Mid Twenties and Going to Disney--with pictures

[ely3857]

Excellent trippie

The 2nd or 3rd days are hard, when your body just wont keep up!



Jodie

 

[mmbrad02]

Oh no no no, I didn't mean to give the impression that I thought Spectromagic was nothing special. I was definitely referring to the location of where we stood during the parade... I'm not sure if I can describe it very well, but we were on (maybe a bridge??) just past the turn to Casey's and Crystal Palace, but not quite to Frontierland. There was a drink stand right behind us. So when we turned away from Main Street and faced the Castle, it was a wonderful view of Wishes.

The parade is awesome, and so much better in person than in pictures. Problem was just I am barely five foot, and we were about 8 deep in the crowd. Would LOVE to go back and wait it out and see it front row!!

 

[mmbrad02]

Day 4: MGM Studios

I must admit I was not looking forward to MGM. That's one reason it's the last park on our trip. Why? Well, let's take a detour from the trip report....

1. I'm a big chicken when it comes to "thrill" rides, and that's what I considered Rockin Roller Coaster and Tower of Tower. DH loves thrill rides, so there was not way I was getting out of riding these.

2. When I was there in 1991, the park was fairly new and there wasn't a lot there yet. That's what I remembered most, so I wanted to go places where there was plenty of entertainment.

Okay, back to the trip...

The alarm clock goes off at 7:00am on Thursday, and DH turns it off. We both agree we don't want to get up, and roll back over. 7:30am comes, and we decide that we'll start getting ready. We get up, and suprisingly, my foot is not hurting near as bad. We are slow going this morning, and it takes us a while to start functioning. We finally get ready, AND we eat those precious pop tarts I packed (the price of the food at Sunshine Seasons blew Justin away, I don't think he wanted to pay OOP again). We get to the bus stop around 8:30. And we wait and wait and wait. I was a big advocate of WDW bus system. I think the for amount of people they transport, they do an awesome job. But on this day, MGM buses seemed very slow. We saw several come and go for the other parks, but none for MGM. FINALLY, one appears and we hop on. I've lost track of time by now, but I believe we arrived at the park around 9:30 or so.

We go through security and admission, grab a map, get our picture made by the Fast Pass people, and then head towards Rockin Roller Coaster to grab a fast pass. Everyone seems to have the same plan, and it's very crowded. We stop in front of Tower of Terror and have our picture made by a Fast Pass person. On the third shot, he tells us to look scared. We bursted out laughing instead. Oops! We finally get to RNR, grab fast passes, and head back to Tower of Terror. My stomach is in knots by now, but I'm not complaining. DH knows something is up because my usually chatty self is being very quiet. We waited in line for TOT for 15-20 minutes and are loaded on. We are in the front row; I sit closest to the wall and hold on for dear life. I kept my eyes open for most of the hotel ride, but when someone in our car said "Hold On People", I shut my eyes and did not reopen them until the ride was over. I missed the nice views of the park! Oh well, I survived, and did not ask to ride again. I would ride it if we go back though, it wasn't as bad as I had thought.

We still have some time before our Fast Pass window comes open, so we head over to watch the Muppet 3-D movie. We waited about five minutes for the show to start. We thought it was cute, but not as good as Philharmagic at MK.

When we come out of the theater, we see Mama Melrose, so at least we know where our dinner will be tonight. We stroll around and head back towards RNR since our time window is about open. When we arrive, the stand by line is now 90 minutes because the ride was broken down for a while. I was given the badge to give to the ride attendent to determine the wait time. The lead into this ride was pretty neat, and I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been so nervous. We are led into the limos area, and the attendant wanted us to set on the front row; he said it would give DH more leg room. But I insist I don't want to sit front row, so he moves us to the back seat of the front limo... that didn't ease my fears much! DH tells me to lean my head back, and we're off. A minute later, with my eyes glued shut, the ride is over. I ask DH three times if he's sure it's over before I open my eyes

We head to the picture area, which actually has a pretty short line compared to the others we've seen, and I decide to use my Disney Visa rewards card to purchase our picture. At this point I'm aggravated with myself because I didn't sit in the front row--it would have been a much better picture that way! Oh well, I'm not planning to ride again on this trip, so I'll take what I can get.

We leave the ride area and I announce to DH that I can now enjoy my day because those two rides are behind me He laughs and he head over to The Great Movie Ride. I rode this in 1991, but I do not remember any of it whatsover. I thought it was pretty cute, and DH enjoyed it. By this point we are starting to think about lunch, so we head over to Backlot Express. I remember from reading DIS that there were not a lot of options in MGM, but this one seemed to work for us. Justin had the double cheese burger/fries, a drink, and the strawberry parfait. I had the hot dog/fries, drink, and chocolate cake. We ate everything, though DH did pick the raisins out of his parfait. As we were finished, this place was getting packed so we decided to get up so some more people could enjoy our table.

We start discussing when we will leave this park; DH is getting tired and for once I'm fine, but I knew he'd be cranky if he didn't rest. We decide to do the Indiana Jones stunt show and then head back to POR. We waited for about 15 minutes for the next show to start. I remember this from 1991 and I thought DH would really enjoy it even though I wasn't too excited about seeing it again. We both ended up enjoying this show though.

Back to the bus stops, where again it was slow getting a bus to POR. We finally get back though and take a break.

Up Next... the rest of day 4 at MGM

 

[Jennifer48]

Oh no no no, I didn't mean to give the impression that I thought Spectromagic was nothing special. I was definitely referring to the location of where we stood during the parade... I'm not sure if I can describe it very well, but we were on (maybe a bridge??) just past the turn to Casey's and Crystal Palace, but not quite to Frontierland. There was a drink stand right behind us. So when we turned away from Main Street and faced the Castle, it was a wonderful view of Wishes.

The parade is awesome, and so much better in person than in pictures. Problem was just I am barely five foot, and we were about 8 deep in the crowd. Would LOVE to go back and wait it out and see it front row!!

Whew! Thanks for clarifying. I got a little worried there!

Now off to read your next installment!

 

[Viki]

Very nice report; thank you for writing.

On the Safari, generally you're better off the earlier in the day you do it - animals "behave" more in the morning!

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I really enjoyed your report. DBF and I are the same age as you and your DH. It's nice to see other couples our age loving Disney!

Thanks for posting!

 

[bbump]

Your report is helping me get excited for our August trip! Thanks for posting!!

 

[MeandMyBoys]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. DH and I went twice PK (pre-kids) and we had a great time both times.

 

[schmoopypoo]

Great TR so far I give you alot of credit for doing those "thrill rides" too We don't have to worry about that though when we go becasue we both love them, but I've heard of people who won't even dare try them.

And I am definitely with you on the "no riding mission space" thing. DBF wants me to go on soooo bad, but I keep saying no. We'll see what happens when we get there cuz I'm a sucker Anywho, can't wait for more

 

[ely3857]

I love RNR!



Jodie

 

[mmbrad02]

Day 4: The Rest of MGM

So we get back to the resort, and I'm not tired. So Justin takes a nap, and I start looking over our MGM map. I took out my black Sharpie and put X's over the items we've done, and circle the items I really want to see. Gosh, there are so many shows in this park, it's nearly impossible to fit them all in. At this point, I decide we will probably have to return to MGM the next day (Day 5 was set aside for DTD and to travel around to the parks anyways). Justin sleeps for an hour or so and then we head back to the bus stop. We get there, sit for about 10 minutes, and DH realizes his pump is almost out of insulin. So we go back to the resort, get that changed, and then head back to the bus stop. We hop on a bus and head back to MGM.

When we get to MGM, the black clouds are rolling in, so we keep the ponchos near. I convince Justin to go see The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. This was not high priority on his list, but he went along anyway. It was ironic, but we saw the two girls from Epcot who took our picture for us! They didn't notice us though. I really thought this show was good, and cute, but we had some noisy neighbors to our left that insisted on talking/laughing on the way through. A bit discouraging, but after some other folks "shhh'd" them, it was better.

We start to make our way across the park, and we notice the Fastpass Return time for Star Tours was a little after 7:00, and our dinner was scheduled for 5:50, so we grab fast passes for after we eat.

By this point, it's time to check in at Mama Melrose for the Fantasmic Dinner Package. We check in and are asked to step aside and someone will call for us. This was the first restaurant where I saw someone without an ADR being turned away. The restaurant didn't seem overly crowded, but I guess they had people coming later.

Anyways, we were seated and our server's name was Tony. He was nice, but always seemed to be rushed, even though this restaurant took longer than any of the other restaurants we ate at. He explained the Fantasmic menu to us, and took our drink order. He returned with the bread/sauces/mickey butter and we asked him to not bring the salad, because neither of us like salad. He offers us soup instead, so we each have a bowl of minestrone soup. It was okay. Next we had a four cheese flat bread. Yummy! By this time I'm stuffed, and we hadn't received our entrees yet. I ordered the Wood Grilled Chicken and Justin ordered the Chicken Parm. For those who are keeping track, he also had this entree at Tony's and he had the chicken parm. sandwich at Pizzafari! Yes, it's a favorite of his. We both liked our meals, but I could not finish mine. We are too full for desserts, but we are on the dining plan, so we order them anyways. We had the Honey Hazelnut and Ricotta cheesecake. Oh this was soooo good, I wish I had not been so full. We definitely should have split this, but we picked at our own pieces. Tony signs our Fantasmic card and we are on our way.

So now we roll out of the restaurant, too full to move. I snapped this picture that I thought was neat:

So our Fast Pass Return window is now available, so we head to Star Tours. I'm wondering if we should ride on such full stomachs, but I keep thinking I rode this ride in 1991 and it wasn't bad. So we get in line and are seated in the back rode. When this ride was over, we both sat there like "Is that it??" Pretty short and mild. Has this ride always been at that location and the cave-like setting? I remember the ride itself, but not the decor.

Anyways, we continue on and come across Sounds Scary-Staring Drew Carey. I tell Justin that I've heard this is really stupid and we should skip it. He's not convinced though and thinks we should try it. So we wait. We should have known when there was only about 5 people waiting that something wasn't right. We had a 7 minute wait and were seated. We did not like this!! One problem was that someone talked all the way through, we think it was in Spanish but we were not sure. At any rate, it was distracting. Justin, being a tech guy, thinks they should at least provide you with Bose headphones! Anyways, we exited and decided that show probably would not make it much longer.

By the way, are there any plans to take this attraction out?

We decide that we should probably start making our way to the Fantasmic Entrance, even though we don't like the idea of waiting an hour for the show to start. I must say it was kind of cool having the private entrance. Of the two sections reserved for the package deal, we sit on in the section closer to the center, almost near the rope. Good seats, I am pleased. However, I think we could have had just as decent seats without the package since we arrived an hour before the show and it's just the two of us. Now if I tried this next time, we wouldn't find a seat

We sit for a while, and Justin starts getting restless. For a while, we listen to a couple of honeymooners behind us talking about their plans for the remainder of the week. Sweet! Then, there was a family in front of us, it appeared to be a mom and two little girls (could have been an aunt or godmother or something, but I really think it was the mom). These little girls had their Mickey ears on and they were truly what Disney is all about. Then we notice the oldest has tears streaming down her face. She wasn't pitching a fit or screaming or doing anything for attention, but she was clearly upset. Later, the mom buys her one of those String Things, and the tears are gone. it almost made me cry, it was so cute and the mom commented on how she had more to get into the suitcase now. This made our evening. So, if anyone is reading this and if fits your description of Pre-Fantasmic on Thursday, July 20, you allowed us to have a great Disney evening!

By now Justin decides he is going to go find something to drink. He returns about 20 minutes later with two bottles of Diet Coke. We are finally getting ready for the show to start, and I can't wait. This show is awesome!!! I really cannot wait to go back and see it again. I'm amazed at how they do it all. I wish my camera took good pictures in the dark. By now, after Illuminations and Wishes, I know the pictures won't turn out, so I don't even try.

After Fantasmic, we exit and make our way to the front of the park. We get in line for a bus and head back to POR.

Next.... Day 5 at Chef Mickey's, Downtown Disney, MGM, and Magic Kingdom

 

[Jennifer48]

I Fantasmic! too! I just made it my ringtone!

 

[goalie5hole]

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

 

[christygobar]

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Melissa!!!!!!!!



I just read every word of your report this morning. And of course got those "I'm too excited to sleeeeeeeeep" lil tears in my eyes. I am so glad you guys had a great time, even despite your airport difficulties (ok, I giggled a bit, but your poor knee!).

You sound like me in your chickenness of riding things. I'm going to ride the "less intense" version of Mission Space when I go, and I think I might work myself up to ride ToT again (last year was my first time, and it was fun - but I'm trying to decide if it was THAT much fun ). I have yet to ride RnR, and I'm not entirely sure I want to. hee hee.

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I'm LOVING your trip report!! Looking forward to more!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I'm really enjoying your report, and your pics.

 

[Dolce27]

So our Fast Pass Return window is now available, so we head to Star Tours. I'm wondering if we should ride on such full stomachs, but I keep thinking I rode this ride in 1991 and it wasn't bad. So we get in line and are seated in the back rode. When this ride was over, we both sat there like "Is that it??" Pretty short and mild. Has this ride always been at that location and the cave-like setting? I remember the ride itself, but not the decor.

The ride is still in the same location as always. They redesigned the gift shop in 1999 when Episode I Phantom Menace was released in the theater. It's designed to look like the Tattonie Village (?) from Episode I. There has also been a rumor since 1999 that they are supposed to update the ride to be the Pod racing scene from the movie instead of a trip to Endor.

 

[mmbrad02]

Day 5: Chef Mickey's, Downtown Disney, MGM, and Magic Kingdom:

So our last day at WDW was set aside to have have breakfast with Mickey, check out Downtown Disney, and then circle back through the parks to see any attractions that we either missed or liked well enough to do again.

Remember back at the beginning I said DH didn't help with the planning of this trip? Well, I planned a character breakfast, and later he was not impressed. But he went along like a pro, and I think he really enjoyed the attention!

So that morning we are going to sleep in, we think. Our ADR was for 10:20, so we decide that as long as we get to the bus stop by 9:15 or so, that would be good. As soon as we arrived at the bus stop, an MK bus pulled up, and we ended up arriving at MK around 9:40 or so. It was too early to head to the Contemporary, so we entered MK and decided to take a ride on Peter Pan's Flight. Pretty cute ride, but by the time we waited in line and rode the ride, it was already time to exit MK and hop on the Monorail.

I've always been impressed with the Contemporary, at least from the outside. A couple of times I had even thought about changing our reservations from POR to CR. My bank account didn't agree though At any rate, if WDW offers free dining next year, I am really contimplating going back for a long weekend and staying at CR. I was excited about this ADR so I could finally get a glimpse at the inside of this hotel, along with my favorite characters of course!

Inside view of The Contemporary:

So we get checked in, and this place seems very disorganized from the start. We are directed to the picture-taking area, and the two gentlemen running this system don't seem to have a clue about what they are doing. We had two shots taken, and we never saw these photos. Other people had them dropped off at their table from time to time while we ate, but ours never arrived. I guess it's for the better, it saved me from spending money!!

We head to the waiting area, where we ran into this guy:

We started to take a seat, and our pager went off. We are seated in the area almost directly behind the waiting area (if you are looking at the buffet from the waiting area, we are on the right) under the monorail. It was a cozy little area, and not too many kids, so it worked out great for us. Our waitress offered us orange juice, and I asked if I could also have a Diet Coke. She was pleasant and friendly, but not overly of either one.

It appears we have just missed Pluto, so we go ahead and make our way to the buffet. It had a nice selection, I started out with Mickey Waffles (I had been waiting all week to see these!!), bacon, and some of the cheesey potatoes/hashbrown casserole. I really liked the waffles and bacon, and not so much on the potatoes. I'm not sure what DH had, this place had too much going on to worry about that! I do know that he piled his plate full of stuff!

We hadn't been there too long when Chip made his appearance.

I had hoped the characters had someone walking around with them, because I wanted some pictures of us together, but I guess they do not do this here. So when Dale came over, I asked a family at the table next to us to snap our picture.

It appears now that we have a break, so we both had back to the buffet. I got some more bacon, and I decided to try the cheese blintzes. When I arrived back, Minnie had started making her rounds.

(Justin would freak if he knew I had this picture on my desk at work now....) I also had my picture made with Minnie, but it didn't turn out too well.

And then, finally the star of the show:

I hate it that DH's eyes are shut, but oh well. I was able to crop him out at Walmart

So now we are full, we've seen all the characters except Pluto, and we decide to leave. I must say, the food is okay, but if it were not for the characters, I don't think I would have a desire to return. They make it worth it though!!

During breakfast, Justin received a call from his work, so afterwards I decide to go in the stores at the CR, and he sits in the sitting area overlooking the beach and calls work back. This is the only point at the trip where we got fussy with each other. I looked around in the stores for five minutes or so, and then I redeemed my coupon that came with my Magical Express information for a free pin. So I've spent about 10 minutes doing something. I come back and Dh is still on the phone. I sit. 10 more minutes pass, and he's still on the phone. I'm starting to get frustrated. It's our last day in the World, and I'm sitting in a hotel lobby. I finally tell him, "If you are going to talk, you are going to walk". We ended up sitting for about 30 minutes before the phone call ends. I'm aggravated and DH knows it. We just keep walking, in silence, back to the Monorail and ride back to MK.

We get back on the POR/POFQ bus. We decide to get off at POFQ and wait for a bus to Downtown Disney. We waited forever for this bus, or at least it seemed. We finally get on and we get off at the Marketplace stop. I have never been to DTD before, so I'm unfamiliar with it. We look at the posted map of the area and begin walking. I knew I wanted to check out Goofy's Candy Company and the Pet Shop for sure. Beyond that I just wanted to browse. We still had to get souveniors for family back home, and I didn't really want to leave DTD without them.

We went through the store where everything is $10 below and I bought one of those freezable mugs (we have two from our honeymoon and we use them a lot) and then we buy our cat a scarf at the pet shop. We stop at a snack booth and buy a frozen lemonade for DH and a Diet Coke for me. DH decides to sit on a bench while I go into the World of Disney. I find some souveniors and we are on our way. That is a neat store, but it's so big! We come across the Lego store and all the lego statues, and we are fascinated. I attempt to take a picture of the dragon, and a couple stops and asks if we want them to take both our pictures. So nice!

They ask if we are on our honeymoon, and we explain that we're coming up on our 4th anniversary. They tell us they are celebrating their 25th.

By this point we still haven't been to the candy store, and I really want to check out Earl Of Sandwich while we are here. So we find Earl first and we decide we'll split a meal since we have three counter service meals left. We got the meatball sub, brownie, and a drink. We had to wait in line for a while, but it was definitely worth it. I hope to come here hungry next time, it's sooo good!

We find Goofy's Candy Co. and I am sooo excited to find they have the bulk candy, and they have the yellow banana's from Runts. I love the bananas; I waste so many boxes of Runts because I pick the bananas out and then I am finished. So I buy a third of a pound of yellow bananas and DH picks out some sort of pre-packaged candy (chewy sprees I think) and we check out. While we check out, DH is asked to test their slushy's to make sure they taste okay. He tried a Strawberry one and a Raspberry Lemonade. He said both were good.

By now we are getting hot and tired (we went in other stores too, I just don't remember them all) and decide we've seen enough of Marketplace and decide to go back to POR for a nap. I had mentioned to DH that they have a boat that goes to our resort, so we decide to take that back. It was such a nice ride, and just a nice change of pace to the buses.

Up Next... Circling the parks and our last night at POR!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I was able to crop him out at Walmart

This cracked me up!

I can't believe your trip report is almost over!

 

[mmbrad02]

So during Justin's afternoon nap on Friday, I began the dreaded task of packing. This was our first week long vacation since our honeymoon, and I had "moved us in" to the hotel room rather than living out of suitcases. I started with our clothes. First I packed the garbage bag full of dirty clothes into the extra duffel bag I had brought. That was the easy part. Then came the task of everything else! I managed to lay out some clothes for the next day and pack up the rest of our clothes, and put all our shoes in the luggage, get our carry ons ready, etc. By this time Justin had had a nice nap, and it was time to roll again.

Our first stop was back to MGM to catch the last show of Lights Motors Action! I didn't really know if I wanted to do this or not, and I hadn't really mentioned it the day before, but when Justin saw the stadium while we were taking a stroll the day before, he announced he would like to see it. So we tried to board a bus to MGM from the West bus stop, but just like the previous day, the MGM buses seemed slow. When we finally got on, we only had about 15 minutes till the show started. At this point, I determine we will never make it to MGM, get through the security and admission, and get to the back of the park for the show. Oh, and what if there are actually other folks waiting to see this show? DH is oblivious to the fact that people might have been waiting in line and the show could be filled.

At any rate, we arrive with about 3 minutes to spare, get through all the lines, and walk comando style to the show. We get there and the CM's and motioning everyone forward, proclaiming the last show of the evening. When we get to the stadium area, we notice there are indeed a lot of empty seats. The first seat we took ended up having an obscured view; we were basically going to have a pole in our way through the show. One of the joys of just having two people is that you can usually find a seat elsewhere, so that is what we did. We didn't have to move too far, but we had good seats in my opinion. Here are some pictures from the show:

We both loved this show. I thought it was pretty entertaining, and I was glad we made the effort to go. But, now was my turn! DH had chosen this show, and in return, I had said I wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast. So when Lights Motor Action! ended, we quickly made our way back across the park, where the CM's were now motioning people into the Beauty and the Beast auditorium for the last show of the evening. We sat close to the back, but still had a good view. We were entertained by Four for a Dollar, which I thought were hilarious and I planned to buy their CD for a souvenior (which I would later forget....). I really enjoyed this show as well! I think MGM does some good shows overall. Some I enjoy more than others, but that's how it goes.

So now we are getting hungry, it's around 7:00 and we both know we have to get up at 3:00am to get to the front lobby for our 4:00am ME pick up. But we are at Disney, and we want to enjoy every last moment! We have two counter service meals left, and since the options at MGM are limited, we decide to spend our final moments at Disney at Magic Kingdom. We exit MGM and get in line (with dozens of other people) for the TTC bus. We didn't make it onto the first bus, but we are the first in line for the next bus. We finally arrive at the TTC, take a potty break, and board the Monorail for MK.

When we arrive at MK, it's packed. Tonight they are having Extended Evening Hours, and I had never seen so many people!! They have started roping off Main Street for the parade, and that didn't help traffic any. I know where I want to eat (although at this point I didn't know the name) and I didn't have a map, because I *knew* where the restaurant was. BUT, in all the madness and crowds, I am confused, I don't know where I'm going, I'm hungry and tired, and did I mention it's crowded? I just want to leave. If I'd been alone, I would have, but DH says we are here and we should enjoy it. And he knows that once I get food in me, I will be fine too. So I say "Forget it, we'll just eat at the first place we come to". This just happends to be Peco Bills. Sounds fine, except the line is soooooo long. I'm not waiting, and I leave. We keep walking, and finally I figure out where I am, and I find the restaurant I had originally set out for: Columbia Harbour House. Ah hah! And little did I know that when I returned and checked on DIS, it's actually one of the more popular MK restaurants!

The lines were not too bad here, so we get in line. We are both really hungry, and it's our last Disney meal, so we choose the fish and chicken combo (with fries), drinks, and the chocolate cakes. The place was noisy, but by this point I didn't care. The food was so good! I loved the fish, and I'm not a big fish person. The chicken was good too. We decided to take th cakes with us, and save them for later.

DH wants to ride one last ride before we leave, and we decide on Big Thunder Mountain. The fast pass time is to return about an hour later, and the wait is 50 minutes. Now if we'd been smart, we'd grabbed fast passes and either 1) waited in line anyways, or 2) watched Spectromagic. But it's 9:00pm and we just want to ride something and head back to POR, so we just hop in line. And it took the entire 50 minutes! It was the longest line we waited in all week, and it was stuffy, sweaty, hot, etc. But it was worth it! It was so neat to ride this in the dark, you get a totally different effect. So I invision us walking hand in hand out of the park on our last night, but that's far from how it happened.

It just so happen that they were getting ready to turn the lights off for Wishes! and they wanted everyone to stay in place. Now, I loved Wishes, but I did not want to watch it again and then fight the crowds to exit the park. Especially since we had to be up at 3:00am! So we make our way as quickly as possible through the crowds of Main Street. And we made it with about a minute to spare. One of my happiest moments was seeing the CM's up on the train area and waiting good-bye. I wanted to cry; DH just laughs.

We get off at the South bus exit because I want to buy a shirt at Fulton's, and then we went to the food court to spend our four remaining snack credits. DH wanted a lemonade, and we bought 3 Mickey Mouse Rice Krispie Treats (I loved these things!!). We head back to the room and I pack up our toiletry items and we finally go to bed. That alarm would go off way too early!

Now, because we are cheap, we didn't arrange for bell services to pick up our luggage. So we hauled them from our building, waaaaaayyyy over on the other side of POR, to the main lobby at 3:30am the next morning. We arrive and find that we are the only ones there. Another family shows up, and finally our bus does too. The bus drive is kind of peculiar, and does weird things, like cleaning a certain spot on her windshield at 4am, but oh well. She gets up safely to MCO, and that's all that matters.

We navigate our way through this airport much easier than we did our departing airport, get our luggage checked, get through security, and get on the shuttle, and get to our terminal. We get breakfast at Burger King, and go sit and wait to board. We are finally on our way home.... boo!

Next up.... recap, plans for next time, etc.