been there - loved it - day 4

[BonSchwe]

Had a wake-up call from Mickey Mouse himself this morning at 5:45 am. I'm used to being up as I usually work that early but no one else really is. Oh well, I told them before we left that some days would be up and out early. Everyone was up with a bit of grumbling but we were ready to go by 7:00 am. We had brought down a suitcase full of poptarts, cereal, breakfast bars, and instant coffee so we kinda munched before we left. After a stop at the food court to refill the mugs we headed to the bus stop and off we were to EE at MGM. When the gates opened we headed in but were stopped by another rope shortly into the park. When that dropped - off we were. First stop was the Tower of Terror - great ride with very little wait. DH and I did a baby swap so as soon as I got off with DD and DS he was able to hand off DS4 to me and head up the fastpass lane. We used the babyswap on numerous occasions throughout the trip and it worked great everytime. The weather was beautiful and the crowds seemed totally managable. Aerosmiths Rock-n-Roll rollercoaster was so cool. For all the loops and dips it seemed very smooth. That was our first time on it and I'm so glad we did it. We spent some time at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and DS4 loved it. He ran around with big bro while DH and I sat watching people being squirted by the giant water pistol as they were walking by and caught unawares. Unfortunately, shortly after that we were caught up in a rain shower - so we headed back to POR and caught a bite to eat in the food court. I went and did a few loads of laundry, DD went to Ol' Mans Island to swim, and everyone took a nap. But by 4:30 pm we were ready to head over to Ohanas. We caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom and hopped on the monorail which took us over to the Poly. We checked in on time - actually this is getting scary because at home I am the most disorganized person you'd ever meet and here I felt I was so on my game. Guess it depends on what your working on. So Ohana's was awesome. Our server, Jason, was great and we loved how everyone called everyone cousin. How cool! We had a great meal. The kids were skeptical at first but by the end we were all filled up. The kids had these great desserts - giant snowcones of different colors served in a sand bucket and shovel. DD and DS4 competed in the coconut races twice and all the kids doing it looked hilarious trying to get those coconuts around with a broom. Once we finished we headed over to the Magic Kingdom and settled down in Liberty Square. The SpectroMagic Parade was in 1 1/2 hours and DH and I grabbed a bench and the older kids took off for a while. The parade started pretty much on time and the kids had returned by then. Thankfully we didn't encounter any parade seat hogs or rude behaviour. We had brought dayglo bracelets and necklaces from the dollar store so we opened those up and passed them around to the kids and a few around us. The parade was so awesome. The detail that Disney puts forth in everything does never fails to amaze me. It was definately the best parade we have ever seen and it was worth chilling out for a decent seat. Actually, it was pretty nice. There was a CM nearby with soft soccer balls that had a group of younger kids playing catch and different things. He joined in and was having a blast. People watching was so cool. After the parade we were going to watch Wished but we decided we weren't up to fighting the crowd afterwards so we headed out. But while we were waiting for our bus the Wishes started and we saw at least the top half of it. That was fine, getting back "home" at that time was all that mattered. Right to bed because EE at Epcot tomorrow AM.