Haley's Disney trip

Grandbabies 4.0, the Launch, 3/30/05

Four years ago, we borrowed a tradition from someone we met in a queue at the Magic Kingdom, and began taking our grandchildren to Disney World.  We take them one at a time, the year before they enter kindergarten.  Each of our three previous trips has been unique, with one granddaughter standing in EVERY line for autographs, one afraid of anything dark or high or fast or loud or spinny, and one fascinated watching the rabbits eat the castle lawn.  But mostly, we've gotten to know each of them as individuals, outside the family dynamics, and created bonds we'll cherish forever.  Plus, we've had four extra Disney trips out of the deal for ourselves!

 This year we have to make three trips (damn!), since Laurie's three children thought it would be cool to each have babies the same spring five years ago.  First up is Haley (the third of our oldest's four), for a trip the week after

Easter.  She's had plenty of preparation from her sisters Elysia and Serina (who made our first and third trip), and from a trip with her mom and sisters a year ago.  She'll recall some things, but it will be a very different trip for her, since she’ll be calling the shots (mostly) as to what we do and don’t.  The only solo time we’ve ever had with her is a couple of overnights at our house, so we're looking forward to a whole week of quality time.

We pick Haley up at preschool, and her teacher tells us her backpack is going to be very heavy, because there were a lot of people who had told her they wanted to go with her.  We ask her on the way out of the school if all the kids in her class had wanted to go with her.  She says "No.  [pause, pause]  It was adults."  See, so we're not the only ones.

 We never know how well it's going to go until we get started, not really knowing the child’s true personality.  But I think we learn everything we need about two miles down the road, when I look in the back seat and see Haley telling her Pooh (who's now wearing Tinkerbell sunglasses) "We have to go to the airport before we can go to Disney."  Yeah, she's ready.  Plus, I know I'm back in the company of the ever-entertaining five year old mind when I hear a recent discovery like "Everything I ever said is still in my head."  Enjoy it, hon, there will come a time when it’s all still there but you can’t necessarily find it.

The scariest part of the plane trip, for all the kids, is the acceleration for takeoff, when both the jets and the wheels are very loud.  Haley immediately leans into Laurie, goes into a full tuck with knees up and head down, and is in pre-cry mode when the wheels come up, and the nervousness instantly evaporates.  We're lucky enough to have the plane bank hard toward our side, so she can see the whole city at one time, saying "That's AWESOME!!!"  She's a little ticked off because we told her we'd be flying above the clouds, and this is one of the few times we have an absolutely clear flight the whole way.  We decide to let her sleep through the landing, and wake her up (one cabin light at a time) hoping for no grumpies.  None whatsoever, another welcome surprise.

 Our $20 umbrella stroller broke on the flight, at least in part because we checked it ahead of time instead of at the gate, leaving it at the bottom of the pile instead of the top.  Nothing serious, just that one front wheel would fall off whenever we picked it up.  Good thing Laurie always has a fistful of little rubber bands, a few of them around the post made a workable fix.  An omen though, perhaps, if you believe in that sort of thing.  Five-year-olds really don't need a stroller under normal circumstances, and some will initially refuse it.  But a week at Disney World is about as far from a normal circumstance as you can get, and anything you can do to keep the child from getting tired is going to increase everyone's enjoyment immensely.

We had to wait later than we like to book rooms for this trip (job schedule uncertainties), and couldn't get on site for our whole trip, so we're spending our first two nights at the Motel 6.  Minuses?  No elevator to our second floor room, no dresser, no alarm clock, no toilet cover to hold my towels and clothes in the morning.  Pluses?  34 bucks a night, clean bathroom, comfortable beds, a Perkins next door, and they left the light on for us.  Bonus?  No hassle deciding what to tip the bellman.

 We all fall asleep quite quickly, despite being very excited about going to the Animal Kingdom in the morning.

 Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Haley, on our first park day of a week-long post-Easter adventure.

 In addition to the broken stroller deal, I can't find my recorder this morning, so I end up making my trip notes on the back of a flyer all day.  Throw anything you want at us, we don't care, we're at Disney.

Haley beat the alarm by about 20 minutes this morning and I hear "Wake up, Papa, we have to go to Disney!"  We park at the Animal Kingdom and while I'm standing by the car for a couple minutes adjusting our stroller fix, she says "My legs are tired."  Yes I know, Princess, it's been a long day so far.  We get Haley's pass, and as we make our way up through the Oasis, she echoes our tram driver's warning -- "Be careful, it's a jungle out there".  Our plan is to get a FastPass for the safari and check out the Pangani Trail.

 On our way past the road to Camp Minnie-Mickey though, a CM is telling us the Lion King show starts in five minutes, so we head over there.  We're extremely flexible.  Haley loves the show, especially the dancers.  After the show, she goes over to get an autograph from Minnie, but doesn't want to wait in a line for any of the other three characters there.  [Hmm, kid doesn’t want to wait in lines for autographs, I think we just added a dozen hours to our trip right there, this is going to be GREAT!]  While she's getting her book signed, Gi'Tar Dan is entertaining the troops.  I still miss him in the Diamond Horseshoe.  (Miss the Diamond Horseshoe a lot too, for that matter.)
 
We make it back to the Safari at about 10:30, get our FastPass, and head down the Pangani Trail.  Haley's enjoying the fish, mostly.  And above us is something I don't remember noticing before, upside down bird nests.  Cool.  She only spends about 10 seconds more than I ever have with the naked mole rats, another good sign for our trip.  Though there are only two gorillas out, she's fascinated by them, both by their size and the way they're stripping little leaves for their lunch.  I pick her up to give her a better look, and though she's grateful for the lift, as I put her down she wipes her arm and says "You're getting sweaty!"  Well honey, it's getting toward mid-day and well on its way to 87 degrees, so guilty as charged. She loves the safari, though she's a little concerned about the bumpy ride at first.  Once she realizes that the lack of seatbelts probably means not much danger, she quickly becomes First Pointer for each new animal though, and giggles quite a bit after we make it over a very rickety bridge.

 She's "a little hungry" at 11:30, so we buy her some grapes at a stand and make our way back to Conservation Station.  On the trail, she's sorting out which leaves are real and which are not real, which isn't always as easy here as it sounds.  I take a break outside while Haley and Laurie enter the station, and it's quite comical as six Americans are struggling with head math to let the British woman know that we're expecting high temperatures around 30 today and tomorrow and 20 on the weekend.  (Let's see, does the 32 come first or the divide?)

She doesn't spend much time in the Station at all, getting an autograph and picture with Pocahontas, but actively avoiding Rafiki.  Maybe the face character seems safe but the furry guy doesn't, I don't know.  Haley says "You said there's a petting zoo, where is it?"  Once we get out there though, she doesn't want to touch any of the animals, which makes you kind of wonder what she thought a petting zoo was.

 We get back to the Tusker House for lunch at 12:50, and it's extremely crowded.  The CM cleaning the table says "You should have seen it yesterday!"  We're only four days after Easter, we've done this before, the crowds will be much smaller by the weekend.  Haley declares the mac’n’cheese “too cheesy”.  [No, that’s the Jungle Cruise.]  Elysia always told us that Disney had the best macaroni and cheese in the whole world, so there you go.  By the end of lunch, Haley's getting cold and wants to go back outside.  She's quite taken with the percussion group out front.  We had planned to take a break this afternoon, but she's doing great and we didn't want to miss Flights of Wonder (which has it's last show at 3) or the parade, so we guess we'll just stay here.

 Laurie spots Baloo and asks Haley if she wants to go get his autograph, and she says "Sure."  While standing in line, I'm entertained by a four-year-old who's posing right in front of Baloo but facing away from him with her hands down at her side and her fingers coochy-cooing that thick fur behind her, grinning from ear to ear.  Even though there's no line at all right next door for King Louie, Haley has no interest whatsoever. 

 We just get nicely seated for the 2:00 Flights of Wonder, and for the first time hear those dreaded words.  "Are we going to do any rides???"  [It’s no accident that we always save the Magic Kingdom for last with the kids, or we’d be hearing this all the time.]  She saw this show with her mom, and is quite bored about 10 minutes in.  For myself though, I had been quite disappointed when I learned a while back that Guano Joe had retired, and Laurie had been quite disappointed with his replacement (his cousin Guano Joe) on one of her trips.  But this trip, we get to see a new replacement (his nephew Guano Joe), and I think he did a fine job.

On our way into Dinoland, we run into That Family, with a harried mom dragging a crying kid and yelling "All right, we're DONE, we're going HOME."  We really do have a knack for not pushing the kids, probably because we focus on that.  In four trips now the only meltdown we've ever experienced was Serina's fear-induced exit from the opening of Illuminations.

 While in line for TriceraTop Spin, Haley asks "Can I have the controllers?"  Well certainly you can, it's your trip, so she and Laurie sit in the front with me in the back.  Most of the kids have kept the car pretty close to ground level, but after the initial liftoff and descent, Haley puts it right back at the top again and then bounces it up and down up there, giggling the whole time. We immediately get in line again and I ask if I can run the up-and-down this time, fully expecting her tell me no way, like all the other kids have.  But she says "Sure!"  This is one easy-going kid we've got here, what a joy. y

 Though this is Haley's trip, grandparents as young as us want to have our own fun too, so we thought we'd ride Primeval Whirl and do the child swap.  When we did that a couple years ago with Alexis, they had all three of you go through the line together and then shunted the child and a parent off into a holding area while the other parent rode.  I thought that would keep Haley busy and give her a good view of the ride.  Now, though, they let one parent in line and give the other a FastPass sort of thing.  So Haley and I hang around outside while Laurie goes through the line.  It doesn’t take nearly all of the 15 minute standby line time for the waiting to get pretty old for Haley, and suddenly she says "Hey, I've got an idea.  When it's your turn to ride, is it okay if me and Nana Soccer ride the dinosaur again?"  Absolutely.  Smart girl.  [FWIW, “Nana Soccer” is a name Laurie picked up when the kids were toddlers and she helped me coach a youth soccer team.]

 I get to ride the Whirl with a 20-year-old British girl and her mom who are first-timers.  They ask me what the ride is like, and I tell them "it's kind of goofy, but it's fun."  Then for some reason (maybe weight distribution), once we started spinning we never changed direction.  On every corner, we just spun faster.  By the end of the ride, I felt like I was on Mission:SPACE, and the Brits were looking at me like "Why didn't you WARN us???"

 Meantime, Haley happily bounces her dinosaur on her third consecutive trip.  After her ride is over and before I finish, Laurie takes the opportunity to explain the second of our only two big rules for the kids (the first is no hide-and-seek outside the room).  Laurie gets down on one knee to talk to Haley and beckons a cast member over.  The CM comes over and also squats down so she’s on Haley’s level.  Laurie says to Haley “If Papa or I ever get lost, you go to anyone who’s wearing one of these special name tags, because they work here.  You tell them we’re lost, and they’ll help you find us.”  The CM nods as Laurie continues “And they’ll ask your name, and what will you tell them?”  “Haley Robbins.”  “And they’ll ask you my name, and what will you tell them?”  “Nana Soccer.”  “Well my name is Laurie Jennings, but if you tell them Nana Soccer, they’ll find me.”  At which point the cast member tells her “Yes, we will.”

 We make our way back up to the Asia entrance to stake out a parade spot, and I go back to get FPs for the Kali River Rapids.  The return time is 7:00, and it’s my theory that there are more unused FPs issued for Kali than any other attraction.  We’ll be gone by then, but standby is only 30 minutes, so we'll ride Kali right after the parade.  Which Haley absolutely loves.  She thinks it's neat that they have the same stilt guys they had at the Lion King.

 While we waited for the parade, Haley was noticing all kinds of people wearing those special name tags.  The other girls really never commented much on it, but she’s quite excited by how many of those people there are.  The Rapids after the parade are great fun, Haley thinks it’s pretty neat that I’m the one who gets soaked (I had an empty seat up-splash from me) and she stays relatively dry.

 Things are quite bouncy as we leave AK at 5:00, it's been a great first day.  On the way out, Haley's quite excited to get an autograph and picture of some bear named -- Kocla??? She doesn't have any idea who he is, and I don't either, unless Fran and Ollie are hiding in the bushes.  [ Okay, I discover later that KODA is from Brother Bear, I haven’t seen EVERY Disney movie;-) ]  But in spite of not knowing who it is, she wants a picture and autograph, so who am I to argue.  Yet when I ask if she wants to also get Chip and Dale, who are right nearby, she says "No, I don't want them."  Can't figure her out.

 On our way back to Motel 6, Haley shares with us that "We have a really nice house to stay in while we're here."  I guess because we have a pool in our backyard and a Perkins next door?  There's no shortage of things adults take for granted, she's quite disconcerted when we enter the room and it turns out somebody made our beds while we were gone.  Apparently they don't have bed fairies where she lives.  Another minus at the Motel 6, the pool is unheated.  Laurie and I only make it to Step 1, and 15 seconds there is more than we need.  It must be kid-warm though, because Haley's loving it.

 About 5 minutes after she's in the pool, predictably, she has to go to the bathroom.  She says "But I'll have to dry off before I go in the room."  Laurie tells her she doesn’t, and I wish you could see the look of total disbelief on her face.  She says "You don't CARE????"  It's as if she was on one of those family-swapping shows and thinking "WHAT kind of rules do you people LIVE by??"

 Tomorrow, we move back home to the All-Star Sports.

 Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Haley, on the second day of our week-long post-Easter adventure.

 We had planned to spend the early part of today at MGM and the evening at Epcot, and then visit a water park on Saturday, our third day.  We find that after a shortish first day at Animal Kingdom and a long second day, the kids need a break.  But the forecast for tomorrow is a high of around 70, so it will probably be about 58 in the morning.  That may be kid-warm, but we’re not water parking in that.  So we’re just going to switch days, since it’s going to be in the upper 80’s again today.

 During shower time, Laurie and I are discussing which water park, what to do in the afternoon and evening, that sort of thing.  Meanwhile, Haley’s all dressed, lying on her stomach on the bed with her cheeks in her hands, and finally gets to the point where she just says “Will you guys stop talking and just get dressed.”  Many of the words she says could be taken as mean or disrespectful, unless you actually hear them and see her face as we are.  She doesn’t have a surly bone in her body, from what we can tell, and her statements are simply matter of fact.  It’s really quite refreshing.

 At 8:45 we check out of our lovely Motel 6.  Laurie has a package to drop off at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a client, and then we’re going to drop off our luggage and pre-check in at the All Star Sports before heading over to Blizzard Beach.  The girls have their bathing suits on under shorts and a shirt, as girls often do, while I’m wearing my swimming trunks, a t-shirt, and sandals.  We all have dry clothes in a bag to change into this afternoon.

 I only mention our state of dress because we have to go through the “security” gate to get into the All Stars, and the guy at the gate wants to see my photo ID.  I tell him we’re checking in (which used to be sufficient) and explain to him that I’m dressed for the pool and everything’s somewhere in the trunk, but he’s not having it.  Laurie has her driver’s license handy and shows it to him, but he needs mine.  I tell him (I thought somewhat reasonably) that the room’s in Laurie’s name, but he’s not having it.  I think about asking him if we can back up and switch drivers (because they only ever ask for the driver’s ID), but I’m pretty sure he’ll be having none of it.  So I say “Well it’s in the trunk somewhere, are you telling me I need to pull over up here and go through my luggage?”  Yep.  I can’t believe going through customs into Hungary would be this bad.  After digging through half my luggage, I remember I put it in the shorts I have in the bag in the back seat, pull it out, and show it to him.  He nods without a word and lets us go.  It’s not very often I encounter someone who needs, more than anything else, a good smack up side the head, but I’m sorry, this jackass does.

 I take care of stowing the bags while Laurie does the check in.  We always prefer to be in the Touchdown building, but we’re going to end up somewhere back in Tennis.  We stayed there once before (with Alexis), and it’s not too bad.

 A little after 9:30, we’re on our way to Blizzard Beach.  One big advantage of staying on site is the food courts, you can grab anything from coffee to breakfast very handily.  We got up a couple hours ago at our off-site hotel and Laurie hasn’t had her coffee yet, which makes me proud of her that she wasn’t as edgy as me at Customs.  I feel lucky that the gate’s already up as we drive out, if we had to stop for them to raise it, we might both have to produce passports.

 BB opened at 9, so there are quite a few folks in the park already.  Laurie and Haley get a locker and stake out some chairs over in the Tike’s Peak area while I get in line for the chair lift.  It’s probably a 15 minute wait for the chair lift (with the girls joining me for the ride up), then another 20 minutes waiting on top of the mountain for the Teamboat Springs family raft ride.  The view is really cool from up there, Haley recognizes the Big Tree in Animal Kingdom, and the Expedition Everest coaster mountain is going to look really cool when it’s done. 

 I don’t care how warm it is out, that first good splash of water at a water park is … invigorating.  Laurie and I both love this ride, but Haley – not so much.  She doesn’t put it on her list of things to do again later. 

 Now that that’s out of the way, we head over to the children’s section, Tike’s Peak. Haley surveys all the slides and such from below, and decides to go with the slow water slide, the one that’s 20 feet long with a straight slope and no turns.  But she quickly realizes there’s so little water that you have to scooch your butt to get down, so that’s no good.  She immediately goes over to the regular kids’ water slide and just loves that, running back to the top each time.  After about four trips, I ask her if she wants to do the tube slide right next to it, but she has no interest.  As long as you find something that works, you might as well stick with it, even if it means running to the top and sliding down about thirty times in a row, which it does. if !vmli

 I think she may have tired herself a little from the running, because she suggests it’s time for a Lazy River ride.  For those of you who haven’t been to either Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon, they each have a Lazy River.  (I know they have official names, but for us it’s just Lazy River.)  It’s just a great big concrete ditch, varying from probably 12 to 20 feet wide and 3 to 3 ½ feet deep, that meanders all the way around the outside of the park.  No drops or rapids or anything (though there are some minor waterfalls that it’s fun to avoid or push people into).  It’s full of curves, so you never are seeing a very big stretch of it at a time, which really gives you a sense of floating down a stream somewhere.  It gets its flow from a few big underwater air jets sprinkled about, and we think it takes about 20 minutes to make a complete circuit.  There are 5 or 6 entry points, and you just grab an inner tube and start floating.

 This is just the ticket, for all of us.  I try to get Haley to test the depth and see if she can stand up, but she’s more than happy to just lay across the top of the tube and sun herself like Grandma.  We eventually make our way around to our starting point, and Haley immediately requests a second circuit.  (Cool, I won’t have to wake Laurie up ;-)  We get about half way around the second time before she decides she wants to walk back through the pool to our base.  We forgot that there’s constant wave action in the Blizzard Beach pool.  It’s not a lot, but it really is pretty strong for a 5-year-old.  (It’s knee-deep where I am, and I’m having trouble walking.)

 When we get back, Haley takes a couple more runs on the water slide while Laurie gets lunch, then informs me she wants to try the tube ride.  “What do I have to do?”  Well, you have to take one of these tubes by the handles, and carry it up to the top where that girl will help you get started.  This is where I was prepared to put my foot down and tell her she had to do it herself, but I didn’t get a chance as she grabbed the tube and took off up the path.  She loves it, giggling all the way down, and does it 12 more times before lunch arrives.  She does comment once, on about trip 5, that the tube’s a little hard to carry, but never asks for help or even slows down to tell me. 

 After lunch and a few more slides, we change our clothes and take the rental car back to drop it off at the Dolphin.  WHAT THE HECK IS THIS???  THERE’S NOT EVEN A GATE AT THE DOLPHIN!!  NO CUSTOMS!!  SOUND THE ALARMS!!  Apparently the kind of folks staying here don’t need the kind of protection from terrorists that the four-to-a-room high school football players at the All Stars need.  Drop-off of the car is exceptionally easy, as the valet crew out front takes care of the whole deal.

We spend a couple minutes checking out the fountain in the Dolphin, then catch the boat over to MGM.  At the end of the street on our way in, Haley spots a Stitch she’d really like, and we tell her she can get it on our way out if she wants.  It’s about 3:15 when we get back to check out times for the Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney.  Each is 40 minutes away, so we decide to wander down the street towards the Muppets.  On the way, she spots JoJo and Goliath, but doesn’t want either of them.  She is, however, quite interested in catching Daisy Duck further down the street.  Unfortunately for us, Daisy’s CM friend says that the people already in line are going to be the last ones, because Daisy needs a little break and will be back later.  We ask her if she wants to get Mickey (indoors further down the street), and she has to peek in the door before deciding she does.

 As long as we’re back here, we wander over and get FastPasses for the new Lights, Motors, Action stunt show that’s currently in soft opening.  They have three shows today, and we’ll be seeing the last.  Even if you’re not going to the stunt show, you’d be well-advised to know what the show times are, because you want to see the Muppets or Star Tours while the shows are running instead of right after 3000+ people have been dumped out into the street in that area.

 There’s actually a bit of line for the Muppets, which we’ve seldom encountered.  We always try to make this the first 3D show the kids see, because it’s the least intimidating.  Haley loves it.  On the way out, I spot Woody, Buzz, and Jesse and ask her if she wants to get their autographs, and she says “Well not ALL of them!”  As we go around the corner, she sees Kermit and Miss Piggy, and really wants to get Miss Piggy’s though.  They’re signing (stamping) together, and I really was hoping to see how Kermit would react to “Not YOU!”  but the ever-polite Miss Haley deprived me of that opportunity.

 She’s very interested in the robots in the Star Tours queue, we don’t recall any of the other kids more than noticing.  The ride, however, is one time only.  We told her she could just close her eyes during the really scary parts, which turned out to be most of the first part and all the “city” part (the Death Star scenes).  So even though it’s a fairly short ride, I’m guessing she saw about 40 seconds of it.

 We messed up a bit here, we forgot about the parade and it’s about three-fourths over when we exit Star Tours.  Can’t even get close enough for her to get a look from my shoulders, so she’s a little bummed.  Once the crowd clears, we make our way over to the Backlot Express for dinner.

 Lights, Motors, Action is definitely worth a checkout; it’s sort of the Indiana Jones show on speed.  (Pun intended.)  It’s a little boring for Haley by the 10 minute mark, but like everything else that isn’t on her A-list, she hangs in without complaining.  There is a ton of skill, cool music, some cute setups, and the cast seemed pretty well on top of the whole thing already.  And 5000 seats is a BAT.  I asked the CM out front what kind of crowds they’d been getting, and she said they hadn’t sold one out yet, but they’ve been close and most shows have been to around 3500.

 At 6:20 we get back down to the Mermaid end of the street to discover that both it and the Playhouse are next showing at 6:45, so I guess we have to make a choice.  And, just like you would -- we choose Popsicles!!  While we’re eating those, we get to chat with three families and the grandma who are quite intrigued by our one grandchild at a time program.  The conversation started as I was trying to keep ahead of my rapidly melting popsicle when a 6-year-old nearly took my ankles out with a stroller.  I did the one-foot side-step shuffle, protected all skin, and never spilled a drop (or even looked up, I guess).  The mom was beside herself apologizing to me, and I told her “Hey, I’ve got eight grandchildren age eight and under, I’ve had a fair amount of projectile avoidance training.”  I thought it was kind of cute that as I described all our trips for them, all three moms were ready to sign up but grandma seemed much, much less eager.

 Haley thought the Little Mermaid show was great, “all except for that Ursula part.”  At 7:15, her request is “Let’s get Stitch and go back to the hotel and swim.”  This girl has a couple little moves that we’ve found quite cute so far, including a Fanny Wiggle.  That’s the one where you put your elbows up almost to horizontal, bend your knees slightly, and wiggle your butt.  The first time we saw it, we weren’t sure of the context and thought it was a Neener, Neener sort of thing.  But we understand it now.  She sees the Stitch we saw while entering the park, and thinks it’s a little too big.  (Now this is barely bigger than standard teddy-bear size, so that seemed a little odd.)  She wants to go inside and see if they have smaller ones.  They do, but they’re barely less expensive, so Laurie suggests she get the bigger one.  She goes back outside, and as she walks up to pull it off the shelf, she gets within about three feet, pauses for the wiggle, and then collects her Stitch.  So now we know -- it’s the Life Is Good Fanny Wiggle.

 All the luggage we dropped off with Guest Services out front this morning has magically been transported to our room.  (I LOVE living on-site.)  We find our room, which is the farthest room in the farthest Tennis building.  It’s time to set up house for the rest of the week, so we each pick a drawer (Haley’s is at floor level) and each put our own things into our own drawer. She has all kinds of questions about which side the socks should go on and where the undies go, and we give her a degree of latitude with which she’s unfamiliar, but enjoys quite a bit.  She’s about three-fourths of the way through unloading her little suitcase when she says “This is a lot of work for a little child.”

 As Laurie’s getting ready for bed, Haley sing-songs to me “Stitch is falling in love with someone, he told me right in my ear.”  This is such a fun trip.  Looking forward to Epcot tomorrow.

 Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Haley, on the third day of our week-long post-Easter adventure.

 I’m reapplying our rubber band stroller fix in the room this morning, mentioning to Laurie that “I have to make sure things are ready for the occasionally lazy Miss Haley.”  Haley’s chipper response -- “Hey … I’m always lazy.” 

 At Epcot, we head to Test Track first, figuring we’ll get that and Honey I Shrunk the Audience out of the way first and then tour Future World leisurely.  The standby line is only about 15 minutes, and as we’re winding through I remember Lexi’s question of “Where are the men to all these tools?”  Laurie and I find there are quite a number of places in Disney World now that bring to mind some past cute comment from one of the kids.

 During the pre-test training video, Haley isn’t too excited.  She isn’t protesting, but is clearly a little nervous.  And she doesn’t enjoy the ride at all.  She’s taking our earlier advice to shut her eyes when it gets scary, and to her great credit, after she matter-of-factly tells us she’s never riding that again, she SKIPS through the post-show and out of the building.  I think the kids have figured out early on that we aren’t going to MAKE them do any particular thing, so they’re generally willing to try whatever we suggest.

 Haley can’t figure out why we’re in the sun and it’s cold.  It’s 10am and probably in the low 60’s, and very windy.  It’s mildly uncomfortable, but we’re getting 9 inches of snow back home, so everything’s relative. 

 Quite the obstacle course laid out for us between Test Track and HISTA.  We take our normal shortcut through Mouse Gears, but when we try to go through the end of the other part of Innoventions, we get right up to the door before we realize they have planters blocking the inside of the doors and the section is closed.  So we double back and walk the long way around the end of the building, but when we get to the path to Imagination, there’s a rope up across it.  We can’t see any sign of a reason for the rope, so I’m assuming it’s just one barrier to World Showcase that somebody forgot to take down this morning.  We duck the rope, along with two families behind us, who look like they also are hoping they don’t have to get into a discussion with their kids about the relative importance of barriers. 

 Laurie thinks we should visit Figment before we shrink any audiences, to avoid having two maybe-scary attractions in a row.  Haley really enjoys Journey Into Imagination.  I don’t know if she remembers it from her other trip or not, but she “tricks” us by plugging her nose before the smell chamber lets loose, giggling the whole time.  We get up to HISTA just as they’re loading the theater, so we miss the pre-show there.  Haley doesn’t like the show itself at all, but not to the point where she feels she has to bail from the theater.  We’ve been enjoying this and the other shows quite a bit this trip because of the high number of rookies that seem to be here this week.  Between a third and half the audience is seeing it for the first time, and that newbie reaction adds a lot to the fun.

 Haley’s not impressed at all with the jumping fountains, but they’re hard to really “get” when you’ve got 20 mph winds and they’re all missing their targets by a good 3 feet.  As long as we’re up here, Haley agrees that seeing Figment again would be fun.

 It’s 11:00 now as we’re in the Electric Umbrella for lunch, and the girls find us a table while I grab the grub.  Haley spots a CM cleaning tables (with his back to them) and says she thinks he has one of those special name tags.  He turns around and she’s quite excited to see that he does.  And she’s also quite proud that “I saw that by thinking it instead of seeing it.”  As are we. 

 And now comes that part of every trip where we spend some time shopping for gifts for the siblings at home.  (And of course when I say “we”, I mean Laurie and the grandbaby.)  Maybe it’s just because I’m a crotchety old grump, but the primary impetus behind this activity seems to be so that those left behind don’t feel left out, but since every one of them is getting Their Very Own Whole Trip, it all seems a bit redundant to me, but maybe that’s just because I’m a crotchety old grump.  [Laurie’s response to this is undoubtedly just an exasperated “Men”.] 

 I find a nice spot in Innoventions Plaza that includes lots of sun and fountain music and no wind.  At some point, I had sort of closed my eyes like a pampered cat and let the atmosphere wash over me, when I suddenly hear a little voice saying “Sorry we took so long shopping.”  Well, bless her little heart. 

 We were really hoping we could catch soft opening of Soarin’, but no such luck.  As I describe the ride to Laurie, Haley’s telling us she’s got a headache, which is her way of saying “don’t make me go on that”.  As we make our way down to The Living Seas, we encounter another first for me, a toddler with “squeaky shoes”.  Sound like a squeeze toy with every step.  Much more comfortable than a cowbell, I suppose.  It’s 12:30 and we mention the possibility of a nap soon, and Haley doesn’t seem to be unreceptive.

 You can tell she’s spent a lot of time at her dad’s camp; we’re looking at about a million yellow and silver fish swimming around the bottom of the Living Seas tanks and she says “Wish we could go fishin’!”  I can remember our friend Joe accompanying us for a morning on a previous trip, and saying he didn’t realize it was possible to spend more than five minutes in Living Seas.  With the 5-year-olds, it’s hard to spend less than five minutes per window.  (And remember, a lot of those windows look into the very same tank ;-)

 From about a room and a half away, Haley spots Dory.  It’s cute, they have one little tank (with a mirror over it so you can see the fish from above too) that has a Dory, a Nemo, and a Marlin in it.  And I’d never seen a real Dory-fish before, so I have to give mad props to the animators for getting the fin movement down so exactly. 

 Haley reaches her own personal boredom threshold while we’re in line for Turtle Talk with Crush, and it’s pretty cool that she’s the one who recognizes it first and suggests a game of Simon Says.  At which Grandma rocks, by the way.  Speaking of which, Turtle Talk with Crush so totally rocks, dudes and dudettes.  Definitely worth checking out, if you haven’t.

 We walk back through Innoventions to send some emails, and since we’re coming in from the outer ring instead of the plaza, we take our first trip in several years through the Sega room.  This isn’t the total progress-annihilating distraction for the 5-year-olds that it was for our two sons that we brought at age 21 and 12. 

 Haley wants to ride in the Big White Ball on the way out, and we’re treated to a running commentary of IRememberThis IDon’tRememberThat the whole time. 

 Back at the All Stars, Haley takes a quick dip in the “small pool” (the wading pool), and then we settle in for a good nap before we head back to Epcot for dinner.  I should point out that whenever I say “we” take a nap, that generally means Laurie’s catching up with some on-line work and Haley and I are sleeping.

 Our nap is a little longer than planned, so we don’t have time to do anything at Epcot before going back to our dinner at Germany’s Biergarten.  I carry Haley around the buffet table to make her selections, but get a variety of no, no way, ew, and I don’t think so.  So in the end, the $8.99 Kid’s Buffet at the Biergarten pretty much comes town to a 5-inch plate stacked a half-inch deep with applesauce.

 After dinner, Haley starts her Kid Stop Tour.  For those of you not familiar with that, there’s a special table at each of the eleven country pavilions.  The child can get a poster board mask on a paint stirrer type stick at any stop, then at each stop you can color it up with markers, the CM will add some dangly thing appropriate to that country, and they’ll stamp the handle with that country’s seal.  We have to find the stop first though, and Haley offers “We could just ask one of the workers where it is.  I’ll find one for you.”  And she leads me into a shop and does exactly that.

 We get to the stop, and she picks up her mask and begins coloring the lips orange, talking to her mask the whole time and saying “I swear I’m not picking on you.” Outside Germany, we walk past the model train setup, and that’s good for about a minute and a half.  We’ve spent well over half an hour here with each of the other kids. 

 We’ve discovered what else is number one on Haley’s Disney list, because this is about the third time today that she’s heard drums or a certain kind of music and said to us, all excited, “It’s a PARADE!!!”  But of course, it’s not.  We don’t spend much time at the American stop, but do get the opportunity to chat with the CM, who lives in our region and gives us updated weather news from home.  (As much as 29” of snow in some areas!)

 I get another little slice-of-Disney-life chuckle while the girls are making a bathroom stop upstairs at the Yakitori House.  A gaggle of 16-year-olds chatter their way up the street (about twenty of them in all), and head up the stairs to the Japanese fast-food place saying “Who cares, it’s food.”  Apparently somebody does, because about five minutes later they’re all back and chattering their way over to a more western civilization.

 You absolutely CAN NOT predict what is going to turn on any particular 5-year-old.  On our way in to the Japan Kid Stop, we enter a little front room that has a statue of a warrior on a horse, and if she hadn’t just stopped, I’d be afraid she was going to pee her pants.  “GRANDMA, CAN YOU TAKE MY PICTURE???”  Her preference would have been to be ON the horse for the picture, but I told her we couldn’t cross the chain in front and she was fine with that.  (Good thing she didn’t remember our rope-ducking this morning.)  We discover later that her daddy took her horseback riding last summer, and apparently she has quite fond memories.

 The Moroccan Kid Stop is a little more appropriately staffed than it was the last time we were here, when it was run by an American kid who just got transferred from Japan.  This at least looks like a real live Moroccan.  Laurie tells me she spotted one little boy on our tour who had a really neat idea -- on a back page of his autograph book, he was having the CM in each country write his name in their native language.  Cool idea!

 Man, I thought the food selection process with the little one was a bit dicey in Germany!  I just made a pit stop in Morocco and heard a mom out in the waiting area explaining to her little one “Oh you’ll like this one, honey, it has chicken and almond and nuts” and he’s got a look on his face that’s saying “Why don’t you just stop messing with me and get me the Happy Meal?”

It’s 7:30 now on the Saturday after Easter and EVERY restaurant in Epcot is packed.  I feel bad for Haley, we’ve got an actual marching band going by in front of France and she’s way back in by the Eiffel Tower somewhere at the Kid Stop and can’t hear them.  I didn’t realize she even heard it in the quick explanation when we started, but one reason Haley’s so psyched about the Kid Stop program is that if you get all 11 stamps, you get a Special Prize.  (I’d tell you what it is now, but that would likely spoil the excitement for you.)

We’re headed in to the United Kingdom KS now.  [I should mention I found my recorder on Day 2, and one of the joys of using that is that when I listen to my notes when I get home, I can hear the British Invasion and almost be there.]  This also happens to be the only Parent Stop on the trail.  There is a large, very comfortably upholstered chair at each side of the room, and Laurie and I snag those in a heartbeat.  Haley’s listening to the music while she’s in line, and going through what I can only think is some kind of color guard routine.  Laurie and I love a lot of things, but none quite so much as a happy child.  She would prefer one of us to be in line with her, but we’re just so danged comfortable in these chairs, so she takes care of the whole transaction on her own. 

 Another odd thing she’s jazzed about is the castle at the top of the hill in Canada.  She wants in the worst way to go in and check it out, but it’s all closed.  As a consolation, she insists on us taking her picture in front of it.  As a bonus, we get down to the street just in time to watch marching band #2 go by, which she’s very happy about. 

 Walking down from Canada, we pass a guy who’s telling another guy that he’s never staying on-property again, it’s just too much hassle.  Laurie and I just look at each other with our mouths hanging open and then burst out laughing.  He apparently has never stood in the middle of 30 acres of blacktop in spot 56 waiting for that hourly shuttle back to the Doubletree!

 Now we have to make a decision, because we’re at the front of World Showcase and our feet are very tired (notwithstanding our brief stay in the UK).  Are we going to walk all the way around to China and finish our tour tonight, or get it tomorrow.  We figure there’s just about enough time to hit the last three before Illuminations, so we might as well get it out of the way and just watch the show from over there.

 Mexico and Norway go very quickly, and then we get to the final stop in China.  I’m waiting out by the front gate when Laurie and Haley come out.  She spots me and starts running and yelling, with this HUGE smile on her face, “PAPA, I WINNED!!!”  And her Special Prize?  An 8x10 picture featuring Goofy and a number of his friends!  SCORE!!!  She’s very proud of it, and later when I ask her if she wants me to carry it for her, she says “Yes, but be really careful not to bend it.”  It was all I could do to avoid buying one of those portfolio cases in the art store out front. 

 Haley absolutely loves Illuminations, she remembers seeing it before.  She tells us before hand that sometimes when it’s loud, “I have to hold my heart”, which consists of clenched fists pressed against her chest, presumably to ward off the vibrations that the big ones give.  And she holds her heart pretty much throughout.  We hear about ten Whoa’s, a couple of Wow’s, and at least half a dozen big giggles.  At one point, when a particularly swirly display goes off, she says “Well, that’s new!”  You didn’t know there were Disney experts who couldn’t write yet, did you.  We hear people all the time saying there’s nothing at Epcot for kids.  Well we’ve got a 5-year-old who would beg to differ.  She spent a very enjoyable evening on her “mission”, and after the Illuminations finale is over and the people are cheering and the lights come up, she nearly brings tears to our eyes when she turns to us and says “Now THAT’s why I love coming to Disney!”

 It’s been quite a long day, even with the nap, and we end up standing on the bus back to the hotel.  She’s very quiet and looks like she’s as uncomfortable as we are, but doesn’t complain at all, just asks us to let her know when we see Blizzard Beach and McDonalds so she knows we’re close.  As soon as we’re off the bus, she’s back chatting away about things, with not a care in the world.

 We’re all looking forward to our fourth day tomorrow, and our first trip with her to the Magic Kingdom.

 Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Haley, on the fourth day of our week-long post-Easter adventure.

 Orlando came within two degrees of a record low at 47 last night, so it’s a little chilly this morning.  Haley wants to wear her blue sweatshirt this morning, because “I wore the pink one last night and some cold air got through it.”  Laurie’s in the shower and Haley’s telling me “You better get up, if you make us late you’re going to be in Big Trouble.”

 I know Laurie and I have had this conversation before, but we think crowds might be light at MK this morning because it’s quite cool and we switched to daylight savings time last night, which is bound to have messed a few people up.  It was kind of neat that Disney apparently left every one of their guest rooms a phone message yesterday about the time change.  I told Laurie the people staying offsite wouldn’t have that advantage.  “Except at the Motel 6, where there aren’t any alarm clocks to not set!”

 Somewhere on the crowded bus last night we lost Haley’s autograph book.  We thought she might be upset about that, even though she only had a handful of autographs.  She said “We can get another one.”  Laurie acknowledged that was certainly one solution.  And Haley says “I know they have them because remember yesterday when we went shopping they had them right next to those pink shell things.”  So you can totally tell the girl’s going to be a hard-core shopper when she grows up, but at least she’ll always apologize for how long she took.

 We’re walking from the bus stop to the front of the Magic Kingdom when we hear Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah and her pace picks up and she says “LET’S GO SEE IT!”  We don’t quite make it for Rope Drop, but we couldn’t have missed it by much because there isn’t a very long line yet at Dumbo.  She isn’t sure she wants to ride, but we explain to her the concepts of very long lines and now-or-never and she decides to take the plunge while I go get FastPasses for Pooh.  5-year-olds are all about details, and she thinks it’s really cool that the “ropes” in the Dumbo queue are gold, just like the decorations on the castle. 

 I think I’ve only ridden Dumbo once, but I’ve watched a number of flights and noticed a pattern.  Each flight seems to include at least one adult giggling, and at least one adult couple where the guy is unsuccessful at hiding the fact that he’s on it ONLY for her.  I don’t remember which of those guys I was the one time I rode.

 We go down and get in line for the Indy Speedway, while Laurie picks up a new autograph book.  I feel honored that Haley has picked me to ride with her, seems she’s finally warming up to me.  It also seems she’s quite anxious to drive – every time the gap in the line in front of us gets as big as two feet, she’s yanking on me to close ranks.  [Some of you have grand ideas of ways to improve Disney World, but mine are simple.  When I get to run Disney, I’m changing the Speedway so there are several lane-change spots around the circuit and you get a free lap if you beat a certain time.]  Poor Haley has no control of the car whatsoever, and we’re bouncing around, and she’s flopping around like a rag doll.  But we pass the green car three times, so it’s a great run.

 Laurie’s not much of a spinner, so it’s me Haley takes to the Mad Tea Party.  She is in charge of the spinning, and has the upper hand on the giggling, too.  She’d like to ride again immediately, but we gently talk her out of it.  We figure we can do the Carousel and Small World and Mickey’s PhilharMagic anytime, but we better do Peter Pan and Snow White now, while the lines aren’t too bad.

 She really likes the Peter Pan ride, but can’t figure out why Peter isn’t anywhere in the ride!  She’s very concerned when those bad guys have the kids all tied up, and is practically cheering when we finally see Pete and he saves the day.  Definitely on her do-it-again list.  Snow White isn’t quite so exciting, but she still enjoys it quite a bit.  She really wants to ride the Carousel, and it’s right here, so why not.

 We head down to Pooh at 10:30 to use our FPs.  There sure is a lot of hopping and skipping today.  (And Haley’s excited too, har, har.)  She seems to enjoy the ride while we’re on it, but has kind of a pout when we get off.  We’re not sure if that’s because it was too short or what, but decide to take a break in front of This Area Is Being Refurbished For Your Future Enjoyment across from Pooh to rest a bit and de-pout.  Haley says “When we get home,” (which means back to our hotel) “can I talk to my sisters?”  So that’s what it is, our first really missing home moment.  It’s Sunday morning, so Laurie says “How about if we call them right now?”  Haley’s the baby of the family, and there’s quite a bond between her and her 7- and 8-year-old sisters.  Things are much peppier after the phone call.

 During the Pooh ride, she waved to most of the characters as we went by, and after our little break, as we’re headed down toward Toon Town, she looks up at the big sign on the Pooh façade and waves goodbye to the characters there, as well. 

 We spend quite a bit of time in Minnie’s house, especially the kitchen.  The tour of Mickey’s house is more of a zip-through though.  And that leaves us in Exhibition Hall, where it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which line is ours -- we’re going to see the Princesses.  The line is the longest we’ve been in yet for anything, a little longer than either Laurie or I are used to or comfortable with.  Haley, meanwhile, is singing and swaying without a care in the world.  We have no idea what she’s singing, but life is definitely good.  She asks me if I want her to read the letters on the front of her autograph book, and I say sure.  I’m looking around the room though and she must have thought I wasn’t really paying attention, because she rattles off A-U-T-O-G-R-A-P-S.  There’s a slight pause before Laurie tells her she forgot one, and she looks up at me with an impish grin and says “No I didn’t.”  A girl who knows how to pick on Papa can’t be all bad.  We probably spend 30 to 40 minutes in line to see Cinderella and Aurora and Snow White, which is definitely worth it, at least from Haley’s perspective.

 She decides she wants to ride the Barnstormer, but when we get there it’s a 20 minute wait and she changes her mind.  Laurie mentions that we have to remember to refer to the Barnstormer as a plane instead of a kid’s coaster, especially if we end up in a Princess line with some mother helpfully pointing out that her child was terrified of the roller coaster.  Haley must have heard this conversation, because I say something about the “plane” later, and Haley says “Would you just call it what it is.  It’s the Barnstormer.”  Well, all righty then.

 After a short time in the playground, we hear our whistle and catch the noon train to Frontierland.  As we go through Main Street Station, there’s still a ton of people coming into the park.  We pick up FastPasses for Splash Mountain, and head down to Pecos Bill’s for lunch.  Haley selects a nice sun/shade table outside, where we can enjoy the flowers and birds while we eat.  After lunch, we’ll get FPs for Big Thunder, use the ones for Splash, and then go over to Tom Sawyer Island.  We’d been over with the other girls just to have lunch and feed the ducks, but think we’ll explore some today.

 Haley rode Splash with her mom a year ago.  She wasn’t really tall enough to ride, but got in somehow.  She didn’t like it.  She started this trip out saying she wasn’t going to ride it, but Laurie kept telling her it might be different because she’s a year bigger now, and “You don’t have to decide now, just think about it.”  By day 2, she thought she might try.  By yesterday she had decided to ride, and by today, she says she’s going to put her arms up.  Which (to my great surprise) she does, on the very first big drop at Slippin’ Falls.  The bad news is, that must have unsettled her enough that she’s in I Don’t Like This mode the rest of the ride, telling us twice she wanted to get off, and ducking completely out of view for the big drop.  As we approach the unloading zone, she turns and tells Laurie “I think I should wait a couple more years before I ride it again.”  Her Dad’s coming in two days and looking forward to riding it with her, so we’ll see how that goes.  But I love it, because even though the ride bothered her, she’s skipping and laughing when we get off and life is still good.  She wants to see her picture on the way out, and giggles quite a bit when I point out white-shirt me, green-shirt Grandma, and invisible Haley.

 The raft trip over to Tom Sawyer Island is kind of exciting, she says she’s never ridden on a raft before.  First thing we do is take a walk through Mistery Mines though, and she says “Oh, I remember this, I went on this before.”  Must have walked over.

 This child’s going to end up here for the Flower and Garden Festival some year, I swear, because flowers are what she’s been pointing out more than anything else.  After having gone through the mine, she’s quite nervous about the dark circular stairway leading down from the Rifle Roost at the fort, but we manage to talk her down.  She loves the barrel bridges though, and really really enjoys the fact that Laurie is having a bit of a hard time walking on them. 

 We get back off the island with just enough time to use our FPs on Big Thunder before the parade, and Haley screams the whole way.  Now we intentionally sat in the very front row to make the ride as tame as possible, but clearly it’s not tame enough.  For half of the first fast stretch, we’re thinking those screams are of the This Is Way Cool variety, but we realize pretty quickly that they’re actually Get Me The Hell Out Of Here screams.  As we get to the second lift and she’s catching her breath, I tell her that there are only two more fast parts, to which she sarcastically responds “Oh, that’s just great.”  I think the only enjoyable part of the ride for her is the exit.  As we’re walking down to the parade, I say “Well we found out one thing, Haley sure can scream loud!”  And instead of being moody or upset or anything, she just grins broadly and says (as if I’ve made the world’s biggest understatement) “Yes, I can scream.” 

 We stake out a spot across from the Country Bears to watch the parade and Laurie goes to get ice cream, which judging from her demeanor when she returns is roughly three and a half miles away.  Haley absolutely loves the parade, waving to every character and float as they go by.  Except the villains.  (And really, if you’re going to act like Ursula does, do you really deserve waves?)  The parade ends, and we casually make our way through Adventureland and the Main Street shops on our way to City Hall, where Laurie needs to pick up some things.  We get down to the end of the shops at Town Square, and the parade is still finishing up there!  In fact, we’re standing pretty much all by ourselves and get to see about two thirds of the parade again!  This time, she even manages to wave to the bad guys, and Cruella waves back at her and winks.  Now that’s big.  And Beast looks right at her and gives her the eyebrow bounce, and she turns around with her mouth hanging open and says “Did you see THAT?” 

 While Laurie’s picking up her items at City Hall, Haley and I wait in the shade down at the end of the building.  Again, the flowers and the birds are getting a great deal of attention here.

 When the girls went shopping yesterday, Haley picked out some jewelry for her oldest sister Elysia, sharing with Laurie the whole story about the time that Elysia stole her mom’s rings.  If you’re going to send a 5-year-old for a week with us, there are two things you should probably know: 1) we religiously follow a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy when it comes to your family business; and 2) 5-year-olds tell anyway.  Haley hadn’t found anything that she thought was right for her middle sister Serina, but somewhere today she saw Mickey Hands and knew they would be perfect.  Then after a 30 second pause, she tells Laurie “No wait.  Maybe then she’d punch harder.”  Ah, I forgot the joys of siblingness.  Laurie explains to her the properties of padding, and they seem like good idea again. 

Each day at All Stars, Haley’s wanted a picture with the Mickey statue, and we’ve told her to remind us later.  So as we board the bus from Magic Kingdom back to the hotel, she says “Let’s not forget our Mickey picture today.” 

 After our picture and a quick change, it’s swim time.  We think maybe the Baseball pool is closer to our room than the Surf pool, so we start walking down the end of the complex toward it.  It soon becomes apparent that it’s not closer at all.  As we finally get down to the pool, Haley says (just matter-of-factly, with no expression) “This is a very long short cut.  Don’t go this way again.”  Yes, we already figured that out.  She loves this pool though, mostly because the 3 foot deep area goes all the way around it, instead of being just on the ends like Surf.

 When we get back to our building, Haley takes care of the elevator-button pushing as she has since we got here.  We always take the elevator up, but when we go down we take the stairs right around the corner from our room.  When we go down for dinner tonight though, we decide to take the elevator down, as well.  That decision prompts this puzzling exchange (from the Department of Things We Take For Granted):

 Haley:  “How do we go down in the elevator?”

Laurie:  “We use the same elevator we came up in, it goes down too.”

Haley:  “But where do we go?”

Laurie:  “Same elevator, right down at the end of the hall.”

Haley:  “But where do we go?”

 We’re confused, and figure we’ll just show her when we get there.  We’re almost at the elevator when Haley, who’s clearly been rolling this over in her head, says “Do I push ‘1’?”  Ah, so THAT was the question!  She’s been pushing ‘2’ to get to our floor all this time, without having any understanding of the connection between ‘2’ and the ‘second’ floor, so she had to construct that relationship in her head.  Call me silly, but I get such a rush whenever I witness children teaching themselves something!

On the way to the food court, Haley is on the phone with her sisters again.  We smile as we hear her tell Elysia in a very excited voice “I rode Splash Mountain, and I was only one inch scared.”  We’re not sure why tonight in the food court is different than any of the other meals we’ve had here, but suddenly she wants to be sure that we not forget to pray before eating.  Perhaps it’s contrition for the “one inch scared” fib.

At about 7:00, we’re headed back to Magic Kingdom with the plan of hitting a few more attractions and hanging around for fireworks.  We’re lucky enough to get to the other end of Main Street just as Cinderellabration is about to start.  [This new hub configuration is much more functional, and much less pretty, and I miss the pretty.]  I try to tell Haley this is a show that tells how Cinderella became a Princess and got her crown, with her friends there to watch.  But I can’t fool her, because she knows Cinderella already IS a Princess, and that white dress means she’s getting married to Prince Charming.  And they’re going to live up in that Castle.  And she’s going to have a baby.  All righty, then.

 She’s very excited to see Aurora (“I call her Sleeping Beauty”) and Snow White join Cinderella, because she talked to all of them and shared hugs earlier today. 

After Jasmine and Belle come out though, she says “That sure is a lot of princesses.  I hope there aren’t any more, that’s enough.”  She’s spellbound throughout the show, and almost in tears afterwards because she can’t go up and hug them again.

 We make our way back around the castle to the Carousel, and Haley wants to ride by herself this time.  I tell her we want to be near her, and she says “Well there’s a bench right behind that horse.”  So I sit with a guy who also has an independent 5-year-old granddaughter, just one horse over from Haley.

 We start for Small World, but there’s no line for Mickey’s PhilharMagic, so we pop in there.  Haley’s all excited until we get to the glasses case, where she says, somewhat dejectedly “Oh, a show?  That’s great.”  But of course, she absolutely loves it.  We’ve had the kids try to pick off some jewels on past trips, but this girl wants to reach out and touch Donald, musical instruments, pie, etc., grinning all the time.  And the giggling when we get splashed, oh my!

 If you haven’t seen the redone Small World, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  Yes, it’s the same silly ride, with the same silly Please Turn Off My Brain song, but oh my, the color and the sound!  The load/unload room has been completely redone, with much more to catch the eye, and very pretty.  The colors inside are much more vivid, but it seems to me the biggest difference is in the sound, which I understand was mostly redone.  It seems to me the sounds in a room are a little less jumbled and more localized, and it’s very enjoyable.  We don’t hear much from Haley, she’s just taking it all in.

It’s time for the fireworks now and we’re out back by Pooh, which used to be our favorite spot.  It’s not so great a spot with Wishes though, because of all the stuff happening right over the Castle.  We give ourselves whiplash looking back and forth from the Castle stuff to the main stuff.  And Haley is more than a little put out that she only catches a very brief glimpse of Tinkerbell.  On the bright side, it’s really cool (and a first for us) to have a child humming or singing along with most of the songs during the show.It’s time for the fireworks now and we’re out back by Pooh, which used to be our favorite spot.  It’s not so great a spot with Wishes though, because of all the stuff happening right over the Castle.  We give ourselves whiplash looking back and forth from the Castle stuff to the main stuff.  And Haley is more than a little put out that she only catches a very brief glimpse of Tinkerbell.  On the bright side, it’s really cool (and a first for us) to have a child humming or singing along with most of the songs during the show.

Being at the back of the Magic Kingdom on a night when the fireworks are the same time as park closing is just nuts.  If you want to wander for a half hour, that might not be so bad, but Haley doesn’t want to, she’s tired and just wants to leave.  So do the tens of thousands of other people here.  We move toward the front of the park, at not much more than a crawl.  It’s pretty bad when your big goal is to maneuver yourselves into position behind the widest couple you can find, just so you can have a little elbow room in their wake.  We get to the bus stop and it looks like we might be on the third bus.  We’re tired enough that if there aren’t seats left, we’ll just wait for the next bus rather than stand.  We do end up getting a seat, but Miss Haley’s sound asleep in the stroller, the first time that’s happened.

 She gives a few grunts and groans as we carry her on the bus, and again as we carry her off, but otherwise sleeps soundly.  When we get her back to the room, we figure we might as well get the rest of the moaning and grunting out of the way quickly, so we lay her up on the bed and double-team the sneakers, socks, shorts, shirt, nightshirt, sheets, Stitch, blankets… It wasn’t quite as fast as a Nascar pit stop, but must have looked fairly similar.  And she’s happily sound asleep.

 We had planned to repeat the park opening Fantasyland deal tomorrow, but we’ve toured hard for two straight days and stayed late for the fireworks, so tomorrow’s going to be a very casual sleep in day.
[TR] Grandbabies 4.5, Magic Kingdom, 4/4/05

 Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Haley, on the fifth day of our week-long post-Easter adventure.

 Despite being up well past her bedtime last night and dead tired, Haley’s just a little too chipper for me this morning as she says “Papa, it’s time to get up, we’re waiting on you again.”  And she’s even peppier after talking to Daddy this morning, since tonight’s the night he’ll be flying down to join us.  He shared a day of his daughter Elysia’s trip with us four years ago when our dates coincided with the end of a cruise he took.  Then two years ago, he flew down with us on his daughter Serina’s trip and spent a couple days, because we wouldn’t have been able to get her on the plane if he hadn’t.  So now, he figures there’s no way he can NOT share a day of his daughter Haley’s trip.  So he’ll fly in tonight (Monday), spend all day tomorrow with us, and fly home Wednesday morning.

 This must be the trip of losing things.  Laurie wakes up this morning with fresh memories of a dream where her glasses were lost and hanging on a nail somewhere.  Sure enough, she can’t find them, and figures the dream means she put them someplace she never does.  She’s a bit frantic, until she remembers that when she picked up the sleeping Haley last night her glasses got so smudged she couldn’t see through them and she hung them on the front collar of her sweatshirt.  Which is right where she finds them.  Whew!

 Haley’s not only very good with letters and numbers, but also with orienteering and knowing left from right.  All the way from the room to the bus stop, she rides in the stroller and points with the appropriate foot for each of our turns.  But this morning, we interrupt her regular route to take her down to play on the big X’s and O’s in the courtyard in front of the Touchdown building.  Both her sisters stayed there, and she’s seen them play on these oversized letters in each of their videos.  (Around our house, the videos of the kids’ trips are known as ‘Elysia’s Disney Movie’, ‘Lexi’s Disney Movie’, etc.)

 It’s almost 11 before we get to the Magic Kingdom, and the scene out front highlights the reason we prefer to get there at rope drop – there are masses of people coming into the park.  While we’re in line out front, there’s a guy behind us barking orders to a group of six or seven, telling the teenage kids which of them needs to go through the ticket line first, hold your ticket this side up with this end first, the whole nine yards.  I joke, sort of generally toward the group, “Man, somebody’s had some military training!”  As the guy smiles and says “You need it”, the elderly woman with them leans over to Laurie and me and quietly says “Yes, and I’m about to go AWOL.”

 We decide to go over into Adventureland first today, and near the bridge Haley spots Rafiki.  For some reason, she’s all excited about getting his autograph this morning, even though she didn’t want to get near him at Animal Kingdom the other day (when there was no line).

 As we approach Aladdin, Haley’s eyeing the jewels in the ground.  She stops and spends a minute trying to pry one out of the pavement.  After giving up, she grins at us and says “Sometimes, don’t you wish we were magic?”  As the girls get in line for the ride, I run over to get FastPasses for the Jungle Cruise.  This show is just always going to be a guilty pleasure for me.  I can’t help but grin broadly as I hear the announcement over the queue’s PA:  “If any of our passengers want to exchange foreign currency, don’t worry, we have banks all along our river.”  I have the same effect on Laurie – some things are so goofy you just have to smile ;-)

 I make it back in time to ride Aladdin with them, and Haley loves it, as expected.  I mentioned the spitting camel to her, and she makes sure she keeps it way up there just in case.  She wants to ride it again right away, but ultimately decides the line is too long.

 We visit the Tiki Room and suggest sitting around in the back, but Haley wants to sit “right up front”.  And she enjoys the show quite a bit, although she could do without M’Boa.  And Iago is very rude.

 We’re on our way back to the Pirates of the Caribbean now, and Haley urgently has to go to the bathroom.  It’s kind of cool to discover that she recognizes the word ‘RESTROOMS’ by sight, so she spots it from about 30 yards away before we do.  So I guess being 5 is a little like going to another country where you don’t know the language – there are a few words you should learn to recognize.

 We have to be a little coy going in to the Pirates ride, because Haley’s developed an aversion to dark places and drops.  The hallway is a little dark here, and she has a pretty good grip on my hand.  She doesn’t even want me to pick her up to look through that dark window (at the chess-playing skeletons).  Apparently the mere fact that I suggested it is enough to make her let go of my hand and grab Laurie’s.  We see the boat now and try to tell her it’s like Small World, but she immediately asks if there are any drops.  We’re not going to fib to her, so Laurie tells her there’s one small one, and she says she doesn’t want to go on.  Laurie just keeps gently talking to her as we move down the queue, and telling her she’ll hug her when the drop comes, and when we get to the boat she gets right in with us.  I tell her (remembering her standard of measurement) that the drop is only “one inch big”.  It’s a little tense at first, what with the dark and the wind and the Dead Men Tell No Tales Orchestra playing, and we go over the drop.  We get to the bottom and Haley says “Is THAT the only one?”  We tell her that it is, and she’s fine for the rest of the ride.  At one point, she tells Laurie “I hardly had time to scream.”

 We go over now to use our FastPasses on the Jungle Cruise.  Our boat has a Japanese guide, and Laurie recognizes him from her February trip.  He wasn’t very good then, being very hard to understand, and we’re tempted to wait for the next boat, but decide not to.  Turns out his speech hasn’t improved, and he leaves out a number of the jokes, as well.  As we get back to the dock, we do hear the guide in the boat in front of us making the important announcement that the 3:00 parade has been rescheduled; today only, it will be at 2:60.  Our guide’s best line may have been unintentional -- after he told us not to climb over the middle seats but walk around, somebody behind us obviously does.  As we walk off the dock, we hear him say “I already tell you that twice, if you’re going to visit here, you have to learn the language.” 

 It’s time to head over to the Harbor House for lunch.  On the way over though, Laurie spots some grapes for Haley from the Liberty Square fruit stand, and then spots a foot long hot dog stand nearby for her (the hot dogs are a foot, not the stand).  I’m holding out for my traditional happy meal inside.  I’m in line there with Haley when she says “I want to go find Grandma.”  I tell her that wouldn’t be a very good idea, because then all three of us will be lost.  “I could just ride rides until you guys find me.”  She may be getting a little too comfortable here.

 We discover after lunch, as we get the stroller, that we’ve lost autograph book # 2.  This one only had a few signatures as well, but it had the Princesses.  We backtrack to the last couple places the stroller was parked, but have no luck.  She doesn’t seem to be upset at all, but boy is it annoying for us.  Seems like we’re not the biggest losers though.  On the path to the Crystal Palace, we run across two 3-day park passes on the ground.  I’m thinking man, THAT could ruin somebody’s trip.  But Laurie tells me the new passes are name encoded so they can get replaced.  Okay, so we ARE bigger losers.

 And speaking of lost, one of us is.  Laurie has to stop at City Hall again, and suggests we can just meet her out at the bus stop.  But I tell her it’s no problem, we can wait down at the end of the building like we did yesterday.  It’s one of those conversations that last about 12 seconds while you’re headed in different directions, and both parties know exactly what was said.  Or think they do.  And to make a long story short, Laurie thought I was waiting outside and ended up outside the gates and couldn’t get back in (since I still had her pass from getting a FastPass earlier).  And I’m waiting inside, wondering what’s taking her so long.

 Well, that fiasco’s over now, and we all really need a nap.  After which, we decide to go over to Fort Wilderness, since Haley was so taken with the horse the other day.  It will be after 6 by the time we get over there so we may not actually find horses, but we’ll see.  We were planning to just take the first park bus we see and transfer, but that ends up being an Animal Kingdom bus and the driver is nice enough to remind us “You don’t want to do that now, the park just closed and the lines are crazy long, any other park would be better.”  So we grab the next bus, to the Magic Kingdom, and take shuttle boat over.

 Pretty impressive that the ferry coming in at 6:30 is absolutely packed.  Laurie thinks with the new ticket system, fewer people have park-hopper tickets and are trying to get the most out of their single-park ticket when it’s Magic Kingdom.  Also, today (Monday) is one of three days this week the park was scheduled to be open until 10 instead 9, and they’ve extended to 11, so occupancy at the resorts must still be really high too.  Haley’s looking out the boat window and can tell that’s real water, but has to ask for confirmation anyway.

So now we’re taking a very relaxing stroll up to the Tri-Circle D Ranch.  Haley suggests that we try to find a horse we can “borrow”.  As we suspected, it’s too late in the day to borrow any horses, but there are quite a few animals we can pet, some very very big horses in the barn, and three very noisy peacocks who turn out to be all yap and no fan.  A couple of the barn stalls are empty, which makes Haley wonder if someone borrowed them.  We assure her they’re working, and head down for supper at the Trail’s End at 7:20.

We’ve had breakfast and lunch here several times, but this is our first supper.  And it turns out supper is all about the color.  Haley likes the corn, if we can just get that green stuff out of it.  And the green beans look really good if we can get those purple things out.  But I melt when she hollers across the room with a big smile “PAPA, THEY HAVE GREEN JELLO FOR YOU!!!”  Seems like forever ago while we were waiting for our flight out and getting to know each other that I mentioned my favorite color is green.

 While Laurie’s getting her dessert, Haley is filling me in on the rules of choking.  If you choke on something that has skin on it, you try to grab the skin and pull it out.  If it’s something very small, you just drink and drink and drink.  I’m thinking of having these rules printed on napkins for our barbecues back home.  Our friends will be choking on little things all night!  After dinner, we make a slight detour on our way back to the dock, because we see a horse standing in front of a cart across the way.  Laurie tells Haley, “See, we told you Luke had to work tonight.”

 We boat back to the Magic Kingdom, walk in just past the train station, and find a nice spot on the wall from which to watch SpectroMagic.  Haley loves this one as well (except Ursula), but she does mention that she knows Ursula isn’t coming back where we are.  We point out to her that even Ursula is smiling, because EVERYBODY loves being in a parade, and that seems to make sense to her. 

 After the parade, we’re on our way back to the bus stop at 9:30 and our little princess is singing … Here Comes Peter Cottontail!  (Note to self -- If you take a 5-year-old the week after Easter, Peter Cottontail will become even more annoying than the Small World Song.)

 Because we were out in the front of the park, we get on the first bus back to the hotel.  On the way, we get a phone call from Daddy, who’s at the airport Mears station and needs to know where they should take him.  It will probably be close to 11 before Ty gets in, but Haley (who usually goes to bed at 8) is trying stay up.  I give him a call from the room later and he’s on property now, so I tell him I’ll meet him in the lobby.  Haley pops up all excited and says “Can I go with you?”  Absolutely!  So I throw her sneakers on, she passes on a jacket, and we’re headed down to the lobby.

 Now the first day we were at All Star Sports, Laurie and Haley had walked down to the pool and taken a wrong turn, which Laurie told Haley was a “shortcut”.  Haley’s mentioned this several times since as “Grandma’s and my shortcut”, and it seemed important that the location not be disclosed to outsiders like me.  Well, on the way down to the lobby tonight, I bypass our normal route and cut across the quad between the middle of the Tennis building and the middle of Surf, and Haley asks me “Is this YOUR shortcut?”  Yes.  “Well I guess since you showed me your shortcut, I should show you Grandma’s.  Our shortcut is a really tricky one, though.  In fact, it’s tricking me right now, because I don’t think I can find it.” 

 Ty comes in one end of the lobby about the same time Haley and I enter the other end, which leads to a delightful squeal-run-jump scene.  It’s quite a late night for all of us, but we’re planning on going to a water park first tomorrow (Daddy’s request), so we should be in good shape.

 We would have thought it might be a little struggle getting up this morning with the very late night we had last night, but Haley’s up at 8, eats more breakfast than she has all week, and seems to have found an even higher excitement level. 

 We get to Typhoon Lagoon and end up at a little overlook on the path in.  We pause there so I can show Haley the wave that’s coming.  Of course (since we’re watching) we spend probably 30 seconds with no wave.  And we discover that the Impatience Gene has successfully been passed from Grandma to Daddy to her when she suddenly turns and says “Well let’s just go down and get IN IT.”  She’s loving being in the wave pool with Dad, and with every wave wants him to move about 3 feet closer.  Eventually they’re far enough out that the water is splashing a lot of her, but almost knocking Ty off his feet, and she still wants to go farther.  I suggest to Ty that he short-leg the next one and see how that goes.  Well it doesn’t go over her head, but it does go over her face, and now they’re moving backwards at about 30 feet a shot.

 We make a half tour on the Lazy River, until we’re over between the other side of the wave pool and the kids’ section.  There are a couple 30 foot water slides that empty into the edge of the wave pool, and a couple of the older girls loved these when we brought them.  Haley tries it once, but ends up coming down mostly backward, and gets seriously dunked at the bottom.  Okay, we’re not doing that again!  We cross the bridge over to the kids’ section (Ketchakiddie Creek), to see what they have to offer.  This is nowhere near as good as Blizzard Beach’s kid areas, as it predominantly consists of various apparatus with which to spray water on each other.  I think there’s a very limited age range that finds appeal in that, and it doesn’t include 5.  There aren’t really any water slides, but there is one tube ride, that seems a little longer than the one at BB.  Haley makes 10 or 12 trips on this one, and is more than a little reluctant to give up her tube each time.  (Unlike the one she did before, there are more kids than tubes on this one, so you have to give up your tube at the bottom and wait for another.)

 She wants to try that water slide by the wave pool again, and Ty tells her it’s no big deal if she gets dunked, she should just hold her breath when she gets to the bottom in case.  Not leaving anything to mere chance, she holds her breath from the time she sits down at the top until she’s standing at the bottom.  Now that she knows how to survive the ride, several more trips are in order.  When she’s through, Laurie and I take our Lazy River back to our base camp, while Haley and Dad scrounge up a sand bucket.  And now Haley’s playing in the sand in the shade, Laurie’s lying in the sun, life is good. 

 As we’re getting our stuff out of the locker to leave the park, Laurie realizes she’s lost her watch.  Not your everyday K-Mart Timex, mind you, but an expensive silver and gold Disney job that she fell in love with a couple of years ago.  What the heck is it with us losing stuff this trip?  She’s had trouble with the clasp a couple times before, and I wish I would have realized before now that this could have been prevented if I had just wrapped five or six of those little rubber bands around the clasp for her when she put it on.  Neither her return to our base camp to sift sand nor our call to Lost and Found later on is successful, and she’s really bummed.  It’s a Disney sort of bummed (where you’re 90% still having a good time), but bummed nevertheless.

 We take our bus back to the All Stars, change our clothes, and head back to the Magic Kingdom.  This is day 6 of 7 for us, and Haley’s down to the clothes she didn’t pick first.  And as sometimes happens to the baby of the family who dresses at least partly in hand-me-downs, her shorts today are just a little too big.  After Ty sees her hiking them up a couple times, he decides to buy a belt for her somewhere on Main Street, but it can’t be done.  (Men’s belts with Goofy buckles maybe, but not for kids.)

 Our priority seating for the character dinner at the Crystal Palace is for 4:20.  This wouldn’t have been our first choice, but by the time we locked in Ty’s travel plans it was all we could get.  And I wouldn’t recommend 4:20 at all.  I think they begin serving dinner at 4, and everyone gets into the line at the same time.  And the line stays very long until almost 5:00.  After that, you get the newcomers rotating through and the line disappears for the night.

 Haley’s very excited at the thought of meeting Pooh and his friends.  Laurie apparently doesn’t want to have her miss autographs with them, because I glance down at the table and see we’ve brought the notepad and Bic pen from our room.  (Good Lord, I’m guest starring in ‘Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Disney World’!)  But we do have a strict two-autograph-book limit on these trips, not that we’ve ever got past one before.  Haley has great fun with the characters, and surprisingly jumps right in to join the Hurray Parade.  My companions are having such a good time they don’t even seem to take a moment to feel sad that I got gypped out of seeing Eeyore at our table because of a poorly timed solo entry into the food line.

[N o b o d y   c a r e s   a b o u t   t h e   d o n k e y  L]

 As we finish up with dinner, Laurie goes over to get FastPasses for Splash Mountain, which will be good at 7:40.  Haley says she’s not going to ride.  Daddy says he was really looking forward to riding it with her, and her reaction is pretty much ‘sorry about your luck’.

 We meet up again at the Country Bear Jamboree.  We see something here we’ve never seen before, when a guy carrying his child comes out the IN door.  At first, we think the child had to leave, but then a mass of people are pushing the doors open and coming out.  The show must be over, and it was just a case of one person going the wrong way and a bunch of others blindly following.  Haley likes the show, but apparently in a limited way.  We ask her if she liked it, and she says “Yeah, it was short. I’d like to do it again.”  Laurie reminds her that tomorrow is our last day, and she gets to pick all our rides.  “Well, I’m not going to pick that one.”  (Dumbo remains at the top of her to-do-again list, and that will be first thing.)

 Haley’s shorts are beginning to be a bigger (get it?) problem now, as she’s sort of holding them up.  Ty figures if he can’t get her a belt, he’ll just get her new shorts, but those are hard to come by here as well.  So it’s Grandma MacGyver to the rescue again.  She scours the first shop we see and finds a set of three Mickey headbands, each a different color with a little Mickey outline on one side.  Knot those three babies end to end and you have a nice $8 belt.  (I tell you, it’s ‘Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Disney World’ ;-)  Laurie points out to Haley the Mickeys on each end and tells her it looks really cool, and Haley’s quite proud of it. 

 She tells us again that she’s not riding Splash Mountain, she wants to ride the Pillow Ride again.  We’re used to the kids giving attractions their own names, like the Waterfall (Splash), the Wolf Ride (Haunted Mansion) and the Rabbit Ride (Kali River Rapids), but we can’t immediately put a handle on the Pillow Ride.  Until she says something about the jewels on the ground.  Now I knew Aladdin was supposed to be a magic carpet, but until now I had never noticed that the sides of the car are made to look like pillows, which I guess if I was going to design a magic carpet I would include too.

 After she bounces her dad around on Aladdin, we make one more attempt to talk her into riding Splash Mountain with her dad.  She’s quite resolute.  And Ty has always been as accommodating with his girls as we have, so he just shrugs his shoulders, realizing that that log has sailed.  We figure it’s a good time to go see the Haunted Mansion.  Haley quickly determines she’s not going on that one again, ever, but is skipping fairly briskly as we head up into Fantasyland.

 We’ve rarely seen Small World crowded like it seems tonight, and we think that not only are some folks that haven’t ridden in a while checking it out, but more people may be taking a second trip now than usual.  Haley spends most of the tour pointing out to her Dad the things that weren’t there when she came last year. 

 She’s extremely excited to show her Dad Mickey’s PhilharMagic, “I just know you’re going to love it!”  They’re just starting to fill the pre-show holding area, and we find a spot down at the far end of the room where we can sit down and not be in the way.  Right next to a group with kids whose parents probably told them that sitting wasn’t allowed, no doubt.  I feel a little guilty sometimes, but I get over it very quickly.  Haley was right, her dad loves the show, and loves watching her still reach for every duck and thingamabob and musical instrument that comes our way.

 We get down by Pooh and the sign says it’s a 45 minute wait.  The line doesn’t look nearly that long to us, but we don’t want to risk missing the fireworks, either.  We definitely have time though for a ride on the Tea Cups,  and Haley wants both me and Dad to ride with her to spin more.  Which we do.  And she’s quite the little giggle-meister.

We find a very nice spot outside the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station from which to watch the fireworks.  She’s criticized me heavily for making her miss Tinkerbell the other night, so we’re in a prime spot to see her.  Unfortunately, because of wind or fairy union issues or whatever, Tink doesn’t make the flight tonight and Haley’s a little miffed.  She still loves the fireworks themselves though, and appreciates (as do we) that you can see all of them from here while looking in only one direction.  She’s such a little pro now, we hear her mention to her dad at one point “This is my favorite part.”  She’s sitting on his shoulders and we see a number of yawns, her late night last night is catching up.  I look over at one point during one of Jiminy’s little speeches and she’s laying her head on top of his head.

 It’s not nearly as bad a trip out to the bus from this location, but once we get outside the park I realize I’m not going to be keeping up with Laurie.  I’ve got a minor knee twist going on in one leg and a small blister on the other foot, so I’ll just let them go out ahead with the stroller to get in the bus line.  As they take off, I hear Haley saying “I’m not getting on the bus if I don’t have a seat.”  Well of course another 20 minutes in the line won’t bother YOU, Princess, since you’re sitting in the stroller and all.  Laurie was going to get popcorn for Haley during the fireworks, but the line had been too long.  So at the bus stop, Laurie tells her she’ll get some at the food court back at the resort, if Haley is still awake when we get there.  Our bus eventually comes and Ty picks up Haley while I fold up the stroller.  As we get almost up to the bus, Haley slowly picks up her head from Daddy’s shoulder, looks up at Laurie with her eyes barely open and says, almost apologetically, “I’m not going to make it, Grandma.”  And she’s sound asleep before the bus starts moving. 

 Our dreaded last day is tomorrow, and we expect Miss Haley will be taking us back to the Magic Kingdom.

[TR] Grandbabies 4.7, Magic Kingdom, 4/6/05

 Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Haley, on the seventh and last day of our post-Easter adventure.

 Well, we’re all up early on Day 7, since Daddy’s getting on the Mears bus at 8:15 and we plan on making rope drop at the Magic Kingdom.  It’s kind of hard for Haley today.  She isn’t crying or anything, but is sad that her dad has to go before us.  He gives hugs and kisses and gets on his bus, and Laurie asks Haley if she thinks we should get in line for the Magic Kingdom bus and wave to Daddy when his bus pulls out.  She says no at first, but then thinks it’s a good idea.  As his bus leaves, Haley and Grandma go up to the curb where they can see well, they wave goodbye to him, he waves back, and we prepare ourselves for having to talk her into having a good day now.  But she’s all smiles and back in line, and all excited about going to the Magic Kingdom again.  We’re good to go.

 From the People Who Are Unclear About The Concept Department, some guy gets off the bus ahead of us at Magic Kingdom and sees the security tables ahead and says, disgustedly, “What, have we gotta line up AGAIN???”  Yes, Grasshopper, many times, and may they all be extra long, just for you. 

What a pageant the opening of Magic Kingdom is in the morning!  Even if you don’t do ‘early’, you owe it to yourself to check this out at least once.  Scoop appears first on the platform, waving and welcoming everybody, and tells us that we’re just waiting for Mickey and his friends to get here from Toon Town to open the park for us.  The Main Street Dancers come out and give us a little song and dance, and it isn’t long before Haley notices some smoke in the trees.  Then we hear the train whistle, and now the train is pulling in carrying Mickey, Minnie, several friends, and the Your-Name-Here Honorary Park-Opening Guest Family.  They all welcome us, and make quite a production of sprinkling pixie dust for us.  And with that, the park is open and we’re headed for castle.

I’m experiencing a little déjà vu here, as Laurie says that even though she knows we’re coming back in June with Caitlin, she’s still a little sad that it’s our last day.  I do believe she’s said this on the last day of every trip we’ve taken from the second on. 

While I’m getting our breakfast OJ and muffins from Scuttle’s Landing, the elephants land and the girls head down to the Speedway, where I’ll catch up with them.  After I get my stuff and start walking, I can see them parking the stroller down by Pooh.  I must say, Haley has quite a skip on this morning, and while Laurie’s skip isn’t visible, she’s definitely in her Happy Stride.  

I meet them after their trip around the Speedway, which Laurie describes as a fairly rough ride ;-)  She was running the gas and would ease off now and then as a whiplash prevention maneuver.  She instinctively reached for the steering wheel a few times, and each time Haley would just gently push her hand away.

We decide to bypass the Tea Cups this morning and go back up to Peter Pan.  [Man, I thought Laurie and I were bad, some guy just pulled his family out of a 10-minute line because it’s too long!]  Throughout Peter Pan, I’m pointing things out to Haley, and every time I open my mouth she responds “I know”.  It’s as if she were saying “You think this is my first day on the job?” 

 As long as we’re right here, Haley wants to ride Small World again.  She really likes the big clock with the doors that open up on the quarter hour and ring bells and such.  Quite often on Small World, I have to do something to ease the pain and monotony a little.  I used to just whine to Laurie, but since that’s NEVER been well-received, I’ve taken to selecting some category of objects to count.  You know, like heart-shaped objects, or stringed instruments, or animal heads that look like the letter “V”.  Early on in today’s trip though, I realize it might be interesting to count the number of times Haley points at something.  Final tally?  27 points, 7 waves, and 1 blown kiss.  (No idea who THAT was directed at.)

As we go through the line for Snow White, we’re reminded that life is all about the little victories.  For a 5-year-old, it can be a victory to go through a turnstile without having it smack you in the back of the head.  A victory that apparently warrants a great big smile and two thumbs up!  I’m a little surprised she wants to ride Snow White again today, it seemed pretty scary for her the first trip.  But she’s in rapid head pivot mode for the whole trip today, and seems to enjoy it quite a bit.

It’s time for a bathroom break now, so we all head over to the restrooms behind Pinocchio Haus.  I don’t know if I mentioned it already, but we have a rule with the little ones -- when any one of us has to go to the bathroom, we ALL have to try at the same time.  Saves us quite a few stops, and there’s no fuss made, because it’s just the rule.  I obviously get done before the girls, and am rewarded with a performance by a horn quartet entertaining the Dumbo queue.

Since we’re right by the Carousel, Haley thinks she would like another ride, so we do.  At this point, Laurie recalls that she had parked the stroller down near Pooh this morning and forgot to get it on her way back from the Speedway.  We haven’t had it, and haven’t heard a single word from Miss Haley about it.  After our Carousel ride is over, Laurie heads down to get it, while I take a break over by the castle.  Haley starts to go with Laurie, then Laurie catches my attention and Haley comes over to me.  It seems when Laurie told her she couldn’t ride the stroller back, she decided not to walk all that way ;-)

As we get over to the wall beside the Castle, we can hear that Cinderellabration is under way again.  This is VERY confusing for Haley.  “Why is she getting married again?”  “Does she still have the baby in her belly?”  I’ve often wondered why Cinderella never moves around very much in any of her autograph sessions.  Now I know.  She gets married, has a party, and gets pregnant, six times a day.  It must be exhausting.

We have our traditional lunch at Pinocchio Haus, sitting by the windows overlooking the Small World load zone so we can wave at the departing boats.  I like the part where Haley waves, I’m not so fond of the 100^th time she says “Papa, you need to wave too!”  She tells me she thinks somebody messed up, because she just saw “six green boats in a row, how did that happen?”  Come on, people, bad show.

And now it’s time to finally see the attraction we hate more than any other at Disney – the dreaded Last Attraction of The Trip.  Mickey’s PhilharMagic gets the vote this time, and Haley uses Laurie’s lap this time to get her closer to the ‘stuff’.  At this point, she keeps her eyes open for everything in the whole show except those champagne bottles.  I’m not too proud to admit I shut mine for those.  It’s not that they’re scary, it’s just that they give me the same effect I would get if I crossed my eyes ten times in a row rapidly.  And it’s been a long time since I was in junior high and thought stuff like that was cool.  After the show, Goofy says “Hope y’all had a real good time” and Haley grins broadly and yells back “WE did!”  I think that exchange describes our whole trip. 

We were hoping to exit through the Castle (since I’m quite fond of that view of Main Street), but there’s another show going on.  So we go down the side, and the pro Haley recognizes it’s almost over.  She rides along in the stroller, waving to the princesses as they leave the stage. 

We get our Mears bus to the airport, wade through the longest Southwest line I’ve ever seen, and have a great flight back home, with Haley sleeping for about half the trip.  This time, we wake her up for the landing so she will have experienced it.  Getting into our car at the airport parking lot, Haley suddenly says “It’s not fair, you guys got more days at Disney than I did.”  We explain that we got the same number of days, but she insists “Yeah, you guys got more.”  We tell her she flew down with us, and flew back with us, so how did we end up with more days.  She says in her best ‘duh’ voice, “Elysia, Serina, …”  Well sure, if you’re going to count ALL our trips ;-)  I’d say she’d like to go back! 

We’ve apparently had quite a profound effect on Miss Haley over the course of our week with her.  Her mom and dad have both said that she never talked much before our trip, and hasn’t stopped since.  Sorry.

Next up on the Grandbaby Tour?  5-year-old Caitlin (Laurie’s baby’s oldest) in early June.  Can’t wait.

Back to Top

Grandbabies 6.0, GAVIN, July 23rd to 30th

This report is very late.  I hope it’s in the category of better late than never.  Just pretend it’s the last week of July, and Florida Summer Hot.

A few years ago, we borrowed another Disney fan's idea and started taking our grandchildren for a week at Disney World the spring before they go into kindergarten.  We take them one at a time so we can focus purely on the one child, which has led to a fairly busy schedule this year, since three of our kids had babies the same spring five years ago.  Haley went with us in April and Caitlyn in June, and now it’s Gavin’s turn.  (And Laurie gets another bonus this trip, with a four-day Disney College of Knowledge advanced agent training program before the boys join her.)

This sixth adventure will be our first with a boy, and all Laurie has been able to talk about for the last six months is how nice it will be for her to be carefree while I assume the role of bathroom monitor.  She’s guessing our bathroom trips won’t take as long as her trips with all the girls, because boys don’t wash their hands.  I can assure you, the entertainment value of a soap dispenser to a five-year-old has no gender limitations.

As with each of our grandchildren, there are certain issues we’re aware of before we leave and other personality traits that we’ll discover during the week that will affect the way we operate, and what we do.  Gavin is very energetic, to the point where I’ve even been known to call him a wild man at times.  We’re sure we can manage that, but he did have a nasty experience once on an earlier Disney trip where he got overheated and went into seizures.  His mom’s a little worried about that, but Papa LOVES the shade, so we don’t expect any problem.  He just turned five last month, and about a year and a half ago lost his dad to an accident in Afghanistan.  His mom did a great job working him through that, and he’s as outgoing as his older sister was on her trip three years ago.  We’re really looking forward to the week, and to getting to know him a little better.

Gavin’s house is about an hour and a half from the airport, and I pick him up on the way to our 7:15 pm flight.  (Laurie’s already at Disney, for her training.)  His backpack and suitcase are packed and he seems more than ready.  His big sister (age 7) is telling him how much fun he’s going to have, but it turns out she’s putting on a brave face.  He hasn’t been away from home for an extended period before, and we find out later that she spent quite a bit of time crying in her room that afternoon.

We start our road trip conversations talking about the attractions at Animal Kingdom for our first day tomorrow, and he seems most excited when I mention Tarzan.  We talk about the Safari, and I tell him my favorites are the giraffes; he says his is the lion.  And that big long snake.  We have no idea what that is yet.  I mention Kali River Rapids and the part where people stand on the bridge and squirt water at you, and he says “That’s called Splash Mountain.”  Okay.

And then our road trip conversations end, because about six minutes up the road, he’s asleep.  I think he’s used up quite a bit of energy today in anticipation.  When I unload the car at the airport, he sees the umbrella stroller we always bring and wonders aloud “Who rides in that, Nya?”  (Our newest grandbaby, one year old.)  He’s well past stroller age for any normal activity, but on this adventure, he’ll quickly come to love it.  So will we.
 
He must have started to learn to swim this summer.  My first clue comes at the airport in Southwest’s ‘A’ queue, when we’re waiting up by the rope, your standard canvas strap type barrier that comes about to Gavin’s chin.  He asks if he can go over by the window to watch the action outside and when I tell him he can, he walks up to the rope and without any comment or expression, takes a deep breath, grabs his nose with his fingers, ducks under the rope and comes up on the other side, releases his nose and lets the breath out, and continues over to the window.  If you can only take one thing with you to Disney World, it should be imagination, and it seems we’ll have plenty of that.

The plane we’ll be riding just came in from Orlando, and about twenty women get off wearing Tupperware Rocks t-shirts.  Bet THAT was a fun convention ;-)  Gavin’s excited about the flight but not nervous, telling me “I flew on a plane only once before, this is my second time.”  We’re down in the Carolinas somewhere as the sun finally sets and Gavin starts chuckling.  “My sister’s in bed.”

We get to Pop Century, and he loves the big icons out front.  It’s way past his bedtime, but he’s quite alert and even bouncy.  We’re on Disney Time.  Laurie meets us and shows him through the food court and he wonders where all the characters are.  Patience, son.  It takes very little time to unpack our suitcases and get our individual drawers set up, and then very little time for any of us to get to sleep.

Quite an adventure we have in front of us, starting with Animal Kingdom tomorrow morning.  There will be singing and dancing, wide-eyed awe, and countless conversations with strangers.  But more than anything, this trip is going to be all about ‘how it works.’  We can’t wait.
Grandbabies 6.1, Animal Kingdom & Epcot

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old grandson Gavin, on the first park day of our week-long July adventure.

We never know quite how the kids will do getting up early in the morning, because they don’t do things in this setting quite like they do at home.  We let Gavin sleep while I shower and Laurie gets ready, as she’s finishing up her training this morning and meeting us later at Animal Kingdom.  When it’s Gavin’s turn, I nudge him a little and suggest it might be time to get up, and he grudgingly says “Yeah, we probably should” and trudges off to the bathroom.  This will work fine.

It’s a well-trained kid we have here; as we’re getting ready to leave the room he says “We have to make our beds before we go.”  I convince him that will be taken care of, and we head out.  It turns out Gavin hasn’t been to Animal Kingdom at all; the ‘big long snake’ and other things he ‘remembered’ must have been on the Jungle Cruise.  There’s only one seat on the bus this morning, and since these are entirely new surroundings (at least for today) he has no interest in sitting between two strangers.  So our first bus ride of the trip is a stander, which for a five-year-old is pretty cool.

The first neat thing we encounter is a talking palm tree entertaining while we’re in line at the AK turnstiles.  Gavin’s quite impressed, and is of course trying to figure out how it works.  He gets only as far as deciding there’s no way it could be a person in there before we make our way into the park.  We’re going to take a Kilimanjaro Safari first, and as we’re walking back to Africa he wants to know if it’s scary.  Not at all.  “Does it go upside down?”  Let’s hope not.  But it’s nice to know that for Gavin anyway, ‘upside down’ is apparently one fear level below ‘scary’. 

In the Safari queue, we go through that little hut that has the overhead tv’s, and Gavin is wondering why they have life jackets among the stuff up in the rafters.  He really IS trying to sort this out ahead of time, isn’t he.  Very reasonable question though, I should think, those must be for the boat tours.  But we’re taking a bus, and he enjoys the ride, on the edge of his seat and taking in everything.  He looks a little apprehensive when it’s clear that our bus is going through the river, but it passes quickly.  You could almost see him thinking “I KNEW I should have brought one of those life jackets.”

As we get on the train to Conservation Station, Gavin wants to know if you have to keep your hands inside.  I say “Yes, why would you want to have them outside?”  “So you can pet the animals.”  He must think we’re going back out on safari.  He’s asking all kinds of questions on the walk to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, most of which I can’t answer.  He doesn’t seem too interested in the exhibits or other stuff going on out here, though there are four times I see him waving and saying “Hi, Stanley.”  Must be a guy thing.  He even giggles at one point because Stanley blew him a kiss. 

The petting zoo is fun, but doesn’t last too long.  The real fun comes when we get to the hand-washing station at the end ;-)  But we do end up getting both picture and video with Rafiki, Stanley, and Pocahontas.  My biggest entertainment is when we’re coming out of the bathroom, watching some poor guy come in with eight single-digit-age kids.  Now THAT could be a project!

Laurie’s work is done, so she joins us now for early lunch at PizzaFari.  They don’t have the lunch coupon things we used to buy anymore, now that they have the new dining plan.  But since there aren’t any table service restaurants in Animal Kingdom, our Disney Dining card will get us a 20% discount here anyway.

After a nice casual air-conditioned lunch, a leisurely walk will get us down to Camp Minnie-Mickey in time for the next Festival of the Lion King.  We end up in the warthog section, but Gavin has no intention of making the warthog sound or motions when it’s our turn.  He loves this show though, he’s up on his toes the whole time.  He’s full of hows and whys, wanting to know how the (mechanical) giraffe works, how does the stilt guy get so tall, and how does he get up on them.  (I’m picturing a five-foot-high chair, but that’s probably not right.)

After the show, he’s quite excited about getting his picture taken with Chip and Dale, and then Goofy.  His first comment about Goofy is that he has very long legs.  With the image of the stilt guys fresh in his mind, he adds “And they’re his real legs!!”  He then notices Goofy’s outdoorsman gear, and wishes he’d brought his hiking boots so he could go hiking with him.  (Recently, Uncle Ty took his three girls, Gavin and his sister, and a friend to WalMart and bought them all hiking shoes, to use on a number of cheap outdoor adventures this summer.  Laurie’s still bummed that she didn’t have her camera with her when Ty and the six kids, age 4-8, came out of the store in a long column like ducks, each carrying their new shoe box.)

We make our way over to Dinoland, and decide that it’s too hot for Gavin to play in the Boneyard playground.  He wouldn’t be able to stay below full speed, and we think a seizure might make the trip less fun.  He must have missed Laurie this morning, because he’s pretty much hanging all over her as we get in line for Triceratops Spin.  She discovers a way to stop the hanging on though – just start dancing to the background music, and he drops you like a hot rock.

One ride on the Spin is enough, he doesn’t really care that much about it.  He’s much more interested in the two dinosaur characters walking around, which are certainly not to be confused with the dearly and recently departed Lucky.  These look more like costumes you’d see in a 3rd grade play.  I guess they fit in with the general dorkiness out here in Chester and Hester land, but none of it fits in with a Disney park, in our opinion.  He thinks the Primeval Whirl would be really cool, but you have to be 48” for that and he comes in at just 44”.

Gavin figures there’s no reason to wait 80 years to use the Clapper.  We’re walking along with him in the stroller and we see him clap twice loudly.  It seems a bit odd, but we really don’t think much about it until we see it the second time.  He’s clapping when Laurie has to slow down for someone in front of us, to get them to move out of the way.  Oh no you di’int!!  Fortunately, we can both keep a straight face while correcting abysmal behavior, but it’s really hard sometimes.  The Clapper is immediately retired.

We were going to see the Tarzan show (since Gavin seemed excited about that) and then ride Kali River Rapids, but it’s so unbearably hot that we unanimously decide to go back to Pop Century and hit the pool.  While Gavin’s changing into his trunks in the bathroom, he’s just singing away.  We can’t recognize the song, but he’s clearly having a good time.  We ask him what the song was, and he tells us it’s a song his sister has on a CD, and he can’t sing all of it because there’s bad words in it, but his sister and her friend sing all of it, even with the bad words.

Gavin lies down on the bed while I’m getting changed and is asleep before I get done, so I guess we’ll do naps before pool.  He really does have only two speeds ... full and off.  Everybody takes a little nap, with mine being a bit shorter because I haven’t finished Harry Potter yet and find it hard to put down.

At the pool, Gavin impresses us with his new-found water skills; he’s quite the little swimmer.  Laurie’s showing him how to float on his back, and he’s a very eager student.  After a bit, Laurie comes over to me and asks if she has staples in her eyes.  Apparently Gavin thinks she does, looking at the remnants of the non-water-proof mascara she used this morning.  We ask Gavin how long he wants to swim, and he tells us “13 minutes.”  That sounds about right to us, so we wait until we get to the 5-minute mark and give him our standard minute-by-minute countdown.  When time is up he’s clearly ready to go, hopping out of the pool and saying “Let’s go to the park and ride some rides!”

We make a very casual trip over to Epcot, where I experience another first, at least with our grandkids – it’s ME making the urgent bathroom trip with the grandbaby instead of Laurie.  It turns out she’s right.  It IS more fun to be the one hanging around outside ;-)
 
We ride Spaceship Earth first and Gavin tells Grandma five times during the ride that it’s not scary at all, so it certainly seems like he’s trying to convince himself.  After letting him know that everything inside Spaceship Earth is ‘not real’, she has a bit of a job convincing him that the fountain in the plaza IS real.  It’s out here in the plaza that he has his very first episode of pin trading.  None of the other kids showed much interest in pins at all, and I’m secretly hoping he finds them as boring as I do.  I’m not sure why Laurie decided to launch into a pin program this trip, but it probably had something to do with getting a pin-and-lanyard free with our Magical Express stuff.  Evil Disney.

At 7:45, all of the Imagination building is closed for the day, so we’ll just have supper at the Electric Umbrella.  Now when we had lunch today at PizzaFari, Gavin cleared the table for us, mostly because we like to burn off bits of that huge amount of excess energy in as constructive a way as possible.  I jokingly told him to not throw the tray away with all the papers, which earned me a little eye-roll and a very ‘duh’ sounding “I know, not the tray.”  After dinner tonight though, he clears up again.  We happen to look over at the trash can in time to see him with a severe “OH, NO” look on his face and his arm fully inside the door of the bin, saying “It went!”

We make one more trip through Spaceship Earth before we go.  I thought we were going to beat the Illuminations rush out of the park, but Laurie has to stop and do some more pin-trading with Gavin just outside the gates.  And it seems fairly urgent to him as soon as she suggests it.  He’s in the middle of a phone call with his Mom as we go out the gates, and as soon as Laurie mentions the pin station, he simply folds the phone up and goes to work.  I guess Mom will figure out that the silence includes an implied “Goodbye.”  Our first day was a blast, can’t wait for MGM tomorrow.
Grandbabies 6.2, MGM & Epcot

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old grandson Gavin, on the second day of our week-long July adventure.

We’re right on schedule this morning getting into MGM a few minutes before rope drop.  All of us had a good night’s sleep and are fully charged.  We wander up through the shops on the left side of the street, picking up a Times Guide and some mints and some apparently critical Buzz Lightyear sunglasses on the way.  We end up in the farthest door of the shop just before rope drop, nearly at the head of the line.

The Times Guide is probably more important at MGM than any other park, partly because so many of the attractions are shows, but also because they seem to have a more varied starting schedule than attractions elsewhere.  Little Mermaid has three different ‘first show’ times, depending on the day of week, sometimes starting at the same time as Playhouse Disney and sometimes later.  The Great Movie ride is open already though, so our plan is to see that, then the Mermaid, then the Playhouse. 

As soon as we walk into the front room of The Great Movie Ride, Gavin issues an awe-struck “WOW!!!”  We never do find out precisely what that’s about, but the place is clearly impressive to him.  The queue can be hazardous for a five-year-old, though.  The railing is at ear-level for poor Gavin, and since he has to watch all those movies while walking through the line just like we do, he racks his shoulder on about five of the posts before we’re through.  The ride itself isn’t nearly as impressive for him as the front room was.  That’s not surprising, since the only movie depicted here that he’s familiar with is The Wizard of Oz.  (That’s his big sister’s favorite, so he’s seen it a hundred times.  His favorite movie is Shrek, and I doubt we’ll see much of that here.)

We’re probably just in time for the Little Mermaid, but Playhouse Disney is loading right now as well, and that only runs once an hour.  Gavin enjoys the show here, but we’ve decided that four must be the age where you reach your peak, dancing-wise.  He’s clearly past that, and scoffs at the notion.  But he knows all the songs and energetically sings along, clearly a man after my own heart.  He has quite a bit of sport breaking the bubbles, too.

The Voyage of the Little Mermaid is one of our favorites here, and Gavin likes it a lot too.  He wants to know how Ariel can breathe under water, and whether Bruce (the shark from Finding Nemo) is Ariel’s friend.  I tell him he needs to be quiet during the show, mostly so I don’t have to make any guesses as to the level of Bruce and Ariel’s interaction.  There’s bubble-breaking here as well, and we get a resounding “Woo Hoo!” from him after Sebastian sings “Under the Sea.”  He’s also instantly fond of the dog at the end, who’s quite energetic himself this morning. 

We make a potty stop after the show, and I catch a little guff for using the short sink and towel dispenser.  Those are ‘his’, and I’m supposed to be using the tall ones.  I suppose I’ll catch on eventually.  It’s quite breezy out by the Big Hat this morning, and we’re briefly entertained by a couple kids laughing and chasing their stroller across the plaza while the wind carries it like a sail.  At the other end of the street, Gavin’s ready for his first autograph of the trip, with Sully (the overgrown star of Monsters, Inc.  No prissy princesses for this boy, it seems).  Unfortunately, they shut the line down just as we get there, with Sully going backstage and his handler reading the riot act to three 20-somethings (two girls and a guy) who had been getting their picture taken.  As near as we could tell, there had been some inappropriate touching, and the offenders were well on their way to being escorted out of the park.  It isn’t long though, before Sully returns, fully composed, and we get our autograph and picture.

We take a brief break near Ellen’s bookstore, and Gavin’s very energized as he looks over at the Star Tours entrance.  We initially think he remembers it from his earlier trip or his big sister’s ‘Disney movie’ (our video of her trip), but it turns out he’s spotted a kid over by the you-must-be-this-tall measuring stick.  He wants in the worst way to go see if he’s tall enough, and is really pumped to find he is.  "And I wasn't even on my tippy-toes this time!!"  Who cares what the ride is, if I'm tall enough, I'm riding!  We’ll get to it in a bit, hon.  We’ve never had any of the kids whine to do a particular thing ‘right now’, because there are so many things to do and they discover early on that if we say we’ll do something later, we will.

The Backlot Express doesn't serve lunch until 11:30, so we're going to Muppets first.  He really likes the 3-D movie, but man, what a wiggle-worm!  Glasses up, down, checking out the walls and ceiling, sitting back, up on the front of his seat.  It sometimes tires me out just watching him.

I'm not sure why, but every 6-year-old and under kid you see dropping his 3-D glasses into the bin has to pause to look down into the bin.  Can't imagine what they think they might see. 

Gavin spots a bathroom and decides we better stop, launching a preemptive strike on the way in so that I’ll get to the right sink and towel dispenser when it's time.  We have lunch at the Backlot Express, out by the windows so we can watch people going in to Star Tours. 

It’s kind of cute that he waves to each of the robots in the Star Tours queue.  Two-thirds of the way through the ride, he asks me "Why do we have to have seat belts?"  Well, I guess we haven't been upside down or actually hit anything, so it does seem a bit of overkill.  On the other hand, if he's used to rides that are even rougher than that, we may need to have a little talk with his Mom about her driving. 

It's 1:00 and sweltering, and we don't think Gavin can stretch his attention span to cover either the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show or the Beauty and the Beast show.  He's got a very bad case of happy feet right now, so we need to get back to the hotel for the hot part of the day and get in a little pool and nap time. 

Back in the room, getting changed for our swimming, Gavin shares with me that my socks look dorky.  I'm not sure, but I think this makes me six-for-six on grandkids dissing some article of my clothing.  I used to attribute it to the unrefined tastes of five-year-olds, but I'm starting to think it might be me.  He makes friends with another five-year-old in the pool, this one just getting the hang of swimming with the floaties on his arms.  In contrast, Gavin wants me to take him on my back out to the five-foot part of the pool, and them promptly just jumps off.  Okay, I see how it works.

After our extended pool time and a very long nap, we’re going to Epcot again, this time to check out World Showcase and the Kid Stops.  (You know, the stations in each of the country pavilions where the little ones can get and decorate a cardboard mask on a paint stirrer handle and avoid the boredom of ‘the shops’.)  We decide on a clockwise tour today, so we can start out with the two pavilions that have the only actual rides back here.  Walking down the ramp to the ride in Mexico, Gavin sees that it's a boat we'll be riding and wants to know "Do we get wet here?"  The look on his face indicates that ‘yes’ might be a better answer than ‘no’.  He enjoys the ride, but isn’t quite so crazy about the Norway ride next door, what with the thunder and lightning and all.

We get our first wide-eyed "Awwwwesommmme" of the trip at the China pavilion.  Not for any of the cool architecture, nor for the acrobats (they don’t perform until later).  It’s in the outdoor shop back by the Kid Stop, where he sees a very ornate sword for sale.  No.  Just ... no.

We’re just sitting down for dinner at the Biergarten in Germany and Gavin is watching the band play, when he suddenly turns to Laurie and gives her his best Warthog.  I guess he finally decided it was okay.  We get our food and are nearly back to our table when he starts to dance to the music.  I couldn't really describe the dance, other than to say it's the only dance I've seen that fits well with a tuba.  After dinner, I’ve eaten enough that it actually hurts a little to stand up or walk.  They say repetition is an excellent teacher, but this is my fifth or sixth time at the buffet here and I just don’t seem to be getting the gist of the lesson. 

People-watching is fun anywhere, but more so at Disney.  While I’m waiting out in the plaza for Gavin and Grandma to finish up at the Kid Stop in Italy, a dad points out to his kids a statue they just passed and says "Hey kids, look, it's Hercules.  Or Zeus.  Or ... who the hell is that, Diane?"  At the American pavilion Kid Stop (which I think will be our last one, since he's showing no interest at all), he spots a CM wearing a Leo lion pin and urgently says "Grandma, where's my pins, I gotta trade her, I gotta get that one."  And we apparently don't need Grandma for the actual transaction anymore, this time he walks up to the CM by himself while we're a few feet away and asks her if he can trade.  And now it's his, and he's one happy camper.  As we're leaving the area, he remembers that his mask is not well attached to the stick and that "she had duck tape there, I'm going to ask her to fix it."  Now to you and me, what she has is masking tape, but if the little redneck wants ‘duck’ tape fixing his mask, who are we to argue.  And once again, he takes care of the entire transaction on his own with us thirty feet out into the plaza, from the very polite request for assistance to the cheery "Thanks" with which all transactions should be closed. 

We’re about done with our circuit for the night, since we want to go back over to Germany to get an upwind Illuminations viewing spot.  (Laurie has no intention of repeating her smoke and ash shower of the other night, when her Disney training group watched from a ‘special’ viewing area that turned out to be directly downwind.)  But we HAVE to continue just a little bit farther, until we get to the Kaki Gori stand.  To make sure all that color goes in us instead of on us, we decide to just sit on the stone wall in the shade to enjoy them.  These little stops are so much fun, when we get the chance to just kick back and laugh and share our assessments of all the things we’ve seen and done.

As we head back up the hill toward the American pavilion, I can’t help but think of our friend John.  He was quite amused on a previous trip when I couldn't talk Caitlyn into pushing the stroller up hills.  Well John, my evil plan is working quite well this time, as Gavin is more than happy to push up the hills.  It’s a very good thing too, because he must be at least twenty pounds heavier than she was. 

Somewhere between the Outpost and Germany, we spend a good 15 minutes with a whole bunch of other people watching a tree frog.  Judging from the expressions on all the faces in our little crowd I’d say this is one of those attractions that’s ‘fun for all ages’.

On our way past Germany, Gavin says “Hey, there’s a train robber!”  More of a 'train stealer' I think, it's a CM who's taking the train in for the night.  We all enjoy Illuminations, and then make a quick bathroom stop in Germany.  Climbing back into the stroller, Gavin announces "I want to go home now."  Well, certainly.  We're all a little tired, and this one has never fought that or failed to acknowledge it.  (Back when he could first talk in sentences, he had no problem asking "Mommy, can I go to bed now?")  We aim to please. 

We get to the Pop Century bus stop and are able to get on the fourth bus that arrives.  We talk about the day, and though he’s tired, he’s still having fun reliving our activities.  We all manage to get seats on the bus, but Gavin climbs on my lap to let someone have his seat, and almost falls asleep before we get back to the hotel.  Tomorrow will be a relaxed day at the water park, as we’ve discovered that three straight days of the theme parks tends to burn the little ones out quite a bit.  Gavin’s very much looking forward to the water park, as are we.
Grandbabies 6.3, Blizzard Beach & Magic Kingdom

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old grandson Gavin, on the third day of our week-long July adventure.

Gavin wakes me up early this morning, wondering if Mickey or Stitch has called yet.  Grandma’s in the shower, so I’m guessing they did.  But suddenly, the phone rings and I’m treated to Gavin’s end of the conversation.  “Hello ... Hi, Mickey ... Hi, Stitch ...” followed by a long pause.  After hanging up, he looks at me and says “Well that was weird.  They just keep talking and don’t talk back to you!”  Then there’s a brief and jovial argument over whose turn is next for the shower.  I declare that the order should be Grandma-Gavin-Papa, the same order we go on the rides.  But he runs over to my bed, jumps up on it, onto me, then rolls over me and declares “No, it’s whoever’s closest to the bathroom, and that’s you.”  Foiled again.

Not only do I get bathroom duty with the boy, but I get shower duty too.  Which has its cool moments, such as when Gavin takes some shampoo out of the Mickey bottle this morning and wonders if it will make him smell like Mickey.  Yes, I think it will.  

We’ve found with the other kids that after two park days, they really need a ‘day off’ at a water park to relax, so this is mainly going to be a Blizzard Beach day.  We were going to have breakfast at Donald’s in Animal Kingdom first, but a combination of a full first bus and three wheelchairs has left us 15 minutes after our reservation time already when our bus pulls into Blizzard Beach on the way there.  So we’ll just skip AK and get off here.  At least we got off here on purpose – the bus driver didn’t make any announcement that I heard, and there are six poor people who just got off here thinking they were at Animal Kingdom. 

We first head over to the kiddie area, Tyke’s Peak, to find a place to park our stuff.  While we’re standing next to the wading pool with Laurie and me debating what spot will be in the shade an hour from now, Gavin heads into the water saying “I’ll be right over here when you decide.”  I swear, if you had to wait for adults to make up their minds every time, you’d never get anything done.  After one trip down the (admittedly lame) flat slide, one down the water slide, and one down the tube slide, Gavin’s ready to check something else out, so we’ll make our first trip around the lazy river.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is absolutely the best way to travel to nowhere in the heart of the central Florida summer.  About a quarter of the way around, the tube is apparently quite an inconvenience for Gavin, so he simply abandons it.  The water’s between chin and nose deep for him, so he’s alternating between swimming, walking, and Tiggering.

A little ways downstream, it’s time for a real ride, so we climb 138 very hot steps to get up to the top of the Teamboat Springs family raft ride.  (Yes, we counted.  We’re goofy like that.)  Talk about a tough job at Disney World, there’s a girl wandering past the queue up here, sneaking up on people and spraying them with a hose.  Everyone’s ducking that initial shot, but are loving it as soon as they realize how much it cools them off.  The ride down is wild and exciting, and now it’s time for lunch at the LottaWatta Lodge.  There’s quite a varied menu here, with burgers, hot dogs, chicken wrap, fish and chips, turkey sandwich, pizza, and even a Cobb Salad.  Not quite the one I love at the Brown Derby, being a little more ‘tossed’ than ‘Cobb’, but still quite workable.  Laurie says the fish is really good, and Gavin votes the same on the pizza.  We’ve had some adventures in picky eating on previous trips, but there aren’t going to be any issues with this guy at all.

[I have to digress at this point to relay a marvelous conversation I overheard on our adults-only RADP trip in early December.  A mom and her five-year-old son were on the bus to Animal Kingdom, going over the list of things they’d do and see during the day.  When the subject came to lunch and the boy wondered what they have there to eat, Mom told him (with a completely straight face) that she’d heard that Animal Kingdom had an excellent wildebeest sandwich.  That ended the conversation for about 20 seconds, after which the boy looked up and said “Mom, do I LIKE wildebeest?”]

Now it’s time to decide what to do after lunch.  Gavin thinks it’s too hot to climb up all those steps again.  Grandma thinks the line to get the chair lift up is way too long.  Grandpa thinks we should take one more trip around the lazy river and then head back to the hotel.  Grandpa wins!!  But first, while I’m making a pit stop, Laurie is reapplying some sunscreen to Gavin.  He manages to get some in his eye, and Laurie suggests he lie down and let his tears wash it out.  By the time I get back, he’s laying on a beach towel in the shade on the blacktop, sound asleep.  Two speeds; fast and off.

After a half-hour nap, we make our lazy river trip.  We must be enjoying it quite a bit, because before we know it we’re entering the cavern a second time, so I guess it’ll be two trips.  Gavin and Laurie decide to get out part way around and do some water slides, but sun-puppy that I am, I’m going to stick to the cool water and the shade.  By the time I’ve floated back to Tyke’s Peak, they’re already back.  Turns out they made one run on the toboggans and then neither wanted to climb to the top again.  Gavin thinks he should make one more trip on each of the three kiddie slides before we go, and as is our custom with most things that don’t cost anything, we agree.

Back at the hotel, I can tell we’ve been at the 70’s building for three days, because Gavin is singing ‘Jesse’s Girl’.  After a lengthy nap and shorter supper in the food court, we set out at 6:00 to spend a leisurely evening at the Magic Kingdom.  When we get into Town Square, there are some characters out, most of whom seem to be bears.  I can’t remember any of their names, so I’m not ashamed to just refer to them as ... Da Bears.  Autographs and pictures are in order here, and we haven’t spent much time on that activity this trip at all. 

As we walk up through the shops on the Emporium side of Main Street, the subtle change in merchandise from one shop to the next isn’t lost on Gavin.  About two-thirds of the way down, he announces “Finally, some BOY stuff!”, which in this case seems to mean hockey shirts.  We get over into Adventureland and there’s only a ten minute wait for the Jungle Cruise, so we go on that.  It’s another disappointing cruise for us, as have been the last two or three we’ve taken.  The skipper never slows the boat down, and doesn’t really even give himself time to set up the jokes, and we end up stacked up at the end like on Small World.  Somebody needs to talk to these kids about pacing.  Gavin’s fine though, for him it’s all about rhino horns and spitting elephants, and great big long snakes. 

We have to wait a bit to get on the Aladdin ride because they can’t get the gates open to let people on.  Apparently, there’s some kind of safety link between the ride itself and the gates, so they have to clear all the previous riders out, start the ride empty and run it through a cycle, stop it, and then the gates open without a problem.  We start to walk out to our spot and Gavin’s not moving, so I tell him “Come on, it’s our turn.”  He looks up at me with what I take to be a mixture of fear and embarrassment and says “I can’t, my leg’s stuck in the fence.”  And sure enough, it is, he put his leg through the bars and can’t get his knee back out.  So I clear the ride out, run it through a cycle, and then his leg comes out with no problem.  (Not really, but wouldn’t that be cool?)

Next is the Enchanted Tiki Room, for some fun with Iago and Zazu and M’boa and those hip Tiki gods.  Laurie is fully prepared to reassure Gavin that everything is all right when the thunder comes and M’boa appears, but he turns and looks up at her and smiles a this-is-cool smile.   He asks her a couple times if the birds are real and she lets him know they are not, but on the way out he waves to them.  The fact that they aren’t real is no reason to not show a little appreciation and friendship.  [Laurie says:  This is perhaps the neatest thing about going with a five-year-old.  There’s a fine line between real and not real, and they don’t care where the line is, it’s just all ... fun.]

On the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Gavin’s only the second of our six grandchildren who shows concern during the firefight between the pirate ship and the fort, ducking down in the boat as we sail through the fray.  Interestingly, it was his big sister who three years ago looked at us in bewilderment and asked “Why aren’t you ducking???”  Laurie had explained to him as we got into the boat that we’d go through a little stretch where it was quite dark and we’d go down a little hill, and he had immediately taken her hand, placed it on his leg, and started gently rubbing it.  That was his security blanket.  By the time we get into the room with the singing donkey and the lady in the red dress though, he picks her hand up and gently puts it back on her own leg.  I can handle it from here on out, Grandma. 

At the Country Bear Jamboree, Gavin is alternating between giggling loudly and nearly falling asleep.  We grab some ice cream afterward, and since it’s almost 9, we’re racing the parade to Casey’s Corner from opposite directions, hoping to be able to cross the street and at least have the option of getting out of the park ahead of the crowd.  (He hasn’t seen a parade yet, so we have no idea if he’ll be interested or not.)  Turns out we’re way ahead of it, so we casually make our way down toward Tony’s Town Square.  We’ve enjoyed the afternoon parade from Tony’s porch in the past, but they have dinner seating out there now so that isn’t going to be an option.

We’re still trying to navigate from the middle of the throng at the end of Main Street, when Gavin spots the first parade float and jumps out of the stroller yelling “THE PARADE’S HERE!!!!”  Guess that answers that question.  We convince him to sit down until we can get to some kind of opening in the crowd, and eventually make our way down to the entrance of the train station.  Gavin gets to stand up on a low wall next to us, and instantly becomes silently glued to the parade.  Several minutes later, he turns to us and screams “GOOFY!!!”  Shortly after, Chip and Dale get the same introduction, as does Ariel.  When Cinderella and the Prince go by, he waves to them until they’re well past us.  And when the final float goes by, he turns to Laurie and calmly informs her, since she must look like the kind of person who wouldn’t know these things, “That’s Captain Hook.”

All in all, another very good day at Disney World.  Laurie and I are very much looking forward to rope drop at Epcot tomorrow, our first chance to ride the really cool rides there without big lines.
Grandbabies 6.4, Epcot, Fort Wilderness, MK

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old grandson Gavin, on the fourth day of our week-long July adventure.

These are sharp kids we bring with us to Disney World.  They have a way of (as our Carousel of Progress friend puts it) getting right to the core of the apple.  As I’m leaving the room to get some food court coffee while we’re getting ready this morning, I hear Gavin asking Laurie “What are we going to miss if we’re late?”  She explains that we won’t ‘miss’ anything, we just have to stand in longer lines if we get there later.  That’s all he needed to know, and he wastes no time getting into (and out of) the shower.

I really thought that one of the small time-savers on this trip (being the first of six with a boy) would be that we wouldn’t have to spend any time preparing hair.  It turns out though that Gavin has some morning prep work himself.  (I blame his mother ;-)  He has what I would call a short-spike haircut, and he takes full responsibility himself for his ‘look’.  It’s really quite a fascinating process, involving just the right amount of water on his hands, some Got-2-B-Glued Spiking Freeze Spray, and a couple minutes in front of the mirror getting it just right.  Not only does he not require help from either of us, I get the feeling it wouldn’t really be welcome.  It’s cute.  And when he walks out the door, he looks like he feels like a million bucks, and that’s certainly not a bad way to start the day.

Laurie and I aren’t the only ones who take a quick last-minute inventory before we leave the room for the parks.  On the kid trips, we always just have cereal in the room each morning, so we can get to the park as early as possible and avoid lines.  Then each of us carries a fanny pack with a juice box and a couple snacks.  They can have something from their pack whenever they want it, and we never need to forfeit prime morning time to eat.  They’ve all quickly caught on and done a great job of self-rationing.  But Gavin’s the first who has to check on the way out the door to make sure he has his room key in his fanny pack.  I certainly hope he won’t end up far enough away from us to really need it, but we HAVE let him open the door every time, and he clearly takes the responsibility seriously.

Our mission to make rope drop at Epcot this morning is successful, complete with the character bus out front.  We manage to beat most of the crowd into Soarin’, which we all enjoy immensely.  Gavin watches the pre-flight instructions intently, and has no problem working the extra belt loop for “our shorter aviatorzh.”  (Mimicking Patrick Warburton’s voish, sorry.)  He has lots of questions about what’s going to happen with the seats and how everything works, and then we’re flying.  He’s in awe, and loves it as much as we do.

We stop on the way out of the building for one of Gavin’s lengthier bathroom stops.  Laurie enjoys this time immensely, from her comfortable spot OUTSIDE.  I talked to him yesterday about folding toilet paper, trying to get him past that stage where you just wad up half a roll.  He apparently finds that annoying, telling me this morning that “My dad makes me do it HIS way.”  Thinking I may be undoing some parental work here, I ask him what his dad’s way is.  At which point he lowers his head a bit, with a sort of ‘busted’ look on his face, and says “your way.”

The Test Track line says 25 minutes, but it’s out the door farther than the depth of the building and isn’t moving, so we don’t believe it.  We picked up FastPasses for Soarin’ while we were there, and we’re already at the time where we can get another, so now we have them for both Soarin’ and Test Track.  Laurie and Gavin are ready for a breakfast snack, which they have while I have a smoke.  But by the time they’re nearly done, I decide I’m a little hungry too, so I pull out some crackers and cheese from my fanny pack.  In a subconscious effort to catch up and not make them wait, I guess I must be eating them a little too aggressively, because Laurie says “Boy, you’re eating like Gavin, you’re going through that in a hurry.”  And Gavin, seeing a chance to GIVE an instruction he’s probably received at home a thousand times, grins up at me and very slowly says “Take your time, taste your food.”

Since we can get into the Imagination attractions most any time, we decide to try to beat the crowd to The Living Seas.  I think Gavin is the first of the grandkids to really appreciate the Hydrolators, and the notion that we are going way down under the ocean.  We don’t really spend a lot of time with the fish this trip, but we all really enjoy Turtle Talk with Crush again.  That is just such a cool deal.

We use our FastPasses to ride Soarin’ again, and it’s interesting to watch Gavin’s hands during the ride.  He grips the hand holds during the takeoff, but as soon as we clear the clouds, his hands are in his lap.  Then he grabs on again when we’re up with the hot air balloons, until we clear the trees.  But, as with most of the folks on the ride, it’s one constant grin.

The Imagination ride with Figment is fun.  Gavin does plug his nose in the Scent Lab, though well after we’ve received our free scent.  We’re going to skip Honey I Shrunk the Audience this trip though.  He doesn’t want to do another movie with the special glasses, because the only thing he liked about the other one was where “Fozzie blew that thing out.”  Interesting highlight, I guess.  We believe a critical part of our success with these trips is that the kids know right off the bat that we’re not going to ‘make’ them do any particular attraction.  There’s so much to do and see here that our days will be full no matter what we pick or skip.  If there’s something we’re sure he’ll enjoy (like Mickey’s PhilharMagic), we’ll find a way to talk him into deciding to try it, but we won’t make him.

We go over now and use our FastPasses on Test Track.  He handles the ride well, though he’s definitely sporting a ‘holy crap’ look when we almost hit the semi.  As we’re walking off the ride and checking out our picture, he’s telling us repeatedly that the ride was awesome, then suddenly asks “Can I drive that truck???”  I’ve never thought of wanting to drive the truck, though I imagine that would be kind of cool, for a very small part of a day.

On our way out through the showroom he spots somebody in one of the cars and wants to know if he can drive one.  Sure!  He spends a minute ‘driving’ the Cobalt, followed by a sharp-looking red pickup.  As he’s climbing down from that, he spots THE vehicle across the room, looks down at me with a just-won-the-lottery look on his face and says “I’m doin’ the Hummer!!”  Which reminds me of another way that grandchildren are even better than your own; they’ll never be on YOUR car insurance.

During lunch at the Electric Umbrella, Gavin is intrigued by the ‘little salad’ Laurie gets.  (You and I usually refer to it as coleslaw.)  We go through four or five menu options with him that all sound good, before settling on the macaroni and cheese.  When that’s all he eats of the meal, Laurie tells him he has to eat his applesauce as well.  He immediately picks up on the fact that she has peeled off some dry parts of the roll from her beef sandwich and says “You have to eat your crust.” 

We decide to do the Figment ride again, and end up in a short line behind a 20-something couple, she with bright pink short spiked hair and a nose ring.  Gavin says (not at all quietly) “Look at her HAIR.”  The girl looks a little embarrassed, but her guy is clearly trying to stifle a hearty chuckle.  You just know he’s not a fan at all of the hair, but he loves her and can put up with just about anything.  I wonder aloud to her “Well, you really didn’t expect that people WOULDN’T be looking at it, did you?”  She smiles, but Gavin then brings out the big guns, and comments “It looks like boy’s hair.”  Now she’s REALLY embarrassed, and her boyfriend is no longer feeling the need to hide his amusement, either.

Laurie decides at this point that she’s going to go over to the First Aid station and see if they can help her get to the bottom of an ear problem she’s developed.  She hasn’t been able to hear well since we were at the water park yesterday, and thinks that either she got water in her ear and dislodged some wax or maybe even has some kind of infection brewing.  She tells us to go on ahead and she’ll catch up with us back at the room or at Magic Kingdom when she’s done.

Gavin and I e-mail our picture to his mom from Innoventions, then go down to ride Spaceship Earth again.  We manage to get stuck in the short line in front of one of the Old Troll’s ‘bored teenagers’.  After his parents have explained that it’s a slow ride and ‘educational’, he’s whining and wants more info.  This is where Gavin jumps in to tell him that he’s ridden it “a thousand times,” and to give him the important scoop.  When the kid asks him what you do on the ride, Gavin patiently tells him “You go up there and they ask you how many, and you tell them how many of you there are.”  And really, that IS all you have to do. 

Throughout the ride, he’s telling me exactly what’s happening in every scene, and I can tell these are exactly the things Laurie was describing to him when he rode with her the first two times.  He was really, really paying attention.  At one point, he asks me about a guy who’s standing up on a balcony looking through a sextant, and I must confess I don’t remember seeing him before.  On the way down the hill at the end of the ride, he wants to know if we can ride it again without getting off, but it’s a little too busy (and he needs to run a bit), so we’ll get off and go around into the line.  As we’re going into the building, he tells me to “say four,” and it takes me a while to figure out that he’s trying to guarantee us a stranger-free car, since four is what they hold.

We know that when the ride stops it’s usually to let a wheel chair guest on.  Today we witness another stop-the-ride event.  A three-year-old has just got into the car behind us and has to pee, urgently.  Her mom asks the CM to let them out, just as they’re about to leave the turntable.  He says he really can’t stop it, can she hold it?  Mom says “I’m thinking you’ve got two choices, stop it or mop it.”  He chooses stop.

On the way out of the park, I see my new favorite t-shirt, spotting a guy from about a mile away wearing a bright pink shirt.  And I mean bright.  As we get close to him, I see that it says across the front “Don’t laugh, this is your girlfriend’s shirt.”  While I’m greatly amused by the joke, it might be even more effective if this particular shirt weren’t a size XXXL.

On the bus back to the hotel, Gavin wants to sit right behind the driver, but I want to sit a few seats back where I can wedge the stroller in between two seats and not have to hold it.  He tells me “It’s okay, you can sit back there.”  So I do, and he sits behind the driver, singing away and leaning over occasionally to look out the windshield.

After our nap, Gavin thinks it would be a really good idea to pet the horses over at Fort Wilderness.  Sure, why not.  “How do we get there?”  We’ll take a bus and then go on a boat.  “A boat?  Awwwesssommme!!!”  Taking our shortcut through the parking lot to the bus stops, he grins and says “We were smart, all these people drove here and we flied here.” 

If you’re going to make an impromptu trip to Fort Wilderness, keep in mind that there’s a Hoop-de-Doo show that starts at 7, and for quite a while before that the boats will be quite full.  A little too crowded to get full enjoyment from the boat ride.  We don’t really get to pet the horses, either, or any other animals for that matter, because they’re all lounging in the shade away from the fence.  Which makes them a bit smarter than us goofballs in the hot sun outside the fence.

We’ve generally found something with each of the kids that has amazed us.  In Gavin’s case, we knew coming in that he was hyperactive.  And yet this is the second time I’ve seen him trying to sneak up on one of those little Florida lizards.  The boy can put on some big-league stealth when he wants, and for quite a long time, too.  It’s comforting to know that if he concentrates really hard, he does have a speed between full and off.

Laurie finally catches up with us at Trail’s End, after quite an adventure.  They couldn’t really do anything for her at the First Aid station, but told her she could go to the medical center and get some attention there.  They would even transport her if she didn’t have a car there.  Sounded good.  After a very short wait, a CM whose job was apparently just such transport arrived, took her backstage out of the Odyssey, and drove her the 10 minutes or so over to the medical center in Lake Buena Vista.  As with most medical centers, she registered and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  (She wasn’t too upset though, the latecomers that were moved ahead of her tended to be babies with fevers.)  After about four hours, she saw a doctor.  A brief application of warm water and peroxide took care of a deep chunk of wax, she could hear, there was no sign of infection, all is good.

So she called for transport again, and about 10 minutes later a driver showed up for her, and the adventure began to get interesting.  She asked him to take her to Magic Kingdom (thinking we’d be there by then), and on the way the driver felt the need to share his life story with her.  He was from Columbia and had only been here about six months, having been granted political asylum.  Yikes.  Added to all the stress from everything else today, the words political asylum just left all kinds of spooky things running through her head.  Drug cartel informant?  Spy?  Juan Valdez’s sister’s mean ex-husband?  Knowing that there was undoubtedly no problem here but feeling a little freaked out anyway, she silently launched into her Tower of Terror mantra; “This is Disney, everything’s going to be all right, this is Disney, everything’s going to be all right.”  But she still wanted to get out of that van sooner rather than later, and after finding out via cell that we were at Fort Wilderness, decided to have him drop her here so she can have supper with us at the Trail’s End.

This used to be one of the best kept secrets on property (though you need reservations now, so I guess it isn’t a secret any more.)  We have a very enjoyable dinner, with Laurie now able to laugh about her reactions on the Columbian Exile Express.  During the course of discussing the various menu items at the Trail’s End, Gavin tells her about how much he likes fish, and that he and his dad (Daddy Shawn) went fishing and caught a great big fish.  (Here, Gavin holds his hands up about 15” apart.)  He says they cooked it and ate it, just the two of them, his daddy ate half and he ate half.  It’s been just a year and a half since Shawn died in Afghanistan, but that’s about a third of Gavin’s life.  It’s nice that he has a memory of something he’s quite proud of.

On our way down to the dock, we’re noticing the hundred golf carts that always decorate the Settlement, and Gavin points out (of course) the one that’s built up on a massive set of springs to look like a monster truck.  We really do have a great deal of disposable income in this country.

It’s getting pretty well into the evening and we’re all a little tired, so we figure we’ll just head back to the hotel.  But Gavin wants to see the SpectroMagic parade again, so we’ll slip into the front of Magic Kingdom just for that.  We find a nice spot just inside the railroad where we’re well back from the crowd and Gavin can stand on one of those little three-feet-tall walls and get a good view.  He loves it again, and we certainly don’t mind it either.  As soon as the parade is over, we slip out ahead of the crowd and catch a not-nearly-full bus back to the hotel.

We had a great deal of fun today, notwithstanding Laurie’s Adventures in Health Care Systems and Foreign Diplomacy.  And we’re excited about tomorrow, a rope-drop tour of Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom.  This has become sort of the peak of these trips, and tomorrow we’re adding a first for us – a character breakfast at Crystal Palace.
Grandbabies 6.5, Magic Kingdom

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old grandson Gavin, on the fifth day of our week-long July adventure.

We’re out at the bus stop at 7:30 this morning to catch our bus to the Magic Kingdom for our character breakfast at the Crystal Palace at 8:10.  This will be a first for us; we both love the Crystal Palace but have never done a breakfast in MK.  We were initially concerned about transportation, but they told us that busses start running at 6:30 to cover breakfast.  We walk through the front gates at 8:10, with the park not open until 9.  It’s very weird to see the park completely empty like this.  Gavin is concerned that it’s not really open and we’re not supposed to be here, and Laurie has her camera out, clicking happily up the street.

Gavin just LOVES meeting Pooh and Tigger and Piglet and Eeyore.  This kind of thing seems to be right up his alley.  He’s also quite taken with the castle as we approach, and decides he wants to have lunch inside.  (We’ll pass on that, the image is a lot better than the reality.) 

If we had made our breakfast seating on time, we would have been at rope drop under the castle.  But it’s 9:10 when we arrive and Dumbo already has quite a line, so we’re heading over to the Speedway first.  He really didn’t show much interest in either Aladdin or Triceratops Spin, so we should be able to skip this ride (and line) entirely.

It turns out that Gavin is a very intense Speedway racer.  Did I mention I’m glad he’ll never be on my car insurance?  Since Caitlyn was quite jazzed about the Astro-Orbiter and opened our eyes to a new option at this point down here, we ask Gavin if he next wants to ride the rocket ride (that he can see) or Peter Pan and Snow White, and there’s no hesitation in his selection of Peter Pan. 

We already got FastPasses for Pooh, but as we walk back up into Fantasyland it’s almost a walk-on, so figure we might as well walk on.  While we’re in the line, Gavin wants to know “Do we get honey?”  You know, I’ve always wondered why I was attracted to this ride so much.  Now I know.  It’s a subconscious belief that I’m going to get honey.  [Laurie adds:  You might think he’s exaggerating, but he’s not; I once saw him drink a packet of dipping honey at Donald’s in Animal Kingdom, by itself.  I guess you’d say my honey has a sweet tooth.]

I get quite a chuckle (as often happens) from a couple of twenty-somethings walking past the Carousel.  They’re speaking energetically in a language I don’t recognize, except for this last part.  She, giggling excitedly and pointing down the street: “POOH, POOH, POOH!!”  He, mockingly: “NO, NO, NO!!”  Gavin gets a little surprise on the Peter Pan ride as we’re flying around the mountain tops; we see “Ariel’s sisters.”  He really enjoys the ride, as well as Snow White and Pooh again.

Our top priority in Toon Town is the Barnstormer, and we get two rides, both in the back row where it’s fastest.  He’s a little disenchanted in Minnie’s house, because he’s trying to move everything he sees and “nothing’s real in here.”  In case you’ve never had (or taken) the opportunity to check out Minnie’s To Do list, here are her plans for today:
1.    Call Mickey
2.    Mousercize
3.    Make a box lunch for Mickey
4.    Have a nutritious, low-fat breakfast
5.    Call Mickey
6.    Tend to the garden
7.    Bake a cake for Mickey
8.    Go to the recycling center
9.    Call Mickey

He’s a little more impressed with Mickey’s house, noticing quickly that Mickey has a “very big bike.”  As we’re looking through all the stuff in Mickey’s living room, he wonders “Does Mickey take his suit off when he gets home at night?” What questions!  I never thought about it, but I’d be willing to bet he does. 

The railroad trip from Toon Town to Frontierland is fun, as always, and we arrive at 11:30 to find a 60-minute wait for Splash Mountain.  We pick up FastPasses and head over to Big Thunder Mountain, where the line’s only about 30 minutes.  For some reason, as we’re snaking through the line upstairs at Big Thunder, Gavin is high-fiving every person we meet in the line.  You really have an excellent head start on life if you can find yourself in a situation that’s both very monotonous and uncomfortably hot and still figure a way to have fun.  (And spreading fun to other people is a good skill to have, too.)  He loves the ride, and the whoops and giggles are as much fun to listen to as Grandma’s.

Speaking of uncomfortably hot, we had planned to go over to Tom Sawyer Island and have a root beer float at Aunt Polly’s and let Gavin run in the shade a little, but we don’t even want to be out in the sun long enough to take the raft ride!  We’ll settle for some shade at the end of Pecos Bill’s and ice pops instead.

Splash Mountain is WAY too short a ride for Gavin.  Some of the others had to be cajoled into trying it, and we’re having a hard time getting him off it.  He’s upset because we missed a section of the ride, they didn’t take us over one of the drops.  We’re skeptical, but he insists that there’s a big drop with no trees and no tunnel that we didn’t see yet, and he kind of doesn’t want to get off until we see that drop.  It takes a while for us to figure out that he was watching the big drop earlier from the upper bridge outside, and from that perspective, there’s no tunnel or trees.  We take him outside and show him the view from both bridges.  He’s still not convinced we didn’t get cheated out of a drop.  Guess we’ll have to ride it again before we go home.  Darn.

Walking out of the park through Adventureland, Gavin spots Timon and Rafiki and wants to stop for an autograph.  I remind him that he already got them.  “I got Rafiki, but I never got Timon!!”  If you want to know the real score, don’t trust someone with no real stake in the outcome ;-)  He was insistent that today when we got back to the room, we were going to swim BEFORE our nap, but wouldn’t you know it, by the time I get through messing around going to the bathroom and getting changed, he’s already sound asleep on the bed.  As a measure of how hot it is today and how hard we’ve been playing, the nap lasts more than two hours.

Now it’s pool-time, and Gavin’s easily the most accomplished swimmer of our grandkids, at least at the age we brought them.  He’s only had a couple lessons at the community pool back home, but while we’ve been down here, a few important things just seem to have clicked.  One is that you can hold your breath whenever you need to, and another is that even though you can’t stand up in a four-foot-deep pool, you can always sink to the bottom and jump up out of the water long enough to get your breath.  Another is that there are a whole lot of fun things you can do in water.  Right now, he’s spotted the “flower power” icon squirting water over one area of our 60’s pool.  He knows it’s too deep to stand there, but he swims over into the spray, giggles a bit, and swims back to the side of the pool.

While we’re here at the pool, I should mention another wonderful example of Disney detail that Laurie noticed the other day.  On the top of one of the 60’s buildings is a giant elephant ‘made’ out of Play-Doh.  And the ears have thumbprints on them, and all the toenails are different sizes and shapes, just like the ones you made.  How cool is that!

We just heard some distant thunder, and Laurie finds out from the lifeguard that they have weather radar they monitor closely on storm days, and the pools close when there’s lightning within seven miles.  They don’t reopen until thirty minutes after there’s no lightning within the seven miles.  She’s in constant radio contact with someone, and suddenly a whistle blows and they’re closing the pool.  But this is Disney, so you don’t scare the kids with talk of lightning, you just say the pool is closing because of “electrical activity in the area.”  (Reminds me of the time we heard them radioing CM’s in the MGM parking lot to take care of a stray ‘turtle’, by which they meant ‘baby alligator’.)  By the time we’ve all had our shower, the storm is here and it’s pouring buckets, our first rain of the trip.  Not too bad, getting to Day 5 in the summer without rain.

The nasty wind finally lets up enough for us to start making our way back toward Magic Kingdom.  We stop at the store to buy Laurie another poncho, since one of our 8-year-old ones finally tore, and it’s raining lightly as we get into line at the bus stop.  Once the bus gets rolling, however, it’s coming down so hard and the wind is so fierce that the bus has to slow down to let the wipers catch up.  It’s only about a 10 minute drive from Pop Century to MK, but when we get there, the ground is barely wet and the sun is shining.  Love that Florida summer weather.

At 7:15 we’re getting FastPasses for Space Mountain.  At some point Gavin discovered he’s tall enough (the first of our grandkids to make that cut), so there’s no question that he’s riding it.  The FPs are for 9:20 and we were planning to watch the parade and fireworks, so that should work out well.  In the meantime, we have dinner at Cosmic Ray’s.  Every time I catch Sonny Eclipse’s act, all I can think of is Bill Murray’s lounge lizard on Saturday Night Live, and it always makes me smile. 

While I’m on a break after dinner, Gavin talks Laurie into going on the Teacups with him.  She explains to him that she doesn’t like to spin a lot, so when she tells him to stop he has to stop.  As they walk away, I hear them discussing a “safe word.”  My feeling has always been that if some activity needs a “safe word,” it might be best just to avoid it entirely.

We figure we should have time to catch Small World, Mickey’s Philharmagic, and the Haunted Mansion (the last attractions other than Space Mountain that we haven’t seen yet) and still have time to get a good spot for the parade.  As we’re walking up through Fantasyland, Gavin gives me another lesson in perspective when, out of a clear blue sky, he asks “How come you wear whitey-tighties instead of ‘regular’ underpants?”  I’m tempted to tell him that boxers on a five-year-old is just unnatural, but that wouldn’t be right.  And I shudder to think what exactly he saw in Fantasyland that made him think of that question.

Gavin likes the Philharmagic, though it’s a little hard watching it with his glasses broken in two.  We had warned him to be careful with them in line, and somehow they magically broke anyway.  He had requested a trade with Grandma just before the show started, but she said “Hey, you broke them, you wear them.”  So he does, holding half with each hand.  He likes Small World too, especially the butterflies for some reason.  There seem to be about two things in each room that he really gets jazzed about. 

It’s 8:40 now, so instead of going to Haunted Mansion, we’ll take a potty break on our way out of Fantasyland and go down and find a good spot for the parade.  He was a little bummed the other night that he could only see the ‘tops’ of the floats from where we were standing.  (The part that was blocked from our view couldn’t have been more than the bottom quarter of the float, well below where all the action is.)  So this time, we’re sitting on the ground right under the rope in Liberty Square.  We won’t be able to miss anything from here ;-)  At the first sound of the music, he urgently turns to me saying “Here, take my napkin!”  Parade.  Must focus.  He’s absolutely glued to the whole thing.

He has a Buzz Lightyear spinny light thing that Laurie gave him before we left home, the kind where you press the button on his back and he lights up and three colored rings spin around.  As each character goes by, Gavin’s holding up the spinny light thing with one hand and waving to them with the other.  It looks unique, until I realize it’s strikingly similar to lighters at a concert. 

He enjoys the fireworks, but I think he may end up more engineer than artist.  He spends more than half the time wondering where Tinkerbell went, and why, and who’s shooting off the fireworks, and where.  He’s standing in his stroller on Main Street by Casey’s, leaning on Laurie and asking her all his questions, when about two-thirds of the way through Wishes he says “I want to go home now, back to our room.”  Done.  But this time, he falls asleep in my lap shortly after we get on the bus.  We’re never sure if the kids are going to wake up grumpy in this situation.  If he does, he’s just going to have to stay grumpy, as I’m quite sure there’s no way I can carry him all the way back to the room.  But when the bus arrives back at Pop Century, he wakes up (sort of), walks off the bus with Grandma, quietly leans against a queue pole until I get off and pop the stroller open, and casually takes his seat for the ride back to the room.  [Some have thought it just terrible that we’d bring a stroller for a child who is really too big for one.  All three of us love it, and it costs no one else a thing.  So there ;-)]

Back in the room, he’s still quite excited that Pluto gave him a high five in the parade.  And he’s still sorry he didn’t bring his hiking boots so he could go hiking with Goofy.  We always seem to have the most fun on Magic Kingdom Day, and we also always seem to be the most tired at the end of it.  It takes no time at all for us to be sound asleep, and I imagine we’ll be quite ready for Day 6 tomorrow.
Grandbabies 6.6, Magic Kingdom & Typhoon Lagoon

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old grandson Gavin, on the sixth day of our week-long July adventure.

We’re on our third set of plans for today.  Originally, we were going to spend this morning at a water park and finish off Epcot this afternoon.  But the kids always get to pick what we do on Day 7 (a half day, followed by our flight home), and while we know they’ll pick another round of Magic Kingdom, Gavin has decided he wants to spend his last day at Epcot!  So we changed the second part of today to Magic Kingdom.  But then we realized there are extra magic hours at MK tonight.  With the park open three hours later just for on-site guests, a lot of those without hopper passes will be choosing MK today, so it might be better for us to do whatever we’re going to do there this morning instead.  We always say, we’re nothing if not flexible.

We’re out at the bus stop at 8:29.  Our bus is there, but it’s now full, and it looks like there may be more than a full bus of people in the line ahead of us.  While we’re waiting, we discover that one of the reasons Gavin favored Epcot for his pick’em day is that he really wants to go on that Big Ball Ride again, “because that’s the first ride in the park.”  Such little pros we’ve turned these kids into!  The next bus pulls up and starts loading, and as we wind our way into the final row of the queue, Gavin points out “Definitely not getting seats.”  It’s morning, we don’t care.

As we walk from the bus to the Magic Kingdom entrance, Gavin’s helping me push the stroller.  Oh he’s in it, but he has some kind of rowing motion going with his arms and butt that I’m sure is doing something to help propel us.  We were going to take the train back to Frontierland, but are told that (like yesterday) there’s only one train on-line, so it’s 20 minutes between arrivals.  Guess we’ll walk up Main Street through the shops again.  This gives us a chance to admire Gavin’s use of the mall-walking genes he got passed down from his mom, with oohs and ahhs at various displays.  He isn’t asking to buy anything, just admiring.

We’ve become used to questions out of left field from the kids.  We’re in line for Splash Mountain and Gavin wonders if there are any spiders on the ride.  We can’t imagine what would have made him think there were.  After a minute or so though, he smiles and says “Oh, wait, this isn’t a real cave, is it.”  On the ride itself, he wants to know how Brer Fox set that trap Brer Bear got caught in.  I think I know, but I love his sister far too much to share information like that with him.  As we walk out of the ride, we’re treated to one of our absolute favorite things: a skipping five-year-old singing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

Big Thunder is quite a treat again as well.  Gavin has his hands up in the air for every bit of the ride except the lifts and the station.  There’s one fast part where you go up a little hill and suddenly level out, then just as suddenly go down a drop.  Gavin (and Laurie for that matter) comes off the seat, and the look on his face is priceless.  (For me, the little whoop that Laurie gives here every time is, also.)

The line is fairly short, so we decide to ride Splash again.  The courtyard is full of that banjo and mouth harp music, which is perfect for Gavin as he bounces and dances along.  It occurs to me that in our other five grandbaby trips, we’ve had probably three Pooh’s and a couple of Piglet’s, but this is our first true Tigger.  This time through the ride, as we get to the rabbit trap scene, Gavin concludes “I don’t think Brer Fox knew that Brer Bear likes carrots too.”

We were going to do these two Mountains and then take the train around to Space Mountain, but with the limited train schedule today, we don’t want to take a chance on wasting that much time.  As long as we’re walking around the Rivers of America, we may as well take in the Haunted Mansion.  It’s quickly clear that Gavin believes we should have skipped it.  The very first dark hall we go up has him terrified.  He spends most of the rest of the ride with his ears covered and his forehead down on the bar so that he can’t see or hear anything.  We ask him what he wants to see next after we get off, and his answer is calm, simple, and direct – “No more scary rides.”  No problem.  We’ll stick to what we know.

Laurie seems to have some kind of mental block where she always thinks Peter Pan’s a walk-on and forgets that the line wraps down around the building.  As we round the corner in the queue, she says (déjà vu here) “I didn’t realize the line was so long.”  And Gavin’s at that point in our travels now where he immediately says “Let’s go then,” and ducks under the chain rope. 

It’s time for me to take a break while Laurie takes him on the Carousel.  As they disembark, I see her turn one way out the gate (thinking he’s right beside her), but he turns the other way.  They get probably thirty feet apart when they both realize they’re not together.  They each stop and turn, looking around for the other.  Laurie spots him first, he looks a little concerned but not panicked, and she can read his lips calmly and silently saying “Grandma, Grandma, Grandma.”  He quickly spots her and as they reunite, he says “Boy, there sure are a lot of people here with yellow shirts!” 

We walk down past the castle just in time to catch Belle’s Story Hour.  Gavin’s main concern at first is that he not get roped into getting up on the stage.  After we escape that, I’m watching his expression through the show and I do believe the boy has the hots for Belle.  Shucks, me too. 

It’s very hot out now, and a nice walk back down through the cool shops is in order.  We picked up something for Sissy yesterday, and need to get something for Mommy and Daddy today.  Gavin’s trying on hats ‘for Daddy’, and needs to see what they look like in the mirror.  But a mirror is very hard to find up here in the ‘boys’ section.  We get down into the ‘girl’ shops and there’s a mirror every three feet.  Go figure.

Our shopping’s done now, and Gavin and I are walking a bit ahead of Laurie when he informs me he’d like to go on the Lazy River now.  Us too.  He beckons me down and whispers to me, conspiratorially, “I want to push Grandma through the waterfalls.”  Don’t we all.  And I don’t mean that in a bad way, and it’s not just me and Gavin.  ALL the grandkids have wanted to push Grandma through the waterfalls.  I suspect it’s because she’s so much fun.

Apparently, Gavin likes to people-watch as much as we do.  On the bus back to the hotel, he gently taps me on the knee and grinningly points to the seats across the bus, where three 17-year-olds have apparently had a very hard morning – the boy on the left is sound asleep, as is the girl leaning on his shoulder, and the boy on the right is unsuccessfully struggling with the sermon’s-a-little-to-long-head-bob. 

We’ve all been impressed by the giant Big Wheel sitting by the giant Foosball table between the 70’s buildings at Pop.  Gavin thinks that tire must “have a lllottt of air in it.  I hope it doesn’t go flat.”  There’s just one English family waiting with us for our Typhoon Lagoon bus, and the four of us quite enjoy watching Gavin and their 7-year-old daughter stealthily searching for lizards among the knee-high bushes behind the benches.  There’s no end to the attractions here, and we enjoy them all.

We stop for a quick potty break as we get into Typhoon Lagoon, and Laurie borrows my recorder to say this:  “I just want to add here that I really, really, really enjoy going into the rest room by myself, doing my hair, not having to be saying to the five-year-old child beside me ‘Okay, do this, let me help you with that, let’s do this, don’t do that’, just taking my time, relaxing and getting ready, and meeting Papa outside.”  I’m not sure what all the fuss is.  You take a five-year-old to the bathroom and the only thing you really have to do is make sure he doesn’t decide to try and hit the top of the urinal.  (That never happened, but with Gavin, it had crossed my mind.)

As agreed, we begin with a trip around the Lazy River.  I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned it before, but we love this particular part of Disney Summer, floating down the stream in the shade.  Gavin’s trying all kinds of different swimming things and having a ball.  In fact, he’s having so much fun that he forgets about his diabolical plans for Laurie and the waterfalls.  But this ain’t Laurie’s first rodeo; she’s diabolical enough to have taken him to the OTHER lazy river, the one that doesn’t HAVE a waterfall ;-)
 
After one circuit, he wants to check out the wave pool we told him about.  A brief pause here to describe the wave pool, in case you’re not familiar with it.  There’s a chute that’s (I’m guessing) about fifty yards wide and a hundred yards long.  The water is maybe 8’ deep at the back of the chute and 5’ at the front, where the pool fans out like a giant mushroom to a gradually decreasing depth.  A generator creates a wave at the back of the chute that’s probably 4’ high, rapidly decreasing in height after it fans out.  You get to pick how high your wave is by how close to the fan-out point you stand (or tread).  You hear the wave, then hear 236 screams, then see it coming up the chute, then have a fair amount of time to prepare yourself for when it gets to you.  Then everyone in the pool goes (as my father would say) ass over teacup, and as the water leaves your ears you hear 173 giggles and wait about two minutes for the next one.

Laurie’s the water baby between us, so she’s in charge of this program.  Gavin starts by taking her out to where the standing water’s about up to his belly.  The first wave comes, and it’s just over his head.  We watch to see what his reaction will be, and he flops around a bit by Laurie until he regains his feet, wipes the water out of his eyes, and says “Let’s go out a little farther.”  By the time we’re getting ready for the third wave, we’re out far enough so he can barely stand up and keep his chin on top of the water.  When the wave comes, he just jumps and lets it carry him.  And he’s quite the projectile, it turns out.  He crashes into me and throws me off-balance and I have a nice strawberry on my knee to show for it. 

On about the fifteenth wave, he faces it and just before it gets to him he plugs his nose, arches his back, and rides it in with sort of a submerged backstroke.  After about twenty waves, we think he could use some shade and talk him into going back over by the kid pool for a bit to ride the water slide.  Which he does, once.  At the bottom, he looks at us with a look that can only mean “what are you trying to con me into over here?? The REAL fun is over THERE!”  So it’s back to the wave pool.

We probably spend an hour all together in the wave pool.  To fill in all that boring dead time between the waves, he’s practicing floating underwater, on both his stomach and his back.  And doing a very good job of both, including a ‘dead-man float’ that’s far too realistic.  Two or three of our grandkids have been comfortable and done a decent job in the water, but this is the first who has attacked it.  But we finally arrive at the point where Papa is in danger of some serious overheating, so it’s time for another trip around the Lazy River.

Which, it turns out, is a good place to practice some more of those floating techniques.  And some handstands!  I can’t do those but Grandma’s a pro, so I think she may have introduced this trick also.  But the river gets kind of crowded sometimes, and on one of his handstands he comes back up right into the butt of some random 80-year-old guy who’s just floating around, minding his own business.  Quite a surprise for both of them, I’d say!  It does give us an opportunity to introduce to Gavin the concept of putting more thought into the where and when of a trick though, which he puts to good use for the rest of our lap.

It’s time to leave for our character dinner at Chef Mickey’s, and we’re all ready to go now, except for the part where Gavin and I are done changing and are now sitting around waiting for the casual, enjoying-her-freedom Miss Laurie.  Gavin announces “I’m bored AND thirsty.”  It sounds like he can handle either one of those, but the combination is killer.  Luckily, he survives both. 

We haven’t had a monorail ride yet, so we catch a bus from the water park to the Grand Floridian and take the monorail from there.  He’s had all kinds of questions about the monorail as we’ve driven past, most of all concerning how you get off it.  We’re thinking he’s seeing it way up off the ground and picturing ladders or parachutes or something, so we explain the concept of stations to him.  It’s clear that he doesn’t quite get it, even when we get on it, because you can’t see from inside the station that you’re ‘up in the air’.  But when we round the bend approaching the Magic Kingdom station, he’s looking out the window and says “Ohhhh, I see how it works.”  Yes, with this one, it’s all about ‘how it works’.  He’s still only guessing on the deal with the Contemporary though, telling us “the building opens up just enough so the train can fit through there.”

Did you ever get into a line and find yourself wondering after a while if you’re in the right line?  No?  That’s just me?  Well we got into a line with all the other people checking into Chef Mickey’s, to get our picture taken.  Since everyone was lining up, it seemed like something that came with the meal.  The CM’s were even directing everyone where to queue for “the picture.”  After our delightful pose, however, we discover that it’s like any other let-me-take-a-picture-you-can-buy-later deal, only much better camouflaged.  We have rarely felt conned at Disney World (outside Chester and Hester’s), but after standing in that line we sure felt we’d been had, as did many of the other grumbling folks who went through the line. 

We’re seated up in sort of a loft at the side, probably under the monorail.  Gavin reminds me of a scout.  He’s looking out the windows over the other room, he’s looking around the corner into the other loft room, he’s looking over by the door, he’s looking around the corner again.  No character is going to sneak up on him, that’s for sure.  We get autographs and pictures with Goofy, Donald, Dale, Mickey, and Chip, and are waiting (not all of us entirely patiently) for Minnie.  Before he heads to the dessert table with Grandma, he leaves me quite explicit instructions as to what I should do with the autograph book while he’s gone.  Fortunately, she comes after he’s back, so I don’t have a chance to mess anything up.

We didn’t notice during dinner, but our afternoon thunderstorm has reared quite an ugly head.  Not only is it raining very hard, but there’s a steady 20 mph wind as well.  We kill some time on the back porch of the Contemporary, waiting for things to settle down, and then make a loop on the monorail again.  The rain has almost stopped by the time we get back over to MK and make the walk over to our bus.  It’s time to go back to the hotel and pack.  Boo!!  Tomorrow’s our last day, which at Sir Gavin’s request, we’ll be spending at Epcot.  We’ll only get half a day in before leaving for our 4:00 flight home, but it’s always such a nice casual boy-did-we-have-fun-this-week kind of tour, and we’re really looking forward to it.

Grandbabies 6.7, Epcot & home

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old grandson Gavin, on the seventh and final day of our week-long July adventure.

Gavin’s racing Grandma to get ready this morning.  I’m sure this was Grandma’s idea, but he’s got even more energy than normal this morning, knowing this is our last day and he’s deciding where we go and what we do.  I try to help him with his shoes, but he won’t accept the assist; he tells me “I know exactly how to double-tie.”  He’s probably noticed that I slip my sneakers on and concluded that my actual tying may have been done by others.

The race was effective, as we make rope drop at Epcot.  The character bus comes out to greet us in the Fountain Plaza, and we think it’s safe to say now that Pluto is Gavin’s favorite.  He’s the one he has most excitedly pointed out every time we’ve seen characters.  As soon as the quick march back to Soarin’ begins, I go out in front to get FastPasses for us while Laurie pushes Gavin in the stroller.  He’s telling her “Why don’t you keep up? Run!”  Heh.  She smiles and suggests that if he gets out and runs, then she’ll run too.  He declines.  Guess the current speed is acceptable after all. 

It’s 9:15 when we get to the turnstiles and we board shortly after.  On the ride, it’s fun to watch Gavin (and lots of others) pick his feet up as we go ‘over’ the ridges and waves and what-not.  The only part he says he doesn’t like is where you follow the hang-glider up along the cliff wall.  Come to think of it, that may be the only place where you’re looking pretty much straight down for a moment.  Once again, as we’re walking out of the ride, Gavin has both fists up in the air with a big Woo Hoo.  As we leave, the line of people still coming in stretches outside the building, and he shakes his head and says “Boy, a LOT of people like Soarin’!”  True words.

The standby line for Test Track says 40 minutes, but it looks like (and turns out to be) more like 20.  Gavin wants to know why they have all the ‘fences’ in the queue here, and Laurie tells him that all the tools are here to be looked at, but not to be touched.  I tell him that they use all these tools to test cars, and he tells me “They used to.”  Well, yes, nobody’s doing much in here lately.  (His big sister Alexis gave us one of our favorite lines here, when she asked “Where are all the men to these tools?”)  He decides he wants to sit on the outside this trip, so Laurie lets him get in first, since he’ll think of that as the ‘driver’s seat’.  He clearly enjoys the ride again, and when we go around the big curve on the outside and start the long trip back in at high speed, he’s grinning and WooHooing with his hands up in the air all the way back in.

He immediately wants to ride again, but by the time we get outside he’s decided he wants to go on the dragon ride (Imagination).  And on the way, we’re going to  go to one of Papa’s favorite Epcot attractions – the Fountainview Café Bear Claw.  We all really enjoy sitting in the shade for a minute over breakfast, watching the fountain and talking about what fun we’ve had this week.  And Gavin’s joy is fairly unbridled this morning.  As our Figment car gets underway, Gavin points up ahead of us and shouts “OFF to NEVERLAND!!!”  I’ve never thought of it in those terms, but that’s exactly what I feel every time we get on that plane in Buffalo for one of these trips.

We use our FastPasses and ride Soarin’ for the last time this trip.  It’s every bit as much fun as the other times we went.  Gavin’s quite impressed with the number of people still waiting to get on the ride as we’re walking out.  “I’m glad we’re not still waiting with THEM!”  Someone from the line asks us if it’s worth the wait, and Gavin eagerly offers “It sure is, and the ball looks like it’s coming right AT YOU!” 

He clearly is aware that Spaceship Earth is going to be our last ride of the trip.  We’ve arrived at one of those few times of the day when the line wraps around both sides, and Laurie asks him if he’s sure he wants to wait in line for this one.  “Yep!”  This ride has really triggered something in him, he’s up on the edge of his seat and discovering something new in about every other room.  His mom manages to get a call through while we’re still on the ride, and it’s fun to hear the excitement in Gavin’s voice as he’s describing the ride to her.  “I love it, they’re all robots but they look like real people, but you can learn new things from them, like that’s the very first telephone.”

You and I can sort of see a flaw or two in their plan, but there are hundreds of people lined up buying tickets outside Epcot at 12:20.  Most of them are at best going to be in very long lines all day, and a lot of them are no doubt going to think they didn’t get their money’s worth.  We were here at rope drop, and may have had more fun in three hours than they will between now and their cranky exit.  Thanks, RADP, for showing us the way ;-)

As we go to catch our last internal bus of the trip, back to the hotel, we’re in line all by ourselves.  Until a group of about forty joins us.  Gavin, as has been his practice all week, strikes up a conversation with Amanda.  She looks to be about 20, and is here with a “psych group,” whatever that means.  He wants to know if the guy sleeping next to her is her boyfriend, and if the guy standing up next to us is her brother.  He tells her he’s 7 and in pre-k.  (I hope as he gets older, his ‘lines’ get better.)  She enjoys the conversation as much as we do, and Gavin has yet again helped make some down time more fun.

Our Magical Express bus back to the airport is actually a Cruise Line bus.  It’s kind of odd that these busses aren’t wheel chair accessible, as the poor couple outside have just discovered.  They’re being told they have to call something special.  Doesn’t sound right.

I get to see yet another example of Gavin’s outgoing nature in the rest room at the Orlando airport.  There’s a janitor in there whistling away, and singing softly in Spanish.  Gavin stands right next to his cart, looking up into his face.  The man looks down at him and smiles, never wavering in his work or tune, and Gavin gives him a big grin back.  And then on our way back out to the gate, Gavin’s singing in ‘Spanish’, just making up words as he goes along.  Now he takes a seat in the window with a two-year-old boy, playing some sort of hand game, just keeping him entertained.  This boy will go far.

So our sixth grandbaby Disney adventure has come to an end.  We really are lucky.  We’ve been able to give something very special to each of these kids, both in terms of Disney fun and the kind of focused attention you can only get when you’re an only child on holiday.  And they’ve given so much enjoyment to us.  After making three such trips this year, it’s a little hard for us to imagine not making a trip next year, since Colby’s only 3 now.  Maybe we need to start recycling.  Elysia’s almost 10 already ;-)

Back to Top

Grandbabies 5.0, CAITLYN, May 31 – June 7

A few years ago, we borrowed another Disney fan's idea and started taking our grandchildren for a week at Disney World the spring before they go into kindergarten.  We take them one at a time so we can focus purely on the one child, which has led to a fairly busy schedule this year, since three of our kids had babies the same spring five years ago.  Haley went with us in April and Gavin will go at the end of July, but this trip is Caitlyn's.  (Laurie gets a bonus – she has four days of training starting June 8, so it will be her longest stay so far.)

This report is fairly long, not because we cover every single thing we do, but because we like to capture the feel of our experience.  If there’s any thing that you’re not familiar with or that doesn’t make sense, just ask.  We love to answer.

We expect this will be a different kind of trip.  Caitlyn is a theme park veteran, has flown before, and has done a fair amount of long-distance traveling.  One bonus of that is that her mom knows how to get everything we thought we might need (plus a couple of cool things we hadn’t thought of) in her small overnight bag.  But Laurie discovered a potential downside to all her experience a few weeks ago during a conversation in which Caitie was talking about her family’s recent trip to Jamaica for her uncle’s wedding.  Now keep in mind that most of their long-distance travel has been either to family member homes or to time-share suites.  So Caitie was a little miffed about how crummy their hotel in Jamaica was, because it ONLY HAD ONE ROOM!!!  Well buck up, little cowgirl, our Disney hotel is pretty much going to have the same number.
 Since we live three hours apart with the airport between us, we'll be meeting Caitlyn and her mom at the airport.  Our trip goes well, but Tina’s fighting her way through rush hour traffic.  The brief interim gives Laurie an opportunity to notice that her jeans feel a little loose.  (We’ve both lost about ten pounds since our last trip.)  But I remind her that we learned on that trip how to make a really cool emergency belt out of Mickey headbands.

The van arrives and Caitlyn’s very excited about the trip.  We go through the usual document exchange with Mom and discuss the items in her carry-on, and are a little concerned when we get to the medicines.  But it turns out she’s just finishing up with a bad cold, so hopefully we won’t need anything stronger than Kleenex.  Tina tells me that Caitie often likes to write in a journal at night.  "Cool," I say.  Mom knowingly replies "Yeah.  You just have to tell her how to spell all the words."  Oh.
 But enough of this unimportant stuff, Caitie wants to know if we can go on Splash Mountain first [our favorite ride, a log flume with Brer Rabbit theming], and Laurie tells her no, we'll be at Animal Kingdom on Day 1.  “Can that be the second thing we do?”  No, we'll be at Animal Kingdom.  You’ll get to decide what we do more than you’re used to, but except for the last day, we’ll pick the parks.

We stop (as is our custom) at the Burger King just outside security inside the Buffalo airport, mostly to get the feel of the sounds of the airport while still in a relative comfort zone.  We know she’s flown, but it can’t hurt.  Grandma’s going to get the food while I watch all our stuff, and Caitie gets to pick who to go with.  To no one’s surprise she picks Laurie, and it's soon apparent that she's not quite sure about me yet.  On the way up to the counter however, we do see our first official 'skip' of the trip.  She’s ready.

On our way down to our gate we get to the moving walkway, which she remembers from her last flight.  We get on in Laurie-Caitie-Don order and keep walking, but about halfway down she tests our statement that she would get to decide a lot of things, by stopping right in front of me.  I complain just a little about getting held up, which gives her a little giggle.  Yes sir, bonding through teasing, this should help prepare her for school.
 
We’re on the plane now, and I’m not sure if she knows something we don't, but this is the first time we've had one of the kids pull out the plane evacuation diagram.  She tells Grandma, "We're going to go out 'A'".  I’m thinking “Damn right we are, but it better be into a jetway in Orlando.”  There’s no fear in her voice at all, just curiosity when she asks Grandma how it works when the air masks fall out of the ceiling.  We've always felt the little ones are usually best served when you find a way to answer their questions honestly, and it's becoming apparent that she has a million of them, and I bet her mom and dad have already answered at least several hundred thousand.  It's definitely not going to be a boring trip, we haven't left the ground yet and she's thrown out a week's worth of conversation.

She has quite a sense of humor too; as soon as they start pushing us back from the gate she looks up at Laurie with a little grin and says "I think maybe I don't want to fly."  It turns out though that she’s the first of the kids who has REALLY appreciated the window seat, pointing out all kinds of cool things to me.  A few minutes after we’ve distributed the tasty Airline Peanuts, she announces to us that “I'm making peanut butter in my mouth."  And we’re only almost over Pittsburgh when she looks up at Laurie with a mischievous grin, bounces her shoulders a little, and sing-songs in sort of a Goofy voice "are we THERE yet???" 
 We’ve been in the air a little over an hour now, and it’s starting to get dark.  We had asked her earlier what time she usually goes to bed, and she told us she usually goes as soon as her eyes start getting dizzy. Must be they are now, because she still has her seat belt on and is laying her head on Laurie's leg, leaving a wake-up call for just before we land, because that's the fun part. We wake her up shortly after breaking through the clouds over Daytona and she says "HEY, I see some lights!!  I think it's one of the parks!"  Flying over some of greater Orlando's lakes, she wants to know which ones are the water parks.  We soon discover why the landing is the most fun part, as she leans as far forward as she can so her whole weight is on the belt.  Once the arms are up and the wheels are down and they reverse the engines, it IS sort of a thrill ride, complete with the requisite giggling.

Three times between the plane and the inter-terminal monorail we hear "It's beautiful in here.  It's like a hotel."  We kind of take it for granted at this point, but it IS kind of pretty.  Our Magical Express [brand new free Disney transport program] luggage tags didn’t reach us in time, so we spot the big Mickey hand in the main terminal lobby.  The instructions (relayed by a series of helpful folks) are very simple: take those elevators right over there down to Level 1, right across from the elevator is the Disney desk, get your travel vouchers, go down and get your bags yourselves (or point them out to Disney staff for transport), go to the ME station outside, they’ll load your bags, and you’ll get on the bus.  And it works exactly like that.
 
Our bus pulls out 15 minutes after we get outside the building.  If you hear complaints about Magical Express from people who regularly use Tiffany or some such, remember we’re talking apples and oranges there.  If you compare it to Mears (which we most often use), it’s quite favorable from our perspective.  The bus is very comfortable, complete with TV’s playing Brother Bear.  Not long after we’re on the road, the driver tells us we’ll come back to the Bear in a few minutes, after we’ve watched a short Disney DVD showing newer attractions.  Caitlyn wants to know what day we're going to be seeing each of those things.  She still wants to do Splash first, but patiently listens to us describe our general plans for Days 1 - 5.

She asks us "How many Disneys are there?"  Well, some people would say one, but our answer is four and we list them for her and can see her mentally arranging the days of our trip.  We always introduce the parks to the kids in the same order, Animal Kingdom, MGM, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom, because we’ve found that keeps their interest up the best for each of the parks.  But she ultimately wants to know "What day is it when I get to pick where we go?"  We always give the kids complete freedom to pick where we go on our last day (knowing that it will be Magic Kingdom), and that’s apparently important to Caitie.

Her mom is a big-time Disney fan as well, so I believe she’s seen almost every movie represented at Disney World (at least 31, by my quick count), and will likely have a deeper appreciation of many of the attractions as a result.  For example, she's very excited to see Herbie the Love Bug.

We tell her that we always unpack everything as soon as we get to our room, and she’ll have her own drawer for all of her stuff.  She immediately decides that she needs Drawer # 5.  We tell her that she can have the bottom of the 4-drawer, but she insists she has to have Drawer # 5 because she’s 5.  We give her the famous ‘we’ll see’.

We don't really get the details, but Caitlyn is having It's a Small World for her graduation this summer.  I ask her what graduation, and she tells me "the one so I can go to kindergarten."

And now she’s very, very excited because we just drove under that Welcome to Disney World arch, which means we're here.  (I was talking about Caitlyn, but Laurie has the same face.)  We're doing the fist pump and chair dance, "we're here... we're here... we're really really here."

Our bus stops briefly at Pop Century and Animal Kingdom Lodge, then on to our home at All Star Sports.  It’s exactly an hour and a half between the time our plane touches the ground and the time we walk into our room.  That’s about what we experience with Mears, so we have no complaints.  Caitie spots a toad on the ground outside the building, and wants to know if it's real.  She later shows it to Laurie and decides it must be a girl, "because look at the eyes."

We have friends who have stays here overlapping ours, and Laurie had worked on getting rooms near each other.  Apparently the only way they could do that was to free upgrade us to a preferred room, so we're right on the back of the Surf building, on the end right across from the food court.  Sweet.  We get into our room and launch into the unpacking.  I count off the drawers for Caitlyn, and coincidentally, Drawer #5 just happens to be the bottom of the four-drawer.  She's quite happy things worked out for her.

As we settle in for bed, Laurie tells her that if she gets scared during the night, just say “Grandma” and Laurie will wake right up.  It can’t be more than two minutes and we hear her say “Grandma,” and look over to see an impish little grin.  A little later though, she does say "Grandma, could you lay down with me just until I go to sleep?"  Grandma does, and she’s out in two minutes.  Caitlyn, that is.

It’s 12:30 now, but I’m sure we’ll all be bright-eyed and ready to see Animal Kingdom tomorrow.  We’re very much looking forward to another unique, enjoyable, and memorable trip.  This one will be, as it turns out, complete with Academy Awards and ant funerals and Cotton Rides and six Dinosaur Rides.  (The dinosaur ride isn’t the Dinosaur ride, and you get 30 bonus points if you can figure out what the Cotton Ride is before we get there.)  And as a bonus to me, there will be no mention of a ‘journal’ the entire trip ;-)
 
Grandbabies 5.1, Animal Kingdom

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlyn, on the first park day of our week-long June adventure.

We set our wakeup call for 7:15 this morning, but it's raining like hell and Laurie’s been hearing thunder since 3am and there are tornado warnings in effect until 11am for several surrounding counties, so we're going to lay in a bit.  This in spite of the wakeup call, which I enjoyed back when it was Mickey saying “up ’n at ’em”, but which is much less cute now that it’s Stitch.  I almost want to roll over and go back to sleep just to spite the little bugger.

I have a shirt I wear once in a while, a very brightly colored shirt with half inch squares/rectangles of orange and red and yellow and black and silver and a hard-to-describe pattern blended in as well.  It’s a little loud, but I like it, and I always seem to end up wearing it to Animal Kingdom because it breathes really well and AK is always so hot.  It’s loud enough that I was walking through the mall at home one time with it and heard a voice I didn’t recognize say “Is there some place I can buy a shirt like that, or do you have to get it as a gift?”  I was a little surprised to find the voice belonged to a 20-year-old stranger with a grubby t-shirt under a worn black leather vest, 40” baggy shredded jeans on 30” legs, and a couple pounds of metal hanging off various parts of his face.  “I think it’s one of a kind,” I replied, “but if you’re looking to upgrade, I can probably part with it.”  He and his buddies decided that wouldn’t be necessary, and I was glad I could provide a brief bit of entertainment for them.

But this morning, when I come out of the bathroom wearing it, Caitlyn innocently says “Your shirt makes you look a little funny.”  So I guess Slash wasn’t out of line after all, turns out I’M the rebel.

We actually end up heading out of the room for Animal Kingdom about 9:30.  Caitie reports that "I've seen lots of aminals, but I've never been to Aminal Kingdom."  We get into the park at 10:10 and the rain is just starting to ease up.  It’s no surprise that the tip board says we won’t have to wait much for anything we might want to see.

Our timing is right for the Festival of the Lion King [musical theater-in-the-round stage show], so we make our way back toward Camp Minnie-Mickey.  Caitie spots Goofy ‘fishing’ as we cross the little bridge and mentions it but doesn't suggest stopping.  [They have a number of scenes with life-size replicas of the characters in this section of the park.]  She’s used to operating on someone else’s schedule, as are all kids her age, so we remind her that this trip is different and that if there’s anything she wants to spend some time with, we’ll either do it right then or make sure we find time to do it later.  So right now, I tell her we need to check out this ‘fishing’ thing.  She’s giggling quite a bit as she points out to Laurie that Donald has caught a boot, and that Goofy is pretending to be fishing, but he’s really sleeping, and he has a VERY big sandwich and apple, and he doesn't even have string on his pole, which is a good thing or he would be catching the ducks that are swimming by.  As we walk away, she says "I LOVE this place."

Caitlyn gets autographs from Chip and Dale and Goofy, and then gets in a long line for Mickey and Minnie.  When we’re about two-thirds through the line, the Mice need to take a break for a few minutes (reportedly for some cheesecake), and we all decide to bail to get to the Lion King show on time.  She isn’t quite ready to be a participant yet; she offers no tusks to help out the Warthog Section.  [The audience is divided into four sections, us being Warthogs.]  I can’t help it, I still get chills during that opening song of the Lion King.  And Caitie is bobbing and weaving to see around the folks in front of us so she can take in every character in the show.

She’s VERY excited when Timon comes out, in spite of her undisguised disgust with me when I inadvertently call him Timba.  She loves the Tumble Monkeys, and clearly thinks it’s a great show overall.  It occurs to me that, though we love the show and make sure we see it every trip, there are two ways it could be improved immensely -- shorten the Lion Sleeps Tonight number to about 11 seconds, and go back to singers who are more interested in faithful representations of the originals than in trying to outdo each other with vocal gymnastics.  Laurie was a little disappointed in Flying Girl and Helper also, as they didn’t seem quite as graceful as past performers.  I can’t knock any of them too much though, since I’m the kind of guy who says things like “Here comes Timba!”

Caitie, whose disposable camera currently holds only one shot of our hotel room, urgently wants to get a picture of the finale.  (It hasn’t always worked that way with the kids, I remember Alexis filling her camera with blackbirds and toads.)  As we leave, she tells us she loved everything except the part where Timon was mean.  Not remembering what that part might have been, she points out that after we stood up he yelled "GET OUUUTTTT!!!"

It seems odd that as we’re walking back over to see Minnie and Mickey, I’m in the happiest place on earth and hearing background classical guitar playing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime.”  What are they trying to tell me?  We have a To Each His Own moment with a woman in the queue whose favorite things at Disney World are Tarzan Rocks and Fantasmic; those two are both on Laurie’s and my Probably Won’t See Again list.

We manage to just get into the Pocahontas show [where she teaches about saving the forest, with help from animated trees and real animals], even though it has already started.  No loss, as Caitie seems nearly as bored with it as I am.  But in another stroke of good timing, we are just exiting the show when Daddy calls. The first thing she tells him is "We haven't ridden any rides yet!", but her voice and facial expression are telling us that that isn’t yet a fatal flaw.  After a bit, she looks up from the phone and asks "Are we going to the Stinkbug after we eat?"  You just can’t get conversation like THAT at home.

One of the things we’ve learned from the kids on these trips is how much eye candy there is overhead.  Most adults don’t tend to look ‘up’ much, but kids are always looking up just to interact with adults so they notice all kinds of things up high.  And Caitie is loving the ladybug streetlights near Pizzafari.  We go to the Tusker House for lunch, and Caitlyn has selected the mac&cheese, an excellent choice.  Elysia had told us Disney’s mac&cheese is the best anywhere, but Haley had declared it “too cheesy.”  You might want to keep that in mind when you ask someone’s opinion of any particular Disney food or resort or attraction or transportation or whatever.  (See Tarzan/Fantasia discussion above.)  Apparently, it’s ‘just right’ for Caitie though.

After lunch, we get FastPasses for the Safari and head out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.  After parking the stroller, I find myself walking down the path behind my two babes with their sleeveless shirts and their shorts and their little white sneakers and their happy, bouncy walks and life is good.  Caitlyn is very excited when she sees the train pull in.  I assume she’s been on one before, but maybe not.  The train guy talks about the Affection Section (petting zoo), and she tells Laurie "I'm not petting any alligators!"  I think she saw the Safari on the TV in the room and is getting the two mixed up.

When we get to Conservation Station, I stop to take a break outside while the girls go inside, and I soon experience another first, a phone call from the Rafiki line.  This is the first time we’ve both had cell phones with us, and we’re loving it.  Laurie’s letting me know that instead of checking out the exhibits first, they’re getting autographs from Pocahontas, Rafiki, and Stanley.  I catch up with them as they’re finishing up, and suggest we check out one of the sound booths.

We put the headphones on and settle in for ‘Song of the Rainforest’, which turns out to be another heavy-handed Save The Forest cautionary tale.  We don’t even get to the thunderstorm though, as Caitlyn dumps the headphones about a minute in, when the bugs start flying around our ears.  Laurie and I look at each other and mentally note that Drew Carey’s Sounds Dangerous is not in the cards for this trip.  I think the sounds are way cooler than Caitie does, but the story leaves me wanting to exit early also.  Love those headphones though, I definitely have to get me a pair of those babies before Star Wars 3 gets to DVD.

Caitlyn says she hates spiders, but spends at least 15 minutes checking them all out.  Of course these are different from the spiders at home, being the behind-the-glass kind and all.  I wouldn’t have thought she’d have any critter issues, given that when I was at her house last summer she walked up to me with a little beach pail containing two massive slugs, which she had named (logically enough) Aurora and Rose.  We also get to see a small room with hundreds of butterflies and she wants to know if they're all brothers and sisters.  Must not have been listening closely to the message from Pocahontas, apparently we all are.  (Which reminds me, my shirt’s the Color of the Wind, so back off, Munchkin.)

We go outside to the Affection Section now, and are relieved that there are no alligators in sight.  Lots of goats and a few sheep, but no gators.  A goat seems to be reaching for whatever's in Caitie’s fanny pack, which she finds kind of humorous.  She doesn’t want to walk away, because she wants to pet him, but she doesn’t want him messing with her snacks either, so she’s trying this cute little junior contortionist deal where her shoulders are headed north and her hips are headed southwest. 

They have a neat little low-elevation Jungle Gym sort of thing for the goats to climb on.  A woman near us is surprised to see that the maker of this unit is the same company that did their playground back home.  Her husband is surprised she’s surprised, quite sensibly wondering if she thinks a company could make a go of it selling just goat recreational equipment.

By the time we leave, we’ve set several new records -- 15 minutes with the spiders, 20 minutes with snakes and lizards and butterflies, at least 20 minutes petting goats and sheep, more than an hour and a half total, counting the autographs.  Maybe this ISN’T a half-day park.  Caitie says our next destination should be the other place you can pet animals.  "You know, the Safari."  [Not a petting zoo, but she doesn’t know that yet.]

The music on the path between Conservation Station and the train would make excellent going to sleep music.  In fact, Laurie’s had a bit of an upset stomach, and credits this music for calming that.  As we ride the train back to Harambe, it doesn't seem to us like Caitlyn’s paying any attention to our conductor’s listing of the various AK attractions.  When she mentions the kids' playground in Dinoland, though, Caitie immediately says "That's me, I'm going there."  It’s fairly crowded on the tight path up from the train station, and she reaches back and grabs me by the wrist for the first time.  We’ve had a little less than a day to bond, but it turns out I’m an okay guy and almost as good a safety zone as Grandma.

She appears to be loving the Safari.  I’m a little worried about her neck, what with her head whipping around so much in every direction.  Early in the tour, she’s a little concerned.  “Are we driving through the RIVER???"  Yes.  "Are we going to drown?"  Doubtful.  They’ve changed the route to Lion Rock [a high rocky section where you can sometimes see a lion or lioness or both] a bit, so Caitie spots it before we do.  "Simbaaaaaa!!!!"

We’re going to head down to Dinoland now, but we need to stop in the Harambe Square because Caitie needs some popcorn.  Despite the rain, there are a couple 8-year-olds pulling the ropes that activate the misters on the corner, giggling profusely.  She’s quite impressed when we get to the point on the path that has the overlook with the Picture Spot of the Tree of Life  [the central icon of Animal Kingdom, a giant ‘tree’ with hundreds of animals carved in the trunk].  That’s a lot of aminals, she thinks.  In fact, it occurs to me that if you stand there as long as 10 minutes, you’re bound to learn how to pronounce dozens of animal names with a British accent.

As we approach Dinoland, Caitlyn’s giving us a very lengthy description of long-necks, and wants to know if there's one of those there.  She’s telling us all about how long the neck is, "and that doesn't even count the head!"  We’re comforted to learn that she’s never seen one for real, she’s just looked at them on the computer.  I ask her if I can have a little bit of her popcorn, and she says “You can have as much as you want."  What a sweetheart.  Later on though, Grandma reaches in and grabs a big handful and Caitie turns around and calmly tells her "Don't forget, I'm sick."  A little is fine, but if you’re going to be a hog, you should probably get your own.

It turns out the Boneyard play area isn’t of interest after all, as we sail right by without comment.  We spend a little time watching Lucky (the new free-standing audio-animatronic dinosaur), and Lucky's cool.  Not quite as cool as Crush [we’ll get to him later], but then who is?  We decide Laurie and Caitlyn are going to ride the Triceratops Spin [a Dumbo clone], while I take a Primeval Whirl [a Wild Mouse type coaster].  We tell Caitie she’s not tall enough for that one, but she’s not going to just take our word for it, we have to take her over and stand her by the yardstick to prove it.  Okay, no problem.

I end up sharing the Whirl with a 6'4" 30-year-old manly-man wearing a "Finish Every Play" t-shirt, along with his slightly older, slightly shorter, slightly less studly brother.  But they both look like they were probably captain of their college rugby team. The older one hasn't ridden this before, and it’s soon apparent that he’s not crazy about hanging over the edge at the top.  But then once we start spinning, both of the manly-men are giggling like 12-year-old girls.  Ah, the great equalizer.

Our rides get done about the same time, and Caitlyn runs over to me and chirps "Was your ride good, Papa?"  She wants me to get a chance to ride HER ride, so we do.  As we get near the front of the line, she looks up at me and asks "Are you excited about this ride?"  Well obviously!  And we go up, and we go down, and we’re bouncing, and she’s giggling, and “Can we do that again?”  We would, but we don’t want to miss the parade.

On our way out of Dinoland, we ask her if she wants to go down and get an autograph from Pooh or Eeyore.  She thinks for a few seconds, then says "Not now."  As we walk along, I consider it partial payback for annoying me so much when I see a cast member having to stand there bouncing that damned four-foot ball while it's raining.  We eventually arrive at our chosen parade spot near Tusker Square, and decide that we need some ice cream.  Well, Laurie and I do anyway.  We each have a waffle cone and Caitlyn selects the Fruit Smoothy, which is a purplish berry concoction.  And of course this being Animal Kingdom, there are no lids on the container.  And of course there is NO color of clothing that goes well with a Fruit Smoothy.  Any kindergarten teacher or cafeteria worker will tell you that most five-year-olds wear some food, and ours is no exception.  She’s got a little orange juice on the front of her shorts, a big glob of berry on her shirt front, and a little circle of berry on her butt.  Probably trying to outdo my shirt.

When the first parade character gets to us, Caitlyn starts waving.  And she never puts her hand down until the parade is finished.  Girl’s a pro.  She’s quite amused (and I’m a little freaked out) that Minnie's jeep has eyelashes over the headlights that wink.  And the bubble bath is hilarious, as are Goofy’s golf clubs ready to fall on the ground. We had chosen this spot so we could see the parade both start and finish, but she’s getting tired so we head out.  In fact, we haven’t gone very far before she’s sleeping in the stroller.

Back at the All Stars, Caitie says we should follow her to the room.  She’s walking along fifteen yards ahead of us, peeking over her shoulder periodically to see kind of where we're aiming, then leading us there.  You know that several elements of body language can mean more than one thing, but there's only ever one thing that skipping means.  Life is good.

In the room, Caitlyn wants to talk into my recorder, and her initial offering is "Grandma and Papa had a very good day with me."  I couldn't have said it better myself.  The TV is already on channel fiveteen [the main Disney channel] when we get to the room, so we catch the last ten minutes of some Toon Disney bilge called Dave the Barbarian.  If you haven't seen it, please don't encourage them.  But then we get treated to the beginning of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  And Laurie and I are reminded of how much we miss that show at MGM.  There are few things that are quite as gripping to me as that chorus singing about the bells bells bells bells bells bells bells bells bells of No-truh DAAAHHHHHHMMMMM.

After a very refreshing nap, we’re headed to the Grand Floridian for a character dinner at 1900 Park Faire.  [You don’t actually eat the characters, but 4 or 5 of them will come around to tables for autographs and pictures.]  On the way to our hotel bus stop, Caitie and I decide to take the long cut around the end of the building and meet Laurie out front.  I say something about how we’re going out to wait for the bus, and she corrects me instantly.  "I'm not waiting for the BUS, I'm waiting for GRANDMA."  Yes, well I suppose, first things first.

We get off our bus at the Magic Kingdom to walk over to the monorail station.  Caitie perhaps sees it up ahead when she confidently tells us "Follow me!"  Sure, we’ll see where we end up.  [Part of the bay juts out between the bus stops and the monorail station.]  She’s skipping along until she gets up to the head of the bus stops, then suddenly stops and turns to us and says "I have one question.  How do we get over there when there's water between us?"  Well, I guess we’ll just have to go around the water.  She’s unreasonably excited to see all the Mickey-shaped stones in the Magic Kingdom walkway, walking along saying “Mickey Mickey Mickey Mickey” in much the same voice as that dog on TV says Bacon Bacon Bacon.  Glad we didn’t have to spend long on THAT path.

When we get to the restaurant, Goofy is out in the hall so we begin to get the autograph book and camera out.  She already met Goofy this morning, so she tells us she doesn't need his autograph or a picture, she just wants to hug him.  And as we go to get in line, she informs me “You can sit with Grandma, I can do this myself.”  And then proves her point.  Then it’s time for a bathroom break, and as the girls head off, she tells me “If Cinderella comes out, you tell her I'm in the bathroom."  Bet Cindy never gets tired of hearing THAT.  I need to make a stop also, which lets me overhear a cute conversation between a guy and the baby girl he’s changing in the men’s room.  “Daddy, you have to wash your hands after you touch my hiney."  He tells her he cleaned them with a wet wipe, but you and I both know he totally didn't.

Never having eaten here, I’m surprised by the volume in 1900 Park Faire for the character meal.  I can’t remember ever having eaten in a louder place, though Laurie believes Chef Mickey’s and the Crystal Palace are louder.  It’s just a big ol’ rectangular room with no sound absorption, and when you fill it with people and 40% of them are small children, it reminds me a little of Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve, only with less pushing.  There’s a very nice selection at the buffet, which we’re soon enjoying.  I can’t believe how much this diet has taken over me though, I get back to the table to discover that I’ve put both carrots and broccoli on my plate.  How the hell did THAT happen?

Caitlyn enjoys getting an autograph and picture with Cinderella and later, one of the Mice.  But when she sees Prince Charming making his rounds, she tells us she doesn't want his autograph.  Laurie protests, but Caitie simply tells her “YOU can get it if you want, but I’M not going to.”  And she’s serious, because once he gets within a couple tables of us, she comes around to the chair on my side of the table (probably to avoid being too close if Grandma gets all girly).  And when he gets to the table next to ours, she’s actually slinking down and almost hiding under the table.  We’ve concluded that perhaps the Prince is too handsome, and thus a little intimidating for her.  I must have the same effect on people, because nobody ever wants my autograph either.

When he finally gets to our table, he looks down at Caitlyn and she simply points to Laurie, with no expression on her face whatsoever.  He takes the autograph book and pen from Laurie, and while he’s signing, he says to Caitlyn "Can I get a picture with you Princess?"  Without hesitation she says "Nope," and points to Laurie again.  So I have a beautiful picture of Laurie and the Prince.  As we’re finishing dinner, we’re talking about favorite things we did today, and favorite Disney movies, and favorite characters.  She asks me who my favorite character is, and I pull out my best Eeyore voice and say “Nobody cares about the donkey.”  She looks up at me with a face full of sincerity and says "I do."  Oh, you little sweetheart.  And she’ll bring this back up on our last day, too.

It’s getting close to 8:00 now, so Laurie gives Caitie a choice of going back to the pool for a while before bed or going to the Magic Kingdom for a bit.  Surprisingly, she says "I think it's past my bedtime, we probably should go back to the room."  No problem.  We get back and tell her to change into her swimming gear, and she tells me “I'm going to leave my blue earrings on, because the BLUE ones are waterproof, okay?  Just so you know."  Okay.  Then there's a 10-second pause before she grins and says "I'm just messin' with you, ALL my earrings are waterproof."  And I’m here to tell you, being ‘messed’ with by a five-year-old is fairly entertaining.

We spend quite a bit of time in the pool, but still should be quite rested for rope drop at MGM tomorrow.
 
Grandbabies 5.2, MGM, Epcot

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlyn, on the second day of our week-long June adventure.

We’re all feeling pretty good and ready to go this morning.  Laurie’s upset tummy is fixed, Caitlyn has worked her way down to just a slightly runny nose, and we’ll be on our way to MGM by 8:30.  Caitie is getting a little impatient while us old folks finish getting ready, and wants to go outside.  We open the curtains all the way and tell her she can wait right outside the window where she can see us.  Which she happily does.  She knows how to use her room key now, if only she were big enough to actually move that very heavy door.

Magic Kingdom must still be popular on Thursdays, there’s a bus and a half of people waiting at that bus stop, a handful of people each for AK and Epcot, and a dozen of us for MGM.  When we get to the park and approach the gates, Caitie says "There's the hat we made on our picture!"  [MGM’s central icon is a 100’ blue Sorcerer Mickey hat.]  It’s not uncommon to prepare the kids with drawings of the park icons, and say what you want, that hat HAS to be a lot easier to draw than the Chinese Theater.

Laurie somehow crumpled her annual pass in her pocket and now it won't fit in the turnstile.  Caitlyn and I are already through, but Laurie’s stuck there.  The CM has her back to Laurie, busily chatting away with a family in her native language, helping them quite a bit I’m sure, but completely ignoring Laurie and the folks in line behind her.  So when Laurie rises from simmer to slow burn, she simply walks through the stroller gate without using her ticket and heads over to Guest Relations to replace it.  The street is full for rope drop, so Caitie and I sneak up through the shops on the left and end up about three people from the rope.  Laurie catches up to us just as the Good Morning Music comes up.  [When we talk about ‘rope drop’, they let people through the turnstiles a bit before the parks actually open, then hold them behind a rope up the street somewhere until 9:00, when they have a musical welcome and then remove the ropes.  If you can ‘make rope drop’, you get an hour or so of fairly empty park (and short lines) before the crowd starts to build later.]

We get back near the hat, and Caitlyn says "Cool, are those plants real?"  She's spotting the topiaries for the first time, and she's really impressed with both Mickey and the Brooms, because she loves both Fantasia movies.  Fantasia is one of those movies that wouldn't register with the casual 5-year-old Disney kid, but the Disney mom's Disney kid is all over it.  (I think Mickey may have also received some kind of ‘award’ for Fantasia, as we’ll learn later in the trip.)  A couple sitting near the Brown Derby are in Week 5 of a month-long trip, and tell us they haven’t had a drop of rain all month until these two days that we’ve been here.  Boy I feel special now!

Now for those of you who haven't been part of the Playhouse Disney fun (which is no doubt all of you without small children), the 'plot' of the show is that Bear comes out and dances with all the kids, but Tutter is too shy to dance.  So they bring out groups of friends, one by one, including JoJo, Stanley, and Pooh, to teach Tutter lessons about how you don't need to be shy around friends.  (I take the same lessons, but mine involve about a half bottle of most any kind of wine.)  And sprinkled throughout are a half dozen rousing 30-second dance numbers that (most of) the kids love.  Caitlyn works her way from sitting for the first dance, to up on one foot for another, to both feet flat and squatting for the next.  When the last song comes, she actually stands up, but before they really get it going, she fairly urgently sits again.  So close.

We come out of the Playhouse and we're just in time to make the next showing of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid [combination of puppetry, movie, live action and song].  I take my poncho off on the way in, and Caitie warns me "you'd better put that back on, because it's going to rain when the lights look like waves."  [They have misters that make you feel like you’re going underwater.]  But with all the rain outside, it doesn’t rain inside, even though Caitlyn was completely prepared to hide under Grandma’s arm.  We all enjoy the show as usual though.

She doesn't remember the Great Movie Ride [where you ride by stationary scenes from several movies], but as soon as we get inside she recognizes the rope configuration and the memorabilia and says "I remember this ride, it's the one that has the Fantasia video and I thought I was going to be scared but I wasn't."  Not buyin' it there, kiddo, as it turns out to be your scariest ride of the trip.  Grandma reminds her that everything in here is pretend, so she doesn't need to get worried.  I tell her even I'M pretend, and she looks at me and says "You're an actor???"  Yep, it's a pretty cool gig, too, giving tours to 5-year-olds.  Grandma tells her "Papa is so much fun to bring to Disney."  Gee, all these years I thought I was making Disney trips.  Who knew I was just Laurie's life-size Pal Mickey [a Mickey doll that informs and entertains].

Things are fine at the start, she really likes Mary Poppins.  Then Muggsy takes over our car.  I wouldn't have thought a 50-year-old woman would make a very convincing Muggsy, but Caitlyn's buried in Laurie's armpit now.  Then she's got her whole body turned away from the Alien, because even though it's so muggy this morning that you can't really see the Alien through the fog, the sound is all about bad bad things about to happen.  She’s really creeped out by the mummy room, also.  You stop and think about it, this ride has gangsters shooting at each other, cowboys, aliens, creepy archeological sites, snakes, and mummies.  How weird is it that the most normal thing in the whole place for a little kid might be a Munchkin?  Speaking of which, Caitie must not be a big Oz fan, since she calls Dorothy by her original script name of "Wizard of Oz Girl."

We're walking down towards the Muppets end of the park when Caitlyn spots a gate at the end of the street with a big frog on it and says "I REMEMBER THIS PLACE!!!"  I ask what place, and she says "IT'S WHERE YOU GET A FROG'S AUTOGRAPH!!!"  Which might possibly be the answer to the question "What foolishness would you LIKE to see."  The top half of the mural at the end of San Francisco Street seems stripped and ready for repainting.  Doesn't seem like it's been there long enough to need refurbishing, I wonder if some artist put an Oakland building in there by mistake and now they have to remove it.  There's a cool billboard on the end of Studio 7, with a young soccer leg and ball and the message "Without sports, weekends would be weekdays."  I know that doesn't mean anything, but hey, it caught me.

It’s still drizzling heavily, so the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground [complete with 15’ grass, 3’ Lego’s, and kid-sized drain spouts] is closed.  Understandable, as I imagine they have enough face plants in there when everything ISN'T slippery.  The CM tells me that if the drizzle doesn't get any worse than this, they'll probably run Lights, Motors, Action [a car stunt show], but if it starts raining any heavier they'll cancel.  Guess we're not going to build any plans around it today.  We notice they've changed that little food counter to a Mediterranean menu, one of many food changes over the last several months which give us a lot bigger variety than I remember having before.

As we head back up New York Street toward the Muppets, Caitlyn gets her first good look at the end of the street and asks "Is that a painted street up there?"  Good eye.  [It’s a 30’ high mural that looks from a distance like it’s another mile of street.]  She wants to know if we can go look at it, and except for the first hour or so in each park (when we make a point to see the busy attractions before they get busy) we'd be more than happy to see just about anything she wants to look at.  She thinks it's very cool the way they make it look like a real street.  Then she says something about the buildings not being real like they are on the street we just walked up, so I take her to the corner and have her look down the street at those store fronts.  Then we walk about twenty feet east and look down the back of the facades.  She just giggles and giggles.

With the drizzle and a few things closed, the Muppet line is actually folded across the front of the building and runs out past the fountain.  We haven't been in line very long when she asks Grandma if she'll save our spot in line while she shows Papa something.  Sure, Grandma says.  So she drags me up to the exterior of the Tatooine Traders and puts her hand on the stuccoish wall and says "Look."  I ask her what's in there and she says "nothing, it just looks really cool."  I've thought the same thing since they built it.

Caitie giggles a LOT through the pre-show [all Muppet routines – the main show is a 3-D Muppet movie], as do most of the other folks in the room.  Always a bonus when you get to see lots of people getting the gags for the first time, it seems to make the show newer for you.  She understands the glasses, and has them off and on throughout the show.  She's even the first to call out spotting Bean Bunny in the balcony.  Her biggest laugh, oddly enough, is when either Statler or Waldorf wonders if he has time to go to the bathroom.  [They’re audioanimatronic characters in the side balcony; the other one says “We can’t, you old fool, we’re bolted to the floor!”]

Well, now THAT was weird.  You may have seen suspenseful scenes on TV shows like 24 or Lost or even The Amazing Race, when a super-tense scene is about to unfold and they go to a slo-mo shot to accentuate it.  Well Caitlyn just went into super-slo-mo when she got to the Miss Piggy Fountain.  She was just walking along normally, then all of a sudden she's walking about one-tenth normal speed, checking out every fixture and bauble in the fountain, until she gets to the other side and slips back into normal speed without expression or comment.  A little too Twilight Zone-ish for me.

We pull up in front of the ABC Commissary.  "Hey Caitlyn, let's go in here!"  With a bit of a resigned head tilt, "What is it, potty time AGAIN?"  No, it's lunch time, but I understand.  We have a rule that whenever any one of us has to go to the bathroom, all of us have to try.  I think she's getting a little tired of Grandma and Grandpa's apparently less efficient bladders.  During lunch, we get talking about Playhouse Disney, and the fact that we thought she was going to get up and dance for that last song.  She says "It's too embarrassing."  And then, after about a 15 second pause, "And you're not changing my mind with stories."  So she got the whole plot and game plan, she's just not buying it.

After trekking all the way across the park, we discover we’ve missed the day's first Beauty and the Beast show [stage musical] by minutes, because the theater’s full.  So we start listing for Caitie the few things we wanted to do but haven't yet.  When we mention Star Tours [motion simulator ride], Caitie pipes up with "I remember that, I want to ride that three times.  Or maybe eight times."  So we find ourselves walking back by the big empty theater where we wish we could still watch Doug [stage musical], and the Drew Carey theater [headphones and darkness] where we know she'd have the headphones on the floor and her head between her knees.

I think Indiana Jones [1500-seat stunt show] must have just let out, because the line for Star Tours snakes around the trees outside.  Laurie doesn't ever remember the line being out there, but we were in that line outside on our honeymoon, back when it was a full line and not the FastPass shrunken half line it is today.  Time just isn't measured the same way when you're on your honeymoon.  We figured out one time that we waited more than an hour for 11 different rides that trip, and loved every minute of it.  Kind of funny that now, we see a 20-minute line and we're all "Well, what do you think, should we skip it?"  And we usually do.

Caitie gets a big kick out of all the robots though.  When we get inside and belted up, she announces that she doesn't think she has ever ridden this, so this may be interesting.  We go through the speech again about how if it gets scary, you can just close your eyes, but you should try to keep them open as much as you can because there's a whole bunch of really cool stuff to see.  But she grabs both armrests and is somewhere between a grin and a giggle for the whole trip, and immediately wants to do it again.  The Indiana Jones glut is gone and the line is 10 minutes now, so we get right back in line.

This time through, she's waving to C3PO as we go through the front room.  And she apparently was serious about wanting to ride again.  In every queue we’ve been in this trip, she's had her head on a swivel and we've had to remind her that the line had moved.  But this time, it’s Laurie and me who are checking things out and reminiscing, and every time the gap to the folks in front gets as big as four feet, Caitie’s admonishing "Come on, guys, KEEP UP!!!"  And she has just as much fun this flight, with lots of oohs and yeahs and giggling throughout.  She's already resigned to the fact that we're going back over to hear Belle now, but wants to come back here after that and ride again.  Yeah, give us all Segways and you MIGHT talk Grandma into that.
 
We're among the last seated for Beauty and the Beast, and I had forgotten all about Four For a Dollar [comedic a cappella group].  A couple of older guys behind us are getting quite a kick out of their test-the-mike operation.  They also have a couple special guests who are here on their honeymoon.  (I mention this because Laurie thinks it’s really neat and insists I mention it, though I must say I guess the shinyness has worn off that sort of thing for me.)  Caitlyn enjoys the show, but not quite as much as we thought she might.  She announces that she's a little tired, and not realizing that's it's less than completely polite to bolt from the theater during the curtain call, the poor kids get one bow in and she's halfway to the exit.  She gets in her stroller and I start walking backward down the street in front of her, picking on her a little by singing (to the tune of Belle's song) "I've never seen you sleeping in a stroller.  But you are tired, I can tell."  Not to be out-picked, she barely misses a beat before she starts singing... "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells..."

It's almost 2 and the skies have finally cleared.  The Tower/Aerosmith plaza is absolutely packed.  I think I've pushed past my goodwill limit with Caitie, because when I ask her for a bite of her popsicle she tells me she's sick.  We're headed back to the hotel for a swim and a nap.  She wants to make sure she can ride in the stroller when we get off the bus, and Laurie tells her that’s not a problem, as long as we then have our nap before we go swimming.  Walking through the lobby, she can barely stay upright, but there's no way she's riding that stroller right now.

She tells us she can't swim, and has arm floaties to prove it.  Grandma blows them up part way before putting them on Caitlyn's arms, despite her protestations.  When the first one won't go up past her elbow, she tells Laurie "See, that's what I was trying to tell you."  Being a kid would be so much easier if adults would just listen.  The girls are ready for the pool before me, so they head out as Caitlyn tells me "We'll meet you right at the other side of the end."  Whatever that means.  She immediately swims directly to the middle of the pool, bumping Grandma's adrenaline a notch.  But she has no problem at all, and no fear of the water.  After a few minutes she meets a new friend back in the shallow end, and I think they could stay here all afternoon if we let them.

But eventually, it’s nap time.  I’m sitting in a chair across from the bed when Laurie tells me there’s a bug on the wall behind me.  Before I have a chance to turn around and look, Caitie has grabbed a tape case and squished him with the end of it, and presents it to me for ... verification, I guess.  Without thinking, I tell her she needs to throw him outside.  So she takes the case over by the sink, takes the bug off the case with a hankie, calmly walks over to the door, and throws the hankie out on the sidewalk.  I tell her “You can’t do that!!”  It’s all right to throw the bug out, but you can’t just throw a hankie on the sidewalk!  So she opens the door back up, bends down, and carefully tears off a tiny piece of the hankie with the bug on it and throws that down.  I tell her she can’t even throw a little piece of paper like that, so she goes back and carefully flicks the bug off the hankie completely and finally disposes of the hankie in the wastebasket.

After our nap, Caitie and I are going for a walk while we’re waiting for Grandma to finish up some things she’s working on.  As we go out the door and are walking down the sidewalk, she’s a little surprised there aren't a lot of bugs outside our door for a celebration.  What???  “You know, when somebody really old dies, everyone gets together and they have a celebration about him.  And then you find a bury spot and you put up a sign.  So I think when I get back to the room I'll see if I can find a little stone and I'm going to make a little sign in case all the other bugs come to celebrate.”  Thank God for short attention spans, because by the time we get back to the room, that whole little program has evaporated.

After our walk, we all go down to the Food Court for dinner.  Now I'm just guessing here, but I think Caitlyn is hungry.  I'm holding her up as the signs at the various stations cycle through their pictures of the menu items, and she decides "I want that" five or six times.  She really is very flexible as to what she'll eat, we've yet to come across a menu that didn't have something she was excited about.  And just so you know, french fries are best when they’re dipped in barbecue sauce.

I keep notes of our trips on a microcassette recorder I keep in my fanny pack.  I'd never remember everything any other way.  The reason I mention it is that as I listen to the tape now, I can constantly hear in the background "Papa, Papa, Papa..."  Caitlyn had asked me yesterday morning if she could talk into it.  I didn't bring extra tapes, so I simply told her no, there wasn't enough room on the tape for her also.  Later in the morning we were waiting for something or other and I had just started recording something when she looked up at me, all serious, and said "Papa?"  I paused the tape and asked her what she wanted, and with a look of satisfaction she told me "I wanted to get on your tape."  And she's been doing it ever since.

We head over to Epcot after supper, and as we pass a throng heading out of the park, Caitie observes "Those people are NOT going to all fit on one bus!"  We get through the turnstiles and she’s just beside herself over the character topiaries [they have dozens of additional topiaries now, during the Flower & Garden Festival].  "That is SO COOL!!!"  She wasn't sure if she'd ever been to Epcot before, but we're under Spaceship Earth [180’ tall geodesic sphere, a slow ride past scenes about history of communications] when she looks up and says "Nope, I don't think I've ever been HERE."  We ride Spaceship Earth first, and she's quite apprehensive that things are going to jump out at her.  After the ride though, she wants to ride again.  She and I make our way up to the tip board while Laurie goes back downhill after the stroller, and it seems like it's taking her quite a while.  I finally get a call from her that she's at Guest Relations because someone stole our stroller.  We’ve never had anything taken in all our trips to WDW, so I choose to believe it was taken by mistake.  While she’s waiting, I go down to check the side where we left it, and confirm it’s not there.  I go around to the other side to check, because the CMs have this nasty habit of moving strollers around, but it’s not there either.  Then when I come back around the first side . . . there it is!  I wonder how far someone got before they said “hey George, we didn’t have any half bottles of orange juice, did we?”

Laurie doesn’t want to steer Caitlyn on to anything scary tonight, so we ride “the dinosaur ride,” also known as Journey Into Imagination [slow ride past comical scenes about imagination, with a purple dragon called Figment].  Or as we call it, Figment.  The first time through, she’s not crazy about Figment picking on us, and she’s quite proud of herself for ‘tricking’ us by plugging her nose in the scent lab.  All in all, she’s quite eager to ride again, and we do.

We’re trying to meet up with our friend Tracy for Illuminations [park-closing fireworks and laser show extravaganza].  We know she’s up by Canada [one of 11 country pavilions around the World Showcase] somewhere, but we can’t reach her on the cell phone and it’s way too crowded to just run across someone tonight.  (Tonight is an Extra Magic Evening [park is open an extra 3 hours for resort guests only], which has undoubtedly made the park much more crowded all day long.)  Laurie finds a spot where Caitie can stand on a bench and watch, and she’s absolutely unconcerned about maintaining any contact with Laurie.  She’s glued to the show.

The fireworks are over and Caitlyn is quite concerned that we need to find our friend.  We eventually track each other down by the totem pole, and Caitlyn whispers to Laurie “Ask her to come on the Figment ride with us.”  We’re picking on her about having her nose plugged before, and I tell her that skunks don’t really smell that bad.  She simply replies “Well, they sure don’t smell like flowers!”  Yep, she’s a Disney girl.  She’s also quite the social director (as will be evidenced throughout our trip), and she’s now busy organizing who’s going to sit with whom on the ride.  We ride Figment again and she’s clutching my arm this time, especially when Figment says “it’s a blast!”

At 10:10 the standby line for Soarin’ [combination of Imax movie and 40’ high motion simulator] is 70 minutes.  The Living with the Land [slow ride past history (and future) of farming] line is even 25.  As we’re walking over to get in that, Caitlyn asks if we can go on the Cotton Ride next.  We have no clue what that is, until she says “You know, the Cotton Ball Ride.”  Ohhhh!  Spaceship Earth!!  Most people call it the Golf Ball, but I guess you go with what you know.

It’s so hot and humid in here tonight that Laurie gives her a choice between this and that.  She sensibly asks “If we ride the Cotton ride, will that be our last one?”  Laurie tells her it probably will because it’s getting pretty late.  “I really want to ride this.”  Well, duh.  She thinks the chickens on the Land Ride are cute, and states “They’re robots, aren’t they.”  And (as Caitie predicted), we’ll take another ride in the cotton ball on the way out.  Tracy asks Caitlyn if she’s going to sit with her, and she says sure, and begins telling Tracy all about the ride and how she’s going to love it. 

We’re leaving Epcot now, and suddenly Laurie’s biggest concern is whether we’ll make it back to Sports in time to get some milk and our traditional carrot cake.  Outside of these Disney trips, she’s a pretty cheap date.  It’s almost 12:30 before we get to bed; it’s been a very long day, but a good one.  Good thing we’re planning a light day at the water park tomorrow.
 
Grandbabies 5.3, Animal Kingdom, Epcot

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlyn, on the third day of our week-long June adventure.

We’ve really been enjoying Caitie’s wonderful sense of humor this trip.  I think that particular personality trait will get you farther in life than any other, and the five grandkids we’ve brought so far have all been blessed.  I’m sitting on the bed getting my feet dressed this morning while Laurie makes some phone calls, and Caitie’s using my back for a writing board.  I tell her she needs to be quiet because Grandma’s making some phone calls, and she leans around to look me in the eye and asks with a grin “Is Grandma invisible?”  Okay, point taken. 

Our plan had been to open Blizzard Beach [water park] this morning, but the weather channel shows a bright orange band that will be here in about half an hour and they’re calling for up to an inch of rain today.  So we decide we’ll just mess around in the hotel pool a little this morning and then maybe hit the couple things we missed at Animal Kingdom and MGM.  Caitlyn still wants to see the Stinkbug and the Burning Guy and the Cotton Ride.  (That’s Tough to Be a Bug, Lights Motors Action, and Spaceship Earth for you folks who don’t know the five-year-old WDW lingo.)

When we get to the pool, she’s got her floaties on and apparently doesn’t want to bother walking all the way around to the shallow end of the pool, so she decides to go in at the 5’ mark.  She assures us it’s okay, telling Laurie “I know it’s not the steps, but I’m not jumping in.”  And she casually lowers herself in and she’s off.  She eventually works her way down to the shallow end and is quite excited when she finds a spot where she can stand up without her head going under.  (“And I’m standing up all the way to my heels!”)  Grandma also teaches her how to dunk her head completely under water, and she’s quite excited about that.

It’s 11:00 now and still drizzling off and on when our friends John and Charlotte arrive.  They’ll be staying in the room adjoining ours for a couple days before moving over to Boardwalk.  Caitlyn is a little miffed that we don’t immediately open the door between the rooms.  Jeez, kid, give them a chance to settle in!  After which, they join us for lunch at the food court.  We notice all of a sudden that she has the hiccups and mention it, and she says “You could take me on that Movie ride and that would get rid of them.”  The adults have a wonderful catching-up lunch and Caitie is being very good, but at one point leans over and whispers to Laurie “I want to get out of this building and go do something.”

We do too, but it’s absolutely pouring now at 12:30.  Well, let’s poncho up and head for the Stinkbug.  It’s back to a strong drizzle now as we enter the park, and Caitlyn has spotted some black swans she needs to check out.  As we continue on past the Oasis and the rain lets loose again, she asks Laurie “Do you think God is making it rain hard like this?”  Laurie says yes, and after about a ten second pause, Caitlyn says “Well it’s annoying.”  She has the glasses off more than on for the Bug movie, but says she likes it. 

With all the rain, we’re already partly soaked so we figure we may as well go on Kali River Rapids [wild 12-passenger raft ride].  On the way in Caitie observes a statue with its head missing and a lizard nearby, and theorizes that the lizard probably bited his head off.  She also tells Laurie the flowers here smell like rainbow.  She loves the Rapids ride.  I’m not sure Charlotte does, as she’s the lucky one this trip to get drenched.

For some reason, John and Charlotte are heading back to the hotel to dry off.  Caitie decides she doesn’t want to see the car show, she wants to go to Epcot instead.  The next bus that comes is an MGM bus, so we take that and then the boat over to Epcot.  We even get the chance to feed half a dozen ducks and a large number of fish at the MGM dock on the way.

It’s 4:10 by the time we get to the International Gateway, and we figure we may as well start our Kids Stop tour and get part of that out of the way this afternoon.  [Each of the 11 country pavilions has a Kid Stop, where they can get a country stamp and further decorate their mask.]  She picks up her mask and gets her first stamp in France, and is intrigued by the idea of a ‘prize’ for collecting all eleven stamps.  She asks where we’re going next, and we tell her Morocco (no reaction) and then Japan (“That’s a very long way, at least on an airplane.”)  Now I don’t think she’s ever flown to Japan, but I can’t argue with her either.

We’re on our way to Japan now, plodding along in our ponchos and wet sneakers, with a World Showcase shopping bag as a poncho for the mask.  My hands are so wet they won’t properly run my recorder, and Laurie says “Isn’t this fun, this is just like trick-or-treating in the snow.”  I fully appreciate the sarcasm until I look over and realize she’s serious.  And she explains to me that when it comes time for important events, you can’t just not do them because of weather conditions or some other trivial impediment.  And of course she’s right, and we really are still having fun.

We get to Japan and point out the buildings to Caitlyn and she says “I thought that was China!”  I get the feeling she’s seen Mulan a couple hundred times but hasn’t caught Godzilla yet.  At the Japan Kids Stop, she decides to decorate her mask a little more and picks the black crayon.  She only makes a couple little marks between the forehead and ear on each side, each consisting of two or three interconnected squiggles.  They seriously look to me to be some kind of asian characters that she’s trying to simulate.  On our way out, I mention to Laurie (quietly, I thought) that I didn’t know she knew how to write Japanese.  And Caitie informs me “That’s not Jackaleens, that’s hair.”

In a stroke of rare (for this trip) good timing, we’re going to reach the American pavilion in time to do the Kids Stop and still be in time for the Voices of Liberty [an a cappella group singing patriotic songs and standards; the audience sits on the floor around them, under a cupola that provides awesome acoustics].  We’re sitting on the floor and Laurie’s explaining to Caitie about the cupola, but she starts pumping Laurie to find out what the prize is for the Kids Stop Tour.  Laurie won’t spoil the surprise though, and Caitlyn pleads her case by saying “I promise I won’t tell anybody, and I’ll forget about it before we’re done.”  The Voices of Liberty are (as always) awesome, and the lead Oh Susannah singer picks Laurie as the lucky person whose hand he takes for a serenade.  Now Laurie’s all red-faced and smiling and girly, but Caitlyn is in shock.  I’m not sure if her concern is for Grandma or that she might be next, but she most definitely has an I Didn’t Sign Up For THIS look on her face.

There’s quite a line in Italy.  The guy running the Kid Stop here is the same guy that was here in April when we brought Haley, and he’s quite the comedian with all the kids.  Like the face characters, where there’s more interaction, there’s a longer line.

We need ten or fifteen minutes to look over the train in Germany [an outdoor model setup, complete with miniature village, tunnels, etc., that’s about 100’ long by 6-10’ wide].  It’s interesting how with the five grandkids we’ve taken, we’ve ranged from more than half an hour here to more of a ‘Yeah, so what’ reaction.  Caitie’s getting quite a chuckle out of a blackbird that’s hopping around among the houses, telling us that it’s a monster.  (So maybe she HAS watched Godzilla.)  She’s telling Laurie “This is SO COOL in here, they have a farmer and a tractor and look, they even made little trees right here.  This is just SO COOL that they made this right here.”

Next is China, and I ask her if that’s where Mulan lived.  She excitedly tells me “Yeah, Mulan was there and her father had the bad leg and she pretended she was a boy even though she was a girl.  Is that girl pretend?”  What?  She’s pointing over to a bench and we crack up when we look over and see a very wet and tired woman sitting there in her poncho, staring blankly at the ground and looking quite ready for sleep.  After we’re by, Laurie has to go back and tell the poor woman our grandbaby thought she was Disney atmosphere, which she gets quite a chuckle out of as well.  She acknowledges that she feels as much like a statue as she apparently looks.  Caitie points out about ten things in the China pavilion that are very ‘cool’, including the elephant and the monkey puppets and the umbrellas. 

We get our Norway stamp and then ask her if she wants to ride the boat ride here.  She wants to know what it’s called, and the name Maelstrom doesn’t mean anything to her.  I tell her I think it’s Norwegian for thunderstorm (which it totally isn’t, it turns out), and she says “The Thunderstorm ride?  Oh great, so I’m going to be scared?”  She gets through it without being too scared at all, but wonders what was the point of the troll sending us over the waterfall backwards.

When we get into the market in Mexico, she loves the fact that it looks like we’re outside when we’re not.  She also loves the storefronts and wonders if we can go up to one of those second floor balconies.  (I think Paragon lives up there somewhere.)  When I tell her the buildings are all pretend, like the ones over by the Muppets, she’s quite disappointed that we can’t go around behind them to see.  She loves the boat ride, and thinks it’s funny that on our first grandbaby trip, Elysia wanted in the worst way to climb that pyramid.  In the first room though, she says “What’s that?”  We tell her it’s fog, and she says “No, that on the wall.”  We tell her they’re vines, and she asks “No dead people?”  And I realize there were vines all over that mummy room, and man, that Movie Ride really DID scare her.  We get to the fireworks room and Laurie tells her that her daddy really liked this part when he came with us.  She says “Cool.  What did he say to you?  He probably said ‘Ma, this is my favorite part of Epcot’”.  Yes, something just like that.

We were only going to do part of the Kids Stop Tour tonight, but we’re close enough that we might as well continue.  Caitlyn’s quite excited that we only have two countries left, and that we’re so close to the big cotton ball now.  She’s also got a wow or two for the topiaries in the World Showcase Plaza.  We take her picture in front of Timon and Pumba and then she’s wandering around checking the rest of them out.  I spot an excellent angle and tell her to come over to the side so I can get her picture with Simba.  She’s looking around for me a bit before she finally spots me and scolds that it would help if I’d told her I was over by SCAR.  When she poses for the picture, she puts on a mean face because HE’s mean.

Whoa, a first for this trip, late on Day 3. Caitlyn’s the one who calls potty break.  We’re up in Canada now, and Laurie’s as excited now as Caitlyn is with the flowers.  They have a lovely colored grouping of Bambi and Thumper and Flower, very nice job, very Rose Bowl Parade-ish.  We go up and get the UK’s stamp first, and Caitie’s very excited now about the impending prize.  We’re not sure what kind of a monster we’ve created here, because she wants to know if we can get another prize tomorrow.  I don’t think so, but I bet two consecutive Kids Stop tours WOULD be the world record.  Now if we were going for consecutive days of Drinking Around the World [an unofficial adult game involving each country’s native beer], I bet somebody some time has set a pretty high bar for that one.

We finally complete our tour in Canada, and she’s extremely excited with her new Goofy picture.  “I CAN’T BELIEVE I WON THE PRIZE!!!”  We’re headed back to the hotel now, but she says she wants to ride the dinosaur ride first.  Laurie tells her we can ride it if she can remember that his name is Figment.  She says “Maybe you guys could just write it down for me.”  But then about every hundred feet we walk, she turns around and says “Figment.”  That name will be locked in forever now.

We get down to the fountain [an elaborate active fountain choreographed to music] just as it’s starting its performance, and we all really enjoy that.  Caitie’s getting pretty tired, having been up quite late last night, so it doesn’t take much to convince her to skip Figment and just head back to the resort.  Epcot isn’t crowded at all tonight, what with the rain and all, but at 8:00 the tip board is showing standby times of :10 for Mission Space [an advanced space motion simulator that makes many people sick], :55 for Test Track, and 1:00 for Soarin’.

Our timing is getting much better, a bus rolls up to the stop just as we do.  There are only five of us on the bus and Laurie and I take our traditional seats right across from the back door, but Caitlyn decides to sit by herself up in the back section.  Yep, we’ve reached that point in the trip where the kid knows her way around a little and needs just a little bit of independence.

When we get back to our room at Sports, her immediate desire is to get together with Charlotte.  We had planned to open the rooms and get together with them this evening, but I try to tell Caitie that they may be finishing their dinner or otherwise not quite ready for company, and decide to distract her with a walk.  And right outside our door is a rabbit in the grass, perfect distraction.  We briefly do the Can I Pet It – I Think You’ll Scare Him Away dance before she suddenly says “I GOTTA SHOW CHARLOTTE!!!” and bolts back into the room and is knocking on Charlotte’s door.  Which leads us directly into a very entertaining evening of pizza and wine and retirement congratulations and general merriment with John and Charlotte and Tracy.  At Disney or anywhere else, nothing quite beats good conversation with good friends.

Though Caitie was quite tired before, the conversation has energized her as much as it has us.  But since we’re the ones consuming all the pizza and wine, we finally do call it quits around 10:30.  We’ll be going back to Epcot in the morning so we can catch Future World at rope drop.
 
Grandbabies 5.4, Epcot, Magic Kingdom

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlyn, on the fourth day of our week-long June adventure.

We had originally made a priority seating at Chef Mickey’s this morning, but cancelled it yesterday so that we could try to make rope drop at Epcot to see Soarin’ without an hour line.  And now, as Laurie’s getting ready to take a shower, Caitlyn asks “Grandma, can I take a shower too?”  Rope drop would be nice, but it’s hard to tell a kid they can’t take a shower. 

It’s 9:30 when we get into the park, and John and Charlotte have offered to go get all our FastPasses for Soarin’ while we go over to Test Track [life-size test vehicles on a track, up to 60mph].  Caitie’s riding in her stroller in her poncho observing “Must be God thinks those plants still need water!”  Most of the other kids have been intimidated by the noise of the cars outside Test Track, but she’s watching the cars in the mirrors above the entrance saying “That looks like it’s going to be fast on me!”  We go through the standby line, and it always amazes me how the racket of all that test equipment completely disappears when you’re in that little sound room in the back.  It does, however, make it much easier to hear Caitlyn saying “Papa Papa Papa Papa …” while I’m taking notes.  After 20 minutes in the line we hear an announcement that they’re shutting the ride down because of inclement weather moving into the area, so we’re bailing from the line.

There’s a very cool Butterfly Room on the path between Test Track and Imagination, a netted enclosure that’s temporary home to hundreds of butterflies of several types.  As we make our way across the plaza, Caitie wants to stop for a minute to watch the fountain perform, and we’re always up for that.  As we make our way toward Imagination, we’re passed by a Segway parade.  They must be closer to the end of their tour than the beginning, because they all look fairly proficient at this point.  Thankfully, Caitie doesn’t notice (or care about) the cheerleading exhibition on the Imagination stage, so we don’t need to spend any time watching that.  She is excited to take another trip on the Figment ride, this time with John and Charlotte.  They hadn’t been on since the third coming [this is the third version of the ride; the first was getting old, and the second was universally hated], and really like the change.

On our way into Honey I Shrunk the Audience [3-D movie] she recognizes the picture of Wayne Szalinski, and wonders whether they’re going to be small or big.  Kind of hard to answer, I guess it depends on your perspective ;-)  She likes this movie, and has the glasses more on than off.

Soarin’.  What a cool ride.  The three of us are messing around in the hall playing some kind of London Bridge foolishness when I mess up and hurt Caitie’s chin, and now she’s mad at me.  But all is (temporarily) forgotten once we’re on the ride.  “Are we really over the ocean?”  “Are we IN the movie?”  “I want to do THAT again!!!”  Laurie declares it the best ride she’s ever been on, anywhere.  We got FastPasses on the way in that were good from 1:00 til 2:00, and John and Charlotte get ones on the way out that are good from 2:30 until 3:30.  And we didn’t spend much time in line, either!  Quite the popular attraction.

The Living Seas [aquarium pavilion] is much busier now than I can remember it being since the first couple years it was open, because of Crush and Dory and Nemo.  [If you haven’t seen Finding Nemo, you really should.]  I see a black and yellow fish but can’t remember his name, so I ask Caitlyn.  “He’s NOT in the movie.”  I was thinking of Gil, but the more I look at this one, I realize she’s right.  She doesn’t have any interest in touring the aquarium at all, because those are just “fish fish.”  (By which she means they’re not Nemo.)  We all really love Turtle Talk with Crush [an interactive animated visit with the cool turtle dude].  I’m amazed at the technology that must be involved, and Caitie just knows he’s cool.  She gets a big kick out of his swimming into the glass and his bad case of the ‘bubbles’ [turtle gas].  In the end, she was a little ticked that he didn’t ask HER any questions, but was probably a little relieved as well.

We end up spending so much time in the Living Seas that it’s already time for our Soarin’ FPs when we come out.  I promise Caitie I won’t touch her in the line, and thankfully, Laurie has finally convinced her that the previous incident was an accident, and not intentionally inflicted as she had apparently believed.  We’re all loving the ride again, we sit all the way over on the left side this time and she tells us afterward “I thought I was going to skin my knee on that rock!”  Ironically, she takes a header while running down the hallway in her sandals on the way out, and comes up with a very nasty brush burn on her knee.  I remember us calling them ‘strawberries’ when I was a kid playing basketball, but I also remember there’s nothing sweet about them.  This gives us our only sobbing “I want my mom” of the trip, but that IS, after all, a child’s first line of defense against any kind of pain. 

We stop at the first aid station behind the Odyssey, where Caitlyn’s very excited to discover they have ‘special’ knee bandages.  On our way around past Mexico, we see a couple CMs out in the lagoon on jet skis, flying kites.  You suppose anybody bids on THAT job when it comes up?

And now we’ve arrived for our 2:00 lunch at Germany’s Biergarten with John and Charlotte, and Tracy and three of her friends.  This is the first trip here for some of the group, and everyone seems to enjoy it a lot.  Certainly nobody’s hungry after.  Most of our other grandbabies have been kind of picky eaters, but Caitlyn enjoys quite a variety of things.  As I take her through the buffet line, it isn’t simply no-no-no-yes, it’s Little Of This – No – Lot Of That -I’ll Try Just A Little. 

I’ve had the Belle song stuck in my head since we were at MGM the other day, driving both Caitlyn and Laurie nuts.  It just popped in again, but I thought I’d ask Caitie permission to sing it this time.  “Sure!  Just go some place else and do it and not by me.” 

All we have left on our To Do list here are the Universe of Energy and Postcards From Innoventions [a booth where you can e-mail your picture], and we decide to skip Energy.  I’m kind of sad we’ll miss Test Track this trip, but we have more trips down the road and it’s kind of nice when the next grandchild inevitably asks if so-and-so rode this and we can tell them no.  Makes them feel special.  Caitie has some fun with the postcards though, and orders half a dozen retakes on the picture before we finally insist the last one is good enough.  She picks the background with the planets in it, and we fire it off to Mom and Dad.

We’re walking out of World Showcase, in the rain again, and Caitlyn is riding in the stroller with the hood over her head.  And she’s singing.  We can’t tell what she’s singing, but it doesn’t really matter, does it?  Life is good.  It’s 4:10 when we walk out of Epcot, headed back to the room.

Once there, we’re listening to her half of her conversation with her dad.  “Did you get my picture?  ...  Check your e-mail, does it look like I’m in space? I wasn’t really ...  I’ll be the goodest girl ever ...  It’s been raining every single day, and this is Day 4 already.”  And then Laurie and I both crack up because they remind us so much of a couple of teenagers, with “I’m going to hang up now ... I love you too ... are you hanging up? ... nope, I’m going to hang up, right now, okay? ... did YOU hang up?”

It’s 6:20 and I’ve had MY nap, even if Caitlyn didn’t sleep.  We’re headed over to the Magic Kingdom now for our first visit there.  We always save MK for last with all the kids, since their interest in the other parks wouldn’t be nearly as great if they get the idea in their heads at the start of the trip that the parks are supposed to be all rides.  After not sleeping during two hours in the room and the bus ride to MK, Caitlyn falls asleep about ten seconds after sitting in the stroller at the bus stop!  Okay, this may be a fun evening.  But she does wake up quite pleasantly as we get to the turnstiles, though she’s too tired to get up and run her own ticket through.  She’s quite refreshed by the time we get to Town Square, and is excited to get Pinocchio’s autograph. 

We go back into Adventureland and Laurie and Caitlyn get in line for an autograph from Jasmine and Aladdin and Genie while I go down to get FastPasses for Jungle Cruise.  On the way there, some damned invisible camel [situated around the Aladdin ride] spits about a foot in front of my eyes.  Takes you a second to figure out what’s going on when that happens.  On the way back, the camel actually gets me, right in the ear.  Okay, so I’m a slow learner.  Back outside the Dole Whip stand, Laurie just shakes her head and rolls her eyes as I practice my best moves for hosting the Dole Whip Interlude at the annual RADP meet.  Caitlyn’s eating an ice pop while waiting for Jasmine, and checks a couple times with Laurie, “Is my face messy, because if it is, clean it off before we get up there.”  Important to bring your best face when you meet Jasmine.

Now that we’re autographed, we’ll take a ride on Aladdin’s Magic Carpets [another Dumbo clone].  Another first for us here, as Caitie wants to take the back seat and make it tip because “Papa didn’t get to do the up and down yet.”  She does back-seat drive a little though, directing me to get us to the right height so the camel will spit on us.  When we get off, the ride operator says “Thank you for riding the Magic Kingdom’s 18th most popular attraction.”  Caitlyn, like four thousand other kids a day, says “Look at ALL the jewels on the ground!! [embedded into the blacktop]  Can we get them?”

Good timing has us walking into the Tiki Room without the pre-show (which is a little over a five-year-old’s head anyway).  We take our usual seat in the outside row and she loves the show, though she’s disappointed that she didn’t get to see Iago’s ‘injuries’.  So we’re getting another first, back-to-back Tiki treks.  By the time we get around the building the doors are closed, so I guess we’ll see that pre-show after all.  This time we get a seat right up front, and Caitlyn spots (and retrieves) a number of Iago’s stray feathers on the way in.  She’s quite satisfied now to see the actual bird damage, and collects a few more feathers on her way out as a bonus.

After another Aladdin ride, it’s 8:30 and with all the late nights we’ve been keeping, we really do need to get to bed early tonight.  We find a family of three to give our FastPasses to and make our way out of Adventureland.  Caitie’s quite chipper as she rides the stroller back to our bus stop, talking on the cell phone with her mom.  Laurie’s hearing bits of her end of the conversation, which includes “I’m talking to you on the ride RIGHT NOW, it’s going REALLY FAST!!”  Have I mentioned how much we love our kids’ sense of humor?  We’re all looking forward to a Magic Kingdom Morning tomorrow.
 
Grandbabies 5.5, Magic Kingdom, Blizzard Beach

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlyn, on the fifth day of our week-long June adventure.

Our favorite part of the trip, we’re at Magic Kingdom this morning just before the gates open.  We’ve had Caitlyn walk from the bus to the turnstiles each morning, but today she wants to ride so she “won’t get lost.”  The turnstiles on the far right seem like the best bet, but we soon discover that those are for people with breakfast reservations only.

We work ourselves to a really good spot up by the left railroad tunnel from which to watch the Open The Park Show.  Caitlyn enjoys it, but we think she’s a little anxious to get going.  Main Street isn’t too crowded yet (and everyone’s going the same way) as Grandma motors the stroller toward the Castle, but from Caitlyn’s vantage point this must be the scariest ride yet, as she says “Grandma, slow down, you’re going to hit people!”  Grandma calmly says “I’ve got it under control,” and of course being the pro she is, there are no close calls.

We get up under the Castle just as they’re dropping the rope there, so our time-tested routine for Park Opening With Little People should go quite well.  In fact, Grandma and Caitlyn are going to make it on Dumbo’s first flight, so if I’m going to get the obligatory video, I won’t even have time to go get Pooh FastPasses like I normally do.  Caitie’s bouncing the elephant up and down before the ride even starts.  She likes the ride, but she’s really already had a few rides on it when you consider it’s virtually identical to Triceratops Spin and Aladdin, so she doesn’t seem overwhelmed.

We make our way over to the Speedway [barely steerable 5mph cars on a closed track], dropping Laurie off on the way to get our FPs for Pooh.  I remind Caitie that she can’t run in those sandals.  “Grandma made me run.”  We really are a bad influence.  “But she held my hand so I wouldn’t fall down.  I guess I’m just like that dinosaur.  I’m lucky.”  Riding the Speedway, it isn’t long before the wheel snaps and she catches her thumb a little bit, so I tell her I’ll slow down some.  After about 15 seconds of that though, she says “You steer if you have to, but we need to catch up to that car up there.”  Eyes on the prize there, pops. 

She must have spotted the top of the Astro Orbiter [2-man rockets that just go around and around] from the bus this morning, because while we’re waiting to unload, she tells me that’s what she wants to do next.  None of the other kids have asked about (or even noticed) that ride before and it really doesn’t fit into our plans this morning, but then there’s no time of day when the line will be shorter, so why not.  As we exit the Speedway, I tell her Laurie won’t ride it and she doesn’t even ask why.  She just tells Grandma “I’ve never been on the Rocket Ride before, this will be my first time.  We’ll meet you over by the Rockets.”  Sort of like saying “Just because YOU have some problem with it, what’s that got to do with ME?”

In the queue/elevator, she meets a new friend Nicole, also 5 or 6 years old.  We sit in the rocket right ahead of Nicole, and have to look back at her constantly to make sure we’re at the same height (and presumably the same speed).  Laurie skips this ride because her body doesn’t like the spinny things so much, but I’ve ridden once and knew it wasn’t bad.  Still, I wish I’d eaten something this morning, because I’m now feeling a little spinny myself. 

We return to our regularly scheduled program now and head back up into Fantasyland, dropping the stroller off in front of Snow White [dark ride past scenes from the movie].  Caitlyn has her head tucked right under Laurie’s arm for most of this ride, not sure what’s going to be coming out at her in the dark.  As soon as we get into Peter Pan [ships that slowly fly over movie scenes] though, she remembers that ride and begins to tell us each scene before we get to it.  We know we can see Small World, the Carousel, and Mickey’s PhilharMagic most any time without a long line, so we head back down to the Mad Tea Party [spin-til-you-puke tea cups].  We have to stop by the Carousel for a minute because Nicole is riding and Caitlyn needs to wave hi.

On the Tea Cups, Caitie tells me I should do the spinning.  It isn’t long, though, before she says “Does this thing go any faster?”  I can already feel myself getting a little dizzy, so I try to trick her into believing it might be faster if I spin it the other way.  “No, that slows us down.”  Sort of my point, sorry.  Laurie had to retrieve the stroller we sort of forgot up at Snow White, so she’s just getting back when we’re getting done and thinks we should ride again so she can get some pictures.  Caitie’s fully in favor of that.  And “This time, I want to go even FASTER!!”  But when we get up to speed, Laurie’s photography is hampered by the fact that Caitlyn’s laying down in the seat.  I tell her a couple times to sit up so Grandma can get her picture, but she says “I’m afraid I’m going to bump into things.  Can you make it go faster?”

We use our FastPasses on Pooh [slow ride through scenes from Blustery Day] now, and it’s a very giggly ride throughout.  Big thumbs up from all of us, and we have to do it again some time.  So our Magic Kingdom morning plan has worked out very well today, even with adjustments.  We’ve covered three of the longest-line rides here (Dumbo, the Speedway, and Astro Orbiter), plus Snow White, Peter Pan, Pooh, and the Tea Party twice, all in a little over an hour.

As we go down into Toon Town [where Mickey and Minnie live], Caitie’s a little hungry and wants to have a snack, so we just pull up some shady pavement in front of a shop and dig into some cheese and crackers.  “Do you want to ride the Barnstormer [kid coaster that flies through a barn] now?”  “No thanks, I’m eating.”  Okay, I guess the word I was looking for was ‘next’.  And when we get to it, turns out it’s an I Want To Do That Again ride.  (Not for me, I forgot how uncomfortable those corduroy seats are!)

Minnie’s House takes her all of about 15 seconds to cover.  It leaves us wondering if maybe she’s a little too focused on ‘rides’ now to waste much time with ‘attractions’.  But when we mention taking the train to Splash Mountain, she says “Nope, first Mickey’s house.”  The train’s pulling out of the station as we get to Mickey’s, and that means I at least get 7 minutes in the shade before the next one comes.  I really need that right now because it’s so muggy this morning.  I’m not complaining or anything, because it’s far better than the four straight days of rain we’ve had this trip.

Given her disinterest in Minnie, I figure I’ll go up and get the stroller and then go in the exit to Mickey’s house and meet them halfway, betting that ‘halfway’ will be not far from the exit.  But Caitie only got five feet in the front door and is still marveling over Mickey’s bedroom.  “There’s the uniform he wears when he gets his award for making the best Disney movie, and there’s ties, and his closet full of shirts, and his glasses, and his books, and his picture of Minnie; and there’s his pot of flowers from Minnie, and his car, and his books, and some fish; and a picture when he was a little baby, and a picture when he had a present from Santa Claus, and a picture of some goldfish.  And his BED!!  And a little couch for him.”  You think somewhere along the line Disney has discovered that detail is important?

The rest of the rooms get the same treatment, with the highlights being the really cool lamp Mickey made out of his baseball bat, and his trophies.  I wish there was some way the printed word could convey to you the wonder with which this little voice keeps saying “And look ovuh hew-ah!!”  There’s a picture of Donald that has her cracking up, and she thinks Goofy and Donald and Mickey had better clean up that mess they made in the kitchen.  We missed that next train I figured we’d be on, but another is arriving as we get into the garage.  I ask her if she wants to go get on it, but she’s looking up at the garage rafters saying “Look at EVERYthing!!!”  And proceeds to list for us everything in the garage.  As we leave, she finally notices that Laurie has been videotaping, and says “This is going to be a VERY good video, Grandma!”  Of that, I have no doubt.

On the train, we mention the difference in the amount of time she spent in Minnie’s house versus Mickey’s.  She says that there’s not so much stuff in Minnie’s house because she keeps her house clean and Mickey doesn’t.  (And yet Mickey’s is much, much more interesting, a point I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to make on housecleaning day since I was 6.)

It’s 10:50 as we look down from the Main Street Station to hordes of people coming into the park, and we already have quite a bit of the day behind us.  As soon as we get to Frontierland, we get FastPasses for Splash Mountain.  We’re surprised to find the window only half an hour away, and we’re also surprised to find the standby time only 10 minutes for both that and Big Thunder Mountain [runaway mine train], where we’re headed next.  The other kids have been quite apprehensive about trying new things.  But when I ask Caitie if she’s ever been on Big Thunder, she says “I don’t think so.  I’ll tell you if I remember anything.”  Nice approach, no question of whether or not she’s ‘trying’ it.  I’ll skip this ride this morning though because I’ve got a bit of a molar infection that I jarred pretty good on the Barnstormer, and it needs a rest.  Turns out Caitie hasn’t been on it, and “It was pretty good, it was pretty fast.”  But for balance, we also spend quite a bit of time with the dozen or so ducklings we see on our way out.

Caitlyn must agree that it’s been quite a busy morning.  We’re at Pecos Bill’s for lunch and talking about going on Splash afterwards, and Caitie says “I think we should go take a nap.”  And then lies down across the chairs.  But after lunch, there’s no way she’s going to pass on what she had wanted to be the first (and second) ride of the whole trip.  In fact, as we enter the queue, she wants to know if there’s any way we can be sure we get the front seats.  There is.  She loves loves loves this ride.  Grandma’s arm is getting squeezed pretty hard over Slippin’ Falls, but Caitie’s giggling the whole time.  She’s giggling even more when she realizes that I got my head soaked at the bottom.  As we drip our way off the ride, I’m pretending to be quite upset about being soaked, telling her “Look at how WET you made me get!”  As we’re walking out of the building after looking at our picture, I feel her grabbing the leg of my shorts and she says “You didn’t get THAT wet, THIS leg’s almost DRY!”

And at 12:40 we’re on our way out of the Magic Kingdom and on our way to Blizzard Beach.  On the phone with her mom, she’s saying “We’re going to the water park, remember, like you taught me, where you go down the slide and land in the water instead of the dirt?  That’s where we’re going today, because it’s a very hot day and we want to get cooled off.”  In a move that her mom must be getting quite used to, she just puts the phone down and stops talking for most of a minute, while she admires a very big horse walking by.  Must be genetic, Laurie says I exhibit the same attention span issues when she’s trying to talk to me.

Laurie and I take our usual seats across from the back door, and Caitie takes what has become her usual seat in the upper deck.  She’s reaching down and touching my head periodically and then trying to hide, which unfortunately reminds me of a cat I once had.  After a while I tell her “Don’t do that anymore.  It was fun a couple times, but now it’s kind of annoying.”  She simply replies “Yep.  We should probably save some fun for the water park.”

We left the stroller at the hotel, and now Caitie’s questioning the wisdom of that plan.  “Why don’t we have the buggy here?  Oh, because of the sand.  That’s too bad, because my feet are not faring too well.”  Faring?  Who talks like this?  When they’re five?

We had talked to Charlotte by cell from MK, and they had decided to meet us here to break in the Premium portion of their newly upgraded annual passes.  We meet them in Tyke’s Peak (the little kid section) and it seems they’re even prepared to hang around there doing nothing while Caitie plays.  Now that’s above and beyond the call.  Fortunately, after only two trips down that little kids’ water slide, she says “Let’s go do something else.”  It must be time for a trip around the Lazy River [artificial stream that circles the park, with underwater jets pushing the water at about 25 minutes per lap].  (I know it’s got a real name, but we’re calling it the Lazy River.)

About a quarter of the way around she decides to put her feet down through the tube to see if she can touch the bottom.  She gets down to where the water is about up to her chest and suddenly says “I don’t think this is a good place for judging it,” and urgently makes her way back up onto the tube.  Then when we go under the cold waterfalls, it’s coming down so hard that it actually knocks her down through the tube and under the water.  Laurie’s right next to her though, and Caitlyn comes up grabbing onto her arm and getting the water out of her eyes, not seeming too concerned at all about getting dunked.  She’s quite sure though, that “I don’t want to go through that waterfall NEXT time!”

About three-quarters of the way through our circuit, she tests the depth again and discovers that the water only comes up to the bottom of her neck.  And that’s the end of the tube for the day.  She’s running through the water now, and when we ask if she wants to go around a second time, we realize the question is rhetorical.  The rest of us have been really enjoying the floating too, so we really don’t mind.

This time around, her focus is on getting Laurie and me to either catch up to, or catch back to, John and Charlotte.  She’s also making quite a game of trying to pull me through the cold water.  As we approach our home base again, she unsurprisingly wants to make a third trip around.  I tell her two is enough and she says “Okay then, you just close your eyes and follow me.”  Not likely.

While I go back and get the video camera, Laurie takes her over to the Ski Patrol Training Camp, where they have slightly larger water slides.  Before I get there though, she decides one slide there is enough and heads back over to Tyke’s Peak.  After about two more runs there, it’s getting ready for a major storm, so we decide to pack up and move out.

Laurie had intended to not bring her glasses to the water parks, but realized she had them while we were on the Lazy River.  And now, when she looks at her watch and can’t see it, she realizes she’s lost them, probably when she dunked herself getting out of the tube.  She walks back down to check with the lifeguard, with no success.  By the time we get out to the front of the park, it’s pouring, and we take shelter under a big group umbrella by the turnstiles.  After a while, Laurie takes the opportunity to put Guest Services on the lookout for her glasses, but they already have them.  Now THAT’s a happy ending, because she wasn’t looking forward to four days of training (scheduled at the end of our trip) without them.  Once the storm finally gives way, John and Charlotte give Laurie a ride to the Car Care Center to pick up her rental car for the week, while Caitie and I go back to the room for a nap.

As we arrive back at Sports, she asks again what day it is that she gets to pick where we go.  I tell her that’s Day 7, and she says that on Day 7, she wants to go to All Star Music [the hotel next to ours].  Ooooh-kay.  She’s not tired for a nap now, so (as we always do) I shut the blinds and turn channel fiveteen off and tell her that we have to lay quietly for a bit, but we DON’T have to go to sleep.  She thinks it would be okay to turn the TV on but have the sound really, really low, but I don’t.  And it’s not more than a minute and a half before she’s asleep.

At 6:30 we’re headed back over to the Magic Kingdom for dinner, though Caitlyn’s vote was to go see Crush.  We start reciting the list of what we haven’t seen yet at MK, and when we mention the Haunted Mansion she immediately says “I’m not going on THAT.”  We explain it’s not like the haunted hayrides we think she’s gone on at home, there’s nothing that jumps out at you.  “Oh wait, is that the one that has the talking head stones?”  Yes, and apparently that triggers the right memories and it’s okay.

She hears the background music as we’re going through security out front of the park and says “Hey, that sounds like Woody’s Roundup music!”  Not sure if it’s actually the official rootin’est, tootin’est, but it’s certainly dang close.

We manage to find our own private dining room upstairs at the Columbia Harbour House.  We have a beautiful view of the Haunted Mansion and the Riverboat and Aunt Polly’s and Tom Sawyer Island from here, and also a “weather vane that has a horse instead of a chicken!  And it’s on a house instead of a barn!”  Heck, it must be Topsy-Turvy Day.  Later we discover that under that ‘house’ is a “well with no hole in it!”  (In case you’re wondering, this is all part of the guard house or whatever it is at the head of the Haunted Mansion walk.)

Which is where we’re headed right after dinner.  Caitie’s complaining that her belly hurts, and she thinks she’s going to have a baby.  Grandma thinks the odds are pretty much against that, and Caitie says “Well, a baby french fry, maybe!”  She points out horseshoe prints on the path and starts reminiscing about the jewels we saw in the ground before.  She seems a little iffy for most of the actual ride, but gamely wants to know if we can do it again.

They must have just filled Grizzly Hall for the Country Bear Jamboree, because it’s 16 minutes until the next show, so we’re going over to the Jungle Cruise [boat ride through 3 continents and dozens of corny puns from the skipper].  We get a running commentary from her all through the destroyed Mekong Temple, and we’re not sure if she just thinks all that stuff looks cool or if she’s sort of whistling in the dark to make it less scary.  Her biggest giggles of the ride come as she’s ducking to keep those darned elephants from squirting her.  Although she doesn’t complain about the ride (or anything else on the trip), she must have thought it was kind of lame.  When Laurie is thinking of doing Pirates next, she asks Caitie if she wants to go on another boat ride, and Caitie says “Not THAT one again!”

She’s quite sure she’s ridden the Pirates of the Caribbean [slow boat ride past pirate scenes] before, but is getting pretty frustrated during the ride that she can’t remember any of the scenes.  Until we get to the very last room and see that guy all tied up, and “I remember THAT!!”  Well everybody remembers THAT, because you always sit right there in front of it for twelve minutes waiting for your boat to get to the unloading zone.

Walking back through the Pirates plaza, she says “Grandma, I think I’ve got the bubbles.”  We’re on our way to find a spot for the parade, but Caitlyn says “Wait, we didn’t ride that thing Papa wanted, that Country Bears.”  On the way by, she wants to go in the Tiki Room and get more feathers, but agrees to pass.  Talking with her mom on the phone, we hear “Naw, I want to stay here for twenty more days.”  You’re not the only one who’s ever felt THAT way!

We’re very close to parade time, and had thought we’d see Country Bears after it, but its last show is at 9:00, and we don’t want to miss SpectroMagic [nighttime parade with many characters and half a million lights].  We pick a spot by the Bears because a CM in the store here told us the parade starts in Frontierland tonight, so we figured we could slip down through Adventureland and the Main Street shops to Town Square and see it twice, like we did last trip.  But alas, the CM has it backwards, and it will be a bit before it gets to us.  While we’re waiting, Caitlyn asks “Do you want to count to a hundred and one with me Papa?”  Thinking there must be something special about that number, I ask her why and she says “to waste time until the parade comes.”  Okay, you got me.  She absolutely loves the parade, and recognizes and is excited by all the characters from quite a distance away, giggling all the way through it.

It’s 9:45 by the time the parade is finished with us, so we’re all getting ice cream and heading to Main Street to watch the Wishes fireworks.  Without too much effort, we score a trash can outside Casey’s Corner for Caitie to sit on.  She loves the fireworks as much as we do, and tells us her favorite ones are the “glitterish” ones.

It’s no surprise that lots and lots of people leave the park with us right after the fireworks, and our bus is extremely crowded.  Caitie didn’t want to wait for another bus with a seat, and finds a spot sort of wedged between two seats where she can stand for the trip.  Now this is about a 15-minute trip, and I think that’s a very long time for a five-year-old to stand at 10:15 on a park night.  Yet she never shows any signs of complaint whatsoever.  Laurie asks if she’s glad she had a nap this afternoon.  “Yes, but I’m still a little tired.”  Laurie tells her it’s okay, we’ll be going to bed as soon as we get back to the hotel.  “Well, I’m not THAT tired.”

But she is.  And so are we, extremely.  Day 6 tomorrow is what we call our cleanup day (where we go back and pick up things we missed), but we usually decide we haven’t missed enough in any particular park to make a trip back there, and end up going to Magic Kingdom.  But this trip we’re going to hit Epcot again tomorrow, right after we all get some much-needed good sound slee............
 
Grandbabies 5.6, Epcot, Blizzard Beach, Magic Kingdom

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlyn, on the sixth day of our week-long June adventure.

Our plan was rope drop at Epcot, but we realize this morning that it’s Early Entry [park opens an hour early for resort guests] there today, so that could be iffy.  We do pretty well though, and it’s only an hour between wakeup call and out the door.  We usually end up spending Day 6 at Magic Kingdom, but we got rained out at Test Track the other day and Caitlyn wants to see Crush again.  And we all definitely want to see Soarin’ again.

There are at least 14 people ahead of us at the Epcot bus stop.  We know this because there’s a guy doing a head count of his group, and coming up one short of his expected number of 15.  The bus comes, and the whole group has to pull out of line and wait up by the building, and I’m sure glad I’m not THAT kid.

The entrance to Epcot is really screwy this morning.  We go down to the middle of the ticket booths like they made us do the other day, but today that’s for regular folks who have to wait until 9 to enter the park; us Early Entry eligible folks are supposed to go down to the middle and then double back to the near side and enter.  What we really need here is that chick with the big Mickey hand from the airport.

I go over and get FastPasses for Test Track while the girls are getting our breakfast at the Fountainview.  Love those bear claws.  At 8:35 the Test Track line says 15 minutes, but it’s out the door.  Our FPs are for 9:15 to 10:15 though.  At 8:46 we’re in the standby line for Soarin’.

All I can tell you about Soarin’ is that I can’t think of the last ride I went on where two-thirds of the audience applauds at the end of the ride.  The American Adventure gets applause, but that’s sort of patriotic applause.  This is Damn That Was Good applause.  Caitie is upset because her plastic ears fall off during the ride.  I think she thinks they’re out in the orange groves somewhere.  I retrieve them for her afterward and get her calmed down, but in the process forget to get our camera bag out from under my seat.  We really don’t want to spend half the day without it while it works its way to lost and found, or try to talk our way back through the line to get it, so I just wait right outside the exit doors of the theater until the next show’s over.  As soon as the doors open, I slip back in and get the bag, without any problem, but not without some strange looks from the CMs.

This ride is so cool, we figure we might as well get FastPasses on the way out.  The Land pavilion certainly hasn’t been configured for this kind of traffic flow.  Getting out is kind of a pain in the butt, with everyone trying to crowd into a one-person-wide escalator.  Then when you get off the escalator you’ve got a whole bunch of people trying to cross your line coming in to go down the stairs.

We run into John and Charlotte outside, on a picture-taking tour of Epcot.  During Flower & Garden Festival, that sounds like an all day job.  They decide to get FastPasses for Soarin’ as well, and maybe we’ll be able to ride it together again.

Caitlyn doesn’t seem to be that crazy about Test Track, and keeps asking when it’s going to go fast.  She has a death grip on Grandma’s arm when we do, but wants to do it again.  I suppose for a kid, the first trip on that is a bit like your first trip on Splash – you’re thinking ahead so much to the featured part of the ride that you miss a lot of stuff before that.

After Test Track, we go over to see Figment again.  Caitie’s still awed by the final room, saying “Wow, look at ALL those STARS!”  We’re headed down to the Living Seas and before we’ve gone far at all, she spots the blue wall of the pavilion and says “Oh, I see Crush’s hotel now!”  We run into John and Charlotte again on the way down, and thanks to Crush and Dory and Nemo and Marlin, the queue is full again and winds out into the very hot, very humid courtyard.  Caitie agrees she doesn’t want to stand in that line, and thinks we should take one more dinosaur ride before lunch.

There’s a whole line of characters that just appeared outside the Imagination Pavilion, and we get a half dozen autographs and pictures.  By this time, we’re VERY ready to enjoy some of Figment’s air conditioning.  Caitie, little social organizer that she is, thinks that she should sit in the front between Grandma and Charlotte, and John and I should sit in the back.

Our Soarin’ FPs run out at 12:05 and John and Charlotte’s start at 11:54, so there’s just time for lunch at the Sunshine Food Fair and then we can ride together.  The new menus here have added substantially to the food options in the park, a welcome variety in counter service that we’ve noticed in all the parks.

We all love our Soarin’ ride again, and it’s so hot when we get outside that NOW is the time to get the heck out of Dodge and cool off.  Not after another visit with Crush, not even after another Cotton Ride, now.  Laurie and Caitlyn decide the best way to cool off would be Blizzard Beach, and Papa decides the best way would be a nice nap in a cool room.  So that’s what we do.  As the girls head out the door at 2:00, Caitie’s planning to push Grandma through the waterfalls, and Laurie’s telling her they might do other things besides the lazy river.  I think they’re going to have a good time.

Now I won’t report on my nap, but Laurie will definitely report on the girls’ water park adventures.

Caitie does talk me into a trip around the lazy river, walking the whole way.  I suggest to her several times that she looks tired and might want to get in or at least hang onto a tube, but she says “no, I want to walk!”  Only it’s not walking, it’s running the whole way.  She’ll hang on and float for about 10 seconds, then be off and running again.  She tries to push me through the cold waterfalls, but I manage to get us turned around and push Caitie through instead.  She informs me she doesn’t like me when I do that.  We make a deal that when we get to the sneezy house, neither one of us will try to push the other into the cold splash.  And it works out fine.

After the one lazy river tour, we head up the hill to the big water slides.  Caitie seems to think the steps need to be counted, and there are 87.  We go over to the toboggan slides, and I’m thinking it’s the one I remember where you’re all lined up side by side and go down at the same time.  But it turns out they’re individual slides.  I get Caitlyn started on hers, and then jump on mine.  You’re laying on your stomach on a foam mat, with a couple handles on the front to hold onto.  And it’s a fairly wild ride, swishing way up one side and then way up the other side, and you really can’t see anything outside your own slide, and it’s a really really long ride down.  Being slightly heavier, I get to the bottom first and wait for Caitlyn.  And wait.  And wait.  And I’m thinking “oh my goodness, Caitie’s stuck up there in the middle somewhere crying, she’s going to be so scared.”  And then all of a sudden she comes flying out the bottom, and she’s giggling, and screaming “CAN WE DO THIS AGAIN!!!!!”

On the way back up the 87 steps, we decide that this time we’ll do the one I thought we were doing before, and race side-by-side down.  After we’ve been standing in line for a while, she gives me a rare “when are we going to get there.”  I wait about 15 seconds, then put on a very whiny voice and say “Oh Caitie, when are we going to get there, this line is SOOOOO long, and it’s SOOOOOO hot, and I’m tired, when are we going to get there, Caitie?”  She must be comfortable with the role-playing as well, because she looks back at me and says “Now honey, I think it will only be about three more minutes.”  A sense of humor is so important when it’s hot at Disney World.

I put Caitie on the toboggan and give her a push before I start, and still beat her to the bottom.  And once again, as soon as she gets to the bottom, “CAN WE DO IT AGAIN!!!!!”  So we go back up the 87 steps and decide to do the swishy one that we did the first time.

But my bare feet are hurting now because of all the sand on the steps, and I feel like I have a hundred little blisters.  I break the news to Caitlyn that I can’t climb up again, and without missing a beat, she says “they have chairs that will take you up to the top.”  She wants to go up and do Summit Plummet [120’, 55mph body slide].  I’ve been telling her that she’s not tall enough, and that they won’t let her ride, but she won’t let it go.  It’s a 30 minute wait for the chairlift, but that still beats walking up again.  From the chairlift, you’re looking right down over the bottom half of the big drop on Summit Plummet, and that only makes Caitie want to do it more.

But I manage to talk her into the Family Raft Ride [1200’ long water slide] instead.  For some unknown reason, they put the two of us in one boat all by ourselves, even though it can hold six adults.  The ride is still quite wild though, with splashing up one side and then the other.  But being so light, we’re running enough slower than the family of five or six behind us that they catch up with us about halfway down and push us the rest of the way.  She likes this one too, but my feet are done and we’re headed back to the hotel.

And Don’s right where we left him, so I’ll wake him up and turn the reporting duties back over to him.

Good news, Laurie didn’t lose her glasses, or her watch, or anything!  It’s 5:20 now and we’re planning to go back to the Magic Kingdom, but it’s storming again right now.  Half the sky is clear and it looks like the rain will be short-lived, so we may as well work our way to the car.  We walk along the sides of the buildings under the second floor walkway, and manage to get all the way from our room to very close to the edge of the parking lot, with only having to walk about 50 feet out in the rain.  We’re going to drive to Boardwalk, take a bus to MK, then come back to the Boardwalk to watch Illuminations and Wishes from John and Charlotte’s room.

I can remember on our second trip together, ten years ago, following the advice of this group and parking at the Beach Club to go over and watch Illuminations.  Now at the Boardwalk they have signs that say “We regret that we don’t have space in our parking lots for clowns like you.”  Or words to that effect.  We encounter easily our longest wait of the trip for a bus here, as three Downtown Disney busses and two for Animal Kingdom come before ours.

Caitie was wide awake while eating her fruit rollup at the bus stop, but once we’re on the bus, she falls asleep quite quickly.  So I carry her from the bus into the park, where she finally wakes up.  We’ve arrive just in time for the last Cinderellabration [open air stage ceremony with five Disney princesses] of the day, but they cancel it because it’s still drizzling.  As we go through the Castle on our way to the Pinocchio Haus for dinner, Caitlyn points out something I don’t remember noticing before -- the tops of all the pillars underneath the Castle have characters carved in them.

We pick up FastPasses for Mickey’s PhilharMagic on the way to our usual seats in the Pinocchio Haus, by the windows looking into Small World.  She’s just giggling away at the scenery inside the ride entrance/exit, and I’m not sure quite what part of it she finds so amusing.  Once Grandma is in line for the food and we’re holding the table, Caitie suddenly has to go to the bathroom.  I tell her she’s going to have to hold it for a couple minutes, because she broke the rule when I took a potty break in Town Square and she said she didn’t have to go.  (We didn’t make her because she wasn’t really awake yet.)  But it’s soon apparent that ‘holding it’ may not work, so I ask the woman at the next table (who’s waiting with a sleeping baby for the rest of her crew to bring their food), if she’ll watch our table and stuff while we handle the emergency.  She’s been listening to our whole predicament, so she smiles knowingly and agrees.

During dinner, Caitie says to Laurie “Remember that ride that I wasn’t tall enough to ride?”  Laurie confirms she’s talking about Summit Plummet, and she says “I think I’ll be big enough when I’m 32.  Would you bring me back to Disney when I’m 32 so I can ride it?”  Laurie tells her that her daddy really liked that ride (he called it the Atomic Wedgie), and that maybe he’ll bring her some time before she’s 32.  We’ll bring her kids when they’re five, though.

We must have hit an Extra Magic day again here at Magic Kingdom, because after dinner the line for the Carousel is wrapped about all the way around it and the Small World line doubles back across the front of the building about three times.  We’re nearly through the ‘outside’ portion of the Small World line, inching along behind a family of six, when the 9-year-old says he can’t wait until they get back to the house.  Mom wearily replies “I wonder how much MORE I can spend to keep you unhappy.”  Caitlyn’s very impressed with Small World [slow boat ride through dozens of rooms with hundreds of animated international dolls].  When Haley got to the tropical room it was ‘Lilo’ she spotted, but Caitie says “Look!  Aloha Girls!”  Sounds more like an Elvis movie than a Disney one.

Our passes get us into PhilharMagic [Disney’s best 3-D movie] with only about a five minute wait, but it’s 8:20 now, and iffy that we’ll get back to John and Charlotte’s at the Boardwalk for Illuminations.  Caitie sits on my lap for the show, and I have to hold her when she’s reaching for those 3-D jewels so she doesn’t cuff the guy in front of us.  She loves the show and thinks we should do it again, but we’re still going to try to get to Boardwalk on time.

The Castle is closed off, forcing us to walk down around the side.  We encounter a rabbit on the way, and while we don’t spend nearly as much time rabbit-watching as we did with Elysia, we do spend a few minutes, proving once again that EVERY ride is an E-ticket [top-notch attraction] for somebody.  We catch a break with the bus as one comes just as we get to the stop, and we get to Boardwalk right at 9:00.  Charlotte’s room, of course, is at the far end of the building so the girls are running down the very long hall to get there in time.  (I’ve seen fireworks before, my pace is somewhat more casual.)  Their room (and the view from it) is absolutely beautiful, overlooking the lake above Jellyrolls.  From the balcony, off in the 1:00 direction you can see Spaceship Earth and the upper half of Illuminations, and in the 11:00 direction you can see the tops of Wishes.  Pretty cool.

We drive back to the room and decide that school most certainly is out somewhere, because Magic Kingdom was packed on this fine Monday evening, and the All Star Sports pool is also packed, at 10:30 pm.  And speaking of packed, that’s what we have to do now so we can leave tomorrow.  (Well at least Caitie and I do, Laurie still has those four days of training.)  We’ll throw the bags in the car in the morning and drive over to Magic Kingdom, leaving from there for the airport.
 
Grandbabies 5.7, Magic Kingdom and home

Laurie, Don, and 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlyn, on the seventh day of our week-long June adventure.

Today is our last day, and this is the day that Caitlyn gets to decide where we go.  She has a ‘list’ of things she wants to do, though she hasn’t shared that list with us.  We just mention things and then she tells us whether or not they’re ‘on the list’.  In the car on the way to the Magic Kingdom, she’s telling us that we have to come to her preschool graduation in August.  From the sounds of it, they have quite an interesting program, including Pinocchio music when they’re walking in, and at some point they all sing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.  “The teacher says that sometimes we sing it nice, and sometimes it’s horrible.”  Yeah, preschoolers are like that.

We park the car and take the tram and monorail.  It looks like we’re about one tram late for rope drop, but still in pretty good shape.  We sort of hustled up Main Street again, and I’m not saying it’s hot or anything this morning, but I’m already sweating like P-P-P-Porky.  The girls are headed for Dumbo first again, but the line is maybe three rides long this morning.  On my way back from getting our FastPasses for Pooh, Laurie calls me to let me know they went over to Scuttle’s Landing for snacks instead of riding.  Caitlyn had said “I don’t want to stand in a line for this, take it off the list.”  No problem.

All three of us ride the Speedway, the girls in one car and me on the other track.  Boy, this sure confirms my manliness, racing around the Indy Speedway, trying to beat the orange car with the five-year-old driving.  After we finish our lap, I can see Laurie and Caitlyn up ahead doing the happy chair dance in their car because they beat me.

We’re going down to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin [slow-moving car through multi-room infrared shooting arcade] now, because Caitlyn told us that was the first thing on her list of things to do.  She doesn’t get a very high score on the ride, but doesn’t know that.  Or care.

She had heard something on the monorail about Stitch’s Great Escape, and put that on her list.  Laurie told her that it’s mostly dark and scary, but she said “Grandma, I don’t care about dark and scary, I want to do it.”  I figured after we rode Buzz that maybe the girls could go see Stitch while I enjoyed that new-fangled air conditioning on the Carousel of Progress.  But it turns out Stitch has come off the list and we’re headed back up to Fantasyland.  I’m glad we’re at least slowing our pace a bit, because I was starting to actually get a little dizzy from the heat.

I suggest Snow White and Peter Pan, and she informs us that Peter Pan is NOT on the list, but Snow White is.  As I’m parking the stroller up at Snow White, Caitie suddenly and urgently says to Laurie “Wait a minute.  WHAT ABOUT OUR FLIGHT???”  We tell her she’s got three more hours here before we have to leave, but it’s clear that she’s thinking about home and does NOT want to miss her ride.

After Snow White, we finally get our first Carousel ride, and I ask her if after this we can please please please see Mickey’s PhilharMagic again.  She says “Yes.  And it sprays a little bit of water on us, so we can cool off!”  In PhilharMagic, we’ve gone way past occasional giggling now, to outright full-time laughing.  Now I have to tell you, I shut my eyes when the champagne corks pop, because if I don’t, I get the same kind of headache you get if you try to cross your eyes ten times in a row.  Caitie has her glasses on for the first two, pushes them up for the next two, and then puts them back on for the rest, laughing the whole time.

She tells us that Small World is on the list, and then we should eat dinner.  While we’re in line for Small World, we get to see the clock strike 11:15, which Caitie thinks is pretty cool.  But soon Grandma starts the How Much Longer whine again, and this time I get to hear Caitie’s response, which includes “Do you want to go back to our room and not have the TV on at all??  Then stop your whining.”

I can’t stop myself from counting something every time I go through Small World.  Being a former youth hockey coach, I feel that skaters are sadly underrepresented, with only two:(  Laurie has noticed a big difference between today and the rest of our trip.  Just about every time we got off a ride all week she would say “Can we do it again?”  But today, after every ride she’s asking “Is it time for our flight yet?”

We go down to Liberty Square for lunch and Caitie is getting very tired.  I think maybe we’ll see the Country Bears after lunch and that will be it.  Laurie has snagged a foot-long hot dog that she and Caitie will share, along with a fruit platter from the Liberty Square market.  I go with the traditional fish and chicken combo from Columbia Harbour House, and we meet upstairs there.  Our table from the other day is unavailable, being currently occupied by a Keys to the Kingdom tour group’s lunch.  (Having taken that tour, I smile at the thought that these people’s lunch may be tainted by discussions of colonial sewage like mine was.)  But Caitlyn finds us a spot that actually is better, a table in the archway over the street from Liberty Square into Fantasyland.  It’s a wonderfully relaxing lunch, perfect for our last meal of the trip.

After lunch, I’m standing in the upstairs hallway checking out decorations, waiting for the girls to finish up in the bathroom.  When they come out, Laurie tells me that she’s very much looking forward to our next trip, with Gavin.  All five of our grandbaby trips have been with girls, but when we bring Gavin, SHE’ll be the one relaxing in the shade and checking things out while I’ll be the one taking forever in the bathroom, saying “Okay, let’s go, you don’t need to play in the soap ...”  Then after half a minute, she says “Of course, you probably won’t make him wash his hands afterwards.”  She’s catching on.

Caitie all but goes to sleep during the Country Bear Jamboree [down-home musical revue, with bears], she’s extremely tired.  She’s loved the trip, but this kind of constant input really is exhausting.  There are a couple things she giggles at, and she does acknowledge that my favorite bear (Big Al) is kind of cool.

And now it’s over.  Caitie wants to know if we can have ice cream on the way out of the park, and we tell her that’s a tradition for us, it’s practically required.  When she says ice cream, what she’s really talking about is an ice pop, and mentions it by name (which I think is Itsakadoozie).  Laurie tells her she’s got a pretty good memory, and suggests that she probably remembers what the ‘dinosaur ride’ is called, too.  She immediately says “Figment.”  And then about a minute down the street, she turns and says “Spaceship Earth.”  So she spent a little brain time right there pinning down the real name of the Cotton Ride as well.

We’re in the car now, headed out to the airport.  Caitlyn wants us to tell her exactly when we “leave Disney,” so we put her on the lookout for the big Welcome archway.  And she waves to the characters on the sign.  And just to prove that she’d like to melt my heart, when we’re about halfway to the airport, out of a clear blue sky, she says “Papa, EVERYBODY loves the donkey.”  Awww.

She’s not quite done with me yet, though.  We both have hugs and kisses with Laurie at the airport, and I call Laurie a big cheater for getting to stay for four more days.  Caitie and I check our bags outside, because the line is much shorter than the one inside. And very shortly, our bags are checked and we’re through security, and she’s pushing the stroller with our carry-on in it, and we’re both quite relaxed and happy.  As we’re sitting by the window at our Gate, watching the plane traffic, she asks “Where’s Zach’s mom?”  (That’s my first wife, from 15 years ago.)  I say I don’t know, she’s probably home.  “Why did you guys break up?”  Oh, I don’t know.  “Was Grandma prettier?”  Okay kid, just because you point me at the minefield, doesn’t mean I have to walk in.  I tell her that Zach’s mom and I broke up a long time before I met Grandma, but she still wants to know why.  I finally tell her that I don’t really remember, it was such a long time ago.  Then there’s about a 30-second pause before she grins and says “You probably think I ask too many questions, don’t you.”  Not at all hon, it’s way better than not enough.

She’s EXTREMELY excited to see Mom and Dad when we get back, and her three-year-old brother practically dives into a hug, he’s missed her really bad this week.  We’ve had another awesome trip, and now I have another first – making the two-hour drive home from the airport by myself.  My baby is all safe and sound in her own house, and my babe is enjoying a wonderful Cape May buffet with friends, and I’m on the road.  Temporarily alone, but secure in the knowledge that “everybody loves the donkey.”

Back to Top

Trip Report: Grandbabies II
by Don Jennings
Day 0, 4/2/02
A couple of years ago, a woman in the Haunted Mansion line was saying that she brings each of her grandchildren just before they enter kindergarten. Laurie and I looked at each other, thinking of our six pre-school grandchildren (and our kids are still young), and a grand plan was formed ;-)

Last April we brought our oldest, and this year it was Serena's turn. The only problem is that she has NO intention of going to Disney World! You never know quite what goes through a child's head, but one of her main objections is that she doesn't want to have to chew gum all day. The only thing we can think of is that we had her sister chew gum on the airplane. In the meantime Alexis (who just turned four) has been talking about it for over a year, waiting patiently for her turn, so we decided to flip-flop the schedule and take Lexi this year instead. This is the second time we've gone the week after Easter, and I wasn't looking forward to the crowds the first few days, but the timing fit with Laurie's school schedule.

Half dollar size snowflakes were falling when we left home for the two hour ride to the airport. It always adds something to a Disney trip when the weather stinks at home <g>. We went through quite a bit of "are we almost there" on the way, and at one point she said she bet Mickey was probably saying "I wonder where Lexi is?" When we actually got to the airport and saw a plane coming in, she screamed and we thought she might pass out from the excitement. We let her burn off a little energy in the play room at the airport until it was time to go to the boarding area. Her last act before she had to leave was to get on the play phone and say "I have to go to Disney, I'll talk to you later", and we were off.

Lexi's mom has really trained her well that fear is a normal thing, and it's just something you work with. She had to hold Grandma's arm while the plane was taking off, but it turns out the only thing that was worrying her was the plane going really fast on the ground. As soon as we were in the air she said "you can let go now" and started talking about all the little cars and the rivers and such. Both flights were a breeze and her first comment on Florida was that the area outside the airport looked like a jungle, must have been the palm trees. We had the bonus of watching the Illuminations fireworks during the Mears ride.
Got checked in to the All Star Music for our one night there before spending the rest of our stay at All Star Sports. We're way back on Broadway, more of a walk than I felt like tonight. (Note to self - next time you get off the bus and the friendly cast members out front say "Can we help you with your luggage?", don't be a dufus, it doesn't matter if everything has wheels, just say yes.) Just time for one trip to the food court for our morning milk and nighttime snack before we go to bed. What, no carrot cake???? Was very tempted to walk over to Movies and see if they had some there, but my feet said no. Lexi's still pretty wired, not sure how well she'll get up in the morning for Animal Kingdom, time will tell.     

 
Day 1, 4/3/02

If we had to pick just one thing to get on videotape from this trip, it would have been 15 seconds at 6:50 this morning, long before the video was out of the case. Laurie and I were awake from the alarm a few minutes earlier, so when the phone rang at 6:50 we told Lexi she should get it. Her eyes opened wide, and I could hear Mickey telling her "up and at'em". Her jaw started to drop and she started to shake, and was almost in tears when she handed me the phone. I asked her who it was, and she sobbed "It was Mickey calling me, Mickey called me!!!" Maybe she was right all along, maybe Mickey did know she was coming.       
We left the room at 7:56, a little later than we wanted, but it was a pretty stressful and late day yesterday. Lexi gave her mom a call while I arranged for our bags to be shipped over to All Star Sports for the rest of our stay. It's extremely crowded at Animal Kingdom this morning. Last year, Elysia wanted to take 20 minutes to look at every animal we came across, but Lexi gives the anteater about 2 minutes and then says "okay, let's go." We think she's definitely on a mission, seeing Mickey is about all she's talked about for months.
At 8:46 there's only a half hour wait for the Safari in spite of the crowd, so we decide to do that first. Alexis loved most of the ride, we had giraffes about 3 feet from our vehicle, and seeing a rhino poop was pretty impressive for a four year old as well. But her immediate verdict was that she didn't like it, the racing jeep and the plane and gunfire at the end made her very nervous.        
The Flights of Wonder was much better in her book, and a lot of that is because her uncle has an African Gray just like the one in the show. After the show, we make our way into Dinoland, where Lexi isn't sure she wants to take a Triceratops Spin, and knows for certain that she doesn't want to take a Primeval Whirl (she's about 6" short for that one anyway.) We finally talk her into the line for the Spin and let her know that if she doesn't want to ride when we get there she doesn't have to. She understands that she will be in the back and have control of the up and down, so she decides to give it a try. Control is the key word here. She's riding with Grandma and has a death grip on the joystick and we're riding right at the bottom all the way around. She wanted to go back and do it again at the end of the day, so it must have felt pretty good to her to conquer that fear.

At 11:30 we got our lunch at the Flame Tree, not a very kid-friendly menu but Laurie and I liked it. Our first character encounter happened right after lunch at the old Boat to Nowhere dock, where we met Tigger. Lexi had asked Grandma to walk up to the characters with her because she "might be just a little afraid", but as soon as she was there and the autograph book was signed, she dove right into Tigger's side with her arms around him for the picture. (That was pretty much the scenario with every other character we saw that day.) She wanted to stay and watch Tigger meet some other people, so I took the opportunity to go back out and have a smoke. About the time I got back to the street, a bolt of lightning hit somewhere within a few hundred yards of us. Back down on the dock, Lexi took a few seconds looking around to see what everyone's reaction was. It might have been okay, but when three babies started screaming she let loose also. The characters don't stay out in a thunderstorm, even under shelter, and on Tigger's way out he got down on his knee and gave Lexi a hug and patted her on the head and calmed her down. I think he may be her new favorite.
At 12:30 the Primeval Whirl shows a 70 minute standby wait and fast pass return times at 2:35. Neither matters, as it's shut down for the duration of the thunderstorm. Animal Kingdom is much more "show time" driven than the other parks, especially if you're in a group that's going to intentionally miss Dinosaur and the Bug and save Kali River til the end of the day. Still, it always seems like we're about 30 miles from the show we want to see and wondering if we'll have time to get there for the next showing. We decided we might as well head over to the Lion King, and on the way Lexi's concerned about Tigger, "when it's sunny again he'll be okay?"
At 12:40, Lex is out cold in the stroller so we decide to find a nice quiet room in the back of Pizza Fari for her to catch a bit of a nap. I'm glad we stopped there, because a half dozen 16 year olds were standing out front and two decided to go back into the men's room and get a picture of the hand dryer. Within a couple minutes, three more of them had gone in to check it out, and they all came out telling me I had to check it out, it was the coolest thing in the whole park, and there was NO LINE ;-) I'm game, and I' ll tell you why this unit was special. This dryer is made by the same company that makes the blowers they use at the Winston Cup tracks to clean water and debris from the pavement. In fact this is the very same model. I'm surprised there haven't been more cases of guys leaving the room with skin partially stripped from their arms, it's that strong. Or maybe the women are right, and most men simply don't wash ;-)

The Lion King is a very long show when you're standing up, but still very entertaining. (The tumbling monkeys are still my favorite.) But then they loaded and ran the entire next show while we were in line for pictures and autographs with Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Goofy, which somehow didn't seem like nearly as long. She was as excited to get Mickey's autograph and picture as we expected, although the convulsions of this morning seemed to have subsided ;-). We asked her which character she wanted to get an autograph from next. Her response was simple, "who's next in line?" I can tell it's going to be a long day when we get to MK.

It was still early enough at this point that we figured we could go cash in our fast passes for the Primeval Whirl and still have time to get back for the parade. (Even had time to see Pooh and Eeyore on the way.) We did the child swap on the Whirl, I rode first while Laurie and Alexis waited with another mom and son in an "on deck" pen. While there, a cast member gave Alexis a certificate that gives her (and her party) a head-of-the-line pass she can use when she's tall enough. She immediately handed that over to Grandma (who could see her thinking "I'm never going on this thing in my life, you take it.") Four thumbs up on the Whirl though, and after seeing the Animal Kingdom parade for the first time, I like it much better than the Tapestry of Nations. We made our way out of the park at 4:30, easily breaking our personal records for longest day spent in Animal Kingdom. Managed to see Baloo and King Louie on the way out, just as a bonus.

We made it back to check in at All Star Sports at 5:12, after a very enjoyable day. As we're in line, Laurie said to Lexi "Thank you for coming to Disney with us." The response? "We're not leaving now!?!" She wants to swim, but it's actually fairly chilly out and our feet are killing us, so it will be an early night for these kids, have to get ready for MGM Studios tomorrow.       
 
Day 2 (MGM/MK 4/4/02)
Lexi enjoyed her call from Mickey again this morning, although it certainly didn't have the same shock effect it had yesterday. MGM Studios seemed very crowded out front when we arrived, but it didn't seem that crowded once we got into the back of the park. (That's not to say that Tower of Terror and Rock'n Rollercoaster weren't jammed, we never made it down that street at all.) The park was fully open at 8:55, I haven't yet been able to distinguish a pattern to the gate opening and rope drop times. Playhouse Disney and Little Mermaid don't start until 10, so we got Fastpasses for Mermaid and headed over to the Muppets.

The Muppet fountain didn't seem to do much for Lex, at which point we realized that her TV is probably preset to the Disney Channel and doesn't even get PBS ;-) Laurie and I noticed right away that the pretend wall between the exit and entrance to Muppet Labs is gone. That got us flashing back to our honeymoon trip, when we stood for over an hour on a hot August day in a line all the way down the side of the building and back. We had no clue back then how to avoid lines, but when we think about it, it didn't much matter under the circumstances.

Our plan was to show Alexis the Muppet Movie first, then let her reaction determine if Honey I Shrunk the Audience or It's Tough to Be a Bug are in the cards. She's not really sure if she likes it or not, but she figured out very quickly that she could make anything go away by raising her glasses. It was very cute watching her trying to catch Waldo when he came up in front of her, judging from the hand movement I think she was trying to squeeze his nose. She did enjoy the bubbles though, and seemed to like Miss Piggy's "little" song. She also spotted the fireworks on ceiling, and was a little concerned about all the holes in the wall from the cannon blast. I had never noticed the fireworks on the ceiling before (Laurie had), and Laurie had never noticed the holes before (I had). Perhaps Laurie and I should talk more <g>.

We made it back to Mermaid Square at 9:54 and got in line for Playhouse Disney. After about four minutes we realized there were probably three shows worth of people outside the sound stage, so we decided to bag it and see the Great Movie Ride. There was no line, I'm not sure if that's because the show is a bit long in the tooth or people just can't find it behind the BAH (which Lexi likes, by the way ;-).   <<<note here for clarification, since you're not familiar with our newsgroup -- for the 100 years of Disney celebration, they've constructed a 60 foot tall Mickey hat right in front of the Great Movie Ride that completely obstructs what was the centerpiece of the Studios.  It's pretty much uniformly reviled by those in the newsgroup, who have taken to calling it the BAH (Big A** Hat)>>>

I don't think she recognized anything in the ride except Mary Poppins. She climbed on Laurie's lap when the gangster came out, but by the time we got to the Alien, she was telling me not to worry, they're all just pretend people. She's probably never seen the Wizard of Oz, so we thought it was cute when we got to the scene of Dorothy and pals gazing on the Emerald City and she told us "She's got shoes just like mine!"

It was 10:36 when we exited the Great Movie Ride and our Fastpass window for the Mermaid was from 10:30 to 10:40, so I'm glad they finally made that shortcut for us. As we took our seats, Lexi's main question was "is Ariel going to come off the stage?" She later asked about Sebastian coming into the audience too, it's clear she doesn't want any surprises. We all enjoyed the show as expected. At 11:08 when we came out, the Mermaid standby line said an hour, and there were still more than two shows worth of people in front of Playhouse Disney. Sounds like time for lunch to me, and Lexi wants to find those silver trailers where the characters hang out.

We were going to grab a bite at the counter back by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, but didn't like the menu (what menu). We actually got to be line leaders here, I parked Lexi up on the statue of Flik for a picture and by the time we were done and walking out, half a dozen other families were lined up for theirs. I felt like quite the trailblazer ;-) At 11:25 there was a 50 minute wait at Star Tours, but the Fastpasses were only for 12:00. (For you gamblers out there, that's like paying "more to show" ;-). After lunch at the Backlot Express, Alexis spots a statue in the courtyard and wants her picture taken with it. She's seen the video of her older cousin's trip, in which the moving statue removed a teenage boy's t-shirt, and although she never mentioned it we think she decided this would be a much safer statue picture.

We were a half hour from the next show of Beauty and the Beast, but she has her heart set on seeing Buzz and Woody. This was another first for Laurie and me, an hour in line for autographs. The things people do for their kids, amazing. We did have a bit of distraction though, when the green army men came out across the plaza for some close order drills. That was a cute show. (You may not have known that the green army men's names are Sarge, Private Dancer, Private Office, and Private Joke.) We also got to meet 10 year old Darryl, who a cast member coaxed into entertaining the crowd with his "special talent" of folding his ears inside themselves. Pretty cool. His mother happened to be standing right behind us, telling us "I'm so proud." She also told us that he had attempted to perform that trick for show and tell in kindergarten, and when it didn't work he told the teacher that it was because his ears weren't dirty enough.

By 1:20 we're headed out of the park for our nap. Shared the bus back with a British family, both the kids were wearing "I Survived Tower of  Terror" pins, but they were both too scared to ride Rock'n Rollercoaster. Wimps. I didn't envy them, they were headed home the next morning (which is bad enough in itself), but they had a 9 hour flight ahead of them.

Alexis has been pretty good about sleeping by herself in a strange bed, but I think she was dropping a big hint when she told Laurie that "if papa snores, you can get in bed with me if you want." She called her mom before our nap, and talked quite a bit about Goofy "moving around". He was picking on the kids, with his characteristic big gestures, pretending he was going to throw their autograph books into the bushes and such. She really doesn't like surprises, I'm not kidding. It dawned on us at some point that she had Grandma hold her hand as she approached the characters, but when it came to Goofy and Woody and the other big'ns she wanted me to go with her. (I didn't tell her that Laurie could whip my butt if it came right down to it, I think it's just an elevation thing ;-)

Laurie couldn't wait another day, so at 6:40 we hit the Magic Kingdom. It's still Easter crowded, it looks like there are still as many people coming in as leaving. We're taking the train to Toon Town, which Lexi really enjoyed. (She's starting to figure out which characters can talk and which ones can' t, she informed us during this ride that "the itchy ones don't talk.") At 7:00 the courtyard is full at Splash Mountain and Toon Town is packed. We spent a fair amount of time checking out Mickey and Minnie's houses, she thought it was really neat that "they live on the same street". All in all, we spent over an hour in the two houses and getting everyone's gifts, might as well take care of that while everything is crowded, the park will be much more manageable in a couple days.

We had dinner at one of our favorite Magic Kingdom quick food spots, the windows in Pinnochio Haus that overlook Small World. Quite a bit of discussion at the table behind us about the wheel chair accessible boats we see, and the 6 year old there is wondering "if you're blind, can you go on the handicapped boat?" Lexi had some questions of her own as we walked through the castle to get to our fireworks viewing spot. "Doesn't it bother Cinderella with all these people walking through her house?" She really liked Tinkerbell's flight, but was concerned that Cinderella would be scared with all those fireworks going off "right outside the castle".

At 9:15 we took our first ride on Small World, only the second actual "ride" of the day but it seems like the day has been very full. Lexi's head was in deep pivot mode throughout the ride, and when we got to the polynesian dancers the shoulders started bouncing as well. At 9:30 there was a 75 minute wait for Snow White, so we went down to the Haunted Mansion. That started getting a little hairy in the line when she heard a wolf. Screams in the entrance chamber were worse than usual, we managed to get in a group with quite a few teenage girls. (That's not a sexist remark, you know who you are ;-) The rest of the ride went okay, except whenever the teenagers screamed. She did let me know the hitchhiker was just a pretend guy in a mirror, so I wouldn't be scared.

She's not one to talk to strangers much, but when we sat down in Liberty Square to wait for the parade she started telling two women next to us how much she didn't like Haunted Mansion. She loved the parade though, very excited when Ariel appeared, and I thought she'd wet herself when she saw the seven dwarfs. Never know what will excite her, she had never mentioned the dwarfs before. We finished the night off with a trip on Pirates of the Carribean. She didn't really like the dark part at the beginning, and in the midst of the gun battle she kept telling her grandma to "DUCK". At the end she decided it was fun, even the "little fall". Very long day, good thing we 're kicking back tomorrow at Blizzard Beach.


Day 3 (Blizzard Beach 4/5/02)
Today was supposed to be an "off" day, but we just can't help ourselves, we managed to fill it as much as most of the others. We had planned on sleeping in, so we didn't set the alarm or leave a wake up call. At some point during the day, Alexis wondered why Mickey hadn't called her this morning, after all, "he knows my phone number!" Pulled into Disney's Blizzard Beach water park at 10:30, thinking it had opened at 10, but it had been open since 9. It seemed packed, but then the big 120 foot drop wasn't on our to-do list any way. (You know, the ride our grown son refers to as the "world's biggest wedgie".) We thought the family raft ride would be pretty cool, but Lexi didn't like the sound of that so we headed immediately to Tyke's Peak, the kiddie section of the park.

We were lucky to score a couple chairs with some shade, and set off for the water. The one longish slide we came to first looked good from the bottom, but seemed a bit too imposing for her at the top. She got to the edge twice, but couldn't quite do it. I talked her into the little six foot slides above that, and I think being able to see the bottom made those okay. We spent most of an hour up there before grandma and grandpa decided it was high time for a lazy river ride. On the way down the path from the little slides though, you walk along side a tube slide that Lexi (surprisingly) thought looked pretty neat. After we got to the bottom and she watched a few kids come down, she said she wanted to do that one. When we told her she had to carry the tube up to the top, she immediately grabbed one and off she went. We finally had to pull the plug (so to speak) on her after she made several trips, as poor papa was beginning to bake.

The water was a little deep for Lex in the lazy river, so we weren't sure if she'd like it. Having the tube with the closed bottom made it fine though. It was a little tough on me when we came to the waterfalls, because at that time I was pushing or pulling Lexi's tube and she would change her mind about six times as to whether she wanted to go under the water or not. A bit hard to steer in a crowded ditch with your feet up ;-) Lots of giggles all around.

One trip around the lazy river and it was time for lunch. Lexi decided the chair lift looked pretty awesome, until I told her you had to do the family raft ride to get back down. She decided to pass. After lunch, we let her decide whether we'd stay there or go back to the hotel or go to a park. Wasn 't long after that we were on a bus to the Magic Kingdom.

We got there at 2:50, just in time for the afternoon parade. On the way in we heard someone say "today it's nice, yesterday it was too crowded", that's a good sign. Turned out to be bogus though, we thought it was just as crowded today. We watched the parade from the porch of Tony's Restaurant, a very nice view of a very nice parade. We shared the porch with a couple from New Jersey who were killing an hour while waiting for check in at the Polynesian. Can't think of a neater way to wait for your room. They were one of several families we encountered on the trip that were taking advantage of military discounts.

When the parade was over, Laurie asked Lexi if she wanted to wait in a long line for the Carousel. She said sure and practically started walking up Main Street without us. Laurie was very impressed with the cast member who was working the Carousel by himself (didn't catch his name), he was working his butt off and doing an awesome job. Everything in Fantasyland was packed, so we headed off to Tomorrowland figuring we'd catch the attractions that don't have long waits even during the busiest times. On our way we noticed that (at 4:00) Pooh had a 90 minute wait and a Fastpass return of 8:10, so we picked up three Fastpasses and figured we'd end the night there.

Alexis liked the look of "that blue ride with the polka dot roof", so we made one tour on the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority. She really liked that (except for the dark parts). Laurie and I were both excited that the Carousel of Progress was open, so we settled into the theater for a now-rare treat. Unfortunately, somewhere in the early 1900's Lexi had to go to the potty. She held it well into the 1920's, when Laurie finally had to take her out. The theater was full, and the session after we left was full as well, we're sure going to miss it in December.

At 5:15, the standby line for Space Mountain was showing 110 minutes, and it overlapped the Astro Orbiter line by 10 or 15 people. There's a 75 minute standby at Buzz Lightyear with FP return of 9:40, so it doesn't look like that's in the cards today. Laurie was prepared to stand with me for Timekeeper, even though she hates it (she's so sweet), but I talked her into standing in a popcorn line with Lexi instead. As it turned out, both our "attractions" took the same amount of time.

On our way over to Adventureland, we caught Cinderella's Surprise Celebration in front of the castle, followed by autographs with Tweedle Dee/Dum. Lexi seemed to like the Tiki Room, at least everything except the thunderstorm.

It was getting a little chilly as we made our way to Frontierland at 6:30, but hey, I didn't come to Florida to wear no sweatshirt. The Country Bears were a major hit, and I think Lexi now shares my fondness for Big Al. Pecos Bill's was as full as I've seen it in a long time, I think we had to go into the third room to find a table. It was 7:30 by the time we finished supper and we didn't feel like waiting another 40 minutes for our Pooh Fastpasses to kick in, so we gave them to a trio of Brits at the table next to us. We thought we were going to get trapped by the parade crowd on the way out, there was a logjam inside Casey's Corner that we couldn't get through. Within just a couple minutes though, cast member Aaron stepped to the forefront and got people moving in both directions. Amazing what a little "order" can accomplish.

All in all, we did pretty well for a "day off" ;-)


Day 4 (Epcot 4/6/02)
As I took my morning stroll around the All Star Sports Tennis building on
Saturday, the last of the buses were lined up to take the groups of kids home. I hadn't noticed on earlier trips a building at the back of the parking lot between All Star Sports and Movies, "Celebration Hall". It looked kind of like a bus depot, which is pretty much what it is. A cast member had told me that's where they do mass check in for groups staying at Music or Sports. When we got here on Tuesday (two days after Easter) we had counted 16 buses lined up around the back of the parking lot, now we're down to a couple and they're headed out.

Mickey didn't call Lexi until a little after 8 this morning, since we're going to Epcot which doesn't open until 10 today. (Boy that Mickey's smart, he must know just what our plans are.) We hadn't been on the monorail yet, so we took a bus to Magic Kingdom and then took the two monorails to Epcot. That left us getting to the park just after 10, and I could hear Laurie grinding her teeth. This relaxed pace is hard on her ;-)

It looked like they must have opened the park at 9:30, and there was already a 60 minute wait for Test Track, with a Fast Pass return time of 12:10. The park doesn't look all that crowded, I just think everyone goes to Test Track first thing, with most getting Fast Passes whether they ride then or not. We definitely need something in this park to balance that load out for the "thrill-seekers". My short list includes adding a couple drops to the Mexican boat ride (maybe a cliff dive or something), replacing the animatronic buffalo in The Land with live ones, 45 minute Off Kilter sets, and free water mice departing the cellar of the Rose and Crown.

We called from the Wonders of Life pavilion for lunch seating, but there wasn't any need, the park really is pretty empty. Our first attraction is Cranium Command, still my favorite. Maybe it's because I have no trouble believing Buzzy is piloting me sometimes. That was really the only thing we did there, because Making of Me would be a little over Lexi's head, Body Wars would be well past her fear threshold, and there was nary an Anacomical Player in sight.

The line at Living With the Land was way too long, but we know it will be gone later so we go downstairs to Food Rocks. I still love the little food factoids on the wall there, and get to listen to the BEST music in the parks for a few minutes. Not long after we got downstairs it was time for Lexi's bathroom break (which is of course upstairs). The girls got back about 30 seconds after the theater doors had closed, so we decided to head for lunch instead of waiting for the next show.

We always seem to eat too much at Le Cellier, you would think we'd eventually learn that the cheese soup and bread sticks are enough (at least when followed by dessert in France or Norway ;-). At some point during lunch Alexis pointed over to the fourth chair at our table and said "Wouldn't it be nice if Mommy could come and sit in that chair right there." I think she' s talked on the phone to her every day, but it's not the same. We knew it wasn't just an idle thought as we were checking out the gardens after lunch. Lexi spent quite a few minutes watching a solitary black bird with a red face wandering among the flowers, and told us "maybe he's missing his mommy, I bet that's why he's lonely". Okay, let's move on.

We're still a little disgusted with the Fast Pass process at Test Track. They still run the Fast Pass line all the way around the exhibits, which has seemed backwards to us ever since they re-routed everything when they brought the singles line indoors. The sign outside had said 110 minutes for standby. That didn't seem likely given that the line was almost inside the door, so Laurie eyeballed some folks in the standby line when we got into our line to see if we beat them on. We didn't, and it took us 25 minutes. The process could clearly use some work.

While we were in the queue, Lexi wanted to know "where are all the men to these tools?." Might not have been as confusing to her (or us) if even one of the test props had been in operation, but none were. Her first comment after the ride was "That was fun." Our response was "You want to go on it again?" Instant answer -- "NO". She really didn't like the fact that the train had almost hit us. Nearly crashing into the door at the barrier test didn't seem to bother her, but then I'm not sure how her mom drives ;-)

She had sounded kind of interested in going inside the "big ball", although it was clear she had some apprehension about just exactly what Spaceship Earth involved. The dark hill climb had her glued to Laurie's side, but our promise that there were only two short dark parts and one had really cool lights that Uncle Chad had liked seemed to get her through. I guess she gave it a limited thumbs up, declaring as we exited "That wasn't too bad". I think that was the same kind of ringing endorsement Laurie had given on a previous trip after I talked her into our one and only visit to the movie in China.

Time to head back to the hotel for a nap at about 2, we didn't really have one yesterday and needed it. We managed to utilize a talking fountain on our way out, and for the rest of the trip she had to put her ear to every fountain we came to, must have looked strange to someone who's never experienced one.

We started back to Epcot at about 5:30, and had to wait for what seemed like way too long for a bus. The AS Epcot buses also service Blizzard Beach, and we had two of them pull up that were running BB only, as it was closing. I realize the bus system was in transition today between very high volume days and low volume days, and it seems maybe it's a tough transition.

We stopped at Innoventions to send out some electronic postcards, and it seems Laurie has found yet another way to save time. When we send the first card and it asks if we want a copy sent to us, she says yes and puts somebody else from her list in the "copy to" address box. Good idea, when you carry a long list ;-) At 6:30 Epcot isn't December lonely, but it's very uncrowded. We knew it was a bit chilly but didn't realize just how much until we walked past a couple kids playing in the sidewalk fountains on the way to World Showcase. Lexi told us she'd run through them too "when it's summer".

Alexis notices that the firepots around the lagoon are ablaze, and it reminded us of our trip last year with Elysia. She spent a fair amount of time at Disney World trying to sort out what was real and what wasn't, and when she first saw those firepots she wanted to know "is that real fire?" We told her it was, and that satisfied her for a moment, but it was clear more information was needed when she asked "is it supposed to be there?"

We spent a few minutes hanging around France waiting for the moving statue. Lexi had seen the statue taking someone's shirt off in Elysia's vacation video, so she made sure she didn't get too close. We all enjoyed the show, as we usually do. Afterwards, as we approached the American Gardens Theater from Japan, Lexi looked quite concerned and wanted to know "what happened to that building?" It took us a few minutes to see it, but there's a wall of columns behind the seating area of the theater. When you look at it from the side, it looks like those columns are one wall and the stage structure is another wall and the rest of the building is missing. Once again, a little confirmation is needed that what we're seeing is what's actually there.

Our plan was to watch Illuminations that night, but at 7:30 Laurie started having a vision migraine and it was pretty cold, so we decided to head out. Couldn't do that though without spending some time with the trains in Germany. Only had one train running, but that was enough to have Lexi glued for several minutes. (What is it about trains, every kid I've ever been around is fascinated by them.)

We figured we'd take the Mexican boat ride, as long as we were on our way by. Lexi liked it so much we took two trips back to back. She reminded me of Laurie, by the time we got through she had about four "favorite" parts. The second time through, she pointed out to us every pinata in both the "Small World" and "street vendor" sections. On the way out she spotted a huge rack of suckers that looked very enticing. That's the third time so far we've saved either $4 or a ration of grief at a candy rack by having baggies with a couple dozen skittles in her fanny pack.

As we came into view of Spaceship Earth, Lexi announced "There's the Magic Ball!" Laurie said rather casually "that's the Epcot Ball." After about 15 seconds riding along in the stroller Lexi calmly but firmly said "I call it the Magic Ball." Well, it's settled then ;-)

Even with the nap this afternoon, Lexi's a little tired as we get to the bus. The driver tells her she has to give him a high five or he won't let her get on the bus. Easy choice for her, she's prepared to wait for the next bus. Laurie isn't, so she "sneaks" Lexi on the bus and we head home for the night, looking forward to a morning at MK with no crowd to deal with.


Day 5 (MK 4/7/02)
Finally, the day Alexis has been waiting for (even though she doesn't know it). A prime time Sunday morning in the Magic Kingdom with no crowds, and all of Fantasyland to ourselves. The crowd should be even smaller because of the time change last night, a number of poor souls are bound to get up an hour later than they thought they were going to. At 8:10 the sun is very low in the sky and it's quite chilly. The Character Caravan is in the All Star Sports lobby, so we either sneak Lexi around the outside of the building or chew up half an hour or more here.

We're not sure how we manage to once again get in the one park entrance line where the ticket machine isn't working. We finally make our way inside and down Main Street to wait under the castle for the rope drop. That happens just before we get there, so we proceed directly to Dumbo. Lexi still isn't willing to ride any elephant way up in the sky. (When you stop and think about that, doesn't that make her pretty smart?) The Carousel is no problem though, and Laurie and Lex are the only ones on it.

Pooh is next, with only about thirty people in line. It's an instant hit with Lexi, every time we go around a corner she's anxious to see what's in the next room. The line is so low we ride twice back to back, and the second time around is predictably much more fun than the first.

We didn't know if the speedway would be backed up yet, but the line wasn't even to the top of the ramp. We tried to arrange it so we could be in opposite lanes side-by-side, but Laurie left us in the dust. I could blame it on a fast car or accuse her of just being too darn competitive, but the truth is the car in front of us had a seat belt problem that held us up a bit. Lexi was more than proud of her driving ability, she excitedly told Laurie after the ride that she "never went off the track once!!"

I thought we may be in for a bit of trauma during the speedway ride, but she pulled through fine. Since we picked her up the day before we left home, she had been wearing an oversized amber ring on her index finger. Looked kind of goofy, but we hadn't said anything.  We discovered on the second or third day that her mom had given it to her a few days before we came, so we think it was her way of keeping a bit of home with her. Well the roughness of the track itself, combined with her death grip on the wheel, caused the ring to break in two places. My first clue was hearing her yell "My RING, my RING!!" I collected the pieces and told her I'd keep them for her, thinking that she was very upset. It turns out though that her immediate concern was keeping control of the car, and she never mentioned the ring again until the day we left and asked her if she wanted to take it home. (She did).

Back up the hill to the teacups. Laurie can't handle the spinning, so this is a Lexi and Grandpa ride. Lexi says she doesn't like rides that go fast, but I'll tell you she spun me silly on this. I didn't know a four year old could put that much pull on a wheel. She really got a kick out of it when I stumbled getting out of the car after I had told her she got me dizzy. (I did it on purpose, honest ;-)

All the attractions in Fantasyland are just as sparsely populated this morning. We were a bit worried about how she would like Snow White, being that it's pretty dark. It was "a little bit scary, but not too bad". I got ticked off again when we got to Peter Pan, the sign says the standby line is 40 minutes, but this ain't our first rodeo, it looks more like 10 to us. (In actuality, it was 9 minutes from the time we entered the line until we got off the ride.) What would be so wrong with posting accurate times here and on Test Track and letting people make informed choices? Enough ranting though, we finally get to go to Splash Mountain now!

Our chosen route to Splash Mountain goes through Toon Town and around the park on the train to the back of Splash Mountain.  We found it worked very well with our older granddaughter to approach Splash from the back where you can't see the drop, and not watch a dozen logs go screaming down into the Briar Patch on the walk up. No need to build apprehension needlessly. Laurie thought it would be good to let Lexi try the Barnstormer in Toon Town (a kiddie coaster), remembering that after Elysia rode it she was more than ready for the Big Thunder Mountain coaster when we got over there. The girls went in and were the only ones in line, so everybody already on the ride got to go again. When Lexi saw that the track goes "up in the air", she was very certain she didn't want to ride. She balked at getting into the "plane", and the cm even told her "we can make it go slower for you." She was still having no part of it, so after being assured that they wouldn't start the ride, they did a walk-through the plane straight to the exit.

Lexi isn't the kind of kid who stays tense, once you're away from whatever she was afraid to do it's like it never happened. So a minute later, she was making a couple friends in the little house on the playground while we waited for our train. Laurie and Alexis decided they both like riding the train because they can sit back and their feet still touch the floor. (They' re both vertically challenged, but I think Lexi will grow out of it.)

The line for Splash was pretty short, I think it was less than 20 minutes until we got on. We ended up with the three of us in the back row, and I think Lexi was in I-don't-really-want-to-do-this mode very early on in the ride. She toughed it out, but when we were done she told us she liked "everything but the slides". Afterward, she made us stand on the bridge watching several people come down, so we think she's trying to convince herself it really is a fun ride. Boy we hope so, because with the lines so short today we'd like to do this several more times ;-)

I should tell you that I've shortened this trip report by at least a thousand words by mentioning only this once the times we stopped to look at birds, including otherwise very ordinary blackbirds and sparrows. She even used up three or four of the pictures on her own disposable camera with birds. Geez, mom, maybe you need to get her to a park at home some time!! We knew there was no point in even walking up to Big Thunder Mountain, she's not a coaster girl yet, so we made our way down to the Jungle Cruise. Lexi spotted the rats in the box in the queue, I've never seen them before. Still haven't, she showed them to Grandma but I must have been busy reading the walls again. The sign here is right, with about a 25 minutes line. We're not sure whether she enjoyed the ride or not, as soon as we left she was focusing on Alladin ("I'm not going to ride that.")

It was time for lunch in the castle, and we got an autograph and picture with Princess Aurora on the way in. We were seated in the middle of the room, for a pretty ordinary meal, except for watching a girl over by the windows get the Glass Slipper. Wish I would have thought of that, but then Laurie and I first came here together on our honeymoon, so it was a bit late by then anyway. After eating, Laurie took Lex over for her promised look out the castle window (we think she was really trying to get a feel for how Cinderella lives). When we got downstairs, Cinderella was waiting for us in the front room and Alexis looked like she really was in the presence of royalty. Laurie and I get our kicks on the Mountains, but for Alexis, this is the thrill ride right here.

It seemed considerably more crowded in the afternoon, maybe everyone had overcome the time change. They had decided this morning to extend the Magic Kingdom closing by an hour until 8, so they must have anticipated a fair crowd. Doesn't seem to me it would be too hard to share that info with the resorts when they change the times, but apparently they don't. We got in another 45 minute line to get Ariel's autograph, but Lexi doesn't have the patience today that she did with Buzz and Woody. (Laurie didn't have the patience then, I was proud of her for sticking it out ;-) We didn't have a problem convincing her to try this again Tuesday, making it the first thing on our final day agenda. We had stopped here first thing this morning when there was no crowd, but Ariel must have had some trouble with the time change too. At 9:00 the cast member there had said Ariel would be there at 10, but when we went back at 10:10 she told us 11. Somebody gots to nail dat girl's fins to de floor.

We tried to see the Lion King next. Duh, I forgot that it was gone. (By the way, I believe the first new word you learn in preschool is"duh", we've been steering away from it all week, with partial success.) A quick glance at the watch told us Belle's story hour was next. As we made our way from the castle down to Fairytale Gardens we were reminded of our trip last year, where Elysia spent ten minutes watching rabbits eat in the castle lawn. Don' t think there's enough grass to feed a rabbit this year, we didn't see any. While I went out for a smoke, the girls found a seat along the outside wall at what Laurie knew would be the head of the eventual autograph line. Lexi enjoyed the story, and I enjoyed the half hour we saved by being almost first for pictures.

Since it's nearly nap time for all of us, we decided to exit through Tomorrowland and see if we could get on Buzz Lightyear without much wait. Lexi wanted to drive the car again, but when I pointed out the line to her she had no trouble passing it up. She did want to go on "the blue train" again, so we took another tour of the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority. She knows where both of the dark places are now, and it's a fun ride. There' s a 50 minute wait for Buzz so we'll pass it up, leaving Laurie and I to reminisce about the "old" days, when we could ride Buzz six times in a row at night, in separate cars no less. (The separate cars are a major luxury, avoids all those nasty "why do you turn the car when I'm locked in on the 20,000" conversations ;-)

On our way down Main Street Laurie wanted to spend some time in the clock shop, so Lexi and I relaxed in the alley outside. (My relaxation was on a park bench, Lexi's was back and forth between the bench and the cm gate about thirty times.) While there, I got to listen to a woman getting voice lessons in a studio on the second floor, that was pretty cool. Laurie didn't find anything she wanted in the clock shop, but Lexi did find a perfect gift for Mommy in one of the other stores on the way.

After a very long and well-earned nap back at the hotel, we went over to Epcot for what turned out to be pizza and water. Neither of us remembered that almost all of Future World shuts down at 7. With most of the attractions closed, we had to make do with me giving Lexi a pretend Carousel ride, running around in a big circle bouncing her up and down. There never seems to be any shortage of cool things to see and do though, even when the "attractions" are closed. We finally got to see the full fountain show, with the added bonus of watching a bunch of kids running back and forth on the west side of the fountain where the wind was taking the remnants of the big sprays.

We stopped by Innoventions to send another e-postcard we'd forgotten earlier, and to create a Xerox photo calendar we'd promised Lexi. I'm not impressed at all with the Xerox imaging system here, my stomach isn't nearly as large as their equipment portrays it. As long as we're here, we decide to take one more ride on Spaceship Earth, Lexi's an old pro now. We're planning to do a tour of World Showcase tomorrow, could have spent tonight at the pool and saved our legs a bit ;-)
Day 6 (Epcot 4/8/02)
Today is Monday, the next-to-last day of our trip. We're definitely going to
spend our last day in Magic Kingdom, so this is a mop-up day where we see things we haven't seen yet in the other parks. Our quick inventory of what's left on our mental to-do list shows nothing in Animal Kingdom, three stage shows and Star Tours at MGM, and four Future World attractions and a Kid Stop tour at Epcot. So our plan was to see the first shows of Playhouse Disney and Beauty and the Beast at MGM (when they would have the shortest
wait), then spend most of the day at Epcot, returning to MGM for the last Hunchback of Notre Dame show of the day (and maybe the parade).

We were a little bummed when we picked up the new time schedules for the week. It seems that this week Beauty and the Beast is running everyday *except* Monday and Tuesday, so we won't get to see it this trip. Oh well, we knew we weren't going to see everything anyway. We were at MGM at rope drop,  We had a 45 minute wait until Playhouse Disney would open, but missing the first showing was unacceptable so the girls went and got in line. Me? I can't do a morning at MGM without my bear claw and milk from the Starring Rolls Bakery. I had to promise Laurie I'd take second shift in line, but hey, it was worth it.

Most of our line time was spent chatting up a couple of families who were there because of current military/fireman discounts. One of the cool things we get from sharing a line early in the day is that we recognize each other several times throughout the day and it makes it like you're sharing the trip with someone. Both these families also happen to be leaving Wednesday, and had both been bitten by the Beauty schedule change just as we had.

Playhouse Disney is a much neater show than Bear in the Big Blue House was. It's the same idea, just more characters, including Roly-Poly-Oily or whoever they are (for you old folks, that's like Kukla, Fran, and Ollie without the annoying human) and a special appearance by Pooh and his friends. There's a lot more variety, and the kids loved it. Heck, with all the walking we've done this week, I don't mind a half hour sitting on a carpeted floor.

After the show we took a casual stroll down to the docks to catch our boat to Epcot. We stayed on the boat for its stop at the Swan, but when it got to the Beach Club we got off, thinking we'd easily beat the boat to Epcot from there since it also had to stop at Boardwalk. Of course we weren't counting on running into the ducks on the docks. Or two 7 year old boys fishing off a boat moored to the Beach Club dock. Needless to say, the boat beat us but hey, we've got all day. The walk was a little more brisk than we had counted on, it was overcast and a bit chilly. Lexi's conclusion is that "it's still winter", and I guess I can't argue with that. The sun came out big time later in the day though, and she got a bit burned for the first time. Epcot always seems to be the park where you get considerably more sun than shade, even worse than the water parks.

Since the Kid Stops don't open until 1, we headed to Future World, with the first stop being Honey I Shrunk the Audience, another interactive 3-D movie. Alexis claimed to like it, but it wasn't long before she put it into the I' m-not-doing-it-again category. One of my favorite non-attractions in the parks, the Leaping Fountains outside the Imagination pavilion were shut off, that stinks. Laurie really enjoyed checking out the floating flower beds in the lagoon though. Hey wait a minute, Laurie gets lots and lots of flowers and Lexi gets lots and lots of birds but I don't even get my leaping fountains? What's up with that?

We enjoyed a relatively quiet early lunch at the Sunshine Food Fair, during which we extensively altered our plans for the day. We often do that, we're pretty determined about what we're going to do or see first thing in the morning so we can minimize our waits for the most popular attractions, but then we go into what we call "cruise mode" and play things by ear. We decided to pass on Food Rocks, Living Sea, and Ellen's Energy Adventure to start the Kid Stop mask odyssey.

We got to Canada just before 1, they were setting up but immediately moved it inside because of the wind. Lexi got her mask, along with the story about how in each country they'll stamp the handle with the seal of that country and write the word "dream" in their native language. (Which in Canada is either English-French or French-English, depending on where you're from.) There was also some bit about some dream coin you drop in a dream bucket somewhere, but if the story couldn't keep our interest we weren't going to bother Lexi with it ;-)

Lexi and I made off on our own and left Laurie videotaping some of the World Showcase sights and sounds for my sister whose husband thinks Disney World is just like Six Flags. England and France went very well, but I could see the wheels starting to come off in Morocco. They didn't have a table set up yet, and the cast member was just getting there as we were. He was perhaps
the most American looking Moroccan I've ever seen, but he dutifully wrote "holom" on Lexi's dream circle. I asked him how you pronounce that, and he leaned aside and told me "I really couldn't tell you, but those guys over there probably can." I told him I'd had a suspicion that Africa wasn't his native continent, and he told me that he usually works the Kid Stop in Japan. Ah, now it makes sense <g>. The woman working the Japan stop never once smiled while we were there, but at least she looked Japanese. (I didn't ask her, but she was probably ticked because she usually works in Germany, where the music is better ;-)

Laurie had caught up to us by this time, so we continued on to the American pavilion (where it turns out the native word for "dream" is "dream"). Our timing was perfect, as we only had to wait a few minutes for a performance of the Voices of Liberty. These people are one of the highlights of every trip we've seen them. We had a little bonus today though, one of those video moments that of course only comes along when you don't have the camera ready. We were among the first there, so we sat right up at the edge of the circle in the middle. During one of the songs (I think it was Oh Susannah), one of the guys does a solo and sings a verse to one of the guests, which today was Lexi. When he first got down on his knee in front of her, she immediately leaned over onto Laurie's arm. As he slowly leaned in closer, she slowly slid her face farther around towards Laurie's back. He kept slowly leaning in, still singing the whole time, and she kept slowly sliding down, until she finally had her face on the floor at Laurie's back and he was at Laurie's side still trying unsuccessfully to make eye contact. The whole thing was like slow motion, and the crowd loved it. Alexis clearly didn't ;-)

We both love the American Adventure, but at least one of us is destined to doze off at some point. Today it was me, that raft on the river is just too darned soothing. Lexi got more than we thought she would from this show, for one thing she instantly recognized the Indian from Pocahontas ;-) Early in the film, there's some scene where the camera pans over the Plymouth settlement or something. She was absolutely positive that the theater was turning, and there was no convincing her that it wasn't. It didn't bother her or anything, she was just stating a fact. When the thunderstorm came, she wondered if it was going to rain, or at least sprinkle. Cool idea, might have woke me up.

The Italian Kid Stop was most enjoyable for me, mostly because of the music. Symphonies in the plaza just seem to make a really nice atmosphere. It didn' t hurt that my favorite Mozart piece was playing while we were there, was he Italian? Our timing was again excellent when we reached China just as the acrobats were beginning their performance. After that we updated our mask in China and Germany and headed to Norway for dessert. This has become a tradition for us, having been one of those romantic quiet moments we had on our honeymoon. We got three of their dessert specialties to share, rice cream, the Norwegian Maiden (an applesauce and whipped cream deal), and the berry tart. Lexi didn't like any of them, she wanted a chocolate chip cookie they didn't have. So Laurie and I were forced to eat all three desserts ourselves. (I'm telling you, we'll do almost anything for this kid ;-)

It was getting to the point where we'd have to leave if we were going to see the MGM parade at 5:00. The stamps Lexi had received on her mask handle filled one side, so she felt like it was done (if you don't tell her we missed Norway and Mexico, we won't). We made our way to the International Gateway to catch the boat to MGM, and experienced another surprise treat on that trip. As we approached the Swan Hotel, it looked rather odd that people were lined up all along the bridge. That can only mean one thing, shuttle launch, and our captain slowed the boat a bit so that we got a pretty clear view of the whole thing. We were amazed at the brightness of the rocket from this distance, it was awesome.

Our timing was just right, we had been in Norway at 4:07 and were walking in the front gate of MGM at 4:59. We all liked the MGM parade. It wasn't too crowded so we were able to get fairly close right at the front gate end of the route where they all turn to go backstage. While we waited for the parade to work its way down to us, Laurie found some place to get Lex her chocolate chip cookie, which she worked at through the whole parade. A double-stroller dad offered her a prime spot right up in front with his son, and she loved it. She was a bit of a yo-yo though, we could tell when characters were approaching the crowd on our side by watching her inch back toward us, then slowly work her way back to the edge of the street when they were by.

After the parade, it seemed like everybody that had been along the entire parade route was leaving the park at the same time. It took us a while to wade upstream to a now enjoyably uncrowded park. There was only a 10 minute line for Star Tours, and it didn't even take us that long as they redirected a group of us over into the fast pass line. It's interesting trying to explain a simulator ride to a four year old. She really enjoyed all the robots on the way in, so she wasn't totally freaked as we entered the shuttle. Very early on though, she decided it was too "bumpy". We told her all she had to do if she got scared was to close her eyes, but she said "I CAN'T". Any of you with newly permitted teenage drivers probably know just how she felt.

Waiting for the Hunchback show, we spent some time playing with the Singing in the Rain fountain, that was fun. Laurie thought the water was mighty cold, but Lexi had her shoes off and made several trips. The juggler in the Hunchback pre-show did a cute tie-in with the 100 years celebration, juggling some Fantasia-themed broomsticks. Lex wasn't as impressed with the show as we always are, but she didn't hate it either. We almost got her into the Muppets movie again, but there's that darn loud noise part, so we decided to call it a day. We noticed on the tip board at 7:30 that there was a 10 minute wait for Rock'n Roller Coaster and 13 minutes for Tower of Terror, boy on another trip we would have been all over that. On this trip however, at 7:51 we were back at the hotel, ready for our last day tomorrow.
Day 7 (MK 4/9/02, the finale :(
Our final day, where else would we spend it but Magic Kingdom. We were there at rope drop, but for some reason the Castle was closed off until 1:00, so we had to wait at the Liberty Square rope and make an end around. We had promised Lexi that we would see Ariel first thing, but since Ariel wasn't there yet and we were practically by ourselves, we didn't have any problem talking her into going on some rides while we waited. We rode the Carousel, Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan, and Small World, all without encountering a line of more than five minutes.

Now it's time to get in the Ariel line though, and there are Air Force families on both sides of us, Boston in front, Pensacola in back. Although all three of us have in common a fondness for the parks, it seems the two of them also have in common an intense dislike of North Dakota, which I suppose we might share if we'd ever been stationed there in the winter. Lexi was very excited to meet Ariel, and with good conversation all around, it wasn't too bad for us either ;-)       
By 10:30 there was a 45 minute standby for Pooh, so we used the fast passes we had picked up earlier and rode again. (Boy, I wish they had a fast pass for Ariel.) Lexi took me on the teacups again, and again she spun it faster than I thought she could. I told her she should sit back and let me spin, and I cranked it up a couple notches. She started to giggle and then scream, but when I asked her if it was too fast, she said "Oh no".

We took the train back around to Frontierland again. Somewhere between Main Street Station and Frontierland, Laurie realized she had lost her Annual Pass, probably in the Pooh fast pass machine. I would have been more upset than she seemed to be, apparently she was pretty confident of a no-hassle replacement process.     
   
We had decided we would do a child swap at Splash Mountain, since Lexi had no intention of going on it again but we both wanted to. They've changed the child swap process here, and I'll tell you how it's supposed to work (we found this out from other cast members later). If you both have fast passes, it's simple, you just use them one at a time. If you don't, one of you gets a "switch" ticket from the cast member out front and stays with the child while the other gets in the regular line for however long it takes. When the rider gets back, the other takes the "switch" ticket and goes through the fast pass line. The cast member we met out front, however, seemed to have half the change almost right. He told us you couldn't do the child swap unless the child was too short to ride (not true). Logic made no impression on him whatsoever. We finally got it done, but it involved all three of us going through the whole line and then two of us going back.

The trip wasn't a total waste though, we did get Brer Bear's autograph. We haven't run into any other members of our internet RADP group that we know of on this trip, but have had three questions about my RADP pin, from two cast members at the old Ellen's bookstore, and now from Brer Bear.

We had planned on doing a child swap at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as well, but Splash showed us that it's just not nearly as much fun with each of us riding by ourselves. (Besides, I count on that special little yelp and giggle that Laurie always lets loose at the blind drop to make Big Thunder the awesome ride it is ;-) So we skipped that step and took the raft ride to Aunt Polly's on Tom Sawyer Island for lunch.

We've always enjoyed Aunt Polly's by ourselves because of the relative seclusion in the midst of all the hubbub. Our granddaughters have enjoyed it because of the ducks. At least a half hour with each of the girls feeding the ducks. They have completely different approaches too, Elysia was a toss one and watch girl while Lexi has more of a machine gun approach. I actually spotted a grown man here today (with no kids) taking a picture of a blackbird, so maybe I'm the one who's a little off ;-) One thing I'm absolutely sure of though, Lexi and I have two completely different philosophies about whether birds sharing your picnic table is a "neat" thing.

After lunch we saw the Country Bears again. It was a very good show this time, it seemed like two-thirds of the crowd were first-timers and that really makes the show. At 2:30, standby on Jungle Cruise was 35 minutes so we decided to visit the Tiki room again. We sat right up in the middle the first time, and we thought Lexi might want to sit in the back now because of the noise. We let her choose our seats though, and she surprised us by picking the seats right in the front row again. She told me that the (animatronic) Queen wasn't real, it was just a person in a costume. Then, as if to prove her point, she walked up and knocked on the"flower pot" from which the Queen will appear, saying "See, it's empty." We didn't quite follow the reasoning, but I guess once you know the pot's empty, everything else is just details. As a reward for seeing the Tiki show twice on this trip, on the way out Laurie collected Iago's missing feather from the vent under the front row of seats, she was quite proud of herself.

After three days of walking by it, Lexi finally decided she was going to try Alladin, but "just at the bottom". (This is a new Dumbo-type ride where you have a lever to control the height your magic carpet is "flying" at.)  We rode it two times in a row, in fact, each with a death grip on that "elevator" lever. Must have been a boring ride for the folks in the back seat, but hey, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances. After the ride, Lex pointed out to us yet another thing we hadn't noticed before, that there are "jewels in the floor" around Alladin.

She didn't know what ride we were talking about when we suggested riding Pirates of the Caribbean again, until we mentioned the dog with the keys who won't take the bone. "Yeah, let's see that again!!" The left line happened to be open, so we took that for a much shorter walk (and a walk-on). Must be an age thing with animals, because she pointed out every dog and parrot on the ride.

As we walked around the end of Pecos Bill's Restaurant to get back to Liberty Square, Lexi announced "I'm not going on that ride again". Don't worry hon, we're just walking *by* Splash Mountain to get somewhere else. On our way down to the Riverboat, we asked her if she was getting tired and got an emphatic "NO". But once on the boat, before we were even clear of Aunt Polly's she was laying on the floor and nodding off. We finally found the room downstairs where she could sit and relax for a few minutes, and that was all it seemed to take, she had a new lease on the day. On our way back toward Fantasyland again we asked her if she might like to try the Haunted Mansion one more time, but she had been hearing that darned wolf during lunch and had no intention of getting anywhere near the place.

This was the second time we've been on Small World when no one realizes there's a right-hand lane as well. I don't know whether people think it's a fast pass lane or what, but the left lane is out just past the roof, while we simply get in the right lane and walk almost all the way to the bottom of the first ramp before we get to people. The girls rode the Carousel again, while I stopped for a smoke and got to see Peter Pan running up the back of the castle, presumably as a part of the Surprise Celebration show out front. I also got to see two ten or eleven year old boys dunking their heads in Cinderella's Fountain, everybody has their own idea of what's entertainment ;-)

We think Lexi was truly conscious of this being our last day too, even though we hadn't been talking about it much. It kind of reminded me of cramming for finals, the way she was practically sprinting from ride to ride to do everything she could. And she was much more comfortable with some of the attractions by this time, on Snow White she was even getting to the point where she was growling at the crocodiles.

Lex had been saying all week that she wanted to get a princess dress, but when it came down to that tough choice as to which one she decided on Minnie instead. She would have liked to have also had the shoes, the purse, the hair clips, necklaces, the works. If there's one thing that girl knows how to do, it's accessorize, though I don't think her mom usually accessorizes at these prices ;-) She was exceedingly happy with just the dress.
     
We had a 6:15 priority seating for the character dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern, but got there early and ended up getting seated a little before 6. Lexi had known we'd be meeting Minnie there, and was very anxious to show Minnie her dress. She had noticed that Minnie always wears the same dress (red with white dots, just like hers), but for some reason when Minnie is entertaining at the Tavern she wears some blue colonial looking thing with lace. Lexi didn't seem to mind though. Minnie was just as flattered as you would expect when she came to our table and saw Lexi wearing "her" dress. She even took her by the hand to the middle of the room so they could stand together with their skirts held out to the side for a picture. We also met Chip & Dale, Goofy, and Pluto during the course of our meal, which Lexi didn 't touch until all the characters had made their appearance. Aside from the obvious entertainment, Laurie and I also really enjoyed the food, very simple but very good (as Laurie described it, homemade good).

It was 6:57 when we left the restaurant. We were excited by the fact that the park was practically empty now, until we remembered that the park closed at 7, duh ;-) Lexi wasn't ready to be done yet, and wanted to know if we could go to another park because "we haven't been on any rides yet today!" That's a little odd, we counted fifteen rides and two shows, but we know how she feels. We took a leisurely stroll toward the front of the park, stopping a while to watch a couple rabbits attempt to de-leaf the freshly planted petunias along the walk. (The stroll was leisurely partly because of reluctance, partly because the Liberty Tree food was homemade good ;-)
Lexi and I chilled outside City Hall while Laurie replaced her annual pass (she was right, it was pretty much hassle-free). Lexi was pleased that twice during the wait a family came by and complimented her on her dress.
And with our final day in the books, we headed out toward the gates. We have a ton of film and video and memories we'll take with us, and it's been an extremely enjoyable visit. And once again, that final walk under the train station to the exit on the last day is kind of the low point of the whole trip.

I guess we'll just have to trust Alexis, and know that "We'll see Mickey again some time."       

        Back to Top