Magical Disney

Grab a cup of coffee.  I will wait.  You will need it because this might get to be a long story.  Got it?  Settled into a comfy chair.  Ok, then let's begin...

Since MadHatter hadn't decided on a place to celebrate her birthday and with whom quite yet, I thought it would be fun to take the girls to Disney World for the long weekend that happened to fall the week after her birthday.  And I also decided that we would skip the Friday before and make it a super-sized long weekend.  It also coincided with the fact that my nephew would also be there with school and we could hang with him for a few hours so extra bonus points. 

I picked the girls up on Thursday afternoon, and we jetted up the highway pulling in to the parking lot at Hollywood Studios just about 4 pm. (Another great reason to leave on Thursday - a LOT less traffic).  By 4:30 we were having our picture taken with Chewbacca...

We walked, we talked, and we rode a ride or two, and then S had to get back to school, and we had to check into our hotel.  We had a FULL day planned at the Magic Kingdom starting early the next morning.

And this is where it gets interesting.

We make it to the Magic Kingdom just after it opens.  Which means we have about 2 hours until our first fast pass starts, so I suggest something we had never done before - The Swiss Family Treehouse.  For those who don't know, it is simply a giant 5 story tree that is fashioned after the book about the Swiss Family Robinson.  After their ship crashed and left them alone on an island, they used the tree to live in.  And guests walk through and around their "house."  We made it to the very top, and I went to take my phone out of my jacket pocket.  It was a tight fit, so I pulled a bit and my hand hit the railing next to me.  And I watched, seemingly in slow motion, as my phone went over the edge and fell.  Until it stopped.  In a hollowed out piece of bamboo that was being used as a water supply system for the Robinson Family.  And it got stuck.  MadHatter, who has eagle eyes, spotted it and said we needed to go down and tell someone.  We did.

I get someone at guest services and relay what happened and that we know exactly where my phone is.  She calls and gets someone from the janitorial staff that has a garbage picker (a long set of claws).  We go up.  My phone is too far to reach.  We go down.  Another staff member is called in with a longer, telescoping picker.  We go up.  Picker reaches phone, but it is pretty well jammed in there at an odd angle.  We go down.  Call backup with the telescoping picker.  We go up.  The second picker pushes the phone into the first picker, and we have a cell phone out of bamboo (and water).  Now we just have to get it from bamboo back to us on the balcony.  Easier said than done.  Phone is dropped 30 ft to wood terrace below.  We go down.  Head of janitorial services breaks all rules and climbs over railing and retrieves phone.  Hands it back to me.  Miraculously, it is not cracked or dented in any way and is still working.  Management is profusely thanked as are all involved in getting my cell back to me.  We are sent on our way with a FastPass for our trouble (we got to choose any ride, so we decided on the 7 Dwarves Train as it always has at least a 2-hour wait). 

Not sure if there is a moral to this story other than keep phones in your pocket if you are 5 stories off of the ground and outdoors.  Ironically, I wasn't even trying to take a picture.  Maybe the biggest lesson was the reaction to losing my phone.  Everyone kept saying how calm and unfazed by this I was.  And I just kept responding with, "Well, there is nothing I can do about it so why make a big deal of it.  I won't let it define my day".  And I had kids watching how I reacted - I would rather have them take a lesson from me still being kind, courteous and happy than snappy and grumpy.

At this point, we headed on our way to our FastPass at Haunted Mansion, and we stop to take a photo of Stinkerbell.  And this is where my phone starts its slow death.  First, it is a green line.  Then it begins to fade at the top.  Then the screen goes black and finally it won't even turn off with a hard restart.  It was caput.  What was I to do?  Keep riding rides.  Which is precisely what we did.  I just don't have many pictures because, well, dead phone.  But luckily we do have season tickets that come with Disney PhotoPass, so there are these...

 The ghost that hitched a ride with us at Haunted Mansion.

Front row at Pirates.  MadHatter looks like she is holding on for dear life.

 Next up, Space Mountain.  Looks like my girls figured out where the cameras were.

 Another first for us.  Stinkerbell said it was her favorite roller coaster ever (replacing space mountain).  Which is funny coming from the girl who used to do this...Click here and scroll half way down)

And then we had to call it a day because I needed to get that phone looked at.  It's funny how reliant we are on them these days but I am just not comfortable without being able to be in contact with B (who is in another country, or my parents since Nana just had surgery).  We made it to the Apple store with a few minutes to spare before 9 pm but was told that I would need an appointment - for tomorrow.  So I made it for as late as I could (9 pm) and we went and got a very late dinner and called it a day.  A fabulous day, save for that phone mishap.