He said...
From a logical standpoint, I guess theres part of me that can understand why so many of our friends just dont understand our fascination with Walt Disney World. Why would any sane person pay what you have to pay to go to the World as much as we do? Why would someone go pay $3 for a Large coke? Why would you go pay $2 for a bottle of water? Why would you pay over $400 for an Annual Pass that will just cause you to spend even more money to go? From a certain standpoint, it doesnt make sense. Until you toss in the Magic Factor. There is something very special about experiencing the Disney Magic. Someone said in their comments about how most people dont ever experience the kind of magic that we have been blessed to experience almost every time we go. Already on this trip we have been treated super! Has everything gone right? No. But Disney Magic hearing Wesley cackle when riding Big Thunder Mountain and Test Track; watching him eat up the attention from Princess Aurora; feeling him bounce on my shoulders like a puppy wagging his tail when Belle blows him a kiss from the stage. That, friends, is why we go. Is it all about Wesley? No. It makes us feel good too. Thats why we go. Thats why we overlook the scoffers. Thats why we save and save just so well have enough money. Cause Disney makes it special. And we love it. Little did we know that one of the most magical moments weve had was to come this day in the Magic Kingdom.
Our day started early. We love watching the park opening at the Magic Kingdom. Its just a neat little piece of entertainment. The Mayor comes out, fires up the crowd. Then comes the Main Street Dancer people. Then comes the train with Mickey and the rest of the gang. Every time the countdown gets to 0 and the paper explodes over the crowd, I catch a tear. I know. Im cheesy. But as I said to open this post, I dont care. I love it!
Our first task was to find a character attendant or someone that could take a little package backstage to the Cinderellabration cast. They had created so much magic for us, and Wesley wanted to draw them each a picture. Rhonda put a very neat little gift bag together with a rose for all the princesses and put Wesleys pictures in as well. We made our way to the front of the castle and an attendant was standing out front. We gave her the bag and asked if she would please deliver it backstage to the cast. She looked a bit confused, but promised to deliver it for us. We got a little worried that perhaps she might just throw it away, but we trusted that it would get done.
Surprisingly enough, the park was seemingly empty as youll see in the pictures Ill post later. We headed straight for the Haunted Mansion, as this has become one of Wesleys favorites. We got in the stretching room and stood right under the lady with the umbrella. As the door opened, we took off. We may very well be wrong, but we think that we were the very first riders of the day! Rhonda and I looked at each other and laughed thinking that Mel would be jealous!
We wanted to be there for the first Cinderellabration show and the last show of the day, so we started meandering our way back towards the castle. On the way, we stopped by the locks in Liberty Square. Again, we were amazed at the emptiness of the parks. We made our way to the castle and got a spot right up front. And waited. The show began as it always does. As each princess came out and started waving to the kids, I kid you not, every one of them said hello to Wesley and blew him a kiss. Then it was time for Belle to come out she is a special Belle. To us. Ever since we had the blessing of getting to go back stage last January, this Belle has remembered Wesley remembered his name. When we got to meet her, she was actually playing Aurora that day. But shes been Belle every other time. Anyway, when she came out, she blew kisses, waved almost exclusively at Wesley. Oh yeah, and Rhondas Beast prince was there. I had to pick her tongue up off the ground and wipe off the dust particles. Anyway, throughout the show, which we really liked by the way, the dancing was as good as ever and the show was really neat. But at the end is when one of our most magical moments ever, happened.
If youll remember the show, right at the end the princesses line up and wave at the crowd. Well, they did that as normal. But at one point at the same time, they all stepped back, turned right to Wesley and blew him a kiss. Rhonda got a picture that well post after while. It was so neat. I know it sounds silly, but to have all 5 princesses do it at once was just so dadgum cool. Wesley said, They were talking to just me! He knew it. And he loved it! He smiled sooooo big! Rhonda and I both caught a tear. I know it sounds silly, but may I remind you I dont care! We were sad that the show was ending. We were happy that the cast had seemingly gotten our little gift, and knew how much we appreciated them. It was a special moment.
After the show we hoofed it over to do Pirates of the Caribbean. Would you believe we walked on? Everyone was going to the left line, and no one was going right though it was open. So we took a gamble and it paid off. No one was on the right side. The boat was sitting there waiting on us! Way cool!
As we came out, we happened upon the How to be a Pirate show. We didnt get to watch the whole thing, but I gotta tell you, the guy who plays Captain Jack Sparrow had it down. He obviously wasnt Johnny Depp, but he had the mannerisms down! Well look forward to seeing the whole show maybe next week when we go back, but for now, it wet our whistle enough to want to see the whole thing.
After the show we used our Fastpasses that our Wendy had given us in earlier in the year and rode the Jungle Cruise. Wesley has wanted to do this for a while and the line was always too long. But, since we had fastpasses, we didnt have an excuse. Some funny things happened while we were waiting to get on. There was a HUGE group of Jewish folk who were in line right ahead of us. However, it became pretty obvious that most of them did not understand English. As they got in the boat, several of them just started hiking it over the boxes that serve as the barrier between one side of the boat and another. The boat captain and the folks on the dock were telling them to stop, but they didnt. They just kept climbing. Finally the cast members just said, Whatever and let them on. We got on the 3rd boat with some of them. I soon realized that it wouldnt matter if they understood English or not. Frankly, Im not certain our boat captain spoke English. The speaker system on our boat was so metallic sounding and distorted that we didnt understand a single word of the corny jokes the entire trip. If Disney is going to keep this ride, and I know its a historic piece of Disney magic they really need to fix the speakers on these boats!
We had an ADR at Liberty Tree and were going to meet a friend named Meredith. Lunch was really good and we had a good time visiting with her. She had to get to work, so she left right after lunch, but said she would get her lunch break before long and suggested that she could meet back up with us for a bit later.
While we were eating we got a phone call from YetanotherJen saying that she and Master Gracie were in the park. We were hoping to get to meet them. We arranged to meet them in front of the castle. It was not hard to spot Paul, hes a tall red-headed guy, and was very easy to spot over the crowd. They were both very nice! Its really kinda neat when you think about it that all of these folks called Maelstromers have become such friends, that we look forward to getting to meet each other. Maybe its because only Disney nuts can understand Disney nuts. I dont know. But we were so glad to get to meet them. Im assuming they wont mind us posting pictures, but well wait to ask them when they get back home before we do. We stayed with them for a little while and had our pictures taken by the Photopass people.
Next we rode the Barnstormer which is my ride with Wesley. Its a long story as to why, and this post has gotten so long already, so Ill save the details but I look forward to riding this with him every time! After it was over, my cell phone rang it was Meredith. She had checked in, but now had her long break and so she came back to the park and hung out with us a bit. I staked out our spot for the parade while Rhonda, Wesley, and Meredith rode Big Thunder Mountain. They came back, and Meredith had to report for duty. We bade her adieu and arranged to see her when we go back next week. Shell be spending the day with us at some point then. That should be loads of fun!
This would be our first experience seeing the new parade. I must say I am a bit disappointed. Im sure it will probably grow on us. But as best we could tell there wasnt that much different from the old parade. Most of the floats were the same. They had swapped some characters around, and changed the choreography. But thats about it. Frankly, at this point I dont like it. The music wasnt near as catchy to me. And there were some odd things in it too. First, Captain Hook and the pirates come walking down the street dancing merrily. Now, does that sound like Captain Hook to you? Me either. Then when the villains float comes by, Maleficent, the Wicked Queen from Snow White, and whoever else was on there were singing and doing the choreography as well. It seemed so out of character. Im sure well see it a couple of times next week, but it wont be something I will look forward to, Im afraid. Not like I did the old one.
We still had a lot of time before the last Cindy show, so we saw Philharmagic and rode Big Thunder Mountain again. Then had dinner at Pecos Bills. During dinner, we saw something we had not seen before. The cast came streaming out of the kitchen area clapping their hands. For a moment I thought that perhaps I had been transported to Bennigans! It turns out that they were going to award the honorary sheriff of the day. Some little boy and his brother had been chosen! It was pretty cool. They may do this all the time, but it was our first time having seen it. Cool piece of magic for that little boy!
After dinner, we headed towards Main Street. We checked the Emporium to see if maybe they had some of the CARS cars. Surprisingly enough they didnt have much. Here in Georgia, the stores cant keep them on the shelves. But down there, so far all weve seen is 2 very small cases of Cars products.
We caught the last of the next to the last Cindy show from way in the back. I know Ive read on here that a lot of people dont like this show. Maybe its cause of the experience weve had with the cast. Maybe its cause were pretty easy to please. But we liked this show. I know everything has to come to an end. The Happiest Celebration on Earth is over and I know this show has to go. But we liked it, and I wanted that said just for the record.
We then headed up to the chain to secure our spot for the very last show. And its a good thing we did. It was obvious that many folks knew this was the last one. Right in the center of the stage a large group of former cast gathered. We recognized several of the faces. The guy who was Aladdin the day we met the cast was there, as was the Cinderella. It was neat seeing them in street clothes. And interesting as well! Most of them are so young. Maybe Im just getting old, but they seemed so young!
As it got close to show time, some clouds had formed right over the castle, and we actually felt several raindrops. We just knew that they couldnt not do the last show. At least we were hoping they wouldnt. Some kids behind us started chanting, We want Cinderella, we want Cinderella! The cast group picked it up and it got a bit loud. Not long after that the music started and a big cheer went up from the crowd led by the former cast. As the show started, you could see the joy on the cast as they watched their friends perform. They sang along and encouraged the cast. You could tell the cast was playing to their friends, though I must say that Jasmine, and then Belle, both made big efforts to acknowledge Wesley. At first, I was a little disappointed that most of the cast played mostly to the old cast. But as I thought about it, I dont blame them. This was their last performance and these were their friends. After all the hours of performing in the hot sun, and the cold, they deserved it. This last show was all about them and their friends. It had nothing to do with us, or anyone else there. It was for them. And they did it great! Congratulations cast. All of you are awesome and we thank you.
Since we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us, and it was after 7 PM, we knew it was time to go. So we did. But theres something about leaving the Walt Disney World Resort knowing that you will be back in less than 2 weeks for 2 weeks that just makes it okay.
Disney Rocks. I cant wait to get back.
Blessings!
MarkyMark
