Can I convince you...an offsite adventure (complete 8/29, pg 4)

[zigzagzerr]

DAY 7
Friday, June 23


Now I know you’re saying “how could a wonderful offsite adventure day go wrong?” (that’s right, I can hear you, so watch it there). In reality, as we all know, things do go wrong sometimes. As I think I mentioned before, it’s a matter of how you react when it happens. If you go ballistic and yell and scream, you will have a bad day. If you sit back and say “what can we do to salvage this day”, you might end up having a pretty good time. Attitude, attitude, attitude…..

Today was originally planned to be a Disney Water Park day, since we had some “pluses” left from our last trip. By vote, we decided to skip the water park and swim in our own beautiful pool at the Vistana Villages.

We were up bright and early as always, and enjoyed breakfast on our screened-in deck – fruit, oatmeal/raisin bars, and coffee. By 8:30 am, we were in the pool. As an aside, and for those of you who are pool junkies, the Vistana Villages have various cabanas around the pool area. And these cabanas (are you ready for this?) are FREE. Yep, you heard me correctly. First come, first served. We were amused each morning as we ate breakfast on the balcony, to see the same lady arrive first thing and stake out her 2 cabanas. DH was tempted to sneak in before her one time, just to tick her off. Her group obviously spent most of their days poolside and appreciated some shade. So good for her. Anyway, I wanted to mention the cabanas, because I had read a trip report where somebody rented one at the Hard Rock Hotel and they were pretty costly. Now of course, these weren’t extra fancy or with tv’s in them or anything, but they were pretty nice. If you showed up in the morning, it was fairly easy to snag one.

Here is a picture that shows the cabanas (note DH's "Get r done" shirt behind me):

We spent several hours swimmin’ and sunnin’ before we decided to break for lunch. Yep, you guessed it, another trip to Wendy’s ($8) to visit with the all the Sea World and Discovery Cove employees. Still lovin’ the crispy chicken sandwiches. And a frosty. Quick stop at Publix for some groceries and a stop at the Vistana to drop them off.

We decided to take a look at the Premium Outlets in Lake Buena Vista, since we had passed by them several times on our travels this week. Well, I have come to the conclusion that there must not have been anyone in the Disney parks on the afternoon of June 23rd, because believe me, they were ALL at the Premium Outlets. Good heavens, it was insane how many people were there. The parking lot was like the mall a week before Christmas, people honking and fighting for spots. I wisely sent us to the outer reaches where we would not be disturbed. As we walked through the shops, it was amazing to see everybody buying stuff. Do you go to Disney for the outlet shopping? I don’t know about the rest of you but we have outlets where I come from. I can shop for irregular pantyhose any old time I want, you know? A very nice lady in a kiosk gave me a map of the outlets and I saw that there was a Disney outlet so we made our way over there. I was proud of my purchase, a $5 Beeker (from the Muppets) hat – are you hearing this, DebIreland? DH found a Big Dog outlet store and found some t-shirts with redneck sayings on them, which made him quite happy. His favorite, in case you were wondering, was “I’d like to help you but I can’t fix stupid”. So, in spite of the horror of all these crazy shoppers, he was still a happy camper. Back to the Vistana, for some chillin’ in the room with a few Lucy episodes, glass of wine. Very nice….

Around 5:00, we started talking about dinner. On our last trip, we had a truly delightful meal at a Cuban restaurant called Rolando’s (it’s listed in the Unofficial Guide). The food was absolutely wonderful, great service, good times. The drive up there was not so much fun, as it was pouring down rain and rush hour on top of that. This time we left plenty of time to get there. And of course, hit rush hour traffic again. Poof…dead standstill on the freeway. Finally, 45 minutes later (I’m pretty sure it was longer than that but DH insists) we pull up in front of the restaurant. Only to find…..they are closed for 2 weeks, because the family is on vacation! So here we are in the middle of Casselberry, Florida, after sitting forever in traffic, hungry and not sure where to go from here. DH remembers that we passed a Bubbalou’s Bodacious Barbecue on the way. We had meant to try the one close to Universal earlier in the trip, but didn’t get a chance. So, why not? I agree, on the condition that I get an adult beverage with my dinner. Fair enough.

So off we go. A mini-wine for me, 2 baby back rib dinners for DH and me, a kids corndog meal for DD, extra order of onion rings, and cookies for dessert. Total cost was $40.30. To my mind, this is a pretty good value for the amount of food we got, but kinda pricey for the semi-counter service experience. You order at the cash register, grab your drink cups and sit anywhere. A server brings your food on plastic trays. Anyway, the food was very tasty and the atmosphere is ultra casual, so you could comfortably bring your kids here and just relax. We couldn’t finish it all and took our cookies to eat in the (long) car-ride home.

I hope that someday we do make it back to Rolando’s (maybe even when they’re open…what a concept). It’s a shame we weren’t smart enough to call before driving up there. But what can you do….life is too short to worry about stuff like that. Have a good time on your vacation, folks, and even enjoy the bumps in the road. A bump in the road on vacation is better than a great day at work anytime. In my book, at least.

Tomorrow is Magic Kingdom in the morning/afternoon and Epcot for dinner. Hooray!

Stats: didn’t wear the pedometer today.
Food: $8 lunch, $40 dinner = $48

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE: Ponchos good, chili dogs bad.

 

[ckmommy]

Great trip report. I have to add a few things...I bought my DH the same Beeker hat (is it blue and says Lab??). I found it at the Belz Outlet for $2.99 about a month after your trip. Although, Dh said he wanted another one, so I went to the Premium Mall outlet and the were $5--I am too cheap to fork over that extra $2--so he did not get a second one. I hit the Belz Outlets at 10am the firswt morning of our trip--no one was there. I went to the premium outlet at 9:30 pm on that same day and it was packed. I, also, have no idea what these people were doing--I guess Christmas shopping in July?? Maybe there are no outlets in their town?? I truthfully only went for the Disney outlet store (because, once again, I am too cheap to buy the suff in the parks). I did find the most prices were the same between the two Disney outlets--just a few items were cheaper at the Belz. And, if you are wonder why all the shopping? DH was in a conference the first 3 days of our vacation. There was only so much of the pools I could take!!

 

[SRUAlmn]

Have a good time on your vacation, folks, and even enjoy the bumps in the road. A bump in the road on vacation is better than a great day at work anytime. In my book, at least.

I always say that too!! My aunt took our family on a cruise 3 summers ago and it was in August so, hurricane season. Our first port of call was Nassau and it torrentially rained the whole day we were there. She felt so bad, and I said, ' Hey! I'm in the Bahamas and it's raining, so what? I'd rather have this than have it be warm and sunny and be at work!' That made her feel better

 

[zigzagzerr]

DAY 8
Saturday, June 24


Up and at ‘em, with lots of energy today, because today was our last stop at the Magic Kingdom for this trip. We wanted to make sure to see everything we wanted to see. Unlike our other morning at MK, this time I wanted to get there nice and early. I wanted to get a good parking spot and get a chance to see the opening ceremony at the train station. So, I let DH do all the navigating today, so that there would be no unfortunate incidents, and we wheeled our way into the MK parking lot by around 8:15 a.m. I think this is the best park to arrive extra early. We were close enough to walk to the Ticket & Transportation Center. The ferries weren’t running yet, so we rode the monorail over to the turnstiles. Made our way through baggage inspection and hung out in the center of the courtyard to wait for the opening so we’d get a good view. (everybody else hangs out near the tunnels, ready to sprint).

The opening was lots of fun, with the characters all singing and dancing. DD took lots of pics with her disposable camera. Then we joined the piles of people swooshing into the park. Another rope held us up on the way into Tomorrowland and we waited a bit longer, until finally, we were admitted. Off we went to launch ourselves into space, Space Mountain that is. We picked up fast passes for Space to ride later and walked onto Buzz Lightyear for this first time this trip. I think I am probably the worst Buzz Lightyear shooter EVER…..but I have lots of fun trying! A quick stop at all 3 dark rides – Pooh, Snow White, and Peter Pan. The park seems more crowded today. By Peter Pan, we have about a 15 minute wait. We leave Fantasyland and visit the ghosties in the Haunted Mansion, then walk across the park to ride Splash Mountain. By now we can pick up a fast pass for Splash and do so, then ride Big Thunder. Good thing we are the zigzagzerrs, as it’s now time to beeline all the way across the park back to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain with our previous fp’s. Great ride again.

We stop back in Fantasyland and see Philharmagic, which everybody loves. I love to watch the little kids watching this movie and trying to catch stuff in the air. Very fun. On the way back across the park, we pick up one last set of fast passes for the Jungle Cruise, then go use our other fp’s for Splash.

At this point, it’s going on noon and we’re ready for lunch. Since we just got off Splash, we decide to hit Pecos Bills for burgers. We get 3 cheeseburger & fry combos and one large Sprite to share, total is $21.36. The fixings bar is great – we load up on lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and cheese sauce to dip the fries. Yummy! The restaurant was crowded, but I found that if I just kept following the signs pointing toward more seating, we eventually found a room that was much less packed and calmer. In fact, we ended up pretty close to the Pirata and Perico (which, by the way, because people have been mentioning on these boards, was OPEN today, but only 12-3) and some folks from that restaurant were coming over to eat where we were. (guess it was crowded over there, too). Lunch was very satisfying – this is one of my favorite places to eat in MK, even though I’m not a big burger kinda gal, normally. Must be all that walking – builds up the appetite.

After DD dipped every last one of her fries into the (thanks DH) second paper cup of cheese sauce, we were ready to find some more fun. Our fast pass time had arrived for the Jungle Cruise, so off we went to find adventure. Our driver this time was just okay, and it was somewhat unfortunate that we got held up at the end of ride, waiting to dock the boat, because she had to try to entertain us, not very successfully. Kept telling the same tired jokes. Eventually we escaped, and next climbed the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (when we got home from vacation, we finally rented the movie from the library). There was a long line of people held up somewhere along the line, but we finally got moving again. Next stop was the Hall of Presidents, where we had about a 15 minute wait before they let us into the theater. I don’t see this show very often, but I try to go once in awhile.

We emerged feeling very patriotic and noticed that the ground was all wet—apparently we missed a small downpour while we were seeing the show. Good news for us, because the temperature dropped a bit, the humidity tapered off and it was really very pleasant feeling and fresh outside. This seemed like an excellent time for my very favoritest treat in all of Walt Disney World – one of their homemade ice cream sandwiches from the Sleepy Hollow snack shop ($3.50). The kind CM had just wiped all the rain off the outdoor tables so we had a clean dry seat and enjoyed. This is the best ice cream sandwich EVER. Two big warm chocolate chip cookies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in between. It’s very messy. The best thing to do is just trade off bites with your loved ones (it’s definitely big enough to share, although I’m sure my DH would dearly love to have one of his own someday), because I doubt it would cut in half very well. Absolutely delicious!!! Even better, DD decided she didn’t want any, so DH and I had it all to ourselves. Well, okay, twist my arm…..

Well fortified, we made our way back over to Tomorrowland, picked up a fast pass for Buzz and then gave in to my DD who really wanted to try the new Stitch ride. I told her that my DIS buddies, who would never steer me wrong, said it was a real dud, but she wanted to know for herself. For all of you who are wondering, she now agrees with you. Chili dog belches do not make good theme park experiences. “Nuff said.

The sky was starting to spit again, so we (and everybody else) hurried over to Carousel of Progress. I think this is the only time I have ever seen a completely full theater for this ride. Only in the rain…sigh. Loved this attraction as always. Was not so thrilled with the little kid sitting next to me with his mother. I don’t think they spoke English, and the little boy kept jumping up out of his seat and chatting away with his mother, who (in her defense) kept trying to calm him and get him to sit back down. I’m not faulting her or anything. I’m sure she brought him in here, just trying to get out of the rain, but boy, was he a handful! Not a problem though. We’ve all been there, right?

When we emerged from the show, our whole theater stood huddled together, as we watched the large amount of rain puddling all around us. I’m sure you all know those horrendous large puddles that form in Tomorrowland. Drainage must not be the best. Luckily I had my handy dandy pack ‘o Walmart ponchos, so we put them on and headed for our fp appointment with Buzz Lightyear. This time, I did the steering and DD and DH fought it out for alien shooter of the year. DH won, by the way, much to DD’s disappointment.

Still raining when we came out so we trudged our soggy selves over to the (gasp) line at the TTA and enjoyed the ride. It was time, at this point, to start making our way to the front of the park and the exit. Let’s repeat, here – ponchos good, very good.

We said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom and hopped the monorail for Epcot. DD needed to get her Test Track groove on one last time and we had an ADR for a fancy shmancy dinner in World Showcase! And the rain had stopped, so off with the ponchos for now. Life is beautiful, oh yes. Made our way in Epcot and got fast passes for TT (it’s been quite a fast pass day, yes?), then strode purposefully over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. If you recall, we had been foiled on our last attempt to see this, because there was no way I was going to wait through an entire showing in order to get in. This time we were close enough to the front of the line that I knew we would get into the next show. We enjoyed ourselves very much, although the little ones around me did not enjoy all the screaming.

Okay, folks, make yourself a note. When the weather is spitting and an entire theater of Honey I Shrunk the Audience has just been released, DO NOT get into the line for Journey into your Imagination. I don’t know how long we were in line, but it was WAY too long.

It was getting closer to our 6:30 ADR time at San Angel Inn, so we walked over to the World Showcase. Thought we might try for a ride on Maestrom, but as we hopped into the line, they flipped the wait time from 10 minutes to 20. Big “no” on this one --- plus I heard on the DIS it was a fast pass!

We were about 20 minutes early at the Mexico pavilion, but surprisingly, they were able to seat us right away. Our server was Maria, and once she realized that DH was a (1/2) Puerto Rican, the 2 of them chatted merrily away in Spanish. She asked him if he was related to Ricky Martin! Now here’s a little secret….I smiled away and listened to every word they said (you can’t grow up in southern California without learning Spanish) and then shocked her by responding to a question she directed DH’s way. Hee hee hee….anyway, back to the food. I have read lots of bad reviews about the San Angel Inn. Let’s be real here, okay? Is it too expensive? Yes, just like all the other Disney restaurants. But the atmosphere blew every other restaurant out of the water…it’s really impressive in there. I had the Pollo a Las Rajas, which is chicken with red and yellow peppers and a cheesy sauce. It’s tasty, and (in my opinion) goes really well with my Strawberry Margarita. Although what doesn’t? DH had the Combinacion Cozumel, which had several different items on it. He said his steak was a little tough, but it tasted good, and his big 20 oz Dos Equis helped wash it all down pretty well. Poor thing, right? DD had a kids quesadilla, which she liked. (once again, she’s 10 years old, but they immediately brought her a kids menu, so no worries) Total bill was $71.87 before tip. We used our Disney Visa points to pay for this

So, if you want to try this place, I say go for it. I can honestly say that we had a great time. The service was absolutely excellent, our server was very friendly and helpful, food was good, and the ambience is one-of-a-kind.

It was finally time to use our Test Track fast passes, so we worked our way over there. We had to wait to get into the pre-briefing rooms, and while we waited, we chatted with an absolutely terrific woman and her daughter who (of course) noticed DD’s Ravens hat. Turns out they are from Olney, Maryland (yea, Olney!!) She was such a nice woman, and she told us about her DVC membership and how much she enjoyed going to Disney every year. We explained that we were pretty much offsite people, and she said my very favorite phrase EVER, “we stayed offsite once, but never again”. (Sheesh, did all these folks stay at the Bates Motel or what?). We talked about how we were actually going to be back in August, and staying at the All Star Sports with free dining. That we knew it was crazy to go twice in one summer, but the free dining offer came out after we had booked and paid for this trip, and how we just said “ Hey, why not?” Had never done that before, probably never would again. She said we really should look into the DVC, started giving us actual dollar costs and everything, which I found a little surprising. But anyway, we had a great time talking, and then they let us into the Briefing Room. Midway through the presentation, the stench hit us (and everyone else). Yes, oh boy, Mr. Teenage not-showering-the-whole-vacation super duper BO king, let rip a silent-but-deadly in an enclosed space. Everyone stopped breathing for a brief exciting moment. Then we all burst out of the room into the line for the cars. I thought my husband was going to die laughing – he finds these type of things highly amusing. The rest of the world held their breaths till we got to the cars, and we all prayed they wouldn’t put us in a car with that guy.

Fortunately, they put stinky BO boy in a different car, and we proceeded to enjoy our Test Track ride. Afterwards, we went next door to ride Mission Space with no wait. I made DH ride the weenie side with us, and he agreed that spinning right after dinner was probably not the best idea. So, this trip, he got a chance to try both versions. He still likes the spinning one better. As we walked through the gift shop, we bought a Pluto dressed in a space suit, very cute!

I made my family walk the long way around the big golf ball, because I wanted to take a peek in the Art of Disney store on the other side. We spent a long time looking at all the expensive goodies in there, and ultimately bought a poster ($25) with all the Disney characters. I lingered over the cross stitch kits, but they were $45 and I just couldn’t do it. So I left them there….hey, there’s always August, right?

After one last ride on Spaceship Earth, we headed out of Epcot. It had been a long time, and we had covered much ground. We were a little sad, knowing that we had only one more park day left. Sad knowing we wouldn’t be back to MK or Epcot this trip. Sad that we didn’t manage to get our hands on a Dole Whip, either.

But enough sadness. We were also happy --- happy to be here together, enjoying this fantastic place. Happy to go on fun rides, eat great food, and spend a week playing and swimming and laughing.

Life is very good.

Stats: Walked 11.3 miles today (phew!)
Food:
Lunch $21, Snack $3.50, Dinner $72 plus $12 tip = $109 (that’s about what it would have cost if we’d been on the dining plan. This is also the only the day where we ate all our meals onsite)

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE: MGM and more poncho fun

 

[SRUAlmn]

Another great installment! I love your attitudes.
It's raining, who cares!
We only have one day left, so what, we had many great days leading up to it!
It's a great way to look at life

I was also waiting to see at the end how many miles you had walked. Man! They don't call you zigzagzerr for nothing!!! You guys dash from park to park and land to land like no one I have ever seen

 

[Disney owl]

Great reports, thanks

 

[kaysmommie]

Enjoying your trip report! Love the pictures too. We might actually go to Universal one day next trip because DH will probably love it. This trip we only have time for Disney parks and Sea World. How did you like the Hard Rock Hotel? Was thinkng of staying there 2 nights next trip, even though we have been strictly onsite for last 3 vacations. I also thougt the Vistana Resort looked very nice. Too bad you didn't get your Dole whip, maybe next trip.

 

[DebIreland]

Love the new installment! A Beaker hat for 5 dollars? Surely that's every girl's dream, no?

 

[zigzagzerr]

DebIreland: Absolutely! Once you put on a Beaker hat, you are automatically a fashion diva.

kaysmommie: We really liked the Hard Rock Hotel and Universal Studios. And having that "front of the line" access meant you didn't even have to think about crowds. As a result, I honestly didn't even notice whether the parks were busy or not. And believe me, that's one of the first things I think about in a Disney park, it's always a major part of the planning (which park will be most crowded, is it early entry day, etc).

Disney Owl: Thanks for reading. Hope you're having a great day.

SRUAlmn: If you can zig while everybody else is zagging, it's a good day! Go Ravens!

I will try to work some more on this when I get home tonight. Hoping to finish this week because we leave on Saturday for our onsite adventure, and I'll be too confusified if I'm trying to remember both trips at the same time. Need 'em clear in my mind, so I can compare 'em.

Thanks guys, talk to you soon.

 

[zigzagzerr]

DAY 9
Sunday, June 25


Sigh….our last day in the parks. Plan for today is MGM and then Animal Kingdom. Breakfast on the balcony and off we go…………..

To MGM to stand in the hot sun and wait…..and wait…….and wait for them to let us through the turnstiles. One of the problems with MGM is that there is not a lot of room to do this, when there’s bazillions of you waiting. Finally they start letting people through, and we SLOWLY (snail pace – of course we always get a line like this, don’t you?) make our way to the turnstiles and into the park. Where we are held up a bit longer for the official rope drop. Then we all follow the CM to the Tower of Terror.

Now I swear to you that I went on this ride on our last trip 2 years ago. DD will tell you that I was definitely there, and she knows because I screamed right in her ear the entire time! As we’re standing in the boiler room waiting to get on the ride, I start to freak out a little. I tell myself to not be scared, that “you’ve done this before”, “face your fears”, “look, that matronly looking lady is riding so you’ll be fine”. My hands are literally sweating. But I make myself go into the elevator. And guess what – I did it! But guess what again? I’ve decided I’m done with this. I think I even scared DH a little bit – we got off the ride and he said “I thought you were gonna hyperventilate, you didn’t even stop screaming to get more air!” It’s sad to think that often, as we get older, we can’t handle the same things we could as teenagers. I remember loving all thrill rides as a teenager. Now I get a little panicky on the big coasters. Anyway, my feeling on Tower of Terror is “don’t drop me, me no likee”. So that is that.

In comparison, our next ride, Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, did not bother me at all. I didn’t feel apprehensive in line even though I could see that takeoff. Don’t really know how to explain why it’s different. Must be something to do with heights, that yanks my chain. Anyway, I had a great time on the Coaster, and it was really really fast. Zoom!

Tamer fare after that with a trip through the Great Movie Ride (which I don’t care what anybody says – I like it). We then took the Backlot Tour and toured the One Man’s Dream exhibit (and watched the movie afterwards). Then it was time for lunch.

We had 12 noon ADR’s at Prime Time Café. We had never eaten here, and were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately our waiter was kind of a dud. He threw out a few canned phrases and he was a good server as far as food/drinks/extra napkins, just wasn’t over the top like we had hoped for. He was very nice guy. My family got a kick out of watching some of the other tables being abused by their waiters. One kid who didn’t eat his greens received a giant platter of them that arrived while he was in the bathroom. It was hilarious. The waiter at the next table over had my daughter placing her napkin in her lap whenever he walked by, because she heard him berating the kids at the other table about it. This was a really cool place. For food, DH had the meatloaf, I had the fried chicken (and split it with everybody) and DD had a hot dog. We all had cokes to drink. Total before tip was $42.78, which we paid for with our Disney Visa points.

After lunch, we wandered over to the Indiana Jones show. There was a small mixup, when we got into the really long line at the entrance, only to find out that the really long line was all fast pass holders. So a quick jump into the other line and we waited, and waited, and waited. We were still in the line waiting on the trail to get into the theater and it seemed like the show was getting ready to start. And still we stood there. Some folks in line were giving up and leaving. Standing in that line was probably our worst experience at Disney and it kinda soured me a bit on MGM, we felt so much like cattle. Ultimately we ended up getting into the show, and in fact, we got to sit in the front in the wheelchair section since it wasn’t occupied. It was a good show, but not worth the hassle we experienced.

After Indie, we were worried about getting to see the Lights Motors Action stunt show, because it seemed so crowded at MGM. So we went over there about 40 minutes prior to showtime to get a seat. We ended up with very good seats. Unfortunately, after the first set of stunts, the sky opened up, and after delaying the show for about 10 minutes waiting for a slowdown, MGM ended up canceling the show. All us peons sitting in the stands were very disappointed. Not that it’s MGM’s fault, but what a bummer.

At this point, we decided that a pick-me-up was definitely in order, so Mickey Bars it is! We split two ($5) between the 3 of us, and decided that we were still going to have a good time, rain or no rain. We saw (yet) another line of people out in front of the Millionaire Show and decided to give it a shot. Once again, we were whisked inside to fill empty seats (like the great unwashed we were). I’m so glad we got to do this, since it is closing down permanently as of this Saturday. We never came close to making the board, but how fun!

We finished up MGM with everybody’s favorite (NOT) – Sounds Dangerous. We don’t hate it, but we happen to like Drew Carey.

At this point, we see a big storm was a’comin’, so we skedaddled our little butts outta the park. Made it back to the Vistana, and sat on our balcony watching them clear the pool because of lightning. The rain was coming down in buckets, and we were glad to not be in a Disney park at that moment. Nobody was upset about missing the Animal Kingdom tonight. That’s definitely not a good place to be in a storm. So we couch potatoed for our last evening in Orlando, watching championship skateboarding on tv and had Pizza Hut delivery to our room.

Tomorrow would be some last minute playing and then to the airport (hopefully in better weather, but stay tuned…..I can tell you right now that was wishful thinking).


STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE: Can you bring an ark in your carry-on bag?

 

[missmun52]

Love your report. Sorry to read its almost over.

 

[zigzagzerr]

DAY 10
Monday, June 26


Today was the day we all dread….going home day. It’s sad to think that vacation is over. On the other hand, this had been a nice long trip and I think we were ready to be back in our own home amongst all our own things for awhile.

I don’t have notes for this day, but I do remember that we took a last swim in the pool and a soak in the hot tub, then waved goodbye to the Vistana Villages. I can’t say enough good things about this place.

No problems with getting to the airport, although it was starting to rain pretty hard at this point. Returned the rental car, went to the terminal….and saw that all the flights going anywhere in the northeast were marked “delayed”. No estimated time of departure, nothing, just….delayed. After sitting around for awhile, Southwest announced a 2 hour delay. So we sat for 2 hours. Then Southwest announced that we had a small window of opportunity for flying in the storm, after which there would be considerably longer delay. Therefore, we needed to be completely boarded on the plane quickly. I kept looking at my watch, hoping we would make it.

So then we were on the plane. And then Southwest announced we couldn’t take off yet, due to lightning in the area. Okay….so finally, after being delayed almost 3 hours, we took off, and let me tell you --- I have never been on a bumpier flight in my life. Since we had the dreaded “C” boarding passes, we weren’t sitting together. I was by myself in the window seat next to this couple. The lady I sat next to was lucky I didn’t grab her as we bounced up and down. The Southwest flight attendant wouldn’t even take my drink coupons for my cheap wine…said the first one was on the house. The guy in aisle seat thought I had really lucked out with that….yeah, okay, if you say so.

So then we landed the plane in Baltimore. Where it was still raining. And we sat and sat and sat on the runway….because our plane was so late that the airport did not have a gate for us.

So then we finally got a gate…and waited and waited and waited for our luggage to come out. But it was (say it with me, now) “delayed” due to a pileup of luggage. In fact, I think they actually called it a luggage jam. Kinda like a traffic jam, I guess.

So, there you have it. We made it home (somewhat) in one piece. Regardless of this crazy day, it was a fabulous trip overall. We made some wonderful memories, visited great hotels, ate terrific meals, and played with Mickey.

Thanks for joining me on this offsite adventure. It was fun for me to write and hopefully not too painful to read.

STAY TUNED: August trip report coming soon – All Star Sports and free dining (and maybe even a Dole Whip)

 

[DebIreland]

Awww! The end is always sad but thankfully you got home in one piece. Yikes!

That flight gave me the shivers. This would have been Beaker on that plane -

Fabulous job on the report!

Woohoo!! You're doing another one!! So that trip has has been and gone too - double depression! But good for us - can't wait to hear all about it.