February quick POR PTR! 2/24: just a few more hours

[JustCor]

The work thing

It's been horrendously busy at work and I've been going home later than usual. It seems only appropriate on the run up to vacation. Maybe it's so I'll appreciate the time off that much more. At 11 days away, things seem awful far away at this point, but that seems to always be the case.

At some point in my planning I looked at my Fast Passes and decided they were all wrong. Now that I look at them again, I can't figure out why I thought that. Day one has me doing some stuff at Magic Kingdom before heading over to Epcot and eventually Cape May at Beach Club for dinner. Day two starts with California Grill and an eventual mosey over to DHS for some rides and maybe the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular before maybe heading to Disney Springs for an eventual late snack or light dinner. It seems to make sense now. Maybe I thought about switching my DHS and MK plans around? I suppose it might make sense to go to DHS and then head to Cape May from there, and leave California Grill and walk over to MK. There would be method to that madness, but it's not a huge hassle to get to any of those places from any of the places I'm at. The Mono will hit Epcot with minimal fuss (hopefully), and I can always hop a bus from Contemporary to DHS for a fairly quick trip. Any urgency I feel like I might have had has already been alleviated with some padding in my times to account for any delays. Maybe I just felt the urge to change things for the sake of changing things. I must resist that urge.

I have made one small addition to this bit of planning: The Wave for breakfast on departure day. I really enjoy The Wave. The food is good, the service is good, and it's been nice and quiet whenever I've been, barely reaching over half full. It's been a real treat to go there and I look forward to going again. If this were a longer trip, I'd go for a dinner, but I'm lacking the time to do that this trip, so a breakfast will do. Not that it's a bad thing. I've enjoyed the breakfast buffet the past two times I've been, so in no way is this "settling", but just a necessary adjustment.

Let's see what we've got, then:

Saturday

And now Sunday

And wrapping it up on Monday

I have to say, I'm liking what I see. There's some time built in to that schedule to pop on down to Disney Springs, and there's room to breathe as well. So, is it next Saturday yet?​

 

[Disney_traveler]

The work thing

It's been horrendously busy at work and I've been going home later than usual. It seems only appropriate on the run up to vacation. Maybe it's so I'll appreciate the time off that much more. At 11 days away, things seem awful far away at this point, but that seems to always be the case.

At some point in my planning I looked at my Fast Passes and decided they were all wrong. Now that I look at them again, I can't figure out why I thought that. Day one has me doing some stuff at Magic Kingdom before heading over to Epcot and eventually Cape May at Beach Club for dinner. Day two starts with California Grill and an eventual mosey over to DHS for some rides and maybe the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular before maybe heading to Disney Springs for an eventual late snack or light dinner. It seems to make sense now. Maybe I thought about switching my DHS and MK plans around? I suppose it might make sense to go to DHS and then head to Cape May from there, and leave California Grill and walk over to MK. There would be method to that madness, but it's not a huge hassle to get to any of those places from any of the places I'm at. The Mono will hit Epcot with minimal fuss (hopefully), and I can always hop a bus from Contemporary to DHS for a fairly quick trip. Any urgency I feel like I might have had has already been alleviated with some padding in my times to account for any delays. Maybe I just felt the urge to change things for the sake of changing things. I must resist that urge.

I have made one small addition to this bit of planning: The Wave for breakfast on departure day. I really enjoy The Wave. The food is good, the service is good, and it's been nice and quiet whenever I've been, barely reaching over half full. It's been a real treat to go there and I look forward to going again. If this were a longer trip, I'd go for a dinner, but I'm lacking the time to do that this trip, so a breakfast will do. Not that it's a bad thing. I've enjoyed the breakfast buffet the past two times I've been, so in no way is this "settling", but just a necessary adjustment.

Let's see what we've got, then:

Saturday

And now Sunday

And wrapping it up on Monday

I have to say, I'm liking what I see. There's some time built in to that schedule to pop on down to Disney Springs, and there's room to breathe as well. So, is it next Saturday yet?​

I'm so jealous! One night last week I dreamed I was checking into the Poly and 2 nights later dreamed I was checking out and on a cruise on the Wonder.

Ok so random question....first time I rode Tower of Terror was March 2010. Didn't ride it again until December 2016. Did they remove the "oh crap" handrails on the side of the seat? I swear I held on to them the first time.

Also, I think you should schedule another trip to go back for Flower and Garden just to eat through the kiosks.

 

[JustCor]

One more week. That's all. At this time in seven days, I'll be checked in, wandering the parks and riding some rides.

I can't wait!

I need to get through a couple of nights of call first and a few more days of work and maybe find my suitcase at some point. And clean out my car. And do some laundry. And get a haircut...

So much small stuff to do before next week. Can I just be there instead or doing anything? That'd be great, thanks.

I've spent a good chunk of today looking at all of the shops in Disney Springs and found myself asking "where the heck was that?" as I find more places to try out. I guess I've been a little slack in actually exploring the new stuff open at Disney Springs. I didn't realize Morimoto's also had street foods. I thought it was just a fancy sit down place. They have Takoyaki! I've seen Takoyaki on travel shows and it always looks delicious on TV. Looks like I'll be getting to try it myself soon. I looked at YeSake with a fair amount of anticipation, but was pretty quickly disappointed. From the thumbnail, I thought it would be a place that makes sushi burritos, but it's just wraps. Booooooo. That could have been a game changer! So, after a bit of looking, I think I may have found some lunch options and some sweets to eat.

It's lunch time, I'm hungry, and I'm staring at Disney foods. This may not end well.

​

 

[JustCor]

A curse on my tootsies

Tomorrow is Disney Day. It strangely feels completely not real. I have to good fortune of being off of work today so that I can take care of some last minute things here and there. Tops on my list was a haircut. The last one I got was way back in November before my last Disney trip. Come to think of it, the one I got before that was way back in September, before my Disney trip, and before that, way back in April, before my Disney trip. It's almost become a tradition of sorts, though it's one that I think it's time to break. I was a shaggy looking mess for a while there. Also, hair gets hot, believe it or not. So, with a fresh cut, it was time to deal with a serious issue.

My right ankle has been swollen since Monday. I've been limping pretty hard, but still doing my full days on my feet at work. If I had to lay down money, I would wager that being on my feet for multiple hours in the day probably did not help the swelling any. Like a stubborn fool, at no time did I think about cancelling my trip. It's not like there's a whole bunch of walking at Disney, right? So I made some mental plans on how I would handle this trip if the softball in my ankle decided it was here for a while. I've wrapped, iced, and taken some pills to help with the pain and swelling, and today it was down to being only slightly oversized and swollen. That's progress in my book. I've written in previous trip reports about the difficulties in finding shoes that fit. This swollen ankle is a direct result of mediocre fitting shoes finally breaking down. With my foot and ankle back to close to a normal size, I bit the bullet and went to a place that actually puts time and effort into finding the right fit for your feet based on pressure points, gait, and foot shape. I paid a little more than I normally would for shoes, but the results are promising. I've been walking around in my new shoes all day and my foot and ankle actually feel much better. With a little bit of luck and a shake or two of pixie dust, I'll be fairly mobile by tomorrow morning. Finger's crossed!

With some of those issues taken care of, it's just down to basics: laundry, packing, and waiting. I need to remember that there's no hats at brunch. I'm a hat man, mostly because it's easy to not brush my hair, but also because my hair is thinning and I'm naturally self conscious of it. Funny how that works. I picked up some nice slacks and a nice button up shirt to wear, and I think I've managed to put together a decent looking outfit that shouldn't (hopefully) look too ridiculous. This is about as close to getting dressed up as I care to get for the moment. The brunch at California Grill is also a test run of sorts. I'm going to see how much pain the wallet feels from this. It's a dry run to see if I could stomach something like Victoria and Albert's at a future date. I'm not quite ready to put down the money for it, but I've managed to talk myself into this brunch not really being that expensive when all things are said and done. What's a few more dollars for the V&A experience? We'll see how well that kind of mentality holds up when I get the actual bill for brunch and have to put my money where my mouth is. That may change things entirely.

So, now it's time to wait. By this time tomorrow I'll be back in the Disney bubble, enjoying an all too brief vacation and trying out some new stuff and some old stuff. I'm slowly starting to feel the Disney vibe. I'm surprised it took this long.​

 

[Trixie15]

Go early and snag a cheap nearby hotel. I can't stand waiting, LOL!

Hope your foot/ankle hold up for your trip.

 

[SCSteve]

I like the Biergarten Restaurant in Germany in EPCOT:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/epcot/biergarten-restaurant/
Its a buffet with a German Band as entertainment. And the way the seating is they can always seat one to any number of fokks.

 

[Disney_traveler]

Have fun, good luck and be safe!

 

[JustCor]

I'm here!

My room was immediately available (yay!) and it's immediately noticeably nicer than Coronado Springs. I was a little tiny bit worried that I'd still be down on Disney because of the last trip, but so far so good. At the end of all of this will be a trip report of some sort. I'm passing on a live trip report on this go round. I think it'll be a little too sedate this trip to be of much interest, so a regular report will be in the cards. With that said, I'm going to soak in the A/C for a little bit and let these tiny sprinkles pass. Then, it's out to the parks!​

 

[SCSteve]

Have a great time!!

 

[JustCor]

Have a great time!!

Thanks!

 

[Trixie15]

Can't wait to hear about your trip!