Day 5...the last of Disney

Well, it was our last day in Disney and we planned on filling every minute with excitement. Once again we needed to visit 2 parks so it was bound to be a busy day. By this time in the week, we had gotten smarter about breakfast and either got take out from the Gingerbread House or called the doughnut cart to stop by our villa. Jamahl loved the doughnut cart! It was a little decked out golf cart that had fruit, cereal, doughnuts, coffee, and juice. It would come right to our villa and Jamahl would take the girls out to meet it in their pajamas. The kids thought that we should get a doughnut cart for home! Wouldn’t that be nice?
Throughout the week we all made sure that a few special things happened. Keyan got to meet Ariel, Abagayle got to meet Cinderella and see the castle, Sidney had met Spiderman, and Jamahl had gotten to the dinosaurs. We had one special thing left and that was to get McKenzy to see Wall-e. I had done a lot of research on where to find a Wall-e and received great advice from a mom on-line. She gave me very specific directions, which was a good thing because we never would have found him on our own. To find Wall-e we had to start our day at MGM studios. I did not tell McKenzy that we were on a Wall-e hunt because I did not want to get her hopes up in case we were unable to find the crazy robot. The weather was great, not so humid, and everyone was in a good mood. We got our strollers, piled in and were off. We followed the signs to the animation studio, went thru the gift shop, made it past all of the breakable art, walked down some steps and there was Wall-e! Now, I must say, that his Wall-e was pretty pathetic. All it was a two dimensional piece of cardboard. But that did not matter to McKenzy. She spotted her favorite robot as soon as we entered the room and she screamed until she had that piece of cardboard in a bear hug. She hugged and hugged her Wall-e, walked all around it admiring him from all sides, and made sure to spot all of his pictures all over the walls. She was so cute. You would have thought that she was meeting royalty. While we began to drag her away from Wall-e there was some commotion in the other side of the room. We all stopped to figure out what was going on and were surprised to see Mickey coming out to greet people in his sorcerer’s clothes. The kids ran over and we were the second family in line. It was the first time in our trip that we had actually been up close to Mickey. Keyan could not get over the fact that she was standing in front of Mickey. The girls all hugged Mickey, nearly knocking him over, they pulled his ropes, they all touched his nose and in the end, we had to pull them all away from Mickey. I think they would have spent all day just playing with that beloved Mouse. So much excitement and it was only 10:30 in the morning!
From the animation studio we went to the Playhouse Disney Show. We got seats right up front and all the kids, including Jamahl, really liked seeing some of the characters that they see on TV. We saw The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang, Pooh and his friends, Handy Manny and the tools, and The Little Einstein’s. I loved seeing all my kids sing along, clap, pat, and dance to the familiar songs. They smiled and squealed with glee over and over again. After the show we decided to split up again so that Jamahl and Paul could go do some boy stuff. They headed off to the Indiana Jones stunt show and the girls were off to see Beauty and the Beast. Yet again, when Mom and I got to the show and showed the man at the gate our guest assistance pass we were directed all the way down front. We had the BEST seats in the whole theater to watch Belle. The show was unbelievable! It was just like a condensed version of the Broadway musical. The costumes were great, the dancing was incredible and the singing was even better. All four girls were so mesmerized, they hardly moved the entire 30 minutes. The Beast was very realistic and Keyan was a little unsure about him. In the end of course, the Beast turns into a Prince and Keyan was ecstatic! For the next 5 hours she told us over and over again that “the Beast was scary, but he turned into a prince!” That really made an impact on her because she just kept talking and talking about it.
We met back up with the guys for lunch. The restaurant we ate in was set up like a movie set. Jamahl enjoyed looking around at all of the stuff. He flip flops between being a movie producer and an archeologist when he grows up so he was totally in his element. The girls figured out that there was chocolate pudding for dessert but when Mommy made them take their shirts off to eat it they thought that I was crazy. There was no way that I was taking the chance of ruining their beautiful Minnie shirts. Several people were staring at them but any mom of a 3 year old just nodded and smiled. After lunch we got a picture in front of Mickey’s big blue hat and then headed off to the Magic Kingdom.
Right away I knew we were in for a treat of an afternoon because as we were entering the park, the mid-day parade went right by. We caught the whole thing. Abagayle really enjoyed it, Keyan was sleeping, McKenzy got excited when the characters went by, Jamahl, thought it was pretty cool, and Sidney could only worry about the scads of Mickey shaped confetti that was all over the ground. Here we are, trying our best to somewhat control the germs and she is picking stuff off of the ground and putting it in MY pocket!!! Oh that child….I only wish that I could blame the obsessive compulsive side of the kids on Paul! The parade finished and it was on to phase two of our plan. We were going to work the park starting from the left and go around the castle to all of the different lands visiting the highlights of each area. We were on a tight schedule because the park closed at 7pm for a Halloween party and I was going to make sure that we got everything in. We headed off to our first spot when all of a sudden I stopped in my tracks…..there in front of me was the pineapple dole whip. This is my most favorite dessert and I had been really disappointed not to have found it thus far in our trip. You used to be able to get it all over Disney but apparently, they have changed that to this one Dole stand in Magic Kingdom. I was thrilled to veer off the plan so quickly for some treats. The kids all really liked the pineapple snack as well. Even Keyan could not get enough of the juice. For a girl who doesn’t eat anything by mouth, she was really digging that fresh pineapple juice. It was really cute to see her fighting Grammie for the last drink.
We finally got back to conquering the park after being energized. We hit all the favorites like “It’s a Small World”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “The Grand Prix”, and “Thunder Mountain”. I do not like roller coasters very much but have loved “Thunder Mountain” since I was five years old. I was convinced that Jamahl would love it too. Abby and McKenzy wanted to go also so we checked to see if they were tall enough and they just tall enough. So we all headed in to wait in line. We were getting closer and closer and Jamahl was getting more and more nervous. By the time we were next in line, he was crying and asking if he could just go back to Grammie. I tried to tell him that he would be glad that he rode it when it was all said and done but he was not buying it. I am sure we looked like “parents of the year”, forcing our child onto the rollercoaster. In the end…..he did not love it, he did not like it, in fact, he was very happy to be back on the ground and did not head our advice about rides anymore! A few days later, he decided that it was not so bad, it is amazing how time heals all wounds!
Our last stop in Magic Kingdom was to visit Toontown which is where we were able to meet some of the princesses again, see Mickey and Minnie’s houses, and meet the two mice as well. We got to bypass the two hour line to see Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle, walking right to the front of the line. The girls got to spend a little more time with each of the lovely ladies and also got to bid them farewell. McKenzy was dying to see Minnie’s house but we found out that the line for Mickey and Minnie was closing in three minutes so off we ran to find them. We were running all over the place, dragging kids this way and that and we could not find where to go. Suddenly, McKenzy falls and completely scrapes up her knee, she is screaming and everyone is looking! At the same time, Mom spotted the line and went rushing right thru the exit. A cast member stopped her as Mom explained that we were trying to find Mickey. The girl was about to turn us away when she saw Keyan’s MAW button. She radioed in to Mickey, led us thru the back door, and we did not even wait long enough for me to get baind-aids on McKenzy. The poor thing met Minnie with blood running down her legs. Who knew that we would leave Disney with battle wounds? This moment though, made everything we had been through worth it. When the doors opened to reveal both Mickey and Minnie, Keyan clasped her hands over her mouth and stood staring in amazement. We finally had to pull her up to them so we could get some pictures. It was so great to see the joy in their faces. It was a wonderful way to end our time in Disney.
When we were finished hugging our favorite mice, we toured Mickey’s house and then Minnie’s. The girls were quick to notice that Minnie did not have a bed. They kept asking where she slept and I finally just shrugged and told them she must sleep over at Mickey’s. Well, that must have made quite an impression because for about the next three days they asked everyone they saw if they knew that Mickey and Minnie slept together! I guess I should have come up with a more clever place for Minnie to sleep, like her couch. We did a few more odds and ends and then bid the “Happiest Place on Earth” goodbye. It was with heavy hearts and very tired bodies that we went to meet up with our nurse for dinner. We spent the rest of the night finding a place to eat in Downtown Disney, and finally buying the rest of our souvenirs. It was well after ten o’clock by the time we headed back to our villa. We were all a little sad but too tired to do anything more.