Trip Report Team No Sleep - A trip of Firsts

Here we go again, another quick report to share with you all.

This time it stars Me and my sister Erin. :fanfare: woo hoo! LOL

The reason for my trip was not Disney (shock I know), but it was for a conference that I attend each year at this time. So this was a work paid for trip, but limited time to enjoy Disney.

My sister was in town from California for a few days, so we met up and had a good ol time. She has a client that supplied her with some tickets to the park, so we had to go right? Also this would be the first time in 17 years since my Sister set foot inside one of the parks in Orlando. So we dubbed this the trip of firsts for a number of reasons. What those reasons are, well we will get to that here soon enough. So without further adieu, lets get this bad boy started.

Timeline: Sunday May 6th, 2:30 AM

Here I am waking up to a blaring alarm I had set on my phone. I'm rubbing my eyes after 2 and a half hours of sleep wishing I could go back to sleep. However I have a plane to catch and the Magic Kingdom is calling my name. After a quick shower, and a cup of tea, my mom is at the house picking me up to take me to the airport. My wife and two daughters are awake to see daddy off, and i'm out the door. 35 minutes later I'm waiting at the southwest counter waiting on the employees to fire up the computers. A short while later, my bag is checked, I'm through TSA, and heading towards my gate. If you know me personally I hate to be late, so if it means I have to sit and do nothing for an hour and a half, I am perfectly content not being late. However since I'm in Indy, and its the month of May, I gotta stop and take a picture of a race car.

IMG_7468 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

After taking a little stop at the race car and reading about its history, I take a little stroll to the gate, load some tunes and enjoy a little downtime. Around 5:05 I'm boarding my private jet, you may have heard of them, Southwest Airlines. Anyway if you haven't, they let you sit anywhere, and give you a little snack during your flight. Very posh stuff!

It was cloudy the last half of the flight, but overall a great flight.

IMG_7470 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

IMG_7477 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

IMG_7479 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

7:40 AM, 2 hours later, I am on the ground in Orlando, receiving a hundred texts from softball parents. I may not have mentioned, I am a softball coach and the parents were loosing their minds that I was going to be gone a week. LOL

IMG_7480 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

I also noticed as we landed it was a bit overcast. The forecast wasn't very promising, but hey I was in florida, I'm gonna live it up. I was quickly off the plane, road the monorail over to baggage claim and was surprised that the first bag that was in baggage claim was mine. First magical moment of the trip! I was in the car, and on the road out of MCO at 8:20. I'm making awesome time, but I realize I wont make it to rope drop. I'm perfectly fine with that, but I do want to get there ASAP. After picking up my sister we make a quick trip to Walgreens for some ponchos (ill regret that later) and water, then on the road to the MK. We parked the car at 9:30 AM, and were on the Ferry to the MK around 9:50. My sister had never been on the Ferry as all of our past trips we stayed on site so no need for the ferry. That would be the first of many first for my sister. As we set off, the skies opened up and it was a deluge. Typical Florida rain storm. Good thing we grabbed those ponchos!

IMG_7481 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr


It was poncho city, but I didn't mind. I was at the Magic Kingdom!

IMG_7482 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

 

[tehSAC]

So lets try and pick up from where I left off. So Tuesday evening my sister presented me with a ticket to another day in the park, Epcot to be exact, and when I got back to the room I made fastpass plans for Thursday afternoon. I wasn’t expecting to get much, but was hopeful I’d get at least one of the popular attractions. Since I couldn’t get there until around noon, I was pleasantly surprised I was able to get a Fastpass for Soarin. I also grabbed one for Living with the Land, and Mission Space. The plan for the day was to take it easy and just enjoy a park I had not visited since 2012.

Wednesday was a full day of conference fun and indoor kart racing that evening. However during lunch I found myself on a quick little trip to the Poly. Had to have one final Dole Whip

Made my way out behind the over water cabins, and enjoyed this wonderful pineapple treat.

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Thursday I woke up, packed a change of clothes, and headed to the conference. I gotta be honest it was hard to focus, but it was a good 4 hours of learning. I said my goodbyes as it was the end of the conference, and then headed towards Epcot. The wait times did not look too awful. Pointed the car towards epcot and hit the gas. When I arrived I was happy to see the parking lot wasn’t too full. Made my way to the tram with a huge grin on my face.

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Since I had no bag, I was quickly into the park and headed towards Sunshine Seasons cause I was hangry! However I had to stop for a couple photos first.

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I stopped in on the way to the Land Pavilion to say hi to Baymax, but did not actually do a meet and greet.

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Then it was off to the Land for a meal at Sunshine Seasons. In past visits I had never eaten here before, but always saw photos from here. The strawberry shortcake was on my list as well. Ended up with Pork Tenderloin, Mashed Potatoes, Corn Bread, and that amazing Strawberry Shortcake. Mmmmmmm

6 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Took my time with lunch, as I had a fastpass for 12:50 for Soarin. An attraction I had never experienced before. However this is going to be the end of this entry. Until next time have a magical day!

 

[tehSAC]

After lunch I headed towards Soarin. This was another first for me. I did a little research waiting in line and saw that most were saying that the best spot was in the middle. Well I sat in the middle in row two, smack dab in the middle. What an awesome ride, I really enjoyed it. I stopped outside of Soarin and checked wait times, Living with the Land was at 5 minutes, so I hopped onto that before leaving the pavilion. Sadly I did not see the Nine Pound Lemon. What gives, did they remove it?

I took a left and headed towards the Seas to visit Nemo. Another 5 minute wait, score! Upon exiting the ride, I had to check out their reef tanks. Keeping reef tanks is an hobby of mine, so checking out what they had going on, was interesting to me. I had a conversation with a family of what each coral was, and different types of fish they keep as well.

Oh and a quick little plug, here is my little Nano which was featured on another forum I frequent last month. https://www.nano-reef.com/featured/2018/surveyman46123-10-gallon-im-nuvo-fusion-nano-reef-aquarium/

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I spent around 20 minutes here, before I decided to go see a little purple figment of my imagination. Again another quick wait of 5 minutes, I was really making great time. It was close to 2 by now, and I had already done 4 attractions. Earlier in the day I had dropped Living with the Land from my fastpass plans, hoping to land something else later, but the crowds were so low I really didn’t need to schedule anything else. Spaceship Earth was a 10 minute wait, so I went ahead and headed that way. However I made a quick stop at the pin station near the fountain to grab a couple pins for the girls back home. That would end up being a slight mistake as by the time I got to Spaceship Earth it was a 25 minute wait. That’s all good, gave me a little time to re-coup, and try to score another fastpass, and take a look at available snacks I might want to try later. The wait was quick and soon I was in some AC.

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8 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Honestly Spaceship earth is one of my favorite attractions at EPCOT. I was happy to say that the ride seemed a bit slower than I remembered.

After Spaceship Earth, I walked over to Mouse Gear for a quick look, but mostly for the AC. It was close to 3, and I still had World Showcase to browse.

10 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

For now this is were I’m going to leave off for today.

 

[tehSAC]

I left off leaving Future World, heading towards a slow stroll through World Showcase. I’ll be honest, I didn’t take too many photos walking through world showcase. Sure I took some photos, but really just want to enjoy it at a slow pace, and only took photos of things that really caught my eye.

There was no rhyme or reason on why I chose to head towards Canada, but that’s the way I went. Started off by walking the back way through to the Canada show, near the waterfalls, and exited through the main entrance to the pavilion. Next up was England and I checked out a few shops, and sat in the back of the pavilion and had a quick call with the girls back home. It was a quiet little area, and a nice little break. At this point I was starting to feel it honestly. With my sickness earlier in the week, and my full day non-stop on Sunday, I was spent. Plus all these calls back home, I was really missing family and ready to get back home. Thankfully I would be flying home early the next morning. Knowing that, I pushed through, and made sure I enjoyed the rest of my afternoon in EPCOT.

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Next up was France, and I really wanted some treats. I walked to the back of the pavilion and picked up some macarons and a chocolate croissant. These were excellent and reminded me a lot of the ones my wife and I snacked on in Paris when we visited before we had the girls. There I hit another roadblock and made me miss my wife all over again. Haha, I am so sappy…..

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13 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Next up was Morocco, and this was one pavilion I wanted to explore. I find the architecture of that part of Africa to be very interesting and I knew the background of this pavilion, so I really wanted to explore. I was blown away by the detail and feel of the pavilion. Leaving the pavilion was tough because I was constantly finding little interesting things to look at. Definitely have to come back and look around some more!

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As you veterans know, next up is Japan. Spent close to 30 minutes in Mitsukoshi, as I wanted to see the drum show at the temple. I found a spot with a good view and enjoyed a little frushi while the show was going on. Again another great little break, my feet loved me for it as well.

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22 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Well lunchtime is finishing up, so I will end it here. About midway through World Showcase. Hope to finish up this report within the next couple of days. I know it hasn’t been the best of reading, but hey I’m not a best times seller. LOL

 

[tehSAC]

After enjoying the show in Japan, I made my way into the American Pavilion. Thirsty and needing a break from the heat, I grabbed a water from Liberty Inn and found a table to relax at for a few minutes, and people watched. Pretty uneventful but a nice little break before heading to Italy.

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I made a quick pass through Italy. Wished I would have taken a little more time here, but for some reason there were so many people in that pavilion. Overwhelmed would be an understatement. Moved on to Germany, and knew I wanted to spend plenty of time here. My wife’s loves Christmas and I knew they had a Christmas shop here as well. She collects nutcrackers, and wanted to see what they had to offer in the shop. I was floored at the prices of their nutcrackers, and quickly moved on. LOL Browsed the caramel shop, but passed on picking anything up. It was hot, and I really didn’t want anything sweet.

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I walked back over to Italy to see if it was less crowded but no change. Next time I guess. I went out by the water to catch a little breeze and take a couple photos.

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On my way into the small little Africa portion of World Showcase I stopped and took a picture of the Timon and Pumbaa and ran into a high school friend. We caught up for a few. Each of us follow each other on Instagram but haven’t seen each other since we graduated. Was a great little surprise.

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I strolled quickly through China and Norway and enjoyed the little details of each pavilion. I thought about trying the school bread in Norway, but again my sweet tooth had packed up and moved away for the day.

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32 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Walking into the Mexico pavilion I was excited to see they had some Día de Muertos exhibits. Wandered around enamored with the exhibits and the chill of the AC. Debated purchasing a couple little trinkets, but moved on and took a little boat ride with the three caballeros. There was 3 people ahead of me boarding a boat, but not a single person behind me. I had a boat to myself and I told the CM I was going to take a siesta. She laughed as I lied down on the first row as the boat left the station. I was tempted to enjoy the whole ride on my side, but I was a good kid and sat on my rear end.

Upon leaving the attraction I found a spot to sit down for a second. Wanted to plan the next couple hours out to limit the amount of time on my feet and in queues. Now I need to admit something, I had never been to EPCOT after the sun had set. As kids we did not frequent this park as my sisters thought it was boring, and my mother would not let me go on my own. The last time I had been there we only spent a few hours because my oldest was only 4 at the time and she wanted to go swimming. Well it was a goal of mine to see the park after sunset, but my energy level was slim to none. Was starting to feel like it wasn’t going to be a goal I would accomplish.

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I walked over to Test Track and the wait was 45 minutes for single rider. I passed and moved towards Mission Space, and took a little spin on the green side. The wait was only 5 minutes, so why not. I was unimpressed with this attraction, but was hoping it would waste a little time and the Test Track wait would be shorter. My hope would be squashed as it went up to 65 minutes. Well safe to say I moved on, and made my way back over to the fountain near Spaceship Earth. Here I found a spot to sit and came to the conclusion I was spent and really didn’t have the desire to keep going. Yea it sucked, but I still needed to pack, and I had a very early morning.

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Another reason I decide to leave early as part of me wanted to experience the park at night with my family, which leads me to my conclusion of this trip report. I loved being able to experience the Magic Kingdom with my sister, and Epcot alone, but there was always this little bit that was missing. That was the smiles and laughs of my little girls. I’m not sure if many of you are following me on Instagram but 90% of my posts are of my kids. They are my life and when I am not around them, something is missing. I’m not sure if it was guilt, or knowing how much they would have loved to be there as well, or a combo of both. Outside of my family, my fish tank, and traveling, I love everything about Disney. Learning new little tidbits and such keep me hooked when it comes to Disney parks. I want my kids to feel that fondness I have for the parks, and make memories like I did when I was a kid. Unfortunately Disney isn’t a trip that is in the cards every year for us. Trust me I wish it could be, and I cannot lie that I find myself entering contests often, and saving what I can towards another trip. My oldest loves to watch Disney Vlogs nightly, and has a huge desire to visit Tokyo. I am grateful for the time I have been given to experience Walt Disney World, but I long for more time in the parks with my kids. This will not be my last trip report, but it may be some time before you read one of mine again.

Thank you for following along, and I look forward to reading your reports in the future.