Taylor's Royal Room Day 8

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Cast-Me (Amy) 47 years
Mom-Patty 69 years
Maranda 22 years-first trip other than one partial day visit to DHS-8 years ago
Day 8-Epcot/check out

We get up and get ready and pack the rest of our luggage and bags into the car. It's a tight fit but we get it in there. We have a 945 ADR at Garden Grill and we are ready early, we head over to the bus stop with an hour and 30 minutes to spare. Well as we walk up there is a big line and two scooters in line and they are loading. No problem right, we have an hour and 30 minutes. I start watching the monitors that tell when to expect a bus. It says another bus will be there in 15 minutes, as time goes by the monitor keeps bumping up the time. Six Magic Kingdom buses come and go as do 5 DHS, 4 each Disney Springs and Animal Kingdom and yes I am counting them. Finally we see an Epcot bus pulling up. At this time we have 35 minutes until our ADR. The bus pulls up and is full. People are standing in the middle holding on already, obviously we were the last stop, he says sorry can't take a scooter. There is a long line waiting too, but only about five people can squeeze on. At this time I decide to call and complain, I tell them we've been waiting an hour for an Epcot bus when several buses for the other parks have come and gone. The CM puts me on hold and when she comes back says well they said they sent a bus a few minutes ago. I told her it was full and the driver said he couldn't take us, after a minute she says a bus will be there in about five minutes. She says don't worry they'll hold your ADR for 15 minutes and they probably can take walk ups if you don't make it anyway. So finally the bus arrives and we get to Epcot. Note-I'd heard stories of bad bus service at POR but this was the only day we had a problem.

We arrive at the front of the park with 10 minutes until our ADR and mom says I have to go the bathroom and can't wait. Oh no, we still have to go through bag check and entrance and for some reason Epcot seems to take longer than other parks. We finally get in and hustle to the land about 5 minutes late. The hostess doesn't seemed concerned and we are seated almost immediately. This breakfast was really good, the eggs were hot, fresh and fluffy and the bacon and sausage good. We also had yummy stick bun, fresh fruit, mickey waffles and coffee and juice. All was good, after eating light breakfasts in the room every day real breakfast food tasted really good. Chip and Dale were the first to come by and we got hugs and pictures and Maranda got autographs, Pluto comes by and bear hugs Maranda. Very cute. When Mickey shows up Maranda starts crying. This is her first time seeing him and he hugs her really tight. The characters are so good with people and seem to know who needs special attention.

( Off subject but when we ate at Be Our Guest there was a special needs young man who cried very loudly out of joy after meeting the Beast. Beast took a few extra minutes and walked him out of the restaurant. He was very happy.)

After breakfast we go to use our Mickey and Friends FP I got for us and Maranda gets to see Mickey in his official outfit, along with Goofy, Pluto and finally Minnie. This was also the first meet with Minnie so Maranda is on Cloud Nine. I forgot to mention in my last Epcot post that Maranda also met Donald in Mexico so she's done really well with characters. We then head back down to UK to pick up some final goodies. I get this really cool Alice tea cup and some winter spice tea and pick up an English Tea Pot mom has been eyeballing to put up for her mother's day gift. Sadly it is time to go so we head back to the resort, return the scooter to Bell Hop, fill up our mugs, go potty and head out. I am exhausted so mom agrees to drive to Lake City where we will spend the night. We get to Lake City, check into Country Inn and order pizza.Then we wash up and settle in for the night. I have a bad case of reflux and don't sleep well but the room is nice and the bed more comfortable than POR. We like this little hotel. It's clean, convenient and not too pricy. We've stayed here three times now. I will post our final travel day report and final thoughts later.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Crazy bus issues! I know they are usually really good when you're only a couple of minutes late, but I HATE the stress it causes, especially when it is totally out of your control. We love Garden Grill and I'm glad it was a great meal.

[Euby]

Maranda made out like a bandit with all of the characters! I admit I teared up reading this day's post. I'm such a sap sometimes. LOL

[faline]

Bonus!! Somehow I missed this report and read your ending report first so I got one additional trip report to read!!

I've had bus days like that as well - you see every other bus but the one you need and multiple times!! After a very stressful start to your day, you had a lovely Epcot day except for the part where you had to leave Disney and start your trip home.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Maranda made out like a bandit with all of the characters! I admit I teared up reading this day's post. I'm such a sap sometimes. LOL

I admit I did a little too