Last Day–Half Day

June 28, 2022 | Stacy

We were up around 5:30AM and got ready and loaded the car. Our room was only about 6 down from the end and super close to the parking lot.

We were in the parking lot 7:08AM
We were about 12 people deep for the tapstiles, but we were just planning to head for Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railroad and didn’t expect to need to run.

They let us in at 7:36AM when the early entry isn’t supposed to be until 8:00AM!
We went directly to MMRR and waited there and we ended up in one of the first ride vehicles out for the day.

Headed over to TOT for a ride.

Said 15 minutes, but took 25.
8:13AM

We got this treat. It was delicious – a mix of pineapple, coconut, and butterscotch.

We headed to Slinky Dog Dash – one of my favorite rides in WDW.

And got another ride on Toy Story Movie Mania.

We did Muppets and did some shopping.

We had an early lunch. I managed to grab this meal while we were waiting in line one of the other days. Yay!

Lunch was delicious – a seafood burger. Marie got a big milk shake!

We saw a cavalcade.

We had our last ride – Rock and Roller Coaster.

As we were preparing to leave, we met up with another friend from the message board, this is Melissa.

And we headed out to the car for the long ride home.

About nine hours later, the adventure was over. But what a trip!

Magic Kingdom Day!

June 26, 2022 | Stacy

First – let me mention we slept 9 hours!

This was the only day we planned to use Disney transportation. Magic Kingdom is the only park where it makes sense NOT to take your own car.

We were at the bus stop at 7AM and were the first in line.

We were at the tapstiles by 7:40AM and once they let us in, we scurried past this pokey bridal party.

Marie: “ you lead the way, I don’t know the way to seven dwarfs.

Also Marie:

They let us over to the rope drop area for Fantasyland.
7:57AM.
I am wearing the shirt my friend made me. Marie brought hers to put on later.

We were on and off Seven Dwarfs Mine Train by 8:35AM and the line to Peter Pan was still short enough, so we hopped in it. This is the first time I’ve seen the new queue and it was especially wonderful to me as I had JUST listened to the original J. M. Barrie story on the car ride down.

8:52AM

From there we went on Winnie the Pooh.
9:08AM

We went to Haunted Mansion (I don’t like that at all. I went on once in, like, 2000, and have avoided it ever since. I will never go back on.)

We went and used our first LL for Jungle Cruise.

Tapped into our Pirates of the Caribbean early so I could nab a LL for Splash.

As we waited for Pirates to load, the ride went down. They converted my LL for Pirates to an “Anytime LL” for all but the four “big” rides and meet and greets. This is called the Golden Ticket. It means anything I grab a LL for the rest of the day will be available to use immediately, NOT just in the window it is slotted for. The anytime LL doesn’t go away until you use it for the intended ride, OR if you accidently use it for a ride you don’t have an LL for.

We did Splash.

We just started rapidly doing rides in no specific order.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

It’s a Small World

Philharmagic

Voyage of the Little Mermaid

We got nachos to split at Peco’s Bills. They were really good.

Took photos.

Rode Space Mountain.

Did a bunch of shopping.

Met 50th Anniversary Mickey

Rode Pooh again, and Peter Pan with a LL, and Pirates of the Caribbean. With that ride, we lost our Golden Ticket, but could still use regular LL, of course!

Got a Dole Whip.

And Marie got a Hi-Ho Sundae.

Our treats may have been poorly timed.
5:10PM

Rode Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

And went for dinner at Skipper’s Canteen. The only sit down meal of the trip.

We got the cheese bread.
(We did not NEED cheese bread.)

Marie had shrimp and rice.

I had candied pork.

We could not finish our meals!

We went to ride Dumbo. I was sad Storybook Circus is still not open.

We did more shopping.

Lined up to do Splash one more time, as it is her favorite, but the line was creeping along. It stopped more than once. We finally had to bail to get to see the fireworks.

We went back for another ride on Splash.

10:21PM

We got the last two seats on the bus and it took about 30 minutes to get back.
We went right to bed.

Animal Kingdom Day–Feeling Hot, HoT, HOT!

June 25, 2022 | Stacy

Doesn’t everyone get up at 5:00AM on vacation and iron?

In retrospect, we probably could have slept another 30-45 minutes. But our alarms were set and Marie jumped into the shower. I’d seen last night how her skirt was wrinkled, so I decided to iron the skirt she’d made herself last fall.

I also discovered our coffee drawer! It was really nice for a budget level hotel!

We had packed our own toaster and some breakfast foods. Marie fashioned her own “hidden Mickey” for breakfast.

We had some time, so we meandered around the property before leaving for the park.
6:29AM

We were parked and in line for entrance by 6:45AM. Sadly, we were not as close to the front as we had anticipated we’d be.

Eventually, we were allowed in and were able to queue near the pathway to Avatarland. There weren’t a lot of photos for the next bit of time. We were absolutely HERDED to the Flights of Passage ride once the park opened and our steadily moving line had us on in about 31 minutes.

We headed then to Navi River, and then to Kilimanjaro Safaris where the animals were very active, but the ride did take a lot of time.

It was very, very hot and humid. I can usually stomach this really well, but I think the sleep deprivation was aggravating me, as well.

We were able to meet Safari Mickey and Minnie.

We refreshed our sunscreen and then headed to Dinosaur! I grabbed another Lightning Lane while we waited.

The ride always scares me so much!
We stopped for a LOT of Photo Pass photos. I am only going to post one.

While waiting in line for Expedition Everest, John texted me that Roe vs. Wade was overturned. We both stopped, praised, prayed for peace, and plunged on.

We realized there really wasn’t a lot left we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom. But it was only 11:04 AM!

We decided to ride out to Conservation Station and do the Animation Experience.
11:27AM

We drew Pua from Moana.

We wandered around looking for special treats, and we found a candy shoppe. We also shopped in and out of stores and stopped for more photos. We thought about hanging around until 2PM to see the Finding Nemo show, but we were really just ready to leave. So weird.

We had 8PM reservations for MiniGolf, so we figured we’d head out and chill for a while.

We did some more exploring at our hotel, and went for a swim, and rested.

We got cleaned up and went to the main reception/store/food court.

And I had some surprisingly good braised roast beef. Marie got smoked salmon.

And the deluge began!
It rained, and rained and rained.

We shopped, rested, waited out the rain, AND I waited on hold for over 40 minutes to cancel our golf reservation. The last thing I wanted to do was drive all the way over there and find out they were closed. I also didn’t want to get charged as a no show.

We decided to get dessert and take it back to our room. They make ice cream cookie sandwiches at this, and other “Value” resorts. You select your two cookies, and three scoops of ice cream.

It is much bigger than it looks. Neither of us could finish them.

They were very reasonably priced.

We headed back to our room with our snacks and snuggled in and watched commentary on today’s SCOTUS announcement. We did our bedtime prayers and were in bed early.

I got a box…

June 23, 2022 | Stacy

Not just any box.

I got a box full of joy.

I knew my friend was making me a shirt.
But she didn’t stop there.

A popcorn bucket.

Mom of the grad shirt was a surprise!

The one I had humbly requested.

The picture Katriel made me of all the Mickey heads Stephanie sent.

A sticker for Marie.
Some money for an additional ride on Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Rewind ride at EPCOT.

And a matching shirt for Marie.

This is getting real…

Heading home with helpers

May 22, 2022 | Stacy

I couldn’t skip past this – our first Buc-cee’s visit.
We all hope it is not the last!

We made it to the SAV airport around 1:30PM. We returned the cars (it was harder than we thought) and headed to the arrival concourse where we were met with three new friends from church in three vehicles.

Not all heroes wear capes.

After a week+ of driving a rental vehicle all over Georgia and Florida, it felt like a giant hug to climb into these waiting trucks and van and just be provided for.

We were home around 5:30PM and found some food and sunk into the unpacking process.

Park Day. Focus: Favorites repeated!

May 22, 2022 | Stacy

Stewart and Noelle’s friend, Kyle, joined us late last evening. He braved the massive rain and came the three hours up from his family’s new home in FL. Once from central NY, they also relocated last year.

We started the morning with devotion – this time Johanna read the bible passages.

Nan decided she’d take another day off, and the rest of headed to the parks. Entering is now old hat. Kyle has a season pass and he got me free parking.

Hulk. Spider-Man. Starbucks. Storm Force.
We did a lot of favorites a second time.

It was pretty hot.

Marie and I opted to do another ride through Velocicoaster. Otherwise, we kind of just all be-bopped around.

I guess when you are done, you are done. About 4:30PM or so we exited the park and found Stewart, Noelle and Kyle shopping.

Back at the rental there was some resting, lots of packing, and dinner.

Kyle’s mom had sent him with brownies and Stromboli. It was fabulous.

We weren’t trying to leave before dawn, but we needed an early start. The plan was to meet some men from our church family at the Savannah airport around 1PM.

Park Day. Focus: Taste of Disney

May 21, 2022 | Stacy

The weather app messed with us.

Let’s go back.

For many years, any multi-day Disney World ticket included passes to the waterparks and mini golf. They also came without an expiration date. I had a large number of passes in our safe, collected over almost 20 years, and in 2019, I took them to customer service at Disney Springs and they converted them to Disney passes.

We had 35 days worth of water park/mini golf passes across 9 tickets.

So we decided we’d visit Typhoon Lagoon one day.

We literally watched the weather by the minute, and at one point pulled over to wait out a storm.

But when all was said and done, we had the opportunity to visit Typhoon Lagoon.

While Volcano Bay had much more modern aesthetics, this had ALL the Disney feels.

Cast Members were lined up and greeted us with leis on arrival.

Joyfully welcoming us to the Lagoon.

The place was empty and we had no problems finding a spot for our stuff.

We had some disappointment with the water coasters that weren’t really working well. One of the three was up and running consistently.

We did a family raft ride, lazy river, and the bigger kids broke off for water slides.

The wave pool (no photo) packed a punch. John and I were talking while we swam and Katriel played around us. Marie and Johanna were further out.
We heard the bell that the waves were starting. I saw this very large wave start out near the base of the mountain. In my mind, I thought, “Wow. That’s huge. It will get smaller the further out it comes.” Then moments later, “That is still really, really big.” Then, frantically, “That is still gigantic!” and I yelled to John, “GRAB HER!” as I lunged toward Katriel.

John scooped her up over his head as all of us got pummeled. When I came up I was choking and sputtering and coughing and I looked over to them and Katriel’s eyes were as big as saucers and she was coughing. (It was only 40 minutes later we realized John’s prescription sunglasses were gone).

We shopped a bit, and again I felt a little rushed as people seem to be done with “vacationy” things faster than I am.

They willingly stopped for some photos.

We headed across to Disney Springs. It took a minute to get into the Lime Garage. We quickly found lunch at the Polite Pig. It was a little $$ and we ordered too much. But it was good.

Tabitha’s salad was the size of her head!

As we shopped we watched the skies.
John also got a phone call from the garage. They would NOT have the part we needed in time to have the car fixed by Sunday. This was hard to hear and would cause us to go back to the drawing board.

I was also a wee bit sad that one of my message board friends would be coming to DS, but that we would not overlap our times. I was hoping to meet Beth this side of Heaven. Perhaps another time?

We barely got out in time!

Park Day. Focus: Volcano Bay

May 20, 2022 | Stacy

Hanny wasn’t feeling great, but the Bay was calling and we must go.

Parking was again in the Universal garage and we boarded busses to get to the park. We were quickly admitted just as it was opening.

We seemingly took the long-way-round to get to an off the beaten path spot to chill.

We quickly hit our Tapu Tapus for the Krakatoa water coaster and then did some smaller tube rides.

I tried an Island drink and they give souvenir glasses (plastic) with most beverages!

We broke into groups. Or not. Some lay around. Some we barely saw.

When our credit card did not link with our bands (though it had for two drink purchases earlier) it temporarily looked like we’d not be eating all the food we’d ordered! Thankfully Stewart had his credit card on him!

My first few bites of Mahi Mahi sandwich had me wondering if I’d be able to finish it – it had a very fish-like taste. But then it suddenly worked and it was A-MAZ-ING!