WDW 2006-Day 7

After a less-than-auspicious beginning, our Disney trip was underway. When the alarm went off, I feared that my allergies and Dave's attitude would dampen my usual enthusiasm for Day 1 at Disney. I was wrong-the minute I opened my eyes I was out of bed and in the shower. I emerged to find the kids dancing into the clothes I laid out for them the night before-so far, so good. Dave was up too and showered quickly. He immediately began helping pack the daily tote bag and putting sunscreen on the kids. I knew this was the closest I was going to get to an "I'm sorry" from him. I'm used to that, but this morning I was still a little irritated. Our first park was Disney Studios which is my all-time favorite. We made it there before the gates opened and were in a good position for rope drop. I was happy. While that was something that happened consistently on last summer's all-girls trip, it was a first for a Disney World trip with Dave.

We chatted with a family next to us who noticed Dave's OU hat. They were actually from Texas, but had graduated from OU. We joked that we had never left. The husband commented on a desire to return to that area, but the look on his wife's face (a friendly, but mocking one) said that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. IF you lived in the DFW area, would you want to move back to the OKC metro?! I'm just sayin...They seemed to have elaborated on their rope drop ceremony a bit, as soon as I saw it start, I got all excited. I am worse than the kids. Before I knew it, we were all saying "lights, camera, action!" and strolling into the park. (Yes, strolling. Clever planning on the part of Disney has put an end to the running chaos that used to ensue when the rope dropped and, as a mama with a slow-moving party, I say that's a good thing.)

It was decided that Dave and Natalie would go straight to the Tower of Terror while I waited with the smaller kids for a phone call from my sister to let me know she had arrived. Yes, I am a big chicken when it comes to the TOT. Not only does it scare me, its cycle of lifting and plummeting over and over really hurts my back. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I've had not four, but SEVEN epidural needles crammed in there over the last 8 years. (They botched my epi with Tristan, and I had to have three blood patches to fix it. Just so ya know...getting an epidural needle inserted when you are no longer in labor really HURTS-but the spinal headaches hurt worse.) Anyway, that's gotta be it-I couldn't possibly be getting old could I? Tristan and Caroline are technically tall enough to ride TOT too, but they declined on this trip. Smart kids. (But I do think everyone should ride this at least once in their lives-and I've covered that already.)

I was so happy to be back at WDW, that I bought Tristan a replacement pin lanyard and an autograph book for everyone but Elisa. Still waiting for either my sister to call or Dave and Natalie to return, I'm sure I looked silly standing around with two strollers while everyone else dashed to their favorite rides; but it was fun to people-watch. Almost simultaneously, my sister and her crew arrived from one side as Dave and Natalie strolled back into view on the other. Natalie loves the Tower of Terror and would ride it all day if I would let her. While I worry jokingly about what this will do to her spine as an adult, I'm glad she's not a big chicken like her mother. Soon, she was rushing off again with her Aunt Janet and her cousins to ride it again. I took everyone's park tickets and went to get fast passes for the Rockin' Roller Coaster. My kids are all too short, but Lady Capulet and Queenie were going to ride for the first time this trip. Yay!

After I secured the fast passes, I escorted my BIL, his mother, and the smaller kids to the ABC Commissary for breakfast and a potty stop. One of the many fun things about my sister's MIL is that she dotes on my kids too. I guess it's no big deal, but you can't help loving someone who loves your kids. Know what I mean? Anyway, I've never really stopped long enough for breakfast before and while all I had was some juice, it was fun to stop. I never thought a park commando like me would say that. We finished there at just about the same time the girls got back from the TOT. There was still a half-hour before our fast pass time, so we hit the nearby Great Movie Ride.

One of the things I LOVE about Disney is when you get to the front of a ride, say "party of 13" and they don't blink an eye when it comes to grouping you on the ride together. Of course, the Great Movie Ride is better-suited to something like this than say a roller coaster ride, but it's still nice to be able to keep a large party together with little difficulty. Once aboard, we were just getting to know our tour guide "Chris" when suddenly, a bank-robbing cowboy commandeered our vehicle and left poor Chris behind. I worried a little bit about M and Caroline who were sitting in the very front with Nana E, and close to that action. I guess the guy who portrayed the Cowboy sensed my apprehension, because he broke character a little bit as we left 'the old West' and headed into 'outer space' by trying to make nice with the three wide-eyed little girls to his immediate right. Caroline visibly relaxed the minute he smiled at them, but Miss Madeline (my niece, same age as Caroline) REFUSED to shake his hand when he offered it. He was a "bad guy" and no amount of friendly smiling was going to win over her affections. Of course, her mother and I would have LOVED to shake hands with the adorable cowboy, but we were seated another few rows back and we aren't nearly as irresistible as our four year-old daughters.
After Chris came to our rescue in Ancient Egypt, we finished the ride and made our grand "exit."

At this point, BIL and his mom took the smaller kids to the Muppet theatre while Dave, Janet, L.C., and Queenie made our way to the Rockin' Roller Coaster. You've just gotta love those fast passes. L.C. really wanted to ride with me, so that left Queenie paired with her mom and Dave on his own. He didn't care. I screamed my head off as usual, but so did L.C. I have the ride photo to prove it. The girls proclaimed their first ride a success, and we went back to re-join the others.
To our great delight, the churro stand was open-so we grabbed some snacks to go! You may find it odd that I sent the family off to see the Muppet show without me, but the fact is that they haven't changed that particular show one bit in the last 5 visits I've made to the park. I now have more interest in shopping the little Muppet store than I do the 3-D movie. So that's where we met. Again, I didn't find nearly enough Muppet stuff there to suit me, but they had a new women's baseball cap and a new t-shirt. That would have to do.

While we were shopping, my parents, youngest sister and BIL, and my cousin arrived at the park. We all met up by the Playhouse Disney and Little Mermaid shows, but it was too close to the lunch reservations I had made for my family for us to do anything else. We agreed to meet up later and separated. I was pretty excited. On every trip we've ever made to WDW, I've passed the Sci-Fi Dine In restaurant and wished we could eat there. This time, we did. The restaurant itself is adorably themed. You go inside and it looks like a big drive-in theatre. The screen at the front shows clips from funky 50's sci-fi films with the occasional classic drive-in snack bar commercial thrown in for good measure. The tables are shaped like cars and they seat six. Each car seat holds two "passengers" and you all face the screen. Natalie and Tristan sat up front, I sat with Caroline behind them, and Dave and Elisa sat in the back. Natalie had her usual hamburger, Tristan and Caroline ordered mac and cheese, and our server (who I LOVED) actually suggested we split one of the mac and cheese orders between Caroline and Elisa. Thanks to the heat, I wasn't very hungry and I ordered a turkey sandwich and I think Dave had a burger. I was surprised he didn't order the prime rib sandwich like I thought he would. I guess he was hot too. The food was just OK and all of us were too hot to eat too much, BUT the atmosphere and the novelty of the place was why we were there in the first place. It IS a little dark, but that's the whole point, right? Natalie and Tristan were really taken with the place, so I'm sure we will be back.

After lunch, we met up again. This time at Star Tours. Woo Hoo! Caroline was finally tall enough to ride. Sadly, poor Madeline wasn't. She's not even three months younger than Caroline, but I forgot to take into account the fact that her parents are Janet and Marty. I think Marty may be 5'6" and Janet is 5'2". Poor Miss M seemed to roll with it though. She, her sister Kass, and Elisa all got honorary shuttle licenses while waiting with me and Nana E in the baby switch area. Nana E had never baby switched before (she usually doesn't do thrill rides, but thought a motion simulator might be OK) and she was impressed not only by how organized it was, but also by the fact we were able to take some of the bigger kids back on the ride with us after we handed off the little ones to their Dads. Elisa was much more conscious of the fact that she wasn't getting to ride than any of my other children were back when I used to baby swap them-I resolved then not to go back to WDW until she is 4 and can ride most things too. (It goes without saying that I always love a little shuttle ride to Endor-but why do I keep getting those first time pilots?!)
Surprisingly, we didn't shop much in the Star Wars shop. It was PACKED with people excited about the Star Wars weekend starting tomorrow. I hate crowded stores, so we left.

After a few speeder bike photos, we split up again. Tristan wanted to see the lightsaber challenge show they were doing outside of Star Tours (I wish he could have been picked-maybe some other time...) and the girls and I wanted to see the walk-through Narnia exhibit. As we arrived, we ran into my parents and my sister again. We waited about five minutes, then we were led to THE wardrobe (Actually it was just a very nice facsimile, but still...)

We spent a nice 15-minutes inside the wardrobe watching movie highlights, seeing props from the set, and being taunted by the White Witch. Cute and fun. Then, it was show time! We saw The Little Mermaid first. I wasn't sure Elisa would sit still, but she did OK. She loved both the "real" and the animated versions of "Max the dog" and would point and yell "puppy!" every time she saw him. A real funny moment happened at the end of the play when the stage "Eric" is washed up on the shore. As the film clip ended and the lights came up, a little boy looked at the actor on stage and yelled "He's dead!" The actor must have broken a rib holding in his laughter (he buried his face in the rocks on stage), thank goodness the rest of us didn't have to. The Playhouse Disney show was next, and we all met up again for that. I have to admit, I'm a more than a little 'over' this show. BUT, the little girls still love it. I was sad to see they replaced Rolie Polie Olie with JoJo's Circus, but that may have been Elisa's favorite part. After Playhouse Disney, us grown-ups dragged ourselves off the floor and made more plans. Nana E was very insistent that Janet and I get to see Muppet 3-D, how could I refuse? She saw it again with us.

Then just about everyone else went to see the Lights, Motor, Action Stunt Show. Elisa had fallen asleep at this point and waking her up to sit through yet another show was at the very bottom of my to-do list. So, my cousin J took the older girls back for another ride on the Tower of Terror, just about everyone else went to the show, and Caroline and I sought refuge with cold drinks under the shade while Elisa slept. Not a bad way to end things...If only we had stopped there. After the show, the plan was to pursue our own dinner and shopping plans and meet up at the Fantasmic theatre ONE HOUR BEFORE THE SHOW. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy and no one showed up at the appointed time but me. Typical...Imagine their surprise at the announcement that the show was "standing room only" when they all came rushing up 30 minutes 'till showtime. I wasn't angry, it was too hot for that and I didn't have the energy. I also knew I could come back tomorrow and try again on my own time schedule if I wanted. There was no way I could imagine chasing four kids in the jam-packed standing area, so I decided to go back to the campground and try again tomorrow. My sister and her kids (two of whom had seen the show with me front and center the year before) agreed. Dad was miffed at my 'I told you so' attitude (his words, not mine) and that I had successfully broken up a promising family get-together. (Chasing the nine grandchildren in the standing-room only area did not sound "promising" to the rest of us, but I digress...) So, I unabashedly took my little brood home with the promise of a real seat at the show tomorrow. There were no hard feelings on my part otherwise because this meant I GOT TO GO TO BED EARLY TONIGHT! And let this be a lesson-get to Fantasmic an hour early. Buy snacks from the vendor or bring them yourself, bring stuff for your kids to do or let them have that souvenir they've wanted all day to occupy themselves, but GET THERE EARLY or you will not get a seat. The hour goes by fast and, to me, the show is worth it. And that's all I've got to say about that.

I'll pick this back up when I get back from Girls' Camp on Saturday! The rules don't say 'no laptops' specifically, but I'm quite sure it isn't allowed and there's no wi-fi out there anyway. Take care ya'll! And you can always check out the Jan. or July 2005 archives for a Disney trip report fix in the meantime.