I Don't Want to Adult This Week - A May 2016 Trip Report

[Barbanellie]

I joined the DIS shortly before our first trip to WDW in 2014. I've been an avid reader of the boards since, but never posted a trip report. We've returned from our second trip a few weeks ago, and thought I might as well share some of my thoughts, if only to "relive" the trip while writing down my thoughts. As this is my first time, please don't be too harsh, and I apologize in advance if I break some etiquette rule or something.

Introductions
We are a couple in our mid-30s, no kids, but big kids at heart. We’ve been together for 15 years this summer, and one of our reasons for this trip was to celebrate that anniversary. We got buttons, and it was a hoot getting happy anniversary wishes all the time, and really funny how people would be surprised at the fact that it was 15 years.

Mr. Barbanellie had been to WDW as a little kid, I’d been when I was 13 with my family, and in 2014 we went together, with my parents, my brother and my SIL. It was such an amazing trip, and we kept saying we needed to return for just the two of us. 2015 had been somewhat difficult for us, and one thing that kept us going was thinking “when this is over, we’ll go to WDW”. As soon as we could, we booked and spent the next 5+ months planning and looking forward to the trip.

So this was a celebratory trip in many ways, and a time when we wanted to not have any responsibilities, and just be big kids for 10 days, running around and playing. It worked wonderfully!

Day 1
We left home in the middle of the night (3:45) to catch our 5:30 flight. After a connection in Montreal, we landed at MCO around 11:30 AM, where we had lunch in the airport, taking our time. We took DME to our resort. I know a lot of people complain about the length of this service, but I just love it, and that’s where we feel we really are in Disney, sitting on that bus. And I like looking at the different resorts the bus stops at on the way! We checked-in at around 2PM, got our magic bands, but our room was not ready yet. We went to Muddy Rivers for cocktails while we were waiting, then walked around the resort for a bit.



We sat and people-watched from the gazebo in front of Magnolia Terrace. We had swim suits in our carry-ons, and could’ve used the pool(s) while we were waiting, but we didn’t feel like changing and all that at that point. We finally received e-mail that our room was ready around 3PM, right around when we were starting to think it had been a long enough wait. I had asked for a room in AB, higher floor, corner in a quiet location. We got room 3860, which was just perfect. We headed there for a quick nap, then changed and went swimming in the quiet pool between Magnolia Terrace and Acadian House. Didn’t stay too long in the pool, the sun was hot, and we’d forgotten our hats and to put sunscreen on. We took the boat to DS for the evening. Really happy that the boats at busy times no longer share with FQ, and we only had to wait one boat. Still a lovely boat trip. DS was a zoo, packed with people, employees had to direct pedestrian traffic (keep to the right of the walkways, please, keep to the right!). We did some shopping without buying anything. Lots of pretty things, usually far too expensive. We had reservations for dinner at Raglan Road. We loved it. The food was delicious, our server very nice, and we had the absolute best table in the house (according to us J), two big leather chairs next to a fireplace (unlit, thankfully!).



We enjoyed our evening, and returned to POR for an early night, as we were beat from getting up so early, and had an early start the next morning.

 

[Barbanellie]

Day 2
We had 8:35 ADR at Crystal Palace, because I really wanted to meet Eeyore.



This was our very first time with a PPO ADR, and we loved it. Walking down the quieter Main Street, and then strolling about between CP and Adventureland waiting for our reservation time. There was absolutely no one there at that time of day, it was really awesome.



Food at CP was fine, very good breakfast buffet, we especially loved Pooh’s French Toast. The characters were so lovely and fun! We were just two adults, but each took the time to see us, give me a big hug, sometimes they even insisted on a photo with Mr. Barbanellie as well (who had said he wouldn’t, but fell under the Disney spell in no time!).



Our table location was awesome as well, I had a view of the castle from the windows close to us. We knew we wouldn’t be done with breakfast in time for rope drop, and were fine with that, as the goal of our PPO was to get in the park before rope drop, and to meet the characters. It was fun to see the rush of people when rope drop happened, though! We probably left the restaurant around 9:30. We went on IASW first, kind of a tradition to start with what I consider to be the most traditional and Walt-Disney-esque attraction. There was absolutely no wait. We then went on to our FP for SDMT. I hadn’t thought about it beforehand, but I felt it was really interesting that we started our day with what must be the oldest attraction at MK, immediately followed by its newest! I was really looking forward to SDMT, as we’d missed it by a couple of weeks on our previous trip in 2014. It is indeed a very short little coaster, but it was faster and more fun then I’d expected. I no longer remember everything else we did, but we went on Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, BTMR and Splash Mountain for sure in that morning. Somewhere around noon, we had decided to head over to Tom Sawyer’s island. On the way, we started looking at options for lunch and dinner, and realized that 1) the MDE app on my phone refused to book ADRs and 2) we were really tired and hungry and cranky. So we took our time with the island, sat down and cooled off on the rocking chairs where there seemed to have once been some kind of food counter, then decided to just go back to the resort, have lunch there, take a nap, maybe a little swim, and choose what we’d do in the evening later. After some rest, and logging into MDE with my laptop in our room, we were able to reserve Skipper Canteen around 7pm. We went back to MK for the evening, went on Jungle Cruise and Pirates with absolutely no wait during MSEP (we have no interest in parades whatsoever), and we went on Splash Mountain during the fireworks, which was really fun! We rode a bunch of other things that evening, left somewhere around closing time.

Day 3
We had looked at the weather forecasts the evening before, and were a bit gutted that it looked like heavy rain all week. We cheered up seeing that it was close to freezing (and we learned it actually snowed) back home, and decided to no longer look at weather forecast and just take whatever came in stride, and if we got rained on, we’d be wet and not care about it.


We had planned one day for no theme park to spend at one (or both) waterparks, and decided to “get it over with” early in the trip, and we figured if the weather was to be crappy for the rest of the week, might as well go now while it was nice. We couldn’t decide which of the two water parks we wanted to do more, or first, so we went to the bus stop, and decided to get on the first bus to either water park. Chance took us to Typhoon Lagoon. We had a lot of fun, the wave pool was just awesome! We enjoyed most of the tube rides, and the lazy river. We also shared a sand pail, which was on my check list. We kept giggling at the concept of eating a bucket of ice cream, with a shovel. After I’d bought it, a little girl around 9 or 10 saw me walking back to our table with it, and it was hilarious seeing her eyes pop and mouth drop at pure amazement that such a thing existed! We left the water park around 2 pm. We got back to the resort, showered, had a quick nap, and decided to go back to Disney Springs for the evening. Our plan was to try the AMC dine-in theater, which is something we do not have at home and looked like a fun experience to try, especially as the forecast was for rain that evening. It was indeed a lot of fun, the theater was almost empty, the seats were super comfortable, the food was very good. It looked like we missed the rain while we were at the movies, and thought our weather-luck was really helping us again! We slowly walked back to the boat dock to return to POR, and stopped at Ghirardelli for a sundae. Gosh, that thing was huge, glad we shared it!

 

[Barbanellie]

Day 4
We decided to have a bit of a later start today, sleeping in, and walking to French Quarter for breakfast. The walk along the river between POR and FQ is really lovely, and it was a rather pretty day, although extremely humid and hot. After walking back to our resort, we finished preparing and hopped on the bus to Hollywood Studios to do a few things there (Rock’n roller coaster, Star Tours, photos with Olaf and Chewbacca…). The sky was getting dark, and the forecast was for thunderstorms, but we told ourselves: “This is Florida, it’ll be a short storm, maybe 15-30 minutes. At a time. We’ll be fine.” As we walked into DHS, it started to rain, but it wasn’t constant, we walked in and out of shops, and bought a couple umbrellas, on our way to RNR. Still really enjoy this ride, although I’m a total wimp and my legs shake for a good 15 minutes afterwards. When we walked out of the ride, it was starting to rain a little again, and the timing was just right to head to the Beauty and the Beast show. We found it quite good, and it was a good way to be out of that rain (and to settle my RNR nerves!). The sun didn’t quite come out after that, but it wasn’t raining. We toured DHS (or what’s left of it) for a bit, heading to ST for our other FP+ that day, going to Star Wars Launch Bay for Chewie. We dropped by Olaf also, which had barely any wait at all. By then, it seemed that most of the rain was gone, and we thought we’d walk to Epcot from DHS. I’d never been on the Boardwalk, and we enjoy walking. It was a very pleasant walk (although, still terribly hot and humid, but when we’re on vacation, I don’t really care that much!), and I would do it again. Of course, the Boardwalk was very quiet, middle of the afternoon there’s nothing very interesting there, but it was really pretty. I could see myself staying in one of those resorts and walking into Epcot or DHS. But then, we’re not likely to have that budget any time soon.

Walking into Epcot, we went left and looked around the UK pavilion. It then started to rain a little again, so we thought we’d go to Canada and have a giggle at the film there. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered from when I was a teen (I know they re-did it a little with Martin Short, so I guess that helped), and again, we figured at least we were out of the rain. We then had a very weird itinerary planned, and we made it weirder by changing our minds. We had cancelled a FP+ to character spot, because we thought we’d stick to World Showcase (had an ADR at Marrakesh around 7pm), and it was EMH night, so we’d figured we’d do the characters towards the end of EMH, when it would be a bit quieter. But then, it was sort of raining-ish again, and we were at the edge of World Showcase. We decided to go get our picture with Baymax, because we were close, and to see what wait times would be for the other characters. Baymax was a short-ish wait, but Minnie/Mickey/Goofy were at 45 minutes, and we could no longer get a FP+ for it (serves me right for cancelling it!). We didn’t see what the wait was for Inside Out, but the rain had stopped, and we figured we’d come back for the other characters during EMH. We started walking back to WS, thinking we’d make our way towards Marrakesh while touring the other countries on our way there. By the time we were close to Mexico, it started raining again pretty hard, so into the pyramid we went. We did the little boat ride (walk-on) and walked around for a while. It was still pouring outside, so we really took our time in the Mexico pavilion, then decided to head directly to Morocco. We figured by the time we finished out meal, the rain would have passed, and we’d enjoy the pavilions leisurely before heading back to Future World during EMH. We really enjoyed our meal at Marrakesh. The restaurant is really pretty and the food was excellent. A bit noisy, however, not because of the entertainment but it seemed very echo in there. We still enjoyed it and are glad we went.

When we left the restaurant, you’ll have guessed it, it was pouring. And really seriously pouring with no hope of letting up. I had my heart set on the Character Spot meet and greet with Minnie, because I had worn my special rockabilly dress (white with cherries) that I call my “Minnie dress”. So we tried to make our way to the front of the park while staying somewhat out of the rain, but it was a lost cause. Some of the walkways were flooded, and we had water up to our ankles. We were tired, and cold, and wet, and my husband was slushing around in drenched running shoes. We were a mess. We went to the meet and greet, had to wait a good 40 minutes stand-by (cursing myself once again for cancelling that FP+) but it allowed us to dry up and warm up somewhat, and it was fun, and I’m still really happy we did it. You can’t tell on the photos how tired and miserable we were before that



But it was the end of our energy for that day. Mr.B was still walking around with drenched shoes, we didn’t want him to be sick, and we were just basically dead tired and beat. So while it was barely 9pm, and we would miss EMH completely, we went back to the resort, got a nice warm shower and went to bed.

 

[Barbanellie]

Day 5
Still a bit shaken up by the unending rain the evening before, we decided to pay closer attention to the weather forecast for the rest of our trip (instead of the “if it rains it rains and won’t be a problem” attitude we’d started our vacation with!). The forecast seemed pretty good for the day, not much chance of rain. We started by going to Blizzard Beach. We had loads of fun here as well, and we would have a hard time deciding which of the two water parks we preferred. The wave pool was not as much fun as at TL, but I enjoyed the theme a lot, the chair lift and the lazy river. Around 2pm, we were done with the waterpark, and went to the Winter Summerland mini-golf. It was cute, but a bit too simple. We still had a good time, though.


We had our BOG ADR that evening for 8:15pm. We don’t mind eating late, and it was EMH night. Still no rain forecast, so after a shower and a quick nap, we headed back to MK. We really enjoyed our BOG meal. We were in the ballroom, which is really lovely. A bit sad we didn’t get the West Wing, that room looks amazing! Next time, I guess J Wasn’t that impressed by the “grey stuff”, although not overly disappointed either as I knew from other reviews and TR what to expect. It was good, but I wouldn’t call it “delicious”, as they say in the song. And I loved our picture with the Beast. He is really impressive when he walks through the rooms between “shifts”.



Really, I think it’s at MK that we’ve had the most fun of our entire trip. There is just SO much to do, all the time, and we enjoyed repeat rides on our favorites (Splash Mountain, BTMRR and Haunted Mansion) as well as getting in Monsters Inc and Space Mountain. We also rode SDMT again, this time during Wishes. It was awesome! And after getting off the ride, we watched the end of the fireworks from there, and we were really in the middle of them, it was loud and impressive! We used every single minute of the evening and EMH, rode a lot of rides, and finished with one last SDMT ride. Stand-by at 12:30 was still about 40 minutes, but we decided to wait it out anyway, as it would be our last ride of the night. Man, that was a long and boring wait, though! I can’t imagine waiting in that queue in the heat of a July afternoon for 75 or 100 minutes.

Day 6
After getting to bed in the small hours of the morning, we slept in and had a late breakfast. Looking at the weather forecast, it seemed like today might not be much better than day 4. We packed our raincoats, put on sandals (Mr.B’s running shoes were still damp) and headed to AK, where we had FP+ for Dinosaur (wanted to get a funny picture on that ride for my mom), Everest and Kali River Rapids (with rain on the forecast, might as well get soaked on that ride anyway!). The heat and humidity was really intense, I don’t know what the numbers were, but it was brutal to me. We walked slowly to Dinosaur, were I was glad to get into the AC. Not my favorite ride, but it was fun, and our picture was just perfect



As we left Dinoland to head towards Asia for our other FP, they started announcing that because of thunderstorms coming, some rides would be closed. So, they shut down Everest and Kali. At that point, it had started to rain, but it wasn’t too bad, and we wanted to see the Flights of Wonder show. We got there, and sure enough, we had a nice roof over our heads, and figured this was a pretty good spot to wait out the rain. The show started at 2:45, but after maybe 10 minutes or so, the lightning and thunder forced them to cancel. We stayed under the roof for a while, trying to decide what to do, since almost everything was closed, and it was seriously pouring, again. Based on our experience two days before, we didn’t assume it would be stopping “shortly”. Looking through the MDE app, we’d been given two anytime FP+ to replace the ones we’d lost for EE and Kali. We chose to head over to the safari for one of them, thinking there’s a roof on that Jeep, and surely not all animals would be hiding from the storm, and we’d see how the weather progressed from there. The safari in the rain was a lot of fun.



Our driver was amazing, and we got to see some animals really close. A truck broke down, maybe 6 or so ahead of us, and we were stuck on the savannah for a good 20 minutes while they were sending a tow truck, which got blocked on the road by rhinos. It was fun, and again, our driver was great, she never stopped talking, full of interesting information. But after we left the safari, it was obvious the rain wouldn’t be stopping soon, and there wasn’t much we were interested in doing in AK while we were waiting, so we decided to get back to the resort.

The Port Orleans bus was shared with FQ coming back from AK. By the time we reached the resort, the sky had cleared up a bit, and we decided to get off at FQ and grab some of the famous beignets. Oh my, those were awesome! We ate them while walking back to POR, again loved the walk along the river. I also think by then Mr. B was starting to fall in love with FQ, and started talking about how we would book that resort “next time”. Uh oh…



We got back to our room where we dried off, and talked about what we wanted to do. We looked at weather sites, and it looked like the evening would be fine. Mr. B had a craving for Italian food for dinner, MK was open until 11pm and I still hadn’t had a LeFou’s Brew from Gaston’s Tavern, so we booked Tony’s for dinner and decided to spend yet another evening at MK. While at the bus stop, we decided to hop on whichever bus came first, MK or Epcot, and since it was Epcot, we took that one and got the monorail to MK. I like the monorail, it was a fun and relaxing ride. We then took the Express to MK, and I really liked going through the Contemporary. That poor resort, I find it so ugly from the outside, but it was really cool inside, and I again thought I would like to stay there if we had the budget for a deluxe. There is something to be said about having the monorail literally inside your resort!

Tony’s was OK. Not as bad as some people make it out to be, but we were seated close to the kitchen, and it was really noisy. I had the cannelloni, which really was closer to ground beef rolled into lasagna pasta with tomato sauce. But it was OK, and fit what we were in the mood for. We then had a quiet evening at MK, did some shopping on Main Street, rode or re-rode a few more rides, had a LeFou’s Brew and a cinnamon roll at Gaston’s, then we left during the fireworks.

 

[Barbanellie]

Day 7
We had a late start again, decided to head to Epcot around 11 for the start of World Showcase, the objective being to finish our tour of the countries and our shopping in the different pavilions. It started out well, there was a forecast of rain, but it looked like we might have a nice afternoon strolling the countries. It was again very hot and humid, and walking around WS was somewhat brutal. We wanted to get one of the famous ice creams at l’Artisan des glaces, but it was closed (booh…) So we kept on walking and bought a cucumber-watermelon slush from the Florida Fresh Flower and Garden cart. The size was rather small, but it was refreshing and different. We were walking rather slowly around the countries, taking advantage of the air conditioning in the stores. We spent a LOT of time touring the Japan pavilion and shop. We had lunch in Germany, again at the F&G cart, because they had Currywurst, which we really enjoy when in actual Germany, and no sauerkraut, which I’ve never been able to enjoy. We managed to find a somewhat shady spot to eat, looking at the water, and relaxing. Next was China, and rain and storms were starting to be threatening again, we were tired and starting to get cranky. Because we had planned to stay late at DHS for EMH, we decided to leave (very fast to get to the buses before the rain) to get a short nap. We stopped on the way for pineapple soft serve (aka Dole Whip), which we’d never had before. It was good, but I think my expectations were too high. We managed to get to the bus stop just before the rain started again.

We had a quick nap at the resort before putting our rain-gear together for our evening at DHS. We had FP+ for TOT, Toy Story and Star Tours, and had planned on seeing the Indiana Jones show, before grabbing QS dinner at ABC. Then we went to see the Muppets, which I always enjoy, and had some time to kill before the Star Wars fireworks at 9:45, and EMH were 10 to 12. We quickly found out there isn’t much to do at DHS anymore, and the construction everywhere makes walking around really unpleasant, as you always seem to hit a dead end and need to go back the same way you came. I can’t wait for the new sections to be open, it’ll help this park a lot. We caught the Little Mermaid show just before the fireworks, being so close. It was sort of cute, but somewhat disappointing compared to Beauty and the Beast, which is far superior IMHO. Then, it was time for the fireworks, which were amazing! The rain held off, we got a few drops but nothing major. We were sitting just in front of Great Movie ride, and the music with the force of the fireworks were really something. I liked that everyone was sitting for these, it really made for a more comfortable experience for me.

Now, I think Disney has done some really inadequate planning with regards to those fireworks and evening EMH. There are two things at work here which should have made this a much smoother experience: 1) Fireworks are not every night and 2) EMH are one evening a week. Planning the fireworks at 9:45, with a park close at 10 and EMH from 10 to 12 might sound like a good idea, but really, it’s not, because DHS really only has 5 popular attractions now (TOT, RNR, ST, TSMM, GMR) and 2 of those are shut down during the fireworks (TSMM and GMR). So when the fireworks ended at 10, you get a crush of people waiting to run to TSMM, and another fairly large group of people waiting for GMR. We were tired and didn’t feel up to the intensity of RNR or TOT at that point, and had already ridden ST twice this trip. Our reason for the EMH was really mostly TSMM, but after waiting for over 15 minutes in the huge crowd of people waiting for the park to allow them to run to the ride, like at rope drop, then thinking there’d be a shorter wait for GMR, but still waiting there for a few more minutes, without any signs of eventually being allowed to get to the ride, we decided to give up. It was already 10:20, we’d wasted 20 minutes of EMH doing nothing, we were tired and cranky and decided nothing good would come of staying in the park, and we’d better get to bed earlier and do AK’s morning EMH the next day.

Day 8
So, yeah, AK morning EMH, the only morning EMH we’ve ever done, as we’re usually more “night people”, but the rains this trip really put a wrench into our evening plans Anyway, we left the resort around 7:30 AM without having any breakfast (and we’d eaten all our room snacks the days before), which really wasn’t that great an idea to be on an empty stomach, but we had brunch reservations at Tusker House at 10:30, so no breakfast was on purpose. We found out on the bus that not eating at all until 10:30 really wasn’t going to be a viable option, so as soon as we got to the park, we bought a cookie from the Joffrey’s cart before heading straight to Everest. Still love this ride! We were sitting around the middle of the train, and I don’t know if they’ve improved the strobe lights around the yeti in the mountain or what, but I could’ve sworn it was moving. After Everest, we headed to Kali River Rapids, which we wanted to do early to have more time to dry off J We found out it wasn’t open during EMH, but by then it was maybe 10 minutes to 9, and there was already a bit of a line forming outside (I wonder why they don’t let people line up in the ride’s actual queue, as we were blocking the walkways…). We got in line, and again had a blast on that ride. It’s a shame it’s not just a little bit longer. We got drenched, and there were two small children on our raft, one kept giggling and having a wonderful time, the other barely got a few drops but seemed very unhappy, and his mother kept pointing to my husband (who looked like he’d jumped into a pool) and telling him “look, that man got a lot more wet than you!” It was hilarious! We dried off walking the various trails and seeing (or not) the animals and walking slowly towards Tusker House for our reservation.

I was disappointed with Tusker House, but a lot was because of our own state of mind by then. We were really exhausted, we were tired and grumpy. Our server was super nice, the breakfast food at the buffet was good, and I really enjoyed some of the more “out there” items, the jungle juice was delicious. But really, we just don’t eat enough to justify the high prices of the Disney buffets, and the characters (compared to when we did Crystal Palace at the beginning of our trip) seemed very disorganized and it all seemed to take very long. We managed to see Donald before we were full, and decided we didn’t have the energy to stick around waiting for the others, so we just paid and left. Like I said, we were extremely tired and grumpy. We walked around Africa a bit, and then went to see the Lion King show at noon, which was really excellent, and then we went back to the resort and slept the entire afternoon. We needed a lot more rest than we’d allowed ourselves, even though we had a very relaxed schedule.

For the evening, we grabbed an ADR at Skipper Canteen again, and so decided to go back to MK. But before going, we had some extra time, and decided to walk to FQ again and grab something to eat. I knew they had ice cream there, and we decided to get ice cream cookie sandwiches. I suggested to Mr. B. That we just share one, but he made a face, and I thought “how big can they be”. Goodness gracious!



We didn’t waste too much, but that was a LOT of ice cream! Good thing our Skipper’s Canteen ADR was still a couple hours away! We hopped on the MK bus from FQ.

Now, about Skipper’s Canteen. This was our second ADR there, because we absolutely loved it. We usually have “rules” when on vacation about where to eat, one of them is to not go to the same place twice (to try more different places) but we cheated with Skipper Canteen, we loved it that much.

Both times we were seated in the bigger “mess hall” room. I was slightly jealous of the people in the library, I would’ve loved to eat there, but the mess hall was really fine. The high ceilings make the room really “quiet” compared to other restaurants. We found the atmosphere to be really relaxing and peaceful. Granted, we are swing dancers, so really enjoyed the period ‘30s and ‘40s jazz music Both our servers were very attentive and we enjoyed the fun Jungle-Cruise-type humor. We also enjoyed that this was same-day reservation only, which meant it was relatively easy to get into, but contrary to what I’ve read in other comments, all rooms were full, and we usually had dinner around 7 or 8pm, so I don’t think it’s doing as badly as some might suggest. I was slightly bummed that they switched to “normal” 180-day ADRs this week, I thought it was great that there was an easy day-of option for MK. Oh well.

We also loved the food. I know there has been a lot of comments about how it was too “wild” or “strange” for some. And while I understand the menu might not be to everyone’s taste, I think there are plenty of places on WDW property where you can get a basic burger and fries, it felt refreshing to have something a little different. With that being said, it really isn’t THAT different, and I think most of the menu would be fine with most diners, except for the overly picky ones. I have an uncle who doesn’t eat any type of condiment, no kinds of sauce and refuses to eat cheese, so I imagine he would’ve hated this place, but for your average person, everything was tasty and well-prepared and well-presented.



We had another great evening at MK. I love that park at night so much. We rode some of our favorite rides again, and Mr. B. convinced me to go on the tea cups, which I had never done, and had sworn I wouldn’t because I was sure I’d feel sick. We didn’t spin too much, so it was OK and I enjoyed it, as long as I could control the spinning somewhat! We left around park close.

 

[Barbanellie]

Day 9
Our last day, sigh… As we had had a late night at MK the day before, and we had done all the really important things, we didn’t push too hard today. No rain in the forecast, so after a late breakfast, we headed to Epcot once again. We felt like riding the monorail again, and decided if the MK bus came first, we’d catch that one, and we did. When we arrived at MK, the TTC ferry was just docking, so instead of grabbing the express monorail, we also did a little ferry ride to the TTC. At that time of day, a lot more people are coming in the MK as leaving, so it was very quiet, and a very pleasant ride. I liked looking at the deluxe resorts around the lagoon, and thought the new cabins on the water at Polynesian looked lovely, but I’d get tired of hearing the ferry go by all day and almost all night long! I enjoyed doing the “Epcot tour” with the monorail when we arrived. We weren’t up to any of the “big rides”, and had made our FP for AK later in the afternoon, so we just did Spaceship Earth and Figment, just relaxing rides to get our day started. We then walked and finished our tour of WS and shopping in China and Japan before hopping on a bus to AK. We had FP for Everest and the safari, so we did those, and just enjoyed the park before our ADR at Yak and Yeti at 5:45. Since AK still closed early (6pm), we toyed with the idea of finishing the evening in MK again, if we finished our meal early and were up to it. But we left the restaurant at around 7pm, then we did some shopping on the way out of the park, and it was probably close to 8:30 by the time we made it back to our resort. We hadn’t really fully packed yet, and we would have an early start for our flight back home, so we abandoned the MK idea, and just went for a final swim after we finished packing.

Day 10
Our DME was at 8:30AM, so we just got up, had breakfast at Riverside Mill, and waited, with tears in our eyes, for the bus to pick us up. It was a really difficult morning, we had planned and dreamed of this trip for over a year, when things were tough at home, and it was a bit of a shock to realize we were already coming home, and that all the planning and researching and anticipation and excitement would be over. Mr. Barbanellie would gladly come back next year, I think, but I’m holding my ground and insisting we wait for Star Wars Land.

 

[adventuregirl]

Looks like a fantastic visit! I would hold out for Star Wars Land as well