Making a Splash (photo)
When we left off the last time, we were crossing the Hub and getting some Photopass pictures. We were on our way to Frontierland, to a couple of our favorite rides. First up, we had a fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
I’ve covered this ride in a lot of my other trip reports, and I’m not sure what else to say, but these visual jokes help...
We boarded our (soon-to-be) runaway train and set off. As you can see, I sat with Lauren, Marlene had a seat to herself behind us, and Judy and James were behind her.
The people behind us were enjoying it.
Apparently there is geyser activity in the land of Big Thunder?
Another selfie, being goofy.
It’s always a great ride, and I don’t think we can ever go on it without relaying to Marlene the story about when her aunt took her on it when she was 5, much to her dismay. We were on a big extended family trip and Marlene and Lauren were going around the park with their cousins while Judy and I took 2-year-old James to some other attractions. Her aunt convinced her to go on it, and she did not like it at all, and was not happy with her afterward, to say the least. As I mentioned, Judy and I weren’t there, but we at least got to witness the pouty-faced aftermath. But that was a long time ago, and rollercoaster fears have long since been conquered.
After the wildest ride in the wilderness, it was time for Splash, at least for the kids and I – Judy would sit this one out. It was posted as a 40 minute wait, and we hoped that it would turn out to be less, but it was every bit of those 40 minutes and probably a little more.
Anyway, before we got in line, Judy reminded us to reapply sunscreen.
It’s hard to remember to reapply at the Magic Kingdom, so you need to do it when you think of it!
The kids and I talked about staging something for the ride camera but for some reason James was being a stick-in-the-mud and didn’t want to do it. We hounded him a little too much, to the point where I was afraid he was going to get mad and leave the line. We just couldn’t figure out why he didn’t want to do it?! Anyway, we convinced him to stay and the girls worked out the specifics of what they were going to do. Just before we boarded the boat James and I decided that for our pose, I’d pretend to be scared and he’d comfort me; but James cracks me up in that picture, because he looks like he could use some comforting of his own. I think the girls did a great job pulling off their mid-ride sunscreen application.
We were really psyched when we saw the ride photo on the screen afterwards and couldn’t wait to show Judy, but she’d have to wait until we got our Photopass pictures.
From there we walked over to a Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom station near the Frontier Trading Post so that James could play a little bit. We’d all picked up some cards earlier in the morning and gave them to James.
There was a guy playing ahead of James, and he was holding out about three cards toward the screen and the game was having trouble registering them. James tried to help him with how to hold it and said that you only use one card, but the guy said, “No, I’m playing at a higher level. You can use combinations of cards”. Right about then I noticed that he had a whole binder full of game cards. We said, “Ooooo” and were sufficiently impressed. I didn’t even know there were higher levels (of SotMK geekiness).
It was getting closer to our ADR time for lunch, so started moseying toward “Be Our Guest”. But first, a stop at the Tangled bathrooms was in order.
It’s such a cool area. The only shame of it is that there’s not anything else here, just bathrooms. Not to downplay a well-timed bathroom break.
Since Lauren is a Tangled fan, I took her picture in front of Rapunzel’s tower.
Well, I started this chapter with a visual joke at Big Thunder, so maybe I’ll end with a visual joke at the Tangled bathrooms: the Wanted posters
Gotta love Shorty! “Whoa, somebody get me a glass because I just found me a tall drink, of water.”
Up next:
Be Our Guest