Tuesday May 28, 2013: Day Five
The last full day is always a mixed bag of emotions. The knowledge that you’re coming to an end is bad enough. The packet that awaits you on the door only serves as a reminder of this. But we were determined not to let this ruin the day. We still had plenty of fun to do, and two fantastic meals to be had. Dressed and ready we made our way down for one final breakfast at Roaring Forks. Our first stop today would be at Epcot. Though we had different ideas of what we actually wanted to do.Logan of course wanted to hit up Nemo, but now that he is tall enough, Andy and I wanted to get him on Test Track.Neither of us had been on the updated version, and I hadn’t been on it since before I was expecting back in '08 – well knew about it anyway, since back then I was expecting him, unbeknownst to us at the time.
The moment he saw it was all about cars, he was so excited!!!! And if he wasn’t by then, surely he was when he got a sight of the following:
Hello Dream car! Yes, this was both Logan and mommy approved right there. And if that isn’t your style how about this one:
Ohhh fancy….(Logan’s wording)
And so the kid was sold, and the 70 minutes that we had to wait didn’t seem all that bad in the end, we enjoyed looking around and exploring the new concepts of the future, though I have to say some of them were quite impressive but I didn’t see how they would meet the needs of a family bigger than two…Before we knew it we were in the design room, where Logan and daddy worked on building the coolest ride around, while I watched the clock. And then we were off to test it out. Let me say, I love the new addition; I love the whole thing in fact. And Logan, well he was laughing right along and smiling. Though I do not know which he enjoyed more the creating the car, or the ride. As we walked off the ride he screamed out what’s seems to have become the phrase of the trip.
"THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! I SO HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN!"
Afterwards we headed back towards Nemo, because he wasn’t going to let us get away without riding it just one more time. But the line was over 50 minutes, and while we liked the ride, we didn’t like it that much. And Logan may have been a little bummed by this but decided it was OK to skip it, as long as we headed back to the resort to get a little afternoon swimming in and to have lunch. With little else that we seemed to need to hit this trip, we agreed. And so back ‘home’ we went.
Welcome home, indeed!
WARNING: NO TRIP REPORT IS COMPLETE WITHOUT AT LEAST ONE STRANGE AFTERNOON. HERE IS THIS ONE.
Of course what we had forgotten about was the note that was left under our door yesterday. The one informing us they would be conducting fire alarm drills around the resort this afternoon. We didn’t think much of it because, well we weren’t expecting to be back during the time they were doing it and so we went on our merry little way. That is until we sat down for lunch at Roaring Forks and the announcement came on warning us not to be alarmed. Now if you have never had the pleasure to experience the alarm system, let me be the first to tell you, they work. They are also quite loud and obnoxious. Yes, I realize this is what they are meant to be, this is their purpose. But I have never heard anything like it. I do believe my ears rang the entire night. It got even worse as we headed to our room, and we huddled outside on the porch along with the other guests who had the same idea. It may have still been annoying but at least it wasn’t as bad. But if you receive this warning, my best advice is, avoid the place if you can.
Once the sound stopped we marched back into our room, threw on our bathing suits and made our way down to the main pool to spend a lazy afternoon by the pool. Soaking up as much of the Florida sun as possible. Or so we thought. It seemed the swimming gods were not in our favor this afternoon.
I sat soaking up the rays while Andy and Logan jumped in the pool. It was just beginning to cloud up, but hot enough to not care. I was just about to head in and join when a woman started freaking out, I mean screaming and hollering for anyone’s attention exclaiming. "Please tell me I am not the only one to see it, you see it too?" She rushes up to the lifeguard who steps off the chair and goes and grabs something, together the head to the rock slide as he is yelling for everyone to get out of the pool. I must say I have never seen so many people move out of the way so fast. And then I see it, the reason for commotions, is slithering into view. It’s a long, black snake…yes a
freaking snake! It slithers into the pool and across the water and through the woods before the lifeguard – who didn’t seem so snake happy – could reach him. Not a snake fan myself – in fact I am rather afraid of them – let me say I didn’t blame him. The lady beside said that was the third time that day it had come out…hmmm. Once the coast was clear people jumped right back in just in time for the rain clouds to move in. And even if everyone was already wet, between that and the snake, well let’s just say it pretty much killed the swimming mood and so we headed back up to get ready for our last evening in the parks.
Yours truly.
On our way back, we stopped long enough for Logan to get his first pin set, which he quickly learned how to trade with the cast member. And for me to take some pictures around the resort.
He found me!
Soon however it was time to head down to the docks, we needed to head to Poly for dinner at 'Ohana this evening-one we had been looking forward to since we arrived. While we waited Logan made himself fast friends with the woman behind us on her honeymoon and he somehow apparently charmed her enough that she ended up handing him over another pin without trading. He smiled and said thank you just in time for the boat to come.
We arrived at the Poly a little early, checked in and knew we were going to have to wait as it was packed. 20 minutes after our initial reservation time, we were finally called and we joined the rest of our ‘cousins to enjoy what is our favorite meal on property. Even Logan loved it. Not surprising since the made both of us special dairy free ice cream sandwiches. I know I have said this before, but the look on his face, when he finds out that for a moment he can be like everyone else and enjoy ice cream without it killing him is priceless to any parent really. I hate having to see him sit out during things like that, so its absolutely beautiful to see him do and eat something that seems so normal to most people. And his response? You got it.
"That was totally awesome….Can we go back for more?"
And now to top off the vacation and end on a strong not, one more entrance into Magic Kingdom. For a good long while now, long before this trip anyhow. Logan has been excited to try Big Thunder Mountain, exclaiming he is a big boy and won’t be afraid of it. We had been prepping him with online videos of it and such, to see if he would at least be interested in it. And when we found out he was tall enough, well even more excitement came along. We hadn’t had the change to get on it however and with the electric parade and Wishes about to happen there was a good chance there would be little to no wait. Sure enough we made a mad dash to the back of the park and practically walked on with about a five minute wait.
Logan and I got in one together as Andy went in front of us. I was a bit nervous on how he would actually do because talking about it is quite different than actually riding it. And judging by the death grip he had on the handle bar, I was berating myself. Maybe it was too soon. The kid looked genuinely scared. But there was nothing I could do except hold his hand and tell him it would be okay. And as we rounded the last corner of the ride and it came to a holt well I got my answer:
"Hey that wasn’t too bad, it was short..but you know what mommy? THAT WAS AWESOME!!!! When we come back, we are so doing that again!!!"
Mission complete. We did it, or rather he did it.
Instead of fighting the crowded buses at the end of the night, we decided to head back for the docks one final time. We watched Wishes from the boat as Logan fell asleep and answered a bunch of questions about DVC to a couple who was really interested in it. They had been going for the past five years, and have five kids….Andy was the expert on explaining so I sat there and clung to the last images of Magic Kingdom with a sleeping boy in my lap and trying to avoid the sinking feeling that tomorrow we would be heading home.
But not before one more round of fun….
