I was near the end of the pack with Brian and Tristan ahead of me and Garan behind me. Partway through the ride I noticed that the car in front of Brian, the one being driven by Allison and co-piloted by Melinda, had stopped. Then it rolled backwards... halfway off the track.
It had become partially derailed or something, as it was really sticking out to one side. I saw a cast member and told him. He slowly, slowly, slowly sauntered over, walked right past the car and over to chat with another cast member. Then he walked to the car, looked, turned around and walked away. There was quite a lineup in front of and behind us. (That's Melinda's husband Garan behind me in the lineup.)
After a wait of 5-10 minutes we finally had a manager come, supposedly to give the all-clear so we could walk off the ride, however in the end the manger turned Allison & Melinda's car back on and told them to start driving. It went right where it was supposed to and we finished the ride.
Since we were finally in Tomorrowland it was time for
Space. We saw the posted wait time was
10 minutes so saved our fastpasses to use later in the day. I forget that the queue for this line is
insanely long. It took longer to walk it
then it did to wait in line. We all rode
it and loved it! Soooo much better than
the WDW version.
Next up was Buzz Lightyear.
Brian whooped me again, as did Garan and Melinda. I don't know what it is about this game but I
can't seem to get a good grasp on getting high points. Stupid game!
Anyhow, the line was short and the ride was good. Can't beat that.
The Hunters wanted to ride Star Tours next but neither Brian
nor I can handle the motion aspect of the ride so we both sat out. The wait was actually longer than posted,
taking close to 20 or 25 minutes before they were done. At this point the Hunters needed to eat
lunch. It was a bit after 11 and we had
lunch reservations for Cafe Orleans later, so we decided to split up. It had been fun to spend the morning with
them but I was also looking forward to spending the afternoon with my family.
Since we weren't in a hurry to eat we chose to hike to the
other side of the park and start rides over there. We'd been wanting to have a big mountain
showdown, to see which Disney mountain we like best of all. We'd hit Space and Matterhorn
(which is an honorary mountain for these purposes... even though it's name
doesn't have "Mountain" in it).
Next up was Big
Thunder Mountain
Chase was really excited about riding Pirates so we went
there next. This is just one of those
classic rides that we just have to ride at Disneyland !
Our last mountain was Splash
Mountain , but we stopped first at Haunted Mansion
We all really, really loved this version of
HM! I daresay it's better than the
original. There are so many little
details and we just loved them all. Big
thumbs up for this ride!
Now it was time to finish up the big mountain battle royale
by riding Splash. We got a car to
ourselves. These usually seat 6, so in
hindsight we should have all moved back one seat and left the front seat
open. But we didn't and oh, did we pay
for it!
We loved Splash mountain and the drop was great but Carissa
got soaked! That girl has so little fat
on her that she doesn't stay warm very well.
Add that to wet clothes and very little sunshine today and we had a wet
and grumpy pre-teen. She froze for the
next hour or two, even after borrowing Brian's coat (in addition to hers) and
sitting in the open sun for a while.
I'll get to how that affected us all in a minute...
By now it was 12:45.
We had ridden Peter Pan, Dumbo, Matterhorn
(twice), Autopia, Space, Buzz, Star Tours, Big Thunder, Pirates, HMH and
Splash. We felt great about all we'd
accomplished in those few hours of time, but now we had to get our rears in
gear and get to our lunch at Cafe Orleans.
We arrived 4 minutes late for our PS, I was jokingly
told. We got a beeper and I barely had
time to step away before it went off. We
got seated outside, which I rather like so I can people watch and take in the
feeling of the area. While sitting there
I chatted with the kids about what we wanted to do next. We had spotted a frozen lemonade stand, a Disneyworld favorite of ours, and decided a stop back for
a frozen lemonade would be good. Then I
mentioned wanting to go to the Jingle Jangle Jamboree to see Santa. We'd all worn our red and green today so we
would look nice for a Santa pic. None of
the kids were thrilled with the prospect but knew that it was part of the deal
with the trip - Mom needs her pictures!
The problem came when I told Carissa that she would have to take her
coat off for the picture. That's when
the grumping and waterworks started.
She was cold, she was wet, she was hungry and she was her normal,
emotional 11-year old self. I tried
saying "It will be fine, it'll just be for a minute. Just take the coat off for the picture, not a
minute before." She just kept
getting grumpier and saying "But I'll be cold!". I told her that I thought she could hack it
for one moment for a picture with Santa and that I really wasn't asking her,
that it was what we would be doing. Well,
the waterworks began, the silent tears and the runny nose and the crossed arms. I tried talking her up for a minute but that
wasn't working. She just kept getting
grumpier and finally I had it. I pointed
to a brick wall right outside the restaurant near where we were sitting and
told her to go over, take a seat, compose herself and return when she had a
better attitude. Low and behold, she
sits there crying, probably crying more than she was before at our table. At one point a couple of women came up and
tried talking to her but she's got very good stranger training and just ignored
the women, turned away and shook her head.
I watched this all unfold until they went over to a castmember and
explained that they thought she was lost.
I jumped in to let them know she was mine and that she was just taking a
moment. Our food came and she was still
taking a moment. Finally Brian told her to come back to the table, sit down, wipe her face and come
eat. She did eventually apologize, but it's
tough to deal with these behaviors out in public sometimes. Through it all Chase was at the table with his head down trying to rest. Apparently yesterday's early morning and busy day had caught up with him.
Sorry, off the tangent there and on to lunch. I'd picked Cafe Orleans because I'd eaten
here with Bek during our girls trip in 2010 and remembered the tasty garlic fries that I knew Brian would
love. I also really, really, really wanted to eat the yummy beignets with berry
dipping sauce (oh, and I wanted to share them with my family too;)) Imagine the momentary panic that set in when
I realized that the beignets weren't on the menu. Thankfully I just asked the waiter and he
said that they were still offered.
Whew! Thank goodness. Lunch was a bit of a mish-mash. We ate here first, all the fried and sweet
foods that will one day give us a heart attack (but still taste yummy!), then
later went somewhere else for chicken and apples to round out the meal. Brian, the boys and I loved the garlic fries. Carissa liked them some, but the rest of us
really enjoyed them. Brian especially
loved them and said he could eat them every meal. I knew he'd love them. It's right up his alley!
The beignets weren't as good as when I had
them with Bek (or as good as my memory thought they were) but the kids seemed to enjoy them and the boys ate the extras
Brian and I didn't eat.
After lunch we got second lunch (mentioned above but added here because I knew the kids would love the reference to second lunch, as they all love "The Hobbit"). Then it was time for a little shopping. Carissa needed some slow time to recover, help her sniffling nose and red eyes to go away and to warm up a little more. Up next... frozen lemonade, Big Thunder and a visit with the big guy.
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