In a perfect world, I would have done two park days and then a down day and then two more park days. However, that isn’t the way this trip was working out and we did not want any part of a Disney park on a Saturday, so today became our day of rest. Last night, when John set up the TV, we discovered that in addition to other cable-type channels, there were 16 Disney channels and no Nickelodeon! We knew the kids would be excited to discover this. As expected, they woke up before we did and turned on the TV. We do not have any Disney channels at home, so that is of course what we expected them to be watching. Both kids were in the bunk, intently facing the screen. The more we listened, the more we realized that it didn’t sound like Disney. It wasn’t. They were watching a puppet show about parables on TBN (The Bible Network)!
Even though this was a down day, we had several things we wanted to accomplish and did not want to waste the day. John kept saying we needed to get up, throw on some clothes and go to breakfast. Note he was saying this and certainly not leading by example. I, on the other hand, had no interest in this plan and this is where the hate part of my love/hate relationship with the dining plan began. I had no interest in throwing clothes on to take a bus to walk to a restaurant to eat a breakfast when I had plenty of breakfast things that I would have been happy to cook in my own RV. Well, we paid for this dining plan and while initially it looked like we would have to supplement with some of our own food, it ended up taking a fair amount of effort to cash in on all the food we paid for, so off to breakfast we went.
Since I knew we would be swimming today, and Levi wanted to wear his bright orange Disney shirt, I just went ahead and had him put on his bright orange swimming shorts to go with it. On our way to breakfast, the kids stopped to chat with our neighbors in the site next to ours, a nice family from New York that we enjoyed chatting with. They told us later that Levi walked up and said, “Guess what I’m wearing for pants?”
They said, “Your swimming suit?”
“NOPE! Swimming TRUNKS!”
I’m not gonna lie, breakfast was good. Part of my hesitation was the fact that nothing says ‘delicious brunch’ like pancakes and waffles and plenty of other gluten filled foods. Much to our surprise, not only did they have plenty of delicious eggs and breakfast meats and fruit and vegetables, they also had gluten free MICKEY WAFFLES that the chef would make and bring to your table! There was also this amazing combination of chocolate and butter that you could spread on things. Trista and I showed restraint and spread it on waffles and toast. Levi spread it on his face, his hands, the table, the back of the chair… you get the idea. Here is a picture of Chocolate Butter face and also a picture of Trista when we told her it was a buffet, we are at Disney, we do not care what you eat. Mac n cheese and mashed potatoes? Whatever.
After breakfast, we returned to the RV and folded some previously washed laundry, fixed some things that needed fixing, changed sheets, cleaned up, etc. It felt so good to get organized again!
After we got some chores done, we headed over to the pool. It was awfully warm, but it felt better than just being outside. The kids had fun going down the big water slide. We put Levi in a life jacket and that is all he wanted to do. Trista made her way poolside, where they were hosting some games. She enjoyed playing with some other kids and even won a small prize.
I left first to go get cleaned up and ready for the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue. John and the kids were supposed to follow about 15 minutes after me, but it took them so long that I started to get worried. When they finally showed up, I found out what had taken so long. They stopped to fill their drink cups on the way out. While John was filling them, Levi ran toward the arcade. John knew it was a closed room and didn’t think much of it. Once the drinks were filled he went to collect Levi in the arcade. No Levi. Went back around the pool area, no Levi. He finally got a lifeguard and told him that he couldn’t find his son. Now John and Trista and Lifeguards are looking for Levi. Finally, Levi comes running over a bridge back toward them, he had wandered quite a way off and was watching some people fish in the – whatever body of water that is. Given that we were dead center in a Disney Resort, the fear of alligators was less than if we had been out in the open in Florida, but it gave John quite a scare and Levi definitely heard about it when they returned to the RV!
The Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue, was the only meal that we had booked prior to our trip. It is one of the longest running dinner shows in the United States. The script has remained the same with only a single change since it debuted in 1974. There is a part where you swing your napkin around your head, they used to have the audience stand on their chairs but did away with that due to safety. Also, they used to serve apple pie for dessert, but now serve Strawberry Shortcake (or an incredible fudge brownie if you are gluten free). John was very excited about this and I didn’t know much about it, but it was a ton of fun. We got dressed up a tiny bit and by tiny bit I mean I dried my hair and wore it down for the first (and only) time in 6 weeks!
We had a sweet table up on the balcony with a great view of everything. They served a nice BBQ meal and the show was VERY entertaining. One of the cast members came up to announce birthdays and did so for Trista and Levi and then again for our anniversary (gotta love the cheesy buttons!) Levi was so into it that we had a really hard time getting him to sit and eat. This was the first time that we had to use the phrase, “Does Daddy need to take his belt off?” Before anyone freaks out, yes, John did take his belt off and we used it to strap Levi into his seat, so he would eat! Once he was finished we let him go back and dangle his feet off the edge of the balcony to watch the show! (HA! I can just see the heads exploding!)
After the show, we made our way down to the beach to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Trista ran ahead and was yelling, “THIS IS AWESOME!!!! THESE ARE BETTER THAN 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!” They have speakers on the beach and pipe in the same music that plays at the Magic Kingdom, we kept trying to get her to quiet down, because people were intently watching the show, but her excitement was so much fun!
While we were watching the show, I tried to cuddle up to John, but he had initially sat in a fire ant hill and the romance was totally lost. LOL, he is fine.
They used a spotlight as part of the firework display and Levi kept saying something that sounded like, “Look at the twenties!” I knew he was pointing at the spotlights, but couldn’t figure out what he was saying.
Finally, he told me he liked the ‘twenties’. “They are just like the ones that play at the start of the movies, except the movie ones are gold!” AH-HA! The 20th Century Fox intro to the movies has gold spotlights and a big 20! That kid!
Last night when we went to see Chip AND Dale, we discovered that the walk back to our RV Spot is awfully dark. Tonight, we were smart enough to bring flashlights to light our path. The kids kept messing with the flashlights at inappropriate times and we kept getting on them about shining them down, not in people’s eyes and not on the dark bus. We were on the dark bus and saw yet another flash of light. “Trista! Stop with the light!”
“Dad, that was my shoe!” The bus driver made the kids put their shoes on to ride the bus after taking them off at the beach. She was wearing her light up shoes and they illuminated when the bus went over a bump.
OOPS!