Day 1, 4/11 ARRIVAL
We were scheduled to fly from Detroit to Orlando, with boarding at 4:15. FL was having some epic weather, and at about 4:10 they announced that our inbound plane wasn’t expected until after 9:30, but they were looking for another plane. Then at 4:13 they said the flight was canceled.
My super fast fingers got the app open as soon as the word “unfortunately” came out of the gate agent’s mouth, and we made it onto the flight leaving at 5:39, which had already been delayed since 12:40.
We landed a little after 8:00, but so did everyone else and so we waited on the tarmac, and by the time we got to Magical Express the line was really long and we ended up not getting on a bus for 90 minutes.
We got dripped on by the a/c the whole way to WDW, so as soon as some people got off at the first stop we took their seats. We finally made it Boardwalk at about 11:20pm. Very long day for my niece, who is 7 and on her first trip without her mom, but she was a trooper and the whining was minimal.
She was also really excited for the pull-down Dumbo bed. So excited, in fact, that she climbed right in and forgot to take off her mask!
We got the exact room I requested with my room finder fax, overlooking the “backyard”, as DN calls it.
**Day 2, AM @ EPCOT **
We got to sleep in a bit, since Epcot opens so late. Very fortunate, given the unexpected late arrival night. Quick breakfast at the Bakery, then walk to IG. We arrived at about 10:03, and were held at temperature check, because they’d already let some parties through to the gates and there wasn’t any more space. One thing that was annoying was that they had us line up in the boat dock queue but then about 10 minutes later they had people start filling in the regular temp check queue, and when they opened the gates at 10:15, they started checking those peoples temperatures first, before the whole line that had been there.
We headed directly to Test Track, only to find that it wasn’t opening yet. There was already a bit of a line building, so we decided to head over to Mission Space instead, because who doesn’t like 2.5Gs first thing in the morning? We waited about 5 minutes for them to open. Test Track was running by the time we returned, and the wait was about 30 minutes. The line followed distancing markers on the ground outside in quite a meandering path, and moved pretty quickly. There was more sadness at the end, with no fun activities, and I have to say the lack of that to break up the time really makes FW feel kind of rushed.
The line had grown quite a bit when we came out, so we went back to Mars 2 more times before I vetoed any further trips.
We stopped by the Sunshine Griddle and had the fried cinnamon roll bites and I got a boozy cold brew.
A. the bites were like 3 good-sized bites each, and you get 3 of them… they’re filled with a cinnamon goo and also covered in cinnamon sugar, which made them a bit strong for DN, so she just ate the ends without the goo. There are very small bacon bits on them, but you can scrape them off easily, and the cinnamon really overpowers them anyway.
B. the boozy cold brew drink is quite boozy and also full-sized. I was expecting a tasting-sized drink like festivals past, so it was a bit much. A couple nearby said that it seems like all of the festival drinks are bigger this year, and another woman agreed that after a year of not going out at all lots of people aren’t going to get very far with drinks like that!
After our snack we decided to head over to Spaceship Earth, which had just opened back up and had a very long line (that went through all of the outdoor queues in both sides and then back down along the construction wall all the way past the distance markers on the ground) but DN really wanted to do it, so we waited. The queue is a whole lot of direct sun. They said an hour, it was more like 40 minutes and by the time we came out it was maybe 15 minutes. 
When we ended the third tour of sadness, it was getting a little later so we decided to catch the Film Festival on our way back to IG and the Skyliner to HS.
This was only our second time ever using Skyliner, since the last time we came for a full trip was January 2020. Again, DN was so excited to ride backward that she forgot to take off her mask.
I’ll be back tonight with the rest of Day 1, and Day 2. Now I get to go to the desk and see if they can help me find a room for 1 or 2 more nights, because Southwest just informed me that there may be an issue with our flight home on Saturday, and we can change it for free.
)
and my steak was delicious. The mousse is a huge portion, but the real hit was the decorate your own cupcake.
Just really, really enjoy both the trip and your writing style. Can’t wait to see how the rest of it goes!