Virginia’s First Solo Trip to WDW (May 2023)

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VIRGINIA: Hello, and welcome to Where I Long To Be, A Magical Trip Report Podcast.

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VIRGINIA: My name is Virginia, and I will be your host.

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VIRGINIA: And for today, I will also be your interview.

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VIRGINIA: So welcome to my self-interview for my upcoming May, 2023 Walt Disney World trip.

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VIRGINIA: Today is May the 6th, so I'm a little less than a week away, and I am so excited.

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VIRGINIA: My upcoming trip is going to be May 12th through 18th.

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VIRGINIA: This is going to be my very first ever solo trip.

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VIRGINIA: And the reason I chose these dates is really because I have a very busy time at work every year in April due to the nature of where I work.

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VIRGINIA: And it kind of starts to calm down a little bit during that second week of May.

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VIRGINIA: So we did have a few nights of Disney Vacation Club points, DVC points, that had already been banked forward a year previously.

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VIRGINIA: So you can only bank your points forward one year.

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VIRGINIA: After that, you have to use them by the end of the next use year or you lose them.

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VIRGINIA: That's usually not a problem for me because I go to Disney a lot and I definitely use the points.

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VIRGINIA: But for this trip, I had three nights' worth of points that needed to be used by the end of the use year.

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VIRGINIA: And booking this trip right after my busiest time of work seemed like a good idea.

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VIRGINIA: It would give me a great chance to kind of unwind and decompress after that busy time.

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VIRGINIA: And this is actually going to be my very first solo trip, so I am super excited about that.

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VIRGINIA: So initially, because I only have three nights of points that I need to use, I had booked, I believe it was May the 15th through the 18th over at the Grand Floridian.

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VIRGINIA: That is going to be my first time staying there, and it is the last of the Magic Kingdom resorts that I haven't stayed at.

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VIRGINIA: So I think I will be in one of the Mary Poppins-themed refurbished rooms over in the DVC building, so that is really exciting because the rooms look gorgeous in the pictures that I've seen online.

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VIRGINIA: But May 15th through 18th didn't feel quite long enough, so of course I wanted to make the most of my time since I'm taking the time and money to fly down to Orlando.

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VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and rented two nights of DVC points from David's Vacation Club Rental.

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VIRGINIA: David's Vacation Club Rental I know is well known for renting out DVC points of owners who have points that they're not going to be able to use in time or that just want to rent them out because they need extra money or for whatever reason they choose to rent out the points that they own.

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VIRGINIA: So because I don't want to tap in to any of the points that I have designated for next year because I do have a big trip coming up next February with my sister and her kids where we're going to need a two-bedroom DVC room.

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VIRGINIA: So instead, I decided to go ahead and rent some points from David's Vacation Club Rentals so that I could use someone else's points.

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VIRGINIA: That is going to be May the 13th through the 15th.

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VIRGINIA: So I extended my initial three nights by another two nights.

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VIRGINIA: And by renting those points, it basically gave me a deluxe room at sort of a more moderate price level.

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VIRGINIA: So I have stayed at Boardwalk before.

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VIRGINIA: That is the place I'm going to be using those two nights.

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VIRGINIA: And it is really nice to be so close to Epcot.

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VIRGINIA: I think that it's a perfectly nice resort.

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VIRGINIA: The rooms could use a bit of a refresh, but it is so close to everything.

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VIRGINIA: It's really nice to walk right into Epcot.

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VIRGINIA: And also, most of the time with the DVC rooms in Boardwalk, you're kind of at the end where it's also very convenient to walk over to Hollywood Studios.

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VIRGINIA: So then, after that, I was kind of looking into the flights to figure out when would work for me.

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VIRGINIA: I am somebody who normally prefers to fly at the crack of dawn.

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VIRGINIA: And that's really because I feel like the later your flight is in the day, the more likely you are to be delayed.

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VIRGINIA: But I really wasn't finding any flights that were really working for me for that Saturday morning.

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VIRGINIA: It just seemed like all the flights were either super expensive or they were really late in the day or they had connections involved.

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VIRGINIA: And to fly nonstop is only like a two, two and a half hour flight.

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VIRGINIA: So it's hard for me to wrap my head around doing some kind of connection for what could be a very short flight if I wanted it to be.

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VIRGINIA: So in sort of pricing out things, I found that it was actually cheaper for me to fly in the night before on the Friday after work and then use my annual pass discount to get a one night room over at Pop Century.

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VIRGINIA: And I love Pop Century.

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VIRGINIA: It's the only value resort that I've stayed at, but it is really nice.

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VIRGINIA: I don't think I'll be staying there long enough to be able to take advantage of everything that Pop Century has to offer.

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VIRGINIA: But it's perfect for what I'm looking for, because my flight will not get in until late that Friday night.

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VIRGINIA: I think it doesn't land until between 10 and 10.30 or something like that.

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VIRGINIA: And so I'm really just kind of using this as a place to go and sleep for the very first night.

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VIRGINIA: So like I said, it's a solo trip.

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VIRGINIA: It's just me.

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VIRGINIA: I'll be flying out of LaGuardia here in New York City, heading down to Orlando.

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VIRGINIA: And my flight, I guess it's arriving in Orlando at 10.24.

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VIRGINIA: I'm planning on using the Mirrors Connect bus service over to Pop Century that first night.

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VIRGINIA: I have not used Mirrors before.

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VIRGINIA: I have only ever used Magical Express back when that was a thing.

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VIRGINIA: And then the past couple of times that we've come down as a family, I have always used the Sunshine Flyer.

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VIRGINIA: But what I found out in looking at the Sunshine Flyer times is that they do not run the Sunshine Flyer quite that late at night.

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VIRGINIA: So it's forcing me to try Mirrors.

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VIRGINIA: And I'm really excited to give it a try and see how it compares.

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VIRGINIA: Since I'm arriving so late that night, it's really just going to be over to Pop Century and straight to bed.

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VIRGINIA: My plan for Saturday, May 13th, is just to spend a lot of time at Epcot.

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VIRGINIA: So I'm going to be getting up, and I would really love to Skyliner and just sort of make a stop at Riviera for some breakfast, and then Skyliner on over to Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival.

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VIRGINIA: And that's really my plan for the day.

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VIRGINIA: I'm going to be eating the festival food, enjoying everything about Flower and Garden.

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VIRGINIA: Because my room at some point will be ready in the mid-afternoon over at Boardwalk, then I think maybe I'll probably pop over there for a mid-afternoon nap perhaps and just to get myself unpacked and sorted.

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VIRGINIA: But that's really the plan for all of Saturday, May 15th.

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VIRGINIA: Excuse me, Saturday, May 13th.

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VIRGINIA: For Sunday, May 14th, I am going to be using most of that day for Hollywood Studios.

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VIRGINIA: So because I'll be at Boardwalk, I will most likely walk over to Hollywood Studios.

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VIRGINIA: And I would like to try some different food options while I'm there than I normally try.

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VIRGINIA: My family and I have some traditions of places that we like to go.

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VIRGINIA: And because I'm not really going to make any table service reservations for this particular trip, since it is a solo trip, I'm just going to eat quick service mostly and then maybe do some walk-ups to some sit-down restaurants.

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VIRGINIA: We'll see.

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VIRGINIA: But when I'm at Hollywood Studios, I should be probably eating quick service that entire day, and what I'm going to try to do is go to the quick services that I don't normally go to, just to make it a little bit different.

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VIRGINIA: That is also a day when I might head over to the boardwalk mid-afternoon, either for some rest or just to get some pool time and a boardwalk.

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VIRGINIA: I like to get a little pool time in at whatever resort I'm at, even if it's just for a little bit.

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VIRGINIA: Then for dinner, I anticipate I'll probably hop back over to Epcot just to eat festival food for dinner because I absolutely love hopping around to different festival food booths.

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VIRGINIA: So we'll see what happens with that, but that is the plan.

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VIRGINIA: And also late that Sunday night, I would really, really love to check out jelly rolls for the first time.

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VIRGINIA: I figure I'll be staying at boardwalk.

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VIRGINIA: It just makes sense to do it while I'm right there so that I can easily just pop back up to my room and go to sleep when I'm done.

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VIRGINIA: But I think I will hop over to jelly rolls, probably just have a drink, probably not more than that, since it'll just be me.

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VIRGINIA: But I want to see the dueling pianos and just enjoy that atmosphere for a drink before I head back up to bed.

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VIRGINIA: So that seems like it will be the best night to do it.

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VIRGINIA: And my understanding is that Sunday nights, I think there is some sort of discount for cast members.

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VIRGINIA: So it tends to be a lot of cast members that go to the Sunday night at Jelly Rolls.

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VIRGINIA: So I think that would make for a really fun atmosphere.

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VIRGINIA: I'm really excited to check it out.

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VIRGINIA: And I'm hoping that because it's just me, it will be easy to find me a seat for a party of one.

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VIRGINIA: On Monday, May the 15th, I will be doing some more Epcot time.

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VIRGINIA: This is the morning that I'll be heading over to the Grand Floridian.

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VIRGINIA: And my plan is really to pop into Epcot that morning just to grab breakfast at Les Alles, which is the pâtisserie in France, because I love having breakfast there.

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VIRGINIA: And so this feels like the one opportunity I'm going to have to make that work for myself.

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VIRGINIA: So I'll go do that.

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VIRGINIA: And then I'm going to head right back out of Epcot because my morning on Monday the 15th is going to be dedicated to doing a little bit of shopping over at the Character Warehouse Outlet, over at the Vineland Outlets, and also over at Disney Springs.

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VIRGINIA: There's just a couple stores at Disney Springs I like to hit every time.

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VIRGINIA: So that would be World of Disney, that would be Marketplace Co-op, usually Disney Style, and maybe like Uniqlo because they do have some interesting T-shirts there sometimes.

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VIRGINIA: I don't hit up every single store in Disney Springs, and I will not stay there for hours and hours.

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VIRGINIA: So I really just think I'll go over to Character Warehouse, go to Disney Springs, hit a few stores, and then I should be back over at the Grand Floridian to get settled in by lunchtime.

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VIRGINIA: Then the plan for that evening is to go back to Epcot, which may not make a whole lot of sense because I've already spent a bunch of time at Epcot, but that's what I'm thinking I'll do, and that's really just because that is the night when they have the late night hours for the deluxe guests, so I would like to take advantage of that.

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VIRGINIA: So anything I haven't had a chance to do at Epcot, that would be the evening I'd get to do it and then potentially get to ride Guardians of the Galaxy again, and I love Guardians of the Galaxy.

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VIRGINIA: So Tuesday, May the 16th, that is going to be a Magic Kingdom Day since I'll be over at Grand Floridian.

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VIRGINIA: So I'm trying to really make the most of the time of each of the locations that I am in and what makes sense based on where I am so that I'm not spending a ton of time traveling around.

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VIRGINIA: So I'll hit up Magic Kingdom.

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VIRGINIA: I will probably try to rope drop and really make the most of it.

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VIRGINIA: And this is a day when I will definitely be taking a midday break back at the Grand Floridian because I have scheduled myself for a massage at the Grand Floridian Spa.

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VIRGINIA: And I'm excited for two reasons.

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VIRGINIA: One is I've never been to the Grand Floridian Spa, so that's going to be super nice.

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VIRGINIA: I cannot wait to see what that's like inside.

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VIRGINIA: And two, I have not had a massage since the pandemic, so I am really excited to get back and do that for myself.

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VIRGINIA: I'm just doing the 50-minute one, but I, you know, it's been a pretty chaotic few years.

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VIRGINIA: I'll be coming right off of the busiest time of my year at work, and I anticipate that I will be ready for that massage, so really looking forward to that.

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VIRGINIA: That night, I am definitely going to be trying to catch Happily Ever After because I don't want to miss it.

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VIRGINIA: So just in case it gets canceled on one of the other nights, then this is the night I'll definitely try to see that.

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VIRGINIA: Wednesday, May the 17th is my Animal Kingdom Day, so I will plan on going over there early since it is the only day I'm going to Animal Kingdom.

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VIRGINIA: And then that night is actually late night hours for Deluxe Guests at Magic Kingdom, so I will definitely be heading back over to Magic Kingdom for the evening after I've done everything I wanted to do at Animal Kingdom, probably with some sort of midday break in at the Grand Floridian.

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VIRGINIA: Because it is my first time staying at the Grand Floridian, I will definitely be trying to take advantage of resort time while I'm there and making sure that I really feel like I got a chance to see everything and appreciate all the amenities.

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VIRGINIA: Then on Thursday, May the 18th, that is my departure day, unfortunately, and that will be another Magic Kingdom Day just because I am right there at the Grand Floridian.

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VIRGINIA: I can get all my stuff packed up and put it with Bell Services, head over to the park, and do anything that I haven't had a chance to do.

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VIRGINIA: My flight that evening is not until quite late, so I should be able to stay, I think, let's see, I think my Mears pickup is sometime at like 3 or 4 p.m.

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VIRGINIA: So I should have a good amount of time to enjoy last minute things at the park before I have to be back over the Grand Floridian to catch that Mears bus.

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VIRGINIA: So I have a few things that are going to be priorities this trip for me.

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VIRGINIA: My priorities in Magic Kingdom are definitely going to be seeing Happily Ever After again, because this will be my first time seeing it since it's come back, and then also Tron, because I have not had a chance to ride that yet.

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VIRGINIA: So I would love to be able to do the virtual queue a couple times, and I'll probably purchase the individual Lightning Lane and just really ride it as many times as I can.

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VIRGINIA: For Epcot, of course, my priority is going to be Flower and Garden and taking advantage of all the festival booths for the food, appreciating the topiaries, and probably trying to ride Guardians of the Galaxy as much as possible, because I really love Guardians of the Galaxy.

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VIRGINIA: That's another one I'll probably try to do virtual queue as well as some individual Lightning Lanes.

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VIRGINIA: And then I may try to check out that DuckTales World Showcase Adventure again, because Jeanette, if you listen to that episode with Jeanette and Marin and their trip report, have spoken so highly about how much fun that game is.

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VIRGINIA: And I think, especially because I'm by myself, I can take my time, I can do it as I feel like I'm ready to, and just give it another shot.

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VIRGINIA: I tried it once with my husband and my son, and they kind of were not able to focus on it long enough for us to do it more than once at one country, and so they didn't really get into it.

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VIRGINIA: So this will be my chance to really explore it and see if I like it.

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VIRGINIA: Then my priorities for Hollywood Studios and for Animal Kingdom, really, are just going to be both taking in the atmosphere.

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VIRGINIA: I'll ride what I want to ride, and I'm sure I'll do lots of stuff while I'm there, but those are two parks where I also just really love just kind of hanging out.

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VIRGINIA: So I'm sort of envisioning myself, especially, you know, because it's my first solo trip, I think I have this romanticized version of what it will be like for me to be there by myself.

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VIRGINIA: And one of the images I see is myself getting an iced coffee at Joffre's and sitting on a bench and reading my Kindle and people watching and that sort of thing.

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VIRGINIA: So I really just think soaking in the atmosphere is my main priority for both of those parks.

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VIRGINIA: And then finally, I do have some priorities for the Grand Floridian beyond just trying the spa for my massage.

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VIRGINIA: I would love to try Citricos or Narcosis or both of them.

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VIRGINIA: So I have never been to either of those restaurants and I think I said earlier that I have not made any dining reservations for this trip.

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VIRGINIA: I want it to feel very good with the flow because I'll be solo and I want to be able to make those decisions about what I want to do when I want to do it on the fly.

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VIRGINIA: And so I purposefully have not made any dining reservations and will probably be eating mostly quick service.

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VIRGINIA: However, for Citricos or Narcosis, I'm really hoping that I can just do a walk up and eat in their lounge.

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VIRGINIA: I think it would probably be just as good.

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VIRGINIA: I've already looked at the menu and decided what I would like, so I'm hoping they'll let me do that.

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VIRGINIA: So I'm sure when I get there, I'll probably pop by there just to ask if that's even possible.

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VIRGINIA: And then once I know that it's possible, I'll be able to slide that in where it will fit best within my day over at the Grand Floridian.

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VIRGINIA: My other priority while I'm there is to definitely get over to the Polynesian, either for a lunch or a dinner at the Captain Cook Quick Service, or maybe both, because there's two things that I really love to get over at Captain Cooks.

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VIRGINIA: One of them is the pulled pork nachos, which if you listen to Dana's trip report, she also raves about them, and we had a moment where I got so excited because I just think about those nachos all the time.

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VIRGINIA: They are so good, and they're not just like normal nachos.

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VIRGINIA: They're potato chip nachos with wonton chips and pulled pork and pineapple, and it's so good.

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VIRGINIA: So there's that, and then there's also some Thai coconut meatballs that are phenomenal.

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VIRGINIA: I can't even describe it.

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VIRGINIA: It's just like the coconut and the sweet and the savory, and it's to die for.

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VIRGINIA: So I think that getting both of those would be way too much for me for a meal.

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VIRGINIA: So if I can get over there twice, that would be ideal.

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VIRGINIA: So the plan will be to either walk over, or however I can get over to Polly, because I'm not sure what's going on with the walkway right now, while I'm staying at Grand Floridian, and that would either be for a lunch or a dinner, or maybe on my Magic Kingdom Day, instead of eating at Magic Kingdom, maybe I'll take my break and go and eat my lunch at Polly.

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VIRGINIA: Something like that, just so that I can have those two dishes, because I've been thinking about them ever since I stayed there, and I really need to get back just for the sole purpose of eating those.

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VIRGINIA: And then my final priority for Grand Floridian is going to be to go have a drink at Enchanted Rose.

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VIRGINIA: The only time I've ever been into the Enchanted Rose is when I was on a girls' trip with one of my BFFs, Nancy.

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VIRGINIA: She and I had gone over to the Grand Floridian and were looking at basin and doing all the things you do at Grand Floridian.

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VIRGINIA: And Enchanted Rose was not open yet for the day, but we popped in just to take a look, and it was so beautiful in there.

00:18:59.730 --> 00:19:06.150
VIRGINIA: And I have been looking at the menu and kind of thinking about what I would get when I do get a chance to go there.

00:19:06.190 --> 00:19:14.010
VIRGINIA: And everyone talks about this Enchanted Fog or English Fog or something like that.

00:19:14.010 --> 00:19:19.450
VIRGINIA: Anyway, it's a cocktail that involves Earl Grey tea, and I love Earl Grey tea.

00:19:19.510 --> 00:19:28.950
VIRGINIA: So I think that I will make it a priority at some point during my Grand Floridian time, whether it's just at night right before I head up to bed.

00:19:28.970 --> 00:19:33.470
VIRGINIA: Maybe I'll have a nightcap of that drink and see how I like it.

00:19:33.470 --> 00:19:45.050
VIRGINIA: So that is my plan for my solo trip, and I will talk to you in just a second when I will be reporting back with my post-trip interview.

00:19:45.390 --> 00:19:47.330
VIRGINIA: So here we go.

00:19:48.030 --> 00:19:54.710
VIRGINIA: Hi, it's Virginia popping in to say that there is a little bit of static noise that is happening during the post-trip report.

00:19:55.290 --> 00:20:05.710
VIRGINIA: I'm not sure whether it's an issue of my microphone not being plugged in as tightly as it might have been or whether it's an actual issue with the online recording studio that I use.

00:20:06.030 --> 00:20:17.030
VIRGINIA: I know I did have that clicking issue that was in Marin's post-trip report, so now I'm not sure whether it's the actual microphone or whether it is a studio issue itself.

00:20:17.630 --> 00:20:25.310
VIRGINIA: Regardless, it does go away pretty quickly every time it happens, so hopefully it will not take away from your overall enjoyment of the episode.

00:20:25.770 --> 00:20:28.170
VIRGINIA: And with that, let's go to the report.

00:20:31.310 --> 00:20:32.850
VIRGINIA: And I am back.

00:20:33.050 --> 00:20:39.510
VIRGINIA: It is Wednesday, May the 24th, and I returned for my trip on Thursday last week.

00:20:40.270 --> 00:20:43.550
VIRGINIA: It was an amazing trip, so let's get into all the details.

00:20:44.970 --> 00:20:49.810
VIRGINIA: So first, on my arrival day, I did work a full day from home.

00:20:49.830 --> 00:20:54.190
VIRGINIA: That was, as a reminder, Friday, May the 12th.

00:20:54.990 --> 00:21:02.190
VIRGINIA: And as soon as the clock hit five, I got my stuff together and started making my way over to LaGuardia Airport.

00:21:02.430 --> 00:21:11.470
VIRGINIA: LaGuardia is only about a 15-minute ride at the most from where I live, so it's pretty easy to get there.

00:21:11.970 --> 00:21:16.750
VIRGINIA: And before I hit the road and got out the door, I actually saw that my flight was delayed a bit.

00:21:17.170 --> 00:21:22.650
VIRGINIA: So it was originally supposed to leave from LaGuardia at about 7:30 p.m.

00:21:22.790 --> 00:21:26.190
VIRGINIA: and we ended up leaving closer to 8.15.

00:21:26.630 --> 00:21:28.170
VIRGINIA: So I got over to LaGuardia.

00:21:28.210 --> 00:21:36.130
VIRGINIA: I was kind of excited to go back to LaGuardia because they've recently done a bunch of renovations there, and it's really, really nice.

00:21:36.510 --> 00:21:46.070
VIRGINIA: However, it turns out that the Delta Terminal in LaGuardia is not one of the ones that has finished being renovated yet, so it was not really that wonderful.

00:21:46.210 --> 00:21:48.770
VIRGINIA: There were not very many food options at all.

00:21:49.390 --> 00:21:52.610
VIRGINIA: In the newer section, it's like being in a fancy mall.

00:21:52.630 --> 00:22:07.450
VIRGINIA: Like, there's lots of stores and things to look at and good restaurants to choose from, both, you know, pricey, nice style restaurants, but also just nice fast food too, like Shake Shack and things like that.

00:22:08.130 --> 00:22:10.610
VIRGINIA: And in this section, there was none of that.

00:22:10.630 --> 00:22:22.290
VIRGINIA: So I ended up finding a little bar and grill type place that was right near my gate, and I sat down and had some sort of burger or something.

00:22:22.310 --> 00:22:23.470
VIRGINIA: I can't even remember what I had.

00:22:23.490 --> 00:22:24.550
VIRGINIA: It was not memorable.

00:22:25.070 --> 00:22:30.010
VIRGINIA: It was just something warm to eat that wasn't just like a sandwich from a cooler.

00:22:31.010 --> 00:22:31.690
VIRGINIA: It was fine.

00:22:32.150 --> 00:22:33.890
VIRGINIA: I didn't have a ton of time to sit around.

00:22:33.910 --> 00:22:40.870
VIRGINIA: I was only delayed by about 45 minutes, but it was enough to allow me to get something to eat, which I may not have had time for had it not been delayed.

00:22:41.350 --> 00:22:47.010
VIRGINIA: So with that late start, I ended up landing at NCO at 10:45 p.m.

00:22:47.770 --> 00:22:52.530
VIRGINIA: And it only took me about 20 minutes to get from my gate.

00:22:52.730 --> 00:23:00.610
VIRGINIA: So I got checked into mirrors, and it was only about five minutes before I was loaded into a vehicle, and within 10 minutes or less, we were actually on the road.

00:23:00.990 --> 00:23:07.970
VIRGINIA: We were not in one of those big mirrors buses, but it was actually like a, I don't know how many passenger van.

00:23:08.390 --> 00:23:12.790
VIRGINIA: There were probably about 10 of us in this van.

00:23:13.850 --> 00:23:19.990
VIRGINIA: There was not a whole lot of room to spare, but there was plenty of room for all of our luggage, which was kind of a surprise to me.

00:23:21.050 --> 00:23:23.710
VIRGINIA: Overall, I think this was a good service.

00:23:23.730 --> 00:23:24.750
VIRGINIA: I would use it again.

00:23:24.770 --> 00:23:25.990
VIRGINIA: It was cheap.

00:23:26.410 --> 00:23:27.430
VIRGINIA: It runs all night.

00:23:27.530 --> 00:23:28.130
VIRGINIA: It's safe.

00:23:28.190 --> 00:23:30.410
VIRGINIA: I think that this service was fine.

00:23:30.890 --> 00:23:35.130
VIRGINIA: We did drop off some other guests before I got over to Pop Century.

00:23:35.970 --> 00:23:40.370
VIRGINIA: There was one offsite hotel over by Disney Springs that we went to first.

00:23:40.530 --> 00:23:45.270
VIRGINIA: Then we stopped over at Saratoga Springs, and then finally it was Pop Century.

00:23:45.290 --> 00:23:50.110
VIRGINIA: And I think there was at least one other stop after me because I was not the last person to get out of the van.

00:23:50.470 --> 00:23:56.550
VIRGINIA: So by the time we got to Pop Century, I made a note that it was about 12, 15 at night.

00:23:56.670 --> 00:23:58.210
VIRGINIA: So it was pretty late.

00:24:00.090 --> 00:24:07.110
VIRGINIA: One thing that I did not consider about getting in so late was that I might be hungry at that time of night.

00:24:07.550 --> 00:24:19.010
VIRGINIA: Because I had already had dinner at the airport and eaten a snack on the plane, I really didn't anticipate being hungry, but for some reason I was, and there was nothing open.

00:24:19.030 --> 00:24:21.290
VIRGINIA: The food court at Pop was not open.

00:24:21.310 --> 00:24:24.770
VIRGINIA: I was in the 90s section.

00:24:24.770 --> 00:24:36.170
VIRGINIA: I have never stayed in the 90s section over at Pop Century, but it did feel like it was the farthest section away, and I had a view of the parking lot, which was of course fine because I was only there for the one night.

00:24:37.030 --> 00:24:39.350
VIRGINIA: But it did take me a while to get over there.

00:24:39.370 --> 00:24:43.250
VIRGINIA: It was kind of a hike with my things.

00:24:44.210 --> 00:24:48.670
VIRGINIA: So anyway, I got myself settled, basically just laid out my clothes for the next day.

00:24:48.690 --> 00:24:50.830
VIRGINIA: I tried to be as prepared as I could be for the morning.

00:24:51.830 --> 00:24:56.150
VIRGINIA: I believe I went ahead and purchased my Genie Plus since it was past midnight.

00:24:57.030 --> 00:25:02.570
VIRGINIA: So that was $20 for Genie Plus for Saturday, May the 13th.

00:25:02.570 --> 00:25:09.270
VIRGINIA: So got that purchased ahead of time, and just went to bed and tried to get some sleep.

00:25:09.750 --> 00:25:19.650
VIRGINIA: One thing that I did forget to mention in my pre-trip information is that I did choose to use Standby Skipper for this trip.

00:25:19.670 --> 00:25:30.850
VIRGINIA: So I'm not sure if you have heard of Standby Skipper, but it is a third-party app that you can purchase to be able to use in conjunction with your Genie Plus service.

00:25:31.470 --> 00:25:33.630
VIRGINIA: So they have two options, basically.

00:25:33.650 --> 00:25:57.090
VIRGINIA: You can pay for use of it for the day, or you can also pay $45, and it's for the length of your trip up to, I can't remember if it's seven days or ten days, but basically you can use it for a whole week-long trip, and it's $45, and it will help book you your Genie Plus selections in the background so that you don't have to worry about it so much.

00:25:57.490 --> 00:26:08.730
VIRGINIA: So I will definitely in the show notes put a link to Standby Skipper, a good link to a video that I know of that kind of explains a little bit better what it is.

00:26:09.030 --> 00:26:13.790
VIRGINIA: Basically become friends with Standby Skipper on your My Disney Experience.

00:26:14.510 --> 00:26:15.830
VIRGINIA: And they friend you.

00:26:15.850 --> 00:26:24.590
VIRGINIA: You don't see them in your friend list after that first day though, but they're connected to you, and so they can see when you've purchased the Genie Plus service.

00:26:24.610 --> 00:26:27.270
VIRGINIA: They know when that's available on your account.

00:26:27.930 --> 00:26:35.790
VIRGINIA: And what you do each day is basically indicate which park you're planning to go to and what you'd like it to look for for you.

00:26:35.870 --> 00:26:40.350
VIRGINIA: So if you don't indicate anything for it to look for, it's not going to book you anything.

00:26:40.410 --> 00:26:43.110
VIRGINIA: So you have to tell it how to work for you.

00:26:43.750 --> 00:26:45.710
VIRGINIA: So there are a couple of options.

00:26:45.730 --> 00:26:55.530
VIRGINIA: You can basically mark the attractions and rides that have Genie Plus options that are the most important to you, and then you can choose for each one individually.

00:26:56.130 --> 00:26:58.790
VIRGINIA: Do you want it to book it as early as possible in the morning?

00:26:58.810 --> 00:27:06.470
VIRGINIA: Do you want it to be in the afternoon, or do you want it to be in the evening, or do you just want it to pick whatever is first available?

00:27:07.510 --> 00:27:17.490
VIRGINIA: So you kind of set that up, and so as long as you've purchased Genie Plus after midnight, you can go ahead and get your choices set up within the Standby Skipper app.

00:27:17.850 --> 00:27:20.870
VIRGINIA: So the reason I decided to make use of this was really twofold.

00:27:21.430 --> 00:27:42.430
VIRGINIA: One, it was because I have my big trip coming up next February with my sister and her kids and my family, and I wanted to see how the service might work and help us out on that trip just so that it would be sort of an extra set of hands for me for that trip as far as keeping up with when it was time to book the next Lightning Lane and all of that sort of thing.

00:27:42.870 --> 00:27:48.030
VIRGINIA: And then also because this was a solo trip, I knew that at 7 a.m.

00:27:48.110 --> 00:27:55.390
VIRGINIA: it would not be possible for me to book an individual Lightning Lane and get a virtual queue and get my Genie Plus selection.

00:27:55.410 --> 00:27:57.510
VIRGINIA: Like, there was too many things to do at 7 a.m.

00:27:57.530 --> 00:27:59.970
VIRGINIA: for just one person, so I decided to try that out.

00:27:59.990 --> 00:28:11.010
VIRGINIA: So because it was past midnight, I went ahead and made that Genie Plus purchase for $20, and then I went ahead and got my Standby Skipper selection set up to tell it what I was interested in.

00:28:11.150 --> 00:28:14.710
VIRGINIA: So I woke up just a few minutes before 7 a.m.

00:28:14.730 --> 00:28:19.490
VIRGINIA: to go ahead and try to get my Guardians of the Galaxy virtual queue.

00:28:20.150 --> 00:28:24.970
VIRGINIA: So I was able to secure that and got boarding group 21.

00:28:25.850 --> 00:28:26.670
VIRGINIA: So that was fantastic.

00:28:26.930 --> 00:28:29.050
VIRGINIA: I usually have luck with virtual queues.

00:28:29.290 --> 00:28:41.450
VIRGINIA: I've generally been able to always get them, but I did try Jeanette's trick for starting to do my refresh about four or five seconds before it actually turns seven.

00:28:41.610 --> 00:28:47.630
VIRGINIA: So that seemed to work because I got lower queues this time than I ever have in the past.

00:28:48.010 --> 00:28:55.230
VIRGINIA: So what I ended up doing was going ahead and putting my Apple Watch on my wrist and flipping over to one of the faces that has a second hand.

00:28:55.630 --> 00:28:57.730
VIRGINIA: And then I just paid attention to the second hand.

00:28:57.750 --> 00:29:01.750
VIRGINIA: And when it hit about the 55 second mark, that's when I started doing my refresh.

00:29:02.470 --> 00:29:04.390
VIRGINIA: So 7 a.m.

00:29:04.410 --> 00:29:08.750
VIRGINIA: was able to get that virtual queue for Guardian of the Galaxy boarding group 21.

00:29:09.410 --> 00:29:18.010
VIRGINIA: And while I was doing that, I saw a notification pop up on my phone indicating that the Standby Skipper app had booked me for a 9 a.m.

00:29:18.070 --> 00:29:19.630
VIRGINIA: Soren lightning lane.

00:29:20.010 --> 00:29:21.630
VIRGINIA: So that was nice that that happened.

00:29:21.650 --> 00:29:22.950
VIRGINIA: I didn't have to worry about it.

00:29:23.470 --> 00:29:31.970
VIRGINIA: And then as soon as I was done getting that virtual queue, I went ahead and purchased a Guardians of the Galaxy individual lightning lane for later that night.

00:29:32.510 --> 00:29:33.230
VIRGINIA: I just love it.

00:29:33.250 --> 00:29:35.070
VIRGINIA: So I wanted to ride it as much as possible.

00:29:35.910 --> 00:29:45.010
VIRGINIA: So I did consider going back to sleep after getting all that set up, but I was just too excited and I, after a few minutes, knew that that was not going to happen for me.

00:29:45.030 --> 00:30:03.050
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and got up, got myself together, took my luggage over to Bell Services, dropped that off, had a fun little moment with a cast member where, when he asked where I was transformed to, I said I was going over to Boardwalk and he started to sing.

00:30:03.410 --> 00:30:05.470
VIRGINIA: Under the Boardwalk.

00:30:05.630 --> 00:30:08.370
VIRGINIA: Anyway, we had a nice little moment there.

00:30:08.370 --> 00:30:18.490
VIRGINIA: He got all my stuff set up to move over to the Boardwalk, and I was able to walk over to the Skyliner and get myself on and off to start my day.

00:30:19.310 --> 00:30:39.650
VIRGINIA: So my first stop was actually over at the Riviera, because I wanted to try the blueberry and lemon pancakes that were from Piatto Primo that Jeanette had recommended, and also to get an almond cold brew from the Petit Cafe, which is the little coffee shop up in the lobby of Riviera.

00:30:39.670 --> 00:30:41.430
VIRGINIA: So I went up and got my iced coffee first.

00:30:41.850 --> 00:30:58.310
VIRGINIA: Then I mobile ordered my blueberry lemon pancakes and went downstairs, grabbed those, took them out and sat at a table right by the water and was able to enjoy the view of the water and of the Skyliner going past.

00:30:58.390 --> 00:31:02.850
VIRGINIA: It was just a really nice relaxing way to start my day.

00:31:03.470 --> 00:31:09.510
VIRGINIA: So after I finished that, I went and got back on the Skyliner and made my way over to Epcot.

00:31:09.790 --> 00:31:15.170
VIRGINIA: And lo and behold, I managed to make it through without being pulled over for an extra security check.

00:31:16.110 --> 00:31:27.690
VIRGINIA: So if you go to Disney often, you know that there are certain things that will set off the security detectors and force you to go over and get your bag looked at further.

00:31:27.710 --> 00:31:36.090
VIRGINIA: I think I've pretty much gotten everything that I keep in my bag that would regularly set that off kind of down to a science.

00:31:36.410 --> 00:31:47.630
VIRGINIA: So if you pull those items out of your bag and hold them out in front of you at an arm's length away as you walk through the scanners, then if you set off the alarm, they can see that it was something in your hands.

00:31:47.890 --> 00:31:54.130
VIRGINIA: And then they just kind of visually look at what's in your hands as you go past, and then you do not have to go do the extra security check.

00:31:54.150 --> 00:32:03.390
VIRGINIA: So I always get out my little umbrella, my battery charger, my extra battery charger for my phone.

00:32:04.390 --> 00:32:12.230
VIRGINIA: Usually my glasses case, although there's mixed reviews on whether it's a glasses case that's a soft leather case, would actually be setting it off.

00:32:12.250 --> 00:32:15.770
VIRGINIA: But just in case, I go ahead and take that out as well.

00:32:17.190 --> 00:32:20.210
VIRGINIA: And then, is there anything else I pull out?

00:32:21.790 --> 00:32:27.970
VIRGINIA: Oh, and my rechargeable fan, because I have a little rechargeable fan and because it has the extra battery in there, I pull that out too.

00:32:27.990 --> 00:32:29.450
VIRGINIA: So it's kind of a handful of stuff.

00:32:29.470 --> 00:32:34.610
VIRGINIA: I just hold it straight out in front of me like I'm Frankenstein or something, walk through and I'm good to go.

00:32:35.670 --> 00:32:39.370
VIRGINIA: So my virtual queue actually ended up getting called a little early.

00:32:39.570 --> 00:32:42.590
VIRGINIA: It was called at about 8:40 a.m.

00:32:42.610 --> 00:32:44.790
VIRGINIA: And I think I was still at the Riviera at that time.

00:32:45.290 --> 00:32:56.110
VIRGINIA: So I made my way over there and got checked in for the virtual queue right at 9.40 and made a note that I was off the ride by 10.25.

00:32:56.610 --> 00:33:03.450
VIRGINIA: So when you do the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy, it's like a normal standby line, sort of.

00:33:03.450 --> 00:33:06.810
VIRGINIA: It's just that you're getting the opportunity to even get in that line.

00:33:07.410 --> 00:33:11.910
VIRGINIA: So the virtual queue is not necessarily shorter than a regular queue.

00:33:11.930 --> 00:33:16.430
VIRGINIA: So it did take a bit to get through the queue and ride the ride.

00:33:17.290 --> 00:33:22.070
VIRGINIA: For that first go-round, I got the song I Ran.

00:33:22.090 --> 00:33:25.630
VIRGINIA: That, I have to say, is my least favorite song of all the song choices.

00:33:26.470 --> 00:33:31.870
VIRGINIA: So it kind of made the ride a little bit less exciting, but I was happy to be writing it.

00:33:33.230 --> 00:33:52.270
VIRGINIA: And what I ended up doing because of that virtual queue getting called a little bit early was I was able to go in to the Lightning Lane that Standby Skipper had booked for me for Soarin and modify it to move it to 1010 so that I was able to just go straight there after I was done with Guardians of the Galaxy.

00:33:52.290 --> 00:33:55.630
VIRGINIA: And this sort of became a running theme for me with Standby Skipper.

00:33:56.570 --> 00:34:03.650
VIRGINIA: The great thing about it is that you really don't lose control over your My Disney Experience at all.

00:34:03.790 --> 00:34:10.730
VIRGINIA: If you want to book something for yourself and you are able to do that, you can go ahead and do it and you can modify or cancel anything they make for you.

00:34:11.230 --> 00:34:27.490
VIRGINIA: And one thing I would recommend if you're planning on using Standby Skipper is that if you are planning to try to use Lightning Lanes later in the day, it seems to me like it was more beneficial to tell it you wanted things earlier in the day.

00:34:27.650 --> 00:34:33.810
VIRGINIA: Let it book something for you and then just modify it multiple times until you get it to the time of day that you want.

00:34:34.310 --> 00:34:42.290
VIRGINIA: Because if you tell it you only want stuff in the afternoon and there's nothing in the afternoon available yet, it's not going to book you something until that time is even an option.

00:34:42.990 --> 00:34:53.230
VIRGINIA: So if you go ahead and let it book you for the earlier time and then just, you know, an hour or so later, go click modify, then perhaps later times are available then and you can move it.

00:34:53.250 --> 00:34:56.570
VIRGINIA: So that's what I ended up doing a lot of the trip and it was really helpful.

00:34:56.590 --> 00:35:02.230
VIRGINIA: And then you don't end up missing out on getting as many lightning lanes in as you'd like.

00:35:02.250 --> 00:35:03.870
VIRGINIA: You can kind of stack them that way.

00:35:04.790 --> 00:35:15.930
VIRGINIA: So after I was done with Guardians of the Galaxy, I did take the opportunity to get the photo pass outside with the big spaceship behind the Guardians of the Galaxy spaceship.

00:35:15.970 --> 00:35:16.730
VIRGINIA: Is that what you call it?

00:35:16.750 --> 00:35:17.210
VIRGINIA: Spaceship?

00:35:17.570 --> 00:35:18.350
VIRGINIA: Space vehicle?

00:35:18.350 --> 00:35:18.730
VIRGINIA: I don't know.

00:35:18.750 --> 00:35:24.050
VIRGINIA: Whatever that big yellow thing is behind me, get some magic shots.

00:35:24.070 --> 00:35:25.590
VIRGINIA: I think I have one with Groot in it.

00:35:26.250 --> 00:35:27.570
VIRGINIA: It was a lot of fun.

00:35:27.590 --> 00:35:42.670
VIRGINIA: And this is another running theme of the solo trip is that my family moans every time I make them stop and do a photo pass because we've always had Memory Maker back in the before times with our annual passes that was just included.

00:35:42.990 --> 00:35:49.490
VIRGINIA: And in the current times with our annual passes, we did opt for the I think it's like $99 add on.

00:35:49.510 --> 00:35:53.310
VIRGINIA: You add on to one person's annual pass, the Memory Maker option.

00:35:53.630 --> 00:35:57.530
VIRGINIA: And we went ahead and did that because I love the photo pass service.

00:35:57.550 --> 00:36:04.570
VIRGINIA: I think it's a great way to get a photo of everybody in your party and not have to ask somebody to hold your phone or anything like that.

00:36:04.610 --> 00:36:06.430
VIRGINIA: And then I like the magic shot options.

00:36:06.730 --> 00:36:17.870
VIRGINIA: So this became one of the themes of the trip was me stopping to do as many photo passes as possible because there was nobody to stop me because I was there by myself and I could do what I wanted when I wanted.

00:36:18.570 --> 00:36:27.290
VIRGINIA: So did those photo pass and then I headed straight into Club Cool to try sodas that I have tried a million times before.

00:36:27.330 --> 00:36:28.510
VIRGINIA: But it's always fun.

00:36:28.530 --> 00:36:32.410
VIRGINIA: I think I have decided that I like the one.

00:36:32.470 --> 00:36:36.710
VIRGINIA: I think it's from Korea the best, which is not a carbonated one.

00:36:37.350 --> 00:36:42.650
VIRGINIA: It's a flat drink and I think it's apple and lychee flavored.

00:36:43.230 --> 00:36:44.190
VIRGINIA: It's really good.

00:36:44.270 --> 00:36:48.730
VIRGINIA: And then I also like the cucumber sprite from Russia a lot.

00:36:49.230 --> 00:36:50.830
VIRGINIA: Anyway, that was fun.

00:36:50.850 --> 00:36:55.350
VIRGINIA: And then from there, I walked on over to do my lightning lane for Soren.

00:36:55.670 --> 00:36:58.550
VIRGINIA: The standby at that point was already 40 minutes for Soren.

00:36:58.990 --> 00:37:08.170
VIRGINIA: So I definitely feel like in general, overall, I think Genie Plus was worth it for this trip, even though it wasn't so busy.

00:37:08.810 --> 00:37:11.150
VIRGINIA: For me, my time is valuable.

00:37:11.170 --> 00:37:29.370
VIRGINIA: And even if it wasn't incredibly busy, I don't really like waiting more than 20 to 30 minutes in a queue for anything because there are ways to get around that, whether it's using the lightning lane or using the extra hour, time, that sort of thing.

00:37:30.310 --> 00:37:39.430
VIRGINIA: So I tried to kind of pay attention to what the standby line was just so I could feel like, OK, yeah, I'm really getting my money's worth out of the Genie Plus because I'm not waiting in this 40-minute line.

00:37:40.690 --> 00:37:47.490
VIRGINIA: From there, I ended up going over, because I wanted to check out the Pixar Film Festival because it is something I skip every single time.

00:37:48.310 --> 00:38:02.310
VIRGINIA: And having gone in and watched it this time, I cannot recall if I have ever done it before because I think in my mind, I thought it was just them playing some Pixar clips that I've seen before that I could watch on my Disney Plus.

00:38:04.190 --> 00:38:05.770
VIRGINIA: But it was cooler than that.

00:38:05.790 --> 00:38:06.870
VIRGINIA: It was actually in 3D.

00:38:06.890 --> 00:38:07.630
VIRGINIA: They had glasses.

00:38:07.670 --> 00:38:08.990
VIRGINIA: I did not expect that.

00:38:10.470 --> 00:38:15.850
VIRGINIA: And it was three different little shorts, a couple of which I know I had seen.

00:38:15.890 --> 00:38:24.590
VIRGINIA: It was the cute one about the bird that's at the shore and is kind of learning how to deal with the ocean and find food and stuff like that.

00:38:24.610 --> 00:38:27.370
VIRGINIA: It was really cute, but seeing it in 3D was cool.

00:38:27.770 --> 00:38:37.930
VIRGINIA: And then there was an old-looking Mickey short that made it look like when they popped through the screen that became the modern version of Mickey.

00:38:37.950 --> 00:38:40.190
VIRGINIA: And because it was 3D, that was really cool.

00:38:40.210 --> 00:38:44.730
VIRGINIA: So I will definitely be doing that Pixar Film Fest again.

00:38:44.770 --> 00:38:45.830
VIRGINIA: I'm glad I did it.

00:38:46.490 --> 00:39:03.790
VIRGINIA: And that was something that I was trying to do on this trip was either to do things that my family doesn't necessarily love to do or also just to do things that I don't usually do on a regular basis because I have other people with me and that sort of thing.

00:39:04.590 --> 00:39:08.170
VIRGINIA: While I was over there, there was a Mickey Photo Pass option.

00:39:08.190 --> 00:39:10.190
VIRGINIA: So I took a picture with Mickey.

00:39:10.830 --> 00:39:18.210
VIRGINIA: And then from there, I headed off to start to enjoy some of World Showcase and the Festival booth.

00:39:18.230 --> 00:39:23.530
VIRGINIA: So first stop was over at the Pineapple Promenade where I got a violet lemonade.

00:39:23.770 --> 00:39:29.870
VIRGINIA: And of course, did an obligatory violet lemonade photoshoot by the water.

00:39:29.890 --> 00:39:32.970
VIRGINIA: So hopefully I got a good picture.

00:39:32.990 --> 00:39:38.770
VIRGINIA: I need to go ahead and get all my pictures ready so I can put them on Instagram so you all can see them along with this.

00:39:38.790 --> 00:39:43.390
VIRGINIA: So hopefully by the time this is published, you'll be able to look at the photos as well.

00:39:43.990 --> 00:39:55.490
VIRGINIA: From there, I headed over to Mexico and got the taco vampiro, which I have definitely had in the past, and it is so good, really flavorful, and has a little bit of a kick to it.

00:39:56.110 --> 00:40:04.010
VIRGINIA: Of course, while I was in Mexico, I had to go do the grand fiesta tour with the three caviaros inside the Mexico Pavilion.

00:40:04.370 --> 00:40:07.850
VIRGINIA: It was only a five-minute wait, and I loved that ride.

00:40:08.450 --> 00:40:26.130
VIRGINIA: Also, the last time we were there in February, when we rode that as a family, there were a group of drunk adults on there that talked the entire time, and they were just talking, gossiping about something that had happened to them, or I don't know.

00:40:26.310 --> 00:40:27.750
VIRGINIA: They were just talking the entire time.

00:40:27.770 --> 00:40:37.010
VIRGINIA: It was really annoying, so I had to ride it and get sort of like a clean slate on it with actually being able to listen and enjoy the ride.

00:40:38.250 --> 00:40:53.510
VIRGINIA: From there, I headed over to China and stopped at the Joy of Tea because Jeanette has always recommended to me the Tipsy Ducks in Love cocktail, and I thought, you know, this is my chance to try it.

00:40:53.530 --> 00:40:58.470
VIRGINIA: It's got like tea and coffee, and she just raves about how it is.

00:40:58.530 --> 00:41:11.630
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and got that, and then while I was there, I headed on over to Germany because I wanted to try the pretzel bread pudding, which is over at Summerfest.

00:41:11.690 --> 00:41:13.970
VIRGINIA: It is not a festival booth.

00:41:13.990 --> 00:41:16.970
VIRGINIA: It's just the normal little walk-up window where you can buy a pretzel.

00:41:17.250 --> 00:41:19.230
VIRGINIA: You can also get this pretzel bread pudding.

00:41:19.230 --> 00:41:26.530
VIRGINIA: And then I found a table over by the water and just sat and enjoyed that with the Tipsy Ducks in Love.

00:41:26.990 --> 00:41:30.570
VIRGINIA: Now I will say this was an amazing combination.

00:41:30.590 --> 00:41:37.210
VIRGINIA: So I highly recommend getting the Tipsy Ducks in Love and pairing it with a pretzel bread pudding.

00:41:38.050 --> 00:41:45.490
VIRGINIA: But on the note of the drink, I have to say it was extremely strong.

00:41:45.610 --> 00:41:47.110
VIRGINIA: It was very tasty.

00:41:47.170 --> 00:41:54.370
VIRGINIA: It essentially tasted almost like an alcoholic chocolate milk.

00:41:54.530 --> 00:42:01.330
VIRGINIA: I can't say that I really could taste that it had tea and coffee in it as much as the chocolate part of it.

00:42:03.350 --> 00:42:06.190
VIRGINIA: But it was really tasty, but it was so strong.

00:42:06.230 --> 00:42:21.050
VIRGINIA: I could only finish about half of it just because it was a lot and I was walking around and it was hot and I just did not want to get myself in a bad position there from the very get-go on my trip around World Showcase.

00:42:22.150 --> 00:42:31.210
VIRGINIA: While I was sitting there, I saw that Standby Skipper booked me for test track for later that afternoon, so I was glad to have that ready to go.

00:42:31.970 --> 00:42:42.410
VIRGINIA: And I also had gotten a Lightning Lane for Frozen for $2.30 that was made for me by Standby Skipper.

00:42:42.590 --> 00:42:49.310
VIRGINIA: So I headed over there to do that Lightning Lane since I was right near the Frozen ride anyway.

00:42:49.370 --> 00:42:56.510
VIRGINIA: And I made a note that the standby line was 70 minutes, and it only took me about 10 minutes to get in, ride, and get back off.

00:42:56.610 --> 00:42:59.870
VIRGINIA: So that was well worth it.

00:43:00.610 --> 00:43:08.590
VIRGINIA: From there, I headed back over to Mexico, really because I was heading over to test track to do my Lightning Lane.

00:43:09.030 --> 00:43:13.570
VIRGINIA: But I saw that Donald was out in his sombrero in front of Mexico doing photos.

00:43:13.810 --> 00:43:17.730
VIRGINIA: And again, my family never wants to stop for photos, and the line was short.

00:43:17.750 --> 00:43:24.750
VIRGINIA: So I jumped in, and I thought, I will get a picture with Donald because I don't think I have any pictures with Donald, especially not Donald wearing a sombrero.

00:43:25.390 --> 00:43:28.550
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and did that, and that was so much fun.

00:43:28.610 --> 00:43:34.850
VIRGINIA: He was being really funny and kept jumping in front of me and blocking me from the picture.

00:43:35.830 --> 00:43:38.450
VIRGINIA: So we got some good photos because I was laughing at him.

00:43:40.250 --> 00:43:53.870
VIRGINIA: From there, I went ahead and headed over towards Test Track, but I saw that mission space was available for a lightning lane.

00:43:54.170 --> 00:44:01.190
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and booked that, and I think it only had a five-minute wait anyway, but I booked the lightning lane, went ahead and used that.

00:44:01.190 --> 00:44:03.270
VIRGINIA: I rode the green side, of course.

00:44:03.930 --> 00:44:11.930
VIRGINIA: I have ridden the orange side before with my son Alex, and I can't say that I feel the need to ever do that again.

00:44:13.090 --> 00:44:16.750
VIRGINIA: It did not make me feel great, but the green side I can handle.

00:44:16.770 --> 00:44:19.930
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and did that, just really because I hadn't done it in a long time.

00:44:20.010 --> 00:44:28.970
VIRGINIA: Mission space in general is not a ride that I love, but this fell under the category of I haven't done this in a long time, and I'm here, so I might as well do it.

00:44:29.550 --> 00:44:30.690
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and did that.

00:44:31.090 --> 00:44:34.130
VIRGINIA: Then I headed over to do that test track, lightning lane.

00:44:34.610 --> 00:44:47.790
VIRGINIA: I accidentally checked in about 10 minutes early, so I did not light up green initially, but they were like, oh, it's only you, so you can go ahead and go, which was nice, so I didn't have to stand around waiting for 10 minutes.

00:44:48.510 --> 00:45:20.910
VIRGINIA: There was an issue with my design screen for making my car, though, which was annoying, because I think I sent my son a little video message, an excitement of being able to finally design my own car, because every time we go, you get put with your family and you're kind of doing it together, and because we are the parents of an only child, generally we let him do the designing and then we just kind of say suggestions and he takes it into account or he doesn't, and we just let him do his thing.

00:45:20.930 --> 00:45:24.430
VIRGINIA: But I was like, oh, I'm going to actually get to design my own car this time.

00:45:24.450 --> 00:45:36.510
VIRGINIA: But then I had all these troubles with the touch screen where every time I would touch one of the categories, it would kind of jump to the, all right, are you ready to finalize your design screen?

00:45:36.530 --> 00:45:37.690
VIRGINIA: So I had to keep going back.

00:45:37.710 --> 00:45:39.050
VIRGINIA: It took me a million times.

00:45:39.550 --> 00:45:43.710
VIRGINIA: I barely could get the options that I wanted.

00:45:43.730 --> 00:45:52.490
VIRGINIA: I did end up making a pink car, which is what I wanted to do and got a couple features on it, but it was a nightmare trying to make that happen.

00:45:52.770 --> 00:46:01.310
VIRGINIA: And then after all of that, when I went and rode the ride, none of the screens that told you how you ranked with all of your options were working.

00:46:01.690 --> 00:46:05.870
VIRGINIA: So I didn't even get the pleasure of seeing if I won any of the categories.

00:46:06.710 --> 00:46:07.230
VIRGINIA: So I did.

00:46:07.250 --> 00:46:14.790
VIRGINIA: They have a place at the end where you can scan and see what your total score is and compare it to what the highest total score of the day was.

00:46:16.310 --> 00:46:17.970
VIRGINIA: So I don't know.

00:46:17.990 --> 00:46:23.310
VIRGINIA: I think I did okay, but it would have been nicer to see it on those screens as I was going through the ride.

00:46:24.810 --> 00:46:34.150
VIRGINIA: From there, I went ahead and decided to go over to Boardwalk to get checked in because I had gotten a notification that my room was ready.

00:46:34.230 --> 00:46:42.830
VIRGINIA: So from that point, I will say that I did begin to notice at this point that my feet were really starting to hurt.

00:46:43.450 --> 00:46:54.210
VIRGINIA: And this is sort of odd because the shoes that I had on were Tiva sandals that I have worn in the parks a million times.

00:46:54.290 --> 00:46:57.170
VIRGINIA: And I love them because they are so comfortable.

00:46:57.810 --> 00:46:59.430
VIRGINIA: They didn't take any breaking in.

00:46:59.450 --> 00:47:02.370
VIRGINIA: They're not like the old school chunky Tivas.

00:47:02.390 --> 00:47:05.730
VIRGINIA: They've got skinnier straps and they're cute.

00:47:05.750 --> 00:47:08.050
VIRGINIA: And they're like a neutral color, so they go with everything.

00:47:08.070 --> 00:47:09.450
VIRGINIA: And if it rains, I'm good to go.

00:47:09.470 --> 00:47:12.890
VIRGINIA: If I ride something that, you know, splashes, I'm good to go.

00:47:12.930 --> 00:47:14.030
VIRGINIA: I love these sandals.

00:47:14.510 --> 00:47:23.210
VIRGINIA: And I noticed that the balls of my feet were starting to kind of burn a little bit, like have a burning feeling like they were rubbing.

00:47:24.030 --> 00:47:27.750
VIRGINIA: And I thought, oh, no, that's not a good sign.

00:47:28.850 --> 00:47:44.550
VIRGINIA: But little did I know exactly how bad it was because, spoiler alert, by the next day, the blisters had formed on each of the balls of my feet sort of at the top, like right below where your toes start.

00:47:44.950 --> 00:47:47.610
VIRGINIA: And they were each like about the size of a quarter.

00:47:48.530 --> 00:47:51.750
VIRGINIA: They were probably the worst blisters I've ever had in my life.

00:47:51.770 --> 00:47:53.530
VIRGINIA: And again, I don't know how this happened.

00:47:53.570 --> 00:47:56.550
VIRGINIA: This has never happened with those shoes before.

00:47:56.570 --> 00:48:02.710
VIRGINIA: And it's, I mean, I was doing walking, but I was kind of moving from one thing to another.

00:48:02.730 --> 00:48:06.330
VIRGINIA: I wasn't making large jumps of location.

00:48:06.350 --> 00:48:07.750
VIRGINIA: So it was a little odd.

00:48:07.770 --> 00:48:10.090
VIRGINIA: So I made a note that my feet were starting to hurt.

00:48:10.110 --> 00:48:12.090
VIRGINIA: So I was starting to kind of walk a little bit slower.

00:48:13.690 --> 00:48:26.670
VIRGINIA: Once I got over towards the boardwalk, I stopped into the little photo booth right there on the boardwalk, which if you have the Memory Maker, you can scan your band, and then those photos will go into your Memory Maker.

00:48:26.750 --> 00:48:40.250
VIRGINIA: Unfortunately, I think in my mind, I thought that when they went to my Memory Maker, they would go with the cute little border that you could pick out to do for a pay, a pay option they have to print out, like your little strip of photos.

00:48:40.650 --> 00:48:44.950
VIRGINIA: I thought, oh, it's going to be in my Memory Maker with this cute border, but it's not.

00:48:44.970 --> 00:48:57.490
VIRGINIA: It was just the four individual pictures were in my Memory Maker, so it's a little weird because it's just four random pictures of me making different funny faces with no particular interesting background or indication of where I was and what I was doing.

00:48:58.050 --> 00:48:59.310
VIRGINIA: But whatever, it was free.

00:48:59.350 --> 00:49:00.990
VIRGINIA: And so, well, not free.

00:49:01.270 --> 00:49:04.670
VIRGINIA: I did pay for the Memory Maker, but you know what I mean.

00:49:04.690 --> 00:49:05.330
VIRGINIA: It was included.

00:49:06.470 --> 00:49:22.910
VIRGINIA: So I got over to the Boardwalk, and the last time I stayed at the Boardwalk, my room was in a really long hallway where it was pretty close to a good exit to walk out and start going on the walk to Hollywood Studios, like that far over.

00:49:24.190 --> 00:49:34.990
VIRGINIA: But this time, my room was really close to the elevators, and I think I had put that in as an option that if I could get a request, I would prefer to be near the elevators.

00:49:35.510 --> 00:49:43.710
VIRGINIA: But my room actually overlooked the little green area right there that's right in the center of the Boardwalk.

00:49:43.730 --> 00:49:48.270
VIRGINIA: That's where you enter into the resort from the Boardwalk.

00:49:49.030 --> 00:49:53.650
VIRGINIA: And so I could see Spaceship Earth in the distance.

00:49:53.670 --> 00:49:54.670
VIRGINIA: It was beautiful.

00:49:54.710 --> 00:50:02.890
VIRGINIA: I could look down on all the people, you know, laying out on the grass, the kids jumping around dancing, when they showed a movie out there.

00:50:02.910 --> 00:50:10.050
VIRGINIA: I did not go out onto my balcony while they were showing a movie, but I think I probably could have seen the screen from where I was.

00:50:10.490 --> 00:50:11.910
VIRGINIA: But I could definitely see a...

00:50:12.850 --> 00:50:16.630
VIRGINIA: I would say it was sort of like an obstructed Boardwalk view.

00:50:17.630 --> 00:50:20.590
VIRGINIA: But I will take that view with Spaceship Earth any day.

00:50:20.610 --> 00:50:21.170
VIRGINIA: It was beautiful.

00:50:21.190 --> 00:50:25.770
VIRGINIA: I'll definitely include a picture on my Instagram showing that.

00:50:27.870 --> 00:50:33.530
VIRGINIA: When I went over to Boardwalk, I was able to go to Bell Services and let them know that I was there.

00:50:33.590 --> 00:50:36.290
VIRGINIA: And then they said they would bring my stuff up to my room.

00:50:36.310 --> 00:50:37.930
VIRGINIA: So I waited up in my room.

00:50:38.210 --> 00:50:42.270
VIRGINIA: They brought my luggage, and they also brought the Amazon package that I had delivered.

00:50:42.290 --> 00:50:48.290
VIRGINIA: So I did order a package of bottled waters.

00:50:48.830 --> 00:50:53.630
VIRGINIA: And then I also ordered a box of granola bars, a bag of popcorn, and a bag of chips.

00:50:53.990 --> 00:50:59.070
VIRGINIA: It was a really small Amazon fresh delivery order.

00:50:59.530 --> 00:51:06.710
VIRGINIA: I mainly just wanted bottled water because you can get the Amazon, I think it's called Happy Belly brand.

00:51:06.730 --> 00:51:08.790
VIRGINIA: It's their internal brand of bottled water.

00:51:08.810 --> 00:51:14.230
VIRGINIA: And you get a packet, I think it was 24 of them, for $4.

00:51:15.450 --> 00:51:20.230
VIRGINIA: And if you buy a bottle of water in the park, I think it's $4 or $5 for just one bottle.

00:51:20.670 --> 00:51:28.690
VIRGINIA: So I always order water and that way I make sure that I put two cold bottles in my bag at the beginning of every part day.

00:51:28.710 --> 00:51:34.130
VIRGINIA: So I did have some left at the end, which I left for housekeeping to take if they wanted it.

00:51:35.310 --> 00:51:38.630
VIRGINIA: But picked all that up, they brought it up to my room.

00:51:39.050 --> 00:51:49.010
VIRGINIA: And then I just sat on my balcony for a while, enjoyed the view, opened up my chips, had a little snack, just sort of rested for a little bit, rested my feet.

00:51:49.630 --> 00:51:53.590
VIRGINIA: And then eventually I was ready to head back over to Epcot to get dinner.

00:51:54.110 --> 00:52:02.830
VIRGINIA: So I specifically had it in my mind that I wanted to go over to the brunch cot festival booth and get the shrimp and grits.

00:52:02.850 --> 00:52:07.970
VIRGINIA: And I am so glad that I did because those shrimp and grits were divine.

00:52:08.470 --> 00:52:15.090
VIRGINIA: And I consider myself to be somewhat of a shrimp and grits aficionado, if you will.

00:52:15.330 --> 00:52:22.210
VIRGINIA: I grew up in North Carolina and spent lots of vacations down in Charleston, South Carolina.

00:52:23.690 --> 00:52:31.490
VIRGINIA: And I'm somebody who, if I see shrimp and grits on a menu, nine times out of ten, that's what I'm ordering because I love shrimp and grits.

00:52:31.530 --> 00:52:35.850
VIRGINIA: And so I can compare and see how does it stack up in the shrimp and grits world.

00:52:35.870 --> 00:52:45.470
VIRGINIA: And I will tell you that the shrimp and grits from Brunch Cot, probably I would give that a ten out of ten because it was so flavorful.

00:52:45.490 --> 00:52:48.350
VIRGINIA: It had a little bit of a kick to it and I like a little bit of spice.

00:52:49.090 --> 00:52:50.230
VIRGINIA: It was just delicious.

00:52:50.570 --> 00:52:57.650
VIRGINIA: I think I might have gone back and gotten more on a different day, but regardless, it was really good.

00:52:57.650 --> 00:53:01.970
VIRGINIA: And from that point, I had a 7 p.m.

00:53:01.970 --> 00:53:05.230
VIRGINIA: individual lightning lane for Guardians of the Galaxy set up.

00:53:05.250 --> 00:53:09.010
VIRGINIA: So at 7.50, I checked in for that.

00:53:09.110 --> 00:53:15.570
VIRGINIA: And because it was an individual lightning lane and not a virtual queue, I got through the queue really quickly.

00:53:16.990 --> 00:53:25.910
VIRGINIA: There was a little bit of a funny thing that happened while I was doing this particular ride of Guardians of the Galaxy.

00:53:26.130 --> 00:53:41.190
VIRGINIA: And it was, number one, that when we were in the pre-show area where Terry Crews was talking to you and saying, Epcotters, people of Epcot, that sort of thing, he says, what do you call, what do they call themselves?

00:53:41.810 --> 00:53:52.630
VIRGINIA: There was a kid there that called out Epcotterans, which is what he ends up calling you, and was kind of like doing a little shout out, this younger kid.

00:53:53.470 --> 00:53:56.290
VIRGINIA: And I've noticed that people have started doing that now.

00:53:56.310 --> 00:54:00.990
VIRGINIA: Like I've heard multiple times when I've been in there where he says, what do they call themselves?

00:54:01.010 --> 00:54:04.810
VIRGINIA: And some adult thinking they're funny will say, alcoholics.

00:54:06.330 --> 00:54:09.330
VIRGINIA: But there was this kid, and he said, Epcot Terrans.

00:54:09.590 --> 00:54:17.890
VIRGINIA: And I found myself being a little irritated with him because he then continued to call out, because he got a reaction from that where everybody was like, oh, that was so funny.

00:54:18.930 --> 00:54:24.510
VIRGINIA: And so he continued to try to call out and bring attention to himself for the rest of the pre-show stuff.

00:54:25.150 --> 00:54:45.990
VIRGINIA: So I'm not a fan of people trying to bring attention to themselves and calling out or saying the words to a pre-show along with the character, that sort of thing, because I am somebody who's always cognizant of the fact that even though I get to go to Disney World all the time, there are plenty of people who it's their first time.

00:54:46.410 --> 00:54:49.910
VIRGINIA: There are plenty of people there who it is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for them.

00:54:50.610 --> 00:55:04.570
VIRGINIA: And I don't presume that anything I have to say is more important than them hearing the ride or attraction as it was intended to be heard during perhaps their one and only time doing it.

00:55:05.390 --> 00:55:07.930
VIRGINIA: So I was a little irritated by him.

00:55:08.130 --> 00:55:16.530
VIRGINIA: And then we got into the room where you do the generator to kind of beam you up to the space center.

00:55:16.930 --> 00:55:22.850
VIRGINIA: And I don't know if it was because somebody was standing outside the lighted ring or what, but the effect did not work.

00:55:22.990 --> 00:55:25.010
VIRGINIA: So we did not transform like that.

00:55:25.250 --> 00:55:28.830
VIRGINIA: They ended up having to open the side door and just let us all walk through.

00:55:29.650 --> 00:55:32.090
VIRGINIA: So we got all through.

00:55:32.330 --> 00:55:36.350
VIRGINIA: I was separated away from this kid who kept calling out.

00:55:37.630 --> 00:55:52.670
VIRGINIA: And then when I got up to the front of the line, because I was a party of one, I ended up getting seated with this kid and his parents because they were a family of three and they had one spot left open and they were at the back.

00:55:52.690 --> 00:56:00.950
VIRGINIA: And I had specifically requested to be at the back because the back is the best place to write Guardians of the Galaxy if you like it to be fast and furious, which I do.

00:56:01.490 --> 00:56:05.550
VIRGINIA: So I was kind of like, I have to be with this kid.

00:56:06.350 --> 00:56:13.350
VIRGINIA: And in the line, he was continuing, he was just like talking and being loud and like could not stop moving his body.

00:56:13.790 --> 00:56:16.410
VIRGINIA: And I found myself feeling irritated with him again.

00:56:17.110 --> 00:56:25.770
VIRGINIA: But then in my mind, I was thinking, you know, I don't want to let him irritate me right before I'm about to go on my favorite ride.

00:56:26.410 --> 00:56:35.630
VIRGINIA: I'm just going to lean into this and try to turn my mindset around and, you know, instead of trying to change somebody else, I'm going to change how I'm thinking about it.

00:56:36.130 --> 00:56:38.910
VIRGINIA: So he was just bouncing off the walls.

00:56:39.010 --> 00:56:41.690
VIRGINIA: And so I just turned and started talking to him.

00:56:42.070 --> 00:56:45.570
VIRGINIA: So I turned to him and I was like, oh my gosh, are you so excited?

00:56:46.130 --> 00:56:47.290
VIRGINIA: And he said, yes.

00:56:47.290 --> 00:56:49.490
VIRGINIA: And then he told me he was celebrating his birthday.

00:56:49.510 --> 00:56:50.910
VIRGINIA: And I said, oh, how old are you going to be?

00:56:50.930 --> 00:56:52.210
VIRGINIA: And he was going to turn eight.

00:56:53.890 --> 00:57:00.630
VIRGINIA: And then my main question I always ask people when I'm waiting in line for Guardians of the Galaxy is, are you hoping for a particular song?

00:57:00.650 --> 00:57:02.950
VIRGINIA: So I said, are you hoping for a particular song?

00:57:02.970 --> 00:57:07.810
VIRGINIA: Because I could tell he had written it before because he knew all the words to the pre-show.

00:57:08.910 --> 00:57:11.790
VIRGINIA: He said, oh, I'm hoping for Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

00:57:12.130 --> 00:57:13.910
VIRGINIA: I was like, me too.

00:57:13.990 --> 00:57:17.270
VIRGINIA: I told him that that was what played the very first time I ever rode the ride.

00:57:17.290 --> 00:57:18.890
VIRGINIA: I had been hoping to get it again.

00:57:19.490 --> 00:57:21.030
VIRGINIA: We did not end up getting that.

00:57:21.050 --> 00:57:23.590
VIRGINIA: But what we did end up getting was Disco Inferno.

00:57:23.610 --> 00:57:28.130
VIRGINIA: And I think Disco Inferno was the last song I had yet to hear on Guardians of the Galaxy.

00:57:28.150 --> 00:57:31.410
VIRGINIA: Yeah, because I had had some repeats of some of the other songs.

00:57:32.690 --> 00:57:37.610
VIRGINIA: And then this is where it really felt magical to me in my head.

00:57:37.630 --> 00:57:46.690
VIRGINIA: Like, I had already taken a moment to recenter myself and kind of reframe how I was looking at the situation with this hyper kid who wouldn't stop talking.

00:57:47.150 --> 00:57:50.830
VIRGINIA: And I embraced it, and I became more positive about it instantly.

00:57:51.250 --> 00:58:00.030
VIRGINIA: But then when we got on and Disco Inferno started playing, this eight-year-old kid literally knew every single word.

00:58:01.390 --> 00:58:03.910
VIRGINIA: And we had the best time.

00:58:03.930 --> 00:58:12.230
VIRGINIA: And getting to ride it with him really was the highlight of all of the times I rode Guardians of the Galaxy on this trip.

00:58:12.690 --> 00:58:15.290
VIRGINIA: And I would say it was one of the highlights of my trip.

00:58:16.250 --> 00:58:28.530
VIRGINIA: So I just bring this up just to sort of remind everybody that if you're starting to feel irritated with somebody in the crowd, kind of try to think about it from their perspective.

00:58:28.550 --> 00:58:30.170
VIRGINIA: Maybe they're hyper.

00:58:30.190 --> 00:58:31.110
VIRGINIA: Maybe they're tired.

00:58:31.130 --> 00:58:37.590
VIRGINIA: Maybe just try to take a different viewpoint on it and see how you personally can turn your thoughts on it around.

00:58:37.690 --> 00:58:41.930
VIRGINIA: Not that you can change the other person, but how can you change your mindset about it?

00:58:42.370 --> 00:58:43.990
VIRGINIA: Because it really helped.

00:58:44.750 --> 00:58:48.670
VIRGINIA: And I ended up feeling like that was one of my best moments of the trip.

00:58:48.790 --> 00:58:50.170
VIRGINIA: So there you go.

00:58:50.570 --> 00:58:54.030
VIRGINIA: Shout out to whoever that kid was that knew all the words to Disco Inferno.

00:58:54.070 --> 00:59:08.010
VIRGINIA: And PS., I don't feel like I can post the magic shot or the photo pass that's from the ride, because that would be weird for me to show his face and his parents' face on my Instagram.

00:59:08.510 --> 00:59:17.510
VIRGINIA: But I will just tell you, he knew every single word and he was definitely into it, but in the photo, he looks scared out of his mind, which is funny.

00:59:17.530 --> 00:59:21.290
VIRGINIA: And it must have just caught up at a particular moment, because he was definitely not scared.

00:59:21.310 --> 00:59:22.710
VIRGINIA: But it looks hilarious.

00:59:22.730 --> 00:59:25.050
VIRGINIA: It looks like he's about to lose it.

00:59:27.190 --> 00:59:30.450
VIRGINIA: So after Guardians of the Galaxy, individual lightning lane was over.

00:59:30.750 --> 00:59:33.410
VIRGINIA: I knew I just needed to head back over to the boardwalk.

00:59:33.410 --> 00:59:35.630
VIRGINIA: I was tired and my feet were killing me.

00:59:35.750 --> 00:59:40.230
VIRGINIA: So I just slowly made my way back over to the boardwalk.

00:59:41.050 --> 00:59:55.210
VIRGINIA: From there, I think I ended up getting into bed and heading to bed for the night and just deciding that I would buy my Genie Plus in the morning instead of waiting for it to get past midnight.

00:59:55.690 --> 01:00:03.550
VIRGINIA: So Sunday, May 14th, I got up and I went ahead and purchased the Genie Plus service for $18 that day.

01:00:04.150 --> 01:00:09.410
VIRGINIA: Also noticed that Standby Skipper booked me a Lightning Lane for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

01:00:09.970 --> 01:00:16.130
VIRGINIA: And while it was doing that, I paid the individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance.

01:00:16.650 --> 01:00:18.850
VIRGINIA: It was $20 that day.

01:00:18.870 --> 01:00:25.730
VIRGINIA: And so I really debated whether I should go ahead and do it because I've done Rise of the Resistance a number of times.

01:00:26.970 --> 01:00:31.990
VIRGINIA: Honestly, I don't think it's worth $20 for me to do that as somebody who's ridden it as many times as I had.

01:00:33.170 --> 01:00:35.630
VIRGINIA: If it was my first time, sure, $20.

01:00:35.650 --> 01:00:38.150
VIRGINIA: And I'm saying this as somebody who spent the $20 on it.

01:00:38.170 --> 01:00:39.490
VIRGINIA: But do I think it was worth it?

01:00:40.130 --> 01:00:40.910
VIRGINIA: Probably not.

01:00:40.930 --> 01:00:45.130
VIRGINIA: But I tell you what, what is worth it is my time and not having to wait in lines.

01:00:45.150 --> 01:00:54.370
VIRGINIA: And even though it's just me and I could have stood and read my book or whatever, I went ahead and paid the $20 just to not have to worry about it.

01:00:54.890 --> 01:00:59.050
VIRGINIA: So I did continue to move very slow because of my blister situation.

01:01:01.050 --> 01:01:07.370
VIRGINIA: But I started to go over to Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway to check in, but they were having audio issues.

01:01:07.410 --> 01:01:14.230
VIRGINIA: And so they said, as long as you come back anytime before noon, you should be able to use it at that time.

01:01:14.370 --> 01:01:38.510
VIRGINIA: And then because they had audio issues for as long as they did, they eventually flipped my Genie Plus Lightning Lane into an Anytime Lightning Lane that was available for me to use at pretty much most rides at Hollywood Studios and also included Mickey and Minnie's, which some of the other Anytime ones when they convert, unless it was originally for Mickey and Minnie's, you may not necessarily be able to do that.

01:01:40.050 --> 01:01:41.370
VIRGINIA: So it became an Anytime.

01:01:41.690 --> 01:01:47.590
VIRGINIA: And so that was great because I knew I'd get a chance to ride Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, which I really enjoy.

01:01:47.870 --> 01:01:51.030
VIRGINIA: And I knew I'd have the flexibility to do it whenever I felt like that day.

01:01:51.550 --> 01:02:04.150
VIRGINIA: So from there, because I was able to sort of relax a little bit about the fact that I had that lightning lane already set up, I headed over to Galaxy's Edge and got myself on the way over there.

01:02:04.170 --> 01:02:17.310
VIRGINIA: I got a Starbucks caramel cold brew and from Galaxy's Edge went ahead and got a breakfast Ronto wrap, which I had had the regular Ronto wrap and I really like it, but I had not had the breakfast one yet.

01:02:17.330 --> 01:02:22.330
VIRGINIA: So I was happy to get to try that and I can report that it is delicious.

01:02:22.730 --> 01:02:30.370
VIRGINIA: So I will definitely be having that as a breakfast option again in addition to the Woody's Breakfast Bowl that my family usually gets.

01:02:30.850 --> 01:02:38.550
VIRGINIA: I think that the breakfast Ronto wrap is probably a close second of things to enjoy for breakfast in that particular park.

01:02:39.730 --> 01:02:46.870
VIRGINIA: Standby Skipper booked my Lightning Lane for Toy Story Mania for $9.15 and this is one that I ended up modifying.

01:02:46.970 --> 01:02:48.710
VIRGINIA: I only pushed it back to $9.45.

01:02:50.430 --> 01:03:01.250
VIRGINIA: So after I got my Ronto wrap and I noticed that Rise of the Resistance was actually down, so I was able to use my individual Lightning Lane for any time that day.

01:03:01.270 --> 01:03:05.410
VIRGINIA: So again, more flexibility for me, which was awesome.

01:03:05.990 --> 01:03:16.730
VIRGINIA: So I used that chance to go ahead and do the Millennium Falcon and I used the single rider queue because it was just me and it was a walk on because I was in the single rider.

01:03:17.290 --> 01:03:23.910
VIRGINIA: I did not particularly care whether I was going to be a pilot or anything like that, so it didn't matter to me.

01:03:23.970 --> 01:03:27.310
VIRGINIA: I did the single rider walk on, ended up being an engineer.

01:03:27.330 --> 01:03:28.490
VIRGINIA: I wrote it.

01:03:28.510 --> 01:03:36.030
VIRGINIA: There was another guy that was the other engineer and he was a lovely man from England and it was his first time riding it.

01:03:37.070 --> 01:03:42.790
VIRGINIA: And so it was fun to watch him get to experience it for the first time, just chat with another single rider.

01:03:44.070 --> 01:03:51.690
VIRGINIA: From there, I headed into Toy Story Land and checked in for my Lightning Lane for Toy Story Mania at 10.30.

01:03:52.530 --> 01:04:07.950
VIRGINIA: After that ride is when I realized exactly how bad the blister situation was, so I ended up sitting down on one of those little big toy things that kind of acts as a bench, right, as you come out of the exit of Toy Story Mania.

01:04:08.050 --> 01:04:18.510
VIRGINIA: So I sat down there and I always in my bag keep a little kit that I keep some blister specific band-aids like the kind that have a really nice cushion to them.

01:04:18.530 --> 01:04:27.310
VIRGINIA: And then I always keep like some normal band-aids and some moleskin and a little tiny travel pair of scissors so I can cut the moleskin to whatever size I need it to be.

01:04:28.110 --> 01:04:38.850
VIRGINIA: And so I sat down and took care of my feet situation basically because I was not going to be able to continue without doing something about it.

01:04:38.870 --> 01:04:40.230
VIRGINIA: They were getting that bad.

01:04:41.170 --> 01:04:52.290
VIRGINIA: So while I was sitting there getting that situation sorted out, I just rested my feet for a minute and booked myself a lightning lane for alien swirling saucers for 11 a.m.

01:04:52.310 --> 01:04:57.430
VIRGINIA: Since I was right there anyway, I thought I'll just go ahead and do alien swirling saucers.

01:04:57.790 --> 01:04:59.870
VIRGINIA: That way I can avoid walking.

01:04:59.890 --> 01:05:06.690
VIRGINIA: So I just waited, you know, however, 10 minutes or so before it was time for that to start, went over, rode that ride.

01:05:07.430 --> 01:05:08.110
VIRGINIA: It was fun.

01:05:08.190 --> 01:05:08.790
VIRGINIA: It's cute.

01:05:08.850 --> 01:05:13.790
VIRGINIA: I do not recommend waiting a long time to ride alien swirling saucers, but it was cute.

01:05:13.850 --> 01:05:18.190
VIRGINIA: That is definitely one of the ones that it is a lot more fun with somebody else.

01:05:18.210 --> 01:05:21.110
VIRGINIA: Riding that ride by myself was not merely as fun.

01:05:21.370 --> 01:05:24.030
VIRGINIA: When you ride it with somebody else, you can dance along with the music.

01:05:24.710 --> 01:05:29.670
VIRGINIA: I suppose I could have danced along with the music, but it just wasn't as fun by myself.

01:05:32.070 --> 01:05:42.650
VIRGINIA: From there, Standby Skipper booked me a Lightning Lane for Tower of Terror, and that was for $11.40, so I was just sort of bouncing from one thing to the next.

01:05:43.490 --> 01:05:50.570
VIRGINIA: I checked in at my Tower of Terror Lightning Lane about noon and was off the ride by about $12.25.

01:05:50.590 --> 01:05:58.910
VIRGINIA: I would have been off quicker than that, but only two of the elevators were actually working, so they seemed to be having some sort of technical issue.

01:05:59.730 --> 01:06:05.490
VIRGINIA: From there, I ended up browsing in all the stores on Sunset Boulevard, which I love to do.

01:06:05.510 --> 01:06:09.610
VIRGINIA: I just think that those are some of the best stores in any of the parks.

01:06:10.710 --> 01:06:13.170
VIRGINIA: And then I decided I was hungry.

01:06:13.210 --> 01:06:20.490
VIRGINIA: Now, you'll probably remember from my cruise ship information that I did not book any table service options.

01:06:21.750 --> 01:06:39.170
VIRGINIA: And I had kind of thought that I would try to do some kind of quick service that I either hadn't done before or that I hadn't done in a long time, because typically when we are at Hollywood Studios, we will eat table service at Brown Derby or at 50s prime time.

01:06:39.970 --> 01:06:52.010
VIRGINIA: And by this point, partially I think because of the feet situation, blister situation, I just really wanted to sit down, take a load off, and just have a really relaxed meal.

01:06:52.370 --> 01:06:57.770
VIRGINIA: So I decided I'm going to do walk up to Brown Derby, even though I had told myself I should go get something new.

01:06:58.430 --> 01:07:04.190
VIRGINIA: So I did the Brown Derby Lounge walk up, and it estimated it to be a 10 minute wait.

01:07:04.950 --> 01:07:15.390
VIRGINIA: And I was sitting sort of on the wall right outside the lounge area, so I could see that there were some tables available, and my thing was not being called.

01:07:15.870 --> 01:07:22.510
VIRGINIA: I was sitting there wondering why am I not being called, but I just continued to rest my feet, look at my phone.

01:07:23.390 --> 01:07:30.670
VIRGINIA: Finally, it was about 45 minutes later when it had said it was going to be a 10 minute wait.

01:07:30.690 --> 01:07:41.290
VIRGINIA: So finally I walked up to the hostess and said, you know, I'm just checking to make sure I'm actually still on the list because it said it was going to be a 10 minute wait, and it's been 45 now.

01:07:41.930 --> 01:07:51.810
VIRGINIA: And she said, oh yeah, I was going to message you to let you know that it was going to be a longer wait than that, but we didn't have your phone number.

01:07:52.390 --> 01:08:05.210
VIRGINIA: So I guess I accidentally skipped past the part where you enter in your phone number, so all they had was the option for push notifications for me, which I guess you can't push out an individualized message like that.

01:08:07.110 --> 01:08:16.490
VIRGINIA: I don't know, it was a little confusing, and I think the most irritating part about it was that I was sitting right there and I could see that there were open tables, but I was being patient.

01:08:16.510 --> 01:08:24.430
VIRGINIA: I was trying not to let it bother me, but that was a long time to wait when you were told it was going to be 10 minutes, and I could see that there were tables available.

01:08:25.030 --> 01:08:32.690
VIRGINIA: So once I got seated, it took another five minutes or so before anybody even approached the table to ask if I wanted something to drink or anything.

01:08:33.530 --> 01:08:45.470
VIRGINIA: I did order a glass of the sangria, and that took about another five minutes to get to me, and then I had ordered the Cobb salad, of course, and that took 20 minutes for them to get me the Cobb salad.

01:08:45.810 --> 01:09:11.710
VIRGINIA: So with the 45-minute wait and waiting five minutes for anybody to approach my table, another five minutes for the sangria, that now we're at 55 minutes plus 25, excuse me, 20 more minutes for waiting for the salad to be delivered, that was between an hour and 15 and an hour and 20 minute wait before I had all my food and drink on my table in front of me, which was insane.

01:09:12.330 --> 01:09:15.770
VIRGINIA: So I don't know that I'm going to be doing Brown Derby Lounge again.

01:09:16.830 --> 01:09:29.110
VIRGINIA: For that reason, I think I will try to only do it with a reservation and not ever try to do the walk up unless I am absolutely certain that the wait is going to be short.

01:09:30.550 --> 01:09:48.210
VIRGINIA: And then the other reason that I may not do the lounge is that there are no DVC or AP discounts when you eat in the lounge, but there are if you eat in the regular restaurant, which is so weird to me because most of it is the same menu and you're just sitting outside instead of inside.

01:09:48.230 --> 01:09:53.970
VIRGINIA: So I ate the Cobb salad and had the sangria without a discount simply because I was eating outside.

01:09:54.430 --> 01:09:57.490
VIRGINIA: So, make it make sense, but whatever.

01:09:57.510 --> 01:09:59.230
VIRGINIA: The salad was good as usual.

01:09:59.390 --> 01:10:00.970
VIRGINIA: I don't normally get the sangria.

01:10:00.990 --> 01:10:06.850
VIRGINIA: Normally I get one of their margaritas or the margarita flight, but the sangria was lovely.

01:10:07.870 --> 01:10:14.450
VIRGINIA: It was a white wine sangria, and I will definitely be getting it again, and I highly recommend it if you are a sangria person.

01:10:16.870 --> 01:10:30.750
VIRGINIA: From there, I went over and checked into my rise of the Resistance individual lightning lane at 2.35, and I was in the pre-show area about 10 minutes later and off the ride by 3.05.

01:10:31.690 --> 01:10:39.090
VIRGINIA: From there, I modified the lightning lane that I had from Slinky Dog over to a Frozen sing-along lightning lane.

01:10:39.210 --> 01:10:44.130
VIRGINIA: Now, I did not end up ever rebooking a Slinky lightning lane.

01:10:45.230 --> 01:10:49.310
VIRGINIA: This was my only particular day I was planning to spend in Hollywood Studios.

01:10:49.730 --> 01:10:51.770
VIRGINIA: I've ridden Slinky a bazillion times.

01:10:52.470 --> 01:11:01.030
VIRGINIA: I have not done the Frozen sing-along in a really long time, so I felt like that was going to be my priority, and I was fine switching that lightning lane over.

01:11:02.570 --> 01:11:10.150
VIRGINIA: So from there, I rode the Mickey and Minnie Railroad using a lightning lane.

01:11:10.670 --> 01:11:29.190
VIRGINIA: The pre-show room, and I guess it was maybe due to the audio issues that they were having earlier that day, but the pre-show room was broken, so they ended up using an announcement to just say, oh, no, it looks like Goofy drove a train through a movie screen, and now you're going to walk into the cartoon.

01:11:29.190 --> 01:11:38.370
VIRGINIA: It was the weirdest little announcement to explain sort of the pre-show, what had happened, but they didn't really make it magical.

01:11:38.390 --> 01:11:41.870
VIRGINIA: It was just like, oh, Goofy drove a train through a movie screen.

01:11:41.890 --> 01:11:44.530
VIRGINIA: It was kind of funny, but weird.

01:11:44.550 --> 01:11:47.330
VIRGINIA: Like, what if that were your first time riding that ride?

01:11:48.590 --> 01:11:53.210
VIRGINIA: But the show itself, the ride itself was working perfectly fine, so that was nice.

01:11:54.310 --> 01:12:02.730
VIRGINIA: From there, I hobbled back to the boardwalk on my blistery feet and decided that I would do some pool time.

01:12:02.790 --> 01:12:10.830
VIRGINIA: I had originally planned on going back over to Epcot that night and doing some festival booths for dinner, but I ended up just hanging out by the pool.

01:12:10.850 --> 01:12:19.530
VIRGINIA: Did not, I'll disappoint my friend Nancy to say that I did not end up doing any water slides on this particular trip.

01:12:19.550 --> 01:12:21.490
VIRGINIA: I just hung out by pools.

01:12:22.630 --> 01:12:30.950
VIRGINIA: She and I like to do the water slides late at night, especially after we've had a cocktail from the pool bar, but I didn't end up doing the slide.

01:12:30.970 --> 01:12:34.770
VIRGINIA: I didn't really want to get like my whole head wet or anything like that.

01:12:34.790 --> 01:12:46.150
VIRGINIA: So because I decided not to walk back over to Epcot to eat festival food purely to save my feet, I ended up getting a pizza slice from the Boardwalk pizza window.

01:12:46.870 --> 01:12:53.270
VIRGINIA: And I have to say that the pizza slice was perhaps one of the worst pizza slices I've had in my life.

01:12:54.070 --> 01:12:58.190
VIRGINIA: I will never be going back to the pizza window at the Boardwalk.

01:13:00.570 --> 01:13:01.630
VIRGINIA: It was huge.

01:13:01.710 --> 01:13:06.190
VIRGINIA: So if you're looking for a huge slice of pizza, I guess it's fine.

01:13:06.210 --> 01:13:07.910
VIRGINIA: Like you could definitely split it with somebody.

01:13:09.550 --> 01:13:16.250
VIRGINIA: But it was covered in gobs and gobs of cheese, like way too much cheese.

01:13:17.290 --> 01:13:22.470
VIRGINIA: And I don't think I'd ever thought I would say the phrase too much cheese, but there was too much cheese on it.

01:13:23.070 --> 01:13:24.690
VIRGINIA: It was dripping with grease.

01:13:24.950 --> 01:13:26.390
VIRGINIA: It was not good.

01:13:26.470 --> 01:13:31.610
VIRGINIA: It was just like a big, really thick piece of pizza that you might get at like a Chuck E.

01:13:31.610 --> 01:13:32.190
VIRGINIA: Cheese.

01:13:33.370 --> 01:13:43.750
VIRGINIA: And maybe this is the fact that I have lived in New York now for 23 years at this point, that maybe I'm a little snobby about pizza now.

01:13:44.630 --> 01:13:53.450
VIRGINIA: I will admit that could be the case, but unless there was literally nothing else to eat, I will not be going to that pizza walk-up window again.

01:13:55.150 --> 01:14:08.090
VIRGINIA: Anyway, from there, I ended up doing a little clothes change, putting on some fresh clothes up in my room, and then I had wanted to try jelly rolls on this trip because I've never been to jelly rolls before.

01:14:08.110 --> 01:14:15.530
VIRGINIA: I had planned to just get one drink, enjoy one drink, check it out, see what it was, even though there's a cover charge and everything.

01:14:15.550 --> 01:14:32.610
VIRGINIA: I ended up getting two drinks, and I made a note of what they were because the second drink that I had was the Raspberry Burst, which is raspberry vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice, and it was good.

01:14:33.070 --> 01:14:35.990
VIRGINIA: It was fine, but nothing to write home about.

01:14:36.010 --> 01:14:50.610
VIRGINIA: The first drink I got, though, was called the Shazam, and it was citrus vodka, coconut rum, raspberry liqueur, melon liqueur, pineapple juice, and grenadine, and that was really good, so I should have gotten the first drink a second time.

01:14:50.630 --> 01:14:52.650
VIRGINIA: I was really enjoying the piano players.

01:14:52.670 --> 01:14:53.850
VIRGINIA: They were very talented.

01:14:54.190 --> 01:15:00.050
VIRGINIA: They did a shift switch in the middle of it, so we had two piano players, and then they swapped out, and it was the second two.

01:15:00.730 --> 01:15:08.250
VIRGINIA: All four of them were really good, and they just seemed to be able to play anything sort of from memory, no sheet music.

01:15:08.270 --> 01:15:21.230
VIRGINIA: They were taking requests, so I was really impressed with them, and so I was just sitting there enjoying my drink, and then I thought, oh, I should just get one more since I'm just hanging out and enjoying this.

01:15:22.070 --> 01:15:26.230
VIRGINIA: By the time I got out of there, it was probably around 11 or so, so I went straight to bed.

01:15:27.710 --> 01:15:40.510
VIRGINIA: On Monday, May 15, I ended up sleeping in and did not buy Genie Plus for that day, and that was because I was doing some shopping for that part of the morning and didn't really need it.

01:15:40.550 --> 01:15:51.830
VIRGINIA: So I slept in, I woke up, got packed up, got myself organized, and then right at 11 o'clock, I was checking out and taking my luggage over to Bell Services.

01:15:52.490 --> 01:15:59.930
VIRGINIA: My original plan was that I thought that I'd be going and getting breakfast at Les Alles, which is the patisserie in France.

01:16:01.570 --> 01:16:08.830
VIRGINIA: But because of the blister situation, I was not about to walk all the way over from Boardwalk into Epcot simply to get breakfast.

01:16:08.890 --> 01:16:22.550
VIRGINIA: So I scrapped that plan and instead went down to the little coffee shop in the Boardwalk Resort and got a hazelnut almond milk latte iced and then got a blueberry scone.

01:16:22.830 --> 01:16:29.050
VIRGINIA: I just took them and sat out on the balcony of the main Boardwalk Resort in some of the rocking chairs there.

01:16:29.650 --> 01:16:33.590
VIRGINIA: Sort of overlooks the greenery area, like right near where my room was anyway.

01:16:34.170 --> 01:16:37.130
VIRGINIA: And just enjoyed that coffee and scone.

01:16:37.570 --> 01:16:42.950
VIRGINIA: And from there, I called a lift and went over to the Vineland Outlets.

01:16:43.050 --> 01:16:46.230
VIRGINIA: That is where one of the two locations of Character Warehouse is.

01:16:46.890 --> 01:16:58.390
VIRGINIA: And if you're not familiar with Character Warehouse, Character Warehouse is a Disney outlet that specifically sells outlet priced things that used to be for sale in the parks.

01:16:58.450 --> 01:17:00.530
VIRGINIA: So it's not like a normal Disney store.

01:17:00.630 --> 01:17:12.530
VIRGINIA: You can go in there and get old festival merchandise or, you know, shirts and things like that that are associated with the actual Disney park and not just Disney as a company.

01:17:14.490 --> 01:17:18.230
VIRGINIA: So I did not really get too much from Character Warehouse.

01:17:18.230 --> 01:17:30.750
VIRGINIA: I did find a Darth Vader women's T-shirt for myself, which is nice because I did not have any Star Wars T-shirts that were like a ladies cut that fit me anymore.

01:17:31.390 --> 01:17:33.850
VIRGINIA: So I was happy to find another Star Wars shirt.

01:17:33.950 --> 01:17:43.830
VIRGINIA: It was only $12.99, and for whatever reason, all of the clothing items at the Character Warehouse were on an additional 40% off sale.

01:17:43.890 --> 01:17:45.870
VIRGINIA: So that made it really cheap.

01:17:46.770 --> 01:17:50.330
VIRGINIA: Ended up finding a Star Wars shirt for my son, Alex, as well.

01:17:50.450 --> 01:17:57.170
VIRGINIA: I also got him, you know, one of those little desk signs that you can put just on your desk that says a phrase or whatever.

01:17:57.190 --> 01:18:03.670
VIRGINIA: I found one that said, there's a great big beautiful tomorrow on it, and he loves that song.

01:18:03.690 --> 01:18:05.670
VIRGINIA: He loves Carousel of Progress.

01:18:05.690 --> 01:18:14.270
VIRGINIA: He's about to be 13 years old, and I've really raised him right, because he has turned into a Disney Parks nerd, and I love it.

01:18:14.430 --> 01:18:15.890
VIRGINIA: He is amazing.

01:18:15.950 --> 01:18:21.470
VIRGINIA: He loves knowing all the Disney history and stuff, and that's just one of his favorite ride songs.

01:18:21.590 --> 01:18:25.250
VIRGINIA: So I grabbed that for him, got some pins.

01:18:25.270 --> 01:18:32.590
VIRGINIA: I've been collecting pins specifically for my nephews who I'll be bringing with me in February so they can do some pin trading.

01:18:32.870 --> 01:18:35.070
VIRGINIA: I've never been a pin trader myself.

01:18:35.090 --> 01:18:38.430
VIRGINIA: The only pins I buy are just if I see one that I really love.

01:18:38.450 --> 01:18:50.730
VIRGINIA: I get it to keep, and then I always get pins from each resort that I stay at, which speaking of which, spoiler alert, when I got to the Grand Floridian, they were sold out of all their pins, and they never restocked while I was there.

01:18:50.750 --> 01:18:55.910
VIRGINIA: So I do have a mission next time I'm at Disney to look for a Grand Floridian pin.

01:18:57.250 --> 01:19:01.790
VIRGINIA: Anyway, so I grabbed some pins for my nephews and then got the Tiana ears.

01:19:01.810 --> 01:19:06.610
VIRGINIA: They had the Color Me Courtney Tiana ears that I grabbed for my friend Nancy who wanted those.

01:19:07.050 --> 01:19:14.290
VIRGINIA: And then from there, I took a lift over to Disney Springs and decided to treat myself to lunch at Boathouse.

01:19:15.110 --> 01:19:22.830
VIRGINIA: I've never been to eat at the Boathouse before, and so I was able to just walk right up and ask if they could seat a party for one.

01:19:22.850 --> 01:19:23.350
VIRGINIA: They could.

01:19:23.830 --> 01:19:27.310
VIRGINIA: I got the Boathouse duck drink.

01:19:27.330 --> 01:19:44.890
VIRGINIA: I'm not sure what it's actually called, but there's some drink that has duck in the name, and it's a blue cocktail, and it comes with a little rubber ducky, miniature rubber ducky floating in the drink, which I completely forgot to say if I just left it on the table, but whatever.

01:19:46.250 --> 01:19:50.790
VIRGINIA: That was good, and then I got the Mahi Mahi tacos, and those were nice, too.

01:19:50.790 --> 01:20:10.310
VIRGINIA: They had a little kick to them, which again, I like a little spice, so I was happy with those, and I was able to get a table outside under cover of the deck awning, so it was shaded, but I was still able to enjoy eating outside.

01:20:10.330 --> 01:20:17.850
VIRGINIA: I love eating outside whenever I get the chance, as long as it's not too hot, and it was hot outside, but because it was in the shade, it wasn't too bad.

01:20:18.570 --> 01:20:40.290
VIRGINIA: From there, I did a little Disney Springs browsing at my favorite places, Marketplace Co-op, World of Disney, that sort of thing, and then my feet, again, were killing me, and I didn't find anything that I wanted specifically, so I used the Disney buses from there to go over to the Grand Floridian where my room was ready at that point.

01:20:40.530 --> 01:20:42.210
VIRGINIA: So that was around 5 p.m.

01:20:42.870 --> 01:20:51.070
VIRGINIA: I got over to the Grand Floridian, got situated in my room, which was in the first floor of the Big Pine Key building.

01:20:51.090 --> 01:21:00.390
VIRGINIA: The Big Pine Key building is the newly renovated DVC building that has the DVC Resort Studio category, I think is what they're calling it.

01:21:00.410 --> 01:21:04.850
VIRGINIA: It's not a deluxe studio because it does not have a kitchenette, per se.

01:21:05.470 --> 01:21:09.610
VIRGINIA: It has a drink cooler and a Keurig machine.

01:21:09.630 --> 01:21:14.290
VIRGINIA: I don't think it had a microwave in it, so it's a little different.

01:21:14.290 --> 01:21:22.450
VIRGINIA: It also, unlike most deluxe studios, it did not have a queen size bed and then a pullout queen size bed.

01:21:22.530 --> 01:21:24.350
VIRGINIA: Instead, this was two queen size beds.

01:21:25.950 --> 01:21:26.950
VIRGINIA: It was gorgeous.

01:21:27.250 --> 01:21:30.030
VIRGINIA: It was, again, like I said, newly renovated.

01:21:30.050 --> 01:21:32.410
VIRGINIA: It had a Mary Poppins theme to it.

01:21:33.110 --> 01:21:34.470
VIRGINIA: It was just beautiful.

01:21:34.710 --> 01:21:36.290
VIRGINIA: They did a really nice job.

01:21:37.150 --> 01:21:42.910
VIRGINIA: I was really happy with the style of the room, the space that I had, all of that.

01:21:43.270 --> 01:21:58.290
VIRGINIA: My only, I guess, I'm not even going to call them complaints just because this is just like this particular room, was this particular room, the door opened right into the lobby of that building.

01:21:58.310 --> 01:22:00.430
VIRGINIA: So it wasn't down one of the hallways.

01:22:00.790 --> 01:22:20.510
VIRGINIA: Like literally, if you were standing in the little lobby area where there's couches and places to sit, my door to my room was like opened right there, which was fine, but when people would walk past in the morning or at night getting ready to go or come from the parks, you just heard talking and stuff like that.

01:22:20.530 --> 01:22:22.450
VIRGINIA: So it's a little something.

01:22:22.470 --> 01:22:33.290
VIRGINIA: And then my particular room, when I went out into the balcony, I'm calling it a balcony, it was like a patio, but it had a railing to it.

01:22:33.310 --> 01:22:39.090
VIRGINIA: So you couldn't walk out of it to leave your room and go over to the pool or anything.

01:22:40.190 --> 01:22:47.890
VIRGINIA: But it looked right into basically what amounted to a parking space where they continually would park a golf cart.

01:22:48.830 --> 01:22:49.430
VIRGINIA: It was fine.

01:22:49.690 --> 01:22:52.110
VIRGINIA: It was not a view of anything.

01:22:52.130 --> 01:22:57.890
VIRGINIA: It was the golf cart parking spot and then the back of a building that is right next to the pool.

01:22:59.070 --> 01:23:00.510
VIRGINIA: It was nice that it was so convenient.

01:23:00.530 --> 01:23:03.230
VIRGINIA: I could walk out and get right to the pool very easily.

01:23:03.330 --> 01:23:12.910
VIRGINIA: But if I had wanted to sit out there and enjoy a view or something of anything, of greenery or anything like that, it didn't feel like I had it because the golf cart was right there.

01:23:14.810 --> 01:23:35.110
VIRGINIA: The only real complaint I have about the room is that one thing I noticed, and I don't know if it's the same in every single room type like this or if it was just this particular room, but there was no full-length mirror in the room where you could easily get to it.

01:23:35.590 --> 01:24:04.650
VIRGINIA: So you would expect that in the bathroom, maybe one of the barn style doors would have a full-length mirror on it or behind it or something like that, but no, the only full-length mirror was on the inside of one of the doors of the armoire that was built into the wall, which sounds fine except that the armoire doors, when you opened them, would not stay open at their full ability to open without you holding it with your arm.

01:24:05.110 --> 01:24:07.470
VIRGINIA: Otherwise, they kind of started to close a little bit.

01:24:07.910 --> 01:24:17.830
VIRGINIA: So there was no way to look at yourself in the full-length mirror without you holding the door, which meant you couldn't stand back far enough from the mirror to really see what you looked like.

01:24:18.410 --> 01:24:20.410
VIRGINIA: And that was just like really poor design.

01:24:20.670 --> 01:24:34.730
VIRGINIA: They either should have used one of the front of the armoire doors to put the mirror just where it could be seen in the bedroom, or put the full-length mirror over near the entrance to the room or something like that.

01:24:34.750 --> 01:24:39.790
VIRGINIA: So that's my one real complaint is that that was not thought out at all.

01:24:40.230 --> 01:24:48.170
VIRGINIA: I mean, I really would have needed a second person to stand there and hold the door open so that I could then stand back far enough from the door to see what my outfit looked like for the day.

01:24:49.770 --> 01:24:51.190
VIRGINIA: So not great.

01:24:51.250 --> 01:24:54.370
VIRGINIA: But anyway, other than that, the room was lovely.

01:24:54.390 --> 01:24:55.730
VIRGINIA: The resort was lovely.

01:24:55.750 --> 01:24:57.830
VIRGINIA: I was so happy to finally get to stay there.

01:24:59.270 --> 01:25:03.990
VIRGINIA: Once I got over and into my room, I just relaxed.

01:25:04.010 --> 01:25:05.490
VIRGINIA: I sat out on that patio.

01:25:05.490 --> 01:25:07.730
VIRGINIA: I took the chance to recharge my phone.

01:25:08.510 --> 01:25:15.070
VIRGINIA: And that night it was the extra hours for deluxe guests over at Epcot.

01:25:15.550 --> 01:25:16.610
VIRGINIA: So at 6 p.m.

01:25:16.630 --> 01:25:20.590
VIRGINIA: they had another virtual queue open up for Guardians of the Galaxy.

01:25:20.830 --> 01:25:23.670
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and got a virtual queue for that.

01:25:24.050 --> 01:25:37.590
VIRGINIA: And then I also, like I said, had not purchased Jeannie Plus for that day, but I did end up going ahead and purchasing an individual lightning lane for Guardians of the Galaxy so that I knew that I would have that sort of at the end of my night.

01:25:38.390 --> 01:25:50.490
VIRGINIA: From there, I left the Grand Floridian and I took the monorail over to the Ticket and Transportation Center to transfer over to the Epcot monorail and ended up getting over to Epcot at about 7:30 p.m.

01:25:50.490 --> 01:25:52.870
VIRGINIA: for those late night hours.

01:25:53.690 --> 01:25:58.250
VIRGINIA: During those late night hours, I took lots of PhotoPass photos.

01:25:58.610 --> 01:26:01.030
VIRGINIA: I did Spaceship Earth walk on.

01:26:01.710 --> 01:26:06.190
VIRGINIA: I used my individual lightning lane for Guardians of the Galaxy and got Konga.

01:26:06.690 --> 01:26:28.070
VIRGINIA: And then, oh, this is when something really kind of cool happened, which was that I rode that individual lightning lane, got Konga, and as we were getting off the ride, as I was getting towards the doors where you would exit to go to the stairs, the cast member was like, do you all want to ride again?

01:26:28.090 --> 01:26:31.010
VIRGINIA: And it was completely random to me.

01:26:31.030 --> 01:26:32.570
VIRGINIA: I was like, okay.

01:26:33.050 --> 01:26:40.950
VIRGINIA: So they shuffled us through this back door, which basically shot us out right into the loading area again.

01:26:41.110 --> 01:26:49.770
VIRGINIA: And we, everybody who was in my car, my train of the ride got to get right back on and ride at a second time.

01:26:50.270 --> 01:26:55.090
VIRGINIA: And that was because there were a couple of guys on there that have ridden the ride a lot.

01:26:55.170 --> 01:27:01.010
VIRGINIA: And they mentioned something to the cast member about how the ride was not spinning as much as it usually does.

01:27:01.030 --> 01:27:08.730
VIRGINIA: Now, I will tell you, as somebody who has ridden that ride a lot, I could not tell that it wasn't spinning as much as it usually does.

01:27:08.870 --> 01:27:11.710
VIRGINIA: It still was fun and thrilling and all of that.

01:27:12.070 --> 01:27:14.650
VIRGINIA: So I never would have said anything because I still had a good time.

01:27:15.210 --> 01:27:24.030
VIRGINIA: But they said something, and apparently the cast members can look at their computer screen and tell if there was an error and stuff did not rotate as much as it should have.

01:27:24.430 --> 01:27:25.710
VIRGINIA: And they were able to confirm that.

01:27:25.730 --> 01:27:28.410
VIRGINIA: So that's why they offered all of us the option to ride again.

01:27:30.090 --> 01:27:40.650
VIRGINIA: That being said, the second time I rode it, because I knew that now that in hindsight they told me that there was an issue, I was paying attention and I was like, yeah, this did spin more the second time.

01:27:42.350 --> 01:27:47.470
VIRGINIA: But anyway, that was really cool and it felt like pixie dust to me just to get to immediately ride it a second time.

01:27:47.790 --> 01:27:55.130
VIRGINIA: And that second time I got Everybody Wants To Rule The World, which that was again the song that played the very first time I rode it.

01:27:55.150 --> 01:28:09.810
VIRGINIA: And that's a song that's really special in our household because when Alex was born, my husband Charles was really wanting that to be the very first song he ever heard because it starts, welcome to your life, there's no turning back.

01:28:11.390 --> 01:28:13.950
VIRGINIA: And he just really wanted that to be the very first song he ever heard.

01:28:13.970 --> 01:28:18.210
VIRGINIA: So that was the first song we played on the stereo for him when we got home from the hospital.

01:28:18.230 --> 01:28:20.610
VIRGINIA: And so now it's just like a theme in our family.

01:28:21.110 --> 01:28:23.630
VIRGINIA: So that was really fun to get that again.

01:28:24.850 --> 01:28:36.090
VIRGINIA: From that point, I realized I had made an epic error or an Epcot error, if you will, which is that my plan that whole time was to continue to eat at the food booths for dinner.

01:28:36.670 --> 01:28:44.670
VIRGINIA: But like I said, I arrived at Epcot at 730, and I think they closed at 8.

01:28:44.670 --> 01:28:47.130
VIRGINIA: And that's when the extra hour started.

01:28:47.150 --> 01:28:50.570
VIRGINIA: And I was doing Spaceship Earth and writing Guardians of the Galaxy.

01:28:50.590 --> 01:28:58.510
VIRGINIA: And I did not even think about the fact that because the normal park hours were closing, that the festival booths would not be open.

01:28:58.530 --> 01:29:04.510
VIRGINIA: So then I was like, oh, Lord, I do not know how I'm going to be able to eat tonight if nothing's open.

01:29:05.450 --> 01:29:10.750
VIRGINIA: So luckily, I went on to the My Disney Experience and said, let me see if I can mobile order.

01:29:10.990 --> 01:29:16.770
VIRGINIA: And it did show me that the Fish and Chips booth was going to be open.

01:29:17.090 --> 01:29:24.110
VIRGINIA: It said specifically on the My Disney Experience, this is open for mobile order for deluxe after hours or whatever they call it.

01:29:24.530 --> 01:29:26.490
VIRGINIA: So I knew for a fact I'd be able to get that.

01:29:26.510 --> 01:29:31.630
VIRGINIA: So I didn't I really wasn't sure how late it would stay open and I was hungry right then.

01:29:31.650 --> 01:29:40.170
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and put in that mobile order, walked over there and sat at one of the tables by the water and ate some Fish and Chips.

01:29:40.510 --> 01:29:41.290
VIRGINIA: It was OK.

01:29:41.350 --> 01:29:42.090
VIRGINIA: It was fine.

01:29:42.470 --> 01:29:46.530
VIRGINIA: I could only eat half of it because that piece of fish that they give you is huge.

01:29:47.610 --> 01:29:50.070
VIRGINIA: I'm not a huge Fish and Chips person.

01:29:50.390 --> 01:29:52.390
VIRGINIA: I love fries.

01:29:53.070 --> 01:29:53.870
VIRGINIA: I will say that.

01:29:53.970 --> 01:29:58.110
VIRGINIA: But like fried fish is not something I love.

01:29:58.370 --> 01:29:59.170
VIRGINIA: I will eat it.

01:29:59.430 --> 01:30:02.010
VIRGINIA: I can enjoy it sometimes, but I don't love it.

01:30:02.030 --> 01:30:03.390
VIRGINIA: But it was the only thing to eat.

01:30:03.410 --> 01:30:03.870
VIRGINIA: So I eat it.

01:30:05.690 --> 01:30:13.350
VIRGINIA: But I will say that if you've ever had the Fish and Chips over in the Wizarding World, over at Universal, I think theirs is a lot better.

01:30:13.370 --> 01:30:14.650
VIRGINIA: It has a lot more flavor to it.

01:30:14.690 --> 01:30:18.630
VIRGINIA: So all I do is when I get Fish and Chips now compared to that.

01:30:19.870 --> 01:30:24.850
VIRGINIA: But I was grateful to have anything to eat at that point because of my silly error.

01:30:25.790 --> 01:30:32.230
VIRGINIA: From there, I probably should have just headed out because my feet were killing me.

01:30:32.370 --> 01:30:41.570
VIRGINIA: But I decided to go over to the Creations Shop just to browse because Creations Shop is one of my favorite stores on Disney property.

01:30:41.810 --> 01:30:43.050
VIRGINIA: There's just something about it.

01:30:43.090 --> 01:30:49.430
VIRGINIA: It's well-lit, it's organized, it's big, so they have lots of choices.

01:30:49.870 --> 01:30:55.530
VIRGINIA: It's spread out, so you don't usually feel like you're on top of somebody else or that somebody else is on top of you.

01:30:56.430 --> 01:30:58.330
VIRGINIA: So I wanted to browse in there.

01:30:58.870 --> 01:31:00.950
VIRGINIA: I did not get anything.

01:31:01.710 --> 01:31:06.470
VIRGINIA: And I think from that point, oh yeah, I still had to do my virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy.

01:31:06.490 --> 01:31:14.150
VIRGINIA: So because I got to ride it a second time after my individual Lightning Lane, I got to ride it three times on this night, which was awesome.

01:31:14.610 --> 01:31:21.250
VIRGINIA: So for the virtual queue, I ended up getting the song September, which is always fun.

01:31:21.270 --> 01:31:25.750
VIRGINIA: And from there, it was about 10.30, and I think the extra hours ended at 11.

01:31:26.310 --> 01:31:37.410
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and got back on the monorail and headed back over to Ticket Transportation to transfer to the main monorail to get back to Grand Floridian and get to bed.

01:31:38.530 --> 01:31:44.590
VIRGINIA: On Tuesday, May 16th, I purchased the Genie Plus service.

01:31:44.770 --> 01:31:56.090
VIRGINIA: It was $20 that day, and I did the virtual queue for Tron, ended up getting group number 15.

01:31:56.270 --> 01:32:01.270
VIRGINIA: So I really think that starting to hit refresh four or five seconds before really helps.

01:32:02.530 --> 01:32:10.230
VIRGINIA: And once I got that boarding group, I went ahead and also purchased an individual light alien for Tron for as late as I possibly could.

01:32:10.250 --> 01:32:16.130
VIRGINIA: I got it at 8.45 so that I knew for a fact I'd be riding it at the dark.

01:32:16.170 --> 01:32:18.610
VIRGINIA: So I would want to compare the two.

01:32:18.630 --> 01:32:26.730
VIRGINIA: This was going to be my first time riding on Tron, and I wanted to ride it as quickly as possible because I was excited, but then I also wanted that, riding it in the dark experience.

01:32:27.510 --> 01:32:30.250
VIRGINIA: That individual light alien was $20 that day.

01:32:31.530 --> 01:32:35.870
VIRGINIA: I was out of my room by about 7.45 on the monorail.

01:32:36.190 --> 01:32:42.910
VIRGINIA: I got onto the monorail just before 8 o'clock and was in the park like 10 minutes later.

01:32:42.930 --> 01:32:44.230
VIRGINIA: It was so quick.

01:32:46.830 --> 01:32:54.390
VIRGINIA: From there, I went ahead and rope dropped the Starbucks.

01:32:54.690 --> 01:33:09.390
VIRGINIA: I probably should have gone ahead and gotten to the front of the early entry area since it was just me, but I really wanted to go ahead and get a Starbucks so that if I had to wait in the line for seven dwarfs, I would have that.

01:33:09.810 --> 01:33:18.950
VIRGINIA: So by the time I got over there, I got led into the area right at 8.30, but I was towards the back.

01:33:18.970 --> 01:33:22.230
VIRGINIA: The seven dwarfs line was already really long, and I thought, you know what?

01:33:22.250 --> 01:33:23.550
VIRGINIA: I'm going to ride this at some point.

01:33:24.650 --> 01:33:28.050
VIRGINIA: Later, I'm just not interested in spending a lot of time in the line.

01:33:28.070 --> 01:33:35.150
VIRGINIA: So I finished my Starbucks, and then I went over, and what do you have to do when you're in Tremaraland?

01:33:35.170 --> 01:33:36.550
VIRGINIA: You have to ride the PeopleMover.

01:33:36.950 --> 01:33:40.710
VIRGINIA: PeopleMover is one of my favorites, so I went ahead and got on that.

01:33:40.950 --> 01:33:55.230
VIRGINIA: It was like a funny little way, like for somebody who got up that early and was there for rope drop to start my day off meandering around with a nice coffee and riding the PeopleMover sounds a little funny, but you know what?

01:33:55.250 --> 01:33:59.770
VIRGINIA: When you're on a solo trip, you do what you want to do, and it was so what I needed.

01:34:00.570 --> 01:34:09.810
VIRGINIA: From there, I walked on to Buzz Lightyear in my quest to repeat my performance as a galactic hero.

01:34:09.830 --> 01:34:12.650
VIRGINIA: I have yet to repeat that.

01:34:12.750 --> 01:34:13.890
VIRGINIA: I did it the one time.

01:34:13.910 --> 01:34:14.650
VIRGINIA: I got my sticker.

01:34:14.670 --> 01:34:20.070
VIRGINIA: I took my oath as a galactic hero, and now I'm having trouble recreating that moment.

01:34:20.090 --> 01:34:24.250
VIRGINIA: So anyway, it did not happen on this trip, even though I wrote it several times.

01:34:25.490 --> 01:34:35.750
VIRGINIA: From there, I went and got a Joffre's hazelnut latte, because if you haven't guessed, I like my iced coffee in the morning.

01:34:35.850 --> 01:34:39.210
VIRGINIA: Normally, I just have one per day, but when on vacation, why not?

01:34:39.530 --> 01:34:54.810
VIRGINIA: And also, I just wanted to have a really good coffee with my breakfast, which ended up being the breakfast bowl, which is at the lunching pad, and it was tots with cheese and omelet and salsa and sour cream on it.

01:34:54.850 --> 01:34:58.970
VIRGINIA: I had never had this particular breakfast before.

01:34:58.990 --> 01:35:12.350
VIRGINIA: I think when I interviewed Jeanette, it was the first time I became aware that breakfast was even an option at the lunching pad, because they had gotten some kind of, like a sweet pull apart bread there, and I did see that.

01:35:12.370 --> 01:35:13.330
VIRGINIA: It was an option.

01:35:13.390 --> 01:35:17.570
VIRGINIA: I'm not usually an eat-something-sweet-for-breakfast person.

01:35:17.590 --> 01:35:28.510
VIRGINIA: I very rarely do that, although as I say this, I realize I've already talked about eating blueberry scones, and I've already talked about eating blueberry and lemon pancakes, but generally I'm more of a savory person.

01:35:28.770 --> 01:35:31.730
VIRGINIA: So I tried the tots and ate that.

01:35:31.750 --> 01:35:32.690
VIRGINIA: It was really good.

01:35:33.350 --> 01:35:37.250
VIRGINIA: So would definitely recommend that as a breakfast option if you're on that side of the park.

01:35:38.050 --> 01:35:45.330
VIRGINIA: From there, I checked into my virtual queue at 9.45 for Tron, and I was off the ride by 10.15.

01:35:45.350 --> 01:35:50.310
VIRGINIA: So that was not bad to wait in that virtual queue and be off 30 minutes later.

01:35:50.330 --> 01:35:54.290
VIRGINIA: Now part of that is based on the fact that the ride is so short.

01:35:54.650 --> 01:35:56.170
VIRGINIA: It needs to be a little bit longer.

01:35:56.190 --> 01:35:57.650
VIRGINIA: It is super short.

01:35:57.890 --> 01:36:01.370
VIRGINIA: I would not recommend waiting a ton of time for it because it is so short.

01:36:01.850 --> 01:36:03.310
VIRGINIA: But it was a lot of fun.

01:36:03.470 --> 01:36:11.450
VIRGINIA: I rode the front row the first time I rode it because I wanted to experience, you know, taking that lift off, being right in the front.

01:36:12.770 --> 01:36:14.130
VIRGINIA: And that was fun.

01:36:14.770 --> 01:36:21.890
VIRGINIA: From there, I did Carousel of Progress because again, my family loves Carousel of Progress, or at least my son and I do.

01:36:21.910 --> 01:36:23.870
VIRGINIA: I'm not so sure if my husband loves it.

01:36:24.730 --> 01:36:25.610
VIRGINIA: He likes it.

01:36:26.370 --> 01:36:27.810
VIRGINIA: He usually gets a nap in there.

01:36:28.830 --> 01:36:31.130
VIRGINIA: From there, I did the Monsters, Inc.

01:36:31.150 --> 01:36:33.510
VIRGINIA: laugh floor with a 10-minute wait.

01:36:33.830 --> 01:36:34.890
VIRGINIA: Always a good time.

01:36:35.530 --> 01:36:36.470
VIRGINIA: Had fun on that.

01:36:36.510 --> 01:36:39.230
VIRGINIA: I have never once been somebody that they put on camera though.

01:36:39.250 --> 01:36:40.490
VIRGINIA: I'm waiting for that day.

01:36:41.450 --> 01:36:46.070
VIRGINIA: But I really think it's funny when they tap people in the audience for the camera stuff.

01:36:46.870 --> 01:36:54.990
VIRGINIA: For this whole day, I was basically letting Standby Skipper book my lightning lance and then modifying all of them to stack them for later.

01:36:55.010 --> 01:37:14.530
VIRGINIA: And this was a good way to do it for me because I ended up booking six different lightning lance, plus I had that individual lightning lance for Tron, plus I had the virtual cue for Tron, and I did some walk-on stuff, so I got a ton done this day.

01:37:15.430 --> 01:37:21.310
VIRGINIA: So I was just letting it book things and then modifying it and then taking my time doing what I wanted to do.

01:37:21.910 --> 01:37:23.930
VIRGINIA: So it was really hot, this trip.

01:37:23.950 --> 01:37:26.750
VIRGINIA: I think we only had one day where it slightly rained.

01:37:26.770 --> 01:37:30.150
VIRGINIA: Other than that, it was like 90 degrees the whole time.

01:37:30.170 --> 01:37:32.310
VIRGINIA: So it was hot.

01:37:32.330 --> 01:37:35.570
VIRGINIA: I headed over and got my tropical serenade.

01:37:36.590 --> 01:37:44.910
VIRGINIA: Only ate about half of it because I was kind of full from the tacho breakfast, but it was delicious.

01:37:44.930 --> 01:37:52.370
VIRGINIA: It's the coconut Dole Whip with Pog juice as a float, and then it has the pineapple upside down cake pop.

01:37:53.270 --> 01:37:53.890
VIRGINIA: Delicious.

01:37:53.930 --> 01:38:01.030
VIRGINIA: I usually will take it over and kind of sit myself on the steps by the little shooting gallery right there in Frontierland.

01:38:01.410 --> 01:38:05.870
VIRGINIA: It's a nice shady spot that's significantly cooler, and it's not...

01:38:06.290 --> 01:38:08.770
VIRGINIA: I will recommend this to everybody.

01:38:08.830 --> 01:38:27.530
VIRGINIA: When you buy a Dole Whip or whatever you're going to buy from over there, lots of people will stay in that area and sit and eat their Dole Whips sort of right around the Aladdin Ride, the Magic Carpet Ride, and that is in the dead sun.

01:38:27.610 --> 01:38:29.550
VIRGINIA: There's like no shade.

01:38:29.710 --> 01:38:31.190
VIRGINIA: It's very sunny.

01:38:31.190 --> 01:38:41.610
VIRGINIA: There's hardly any places to sit, but people seem to cram in, and it's really busy, and it's not, in my opinion, the best place to eat your Dole Whip.

01:38:41.630 --> 01:38:45.330
VIRGINIA: You're better off buying your Dole Whip and then walking away to go eat it somewhere else.

01:38:45.350 --> 01:38:57.110
VIRGINIA: So usually what I do is I walk underneath that, pass through right there, and then I will find a spot either over by the shooting gallery on the steps, which is a great place because hardly anybody is ever sitting on the steps.

01:38:58.570 --> 01:39:04.150
VIRGINIA: Or sometimes you can find a rocking chair over there in that area, and that's the perfect place to have your Dole Whip.

01:39:04.150 --> 01:39:05.830
VIRGINIA: And then you can, it's a little bit quieter.

01:39:05.850 --> 01:39:14.710
VIRGINIA: Sometimes the bears from the Country Bear Jamboree will walk past, and it's more relaxing.

01:39:16.730 --> 01:39:18.990
VIRGINIA: So from there, just kind of sat and relaxed for a while.

01:39:19.010 --> 01:39:26.890
VIRGINIA: I played on my phone, enjoyed my tropical serenade, went to the Penn Store, looked around.

01:39:27.450 --> 01:39:31.250
VIRGINIA: By this point, it was almost lunch.

01:39:31.390 --> 01:39:42.130
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and decided that this would be a time when I would try to go over to the Polynesian and eat the quick service for lunch, because there were two different things I love to give to the Polynesian.

01:39:42.150 --> 01:39:49.410
VIRGINIA: One is the quick service, which is called Captain Cook's, and I wanted to make sure I got to get each of those things during this trip.

01:39:49.430 --> 01:40:00.170
VIRGINIA: So instead of going back to the Grand Floridian, I waited and took the boat over to the Polynesian and got my pork nachos for my lunch.

01:40:01.130 --> 01:40:06.510
VIRGINIA: I had remembered, because I knew I'd probably do this, to put my refillable mug into my park bag for the day.

01:40:06.530 --> 01:40:15.310
VIRGINIA: So when I got over to the Poly, I also had that ready to fill up, because when you get your refillable mug, you can use it at any of the Disney resorts, not just the one you're staying at.

01:40:16.130 --> 01:40:31.610
VIRGINIA: From there, I hopped on to the monorail and rode it the one stop over to Grand Floridian, took all my stuff back to my room, and then I had my massage scheduled for the Grand Floridian Spa, and that was at 2 o'clock.

01:40:31.610 --> 01:40:34.870
VIRGINIA: So I went over about 15 minutes before that, got checked in.

01:40:35.870 --> 01:40:37.750
VIRGINIA: It was so nice in there.

01:40:37.770 --> 01:40:39.150
VIRGINIA: It was really relaxing.

01:40:39.930 --> 01:40:44.210
VIRGINIA: In the changing room area, they had all these comfortable chairs.

01:40:44.230 --> 01:40:47.150
VIRGINIA: They had a little bar where you could make yourself some tea.

01:40:47.170 --> 01:40:48.830
VIRGINIA: They had spa water.

01:40:48.850 --> 01:40:56.070
VIRGINIA: They had like some little nuts and granola bars and that sort of stuff that you could pull from.

01:40:57.890 --> 01:41:08.710
VIRGINIA: Went ahead and they offer robes and little slipper, like portable, not portable, disposable kind of slippers for you to put on.

01:41:08.730 --> 01:41:10.410
VIRGINIA: So I got that on.

01:41:10.430 --> 01:41:19.970
VIRGINIA: By the time I got changed and put myself, I did not put myself in a locker, put my stuff in the locker that is in that changing room.

01:41:20.050 --> 01:41:23.330
VIRGINIA: My massage therapist was there to call me.

01:41:23.830 --> 01:41:24.790
VIRGINIA: So we went in there.

01:41:25.670 --> 01:41:28.250
VIRGINIA: Her name was Emily, so shout out to Emily.

01:41:28.610 --> 01:41:29.690
VIRGINIA: She was amazing.

01:41:29.930 --> 01:41:48.430
VIRGINIA: She was so nice and had like a soothing voice and kind of talked to me at the beginning just for a minute or two, like as she was getting started, making sure that she was using the pressure that I liked and just kind of asked like a couple basic questions, like where are you visiting from, that sort of thing.

01:41:48.750 --> 01:41:52.890
VIRGINIA: And then she just was like got to work and didn't talk the rest of the time.

01:41:52.910 --> 01:41:57.030
VIRGINIA: And I love that because I want it to be quiet during my massage.

01:41:57.050 --> 01:41:57.910
VIRGINIA: I just want to zone out.

01:41:59.150 --> 01:42:03.990
VIRGINIA: And as with any massage you get, it's always over much quicker than you want it to be.

01:42:04.010 --> 01:42:11.290
VIRGINIA: And especially because I only booked the 50-minute massage because they're all really pricey over there.

01:42:11.310 --> 01:42:14.970
VIRGINIA: And I just was like, no, I'm just going to do the 50-minute.

01:42:14.990 --> 01:42:17.730
VIRGINIA: I'm not going to splurge and get anything more than that.

01:42:17.750 --> 01:42:26.650
VIRGINIA: Because I think with the massage and they tack on the gratuity for you as well, I think it was something like $210.

01:42:28.110 --> 01:42:30.950
VIRGINIA: Well worth it, but that is a lot of money.

01:42:30.990 --> 01:42:33.570
VIRGINIA: So I really enjoyed it.

01:42:33.590 --> 01:42:43.330
VIRGINIA: And then when you're done with that, you can stay in the changing room and enjoy the comfortable chairs and the tea as long as you'd like, I think until they close.

01:42:43.710 --> 01:42:52.030
VIRGINIA: And they also had a little room with a sauna and I think there was some kind of hot tub or something.

01:42:52.630 --> 01:42:53.130
VIRGINIA: I'm not sure.

01:42:53.150 --> 01:42:58.030
VIRGINIA: I did not poke my head in there because I wasn't intending on doing that.

01:42:58.050 --> 01:43:01.130
VIRGINIA: But I did sit in the comfortable chair room.

01:43:01.150 --> 01:43:04.110
VIRGINIA: I don't even know what to call it.

01:43:04.130 --> 01:43:07.090
VIRGINIA: The comfortable chair room for a bit.

01:43:07.110 --> 01:43:09.250
VIRGINIA: And just I made myself a little tea.

01:43:09.270 --> 01:43:12.350
VIRGINIA: And then I just sat there and enjoyed the silence.

01:43:12.830 --> 01:43:15.870
VIRGINIA: And it was lovely and exactly what I needed.

01:43:18.550 --> 01:43:26.730
VIRGINIA: From there, I went back to my room and got my stuff ready to head back over to Magic Kingdom.

01:43:26.750 --> 01:43:35.870
VIRGINIA: But before I went over to Magic Kingdom, I really wanted to make sure that I got a chance to try the Enchanted Rose Lounge while I was there.

01:43:36.150 --> 01:43:38.590
VIRGINIA: And I didn't want to put it off and then not get around to it.

01:43:38.610 --> 01:43:44.510
VIRGINIA: So it was right around 3 o'clock anyway, which is when the Enchanted Rose opens.

01:43:45.050 --> 01:43:46.950
VIRGINIA: So I headed straight over there.

01:43:46.970 --> 01:43:52.190
VIRGINIA: I got the cocktail that had the Earl Grey tea in it.

01:43:53.830 --> 01:43:59.450
VIRGINIA: It was like a lavender fog, or I can't remember what it's called, but it was really good.

01:43:59.470 --> 01:44:02.130
VIRGINIA: A little sweet, but not overly sweet.

01:44:02.930 --> 01:44:10.470
VIRGINIA: I just had that, and then I did order, they had a couple little like munchies that you could order at that time.

01:44:10.950 --> 01:44:20.230
VIRGINIA: They do have some more substantial offerings that you can order in terms of appetizer type things, but they don't start serving those until a couple hours later.

01:44:20.310 --> 01:44:24.390
VIRGINIA: So the only options I had were some very small things.

01:44:24.410 --> 01:44:32.470
VIRGINIA: So I ordered the little bowl of nuts just to have a little protein and something to eat with the drink, so it wasn't just having a cocktail with nothing on my stomach.

01:44:34.350 --> 01:44:35.310
VIRGINIA: Just had the wine.

01:44:35.330 --> 01:44:37.570
VIRGINIA: The view was lovely out the window.

01:44:38.530 --> 01:44:40.090
VIRGINIA: The server was really nice.

01:44:40.410 --> 01:44:42.970
VIRGINIA: The ambiance of the bar is great.

01:44:43.410 --> 01:44:44.330
VIRGINIA: It's pricey.

01:44:44.530 --> 01:44:46.830
VIRGINIA: I can't remember exactly how much my drink was.

01:44:46.850 --> 01:44:49.410
VIRGINIA: I want to say it was like $18 maybe.

01:44:49.930 --> 01:44:53.310
VIRGINIA: And then the nuts were probably $8 or $9.

01:44:54.230 --> 01:44:55.850
VIRGINIA: So, you know, it's a splurge.

01:44:57.290 --> 01:45:11.550
VIRGINIA: But especially if I were there and I wanted to go have a drink before a date night or if I were there on a girls' trip and wanted to do like a little fancier drink, I would definitely recommend it to anybody, especially if you're in that area anyway.

01:45:12.570 --> 01:45:17.550
VIRGINIA: From there, I just walked over and hopped right onto the monorail and back to the Magic Kingdom.

01:45:17.810 --> 01:45:29.030
VIRGINIA: And I will say that using the monorail is always a pleasure, but using it from the Grand Floridian where the Magic Kingdom is the very next stop was super convenient.

01:45:29.190 --> 01:45:29.730
VIRGINIA: I loved it.

01:45:31.210 --> 01:45:47.850
VIRGINIA: At the Magic Kingdom, because I was hungry, I headed over to the cheeseburger, spring roll booth, stand, whatever you call it, grabbed some of those, and I went back to the area that's kind of right behind the Christmas shop.

01:45:47.870 --> 01:45:53.690
VIRGINIA: There's some chairs and benches and picnic table type things there that are usually not full of people.

01:45:54.510 --> 01:45:58.790
VIRGINIA: So I went over there because it's shady and I knew I'd probably be able to find a spot to sit.

01:45:58.810 --> 01:46:03.550
VIRGINIA: So I sat there and had my spring roll.

01:46:04.370 --> 01:46:12.970
VIRGINIA: And while I was sitting there, Cinderella randomly came and got set herself up at the gazebo to take photos.

01:46:13.030 --> 01:46:22.190
VIRGINIA: So I saw her walk in there, and so I was able to jump up because I was done with my spring rolls and be second in line to take a picture with her.

01:46:22.210 --> 01:46:29.630
VIRGINIA: And then from there, this is when all of my stacked lightning lanes really started to happen.

01:46:29.650 --> 01:46:37.210
VIRGINIA: So I had been building these up, letting Standby Skipper book the entire morning and just kept modifying the times.

01:46:37.730 --> 01:46:41.250
VIRGINIA: So from there, I went and did a lightning lane for Space Mountain.

01:46:42.230 --> 01:46:56.950
VIRGINIA: It was super hot, so on my way over to walk to my lightning lane for Big Thunder Mountain, because that is a long walk, I did stop and grab a frozen Coke from the luncheon pad on my way and just drank that as I walked over to Big Thunder Mountain.

01:46:57.810 --> 01:47:07.810
VIRGINIA: From there, I did my lightning lane at Jungle Cruise and then headed over for a lightning lane at Enchanted Tales with Belle, which is always fun.

01:47:07.830 --> 01:47:17.470
VIRGINIA: I did not get picked to play any parts, but it was really fun to watch the kids get into it and to watch all of the magic that they make happen there.

01:47:18.970 --> 01:47:31.250
VIRGINIA: From there, I decided I was ready for dinner and just to be simple about it, I decided that I would mobile order the chicken waffle sandwich from Sleepy Hollow.

01:47:31.730 --> 01:47:32.730
VIRGINIA: And that was nice.

01:47:33.030 --> 01:47:36.770
VIRGINIA: I don't think I'd ever had that particular sandwich before.

01:47:36.790 --> 01:47:38.530
VIRGINIA: It was fine.

01:47:38.550 --> 01:47:47.610
VIRGINIA: It had a little bit of a kick to it, which I do like, but I mean, I shouldn't compare it to the Nutella waffle that I tend to get there for breakfast.

01:47:47.810 --> 01:47:50.970
VIRGINIA: But between the two, the Nutella waffle is just off the charts good.

01:47:51.050 --> 01:47:51.930
VIRGINIA: And this was fine.

01:47:52.130 --> 01:47:54.410
VIRGINIA: The chicken waffle was fine.

01:47:55.070 --> 01:47:55.950
VIRGINIA: It was filling.

01:47:56.030 --> 01:47:57.090
VIRGINIA: It was tasty.

01:47:57.990 --> 01:48:01.410
VIRGINIA: I would get it again if I was hungry, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get it.

01:48:02.930 --> 01:48:10.590
VIRGINIA: From there, I went over into the pins store because at this point I realized that the Grand Floridian was out of all of their Grand Floridian pins.

01:48:10.610 --> 01:48:16.450
VIRGINIA: And they told me over there that usually when they're out, they have no idea how long it will be until they get a restock.

01:48:17.650 --> 01:48:22.230
VIRGINIA: And I knew because they told me that they were also out at the pins store over at Disney Springs.

01:48:22.730 --> 01:48:26.090
VIRGINIA: So I thought, well, I'll just check the pins store in Magic Kingdom.

01:48:26.230 --> 01:48:27.950
VIRGINIA: They did not have one there either.

01:48:28.210 --> 01:48:33.310
VIRGINIA: And long story short, I did not end up getting a Grand Floridian pin the whole time I was there.

01:48:34.350 --> 01:48:40.810
VIRGINIA: I ended up taking some time to sit and FaceTime my husband for a bit.

01:48:41.230 --> 01:48:45.890
VIRGINIA: I ended up taking some photos by the water there.

01:48:48.210 --> 01:48:52.510
VIRGINIA: And then from there, it was time for my lightning lane for Haunted Mansion.

01:48:53.150 --> 01:48:58.250
VIRGINIA: After that, it was kind of getting late, so I did my individual Tron lightning lane.

01:48:58.550 --> 01:49:02.670
VIRGINIA: I checked in at 840, and I was off by 9 o'clock.

01:49:02.670 --> 01:49:10.330
VIRGINIA: So it was, maybe it was because of that time of night, it was quicker, but it's also an individual lightning lane.

01:49:10.350 --> 01:49:18.790
VIRGINIA: So it was quicker by 10 minutes to do that individual lightning lane than compared to the virtual queue that I had done that morning.

01:49:19.650 --> 01:49:25.150
VIRGINIA: Then I got myself situated to watch Happily Ever After, which starts at 920 currently.

01:49:25.470 --> 01:49:27.030
VIRGINIA: And so I found a spot.

01:49:27.210 --> 01:49:27.850
VIRGINIA: It was fine.

01:49:27.870 --> 01:49:31.310
VIRGINIA: It was not the greatest spot in the world, but I didn't really care.

01:49:31.330 --> 01:49:32.130
VIRGINIA: I just wanted to watch it.

01:49:32.730 --> 01:49:37.750
VIRGINIA: And I ended up, that was the only time I ended up standing and actually watching Happily Ever After.

01:49:38.210 --> 01:49:41.230
VIRGINIA: I will say Happily Ever After is my favorite fireworks show.

01:49:41.450 --> 01:49:42.030
VIRGINIA: I love it.

01:49:42.110 --> 01:49:43.250
VIRGINIA: It makes me emotional.

01:49:43.710 --> 01:49:46.610
VIRGINIA: But I also, I hate the huge crowds.

01:49:47.590 --> 01:49:55.070
VIRGINIA: I have done the dessert party before for a different fireworks show.

01:49:55.410 --> 01:49:58.890
VIRGINIA: Or was it for Happily Ever After?

01:49:59.570 --> 01:50:03.790
VIRGINIA: Anyway, I did a dessert party at one point for fireworks.

01:50:03.870 --> 01:50:05.030
VIRGINIA: I loved that experience.

01:50:05.050 --> 01:50:18.910
VIRGINIA: It's really pricey, but you do get a great spot to watch and it's not super crowded because it's limited to the people who have the dessert party tickets, but it's very expensive and I was not about to purchase that for just myself for this particular trip.

01:50:18.930 --> 01:50:34.030
VIRGINIA: So I watched it and I thought if I want to watch it again, I will honestly just watch the version they have on Disney Plus because it's professionally recorded and nobody's in your way and that's fine with me as long as I get to see it live one time.

01:50:35.530 --> 01:50:44.410
VIRGINIA: From there, I did have a lightning lane scheduled for Peter Pan, but I decided to end up skipping that one because it was late.

01:50:44.510 --> 01:50:54.430
VIRGINIA: The blister situation was not much better yet, and so I just didn't feel like walking all the way from where I was in front of the castle over there.

01:50:54.450 --> 01:51:02.650
VIRGINIA: So I kind of just sat down where I was because I was like right by a little wall and waited for the crowd to thin out a little bit.

01:51:02.710 --> 01:51:12.290
VIRGINIA: And then once they had thinned out, I did some photo pass with the castle all lit up pretty behind me, and from there just headed back to the Grand Floridian.

01:51:13.250 --> 01:51:19.030
VIRGINIA: So now it is Wednesday, May the 17th, and it is my last full day.

01:51:19.050 --> 01:51:22.010
VIRGINIA: I ended up purchasing Genie Plus.

01:51:22.030 --> 01:51:28.230
VIRGINIA: It was $18 that day, and I got an individual lightning lane for Flight of Passage, which was $13.

01:51:29.310 --> 01:51:30.850
VIRGINIA: I was up and at them early.

01:51:31.310 --> 01:51:37.190
VIRGINIA: I got to the Animal Kingdom at 8.30 right in time, sort of for early entry.

01:51:38.270 --> 01:51:44.190
VIRGINIA: And because I had that Flight of Passage, I did not need to worry about heading over there.

01:51:44.230 --> 01:51:49.670
VIRGINIA: And then I had Standby Skipper doing all my work for my Genie Pluses, so I didn't even worry about that.

01:51:50.010 --> 01:51:55.350
VIRGINIA: So I just headed straight back to Everest, which is what my son Alex and I love to do first thing in the morning.

01:51:55.730 --> 01:52:01.870
VIRGINIA: I did it twice in a row with no weight and requested the very back row both times.

01:52:02.490 --> 01:52:06.210
VIRGINIA: If he had been with me, we would have probably ridden it a third time.

01:52:06.530 --> 01:52:09.970
VIRGINIA: Last time we were there, I think we did it four times in a row, and that was too much for me.

01:52:09.990 --> 01:52:12.390
VIRGINIA: I could handle three, but four was too much.

01:52:12.890 --> 01:52:15.390
VIRGINIA: But this time, twice, I was like, okay, I'm good.

01:52:16.210 --> 01:52:22.310
VIRGINIA: And from there, I headed over to the Joffre Stair in Asia and got myself an iced latte.

01:52:22.330 --> 01:52:24.230
VIRGINIA: And then right there, there's a quick service.

01:52:25.710 --> 01:52:29.630
VIRGINIA: And I can't remember what quick service that is.

01:52:29.650 --> 01:52:32.290
VIRGINIA: It's literally the one right across from the Joffre's cart.

01:52:32.470 --> 01:52:37.290
VIRGINIA: Anywho, I ended up getting an egg white breakfast sandwich, which was not great.

01:52:37.390 --> 01:52:38.750
VIRGINIA: It was whatever.

01:52:38.810 --> 01:52:39.870
VIRGINIA: It was protein.

01:52:39.930 --> 01:52:45.510
VIRGINIA: It was nothing amazing, but it was something that was not completely sugary to go with my latte.

01:52:46.390 --> 01:52:50.010
VIRGINIA: From there, I had a Lightning Lane set up for Safari.

01:52:50.710 --> 01:52:59.230
VIRGINIA: And after I was done with my Lightning Lane for Safari, I went ahead and grabbed the corn that is right over by the Safari because it is so good.

01:52:59.850 --> 01:53:01.050
VIRGINIA: It's not super filling.

01:53:01.090 --> 01:53:01.690
VIRGINIA: It's corn.

01:53:01.930 --> 01:53:02.950
VIRGINIA: It's got the juice.

01:53:03.450 --> 01:53:04.010
VIRGINIA: Oh my God.

01:53:04.030 --> 01:53:04.910
VIRGINIA: I am delirious.

01:53:04.930 --> 01:53:05.450
VIRGINIA: Sorry, guys.

01:53:05.470 --> 01:53:06.390
VIRGINIA: I am so tired.

01:53:07.030 --> 01:53:11.070
VIRGINIA: I've just been running around like crazy this week.

01:53:11.090 --> 01:53:17.690
VIRGINIA: So sorry if I'm delirious and making corn jokes, but anyway, the corn is so good.

01:53:17.710 --> 01:53:21.410
VIRGINIA: And it's the fact that it has the African spices on it, which make it amazing.

01:53:21.830 --> 01:53:23.330
VIRGINIA: So I was right there anyway.

01:53:23.350 --> 01:53:25.350
VIRGINIA: I knew it wasn't gonna fill me up too much.

01:53:25.370 --> 01:53:28.550
VIRGINIA: I went ahead and grabbed it because is it ever too early for corn?

01:53:28.850 --> 01:53:31.810
VIRGINIA: No, the answer is no, it's not.

01:53:32.230 --> 01:53:34.850
VIRGINIA: From there, it was starting to get really hot already.

01:53:34.870 --> 01:53:49.330
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and hopped into Starbucks and grabbed a strawberry acai refresher, walked behind the tree of life on some of the trails they have there to see if I could get some pictures with the tree behind me.

01:53:49.850 --> 01:53:52.870
VIRGINIA: And then also just to get a little bit of shade.

01:53:53.750 --> 01:53:59.890
VIRGINIA: From there, where I exited, it was right near the photo pass with Mickey and Minnie in their safari gear.

01:54:00.450 --> 01:54:08.270
VIRGINIA: And it was only a 20 minute standby posted wait time, but it actually, I didn't think it would take that long because I could see that there was no line.

01:54:08.690 --> 01:54:12.290
VIRGINIA: So I went ahead and got in there and it only took about 10 minutes or so to get out.

01:54:12.310 --> 01:54:21.430
VIRGINIA: And that reminds me that the photo pass that got uploaded to my account is actually the person before me, not me.

01:54:21.950 --> 01:54:39.990
VIRGINIA: So for anybody who's out there, if you have photo pass, it's kind of good to keep a sense of what photo passes you're doing and when, because if there are ever any that are missing from your account, you can use the photo pass email address, and I will find that and put it in the show notes, to email them.

01:54:40.010 --> 01:54:47.070
VIRGINIA: And if you're specific about, oh, it was between this time and this time, here's what I was wearing, that sort of thing.

01:54:47.930 --> 01:55:15.250
VIRGINIA: So I have the photos of the people that went right before me, so all I have to do is basically email them and say, I received these photos that were taken at this time, I was actually the person right after them, here's a photo of what I was wearing that day, and just put a different photo pass picture up there to show them my outfit, and then it usually will take a day or two, and then they will notify you that your correct pictures have been added to your account.

01:55:16.150 --> 01:55:24.570
VIRGINIA: So that and then there are times where I notice, especially with Guardians of the Galaxy, that it will not sense your magic van and do your picture every single time.

01:55:24.950 --> 01:55:34.390
VIRGINIA: So I usually try to make a note of what time I'm writing Guardians of the Galaxy so that if I know that a photo was not uploaded, then I know that I need to email them about it.

01:55:34.410 --> 01:55:52.390
VIRGINIA: So what I do is as I know that I'm supposed to expect a photo, if it's not there within a couple hours, I just open my notes app and make a little list of all the photos I know I'm missing and approximately what time I took it and the date, just so I can reference what outfit I was wearing.

01:55:52.430 --> 01:56:01.690
VIRGINIA: And then after my trip is over, I do individual emails for each picture I know I'm missing so they don't get confused and they can just address each individual issue.

01:56:01.690 --> 01:56:04.830
VIRGINIA: So that's my recommendation for you if you ever notice photos are missing.

01:56:04.830 --> 01:56:08.070
VIRGINIA: And they generally are able to take care of them pretty quickly that way.

01:56:09.550 --> 01:56:11.890
VIRGINIA: So I did my photo with Mickey and Minnie.

01:56:11.910 --> 01:56:14.870
VIRGINIA: Hopefully, I will see that soon because I still haven't emailed them yet.

01:56:16.970 --> 01:56:23.250
VIRGINIA: Then I went over and watched the Finding Nemo stage show, which I think is so good.

01:56:23.490 --> 01:56:30.550
VIRGINIA: And I live in New York City and I see Broadway shows and I'm not disappointed anytime I see one of the stage shows at Disney.

01:56:30.570 --> 01:56:33.330
VIRGINIA: And Finding Nemo is probably my favorite one.

01:56:34.630 --> 01:56:44.030
VIRGINIA: I just think the quality of the puppetry is so good and they really do a nice job of condensing the story of the movie into one solid show.

01:56:44.490 --> 01:56:52.590
VIRGINIA: And then my favorite performer usually, and I've seen multiple people do it because they do have different people that play it at different times.

01:56:53.830 --> 01:56:58.790
VIRGINIA: Just because they do the show so often, it's not the same person the entire week, usually it's divided up.

01:57:00.010 --> 01:57:04.370
VIRGINIA: But every person I've ever seen play the role of Crush, literally crushes it.

01:57:05.770 --> 01:57:10.750
VIRGINIA: They're just like, it's a high tenor role and they just do an amazing job.

01:57:10.770 --> 01:57:13.950
VIRGINIA: Like they hit notes and I'm just like, oh my God, that was good.

01:57:15.010 --> 01:57:32.630
VIRGINIA: So if you have not taken the time to go sit and watch the Finding Nemo show, it's a nice little, I think it's 20 minutes or so, it's air conditioned and it's not one that you need to line up for unless you really care about sitting right down front, which there's so many good seats in the theater.

01:57:32.650 --> 01:57:33.850
VIRGINIA: You don't have to worry about that.

01:57:33.870 --> 01:57:36.470
VIRGINIA: It's one that you can walk up right before the show starts.

01:57:36.490 --> 01:57:51.930
VIRGINIA: In fact, I walked up right as the show was starting and they were yelling like last call before the doors close and I just walked in and they had just started the first song and I just, they had people with flashlights pointing you where to go and I just sat down and watched the whole thing.

01:57:51.950 --> 01:57:53.710
VIRGINIA: It was so good as usual.

01:57:54.950 --> 01:58:03.850
VIRGINIA: From there, I went over to Ride Dinosaur and did that with a five minute standby wait, seeing my favorite pre-show scientist, Dr.

01:58:03.870 --> 01:58:04.170
VIRGINIA: Seeker.

01:58:04.330 --> 01:58:10.430
VIRGINIA: He's amazing and then it was time for my lightning lane for Navi River Journey.

01:58:10.970 --> 01:58:20.250
VIRGINIA: I do think it's important to get a lightning lane when it comes to Navi River Journey because for whatever reason, that line always gets really, really long.

01:58:21.290 --> 01:58:28.130
VIRGINIA: So I recommend getting an individual lightning lane for Flight of Passage and making sure you do a regular lightning lane for Navi River Journey.

01:58:29.190 --> 01:58:37.330
VIRGINIA: Immediately after Navi River Journey, it was time for my Flight of Passage individual lightning lane, so that was nice that I could just walk right next door, do that.

01:58:37.890 --> 01:58:48.670
VIRGINIA: From there, I had put myself onto the walkup list for Nomad Lounge and while I was on Flight of Passage, I got the notification that it was time and you're supposed to get back in a certain amount of time.

01:58:48.770 --> 01:58:53.490
VIRGINIA: So by the time I walked up, it was 15 minutes passed when I was supposed to be there.

01:58:55.070 --> 01:59:02.850
VIRGINIA: But I walked up and there was somebody else that was in the same situation and they were kind of told, okay, you can hang out here, we'll try to get you seated as soon as possible.

01:59:03.210 --> 01:59:10.210
VIRGINIA: Because I was only one person, they were like, if you wanna go right in and sit at the bar, there's open seats there right now.

01:59:10.530 --> 01:59:12.750
VIRGINIA: And I was like, I don't care, I'll sit at the bar, that's fine.

01:59:13.970 --> 01:59:20.230
VIRGINIA: So I ordered the Nomad Spice Trader Classic, which was delicious.

01:59:20.950 --> 01:59:25.470
VIRGINIA: And I had a lunch that consisted of the bread service and the churros.

01:59:25.550 --> 01:59:28.290
VIRGINIA: So I was really carb loading this day.

01:59:28.730 --> 01:59:30.510
VIRGINIA: They were both delicious as usual.

01:59:30.610 --> 01:59:37.810
VIRGINIA: They had the strawberry sauce and the vanilla sauce, both with the churros, which was nice to have both.

01:59:38.010 --> 01:59:39.550
VIRGINIA: Could not finish all the churros though.

01:59:39.570 --> 01:59:45.030
VIRGINIA: It was just between, because I did clean my plate with the bread service and then I ate all of the churros, but two.

01:59:45.490 --> 01:59:49.130
VIRGINIA: And then there was this couple that was next to me.

01:59:49.150 --> 01:59:52.930
VIRGINIA: And I think they were engaged and they were on a huge family trip.

01:59:52.950 --> 01:59:57.310
VIRGINIA: And they told me they were taking a break from the big family and they were just taking a moment for themselves.

01:59:57.830 --> 02:00:00.390
VIRGINIA: And I was like, this might be weird, but I have two churros left.

02:00:00.410 --> 02:00:01.370
VIRGINIA: Would you like these?

02:00:02.130 --> 02:00:04.590
VIRGINIA: Because it feels weird to share food with strangers like that.

02:00:05.430 --> 02:00:07.490
VIRGINIA: But they were like, okay.

02:00:07.510 --> 02:00:11.230
VIRGINIA: So they took my churros and they even, I guess they had noticed that it was not double.

02:01:47.050 --> 02:02:00.770
VIRGINIA: So, I ended up going back to my room and just kind of sitting on my little patio balcony thing and eating a snack and just sitting and reading my book and stuff.

02:02:00.910 --> 02:02:11.090
VIRGINIA: And about 30 minutes later, I noticed that the lifeguards seemed to be congregating again over at the pool because I could see where they entered directly from my balcony.

02:02:12.030 --> 02:02:14.510
VIRGINIA: So, I went ahead and headed into the pool.

02:02:14.530 --> 02:02:28.630
VIRGINIA: I went to the pool bar, and for dinner, I ended up getting just a salad from the pool bar, which was lackluster, but was nice to eat some vegetables and some grilled chicken instead of something unhealthy.

02:02:29.190 --> 02:02:34.530
VIRGINIA: But I did pair that with a margarita, so healthy on one hand, not healthy on the other.

02:02:36.390 --> 02:02:50.410
VIRGINIA: But just sat there, ate my salad, drank my margarita, read my book, went, sat with my feet in the pool to help with my poor feet, and just sat there and read my book.

02:02:50.430 --> 02:02:55.370
VIRGINIA: Luckily, my Kindle is waterproof, so I just sat there, didn't worry about anything.

02:02:56.270 --> 02:03:04.370
VIRGINIA: At about 7:30 p.m., I decided I was ready to head back over to the Magic Kingdom because it was the extra hours for the deluxe guests.

02:03:04.890 --> 02:03:16.910
VIRGINIA: I had been stacking the lightning lanes that Standby Skipper was booking for me, modifying them, so I got back over to Magic Kingdom and just back to back did a bunch of lightning lanes.

02:03:16.930 --> 02:03:31.370
VIRGINIA: So I had a lightning lane for Peter Pan, then a lightning lane for Pirates, then one for Big Thunder, then I had booked one for Winnie the Pooh because don't disregard Winnie the Pooh.

02:03:31.570 --> 02:03:33.130
VIRGINIA: I think it's a really fun ride.

02:03:33.150 --> 02:03:43.890
VIRGINIA: If you have not done it or if you just walked past it because you think it's a kids ride, I mean, it is a kids ride, but I love going through the first doors and seeing the little nod to Mr.

02:03:43.910 --> 02:03:44.790
VIRGINIA: Toad's Wild Ride.

02:03:44.810 --> 02:03:51.090
VIRGINIA: So if you don't know the first set of doors you go through, if you look over to your left, there's a picture of Mr.

02:03:51.110 --> 02:03:59.030
VIRGINIA: Toad handing the deed of his property over to Owl, kind of signifying that that used to be the Mr.

02:03:59.050 --> 02:04:02.810
VIRGINIA: Toad's Wild Ride and it had been converted and so it was like passing the torch kind of thing.

02:04:02.830 --> 02:04:08.870
VIRGINIA: And so I always like little Disney Parks history there that I think is cool to always look over and acknowledge.

02:04:09.410 --> 02:04:23.350
VIRGINIA: And then there's a room where it makes you feel like your little honeypot is floating and there's this one room where it's really trippy and you think I've never done acid in my life, but this must be what it feels like because it's all neon and crazy.

02:04:24.150 --> 02:04:28.270
VIRGINIA: There's a room where Tigger is making you bounce so your little honeypot is bouncing, it's fine.

02:04:29.030 --> 02:04:30.650
VIRGINIA: So do it if you haven't done it in a long time.

02:04:31.950 --> 02:04:41.450
VIRGINIA: From there, I did a lightning lane on Space Mountain and then I walked onto Buzz, again, not to get my galactic hero status renewed someday.

02:04:41.650 --> 02:04:44.170
VIRGINIA: Shakes fist at this guy.

02:04:44.690 --> 02:04:49.310
VIRGINIA: From there, my virtual queue for Tron was called at about 9.30.

02:04:49.330 --> 02:04:52.410
VIRGINIA: I was able to get that virtual queue from the 6 p.m.

02:04:52.430 --> 02:04:55.170
VIRGINIA: drop since I was part of the Deluxe After Hours.

02:04:56.410 --> 02:05:04.470
VIRGINIA: I showed up to that virtual queue at about 10.15 and was off of the ride by 10.50.

02:05:05.530 --> 02:05:10.310
VIRGINIA: From then, I know I had that salad by the pool for dinner, but I was hungry again.

02:05:10.330 --> 02:05:14.290
VIRGINIA: The salad was not super big and I was hungry.

02:05:14.310 --> 02:05:22.050
VIRGINIA: So I ended up going over to the Lunching Pad, which now this is the third time on this trip I've stopped at the Lunching Pad and I hardly ever stopped at the Lunching Pad.

02:05:22.070 --> 02:05:26.170
VIRGINIA: So it's a little funny that this has been my Lunching Pad themed trip.

02:05:27.090 --> 02:05:31.390
VIRGINIA: But they had a Banh Mi hot dog.

02:05:31.410 --> 02:05:43.330
VIRGINIA: So Banh Mi is, like has cilantro on it and it's a really flavorful profile that I just wanted to try with the hot dog.

02:05:43.570 --> 02:05:44.390
VIRGINIA: It was really nice.

02:05:45.630 --> 02:05:48.190
VIRGINIA: And I got another Coke Icy because it was still hot.

02:05:48.210 --> 02:05:50.150
VIRGINIA: Even though it was dark out, it was hot.

02:05:50.210 --> 02:05:52.770
VIRGINIA: So I got the Coke Icy, it was really refreshing.

02:05:53.290 --> 02:05:59.390
VIRGINIA: Walked onto Buzz one more time in hopes that I would get to collect a hero and it did not happen.

02:06:01.450 --> 02:06:07.770
VIRGINIA: From there, for some reason, I was just really in the mood for an ice cream cone, like a pure ice cream cone.

02:06:08.430 --> 02:06:11.230
VIRGINIA: And I'm not normally somebody who eats ice cream cone.

02:06:11.270 --> 02:06:13.790
VIRGINIA: Usually if I have the option, I always opt for a cup.

02:06:14.170 --> 02:06:14.950
VIRGINIA: I prefer it.

02:06:14.990 --> 02:06:20.830
VIRGINIA: It's not as messy, but I just really wanted ice cream on a cone.

02:06:21.570 --> 02:06:26.150
VIRGINIA: And so I went over and I can't remember what is the name of the place.

02:06:27.290 --> 02:06:29.430
VIRGINIA: Is it called Friars Nook, maybe?

02:06:29.450 --> 02:06:35.110
VIRGINIA: It's back where you can buy the tachos, but they have ice cream there.

02:06:35.130 --> 02:06:38.510
VIRGINIA: So I got a vanilla chocolate swirl on a cone.

02:06:39.030 --> 02:06:41.370
VIRGINIA: And then I found a nice little spot to sit.

02:06:41.390 --> 02:06:52.850
VIRGINIA: There's those little sort of like archways behind the castle that are clearly supposed to be kind of like part of the castle, but they're nowhere near the castle and it kind of helps transition the land.

02:06:53.950 --> 02:06:58.810
VIRGINIA: I don't know if you know what I'm talking about at all, but it's like pieces of the castle that are out there.

02:06:59.830 --> 02:07:01.690
VIRGINIA: And there's some wall that you can sit on.

02:07:01.710 --> 02:07:07.370
VIRGINIA: So I sat there just because it was a nice view of the back of the castle and I ate my ice cream.

02:07:07.470 --> 02:07:10.770
VIRGINIA: And then from there, I was right by seven dwarfs.

02:07:10.790 --> 02:07:12.230
VIRGINIA: It was quite late at this point.

02:07:13.110 --> 02:07:15.690
VIRGINIA: The extra hours were supposed to be done at midnight.

02:07:16.270 --> 02:07:23.390
VIRGINIA: It was 1148 and I hopped into the seven dwarfs line and I was off the ride by 1159.

02:07:24.090 --> 02:07:31.410
VIRGINIA: From there, I realized that I left my mini ears in the little pocket in the seven dwarfs mine train car.

02:07:31.430 --> 02:07:36.430
VIRGINIA: But luckily, I realized as soon as I had gotten through the exit gate, so I immediately turned around and told a cast member.

02:07:37.110 --> 02:07:40.150
VIRGINIA: And I remembered what car number I had been in.

02:07:40.170 --> 02:07:43.330
VIRGINIA: So I was able to tell her and they just waited till it cycled back through.

02:07:43.490 --> 02:07:55.690
VIRGINIA: She reached in, they were still there, grabbed them for me, which was nice because these were the cute ones that are black, with like black satin with black polka dots and they have a little bit of a off center bow.

02:07:56.630 --> 02:07:59.790
VIRGINIA: They're fairly new, that's why I'm describing them because you might know what they look like.

02:07:59.830 --> 02:08:11.290
VIRGINIA: But I had purchased them on my last trip and this was the first day I was ever wearing this particular pair, so I was like, oh my God, if I debuted these ears today and then I've lost them, I will be not very happy.

02:08:12.130 --> 02:08:18.830
VIRGINIA: So anyway, I retrieved my ears, went back, hopped on the Monorail to go back to the Grand Floridian.

02:08:19.390 --> 02:08:26.350
VIRGINIA: Everybody else that got on the Monorail ended up getting off at the Ticket and Transportation Center.

02:08:26.370 --> 02:08:38.130
VIRGINIA: So I ended up riding in my very own Monorail car between the Ticket and Transportation Center and the Grand Floridian, which was kind of cool.

02:08:38.630 --> 02:08:41.530
VIRGINIA: So now we are finally at Thursday, May 18th.

02:08:41.530 --> 02:08:51.450
VIRGINIA: It was my final day, my departure day, but I did not need to be at the Grand Floridian for my Mears pick up until 4.30.

02:08:51.450 --> 02:08:55.570
VIRGINIA: So I had plenty of the day and this day was just amazing.

02:08:56.070 --> 02:09:03.270
VIRGINIA: I decided that because it was my final day, I just wanted to be really relaxed about it and I did not want to prioritize rides at all.

02:09:03.950 --> 02:09:05.430
VIRGINIA: So I slept late.

02:09:05.470 --> 02:09:17.490
VIRGINIA: I got up at about 9.45 after being out late the night before, got myself packed up, took my stuff over to Bell Services just to have them store it until I came back and needed it.

02:09:19.250 --> 02:09:28.970
VIRGINIA: And after I got my stuff with Bell Services, that was right about 11 o'clock, I hopped on the monorail, which was there right away, and I was in the Magic Kingdom by 10 after 11.

02:09:29.650 --> 02:09:34.210
VIRGINIA: So very quick, went straight to Starbucks to get my cold brew.

02:09:34.970 --> 02:09:41.830
VIRGINIA: And then I headed over to Sleepy Hollow to get the Nutella Waffle, which I do like to have for breakfast, and they serve it all day now.

02:09:41.930 --> 02:09:51.250
VIRGINIA: So I was able to have that as my brunch sort of thing, because at that point, it was definitely almost lunchtime, but I had not had anything to eat yet.

02:09:51.270 --> 02:10:05.730
VIRGINIA: So, and with that Nutella Waffle, I sat there at Sleepy Hollow and I enjoyed my iced coffee, and I had my Nutella Waffle and I read my Kindle, and it was heaven on earth.

02:10:06.350 --> 02:10:10.030
VIRGINIA: I highly recommend doing that sort of thing.

02:10:10.670 --> 02:10:26.790
VIRGINIA: Even if you're not on a solo trip, if you just have an opportunity, at least at one point in your trip, to just get some food and a drink and sit, and either just read a book or just people watch, or just like not be on your phone, it's nice.

02:10:26.810 --> 02:10:34.350
VIRGINIA: I just feel you get to soak up the atmosphere, and it just felt very luxurious because you don't often get time to do that kind of thing.

02:10:35.530 --> 02:10:40.850
VIRGINIA: From there, the Festival of Fantasy Parade was happening by, so I went ahead and watched that.

02:10:41.270 --> 02:11:03.410
VIRGINIA: I really wanted to do the Hall of Presidents because I have not done it in a while, and I thought I should do it while I'm here, but then the Fantasy Festival came by, and I walked back up to go into Hall of Presidents right when I knew the show was starting, and I did not realize this, but they rope off the entrance a few minutes before, and they won't let you in.

02:11:03.890 --> 02:11:14.990
VIRGINIA: So, you know, when I walked up, she asked if somebody in my party was already inside, and I suppose if I had said yes, she would have let me in, but I said no, and she's like, well, then you can't come in.

02:11:15.010 --> 02:11:21.150
VIRGINIA: And I was like, what's the difference between one person coming in because I'm by myself or one person coming in because you know my family's in there?

02:11:21.970 --> 02:11:25.830
VIRGINIA: But regardless, I said, that's fine, I'll come back later.

02:11:26.110 --> 02:11:31.410
VIRGINIA: Spoiler alert, I did not end up coming back later because I got to do another thing.

02:11:31.530 --> 02:11:39.050
VIRGINIA: But anyway, from there, because I was kind of nearby, I decided to go ahead and do PhilharMagic, which I love.

02:11:39.410 --> 02:11:41.010
VIRGINIA: That was about 12.30.

02:11:41.570 --> 02:12:03.450
VIRGINIA: In the little store that you come out into after PhilharMagic, I found a really cute Small World mug that I think I've seen before, but I generally on every trip will purchase a mug much to my husband's chagrin because I have so many Disney mugs and limited space because I live in New York City and I keep making promises that I'm gonna weed out my mug collection.

02:12:05.030 --> 02:12:07.190
VIRGINIA: So yeah, I need to get to that.

02:12:07.210 --> 02:12:09.530
VIRGINIA: But anyway, the Small World mug was to die for.

02:12:09.550 --> 02:12:13.790
VIRGINIA: I had to get it and so it lives here with me now.

02:12:15.350 --> 02:12:25.550
VIRGINIA: From there, I walked over to Big Top Souvenirs because sometimes they have some cool stuff in there and I hadn't been over there yet, so I just meandered over there.

02:12:26.250 --> 02:12:38.230
VIRGINIA: And I should say that by this point, my feet were still not 100% but they were feeling so much more normal now, so I was actually able to be walking around at a fairly normal speed and be comfortable.

02:12:38.350 --> 02:12:49.710
VIRGINIA: And in the prior days, not only was I having to bandage everything up, but I was also taking Advil just to numb myself a little bit because of it, because it was the worst I've ever had it.

02:12:50.610 --> 02:12:57.350
VIRGINIA: So I did not find anything at Big Top Souvenirs, but it was nice to just browse around over there.

02:12:57.890 --> 02:13:09.790
VIRGINIA: From there, I was ready for a snack at that point in the day, and I was wandering past the place where they sell the, I think it's the Cheshire Cafe, where they sell the Cheshire Cattails.

02:13:10.410 --> 02:13:11.350
VIRGINIA: I did not get that.

02:13:11.370 --> 02:13:12.310
VIRGINIA: I've had that before.

02:13:12.330 --> 02:13:13.470
VIRGINIA: It's good.

02:13:14.010 --> 02:13:15.070
VIRGINIA: People rave about it.

02:13:15.190 --> 02:13:17.890
VIRGINIA: It's a chocolate croissant, basically.

02:13:18.790 --> 02:13:24.070
VIRGINIA: But it's definitely tasty, but I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary.

02:13:24.450 --> 02:13:31.030
VIRGINIA: I did see that they had the pepper jack pretzel there, and I've heard good things about this stuffed pretzel.

02:13:31.050 --> 02:13:33.350
VIRGINIA: And so I thought, well, I might as well try it.

02:13:35.230 --> 02:13:38.610
VIRGINIA: And I would say I don't think I'll be getting it again.

02:13:38.730 --> 02:13:46.090
VIRGINIA: It was kind of dry, and I expected there to be more pepper jack cheese in the middle, and there was not a whole lot in there.

02:13:46.110 --> 02:13:48.010
VIRGINIA: So it was kind of a disappointment.

02:13:48.710 --> 02:13:51.230
VIRGINIA: So we'll not be back for that.

02:13:51.250 --> 02:13:58.890
VIRGINIA: I think if I'm at Cheshire Cafe, I will opt for the more predictable but delicious Cheshire Cat tail.

02:13:59.310 --> 02:14:02.910
VIRGINIA: From there, I kind of wanted to start to make my way out of the park.

02:14:02.910 --> 02:14:15.050
VIRGINIA: Even though I still had plenty of time, I just really wanted this exit from my trip to feel not rushed and relaxed and calm and able to just make my last minutes of magic.

02:14:16.430 --> 02:14:27.870
VIRGINIA: So from there, I wandered over in front of the castle, and I had seen on Facebook that they had a special magic shot that you could do if you're looking dead on at the castle.

02:14:27.870 --> 02:14:41.350
VIRGINIA: Over on the left side, there's a PhotoPass person that's over there that if you get your picture taken there, they'll do a magic shot that makes it look like the castle and you are like a watercolor painting.

02:14:41.650 --> 02:14:45.690
VIRGINIA: And they also remove the other people who are in the background of your photo.

02:14:46.390 --> 02:14:48.790
VIRGINIA: And so I wanted to try that.

02:14:48.870 --> 02:14:49.670
VIRGINIA: It's kind of cool.

02:14:49.690 --> 02:14:52.630
VIRGINIA: They removed everybody and it's all magical looking.

02:14:52.710 --> 02:14:58.790
VIRGINIA: So I will download that one and include that in my Instagram photo so you can see what that looks like.

02:15:00.470 --> 02:15:06.330
VIRGINIA: Then I walked over to the people who do the super zoom magic shots.

02:15:06.370 --> 02:15:17.390
VIRGINIA: They are sort of in the hub grass area right over in front of like the ice cream parlor and those tables with the yellow umbrellas.

02:15:17.410 --> 02:15:19.130
VIRGINIA: There's like a hub grass area right there.

02:15:19.530 --> 02:15:30.430
VIRGINIA: And if you go over to those PhotoPass people, you can ask for the super zoom and they have you stand there and there's a camera on top of the building that zooms in and zooms out.

02:15:30.450 --> 02:15:33.790
VIRGINIA: It's a cool little effect there.

02:15:33.810 --> 02:15:34.590
VIRGINIA: So I got that.

02:15:34.830 --> 02:15:39.830
VIRGINIA: Then I leisurely walked through every single one of the Main Street shops.

02:15:40.730 --> 02:15:46.450
VIRGINIA: Then I ended up being at the front of the park in front of town hall area.

02:15:47.230 --> 02:15:51.970
VIRGINIA: And I still I had about 20 minutes before I wanted to leisurely walk out of the park.

02:15:51.990 --> 02:15:59.170
VIRGINIA: Again, I'm doing nothing in any hurry this day, but I knew I had 20 more minutes I could spend before I began my leisurely exit.

02:15:59.530 --> 02:16:03.530
VIRGINIA: And so I found a rocking chair in front of the Main Street theater.

02:16:04.150 --> 02:16:09.210
VIRGINIA: And I was able to kind of drag it back underneath where the shade was of that little porch area.

02:16:09.750 --> 02:16:15.710
VIRGINIA: And I sat there for 20 minutes in a rocking chair, reading my Kindle, listening to the sounds of Main Street.

02:16:16.570 --> 02:16:18.350
VIRGINIA: And it was amazing.

02:16:19.250 --> 02:16:23.950
VIRGINIA: From there, I headed out and got in line for the monorail.

02:16:24.150 --> 02:16:25.930
VIRGINIA: And I only had to wait about five minutes.

02:16:25.950 --> 02:16:28.370
VIRGINIA: So that left at about 2.35.

02:16:28.830 --> 02:16:37.890
VIRGINIA: I headed around back over to the Polynesian, so I could get the second dish that I wanted to get on my trip, which is the Thai coconut meatball dish.

02:16:38.650 --> 02:16:43.190
VIRGINIA: Again, I planned ahead and I had my resort mug in my park bag.

02:16:43.210 --> 02:16:49.430
VIRGINIA: So I was able to fill up my Coke Zero, which was my preferred soda of choice.

02:16:50.230 --> 02:16:57.450
VIRGINIA: And then from there, I walked up and went to the Kona Island Coffee Bar, which is right outside of Kona Cafe.

02:16:58.330 --> 02:17:02.190
VIRGINIA: And I got an iced coffee and one of their chocolate-covered strawberries.

02:17:02.850 --> 02:17:05.950
VIRGINIA: And it was chocolate-covered, it was coated in almonds.

02:17:06.110 --> 02:17:07.390
VIRGINIA: So it was delicious.

02:17:07.910 --> 02:17:10.810
VIRGINIA: I was able to find a window seat right there.

02:17:10.830 --> 02:17:13.710
VIRGINIA: It kind of looked out to where the monorail picks up.

02:17:13.730 --> 02:17:18.450
VIRGINIA: And just sat there and enjoyed my coffee and ate my chocolate-covered strawberry.

02:17:18.470 --> 02:17:20.790
VIRGINIA: And again, say it with me, read my Kindle.

02:17:21.410 --> 02:17:30.070
VIRGINIA: So this was a big day of just reading in different spots and drinking iced coffees and enjoying all of the ambiance.

02:17:31.370 --> 02:17:40.870
VIRGINIA: From there, I hopped on the monorail to the Grand Floridian for the last time, went into the pin shop one more time to ask, do you have any Grand Floridian pins?

02:17:40.930 --> 02:17:41.710
VIRGINIA: They did not.

02:17:42.510 --> 02:17:54.110
VIRGINIA: And then I was able to sit in the lobby on one of the couches for about 15 minutes and read my Kindle and enjoy listening to the piano player in there.

02:17:54.650 --> 02:17:59.110
VIRGINIA: And then it was time to go ahead and claim my bags from Bell Services and wait for the mirrors.

02:17:59.690 --> 02:18:09.310
VIRGINIA: So I got over there probably about, it was about 15 minutes or so before my scheduled pick up time.

02:18:09.330 --> 02:18:10.890
VIRGINIA: So about 4.15, I guess.

02:18:12.770 --> 02:18:14.710
VIRGINIA: And I was supposed to be picked up at 4.30.

02:18:15.310 --> 02:18:20.230
VIRGINIA: I was only waiting there a few minutes with my bags sitting on a bench when they pulled up early.

02:18:21.610 --> 02:18:31.170
VIRGINIA: So the driver got out, load out of my bags, and thanked me profusely for being there, not only on time, but early, because I was the only pick up at that location.

02:18:31.530 --> 02:18:33.630
VIRGINIA: So we were able to get out and head on the road.

02:18:33.650 --> 02:18:38.090
VIRGINIA: So we were out on the road by 4.20.

02:18:39.310 --> 02:18:41.130
VIRGINIA: And I was at the airport.

02:18:41.150 --> 02:18:42.930
VIRGINIA: I made a note by 5 p.m.

02:18:44.130 --> 02:18:49.670
VIRGINIA: From there, I think my return flight was supposed to be at 7.30.

02:18:51.330 --> 02:18:56.710
VIRGINIA: So I browsed the Disney Store there at the airport, browsed the Universal Store.

02:18:56.730 --> 02:18:59.850
VIRGINIA: At this point, as far as I knew, my flights were on time.

02:18:59.930 --> 02:19:12.270
VIRGINIA: And so I wanted to go ahead and get over to the gate because I am definitely one of those people who likes to go over, see the gate, make sure it still exists, and then go find food and stuff.

02:19:12.370 --> 02:19:14.530
VIRGINIA: And so I did that.

02:19:15.190 --> 02:19:21.110
VIRGINIA: I kind of wish I had not because, first of all, my flight ended up being delayed.

02:19:21.170 --> 02:19:22.830
VIRGINIA: I had no way of knowing that.

02:19:22.930 --> 02:19:32.190
VIRGINIA: But the food selection over in the gate area is so awful compared to the options that you have in the main part.

02:19:32.210 --> 02:19:48.490
VIRGINIA: And I think this is one of the downfalls of MCO, is that in Terminal A and B, there's food options and there's these Disney Store and Universal Store and other store options, but they're all in the part of the airport before you go through security.

02:19:48.810 --> 02:20:02.970
VIRGINIA: So you kind of, you could browse in them, but then you've got to watch the timing of how long it's going to take you to get through security and then all that, and then you get over to your gate and there's not very much to do, there's not very much to look at, there were not very many food choices.

02:20:05.190 --> 02:20:08.130
VIRGINIA: Terminal C, the new terminal, is much nicer.

02:20:08.370 --> 02:20:20.870
VIRGINIA: Everything is past security, so you can go to the nice brand new Disney Store and the brand new Universal Store after you're already through security, so you know you've got that part behind you and you can take your time and look at what you want to look at.

02:20:21.170 --> 02:20:22.850
VIRGINIA: They have amazing food options there.

02:20:23.550 --> 02:20:26.230
VIRGINIA: That is not the case in Terminal B.

02:20:27.710 --> 02:20:44.770
VIRGINIA: So I got over there, I ended up getting, it was like a chicken sandwich or something from some place, and I asked them to heat up the sandwich, and it was not the greatest, but I just kind of like tried to forget it and take a couple of nibbles, but I did not anywhere near finish it.

02:20:45.150 --> 02:20:49.070
VIRGINIA: And there really wasn't anything else that I wanted in the terminal.

02:20:49.090 --> 02:20:50.330
VIRGINIA: There were pizza options.

02:20:50.890 --> 02:20:57.870
VIRGINIA: Quite honestly, after the Boardwalk pizza, it kind of turned me off to pizza for a week because I kept thinking about the taste of that terrible pizza.

02:20:57.890 --> 02:21:00.250
VIRGINIA: I'm like, no, I don't want pizza anymore.

02:21:02.370 --> 02:21:12.370
VIRGINIA: So anyway, from that point, I went over to my gate and sat there, and then at that point, it started lightning like crazy.

02:21:12.570 --> 02:21:17.830
VIRGINIA: It was raining so hard you could not see past the gangway.

02:21:18.530 --> 02:21:20.090
VIRGINIA: So we were delayed.

02:21:20.110 --> 02:21:22.050
VIRGINIA: We ended up being delayed for a few hours.

02:21:22.630 --> 02:21:30.170
VIRGINIA: And so at some point, I ended up asking the lady sitting next to me to hold my seat because everybody was sitting around.

02:21:30.190 --> 02:21:30.930
VIRGINIA: There were no seats.

02:21:30.950 --> 02:21:37.110
VIRGINIA: So she watched my seat for a second while I got up, was able to use the restroom because this is the downfall of being by yourself.

02:21:38.490 --> 02:21:39.470
VIRGINIA: She seemed trustworthy.

02:21:40.370 --> 02:21:42.150
VIRGINIA: She was sitting next to me for a couple of hours.

02:21:42.170 --> 02:21:51.430
VIRGINIA: So I was able to get up and use the restroom and then go stop at the little newsstand and grab a soda and like a bag of pretzels or something.

02:21:52.110 --> 02:21:54.390
VIRGINIA: And we ended up finally leaving.

02:21:54.410 --> 02:21:58.230
VIRGINIA: I think we didn't get out of there until 11 p.m.

02:21:58.250 --> 02:22:00.690
VIRGINIA: We were supposed to leave at 730.

02:22:00.810 --> 02:22:03.410
VIRGINIA: So I got back into New York City rather late.

02:22:04.630 --> 02:22:12.830
VIRGINIA: My return flight was actually into JFK instead of LaGuardia, which is not that big a deal because I'm also about 15 minutes from JFK.

02:22:13.330 --> 02:22:15.290
VIRGINIA: So fairly easy to get home.

02:22:15.310 --> 02:22:17.810
VIRGINIA: Just grabbed a lift once I got home.

02:22:18.390 --> 02:22:20.450
VIRGINIA: So the flight left at about 11.

02:22:21.150 --> 02:22:29.130
VIRGINIA: I landed probably between 1-115 and I was probably home around 2 a.m.

02:22:29.210 --> 02:22:32.270
VIRGINIA: And I did have to work on Friday.

02:22:33.130 --> 02:22:35.550
VIRGINIA: I had to work remotely, so it wasn't so bad.

02:22:35.570 --> 02:22:39.710
VIRGINIA: So I was just at home anyway, so that wasn't too bad.

02:22:40.730 --> 02:22:44.810
VIRGINIA: It was pretty late to be having to get up the next day and be on my computer by 9 a.m.

02:22:45.750 --> 02:22:48.870
VIRGINIA: So that is everything I did in my trip.

02:22:49.310 --> 02:22:53.610
VIRGINIA: I definitely loved doing this solo trip.

02:22:53.830 --> 02:22:56.350
VIRGINIA: I would 100% do it again.

02:22:56.370 --> 02:22:59.250
VIRGINIA: I would 100% recommend it to anybody.

02:23:00.630 --> 02:23:04.090
VIRGINIA: I think that you can make a solo trip what you want it to be.

02:23:04.630 --> 02:23:09.650
VIRGINIA: So if you want to be really social and chat with lots of people, you can totally do that.

02:23:10.050 --> 02:23:12.870
VIRGINIA: If you want to keep to yourself and not talk to anybody, you can do that.

02:23:12.890 --> 02:23:16.430
VIRGINIA: If you want to do like I did and do a mix of that, you can.

02:23:18.070 --> 02:23:33.650
VIRGINIA: I would definitely recommend, if you're doing a solo trip, to kind of follow my model of trying to keep it as flexible as possible, because one of the joys of being on a solo trip is getting to do what you want to do when you want to do it.

02:23:34.250 --> 02:23:39.590
VIRGINIA: And the more stuff you have scheduled for a particular time, the less flexible it feels.

02:23:39.770 --> 02:23:43.170
VIRGINIA: And it feels like you're kind of just running from thing to thing to thing.

02:23:43.950 --> 02:23:49.650
VIRGINIA: And to have that flexibility just made it feel more relaxing.

02:23:51.790 --> 02:24:01.170
VIRGINIA: I really think I got my money's worth out of Standby Skipper because it was able to kind of keep doing work for me in the background while I was enjoying other things.

02:24:01.230 --> 02:24:04.310
VIRGINIA: And then I could just modify whatever I needed to modify.

02:24:06.490 --> 02:24:09.470
VIRGINIA: So I would definitely do that again.

02:24:09.490 --> 02:24:16.610
VIRGINIA: I don't know if there's anything on this trip I would have necessarily changed.

02:24:17.290 --> 02:24:23.250
VIRGINIA: Perhaps the only thing I would have changed, and this is just hindsight, is not wearing my sandals the first day.

02:24:23.310 --> 02:24:26.490
VIRGINIA: But I don't know how I would have known to not do that.

02:24:27.130 --> 02:24:29.830
VIRGINIA: Because those sandals have never given me a problem before.

02:24:29.950 --> 02:24:35.610
VIRGINIA: So I guess maybe what I need to do is always wear tennis shoes on the first day.

02:24:35.630 --> 02:24:38.130
VIRGINIA: Just to make sure I'm going to be okay.

02:24:38.230 --> 02:24:39.890
VIRGINIA: And then see how I filled up sandals.

02:24:39.910 --> 02:24:40.470
VIRGINIA: I'm not sure.

02:24:41.210 --> 02:24:42.930
VIRGINIA: I don't know how I could have prevented that.

02:24:42.970 --> 02:24:48.370
VIRGINIA: But that's really the only thing I would have changed.

02:24:48.470 --> 02:24:52.750
VIRGINIA: Everything else I did what I wanted to do.

02:24:52.770 --> 02:24:54.410
VIRGINIA: I checked off a lot of boxes.

02:24:54.430 --> 02:24:57.810
VIRGINIA: There are things that I skipped that I didn't necessarily expect to skip.

02:24:58.270 --> 02:25:04.270
VIRGINIA: I didn't expect to end up skipping Sleeky Dog in favor of Frozen sing-along.

02:25:04.470 --> 02:25:05.490
VIRGINIA: But I did.

02:25:05.510 --> 02:25:06.710
VIRGINIA: And I'm happy I did that.

02:25:07.950 --> 02:25:16.130
VIRGINIA: I did not expect to leave this trip and not ride Small World, which normally I always ride Small World.

02:25:16.410 --> 02:25:17.370
VIRGINIA: And why wouldn't I?

02:25:17.390 --> 02:25:20.530
VIRGINIA: Because there's usually at some point in the day you can catch it at a short wait.

02:25:21.310 --> 02:25:26.090
VIRGINIA: And I just never made it a priority to get back over there at a time when it was a short wait.

02:25:27.290 --> 02:25:29.650
VIRGINIA: And I used my lightning lanes for other things.

02:25:29.710 --> 02:25:37.590
VIRGINIA: I don't really believe in wasting a lightning lane on Small World because you can find a time when it's not too bad.

02:25:40.090 --> 02:25:45.490
VIRGINIA: So there's nothing really that I missed that I regret.

02:25:45.670 --> 02:25:49.830
VIRGINIA: I will do anything I didn't get to do that I want to do on the next time I go.

02:25:49.910 --> 02:25:59.130
VIRGINIA: And that's part of the joy of being somebody who goes fairly regularly is there's always next time.

02:25:59.490 --> 02:26:12.950
VIRGINIA: And now what helps keep you from being in that Disney blues phase is A, using your podcast to talk about your trip and to interview other people about their trips.

02:26:14.710 --> 02:26:19.750
VIRGINIA: And then also being able to start planning for that next trip.

02:26:21.330 --> 02:26:25.670
VIRGINIA: So I hope you enjoyed hearing all about this May solo trip.

02:26:25.690 --> 02:26:29.670
VIRGINIA: This ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be.

02:26:29.690 --> 02:26:32.910
VIRGINIA: I thought that I would wrap this up rather quickly since it's just me.

02:26:32.930 --> 02:26:36.190
VIRGINIA: But, you know, I'm talking to a friend.

02:26:36.210 --> 02:26:39.530
VIRGINIA: I'm talking to friends out there, new friends that I haven't met yet.

02:26:40.050 --> 02:26:42.790
VIRGINIA: And it just, you're so easy to talk to.

02:26:43.190 --> 02:26:46.070
VIRGINIA: Thank you all so much for listening.

02:26:46.090 --> 02:26:50.050
VIRGINIA: I really appreciate everybody who has already subscribed.

02:26:50.070 --> 02:26:52.470
VIRGINIA: If you have not subscribed yet, I hope that you will.

02:26:52.810 --> 02:26:55.710
VIRGINIA: I hope you'll head on over to the Instagram page.

02:26:55.730 --> 02:26:56.470
VIRGINIA: Follow that.

02:26:56.550 --> 02:27:12.870
VIRGINIA: If you are interested in being a Trip Report guest, the link to fill out the form for consideration is in the show notes along with any other links that are relevant to things I've talked about in this episode that I think you'd want to know more about, like Standby Skipper, that sort of thing, all in the show notes.

02:27:12.930 --> 02:27:15.030
VIRGINIA: Thank you for being here with me.

02:27:15.050 --> 02:27:16.690
VIRGINIA: I hope that you'll continue to listen.

02:27:17.250 --> 02:27:21.950
VIRGINIA: And as I always like to say, keep daydreaming about where you long to be.