Never say Neverland: Easter '18, May/June '18, July '18, Sept '18, Nov '18 TRs (8/22 UPDATE!)

Back to reality and work for me today!

As I mentioned above, we had a great quick trip to Disney. The weather wasn't the very best, and we got drenched more than we would have liked, but overall it went well. the highlights:

  • Staying at the Polynesian. This is just such a lovely resort and I only regret we didn't have more time there. I LOVE the Villas with their 2 bathroom layout. It was so great to come back in the evening and both be able to jump in the shower at the same time.
  • Moonlight Magic at Typhoon Lagoon. This DVC Member event was really done well. I suppose the rain may have made the crowds a bit lighter...but maybe not since when we left around 10pm it was pretty packed. We actually arrived a little bit early and hit the two slides we wanted to do first while it was rainy. Then the rain stopped, and we enjoyed lounging around the lazy river and some fun in the wave pool, which is just awesome. I only wish we had more time for the food there. I only ate ONE Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich and two cookies which were actually more like homemade and not the pre-packaged cookies we've had in the past which I do not enjoy.
  • FOOD. We really enjoyed our meals. We ate at Skipper Canteen for the very first time and it was such a fun meal as well as very tasty. I'm so glad we gave it a try. We ate at the sushi bar at Polynesian, which was also good but same menu as Kona Cafe so nothing extra special other than no need for an ADR and you can sit at the counter there. Fontera Cucina was definitely a good meal also, a bit expensive for Mexican food (and no FREE chips and salsa) but different and delicious. I'd return just for the appetizer we had there. Finally the Dine with an Imagineer Experience at Hollywood Brown Derby...the meal was fabulous (but I'm sorry but I do NOT like that grapefruit cake at all...despite it being a signature dessert) and our Imagineer was so interesting and fun to listen to there.

I'm so very glad we did this little trip and I think my son also enjoyed the time we had together. There were no complaints, no issues with us getting out and doing things, but we did take some time to just chill in our room which I was okay with doing also. I think the only real panic moment he had was when he learned our returning flight was CANCELLED and he was worried as we rebooked another one, but it all worked out. Although I was TEMPTED to just book a flight the next day instead, we actually ended up returning EARLIER than planned based on his feedback on flight preferences, and that was fine with me too.

I'll try to do a little more detailed TR soon with some more photos. For now, enjoy this little collage I put together for a social media post.



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Great pictures! Happy for you that things went mostly smooth. At least when it rains there it is usually a warm rain. Now on to loving on your puppy! pluto:
 
So glad you guys had a good trip!

I LOVE the Villas with their 2 bathroom layout. It was so great to come back in the evening and both be able to jump in the shower at the same time.
Steve and I have stayed here twice but not with the boys, I also love the bathroom layout.

Oh and btw, our Boma dinner on Thanksgiving is at 3:00 :D
 
Great pictures! Happy for you that things went mostly smooth. At least when it rains there it is usually a warm rain. Now on to loving on your puppy! pluto:

Thanks so much. The rain wasn't horrible, and at least it held out for most of our second day. We just didn't enjoy the wet feet and legs. We'll plan a bit better for the July storms I think.

Ah yes...puppers is doing okay. She has a terrible overbite now because they pulled TEN of her top teeth! 8 of them were puppy teeth but due to her extensive mouth injury from when she was little, the adult teeth weren't coming in properly. They did have to pull both of her canine top adult teeth because they were growing up and into her nasal cavity causing some of her breathing issues. She has been drugged up for most of the weekend and we have had to spoon feed her most of her meals. She is banned from running and playing and ANY chew toys for two weeks from surgery. She is banned from ANY hard bones for life. We hate that she had to go through so much in her short life, but hope this helps her for the future. She had her first post-surgical checkup yesterday and that was fine. She goes back again at the end of NEXT week for another checkup.

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So glad you guys had a good trip!


Steve and I have stayed here twice but not with the boys, I also love the bathroom layout.

Oh and btw, our Boma dinner on Thanksgiving is at 3:00 :D

Yes it was really nice thanks! The bathroom layout there really is awesome. I know I'm going to miss it next month when we are 4 of us sharing a bathroom at CBR.

And the good news is that it's probably not too late to change your Thanksgiving Dinner reservation to avoid my CROWD of 16 people that are due to arrive just 30 minutes after you for their reservation! If you are brave enough to still be around...perhaps we can FINALLY say hello!
 


Mom and Son Disney Dash Grad Trip 2018 - Day 1

Ok so we are off to the races on our short trip report from our dash to Disney for 2 nights in May!


After I changed us to an earlier flight, we headed to the airport on Wednesday morning. We left the house at 5:34am, just 4 minutes later than planned. Parking at our normal lot, the shuttle bus was waiting to take us to the airport...after he picked up about 4 more groups at their vehicles. The shuttle took one look at me, with my Disney backpack, Disney shirt, the back of my car covered in Disney stickers...and said "I know where you are going". Almost all of us were heading for SWA, which is the first stop in the terminal and about a 5-10 minute drive.

Even though I had TSA Pre-Check, Nicolas did not so I waited in line with him. Besides the TSA Pre-Check line was closed anyway but things were moving pretty quickly. I think we were probably through security just after 6am, so once we had our stuff gathered we headed to ChickFilA to grab some breakfast and hit the little shop next to it for a big bottle of water. By 6:30am we were sitting here and had our breakfast done and they still weren't quite lining up the gates for our 7:10am flight:
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We were in the A group for boarding, so soon we were lined up, then on the plane, then ready for takeoff! I think we arrived to MCO even a little bit early after an uneventful 2+ hour flight.

I'd never rented from Hertz before, but they gave me the best rates and all of the rental car places are so convenient there at MCO. We walked over and picked out a Toyota Corolla and headed off. I didn't even bother with the GPS on my phone this time...just followed the signs to WDW! I should have it memorized by now anyway.

We headed to the Polynesian but still didn't have any text about our room. I checked the front desk just to be sure, and we ended up resetting our PIN there at the Cast Member's suggestion. Then we debated lunch. At first Nicolas decided on a favorite standby, the Contempo Cafe. We hopped on the monorail, which actually had quite a line, but I snapped this photo as we waited in the security line to get to the monorail platform:
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One on the monorail, I got him to take ANOTHER photo with me...this is truly astounding people, trust me!

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We got off at the Contempo Cafe, but I made mention to him that it was ONLY 10:30am so Contempo would still be serving breakfast. We were in a lunch mood. He asked about checking the Wave, because he wanted seafood, but I honestly wasn't sure the Wave would have much seafood on the menu. We walked down to check it out anyway...and again they didn't serve lunch until 11:30am I think...and the menu wasn't really that great.

After talking a bit, I through out the option for Skipper Canteen. I told him I had read some pros and cons and the menu was a bit different, but he was willing to give it a try. We decided to just WALK over to the MK from the Contemporary. There was a light rain falling at the time.

We arrived and headed directly to Skipper, which wasn't quite open yet but they took our name and said we'd be called shortly. We waited a few minutes and soon Ron arrived to take us in...and he was an AWESOME server let me tell you. He kept the jokes coming, kept us totally entertained and smiling our entire lunch. We didn't notice that as much with other servers.

We decided to split an appetizer first:
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These were delicious. We probably could have eaten a bowl for each of us. Yum!

Nicolas wanted spicy, so for his entree he chose this:

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He really enjoyed it and it wasn't too terribly spicy. I tried a few bites of it. I was pretty full so I stuck with a salad which had a unique dressing to it...but I really enjoyed mine too.
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I was offerred a To-GO cup for my iced tea, which I gladly accepted. This would mean I'd be in the bathroom every hour after this point of course. As we walked out, we noticed it was POURING outside. There was a small little indoor lobby area for the restaurant and not many people at all waiting there. So we made the choice to wait out the rain a little bit. I had a tiny deck of cards in my bag, so we played a round of Crazy 8s while waiting out the worst of the rain.

So our first FP of the day was supposed to be Haunted Mansion originally, but when we scheduled lunch I realized I wouldn't make the 10:45-11:45am time. I ended up moving it to around 2pm, because it is DS's favorite ride. We were now in the window for a POC FP+ reservation, so once the rain settled down a bit we headed there.

It was closed. So that meant...FREE FP for us! I kept trying to find the notification on the app about it, but didn't see it. So I said to Nicolas, we could just use the FREE FP now at HM instead. He was all about that. I figured we'd give it a shot.

We headed to HM and there was a 50 or 55 minute wait. Thank you FP! We walked up and scanned...and the Mickey head turned BLUE for both of us. However the CM waived us through. Ok great...guess we were good! We rode HM and then were back out soon afterwards.

Now what to do? I checked MDE and our FREE anytime FP was there now. What? I guess instead of using that for HM, they took our scheduled FP way early. So what would we do with our FREE FP? We decided to hit Space Mountain!

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That was showing I think 70 minutes of a wait, but the queue wasn't out the door. It didn't look that long until we got much closer to the front. We were on quickly and blasting off.

We got out of the ride...and there was a WALL of people in the gift shop...why? Yep it was POURING again. We found a corner and regrouped a bit. I think I had one more FP for Buzz Lightyear but we had time until that one. Best way to kill time in Tomorrowland...it's usually one of two rides.

Off to Carousel of Progress it was with the rest of the Magic Kingdom! :) Never seen the theater so full EXCEPT when it rains!

After that, we did a quick trip around TTA as well...and another photo:
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And a shot of the crowd there:
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We got off this one and used our last FP for Buzz.
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Not a favorite for Nicolas, but he had already racked up a ton of points when we got stuck in one room for a while and he kept firing. He beat me by a LOT here.

We started walked out of the park, and figured we'd just hit the resort and wait for our room to be ready. As it turns out, while walking out I got a text that the room WAS in fact ready. YEAH!

But first there was ONE MORE STOP to make...
 
Mom and Son Disney Dash Grad Trip 2018 - Day 1 (continued)

Ok so on our last trip back in March, we discovered this delicious chocolate covered Mickey treat with a soft brownie-like substance in the middle and marshmallow. It was sooo good. I wanted one this time and they are sold in the Confectionary on Main Street. So we stopped in...and honestly I didn't see it. They had similar treats (they are on sticks) but those were red velvet filled. I decided to try the chocolate brownie instead:
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it was NOT the same...not even close. It was okay I guess. Nicolas got a toffee treat there which he enjoyed. We devoured them on the monorail ride back to the Polynesian.

We arrived and headed right to our room, as I requested it was a high (2nd) floor in Tokelau on one end. LOVE these rooms:
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Pardon our shoes and WET socks...we could not wait to get out of those! Nicolas decided he was going to sleep on this fold-down bed which worked fine. It was about 3:45pm.

We relaxed in the room for a while, watched a bit of Disney Must-Dos, chilled and charged our phones. Around 5:30pm, even though we weren't STARVING, I figured we should probably make our way to the sushi bar for dinner in case it got crowded. We would soon find that wasn't an issue...but that's okay. When we got there we were ready to eat, and decided to just split two items from the menu. One was a sampler and the other a dragon roll (I think) which is DS's fave. Both were good.
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We sat at the counter facing the sushi chef and enjoyed our meals. Once it was done, I was offered another TO-GO cup for my tea (yes please!) and we headed off. I decided we should check at the front desk because supposedly we should be able to get our wristbands for the DVD Moonlight Magic event at Typhoon Lagoon that night there. After some debate about which floor to go to, we finally arrived and found a long line of people, many in bathing suits...must be it! We hopped in the line and had a quick conversation with the woman in front of us, asking about our home resort (SSR), how many points we had, how often we visited, etc. man those DVC people are friendly! Anyway the line moved quickly enough and soon we had our wristbands and so I figured we should go ahead and make our way to the waterpark next!

It was still lightly raining...but we were going to get wet anyway! We went to the room, changed into our suits, hopped in the car and headed out to Typhoon Lagoon.

I think we arrived a little bit early for the 8:30pm party, but they were letting people in and we had our wristbands. They were handing out free towels...we didn't bother because it was RAINING! We found a chair to sit down our stuff (keys, phones, shoes) and then hit the two big slides first: Mayday Falls and Crush N'Gusher. The lines were pretty short and man it was a bit chilly in the rain on that raft up Mayday Falls. Crush N'Gusher went quickly as well. When we were done, we headed to the lazy river and figured we'd ride that around.

We did a full circuit of the lazy river and then hit the wave pool. MAN how I love that wave pool and the water was actually QUITE warm! It felt great! We had ourselves knocked over numerous times by waves, Nicolas swam way out to the deepest end to ride some waves, and we just enjoyed some time there for a while. We got out at one point so I could use the restroom and we grabbed some free snacks. They had a big table with water and lemonade and other drinks, and a counter was open with trays of cookies and bags of chips, and then you could also get Mickey Ice Cream bars, Ice cream Sandwiches and other cold ice cream treats. I grabbed two cookies and a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich (I wasn't even that hungry) and ate that by the side of the wavepool. Then we hit it for a little while longer.

Around 9pm or so we figured it was time to head back...and as we walked towards the exit I saw CAPTAIN HOOK taking photos. Oh how often do you see him on a meet and greet? I convinced Nicolas to stand in the very short line for photos:
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We continued heading towards the exit...and there was Goofy! This time I let Nicolas off the hook...and stood in line alone:

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Last but not least, closest to the exit, we see who else but STITCH ELVIS! Oh my gosh! We both agree we need this photo...and then we search for the end of the line. It was a bit long...but we were on the way out and what else were we going to do. Though he wasn't thrilled with the wait, he indulged and didn't complain (much) and soon enough we were rewarded with these photos.... (see next post)







 
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Hey look, it's ELVIS everybody!

This capped off our fun evening at Typhoon Lagoon and put my second DVC Moonlight Magic event in the books!

I will say the music was blaring all night, people were dancing and the lines were much longer for the slides as we left the park. The rain actually stopped within the first hour we were there and it turned out to be a nice night. We headed back to our resort room, where we each hopped in the shower and got cleaned up, put our wet shoes out on the porch to dry for the next day, and called it a successful first day/night!
 


In other news....

I totally forgot to mention the other GOOD news I wanted to share about our NEXT trip. I ended up checking into all of the FPs that my FIL was missing and somehow managed to rebook ALL of them!

Yes, even the one for Slinky Dog Coaster and Alien Space Saucers AND even Flight of Passage. All have been rebooked. The times have changed, drastically in some cases (for FOP we will have to return late one night to ride) but I'm just happy we have all of the same rides again.


I let my FIL know this earlier this week. I modified our schedule a little bit based on these new rides. I really like our new plans, most of our afternoons are wide open for pools and/or waterparks, which is what I'm hoping to do.

We are now at 27 days until we depart for our next trip!
 
July 4th Celebration of Life!

So my FIL joined us for dinner yesterday. I asked him if he had seen my Google Doc and he and the rest of the family said they had the notification but had ignored it because they figured it would change.

The nerve!


We started talking about our plans and my FIL was happy to hear about our dining plans, especially Mama Melrose on my MILs date of her death because that was her favorite. He was asking me about some of the new ride FPs that he didn't recognize (SDD and AS) and I explained those to him as well. He has committed to making sure he has a bathing suit that fits since I've mentioned lots of pool and waterpark time.

Somehow during the course of the evening I was looking at old photos and videos of past trips and I was able to share them to our TV via my laptop for everybody to enjoy. We laughed at how small the kids were, especially the very first time we took them on the Autotrain. We even viewed Disneyland videos from 2013, and while we did enjoy that trip we still prefer the WDW parks over the Disneyland and CA parks.


It's hard to believe how close we are to this trip. It's just over 3 weeks away. I think we are all very excited about another Autotrain experience. We've done it 3 times before and really enjoyed it. It's just another vacation experience to us.

I'm trying not to do much more tweaking of our plans for July. I think for the most part I'm happy with the schedule I have for now. I may drop some other ADRs but everything else I think will remain the same.


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In other news, had a nice weekend full of tennis and some family time. Our puppy is really back to her old self...and really wants to be a puppy again. Technically she's not supposed to have ANY toys for another few days, but I caved and gave her one of her favorite stuffed animals this weekend. She was happy.

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Mom and Son Disney Dash Grad Trip 2018 - Day 2

It was time for our first, and ONLY, full Disney day. Originally I thought perhaps we would try to hit all 3 parks in one day, but could we do it? You'll have to wait and see.

Our first park for the day would be EPCOT. It opened at 8am to park guests, so we hopped in the car and drove over there, getting a pretty good parking spot. This is my favorite park to drive to because I think it's the easiest for parking.

Quick photo op:
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We decided our first ride to hit would be Soarin' and we did have a slight argument about which direction to go for that one. How many times have we been here? DS18 insisted on his way, which was the wrong way, which he realized eventually. It wasn't long before we got into a line that said it was about a 20 minute wait, and although it seemed backed up it did move quickly...plus we weren't competing with any FPs this time of day. I don't recall what time we arrive at the park, but I know it wasn't quite at park opening. We were standing here at 8:46am:

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This time we ended up seated in the far right of the theater, which I'm not sure has ever happened but definitely made the ride different. The eiffel tower was quite curvy from that side!

Once done with this ride, it was time to grab some food at sunshine seasons. I wasn't too hungry so I got a piece of fruit. DS got two pastries which he enjoyed, one being a banana nut thing of some kind. I tried a bite and it was good. Bellies satisfied, we headed out to try something else. This time it would be something else without a FP...Test Track.

We hopped into the single rider line, showing I think 40 or 50 minute wait, but as usual it was closer to 20-25 minutes. We were behind this father and son, and at first the father sent the son alone because he was sure he would be too big to ride. However he spoke to a CM who said he was okay, so he went got in line. When they were watching some of the videos, he saw them showing the use of their cards to build the cars...and he went into panic because he had left those with some of the rest of the party. I assured him they could still ride without the cards, they would be fine. After all, in this line you don't really custom build a car like the "real" lines.

For some reason, I didn't get my photo but DS got his and ended up a few cars ahead of me riding:
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After this, we debated other rides. I mentioned Mission: Space but he decided he'd be okay not riding that one. We checked out the line for Spaceship Earth as we walked out...which was INSANITY! So we got some photos taken and headed out of the park. Oh and I bought myself ONE box of Disney popcorn too. I couldn't come here without eating Disney popcorn, but I didn't have a bucket and wasn't going to buy another one so I settled for a box which didn't last me very long at all.

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And now we were off to our next park: Animal Kingdom!

It was a short ride over there, but the parking lot was well packed by the time we arrived. The tram lines were crazy, so although we got the first parking spot in the row, we decided to walk to the park instead of tram it. Then we started walking and a tram stopped ahead of us to let people off...so we hopped on and rode it pretty much back to where we had parked...picking up more people before heading to the park!

We had our first Fastpass at 12:55pm for Dinosaur. However I took some photos around 11:30am, so I must have managed to move that FP up a bit:
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I do recall the girl directly behind us was NOT NOT NOT happy at all. It doesn't show as much here, but she was basically letting the adult next to her know it a lot.

After this, we decided to check out the new UP Bird show, which replaced our favorite bird show there. We arrived just in time for the 12pm show and grabbed some seats.

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I haven't read too much about this one, but can I say I miss the old one? This was OKAY, and seeing the lines they have setup for it are insane...it's not worth the wait. Bonus tip you should sit along one of the aisle seats as they do have an opportunity for more people to do some audience participation in this one. I don't know, it was hard to stay focused on this new show. We'll see how it goes I guess.

I was spending a lot of time here moving around our FPs here to earlier ones and I did have some luck there. I was also trying to snag a FOP FP+ but had ZERO luck with that.

After the show, it was time for FOOD and which was our main goal here. DS wanted Satuli and so that's where we went next!








 
Oh and I forgot that before we left EPCOT, we did bounce into Mousegear to look around. I don't think we bought anything, but DS did offer to try on these for me:

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He did not wish to have them purchased for him, but my daughter cannot wait for 3 years from now when she can get some for herself...class of 2021!!
 
Mom and Son Disney Dash Grad Trip 2018 - Day 2

Ok when we last left, we were off to Pandora for lunch. This guy was hanging around outside the restaurant:
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That was pretty cool. We decided to place a mobile order, actually I think we placed our mobile order while waiting for the UP show! Now that we arrived, we just pushed a button to have them prepare it and went inside. DS tried to find us a seat inside but it was PACKED. Our food order came up pretty quickly, and after walking around inside again with no luck, we snagged a table outside instead.

Since I'm not doing a separate food review, I'll do a quick one here. I got the bowl with the greens and sustainable fish:
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This was very good, I think the first time I've had the fish. DS got the rice and the steak, plus his favorite dessert you see there in the front:
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He loved this also, but was disappointed that I guess they removed a sauce he has been able to get before there. He still enjoyed it. It was a nice chance for us to relax even if not inside. The humidity was high, as it always is in this park, and really it had been looking like rain pretty much all day long. We were sure we would be getting it soon.

I think we left here and caught our next FP on EE. We had tried to ride it earlier in the single rider line, but the line was REALLY long and so knowing we had a FP for it later we decided to wait. Even the FP line weaved outside for a bit though, but it moved pretty well.

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Ride complete, we had one more thing to do...the safari. I kept checking for an earlier time than the 3:15pm time we had. I think it was right around 1pm when I checked for a 1pm FP and got one...score! We headed off on safari as our final ride here:
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Once this was done, I did check out a few shops on my way out for a tank top I've been wanting, but had no luck with finding it. So we decided it was a good time to head back to our resort for a bit and maybe avoid the rain which as you can see looked like it was on the way:
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I think it was spritzing a bit when we got to our car, but we managed to make it to the resort without any big rain. I just love returning here:
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We headed inside and just decided to relax for a bit. I watched some TV and took a short nap, and DS mostly went into an electronic coma with his phone.

After a few hours of rest, and no real significant rain, I thought we should think about dinner. We had no plans, and were debating a few ideas. In the end, we thought it would be nice to check out the Disney Springs restaurants (I was thinking of Mexican) and so we headed there. We parked in the lot and walked around, checking out the menus of various restaurants while walking. Nothing was jumping out at us. As we approached the Splitsville area, next to some food trucks, the skies just OPENED UP! Massive rain, and we got under cover there and started looking at the radar. It didn't seem like it was ending anytime soon. We talked over our choices, and in the end decided to just go with it and headed out in the rain to Frontera Cocina. We were immediately soaked (both of our raincoats were made for more light rain and not downpours) and our shoes were soaked...and of course the restaurant was packed and nobody was in a hurry to leave and get out in the rain. We were quoted a 40 minute wait, but we could eat immediately at the bar...even my 18yo...so that's what we did.

While I was disappointed in no free chips and salsa (I think it was $4 for that) we ended up ordering an appetizer that we both really enjoyed. We each got dishes that we also loved. DS was the chicken enchiladas I think, and mine was some special shrimp dish...both were very, very good:
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This was another great meal for both of us, but a little expensive for Mexican food. It was a lot of food though.

Once we were done, it was back to our car and it turns out the garage was literally right around the corner from the restaurant. Had we headed directly there instead of walking the full loop of Disney Springs, we wouldn't be soaked. Oh well.

Now we were discussing at evening at another park later, but NOT with soaked feet. We headed back to the resort where I had DS try on my flip flops because he had a pair given to him by his dad...but they were not comfortable. He wasn't thrilled with mine either. We checked out the gift shops in the Polynesian...nothing great or reasonable there for him. Then I realized we could just scoot over to Shades of Green which has a very reasonable gift shop and I knew they might have something. So we drove over there really quickly and hit their gift shop, finding a nice and reasonably priced pair of flip flops for him there...and a mug for myself! :)

Once we returned to the room, we decided dry feet felt nice and we were okay calling it a night. We got ourselves mostly packed up since we would have an early departure the next morning, to hit one more park before we would head back home.
 
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Great pics and updates! Looks like a good time. Love Elvis!

Glad you were able to get the FP straightened out.

Happy the puppy is doing well!
 
Great pics and updates! Looks like a good time. Love Elvis!

Glad you were able to get the FP straightened out.

Happy the puppy is doing well!

Thanks! We did have fun and Elvis Stitch was awesome!

Yes puppy is doing well too. Another dental follow-up tomorrow and hopefully all clear for a while for her.
 
So I failed to mention one last stop on our FINAL night at the Polynesian. This was a must for my son, and unfortunately I wasn't terribly hungry:

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Yes he got his Dole Whip. The place closed at 10pm, and we were in line just before that but it did say open until the line was done. He loved this. I actually think I ended up stopping at Capt Cook's afterwards...and I picked up a Mickey Bar to eat on the way back to our room.
 

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Mom and Son Disney Dash Grad Trip 2018 - Day 3 (Final Day)

And just like that, we reached the end of our trip. We still had a pretty full day ahead of us. So we woke up and got dressed and packed up. Our shoes were STILL wet. We put on our flip flops and headed out with our stuff, putting our shoes and backpacks in the trunk of the rental car with hopes of dry shoes later. The path to the TTC was right next to the parking lot, so we walked over.

We headed for the ferry boat to ride over to the MK this morning:
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It was a lovely morning. I hated saying goodbye to my beloved Polynesian resort though. I got a selfie with it as DS was done with selfies now.

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We arrived at the Magic Kingdom pretty close to park opening. DS had the idea to tour the park counter-clockwise and advised that we hit Jungle Cruise first and work our way around. Sounded good to me.

They don't let you into the land until the opening show has finished though. I wanted to catch it, but DS was having none of that. While he sat and waited I snapped a few photos. Can you see Mickey?


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Here you go:

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So we waited with a few friends:

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Just me and my thrilled son:
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Before long the gates were open. We headed directly to the Jungle Cruise!

It was a short wait for that ride, so we were off pretty quickly. We then continued around and were going to ride Pirates, but the line there was already pretty long. We got in the queue, but soon realized it would just be a long wait and we didn't plan to be in this park for too long today. So we headed over to ride something else instead:

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This queue was actually wrapped outside and at the end of the ramp, which I've never seen before. It moved pretty well, I think about 20-25 minutes, which was longer than I thought it would take. DS was getting a bit impatient, but we made it through.

After that it was time for some food. We decided to head over to another new favorite for us for breakfast:
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My son opted for something I can't recall, and I went with fruit and cheese. Oh maybe he was saving himself for the Cheshire Cat Tail? Or maybe he had it already? I went with this:

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He was disappointed that I didn't get any of the macarons they had there. So while I finished my food, he got in line for those.
 
Mom and Son Disney Dash Grad Trip 2018 - Day 3 (Final Day Cont'd)

So while DS got in line for more food, I took another selfie:

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We shared two small varieties of macarons and then headed out. We were close enough to do one more ride with no wait...so we hopped on the Little Mermaid with no wait. That would be our last ride at MK and then we made our way out.

I got one last photo before we left the park though:
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We caught the monorail back over to the TTC, and then walked back to our rental car.

We checked the trunk and our shoes were decent enough to wear without socks, so we switched out. Then we drove over the Hollywood Studios.

There were 3 FP rides booked here, but only one was before lunchtime. So we headed over to RnRC which had some kind of crazy wait at the time...I think 130 minutes. We were thankful for FPs here:
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Now we were approaching the time for our final big event...Dine with an Imagineer at Hollywood Brown Derby. This was scheduled for 12pm and we arrived around 11:30am and checked in there and waited in the lobby.

Soon we were called and taken back to our private room for our lunch. There were about 10 or 12 of us for this meal. We met our Imagineer who was a longtime employee, a PM of sorts who has experience in many areas. The conversation was fun, it was interesting whenever a topic was asked that he could NOT answer...he would just change the subject and we knew it was a no-no topic. Overall everybody had great questions, he shared some interesting stories (especially regarding the 7DMT which he had a major role in managing) and it was a great lunch. The food was a pre-fixe menu. We had soup to start that was delicious, followed by cobb salad, followed by a choice of entree (Beef, seafood and vegetarian options) and then a dessert sampler. I'm still not a fan at all of their signature grapefruit cake. The rest of my meal I thoroughly enjoyed.

We finished around 2pm or 2:30pm and were debating what to do next. I tried to move up our ToT FPs but had no luck. Really had no luck moving anything else around and as I was looking at my phone, I happened to see an email notification from SWA. They refunded my Early Bird Check-in fees...hmm that's weird? We had a great "A" boarding number too as I had looked at our boarding passes earlier that day. Why was it refunded you ask? That would be because the flight was CANCELLED.

What?

I wasn't terribly concerned as I knew there were MANY flights available for us for that same day, and worst case would be for us to stay another night right?

Anyway I was on the phone but had DS pull up the reservation on the website to see if we could rebook it that way...and we could...so I got off the phone and looked up alternative flights.

We were originally on a 7:10pm flight, but there was a 5:15pm flight still available and we could switch to it for free. We could also switch to a 9pm flight. Given the choice, and knowing we had plans to come back soon, my son decided the 5:15pm flight was a good choice. So I worked on getting it rebooked...success.

A little bit of browsing in the shops on the way out and we headed out of the parks. As we waited for the tram, one last selfie:
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Our drive to the airport was uneventful. I had pre-paid for the gas tank so didn't need to refill it, which was the first time doing this but I liked not having to worry about filling up. Hertz also had this drop and go service, so I just pulled into the garage, to the designated area, and walked away leaving the keys in the car. They emailed me my receipt. Score.

Of course the lines at the airport were insane as always, but I knew we'd be okay. We actually got through pretty quickly initially, but then got held up as they awaited the arrival of a K-9 to sniff the line, which meant we could all leave our shoes on and liquids in the bags after that. That was nice. We hopped our fake monorail ride over to our gate and hung out. Our bellies were full so we didn't need food. Oh and of course with the very late flight booking we had extra time to wait as we were C 20+ for boarding.

I warned my son we most likely wouldn't get seats together on the flight, and told him based on the announcements that it was a full flight, we should just grab the first center seats available on the plane. However as we got inside the plane, my son spotted ONE row near the very back still empty...and he headed there so we did manage to sit together after all. Another somewhat uneventful flight home (there was a little bit of turbulence) and by about 7:30pm or so we were on the ground.

Overall this was a very nice short little trip. We didn't ride a lot, and that was okay. We had our share of downtime, enjoyed some good meals, and overall just had a nice time together. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.








 
Awesome trip! It seems your reluctant traveler had some fun and hopefully the Imagineer lunch was a great time for him.

I wish we were close enough for short trips but 5+ hours of flight time and three time zones just doesn't work for us. At least I can follow along with you! Thanks for sharing.
 

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