After leaving the cute little sink, Stitch and I headed out to the Contemporary bus stop to wait for a bus to Animal Kingdom. We were so excited about riding Expedition Everest! We grabbed a bench and began to wait. And wait. And wait. I was ready to get to a park and ride so I was officially out of my ‘easy going, let's go with the flow and relax' mode.
Something was up with the busses that day. There were a lot of people waiting for a Downtown Disney bus and you could hear the buzz that they were getting irritated. A bus pulled up and sat for a few minutes and no one got on it. I can’t remember where it was going, but no one needed it. So, the bus driver closed the doors, pulled off and flicked his sign to read ‘Downtown Disney’ before he got out of sight. Oh boy, some CM heads were going to roll. There were some highly peeved people. A mom stomped hastily into the Contemporary to complain. Pretty soon, we had a CM out there with us on his walkie talkie trying to make things right. I just kept thinking, maybe I should pretend to be going to DD because what if he gives everyone a Year of the Million Dreams prize due to the poor service? Come on, just 'dream' us and everyone will be happy. Give us all golden fast passes to every park and we’ll be skippy again.
Nada.
We continued to wait at least ten more minutes and finally our AK bus arrived. The poor DD people, who were there way before us, were still waiting. Bless them.
After making stops at the Polynesian, the water parks, four more resorts and tim buck two we were FINALLY at Animal Kingdom. I felt like Mr. Frick. I wasn’t feeling the Disney bus love. It stinking took forever. It kind of reminded me of the days when my mom would be driving me to a birthday party or the skating rink and we would have to stop at the store for bread and run by the drug store for a prescription before we could get to the fun. I would be in the front, unbuckled & riding on the armrests mind you, freaking out every time we stopped. Being unfamiliar with the bus sytem, I was freaking out every time we stopped.
Stitch and I entered the park and headed straight for Expedition Everest. We grabbed a set of Fastpasses and got in the 30 minute line. This was our first time waiting in line because we had Fastpasses when we rode it last year. We loved checking out the ‘exhibits’ and Stitch was a true believer in the Yeti by the time we were through. He was freaked I tell ya.
There aren’t many feelings better than being next in line for your favorite Disney ride. We got giddy as the coaster pulled up to get us. We hopped in and I stored my bag and sunglasses in the pouch in front of us. At the last minute, I whipped out my camera. Stitch flipped.
“Mom put that up.”
“Mom what are you doing?”
"Dad just bought that camera and you are going to lose it! Put it in your bag!”
“NO! I don’t want you to take my picture.“
“Mom! PUT THE CAMERA UP!”
We started up the first small climb.
My boy was losing it because I still had the camera out. I really wanted to snap a shot at the top of the big peak, but I decided not to stress him out any more than I already had so I put the camera up.
We thoroughly enjoyed our date with the Yeti! I think that EE is my favorite roller coaster of all time. Disney did it right.
Stitch and I headed to Dino Land to enjoy another ride that we had never, ever ridden. Dinosaur! We got in line and enjoyed looking at the Dino bones. My phone rang and I answered it to hear a very excited Mr. Frick on the other end. Remember, he took Lil Frick to ride Test Track. When they stepped into the holding room to watch the video, they got dreamed instead! Wooo hoooty! I got so dang excited because I was hoping they scored something huge! But, it was just a pair of AYOMD Mickey Mouse ears. To Mr. Frick and Lil Frick, that was huge! They were so very excited! It was cute and I was happy for them. I shared the news with Stitch and we made our way into the bowels of the worst ride I think Disney has to offer.
Whoa. Dinosaur was as stinky as a three day old port-a-potty at LaLaPalooza. What is the joy in that ride? Stitch, who isn’t scared of anything except for me losing my camera on EE, was terrified. No offense to all of you who like it, but we just didn’t find the fun in it. He still has a sweet spot in his heart for Dinosaurs in general though.
We headed towards the carnival games and caught the trampoline act on the way. It was pretty awesome. Stitch played two games and won both times. He was absolutely beaming. My phone rang and it was our friend “A.H.” from back home. She and her family were at Disney as well and we had plans to meet that night at
MNSSHP. Funny thing, they were in line to ride Dinosaur. I warned them. We confirmed our plans to meet and Stitch and I were off to cool down on Kali River Rapids.
We love this ride. We had to wait for a while to board our boat, but once we did we were thrilled to get a chance to get a little mist of dirty water on us. Oh my, did we ever get way more than we bargained for. We ended up going down the ramp backwards and a semi-truck load of Kali water was dumped on us. We had ridden this ride two times before the previous year and we barely got wet. This time, it was a different story. When the ride was over and we made our way out to the park, I became ‘that girl‘ and people were staring.
“Look at ‘that girl‘, she is soaked.”
“See ‘that girl‘? She must have just gotten off Kali so let’s not ride it.”
“Can you believe how wet ’that girl’ is?”
“Did ‘that girl’ jump out of the boat and go for a swim?”
“Hey, check out ‘that girl’s’ panties through her wet shorts.”
Ugh.
Stitch and I went to the restroom and literally squeezed out water from our clothes. Nice.
We wandered aimlessly around the park trying to figure out what to do next. The more I walked, the heavier my clothes got and I felt like they were hanging off of me because they were so darn wet. Here is one bright moment in the trip where I was glad I had left my tennis shoes at home.
We came across this little act and stopped to watch.
They were really good!
Stitch and I decided to head on back to the hotel because we were miserable. We were so miserable we couldn’t even ride EE again even though we had Fastpasses in our pockets. That is pretty miserable.
I told Stitch to be on the lookout for someone to give our Fastpasses to. We found a couple with a little tot and passed some pixie dust onto them. They had no idea what EE was, but we urged them to try it. Hopefully they did.
We stopped in the gift shop by the exit and bought Stitch some shades before heading to the bus stop.
Compare the color of his shorts to the picture I posted earlier. That will give you a hint as to how soaked we were. We found a bench to park it on at the bus stop and waited for the BC bus. As we sat there waiting, we talked and talked. It was sweet. We had really had a fun time together.
A sweet little family joined us at the bus stop. They had three boys, two healthy and one with some physical handicaps and confined to a wheelchair. He looked to be close to Stitch’s age and boy did this bother him. He felt so bad for the little guy. He seemed to be having the time of his life though. The whole family seemed happy and at ease and they were all having fun….even at the bus stop. I’m sure Walt would be touched.
The bus ride back to the Beach Club took a whopping 30 minutes. I know, because for 30 minutes I froze my hide off. Being soaking wet on an air-conditioned bus is not my idea of fun. We were stopping by the store, the pharmacy, the water parks, the ten other resorts and tim buck two again. We hopped off a stop early at the Yacht club. We walked by the pool to find Mr Frick and lil Frick in what my boys like to call the Toilet Bowl at the BC. You know, it is that swirly area that sends you round and round after you splash down from the slide. Lil Frick was on his daddy’s back and he was having the time of his life. Stitch was already so wet that he took off his shirt and hopped in the toilet bowl with them and I headed to the room to change into my swimsuit.
We had big plans for the MNSSHP that night. Again, we ditched our formal dining plans (this time it was Crystal Palace) in favor of lounging by the pool a little longer. We ordered dinner from Hurricane Hannah’s and let the boys swim. We showered and dressed in a jiffy and the boys threw on their Halloween costumes for the evening. Now if you remember, we had left our car at the Contemporary so we hailed a taxi and got to the Magic Kingdom in no time. On the way over, we saw a rainbow.
We get excited over rainbows.
I think we arrived around 6:00 and we had no troubles getting in. Last year we arrived at 7:00 and it was dreadful. We love us some MNSSHP. Tonight was the very first Halloween party of the season and boy people were decked out! Seeing everyone in their costumes is a riot! It felt like it was 110 degrees, yet people were in full gowns and pants and long sleeves for pirate outfits. Sorry, but I thought they were nuts. Our goal was to have our boys dressed up, but not so overdone that they would be hot or handing us big hairy masks to carry all night…so we came up with this.
Can you guess what they are?
Yep, we were hanging with two cool Sk8tR Boyz.
We snapped this little beauty right as we entered the park.
We took our FREE double stroller for the evening and headed towards Adventureland. We asked a CM to take our picture with the castle in the background.
Apparently he doesn't double as a Photopass photographer. At least we'll never forget what a Disney stroller looks like.
I had saved some room for a DoleWhip so I indulged while the guys took a ride on the magic carpets.
Stitch got his picture with these guys while Lil Frick stayed behind to dig into my Dole Whip. The boy loves sweets, and I guess they trump Disney characters.
We really wanted to ride the Jungle Cruise, but they shut it down for the party. Bummer. We headed on over to Pirates and after that, we made our way over to Little Thunder Mountain. Yes, that is right. Little Thunder Mountain. Lil Frick didn’t want to ride Big Thunder Mountain, but he was very interested in riding LTM. Mr. Frick had told him all about LTM and boy he was ready to ride. We left our back pack full of our important stuff on top of the stroller and hopped in the very short line. We walked on! Booyah! No time for lil Frick to freak out. He was a brave boy again and Mr. Frick and I exchanged a nervous glance as the train pulled out. This was either going to kill the night or make for a good time.
Fortunately, our boy LOVED it! We got off the ride and he wanted to get right back on so we did, leaving our backpack and stroller in the same peaceful little spot it was in. We were on a high I tell ya! The park was empty, we were all having a blast and Lil Frick had conquered another fear! NOTHING could rain on our parade. Or so we thought. We boarded our train and took off again. Half way through, we discovered why we will NEVER EVER buy MNSSHP tickets again.