jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

We have done Disney and lived to tell the tale. As I was largely unplugged for the full week, my stories are all jumbled in my head. I’ll tell a few of them now, and then scatter the rest through my next posts as they occur to me.

The Cast

The short story is that theme parks are a hit with the St. Boggess family. It made a good experiment to take Alden at this time in his life. He had never laid eyes on a Disney character in any context. He’s too little for the movies. He doesn’t have any representative toys. I was particularly curious to know what he’d make of the live characters roaming around. Turns out he LOVES them. Loves them. Would be living with the Country Bears right now if I had given him his way. We saw them first at a dinner where the Winnie the Pooh guys were circulating from table to table. I thought he might find them a little scary, so I’d tucked him in close to me. But as soon as he saw Tigger he started yelling, “Gog! Gog! (dog)” with much flailing. We met Tigger, Pooh, and Piglet (the favorite) that night, but the best photo I got was of Eeyore.

We also met Goofy, Chip and Dale, and maybe a couple of others. Basically, we met whoever had a short line. Without a doubt, Daisy Duck captured Alden’s heart totally. We had to get back in line for a total of three visits in one afternoon so he could go back and kiss her beak again and again.

The Weather

It was cold there, y’all. What I learned from that: Go to Disney World when it’s cold. We rode everything at all four parks, and I think the longest we waited for anything was 10 minutes. We walked right on to most things. I will gladly wear a sweater and hat while breezing through lines rather than wilting in 90 degree heat for an hour to get on a two-minute ride.

An Unintended Adventure

I love going to theme parks with a toddler, because he’s the perfect excuse to avoid all the rides that scare me. Which is anything that plummets or spins. So, lots of rides. Damon went off to ride a spinny contraption and Alden and I headed for the Transit Authority. That’s the old-lady-approved raised track that runs around Tomorrow Land in the Magic Kingdom. As we’re gliding over a breezeway, our car stops. We’re the only ones out on the breezeway. So, Alden and I sit and watch the little car ride running beneath us. And sit. And sit. It’s chilly up on that breezeway. Finally the cars hypnotize Alden and he falls asleep. I’m hanging out, listening to the announcement play on a loop, “Please remain sitting in your vehicle. The ride has temporarily stopped, but could begin moving again at any moment.” At some point it became clear that wasn’t going to happen and Disney workers came out and opened my little car door, explaining that we were going to walk off the ride. I don’t contend that we were in any danger. But I was rattled to have to carry my sleeping baby down the ride track with a waist-high railing at our side. Once we got inside, though, it was super cool. They wound us down some stairs and through some offices, so I got a short backstage tour.

$200 Is a Lot of Money

Part of the vacation package we bought was a $200 Disney gift card. I didn’t even notice it in the list at first, but was delighted to get it just the same. And then I discovered, hard as it is to believe, Disney doesn’t sell anything I want. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but we found ourselves on our last day saying, “We have to got to go spend this gift card!” The day before we’d made our best effort and still only knocked off $70. We bought Alden a stuffed Daisy. He also got a t-shirt and some Winnie the Pooh tub toys. We bought our niece a stuffed Piglet. So the next, and final, day we buckled down and reported to Downtown Disney to buy buy buy. After a lot of store prowling, we came up with two t-shirts for Damon, a Nemo sippy cup selected by Alden, a light up piece of junk necklace also selected by Alden, a yellow ball, some sour candy for the flight, and then finally Mary Poppins and The Muppet Movie on DVD. Lord, it was not easy.

There’s more to tell, but it’s my bedtime. So I’ll leave you with one of my favorite photos from the trip:

The Mouse Claims Another Victim