Who Needs to Cruise? #Disney4Ever

THE END
Okay, I'm back. I am so ready to go back to work! 2 weeks of just being at home is NOT good for my mental health! (Or my waistline!)

After Pirate's we went back to Tiki Room. There was a show in progress, but we were able to enter the queue for the next show. The Tiki gods must have been smiling on us because as soon as we took our place under the Tiki hut down came the rain! It was 3:15.
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We were in line for a good 15 minutes before the pre show began. But I really wish this were in my backyard. I would love to sit in my hot tub and just watch this and the pre show.
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All in all we waited 25 minutes for the next show because they cleaned the theater in between. We finished at 3:55 and thanks to the rain Adventureland was a ghost town! We walked right over to Jungle Cruise and it was a walk on! I love JC! I laugh out loud at all the corny jokes.
After JC we took a break for this:
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There are many great treats at Disney, but nothing is better than a Dole Whip! It is classic and it is perfect. We were right by the bathrooms so we made a quick stop after enjoying our treat so David could take out his contacts. One thing we did this trip was that we split snacks. We've always just gotten our own snacks before. This was good and bad. We got to try more stuff because we weren't full. We spent more time getting snacks though. But we got to ride just about everything we wanted. So...
We got in line for Haunted Mansion at 4:25. This line was crazy long. To enter, you went down to the dock like you were going to get on the Liberty Belle. Then you walked allllllllll the way down the dock towards Frontier land, then came back. Luckily there was no one ahead of us, it was just a matter of walking the line. But I can't imagine if you actually had to wait in that line! It took us 5 minutes just to walk the line! We stopped briefly in the stretching room, but we were boarding our doom buggy at 4:30.

After deciding to not become the 1000th haunt, we moseyed back over to Splash Mountain at 4:45. The wait was about 25 minutes. It was a fabulous trip to the Laughing Place until:
539620

That's right! There was trouble at almost the exact same place as this morning! Now, I'm all for getting evac'd off a ride, but not twice in the same day! Luckily, we made it through.
539621

We were done at 5:30. We started heading back towards the entrance. David wanted to do some shopping on Main Street. I could not convince him that we had time for another ride. That the stores WERE NOT going to close at 6!

We browsed Ye Olde Christmas Shop and took some requisite castle pics in the hub.
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The Partners Statue is my favorite! It makes me cry every time. We looked in The Emporium. I left David there making a few purchases and went and got in line f0r The Confectionary. Its crazy that you have to line up just to get into the stores! And its still crazy busy inside the stores! I picked up some caramel corn, rice Crispy treats, and David joined me and we got some slushies.
539625

It was fun to sit on the bench in the hub at the end of the day, enjoy a treat, and people watch. We were waiting for Tammy and Brian. We were taking them back to their resort to pick up their luggage from Bell Services and then giving them a lift to the airport. They were flying out in the morning and planned on staying at the Hyatt at MCO.
539626

Eventually we made it out to line up for the monorail to the TTC at about 6:40. We only had to wait about 20 minutes. Let me tell you, it was SOOOOOO much nicer to wait socially distanced than being all squished up in everybody's space. I always HATE leaving MK at night. Its always a HORRIBLE experience whether I'm staying on property or off. It make me feel like when the Jews were rounded up and placed on cattle cars. HORRIFIC. I almost always uber to and from this park to avoid the transp0ortation and its respective lines. But this, this was civilized and not unpleasant. I would highly recommend finding a way to keep this process post covid!

It was a quick trip back to Pop Century and then over to the airport. I think we dropped them off about 8 pm. It was a good 45 minute drive back to our resort. And letting my husband drive around Orlando is not a good idea! It makes him grumpy! Doesn't bother me at all!

And that was the end of our trip to Walt Disney World instead of our first cruise.
 
The VERY VERY End
September 14. We had to drive back to Ft. Lauderdale. Our flight didn't leave until around 5 that evening. So we had plenty of time for a leisurely morning and a quick stop at the beach before making our way to Ft. Lauderdale by 3. We dropped off some leftover waters and some soda from Tammy and Brian with friends who live in Orlando. Then we headed over to Cocoa Beach.
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We didn't stay long, but it was a beautiful beach. On our drive from Cocoa Beach to Ft. Lauderdale I spent the time looking at real estate for sale in the various communities we passed through. Holy cow! Just let me tell you, our little corner of Texas has super cheap real estate comparatively speaking.

We made it to Ft. Lauderdale and our flight back to Dallas was uneventful. We had debated about driving up to Oklahoma City (about a 3 hour drive), spending the night, and then going to the outlet mall the next morning before heading home. But given my little shopping spree the first day we decided to forego that option. Plus we were TIRED. Instead we drove about an hour to Decatur, Tx and crashed. David was CRANKY! Talk about post vacation stress disorder! Even the short drive home the next day was very quiet. He tried to sleep in, but I'm not much of a sleeper inner. We were on the road by 9 am and home by 2 pm.

It was a great trip. I loved how spaced out everyone was. My past couple of trips to Disney I had grown increasingly jaded. I hated spending all of that money and then having people just ALL OVER me. This was nice. I did get cranky every day. And waiting in all of the lines. It was like line up and wait, line up and wait. Pre Covid it seemed lile if you were there at Rope Drop and planned your FP correctly there was very little waiting in line. However, when I went back and looked at everything we did, we accomplished quite a bit and the waits really weren't that bad.

And now for the next adventure:
I LEAVE FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD IN 10 DAYS!!!!!!! I know. Its okay to hate me.


Here are the plans:
12/1- Drive to Greenville, Tx pick my daughter up from college and drive back into Dallas.
12/2- Fly SWA from Dallas Love Field to MCO. We have a rental car reserved through Sixt (wish me luck!), and a hotel reservation at B Resort.
12/3- My BIRTHDAY!!!!! This is our DHS day. I'll let you know how the BG process goes at 7 am from an off property hotel. We also have an 8:30 pm ressie and Beaches and Cream. My daughter is convinced that we can polish off The Kitchen Sink just the two of us. (Did I mention she's a Type 1 diabetic- I'll be packing extra insulin!)
12/4- Our MK day and we have a 7:10 reservation at Whispering Canyon. I'll probably either move this or cancel it. If I cancel it, we'll do mobile order from Roaring Forks. It is on my bucket list to stay at this resort some day. So I definitely want to go over and see it decked out for Christmas!
12/5- Our Epcot day. I'm going to run over to AoA to pick up some things for a friend in Chicago before heading in to Epcot. The crowd level is supposed to be a little bananas this day. In fact, Tammy just got back a couple weeks ago (I haven't seen her yet because of my quarantine) She said her Epcot day was CRAZY crowded. I have a 4:10 ressie at Chefs de France. I'm really excited, I keep trying to move it so it isn't at such a weird time, but I think I'm going to be happy to have that break at 4! All of these ressies are brand new restaurants to us!
12/6- Our AK day. Originally we were going to fly back this evening, but after looking at flights I was able to move our originally scheduled flight to the next day and save even more money! Our total airfare round trip for this was about $180. I looked at flights again yesterday. Basically we got a BOGO deal! Anyway, I didn't want to change our rental car reservation, so I just took a page out of Tammy's playbook and booked us a night at the HYATT at MCO.
12/7- We'll fly back into Dallas Love Field. I'll take my daughter back to college and probably spend the night with my parents. Then I'll drive home on 12/8 since I have to be back at work on 12/9. Then I work everyday for the rest of the month except for 3. (And yes, I work everyday the week leading up to Christmas and every day until New Year's.)

I have a list a mile long of Mickey ears, leggings, and Spirit Jersey's that I want to buy! I am out of control. And in a side note, I do NOT have enough Disney pajamas. I only had enough for a new pair for 8 days of quarantine. I had to do laundry!

Well, I am very proud of myself for finishing this report! Most of the time I get them started, but then life happens and I don't get them finished! I hope you found it useful for wasting time when you should have been doing the dishes. Shhhh....I won't tell. But mostly, I hope you get to go back to your Happy Place soon. It is still there. Its as wonderful as ever. Its different, but it isn't all bad!
 
THE END
Okay, I'm back. I am so ready to go back to work! 2 weeks of just being at home is NOT good for my mental health! (Or my waistline!)

After Pirate's we went back to Tiki Room. There was a show in progress, but we were able to enter the queue for the next show. The Tiki gods must have been smiling on us because as soon as we took our place under the Tiki hut down came the rain! It was 3:15.
View attachment 539614

We were in line for a good 15 minutes before the pre show began. But I really wish this were in my backyard. I would love to sit in my hot tub and just watch this and the pre show.
View attachment 539616

View attachment 539617

All in all we waited 25 minutes for the next show because they cleaned the theater in between. We finished at 3:55 and thanks to the rain Adventureland was a ghost town! We walked right over to Jungle Cruise and it was a walk on! I love JC! I laugh out loud at all the corny jokes.
After JC we took a break for this:
View attachment 539619

There are many great treats at Disney, but nothing is better than a Dole Whip! It is classic and it is perfect. We were right by the bathrooms so we made a quick stop after enjoying our treat so David could take out his contacts. One thing we did this trip was that we split snacks. We've always just gotten our own snacks before. This was good and bad. We got to try more stuff because we weren't full. We spent more time getting snacks though. But we got to ride just about everything we wanted. So...
We got in line for Haunted Mansion at 4:25. This line was crazy long. To enter, you went down to the dock like you were going to get on the Liberty Belle. Then you walked allllllllll the way down the dock towards Frontier land, then came back. Luckily there was no one ahead of us, it was just a matter of walking the line. But I can't imagine if you actually had to wait in that line! It took us 5 minutes just to walk the line! We stopped briefly in the stretching room, but we were boarding our doom buggy at 4:30.

After deciding to not become the 1000th haunt, we moseyed back over to Splash Mountain at 4:45. The wait was about 25 minutes. It was a fabulous trip to the Laughing Place until:
View attachment 539620

That's right! There was trouble at almost the exact same place as this morning! Now, I'm all for getting evac'd off a ride, but not twice in the same day! Luckily, we made it through.
View attachment 539621

We were done at 5:30. We started heading back towards the entrance. David wanted to do some shopping on Main Street. I could not convince him that we had time for another ride. That the stores WERE NOT going to close at 6!

We browsed Ye Olde Christmas Shop and took some requisite castle pics in the hub.
View attachment 539622
View attachment 539623

The Partners Statue is my favorite! It makes me cry every time. We looked in The Emporium. I left David there making a few purchases and went and got in line f0r The Confectionary. Its crazy that you have to line up just to get into the stores! And its still crazy busy inside the stores! I picked up some caramel corn, rice Crispy treats, and David joined me and we got some slushies.
View attachment 539625

It was fun to sit on the bench in the hub at the end of the day, enjoy a treat, and people watch. We were waiting for Tammy and Brian. We were taking them back to their resort to pick up their luggage from Bell Services and then giving them a lift to the airport. They were flying out in the morning and planned on staying at the Hyatt at MCO.
View attachment 539626

Eventually we made it out to line up for the monorail to the TTC at about 6:40. We only had to wait about 20 minutes. Let me tell you, it was SOOOOOO much nicer to wait socially distanced than being all squished up in everybody's space. I always HATE leaving MK at night. Its always a HORRIBLE experience whether I'm staying on property or off. It make me feel like when the Jews were rounded up and placed on cattle cars. HORRIFIC. I almost always uber to and from this park to avoid the transp0ortation and its respective lines. But this, this was civilized and not unpleasant. I would highly recommend finding a way to keep this process post covid!

It was a quick trip back to Pop Century and then over to the airport. I think we dropped them off about 8 pm. It was a good 45 minute drive back to our resort. And letting my husband drive around Orlando is not a good idea! It makes him grumpy! Doesn't bother me at all!

And that was the end of our trip to Walt Disney World instead of our first cruise.
For all of the time's I've been to MK, I've never noticed the "Wait Time" sign on the Monorail entrance!!!! LOL!!!
 



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