Awakening on the final day
of the vacation, we threw the few things left in the room that were not battered
out of existence by our trip exertions into our luggage and brought the bags
down to storage in the main building. We handed them over to the Cast Members
near the Not Magic Express (alas) bus stop for safe keeping. After we had all
completely acclimated to the room’s connections and systems for close to a week
and a half, Anabelle’s phone didn’t charge overnight on this final sleep. She
plugged into the portable charger that we used once or twice every day, but
added nothing to the narrative. Therefore, I haven’t mentioned it until now.
See? I can edit.
I called Grandma to find out if she had anything ready to be stored as we were bringing our stuff down. I figured with a larger and younger crowd Kim’s family might be a bit behind us, and they were. However, given that Grandma’s level of preparedness usually means she’s ready to go before she knows she’s traveling anywhere, I was surprised she was almost in the same state as Kim’s family.
Final day technological issues did not only plague our room. After working fine the whole time, Grandma’s alarm did no go off.
They told us they would be joining us in the Park shortly as we stood on an enormous transportation line. Fortunately, Disney is still awesome and sent a fleet of busses to bring the whole gang of us to the Magic Kingdom.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Also fortunately, leaving the two inserts in my shoes provided enough padding that I did not collapse to the ground with each step.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
The in-flight entertainment for this bus ride was provided by the youngest member of a Spanish speaking family who were standing near us. To pass the time and keep herself highly amused, the little girl spent the entire trip demonstrating the one source of power many children learn they have at that age (and more importantly height), by punching her older brothers repeatedly in the nuts.
Fun!
Perhaps stuff like this is why Disney World is the Most Magical Place on Earth, and lets Disneyland keep the claim on Happiest?
Anabelle proved the Disney security scanning system is consistent. No matter what she told them about or showed them ahead of time, she was chosen for a random bag search every single day.
I encountered Dirty Finger Syndrome yet again trying to scan in the final time. Gotta remember-those bus handles have seen things… horrible things.
The normal approach for Magic Kingdom Extra Magic Hour Half Hour, for those who either never go on (Rosa) or still had damage similar to those young Spanish lads from (Me) Space Mountain, was to cut straight around the back of the Castle to Peter Pan.
Although we miraculously got our baggage stored early enough to reach the Park before any rope drop (never mind Extra Magic Hour Half Hour) for the first time in our Disney existence, a bit of the unpleasant sort of Magic spiked the Peter Pan line to a full hour before we got anywhere near Fantasyland.
Instead, since we were already curving around through New Fantasyland, (still don’t care) we went over to the Ariel ride!
YAAAAAAAAY!!
Because no one else Rope
Drops to do that, we got a different Extra Magic Hour Half Hour bonus. The Cast
Member let us stay in the shell and ride a second time without getting off.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
The Ariel animatronic ”Under da Sea” winked at Anabelle. She took this as a deliberate act to make up for the fact that there were no Ariel meet and greets or character meals in the entire World on this trip.
Disney.
Magic.
Everyone else was truly “right behind us,” because, frankly, there is no force on earth that motivates the people in our family like getting more Magic Kingdom time.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway
See? I can edit.
I called Grandma to find out if she had anything ready to be stored as we were bringing our stuff down. I figured with a larger and younger crowd Kim’s family might be a bit behind us, and they were. However, given that Grandma’s level of preparedness usually means she’s ready to go before she knows she’s traveling anywhere, I was surprised she was almost in the same state as Kim’s family.
Final day technological issues did not only plague our room. After working fine the whole time, Grandma’s alarm did no go off.
They told us they would be joining us in the Park shortly as we stood on an enormous transportation line. Fortunately, Disney is still awesome and sent a fleet of busses to bring the whole gang of us to the Magic Kingdom.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Also fortunately, leaving the two inserts in my shoes provided enough padding that I did not collapse to the ground with each step.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
The in-flight entertainment for this bus ride was provided by the youngest member of a Spanish speaking family who were standing near us. To pass the time and keep herself highly amused, the little girl spent the entire trip demonstrating the one source of power many children learn they have at that age (and more importantly height), by punching her older brothers repeatedly in the nuts.
Fun!
Perhaps stuff like this is why Disney World is the Most Magical Place on Earth, and lets Disneyland keep the claim on Happiest?
Anabelle proved the Disney security scanning system is consistent. No matter what she told them about or showed them ahead of time, she was chosen for a random bag search every single day.
I encountered Dirty Finger Syndrome yet again trying to scan in the final time. Gotta remember-those bus handles have seen things… horrible things.
The normal approach for Magic Kingdom Extra Magic Hour Half Hour, for those who either never go on (Rosa) or still had damage similar to those young Spanish lads from (Me) Space Mountain, was to cut straight around the back of the Castle to Peter Pan.
Although we miraculously got our baggage stored early enough to reach the Park before any rope drop (never mind Extra Magic Hour Half Hour) for the first time in our Disney existence, a bit of the unpleasant sort of Magic spiked the Peter Pan line to a full hour before we got anywhere near Fantasyland.
Instead, since we were already curving around through New Fantasyland, (still don’t care) we went over to the Ariel ride!
YAAAAAAAAY!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
The Ariel animatronic ”Under da Sea” winked at Anabelle. She took this as a deliberate act to make up for the fact that there were no Ariel meet and greets or character meals in the entire World on this trip.
Magic.
Everyone else was truly “right behind us,” because, frankly, there is no force on earth that motivates the people in our family like getting more Magic Kingdom time.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway
We all met up at the Haunted Mansion, because of course we did. Then we enjoyed it as much as we did every other time we rode it, because it is wonderful!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
Kim saw the PhotoPass person at the exit every other time we boarded, only to find them gone when we exited. This final ride, she leapt off the line and caught up with us.
Plus we like to go near the end of the trip to allow Little Leota to officially tell us to “Hurry Baaa-aack!”
Plus we like to go near the end of the trip to allow Little Leota to officially tell us to “Hurry Baaa-aack!”
Once more, since it was next door, and since it was us, a small world ride was inevitable.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
We took pictures of Rosa and Anabelle in the matching small world shirts that Rosa made.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
We sang along!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
Yes, I am overusing the “YAY!”s on this final day. We are always determined to drag every last available bit of cheer out of Disney World as humanly possible. So there.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
The “Goose Girl,” long one of Anabelle’s favorite “dancing dollies” was missing her third goose when she reappears in the white room for almost the entire trip. This happens every time Anabelle goes. She feels that Goose says, “Oh, Anabelle is back. Buh-BYE!”
We theorized that Goose might have been in charge of cheese removal.
To complete her small world imitation set, Aurora replicated the motions of the bird with the spinning head in the jungle, as she did every other ride.
Across from the small world was Peter Pan. We passed the entrance on the way to our final screening of Filmore’s Magic.
It had a mere half hour posted wait!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway
We jumped on the line.
As we navigated the outside part of the queue, Peter Pan himself was walking by to go on shift and stuck his face through the hole in the wall there to yell, “HELLO!!!!”
All the kids screamed and Anabelle may have shouted, “Get away from the child killer!!!”
We’re always fun to have around.
This is still the best interactive queue Disney has. It’s completely immersive and extends the environment and experience of the ride. Evidence of why they don’t make all their lines like this came up while we waited. The line continually ceased all forward motion. When we got closer, Uncle Dave noticed the Cast Member let in fifty Lightning Lanes for every ten of us. That was a small part of it, but a much bigger part was people hogging the interactive features and forgetting they were supposed to keep moving.
One group of girls was playing with the shadow bells for such a long period it led Anabelle to say, “Hey, don’t be tinkling too long over there.”
When it was our turn, we released shadow Tinkerbelle from the lantern and had a ball playing for our allotted period of time. Before moving on, Anabelle made a Godzilla hand shadow.
That's my girl!
Morgan was also very proud that he hit the lantern shadow enough times to release Tinkerbelle that she exploded into butterflies.
On the ship together, Grandma pointed out to Anabelle that the Lost Boys are visible twice.
“Thanks, No one likes a smarty pants, Grandma,” was Anabelle’s reply.
After riding, we passed the entrance to Peter Pan, which had now jumped back up to over and hour once it was done magically bidding us farewell, on the way for our final screening of Filmore’s Magic.
The entire pre show area was packed. Talking to each other, we decided not to bother any form of “chaining” because we’d never get nine seats together.
We did!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
In the middle!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We sang along! (Again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
It’s a good thing we did, because the crowd was fairly lame, especially compared to the festivities of Anabelle and Aurora’s private screening.
During dinner on the previous Magic Kingdom night, before that private screening and the Mine Train ride, Grandma pointed out an egregious failure: We had only been to the Country Bears once on this whole trip. Sadly, they close earlier than the rest of the Park (except Tom Sawyer Island, hence them being thrown off) or we would have corrected that oversight immediately that evening.
Instead, we retraced our
steps and went right now.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We sang along! (Again, again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
While clappin’ our hands and stompin’ our feet with a real old country rhythm!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
The crowd was super into it this time. YEE-HAW!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
That should be a test. The Cast Members at security should ask Guests,
“What do you think of the Country Bear Jamboree?”
Anyone who says it’s boring or outdated is far too dull to enter the Magic Kingdom, and gets shunted elsewhere (preferably to the myriad of resort based activities available, away from any Park) to make more room for people who are an absolute hoot to have around.
Like us!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
In a demonstration of how much fun interactive parades are now, everyone wanted to see the Festival of Fantasy a second (or for us a third) time. Just how much that was linked to the women in the family being excited about Eugene flinging smolders off of his float continues to be rather troubling, frankly, and not something I will dwell on. (More than I have already dwelled on it, I mean.)
While waiting, the
character Country Bears were up on top of their Jamboree House balcony. They
waved and Big Al blew kisses to Grandma and Anabelle!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
(Anabelle’s “yay” was significantly more muted, but Grandma’s was big enough for everyone.)
Rosa and I ran up to the Memento Mori shop. I bought Grandma a “thank you” Madam Leota Tombstone Hanger. Then, because it’s me, I accidentally bought yet another new Haunted Mansion shirt. (Disney people know… these accidents happen.) This one had the stretching room. (Hear that Pirate Marketing People? GET ON THE BALL!!!!)
Because the shirt was accidental, we had already sent Anabelle pictures of pins to choose from to raise the purchase price to the discount level for our Disney card, and bought that as well.
YAAY!
Keeping with this theme, Kim gave Grandma a complete Haunted Mansion bedding set for her birthday. How cool is that!? I kept the trend going as well with the 50th Anniversary Disney World Book.
Because we will all do ANYTHING to prolong the feeling of Disney World in our family.
As one should.
While we were paying, I heard someone say, “Do you know the BEST version of the Haunted Mansion Bride?
It is the one in the Muppet’s Haunted Mansion.”
I looked up and saw the speaker, a Drag Queen by the door who was approaching a full seven feet tall, spreading accuracy along with fabulousness throughout the room.
While this was going on, Uncle Dave went on line at the pretzel and churro stand and was taking orders from everyone. He ended up with an extra Diet Coke. Given that was my fuel of choice, though we both just had one, Grandma and I decided to split it. When Dave finished, he worked his way back to us, and handed everything out. Aurora pointed out there was an extra churro, likely due to the levels of chaos we usually travel with, and asked if anyone wanted it. Anabelle happily volunteered. She was slightly less happy when she learned, in the confusion; she basically ate Uncle Dave’s churro. She was still happy though because,
1) It proved the Laugh Floor prediction from early in the trip correct, and
2) She ate a churro.
Uncle Dave wasn’t upset because:
1) With Magic Bands no longer working to pay, it is very likely that churro was free.
2) He had his own stress issues to deal with after sprinting across the parade path when it was fifty feet away and having a Cast Member yell at him.
Once all of us were back together, we assembled in the prime parade viewing location. Aurora was psyched because she was ready to be totally in her element of magical character interactions at a distance.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
The parade started with no
Beast next to Belle on the lead float. I guess they figured with me around it
would be overkill.
Yes, Eugene smoldered at
the ladies in our family again. (“YAAAAAY!” – Kim) The fact that they ensured
we were on his side, and screamed constantly as he approached (especially Kim) may
have something to do with that.
(Really, this is not something I want to dwell on… More than I already have…
Which now that it is completed is a considerable amount. *grumble grumble*)
Donald saw Anabelle’s
little Fanny Pack version of him and they had another excited float to ground mime
exchange, like ya do. Ariel finally stopped staring into space on this pass by
long enough to acknowledge the crowd. She noticed Anabelle’s braids, made
motions with her Dinglehopper and the two of them had a mime hair connection.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Naveen and Tiana waved at our gang, as did the duo from Frozen.
Captain Hook pointed his hook at us once more, and Tinkerbelle pouted yet again.
Anabelle’s favorite dwarf is Bashful. She yelled a huge greeting at him when he passed by. In response, Dopey waved at her.
This may be because Dopey was sitting on Bashful’s shoulders and Bashful asked him to wave.
(A less moved by the Magic of Disney person may have theorized that there was a single person in the Bashful/ Dopey costume, but our family is never going to stoop to that level of negativity in any Disney Park, least of all the Magic Kingdom. In fact most of our family never considered this costuming configuration worked that way.)
Chip waved to Rosa because she has some powerful, mystical hold over the chipmunks, and he must have sensed a good bye was needed.
Speaking of odd and unsettling coincidences. Raven guy holding the dragon’s tail ran directly over to Rosa and stared menacingly right at her for the third time.
In the mix of characters before Mickey and Minnie’s float, the Mad Hatter was singing along to “Who’s the Leader of the Club” but saying “ALICE!” instead of Mickey Mouse.
When he passed us, Kim
yelled that he was the leader of the club.
His response:
“I could be the leader of the club…
I’m good at clubbing people!”
Anabelle belted out, “EXCUSE ME!” as he was walking away.
He spun back around and shot her a silly face.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
When the parade ended, we passed through into Adventureland…
Because that’s where the Pirates are!!
Or is it “That’s where the Pirate’s ‘Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!’”?
(A reminder that I am hilarious.)
The extra Diet Coke Grandma had vanished mysteriously.
(No, it didn’t. She picked it up from where we put it on the floor during the parade, put it in her bag, and finished it later. However, since I completely forgot about it until far later in the day, it seemed to vanish mysteriously. Yes, I needed VAST amounts of rest by this point.)
We saw Captain Jack Sparrow meeting a large line of people on the way. It was the first time we found him on the trip. The kids all ran…
for their lives in the opposite direction.
Kim did not share their
opinion and snuck back to get a photo of him with “Stunt Kids.”
In order for it to be a true Disney World trip, Anabelle has to fall asleep on Pirates at least once.
This was the once, but it was very brief. She faded after the picture was taken, and was out for the drop. Then one of Barbossa’s cannon balls exploded water all over her and she was wide awake with a shout of, “WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME!?”
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
We sang along!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
Yes, I am overusing the “YAY!”s on this final day. We are always determined to drag every last available bit of cheer out of Disney World as humanly possible. So there.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
The “Goose Girl,” long one of Anabelle’s favorite “dancing dollies” was missing her third goose when she reappears in the white room for almost the entire trip. This happens every time Anabelle goes. She feels that Goose says, “Oh, Anabelle is back. Buh-BYE!”
We theorized that Goose might have been in charge of cheese removal.
To complete her small world imitation set, Aurora replicated the motions of the bird with the spinning head in the jungle, as she did every other ride.
Across from the small world was Peter Pan. We passed the entrance on the way to our final screening of Filmore’s Magic.
It had a mere half hour posted wait!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway
We jumped on the line.
As we navigated the outside part of the queue, Peter Pan himself was walking by to go on shift and stuck his face through the hole in the wall there to yell, “HELLO!!!!”
All the kids screamed and Anabelle may have shouted, “Get away from the child killer!!!”
We’re always fun to have around.
This is still the best interactive queue Disney has. It’s completely immersive and extends the environment and experience of the ride. Evidence of why they don’t make all their lines like this came up while we waited. The line continually ceased all forward motion. When we got closer, Uncle Dave noticed the Cast Member let in fifty Lightning Lanes for every ten of us. That was a small part of it, but a much bigger part was people hogging the interactive features and forgetting they were supposed to keep moving.
One group of girls was playing with the shadow bells for such a long period it led Anabelle to say, “Hey, don’t be tinkling too long over there.”
When it was our turn, we released shadow Tinkerbelle from the lantern and had a ball playing for our allotted period of time. Before moving on, Anabelle made a Godzilla hand shadow.
Morgan was also very proud that he hit the lantern shadow enough times to release Tinkerbelle that she exploded into butterflies.
On the ship together, Grandma pointed out to Anabelle that the Lost Boys are visible twice.
“Thanks, No one likes a smarty pants, Grandma,” was Anabelle’s reply.
After riding, we passed the entrance to Peter Pan, which had now jumped back up to over and hour once it was done magically bidding us farewell, on the way for our final screening of Filmore’s Magic.
The entire pre show area was packed. Talking to each other, we decided not to bother any form of “chaining” because we’d never get nine seats together.
We did!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
In the middle!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We sang along! (Again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
It’s a good thing we did, because the crowd was fairly lame, especially compared to the festivities of Anabelle and Aurora’s private screening.
During dinner on the previous Magic Kingdom night, before that private screening and the Mine Train ride, Grandma pointed out an egregious failure: We had only been to the Country Bears once on this whole trip. Sadly, they close earlier than the rest of the Park (except Tom Sawyer Island, hence them being thrown off) or we would have corrected that oversight immediately that evening.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We sang along! (Again, again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
While clappin’ our hands and stompin’ our feet with a real old country rhythm!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
The crowd was super into it this time. YEE-HAW!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
That should be a test. The Cast Members at security should ask Guests,
“What do you think of the Country Bear Jamboree?”
Anyone who says it’s boring or outdated is far too dull to enter the Magic Kingdom, and gets shunted elsewhere (preferably to the myriad of resort based activities available, away from any Park) to make more room for people who are an absolute hoot to have around.
Like us!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
In a demonstration of how much fun interactive parades are now, everyone wanted to see the Festival of Fantasy a second (or for us a third) time. Just how much that was linked to the women in the family being excited about Eugene flinging smolders off of his float continues to be rather troubling, frankly, and not something I will dwell on. (More than I have already dwelled on it, I mean.)
YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
(Anabelle’s “yay” was significantly more muted, but Grandma’s was big enough for everyone.)
Rosa and I ran up to the Memento Mori shop. I bought Grandma a “thank you” Madam Leota Tombstone Hanger. Then, because it’s me, I accidentally bought yet another new Haunted Mansion shirt. (Disney people know… these accidents happen.) This one had the stretching room. (Hear that Pirate Marketing People? GET ON THE BALL!!!!)
Because the shirt was accidental, we had already sent Anabelle pictures of pins to choose from to raise the purchase price to the discount level for our Disney card, and bought that as well.
YAAY!
Keeping with this theme, Kim gave Grandma a complete Haunted Mansion bedding set for her birthday. How cool is that!? I kept the trend going as well with the 50th Anniversary Disney World Book.
Because we will all do ANYTHING to prolong the feeling of Disney World in our family.
As one should.
While we were paying, I heard someone say, “Do you know the BEST version of the Haunted Mansion Bride?
It is the one in the Muppet’s Haunted Mansion.”
I looked up and saw the speaker, a Drag Queen by the door who was approaching a full seven feet tall, spreading accuracy along with fabulousness throughout the room.
While this was going on, Uncle Dave went on line at the pretzel and churro stand and was taking orders from everyone. He ended up with an extra Diet Coke. Given that was my fuel of choice, though we both just had one, Grandma and I decided to split it. When Dave finished, he worked his way back to us, and handed everything out. Aurora pointed out there was an extra churro, likely due to the levels of chaos we usually travel with, and asked if anyone wanted it. Anabelle happily volunteered. She was slightly less happy when she learned, in the confusion; she basically ate Uncle Dave’s churro. She was still happy though because,
1) It proved the Laugh Floor prediction from early in the trip correct, and
2) She ate a churro.
Uncle Dave wasn’t upset because:
1) With Magic Bands no longer working to pay, it is very likely that churro was free.
2) He had his own stress issues to deal with after sprinting across the parade path when it was fifty feet away and having a Cast Member yell at him.
Once all of us were back together, we assembled in the prime parade viewing location. Aurora was psyched because she was ready to be totally in her element of magical character interactions at a distance.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
(Really, this is not something I want to dwell on… More than I already have…
Which now that it is completed is a considerable amount. *grumble grumble*)
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Naveen and Tiana waved at our gang, as did the duo from Frozen.
Captain Hook pointed his hook at us once more, and Tinkerbelle pouted yet again.
Anabelle’s favorite dwarf is Bashful. She yelled a huge greeting at him when he passed by. In response, Dopey waved at her.
This may be because Dopey was sitting on Bashful’s shoulders and Bashful asked him to wave.
(A less moved by the Magic of Disney person may have theorized that there was a single person in the Bashful/ Dopey costume, but our family is never going to stoop to that level of negativity in any Disney Park, least of all the Magic Kingdom. In fact most of our family never considered this costuming configuration worked that way.)
Chip waved to Rosa because she has some powerful, mystical hold over the chipmunks, and he must have sensed a good bye was needed.
Speaking of odd and unsettling coincidences. Raven guy holding the dragon’s tail ran directly over to Rosa and stared menacingly right at her for the third time.
In the mix of characters before Mickey and Minnie’s float, the Mad Hatter was singing along to “Who’s the Leader of the Club” but saying “ALICE!” instead of Mickey Mouse.
His response:
“I could be the leader of the club…
I’m good at clubbing people!”
Anabelle belted out, “EXCUSE ME!” as he was walking away.
He spun back around and shot her a silly face.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
When the parade ended, we passed through into Adventureland…
Because that’s where the Pirates are!!
Or is it “That’s where the Pirate’s ‘Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!’”?
(A reminder that I am hilarious.)
The extra Diet Coke Grandma had vanished mysteriously.
(No, it didn’t. She picked it up from where we put it on the floor during the parade, put it in her bag, and finished it later. However, since I completely forgot about it until far later in the day, it seemed to vanish mysteriously. Yes, I needed VAST amounts of rest by this point.)
We saw Captain Jack Sparrow meeting a large line of people on the way. It was the first time we found him on the trip. The kids all ran…
for their lives in the opposite direction.
In order for it to be a true Disney World trip, Anabelle has to fall asleep on Pirates at least once.
This was the once, but it was very brief. She faded after the picture was taken, and was out for the drop. Then one of Barbossa’s cannon balls exploded water all over her and she was wide awake with a shout of, “WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME!?”
Sadly, review of the PhotoPass from this ride was a tad late. I'm not sure who those people are...but it isn't us.
But where the heck did the Mine Train photos go? I know I saw them before we finalized the files. I miss the good old days where we just came home with an ungodly number of rolls of film, and then forgot to develop them for months. Oh wait, the pictures didn't come out at night but there was a video...and I pulled an image from it. This narrative might be easier to follow if I kept these little internal asides to myself.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
I love this ride. It’s truly everything a Disney Ride should be. Not enough to shake up Old Man Bones, but just the right mix of thrills, spooky, funny and exciting. The animatronics are top of the line, the song is a magnificent earworm, the scenes are gorgeous and busy, and the sets are ENORMOUS! Normally I prefer a regular dark ride (hence the Haunted Mansion, the best of them, in second place) but the added immersion factor (pun intended) of the boat for this one adds much to the experience.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! Indeed!
We came off the ride and saw a handler setting up a greeting area but not where we saw Captain Jack. He yelled as we were passing, “Do you want to meet Angelica?”
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We ran over. (Especially Anabelle. Since it has Mermaids, the fourth Pirates film always had a special place in her heart when she was tiny. This is in spite of the fact that most of the mermaids eat people in that one.) Angelica wasn’t on any listed schedule at all. Our hypothesis is she was practicing for the Halloween parties.
The Pirate Woman asked
what treasure we were searching for?
There was a lull, before Anabelle answered, “Baklava!”
Angelica paused with a puzzled look on her face and said, “I haven’t heard of that one.”
When I went up for a photo she looked at my pirate cap and belt buckle and quickly stated,
“You must be the Captain.”
“Yes…Yes I am.”
(My impressive, swagger filled moment of answering was then shattered quite a bit when the kids all yelled, “No! It’s Grandma!”)
Once again, the two constants came into play.
1) It’s next door.
2) (The important one) It’s us!
And we went to the Tiki Room.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We sang along! (Again, again, again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Anabelle, being rudely awakened by enemy fire on Pirates, napped a bit in here. (She found this fact to be terribly sad.) Rosa joined her. (Rosa found this fact to be much more required and therefore less terribly sad.) Anywhere dark and air-conditioned is an extreme challenge to remain functional at the end of our trips.
To avoid any possibilities of CrazyHungryLand on the last day, we chose this moment to split up for lunch.
Most of the gang went back to Pinocchio Village Haus. The draw of waving to small world riding guests and the quality of the flatbread and other items was too much to pass up. Morgan went to get a fork and vanished. They were starting to get concerned about his well-being, or the very real possibility he found a couple of chairs to nap on, when he returned.
Morgan’s Family Disney Genes have kicked in full blast. From constant watching of Disney World YouTube videos he learned there were signs available to share and wave at the small worlders. He requested them from Cast Members, who provided them, and then he and the rest of the gang used them constantly from their window seat.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
However, in all the
excitement Morgan forgot to get his fork and Dave had to go.
Oopsie.
However, Aurora finally
got her treasured Baklava!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Anabelle let the riders
bask in her custom small world shirt, and using mime she may have picked up
from all those Mickey encounters, threatened a man with bodily harm who was not
responding to their enthusiastic waves and suggestions.
Um, yay, I guess.
Grandma seemed to suddenly realize, and be upset by the fact, that she did not have a cheeseburger during the whole trip. She came with Rosa and I back to Cosmic Ray’s to continue our unhealthy fascination with the “To the Moon” Impossible Burger. Since Rosa likes French Fries waaaay more than I do, and finding them guaranteed Gluten Free can be an issue, I attempted to get both sides of Fries Gluten Free. The concept of doing this, while putting my burger separately on a normal bun was far too confusing a task for the Cast Member taking our order. Finally, I gave up and ordered them both fully Gluten Free. Due to the power of Disney Magic, that bun tasted just as good as a regular one.
And Grandma got her cheeseburger.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
This meal highlighted another excellent reason why we use Table Service for lunch. More people go for Counter Service for their mid-day meal and there were no seats available inside to allow us to bask in the glory that is Sonny Eclipse on our final day. Those tables were filled with Philistines who were ignoring him.
Alas.
Levels of exhaustion were showing in more obvious ways. Grandma was stunned at the wait time for the Tomorrowland Speedway across from where we sat. She pointed out it was an hour and five minutes when we first arrived and had grown to over an hour and twenty while we were eating. At that point, I realized she was looking at the “return time” official digital clock over the Lightning Lane, and reassured her that the wait had been around forty minutes the whole fifteen or so minutes we were eating.
As both of our groups finished up, we called back and forth to figure out where to meet. Once Aurora was cured of the notion (that she’d somehow come to via the levels of tiredness that only greets one at the end of a Disney Vacation…or maybe Anabelle told her, which would still be the same reason) that the Carousel of Progress lasted over forty minutes, their group came over to Tomorrowland to meet us.
To go with a truly out of
nowhere transition- Anabelle has a pin with the Cheshire Cat on it that says
“Restrooms.” She had no idea where it was in the Parks and vowed to find it on
this trip. Then, like many things we vow to do (such as sleep), she completely forgot
about it. On the way to meet us they needed a bathroom break across from the
Teacups, AND THERE IT WAS!!!! She was so excited.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Once again, if you know what you are doing, ANYTHING can be exciting in Disney.
Miss Jenny said she would definitely be working in the Tomorrowland store on this day. Once we all assembled there (And based on statistics, or more accurately the Cheshire Cat story I just told, bathroom stops were completed.) we went to see her.
She was not there.
Yeah, sorry. Even on the last day, not every moment in the Magic Kingdom is a “YAAAAAAAAAAAY!”
We cut across Tomorrowland to the Carousel of Progress, because it’s still awesome and we love it.
Also, selections of attractions in the middle of the day that maintained a short line were highly limited as we ran out of time before having to go back to the All Star Movies one last time.
Alas.
Anabelle and Rosa took a
detour by the “character party” stage to wave to Stitch, as our side of the
family did not inherit the deep-seated hatred of the little alien. They caught
up with the rest of the group shortly after we had ascended the ramp to our
destination. Including our nine there were about twenty people waiting for the
doors to open. One of them was a woman who decided to throw a big stink about
Rosa and Anabelle joining our group when they reached us. This was while we were
preparing to enter the theater with the capacity to seat TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY
PEOPLE.
We did not throw a big stink back, because we are not people who endeavor to suck all the fun out of Disney World. We simply sat far away from her.
We could do this quite easily because, as I may have mentioned a mere paragraph ago, the theater seated TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY PEOPLE.
Either Anabelle was more confused from exhaustion this time, or the end of the vacation heightened her inquisitiveness. (Or Aurora told her, which would still be the same reasons.) As the various scenes progressed by, she kept saying, “I have so many questions.”
“If it is supposed to be
the same family throughout each era of history, where did the little girl from
the first scene go?”
“Why does Trish’s hair color swap with the wife’s after the first scene?”
And so on.
Maybe if Horizons was still open, she could have gotten some answers.
(Is she dancing yet?)
Well before Jean Shepherd asked at the end, we all sang along (again, again, again, again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
Buzz Lightyear, with his
new more Toy Story accurate face was up on the character party stage after this
experience. I waved at him a bit and posed for a picture. Sadly, he did not
remember all the times I have met him wearing by Buzz Lightyear costume shirt. I
could have carried it with me for just such an occasion, but last time I
re-donned that shirt after using it earlier for a full hot and humid day in the
Magic Kingdom, I almost asphyxiated myself.
Can’t win them all I guess.
Alas.
In another “well, it’s nearby” moment, we went into the Laugh Floor again. Rosa took another spin on the People Mover. It is completely believable that just living with me all these years has pushed her bad joke and pun tolerance to the limit.
Marty told my, Aurora’s and Grandma’s (from Veronica’s phone) jokes. Anabelle didn’t submit one or he probably would have told her’s too. Besides the unquestionably high joke quality in our family, we’d finally gotten the submission timing down correctly for the show we were scheduled to see.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
Honestly, I’m not going to tell you the jokes, because knowing they were selected will make everyone believe they were far funnier than they actually were. Quite often, comedy is a bit more about the setting than the actual content.
It was getting close to the time we had to leave, therefore it was also time to reschedule when that time was. The original suggestion for heading back to the hotel was based on previous trips when a mad dash to the cafeteria and food section of the store was needed to finish all the meal plan snacks and counter service left overs.
This was the latest we’d left a Park on the final day by a decent amount in a very long time. The originally scheduled (and already late) flight home was pushed back further during the huge gap between booking and this day. Then again, that huge gap probably saved Grandma a massive bundle since it was paid for long before the gas price gouging started. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We pushed the resort return time close to an hour later. However, Grandma went back to rest at the hotel at this stage anyway. The remainder of us split up since our family had gone on the Ariel Ride in the morning.
We thought in pseudo-hindsight we should have ridden Ariel again, but in actual hindsight it didn’t really matter.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy
The last attraction one goes on in Disney World feels as important as the first. It really isn’t because the sadness of leaving will overwhelm it at the time, and the overall good memories will overwhelm it once the vacation is over.
Still, even calibrating for our normal levels, this was above kind of a fiasco.
We ended with a small world ride. It’s sweet and peaceful, a family favorite and full of positive vibes.
At least is usually is.
There were three kids in the row behind us. Honestly, we’ve been on the ride enough times that we can ignore constant seat kicking most of the time. That merely added to the issue.
They were incredibly loud. (And this is me, with a lifetime of a huge Italian family saying this.)
How loud?
It was difficult to hear the song at some points.
They talked non-stop throughout the ride. They asked questions, made commentary, and got into bizarre debates. (The end “white room” was either heaven or Frozen, which they argued back and forth on for the entire time we were in it.) Some of it could have been funny in a Mystery Science Theater way if this wasn’t our last ride, and, more importantly, it wasn’t at ear splitting levels.
When the ride ended we
decided to quit while we were behind, get a couple of family pictures at the
Castle, and head for our last Disney Bus.
Alas.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
I tend to think about leaving as little as possible during the trip to allow a focus on, and enjoyment of, “the now.” The problem with that is I always panic about the final details near the very end. In this case it was that the Mears Shuttle, which stops at multiple resorts, would be picking us up much closer to airline departure time than we would normally schedule a ride for at home. This is also not counting the remaining shock of the “three hours before” suggestion for our flight down.
We met Kim’s kids a little ahead of us on the bus line. They decided they didn’t want to go on the Ariel ride when the Barnstormer was available. Those three had a quick run on the Great Goofini’s coaster, and then ran through the Circus Splash and Soak Station. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Aurora tried to maintain some control and sanity and slowed their contacts with the station so they reached the bus only slightly damp.
Kim and Dave were nowhere
to be seen. I learned later that the line for the Ariel ride had excessive stops
and starts. These were not caused by people staring into space as we had seen.
There was a huge influx of wheelchair bound guests this day. Before and during
their ride, progress of the seashells stopped constantly to allow them to board
and exit.
The six of us waiting crowded onto the bus. There were various calls and texts in between the two groups on this transport, Grandma at the hotel, and Kim and Dave running down Main Street. While on the bus, I heard a couple discussing they had eaten at the Disney World McDonalds as we passed it. They planned to repeat a dinner there, as well as repeating another place they liked- the Bowling Alley in Disney Springs.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
I am fully aware we are Disney food snobs.
I am fully aware not everyone does insane early morning planning months before a trip to get table service.
And I am fully aware that budgets are an issue.
However, given the variety of food available at the four Parks, shopping areas and hotels-
And given that a large percentage of excellent quality and variety counter service places would cost the same as their selection, it was all I could do to prevent myself from venting all my sadness at the end of my Disney Trip into a huge bellow of:
“WHAT IN WALT’S NAME IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?!?!?!”
Kim and Dave reached the bus stop in time to watch one pull out. (Naturally) However, that bus (like ours) was the final bus of the day that made stops at all three All Star Resorts. (Movies was last.) Their bus was the first one that went directly to the All Star Movies.
This meant as we were entering the Donald’s Double Feature Gift Shop, their bus pulled in.
Aside- This summarizes my relationship with my sister throughout our lives. I go nuts, planning and rushing to get where I’m supposed to be on time. She is inevitably delayed through multiple weird sets of circumstances, none of which are usually her fault, and shows up late. However, through other bizarre happenings, while the delay is long enough to stress everyone out, the other stuff that happens makes the delay negligible in the grand scheme of things.
In other words:
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Another aside- Embarrassingly, I did not notice the appropriateness of the Donald naming of the store until right before we left the resort on this day. Take it Anabelle:
“Because… you are a fool.”
Anabelle made some final pin trades. To restate yet again, they were far too numerous to catalogue them all, and I’m pretty sure she’s already traded away some she picked up on this trip. There were also the final mug runs. Since we still had aftershocks following the small world, we didn’t focus on the contraposition of our seeing Main Street as the saddest street on Earth while others were finding it the happiest. I did however, cross paths with and help out the inevitable “first timers” trying to figure out filling their mugs with the RF scanner while I got our last Hot Chocolate, Sprite and PowerAde. The torch was passed.
Alas.
While all this was going on, stress was piling up. We gave our ticket and got our bags without a hitch. Dave went to get their bags, and was stunned they wanted a claim ticket as he wasn’t given one that morning. They found him in their log, and brought out all of his family’s, and Grandma’s bags.
One of Grandma’s cases was missing. I was getting our baggage together, and watching Anabelle put the final additions into her trip notebook. (Not counting when she’d write up her Table Service restaurant reviews at home, of course. No you can’t see them, they’re just for her. Admit it, you’ve read enough about this trip anyway.)
Every so often, I’d go over to check out progress on Grandma’s missing suitcase. Eventually it was found…
In her other suitcase.
We should have been tipped off by her keeping an extra purse in her purse and looked there first.
Rosa, doing a final check of the manly Fairy backpack we brought to the Parks each day found a grand total of three washcloths from the room in it. She returned them to the front desk while the young members of our group sat together on the couches waiting for the Mears shuttle. The kids were all sad to be leaving, but were also ground down enough that they were ready to go. “I miss my bed” was repeated by many of them.
We all boarded the Mears shuttle when it came. Grandma had the paper with “the square thing” on it, and Kim also had the image of “the square thing” stored on her phone. Grandma spent a while explaining “the square thing” to us, but luckily the driver had a better understanding of QR codes than she did, and we were on our way.
(*Unintelligible grumbling*- Grandma)
Most of us zoned out and
rested. Anabelle and Aurora used the trip for more bonding time. We stopped at
other resorts to bring more guests out of that wonderful reality. When they
announced the POP Century, Anabelle perked up, “Say less, I’m getting out!”
She loves that one.
Kim used her phone to check in for the flight on the bus, because I wasn’t stressed out enough about the rapidly shrinking time between “now” and take off. (See the “aside” above for an explanation of this phenomenon, and the inevitable outcome.)
We got to the airport, found the check in kiosks and printed all our luggage tags and boarding passes quite speedily. Security was crowded but went quickly. The only minor issue was Anabelle continuing her inspection streak by having her ankle brace and herself wanded. I had a slight clash with some rude teenaged girls who kept trying to push my bins before I was finished, as I filled them with the hundreds of things I keep in my pockets.
This was the reverse of New York Museums spoiling us by making us underwhelmed in other location’s museums. Yes, Orlando is a huge vacation point, but it isn’t New York. My stress over timing was unneeded as we easily were at our gate with more than enough time to rest a little and get food before boarding started, although we had arrived less than an hour and a half before takeoff. While waiting, a man asked if a seat near us was open. I did a quick count of who was missing in our group and told him it was occupied. Then I realized that I am a fool and cannot count when that tired. I walked across the waiting area to apologize to him over near another gate.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
We boarded, I lifted the carryon and carried it in the air down the aisle in spite of its wheels. This was after I ran over two people’s feet working my way to our row because they didn’t understand the concept that the aisle of the airplane is an important ingredient in boarding. We took off on time. YAY! Kim continued her chocolate bar gifts for the crew and got a great deal of thank yous, as well as some free snacks. YAY!
Rosa curled up in the corner against the window, bundled into a ball, and slept for the flight. The kids all watched movies. Anabelle was introduced to Ice Age by her cousin. She and Aurora would watch the rest of the films in that series, and make fun of them, at home the following week. It was during discussing this watching that Anabelle remembered she never got the Apple Juice she requested on the plane. Aurora is still laughing at her for this. Morgan, after the Top Hat comparison no doubt, decided to watch Jaws. There was an announcement during the “Need a bigger boat” moment. Therefore, Kim made him rewind it to see it properly, then took him to see an anniversary theatrical showing at home, because she is an excellent parent.
By the end of the flight, all three girls were leaning on each other out cold.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Grandma promised to watch Sonic 2, (with- in sprit- Veronica) but she had some technical issues. (In a different kind of “because it’s her,” this should surprise no one.) I helped her work through them as they arose one after the other. She did more sleeping than watching however. At one point she blurted out, “It was a two week span that broke!”
When I politely asked, “What the hell are you talking about?” She answered completely coherently, “I have no idea, I think I was dreaming.”
Shortly after that, there was no sound for her movie…because the headphone jack fell out of the set. Later, she was using her hand to separate things on her tray… that were not there since her tray was empty.
Yes, we were all more than a bit wiped out.
I used the time to finish proofreading and marking up the Travelogue for our Colorado trip, knowing I’d need a massive amount of time to catalog all of our insanity and fun from this adventure in what has become a novel length memoir.
We landed sitting in the last rows of the plane for the second time. (It was the only seats we could get together on this trip as well.) We all waited an appreciable span for everyone else to exit. This meant by the time we got to the baggage claim, our stuff was ready to come out onto the conveyors. We only needed to assemble it all into a pushable form.
During the exit and travel time, Aurora’s new Monster’s University hat that I probably should have mentioned she got a while ago vanished. Luckily, they were sold in the store Miss Jenny worked in, her parents were visiting shortly, and a replacement was sent up very quickly.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
The Giant Limo Bus driver…
(That is: the bus was giant, not the driver…perhaps I do need to edit more.)
The driver of the Giant Limo Bus kept calling me to tell me where he was out front, but that the police were telling him to leave and he might have to loop around. I kept pointing out that we were not about to leave the airport without our bags. Or in fact, we were not about to leave the airport directly from the plane which is where he contacted me. I guess I should also mention that with the expected bathroom stops after being crammed into those tiny seats for over two hours, we were not going to leave the airport without all of our children either.
Unsurprisingly, he did have to loop around. We all came out to wait for him, and found out why the police were so intent on him leaving.
To say he triple parked would be inaccurate, because that would imply he parked at all.
He stopped out in the center of the road, blocking traffic with his massive vehicle. Dave and I shuttled bags to him at the trunk, and children to the passenger door through said traffic until all of our stuff and us were safely in the bus.
Then he took us home.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Exiting at the point we started, that is Grandma’s driveway in the dark, we shifted luggage, said our weary but smiling good byes and returned to our individual homes.
14927 steps 6.3 miles
We returned to face nowhere near enough time to prepare for school, college or bowling. (For some members of my family, those three are equivalent…I am not one of them.)
We returned worn out and massively behind in deliverables for work. Dave had multiple field visits scheduled, and I was walking into two weeks of audits.
We returned tired, injured, testing positive on top of our sinus infections, and dehydrated.
I destroyed two pairs of sneakers. (Anabelle left one in the trash there as well. Morgan Veronica and Kim had pairs with hole in them when we arrived home.)
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
I love this ride. It’s truly everything a Disney Ride should be. Not enough to shake up Old Man Bones, but just the right mix of thrills, spooky, funny and exciting. The animatronics are top of the line, the song is a magnificent earworm, the scenes are gorgeous and busy, and the sets are ENORMOUS! Normally I prefer a regular dark ride (hence the Haunted Mansion, the best of them, in second place) but the added immersion factor (pun intended) of the boat for this one adds much to the experience.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! Indeed!
We came off the ride and saw a handler setting up a greeting area but not where we saw Captain Jack. He yelled as we were passing, “Do you want to meet Angelica?”
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We ran over. (Especially Anabelle. Since it has Mermaids, the fourth Pirates film always had a special place in her heart when she was tiny. This is in spite of the fact that most of the mermaids eat people in that one.) Angelica wasn’t on any listed schedule at all. Our hypothesis is she was practicing for the Halloween parties.
There was a lull, before Anabelle answered, “Baklava!”
Angelica paused with a puzzled look on her face and said, “I haven’t heard of that one.”
When I went up for a photo she looked at my pirate cap and belt buckle and quickly stated,
“You must be the Captain.”
(My impressive, swagger filled moment of answering was then shattered quite a bit when the kids all yelled, “No! It’s Grandma!”)
Once again, the two constants came into play.
1) It’s next door.
2) (The important one) It’s us!
And we went to the Tiki Room.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We sang along! (Again, again, again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Anabelle, being rudely awakened by enemy fire on Pirates, napped a bit in here. (She found this fact to be terribly sad.) Rosa joined her. (Rosa found this fact to be much more required and therefore less terribly sad.) Anywhere dark and air-conditioned is an extreme challenge to remain functional at the end of our trips.
To avoid any possibilities of CrazyHungryLand on the last day, we chose this moment to split up for lunch.
Most of the gang went back to Pinocchio Village Haus. The draw of waving to small world riding guests and the quality of the flatbread and other items was too much to pass up. Morgan went to get a fork and vanished. They were starting to get concerned about his well-being, or the very real possibility he found a couple of chairs to nap on, when he returned.
Morgan’s Family Disney Genes have kicked in full blast. From constant watching of Disney World YouTube videos he learned there were signs available to share and wave at the small worlders. He requested them from Cast Members, who provided them, and then he and the rest of the gang used them constantly from their window seat.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Oopsie.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Um, yay, I guess.
Grandma seemed to suddenly realize, and be upset by the fact, that she did not have a cheeseburger during the whole trip. She came with Rosa and I back to Cosmic Ray’s to continue our unhealthy fascination with the “To the Moon” Impossible Burger. Since Rosa likes French Fries waaaay more than I do, and finding them guaranteed Gluten Free can be an issue, I attempted to get both sides of Fries Gluten Free. The concept of doing this, while putting my burger separately on a normal bun was far too confusing a task for the Cast Member taking our order. Finally, I gave up and ordered them both fully Gluten Free. Due to the power of Disney Magic, that bun tasted just as good as a regular one.
And Grandma got her cheeseburger.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
This meal highlighted another excellent reason why we use Table Service for lunch. More people go for Counter Service for their mid-day meal and there were no seats available inside to allow us to bask in the glory that is Sonny Eclipse on our final day. Those tables were filled with Philistines who were ignoring him.
Alas.
Levels of exhaustion were showing in more obvious ways. Grandma was stunned at the wait time for the Tomorrowland Speedway across from where we sat. She pointed out it was an hour and five minutes when we first arrived and had grown to over an hour and twenty while we were eating. At that point, I realized she was looking at the “return time” official digital clock over the Lightning Lane, and reassured her that the wait had been around forty minutes the whole fifteen or so minutes we were eating.
As both of our groups finished up, we called back and forth to figure out where to meet. Once Aurora was cured of the notion (that she’d somehow come to via the levels of tiredness that only greets one at the end of a Disney Vacation…or maybe Anabelle told her, which would still be the same reason) that the Carousel of Progress lasted over forty minutes, their group came over to Tomorrowland to meet us.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Once again, if you know what you are doing, ANYTHING can be exciting in Disney.
Miss Jenny said she would definitely be working in the Tomorrowland store on this day. Once we all assembled there (And based on statistics, or more accurately the Cheshire Cat story I just told, bathroom stops were completed.) we went to see her.
She was not there.
Yeah, sorry. Even on the last day, not every moment in the Magic Kingdom is a “YAAAAAAAAAAAY!”
We cut across Tomorrowland to the Carousel of Progress, because it’s still awesome and we love it.
Also, selections of attractions in the middle of the day that maintained a short line were highly limited as we ran out of time before having to go back to the All Star Movies one last time.
Alas.
We did not throw a big stink back, because we are not people who endeavor to suck all the fun out of Disney World. We simply sat far away from her.
We could do this quite easily because, as I may have mentioned a mere paragraph ago, the theater seated TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY PEOPLE.
Either Anabelle was more confused from exhaustion this time, or the end of the vacation heightened her inquisitiveness. (Or Aurora told her, which would still be the same reasons.) As the various scenes progressed by, she kept saying, “I have so many questions.”
“Why does Trish’s hair color swap with the wife’s after the first scene?”
And so on.
Maybe if Horizons was still open, she could have gotten some answers.
(Is she dancing yet?)
Well before Jean Shepherd asked at the end, we all sang along (again, again, again, again!)
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
Can’t win them all I guess.
Alas.
In another “well, it’s nearby” moment, we went into the Laugh Floor again. Rosa took another spin on the People Mover. It is completely believable that just living with me all these years has pushed her bad joke and pun tolerance to the limit.
Marty told my, Aurora’s and Grandma’s (from Veronica’s phone) jokes. Anabelle didn’t submit one or he probably would have told her’s too. Besides the unquestionably high joke quality in our family, we’d finally gotten the submission timing down correctly for the show we were scheduled to see.
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
Honestly, I’m not going to tell you the jokes, because knowing they were selected will make everyone believe they were far funnier than they actually were. Quite often, comedy is a bit more about the setting than the actual content.
It was getting close to the time we had to leave, therefore it was also time to reschedule when that time was. The original suggestion for heading back to the hotel was based on previous trips when a mad dash to the cafeteria and food section of the store was needed to finish all the meal plan snacks and counter service left overs.
This was the latest we’d left a Park on the final day by a decent amount in a very long time. The originally scheduled (and already late) flight home was pushed back further during the huge gap between booking and this day. Then again, that huge gap probably saved Grandma a massive bundle since it was paid for long before the gas price gouging started. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
We pushed the resort return time close to an hour later. However, Grandma went back to rest at the hotel at this stage anyway. The remainder of us split up since our family had gone on the Ariel Ride in the morning.
We thought in pseudo-hindsight we should have ridden Ariel again, but in actual hindsight it didn’t really matter.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy
The last attraction one goes on in Disney World feels as important as the first. It really isn’t because the sadness of leaving will overwhelm it at the time, and the overall good memories will overwhelm it once the vacation is over.
Still, even calibrating for our normal levels, this was above kind of a fiasco.
We ended with a small world ride. It’s sweet and peaceful, a family favorite and full of positive vibes.
At least is usually is.
There were three kids in the row behind us. Honestly, we’ve been on the ride enough times that we can ignore constant seat kicking most of the time. That merely added to the issue.
They were incredibly loud. (And this is me, with a lifetime of a huge Italian family saying this.)
How loud?
It was difficult to hear the song at some points.
They talked non-stop throughout the ride. They asked questions, made commentary, and got into bizarre debates. (The end “white room” was either heaven or Frozen, which they argued back and forth on for the entire time we were in it.) Some of it could have been funny in a Mystery Science Theater way if this wasn’t our last ride, and, more importantly, it wasn’t at ear splitting levels.
Alas.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
I tend to think about leaving as little as possible during the trip to allow a focus on, and enjoyment of, “the now.” The problem with that is I always panic about the final details near the very end. In this case it was that the Mears Shuttle, which stops at multiple resorts, would be picking us up much closer to airline departure time than we would normally schedule a ride for at home. This is also not counting the remaining shock of the “three hours before” suggestion for our flight down.
We met Kim’s kids a little ahead of us on the bus line. They decided they didn’t want to go on the Ariel ride when the Barnstormer was available. Those three had a quick run on the Great Goofini’s coaster, and then ran through the Circus Splash and Soak Station. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Aurora tried to maintain some control and sanity and slowed their contacts with the station so they reached the bus only slightly damp.
The six of us waiting crowded onto the bus. There were various calls and texts in between the two groups on this transport, Grandma at the hotel, and Kim and Dave running down Main Street. While on the bus, I heard a couple discussing they had eaten at the Disney World McDonalds as we passed it. They planned to repeat a dinner there, as well as repeating another place they liked- the Bowling Alley in Disney Springs.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
I am fully aware we are Disney food snobs.
I am fully aware not everyone does insane early morning planning months before a trip to get table service.
And I am fully aware that budgets are an issue.
However, given the variety of food available at the four Parks, shopping areas and hotels-
And given that a large percentage of excellent quality and variety counter service places would cost the same as their selection, it was all I could do to prevent myself from venting all my sadness at the end of my Disney Trip into a huge bellow of:
“WHAT IN WALT’S NAME IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?!?!?!”
Kim and Dave reached the bus stop in time to watch one pull out. (Naturally) However, that bus (like ours) was the final bus of the day that made stops at all three All Star Resorts. (Movies was last.) Their bus was the first one that went directly to the All Star Movies.
This meant as we were entering the Donald’s Double Feature Gift Shop, their bus pulled in.
Aside- This summarizes my relationship with my sister throughout our lives. I go nuts, planning and rushing to get where I’m supposed to be on time. She is inevitably delayed through multiple weird sets of circumstances, none of which are usually her fault, and shows up late. However, through other bizarre happenings, while the delay is long enough to stress everyone out, the other stuff that happens makes the delay negligible in the grand scheme of things.
In other words:
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Another aside- Embarrassingly, I did not notice the appropriateness of the Donald naming of the store until right before we left the resort on this day. Take it Anabelle:
“Because… you are a fool.”
Anabelle made some final pin trades. To restate yet again, they were far too numerous to catalogue them all, and I’m pretty sure she’s already traded away some she picked up on this trip. There were also the final mug runs. Since we still had aftershocks following the small world, we didn’t focus on the contraposition of our seeing Main Street as the saddest street on Earth while others were finding it the happiest. I did however, cross paths with and help out the inevitable “first timers” trying to figure out filling their mugs with the RF scanner while I got our last Hot Chocolate, Sprite and PowerAde. The torch was passed.
Alas.
While all this was going on, stress was piling up. We gave our ticket and got our bags without a hitch. Dave went to get their bags, and was stunned they wanted a claim ticket as he wasn’t given one that morning. They found him in their log, and brought out all of his family’s, and Grandma’s bags.
One of Grandma’s cases was missing. I was getting our baggage together, and watching Anabelle put the final additions into her trip notebook. (Not counting when she’d write up her Table Service restaurant reviews at home, of course. No you can’t see them, they’re just for her. Admit it, you’ve read enough about this trip anyway.)
Every so often, I’d go over to check out progress on Grandma’s missing suitcase. Eventually it was found…
In her other suitcase.
We should have been tipped off by her keeping an extra purse in her purse and looked there first.
Rosa, doing a final check of the manly Fairy backpack we brought to the Parks each day found a grand total of three washcloths from the room in it. She returned them to the front desk while the young members of our group sat together on the couches waiting for the Mears shuttle. The kids were all sad to be leaving, but were also ground down enough that they were ready to go. “I miss my bed” was repeated by many of them.
We all boarded the Mears shuttle when it came. Grandma had the paper with “the square thing” on it, and Kim also had the image of “the square thing” stored on her phone. Grandma spent a while explaining “the square thing” to us, but luckily the driver had a better understanding of QR codes than she did, and we were on our way.
(*Unintelligible grumbling*- Grandma)
She loves that one.
Kim used her phone to check in for the flight on the bus, because I wasn’t stressed out enough about the rapidly shrinking time between “now” and take off. (See the “aside” above for an explanation of this phenomenon, and the inevitable outcome.)
We got to the airport, found the check in kiosks and printed all our luggage tags and boarding passes quite speedily. Security was crowded but went quickly. The only minor issue was Anabelle continuing her inspection streak by having her ankle brace and herself wanded. I had a slight clash with some rude teenaged girls who kept trying to push my bins before I was finished, as I filled them with the hundreds of things I keep in my pockets.
This was the reverse of New York Museums spoiling us by making us underwhelmed in other location’s museums. Yes, Orlando is a huge vacation point, but it isn’t New York. My stress over timing was unneeded as we easily were at our gate with more than enough time to rest a little and get food before boarding started, although we had arrived less than an hour and a half before takeoff. While waiting, a man asked if a seat near us was open. I did a quick count of who was missing in our group and told him it was occupied. Then I realized that I am a fool and cannot count when that tired. I walked across the waiting area to apologize to him over near another gate.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
We boarded, I lifted the carryon and carried it in the air down the aisle in spite of its wheels. This was after I ran over two people’s feet working my way to our row because they didn’t understand the concept that the aisle of the airplane is an important ingredient in boarding. We took off on time. YAY! Kim continued her chocolate bar gifts for the crew and got a great deal of thank yous, as well as some free snacks. YAY!
Rosa curled up in the corner against the window, bundled into a ball, and slept for the flight. The kids all watched movies. Anabelle was introduced to Ice Age by her cousin. She and Aurora would watch the rest of the films in that series, and make fun of them, at home the following week. It was during discussing this watching that Anabelle remembered she never got the Apple Juice she requested on the plane. Aurora is still laughing at her for this. Morgan, after the Top Hat comparison no doubt, decided to watch Jaws. There was an announcement during the “Need a bigger boat” moment. Therefore, Kim made him rewind it to see it properly, then took him to see an anniversary theatrical showing at home, because she is an excellent parent.
By the end of the flight, all three girls were leaning on each other out cold.
Grandma promised to watch Sonic 2, (with- in sprit- Veronica) but she had some technical issues. (In a different kind of “because it’s her,” this should surprise no one.) I helped her work through them as they arose one after the other. She did more sleeping than watching however. At one point she blurted out, “It was a two week span that broke!”
When I politely asked, “What the hell are you talking about?” She answered completely coherently, “I have no idea, I think I was dreaming.”
Shortly after that, there was no sound for her movie…because the headphone jack fell out of the set. Later, she was using her hand to separate things on her tray… that were not there since her tray was empty.
Yes, we were all more than a bit wiped out.
I used the time to finish proofreading and marking up the Travelogue for our Colorado trip, knowing I’d need a massive amount of time to catalog all of our insanity and fun from this adventure in what has become a novel length memoir.
We landed sitting in the last rows of the plane for the second time. (It was the only seats we could get together on this trip as well.) We all waited an appreciable span for everyone else to exit. This meant by the time we got to the baggage claim, our stuff was ready to come out onto the conveyors. We only needed to assemble it all into a pushable form.
During the exit and travel time, Aurora’s new Monster’s University hat that I probably should have mentioned she got a while ago vanished. Luckily, they were sold in the store Miss Jenny worked in, her parents were visiting shortly, and a replacement was sent up very quickly.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
The Giant Limo Bus driver…
(That is: the bus was giant, not the driver…perhaps I do need to edit more.)
The driver of the Giant Limo Bus kept calling me to tell me where he was out front, but that the police were telling him to leave and he might have to loop around. I kept pointing out that we were not about to leave the airport without our bags. Or in fact, we were not about to leave the airport directly from the plane which is where he contacted me. I guess I should also mention that with the expected bathroom stops after being crammed into those tiny seats for over two hours, we were not going to leave the airport without all of our children either.
Unsurprisingly, he did have to loop around. We all came out to wait for him, and found out why the police were so intent on him leaving.
To say he triple parked would be inaccurate, because that would imply he parked at all.
He stopped out in the center of the road, blocking traffic with his massive vehicle. Dave and I shuttled bags to him at the trunk, and children to the passenger door through said traffic until all of our stuff and us were safely in the bus.
Then he took us home.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Exiting at the point we started, that is Grandma’s driveway in the dark, we shifted luggage, said our weary but smiling good byes and returned to our individual homes.
14927 steps 6.3 miles
We returned to face nowhere near enough time to prepare for school, college or bowling. (For some members of my family, those three are equivalent…I am not one of them.)
We returned worn out and massively behind in deliverables for work. Dave had multiple field visits scheduled, and I was walking into two weeks of audits.
We returned tired, injured, testing positive on top of our sinus infections, and dehydrated.
I destroyed two pairs of sneakers. (Anabelle left one in the trash there as well. Morgan Veronica and Kim had pairs with hole in them when we arrived home.)
Additionally, I lost three toenails and wounded my heel. Just about everyone else had some sort of lower half, bodily injury brought on or exacerbated by all the walking.
But we came back with an ENORMOUS set of wonderful memories of Disney stuff, time together, and many grand adventures.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Thanx again Grandma!!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
The trip total was 83.4 miles.
Last time we did Five miles on the extra non-Park day we went to the Grand Floridian breakfast.
Taking that into account, we saved about 10 miles having occasional bouts of sanity, one less other out of the Park meal and, what I believe is the big key-
Not running for FastPasses across the Park three or more times a day.
Although… there are a few things we should do differently now that I understand how the new systems work better for next time. And Hey! Wait! I never had my giant Mickey cookie or Flame Tree onion rings this time. And Grandma thinks instead of left over pizza, she should wrap a turkey leg in tin foil (which she naturally always has in her purse in a purse…HEY! I think we solved her security issue!) then bring that to the room for dinners, and Anabelle realized she never got to go on the People Mover, and we all skipped Pecos Bills again, and I do like Big Thunder Mountain, and no one tried the Sky Gondolas, and we didn’t go on the Monorail at all, and…
X minus XXXXXXXX
Perfect number too, Dad's number was 13 and he's really always with us on these trips.
2 comments:
I don't know how I missed this post.
I'm glad I finally read it. It was sad but also exciting and funny.
Sorry about the Covid.
Thank you,
Glad you enjoyed it. Focusing on the now helps me enjoy the last days.
(And panic about all the things I didn't think about when we're leaving.)
Eh, it was probably the best time to get it. Came home from Disney exhausted and sore all over. Didn't notice a difference from any other trip.
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