Day 5
Its around 7 a.m. DW, DD, DS and I are all still in bed. The drapes are closed and the room is pretty dark. DW and I are lying there half awake, but not up and moving around. Fifteen minutes later, grandpa knocks on the door and DW answers. He wants us to know hes putting his socks on. Thats great. Were all thrilled. Epcot doesnt open until 9 a.m. Whats the rush? We get up and start getting ready. The day has promise. This will be our first day with DWs sister. DW and her sister are pretty close and our kids love their aunt. DWs sisters husband (now my BIL) and I were good friends in high school (not as close anymore, but its no coincidence we married sisters from Illinois!) so I was looking forward to his arrival.
Anyway, breakfast was again a little bit of a touchy issue. DWs sister had picked up some fruit on her way to Disney and her parents couldnt understand why we wanted to go back to the Pepper Market for bacon and eggs (sue me, I like a hot breakfast and cantaloupe is good but wont fill you up, especially when wed had dinner around 5 p.m. the day before and hadnt eaten since). The grandparents were like Dont you want some of the fruit? No, we dont! DW had asked her sister to bring the fruit for our kids to have as snacks, not as a substitute for breakfast.
DW and I took DS up to the Pepper Market while they had their fruit and they met us as we were finishing our breakfast. We headed for the bus stop en route to Epcot; the bus took forever to come (we watched two buses pass for MK, MGM and AK while waiting for our one Epcot bus). Once there, we went straight to Soarin, which DW and I had ridden in January and cant get enough of. We grabbed fastpasses for the whole party, which now numbered nine - minus DS, who is too small to ride it. We saw the Circle of Life show upstairs while we waited for our fastpass times for Soarin.
Like I said, we couldnt all go on Soarin at once because someone had to wait with DS. DW and her sister decided to be the sacrificial lambs and the rest of us went on the ride first. When we came off, DW, her sister and DD went to ride Soarin and BIL and I sat and watched DS. The grandparents were part of the watch group at that point, but they were off making toilet runs and looking around to keep busy. Sitting still for 10 minutes isnt an option.
Unfortunately the Living with the Land ride was shut down (its one of DDs favorites at Epcot), so we left The Land after everyone had ridden Soarin. DWs sisters stepdaughter wanted to see the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience show

. We saw it last time. Its not one of my favorites, so I and BIL opted to go get fastpasses for Test Track while the others watched Honey. When we got to Test Track, we also got surprise fastpasses to ride Mission Space immediately. I rode Mission Space alone in March 2005 and swore Id never get on it again. There was that lady died on it last year and I remember feeling very claustrophobic when I rode it before. But I wasnt going to chicken out with my former high school buddy there, so I rode it again The second time wasnt as bad as I remember the first time being. Once you get past the blast off (the G-Force is scary but exhilarating at the same time) it wasnt that bad and I knew what to expect. When we were done, the rest of the group was almost done with Honey and headed over to meet us for Test Track. When it was time for Test Track, we learned the ride was broken and there was no estimate on when it would be back up.
It was around noon at that point, and I was ready to head to the World Showcase (my all-around favorite spot at WDW) for lunch. DW, however, convinced us to ride Ellens Energy Adventure first. I was skeptical, but it was actually a really cool and informative attraction.
Once that was done, we all headed for Mexico for lunch. We stop at the counter service place and get filled up. Then we go in the Mexico pavilion and ride El Rio del Tiempo.
My hearts pounding pretty hard now as I get ready to write this next part. So, we get off the ride and start looking around at the crafts and things for sale. DW is taking pictures of DD and DWs sister and DS in the various sombreros. Then DD starts horsing around, hitting members of the family. I was encouraging her a little bit. It was all in fun. Some of us were getting bored, I guess. And then grandpa loses it. He says something to me about smacking my daughter in the face. I just kind of laughed uncomfortably, not sure what to think. Then he goes over to DW and tells her whats going on. DW didnt have any idea, so she told him she was sorry and that she would take care of it and called DD over and started talking to her. Grandpa apparently isnt satisfied. He goes back to DW, gets about two inches from her face, and tells her hes going to crack her (DD) in the head. He tells DW that were ruining his vacation and asks DW if she wants DD to remember her grandpa that way. Grandma says to DW Lets just keep going. Somehow grandma failed to see that Pink Elephant in the Mexican pavilion that was her husband. Perhaps she was trying on one of those large sombreros and it covered her eyes.
My dad has been gone 20 years (car accident), so this guy is the only grandfather my kids have. I actually paid for the grandparents to fly down to see us last October (we rarely see them unless we go to their house) and had a heart-to-heart with grandpa at that time about how I wanted him in my kids lives as much as possible (hence this trip to Disney nine months after our last one) since my dad was gone. Anyway, my attitude now is that DD wont remember either of her grandfathers. Who knows if shell remember how her maternal grandfather threatened to hurt her at Disney World?
Sorry for getting sidetracked. Back to the story. Im across the room a ways, standing next to BIL and dont hear any of grandpas verbal attack on DW at the time. I see DW gather the kids and head for the door. I catch up to her. Apparently she decided to keep going, like her mother suggested! Shes really upset and headed for the exit at Epcot. No one else follows us. DW heads for the bus stop and all I know is were going back to the hotel room, but she isnt telling me what her dad said.
We get back to the room at CSR and DW tells me she wants to change resorts or go home because she cant stand the thought of being around her dad anymore. I called Disney reservations and they recommended I go to the front desk. I do and tell them were part of a Magical Gathering and that weve had some problems with someone in our group and would like to change to another moderate resort if possible. The woman at the desk didnt ask a lot of questions (wanted to make sure it wasnt a Disney Cast Member that had upset us!) and switched us to Caribbean Beach at no extra charge in all of about 10 minutes.
I go back to the room and DW is already packing our stuff. We call bell services to have someone help us get all of our stuff out to the van ASAP (were afraid they might come back and see us leaving, igniting another confrontation). Luckily, our fears werent realized and we got out of CSR safely.
On the way to Caribbean Beach, I ask DW again what her father said to her. She started breaking down and said she couldnt tell me, that it was too mean. I went in and got us checked in at Caribbean Beach. One of those Magical Express buses from the airport had just gotten there ahead of us (it was probably 3-3:30 p.m.) so I had to wait a while. DWs sister called her while I was checking us in and asked what happened and if theyd be seeing us again. DW told her no.
We got settled into our room in Building 38 of Trinidad South. It was a water view room, but it was upstairs and we could actually see a lake. The rooms and buildings reminded us more of POFQ and POR, which we really liked. After settling in for a few hours, we decided to go back to Epcot to see Illuminations. As we arrived at Epcot, DD clamored to ride Spaceship Earth. DW talked me into it. Afterwards we had the hardest time finding our stroller. You get really turned around after you come out of that big thing.
We were really afraid of running into DWs family again, so we laid low. We knew they were in Germany eating at the Biergarten a little earlier in the evening (I hate that we missed out on the Biergarten thing

), so we stayed out of the World Showcase area. We were trying to eat at the Garden Grille for dinner, but we got there so late that we had to choose between watching Illuminations and eating counter service downstairs at The Land, or eating at the Garden Grille and no Illuminations. We ate our counter service dinner, and at one point I noticed DW was crying. The whole thing was and has been really rough on her. But she cheered up as much as could be expected and we enjoyed watching Illuminations from a distance. As it was ending, we sped out of the park so we wouldnt run into DWs family.
We knew which parks DWs family would be hitting the final two full days (AK, then MK again) so we just went to the opposite parks on those days and avoided them the rest of the trip. We know how to have a good time as a family at Disney, so it wasnt that big of a deal. There was this somber mood hanging over DW and I about what had happened, but the kids were still having fun. They didnt miss the grandparents, but did ask a lot for DWs sister. Like I said, she lives close by, so theyll see her again soon.
Ill come back tomorrow with a report on our final two and a half days. It was disappointing at first, but we made the best of it and still had a lot of fun.