The Rest of Saturday
We left SNAP and her family and headed back to Future World for our appointment to Soar over CA. I gotta say, I really like Soarin'. A lot. Not enough to wait in line for 90 minutes. But I do enjoy it very much. Mark likes it okay. And I mean really just "okay". He told me just yesterday, in fact, that he liked El Rio del Tiempo better.
Must be the underwearless dancers. Wesley, on the other hand, LOVES Soarin'. Loves it, I say. I've already told you why... do you remember? Come on... think, now... Because it has his princess' castle in it, okay?! Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Disneyland. Tink and the fireworks... Good stuff.
So we hop in the FP line and wait about 10 minutes. And the whole time we discussed why on EARTH people don't use FPs. Listen, my son is trained. DISNEY trained, I mean (well, potty trained, too, but not sure that is really relevant in this paragraph). HE doesn't want to wait in a line longer than 15 minutes. He'll say one of two things: 1) Let's just get FPs! or 2) We'll just ride that later, okay? I am blessed. Truly. And not
just because my 4 year old gets that waiting in line is NOT a FastPass~literally.
We take our aerial tour of CA, and Wesley enjoys it, as always, and Kim is impressed. Which, I think, was the first ride that really did impress her. But maybe I'm wrong.
We got FPs for the Land, which still bothers me. Why THAT is a FP ride... not that I don't like it, because I do. But I don't think it's really FP worthy. Of course, I know
SOME people who don't think
Maelstrom is FP worthy. Ahem.
Time to get our FREE Disney Visa picture. At Innoventions. And my 4 year old son could give you directions to Innoventions. Yeah, we've ridden the FREE Disney Visa pic train, too. And then we thought we'd go check out Turtle Talk with Crush. Now THAT should be a FP. Poor Wesley. He really, really wants Crush to talk to him. But he doesn't get that he has to ACT like he wants Crush to talk to him. You know, like, raise his hand when Crush says, "Raise your fins up high, dudes!" So Crush didn't talk to him. But that's still a very cute show. Good stuff, Disney Imagineers!
WooHoo, time to go Live With the Land. I said I liked this ride. And I do. But this was weird. They'd just harvested, well, everything. So we're riding through the greenhouses looking at... nothing. And the "boat captain" is telling us how spectacular everything was, had we only been here LAST WEEK. Great. Thanks. So to make up for our disappointment, we got more FPs for Soarin'. The return time was 8:55. Just made it, huh?
Now I know that all of this has been, we did this, we did that... but there was nothing really exciting to this part of the day. But all that's about to change!!
Headed back to World Showcase, by way of Tink's Fairy Garden. Does anyone know what's up with all the new playground areas? While the Viking ship in Norway remains roped off? Makes no sense, I say. But anyway, the Fairy Garden was a neat little area. Wesley enjoyed crawling through the tunnels and playing on the playground. After a few minutes, we told him it was time to move on.
As we departed Tink's Fairy Garden, we ran into SNAP and entourage again. And we have a BIG, HUGE THANK YOU kind of shout out to SNAP for what happened next. We chatted for another moment, and SNAP told Wesley that she had just seen Princess Aurora in France. Well, this changed our plan! Of course Wesley wanted to go find the love of his life immediately.
We went to straight to France, and I again silently said a prayer of thanks that I am not the one who usually has to push Wesley's stroller up that hill between UK and France. We stopped first to see Belle in the library~in her YELLOW dress! But Wesley was in a hurry to get to Aurora.
There were a couple of people in line in front of us, but no one behind us. When it was his turn, he ran to her and gave her a big hug, and then she began checking out his pins. He has several Aurora pins, and she asked if he was her biggest fan? He blushed, and nodded. Too cute! So she gave him a kiss. He reluctantly left her side, and we walked back to the stroller... he looked back at her the whole time. She waved and blew him kisses. Which caused him to blush more. When we arrived at the stroller, we had to take a picture of her kiss. We started that in January, and those are his favorite pics. Him with a lipstick covered face. That's my little prince! Such the ladies man...
Kim decided she wanted to shop for a bit. Wesley was not interested in shopping. And pushing a stroller in and out of tiny aisles not made to accommodate strollers (at Disney! can someone explain THAT to me??) didn't sound all that appealing to me. So I told him we'd go sit in Aurora's garden (just our name for it) and people watch.
This, as it turned out, had tremendous benefits. I'm guessing that SNAP had seen Aurora at the end of a set... and we must've seen her (first) at the beginning of her next set. We were probably out there close to 30 minutes. And each time her admirers went away, she came and talked to Wesley. We've had some fabulous Aurora encounters. But this one is right up there with the best of them. First of all, she wasn't just great with Wesley (though she of course gets MAJOR points for that). She was great with everyone. Such a princess! She showed all the girls how to pose "like a princess"; she treated each boy (the big ones, too!) as a prince. She had sincere compliments for all. She was very, very sweet. Wesley was smitten. He got lots of one on one time with her. They discussed Maleficent's reform (I have my doubts!) and they talked about Soarin... he said his favorite part was seeing her castle. Swooning commenced... (flashbacks to January trip)... She asked him what his favorite part of her movie was, and he told her it was "the dancing". So she asked him to dance. (Now this is not ALL that unusual... he's danced with several Auroras in the last few trips.) I got some awesome pics of this, though! And before it was all said and done, HE was giving HER a kiss! (Another incredible pic!) This was quite unusual, for him to give a kiss. He likes to receive them, as I said... but he is rarely comfortable enough with a face character to kiss them. He even had reservations about kissing OUR Wendy... so this was something very special. Most amazing, SHE realized it! The swooning continued... It was the end of her set, and her greeter had to tell her several times that it was time to go. (Hmmm, maybe Wesley wasn't the only one who was smitten!) She had a hurried conversation with the greeter, and then asked if we could come back in 20 minutes for her next set. Kim came back at the end of all this (so sad that she missed all the magic!), we filled her in on Wesley's upcoming date, and then set off for Morocco.
The plan was to see Jasmine and Aladdin (quickly), then head back to France to wait for Aurora. Unfortunately, it was Genie who was out, and we did see him... but the greeter assured us that Jasmine and Aladdin would be out in 5 minutes. Uh huh. That was a looooong 5 minutes. Assisted greatly by people breaking in line in front of us. They finally came out, but there are, remember, quite a few people ahead of us now. And Wesley decided that he needed to go potty. Right then. I had flashbacks of PoC, last weekend in February. And I immediately began talking him through it. You can do it, Buddy, you're doing great, you can hold it, way to go! And he made it. Even managed to flirt with Jasmine for a minute. Then I grabbed him and ran for the bathroom, and left Kim to get the stroller. (Thanks Kim!) I'm also checking my watch anxiously, because I do not want to stand up Aurora.
So we race back to France, where Aurora's greeter tells us how worried Aurora had been, that we might not get back in time. There was quite a line to see her, so we sat back down in our spot and waited. I found Wesley a scap of paper, and he wrote Aurora a note~all on his own. It read: Princess Aurora I love you Love Prince Phillip Wesley (Okay, so he's not original. He's FOUR! He wrote that ALL BY HIMSELF, PEOPLE, with correct spelling!) Finally Aurora was done with the others, and came back to him, where he very shyly gave her his little love note. She oohed and aahed appropriately. More pictures, more hugs, more kisses, and she remembered having seen us in February. (She remembered us, AND we had an awesome character experience today: Proof that character stalking does, indeed, work.) A few last kisses blown, and Aurora had to leave. We were on a Disney Magical Moment high!
Off to dinner at the Rose and Crown! We had to wait for several minutes, with a faulty pager... it kept beeping, but it wasn't the "right" kind of beep. But it was worth the wait, we got a GREAT table! Too bad we weren't going to be there at Illuminations time (it was about 6pm, and they had the "2 hour limit" sign up... not that we could sit there for 2 hours with a 4 yr old anyway).
Since we'd breezed through UK earlier, in our rush to get to Aurora, we decided to browse a bit. I really like the UK area. Mostly, I suppose, because I've been to England, and I think it really is representative of England. Never been to any other parts of the UK, but being there does make me feel like I'm back in England~in a tourist area, perhaps, but there, nonetheless. We eventually strolled into The Toy Soldier, where we found Alice playing with the Thomas the Tank trains/train table.
Aside here: have we mentioned this before? That Wesley has a train table, and most of the trains that are sold. He has so many track pieces that they do not all fit on his table at the same time. But does he play with it? No. Not unless he is in Epcot. THEN, we have to spend 45 minutes watching him play with Thomas. What gives, with that?
Okay, so he and Alice play with trains for a few, then we hurry him along, ask if he wants to see Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore (of course he does), so we hop in line for them. Alice moves to the area where Mary Poppins normally is, and as we wait in line, Wesley takes the opportunity to go visit with Alice several more times. He has a pin of Tink making a face; he and Alice made the face for me, and I got another great pic! Saw our Hundred Acre Wood friends, and then took Wesley out to the maze. He had a great time "navigating" the maze. In fact, he was sad when we had to leave. But time is running short, we've got to get back to Soarin' before 9, and want to walk all the way back around WS...so we begin the long trek. Took a short stop in America for me to buy the pin I passed up the night before: a Mickey Atlanta Braves pin! Only Wesley thought it was for him. (It wasn't. It was for me.)
One last flight on Soarin', and it was time to say goodbye to the parks. We stopped to pick up our FREE Disney Visa picture (which we presented to Kim, with much fanfare), and headed back to All Star Sports.
What a great day! Magical Memories... and Wesley is still talking about HIS Princess Aurora.
Sunday: Park Fare, DTD, Home
I have no idea what time we got up, and I know you don't really care, anyway. But we got up, ready and packed in pretty good time, and were at the GF with time to spare for our Park Fare brunch. So we browsed around the downstairs shops for a while. Park Fare was crowded! Probably the most crowded I'd ever seen it.
After a couple of trips to the buffet, we'd still not seen any characters... but finally Pooh and Tigger came by. I had seen Alice (the one in the siggy pic)walking around... but I had my doubts that she would remember Wesley. Surprisingly, she did remember him! Even named where she'd seen us. Cool!
Mad Hatter skipped our table. Three times. Finally a greeter came and asked if we'd seen all the characters, and I told her no, that we hadn't seen MH. She went to talk to him, and next thing you know, he's over at our table. But really, he was kind of rude about it. Oh well. Wesley's ready to go buy something, so I don't think he minded.
After dropping some $$ in the upstairs GF shop, we struck out for DTD. We did some browsing around, purchased a few things, picked up some Earls for the way home... and all too soon, it was over. Six hours later (about 10pm) we were home.
Epilogue
First, I have to say thanks to Mark, for letting me go on this little Girls' (and Wesley) weekend. I know it was killing him to not be there, especially given all the magic we had... AND the fact that I did NOT take the video camera!!! I had a great time with Kim, and it was great that she got to see the Magic With Kids side of WDW... but I missed Mark being there. A LOT. Especially because of all the super cool magical stuff. Cause WDW is OUR place. As great as it is to share with friends... I still like it best when it's just us.
As for the super cool magical stuff... another GREAT, BIG, HUGE THANK YOU TO THE QUEEN! And the same to the others who had a hand in our meet and greet with Aurora and Phillip. A GREAT, BIG, HUGE SHOUT OUT to SNAP! One, because it was really awesome to meet you, D, and the girls. Two, because had you not told us about seeing Aurora, we likely wouldn't have immediately gone to France, and might well have missed out on such a magical, wonderful moment.
We have been so fortunate to have the character experiences that we've had, and we know that... all joking aside about the character stalking. We are lucky enough to have a little guy who truly and earnestly LOVES the characters. And what we've discovered is that WE love the characters, too. We've found another side of The World... and we're very happy there. I know that one day Wesley will not want to wait in line 50 minutes...or even 5 minutes...to see the "hotties" in the princess room. But I'm smart enough to enjoy it while it lasts. I'm intelligent enough to treasure every second of every trip we make, while he still LIKES being with us, and thinks we're the coolest parents ever because we've taken him to WDW thirteen (now fourteen) times. I'm bright enough to know that I have been blessed more than any one has a right to be blessed... I'm thankful enough that it can move me to tears... and I'm bold enough to want more.
In our house, not a single day goes by that Disney is not discussed in some form or fashion. Most of the time, we're "role playing" some Disney movie. How lucky am I, that I get to be Wesley's leading lady? I know that won't last forever, either. But I plan to enjoy it while it does.
Very few days go by that Wesley doesn't ask when we're going back to Disney World. And very few days go by that Mark and I aren't considering when, in fact, it
will be.
Are there other things we could spend our money on? Of course. But I've gotta say, I get the best return on my money from Disney.
Til next time... a whirlwind tripper, signing off...
Of course I can understand why. He is the cutest Peter Pan I have ever come across. My daughter has good taste!
