Once the Backpack Burden had been lifted, we could all breathe a little easier.
I mentioned earlier that we're still looking for the stroller. Yep. We are. We can only assume that the person or persons in question grabbed our friends’ stroller by mistake and then saw the backpack. Upon realizing what they had done, the person or persons in question did the good Samaritan thing by turning the backpack into Lost and Found and did the bad Samaritan thing by keeping the stroller for themselves.
Hey, you win some, you lose some.
Anyway, we were just glad to have the backpack back and we all made our way back to POR for a midafternoon nap and a much needed recharge.
We had booked the Fantasmic Dinner Package for that night at Mama Melrose. DH and I had previously eaten at Mama Melrose and we knew it was really good, but we had never seen Fantasmic. Hard to believe, huh? Lemme tell ya why. In all my research on the DIS and elsewhere, I had read that Fantasmic could be scary for the young’uns.
I learned the hard way to heed advice like this a couple of years ago.
Lemme set the scene.
We were taking our first trip to Disney with our children. Our beautiful children. DD was 2 at the time and DS had just turned 5. Yeah, this was the year of the freaky caveman robot piercing eyes phobia experience for DS.
DD had her own experience as well that year.
We were traveling with some other friends of ours, their two children and my parents.
Our first day in the parks we decided to head to MK. Now, you know what a planner I am and in all of my planning, I knew what rides would be great and what rides would most likely be crappy. Okay, maybe not crappy, but not really do-able with a two year old. And with all my planning, I knew we would HAVE to hit Fantasyland first. We went in the dead of summer. Need I say more? Anyway, as we are heading into Fantasyland, our friend sees Snow White’s Scary Adventures. He decides that
this is the very first ride we will hit at Disneyworld EVER with our children.
The rest of the group is clueless. Well, you know what I mean. They blindly follow without any prior knowledge or forebodings of this particular ride. Considering the fact that we have a 2 y/o, a 3y/o, and a 5 y/o in the group, it is my duty to voice my uncertainty.
“Well, the people on the DIS and in the Unofficial Guide and on Allearsnet say that this ride is a little too scary for the little ones. I think maybe we need to pass on this one. Hey, how about Dumbo over there?"
In my mind, the issue had been settled. Just like that.
And then I look at them.
Again with the sprouting the third eyeball look.
Only it was everybody in the group this time. DH included.
He looks at me and does that sideways talk out of his mouth thing so no one else can hear….”Just get over it. It’s Snow White. Come on, don’t make a scene. Let’s just do what the group wants to do….”
Our friend dismisses me with his hand. “Oh, come on. It’s Snow White. How scary can it be?” With that, he turns and the rest of the group turns with him.
DH throws me a disgusted look. He may as well spit on me for thinking something so foolish. Snow White. Scary. Please. Get a grip, Woman.
He told me that with his eyes.
My DISFriends, I am here to tell you that peer pressure runs rampant in Fantasyland. Because at that point, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go against my better judgement. I went with the flow.
Yes, I caved.
I caved because I didn’t want to start the trip off as the crazy lady who thinks the Snow White ride is scary and the lady who thinks she knows it all and the lady who can’t go with the flow. I did not want to be her. So we board the ride and for the next three minutes, my two dear, sweet, innocent children are in a literal, living and breathing hell. For those of you who have ridden it, you know what I’m talking about. Heck, the ride scared ME a little. Could they make that witch BE any uglier? I have never been so glad in all my life for a ride to be over because at that point, DD had clawed all of the skin off my chest. DS was crying and sniffling and snorting and going “Why did you MAKE me RIDE that RIDE, MAMA?!”
I turned to look at DH and all he could muster was…”Man, I had NO IDEA that ride was gonna be so scary! MAN!!!! What? ”
I could have punched him.
Our friends had the exact same experience. Days later, they were still digging their child’s fingernails out of their skin.
But I never said it. Never. Mr. Snow White Scary My Foot told me I had permission to say I told you so. But I didn’t. I’m not much of a gloater. So when I say that I have learned to steer clear of things that have been labeled as being scary by the all knowing DIS or UOG, or allearsnet, now you know why.
And that only took an extra fifteen minutes to write.
So that’s why we never saw Fantasmic on previous trips. We just didn’t want a repeat of the Snow White thing. But this time, the kids were a little older and we (I) kept reading about how great the show was. UOG called it the best Disney nightime show in all the parks. I had high expectations. Yep. Again.
So it was settled. We were going to Fantasmic. And that’s final.
We were excited about our night and couldn’t wait to get to MGM.
We hop on the bus, make our way over to MGM and are pleased to see that it seemed pretty empty, considering we were, after all, in a Disney park.
We have just enough time before our ADR to check out the park a little and snap some pics before we head to Mama Melrose. It feels a little gusty out and we welcome the breeze for a change. Nice. Very nice.
We head over to Mama Melrose and find there is a little bit of a wait. I just love this place. I read somewhere awhile back that it was a hidden gem at MGM. I have to agree. Their caesar salad alone is worth the trip.
We don’t have to wait long. They call our name and lead us to our seats. Because we are on the Fantasmic Dining Package, there is a set menu. I was a little hesitant when I heard this, but not to worry. There was plenty to choose from. I finally decide on the Wood Fired Chicken Pasta dish and the only reason I mention this dish by name was that it was hands down the best thing I ate on our whole trip. Really, I made a glutton out of myself with this one. I was full long before I put down my fork. Ugghhhh. I could not eat one more bite. Nothing. Except maybe a little desert.
I mentioned earlier the fact that before we left, we had been living off MREs and PB&Js for a little while. In the weeks following Katrina, I lost 10 pounds. We all lost weight. I think it was all just a combination of all the manual labor we were doing, sweating everything out that we were putting in, and just plain ole low caloric intake.
But today was a new day. We were now in Disneyworld, with some of the best restaurants around, and we were all making up for it with a passion.
But every action has a reaction, does it not?
All eight of us were consistently miserable that trip.
We popped more Phazyme in those 8 days than we care to count. Even the babies were hurting. I don’t think it was until this meal that we put two and two together and realized the reason we were all so miserable was the same reason we all wanted to wolf down everything around us.
We finish our meal and our wonderful, very Italian looking server gives us the voucher for the reserved section at the Fantasmic stadium. We are told to be at the entrance by Oscar’s Filling Station no later than 7:30 sharp for the 8 p.m. showing of Fantasmic.
“This is only good for tonight’s show” he tells us in a hushed tone as he is looking around over his shoulder “If the show is cancelled, you cannot use this for any other night’s performance. And remember, seven thirty sharp. No later. Capeche?”
I feel like I have just made a deal with the Godfather and he’s gonna come looking for me to do him a favor later on.
We all synchronize our watches as if we are actually going to split up.
We head outside and a gust of wind almost knocks us over. We look up to the sky and realize there is a storm a’brewin.
We are all in agreement that it looks pretty bad. What was it that the Godfather told us about the show being cancelled?
Crap. Can this day get any better?
We walk around the park, looking up at the sky every few minutes and having the same conversation amongst ourselves over and over. It went something like this:
Somebody: Look at that cloud. Aw man, is that a funnel? Do you see that?
Somebody else: I don't know, but it looks bad.
Somebody: They’re gonna cancel. They have to cancel. Somebody’s gonna get struck by lightning.
Somebody else: Yep, I think you may be right. They’re gonna cancel.
We check our watches and realize we have a little time to kill before we have to be at the Rendezvous Point. We decide to hide out from the weather for a bit and duck into the Muppets 3D show.
I’m sorry but at the risk of being labeled a total dweeb, I have to say that we just LOVE this show. It’s not so much the actual show that’s so funny, it’s the preshow that gets us. It just cracks us up everytime. DH and I walk around the house for a month after seeing it going “Hello, my name is Mickey
Mouse and welcome to my
park…..” and cracking each other up. Yes, I know. I’ve said it before. We are pathetic.
As the show is ending, we check our (synchronized) watches.
Here we go again. Late as usual.
We grab our strollers and head towards the front. The wind is whipping around the buildings and the sky is getting darker and darker. We Run Walk the entire length of MGM from one end to the other. Good Googly Goo, that sucker's big.
We finally make it to Oscar’s in the nick of time.
By this point, it has started to rain. I scramble to get our rain gear out and put it on. The whole time I am thinking it is just a waste of effort, and that there is no use to walk all the way to the amphitheatre just to have them cancel it anyway.
We pass a CM and DH asks him straight up if he thinks they will cancel the show. The CM tells him that he has seen them go through with the show in weather conditions worse than this. He assures us the storm is high up in the atmosphere (?) and will pass over pretty quickly. We will see. It will not affect us much.
Apparently he moonlights as a meteorologist.
So we make our way in and all slide down one long, wet metal seat together. We pick a seat near the back just in case one of us is struck by lightning and we need to make a quick exit. Seriously, we could see it popping all around us but the weird thing was that it really did look like it was high up in the atmosphere. Really freaky looking. I half way expected a Close Encounters of the Third Kind ship to swoop in and start playing those five little notes.
And then the announcements start.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, due to current weather conditions, tonight’s showing of Fantasmic may be cancelled or delayed. Thank you for your patience.”
The mere fact that they were thanking us for our patience before we actually had to muster some up was not a good sign.
If we heard this announcement once, we heard it 20 times that night.
The rain was off and on.
The rain comes down, we put the ponchos on. Rain stops, kids whine about being hot. Mama says keep them on. Dad says “But the kids are hot”. Mama gives in and takes them off. Rain starts again. Kids scream that they are now hot and wet and why did you take them off. Mama screams that she wants to be on a deserted island all by herself with no other people around her while she gets a 90 minute Swedish massage and sips a Pina Colada.
Every time they would start the announcement, “Ladies and Gentlemen…..” we just knew they were about to cancel. Or start. Truth is, we had no idea what they were gonna do. But we did know there was a 50/50 chance something was gonna happen.
Or not happen.
Anyway, about 20 minutes after 8, the show finally started. Everyone cheered. Partly because they were excited to see the show and partly because no one had been struck by lightning yet. Or bodysnatched.
The show was pretty awesome. I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this one, but I kept comparing it to Illuminations. Don’t get me wrong, I did like Fantasmic a lot, and I understand that they are two totally different types of shows and should just be judged on their own merits, but nothing compares to Illuminations for me. Nothing. There. I’ve said it.
A few of the parts were a little scary for DD. She tucked her head under DH’s arm a couple of times. Plus she looked up and noticed that the exact same lightning rod…uhm, I mean seat we were sitting on just so happened to be sporting a banner of the witch from Snow White. And then the witch just so happened to show herself on stage in all her twisted, evil glory at that very same second. It was like the Queen of Evil jumped right off that banner into 200 foot tall flesh in an instant. Really freaked the girl out.
Anyway, after we got home, I found the music from Fantasmic on a website and downloaded it onto my cellphone. Pathetic, right? DS wants to hear it all the time. Anyway, our friends were blown away and I think this was the favorite thing they did on the trip.
I really liked the movies on the water and although I did snap photos of these, I will spare you the eye agony and post some that actually came out halfway decent, considering the fact that we were 8 miles from the stage.
After the show was over, we make our way back out the way we came. We pass the meteorologist on our way out. He looks over at us with a smug grin and says “Huh? ..did I call it or what? Huh? Huh? Who’s the man? Who’s the man?”
Yeah, yeah, you’re the man. Whatever.
We make it back to POR just as the bottom falls out.
We all collapse into bed. We have all had a day and are glad to be back in our little cocoon. Man, that day seemed to last, like, for a week, didn’t it? Sweet dreams.
Up Next: Bet you've never used a fanny pack for THIS before... 
You should see the barmaids in this game. Yikes. No wonder I can't get him to pay any attention to me! 
You crack me up. You need to write a trip report. I swear I'd read it. So sorry, but with the Backpack Fiasco, I didn't take any pictures during that time. But hey, I guess I should have, huh? I should have taken pics of everybody we passed with a blue stroller and red backpack. They could have been entered into evidence at the Disney County Lockup for Stroller Thieves.
Most definitely. Just don't leave it in your backpack. 
Hope your DGD at least got her autograph book back. 
just to name a few of the words that come to mind. Thanks for the laughs! 
! Plus it's not even finished yet, so you bet I'm subscribing! I love all your pictures and can't wait to go curl up and read your report in full. A great trip report is one of my favorite things, so thank you in advance and keep writing please 
I think, but I had to comment on your trip report. I am sick as a dog in bed 
but laughing my sick behind off at your report! You have captured so much of what we went through when we were there Oct '05 at PORS...mind you, not the scare with your little one's foot. I remember having to bring breakfast back to our room in Alligator Bayou at 6:30 in the morn just to avoid the herds gathering at the corral 
Love ya mean it! Can't believe I got two men setting themselves on fire! How cool is that? 
