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Splash Mountain

I think it's safe to say most Americans have either been to Disneyland or Disney World. I have been to Disney World in Orlando twice now. The first time I went, I was ten years old. Me and my family just returned from our second trip as a family ten years later. We went during February so it was relatively quiet in all the parks. We did go to all four parks. We started with the Hollywood Studios, then Epcot, then the Animal Kingdom, and then finally the Magic Kingdom. I had a great time, until I went on Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain is one of the more popular rides at Disney World and I remember it being my favorite ten years ago. Since we left all the other parks relatively early, we decided to stay at the Magic Kingdom until midnight. After the nightly fireworks, the park started to really quiet down, basically to the point that the park was dead. We got on a few attractions with no lines. My little brother who was thirteen was really getting into the spirit. He was wearing mouse ears and a bright green Micky Mouse shirt. Me and my older brother teased him about it throughout the day. Somehow we were so busy that it wasn't until around eleven thirty at night that I remembered that we hadn't even gone on Splash Mountain. I reminded my family but my parents reminded me that the ride closes at eleven.

Since we were already in the Frontier Land, which is the section of the park that Splash Mountain was in, I convinced my family to check anyway. I walked ahead of my family to try and save time. When I arrived to the Splash Mountain area, there wasn't a soul in sight other than the guy manning the entrance. He informed me that the ride closes when the park closes. I had a feeling I was right, but I suddenly felt the urge to pee so I called out to my family who was still approaching the entrance to wait while I ran to the bathroom. Conveniently there was one right next the entrance. I'll spare you the details, but after I returned to the entrance of the ride, my family was gone. I called for them, walking around cluelessly, but there wasn't even a response. I turned back to the entrance to ask the worker who was standing there if he saw where they went, but he was gone too. I was about to take out my phone and call them when suddenly I heard the sound of my two brothers laughing from down the entrance of the ride.

What the hell are they doing? I thought. They're not planning on going on the ride without me, are they?

I ran down the cave-like entrance of the ride but the sounds of my brother's laughing didn't seem to get any closer. I called out for my parents and for my brothers, but they didn't respond. How could they not hear me?

I made it to the room where you board the log boats, but there were no employees anywhere in sight. But what I did see was one of the boats leaving the boarding room and I could see my little brother in his green shirt and mouse ears sitting in the back seat of one of them. He was next to somebody else, probably my older brother. I screamed their names in anger but they didn't hear me. I couldn't understand why they would go on the ride without me. Another boat was about to leave the room so I hopped onto it since there were no employees to tell me otherwise. I was on the next boat behind my family. As I slowly road out of the room and eventually outside, I couldn't see my family ahead of me. I didn't make sense. I wasn't too far behind them to start with. How fast could their boat be going?

I sat with mixed emotions, mostly confusion and anger, as the ride slowly progressed, until I finally entered the cave with all those singing robots. I guess where the ride actually begins. This is where things began to get strange. Well, stranger.

The first things I was greeted by were a bunch of giant singing birds. I remembered these things from ten years ago. As they sang their song, their heads slowly turned to constantly face the boat, and their eyes...all their eyes seemed to locked onto mine. I didn't remember them doing this last time. It was very unsettling seeing those things looking at me as if they were actually aware of my presence. I obviously assumed it was just some updated technology to add to the atmosphere of the ride. After all, it was Disney.