Trip Report Hurricane Idalia, Football and Adventures New and Old

Hello Friends!

My husband (Josh) and I (Heather) just returned yesterday from a great trip and I can't wait to share all of the crazy and fun details here soon!!

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Captain Barbossa

Captain Barbossa

Well-Known Member
joshsprincess921 said:
And this was the last time we looked happy during the game. We got smoked!! It was an embarrassment actually. Especially since lost the first game of the season to them last year. Being in Florida, it was definitely like being at a Florida State home game and as we were leaving the stadium they were sure rubbing it in with their constant tomahawk chop.
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I feel your pain. We (Clemson) lost to FSU in overtime this past Saturday after beating them for the last 8 years. Tallatrashy was out in full force.

Enjoying your report!
 
joshsprincess921

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Captain Barbossa said:
I feel your pain. We (Clemson) lost to FSU in overtime this past Saturday after beating them for the last 8 years. Tallatrashy was out in full force.

Enjoying your report!
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Away games when you your team loses is not for the faint of heart. They weren't the worse fans I've ever come in contact with though...

Thanks for reading!
 
joshsprincess921

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday, Sept. 4

After a long day/night for game day, it was really nice to not set an alarm and have a nice relaxing morning sleeping in. We did not want to get out of bed and I woke up missing my boy so much. This was the longest I had ever been away from him. Since it was Labor Day, he was off of school, so we facetimed him for a bit. While I was looking forward to rest of the trip, I was also ready to get home to him.

Finally around 10:30, I decided I would go put on a couple loads of clothes. The laundry room at Gran Destino is on the 3rd floor (incase anyone is ever wondering). It's big with lots of washer and dryers. I loaded up all the clothes I needed to wash in a rolling suitcase and made my way down. When I entered the laundry room, there was a grumpy man getting so mad and cursing at the dryers. He was even wearing a GRUMPY shirt. He couldn't get his card to work to turn the dryers on. Then he had to tell me all about it. I just told him I was sorry he was having a hard time and wished him luck. He told me I would need luck too to get these things working. I bought some soap from the vending machine and got 2 loads of clothes washing. There was a huge window in there with a beautiful view, so I took that in for a few minutes.

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Then I noticed in the corner of the window was a little hidden Mickey etched in the glass.
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I took note of the time on the washers and set my timer on my phone to come back. I stopped in the gift shop and got myself an energy drink before heading back to room. We decided we would chill for a bit longer while the clothes washed and then go grab some lunch after I moved them to the dryer. With about 5 minutes left on my timer I went back down and did just that. Happy to note that I did not have any issues getting the dryer started. Grumpy actually came back in and saw me, but he didn't talk this time. :hilarious:

We went down to El Mercado for lunch and both got a chicken sandwich and a treat. We talked about what the rest of our day would look like. After I got the clothes from the dryer, we got dressed and headed to the pool. It was hot and all the umbrellas were taken, but we found a spot against the wall that was covered by shade.
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I didn't take me long before I headed for the water. Even in the water, the sun was hot! I hung out in the shadow of that pole sticking up and watched people coming down the slides and the CMs were doing a trivia game. Eventually I was envious of the guests who were having drinks so I went and got us one. I got us each a Coronadorita: Monte Alban Tequila, Orange Liquor, and fresh Lime. This was sooo good and I highly recommend if you like margaritas.

After our drinks, Josh finally got in the pool with me. We lounged around for another hour or so before heading back to get ready for the evening. It was such a nice relaxing morning/afternoon and was much needed!
 
joshsprincess921

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday, Sept. 4 cont.

When leaving MK a few days before, we had seen HUGE lines of people waiting to get in the park at 4:00 for the Halloween party. Since the party didn't start until 7:00 and we had already accomplished so much on our MK day, we were not in a rush to get there for our Halloween party night. It was around 5:30 when we arrived. There was still lines to get it, but nothing major and they moved quickly. We made it in and were directed to the walkway that runs behind the Confectionary to get our party bracelets and treat bags.
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These statues are too cute!
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We mobile ordered some dinner on the ride over and it was time to pick it up.
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Josh holding out his food for the picture...he's been trained. He could only eat about half of this thing. I'm thinking next time he should just get the regular and not the footlong. He said the cutie orange was very refreshing, haha

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Casey's corndog nuggs and plastic cheese on the hub grass just hits different, ya know? 😋

And ya just can't beat the view....
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The castle looks less pink here...I miss the old colors.

While eating, we attempted to get a Tron boarding group that was opening at 6 for party guests. I was able to get group 110. I was thinking it would be awhile, but guessing the count was from the whole day because within 10 minutes our group was called. We finished up eating and walked straight to the bikes. We got the front row this time and it was the best! It takes the ride to another level.
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We were on and off Tron before the official start of the party. Not sure what we would do next we just casually strolled over to Fantasyland and saw that Mine Train only had a 30 min wait. We hadn't been able to ride that one yet, so we hopped in line. I don't know if it was 30 min or not, but it went by quickly.
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No ride photos showed up for this one.

The party had officially started and we hit our first treat stop at Pinocchio's! Josh was so funny because he seemed hesitant to go through the treat stops saying he hasn't been trick-or-treating in years, but after the first 2 stops, he was pointing them out and saying oh another stop, let's go! 😂
 
joshsprincess921

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We kept on moving. As we were passing Small World, there was no wait at all. Josh loathes this ride, but he said come on. I know you want to ride. SW is pure torture for him. He's so afraid he will get stuck on it. But we got on and he reached in his pocket and handed me a few pennies and told me to make a wish. :inlove:

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My favs....
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I always have to take a picture of this guy because Josh and his family are members of the Choctaw tribe. His grandmother was full blooded and he grew up going to the pow wows each year. They were from the tiny town of Zwolle, LA.
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We walked over by Haunted Mansion to catch a peak of the outside, but it was super crowded in that area. We said we'd come back later, but unfortunately never made it back to that area. From what I saw from a distance, it looked really neat. The sun was going down and I wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain at night, so we headed that direction, stopping at a few treat stops on the way. After BTM, Josh wasn't feeling the best. With Tron, then Mine Train, the Big Thunder, he was feeling the motion sickness. It was really bad this trip and he's never really had a problem like this before. We stopped at a little stand, got us a drink and took a little break. We broke into some of our candy. We were tucked away close to Pirates, and could hear the Pirate band playing, so we were enjoying that on our rest. We were able to go catch the end of it in person which was fun, then hopped on Pirates.

Our game plan was to see the 2nd parade and the last stage show that started at midnight. The 1st parade and fireworks would be starting soon and I wanted to make my way over to Space Mountain, so we trekked over there. Josh still wasn't feeling well, so he was skipping Space Mountain which was in complete darkness for the party.
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When we came out, I had a text from him that he was over by Tron watching under the canopy. He then said he wanted to go walk in the gift shop where he ended up buying a Tron phone case and the cycle on it glows in the dark. I think it's safe to say he's fallen in love with Tron.
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Tomorrowland was feeling very empty. We then went and got on the Peoplemover!
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joshsprincess921

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday, Sept. 4th cont.
While on the Peoplemover, the fireworks started. Since we had seen the show from the California Grill, we weren't worried about getting a great view in front of the castle. It was really fun experiencing them this way.

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We were off before the show was over, so we slowly made our way across the bridge out of Tomorrowland and caught a peak of the Jack puppet.
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Once the fireworks ended, the masses started to exit the park. We got lucky because we walked around the hub and in front of the ice cream shop and was able to bypass a lot of people exiting and got our spot for the parade very easily.
 
joshsprincess921

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We sat and took in the sights and sounds of Main Street.
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Before long, the CM's were coming by and asking everyone to get their feet out of the street because the pre-show entertainment would be starting shortly.

It's crazy how eerily quiet it got when the headless horseman came through.
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My favorite picture of the night!
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I wondered if this was one of the horses we saw at the stables earlier in the trip.

Not long after Max as Powerline came through with his dance crew. This was a lot of fun. They were pulling kids into the street to dance with them.
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joshsprincess921

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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This parade is just the best. Josh even said it was so cool and he's definitely not a parade person. I had mentioned before that our plan was to see the last stage show at midnight, but we had hit a wall and ended up deciding to skip it. If I could change one thing from the night, I would have went and seen an earlier show. Other than that, it was a fantastic night!
 

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