Wanna Drive 811 miles to Disney? Tomorrow? Another Mickeystoontown Report FINISHED! 2/14/25!

[pwdebbie]

Thank you for the update. I'm sorry those last weeks were so hard on your mom. I know for sure she was well-loved and is greatly missed.

 

[donna6635]

So sorry to hear about your mother. Thank you for sharing her with us. Prayers for you and your family...

 

[mickeystoontown]

Thank you all for the kind words, thoughts, good vibes, prayers, etc. It has been a busy month or so....taking care of insurance policies, medical bills, house insurance, etc. In all of that, John and I had to get away. It wasn't a want to get away, it was a had to get away. We made two trips to Hot Springs, Arkansas because two of our friends who own an antique store were doing a huge moving sale and we drove up to take advantage. The first trip with was Hunter and Tabitha and we made a weekend of it. The second was just John and I and it was just a one night stay. We bought lots of good stuff and I've been trying to get it all organized in our storage building.

I'm about to post at least one update but hope to do more.

Thank y'all again for all your kind words!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Life is the bubbles!

I've told y'all many times that I try to take pictures of everything even if I know they aren't going to be the best quality photos. I do it so that I can write trip reports and I can remember what we did and where we did it. This time, we left Its a Small World and walked over to Under the Sea with Ariel:

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Hum, that's are half bad. (shhhh...I took way more but cut it down to just these few decent ones.

This trip was all about just taking our time and not rushing from one thing to another. We were already doing that at home and we really wanted to take this trip easy. John and I decided to just stroll around and do whatever had a short line or even just wander.

**Up next: Do I smell an elephant? In the Magic Kingdom?

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[mickeystoontown]

Do I smell an elephant? In the Magic Kingdom?

Our stroll took us to Storybook Treats where we purchased a couple of frozen slushy things and went looking for a shady place to sit. Back behind the store and near where you enter to see the characters is a large sitting area so we plopped down to get our rest on. I took this one picture:


and then we realized that it was hotter than a pistol back there. There was no air circulating at all. So, we found a small umbrella table. If you've read my previous trip reports, you know that I'm not good at just sitting around. John is really good at it but I'm not. While John was sitting, I walked around the area and took a whiff of the Smellephants on Parade. Even with there being quite a few people around and lots of other scents in the air, I could still smell the Smellephants:











If you haven't checked out the Smellephants, you should!

Also take a quick gander at the cute popcorn/circus theme garbage cans.




Now that I am seeing my pictures (see, there's a reason, I take so many...they job my memory), I remember that I had gotten a lightning lane for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.





**UP next: Castles, Presidents and Treats! Oh My!
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[mickeystoontown]

Castles, Presidents and Treats! Oh My!

After enjoying our frozen drink, we meandered through Fantasyland and took the path on the right side of the castle. Well, it could be the left side if you are looking at the castle from Main Street but from the Fantasyland side, it was the right side. I stopped and took this picture:


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I asked John what he wanted to do next and he suggested Hall of Presidents. It's not a must-do every trip, but it's a nice spot to rest your tired tootsies and take in some air conditioning. If you are John, you might even take a quick nap.



When I tell y'all that this was a "let's just do whatever" trip, I am being 100% honest. This trip wasn't about cramming in everything we could, but rather, let's do what we can trip. So, instead of going to another attraction, we went to another treat stand. This time, we bought this beauty:



It was kind of a disappointment because it wasn't frozen very well to start with and it was hot so it was melting quickly. But, it was still a heck of a lot better than any darn ice cream at home so we were good with that.

Since we were close to the Tiki Birds, we got in line and watched the "pre-show".



I also checked our vacation countdown. Zero days for this trip:



And 170 for our Thanksgiving trip:



The doors open and we took our usual spot on the back row and went down to almost the end of the row. We moved back towards the center after everyone had come in and we saw that there was plenty of room. Let's all sing like the birdies sing...tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet.





Continued in next post

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[mickeystoontown]

Castles, Presidents and Treats! Oh My! cont'd

One other thing that I did while waiting for the Tiki Birds to start was make us another lightning lane and it was for an attraction in Fantasyland. So, when the show was over, we walked back towards that area. I snapped these two pictures of the carrousel and sent them to Hunter. Last time they went with us to Disney, he and Tabitha rode the carrousel and Hunter slipped and fell to his knees. I kept saying you didn't fall. You are just saying you did. It's become a big joke in the family that he didn't fall. He was just saying he did.

The story is much funnier if you were there.





If you were wondering where we were going, it was here. Look at that crappy picture would ya! It's doing it's job though and let's me tell the story of where we went and what we did so it's not that crappy.




Now, I won't argue, this one IS crappy. I mean, I only got Eeyore's butt:



I took more but I'm not going to make you squint your eyes and turn your head this way and that in order to make it out so I'll skip posting those. I will, however, post these two because our honey pot stopped for a little bit and I was able to take two decent photos:





Silly ol' bear!

Because this was a super fast planned trip, we didn't make any dining reservations and were kind of eatin' and drinkin' on the fly. We stopped around the corner and got this cute little treat. I can only tell you that it was some sort of berry something or other slushie. It was good and just what we needed. You'll notice that we were sharing most of our drinks/snacks so we weren't being little piggies.



Up next: Now that's progress!








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[mickeystoontown]

Now that's progress!

After having sat by Mad Tea Party, sipping our slushie and people watching, we went to Tomorrowland to take in one of the oldie but goodies.
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I like to decorate and change out my dining room with old pieces that I find in antique shops and flea markets. I like to look at the changes in the decor in the various scenes in Carousel of Progress.
As you can see, we were very close to the front.

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I will even try to zoom in on the calendars and things having on the walls to see what date the calendars are.

















I wonder what all these notes say?



**Up next: Let's stay in Tomorrowland for a while.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Y'all, the Dis is driving me crazy. It's changing the size, color and font and it's not centered like I start out. No clue what's up with it but I just wanted y'all to know it ain't me. LOL

I'm going to work on the next post.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Glad to see you back posting again!

 

[dizneeat]

Y'all, the Dis is driving me crazy. It's changing the size, color and font and it's not centered like I start out. No clue what's up with it but I just wanted y'all to know it ain't me. LOL

I'm going to work on the next post.

Tell me about it!!! I have never had to go back in and correct things until recently. It really is a pain, but .... let me just tell you - I really enjoy your TR.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Glad to see you back posting again!

It's good to be back! I missed my DIs friends!

Tell me about it!!! I have never had to go back in and correct things until recently. It really is a pain, but .... let me just tell you - I really enjoy your TR.

Karin, I'm glad that it's not just me. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Let's stay in Tomorrowland a while!

When we exited the Carousel of Progress, we saw that the line for the Peoplemover was short so we walked on over and took a ride around Tomorrowland

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Yep, that's all the pictures that I took. Just two.

I can't say for sure but I believe that I had made a lightning lane for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin because that's where we went next. I tried to get John to smile for a picture and this is all I got. It's tough getting pictures of him smiling. He smiles in real life but in pictures, not so much.



Let the battle begin!







Again, just two pictures. I beat the pants off of John....See.....



Oops, I missed the picture because I was trying to get a snap of John's measly score.



He was not happy at all! He swore that his laser gun wasn't working right. While I would usually just say he was making excuses, I really didn't hear his making the little pew, pew, pew noises. When we got to where Buzz is, our cars stopped and Buzz's words weren't coming out in sync with the track/music. It was funny and I wish that I could find the video clip that I took.







At this point, we had nothing left lightning lane wise and what was available were things we had already done. We weren't sure what we wanted to do. We knew that we had to get up pretty early and start the drive home the next morning. Did we want to spend more time in our favorite park or do we leave and go get a bit of rest before making that 811 mile drive?

**UP next: What to do? What to do?

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[mickeystoontown]

What to do? What to do?

Usually our Disney trips are over two weeks long and we have all the time in the world to see and do everything we want. As I said, way back at the beginning of this report, this trip was more about getting the heck away from reality and being in the Disney bubble. You may recall that it took us like a million and a half hours to make it to Disney this time. We left our house a little after 11:00 a.m. and didn't make it to Disney until around 4:00 a.m. Take away an hour for the time difference and it took us....I don't know, you can do the math or just go with my millions and a half hours because I'm pretty sure my calculations are close.

Here we were in the most Magical Place on Earth in the original Walt Disney World theme park and we were in a bit of a dilemma. We had to get up the next morning and drive 14 to 16 hours home (that's if we didn't hit a lot of traffic and didn't stop to pee a lot). Do we stay and do more in the park or do we do the responsible adult thing and go back to the resort and rest up for the drive? What to do? What to do?

We were coming back to Disney in November...Mama's health permitting....ugh, the park was so nice and it felt so good to be there. We looked at each other and made the decision to just leave. Just go back to the resort, have dinner, pack up our few things, and rest. Here comes a little parade. I don't wanna leave!

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The train station was empty.





I almost slumped down and made John drag me but I didn't. We walked out and I took a few more pictures:





And just like that, our visits to the parks was over. We had just two park days and, even though I wasn't ready to leave, we both knew that we needed to. We walked to the bus stop for Caribbean Beach and waited for our bus to come.

**Up next: A relaxing dinner and packing up.

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[mickeystoontown]

A relaxing dinner and packing up.

The last picture that I took at the Magic Kingdom was of the train station and it was taken at 6:41 p.m. We walked to the Caribbean Beach bus stop, took the bus, and I took the next picture at 7:14 p.m. as we were walking from the Old Port Royale bus stop. That travel time wasn't bad at all!
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The open window and door is where Bell Services is located.





Walking down the pretty portico:





We both made a stop at the bathroom. There was no one other than myself in the bathroom so I took two quick pictures to show you the pretty mirrors and tiles and how large the bathroom is:





**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

A relaxing dinner and packing upcontinued

I took a few more pictures as we were walking towards the Centertown food court:
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Want to mail a postcard or letter, you can drop them right here:



I didn't take any pictures of the menus or the food court. Sorry about that. We both wanted something different and both kinda wanted a salad but not a whole one for ourselves so we each got an entree and shared the salad. I don't remember what this one was but it was a some sort of pasta and meat dish with slaw on top. It was good and I'd order it again.

The chicken caesar salad we shared:


This is the Arroz Mamposteao. John said the meat was a little dry but it was seasoned well and the rice beans and slaw was delicious.


For our desserts, I selected the tropical cheesecake while John got a coffee cake or something similar from the bakery grab n go.



Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

A relaxing dinner and packing upcontinued

I forgot to mention that we were dining al fresco. (look at me using big fancy words like portico and al fresco) I mean, who could resist views like this?

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Yep, that's Spaceship Earth as seen from our outdoor table

So, while we were sad that we left the park earlier than we originally wanted, we also knew that it was the right thing to do and we were able to just sit, relax, and watch the sun go down. It was a nice way to end a very short, very impromptu trip to Disney.

We walked back to the room and started packing our things. There wasn't that much because, if you will recall, I had thrown just a few things in a suitcase and grabbed our always packed travel suitcase. I set our Disney Alexa to wake us up at 4:15 a.m. because we wanted to start the drive early in the hope that we wouldn't get in congested traffic like we did on the way there. We were in the parking lot and loading the car around 4:45 a.m. I took this picture of our building in those wee hours of the morning.

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We finished getting ready and I took a few pictures in the room before we officially checked out:






We did one last check around the room, took that last bathroom break and were in the parking lot and checking out at 5:13 a.m. Our goal had been by 5:30 a.m. so we were ahead of schedule right off the bat.



**Up next: How bad will traffic be?

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[mickeystoontown]

How bad will traffic be?

Goodbye Walt Disney World....we will see you soon! Well, kinda soon, in November!

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I try to remember to take a picture of the mileage when we start a trip so I can keep up with how far we need to go to get to XYZ point. You can see that it was already 73 degrees.




The traffic down Hwy. 192 wasn't bad at all and we were soon on I-75. I have a love/hate, mostly hate, relationship with I-75. I am always nervous because the traffic is usually heavy. Thankfully, this time, the 100 miles or so that we were on I-75 went by quickly. The traffic on I-10 was light too and we were making good time.


Pensacola, here we come:


You can't see it well, but that's a sign saying Capital Circle which is in Tallahassee. We really were moving along at a fast pace and, so far, no traffic to speak of.


See:

At some point during the drive, I received a text from Disney saying that my room charges were ready to view. When we stopped for gas, I check it and we had spent about $570 which I didn't think was too bad considering I had charged all of our food, snacks, drinks and a few souvenirs.

I forgot to mention that we had picked up two sandwiches from the grab n go at Caribbean Beach so that we could have a picnic lunch. It was just 10:30 or so and we were already hungry because we hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. When we saw an exit for a rest area, we took it and drove and drove and drove. It went through a wooded area, back over the interstate and up in another section of woods. It was so far off the interstate but we made it, pulled out our sandwiches and had a picnic.



**Up next: Back on the road and already trying to map out where to stay next trip.

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[rdkeim]

Always love reading your TR's! So nice you could take such an impromptu trip to your happy place. But, sorry for the circumstances of needing to get away. Thanks for sharing your experience - it was a fun read!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Always love reading your TR's! So nice you could take such an impromptu trip to your happy place. But, sorry for the circumstances of needing to get away. Thanks for sharing your experience - it was a fun read!

Thank you! I am about to finish this trip report up and probably will start a new one for our 2024 November trip.