Day 1 continued: let's ride!
My first fastpass was (apparently) Haunted Mansion. It's my favorite, so of course I had to squeeze it in on my solo day!
I think this was around 6. The bottleneck after the stretching room was alive and well
. I HATE that area. I wish they'd put people through the stretching room slower to avoid it. I'd rather wait in the regular line outside longer than sardine pack myself in with 100 sweaty strangers trying to squeeze through that tiny space.
When I made it to my doom buggy, I made sure to sit on the left side of it so I didn't end up in a
@TrolleyFollower91 situation
After Haunted Mansion it was almost time for my Big Thunder FP! I had some time to kill though so I took some pictures and hung out near the ride. The only place I could find to linger was in the smoking section, but it wasn't too bad.
The worst part was the group of teenage boys talking WAY too loudly and cursing. I know they're just immature, but that doesn't mean I can't get annoyed
When my FP time finally rolled around, I got in line. It passed by pretty quickly, and soon I was on my fav wild ride!
Took that one on my phone. Isn't is the best view?!
After that I had a lot of time to kill before Wishes. It was only about 7:30 I think, and Wishes was at 10. I walked back toward Main Street to access the train station situation and get a coffee.
Saw my favorite Duck on the way
Mmmmm yes please
The castle at dusk is AMAZING. It's beautiful always, but especially at dusk.
There were several people set up already to take pictures of Wishes, and I didn't want to just wait around for 2 hours, so I had a decision to make. Should I find some other stuff to do and wait for Wishes, or just go ahead and leave? I decided to just leave. I know that's crazy, but I'd been up since 6:30am and had an hour and a half drive ahead of me.
So I said "See ya real soon" to MK and got on the monorail back to Epcot. I chatted with another family on the way back, and pretty soon I was back at my rental car (which I miraculously found).
I stayed with one of my best friends who lives in St. Petersburg, so I went strait there and made it by about 10. She lives in a little bungalow down there and we just sat on the porch and talked for a couple of hours before going to bed. As much as I love Wishes, I was glad I got to her house earlier and had some time to catch up.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning were all spent between Tampa (work) and St. Petersburg (where I was staying). I was photographing a group of students from the school where I work. Our school sends out teams of students each spring break and summer on mission trips of sorts. This group was working with a church plant in Tampa. They did some manual labor at the church, surveyed students at the University of Tampa and worked at a cafe downtown that serves the urban poor. It was a REALLY great trip, and the kind of work that I find most rewarding. In these kind of situations, I'm able to shoot a little but also put the camera down and help some. I love it!
On Tuesday I made it back to St. Pete in time for a quick beach trip to watch the sunset.
It was a PERFECT evening.
Had to say goodbye the next morning
Getting older stinks, y'all. All my friends have moved away. But at least I have cool places to visit!
Ok, now back to Disney!
Up Next: Back to the world with my favorite dude.