Our last first birthday - Part 3
Our last first birthday
We've taken each of our kids to the World for their first birthday. Penelope, aka "Eppy," is our last. We decided to make it super-special, so we're spending two weeks at Disney, with 10 days in the parks.
Cast:
Susan, (me), 36, 11th trip
David (DH), 31, 9th trip
Sammie (DD), 8, 7th trip
Lily (DD), 5, 5th trip
Joey (DS), 3, 4th tip
Eppy (DD), turning 1, 1st trip
Connie (DMom), 65, 3rd trip
Sam, (DDad), 68, 3rd trip
Monday, December 12
David, Eppy, and I were up at 7am, and we woke the kids up at 8. We had driven back to the campsite the night before, so we needed to take the car back to the overflow parking. There were no parking spots when we tried to park two days ago, and a CM was parking guests in the grass, but this morning, there were plenty of open spots. I guess the weekend cleared a few campers out.
We caught the bus back to the Settlement, and walked to the boat dock. The line for the boat to the Magic Kingdom was ridiculously long, so we caught the boat to the Contemporary instead. The CM warned us that it was 10-15 minute walk to the MK from there, but as another mom and I joked, that would be the easiest of our walks for the day. We tried to make it to rope drop, but were about ten minutes late, lines for security were very long and quite slow on this trip.
We raced to BTMRR, Sammie's favorite ride, and she, David, and Lily got in line. Lily had yet to be tall enough to ride, so I was quite happy to see just how much she loved it. We used child swap so the kids could ride again with me, then the girls and David headed to Splash while I took the two little ones to the small Laughing Place playground. I'm glad that they were entertained because Splash got stuck twice during the older ones' ride. Even then, we'd crossed off Sammie's two favorites (or used-to-be favorites... as Everest was her new one) by 10:05.
We headed to Gaston's for breakfast, getting cinnamon rolls, fruit, and a chocolate croissant. No one liked the croissant, so we split the rest. A running theme for counter service meals on this trip was small parties seated at big tables, or people without food saving tables when we were standing holding trays with nowhere to sit. All six of us had to cram into a 2-top, and beg chairs off other people, but we made it.
When we were finished, we met up with my parents for our fastpasses at Haunted Mansion. Since Mom can't manuver on moving sidewalks, we had to wait a good bit for them to stop the ride. I learned that fastpasses for disabled people don't really save much time, unless the line is super long.
Then it was time for lunch, and I wanted to try Columbia Harbour House, as we'd never eaten there. The line was wrapped back to Rapunzel's restrooms, but it moved quickly and we were able to find two tables together in the back room. Mom's magic band didn't want to work, and when I put in the pin, the CM told me it was invalid. I knew it was the right one, we've had it since bands came out, but I had to do it three times before it worked. That would haunt us later. I really enjoyed the shrimp mac and cheese.
We went to Tomorrowland next, but the lines were crazy! Sammie was begging to ride the Peoplemover, but the line was wrappped around AstroOrbiter, and since Mom couldn't take her scooter in any of the lines, we split up again. They went to watch the 3:00 parade, content to sit and people watch until it started; and we got in line for Buzz. I hate how slowly this stand-by line moves, but all the lines in Tomorrowland were packed, and this sounded like the best family ride. When we got to the point in the line where FP meets up with stand-by, we were stopped as the ride stopped. After talking to the CM, we learned that Space and Splash mountains were down, and also another big ride (can't remember which), so it was backing up lines all over the park.
After Buzz, we went to ride Pirates, which also had the longest line we'd ever stood in, but a couple ahead of us was playing Heads Up on their phone and we joined in with another family trying to help them guess. It sped up the wait a bit. After Pirates, we met back up at the Speedway. I'd gotten FP for this, since we could split the kids up with the adults and they could each drive. It was lots of fun to ride with Lily, and David laughed the entire time with Joey, as neither could see over the steering wheel. It was much more like bumper cars.
We headed into new fantasyland, where the kids were begging to play at Dumbo. They really just wanted to play, not ride, but we made them leave when the buzzer went off. Joey was upset that he isn't a good size for that playground, too big for the baby ring, but too short to climb through the firehouse. (Which is funny, because he is only an inch or two shorter than Lily).
We tried to ride Barnstormer, so that the three kids could ride, but after standing in the long line, David and the three kids were turned away, as there were three kids and only one adult. David wasn't happy about it, and went to talk to the greeter. It is rather difficult to split up two parents with four kids, when the ride cars only seat two people. (The problem was that Disney's policy says kids have to be 7+ to ride alone, so Lily wasn't allowed to ride without an adult, but David couldn't split himself between her and Joey... and we weren't told this until they'd been made to get off the ride, so I couldn't join them). The greeter apologized and gave us two FP to use on any ride for the rest of our trip, which was nice and more than expected.
It was time for our FP at Belle's. Joey got scared (something that happened every time it got dark on a ride, for the entire trip), and refused to participate. Lily was chosen as Mrs. Potts, and Sammie was a dancing plate. Once Belle came out to take pictures, Joey ran up and got in line, though.
We decided to use one of the free FP to ride 7 Dwarves, so we child swapped, and the kids got to ride twice. Joey liked it but wouldn't ride again. As is often the case with Disney policies, here they didn't say a word about the girls riding by themselves. My parents got tired of waiting, and went off to wander around. I used the MDE app to make us another quick FP at Small World, so we headed there next. David doesn't like this ride at all, but the kids do, so he suffered through it.
I wanted a PP pic with the castle, so we went to the bridge by Liberty Square. It was the only picture David and I got with the lights, and I would learn later that Joey was standing off to the side with his shirt up, but still in the picture. I wasn't very happy that the PP CM didn't say something, or change angles, as we didn't get to recreate it.
It was time for our dinner reservations at Be Our Guest, so we found my parents and headed that way. We were seated quickly, under the music box, and in a fairly empty room, which surprised me, as hard as it is to get reservations. Our waitress was named Margie, and she was very kind and patient, even taking time to teach the girls how to fold a napkin to make a rose, like those on the table. I had the sauteed shrimp and scallops, and it became my favorite meal of the trip. The rest of the adults had the steak, and David had a hard cider. We all enjoyed dessert, and I had the grey stuff. Margie brought Eppy some birthday grey stuff, but she had fallen asleep, so they other kids got to share it. We were still eating when the fireworks started, and could hear them just outside the castle. Sammie asked Margie if that was Gaston trying to beat the door down. When we were finished eating, we met the Beast, with Joey running across the room to him, a big change from the last trip, when he wouldn't get five feet from the characters.
The park was still open for EMH, but we decided to call it a night, so we headed out, but I doubled back to the castle to buy a Mickey Santa popcorn bucket before we left. Seven years ago, I'd wanted the Mickey ghost bucket and didn't buy it when I saw it, never seeing it again on that trip. I didn't want to miss out this time, so I bought it, sans popcorn. It turned out that we saw it over and over again on the trip, but I was very happy to not have missed it.
We caught the ferry back to the Fort and lost Eppy's shoe in the process. I called lost and found about it, but it never turned up for the rest of the trip. We had an off day next, so we didn't bother laying anything out, and we were in bed at midnight.
