Disney has figured out a lot of stuff to make your visit magical. The transit system (bus, boat, monorail, skyliner) get you to and from the parks. The incredible customer service from cast members who great you from the moment you enter to the moment you leave (I've lost count how many "happy birthdays" I've received). And the food, oh, yum, the food in the parks has been world class! All that said though, there's just one thing Disney can't control:
The weather.
RDB and I were planning to drive the campground this morning for our park n' drive series, but the rain definitely put a damper on that project. Good news though, we're set up in the camper to enjoy even the rainiest of days! And it's only appropriate that our movie selection this morning was based on the preview we saw yesterday at Hollywood Studios - Turning Red! ./`./`./` Never met nobody like you! ./`./`./`
So glad we were moved to this other site, as this was another downpour of a storm. Also glad we hadn't planned to be in the parks early; we have a dinner reservation over at the Wilderness Lodge around 5pm, and the Magic Kingdom has late hours tonight till 11pm, so we'll go over to the park after dinner and watch fireworks, maybe ride a few rides if the crowds have thinned out.
Once the storm passed thru, we left the Disney bubble to go back over to the local Mexican joint we found when we first arrived and had lunch again (those chips, y'all! I wish I could take them back home with me! The service? Still lacking.)
A trip over to the Target to resupply on a few items and then back to the campground to drive around and video the loops. I figured it would take around and hour and a half - 28 loops, the main drag being a mile and half long - and, it was near check in time, which meant we got stopped several times behind campers backing into their sites.
It took longer than we thought - and we ended up no-showing to our dinner reservations, but in the end, we know it's worth it; RDB's YouTube channel of park n' drives has been a great addition to our blog and people really find it helpful to have a little insight before you go.
We caught a bus and made our way over to the Magic Kingdom for our last day in the park. We had already done so many of the rides that I wanted to on our first day, but wanted to save the fireworks for our lat night on this trip - and I'm so glad we did.
Coming back into the park at night is a completely different experience! The crowds were certainly more concentrated down Main Street - everyone jockeying for their perfect position to watch the show. I was still on my search for a pair of souvenir earrings - which I was able to find there in the shops of main street while we made our way towards the castle to find our own space to watch the show.
A perfect pair of Minnie hoops with a simple ruby stone. They'll be a unique addition to my collection of other earrings that remind me of such sweet and memorable trips. That, and they'll go nicely with the tiara I saved for tonight.
RDB and I bundled up for the evening - dragging out our hooded sweatshirts as the temp had dropped dramatically after the rainstorm from the morning had cleared out. We huddled together to the right of the castle, near the entrance to Tomorrowland, with a fence and large concrete post to the front and side of us. (I'm not a huge fan of crowds, perhaps even a bit fearful, and so finding a place where I could step over the short fence to safety if the crowd crushed made me feel comfortable).
But there was no need to fear this crowd - we were all there to celebrate the magic that is Enchantment at Disney's Magic Kingdom! With a swirl of music, dancing projections on the castle face, and the BOOM of the first firework, we were in for a great show!
Fifteen minutes of pure magic later, I had tears in my eyes; much like watching the rocket launch at the start of our trip was a life long bucket-list item, I realized that standing here, in front of Cinderella's Castle, watching the fireworks at the end of an epic birthday trip, was a childhood dream come true.
Once they opened the tunnel under the castle up after fireworks (and the vast majority of the crowd had cleared out) RDB and I left the safety of our spot and walked thru the castle to the back of the park. I could have spent hours in that hallway looking at the incredible mosaics there, telling the story of Cinderella in beautiful pieces of shattered glass.
Greeting us on the other side was Prince Charming's Carousel....
...and I was suddenly taken back to my childhood trips to Six Flags Over Texas - where the first ride, and often times the last ride, of the day was the carousel centered as a showpiece at the front of the park. A Six Flag day pales in comparison to the Disney experience, but the carousel is universal. A classic. And with no wait, RDB and I ran around the fences and jumped onto our trusty steeds, ready for the magic to begin as the music started and up-and-down and round-and-round we went.
It was like I was a kid again. *sigh* The joke I'd made of going to Disney World to pretend I was 4 again for my 4x10th birthday suddenly wasn't a joke anymore. Being here was was a chance to step away from all the stress of work, the difficulties of "adulting" and look at the world thru eyes glossy with tears from so much fun and so many dreams come true - and it was all too soon that this dream of a vacation was coming to an end.
We went on one last ride - Peter Pan's Flight, so cute, and so worth the little bit of a wait, and then slowly made our way back towards Main Street and beyond that, the waiting buses to take us back to the camp ground, stopping at a few PhotoPass photographers along the way for just... one... more...
Walt Disney had an incredible dream, that he pursued into an amazing experience, which we had the absolute pleasure to enjoy, and to think:
It all started with a mouse.
No comments:
Post a Comment