Evacuate!

We were so happy to get to take a family trip to Walk Disney World in Orlando Florida this fall. The older three had been anticipating it for a long time, and we surprised them when we decided to go ahead and book a trip and leave Cuatro (still only two) at home.

The flight and arrival at our hotel went without too much fanfare, and so on the first morning, bright and early, we made our trek into the Magic Kingdom.

Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster in Disney's Magic Kingdom.

After a few rides like Mad Hatter's Tea Cups and Dumbo, we were all ready to upgrade. We hurried to our next planned destination, a fun kid-sized coaster with some decent hills and speed called Goofy's Barnstormer.

Entrance to The Barnstormer.

There was only a 15-minute wait, so we got right into line. The kids were very excited since none of them (believe it or not!) had ever ridden a roller coaster of any size.

After we curled our way up through the aisles and approached the loading area, we broke up into groups of two (and one, me) and got strapped into our seats.

As we launched out of the loading barn, I commented to Tres in the seat in front of me, "Here we go! Your first roller coast- ..."

As the words came out of my mouth, we ground to an abrupt halt.

There was nothing obviously wrong with the ride: No trains stuck in front of us, debris on the track, etc. We just sat there, unable to move an inch.

In a few moments, the frazzled and bewildered Disney staff began to trickle out of the loading area and down to us, as we sat helpless in our seats. They seemed to be as just clueless as we were regarding the stoppage.

Twenty minutes later, Orlando firefighters arrived with ladders to humorously evacuate us from the ride. We were escorted out a back exit, and given free Fast Passes good at any attraction in the entire Disney resort complex.

Uno being evacuated from the ride.

Dos being helped off.

The kids would have to wait till later in the day to ride their first coaster. We returned back to the exact same ride right after lunch—just as the pent-up rain finally began to fall in buckets, completely soaking us to the bone as we zoomed around the track!

It's safe to say none of us will ever forget those two infamous rides on Goofy's Barnstormer ever again.