It’s the last day

Saturday, January 24th 2026

I saw a magical moment first thing this morning. There were two teenage girls getting out of our train on Big Thunder Mountain as we were getting in. I noticed them because one of the girls had on super cute blue and white striped pants. As I settled into my seat, I realized that Jory the cast member had tapped them and offered them a re-ride on an empty seat in the middle of the train. They looked appropriately delighted. When we got in the line for the next ride, Jory was at the split for lightning lane with a tiny tiny tiny little bubble wand, blowing us all tiny bubbles and saying this is what you got up early for. A cast member’s attitude can really make your day.

We saw Daniel and Amanda in line behind us so we waited at the exit. A guy got off the train before them and was chugging along like a choo choo train saying, “Say it with me now: Chim…eee…changa. Chim…eee…changa.” He inspired us to go get a breakfast chimichanga. We were eating when the Mark Twain paddle wheeler pulled up, so we got on. Beautiful morning ride. Most of the 20 people onboard had chimichangas.

Amanda is the macaron maker of our group. It seemed appropriate for her birthday “cake” to be a special macaron. Yesterday they were sold out when she tried to get one! Today we did not wait – we had macaron and birthday songs for morning snack. We had a view of the castle as we ate, and the Dapper Dans sang to us as they rode by on the trolley.

The Mad Hatter went past us as we headed through Fantasyland. We stopped to ride Alice and the Hatter rode the teacups – delighting us and everyone on the ride.

The Christmas lights were off on Small World, making it look startling different. We studied the lights while we were in line for a couple minutes. Do they take the strings down or just take all the bulbs out and replace them? I think they replace the bulbs. One sees lots of princesses around here, but I really liked the little girl rockin’ the Maleficient dress and the toddler in a stroller dressed as Cinderella as the maid, with stuffed mouses with her. There have been quite a few folks with big head covering hats – lots of Poohs and Tiggers – but we never saw a store selling them. Curious.

We got a coupon for a super pass for 8 people on Toy Story Mania the other day when the game malfunctioned. We went over to use it and I decided we needed to invite 2 or 3 people to join us – to give a magical moment. We grabbed a couple after they seemed to look at the 70 minute wait time and decided no. They didn’t really seem to know about TSM, but they were appreciative anyway. It was a fun. At the end of the ride, the guy in the car next to us was swiping my good targets from my screen. I realized he must coincidentally be a good player right next to us. I finally looked at him and it was Benjamin! Surprise!

Keith was wearing his new Luigi’s shirt in front of Luigi’s tire store.

The sun was shining and Benjamin decided we could do Tiana’s splash mountain. Benjamin, Daniel, and I went. We got very wet. Not dipped wet, but wet.

We went to the DVC lounge and just sat around and ate Cheez-its and Oreos and drank hot chocolate for a while.

When we got out in the darkening evening, it was pretty chilly. The kids went on the submarine and Keith and I shopped a few stores. I ran into sweatpants and insisted we buy some for my wet cold boy. Keith insisted he would never wear them. We met up with them and Benjamin was delighted to put on cozy warm pants. He was so happy he was dancing. On purpose. In public. Daniel ended up buying some, too. There was quite a bit of dancing after that.

We watched the fireworks from Galaxy’s Edge. They have cleverly repurposed the existing fireworks from the main street show into a Star Wars show. You can only see the fireworks from one of the launch sites from back there. They play great Star Wars music instead of Disney music and a bunch of people can get off the crowded space on Main Street for a different show. It was really great.

Fifteen minutes before the park closed, we went for a last ride using a super pass we had. Keith bowed out and went to use $9 he had left on a gift card on a trip to the Tropical Hideaway. Then when we were steps from the exit, the men had churros.