The Last Trip: An (Eastern) Fantasy Food Adventure-Bonus Feature, Pam & Her Mom Pt 2 Sept 17 the end

franandaj

I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
So it starts.


The last trip.


If you haven't been following along, this is our last trip we're going to take until we finally get our a$$es out of our old house. We moved into a new house almost three years ago, but since we're in the landlord business, we don't have anything pushing us to get out of our old apartment other than the money we are losing. That is a motivating factor, but not evidently enough.

For 17 years my partner Fran and I lived in our 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment. We even expanded it to include the 2 bedroom 1 bath that was adjacent. In it’s hey day we had 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, 3 bathrooms, a living room, a family room, and dining room. But we gave it all up for our dream house (that we love) but unfortunately we haven't been all that keen about getting the stuff we really don't need but yet aren't willing to donate out of the old place. Fran was always saying, “the reason we never work on De Soto is because we are always going on trips or out here and there”.

So, last December (2015), silly me said, “OK let's not book any new trips until we get the place cleaned out.” I wasn't dumb enough to say we should cancel anything we had pending, but now here we are, the last trip that was grandfathered in when I imposed the trip moratorium. To her credit she has not been buying tickets to the Theatre and we have only seen two movies in the theater in the past 2 years.

If you know us, you know we are Disney addicts. My first trip to Disneyland was around the 7th grade.



Fran is also a certifiable Disneyholic. She did crazy things like waiting in line 4-5 hours to ride Star Tours when it first opened. But no pictures, she just wasn't into photos like me.

Over the years we have taken some cool trips. Our first trip together was to the Riverwalk in San Antonio TX.



Since then we've been to WDW nearly 15 times, we're one cruise away from Platinum on DCL.



We've been to Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and even the 24th Century.



In our previously great country we've seen 23 states together.

Plymouth Plantation, MA



A Swamp Cruise in Lousiana



Playing music takes us all over the place. Here we are at a concert in Ft. Lauderdale.



We also played at a concert for the Gay Games in Cleveland, so we had to check out the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame!



And you can’t forget Disney World



And Disneyland.



So I guess you could say we get around. Or we did.

We need to make the most of this last trip.

We have sailed on all the DCL ships except one, and this trip will rectify that. We boarded the Fantasy and now we have been on all four ships.

But enough about the introductions, let's get on with the Trip Report!


Day 0 (penultimate Travel day)


Those of you who have followed along know that our day before we travel is always chaotic. This one was no different, however it wasn't nearly as severe as it has been in the past. Yes Fran had to run around and do a ton of things at the last minute, but this time she did them on her own! I got to stay home and pack. As a result while she was running around I finished packing everything she gave me, all of my stuff, and I even had time to update (complete) my last TR and post a bonus update to the previous TR.

When she got home, I put a frozen pizza in the oven and we had dinner. Of course she still needed to give me a bunch more clothes and things, but finally at around 10PM, I loaded the suitcases into the car. By 11:15 I was going to bed. I did actually get to sleep that night! Almost six hours!


Day 1 - Travel Day


At 5AM the alarm went off. My perception of the morning was that I got up, got dressed, fed the cats and was all ready to go. Fran does not recall it quite as smoothly. She says that this is not unusual to happen with my memory. She said that sometimes she thinks we live in parallel universes, similar but not exact.

We got our act together 45 minutes later than our target leaving time, (we build in 30 minutes to run late) and made it to the freeway when she asked, “Did you pack my arthritis pills?”

“Oh my god I forgot!” I gasped.

So we turned around and went back for them. Now we were an hour late, or technically half an hour late real world time. Luckily we didn't encounter traffic and were only a few minutes late for our desired arrival time. I dropped Fran and the bags and took the car to the parking lot.

When I returned, I could tell there was a problem. When flying American First Class they allow three checked bags. I had planned to check five bags, our four normal large suitcases and one small carry on size bag. We didn't want to pay a $28 service charge to have soda, water, and wine delivered to our hotel so instead I packed a 12 pack of Mtn Dew, four bottles of wine, six 1-liter bottles of water, and a few Dr. Pepper bottles throughout the five suitcases. Once we arrived at our hotel in Orlando I would pack them all into the little suitcase to carry on the ship.

Fran still had the small suitcase.

Evidently they had changed the rules. They wanted us to pay $150 to check this third bag. Fran said, “So we'll carry it on.” Except that it had a bottle of wine, two Mtn Dews, and three bottles of water. Well you can't carry that stuff on. We reasoned it out and even at Disney’s inflated prices we couldn't justify paying $150 for about $12 worth of beverages, so the ticketing agent lucked out. She could have a party that night. With our now lighter bag, we headed to security.

Boarding was easy and soon we were in the air. Finally I got a cup of coffee and it was really good! I was hoping to watch Finding Dory, but they didn't have it on the plane. Instead I selected Hot Pursuit, which for a silly chick flick had its definite funny parts, and even a twist in the plot that I didn't see coming.

They brought lunch. I had picked the Lasagne over the Greek Salad, not so sure I chose wisely. It was pretty gross.



Fran had me make her a sandwich before we left, we packed it in a small tupperware container. She probably had the better option. She had some Fritos with hers.



They brought us Ice Cream Sundaes, Fran went with the butterscotch.



I chose strawberry topping.



After the movie ended I watched Reruns of the Big Bang Theory until we landed.

It seems that it takes longer and longer every time we wait for the scooter. Finally they got it to us and when we arrived at baggage claim they had just sent our bags on to the “unclaimed bag corral”. We took our bags and trudged down to pick up location B4 which was all the way at the opposite side of the terminal from Magical Express. We waited about 20 minutes for the shuttle, and there was another passenger and a family that got to the shuttle before we did. I was sure we would never fit on the shuttle, but the driver worked his Jenga magic and got all our bags and the other passengers bags into the vehicle.

We had a nice spacious comfortable room.















Before Fran could get settled in and refuse to go for dinner, I prodded her into going out for the evening. Originally we had booked the Homewood Suites with the idea that I would use the kitchen to whip us up something simple for dinner. When I booked the hotel almost a year ago, there was nothing nearby on Google maps, but since then there was a lot of construction and there were five restaurants to choose from. I said that I would go get take out, but Fran was OK with going to the restaurant, so why fight that?

We ended up at the Bonefish Grill, and really enjoyed our meal. They brought us Fresh bread right away. It was so hot that tearing off a piece almost burned my hand.



We got a cup of Corn Chowder, it was tasty and had a slow heat to it. The kind that creeps up on you. It was also really hot temperature-wise.



For an entree we ordered the Crab Crusted Cod, potatoes au gratin, and sautéed spinach. This was good, but the trend of warm food ended here. The potatoes were almost cold and the fish and spinach were lukewarm. It still tasted good and we were satisfied with our choice.



We looked at the dessert menu, but decided to save the calories. If everything went as planned we were expecting to have Grand Marnier Souffle for dessert the next night. I was so exhausted when we got back to the hotel, but after I did a couple things to get ready for bed, I ended up with a bit of a second wind. I had downloaded Mahjong on my tablet and I ended playing that for a couple hours while the news and Jimmy Kimmel droned on in the background. Fran fell asleep immediately. She only got an hour and a half of sleep the night before we left. So she needed it!


We had an early day the next day, but maybe we shouldn’t have.
 
I'm here..ready to roll
That sounds like a pretty smooth travel day. Looking forward to the Fantasy.
 


Excited to hopefully stay up-to-date on one of your trip reports instead of reading everything all at once towards the end :rotfl::banana:

My experiences at Bonefish down here have been really hit or miss. The location nearest to my parents' house in Orlando is great, but the one by me in Tampa is just... bad. Cold food. Waiting 45 min at the restaurant past our pickup time for takeout. Rude servers. DBF had a piece of fried fish there once that had no fish in it. Needless to say we have stopped trying to go to this one. Glad y'all enjoyed your meal there though!
 
So happy to be here! I have been lurking on your trip reports for ages, but I'm going to speak up to say "Hi" this time!!! Love your TR's so much, and hope to have a real life Fran and Alison spotting on one of my cruises or Disney vaycays someday! You are an excellent writer/ trip reporter and reading about your adventures with Fran always gets me through my missing Disney blues! Thanks for writing!
 


We reasoned it out and even at Disney’s inflated prices we couldn't justify paying $150 for about $12 worth of beverages, so the ticketing agent lucked out. She could have a party that night. With our now lighter bag, we headed to security.

I made it! :yay:

That was huge change on the luggage policy! :mad: Every time I fly it seems like something has gone up or they are charging more for something. And always searching my bags. Do they open all of your suitcases? Never had the do it going out of Spokane. But I've had my bags searched flying out of John Wayne, Orlando and Dulles in DC.
 
Home from Beauty and the Beast and a new TR from Alison! Oh yeah! Heading to bed but will comment tomorrow!
 
Home from Beauty and the Beast and a new TR from Alison! Oh yeah! Heading to bed but will comment tomorrow!

I, too, have just arrived home from Beauty and the Beast (loved it!!) and am ready and waiting for your next installment :)
 
I am here and am looking forward to reading all about your take on the Fantasy!

I don't want to imagine what a nightmare it would have been if you had forgotten those pills! Dinner looked good and I am impressed that you managed to go out. I was thinking of you that evening eating dinner at the Wilderness Lodge.
 
Joining In!

That lasagna looks nasty - no wonder you didn't enjoy it! Sorry they changed the bag policy on you without letting you know!

Glad you enjoyed Bonefish. We haven't been there in years (so many better seafood options around here) but we used to enjoy when we were in Georgia.
 
I would have asked for an extra sundae to make up for that meal - yeech!

Sorry you had to dump all of your beverages, but that was a crazy amount of money!

Glad you were able to get out to the restaurant.
 
Though I can't look at pictures at work, I am still following along.

I LOL'd at the line: "In our previously great country we've seen 23 states together." Though it's not really a laughing matter, I suppose.
 

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