I was awake before my alarm this morning. I had some leftover breakfast bars and candy for breakfast, redid my bandaid art, and got serious about packing, all while watching the local news to see how closely I needed to be watching my flight status for delays. More on that later.
The packing got done. I ugly cried at a Disney World commercial on the local station that played “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow”, because it’s going to be a tough school year and I don’t have a lot of faith in my currently scheduled (much needed) upcoming vacations, given all things Covid. I got ready for the day. One last shirt of the day. There might be a little more dole whip in my future today…
Eventually everything was packed and I moved all the luggage to the door so that I could do the final check of the room. Such a sad sight.
As I conducted my final systems check...I mean...made sure I hadn’t left anything that’s mine behind and had mostly cleaned up after myself, housekeeping knocked on the door. Boy she’s here early! I told her I’d be out in 5 minutes. She told me to put the room occupied sign on the door. 5 minutes!
By about 8:35 I was headed for my car with my luggage. Yes, I made eye contact with the housekeeper so she knew I was leaving 3 minutes after we spoke. As I loaded the trunk, I saw the tackiest tourist car I’ve seen in awhile. Someone had written in car window paint all over their minivan windows that they were going to Disney, and had listed all of their cash apps to “buy these kids a Mickey bar”. Yeah, no.
Car loaded, it was off to the main building. Don’t worry, I know I don’t have to actually check out at the desk! I was a little concerned about one particular blister, because it was between my toes, where the flip flop strap goes, and having walked around a bit in the rain and just a lot in general, who knows what’s living on those straps! Pretty much the only thing I didn’t have with me was Neosporin type stuff, so I paid a visit to the gift store for the world’s most expensive tube of bacitracin and a bottle of water. Then I did a little bandaid bacitracin art in the car, before heading out. Bye All Stars, see you next summer?
Where was I headed at this early hour? Not a theme park. Back to Disney Springs. Officially Disney Springs opens at 10. My understanding was the orange garage opened at 9. I was there about 9:01. Gotta rope drop some cookies!
I headed for Gideon’s and felt every. single. surface. change on my way there. Seriously, how many different ground designs are there in Disney Springs? I got to Gideon’s quickly enough and found myself 6th in line, with 3 of those people in the same family. Perfect!
The wait passed quickly enough, and they actually started letting people in the store at 9:50. By the time they opened, there still were probably less than 30 people in line, likely a result of both the generally low crowds, and the 50th anniversary merchandise drop that morning. More on that shortly!
This was my first time in Gideon’s but not my first time having their cookies. Mom and my stepdad were in Disney mid July and brought home a bunch of cookies. They gave me a couple (the OG and the coffee cake) as a thank you for taking care of their pool for the week. I loved the coffee cake one. The OG had too many chocolate chips. So, with that preview, I knew exactly what I was getting.
By 9:55, I was walking out of the store with 2 coffee cake cookies, one cookies and cream, one peanut butter, one key lime (their Flavors of Florida special) and one rocky road (their August cookie of the month). Yeah, that was a heavy bag. All pictures were taken at home. I had to bag the rocky road cookie when racing to pack everything later that day because it was super melty, and Nick was the one that got that cookie (we split the rest), so I didn’t get a picture, because melted chocolate in a ziploc is not photogenic. But the rest are there!
This was my first time in Gideon’s but not my first time having their cookies. Mom and my stepdad were in Disney mid July and brought home a bunch of cookies. They gave me a couple (the OG and the coffee cake) as a thank you for taking care of their pool for the week. I loved the coffee cake one. The OG had too many chocolate chips. So, with that preview, I knew exactly what I was getting.
By 9:55, I was walking out of the store with 2 coffee cake cookies, one cookies and cream, one peanut butter, one key lime (their Flavors of Florida special) and one rocky road (their August cookie of the month). Yeah, that was a heavy bag. All pictures were taken at home. I had to bag the rocky road cookie when racing to pack everything later that day because it was super melty, and Nick was the one that got that cookie (we split the rest), so I didn’t get a picture, because melted chocolate in a ziploc is not photogenic. But the rest are there!
I headed towards the Disney side of Disney Springs, and the line to get in to World of Disney didn’t seem too horrific and was moving, so I decided to join. How often am I in Disney when they release pre-50th anniversary merchandise? I ended up waiting in line about 40 minutes. The line was mostly in the shade and moved frequently, as they let a handful of people in to the store at a time. The girl in front of me in line was a solo local, and we chatted for the bulk of the wait. So it wasn’t bad at all.
Inside World of Disney was pretty chaotic. The vloggers were all videoing the madness, and the resellers were loading strollers with exactly two of every single item for however many people were in their group. The merchandise was in a pretty small area. I quickly got an ornament, magic band, pin, and Corkcicle, and got in line to check out, chatting with the people around me about the resellers with their insane piles of stuff. Apparently the two item limit allows two of every shirt size.
Paid up (and yes, they honored the Disney Visa discount even on these specialty items!), I got the heck out of World of Disney, and poked around some other stores, nearly crying when they played the Disney Cruise horn in the pop up DCL shop in Marketplace Co-op. It’s been a long couple years and getting longer.
Shopping pretty complete, I saw that Marketplace Snacks had FINALLY opened for the day, so I hopped in the short but SLOW line and got the watermelon dole whip parfait. This was another Flavors of Florida thing and it was SO GOOD!
Inside World of Disney was pretty chaotic. The vloggers were all videoing the madness, and the resellers were loading strollers with exactly two of every single item for however many people were in their group. The merchandise was in a pretty small area. I quickly got an ornament, magic band, pin, and Corkcicle, and got in line to check out, chatting with the people around me about the resellers with their insane piles of stuff. Apparently the two item limit allows two of every shirt size.
Paid up (and yes, they honored the Disney Visa discount even on these specialty items!), I got the heck out of World of Disney, and poked around some other stores, nearly crying when they played the Disney Cruise horn in the pop up DCL shop in Marketplace Co-op. It’s been a long couple years and getting longer.
Shopping pretty complete, I saw that Marketplace Snacks had FINALLY opened for the day, so I hopped in the short but SLOW line and got the watermelon dole whip parfait. This was another Flavors of Florida thing and it was SO GOOD!
Story time! Remember those crazy resellers that were in a group utilizing an empty stroller to cart all of their right at the limit 50th anniversary merchandise purchases around? Well, when I was waiting to get that watermelon dole whip, I heard a clang on the sidewalk behind me. Turned around, and those resellers had lost a bag of Corkcicles off of their stroller. The looks on their faces! Karma is fun.
After enjoying that watermelon dole whip, I started making my way back towards the spendy stores. I still had some time to kill before lunch. I ended up going into Uniqlo, not because I thought I’d find anything there, but because I knew there was a lot of space to browse to kill time, and I was hoping for solid time in AC for the sake of the cookies!
Turns out there are some great corners upstairs in Uniqlo that are quiet and completely out of the way to stand in AC, skim facebook, text, and check a flight status. I was able to kill the time I needed, and also went on higher alert for my flight. It was now showing delayed, albeit only by one minute, but I’ve seen how this goes before.
Time killed, I shuffled over to Wine Bar George for my last Disney meal of the trip. I checked in about 15 minutes early (12:30) just like Disney (and even my Open Table reservation) tells me too, and was seated immediately (at a table in the bathroom hallway, because...solo traveler…), which turned out to be a great thing.
I think my server was Mark. He was great. Even though one of these items doesn’t go with everything else, I got the Frozcato to drink (pineapple dole whip, moscato and vodka), and the meatballs and mac and cheese bites to eat. Everything arrived at my table quickly. Everything was delicious, although I prefer the texture of my homemade meatballs to the incredibly dense/somewhat tough meatballs that I was served here (#italiangrandmother #meatballsnob). The flavors were awesome for everything and I discovered that I like polenta.
After enjoying that watermelon dole whip, I started making my way back towards the spendy stores. I still had some time to kill before lunch. I ended up going into Uniqlo, not because I thought I’d find anything there, but because I knew there was a lot of space to browse to kill time, and I was hoping for solid time in AC for the sake of the cookies!
Turns out there are some great corners upstairs in Uniqlo that are quiet and completely out of the way to stand in AC, skim facebook, text, and check a flight status. I was able to kill the time I needed, and also went on higher alert for my flight. It was now showing delayed, albeit only by one minute, but I’ve seen how this goes before.
Time killed, I shuffled over to Wine Bar George for my last Disney meal of the trip. I checked in about 15 minutes early (12:30) just like Disney (and even my Open Table reservation) tells me too, and was seated immediately (at a table in the bathroom hallway, because...solo traveler…), which turned out to be a great thing.
I think my server was Mark. He was great. Even though one of these items doesn’t go with everything else, I got the Frozcato to drink (pineapple dole whip, moscato and vodka), and the meatballs and mac and cheese bites to eat. Everything arrived at my table quickly. Everything was delicious, although I prefer the texture of my homemade meatballs to the incredibly dense/somewhat tough meatballs that I was served here (#italiangrandmother #meatballsnob). The flavors were awesome for everything and I discovered that I like polenta.
I was thoroughly enjoying a laid back lunch when I decided to check my flight status, knowing that it was closing in on 1, and if things needed to change with my flight, there was a 4:15 out of Orlando, but I’d be running out of time to act on that. My original flight from Orlando was scheduled for 6:15, with an hour layover in Baltimore. When I checked the status I found that it was now delayed by 45 minutes and showing a 20 minute connection. I’ve done the dash through Baltimore when dramatic delays occurred after the flight was already boarded. I know Southwest’s minimum connection time (35 minutes) and that the ticket agent would rebook me if I checked in at MCO and the connection was showing only 20 minutes. I knew my flight out of MCO was the last option for me for the day. I also knew that Fred was spinning in the tropics and forecast to impact FL starting the next day.
Mark appeared a couple minutes later to check on me, and as I chugged my Frozcato (will not commit alcohol abuse when dole whip is involved! Except that fake dole whip and rum disaster served on DCL…), I told him I needed the check so that I could deal with the airline. He had a definite WTF look on his face, probably since I’d only been there half an hour, but he recovered quickly and quickly left the table and brought me the check. I explained the situation when he returned and he looked a lot less WTF and a lot more sympathetic. He got a good tip.
Before leaving, I wrote down my confirmation number for the flight on my copy of the receipt, and then dashed out the door, remembering to put my mask on halfway down the stairs. I really didn’t think there was enough time to get through to Southwest, given recent hold times with other travel companies (ahem...Disney...JetBlue), but I was going to try. Once outside I got the call started, where I was quoted a 30 minute hold time, so I walked to the rental car.
The hold ended up being less than 20 minutes, and I didn’t even need my confirmation number (that somehow disappeared once in the rental?). When the agent picked up, she asked if she was talking to me by name, so they must have some caller ID thing going on. The agent made a big thing out of changing the flight “for my comfort” and telling me there’s still a chance the flight would be held in Baltimore for me. But in the end she changed the flight while coughing in my ear the whole time (I really wanted to ask if she was working from home and/or had had a covid test yet), and I quickly repacked my luggage, including those cookies (don’t worry...they went in the carry on), found a trash can what felt like a million miles from the car to get rid of random excess bags, and then I headed for MCO to catch that 4:15 flight (that thankfully was delayed by about half an hour).
The drive was uneventful. Or it was until I got to the exit for my usual gas station. See although I don’t typically have a rental car for my Disney trips, I’m pretty used to returning a rental to MCO. From 2012-2020, I’ve had a rental car every February vacation. Back in 2012, thanks to Gasbuddy and the interweb, I found my pre-airport gas station. Exit 9 off the Beachline (528), take a left off the ramp and a left at the next light. After filling up, you can take the back way into the airport and skip the last toll.
Well, as I approached the light it became clear that they were renovating the gas station, specifically the gas pumps. CRAP. I wasn’t aware of another gas station at that exit, and frankly, all the water and frozcato were catching up with me and it was 2:30 at this point, and I was pretty anxious about lines at the airport, so I decided since I’d used minimal fuel this trip, to just suck it up and pay the exorbitant amount to have Dollar refuel the car without the fuel contract (it ended up being about $30 for slightly more than ¼ tank of fuel).
I made my final approach to MCO. I used all the right lane strategies to prepare for a crazy car rental line, because been there, done that. There was no line. Last time I returned a car here I waited 45 minutes on the road in line. Not today, thankfully. The woman who processed my return was something else, but eventually I was given the all clear to head for the terminal.
Can I just say...WHY are there no restrooms between the parking garage and the upper levels of the terminal? And WHY does that escalator to level 3 move SO slowly?!
Good news is there’s a bathroom near the top of the escalator on level 3 and by some miracle I managed to stuff me and my luggage into a stall. Apparently I pack lighter than I think I do.
I’d heard horror stories about the Southwest check in line, but when I got there, there was no line for a kiosk. In fact there were dozens of open kiosks to choose from. The most difficult part of check in was finding a bowl with the transfer tags in it nearby.
Luggage tagged and boarding pass printed, I only had to wait behind about 3 people before my luggage was checked too. Not bad. Hopefully this is a good sign for security.
It was. There was only one person ahead of me in line for Pre-Check (yes, miraculously even with the flight change, that was still on my boarding pass, phew!), and he wasn’t actually supposed to be in that line. Then I only had to wait behind a couple of people for the actual security, so no big deal at all. And, amazingly, the box of cookies did not send my backpack off for secondary screening! Woohoo!
I collected my backpack and headed for the tram, where I once again got the selfie seat for the final ride in Orlando of this trip.
Obviously my gate was the one all the way at the end of the terminal, but I found a seat near others taking masking seriously, who were not coughing, and made myself comfortable. The flight ended up a little bit more delayed, and maintenance made an appearance, but we were fully boarded, with bins being closed by 5:00. I had landed B31 when I changed my flight (not bad at all), and the first easily accessible open window seat I found was in the second to last row, but that was fine. I now had a long layover in Baltimore.
We won’t discuss that this 4:15 flight is actually the flight Southwest had put me on when they made adjustments to their schedule, and I decided to take advantage of the 3 day change window to change flights for no extra cost to extend my trip by a couple of hours. I’ll just say that the flight was uneventful and pretty short. Landed in Baltimore about 7. My next flight wasn’t until 9:30, so I had plenty of time.
And for those wondering, I happened to check the status of my original flight out of curiosity. They were boarding about the time I arrived in Baltimore. I’m glad I made the flight change.
I shuffled off the plane at gate A7, which is pretty far from anything and found out that my next flight was leaving from B9, which is also pretty far from anything. As I cruised by the food court, I grabbed some dinner at Chipotle, which was an experience. They were out of an awful lot of crucial ingredients, and it was visibly obvious that it had been chaos there, but I (and everyone else, because they ran out of tortillas…) was able to get a burrito bowl (chicken, rice, queso and cheese), which seemed like the least offensive of the BWI food options. There’s a LOT of fried food in that airport. They packaged it to go, so I shuffled to my gate and found an out of the way seat (surprisingly) to eat. Then I masked back up and literally put my feet up (on my backpack), until much closer to flight time.
I had A 35 for boarding this flight. The gate agent started boarding early, and I was onboard very quickly. Minimal people in the early A group, and no pre-boards which is unheard of. I’m guessing they were all running from other flights. This time I was somewhere around the 4th or 5th row.
The flight to Manchester was quick, and bumpy. Upon departure the captain had said it would be a smooth flight, and I kinda suspected he wasn’t accurate on that. While I was eating, I’d been texting with mom (who lives 15 minutes from Manchester airport) and she said they’d just lost power due to very intense thunderstorms. I knew the risk of thunderstorms was high in the area until shortly before I landed.
Sure enough, as we cruised over Vermont, things started getting bumpy, and pretty soon, we were hearing very emphatically, “Flight attendants take your seats! Take your seats!”
Things did smooth out by the time we reached Manchester, and we came in fast. Captain lead foot took us for a very rapid tour of the airport, before we arrived at the gate. Deplaning was quick, and pretty soon I had my luggage in hand, and was slowly making my way to the garage, where mom had parked my car. I found it and headed for home, arriving to a very happy Gizmo and Nick just about midnight.
Final thoughts:
The magic is still there. The parks are clean, it's obvious if you overhear conversations that they're way understaffed, but the cast members are still awesome and they've brought in an insane fleet of coach buses to deal with the bus driver shortage and the atmosphere in the parks is absolutely still magical. In a lot of ways, this was one of my best trips. I’ll never know if it’s because the trip was so desperately needed and I was so happy to be back, or if it really was that awesome, but either way, it was great!
My primary concern about the mask requirement was masks falling off on some of the faster rides. I had no issues with this. Phew! I’m glad Disney has taken the masking approach that they have, but like everyone, Nick is quite “done” with everything, so I’m really hoping things stabilize before February, when we have a trip planned together, because he won’t do Disney with masks, even though they’re only required indoors. I get it but...fingers crossed. I honestly didn’t mind the current mask situation. Actually, I wore my mask at rope drop and during the fireworks too.
I prefer life without fastpasses, and with a shorter dining reservation window. The lines move much more efficiently without fastpass, and more often than not my summer vacation hasn’t even been booked at the 6 month mark. But clearly at least one of those things is changing soon, and drastically.
The character cavalcades are awesome. They’re so Disney! And it’s so nice to not have to line up for a parade. But….a parade would have been better at Boo Bash, due to time constraints.
Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are the more challenging parks right now. In hindsight they really relied on character greets, parades and shows to spread people around the parks. Now they’re all in fewer lines.
Magic Kingdom was also the worst park for mask compliance and for coughing, sick sounding people. Given that it seems like anywhere across Disney the sick sounding people were the ones not wearing masks correctly (despite needing to be), I don’t think this was a coincidence.
Crowds were definitely lower than my past August trips. I think the temperature was cooler too. It really was pleasant.
I think I’m officially too old to do the parks in flip flops. Since getting home, I’ve invested in new sneakers that are definitely more comfortable in the heat, and am working on finding socks that I can tolerate in the heat. If anyone has sock recommendations, send them my way.
Now that my feet are in better shape than when I got home, I’m ready to go back!
