Day Seven
I woke up thinking I was prepared for whatever the day could throw my way! Today was the day Coda would spend with his mom and younger sister, Hana, while I spent the day with my mom, dad, and brother, Michael. As you know, Coda’s family was supposed to be there around 9 (and he had asked his mom to try to be there a few minutes early), but he had asked her to park at the Magic Kingdom. I’m not exactly sure why he didn’t want her parking at our hotel, or maybe it just slipped his mind. Meanwhile, my parents had stopped for the night in Jacksonville and were supposed to be on the road by 8am and at our hotel by 10. We had purchased one-day tickets for all of these family members so we could spend the day together, but we only had til about 5pm since we had rehearsal dinner reservations. I would also be switching to a new room inside Bay Lake Tower. So, with a lot to do, I got up to face the day!
Coda’s mom finally called around 9:30 to let Coda know she was at the Magic Kingdom. Coda headed out to meet her, red velvet cupcake in hand, and I started packing up the rest of our stuff. I grabbed some cereal that we had in the room and had breakfast on the balcony. Around 10am, when my parents should have been there, I called to see where they were.
They were still in Jacksonville. They said they were leaving immediately, which meant they should be there around noon. I’m sure you can imagine my frustration. One-day tickets for three people that would only get used for 5 hours tops. You might be frustrated too. But what can you do?
Instead of sitting in my room and brooding over it, I called for bell services (did you know they won’t let you get a cart yourself?! I didn’t have any tip money and wanted to take things down by myself. Nope) and had my things brought down to the lobby. The night before I had talked to a really nice CM, though I can’t remember her name. She had brainstormed with a couple other ladies about what they could do with my dress since it was too long to be hung up anywhere in luggage storage. They had decided to put me on a list to get the first cleaned room, and if there wasn’t one available, they showed me the CM only room behind the desk and we found a place to hang it on a rack! And that’s what ended up happening. There wasn’t a room ready, so they put the rest of our things in storage and let me in the CM room to hang up my dress. Then they took my cell phone number to text me as soon as a room was available! Without a room and with nothing left to do I decided to go over to MK to meet up with Coda and his family, my favorite group of people.
On the walk over I called Coda, who immediately told me not to come. Apparently the doody had hit the fan. His mom was in a bad mood because she’d had to take the “tram” (monorail) from the parking lot, which apparently took too long. I decided to go anyway. He told me to meet them at the Haunted Mansion, so that’s where I went. I spotted them coming off the ride and was a big ball of sunshine when they got to where I was (Coda thanked me later). His mom looked like she was not enjoying herself at all. His 14-year-old sister just didn’t have much to say. Coda suggested It’s a Small World, so that’s where we went next. As we were stepping on the boat, he surprised me by pushing his sister in next to me and sitting between her and his mom. I could have strangled him. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but his family is not too fond of me and the fact that we were getting married. We sat through the entire ride (do you know how long that ride is?) in silence. I tried making small talk, only to be met with an awkward smile and a nod. Finally, that was over.
Coda asked Hana if she wanted to go on Big Thunder, but she said she wasn’t a roller coaster person. Still, she decided to go. It was then that I received a lovely slap in the face. Okay, not literally.
Here’s the sitch: Coda has another sister, Brittany, who is 19 years old. We do not speak to her. Coda didn’t speak to her when we met and I spent the first two years of our relationship trying to get them to make up. She was publically rude to me one-too-many times and finally I called it quits. She was not invited to our wedding and she was not supposed to be at the Magic Kingdom. Her mother insisted on bringing her to Florida to keep Hana company (or something like that), but assured us that she would not be at MK on the day we were there. As a 19-year-old, we all felt that she could fend for herself for a day. Okay, back to the TR.
Coda’s mother, Brenda, told us that she would meet us after Thunder, because she had to meet up with Brittany. I looked at Coda who looked at his mom like he wanted to strangle her. As we walked away, he said that he’d found out when they got there, but that he wasn’t going to tell me, hoping to keep the drama to a minimum. So I bit my tongue and we went to Big Thunder. When we got to the train, Coda again put me in the car with Hana. It was also a lovely ride.
We were supposed to meet up with Brenda by Peter Pan after Thunder and had given her a map. After several phone calls, she showed up. With Brittany. I could not believe her audacity! Honestly, this was supposed to be a day about Coda and his mom and she couldn’t wait to shove his estranged sister in his face. After a couple awkward moments, Brittany left and the rest of us went to Peter Pan (we had fastpasses). I begged Coda to ride with me.
At the end of the ride, Brenda and Hana still looked like they were undergoing root canals. Who knew that Disney World was such a terrible place to be? By this time it was getting close to 12:30 and my parents still had not arrived. The original plan was for everyone to have lunch at Be Our Guest, but that was obviously not going to work. People were getting hungry and I wouldn’t ask them to keep waiting because my parents were so late. Having had enough of Coda’s family, I opted to head back to the hotel and get lunch there, while Coda went to BoG with his mom and sister.
On the walk to the hotel I got the text that my room was ready! I made a quick stop at the Contempo Café to grab a steakhouse salad and hurried back to the lobby! When I checked in, the CM told me that my dress was already hanging in my closet! And that’s the magic of Disney! I got to my room and tipped the bell man (I got cash while I was getting my salad!) and ate lunch on the balcony overlooking the castle! I have to say, the new room was amazing, but I really didn’t get a chance to enjoy the view with the busy days ahead. While I was eating, my parents drove up. It was 1:30pm,
only 3 and a half hours late. I told them what room I was in and they came up to meet me! Finally, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I took them on the monorail since my mom’s back gets really sore if she walks a lot and I knew we’d be walking around for a few hours at MK. They really enjoyed the ride and my mom LOVES the Grand Floridian.
On the way over, I realized I’d left my AP with Coda when he’d gotten us fastpasses! He met me at the gate and gave me my ticket and the Photopass+ so I could take some pictures with my family.
My dad had forgotten his camera so I let him used mine, so all of the pictures of MK are pictures taken by him!
Mom and Dad in front of the tree:
The park was a little more crowded by the time we got there, with most lines above 20 minutes, but Pirates was only about a 15 minute wait, so that was our first ride. On the way, my family got their first glimpse of the castle! My mom was really excited about it! I knew she would be!
Obligatory castle shot:
Photopass!
Then we got to Pirates of the Caribbean!
We got on Pirates and my mom asked me if there was a drop. Of course not, I told her! I truly forgot about that tiny drop! I felt really bad about it. My dad asked if we’d get wet and I told him no. I had forgotten about the splash that hit me a couple days before in the cannon fight scene. I had also forgotten about my dad’s $4,000 hearing aids that were not waterproof! Luckily, we didn’t get splashed, but I told my dad to cover his ears just in case. After Pirates, Michael wanted to go on Space Mountain, so my dad went with him
My mom and I went to Haunted Mansion. I knew I had to take her on my favorite ride! She loved it, of course, and I was so glad! I don’t know how I’d live if my mom hated Haunted Mansion!
I knew we wouldn’t have time to do very many rides, so I limited it to things I thought she would enjoy and wouldn’t take up too much time. She had done IaSW in California 30 years before, so we skipped that and went on Philharmagic. My mom was completely taken aback by the show! She loved everything about it! And she loved Fantasyland as she walked through. Next was the People Mover. We were supposed to be leaving soon and didn’t have 30 minutes to wait in line and ride anything else. I figured that she could at least see a lot of Tomorrowland on the People Mover. She really enjoyed the ride through Space Mountain and thought it was crazy that my brother was going on it!
Getting back to that… When Michael and my dad got there, Coda and his sister were already on it.
My dad realized that he shouldn’t go on. He has some neck problems and really couldn’t have handled such a rough ride. So Michael and Hana got back in line for it after she got off of it. They rode and Michael loved it! Apparently, so did Hana, because she went on again. There was a photographer taking some interesting photos of my dad, Coda, and Brenda while the others were on the ride:
I think this was the only time she smiled during the entire trip:
I met back up with my dad and brother and got a photopass picture!
We went over in front of the castle to wait on Coda and his family and my dad took the opportunity to get some pictures.
Coda and his family met us and my mom and his mom finally met. It was an interesting meeting. His mom didn’t have very much to say, so my mom decided that everyone needed to go back to Philharmagic since only her and I had seen it. As it turned out, the two of us sat it out because I had to make a pit stop and the show was starting. Everyone really enjoyed it.
Before we left, we got some pictures since we were all together.
Such happy people! At this point, Coda, my family, and me left and headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We assumed Coda’s mom and sister had done the same. We took the monorail to the hotel and took Coda’s car to Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village for our rehearsal dinner (in name only) at Sanaa restaurant.
Levi, Carolyn, Rueben, and Cy arrived shortly after we did and we checked in. We waited for Brenda and Hana, but they were nowhere to be seen. They seated us shortly after we got there and we told them we were waiting on two other people. We ordered drinks and bread service. The bread service is amazing by the way! And I can eat it!!! It’s yeast free!
After waiting for about 45 minutes, we decided to order. Coda had talked to his mom and discovered that she had still been at Magic Kingdom! Apparently it is only a once in a lifetime experience. I think it was around 30 minutes into dinner when she got on the monorail to the parking lot. I got Tandoori chicken, which was absolutely to die for! Does anyone know what this sauce was?!
Coda got the thing where you could order two. One of them was butter chicken, which was awesome, but I’m not sure about the other one.
Coda’s mom got there right after we got our food. Coda was pretty upset, with just cause. She ordered dinner and Hana chose not to eat. She had a headache from riding Space Mountain four times back to back, but she’s not a coaster person.
It was an extremely awkward dinner. My parents were sitting closest to Coda’s mom and sister, but neither of them really talked to my parents at all. Reuben eventually moved down to make conversation with Brenda. There was more that went on, but I’ll leave it at that out of respect for everyone.
Dinner itself was fantastic! Sanaa is probably my new favorite Disney restaurant! After dinner we headed back to the hotel and caught the holiday fireworks from there with my family. After they left, we went inside where Levi, Carolyn, Rueben, and Cy were waiting for us to go to the lounge upstairs. But while we were waiting, Rueben got a phone call. He had met another girl (also from South Africa) at IoA two days before and had been out with her a couple times. She had offered to let him stay with her for the rest of his stay. And he accepted and checked out of his hotel. Which would be okay, if there wasn’t a four year old with him. She called and he assured her that he was “coming home to [her].” Rueben told us that he had to take Cy back and put him to bed and could not join us for drinks. I was the only one that overheard the actual conversation, but I shared it with Coda later and he was a little offended.
We shared a drink with Levi and Carolyn before heading to bed and anticipating the wedding! One day till we’re married!!! And I promise, the drama fades as soon as everyone leaves! The trip gets better, folks!
Up next: A WEDDING!
