April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Day 3, Part 1

Day 3: Monday, April 23, 2018

I was awake shortly before 7, and after a bit of facebooking (hey, I’m going to have to take a break from it on the ship!), I started getting ready for the day. Around 7:20 I woke Nick up, knowing we had agreed the night before to head for the food court around 7:45.

We ended up leaving the room almost exactly when we said we would. Go us! By this point, we had figured out the shortest route to Classic Hall, so we were in the food court in minutes. Unfortunately, so was some school group.

Nick got a breakfast platter, I got a pastry of some sort (probably involving apple), and then we waited…

Eventually we made it through the line and scarfed breakfast, experiencing The Twist while eating. Emphasis on the word “experience”. We did not participate.

Food consumed, we headed for the bus stop, where we made it on to an actively loading bus. It was a quick ride to Epcot, where we were dropped off only slightly closer to the gate than we had been last night.

When we got to bag check, Nick and I parted ways, because I am woman, therefore, I am the holder of the poncho, advil, bandaids, benedryl...oh...and the stuff I need! I, of course, picked the wicked slow line. As an added bonus, when the security gal started searching my backpack, she unpacked it.

My backpack is a perfect size...for carrying one poncho and a camera. That second poncho and an extra sunglass case threw the balance off a bit. If the security gal hadn’t made the next person unpack their backpack too, I’d have been THAT person holding up the line.

Bag finally repacked, I headed toward the entrance, noticing Nick’s bald dome in line quite a ways up. Yup, I was that person. I joined him in line, him wondering if I’d taken a detour back to the hotel to get to the entrance.

We were allowed into the park just moments after I joined Nick in line, and we made the brief walk from the tapstiles to the fountain area, me, admiring the fact that there was actual green stuff on the trees, something I hadn’t seen since my last trip to FL.

After standing just a couple minutes, the Jammitors started playing. We couldn’t see them, but we certainly enjoyed the performance.

Once that was finished, we joined the smaller mass of humanity headed to Soarin. I couldn’t help but notice that it STILL smells at the exit to Innoventions by Soarin. We also noticed that people don’t run nearly as fast to get to Soarin as they do to get to Frozen. Let it Go!

We more or less walked onto Soarin, which was fantastic. We both really enjoy the remake.

From Soarin, we had some time to kill. Like yesterday, we were mostly here for the food. But the food booths don’t open until about 11. Next stop? Mission Space.

We cut across Epcot, and walked straight on to the orange side. And by that, I mean the line was shorter for orange than for green. We were joined by exactly 4 other people in our holding room. I guess this ride has peaked. For perspective, the wait for Test Track at this point in the morning was already 50 minutes.

I am apparently starting to get old. Previously, I had compared the orange side of Mission Space to taking off in an airplane. Not this trip. My whole face felt the pressure this time. WOAH. I think I’m done with the orange version.

Once we escaped our space capsule, we (I) decided it was time for a bit of shopping. Off to Mousegear! I really behaved myself. I only bought a hat for myself. And a graduation ornament for my stepsister who is graduating with her Master’s soon. And some bottles of water, oh, and Advil for Nick, since I was beginning to think I had actually left it in the room (spoiler alert...it was actually just deep in the backpack).

Shopping complete, we headed back outside to get some pictures taken. I’ve got an annual pass right now, so since they throw in free downloads with that, might as well take advantage of it.

Pictures taken, we cruised through the butterfly tent, with me being too lazy to wrestle the camera out of the backpack, on our way to Imagination.

You see, the night before, Nick had asked me, when walking by the Figment topiary who “that dorky purple dragon is”. Since he still vividly recalled the day I tricked him into drinking the Beverly, I decided to see if there might be one more experience to slightly traumatize him with. We love each other, really!

I like Figment, don’t get me wrong. And I still remember the version of Journey into the Imagination from the early 90s. This one doesn’t measure up. And quite frankly, this version is slightly traumatizing.

Nick might disagree with my description. I believe he’s still slightly traumatized. Don’t ask silly questions of the Disney Dork!

After the open house, we headed into World Showcase. Time to eat! And yes, we were realizing that Castaway Cay (you know...swimsuit day) being the absolute last day of this vacation might not be the best thing!

While walking, we were getting texts from Nick’s parents. Seems like they went to the character breakfast at Crystal Palace by mistake. Now there’s an expensive mistake! It was at this time too that I received a notice from my Disney app that I had new pictures to view. Turns out when friends and family are linked to your account, sometimes their pictures post to it. So we got to see what Kim and John were up to! Priceless!

First stop? The Caribbean booth...La Isla Fresca. We ordered nearly one of everything on the menu here. Beef and rice for me, shrimp for Nick, tropical mousse cake for us to split (ha!) and the grown up tropical freeze. It was all amazing and we seriously contemplated just getting seconds and thirds of everything and ending our time in Epcot right there!

We like food enough, though, that we continued with our plan of hitting some of the booths we had missed the day before. In the end, this was actually just one missed stop, and one repeat. We got the spicy meatballs from China, which I had loved in February, but Nick ended up not being wild about, and another thing of Fruishi in Japan.

After making the full loop around the World, we decided it was time for a break, and headed for the entrance, stopping for just a couple very quick pictures along the way. 

The humidity was extreme today, and we were both drenched at this point. It was on par with August. And it had snowed at home multiple times in the week leading up to this trip. We were DONE.

We trekked to the bus stop and only had to wait a couple of minutes before a bus appeared. It was a quick ride back to the hotel. We headed straight back to the room, looking forward to a nice peaceful break in the air conditioning, with a nice nap before meeting up with Kim and John to go to Animal Kingdom...

April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Day 2, Part 3

Sunday April 22, 2018, Part 3

Once the bus finally showed up, we continued to have to wait awhile, albeit on a heavily air conditioned bus. It was driver switch time and the next driver showed up late.

Eventually we headed for Pop, which was to be a very quick stop. We both needed different shoes, as we had dressed for the apocalyptic rain forecast (which had turned out to be no big deal), which meant we were not wearing our most comfortable park shoes. I also needed my other fitbit, as this one wasn’t functioning well. And by the time we finally got there, some Powerade wasn’t a bad idea either.

We were at Pop for less than 40 minutes before we headed for Epcot. I think we may have basically walked straight on the Epcot bus. Well...limped actually. We both had some sizable blisters, thanks to the wicked humidity.

The trip over to Epcot was quick. The bus dropped us off by the charter buses, so we had a bit of a hike, but eventually we were headed into the park, and, more importantly, eating. That’s why people go to Disney right?

For those of us with allergies to flowers and the stinging insects they attract, the best part of the flower and garden festival is the food booths. Oh, who am I kidding? I like food...a lot. So does Nick. So...regardless of allergies, we really like the food booths.

We knew Nick’s parents were in Mexico checking out the Coco exhibit. But we made a food stop first, at the honey booth. Honey mascarpone cheesecakes for both of us, plus a kiddie version of the peach cobbler shake. The cheesecake was a total winner! The shake was good too, but not my favorite beverage of the festival. 

From here, we decided it was probably time to find Kim and John. We caught up with them in Mexico, where they were debating whether or not to buy empanadas from the quick service Mexican restaurant. Kim had been talking about how she had loved the empanadas when she was there for Food and Wine Festival in 2016, and John took that as she had to have some empanadas. She actually just wanted to explore the festival booths.

We took off in the direction of more festival booths, and John disappeared into the quick service line. We kept walking. He can catch us later!

I think our first stop was Germany. Nick got a potato pancake with applesauce and the ham and cheese pretzel roll thing. I didn’t take pictures. Oops. I was pretty surprised when he started saying how good the pretzel roll thing was. I’d had one in February and found it dry and totally lacking in the cheese department. So I tried his. It WAS really good. Guess I just got a bad one in February!

After eating in Germany, it was on to Italy! Nick and his mom had thought they wanted the lobster ravioli at this food booth, but then they realized they didn’t recognize a bunch of ingredients, so they didn’t order it. Hmm. I wonder how cruise eating will go!

While they didn’t get the lobster ravioli, Nick and I did get a limoncello margarita to share (tequila and limoncello...can’t go wrong here!) and I also got the melon panna cotta, which was basically like cantaloupe in pudding form. 

And then we walked toward the American Adventure, me enjoying listening to Lonestar perform.

We found a table over by the food booth in the American pavilion and Nick disappeared to get various sliders. Kim and I chatted and enjoyed the music.

Nick and Kim enjoyed their sliders, and eventually we saw John walking toward us. As we met up with him, he announced that he’d been surprised to realize that he recognized, and enjoyed several of the Lonestar songs, and Nick agreed. I laughed.

Since Lonestar had just ended their performance, we headed for Japan. It was time to introduce John and Kim to fruishi! I think Nick also got teriyaki salmon. Kim and John loved the fruishi. Nick liked the flavor of the salmon, but found it to be a bit overcooked. In an effort to not repeat the great cell phone screen crack incident of February that occurred at this food booth, I didn’t take any pictures of the food here.

Finished eating, we continued on, but not very far. In February, I had tried the chicken kebab at the Morocco food booth and loved it, so I needed to get that again, mostly so Nick could try it. That’s my story…

It was delicious again, and Nick and Kim both loved their portions of it. After we’d sufficiently enjoyed the chicken kebab, we continued on to France, purposely skipping the key lime tart at the FL Fresh booth, in favor of key lime pie in Key West in a couple days..

Originally, we were thinking there were several dishes we wanted to try at the France booth, but, pictures on the menu at the booth revealed a whole lot of MUSHROOMS. UGH! John, however, got a couple of the chocolate macaron lollipops for us all to try. They were VERY rich. Kim enjoyed it though!

Chocolate consumed, we continued onward. In the UK, John could hear music, so he headed deeper into the pavilion to listen to the set of whatever music group is performing there these days. I was fading, so Nick and I decided to head back to the hotel. We said good night to Kim, agreed to text tomorrow as the day wore on, since we were coming back to Epcot, and they were tackling Magic Kingdom (on a Monday...eek!), and parted ways.

We did make a couple more food stops on our way out of the park. The first was at the cider booth in the UK. Some tropical/pineapple cider for me, and the mimosa cider for Nick, I think. They both were good, and we each liked our own picks better than the other. We drank those as we walked towards Future World.

But first, one more stop! The Canada booth was calling Nick’s name. He got the grown up version of the maple shake and he also got the scallops. He enjoyed both.

From here, we really started making our way out of the park, taking just a couple pictures along the way.

It was a quiet walk to the bus stop. We both were wiped. And for those wondering, yes, we left before Illuminations. Park commando fail!

A bus appeared relatively soon, and Nick was able to spot some random open seats at the very back of the bus that no one wanted to climb the stairs for, so we were able to sit for the bus ride back.

After a quick bus ride, we headed straight to the room, showered, and crashed. Absolutely no difficulty falling asleep tonight!

April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Day 2, Part 2

Sunday April 22nd, 2018: Part 2

We found the bus stop for Saratoga Springs easily enough, and within 10 minutes or so, a bus for there appeared. It was a relatively empty and quiet bus ride. The nap king confirmed his nickname.

Eventually we reached the Congress Park bus stop, and hopped off the bus to make the surprisingly short walk over to Disney Springs. The clouds built along the walk, and I crossed every finger that my kids would get to perform.

I work for a very rural regional school district. We serve 7 towns. Geographically, we are the largest school district in the state. 4 elementary schools feed into just 1 regional middle school, and 1 regional high school. 7 towns… In that 9th-12th grade high school, we have approximately 500 students. Many of our kids have never left the state of NH. Even more have never been on a plane, or outside of New England. As a regional district we serve students ranging from those growing up in NH’s version of Appalachia to the kids of college professors and Dartmouth doctors.

Defying many odds, both our band and chorus made the trip to Disney to perform this vacation. 98 kids went, plus several chaperones. The excitement in the school the week before had been electrifying. “Truck day” was the Wednesday before break, when all of the luggage and instruments were loaded into a trailer that was driven to FL by a couple of band parents, one of whom is also an English teacher at the school. The kids boarded buses to Hartford that Friday morning, and flew down from there. They were performing in Disney Springs this afternoon, and I had students in both the band and chorus. I had promised my kids I would try to be at the performances. I had also promised a case manager a picture to prove that one student of particular concern was still alive at this point in the trip (she was!). This was a huge opportunity for the kids, and the last thing I wanted, for their sake, was for the weather to cancel the performances.

Nick and I perused a couple of stores on our way to the stage by World of Disney. Just as we sat down at the stage, Nick asked me if the kids would be wearing blue. Sure enough, a line of kids dressed in their Kearsarge blue polo style shirts and khaki pants were making their way across the bridge toward the stage. About the same time they stepped onto the stage, it started to pour.

Being hardy NH stock, Nick and I headed for cover, because we were too lazy to wrestle with the ponchos. Most of the Kearsarge gang that had gathered, however, dug out the ponchos. Thankfully, the rain stopped just in time for the band to perform. It was a good performance. There won’t be any pictures posted, because that’s a big no-no.

After the band performed, Nick and I headed for Sprinkles, for that cupcake sundae I had promised him. I had a carrot cake cupcake with vanilla ice cream for my sundae. He had a lemon meringue cupcake with strawberry ice cream for his sundae. They both were VERY tasty. I didn’t take pictures. We kind of inhaled them.

After enjoying our sundaes, we wandered Disney Springs a bit. Although we both had been here since the new stuff opened, we’d been on a mission, so Nick hadn’t really seen a good chunk of it. Today he had that opportunity. He was impressed with the appearance, and shocked by some of the stores they had there.

Then we went to World of Disney. World of Disney is chaotic on a good day. As an added bonus, World of Disney is open while undergoing refurbishments, so it’s been compacted a bit. And it was kind of crowded because of that damn race weekend. Let me put it this way: two officers from the sheriff’s department were providing security in there this afternoon. It was wild in there. Nick lasted about 2 minutes before I saw him disappear outside. I lasted about 7. Needless to say, I walked out empty handed for the first time ever.

On my way out, I stopped at a drink cart for a couple bottles of water, then found Nick on the steps of the store. We still had about 40 minutes until the chorus performed. So we people watched. I must say, the people at Disney Springs were taking people watching to a whole new level today. If I didn’t know there were multiple mirrors in my hotel room, I’d have wondered if Disney had removed all mirrors at the same time they’d removed the do not disturb signs (more on THOSE later). People...spandex is a privilege, not a right. And I shouldn’t be able to see your glass cutters when it’s 80 degrees with 99.9% humidity!

Sufficiently traumatized, the chorus finally appeared, and we stepped over closer to the stage for their performance. It was excellent, and the kids genuinely looked like they were having fun. To say I was proud of the music department was an understatement. The performance was over quickly, and pretty soon, we were headed for the bus stop.

In case anyone was wondering, the bus stop for Pop from Disney Springs is in another county. Or, at least it seems that way. We missed the bus that was loading, because it’s about a two mile hike, so we had to wait a bit. We enjoyed the sight of palm trees and sun. Well...I did.

April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Day 2, Part 1

Sunday April 22, 2018

I was wide awake shortly after 6, despite not falling asleep until well after 1. Disney adrenaline?

I facebooked for a bit and then eventually started getting ready for the day. Nick continued snoring, thanks to the amazing light blocking sliding doors all over that room. Pop is still not my favorite value resort, but I really like the new rooms. Good thing they’re starting similar renos at the All Stars!

Eventually I woke Nick up, because we were meeting his parents in about 25 minutes. We finished getting ready, and were only a couple minutes behind the planned schedule. His parents headed to the main building a few minutes ahead of us, because they’d gotten a call from the front desk about an issue with the card they had on file. We arrived just as they were checking out the shadow boxes in the lobby. Kim was totally loving this place.

We then moved to the food court for breakfast. Nick had biscuits and gravy, and hash browns. I had a yogurt parfait. Nick’s parents split a breakfast platter. We lucked out and made it to the food court ahead of the school groups, so breakfast was quick and painless.

Pretty soon we were headed for the bus stop. An animal kingdom bus was filling to standing room only as we got there. We waited for the next bus, which showed up within minutes. We only had time for one colorful picture, to prove we were ready for the day.

Within minutes of stepping into the line, we were on our way to the Animal Kingdom. It ended up being a pretty interesting ride. The Star Wars half marathon was going on, so we watched the runners, marveled at the quantity of runners, and chatted with a guy about the “balloon ladies”...the pace setters. And we saw said balloon ladies...wearing death star balloons. HARSH!

We were stepping off the bus at Animal Kingdom by 8:20. Kim and I picked the slowest bag check lines, while the boys headed through the bagless line...because we were carrying their ponchos, and then we both got selected for the metal detector. This was a little bit of a process, because Kim just had her hip replaced in October, but, we got through it, and pretty soon we joined the boys and walked straight into the park, where we picked up our 20th anniversary park maps. Nick and I had been here for the 15th, so when we realized that this trip would coincide with the 20th, it was a no brainer that we’d be celebrating. 

The park was wide open, despite it being way before opening time. We headed straight to Pandora, with a quick stop at the store in Discovery Island that was selling all of the 20th anniversary merchandise. I picked up a pin, and we continued on our way.

We had a fastpass for Flight of Passage for the next day, and the wait was already posted for 90 minutes, so we headed straight for Na’vi River Journey, where we walked straight on the ride.

Here we made a mistake. We said there were 4 of us, and pointed to the boys. They still seated all of us in one row. As Kim said, “good thing we all like each other”. Of course it was the first real day of vacation...and we hadn’t sweat TOO much yet!

I had ridden Na’vi River Journey with my sister in February, and had been impressed then. While I have not seen the entire Avatar movie, the technology in this ride is very impressive. Nick, Kim, and John were equally impressed, if not more impressed than I was. And as we were nearing the exit dock, I heard John say that he’d love to ride that one again.

Since it was still a walk on, we headed straight back through the queue for a second ride, and this time we had the sense to split up 2 and 2. We enjoyed it again and noticed more details.

After our second trip on Na’vi River Journey, we decided to see if we could find the baby hippo. So it was off to Africa. Side note, when did Pangani Forest get renamed to Gorilla Falls trail?

We didn’t see a baby hippo. But we did have some impressive views.

After more time on the trail than anticipated, we booked it back to Pandora. Today was the first day the Pandora Utility Suit was on the schedule. We did a bit of picture taking around the land before we went looking for it. 

Turns out Pandora is bigger than I had originally realized. The Pandora Utility Suit is over by the restaurant. It was very cool to see, and even cooler to see it move.

Once the PUC headed offstage, we decided to take cover, because it looked like it would pour at any moment, and the 20th anniversary ceremony had supposedly been canceled as a result. By this point we were getting hungry, so I went over to the bar and got a couple of those pineapple cream cheese egg roll things, and Nick went inside the canteen, where he emerged with a couple of weird drinks for us to try. Bottom line? I preferred the pineapple cream cheese egg rolls to the drinks. I believe he had the opposite opinion.

By the time we were done snacking, the sun was re-emerging, or, at least, the clouds were getting lighter, so we started working out way towards Asia. We ended up detouring, first for a failed attempt at a picture, and then for lunch at Flame Tree. By the way, the concept that mobile ordering takes less time is a lie, or at least it is at Flame Tree. We waited a LONG time.

But, eventually, our food was ready. We all had the french fries with pulled pork and cheese. They’re on the snack menu or something like that, but they were completely sufficient as a meal. And they were delicious. Now that they’ve removed the turkey and cranberry sandwich from the menu, this will be my go-to at Flame Tree. Horrifically unhealthy, but...we’re in Disney.

After lunch we decided to divide and conquer. Kim really wanted to see the new bird show debuting today since it involves Up characters. She’d even worn her Up shirt for the occasion! I, however, have been used by birds for target practice enough in the last few years that bird shows are NOT on my to-do list. I also knew I needed to be moving along. With the promise of a cupcake sundae, Nick decided to join me. But first, we had to see the baby tigers!

We parted ways, and Nick and I headed for the Maharajah Jungle Trek. My sister and I had seen the baby tigers in February when they were about 6 months old. Today, we treked through the jungle, and found plenty of weird animals (water buffalo…) but only one tiger. It was, at least, one of the not-so-little-anymore babies.

Tiger spotting complete, Nick and I headed for the bus stop, to go observe some animals of another sort.

April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Day 1

Saturday April 21st, 2018

FINALLY!!!!! I was awake WAY too early, considering our flight wasn’t until 8 PM. I passed the time facebook spamming (because I’m going on vacation TODAY!!!), writing an eval report for work, running errands, doing dishes, playing with some unhappy dogs that had noticed the suitcase, painting my toe nails, and watching the clock. It was a LONG day. But, on the plus side, the luggage was packed hours before go time! 

Around 4, we left to take the dogs to the kennel. When reserving the week, I had specifically told them we would drop off Saturday afternoon. You see where this is going, don’t you? We showed up, and their Saturday hours are morning hours only. And there was no one answering the locked door, or the phone.

Thank goodness for good friends! After some panic and swearing, we called our friend June. Sure, she could take care of the dogs for the evening and drop them off at the kennel the next morning. PHEW!

So we raced home, said goodbye to the dogs, packed the car, and raced towards Nick’s parents house. When we arrived there 40 minutes later, we found John trying to connect a security camera that was on the fritz and Kim sputtering that she wasn’t sure John had really finished packing, since he’d spent the day spreading lime on the lawn and fixing the deck. Engineers!

Several minutes later, we started the game of tetris that is stacking luggage for a week for 4 people into the back of a Honda HR-V. After several trips into cars, the garage and the house for John’s sunglasses, we were finally on the road, for the quick 10 minute ride to my dad’s house.

We found dad waiting outside, tailgate down on his truck, ready for the great luggage transfer. That all took place in the time it took us to stash my car key, and we were on the road again, this time to Manchester airport.

Traffic was light and we were at the airport by 6:15. We were the last flight going out of Manchester, so baggage check was a breeze, and security wasn’t too bad, despite the fact that they had shut down the pre-check lane for the night, so I had to pull all the liquids and electronics out of my backpack, which then required further screening, because food is apparently a national security concern. However, in true Manchester form, that extra screening was spent comparing notes with the TSA dude on different pretzel thin flavors! MHT really has the best TSA folks.

Once we were through security, it was time to find some food. Manchester usually plans relatively well. This night they did not. There were exactly 2 food options open, and huge lines. Kim and I both ended up with ham and cheese sandwiches that we scarfed before our flight. John and Nick appeared as boarding was starting with take out from the bar, that they ate on the plane. Nick had some sort of flatbread pizza. He enjoyed it.

The flight was smooth. The anti-napper (me) napped and read. Kim and John chatted with the math major sitting with them, with John recruiting her for his company, and the king of naps watched movies on his phone, with the most creative rigging system I’ve seen in awhile. The good news is, the elastic bands he’d asked me for earlier in the day were not for flinging at people!

We landed half an hour early, about 10:30 pm, and pulled into the very last gate in the Southwest terminal. Deplaning was quick, and pretty soon, we were dividing and conquering: 3 of us to baggage claim, and John to the rental car counter...well...once Nick chased him down when John headed outside and redirected him to the escalator.

The luggage appeared quickly enough...from the farthest carousel from the escalator, and we made our way to the rental car company, where John directed us to take a seat. Seems Thrifty hadn’t planned on so many early arriving flights and so they were still cleaning out cars. They gave us 4 bottles of water for our time, and within about 7 minutes they were flagging John down with directions to the one and only car in the mid-size row.

We headed to the garage, and started the luggage tetris again, this time with a Hyundai Elantra, Nick and his dad wondering how this could be classed as a mid-size. I swear John travels more than it seems…

Tetris completed, we headed for Disney, arriving at the guard shack at Pop Century just before midnight. We had received our room ready texts around lunch time, and had received adjoining rooms in building 9 (9163 and 9164), so it was easy enough to get where we were going. John dropped us and the luggage at the curb, some Disney employee directed us to our actual room locations, and we said good night. It would be an early wake up call the next morning. We did get one of the renovated rooms. I didn’t take pictures, because I stayed in one in November. Our room looked like this.

April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Pretrip

Cast of Characters

Nick: 31, my husband. He’s an optician these days. He likes to nap on vacations and leaves most of the vacation planning up to me.

Me: also 31. You all know me. I’m a speech-language pathologist, and I’m the resident “Disney Dork” in the family. I did a fair amount of planning for this trip.

Kim: 58, Nick’s mom...aka my amazing mother-in-law. No seriously...I really lucked out in the mother-in-law department. She’s a former special education para so she and I speak the same language. She’s a Disney enthusiast. Actually, she’s just enthusiastic in general.

John: 59? Nick’s dad. He’s an electrical engineer who speaks the language of installing camera systems on Navy ships. He’s a classic engineer. He was basically along for the ride.

So this trip started two years ago on our WONDERful first Disney Cruise. Nick and I booked a placeholder because we knew we wanted to cruise again. Since then we’ve gotten engaged and married, and spent a year and a half planning this trip. I think I sent the email to start booking the 2 of us for this cruise a couple hours after I got my hands on the calendar for this school year. And, somehow, we talked Nick’s parents into going with us. This is kind of a big deal.

As the planning progressed, the trip got bigger than just a cruise. When the big pieces were planned, the trip had morphed into:

April 21st: Fly to MCO late in the evening.

April 22nd and 23rd: Disney parks!

April 24th: Drive from WDW to Miami

April 25-29: Cruise on the Disney Magic

Thankfully the countdown slowly ticked to zero, and the packing got done days in advance thanks to the coldest, longest winter and spring combo EVER! And the excitement built! The week leading up to the trip was absurd at work, and we were SO READY for vacation!!!