Ben slept like a rock last night, and didn't want to get up this moring. We finally dragged him out of bed at 11am, threw him in the tub, and then got him dressed and headed out for the day. After a quick swing through the dining hall to get Sara and Mandy some breakfast we caught the bus out to the Magic Kingdom. From where our hotel is located, the MK is the farthest out of all the parks, but even so the bus ride is only about ten minutes. As we arrived at the main gate the overcast sky had started to turn to rain. People were walking around in ponchos, or with big umbrellas, and the park was *much* less crowded than the last time I was there. Memo to myself: always try to go to DisneyWorld rainy days.
Ben was thrilled to be there. He was practically dragging Sara through the gates and on to Main Street. Rather than walk the street, we wound up taking a carriage up Main Street and right to the foot of Cinderella's Castle. Ben was on a mission; he knew where he was, and he knew where he wanted to be -- Snow White. It was the first ride he had ever been on at DisneyWorld, and he made a beeline for it again today. It's safe to say that Fantasyland is his favorite part of the park. In rapid succession we did Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, and It's a Small World. We also made a side trip over to Tomorrowland where we went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Since Buzz Lightyear was closed for refurbishment there wasn't anything else over there he was interested in.
Of course even on rainy off-season days at the Magic Kingdom, "in rapid succession" means more like three hours. We were all ready for lunch and a chance to sit down for a bit so we went to Ben's favorite restaurant in the park, the Columbia Harbor House. From Ben's point of view the restaurant has two huge selling points: they have fries, and there is a table on the second floor with a window that looks out onto the courtyard for the Haunted Mansion and across the way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. He has no desire to actually go on that ride, but he likes the scale of it watching from that window. He munches his fries, drinks his juice, and watches the coaster whoosh by.
After lunch we naturally went right to the Haunted Mansion. The cast member working the stretch room was particularly good, with his ghoulish gallows humor. From there it was a cut across Liberty Square and over to Adventureland for Pirates of the Carribean and the Jungle Cruise. The exit from Pirates goes through a gift shop (how odd...), and in that shop was the single prize Ben had been angling for all day. It's a pirate bottle filled with candy and a treasure map. As soon as we were out of the shop, Ben very carfully took the plastic wrap off of the lid and handed it to Sara to throw away. Then he unscrewed the cap, took out the map, and also handed that to Sara to throw away. That done, he put the cap back on the bottle and held his treasure. As with last year, he would save opening the bottle again until he got back to the hotel room for the night and could dump it out on the bed in a big pile of primary colors.
It was after Pirates that the day took a downturn. He pulled us over to Splash Mountain again, watching the big drop into the Briar Patch and eager to go on the ride. Since he had been on it last year we didn't even hesitate. Unfortunately, the big drop really scared him this time. He was sobbing in fear, and unfortunately the ride goes on for a bit after the drop. From that point on for the rest of the day he was either in tears or close to it. He wanted nothing to do with Mickey's ToonTown Fair, and passed on the chance to meet Cinderella again. He even at one point turned down fries. He was really Not Happy. Cutting back over to Fantasyland we got him back into his comfort zone. By now it was less than an hour to park closing, and for his favorite rides you could just walk on. He did another round of Snow White, Pooh, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Snow White again, and was working his way back to being happy. Unfortunately the fireworks at closing time spooked him again, and he just wanted to get out of the park. He wasn't upset anymore, he was just tired, his feet hurt (if he was anything like me), and he wanted to get back to the hotel and get some rest. I couldn't really blame him.
We got back to the hotel room, and he was happy to get into his pajamas and then sit on his bed listening to music and piling up the candy from his pirate bottle. Sara and Mandy went over to the dining hall to pick us up some dinner, and by 9:30 we were all ready for bed. Even Ben, who last year never adjusted to the time change and consistently was up until 2am, was yawning and ready to lie down and get some sleep. Overall it was a good day, even with the Splash Mountain fiasco.
Tomorrow: Epcot and the World Showcase.
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