Trip Report Who Knee'ds another Brifraz Trip Report?

And here we go. Brifraz and @MeffysMom are headed back to the World. Once again a VERY different trip. Yes, we've done Race Weekends. Yes, we've done short Springtime trips. But... this will be my first time doing a 5K and 10K back-to-back (yes, @MeffysMom is doing 5K, 10K, and 10-miler) and the actual exciting part - we will be visiting our daughter who is now a few weeks into her time with the Disney College Program.

I know it has been a while since my last Trip Report and some folks out there are likely new to the world of Brifraz, so let me do the quick rundown of us and then a little preview of the trip. Who is our crew? Well, I've already mentioned myself and my wife - we both have been high school teachers for the last 30 years and been doing Disney pretty regularly for just a few years less than that. Although, I've actually been going since 1976, I introduced it to my wife in the late 1990s. We will be flying down tomorrow, but more on that in the plans in a paragraph or two. Already down there is our daughter who has been going to Disney since she was 2. And, right now she is doing the College Program. Parked at Epcot in the past couple weeks? Yeah... that might've been our daughter helping you find a spot or driving you in on the tram, or reminding you to stay behind the yellow line for safety.

Here's us grown-ups:

Obviously that's from our last racing adventure together. Just the 10K for me that time. I've got some knee issues, so historically it's just been one race per weekend for me. But this weekend, I'll be trying to do a double and we shall see how things go

And, here's our College Program daughter:

When she isn't spending 4 months at Disney parking cars at Epcot, she's in school up in New Hampshire (bit of an opposite in terms of weather) double majoring in mechanical engineering and music composition. Yup.

So, what's the plan?

Thursday - flying down late afternoon (leaving directly from school after guiding the youths to enlightenment) and heading straight to the Expo where we will meet up with our daughter. Then to Old Key West to get some dinner and get rested for the busy mornings coming up.

Friday - early morning 5k (all three of us are running) followed by a visit to Animal Kingdom with a late breakfast at Tusker House. Afternoon and evening are open with no set plans as our daughter will be working and much depends on how we are all feeling!

Saturday - early morning 10k (again, with all three of us running) and then Hollywood Studios. No real plans there, just going and seeing what strikes our fancy. Our daughter is again working in the evening so we might hit up Disney Springs for some dinner.

Sunday - early morning 10 miler for @MeffysMom, while our daughter sleeps in after two super early mornings followed by late nights working. Then we are planning to meet up for some time in Epcot. Once again, our daughter will be heading to park cars at Epcot and we will be having dinner someplace... maybe checking out the Roundup Rodeo at Studios followed by drinks at Oga's or Baseline.

Monday - maybe sleep in a little bit, but still up somewhat early to go to Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare and then some Magic Kingdom time. Our daughter is off this day, so we will get to spend the whole afternoon together and then she will take us to the airport.

Since my last real trip was with over 100 high school kids, I'm really looking forward to this. We did have a very short trip down over Easter weekend to move our daughter into Flamingo Crossing, but didn't really do the parks very much (one evening at Epcot and a couple other quick stop-ins to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. However, that trip was full of the stresses of moving her, dealing with her cat (who is, yes, living with her down there) and figuring out all things DCP. This one is actually like a vacation!!

Anyway, I hope to be able to do my usual blend of live and 'nearly' live trip reporting as things go this weekend. Thanks for traveling with us!

 

[Laurenciaa]

I still need to wait 2 years and a few months - when my daughter will be able to drink legally in a bar there; over here she’s been able to order beer and wine for more than two years and mixed drinks since the end of last summer.

Haha same -> Brother turned 21 2 weeks ago. first thing he said "I can enjoy some wine and a beer now in Florida"

 

[brifraz]

I still need to wait 2 years and a few months - when my daughter will be able to drink legally in a bar there; over here she’s been able to order beer and wine for more than two years and mixed drinks since the end of last summer.

Haha same -> Brother turned 21 2 weeks ago. first thing he said "I can enjoy some wine and a beer now in Florida"

Yeah, our daughter still has another 8.5 months to go. She did a term in Spain a couple years ago and, while she didn't drink a lot, she definitely enjoyed being able to order an interesting adult beverage now and then. She's been a bit frustrated with US laws since she came back!

 

[brifraz]

Sorry everyone. I had hoped to wrap up the last day of our trip over the weekend, but too many other things were happening or pending. It's concert season and I played two concerts over the weekend plus I'm conducting three this week and helping to run a couple more (other schools using our building for their concerts so I'm facilitating the facilities). So, not a whole lot of free minutes... BUT I promise our final day at Magic Kingdom is coming your way soon. (plus some fun minor travel misadventures)

 

[MinnieM123]

Sorry everyone. I had hoped to wrap up the last day of our trip over the weekend, but too many other things were happening or pending. It's concert season and I played two concerts over the weekend plus I'm conducting three this week and helping to run a couple more (other schools using our building for their concerts so I'm facilitating the facilities). So, not a whole lot of free minutes... BUT I promise our final day at Magic Kingdom is coming your way soon. (plus some fun minor travel misadventures)

Oh, by the way, to you and all the teachers this week -- Happy Teacher Appreciation Week 2024!

 

[brifraz]

Finally!!! Again, very sorry this has taken me a few weeks. But, finally some time this morning to get our last day up and shared with everyone.

So, where were we? A bit exhausted after the three race days (well, just two race days for me, but still a bit exhausted). But that didn't stop us for getting up early from some Magic Kingdom time. @MeffysMom and I got ourselves all packed up while our daughter drove over from her DCP apartment to pick us up. And, somewhere in there, we got our Tron virtual queue and managed to score group 3! Loaded up and then drove to Grand Floridian. We had breakfast reservations and, since she is DCP they were okay with us parking a few hours early! Took the walk over to Magic Kingdom and were ready to rope drop the early half hour for resort guests.

We took very different approaches to this!! The girls immediately headed to Tomorrowland to get on Space Mountain while I took the more leisurely approach of the double decker bus up main street. And had some fun chatting with the CMs as usual.

I do enjoy a different perspective on things (albeit only slightly different).

By the time I got off the bus, there was still a good 20 minutes or so of early entry time, so I headed into Tomorrowland as well. Again, for the sake of perspective. Here's the bridge right before the 30 minutes started.

And here's the bridge 10 minutes later.

Soon as I was off the bus, I headed over and did a solo ride of Buzz which was a walk on - literally never slowed my stride. Spent the whole time trying to get the 'special' targets that are worth huge amounts of points... and epically failed at all of them. Let's just say that I was lucky to end up as a Ranger 1st Class this time. When I got off, I messaged the girls and they were just about to get on Space, so I hopped onto the Peoplemover to try to time things out and hear their screams as they rode! Didn't manage that one, but I did enjoy my tour of Tomorrowland - and learned something surprising... did you know that in Monstropolis it's now laughter that they're after? And, yes, the girls got to enjoy a car to themselves on Space Mountain (and one of them was ready for the camera).

It was now just about 5 minutes left before normal opening and our Tron group had just gotten called. So, I headed over to the path to Tron to wait for them to exit Space. We met up and headed onto Tron. The blessing of early morning was certainly welcome! As we walked up, we could see that the lightcycles were almost completely empty. Once again, we didn't really have to slow our walk except to put stuff in the lockers! And when we got to load, this was the train heading out.

Yup, that empty. And ours was not much different! Didn't get a good picture of me from Photopass, but did get a good one of me showing how empty it was! Not quite a ride to ourselves but pretty darn close.

Now that the park was open, lines were about to start building so we headed over to Haunted Mansion to visit the 999 haunts that hang out there. And, I'm sure this will come as a complete surprise, we got a little silly for the ride photos.

Yeah, that's right, my daughter and I are not just zombies, but super cool ones. Be back in a few minutes as we head to Frontierland.

 

[brifraz]

Always nice to catch a Photopass person just hanging out and willing to give you a few minutes of camera time. And we were in no rush, so we stopped along the path.

Then the girls headed to Big Thunder Mountain for the wildest ride in the wilderness. While I opted for more a calm (and rumor has it, possibly soon to be gone) experience. Not sure I believe the rumors, but I have to admit, it was the first time I had walked into the Frontierland Shootin' Arcade in quite a few years. Also tried to get some secret intel about Tiana's, but alas nothing exciting to see on this morning (a few workmen doing some electrical stuff was about it and I didn't want to be 'that guy' taking their picture).

Next up, we walked over to Adventureland to hang with the Pirates. And, again, thanks to being in the early morning we had almost no wait time. Basically in the course of an hour and a half we did Space Mountain (while I did Buzz and TTA), Tron, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder (while I was shootin'), and Pirates with maybe 45 minutes of total wait time. Nice.

And then it was time for a tour. Tour de Medals. Enjoy (and I will just bless you with one picture from each tour stop although we certainly have far more if you want the full slide show)!!

Some of us might've been either jealous or weary of it by the end (or just silly, come on!!).

Seriously though, we are super proud of @MeffysMom for her Dumbo Challenge, Coast to Coast, and Ohana Challenge.

It was getting close to time for our late breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, so we headed out of Magic Kingdom with just one last picture stop!

See you at Grand Floridian!