After we left Animal Kingdom we headed back to the hotel for some R&R to escape the midday heat and crowds at the parks.
Around 5 pm we headed back into the park. Risky, I know, considering 5 pm was the exact time the Thunderstorm Express rolled into town all the previous days. But this day was shaping up to be a little bit drier, and the view from the 18th floor told us we were good to go. No rain clouds in sight.
Magic Kingdom, here we come! Now I don’t know about y’all, but I tend to have some CrazyWhackFUNKY dreams that I hope never, ever come true, so I don’t know if this is the sign for me.
After a long tram ride in from the parking lot to the transportation station, and another monorail ride across the lake, we finally landed on Main Street USA. It was a semi-hassle just getting into the park. Note to anyone traveling with a stroller at Disney- pack light. You have to break that stroller down so often just to get into the park that you don’t want a bunch of bags to wrestle with in addition to your kid. Don’t be fooled and think you can cram a bunch of “what if” emergency items into the bottom of the stroller and not have to touch them again. But I promise that breaking down the stroller for the tram ride was much easier than hiking 20 miles across the parking lot when you’re parked at the back of the lot in Daisy 28.
Here is the quintessential Disney photo op.
I tried to focus my energy on those types of pictures for this trip, since I knew our time was limited. I wanted to hit the highlights of Magic Kingdom and be done, then come back for more on our next Disney vacation. Garrett is so young, he won’t remember any of this and we didn’t want to push it too hard.
We stumbled upon a parade first thing, so G finally got to see Mickey Mouse while he was up and at ’em and not passed out asleep. The people behind us got to see some baby plumber’s crack.
We tried to take him into Toontown, but found that he wasn’t very interested in much there. We did let him run around inside one of the shops, where he proceeded to pick up and hug every stuffed animal that was on a shelf at 36″ and below. He hugged the Baby Pluto so long that we finally just bought it for him. He’s asleep with it in his crib right now, actually. Very sweet.
After Toontown we were getting hungry, so we headed over to Fantasyland for some dinner. We ate dinner at Pinnochio’s Village Haus which has windows over looking the place where you enter the boats and tunnel for It’s a Small World ride. Here is the window where we ate dinner as seen from our boat once we were on the ride:
Now you’re going to think I’m the most white trash parent ever when I tell y’all this story, but it was the most memorable moment that we had, so I feel like I should share it here.
Garrett LOVED watching all the people go by in the boats while we ate dinner, so he stood up and waved at all of them, happy as can be. For the most part nobody was looking up at us since they were all going into the tunnel just after they passed the window.
After we finished eating I noticed he had a huge soaking wet diaper. It is so impossible to change his diaper in public on one of those fold-down diaper changers in restrooms, and I was dreading the thought of doing it by myself in a public bathroom at Magic Kingdom. I take a quick glance around the restaurant and see we are the only people sitting in our little section– it was totally private except for this big window where he is waving at the boats that go by.
I make the call to drop his pants and change his diaper while he is standing in the window and distracted. I can do it so fast that I figured nobody would ever notice, plus it would save me the hassle of taking him to a bathroom and wrestling him on the changers.
So J pulls down Garrett’s pants…he’s waving at the boats but nobody is looking… diaper comes off, and just as I’m bringing the clean diaper up between his legs he starts peeing all over the window!! His little weiner was like a firehose spraying everywhere! He soaked that whole window and back of the chair where he was standing. And J and I were like
I have no idea if anybody else saw it or not, but man it was so hilarious.
And now you can all go ewwwwwwww how trashy is that to change your kids diaper out there in front of God and everybody while he pees on the window!! To that I say, “You do what you gotta do. It’s a small wiener afterall.”
We rode It’s a Small World and I had flashbacks to bad high school beauty pageants.
The scenery as an adult is not as exciting as it was when you were a kid. But to watch Garrett see it for the first time was priceless.
He didn’t know which way to look, there was so much color and movement. Plus there was that, ahem, song.
“It’s a small world after all.” Ooooo look at this!
“It’s a small world after all..” Oooooo look at that!
“It’s a small world after all..” Oooooo look up those girl’s skirts!
“It’s a small, small world.”
Is that song good-n-stuck in your head yet?
Ok, time to move on to something else then.
Time to ride DUMBO!
How old is this ride?
Older than me, I can assure you.
But still making kids from around the world squeal with delight.
The line to ride Dumbo was 45 minutes long, and I braved it alone with Garrett. After suffering through that torture, I decided to skip the long line for the teacups and head for the carousel. Garrett rode with J this time, while I rode a horse up ahead.
The part that we don’t have a picture of is me sitting 6 feet up in the air when the carousel came to a stop. I had chosen the lowest horse when the ride began, and of course with my luck that horse stopped at the highest setting when the ride ended.
So here I was sitting WAAAY up high on this horse looking down at the ground below thinking I was going to break an ankle jumping down from the horse. J was holding Garrett, so he wasn’t much help. I decided to just go for it and get it over with. I ungracefully fell off the side of the horse and nearly split the seams of my pants in the process. My short little legs were not meant for horse riding, even the carousel variety.
From there we scooted into the Philharmagic 4D theatre for some cool air. Garrett didn’t wear his glasses, but he still enjoyed the cartoon. He would jump everytime the puffs of air would blow on our face.
By that point it was getting late, and the fireworks were about to go off over Cindy’s castle.
I got J to camp out at a patio table with a good view while G and I walked around and bought a few little souvenirs. By the time we got back, the show was starting.
Garrett loved the fireworks. He kept pointing and Ooooing and Ahhing over them.
I love this shot because it looks like he’s a little magician.
Check out the wide eyed wonder in this kid.
I love him so much.
Cindy put on a spectacular show!
And Garrett enjoyed every minute, even if he doesn’t look impressed in this pic.
And now for the grand finale…
Beautiful! :clap:clap:clap:
As soon as the fireworks ended, everyone made a mad dash for the exit. Check out this panic attack inducing crowd.
We waited a little while to get back on the monorail and I bribed Garrett with a chocolate chip granola bar to be a good boy while we were waiting. The wait actually wasn’t too bad, though. All in all I was really impressed by Disney’s ability to move large crowds of people so fast. They really have it down to a science.
G fell asleep on the tram ride back to the car, and was really passed out on the ride back to the hotel.
I think this photo is a great representation of how we were all feeling by this point in the evening. Dead tired, hot, sticky, sweaty and drooling chocolate out the corners of our mouths. Yep, that about sums it up.
Now its time to say goodbye to all our company.
M-I-C
See you real soon!
K-E-Y
Why? because we like you!
M-O-U-S-E.
Glad you all had fun on your Disney trip. This post had me laughing out loud a few different times!
Love the white trash pee story! Priceless!
Great pics! I’m glad you guys had a great time!