Day 5 - Last Day - Or Is It?

8/26/11

It's Friday morning and our last scheduled day here in Walt Disney World. My son and his wife will be dropping the grandtwins off later this morning so that they can take care of a few chores. We are watching all of the preparations along the east coast for Hurricane Irene. Disney's Magical Express has delivered our confirmation for a 4:30 AM pickup tomorrow morning. I decide to check the status of our flight home tomorrow morning.I notice that our flight has been flagged as potentially being cancelled and that we can change our flight with no penalty. My wife and I decide that it would be a good idea to stay until the hurricane has passed by NYC. Since it is scheduled to hit at home on Sunday night, I start checking flights for Monday - all booked. I check for a Tuesday flight - all booked. Finally I find a flight for Wednesday morning, and book it. Success! We have the new flight and assigned seats. Now to decide about where to stay. We consider moving to a less expensive location, such as Pop Century or one of the All Star Resorts, but in the end we decide that we would prefer to stay here at Boardwalk, if we can remain in our current room. I call my daughter, who has made arrangements for my son and his family to stay until the hurricane has passed, and discuss our options. While on the phone with her, she is in contact with a friend at the front desk of our hotel, and finds that our room is available to extend our stay. We agree and the reservation is extended. All we have to do is get to the front desk and get a new set of keys. We are now stranded for an additional four days in WDW, staying at the Boardwalk. (I know, it's a struggle but we will try to survive.) I call Disney's Magical Express to let them know of our adjusted plans.

At about 10:00 my son and daughter-in-law stop by to drop the twins off for the day. We take a walk downstairs to the Boardwalk Bakery for some breakfast for the boys and us, and then head back to the room. We had called for 2 cribs earlier, and the boys settle in for their nap. Almost two hours later, after a nice nap, they wake up and we head off to the Disney Hollywood Studios. The boat arrives almost as soon as we get to the dock and we are off.

We arrive at The Studios and decide to head for The Great Movie Ride. The line is not long at all and after a minute or so the doors open and we head onto the ride. The boys are fascinated by the sights and sounds, and even at the times we were a bit nervous that they might tend to be a little scared, they thoroughly enjoyed it.

From here we decide that it is time for lunch, and Pizza Planet gets the nod. My wife and I order meals for us and a kids' meal for the boys. But it seems that they don't have any kids' meals ready, so instead, for the price of the kids' meal, we get a full size pizza with the juice box from a kids' meal. We find a table and proceed to have our lunch.

After lunch we head over to the animation courtyard and backdoor ourselves in through the gift shop, not really wanting to sit through the presentation and movie of the full tour. The boys spot Winnie The Pooh, so we naturally have to take them and get a picture with that silly old bear. While waiting in line, one of the twins spots his favorite character on the TV and in the wall art ... Tigger! The line moves well and after about 10-15 minutes we get to see Winnie The Pooh. The boys are old hands at this, having been here earlier in the week with their parents, and meeting Winnie and Mickey here then as well. Picture taken, we spend a bit more time here, in the air conditioning, waiting until it is showtime at Disney Junior Live!

This is an attraction which my wife and I had never seen in all of it's various incarnations after that venue had changed from being a counter service meal location (and bar). By that time our kids were grown, so we never got to see it as Playhouse Disney. (Plus, sitting on the floor was becoming more problematic for my wife and myself.) However, the twins watch all of the Disney Junior programs, so we took them in. It was actually a rather cute show, and the boys enjoyed it.

By this time we were hot, the boys were starting to get a bit cranky as well, so we decided to head back to the hotel where we would meet our daughter. Once back in the room, the boys got their second wind and were having a grand old time bouncing on the beds and running around. They remembered seeing Illuminations from our balcony the night before and kept running to it wanting to see "fireworks!" Since it was too early, they had to settle for my video from our fireworks cruise a few nights before.

Iris arrived at the room and we decided to head down to the boardwalk and have dinner at Big River. The wait was supposed to be rather short, but the family at the table they planned on giving us had finished their meal, but were not leaving. The boys enjoyed the freedom of the boardwalk, and finally our table was ready. As tired as they (and we) were, the boys behaved like little gentlemen at the table and colored and shared a kids macaroni and cheese - not to mention chocolate cake for dessert. During the meal my son texted me that they were back in WDW and heading over to our room to pick up the twins.

I guess we really worked them out today, as when we arrived back in our room to wait for their parents, one of the twins asked for Tigger and Dog (Tramp) and asked to be put in the crib so he could go to sleep. My son and his wife showed up at that point, and the boys headed back to their own hotel room for the night.

Now we don't have to get up in the wee hours of the morning to get to the airport and fly home, so we start to make plans for tomorrow. The trip now changes from one which is all about my daughter's wedding to a trip about the parks. My daughter and new son-in-law leave tomorrow for their honeymoon, and the second (unplanned) vacation is about to begin.