Kyle and I gave the boys the opportunity to select one activity on our recent Spring Break trip to Fort Lauderdale. Our thirteen-year-old picked a visit to the Florida Panthers’ practice rink. Kyle chose a ride on the Water Taxi. I hoped to go the entire vacation without picking up a cockroach that I mistook for a shell (I did not get my wish). For his part, Nine wanted to go to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.
I also wanted to go to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios, and since I had picked up a cockroach thinking it was a shell, I was owed a new thing. However, there were two extenuating factors at play: one, Florida was a large state and Fort Lauderdale and Orlando were nowhere near each other; and two, Nine had a habit of losing interest in something mere seconds after declaring his undying passion for it. For example, he recently VERY ENTHUSIASTICALLY announced that he was “The next Lebron James” after a particularly good session at a basketball training facility in town.
“Great!” I said. I’m glad you like basketball so much.”
“I don’t like basketball,” he said, confused. “I like badminton.” [Author’s note: he’s never played badminton; he heard about it from his brother, who played it in gym class.]
We got to Florida. We took a Water Taxi. We went to the hockey rink. And every day we would ask Nine what he wanted to do, and each day he said, “I want to go to Harry Potter World.”
“All right, fellas,” I said one night at dinner. “Tomorrow is the best day to go to Harry Potter World, so if we’re going to go, it’s tomorrow or bust. It’s a three-hour drive, and so we’ll have to get up at 6:00 tomorrow morning.”
“Deal,” Nine said.
“Deal,” Thirteen said, which surprised us because we thought he’d put up a fight.
“And we can’t stay there because our Airbnb is here, so we’ll have to drive back another three hours tomorrow night,” I said.
“Okay,” the boys said.
“Okay,” Kyle said.
“Okay,” I said.
“Should I get tickets now?” I asked Kyle.
“Better wait,” he said, gesturing with his head towards Nine, who was dunking his broccoli in his milk because, in his words, “that’s what chefs do.”
We awoke at 6:00 the next morning.
“Still going to Harry Potter World?” I asked Nine as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.
“I changed my mind; I’d rather go to Magic Kingdom,” he said, fully dressed and breakfasted.
We drove to Orlando. Every half-hour or so, we’d ask Nine where we were going. After the fourth or fifth iteration of “Magic Kingdom,” I finally called the ball.
“I’m buying tickets to Magic Kingdom in three minutes,” I said. “After that, there can’t be any changesies.”
“Yep, Magic Kingdom,” Nine said, hesitantly. “No, wait, Harry Potter.”
He slammed his little fist down on the seat.
“Nope, Magic Kingdom,” he said, definitively.
“Magic Kingdom?” I said.
“Magic Kingdom,” he said.
We went to Magic Kingdom.
We have a couple of sets of friends who are lucky enough to vacation at Disney on a regular basis and know the tricks of the trade. While they differ on favorite resorts, activities, and theme parks, they all offered the same advice: go in with a plan.
Most people go to Disney for more than one day. Floridians can buy annual passes and so I’m sure some of them go for one day at a time, but the vast majority of visitors go for multiple days. It’s so common to go for multiple days, in fact, that our one-day ticket to one park cost roughly $50 less than three days at the whole gamut of the parks. This meant that when we four yokels purchased tickets to Magic Kingdom, we were inserting ourselves into a mass of people with very structured (and probably planned since 2024) expectations of their day as it related to the whole of their other days at the parks.
Obviously, we did not have a plan. We didn’t have Lightning Passes, which get you onto the rides faster. We didn’t have a ride strategy beyond a list of must-ride rides. We didn’t have matching t-shirts or Disney costumes like 99.99% of visitors at Magic Kingdom. What we had was enthusiasm and a dinner reservation, because I made that as we were pulling off the Interstate towards Disney World. We also had the Disney app to let us know the ride wait times.
We walked through the gates of Magic Kingdom. With every step, Nine (but really the four of us) got more and more AND MORE EXCITED. By the time we reached Main Street U.S.A., he was BUZZING.
“Should we eat an early lunch,” I asked, as we had just been in the car for three hours, “or should we ride a ride?”
“WE SHOULD RIDE A RIDE,” Nine shouted.
I pulled open the app. Every one of our must-ride rides had an average of a 45-minute wait.
“Okay,” I said. “Pick whatever one you want.”
He picked the Haunted Mansion.
We didn’t wait in line for 45 minutes; it was more like 30. Nine was very very veryveryeryvyeryvyeryry excited until we got into the actual mansion, and then he wasn’t so sure if it was going to be too scary, and then after the ride he was veryveryveryvereryeyvyery proud of himself for having decided to not bail out of that ride at the last minute. Also, he was hungry.
I pulled up the app, which offered an “Order Ahead” option. I ordered ahead at one of the restaurants – which ended up being an unnecessary step because the actual line to the food was faster than the Order Ahead (the way Disney Order Ahead works is that you pay on the app, and then when you get there they start making it – but they are so efficient that I did Order Ahead twice and both times found it faster to stand in line and get the food immediately rather than wait to check in and then wait again for food). We had our food and were done eating in 45 minutes, which also included 10 minutes of sitting there while the boys decided which ride to do next.
Thirteen’s only request of the day was to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. While we were sitting at lunch, Pirates of the Caribbean went from a 60-minute wait, to a 75-minute wait, to completely shut down. We decided to knock off a few other rides in the meantime while Pirates was repaired.
We did Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Tom Sawyer’s Island, but Pirates was still down. Thirteen, who had been a great sport, was starting to show signs of distress. What’s the best cure for a wait for Pirates of the Caribbean? Dole Whip. We got the boys Dole Whip slushie things, and they had just sucked down the first…slurp? bite?…when I opened the app and watched as the little sign above the Pirates ride changed from “Temporary Closed” to “Five-Minute Wait.”
“WE NEED TO HAUL ASS OVER TO PIRATES,” I said, very demurely, very mindfully.
My three boys looked panicked. A mom in fluffy Minnie ears gave me a look appropriate to my comment.
“HAUL ASS,” I repeated, and started power-walking (and I mean P.O.W.E.R.W.A.L.K.I.N.G.) in the direction of the ride. Everyone followed, running along and housing down their Dole Whips.
We power-walked onto Pirates without waiting even a moment in line. By the time we finished the ride, the wait time was back up to 35 minutes.
Long story long, we did it up at Disney. We ate more stuff. We rode more rides. We saw the fireworks. We bought souvenirs. We had only one miss; Thirteen had wanted to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure but the line was never not 75-minutes-plus and we ran out of time.
It was a really great day. Really great. Still, I was feeling a bit badly that we hadn’t planned this better (or at all – but, really, given us multiple days so Thirteen could ride what he wanted) when I popped into the restroom at the start of the fireworks. It was only me and another woman in there. She was wearing a “Grammy Mouse” t-shirt that was clearly part of a family set.
“Hurry up, Mom!” Another woman yelled from the door. “The fireworks are starting!”
“Go on without me, I’ll find ya,” Grammy yelled back. She pulled out her phone and scrolled a bit before going into the stall because I suppose there’s too much of a good thing, too.
Nine was only interested in meeting one character, and that was Aladdin (photo above). He had a lot of questions for him. Here was Kyle’s favorite exchange:
Nine: How’s your day going?
Aladdin: Pretty good. It’s nice outside and I get to talk to you.
Nine: What are magic carpets made of?
Aladdin: You know, regular rug stuff.
This week on North Dakota Today we talked about Deanna Mattice, my Nice Person of the Week, as well as a group of Moorhead kindergartners taking a “bite” out of hunger. (Valley News Live)
The Kindred Boys Basketball Team – coach included – took a dip to celebrate their latest state title. (Facebook)
A group of Fargo volunteers gave the gift of sight to 200 people in the Dominican Republic. (Fargo Forum)
Bismarck’s Grayson Rambough is a great kid and a great swimmer. (KFYR TV)
The lovely Emily Dawes was named Grand Forks Teacher of the Year. (Grand Forks Herald)
All about Kids donated 50 cots to keep the pups cozy at Circle of Friends Animal Shelter. (Facebook)
North Dakota is next on the list for a 12-year-old named Sabrina Patel who is working hard to play the National Anthem in every U.S. state. (Valley News Live; Found from “Oops Only Good News”)
Gamers from 140 teams across North Dakota came to Grand Forks to compete in the annual Esports State Tournament. (UND Today)
North Dakota Nice 
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