My one Magical Day in MK - 2/10/2012

[luvslikepi]

Every semester I am required to travel to Fort Lauderdale for my PhD program's residential institutes. Every year I've gone I've had a day or two off and always told myself I would go to WDW on one of those days....I never did...until this last residential.

On February 9th as I drove from Nova Southeastern University back to my Hotel I said..."if the next that plays on my iPhone is a Disney song...I will go to WDW tomorrow. Now I have over 400 songs on my phone alone and only 20 of them are Disney songs, mostly lullabies for DISbaby, but a few full ride soundtracks. So...20 out of 400 not really great odds. But Splash Mountain was the next song...so of to WDW I would go.

I woke up at 3:30 Sunday morning (February 10th) I was excited to take this little adventure. I grabbed my purse, wallet, phone (with GPS) and iPod connector for the car and was off by 3:45. I left waaaaaaay to early.

Now for those of you who are familiar with the Fort Lauderdale/Plantation area...it seems as if it is in a perpetual state of construction and the signage is not particularly great. Even with my "maps" app running I missed the exit for the Florida turnpike and ended up taking a U-turn after exiting near the Ports. I made my way back the opposite direction, found my exit, and hit the turnpike. I decided to stop at the first rest area on the turn pike because I needed coffee and breakfast.

Dunkin' Donuts BABY!! We do not have Dunkin' Donuts in Utah...only Krispy Kreme so I always make sure to get a coffee and a donut or breakfast sandwich when I back east. And...their large coffee's are GINORMOUS! I had a great little chat with the young man behind the counter as my coffee and sandwich were prepared. I was the only one in the rest stop besides them and a cop. I got back into the car and continued to head north. I only made one other stop for more coffee and a bathroom break.

Now my GPS on the phone ended up taking me through Kissamee....which was odd but good because I had left so early it killed another 30-45 minutes of travel time but I-4 would have been much faster.

Driving, driving, driving....and finally reached this:



Yeah, I was bad and took a pic while driving. Thankfully the road was empty.

I debated between MK and EPCOT. In hindsight I should have picked EPCOT for reasons I will discuss later but I wanted "magic" so I went to MK:



I sat in the car reading for about a half hour after parking. Like I said I got there far too early because the GPS said it would take longer to get there then it actually did...so I just drank my coffee and hung out until the ticket booths opened.

I bought my one day ticket and boarded the Monorail to the MK.




Me being a cheeseball....





I had the entire car to myself so I was all giddy and goofy as we traveled to the park entrance.

Eventually they let us pass the gates and I took a spot near the left bridgeway because I'd never seen the welcome show.

As the crowds gathered I played with my phone, took some video and people watched.

To be continued in next post....