Disney = Homesickness Cure

Last night when I was talking to my father, he mentioned that my mother thought Colwyn sounded really sad and homesick when she was talking to him on the phone earlier.  My mother has said that a few times, but I usually listen in on their conversations, and he's never sounded particularly sad.  I think she may be confusing 'distracted' with 'sad'.  But regardless, I spent a while this morning talking to Colwyn and Lachlann, trying to gauge how sad and/or homesick they're really feeling.  They said they were a bit homesick, but that they were mostly enjoying living down here.  I think it's helped that it's been warm the past few days, so we've spent a lot of time outdoors and in the pool.

Anyway.. we hadn't done anything Disney since before Christmas, so I decided to take the kids over to spend some time on property enjoying Disney transportation.  That sounds incredibly boring, I know, but the kids really enjoy riding the different types of transport, and some Disney is better than no Disney, right?  We're all frustrated that we haven't been able to get our passes yet.

We went to Port Orleans to park and spend some time in the gift shop.  Even though there are prettier resorts and Disney-er resorts, I think Port Orleans Riverside is my favorite.  It just feels like home.  And the kids love checking out gift shops, even if we can't buy anything.  We hopped on a bus headed towards the Magic Kingdom.

After arriving at the Magic Kingdom, we waited until the bus emptied and then the kids asked for transportation cards.  They lucked out and got a handful, and Lachlann gave the bus driver a thank you card.  We headed straight over to the ferry, which we had never been on before.  

The kids really enjoyed the ferry.  We had to check out both decks, of course.  I pointed out the new DVC rooms at the Poly and boy, was Colwyn impressed.  He is convinced that when he becomes an Imagineer, he'll be able to live in one.  

Next up was the Epcot monorail.  We hadn't ridden it since moving, I guess I was holding out until we got pretty desperate.  The Epcot monorail actually loops through the park, so you can see all the different attractions and you get a nice view of World Showcase.  The kids were really excited to see the rides, but as we pulled into the monorail station, Lachlann said, "Okay, we shouldn't do that again.  It's too depressing to see everyone getting to do our favorite rides."  Oops.

I'm not sure if it's just us, or what.. but Fiona really likes to play on the poles in the monorail cars.  The other kids do too, of course, but the only problem is with Fiona.  (We only let them do this when there's nobody standing, by the way.)  The kids like to pretend that they're fire station poles, and try to jump up on them and slide down.  Fiona, however, likes to twirl around as she's sliding down.  It looks exactly like pole dancing.  It's awkward, and I find myself saying, quite loudly for the benefit of other people who may or may not be giving me weird looks, "Oh, Fiona, you're a great firefighter!  Are you pretending the alarms are going off and you need to slide down the pole to get to your fire truck?"  I don't want to put my adult stuff on her and make her feel ashamed of what she's doing, but.. eesh.

Niall wasn't quite done riding the monorail when we got back to the Ticket and Transportation Center, we switched over to the Resort Monorail and did a loop on that - picking up more transportation cards along the way.  Then it was back on the ferry to go back to the Magic Kingdom.

We caught a bus back to Port Orleans, giving our bus driver another thank you card when we disembarked at the main stop.  We all love giving out these cards to cast members we like, mainly because they always seem so thrilled to get them.  The kids lobbied hard to get a magic cookie bar before heading home, but we had stayed out longer than I expected and we had to get home so I could cook dinner.  I don't know how I resisted on that one, since magic cookie bars are my absolute favorite, but I did.

It's not the same as going into one of the parks and riding rides, but it was a little dose of Disney, and it definitely served as a reminder of how cool living here is.  On the way home, the kids all declared that they want to put all their Christmas money towards their annual passes.  What cuties.