April 2026: When You WISH Upon a Cruise: Day 9, The End

Day 9: Sunday May 3, 2026

I was awake pretty early, knowing full well that it was travel day. But also, why is my throat so swollen and congested feeling?!

I got up and got ready and enjoyed the view, bummed that we had to go home today. Highs were barely supposed to reach 70 today so it would have been a perfect Epcot day!

By 7:30 we had made our way down to Rosa Mexicano for breakfast. We were seated quickly, and breakfast here was amazing! We both had the churro waffles, which unlike Disney churro waffles are lightly dusted in cinnamon sugar and served with a Mexican chocolate sauce that’s outstanding. We would absolutely have breakfast here again!

Breakfast eaten, we headed back to the room to finish packing and enjoy the view a bit more.

And then it was time to leave. We headed down to the lobby and requested a Lyft. Gotta use that monthly Lyft credit my CC gives me when I can! We learned our lesson in NOLA, so I requested a Lyft XL. Within a few minutes Jose was picking us up in his hybrid Toyota Sienna. This made for a very comfortable ride to MCO, with ample room for Nick’s giant suitcase.

Check in at JetBlue was easy and pretty soon we were in the pre-check line, directly behind someone I work with. Vacation is over!

Security was quick and we found our gate easily, both of us again commenting on how nice terminal C is. At that time, we looked forward to flying through terminal C more, but JetBlue has since left MHT, so…we’ll see on that.

Eventually we got bagel sandwiches for lunch before our flight. Our flight was on time leaving, and boarding was orderly enough, although weird with e-gates. We actually left on time, and it was a smooth, and fast, flight up to Manchester. We arrived about half an hour early.

As is typical with JetBlue flights in every city, baggage claim took awhile, while my father in law circled the airport in my car, rather than wait in the cell phone lot like we told him, but the luggage emerged eventually, we waved goodbye to our cruise dinnermates who had been on our flight, and headed outside to meet up with John at the curb.

It was a quick trip back to my in laws, where the dogs were VERY happy to see us. We then loaded them in the car and headed home to get ready for the week.

Final thoughts:

We had an excellent cruise once it really started, but the Wish is definitely not our favorite ship. It’s beautiful and has some real cutting edge technology and amazing details, compared to the older ships, but it’s just not our favorite. The Star Wars lounge, though, is definitely worth the hype.

Kennedy Space Center was definitely worth the trip.

I’d stay at the Swolphin resorts again, but only for trips that are primarily focused on Epcot or Studios, because of the bus situation there.

I’m really bummed that JetBlue has left Manchester. Those flights were so nice.

That final morning congested feeling was year 3 of coming home with cruise crud. This year’s version of cruise crud absolutely kicked my rear after a few days of tricking me into thinking it wasn’t so bad. And then improved almost as quickly as it got bad. I’d really appreciate it if grown adults would remember how to cover their mouths when they cough.

Breakfast at Rosa Mexicano is excellent!

I still think the Epcot resort area is the best resort location for adults. Being able to walk to and from the parks just makes the start and end of the day so much more relaxing. I don’t know that Nick loved the walking, but he definitely enjoyed not having to wait in transportation lines!

Polite Pig is worthy of every accolade it has received.

April 2026: When You WISH Upon a Cruise: Day 8

Day 8: Saturday May 2, 2026

We were awake early-ish. I got ready for our park day and then thoroughly enjoyed the morning view.

About 7:20 we headed out. It was a nice 10-15 minute walk over to International Gateway, and we got there just as the first skyliners with people in them started arriving, so we were basically at the front of the pack.

By 7:45 they had let us through security and the tapstyles, and we were hanging just a few people back from the rope into the park.

Before 8:00 we were in the park and headed for Remy’s. Here they kept us in the outdoor queue until a little before 8:30, when they started loading the ride. This was Nick’s first time experiencing this one and he thought it was cute.

By about 8:45 we were having breakfast at the French bakery. Ham and cheese croissants for both of us and a chocolate eclair for breakfast dessert. Cheapest meal in Disney World, and it was delicious. Apparently this place was another first for Nick. His review? “Good call, wifey”. So, he liked it.

Once we’d finished in France, we worked our way to the front of the park, taking pictures of the topiaries along the way.

 
By the time we made it to the front of the park, the line was already stupidly long for Test Track, so we headed for the Land pavilion. We had minimal wait for Soarin, and then minimal wait for Living with the Land. Both were enjoyable as always. 

Then it was time for more picture taking as we worked our way to Test Track.

Despite this being a new version, Nick decided he didn’t want to ride Test Track so I headed for the single rider line to try to beat the 75 minute wait. I DID beat the 75 minute wait, but I still waited 30 minutes for this one. Test Track 3.0 is much better than 2.0. I could definitely see some nods to the OG version, which was fun.

I reunited with Nick and did some more flower picture taking, including finding Ozempic Sully.

Then it was time to do a bit of festival eating. We stopped for conch fritters for Nick and the watermelon slushy from the Florida Fresh booth. These were both pretty good.

 
We then headed inside CommuniCore Hall to the Farmers Feast booth. We got the beef with tomato risotto and the B Nektar Punk Lemonade Raspberry Lemonade Hard Cider. Nick loved the cider and was trying to figure out if we could buy it anywhere near home before he’d even finished it. And we both enjoyed the beef and risotto.

 

It was then time for some more picture taking and a strawberry basil lemonade and 3 Daughters Brewing Key Lime Hard Cider from the Beach Grub booth as we made our way to World Showcase.

 
In World Showcase we headed towards Mexico, but just kept going because the menu was meh. We continued on to Norway, where we got the lemon bolle and the adult version of the troll kreme. I’d get the troll kreme again in the future without the alcohol. Loved the slush part of it, but was not a fan of the dragonfruit rum. That lemon bolle? That was worth all the social media hype it was getting. Delicious!

We then continued our way around World Showcase to America, where we got a Spiced Rum Cocktail and a Keel Farms King Cake Hard Cider and headed inside for good air conditioning and to listen to the Voices of Liberty, who performed a fantastic set as always.

 
By now, the cold front was approaching and Disney was under a tornado watch, with rain expected within the next hour. It was also early afternoon and we were ready for a break, so this timing actually wasn’t terrible. We got fruishi from Japan, and then worked our way back to the hotel.

We actually got back to our room just before the rain started. We spent the next few hours enjoying the good air conditioning, napping, watching the rain, and debating what to do for dinner.

In the end, we decided on dinner at the Fountain. We were seated quickly here. Service was decent. Food was…fine. I got the smash burger, which was a decent burger but definitely not a smash burger. Nick got the pulled pork sandwich, and said it was fine. Is this high priority to return to for food for us? No. But it did the job.

After dinner we went back to the room, checked the radar and got ready to go back to Epcot. It was still drizzling where we were, but looked like Epcot was clearing, and the boats were running, so we decided to take the boat to at least stay a little drier for the return trip to the park. This was a good choice, even if we probably could have walked there faster.

By the time we got to Epcot, it was in fact done raining in the park. We did some picture taking, some store browsing and got a few more festival food and beverage treats. I got the limoncello-basil sparkling cocktail from the Yacht Grub, which was fine. I just really don’t like the limoncello that Disney uses, I think. Nick got the coconut panna cotta from the Nectar booth and the orange sesame tempura shrimp from the Citrus Blossom booth. The shrimp was once again a big hit.

And then it was time for the last big event of the trip. Just before 8:15, we checked in at Geo-82. We were seated a few minutes after arriving. This is a BEAUTIFUL (but loud) lounge. I got a bees knees. Nick got their brown butter old fashioned. And we were able to watch the fireworks (which they pipe the music in for) from the lounge. Was it a perfect view? No. Was it a really unique experience for us? Yes. We both enjoyed and it was a nice relaxing way to end the evening.

 
When the fireworks ended, we waited a few more minutes in the lounge for the crowds to clear out some, and then headed out, taking pictures, enjoying the music, and marveling at the skyliner line as we worked our way back to our resort, where we showered and crashed. It had been a great last day of vacation!