Day 9 ~ Our last Day!! December 2nd, 2006
We wake up at 9:30 a.m. Not wanting to get up and face our last day at WDW I tried to stay in bed as long as possible. It was so sad packing and getting ready and loading stuff in the cars.
About 11 a.m. we drove the cars up to the main lobby to check out and leave our cars. Checking out was uneventful and it was even more sad seeing the happy expressions of the people checking in.
I bought a few things from the gift shop and put them in my car. We then headed to the bus stop to go to Magic Kingdom (along with the 500 other people waiting at the bus stop for MK).
We arrived at MK and it is PACKED
(which we were expecting as the taping of the ABC Christmas parade was today ~ although we didnt know that 6 months ago when we made our 12:30 ADR for LTT).
Theres a separate line that is just jam packed that has a sign stating that the line was for Television audience. It took us about 5-10 minutes to get in MK only to be herded to the right to go through a gate, around the back of Main St., and put back in MK through Tomorrowland. It was so strange seeing the backs of everything and delivery trucks and so forth
.
When we got to Tomorrowland we then had to get to Liberty Square. We couldnt go in front of the castle as it was all roped off for the parade which was going on in pieces with no music. That was kind of strange as well.
We had to go around the back of the castle and had to wait about 15 minutes for a CM to let us across the parade route to go to LTT.
Once inside we checked in and had a seat. I was looking forward to this meal for two very important things: Sweet tea and Butter Griddled Pound Cake
. We came here for lunch last year (went before for dinner but didnt care for it) and found out that it is the only place in all of WDW that serves sweet tea (although we still check at other places to see if its there
).
Our name was called about 15 minutes later and we were taken to what looked like the inside of a Chuck E. Cheeses. There were kids running and screaming everywhere and standing on top of their chairs jumping up and down!
Anyways, our frantic looking server comes over and takes our drink order. Then we found out the awful truth. Liberty Tree Tavern has done away with sweet tea!
Our waiter told us that he thinks they now have sweet tea at Columbia Harbor House (which I thought was funny, like only one restaurant at a time at WDW can offer sweet tea
). Disappointed we settle on sodas and order our food. I had the Tavern Fried Cheese things which were pretty good and I had a house salad. I had the Sandwich Heard Round the World last year and while it was good, was small and didnt come with anything on the side like the other sandwiches do. My parents and Colton had the Tri-Corner which all said was good. After eating among the loudness and chaos (it was a lot quieter where we were sat last year) we ordered dessert. The Butter Griddled Pound Cake was the best thing ever last year but I was disappointed this year. The slice of pound cake was considerably smaller and with a lot less caramel sauce and ice cream. All in all I think we wrote LTT off after this trip with so many more restaurants that we enjoy.
We paid our bill and moseyed on outside to the still silent parade and hardly anyone watching. We decided to leave MK as there was so much walkway blocked off and so many people at MK that it would have taken forever just to get anywhere else. We said our good-byes to MK and headed for the monorail.
We took the monorail to the Polynesian (cant get enough of that place!) and showed my parents where Colton had proposed and then took a bus to Downtown Disney.
We got off at Marketplace and strolled through the Christmas store first. This place was packed to the walls with people! But I was determined to find our annual WDW ornament and a few antenna toppers. Waiting in line wasnt bad and only took about 20 minutes. I only had about two people in front of me but I think the reason the lines move so slow in the Christmas store (and they have always moved slow even when Ive been in there and hardly anyone is in there with me) is that a lot of people load up on glass ornaments and other fragile items (as well as items that need personalizing) that take the CMs forever to wrap or fill out the paperwork on what they want the personalization to say.
After here my parents decided to camp out on a bench as they had spent pretty much all day Thursday at Marketplace and didnt have anything else they wanted to look at. Colton and I went in the WOD (ok, I love this store and everything but it is so horribly chaotic every time I go in here). It took all I had to make him stay in there with me. I only bought one thing (a firefighter shaking Mickeys hand picture) and went to the jewelry section cash register as it only had one person in line in front of me. I seriously was in line for 40 minutes! It was a sick game I was playing with myself because every time I thought about getting out of line to go back to the other registers that had about 10 people waiting I would think Oh, Ill just wait. Im sure itll only be another 5 minutes.
The reason it was taking so long was that the woman in front of me had bought about a dozen snow globes and she wanted A) to have them all taken out of the boxes so she could inspect for damages and B) to have them extra super duper bubble wrapped before they were put back in the box to prevent further damage. And I kept fooling myself into believing that she wasnt going to do it for every snow globe but I was mistaken.
I finally get up to the cash register and another CM comes over and opens the register right beside her! Doesnt that just drive you crazy! I was so ready to get out of that store.
We went into Basin and a few other stores but I didnt buy anything as I still had a million bath bombs from Basin at home.
I was pretty much ready to go after this as I was sad and couldnt prolong the inevitable of leaving anymore. It was about 4 p.m.
We took the boat back to Port Orleans and got in our cars. It was sad leaving but usually by the last day Im just ready to go as I know I have to do it anyways.
We waved good-bye to Port Orleans and drove away watching the people with the excited first day looks on their faces entering the resort.
We ate at a Cracker Barrel in Daytona and stayed overnight at some cheap crappy hotel near Savannah (but, hey, it served it's purpose).
A Look Back:
*I would not go the week after Thanksgiving again. Actually after this upcoming trip when I get married it will be awhile before we come back during the holiday season. I dont know if its usually more dead the week after Thanksgiving but a lot of things had 30-45 minute waits where we practically walked on the second week of December last year (although it was still crowded then as well). All of this is better than going in July like we used to but we like to go during the off time to get away from the crowds, not still be in them. Our next trip will probably be in mid January 2009 after our upcoming trip.
*I would stay at any of the resorts we went to again. Colton didnt like CSR as much as POR but I think it may have been because we were only there for one day and didnt get a chance to truly experience the resort.
*Next time will definitely be more relaxing. Now that Colton has done pretty much everything I wanted him to do our next trip can be a lot more relaxing with more time spent at the resorts and sleeping in!
*If we do stay at POR again we will be driving to the parks. I think it would save a lot of our sanity even if we had to fight traffic. My parents said that we are just impatient and will be continuing to ride the bus.
*I will be forgoing Expedition Everest.
*I will try Mission Space next time. Of course, I say that every time.
*We will eat more counter service lunches as I am interested to try these out and am kind of over eating so many TS meals.
Thats it! Thanks for reading! Sorry it took so long, I was procrastinating writing this last installment as its kind of depressing to write about and I havent had much time with the holidays and such. I hope to have another TR to write after our wedding at WDW.
Also, of course, all of this is in my opinion. Dont take anything I say to heart or change any of your plans based on my experiences, especially in regards to restaurants. Theres good and bad reviews to everything at WDW and they wouldnt have so many wonderful options if everybody loved the same exact thing. Go out and give it a try! You never know what you may fall in love with.
Make sure you write a trippie about that too! 
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