Disney World: The Arrival
Day 1: We are at home,early in the morning, with me timidly asking if I can go for a short run (super short, like twenty minutes, tops). My husband belly laughs for the first time all week. My parents show up mid-morning since they are our ride to the airport, and I text our cat sitter to make sure she is clear on how important our animals are to our hearts. On the way to the airport I began to panic, a tight smile plastered on my face, as I realize the gravity of what we are doing. We are flying out of state with children by ourselves. We are going to be spending the next five days in a very small hotel room. Dear Lord, help me, I pray fervently, help me to be a good mother and wife and friend on this trip and not flip out about things like stains on clothing, eating too much ice cream, or roller coaster riding.
Spoiler alert- we made it to Disney’s All-Star resort in one piece. Turns out our kids like flying- especially our son, until he realized half way through that I wasn’t going to let him head to the cockpit to take charge of the landing. Our hotel room was clean and they were able to provide a crib. I had remembered the princess gowns. We even had toothbrushes for everyone. We were winning.
Most Magical Place on Earth (Photo by Sandro Gonzalez )
We basically dropped our stuff at the hotel before rushing right back out. One late night, Carl at Disney Dining Services, convinced me we would want a “wonderful, home cooked meal” upon our arrival at Walt Disney World. I pictured a warm plate of lasagna and a generous pour of red wine. What I had not pictured was what two preschoolers look like when they come off a plane. I don’t think I need to go into details, but suffice it to say, there is never any reason to think that you are going to be relaxing over a sit down meal.
We headed to Maria and Enzo’s Ristorante in Disney Springs. I only have the vaguest memories of Downtown Disney and have to say that Disney Springs is impressive. Lots of fun shops and stores that we hurried past because there were these crazy giant balloons everywhere that cost $20. Everywhere. It was like a PacMan game, except instead of eating you, they want to take your money and give your child an expensive object that can float away on their whim.
Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash
Truly, they were everywhere. And truly, my overtired, over excited kids were, over tired and over excited. But I kept the smile plastered on my face because DISNEY! WE ARE IN DISNEY! and we rushed to what turned out to be a pretty nice sit down. So we sat down. For the first time in about 14 hours. At least Matt and I sat down, while the other two in our party were insane. And I had the most amazing gnocchi, which you should also have.
I don’t think everyone was asleep until after 10 p.m., which truly threw a wrench into Matt’s plan to hit the parks at rope drop (fancy name for opening). For the first time in the history of sleep in our household, no one wanted to rise at the crack of dawn, and it was finally up to me to get people moving. Since I had packed a grocery store in my suitcase, it was easy to feed people before hypoglycemia took over, especially since there are dedicated cartoon channels in hotel rooms.
We finally made it out, and to the bus stop to get to Animal Kingdom. One of the perks of staying in the All Star resorts is that they are very close to Animal Kingdom. We were there within ten minutes, and I was ready to implement Plan Safari. Essentially it is my favorite ride at Disney World. I love it, and I knew the kids would love it, and I knew that the best time to experience the Safari was early in the morning or late in the evening when the animals were actually active. So we rushed back there, skirting people, and jogging when there was room.
I shoved the stroller through the last of the crowds, even though it was tempting to be distracted by the African drummers. And that’s when I saw the line. It was 9:15 a.m. and the line for the Safari ride was 105 minutes long. Do that math. 105 minutes. I knew when we booked the trip that the chances of us getting a fast pass had been slim to none, but to get back there and realize there was no way we were getting on that ride still hit me.
“What do you want to do?” Matt asked.
“Get in line!” I snapped, “And I’ll figure out what to do.”
I looked around, at so many people crowding into the lines, at happier people heading through the fast pass section, and held back tears. There was so much riding on this trip for me. There was a CM (cast member) standing nearby, smiling cheerfully at everyone while holding an iPad. I took a deep breath.
“Hi!” I said with all the cheer I could muster (I feel it is important to note that at this point no one in our family had had coffee). “Hi! How are you?”
“Oh, I’m great!” Shane said cheerfully.
“Awesome! Listen, we’re a little disappointed. We rushed back here, and I wasn’t expecting the lines to be this long. Is there a good time to come back? We have a two and five year old, and there is no way we can wait in line for this long.”
“Oh,” she said, the smile dropping briefly, “Well, this ride stays pretty busy, but you could come back in the evening! You just have to be in line by 8:30 to be guaranteed a spot!”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that my kids were running on a very minimal amount of sleep, and we were probably not even going to get back to the hotel for rest because of our fast pass times, and everything was falling apart twenty four hours into our vacation.
“Okay! Well, thanks so much!” I waved Matt and the kids out of line, and he walked over to us, pushing the stroller. “We’re just going to have to skip it. Sorry, guys.”
“Wait. Are there only four of you?” Shane’s eyes lit up. Long story short, we got on the Safari ride. And it was further confirmation to me that if you are nice, sometimes, good things will happen to you. It was so much fun that when a fast pass appeared later that afternoon for an evening safari, we grabbed it and let the kids stay up late again. Call it the circle of life.
Kill ’em with kindness! Southern charm never hurts! Plus I think Disney CM really care about the experience everyone has there. I remember when we were waiting in a line for Avery to meet Cinderella & Rapunzel, and it ended up being longer than the sign indicated, that she started to whine and lose her patience. As we got to the front, she could see a display case with Cinderella’s glass slipper but the rope kept her from getting close and she was crying. A CM came over and asked why she was crying and he seemed very genuinely concerned. I explained that she really wanted to see the glass slipper but couldnt get to it… and he was like ‘oh, no problem’.. opened the ropes and let Avery stare at the case with her nose against it until her heart was content.