Friday January 25th - 3:00pm
Once we got out to the pool, I had a heck of a time finding an empty beach chair to set our stuff down. I couldnt find a life vest for DS. There were about three left in the bin and were all too big for him. I got DD one. Then I reminded them that they need to be good listeners since I cant go deep into the pool with them and that DS needed to stay in the shallow end of the zero entry pool. The problem was that DS was not being good about listening to my instructions when I told him to turn around before it got too deep for him. DD was doing fine with her life vest on and shes more used to swimming in the water by herself. A couple of times I had to tell DS to turn around and he barely listened. He kept waddling inch by inch towards the deep end, and I knew he was about to get in trouble. So when the water got to his chin level and he appeared to be stuck and unable to move himself back to the shallow end, I rushed in to the pool to get him. Fortunately, another gentleman was playing with his toddler son right next to where DS was, saw DS and hoisted him up by lifting on his arms for a couple of seconds until I got to DS. I thanked him profusely. Then I took DS out of the pool. I could tell from the look on his face that he knew he was in trouble and I used it as a teaching moment about pool safety and listening to instructions. Needless to say, my shorts were soaked! I had to get DD out of the pool as well so that we could head back to the room and cut our pool time extremely short. The kids did not take this very well as you can imagine and DD got into some trouble of her own when she decided to vibrantly vocalize her displeasure.
Once we got back to the room, we changed back into our clothes. We went back to the Ink and Paint Shop and I got the kids their picks for souvenirs. DD finally got her pencil case and couldnt wait to open it. And DS picked out a racing car decked out in Buzz Lightyear décor. I still had another 2.5 hours before we had to head out to the airport to pick up DFIL who was flying in from Ohio at 6:40pm. What to do, what to do. I decided that we should make a short visit to Magic Kingdom even if it was just to see Main Street and the Castle to start off our Disney stay.
We parked in the villains section of the parking lot at Magic Kingdom in the Zurg section. The same Zurg that DD finds scary or at least she did last year but maybe not so much this year. Because of that, the kids and especially DD had no trouble remembering our parking spot. We got on the Express Monorail and with us in our section of the cabin was a family of three. As the monorail zoomed through the Contemporary Resort, the mom of the group asked me if this train didnt stop at CR. I told her that the Express Monorail only has two stops: MK and TTC. I told her they could get off at MK and either walk over to CR or take the Resort Monorail which will stop at CR.
As we entered Magic Kingdom, the beautiful sight of Main Street topped off with Cinderellas Castle at the end came into focus. I just cant get enough of that view. While slowly strolling down Main Street, I asked the kids what they wanted to do. They started a chorus of Barnstormer. I asked them to pick a different one because a) the lines would be fairly long this time in the afternoon, and b) I didnt think we could squeeze all three of us in one row for the ride. So, DD then picked the Enchanted Tiki Room! Going to be completely honest with you if it werent for the kids, I probably would not have thought to have set foot in this attraction for the entire trip. When we got to the hub, the stage show in front of the castle started up and we stood there to watch it for a little while.
The kids enjoyed it. Very similar themes to the afternoon parade but with more action and special effects. It mixes princesses with pirates and Pan along with Mickey and the gang managing to attract both boys and girls. Then we moved over to Adventureland and entered the Tiki Room.
We got ourselves a front row bench and a couple of minutes later the CM came over and woke up Jose with her stick. Its a cute show with some songs that have a way of really sticking to your head long after you leave.
The part where the female birds enter singing always gives me a chuckle.
At one point in the show, I looked up at Jose and saw his tail section pointed straight at my face. And all I could think of was how I was about to get bird poop on my face with the way it was pointed.
Tried very hard not to laugh out loud.
An older couple sitting behind us were singing along with the birds. I thought that was very cute. DD and DS loved it of course and were singing the Tiki song as we exited the attraction.
After the Tiki show, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Peco Bills. I had the bacon cheeseburger and the kids had their pb&j sandwiches. Then we were out the gates to pick up DFIL from the airport. Except I had severely miscalculated our departure time it took us 30 minutes to get to our car and when we did, DFIL was already calling me on my cell telling me that he had collected his baggage. I told him I was very sorry for falling behind and that I would be about 30 minutes late. On the ride back to the TTC using the Express Monorail, one of the families we were riding with asked me if this train would take them to Epcot. I told them that they would have to get off at the TTC and transfer to the Epcot Monorail. After spending so much time on DIS, I tend to forget how the majority of visitors to WDW are newbies. But then again, I had just underestimated the time it would take from MK to our car.
Not only was I thirty minutes behind in getting to the airport, I ended up on the wrong terminal and spent an extra 10 minutes circling the arrival driveway looking for DFIL. I completely blanked out on the fact that DFIL was flying in on a different airline than we did. I was just off this day. I had been circling the terminal that the kids and I arrived in. Finally after getting in touch with him on the cell, we were able to locate him and pick him up at curbside. The kids were ecstatic to see their grandpa. DFIL was equally excited about seeing the kids again and about his second trip to Disney. We all went back to our hotel suite. I got the kids bathed and tucked in bed and it was about 9:20pm.
Next Up: Night Time Photo Tour of AoA
