Granted, our style break probably still doesn’t fit the traditional mold, but we really did stay at the hotel until it was almost evening…
We actually used the hotel pool and “waterpark” (if you can call it that). There was also a very small putt putt golf course. Since Ian is not a huge fan of the water and Miah is pretty little for it, Phil and I headed that way with the two of them while Seth, Grace, and Caleb braved the slides in the water fort. In all of my 32 years, I have never, ever seen a child fall into a hole on a putt putt course. Miah managed to accomplish this feat… three times…
We all enjoyed the pool together for awhile, even though I couldn’t convince any of my children that getting “slimed” would be fun. I think this must come from growing up in the 80s, but I was a little disappointed. I mean, who doesn’t want a bucket of slime dumped on their head? The answer to this is every member of my family…
After awhile, we left the pool area, sat in Blue’s “thinking chair” briefly (actually, Miah probably could have stayed there all day), and came to the conclusion that we needed to make it to The Magic Kingdom for the “party before the party” and “Fantasy in the Sky”.
Miah in the Thinking Chair
The crowd was incredible when we arrived, but we managed to push through it in the midst of the Electrical Lights Parade and landed in Adventureland, where Phil took Seth, Grace, and Caleb for another ride on Pirates of the Caribbean, and we all enjoyed the Jungle Cruise. We also took a little cruise on the Liberty Square River Boat and another trip through Splash Mountain. Then, it was over to Fantasyland, where Grace took her turn leaving her camera bag behind… in a restroom. While the boys got on Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Grace and I backtracked and finally found a cast member who thought that something similar to Grace’s bag had been turned in and sent to City Hall. And now it gets tricky…
In order to retrieve the bag, Grace and I decided to fight the crowd… moving in the opposite direction… with a sleeping Miah in her stroller. In addition, I knew this would really cut into our ability to secure great fireworks seating, which I found frustrating, since I haven’t seen “Fantasy in the Sky” since I was a kid, myself, and the show only runs two nights out of the year. Still, the camera (if, indeed, it was her camera) needed to be claimed, so off we went. This went amazingly well, as some very helpful cast members were directing traffic. We made it to City Hall, took a look at the bag, which did turn out to belong to Grace (labeled with her name and address and all), and started back in the opposite direction… on the opposite side of the road.
This new route was a bad idea. We should have simply made our way back the way we came, especially because the parade was running again at this point. We ended up being re-routed through Adventureland… again… and found ourselves running though the streets toward the back of the park, trying pretty desperately at this point to catch a break and make it back to Fantasyland, when Phil called to inform me that he and the boys were sitting right behind Walt and Mickey and that we had better hurry up and get there, because the crowd was growing quickly. This seemed near impossible, but I looked at Grace and said, “If any two people in the world can do this, it’s us…” And we did.
As much as I wanted to see the Main Street Electrical Parade on this trip, I never imagined that I would actually follow it around the park. We finally made it to the castle (taking alleys and roads and cutting through stores that I didn’t even know existed, which is saying something since I consider myself something of an expert on all things Disney). And then I saw Phil waving, just a few yards off, and I thought to myself… This is the point at which I become the person who comes too late for the fireworks and pushes her way through the crowd to a prime spot with her waiting family… Yep… this is the part where I become the lady that everybody hates. And I can’t say that the crowd parted and smiled, but I can say that I was as polite as possible, even when I had to inform someone that I really didn’t want to run her child over with the stroller and if she could just move for a moment I could get to my family and out of her way… Quick sigh of relief, and we took our seats on the pavement… briefly…
At this point, Phil informs me that Seth needs to go to the bathroom, and I just thought, “Good luck, Buddy!” Off they went, all of the other kids fell asleep on the pavement, and I sat there blocking them with my body and hoping no one would trample them! This is as close as I’m ever getting to the kind of crowd you find at Times Square on New Year’s Eve…
Phil and Seth actually made it back a little easier than we did minus the fact that the whole area around the castle was now blocked off, and they had to convince a cast member that their family was really in there! And the fireworks began. All I can really say is, “Wow!” Although the show cannot possibly be exactly as I remember it (there were later music additions from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast), it was dazzling. The countdown to New Year’s Eve was amazing with fireworks exploding in a circle around us, and the excitement running through the crowd was incredible! One thing we did notice was that there was an unusually high percentage of adults at this gathering. Even the Disney shows that are very late at night tend to draw a pretty sizeable kid population, but that wasn’t the case this time around. I cannot imagine how crazy it will be tomorrow, and although I absolutely love having the memory of being here for this event, I am looking forward to a nice, quiet, New Year’s celebration back at the hotel!
We hung around for a little while after the show in order to let the crowd thin a bit, and then we took a ferry back to the ticket and transportation center, because the monorail line was huge! Another great night to remember…
L.
Day 9 Photo Count: 139Photo Highlights:
Waiting for the Riverboat...
Making Memories...
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