Ugh, the last few weeks have been hell. At some point, around mid-October, I came down with a horrendous respiratory infection (I called it Bronchitis, but I never went to see the doctor about it...), all the while having to deal with helping my mother and aunt move into a new house, two large work meetings to plan, a huge 100+ employee retreat to plan and execute,
and the annual County-Employee-wide potluck luncheon, that I had to cook for the night before, and then act as photographer for, the day of.
Needless to say, by Thursday night, I was fucking
exhausted.
I got up around 8am, hopped in the shower, paid some bills, and washed all the dishes I dirtied from yesterday's luncheon.
We packed up and were out the door around 11, with a pit stop for lunch at Steak & Shake, before getting on the road. We hit up Wawa in Ocala for a bathroom break, which ended up being fortuitous, since near exit 329, we hit a huge traffic backup, that we were stuck in for over an hour. Once we got on the turnpike it was much better, and soon we checked in to our room at Red Lion and unpacked for some well-needed SexyTime™. Later, we went to the newly-opened
Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen. Hubby had chicken fingers, I had fried shrimp, and while I wasn't blown away, I'd give it another shot.
After dinner, we wanted to head over to Hollywood Studios, and we were so sure of ourselves, we skipped using the Garmin... and got lost. We kept turning in the wrong places, and went in circles for about 20 minutes before we finally got to where we were going. Once parked, we detoured over to the Skyliner for our inaugural trip.
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| Any time I can put my feet on a seat! |
We took the Skyliner to the Hub, where we had to disembark, then we got on a second Skyliner to Pop Century. We returned back to the Hub, hopped back on the first Skyliner to DHS.
Inside DHS, we hightailed it over to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge for our first encounter with the new land.
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| The transition tunnel between Grand Avenue and Galaxy's Edge |
Smuggler's Run, at 9:30 at night, had only a 25 minute wait, so we hopped right in line.
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| Wait Time for Smuggler's Run |
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| This bucket of bolts's never gonna get us past that blockade. |
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| When you see it... |
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| Waiting to be chosen for our mission |
The theming of the queue, is of course, amazing. I'm sure it would be more amazing if I gave any craps about Star Wars. Soon, we were called and 'recruited' to be gunners, with another group who where the pilots and engineers. (Those two folks had the air of nerds who'd been riding this nonstop since it opened).
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| Learning about our Mission |
The job of the Gunner was to sit in the back and push any button that turned green. Ostensibly, we were shooting people or things that got in our way, but the ride itself was just pushing a button.
Unfortunately, since the buttons were on the
side of the cockpit, we spent more time paying attention to buttons than paying attention to the screen of the ride, so I feel like I missed 75% of the ride by focusing on stupid buttons. It was a cool ride - not mind-blowing - but I'd ride it again if it were under an hour wait.
We spent the rest of the night soaking in the evening air, me taking
way too many photos, and Hubby playing Pokemon Go.
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| Young Jedis fight in the shadow of a TIE Fighter |
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| Old Jedis need to use the ladies' room |
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| Wash your hands, you must |
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| Good night, Galaxy's Edge |
After a long day, we hit Wawa for snacks, and headed back to the hotel for the night.
At this point, I bet you're wondering... Wait... Isn't this a blog about Wine & Dine? Didn't you volunteer? Nope! I kind of forgot about sign-up day, so we were wait-listed for everything, and never ended up getting called to volunteer. But since we'd already taken the time off, and we already had the hotel reservation, and since we're Passholders, it was a no-brainer! So, this is basically a well-needed Disney vacation weekend.
Saturday, we slept in late, enjoyed each other's company and I took a bubble bath before vegging out in bed.
Later, as we were getting ready to go to lunch, Hubby came out of the bathroom laughing heartily... he said it sounded like Sweetums (the Muppet) was in the room next to us, either puking or orgasming... he couldn't tell which, but the visuals alone was disturbing, which we laughed about for the rest of the trip.
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| Mahna Mahna! |
We drove over to Disney Springs for our early dinner reservation at The Boathouse. Last time we were here, Hubby got the steak, while I got fish. I decided on steak this time.
Daniel, our server (who reminded me of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 2 almost-winner Raven, but out of drag), was amazing.
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| Ooooh, gurl |
Even though we ordered sodas (neither one of us drink alcohol, in case you're new here), he brought out a little bowl of lemons for me, a full carafe of ice water and kept us topped off throughout the entire meal. He also brought us delicious rolls, and then a roll refill before our steak came out.
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| Photo: TripAdvisor |
The steak was just so freaking good! I kept eating and eating, though I was getting very full (yes, I know I shouldn't fill up on bread...). I had about 5 or 6 bites left when Daniel came by and kind of chided me, daring me to finish, as did Hubby. With yet another water refill, I was on a mission now... and I'm happy to say that I finished the whole thing. I was stuffed, and you had to roll me out of there, but I hate the whole thing!
We wandered around World of Disney for some new tee shirts, but nothing tickled our fancy, so we headed over to Epcot, but by way of Caribbean Beach Resort Skyliner.
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| Caribbean Beach Skyliner Hub at Sunset |
We did Single Rider on TestTrack, then checked out the
Epcot Experience, in the Odyssey Pavilion, which is a sneak peek into the
changes happening to Epcot.
After that, we found a great spot to shoot Epcot Forever fireworks. I ran up to MouseGears to do a little shopping; I was still on the hunt for a new tee for me. I hustled back to our fireworks spot, and then when they didn't start by 9pm (which is basically
always the time for Epcot fireworks), I checked MyDisneyExperience, and the fireworks weren't supposed to start until 10pm. So I went back to MouseGear and tried on the few tees I was leaning towards, and ended up a cute pink tee, and some cotton candy for snacking later. The shirt is a really nicely heathered pink, and the icons are character-themed Ear hats.
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| Cute Pink Tee |
Back at the water, we watched Epcot Forever, which I think is a good show to bridge the gap between Illuminations and HarmoniUS. Pyrotechnics, fire, lasers, and light-up kites. I which could have gotten much better shots, but I'm sure we'll be back in January and I can shoot them then.
We left with the crowds after the fireworks, and by then I was hungry, so I wanted to go to Chick-fil-A, but they were
closed! What?!? Bummer. We went to Wawa for drinks and snacks, then stayed in line at Wendy's for
way too long, for nuggets and fries, all of which we ate back at the hotel. And probably for the first time in my life, actually, that I watched the clock go from 1:59am to 1:00am, since it was the end of Daylight Savings Time.
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| I sure hate TikTok, though |
On Sunday, we slept in until 10 or so, enjoyed each other's company, then I took a bubble bath and finished the eBook I was reading.
We decided to try lunch at The Fountain at the Dolphin, so we drove to DHS and parked, then took a Friendship Boat to the Swan & Dolphin.
Hubs and I split a cheeseburger & fries, and when they brought it to us, they nicely cut it in half for us, and split the meal onto two plates, which I thought was a great touch. Unfortunately, I wasn't all that impressed. It was passable, but honestly, we were really just here for ice cream.
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| Follow him on Twitter... go do it right now. |
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| Vanilla with Caramel, Reese's Pieces, and Whipped Cream Chocolate with Peanut Butter and Hot Fudge |
For $50, I felt it was very overpriced for two sundaes and one entree (the burger meal was $17!!!)
After lunch, we walked some of it off heading over to the Boardwalk, then chilled out in their lobby for an hour or so (I love relaxing in any of the Epcot resorts; they're so posh and beautiful). Then we walked over to Epcot to catch the Skyliner to DHS.
From there, we went and played mini-golf at Winter Summerland. With our AP discount, the first round was $25 for both of us, and when we came back to play the other side of the course, the attendant gave us an extra 10% off
and a free game to be used at any time in the future! Score!
We played Winter first, which was cute, then played Summer. (Winter was definitely better). At one point, Hubby's ball got stuck in the South Pole hole, and when he tried to get it out, a second ball came out; I put it in my pocket to return it at the end, and then totally forgot about it, so.... yay, now I have a souvenir, I guess!
We drove out to Disney Springs, picking up some snacks at Goofy's Candy Company, and also found a cool shirt at Tren-D of all places...
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| One large reason I keep coming to Disney, to be honest |
We picked up a Wawa sandwich for Hubby, and I tried
Pollo Tropical for the first time, for dinner. I'd give it a 3 out of 5. It works in a pinch, if you're tired of burgers and fries, but because I'm such a picky eater, I think it's not catered towards people like me (my meal was basically chicken and white rice, with some barbecue sauce).
Monday, sadly, was our last day here. When I woke up, I could tell immediately that Hubby had come down with The Funk that I had in October. We checked out and picked up Chick-fil-A (
finally!) then headed into Orlando proper to go to IKEA. Hubby was hoping to get some supplies to make a monitor riser, like the one I made. Unfortunately, he didn't find anything he liked, but I was able to pick up the cool
silver deer canvas that The Kiddo drools over every time we go to IKEA. I'm going to set it aside for Christmas (
ETA: You guys! When I got home, I tucked it under the treadmill so she wouldn't see it, and I completely forgot about it! She actually ended up getting it as a birthday present... in January.)
After that, we drove back to DHS, then took a bus over to the Magic Kingdom... simply to ride the PeopleMover. (Yep, we're those kind of people.)
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| Again, feet on the seat! |
Lines at the Magic Kingdom were crazy, and multiple times, the ride shut down, and after 30 minutes, we ended up bailing and headed up to the TTC to grab a monorail to Epcot. At the TTC, there was a huge line too, which added 10-20 more minutes of lateness to our day.
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| We should all have an awesome job where we blow bubbles all day! |
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| Oh my... this is quite the line |
At Epcot, we had to fight our way through the drunken hordes of Food and Wine idiots, and just minutes from the safety of our destination, the sky opened up in Norway and it began to pour.
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| Look at the drunks hide from the rain! |
Because of all the speed bumps (which were pretty much all self-inflicted), we checked in for our 3:05 ADR at Via Napoli at 3:45, and we were still seated soon after we arrived. As always, we devoured a large pizza between us, and two sodas.
With the day starting to unwind, it was time to head home. We took the Skyliner back to DHS, hit up the Wawa one more time, and headed home.
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| Back to the Skyliner! |
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| Hey... how you doin'? |
Once home, I was greeted with a very sick Kiddo... All three of us, within a month, got The Funk. Lovely.
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