I have heard a lot about park openings and the benefits of getting there at least fifteen minutes before the hoopla. We have never ever made it to a park before 10:00, because we just aren’t ‘morning people’, but this year I convinced myself and my family that we needed to get up and get going early every morning. I would love to become a morning person, but after 36 years, it just aint happening. We had missed our night at the Magic Kingdom because of the rain, so we all agreed we wanted to get there early and ‘beat the crowds’. That was going to the be theme for the trip. The call to get our cans out of bed came at 7:45.
Usually, before we hit the parks, I like to take a shower and get all cutsied up. I decided I needed to give that up this year. I showered the night before so all I had to do was roll out of bed, throw in my contacts, put the hair in a pony-tail and apply a little make-up. I kept reminding myself of one of my dis friends phrases “Disney isn’t a hair show”. Oh, and I put on some clothes.
I am the dis-nerd that packs my kid’s clothing in zip-lock bags so I can throw it at them and let them dress themselves with ease. I tell ya, I think my lil Frick is color blind, or expressive, or maybe a clown in training. The outfits he puts together are worse than I can describe. He loves to put two different shades of red together, or to put as many colors on as he can. If we try to make him change, there is major drama. Just like today, he went to the country club to do a gingerbread house workshop with me. He walked in wearing navy ‘swishy’ pants (aka- sweat pants that swish when you walk) with a hole in the knee, a black fake Under Armor shirt, white socks and green crocs. It was painful for me, but sometimes you just don’t want to deal with the fight. Just like I didn’t want to deal with the fight at early thirty at Disney. That is why I sat in his bedroom floor for an hour planning out his outfits and placing them in a zip-lock bag before we left. It works wonders for us and my child actually matches. Bless him.
We did a great job of getting up and dressed. I stressed over the contents of the bag I was going to carry. This year I went with a little Vera Bradley bag. Can’t remember the style name, but I gave up the back pack this year. I brought the back pack, but struggled with the little bag vs. big bag decision. When I felt good about taking the little bag, we headed out and hit the Beach Club Market for some breakfast treats for the boys. Mr. Frick and I had a granola bar from home, but I wanted the boys to start the day off right with a Mickey Rice Krispie. We couldn't find the Mickey head, but we did find a flip flop and a beach ball. I thought this was a good payback for not letting lil Frick have a slushie the night before. (hey, just so y'all know, before the slushie he had already had a pack of Crabby Patty gummies, two cokes, ice-cream with lunch and an ice-cream sundae with dinner. The boy wasn't deprived of sugar.
)
As we left the Market, we started the ‘should we take the car or the bus’ debate. I was on the bus's side. Mr. Frick was on the car’s side.
I won.
Unfortunately.
I wanted to be like every other resort guest and ride the bus. Mostly because we don’t often do it and mainly because I didn’t want to get lost. Yes, we can’t navigate the Disney signs very well. Last year we got lost like seven times and even drove out of The World twice by mistake. I didn’t want Mr. Frick taking a tour of Disney again this morning, I wanted the straight shot to the MK gates and I knew we had a better chance with the bus. At 8:40, we joined the five hundred other people who wanted to make a park opening somewhere and waited. And waited. And waited. Mr. Frick started in with the “Why don’t I just go and get the car.” I came back with the “As soon as you get the car, the bus will pull up.”
We continued to wait and I got antsy. When the bus finally came, we did a great job of pushing people out of our way and getting ourselves on there. We ended up standing and we were a fly’s butt hair away from each other and nintey seven other tourists. We were smashed on that bus. Mr. Frick, who doesn’t like crowds, was mis-er-a-ble.
We got to the gates at 9:07. Mission unaccomplished. The wife made a bad call. We should have taken the car. Oopsies. Mr. Frick declared that he will never, ever ride the Disney bus again.
Ahhhh, getting to the park at 9:07 was very pleasant. I still don’t know what I’m missing at 9:00, but maybe I will find out some day. There was no one in the bag check lines and we made it into the park in record time. For us.
We went straight to our favorite ride, Buzz, and walked right on. We marveled over how getting up early was so worth it. We then took it over to Space Mountain. I don’t know why, but for some reason we thought Lil Frick might get a little ballsy and ride Space. We took him through the line with us and the whole time he was doing the “I’m not riding it” deal. We did the whole “Come on, just look at it and make up your mind when you get there” deal. It didn’t work. We got to the loading area and he was ready to bail. Fortunately, the cm’s were awesome about it and they let me sit with him at the unloading area to watch for Mr. Frick and Stitch, and when they returned I was able to walk a secret path back to the loading area to ride. While we waited for Mr. Frick and Stitch to return, we saw a little girl exit her space ship with a huge smile on her face. I said to Lil Frick “See! See how much fun she had on this ride! You should think about trying it.” The next space ship that pulled up didn’t help my cause. The little girl exiting from it was having a major crying fit and screaming at the top of her lungs. One step forward, ten steps back.
After Space, we headed over to the Tea Cups. Now we love the Tea Cups. Every time we have ever ridden this ride, Stitch and Lil Frick go by themselves and Mr. Frick and I get a romantic little Tea Cup to ourselves. We love our Tea Cup because Frick here knows how to keep it from being a puke inducer. We were all set in our own Tea Cups, enjoying the brief break from the kiddies, and we see a CM start talking to the boys. Next thing we know, they are climbing in our little cup of tea with us. I asked the CM why they had to move because I just knew they were doing something to break the Tea Cup law, like mooning each other or jumping up and down on the spinning handle. She informed me that they were too young to ride alone. Hmmm, I asked her why they had been able to ride in their own cup for the last two years? She had no idea, and she locked us up in that cup with two boys who like to spin. Oh my.
Thankfully, I didn’t see my granola bar again. Or Mr. Fricks. It was ugly and I looked like Brittney leaving a night club afterwards, but we made it.
We headed to Winnie next and hopped in the short line. I mean the Winnie line is never short for us and we always have to waste a Fastpass on it, but not this time. As we waited in our short line, we were amazed by this…
The skywriter was hard at work. He wrote uplifting messages all day and we enjoyed them all day. It was a nice reminder to stop remember Him in all we do.
After a visit with Pooh and the gang, we headed to Splash and we all got in line. Again, Lil Frick pulled the “I’m not riding” gig and we did the old “just wait in line with us and then make up your mind’ comeback. Well, he bailed at the end and he and Mr. Frick, who has never ridden Splash because he really doesn’t want to get wet, went to watch us plummet down into super clean Disney water from the bridge.
We had a nice free lunch at Pecos Bills. We all like Pecos Bills because my boys love them some Taco Salad. I have no idea what I had, but it was good. BUT, the dessert selections at PB are just pitiful. Our youngest, Lil Frick, is highly allergic to peanuts so he would not be indulging in their PB pie. Neither would we. We decided it was a great time to head back to Main Street, grab an ice cream and then head back to the resort.
Mr. Frick and Lil Frick got an ice cream cone while Stitch and I went to the Bakery to get the famous ice cream sandwich. I was freaking over the size of the thing when we finally got it. Can I just say that it was one tasty little five pound morsel and everyone should indulge in one at least once!!
We got a little rejuvenated from the sugar and decided not to leave just yet. We headed for Tomorrowland to catch another ride on Buzz and tackle Stitch, The Laugh Floor and the TTA. On the TTA, which I still like to call the People Mover, we whipped out the camera to snap a few shots. I took a photo of Lil Stitch and Mr. Frick. Mr. Frick took a picture of me and Stitch. Stitch wanted his picture with his Daddy, so he hopped over into their seat.
Then, I decided I would hop over to the other side and get my picture with Mr. Frick. Stitch took it right as I was getting my hair out of my face.
Little did I know that while we were having all this great photo fun, the TTA police were watching us. Instead of hearing our favorite lines of “Mr. Morrow. Paging Mr. Tom Morrow. Your party from Saturn has arrived, please give them a ring”, we hear “Please remain seated at all times blah blah blah blah blah”. The warning went on and on and my cheeks got redder and redder. I was so nervous that I was going to get a good talking to when we exited the ride. I heard a ‘way to go Mom’ from the crew and I couldn’t even enjoy the rest of our lil trip on the People Mover for fear that they were never going to let me on it again.
Thankfully, the exit boy CM had no clue we were being bad, and he smiled at us and helped us out of our Mover. Phew.
As always, my boys walked up the down moving sidewalk for as long as they could. I think that is one of their favorite things about Disney and it drives us absolutely nuts. When we all finally made it to the bottom, Stitch, not my Stitch but the real one, appeared and we hopped in line to get an autograph and a picture, where Stitch tried to get my boys to simulate surfing.
My boys were a little embarrassed about trying to look like they were surfing on ashpalt.
We were beat and ready to head back to the resort for some down time by the pool. We got to the exit and began the the discussion about how to get back to the resort since Mr. Frick was never going to ride the Disney busses again.
And the pick of David Lee is the Bomb! That is how I like him. He looks too much like a banker these days. (NOMellyMan)
She's learnin'!!! Glad the Fricks have seen the light. The "early morning light", as it were. If someone will take just one piece of advice, it's always the one I pass along!
Love me an ice cream sammie, as our friend Sheridac would say!! (we need a clapping smilie, here, BTW)
Oh, this ought to be good! 
