Michael, Kris and Kiley - Back at WDW
September 2003

Sunday, September 14, 2003

The plan was to wake up early, but we were all pooped and beginning to drag. We got dressed as quickly as possible - Kiley and I in our matching red Mickey Polo dresses. Mostly everything was packed, but we didn't quite make it to the point where we were ready to check out. We decided we would just come back to the room after breakfast. We left the hotel in what I thought was plenty of time. When we reached the TTC, the monorail was just pulling away, so we had to wait for another one. We asked about riding up front (as we had on every ride) but evidently someone beat us to it. We got through security and the turnstiles and after trading with one of the CM's there for a Jasmine Pin, headed up Main Street. I looked at my watch, and noticed that it was just 8:20. We began to race to the castle, and were out of breath by the time we got there. Michael parked the stroller while I checked in, and the CM said "Relax…here, you need some Pixie Dust" and gave me a handful. Kiley thought that was great.

We were up in the castle and seated by the window (yeah!) quickly. It took a while for the waiter to get to us, and there weren't enough place settings on the table, but we eventually got our juices and coffees. The food was terrific, but again, the Princesses seemed very rushed…until Cinderella stopped by. She remembered meeting Kiley Thursday when we had stopped in the castle by chance. This Cinderella was by far the best "Character CM" we've ever encountered. She was very relaxed, took plenty of time, and truly seemed to love what she was doing. It's harder, I'm sure for the face characters to interact with the small ones, especially when their speech isn't easy to understand, but she did an admirable job. She gave Kiley a kiss on the cheek, but she wasn't wearing any lipstick, so there was no imprint. We joked about the "princess kiss" pictures we had been taking and she thought that was cute. As we ate, we spotted two men walking along the roofline of the adjacent building. Since Mary Poppins was in attendance, we asked Kiley if she thought one of the men could be Bert, cleaning chimneys. She loved this notion. Kiley had polished off her French toast sticks, and juice, as well as a good deal of fruit, and asked for more. The waiter brought her more French Toast, and two sausages. She went on to put quite a dent in these too. By this time, we had already met all of the princesses, and were just waiting on Belle (whom we hadn't met the whole trip). For some reason (we were probably out of rotation because we were late) she kept skipping over us, and I finally had to mention it to the waiter, because otherwise we were ready to leave. She was over shortly, and Kiley was pleased. Cinderella stopped by one more time before we left, and gave Kiley a kiss (with lipstick this time; she actually went to put some on; how sweet was that?) so of course we took that picture! We finally left the restaurant, and as we came down the stairs, discovered Cinderella's Fairy Godmother in the lobby. We had never met her either, so of course we had to get in line. She was quite sweet, and we got some nice pictures. After some shopping in Tinkerbelle's Treasures, we decided that we'd better head back to the room and pack the rest of our things. We stopped on Main Street at the Candy Store to pick up Kiley's giant lollipop (something Kiley had been talking about for months after seeing one on the "Disneyland Fun Sing-a Long" tape. I bought a package of lollipops for her classmates at daycare, and some Mickey and Friends animal crackers, also to share with the class. We reluctantly left MK for the last time, and headed up the ramp for the monorail. We asked once more, for a ride up front, and hooray…they said, sure! We loved this, and the view was every bit as good as I've read. Michael tried to engage our pilot, Amanda, but she wasn't really very animated. We thanked her as we got out, and took a picture of her and Kiley. I was a bit disappointed that we never got a co-pilot's license though. We were just going out the turnstiles at the TTC when Michael realized that we had left Kiley's purple blanket on the monorail. We asked one of the attendants in the ticket window about it, and he sent us to Lost and Found suggesting that they would be able to radio the train… "Yes, we know right where Lost and Found is, thanks." I headed there with a not-so-happy Kiley in tow, while Michael went to get the car. The CM at L&F laughed at us when we told him what the man at the ticked window had said, but he had us fill out a form, and said they would mail us the blanket if they found it. I explained to Kiley that the man was going to have Mickey look for her blanket, and that Mickey would mail it to us if he found it. Suddenly that was very cool. (As a side note, the blanket came in the mail 4 days later with a nice note. Kiley was thrilled that "Mickey" would to this, and I must admit, I was pretty impressed.)

We finished our final packing at 12:10 and said goodbye to the room. Kiley was drooping, but not quite ready for a nap. We thought about a swim, but neither of us was really in the mood for that yet. We ended up at the gift shop again, since I hadn't really had any time to look around in there. We decided to check out All-Star Movies and asked the first CM we ran into if it was within walking distance. She didn't really know; she said that today was her first day, and she was just about to go on duty. We decided to brave it, and away we went, figuring that Kiley would nod off in the stroller if she were ready for a nap.

Once she spotted (get it?) the giant Dalmatians, she just had to get out of the stroller (so much for the nap). We went inside the main building, and looked around - pretty much the same except for the theming. They had a slightly different merchandise mix in the gift shop though, so we hung out there for a while, and then went to the arcade. Kiley loves these things, and we actually had a good time in there. We left with a pink gel pen, and a plastic airplane for our 151 tickets. There was a caricaturist outside the food court, and we asked Kiley if she would like her picture drawn.She thought that was neat, and climbed into his "model" chair. It cost us around $20 and came out cute. He did the coloring while we went and paid at the gift shop. While I was in there, I broke down and got a stuffed Mickey for Kiley; they were much better quality than the ones at the Disney Store, and I just thought it would be a great way to end the trip. Our picture was packed up in a tube (2 or 3 more dollars) when we got back, so the final result would have to be a surprise. We went back to All-Star Music, and decided lunch would be a good idea. It was about 2:30 now, and the Food Court was deserted. We both got burgers and fries, and Kiley had nuggets. This was not one of our better meals, although there wasn't anything particularly bad about it; we'd had such good food this trip that a blah meal was a disappointment. I filled up the mugs one last time, and we decided to head out to the airport, maybe throwing in one more stop at the outlet if we had time. Kiley snuggled into her carseat, all ready for a nap. I thought this would be a great time to present her with the Mickey, and she loved it! We gassed up the car at Downtown Disney, and decided that we wouldn't really have time for another outlet stop. The drive to the airport was uneventful, and we were there with plenty of time to spare. As we pulled in to the rental return, there was a valet handy to help with the luggage.

With Kiley asleep, we gratefully accepted his help. He inquired about our airline and handled the entire check in process. I loved that. We never had to touch our bags, from the rental car, to the airport at home. This was worth every penny we tipped him. (I think it was a ten). We went through security with a sleeping Kiley (I thought they were going to insist we wake her up so she could walk through herself; they've always made her do that in the past) but she happily snoozed in Michael's arms through the whole thing. With plenty of time to spare, we browsed through the Disney Store at the terminal, and then sat down at a nice little "pub" for a cold beer to wait for our 7:05 flight. She was still asleep as we boarded, and I was hoping she would stay asleep for the whole flight. No such luck; within minutes of getting settled, she was awake and looking for milk. Arrrgggghhhh - the only thing I didn't have with me. She made do with the beverage service, and we were in Cincinnati before long. She was now getting grumpy, because she hadn't really had a chance to move in hours. Fortunately, we had some time in the airport so she could stretch her legs. That made the next trip a bit more bearable. She managed the second leg (leaving around 10:50 pm) by laying in my lap with her seatbelt somewhat loosened. The rest of the trip went smoothly and we landed right on time. After gathering our luggage, and retrieving the car, we were home and in bed within an hour. Already dreaming of our next (much longer) trip in January.

Day 1, 2, 3, 4