Last night I made a list of all of the things we still wanted to do, studied the map, and hatched a plan.
Armed with our checklist, fast passes booked and a lunch reservation, we set out for Magic Kingdom, Day 2. Here is a picture that I took later in the day.
As we were walking to the boat, Levi once again, made eyes at this nice lady and starts talking to her. It looked like the boat was about to close up, so I told the kids to hurry and we all started rushing. I glanced back to check on the kids and the lady is carrying Levi! Her husband looks at me and says, “He hitched a ride!” Then she says, “Well, you said to hurry and he looked like he was struggling to keep up!”
As we were working through our checklist…
…we met the Fairy Godmother, got her autograph and took a picture. Levi was mad, “I don’t WANT her name in my book!”
Here is a fun little ride that we went on. [sarcasm font] I skipped out on Dumbo, and John had to go because kids under 7 have to ride with someone over 14. Same story on these flying carpets. Dumbo seats 2 and there is a lever to raise it up and down. Flying carpets ended up being me alone with the kids because John went to go check something out for us. The magic carpets have a front seat and a back seat and of course the kids are fighting about who gets to sit in the front with the lever. I thought it kind of stunk that the lever was in the front seat, so the back seat I guess just sits? Oh no, Disney thought of this, too! The back seat controls the pitch, the front seat controls up and down. Levi and I in the front, Trista in the back. Thanks, Disney for creating a ride that allows my children to practice team work while testing Mom’s gag reflex!
It started to pour down rain and we road the Tomorrowland Speedway in the pouring down rain. Levi was so excited about this ride, but after we did it the first time, he didn’t want to do it again. I took him to the gift shop while John and Trista went again.
Found Levi’s twin in line
Trista and I rode Space Mountain. She was so excited that she bounced all the way to the loading point. She told me at one point that roller coasters do not belong in the dark and should only be enjoyed in broad daylight, that story changed pretty quickly.
We had lunch at the Crystal Palace, another character dining buffet, this time with Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet. Tigger was out-bounced by Trista and John had to take a moment when the chef brought out a plate of warm gluten free donuts. Pure magic!
The kids had gift cards from Uncle Andrew and Levi had really wanted a BB-8 plush. When I took him to the gift shop to see if we could find it, he changed his mind and got a stuffed Mickey Mouse. He still had money left, but said he just wanted Mickey. When Trista and I rode Space Mountain, I found the BB-8s and told him that I had found them at lunch. He stopped dead in his tracks. “You did?!… Where?… Can I get one?”
“Levi, you can get TWO!” (there is the white one and also a black one)
After lunch we were going to tackle the rest of our checklist and Levi says, “Can we just get BB-8 and get out of here?”
No, son, we cannot. MORE TO DO!
One last ride on Splash Mountain – definitely a favorite!
As we made our way back across the park, a show was just starting right in front of Cinderella’s castle. The kids ran up and were able to get a spot in the front row. It was a great show with dancing and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Olaf, Anna, Elsa, Tianna, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider and more!
The show in front of the castle, ‘snow’ falling on the crowd during Elsa’s number that was sadly was soap suds and not actual snow, but whatever. We managed to finish our list and meet some more characters. Trista said we met 17 characters total, but I am too lazy to validate that figure.
The park was closing early today and I am thankful, because I think we squeezed all of the fun out of it that we could manage. We hit a gift shop for Trista to spend her gift card and we made our way out of the park.
Now, let’s revisit the dining plan. At the start of the day, we had 40 snacks remaining. Yesterday, we had started grabbing a fresh cold drink anytime we were thirsty, and we still had this many left. We had ice cream three times today (but only photographed it once) and drinks whenever we wanted. A nice lady finally told me where to go to burn them up with pre-packaged Mickey shaped rice crispy treats and things like that, so I loaded up a big sack of those.
As hot and tired (and broke) as we are from this experience, I can tell you that Levi’s roller coaster giggle and Trista’s exclamations of “AWESOME!” are the purest forms of joy you can ever hear. As we were making our second pass on the Goofy’s Barnstormer ride, I looked over at Levi’s precious little hands in the air and listened to his giggle and wished that I could bottle this moment and relive it over and over again!
The one positive about the park closing early is that we would be able to do the campfire thing and meet Dale. Or not. Remember this story does not have a happy ending. We rushed back and ran to our RV to get our Smore’s stuff and autograph books and raced back to the campfire, arriving at about 755, sing along starts at 8. Lights are out. Movie is playing. No sing along. Kids are very unhappy. I want answers. We are walking back and a cast member stops and says something cheerful. Big mistake, dude. “What’s up with the sing along at 8?”
“Oh, it is at 7 now, we changed it on October 1.”
“Really? We checked in Sept 27 and were checking out Oct. 3. For all the details Disney pays attention to, you couldn’t note that and give us both calendars?”
“It wasn’t ready then. I didn’t get them until the 30th.”
Process flaw #1.
“Ok, fine, then couldn’t the check-in lady (who bookmarked and circled tons of details in our packet) have said, ‘Be sure to pick up a new Calendar on XXX day at XXX location? Or Here are the September times, times may change so check again, deliver to campsites, post at the bus stop…” There is a place for it in the app and they haven’t loaded any of that information. I was trying so hard not to taint my kids experience with how mad I was, but I have two very upset kids at Disney and I don’t see any cast members coming to my RV to manage the fallout. John was trying less hard and let him know how we felt. I stopped short of calling the main number and saying, “Listen. I need a manager, dressed like a furry woodland creature to report to my RV spot. ASAP.”
For dinner, we had planned to get hot dogs at the campfire for the kids and then despite our better judgement, we opted to cash out at P and J’s. The problem was we didn’t want to spend our time in the park eating since they closed early, we were out of table service meals and we had 14 quick service meals left and that was the only other place we knew. Thankfully, Bev works mornings. John went and nearly cleaned them out. We have more than a whole smoked chicken, a rack and a half of ribs, an entire Tupperware of BBQ beef, 3 cups of BBQ sauce, 48 ounces of chili, 48 ounces of beans, 7 sides of mashed potatoes, 7 sides of coleslaw and entire bag of gluten free corn muffins (chef was trying a new recipe and told John he just threw a bunch in (same chef as the Bev night)) and 14 bottles of water. John took an Ikea bag to lug it all back and has a bruise on his shoulder to show for it! And we still had four meals left to use for breakfast before we leave.
I fed the kids some food we had and got them ready for bed, while John went to get our dinner. They were disappointed, but recovered quickly. They got silly and dressed their new lovies (Thanks, Uncle Andrew and Aunt Kristen!) in Halloween costumes (Disney was closing early for a not so scary Halloween thing that gave them the idea). Lady (who Trista renamed, ‘Beulah’) is a Wizard and Mickey is a ghost in Levi’s sweatshirt.
