OK, I'm home at Realityland, Arizona. Had some matters to take care of the last couple of days. Got home Saturday night, and what an adventure that was...
First the DME bus to take me from Sports to the Airport was 50 mins late! Some of the other people waiting were panicking because they had earlier flights than I did. When he finally showed up he had a full bus. I guess he was supposed to go to another resort because he called on his radio telling the dispatcher that he couldn't make another pickup he was full and they needed to send another bus to the other stop. I can't imagine how late those people were.
We get to the airport and I hurry up to the level to go through security and HOLY CRAP! What a friggin' mess! There were people everywhere. One poor TSA guy telling people to get into a line but there was no "line" to be found, just a massive hoard of people facing the security area. After having lots of people push past me, (I just kept telling myself I was still on vacation), I finally make it through the mess and get to a checkpoint. Then I guess this checkpoint got inspected, some lady goes through with a bag and then whips out a ID and bag and has a meeting with the TSA agents over what they missed or something. So we stand there and wait and wait. When she finally leaves I go through no problem and head for gate 54. I get to the gate just as they are boarding. Whew, what a mess.
Also just as we get ready to leave the gate all of the ground crew goes inside of the building. Turns out there was a chance of lightning so everyone has to go inside. Fine. We sit there for 25 mins and then off we go. Turns out we ended up landing about 10 mins early, (direct flight).
I expected something to go wrong, it always does on the way home for me. Engine trouble, storms, etc. all of that stuff at least only happens on the way back from wherever I'm going which is a lot better than on the way to somewhere.
I was exhausted when I got home, went straight to bed.
I had a great time on the trip overall. For 3 weeks I was expecting to come across many different troubles. Sore ankles, blisters, a chipped tooth, a real good head-cold, fever, shoulder pain, back troubles etc. etc. But overall I'm glad I finally after 40 years got to do my dream vacation to Orlando.
I downloaded all of the pictures from my camera to my computer, 1895 pictures not counting the 25 or so I took with my phone. It's going to take me a while to go through those! I took a look at the Photopass ones too, about 25, but only a couple of them I look good in.
My wife and son liked the stuff I got them. I'll give the stuff to my grandson in a week or two.
The Magic Kingdom was just what I expected, a little bigger version of my beloved
Disneyland. I was so glad I got to see things I miss at Dl like CBJ and the peoplemover. My favorite was MM&Y and Wishes.
DHS was ok except for Star Tours II 3D which as you know I loved! It was fun to see the grand opening of the new ride after I was at the original opening 25 years ago.
DAK was fun. Everest was great! The whole place felt like a giant Adventureland with a weird Dinosaurland thrown in. Dinosaur the ride was fun each time.
Epcot was great. The attractions in FW were good old style Disney, (Ellen's & SSE) or terrific, (TT & MS). WS was entertaining and delicious. I tried to eat and drink something from every country. Most of my dinners were here.
I learned something to tell everyone I know... don't wait until later in life to go to WDW, go while you're young and no matter how much you think your ready for the amount of walking, you're not! That place is big! Unless I had a drink in hand, it was a chore at times just to walk the length of Epcot.
I sit here and can't believe I finally made it. And worse yet, I'm back, it's over.

But now I have the memories, (and pictures). It's going to take me days or weeks to process it all. I will probably add to this as I go over the 1895 pictures.
Even 3 weeks was not enough, (plenty at one time) but not enough.
Thank you all for your help in planning this, the encouragements, the posts and good things you had to say. I was fun to "talk" to you each day!
Thank you,
Bob