We had some leftover turkey sandwich, so I sent D. back up to the room to put it away. We were to meet in the lobby. I sent the boys to the restroom, and waited in the lobby. And waited.
D. finally showed up looking sheepish.
He had lost his Key to the World. Looked all over, as he had to have used it to get into the room - remember, I didn't go. He did finally find it - in the refrigerator!
So, now we were really set to go.
The bus stops at the AKL are a ways away from the main door, and I never found a quicker way out. If you know of one, let me know!
We trekked down to the bus, and there was no one waiting at the MK stop. We watched 2 buses headed to the AK, 2 to MGM, 2 to Epcot, and even one heading to DTD and Blizzard Beach before our MK bus came. I still think it was around 20 minutes, though - not too bad.
We had a non-eventful ride to the MK and wound our way around to the entrance. It was, of course, our first experience with the security checks and fingerprint scans, but we did fine!
It was about 4:00 at this point.
It was evening EMH at MK that night, but the regular hours were until 11:00 anyway. I knew we weren't going to last that long, seeing that we'd been up, traveled, and swam already.
The park was fairly crowded, and I didn't really have a good touring plan for starting in the evening. We wandered down Main Street - I admit I teared up a little - and decided to head over to get FP's for Splash Mountain. On the way, however, we passed Pirates, and the boys asked for it. The line was 40 minutes! (This was our first mistake. We still should have gone to Splash and gotten the FP's, but we didn't. Sigh.)
So, we waited in line for Pirates. There was a family of 6 in front of us, and they had been there all day. We had a nice conversation as we walked through the line. The kids were fine, looking through all the windows and dungeon bars, etc.
We did see Capt. Hook and Smee leaving their "holding area" as we wound through the line outside of the building, so that was kind of fun!
We all got in the boat right at 40 minutes later. I enjoyed the new beginning with Davy Jones - pretty cool! - but the boys were a little freaked. Once we got to the first scene with the pirates (rather than skeletons), though, they were great and really enjoyed it. We had tried to learn the song before we left, so everyone sang along.
The ride was a big hit, so we then headed on out to Frontierland for the FP for Splash Mountain. The stand-by line was about 60 minutes, and we got our FP as a return for 7:45 to 8:45. We had dinner reservations at Tony's at 8:15, so we would have to get back there pretty fast, but went ahead and got the FPs. The boys were excited to try it, even after seeing the big hill.
We wandered back out of the back end of the park, and noticed that we could see the Country Bears with just about a 5 minute wait, so we walked on in. Here we are waiting for the show to start:
OK, I HAVE to learn to sit up straight. I am not pregnant, I swear! Hello, belly fat!
That's Buzz with me.
Here are D. and Woody:
As you can see, Woody is getting a little tired already.
We all enjoyed the show. As a side note, I was really surprised by where Country Bears were. In DL, they are more back in a corner over a bridge, and I guess I just still know my way around that park better!
The boys decided that they were ready for Haunted Mansion. We kept repeating that it was "silly, not scary!" and they seemed to buy into it. Woody rode with me, and the funniest thing was that he continued to look for the hitchhiking ghost over his shoulder. He'd look in the mirror, then look behind him in the Doom Buggy, then repeat!
It was about time to head off to Tony's for our 8:15 ADR, so we started out of Liberty Square and happened by It's a Small World. Now, I know I'm a dork, but I love this ride. There was only a 10 minute wait, and the boys seemed interested.
Now, I didn't realize this before, but D. really, really doesn't like IaSW. I knew he didn't want to go on it, but I didn't realize how deep it went. I thought it was just the normal, manly thing about not liking it.
Apparently, though, the one and only time he went to WDW, back in 1985 or so, he was on IaSW when the ride broke down! He was stuck, with the song, for at least a half hour!
He really does almost develop a twitch.
We made him go on, though, and the look on the kids' faces was all worth it. They were just entranced. It was very sweet. We survived without any mishaps.
We then dodged the crowds gathered up for the 9:00 Spectromagic parade and headed off in search of Tony's. For the life of me, I couldn't remember having ever seen it, so, although it's right there, we just had to find it!
We found it with no problem, but then I couldn't figure out how to get in!
For some reason, I didn't think we were supposed to go in where the photo center is, and then we couldn't find any other entrance. I finally had to ask a couple sitting on the outside patio!
Once we made our way in, it was just about 8:15. I gave our name to the reception type lady. The waiting area was pretty full, so I wondered how it would go. We did have to wait about 15 minutes, but were seated by 8:30, in the sunroom type area at the front of the restaurant.
D. got the tomato/mozzarella salad and I got the garden salad as our "appetizers" and the kid meals came with a small salad as well. Woody got mac & cheese, his favorite, and Buzz got spaghetti & meatballs - HIS favorite. I ordered the chicken pesto pasta, and D. got the diavolo.
The salads arrived right away, but then Spectro started coming down the way. The main courses arrived fairly quickly, but the boys were standing over by the windows watching the parade. It was pretty late by this point. We got them back to eat a bit. Woody declared that he "didn't like the mac & cheese" which worried me for the rest of the week, as I knew it was all the Stouffer's stuff throughout the parks. Buzz ate a good portion of his spaghetti. We finally gave up and just let them watch the parade - there were no tables filled by the windows at that point, so they had an unobstructed view with the bonus of not bothering anyone. They watched the parade as D. & I ate. Our stuff was fine, nothing too special, but nothing too awful. I am a pesto fan, and it wasn't pesto-y enough for me, but it wasn't bad.
The waitress brought the kids ice cream sundaes without us really saying. That would normally be OK, except that Buzz doesn't like chocolate and won't even eat the ice cream that isn't touching the chocolate sauce. Oh well.
D. ordered the tiramisu, and I got the Chocolate Bomb. They were good! but we were pretty full, and didn't eat them all.
As we were finishing up, Woody said, "Can we go home to the hotel now?"
We had planned on trying to go back and use our FP for Splash, late, but the wisdom of the 5 year old prevailed.
We put the boys on our shoulders and headed out to the bus. We got a bus just about 10 minutes later, and headed on home. Both boys fell asleep on our laps on the bus ride. We carted them in through the gift shop door (it was just
that much closer.)
We put the boys to bed, after some discussion of what our plans were for the next day. D. returned to the gift shop to get a bottle of wine. He and I sat on the balcony, watching the giraffes and the bongos, drinking our wine. It was a lovely end to a long, but happy day!