Day 8 –Stress and serenity
So day 8 is here….last day eve (normally when a day has the word “eve” in it you get excited…not this one). Today’s plan was a return to Blizzard Beach so we were all able to sleep in a bit. As usual, I was the first one up. I put the coffee on and then made a big mistake…I decided to check my work email quickly…there it was…a message from our CEO….”I’m pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement to merge with Burger King”…Oh man. What does this mean? Do I still have a job when I get home? Now normally I’m pretty laid back, but I think the combination of being tired as well as the fact that we had planned this trip for almost a year and now something like this comes up, I was pretty stressed. I honestly didn’t think I could be stressed while at Disney, but I was wrong. I climbed back into bed and told Tammy. We agreed that there wasn’t anything we could do about it right now and that we should do our best to enjoy our last two days. Great advice…
So we all got ready, headed down to the bus stop, and were soon at Blizzard Beach. We got through the gates just after 10 (it was interesting to note that the water park hours changed this week, so now they open at 10 instead of 9).
Unfortunately, since we didn’t make rope drop, the place was already packed. The line for Summit Plummet was already down the stairs, and there were no chairs near the wave pool. The kids couldn’t wait to get going, so they took off to do some slides while Tammy and I went to find a spot to sit and leave our stuff (we found some seats in the kids area).
The BK thing was still on my mind, so while I was physically there my mind wasn’t. Tammy and I talked about it some more (we didn’t want to discuss it much in front of the kids). I’m still trying to work all of this news through my mind…I’ll get there eventually, but right now I’m still in shock. Anyways…we climbed up Mount Gushmore and went on Teamboat Springs with the kids. After that we did the Toboggan Racers which was a lot of fun too. After some slides we went to the wavepool. We managed to find four tubes, so we all floated together. One kind of cool thing was that there was a photographer in the pool taking pictures, so we got a few done.
Kind of neat how there are so many more photographers around. Unfortunately, I’m still really distracted (it’s kind of like being on a rollercoaster…one minute I’m having lots of fun and then next I’m totally distracted and stressed). We decided to head over to the lazy river after the pool. Again, there were photographers in there too.
We did about a half lap when the kids decided they were hungry, so we got out and got them lunch (Liam got a burger and Steph got a funnel cake). I can’t eat when I’m stressed, so I didn’t have anything. After lunch we decided to head back to BLT since Tammy wanted to at least start the awful job of packing. We stopped at the Contempo Café and picked up a pulled pork flatbread pizza with house-made chips that Tammy and I split. It was really good. The kids decided to head back to Community Hall while Tammy and I went back to the room to start packing.
Something happened on the way back to the room….I decided I was done thinking about work. We only get so many days at Disney, and I’m not going to spend another minute worrying about something that I can’t do anything about. So, from that moment on, I was back…
Tammy and I got most of the packing done (we were happy about that, but at the same time kind of sad since it means we’re almost done with our trip). We then went down to Community Hall, picked the kids up, and then decided that we’d go back to Hollywood Studios (we love this place this year. If you look at last year’s trip report, I had said that HS was our least favourite park. This year it is making a case for being our favourite (although I don’t think MK will ever be replaced)).
ToT was up first, and we did the normal thing of Liam, Steph and I riding, and then Steph using Tammy’s FP.
Liam and I did the single rider line on RNR again while Steph did her 2nd ToT.
After ToT we headed back over to Wandering Oakens.
We had told the kids that they could try the ice skating thing, so that’s what we did. On the way over we were witness to a complete meltdown/screamfest between two Moms. We were just in front of “One Man’s Dream” when we heard this loud shrill scream. To be honest we all thought a show was starting. Across from “One Man’s Dream” they have a Frozen photopass spot set up. Well apparently one family had approached the photographer from one side while the other family approached from the other side. I guess both families thought they were there first. The one family sent their kids up to get their pictures when we hear “MY KIDS WERE HERE FIRST” in the loudest scream I think I’ve ever heard. The argument continued for a few more seconds, before the photographer, maybe a bit tongue in cheek, said “OK, smile kids”. I get that heat and expectations make people act insane some time, but this was a bit over the top for something that would have resulted in maybe waiting 20 seconds longer. Of course the two Dad’s in the families just kind of avoided making eye contact…
To be continued