Previously on Biscuit’s Grand Adventure 2 - well...I forgot. It’s been that long.
It seems rather pointless to me to try to continue to report on a trip which has been over for 18th months now; however, I did promise to finish this and as I hate unfinished TR’s, I have made up my mind to try to bring some sort of wrap up to this narrative. I will try to wrap it up quickly with a more generalized description of the triumphs and catastrophes (NoCanyon) that defined the rest of our trip.
Since my last update of this TR, we actually wound up returning to WDW for a whirlwind weekend cheer competition. Then my entire work life exploded with a new departmental structure, new location, new director, and whole barrel of accompanying drama. Things are slowly returning to normal around here and I hope to get some updates done quickly in the coming days.
The bad thing about writing a TR more than a year later is that some of the details fade. I read the end of my last installment and saw the “Next Time” tag and couldn’t for the life of me remember what I was talking about. BUT then I found the photos, and it all came back to me.
Unfortunately.
(I think I repressed that particular memory on purpose.)
But that’s getting ahead of myself.
As a brief recap, I left off on the morning of our first full day. The sun was bright, the birds were singing, and Tahlia and I had just completed a wildly successful EMH at the Magic Kingdom. After docking at The Lodge, Nick and Tammy’s crew steered towards the main lobby to head to their room and change. (As a mental refresher – their room was located just above Whispering Canyon on the 5th floor and the girls were gussied up as princeses.) Tahlia and I headed to our room which was near the boat dock and met up with First Lady Biscuit and Hailee.
Gussying up ensued.
Time passed.
Soon we were back on the boat and puttering across the lagoon on our way to more Magic Kingdom mayhem.
Our first order of the day was to redeem our Fastpass+ for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. At the time of our trip, this attraction had only been running for a month. All through our drive across Florida we had been inundated with billboards singing the praises of this new and wondrous masterpiece of Disney Imagineering.
All during our morning EMH, this fact had played significantly in our favor. The vast majority of those entering the park had hurled themselves into the standby line for this attraction, swelling it to an unconscionable wait time. This left the rest of park much emptier than it normally would have been. Upon disembarking at the boat dock, and strolling through the swelling ranks at the turnstile, it seemed this phenomenon was still running strong. Stretched from Town Square to Cinderella’s Castle was a withering line of humanity, all surging forward with great power and determination.
And then there was this guy.
He was just happy to be there. He was hosing folks down with a mister fan as they walked by.
Because our Fastpass+ reservation window was just about to open, we joined with them and enjoyed the waves of myopic optimism that rose from their innocent and clueless proclamations that they were going to get in line for it now “while the line was still short.”
The declarations of despair as people rounded the corner and saw the 240 minute wait time were downright hard to hear. Not so hard that I gave up my FP+ mind you. Let’s not mistake empathy with insanity. But still, I did feel bad for them. I wound up recommending to one group that they come back late in the evening. (Touring Plans had the best wait time projected during the 2nd showing of MSEP.) My good deed done for the day, it was time to cash in our passes and see what this attraction was all about.
There were about 10 folks lined up at the initial Fastpass Entrance, but the line never really stopped moving. Once we were past the podium, we didn’t encounter another line until we were inside the loading cave / mine looking area…thing.
We loaded up and were soon rumbling around the track at semi-faster-than stroller speed. Up until this point, I had resisted the urge to watch online videos of this attraction. I had heard some mixed reviews, and wasn’t sure what all the ride entailed.
Turns out it didn’t entail a whole lot.
I kept waiting for the ride to get going, and yet it never did.
When we got back to the station, we all had that “What just happened?” look on our faces and my brother in law and I both said the exact same thing: “If I had waited 4 hours for that, I would be SO mad right now.”
For all the hype and hoopla I was expecting more.
And yet, more was not to be had.
Congratulating ourselves on not wasting unholy amounts of park time on the thing, we quickly exited and headed to grab some chow. Nick’s crew was still pretty full from breakfast, but our gang was full blown HAWNGREH! Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café was our destination of choice, both because we like the food and because it was a short walk from the Seven Dwarf’s Monstrosi-T exit.
A pulled pork BBQ sandwich was just what the doctor ordered, and my belly grumblings were soon satiated. With lunch firmly under our belts, we set out to partake of the flying pachyderm. I speak of course of Dumbo. This was my first venture into this section of Fantasyland and the dual spinner concept and setup was pretty nifty. I like that they were able to take a classic, make the line shorter, and update it without completely ruining it.
The standby line was moving fairly quickly and within 15 min we were spinning around in a generally up and down manner.
By the time we came in for a landing, the heat was already starting to wear on us so we made our way towards some AC.
We soon arrived at Hailee’s favorite attraction from our 2009 trip: “Donald’s Butt”. (Known to civilians as Mickey’s Philharmagic.)
This is one of those attractions that I just enjoy. I’m not sure what exactly it is about the thing, but I always leave smiling. The girls all giggled and squealed throughout the presentation and it a nice break from the heat outside.
Speaking of the baby Biscuit’s, as we were still shuffling towards the exit, they were clamoring for a ride on It’s a Small World. I was far less thrilled with this prospect, but they were eager so that’s where we headed. The good thing about this attraction is that it loads quickly and has AC pumping out the cool stuff.
Tahlia pointed out a few things and invoked a reference to Kingdom Keepers so we managed to keep ourselves adequately preoccupied during the journey.
Once our world was no longer small, the girls took a spin on the carousel while I wandered around a bit. I spotted the Fairy Godmother on the side of the castle, and as soon as the girls were done oscillating animals in a circular pattern…again…we headed over for them to say howdy.
By this point in time the heat was nearing nuclear and the crowds were starting to grow. We decided that the time had come to seek out some cool air and lighter crowds. Nick and Tammy were looking for something specific to purchase, but for the life of me I don’t recall what. We decided to head down Main Street and check out the Emporium for a bit before heading back to the Lodge to chill until suppertime.
After perusing the shop for a good chunk of time, we returned to the dock and head back to my new favorite place where I enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon nap. (Right after I noticed the smudge on my lens that is responsible for the foggy patch in the above pictures and then had myself a moment.) What the girls did during my nap time remains a mystery to this day. All I know is, I slept hard and awoke hungry. Which was convenient as we were about to head to dinner. Unfortunately, the meal would leave much to be desired.
Next Time on Biscuit’s Grand Adventure “Old Grey Meat, She Ain’t What She Used to Be”.
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No Problem! We loved Wisconsin Dells and would go back in heartbeat!
I can totally relate as we have had similar things here which have limited my DIS time. 
