Well goodness, I am SIX little days away from leaving for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend. MUST GET THIS OUT.
The cruise portion of this trip is just about over. My last post left us all depressed & saying goodnight for our last night on the ship. The early alarm clock woke us up much too early and we quickly got ready and said goodbye to our stateroom and headed up for breakfast while waiting for our group to be called for disembarkation.
Little Ms. Charlie started bawling on her way out because 'I don't want bacation to end" I hear ya sister- story of my life. To this day, she STILL talks about when she is going back on that boat. She had the time of her little life.
Disembarkation was relatively quick and easy. We cleared customs easily as none of our vacation purchases included illegal substances, illegal flower pickings ( I made the girl ditch it before boarding the boat on Castaway) or illegal sand (except the pieces still permanently stuck in my kids hair from beach time). Grandma was not drunk leaving the boat either so no red flags were raised on that front. All around a successful disembarkation.
Only high praise again for the folks at our transport company - Happy Limo- who were at the port awaiting our early arrival and loaded us and shuttled us back onto the highway to the disney zone. Destination: All-Star Music Resort for one night.
Last time I stayed at this resort was like 1999. I was younger & less critical I suppose. And I had never spent the night in a deluxe hotel. Let's just say.. but 2014.. the thrill of giant maracas and saxaphones had worn out..and the resort showed it's wear and tear quite plainly. Maybe we were unlucky, but our rooms (in the Rock n' Roll section) were worn down. Dirty. And we found several bugs. It alarmed me enough that upon returning home I aired out all luggage & contents for 2 weeks in my garage. Never again at the All-Stars.
Lordy, this is too much writing with no pictures. Get on with it Nicole!
We checked in, moved our luggage to our room & headed out to get in line for the MK bus. Which was our destination for the day. It was approx 9 billion degrees outside and if you don't know me (or my mother) you would not know that neither of us do high heat or humidity well. Or crowds. Pretty much signaling a recipe for disaster for this day.
The bus mojo was not with us at all. And we waited forever and a day for a bus. And the kids (and the grandma) were already whiney and cranky. I tried to appease them with some 'initial pictures' After all, all my kids had their first initials represented:
Give me a "R"
Give me a "S"
Give me a "C"
What's that spell? Whiney girls. Hot Momma. Crabby Grandma. Woo.
Now, going into the parks we were excited about a few things.. one- I scored FP plus to the 7 Dwarfs Mine Ride. It had just opened the week prior and we were excited to ride the new ride. This, of course, was before we knew it had a tendency to bust into flames. Also I managed lunch ressies for BOG- which was top choice for Ms. Rebecca.
We also knew going into the day that it was Gay Day at the park. I am all for equality everywhere and had no issue with this outside the fact that it would increase crowds a bit & that my middle child has no inner filter and I was a wee worried what might come pouring out of her mouth. I didn't want her to offend anyone while she processed what she saw. I did my best to prep & discuss prior to arriving to TRY to prepare for this. When it was all said and done- I do have some observations on this day and I will share them- because they did impact our day & our experience.
Finally a bus came - off for our adventure.
We arrived around 10:45/11 and crowds were bad. We managed through bag check & front gates. And stopped for a castle picture. We are not so happy here.....
Despite the smiles.
We headed into Fantasyland where we rode our first ride. Oh, the favorite of Cap't Kill Joy.
Then we wandered over to Circusland to ride Barnstormer...and cool down in the Big Top Tent. Which is where I saw these- out for the new release of Maleficent that week:
We started getting more whiny kids & it was hot..and so we ended up buying a few hats for Charlie and Sarah to shut them up about the sun. And basically we killed some time till our FP for this:
Let's ride:
We had no wait with FP plus. And we were boarded before we could blink:
Gram is always good for a laugh. Always.
And the ride was also over before we could blink- I had just enough time to take this one picture on the ride:
Overall, I just can not believe it took Disney THAT long to build THAT ride for as short as it is. Universal built and entire HARRY POTTER LAND in the same time- with a much cooler ride. This whole ride left me underwhelmed and I would choose Big Thunder anytime over this ride. Fail Disney, FAIL.
When this was over, it was time for our BOG ressie and everyone was waning VERY fast. Cap't Kill Joy and his sarcastic minion Sarah decided they wanted nothing to do with the place.. and so they chose to leave us and go ride Pirates instead. Whatever.... We ordered & found a seat in the west wing. I was DONE with pictures at this point and so at this point I have very few pictures left of the trip . These came from my mom's camera I think....
She's cute so it's worth a post...
We ate, cooled off & I got my cupcakes.
Yes, yes.. BOTH those cupcakes were MINE. The third was Rebecca's. You gotta problem with that?
I had Grey Stuff & Lemon. Both were divine. Both lifted my spirits. Or maybe it was just a sugar high, who knows... regardless.. onward ho....
We met back up with the other two and agreed to head here:
The line was long & the heat was hot. We were packed in like sardines without ventilation. Things were going downhill quickly...... and I felt like passing out. Despite fun props.
After this ride my mother called it quits. She decided to head back to the hotel to go to the pool with Charlie and Sarah. It was just too hot and crowded for her. This is what CHarlie thinks of this heat on the bus ride back to the hotel:
Because we are stubborn.. Cap't Killjoy, the eldest & myself stuck it out. I have very few pictures but I know we did Big Thunder, Pirates and Jungle Cruise.
And we stopped for one of these suckas.. DOLE WHIP. Because, you know, I need MORE SUGAR.
And I captured this picture.
We must have headed over to Tomorrowland at some point and rode Buzz Lightyear.
And it was right about this time Gram came back with the kiddos for the evening. They were in better moods having spent the afternoon in the pool.
They rode the Tomorrowland Speedway. Then we ate dinner at Cosmic Ray's... before heading back to cross the park for Pirates again & some Swiss Family Tree fun!
Heading into Adventureland- my favorite pictures of the day.
It almost looks like they love each other.. aww....
The night fell.. .and we headed back to Fantasyland for another round on Small World, Peter Pan, Pooh and Little Mermaid. Then mom, Charlie & Kurt decided they were done.. and they left. Sarah, Rebecca and I stuck around for a bit more till we called it a day too.....
We beat the crowds out of the park so we didn't have to wait too long for a bus. Back at the hotel we crawled into bed. I got NO sleep because we had seen several bugs at this time..and my mattress also was awful. So the 3:30am wake up came too early. And we were on the Magical Express departing for home by 4:15. Vacation was over....
Now my little here & there on attending MK on Gay Day. I do believe crowds increased because of it(despite posts I had seen from prior years saying it wouldn't) Also, if you go on that day you have to go knowing you will see it...it's their day & they go and enjoy.. free of judgement. There's hand holding, kissing, shirts & buttons and so forth. Your kids will see it and notice it. I knew this all going in & had no problem with it. As I said, my biggest worry was my middle child's filter system.. .I didn't want her offending anyone with a comment as she processed things. She did, in case you were wondering, several times make comments and we did have to have a discussion on gay marriage in the middle of main street as she saw a 'bride and bride'. The bride and bride were cute & it was a good learning experience for her as we offered our congrats and shared their joy. I like to teach my kids tolerance & acceptance.
Now here is where my main issue was and where I would hesitate again to attend a park on Gay Day. I felt there were many instances where it was taken too far. And by that, I mean actions & shirts that were out of line & place for a Disney park- period! This IS a family park. Therefore, it should not be OK on this day to have explicit shirts in the park such as "I love the "D"" or I love (insert male rooster pictures).(and so very many other types of shirt!) It would be no different than someone wearing I love b##bies shirts or whatever.... and Disney doesn't allow that. So why they were letting MANY MANY MANY MANY people get away with very explicit shirts was confusing to me. My kids CAN read and I DO NOT enjoy explaining OVER AND OVER explicit $exual terms on shirts. I feel this was Disney's fault for allowing these shirts into the parks and not forcing them to be removed. Also, there was a LOT of $exual behaviors in line. Gropings, heavy kissing, blah, blah.. again just not FAMILY park friendly. Whether it be a girl/boy or same gender.. the heavy stuff shouldn't be happening in lithe line to Small World and Peter Pan, you know? And it was, over & over & over.. to the point of extreme uncomfortableness. Both instances of the above were very heavy in the park that day and seemed MOST prevalent in the young males. Again, I am all for equality. I firmly believe everyone should be free to choose.. but I also just feel for us, on this day, there was too much explicit $exualness in the park. Disney does not usually tolerate that behavior from anyone on most days so why they let it go that day.. is beyond me. For that reason, I probably would not attend another Gay Day at Disney.
That's all I have to say & those are just MY reflections (and my mother's and husbands) of the day. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe we were int he wrong lines, behind the wrong people, at the wrong time... I dunno... but that's all she wrote on that subject (and please no gay bashing comments.. I don't want to hear them, that was not the intent of what I wrote.. my intent was the behavior in line and on shirts that were not "Disney friendly" in my opinion.. and for what it worth.. it takes a lot to offend me in most situations).
With our vacation over.. I have just one wrap up post. My goods & my bads. And some pictures of our Fish Extender gifts! I will get it done by next week. Woo!!!!
I type faster than I think ALL the time. 
(good grief, took way too long to figure out where the princess smiley is now located)
