Trip Highlights/Lowlights

[BrianMonk]

DW -36 (cradle robber)
Me - 35
DD6
DD4
DD2
Grandma & Grandpa - early 60's.

Highlights -

All of Wed, June 9th –

Had 8:30 breakfast at CRT. Our DD4 loved it and wore her Cindy dress. She's a girly girl and had a smile from ear to ear. Our DD6 wore a tinkerbell costume (close as DW would let her get to Peter Pan - her favorite). We think the only reason DD6 wore a costume at all was to please DW. DD2 was her usual moody self. Laughing one minute, crying the next. DD4 had her picture taken with all of the princesses, DD6 no pictures, no way no how. I knew that was coming when I told her we had this breakfast booked. Her response, " Dad, you know I don't like princesses".

Once CRT was over we did MPM, Winnie, PP and the carousel. Got all 4-rides in and headed for the exit. We were walking up Main Street around 10:30 am and had a heck of a time. We had it tougher than Salmon do trying to go against the stream. What a mass of humanity coming right at us.

Got to the FWC - got lubed up and off to TL - I didn't really plan this so we had no clue (unlike the theme parks). Boy the Tidal Wave was a blast. All of us loved it. DD2 would play in the shallow area until she heard the water drop and everyone scream like a little girl. She would then fly to Grandpa to pick her up so she could watch everyone get plastered. DD6 would go with me to about 5'6" of water and when the wave came, I'd throw her up into it and she'd ride it (and then the second wave) into the shallows. After about a dozen times of riding the wave, she got tired of being kicked in the neck and nose and we called it quits.

Then back to FWC for a nap for DD2/4. Later that evening DW, DD4, DD6 and me went to e-night. Got to the MK at 8:20 pm and somehow got primo seats for Spectro right on the planter outside of City Hall. Got our braclets for e-night and settled in for Spectro. The kids were able to stand on the planter and we were next to the rope. Front row seats yet everywhere else was deep in people. Who would have thunk it and we didn't even plan to see Spectro but couldn’t pass up such an opportunity. Great parade.

MK was wonderful. After Spectro instead of fighting the crowd on Main St. we walked all the way through the Emporium to Casey’s Corner and hung a left into Adventureland. There were about 20 of us there total. Got on POC by ourselves and then tried to get on JC. JC was closed for the evening. Caught the last 2/3rds of Wishes and then off to Frontierland.

Rode Splash X 2 and BTMR X 2 the second time BTMR broke down about 25-yards prior to the end. After about 10-15 minutes (and they powered everything down), they let us out of the train and we walked the last bit. Got some free passes for BTMR out of the deal.

Went on HM and then off to SM & Buzz. We all rode Buzz once and then DD6 & me went on SM. At the end of that DD6 wanted to go again which I said fine but you’ll have to go with your mom(share the fun). We got half way to Buzz and DD6 tells me she doesn’t want to ride SM again (1st sign of exhaustion). We eventually find DW & DD4 and ride Buzz again. At the end I had a score of around 2XX,XXX and DD6 had 500, her lowest of the day. She looks at my score and then looks at hers and says, “Dad, mines so little and it’s lower than before.” Her head drops as we get off the ride and onto the people mover and tears start to stream down her face. I give her a hug but it’s no use and she’s very quiet with head hung low so no one notices. She’s exhausted. DD4, who had a great nap, is lively and hungry. So we head over to the Big Turkey leg place and get a couple of pretzels and a pop. After that we head of to the castle to see if any characters are out. They aren’t and it’s here I realize the castle has a clock on it. It’s 1:05 am. WOW, time flew and e-night is over and people are heading to the exits. DD’s pile in the stroller and down Main St. we go. We get to the boat dock and now DD4 has had it as well and is practically sleeping. Both fall asleep on DW’s lap as we wait for the boat. We make it back to the cabin w/o problems and our wonderful day is done.


Misc. Highlights
DD6 is a real theme park lover - Anything a 44" kid was allowed on she went on. Mission: Space; Dinosaur; Space Mountain; ToT; Splash - she loved them all. DD4 loved Little Mermaid (Great show); and Splash and BTMR. She said Splash was, "rockin". I went on all of the above too with the exception of ToT (chicken). Someone had to help grandpa with DD4 & DD2 with our second viewing of Little Mermaid.

Favorite purchases
DD6 - started to collect Disney pins. Uh Oh! Here we go.
DD4 - Princess crown with jewels - she still has many slots to fill
DD2 - Mickey and Minnie spoon & fork set. She was pretend eating with them on the long drive home. She loves them. And her princess shoes. DD2 has had a shoe fetish since she could crawl and she hasn't grown out of it. She's going to be a shoe queen (although not at my expense) until the day she dies...You can take that to the bank.

 

[BrianMonk]

Lowlights

I’m not sure why I’m posting these…….I suppose to get the guilt out.

Taking DD2 on Ellen's Energy Adventure. I knew the Dino's would scare her but I forgot about the movie part. The "Big Bang" explosion had her trying to crawl literally into me. I tried to cover her eyes but she had to peek at all of the noise. Bad Daddy - although this was the only time I had poor judgement with what rides are OK for her.

DD6 decided to climb a palm tree (now were at Clearwater Beach, not Disney). Not like a human but like a monkey. She's a climber and often climbs up basketball poles and works her way over to hang on the rim. Anyway, being from the Midwest climbing trees isn't hazardous (assuming you don't fall). Well after her 3rd try (and having a heck of a time climbing this tree) and getting about 6' up she slips down and says her foot is bleeding. I look at the bottoms of her feet and in the bottom of her toes are about 30 splinters. Some to the point it ripped the skin and others went in deep. I look closely at the tree and man, what a dunce for a dad. Looking at it closely, little points sticking out all over. I never knew. Anyway I pull about 20 out and the remaining 10 are still in her toes now. No infection and she's running around as usual now after a day of slow walking. But...lesson learned for this non-palm tree guy.


Not a lowlight now but at the time it was adventurous to say the least.

We're heading from FWC to CR to see if we can score early Chef Mickey's seats (no PS). As soon as we get to the FWC dock the skies open (around 4:45). We wait for about 30 minutes and the rain slows somewhat. My DW (with DD6/4/2) decides she going to brave the rain. I’m waiting out the rain in the shelter. We'll after they settle in the boat, I can't let DD6/4/2 go across to the CR without me so I join them just prior to the boat leaving. As we're going across the wind picks up and the boat starts to lean. Mind you, there's only our group and the captain. No one else is dumb enough to head out in this storm. The captain then motions to us to all move to the "highside" of the boat and into the rain to help balance the boat. Me and DD2 were already over on the high side so the rest join us. It doesn't get better but we make it to CR fine. We walk the dock to the restroom area and hang out there for another 30 minutes. From this point, you can't see any island out on the lake and can barely see the boat at the end of the dock it was raining so hard.

We eventually make it inside and start to head up the CR. In our haste to get everything back together and fold up the strollers, DD4 heads over to the escalator solo following DD6. She starts to go up and I ask DW to go help her. Before DW could, DD4 is heading up. We'll at least her feet are. She's placed her hand, not on the railing, but on the stationary sidewall. She eventually gets semi-vertical before tumbling down about 4 escalator stairs. Of course she's now crying and us adults are very quiet (all thinking how dumb are we really?) DD4 is a little skinned up and greased up (apparently there's quite a bit of grease in those escalators) but nothing too bad.

Naturally by the time we make it to Chef Mickey's (about 6:15), they are not taking walk-ups. So, over to MK to Peco's Bills (sp) we go. Food was fine but the bill was only $37 for the 7 of us. Never would I think we could eat in MK for so little. I don’t recall what we did this evening in MK but MK was an absolute zoo. I’m glad we had nothing planned and were just winging it that night.

 

[Credit Man]

Thanks for your report!

 

[DisneyDreamer2]

Thanks for a great report! DD and the palm tree- Ouch!

 

[jennymouse]

Sounds like an awsome Enight and all around magical day. We had a great Enight the following Friday, but we were having a pool day on Wednesday so we weren't part of the mass of humanity you faced.

There sure was some hellacious rain that week!