Part 15: In which we find new flights home.
I've been putting off this entry, because it's my last and that makes me sad. It's also light on the pictures, so I'm adding a few random extras at the end!
We didn't really set any alarms for this morning. I think we woke up around 8/8:30. We ate whatever breakfast bars we had and some fruit we had (not sure when we picked up fruit
). And around 9:15 I convinced Derek to ride the Skyliner with me! I wanted to see the Epcot line and we figured a quick look around would get us back with plenty of time to catch our Magical Express at 10:35. It actually didn't take much convincing, which surprised me. Usually he's not into this type of thing, but I guess he knew it would make me happy. Steph and Alex still had to pack so they did not join us.
We were on the Skyliner at 9:25, and getting off at Epcot at 9:47. We immediately walked around the station (we did get a little confused as to how to get to the other side) and were back on at 9:49. We arrived back at POP at 10:06. So including the transfer the trip seems to take about about 20 minutes (give or take a few). We didn't wait in any lines at any station.
While the character wraps look adorable from the outside, they really do obscure your view. So if you want a good view, you could probably ask for a non-wrapped cabin. I didn't see anyone asking to wait for a specific cabin, but they also don't give you much time to talk/think before they direct you to the next cabin.
Backstage in France! This picture is awful and I'm sorry. I'm actually terrified of heights. I'm ok in the enclosed container that is the gondola, but I refuse to get close to the window/door.
It was a pretty gloomy morning, perhaps to commiserate with us having to leave the Most Magical Place on Earth.
Back at POP, we went up to the room to grab our stuff and say goodbye to Steph and Alex. This trip really was the best trip we've had so far and I love traveling with my sister and Alex (minus the snoring... remind me to plan for ear plugs in my next PTR). Each time we travel together, we get better at just kind of doing our own thing, but still planning together time. It's a good balance and we are really excited to do this with kids in the future! Might even splurge with a pool view next time.
Anyway, enough about the future. Back to the Tragical Express. We got to the benches a few minutes early, and the bus pulled up at exactly 10:35. We left our bags with the driver and hopped on, this is a much better bus than the Greyhound. I don't remember the trip, which is exactly how I like my bus rides. I do remember we went right to the airport. Tipped the driver with a random $5 we found. I always forget about tips and feel bad.
As we arrived we got an alert that our flight was going to be late. Bummer. I checked and at that point we would still make our connection, so it would be fine just boring. Derek didn't want to go through security, so I browsed the stores outside security. I threatened to buy stuff since he was being a pain about not going through security. He was just not convinced we should. I finally explained that I would feel better if we did and he relented.
And guess who made a good decision? Because as we were going through security we got another alert about a delay. And now we would miss our connection. And our connection was the last flight from Charlotte to Philly... sooooo. We immediately got in line for customer service. Luckily we were already through security and the line was short, because they managed to get us onto a flight that was boarding RIGHT NOW. We walk-ran to the gate and got there before they finished calling boarding groups. I was super relieved and Derek admitted that my anxiety about getting through security paid off this time.
Flights home were nothing to talk about after the initial hoopla of delayed flights. Our second flight was a little delayed, but we weren't super upset about it because we didn't have another connection or anything. I did check back on our original flight and it ended up not taking off until 1 AM or something absurd (originally scheduled for 1PM). If we had waited we likely wouldn't have gotten home.
For those wondering, we each had a carry-on bag and a personal item (backpacks) and I had my lightsaber separately in it's case. No one said anything on either flight about the "extra" item. I just slid it into the front of the overheard after it was "full" and made sure to be the first person to get up to get it out when we landed.
I hope you enjoyed reading along. Now it's time for me to catch up on all my reading along, since I'm behind on that too!! Here are a few extra pictures I didn't include previously and without any context:
Ok... this next one I'm giving context to... because I find it hilarious that I took it... It's literally just a hole in the ceiling of the RotR queue. A themed hole, but a hole nonetheless. Why did I take a picture of that??
Trader Sam's really was great! I made the passports myself. I am definitely looking into a way to make more on a larger scale as soon as I have a little free time.
Following along!
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