Trip Report 4 Vacations in One (Universal, WDW, Disney Cruise, and Vero Beach)

brifraz · Jul 29, 2018

Part 3 - Vero Beach, Day 2 (and morning 3)

For our full day at Vero Beach, I decided to truly make it a full one and was up very early to head to the beach to enjoy the quiet and calm of a pre-sunrise Florida beach.

There was only one other person on the beach within my range of view this early and I enjoyed walking both up and down the beach, checking out the turtle nests and just enjoying things before the heat and humidity get high! The resort was quite pretty in the pre-sunrise light.

And once the sun rose, the views were just as beautiful, but also the rest of the world began to wake up!

My early wake-up wasn't all fun as we needed to do laundry in order to have some clothes for the next part of our journey, so I went back and forth between the laundry in the basement of our building and the porch of the main building to do some reading. Once the laundry was all done and the girls had woken up, we had some of our leftovers for breakfast and proceeded to get things re-packed to head to The World the next morning. We then went to the pool area and played a round of miniature golf followed by some swimming and relaxing by the pool. It was definitely nice to just have a morning and early afternoon of rest and relaxation with no real plans or adventures! After a couple hours of pool time, we went back to the room to get cleaned up and cooled off (plus to watch a bit of the World Cup match).

We decided to head across the Indian River and into Sebastian for a late lunch at Pareidolia Brewing, a small craft brewery housed in a former post office building about a block off the river. And it was a delightful meal and excellent beers as well. And, in addition to the good food and drink, they had some games for us enjoy while we ate and drank - so a couple rounds of Uno and Jenga kept us entertained.

After lunch, we went back to the resort for a little more relaxation. And, in case you were wondering, three people in a hammock is a little bit crowded. Which didn't stop us from chilling there for a bit!

As the sun started going down, we headed up to the Green Cabin Room for a light dinner and another pint on the deck.

And as the mosquitos descended (seems to coincide pretty well with the sun going down), we went inside and ended up taking part in the Know Your Match game with some of the other families that were there. It was a lot of fun and kept us entertained for a while before we decided to turn in for the night.

The next morning, we were up and checked out of Vero Beach pretty early so we could grab some breakfast before heading to The World. Right in the middle of Vero Beach is a great little spot called the Lemon Tree, where we had a delicious breakfast before the drive.

See you soon at Old Key West!

brifraz · Jul 29, 2018

Part 4 - WDW, Day 1

We were out of Vero Beach around 8am and headed right to Old Key West upon arriving at the World to get checked in and see if our room was ready - it wasn't, but we did get the car parked at our building and caught the bus to Epcot and found ourselves in the park right around 11am. Now, I need to explain a little about our FP+ activity for this day. With the FP+ tiered system in place, we booked Soarin' in tier 1 and Nemo and Imagination in tier 2. The Nemo and Imagination ones were for 9am and 10am...before we got in the park. Soarin' was for 11am, so we did that as soon as we got in. You might be thinking, why would we just burn a couple FP+...well, as soon as we had tapped in for Soarin', we got onto MDE and started booking other FP+ - our daughter got one for Mission:Space, my wife got one for Frozen, and I got one for Test Track. More on those in a little bit.

But, we were pretty hungry and a little thirsty so we headed back to the Rose and Crown for a pint and some fish and chips (with great conversation with Carl) and our daughter picked up a sandwich from the Boulangerie in France. Sorry, no food picks, just our pints at R&C.

While we drank our second pint, our daughter headed off the Mission:Space and visited Colortopia. She really enjoyed doing those on her own and then came back to meet us for some touring around World Showcase...but, first it was time to score some another FP+. Our daughter managed to get an FP+ for Test Track that was right about the same time as mine. But, still a couple hours away. And still a little time before my wife's FP+ for Frozen.

So, we watched the France movie (okay, maybe napped a little in there), shopped in Japan, and then watched the China movie. When we had made our way to Norway, our daughter used my wife's Magicband to ride Frozen while we hung out in the shop and then we scored a group picture.

By this time, we were ready to hit Test Track. But, again it was time to use the system to it's fullest - the girls are more thrill ride fans than I am, so I let @MeffysMom use my FP+ (I tapped in, but then told the CM that I was letting my wife use it) and as they went through Test Track, I quickly scored an immediate FP+ for Livin' With the Land and dashed over to ride it!

Just to recap real quick our FP+ for the day...
3 for Nemo (didn't use, but could have)
3 for Imagination (didn't use, but could have)
3 for Soarin'
1 for Mission:Space
1 for Frozen
2 for Test Track
1 for Living With the Land

And, bear in mind this was 4th of July week with quite hearty crowds! Not sure I could've done better back in the days of criss-crossing the park with everyones tickets in hand...okay, maybe I could've.

As I left Living With the Land, the thunderstorms were about to hit, so I met the girls right by the Meet and Greets formerly known as Innoventions formerly known as Communicore and we headed back to Old Key West. We managed to dodge most of the raindrops and get back to our resort to unpack the car and get things into our room before heading to the Gurgling Suitcase to pick up some dinner and have a couple drinks for the evening. As always, the company was great and the pulled pork nachos were awesome.

After eating and relaxing, we turned in a bit early knowing that we had big plans for the next day (July 3) with EMH at Studios at 7am, a water park visit, Disney Springs lunch, and Magic Kingdom dinner. Not quite one of our 4 parks in 1 day adventures (check out some old Trip Reports for those), but a big day coming up nonetheless!

brifraz · Jul 30, 2018

Part 4 - WDW Day 2A, Hollywood Studios

So, with the recent opening of Toy Story Land, Hollywood Studios was still doing daily Extra Magic Hours starting at 7am - talk about something tailor-made for this early morning get up and go family! We were actually at the gate around 6:30am and were delighted to find that things were already open. In fact, we were in Toy Story Land by 6:40 and could enjoy the area with a pretty moderate crowd, which allowed us to slow down and take some pictures!

One of the first families to take advantage of this Photopass spot! We head to Slinky Dog where the line was quite a ways past the weave and along the fence (just left of the first picture above) - but that was because they had only started to open up the line and weave at 6:30am, so things moved very quickly. We really enjoyed the theming of the queue area and the 'story' of Andy taking a roller coaster construction set and turning it into an adventure with his Slinky Dog.

And, right about 7am, we were hopping onboard for our first ride - and we scored the front two rows (along with this guy in his Run Disney shirt).

I really enjoyed the ride - certainly not a huge thrill ride, but I definitely would rate it a little higher that Seven Dwarves Mine Train. That means for me, it was pretty much the ideal coaster. The ride is incredibly smooth and a couple, the section with the bumps definitely gives the impression of being on a slinky, and the 'restart' in the middle with a pull-back like a toy car was very cool. Here are some shots from onboard.

And the extra early opening meant that at 7:10am we were heading to the Alien Swirling Saucers! While we were in line for this one, we had a lot of fun with the new App that has the queue games. The Toy Story Land game involves sharing the phone between group members and working together to reach goals - it's nothing too difficult, but if we had a little one in line with us who needed to be pre-occupied with something, it would be like gold. If you are heading to the world, we highly recommend it (played with it in a couple other lines as well throughout the trip).

brifraz · Jul 30, 2018

The Saucers is the same ride as Mater's in Disneyland, basically a glorified version of the old Whip carnival ride. That doesn't mean it isn't a lot of fun, though!

After that, we headed to our old friend, Toy Story Midway Mania to get a ride in and, as always, have @MeffysMom get the highest score in the car. We did like some of the new additions in the queue and were glad to see Mr. Potato Head back in action.

We had done all three attractions in Toy Story Land and it was... 7:45am. Yup, totally done with the three attractions in just a little bit over an hour. Awesome! With some extra time we decided to meet up with some characters. Buzz's very polite interactions with my wife inspired me to do the same with Minnie Mouse. At this time of morning, both character lines were about 5-10 minutes at most.

With still some time before we wanted to head to Blizzard Beach, we hit Star Tours (wish every ride wasn't the Ep. 8 experience - I'd much rather have the randomness) and then Muppet Vision 3D. Muppet Vision is still perhaps my favorite attraction in any amusement park anywhere. I miss the outside queue that had all the fun posters, but the waiting area has the great pre-show film (better without Constantine for sure) and gags a-plenty if you are willing to read all the different crates and boxes and look up and around things to catch some good humor. With the exception of the Waldo effect looking a little 1990s, the film itself is extremely well done and packs in a lot of humor that hits multiple ages. Some simply silly, some totally absurd, and a few subtle higher level jokes as well. Sorry for the little soapbox diversion there, but I live my life in near constant fear that they will 'update' this attraction which to me is so wonderful and entertaining. It was about 9am at this point, so we headed out to get ourselves over to Blizzard Beach before opening!

brifraz · Jul 30, 2018

Part 4 - WDW Day 2B, Blizzard Beach/Disney Springs/Magic Kingdom

Fresh off our 3 hours of early morning Hollywood Studios touring, we headed to Blizzard Beach for the 10am opening. Made it there about 9:40am and joined the horde waiting to get to the seating areas. Once in, we grabbed a spot and headed to the back of the park to start with rides on all three tubes of Runoff Rapids followed by some races on the Downhill Double Dipper. I went first on the Double Dipper followed by the girls and as they got to the front of the line, the launch/release mechanism broke down. They finally got it to work and they rode down, but it was continually malfunctioning as we headed back up the mountain to do the Snow Stormers. Next up was Teamboat Springs which is always a lot of fun. It was only just 11am at this point and we had done 6 of the attractions. We hopped onto a few tubes to travel around the Cross Country Creek (yes, I had to look up the name since it isn't really just called the lazy river) and rode 3/4 of the way around before hopping off near our chairs. We had planned to maybe do a little more, but decided we were pretty hungry for some lunch and needed a little slower speed for the afternoon.

We got to say hello to Goofy on the way out and then headed back to Old Key West to put on some dry clothes and then headed to Disney Springs for lunch. Being a little tired, it was a bit touch making a lunch decision, so we ended up going to one of our standards, The Boathouse (our daughter would likely pick their Filey Mignon sliders as her last meal on Earth). After lunch, we didn't really shop around as we wanted some relaxation time back at Old Key West. Our daughter proceeded to take a large nap while we went over to the Gurgling Suitcase to hang out with friends/fellow DVC travelers. It was nice to just have a few hours of 'nothing' for the afternoon after the busy morning and knowing that the evening was going to be pretty packed as well!

A little after 4pm, we headed to the bus stop to find our way to Magic Kingdom. Much as I understand the need for training, I'm not sure that July 3rd going to MK is the best time to train a new driver. Ours didn't know some of the better ideas for getting around the lines of traffic so the drive was almost 45 minutes. Luckily we still had enough time to hit our first FP+ of the day at Seven Dwarves Mine Train at 5:15pm (might've gotten in a couple minutes late...) and then head right over to our next FP+ at Peter Pan. After that we took in one of the Muppet history shows - again, I very much enjoy their brand of humor and their take on the ride of Paul Revere is always entertaining.

Next up was our FP+ for Splash Mountain which always affords some quality in-ride photos.

It was now time to scout out a good spot for the fireworks (yes, finding a place to sit before 7pm for a 9pm fireworks - hey, it's July 3rd!) and also book one more FP+ for the evening (Jungle Cruise at 11:15pm). We've done the fireworks from just about every spot up and down Main Street and the hub, so this time we stayed in Adventureland on the bridge across from Tom Sawyer Island. This would be our view for the evening view.

If you've never had a chance to enjoy the 4th of July fireworks at Magic Kingdom, I highly recommend it...but, do it on the 3rd of July! Crowds are still very big, but it is manageable and the Extra Magic Hours afterwards are great, but we aren't quite there, yet. After the fireworks, we had a late dinner at Be Our Guest - very good food, and of course great desserts.

After dinner we headed to use those extra FP+ at Jungle Cruise and then it was Extra Magic Hours touring time! Starting at about 11:45pm, we hit Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and then It's a Small World. By this point, some of us were getting a bit tired.

In an attempt to get woken back up, we headed to the Teacups expecting to spin our brains back into full functioning. We then headed to Buzz Lightyear for a battle with Zurg. Evidently, the Teacups didn't quite have the desired effect.

But we did manage to get a little more energy and found ourselves enjoying the Incredibles 2 overlay photo opportunities in Tomorrowland.

We got quite a few pictures, but this is definitely my favorite of the lot - and I have a feeling that it's also the favorite of the girls even though they claim that they wouldn't REALLY laugh if the Omnidroid killed me...

It was about 1:30am, so we decided to call it a night (remember we started the day by arriving at Studios at 6:30am) but did get pictures on the way out.

Which put us back to the room and getting to sleep some time a little after 2am. Don't worry, we get to sleep in the next morning until at least 6:30am. Yup, getting up early for Animal Kingdom morning EMH and yup, we are insane.

Silentg · Aug 1, 2018

Fellow Maryland (and overall craft beer enthusiast) here, love reading about the tasting on the fantasy (and the vero beach brewery looked cool!). We will be on that ship in 2019 and my wife and I will have to get in on that!

brifraz · Aug 1, 2018

Silentg said:
Fellow Maryland (and overall craft beer enthusiast) here, love reading about the tasting on the fantasy (and the vero beach brewery looked cool!). We will be on that ship in 2019 and my wife and I will have to get in on that!

Excellent! The beer tasting was quite enjoyable, although none of the samples were anything all that 'different' they were enjoyable and Andre (bartender) definitely knew his stuff and had a lot of fun with us - I think he pegged us for people who knew their beer pretty quickly. This was our first cruise and we tried to book a beer tasting when the shipboard activities first opened up to new cruisers. The one we got was added on late in the game, maybe a month before the cruise, and we happened to get online at the right moment to grab it. The mixology class we got through the Facebook group for our cruise, so check on that for yours! The Vero Beach brewery was very good - they definitely are making some good and interesting beers there.

BTW, we just brewed a English Pale Ale last week and have been enjoying watching it ferment this week...still almost 2 weeks until we can keg it and enjoy it.

brifraz · Aug 2, 2018

Part 4 - WDW Day 3, Animal Kingdom/Epcot

As mentioned, we were up early once again to get to Animal Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours touring. Usually we try to arrive at least 30 minutes before gates open, but we actually decided to wait a little bit and arrived about 20 minutes before opening. Why would we ever choose to wait? Well, we've actually waited a little bit once before in the hope that we would get to do the full interior weave of Flight of Passage. But every time we have waited in the regular line, we end up not going through the lab section of the line. So, this time we hoped to go through it....but, we didn't get to. We are convinced at this point that unless we are willing to wait for a couple hours we had might as well go with FP+ or get there at least 30 minutes early.

I think we ended up waiting a total of about 40 minutes for Flight of Passage. And after the ride, we visited with a Photopass photographer to make sure everyone knew that it was the 4th of July.

Knowing we had FP+ for Safari, Everest, and Finding Nemo, we decided not to fight any crowds and just went to watch Tough to Be a Bug. Despite going at a slower pace this morning, someone was still a little tired.

We then headed back for our 9:40am FP+ for the Safari. We always enjoy the safari and this ride was no exception. We got held up for a while right when we entered the savannah due to one of the cattle being in the road. But after that we had some great animal encounters.

As usual, we had done some manipulation of FP+ while we were on the Safari and had managed to moved up our Everest ride to 10:25am so we headed over there right away. And enjoyed a ride with the Yeti (obviously, still in disco mode). And, while getting ready for that ride, we moved up our next FP+ to the first show of Finding Nemo so right after we got off the ride we headed to the theatre and walked almost right in. While we waited for Nemo, we once again hit the FP+ system and got some for right after the show. But first, the show! Our favorite theatrical show on site by a LARGE margin.

And with some entertaining wildlife to boot.

The show was done at about 11:45am and (what a shock) we had FP+ for Primeval Whirl at 11:40am, so once again we went right onto another ride. So, pretty much 4 FP+ with no waiting for anything...and all in just a couple minutes over 2 hours.

While in Dinoland, we did catch a couple classic friends trying to get more involved in the dinosaur-ish fun.

It was right about noon and we wanted some rest after the long night and long night coming up, so we decided to head out. But we did catch one more bit of wildlife on the way out.

After seeing the anteater, we headed back to Old Key West and enjoyed some lunch at the Gurgling Suitcase and some rest in the room before heading back out to Epcot for the evening!

brifraz · Aug 2, 2018

We caught the bus to Epcot just a little bit after 6pm in the hopes that we could do a few attractions before our dinner at 8:15pm at Spice Road. When we entered the park, we headed to Finding Nemo, which was showing a 20 minute wait, which we could surely handle. But, as we waited, the ride went down totally so we headed out (not sure how long it was down - we checked again about 15 minutes later and it was still out of commission). We did walk through the aquariums on the way out to see some of the animals. Plan B was Imagination - yes, it's lame, but we still ride it every once in a while. But...the wait over there was 40 minutes and out the door of the pavilion and sorry, there is no way we would wait more than about 10 minutes for that one!

So, we headed into World Showcase and stopped in Canada for the film there. Always fun...and always gets that song into our heads. We just walked casually back toward Morocco to get to our dinner. We have never eaten and Spice Road before and were looking forward to having real seats to watch the 4th of July fireworks. Dinner was excellent - in fact, Spice Road has moved up very high on our list of World Showcase restaurants. Here's some shots of the food and drink.

Toward the end of our dinner a pretty good storm rolled through, so the fireworks were delayed about 45 minutes.

Once it was time for Illuminations (my favorite fireworks anywhere, ever) it was nice to have a covered seat for the show - although, I definitely don't think that we will be doing the restaurants on the lagoon for fireworks anymore. It's just not the same without being able to see the full height and width of everything - even if you are seated right at the front there is some blockage from the building (we REALLY didn't like the view in Mexico when we tried that one).

After fireworks, we took our time again, but did head out of Epcot getting a few more pictures on the way out. Not our most busy/crazy 4th of July, but very enjoyable as always!

Next up is a VERY relaxed morning and afternoon followed by Toy Story Land at night!

brifraz · Aug 5, 2018

Part 4 - WDW Day 5, Disney Springs/Hollywood Studios

Happily we took it easy and slow for the morning after the past couple busy days. We drove over to Disney Springs right at the time things were just starting to open up. We did some of the usual Disney window shopping, making our way all the way through most of the old Marketplace area first. We decided to make a couple stops for lunch and 'graze' through a couple restaurants we had never tried. So, first we stopped at Blaze and got a white pizza to share between the three of us. It was quite good. Then we headed over to Morimoto (the outside window) and got the ribs - which were excellent and a pretty darn good deal! Of course, it wasn't until we had eaten both that we remember to take a picture!

We continued to shop around the Pleasure Island area and then the West Side area. Didn't make any purchases, but did look through quite a few shops and checked out the new Enzo's Hideaway (didn't get anything, just took a look in). Mid-afternoon, we headed back to Old Key West and continued our slow pace with a visit to the Gurgling Suitcase for a drink. A little after 5pm, we caught the bus to Hollywood Studios to try Woody's Lunchbox for dinner. We got the Grilled 3-Cheese sandwich and the Totchos - with veggie chili. The veggie chili version isn't on the menu, but it is an option when you do the online pre-ordering...which also allowed us to skip the line which was quite long. We ordered as we entered the park and by the time we got to Toy Story Land, the food was ready to go - it was awesome! Once again, we failed to get food pictures.

After we ate, we headed to One Man's Dream, because we always like to walk through and re-examine the exhibits. Next up was our FP+ for Rockin Roller Coaster at about 7:45pm. And after that, we headed to our FP+ for Tower of Terror. There was a pretty big thunderstorm coming through and we got a little bit wet on the walk in, but then waited out the heavy stuff in the exit area. At this point it was just about 9:15pm and we headed back to Toy Story Land.

Midway Mania was showing only a 35 minute wait and our plan was to do Slinky Dog at 10pm (during fireworks and with FP+) so we went ahead in. The wait only turned out to be 20 minutes and we enjoyed that followed by a leisurely walk to Slinky Dog, getting onboard right as fireworks began at 10pm. The ride at night was just as good as during the day, if not even better!

Park closing was 10:30pm, so we went back into Midway Mania one more time before we left. This time the wait was only about 10 minutes total and it was fun to be leaving the park after closing. Since most of the crowd leaves after fireworks, we got to enjoy walking out with very few other people in the park.

We were back in the room just a little after 11pm and got to sleep, ready for our final day!

brifraz · Aug 15, 2018

I'm feeling a little guilt for a 10+ day delay in getting this TR finished up. I'm a high school band director and we started marching band camp on August 6th, so pretty much every waking minute of my life has been marching band since I finished the post on 8/5. I'm hoping to have a few minutes tonight and will finally get the last day up! For those following along, we pack a good bit of Magic Kingdom and Epcot into about 2/3 of a day.

brifraz · Aug 17, 2018

Part 4 - WDW Day 6, Epcot and Magic Kingdom

So, here we are...finally. On our last day in WDW. We were up relatively early, but not crazy like some mornings. Got the car packed and ready to go and hopped on the bus to Epcot to be in line right around 8:30am. Gates were already open, but they were still holding the crowd under Spaceship Earth. Right at 9am, we headed in and started off with Test Track via the single rider line. Which meant that we were in and out pretty quickly after enjoying rides with each of us in a separate car. The girls were going to do Mission:Space Orange right after, so I was last in the single rider and didn't get out until they were already heading into M:S. Not a problem as right about that same minute, the Jammitors were setting up to perform. As a high school band teacher (who is about to leave for the last day of 2 weeks of marching band camp), I really enjoy groups like this and I had the show pretty much entirely to myself the whole time. After they finished, we chatted for a few minutes about band and drum corps and things like that - with a little practice I could see this as a retirement job!

The girls exited the ride just a minute or two after the show ended so we headed back into World Showcase to Frozen, which was only showing a 20 minute wait. And, it really was only about a 20 minute wait! We were pretty surprised that this was the case at about 10am, but it was - so we enjoyed it! Then back into Future World for one last ride on Soarin', which was also only about a 10-15 minute wait. Which meant that we were able to ride and then still get back to UK right about 11am. And, it was still pretty empty!

If you don't usually stop to look at the architecture of the pavilions in World Showcase, might I suggest it! They really are quite interesting and we tend to have a few pictures like that one on every trip (although usually with a lot more strangers clogging things up). @MeffysMom and I forced ourselves to enjoy one last pint and some lunch in the Rose and Crown while our daughter went over to France for her favorite brie and cranberry sandwich.

After relaxing for an hour or so, we casually headed back to the US to catch the Guardians of the Galaxy music show. Which was really quite good. The band is very tight and some excellent singers. While the plot and character interactions are a bit strained, it's very entertaining and if you like classic rock (or just well performed live music) it is worth a visit.

After the show, we continued our last circuit of World Showcase and stopped in for a quick (again, lines at about 20 minutes) visit with Anna and Elsa. Not sure why the lines were pretty short on July 6th, but we were glad to take advantage of the fact! Got one last Photopass picture on the way out.

We caught the monorail to Magic Kingdom (and barely stayed awake during the ride) and headed in to use our last FP+ of the trip. We hit Buzz Lightyear at 3:15pm, toward the end of our window, followed by Space Mountain at 3:45pm, right at the beginning of our window. Honestly, I'm not sure what our third booked FP+ was, but we didn't end up using it as we were getting close to time to head out. But not without a quick visit with Tinkerbell!

And one last Photopass shot on Main Street.

It was about 4:30pm and the thunderstorms were just about to hit, so we caught the bus back to Old Key West, dodged the raindrops getting to our car, and hit the road.

Of course, that meant we were about to enjoy 17 hours in the car together with about 15 of them on I-95 - one of the most boring roads to drive on this Earth. I used to say THE most boring, but having now driven cross country 3 times, I can say that I-90 from the Badlands to Sioux Falls might have it beat. (by the way, planning to drive cross country both ways again this summer, maybe something new will make a challenge for most boring roads). We made a couple short pit stops along the drive and slept for a couple hours at a rest area in North Carolina and then found ourselves back home at 10am with grass pretty desperately in need of mowing. The worst part about this trip...it was the first time in a long time that we weren't sure when our next visit might be. Luckily, we have now booked a trip for the Princess Half Marathon (again) this coming February so we are back into planning mode with dining being booked in a week! Oh, and we booked another cruise as well - to Alaska next summer, hence the upcoming drive across country to Vancouver.

Thanks for traveling along with us and we will see you soon.

FlaggNL · Aug 17, 2018

Thanks for sharing..... seems to be a more than magical trip....!

riverside · Aug 17, 2018

Great trip report!!

Songbird76 · Aug 17, 2018

brifraz said:
Part 4 - WDW Day 6, Epcot and Magic Kingdom

So, here we are...finally. On our last day in WDW. We were up relatively early, but not crazy like some mornings. Got the car packed and ready to go and hopped on the bus to Epcot to be in line right around 8:30am. Gates were already open, but they were still holding the crowd under Spaceship Earth. Right at 9am, we headed in and started off with Test Track via the single rider line. Which meant that we were in and out pretty quickly after enjoying rides with each of us in a separate car. The girls were going to do Mission:Space Orange right after, so I was last in the single rider and didn't get out until they were already heading into M:S. Not a problem as right about that same minute, the Jammitors were setting up to perform. As a high school band teacher (who is about to leave for the last day of 2 weeks of marching band camp), I really enjoy groups like this and I had the show pretty much entirely to myself the whole time. After they finished, we chatted for a few minutes about band and drum corps and things like that - with a little practice I could see this as a retirement job!
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The girls exited the ride just a minute or two after the show ended so we headed back into World Showcase to Frozen, which was only showing a 20 minute wait. And, it really was only about a 20 minute wait! We were pretty surprised that this was the case at about 10am, but it was - so we enjoyed it! Then back into Future World for one last ride on Soarin', which was also only about a 10-15 minute wait. Which meant that we were able to ride and then still get back to UK right about 11am. And, it was still pretty empty!
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If you don't usually stop to look at the architecture of the pavilions in World Showcase, might I suggest it! They really are quite interesting and we tend to have a few pictures like that one on every trip (although usually with a lot more strangers clogging things up). @MeffysMom and I forced ourselves to enjoy one last pint and some lunch in the Rose and Crown while our daughter went over to France for her favorite brie and cranberry sandwich.

After relaxing for an hour or so, we casually headed back to the US to catch the Guardians of the Galaxy music show. Which was really quite good. The band is very tight and some excellent singers. While the plot and character interactions are a bit strained, it's very entertaining and if you like classic rock (or just well performed live music) it is worth a visit.
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After the show, we continued our last circuit of World Showcase and stopped in for a quick (again, lines at about 20 minutes) visit with Anna and Elsa. Not sure why the lines were pretty short on July 6th, but we were glad to take advantage of the fact! Got one last Photopass picture on the way out.
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We caught the monorail to Magic Kingdom (and barely stayed awake during the ride) and headed in to use our last FP+ of the trip. We hit Buzz Lightyear at 3:15pm, toward the end of our window, followed by Space Mountain at 3:45pm, right at the beginning of our window. Honestly, I'm not sure what our third booked FP+ was, but we didn't end up using it as we were getting close to time to head out. But not without a quick visit with Tinkerbell!
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And one last Photopass shot on Main Street.
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It was about 4:30pm and the thunderstorms were just about to hit, so we caught the bus back to Old Key West, dodged the raindrops getting to our car, and hit the road.

Of course, that meant we were about to enjoy 17 hours in the car together with about 15 of them on I-95 - one of the most boring roads to drive on this Earth. I used to say THE most boring, but having now driven cross country 3 times, I can say that I-90 from the Badlands to Sioux Falls might have it beat. (by the way, planning to drive cross country both ways again this summer, maybe something new will make a challenge for most boring roads). We made a couple short pit stops along the drive and slept for a couple hours at a rest area in North Carolina and then found ourselves back home at 10am with grass pretty desperately in need of mowing. The worst part about this trip...it was the first time in a long time that we weren't sure when our next visit might be. Luckily, we have now booked a trip for the Princess Half Marathon (again) this coming February so we are back into planning mode with dining being booked in a week! Oh, and we booked another cruise as well - to Alaska next summer, hence the upcoming drive across country to Vancouver.

Thanks for traveling along with us and we will see you soon.

Nebraska. That's more boring than the South Dakota stretch. Nothing but fields of corn.....endless fields of corn. At least in South Dakota, you get some wildlife once in a while.

Trip Report 4 Vacations in One (Universal, WDW, Disney Cruise, and Vero Beach)

brifraz

Marching along...

brifraz

Marching along...

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Marching along...

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Marching along...

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Marching along...

Silentg

New Member

brifraz

Marching along...

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Marching along...

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Marching along...

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Marching along...

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Marching along...

brifraz

Marching along...

FlaggNL

Well-Known Member

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Songbird76

Well-Known Member