October, 2013 Trip Report - Epilogue

Epilogue

After a day or two back home in NY, I get a call from the company that is supposed to repair my air conditioner at the house in Florida that the part is in and they are ready to install it. Unfortunately, the times that someone needs to be available for them do not work for any of the people I had hoped would be able to let them in to do the work. I had no choice but to make an unexpected trip to Florida, and before I knew it I was landing at the Tampa airport, and heading to my house. (Well, technically there are still some legal matters to deal with before it officially becomes mine, but I still need to take care of this.)

Before I left NY I told my daughter that I would like to drive over and take her and her husband out to dinner the night before I once again fly back to NY. On the way down I tell my daughter to start thinking about where they would like to eat that night. Moments later I get a text that a late opening at Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom had come open. (We had been trying unsuccessfully to get dinner reservations ever since it opened about a year ago.) She worries that it will be too late for me (9:10 PM) as I still have to drive 90 minutes back to my house when the evening is over, but I tell her I am fine with that and to make the reservation. I then board my plane (Newark to Chicago Midway) and when I arrive in Chicago, I find a text informing me that she was able to find yet another newly available reservation for 7:40 PM and has switched to the earlier time. It appears that as we approached the time which those with reservations had to cancel or have their credit card charged, cancellations were occurring. In each case the reservation time slot had become available within 2 minutes of my daughter making our reservation, and once the later one was released, it was snapped up right away.

On the day I was to meet them, I had planned on leaving my house early and spending some time at Downtown Disney before driving to my daughter's house where I was to meet them, but as I approached the exit on I-4 that I would get off to go to her house, I realized that if I continued on to Downtown Disney, I would arrive there, have to find a place to park and then only have about a half hour before I had to leave, so I decided to head directly to her house and just hang out until she and/or her husband got home from work. I walked around, had some ice cream and relaxed at the library. When it was time, I headed back to their house and my son-in-law returned first.

Once my daughter got home, we prepared to head to the Magic Kingdom. By the time we parked, took the tram to the monorail and arrived at the park entrance, it was around dusk.

We had some time so we walked leisurely down Main Street, through Tomorrowland and then into New Fantasyland as the sun continued to go down.

When we arrived at The Beast's Castle, it was time to check in. We were told that they were running a bit behind, but less than 10 minutes after our reservation time, we were called and were seated.

We had eaten here for lunch a number of times, but this was the first time for dinner. The food was excellent (I had the lamb chop) and for desert ... I had the grey stuff. (It's delicious! Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!)

When we left the restaurant, Wishes was just starting, so we watched from the bridge leading to/from the Beast's Castle. My daughter and I have watched Wishes from this area before and it is quite a good spot to watch from ...

More photos of tonight's Wishes fireworks can be seen by clicking here.

Once done we headed back towards Main Street.

When we reached Main Street, people were getting ready for the Electrical Parade. I was considering staying, but the crowds leaving the park would be huge (they were even now after the fireworks), and I still had not only to get back to my daughter's car - and then her house, but I had almost a 90 minute drive back home once I left her house. So we continued out of the park.

The next morning I was back in the air, and after a 6 hour layover at Chicago Midway airport (3 hours planned ... 3 hours due to weather), I arrived back home ... ending my October trip(s) to The World.