Magic Kingdom

We hit the Magic Kingdom super early on Wednesday AM. In fact, we got there nearly an hour before the 9 AM opening time. So, we were very close up in front of the crowd to being one of the first few through the gates!

We skipped Dumbo, but rode Peter Pan's Flight, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's Philharmagic, it's a small world - all in a row in Fantasyland. Then, we did the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square, took a detour to Frontierland, had a quick lunch at Peco's Bill's (very good for fast food type food), grabbed fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and moved on to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. The Jungle Cruise was a 30 minute stand by so we bypassed that for the time being and headed to Tommorowland. We checked out the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which was literally a scream (in the funny way) and the Evil Twin and Buddy did Stitch's Great Escape.

By this time (almost noon), it was time to go back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we headed back over there. Buddy and the Evil Twin rode it twice (I got 4 fast passes since there are four of us, even though Sissy is too small to ride some of the rides...it gives Buddy the option of riding twice or we would give the second set away to someone else - so far, he has wanted to ride twice for everything!).

At some point, we passed back by the Jungle Cruise and the stand by line was down to a 20 minute wait, so we decided to do that. Afterwards, we had some refreshing snacks and just chilled for a bit in a shady area near Tomorrowland.

The guys (Buddy and the Evil Twin) rode the Indy Speedway, and then we did some shopping on Main Street (Sissy got a shirt - everyone else, except picky me, already had bought a souvenir shirt).

Then we went to Mickey's Toontown Fair and took the railroad trip around the park.

Finally, it was time to board the monorail and head on to the Contemporary resort to have dinner at Chef Mickey's! That was fun. It's a buffet, but the food is very good and Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Donald Duck all make appearances at each table. Sissy loved seeing them all.

I was a bit worn out by that time, though. It's tough to deal with other people's children.

Sure, mine have melt downs and bad moods, but what I saw at dinner was unreal. If our children are small enough to need highchairs/booster seats, then they remain in them for the entire meal. There is no point when either of our children are given license to just roam about a restaurant.

Apparently, no one clued in the parents we encountered at Chef Mickey's.

What I loved best about the whole she-bang was that the parents of the said children obviously thought that whatever their little dumplin' was doing was cute as all get out. Note to clueless parents: Your dumplin' is a brat. You cannot "reason" with a 4 year old.

And also? If your very young toddler (barely over a year or so) is terrified of the big characters, do not attempt to repeatedly force her to deal with them.

So: Chef Mickey's - the food was good, the overall experience sucked thanks to not one, not two, or even three spineless parents. It was a rampant disease.

What's all this about Swine Flu? Reporters should focus on Whine Flu.

Whine Flu has also stricken my whole family. If I knew any more ungrateful people, I'd probably have hung myself long ago.

Since day one, I've been met with not only opposition, but open hostility. It's really been a learning experience for me.

Here, I wanted to give my family and especially the kids a really magical, fun trip. Instead, it has been a struggle.

I hereby resign as vacation planner, and in fact, I resign from any and all vacations from now on. If anyone wants a week at the beach whereby they sleep half the day away in a strange bed, then fine. I won't be there to remind them to stay in budget, so they should have a fabulous time.

One more day - it's Animal Kingdom day. Let's see if this gets any better (I doubt it).