A Whole New World Part 3: 4/19-4/21

[merlinmagic4]

Thursday April 19th: So, we left off with unknown plans for Thursday and ended up closing a park!! Well, it was only Typhoon Lagoon but I'm sure it's the only time we have heard the announcement that the park was closing! We were so glad we did! I think it is everyone's favorite place to go! We got there around 11 and still got a place in the sand in Ketchakiddee Creek. All three kids loved it, including the one year old. My daughter and husband did Crush and Gusher and Shark Reef and we all did the storm slides, Mayday Falls, the wave pool, the lazy river, and one of the tube rides. It was a great day until we realized my older son had a pretty good sunburn. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as we thought and tanned over pretty quickly.

Friday April 20th: this was my daughter's 7th birthday and we went to Epcot after checking out of Vistana at 10. We seem to always leave Epcot for last and it is definitely the park I am the least familiar with so we tend to do a little more walking than is necessary. We fastpassed Soarin' as soon as we got there (around 11) and got a 3:00 time. So, we went and waited about 25 minutes for the Nemo ride. It was worth the wait especially since the posted time was 45 minutes! I thought it was a great ride. We spend quite a long time in the Living Seas and then headed for Norway for the Princess Storybook Lunch. I have to say I was not impressed at all. The princesses went through very quickly. My husband had heard someone saying they were behind schedule so they were rushed. It was disappointing since it was my daughter's birthday and none of them really had much to say Jasmine was NOT at the lunch which was the main reason I booked it. I am thankful we met her in MK earlier in the week so it was okay that she wasn't there. We won't be doing this lunch again but I'm glad for the experience. We got as far as China before we needed to head for Soarin'. I was brave and went on this one, too. It was great fun!!

Then we did Figment and spent about 2 hours in that place. Then the rest of my family (minus me, DS1, and my mother) waited an hour for Test Track.

We had dinner at Electric Umbrella and it was very good. In general, counter service was very slow. We always seemed to hit it with only a party or two ahead of us but waited about 20 minutes for food every time.

Then, around 8:00 we headed for Tampa and checked into the Airport Marriott. It was very nice and I wish we could have slept in but we had a 7:45 flight out on Saturday.

We parked at Thrifty in Boston and they lost our car! They are so nice and the customer service is exceptional so I wasn't upset at all that they didn't have our car ready. They thought we were coming in at 11pm, not 11am. So, I tell them it's fine, no worries, etc. and within 15 minutes the clerk comes out and hands me a new slip saying they had refunded all of our money!! Wow, very impressive. We'll definitely use them again; it was so easy and stress free (even with the lost car)!

We got home around 2:30 to fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from a VERY good friend and a new kitchen from the same friend's husband!! I have my first dishwasher, a beautiful new kitchen floor, counter and sink. How nice is that?

Thanks for reading!

[Bethis26fan]

sounds Great esp coming home to the new kitchen.

[sleepingbooty]

Boy, I wish I could arrange a homecoming like that after our vacations! Glad you all had a great time, I enjoyed reading your reports

[faline]

Well, if you have to leave Disney World, you can't beat coming home to a brand new kitchen!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[magicman]

Although it sounds like you had a great day, I'm disappointed for your daughter that the Princess Storybook Lunch wasn't as much as you wanted it to be for her.

You do have some very good friends who were willing to leave you fresh cookies to lessen the pain of returning home.

[BelleCiavo]

I certainly agree with everyone else about the homecoming, what wonderful friends. Thanks for sharing your trip.
Karen