As much as we tried not to acknowledge it, dusk was upon us and our final day in the parks was slowly drawing to an end. Our three days there had been a blur, and it hurt to think that wed have to say goodbye to it all in the morning. So we tried not to think very much. That wasnt much of an issue for me.
We wandered back in the direction of Fantasyland, pausing to take pictures in front of some random building in the middle of the park.
Now it was decision time: how would we finish the day? When in doubt, ask the kids what they want to do. The first answer we got was that they wanted to try more Sorcerers games. And Sarah and David wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain again. Scotty had something to say about that, but I wasnt paying attention to him. Im sure he loved the idea. Anyway, we had to figure out what to do for dinner somewhere in there as well. The third option was to leave the park altogether, and somewhere below that was riding on Its A Small World. We conferred briefly, and then it was decided: Julie was taking the kids to Fantasyland for Sorcerers games while I did a FastPass run for Big Thunder Mountain. And yes, I was getting 5 tickets. We would meet up at Pinocchio Village Haus for dinner.
So I was off to the races once again. And after 3 days of this, my feet were killing me. I was reminded of a bunch of my friends who have suddenly started training for marathons and thought: they think this is fun?
I had the camera with me and took a few shots in the sunsets warm glowing warming glow.
FastPasses in hand, I dodged crowds on the walk back to Fantasyland, using various people as my fullback as I darted through the openings. I didnt even have to stiff-arm anybody. Finally I ended up here:
I found Julie and the kids inside. Julie was squaring away the food orders and the kids had already made arrangements to enjoy the majesty of Its A Small Word in Oblivious Family style: behind a sheet of glass, looking down on the poor saps filing into the boats while gorging on greasy food with no music audible whatsoever. You can ride it if you want, but my feeling is that we got the maximum enjoyment possible out of it this way.
Oh, I guess I need to list our dinner choices in case anyone thinks I might lie about those items in this chapter. I had a nice meatball sub, and Julie went with the cheese flatbread.
With dinner finished, the moment was at hand: would Scotty get over his fear and ride Big Thunder Mountain with us one more time?
Boy, you must be outside your mind! Didnt you read the last chapter? Hed just as soon kiss a Wookiee than go on that ride again. Pay attention next time, ok?
Julie was feeling a bit light-headed and didnt really want to experience Thunder Mountain in the dark that way, so she graciously agreed to take Scotty while Sarah and David went with me. We pocketed the extra FastPasses because Sarah wanted to put them in a scrapbook. We were off to BTMRR while Julie took Scotty to
The Tomorrowland Speedway. Talk about taking one for the team. Something tells me I owe her big time. She had the camera this time, so she used her mad photography skillz to come up with this awesome shot:
Unfortunately, she followed that up with a bunch of shots of Scotty doing his maniacal laugh and banging into the center rail as hard as he could at 7 mph. I think its safe to say he liked this better than Thunder Mountain. Julie, on the other hand
have I mentioned what a great wife she is?
Sarah, Dave and I got in the FP line for BTMRR, ASAP. OK? If the VP is such a VIP, shouldn't we keep the PC on the QT? If it leaks to the VC, he could end up MIA and then we'd be put out on KP.
We saw the ride lit up for the night and unanimously declared that it looked awesome. Wed always heard that it was a great ride at night, and finally got the chance to try it ourselves.
The verdict? Its a great ride at night. Im not sure what it is exactly, other than the way Disney lights the ride just gives it a different feel. It almost makes it an outdoor Space Mountain. Great experience, and we tried hard not to rub it in when we met back up with Julie. Ok, maybe we rubbed it in a little bit, but it was hard not to gush.
We met up in the Main Street Emporium to do a little souvenir shopping on the way out. I finally got my Dole Whip t-shirt, which is a prized possession of mine. They started the Magic, Memories & You show while we were in the shop, and we ducked out just to see some of the projections on the castle. But the crowds had already gathered so we just saw bits and pieces of the show itself. We also realized that it wasnt long before Wishes started, and that wed stayed in the park much longer than wed planned. We hadnt staked out a spot for fireworks and didnt want to get caught in the mass of humanity after the showespecially with a long drive ahead of us in the morning.
We wandered through the store, the kids pining after hundreds of overpriced toys that would break in less than two days if wed bought them. Truth be told, I pined after many overpriced t-shirts and sweatshirts and possibly one or two of the toys. We walked towards the exit like we had concrete shoes. As we reached the Main St. station, we turned to say goodbye to the park. Wishes was starting, and the magic of the summer night was in full bloom. We sighed, turned, and left it all behind. And started wondering when wed be back.
We were going to try the ferry this time and headed for the dock. Unfortunately, wed just missed the boat and would have to either wait for the next one or take the monorail. We did some quick figuring and decided the monorail would be faster, so we turned around. But before we moved very far, Julie stopped and set the camera on a handrail. She took a deep breath, and dialed in her settings. She peered through the viewfinder, paused her finger over the shutter button, and then
after being foiled at Illuminations in our attempt to get cool fireworks pictures by annoying crowds and big trees, we had one last bit of pixie dust come our way.
Coming Up Next: We have two choices. We can get on our way and see some new destinations full of history come alive! Or we can stall our departure and stay on Disney property as much as humanly possible.