Happy summer everyone!!! Can you believe that it's June already? 2007 is halfway over. Wow - time does fly.
So we are now nearing the end of our trip but we have one last day of fun. We have chosen to go back to the Magic Kingdom for the day. We breifly toyed with going back to Epcot for a few hours but decided that it would be easier to keep it to one park.
In honor of our last day DD wore her new Mickey and Minnie ponytail holders:
Surprisingly, after our late night at Epcot everyone woke up in a good mood. Because we were planning to stay out late we took our time getting ready and had a good breakfast at ASMu. Gotta love those Mickey waffles!! Then we headed for the bus stop. Now all week we have been lucky. We never once waited longer than 5 minutes for a bus. All of that came crashing down on us. The line to the Magic Kingdom was unusually long. DH and I thought it must be because a bus would be around the corner any minute so we joined the line to wait....and wait...and
wait some more. It was hot and the kids were getting restless. I eyed the line to Epcot...
A TIP I've learned over the years...You can take the bus to Epcot, get on the monorail to the TTC and get to the Magic Kingdom. It takes a little longer but at least you are moving. Unfortunately the line to Epcot was really long also - busses were coming for that one though. And a bus showed up for Animal Kingdom, and then for Downtown Disney. And then another bus for Animal Kingdom and another for Downtown Disney. And we are STILL waiting.
By now a lot of people had left the line so we were very close to the front. Convinced that a bus HAD to be on it's way we stayed in line (The line to Epcot was still long). FINALLY after 30 minutes of waiting - the couple in front of us had been there for an hour!!! - the bus showed up. The driver was very apologetic. Something had happened to one of the busses and they were short on the route. That's great but why couldn't they tell someone at ASMu so that they could communicate that to all of us standing in the very hot sun with very hot children?
But we were determined not to let this ruin our last day. DH and I stayed in very good spirits considering. But then the driver started letting wheelchairs on. Now I may get flamed here and I will completely understand but most of us in line were complaining of the same thing. Most of us had been in line a much longer time than the families with wheelchairs and yet they are able to go right up to the bus and get right on. In this case they loaded up 2 wheelchairs in the official space and then 2 more families who folded up the wheelchairs and the people walked on. I completely understand that wheelchairs are a necessity, but I do think that they should have to stand in the same line as everyone else. By the time all of the wheelchairs were loaded and all of the family members 1/2 of the bus was filled. And remember most of the line had been there for more than 30 minutes. It is so frustrating. Luckily we were in the front of the line so we did get on but there were some VERY unhappy people who did not make the bus. And especially were not happy when the driver promised that another bus would be there in less than 10 minutes. I don't think they believed him.
Ok - I'm done complaining about that. I apologize to anyone who was one of the wheelchair families I just had to get that off my chest.
We finally got to the Magic Kingdom. I wanted to stop at Guest Relations for a minute. The day before we had bought the kids the water spray bottles - remember the souped up windex bottles? Within a few hours of having them both kids had dropped them on the ground and both battery cases broke. So now the cool fan didn't work and let's face it - what fun it a spray bottle without a fan? I had forgotten to ask at ASMu so I thought that I might be able to get some tape from Guest Relations so get them fixed. I'm pretty sure this was an unusual request because the CM working there gave me a very strange look. But she took the bottles and said, "I'll see what I can do" 5 minutes later she came back with 2 brand new Mickey spray bottles with working fans and ice cold water!!! No charge..just a "Here you go - this should make the kids happy again!" You bet it will - THANK YOU Guest Relations!
So - here's another tip USE GUEST RELATIONS!! They are great. At Animal Kingdom we went in after getting a tip from another CM
(Another tip - talk to the CM's!!! They know secrets!) She said that they still had some buttons left over from the Pirate and Princesses party earlier in the year. We went in and asked and have 2 very special buttons.
So now we had new sprayers and......it was time for lunch. We headed to Tomorrowland to use up our last counter service credits. Lunch was good - DH and I got a laugh when another Mom was following her young son around and said to him about our children "Look at how nice those children are sitting and eating...you need to sit like them." I laughed and said - "Don't use our kids as examples - you didn't see them an hour ago."
It is funny though. Each time DH and I thought our kids were the worst behaved ones in all of WDW all we had to do is walk in the bathroom. That's when you realize that your kids are just the same as everyone else's. One thing this trip taught me: Patience!!!! Traveling with a 4 & 2 yr old is not a walk in the park!!!
So, now we've eaten, it's 12:30 and we have yet to go on one ride.
Oh well, we also learned flexibility on this trip.
DS requested to ride the People mover (ok, ok, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority) again. So we headed over to do that. We thought we would try to talk him into trying out Buzz Lightyear again but the trauma of our first day was still to fresh in DS's mind. Then we decided to walk over to the Haunted Mansion. This was another one on DS's list for the last day. Most of the rides in Fantasyland were also but it was really crowded in that part of the park so we decided to wait it out.
On the way we changed directions because we remembered that we hadn't done the Tiki Room yet. DH really likes this. A show was just starting when we got there so we walked right in. I like the Tiki Room - I liked a little more as the original version but at least they kept the song. All together now
....In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room, In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room, all the birds have words and the flowers croon in the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room.....
Since we were in the neighborhood we also rerode the Aladdin ride. DS was determined to get DH and I with the camel spray again. And, he did. I hate that camel.
From there we walked down to the Haunted Mansion and DD fell asleep in the stroller. DS & I hit a snack cart for some Mickey ice cream bars and a popcicle for him and we took a break in the shade. We noticed that both the heat and the crowd level were high - the highest we had seen all week.
DH and DS went to ride Haunted Mansion and I watched the parade from afar. I also spent some time people watching. That's always a lot of fun - one of my favorite things to do.
By the time they were back from the Haunted mansion DD was awake and we decided to check out the crowd in Fantasyland. We were banking that people had left for the afternoon after the parade. Well we had been lucky earlier in the week. We were able to get on It's a Small World again which was DD's favorite but the lines for Pooh and Peter Pan were over an hour. The fast pass for Peter Pan was already at 8:45 - we grabbed some before they ran out. This was the one ride that BOTH DD and DS wanted to reride.
Since it was hot we went over to Ariel's grotto to let everyone cool off. DD didn't just cool off - he got SOAKED!!!
We let them play for awhile. It was a little crowded for DD so we used the time to go over to Tinkerbell's treasures. DD fell in love with Tink on this trip. She spent a very happy 20 minutes wandering this store.
By this time a very wet DS and DH had found us. The show in front of Cinderella's castle was going to start soon and I really wanted to see it. We decided to get a good place. We got right in front of the castle so both kids could see. Both kids really liked the show - it was sooo cute to hear DD call out all of the character's names as they came out.
We had an ADR at The Plaza but it wasn't until 6:45 - It was just around 6:00 but we decided to check in anyway. Both kids were hungry and we were hoping that we could get in early. As we were waiting I snapped this pic:
The kids menu at the Plaza is great! DS got 2 mini hamburgers and fruit, DD got a Mickey PB&J with fruit (grapes and a banana). The menu for adults is mostly sandwiches and burgers - it was all good though. Of course the entire reason to go there is for the sundaes! The kids each got the mickey cone - a scoop of ice cream with mickey ears and a sugar cone hat. They both enjoyed them:
After dinner we decided to do some shopping on Main Street. I hadn't had time to look in the shops yet and I still had some souveniers that I wanted to get. We shopped for awhile and then noticed that people were already lining up for the Electrical Parade. It was pretty early but I really wanted a good seat for this. It's one of my very favorite things. So I convinced DH to park the stroller and then we could alternate going in the shops. This was perhaps not exactly my best decision during this trip. You see, the kids didn't want to sit in the stroller. They had no idea what they were waiting for and didn't think they should sit anymore. DD was pretty easy to amuse with crayons and her autograph book. DS was slightly harder. I gave him the camera to play with...he took a picture of...His pirate jibbittz:
A lovely picture of me:
And...his masterpiece...my foot:
Don't you think he has a career ahead of him? So, finally, after an hour of waiting the parade finally started and I had the moment that I wanted. Watching the kids faces was so much fun but, looking back, I definetly should have found a different place to watch the parade. I should researched best places to watch this parade on the DIS. But I didn't - so my tip to you is
RESEARCH THIS PARADE...GO WITH A PLAN OF WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO SIT AND HOW LONG YOU WANT TO WAIT!
After the parade we fought our way back to Fantasyland. We had 1 hour until the park closed and we had a mission. We had to ride Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, and get DS a pirate sword (his bribe for waiting for the parade - I know but it works
)
Luckly the line for Pooh wasn't too long so we jumped on that. When we ran over to Peter Pan to cash in our fast passes. As we went on we warned the kids - this is it - the last ride. Everyone say ALL. (That's a think in our family - when you get to the last thing - birthday, christmas present, etc everyone says "ALL". yep, that's us)
We we went on this one DH said - "Check out the mermaids - I think one is painted to be Ariel". He's right - one of the mermaids DOES look like Ariel.
Now we have completed our rides but we have one last mission. Find DS a pirate sword before the shops close. We had to get over to Adventureland but shops were closing quickly. So, we strapped both kids in, told them to hold on to everything they owned (DS was yelling that at the top of his lungs) and ran. I haven't ran through Magic Kingdom in .....years. It was soooo funny. DH and I were laughing so hard. But - we did make it. DS was able to get his pirate sword, that goes with his Make your own Pirate hat, to complete his look.
So, it was over, we slowly walked back to Main Street. People were lining up to watch Wishes. We had already seen it earlier in the week so we thought that we would beat the crowds to the busses. But then we hit the gift stores - I had a few more purchases - so we were actually walking out right at the end of the fireworks. DD was NOT happy that we didn't stay to watch them. DH was carrying her and she was looking back yelling. "Sit down, we sit down and watch fireworks" Don't feel bad for her - she did get to see most of them.
And then it was back to the bus and back to the resort. It was late and I had to pack. The magical express bus was picking us up at 10:45 the next morning. DS was wired and found Power Rangers on TV - He was able to get the remote away from Mickey:
And then he dressed up in all of his Pirate stuff:
We finally got everyone to sleep, I got everything packed and we were ready to go.
The next morning we had breakfast and DH spent the last of our snack credits. We had lots of cookies and rice crispie bars for the plane! We waited for the bus. There was a little panic when we realized that we had been waiting in the wrong place but we made it on to the bus and were headed for the airport.
The magic was over....for this time.
We are already planning our next trip for 2009. This one will be an extended family trip with DH's family for his parents 40th wedding anniversary. I've been elected Official trip planner. That should be interesting
I'm going to need LOTS of help. I'm so glad I have the DIS!!!
I hope you all have enjoyed reading this - it's been a lot of fun to write and relive the memories. DS and DD may forget but DH and I will remember this first trip with them forever.
Oh, my gosh - I have to apologize now to whoever was staying in the room next to us at ASMusic on 5/15/2007 at around 8:30 in the morning. If you heard screaming - that was my DS. I'm sorry. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed and that's putting it mildly. Normally he is a pretty even tempered little boy - he has temper tantrums sure but I've never experienced this degree before. It was like his evil twin had come in during the night. He didn't want to get dressed and laid on the bed and screamed at the top of his lungs for at least 30 minutes. 
I hoped a hat would at least tame it down. In the process of this the kids found the display of Jibbittz - you know the little things that fit inside the holes of crocs. Now there's a scam - $3.99 - really??? But of course we walked away with 4 of them - significantly less than DS wanted (one of each character). DS decided on a Pirate cross bone (one for each shoe). DD picked Ariel and Tinkerbell. Apparently Tinkerbell is one of the harder ones to find - go figure.
But in our desperation to get the kids to want to be good in the show we made a deal. Ok, we bribed them. They sit good - we'll buy the windex bottle. If not - no deal.
It's my favorite park. DH tolerates it because I like it. I had never been there during the Flower festival. Wow! The sculptures were amazing - I wish I had taken more pictures. Another reason I LOVE EPCOT - it NEVER feels crowded to me. And after our very crowded morning at Animal Kingdom it felt even bigger. Of course that's probably because everyone was over at Animal Kingdom 
but here is one of them)
