a little lightheaded for a long time afterwards. I never get motion sickness either, so I can’t imagine how Brian would have felt, he probably made a good choice to skip it.

Meanwhile, Owen had been having a blast in the Mission Space playground. He had disappeared into the tunnels at the top as soon as they went in, and Brian hadn’t seen him since when we arrived. Needless to say, he was NOT happy to be drug out. But it was time to go to lunch – in Germany!

After having canceled our dinner plans there the night before, I was able to secure a lunch reservation for today instead. (And no, at this point I did not even want to LOOK at my nicely laminated spreadsheet I had brought with me. Although there may have ended up being a meal or two that stayed the same…)

We had a short wait for a table, and I could tell the kids were starting to fade. Fortunately, they perked up some once there was food. Especially Lily. Owen was battling falling asleep the whole time, but didn’t get grumpy about it. Just looked like he was going to drop right into his plate at any minute. Partway through the meal, the band came out and performed. Overall, I enjoyed the meal a lot more than I expected to. There weren’t a ton of vegetarian options on the buffet, but the few they had were really tasty! As was the pretzel-bread. Yum.

Well, we still had a rider-swap ticket for both Soarin’ and Test Track. Plus Lily hadn’t met Duffy yet. After having been the one to stay with Owen during his naps all week, I figured it was Brian’s turn. He thought he could handle it (and Owen was so sleepy I thought nothing could possibly keep him awake, even if it tried, so it should be easy), so the two of them made their way to the International Gateway and our hotel, while Lily and trekked back towards Future World.

We came to the Duffy greeting area on the way, and there was only a short line. I was feeling a little antsy to get back and not leave Brian on his own for long, but I knew it was now or never. Of course, Duffy was delighted that Lily had her “little Duffy” with her. Made for a cute picture. She really wanted to go into the Duffy store afterwards, but had no money left and I figured it would just cause heartache.

So on to Test Track! The Fastpass wait wasn’t long at all. While we were in there, Lily mentioned that once they were loaded into their car (on her first ride with Brian), there was some sort of mechanical problem and the ride was shut down for a while. No wonder it had taken them so long, I hadn’t thought to ask about it earlier. We designed our car, and were soon on the ride. It was neat, but I think I prefer the old one. It’s never been one of my favorites though, so I didn’t have a strong opinion about it. One thing I hadn’t noticed before – on the part where it takes you speeding along the track outside, it seems to go over a lot of “backstage” areas, where you can see employee parking lots and such. Maybe it’s supposed to be part of the “testing experience”, but to me it just felt like we had left the “Disney Bubble”, and I didn’t really like it.

Now, decision time. Head back and relieve Brian of nap-duty, or use the (improperly obtained) rider-swap ticket for Soarin’. For many rides, my sense of obligation and morals would probably have prevailed, but not here. If I had a chance to get one more ride on Soarin’, I was going to take it. (We should not have even had that rider-swap ticket, because we never “swapped”. They have given it to me when I picked up the Fastpasses, that we never used, even though I didn’t need it yet.)

Well, it was another great ride. And I only felt a little guilty. Still wish that sometime we could get the middle-middle section again. That’s where we were on our very first ride in 2008, and have never managed it again. It seems there was some kind of Magical luck looking out for us on that trip.

Chapter 21. Doesn’t Everyone Run from the Fireworks?

When we finally made it back to the room, well over an hour later, I was completely flabbergasted to find Owen still awake. Brian insisted that he just wasn’t sleepy, but I knew better. I quickly shooed him and Lily out the door to the pool, and sure enough he was sound asleep within minutes. But now he had probably lost his chance to swim, by the time he woke up, it would be too late.

Today I had more than picture-work to do while he slept though, it was time to start packing. Just 24 hours until our flight home would be leaving. It seemed an insurmountable task, but it almost always does. And after a couple of hours, I was pleasantly surprised at the progress I had made. I did try to wake Owen up a little early so that he could get one last short swim, but he just wouldn’t do it. Oh well. There will be plenty of time to swim this summer at home, I guess.

Soon it was time to make our last walk to the International Gateway, for dinner in Japan. We still had a pretty long wait past our reservation time, but at least our pager was good anywhere within the Japan area, so we used the time to explore. Owen loved running around in the garden, and we spent some time in the Spirits Hall.

I’ll admit, I hadn’t really been looking forward to this meal, it was one that Brian had really wanted to do. But I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The Japanese chef came and cooked our food right at our table. I was worried that it might scare Owen, but instead he was quite entertained by it. He especially loved the volcano tower that she made out of slices of onion! And then she turned it into a train engine and he thought that was hilarious.

But, it had ended up being a LONG meal. We were finished at 10 minutes until 9pm. And you know by now what happens at 9pm in Epcot. Yep, 10 minutes to get from Japan to Yacht Club, lest we have a screaming banshee on our hands again. But it was that or stand around inside waiting for the next half-hour. We decided to make a run for it. And I mean a RUN! We drew quite a few strange looks. It didn’t help that every couple minutes they came over the loud-speaker announcing the the fireworks were about to start. Owen was starting to get panicky already. We crossed out of the gates as the lights dimmed and the final “warning” announcement was made. Any second now they would start. We knew from experience that being out of the park didn’t mean being safe from the fireworks.

Salvation – there was a boat at the dock just about to leave! We yelled that we were coming and to PLEASE WAIT! Lucky for us they did. We had no need to take the boat back, other than that it would provide a fireworks-shelter for the next few minutes. Maybe we could time it just right, and the show would be in the middle (firework-free) segment when it dropped us off at YC. We did get to see a few of the fireworks out the windows. Owen didn’t want to watch, but was okay with them going on as long as he was inside.

Unfortunately, the stop at Boardwalk took longer than normal, and while all was silent when we docked at Yacht Club, I knew we couldn’t be more than a minute from the sudden finale. We broke into a run immediately, but it wasn’t enough. Just as we were coming off of the pier, the sky erupted in lights and booms.

And Owen screamed like a banshee, still running like mad for the building. We must have looked like quite the circus, running one after another down the sidewalk, the littlest in front, again running and screaming as if from a demon. Well, that was one way to end our last night, I suppose. Appropriate, perhaps, in its own way.

Chapter 22. Breaking the “Last Day Curse”
Day 9. Friday

Having done most of our packing the day before, we only had a little left to do this morning. We went for one last breakfast at Captain’s Grille first though, no need to pack on an empty stomach! I guess I haven’t mentioned it yet, but throughout the week, the “nap fairy” had been leaving small things for the kids. Owen got a new Stitch figurine every day, and Lily by now was the proud owner of a good collection of MousekeEars.

I had been dreading today, not only were we going home, but on our 2 previous trips, the last day had turned into a disaster, for different reasons each time. I had ended up thinking after our last trip, that maybe it was better just to take an early flight home and be done with it. Perhaps trying to have more fun on the same day you leave just isn’t going to work out. Initially, that’s what we were going to do. But… then I had a chance to change it to a later flight, and I took it. So once again, we were facing the “Last Day Curse”. And were planning to spend a few more hours at Magic Kingdom. Hopefully history wouldn’t repeat itself, and turn them into the worst of the trip.

Breakfast and packing went a lot quicker than I had expected. We left our carry-on bags with bell services, checked in for our flight (and dropped our checked luggage) at the Resort Airline Check-in. We were at the bus stop by about 8:40am. Except that as soon we got to the bus stop, I realized I had left our ME paperwork sitting on the desk in the room. I thought, no big deal, we had unfortunately JUST missed a Magic Kingdom bus when we walked up, so I should have plenty of time. Imagine my surprise when, walking out of the hotel, I saw another Magic Kingdom bus sitting there, and Brian standing outside it looking a little worried! I took off running, and luckily the driver took pity and waited on me. Several times throughout the week I had seen them drive off in similar situations.

So we almost made rope drop – the countdown was just ending as we got off the bus. Definitely earlier than I had feared we might be today. Brian and Lily were headed for Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Owen and I were headed for… Fantasyland. And whatever he wanted to do there. I was hoping to talk him into riding Pooh again, he seemed like he might be interested, but wanted to do It’s a Small World and the Carousel first. Great, the two things that wouldn’t likely get a line anytime soon, and that’s how he wanted to spend our rope-drop advantage. Oh well.

Going into It’s a Small World, there was another family just a little ways in front of us, otherwise it was totally empty. I quickly realized that if we caught up to them, we would end up sitting right behind them in a boat. But if we stayed far enough back, their boat would already be gone and we would get the front of the next one. The CMs seem to get a little grumpy when you ask if you can wait for the next one, so I thought it better to just make it work out that way myself. So we walked very slowly. The family was a little girl (about Owen’s age) and her mom and grandma. The grandma almost foiled our plan, she held up the boat for quite a while as she was trying to get a picture of the girl before she would get in, and the girl wasn’t cooperating. The CMs finally had to yell and threaten to send the boat without her. So we walked even slower. And the boat pulled away right as we got to the front of the queue. Not only did we get the front, but we had the boat all to ourselves!

He had enjoyed the ride the first time, but he was much more interested now, having a week of ride experience under his belt and being much more relaxed. And since we had the boat to ourself, we could chat about all the things we saw without having to worry about being quiet. It really was a Magical experience. One of those moments where it’s like the whole world suddenly makes sense, even if only for a few minutes. This may not have been the smartest thing to do first, but perhaps it was the best. Afterall, there were a lot of things I couldn’t control, or even predict. Like the whims of a 2 year old. Or what the next few months were going to hold for us back at home. But every moment of every day can stand alone, regardless of what is going on around it. And Magic can be found when you least expect it. This would set the tone for my attitude for the rest of the day, and I’m so glad we did it first.

Afterwards, he was really wanting to meet Stitch. According to the My Disney Experience app, he should be out in Tomorrowland right now. So we started making the long treck that way. We passed the Pooh ride, but Owen had changed his mind and didn’t want to do it again. Though he did play inside his house at the queue entrance for a few minutes.

When we got to Tomorrowland, there was no sign of Stitch anywhere. I asked a couple of different CMs, but they all seemed pretty clueless. We wandered around some more, but finally gave up. I wish they wouldn’t say that a character is going to be out if they’re not! Or that they would make them easier to find if they are there. So Owen was a little disappointed, but by now was just wanting to go back and ride the Carousel instead anyway. So we went BACK to Fantasyland.

We had tentatively agreed to meet up at the Riverboat at 10am, and it was almost that now so we started walking toward Liberty Square. But then got a call from Brian, they had done Haunted Mansion and Thunder Mountain (twice actaully) but now Lily had decided she wanted to do Splash Mountain. (She had never been a fan of it in the past) They were okay with missing the Riverboat, so Owen and I went ahead.

It actually doesn’t open until 10am, so it was just getting ready to make it’s first voyage of the day! I don’t believe I have ever done this before, maybe as a young kid but if so I don’t remember it. And Owen LOVES boats, so he was very excited to get on “that BIG HUGE boat.” He spent most of the cruise running from one part of the boat to another, peering out each section for a minute or so, then running off to find something new to see. I thought it was really cool getting to see Frontierland from a different perspective. And there were quite a few scenes set up along the river bank that you can ONLY see from the boat. Pretty cool for sure, and I was glad we had time to finally do it this trip.

We made a quick stop to pick up a bottled water, and then Brian called, ready to meet up. We found them by the entrance to Tom Sawyers Island. Another thing that, for whatever reason, we’ve never done. It was getting HOT – fortunately it looked like most of the island was in the shade. We had a LOT of fun over there exploring! The kids really liked the big fort, and the barrel bridge. Oh and of course Owen would have been content to stay on the small playground all day. Lily liked exploring the cave. Both kids had a few moments of being a little grumpy about one thing or another, but so far they had managed to work themselves out of their bad moods pretty quickly, thank goodness.

Oh, and Brian and Lily had a great time on the thrill rides earlier. They did Thunder Mountain twice, and the second time sat in the very back. Which almost made the ride wild enough for Lily to consider it fun, lol! Five years ago, her first ride on it had traumatized her, now she didn’t even think it was deserving of being called a roller coaster. She even liked Splash Mountain this time, probably because she was the only one in the whole car that didn’t get wet, other than a few sprinkles.

When we got back from the island, we headed for our next “new” adventure – the Hall of Presidents. I had said before the trip that I really wanted to do this one for the first time, but had worried as the trip went on that we would never make it over here. Finally! As usual, we all really enjoyed the show. Owen seems to be entertained by anything that moves and talks, and Lily is becoming quite a history buff already.

It was almost time for lunch, but not quite. We thought about checking in at Liberty Tree Tavern early, but it looked pretty busy in there so we thought it might be better to just wait and come back closer to our ADR time. So we went on one last “new” adventure – the Country Bear Jamboree. HOW could we possibly have been to WDW so many times and never have done this classic? Well, it may not be something I feel like I have to do EVERY time, but I’m glad I’ve now done it once. It was pretty cute.

Now we would be almost perfect for our lunch reservation. That was probably all the rides we would have time for, but it had been a good morning. We checked in, and before the kids even had time to sit down at the coloring table, they were calling us already. Our waiter appeared a few minutes later and took our order. I whisked Owen off to make a quick diaper change, and by the time we came back, our drinks, appetizers, and entrees were already there! We ate quickly, all enjoying our food, ordered dessert (and the check), and ended up being out of there at 1:05. Our ADR was at 12:30pm. That had to be the fastest meal all week, and what a good time for speed. We would get to do one last ride afterall! It seemed all of our favorite meals were at places we had never been to before, this one no exception. A good lesson for the future, I suppose.

Brian realized that we hadn’t done Pirates of the Caribbean yet – somehow we ran out of time the night we did Adventureland. We asked Owen about it, but he seemed nervous. No need to make our last memory a bad one, so I took him back to the Magic Carpets instead. THAT he liked. We waited for them in the Pirates building when we were done, and it was fun just to sit there and listen to the Pirates music playing. A great ending to our day.

The we took the train one last time afterwards, it would get us back to the front faster, and Owen liked riding anyway. Although we had now ridden it several times, we had never actually done the segment between Frontierland and Fantasyland, so it was neat to see the rest of the route.

And then it was time to go. But what an awesome morning we had! It ended up being one of our very best days. I loved getting to try out so many new things, instead of feeling stuck in our usual rut. As we left the park, there was a Photopass photographer in the usual place, in front of the Magic Kingdom entrance. I thought for a second that maybe we should get one last picture, but then thought surely everyone else would argue. As if reading my mind, Brian suddenly said, “Hey, we should get one last picture!”.

While it was a little sad to be leaving, it also felt triumphant in a way. For so many months I had worried that something was going to go wrong. Someone would get sick, our trip would get interrupted, there would surely be some kind of major disaster that ruined everything, but it didn’t. We had achieved it. A solid week of fun and good memories. And maybe best of all, we FINALLY broke The Last Day Curse!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Back at Yacht Club, a CM gave Owen a “First Visit” button while we waited for the ME bus. We had plenty of time at the airport so we had an early dinner at Chilis before our flight. Finally back in Colorado, we picked up our car from the hotel (where we stayed before we left) and made the drive home. Despite not getting home until almost midnight, everyone woke up shortly after 5am the next morning. Still on Eastern Time, I guess!

Chapter 23. Thoughts

It was definitely a very different vacation from our previous two. But so far, they have all been very different from one another, so I guess that should come as no surprise. I know I often fall into the trap of trying to re-create something that was special in the past. And maybe I am finally starting to learn that it just can’t be done. There will be more special things, more Magic even, but it’s not going to happen the same way it did before. I think that’s why I ended up enjoying so much of the new stuff that we did this time, and things that I hadn’t done since I was a kid.

The things that had seemed so Magical on the last two trips, seemed kind of “blah” this time. It was the new and unexpected delights that we found Magic in. So I have to constantly be on the lookout for new adventures, or at least a way to shake things up a little. And not be afraid to try new things. Stepping out of my comfort zone is scary, but its usually where the Magic happens. (I think I saw some kind of Venn Diagram showing that concept on Facebook one time. I didn’t believe it then. Now I guess I do.)

It was an eye-opening week for sure, in many ways. Learning to be more flexible, learning to enjoy each moment for what it is, and learning what really makes us happy. I think I am now much more equipped to handle the uncertainty that the next few months may bring. One day, one moment, at a time. Because none of them, good or bad, will last forever.

As for what we liked and what we didn’t.. well let’s see where to start.

Other than the Flower & Garden Festival, which we LOVED, I didn’t see any advantage to going in April over June. It was at least as crowded, if not more so. And much hotter than I was expecting, other than the 3 days that were cold and rainy. No happy medium, it seemed. But, since any future trips will probably have to be in June, I suppose it’s good to not feel like we will be missing much.

And I can’t say that I was a huge fan of the Yacht Club. The pool was fun, but not THAT much better than the others we’ve stayed at. I really do want to stay at the Polynesian again. I know, I KNOW, it won’t re-create our first trip. But even from an objective view, the location, pool, dining choices, theme, etc just can’t be beat. So that’s my goal for our next trip, whenever that may be. If we do end up moving to California at some point, we may have to become acquainted with Disneyland instead, though.

I liked doing so many of the character meet-and-greets in the parks. In the past, I’ve always been a huge fan of character meals, but we found them not working out as well for us this time, and actually cancelled two near the end of the trip. The greetings in the parks seemed to have better interaction, and definitely better backdrops for pictures (and usually a Photopass photographer, a definite plus!). And were just generally less stressful.

I also liked a lot of the new restaurants we tried this time, especially Tony’s, Liberty Tree Tavern, Biergarten, Kouzzina, and Captain’s Grille. Some of our old favorites I was NOT as wow-ed with, such as Tusker House, San Angel, Le Chefs, and CRT. So it will be interesting next time… do we do our “new” favorites again and make them our “old” favorites, or continue trying new things, since that seems to be what makes it enjoyable…

Time for Favorites!
Me –
Soarin’ (as always, lol!)
Watching Owen meet his favorite characters
The American Adventure & Voices of Liberty
Finally riding Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster with Lily
Dinner at Be our Guest & meeting Beast

Brian –
“Walking lunch” in Epcot (@ the F&G snack kiosks)
Sitting in the front row at Fantasmic!
Rockin’ Roller Coaster & Tower of Terror
Seeing Owen meet the characters
Beauty & the Beast Show

Lily –
Tower of Terror & Rockin’ Roller Coaster
Bringing Duffy along every day
Swimming
Eating a Baghrir in Morocco
Mission Space
(In all fairness, Lily had a very hard time narrowing it down to 5. She says her list could go on, and on, and on…)

Owen –
It’s a Small World
Dumbo (and all of it’s clones)
Meeting Jake
The playgrounds
Little Tiny Lightning McQueen

As for what we will do differently next time… I guess the biggest thing will be willingness to think outside the box a little more. Seek out new places to eat (I can think of at least 6 on the monorail loop, very handy if we stay at Poly!), be willing to change our schedule up a little each day, and focus on the rides and attractions that we have NOT done every single time already.

I am actually tentatively planning to run in the TinkerBell Half-Marathon at Disneyland next January (assuming I train appropriately for it), and until this trip I was having a hard time really being excited about it. I mean, I guess Disneyland is cool, but it won’t be the same as being at Disney World…but with my new-found perspective, I am suddenly thinking that this will be extra-special, because it WILL be something new and different. And I want to make sure I soak it all up, because as I have learned, you only get one chance to experience something for the first time.