Chapter 0. Pre-trip Tediousness

Just in case I get carried away and don’t explain well as I’m going…

The Cast: 

Me (Jaime) – stay-at-home mom and master Disney planner 🙂
Brian (DH) – didn’t come on this trip, but I think I mention him a time or two
Lily (DD, 11 yo) – recently started middle school, and deep in the throws of adolescence. Enough said, lol!
Owen (DS, 4yo) – impatient, active, often an emotional basket-case, and generally scared of everything

My Mom
My Dad

Cassie & Cam – usually refer to them as “the cousins” collectively, (my brothers kids, 14 and 12 years old), they live in Naples with the rest of my family and came to Orlando with my parents

The idea: 

We needed to get away somewhere for a long weekend while Brian was off canyoneering in Utah, (because it didn’t seem fair for us to stay home, ha!) and visiting my family in FL made the most sense. After all, I had a brand new niece to meet! And what good is a trip to FL if we can’t sneak in a little Disney first??

Our dates collided perfectly with MNSSHP, so that seemed like a good excuse to get in some park time. Usually in these mini-trips with my parents, we stick to DTD and the resorts, so I was a little nervous about how this would go.

They really wanted to bring the cousins along, and talked their parents into letting them miss a couple days of school for it. (Lily was missing 3, oops!) I figured she would enjoy having some buddies her own age along, especially since they were old enough to go park-storming on their own.

The when & where: 

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. Lily had been wanting to see the Royal Rooms ever since they made them, and it just never worked out as a good resort choice. So here was our chance. We booked so late that I could only get one, so I had to get a standard room for my parents.

We flew from Denver to Orlando on Thur Oct 2, went to MNSSHP on Fri Oct 3, and checked out on Sat Oct 4 to drive down to Naples, spending the rest of the weekend there with my family. And flew home early on Mon Oct 6. A whirlwind few days, that’s how all of our trips seem, lately!

Chapter 1. Whining about Windows, and a Snack Overload

Brian had left early the day before on his own adventure, so it was just the 3 of us to get up and out he door on Thursday morning. Our flight wasn’t until almost noon, and even with the drive to Denver we didn’t have to get up early. A nice change for sure!

We were trying to travel light, but as I loaded our bags, I was surprised at how well we had succeeded. Was this really all we were bringing for 3 people for 4 days?? Two carry-on duffel bags, and each of us had a small backpack. Not bad. Hopefully we weren’t forgetting something. Or a lot of somethings, as I stared at the bags, looking strangely small in the empty trunk.

The drive was painless and uneventful, we must have been just behind rush hour traffic because it was smooth sailing. We parked at our usual lot, and for once had to wait a while for a shuttle. They are usually following you to your parking spot and waiting behind your car while you unload. But we were still at the airport with plenty of time, and didn’t need to visit the ticket counter, so we headed straight to security.

Every time we fly, I have this vision that security is going to be a calm, streamlined experience. Because I have “learned” from last time how to make it so. But it is destined to never be the case, or at least not so long as I am traveling with kids, lol! We made it through though, feeling as bedraggled as ever once the ordeal was done.

The kids were both a little on edge. I was hoping an early lunch would settle them down, and I was mostly right. Especially for Lily. Our flight was a few minutes late leaving, mostly due to the incredible line of wheelchair passengers they had to pre-board. I had never seen anything like it.

Once on the plane, there was an immediate argument over seating. I usually give Owen the window seat, because it’s easier for him to fall asleep there, and just generally keeps him out of the way. But Lily chose this moment to declare the huge injustice that was being heaped upon her by never getting the window. Owen was being just as disagreeable, and I ended up letting Lily have the window, with the compromise that they would switch partway through the flight.

Owen still hadn’t recovered from his earlier grumpiness, and it would end up being a rough flight for him. Two meltdowns, and almost constant whining and arguing, until he finally fell asleep with just under two hours to go. Maybe one day this will get easier. I had just been bragging that the meltdowns had really slowed in recent months (you may remember the trouble we had with them on the last trip!) But today was not his day.

One kind of funny story though…at one point I got up to use the restroom, Owen wanted to stay at the seat with Lily. While I was waiting in line at the back of the plane, I saw the flight attendant coming down the aisle with the snack box. I thought about going back, but then figured Lily could handle picking out a snack for each of us. A few minutes later (I was still standing in line, don’t get me started on that part, lol!) he came to the back to refill the box. Another flight attendant asked him “Already??”, and he kind of huffed out a response. I should have been worried then. Finally back at my seat, I was greeted with the reason for the premature refill, my entire seat was filled with bags and bags of wheat thins, cheese crackers, and cookies! Apparently Lily had left Owen in charge of picking out the snacks, and he must have emptied the box! I guess the flight attendant hadn’t known how, or felt comfortable stopping the raid. I couldn’t keep from laughing, but was rather mortified too. Oh well.

Oh, and I have to mention the family that was sitting in the row behind us. They were headed to WDW too, but apparently it had been a surprise trip for the kids. As in, they didn’t know until they were at the airport kind of surprise. And I am assuming it didn’t get quite the “magical” reaction the parents were hoping for. The whole flight, the kids whined and complained about the fact that they hadn’t known, because if they had, they would have: brought a, b, and c, told their friends x, y and z, and generally done q, r, and s. By the end of the flight the poor mom was at her wits end and clearly heartbroken that the vacation was starting off like this after all their hard work planning it. My first thought was that the kids were being rather ungrateful, but then again, that’s exactly why I would never try to pull such a thing with my kids. And honestly, as a person who HATES surprises, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have reacted similarly. Hopefully they ended up having a good time though.

Chapter 2. Turtle-to-Rabbit

After we landed we made the usual trek through the airport and on the “fake monorail” to the  terminal, and it occurred to me that I know the Orlando airport a little too well for it to be so far from home, lol! We found my parents and the cousins just on the other side of security and were quickly on our way, not needing to fetch any bags. And I shamelessly admit to kicking Owen out of the stroller so that I could use it to haul our carry-ons during all of this. The stroller was for MNSSHP. Not the airport, after all!

We easily found our way to Port Orleans, and check in took a while but went well. A nice CM checked us in for both rooms together, and even tried to see if she could upgrade my parents to a Royal Room so that we could be closer, but just like when I booked it, there were none available. I had requested adjacent buildings though, and we did have that.

She was really great, taking a lot of time to explain things to us. We had rented a scooter for my mom and with that picked up, we set out to find our rooms.

I walked with my mom on her scooter while the rest took the car. I was happy to see that she really liked the theming of the resort.

Another small funny story… As we wee coming over the bridge to Ol’ Man Island, her cart was barely making it over the hill. I asked her if she was sure it was in the highest gear, and she thought it was. I saw a knob with pictures I couldn’t immediately identify, and wondered out loud what changing it did. (We were on level ground by now) Without really thinking, I turned the knob all the way to the other side, and suddenly her scooter zoomed off away from me! She was suddenly panicking, and I was running to catch up!  But I finally caught up and got her slowed down. Turned out that the knob was the “turtle-to-rabbit” adjustment, the pictures looking much clearer now that I knew what it did, lol! Immediate danger to herself and nearby pedestrians over, we had a good laugh about it the rest of the way to their building.

It took at least a half-hour to find both of our rooms through the mazes of the Magnolia Terrace and Oak Manor buildings, and we had to stop several times to consult the room-number signs with directions. But so far everyone was in good spirits and enjoying the atmosphere of the resort. The kids especially liked playing with the “fireworks” over the bed in our Royal Room. And looking at the various princess paraphernalia on the walls.

Chapter 3. Why Can I Not Remember a Simple Room Number??

We headed back up to the main building for dinner.

I will say though, I wasn’t overly fond of the setup here. It reminded me a lot of AoA: chaotic, too many different lines, and no real system for dealing with people ordering food at the same time as people waiting for food… It was way too stressful. But we finally emerged with some flatbreads, and met up with everyone else.

After dinner the kids wanted to look in the gift shop, and each picked out a small toy. And I let them pick a rice crispy treat… We had Mickey ones at first until Lily spotted the very last Anna & Elsa one… were we going to enter the Frozen craze suddenly?? Neither kid had shown much interest until now, but she was elated with her find nonetheless.

We still had to get our stuff out of the truck and to our room, which would have been easier if I had remembered our room number! I had repeated it to myself several times earlier, but had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t stick. I knew what the area outside our room looked like, and knew I would recognize it when we got there, but we must have walked the whole perimeter of the second floor before finding it. And carrying our bags the whole way…why had I decided to leave the stroller in the truck again?? But we were still in bed not too long after 10:00.

Chapter 4. All Shopped-Out

I had sealed the room up from light as best I could. (The first time I’ve ever gotten a corner room with the extra window, and on the one trip I wanted to sleep in, lol!) I was awake around 8am, with the kids following not too long after. My parents and the cousins, who were NOT adjusting to a two-hour time change, had been up for a while already and headed over to our room as soon as we were up.

I had thought we would go back to the resort after breakfast so my mom could get her scooter, and then take the boat to Downtown Disney. But she was convinced she would be okay walking and wanted to just go straight there in the truck. I thought it was unwise, but didn’t want to be disagreeable, so we went.

I was only really interested in one store – the new a Marketplace Co-op! (I wanted a new Disney Vera Bradley bag, and a personalized phone case from D-Tech.) I didn’t have a clue where it was, but we somehow got lucky and ended up parking right in front of it without even trying. And the Vera Bradley section was right in front as we walked in! Lily and I browsed there for a few minutes, but decided we should go ahead and get our phone cases started, knowing we could look more while they were printing.

The D-Tech booth was a lot like the design-a-tee shop we went to last time. You use a digital screen to pick your phone type, then it gives you 5 categories of pictures to choose from, there must be hundreds! If I hadn’t already had an idea of what I wanted it would have been impossible to decide. But I knew I wanted a Figment one, and a paisley-Mickey one. I let Lily get one for her current phone (Alice in Wonderland) and one for the phone she’ll be getting in a few months (a Castle, Frozen themed… Where DID this come from??)

While they were printing, we picked out our bags from Vera Bradley and browsed the other booths a little too. Owen was kind of running all over during this time, my dad was loosely watching him but fortunately it wasn’t busy at all because I think he was unsupervised more than was probably wise. Oh and the cousins were there too, but they must have been off on their own for most of it because I don’t remember them being around much.

I was ready to go by now, having easily accomplished the two things I came for. My parents had stopped by here on their way to the airport the day before, but apparently my they still hadn’t had enough and wanted to go to World of Disney. I was feeling pretty shopped-out by now, and really didn’t want to buy anything else. Which made dragging Owen out of there pretty difficult. (Don’t worry, he hadn’t been left out, having already picked out a pair of Lightning McQueen headphones at D-Tech.) Lily did try on a cool Mad Hatter hat, that is one of her latest obsessions, thanks to the Ever After High book series.

It was HOT by now, and the kids were getting thirsty and tired. But my mom was convinced that Lily needed to see some dolls over in the Art of Disney store. Owen got distracted by the train on the way over so I stopped and let him and Lily ride while I talked my brother (who had called my dad) through a math problem he was trying to work for a stock trade.

We finally made it to Art of Disney. I did enjoy looking at the paintings on display, especially the Alice in Wonderland ones. And I fell in love with a framed Beauty & the Beast painting by Thomas Kincaid. For only $1,100 I could take it home, lol! I think I know what I want for Christmas. And my birthday…for the next few years, ha!

The good news was that by now, everyone was finally ready to go, as the kids were anxious to have some swim time. The bad news was that we had wandered a long way from the car. So I ran to get the truck, dragging Owen with me because he had insisted on coming, and picked everyone up down on that end.

Chapter 5. We’re Going to Need Rabbit-Mode

We rushed back to the room and changed, knowing that Owen would need a nap in just over an hour. We were headed to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tonight, and needed to be at the gates at 4pm when our party tickets would get us in. (For FPs and an ADR) I knew Owen wouldn’t last for a late night without a nap.

My dad and the cousins met us at the pool a little later, and the kids all had a blast chasing each other and wrestling in the water. Owen was proud to show off how well he could swim, and for the first time was mostly able to keep up with the “big kids” while they played.

I was hoping I could get some kind of light lunch or snack at the bar by the pool, but all they had were chips. I didn’t want to go inside anywhere in my swimsuit, so Owen was going to have to make do with a smoothie for lunch, lol! He surprisingly didn’t fight me about getting out of the water or going back to the room for a nap, I think he was really tired by then. I left Lily at the pool, and told her to make sure she was back in time to get ready to go.

Sleep didn’t come for Owen right away, but he was resting quietly anyway. And he finally fell asleep about an hour before I would have to get him up. Lily came back to the room at some point, but was restless having to stay quiet in the dark, so I sent her to my parents room to join the cousins. Unfortunately they were having the same problem, since my mom was sleeping, so I think they ended up playing outside most of the time.

I waited as long as I could to get Owen up, but we had agreed to meet at the bus stop at 3:00. He was NOT thrilled to be drug out of bed, hopefully he would shake it off by the time we got there. I’ve not been a fan of bus transportation lately, but with my mom having the scooter we didn’t have any other choice.  We waited for about 25 minutes, during which time a bus for every other park came, including two for DTD! With the party starting in less than an hour, I would have expected them to beef up their MK routes, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The bus was already standing room only when it arrived, and about 20 more were waiting with us at our stop. And of course getting mom’s scooter loaded was an ordeal. We were packed in like sardines, but still made one more stop at the south depot, where another hoard was waiting. (And I really should have been paying more attention to which stop we had come from…but more on that later)
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We had been at the bus stop a full hour before we could get into the park, which I thought was probably excessive, but because the bus had been so slow, we arrived at the gates right at 4:00. (It didn’t help that the bus let us off at the absolute last, farthest stop from the park. One of those days, I guess!) I joked to my mom that it was time for “rabbit-mode”, and off we went!

Chapter 6. The a Trouble with Teens

My parents, Owen and I were headed straight to Be Our Guest! I had managed, after weeks of trying obsessively, to snag a reservation at 4:10, though only for 4 people. I figured the older kids would be happier riding anyway.

They had FPs for BTMRR that were only good through 4:20, and knowing they would navigate the Main Street crowds quicker without a stroller and ECV, I sent them off ahead as soon as we were through the gates. We made our way as quickly as we could toward New Fantasyland, though it was painfully slow at times working two wheeled-vehicles through the chaos. Fortunately there wasn’t much of a line to check in when we got there, and we mostly made it on time. I had wondered if the 4:10 ADR was reasonable at all since we couldn’t get into the park until 4, and was glad we had made it without much trouble.

But I was very excited for my mom to see the inside, and she was not disappointed! We were seated in the ballroom again, not far from where we sat for dinner last year. Our waitress was really fantastic, she reminded me a lot of the CM that checked us in at POR.

The waitress insisted that she bring the chef out so he could take “special care” of my mom. After a long discussion, the chef settled on making her some completely plain mac-n-cheese and mashed potatoes.

Unfortunately, right before our food came, one of the cousins called my dad. Apparently trouble was brewing- they were fighting over what to ride and had gotten so mad at each other that they all split up and now couldn’t even find Lily. (And Cassie’s phone was dead, so she was having to share Cam’s) Of all the pit-falls I had considered in the plan to let them roam free, not-getting-along hadn’t even entered my mind. They have always been good buddies, and I don’t recall them ever getting into a real fight about anything. But they were going to suddenly break that trend HERE??? When they had freedom to roam Disney World by themselves??

So the rest of the meal was a constant stream of texts and phone calls. My dad was getting the cousins side of the story, and I was getting Lily’s. Cassie even called my sister, who was in Naples, who then called my dad. There was initially some talk of one of us leaving to go get them, but I managed to convince everyone that they needed to work this out on their own.

I finally ended up telling Lily that she could just go on and tour alone. It didn’t seem fair to punish Lily for the altercation, and make her miss her FPs.

So, it wasn’t exactly a calm and stress-free meal. But then again, nothing with my family ever is, lol! In spite of it, I still felt like it was mostly a success.  And we got to meet the Beast on the way out! Owen was a little nervous at first, but seemed to enjoy the interaction. I tried for the rest of the night to get him to meet other characters, but he was never interested. They all had long lines anyway.

Chapter 7. Yes Actually, it IS Fun…

By the time we came out of BoG, it was raining just a little. The forecast had said that the highest chance of rain was from 4-5pm,  so I was hoping that we would be eating during the worst of it, but instead we had been inside during what would turn out to be the only sunshine of the afternoon. Oh well.

Lily called a couple more times, needing help finding the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. (She had a FP for it and it hadn’t been open yet last time we were here) I briefly met her in Fantasyland to point her in the right direction, then we headed over to Adventureland, since Owen was wanting to ride the Magic Carpets. It was raining pretty hard by the time we got there.

We joked about the ride still being fun, even in the rain, lol!

Owen enjoyed it, despite the rain, and really wanted to ride again. But Lily had used her last FP by now, and was wanting to join us so we headed back to FL. The kids wanted to ride the carousel, and after I had sent them to the line, I suddenly worried they wouldn’t be able to get on. Technically with the new rules, Owen has to have someone over 14 riding with him. But a few minutes later I spotted them already on a horse, so they must have slipped by the attendant unnoticed.

We had 4 FPs for Peter Pan, and since Lily had joined us, I was going to let her use mine to go with my parents and Owen. But he suddenly got nervous and didn’t really want to go. I thought maybe he would be okay once he was at the loading platform, but without mean-mommy there to force him on, he chickened out and my dad had to leave with him. He’s usually okay once he’s seated and it starts going, but I guess I should have communicated that better and insisted that my dad not let him back out. Oh well. So only Lily and my mom ended up riding.

I was a little unhappy with Owen by now, but mostly just wanted to salvage the rest of the evening, and let him pick the next ride. He wanted to do the Teacups, which is luckily one of Lily’s favorites. And for once he actually wanted us to spin it fast! Lily has become mildly obsessed with anything Alice-in-Wonderland related, and declared this “her ride”.

Chapter 8. Cousins Reunited 

It was still raining a bit, not a total downpour but just enough to be a nuisance. Probably why I didn’t take very many pictures, sorry! We headed over to Dumbo next. There wasn’t really a line, but Owen still wanted to play for a while inside. Once on the ride, we had to do a last minute seating change. I told Lily that she could ride with Owen, then suddenly wondered if the CM was going to be cool with that. He wasn’t, so we had to rearrange.

By the time we finished, Cassie and Cam were ready to meet up with us. I think the official party hours had just started. They met us by Dumbo, but Owen was begging to go ride Astro Orbiter. The cousins were annoyed because they had just come from Tomorrowland, but they got over it quickly, and the tension that had split them up earlier seemed to have dissolved.

On the way, we stopped at the Speedway. Owen made his Grandpa take him. I wasn’t planning to ride, but Lily really wanted me to go with her so I did. I’ve never cared for that one, and haven’t done it in many years. It was fun to spend a few minutes just with her, though.

I think they also hit their first trick-or-treat stop in that area. Several people had told us that we would get TONS of candy throughout the night, without even trying. Which I wasn’t really looking forward to, lol! We don’t even let the kids keep much of their candy from Halloween. But luckily, their predictions were not true and we only ended up with a couple of handfuls by the end of the night.

After the Speedway it was hard to corral everyone. My mom had disappeared somewhere, and didn’t even have a phone (because hers was dead- this was a constant problem for all of them.) My dad stayed behind to wait for her to come back, and I took the kids on to Astro Orbiter.

This is probably Owen’s favorite ride in all of WDW right now! And I love riding it in the dark. He screamed with delight the whole time, and was begging to go again as soon as we got off. My dad found us, and Owen got him to take him again while I went with Lily and the cousins to Space Mountain.

There was no line at all, just the time it took us to walk through the queue area. It was a fun ride, and since there was no wait we decided to go one more time. The first time we had gone left, so we chose right this time. I don’t know if it’s the track on that side, or just the car we were in, but this time was much rougher, and my whole body felt pretty jarred afterwards.

Owen was just about to drag my dad on Astro Orbiter AGAIN when we found them, so I told him LAST time, and got Lily a Mickey pretzel while we waited. The kids were supposed to find a CS dinner during the first couple of hours when they were on their own, but with all the drama that had ensued, they hadn’t eaten anything. My mom reappeared once during this time, then disappeared again.

We finally were all back together. It was nearly 9:00, and I was hoping we would have time to do the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor before the 9:30 Hallowishes Fireworks. It was a great show as always, but I’m biased because Monsters Inc is my favorite 🙂

The kids were really hoping to get picked to be on screen for one of the jokes, but we seemed to just miss it several times, as people sitting right next to, and in front of us, were singled out instead.

Chapter 9. A Second Chance at Freedom, but Without a Phone

It was 9:28 when we came out, perfect timing! Unfortunately, it had also started to rain lightly, after having mostly stopped for the last couple of hours. But the fireworks still went off on cue! We stood right outside of Monsters, it wasn’t the ideal spot, but we had a decent view, and I hadn’t been willing to stake out a spot on a Main Street ahead of time. Plus I didn’t want to be so packed in somewhere that I couldn’t bail with Owen if need be. Because you probably remember his feelings toward fireworks!

He actually did okay, though. I had his sound-blocking earmuffs, and between those and his blanket, he toughed it out. He was whimpering a little by the end, but at least we seem to be past the screaming banshee reactions! And my mom really liked the fireworks. She even talked about how neat they were the next day. I do wish we had been able to hear the music better though.

Right before the fireworks started, the older kids had asked if they could go to Splash Mountain. I was fine with giving them another chance at freedom, but not thrilled with the fact that Lily didn’t want to take her phone (because she was worried she couldn’t keep it dry, not having pockets) I finally agreed. But told them they absolutely had to stay together this time, and to check in frequently with Cam’s phone. Not sure how they managed to get there during the fireworks with the crowd, but I guess they did. And they said later that they watched at least some of the show on the way.

All Owen wanted to do now was ride the carousel again, so I took him (and realized why Lily hadn’t had a problem getting on with him before. The CM simply opened the gate then disappeared, no one was watching the line go in at all). I was a little sad that we hadn’t gotten Owen on a single “dark ride”, but at least he was having fun on the carousel and Dumbo-clones.

My mom was really wanting to go shop on Main Street when we were done, but I talked them into coming with us to watch the Boo-to-You parade instead. I figured this late, we would have an easier time getting a spot in Frontierland, and we did find a decent place behind a planter where Owen would be able to see. It was about 10 minutes until step-off, and raining just slightly. Owen had fun though playing with my dad while we waited.

Overall, I have to say I was a little disappointed with the parade. I thought it was shorter and less impressive than either MSEP or Spectromagic. But Owen did like seeing Captain Hook on the Jolly Roger. He was tired afterwards though, and just wanted to rest in the stroller. So we headed to Main Street so my mom could get in her obligatory shopping. We tried to stay in touch with the kids through all this, but Cam’s phone was, can you guess… Almost out of charge!  (Lily’s phone was still with me) I have never had my phone run out of charge in the park, I just don’t get it. Their last communication was that they were leaving a ride and coming to find us at the gates, but his phone was down to 1% and they probably wouldn’t be able to call again. Lovely.

My mom found something in the Emporium on the way out, and we headed to the front to hopefully find the now-phone-less kids. Fortunately they showed up not long after us. And had actually had a good time together on this second attempt. I’m not even sure what all they rode other than Splash Mountain, but apparently there hadn’t been any more arguments.

Chapter 10. Oops! You wanted to take the Scenic Route, right??

It was almost midnight by now, and everyone was worn out. So we made our way back to the bus. There was one there, but they didn’t have room for the scooter, so we had to wait for the next one. Luckily it wasn’t too long, and they got us on board first, so at least we got seats. As the driver was getting my mom situated, he asked what stop we were getting off at, and without giving it much thought I said West Depot. I started to add that we were in Magnolia Bend, just in case, but for some reason didn’t, thinking I guess that it seemed superfluous. Too bad.

West Depot was the first stop, and of course half the bus had to unload so that we could get the scooter out. I knew from before that the bus stop was right in between our two buildings, ours was to the left, my parents to the right. So we said a quick goodnight and headed separate ways.

As we left the depot and headed down the path I suddenly did a double-take…it looked so different in the dark, I thought! Was this really how we had come?? Looking back at the depot and orienting myself, I was convinced it was. I saw the corner of the building appearing at the end of the path after a minute, almost there! But wait, hadn’t I crossed a parking lot first on the way there?? And that building didn’t quite look like ours, was it the one next door? Nothing made any sense all of the sudden.

I mentally called up a picture of the resort map in my head. Alligator Bayou had been on the left, and Magnolia Bend on the right. So… assuming north was “up” on the map… We needed to be on the east side of the resort. WHY had I said WEST?? I hadn’t even thought about it, it’s just what came out when he asked, for some reason. No wonder nothing made sense, we were in Alligator Bayou, clear on the opposite side of the resort from our rooms!

My first thought was that I better call my parents, they were surely lost by now too. But my dad’s phone (the only one they had left between all 4 of them) went straight to voice mail. He had mentioned on the bus that it was almost dead. Honestly I’m going to have to buy them some sort of mobile charging unit! Even after pretty heavy use all evening, I still had 44% on mine. Anyway, back to the story.

We found them after a few minutes, already talking to a CM on a golf cart who said she would lead them back to Magnolia Bend.  I apologized profusely for getting us off in the wrong place, and we slowly trudged back to our buildings. But we finally collapsed into bed around 12:30am.

So, it wasn’t a perfect evening, but it never is, lol! All in all, I still thought it was a success. And in some ways, I think it was a good experience for Lily. I know that learning to solve conflict and work together is important, but I think it’s just as important to learn that sometimes being alone is okay, and if a situation just isn’t working, removing yourself from it might be the best thing. I was proud of her for being confident enough to strike out on her own, and not feel like she “needed” someone with her.

Chapter 11. That’s a Wrap!

And that’s really about it. We just got up and headed out to Naples the next morning, eating another boring chain-breakfast in town. Had a couple of days with my family there before flying home Monday morning, and got to meet my 3-week old niece Isabella!

I did really like the theming of POR, but like CBR, it was frustrating that everything was so spread out. And the multiple bus stops obviously caused a problem, lol! Not too big a deal for a short trip, but I think I would get tired of the long treks if we were staying for a full week.

But the best part, we’ll be back in less than 3 months! I haven’t even had a chance to think about that trip since earlier this summer when I booked this one, I think I may still have a bit of planning to do! I am kind of wishing now that we were going somewhere other than MK, since that’s all we did this trip too. But of course, Brian wasn’t with us, and the whole point of staying at WL was to have easy access to MK, so it doesn’t make sense to change that plan now. I’m sure we’ll still find plenty to do, lol!

I guess I should try for a FP for Elsa & Anna when the time comes, seeing as how Lily is suddenly interested. She was only lukewarm about the movie, but she has been watching Once Upon a Time with me, and now that they are on there, maybe that’s why she suddenly cares. And then I’ll have to figure out the rest of our strategy. And I’m pretty sure I booked a reservation at both the Spa and Kid’s Club, but I somehow neglected to write any of the times or confirmations down. Or if I did, I threw it away. So, definitely still some work to do!