Day 6 - WDW Vacation

As any moviegoer knows, the middle act of a movie is generally where the protagonist faces his or her biggest challenge. The first act is a happy introduction, the final act is when things are resolved into a (typically) happy ending. But the middle part is often full of conflict, problems, and sadness. Day 6 of an 11 day trip fell right in the middle (cue ominous music). I posed a hypothetical situation to my family via email several weeks before the trip, postulating that I would rather receive a firm kick to the genitalia while standing on Main Street over sitting in my home. The idea being that even in extreme discomfort, my love for all things Disney would supersede the pain. This theory was put directly to the test on Day 6:




Looks pretty innocent, huh? We started the day lazily, sleeping in a little bit and having a late breakfast. Our idea was to get to Disney's Hollywood Studios (DHS from here on out) before lunch, and spend the entire day there until closing, eschewing the midday break and staying until it closed in the early evening. As we packed up for the day, we found our video camera dead as the proverbial doornail; we had used it the night before, and plugged it in to charge for the next day. We hope that it is just a dead battery, but we still haven't fixed this, and this was a definite loss for our attempts to document our trip. Maybe if the camera was resting under a ladder with a black cat on top of it, we could have recognized it for the harbinger of things to come (cue more ominous music).

As we walked to the bus stop, we saw one bound for our destination leaving, but didn't feel like sprinting for it, so we strolled to the bus stop to wait for the next one. 15 long minutes later we were off; this would be the only time during our entire trip that the bus looped to the Grand Floridian Hotel to get even more people, and with the car seat, stroller, and all of us, a full bus was not optimal. In fact, as more people were shoehorned onto the bus, Lexie ended up climbing into the back row, planting herself next to an older couple and proceeded to talk their ears off during the trip. She is such an amazing little girl, and has such an ease talking to anyone and everyone. Our challenge with her will certainly be to implant some form of "Stranger Danger" because she is so comfortable with anyone. We filed off the bus, and the couple came over to thank us for an entertaining trip, offering to take her off our hands. Several hours later, I might have taken her up :)

DHS was extremely busy; there are truly only a handful of rides in the park, and it doesn't take much to produce very long lines. Toy Story Mania, the newest ride and one of our must-sees, was a 90 minute wait, and the FastPass line was no longer open. We hoped to catch it later; and focused on seeing some of the shows that were offered. Because Lexie was fighting a cold, we were giving her liquid Tylenol, which seemed to upset her stomach and left us scrambling for bathrooms several times. We watched the High School Musical street show and then stood in line for the Little Mermaid show. Just as we sat down and the show started, Lexie mentioned the need for some bathroom time. Reading the urgency of these requests became a bit of an art form (one that I sadly failed a couple of times), and I knew that this wouldn't wait. Lexie and I sprinted out, and made it to the bathroom in time, but we weren't allowed back into the theater, so Stacie and Jaden enjoyed the show without us.

After the show, we did a little shopping; Lexie got to buy the Tinkerbell doll that she wanted to buy several days ago. Grandpa had saved his change for her to buy something on the trip, and she pulled the trigger on this. Sweet...more tiny dolls with minuscule parts that I would have to dress for her! It became obvious that the rides were only getting busier, so Stacie and Lexie went to the Beauty And The Beast stage show, while the fellas took a trip to the Baby Care Center so that Jaden could unwind and have some food. After that, we decided to camp out a spot to watch the Block Party Bash, a parade/street party/performance. Stacie took the kids and sat down on the sidewalk while I went looking for some lunch. The crowds made food-getting a waiting game as well, although the monster turkey leg was worth it. I made it back just in time for the show, and we enjoyed primo seats.

After the show, the crowd dispersed and we finished our lunch, sitting on the ground. Lexie was already finished, and her naughty streak, which was slowly escalating all day, suddenly peaked. She stood up, looked over her shoulder at us, and took off running. I scrambled to my feet (sadly, not NEARLY as fast as Lexie had) and took off after her. She had ducked between a series of an ice cream stand, the wait time board, and some shrubbery. As busy as it was, her head start made it impossible to see which path she took. I ran forward, pushing my way through the crowded walkway, and for about 10 terrible seconds I had no idea where she was. It seemed like ten years, but she had doubled back, hoping that I was chasing her, and I spied her. As relieved as I was to get her, it took everything that I had to not beat her little backside right there. We had a long talk about staying with us, and after several earnest promises from Lexie, we decided to give it another shot.

Playhouse Disney was our next stop; we wanted to see the show again, and it was a fun show. As you can see in the slide show, Lexie was practicing her mad face and her happy face while we waited for the show to start. Unfortunately, the mad face won out, and once the show was over, she took off in another dead sprint. I was a little bit more prepared this time, and chased her down before she got out of sight. I was really frustrated, and tried to walk her over out of the way in order to talk to her. Lexie went to her classic "go limp as a rag doll" defense, which is effective considering her stature. I can physically pull her when she does this, but I don't really want to dislocate her shoulder, so I try to reason with her. In retrospect, I should have taken a picture of her in the middle of the animation courtyard, laying face down, in full tantrum. But I just wasn't thinking clearly enough. It's funny, all of the emotions that go through you at that point. Everyone walking past looks at you, and the looks on their faces range from "Can't you control your child?" to "I'm sure sorry...I've been there too". I pulled her over to a park bench and put her on my lap in a bear hug, hoping to calm her down, but it was like trying to hold on to a 60 pound salmon. She went postal on me, writhing around, screaming as loud as possible and hitting me in the face several times. It took about 20 minutes and every ounce of my patience to get her to calm down, and after she did, she promised to behave herself.

Something that may have crossed your mind (it crossed me many times, believe me) is why we didn't just go back to the hotel when we hit critical mass. There really wasn't much to do back at the hotel besides sit in the room, and the way that she was acting, that didn't sound too pleasing. Plus, it took long enough to get to the bus stop, get back to the room, etc. that we knew if we left we wouldn't be back that day. I got to the verge of going a couple of times, and then things would calm down, so we gutted it out.

We planned to see Fantasmic! that evening, which is a live show with songs, characters, and fireworks. It's one of my very favorite things, and in Orlando they have a giant amphitheater to see it in. It became apparent that we weren't going to get to ride anything without a killer wait, plus there were tons of people streaming towards Fantasmic!, so we headed that way. It was a good thing; even though we were an hour early, we were lucky to get a seat. By show time, it was standing room only. Of course, right before the show started Lexie needed to use the restroom again, so she and I fought through the masses to get to the potty. We went in the "Family" restroom, and there was one more horrible surprise in store. I am not really squeamish, nor do I have a delicate stomach per se. I have been in many bathrooms that were not that pleasant, and I have contributed to this on occasion. But the wall of stench that we were confronted with was reprehensible. I have NEVER experienced anything like that, and it was all that I could do to not forfeit my stomach contents. Morbid curiosity made me wonder for a split second about the origin of the funkiness, but we left as quickly as possible. I cautioned the next dad waiting outside the door about the situation (I was also trying to make him understand that we were not responsible for whatever happened), but he braved the bathroom anyway, letting out an audible gasp as the door shut. I think of him often, and hope that they were able to find their way to safety.

The show was great and we had excellent seats, so it was worth the wait. As we pushed through the crowds to where we had to park the stroller, and make our way back to the park, Lexie began listening to the little devil on her shoulder again. We made an ill-advised attempt to stay in the park, but we only got as far as the giant hat (in the slide show) before we bailed. The ride back to the hotel was a real treat...Lexie screamed most of the way home, and Jaden, sensing our frustration, became very fussy and hollered most of the trip as well. Ah, the lucky fellow passengers on that bus!

We got back to the room without causing permanent harm to anyone and the kids zonked out. The coda to the evening involved a comedy of errors (which were self-inflicted) that turned my trip to wash some clothes into a two-hour ordeal and didn't get me to bed until nearly 2:00 a.m. It was very fitting, to say the least. I would expound, but this is long enough, and Stacie is hounding me to get this posted. Another time, perhaps.

The middle act of conflict was over...we survived. Barely. As far as my hypothetical question, I would probably still take the discomfort, especially now that I can look back on the day and laugh about it. It certainly helped that we still had several days to enjoy ourselves, which we will document in the coming days.