Disney World 2025 Planning Part 9

April 15, 2025

H minus 33 Days
Last night we watched Raya and the Last Dragon, another in the pile of underrated, awesomely done, gorgeously animated Disney films that only my family seems to like. Get with it people. 

(Foreshadowing- Great moments ahead for Raya Enthusiasts.)

Afterwards, Disney Trivias devolved into foolishness, when Anabelle came up with the idea of randomly zooming into a structure on the Disney World map and having the other person guess what it was. It started with her finding a building she didn’t know the function of, making the “twenty questions part” kind of pointless.

Still no Parade times. They wound me.
 
Anabelle joined me for my midday foot rest and lunch to watch The Sword In the Stone. Then, she complained about how nothing happens in most of the movie. She only likes the fish part. Parenthood- the gift that keeps on giving. 

 
April 16, 2025
H minus 32 Days
First time watching The Emperor’s New Groove in quite a while last night. In spite of the long break, Anabelle knew the entire script. One hilarious film, that is.
 
Night time trivia was normal, with some preference towards “What are you looking forward to” questions. Anabelle went theoretical with “Which character would you add to a meal?” Finally, she liked one of my answers to the theoreticals- "An Atlantis themed character meal in the Coral Reef." (She is correct that the Toy Story Barbecue should have characters, as well.)

She accused me of “Anteater” questions. (Translation - questions, usually of the “Four Parks” variety, where I don’t actually know the answer, and there may not be one for all four cases. Or as she explained to Rosa- “Questions where he laughs when he asks them.”) (Foreshadowing- We confirmed an anteater answer in at least one Park. YAAAY!)
 
Disney sent their, “Hey, you should probably pay us soon” email. We’re getting close.
 
Oh look, another difference of visiting Disney World in Springtime. Alligator mating season just started. Let’s hope they’re quick about it.
(Foreshadowing- We didn’t hear any mating bellows, which was a shame as it would be a truly obscure link to a recorded comedy routine by Carousel of Progress narrator Jean Shepard.)
 
Reports are the Grand Fiesta line (which had gone to insane wait times for no visible reason) has gone back to normal levels. However, due to room limitations in the pyramid, sometimes it still extends out of it, but because of high throughput moves wicked fast.
 
I joined Rosa and Anabelle for the second half of Lilo and Stitch for lunch. Sweet film. It has a lot of heart.
 
 
April 17, 2025
H minus 31 Days
Watched Dinosaur last night, which we almost never do. Anabelle remembers almost nothing about it, except that she doesn’t like it.
(Foreshadowing- I feel like bidding farewell to the ride prompted this viewing, as it was before she decided to watch EVERY Disney animated film.)
She ended up getting really invested in it. YAY! Her life long hatred of injustice and bullying focused so strongly on the leadership in this story it tainted her memory of the whole thing.
 
Then we watched The Rescuers…because it has been a few months since we watched it. YAAAY!
 
Today, Rosa had to shop, meaning Anabelle and I watched the Black Cauldron. Our family is weird enough that we’ve seen this recently and regularly, so Rosa could skip it this time. I’m always amazed by how much this one looks like Heavy Metal and Bakshi animation of that time.
 

Entered phase two of my injury repair, a "walking cast" on my leg. This one is an actual cast, (rather than the bundle of heavy bandages I had) with a shoe (more like a sandal) I strap on to walk. It feels weird putting weight on it, but I can. The doctor has called this phase a “walking cast” from before the surgery. However, the Physician’s Assistant setting it first said to put my foot as close to 90 degrees as I could. It hurt to flex so I didn’t quite make it. She then sprung on me that if it wasn’t at 90, I couldn’t walk on it. Therefore, I asked how much further I needed to go? Since it already hurt like heck. The extra couple of inches added negligible pain.
 
Unfortunately, bending my foot at all, and putting it on the metal bar to hold it in place for the cast, did cause pain. That, with the weird position I was sitting in and having skipped lunch to make the appointment made me woozy, and pale. I laid down and rested with some ice packs for a bit.
 
Everything was fine, but my fade out scared poor Rosa again. The Doctor Okayed using a boot that goes over a sneaker. I just have to find a good one now.
(Foreshadowing- I had already found the good one. This is because there is only one.)
 
That was more of an adventure for the transition than I was hoping for. Still, it is great to be able to use the toilet without doing a pommel horse routine.
 
We watched Hunchback of Notre Dame. Man, that one is insanely good (art, characters, writing, music, all of it) but also goes to some really dark places.
 
We had a family last run through and the Disneyland photos are now ready to print. We may get an album before the next (surprise) trip! 

(Not counting the last Disney World trip which is nowhere near ready, just like the Washington trip… alas.)
(Foreshadowing- We did not.)  
 
April 18, 2025
H minus 30 Days
After going through last year’s pictures last night, we watched a bunch of Anabelle’s favorite new Mickey shorts. Then we finished up stunning Anabelle and Rosa with “Steamboat Willie” aka- Mickey Mouse abuses animals for eight minutes.
 
Called Awesome Happy Disney Person, Sierra Lynn, and paid the balance. I also found out there are beverage coolers in the All-Star Rooms now, meaning we don’t need to request a refrigerator. I did request the ground floor because my ankle is not going to want to deal with stairs at the end of the day.
(Foreshadowing- My mastery of the “Drunken Baboon” style by that point would have let me handle stairs.)
 
It staahts.
One Month From Today- There’s a good chance, one of us will faceplant into our Crystal Palace food in front of Pooh and friends after being awake for fourteen hours and counting.
Anabelle- YIPPEE!
Rosa- Thumbs up.
 

Anabelle got a cool, shiny, classic Alice in Wonderland Autograph book at Restore as she continues preparations. She has used this college break to pack all of her outfits, find a princess sticker for her Disney folder, and do her Disney nails! YAAY!
 
Hi it’s Anabelle I wanted to contribute. YAY! Ok bye.
 
Watched The Fox and the Hound. Anabelle found it overly traumatizing, dull and sad, explaining why she’d never watched it before.
 
 
April 19, 2025
H minus 29 Days
We watched the original Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh last night. It’s the fun one originally released in my childhood. A lot of the same cast as in Rescuers and Fox and the Hound started with Disney here.

[Foreshadowing- Yes, I was wrong about that.]
 
One Month From Today- The first McGinleys in Disney World History will enter Rafiki’s Planet Watch! Epic!
(Foreshadowing- Perhaps “Epic!” was too strong a term.)
 
Anabelle puts the finishing touches on Disney packing while packing to go back to college.
 
 
April 20, 2025
H minus 28 Days
Anabelle’s theory- Since I had no idea what was going on, my Achilles Tendon figured, “I can break, there’s a year before we go to Disney.”
 
One Month From Today- Flower and Garden Festival! YAY!!! Lunch in France! Oui oui!!!!
Rosa- *who asked me to text this instead of email so she could read it while Anabelle was driving back to school* Merci.
Anabelle loved it later.

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