Thursday September 20, 2018
Magic Kingdom CL4 (actual CL2)
Today I definitely heard Luke’s phrase of “this is not going to go the way you think” over and over. Let me start with what was planned. Today was our last Magic Kingdom day and we were to be there at RD. Ride WTP, Barnstormer, Dumbo, FPP PPF, FPP 7DMT, few other rides sprinkled in, FPP Elena/Cinderella meet afternoon, HEA dessert party. I planned PPF and 7DMT for our latest MK day to get good FPP availability times and to give the girls a chance to be comfortable with Barnstormer before a big roller coaster like 7DMT. This would be the one time DD1 would have to sit out, but I didn’t think she would notice missing out just once. This was to be the one day we stayed late enough for fireworks. The girls have never seen fireworks before so a blocked off garden viewing area sounded perfect and also perfectly less chaotic for us with so many littles. So that WAS the general plan for reference.
However, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
We got to the hub a few minutes before the opening show. We got to see the characters come out and a quick firework display before heading into Fantasyland. The girls loved the opening show and were pretty mesmerized by it all. The girls made a lot of “ooh and aweing” as the 4 fireworks went off to begin the day. In my mind I’m thinking tonight is going to be awesome as they have no idea what to expect.
Up first we had WTP planned, but alas the ride was down and no idea how long before it was to be running again. No worries, we can adjust and hit it again later on or just skip it, no biggie. So we walked over to the Barnstormer as it was a favorite for the girls. We gave everyone a ride on that, so 4 times total for us. DD4A got to ride twice as she was last and they didn’t have a line so we could just stay on.
Then we hopped over to Dumbo with a few minutes wait because they only had 1 Dumbo going.
I was holding DD1 in the line and tried taking a selfie with her and she looked miserable. I couldn’t get a smile even with trying to tickle her.
I instantly knew something wasn’t right. I felt her head and she was pretty hot. As we were boarding the Dumbo I decided that after the ride we needed to take her temp. I am prepared. I carry a medical kit everywhere (Children’s Advil, syringe/cup, Benadryl, bandaids/neo, thermometer, saline, snot sucker, and a few alcohol pads). After the ride we stopped behind the building where the bathrooms are and into the shade. I took her temp under the arm and it was 102.9.
We packed everyone up in the strollers and ran, literally RAN across the park to the First Aid Center. I’m sure people thought we were nuts as we were booking it both pushing a double stroller. Luckily the park was fairly empty as it was still early so there weren’t many people we had to dodge. I wanted to get her temp ran again and get her in some ac. This wasn’t an overheated type thing as we had only been out in the park for 40 minutes. The nurse took her temp and it was 102.4. They offered Tylenol or Advil but I politely declined and gave her our dye free Advil. Twenty minutes later I had them take her temp again and it was 101.6. They gave us a cold washcloth and we decided to miss our FPP’s for PPF and 7DMT and instead head back to the resort for some ac and rest. DD1 snuggled up on me very tightly so I ended carrying her while pushing the stroller with DD4B all the way back to our room. Looking back I wish the First Aid center had offered some type of transportation back. I don’t mind walking or the heat at all, but it would have been great to keep DD1 out of the sweltering heat. Not sure if they even offer something like that or if we could have asked, but I more or less just reacted and knew we needed to get back to the room asap for DD1.
Once we were back in the room all 4 girls were happy to take a nap. I went to the Exchange inside the resort and they did not have children’s Tylenol. I placed another Amazon Prime Now order for a few items, but mainly for children’s Tylenol so we could alternate between Advil and Tylenol to knock out this fever. Then I called Disney and explained the problem of how we needed to cancel the dessert party for later that evening. After asking for a full refund due to a sick child they were happy to do it. I was fully prepared to have them check with the First Aid Center to verify that we were there and this isn’t a made up story or just lose out on the party. I find that if you are polite and courteous people are usually willing to help you if they can.
My rockstar feeling was taken down about 10 pegs when we missed the PPF and 7DMT as I knew we would not be able to modify those for a later time. DH thought it was brilliant to just modify them to a later time as we had done a couple times on other things, but he didn’t know how rare those FPP are. I was totally ok with it though and the girls didn’t know what they were missing as there was more than enough to entertain them. Sure it would have been fun to ride those 2, but first and foremost is our daughter’s health and it would have been unwise to keep her out in the heat just to ride these big ticket attractions. We will make sure to hit those up on our next trip though.
I then was able to modify our expired FPP to a Buzz Lightyear and a WTP for later that evening. Not knowing if we would even be up for it, but we had the option if DD1 was feeling better. I was not optimistic at all that we would make it back although I was toying with the idea of maybe trying to take the trio by myself just to make the meet and greet for Elena/Cinderella as DD4B really wanted to dance with Elena. Plan B for the day is one of us take the girls to the pool while the other stayed in the room with poor little DD1. Once everyone woke up DD1 was running all over the place being her into every single thing crazy self not even acting like anything was bothering her. Her temp was way down and into the normal range so I went ahead and gave her some Tylenol to keep it at bay.
Looking back on it this was our 5 park day so 5 days of being exposed to things. The timeline fits and it makes sense that she picked up something. There are so many people from all over coming together in one place and no amount of hand sanitizer can keep it all away because we did use hand sanitizer. Things rarely go perfectly planned and even less so with kids especially so many little kids! So we just rolled with it because what else can you do. My best advice is to have your own little medical kit.
We decided to head back to Magic Kingdom and see what we could fit in since DD1 was feeling like her normal self again. If anything, we could at least meet Elena and Cinderella one more time with our FPP, but we were prepared to leave at a moments notice. We left the room at 3pm and took the ferry this time. The ferry is the way to go, hands down. A nice ride, not many people at all, just as fast, and a great view and breeze. We wished we had done the ferry the rest of the time instead of the monorail.
We arrived at Magic Kingdom at 3:45 and there was a light drizzle that felt amazing. However, it delayed/cancelled the Royal Friendship Faire that we were hoping to catch so DD4C could see Anna (yet again, haha). We walked over to the Tea Cups and rode that. DD1 was grinning from ear to ear and looked so much better. The girls all love that ride and got the cups spinning like crazy.
We then used our FPP to meet Cinderella and Elena at Princess Fairytale Hall. Cinderella put the tiara back on DD4C’s head when it got knocked off during the group hug. What a cute moment that was! I was glad to have captured that on video. Then the meeting with Elena was the best of the entire trip. Elena and the girls had so much fun together and the meeting went on for more than 5 minutes. LONGEST meet and greet ever, but also BEST meet and greet ever! So long that CM’s were giving out FPP to the people behind us for the delay. Elena was telling stories, dancing with the girls, comparing shoes, comparing tiaras, talking about riding Jaquins, and just having a blast. Such an amazing interaction and made their day! The photopass photographer told me that those were some of the best pictures he’s ever taken. I actually wrote a nice email to guest services about that Elena telling them how awesome she was with the girls. I hope she gets recognition for it, because she deserves it! Not all meet and greets are the same at all.
Once we were finished there we rode the carrousel and I rode with DD1 to keep an eye on how she felt (plus I secretly wanted to ride too).
We walked over to Storybook Circus where we met Minnie and Daisy with about a 20 minute wait. Next up was our FPP for Buzz Lightyear where the girls had a fun time shooting the blasters again. The scores were low yet again because no one would let us help.
We then jumped on the Peoplemover with a very short wait. We really enjoyed this ride as it was low key and keeps the 4 of them contained. The rain had made a beautiful rainbow over Space Mountain and the Contemporary resort that I was able to capture although not my best photography as being on a moving ride at the time and only having my phone.
Everyone was getting hungry so we mobile ordered some hot dogs from the Lunching Pad. They were ready very quickly and we decided to take them to Cosmic Ray’s so we could get some other food as well. I mobile ordered Cosmic Ray’s and we walked there in about 3 minutes and still had to wait another 15 minutes or more until the food was actually ready. I guess they were swamped or something. We sat down and everyone ate there before we went to our FPP for Winnie the Pooh. The girls were sad to miss the honey wall due to the FPP line, but really enjoyed the ride again and were giggling the whole time. I think Tigger popping out really made them laugh.
It was getting close to 7:30 and getting packed for the fireworks so we made a beeline for the exit so we didn’t get stuck in the hordes of people with a semi sick child after the show. We took the ferry back and decided to stay near the ferry dock ramp area to watch the fireworks since it was a perfect view of the castle. We could even hear a bit of the music from the Polynesian beach. The girls enjoyed the fireworks once they got started (~8:10). DD4B kept saying “wow” and “it’s red, my favorite color” while giggling. She was the most mesmerized. DD1 was snuggling with DH and looked ready for bed so we left before they were even over, but at least the girls got to see some fireworks. We were back in the room by 8:45.
In hindsight I’m glad we dropped the HEA dessert party and left before the mass exodus of people. Sure it would have been a better view and we could have seen the projections, but with our situation it was best to buzz out early. Plus, there is always next time! It was a rough start to the day and didn’t go quite as planned, but I think we made the best out of it and it ended as perfectly as it could have.
I’m glad everything went so well and you all had such a good time.
It was all about them and what they wanted to do, but honestly we got a lot of enjoyment at just watching them. Plus pretty much every single ride was new to us as the last time we went we avoided the kiddie rides. From what I’ve read CM is chaotic so we definitely wanted to avoid that! We did a TON of meet and greets, but I will have to add them all up for a final count.
