There was hoola hooping going on in Main Street – irresistible to DD. She is fairly good at it (not me – I’m hopeless) so we stopped to let her have some fun. One of the CM’s was admiring her skills with the hoop and telling her to do things, like hop 3 times on one leg, shuffle round in a circle and goodness knows what else. She was loving it!
After about half an hour with the hoops we strolled over to Tomorrowland. We were going to watch the parade in Frontierland, as is our habit so it made sense to do what we wanted on this side of the park first. We hovered around the TTA, but a quick discussion and we agreed that with the long line, any unforeseen delays would ruin our plans for the parade. We noticed that the Carousel of Progress had a 5 minute wait time posted. I was convinced DD would hate it and she claimed that she didn’t remember anything about it
, but I didn’t say anything when she enthusiastically jumped at the suggestion and we went through the entrance. We sat down and giggled as quietly as we could when a CM gave the usual ‘instructions’ in English (??)
virtually impossible to understand. During the second scene, a family decided they weren’t enjoying it or needed to leave for whatever reason and got up and exited.
Everything came to a grinding halt and the voice came piercing through the speakers, saying something along the lines of “Everyone to be sitting all the time. Nobody can go before you are finished”. This time everyone roared with laughter and I suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over me
– I had felt a little mean while giggling away with DD (and guilty for instigating it) earlier, but somehow felt justified by the fact that I was apparently in good company. The scene we had been busy watching started from the beginning again (to the sound of groans and loud sighs – not us this time). When it was over, we didn’t move. The voice came back telling us we would “watch again”. And the same scene started for the third time, with the sound of chuckling and snickering carrying on all the way through. Okay, this time we also played a part and I made a mental note to try and act my age ..... Then my thoughts drifted to how much I pay for a holiday where I
CAN ditch the high heels, make up and, er ..... acting my age and decided that I had earned my right to misbehave, having paid top dollar for the privilege.
We eventually exited the attraction and I asked what DD thought of it. “It’s great! Can we do it again?” So you think you know your kids!
Time to move over to Frontierland, stopping to grab a Buzz Lightyear fast pass on the way. I don’t like sitting for hours waiting for a parade but it is necessary if you want a decent view. I always feel like I could be doing something else instead. So we would use our usual useful time strategy: eat while we wait. We went into Pecos Bills. It was VERY busy so I hit the queue and sent DD to sit in the corner colouring in. We got a chicken salad wrap, kids turkey sandwich, juices and a chocolate cake. Oh and fries were on the tray but I have no idea what meal they came with as I didn’t order them.
EDIT: There is meant to be a picture here, but it just won't allow me to post it. You'll have to do the Figment thing and use your imagination.
We took our tray a little way down, across the road and found the white tape. This is very important. Don’t just stand behind the ropes. Find the tape, sit with your feet ON it and guard it. Can you tell we are used to busy parks? There was still an hour to go so we could take our time with our meal. I made sure that we sat directly opposite a trash can so I could get a clear run to dump the tray and rush back. (Can you tell we’ve done this before?) We were ready to tuck in. No, not quite – where was the chocolate cake? (You'll see it wasnt on the tray in the picture above). I told DD to sit tight and scooted the tray beside her so that it would mark my spot while I ran back to Pecos Bills. I had to get in line behind several others who had returned to collect missing items but it only took a few minutes. I raced back and DD reprimanded me for being so long – she said so many people kept asking if someone was sitting there.
I told her that those were very nice people because at least they asked. I noticed two children, brother and sister probably, standing behind us, possibly aged around 10 and 7 respectively. There was still some room to my left and I got DD to move up and little and we invited them to come and sit there. What lovely children.
We had the most wonderful time sitting and talking to them. It was their first trip and they were with their grandparents who were standing a row or two back and popped over every now and then to check on them. It was so much fun listening to their first experiences, all the highs of their trip, what they were doing the next day ....
We had glo sticks in the park bag which I suddenly remembered so I pulled them out and the kids shared them and entertained each other (and me) with all their creations.
It was almost parade time and the tray, still with quite a lot of food on it, was going to be a problem so I nipped the 10 steps across the street to the trashcan and trotted back to find a swarm of people standing asking my somewhat bewildered looking daughter if my spot was taken. They all looked so disappointed to see me when I got back!
We enjoyed MSEP and I was glad we made the effort. I still prefer Specto, but to be fair, I think that will always be sentimentally special to me. We bade farewell to our new friends and fought the crowds back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz. The queue for the TTA (I still call it the TTA – DD keeps correcting me and telling me it’s the Peoplemover since that is the largest part of the name).
We strolled around Tomorrowland for a short while and agreed we should call it a day and beat the mass exodus at park closing. We stopped at MSB to grab a couple of cinnamon rolls and headed out of the park at around 10 pm.
Somewhere during the course of the day, this had appeared in our room.
Got it right
Our parade strategy still worked for us. You usually meet some nice people while waiting so to us, having a meal while waiting, chatting to people while the time passes, is like having a meal out with friends.
Leaving the park a little before closing saved us the big rush at the end and we walked onto a nearly empty bus and had a comfortable trip back to our resort. A peaceful ending to a really lovely day.
Could have done differently:
I don’t know what got into me this year with the criss crossing the park between parades/fireworks. We hadn’t intended to get a FP for Buzz and the plan was to stick with Frontierland after the parade. It occurred to me when we were eating our supper that this could be a problem, but we survived and it wasn’t as bad as the first night.
Next up: Day 8 – Ohana, Epcot and MK Evening EMH