“You Are Now Approaching Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress”

All good things must come to an end.  Wednesday was my final full day in Orlando and it was just as fun as the first.  As we prepared to make our way to the Magic Kingdom, Taylor and Sammie asked me to help gather more of our slimy, shell enclosed friends.  However, I decided to stay inside and help with baby Christopher.  While waiting, I happened upon the old 1960s Batman movie.  Yes, between seasons of the camp television classic, Adam West and company made the transition to the big screen; complete with one of the most hilariously bad moments in all of cinema: the shark repellent bat spray.  Ok… enough on the caped crusader and his cinematic adventures.

After visiting Tomorrowland (and the droning voice announcing our approach to Mr. Disney’s vision of the 21st century and its catch tune “There’s a Great. Big, Beautiful Tomorrow”), it was decided that Big Chris was not going to survive the rest of the day on his feet.  So, while he and Lisa took the two youngest with them to get a wheelchair, Taylor, Sammie, and I went to Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan’s Flight.  This is a ride I actually remember from Disney Land which I visited when I was 4 years-old.  I don’t think the ride stopped in California.  However, once again I was right in the middle of a malfunction (not the wardrobe type, either).

Following the ride, I got behind the wheelchair and started pushing.  Not a problem at all… not only did it keep Chris off that toe, it probably did me some good, too.  It also aided in the lines at the rides.  With the added bonus of baby swap for those attractions that did not allow lap holding, wheelchair access allowed us to move quicker to the ride.  Not that I had wished for this to happen.

From there, we visited each and every attraction I make it a point to visit every time I visit the park.  I LOVE The Haunted Mansion and its doom buggies in Liberty Square.  Also never to be missed are Splash Mountain featuring the characters of Uncle Remus (I find it really strange that they have an attraction devoted to the stories but will never again release Song of the South on video) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad both of which are in Frontierland.  While riding BTMR, poor Sammie lost her bracelet and when we made a quick peek to see if it fell off in our car, it was nowhere to be seen.

One of my other favorites is in Adventureland (NOOOO, not Jungle Cruise).  Pirates of the Caribbean has been updated since my last visit.  It now features the voices and likenesses of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa.  We rode Pirates more than once and surprise, surprise… it happened again. Yo, ho; yo, ho/A Pirate’s life for me

At the end of the day, I was rewarded for pushing the wheelchair (not that the reward was necessary) with an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet.  Of course forgetting that Chris is allegic to shellfish.  On the way back to our home, his voice was getting scratchy.  After we got in and made arrangements for me to get to the airport by 7, C&L went out for a few hours to get away by themselves.  I was seriously going to make them if they had not.  Taylor and I played some Uno since the other three were sound asleep.  After Uno, T wrote out the lyrics to a song she learned with motions in music class.  I always loved learning new little songs in music class.  So, I will reproduce them as best I can:

The Long-Legged Sailor

Have you ever, ever, ever in your long-legged life

Met a long-legged sailor with a long-legged wife?

No, I never, never, never in my long-legged life

Met a long-legged sailor with a long-legged wife.

For simplicity’s sake I will supply the following: in each successive verse, you replace long-legged with short-legged, knock-kneed, bow-legged, and cross-legged, respectively.  Did I remember all the verses, Dopey?

When C&L got back, the four of us played a final game of Uno then it was time to say goodbye to the last one’s standing before going to bed.