After the early count down, we followed the herd and were dumped in Liberty Square. We didn't have a destination in mind, but Liberty Square was not where we wanted to be. So we just kept following the line of people into Fantasy Land and ended up nearly trampling a poor family. I felt so bad. They had a blanket laid out and the dad was leaning against the wall of Pinochio's; possibly had a child sleeping in his arms.

I don't know how we ended up there, but we were trapped in by an ice cream cart and some sort of flat bed cart that was stuck. We couldn't move anywhere; it was wall to wall people; we couldn't back up, not left nor right, so we ended up crawling over the flat bed cart. I'm sure the CM was none to happy, but we had no choice. Whew! I was about to lose it!
So, we found ourselves amongst a sea of people, tired people, and we had no plan. That's right, I said NO PLAN! HA! Revoke my DISer card if you must, but I'm not giving it up without a fight. With limited options and strength, a divine spirit led us to Dumbo and the light was shining just right for us to see a wait time of 20 minutes.
20 MINUTES? We can handle 20 minutes!

And to make it even better, we would be able to see the fireworks will we waited in line.

As each cycle of riders exited, we were getting closer and closer to our holy grail. I kept checking the time and wondering when the last group would go and then they would close Dumbo during the countdown.....cause surely Dumbo couldn't fly during the fireworks, right?
At 11:55ish we reached the gates to the ride which has eluded us on every other trip we have ever made to the Muthaland. But not tonight, we were so close, but, but, as a billion thoughts ran through my head, what if they wouldn't let us on? What if someone tripped over a power cord and caused an outage? What if we weren't Dumbo worthy? Oh the humanity! But wait! What's happening? Why are we being escorted to our Royal Elephants? Do we get to view the fireworks in the elephants and ride afterwards? Wait! What's happening? Why is the ride starting? And now Mickey's voice? Am I dreaming? Is this burning an enternal flame? (You're welcome Tracy

) And now fireworks and numbers all around us as we spun in the air: 10, 9, 8, 7......3, 2, 1! Happy 2008! and more hoop-la!
For those few minutes, there was no should to shoulder swarm of tired grumpy tourists, no meltdowns, no crying, no whining, no stress, no ADD, and no potty breaks! It was just my family and a few others spinning above Fanstasy Land in our own land....happy faces, tiny thumbs up in the air.....the last Dumbo ride of 2007 and the first of 2008. This truly is the place where dreams come true. A brief but very happy moment for the Loud Family that I wanted to hold on to as long as possible.
Even as our elephants safely returned to earth, the Loud Family was still floating and jumping and hopping and needing to use the bathroom.
Up Next: Potty Problems.