September Soiree Part X Day 6 Let's cram as much as we can into one day!
Cast:
Heather (Me)
Ron (DH)
Matt (DS)
Emily (DD#3)
Hallie (DD#4)
Friday, 9/20/13
We have not been to a water park in a very long time. If I had to guess it has probably been at least 9 years. The kids have been asking on our last few years, "Are we ever going to go to a water park again?" This year I finally caved and added the water park option to their tickets. We changed our plans earlier in the week since Ron did not want to go that day. Now we are getting to the end of our trip and we must squeeze one in for the kids sake. I have formulated a plan that should appease everyone, but we must it will require some hustle on our part.
Our first park of the day will be DHS. Our FP+ reservations are here this morning. First up will be RNR for Ron, Matt, and Emily. While they are riding, Hallie and I will see Disney Junior. We are the second people in line. Hallie and the little boy in front of us are chosen to open up the Clubhouse. Hallie is very pleased with herself. Obviously, we had great seats and Hallie was really into the show, singing and dancing to her hearts content. We meet up afterwards and it is time for our 2nd FP+ at Tower of Terror. Ron does not ride this and I figured this might be too much for Hallie, so I only got FP+ for Matt, Emily, and myself. Hallie is asking why she is not big enough for this ride yet. I tell her that she is indeed tall enough to ride, but I think it may be too scary for her. She starts to cry because she wants to ride it. I ask her if she's sure and she is. I then ask Emily if she would mind giving up her spot to Hallie and she agrees. Ron and Emily will go grab some soft pretzels while we ride. I expect Hallie to get nervous as we enter the queue but she is cool as a cucumber. OK, by the time we enter the dusty cob webbed hotel right? Nope. Surely, the library will scare her. Not even close, she just asks where the door is. Now certainly as we get in the elevators she has to be just a little nervous, no way. On all the big girl rides she has tried she always asks to hold my arm. I ask her if she wants my arm and she tells me no. Still waiting for her to get scares or nervous, but even the holograms don't bother her. As we are approaching the tower to drop, she tells me that she will only hold my arm on the way down. As we drop for the first time, she grabs my hand and Matt's arm. The look on her face was priceless! I cannot even begin to do it justice with words. Her eyes were like saucers and her mouth was wide open but no sound was coming out. She pretty much stayed like that for the rest of the ride. Of course Matt and I were beside ourselves with laughter. When it is over, I ask her what she thinks. She thinks about it for a minute then in all seriousness she says, "I think, I think I was a little bit terrified!" But "How do you feel now? I ask her. "Oh, it was a lot of fun!" The doors open and a CM is standing there, sees her, and is expecting her to be screaming or crying like some other kids were, but she is am as a cucumber. The CM asked if she liked it, to which she replied "Yes, of course!" Wow, would have never thought that! We have time for a quick ride on Star Tours but will have to cancel our Toy Story Mania FP+ It would have been our 4th ride this trip, so that is OK that we will miss it.
Now we must exit and catch a bus to Blizzard Beach. We arrive about 10:30 and find some lounges down by Tikes Peak. Ron takes Hallie on some kid slides. This is her first time at any water park and she is loving it. I wasn't so sure she would, but she surprised me again. The rest of us took the ski lift and then rode Teamboat Springs. We had a lot of fun. I tried convincing Emily to try Summit Plummet, but no way that was happening. I guess Matt and Ashleigh will be the only 2 from our family ever to try it. Next up we travel the lazy river for a bit, before getting off to ride Runaway Rapids. This is a ride we have never done. What a lot of stairs? Wasn't sure I was going to make it, especially carrying your own tube! I select a single, while Matt and Emily have the double. This means I will have to ride the enclosed tube slide. I wish I had known that earlier. We then make our way to Downhill Double Dipper, another one we have never tried. It was posted at a 15 min wait, but it was much longer than that. Also, I didn't really care for it, as it hurt my butt and Emily's back. I needed to get back and check in with the others, so Matt and Emily went to ride the mat slides. I came back to find Ron and Hallie still sliding in the kids area. Hallie wanted to venture out a bit, so the three of us went to the wave pool for a bit before taking a lap or two on the lazy river. very relaxing! When we returned, Matt and Em were waiting at the lounge and they had just enough time to take Hallie back to the wave pool for a few minutes.
Now it was time to hurry up and leave. We needed to get back to Art of Animations for some showers before our 4:45 dinner at Yak & Yeti. Animal Kingdom was open until 7 tonight. We usually leave this park by early afternoon, so I thought I'd like to see it in the evening. When we arrive we have to walk a bit out of our way due to the parade passing through, but we make it on time and have a delicious dinner. After dinner, Triceratop Spin is calling to Hallie and Primevil Whirl is calling to Emily. Ron takes Hallie and Matt and I go with Emi. The last performance of of the day for Nemo is at 6:00, so we head in to catch that. The park is now just about to close so we head for the exit and a bus to DTD. It is not a Disney bus that they are testing, and it is not able to carry wheelchairs or ECV's. A man is waiting in an ECV so they bring in a Disney bus just for him. He and his wife board and the doors close and he is whisked away, leaving the rest of his stunned family behind. The attendant assures them we will pulling in right behind them so no need to worry. we are deposited near Cirque du Soleil at the old West Side bus stops. We had to fight quite a bit of crowds to make it over to Marketplace where we wanted to shop. Along the way, Emily wants to know what Disney Quest is. I can't really explain it since I've never been there. I ask Matt if he wants to check it out for a little bit with Em since it is included in their tickets. They go and apparently have quite a bit of fun. I of course, spent way too much money at World of Disney even with my AP discount. Later we meet up and Emily returns with us to the resort, while it is time for Matt to do a little shopping on his own.
