When going to Walt Disney World, timing is very important. We always choose to go during the slowest times, the times with the lightest crowds. This means wait times for the various rides and attractions usually aren’t more than 10 minutes. The most popular rides, during the busiest time of the day can get up to 20 minutes, sometimes even 30 minutes.

Occasionally, during some confluence of events and timing, some wait time might go over 30 minutes. These rides and times, we just get a fastpass, or we just skip it now and come back later when the natural wait time drops back to 10-20 minutes. Personally, there are no rides or attractions at WDW that I’d wait in a line 30 minutes or more. Maybe I’m just spoiled.

On Wednesday, Disney’s Hollywood Studios had the biggest crowd of any park we visited, and we ended up waiting 25 minutes to get on Toy Story Midway Mania. That was the longest wait time we experienced. Otherwise we stuck to our 10-20 minute preference. In Magic Kingdom, Tuesday morning, we walked onto all three mountains, (Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain), with literally no waits. I mean, literally, no wait: we walked into the building, along the pathway, and got in the next car. A couple of times we were the only riders in our car. When the ride was over, and we were supposed to get out of the car, we were allowed to just stay seated and ride again immediately. (There was no one waiting to take our places.)

After riding twice in a row, we got off and moved on to the next attraction, but we sometimes went back later for another ride. During our week, we rode our favorite rides 2, 3, 4, even 5 times. At one point, right before we had lunch reservations, we rode Space Mountain with about a 5 minute wait. After we got off, we got fastpasses for later. The Disney cast member standing by the fastpass machines pointed out that there was only a 5 minute wait. “Yeah, we just rode it,” we said. “We’re getting these fastpasses for after lunch.” He said the wait probably won’t ever get above 10 minutes that day. And he was right.

After lunch we rode Space Mountain again without going through the fastpass lane. After that third Space Mountain ride of the day, we didn’t go back. An hour or so later, we decided to leave the park altogether, and I ended up giving our fastpasses to some random visitor who was coming into the park as we were going out.

I know there are lots of people who have never been to WDW during a slow time of year. I’ve talked with people for whom waiting in line for 60+ minutes is normal and perfectly acceptable. They’ve never seen a WDW park look like this:

Magic Kingdom, Sunday 4:00 p.m.

Frontierland, Tuesday 10:00 a.m.

Epcot, Monday 12:30 p.m.

Epcot Aquarium, Monday 11:00 a.m.

Chef Mickey’s Restaurant, Wednesday noon

Coral Reef Restaurant, Monday noon

I honestly just can’t imagine trying to navigate through the crowds of a busy time of year. Last year, when we visited during December, the crowds were heavier than this time this year, but they were still light compared to the really busy times.

I’ve been warned that posting this might sound like bragging, but really, it’s not. I’m posting all this as a public service announcement.

Bullgrit

We’re not at home this week. We are at Walt Disney World. We are on vacation. We are relaxed, having fun, playing, swimming, riding thrills, and probably eating much more than we should.

We’ll be back to our regular home and lives next week.

Bullgrit

Calfgrit6 said to me, “Dad, you know why sometimes I don’t like being a boy?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because girls have some mean sayings about boys. Like ‘Girls rule, boys drool.’ And ‘Girls go to college to get more knowledge, but boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider.'”

Bullgrit

I just finished with all the paperwork for executing my dad’s Will. We’re putting the package in the mail today. Geez, but executing a Will for the first time is a real pain the the neck.

When I first took up the task, I was told, “Oh, it’s easy. You really don’t need an attorney.”

Now that I’ve been through the process, if I ever need to do it again, yeah, it’s easy and I won’t need an attorney. But going through the paperwork for the first time, it is NOT easy. It’s confusing, stressful, and maddening. I filled out the form at least three times, making mistakes and miscalculations throughout. Once I finally had everything figured out and correct, I had to copy everything over to a last, fresh sheet for presentation to the government. I highly suggest hiring an attorney for executing a Will if you’ve never done it before.

Having dealt with my dad’s Will prompted us to at last act to make our own Will. Drawing up a Will is not anywhere near as complicated as executing a Will. At least not for us; we don’t have a lot of complicated family and financial issues to figure out.

I signed my paperwork in front of a notary and a second witness, and it was all done. One of the documents I had to sign is a self-proving affidavit. Here’s the first of two paragraphs:

Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared Bullgrit, __________, and __________ known to me to be the testator and the witnesses, respectively, whose names are signed to the attached or foregoing instrument and, all of these persons being by me first duly sworn, the testator, declared to me and to the witnesses in my presence. That said instrument is the testator’s last will, that the testator had willingly signed or directed another to sign the same for the testator, and executed it in the presence of said witnesses as the testator’s free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed; or, that the testator signified that the instrument was the testator’s instrument by acknowledging to them the testator’s signature previously affixed thereto.

What. The. Hell?

Anyway, I can die now, and my family will be taken care of all around. I know attorneys use “peace of mind” as a selling spiel for making a Will, but it actually does bring a little peace of mind, knowing that all legal decisions have been made and paperwork filled out properly.

Bullgrit