D - Our Greatest Hits Day

As I fell asleep the night before, I felt extremely overwhelmed by our last day in the parks. a) This was Mike's big work day where he left before we woke up and drove a couple of hours for meetings all day long. b) We needed to check out of our hotel before we went to the parks. c) It was pouring down rain with no sun to be seen all day long. I was on my own with two kids who were tired and didn't want to go back into the rain with no car, no hotel and no place to get out of the rain, and I was scared.

As it turned out, it was one of my favorite days. Because I knew that there was no way I could do everything the way we had been doing it, I eased up on my expectations for the day. Ahhhhh. A more relaxed mom makes for a more relaxed family.

After sending all of our luggage to the hotel's storage area, the first stop we made was to the hotel gift shop where I bought the kids those overpriced Disney ponchos. Oh, my! That was money so well spent. They were a much higher quality plastic that didn't cling to them and since they were kid-sized, they actually fit. They were so happy to have them that they didn't complain the whole day long!

We used this day as a greatest hits day where we revisited our favorite rides. Our first stop was Epcot where we rode Soarin, Nemo and Test Track again. It was so much fun! The kids were so happy to be picking what we did and we just had so much fun even through the downpours.

After Epcot we went back to Magic Kingdom since we had sort of been cheated there the day before. We got there in time for the parade, but only got the "Rainy Day Parade." So disappointing! I've seen all of my friends' pictures of the parades and had really been looking forward to seeing this one. Unfortunately, all we got was the characters riding in covered wagons and waving out the windows at us. What a letdown!

The kids chose to revisit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Peter Pan and the teacups as well as adding Cinderella's carousel, Goofy's Barnstormer (multiple times in a row), the railroad, Toontown, Ariel's Grotto, and a new favorite - the Monsters Inc. show. It was hilarious!

I know it's less fun to read since Mike wasn't there to take pictures, but I actually took a few of my own. You'll be sure to note their high quality.

Getting Cinderella's autograph. She told Noah that he was "as handsome as prince charming!"



By the time we visited Ariel in her cave, Noah was out on princesses. He was fairly patient with Katie though since Ariel was now her favorite.



Mike rejoined us around 7pm. We almost didn't let him once we saw his makeshift poncho. Didn't I mention earlier that he is a geek?

It quit raining for the first time that day at around 8pm. We were ever so grateful and actually got to see the Spectromagic nighttime parade. It was so great.

Our only family pic of the trip without a Disney character, and it's not very good. Oh well.

We stayed for the fireworks show, and it was just so magical. The story and the music just make it so unique with the lights going off all around the castle. It really was a great way to end our Disney experience.

Of course, Mike was in agony because he didn't have his camera. He left it in the van because of the rain, but when the rain let up he couldn't believe he couldn't take pictures of the castle by night. I gave him mine but that really wasn't good enough. Oh well. You do with what you have.

And this last picture pretty well sums up the trip. Katie was completely wiped out and fell asleep not long after we loaded into the car. I believe it took me a good two weeks to respond happily to friends' questions about how the trip went. I have never done a more exhausting vacation in my life! But doing this blog has been so great. I have really enjoyed looking back on this trip and look forward to doing it again......... in SEVERAL years.