October 2018 D-Cot Meet 10/12-10/21/18 – day 5

Tuesday 10/16/18

I had a delicious kids meal omelet at Pop for breakfast. It was so good and so big! I have no idea how people eat the adult ones! After the fairly early night the previous night we were able to get to Magic Kingdom and take a couple seats outside of Casey’s and just sat and enjoyed the Main Street music. It felt so good to just be in our happy place and enjoy the morning! I think we made an impression on Cammie as when I texted Kelly wishing them safe travels back home, I received a reply back from Cammie saying she didn’t want to leave and wished they could stay with us! I let Heather know that we were there and she said they were going under water! Yea! We stayed there for a couple more minutes before I made my way over to the Tomorrowland bridge area as the three of us were going to standby Space and then use our FP while Kathy was going to go ride her HM and use her FP for it. I stopped at an angle to the Castle to watch the Welcome show and positioned my phone with the Castle and put it on camera. The sun was behind me so I couldn’t see the screen at all once I had it set. I clicked it right as the fireworks went off and got the perfect shot! One in a million! I let the initial rush go and then sauntered to the entrance to Tomorrowland and Heather and Ryan came around the corner in short order. Unfortunately Ryan had picked up a bad cough and was feeling quite poorly for their last morning. He was such a trooper though! They were only running one side of Space so standby took much longer than we expected. By the time we got off I texted Kathy that we needed a restroom break and were going to use our FP next. That wait was only about five minutes! In the time it took us, Kathy was able to get two rides in on her Haunted Mansion, standby and FP, meet Alice by the teacups, and see Baloo, King Louie, and Nick and Judy from Zootopia in the Move It Shake It parade in the hub!

I had secretly made a sign for Heather based on a previous discussion we had about her needing caffeine and potentially being carried through the park, or left on a bench with a sign. So I made a sign that said “Do not disturb! Bringing coffee!” We took some pictures of her in a chair and lying on a bench! It was hilarious and great fun! It was now time for our FP’s for Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Of course, Team Pooh Tigger has to ride that at least once a trip! Heather and I of course rode in the front of the hunny pot together! We got some quick pictures of Team Pooh Tigger in front of our ride before heading over to use our gifted FP’s for Splash. I was so happy! Finally, we were going to get to ride Splash with Heather and Ryan! It took some pixie dust and a gift of magic but it finally happened! Heather and Ryan rode in front and we were in the second row, the furthest up Kathy has ever been! Oh my gosh, with it being hot they had the extra jets going and they got soaked! I was so happy everybody had the ponchos on! Heather’s hair looked like she had just gotten out of the shower! Kathy and I kissed for the photo on the way down! With that extra FP it was now time for our Big Thunder FP and Heather and Ryan’s final ride of the trip. ☹ With Ryan feeling the full effects of his cough Kathy said to me, “I’m not making them wait, we go wherever they put us.” Well, that was row 11 for them and 10 for us! The furthest back by far for Kathy! She was stepping way out of her comfort zone this trip! We were all so proud of her! I just love riding these rides with Heather! I hear her constantly laughing and going “woohoo!” and it just makes my heart happy! Now comes the saddest part of the trip. The goodbye to Heather and Ryan. We all went to use the restroom at Pecos Bills and we were going to stay there for lunch. I know Heather could see it in my crestfallen face that I was trying to hold back the tears. She told me “it’s okay, we have April.” That helped…..some. I just gave her the biggest, longest hug and told her I loved her. As joyful as our meetings are, parting is just as sad.

We did enjoy our lunch of taco trios, sitting in the area up the ramp, the nice quieter area. That is such a good meal and value for the dollar! Stuffed, we looped around to Liberty Square so Kathy could pick up the Seven Dwarfs Jim Shore piece she saw a couple days ago. With our gift card for foregoing Mousekeeping, this was completely free to us! I sat at the table outside Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe just as the Muppets show was starting. It was the Paul Revere one. I really love that spot and both Muppet shows. I hate to give that secret spot away! We worked our way up to the hub where Main Street Philharmonic was just coming out. I had been wanting to see them for a long time! Kathy was aware of this so she told me to stay there while she checked the jewelers one more time for her wallet. I could tell the crowds were now finally gone as the hub was practically empty! It probably helped that it was a party day but it felt really good and finally uncrowded! We got back home pretty quickly and changed into our suits and took the laundry down and jumped in the pool. With a heat index of 101 it felt so refreshing! Kathy headed up to shower the chlorine off after a bit and I switched the laundry to the dryer. I then checked MDE on a whim and got a FP for Rock-n-Roller Coaster for me from 4:30 to 5:30! After the laundry was done we got around to head to Studios. We got there just as my window opened so I went directly there while Kathy shopped just a bit. It was much shorter of a wait than Saturday! We were able to walk into Beauty and the Beast just before the final show of the day, so we completed everything we had wanted to do at Studios! We still hadn’t decided whether to try for Slinky Dog for the final ride of the night or Fantasmic. So in talking it through we decided to go ahead and see Fantasmic. We didn’t get to see it in December, January, or April, so the last time I’d seen it was with Lauren last October and Kathy before that. And with Wishes gone and now Illuminations leaving, Fantasmic could very well be the next on the chopping block and it might be our last chance to see it. It turned out to be a wise decision as we’ll find out later. We relaxed and shopped a bit on Hollywood Blvd as we wanted to see Toy Story Land at night. While in the shop, one of the jazzier songs came on. I wish I could remember which one it was! I was bopping to the music and a young lady cast member was tapping her feet also and dancing a bit in place. We saw each other and started “dancing” across the room. I gave Kathy the backpack and went up to her and held out my hand in an “ask” to dance. She willingly accepted and we danced the rest of the song together, even twirling! It was so fun and spur of the moment, a true Disney magical moment that you just don’t get anywhere else! The rest of the cast members were even stopping what they were doing to watch us!

We were feeling like we needed a light dinner and were feeling kind of like we wanted a burger so we split a bacon cheeseburger at Backlot Express. It was very good and just right for what we wanted. We really like the beverage station with free refills too! By now the sun was setting so we went to see Toy Story Land at twilight and evening. It is beautiful at night! The lights and everything are great! We got some Photopass shots also. It turns out we were very fortunate to have chosen Fantasmic as Slinky Dog went down just after we got there so after a little more exploring and picture taking we went ahead and joined the crowd at Fantasmic. It was a pretty full stadium by the time we got there and since we’ve seen it many times before and we wanted to get home directly after, we chose to sit in the upper deck, the overflow section if you will, in the front row. It wasn’t bad, although I wouldn’t recommend that for a first-time viewer. You couldn’t really see the barges with the princesses very well but all the rest was fine. We were able to get out and home by 9:00! We split a turtle brownie for and evening snack and get to bed fairly early. It felt good to be home at a good hour! I will add, when we were getting our refill we noticed there were almost no Halloween mugs left. By the next morning the few that were left had been snatched up! Approximately two weeks before Halloween and they were sold out! We felt very fortunate to have one and felt bad for all the people just arriving. Later in the week we had people at Pop asking us where we had gotten our mug!

Steps: 25,251
Miles: 11.39
Wheel Spin: 10