The one with the dusty, wrinkly, moldy-oldy 4 day park hopper ticket from 1992! (August 2025)

After lunch we headed toward Millenium Falcon Smugglers Run (I'm guessing that was the LL I booked after scanning in to Slinky Dog).

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Another new one for my mom and she enjoyed it! It was about 1:30pm by the time we got off.

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It being 1 billion degrees I think we were all ready for our afternoon rest back at the hotel... some of us more than others, since the kids had zonked out in the stroller before even leaving the park!

When we got back to the hotel we all passed out for a couple hours, when we woke it had started storming and after checking the weather it didn't seem like it was going to pass any time soon.. so that of course threw a wrench in things. This was my moms last park day!! We hemmed & hawed a bit (it was around 4:45pm by this point - again, Mother Nature can you be a bit more convenient please and stick to those 1-2pm downpours?!) and ultimately decided to stall even longer and go grab a large pizza & a couple pastas from Landscape of Flavors (Matt being the one to take one for the team and run through the torrential downpour) while we figured out what we should do.

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It's funny, as much as the kids LOVE Disney World, they are happy as clams to be in their jammies and eating a pizza while watching Old Mickeys- not at all feeling like their time is wasted or that they'd rather be in the parks. Just happy to be in the bubble at all, I guess! And yes, I sanitized the dickens out of those couch cushions before using them as a mini table for the kids ;) Even so, seeing the picture now makes me shiver a bit out of grossness, LOL.

It wasn't until after 7pm that the thunderstorm finally stopped and we ventured back outdoors, heading back to the Skyliner to this time make our way to Epcot.

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Spot the double rainbow?!

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We wandered around World Showcase after grandma got her ECV for this park, stopping here and there to show grandma all the cool things Epcot has to offer.

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We eventually made our way to Soarin', since we had a LL.

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I hadn't told my mom at all what to expect with this one and I saw her white knuckling the handrails on either side of her seat, ha!! I love this ride. Did you see the new 'Soarin over America' or whatever??? I'm wondering if it is a temporary overlay (similar to how they've done the California bit for a short period of time here & there) or if it's permanent??! The fact that they had Patrick Warburton film a new intro kind of tells me it's permanent but I haven't heard confirmation one way or the other. If it IS permanent, I will be so sad!! No more yummy Fiji smells?? Or the grass smell in Africa?! No Eiffel tower?!?!??!?!??! USA is cool & all but Matt and I often joke that Soarin' feels like the closest we'll ever get to some of those places - don't take that away from us!!

Anyway, white knuckles aside for those first few moments we all had a blast!!! We were off the ride by 8:17, with our Remy's LL scheduled for 8:20 so we scurried our way back over to France to ride that before the park closed at 9pm. On our way, I stopped at the Beer Cart in Germany and ordered the grapefruit Hefeweizen (I order this every time thinking I like it, then take that first sip and only then remember that I DON'T like it. Seriously, I do this every trip- next trip I vow to remember!!!) The three of us choked it down despite none of us enjoying it (waste not!) as we power-walked to France. As we wove through the queue you'll never guess who was behind us..... the Destructo-Fam from AK a few days before (again looking like super models). What are the odds?! I pointed them out quietly to Matt and we both were so surprised to be in line next to them again, ha!

Soon enough it was our turn to ride, and as soon as we were seated in our rat and ready to go the ride suddenly went down, booo!! We waited for maybe 10-15 minutes until eventually the CMs alerted us that the ride would be coming back up soon (I think one of them confirmed it was from a pair of ears that had fallen off and onto the track), so we were off through Gusteau's in no time.
 
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***Side bar *** I just remembered I misspoke when I said Matt took one for the team with the pizza: we BOTH headed to the main building, Matt heading to Landscape of Flavors & me heading for the lobby - I had bought an LLSP for Guardians for all of us for 5pm this day and, due to the storms, wanted to inquire with a CM whether or not they could refund me since I didn't know for sure whether or not we'd be going back into the parks that evening. The nice front desk CM was happy to help and did offer me that refund, the only trouble was that I had bought the LLSP over a week ago and had since deleted the Gift Card # from my notes app since I had used it all and switched to a different Gift Card now that we were here. The refunded amount (something close to $50, so not exactly chump change!) was re-issued back to that mystery gift card and I unfortunately spent the next couple days scouring my emails for any trace of what that gift card # would be, in order to transfer that $50 back to my current GC I was using. Eventually I did find it (I can't tell you how many email gift cards I have, and from so many different stores! Some from Target, some from Sam's Club, some from Costco... it wasn't an easy feat!) so all was right in the end, but consider this a free tip - whatever gift card you use to purchase LLs.... keep that number handy!!! DO NOT DELETE THE NUMBERS FROM YOUR NOTES APP LIKE I DID!

Anyway, after we got off Remy's the park had closed and fireworks were already well underway. Crap!! That meant we'd be battling post-fireworks crowds, not fun! Plus, grandma still had to return the scooter- oof! As we approached the International Gateway, we eventually got separated in the masses of people. Matt & the kids in the stroller and me + my mom in her ECV, Matt looking over his shoulder for me and me trying to just wave him ahead, as if to say "just go, we'll meet you back at the hotel", of course feeling bad that it meant Matt had to navigate the Skyliner + 2 kids + all the bags/contents in the stroller basket + the water bottles & popcorn bucket + collapsing & carrying the stroller itself. After returning her scooter we joined the hefty line for the Skyliner, where we eventually spotted Matt & the kids far ahead of us in the windy queue. Unfortunately DS5 saw me in the distance and this spurred big ol' crocodile tears, him not understanding why we weren't all together. Seeing him crying for me of course made me sad, and was made worse when literally seconds later we had adults budge past us saying "sorry we need to re-join our group", the group also made up of adults.

Yeah well get in line, bozo! We too got separated from our group, see that kid up there crying for mama?!?! You don't see me elbowing my way to join him... no, because I'm an adult and these things happen- I can handle being separated for a brief Skyliner ride & I imagine you can too.

Obviously now, several months later I can look back and say that we were all just tired and hot and overstimulated & crabby, but at the time the mama bear in me was wanting to come out, feeling so guilty for not being there for DS5. I obviously let the group pass by without incident I just remember feeling those feelings & thinking those thoughts at the time.

Separately, we made it back to the resort around 10pm and decided then & there that we would shift our plans around and sleep in the next morning (rope dropping DAK was our original plan). Grandma would be flying home in the morning, so this not only would give us more rest but also gave us a little bit more time with her too. We were off to bed around 10:30pm, looking forward to sleeping in!

TOTAL STEPS: 22,066 (10.2 miles)

Up next: Tuesday, August 19th (Day 7)
 
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