[rescheduled] Eff you, cancer, I'm going to Disney World: A trip report

Just so you know, I have edited the F bomb in that post. You can’t swear here,

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I love your bounds! The Donald / Daisy one was amazing, especially with those character interactions! And I am a huge Indy / Marion fan, so I loved that one as well.

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Day 4: Animal Kingdom, and a whirlwind tour of Magic Kingdom

Heading home early the previous day really was a wise call, and we decided to take our time in the morning and not rush, so we were both feeling pretty rejuvenated. I ordered us some breakfast from Contempo Cafe to eat in the room before getting ready for our Animal Kingdom day. I don’t know what magic is going on, but the tater tots that appear with so many meals at Disney are superb. Perfectly seasoned and cooked to perfection. Simple food done genuinely well. :smiley:

Today’s bound was the one I was most excited for: Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps!

We started in Pandora and started drinking right away. The plan was to have the gentle buzz we’d hoped to do in Epcot before, you know, the lines. From Pongu Pongu we got the Pongu Lumpia, a Rum Blossom and a Mo’ara Margarita. Very yummy, though the Lumpia wasn’t very crunchy, the wrapper stuck to the paper. Still, a good start, followed by Navi River Journey and Flight of Passage.

We then saw there was a 45-minute wait for Nomad Lounge, so we poked around one of the stores before heading there for some proper lunch and another cocktail. We ordered the Cuban Frita Sliders and Grilled Chicken Satay to share, I had a Tempting Tigress and Beth enjoyed an Annapurna Zing. We finished off with some churros because natch.


This is also when I noticed my Magic Band had disappeared. No biggie, flagged it as lost in the app and didn’t think about it again, as I have an Apple Watch that I could use instead.

We then went on Kilimanjaro Safari, and got closer to some of the animals than I’d ever been. It was sunny, but had rained in the morning so they were more around than usual, I suppose.



Then it was off to Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, a few photo ops, and dinner at Yak and Yeti at 4:45. When I made the plans for the day, AK closed at 6, so we wanted to eat and then have enough time to see Pandora at night before park close. So sure, we ate two sit down meals in 4 hours, sue me.

Honestly, it was lovely. We started with the Lettuce Cups, I had the Kobe Beef Burger (which was like the platonic ideal of what a hamburger should be, nothing fancy, just simple and delicious), she had the Honey Chicken. Full and defeated and unable to order dessert despite wanting to but being unable to conceive of putting anything else in our mouths, we decided to declare AK over, and hopped the bus to MK.

I don’t know what got into us, but we did more in MK in 3 hours than we had in 6 hours at AK. I can’t even remember it all, but at minimum: Peoplemover, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Peter Pan’s Flight, Small World, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain… it was a whirlwind. This was mostly during the fireworks, so there was a lot of walk-ons.

Exhausted and sore, but very very happy, we hopped on the monorail back to the Contemporary to pack most things up, and went into a deep sleep. Tomorrow was check-out day, but we didn’t need to leave for the airport until 6, so we had another full day planned. :smiley:

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They really are! One of my favorite things there. But I don’t like the ones that are smothered at Friar Nooks in MK. Something about the cheese doesn’t work for me. If they used the beer cheese that you get with pretzels it would be fantastic (and now I’m trying this next visit).

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Day 5: A whirlwind tour of the greatest hits, and a brief sojourn to Disney Springs

(Sorry for the delay, I totally forgot to write this final day!)

Our final day! Since our plane wasn’t scheduled to leave until about 10pm, we effectively had an entire day to enjoy the parks. No bounds today, just wearing civvies like the hoi polloi do.

The plan was to hit Tron twice, Guardians of the Galaxy twice, and do the attractions we wanted to hit but either ran out of time, or steam, or both in the previous days. I managed to get BG1 for Tron and an ILL for it as well. I also scored an ILL for Cosmic Rewind with the intent of getting the second one at the 1pm queue time.

We lounged a bit in bed before power-packing our bags so that we could leave them with bell services around 9, before walking to the Magic Kingdom. We got on Tron first thing, then wandered over to the Fantasyland train station to take the tour around the park, then walked back to Tron for our second go-around, opting for the front row to get the perfect picture!

We then wandered through Fantasyland, on our way to the Haunted Mansion, where a friendly stranger offered to take our photo. We hit It’s a Small World again, as well as Journey of the Little Mermaid.


We did a little shopping for Beth’s niece, refilled our popcorn bucket, and figured the monorail would be the fastest way to Epcot. It was not, and we didn’t get to the park until 1:10, missing the 1pm queue for CW. I was a sad panda, but we did have our ILL for it, so it was a great chance to enjoy it again. I remain looking crazed — I’ve not figured out when they take the photo, but I’m clearly darkly interested in it.

We then went on Test Track (so much breaking on that ride, it really makes the whole thing feel janky) and Finding Nemo, and finally got to check out Journey of Water, which is really cool.

We then decided we were done with parks for the day, and head to Disney Springs to grab some Chicken Guy for dinner. It was excellent, and would eat there again. Then, as rain threatened to materialize from thin air, we headed back to the Contemporary for a final farewell before our journey back to Toronto.


All in all an amazing 5 days, filled with laughter, amazement, joy, and not a single moment of motion sickness. I’m actually suspecting the cancer of being the cause of a lot of weird small issues I’ve had for years, so much so that I’m going to try Mission Space next visit. :grimacing:

This was the perfect celebration of both my 51st birthday and surviving cancer. I’ve said it before but: it was magic, start to end. Thanks for coming with me on this insane journey. I’m heading back to WDW on March 28th for the Revenge of the Solo Trip. I’ll be more able to real-timeish that one.

:heart:

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:heart_eyes_cat::smiling_face_with_three_hearts::heart_eyes_cat::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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What a fantastic, FANTASTIC time you had! I was smiling ear to ear as I caught up on the last couple of days of the trip just now!

So excited that you had such a wonderful time. And looking forward to seeing your March trip live!

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:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Ok your duck bounds are perfect

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I love that picture of you two as Judy Hopps and Nick Wylde where she is pulling you by the tie! Perfection! Also, you two are adorable. So glad you had a great trip! You definitely deserved it. Hope your solo trip is just as wonderful in a solo kind of way. :grin:

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