Fred and Wilma Remixing the Canal

[wilma-bride]

So, welcome one and all to the recap of our latest adventure. I decided not to write a pre-trip report this time, for many reasons, but mainly because I was so darn busy on the run up to this trip that it just wasn’t possible. But, for anybody who is interested, here’s the back story…

Two years ago Gary and I took a bucket list trip through the Panama Canal on the beautiful Disney Wonder. If you would like to read about that trip and haven’t already, you can find the trip report here. Even before we had left on that cruise, we were already planning to return in 2017, to share the experience with friends who couldn’t join us on that trip. We had an incredible Facebook group in 2015, which I thought couldn’t be surpassed but, if anything, our 2017 group was just as active and fun, and everybody was amazing. Many of our friends from the 2015 cruise had also rebooked and would be joining us again this time. We had so many activities, events and fun things planned, I began to wonder if my relaxing 2 week cruise would be as relaxing as I hoped.

It just so happened that the long-awaited new locks for the canal were so far behind in their construction that this trip was likely to coincide with the opening of the new locks which added an additional level of excitement and anticipation. But, despite the new locks opening in July 2016, right up until the Disney Wonder underwent dry dock in September, it wasn’t clear whether we would be completing the passage in 2017 through the new or old locks. However, as soon as it was confirmed that the Wonder had been fitted with the infamous duck tail, we knew we would have to transit the new locks as the Wonder was now too long for the old locks. This was very exciting news and would enhance the trip even more. With Gary and I being so busy at work, the time went very quickly and before we knew it the day had come to leave for Heathrow. So, without further ado….

Wednesday 19th April – Never have I so badly needed a holiday!!!

As I inferred above, this past year has been incredibly challenging, stressful and busy for both of us – with family illness and both of us being completely maxed out at work. Even Gary had spent the few weeks prior to the trip saying how badly he needed a break and how much he was looking forward to the holiday. Anybody who knows Gary knows that this is practically unheard of – that in itself should tell you just how trying the previous 12 months have been.

The day we were travelling to Heathrow had finally arrived. I woke up super early, before the alarm had even gone off. I had booked the day off work, but the day before a member of my team had been off sick and I’d had to stand in for her at a workshop, which was due to continue today, so I was half expecting a text asking me to go in to work. Gary had to work this morning anyway, so we both got up together and I just pottered about for a bit. I couldn’t relax, half wanting to go into work to check everything was OK and half hoping I wouldn’t need to. Sian had the day off so she turned up around 8.30, having stayed at her boyfriend’s the night before, so we had a bit of a chat and a catch up. I hadn’t heard from work so assumed I wasn’t needed and off I went to have my pre-holiday beauty session. My Dad and step-Mum had already pre-paid my treatments so that was a lovely surprise.

As soon as I got home, I fired up the laptop to check in online for our flight the next day, having already pre-booked our seats a couple of days previously. For some reason I couldn’t check in online, although I wasn’t too worried – this had happened to Tony and Theresa in 2015 and it turned out to be just a random check that was needed at the airport. However, I had paid for an extra bag and it seemed that the payment had gone through so I was nervous that this hadn’t registered and I would have to pay extra again at the airport. Still, there was nothing I could do about it until we got there so I decided not to worry about it. I am slowly learning not to stress about the things I can’t control.

I made some lunch for me, Sian and Daniel, then I finished packing my hand luggage. I was taking part in an ornament exchange and had bought expensive glass baubles from John Lewis. They were beautiful but I was so paranoid that they would get broken in the luggage, I had made the decision to carry them in a small overnight bag and take them on the plane with me. Just before 2, my step-Mum arrived to take us to the train station, and Gary got home from work shortly afterwards. We shoved the last bits in the cases, loaded up the car and we were off.

At Chippenham train station, we discovered that our train was delayed by 20 minutes, but we still had plenty of time to make our connection. They kept changing the time of the train, to the point where I feared it would be cancelled. But it duly arrived and we staggered aboard, with all of our bags (one day I will learn how to travel light), found our seats, evicted the squatters and settled down for the 45 minute ride to Reading.



Despite the delay, we still had time for toilet breaks and to buy a Pepsi Max from Boots before boarding the train to Gatwick. Why, why, why do they never have enough storage on this train for luggage? We’d deliberately opted for a slightly earlier train from last time, as this is generally a commuter train also, but it was still a pretty uncomfortable journey, sandwiched between our suitcases and surrounded by a woman with smoker’s cough, a guy picking his nose and two rowdy, cackling teenage girls. About half an hour into our journey, I noticed that Gill from our Facebook group, who was on the next train from Reading with her husband and friends, Maxine and Duncan, had posted a picture of them at Reading station. They were hot on our tail!

We made it to Gatwick and headed straight over to North Terminal, where Virgin now fly from. Twilight check in was dead. The payment HAD gone through for the extra bag and everything was fine…or so we thought. “Have you made any changes to the ticket since you booked?” asked the check in agent. I told her we hadn’t and she reassured us that everything would be fine, but she needed to make a call as the system wasn’t allowing her to check us in either. Eventually, after several fraught minutes where we could just hear her end of the conversation, she managed to resolve whatever the issue was and we were handed our boarding pass. I decided to ask about a possible upgrade to Premium Economy but she explained we would need to go to the ticket desk in the morning to check. She was able to confirm that there were seats available in Premium and that there was a special currently running, where we could upgrade for £199 each. We decided we would sleep on it and decide in the morning if we wanted to go for it.

Check in done, we made our way over to the Premier Inn to check in there. Having always been Hilton enthusiasts, we nearly always stay at the Premier Inn now. They have really upped their game in the last few years – comfortable rooms and extremely pleasant, friendly staff. You really can’t beat it for the price – our stay for that night had cost us £55.



We chilled out for a little while in the room, before heading back out and across to the terminal, where we were planning to have dinner at Nicholas Culpeper. We were seated upstairs and greeted by a very friendly waitress, who asked where we were going. She was very surprised to hear that we were “going on a Panama Canal cruise with a couple of hundred of our Facebook friends”

Having not had a drink since the Thursday before Easter (an afternoon/evening session that involved 3 bottles of Prosecco, a broken phone (after I dropped it on my friend’s bathroom floor), several cuts and bruises (after slipping over on said bathroom floor soaking wet after getting out of the hot tub), a trip home with a bemused Gary, with me wearing just a dressing gown, and many other embarrassing and unmentionable acts over the course of the day), I was somewhat wary of alcohol but decided to test the water with my old friend, the Cosmopolitan. Gary had a mixed fruit Kopparberg.

And we toasted our imminent holiday.



We were starving so ordered food – fish and chips for me and all day breakfast for Gary. I do apologise for the lack of food photos, I can’t believe I didn’t take them. The food came quickly, as is usually the case with these airport locations, but it was very fresh and hot. At least mine was. Gary said his could have been hotter, so maybe it had been sat around waiting for mine to be ready. We ordered more drinks, the holiday was already well underway!



No sooner had we finished eating than Gill, Gary, Maxine and Duncan arrived. We did introductions and had a little chat; then they settled at a nearby table to get some food themselves. Gary and I ordered more drinks – a Mojito for me and another cider for Gary.



We were messaging Kim and Terry - so excited to be seeing them the next day. Our waitress brought me a sample of the gin they distil themselves. I am not a gin drinker at all, but actually once I had gotten over the initial taste, it was really very smooth. I knew Maxine liked gin so I offered her a taste. We ordered another round of drinks and, when the others were finished eating, they joined us and we chatted for a while about previous holidays, kid and all kind of stuff. Eventually, we called it a night and headed back to our hotel where Gary and I watched TV for a little while, before turning out the light around 11.

Chapter 2 - Why?

 

[wilma-bride]

Thursday 20th April – Why?

Why, when you are looking forward to something does it take so long to arrive? Why do the best laid plans never come to fruition? Why, when there is a queue in the ladies, do I always manage to choose the smelly cubicle so that the person who comes in after me will think that it was me who made that smell?

I woke up so early this morning, having slept solidly for the first time in weeks. Gary was obviously still sleeping so I switched on my phone to check Facebook. I discovered an email from Delta, sent at 4.20am, informing us that our flight was delayed until 2.30pm, almost 3 hours. Ugh! Of course, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it but it was so frustrating. I immediately posted my plight on Facebook, got loads of sympathy and felt much better

For the next couple of hours, I read my Kindle and played Emoji Blitz until I finally persuaded Gary to get moving. Of course, he couldn’t understand the urgency since we were now delayed but I wanted to go and see if it was still possible to upgrade. We had discussed it on our return to the hotel the previous evening and decided to go for it – Gary had been promoted at work that week and we had thought this would be a nice way to spend his first month’s pay rise. We got up, showered and dressed, then made our way over to the terminal and straight to the ticketing desk, where we were able to upgrade to Premium Economy and were allocated new seats in the ‘bubble’ (upstairs) – 20H and K. I had a bit of a panic when I realised they were bulkhead seats, which I hadn’t really wanted but it actually turned out fine.

We made our way down to security – ironically, given we had all the time in the world, it was a doddle and we were through in next to no time. It was a very slick and well organised process, a vast improvement on previous experiences. Next on the agenda was breakfast and so we decided to head for Garfunkels, which was absolutely packed. Even so, we were quickly shown to a table for two and had our order taken – croissants for me, with OJ and tea (which Gary would drink) and scrambled egg on toast for Gary. Service was a bit scrappy. Gary’s eggs and my OJ came out quickly but we waited ages for the croissants, which weren’t even served warm so not sure why the delay.





Eventually the tea arrived but we had to then wait ages for milk. Not sure why that wouldn’t have been brought automatically - does anybody in this country actually drink black tea? The bill was £13.60. I left £14.50 and thought that was generous, to be honest.

After a quick bathroom stop, we decided to look around the shops – we had time to kill after all. Gary wanted some aftershave, so we went to buy that first. I saw this wicked Wonder Woman perfume by Jean Paul Gaultier - reminded me of my friend Kirsten, who loves Wonder Woman.



Gary decided he wanted to look for some new sunglasses next. He had seen some in Boots at home a few weeks before, so we popped in to Boots to see if they had the ones he liked. They did have the ones he wanted – since he had paid for our upgrade, I told him I wanted to buy the sunglasses for him. They were £58 but had been reduced to £45. I took them to the till and handed over my boarding card. The lady told me that, with VAT deducted, the new price was £37.50. She then told me she had a half price voucher, which might work, so scanned it and it did. Since it halved the price before VAT was deducted, the final cost was £15. What a bargain. And because they were designer, he got a free ‘hard case’ to put them in. Just don’t tell him how cheap they were

After mooching around the shops for a while, we headed upstairs to Jamie’s Bar where Gary got a cup of tea and I had an extremely delicious Very Berry cocktail (#5 for anybody keeping count). What else can you do when you still have 3 and a half hours until your flight?



After a few minutes, two young Essex lads sat down next to us and proceeded to start chatting up the young waitress. We couldn’t help but laugh at some of the cheesy lines they were coming out with. Although I’m pretty sure that, had her grasp of the English language been better, she might have been mortally offended when she declared that the Pornstar Martini was her favourite cocktail on the menu and one of them said “I could have guessed”

As is usual in these situations (who says we Brits are standoffish?) we struck up a conversation with them. One of the guys generously offered me the first taste of his Lemon and Vanilla Martini, after I commented that it looked yummy – and it really was, although a wee bit girly for a burly Essex lad! After another cup of tea for Gary – I passed on a second drink – we paid the bill (£15 including a very decent tip) and moved on again, taking in a few more shops. It was almost 12.30 by now and gate information was expected in an hour so, after a quick stop at WHSmith for supplies (Pringles, Pepsi Max and Cadburys Mini Eggs) we found somewhere to sit and chill. I played a game demo, which a friend at work had recommended, called LIMBO. It is a pretty dark game where you are a young boy wandering through the forest, with all these things that kill you like bear traps and huge spiders. I just wish somebody had warned me about the spider, as I am pretty sure I scared a few people sitting nearby when it violently attacked me and I screamed out loud and said a rude word! Gary suggested it might be wise to stop playing.

Finally, just before 1.30, we got a gate number – 358. We started the long walk to the gate; hopefully we would soon be on our way. We found seats down at the gate, dumped the bags, and I went upstairs to the toilet, bumping into Gill, Gary, Maxine and Duncan on the way up. They’d been in the No. 1 lounge drinking wine, although Gill revealed that she’d left the last glass after she had mistakenly gone into the gents toilet instead of the ladies – sorry Gill, that story was too funny not to retell!

Upstairs, I had a great view of our plane, Pretty Woman, so I snapped a picture of it and sent it to Kim with the words “This little beauty is bringing us to you”.



We chatted to Gill and co. for a while, until PE boarding was announced. As always, there was one annoying group who were loitering so close to the desks that you couldn’t tell if they were actually boarding or not, so I asked if they were in the queue and – surprise, surprise – they weren’t. As we joined the queue, one of the Virgin desk staff said loudly, looking straight at me “Right now we are only boarding Upper Class and Premium passengers. So that’s passengers in rows 1-13 and 14-24”. I stared back at her but was slightly paranoid, so turned to Gary and whispered “Clearly we look like we can’t afford Upper or Premium”. As I handed over my passport at the desk, the lady who had spoken grabbed me and said that she had been speaking for the benefit of the rude group loitering at the desks but, in an effort not to single them out, she realised she had ended up staring at me. She apologised profusely and I told her she had made me paranoid; we had a bit of a laugh about it. Finally on board, we made our way upstairs and found our seats – bulkhead seats on the right hand side of the plane. We had a lovely handy dandy storage ‘bin’ at the side of my seat but, unfortunately, my overnight bag (which had the super fragile ornaments in, remember) would not fit in it. The ‘bubble’ also has reduced space in the overhead lockers and my bag wouldn’t fit in there either. Gary had to practically empty his rucksack to get it in. One of the crew offered to put my bag in a cupboard at the back but I was really worried that other stuff would get thrown in on top. Luckily, Gill and Gary were sat just a few rows back from us and were able to fit my bag in their overhead locker, which was slightly larger than ours. Problem solved – thanks guys! Finally, we were settled into our seats with our complimentary OJ (I had to turn down the bubbles; I wonder if I will ever be able to drink Prosecco again!)



The captain made an announcement that we would soon be pushing back and would be travelling faster than normal, in an effort to make up some of the lost time. With a flight time of 8 hours and 11 minutes, this would put is in Orlando around 6pm local time – not ideal but at least we were on our way. Or so we thought….

Chapter 3 - tell everybody I'm on my way

 

[MickeyEarrings]

I feel a haiku coming on!


Stinkin' Prosecco!
You've stolen my dignity
Switching to vodka



You're welcome!!!

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Looking forward to more x

 

[wilma-bride]

Thursday 20th April – Tell everybody I’m on my way

So, the Captain had announced that we would be pushing back any minute. But we didn’t. We sat. And sat. Eventually there was an announcement that the delay was due to three passengers who had checked luggage but had not turned up to board the flight. So we had to wait for them to offload said luggage. Again, I managed to push down my stressful feelings since I knew there was nothing I could do. I would have had a few choice words for the inconsiderate passengers had I been given the opportunity though. Luckily, due to the wonders of modern technology, the cases were hauled off and carted away fairly sharpish and we finally pushed back from the stand at just after 3pm, 3 hours and 28 minutes late.

We crawled up to take our position on the runway, behind a BA flight which I prayed wasn’t heading to Orlando too.



Finally, we were in the air at 11 minutes past 3. Rather than the traditional ‘donning of headphones and diving into the in-flight movies’, I decided to take the opportunity to catch up on my trip notes. Soon, we were brought the obligatory foul sour cream pretzels, which I duly donated to Gary. I had my usual vodka and orange juice to drink, noting the absence of the usual ‘Virgin cocktail’ that had been offered on our previous flights. I know it was only vodka, OJ and cranberry but it was pretty tasty.



Having caught up a bit on my notes, I decided to watch a film. I was going to go with Bad Moms but, as usual, the touch screen did not want to play nicely so I ended up with the only film I could manage to select – Why Him? – which, incidentally, turned out to be pretty good with some serious laugh out loud moments. I could feel myself finally start to relax, when a member of the cabin crew came to ask if I would like a foot rest. She must have read my mind; I had just been thinking how nice a foot rest would be. Now this is the life!



A little while later, we were brought lunch/dinner – I chose chicken with tagliatelle. I didn’t really like the sauce but I ate a couple of pieces of chicken, which was actually quite nice. The rest of the lunch went to waste – cucumber and radish salad, crackers with boursin, some kind of weird tasting bread roll and a mango cheesecake. I did love the fact that we got real cutlery and the airplane salt and pepper were so cute.



After lunch, I decided to stretch my legs and wandered a few rows back to chat with the others. That killed about half an hour, then I sat down again to finish watching the film. Next, I decided to listen to some music. And what else would an 80s girl like myself listen to except…



Yep, Erasure! I had to try hard not to sing as I didn’t think it would be fair to the other passengers. As I listened, I caught up on some more of my notes. The crew passed out mini Fab ice lollies. Yum.



After the album finished, I walked back to chat with Maxine and Gill again. We swapped travel horror stories. Maxine was telling me that this cruise was to be her first and she had no idea if she was even going to like it as she suffers really badly with motion sickness.

After a while, I returned to my seat and started watching Fences with Denzel Washington. It was time for afternoon tea – how very civilised. We were given sandwiches – typically, all had either cream cheese or mayo – plus a lovely warm fruit scone and a couple of little cakes – red velvet and chocolate fudge. The cakes and scone were delicious.





The flight had gone quite quickly and we only had just under an hour and a half to go. With just 37 minutes left, I still had almost 50 minutes of the movie remaining and I knew I was unlikely to finish watching it. Of course, it doesn’t help that every few seconds they are making announcements, which interrupt the movie. I made my peace with the fact that I wasn’t going to see the end of it and turned it off, figuring I could watch on the way back, concentrating on the beautiful views of the Florida coastline out of the window instead.



We landed just after 6.30pm, just 2 hours and 40 minutes late. There then followed the usual rush to be among the first off the plane and into the immigration hall. As we were upstairs, we were among the first people to disembark. We were directed to the kiosks and waited about 15 minutes for our turn. We then had to wait about another 20-25 minutes to see an immigrations officer. As soon as we got through into the baggage hall, I spied all three of our suitcases immediately, and we were soon joining the line for customs. There was a dippy lady in front of us who kept stop-starting, muttering about having lost her customs form. Every few seconds she would literally stop DEAD and cry “He took my form! He didn’t give it back” Then she would turn to anybody near her and say “Did he take your form?” Eventually, we were through customs and onto the monorail. We had decided to drag the luggage with us, having debated whether to do the drop off and pick up as we were expecting a long wait at the rental car desk the other end. It turned out to be a good decision to take it with us as there was literally nobody in line at Dollar. In an unprecedented turn of events, we were in the car and on our way to the resort at 7.52pm, not even 90 minutes after landing. I sent Kim a text – “In the car!!! Tell everybody we’re on our way”

We managed not to get lost at all and pretty soon we were seeing the most magical sign on Earth.



Closely followed by the second most magical sign on Earth.



We made it to Wilderness Lodge by 8.25, where Kim and Terry were waiting outside for us. It was so good to see them both and there was much hugging and kissing going on. Kim and I were happy to see each other too

Gary and Terry took the car to the parking lot, while Kim and I went to get checked in. There was a box waiting for us, which turned out to be our cruise gift from Dreams Unlimited. Finally, we were checked in and assigned room 1554 in Boulder Ridge Villas. Kim and Terry were in 1558, just two doors down. Considering we’d booked completely separately, that was a nice surprise.

After we dropped our stuff in our room and freshened up, we walked down to Geyser Point Bar and Grill for a drink. I had a Huckleberry Punch (#6), Gary and Terry both had beer and Kim had a Pina Colava.



We also ordered some waffle fries, which were pretty good. After a while, we heard the familiar strains of the Electrical Water Pageant. Kim and Terry had never seen it so we wandered over to the beach area to watch.



Afterwards, Gary ordered a second beer. I didn't dare have another drink, for fear I may fall asleep in it. We were feeling pretty tired now and, as much as we were enjoying being together, we were flagging a little. I paid the check ($65) and we walked back to the villas, enjoying the sight of the beautiful falls all lit up.



Back in the room, we spent some time getting our stuff ready for the morning, then hit the sack around 10.30.

 

[runskyhy]

Loving the report so far! It is so much fun reading your trip reports! And I think I need to book another Virgin flight (and upgrade) just to get my hands on those salt and pepper shakers!! <3

 

[Linda67]

I am late arriving but as you know, I have a good excuse! Loving the report so far and very much looking forward to reading along. Don't make me LOL too much, it will hurt my leg

 

[wilma-bride]

I feel a haiku coming on!

Stinkin' Prosecco!
You've stolen my dignity
Switching to vodka

You're welcome!!!

You're hilarious! I did prefer the one you wrote on Gill's though lol

Looking forward to more x

Thanks for reading

Loving the report so far! It is so much fun reading your trip reports! And I think I need to book another Virgin flight (and upgrade) just to get my hands on those salt and pepper shakers!! <3

I did have some of those little salt and pepper shakers, goodness knows how they managed to make their way home with me If I can find them, you are more than welcome to them.

Meanwhile, stay tuned, you are about to make an appearance....

I am late arriving but as you know, I have a good excuse! Loving the report so far and very much looking forward to reading along. Don't make me LOL too much, it will hurt my leg

You do have a good excuse for your tardiness, I forgive you. Hope all is going well and they let you out soon Don't worry about laughing too hard, Philip is going to be in some of the later chapters and we all know he isn't funny in the slightest

 

[wilma-bride]

Friday 21st April – Soarin’ all over the World

It was Epcot day. Yay! After first waking up at midnight and then almost every hour, on the hour, at 5am I decided just to get up and start getting ready. For once, Gary was actually wide awake too, so we got up, showered and got ready for the day ahead. I had a text from work to let me know that my boss’ planned operation on her back had been postponed. I resisted the urge to reply and ask how everything was going back in the office.

Because we were up so early, we were way ahead of schedule so I messaged Kim to let her know we were ready when they were. She and Terry were ready too, so we left the room around 7.30, stopping briefly in the lobby of the villas for the guys and Kim to grab tea and coffee.





Gary mistakenly put a decaffeinated teabag in his cup – hmm, that’s not going to wake him up properly. Luckily he realised his mistake just in time. As we walked towards the bus stop, we could see a bus for Epcot pulling up so we hopped aboard and were pulling up at Epcot by 8.10. Because it was so early, there was no line for bag check and we lined up at the turnstiles with a few other people already gathered.

Around 8.40 they started letting people through the gates. I scanned my band and Mickey turned purple but I didn’t get a “Welcome Home”. I was so disappointed – who do I complain to, in order to get my free Poly bungalow stay





We were all held just before Spaceship Earth, where we were entertained by the Jamminators. I couldn’t resist snapping a pic of the cool exterior of the ‘golf ball’. Let’s face it, everybody takes this picture don’t they?



As soon as the rope dropped, it was absolute mayhem. People were literally running through the park. No less than 3 people nearly took out my ankles with their strollers. Completely ridiculous!

When we booked our Fastpasses, Kim had ‘made’ me use our Tier 1 FP for Frozen so we headed to Test Track first, to join the standby line. We literally walked straight in to a design studio, where we decided to pit boys against girls. The boys built the obvious ‘man car’ while Kim and I went for a more sedate, girly model.









Terry took one look at our car and deemed it the “cruise hairdryer of the vehicle industry” (a standing joke between us about the wall-mounted hairdryers on the Disney Wonder). Regardless of whether our car lacked power, we kicked their butts! Well, we beat them anyway – 1st and 2nd round champions were Kim and I, with Terry and Gary taking the 3rd and 4th round. The girls were overall winners by 1 point, with 198 for us and 197 for the guys. I told them that it just goes to show that it isn’t all about the power. “Yeah, but where was the excitement?” replied Gary. “The excitement was in the victory” I told him



By now, it was just after 9.30 and, after a quick stop at Starbucks for water and nourishment, in the form of an apple fritter – yum – we made our way over to The Land to ride Soarin’. We waited in the standby line for about 20 minutes before watching the pre-show – I’m glad they didn’t change it – and taking our seats to ride. It was absolutely amazing. I loved the old version but I actually think I may prefer the new one more. And, as a bonus, we spotted two Hidden Mickeys, which was one more than we’d ever seen in the previous version.

The guys needed breakfast before we went any further so Sunshine Seasons was our next stop. Gary had a cinnamon roll and I had a diet coke. After breakfast, we rode Living with the Land as Kim loves it. Gary was the chosen one. I don't think he was taking his job seriously enough though.



Next it was time for our first FP at Spaceship Earth. The standby line was massive, so I was glad we had FPs for it.



After our journey through time and modern (?) technology, we stopped in at the Art of Disney store, where David Doss was putting in an appearance later that day. Kim and Terry bought a picture of Wilderness Lodge, but I managed to restrain myself. Then it was on to Club Cool, where Terry was going to try the Beverly.





Oh no! No Beverly? Luckily - or maybe not - we managed to find another machine that was working and Terry got his first taste. Wish I’d taken a video of his reaction, it was hysterical.

After tickling our tastebuds with the various offerings, we visited the butterfly garden. Terry and Gary ‘rode’ the butterflies outside.



The flowers were so pretty and there were a ton of butterflies everywhere. I did spot a couple of butterflies that had ‘gone rogue’ and escaped the confines of the garden, much to the frustration of a young CM who was trying to shoo them back in LOL





After a couple of photo stops, we decided to head over to World Showcase.

 

[Vicky2jeff]

Oh I'm so jealous.. I can't wait to do this all again eventually!!
Absolutely love your TR❤❤❤

 

[runskyhy]

I did have some of those little salt and pepper shakers, goodness knows how they managed to make their way home with me If I can find them, you are more than welcome to them.

So they were disposable? I assumed I was going to have to confiscate a set of my own on our next flight to visit...

As soon as the rope dropped, it was absolute mayhem. People were literally running through the park. No less than 3 people nearly took out my ankles with their strollers. Completely ridiculous!

Ugh! That sucks. I don't recall it being that bad at the World Showcase entrance.

Regardless of whether our car lacked power, we kicked their butts!

Gurlz rule, boyz drool!!

After tickling our tastebuds with the various offerings, we visited the butterfly garden. Terry and Gary ‘rode’ the butterflies outside.

Awesome pic!

After a couple of photo stops, we decided to head over to World Showcase.

Those flowers are spectacular! Great photos! [/QUOTE]

 

[tony64]

I'm here, thanks for doing a trippie. We'll be able to live the trip as if we were with you now.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

Hi Joh

I shall be following along eagerly. I always enjoy your reports.

Kev

 

[Linda67]

Sounds like a great morning at Epcot. Just looking at those blue skies and gorgeous flowers makes me want to go back sooooo bad
I can't believe you were so hesitant to use your tier 1 FP for Frozen

 

[florida sun]

Im here, a little late but loving it so far!

 

[Tinkerbell1989]

Loving your report! Xx

 

[kid-at-heart]

Awesome report. Looking forward to reading more. Thanks much for sharing.

Kate

 

[clareyfairymouse]

Great trip report! Cant wait to read more! We are planning to book the WBPC this September for 2019! Really hoping for a good itinerary.