**Warning: This chapter is in no way cute, charming, funny or delightful. It even depressed me to write it. I am not this boring in real life. I don't even think I used more than three exclamation marks which is unusual for me. I must now grab a yoohoo.**
I believe I left you hanging with us riding Little Thunder Mountain for the second time and discovering the reason why we will probably never ever buy
MNSSHP tickets again.
Our second whirl on LTMRR had us giddy. The line was so short we walked right on two times in a row, the night had gotten off to a fabulous start and Lil Frick had conquered his roller coaster phobia. If you have ridden BTMRR, you know it has parts where you are inside and outside.
Well, as we came screaming outside from one of the inside parts we were pelted with the hardest and heaviest rain we had ever felt. I mean seriously, what a freaking shocker! We knew the skies looked a bit cloudy, but this business took us by surprise. So, we go from being happy as larks to being massacred by a massive Florida downpour, and the ride was only half way over. Ick. We finished off our journey a little less joyfully and a little more painfully. As you know, the train has to come to a halt before we enter the loading station, and it stopped alright. It stopped and didnt move. Here we were, out in the monsoon sitting on a coaster that wasnt moving. Nice.
Eventually we made it in. Im sure we only sat there for about five seconds but it felt like forever. We unloaded and headed for the exit to be met with a wall of people and a waterfall of rain before us. We stood there for a second and felt deflated. Of all the nights it chose to rain, it happened on or party night. Mr. Frick volunteered to go and get the stroller and our backpack. THE BACKPACK!
Guess where we had left it. Remember this picture?
Note the placement of the backpack.
We were so excited to get Lil Frick on the coaster with the 5 minute wait that we left the backpack on top of the stroller. Niiiiice.
Mr. Frick returned from the storm with one unbelievably soaked backpack. Our cameras, including the brand new one we had just bought for this trip, were in the front pocket of the pack. Dont you know. This will be the reason I will not have any pictures to share with you for awhile.
We were supposed to meet our friends from home, who were also at MNSSHP. They were eating at Tonys when the storm began so they were in a good spot. They called us to let us know they were thinking about ditching the party and heading back to the bar at their resort, the Polynesian, and they really wanted us to join them. This sounded like a WONDERFUL idea to Mr. Frick. But, I reminded him how much money we had paid & how excited we were to be at this party and I didnt want to leave yet.
We waited with about 574 people for about twenty minutes in the exit of BTM. Our friends called us back and asked us to please join them at the Poly. I just couldnt give up and leave the scene yet so I asked Mr. Frick to let us stay. It was crowded and you know my man Mr. Frick doesnt like crowds. We decided to hightail it out of there to look for a gift shop or something. I suggested the Splash Mountain gift shop and off we went.
We made it to the fastpass machines for Splash and that was as far as we could go. It wasnt too crowded and there was a play area for the boys, so that was good. Actually, it was real good because this spot was our home for the next hour. Yeah, you heard me. Hour. We pulled up the weather channel on Mr. Fricks phone and watched the radar to see what was going to happen.
This sucker turned into a full blown, horrific thunderstorm. As we sat on our fake rock near Splash, Mr. Frick was having dreams of sipping a beer and enjoying football on the big screen at the Poly lounge. I was having dreams of strangling the persons neck who thought it was a good idea to not give party goers a rain check if they get washed out. The lightening had become so severe that we were just stuck.
We eventually came up with a plan to try to make it to Mickeys Philharmagic. When the lightening eased up, we donned our pretty ponchos from the dollar store and made our way to Fantasyland. I cant tell you how many puddles the boys jumped in. Soaking wet shoes, that is just skippy.
We made it to Philharmagic without being struck down by lightening and joined the masses inside. Thankfully I had packed a long sleeve shirt for the evening and I pulled it out of the soaking wet backpack to find that it was still kind of dry. It was seriously cold in MP. We were so wet, and we were chilly because they had the AC going. We halfway enjoyed the show and went out to try some more rides in Fantasyland. I have lost my trip report notes you know, so I really cant remember if we even got to ride anything else in Fantasyland. Oops. I think we got to ride Winnie and maybe Peter Pan, and that was it.
When we eventually made it to Buzz, they started Hallowishes and the crowds began to move toward the front of the park. I love Hallowishes and I was ill that we would have to stand in the rain to see it. We opted not to watch and we went ahead with our plans to ride Buzz. We walked on. This was the only highlight of the evening after our first ride on LTMRR. We decided to ride again and again because the place was deserted. We started riding in our own car rather than pairing up and this was a really big thrill for the boys.
After about four rides, Mr. Frick had really had enough and was ready to go. I felt differently. I mean, sure we were wet, sure everyone was now tired and grumpy, BUT we were in a vacant Magic Kingdom! When does that ever happen for us? I wanted to stay there late, in the now misty rain and go gangbusters on these rides that were still open. Mr. Frick kind of did the huff and shook his head and just looked irritated. I reminded him of how much we had paid to be there and how little we had gotten to do. He didnt care. I was seriously pushing my luck, so I decided that if I ever wanted to make it back to Disney again, I needed to let our family leave. Bummer.
Let me wrap this mess up for you and explain why I just dont think I will ever buy special event tickets again.
The price of our four MNSSHP tickets is what drove me to force my family to stay. If we had just been there on a regular park day, where the price of my ticket is lumped into this big package deal where I truly dont know what Im paying to be there, then I would have started running for the exit way before the storm got bad. The stress of wanting to get my monies worth because it was a special event is what kept me there
with the hopes that it would clear up and we would get to move on. The stress of wanting my kids to get to enjoy the party and trick or treat and at least leave with some candy is what kept me there. It just wasnt a very fun night. If I had thrown in the towel and left for the Poly when our friends did, Im sure we would have had a lovely evening. I just couldnt leave knowing that we paid almost $200 to be there and we only rode two rides and didnt get to trick or treat. By gollies that just wasnt sitting well with me. Mr Frick wasnt stressed at all about staying. He didnt care if we didnt get any bang for our buck, but something about me did.
Sure we left with a couple of good memories, but we also left with wet clothes, one ruined camcorder, one ruined brand new camera, a soaking wet backpack, wet feet and a dampened spirit. It rained on our parade, and I didnt like it.
Dont get me wrong, the Halloween party is WONDERFUL but after this night, I just dont think special events at Disney are for me, Im too anal.
If we were to ever go again, I wouldnt buy the tickets until the day of, after checking the weather channel multiple times.
I'm going to try to end this depressing chapter on a happy note. We drove back to the Beach Club because our car was still at the Contemporary....AND, we didn't get lost and drive off of the Disney property this time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!