Day 6...An Afternoon at MK!
After cruising through the jungle, the boys were up for some watery fun. They LOVE the statues that 'spit' out water.
A quick clip of some watery fun.
I really think those two could have played there for ages. As it was, we had characters to see and rides to be on...so we limited them to about five minutes of 'dodge the spit'.
Up next, another boat ride was in store for us. It was time for us to ride the PotC for the first time as a family of 6 (dh and our
LP had missed out on our ride the night before since they were staking our parade spots).
Here's a short clip of the ride. You might just want to close your eyes and listen.

Seriously though, the picture came out very poorly but I just like to click on it and 'listen' to the ride.
We did a bit of shopping on our way back into the park from the ride. I don't know why, but this ride's gift shop always seems to draw me in and cause my fingers to hand over my KTTW card in exchange for pirate booty.
When we were finally done paying the ransom to free our chosen treasures I happened to see Mack making his way over to the Pirate Tutorial area. We didn't want to miss this, so I sent the boys scurrying over to find a place near the front of the rope (once Mack got there to put the rope up).
Stitch was picked to learn to fight pirate style. He loved every second of his time up there and really hammed it up. The other two older boys were chosen to come up at the end be sworn in as part of Captain Jack Sparrow's crew.

All three of the boys were ear to ear grins when I had them hold up the certificates they were given afterward!
**I am heartbroken to say, I have NO pictures of this interaction OR anything that happened the rest of the day with the exception of a few photographs that our dear friends passed on to me from our dinner at CRT together. I had my camera until at least as we were leaving the park (and I could have sworn it made it back to the WL with me) but I lost it sometime after that. Thankfully the memory card had gotten full during our PotC ride and I had switched out the memory chip with all of the previous days pictures on it for a fresh one. Although I am upset with myself for losing the camera, I am so very relieved that I didn't lose all of those pictures. It sure does stink to have lost an afternoon's worth of pictures...but how much worse would it have been to have lost 6 days worth instead! And YES, I frequently lose or break important things while on vacation, it's a very bad habit that I really need to cure myself of!!**
About this time, our
Little Prince was getting hungry and tired. Instead of heading back to the resort, we chose to head over to Frontierland and enjoy the thrill rides by taking turns feeding/strolling our
LP to sleep.
While dh and the older boys hit BTMRR, I found a quiet spot in the shade down near the entrance to Splash Mountain and proceeded to kick back on a wide stone fence where I while I fed my hungry little nugget (I used the word NUGGET just for you Heidi

). By the time I had half of his baby mush (what
Stitch likes to call baby food) into him, he was losing the battle of keeping his eyes open. I tossed the rest of the baby food and walked him around for a few seconds to make sure he was really out. Then I threw my feet up on the fence, leaned back and took advantage of that quiet moment to reflect just how amazing our trip had already been. It was day six of a dream of a vacation and I wasn't even half way through all of the fun and exciting days that we had planned! I got a bit choked up and almost started crying happy tears. What a silly ninny I must have looked like, but I was so happy, I didn't even care! Life was feeling mighty sweet right about that time!
I barely had time to pull my sappy self together before dh and the older boys were back. They were begging for another ride on BTMRR and dh only does one ride a day on that ride due to his motion sickness issues...so I volunteered to take them (they didn't need to ask me twice

) and we made our way back to BTMRR for another quick ride (NO LINES ROCK!!).
When we got back to dh, I offered to let him ride on Splash Mountain with the boys but he opted to stay with the LP and continue to work using his Blackberry (UGH, more work at WDW!). So the boys and I scampered off for another adventure with Briar Rabbit and friends (and foes). I know I have said it before, but I SOOOOOO love SM! It's such an amazing ride. I love how long it is. I love the music. I love the drops. I love the animatronics! I love the characters! I love the story! I LOVE SPLASH MOUNTAIN!
It was almost time for our dinner. Tonight we would be dining like royalty at Cinderella's Royal Table. We were looking forward to eating in the castle and also to having our friends meet up with us for the meal. Each of our families had been enjoying the park separately during the day and we had planned to meet up for dinner...more time with some of our favorite friends at our favorite place!! WOO HOO!
But on our way to the castle we stopped and enjoyed Mickey's Philharmagic. This is always a top rated show for everyone in the family. Even our LP liked it (although he didn't wear the 3-D glasses)!
After that naughty duck led us on a wild hat chase, we finally ended up at the castle. Within a very few minutes of checking in, we were called inside to pose for our picture with Cinderella. I love the details in the throne room. The little Gus Gus and Jack Jack scampering along the trim near the ceiling. The suits of armor. The royal crests. The details in the wood, the trim, the floor, the mosaics, the throne itself. I am glad you get to wait in this room after your pictures!
Here are a few pictures our dear friends shared with us of our wait in the throne room. Although we had each enjoyed our separate family time, we were all very happy to be back together again!
You can see that
Cinderella is holding one of the magic wands they pass out to the girls and our
Little Prince is holding on to one of the magic swords they pass out to the boys. I know people say that CRT is overpriced...but I think it's a pretty good deal when you use the dining plan. YES it costs you two credits...BUT, you get a small toy for each child, pictures (our family is big enough to get two photo packages, groups of 5 or more do), the tip is included and you get to eat in the heart of Cinderella's Castle! So for me, it's worth it!
I think Stitch was either about to protect me or attack me with his sword. He was equally into doing both!
I will post our photo package pictures as soon as I get them scanned in.
After dinner we stuck with our friends and made our way over to Tomorrowland together. It was like a repeat of the night before, VERY low crowd levels, no lines with the exception of a five minute wait for Space Mountain and having to wait until the next show started at the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor show...another great night in Tomorrowland!
About 45 minutes before the park closed we said goodbye to our friends who were leaving early to get a bit of rest. We weren't ready to leave just yet so we took a few more turns trying to zap Zurg. We also stopped at the DVC kiosk set up there and inquired about the deal we had seen posted in our resort room. For just going to hear their spiel you would get $100 in gift cards. That sounded good to me! I would get dh's interest piqued in DVC and also get $100 to spend at WDW! What could be better than that? As we checked into it, we confirmed the length of time it would take to hear about DVC and see the models. We were told it would take 45-an hour. Maybe a tad bit longer depending on if we wanted to hang out and enjoy a scoop of ice cream afterward. That would fit perfectly in our late morning plans...so we right up.
We had time for just one more ride so we headed over to the TTA and took a ride around Tomorrowland. What a great vantage point for the fireworks!! It was magical to be almost eye level with the fireworks while you whizzed by them on a ride!
TO BE CONTINUED!