Once Upon a Birthday-November 4, 2002, Day Seven: “Bathroom Birthday or ”

[IvyandLace]

“Ohana means family and we don’t have one”

Our day plan: Girls’ and boys’ character breakfasts; meet up at 11am-“Favorite’s Day!!”

Our meal plan: Breakfast: Cinderella’s Royal Table for girls
Restaurantosaurus for boys
Lunch: on own
Dinner: Ohana’s with PS at 8:30pm

Our weather today: surprisingly hot and steamy!


Today was the day!! Today was Princess M’s birthday!! Yippee! We had planned this day for a long time and could hardly wait to get going. Since Uncle T left yesterday, Princess M and I had moved into GM and Ariel’s room. Jack, Harry and JP occupied what was now called the “boy’s room”. I only woke up once and heard GM up but didn’t think anything of it. Until…

Well, once our alarm went off, I bounced out of bed to find GM getting sick in the bathroom! OH, NO!! Why was she sick?? She looked pitiful and sadly said, “I don’t think I’m going to the princess breakfast today.” It was so sad!! Princess M, Ariel and I were really disappointed since we had waited so long to celebrate the birthday at Cindy’s with “just the girls”, but I think we felt worse about the fact that GM was feeling so poorly. There wasn’t much for us to do, unfortunately, but get dressed in our matching red Pooh T’s and jean overalls. Ariel had bought us tiaras to wear to the breakfast, and they completed the outfit. We heard the boys moving around, but they were on their own. We had already made plans to meet up with them later today after our breakfasts and time alone with our “kids”.

Princess M, like most preteens, can get a little paranoid when it comes to getting sick. We tried to reassure her that just because GM was sick, she wasn’t necessarily going to get sick. She was a little quieter than normal and would occasionally asked worriedly, “Do you think I’ll get sick too?” It didn’t take long, though, with our silliness for her to get into the spirit of things. (I guess it just took us a bit to readjust our plans since we felt badly about GM’s sickness.)

On the bus ride to the MK we sat near the cutest little girls who were starting their trip today-they LOVED our crowns and thought that we were all sisters. It really got us in an excited mood! After picking up a birthday pin at City Hall for Princess M to wear, we made it to our PS on time. I told them of GM’s illness and reminded them of Princess M’s birthday at check in. We were told to wait for our names to be called. We got in this extremely long line to see the Fairy Godmother, but it made the time go a little faster. It was fun to see all the little girls dressed up in their “princess” dresses. We ended up waiting quite a while…about 30-40 minutes until we got to our table even with PS!

Our names were finally announced, and we made our way up to our table that was decorated with “pixie dust” for Princess M’s birthday. She was excited and a bit overwhelmed, I think. We could see the princesses all around us!

Ariel and I had brought special confetti “poppers” and secretly pulled them out as we sang “Happy Birthday” to Princess M. It was really fun as the confetti shot up in the air! Really attention grabbing, to be sure. I ate a croissant in honor of GM, and then our waiter brought our meals: sausage, eggs, potatoes, etc. for Ariel and I and a child’s meal for Princess M. Princess M had started to say, “I don’t feel good” and just picked at her meal which was unusual for her. We didn’t worry too much and tried to downplay it so that she wouldn’t continue to think about it. She seemed to perk up and began to smile and laugh as we waited and waited for the princesses to come around. We definitely waited awhile this time; our meals were over before our first princess came to our table! Ariel and I dug into Princess M’s birthday cupcake which was really chocolately and moist…yum! She also got a birthday card signed by all the princesses. Very nice.

We saw Belle, Snow White, Mary Poppins, Cinderella and Prince Charming. Cinderella was the nicest and asked us what kingdoms we came from since we were obviously princesses too! She also thought we were all sisters.

One of our favorite memories of the Princess breakfast was when Prince Charming, who in our opinion was pretty corny looking, came up to Princess M, making a big deal about her birthday. He knelt beside her and tried to give her a kiss on the hand, but she just kept pulling it away. We were polite but were trying not to break out laughing! So funny!

After breakfast we went toward Splash Mountain, but it was broken down. How sad! We spent time snapping lots of pictures today!

It was so hot today! Whew! We had a good time just enjoying being together in the Magic Kingdom for the last time this trip. We loved seeing the illusive bulbous-nosed Mad Hatter and took our traditional rose garden castle pictures. Unfortunately, as the morning progressed, Princess M kept persisting occasionally, “My stomach is hurting!” We didn’t know if she was just worrying about getting sick and remembering GM or if she really didn’t feel good. She would go through periods of being quiet and saying she didn’t feel good, and then she would perk up again and be like herself.

Finally while we were waiting for the boys to turn up at the Goofy statue, our meeting place, I decided that I would take her back to the hotel so that she could lie down. We still weren’t totally convinced that she wasn’t just overly worried as she can get sometimes, but I didn’t want her to feel bad all day if I could help it. We knew she felt bad when she stated, rather dramatically, “This is the worst birthday ever!” Poor girl. We felt sad for her and the fact that she was sick on her birthday at Walt Disney World. What could be worse?

The boys were late, but we weren’t too concerned. This was JP’s first attempt at navigating the bus system on his own, of course. Finally, they dragged into the Magic Kingdom…literally. The first words out of Jack’s mouth was, “Those two need to go back to the hotel.” Ariel and I looked at each other and thought, “My gosh! Harry must have really pushed JP’s buttons for him to make him go back to the hotel on favorite’s day!” If only that would have been it…

Harry and JP had both gotten sick…twice. Unfortunately Harry hardly made it through his breakfast and threw up in the corner of the Restaurantosaurus! Some guy went up to JP and said hesitantly, “Um, sir? I think your son just threw up!” It didn’t take JP long to follow while Jack, Mr. “Iron Stomach”, went up for seconds on breakfast items! (I can’t imagine.) We couldn’t believe that after throwing up, all three went on Dinosaur!! JP told us later that he just thought that it was a “one time” deal. Unfortunately, it wasn’t!!

Well, now it was definitely back to the hotel. On leaving the MK, a well-intentioned CM shouted, “Have a happy birthday!” to Princess M on seeing her birthday pin. It was definitely a bitter pill to swallow at that moment.

You know that scene in The Christmas Story when Ralphie is being chased by Scud Farcuss? Well, the phrase “Randy lay there like a slug” perfectly described Harry at the bus stop. I have never seen the kid so still. He just kept saying, “Oh, my stomach…!” It was so pitiful. JP didn’t even want to be touched.

We deposited the patients back in their rooms and made them as comfortable as possible. Even though she still didn’t feel well, GM wanted to hear about the princess breakfast, and we filled her in. The plan was that those of us “who remained”, Jack, Ariel and I, would continue on with favorite’s day in hopes that everyone would be able to meet up for dinner at Ohana’s this evening. We would continue to check in periodically via the cell phone to see how everyone was faring.

Thus eight became three. Three lone sailors on the sea of despair. The three musketeers. You get the picture.

We felt horrible for everyone…especially Princess M since it was her birthday. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for us to do back at the hotel so we decided to head to the bus stop, intent on salvaging what was left of “favorite’s day”. (So you will all know, we always leave our last park day as a “favorite’s day”; we split up into small groups of two or three and just do what we want to do. This ranges from riding Splash Mountain one hundred times to getting all the Epcot countries stamped in your passport. We love the favorite’s day idea and will continue with it indefinitely!) Although we had “survivor’s guilt”, we all were determined to have fun today.

Back to the bus stop at All Star Music. For some reason, Ariel and I had the stupid “Let’s get down to business” song from Mulan in our heads the entire trip so Ariel decided to act out a part of the song for my video camera. Posterity sake, you know! It was simply hilarious. I think by that time we were so crazily worried that we would become the “next victim” that we were just acting silly. Of course, we act silly all the time…

We decided to head to our favs at MGM-Tower of Terror (complete with “scream”-see Halloween issue for details) and Rock-n-Roller Coaster. We were back in the Disney magic.


I wanted to see Muppets again…of course…and so after snacking on some fries and a frozen lemonade, we sat down in the lobby of the Muppets lobby. We took time to notice all the kooky puns that were scattered about on all the “props” instead of concentrating on the “intro”…so funny! Jack has such a good sense of humor for a “teen”, and it was so nice to be able to see him with his guard down, enjoying himself with his two aunts.

Rode Buzz and got stuck in one of the target rooms so we racked up the points! Woo Hoo! We got in to Space Mountain and rode our favorite side (the left) which is so much faster than the right. Two for two! Jack made the funniest video clip of himself saying, “In the future, packages will be sent to distant worlds through beams of light!” just like the guy who says it on the way out of Space Mountain. A classic!! Got more classic video clips on the TTA as both Jack and Ariel put their unique spin on “Now…approaching…Space…Mountain!”

We really wanted to ride Splash Mountain, but it was broken down (again!), this time with people on it! (I think that would be cool!) Afterward, we decided that it was pretty appropriate since Princess M wasn’t there, and it’s her favorite ride. So, instead, we decided that our last ride of the Magic Kingdom would be Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We, however, were not prepared for the crowds!! Wow!! I don’t ever remember waiting this long for this ride….Ever. I guess fastpass has spoiled me forever. The best memory of that ride came from, ironically, a little girl who “talked our ears off” while we were waiting in line. “Abigail Quinley Murphy” didn’t stopped talking for the next 45 minutes. She was really cute and wanted to know everything about us, our pins, our clothes, etc. Ariel was wearing her new pink “Princess” baseball hat, and Abigail turned to her to ask, “Guess what my favorite colors are. You’re wearing them.” When Ariel guessed “pink?”, Abigail said, “Wrong. Pink and SPARKLY pink.” We tried not to laugh, but it was a losing cause. Even Jack was finding Abby funny. When we boarded our car, we turned around and guess who was behind us…? Of course…ABBY! She screamed the entire ride and just made it so memorable. Thanks, Abby…you’ll never know what an impression you made!

The funniest part about meeting Abby was that we bumped into her again on Main Street when we were leaving…and she looked at us like she had no clue who we were!

It was ~6pm, and we got the call. Princess M had gotten sick…or as Ariel broke the news to us, “We have confirmation.” Poor birthday girl.

It became clear to us that we weren’t going to make our PS at Ohana’s. It was pretty appropriate since we didn’t have an Ohana. Thus, the saying of the evening became, “Ohana means family (stolen from Lilo and Stitch) and we don’t have one.” Our motto.

Since we wouldn’t be going to Ohana’s, we still had three hours to spend at Epcot so on we went. I hate to say it, but we were having a great time! We were planning on eating somewhere via a Food and Wine booth, and I wanted to view Tapestry of Dreams and IllumiNations again. Timing was on our side-when we approached the Innovention fountains, they burst into song…perfect for me to videotape! I love Epcot at night.

We shopped around the world, and I found the best souvenir…a Food and Wine apron! Perfect. We watched another wonderfully touching Tapestry of Dreams and walked around Italy. Jack was in the best mood, and it was so nice to be with both him and Ariel. He didn’t even mind us dragging him in store after store…just a happy kid, hanging out in the World, munching on another churro.

We ended up near Italy and camped out at a great spot for viewing IllumiNations. While Ariel and Jack got pizza and rigatoni from the Italian Food and Wine booth, I went up to the American pavilion to grab sodas and chili cheese fries. We called “home” again, and while GM, Princess M and Harry were feeling somewhat better, JP was still desperately sick. We felt bad telling them we were having fun, but it was true. We just wished everyone else could have been there too.

IllumiNations was as beautiful and inspiring as ever. I loved watching this that night…our last night in the parks. It was just the perfect ending.

My favorite part of the day came when we were walking around the World Showcase after IllumiNations: Jack was holding my hand and turned to me and said, “I love you” quite spontaneously. It was so sweet and probably one of the last times I’ll hear that for awhile.

The day was young so we took ourselves to Beaches-n-Cream for some ice cream and ate contentedly out by Stormalong Bay in lounge chairs. It was a beautiful evening. We finished out the night playing a round of mini golf at the Fantasia golf complex. I even won! Perfect. Got home rather late due to buses running extremely slow from the Boardwalk.

Tips of the day:

1. Things will not always go your way despite all the planning, all the worrying. Take a deep breath, throw all ideals to the wind, regroup and begin again. The most memorable things at Walt Disney will always be something that you don’t plan.
2. Always make time for “favorite” things particularly. We have had great luck with making this our priority on our last park day; it just seems to make it less painful to leave that way!
3. Don’t be afraid to be silly with your teens. You may be surprised how they react!
4. You have to make time to play mini golf at Fantasia golf. Not only is it the most creatively musical golf you’ll ever play, but the grounds are beautiful…and it’s great fun! Just don’t go late at night. The bus transportation is horribly slow.

With memories of pumpkins, ice cream cones and sun
When whispers of the ones we love and rides we like are done.
We will always keep remembering our time that we spent there
Of Jack and Tink and Tapestry and glitter in our hair.
Our dreams are filled with remembrances of all our happy days
Despite the sickness we’ll be back again for magic stays!

The story is completed in Once Upon a Birthday-November 5, 2002, Day Eight: “And now it’s time to say goodbye to all our family…”

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Sorry to hear everyone is getting sick - but you handled it well - thanks for posting!

 

[Credit Man]

What a great report! I enjoyed every episode. Thanks for posting.