I think I'm kind of delaying this last part of the TR because this post will most likely cover the rest of my night and then I'll probably write up a short post about our departure day, followed by some closing thoughts and then my first TR is complete!
I'll pick up after our dinner. We stopped in the study for a meet and greet with the master of the castle himself, the Beast. The Beast LOVED my Mom's Dole Whip shirt. He pointed to the shirt and then gestured to himself as if to say he wanted a Dole Whip. The CM with him played along with him perfectly! She said something like, "I guess we'll have to see about installing a Dole Whip here in your castle, Master." The Beast looked thrilled lol.
So remember in an earlier post I mentioned we had become accidental thieves? Earlier in the trip I had accidentally "stolen" someone's Micky straw when my lanyard got tangled on someone's backpack. (Luckily, I was able to return it.) Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without another accidental theft. I'm not sure at what point it happened, but as we were leaving the restaurant I noticed something scraping against the floor like it was stuck to my shoe. I thought it may have been a piece of food or a wrapper or something, so I ignored it and kept on walking. Once we exited the restaurant and walked a little bit away, it was still there, so I lifted up my foot to see what the deal was. The chances of this happening are crazy, but stuck into the bottom sole of my sneaker was a Jasmine pin. It must have fallen off someone's lanyard and I stepped on it. Remarkably it was pretty well intact still. I felt really bad for a moment or two and thought about going back to see if anyone lost it, but it would've probably been impossible to find the owner. I decided to take it as a sign from the Disney gods. A farewell present if you will. At least now the pin will have a special memory and will become one of my favorites in my collection.
It was at that point my parents suggested that we call it a night. It was around 8pm and we still needed to go back and finish packing. They figured we could pack and relax. We'd have just enough time to get up, eat breakfast, check out, before heading over to drop off the van and take the shuttle to the airport the following morning. I had other plans though...
I may or may not have mentioned that I used to live in NC. I moved back home about two years ago and unfortunately have not been able to make it back to visit. It just so happened that one of my friends from NC had planned a trip to Disney with her new bf that overlapped with mine. She was pretty much getting to Disney on our last day. Anyway we'd been texting all day to figure out a time and place to meet for a quick drink to catch up. As I mentioned this was their arrival day and they had been pretty much just resort hopping.We had both just finished our dinner plans for the night, so she suggested we meet up at Disney Springs.
She also invited my family along since she's met them before when they came down to visit me. To be honest, I didn't really want them to tag along. I love them, but we were on day ten here and I was feeling just a tiny bit stifled. My Dad wasn't keen on me hopping on a bus to Disney Springs by myself. (Like I said he was a bit weird about things like that this trip.) I had to remind him that I not only had lived on my own for four years in an entirely different state, but I had taken the Disney buses by myself over 10 years earlier when the friend I was traveling with had gotten sick and had to meet up with me later.
He finally let me go, but told me to be back at the resort around 11:30. (Come on... Even Cinderella had until midnight!)
I headed out with them though, so we could stop and get our final Disney Photopass pictures in front of the park entrance. These are kind of bittersweet...
at first thought I was going to have to take the monorail to one of the MK resorts and get a bus to DS from there, but I decided just to double check to see if I couldn't grab a bus from MK directly to DS. Wouldn't you know, they had recently added service from the parks to DS. Score! So I bid my family good bye and practically ran towards the DS bus line. It felt good to be away from them for a while.
I texted my friend to let her know that I was waiting for a bus. They were already almost there and said I should text them when I arrived at DS. I guess I waited about 15-20 minutes for a bus. Then there was a shift change in drivers. Finally, we were loaded up and on our way. No problems.
When we got to DS, I texted my friend who suggested we meet in the Coke store since it was close to the bus stops. I wasn't in there long until she caught me from behind. It was really great to see her again and we joked about having to go all the way to FL just to see each other.
She introduced me to her bf and then we tried to figure out where we should go for a drink. We wandered around a bit aimlessly. DS is totally new to me and there are so many new lounges and restaurants, I wasn't sure what was good. Then we came across Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar and I remembered hearing some feedback about how it was a good spot to grab a drink, so we decided to go for it
There were some indoor seating available, but the night wasn't too sticky, so we decided to get a table out on the deck. It was a really nice view. We were right over the water. It was a very relaxing atmosphere. I just wished I had the time to change into something a bit more dressy than my theme park clothes.
I went back and forth on what to order, but I finally decided on the Fountain of Youth. Here is the description from the menu: "St. Augustine Cane Vodka, Bols Blue Curacao, White Cranberry Juice, and Sweet and Sour."
I thought it tasted really good, but I'm a sucker for anything with blue curacao in it. We enjoyed catching up and I told her the highlights of our trip and what she and her bf must do. They also shared their plans with me. I was a bit jealous because the parks were going to be practically empty that upcoming week.
Soon my glass was empty and it was getting pretty close to pumpkin time for me. So we paid our bill and walked to the bus stop. They were staying at Pop Century, so we said our goodbyes and went on our separate ways. Again I wished I had more time to explore DS, but I had to get back and do my packing.
The bus back to All Star Movies was crowded, but I got a seat. I arrived back to the resort around 11:45 (oops)! As I was walking back towards our room, I bumped into Steph and Steve at the pool bar. They invited me to have a drink with them, but I declined so I could go back and do a little packing.
I didn't get too much packing done. I packed most of the stuff I knew I wasn't going to need in the morning, but left my clothes to refold (I just lived out of my suitcase since the drawer space at the All Stars is laughable) for the morning. With a heavy heart I fell asleep for the last night in my Disney bed
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