Disney By Sea and Land - Days 14 & 15

Day 14 - January 30

Today Iris goes back to work, so we will mostly be on our own. We have breakfast early before she picks us up and we drive to EPCOT. Unlike a previous day where we wind up parking at the far end of the row, this morning we are the last car to be parked before a new row is started, so today we are the closest car to the tram. This is convenient, since after Iris gets us in to the park, she will be heading home to prepare for her first day back at work.

Once we are in, and have our park hopper for the day, Iris heads back home and we head to the monorail which we will be taking to the Magic Kingdom. Since Sandy did not accompany us to Enchanted Tales with Belle in New Fantasyland when we were last in the Magic Kingdom, it will be the first order of business today.

Belle's cottage

When we arrive in New Fanstasyland we find that the posted wait time is 30 minutes, and the queue seems just a bit longer than when Iris and I were here a few days ago, so we get on line. We meet a very nice family and chat with them which makes our wait seem very short indeed.

Once inside, Sandy gets drafted into the little play - as the laughing portrait.

In the next room, she is introduced to Belle.

When we are finished in Belle's cottage, we decide to head to the new Little Mermaid ride. We have already ridden it during the soft opening the last time we were here, but there is no wait and we get right on, once again.

After this, we decide that we will once again eat in Be Our Guest, and head to it, passing Gaston's Tavern along the way.

Just before we get to the ordering stations, I get a text message from a member of an online Disney newsgroup (rec.arts.Disney.parks - RADP) who I have known only online for about 20 years, but had never met in person. She is in the area and before I know it has found us in the queue. We have a very pleasant lunch together, and enjoy finally meeting in person.

We next decide to head to It's A Small World, but when we get there we find that the attraction is closed, so we continue on to The Haunted Mansion. From there it's just a short walk to The Country Bear Jamboree.

My favorite - Big Al

We stop next for a short break ... and a Dole Whip before continuing on to the Tiki Room and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then, it's back over to the other side of the park and the Carousel of Progress - which was my favorite attraction at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.

Grandma is still the resident ace!

At this point Sandy wants to look through the Emporium so I find a bench and get to watch the flag retreat ceremony.

Once Sandy is finished, we sit on the porch of the theater (after she buys her Photo Pass photos with Belle from earlier in the day) until it is time for our dinner at Tony's.

Finally, it is time to call it a day and head back to Pop Century.

Day 15 - January 31

Today is our last day here, and we fly home this evening. Our flight is late enough that Iris would be able to drive is to the airport after work, or we would have made arrangements for Disney's Magical Express to pick us up. There are two types of busses that collect guest at the resorts (other than the park busses) - the Cruise Line bus (the happy bus) and the Magical Express bus (the sad bus).

We start our day by packing and then bringing the luggage which we will check on the flight home to the airline check-in counter where we check our luggage onto our flight and receive our boarding passes (after a bit of juggling since one of the suitcases was 3 ounces overweight). We then have breakfast at the food court before we return to our room to pick up our carry-ons before leaving the room for the last time.

We proceed to leave our carry-ons with luggage services and then head to Downtown Disney. My original thought was that since Iris works right across from the West Side, it would be the most convenient place for her to meet us after work, but I had forgotten that her first day was an on-call day, and she was working from home. Not that it matters, since she sends me a text that her work day would end about lunch time and that she could meet us Downtown Disney and have lunch with us - which we do at Earl of Sandwich.

Finally the time comes to leave Downtown Disney, pick up our carry-ons at Pop Century and head to the airport.

However, once at the airport and at the gate (very early I will admit), the flight to Newark before ours comes back to the gate and discharges its passengers. It seems that there is bad weather in the NY area, and flights to Newark airport are not being allowed to take off. This affects our flight as well. As it turns out, the flight which left its passengers back into the Orlando terminal is delayed 5 hours before it is allowed to continue. Our flight - which has now had its gate changed - is only delayed 90 minutes.

Once aboard our flight, things go smoothly, and all too soon we are home - another trip behind us. Time now to plan the next one.