We Turned It Up to 11!

So, Annual Passes?
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December 2nd
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It finally happened. We arrived at our final day at Walt Disney World for 2018 (insert a MASSIVE crying face emoji). I always hate the last days at Disney World because it feels so bittersweet. Any day at WDW is a good day, but a last day is especially hard. This is especially difficult when your next trip is not immediately planned.

In our previous visit, we had two trips planned. We did have to cancel those two trips because we moved across the country, but at least hope was on the horizon at that time. The big question of the day was to upgrade our tickets to Annual Passports or not. We will get to that more in a bit, don’t worry!

For our last day, we decided that we would sleep in. That is against the grain for Sarah and I, but we felt good about it for this trip. We had a lot of time in the parks already and we were planning to spend a lot of time in Magic Kingdom that day. Our flight did not leave MCO (Orlando International Airport) until 9pm. Our Disney’s Magical Express coach did not depart from Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort until 6pm.

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Like I said, we had a LOT of time to kill. With that in mind, we packed up our bags and headed to the Airline Check-In at Old Port Royale. Unfortunately, I did not realize that this service did not work for Frontier Airlines. Even though I was mildly annoyed by myself, it was not the end of the world to have to check our bags and then put them on the bus. Disney was going to drop us off hours before our flight anyways, so we would not be in a rush at the airport.

After we checked our bags in with Bell Services, we headed to Centertown market because we each had a meal to use. I am not normally a “breakfast at the resort” kind of person because we are normally in such a hurry in the morning and we want to save our meals for the afternoon and evening. Breakfast at Disney World for Sarah and I is normally a Pop Tart or Clif Bar.

I ordered the American Breakfast with an Odwalla Strawberry Banana Smoothie. Sarah ordered the Chocolate-Chip Pancakes with a side of fresh fruit.

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I would call this meal unremarkable. I am not really a fan of mass-produced eggs, but the meal was incredibly filling and a good value for breakfast. Sarah’s pancakes were prepared well and just as sweet as she could hope for. Conveniently, it was all placed in to-go containers with a bag for easy on-the-go eating. We were joined by a particularly aggressive Floridian pigeon (White Ibis).

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After our meal, we boarded a bus to Magic Kingdom. We arrived and still needed to use snack credits. Fortunately, you can use these credits to inject caffeine into your system! We walked into Main Street Bakery for some Starbucks. Sarah ordered her Venti White Mocha and I got my Venti Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew.

After we finished our drinks, we went into photography mode. I spend most of our trips focusing on getting shots of the various landscapes, attractions, and entertainment that Walt Disney World has to offer. However, sometimes Sarah gets her wish granted and we set up the tripod to take pictures of ourselves on vacation. Here are a couple for your enjoyment!

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After we got our photos done and dusted, it was time for our Fastpass+ for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We walked around the castle and landed in Fantasyland. I needed to use the restroom, so we walked past the attraction and back towards Gaston’s Tavern. Little did I know, I was in for one of the strangest and most hilarious experiences of my life.

There are those little moments that equally amaze, shock, and disgust you. I happened to have one of these moments in the stall of the restrooms behind the tavern. I was minding my own business in the stall and I could hear a man having a conversation with his young son who was clearly going to the bathroom. All of a sudden, I hear, “NO! DO NOT PUT YOUR HAND IN THERE! DO NOT GRAB THAT!” followed quickly by, “THAT IS SO DISGUSTING!”

I think I could have died from laughter at that moment. Any sense of decorum and bathroom etiquette went out the window and I laughed so hard that I cried. There were so many questions. What was the child putting his hand it? What did the child grab? Why was it so disgusting? How did I get so lucky to only have to hear this interaction, rather than witness it? These are all questions I will cherish until the day I depart from this world.

I attempted to retell this story to Sarah and we both chuckled heartily as we walked into the Fastpass+ queue for Seven Dwarfs. We barrelled through the mines as I snapped pictures of our journey. We were seated in the very front row so it afforded me a rare chance to grab pictures without anyone in front of me.

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After we bid adieu to the Seven Dwarfs for our trip, it was time for Sarah to head under the sea. She had her Ariel-themed bow in hand (I guess in hair, technically). She was ready to go! We grabbed a few pictures in front of her castle and we headed into the queue. She belted out line after line and then we returned to the real world.

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We walked across Fantasyland and landed in the Tangled bathroom area. Sarah and I usually make a habit of sitting in this area for a while and listening to the music loop for a while. We realized that we hadn’t done this yet! We spent some time searching for Pascal and listening to the relaxing thematic music.

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I was ready for a snack! We walked over to Sunshine Tree Terrace for a cold, refreshing treat. I grabbed a Citrus Swirl Float. I gobbled down the orange cream float and I was so happy. It was warm and we were enjoying our time at Disney World again!

Sarah and I continued our photo tour at Swiss Family Treehouse. We started on the bottom and took one of my favorite photos of all time.

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One of my favorite parts of taking this picture was the reaction of the family who was behind us. They were very amused that two fully-grown (we were about as “fully-grown” as we would ever be after eleven days of eating whatever we wanted at WDW) adults posing like this for a picture. We laughed along with them as we walked through the treehouse.

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We were headed to Tomorrowland to use our last Fastpass+ of our trip on Space Mountain, but I really wanted to take an alternate route. Instead of taking the short-ish walk from Adventureland to Tomorrowland, we walked back to the Frontierland Train Station and then got off the train in Fantasyland. Even though this was not nearly as efficient, we were in no rush. One of the few reasons why I love the tail-end of these trips because we end up slowing down as our energy and urgency wanes. However, that feeling is always mixed in with the dread of leaving.

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We pondered this as we rode Space Mountain and then headed to Tony’s Town Square Restaurant for lunch. We arrived a few minutes before our reservation. The hostess seated us outside which was great because the Festival of Fantasy Parade was rolling by!

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We were warm and happy sitting out in the Central Florida sun and eating lunch. Surprisingly, the meal did not detract from our happiness. I had heard horror stories about Tony’s from other sources. Overall, the feedback was mediocre and bland food and chaotic atmosphere.

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Our experience was lovely. We started with bread service which was fairly standard. If anything, the bread was over-seasoned rather than bland. They sprinkled salt on the crust which made it very salty without the balance of the oil and vinegar.

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Sarah ordered the Grilled Jumbo Shrimp and I ordered the Italian Trio. Sarah’s shrimp was delicious. They were cooked perfectly and the sauce was really nice. I just wish there was more of it! Considering how much food there was in the meal, it is probably for the best that there wasn’t more.

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There was no problem with a lack of food with the Trio. It came with a MASSIVE portion of Chicken Parmigiana, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Spaghetti with Pork-Beef Meatball. I am not going to say any of these dishes were anything special. They were fairly basic restaurant Italian food. However, the value of this dish is pretty remarkable.

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We finished our meals with raspberry Raspberry Sorbet and Cannoli. I think that Sarah and I could sit out on that porch eating sweet desserts in the afternoon sun forever and be happy. I wonder how much I enjoyed that dining experience came down to the perfect conditions in which we were eating.

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Our casual lunch chat turned serious very quickly. I had been considering bridging our tickets to Annual Passport for several days. For those unfamiliar (I would consider myself this person up until I started doing some deep digging the during this trip), you can credit the cost of your already-used theme park tickets to an Annual Passport.

At some point, I will go further into the economics and inner-workings of this but I will save that for another article. For now, all you need to know is that we could have bridged our 7-day tickets to an annual pass and come back and visit for significantly cheaper than purchasing an Annual Passport. We were already planning our 2019 trip so it is not like they would have gone to waste. I presented my case to Sarah and we walked out of the park and towards Guest Services.

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My problem is that I was not thinking about my wife during all of this internal work. Sarah is a normal, rational human being. She does not make massive financial decisions spontaneously. What that means is that she needs a few days to process these choices and make a decision. You know, instead of just springing it on her with 15 minutes to decide to jump in.

She was seeing that it would be a massive waste to buy an Annual Pass for a 10-day trip and not use it for the rest of the year (you know, because of logic). Defying logic, I navigated us to the Guest Services queue and we discussed it there. As we rounded the queue, we decided against it. I decided that we would buy an Annual Pass for 2019-2020, rather than 2018-2019.

Sarah reflected on this a few months later and let me know that she thought that we should have done it. However, I disagree at this point. She is right that it was correct that the simple finances make sense. But she did not factor in that I would have convinced her to go to Disney World every other month because we had APs and we NEEDED to take full advantage! I know myself well enough to know that just one October trip would not have been enough. So Sarah was originally right and then wrong. Funny world we live in!

We took the bus back to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and paid our balance at the front desk and then departed Walt Disney World. We were both exhausted. However, we were really sad to go. See you again real soon not nearly soon enough!

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I just read your entire report. Your photos were fantastic. I, too, enjoy resort exploring so I was enamored by your various pictures.
 



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