Our last day at Magic Kingdom. Our last full day in Orlando. By this point we were all tired but happy, and close to ready to go home. But we still had one more day of Disney to enjoy.
We decided we’d sleep in again Friday and not hurry to the park. Unfortunately, my body had other plans, and I awoke at 5:30. Eventually Andy woke up, and we grabbed breakfast at the marketplace in our resort. We hadn’t really had a chance to enjoy our resort pool, so we got there when it opened and swam before leaving for Magic Kingdom. The rain also got there when the pool opened. Madeline, Andy, and I were in the lazy river in a pouring rain! I guess it didn’t really matter that we were getting wet from above, but it was not your perfect pool day. The rain did slow, and Andy and Madeline even rode the big slide. Eventually we moved to the very nice hot tub. Eventually it started pouring again, and we gave up and went in to shower. Andy, Ellie & Francesca were ready first, so they went on ahead to the park.
When Madeline was in the shower I realized it was time to check in for our flight home, so I did that. We got boarding positions B23-27, which didn’t seem too bad. Soon Madeline and I were on the bus to the Magic Kingdom, and it was sunny and beautiful. Until we got off the bus. The weather in Florida changes so quickly! It started pouring as we debarked, so we stayed under the pavilion and waited it out. It was probably only about ten minutes until the rain slowed, but it was pretty annoying.
While we had been on the bus we’d ordered lunch. Andy, Ellie & Francesca were in line for Space Mountain, and they weren’t ready to eat, so we planned for Andy to meet us at Casey’s Corner, right at the end of Main Street, near where we’d eaten lunch Wednesday. Casey’s has old-fashioned baseball park food, like hot dogs and French fries. Even though we’d pushed the button for them to start our meal right when we left the bus pavilion, we still had a wait for our food for quite a while, because the restaurant was swamped. When I got our tray of food, the hot dogs were enormous! We were expecting them to be a foot long, because that’s stated on the menu. We weren’t expecting them to be twice the girth of a normal hot dog as well. Madeline found a table, and Andy joined us a couple minutes later. Somehow, we managed to finish our hot dogs despite their gigantic size.
I had still not ridden it’s a small world (so strange that title is all lower case), so we went there after lunch. I do love that ride! Which is odd, because objectively I feel like I should find it annoying. The same song, over and over and over. I the joyful faces on every one of the little global people and animals counteracts the repitition. To think those little guys have been singing that song for 50 years, to thousands of people every day — it’s astonishing.
As we were waiting to get out of the boat from it’s a small world, the workers announced that it was raining hard outside, and everyone should get their rain gear out. So we did. Not everyone did, and then they were blocking the exit to the ride, which was annoying. While we were exiting we decided to head to Fantasyland so we could ride Goofy’s Barnstormer and Dumbo as soon as the rain stopped. Despite our ponchos – and my new Disney dogs bucket hat – we were still pretty wet by the time we arrived, mostly from the rain collecting on the ground. We had planned to wait at the gift shop in that area, but it had either gone away or was closed due to COVID. Instead, we stood outside with a bunch of other people waiting for the rides to reopen, which happened almost as soon as the rain stopped. We were in the second or third group to ride the Barnstormer, and we probably only waited in line for Dumbo about 15 minutes, so I think walking there in the rain was a pretty good idea.
There are two rides at DisneyWorld that I can’t believe people love or ever loved. One is the Enchanted Tiki Room, which might actually have gone away now but was there last time we went as a family. The other is the Tomorrowland Speedway. Oh, sure, back in 1971 (or at least when I was no longer an infant) I would have loved the idea of driving my own car around a track. But 50 years later, the cars are jerky and slow, and they make the entire area smell like gas fumes. And yet, Madeline really wanted to ride. I needed water, so I went to grab some, and by the time I got back the line had moved to a point where I couldn’t join them. I was not disappointed.
When they finished the Speedway we grabbed milkshakes and then got in line for the Tomorrowland PeopleMover (which is officially titled Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover). Andy and I had ridden it before when Ellie was a preschooler, and somehow I’d forgotten that it goes through Space Mountain. It’s still a ride I could skip, but that part is pretty neat. Next we rode Space Mountain again, partially to avoid yet another rain storm.
After Space Mountain we were all feeling tired and a little weak. We grabbed frozen lemonade in Frontierland and stopped on the platform with the stocks, just to have a place to sit. As we were getting up, I felt a little pinch on my chest. And then it started to hurt really badly! I extracted a fire ant (!!!) from my bra. I don’t know how a fire ant got into DisneyWorld, but he sure wasn’t welcome. If you’ve ever been bit by one, you know that the pain is WAY bigger than the tiny little thing that produces the pain. I used my ever-present Mickey cooling towel to make it less uncomfortable until we could get some hydrocortisone out of the first aid kit.
The incident with the fire ant negated any benefit I’d received from sitting down and cooling off. Still, we were right by Magic Carpets of Aladdin, which is not a challenging ride, so Madeline and I tried to go on it, but it was temporarily not working, and Madeline didn’t want to wait. We ended up at the train station end of Main Street USA, sitting on a bench and watching Mickey and friends wave to people coming and going while we killed time before dinner.
Our last dinner reservation was for Be Our Guest restaurant, the restaurant inside the Beast’s castle. On our last family trip, we’d eaten lunch there, and I wanted Madeline to see it when she’d be able to remember it. I also talked Andy, Ellie & Madeline into recreating a photo from our previous visit.
After we were seated, Madeline looked at the menu and was not finding anything she wanted. I encouraged her to ask the server for whatever she was in the mood for. I tried to explain about how great Disney service is, but she was still uncomfortable. Andy told her they’d probably walk across the park for another hot dog if that’s what she really wanted.
When our server came to ask if anyone had questions, Madeline was not speaking up, so I told him she was wondering if they had anything a little less fancy. He looked at her and said, “What do you feel like? You want to order off the kids menu, that’s fine. You want something else? You want chicken nuggets and fries?” Chicken nuggets were NOT on the menu. She nodded yes. “You want double fries?” She nodded again. “I got you covered.” That is Disney service.
I liked the menu and had a lovely filet mignon and a Saison du Pont to drink. It wasn’t the best filet of my life, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t really good! After dinner the server brought a dessert tray with a chocolate “Chip” cup (see picture) and a couple other yummy treats.
The girls were not really interested in dessert, and it was almost time for the fireworks show, so they took off to find a place in front of the castle, while Andy and I stayed behind to pay the bill. As we were exiting the restaurant we asked a worker where would be a good place to watch, and she said she actually likes the bridge we were standing on. We stayed there and had fireworks on either side of us – some over Cinderella’s castle, and others behind Beast’s castle.
After the fireworks we met up with the girls along Main Street and visited a super crowded store. Somehow, despite the fact that we were both exhausted, Madeline talked Andy and me into riding Splash Mountain with her before the park closed. Ellie and Francesca were not at all interested, so they went back to the resort to shower and relax. We walked over to Splash Mountain and were surprised to see, regardless of the hoards of people leaving the park, that the wait was nearly an hour. The time actually went quickly, as the people in line around us were friendly and talkative. We even met some fellow Hoosiers.
I had read that Splash Mountain was going to be re-themed, away from the offensive Brer Rabbit to a Tiana theme, which sounds way better. (I love Tiana!) But they hadn’t changed anything yet. It’s a really long ride, and not that exciting, really. But just as we were coming up to the big hill at the end, we made a turn and had the most beautiful view of Cinderella’s castle! I would ride that again, after dark, just to see that view again.
As we left the ride I was so tired that I was relieved the park was closed and there was no option to ride anything else. Still, I let Madeline talk me into taking a few pictures of her in front of the castle. Then we grabbed the bus back to the resort, and I probably was half asleep as I got ready for bed, our final sleep at Disney World.
Madeline didn’t even make it to her bedtime routine and slept in her clothes!
