Leslie and David's Wanderings: 14 – 19 Feb 2020 Wonderful World of Disney

The drive from Carrabelle was pretty straightforward. No parts almost fell off. The traffic coming into Orlando was heavy and the drivers are a bit crazy. We are staying in the Kissimmee/Orlando KOA ($85 per night with KOA discount). Its in the heart of the tourist action and only 9 miles from Disney World. We had a deluxe back in site with a nice patio.

We had planned to go to Disney World on Saturday and visit David’s Cousin Beth and her husband John who live in Daytona Beach. But we found out that the Daytona 500 race was on Sunday and President Trump was going to attend. So it was going to be crazy. So we swapped out plans and went over to Daytona Beach to see Beth and John on Saturday. Its only a hour and a half drive over to Daytona Beach. We had lunch at their house before heading over to the beach area. We went over to the Ponce Deleon Lighthouse that was built in 1885-87. We climbed up the 203 steps to the top for a wonderful view of the countryside. It also tested our fitness!! We then went over to the beach. Before heading out to dinner. It was a great visit and we were so happy to see them.

On Sunday we headed over to Disney World. We hoped that the race would draw crowds over to Dayton Beach. Unfortunately that was not the case. We arrived at Disney Hollywood Studios at 9am and it was already packed! All the rides already had 90 to 120 minute lines if you did not have a fastpass for the ride. We worked our way around toward the Tower of Terror and gave up when we saw the standby wait lines and could not get fastpass for any of the rides. So we headed over to the Star Wars area and enjoyed seeing the Millennium Falcon, Luke’s Star Fighter, Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter and many more Star Wars sets. It was fun watching the kids build their own light sabers and droids. We then went over to Epcot on the Skyline tram which dropped us off in the International area, so we explored Britain, Canada, Norway, Mexico and China. We ate Lunch in a Mexican cantina since it was Mexican Food Sunday. The international Festival of Arts was running and we wandered through some of the booths. We then worked our way toward the entrance to Epcot and stopped to check on the wait time for the Soaring ride only to find the wait was in excess of two hours. Much of the area around the entrance was closed for renovation. We stopped off in a Pub in the Britain area and enjoyed real British beer before heading back to Hollywood Studios and the Behemoth. The parks were ridiculously crowded, it was almost record heat, and we walked 6.5 miles. We had had enough for one day.

Monday, Presidents Day, we headed back to Disney. We decided to break the day up into two treks. Overnight, Leslie had managed to get fastpass for two rides. But one of the rides that Beth had suggested was fully booked for fastpass. So we headed to Epcot first thing and arrived before it opened. We were lined up with several more hundred people when they opened the gate and made out way straight to Soaring. We were in the standby line but managed to get on the ride after only twenty minute. It was a cool ride, sort of like you hang gliding over the major wonders of the world. As we sat in the seats for the ride and strapped in, David noticed that there was a canopy above us and commented that it was to keep anyone from vomiting on us. Most of the international area was not open but there was a bakery in the French section open so we went up there and had a wonderful brunch that reminded us of our time in Paris. We then headed out of Epcot and took the Monorail over to the Magic Kingdom where we made our way to the “It’s a small world” ride that Leslie had ridden as a child in Disneyland. David thought it was cute but was more interested in the engineering of the animation. After walking around the Magic Kingdom for a bit (Looking for a beer only to find out there is no alcohol in this park) we made our way back to Epcot and then back to the Wanderer as it was getting hot and the crowds were starting to grate on us. After getting Etta settled and us a chance to cool off, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon. We jumped on the Monorail back to Epcot where we worked our way through the remaining countries in the international area before meeting up with Beth and John in the biergarten for dinner. The food was actually pretty close to good German food. Following dinner we all headed to the Magic Kingdom on the monorail where we rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (Our other fastpass item). We then made our way to the castle to watch the closing light and fireworks show. The perfect way to wrap up our visit to Disney World. It had been even hotter today (87F) than yesterday, and we walked even further (9.2 miles) and the crowds even thicker, but it was a fun day anyway.

Tuesday, David worked all day and Leslie took the chance to go shopping for Christmas gifts.