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I’m really proud of this picture I took of the Castle, I’m not usually the best photographer, so I have to relish the ones that really turn out nice.
After our usual morning routine we went to Magic Kingdom for the park opening again. Somehow we got there about 15min. earlier than last time which was fine cause we had fun knocking around a big beach ball with the rest of the crowd. Alex and Katie especially got a pretty good kick out of this, and so did Sean. Since we had done pretty much everything in Fantasyland, today we headed to Tomorrowland. We did Buzz first with no wait and then the Indy Cars with maybe about a 10 min. wait. Then we did Carousel of Progress since it was just getting ready for the next showing. Sean wanted to do the Tomorrowland Transit Authority but since there is never any line for that and it was already almost 10 – we headed for Toontown (which opens at 10am). Right before we left Tomorrowland we spotted Stitch and Katie had her first character interaction.
After a quick bathroom break we got right in line for Donald, Chip ‘n Dale, and Daisy Duck. The wait was posted at 15 min., but it was really more like 5 – 10 min. Katie was a little shy with the characters, but seemed to warm up to them as we went. Next, we did the walkthrough of Mickey’s house and Katie thought it was pretty funny that Mickey’s kitchen was so messy. If I say to her right now, “remember Mickey’s house?” She’ll say, “His kitchen is messy!” We managed to get into the line to see Mickey with about a 15min. wait, which turned out to be more like 20 - 25min. because the family in front of us had like 12 people and took dozens of different combinations of pictures. Finally we got in and snapped a few pics of Katie and Alex with the Big Cheese!
After the character greetings we decided to see whether Katie would enjoy the Barnstormer ride. It is pretty much a short kiddie rollercoaster. She was tall enough (you have to be 35 inches and Katie is about 37 in.), and on we went. She did really well and didn’t seem scared at all – I was really proud of her. There was a girl about her same age in the car behind us that got really scared and cried at the end of the ride, but I really think her dad telling her over and over again not to be scared might have had something to do with it. We never mentioned being scared to Katie, and I don’t think it occurred to her that she should be. Sean didn’t ride with us cause he was again too chicken so I took his picture sitting on the bench while we were standing in line. Ha!
After Barnstormer, it was getting close to lunchtime, and since there was only hot dogs (as far as I could tell anyway) in Toontown, we decided to ride the train to Frontierland and eat there. When we got to Frontierland, Sean decided he’d like to try the El Pirata y el Perico counter service place in Adventureland since he was sick of sandwiches and burgers. I agreed and I sent Sean and Alex to get in line while I took Katie potty.
Here we go again – I got Katie to go potty with almost no trouble, but when we came out of the stalls and were ready to wash hands she had another meltdown. There was one sink that was lower for little kids to use and there was another little boy using it when we were ready to use the sinks so I just steered her over to one of the adult sinks and helped her wash her hands there. She was fine with that until she spied the shorter sink as we were leaving and then wanted to use it. I might have relented and let her just wash her hands again, but there were 3 or 4 kids in line and I didn’t feel the need to wait that long just to indulge her. I just said, that’s okay, you’ve already washed your hands, lets go find daddy. She tried to wait by the sink and I had to pick her up and head for the exit and she proceeded with the kicking screaming act she pulled the day before. This time however, I had had a good night sleep and was prepared to lay down the law and deal firmly. I took her outside the restroom and stood her on her feet sort of in a corner off the path next to a building that was there. She couldn’t really run anywhere, and I just let her throw her fit. I told her we weren’t going to get to have lunch or do anything else until she calmed herself down. This lasted about 10 min., but she did eventually calm herself and when I asked if she was ready to be good and go have lunch now she said yes. During the peak of the tantrum, another little boy and his mother passed us on their way into the restroom and I overheard the boy ask his mother, “Mama, why is that girl crying?” The mother responded, “Oh, she’s just having a meltdown, kinda like you did about 3 times yesterday!” I felt a little better and exchanged smiles with the other mother.
After Katie recollected her composure, I went over to the restaurant to see how Sean and Alex were doing thinking they had probably decided I wasn’t coming back. They were sitting in the restaurant with no food because this particular restaurant doesn’t open til 12 and it was only about 11:40a. So we decided to do the Pirates of the Caribbean ride while we waited for the restaurant to open. Pirates was almost a walk-on, maybe a 5 min. wait. Katie looked a little worried at the beginning when they show that pirate/skull head projected onto the waterfall, but she didn’t cry or anything and she did fine after that. After the ride, we headed back to the restaurant and Alex, Sean, and I all had the Beef Tacos and Katie had the children’s quesadias. I’d say it is on par with Taco Bell or other fastfood type taco places although it did have a pretty good fixes bar for the tacos. The hard shells for the tacos were a tiny bit stale though. We ordered grapes and carrot sticks instead of chips or fries for Katie as side items and found that she ate those just as well and that settled it – no more fries for her!
After lunch I wanted to do Jungle Cruise, but the wait was 30 min. and we didn’t know if we’d stay long enough to use Fastpass (didn’t want to overstay and risk a repeat of yesterday’s meltdown). So we did the Tiki Room, which was okay – Alex got a kick out of the way they trick you into standing up and then saying – “Now get out!” Then I wanted to look at the Swiss Family Treehouse, but it was roped off and they weren’t letting anyone on. So we decided to head back over to Tomorrowland to do the Tomorrowland Transmit Authority that Sean had wanted to do earlier in the day before we headed out of the park. On our way over to Tomorrowland, we stopped and got another of those big ice cream cookies at Sleepy Hollow and we all shared it.
When we got to Tomorrowland, we noticed that the new Laugh Floor Comedy club was open, and since I’d heard it was going to be like Crush, which we’d enjoyed, we decided to go ahead and do that real quick. It was funny, and worth the peak, but definitely not as good as Crush. When we left the theater we couldn’t find our stroller. We had parked it out front near the fastpass machines for Buzz, and since there were other strollers there at the time, we thought that was okay. Apparently it wasn’t and a cast member had moved it to one of the designated stroller parking areas. We guessed this is what happened right away, but the stroller wasn’t in the nearest stroller parking, but in the one on the other side of Tomorrowland, so we had a few stressed moments trying to find it before a cast member told us about the other parking lot. Once we found the stroller Sean and I looked at each other and pretty much said at the same time, “Let’s go.” We knew that not finding the stroller could have been a lot more stressful than it was and after the day before – we weren’t going to press our luck any further. We headed out of the park and back to the Polynesian for our afternoon break and swim.
Next up WorldShowcase and Beaches and Cream
After our usual morning routine we went to Magic Kingdom for the park opening again. Somehow we got there about 15min. earlier than last time which was fine cause we had fun knocking around a big beach ball with the rest of the crowd. Alex and Katie especially got a pretty good kick out of this, and so did Sean. Since we had done pretty much everything in Fantasyland, today we headed to Tomorrowland. We did Buzz first with no wait and then the Indy Cars with maybe about a 10 min. wait. Then we did Carousel of Progress since it was just getting ready for the next showing. Sean wanted to do the Tomorrowland Transit Authority but since there is never any line for that and it was already almost 10 – we headed for Toontown (which opens at 10am). Right before we left Tomorrowland we spotted Stitch and Katie had her first character interaction.
After a quick bathroom break we got right in line for Donald, Chip ‘n Dale, and Daisy Duck. The wait was posted at 15 min., but it was really more like 5 – 10 min. Katie was a little shy with the characters, but seemed to warm up to them as we went. Next, we did the walkthrough of Mickey’s house and Katie thought it was pretty funny that Mickey’s kitchen was so messy. If I say to her right now, “remember Mickey’s house?” She’ll say, “His kitchen is messy!” We managed to get into the line to see Mickey with about a 15min. wait, which turned out to be more like 20 - 25min. because the family in front of us had like 12 people and took dozens of different combinations of pictures. Finally we got in and snapped a few pics of Katie and Alex with the Big Cheese!
After the character greetings we decided to see whether Katie would enjoy the Barnstormer ride. It is pretty much a short kiddie rollercoaster. She was tall enough (you have to be 35 inches and Katie is about 37 in.), and on we went. She did really well and didn’t seem scared at all – I was really proud of her. There was a girl about her same age in the car behind us that got really scared and cried at the end of the ride, but I really think her dad telling her over and over again not to be scared might have had something to do with it. We never mentioned being scared to Katie, and I don’t think it occurred to her that she should be. Sean didn’t ride with us cause he was again too chicken so I took his picture sitting on the bench while we were standing in line. Ha!After Barnstormer, it was getting close to lunchtime, and since there was only hot dogs (as far as I could tell anyway) in Toontown, we decided to ride the train to Frontierland and eat there. When we got to Frontierland, Sean decided he’d like to try the El Pirata y el Perico counter service place in Adventureland since he was sick of sandwiches and burgers. I agreed and I sent Sean and Alex to get in line while I took Katie potty.
Here we go again – I got Katie to go potty with almost no trouble, but when we came out of the stalls and were ready to wash hands she had another meltdown. There was one sink that was lower for little kids to use and there was another little boy using it when we were ready to use the sinks so I just steered her over to one of the adult sinks and helped her wash her hands there. She was fine with that until she spied the shorter sink as we were leaving and then wanted to use it. I might have relented and let her just wash her hands again, but there were 3 or 4 kids in line and I didn’t feel the need to wait that long just to indulge her. I just said, that’s okay, you’ve already washed your hands, lets go find daddy. She tried to wait by the sink and I had to pick her up and head for the exit and she proceeded with the kicking screaming act she pulled the day before. This time however, I had had a good night sleep and was prepared to lay down the law and deal firmly. I took her outside the restroom and stood her on her feet sort of in a corner off the path next to a building that was there. She couldn’t really run anywhere, and I just let her throw her fit. I told her we weren’t going to get to have lunch or do anything else until she calmed herself down. This lasted about 10 min., but she did eventually calm herself and when I asked if she was ready to be good and go have lunch now she said yes. During the peak of the tantrum, another little boy and his mother passed us on their way into the restroom and I overheard the boy ask his mother, “Mama, why is that girl crying?” The mother responded, “Oh, she’s just having a meltdown, kinda like you did about 3 times yesterday!” I felt a little better and exchanged smiles with the other mother.
After Katie recollected her composure, I went over to the restaurant to see how Sean and Alex were doing thinking they had probably decided I wasn’t coming back. They were sitting in the restaurant with no food because this particular restaurant doesn’t open til 12 and it was only about 11:40a. So we decided to do the Pirates of the Caribbean ride while we waited for the restaurant to open. Pirates was almost a walk-on, maybe a 5 min. wait. Katie looked a little worried at the beginning when they show that pirate/skull head projected onto the waterfall, but she didn’t cry or anything and she did fine after that. After the ride, we headed back to the restaurant and Alex, Sean, and I all had the Beef Tacos and Katie had the children’s quesadias. I’d say it is on par with Taco Bell or other fastfood type taco places although it did have a pretty good fixes bar for the tacos. The hard shells for the tacos were a tiny bit stale though. We ordered grapes and carrot sticks instead of chips or fries for Katie as side items and found that she ate those just as well and that settled it – no more fries for her!
After lunch I wanted to do Jungle Cruise, but the wait was 30 min. and we didn’t know if we’d stay long enough to use Fastpass (didn’t want to overstay and risk a repeat of yesterday’s meltdown). So we did the Tiki Room, which was okay – Alex got a kick out of the way they trick you into standing up and then saying – “Now get out!” Then I wanted to look at the Swiss Family Treehouse, but it was roped off and they weren’t letting anyone on. So we decided to head back over to Tomorrowland to do the Tomorrowland Transmit Authority that Sean had wanted to do earlier in the day before we headed out of the park. On our way over to Tomorrowland, we stopped and got another of those big ice cream cookies at Sleepy Hollow and we all shared it.
When we got to Tomorrowland, we noticed that the new Laugh Floor Comedy club was open, and since I’d heard it was going to be like Crush, which we’d enjoyed, we decided to go ahead and do that real quick. It was funny, and worth the peak, but definitely not as good as Crush. When we left the theater we couldn’t find our stroller. We had parked it out front near the fastpass machines for Buzz, and since there were other strollers there at the time, we thought that was okay. Apparently it wasn’t and a cast member had moved it to one of the designated stroller parking areas. We guessed this is what happened right away, but the stroller wasn’t in the nearest stroller parking, but in the one on the other side of Tomorrowland, so we had a few stressed moments trying to find it before a cast member told us about the other parking lot. Once we found the stroller Sean and I looked at each other and pretty much said at the same time, “Let’s go.” We knew that not finding the stroller could have been a lot more stressful than it was and after the day before – we weren’t going to press our luck any further. We headed out of the park and back to the Polynesian for our afternoon break and swim.
Next up WorldShowcase and Beaches and Cream
2 comments:
I love your picture of the castle! Enjoying reading all about your holiday
The picture of the castle is great. Brings back so many memories of trips to disney when I was younger. I've so loved reading about your trip - it sounds like it was an overall good time.
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