Is there any way to shut off that rooster? He crows early this morning and I’m not ready. We did get to bed before 11:00 pm last night but that is still much later than I usually go to bed….don’t ask….it’s early, OK? Not to mention my job is quite sedentary so the bones and muscles are aching. A long shower does a world of good, and I drink lots of coffee from my styrofoam Mickey cup. Should’ve bought that mug.
The kids are moving slowly as well but then I say those two wonderful words….Magic Kingdom and everyone is up….except DH. Now DH is a stayer-upper. When the kids and I go to bed, he goes outside and catches up on his cell phone calls and what not. I believe he may have made some life long friends at the River Roost. So this morning he is decidedly worse for the wear. He is not moving.
The rest of us are ready and headed directly to Space Mountain with no time for stragglers. We tell DH to call us when he gets to the Magic Kingdom. With a "See ya, wouldn’t wanta be ya," we head to the bus stop.
It’s a short ride but still we miss the opening ceremony. We head directly to Space Mountain because “the plan” is in motion. We fastpass and then head in. The queue area is ssssooooooo long. I cannot imagine actually waiting in that line. As we walk the 10 mile queue Emily is trying desperately to get her courage up. There’s no wait and she goes as far as the loading area. The CM directs Em and me to the rocket right behind Mimi and DS. I get in and look up to I see the sad face…it’s a no-go. I hand Emily my phone, and change rockets to ride with Mimi and DS. Space Mountain is indeed exciting but is exactly as described on the DIS…”wild mouse in the dark.” The three cups of coffee in my tummy are now frappéd.
We exit and head directly to the ride that I know is sure to be a hit with DS….Buzz Lightyear. But my buddy doesn’t want to go see Buzz? We push, pull, drag, cajole, and even offer bribery to get him to cooperate in this first of many “Trust-us-you’re-gonna-love-it” episodes during the week. The precious early morning time is quickly evaporating and we finally get him in the door. The line is short and continuously moving. We get in our space ships and prepare to battle the evil Emperor Zurg.
Have I mentioned that Mimi and DS are ride buddies….for the week. He won’t ride with anybody but Mimi. She is and always has been his “other mother.” So cute. Now it takes approximately 2 seconds for DS to realize he is inside a video game and he is suddenly in his element. Emily is “driving” our ship and every time I get my laser on a target, we move. HEY! Then we get to the puking tunnel….you know the one….where you zoom through space and everything is hurtling past at light speed. I swallow hard and cover my eyes to secure my frapped coffee. Emily turns our ship round and round. Not funny!
Well, everyone loves Buzz (including the little stubborn man) but our scores stink so we ride again, and then again with no wait. On the third trip our ship is stopped just as we are exiting the first room. I turn the ship to the backward position and repeatedly shoot the target on the robot’s elbow….100,000 points, FYI. Momma wins this round.
Well, it’s only around 9:45 so we head to Fantasyland. I should mention that I had prepared DS to walk past the Tomrrowland Raceway but I’m still worried he may want to wait in line for this one. We have a go-cart at home that actually needs some sort of whatchacallit on the accelerator to control the speed because it flies! We walk past and laugh at the slo-carts…ha, ha…keep walking. We make a might-as-well visit to Pooh to kill time while we are waiting for Toontown to open. It’s cute but frankly, not very exciting after our first mountain and Buzz.
We rush over to Toontown and see Goofy at the gate. We follow him to the Barnstormer and ride two cars behind him on the first spin of the morning. Now this is a cool little coaster for coaster newbies. We throw our hands in the air, burst through the barn, and as we head back to the station DS says with excitement, “WOW!!!…….that was short.” The nice CM tells us to stay in the car if we want to ride again. Yes, please. The girls decide to see if they can hold their breath through the ride once it passes the initial climb. Yes, they can, thank you very much…..if that tells you anything about the length of the ride.
As we exit, DH calls and I tell him to take the train to Frontierland and meet us there. The kids and I head to the train station and wait. Since I DIS I know that if you ride in the back seat, the conductor will let you give the “ALL ABOARD” and you get a little conductors certificate.
Our conductor on this trip is Barbara and she has more enthusiasm for her job than any other CM I’ve seen this week. She smiles and waves at everyone in sight…even offers to let DS be conductor before we ask. She talks to the kids and says, “They all ask me, ‘Barbara, how come you still got the pixie dust’ and I say ‘The good Lord, the good Lord’” Amen, Barbara.
DS chickens out at the crucial moment and the microphone goes to Emily who gives a commanding “ALL ABOARD” and then SHE gets the certificate. Hhhmmmmm, the little man’s sorry he missed his chance. There is DH waiting for us at the Frontierland station.
We prepare to fastpass Splash, but again…..no wait. We walk the miles of queue and hop in our log. Unlike the Barnstormer, this ride is very long and very enjoyable. I try to take in all the fantastic details…little clothes hanging on the line, birdhouses, squirting things in the laughing place….just awesome. There is, however, a little too much Brer Bear butt in there for my taste. How humiliating…poor Brer Bear. Then we plunge head long into the briar patch…awesome!
We decide to conquer the last mountain on our list and again…..no wait. Gotta love these September crowds! Emily is wary but she’s in. Don’t worry, honey…no loop-de-loops and no darkness. (OK, there’s some darkness but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.) We all love this ride and now Emily is…..converted! She has faced her fears and lived to tell the tale. Hallelujah!
We hurry to Pirates of the Caribbean because I heard on the DIS that the line can be quite long, quite early since the refurbishment. We get there and look, DS, it’s Peter Pan and Wendy outside! Uh, huh….keeps walking. Truth be told there are some characters even I would like to see but no, DS wants to check out the pirate ride. Now there’s NOBODY in here so we sing the “Yo, ho, yo, ho” song as we walk in and it has that eerie little echo just like at the beginning of the POC movie. Go ahead…..try it.
It’s dark and wet inside but again we walk on. I’m excited because even though I could have actually ridden this ride on one of my other trips to Disney World, it has always been down or closed for refurbishment so this is my first time. The ride is very cool and Jack Sparrow does look identical to his movie counterpart. We linger at the exit/pirate store. DS is fascinated with the fill-up-a-skull-with-5-cent-oriental-trading-company-junk-for-only-$18. Nope….nope. We already have the sticky eyeball back in the room, remember? Again we try on the hats and then I hurry everyone along.
We are hungry and decide to break for lunch, but I look over and see a dirty little pirate with a cart hurrying by. We follow him and set up camp by the rope for the pirate tutorial. And there he is in living color….Captain Jack Sparrow. The kids are awed. Mimi is sending picture texts to all her friends at home. DS doesn’t get picked to participate but the show is cute and Jack teaches us that distraction is the name of the game. I already knew that, but thanks anyway. If you have any pirate lovers in your group, I highly recommend this show. I believe this is the only place you can see Cap’n Jack up close and personal except maybe in the Halloween parade.
We head in the general direction of the Columbia Harbor House for lunch and Mimi stops by the “river” to take a couple of pictures of this very cooperative and confident Disney bird. At the end of this trip we find we have very few pictures of people, or I should say, people we know, and lots of pictures of birds, animals and scenery. Although they are beautiful, we have little proof that we actually were at Disney World. Here's the bird.
We arrive at CHH around 11:30 and there’s no line. We decide what we want and DS and I go upstairs to get a table. It’s fairly deserted upstairs and we find a table for 5 by the window, the condiments, and the bathroom. Score! Picky kid warning: DH had to order for DS off the adult menu because the kid options here are what DS would consider “disgusting.” The fries and chicken however were good and as we depart we look over the railing to see a very long line for lunch.
Refreshed, I run over to get fastpasses for Peter Pan and we stop at the nearby Haunted Mansion. DS is nervous. Remember he likes “fast” but doesn’t like “dark and scarey” ie Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion. There’s no wait so we rush him in and stand in front of the fireplace and then we make it past the round room and jump in the doom buggie. I am on one side of him and Mimi on the other. He hangs on for dear life. The ride stops right near the grave digger and then again by the lady in the crystal ball. Not good. We finally get to hitch hiking ghost part and DS is a little undone. He asked me periodically throughout the week, “How did that ghost get in our cart?” We are all ready to do it again….except DS. Seen it, done it, been there, not going back says DS. OK, then.
Our Peter Pan fastpasses have not matured so we decide to try Philharmagic. I have heard from my DIS friends how great this is but I am not prepared. It is absolutely spectacular. How they make the screen go from the size of the stage to the entire room is amazing! The sights and smells are beyond wonderful. I am awed by what Disney has accomplished with Philharmagic and Soarin’ (and to some degree, Turtle Talk.) Through technology these attractions fully immerse you in unbelievably magical experiences. Bravo, Disney! Well done.
Back to Peter Pan with our fastpasses…The standby line is long and I am amazed at the people who are willing to wait. They are surely part of the uninformed, non-DISing masses and they have my pity. We jog right past them and get looks that indicate they think we are cheaters. We board our pirate ship and take off over London. May I say this ride is exactly the same as it is in my memory from the 1972-six-people-in-a-Beetle trip….a fluorescent paint and black light trip through London and Neverland…still magical. Love it!
Now the sky is darkening and we want to use the fastpasses for Space Mountain since DH didn’t get to ride this morning. As we near our mountain, we are stopped by the nice CM who tells us the ride is down and won’t be back up for a while. We are bummed but Emily is uber bummed because she now has her ride-on. We grab more fastpasses and just as it begins to rain, we get on the train to Main Street. We’ll be back because tonight we dine at the castle…
DO….go to Disney in September. This will be our secret. OK? Our family is now completely spoiled by the no-wait situation and could not be dragged back kicking and screaming during spring break. Do have some sort of touring plan in mind, even if it is September and know the lay of the land. It saves you a lot of time and backtracking. (My plan was executed to perfection on this particular day. We rode everything we wanted, ate lunch, and were back at the hotel by 2:00.) Do use the train for transportation…that’s why it’s there. Saves time and blisters. Do eat lunch before noon unless you want to wait in line and who does? Do eat upstairs if you go to Columbia Harbor House. It’s cool, quiet, scenic and the bathroom upstairs is hidden and practically unused.
DON’T… miss the pirate tutorial if you have any pirate or Cap’n Jack lovers in your group…very cool to see him up close. I’m not sure it’s on the times guide. Ask a POC CM what time it starts.
Thanks for the info on Soarin'/California Adventure. I must agree wholeheartedly with the go/see/do vacation. I could sit on the sofa and watch Jerry Springer any day of the week....if I were so inclined. Have a great time at Disney World!
. Wednesday morning was overcast and not too bad -- and yes, Thursday was lovely -- but Friday it was right back to sweltering!
