Episode 8: The update in which we hang out with some real characters
I picked up my phone and held my breath as I texted my mom, fully expecting bad news.
Me- So, how did it go last night
Mom- He’s asleep
(well, I figured, at least he fell asleep at some point)
Me- what time did he finally fall asleep
Mom- what are you talking about, he’s still asleep, he slept all night!
I stared at my phone in disbelief, how could this be possible, did someone come and do a literal baby swap in the night, was Everett still breathing?
The little stinker! Weeks of waking up over and over again, and tonight was the night he decided to sleep in. There was only one explanation for this- Grammies are magic.
Since Everett was still in snoozeland, I got myself all ready before heading over to Mom’s room.
When I walked in he was still sleeping! We had positioned his crib behind the privacy curtain, near the sinks, and my mom told me that she turned on the lights in the room, brushed her teeth, flushed the toilet, and he didn’t make a peep. He just wedged himself further into the corner of the crib, in silent protest of the world going on around him.
I went over and woke him up gently, and he positively bounded awake, all smiles and happiness. I got him dressed and slathered in approximately 17 cubic tons of sunscreen and we were all ready to go.
Mark had moved the crib into my Mom’s room (because she wanted to take him the entire trip) and we were out the door by 7:10. I wanted to be leaving at 7:00, but not bad, all thing considered.
We met up with Bryan, Amy and Shane outside the door, and they were going to take their car, and we would take ours, and meet up at the Crystal Palace. I know that generally it is better to take Disney transportation to the MK, but since it was so early, I didn’t want to risk being late for our ADR.
We arrived at the TTC with plenty of time to spare, and headed up the ramp to wait on the monorail. We were in line by 7:30 am, and I figured we’d get right on and be walking into a deserted Main Street by 7:50, which would give us 20 minutes of picture taking bliss.
Well we waited, and waited and waited. The monorail was sitting in the station, the line kept growing, but no one was being allowed on. I knew this had to be the first monorail of the day, because the line was already long when we arrived, and I can’t imagine that many people start lining up for the parks two hours before opening. I was starting to sweat, my beautiful pictures, I felt them slipping through my fingers.
By 7:45 I was ready to hijack (I mean commandeer) the monorail for the public good, but right before I turned renegade, they opened the doors and let us all on. Two quick stops and we were pulling into the wonderful station with the green wrought iron that has always held a special place in my heart.
Everett ready to start his Disney day
At this point I was in full commando-mode. I rushed off the monorail, powerwalked down the ramp, and scoped out the best bag line. I wanted to take pictures of the new flowerbeds and the “Let the Memories Begin” signage, but I was fixated on one goal- empty Main Street pictures.
well, maybe there was time for one picture
Like an elite member of the special forces I was completely focused on my objective, maneuvering the stroller around slow moving pedestrians with ninja-like stealth, sailing through the biometric scan like a zen master, until, finally, the moment I had been dreaming of- an empty Main Street spread out before me!
Main Street- here we are!
It was amazing! I got Everett out of the stroller and let him (in his own words) “go-go”. Having the park so empty was priceless and watching Everett run up an empty Main Street is a memory I’ll treasure always. Having a completely open area to just run free was this toddler’s idea of Nirvana, and I think he would have run all the way up to the castle, if I didn’t stop him for the obligatory photos that I had been dreaming of.
One of those photos included ‘our photo’ the one we will take every year to document Everett’s growth through
Disney vacations. The spot I chose was next to the Indian on Main Street, since I have a photo of me as a little girl in the same exact spot. Everett was, as usual, not interested in standing our sitting still, but we still managed to get some good shots.
Here is the one from when he was 10 months- what a difference 7 months can make!
I do have many more photos of us on a nearly empty Main Street, but they are photopass pictures, and I haven’t gotten my CD yet. For this trip I entered into a photopass share through facebook, and I am really happy I made that choice. In our pre-baby days we never used photopass, but during our Oct trip, we found that the photopass photographers got so many cute pictures of Everett interacting with the characters, and I nearly went broke buying them when I got home. This time around I wanted to get the photo CD, but $99 seemed like a really steep price. Someone on the Dis suggested I check out a photopass share on Facebook and so far so good. The woman running our share has been really on the ball, and now that everyone had returned home and editied their pictures, she has ordered the CD, and hopefully will ship out our copies soon. Once I get the additional pictures I will add then to this TR, but I hope the few that I did get with our camera will hold us over in the meantime.
The picture I had been dreaming of
This may be my favorite of the trip
or this one!
Once we had been photographed to my heart desire, I looked down at my watch to realize that we had to make tracks so we wouldn’t be late for our ADR. We sped on over toward the CP where we met up with Bryan, Shane and Amy who were waiting on the deck. Shane let me know that Steve was planning on joining us and was walking into the park at that very moment.
Excellent! I went up to the podium and checked us in, figuring that Steve would be here before our table was ready.
This was the first time I had ever eaten at the CP (although my mother does claim that we did back in the 80’s, but I have no memory of that). I have to admit that the reason why we haven’t is one of my Disney shameful secrets- you see- I don’t really like the Winnie the Pooh characters.
There- I admitted it.
I think I might have liked them as a child, and I do remember watching a live-action Winnie the Pooh show on the Disney Channel and a Saturday morning cartoon featuring the 100 acre wood bunch. My dislike really began back in the early 90’s, before the Princess franchise, when Pooh and friends were EVERYWHERE. There was definitely a bit of over saturation going on, and my dislike crystallized when Disney removed my childhood favorite, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and replaced it with the Pooh one, and then to add insult to injury, Disney put a Pooh themed playground over 20,000 leagues!
It was like Pooh was dancing on the grave of my childhood.
Alright, so that might be a little dramatic and over the top, but if you can’t be over the top in a place where it is perfectly acceptable for grown adults to wear tiaras, I don’t know where you can be.
As a side note, I have never once ridden the Winnie the Pooh ride, and I never will. If Everett wants to ride it he can go with his Daddy, and Mark has asked what if Everett asks to ride with me?- and I answered that there is no time like the present to start learning about standing up for principals you believe in. (and if that is not over dramatic I don’t know what is
)
Anyway, I booked this breakfast despite some reluctance, because I really wanted those empty castle pics, and because I figured we’d be perfectly situated for rope drop. I also was curious about this puffed French toast that everyone around here raves about.
Well in no time at all our little buzzer was going off and I gathered up our crew to enter for breakfast. I was then that I realized that Steve still hadn’t arrived. When asked if our entire party was present, I admit that I told a little fib and said that one member was in the restroom, but he would meet us inside. For all I knew that is exactly where he was and I wasn’t fibbing at all. I didn’t want to wait around and risk losing our table, because we had a very detailed touring plan that positively hinged on finishing breakfast before rope drop.
I let everyone else head over to the buffet while I got Everett situated, and then we switched. Steve showed up shortly after, and everyone was very happy to see him. I got my first view of the buffet, which was huge and filled with lots of yummy choices. I filled a plate for Everett which included fruit and eggs (which he declined) and puffed French toast and pancakes (which he ate with gusto). I usually don’t let him eat lots of sugary food, but we were on vacation, so I figured he deserved a treat.
Shortly after sitting down, the first character arrived. It was the proprietor of the establishment, Mr. Pooh himself. Now here was where one of my fears came into play, would Everett still like the characters, would he be shy and afraid? I shouldn’t have worried, my fearless toddler took to Winnie the Pooh like he was his long lost friend. He pet his soft nose and even gave him a big hug.
He couldn’t get enough and I was a little afraid that we’d get some tears when he moved on to the next table. Luckily Eeorye was fast on Pooh’s heels and Everett got to pet and love on another character.
giving Eeyore kisses
Petting Eeyore's hair
continued next post
Now, I can finally tell my husband who he is since he asks me every time we see anything Duffy while in WDW. He likes to give me a hard time that I can never answer him as to who Duffy is. Well, that problem is solved now. Thank you!
Barfy! That is too funny! How nice that your mom was willing to take shifts with you!
He was a huge Barney fan. So we ended up spending two days at Universal.
) and he had a ball getting on and off of them. 
I know it will be next year, but it could be as early as February or as late as Oct. We'll have to see what next year holds.
