At first they didn't want me to come, now they don't want me to leave! April 2021 F&G TR (Updated 9/6!)

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Welcome everyone to my latest trip report! Thanks for joining in. Hope you enjoy reading all about my Flower and Garden trip.

This trip was a mini make-up trip for my annual September Food and Wine trip that we ended up cancelling last September. There is one big difference with this trip (well, besides the month)….I was traveling solo! Yup, for the first time since 2004 my mom wasn’t joining me on a Disney trip, and this would be my first trip to Disney all by myself!

So brief introduction. I’m Debbie, I’m a total Disney addict, and love making trips down for the Epcot festivals, which these days are pretty much year round so it’s kinda hard to miss them. I’ve been going to Disney since the mid 80s, but didn’t really fall in love with the place until I was a bit older in the 90s. Now I’m pretty much constantly planning the next trip. Seriously, planning is almost as fun as the trip itself!

Here I am from a past trip, just got home about two hours ago so haven’t had time to go through photos yet!



This was a fantastic trip, besides that whole traveling there and coming home, that was, um, not fun. If you’ve read any of my previous trip reports you will remember that my flights NEVER take off on time, so I’ve grown to expect delays. Well, this trip decided to really ramp up the difficulty in getting where I wanted to go, in fact I think it may have moved up to my worst experience with flight delays. It’s a tough call between this and my Azores flights, but while those were delayed a total of 8.5 hours, they at least got me to the correct airport.

Anyways, I’ll get more into my travel fun later, but this was the inspiration for the title of the report this time around!

On with the show! ​

 

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TOC

April 25th
Day 1, Part 1: I'm the First Officer, and I'm the One Who Landed the Plane at the Wrong Airport
Day 1, Part 2: Look Ma, I'm Flying a Plane!
Day 1, Part 3: I'm finally in Disney World!
Day 1, Part 4: First Taste of Flower and Garden
Day 1, Part 5: More Fun in Epcot!
Day 1, Part 6: An Evening in Epcot!

April 26th
Day 2, Part 1: Did They Forget to Send Our Bus?
Day 2, Part 2: A Yeti, Some Dinosaurs, and an Octopus!
Day 2, Part 3: More Nomad!
Day 2, Part 4: Some Feathered Friends!
Day 2, Part 5: So Much Food!
Day 2, Part 6: Stop Touching Me!
Day 2, Part 7: That's a Great Picture of the Monorail Beam!

April 27th
Day 3, Part 1: The Most Productive Morning! Part 1
Day 3, Part 2: The Most Productive Morning! Part 2
Day 3, Part 3: Making Disney Friends!
Day 3, Part 4: Really Though, Where are the Fireworks?

April 28th
Day 4, Part 1: Will I get a Boarding Group?
Day 4, Part 2: It's a Runaway Railway!
Day 4, Part 3: Rise of the Resistance!
Day 4, Part 4: A Visit to Baseline!
Day 4, Part 5: Oga's!
Day 4, Part 6: Where Did All the People Go?

April 29th
Day 5, Part 1: At First They Didn't Want Me to Come, Now They Don't Want Me to Leave!​

 

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Day 1, Part 1: I’m the First Officer, and I’m the One Who Landed the Plane at the Wrong Airport.

It was finally travel day! Actually, it came up pretty fast, guess it helps I only booked the trip two months prior.

As with most trips, I hardly slept the night beforehand. Nothing like starting off a Disney trip exhausted. I was just so excited, and slightly terrified I’d sleep though my alarm since I hadn’t been up that early in over a year (this past year has made me SO lazy).

My flight was at 8, so I went to call for an Uber around 6:30, only to see there were no cars available! Uh oh. I was a bit surprised, the previous day I had checked around that time to make sure I could get a car and there were plenty of cars, but I guess a lot of people just don’t work on Sunday.

So I kept refreshing hoping something would show up while contemplating going over to wake my neighbor up to see if she would give me a ride. Fortunately a car finally showed up on the app so I didn’t have to wake my neighbor up super early on a Sunday!

The car arrived quickly once booked and I was at the airport around 6:45.

Since I wasn’t checking bags I made my way down to security, where there was no line for pre check, and breezed right though. I found my gate and only had to wait about 30 minutes before we started boarding.

I was flying Jetblue and had booked an Even More Space seat, so was the first group called after those who needed assistance. I totally lucked out on this flight and ended up not having someone in the middle seat next to me! The woman in the aisle seat in my row, Maria, and I chatted a bit while everyone boarded, and before long we were pushing back from the gate.

It was actually a few minutes early, I believe it was 7:52, and there was no wait to take off so I actually took off early for the first time ever. I was so excited about this I of course had to tell my seat mate Maria.

When we took off the pilot told us the flight time would be 1:50, so we should arrive just before 9:50. Awesome, 40 minutes ahead of schedule!

The flight was pretty uneventful, until of course it was.

In the middle of my excitement that for once I was going to get somewhere not only on time, but early, I noticed that we suddenly banked sharply and found ourselves heading due west. We had just crossed the FL boarder, so I assumed that we were heading more towards the center of the state since we had been flying over the Atlantic.

Well, a short time later we are still flying due west, and before long were flying out over the gulf. What the….

We kept going in the wrong direction for a while until finally turning south again. Maria and I were trying to figure out what was going on.

Finally after flying way down the west coast of FL, like down to around the Ft Myers area, the pilot finally came on to let us know what was going on.

Apparently there was some bad weather moving into Orlando so no one could land, and he and the second officer had been discussing and decided that we needed to land in Tampa because we didn’t have enough fuel.

Um, not enough fuel? NOT something someone who is terrified of flying wants to hear while 35,000ft in the air! (seriously though, I have an intense fear of flying, I’ve just done it enough now that I can manage).

So we made a few more circles around western FL (saw more of the state this day than in my entire life), before finally landing in Tampa.

Once we landed and taxied to a gate, the pilot came out of the cockpit and got on the intercom to talk to us. He says “Hi everyone, can you see me? Hi, I’m the first officer, and I’m the one who landed the plane at the wrong airport. Sorry about that.”

HAAAAAAAA. OMG, I mean, considering the circumstances this guy had a great attitude and did a good job making us laugh.

He went on to tell us more information about what was going on. Apparently we weren’t actually running out of fuel (phew), but he and the second officer realized that if they flew to Orlando and couldn’t land due to the weather, then we wouldn’t have enough fuel to make it back to Tampa, so they decided to be safe to land and refuel and wait out the storm.

I feel better knowing that.

He also went over everything we needed to wait for while in Tampa, like they needed to be told how much fuel they needed even though they already knew, and stuff like that. I actually really appreciated all the information he was giving us.

Ok, this is getting long and there is a lot more coming, so I’m going to cut it off now.

Next up: Look Ma, I’m Flying a Plane! ​

 

[DLo]

Well that’s not how anyone wants to start their trip. But , I guess much better to safe. Following along . Looking forward to reading more. My name is Debbie too . I have gone solo a few times and love it. Going about two weeks for my next solo trip .
I went several times with my family growing up but my love for WDW was reignited when I took my kids. They are now in their 20s , between school and work, not able to join me but that doesn’t stop me from going without them .

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in! Wow what an eventful start- not how you want your flight down to go at all!!

 

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Day 1, Part 2: Look Ma, I’m Flying a Plane!

We last left off after landing in Tampa due to storms over Orlando and limited fuel.

I fortunately had a great seat buddy so we chatted to pass the time while waiting. While we weren’t allowed to go into the terminal to hang out, they did let people off who would find alternative transport to where they were going. There were actually a handful of people who did that, I was surprised.

We had landed in Tampa just before 10:30, and after about an hour around 11:40 the pilot came out to announce that MCO had been shut down due to the weather. I checked the radar on my phone, and the storm system was traveling practically due east and was just stuck over MCO. Ugh.

The pilot noted MCO was expected to reopen in about an hour and said that since a ton of planes had to be diverted like us, he would do his best to be one of the first to take off so we wouldn’t have any more delays.

Then, he did something amazing. He announced that anyone, little kids and big kids alike, were welcome to come into the cockpit to check things out.

Of course a line of kids built quickly, all the while I was debating if I wanted to be that adult and be the big kid who checked out the cockpit.

Well, spoiler alert, I did.

It was so ridiculously cool, not only did they let me come in, but the pilot got up and let me sit in his seat!



This pilot was amazing (and to be blunt, really hot!), and when I mentioned how jealous my dad would be once he heard I got to do this, he asked if I had a phone to get a picture. I told him I did, but I left it at my seat. Well, he asked which seat I was in and actually ran back to grab my phone from my seat and then came back and took a bunch of pictures for me! Such an awesome guy.

I chatted with both pilot and the copilot for a bit about all the instruments in there before a line of other “big kids” started to form.

It was a great way to pass the time, and such an awesome experience, totally made up for the fact that we landed at the wrong airport.

Finally, about two hours after landing in Tampa, at 12:36, we pushed back from the gate and were on our way! Well, on our way to wait some more. Ha!

We taxied out to the runway, and then just sat. Apparently there was a loooong line of planes ahead of us, it actually took about an hour before it was our turn, but finally around 1:30 it was our turn to take off!

The flight from Tampa to Orlando was uneventful…for the whole thing, which was welcome.

The pilot came on the intercom during the flight to tell us "don't worry folks, we won't charge you for this extra stop. This is a Jetblue special, two stops for the price of one!" HA!

When we landed he came on again and totally deadpan goes "well, we're here"

Seriously, this guy was awesome.

The passengers on the plane were pretty great too, no one seemed too upset and once we landed someone goes "now that was the longest two hour flight I've ever been on!"

We arrived in Orlando around 2:00, and I booked it off the plane, fortunately I was sitting in the second row so I made a quick escape. I was worried about how crazy DME would be with all the diverted planes landing around the same time.

Well, I was right to be concerned. Upon exiting the plane I found myself in a sea of bodies. Seriously, it was elbow to elbow in the terminal, and most weren’t wearing masks. I was very thankful at that point that I was fully vaccinated!

I’m guessing with all the diverted flights there just weren't planes for people to board yet, plus the planes that had just arrived were dumping even more people out into the terminal, but boy, it was a mess. I’ve never seen so many people in there.

After getting through that I made my way quickly down to DME. Upon getting off the elevator on the first floor I was in for a shock, the line was crazy long. I’ve seen videos of long DME lines, but this one looked much longer. Ugh.

I made my way to the end of the line and crossed my fingers it wouldn’t be more than an hour. Well, I lucked out, even though the line was super long, it only took 35 minutes to get to the check-in, and once in my resort line, only 10 minutes to board the bus. The bus left shortly after boarding, so in the end not horrible, just a shock to see that many people!

Next up: I'm Finally Back in Disney World! ​

 

[VAtink]

Well that’s not how anyone wants to start their trip. But , I guess much better to safe. Following along . Looking forward to reading more. My name is Debbie too . I have gone solo a few times and love it. Going about two weeks for my next solo trip .
I went several times with my family growing up but my love for WDW was reignited when I took my kids. They are now in their 20s , between school and work, not able to join me but that doesn’t stop me from going without them .

Hi other Debbie!

Seriously not the best way to start a trip, but at least I got all of the issues out of the way before I got to Disney!

Hope you have a great time on your upcoming trip!

 

[VAtink]

Joining in! Wow what an eventful start- not how you want your flight down to go at all!!

Welcome, thanks for joining in!

It really was eventful, lots of stress that first day, but we made the best of it (honestly being able to go into the cockpit and sit in the pilots seat totally made up for any delay). Also I'm happy we at least got there early enough to have time in the parks!

 

[magrudersmakes3]

Following along. I’m taking my first real solo trip in September.

 

[VAtink]

Following along. I’m taking my first real solo trip in September.

Thanks for following along!

That's awesome you're doing a solo trip in September! September is my favorite time to go, I'm hoping they bring back some of the usual fall stuff this year like the Halloween party and the F&W events. Hope you have a great trip!

 

[Mich123]

Yikes, what a trip down! Also, thanks for the warning about masks, or no masks, at the airport. I’m heading down in a couple of weeks and will find that pretty shocking, coming from a place with high mask adherence.

Looking forward to your report!

 

[NOLA_Tink]

You are hilarious and I'm loving your TR!

 

[CruellaNY]

Joining in! That's.......quite a travel day lol and not really in a lol way! We had a 5 hour delay in July on our way down and thought that was bad but at least we were waiting in the airport. And I've heard the DME lines have been crazy lately and I fear that won't change between now and the end of the year. We just got back Wednesday but always take an Uber or Lyft; I did want to take ME one more time next month or in Sept for nostalgia before it goes away but I don't know!

Looking forward to the rest of your report

 

[VAtink]

Yikes, what a trip down! Also, thanks for the warning about masks, or no masks, at the airport. I’m heading down in a couple of weeks and will find that pretty shocking, coming from a place with high mask adherence.

Looking forward to your report!

Yeah, it was an experience! For the masks, I found the airport to be the worst with compliance, but I also think that it really is going to vary. I was talking to my new Disney friend I met while there and she had the complete opposite experience at the airport and saw most people were wearing masks. I'm also from a place with very high mask adherence (I even get glares if I'm outside doing yardwork without a mask!), and it was a bit shocking getting off the plane in FL, but once on Disney property it was much much better.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[VAtink]

You are hilarious and I'm loving your TR!

Thank you and !

 

[VAtink]

Joining in! That's.......quite a travel day lol and not really in a lol way! We had a 5 hour delay in July on our way down and thought that was bad but at least we were waiting in the airport. And I've heard the DME lines have been crazy lately and I fear that won't change between now and the end of the year. We just got back Wednesday but always take an Uber or Lyft; I did want to take ME one more time next month or in Sept for nostalgia before it goes away but I don't know!

Looking forward to the rest of your report

thanks for joining in! Yeah, it was a crazy experience getting down there! At least the pilot and the other passengers on the plane had pretty good attitudes about everything, and going into the cockpit really was awesome.

I wonder why the DME lines have been so bad, they didn't seem to have fewer CMs working at the airport, in fact they had more check-in stations than last time I was there. I imagine at least for the day I arrived it was due to all the diverted planes landing around the same time, but I've seen the bad lines on other days too. Hope they aren't bad in September, got another trip planned for then too!

 

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Day 1, Part 3: I’m Finally in Disney World!

The DME bus was only making three stops, CBR, YC and BC. For the first time I’ve ever seen, YC was dropped off before BC! I think the BCV people on the bus were a bit surprised by this as well, when we pulled into the YC first, one of them goes in an annoyed tone “let’s just get off here and walk.”

Finally I was there!!!!! We arrived at the YC around 4:30, much later than the morning arrival I had anticipated, but I was just so happy to finally be back!

While on the bus to the resort I kept checking MDE for my room assignment, but nothing ever showed up. Being over an hour past check-in time I was getting a bit worried, so once we arrived I went to wait in line for the front desk to inquire about my room.

The line there was a bit confusing, there are distancing markers on the ground that are perpendicular to the desk, and a bunch of people standing around with only some following any of those, so I had no idea who was in line. Well it turns out the people standing on the distance markers weren’t actually in line, just picked a bad place to stand. HA.

It didn’t take long for it to be my turn, and I found out they had a king bed room reserved for me that wasn’t ready yet. Since I didn’t care about the bed configuration they happily moved me to a room that was ready so I could go drop my stuff off right away. Yay!!

I was assigned room 4184, it was a nice room looking out over the porte cochere. It was the room right next to the huge shared balcony so I was worried about the noise, but it didn’t seem anyone was in those rooms until my last night so it wasn’t a problem. The room was super quiet, which was great because I’m a very light sleeper!





I ran upstairs to drop my things off before running back down to grab some water and sunblock. The problem with not checking bags is the need to buy sunblock when I arrive. Oh well, it was a quick stop.

Finally it was time to head over to Epcot. Of course as I walked over I took pictures (and videos). I know I say this every TR, but isn’t this place beautiful?






You can hear me huffing and puffing in this video. It was my first time wearing a mask in FL heat, and I found it pretty rough at first. Good news is, I quickly got used to it, and it didn't bother me the rest of the trip, but boy, those first 15 or so minutes were tough!

Next up: First Taste of Flower and Garden! ​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Oh my goodness, you and your travel tales! Sounds like that pilot was pretty awesome and tried to make the best of it. I would have been freaking out as I don't like enclosed spaces. They would have needed to break out the beverage cart for me! I do remember the storms that day and they were no joke. Hurrah for finally arriving and, yes, Yacht Club is so gorgeous! Can't wait to hear what you thought of F&G!

 

[VAtink]

Oh my goodness, you and your travel tales! Sounds like that pilot was pretty awesome and tried to make the best of it. I would have been freaking out as I don't like enclosed spaces. They would have needed to break out the beverage cart for me! I do remember the storms that day and they were no joke. Hurrah for finally arriving and, yes, Yacht Club is so gorgeous! Can't wait to hear what you thought of F&G!

Seriously, I need some better luck with getting to my destination! HAAA, my seat buddy, Maria, and I were commenting that they really needed to bring out the beverage cart while we were waiting in Tampa, would have definitely helped!

F&G was awesome this year, love seeing Epcot all dressed up, and the food this year was delicious!

 

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Day 1, Part 4: First Taste of Flower and Garden!

We last left off with me heading over to Epcot from the Yacht Club. It’s a nice quick walk and I was there in no time.

The temperature screening was quick and so was the security. I love love love the new security. It is so nice just to walk through and not have them dig through my bag!

My original plan had been to stop at the store at the IG to pick up the Spike map, but the store was packed at that point so I decided to head in and get food first.

Now, prior to the trip I had done what I always do and spent way too much time going through/drooling over the food items, so when I got there I had one booth and one food in particular in mind so I headed that way.

I made my way over to Canada, and got very confused. I could not figure out where the entrance to the food booth line was! Turns out it was way before the booth by the kidcot station. Once I found it I got in the short line to order the food I’ve been dreaming of….the scallops! Official name of the dish was the Seared Scallops with French Green Beans, Butter Potatoes, Brown Butter Vinaigrette, and Applewood smoked bacon.



It was just as amazing as I had expected, although the scallops were tiny. I also picked up the blackberry fruit beer to go with it. The beer was good, better than I expected!

I did make a mistake and was so focused on snagging a table to eat at that once I picked up the food I rushed to an empty one I saw (and fortunately beat a couple without food heading to the same table), and totally forgot to get silverware.

Now I was hit with a dilemma. Do I pick up my food and abandon the table and go get silverware, or do I chance leaving my stuff at the table and run and grab it and hope no one takes anything. Oh the problems of traveling alone!

I ended up choosing the latter and made a mad dash back to the booth to get my silverware, and fortunately it worked out.

While eating I got to take in the surroundings and the massive and frankly pretty ugly new fireworks barges. I hope when they turn them into fountains it looks better!



After wrapping up in Canada I strolled over to my next booth, the Citrus Blossom! Here I picked up the Meyer Lemon Poached Lobster Salad along with the Orange Lemon Smoothie (served in the Orange Bird Sipper Cup). When I originally ordered I noticed the price seemed too low and it turns out the CM had put in for the smoothie without the cup, I was surprised by this since that wasn’t even an option on the menu to get it without the sipper cup, but I clarified I wanted the cup so she changed it.

Once I had my food in hand, and silverware this time, I found myself a table over by a beautiful flower display to eat.





The lobster salad was delicious, I loved it. The smoothie was also good, but was surprisingly very filling.

My next stop was to the Pineapple Promenade where I picked up the beer flight.



This was really good, there was one I wasn’t a huge fan of, but the other two I loved. I got a great table here that was against a wall so I had a place to sit and just take in the atmosphere.

While enjoying, all of a sudden a baby jumping spider hopped onto my table. I swear, this thing understood what I was saying and was a massive jerk spider. It kept jumping closer and closer to my beer flight, so I said to it “you better not hop on my beer” and sure enough, the little jerk jumped right on my cup. So I decide to try to shoo it away using my gopro, but I guess it wanted to visit me, so jumped on my camera!

Now I hate spiders, so this was not a welcome development. Fortunately this was just a baby jumping spider, and also I have kind of a soft spot for jumping spiders, they’re actually kind of cute. If you haven’t watched Lucas the Spider on youtube check it out, he’s basically an animated baby jumping spider being adorable (and the real life ones are also oddly cute as well!)

The spider eventually moved on and I ended up sitting there for a bit just enjoying my beer flight and people watching. The weather was absolutely perfect, even though it was in the mid 80s, the humidity was low and there was a great breeze, so it was so comfortable sitting out there.


Not sure why, but love the palm trees here with the perfect blue sky background. Still can't believe how amazing the weather was this week!

Oh, also, it was dapper day and it was so awesome seeing everyone dressed up!

Up Next: More Fun in Epcot!​