Nice refreshing day. I think we all slept until 9:30. Not wanting to have anything to do with Magic Kingdom parking with a late arrival, I made a breakfast reservation at the Contemporary for 12:55, so we were in no hurry. But our first order of business was go get Davis' medicine for his cough. And wouldn't you know it, the Walgreens pharmacy was completely closed, so we had to scramble and find the next Walgreens that was 1 mile further down the road. I finally got to wear my "Tommorrowland Janitor" Disney shirt, but I think these kids are wrong, it is super cool, and I hear everyone whispering that as I pass by in my inner monologue. The next walgreens we came to actually already had Davis' prescription ready, so that was great. Then...no lie...the Walgreens pharmacist commented that he liked my shirt, then asked "So do you work in the parks"? Hahaha...yeah, everyone in the van got a kick out of that.
And dear me, look at our parking spot below. Walking over to the Grand Floridian for breakfast is so much nicer than parking in that giant sea of cars. This may have been our best meal, but at this point, we were just happy not to share. You can't get much better than steak and eggs in the morning. And you can also see below that waiting for your meal at the Grand Floridian is not to shabby for one princess in general. Ruby danced and danced.
We finally got into the park a little after 2pm where the kids all wanted to finish the Pirate Adventures in Adventureland, and since none of us where in any hurrys for the long lines we saw forming. So Magan and I sat near the Pirate ride while the kids went off on their own adventure. After completing the pirate adventure, we went to ride our first ride of the day (Thunder Mountain), but when we saw the 80 minute line, we decided to hop over to Tom Sawyers island once again. Magan and Sam stayed on the mainland while the others of us went for more fun on the island. I think this was the day that Ruby busted her eye on one of the guns in the fort area. Must have had a bad kick. :) She got a nasty bruise, but she was big and never shed a tear, altho I could tell it hurt her really bad. While we were running thru tunnels and exploring the island, Sam and Mom got some ice cream, and Nuimo clothes (The girls thought it was hilarious for their new Nuimos to have 50 anniversary shirts just like dad, so we have a picture of me and the Nuimos below) for Ruby, and I found out later when viewing the photopass pictures...got to see the orange bird. How lucky!
On our ride back to the mainland, we saw mom and sam in the distance, and had them get in line for us for Thunder Mountain. Seriously, this line was almost all the way to Country Bears, yet it moved very quickly and ended up being about a 35 minute wait. Disney has some mad behind the scenes manipulation of lines and wait time postings that are very manipulative, but who am I to talk business tactics as they obviously succeed with no issues sucking the money from people like mouselike vampires. hahaha...but it is so much fun once you are on that runaway train...three hills to go up! Who does that? Only Disney. Thunder Mountain is pretty great ride. Again we found gum on Ruby's shoe in this line though, so we all immediately started looking for Aunt Katie. First ride of the day by 5pm.
Our day was pretty slow though as the crowds had arrived for the MLK holiday, so we once again sat near Pirates and the kids went on another Pirate Adventure, and they actually completed all 5 adventures while Magan and I waited. I love watching them walk off together, and I have already added enough words about that, so I will just let the pictures tell the stories. After their pirate adventures, we went over to have a snack at Pinochiohaus, and got my favorite seat so we could wave to the families on It's a Small World. We also got some pictures of Rapunzels castle since Ruby was dressed as her that day. I love the picture below of Ruby holding her hand out. She has been trained by the photopass people that if you hold your hand out, then magical things will show up in the pictures. Well, I guess she will find out one day that her momma and me do not have that disney magic.
We then broke up to let the boys go over to Tomorrowland, while me and the girls saw some princesses, then finally got to ride the Ariel ride. We had been in the Ariel ride line about 4 times already with me bailing after getting to the line and saying, Nope, I can't wait for this ride this long. But on this night, we finally hit it with about a 10 minute line, which is the most you should ever wait for this ride. I still remember Ruby coming out of the Ariel ride, and looking up at the sky saying "Dad, is that sky real?" And she was right, the sky was amazing...Disney is pretty good, but not that good. :)
So it was now crunch time, and we knew we were not going to see fireworks, so we got in line for the Mine Train trying to time it perfectly for a quicker line during fireworks, and we missed the window slightly, but oh, what a fun ride. We were on the very front car of the mine train at the exact time the fireworks were going off. It was great clanking up the big hill on this ride staring straight into the firework display. Then the ride was over, and based on the music and the fireworks, our window of no lines on the rides was coming to a close. So we jumped off the ride and ran directly to Peter Pan where we not only heard the end of the fireworks, we heard the stampede of people behind us going straight toward the pan ride. We made it in the line, then thru the maze of rooms that hides the fact that this line goes on forever...we made it the the last room and within 10 families of the front of the line...and that is when the Lightning Laners arrived. Slytherin thoughts crept inter our minds as we watched 40 lightning laners enter for every 2 in our standby line. And we ended up waiting about 25 minutes because we were about 3 minutes from the perfect window. Ha, that's my story, if Ruby and Belle tell it, it is just smiles that "We got to ride on the front of the Mine Train, then we ran over and rode Peter Pan". And really that was it, a perfect end to another disney day. The lightning lane complaints are just for me and magan, and anyone still reading here.
Before we left we also stopped at Casey's Corner for some cheese fries and probably the weirdest thing we tried on this whole trip...the 50th Anniversary Hot Dog (All-beef hot dog topped with strawberry bacon jam, crisp funnel cake pieces, and powdered sugar). Yeah, I don't know. We finished it though. But how do you end this day, we still had to say our goodbyes to the Magic Kingdom. No matter how many days you spend at disney, you have to turn back at the end of main street, and wave to the castle, the symbol of magic in the happiest place on earth.
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