"October Surprise" Trip Report - Day 8
“October Surprise” (or ICOT25 Celebration) – Day 8
Trip Dates: October 11 – October 18
Resort: All Star Music
Transportation: Southwest Airlines, then Mears Connect to resort.
The Plan:
Tuesday, October 18th: Departure Day! ☹ AK for ‘early entry’ and as long as I can hold up. I have a later flight, so Mears Connect won’t be picking me up at the resort until around 5:30pm. If I’m smart, I will leave AK somewhere around noon, go back to the resort and have a good swim to relax and cool down before heading home.
Once again, ‘best laid plans…’ I should know better by now that ‘departure day’ is NOT going to get off to an early start. Packing out for the trip home, checking and double checking that I didn’t leave anything behind, checking the bags to be picked up later, etc. Got everything accomplished and was ready to hop a bus to AK around 9:30am. Not too bad. I should have at least 5 hours in the park before having to be back to the resort for my 5:15pm Mears Connect ride to the airport.
Headed right to Kilimanjaro Safari for a trek around the savannah and saw the Lightning Lane queue stretching back almost to the Dawa Bar! The StandBy queue was showing 80 minutes. I really wanted to get this ride in, so, like the idiot I am, I got in the queue. Move 10 feet, stop for 5 minutes…another 10 feet, another stop…40 minutes later, I got past the first loop outside the initial show building and saw how many more ‘loops’ there were ahead of me and gave up on it. 80 minutes my backside!!!
Got out of the queue and headed over to Pandora by the back (Africa) entrance and saw that it didn’t seem all that busy. Flight of Passage was showing a 90 minute StandBy, but the queue didn’t seem all that long. I debated joining the throng, but after the fiasco of Kilimanjaro, I decided against it. Wandered around the area and got some PhotoPass pics along the way before taking the slow boat through the Na’vi River attraction. Posted 50 minute StandBy, but I think it was actually a bit shorter. I know a lot of people think this is a boring ride, but I enjoy it nonetheless.
Left Pandora and walked some of the trails around the Tree of Life to see what animals were out and about. Got a few more PhotoPass pics taken, SuperZoom and Tiny World included. Finally got to see the new version of the Nemo stage show.
Stopped by the Adventurers Outpost on my way back to the Tree of Life and got my only character photo of this trip – Mickey and Minnie in their safari outfits. There was no PhotoPass photographer there, so I gave them my phone to take a few pics. Yes, I’m a little kid when it comes to the getting photos with characters.
With the extended waits in StandBy queues time flew by here and it was getting to be time to head back to the resort and start my trip home. Mears was on time and we got to the airport in plenty of time to get checked in and relax at the gate. The flight was about 30 minutes late taking off, but made up some of that time in the air. It was about 11:30pm until I got to my car, in Long Term Parking and started my drive home. Tomorrow is going to be the ‘fun’ day of unpacking, laundry and basic cleanup.
Stay tuned for ‘final totals and a recap’…
