Events of Thursday, January 13, 2011

                Our last day in Disney World was quite a memorable experience. We started off our day by dropping by the lockers. We planned to drop off Abby and hit the road. Just kidding! It turned out that Abby played a lead role in today’s adventure. We had planned ahead (Who would have guessed it  - the Taylors planning ahead?) and packed a dinner because we were staying late for the parade and fireworks. So after dropping that off, (I’m not going to tell you what we packed for dinner, it’s a surprise!), we walked through Main Street, USA, on to Tommorrowland.

                After going on Buzz Light-year’s Space Ranger Spin for the fourth time and once again conquering evil aliens, we got in line for Astro Orbiter and flew around the universe in a spaceship. One of my favorite rides, Tommorowland Indy Speedway, (Disney World’s Version of Disneyland’s Autopia), was next on the list and this time, we tried to stay together on the track. However, this proved to be too difficult because my car, which was in the lead, happened to be the slowest one on the track. So Daddy and Ben, in a parallel lane, zoomed ahead leaving the rest of us bumping bumpers (which, by the way, you aren’t supposed to do!)

                Then, we walked to Adventureland, and picked up FastPasses for Jungle Cruise. Catching a raft labeled Huck Finn, we crossed the river into the world of Tom Sawyer. Travelling through caves, mines, forts, and across barrel and suspended bridges, we had a lot of fun almost tipping each other into the water on the barrel bridge and screaming completely unnecessarily in the dark caves. Our fake screams turned to real ones in the last cave that we went through. Caitlin and I were up ahead and everyone else lagged behind. Then, all of a sudden, the cave echoed with the screams of the family in front of us. “Oh my goodness, there’s a rat over here! Eww! Mommy, is it real? Aaaaaah‼” Caitlin and I freaked out and ran back to join our family. I had seen it scampering, but Mom didn’t believe us. Even so, we all shut our eyes and ran out of the cave, screaming like lunatics. We crossed back over on a raft and walked to the Country Bear Jamboree. The concert of singing bears was voted cute and fun. There was even a painting of the bear founder of the concert hall painted above the stage with bear cupids shooting arrows at it.

                 The Jungle Cruise was also a favorite. We barely escaped alligators, Indian attacks, powerful waterfalls, water spraying elephants, a giant boa constrictor, and the jokes of our guide, because … Aladdin came by and picked us up to go on a Magic Carpet ride. We saw ‘a whole new world’ after spinning around in circles and tilting back and forth for five minutes and sat down for lunch. The Tiki room wasn’t open, so we went to explore the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. And just between you and me, if I got stranded on an island with these guys, I honestly wouldn’t mind! We joined Jack Sparrow on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and then refreshed ourselves with pineapple soft serve and pineapple floats at Aloha Isle. They actually made a mistake on my ice cream and so they gave it to us for free. I love Disney!

                While we enjoyed our cool treats in the even colder weather, we discussed what to do next. We had gone on every ride available and so now it was time to do the favorites again. After each choosing one ride, we walked to the Train Station on Main Street. As we walked, we saw a barbershop group just finishing up a performance. Daddy inquired and found their next performance time, 3:35 p.m. So, we rode the train to the Mickey’s Toontown Fair stop and went on Caitlin’s choice ride, the Tea Cups. We grabbed FastPasses for Abby’s choice ride, Space Mountain and then went to Ben’s ride, the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. This is where Abby played an important role. Even though we had visited here yesterday, like with the interactive talk with Crush, this interactive animated show is different for each new group. We had the laugh-o-meter up to 30 ‘gigglewatts’, when a two headed monster took the stage. One head was a girl, Raffia, and the other was a boy, Harold. Raffia was bragging to Harold that she could describe any state or country in the world. Harold was not satisfied with this, so to test her, they randomly chose Abby from the audience and put a spotlight on here and she showed up on the overhead screen. They asked her, “Where do you live.” She said, “California.” Raffia said, “Oooh, ooh, ooh. I know California. It’s well known for its very cold weather, extraordinarily large gorillas, and … the Eiffel Tower!” Harold asked Abby if that was right and Abby shrugged and said, “Sure.” We went on to successfully fill the laugh-o-meter and saved Monstropolis.

                Well, it was almost time for the barbershop group to perform. We made our way towards Main Street, only to run into the end of the 3:00 parade. We enjoyed the remaining floats and then walked down Main Street. After waiting for a few minutes, over the loudspeakers we heard, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Dapper Dans!” We enjoyed their upbeat harmonized versions of Jolly Holiday With Mary, Mr. Sandman, Irish Eyes, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da!, Whistle While You Work, It’s a Small World, and

The Mickey Mouse Theme Song. During Mr. Sandman, Caitlin’s favorite, the entire group moved in on Abby who was videotaping their performance. She freaked out a little and briefly stopped taping.

                After deafening applause, Daddy went up to one of the singers, the bass, naturally. (For those of you who don’t know, Daddy sings bass with the University Chorus at Sac State). It turned out that he recognized the singer, Kevin Miles, from a concert that he went to six years ago. At this concert, Kevin Miles had soloed and sung Hush a Bye Mountain (from Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang). Daddy wanted to find a recording of that performance and, at Mom’s encouragement, went forward to speak with Mr. Miles. After basic introductions, the conversation took off. It turns out there is a recording and he gave Daddy the information he needed to order it online. Then Mr. Miles asked about us,  and he was so excited when he heard about our trip. He was simply speechless. We gave him a card for our website and he was even more excited to hear that he would be featured on the blog and the photo page (but the photos are probably not there yet). He was exuberant to hear that we were all involved in music and told us all about how he had travelled the country as a singer and met his wife, who also sings, on a tour. After declaring that we had made his year so far, we said farewell to Kevin Miles and walked back to Tomorrowland.

                Daddy’s choice ride, Buzz Light-year’s Space Ranger Spin had broken down, so we used our FastPasses for Space Mountain, leaving Daddy with our stuff outside. Even with the FastPasses, we had to wait in line and we were almost at the front when over the intercom came, “ Attention, a passing meteor shower has slowed the launch of the spaceships. We are sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. Thank you for your patience. Please consult the nearest host or hostess with any questions.” This played continually for 30 minutes. It turned out that people hadn’t been exiting fast enough, which led to increased traffic on the tracks, which caused the ride to automatically shut down. Finally everything was fixed and we enjoyed our ride. We were eventually reunited with Daddy and walked to Frontierland.

                My choice ride, Thunder Mountain Railroad had a 50 minute wait, so we picked up FastPasses and made our way towards Mom’s choice ride, the Haunted Mansion. After this spooky ride, we went to Thunder Mountain Railroad. All four of us kids rode the “wildest ride in the wilderness” while Mom stayed with our stuff, and Daddy went to get the mysterious dinner that I talked about earlier. When we all came together again, Mom served up the dinner which was in fact, taco salad! Trust me, we got a lot of crazy looks our way. Daddy had picked up napkins and plastic forks from a condiment stand and Mom had packed our plastic plates, so we were quite a sight to see. We had strategically placed ourselves along the parade route, so when the Main Street Electrical Parade began, we had a great view. Daddy and Mom liked the little creatures that spun in circles and came up to you. Caitlin and I liked the Cinderella float the best, because the ugly step sisters inspired our Halloween costumes for next year! The dragon float with Pete and his dragon on it was Abby and Mom’s favorites. And Ben liked the last float which was a giant USA flag and eagle.

                After the parade was finished, we skipped into Fantasyland, near Cinderella’s castle, to watch the Dream Come True fireworks, hosted by Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio. We all liked the finale best, because it’s always the best, but the hearts out of fireworks were pretty good, even if they were upside down. On the way out, Mom showed us where she had stood with her twin sister, my Aunt Pat, as a six year old, in front of the Mickey face made out of flowers. I think that was a nice way to end our stay in Magical Kingdom.

                Abby and I practiced dancing, Caitlin complained about being tired, Ben and Daddy jested, and Mom pointed out all the cute little kids for another 30 minutes while waiting for our magical boat to take us out of the Magical Kingdom. Then, when the boat finally did come, there was not enough room for all of us, so we used three seats for the six of us. Outside in the cold, I sat on Daddy’s lap, Abby sat on Mom’s lap, Ben sat by himself across the aisle and Caitlin stood in the main cabin. By the time we did get home, we were all asleep before our heads hit our pillows. That is except for Mom.

                For the last six nights, every night at 9:45pm, there has been electrical music faintly off in the distance and since this was our last night here, Mom was determined to find out what it was. She had no problem getting to the beach on the lake, where she saw the very end of Water Electrical Pageant. A boat pulled a series of barges each with a very loud speaker and a panel which lit up in different light patterns. She saw a sea serpent and flying fishes and the Stars and Stripes Forever float as it disappeared in the distance. On the way back, she got completely and utterly lost in the dark in this huge Disney Fort Wilderness Campground. Seeing a road off in the distance, Mom made her way cross-country not remembering that Florida is a bayou until she stepped ankle deep into soggy muck. She eventually found her way back, spent a half hour cleaning off her shoes and eventually joined us in the realm of unconscious bliss.