In Part 6, I covered the unusual circumstances that lead to our Fall 2008 Orlando trip. After a bit of a rough start, we were finally ready to visit some of Orlando’s theme parks. Mindy’s priority was Sea World which made it my priority as well.
Sea World is different from most Disney parks. They have a few rides, but the main attractions at Sea World are shows. Our first show of the day was Pets Ahoy! This is a really cute show in which cats, dogs and other domestic animals perform adorable little tricks. Josie at age 7 would love this show. But three-year-old Josie didn’t have the patience for any show. Even one with cute little puppies.
Josie squirmed through the whole thing. Eventually, I had to take her out of the theater while Mindy and her parents watched the end of the show. We went back in after the show was over. The trainers were out with some of the animals. Ordinarily, Josie would take any chance to pet dogs. She volunteers at an animal shelter and loves it. Her last birthday party was at a farm. But on this trip, she was in a mood.
Mindy loves dolphins the way Josie loves puppies. On our honeymoon, Mindy had taken the Dolphins in the Depths tour at Epcot. So her two must-dos for Sea World were to see the dolphin show and feed the dolphins. I figured out that we had just enough time to catch the show before feeding time started.
Once again, this was a show Josie would have enjoyed today. But she had decided that she hated shows. No show was going to make her happy. She squirmed and fidgeted in her seat.
When it was over, we raced Mindy over to where she could feed the dolphins. There was a long wait to do so, but Mindy had her heart set on it. I tried to keep Josie entertained while Mindy waited her turn. It was hot and I estimate the wait was approximately 30-45 minutes. Josie was wearing down.
Eventually, Mindy’s turn came to feed the dolphins. At this point, Josie could see her mom. We were separated by some landscaping. Josie took off like a shot. Before I knew it, she was standing next to her mom petting and feeding dolphins as though she had waited in line the entire time. I don’t think anyone minded.
By this point, everyone was tired. We decided to call it quits early that day. Our passes were good all week, so we planned to come back and see the other shows. But we never did. Which is probably for the best. Josie’s attitude towards shows never changed throughout this trip. Sea World just wasn’t going to appeal to her at all. At least Mindy got to see her dolphins before we left.
Our next day was spent at Sea World’s newly opened water park, Aquatica. We aren’t water park people at all. But we enjoyed Aquatica quite a bit. There are a few animal exhibits which differentiate Aquatica from your average water park. But by far our favorite attraction was Roa’s Rapids.
Roa’s Rapids is basically a lazy river. But the water jets have been cranked up and push you forward much faster than your typical lazy river. If you just float, you will be propelled at a pretty decent pace. But if you make any effort whatsoever, you will feel like an Olympic swimmer.
My description doesn’t do this attraction justice. You really need to experience it for yourself. But here is a YouTube video to give you the general idea:
Josie absolutely loved this. We put her in a life jacket and she was able to float around the rapids completely on her own. I followed closely behind her, of course. And any time we reached an area that might spray her, I had to steer her to safety. But other than that she just rode the waves in loop after loop. We spent hours in Roa’s Rapids.
Finally, we reached the Disney portion of our trip. My primary reason for taking the trip in the first place was to experience Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom as quickly as we could following Josie’s nap.
Unfortunately, Josie was still cranky. On the last trip, she wasn’t a big fan of rides. But she loved meeting the characters. This time, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the characters. We pushed past all of the characters in Main Street looking for something Josie would want to do.
Apparently she had spotted some kind of candy in one of the stores we passed and had decided that she had to have it. Unfortunately, she didn’t speak up right away. So we had to double back to find the exact candy that caught her eye. Absolutely no substitute would suffice.
Finally we found a little bag of chocolate coins. We made our purchase and Josie was satisfied. We unwrapped a coin and gave it to her. She didn’t like it. Of course, I can hardly blame her. They were the kind of cheap candy that contains no real chocolate. But after having searched every store in Main Street to obtain the specific coins she demanded, I was a little irritated that she wouldn’t touch them.
We searched high and low for something Josie would do. But she wouldn’t do anything. Finally, she agreed to wait in line to meet Ariel at her grotto. Ariel was Josie’s favorite princess at the time. And there was a little play area which was appealing to her. Josie seemed to be coming out of her mood. I was excited to see things turning around.
My focus was entirely on making Josie happy. In my tunnel vision, I hadn’t noticed that it was meal time. Maybe even half-past meal time depending how you track these things. My father-in-law had one thing on his mind. And it wasn’t mermaids.
My father-in-law’s top priority for the trip was to eat a turkey leg. This is a pretty easily achieved goal since turkey legs are a signature item at Disney World. I took for granted they would be all over the place. Turns out, the nearest turkey leg cart was clear over in Frontierland.
Since Josie’s mood was improving at Ariel’s Grotto, I was in no hurry to leave Fantasyland. But I also didn’t want to keep my father-in-law from his meaty treat any longer than necessary. I suggested we split up. My suggestion was not met with enthusiasm.
My in-laws had never been to the Magic Kingdom. So I could understand their reluctance to navigate its many lands without a guide. I had hoped that Mindy (a semi-seasoned Disney World traveler with two trips under her belt) could get them from Fantasyland to Frontierland safely. But she was not confident in her ability to do so.
Finally, we grabbed a cast member who gave them simple directions which essentially consisted of “keep walking straight ahead until you come to the turkey leg cart in Frontierland”. Reluctantly, they agreed to forge ahead while Josie and I waited for our turn to meet the Little Mermaid.
Unfortunately, Josie picked up on their absence. She asked me where Mommy went. I was a bit frustrated at this point and said, “Papa just had to have a turkey leg!”
Josie decided that splitting up wasn’t such a good idea after all. So we abandoned the grotto without seeing Ariel and made our way to Frontierland to catch up with the rest of our crew. Josie repeated my explaination as follows, “Papa just had to have a chicken foot!”
This has become an in-joke in our family. When someone has their mind set on something, we’ll say they “just have to have a chicken foot.”
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We met up with Mindy and her parents. My father-in-law was happily eating his chicken foot… er… turkey leg. Mindy and her mom decided they would like to get some snacks as well. And Josie announced she had to go potty.
Josie had recently completed potty training. But there were still some issues. Specifically, Josie was scared silly of public bathrooms that flushed automatically. For the better part of a year, I would cover up the sensor to prevent these toilets from auto-flushing. It was gross, but it was better than having her freak out.
So we headed off to the bathrooms while Mindy and her mom searched for snacks. When it came time for Josie to do her business, she refused. Even with daddy covering up the sensor, she would not go potty. There was nothing I could do. And believe me, I tried. Because I knew if we returned without going potty, I was going to be in trouble.
Eventually, I gave up. We made our way back to the group without completing our objective. On the way, Josie spotted a cart selling mouse ears. She just had to have a pair of Tinkerbell mouse ears. I tried to use these as motivation to revisit the whole potty thing. But it didn’t work out that way.
Long story short, I caved. I’m not proud to admit it, but I caved big time. We returned without having gone potty and with a pair of Tinkerbell mouse ears. I was a parenting failure, but Josie was finally a happy camper.
Meanwhile, Mindy and her mom were searching for snacks. Mindy bought a churro. One bite and she decided she didn’t like it. Pregnant women are funny that way. I inherited the churro which was delicious.
Next, Mindy bought two ice cream bars. One for herself and one for Josie. I don’t remember exactly what Mindy bought. But she didn’t like whatever it was she bought for Josie. So of course, Josie wanted the treat Mindy had bought for herself. Long story short, Josie ended up eating both ice cream treats.
Up until now, things had not been going very well. But the snacks had improved everyone’s mood. The park was starting to clear out for the Halloween party which meant we had spent the better part of two hours at the Magic Kingdom without experiencing a single attraction. We decided it was time to do something about that.
I had a checklist of things I wanted to do during this trip. And sitting at the top of the list was riding Splash Mountain. Amazingly, I had never been on either of the e-ticket rides in Frontierland. So before we left the area, I intended to grab a FastPass for Splash Mountain.
Everyone else left for Adventureland. But a few seconds later my father-in-law came back. I guess he figured whatever I was up to would be more interesting than what the girls were doing. And he was right.
When I got to Splash Mountain, I was disappointed to discover there were no FastPasses. I asked a cast member why not. He informed me that there was no need for FastPasses during the party hours. Sure enough, there was no wait for Splash Mountain.
I made a quick phone call to get permission to meet up with the girls after riding Splash Mountain. With my idea rubber stamped, we raced through the queue line and rode with no wait. With that out of the way, I decided to double down on Frontierland mountains. We hopped on Big Thunder as well. It was also a walk-on.
I called the girls to arrange a meet-up. They had just finished the Jungle Cruise and were preparing to board Pirates of the Caribbean. We agreed to meet there. When we got there, it was a walk-on. So my father-in-law and I rode that too.
Now we had some momentum going. Josie was warming up to riding rides. We even got her on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. At first, we had to keep the carpets at ground level. But gradually, she pushed them higher and higher. By the time the ride was over, we were at maximum altitude.
By this point, the party had started. The trick or treat lines were opening up. We went through a few of them and got our handfulls of cheap candy. Josie enjoyed trick or treating, but she wouldn’t go through any lines that had characters nearby.
We ended up spending most of our time riding rides since there were no lines. We walked onto everything in the park. The longest wait we had was for Peter Pan’s Flight. But even that was 10 minutes at most.
On the previous trip, Josie had really enjoyed SpectroMagic. So I figured the Halloween parade would be an equally big hit. But Josie had reversed positions this trip. Rides were good. Characters and parades were bad. We watched most of the parade. But didn’t stay till the very end.
By this point, we were officially starving. It was dark and we hadn’t had a real dinner. I started looking for food before the fireworks started. But most of the restaurants had closed for the night. We happened upon Pinocchio’s Village Haus. There was some activity there, but the dining room was empty.
It turns out they were closed for the night. But they were selling what was left of their hotdogs out of a window. The line for the last remaining hot dogs was a long one. But with few options, we waited in it.
The menu was small. Hot dogs and bottles of water or vitamin water. Once you had paid, you took a seat outside and they would run a hot dog out to you. It was a chaotic mess. They took orders for more hot dogs than they had prepared. Soon after our hot dogs arrived, they started refunding people who had placed orders that could not be filled.
The hot dogs were delicious and I don’t like hot dogs. This is the magic of being hungry and tired in a theme park. Overpiced hot dogs taste better than ever.
We had about a half hour till the fireworks were scheduled to start. Josie was anxious to ride something. Everyone was sitting comfortably outside. So I decided to let Mindy and her folks relax and wait for the fireworks while I took Josie out to find something to do.
As it turns out, Mickey’s Philharmagic was getting ready to start. I figured we had just enough time to catch the show before the fireworks started. So we ducked in to the theater.
In the back of the theater, a cast member had a collection of instruments for some reason. Josie was fascinated with the bongo drums. The cast member let her play with them until the movie started. When the movie started, Josie refused to wear here 3-D glasses. But she enjoyed it all the same.
We exited Mickey’s Philharmagic just in time for the fireworks. But Mindy and her folks had abandoned our table at Pinocchio’s. Apparently they had been looking for us while we were watching the movie. Fortunately, we all met up in time for Hallowishes. But Mindy was cross with me. She likes Mickey’s Philharmagic. To this day, she says I “ditched” her. (*She reminded me of this story for inclusion in this article.)
Hallowishes was truly incredible. The sky was so bright, it seemed like daylight. Shells were exploding all around us. Everyone enjoyed it except for Josie who was startled by the loud noises.
After the show, we were ready to call it a night. I put Josie in her stroller and we headed for the front gates. Josie was asleep in her stroller before we reached Main Street. This is I think the ideal end to any day at the Magic Kingdom with a toddler.
I have told her this story dozens of times over the years. To make it more entertaining, I embellished the part about her falling asleep in the stroller. I made up a whole bit where characters tried to wake her up and she told them to leave her alone. Her favorite part of this story never actually happened.
The way Josie remembers it (thanks to my creative story-telling) is that as we were leaving we came across the Genie. Genie offered to grant her a wish. And she told the Genie, “I wish you would leave me alone. I’m trying to sleep.”
Again, this never happened. But it makes her laugh her head off. She has asked me to tell her that made-up story over and over again to the point where she “remembers” it.
