Jedi trippie - part 34

When The Slubbies meet Stan

Friday 5th December

Steven slept right through to 6.30am this morning!! :D Amazing how small things like that make you start the day with an extra spring in your step. Steven had an extra spring in his crawl that’s for sure: he was wriggling and bouncing all over the place. Meant for a very slippery bath time too, and it also meant that we were nowhere near ready when the Slubbies knocked on our door to see if we were ready for breakfast. I have to explain now. Harry had taken to calling everyone a Slubby. Why? I have no idea. But we picked up on the word and eventually started to refer to ourselves in the collective sense as The Slubbies. I think the word originally began life as slug but the 2 years and 8 month old version turned it into Slubby. :confused:

So we eventually join the Slubbies in the food court for breakfast where Steven breaks with the toast/banana tradition and samples a blueberry muffin. I’m not sure that he was that impressed with it as a lot of it ended up on the floor. Oh well, back to toast tomorrow. I asked Ellie if the Tooth Fairy had visited last night to retrieve the tooth she lost yesterday. Yes the Tooth Fairy visited, and they amazingly know which country you are from because Ellie was left £2. Well that’s no good over here is it? Though I guess with the amount of dollar type cash she got for her birthday there was no need to provide extra dollars in exchange for the tooth. So probably just as well that the Tooth Fairy knew that Ellie hailed from the shores of Blighty.

No chasing of each other around the floor this morning so we adjourned back to our rooms to prepare for the day’s adventures. Whilst getting the buggy and related equipment ready we had the Weather Channel on the TV as background noise or to drown out the sound of Harry running up and down outside. It suddenly caught my attention and I found myself sitting on the bed watching them discuss the formation of a tropical storm in the Atlantic. In December. The first one in December for about a gazillion years. I couldn’t believe it. :eek: I turned to Adrian and told him to watch. We looked at each other and I said, “It’s because we’re here, isn’t it?” We were going three for three on park closures this trip and here was the evidence we needed to suggest that we might succeed. :rolleyes008: We are indeed a blight on the landscape of Walt Disney World. Oh well, we make plans to do laundry on the day we are all confined to resort and go and meet everyone on the balcony for the daily trek to the cars.

As we exit the elevators Ellie and Harry embark upon their daily race to the cars. This involves turning right from the elevator, hanging a left and running down the little slope, round the hydrant thing, up the steps and stopping at the edge of the kerb to wait for the rest of us. Ellie always won because Harry is only 2 and a bit and she’s 6, Harry only has little legs, Harry has a nappy stuck between his legs, and quite frankly Harry runs like a girl. Harry took this defeat well every morning, seemingly resigned to his lack of athletic prowess, and quite happy to play the fool for the rest of us.

So we’re into the vehicles and headed for the Disney-MGM Studios today. Or is it the Disney Studios? The MGM appears to have been dropped by Disney. Anyway it’s the one with the big hat that we’re going to. We are soon parked and on the tram to the entrance area where we stop to admire the big Chrissy tree before heading to the security checkpoint. My bag had a couple of jars of baby food in it and these were at the bottom so as I put the bag on the table it landed with a resounding thud. The female security guard looked up at me and exclaimed, “Oh my God, you just broke my table.” :oops:I apologised profusely to the poor table, much to the amusement of all the security personnel within earshot, and joined the rest of my family who were waiting for me having already negotiated security leaving the props intact.

We’re early for park opening so we join the small lines of people already waiting. Ellie of course then needs the restroom so I point out their location just off to our left. Nanny Lesley is busy looking in the wrong direction not being able to see them anywhere so I have to escort them both to the other left. As we head back to the line after the restroom trip I notice a familiar looking figure talking to the rest of our group. As I got closer I got the hit of recognition. Oh my God it’s Stan. How cool is that. Adrian and myself met Stan on our last trip. Stan is a CM who was wandering the pre-opening lines outside MGM handing out park guides and Mickey stickers. And here he was again doing exactly the same thing. Stan must have been 150 when we met him last time, goodness knows how old he is now. It’s one of those moments of Disney magic. Such an insignificant thing to some people yet for me it was wonderful seeing the same person who’d given me a Mickey sticker two years ago now giving Steven a Mickey sticker. Which of course he ate shortly afterwards. We exchanged a few words with Stan before he went on his way handing out more Mickey stickers and smiles to the waiting crowds. He’s probably doing exactly the same thing right now and will do it until the end of time.:thumbs-up: