I was awake pretty early today to finish packing. It wasn’t really easy to figure out what to wear today, since it was supposed to be slightly warmer, but still windy, and I kept finding stuff I had forgotten to pack. But the packing got done eventually. And while she had to use the expansion zipper on her suitcase, even Laura managed to finish her packing early.
Checking out of a condo is always kind of a pain, because it requires more, and often you have to check out earlier. This was the case here. We had to be out by 10, and we had to take the trash out, get dirty dishes in the dishwasher, etc. But, it all got done in time, although, judging from the mountains of towels in the hall outside our unit, I think housekeeping would have preferred if we were out earlier than 9:40!
We got the car packed up and drove the very short distance to the lobby where check out took just seconds. We then checked out the main pool area, which, much to Laura’s disappointment, the weather never allowed us to use.
Once we’d checked out the pool area, we hopped back in the car and drove to Disney Springs. This took a little longer than anticipated, because where Osceola Parkway exits onto Animation way (I think), there are two left lanes, without a sign that one of them forces you to bang a u-ey, and end up back on Osceola. But we were in no rush this morning. We had the whole day to kill!
We parked in the Orange garage, and headed into Disney Springs. First thing I noticed? The Onward movie photo op. And while checking it out, they handed me a free hat and mini poster. That’s right...Disney gave me something free. WOAH.
We poked around in a LOT of stores. As we were approaching Ron Jon, Laura mentioned something about flip flops. I told her there was just the store for that, and we hung a right into the store. Laura had no problem finding some flip flops. And I found some grocery list paper with flip flops on it! Score!
We continued wandering through stores in Disney Springs for awhile. This resulted in us being in the Aribas Brothers and Swarovski store. Here we were simultaneously horrified and amazed to find characters created out of Swarovski crystals, for asking prices in the 5 figures. That’s a $29,500 Darth Vader and a $33,000 iguana. Yup. NUTS!
Eventually it was late enough that we wandered over to Raglan Road for our brunch reservation. I had eaten there in August, but was too early for the live entertainment. This time I booked a reservation for the right time!
We were seated pretty quickly, off to the side, so we couldn’t see much of the dancing, but we did see some of it, and we could hear the music. Laura had a screwdriver to drink (“because it’s brunch!”) and got the club sandwich. I went for an AFD, so just had water with my OMG Burger. This involves brisket and pork in the burger, I believe, and is topped with bbq sauce, potato crisps, very thick cut Irish bacon, and Irish cheese. It was amazing. Laura enjoyed her sandwich too. Overall we both really enjoyed this brunch.
After brunch, we walked over to the marketplace boat dock and took a kind of chilly boat ride over to Riverside. We still had time to kill and we were over shopping. Also, I seem to have talked Laura into joining me in Disney in 2021, and we’re leaning towards a moderate resort. So, why not have her check out another moderate to see if she has any preferences?
We walked around the resort a bit, Laura got a (very bitter) margarita at the pool bar, and eventually we got back on the boat to Disney Springs. Once we were back at Disney Springs, it was perfect timing to (sob!) head for the car. We had some luggage rearranging to do, and it was better to do that here than at the airport.
Once the luggage was rearranged and Laura had accomplished what she thinks was a stealthy switch from jeans to leggings, we set off for the airport. It was an uneventful trip, and once we got past the Central FL Parkway area of I-4, the traffic was reasonable. We made a quick detour to my usual pre rental car return gas station stop (exit 9 off 528, hang a left), and then took the back route into the airport, past that hotel with the super noisy air conditioner where we stayed for a few hours before our cruise on the Fantasy.
And then we found traffic again. I’ve seen some crazy lines at rental car return, but this was just nuts. It wrapped partway around the airport basically. I was glad we were early, because by the time we returned the car, it was exactly the time I had said I’d return the car. There were so many cars being actively returned that they were actually using 2 sections of the garage just for the Alamo/National returns. It was NUTS! They had a good amount of staff on processing returns though. So we were on our way pretty quickly.
With a return line like that, it should come as no surprise that the rest of the airport experience was not as quick. I made it through bag check pretty quickly, but Laura picked the slow lane, so that was awhile. We said our goodbyes at security, where I joined the snail-like TSA pre-check line, and she headed for the regular line. She actually made it through the ID check faster than I did, but then I made it through the actual security part faster.
Eventually I was gateside, where I picked up a sub at Jersey Mike’s and then headed to my gate. When I check in, I was told gate 123. When I got to the gates, I found my flight to be going out of 122, so that’s where I parked myself. But they were dealing with a delayed flight, so my flight moved back to 123.
Meanwhile, Laura was texting me. When she checked in her gate was 125. By the time she got through security, it had changed to 108 on the departure board. But evidence at the gate was pointing to 108 not being hers. So I took a walk over to 125 to investigate, and before I could text her that there wasn’t much evidence there of that being her gate either, she appeared beside me.
This turned out to be really convenient, because my flight was boarding shortly, so Laura watched my stuff while I hit the restroom. Then we said goodbye for real, and she headed off to figure out her gate (125 did end up being her gate), and I waited around to board my flight. I think I was B14 for this flight, and the gate crew did a pretty good job of enforcing family boarding.
It seemed like every window seat forward of the wings was taken, so I snagged an aisle seat in row 3. The flight was fully boarded and actually pushed back a couple minutes early, despite being a completely full flight. It was a fairly quick flight; we got in about 20 minutes early. It was not entirely uneventful though. The events did restore my faith in humanity a bit though.
In row 2, there was a mom traveling alone with her 2 kids, a toddler and a 5ish year old. The toddler chugged a bottle right before take off. As the plane gained altitude said toddler screamed her head off, and everyone suspects that’s why she then, about the time we reached 10,000 feet, projectile vomited all over her mom. The flight attendants responded quickly with trash bags, and gloved up and grabbed the baby so that mom could figure out what to do. They continued holding the baby for the mom for quite some time, while mom stripped the baby, cleaned up the mess, and threw away her own sweatshirt. As the mom settled back down in just a tank top and leggings, a guy across the aisle found a spare shirt in his carry on and passed it off tom the mom to keep.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. A bit turbulent, but, I’ve experienced worse.
Upon arrival in Manchester, mom was waiting for me. She said T was in the cell phone lot waiting for us; she’d been too tired to drive. The luggage appeared pretty quickly, and we headed outside.
MHT isn’t a large airport, so it doesn’t have a ton of curb. I usually try to find an end away from the main doors. Mom and T aren’t as good about that. This resulted in T getting yelled at by the airport police, because he tried to park in the crosswalk at the main entrance (insert face palm here). Eventually he found a spot that wasn’t against the law or in the way, we threw my suitcase in the truck, and drove back to mom’s, where I loaded my luggage in my car, let the car thaw out a bit, and hit the road home. I was back at my house by 10:30 that night, where I was greeted by both dogs and Nick.
Final thoughts:
I kind of dreaded this trip. I can’t say I loved all the driving, but it ended up being a really fun trip. It was nice to have sister time, since Laura and I usually only see each other surrounded by family, since she lives so far away. And T managed to be pleasant in FL, even after he figured out that a second house in the areas of FL he wants to be is not realistic.
Drinks in Disney World are about twice as much as they are on Disney cruises. It’s kind of horrifying.
I still hate driving around Disney. But Silver Lake Resort is a very convenient offsite option. Great location. The resort felt safe, it was clean, and well kept. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again.
It was really hard to leave this trip. I have a Disney Cruise planned in April with Nick and his parents, but coronavirus certainly is making the viability of that trip uncertain right now. Beyond that I don’t currently have any vacations scheduled for this year. I’m a firm believer in always having something scheduled. So, it was a tough trip to see end.
Much like in August, I really liked having the opportunity to check out some new to me non-park Disney stuff.
The Festival of the Arts is pretty awesome! It may have become my new favorite Epcot festival.
I’m really looking forward to seeing all of the new stuff coming in the next yearish to Disney!
The title of this trip report is my stepdad’s fault. He nicknamed our blended family and all of it’s extraneous members our “exploded family”.
