Day Eight
DAY EIGHT—Friday, March 21st
This was the day that I’d scheduled to head over to the Kennedy Space Center and then spend some time at the beach. A few things happened that changed this plan: rain was forecast for the entire east coast region of the state, the shuttle disaster was too fresh in our minds to make a “tourist” trip to KSC, and Tosh asked if it were possible to visit the NASCAR museum and track in Daytona. So, our plan was scrapped and a new plan involving going to Daytona to see racecars evolved. Since none of this appealed to me, I grabbed the chance to take in some attractions (i.e. thrill rides) that I’d missed, and figured I’d spend a day on my own being a park commando. Then Dennis said that since he hadn’t used one day of his park hopper (the day that we’d gone to Disney/MGM) he’d join me. Since Dad hadn’t used that day on his park hopper, he offered it to Amy to use. (The Daytona thing didn’t really appeal Dennis and Amy, either). So, I explained that I planned on being up early to get to Magic Kingdom before the park opened and explained that it was my “park commando” day. They were both fine with that, but Amy wanted to hang out at the condo (and maybe by the pool) for the morning, so Dennis told her we’d pick her up at lunchtime. (I’ll admit, that at this point I wasn’t happy to hear that I was expected to leave the parks and drive back to the condo because I’m getting really tired of being taken for granted as the “chauffer” for everyone because I was the guy who had the car and knew where everything was, but I was really good and didn’t say anything. And even though the day didn’t go the way I would have planned, I had a great time with Dennis and Amy and did some things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise.) Anyway, I had been having this great internal debate about whether to eat at the Kona Café (Tonga Toast) or the Concourse Steakhouse (Sticky Mickey) on my last day. Having the beach day get rained out meant that I could do both! I let Dennis decide which he wanted to do, and I’d do the other the next day. We strolled into the Kona Café shortly after 8am and ordered the Tonga Toast. WOW! It was fantastic. It more than lived up to my expectations. I couldn’t finish it, but it was SO good. From breakfast at the Poly we jumped onto the monorail over to MK. It was only 9:15 when we arrived, so the crowd wasn’t bad at all. We went directly to Fantasyland and at Dennis’s request, we rode Peter Pan’s Flight first. He agreed that it was okay, but not worth the hour wait we’d have suffered through later in the day. From there we hit Snow White’s Scary Adventure and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It was our first time on both, and at least we can say that we’ve done them now. I’m not sure I’d ever do them again, unless I’ve got little kids with me (which unless Sofia or Dennis provide me with nieces and nephews is, frankly, a long shot). We then head over to Space Mountain (hooray, a rollercoaster at last!) only to be told that it was currently not operating (WHAT? Had they seen me coming and turned it off?
)We then walk over to the “hub” to figure out what we want to do next. As we approach, I see that Lilo and Stitch are signing autographs and posing for pictures and that the line is only about 8 or 9 people deep (Lilo and Stitch is currently my favorite movie. I watch the DVD so frequently, I’ve got the dialogue memorized) . As soon as we get in line, the handler says that Lilo and Stitch will only be able to take pictures with the next 3 families, but they’ll be back at 11am. Well, Heck! I really wanted a picture with them! We head over to Adventureland and ride the Jungle Cruise, and the skipper is even funnier than the one I had last Friday. When we’re done, Dennis points out that it’s almost 11:00, so we head back toward the castle and are just in time to see the characters come out for more pictures and autographs. We head over to where we’d seen Lilo and Stitch before, and sure enough, we’re the first ones in line. I’m very excited. If you’ve never seen a 34 year old guy acting like a 5 year old, watch me waiting for my picture with Lilo and Stitch. (by the way, this is my FIRST picture with a character at WDW, and we never took any pictures with characters at Disneyland 22 years ago, so it’s my first ever.) Dennis rolls his eyes at me, but dutifully snaps the pic. Grinning from ear to ear at having taken a picture with two of my favorite characters, we head down Main Street to do a little bit of shopping before heading back home to pick up Amy. When we get to the monorail to take us back to the TTC, it starts to rain. By the time we get to the TTC, it’s pouring. I stop and buy two rain ponchos so that we can wade through the lake that only 4 hours earlier was the parking lot. Back to the condo in the pouring rain, pick up Amy and then it’s Disney/MGM studios for the afternoon. We get there at 1pm, and I see on the board that RnR only has a 40 minute wait. Perfect, I head in that direction when Dennis says, “What do you think of lunch?”. “Overall, I’m in favor of it.” I respond. To which he replies that isn’t it time we had some? My visions of being a “park commando” fade like the rainstorm above as he and Amy lobby to go to “that place we saw that has the cocktail bar”. Defeated, I reverse course and head for the 50s Prime Time Café. When we get there, the restaurant and bar are both packed, and I manage to secure a Priority Seating for 2pm. Since we’ve got an hour to kill and Star Tours is close by (and because Dennis and Amy really like Star Wars) we head over there. We ride the ride, we shop in the store, and then head back to wait some more for a sit down lunch. Okay, I’ll admit that the Prime Time Café was lots of fun (Dennis and Amy got into trouble for wearing baseball caps at the table, heh heh heh). We all cleaned our plates, and just as I’m thinking about it’s time to get the heck out of there they order another round of drinks. Apparently “park commando” means different things to different people.
When we’re done eating (and drinking), we head over to the Muppets 3D Movie (the RnR wait time is now over an hour on the guest services board). I love the Muppet Movie, but honestly I think I like the pre-show better this time (it’s my third time to see it, and the novelty is wearing off). We walk around the back of the Muppet theatre and I FOUND THE UMBRELLA! (This actually cheers me up immensely, and I make them take a picture of me holding on to the umbrella as it rains on me—which I could have done without the special effects only an hour before, but what the heck). From there we head over to Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster in hopes that the line isn’t too bad. As we make our way down Sunset Boulevard, Mom calls and says they’re back at the condo waiting for the guy to pick up the scooter, and will wait for us to go to dinner for our last night together (it’s after 4pm by now.) When we get to RnR the line is over 90 minutes. I just give up, and we head to the condo, because I can’t hold up everybody else for a ride that I’ve already ridden twice in the past (once each of the previous years), especially as Dennis and Amy don’t really want to ride it. We head back to the condo, and then right back out to dinner at the Taste of China restaurant in the shopping center near Splendid China. Mom, Dad, and I ate lunch there back on Saturday and really liked it, so that’s where they decided to go for our last meal together. It was a fantastic meal (and I hate to say it, but it put Epcot’s Chinese restaurant to shame). After dinner, Mom and Dad head home, while I drive Sofia, Tosh, Dennis, and Amy to the World of Disney to finish souvenir shopping (plus Sofia and I both need to buy a tote bag to carry all the stuff we’ve bought.) Another $40 worth of discounts later, and we’ve finished shopping. We not only bought souvenirs for our friends and family at home, and for ourselves, but we’ve managed to buy presents for each other as well, making this trip something like a mini-christmas or extended birthday, and giving each of us something to not only remember this trip, but to remember that it was a present from a family member who shared this trip with us. That strikes me as a really cool thing and makes me really happy to have shared this WDW trip with my best friends—my family. Once the shopping is done we head home. Before the packing starts, we take a moment to open up a couple of bottles of bubbly, that I’ve picked up for this very moment, and we toast to Mom and Dad, and to their 35 years of marriage. We toast to our family, and wish for another 35 years. We toast to the addition of wonderful new family members like Tosh and Amy, and on additions yet to come. Then the frenzy starts, as we all begin to prepare for tomorrow’s departure. It’s midnight when I finally hit the sack.