For those of you who have read my reports before - maybe I'll actually finish this one?
Good luck!
(Also - can you see the pictures below? They look to be working on my laptop but not on mobile? Just me?)
Probably already been confirmed/fixed/whatever... but yes. I can see them.
Also joining me on this trip was my husband, Luke!
Say hi to Luke for me!
I reached out to a few of the ladies I knew from here on the Disboards who I was Facebook friends with, and the Epic Trip was born!
I remember when you were here, visiting, and I mentioned "Su-Lynn's" trip... whoops! Sorry! Yes, it was your idea!
Hotels: Old Key West (May 1-6),
You. Are. Kidding. Me...........
We were in Old Key West from April 30th - May 4th!!!!!!!!!
We could have said hi!!!
Just because I think they are adorable, here's pictures of them…
They are adorable. Thanks for the pics! I just posted some of my pups over on my TR.
Magoo always has to grab something when it’s time to go for a walk…on this particular night, it was a hand towel from the pile of clean laundry I was folding…
Awwwww! Too cute!
On April 30th, Luke and I both had to work for the full day. The hours dragged,
I bet! Longest hours are the last hours before a vacation.
I’m the type of person who is late for everything – except flights. I’d rather sit at my gate early than have to run to catch my flight
Early to the gate. Yep!
The lady checking my bag told me I “should have been more responsible and been there earlier” despite the fact I was over 90 minutes early for a domestic flight *facepalm*).
“Could you tell me how early you arrive for a domestic flight, please?”
"90 minutes."
"Oh? You should be more responsible and be there earlier."
<say that
after you get all checked in and everything...
>
I always think it’s hilarious when you’re sitting in an airport and you see an entire herd of people changing gates, and now I was one of those people
.
Have you seen the movie "Airplane"? There's a hilarious scene where people are running from gate to gate to gate as it keeps getting changed.
We landed in Toronto, and they made an announcement that anyone not connecting to Orlando was to remain seated, and anyone heading to Orlando – head straight to customs.
Really! They didn't do that on mine... and we barely made it.
We were cutting it close, but we made it through security and customs quickly, and made it to our gate while they were still pre-boarding!
We got there and boarding was already under way.
Since we’re Canadian, Disney won’t mail us our Magicbands before a trip.
I don't know why not. I mean... it's not like we're on a different continent even. And even then... why not? Mailing costs, I presume.
To get on the Magical Express we typically have a letter that’s mailed out to us, but then I’m always struggling to get it out of my bag when we get there – so this time I was thinking ahead and brought one of my Magicbands from our December trip and it made things so much easier!
I'm always organized with that letter in the front pocket of my carry-on. I learned my lesson... once.
Of course I had to take a selfie to document the moment (with a Snapchat filter of course to hide the exhaustion)
We arrived at Old Key West, and headed in to the main lobby to pick up our new Magicbands – blue for me, red for Luke.
Love when I get those. I always pick green (except for once... and I regretted it.)
I’m not much of a shopper these days, but I do enjoy starting our vacation with a trip to the Disney Outlet there!
Gotta get your loot!
We had decent luck on this trip, and I found a single Monsters University spirit jersey in my exact size for $20! Luke also found the Wall-E zip-up hoody he’d been looking at last year in his size for $20, and a Dark Wing Duck mug for $5. I also picked up an Epcot 35 ornament for $5, a Pascal baseball hat for $8 and a Minnie Mouse baseball hat for $5.
Not bad!
Water is like $4/bottle in the parks, or a case of 40 bottles was $4 at Walmart.
Kind of a no-brainer, then.
(For comparison, that same bottle of wine is $12-$15 here).
How much was it there?
So I picked up these three kinds of Twizzlers that I’ve never seen up here for them (the orange ones are seriously amazing!
And "filled"??? I've never seen
that!
when on vacation why not start your day with a Bailey’s and coffee!
Why not? You're on vacation!
Once we finished up our shopping, we called an Uber XL to get back to OKW.
Why an XL? (Just curious, not judging)
I love that Disney tries to keep it familiar when you do repeat stays at resorts, although I’m not sure if they just do that for DVC stays?
I haven't stayed at a resort where I haven't asked for a specific location or even room number, so I can't say.
Our other luggage had arrived with the Magical Express tags, so one of the cast members from Bell Services drove us to our room in a golf cart with all of our luggage and Walmart purchases.
Nice. That would not have been fun lugging all that.
Of course, once we arrived our Magicbands wouldn’t work
We started walking the 7-8 minutes back to our building when the same bell services saw us and pulled over, motioning for us to hop back in his golf cart. I guess it was worth it to tip him generously when he dropped us off the first time!
Nice of him.
the beds were new. I prefer the new style, it’s nice to be able to shove a suitcase underneath the bed out of the way.
Huh! I never thought of that. Not sure my bag would fit, though. It's narrower but taller/thicker.
the bathroom felt very big (although I know it's the same size as they've always been).
It's all in the placement, I guess.
It did now have the wall-attached shampoo/conditioner instead of the travel-sized ones from years past, but we don’t mind that.
I prefer that.
Sure you can't take it, but... once I opened a bottle of shampoo and... it wasn't shampoo inside. I suspect (hope) that it was just a kid that filled it with water, but... ew.
Nice view!
Our dining reservation was in Disney Springs, so we decided we wanted to take the boat (there is an option for a bus from OKW as well).
We never went to Springs (no time!), but I loved taking the boat from POR.
We had perfect timing, and the boat pulled up to the dock about 90 seconds after we arrived.
Nice!
Taking the boat from OKW to Disney Springs is such a nice, relaxing way to spend 20 minutes!
So much better than the bus.
We then headed off to our supper reservation at our favourite Disney restaurant –
Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ (or Che Fartsmith if you're as cool as
@pepperandchips and I
).