Evan Carmichael spends a day at Magic Kingdom with his son Hayden and Nina, hitting Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and other rides. Hayden falls on Tom Sawyer Island and gets treated by the park's fire department. The family negotiates over a souvenir key and grabs lunch between attractions.
Chapters
All right, that was pretty fun. This is what I deal with.
Welcome to my life.
Good morning!
Good morning!
Good morning, it's great to stay up late. Good morning, good morning to you. We are off to Walt Disney World again. It is Before 8 o'clock. We got ready quickly. My voice cracked. We got ready quickly. We are going to Pirates of the Caribbean. Hayden has his special Pirates shirt on.
Pirates of the Caribbean.
We're going to have fun today. Hopefully no rain. And last day at the Magic Kingdom. Very exciting. OK, here we are. Magic Kingdom. OK, we're on the PeopleMover thing to get us to the park. It's cold today. So we're like 15 minutes later than we were the other day, and the lineups now are ridiculous. This is just to get in. So Nina's gonna run with Hayden to go to the Aladdin Carpet Rides while I run to go get Nina a coffee.
No, no, it's okay, don't.
I'm gonna get a coffee. I got Nina's coffee right here, and I gotta go find them. I can't go too fast 'cause last time I ran and I spilled it all over myself, and this stuff is hot, and it's already spilling a little bit there. Good thing about just getting the coffee is that You don't have to wait in line for the barista to make it. They just bring it right to you. So hopefully Nina and Hayden are having a good time and I'll be able to find them quickly. Here we go. OK, coming up on Aladdin's carpets now. Let's find Hayden and Nina. Oh, there's Nina. There's Hayden. Was that fun?
Yes, the camel's great!
Was it fun?
Just that one.
Oh no.
Look at you, you're all wet.
You're all wet. Was that a fun ride? OK, let's keep going then. All right, next up is the Jungle Cruise.
Was it fun?
Yes, Chef! You liked it?
Yes! Hi, Chef de Cuisine!
You're scared?
Yeah.
We're going on a big roller coaster.
Thunder Mountain!
Thunder Mountain! How did you know? I know. Alright, here we are.
Here we are, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. What do you think, mister?
Was that fun? Yeah? Again! Again? Next up is Splash Mountain. We're probably going to get wet. Let's see how it goes. Okay, here we go. Are you ready, Aiden? Excited? Here we go! Oh, not yet. Just kidding. Oh no. Uh-oh, our turn.
Get ready, Kaden. Get ready.
Hold it on everything.
Hold it on everything. Oh no. Just kidding again.
That was This is a big one. Jesus, I'm clutching— my arm is going to fall off clutching this so tight. All of the "just kidding." It's all calm and friendly, and then we're going to go off the side of a mountain. I don't even know who these characters are. Now they're doing a big climb. This is it. Get ready!
Whoa! Whoa!
Whoa!
Now that was a real one! That was a real one!
Nina, hair and makeup check? Let me see, how's my hair? Holy cow! Hold on, I gotta adjust that part right there. Wow! How's Hayden's hair? You want to do a check? Looks good, looks good. We're off to have more fun! Look at Nina! This is what we were just on. Hey Hayden!
Shut up! What did you give Nina?
A flower? Ah, very cute. Next up is the Country Bear Jamboree. You ready to jam with the bears?
No.
Aiden's eating his peanut butter sandwich. How is it? Yummy? OK, let's go.
I want ice cream.
You want ice cream? OK, later we'll get ice cream. What is that? Is that singing? Is that dancing?
What are they doing? I don't know.
What do you think about that bear?
That's funny.
Is she silly? She's funny. She's funny? What does Nina think about that bear?
She's going to be the chaser.
Nina doesn't want to say.
She's very big.
That was a strange piggyback. Next up, Tom Sawyer Island. OK, let's get on this little boat to take us over to Tom Sawyer's Island.
Step on me! Yes, I am purposely making the bridge rockier.
That's pretty rocky, that bridge, huh?
No, you did that purposely. Me? Yeah.
No, no, it wasn't me. Hayden was a sneak and went around the other side. He's running away. Let's see where he went. Whoa, Boo!
Okay. You want to show us some magic powers? Let's see.
Hayden was running on the island and he fell and hurt himself. And we just had the fire department come to heal him up. So we got Band-Aids on his knee and the other knee and his elbow. Yeah, and he's still hurting. So we're going to go get some ice cream. Get some ice cream and be happy. How you feeling, Hayden? Better?
No. Combined together, we have lunch.
You ready to have some lunch? You want to pause it? I got you something special. That's lunch?
Lunch and we'll finish after.
You've got a special grilled cheese sandwich that looks like a fish. Whoa! And grapes and carrots and apple juice. And Nina has a chicken salad and I have a burger. And we got a Coke. OK?
Stay in there.
You want to stay in there? Do you want me to pick you up and put you on the seat? No? OK, you can hold it. Here.
Here.
Eat your grilled cheese. And apple juice. OK? OK? Yummy! For some reason a french fry disappears from my plate. I don't know what happens. Let's see if we can catch the thief. Oh, I see a finger! It's Mr. Hayden! He's the one stealing my french fries! Nina had one tiny bite of a hot pepper and she's freaking out.
No, one third!
One third of a hot pepper. Did you steal Hayden's grape? Wait, are you stealing my french fries? Wait a minute, I'm going to steal a piece of corn. Alright, what did I steal? Oh, ew, dropped it. A tomato! OK, how you feeling, Hayden?
Good.
Better? Yeah. Thumbs up?
Yeah.
Oh wait, does that mean we don't need to get ice cream anymore? We need to get ice cream? Do we still need to get some? Yeah. Yeah? OK, let's go get some for you, OK? Thank you. Here you go. Maybe Nina can open it. Oh, we need some napkins for sure. We need napkins because Hayden's going to make a mess.
Are you OK? Oh, is it mine? Zach, you have my wallet, babe.
My turn for something yummy. I got a pineapple twist in a cup. Usually I go for the orange, but they moved the orange stand. I didn't want to walk all the way over there, so we're going pineapple. Let's give Nina the first bite.
It's good.
What are we gonna watch next? What are we doing?
Casa!
Are we watching the Mickey show?
Yeah!
So because you got injured, they gave you some free passes, some Fast Passes. So where are we going to go? What do you want to do?
Um, I really want to get the key now.
We'll get the key later, but what else do you want?
I want to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride.
Buzz Lightyear, OK, and?
And I want to go on the Goofy.
And the Goofy.
And what was the other two?
Big Thunder Mountain.
Big Thunder Mountain. Okay!
Now we're going to take the train and go back to the main park. The entrance. And see if Hayden still wants to get his key. Okay, we're on the train. Well, we're almost done for the day.
And then we're going to get my key.
Yeah, we're going to get your key. Before we came, we made a deal that Hayden would get one thing that he would get to pick. One present. Instead of saying, "I want this, I want this, I want this, I want this." and driving everybody crazy, he'd get one present. It's day 3, and he said he had the same thing for 2 days in a row. It's now day 3, and he's wanted the same thing for the 3rd day, 2 full days in a row, and it's this key. Is that a yes?
Mm-hmm.
You're not going to ask for anything else?
A boxy!
You're not going to ask for anything else?
No!
We're going to shake on that?
Yeah!
Shake, OK. And why do you like the key? Tell us. Because it opens doors. Hold it up and let's see.
It looks like a bat and it has magic power.
What kind of magic power?
The power of, of everything.
The power of everything. Okay. All right, we're back in the car. I'm tired. How are you feeling? I'm okay. Nina's okay. How's Hayden feeling?
Fine.
I'm the only one who's tired. All right, well, I'm tired. Uh, we had— that's a stressful day. Hayden hurting himself. How you feeling Better? Better? You got your key? So we gotta go pick up a— what do we have to buy? SD card. Because I'm making like 13 gigs of video a day with this camera. And I'm running out of space on my laptop. So I gotta get an SD card. Then home, relax, shower, dinner.
Legends?
League of Legends. Goodbye Magic Kingdom! It's the end of our day here. Hayden's gonna go to bed. Tomorrow is— was supposed to be our shopping day, but it's supposed to rain like crazy on Friday, which was our magic— our Animal Kingdom day. So we are going to make tomorrow our Animal Kingdom day and go shopping on Friday so we get stuck in the rain. Good night, everybody! See you tomorrow!
Can you say good night to Mom?
Good night, Ki!
Good night, baby Ki!
Self-improvement books are like fitness books. They never work on their own. What you need is a trainer. That's Evan. Get the newsletter.
