Monday, May 9 (Day 1, Part 2)
When you last left the girls, they had just checked in at VWL and were making their way to MK . . .
Thanks to the posted signs, we were quickly able to find our way through the lobby and to the boardwalk that lead to the boat dock. As we were strolling along, I spotted the room where we had stayed with my parents during Hurricane Jeanne last September. It was on the first floor corner closest to the boardwalk. I also realized what a great view we would have had if not for the blinding rain!
We were at the boat dock within minutes and only waited a few minutes more for a boat. Once on the boat, we moved to the back of the boat so that we could sit outside and enjoy the ride. As soon as I pulled out my camera to take a few pictures of Mary Devall, I realized what a model my daughter had become. “Take one like this, Momma!” “Now this!” This was to be a recurring theme throughout our trip.
The real excitement came when we rounded the bend at the Contemporary and the castle came into view. Mary Devall began pointing and yelling out “There it is, Mommy!” We had arrived!
The first thing that struck me when the boat pulled up was the crowd. We were used to September and January crowds and this crowd looked downright mob like! Of course, we were arriving at 11 a.m. on the Monday after a major event, so it should have been expected. Thankfully, the crowds did lessen throughout the day and never really picked up again that week.
I think that our longest wait throughout the entire week was 40 minutes (for Dumbo on that first day) and we even rode the Magic Carpet ride twice that Monday afternoon with a 10 minute wait when we had a 30 minute wait back in January.
We headed out towards Adventureland first where Mary Devall spotted her first characters, Chip and Dale. Of course, we had to stop!
The heat was beginning to remind me that I had forgotten Mary Devall’s hat and sunscreen (it wasn’t sweltering but even the weather in SC had been much cooler the week before so it was an eye opener), so we headed for a kiosk before leaving Adventureland so that I could buy her some sunscreen. I bought a cute little bottle that I could attach to my backpack and tried not to think of the gallons of sunscreen that I had back at the hotel.
I slathered her down before we made our way to Fantasyland. We picked up Fast Passes at Peter Pan and then stopped at another kiosk to look at hats. We picked out a cute pink visor for her that worked well with the pigtails she had that day. Just as I was fixing the visor on her head, she started sobbing and I realized that she had wiped the sunscreen in one of her eyes (apparently rubbing her eyes against the sun before I could get the visor on her head).
We took off for the bathroom and got a wet paper towel for her eyes. That seemed to help immediately, but she wanted another paper towel to take with her and she kept putting it on her eyes. I felt SO bad! Was the rest of the week going to be like this???
