Mortimer Walt! A Spring Break Success story...updated x2 7/20 (the perfect last day)

[Carable]

Day 3 - Part 2 - An {almost} Perfect Evening

When we left off, I had alluded to some, um, behavioral issues with my kids. I'm sure everyone else's kids are perfect angels...but mine are not without some "guidance". The kids had started out great behaviorally, but had deteriorated in the last 24 hours and we went back to the hotel and had a quick, to the point discussion about being thankful and kind to each other. We had planned to swim all afternoon, but instead we sat in the dark hotel room while they whined, cried and eventually came to our terms all while we sat quietly and “relaxed”. Sometimes no words hold the most meaning. We decided to call the rest of our trip Operation Get Along and our code word was McGuillicuddy to keep us on course. Every time we uttered that word, they stopped in their tracks and thought about what they were doing because they knew I’d have no problem yanking them out of the park and going silently back to the hotel room to be bored again. It worked, because we really didn’t have anymore problems that week.

After a few hours, we did end up at the pool for a very short time and it was HOT. The games they were playing were cute, but my kids aren’t joiners so they enjoyed the water.

We then got ready and drove to the Boardwalk, none of us had ever explored this area before and we were excited.

I had scored a Beaches n’ Cream ADR once they opened up and I was excited. We ended up waiting for 30 minutes, which was not fun, but the kids played next door in the arcade and I enjoyed watching people in the pool.

I can't wait to stay here one day...

Timeless

The food was OK, but the atmosphere was GREAT.

I got grilled cheese and soup.

My hubby's hamburger which he liked

We decided against the kitchen sink, but we loved when the lights changed and they brought one out to someone else. The kids got a kick out of it. My son desperately wants to go there again.

The kids wanted more arcade time, and I sat down and hit a brick wall. I mean, I only got a few hours sleep the night before, so I trip journaled to keep myself from passing out. DH and I really like the idea of staying at the Epcot resorts (especially the Boardwalk) in the future, we really enjoyed this area a lot.

It was a splendid evening, with perfect weather and a light tropical breeze and low humidity, puffy clouds, sunset and a huge moon. There was an eclipse later that night too. I'll let my pictures tell the story of this relaxing walk back to the car.

We got some photo booth pictures which is a family tradition, salivated at the Boardwalk Bakery and then headed to the car.

We drove by Fantasia Golf so my Putt-Putt loving hubby could check it out. We wanted to get back to play another night, but weather got in the way. We had a discussion on the way to the hotel about what to do the next day. I knew it was going to rain, but we looked at it as an adventure with hopefully shorter lines. We would be at MK that night, but decided we didn’t need to do it in the am too. So it was between AK and HS…and TSMM won out. An early morning jaunt to HS was decided on and we wondered how many times could be do TSMM before the crowds got too big. I wonder if we got on at all?

Continued in the next post... ​

 

[Carable]

Day 4 - Race to Andy's Room

This morning we woke up at 6:20 to the sound of the happiest snowman on Earth. Our family is huge Olaf fans and it was a cute detail I hadn’t come across and I liked that even an uber-researcher like me could still be surprised. By 7:10 we were on our way to HS and beat the bus there, got rock star parking and walked a short way to the side gate. We were in line by 7:35 and I was hoping they would let us in early as I heard of them doing. They opened early this week at 8am. But, NO, there would be no early entrance and we had to walk down the street while the CM’s yelled at all the crazy people running.

It was a mad dash and it was an 105 minute wait by the time we got into line because 1 side was broken. It really took us 40 minutes, but getting up that early, I was hoping for a much lesser wait time. Gone were the days where I could pull the FP, ride it standby, and get another ride in that day. {sigh} So this was our only ride on it that day.

Pascal's ready

Bullseye!

I rule! Best in CAR.

We were headed towards my son’s favorite…Star Tours when we came across these two cuties. They have the best interactions, don’t they?

They loved Pascal, Pascal was a little afraid of them though.

Probably not the best light to take a picture

Now, there wasn’t a full space car, but I was still so happy that FINN was the Rebel Spy. Nolan may not have been as excited as the rest of us.

We built-a-droid, because you can.

My crew was getting hungry as our cereal in the room had quickly worn off, so we went to an old favorite...

We had COFFEE, a bagel, fruit tart (Finn’s new favorite dessert), and I FINALLY tried the Red Velvet Cupcake, and it was worth it. It was the best cupcake I’ve had at Disney thus far.

My kids are actually burgeoning history buffs (they love Colonial Williamsburg which we live close to), and I thought it was time to teach them about the man behind the mouse. So we went through One Man’s Dream, and it was a HUGE hit. Seriously, they were asking questions and oohing and aahing over all the models. We didn’t quite have enough time to see the movie, but we hoped to be back later in the week.

My son & DH had found the Indy show last time, but we hadn’t been so that is where we headed next. It was an obnoxiously long line and we barely got in getting into the line 20 minutes before showtime. You could definitely tell we were in Spring Break crowds. It was a big hit with the kids and my son wants to go there first next trip.

Afterwards, I decided to see if the kids would like the Animation Studio so we swung over there. There was NO LINE to meet Frozone so we stopped there first. BEST INTERACTION EVER.

My son had wrote, you are my favorite in his autograph book, and Frozone just ate that up.

We met a nice family while we were sitting in the floor waiting for the animation class, they were only there for the day and needed some help with dining plans, so I did what every good DISer does….made them ADR’s on their phone app. LOL.

me, trip journaling...

So, we find out that we are drawing Snow White, um…yeah, probably NOT the best character for my kids to attempt to draw first time out. My daughter just went with the flow and checked out ½ way through, my son (the art perfectionist) was so grumpy with himself that it was so hard and quick. We got the instructor to sign our paper and off we went to eat again. LOL.

not bad, Daddy!

Life isn’t complete with a Mickey Bar, Mickey Pretzel and Mickey Popcorn (at least we had water to drink to counter the junk we were putting into our bodies).

We noticed the storm brewing, so we decided to seek shelter in Mortimer Walt after that.

But not before a few pictures...

We decided on a Chick-fil-a car picnic, so we ventured out to the outside world and ate in the car while the bottom dropped out of the sky. The kids fell asleep in the car almost immediately after lunch and we just stayed there after we parked at the hotel and let them sleep while the rain continued. I may have also sneaked in a little snooze myself.

Would the weather wreck our evening plans???

Continued in next post... ​

 

[Carable]

Day 4 - Part 2 The Big Cheese

We regrouped at the hotel room and then headed out to the MK and took our first monorail ride of the trip! FINALLY. I was disappointed there were no specially wrapped ones this trip.

nobody's grumpy in this pic (gotta love nap time!)

Our first destination? A trip to see the big cheese and I was so in awe of the talking Mickey!

My kids get shy and quiet around the characters so it is hard to really play with the characters, and my son noticed that he talked when the other furry characters don’t. It was a really amazing experience and a definite great use of a FP+ for us.

Look at me...I'm so excited that he talks!

We love the windows at the Emporium!

Hi Friend!

{sigh}

We wandered over the Fire Station and got our first Sorcerers of the MK cards, which was right up my kids alley. Sadly, there was always someone right in front of us so the kids watched them do it first and it lost a little excitement.

Then, back to our beloved Buzz with a FP+. I got 700,000+ on my score and I have no idea what I hit. It did break down for a bit and that helped me. I was a little inconvenienced that each time I had to wait to claim my Memory Maker pics and put them my MagicBand and there was always some undecided guest up there. At the time, I just wished they had a separate kiosk, but now they should automatically go on my MagicBand. So, Yeah!

That is a seriously awesome time-out room

Then, we caught the next Monsters Inc. show that we love. The grumpy guy behinds us wouldn’t get up & dance. My hubby totally would do it, so I hope one day he can be THAT guy. Then we bid good-bye to Tomorrowland as we headed to Liberty Square...and got this cool magic shot

Then it was on to Haunted Mansion, my favorite ride. If you read my last report, you know Finn almost when through the chicken door and wouldn’t go back on it. This trip she declared it her favorite ride. Amazing what a year can do. With all my researching, I knew that we needed to stand under the portrait of the Girl with the Umbrella to get the first access to the doombuggy line. That really helped during busy times.

Dinnertime and we stumbled upon Columbia House and it has become a new favorite. My husband caught a smell wafting from there as we left HM and we were hooked. The food was delicious, the portions large and the seating upstairs amazing. We had a great view of Rapunzel’s tower. We had Salmon, mac&cheese and shrimp & broccoli. We were some of the last people sat up there as they closed upstairs seating by 7:15 as we left. I actually ran to Sleepy Hollow and got another Nutella Waffle (it is an obsession folks) and shared that with everyone at dinner. Lizzie, the sweet CM from my late EMH night, was working again and she remembered me!

It was the 50th anniversary, so I drug my DH onto IASW. The wait on the app said 85 minutes, but looking over the rail I could tell it was less and it did indeed take only 10 minutes tops to get on a boat.

As we left IASW, it started to drizzle so we pulled out the ponchos which my kids loved wearing. The rain and cooler weather must have driven people out because waits were so low this evening. Pirates & Jungle Cruise were walk-ons, so we did those since we wouldn’t get to them tomorrow. The fog in Pirates was especially spooky this evening.

We walked out of the park to the Wishes show and let Mortimer Walt take us home. As we headed home, I changed tomorrow’s FP+ from Jungle Cruise to Barnstormer since we were just able to ride it. I loved how easy it was to change FP+ on the fly.

Our daily pin trades...

Luckily we dodged the rain today, but we had a VERY EARLY morning and the weather forecast was not very favorable…what would ultimately happen to our plans?

Continued in next post… ​

 

[Carable]

Day 5 - Part 1 - An Arendelle kind of morning

Today began brutually, at least to a family who had an endured a rare frigid winter and we were so happy to finally be in some warmth. We were up and at ‘em by 6:00am for a 7am magic hour and it was easily in the 40’s this morning. I knew there was a chance, so I had packed so cooler weather clothes, but we were sad not to slip into shorts and t-shirts this morning.

Pascal is way too chipper at this hour

We made great time to TTC and THEN…..got stuck at the monorail in the longest line ever since I guess the monorails don’t run right away? The boat was also not in service yet. And we missed the opening show by 5 minutes. I really missed staying at BLT at this particular moment.

Luckily, with the extended hours all week pushing EMH to ridiculously early hours, it was DEAD by MK standards. We rode Buzz x2 and Chuck got into the Photopass spirit!

I love how Nolan had NO idea until he saw it on the TVs...his reaction was priceless

Headed to our favorite girl, Ariel, to ooh and aah over the perfect couple.

Finn decided she didn’t want to visit her in the grotto this time around. I’ll admit I was SAD, partly because I wanted to see her and partly because I’ll never be ready for my daughter to outgrow princesses. But, this was their magic hour, so we forged ahead. My adventurers wanted Barnstormer…so we rode it 3 times (once in the head car).

We were getting hungry and cold, so we stopped into Gaston’s and shared 2 cinnamon rolls, LeFou’s Brew and coffee. I seriously love the Brew…and I’m now thinking of using antlers in all of my decorating.

A little Gaston Chair Silliness

Took a ride on the Carousel

And tried to pull the sword and prove ourselves worthy of a crown…

Swung by Peter Pan, but the line was already outrageous.

Fooled around in Pascal’s homeland

So, onto my favorite ride…Haunted Mansion.

Got caught fussing with each other and got put in the stocks…may need a set of these at home?

Was headed here…

But got waylaid here to shoot up some bad guys…

We finally made it to our destination and tried to go on TMRR, but as we walked up, everyone was walking out of the queue, closed for technical difficulties. {sigh}. Take a minute to imagine the madness of a thousand people walking off TMRR in that tiny area. But, an almost immediate email came about changing fastpass, but I wasn’t sure if it was an additional FP or not. So, we decided to wait and see if TMRR came back up later. It was barely 10 am and we had really accomplished a lot at a leisurely pace. It was fun to stop and play with the roses this morning. We still had a ton to accomplish, so where to next?

Continued in next post... ​

 

[Carable]

Day 5 - Part 2 - Festival of Sleepiness

We had just encountered the chaos of a broken TMRR and needed to regroup.We walked by Splash (it was a goal to try and get everyone to ride it this trip, but not this cold morning). The lines were still silly low at this time, probably due to the weather, so we rode Pirates next. I thought about a funny t-shirt I found…but didn’t get it.

Pascal got a little piratey in the dump shop

By the time we got to Jungle Cruise, we were spoiled by walk-ons, and didn’t want to wait…so we discovered something new. The Tiki! None of us had ever gone on it, so that was a new experience. I thought the kids would think it was lame, but they liked it and still talk about it.

It was finally warming up and MDE said that TMRR was up and running, so we went to the runaway mine train for Finn’s first ride. She gave it an enthusiastic two thumbs up. And, I took 2 bonines that day and that helped my motion sickness on the bigger rides for me. We grabbed a popcorn pick-me-up, my daughter is a bit obsessed with the Mickey version.

It's Day 5 people

We wandered over to Barnstormer for ride #4 today….we apparently cannot get enough of this short ride. Then wandered over to the hub for our Parade FP+. I was excited to see the new parade and had tried to avoid spoilers as much as I could. The kids and hubby are not big parade fans, and we’ve never sat and watched one successfully at DW, but this was mommy’s guilty pleasure. But the warming sun, hot pavement and early wake-up time had my kids passed out before the parade began.

I made the mistake of asking DH to take pictures of the parade while I filmed it. He didn't want to get up and take pictures so we got the same view with the same people standing basically in front of us. I cropped a few but there are many more people out there with way more stunning photos, but I'll show you some of my favorites. Definitely take the time to see it during your trip! Our favorite was OLAF, we didn’t know he was on the float and we cannot get enough of him. I thought the costumes were some of the most inventive I’ve seen, and the music was great. I think the FP+ was a good use, the seats were good and we just walked up minutes before.

Don't eat the Castle!

As soon as the parade ended, we had to hustle to a very important date!The castle was closed due to the show, so we went around by Rose Garden to get to the BOG guardhouse. Now was the moment of truth, would my “backdoor” FP+ work? I had stumbled upon the link and directions here at DIS and scored us a rocking time, but would they know I hadn’t been officially invited? I had forgotten my printout of the confirmation page, so I was relying on pixie dust here.

AND……they were pleasant, took a second but found my name and we got a rose & were sent through. We stood in the knight line and marveled at our good luck until it was time to order. They did loose our pre-order, so we re-ordered:
Croque Monsieur
Braised Pork
Turkey Sandwich
Plain Pasta
And then a Strawberry, Lemon and Master’s cupcake. Yummy, but underwhelming. Although I must preface that I am not really a cake girl at heart.

We let Finley pick our room and she headed straight to the magic portrait in the West Wing, but our son was not so keen on it. He said it was too creepy. LOL. Next time, it will be his turn to pick. It was a great way to end our MK time.

mesmerized by the portrait

As we headed towards the exit, they were starting the Castle show and we stumbled upon a great view from the backside. The kids were waving to some of the characters as they prepared to enter the show and they waved back!

We dragged our very sleepy selves to the ferry and let Mortimer Walt take us back to the hotel. We passed out for a lovely 2 hour nap.

One tired crew!

We had an ADR for this evening, I hope we didn't oversleep!

Continued in next post... ​

 

[Carable]

Day 5 - Part 3 - Bonjour Epcot

When I last left you, we were taking a refreshing nap in our pirate beds. Then we quickly showered and were off to Epcot. Chuck recommended using the International Gateway this time, so we parked at Boardwalk again and walked over.

Have I mentioned how much I love this place?

The International Gateway is a lovely entrance and it was another NEW Experience for us.

As we walked up the entrance we heard the English band was playing and they were GOOD. We grabbed some goodies in the English Tea Shop which I just loved and then waved to Mary Poppins as Nolan navigated us to France.

stopped for a pretty good family photo

We stopped to admire Chip and Mrs. Potts.

We were lounging by the fountains waiting for our ressie at a favorite restaurant when we ran into one of our baseball team members, always a small world, isn’t it?

Then we ate dinner at….

Remy’s.

We had lunch last time, but only dinner would fit in our schedule. This was one of my hubby’s last minute requests. I had the Prix Frixe menue with Lobster Bisque (had to teach Nolan soup etiquette), Macaroni & Cheese dish and the chocolate Mousse. The coffee was divine to end the meal. The kid’s meal were OK. My husband really like the beef tenderloin. All in all, it was good, but we enjoyed lunch better and we definitely missed seeing Remy. Not sure where all the food porn pics are so, sadly we'll just have to imagine them in our heads this time around.

Then we were on a mission to fulfill a dream I had a year ago. Pick-a-Pearl.

I had read about it, bought necklace cages on ebay, and wanted to take my mom and daughter there on my last trip but never made it. We STILL haven’t made it to all the countries yet, but this time we were successful. I let Finn pick hers and Nolan picked one for me.

Finley got a rare blue one (it is beautiful) and she was excited! I love that they made a performance of it, beating the drum and teaching the kids how to count to three in Japanese. I think this is a unique experience and I highly recommend it.

Japan was really pretty, even in the dark, and we definitely want to look into eating at Teppan Edo next time around. We were going to take the kids to Innovations, but luckily we found out it closes early before we hoofed it over there. Why does it close early? I never feel like I have enough time at Epcot! So, we walked out on a cool, breezy evening to the Boardwalk. We came upon THAT bakery that was mocking my very full stomach. Chuck definitely wants to stay here sometime and I LOVE that he said, “next time we go”.

Mortimer Walt took us safely back home where we waged a Pirate Sock War between the ships, and I must admit the boys definitely won that battle. Then we fell asleep to the sounds of a Duffy Bedtime Story. Tomorrow was our last day, what amazing things were we going to be up to? Continued in the next post... ​

 

[Poohbear 64]

I really enjoy your stories, are you going to finish this one before your next one?

Time is clicking and there is a lot to do!!!

I am patiently waiting .

 

[Carable]

I really enjoy your stories, are you going to finish this one before your next one?

Time is clicking and there is a lot to do!!!

I am patiently waiting .

Hi Teri! I'm so glad you swung by and read my little report. Thank you. I will, actually, finish this report before we leave for the land & sea extravaganza. I only have one last day to detail and my closing thoughts. I'm still hoping we can meet up somehow.

 

[hhockman]

I'm caught up, but geez, I almost didn't make it before the end. I don't know how I missed so many posts. It sounds like you guys had a really good time. We're 58 days out so I'm starting to get excited, but I think I will be more once we get back from Christian's World Series next week.

Do you know where I can find out about the Beauty and the Beast FP+? I tried to find it, but couldn't. I really want to take the kids there, but I don't want to eat dinner there.

I did our FP+ two days ago, but I'm sure they are changing because right now my brother hasn't made his. I'm interested to see how the whole thing works. I think there will be some rides we end up waiting in standby just because we have to do them twice.

I like how you guys managed to get everything you wanted to in and then didn't worry about the rest but took the rest time you needed. We never rest enough. I'm hoping to do more of that this trip.

 

[Carable]

I'm caught up, but geez, I almost didn't make it before the end. I don't know how I missed so many posts. It sounds like you guys had a really good time. We're 58 days out so I'm starting to get excited, but I think I will be more once we get back from Christian's World Series next week.

Do you know where I can find out about the Beauty and the Beast FP+? I tried to find it, but couldn't. I really want to take the kids there, but I don't want to eat dinner there.

I did our FP+ two days ago, but I'm sure they are changing because right now my brother hasn't made his. I'm interested to see how the whole thing works. I think there will be some rides we end up waiting in standby just because we have to do them twice.

I like how you guys managed to get everything you wanted to in and then didn't worry about the rest but took the rest time you needed. We never rest enough. I'm hoping to do more of that this trip.

Hey Heather! I was just able to get a BOG FP+ for this next trip. They only open about 28 days out, but this thread will give you all the good details.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3159118

So excited about your boys baseball this summer, they are so talented! We actually leave on Saturday, so I'm raising against the clock to finish this up. I may need a little .

 

[Carable]

Day 6 - Going out with a Bang (& a Spray)

We decided to splurge and slept in until after 8am! I know, we like to live on the edge, don’t we? We ate the breakfast of champions in our room, but I was moving S L O W. The uncomfortable beds and lack of covers were finally catching up with me. Everything else about the room was great, but those mattresses are the worst.

Chuck went and returned the illustrious Mortimer Walt, which as you can see was an emotional good-bye. Funny what kids will get attached to on vacation.

He dropped us for one final chilly swim @Fuestnes del Morro pool. I got a very dry banana cake & necessary coffee in my refillable mug. The pool was pleasantly 82* and there were only a few other brave souls. The kids owned the slide for a long while and then played together like I wish they would every day. It was a nice way to start the day. I trip journaled, looked @ the unfortunate weather forecast and relaxed with a capital R. Something I don’t do very well in real life, so I savored it.

I got one last drink refill and gift shop run and walked back to the room for the 1st time. It was not long AT ALL, if anyone is worried about that. We showered, packed, and got ready for our last park day.

No car, so we were off to our 1st bus for the whole trip. HS came up right as we did and we were soon there. What luck!

Hello Bo!

! I checked MDE app and saw that Muppets had a short wait, so we headed that direction but not before I stopped to pin trade and begin my quest for the Mickey Vera Bag I had finally talked myself into. It was the longest, most consistently moving line I’ve ever been in. Just got into the preshow as it ended and watched Stadler & Waldorf (they are my favs). We love that show. I grew up watching the weekly show so it has a special spot in my heart. We went to the bathroom and found a secret entrance to…

Planet Pizza Arcade. So we stopped to play a bit.

We went to Mama Melrose’s for our Fantasmic Package, and sat down immediately. We were so FULL when we left, and I had the yummy Pina Colava, Penne Vodka Shrimp. DH had Chicken Campenella, along with mussels and calamari. The coffee hit the spot, although the desserts were still just ‘eh.

Just fooling around in the rain

As we walked we ran into the Green Army Guy who gave us a salute and took quite a liking to Pascal. He blended in pretty well, do you see him?

We saw that TSMM had a 105 minute wait, um, no thank youj. We finally watched One Man’s Dream movie that we missed earlier and the kids LOVED it. ☺ I’m such a proud mama. We were trying to decide what to do until Lights, Camer, Action started at 5:30, and I decided to run and get the outrageously expensive Vera bag I have no need for but LOVE. Meanwhile, we were close to animation studio and Nolan wanted to try another hand at drawing since he was so disappointed at his last try. All I can say is that I was praying hard to avoid face characters. We met a very nice CM while we waited for the next show. This time….

We drew Donald, Nolan’s favorite!, and they all turned out great. I’m still trying to figure out a great way to display them all in the house. As we exited, the rain look threatening, but we hoped for the best and headed towards the stunt show. I seriously thought about staying behind to enjoy character palooza, but Finn really didn’t want to do it and it was our last day so I went to the stunt show. It is not really my thing, but the look of adoration on my son’s face was enough for me.

As we were herded out like cattle from the show, we began our FP+ palooza.
5:30 Star Tours and if you can believe it this time, in a full car, NOLAN was the REBEL SPY! What are the odds that both kids in 1 trip would both be the spy? We visited Tattooine and Coursecant (which I’d never seen before). We shopped a bit for our friends at home, and then onward to our 6:30 TSMM.

I won again after DH was so sure he was going to bring me down. 147,900…take that DH! And, much to our CM’s delight, we didn’t accidentally throw our glasses in the trash can. My love of this ride know no bounds. Then it was a 7:30 Great Movie Ride (which didn’t really require a FP). It was the Gangster again, I’m still not sure there really is a cowboy side. We did have a great CM, who had to do a lot of fill-in humor since the back-ups were often and long.

We headed to Sweet Spells for Carrot Cake Cookie and some kettle corn. The is was the 1st time down this street after 4 visits. I really want to see Beauty and the Beast next time. I haven’t been in this Fantasmic theater and I love the electric ears that went to the music! Our Fantasmic Dinner package worked out great and we got a good seat. We ate our yummies and enjoyed the pre-show.

It was the best of all the nighttime shows, I loved it even with wind blowing water on us for most of it.

Our Eyeore grumpy face pic as it was our last time in the parks this trip.

We slowly made our way to the buses, which took awhile, and our 2 kids passed out. 2 teenagers let them have their seats, which was super sweet, and we ended up being the last stop.

I finished packing, made the wake-up call, and dreaded the final bill and as I dozed off I wondered where our bounce-back offer was…

Continued in the next post... ​

 

[Carable]

Day 7 - Time to Go home & Final Thoughts

Olaf called us obscenely early and bell service was right on time. It was the same gentleman who brought us, so he obviously was the overnight guy.

They had told us on the phone that if we wanted to check bags, it would require us to be there 1 ½ hours early, um…no thanks. But when we got there, there was no line, so we went ahead and checked bags and got boarding passes. We watched classic cartoon channel in the lobby and I wished we could get it at home. And soon we were on our way to MCO, watching the new show, which I happen to like. A magical last stop @ Earports, as the kids had gift cards burning a whole in their pockets. And the Duffy’s we had coveted at Epcot, came home with us.

Til next time Snow

One last favorite drink

An uneventful plane ride home that feels like it took twice as long than it did to get to FL.The dog was elated to see us and I let the full Disney Depression settle in.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

CBR – a nice moderate, but be careful of the mattresses in the Pirate Room if you have a bad back or trouble sleeping. The pool area and beaches were lovely and I thought the housekeeping was much better here than at BLT.

FP+ worked well for us, we didn’t have to get up early and still could have 3 guaranteed rides. I still wish we could have park-hopped with them, because sometimes 1 of the 3 choices was a throw away one for us. We still rode our favorite rides multiple times during the trip. We are a ½ day park family. I allowed for more downtime this trip and everyone enjoyed it more.

Extra Magic Hours ROCK…we always got so much more done during either the morning or evening ones.

DH is already talking about where we’d stay next…maybe DVC might be on the table soon?

Magic Bands were great, but will lneed a cloth covering for hot days though. They got sticky on my skin.

Pin trading was still fun, didn’t find many Haunted Mansion ones. Wish I had traded more.

My turtle of a phone was not fun to use, but the app worked but still has too many glitches, especially with dining. I loved that I could change reservations quickly and on the fly.

Things we didn’t get to do:
Fantasia Golf
Arcade at the Contemporary
Splash Mt.

New Things:
Boardwalk/Epcot resorts
Sorcerers of the Magic
International Gateway
Fantasmic
Illuminations
Pick-a-Pearl
Indy & Stunt show
Thunder Mountain
Tiki Room
Carousel of Progress

Next Time:
Ohana
Teppan Edo
Innovations
Soarin
Cream Cheese Pretzel

Thank you all for hanging around and reading and especially those who took the time to comment, I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful community to share my obsession with! I hope everyone is planning a Disney trip for themselves.

My crew leaves in 6 days for what looks like a very rainy WDW trip at PO Riverside and then we will meet up with the rest of the family for a Disney Cruise on the Fantasy, and I can only imagine the crazy adventures we will get into, so stay tuned for another Carable report coming to a DIS near you soon.​

 

[Poohbear 64]

Great report, I am looking forward to the next one as it will involve me in a round about way!!!

RAIN, AACCKKK, I haven't looked at the weather. Oh well, water doesn't hurt!!! Umbrella is packed. We leave in a week, see you soon.

 

[Carable]

Great report, I am looking forward to the next one as it will involve me in a round about way!!!

RAIN, AACCKKK, I haven't looked at the weather. Oh well, water doesn't hurt!!! Umbrella is packed. We leave in a week, see you soon.

I'm sure you will be in it somewhere! Be safe getting out to the east coast and I so hope we run into each other before the boat.