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Day Ten: Friday, December 27, 2002
Cast of Characters: Marissa (me-Chief Planner, 24), Rory (my husband-Chief Financier, 23)
Orlando Weather: Clear and sunny, 64º upon departure
Denver Weather: Mostly cloudy, 52º upon arrival
Agenda: Downtown Disney, Disney Quest, Depart for Denver
We were up at 8:00, got ready and packed, and picked up our last few things delivered to the gift shop. We checked out and left our luggage with bell services, to be picked up again that afternoon. It didn't take long for a Downtown Disney bus to show up and before we knew it, we were in the Marketplace.
We went into Disney's Days of Christmas and got a 2002 ornament. Then we went to World of Disney to pick up a few things. We decided to continue the trip tradition we started on our honeymoon and have ice cream sundaes at Ghirardelli for breakfast on our last day. I really like that tradition and I'm going to have to make sure we maintain it.
After our yummy sundaes, we walked through a deserted Pleasure Island to the West Side. We stopped briefly at the Disney Vacation Club kiosk (my husband is actually considering buying in!), and continued to Disney Quest. Rory and I really like Disney Quest, but that's probably because we like video games and competing with each other.
We did Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlaster, Mighty Ducks pinball, Virtual Jungle Cruise, and stood in line for Pirates of the Caribbean. We didn't want to waste the precious Disney time we had left, though, so we got back out of line and went to play some arcade games. We tried to beat each other at air hockey (Rory kicked my butt) and foosball (I kicked his butt). Then we went down and played with the Living Easels and Sid's Create-A-Toy.
We got lunch from the Cheesecake Factory Express, even though it wasn't very "express." The food was good, but the service was terrible. We left Disney Quest after eating and took the bus back to the Wilderness Lodge from Pleasure Island. We waited at the loading area for Keith from Tiffany Towncar, who picked us up at 3:25. The ride to the airport was quick and painless and check-in at the Frontier desk was even better.
Neither of us was picked for extra security checks, and we proceeded to our gate. On the way, we stopped at Blockbuster's InMotion kiosk to buy a DVD to watch on the way home. I was very depressed waiting at the gate to board the flight, and I saw several families there with various Disney paraphernalia, so there must have been a lot of people leaving Disney with us.
The flight started boarding at 5:30 and we had the exact same seats on this flight as the flight we took to Orlando. The third seat remained empty, so we had a little extra room on the plane. We left on time as soon as we were allowed, Rory got out the laptop and we watched our movie.
I was a little nervous because before we even took off, the pilot came on the PA and told us we would have a bumpy flight to Denver. True to this warning, the flight was quite bumpy the whole way, despite clear sky out the window, and I spent most of the flight gripping the arm rests, hoping my willpower alone would calm the turbulent air.
We landed safely, of course, at 7:55 Mountain Time, and our bags were among the first off the plane. We got tickets on the next local shuttle leaving the airport and were home around 9:20 PM, much to the delight of our two lonely cats.
High Points: Sundaes at Ghirardelli, having fun at Disney Quest
Low Points: The service at Cheesecake Factory Express, having to go home :c(.
Final Thoughts and Comments:
I can't tell those of you at The Mouse For less just how much your tips and suggestions enhanced our trip! We got to do so many special things simply because of what I knew from you guys. My friend Renee kept asking me how I knew so many things and when to plan everything, and I kept telling her it was because of MFL. She told me to thank you guys for helping make our trip wonderful. So, thank you from me, Rory, Lee, Renee, Pooh, Stitch, TinkerMinnie and Thumper for all of your great advice!
I'm very prone to blisters and was worried about my feet for this trip. I read all of the MFL foot care tips posted to the list and tried some of them, expecting my feet to defy all cures. I prepared a first aid kit especially for my feet and carried it with me every day. What you guys suggested worked so well, I didn't even have to open the kit! I brought a stick of roll-on anti-perspirant/deodorant (a no-name brand purchased cheaply at Walgreens) and applied it liberally to my feet every morning before putting on my socks and shoes. I had absolutely no problems with blisters. I made sure I had my well-broken-in sneakers and I walked all day, every day with no problems.
Having our laptop with us was a great idea. Not only could we watch movies on flights where no movies were shown, but also we used it to download our digital pictures every night. I took as many pictures as I wanted without having to worry about space on the camera's memory card. Having digital pictures also made it very easy to upload them to our website for quick, easy sharing and will make my scrapbooking task much simpler. The only trouble I had with the digital camera was with action and nighttime shots. If you take a lot of those, you might want to have a regular camera in addition to or instead of a digital one.
Our trip was absolutely fantastic. We all had a lot of fun and got to see and do so many things. None of us wanted to leave, but there are so many things we didn't have time to do that there will be plenty left for a future trip. I'm looking forward to the new things Disney has planned for WDW and can't wait to go back again and again.
Day: 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7,
8, 9, 10
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