Pre-Trip A rare trip with the entire family !

Most of the time when we post it's with my wife, daughter, and myself. We do have two boys who are 22 and 19, but they rarely seem interested in heading down to FL. That is, unless Universal Horror Nights is happening. So, we were talking a few weeks ago about heading down for Food and Wine, but the boys wanted to hit Universal. The tentative plan is to do a 5:30 AM flight from Philly on Thursday, 9/16 and drop the boys off at Universal for the day while my wife, daughter, and me head to Epcot. My daughter made reservations for Ratatouille at 3:00 PM. We figured that we can hit enough of the food booths that we want in three hours. We'll then head back to Universal afterwards to meet back up with the boys for HHN. We're getting Express passes for a Thursday night so I think we can hit all of the houses. Friday and Saturday plans are still up in the air although we're leaning towards one day at Universal and probably a hopper between Magic Kingdom and Hollywood. Plans are still in the making, but I'll keep everyone on board as things develop.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Oh good, so it's NOT just me? I have a really big problem there with my appetite...I think with the heat and just walking so much, you get really tired, and then I have no desire to eat anything. And I have to hydrate so much there's very little room for sustenance.

We aren't the only ones, I think we're pretty normal. At least with this.

 

[macefamily]

After a sweaty few hours at HS, we decided to head out for some different sights. My son never saw our home resort, Old Key West, so I said we'll stop by and get 'welcomed home' so he can check it out. The only Disney resort he's ever stayed at was Saratoga Springs and the Treehouse Villas. He liked OKW.

 

[macefamily]

So we hopped over to Magic Kingdom to complete our trip. We had no plan of attack, and we were just going to try and get on whatever was a favorable wait time. We chose the monorail as our mode of transportation to the park. It was a rude awakening. I became used to the plastic separation dividers and limited car access; not anymore. They crammed us into the cars. I felt like saying something to a supervisor, but I wasn't the only one experiencing it. I guess we're getting back to normal and it's going to take some getting used to.

 

[macefamily]

I had a problem with my Magicband...again. I just had it activated that morning. Very frustrating. Now toss the Genie app in there and I'll be a hot mess. When we got into the park we just kind of walked around. We stopped by the Dolewhip stands to check out the flavors; not too interested. I'm still waiting for the blueberry lemon that had a little purple flower on it. That's my favorite. We did Carousel of Progress. As we came out we walked right across to Buzz Lightyear. I won for the first time in a long time. The ladies were getting hungry, but it was just too hot for me. They mobile ordered at Columbia House, and we started our walk back to there. The park restaurants are definitely back. We were close to having to stand and eat. Every single table was taken. I was the scout looking for people to leave while they were at the counter. Finally found one. The ladies ate and my son and I watched. Just too hot out for fried food today. I could have gone for a spring roll, but we went to Haunted Mansion and walked through behind the castle. This day was definitely coming to a close very soon.

 

[macefamily]

We were doing a slow roll to take in the last of the sites. When we got to the castle, I didn't know what was going on ? Was there a special scheduled show ? Nope. My daughter confirmed that people are settling in three hours early for the last shows of Happily Ever After. While we were there, I think it was the next to the last show.

 

[macefamily]

A few more Halloween decorations......





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[macefamily]

So that's it. It was our typical long weekend trip. I'm looking forward to when we can do a whole week, but life has changed so much with my two sons working, and my daughter working at two different schools as a speech therapist. Schedules are full; time off is rare. I was happy to get there when we did because as I look at the rest of fall going into the Thanksgiving season, I don't see when we'll get back to Orlando again. I was in Jacksonville dog sitting last weekend so I couldn't go anywhere. I'll be doing the same in two weeks, but still can't get down to the parks. It's tough being two hours away and not visiting at least one park. I don't think we've missed the Disney Christmas decorations in over a decade. Maybe we'll try to squeeze in an early December long weekend ? You'll know if you see a trip report