Day 10: Yep, today I lost it. And caused a scene.
Having kids involved in sports, dance and theater, you and your child get to see a lot of other parents. All kinds of parents. Inevitably, there are always those few who just have to express their displeasure about something rather loudly. And end up embarrassing their kid because they caused a scene. Im usually pretty quiet. Its a rare occasion that I actually am guilty of causing a scene. But...and Im embarrassed to admit it...I did today (albeit a little one.) More on that later
We started the day early because we had a breakfast reservation for Kona Café. I had to cancel the one on our last trip because my sleepy teenagers just couldnt get out of bed early after an unexpected 3 am closing at Magic Kingdom the night before. So this time we were bound and determined to make our reservation.
We went to the Magic Kingdom for a little while until it was time for our Kona reservation. We watched the opening, and watched the Main Street Dancers. I really do love the opening and first hour at the Magic Kingdom on Main Street. Such a great atmosphere! Since we were pretty much killing time until heading over the Polynesian, Andrew was patient while I practiced with my new camera a bit. I really hadnt noticed these little statues before, that surround the hub. Thats pretty bad for a crazy Disney fan like me.
We also rode the Jungle Cruise, as the wait time was much lower in the morning.
Then we hopped aboard the monorail to head over to Kona Café. I was able to get this shot through the monorail window and the Contemporary window. I think its cool how you can get Big Thunder, the castle, and Astro Orbiter all in one photo.
We were seated right as we arrived. I already knew what I wanted
the Tonga Toast! I had never tried it before. But first
I ordered a mocha because Id heard how good the Kona coffee is here. Which it was. I didnt get the pressed pot, though, which I think is what theyre really known for. If my coffee doesnt have chocolate in it, I really dont want it.
Andrew, teenage boy that he is, ordered the steak and eggs. He said it was great.
And I got the Tonga Toast, which I really loved. One thing, though. I had read on the DIS how wonderful the strawberry sauce was on it but
I didnt like it. I did, however, think it was delicious just with regular maple syrup. Extremely filling, though.
After our great breakfast, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom. More photo opportunities:
Main Street:
And another visit to the new FantasyLand. I told Andrew I wouldnt make him suffer through the Little Mermaid ride again, but I really wanted a few photos (and another LeFous Brew!):
After this, we were pretty hot and tired. So we decided to leave the Magic Kingdom and take a break somewhere else
not in a park.
We headed over to the Wilderness Lodge, because I had heard that there was a train room that had one of the little train cars that Walt had in his backyard. After we got to the Wilderness Lodge, we looked for the room, but we couldnt find it. I finally asked a cast member there, who directed me out of the main lodge, and down a walkway to their DVC building, and the room was in there. Im glad I didnt have any real big expectations, because it was really just a room, with a small display with two of the little cars. Thats about it. But the room was lovely, and if it were up here in Alaska where it is cold, with the fireplace going
.I could practically just move it. The Northwestern Lodge look is my favorite
hence my affection for Fort Wilderness, Frontierland, and the Canada pavilion.
However, Andrew was beyond bored, so we went to Downtown Disney to see if there was a movie to watch. Certainly, with all those screens, there had to be one. Right?
Wrong. We could not find one move that looked at all good. So we did the next best thing
eat! We headed to Cookes of Dublin. Now, over in Animal Kingdom, after we had ordered, we saw someone order the onion rings, and the amount served was enormous! I mean, there were a heaping ton of onion rings on the tray. So when Andrew saw onion rings on the menu, thats what we ordered. It was just a snack, so we shared them. And this is what we got:
Count = 5 onion rings. Thats it. They were good, but plentiful they were not. Like a good mom, I let Andrew have 3, and I ate 2. We also ordered a fried dough bar, which was amazing.
Seeing as we struck out on the movie idea, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom. We did quite a bit of stuff in Tomorrowland:
The Haunted House:
Big Thunder:
The River Boat:
And we saw the just re-opened and refurbished Country Bear Jamboree.
Seeing as the miniscule onion ring order did not leave us feeling particularly stuffed, we ate dinner at Pecos Bill, which may not be fancy, but does serve up a good burger.
Okay, now for confession time. Let me set the scene:
Ive already shared that Andrew is NOT a fan of parades. He had already watched quite a few with me, and we had already seen the Main Street Electrical Light parade, so I told him we didnt have to watch it again. We had just finished dinner at Pecos Bill. The parade was going on, and Andrew wanted to get to Tomorrowland, so we could ride Space Mountain (one of his favorites) and we couldnt get there through Frontierland. We set our game plan to go down to the hub, and skirt the back of the crowd on the sidewalk over to the path to Tomorrowland. Every parade that Ive seen at Disney, the cast members are really good at keeping a walkway clear behind the crowd watching the parade.
We werent the only ones doing this. So we got in a line of people also walking behind those watching the parade trying to get to the bridge. We got almost to the bridge to Tomorrowland, when everyone in the walking line abruptly stopped. We all just stood there for a minute or two, and then the person at the front of the line told everyone to turn around
there was just solid congestion and no way to get through. We tried to turn around to just get out of the congested mess, but now all those people previously walking behind us just stopped, and we were stuck in this nose-to-nose congestion
.with nowhere to go. I was starting to feel clausterphobic, and Andrew was not happy he had to stay in this bumper-to-bumper crowd to watch the parade. I was able to spy a little alcove off to the side, and Andrew and I were able to get over there and at least get out of the massive crowd and breathe. We just sat down on the pavement and waited for the parade to end.
So when the parade ends, I know it is going to be just crazy busy. We wait for awhile, but now the alcove we were in got very crowded (lots of people had parked their strollers there). So we really had no choice but to venture into the sea of people and try to get over to Tomorrowland. I told Andrew, Andrew, just go straight through, and Ill be right behind you. And I held onto his camera bag strap. It was that crazy crowded busy. People going two different ways
.just wall-to-wall. I am not used to, nor handle, that kind of crowd
I get clausterphobic. In retrospect, I should have arranged a meeting spot to meet up with Andrew...it was too hard to try and stay together.
Were about halfway up the bridge (which is taking forever, because youre not really walking
too crowded for that
so more like shuffling) when this lady pushed forward really hard, hard enough to knock my hand off of Andrews camera bag strap, and other people got between us. But Andrew didn't notice, so he keeps going, and Im afraid I am going to lose him in the crowd. Now granted, he is 14, and he wouldnt have been lost, but still, I had wanted to try and stay together as much as possible. This ladys husband was behind her, but when I lost hold of Andrew, I then surged forward to try and catch up with him as best I could, which then cut off the lady's husband. See this mess?
At this time, the lady turns around, and instead of her husband, sees me. So she shouts to her husband (now behind me) Why didnt you keep up? To which he replies, Well, I tried to, but THIS LADY (me) cut me off!! And it was not said in a very friendly tone. It was pretty much yelled.
Now, I should have just let it go. I know. I should have just let it slide. I admit that. But I was so freaked out feeling from the wall-to-wall crowd, and getting away from Andrew, that I turned around and said, Well actually, SHE (the other lady) cut me off from my son. Its just crazy crowded. I didnt yell, really I didnt. But I was probably more curt than I should have been. At this point, I had pretty much caught back up with Andrew, and I could see the unspoken thought on his face
Mom, please dont cause a scene. Hopefully it wasn't too big of a scene. But I wish I hadnt said anything. I was hoping the rest of the night I wouldnt see those two in line for an attraction or something. And we didnt.
I guess in the big scope of things, if thats the most I lost it on the trip, maybe it wasnt so bad.