Monday, June 29, 2020

Disney 2018 day 8: 25-Aug-2019

Volunteer to Join the Deceased ala Beast


Hey, we haven’t been there in over twenty-four hours. It must be time to return to the Magic Kingdom: for a day called- “The Classics”!!

We could call every day in the Kingdom "The Classics," but this day we had them FastPassed.

Waiting for the morning bus at the hotel, a Cast Member gave us all a “how the World will work when StarWarsland opens” speech. Dave was able to use the information to help others later on. He’s coming along nicely isn’t he?

We had a typical entry; Anabelle traded the Mike pin for Lucifer at the entry as she was working her way towards the cat set. And Kim’s butt somehow set off the metal detector.

Park opening let us meet the Mayor and other Main Street Citizen folks greeting the throngs. We thronged ourselves into Tomorrowland to hop on the Buzz ride before it built up.  There was more Hidden Mickey hunting and spinning than aiming in most cases again.

Instead of curving around the Castle, we went back on Main Street since it was early enough to pass through it, which is always exciting and fun.  Hey, the columns are decorated with Cinderella's  Mice and Birds, who knew?

Shows you how impressively distracting those Mosaics are, no?

We took another spin on the small world, because it’s us.  
YAY! 
The kids did all the moves along with the dancing dollies. 
We’re so fun in public.

At least the dollies that worked. The flying carpet was stuck in full wheelie mode.

Coming out we saw some of our names on the “Good Bye” sign screens. It looked like they did it sporadically for all guests rather than tying it to a FastPass. Now I was extra happy we moved that reservation.  YAY!

Our first classic FastPass of the day was the Haunted Mansion, and it is truly amazing how every single time we ride the old favorite, we see new stuff.  Morgan rode with Aurora and Anabelle.  Anabelle kept him from being spooked by spouting a constant stream of ride and other Disney trivia facts.  That’s my girl!  

She also yelled out her standard, "Me Me!" when the Ghost Host asks for any volunteers, hence today's title.

Another of many extended trips into Memento Mori followed.  Anabelle got “Tightrope Girl” ears, commemorating her favorite part of the stretching room. We also kept Grandma distracted long enough to buy her Christmas presents and get them shipped to the hotel.

Then it was time for a “first in years” for our family.  With the Railroad shut down, Grandma really wanted to take a spin on the Riverboat. We got the Liberty Belle, and I had forgotten about all the singing and narration that came along with the ride. This is probably because I was a kid on my last trip and spent the time exploring the ship instead of looking at stuff we saw from the Disney World Railroad all the time.

Anabelle and Aurora were in no way boat fans, including ones that run on tracks.  Me pointing to the guests on shore and stating that Disney was really good at making animatronics probably didn’t help.

We exited back into Liberty Square, and went towards Adventureland.  As we walked by it, and I explained it, Anabelle said she always thought the Hall of Presidents was a ride, kind of like the Carousel of Progress, but you passed presidents.  That would probably be a much more popular attraction, especially if they sang.

Over by the Pirates ride Rosa found the right location this time and we waited to meet Captain Jack, who did arrive.  He made Anabelle feel unsafe, which I suppose meant he did an accurate job. His beard was sweating off a little too, forcing her to look at his feet.  It was a generally fun and piratical visit.
YAY!

FastPass two of the day was the Pirate ride next door. YAY!
 
We got a rare direct hit by the water, which helped on this muggy day. The kids made another version of the Bean song, confusing our co-riders no doubt with our so fun in publicness. 

Now that we’d figured out the flashing eyes of the Jolly Roger was the photograph point, the kids also pulled off a Circle of Life pose with Aurora holding up Ziggywig on the ride.  YAY!

Since Adventureland parallels Frontierland for a long stretch, and more importantly, since it was still us, we went to the Country Bears again. YEEEE HAW!!!!!

Max’s eye was still wonky, but the little girl in front of us enthusiastically clapping along with every song overshadowed a slightly stoned deer.

Across from the Bears was one of the other most important locations in Disney World…the Mickey Pretzel and Churro stand!!!  
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!

There was a highly confusing guest on line before us, but the Awesome Happy Disney Cast Member not only dealt with her, but then apologized to us, and came out and gave Kim a hug when we were nice to her. YAY Disney!  In the meantime, Anabelle expanded her comfort zone by pin trading with another guest (and very nice lady) swapping an old Flora pin I had for the Siamese Cats.

We side slipped (old Star Fleet Battles fan here) back into Adventureland for our next FastPass, the Jungle Cruise, YAY!  
On the way in Ziggywig got counted as a member of the party. I love Disney people.

Skipper Katie was hysterical, theming her jokes by various school subjects.  She could have been one of the best Skippers I’ve ever seen. However, she did not make the “back side of water joke” and although I could make up for that by referencing it on a nearly daily basis, it took away from her rating.

Aurora was able to be convinced to take the small raft, but Anabelle was more than done with boats for the day, leading to a split.  Kim’s family went over with Grandma to explore Tom Sawyer Island and had a blast. YAY!  
Except for the bit of time where the kids realized one cave led directly into another and the adults didn't.
(A little less yay.)

Since we were in Adventureland anyway…the three of us in my family went over to the Tiki Room again. YAY!
Hey, Madame Leota does the announcement that opens it, cool!

Following singing along with the birds once more, we circled around to Circusland.  There were some cool flashbacks to lesser known characters of my youth…well, everywhere, but specifically in the circus tent store.  A picture of Lambert the Sheepish Lion was on the wall, and there was a Humphrey Bear (of “pick a little up put it in the bag boom boom” fame) pin.

Anabelle didn't get that one, but did trade for Baby Donald before we went to the Castle rendezvous.

Veronica had changed into an Aurora dress guaranteeing some confusion before the meal ended.

Cinderella was more fun than usual down in the lobby, which we’d experience more of the next night. (Yup, more foreshadowing, it's high literary quality here.) How long have the in color Jacques and Gus statues been up high on the lobby wall there? I feel like I would have noticed them. Then again, I don't notice stuff on the pantry at home when I'm staring straight at the shelf its on, so it’s possible they’ve been there a while.

Anabelle almost fell over when she spotted the Headless Horseman pin on one of the Cast Member’s collections while we waited to be called up and quickly swapped what would soon be an extra Figaro for it. (Foreshadowing people…foreshadowing.)

Our short wait ended and it was time to walk up those curved stairs for the awesome reveal that is King Stefan’s Banquet Hall.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!


I love this place.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

And the blue glasses Grandma loves were back!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

And the whole menu significantly changed again since the last time I checked.
(alas.)

By this point I was totally on board with alcohol on the dining plan toasting Dave with our matching Trois Pistoles Dark Ales.

Snow White came first as was as light and fluffy as she was supposed to be. She brought the fun to everyone and spent an extended time dancing with a little boy nearby.  She asked Veronica to name the dwarfs, which she did except forgetting Bashful.  That’s Anabelle’s favorite, so she jumped in, much to Snow’s delight.

Aurora was, as to be expected, quite princessy.  
Frankly there are two type of Auroras we met.  The first type would get super excited when Kim’s family would explain how all her kids are named after her movie.
AURORA
Veronica ROSE
Morgan PHILIP

And the second type, who would still be politely happy, would also have a look on her face betraying, “Who the heck are Rose and Philip?”

Ariel was a tad on the intense side. That may be a side effect from transmogrifying from having a tail at the grotto all the time.

Jasmine made monkey jokes. YAAAAAAAAAAY!  Bits about the carpet’s tassel and monkey in the middle references were included in as well.

The waiter, while not quite up to Sir David standards bought Grandma a signed, round birthday place-mat along with a low key, but highly pleasant birthday song.

What wasn’t low key was the kid at the nearby table who grabbed Jasmine’s butt.  It was a whole new world all right.

For anyone playing at home and paying attention to my menu lists, all three courses were everybody chooses one item.

For anyone playing at home trying to figure out our children, they were all talking in exaggerated southern accents all the time for reasons none of them could justify.
We’re so fun in public.

Morgan was the only one technically on the kid’s menu, but Aurora and Anabelle found the lure of “build your own cupcake” too great to resist, and down shifted for dessert.  I was tempted as well, but the multiple chocolates in the “Clock Strikes Twelve” tempted me more, along with the rest of our group.

For anyone about to give me a hard time for dumping portions of my cardiac diet on this trip, please check the mileage counts again at the end of each day. Believe me, we walked it off.

There were some left overs from the extravagant royal dining. Luckily, Grandma had saran wrap in her purse…like ya do.  

Why?

Because she didn’t bring tin foil, duh.

On the way out we noticed two cool Disney perks.
1) Disney World is one of the few locations that still has pay phones everywhere.  It’s nice to know they haven’t abandoned all the traditional stuff.

2) Disney plumbers also use the cast utilidors (hidden underground corridors) and pop up through secret entrances in the bathrooms to fix stuff.  

It's Superclogerfragilisticplungialadocious!


We came out the back side of the Castle for another visit to meet Fillmore’s Magic. On the way I was informed “Fillmore” is the flute that flies into the crowd in 3D.

Of course he is.

Crowds were unusually high and we had a rare less than Happy and Awesome Cast Member line us up in a really stupid way that fragmented families including ours. With everyone tired, Kim saw her kids split far down the row and didn't notice Rosa was on the far side of them. The people between us were happy to move, but the less than Happy and Awesome Disney person demanded no one switch. 

On rare occasions, when everyone is tired and cranky, the magic shows a few cracks…but it seals itself up relatively quickly.

Having spent the morning in the Adventureland/Frontierland section, we took to the opposite side of the park in Tomorrowland.

The Monster’s Inc. Laugh floor is always hysterical. Even the parts that are the same each time aren’t the same, because of the way people react to being on camera. 
YAY bad jokes in Disney!

Staying in the same land for a change, we took another spin on the Carousel of Progress.
YAY!

Our rapid hopping on lineless attractions was delayed a bit with an announcement about remaining seated during the show, and having to sit through the introductory overture twice.

Anabelle summed it up nicely: 
“We have things to do, but we’re stuck here because Jimmy-Bob had to take a stretch!”
(In a faux southern drawl of course.)

As always with old favorites new things are always spotted. I never noticed the animatronic cat before.  It also never sunk in that Uncle Orville pees with the door open.
FUN!

We were exiting the land, when the Laugh Floor called to most of us. Amazingly, even though (or perhaps because) she lives with me, Rosa had enough of bad jokes for one day, and chose to rest her toes elsewhere.

The rest of us laughed along with the Monsters, especially when Marty used Aurora’s “Mushroom/ Fun Guy” joke.  
YAY!!!!

Rosa snuck off to tape a special sixteenth birthday message for Anabelle, which we both totally forgot about and didn’t play for her until four months after her birthday.  

Note: She learned about it while I was proofreading these posts out loud to her. When we got to this point, she suddenly yelled out, “I got a message from Ariel!?!?!?! When was someone gonna tell me about this?”

Rosa also went to Enchanted Tales with Belle, which no one (except me) indicated interest on in my pointless pre-grids.  Since Rosa and I were wearing out matching “The Beast” and “I'm with the Beast” shirts, Anabelle and I ran over from Tomorrowland, but the occasionally wonky Disney Wi-Fi meant she’d already gone in.

Kim’s family crossed the park to get their run on the Tiki Room, and then hit the Hall of Presidents.  Yes it was actually interesting and no more people fell asleep than on any other attraction this late in the day. Then they went ride hopping in Fantasyland.  We’d set up a FastPass for Winnie the Pooh near the end of the day, and similar to our Fillmore’s Magic luck, it was broken.  They split and cashed in their compensation FastPasses on Splash and Space Mountain before returning home.

We were having our own adventures as the group got heavily fragmented on this night.  After Anabelle and I briefly met up with Rosa, she and I rode the Ariel ride together.  Rosa went shopping on Main Street while we did that before taking her toes home to ice them.

I brought Anabelle back to Circusland where she saw something earlier in the day at the big store there. She gave up trying to trade for all the cat pins when she found the last full set was still on the rack from earlier. This, of course, gave her several tradeable cats that she had recently acquired.  

Yes, it’s half an engaging way to interact with Awesome Happy Disney people and half an addiction, but the good kind.

We passed through the Splash and Soak station on the way out to cool off a bit.  Around this point, the rest of the gang was Hall of Presidenting.  The problem with it being such an easy target is it makes it near impossible to convince your child it’s actually interesting after making fun of how boring it is for years.

The sun was setting and we also wanted a night picture of the three of us in front of the Castle.  Rosa was still on Main Street and we figured there would be no problems meeting her to do this before she left to rest, and we’d go back to the gang. 

With the fireworks and projection show combined, Cast Members roped off an OBSCENE section of park around the castle.  From Circusland, we had to circumnavigate nearly the whole Kingdom, finally popping out of Adventureland to get to Main Street. This included weaving through the longest outdoor line in the entire Magic Kingdom, the PhotoPass Magic Shot of floating lanterns in front of the Rapunzel Potty. 

Hear that Universal? Make all the new thrill rides you want, Disney is so awesome, people line up across the park for a photo op with a toilet!

By the time we’d found Rosa, Anabelle and I were dead on our feet and the three of us staggered back to the hotel for some brief pool soaking to ease the aches a little, a small take out dinner from the End Zone Food Court, and some medical supplies for Rosa's toes. 
Yes, I take pictures when shopping and send them for approval. I saw my Dad have to head back out after coming home with the wrong thing too many times in my youth, and emulated him equally many times until technology improved enough to help.

At the front desk pin board, before bringing the food home, Anabelle continued divesting her extra cats by swapping Lucifer for Robin Hood.

Oo-de-Lally golly what a (tiring) day!

7.3 miles 
17,678 steps 
2 floors

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