"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse." - Walt Disney
Our original plan for the Fourth of July was to take part in what was then a Grand Gathering experience - the pirate Fireworks Cruise. When we booked, I had secured a reservation, and I was very excited about it. Unfortunately, when I called 90 days out, our only available time for our Chef Mickey's first night dinner was 7:50. I reluctantly booked 'Ohana, and then changed my mind almost immediately. We HAD to start our trip with Chef Mickey's. So I cancelled the fireworks cruise.
But here's the thing. I was born on July 9, 1976, just five days away from the country's bicentennial. I have always had a soft spot for all things patriotic, and I just love the fourth of July. And although there may have been years in the past 32 where I missed fourth of July fireworks, I'm blocking them out. I love me some fourth of July fireworks. And I was going to be in viewing distance of the Magic Kingdom on the FOURTH OF JULY. So as the trip grew nearer, I was bumming about my choice of Chef Mickey's. But, Juli, Faith, Barry, Hannah, Grandpa and possibly Cyndy had never met Mickey. So, at about 6:00, off we went.
Why 6:00 for a 7:50 ressie, you ask? Well, first, remember this is the family who left before dawn to get to a train station 4 hours away by 3 PM. Yeah. And also, we wanted to make a full circuit of the monorail before we checked in. I was also worried because someone on the DIS had reported trying to get to California Grill last Fourth of July and leaving the Beach Club by car at 7:00 for a 9:00 reservation and completely missing their reservation because of gridlock between the entrance and the Magic Kingdom. Last, but not least, I was sort of hoping if we got there early, we could get seated early, and maybe, just maybe catch a glimpse somehow of those fireworks.
Despite dire predictions, the bus ride to the Magic Kingdom took all of 15 minutes. We boarded the monorail for a trip around the lagoon. The one treat my son had asked for on this trip was to ride up front with the driver, but when I saw another family had been picked, I decided not to wait for the next train, figuring he would have many more opportunities to ride up front later in the trip. That of course, would never happen, but we had no way of knowing that then. (And really, it's not important in light of the tragedy that occured later that night.)
Unfortunately, after the first stop, our car was so packed we couldn't even see the rest of our party on the other side of the benches. Still, we enjoyed the views out the window and the ever popular spanish directions to stay clear of the doors. We had to pause at one point because another monorail was in the station ahead of us. The driver came on the speaker and made an announcement. He said "We'll be holding here for awhile while we wait for another monorail to clear the station. We've never tested whether two monorails can occupy the same space at the same time and we don't want to try it today." We all laughed, and I thought about what a great line it would be for our trip report. Later in our trip, after finding out about the accident, that line came back to me, and made me sad.
Getting back to our report, we made the complete loop and then pulled into the Contemporary again. We headed down slowly toward Chef Mickey's.
At this point, it was just barely 7, and our ressie was 50 minutes away. I checked in anyway, and was told that we'd be seated... at about 7:50. So we went and got our picture taken. We had planned on getting this shot done, and were all wearing red, white and blue. It came out pretty cute, I think! It's usually much harder to get the little ones to smile, but all the photographer had to do was plop them down next to the statue of Mickey and they were happy.
Then came the waiting. The long, long, waiting. We saw two different people with guide dogs, and I accidentally scared one by "eek"-ing when a bird landed right next to me. They thought I was frightened of their dog, or something. The kids got pretty rootchie waiting all that time and the adults got a bit irritated. Especially at the person who told them we had to leave so early. Still, we were in Disney, so we tried to put on a happy face.
It helped that the CM who took our picture was very funny and tried to engage the little girls by using a stuffed Mickey to talk to them.
It also helped that our kids entertain themselves pretty well. Albeit in odd ways.
Still, by the time we were finally seated (finally being my fault, not Disney's - it was just about our reservation time) I was feeling pretty sad. I was in charge of planning and organizing, so when things didn't go well, I felt like everyone was blaming me. And then we were seated at two separate tables, which we were warned might happen, but I wasn't really expecting since I'd seen big parties at Chef Mickey's before. Cyndy jumped in to save the day, though. She asked the waitress - "Can we just push these together?" and soon we were smooshed in family style around a funky figure eight of two big round tables. I was still bumming a little, but by the time I got back to the table with my first round of food, I could see that everyone else was happy now - laughing and eating and enjoying themselves, and I quickly shook out of my funk. That feeling that any problems on the trip were my fault was harder to shake, though, as you'll see in the rest of the report.
I can't say with any certainty what everyone ate at Chef Mickey's. I do know that everyone liked everything they ate. I had the salmon, which is one of my favorites. I had been looking forward to it for months. I also had some delish vegetables. I know my sister ate chicken because it became a running gag that she personally consumed 2.5 chickens all by herself while we are at Disney (and she's usually not a big eater). The kids were happy as clams, but you think I would have checked they were getting some form of nutrition. Unfortunately, I was too busy taking pictures of them with the parade of characters that started coming past our table.
Our first character was Minnie, who kissed all the girls on the head before posing for pictures. Two little girls from another table rushed up while she was with us, and Minnie tried to handle it diplomatically, but there didn't seem to be many character handlers around to help her out. Still, she spent plenty of time with us.
Next came the big cheese himself. I was so excited to see him last time we went here that I forgot I was zoomed in and only got his face in the one photo I got before he rushed off. This time, he seemed inclined to take his time, so I naturally took far too many pictures.
I was glad the girls hadn't seen Goofy first, because BOY is he BIG! Could have been intimidating - but actually, they handled all the characters with no sign of trepidation.
Grandpa had never met any characters before and Grandma signaled Goofy toward Grandpa by calling him the "Goofy" of our group. Grandpa, who used to be a clown, got a kick out of the characters. They often seemed to single him out at the meals, which was great fun for the rest of us.
Next up was Donald, a personal favorite of Scott's. (Um, Flightless Duck... duh... guess that was obvious.)
So of course, I had to ask Donald for a picture with him!
The characters mostly focused on the kids, as they should, but it was especially hard for the characters to ignore our dimpled little darling Juli. She did get more than her fair share of attention pretty much everywhere. Here, Mickey tries to explain to her that he likes her bow because it reminds him of his best girl.
Soon it was time to head for the fabulous dessert bar. The kids, with all the choices in the world, headed straight for ice cream. Grandpa even tried to pay Kairi to go build him an ice cream sundae just like hers. (She did it for free, naturally!) Faith is something of a chocolate connoisseur - she has to be covered in it to completely experience it.
I, on the other hand, decided my modest supper of fish and veggies entitled me to THREE desserts. But they were MINI desserts...
At this point, two things were happening. We were watching anxiously for Pluto, the only character who hadn't worked our side of the room at all. And I was surreptitiously glancing at my cell and realizing we still had a couple of minutes until the fireworks. As our check was presented, we mentioned we handn't seen Pluto, and our server miraculously made him appear by the time she returned with our receipts to sign. Even as the kids were hugging Pluto, I was gathering belongings.
Our meal would have cost $310.06 out of pocket. We paid 10 TS credits, and a $55 tip.
That brings our trip total to 10 CS, 10 TS, 4 S, and $90 in tips with $0 OOP. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $496.50 so far.(Yes, I am trying to track this. I'm curious as to exactly how much we saved and I have almost all of our receipts except some snacks shoved in a Raglan Road shopping bag here.)
I scooped up one of the kids and said, "Follow me!" Scott knew what I was up to, because he's good like that. Everyone else just followed cause they're sweet like that. I led everyone down the concourse and straight out the door onto the 4th floor observation deck just under the monorail. It was MOBBED, but by boosting up the little kids and standing on our tiptoes, we could just see the castle as the music began for the Fourth of July fireworks. I don't love this picture of me, but I love that Scott tried to capture my joy as my whole family (and a lot of other families) smooshed onto a balcony to watch the beautiful tribute to our liberty that Disney put on. My mom, who HATES fireworks because of the noise even stuck her fingers in her ears and came out because she knew what it meant to me.
Now, please, give Scott credit - I don't think he's ever taken a firework picture in his life, but he tried really hard. This shot shows what our basic view looked like, with the castle to the left and Space Mountain on the right.
This shot was a decent capture of my favorite star shaped fireworks. I had Faith on my shoulders, so it was great that Scott grabbed the camera.
Poor Nicky was too big to be picked up and too small to see anything, but he said he was happy just to see the few at the top and hear the music. After the fireworks, we walked back through the hotel and smack into Jenn-planned-poorly land again. Cause how do we get out of the Magic Kingdom area after fourth of July fireworks? Ya got me. I had no plan. We probably SHOULD have taken the monorail around and then gotten a bus. But I remembered that you could walk from the Contemporary. And it didn't seem that far to me. But when it's 9:30PM on a day where some of you woke up at 3:00AM, and some didn't sleep the night before, and some are 2, and some are 82... walking was a bad call. Still, we lucked out with a very short line at our bus stop when we finally got there, and soon we were back at the resort, and ready to crash for the night. (At least, until we got up to make rope drop at the Magic Kingdom!)
Next Chapter: That's Why It's Called the MAGIC Kingdom
Needless to say, he wasn't real happy with me
) but he said that they were excellent for chicken tenders. I guess he was expecting a fried chicken like the rotisserie chicken halves? Cyndy ordered the BBQ Chicken Quesadilla, which she liked. I had a taste and I liked it better than my pizza. Juli, her 2 year old, made out like a bandit with some of each person's dishes. 
Anyway, the total of our bill was $174.07 if we had paid out of pocket, $0 and 10 Counter Service Credits on the dining plan, and we left a $35 out of pocket tip.
I'm thinking of staying at a moderate next summer we won't need to sleep 5 and CSR is definitely going to be looked at closely.
Goofy's Candy Company's Make Your Own Treats! I want one right now!
to my report! Thanks for reading. Vacationing with three families definitely was a challenge. I'd say the main difference is that our little group of four is used to being mostly happy with grumpy moments on vacation, whereas with such a large group, it's harder to keep everyone happy all the time. But the happy moments are still there, and that much more special because you're sharing them.
, there was no way I was getting in that balloon.
- I'm taking the night off from VBS to spend his birthday with him, in theory. Funny how I'm on Disboards... 
