Post-Trip Report: Virginia & Jeanette’s Flower and Garden Slumber Party (May 2026)

[00:00:11] Welcome to Where I Long To Be, a Magical Trip Report Podcast. My name is Virginia and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining in on the podcast today. It is a very special day in our house because Alex is officially 16 years old as of the day this episode comes out. If you have kids and you roll your eyes when people tell you to enjoy every minute because it goes by fast, I am here to tell you it goes by fast. Just this weekend, Charles took Alex out to drive to the show.

[00:00:41] He has to drive for the very first time and now that he's 16, he will be able to apply for his learner's permit. It's just crazy how one minute you're teaching your kid to ride a bike and the next minute they are learning how to drive a car. So soak it all up. Not every moment is fun, but once it's gone, you will look back on every single moment and wish you could just go back and live it one more time. Happy birthday, Alex. I am so very glad you were born and that I have the privilege of being your mom. I'm so proud of you.

[00:01:10] And now let's move from birthday wishes into today's post-trip report episode, which is from my very own trip in early May with one of my besties, Jeanette. We headed down May 5th through the 8th for some flower and garden fun and stayed at All Star Sports where we were able to get 40% off with our AP discount.

[00:01:32] That should be all you need to know to catch you up before we dive in. This is your reminder that you can submit any questions, hot takes and travel tips you have through my website at wherealong2bepodcast.com. Click the Send Virginia a voice message button on the bottom right side of the screen and it will get to me. And just know that by leaving a message, you might hear yourself on a future show. Okay, let's get into this flower and garden slumber party. Welcome back, Jeanette. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:02:00] It feels like it's been forever since we spoke the first time. And I think it's because we kind of have let it be forever. It has been forever. The world has shifted. The season is about to change. There's no more festival at Epcot. I mean, Yeah. The world keeps spinning. So today is June 15th. That's correct. And we must have spoken at the end of April because we traveled in May.

[00:02:27] Maybe the very beginning of May at the latest is when we talked about it. Maybe. Maybe. I got what you did there. Maybe. All right. Well, I know that it has been a long time. Partially that's been because my work was crazy. Partially that has been because you were out of the country. Mm-hmm. And the pod keeps you busy. You've got lots of people to talk to.

[00:02:49] The pod has kept me very, very busy and continues to do so so that I can like have the time off to go on vacation. I have to like double up on all the work beforehand to be ready for that. But definitely worth it, I think. All right. Let's dive back in. All right. Let's rewind time, if we may. All the way back to the flower and garden slumber party. Yes. It was so much fun. I am so glad we did it.

[00:03:15] It was absolute bliss. Like every time I think back to it, I just think how just how easy it was to be in Disney with you. Just like like it's almost like like we were thinking about our itinerary and I was like, except there wasn't really an itinerary. It was just like bopping with our heart's desires and our heart's desires just kept bopping in sync. So. Yeah. It'd be like I would say something and you'd be like, that's what I was just about to say.

[00:03:44] That's what I wanted. Or vice versa. And it just it did make it really easy and it was just so much fun. And I 100% want to do it again. But maybe we should do it for a different festival. Maybe we shouldn't just have slumber parties for every festival. Maybe. I mean, I right now I don't have a trip planned while food and wine is happening. Yes. So I mean, we might need to do a food and wine slumber party.

[00:04:12] We're going to have to look at those dates and have to plan around our Paris extravaganza. I know. I mean, first world problems. Am I right? Our lives are so hard. I'm sure we can figure something out or at the very least maybe pop down for some, you know, festival of the holidays or something. I always like going and checking out all the holiday decor. Yeah. Well, right now I do have on the docket Dapper Day.

[00:04:39] Maren and Mariah and the Leopold clan. We're going down. I think it's the first weekend of December. Mm-hmm. I think you're right. And the reason I think you're right is because I can see all of y'all's plans in my Disney experience. And I'm always like, you know, it's like I know it's not my trip coming up, but I'll look at my like my future plans. And the date will be so much earlier than I know I have a trip planned for. And just for like a moment, I can pretend like, oh, yeah, that's my next trip on the books.

[00:05:08] And then I click it and it's Maren and her parents. Look, Maren and Ryan were in Disney this past weekend. And I was just like living vicariously through photos and snack updates and all of it. So I can totally understand that. I love seeing, you know, I love seeing my friends plans on the app too. Yeah. I never want to disconnect because I just want to be like, I want to enjoy this for you on your behalf.

[00:05:38] Yeah. I mean, between all of you, it seems like one of you is always there. And so, yeah, I can always kind of, you know, peer in through the window and be like, yep. Well, they had some extra DVC points that they had that they just darn it. They had to use. So they did something kind of cool where they did like one night at Polynesian and then one night at Contemporary. Oh, cool. And you just transfer on the monorail.

[00:06:07] And I was like, that sounds pretty amazing. Anyway, but that's their trip. We should talk about ours. I 100% want to reminisce about this trip because we just, I know we're going to keep saying what a great time we had. But we really did. It was so much fun. And I can't think of anything that I would change about the trip. No. No. Except one thing. But we'll get to it. So let's start with our departure day, Tuesday, May the 5th. I had to work.

[00:06:33] And I think our flight was at 742. And so we had planned to get to LaGuardia to meet up. I think we had planned to get there by, I don't know, 530 or 6 or something like that. And that did not happen. I feel like the 6 o'clock hour. Yeah. Yeah. I think I was like a half an hour behind. Okay. Yeah. I mean, not too bad. We still were fine. Traffic was rough. I mean, it's kind of a hard time of the day for traffic.

[00:07:01] So it took longer than it normally takes me to get. Oh, no. Actually, this was the trip where I took the bus. I took, because it was going to be rush hour traffic, I took the subway to the bus. I thought it would take an hour with traffic. A car was supposed to take an hour. It took like an hour and a half. Okay. Yeah. The reason I was running behind was simply because I waited until the last second to pack, which is not like me. But I did it.

[00:07:29] And as a result, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But I will tell you, since our trip, I needed to get a rental car because one day Charles was working in person. So he was using our actual car and I needed to rent a car to go do something. And in order to go pick up the rental car at LaGuardia, I took the subway to the bus. And I was like, why am I doing this? Like, it's not that expensive a Lyft ride or anything. Like, why? Why am I going through all this?

[00:07:59] Because it was in the middle of the day. It would have been a very easy time to get the car. And I just, I don't know. I was just like, it was a commitment to the experiment, I guess, of like, what would it be like to do that? And I can wholeheartedly say it, that if I don't need to do that, I'm not going to anymore. I don't know how I feel about this experiment of taking the bus at rush hour. Because I know if I had taken an Uber or a Lyft, it probably would have been very expensive.

[00:08:25] But being on a subway platform with your suitcase at rush hour is also a really unpleasant experience. And having to like navigate those busy platforms and stairways and everything, not pleasant. So if it's convenience versus cost, I don't know. I might throw money at it in the future. Yeah. I mean, there are certain things like that where you're like, I'll just throw money at it. And for me, I'm not that far from LaGuardia.

[00:08:53] So it's never too expensive a trip to begin with. I don't know. I mean, without traffic, it's 20 minutes for me. But then with traffic, it can be like an hour. Yeah. See, on a normal ride to LaGuardia from my place is 10 to 15 minutes at the most. And I don't know. I just, I don't think I was thinking. I think I literally was thinking about it as an experiment. Just for the sake of doing it.

[00:09:20] Anyway, so we ended up meeting LaGuardia about 6.15. And in spite of our late arrival, we managed to stop to have a celebratory margarita. I was like, it's Cinco de Mayo. We have to have a margarita. And I was, I refused to let time and space get in my way. I mean, I was easily swayed. Jeanette was like, should we have a margarita to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and to kick off our holiday? Yeah. And I was like, say less.

[00:09:50] And we sat down and had a margarita. And then I was like, gosh, we're about to get on a plane. And it's not like it has meal service. We should probably grab food to take with us. Right. Because it's going to be so late by the time we arrive. Yeah. Yeah. So we just stopped in one of those little markets and grabbed like salad sandwich type things. I got my first caprese sandwich. Mm-hmm. And I will have a second one. Mm-hmm. On a future trip day. Yes. I actually had a caprese sandwich yesterday. Ooh.

[00:10:19] We got a lovely little Italian cafe slash grocery in my neighborhood. And I went over there and had a caprese. And it was delightful. Is there anything better than fresh mozzarella? Not much. All right. So then we went to go board the train. Not the train. The plane. Mm-hmm. And for whatever reason, we realized that they had switched our seats. Like we purchased our seats together. Yeah. Next to each other. In fact, we did one transaction. It's not like- You did it. Yes.

[00:10:49] I went in. I picked our seats together on one transaction. And for whatever reason, they moved one of us and split us up. No, they changed your seat. They bumped you to like a more forward seat. Yes. But it wasn't like extra leg room or anything like that. It was just like a random seat forward for absolutely no reason. Just like you might get off the plane sooner. Yeah. But you would think they'd realize like I booked these two tickets together. Never mind. It really did not make a difference. It was a short flight.

[00:11:17] I ended up watching Zootopia 2, which I've been meaning to watch. I've mentioned it multiple times on the podcast. So I finally watched it so that when I do eventually get around to doing the Zootopia, whatever that experience is called, I will have some context. And so that's what I watched. And I have to just comment that in Zootopia 2, there were some references to other films. And I just thought they were so cute. There was a reference to Ratatouille.

[00:11:45] There was a reference to Silence the Lambs, which is one of my favorite horror suspense, whatever kind of movies. And then there was one reference to The Shining. So what did you watch on the flight? I think I watched Wuthering Heights. And I recall that it was like cut for time or cut for airplane reasons. And I think that that was the better version because my writer friend told me that she saw it

[00:12:14] and that she thought that it was too steamy. For a bite? Or just too steamy at all? No, no, she went to see it in the theater and she thought it was like too steamy, like just kind of like, okay, now we're sick of seeing them, these two characters all over each other. And I didn't feel that way. So either our threshold is very different or what I think is the case is they cut some of those steamy scenes out for the plane. And I felt like it was a good version.

[00:12:43] So if you're going to watch Wuthering Heights and you don't want to watch a bunch of actors making out, maybe gratuitously even. Fair enough. Then watch it on the plane. Fair enough. Okay. All right. And I have not seen that movie yet. It's not Disney related though. So it's not. It's not. But it is a movie that I would like to see. So maybe I'll wait until my next flight. There you go. All right. That put us in at All Star Sports at about 11 o'clock and we just went straight to bed. We did.

[00:13:10] But I will say I want to mention that I was surprised and delighted that both of our names were on the TV screen. Yes. Yes. Which is not always the case. It's usually like whoever made the reservation or whatever. And we walked in and both of our last names were on the screen welcoming us. And I thought it was lovely. It's our slumber party. They knew. And we were in the tennis section, which I think is called the center court section. And that's what I wanted. What did you think of that? Because this was your first day at All Star Sports, right?

[00:13:41] Yeah. I mean, I think the All Stars are great. They're, you know, if you're going down on a budget. Balling on a budget. Balling on a budget. Rooms are nice. I actually feel like in general they're fairly good soundproofing. Like I almost feel like they're maybe better soundproofing than I've experienced at some of the moderates. Yeah. I liked it. I was happy. We even did, we'll talk about it later, but we even did some pool time and being at the

[00:14:10] pool was a delight. All right. Well, let's get into Wednesday, May the 6th. I kind of broke our notes up into sections of the day to make it easier on us. Do you want to take the morning? Sure. So we got up around 7.45 a.m. High maintenance. So I did my hair. And I think this was like the day that I like really did my hair and makeup because I didn't realize exactly how hot it was going to be. And then later I was like, no, we're just throwing the hair up.

[00:14:39] But we looked very cute. And so we started our day by taking some photos. We went over to like the center area of Center Court and got pictures with Donald. And I took some pictures of the nephews because those are my boys. Those are my ducks. And this is a side note, but while I was in Japan, I was like so obsessed. I got this new Donald Duck charm.

[00:15:06] And then Rob taught me how to say Donald Duck in Japanese. So I was like singing his theme song all the time, but then changing his name to his Japanese pronunciation, which is Danorudodoku. So I had to share that because my love. Yeah, I learned no other Japanese. Just Danorudodoku. Oh my goodness. I love it.

[00:15:32] We had spent a bunch of time on Tuesday trying to figure out like how are we going to get water? Because normally when I'm down there with Marin, we have a rental car, we pick up water. And I know in the past you've like had a car stop and done like a preorder so you can just grab and go from the Uber or whatever. And because of the time that we were coming in, it just wasn't going to happen. It wasn't going to happen.

[00:15:58] And so I think we finally like gave up a little defeated and said, well, we'll buy water. You know, it will be crazy expensive. We can buy it from the gift shop. We can use our AP discount. And then we went to the gift shop and threw caution to the wind and bought the most expensive water anyway. Yeah. I should note there were cheaper waters. Yeah. And after all the energy was spent on like how are you to save money on water? Because we like to save money on water. Who has to spend money on water? And I do not drink the park water. Like, I'm sorry.

[00:16:27] I know it's free there. It tastes like Florida water. So I and I just I could not get my act together to do an order like a delivery order of water. It was just too busy at work and stuff. Well, and you have to spend a certain amount of money to make it worth it. We don't have other. We weren't there long enough. We're only going to be there for two and a half days. So then it was like, OK, do I want the water? I think it was like either $3.99 or $4.99. And I was like, oh, it's Dasani. $6.50. And so then I was like, I'll pay $6.50 for the smart water.

[00:16:56] And then I was just laughing at the irony of how much energy we put into trying to save money on water. And then I was like, well, I guess I'm just going to order smart water from now on because this is my favorite. Well, you did get your AP discount on it. So it's true. That's 40 cents saved. There you go. And I mean, if those are, I think Dasani water tastes like it has some sugar sprinkled in it. Yeah. I do not like it. If it were the only option, I would have gotten it.

[00:17:21] And I mean, if it's the only option, that's no vacation for me. No. But I will say that once I had the smart water bottle, when I had the opportunity to fill it up in a filtered location, like in a freestyle machine or something like that, then I took that opportunity. But when I did not have that opportunity, I bought more smart water because apparently I'm bougie like that. And I'm just going to have to accept who I am. Same. Same. All right. Anyway, continue on, please.

[00:17:51] So we left All Star Sports at 9 a.m. We took the bus to Hollywood Studios. And I will say, in terms of the All Stars being all buses, they get the like double length buses. They get the buses that exist in Brooklyn during rush hour. So like they're picking a lot of people up, which is very good. I don't feel like we really had to wait too much for buses on this trip. So, no. No.

[00:18:19] But we were going to Hollywood Studio not to go into the park, but to jump on the Skyliner and had to Riviera for our first Disney meal, which was a mishmash breakfast. We got almond cold brews and a raspberry brioche from Petite Cafe. And then we, and for our cold brews, a kind woman overheard us lamenting the paper straws

[00:18:47] and she gave us like boba straws that she had brought from home. And she even, I think, gave us extras. I literally, oh my gosh, this is so funny because I took out my park bag just today to move some stuff over because I think I'm going to revert back to my old bag. That's another story. And I have the straws right here sitting next to me because I could not find anywhere to put them. But I think the funniest thing, I mean, we accepted them because it was like one of those Disney connection moments where we were just like, oh, thank you so much.

[00:19:17] But we had reusable straws with us. So we were complaining unnecessarily because I had two reusable straws. But they were the steel straws, right? Yes. They just would have involved us washing them. And so when she offered these straws, we were just like, oh, thank you. And then we proceeded to use the plastic straws instead of the reusable. Yeah. How and where are you going to wash those straws?

[00:19:43] I mean, if you're in a DVC room and you got a sink with the soap and everything, sure. But are we going to wash the straw in our bathroom sink? No, that's weird. It feels weird. I mean, I guess we could have done it in like the mug rinsing thing. And when you're on the go, when I've used it on the go, you don't really like clean it on the go. You kind of rinse it out. And then you wait until you're done with it for the dye. Yeah. It's really on the go. It's on the go. Anyway. But that was nice of her. Yes. It was very sweet.

[00:20:12] But that was not our full breakfast. We then went down to Primo Piatto and got a polenta. Polenta. And we split everything except for the almond cold brews. We each got our own almond cold brew. And we sat at Bar Riva. It was completely empty. It was just us sitting in Bar Riva. The weather was still mild. It felt really nice. And we enjoyed, loved that raspberry brooch. Oh my God. It was so good.

[00:20:39] So freaking delicious, but I don't think I could ever eat one by myself. No. It's very sugary. This was the perfect scenario. Splitting the brioche and splitting the polenta. It was perfect. Because my breakfast dilemma is constantly sweet or savory. And so I got to, not only did I get to have both sweet or savory, but I got to share both of them so I didn't have the burden of feeling like I was wasting one or the other. The dream. Mm-hmm. Yep. The dream.

[00:21:06] So then we got on the Skyliner and headed over to Epcot. And this began a sequence of Virginia taking selfies. We got like some selfies in front of the Skyliner. And I think Virginia is just one of the best selfie photographers I've ever experienced. Really? Yeah. Like you aim it. Like you angle it really good. It's almost like you're a young'un. Like you just know, you know the angles. You get it.

[00:21:35] I'm like, I look good. She makes me look good. She looks good. We look good. So. Thank you. Very, very expert at the selfie game. I'm terrible. Well, I thank you for that. And that is why when I am taking selfies, when somebody kindly walks up and says, oh, would you like for me to take your picture? I'm always like, no, I'm good. Because it never looks as good as what I can just take for myself. So. I mean, you are. Thank you. You're really quite a genius. And then the last thing that I'll mention about the morning, well, this is the early morning

[00:22:04] portion, is that we got our sunscreen on while we were on the Skyliner. Yay, guys. I'm really proud of us. Yeah. Yeah. I said to Jeanette, I was like, you have to keep me honest this trip. We have to reapply sunscreen because I'm terrible about it. I don't like the feeling of it on my hands. I hate applying it. I hate waiting for a few minutes for it to dry. I'm really impatient that way. But I need it. I'm very fair skinned. So Jeanette was really good about reminding me the entire time. And I'm proud to say I walked away and did not have any sunburn. No burns.

[00:22:35] No burns, baby. All right. This brings us to the late morning portion of our day. And this was, we had a compliment palooza, I'm going to call it, which was Jeanette was wearing a special outfit and we decided we were going to start counting how many compliments you got. Can you describe your outfit, please? Sure. I mean, it was just a little black athletic skirt.

[00:23:02] But what was special about it is it was a Disney Store original 1990s button down, like sleeveless button down with like a Mickey Mouse and Friends tiki print on it. So it has like Donald Duck fishing and, you know, everybody's in tropical prints. And it's just, it's the type of thing that like back in the day that Disney Store would send

[00:23:32] catalogs and most of it would be adult skier. And it was like, you know, one of those shirts that you would get, you'd see in the catalog and be like, look at that model. She looks so happy. And I was that model. I look so happy. And so we did mostly cast people being like, oh, that shirt is so cool. And we'd be like, thanks. It's vintage. And I will, and I will give a heads up because a hand to Maren because she gave it to me. She just gave it to me like out of the blue one day. She's just like, here's a shirt.

[00:24:02] I hope you like it. I love that. I love it. It was super cute. And you did get several compliments. And so I was very happy for you. Well, and I was listening to one of your episodes recently where you were talking, somebody else was talking about like counting the compliments. I think it was maybe with the Roosevelt shirts. Yes. How many compliments the Roosevelt shirts got. But I don't know. Wear a vintage Disney store shirt and then see how many compliments you get.

[00:24:30] I think it was Ron on his best friend's trip. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So like Jeanette said, we arrived at Epcot at 11. And by 11.05, we were in the single rider line for Remy. It only took five minutes. Super cute. This is my first time on it since they took away the 3D. I did not think anything was missing from that. I thought it was just fine without it. So enjoyed it. Then we did a little bit of shopping at the Front of World Showcase. We didn't buy anything, but we were just kind of like looking and getting the lay of the

[00:25:00] land with the festival merch and that sort of thing. And then of course, when you're in that area, you have to get the frozen violet lemonade, which I get every time. It's so Instagrammable and it's just so tasty and it's not too big because it's a festival offering. So it's a nice size little cup. It's perfect. And that was a wonderful start to our park day. And then we continued on with the fun and headed over to our individual lightning lane for guardians, of course.

[00:25:27] And Jeanette was hoping to get Conga. Well, Conga is my favorite. It's my favorite song. And I think we like were talking about the list of our favorite songs and we realized that they're very, they're almost diametrically opposed. Yes. Like Conga is like my favorite. It's like one of your least favorite. Yes. And I think Iran, you've really, Iran has really grown on you. It has. It has. And that's probably my least favorite.

[00:25:56] And then we realized that the only one that like intersects is, and you can correct me if I'm wrong about this, but one way or another is both of our second favorite. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. So, but we, but. Oh, so that's what you were hoping for. That's right. Okay. Yeah. So, cause yeah, it was like, well, if we both like that one, then I hope we get that one. But my, you know, my witchy powers took over and we got Conga. Sorry. I was happy for you. I'm always happy for my friends.

[00:26:25] And by this point, I know it seems like we just talked about breakfast, but it was time for lunch. So we headed over to lunch. You want to talk about that? Yeah. So I had really wanted to get this white pie from Connections and I had heard about like the pizza at Connections, but this was a special one for Flower and Gardens. It was the Pizza Bianca.

[00:26:45] So the pink pizza Bianca had roasted wild mushrooms, garlic cream, mozzarella, cheese, truffle oil, and thyme. And I'm going to stop you right there because this entire time I have thought it was Pizza Blanca because it was a white pie. And you can see in my notes there that I typed it Blanca. But then when I pasted the actual description for us to remember what was on it, it's, it

[00:27:14] is Bianca. Yeah. It's more than just a white pie. It's a Bianca pie. It was so delicious. I really loved it. I honestly wish it was always there. And I, again, I've heard that the pizza that they always have there, I think it's just a margarita pizza that's also good. This was so good. The only thing was it was two giant slices, like two like New York City style slices. It was too much food. It was way too much food. And the regular pizza there is the same.

[00:27:41] Like you go and you order pizza and you're just like, what on earth this is the two largest slices of pizza I've ever seen in my life. You need a pizza pal. You need somebody to share it with you. You do. And I was not the pizza pal for you. I mean, I. Pizza was not what you were in the mood for. No. I was really set on getting that shrimp and grits from the brunch cot booth. So I did that. And then I met her inside and we found a table and sat and ate that.

[00:28:08] And the only thing we did not get was you wanted to try that shimmering drink, the garden glimmer. And for whatever reason they were, they were out. It was like, it was like they had erased it from existence. Oh yeah. It was replaced with a different cocktail that did not sound all that exciting. And it was very sad. Yeah. You know, just wasn't in the cards for me to get drunk with my pizza. But the shrimp and grits was also very good.

[00:28:34] And I think that they have had that at least for two years now at Flower and Garden. So hopefully they'll bring it back because if you know me, you know, I love shrimp and grits. I love shrimp and grits too. I just don't feel like it needs sausage. No. That makes it work for you. Yeah. And then I can't eat it. It's very selfish. After we were good and full on pizza and shrimp and grits, we had a little photo shoot in front of the like main Mickey and Friends topiary.

[00:29:02] The one that's like right in front of, like positioned in front of Spaceship Earth. It's got the big flower and garden sign in it. Very cute. That's so funny. I don't even remember that at this point. No? No. No. A month and a half later, I don't remember that. I mean, we, you know, we always get pictures. I know we always get pictures. I'm just having a hard time remembering this moment. Yeah. I don't know. I believe it. It happened. We have photographic proof. I'm sure we have photographic proof. Yeah. It's fine. All right. So at this point, we decided we were ready to begin our journey around the world.

[00:29:32] And our first stop was we wanted to go over to Trowel and Trellis and get the botanical slush. Now, this was especially because we did not get to have the garden glimmer. Yeah. We wanted this slush, which sounds delightful. This is cocktail attempt number two. Yes. So this is, is it twinings? Twinings? Twinings tea? I think it's twinings. I think it's twinings. Twinings mango and pineapple herbal tea. Minute Maid passion fruit, orange guava, aka pug juice. Pug.

[00:30:01] Simply fruit punch and simple syrup with Kuzan mango rum. That sounded delicious. But. Rum cocktail with herbal tea. Yum. With a slush to it. In a slush. But the slush machine was not slushing. And we're like, we don't want your sad, soggy, non-slushy cocktail. No, I think they said we could have waited, but it was like, it'll be like 30 minutes or something. We were like, we didn't get to end of that. No. We got things to get to.

[00:30:30] On to the next. We moved on to China where we were severely disappointed. Yeah. China was a bit of a bust. It really was. I would say the only thing good that came out of China for us was we did the Duck Tales adventure in China. And that was fun. Always. Not my absolute favorite of all the countries, but I enjoyed it. And it was one I had not done before. So I was glad to do it. Yeah. But we got the Tangulu, which was that skewer of strawberries and grapes coated in sugar.

[00:30:59] And then I, I don't think you got a cocktail here, but I got. No, we both did. You did. What did you get? I got the same one. You did? We each got, yeah, we each got the Baijui spirit one. It was the Dragon Dynasty. Yeah. Which like I, I shouldn't have gotten because I know I don't like that stuff. I don't, I don't like the, I don't like, what's the word I'm looking for? I don't know. I don't like like the traditional Chinese spirit.

[00:31:26] I don't like the traditional Sochu. I don't like the traditional Japanese spirit. I don't like them. I didn't even know what that was. I just knew that the other stuff in the description sounded good to me. Light rum, dragon fruit syrup, pina colada mix, soda water. That all does sound good. That sounded fantastic to me. And I have to say the Dragon Dynasty tasted like medicine. It tasted like medicine. Yeah.

[00:31:51] And the Tangulu, I will say I have had this style of treat in Japan a number of times. I had it a couple of times on this trip that I took in Japan just a couple weeks ago. And it can be so delicious. This was not it. This was like... So what's the difference in what you've had that you've liked in this? So the best one that I had was in this like really small hot springs town called Jufuin. And it was super freshly made.

[00:32:21] But like it was made in such a way that the strawberries don't get warm. Because I feel like our fruit was warm. That's true. Which is gross. Yeah. The strawberries don't get warm. The coating on them is like not quite hardened. It's still like just a little soft. Soft. Okay. It's almost like this magical thing of how is the strawberry cold but the sugar syrup warm and soft. And then together it's just like...

[00:32:50] Like if you ever have made a bowl of strawberries and like sprinkled sugar over it. Like that sort of flavor combination. But just the perfect arrangement of those things. Okay. That sounds delightful. This was not. This was not good. No. So between... It tasted like old fruit. Yeah. So between that and the cocktail that was not doing it. And there were a bunch of bugs that... Yeah. Because we were trying to find a place that we could like kind of get out of the sun.

[00:33:17] And I think we might have even been like using umbrellas to get out of this to cover ourselves a bit. But then the one spot that we found where we could kind of... And it was by... Is it Nine Dragons? Mm-hmm. Where we could kind of like be at a table and sort of in the shade. There was just these bugs like crazy around our legs. Quick service. Quick service. Whatever that quick service is called in China. Because Nine Dragons I think is at the table. It's a sit down. Yeah. But yeah. It was... Yeah. Disappointing. So we moved on pretty quickly. Yeah.

[00:33:46] And said let's do DuckTales while we're here. So we did it. And this is the adventure of the jade monkey. Where like you follow the clues. Now I was bummed because I've done this one before. And there was a really cute effect where this like cricket is painting a painting. And one of the clues is like on the cricket's painting. So the cricket you can see him from the back normally. Or you can see him from the front normally. Anyway he spins around so that you can see what he's painting. And we didn't get that adventure.

[00:34:16] Yes. Because there's different versions. Yeah. There's basically like if you think about every country has I think either like four or five adventures. But you're only going to be led through three. So you can do it again and have a slightly different experience. Which is great. Which is nice. But then also like for this one Virginia had never done the China adventure. And I had done the China adventure. And I was like this is going to be amazing when the cricket shows up. But the cricket never showed up.

[00:34:46] Well I hope people aren't disappointed when I'm constantly standing. them to the UK to do the one over there. Because that was my favorite one. And you know I always forget that there's like different versions. But I hope. I think you always have to do the golf ball piece. Okay. I think you always do. Because one time we couldn't do it because the thing wasn't releasing golf balls. Like there was a glitch. It's a glitch in the Matrix. All right. From here we went over to Norway.

[00:35:13] Really primarily because I can't walk past the Caramel Cusha. Without going in and buying something. And normally I like to get popcorn. But I just wasn't feeling popcorn that day. And I also like to try new things. So I said I'm going to come in here and I'm going to choose something that I've never had before. And so I got a strawberry butter bar. Are you or are you not trying to try all the things? I think loosely I'm trying to try all the things. But I also know that they change the things sometimes. Yeah. So it might be impossible.

[00:35:42] So yeah. So I got the strawberry butter bar. It was good. I can't say I'll get it again. There's a better thing there. Yeah. Anyway. We went to Italy. We did some shopping. Again, we did not buy anything. Very cute handbags. They always have really cute handbags. And I always want to love something in there. And it was a good thing that I didn't because I didn't have a whole lot of space in my luggage. What did we do next? We were feeling hot.

[00:36:08] And we decided to go camp out in America. Now, did you also get a treat in America? No, I did not. I don't know why. I was thinking you got a treat. But we treated ourselves to some air conditioning. In the format of Voices from the Heavens. Right. Because my treat was... We took ourselves to some air conditioning. And Voices of Liberty. We're going to be performing. Mm-hmm. There was a bench. So we got to sit on a bench like ladies.

[00:36:39] Mm-hmm. And I think we just chatted for a while in the AC. Enjoyed that. And then eventually people came out and serenaded us. Mm-hmm. Yes. From there, we just kept trucking. And we didn't stop until the UK because there was a cocktail that we wanted there. And if you're keeping score, thus far, we have not had a cocktail we liked. No. We threw out most of the China one. Yes.

[00:37:07] I've gotten much better over the years of if I don't enjoy something, being okay with letting it go. I think that's good. Like not feeling like I need to keep drinking something or eating something if I'm not enjoying it. Yeah. But this trek to the UK was well worth it because the English Garden was delightful and perhaps my favorite drink we had on the entire trip. Yeah. It was really good. And I kept seeing a lot of people outside in that area with like Pimm's Cups.

[00:37:35] So I think that you can just get Pimm's Cups from Rosencrantz, but you can get them to go all the time, like even right now during Diet Epcot. Mm-hmm. And that's good to know because I love a Pimm's Cup. Very refreshing. Yes. This English Garden had Forge Gin, St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, Minute Maid Premium Lemonade, Minute Maid Apple Juice, and Lemon Juice topped with a cucumber. And it was so refreshing.

[00:38:01] He's going to say, it sounds like it would be really sweet, but it was really refreshing. Yeah. It was so refreshing. And we found a nice table with an umbrella. Right by the water. Or behind, just in front of the water. And the only downside to this table were the ducks and birds. Yeah. They're very aggressive. They want your chips. And we're like, we have no chips. All we have is cocktails. We have no chips for you birds. So I had to put my feet up. And then I had to, of course, explain to the table next to us that I was afraid of birds

[00:38:30] so that they didn't think I was weird for reacting the way I did every time one came close to me. Might still have thought that. I mean, you know what? At my age, I really just don't care anymore. It's going to do you. So. It was fine. From there, we decided to go over to the land and do everything the land had to offer, which includes, obviously, Soarin' and Living with the Land, which we got front row on. But we also went up and did Awesome Planet, which you had never done before. Had never done before.

[00:38:57] And so you're like, hey, I'm going to take a nap. And I was like, cool. I'm going to watch it because I never experienced it before. And it made me sad. Yeah. But it did not make me sad because I had my, I literally, quite literally, the minute we got in those chairs. Did you put an eye mask on? No. I think what I did, that would have been hilarious. No, I think I was wearing my little thin jacket that I wear when I go inside for the AC and it has a hood on it.

[00:39:24] And I think I put my hood over down my forehead so that it was kind of covering my eyes a little bit. An idea of you having an eye mask. And then I scrunched down in my seat so that my neck was actually on the seat back. And it was delightful. And I don't know how long that show is. I mean, I could look it up right now, but I'm not going to. I'm going to guess maybe 10 minutes. 10 minutes. Yeah. Something like that. But like a little nap like that refreshes the heck out of me.

[00:39:49] And especially if I'm tired and the heat and everything, I can just like, I mean, I sunk down into my seat and I was out. And it wasn't until it ended when I was just like, oh, OK, all right. And I'm back and ready to carry on. But yeah, I would recommend seeing it if you have not. It's, I mean, you should do everything in Disney if you've never done it before. Just take a moment. It's beautiful cinematography. It just, you know, it had a message about, you know, there's still time to save the planet.

[00:40:17] And it was made a long time ago. Yes. We're running out of time. Anyway, on to more fun topics. Yeah. Which is another festival booth because by this time we were ready for dinner. Mm-hmm. And this was the one thing that I had already tried at Flower and Garden that I was like, must do repeat. OK. Tasty. And that was the Florida strawberry shortcake. Exactly.

[00:40:46] Yes. And I really wanted that blackened fish slider because it comes with a fried green tomato on it. And I'm a girl originally from North Carolina. I love a fried green tomato. So that was... And I decided to get one too. Yeah. That was dinner. We each had our own slider. We had a little slider. We each had our own shortcake. A little shortcake. Yeah. Yeah. And then I did get the slushie they had there, the cucumber watermelon slushie. And it was very not flavorful. So I cannot recommend that, but it was cold and whatever. It was fine.

[00:41:15] But it was not very flavorful. I did not really enjoy it. And then Jeanette, where did you take me next? Well, I had gotten us a reservation to Geo82. This would have been my third time there? Second time? I'm not sure. I'm not a big fan of Geo82. I like the vibe. I like the decor. I don't think that the drinks that they have on their menu are very good.

[00:41:42] And so I had actually been thinking, oh, Virginia wants to experience Geo82. I'm just going to order something that's not on the menu. Maybe a glass of wine. Maybe like a French 75 because I always love a French 75. And then the week before, they announced new cocktails on the specialty cocktail. And one of the cocktails was a clarified bee's knees, which I've had clarified cocktails.

[00:42:10] I actually had a clarified cocktail in Disneyland that was a gin clarified cocktail. And it was delightful. And I love bee's knees. Like, you know, French 75, bee's knees. They're in the same kind of family. I didn't like this. Yeah. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm, and I, it's kind of one of those things where it was like my instinct was to not order something off their menu. And then I got swayed and I should have just gone with my gut.

[00:42:38] But, you know, like you assume that they're going to get better. Right. I don't even think that, I don't think their bartenders are bad. I just think that the drinks that they choose to put on the menu are not great. Well, you would think that the things on the specialty cocktail list would be like their best of the best. Well, and they're quite pricey.

[00:43:01] Like even as a New York City person who loves going to fancy cocktail bars, like I will pay $28 for a cocktail if it's worth it. But this was not worth it. It was not worth it. No. I mean, I finished it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was the thing about it. It was just fine. It was, it was honestly like kind of bland. It was kind of like, yeah, I finished it because it was basically like water. Yeah. And it had a giant ice cube in it. Yeah. So it wasn't really even that much there there.

[00:43:29] I can't see myself going back to GO82 anytime soon. No. I mean, I know my friends really like it. They like some of the bites that are there. And, you know, I'm not going to be a party pooper and be like, you guys go. I'm not going. But I have, I've heard good things about just even like sitting at the bar and asking the bartender like, hey, I like gin cocktails. Can you make me something fun? Mm hmm. Like, I would go back if I was with friends who wanted to go. But I think you're right.

[00:43:57] I would probably order a glass of wine or I might just say, can I have a gin and tonic or just something simple like that. I don't think I would order from their specialty menu again. This was sort of the end of our night. We went back to the resort. We, you know, had that small dinner of our little slider and our shortcake. And so we did stop at the food court because I had a hankering to get some of the tomato basil soup that I've had at the All Stars before. It is so good. It's got a kick to it. It is just delightful.

[00:44:26] A little cup of soup. And so I wanted to get that. And then Jeanette wanted a salad. And so we just kind of. Yeah, I just wanted a little greens. Yeah, so we just sat and had a little late night food there. And this is when I think we realized that there were cheerleaders at the resort. So many cheerleaders at the resort. We were like, what is happening? I had no idea it was cheerleader time. Like really young cheerleaders too. Like teeny tiny. Yeah, I mean, there were all different ages.

[00:44:52] Like there were some that looked like they were probably in like fourth, fifth grade. There were high schoolers. I feel like there were some that looked like they were in like second grade. Maybe so. Climbing all over each other. They're weird high ponytails. Yes, very high ponytails. Very much teased high ponytails. I didn't even know that was a thing. Yeah, I. You knew. I had to educate Jeanette because I have friends who have cheerleader children. So I was like, yeah, it's a thing.

[00:45:22] Why would you do that to your hair? So we became aware and it was fine. There was some like roughhousing going on in the food court. Where like the parents were sitting pretty far away and I don't think they noticed. Where are their parents? There were like girls, like one girl was laying down on one of the booth benches and another girl was like standing on her spine and then like hopping. Like bouncing on her like she was a trampoline. I know.

[00:45:49] And I was just like, I, the mom and me wanted to walk over and be like, I don't think this is safe. And then also I was like, do you have a competition tomorrow? Are you going to throw this girl's back out before you guys have a competition? Think of the team. I resisted the urge to say anything. So I was glad I did that. But we went back to the room at that point, took our showers and got in bed so that we could have a good and productive day the following day at the Magic Kingdom, which is where we started.

[00:46:19] So I'll take the morning. Yeah. So we got to Magic Kingdom around 815. We saw a Disney commercial being shot right at the front of the park. So I took some photos because I was like, when this commercial comes out, I want to remember that I was there for this. So that is in my, I think it's in my story highlights. From there, we made a mistake. It's okay. I mean, did we make a mistake? We had no idea. We had, we had a certain amount of information. We thought we were making a smart decision.

[00:46:47] And it turned out to be, you know, a waste of time. So we had decided that we wanted to rope drop Big Thunder Mountain because... Well, and I should say that we had gotten lightning lanes, but the lightning lanes were all sold out for Big Thunder. I think based on like when our trip was, when our first day was, when this day was, they were just sold out. And my other, some other friends, they were there like two days later.

[00:47:16] They had no problem getting a lightning lane for Big Thunder. I don't know. Something about it. Maybe it was the cheerleaders. I don't know. Maybe. But I could not get a lightning lane. So I said, all right, it sounds, it sounds like if you don't get a lightning lane, the next best thing to do is to rope drop it, even though you can't actually rope drop it. Yeah. Because it's not open. So we went straight back to the bridge right there into Liberty Square. We waited on the bridge. For an hour.

[00:47:45] And we were just waiting for that second rope drop to happen, which was fine. We were having a grand old time. Got to introduce ourselves to the family that was right behind us. Shout out to Anna and her family who are from Philadelphia. We got to give away our annual pass holder magnet because I didn't want my aunt. Yeah, her son was a big Toy Story fan. And the annual pass holder magnet had Woody and Buzz. And it was like brown. And I've got a million annual pass holder magnets.

[00:48:15] And I was like, I don't, I don't need this. I'm just going to watch for somebody to give it to you. And then the opportunity presented itself. So I gave him the magnet. I gave Anna a podcast sticker. And it was very exciting. I promised her I'd give her a shout out. Some kids lost shoes over the edge of the bridge somehow. It's like one kid dropped a shoe and then all the kids started dropping their shoes. It was, it was bizarre. Like what were the parents doing? I have no idea. But you know, they're doing construction down there in the moat.

[00:48:43] And so then they had to, like the cast members had to like shout out to the construction guys to come over and retrieve the croc. So, and then at one point, like one of the parents was like, yeah, like what, what happened? It was like a parent of a kid that lost her shoe. And I was just like, yeah, they were climbing on the bridge and that's when they lost the shoe. Yeah. And I could feel myself judging. There are children hopping on other children's chests. There are children climbing on bridges and there are no parents paying any attention.

[00:49:13] I love kids. I think they're the greatest. I think like going to Disney and seeing the magic of the parks through the children's eyes is so magical. But keep an eye on your kids, please. Please. Yeah. Just say something. Pay attention to them as if you love them. I don't know. And say something if they're doing something they shouldn't be, right? Anyway, so all of that said, second rope drop happened. We huffed our way over to Big Thunder. We were stopped. We were stopped. Yes.

[00:49:41] Because it was down. And so we went ahead and said, okay, we're going to form this line knowing that it has not opened yet. And that's okay. And there was no indication of like when it would open, which could mean, you know, any time or it could mean no time. And we were willing to chance it because, you know, we go to the parks frequently and it was just kind of like, that's fine. We'll just wait. And I just really wanted to ride that Big Thunder Mountain. Yeah.

[00:50:07] And I would just like to say with my kidney stone issue, if they had not renovated Big Thunder, I might not have had a kidney stone issue. It might have just knocked it out. Don't you think? That's true. Ew. This could have prevented my agony weeks later. I mean, we'll get to it. But now I'm even, now I was already mad. Now I'm even more mad. But all that to say, we waited, I don't know how long we waited. We waited an hour. So we waited an hour after a rope drop.

[00:50:37] Yeah. At the bridge. And then we waited an hour in the line. And we kept hearing like phantom noises. It's moving. We think it's moving. They're testing it. They're testing it. Yeah, no. Nothing was happening. And we finally made the call that we're like, we want waffles. If nothing has changed at 10, we're putting in a waffle order and we're leaving the slide. And that's exactly what we did. Yes. We went and got our waffles. Yes.

[00:51:05] At this point, there was no water to be had besides the Florida water. So we got that and it was awful. We took one. We think we each took one sip and we're like, nope, nope, no. No, it's terrible. But the waffle is good. The coffee at, what's it called? Sleepy Hollow is not great in my opinion. So I never order my coffee from there. No. Well, and especially because you're thinking like there is yummy coffee in Magic Kingdom. There's not a ton of it, but there is yummy coffee in Magic Kingdom.

[00:51:33] So I'm saving my coffee moment for a better moment. Yeah. Spoiler alert. It took us a long time to get coffee, but that's fine. Yeah. We didn't get it. We just had, we had nothing but coffee fails this day. Right. Yeah. So instead we ended up, we were kind of heading over to Tomorrowland for whatever reason. And we ended up getting soda instead. I mean, it was a whole thing. You wanted to go to Starbucks and I was like, all right, we'll give it a try. We went to Main Street Starbucks. It was insane.

[00:52:03] It was packed. Yep. My go-to would always be the Tomorrowland Joffrey's. And I will wait in a long line at the Tomorrowland Joffrey's. But that line was longer. It was really long. It was longer than the long line that I'm willing to wait in. And if I'm going to wait in a line for coffee without shade, then, you know, I have to, I wasn't quite desperate yet. Oh, I forgot to mention we did, we did do our lightning lane for Haunted Mansion after the waffles before we headed off looking for coffee that never materialized.

[00:52:32] This was also the point where I remembered that I really wanted to get something embroidered. And so we went to Main Street both for coffee, but also for me to look for something to purchase that I could then take up to the embroidery people at the front of the park and give it to them to embroider. So I ended up picking like a tank top. I can't even remember what it has on it. I think it's like a peace, like a peace sign, the heart and something else. And I was like, I'm just going to-

[00:52:56] It was like the perfect design to also have a word put on it because it didn't have too many words in so many Disney merch items. Little icons. And so I had it embroidered with my name. It takes a couple hours, so you just drop it off. It's not expensive. I want to say it's like $8 or something. And you make your purchase of what you want to have embroidered. You have to leave the tags on. It has to be brand new. Yeah. But you just drop it off and they text you when it's ready.

[00:53:24] Like the Mickey Mouse ears that you get embroidered because I got those embroidered. They have kind of a wider assortment of styles of embroidery that you can get done. If you're getting it on like a shirt or a spirit jersey or something like that, it's a more narrow amount of options in terms of like just the embroidery style. I mean, it's not a bad thing. It's just, you know, something to know if you have like your heart set on like, oh, I want it to look like the embroidery and the Mickey ears. It is a little bit different. Yeah. It's really cute.

[00:53:52] And I'm happy with how it turned out. And I've seen a lot of people lately, the past like week or so on TikTok, getting the little Disney kind of boat and tote style bags that have like the character on it and getting their name embroidered just like you would like an LL Bean bag. And those are sort of cute, but they will pretty much embroider anything that's fabric. So don't feel limited to a tote bag or whatever. All right. After that, we did some Lightning Lanes. We did Small World. We did Space Mountain. We did Buzz Lightyear.

[00:54:23] And this was your first time doing the new Buzz Lightyear, yeah? Yes and no. Yes in Magic Kingdom. No, because I had done it at Disneyland. And it's the same. Yeah. Yeah. I was better than I was at Disneyland. I was still not good enough. Not good enough. I'm just not good enough. I was not good at all. And the first time I played it, I was better. But I think I was better because I was riding with Mariah and she was doing all the, she was moving the vehicle.

[00:54:53] And I, like, I didn't have to worry about moving the vehicle at all. And so I was just focusing on shooting. It was not fair. Like, you know, I should have, should have done my part. I'll tell you what I really love about the new Buzz Lightyear is I love that when you get the photo, your score of you and the person you're riding with are on your photo. Because you're always kind of scrambling for your phone to take a photo for posterity's sake or whatever. Especially because I, I always say this, but our family tends to ride single rider on Buzz Lightyear

[00:55:23] because we, I don't want Alex turning the car and messing me up or whatever. But I'm always scrambling to take that photo to prove what I had scored. And now I won't have to worry about that. Well, and see, I'm such an old lady screaming at cloud. I just, I just don't enjoy the video game rides. It's like, they're just not, it's, it's just not fun to me. Yeah. So I've ridden it twice now. I don't know that I'll ever ride it again.

[00:55:48] I am so not a video game person at all, but I am competitive with myself. So like, I really want to continue to get better. I can't be. I turn into a very, like the ugliest version you could imagine of Jeanette. Like, don't ask my family about me playing board games. It's not, it's not a good look. Oh my goodness. All right. From there, we decided to get a last minute Skipper Canteen reservation. And so we did have to wait for our time to arrive though.

[00:56:18] And we were a little bit peckish. So we went to Casey's and we shared some cheese fries and listened to Grayson playing the piano. And that was delightful. I've never sat and done that. So that was a, that was kind of a first time for me. And I've walked by as he's playing. Yeah. Yeah. It was nice. Then we had our Skipper Canteen reservation. And this was another moment. This was like one of those moments where I was like, gosh, it's so fun to be here with Virginia

[00:56:47] because like we both kind of got that idea of like, do we want Skipper Canteen for lunch? Like, is that what we're into? And we're like, yeah, yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. And not everybody likes Skipper Canteen. No. No. Or like taking the time to do a sit down that you weren't planning to do in the middle of the day. Yeah. But that, that is an easy one, a fairly easy one to get as a last minute reservation. Like Liberty Tree Tavern, not so easy to get a last minute reservation.

[00:57:16] Although I have done it before. And I had a, I think I had a cocktail. Did you have a cocktail? I think I did. Yeah. I think we both had a cocktail. So no coffee, but we got some cocktails. And we split some Brazilian cheese bread. Yum. And then I had the curry, which is normally what I get. Oh, and I had soup. Did you? They had like a, yeah, like they had like a special soup. Hmm.

[00:57:41] And it was like a corn potato soup. Mm-hmm. It was really good. Yeah. That curry is always really good. I really enjoy it. But I mean, you, I think you kind of have to have a little bit more adventurous palate to go to Skipper Canteen. For sure. They've just got, you know, choices that I think if you are somebody who just wants like chicken fingers and fries. Right. And like even the soup, it had a little spice to it. Yeah. Yeah. And I like some spice. Me too. So. All right.

[00:58:11] From there, we decided to go to do Tiana because. This was a lightning lane. It was a lightning lane. Yeah. And at that point, Big Thunder was back up. Finally working. It was finally working. But I think we were, I think we were able to get a lightning lane or something. No. No, we did stand by. We did stand by later in the night. But we were like, we're going to be able to ride it for less time if we wait. Like this is kind of important to note because.

[00:58:38] So we had waited those two hours in the morning. Mm-hmm. I don't think it was up until 1 or 2 p.m. Yeah. It was. Yeah. It was up in the afternoon. It took forever. And by the time we rode our lightning lane at Tiana, it was still 50 minutes long. And so we were like, nope, we'll come back to it. We'll do it later. You forgot your water bottle at Skipper Canteen. Luckily. I did. They had it. We ran back by and got it. And I got my shirt on the way out.

[00:59:06] And then this is when, lo and behold, we decided to take a midday break. And we went back to All-Star Sports. We went to the pool. We hung out with the cheerleaders in the pool. You got a milkshake, it says here in the notes. And I do not recall this at all. Yeah. I like got up to go to the bathroom. And I did actually need to go to the bathroom. But then on the way back from the bathroom, I was like, and also I need a milkshake. And I think it was just like a chocolate milkshake.

[00:59:34] But it was really yummy. After this, we changed for dinner. And we ended up going over to Steakhouse 71 to try to get seats at the lounge. And we were successful in doing that. And I, we split the Caesar salad. We did. And I think it might be my favorite Caesar salad on property. It was very good. It was really, really good. Very good. And very easy to split. Yeah. And then you had. I had their mac and cheese.

[01:00:01] And normally the mac and cheese has pork of some kind, chicken or something in it. It was really good. But I think because it normally has like a pork in it, it needed a little salt. So I just needed to add a little salt to it. But it was really good otherwise. I don't remember what I got to go. Did you get crab cake? I did. You're right. You're right. You're right. Because I do love a crab cake. And that was like the perfect little combination. A crab cake appetizer plus half a Caesar salad. That was delightful.

[01:00:31] Mac and cheese, half a Caesar salad. And then we had good drinks. Yes. I think they have great cocktails at Steakhouse 71. Yeah. So happy to have added to our good cocktail list after some bad cocktails. And then we went back to Magic Kingdom and rode Jungle Cruise. It was basically empty. Yeah. We had a lightning lane for it, but we didn't really need it. No, we did not. I think it might have been during the Starlight Parade.

[01:01:00] I think it was. Yeah. What? Okay. When we walked in to go do our lightning lane. Yeah. The skippers that were standing there welcoming people said something. And I said something back and made a pun to them and made them laugh. What was it? It was so good. I was basically auditioning for the role of a skipper right there on the spot. I remember the moment. I remember the zing. Yes. But I don't remember what you said. I don't remember what they said. I don't remember what you said back. Yeah.

[01:01:30] Dang it. I should have written it down. It was so good. Yeah. Well, if I end up leaving this in, if I end up not editing this out, listeners, you'll just have to believe that I had the best pun ever. She was hilarious. It was so good. I made skippers laugh. And then we rode the ride. And because there were so few people on the ride, I felt like I had to work extra hard to be a good audience member. Because you know how I feel about being a good audience member. So I was like really into the jokes. And yeah. Former theater kid, always the best audience member. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:02:00] Like she was good. But you would have thought she was like the best skipper I'd ever had. But also, I think it was like us and four other people. Yeah. It was kind of a weird vibe. Yeah. Yeah. It was. What did we do after that? This is when we did Big Thunder, a standby. And it was during Happily Ever After Fireworks. So it was only a 20 minute wait. Right. It was perfect. Yeah. We got to go through the whole queue and see all the new queue elements. Like everything was working.

[01:02:28] For some reason, row 15 was not in operation. So I had asked. Yeah. I had asked if we could be in row 15. Because that's, you know, the wildest row of the wildest ride in the wilderness. But yeah, we couldn't. So we had to be in 14, which doesn't quite have the same cachet. I mean, it was odd. It was like, it wasn't like one set of cars didn't have 15 going. It was like, oh, we're just not loading 15.

[01:02:53] Like, was it a weight issue that like they could do it with 14 rows filled, but the weight isn't working with 15 rows. Whatever. I do believe, I have seen online proof that people are riding in row 15 now. So it's not a permanent thing. Maybe it was just that day. But anyway, it was fun. It's much smoother now. It would not have done anything. Too smooth. It's too smooth. Yes. It's too smooth.

[01:03:20] You can no longer call it the wildest ride in the wilderness. No. It is now the mildest. The mildest ride in the wilderness. And I have to say, I am really, I'm quite sad about this because I feel now like the ride, the feel of the ride is much closer to the Seven Dwarfs mine ride. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's like that level.

[01:03:47] And they lowered the height requirement for kids. And I get it. Like they want more things that kids can go on. You know, I can deal with that. But now it's sort of, to me, it sort of feels like now there's two rides that are very similar to each other in the same park. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. I was happy to just be back on it though. Yeah. When it was closed. But it is not as good as it was. I mean, I love it. And this is why I'm sad because now I'm like, is it no longer, it might no longer be my favorite ride.

[01:04:17] In Magic Kingdom. Yeah. Yep. So maybe the new Cars ride will be awesome. That can, that can be my new favorite ride. I don't know. I hope so. Otherwise it's just People Mover. Yeah. People Mover is currently my favorite ride. Right. After this, we grabbed Zolwip and headed back to the resort to get our showers and our sleep. Yeah. And then that brings us to our final day, Friday, May the 8th. And Jeanette, how did you wake up this morning?

[01:04:45] I got woken up by a cheerleading coach yelling through a megaphone in the middle of the hotel square. Like, you know, if you're in the middle of four buildings and you're yelling with a megaphone, it's going to echo across all those buildings. He was yelling to wake these cheerleaders up. He was like, you have 15 minutes. You have 15 minutes. I was like, I do not have 15 minutes. I have as much time as I need. You're not the boss of me.

[01:05:13] I did not hear it at all. I don't know. Ow. I was soundly asleep. And I was even closer to the door and I still did not hear it. I don't know. Anyway, we got up at 830, got ourselves checked out and everything. And we were on the bus to Epcot by 10 o'clock. And we had a lightning lane for Guardians of the Galaxy first off. Yes. And we got One Way or Another. We did. So that was nice.

[01:05:44] And then. Second favorite song, Power Combines. Exactly. At this point, you know, we had no coffee the day before. And so we got off of Guardians and immediately went to the Joffrey stand and said, we need to remedy this. And I think we both got like a hazelnut situation. I got like a cold brew. You got a latte. Yeah. It was delightful. Delightful. I did a little bit of shopping in the UK. Didn't buy anything. That's the theme of the strip. Yeah. Did some shopping. Didn't buy anything.

[01:06:12] I was very tempted to get some British candy. Yeah. I do like to get some British candy from time to time, but I didn't. We were just kind of wandering because we knew we had a lunch reservation coming up at Cake Bake. So we just kind of were meandering our way over there. Bopping and chatting, chatting and bopping. Yeah. It was very nice. We wound up at Cake Bake, which is the glitter capital of the world. So this trip was at the beginning of May.

[01:06:40] And my birthday generally falls the weekend of Memorial Day. So I tend to treat the entire month as my birth month because then that gives people plenty of chances to celebrate me because they might be busy Memorial Day weekend, you know? So I don't want to like put the pressure on that one weekend. So I had made this reservation. I thought, oh, well, this would be a fun place to like be like this is my birthday reservation.

[01:07:07] And it's technically the day that's closest to my birthday that I'm on this trip with Virginia. So when I made the reservation, I said, there's a birthday. So when we checked in, they're like, oh, there's a birthday. And Virginia's like, there is. And I'm like, yeah, mine. Hello. It's the whole month. And I was like, it's still the beginning of the month. I'm like, yeah, I get the whole month. I mean, I just used my Joffrey's birthday discount today. So technically, it's still on my birthday. Wow. It's just, well, you might as well just count the whole year, Jeanette.

[01:07:37] Just stretch it out. Just stretch it all out. I mean, it was kind of a big birthday. I turned 45. So it's a good one. But I am here to spread the message. Do not tell them that it is your birthday at Cake Bake Shop unless you really like to be absolutely covered in glitter. I was already like one of the reasons that I wasn't really excited about going to Cake Bake Shop, why it's taken me this long to go there, because this was both of our first times, was because of the glitter factors.

[01:08:07] Like, I don't want to eat all that glitter. And then you're going to poop out glitter. Like, I just don't want, I just don't need all that glitter up in my business. We got there and he, the waiter came over and he's like, is it somebody's birthday? I'm like, yeah, it's fine. And he just dropped a bunch of glitter on my head. Yeah. Like, sprinkled it all over her hair. And I was, you know, obviously sitting across the table from her.

[01:08:33] And whatever the color of the glitter was, it immediately made Jeanette's hair look gray. It was like he had celebrated her birthday and aged her 20 years. It was like when I played Auntie Em in Oklahoma in high school. Like, coat my hair in gray so I look like an old lady. Oh, and then our drinks, our little drinks that we got, they were not cocktails, but they were just like little non-alcoholic things.

[01:09:02] Also had glitter in them. Yes. We both did the You Pick 2. I got the ham and brie sandwich and the blackberry and avocado salad. And I will say that out of everything we had here, the food was the star. Yeah. Not the cake. The food is good. The food is delicious. I really enjoyed it. I would eat there again for the food. Yeah. I could actually leave the cake. No. Yeah. I had the lemon Caesar salad and the caprese sandwich. So it was like half and half.

[01:09:33] I didn't love the lemon Caesar salad. It was a little too heavy on the lemon. I mean, it's in the name, but still like I just, you know, I'm looking for some balance. The caprese sandwich was really good. And I think we talked about this too. Like the bread was really good. Oh, the bread was really fresh. The bread was good. The drinks that we had, the non-alcoholic drinks that we had, I thought they were fine. I would actually say they were like a little boring. Yeah. But we had already made a plan. Oh, I mean, this is in the pre-trip.

[01:10:03] It's such a cute moment where Virginia asked me to like, okay, we're going to do three, two, one and say which cake we want. And I thought for sure, oh, we're not going to pick the same cake. This is going to be so awkward. And we did. We picked the exact same cake. And I would not have asked you to do that had I not known we were about to pick the same cake. I just knew that we would be on the same level. Yeah. Yep. It was the raspberry and champagne cake. And it's not like it wasn't good, but like. It was just fine. It was just fine.

[01:10:30] I feel like I have a better cake bakery in my neighborhood. And it's not, you know, it's $10 a slice instead of $25 a slice. Yeah. And then we, I think we also got tea, right? We did. Yes. And that was nice. I liked having tea. But what was not nice was. He came over again. The waiter came over again. And he was, he was a very nice man.

[01:10:57] He was a very nice man, but I don't like his shtick. I don't like the birthday shtick. It's terrible, guys. He brought the cake over with a candle in it. With a candle. A little glittery candle. Very cute. I'm supposed to, and I was supposed to make a wish. Close my eyes. Mm-hmm. Blow out the candle. Before he said close your eyes, he put some glitter in your hand so that when you would blow out the candle, you'd be blowing glitter. I was supposed to blow the glitter, which I was like. So she's blowing glitter at me. Yes.

[01:11:27] Blowing out a candle. And over the $25 piece of cake. Yes. But then what she didn't know was when she made this wish and blew all this glitter in my direction, he, for the second time, dumped glitter all over her head. I mean, I gotta think that, like, if you were to go to a craft store and buy, like, a large bottle of glitter, he dumped, like, two bottles of that glitter between the first dump, the second dump, and the bit in my hand. Yeah.

[01:11:58] Yeah. Do not recommend. Go for it. But if you don't love glitter, this is not the place for you. Can't imagine loving that much glitter. I mean, there are people who do. Okay. Yeah. You know. Because I like being pixie-dusted. I don't even like being pixie-dusted. See, I do, because they just use the little, they use the little wand, and it's just a little shake-shake. It's not crazy. It's nice. It's fun. But this was too much.

[01:12:27] This just felt like you just took a whole craft room and just dumped all the craft room's glitter on my head. And no thank you. Anyway. Anyway, so. But the sandwiches were very good. She took that glitter out of her hair, she could, so that she could return to her normal hair color and not gray. Mm-hmm. We went back into World Showcase and stopped at the AP Lounge in Morocco just to do some photo pass that they had there that was, you know, specific to that location. Very cute. Very cute.

[01:12:55] And they also had some free snacks, like some Cheez-Its and that sort of thing. From there we did three caballeros. We went to Drawfrees. And I got the very berry matcha latte. I got it too. Which was, it was delicious. Yeah, I liked that one. Yeah. And then we took the bus back to All-Star Sports because at this point, unfortunately, it was time to make our way back to MCO, to fly back to New York. Sad but true. It was.

[01:13:23] And this is where things went wrong for me. So I have the Delta Amex card, which means I get a free checked bag. So I was like, I'm going to check my bag. That way I don't have to worry about lifting it up, you know, overhead. I'm a shorty. So I was checking my bag. Oftentimes, when I go to check my bag, it will say, oh, well, if you have a carry-on suitcase, you can also check that for free. And so I was like, Virginia, do you just want to check your suitcase too so you don't have to worry about it?

[01:13:53] Because I'm going to stop at the luggage pickup. You can stop with me. And you can just be my, you could be my carry-on bag. And you're like, yeah, sure. Yeah. I was like, why not? I'm going to wait for you at the baggage claim anyway. So I checked my bag and we made our way onto, well, we didn't make our way onto the plane. First, we stopped and had some dinner at the food court. And then our flight was on time. Everything was going well. The flight was scheduled for just before 8 p.m.

[01:14:21] Arriving back at LaGuardia at about 10.45. And all of that went well. After I got home from the trip, it was late, obviously, since we arrived back just before 11. We had to make our way from the airport to our respective homes. I just got back, cleaned up, and went straight to bed. I didn't even look inside my bag. And the next day, I opened up my bag and saw that there was a TSA, your luggage has been checked or whatever things. Searched. Searched.

[01:14:51] Yes, it was searched. And in my recollection, when Jeanette had said, do you want to just check yours? I had put my sunglasses, my prescription Tom Ford sunglasses. Beautiful. Which are gorgeous. Piece of art. And they're expensive to begin with. But then the fact that their prescription made them even more expensive. And so my recollection was I had put them in their case and slipped them into my hand luggage.

[01:15:17] And so when I opened up my bag and saw that it had been searched and there were no glasses in there, I was just like, oh my God, somebody stole my designer prescription glasses. And I was upset about it because they were my absolute favorite sunglasses I have ever owned. Plus, you had a whole plan where you were like, last year I got these prescription sunglasses. This year I'm going to use my discount to get my credit to get normal glasses. We just discussed it on the trip.

[01:15:46] You had said, I can see more clearly out of my sunglasses than I can see out of my regular glasses. I got to fix that. Can't wait to get new regular glasses. Yeah. And then these sunglasses were missing. And at this point I was just like, well, now I have to get regular glasses and sunglasses. I felt awful. I was like, can I help you pay for your sunglasses to replace them? Because they wouldn't have gone through TSA if I hadn't suggested at the last minute that you check your bag. And I was like, Jeanette, it's not your fault.

[01:16:16] It's just, it's one of those things. And I had wrapped my head around the fact that now instead of buying one pair of glasses this year with my glasses, my eye, what is it called? Eye insurance credit that I would need to buy two. And I knew based on how much I loved those sunglasses before that it was Tom Ford or bust for me. Right. I am in love with Tom Ford sunglasses. I love the design. They make me feel good. They make me feel glamorous. And it's worth every penny to me.

[01:16:45] And so I had just wrapped my head around that. So the following week I went and got my eye exam and everything, ordered my new glasses, all of this. And I will say that in between this time, I have checked the bags a million times, like everything. Everything. Yeah. And on this trip, I had the rolling bag that I had and I had my backpack. And again, in my recollection, when we got out of the Uber and she said, would you like to check your bag for free?

[01:17:15] I had put them into my suitcase, like my rolling suitcase and just tucked it in there. But I had searched that bag. I had searched my backpack. I had searched everything multiple times. Like the backpack, I had taken everything out. I had like pressed down on the bag everywhere I could press down to feel something that was in the bag. I was doing everything I could. I just wanted to feel something. I just wanted to feel something. I felt nothing. I felt empty. And I said, the only thing that will solve this is buying more than a thousand dollars worth of glasses.

[01:17:43] And so I ordered what I needed to order. And then literally I picked up my new glasses and I even FaceTimed Jeanette. And I'm like, my new glasses are here. Look how amazing they look. I was like, they're so cute. And I was like, show her both of my new pairs. And I was like, they're not the same as my old ones. But I still, I love these just as much. These are just a little bit different. And the very next day, I needed to pack a bag to go on a one night overnight business trip. And I was going to bring one bag.

[01:18:12] And then at the last minute, I was like, I'm going to bring my backpack thing that's made to like carry on a plane, even though I wasn't going to be flying, just because it was like easy to carry and whatever. I was like, laid it out on my bed. Again, I have pressed on this bag in every which way and opened every pocket. I laid it out on my bag. Excuse me, laid it out on my bed. And I was like, huh, what's this zipper? I've never seen this zipper before. And I open up the pocket and there's like, you know, a place to like tuck pens.

[01:18:41] And like, it's like a specialty pocket where there's lots of different like little compartments and whatever. And I was like, okay. And then I said, I wonder how deep this pocket goes because I couldn't tell based on when I opened it. And I stuck my hand down in the pocket all the way to the bottom. And I felt my glasses case down at the bottom of the pocket. And I texted Jeanette and I was like, you are not going to believe this. But I just found the glasses. And so now I have two pairs of Tom Fords. And they're both gorgeous.

[01:19:10] And they both look slightly different. Although Alex keeps telling me they look exactly the same to him. But I've had he's a boy. He doesn't know. You can see everything clearly. Anyway, that was my ordeal. I'm I'm glad I found them. Did I want to spend extra money on sunglasses when I meant to just buy regular glasses this year? No, but I am. I mean, with my glasses. This is not at all the same thing.

[01:19:38] But the last time I was at Disney prior to this trip was in April. And I thought I'd left my flip flops. Oh, yes. Your flip flops. I had purchased in Bali. I thought that I had left them at Rivera. And I didn't realize it until like a while later. So it wasn't even a thing where like I felt like I could call and be like, hey, I think I left my flip flops. And I was so sure like I got them in Bali and I'd gotten them on sale.

[01:20:06] I'm not going to be able to find them. I looked them up online and you can order them at Nordstrom's. So I ordered a pair of them from Nordstrom's, like a really cute pair. They're like they got little gold, you know, toe part thing. And I really like them and I'm really happy about that. Then I pulled out my suitcase and the flip flops were in my suitcase. I had just left them in my suitcase knowing that I was going to take another trip soon and forgotten that I had left them in my suitcase.

[01:20:36] So, you know, not this. Miss Mistake cost you how much though? Like $30. Yeah. This mistake cost me probably closer to $700. I mean, but to be fair, I think the original flip flops only cost me $15. So it was like a 100% increase. Yeah, it's inflation. Well, they were on sale in Bali. Mm hmm. Yeah. Anyway, like I couldn't believe that happened.

[01:21:06] And I, I swear I looked in that bag so like multiple times I kept coming back to it, even though I knew it wasn't there. But I was like, maybe it'll just mysteriously. You had to make so much peace with such like a disappointment. And then make peace with the fact that the disappointment was all a ruse. Like it was all a facade. Yeah.

[01:22:01] Yeah. Virginia wear better. Right. Which, well, not just which do I wear better, but like what feeling does each one give you? Because I think it's like one, Alex said one looks more glamorous than the other. He finally conceded that. So Jeanette was like, I think it's just because they're both tortoiseshell. He's just confused. Yeah. I was like, don't, don't listen to me. He's 15. Yeah. And he's a boy. And he's a boy. Even if, even if he did know, he probably wouldn't admit that he knows. No, he would not. He would not. Anyway, this was such a fun trip.

[01:22:31] We. Such a fun trip. We definitely have to do it again. Yes. We have to figure out a time to do some food and wine. Yeah. Food and wine slumber party. Mm hmm. Yep. Just anything. I mean. And then Paris. And then Paris. Paris. Oh. Like, I keep hearing, I keep hearing on different podcast episodes, the one that came out this morning, you know, she was from Scotland. So she was talking a lot about Disneyland Paris.

[01:23:01] I was like, oh, it's so exciting. Yeah. Yeah. There's Rob in the kitchen. That means it's time for us to go. Thank you. All right. Jeanette, it's been a blast as usual. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for being a friend. All right. I love you. Bye. Thank you all for listening and for supporting the show. And thank you to Jeanette for being my most frequent guest outside of Alex.

[01:23:29] I am looking forward to the next magical jaunt we take together. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it with a friend. And if this is one of your favorite podcasts, please let me know through a rating, a review, or by sending me a message. I would love to hear from you. You can find all the information on my website, which again is whereilongtobepodcast.com. That's all for now. Until next week when we will wrap up season six of the show.

[01:23:56] Until then, keep daydreaming about where you long to be.