Monday, May 9 Day 1 Part 3
When we last left the girls, one had just had a "sunscreen in her eye" experience and the other was wondering if she was going to finally win that "Worst Mommy of the Year" award . . .
Then I looked around and remembered where we were.
What we needed was a ride!
We were near It’s a Small World, the wait time was only 20 minutes and Mary Devall had not been on that ride since she was 18 months old (since it had been closed on our last three trips) . . . so we hopped in line. Mary Devall continued to dab her eyes with the wet paper towel and she even seemed a bit lethargic, but once we were in view of the boats her demeanor totally changed. The questions began “Are we going on those boats?” “Is it going to be dark?” She probably didn’t have any memories from her last ride on IASW, but she certainly knew enough about it from her Disneyland Fun video. As we reached the front of the line, she began to get a little worried about the small tunnel that you go under
, but once I showed her that it was light on the other side, she was A-okay (darkness is suddenly a big thing to her). She was just mesmerized by it all. I must have heard “Look Momma!” a hundred times. It was a great start (or restart) to our day!
From there, we were in action mode. She immediately wanted to see the “houses” again so we headed off to Toon Town where she toured first Minnie’s house and then Mickey’s. She especially loves touching everything that she can get her hands on in Minnie’s house. She could spend hours in front of the oven alone. I just stand back and let her enjoy.
After the “houses” we decided that it was snack time. Mary Devall went for the Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich while I chose
. I decided that we could multi-task, so we stood in line for the tea cups while snacking away. An older couple behind us enjoyed watching Mary Devall trying to finish her ice cream before our turn arrived. When she finished it just in the knick of time, the man said “I never thought she would do it.”
And she managed not to get any chocolate on her white t-shirt!
As usual, she loved her spin on the tea cups. She is such a big girl now that she will not even let me help her turn the wheel
, but she does a pretty good job by herself. And she managed to let out a couple of “woo hoo’s” during the ride.
Mary Devall had never been on Dumbo, so that was our next adventure. The wait time was listed as 60 minutes, but we were in our elephant within 40 so that wasn’t too bad (hey, what else did we have to do?). I discovered on this trip that my little girl is excellent at waiting in lines. If she knows that a character, a ride or a parade is coming up, she is willing to wait forever. She absolutely loved Dumbo and I particularly loved the views from up high - - you feel as if you could reach out and touch the castle.
Our Fast Pass for Peter Pan was finally up, so we headed over to our favorite ride. Her first words are always “Look, there’s Nana!” Oh, how I
that ride!
We then practically walked right on to the carousel and she was delighted that her feet actually reached the stirrups on the horse that she chose. The line was so short that we rode it two more times, but never found that same horse again. It did upset her when she couldn’t reach the stirrups again. You should have heard me “But one foot touches.” Her answer “But I want both to touch.” The things that bother our children!
We had Fast Passed Pooh after riding the tea cups, so that was our final stop in Fantasyland. She was all smiles on this ride - - as usual.
We had pretty much done Fantasyland, so went back to Adventureland to try out the Tiki room. Neither one of us had ever tried this, so I figured why not? Mary Devall was a little disturbed by the darkness, but she did find the birds (especially Zazu) fascinating - - I doubt if we’ll be going back any time soon though. Then we moved on to one of Mary Devall’s newest favorite rides – the Magic Carpets. I couldn’t believe that the wait time was only 10 minutes since we had waited 30 minutes for it back in January! For the first time ever, we were squirted full in the face (both of us!)
by the camel. After that, Mary Devall was much better at keeping us high to avoid the camel. Despite the shocking jolt of cold water in the face (which actually felt good), we rode it again!
It was 5 p.m. by then and our PS for 1900 Park Fare was at 5:50, so we made our way to the front of the park. Before we could exit the park, we had to say hello to some old friends first.
We hopped the resort monorail and easily made it to GF and 1900 Park Fare in plenty of time. We checked in and had about a 15 minute wait for a table. Mary Devall enjoyed her favorite mini corn dogs, chicken nuggets and corn while I sampled the cold salads. I’m not a big buffet person (other than breakfast), but I planned several of them just for the character experience for DD. I have to say that I was not overly impressed here.
I did enjoy some of the cold salads and desserts, but the hot entrees really did not entice me at all. On the other hand, I didn’t leave hungry either. The real reason we were here - - to experience the characters from Cinderella - - was worth it all. Mary Devall had a blast meeting Suzy, Perla, Prince Charming (especially him!) and Cinderella. She was thrilled.
After dinner, we even found Goofy in the lobby.
My original plans had been for us to go back to MK for the evening, but we were both pretty tired after our long day and we hadn’t even gotten into our room yet. I asked Mary Devall if she would like to go back to the hotel and swim and she immediately agreed (she also knew that she had a few stickers left in her sticker book that she wanted to finish - - I told you that the girl was obsessed
). So . . . we took the monorail back to MK and then waited a few minutes for the next ferry to WL. While on the boat, I called for our room number so that we would know where to go. Of course, we also had another modeling session.
We made it to the villas with no problem and found our room on the second floor. It had a pretty nice view of the bay and was very spacious for the two of us. We did have a surprise waiting for us - - DH had cranberry juice (my wine substitute during my pregnancy) and chocolate milk waiting for the two of us.
I called for our luggage which was there within minutes and we quickly changed into our bathing suits. The villa pool was just perfect for Mary Devall. Very few people were there and she could play on the steps or let me glide her through the hidden springs. After 30 minutes or so of swimming, we dried off, went back to the room and unpacked. I think we were both
by 9:30.