Last
night, everyone had fun at Epcot. They ate snacks at a bunch of places. I know
Michael and the boys bought food in Mexico but Daniel said they took the food
and ate it in Norway. Nathaniel and Audrey bought the school bread in Norway.
Today, we had a wonderful last day at Disney World! The plan had been to get up
and be ready by 9 AM. Charlie was up and getting into everything so they
decided to just take him to Hollywood Studios. We weren't quite ready yet.
Jonny was still fast asleep when I got up close to 8:30 AM so I took my time
getting ready and it was about 9:40 AM when we went to the bus stop. Michael
stayed behind with Jonny. I know we were on the bus on the way to Hollywood
Studios by 9:55 AM.
Our first lightning lane was for Tower of
Terror. Nathaniel had
already gone to Toy story land and Galaxy's Edge with Audrey and Charlie.
Nathaniel, Andrew, Daniel, Emily, and I all rode Tower of Terror together.
It was a pretty tame one, by comparison.
By that time, Michael and Jonny and Dad all
arrived. Dad voted this morning and didn't show up till that time and Emily had
to go meet Jonny at the front to let him in with her pass. Andrew went with
her. Daniel and I hung out by the Num Num cookie snack bar and had our cookies.
Eventually, we all met up there.
Next, we headed to Toy Story Midway mania.
Nathaniel and Audrey had already ridden that and then when they met us by the Num
Num cookies we said hello to them and they had a had their Num Num cookies and
then they went to the Mickey Mouse show. The rest of us rode Toy Story Mania
and then Papa and Daniel joined them to ride Mickey and Minnie.
Apparently, Charlie loved the show but fell
asleep and he really loved the ride. Papa bought him a Mickey stuffed toy. We
rode Slinky Dog Dash and then Andrew, Emily, and I all got our lunch at Woody's
lunchbox.
Luckily, we were able to find a spot in the
shade to eat.
Everybody else got their lunch. Michael and
Jonny went to ABC Commissary but after standing in line Jonny said he didn't
want anything there so they went to Backlot express. Everyone else went to ABC
Commissary so we met them there and helped them find somewhere to sit. We sat
with them for a little bit and then Nathaniel and Audrey headed out to rest and
give Charlie a nap. I offered to take him back to the villa for his nap but
Audrey said she was tired too and so was Nathaniel so they went together. I told them they should go ahead and order a Minnie Van so they did. The rest of us
didn't have much to do because we didn't have a lightning lane till 5:30 PM so
we went on Star Tours. Then we had a long conversation about what to do next.
We stood off in the shade and there was another lady there listening to us as
we figured out what everyone wanted to do. Emily, Daniel, and Jonny all wanted
to go back to the villa and go swimming. Dad joked and said if you all are
gonna be boring I'm just gonna go home. It's kind of what he ended up doing. He
offered to drive the three of them to the villa instead of having them take the
bus so that was nice. After we were done talking, I looked at the lady and
chuckled and said sorry for all the drama. She was very kind and clearly from
the UK and she said you all have so much love for each other and I loved it.
Michael, Andrew, and I all headed over to Epcot. We took the Skyliner and we
had to switch at Caribbean Beach resort and we took it all the way to Epcot.
Michael and I went to the patisserie in France
and got a brie and apple sandwich for him, a Mickey macaron for me and one for
Andrew, and I also got an almond croissant. We got four ice waters because I
was dying of thirst. We miraculously found a place to sit. Andrew went to all
the way to Club Cool to buy a Monster and walked all the way back and joined
us. We enjoyed our treats and then we walked over to the American pavilion so
Michael could get a funnel cake.
From there, he left back to the villa. I headed
over to Norway and finally tried the school bread. It started raining pretty
hard by the time I got there. Unfortunately, the school bread was pretty
underwhelming. I found a covered spot outside of the bakery and had a few bites
of that and tried to wait out the rain.
When the rain stopped, I walked over and met
Andrew at the American pavilion and then we went to take the boat from Epcot to
Hollywood Studios. It took about 25 minutes. We got here at about 6:30 PM. Our
dinner reservation was for 6:35 PM so that worked out great. I walked up and
told them there would only be eight of us and she said to let her know when the
whole party was here so Emily dealt with it when she got here a few minutes
later. We had to wait quite a while for a table. I know it was 7:09 PM when I
was taking pictures of Charlie after we first sat down. They seated
us in a little room in the back that we've never been in before. It was just us
and two other tables so it's kind of private but still pretty loud. Nathaniel
and I each got the sampler, Audrey got the chicken pot pie and they got fries
for Charlie, Daniel got the pot roast, Andrew got the pasta, and Emily and
Jonny got the fried chicken. We also got two orders of onion rings as
appetizers and everybody gobbled those up. Nobody even asked about dessert. We
were all full. Emily was able to use her discount again so that was really
nice. Audrey thanked me for the meal and for the whole trip and
everyone chimed in and said thank you so that was very nice.
I paid the bill while everyone went off to go on Rock 'n' roller coaster with their lightning lane. Jonny and Andrew were able to ride
it a second time with extra lightning lanes.
Nathaniel and Audrey headed over to Magic
Kingdom and the rest of us waited for Andrew and Jonny. I thought Jonny would
want to go back to the villa but he said he'll stick it out. Daniel wanted to
go back so he went by himself. Michael had to wait forever for a bus to go to
Magic Kingdom and Emily, Jonny, Andrew, and I also took a bus from Hollywood
Studios to Magic Kingdom. We got into
Magic Kingdom and had to wade through the huge crowd to get to the teacups
where Nathaniel and Audrey were going next with Charlie. They had just gone on
the carousel. Audrey couldn't ride it but I was able to sit with Nathaniel and
Charlie and that was really fun. He cried through most of it, poor thing. I
think he was just really tired.
After that, Emily and Michael and Jonny all went
on Jungle Cruise, Andrew and Nathaniel went on Space Mountain, and I went with
Audrey and Charlie on it's a small world. He was so sweet. He kept smiling and
pointing at things. I could tell he was tired, though.
After that, Audrey found a place to
sit and I headed over to Big Thunder and the six of us rode it together. There
wasn't much else to do after that so we all made a beeline for the bus. We got
there just as a bus had pulled up but there were a ton of people. They filled
that bus and luckily another one was right behind it so that worked out
perfectly for us.
August 16, Sunday
I'm
so grateful we made it to our connecting flight in Dallas! There were some
frustrations today but that's really all that matters. I got up this morning at
7:45 AM. Dad was supposed to come at 9:45 AM and the goal was to leave by 10
AM. We didn't do too badly. I'm grateful we found
time for a family prayer. I think it was about 10:15 AM by the time we got out
of the villa and got in the cars and left. I checked us out on the app. We were late to church since it started at 10:30 AM but actually,
Emily's car made it in time for the Sacrament. It was her, Jonny, Nathaniel,
Audrey, and Charlie. The rest of us went with Dad. After church, most of us got
changed into our regular clothes and we headed over to the world's biggest McDonald's.
We had to do two separate orders. Dad got pasta and I got a Philly cheesesteak
sandwich and everybody else got regular McDonald's food. I also got us an order
of 13 cookies and everyone enjoyed those. We gobbled them up.
It was around 1 PM that we got our
food and we all ate and then almost everyone went upstairs to go exploring. I
know Andrew and Michael played air hockey. By 2 PM, I really wanted us to get
going. So Dad and Emily drove us to the airport and we said our goodbyes. We waited
with Nathaniel and Audrey as they got checked in and checked their bag. As they
were waiting for the agent, we got the notification that our first flight was
delayed by 32 minutes. So we told Nathaniel and Audrey goodbye and Michael and
I changed our clothes and we headed over to the American counter. The agent's
name was Luigi and he said there was a flight after our connecting one but it
was full so if we didn't make it we'd have to be in Dallas for the night. I
can't tell you how relieved I am that we made that connection. They made up a ton of time in
the air. They said they left 47 minutes late but only arrived 18 minutes late.
But then there was no gate for them. At first, the pilot told us we were going
to have to sit there for half an hour and the entire plane groaned. Then,
luckily, they got another gate. The flight attendant explained that a lot of
people had short connections due to the delay and many people were very nice
and stayed in their seats so we could rush off the plane. We literally ran to
the Skylink. It was so full at one point that I couldn't even balance myself. We got to the next stop and as soon as we got off the
escalators, our gate was right there. They were boarding group 9 of 9 and we
got on the flight just in time. I was so grateful! The only
bummer was that even though we made it on the flight, our checked bag didn't. American said that the bag is still in Dallas and it should be arriving in the
next 24 hours. So we took the Skytrain to the cars and drove home. The boys
put out the trash cans and now we're all getting ready for bed.
Our
plan was to be ready by 8:15 AM. I was pretty much
ready by about 8:15 AM but Charlie still wasn't awake so we had some more time.
We had a family prayer and Michael prayed that we would be able to find
Daniel's glasses and I asked everyone to straighten up and look but we didn't
find them. I tried to feed Charlie his yogurt once he got up but he only
wanted his daddy to feed him. I'm not sure what time we walked out of the villa
but it was about 9:10 AM when we got onto the bus. We went to Magic Kingdom and
the first thing we did was go to Town Square to meet Mickey for Charlie.
Michael and I got in the line with them and got in some pictures with them
while everybody else waited. He was so cute with Mickey! He was smiling at him
and giving him high fives and touching him on the nose. That was at 9:45 AM.
Then we headed over to Haunted Mansion and we
all used our lightning lanes. Brandon used the one for Dad. Dad had an IRS
appointment this morning so he met us later at lunch.
After haunted mansion, we headed over to Pirates
because the wait was only five minutes and it was super close.
After that, we talked about what to do next.
Andrew really wanted to eat lunch and everybody thought that was a good idea.
Michael wanted to get a turkey leg. Andrew wanted Columbia Harbor House and
everyone else thought that was a great idea because it was close by and we were
going to go on Tiana's afterwards. It ended up that everybody wanted to order
from there. Audrey wanted a place where she could sit down and cool off so that
was perfect. Dad arrived right at the time we were doing the order so I got him
some shrimp and we all headed over there. Dad made it there first and found a
good spot with two tables next to each other. Michael had a hard time finding
his turkey leg but got it eventually. I kept thinking he would join us at the
restaurant but he never did. I saw another guy bringing in a turkey leg.
After we were done eating, Dad, Brandon, and I all stayed behind at Columbia Harbor House and watched everybody's stuff. I sent a backpack cover for Michael and he said it worked OK but then it ripped but it did help. He's also been bringing his shoe covers for the Kali River Rapids ride yesterday and for Tiana's today to keep his shoes dry.
After Tiana's, we headed over to Cinderella's
castle to get a picture so that we could get one that includes Brandon. The
bummer was the sun was so bright and we were all squinting but I was glad to
get a picture of everyone.
Then we said goodbye to Brandon because he had
to go to work. Next, we went to the Tomorrowland Speedway. Nathaniel really
wanted to ride it with Charlie because he was tall enough. We were right in
front of them and I did my best to take some pictures but it was pretty hard
and Charlie was so short that I couldn't see his face unless we were at an
angle. It was just Nathaniel and Charlie, me and Michael, and Andrew on that
ride.
Everyone else sat in Cosmic Rays to cool off.
After that, we headed over to Tron. Nathaniel walked Audrey to the bus so he
didn't ride it with us but he rode it right after we did. It was super fun and
I'm so glad I got to ride it twice!
We went on people mover while we waited for
Nathaniel to go on Tron and then we all met up at Buzz.
When Audrey and Charlie got back to the room, this was waiting for them. So cute!
We got a quick snack at the Lunching Pad and I
got the sticky bubble bread while we waited for him and we all got some waters.
Buzz was really fun. Emily got the highest score but Nathaniel did really well, too. I rode with Nathaniel. They've changed the ride so it's a lot more like
the one at Disneyland but all of the targets are circles, there are no other
shapes. The only trick I knew of was to shoot at it when it was lit up but I
didn't do very well. I think I got 243,000 was all.
We wanted to go on Big Thunder and then we
realized it was closed. We decided to walk over to Adventureland to get the
cheeseburger spring rolls. The cart was closed and we were so disappointed and
stood there deciding what we should do. Dad went over and somehow figured out
that they were selling them at a different, larger cart on the circle so we
went over there and got some. Jonny wasn't feeling well so Michael went back to
the villa with him. Unfortunately, they missed the bus and had to wait half an
hour for another one and it took them an hour to get back. Dad bought the
cheeseburger spring rolls for everyone and we enjoyed that. Then Emily, Andrew,
and Nathaniel all rode on Space Mountain. Daniel and I headed for City Hall. We
talked a little bit and stood in the gift shop and chatted. Nathaniel went to the villa after that so Daniel went with him. Emily, Andrew, and I all took the
monorail to Epcot. We had to change at the TTC. I was worried because it looked
like it was going to rain. Andrew really wanted his big pretzel from Germany so
I did a mobile order for that and then we got on the boat at Canada and took it
to Germany. Michael texted us saying that he found Daniel's glasses. We got the order very quickly and it had started sprinkling. We found a
picnic table with an umbrella. The umbrella was closed but we figured out how
to set it up and we sat there for a while enjoying the two big pretzels we
bought and the pretzel bread pudding. At one point, Emily and I went over to
the caramel shop to get my caramel butter bars and I also bought a chocolate
chip caramel pretzel cookie. She was able to use her discount for me.
We enjoyed our treats and then talked
about what we could do. I wanted to ride the gondolas but really it was just
because I didn't want to walk so far. Emily said sometimes if it's lightning
they will stop the gondolas mid ride and that sounded terrible. Emily and
Andrew talked about doing the single rider line at Test Track and maybe doing Guardians because Nathaniel and Audrey were on their way over to Epcot. Andrew and Emily wanted to stay and I wanted to go back to the villa.
Daniel called to ask the plan and I told him that I was coming back. They got
on the bus and came over. I said goodbye to everyone and headed out. The bus that came was the one that
had Michael, Daniel, and Jonny on it. I took the bus back to the resort and just stayed on it
through all the stops because I didn't feel like walking too far. I need to get
some rest.
