- The day started off early with Robby leaving for the airport at 5 in the morning. He wasn’t bailing on me but was taking Grannymom and Grandpa to catch their flight-they had had enough! Actually, today was our last day too but we decided to make a day of it.
The airport was about an hour away so I was up and going strong when Robby returned at 7. Whitman had slept with us most of the night and some time during the night, Campbell fell off the bed and hurt her head so she joined us too. I seriously am going to have to get us a king size bed at home-never knew anyone else was in the bed with us.
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| Park 1: EPCOT |
By the time Robby made it home, I had 2 pack n plays put back in their spot, the little girls dressed, me dressed and the others were working on clothes. We took sheets off the beds, emptied the trash, started the wash and dishes and then worked on gathering and finishing loading our stuff. We left that little house pretty ready for the next folks.
Robby quickly made our lunches while I passed out breakfasts and soon we were loading up for our last day of Disney. And to make it exciting, we decided to go to all 4 parks-why not?
We drove to Epcot and the big kids and I scurried to Test
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| Park 2: Hollywood Studios |
Track to ride it. We rode it and then Robby went through the single rider line while we looked at a gift shop. The kids enjoyed looking at the gift shop and so did I. I always love gift shops-never buy anything but sure do love looking. Isn’t that funny for someone who doesn’t want to shop at all?
Reagan, Anderson and Graham had not been on Mission Space so I took them on that. Now I rode this ride years ago when Jenna came with us and I vividly remember me thinking that I would never ride it again. Since then a few folks have croaked on that ride so today, I took my kids on it! Craziness. The ride has since added a “milder” version which I am sure the kids would not have been pleased about us being in that line, had they figured it out. The mild version was enough for me-being bounced around in a simulator while heading to Mars was plenty of excitement for one day.
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| Park 3: Magic Kingdom |
My kids loved it-they all took it so very seriously. The concept is that you are headed to Mars and each person has a job and has to push buttons to make the rocket perform. I just wish that I could capture their little expressions on all of these rides-terror, delight, shock, surprise. Oh they will be big all too soon.
Robby then had fast passes for Test Track and took the big 4 for their 2nd ride of the morning.. Keaton was not happy at all with me while they were gone. She was mad because I took the piece of chocolate out of her pocket. I offered for her to eat it but she fussed for a good 30 minutes and only stopped when she had food in her mouth. That girl is going to learn about time-out when we get back into a routine at home.
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| Park 4: Animal Kingdom |
I couldn’t let that chocolate stay in her pocket because it was hot, hot today. It is fine in the shade but not in the sun. You would never believe that this is October! Robby is planning on us coming here another year in January (though last January Disney trip was during a cold front,)
Then we walked across Epcot to take the little boat to Hollywood Studios. The boat made a few stops at different hotels along the way but it was all new sights and a good chance to rest our feet. Actually, Robby passed out everyone’s roll ups and we just had our lunch on the boat.
Once we unloaded at Hollywood Studios, Robby went to fetch
a fast pass for Tower of Terror and then he also came back with icees (we had 7 icees today-we were living up our last day!)
Then we tried to go to the Disney Jr. show because I have some kiddos that would have really liked that. But since it was full, we went to the Little Mermaid show. Keaton hung with the Mermaid show for a bit but Campbell was all into it. So was my Whitman. He loved the beginning with the puppets. It was dark in the theater but I really think that he was clapping. If he wasn’t clapping then he sure was flapping his arms.
Next up was the Lights, Camera, Action stunt show. Last time we went it was July and we were in the sun-miserable. Thankfully today we were in the shade so it was fairly pleasant. It was even pleasant with Whitman in my carrier-we did get a little warm but not too bad. The show is really neat-racing cars, fast motorcycles, loud gunfire, explosions, stunt men falling off buildings. At one point, Robby said that Anderson’s mouth was wide open as he gasped at what was happening.
After the show, we tried to get Campbell to ride Tower of Terror one last time with the rest of us. She declined and went with Robby, Keaton and Whitman. So it was just me, Reagan, Anderson and Graham to ride. That was a lot of fun and Graham said that he enjoyed it even though his face never showed it.
Since we had finished what we needed to do at Hollywood Studios, we headed to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom. Of course we raced to get on the bus and as we were throwing bags on our shoulders, grabbing babies and slamming down strollers the silly bus closed the door. The driver then opened the door to say that they were full and another bus would soon arrive-if he could have only read my mind, he would have found a spot for us on the bus. I didn’t mind waiting but after we had gotten ready to board-argh!
Robby already had a contingency bus plan worked out so we were then going to get on the Epcot or Magic Kingdom bus-which ever came first. Busses are really not my friends-6 kids, 2 strollers, 1 ice chest, 1 back pack, 1 small bag, 1 carrier. No I like boats and monorails where I don’t have to hold all of that. But the bus ride was painless and not crowded so we were soon at the ticket center and stopped to reorganize and potty.
We took the monorail to Magic Kingdom and arrived in a flash. That monorail trip was pretty crowded so Robby and I ended up in different cars. Now I am not sure if it was because it was Friday, or because it is a 3 day weekend or because the Halloween party was tonight but it was the most crowded today at Magic Kingdom.
The big kids really wanted to do Splash or Thunder Mountain so Robby took them to check it out. Too long of waits and he said that they were pretty disappointed so he found them the Pirate ride and they waited in that short line.
Meanwhile, I pushed the double stroller with Keaton and Whitman across the park. I was shocked to see the 25 minutes wait for Small World-pooh, I wanted to do that one again! Oh, well we are already planning our next Disney trip. I obtained fast passes for Dumbo and then Keaton and I sat on the curb in the shade and had ourselves a snack. We had chocolate, cookies and a drink. We were hot and tired after marching across that park.
We really have done a lot of walking today-really walking from the entrances and exits to the next form of transportation has been lots and lots of walking. The kids did really well and they really didn’t complain but I know they are all exhausted.
Back to the day, when the others joined us, we all boarded Dumbo. Without Grannymom and Grandpa and only one child 7 or older, we were squeezed into that pachyderm. Reagan was able to ride by herself so that left Graham and Keaton with Robby. And I had Whitman, Campbell and Anderson with me. We had to take turns driving Dumbo so at each circle I had to yell “switch.”
By this time in the day, Robby was beginning to doubt the possibility of his 4 parks in a day idea. I urged him on since we only had one park to go-I do love checking things off of my list. So we headed out of the crazy crowded Magic Kingdom. Now we were only going to be able to make it to Animal Kingdom before they closed at 7, if our transportation (monorail, monorail, car) worked out correctly.
Of course it didn’t work out as we wanted (but it still worked) The monorail was shut down so we piled onto the ferry boat with a zillion other people for the 6 minute ride back to the ticket center. That little change of plans really didn’t cost us much time and things were still a go for our mission.
And thankfully, the monorail was working so we were able to ride on it to Epcot. The kids enjoyed going around the big Epcot ball and Anderson really peered out the windows taking it all in. We had to walk forever to get back to the car even though we were parked near the entrance-so much walking today! (Sense a theme?)
This is not part of our day but we have read about people that try to do the major attractions at Magic Kingdom (Florida) and Disneyland (California) in the same day. We kind of felt like that today-though we didn’t have an across country flight, we did have a van (our own), boat, bus, boat, boat, monorail, van ride.
Robby sped us to Animal Kingdom while I sat in the back passing out juice boxes and repacking what we needed for the next hour in the park. He knew the main mission was to get the big 3 on Mt. Everest again so he dropped us off and parked.
As we were approaching the front, I began to doubt the times that I had written down of when Animal Kingdom closed because everyone was filing out. Reagan was happy to show me others ahead of us entering so we also went through the gates. The worker made sure we knew that they closed in less than an hour.
We then headed to the ride. I took a way long cut to the ride-seriously, I drug those boys with Reagan following behind in a complete circle all around that silly park. They kept telling me that we were going the wrong way but by that time it was too late to turn around so we just pressed on.
We finally made it to Expedition Everest-we were hot, tired and out of breath but we made it. And not just once did we ride but 3 times. I was really done at 2 but thought I would be the cool mom who let everyone ride again. Though I was almost the cool mom that lost her lunch on the ride (ha! not really!)
By this time, Robby had unloaded the 3 little ones and they had even rode the triceratops spin and found us getting off of our ride. Then we headed to the Rainforest Cafe to eat supper.
I guess our week of lunchables has become a pattern to Campbell. When we sat down at the restaurant she asked where our food was. I said that we had to order it and she started crying and said “Daddy didn’t bring it?” And before we went in the restaurant, Reagan said “is this kind of place where they bring you your food?” I think she was ready for a real restaurant meal-actually, we all were and the kids devoured their food as they watched the animals.
Supper was a good ending to our very busy day-Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom in one day. And it was a great ending to our very busy trip-7 days of Disney parks.
We drove an hour tonight to our hotel. It wasn’t a bad drive and I didn’t even make it half way on the blog. Of course when we made it there, we had 4 sleeping kids. It took forever to wake them up but as soon as we all got in the hotel room, Keaton perked up and had herself a grand old time on the luggage cart.
Campbell and Graham were asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows and the rest were asleep quickly. We didn’t even try putting Keaton in the bathroom (the hotel had a pack n play ready for us) because we knew she would be asleep in seconds. I think that Robby and I will be asleep that quickly as well!
- We still have to get this Dennie crew home and right now I am a bit jealous of Grannymom and Grandpa being home in two hours but who knows what tomorrow will bring. All of the kids have told us thank you a zillion times today for bringing them here. And whenever we ask what their favorite things are Anderson will always say “spending time with me family.”
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