Disney 2019 day 11: 28-Aug-2019

Flying Northeast ala Beast

We got up early for our last day (alas) bag storage, cross World breakfast trip and check out plan.

The grid barely held together but survived the vacation. It was possible having it folded inside a second copy helped make it through.  We did kill yet another backpack however, as well as flattening two and a half sneaker inserts for my “Plant Fishiness.”

To achieve our goals everyone brought all the checked bags to the Magic Express counter and all the carry-ons to a pile in Grandma’s room which definitely had the late check out. 

The method for this mostly involved me running between all the rooms and the main building and yelling like a nut.  Perhaps being overtired and upset to be leaving was affecting my Where Will We Go Nexting.  At least the bag check Cast Member really liked my four color high tops.

On the way to the bus stop, I asked Morgan, “Are you having a good day?”  The end of the trip funk was weighing heavily on the littlest member of our band as well and he replied very maturely, “Not really.”

There was much napping of our weary and dejected gang on the bus to the Magic Kingdom. While we didn’t have the traditional saddest/ happiest street on earth crossings on Main Street, we got a blast of Disney Thrill Magic when a little girl on the bus with us started excitedly shouting, “I SEE IT!! I SEE THE CASTLE!!!!”

The torch was passed. 

She was so fun in public.

We got through the checkpoint run by a very Pooh Girl security guard to the monorail.  This was followed by a nap filled, all-around trip on the Buzz Lightyear colored monorail back to the Grand Floridian.

Poor Uncle Dave got startled awake when everyone yelled for him to look for the Five Legged Goat in the Contemporary.

Entering 1900 Park Faire for the British Folks Breakfast, our aptly named waitress, Belle, was either excessively happy, or excessively caffeinated.

Alice came by first and talked about having tea parties, as to be expected.

The Mad Hatter was next. Morgan had a great time talking to him when he was several years younger, but now that he was the appropriate age, he hid under the table.  The Hatter asked what was on the kids’ shoulders and wondered if he’d found a Porg farm. He inquired if Anabelle’s green tinted hair, from her beginning of summer blue and aqua dying, was due to drinking and excess of green tea, since that happened to him once.

Awesome.

I got my traditional goofy faces and footwear picture with him before he babbled on to another table.

Mary Poppins was next. She made the kids say “Spit Spot” for the picture, and asked Anabelle if she was always quiet. (We were all very tired.)  For the picture with Rosa, she looked at the table and said, “So many children, maybe you should bring me in.”  Finally, when she took a picture with Grandma, she smiled sweetly and asked, “We’ve been friends for a very long time, haven’t we?”  Disney Magic is for every one of all ages.

Even more awesome.

We went up to sample the Floridianly fantastic buffet at this point. Between the characters and handlers, they know to only come to the tables when no one is missing.

This doesn’t take into account the fact that as a couple of our kids returned, Morgan got over excited at Winnie the Pooh leaving a nearby table and glommed onto him in a unbreakable hug of fluffiness.  We all came flying back- tossing omelets, Mickey waffles and breakfast proteins around as we grabbed cameras.

Nothing like a little excitement to get the blood flowing at the end of the journey.

I’m pretty sure we met Tigger in the blur of that confusion as well, or maybe we walked over near the exit early when he was doing duty there.  I know we saw him.

Some of the kids went back to the buffet, especially when Anabelle discovered and let Morgan know, “THEY HAVE RICE!!!!”  Having a favorite dinner side dish for breakfast was a little extra boost of slightly weird Disney Magic.

The awesomely good multiple fruit juice mix that was only in a dispenser outside dinner was brought to the table in pitchers for breakfast. Rosa swiped a second glass to allow her to two fist it for most of the meal.  There’s something about Disney food that brings out specialness in all kinds of strange ways, isn’t there?

I don’t know if they knew it was our last day, or it was merely Floridian awesome, but they bought a giant pile of cupcakes to our table for Grandma’s birthday.

While I was looking for the handler to go over and do my customary thanking, I noticed that they cover their mouths like football coaches on TV when talking into their headsets. Anything to keep the magic alive.

I didn't have to go over, because the handler came over to us to comment that Dave was taking a nap sitting at the breakfast table. 

We didn’t break him this time, but we did wear him out a tad.

While Kim and I were thanking her, I used my usual line, “They get all the hugs, but we know you do all the work to make sure that happens.”  She said she’d take some hugs too, so we hugged her.

I love Disney people.

Alice was working the “good bye” photo area on the way out, and popped out from behind a column as I got there, scaring the living snot out of me. I may have been worn out a tad as well.

We poked around the stores again, because any excuse to slow leaving a Disney property is a good one.  The Cast Member really liked Anabelle’s The Rescuers shirt as they almost never saw merchandise from that film.  

That’s my girl.

A Disney Miracle happened.

After years of hearing about it, a PhotoPass person was IN THE GRAND FLORIDIAN at the same time we were, and they were not attached to a wedding or other package deal. Our and Kim's group got nice family pictures in the little studio area upstairs, including Magic Shots and props.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

Sammy from Brooklyn checked us through Monorail security, Dad’s borough is always a good omen.

While we didn’t have our standard Last Day in the Magic Kingdom, we did walk right by the entrance twice.  Honestly, that kind of made it worse.  It was like being able to see the Promised Land, but not enter it.  We did take some selfies with it as a mild consolation.

We saw one of the few Character Buses on the trip, this one with Mickey. It was marked for VIP Cast Members. Maybe next time we go they’ll finally allow regular people to ride the new buses.  (N Minus XXXXX and counting.)  

  

As an additional consolation prize and good bye, the bus stop played “It’s a small world after all” and “Yo Ho, Yo Ho A Pirate's Life For Me.”

Yay!

Anabelle and Rosa passed out on the bus until it stopped at the All Star Sports. Then it was time for the traditional end of trip mad snack-cashing-in-apalooza.  The Cast Member in the store was an intern from Greensboro College.  Anabelle didn't trade any pins, but her interpersonal skills developed by trading them led into a discussion about how the intern program worked.  She did buy Dumbo and Jiminy Cricket ones.

YAY!!!!

We had lunch. Since we packed two of the three RF mugs, I learned about the three minutes between fills limit that is built into the system. We all managed to get drinks but I had to time it right.

I also spilled the (almost) final hot chocolate of the adventures and completely missed getting our papers into the garbage hole in the counter.  Perhaps I was more than a tad worn. Yes, I cleaned it up.  Disney people are too awesome for me to saddle them with extra work due to my exhaustion.

The group split up into a mix of walking around, resting in the room, and trying out the ping pong tables here and there at the resort.  Anabelle and I played a little. I was awful; the only perfect shot I had was getting the ball to lodge perfectly in the leaves of a nearby bush. Anabelle said it was the Hand Jive all over again.

Kim and Dave left the connecting door unlocked between their and Grandma’s room. No one came to clean it before we left, providing two late check out rooms for resting and bathroom use, while they took the kids on various resort sight seeing, gaming and free range wandering runs.

  

I tried our door for a post exit check that we got everything, and it opened too.  All we left behind  were the bags from Anabelle’s daily coded Disney Wardrobe. That’s my girl.

Note: They were tossed in the trash, that wasn't full of backpack but that's much less photogenic. 

Maybe Disney did give all of us late check out. Either that or the StarWarsland crowds were way lower than expected and they were just unneeded at the time.

Another Disney Mystery.

Our ping pong game was on the wrong way to the resort logo Mickey statue that was too dark to take good pictures near the night we wandered around.  When we got there in the daytime, multiple lizards came to say good bye to us by running all around the statue. I pointed out they were moving far more and faster than Anabelle.  She immediately set out to disprove this by dancing, making getting a picture difficult once again.

Eventually, we all gathered in the Main Hall of the main building, in an attempt to make up for missing Main Street, I guess.  Grandma brought the kids into the gift shop for one last round of souvenirs, because she really can’t help herself.

YAY!

Anabelle organized her folder of Disney planning one last time to give it a final touch up.

That’s my girl.

It looked like an awful lot of people checking in for StarWarsland. Then again, with Disney it’s hard to know what an “awful lot of people” are.

At Magic Express time we shuffled morosely over to the bus stop. Then my shuffling broke into a panicked bag unzipping frenzy as it was my turn to forget we needed the letter they leave in the room to get on the bus.

Alas.

I found it. 
Yay!

On the Magic Express ride, we learned the only song we didn’t know on the bus ride in was from the new Fireworks Castle Projections Show.  

Ah.

My count was 1300 pictures for the trip. I was getting better, as it was a significant drop from previous adventures. My count is also inflated as I'm the back up for the character shots, and I need blog pictures without people in them.

Do you all see the work I do for you people?

Rosa fell asleep almost instantly, and then woke up when we stopped to pick up more guests at the All Star Movies asking, “Didn't we move?”

We were all VERY far passed a tad worn out.

The driver also got a message to pick up guests at Coronado Springs.  When we got there, no guests got on. I think it was a nice parting gift for Veronica so she could shout “BEE-VENIDOS!!!! COLORADO SPRAAAANGS!!!” in the actual location.

All of the worn out adults napped on the ride. The kids played the traditional game of “Disney Meet” picking characters you’d never see in the parks to pretend to be. This both entertained and confused the other passengers.

We were still so fun in public.

The good bye video heavily featured the Sensational Six...

And Lilo and Stitch, dating it quite accurately.

We got to the airport, leaving the last vestige of Disney owned transportation.

*sigh*

There was some pick me up from the Awesome Happy Airport Security guy who was very genial and pulled us all together as we wandered non-descriptively through the lines.  That is, right until he asked the kids, “Ready to go back to school?”  There were no smiling responses.

At the gate we could see the plane was one that still had “Continental” written on it. We hoped that would mean we got old style Continental service, instead of the current United one.

The flight was delayed thirty-nine minutes for “weather or traffic allowances.”

So much for another theory.

Being late to leave the gate, introduced extra-long taxi duration as well. With all the delays, we still landed almost exactly on time. It makes me wonder how much they flat out lie about transit times.

On landing, we gathered all the bags together. 

Actually that’s not true. 

We were so worn out that we gathered the bags separately in about three locations until we noticed we were doing that and then gathered the bags together.

Phone calls and texts coordinated our totally worn out bodies with the limo-bus to take us home.  For the ENTIRE ride, Veronica regaled us with the tale of a goat with many multiple body parts and other odd habits and issues winding up with its name as we pulled into Grandma’s street with a huge fanfare:

“Lightbulb.”

Worn out does not begin to cover it.

Grandma went in and presumably to sleep. [Nope- she unpacked everything first.  We all need help.]

Kim’s and my families drove home, and unpacked our cars. 

We washed up, heated up some leftover pizza and passed out on the couch catching up on Kids Baking Championship.

In other words, life returned to normal, but with the slightly exhaustion filtered,  still magical and wonderful, memories of an amazingly long stretch in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Thanx Grandma!!!

5.1 miles 
13,662 steps 
10 floors

(New Jersey is much less flat than Florida, geographically and architecturally)

Total- 97+ miles!

No wonder we were worn out!

Taking the next day off was an extremely wise decision.
YAY!

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“That was a lot of fun, but very hectic, wouldn’t it be cool if the three of us could go for a short one for my Fiftieth birthday?”
Or
Cast members seeing Kim’s family’s Star Wars Shirts- “Are you going to the opening tomorrow?”
“We’re leaving today, we’ll have to see it next time.”
Or
Grandma’s talking about taking a day off in the middle to help us survive next time. That should be a Saturday. Does that count as Gridding already?

P minus 1070