February 2020: An Exploded Family Trip to FL: Day 3, Part 1

Day 3: Monday February 24, 2020

I had set my alarm for today, but didn’t need it. It’s a Disney day!! Since I was awake early, I got up and watched the news, and got ready for the day. Once I was dressed, I set out for breakfast.

I’ll put this out here now. There was nothing political in my breakfast choice. At check-in I received 2 coupons for a free sandwich (either the breakfast chicken biscuit or the regular chicken sandwich) at Chick-Fil-A. Being from NH, I’ve never had that either, and wanted to see if their food was worthy of the cult-like following. And how convenient, Chick-Fil-A was ¼ mile from the front entrance of the resort.

So off to Chick-Fil-A I went. I got the chicken biscuit and a side of hashbrowns. Thanks to my coupon, I was out the door for $1.28. I went back to the resort and ate in my room watching TV (breakfast in bed, yes). It was delicious. I’m a big fan of good biscuits and hashbrowns and both were excellent. The chicken on the biscuit was great too. I was kind of bummed that I couldn’t think of another opportunity to use the other coupon (but it’s good through the end of this year, so if I find myself in the area again…).

Breakfast finished, I finished getting my park bag ready for the day, and got on the road shortly after 8. It was only about a 10 minute drive over to Epcot, and very straightforward. I HATE driving around Disney, but for an offsite resort, I loved the location of this one!

At that hour it didn’t take too terribly long to get through the parking gate, and pretty soon I had parked, taken a picture of what row I was in (Amaze 37) and was walking to the front of the park. I was in about the 4th row of parked cars for the morning. I’ve done better, but not bad.

Security wasn’t too bad, but I was a bit surprised by just how long the entrance line was. That being said, it started moving just a few minutes after I stepped into it, and, by some miracle, I had actually picked a line that moved efficiently. 

I had certainly seen reports of the quantity of construction walls in Future World, but nothing really prepared me for this. They had spruced them up a bit.

I headed towards Soarin, which involved (I think) walking backstage, via a tunnel of construction walls, to the holding area sort of near The Seas. Those headed for Frozen were sent through the other half of the park, over by the old Universe of Energy. I studied the Times Guide and passport to plot how I was going to best attack the final day of a festival I’d never experienced while waiting. 

At just about exactly 9, the rope was dropped, and I headed for Soarin. The entrance to this was a cluster, but I was on the ride by 9:15, in a center section (row 2 I think), so it all worked out.

After Soarin, I marvelled at the fact that it was 9:20 and Soarin had a 60 minute wait, and then I went and rode Living with the Land, because, why not. That ride was still just about a walk on.

After Living with the Land, it was time to start enjoying the culinary arts side of the Festival of the Arts. Sunshine Seasons had a specialty festival mini cake (roughly cupcake size), and since it involved vanilla cake and peanut butter frosting, and was VERY picture worthy, I was in! 10 am isn’t too early for cake if peanut butter is involved!

In addition to being adorable (my MIL, husband and I all think it should be served in Animators Palate on the cruise ships), this cake was delicious.

Having enjoyed my snack, it was time to check out the first of the new Epcot movies: Awesome Planet. I didn’t really know what to expect going in. But it wasn’t that. That being said, it was a well done movie, and very worthy of watching.

Having pretty fully conquered the Land pavilion, it was time to go explore some of the other Festival stuff as it opened up in stages. But first! Was that a whistle? And trash cans? YES! The Jammitors were setting up shop very close by. There’s always time to watch them!

Once the jam session had ended, it was time to check out some other new and festival stuff around Epcot. I made my way over to the Epcot experience, to see what that’s all about, taking a few pictures along the way. 

Honestly, the Epcot Experience, which is supposed to show a bit about what’s coming to Epcot, was not as insightful as I had hoped. But it did what I needed...killed a few minutes until the food booths opened. Because obviously the culinary arts are the most important art, right?

First stop? The food booth in Mexico. I got the banana daiquiri and the sopes de barbacoa. Both were absolutely delicious (once the onions had been scraped off the barbacoa obviously).

Next stop (it’s educator lunch time after all!)? The Pop Arts booth. I got the sous vide chicken. If I remember correctly this involved apples, some other fruit, and cheese? Whatever it was, it was delicious!

One more stop before going to check out the visual arts; the Decadent Delights booth was nearby. I got the lemon-blood orange tart, and the white chocolate purple sweet potato mousse. The tart was amazing. The mousse was bland and boring.

Next up? Time to take a break from the culinary arts and check out some of the visual arts!

February 2020: An Exploded Family Trip to FL: Day 2

Day 2: Sunday February 23, 2020

I was asleep prior to 8 on Saturday night, and a certain little dog that shall remain nameless has been getting me up VERY early lately, so I was awake about 4 am. What does one do when they’re awake at that hour in Orlando? Finish the other half of that social media-able treat from the night before, shower, and watch the news.

Finally it was late enough to get rolling. My first stop? Krispy Kreme. Although people say there are some opening in NH, google doesn’t seem to agree, so, with a Krispy Kreme half a mile from the condo, it was time to experience a non-airport (and non-thawed out on a cruise ship) based Krispy Kreme for the first time ever. Yeah, we’re a bit isolated in NH.

So I got myself a glazed raspberry filled doughnut to go, and continued to my next stop...Publix. My sister had given me a grocery list, and I wanted to get my chores over with early in vacation.

Publix opens at 7. I was there at 7:02, and out by 7:20. Thankfully it was a short grocery list, and I was back to vacationing quickly. And by that I really mean I was back at the condo to enjoy this beauty. 

Since it was still quite early, I watched the news for a bit longer, read a bit more, and then eventually got ready and got in the car to The Villages.

Today’s drive was uneventful, despite not being able to find music on the radio. WHY is there so much talk on radios in the morning?! Music stations are for MUSIC!

I pulled in to my grandparents’ driveway just as my stepdad emerged...with Windex and paper towels? That’s when I noticed that not only was the rental car already in the driveway not an SUV like T had mentioned renting when he was bragging about his rental deal, but it was FILTHY.

I hopped out of my car, and T proceeded to tell me about the hour plus wait for a rental car the night before (so THAT explains the 10:30 pm phone call when they landed at 8:30!) and about being downgraded and receiving a car with a filthy exterior. Under all the grime, the vehicle was white, but it was NOT white when I arrived.

I left T to clean his car, and went inside where Grammy was just finishing breakfast and mom was getting ready for the day. I visited with everyone and mom very quickly asked me how I “skip the lines”, knowing that it has been at least 5 years since we’ve had to wait in a rental car line, so that let me know exactly how she was feeling about the rental car events of last night.

Shortly after I arrived, mom and T set out for the Marion Market. I haven’t actually been to the Marion Market; I always find excuses to not go. This trip was no different. As best as I can tell, it is a farmers’ market combined with a flea market, all on steroids. I stayed back and spent the rest of the morning visiting with Grammy and Grampa.

Mom and T got back in time for lunch, so we had sandwiches and ice cream with Grammy and Grampa. Then mom and I decided to take a walk, and T crashed that party, trying to convince us that his walking loop that he had established that morning is better than the route we’ve been walking there for years. He’s wrong, obviously. Majority rules, so we walked the ladies’ route. T was pleasant enough, and somehow persuaded mom and I to go to the pool after our walk. It was in the mid 70s, and windy today.

When we got back from our walk, we established the plans for dinner, and then quickly changed and headed for the pool. The Villages has dozens of pools, and now that I’m over 30 I can use most of them. But oddly enough mom and my favorite is still a family pool. It just happens to be a really quiet pool. And this day, with it being not exceptionally warm, we were essentially the only people at the pool. 

Our pool trip was relatively brief, but we did get at least partly in the pool. When we got back to Grammy and Grampa’s, we changed, and set out for dinner at a favorite: Little Joey’s. Grammy and Grampa discovered Little Joey’s a few years back, and it’s been a pretty consistent favorite since then. Little Joey’s is delicious Italian food, and is inexpensive. It’s a serious win!

The drive over to Little Joey’s was quick, despite the fact that I was stuffed in the backseat of Grampa’s Buick with both mom and T. We were seated within a few minutes of arrival. Dinner was fantastic, as always. Being a lover of their spaghetti and meatballs (but mostly the meatballs), but knowing I wouldn’t have a ton of time on my hands for eating leftovers, I got a meatball sub. This consisted of their amazing meatballs, in their equally amazing dinner roll loaf, smothered in mozzarella. For a whopping $6.99. WIN! Grammy and Grampa had spaghetti and meatballs, mom had lasagna, and T had the Chicken ala Joey I think. All were very happy with their meals.

Once we got back to Grammy and Grampa’s, I visited for a few minutes longer and then got on the road back to Orlando. It was after 7 and I had been awake since 4. And I had big plans for the next day!! The drive back was easy enough, and as I drove down 429 I could see the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. It was pretty awesome, even if I did have to remind myself to keep my eyes on the road and not on the fireworks. I went to sleep pretty soon after getting back to the condo, ready for the next day!

February 2020: An Exploded Family Trip to FL: Day 1

Day 1: Saturday February 22, 2020

After a night of tossing and turning (I thought I kept my house cold; it’s got NOTHING on my now typically unoccupied childhood bedroom), that 3:30 alarm absolutely did come early. It was about 18 degrees outside overnight, which, while balmy compared to the 0 I had seen Friday morning, was pretty cold.

I quickly got ready, having organized surprisingly well the day before for a quick departure. T was working this morning, before he and mom flew to Florida that night, and had said he could take me to the airport before work (therefore letting mom sleep) if we left PROMPTLY at 4:15.

I’m going to put this out here right now. T and I are generally civil. He and my mom married when I was 13, and like most 13 year old girls, I was not the most pleasant human being. T is pretty arrogant, so we got off on the wrong foot, and never created the same bond he achieved with my sister. These days we’re civil, but that’s about it. As much as I didn’t want to start the trip with him driving me to the airport, I appreciated the fact that he was literally going in the opposite direction of work to take me to MHT before work, and even moreso, I appreciated the fact that he was actually doing something nice for my mom for a change, by letting her sleep, so I was determined to not be late.

We were out the door at 4:09. Go me! At 4 am, all of those sensor traffic lights go straight to green, so it was about a 12 minute trip to Manchester airport. It was exactly enough time to discuss trip plans without leaving room for our typical awkward silences.

T dropped me at the curb, and I headed inside where I received comments of gratitude from my 6th grade science teacher’s husband (who I swear is at work at the Southwest counter EVERY time I’m at the airport, no matter what time of day I’m checking in for a flight), as I flawlessly found an open kiosk and tagged my bag, while dozens of others stood around staring into space, not even trying to figure out what they were supposed to be doing.

With my bag checked to Orlando, I hopped on the escalator and walked through the empty precheck line. I believe it was 7 minutes from stepping out of T’s truck to parking myself at my gate, and that included buying myself a bottle of water.

My gate was 14, and I was very happy (but not surprised) to see that my plane was already there for this 6:15 am flight. 

The last time I sat at this gate, I was in this airport for 7 hours, and wasn’t sure we would actually get on a flight in time for what turned out to be our FANTASTIC cruise on the Fantasy. Thankfully this was a much smoother travel experience. 

About 5:45, boarding began. I was B34, despite early bird check in, because, vacation week. All I could do was stand back and marvel at the size of the family boarding line, and the size of some of the families (what happened to 2 adults per child?!) and those teenager-looking 6 year olds…

Eventually I got to board, and shockingly found a window seat in row 8. I actually ended up in a row of adults, and my seatmates were pretty great. The guy on the aisle is a pediatric dentist, and the woman in the middle seat runs an afterschool program and preschool. Both had a great sense of humor, and we chatted until we were airborne.

Once airborne, I got to see a great sunrise. 

Following sunrise, I settled in to read. I actually put a pretty good dent in the book (After Anna), managing to read about 200 pages, before we began our final descent into Orlando, despite the scenery being great. This is probably the only flight I’ve ever taken where the entire trip down the east coast was clear enough to see ground. We were about half an hour early, and as we cheered about the idea of extra vacation time, the flight crew was quick to remind us that there might not be a gate available for us. Such buzzkills!

As it turned out, a gate WAS available for us. Being a New England based flight, deplaning was very quick, and pretty soon I was at baggage claim. This is where I discovered that while a gate was available for us, a baggage crew must not have been, because here I waited for a solid half hour before bags started emerging. And for the first time in the history of flying, I actually saw the first bag to emerge be claimed by someone, rather than the usual, where that bag typically never seems to belong to anyone.

Once bags started emerging, mine made an appearance pretty quickly, and I set off for the rental car garage. I had done the “skip the line” online check in, so all I had to do was walk out to the garage and find Alamo. The girl directed me to the midsize lane, and I cruised the lane to find the most eligible car. The most eligible bachelor award went to a black Toyota Corolla. I checked for bumps and bruises, loaded my luggage, and realized I didn’t have enough cell phone signal to link the car to my Sunpass account. Well, crap!

I came up with a plan, and got underway. And then changed plans once I exited the garage and saw the sign for the cell phone lot. I pulled in the cell phone lot, marvelled at it for a few minutes (it has real bathrooms! MHT just barely paved their cell phone lot), and then got to work on that Sunpass account.

Usually this is a quick process. But Sunpass felt it was necessary to have me reset my password, and establish security questions. So...what seemed like 20 minutes later, my rental car was finally connected to my Sunpass, and I was finally on my way to DISNEY!

Check in isn’t until 4 at Silver Lake, and timeshare resorts are pretty obnoxious about check in times. And let’s be real, you didn’t really expect me to spend this day somewhere other than Disney did you?

Traffic didn’t really want me to get to Disney in a timely manner, but eventually I made it to the Orange parking garage at Disney Springs, despite Google’s best attempts at messing me up. I parked, swapped the sweatshirt for a lighter open cardigan, and was on my way to the bus stop. It was in the upper 50s, headed for mid 60s, and VERY windy.

My first stop at Disney Springs? The bus stop. I took in the sunshine and palm trees, until my bus driver finished “refilling his pixie dust” (really, the bus marquees say that now) and the bus pulled up to the bus stop.

For some reason we didn’t use the shortcut past Golden Oak, so it was a longer trip than normal, but eventually I made it to the Wilderness Lodge. I wasted no time in heading for Geyser Point, where I was rewarded with a table with a great view of Bay Lake.

I had the bison bacon cheeseburger for lunch. The food appeared quickly. It wasn’t quite as good as when I had it in August, but it was still very tasty. I enjoyed lunch and my view, despite some ducks that came begging for handouts. 

Once lunch was done, I headed for the boat dock. I was a bit surprised to see the ancient looking boat they were using for the trip to the Magic Kingdom.

Pretty soon the boat to the Contemporary came along, and I was grateful that it was a short boat ride. It was COLD on that open air boat.

At the Contemporary, I took a few minutes to poke around the shops, and then made my way to the monorail. The monorail actually was running reasonably efficiently, so it was a relatively quick ride to the Polynesian, with some great views along the way. It really was a beautiful day, when the wind wasn’t blowing!

Once at the Polynesian, I poked around the stores, hoping the line at Pineapple Lanai would decrease. It actually got longer. So I sucked it up and waited in line for about 15 minutes, but it was worth the wait. They were still serving the “Polynesian Lava You” float that had appeared around Valentine’s Day. I got this without the rum floater. What is this? Pineapple soft serve, with POG (passion fruit, orange, guava) juice and some pop rocks and a tiny amount of red syrup (that didn’t negatively impact it) to give that volcano look.

It was amazing. This should be a year-round offering.

Once I’d enjoyed my float (inside the lobby, out of the wind), and a cast member had quickly removed my empty cup from my hands (the cast members are taking cleaning seriously right now), it was off to the bus stop. Time to return to Disney Springs for real.

The wait for a bus was a bit long, but eventually I was back at Disney Springs, marveling at just how crowded it was. Seriously. WHERE DID ALL THESE PEOPLE COME FROM?!

I took my first ever trip through Ron Jon, where I found some new flip flops to replace a pair lost to a bit of a (dog) shitty situation last summer, and confirmed my thoughts that the Ron Jon in Cocoa Beach absolutely has to be on the itinerary in April. Then I poked around some other stores, before finding my way to Dockside Margaritas. You see, it just happened to be National Margarita Day. And it would be wrong to not honor such an important holiday.

The line here was long too, but worth it, and there was steel drum music to listen to while waiting in line. I got the Sunset Margarita, and it was excellent. 

 

While I enjoyed my margarita, I continued wandering through stores, simply blown away by the crowds. There were wait time signs for the lines in Disney Springs. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t buy anything else in terms of merchandise, and was relieved when it was late enough to work my way toward the resort for check in. I DID stop at Amorette’s for the Cinderella Carriage cake to go, because I couldn’t pass up that social media-able treat!

Cake purchased, I made my way back to the car, and to Silver Lake Resort. It was about a 20 minute drive, and relatively straight forward. Silver Lake Resort is about half a mile from the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Check in was reasonably painless, despite the fact that my stepdad hadn’t bothered to purchase a guest certificate when the reservation was initially booked, so the guest certificate that allowed me to check in was purchased at the last minute, and therefore the paperwork was a little wonky. I had about 10 pages of reservation paperwork and they needed to see ALL of it. But, I got checked in, and somehow managed to avoid being forced into a timeshare tour while there, and pretty soon I was on my way to find my unit, 9201A, in the 900 building.

Silver Lake Resort is pretty compact, so it was easy enough to find my unit. I left my luggage in the car, went up to find the unit, checked for bedbugs, and took some pictures. The unit was very nice. 

Then I brought my luggage up and settled in, debating heavily what to do for dinner. Eventually I decided to go eat at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I spent a few minutes checking out the animals before the sun went down.

Then it was dinner time at the Mara. I got the chicken sandwich. This was good, but would have been better if the menu boards had mentioned the pickled onions on it, so those could have not been put on it, where they soaked through some of the bread. I hate onions. I hate pickles. I REALLY hate pickled onions.

I ate about half of my sandwich and then was full. Thankfully, my table was very close to a stack of go boxes, so I was able to pack up the rest of my meal (which never did get eaten), and soon enough I was back at the resort, where I enjoyed half of that social media-able treat. Yes, now you get to see it!

Then I crashed shortly before 8, relieved that plans had changed earlier in the week and I no longer had to pick up mom and T when they arrived at MCO around 9 pm. Only problem? I didn’t respond to mom’s texts upon their arrival, and she worried that I’d gotten lost at dinner, so she called me around 10:30, as they drove to The Villages. Thankfully, I went back to sleep quickly.

February 2020: An Exploded Family Trip to FL: Pretrip

Pretrip:

Cast of Characters (it’s actually a long one)
Me: 33, a school-based Speech-Language Pathologist, Disney Dork, will always find an excuse for Disney if in the general vicinity
Laura: 29: my baby sister, some level of manager at the restaurant of a hotel/conference center associated with that giant university in the middle of Pennsylvania. She’s a graduate of that same university
Mom: self-explanatory...she’s a family and consumer sciences teacher at a high school and has one year left (she thinks) until retirement.
T: my stepdad. Same age as my mom. He works for the postal service. He doesn’t usually come along on these trips, but wanted to go house hunting
Grammy and Grampa: 95, have been married for almost 72 years. Truly the matriarch and patriarch of our family. Born and raised in the northernmost town in NH, they still live pretty far north, so they (still) winter in FL. And by that I mean they leave at the start of November and come back at the end of April. As Depression era folks (and Grampa’s a WWII combat vet), they are about as determined, persistent, and independent as people could get, despite my grandmother showing her age and then some.

I don’t usually write trip reports for my February vacation trips. These trips typically consist of my mom and me flying to FL, staying with my grandparents for a week in retirementville (The Villages, FL), with a couple day excursions for me. But this year’s trip looked VERY different.

Last summer, in between my mom’s multiple surgeries to reconstruct her scalp, following removal of basal cell skin cancer (still 2 more surgeries to go), Southwest put their airfare on sale for February vacation. Although my grandparents had not confirmed their return to FL for the winter (they’re 95 after all), I booked air for myself, suspecting that their determined streak would continue, and not wanting to miss out on the good flights/prices. My mom dragged her feet a little bit and didn’t book right away.

In late September my grandparents confirmed what we were all suspecting; they’d be returning to FL. Then it was a scramble to arrange flights for them...and for mom and T. WAIT, WHAT?! T is coming too?!

Yup, T is crashing the girls’ trip. I received a phone call after one particularly long day of meetings, asking how I would feel about sleeping on the couch at Grammy and Grampa’s for the week. Uh, say what?!

Grammy and Grampa rent a 2 bedroom house in The Villages for the winter. Grammy, thanks to a broken neck a few years ago, sleeps in a recliner in the living room. Always the night owl and losing both her vision and hearing, she watches some combination of Fox News, the Hallmark channel and Mollie B polka in the evenings, at volume 60, until close to midnight. My school year bedtime tends to be about 8 pm. Sleeping on the couch for the week meant not sleeping for a week. I’m not generally picky about sleeping arrangements, but in this school year, not sleeping for a week was not an option.

So, I threw out the suggestion that we use mom’s horrifically unused timeshare points to book me a condo. The Villages is a little over an hour from Orlando, and there are a TON of condo resorts in Orlando to book through RCI. I found a couple along 429, which allowed me access to the FL turnpike without dealing with I-4, and before I could even second guess the suggestion, mom and T had booked a 2-bedroom unit at Silver Lake Resort. 2-bedrooms in case my sister and her boyfriend came along. We came to an (easy) agreement on how many times I would do the drive to The Villages (close to 140 miles roundtrip), and waited to see if Laura and Josh would be joining the party.

In January we finally got an answer. Laura would join the party but not Josh. He has never been on a plane (and has barely left Pennsylvania in his lifetime), and doesn’t want his first plane trip to be to FL. With Laura on board and flying in on Fat Tuesday, I started scheming more.

The days ticked down. The never-ending school work got done enough, and the weather forecast and coronavirus maps were monitored. I got home from school Friday Feb 21st about 3:30, raced around the house packing the suitcase and trying to make it a little bit better for Nick to live in for the next week, and raced out the door again about 4:45, much to the horror of the little dog Gizmo, who has learned exactly what the suitcase means. Nick and I met for dinner, and then I headed for mom’s house for the night. We chatted for a bit, and then I tried to crash. That 3:30 alarm would come early.