Bus babies

While we’re walking to the bus at the Studios, we suddenly hear and see the fireworks going off for the finale of Fantasmic! We can even see Sorcerer Mickey on top of the mountain! Wow. I never realized how much of the show can be seen and heard from outside the amphitheater.

So what are our plans? Bob, Linda & Becky are talking about breakfast tomorrow, but guess what? The boys and I make more immediate plans – back to the Magic Kingdom for us, for another late-night outing!

I know the other three think we’re crazy. It’s not just that we’re staying up later again, but the cold front is here in force now. The wind is blowing from the north, and it is very, very chilly.

I love it.

There’s a bit of a line at the Polynesian bus stop, but a bus is loading when we get there, so we should be able to get on the next one. We witness something I’ve heard of from my WDW bus driver friends – young parents griping at the driver because he’s telling them they have to fold their baby stroller to get on board, which would entail getting out their sleeping child.

I am sympathetic with the parents to a degree. Back when our kids were small, we treasured the times they were asleep. (Come to think of it, we still do!) But I also know that (1) it’s a safety issue, and (2) it’s a Federal regulation, so the driver doesn’t have a choice in the matter.

The driver is doing a good job trying to explain this to the parents in a calm tone, but they’re not easily convinced and spend a lot of energy (and volume – like they’re seemingly not really too worried about waking their baby) arguing with him. As it is, while they are arguing other people are getting on the bus, and by the time the parents realize that they’re not changing the driver’s mind, the bus is full. The driver climbs aboard and is gone before they have their baby out.

The baby doesn’t seem to wake up.

Unfortunately our group is the next in line for the bus, so the couple starts griping to us, along the lines of, “Can you believe what he’s making us do?” I put on my best “prosecutor breaking the news to a defendant that they have to pay the fine” sympathy voice and tell them, well, what I just wrote – that while I’d hate to wake the baby if he were my child, it is a DOT regulation and the bus driver was right.

Hearing the same answer as the driver gave, but from a guest, seems to calm them down a bit.

As luck has it, another bus – # 4823 – is not far behind. Like the bus Brandon and I took this afternoon, we’re apparently stopping at the Contemporary first. As we proceed up World Drive past the turnoff for the Polynesian, I tell the kids that we’re about to go underwater!

Brandon gets what I mean pretty quickly, but Benjamin is confused. He knows there’s a trick to what I’m saying, but he can’t figure it out.

Then the roadway dips down and we enter the tunnel under the waterway connecting the Seven Seas Lagoon with Bay Lake. Aha! “Under water” we go.