Trip Report **COMPLETED** Year Later "Let's Go Fly a Kite" Trip Report - Sept/Oct 2015

After writing a pre-trip report for my upcoming October 1st trip, I decided to write a (very late) trip report for our trip last year.

Who - Me (Leigh) and my husband R
When - September 27 to October 3, 2015
Where - Port Orleans Riverside

This will be a quick trip report since I don't remember many details and I (yet again) forgot to take pictures of my food! I always mean to but then the food comes and I forget all about it.

This was our first time at the Food and Wine Festival and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Trying to plan our trip around both of these events, which were totally new to me, was stressful. What I forgot about it? The heat!!!

 

[LeighM]

Day 1 - Travel Day

On Saturday, we left our home in Virginia to start the drive to Florida. My husband hates to take road trips with me because I have to stop at every single rest area between Charlottesville and our WDW resort LOL. For once, we didn't have any major travel issues to deal with along I-95 so we made good time to our overnight stop in Brunswick, GA.

I always know we're getting closer to our destination, when we start to see these trees:

We stayed in Brunswick for the night during our drive down in 2014 but were delayed because of road clean up in SC from that year's ice storm. But this time, we actually had daylight left and I finally got to make a trip to Saint Simon's Island!! We didn't get to spend as much time here as I was hoping but I definitely know I want to go back for a longer visit. In fact, we wouldn't mind living here one day.

We had an early night so we could get on the road bright and early so we could finish our trip to WDW.

 

[LeighM]

Day 2 - First Day at WDW

R made sure that I did not forget to take this obligatory picture this year.

Soon we were at Port Orleans Riverside! We got into the lobby and we didn't have to wait long at all. Even though we did online check in, I still like to start my trip with the official check in. We were told our room wasn't yet ready, so we had a nice lunch at their food court while we were waiting. I didn't take many pictures of the resort this year, since I went crazy with the pictures in 2014. After finishing, we still hadn't received our room is ready text but no problem. R changed clothes and then we made our way to EPCOT. While on the bus, we received the text with our room location. Of course! Our trip to EPCOT was going to be very quick - I wanted to make sure that I got my Food and Wine Festival Dooney. R also wanted to see if the China Pavilion still sold the sword he regretted not getting in 2014. Unfortunately, for him, they did not.

On the way to the Festival Center, I stopped to take this picture. At the time, there was absolutely no one around. But when others saw me taking a picture, it was like they all came running to take a picture of it too! I had to snap and run because people kept walking in front of me to get their own shot. It was odd.

I can't believe all of those displays made out of chocolate. I took pictures of all of them, but this was the best one bc it didn't have the glare and reflection of the others. I loved it because The Jungle Book was actually my Mom's favorite Disney movie.

We had a FP+ coming up for Toy Story Midway Mania and decided to take a Friendship Boat from EPCOT to Hollywood Studios. Major mistake! With the heat and humidity, I felt like I was slowly suffocating in a tin can on the way to Hell. I was actually thinking of jumping off the boat to swim in the lake but decided that would be a very bad idea. After what felt like an eternity, we finally got to HS. We stopped for a picture before going to our ride.

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Afterwards, we explored the gift shops for RnR and ToT. We both have motion sickness so we never went to this part of the park before. I liked the gift shop for ToT. I was still cranky from getting overheated on the boat and the park was extremely crowded. We decided to go back to Riverside and get settled into our room before we had to go back to EPCOT for our dinner at Akershus.

Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long for a bus to come and we were soon at our resort. This was the first time we stayed in a Royal Room and I loved it. Our room was in Building 90 Oak Manor and I thought it was in the perfect location. We were close to the bridge to the main building and south depot but still a short walking distance to both the east depot and French Quarter.

The humidity had really gotten to us, so we decided to take a quick nap so that we would be well rested for our night at EPCOT.

 

[LeighM]

Day 2 continued

Our dinner was at 8:15PM so we had some time to really enjoy the atmosphere of EPCOT after dark.

We decided to go check in for dinner early and I'm glad we did because there was a long wait. Quick side story: my husband's favorite Disney movie would probably be The Beauty and the Beast and his favorite princess would be Belle. So of course Belle was not the princess meeting the dinner guests. He tried to play off his disappointment of a grown man not meeting his favorite princess but I knew he was a little unhappy. But what a coincidence that I wore my Little Mermaid shirt

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We loved our dinner here. I left addicted to gjetost cheese. I later bought a Disney cookbook so that I could make the Norwegian meatballs at home. After dinner, we left the park and went back to our resort. We would be at EPCOT again the next day.

Next - Food and Wine Festival

 

[LeighM]

Day 3 - EPCOT and Food and Wine Festival

We were up early to get into EPCOT around 9am. It was already turning out to be a hot and hazy day and it wasn't even 9:30AM!!!

We had a FP for Test Track but I chickened out before we got into the line so R had to ride alone. I used that time to take pictures around Future World but I soon got a text that the ride was temporarily shut down so R needed me to "come pick him up" at Test Track so we could go get breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. He doesn't know the parks and can get lost so we only split up after I drop him off at the destination

After breakfast, we toured my favorite ride in EPCOT and then spent some time in the AC in the Seas pavilion.

I got 3 sea horses in one picture!!

Pretty soon, it was 11AM and the start of the Food and Wine Festival. On our way out of Future World, who did I see but Belle in her yellow ballgown. I remembered R being disappointed the night before and I pretty much grabbed his arm and dragged him over there before he even knew what was going on lol.

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R and I had implemented our plan of attack for the Festival and we lucked out in that most of the kiosks we wanted to go to were in the front of the world showcase. We quickly hit 5 kiosks, however, the only ones I really remember are Dominican Republic and Australia. No pictures were taken though. I loved the pepperberry shrimp from Australia so much that I came home and ordered the pepperberry rub Delicious!!

We were full after that and walked our way around World Showcase.

I finally found Christopher Robins room in UK! Glad I did to because I read after our trip that they were going to close this meet and greet. I hope they changed their mind and kept it.

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On our way out of the park for another afternoon nap, we stopped by the Ireland kiosk and had the fisherman's pie. OMG it was sooo good. It's not something that I would typically eat when it felt like 150 degrees but I'm glad I did. The recipe is in the Disney cookbook I purchased but the recipe does intimidate me. We took a short break back to Riverside but came back to spend a few hours in the park after dark. It was still humid and miserable so we didn't stay as long as we liked.

Next - Day 4 and Magic Kingdom...

 

[LeighM]

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

We were up bright and early and at the bus stop by 7AM so we can get to Magic Kingdom for an 8AM breakfast at Crystal Palace.

I loved the Halloween and fall decorations along Main Street. Halloween is my favorite holiday so I really enjoyed this and I was looking forward to the Halloween Party later in the trip.

I had put on all of our reservations that we were celebrating our anniversary. So this is what was waiting for us at Crystal Palace:

We got a good laugh from this one! But this was the first time during the trip the celebration was acknowledged so we were happy lol. We had another great breakfast and said hello to old friends from the Hundred Acre Wood:
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And this is when things get a little fuzzy after a year later. Because I don't know what we did, I'll just include the pictures

For some reason, our first days at MK are always rainy and overcast. But this time, we're going to MK early in our trip and we'll have one more MK day later to hopefully get blue sunny skies. There was a funny trend on this day - although it became less funny and more frustrating as the day went on. Every time I tried to get in line to meet a character, the attendant would cut off the line right before me. It happened with the stepsisters, Fairy Godmother, Peter Pan, and the White Rabbit. And if I was lucky enough to get in the line, then it would soon start to rain and they would go inside. It was funny in a total ridiculous, eye rolling kind of way.

I had read so much about the great interaction with Gaston but we got a dud. He wasn't really into the character and not funny at all.
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This was the best picture I got of the White Rabbit as he was being led away from me again. My main goal for this trip with meet and greets is to get a picture with all of the Alice in Wonderland characters. So far, not so good!

R and I are prone to motion sickness so we don't typically ride anything that might make us sick. But I had read that sitting in the front really cut down on the effects, so when we got to the front of the line, I asked to be seated in the front row. I kept my eyes closed for the entire ride because it was faster than I thought it would be for a kiddie coaster. Maybe it's been because it's been years since I've been on a coaster. I made sure to smile throughout the ride so that the picture wouldn't be bad - I didn't know where the cameras were so that smile was frozen in place LOL. We got off the ride and we felt fine. Yay!
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After we finished with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, we headed to our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest. I love the steak here - more like the fries and mayo sauce!! I didn't take any pictures but I knew I would be back later for pre-park opening breakfast. We rode most of the dark rides and we stopped for a while on Under the Sea. What a great place to stop!

Up next - Day 5 and Animal Kingdom

 

[sheriffwoody]

Looks like a fun trip! We were down there around the same time I think. Actually we may have overlapped you a little...I'd have to go back and look.

Friendship Boat from EPCOT to Hollywood Studios. Major mistake! With the heat and humidity, I felt like I was slowly suffocating in a tin can on the way to Hell.

YES YES YES. Every time I see someone recommend those awful boats, I want to ask what they are smoking. I felt the same way about it. Walking is so much quicker and more pleasant.

I had put on all of our reservations that we were celebrating our anniversary. So this is what was waiting for us at Crystal Palace:

How did you do this? Somehow they knew at our California Grill reservation last year, but I have no idea if I did something or if they're just psychic. I kind of want to put this on our hotel reservations, but I can't figure out a way.

 

[LeighM]

Looks like a fun trip! We were down there around the same time I think. Actually we may have overlapped you a little...I'd have to go back and look.

YES YES YES. Every time I see someone recommend those awful boats, I want to ask what they are smoking. I felt the same way about it. Walking is so much quicker and more pleasant.


How did you do this? Somehow they knew at our California Grill reservation last year, but I have no idea if I did something or if they're just psychic. I kind of want to put this on our hotel reservations, but I can't figure out a way.

I thought the boats would be similar to the ones between Riverside and Disney Springs. I didn't know that there was no air circulation on those horrible things!

And as to adding celebrations onto your dining reservations, you have to call the dining number and they make a note on your reservation. They used to have a way to add it yourself online but I think they changed it a few years ago. I'm surprised they haven't found a way to include that function into MDE.

 

[LeighM]

Day 5 - Animal Kingdom

We had an early breakfast reservation at Tusker House. We've been here for lunch a few times but this would be the first breakfast. Now I'm not really big on breakfast but it's R's favorite meal of the day so I was hoping he would enjoy it.

This was our first time seeing the roots addition to the tree and I have to say it's even more jawdropping. It's just soooo pretty!

Soon we were walking to Africa for our reservation. I love the parks when they are almost empty.

Soon we stopped exploring the empty village and went to Tusker House. Breakfast was a success! I do prefer their lunch menu though but just because I'm not that hungry so early in the morning. But I try to schedule a few breakfast ADRs throughout the trip for the husband. He was very happy this trip because we had so many scheduled.

We rode Kilimanjaro Safari next and we didn't have the best driver. She didn't stop long enough for anyone to take pictures and when she did stop, it was like she took off as fast as she could to see how many photo ops she could mess up. We were going to ride again but the stand by was too long for some reason. But we decided to come back later in the day.

Afterwards we walked through the different treks and hung out with the animals. I have video of the baby gorilla playing but I'm not able to get it to upload

I love Disney's attention to detail and their murals throughout the treks really show that. There's a funny story about this bird. He's the male in the enclosure and the cast member said he was really stupid. He kept making this call to his female counterpart but she said the male bird has yet to realize that female has no interest in him. He'll bring her twigs and sticks and she will toss them aside. But he still calls for her all day. It's been months and he has yet to give up. Persistent bird!!

We didn't do many rides this day. There were issues with Kali River Rapids and for some reason we couldn't ride Dinosaur. We did do ITTBAB but we were in the back that was lacking in the interactive elements but the lines were too long to repeat. We went to Rafiki's Planet Watch to meet Rafiki (of course) and also had our picture taken with an owl. After that we did some shopping. I was hoping to see the same cast member we had a great conversation with during 2014 but he wasn't to be seen. I purchased the Animal Kingdom Park CD. I listened to that all the time when I got back to work

We went back to ride KS but it was just too hot to enjoy the ride. I felt like I was going to have a heat stroke half way through and I just wanted off that truck! I did, however, take a few pictures before I got sick.

This picture would've been almost perfect for me if someone didn't move their cane right into my line of sight...

After this we left the park and caught a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our 5pm ADR at Sanaa.

Next - Dinner at Sanaa

 

[LeighM]

Day 5 Continued

It took us forever for a bus to AKL to come. We kept watching busses for every other resort come and go, some more than once, and still nothing for AKL. At this point, the heat and humidity really got to me so once the bus came, I sat as close to the AC as possible and took a nap. R woke me up when we got to the resort. Well what he thought was the resort. Our last trip, we visited Jambo House and he didn't know there was a Kidani Village. I was kinda out of it by this point, so I just followed him inside and took a nap on one of the love seats. When I felt myself cooling down, I realized we were in the wrong resort but no problem. We love the lobby in Jambo House, and since we had time before our reservation, we explored the lobby and gift shops. I purchased some bandaids for my heels (which had gotten destroyed in EPCOT). Then we walked over to Kidani. The lobby wasn't as impressive but there was something I liked more about it. I didn't take any pictures because I was still recovering. I was feeling less nauseous (and the walk didn't make my feel worse) so I thought it was good for me to have more to drink. It still wasn't time for our dinner at Sanaa but I checked us in and I requested a table by the windows.

While we were waiting, we went to the lounge for a couple of drinks and the bread service. The naan and all of the sauces were fantastic!!! No review prepared me for how good it was!!!! As soon as we finished that, our pager went off and were led to our table. I think we received the best table with a view since we were there so early. A little backstory: since this was our anniversary trip, I wanted to do something to surprise R. I told him that I booked a dinner at Sanaa but didn't tell him about the view just in case we had a horrible view or none of the animals were active. So I was beyond thrilled when I saw our table. In fact, we were so taken with the view that we often didn't notice when our patient server was there talking to us! I forgot what I ordered but I know it was good and R to this day still raves about his dish and how wonderful the chicken was.

Here are some pictures of the view at our table:

These birds were our constant companion. They were quite taken with their reflection and kept dancing and preening. At one point, a mother brought her child over to our table (without asking if she could basically invade our space and our dinner). I almost choked on my food when the mother told her son to look at the pretty peacock. Huh???? In which state does a peacock look like this??!!! I really wanted to say something but I figured it wouldn't be worth it. There was also a family sitting next to our table that wasn't paying attention to what was happening outside the window at all. Every time I would tell R to look at the giraffes walking by or whatnot, she would then tell her family to look at the window and used my exact wording. It was a really odd experience!

As I mentioned during our MK day and our breakfast at Crystal Palace, no other restaurant acknowledged our celebration. Except for Sanaa!!! They more than made up for every other restaurant we ate at. At the end of our meal, our server brought us two free flutes of champagne (R doesn't drink champagne so that meant for more me!). R didn't want to let the server know, so when I finished mine, I snuck his over LOL. We then had this included in a dessert. Sanaa was the best dining experience I had on property and this just tipped it over the edge.

After finishing the meal, we waddled out to the bus stop and decided the quickest way back to Riverside was to go to Downtown Disney and then ride the boat back to our resort. Worst. Decision. Ever. The wait was extremely long, and when the bus got to us it was standing room only. It was also full of a bunch of cranky, tired, and screaming kids. I never knew how long that ride took until I had to stand for the entire trip, next to a screaming 4 yr old, whose parents weren't even trying to calm her down. Those parents must have lost their hearing years ago because they didn't even flinch. This child was so bad that a little boy further up the bus tried to cover his ears LOL.

We finally got to our destination and I think you could hear a huge sigh of relief from everyone on the bus! We stopped so I could take a picture of R at the photo op of Frozen. I wasn't in walk way or anything and off to the side while taking the pictures. I always make sure that I'm not one of those irritating people. No one seemed to have a problem, but some older woman bumped into me when I started to walk again. It was a hard bump and it surprised me so I looked up and said something like "okay then" and then looked at my camera to see how the pic turned out. Well this woman must have been having a horrible day because she tried to start a fight! Started calling me names and cursing, etc. She took a step towards me and her son grabbed her arm and tried to calm her down. It was ridiculous because I know the woman was seeing the other side of 65 and I'm in my mid 30s and quite spunky. If I wasn't in a food coma from Sanaa, then it had the potential to be a lot worse. But luckily, I was too content from food to lose control of my temper LOL But I wasn't going to let her crazy mess up an otherwise great day! We headed to the PhotoPass center because one of R's magicshots with Olaf in the MK didn't appear in our list. They looked everywhere but the picture was lost. But no problem, there was a photographer right outside that could do it for us. So R did the pose he wanted and all was fine (more to come on this later). We did some shopping and then decided to head back to Riverside to relax.

We didn't take many pictures of DD this trip since so much was under construction and there were so many people. But I took many pictures during the 2014 trip. I hope to do more this year since so much is new.

Up next - Day 6 and relaxing at the resort and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party!!!

 

[LeighM]

Day 6 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

I'm glad that I scheduled in rest time for today (yes, I actually plan with a spreadsheet and have to schedule time to take it easy LOL) because we've been hitting the parks hard between all of the naps I had to take We were able to sleep late and just be lazy. We decided to walk to French Quarter and have an early lunch there so R could order more beignets. I didn't take any pictures of this morning so that I could just enjoy being there. After eating, we went back to Riverside and explored that alligator bayou section. We were going to swim (tidbit - we've never used the pool during any of our trips!) but on the way back to our building, the quiet pool wasn't very quiet and the main pool was also really busy. At this point, I decided to be useful and copied all of the pictures from our phones and camera on R's laptop and my flash drive. I realized that the camera on my Galaxy phone was just as good as my simple Nikon camera. But way than R's iPhone, which I still tease him about because he's all about Apple products. And I'm so not.

Around 2PM, we started to get ready for the party. I love Halloween and was looking forward to today for months! Halloween decor in my favorite park? Yes please I had to modify my costume because of the humidity and I knew there was no way I could wear black pants. Glad I packed alternates. R was dedicated to his pirate costume - not sure how the man got through the party because I almost melted into a puddle a couple hours into it!

We saw a lot of great costumes on our way to the bus stop. We got to the park right around 4PM and got our wristbands. Somehow, R and I got separated by the crowds but we eventually found each other. I was not expecting a Thursday night party to be this crowded! I wanted the special party card so I got into line for that once I found out it was available. After a short wait, one must do was checked off my list. I wanted to get all of the special MagicShots and meet all of the Alice in Wonderland characters and the only thing R wanted was to meet Jack Sparrow. Easy enough right?

After that important task, we had lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Loved it! We had a seat on the second floor in that area over the walkway. While we were enjoying an early dinner, we saw some great costumes. Afterwards, we did some shopping and rode our favorite rides. Soon it was 7PM and time for the party!!!

Not many of my pictures turned out well with the lighting. If anyone has any tips or tricks please let me know so I can get better pictures for my upcoming trip. So I'll add what pictures I do have at the bottom of the entry.

Characters seen?
** Alice and the Mad Hatter first followed by the Queen of Hearts. The attendant told us the wrong place where the Queen of Hearts was going to be so we started to line up to wait and when she came out in the other place, everyone that was first became last. There were some unhappy guests. I'm just glad that I was able to get them done early. Now will I be able to meet the White Rabbit on Friday??
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** Jack Sparrow after a very long, slow moving line. The photographer wasn't very good at this location which was a disappointment. But at least we have memories
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**Old Hag - I didn't think we would be able to meet her because the lines were crazy long all evening but we lucked out towards the end of the party.
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Unfortunately for me, the only MagicShot I was able to find was the one impossible to miss in front of the Haunted Mansion! I kept looking for the hitchhiking ghosts and the poison apple but either they were in hiding or the crowds kept them from me. Either way, this is the only one I was able to get

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We enjoyed seeing Madame Carlotta - wish we had more time to see her interaction bc she was really funny.

Because of the crowds, we only did a few of the trick or treat stations. We rode several of the rides and just soaked up the atmosphere. And of course I had to buy the Halloween pins

I wanted to meet the Genie, Jafar, and the Seven Dwarfs but it was not meant to be I did get this pic of the Genie on my way by. The line for the dwarfs was already 2 hours long when we got there at 4PM and the lines for the Genie and Jafar were always busy. It was just too hot and humid to stand still for so long. Keep it moving and get some breeze LOL.

We saw some of the Hocus Pocus Sanderson Sisters show. It looked like it was very good but I didn't like being in a crowd that kept pushing me so we left. We saw the parade from the train station depot on Main Street. We wanted to watch the fireworks from this location later in the night but neither one of us were wearing a watch and didn't know what time it was. By the time it was announced, we were stuck by the walls in Fantasyland. So we stayed there to watch and it was neat to be surrounded by all of the fireworks but we didn't get the full effect from that location. This year we'll keep better track of time.

R was burning up in his costume so we decided to leave before the party ended to try to beat the crowds to the buses. We got there and the song "Let's Go Fly a Kite" was playing yet again. Every time we got to the bus stops at MK that song was playing. Do they ever play anything different or does it all sound the same? It got stuck in both our heads and that's how it became the theme song for 2015. The theme song for 2014 was "Friend Like Me" that played constantly at Downtown Disney's Marketplace.

We got back to our room just as it started to drizzle, which did NOT help the humidity! I was glad that we were back in our room earlier than we thought because we have an 8AM breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest the next day.

Day 7 - Magic Kingdom and our last full day

 

[LeighM]

Day 7 - Last full day at WDW

Wow, these trip reports take a long time to do! I went in expecting this to be a quick trip report so I would know what I need to do for my upcoming Oct 1st trip.

So this day started off very bright and early because we had an 8:05 breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. Not only was this our second time eating at BoG but also our 2nd day in MK before the park opens. It was great! I loved walking all the way through Fantasyland to get to BoG with so few guests. We were one of the first people in the restaurant and was able to pick which room we wanted to sit in. Our choice? The enchanted west wing of course! We've only ever been seated in the main ballroom. We both thought the food was underwhelming but since we were on the dining plan, it was a good value and loved being in the park early. This was before they increased the price to $24. We would never do it if we were paying out of pocket.

It didn't take us long to eat and soon we were out in Fantasyland and the park STILL hasn't opened. I didn't take any pictures. I was just sitting there enjoying it. Soon a castmember told us they were opening Peter Pan and we were finally able to walk through the new queue without a wait. We took a video of our walk through but I can't get that to upload either. I loved the Tinker Bell special effects. We were able to ride twice back to back with no wait. By the time we finished the second ride, they had opened the park and the standby line was up to 20 minutes. Wow.

Originally, we weren't going to be i the park this day but a few weeks prior to the trip, I added on an extra day. Why? Because our MK days are always rainy EXCEPT for the last day of our trip. So this time, I bet that the same would happen. Sure enough, I finally got the blue skies in my MK pictures.

Our plans were to take it easy today. No rush and no hurry. And it was perfect. We rode a few rides one last time, R was able to get his MagicShot with Olaf. Oh!!! This reminds me of a story. So I see Alice and the White Rabbit out for their meet and greet and I was determined to finally get the White Rabbit. I got in the line and told R to hunt down his Olaf magicshot. He gets back right as it's my turn to meet them. I'm so glad he did because he took pictures with his phone, which turned out to be the only ones I had. Something went wrong with the PhotoPass photographer again!!! None of her pictures were to be found on my account. If I didn't have any pictures of that, I would've been so mad!!! So the husband saved the day
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I see that the Tweedles were at the Halloween party this year. So if they are there during my party night, then I must hunt them down too. After this, we took a couple of turns on the PeopleMover - one of my favorite attractions at MK.

We soon left MK and caught the monorail to the TTC. We had never ridden the monorail to EPCOT before. This part was kind of annoying because when we got to the monorail for EPCOT, all of the cars were full and because we weren't in any hurry, we just wanted to wait for the next train. The workers there would not let us! They insisted we get on that train and put us in a cabin with a very irritating family. I was hoping for an enjoyable trip but instead I was just wanting to jump off the monorail. I didn't think we would ever get there! It didn't help that the monorail stopped for a few minutes over a road somewhere. We thought about going into EPCOT one last time but the bag check lines were too long so we decided to go back to our resort for a while. We downloaded the pictures and then walked around Riverside. Too soon it was time to catch a bus back to MK so we could go to the Poly for our dinner at Ohana. We were one of the first seated (again) and had a window overlooking the volcano pool. The food was fantastic as always. And I also got to see a little boy, who was afraid to go down one of the slides, get a surprise push from who I hoped was an older brother LOL.

After dinner, we walked to the Grand Floridian, which is R's favorite resort. I want to stay at the Poly but R is a pure Grand Floridian fan. We went into some of their shops, listened to the band, and walked around outside. I got bit by a painful mosquito and I didn't have any Claritin with me, which was no fun. We took the monorail back to MK and waited for our bus there. They were playing "Let's Go Fly a Kite" again and that made me very happy. We got back to Riverside and started to pack for our departure the next day. The last day is always so sad

On Saturday morning, we decided to take advantage of their bounceback offer for Free Dining. Figured if we needed to cancel later we could but it wasn't that easy to get the Free Dining Promo at Riverside so we better take it while we could! And that's how we're going back Oct 1, 2016!

Soon we were on the road and trying to haul a$$ up 95 because the storm off the coast was going to dump buckets of water along the east coast. My Mom was calling me with updates and a friend in FL was also letting me know the status of the roads. Luckily, we were able to get through SC before the devastating floods hit and caused them to close 95 in SC because of the damage to the bridges. We tried to make it back home in one trip, typically 13 hours, but when we hit VA, the rains got worse and it was getting dark. Plus, there was heavy fog that was preventing us from seeing the cars in front of us. The husband wasn't happy that I made him stop 2.5 hours from home but oh well. You can slow down in the rain, use high beams at night, but you can't do a dang thing to help with heavy fog. My Mom was happy and could rest easy knowing we were off of the roads. His Mom was content. Yes, we're in our mid 30s but when a Mom wants to know if you're okay while traveling, you quickly find out it's in your best interest to make a quick phone call rather than have the whole "I'm an adult" conversation. Don't fight it - just do it LOL. It makes life so much easier! It will be a sad adjustment for me since my mom died in July, I'll have no one to check up on me or call to let them know I got there safely. It's such a strange feeling. All through my teen years and early 20s, I wanted the freedom to not have to check in with anyone and now that my Mom is gone, I want her there to demand I call her. It will be an adjustment but one we all have to go through. At least being at WDW will provide a lot of distractions!!

On Sunday, we got back to the house and the trip was finally over. We always feel like we need a vacation to recover from our WDW vacation LOL. Soon we realized just how lucky we were to not get stuck in flooding in SC. We missed it by only a couple of hours.

 

[kimberlymautz]

Loved your report! You'll be heading to WDW the same day I'll be leaving! I promise to leave it in one piece for you.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Loved your report, can't wait to read the new one when you get back!

 

[LeighM]

Loved your report, can't wait to read the new one when you get back!

Thank you! I enjoyed writing my first ever trip report I always wanted to write one but my internet at the old house would never let me. Instead, I had to just enjoy everyone else's. I thought about doing a trip report for our 2014 honeymoon trip since I took so many pictures but I'm undecided.

 

[FlaggNL]

Love the TR! Thanks for sharing! Enjoy your upcomming trip!!