Please read 2nd mother/daughter trip preview to catch up on our planning
Drawing closer to our trip, I suggested we look into Food and Wine offerings and plan what we didn’t want to miss. My kids like trying different foods, so that certainly piqued her interest. We began watching videos, taking notes and getting excited for the F+W festival.
We traveled the day after Election Day. I awoke about 1:30 am, wondering if I dared turn on the news. I did. I should not have. My heart sank and my heart raced. I’m sure there are many who’ll disagree with me, but I was devastated. I could not get back to sleep. We left for the airport at 4:30am.
Our first day would be Epcot where she wanted to be sure we got to do Guardians 
. We would be in the air at 7am, so I called older dd into service. By the time we landed in Orlando, she had procured us a boarding group. Of an alarmingly low #. (This child has this system down) The estimated window was to end at 10:38. 
it seemed nearly impossible that we’d get to the ride by then.
We landed on time. No one on the plane was rude, listening to things on their devices out loud 
, the seats in this plane did not recline 
. It looked like it was raining out, but was predicted to stop by 10. Luggage carousel was predictably, infuriatingly slow, but we changed into warm weather clothes while we waited. Eventually we got our bag and I (for the 1st time ever) ordered a Lyft. In a few minutes, it pulled right up. The driver popped the back and I heaved the heavy bag in. She said not a word until we arrived at Saratoga, where again I heaved the suitcase out. It had stopped raining. “Have a nice trip” were the only words from her. Hmm. Quickly pulled our park bags out of our carryons and checked our bags with bell services. We asked after the bus stop location and proceeded.
Here begins the most amazing WDW day we’ve ever experienced. As our feet hit the curb across the street from the bus stop, up pulls the Epcot bus. We hop on and off we go. Could we really make it to GoG by our window end? Security was quick, we were in the park and power walked right to GoG.
I want to point out here that on our last big family trip, we pulled up to the local airport 15 minutes from our house at 5:30 am, only to be told that “THE flight is cancelled”! They offered to book us out of Philly the following night, thereby stealing 2 full days of our 5 night vacation. Nope, we headed to Philly, hubby on his phone madly trying to book something. 15 minutes into our drive, “no, nope, turn around, head to Newark!” We do, and he gets a flight, that if we hurry we can catch. As soon as he “checks in”, 2 hour delay. We pull into a Dunkin’ to grab some breakfast, and at 7am our older dd procures a boarding group for all 13 of us. (The rest of the family is flying separately from BMI). We have many challenges and delays that day, and don’t get into the park until hours after our boarding group, but no one seemed to care. This tale I tell to let you know that we know they’ll probably still let us on, but we wanted to get there on time anyway.
We arrive only 2 minutes after our window closed! And again, no one cared. This time we only waited about 20 minutes (as opposed to our last trip, where with a boarding group, we waited at least an hour!). I didn’t dislike the ride as much as our last trip, so that was good.
We were getting a bit peckish, so excitedly headed to some of our chosen food kiosks. On the way, we happened upon the Jammitors, something that we usually wouldn’t take time to watch, but we did and it was nice. That day, the longest food line we waited on, was about 1 person! Everything we were trying was quite tasty, we were really having fun. We needed a break from eating and she wanted to go on 3 caballeros, so right on we walked. Then we got one of the tastiest F+W offerings (in my opinion) the shrimp tostada, she also wanted the cornbread dessert thing, so we got that too. I tried one bite of that, but it’s not my thing, so she gladly finished it herself.
We were doing Emile’s Fromage Montage (because that’s just fun), so we got the Raclette, which was tastier than I had expected to find outside of actual Switzerland. After we were full again, and quite tired, we decided to go ahead and wait in line for Remi. It was about a 40 minute wait. A bit hot outside, but we definitely needed a slowdown break. Literally about 3 seconds after we get to the indoor section of the line, there is great exclaiming and pointing outside - the skies have opened up and a huge sheet of rain is pounding down. Whew! After we ride the photo pass photographer had a very short line, so we stop and get some cute pictures.
Then she wanted to head to Soarin’, so we did. Then Living with the Land, a family favorite. Then some more F+W dishes and the weeist little Schoefferhofer ever, so cute! A few more photos here and there, pin shopping, then bus to AK for the extra hours (from 6-8).
We were a bit earlier than we had planned, headed to Everest, very low wait. I can only do that once, but told her she could go again if she liked, so excitedly she did. Then we headed to Dinosaur. We had planned to watch the tree “awakening”, so headed there. But we had the wrong time, so headed to Satuuli for our planned dinner. She had never eaten there, and enjoyed it. Then we trotted back to the tree and caught most of the projections, it’s very cool and a sentimental favorite for us.
Getting dark, back to the magical Pandora, taking it in. FoP was probably 10 minutes, then over to Navi (one of my favorites) with about a 2 minute wait. Then, of course, back to FoP. I don’t mind it once, but twice? Well, it’s her trip, so on I go. This time, it was pretty much as fast as we could walk that humongously long line, we were at the front. I kind of wish that at events like this, that you could pass the preshow, but alas. After that, we were pretty beat. She got the Night Blossom and I got the Mo’ara Margarita. We both very much enjoyed our tasty drinks and our slow stroll back to the busses.
The bus was right there for us, and we were back at Saratoga. We asked bell services for our bags, our grocery delivery and a ride to our room. They were so kind and helpful. We had put in a room request through touring plans and the location and view was exactly what we wanted! Sadly, our magic bands were not opening the door, but the bellman helped us open it with my phone and offered to drive us back to the lobby, where they fixed it up toot sweet! He had even offered to drive us back to our room, but we were right near the Paddock pool and that’s not a bad walk. Put away groceries, unpacked, then I cooked up the bacon she desired as part of her breakfast each day. She doesn’t usually eat breakfast, so whatever she wanted, I was on board. A Disney body needs fuel. Btw, her prized breakfast each day? She would grab her little container of cottage cheese and some crumbled bacon and eat it at rope drop everyday. 
She enjoyed it and was happy to wait a bit to eat, says she gets nauseous if she eats right away. It also streamlined us getting out each morning. So win win. Finally got to bed around 11. 1:30am to 11pm, 25,661 steps. Whew!
I will try to get onto our next days soon, if anyone enjoys following along
I’m like your daughter—I can’t eat early in the morning!