It took us a long, long time to get moving the next morning.
Because we're OLD people.
Grumpy was awake before me and went to get her coffee at the food court. When she was gone I forced myself out of bed and got cleaned up. She went to the pool while I just chilled in the room and caught up on some work.
We had a lunch ADR at Kona for 1pm - barely made it - and then I wanted to go back to Epcot.
Kona was great as usual. Grumpy likes to pretend she goes there for the teriyaki steak salad.. and she does like that salad a lot... but she's truly there for THIS :
Chocolate Macadamia Pie. About 28,764 calories per ounce.
To tell you the truth, I was still on autopilot that day. We took the monorail to Epcot and it didn't even occur to me that arriving at 3pm in Epcot on a Saturday during Food & Wine Festival was a recipe for disaster.
We'd been spoiled with low crowds and short wait times ever since we got to AKL, but today was VERY different.
Soarin' - NO FPs - Wait Time : 120mns
Test Track - NO FPS - Wait Time : 70mns
Since we didn't know what else to do, and because I like Ellen DeGeneres, we went to see Universe of Energy. Even if it was boring, it'd keep us busy for 45mns.
Turns out, we really liked it. Grumpy doesn't know who Ellen is, but she thought she was funny. The ride itself was pretty cool, a little on the loud side but nothing unbearable.
One thing bugged me to no end though. Who the heck was that actress ?? You know, the one who plays Stupid Judy. I knew she was in My Girl. And I knew her name was something like Jenny Something Somebody.
As soon as we left the ride I went to find a CM. The first one I found couldn't remember either - she had it on the tip of her tongue and it started bugging her, too, so she called over another CM.
"What's the name of the....."
"Jamie Lee Curtis."
Apparently, I was not the first person to ask her that today
Because we couldn't think of anything else to do in Future World, we went towards World Showcase, stopping at Grumpy's favorite smoking area. She's not too bad with the smoking thing while we're at WDW - mostly because she's way too busy to think about cigarettes. But every once in a while she asks to stop for a smoke and I don't fight it.
Besides, they had cool Ratatouille posters in that area
World Showcase was even more packed than Future World. Grumpy stopped in Mexico and stood in line for 20mns just to get a Fiesta Margarita....
I've never seen Epcot that busy. Give me Christmas week crowds any day vs Saturday at F&W. We didn't go any further than Norway before we gave up and turned around.
After a stop at MouseGear, we decided to leave and go over to MK so we could see Spectro and Wishes. It was about 5pm.
MK seemed almost QUIET after Epcot. Even better, the wait times were all under 30mns. We got FPs for Splash, did Haunted Mansion and PhilarMagic again. Then we went back to the castle to get a spot for the parade and fireworks. Our perfect seats from last night were taken, so we sat on the floor next to a bench.
Grumpy wanted pop corn (to soak up the margarita, I guess) and she went to search for it. I totally forgot to tell her she might get stuck behind a rope. And stuck she got. It took her almost 40mns to come back from getting her pop corn and I was starting to think she'd never find her way back. The area was getting seriously busy.
She made it back about 5mns before Spectro started.
I hate and love Spectro at the same time. I love it because it's so pretty and I really enjoy the music. I hate it because we've seen it at least 4 times and we can never find a good spot or take a good pic.
These three are the best I got that night... just to give you guys an idea.
After Spectro we stayed put and waited for Wishes. Just as Wishes started, the three people who'd been sitting on the bench got up... and stood up on the bench, blocking a lot of people's view. What the heck did they need to stand up for ?! They had the best seats in the house. The fireworks are up in the air, and they didn't even have anybody standing in front of them.
Some people behind us yelled at them to sit down, but they either didn't hear them through the fireworks and music, or just ignored them.
I sat back on the floor and managed to get a few decent shots
Wishes was gorgeous. I loved Hallowishes, but nothing makes me tear up as easily as Wishes.
Even when I just watch the video at home,
like I'm doing right now, it's hard not to get a little sappy.
After Wishes, everyone was heading out, but Grumpy and I headed to Frontierland. We rode Splash with our FPs, Big Thunder Mountain (I *love* this ride at night!!!), and then Splash again without FPs. The line was non-existent.
My favorite memory of that night was during our 2nd time on Splash. Just as we were going to go down the big drop, I noticed that the 2nd SpectroMagic was going on in Liberty Square. The view from up there was just spectacular. I could see the Spectro floats with the lighted castle in the background. And all I could think was, gosh, I don't ever want to leave.
Of course it only lasted a second or two before I was brought back down to reality with a huge splash of ice cold water!!
Since Spectro was going on, it was about 11pm and we still had an hour. I was NOT ready to go home.
We rode Pirates of the Carribean that had no wait at all, and then I insisted on doing Jungle Cruise because I'd read here it was much better at night.
It was HILARIOUS ! Our skipper was telling so many jokes I couldn't remember any of them, but we were in stitches for the whole ride. I don't think we'll ever do that ride in the daytime again.
The park was almost empty when we finally left, but the bus stop was mobbed. I parked my butt on a bench and told my mom I was not standing in that line. I'll just wait for the next bus. Now that I think of it, the POP bus stop is so far anyway, we should have just walked accross the street to the Contemporary and got a cab from there. But it didn't occur to me at the time.
Grumpy said she'd stand in line and I could join her whenever a bus came. I told her no way, it's not something that people do here and I'm going to get yelled at. She could stand in line and get in a packed bus if she wanted, but I was going to wait for the masses to go and then get on a non-crowded bus, thank you very much.
Except people kept coming and the line was just getting bigger and bigger. So I had to get up and get in there if I wanted to go back to POP before Christmas.
About half way through the line, Grumpy motioned to me to go under the ropes and join her. I said no. She gave me a look that I hadn't seen in a long, long time, it's Grumpy's trademarked "I mean business" look and I told her I'd "try" after people got on the bus. We were not going to make it in that one anyway.
She waited for me there, let a bunch of people go in front of her, and then I went under the ropes and met her. OF COURSE, two persons told me "the line was back there" as I had expected it. Grumpy told them she'd been in that line, and she'd just let about 20 people go in front of her in the bus. They said "sure" and I thought Grumpy was going to get really nasty with them but I told her to let it go and NEVER make me do that again. I *hate* confrontations. This is not DLP. We don't cut in line here.
In the end that was not even an issue, because not one, not two, but three POP buses had arrived and everyone would get on.
We got seats and a lady sat next to us with a sleeping child, a huge bag and a folded stroller. I offered to hold her stroller because the little girl could barely stay seated without her mom holding her, she was so out. I figured, that was my redemption for cutting in line
I chatted with the lady and didn't realize my foot had fallen asleep. When we got to POP, I told her I'd take the stroller down and wait for her outside. But when I went down the stairs, I couldn't feel my foot OR the floor under it and
I yelped as my leg collapsed under me. Good thing a guy reached and grabbed my hand before I fell to the floor. All I could do was say "thank you" and laugh.
NOT a good night for the turkey. I'm self conscious as it is, and already embarassed when I'm standing upright... so I really hate falling down in front of a crowd
My mom of course thought it was hilarious. We helped the lady with her stroller and sleeping little girl, and she showed us a shortcut to our building - we didn't know we could cross the parking lot. It was a lot shorter this way and I wished we'd known about it earlier!
It was past 1am when we got back to our room, and despite the line cutting/collapsing incident, it had been a really great night.
We were supposed to go back to MK the next morning to do a few more rides and have breakfast at Crystal Palace, but I wasn't sure we'd make it. Grumpy said she didn't want to because she'd done all the rides she wanted to do tonight. I decided to wait until the next morning to decide. Unfortunately, we both slept through our ADR. We didn't wake up 'til 10am the next day, and had to rush because we needed to be out of the room by 11. Good thing we'd packed before going to Epcot the day before!
I called Luggage Services and they came to get our luggage. Since I was going to Tampa, for once I could use the Airline Check-In service. Even better, I didn't have to worry about my bags anymore.
We had a last lunch at POP's food court and then went to catch our bus to the airport.
Grumpy and I were together on the flight to Miami, then I had purposely gotten a ticket on the latest possible flight to Tampa - 10.45pm. I wanted to be sure Grumpy's flight had left before I went on my way.
After Grumpy's flight left - on time - I crossed the airport and went to wait for my own flight. I was a little sad, because I was by myself, and because we had left Disney...
But not THAT sad.
Because I knew that in six weeks
to the day, I'd be back at the Happiest Place on Earth !
How nice of you to help foot the bill for 2 others 
Have they been to WDW before? I know it's the ump-teenth! trip for you and Grumpy!! 
and tell the story of our last disaster trip 
More to look forward to reading!
Sorry you got such a poor start-I've always been boggled by how hard it is to get from point A to point b in Florida is you don't rent a car.
