Pre-Trip Pre-Report 3/9 - 3/13

Just like our last trip in early January, it happened quickly. Last trip was scheduled within 24 hours. Same with this one. Wife and I were working from home in PA during an ice storm and my daughter texted from work down in Jacksonville, FL. "Check out Frontier prices....super low." Didn't take me long before I was calling my mom and convincing her to join us and telling my daughter to make dining and park reservations. My sons who are 22 and 19, have not joined us for a FL trip in three years. I convinced them to join us too so I'm really looking forward to that. We were upgraded to Saratoga Springs five years ago and my youngest son saw the treehouse villas and said he'd love to stay there someday. We were in a two bedroom. We're booked for the villa for this trip ! Super excited for this one because we have the entire family and my mom who is 72 is coming along. Just got a new IPhone so I'll be able to take some really good pictures this trip. Really hoping that we can get into a RotR group because it will be my sons' first time to the Star Wars part of the park.
 
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Bellhop97

Bellhop97

Member
I just finally got caught up.. loving all the pictures.. and your adventure.

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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sorry, but I've been negligent in wrapping this one up. We've actually been fishing around for discount airfare as I'm starting a new job the end of April. But prices are definitely way more than they've been. We would have liked to get away before the new gig started.
We walked across the park (again) after our late lunch/early dinner. Mine only consisted of a wine flight and a bread roll (how appropriate for the Easter holiday). I stopped by the Brown Derby outdoor bar again to wrangle up a Long Island Iced Tea as we headed towards the exit. Day one was coming to a close. We were heading back to the Treehouse where we'd grab some takeout food from Buffalo Wild Wings. The middle pic is of the LBV golf course18th hole. I took that as I was walking over to the Grandstand to buy my $14 pint of vodka. :oops:



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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Plans for the day were to hit the Magic Kingdom late morning and target the rides we wanted to do first. Haunted Mansion was only 20 minutes so that's the route we took. After a stop for some water and popcorn we hit the ridiculously long queue for HM, but it is a constantly moving queue. We decided against staying around that area of the park because pretty much everything was a 60 minute wait. So we marched across the park to Space Mountain. Mom, wife, and I stayed off of it. Besides there were three getting on and there's three to a car (I think). That was a 50 minute wait where he grabbed a table over by the Speedway and sat out in the sun. After a long hot wait, we decided to cool off in Carousel of Progress. From there, it was Buzz Lightyear where the car stopped twice so I was able to max out, 999,999. After Buzz, we pre-ordered lunch at Cosmic Ray's and prayed we could get seated inside.
Luckily, we nabbed a table for six as soon as a family was cleaning up and finishing their meal.


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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After a fine lunch at Cosmic Ray's I needed to walk it off. I tried again to finish a foot long chili dog which I failed at miserably. We decided to head back to Liberty Square and Frontierland. We were going to stand in line for Haunted Mansion again, and then see if we can do both Splash Mtn and Big Thunder. It would certainly be at least a 2 hr standby.

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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we got off Haunted Mansion my daughter checked the wait times. We probably wouldn't have enough time to get all of the attractions covered in that corner of the park. So we stood in queue for 50 minutes at Pirate's and we decided to scrap the other rides. We were just going to walk around and enjoy the beautiful day. We were going to pick up my daughter's dog Bean. He was staying at
the Disney Best Friends pet center.



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cgersic

cgersic

Well-Known Member
macefamily said:
Sorry, but I've been negligent in wrapping this one up. We've actually been fishing around for discount airfare as I'm starting a new job the end of April. But prices are definitely way more than they've been. We would have liked to get away before the new gig started.
We walked across the park (again) after our late lunch/early dinner. Mine only consisted of a wine flight and a bread roll (how appropriate for the Easter holiday). I stopped by the Brown Derby outdoor bar again to wrangle up a Long Island Iced Tea as we headed towards the exit. Day one was coming to a close. We were heading back to the Treehouse where we'd grab some takeout food from Buffalo Wild Wings. The middle pic is of the LBV golf course18th hole. I took that as I was walking over to the Grandstand to buy my $14 pint of vodka. :oops:
Click to expand...
I just got back and would have been thrilled with a $14 pint of vodka when I ordered a Pina Colava with an extra shot of rum (when I saw them pour it, it was more like a splash) for $18.75!! And yes, I paid it. :eek:
 
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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After that we decided to take a slow stroll back to the castle and then end our day. Here's a few pics taken on the way. We had a great exit with the barbershop quartet closing out the day. Those guys were great. We headed over to Best Friends pet care to pick up Bean.
Next day is a hopper day between Animal Kingdom and Epcot.



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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Dinosaur was going to be our last. The plan was to then walk through and stop by the bar for a few mixed drinks, Long Island Iced Tea for me, and then slow roll it out of the park and head to Epcot for some food.
The last photo is the outside of the Dino exit. It was a hot day. We were all in shorts and tshirts, but my hipster 19 year old son had to wear his ripped skinny jeans, tshirt, and a dressy flannel. We were waiting by that pole to the left of the building waiting for some of our party who were using the bathroom. My son was crouching down against the building when all of a sudden I heard this bang and thud. I looked back and he was lying on the ground ! He passed out from the heat. He wasn't hydrating. He also didn't eat anything all day. There were other people who were standing there who witnessed the event, but just turned and walked away. We stayed there with him for about 10 minutes and got him some food and water. We saw three cast members walk by and look at the situation, but no one assisted. There were two cast who chased down a kid who apparently shoplifted from the store. Priorities.


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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We made it to Epcot without anyone fainting. That redirected walk at the front of the park is crazy. It seems like you have to walk a mile before you get to anything. We chose the right hand side. We hit a few booths and were lucky enough to grab a table. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pics. But I'm telling you now that I'm heading down to visit my daughter this weekend, and she nabbed us some reservations for Epcot. I will be working on another trip report next week. I promise lots of food pics.


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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The charcuterie tray and beef tartare were excellent. We were ready to move on and walk it off. It was dusk, and the temperature felt like it dropped 30 degrees. It was cool, and there was a breeze. No one brought their jackets because it was in the 80's just an hour ago. So we toughed it out and moved on.

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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We sadly left Epcot, and we headed back to Saratoga. The next day we had brunch reservations at Raglan Road. That was a second choice because there were no openings at Art Smiths. So, we decided to try a fourth establishment for brunch at Disney Springs. I thought it was OK. Out of the four places we ate at, I'd rank it third.

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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My wife and daughter split away from us to do some last day shopping. Our flight was leaving in the early evening, and we had to get back to Saratoga to catch the Magical Express for around 5:00PM. My sons and I decided to walk up to House of Blues to check out the outdoor entertainment. We spotted these guys enjoying the midday sun.
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macefamily

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The twosome band was really good. The guitar player made his acoustic sound like an electric guitar. We popped a seat at the end of the porch bar with a great view of the band. Long Island Iced Tea for me and Amstel Light for the boys. It was happy hour. After two drinks we met up with the girls and made our way back to the lime garage. The trip was officially ending.

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