Travels with Snowbirds 2018, January 24 to January 27, Disneyworld

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The one about the Disney Experience.

There are no pictures in today’s blog, , not yet anyway. I have no wifi where I am writing this and I have so many pictures to edit and add here. I want to wait until I get some type of wifi signal in the next few days and will add them when I can.

NOTE: I ADDED PICTURES ON THE FLY ONE DAY. SOME TURNED OUT UPSIDE DOWN AND FUNKY. YOU GET THE IDEA.

Disney World is such an awesome place. It is impossible not to get wrapped up in the whole excitement of the place. On one of our tram rides someplace I spied a young couple wearing the “I Do” pin Disney provides to the “just marrieds.” They were married 2 days ago and all glowy. Cute couple, he grew up on Long Island. It’s just such a happy place to spend a honeymoon. She had bride Minnie ears on. Cute

It was very strange getting up in the morning and not having to get dressed and take Winston for a walk. I kind of liked reheating yesterday’s coffee and reading the Wilmington Star News on line at my dinette with no dog clickety clacks on the floor. But, I do miss him. It was fun watching the neighbors leave, excited for their Disney day.

Joanne and I met at 11 and took a bus to the Settlement area then another bus to Disney Springs to meet Ginnie and Kim. Kathy couldn’t come. Her RV was recently diagnosed with a faulty propane pressure regulator and today was the day for repair/replacement. I am sure she would have rather been with us

Disney Springs. What started out as “Pleasure Island” on our first trip to DisneyWorld in 1979 or so, has grown into a very large shopping and entertainment area with something to appeal to all. It is very large, lots of walking. Bus #2 dropped us off near one end and we visited Sephora, Anthropologie, Stance, etc. No purchases, just window shopping. We met the girls in the LARGE Disney store that has so much going on. There is a room called ‘souvenirs’ that has pens and pencils and key rings, and other rooms that contain clothing for everyone, jewelry, Mickey Coach hand bags, Minnie Vera Bradley handbags, housewares, etc., you get the idea. It’s hard not to get caught up in it. I came with the intent of buying a Disney Denim shirt…….for the fourth year in a row, no embroidered Disney Denim shirts. I saw lightweight zippered hoodies, and settled on dusty blue, after trying on pink (big cone of cotton candy). Damn things are expensive, $50, but fit perfectly and I neeeeeeeed it, it’s still cold and the neon green hoodie is a pullover and a pain to take on and off frequently. I also bought a hanger for my Magic Band. Short explanation. When you are a resort guest, Disney provides a magic band. Your park tickets, your credit card, your dining plan, your hotel info, are all stored on the magic disk in your Magic Band. There is no need to carry any cash or any credit card; you just swipe your Magic Band over the sensor, kind of like Apple Pay. The Magic Band is like a fat Fitbit with a disk in the center which contains all the info. Mine was very uncomfortable on my left (Fitbit) hand, and downright painful on my right hand. It is so wide it makes my arm drip with sweat. Joanne learned that they sell key fobs and lanyard hangers that fit your Magic Band disk. The souvenir room did not have any; we were told to go to Pin Traders, a separate kiosk specializing in Disney trading pins and specialty Magic Bands.

Lunch at House of Blues was really good. Po’boys, shrimp tacos, specialty burgers, muffaletta were inhaled. Fries were awesome.

We took the launch across the lake and on to Pin Traders where they had several types of holders, and I settled on black Mickey ears which clasps to my Vera Bradley Minnie lanyard or my St. Patrick’s Day Mickey lanyard. Call me silly. The salesgirl took the disk out of my band and put it into the hanger, and attached it to my lanyard, and my arm is not sweaty anymore and I am a happy camper. Look for picture.

Next stop Ghirardelli for ice cream sundaes. Espresso chip with hot dark chocolate fudge, amazing. It will be worth the ice cream belly ache. Back to the campground to rest up for our next day at the Magic Kingdom.

It really is nice staying at a top rate campground every now and then. While a short site, about 40 feet, it certainly was big enough for me. I don’t need the room for a toad car, don’t have a lot of kid stuff hanging off, etc. The slab is nice flat concrete. All I needed to do was touch my levelers to the ground and I was level. The position of the sewer hole in the ground was very near the corresponding hole in my rig, and I only needed to use a short hose, always a plus. Nice new picnic table, good water pressure, short walk to the plentiful trash/recycle cans, and well lit. No need to put out a rug or a door mat, no nasty dirt or dead grass!!

Our final day was spent at the Magic Kingdom. No need for us to go very early as we wanted to stick around into the evening for the light show and fireworks. It seemed like it was going to get chilly as the day went on, so we wore long pants and packed sweatshirts. Every now and then we do something smart and pack sweatshirts; that day was one we did correct. Joanne even packed her light parka. We took the bus from the stop at the end of my campground row, to the launch at the marina, to the Magic Kingdom. Our Magic Bands worked just fine; I easily rented the scooter ($70 with $20 refund at return. Ouch, but I knew I would need it.) We easily found a parking space in front of Tony’s Italian Restaurant (where Tramp got his food and courted Lady) and had a delicious lunch, vegetarian pizza for me and Shrimp Fettuccini for Joanne with very yummy bread. After lunch we toured around a little bit until it was time for our fast passes which got us on the rides easily with no wait……Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear. It just seems ridiculous that you need a fast pass to get on Haunted Mansions, but you do to avoid the 40-minute wait. We did a few other rides and shows, Mickey’s PhilHarMagic, It’s a Small World (Joanne just loves it, the boats are too low for me to easily sit down in. It has been refurbished since I was there last, and it did look crisper and brighter and the music is cute and hangs with you forever.) We easily found a good spot to watch the light show, an amazing display on Cinderella’s castle choreographed to favorite Disney Tunes, but I thought to myself ‘too much Beauty and the Beast.” There was 30 minutes between show and fireworks, so I made my way closer to the beginning of Main Street to watch from there and not get caught in the rush to leave and be crushed in my scooter. The fireworks are always big and beautiful and noisy…….and orchestrated to too many Beauty and The Beast songs.

Joanne and I somehow got our signals crossed. I told her I was going to rag on her in my blog about this, here it comes, Joanne. I waited at the scooter return for a bit, then texted her, then called her, all with no response. Over all I waited an hour, until there were no more people coming out of the entrance after the fireworks. What to do. I went back and looked at the Confectionary, which I had been talking about all day going to get chocolate covered caramel popcorn, she’s not there. I finally gave up, tried the phone one more time, then walked to the launch to the campground, or so I thought. I actually walked to the resort bus area, then had to walk back to the launch area, growl, and they held it for me when they saw me “running”. I got a seat on the open bow. It was cold. My nose ran, and of course didn’t have a tissue. Back at the campground, I walked to the bus stop, got the bus to my section and walked to Moya. About 30 minutes later, knock-knock at my door and it was a frantic Joanne. She waited at the scooter stand and when I didn’t show up she went back to the campground. Her phone battery had died. I really wasn’t angry, it was just silly, we got our old lady signals crossed, l and I could have done the same thing, and so glad I didn’t. She didn’t know what she was going to do if I wasn’t in my rig…..It truly was funny and I truly did laugh, but you know me, it could have been so much the other way with me being NanaCrankyBitch, but I laughed.

I’m gonna stop here at the end of our Disney World adventures and continue on with the adventures of getting to Thousand Trails, Orlando in my next blog.

It was good seeing Joanne again; we had a lot of laughs. She is continuing on to a Roadtrek dealer near Gainesville to get her hot water heater repaired then heading west on I-10 towards Death Valley via as many National Parks that she can find among those that she missed in previous trips. Travel safe, Joanne, and keep in touch.



Kat out

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