Trip Report *Completed!* The "pick a celebration and stick with it!" Trip Report :)

My husband and I have just returned from six wonderful days at WDW! The trip could not have gone better. I seriously did not want to leave.

I won't delve too far into the background here, because it's all in my pre-trip report here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/because-im-driving-myself-crazy.882149/ Don't want to read all that? No problem. Here's the Reader's Digest version:

The cast:

My husband and me:

With guest appearances by our dear friends Jason,Karissa, Neil, and Barbara (pictures of them to appear later).

The reason:

Pick one!

1) DH and I have both had weight loss surgery (the gastric sleeve, to be exact) and maintained our goal weights for over two years. For before and after pics, see the pre-trip report. He's lost over 200 pounds, and I've lost 130. We both have our health back!
2) I had been unemployed for several months and finally found a new job in January.
3) We were celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary (May 27th, but since I teach, we couldn't go anywhere until after school got out).
4) Add numbers one, two, and three, and what do you get? The go ahead to stop taking birth control, that's what!

So, yeah... this trip was a "celebrating weight loss/return to gainful employment/wedding anniversary/conceptionmoon (yes, apparently that's really a thing- I had to Google it to get the name of it) trip."

And, if the trip had had just one more drop of pixie dust, I would seriously think we were dreaming the whole time. Maybe we were...

The when, where, and how:

On May 31, we drove down to Orlando from Atlanta and spent the night with our friends Jason and Karissa. They live just outside of Orlando and were kind enough to let us crash at their place the night before our check in so that we would be refreshed for the parks the next day. On Sunday, June 1, we checked in at the Pop at eleven and stayed there until Saturday, June 7, when we drove home.

And now, let the report begin!

 

[DisneyGigi]

So enjoying your trip report and would like to say congratulations on both your amazing weight loss and your anniversary! I love going on our anniversary, Disney so goes out of their way to add special little touches to make it even more special. So thankful we are getting to go back this year for it again. I love all the pictures too and especially the ToT photos.. I am terrified of that ride but make myself ride it back to back each trip or I know that I will not get on it again, after that I enjoy it til the next trip...lol

 

[cw1982]

So enjoying your trip report and would like to say congratulations on both your amazing weight loss and your anniversary! I love going on our anniversary, Disney so goes out of their way to add special little touches to make it even more special. So thankful we are getting to go back this year for it again. I love all the pictures too and especially the ToT photos.. I am terrified of that ride but make myself ride it back to back each trip or I know that I will not get on it again, after that I enjoy it til the next trip...lol

I had never been on ToT until this last trip lol... and my parents used to take me and my sister to Disney as often as possible when we were kids! Drops like that are not usually my thing, but now that I've done that ride I can honestly say I love it Glad to see someone else takes advantage of the coolness that is going to Disney as part of a celebration! I had never done that before, but I'm so glad we did!

 

[cw1982]

Day 5 continued:

We made it to Epcot with plenty of time to ride Test Track. The ride was working this time (lol), and we got right on no problems! I even took a picture of our car, because I was extremely surprised that Matt went for this look:

I kinda like it though We won the speed test! Hah!

We couldn't think of anything in FW that we wanted to experience again before dinner, so we headed back into WS for a preview of some of the countries on the other side of the lagoon. I made the mistake of mentioning cronuts at the refreshment port, and had to quickly take Matt by the hand and literally drag him away from all that yummyness so he would be able to eat dinner in an hour!

We started with Canada, where I was in love with the landscaping outside of Le Cellier:

and the waterfall that is visible when one walks back towards the Canada show:

We watched the show (meh... was cool I guess, but don't feel like I have to do it again) and headed back towards England, where I was a little too excited at who we met:

They were hilarious, by the way! While I was watching the group in front of me, one of the teens wanted her picture with Tigger, and Pooh kept jumping in front of them and waving his arms around, as if he was obnoxiously photo bombing them. It was great! When I walked in, Tigger acted like he was very happy to see me, took my hand, kissed it, and wouldn't let go until I left the room haha.

See? Even as I'm hugging Pooh, he wouldn't let go of that hand

We also researched our last names in the shop that prints out family history/ coat of arms information... it was kinda neat to see that their information actually matched our own research. So FYI, the coat of arms place in England is fairly accurate (or at least it was for us!)

Then it was time for dinner:

At Coral Reef! Yes, this was the view directly in front of our table! Right by the tank! I was a little too excited about that LOL.

Our server brought us two flutes of champagne for our anniversary, but in addition, I had this awesome drink:

It's called a magical star coctail. It was very fruity and possibly my favorite drink of the whole trip! There's a light up cube in there that changes colors. The drink went from blue, to red, to pink. I got to keep the cube

Matt had the Mahi Mahi for dinner and said it was fantastic:

and I had the Sriracha Shrimp for my meal. It's an appetizer, but it came with six huge shrimp, and by the time we add in the batter it's fried in, that's about all I can handle at a time anyway, so it was perfect:

After dinner, it was back to the monorail to get back to the Magic Kingdom in time for Wishes! Since we had just seen Illuminations the night before, we were good with hitting the monorail during the show to get a head start. We made it to the Magic Kingdom by 9:30, got some ice cream at the shop next to Starbucks, and landed a spot to watch the show on the front porch at the Crystal Palace. It was amazing! Probably some of the best fireworks I've ever seen

Immediately after the show, Matt grabbed me by the hand, yelled, "come on!" and took off running. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied, "trying to get to the Mine Train!" I couldn't help but smile. I knew the wait wouldn't be down to a reasonable time yet, but I also knew Matt was trying to be sweet, so I played along. We got there, and of course: 60 minute wait. I told him we needed to go make use of our Pirates FP, and that we could always come back up until park closing and try again. With that, we headed back towards Adventureland, rode Pirates, rode BTMRR and splash, and then came back one more time to check 7DMT. By now, it was 11:30, and the wait was still showing as an hour. Matt shrugged, took my hand, and got in line. I couldn't believe it! We were halfway through the queue, though, when the ride went down and everyone got kicked out. This was at 11:58. Park closed at 12. We walked back towards the entrance to see if they were giving out fastpasses (given that we got paper passes when we were in the queue for EE on Tuesday when it went down, it seemed reasonable to check), and I overheard a CM at the ride telling a guest who was asking for a FP that there was nothing he could do, that he didn't have the authority. I read between the lines: if he didn't have the authority, there had to be someone who did!

So, we headed to Guest Relations at the front of the park... us, and probably half of the group that had been in line at park closing. We're fast walkers, though, so we were towards the front of the line. I had my whole speech rehearsed in my mind, about how I would politely and calmly explain that we had sacrificed our last 30 minutes of park time for the chance to ride that one ride, and then it went down at just the right moment to keep us from being able to make use of any more park time that night. I figured they would probably say there was nothing they could do, but I HAD to try.

Sure enough....

We got passes!!!

I couldn't believe it!

The girl who helped us said she was surprised that they didn't take care of it at the ride, shrugged, and had us fill out a form. She gave me a confirmation number, told me to report back to the same office when we got back to the park with that number and my ID, and that the pass would be waiting for us. Score!

So, I hadn't gotten to ride 7DMT yet, but we had one more day of park hopping. Now all I had to do was find a good time to get back to the MK, since that wasn't in our plans originally, and find a stroke of luck that the ride would be working by the time we got there.

I was already deliberating all of this in my mind on the bus ride back to the Pop. I had it all worked out in my head....

And we'll see if the pixie dust was still on my side or not!

 

[ginadee]

Loving your TR. Rainforest is also one of my favorites. I didnt learn until later that it is at alot of places. I was so upset. Lol...Coral Reef was probably my favorite meal last trip. Great to hear they are redoing Maelstrom. I'll have to look it up. I am the same way on TOT. Every time I say "why do I do this to myself" ? And it is always so much fun.

 

[cw1982]

Loving your TR. Rainforest is also one of my favorites. I didnt learn until later that it is at alot of places. I was so upset. Lol...Coral Reef was probably my favorite meal last trip. Great to hear they are redoing Maelstrom. I'll have to look it up. I am the same way on TOT. Every time I say "why do I do this to myself" ? And it is always so much fun.

Lol... are you sure we're not related? Sounds like we'd get along great! Honestly, I was a little worried about Coral Reef. I knew Matt would love it, but I'm a very picky eater and don't really like a lot of the seafood that he does, so I knew we wouldn't be able to share a meal for this one. The Sriracha Shrimp was my best bet, since I love fried shrimp and I have had sauces made with sriracha that I have enjoyed in the past. Turned out to be the perfect choice, and I'll definitely be having it again if we get to go back!

As far as ToT goes, that's exactly how I am! I do that to myself with other rides too. I get all nervous, even if I know I enjoyed it the last time... and then I end up being fine haha.

 

[cw1982]

Day 6: our last day in the parks

When I left off on Day 5, I said that I had to figure out a way to work in a side trip to the MK so we could use our 7DMT pass. The original plan was to be in HS by 12 for our first FP, play over there until about 4, then head to Epcot to meet some friends who are AP's in WS. We were going to enjoy the evening EMH in WS, and head back to the room and call it a night. With that spirit in mind, my goal was to be in the MK by 10:30, head straight for the mine train, ride it, and then hop on a bus to HS.

Didn't work that way.

In all fairness, I should have checked the MDE app before we left the hotel. Then we would have known to just go straight to HS and enjoyed more time there instead. What ended up happening, unfortunately, was that I didn't think to look at the app until we were on the bus and pulling into the MK loading zone. Since we were already there, we went in and stopped by Guest Relations to get the pass. I figured for all we knew, the ride could open any minute. So we sauntered that way after getting our pass. We waited for about 30 minutes, during which time a small group of people were let into the FP queue. We were the first group to get stopped. After a few more minutes, they kicked everyone out of the line again and said they didn't know when the ride would be working. Matt asked me what our first FP was in HS, and I told him RnRC. He said he would be okay with waiting a little longer for 7DMT, since we had already ridden RnRC twice, but I knew this was one of his favorite rides (and mine too) so I said no, that I wasn't willing to give up our favorite ride for a slim chance at another ride.

A little disappointed, but still with pass in hand, we headed back to the buses and made our way to HS. Of course, as soon as the bus passes the Polynesian, I looked in the phone app and saw that 7dmt was indeed open again. Go figure!

There was some good to come from our trip this morning, though: we got our passes, so we didn't have to worry about that later, and we got one more pretty picture in front of the castle in the daylight:

and the picture taking trend continued at HS, where we stopped in front of the Fantasia Mickey at the gate:

Then we got inside HS, saw all the signs for the motorcade (which had been at 11:30, and it was now noon), and I immediately felt a pang of guilt because the whole reason I had changed our FP's for today was so Matt could experience some of SWW before we left, and he missed the thing he probably would have enjoyed the most out of the whole event! He didn't seem to mind much, though, so we headed back towards RnRC for our first FP. We enjoyed that one as much as ever, of course so that put me in a little better of a mood.

We even did thumbs up for the picture. By now, this was a thing for Matt... he wanted a silly thumbs up shot on all the rides lol.

We walked around the back side of HS for a little while with a frozen lemonade from the stand in front of RnRC while we waited for our ToT FP time to open up. I think Matt was wanting to do as much people watching as possible, and that was fine. We were in no hurry and had done (or had one more pass for) everything we cared to do anyway.

Ok... one more pic on ToT (because I still can't believe I rode this three times in one trip lol!)

Notice Matt's not doing his thumbs up on this one.

After ToT, we headed back towards Backlot Tour, because that's where a lot of the SW characters were hanging out. We didn't end up meeting any of them because the waits were longer than we cared to muster (I was more than willing to wait in any of those lines, but when we did stand in one line, it was so hot on that pavement that Matt gave up lol. We were waiting for one of the characters to come back out, not sure how much longer the wait would be, and we were far from first in line... I think the misery of the heat got to him and he threw in the towel). We even got in line to meet Darth Vader, but when Matt realized the wait would easily be an hour, he decided our FP for Star Tours was more important to him than getting a picture with a guy in a costume.

Lunch today was at 50's Prime Time. I had not put this on our plans at first, because the menu honestly didn't impress me all that much, but when we had been in HS on Monday, Matt and I had stumbled in there looking for a bathroom on that side of the lake, and it smelled so good that we decided to add it to our ADR's. I was very glad that we had done so, because the food was actually really good. We split the plate that came with fried chicken, pot roast, and meat loaf, and the chicken was fantastic. Our server was too funny. She got on to me for having my phone out, scolded Matt for drinking too much of his milkshake before his meal came, and then got on to him for not giving me more of the food on the plate. Her exact words were, "you know, you're more than welcome to give her more of that!" At that point, we explained to her that we had both had weight loss surgery and that I had gotten every bite that I could handle. She quickly backed off of the subject and made sure we had everything else we needed. I was actually glad we had gotten that discussion out of the way, though, because I had heard of people being spoon fed there, and I didn't want that happening to me and an awkward situation happening. Dodged that bullet!

After lunch, we walked around a little more and checked the wait times for meeting some of the characters. We still didn't end up waiting to meet any of them (which, again, I felt bad about, but Matt insisted), and soon we were heading over to Star Tours for our last FP. We enjoyed it just as much this time as we did the last time. We walked around Darth's Mall for a little while and then decided it was time to head towards Epcot.

I just loved the view from the boat:

Seeing all of the resorts that were on the water was very cool too. I knew I had friends staying at BW this week (ahem @BigTxEars ) so it was kind of cool to have a location to pin on the hotel name and see what it looked like. I think I've decided that I wouldn't mind staying at one of those hotels sometime, especially if we have kids when we go back and want a nicer place to relax in the afternoons.

I had never seen the back entrance of Epcot either, so I was a bit fascinated with this flower bed:

I assume this is supposed to be Tinkerbell? Maybe? Either way, it was pretty.

So far, the day had been disappointing on some fronts, but in other ways it had still been great! I wish Matt had gotten to see the motorcade, and I wish we had stood in line for him to get his picture with some of those SW characters, but I was incredibly melting over the fact that he was okay with missing the motorcade to give me even a chance of riding what he thought would be a stupid kiddie ride. I have to say, I'm one lucky girl.

Up next: find out why our time with my friends this evening was so important, and learn about our last two hours of park time. You won't believe what happened!

 

[Mom@disney]

It's nice to hear other Disney fans having a great time! Now, I'm deathly afraid of heights and really did not care for ToT when we ride it a few years ago. How does RnRC compare?

 

[cw1982]

It's nice to hear other Disney fans having a great time! Now, I'm deathly afraid of heights and really did not care for ToT when we ride it a few years ago. How does RnRC compare?

RnRC is fantastic! It's one of my favorite rides on the whole property. It's very smooth, it's dark, and it goes very quickly so you don't have time to get scared of it lol. What few drops you do see coming are not big drops, so there's not really anything that gives that "stomach going into the chest" feeling. The next time you go, be sure to give it a try. Totally worth it!

 

[mrdrift]

Very nice trip report and pictures, you two are a cute couple. Sorry to hear not every thing is going as planned but at least you two are still enjoying yourselves. Will be following.

 

[cw1982]

Very nice trip report and pictures, you two are a cute couple. Sorry to hear not every thing is going as planned but at least you two are still enjoying yourselves. Will be following.

Honestly, though, the wrinkles of this morning were the only part of the whole trip where I had any regrets at all. Not too bad for a six day trip for people who had never planned a Disney Vacation before the rest of the day really was so much better, which says something because the first part was far from horrible. I didn't mean to make it sound like I was unhappy with the way the day had started... just now that I'm home and have a chance to reflect, those are the things that are popping out as things I wish had gone slightly differently. That, and I wish we had thought to have our magic bands scanned on the ride photos so we would have clear copies of them. Oh well... still a great time!

And thanks for following Glad you're enjoying it.

 

[Mom@disney]

RnRC is fantastic! It's one of my favorite rides on the whole property. It's very smooth, it's dark, and it goes very quickly so you don't have time to get scared of it lol. What few drops you do see coming are not big drops, so there's not really anything that gives that "stomach going into the chest" feeling. The next time you go, be sure to give it a try. Totally worth it!

Thanks for the advice I'll be sure to try it out on our next trip set for November!

 

[ginadee]

So funny. Im a picky eater too. 50's was always my favorite atmosphere but now I think its sci fi. 2 trips ago I had already decided I was done with TOT. Just didnt care to do that kinda ride anymore. Stomach cant take things like it used to. Well I took my dramamine and cant believe I rode it 3 times as well. Sooo funny. I think thats when I fell in love with it.

 

[cw1982]

Day 6 Part 2:

When we got off the boat, Matt made a mad dash for... you guessed it... the Cronuts!!!

I honestly don't remember the name of that drink now lol... but it was another fruity concoction. It was only 4:30 by now, and Barbara and Neil weren't going to be joining us until at least six... so we had a lot of time to snack and drink without them haha!

Since we had walked around Canada yesterday, we glanced over the area one more time before heading in to Britain for our next snack, which ended up being a chocolate bar. We then stopped at another picture spot, and had this picture taken:

I have to say that I love all the water at WDW. Something about crossing over bridges, being on a boat, or seeing it from a train or monorail is just very soothing. I think one thing I loved about WS was that, since there were no rides (other than Maelstrom and the Three Caballeros), there was no real rush to get anywhere. There's just something liberating about being in such a cool place and not having anywhere to be for a few hours.

We strolled over the bridge and into France, where I finally found the Grand Marnier slush that everyone raves about:

I loved it! I'll definitely be getting another one if we ever go back lol.

We just happened to get to Morocco as a new line was forming to meet Aladdin and Jasmine. Jasmine is Matt's second favorite princess behind Snow White, so we waited to meet them. They were very cool. Matt said he wished they could have gotten the genie there for the pictures, and Jasmine said that if Matt could find him, that she would love to see him! Hah!

As far as drinking in Morocco, we were going to get their alcoholic fruity slush, but they couldn't keep their machines cold enough. For some reason, they only one they could keep going and keep everything frozen was the non-alcoholic variety, so we got one of them and kept things moving.

Next up was Japan. Since we ate dinner there on Wednesday, we figured we'd had our share of Japanese fare, but we did look around for a few minutes before grabbing a funnel cake and a red stag lemonade from The American Adventure.

The funnel cake was good, but definitely was nothing in comparison to the one from Monday at HS. That block over the cake was the ice cream lol! I'd never seen a slab of ice cream before. And the red stag lemonade had always been pink in other pictures I had seen, but my receipt said that I had paid for what I ordered, and the cashier didn't bat an eye as he handed it to me, so we'll go with it. Tasted fine.

In Italy, we had gelato. We couldn't decide what flavor, so we got one scoop or strawberry and one scoop of cookies and cream.

Finally, it was time for us to meet Barbara and Neil! But before we get to that, I need to tell you how I know Barbara. She and I met because we had our surgeries on the same day with the same doctor, which makes her my "sleeve sister" in the weight loss surgery community lol. We had never met before, but because her surgery was literally right after mine and our hospital rooms were right across from each other, we became friends pretty quickly over those few days lol. Everyone is always shocked by how much weight I have lost, but she has lost more than me! I'm not sure of the numbers, but she really looks like a whole new person. It's crazy.

We met up with them in Germany, and of course the first order of business was taking a picture:

She made me feel so underdressed! I would have totally worn something cuter if I had known she was dressing up, but by that part of our trip all my favorite dresses were dirty lol. Besides, today was the one day that the heat was pretty bad, and Matt and I were both pretty sweaty. Wouldn't have made a good combination with most of the other outfits I had left that were clean. Oh well. I didn't get any pictures of Neil, but he doesn't do pictures like me and Barbara do, so I don't think he minded lol.

But Barbara wasn't the only one we took a picture with! Matt finally got his picture with his favorite princess:

Since we had enjoyed caramel popcorn on Wednesday, we headed to the Refreshment Outpost and got an alcoholic mango slushie (no, that's not the name... but that's what it was lol):

before going to China and picking up a horse statue for Matt's mom, as a way of thanking her for watching our fur baby while we were gone. We had gotten several cute pictures of Callie (our cat) throughout the week, which had helped us to feel better about leaving her alone that whole time, so we wanted to give her something in return.

When we got to Norway, we pretty much walked on by and headed for Mexico, since Neil and Barbara had never been in that pavilion. In fact, the only thing they had ever been to at WS before today was Maelstrom, and they have AP's! They only live an hour and a half away, too... so it's not like they never get out that way lol. Go figure. So, we rode the boat ride and looked around the shops for a little while before going back outside to grab some tacos and find a spot for Illuminations. It was a little different experience from this side of the lagoon, since everything was closer. I'm glad we got to see it from two different angles, and this one put us at being closer to the exit, which turned out to work very nicely.

By the time Illuminations was over, our friends had decided that they wanted to rush to the Magic Kingdom to catch Wishes, since Barbara had never seen that before either. We said our goodbyes as they snuck out right before the show ending, and Matt and I stayed behind to watch the last round of fireworks before deciding that we, too, would end our night at the Magic Kingdom.

The last two hours of my time in the parks really deserve their own post, so that's what I'm going to do. Coming right up!

 

[Mom@disney]

I agree with you...Epcot is just so nice to walk around and look at. It's so pretty and I can never take too many pictures. But I always find this park more hot than the others. A family tradition of ours is to always have our favourite funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow in MK.

 

[cw1982]

I agree with you...Epcot is just so nice to walk around and look at. It's so pretty and I can never take too many pictures. But I always find this park more hot than the others. A family tradition of ours is to always have our favourite funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow in MK.

We didn't end up trying the funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow! Drat... I guess we have to go back now I'm actually surprised that Matt didn't get more excited when I mentioned waffle sandwiches to him on Sunday. Oh well. Adding that to the list of things to make sure we get to "next time."

 

[Mom@disney]

We didn't end up trying the funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow! Drat... I guess we have to go back now I'm actually surprised that Matt didn't get more excited when I mentioned waffle sandwiches to him on Sunday. Oh well. Adding that to the list of things to make sure we get to "next time."

Ooooo! The waffle sandwiches! I'll have to try the Cronut next time.

 

[MerMom1981]

Having fun reading along!

 

[Jae99]

Great trip report! And congratulations on the weight loss and anniversary. You both look so happy in all your pictures.

I can't wait for the last part of your TR! I want to know what happened.

 

[cw1982]

Day 6: Part 3

After Illuminations, I asked Matt what he wanted to do, and he took my hand and said, "let's get to the monorails and go use our pass!" I asked him if he wanted anything else at WS, since he had been talking about getting one more drink or some ice cream, and he said, "honestly, I can't handle it right now. Let's just plan to get a treat at the Magic Kingdom." So off we went! As with every other WDW Transportation experience of the trip, we didn't have to wait long at all, maybe five minutes, before the monorail pulled around and made its circle past Epcot. We had similar luck when we got to the TTC, and before we knew it, we were pulling through the Contemporary. As we got close to the resort, Matt commented on how we should have timed our monorail ride a little better so we could have watched Wishes from in the sky lol. When we pulled out of the Contemporary, we got stalled for a minute because the driver had to let another monorail leave the station. I looked up, and there were Fireworks going on! Not in the MK, but I'm guessing they were the HS fireworks for SWW, or maybe Fantasmic. Since it was about 9:45.

That, my friends, was my first clue that we had been slipped an extra dose of pixie dust.

We got off the monorail, left Matt's mom's horse with the gift shop at the lockers (they charge the same as a locker fee if you want to leave something with them that won't fit in a locker), and found ourselves weaving through the gridlock that is guests watching Wishes. Since we had seen it the night before, we backed out of Main Street and into Tomorrowland, where the congestion was non-existant. We took the side street just over the bridge to get back into FL, and made it to 7DMT in no time at all, considering where we were.

By 10:15, we were showing our pass to the CM's at the queue entry, and they were waiving us on through.

By 10:20, we were at the loading station, and I found myself asking the CM if we could request to sit in the back, since I had heard that was where you could really feel the swinging. She smiled, said, "of course! Just wait right over here for a minute" and kept the line moving.

By 10:25, we were getting on the ride. Matt was so funny. His comments were, "okay, baby; you've heard about the mine train. You've read about the mine train. You've watched videos about the mine train. You've made me watch videos about the mine train. And now, you're about to ride... the mine train! What are you going to do now?!?"

My response: "I'm going to Disney World... oh wait!"

So we got on the ride, and I felt a pang of nervousness as I watched Matt pull the u-bar down on his legs; I was remembering the thread where another poster had said that the ride was not for bigger people, and Matt, while not obese anymore, is far from small. I didn't ask him anything, though, because I didn't want to taint his views of the ride any more than I already had... and all he said as he pulled it down was "hmm... kinda snug." But he was clearly not in pain or anything, so away we went!

From the back seat, it felt every bit as intense as BTMRR. The swinging effect was really cool! I do wish it had been longer, maybe one more drop, but the show scene was mesmerizing. I especially loved Dopey with the gems in his eyes and Sleepy napping on a pile of gems. Too funny!

I did get one picture:

The cottage was so pretty at night

When we got off out of the exit, I asked Matt if he wanted to do anything else. He said the only things he cared about were BTMRR, Splash, and Space. I checked the MDE app, and guess what? Splash had a 15 minute wait, BTMRR had a 20 minute wait, and Space was still at 45 minutes, but it was just now 10:45, and I remembered reading somewhere on here that Space is pretty much walk on in the last 30 minutes of park hours most days. With that, we picked up one more LeFew's Brew and made our way to Frontierland.

Splash was first, since it had the lowest posted wait time.

Yep. Matt did his thumbs up.

Time to dry off, and what better way to do that than whipping around BTMRR? The posted time was still 20 minutes, but it was really more like 10 or 15. We got the very front seat again, and this made me happy. Like I said, there's just something about being in that front row on that particular ride that really makes the whole thing different somehow. Even if the dips aren't as intense that way, the ride feels more immersive somehow when it looks like it's just your and the front of the train.

We got off BTMRR at 11:15, and Matt decided he wanted one last Dole Whip, but orange this time, since we had already tried and loved the pineapple. We maneuvered back past the lake around Tom Sawyer's Island (the parade was going on), up through FL, and back down to Sleepy Hollow just in time to catch the end of the parade and cross the street into Adventureland... luckily Matt had remembered that Aloha Isle was at that very entrance to Adventureland! We got out orange Dole Whip (decided we liked the pineapple better, but that's fine... both were good, and now we know!) and made our way over to Space Mountain.

We got to Space Mountain at 11:45, and the posted time was ten minutes. Am I good or what?

We rode Space, got back outside at 11:58, and noticed the queue was still open. I grabbed Matt's hand and stared running towards the entrance, telling him we should ride again.

Sure enough, we made it at 11:59.

Probably one of my favorite memories of that night was when we got on the ride and were waiting for the CM to clear us after making sure our t-bars were secure. Matt looked at him and said, "yeah man, we're going to Space!" He smiled and said, "well, kind of, lol" and I said, "twice! In ten minutes!" His eyes got really big at that point, and he busted out laughing and said, "wow, that's some kind of impressive record!" I then told him this was our last night in the parks, and he grinned even bigger then and said that he was glad he could be a part of our last ride of the trip lol. How awesome is that?

Last ride picture of the trip:

Okay. We both did the thumbs up on this one lol.

We got one last picture in front of the castle before we left. I love the castle at night!

So, yes, in our last three hours of park time, we:
-Watched Illuminations
-Rode the monorail
-Rode 7dmt
-Enjoyed a LeFew's Brew
-Rode Splash
-Rode BTMRR
-Had a Dole Whip
-Rode Space twice!!!

Not bad, huh?

But, there was still more magic to come!

When we got out to the bus area (after picking up the horse, of course), a CM gave us the wrong number for our spot to go to. It had been number 30 the other night, but this guy said 6. Matt and I looked at each other and shrugged, but we went to number 6 as instructed. There was one other family there, and they were staying at AoA. I figured maybe we were sharing a bus since it was so late, or worse case scenario we could walk across the bridge. No big deal. At least we were headed in the right direction.

When the bus pulled up, I asked the driver if this was the right bus for the Pop. He said no, that this was the bus for Animal Kingdom, but that he would take us to the Pop if we didn't mind riding over to AK first. So we got on the bus (better than walking back over to the other bus stop!), and rode around WDW.

So, not only did we ge to do 8 important things in 3 hours, but we pretty much had our own private ride back to the hotel lol.

We made it back to the hotel by one, crashed in bed, and slept like rocks.

Bonus material from DTD (stopped there on our way out the next day) to come

 

[cw1982]

Day 7: The Journey Home

I had done most of our packing the night before, so all we had to do was get up, shower and leave. By the time we got the car packed, it was almost 11, so we decided to go have one last meal in the food court before driving away. The omelette station that Matt likes so much was still doing omelettes, but the pizza I liked so much was also available. We had the best of both worlds

I ate my kids pizza and stuffed the two packs of grapes and the bottle of water that came with it down in my purse for a snack for later. I had to giggle when I realized we were both still wearing our magic bands, but I didn't say a word about it; after all, we hadn't left yet!

We got in the car and decided to head to Downtown Disney before hitting the road. Father's Day is coming up, and my dad loves Disney, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to get him something from WDW for Father's Day. Besides, my cousin's wife had told us about the Ghirardelli shop, and I couldn't leave without trying her favorite treat stop!

We managed to find parking right in front of the Marketplace. The lot had a sign out that said it was full, but Matt followed another car right on in, and sure enough, we found a great spot. At lunch time on a Saturday! Go figure.

I found a hat for Dad, and Matt found a skeleton key that he wanted. But then, when we decided on a shot glass and a Christmas ornament, he decided he didn't need the skeleton key. I wanted him to go ahead and get it... after all, he bought me my Dumbo doll! But he wouldn't hear anything else about it and put it back. Little does he know I ordered one for him off of eBay (wasn't on the Disney Store's website) as soon as we got home! I plan to surprise him with it in some kind of creative way when it gets here.

When we turned the corner to explore (Matt wanted to check out the Harley store), we found a few friends:

After realizing that the Harley store didn't have anything Disney related in it (Matt thought it would be cool to find a Harley shirt with Mickey Mouse on it lol), we decided it was time to head back to the Ghirardelli shop, which worked nicely because it wasn't too far from our car. Matt had a waffle bowl with two scoops of ice cream (chocolate and cookie dough, I think), and I had a mango smoothie. Best mango smoothie I've ever had... and it was really a good value for Disney prices! It was about five bucks and was in a 24 oz cup.

With that, it was time to face the inevitable and get on the interstate. My magic band stayed on my wrist until we crossed the Georgia line. Matt took his off soon after that, when we stopped to get gas.

All in all, this was one magical trip. If the worst complaint I have is that my selfishness about the mine train caused Matt to miss a few things at SWW (that he apparently didn't mind missing as much as I thought he would), I can't see how things could have been much more perfect. Now we have to go back sometime, and hopefully we'll have kids with us for that trip!

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for following along

-Courtney