Whirlwind last minute trip complete!

JLCDisMom

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
I just got home from a short and intense last-minute getaway with my sister, mother and preschooler nephew. We had a tragic loss in our family and threw caution to the wind and escaped to WDW for 3 days (plus one on each end for travel).

I finished work at 3pm, drove to Toronto and flew into MCO, arriving after midnight. I am in a family of 5, so we always drive. This was my first experience with ME and it was pretty seamless. My sister, neph and mom were already at ASM so I traveled alone. It was exciting to arrive this way, but I was also very lonesome to be going on this adventure without my husband and three kids. It was such a bizarre mindset to be in; exhausted, alone and yet excited. It was just so odd to be there without them.

I fell into bed at ASM at 2 am. My mom and sister had never been to WDW before, so I delighted in being able to make a lot of the overwhelming decisions for them. We rope-dropped Frontierland then covered Adventureland before lunch. Considering we were traveling with a 3 year old, I had almost no sleep and we had Spring Break crowds, we had a pretty slick and productive morning!
Big Thunder/Splash (rider switch for each), Magic Carpets, Pirates, Jungle Cruise and a Dole Whip before lunch. Not so bad!
After lunch we did the Haunted Mansion and a few miscellaneous things while neph napped and then we went back to the resort for a rest and swim.

I'd never been to the All Star resorts before. The refurbished rooms are quite impressive, though smaller than rooms I've stayed in elsewhere. The beds were very comfortable and the rooms were clean and modern.

We went back to the park for HEA and crushed a bunch of the rides in the evening that we had planned to cover during EMH the next morning. It was beautiful, quiet and not busy over there in Storybook Circus.

We were up early the next morning for EMH at MK. A horrendously rude woman robbed a whole lot of my family's joy on that bus. Even though you intellectually dismiss someone's rudeness as a reflection of their attitude, words hurt and especially since we were vulnerable, coming on this trip to momentarily escape the pain of loss, this encounter was really unfortunate. We did have a really good chuckle when she got to the entrance and her Magic Band didn't work properly and she lost it on the CM. Not that we were happy that she made a CM's day bad, but it affirmed for us, some people are just like that. Who knows... maybe she was on a bereavement trip too? I hope her day got better. To make OUR day better, we met Mickey and Minnie in their birthday outfits with a very conservative wait.

Our EMH strategy was not what I'd normally do if touring with my squad, but given our extras after HEA the day before, we took it easy. After Mickey and Minnie, we met Ariel (for neph), breakfast at Gaston's Enchanted Tales with Belle (for neph), and it's a small world.

Maybe it's because it's a million degrees when we usually go (end of August- Yikes) or maybe it's because we have a fast and furious pace when I tour with my family, but I've never been over to Tom Sawyer Island. It was great!

We knocked off a few more rides and caught FOF. By then it was nice and hot. Everyone wanted to go back for a swim. I, however, was desperate to tour MK solo. It was probably my favourite part of the whole trip. I went to the Hall of Presidents, grabbed a chicken and waffles from Sleepy Hollow and caught Great Moments in History with the Muppets, caught the new Mousekedance It parade, rode Liberty Bell and the shopped at a nice slow pace. I wanted to see what HEA looked like from outside the park so I booked it for a monorail. I got on a direct line and ended up at TTC rather than Poly, which is what I planned, but I guess I didn't pay attention to the signs ;) The view from TTC was excellent! Unfortunately, the speaker was super quiet and HEA is just not the same without the sound track. Is the speaker better at the Poly beach? My solo jaunt ended after a quick pop-in to GF to visit some shops and check out the amazing chocolate Easter egg display. The smell in there was divine.

The next morning we chugged through HS. I am so impressed with my nephew's stamina. We worked him hard and he did pretty well! We rope-dropped TOT and then went directly to Alien Swirling Saucers and then explored Toy Story Land. After the initial hustle of rope dropping TOT and circling back to Toy Story Land, we had such a leisurely pace at this park. I've never taken a park so casually. Considering we booked our trip only 2 weeks in advance, I was really impressed with the fastpasses I was able to score. We got a mid-day Rockin' Roller coaster which, and morning TSM. Slinky was not happening (literally- it was broken down for over an hour) and the line didn't make sense for us given that the little guy was too small too ride.
By the end of our day (5pm) we had seen all we wanted to see. It was hot. We'd been going hard. I wanted to send my mom and sister back out in the evening to see Fantasmic! because they'd never seen it, but we were pretty cooked and we all had early flights the next morning. Instead, we retreated for a swim.

After a swim, we finished off our trip with a quick trip to Disney Springs for some Blaze Pizza and some shopping at the World of Disney. Again, despite all the fun we'd had, I wished that my family was with me. On our trips I'm all "spend your own money on souvenirs". Traveling without them, I went a little bananas on the souvenirs ;) At Disney Springs there was a ton of lightning, so it worked out in the end not to send anyone back for Fantasmic! because it would have been cancelled anyway.

It's never easy to say goodbye to Disney, but it was time. I was on ME before the sun was up and I started my journey home.

Our trip was intended to be a short respite from grief. We were there to make memories together and commemorate a beautiful life that was gone too soon in lieu of a funeral. It was good and pure and beautiful, but there were tears too. It was a reminder that while you can't escape or speed up the effects of grief, you can take a little bit of the edge off when you're in good company and in a magical place.

And with that, my super speedy, last minute, throwing caution to the wind getaway was complete.
 
I'm wrestling to get my images down to a size that will fit into my posts. Any suggestions?:thanks:
 
Great TR. Short and sweet. Glad you all were able to have a few bright days under the sad circumstances. thanks for sharing.
 
Enjoyed your trip report. If you and your family want to see HEA uncrowded in the future, yes, the Poly beach speakers are pretty loud and agree that it's a big part of the experience.
 


Thanks for sharing your trip report. It sounds like you did quite well, and I hope the time together will soften your grief and help you cherish the memories. Disney can be a very emotional place, especially HEA - it can give you what you need. :hug:
 

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