Déjà Dream: Just Another (Pictorial) Dream Review — Part Tenfeatured
I think I’ve written before about this…sixth sense I have…when service returns to my cell phone. This morning, I woke up hourly (beginning at 2:00 am) in anticipation of that moment when my phone would buzz with all of the texts and emails of things I missed during the week. We’ve been cruising for almost nine years now. I still have trouble unplugging. And for those keeping track, service was restored sometime around 4:00 am. The seas were a bit rough and I went back to sleep for a couple hours before Mom woke us up (at 6:15 am. Blahhhhhhhh) for a quick breakfast up on Lido before we grabbed our bags, bid farewell to our stateroom and headed down to the Platinum lounge.
We disembarked by 7:10 am and we were through customs and in the Alamo shuttle with our luggage, heading to the rental facility, by 7:30 am. We were in the car and heading back to Disney World by 8:30 am. Talk about a full morning!
Disney passes expire 14 days after first use, I believe. So what we did was we purchased an extra day on our cards (the more days you have, the less expensive they are, so it was a nominal cost) with the intention of hitting up the parks when we got off the ship. The problem? It was awful out when we got off the ship. Grey, wet…not nice. A quiet day poking around the outlets and Downtown Disney sounded nicer than a day in a hot poncho in a crowded park when more storms were forecasted.
We pondered what to do with our day as we checked into our post-cruise hotel, the Omni Resort at Champions Gate. The Omni was gorgeous and well-maintained. If you’re looking for a quiet, more upscale stay close to the Disney grounds, I really recommend looking into it (we got it off Priceline while trying for the Gaylord Palms).
We went to Wal-Mart after we checked in to buy an extra suitcase (we have so many extra luggage pieces from this habit…) and, having decided to brave the parks, we picked up some Disney Princess-themed Ponchos for $3.97. They were heavy-duty and everyone in the parks were asking us about them. Oh, and I bought a fanny pack. To this day, I don’t know how I survived Disney without a fanny pack. Mock me all you want, but if I’m at Disney World now, my fanny pack is my one must-have.
We went back to the hotel to do a little packing, grabbed some iced tea’s at McDonalds and then we headed off to the Orlando Premium Outlets so I could hit up the Tory Burch outlet. What a day! A handbag and a pair of shoes later (don’t judge me), we finally headed to the parks around 2:00 pm.
With storms forecasted, I really didn’t want to deal with having to worry about torrential rain ruining my camera, so the camera stayed in the car and I was going to wing it with my iPhone. I haven’t been without my SLR camera on any trip since I bought it in 2009.
The park was pretty crowded, but we got in right as a parade was coming down Main Street USA. It was pretty sunny out at this point, but that didn’t last long. At some point, the skies opened up and the park emptied out.
Lunch at Pinocchio’s Village Haus
And back to Fantasyland we went
Dinner at Pecos Bills
We planned on staying in the park late (it was open until 1:00 am), but we didn’t even make it to Wishes. We’d seen and done everything we wanted and we were exhausted. We made our way through the shops on Main Street USA and we were out of the park by 8:00 pm.
We contemplated going back to the outlets or Downtown Disney, but we ultimately just went back to the hotel to watch a Reese Witherspoon marathon on Oxygen and pack. We were in bed by 12:30 am, which was a bit late since we had to be up at around 4 to drive to Tampa for our flight home.
TPA is smaller than MCO and infinitely smaller than ORD. I almost felt like I was in a hangar. We had an early morning flight that was incredibly turbulent, but we were home safe and sound in Chicago by 10:00 am.
And fin.
