Cinderella Has An Itchy Trigger Finger - A May 2011 Graduation TR [Completed!]

[DerangedChipmunk]

Day 8: P2

But the day wasn't over yet! After the parade, we were bussed back to EPCOT, where we decided to relax until our ADR. While we were passing Innoventions, we heard beating drums…

It was the JAMmitors!

these guys were seriously adorable

It’s Mickey Mouse!

Next stop: Club Cool!

I love Club cool, and I stopped every time we were in EPCOT (at least two or three times)

My favorites are the Manzana soda from Mexico and the Smart Watermelon from Japan (please sell this in the US, Coca Cola!!!)

It was time for dinner, so we headed around the World Showcase to go to

The Rose and Crown!

We had a little wait, but it was a nice day, but there was a bit of Disney Magic on the sidewalk: a hopscotch game!

Some little girls taught me how to play, and we were all hopping along happily when our buzzer started going off.

Just in time for our very good looking Welsh waiter to see me playing hopscotch in the street with a bunch of six year olds.

Ahem… It was a good time.

I got the bangers and mash and a coke

and Mom got the “Sunday Roast” with Yorkshire Pudding

It was pretty good, but I remember it being more exciting when I was little.

Dessert, however, was really yummy.

We forgot to take pictures but we had a “bakewell tart” (think a dense almond and raspberry cake in a tart shell)

And a sticky toffee pudding (really sweet, but yummy!)

After dinner, we decided to head to DHS, since we felt like we’d been in EPCOT a lot due to all of our ADRS.

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, there was actually a reasonable wait for TSMM, so we went through the standby line.

And...Cinderella left her trigger finger in MK, so I got a Beaver! Surprise, surprise.

I need to practice more.

We went over to the Muppet Theatre and headed over to the gift shop.

I bought a Gonzo plush

and asked about Mermaid’s Tears.

And Guess what? The CM knew what I was talking about, and she told me exactly where to find it—the Pirates League.

We’d been so close!

Isn't it pretty?

It was late, so we decided to head back to the resort.

On our way back, we saw a CM standing outside of Star Tours.

Guess what? We got to go on the soft opening!

It was amazing!

Afterwards, we headed to the bus stop, while we were in line, a motor coach operator got out of his bus beside us, and I heard a little boy next to us say,

“DAD! Don’t swear or anything, cause there’s a POLICEMAN over there!”

When we made it back to the resort, we made it all the way out of the Classics Hall before we kicked off our shoes and skipped back to the hotel room.

There’s nothing better than going barefoot after a long day in the parks.

[>>>NEXT>>>] ​

 

[DerangedChipmunk]

As I was going through this TR, I noticed that I had no topiary pictures, even though we went during the Flower and Garden Festival.

We can’t have that, now can we?

And no, I’m definitely not just stalling because I don’t want to finish the TR because that means that my Disney Trip will be entirely over.

But I will, and I hope to update tonight or tomorrow. Stick around, because the last day gets crazy!

 

[DerangedChipmunk]

Day 9 P1
We’ve made it to the last day of the trip… but it turns out that, even though it was filled with the overwhelming sadness of leaving Disney, this day was one of the most memorable we had.

We started the morning by packing everything up and heading over to the luggage drop off place so they would hold it for us. Turns out one of our bags was overweight and we'd have to shift things around a bit.

The CM gave us a minute to rearrange our suitcases. The problem? We’d already checked out of our room, which left us no choice but to move things around on the sidewalk.

We unzipped the bag as fast as we could and grabbed the first three weighty things we saw out and stuffed them in our park bag before more people than necessary were treated to the sight of all our laundry. Yeesh!

Thankfully, with this last minute shuffle, our bags were ready to go, and we headed off to the Magic Kingdom to spend our last day in Disney.

When we arrived, Mom asked if I could hold the bag while she made a phone call.

Being the dutiful daughter that I am, I assured her that I would be happy to…

And then watched as she sprinted through the Guests Without Bags entrance.

Curse You!!!

(just kidding, I love you!)

So I was left with the backpack to go through the Mouse Police Checkpoint

The nice CM asked me to open all the zippers on my bag.

He poked around with his stick and asked if I was planning on going on Splash Mountain.

Ummm no…?

He then said he would need me to open all the bags inside.

What bags?

I then remembered our last minute packing adventure, and realized that I had a hair dryer as well as all of our cosmetics bags. I unzipped them for him, revealing more makeup than I could ever use in a month.

The CM just gave me a look.

I asked him if he would believe me if I told him it really wasn’t all mine.






He just told me to have a Magical Day



You can't win em all.



We decided to rent a locker for the day so we didn’t have to carry this huge, heavy bag around.


On the way into the park, we happened to catch the trolley show

"Clang, clang, clang" went the trolley
"Ding, ding, ding" went the bell
"Zing, zing, zing" went my heartstrings
For the moment I saw him I fell!!!!

Ahem. I’m back.


Anyway.. today, I was on the prowl… my quarry?


Wild.




Signatures.



We went over to Adventureland first to meet the fezzed adventurer himself,


He and Jasmine went onto the Magic Carpet ride.

but while he was on it, disaster struck when the camel spit water in his face, smudging his make-up!

He had to dash back into the backstage area to put his face back on.

Thankfully, he was back within minutes and jumped right up to the first person in line; yours truly!

I felt really weird going up without a signature book (it was in the locker inside of our backpack)

and so I shook Aladdin’s hand. No hug, no cutesy pic. I shook the prince's hand. I’m such an unsocialized homeschooler

Aladdin and Jasmine were fantastic and really fun.

One particular interaction still gets me:

Now, I wear a purity ring, and I’ve gotten kinda used to people thinking I’m engaged (even though it’s made of sapphires and doesn’t look anything like an engagement ring)

While I was talking to Jasmine, she asked me where my prince was.

This threw me, because my ring was the farthest thing from my mind.

Me: “I haven’t found him yet.”

Jasmine: “But…your ring?”

Me: “Oh that, it was my mother’s”

Jasmine: “Oh. Oh I’m so very sorry!” (I could tell from her facial expression that she thought my Mom had died—whoops!)

Aladdin: (trying to make things less awkward) “Well, you should steal an apple. It always worked for us. Just make sure not to get your hand cut off. You’ll have a perfect prince in no time, right Jasmine?”

Me: “He’d have to get past my MOM first”

Jasmine: (obviously relieved) “Oh, where is she?

Me: “Over by the Magic Carpets.”

We all stared at her for a second and she started waving uncomfortably. Oh well, at least Jasmine felt better.

We bounced over to POTC next to pick up my long awaited nail polish and got the last bottle!

But I promise to use my Mermaid's Tears for good, and not to live forever at the expense of another like in the movie, cause I'm a good girl, I am.

While we were there, we decided to head down into the dungeon for a sail with the Pirate Captain, Jack Sparrow!

This ride always makes me so happy; from the smell (no idea why. It just smells GOOD down there) to the cool, dark boatride; and of course, those crazy pirates. I can't believe I was terrified of this ride when I was little!

After sailing through the Pirate infested waters, we were exiting through the gift shop, minding our own business, when a CM struck up a conversation.

She heard that we were getting signatures that day and said that we should go around the corner to get a signature from Blackbeard’s daughter Angelica. She said that Angelica had just gone on her break, but that she’d be back soon.

I love POTC, so I was game.

Mom sat back and took pictures (she’s a fan of What Not To Wear, so she likes to take photos of “candidates” while we’re in Disney. I always get my camera back with hundreds of covert pictures of poorly dressed people)

I stood in the line area and waited…

And waited…

And waited..

For 45 minutes.

At which point, I decided to check with another CM.

He said that he was incredibly sorry, but Angelica had her last meet and greet an hour ago.

Well, that’s a waste of my last Disney Day! But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it ensured we were still at POTC at that moment, and right then out swaggered the savviest pirate to ever sail the seven seas

The interaction between Jack and his "mini-me" was sooo adorable and you could tell the little fella was just eating up all the extra attention

In the end, Jack Sparrow winked at me!

Which made my day, and made my mother grab me by the arm and inform me that that was most definitely not the prince I was looking for. (She's never watched the movies, but I think the dreads, the rum, and the guy-liner were putting her off a bit)

[>>>NEXT>>>] ​

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I just realized I'm going to be late for work after being sucked into your TR!

 

[DerangedChipmunk]

Whoops! Sorry about that! Thanks for joining in. I just caught up on your TR and it sounds like you guys had a great time!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

The hot chocolate freckles thing almost made me spit my coffee out this morning!

 

[DerangedChipmunk]

The hot chocolate freckles thing almost made me spit my coffee out this morning!

...what can I say? BLONDE MOMENT!

 

[DerangedChipmunk]

Day 8: P2

After Mom dragged me away from all potential pirate suitors, we headed to our last must-do of the trip:

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin!!

You’ve probably figured out by now, Buzz is our very favorite ride. We had decided to make it our very last ride of the trip.

With great pomp and circumstance, and a fast pass or two, we headed over to Tomorrowland.

After receiving our mission from Buzz, we blasted off into space to fight the evil Emperor Zurg.

We weren’t too successful. I guess we lost our touch.

We will meet again, Zurg.

We still had some FPs for BTMRR left, so we passed them on to a father and son team we met on Main Street.

We didn’t really want to leave, but our magical time was up, and we had to get ourselves out of the park.

We said goodbye to Main Street and the Castle, and headed out the tunnel.

With sniffles, (ok, maybe I was more choked up than my mom was, but we were leaving DISNEY!) we got in line at the bus stop and agreed it had been a great trip.

The bus pulled up to take us away from the magic, and it was then that we realized:

Amidst all this emotional hoopla we’d forgotten the backpack in the locker.

Talk about anticlimactic!

Mom knew that getting the bags from the check area might take a while, so she sent me back into the park with the key while she caught a bus back to the hotel to get the bags.

I went back through the gates, grabbed the bag, and hoofed it for the bus stop.

When I got there, the place was completely deserted! Not a single other soul in line!

Even when the next bus came, the only other people at the bus stop were a grandmother and her six year old grand daughter.

I made a beeline for the back of the bus (all the cool kids sit in the back of the bus—the seats stay warm because they’re over the engine. Those of you who’ve experienced Disney’s Motor Coach AC unit know why this is a plus) and sat in one corner. To my surprise, the grandmother and granddaughter duo sat on the other end of the bench.

I was utterly baffled as, every few minutes or so, the granddaughter would slyly scoot a seat farther away from her grandmother and closer to me.

And then another

And another

Until she was sitting right smack up against me 0_o

She then put her arm around my waist and leaned her head on my shoulder.

I looked over at the grandmother, who was dying of laughter, and she just shrugged.

She rode like that for the rest of the trip.

When the bus pulled up at the POP Century, the little girl gave me a hug, told me she loved me, and then bounced off the bus.

WEIRD.

Trying to put the… unique… bus ride behind me, I found my mother out by the DME bus stop. She’d made some friends while she was waiting, and their son (maybe five years old?) took an instant shine to me and steered me over to a bench to read Duffy’s storybook to his Duffy bear and I.

I promise kids really don’t like me this much outside of Walt Disney World.

Must be something in the water.

Anyway, as soon as Duffy’s story had been read, the DME bus pulled up, and we quickly realized that this bus to the airport had been waaaay overbooked.

Since there really wasn’t an option of waiting to catch the next one, we all got on the bus anyway. When all was said and done, several of us ended up sitting on the floor in the back of the bus for the 45 minute ride to the airport.

As the cherry on top, I found out later that one woman decided her tots were too tired to make it all the way to the airplane, and had somehow managed to procure three rows of seats just for their family so that her two kids (about 8 and 10 would be my guess) could lay down and take a nap on the way there.

I’m sorry, but if there are adults sitting on the floor for almost an hour, the kid’s naps can probably wait.


Anyway…

We made it to the airport ok, but I wanted to run a comb through my hair before we got on the plane because the Florida humidity was doing terrible things to it.

I went into the ladies room, and while I was brushing my hair, guess who came in?

My little friend and her grandmother from the bus!

The little girl stopped and gasped,

“Grandma! Look! It’s Cinderella again!”

This explained so much

THE END​

P. S.
Since this trip to Disney, I have been mistaken for Cinderella a total of four times by small children (plus that one CM)

 

[NateNLogansDad]

That was awesome I got goosebumps with the whole Cinderella thing! Isn't Disney just magical??? Seriously, why can't it be like that everywhere? Bravo, Cinderella! I hope you and your mom get back for another trip soon!