Better than Mickey

Day 6 at Disney World.   First let's start with the good news.   There was a phone call to the house this morning and someone had turned in David's bag.   On top of that, everything was still in it, including the iPad and cash.   Altogether now ... Hallelujah!  Great news to start the day.  So with that start to the day, everything else was gravy.   And you know how good gravy tastes.

We started off a little slow, still feeling the effects of a late night last night.   Abby & Emily were going with Grandma and Papa Bear to Magic Kingdom, and we decided to head back to Hollywood Studios to get a couple rides in before going to Magic Kingdom.   Two rides turned into 5 but that's quite okay because they have stellar rides, as reported in past blogposts.

We hit Toy Story Mania (yes, I'm the champ), Star Tours (an even better adventure than the last time we went on it), Aerosmith's Rock 'N RollerCoaster (twice for Caleb), and The Tower of Terror.   The Tower of Terror was especially important, as Caleb had stubbornly refused to go on it the last two times we were at the park.  We asked him again today and got the same response, no way.  We tried to bribe him with ice cream but that didn't work either.   The thing that caught his attention was a deal to have Josh not talk for an hour if Caleb went on the Tower.   Caleb was all for that, although Joshua wasn't too happy (and like that could ever happen anyway).   As we went into the hotel Caleb started to get nervous.  It hit its peak when the Twilight Zone movie started.   Caleb purposefully turned away from the TV screen so as not to see anything.   Every 20 seconds or so, he'd get up enough courage to have a quick look, but the looks didn't last more than a couple seconds at most, then he was back to staring the opposite way.   He was totally fine once we left that room until we sat down in the elevator and the story started again.   Once again he buried his head until the story was done.  Finally the ride started and he loosened up.   He even put his hands up for a portion of the ride.   When we were finally finished, he turned to me and said "that wasn't too bad at all" but just like his sister, when asked if he wanted to go on it again, he gave a resounding "NO!"

After Hollywood Studios we made our way back to Magic Kingdom.   The monorail wasn't working so we had to take the ferryboat over and Tawny absolutely loves doing that.   Cramped quarters, hot & sweaty (not to mention stinky) people stepping on her toes and invading her personal space.   It's truly one of the highlights for her.

When we arrived in Magic Kingdom we had a few minutes to spare before getting Abby, so we went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (aka AstroBlasters in Cali) and yes, I'm the champ of that too.

When we picked up Abby, we also met up with Shane & Becky and Declan and the rest of our night was about the rides.   Try and get on as many as we could.   And because of Declan, we got parent passes, or switch tickets or as they're now dubbed "Declan Passes" which allowed 3 riders to go on at a time.   This, combined with effective Fast Passing, allowed us to get on a slew of rides.  Space Mountain (2 times), Buzz Lightyear, Speedway (2 times), Splash Mountain (2 times), Thunder Mountain (2 times), Pirates of the Caribbean & Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride.   We pretty much closed the park down.   It was a blast and a ton of fun and a great way to end Magic Kingdom.

While everyone went on Space Mountain, I volunteered to take Declan. We were walking around and I happened to glance over my shoulder and who was there but none other than Alain Vigneault. I gave him a quick "Hey Coach" and he turned gave me a big smile and I said to him "Great season!" He shook my hand, said thanks and added that we needed just 1 more game.  This will be the year!

Even though Declan didn't get his picture taken with any of the Disney Characters, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get our picture taken with Coach V. He happily obliged. While Declan won't understand this for a few more years, it was better than meeting Mickey Mouse.