Trip Report Trip Report IV: A New Hope ***Completed***

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Trip Report IV: A New Hope

It is a period of domestic unrest. After years of wearing him down BES has won her first victory in getting DH to join her at WDW.

After her last adventure to WDW BES managed to uncover DH’s not so secret plans to see Disney’s ultimate weapon: STAR WARS STUFF.

Pursuant to DH’s hint of interest, BES raced to plan an awesome trip to win her spouse over to the Disney side of THE FORCE and restore freedom to the galaxy...

When: January 31st to February 6th
Where: Port Orleans- Riverside
Who: Just DH and myself (BES)

Here’s the pre-trip report.

I’ll start with something I finished in between trips. I’m not kidding when I say we are a pro-SW household:

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Day 6 February 5th continued

Exiting the IG we spotted these relics:

Seriously do people still use these? And if so what can you even put in them. They’re kind of a weird shape.

Our overall goal was to walk to HS but I have a detour in mind.

Stopped in at the Boardwalk Bakery where DH got (big surprise) coffee.

Decided to sit for a bit while DH had his coffee. We made a new friend who was a little disappointed that we didn’t have food.

I was really tempted to get some Ample Hills ice cream but I wasn’t hungry. Then I realized that we were mere minutes away from Abracadabar opening up. My detour was working out perfectly.

Our server was Sam. Sam did nothing. Jk! Our Sam was great. Really friendly, good knowledge of the drink menu.

Per Sam’s recommendation I tried the Black Manhattan. It was excellent. DH had just his coffee and Sam found it rightfully hilarious. (This is often the reaction we get to our different beverage habits)

Sam didn’t have to twist my arm too much to get me to order another drink.

This time I tried the Collins Double. It was good but my first reaction was that it wasn’t very boozy. Soon I found there was waaay more gin in it than I realized.

(This picture looks like how I felt after I was done with the drink...)

I quite enjoyed Abracadabar and would definitely go back. The whiskey selection was good. The bartender really knew his stuff too. I think next time I would like to sit at the actual bar.

Perhaps it would be a fitting place to meet up with some Magicians.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Another real life interlude:

With our likely upcoming ‘stay at home summer’ in mind I decided to order an ice cream maker.

For our inaugural batch we made Dole orange soft serve. (Thank you Amazon!) It turned out great.

Today I tried some mixed with a bit of vanilla ice cream. Extra yum.

 

[Loco_driver]

Dole orange soft serve with vanilla? Where ever did you get that idea? I think I may need to go order an ice cream maker myself!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Dole orange soft serve with vanilla? Where ever did you get that idea? I think I may need to go order an ice cream maker myself!

I was lucky enough to try other sub-par flavors previously so I knew exactly what to get.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Day 6 February 5th continued

We continued on our journey to HS as soon as I felt less like this:

I love the walk between Epcot and HS.

Hey there little friend:

We entered HS about 5:30. Tried Star Tours one more time in the hopes of getting different scenarios. Got a different beginning scene. Same locations and ending.

Next up was my spirit jersey hunt. Found the design I wanted but not my size at two shops. Finally found what I was looking for at Launch Bay.

Here are some poorly taken pictures of it from after the trip:

Since the trip was wrapping up DH humored me with some more store exploring. I wanted to get one of the tiny SW reusable bag so we were off to Batuu.

Forgot which stall/shop I spotted this guy in:

I love the kids toy stall in Batuu. Such cute stuff. Somehow doggo hasn’t destroyed her porg toy yet so we didn’t get another stuffed toy for her but I did get my bag and something else from there.

(Here’s the current porg toy status

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Day 6 February 5th continued

We joined the line for MF:SR about 640 and had about a 25 min wait.

(DH was kind enough to take a real picture of me too

Our assignment:

We were both really excited. We were also both really terrible pilots.

We has a blast though and luckily the dad and son also in our cabin didn’t mind our terribleness.

A gonk!

That’s no moon...

Oh wait. Nope. It’s the moon.

Our final FP of the trip was next- SDD. I thought it was even more fun at night.

We watched the SW Galactic Spectacular from some benches near the Brown Derby. We couldn’t see everything but we got to be off to ourselves.

We left just before the end to beat the crowds and were on bus by 830.

We must have eaten dinner or something at some point this evening. But I have no notes on it.

Back to the room to start the sad process of packing and then off to bed.

This was a pretty perfect final park day.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Day 7 February 6th

Our Tragical pickup wasn’t until 11ish. We slept in and once up and around walked over to POFQ for breakfast.

DH had biscuits and gravy that he thought were just ok.

I had the kid’s French toast which was excellent as always.

It was quite a bit cooler and cloudier so we easily found a table outside. We had looked at the MI weather and were reminded that we needed to get every moment of outside time that we could here.

Back to room to finish packing.

Decided to wait outside for tragical rather than in our room.

Our airport experience was pretty uneventful. It was probably the longest TSA wait I had at MCO for the year though.

I had splurged on the Spirit “Big Front Seats” for our return flight. When DH is in the home stretch of travel he gets hyper focused on going home. I thought he would appreciate no potential stranger talks and being able to deplane first. That part was nice.

What I didn’t realize is that you don’t get any under the seat storage so you have to put everything overhead during take off and landing. Not a super big deal- but annoying.

Back in Michigan.

We had a slow snowy drive back home. As always DH insisted we drive straight home first instead of stopping to pick up our dog on the way. (I find it super annoying but have learned to just go with it.)

We unpacked just a little and then went to my parent’s house. Even though they insisted that they didn’t want anything we got my parents a Disney picture frame for watching the dog.

The doggo was glad to see us and even more glad to come home.

Another great trip in the books. DH enjoyed himself a lot more than he thought he would. I don’t see him coming back a lot but I think he will be up for the occasional trip. Mission accomplished.

(Up next- a bit of a wrap. This is the post that caused me to me to drag my feet on finishing this TR.)

 

[Swissmiss]

I understand your husband about not getting the dog right away. I really love my kitties, but it is really difficult to get unpacked and somewhat reorganized with them home so we do all that before we go get them (and usually a day or so later).

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I understand your husband about not getting the dog right away. I really love my kitties, but it is really difficult to get unpacked and somewhat reorganized with them home so we do all that before we go get them (and usually a day or so later).

That makes sense. Especially with cats. If it was truly about the dog in our case I would be more understanding.

He states he wants to go home first in case our house burned down while we were away. He wants to know at the soonest possible moment. (But doesn’t want a house camera or my family to check the house...) I say at that point either the house is gone or it isn’t. Another 10 minutes isn’t going to change that.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

First off- thanks so much for reading. I hope this was as enjoyable to read as it was to write and be able to relive the trip.

Trip Wrap Up:

Oh what a difference a few months can make.

When I started this TR the year held so much hope and promise. Now?

I am extremely luckily that neither I nor my family have been sickened or impacted financially by the pandemic yet.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been affected negatively by these past months. As I have mentioned previously I have a compromised immune system so it has been really scary and isolating. And working in a hospital has been stressful to say the least.

As you likely assumed from all of my TR there was no youngling on the way this trip. And there still isn’t. Honestly who knows if there will ever be.

We began the year having hope. And now halfway through we are trying to figure out how to reignite that feeling and what to be hopeful about.

Sometimes it feels like it’s getting easier. Sometimes it feels more grim than before. But either way we tread on.

Our final purchase from our trip sits unused in an unused room.

Maybe someone will come along and enjoy it in some undetermined future year. A year better than this one.

Not just rebellions are built on hope.

 

[Loco_driver]

I’m sad to see this one end. We are in the same boat as you guys as far as little ones go. It’s tough to remain hopeful for many reasons. Just know you guys aren’t alone! As always I enjoyed your TR immensely.

 

[RememberWhen]

I’m sad to see this one end. We are in the same boat as you guys as far as little ones go. It’s tough to remain hopeful for many reasons. Just know you guys aren’t alone! As always I enjoyed your TR immensely.

First off- thanks so much for reading. I hope this was as enjoyable to read as it was to write and be able to relive the trip.

Trip Wrap Up:

View attachment 475173

Oh what a difference a few months can make.

When I started this TR the year held so much hope and promise. Now?

I am extremely luckily that neither I nor my family have been sickened or impacted financially by the pandemic yet.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been affected negatively by these past months. As I have mentioned previously I have a compromised immune system so it has been really scary and isolating. And working in a hospital has been stressful to say the least.

As you likely assumed from all of my TR there was no youngling on the way this trip. And there still isn’t. Honestly who knows if there will ever be.

We began the year having hope. And now halfway through we are trying to figure out how to reignite that feeling and what to be hopeful about.

Sometimes it feels like it’s getting easier. Sometimes it feels more grim than before. But either way we tread on.

Our final purchase from our trip sits unused in an unused room.

View attachment 475176

Maybe someone will come along and enjoy it in some undetermined future year. A year better than this one.

Not just rebellions are built on hope.

Hugs. It’s hard, especially with all the uncertainty right now. Sending good thoughts both your ways.

 

[Swissmiss]

I’ll add my hopes for all of you ... who knows, maybe it’ll be just what is needed to tip things in your favor.

 

[Laura Loves Tigger]

Hugs and prayers for you. Adding my hope.

 

[Nunu]

I'm adding my hopes for you and your DH, also wishing for happier days for all of us.
Thank you for sharing your fun trip, I very much enjoyed tagging along.
Warm hugs and positive thoughts sent your way!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I’m sad to see this one end. We are in the same boat as you guys as far as little ones go. It’s tough to remain hopeful for many reasons. Just know you guys aren’t alone! As always I enjoyed your TR immensely.

Hopefully at some point in the future we’ll both be looking back at this while our respective kiddos are rolling their eyes at us for wasting precious Disneytime talking to “strangers” outside of Sunshine Tree Terrance.

 

[Tuvalu]

 

[Loco_driver]

Hopefully at some point in the future we’ll both be looking back at this while our respective kiddos are rolling their eyes at us for wasting precious Disneytime talking to “strangers” outside of Sunshine Tree Terrance.

Sounds like a good time!

 

[MickeyCB]

Thank you for sharing your adventures. It was a lot of fun to follow along!
And yes, I too am sending positive thoughts your way.

 

[k8einwdw]

We began the year having hope. And now halfway through we are trying to figure out how to reignite that feeling and what to be hopeful about.

Sometimes it feels like it’s getting easier. Sometimes it feels more grim than before. But either way we tread on.

Our final purchase from our trip sits unused in an unused room.

I feel you. We have one of those rooms as well. It is so, so hard, especially in a time like this when everything just feels so heavy. But there is always hope, even when we can't see it.