| Friday 12 October | |
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Day 28 – Friday 12th October 2007 Goodbye Magic Kingdom Oh wow, what a strange feeling to say finally say goodbye to Disney & Magic Kingdom. We caught the ferry from Magic Kingdom back to the carpark tonight, and was surreal to watch it slip away into the distance. All the kids were discussing how they would come back with their children (to the point of even reducing the number of children they have so they can get back sooner!!) Lauren presented Michael and I with a Mickey sticker (they hand them out often in the park), to thank us for bringing them on such a good holiday. Couldn’t resist giving them the little dig of ‘lets hope when you could back with your children they’re grateful and happy to have such a good holiday and don’t whinge, moan or fight with each other whenever things don’t suit them perfectly’! This was actually our first day at a Disney theme park on our own, was easier to coordinate a party of 5 rather than 9 (with the Walkers or Lucas’). I found I was so in the habit of getting off a ride and looking for the rest of the group though that I kept doing so for much of the day. Brayden in particular obviously had high plans for his perfect last day at Disney, whenever we had to wait longer than anticipated or hit any snag he was getting frustrated……obviously in his mind this was meant to be the dream day where we stepped straight onto the rides and it all flowed beautifully. We did have moments like that though, the best was actually being part of the Disney family parade. The Lucas’ had done so last week and warned us what to look out for, and sure enough we were able to get selected to all carry pom poms with Daisy Duck (had a routine and all to do, was quite exhausting – 8 straight down, 8 straight up, 4 diagonal up, 4 diagonal down on left and right side, every now and then you got a break to wave at the crowd, that was such a relief). We were right in front of the marching band in the parade, boy do they make a noise. Was a real pinch yourself moment, particularly when all these people enroute were videoing and photographing us (just shows that the Yanks will take photos of anything!) At the end of the parade our pom poms were switched for American flags, and we were all positioned around Main St Square while dancers did these ra-ra American numbers (Yankee Doodle Dandy etc etc). We were told to wave the flag and ‘sing along’, unfortunately we knew none of the uplifting American songs, so felt very odd standing there as 5 Aussies. Lauren said to me at the end ‘but we’re Australian not American’, even Brayden was wishing for an Aussie flag. Was a real magic moment though, we were all grinning and buzzing along after that. Speaking of buzz, I must mention my proudest moment. There is a Buzz Lightyear ride here where you ride and shoot at targets and everyones scores are totalled. Kids have done several times over our 3 Magic Kingdom Days, Brayden & Michael score very high (over 100,000) and I’m lucky to make 20,000. When we rode today it was the 2 boys on 1 cart, and 3 girls on the other. We finished and the boys were yahooing about their great scores (about 100,000 each I think), and I was able to shock the life out of them by showing my score – 267,000…..the highest ever (ie from the Lucas/Walkers/Morris’). Goodness only knows how I did it, and I’m sure it will never happen again, but the look on total shock on their faces when I showed them will remain with me for a long time!! We did a ‘storytime with Belle’ (from Beauty & the Beast) session today, and Michael was chosen to play the Beast. Was very funny, he had to wear a Beast cloak, roar, and eventually turn into a handsome prince. Will put a photo up of it. Also got a photo with Ariel (the Little Mermaid), which involved queuing for 40mins. Hayley (& Michael!) had fond memories of the her from LA in 2000, but we were all a bit shocked with this Ariel. She had the usual costume (long tail, and bikini top made from 2 large shells), but also had this strange blotchy red rash over her chest, and was fairly well built (Lauren’s comment after we’d left was ‘I think that Ariel needs to go to Jenny Craig’!) Very funny, but quite unusual for the normally picture perfect Disney. Interesting how Disney rotates their staff, Lori-Lee had noticed people doing 1 role in Magic Kingdom one day, then saw the same staff at another park a few days later. Some people you recognise because of their unusual names, we noticed our first double up today when the lady who was Ariel at our character a lunch a few weeks ago at Epcot was a cowgirl in ‘Woody’s Roundup’ at Magic Kingdom today. They must move them around a lot to keep them fresh. Whatever they do in their training program is very effective, the staff without fail are so upbeat, fun and polite, part of the magic that makes Disney such a lovely place to visit. After the girls had the hair wraps the other day, we called back to Downtown Disney tonight for Brayden to have his tattoo. He loves the ‘Sorcerer Mickey’ so was able to get that on his arm. He’s dying to show it off at school next week (will also load as photo). It’s after midnight, and as this is the last decent sleep we will get for sometime I really need to hit the hay. I’ll load a few photos tonight for our last update, and will need to spend about 5hrs in Harvey Norman on our return to develop them all. We’ve just added up the hours on our return trip – 32 hours from first flight tomorrow to arrival at Wagga 12.40pm Monday 15th. Hoping to see all the grandparents there, goodness knows we’ll probably be completely feral after that long with minimal sleep, so we’ll be a sight to see! |