Darth Macho's 2012 Dream Trip: Day 13 of 14
Darth Macho’s Dream Trip, Day 13
Once In A Blue Moon…
The Cast:
DM: Darth Macho (41yo)
DW: Darth Wife (41yo)
DD1: Darth Daughter 1 (11yo)
DD2: Darth Daughter 2 (8yo)
The Stage:
Magic Kingdom, Tomorrowland
The Report:
(Sorry this took so long, but just like the actual trip, I didn’t really want it to end. Anyway, here’s the Day 13 Report…)
Today was our last full day, and our last day at the parks. Despite this, it was a real struggle to get everyone up at the 7AM wake-up call, and we were just getting to the bus stop when I had hoped to be at the Magic Kingdom entrance and heading towards Space Mountain. I feared the line to Space Mountain would be too long to wait by the time we got there, so I figured we’d have to get a FP and ride it later.
When we arrived at the park, we were surprised to see that all of the fall and Halloween decorations had already been out up all along Main Street! I guess I shouldn’t have been, because the Halloween merchandise had been in the stores for a week already. It was kind of nice to get a chance to see the fall décor, but I just wasn’t mentally ready for the summer to be over yet.
We made our way to Tomorrowland, where as it turned out, Space Mountain had a stand-by of 10 minutes posted. Luck and smaller crowds were apparently on our side. I decided to get a FP anyway, and the kids and I got on Space in no time. DW decided not to join us, as she’s not a big fan of the ride.
Next we got onto Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and DW hit something big because she scored over 800000 points, much more than the rest of us. From there we decided it would be prudent to get onto the tediously loading Astro Orbiter while the line was only at 10 minutes. Once that was done, we got back on Space Mountain with our FP, which thrilled the kids.
Next we visited the oft-maligned Stitch’s Great Escape, which happens to be DD2’s favorite attraction. When she told me that, I kid of felt bad that I made her wait the whole two weeks to see it. In any case, we enjoyed it and since we were getting hungry, we opted for an early lunch at an old favorite, Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café, where we had some good food with an embarrassing amount of liquid cheese added, and watched Sonny Eclipse do his thing.
After lunch I thought it would be a good idea to get the Speedway out of the way. I don’t care for that type of ride, but the kids always love it, so I had them go on there own and I was happy that DD2 was just tall enough to ride alone. They waited about 15-20 minutes as I watched them from the grandstand. Unfortunately, a really little kid and his mom were driving in front of them and stopped short a lot, and the kid behind DD1 kept crashing into her because of that. That’s just another reason why I hate that ride. They came out unscathed, and we moved on to another favorite of ours, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. Thankfully I wasn’t picked to be “That Guy”, but they flash my DD’s on the screen with the caption, “Likes to Make Funny Faces”, although they were so stunned to see themselves, they didn’t even make any faces. They did use DD2’s joke, which was “Why did the cow cross the road?” the answer being, “To get to the udder side.” I asked DD2 where she heard that, and she claims she made it up, which made me proud.
Next was a ride on the TTA, but while we were riding, we noticed the soundtrack wasn’t playing. The music was, but the narration wasn’t, which surprisingly detracted from the ride. I do like the old spiel better, but I wanted to have something. It was also the first time I’d ever been on that ride when it broke down.
After that, we had just one thing left to do in Tomorrowland, which was Carousel of Progress. I was happy that the kids liked it, because it’s a favorite of mine. I’d like to see them update that last scene again, but I’m also fine if they don’t.
The kids were psyched because Space Mountain had an unusually short line for mid-day, a stand-by of 20 minutes, so we went on again. We were shocked when DW joined us, but we weren’t surprised after hearing all of her screaming that she said it was the last time she’d ride that again.
It was a great way to wrap up Tomorrowland though, as we had come full circle.
Having made great time covering Tomorrowland, I suggested we branch out and head over to Adventureland because I wanted to ride Jungle Cruise again, having recently come to appreciate it more, so we did that and Pirates of the Caribbean. I wasn’t sure we could fit in the mountains, but the girls wanted to try, and we ended up getting FP for Splash and then getting in the stand-by for Thunder. To kill time before our FP, we did the loop on the WDW Railroad, but when we got back and were about to get into the FP line, we were turned away because Splash was just closed indefinitely. We were all disappointed that we might not get one of our favorite rides in before the trip ended, but the girls found it fascinating to see an empty log stuck at the top of the big drop, and we wondered if the riders had been evacuated, leading to DD2 peppering me with questions about how that works, as kids always do, and me answering as best I could, and fudging the rest, as parents always do.
With our plan derailed a bit, we headed back towards the hub, but we took the long way through stores in Frontierland and Liberty Square before arriving at Plaza Restaurant for our final ADR of the trip. We were all out of DDP credits, so we paid out of pocket, however this is why I chose Plaza, because we wanted to stick to a lighter bill and fare for that last sit-down. Of course the desserts put everything over the top, but hey, what can you do?
At this point I had to ask the kids if they wanted to stay at MK, or go back to Pop and swim, and that we wouldn’t have time for both. I could tell they were torn, but they decided to stay at the park. I was happy they chose that because I certainly didn’t want this to end.
Having decided to stay, we ran into the “Move It, Shake It” parade for the millionth time of the trip, and paused to watch a little before heading over to Splash to find that it was up and running! Thankfully they were honoring FPs from the breakdown, so we got right on.
It was getting dark, so I suggested we head back over to Tomorrowland in order to enjoy the nighttime ambiance of that land. We fit in Stitch and Monsters again, two attractions that I think don’t get their due, and we finished things off with a nighttime ride on the TTA. This time the soundtrack was working, and we had a fabulous ride. While we were going around for our final spin, we got a great view of the Blue Moon, and I couldn’t help but think of how fitting it was to end that way because a trip like this only comes once in a blue moon. I’ll be grateful for as long as I live to have experienced this wonderful two weeks with my three beautiful girls. It makes me so happy to just think about it and to share it all with you.
It wasn’t entirely over just yet, because as we were leaving MK, we stopped to watch, Magic, Memories, and You. I thought the projector effects were excellent, but I thought the photos were a waste of time. I would not have recognized my own kids from that distance. I can see why they are going to go in a different direction with that soon. We elected to watch the fireworks from the bus stop because we were anxious to get back before the busses got too crowded. Of course the final walk from MK was really difficult, because you just never know when you’re getting back again, and that makes me sad.
We were all really tired though, so our bodies were certainly ready to wrap things up. Of course the kids wanted to go swimming when we got back. Sadly, neither DW nor I had the energy to do that, so we didn’t go. In retrospect, I wish I had taken them, but I can’t be too upset because we had made a choice to stay at MK, and had a great time. We hit the hay knowing we had just one day left at WDW, and that was going to be spent checking out Pop Century.
Stay tuned for that, and all of my final thoughts…
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