Monday, April 28: Still not feeling well, but had plenty of over the counter meds from the last time I wasn’t feeling well. Went ahead and packed for the trip we’d planned months ago, counting on being able to push through and get on the plane the next day (masked, of course).

 
Tuesday, April 29: Left the still snowy mountain to head to the airport and sunny Florida. I found a new way to get pulled aside for additional screening at the airport (metallic sequins in the trim on my t-shirt). Happened to run into two of my friends at the food court past security, so that was random. Mr. Karen and I lucked out and got an empty seat in our row on our first flight so that made being squeezed into the plane a bit less unpleasant. Our layover in Salt Lake City was long enough that we got to check out the tunnel that was finished since the last time we were there. It was pretty, but not as fascinating as the tunnel at the Detroit airport. We landed in Orlando around midnight, found our car where we left it a couple weeks before, and were in our hotel room at Walt Disney World not too long after that.

 
Wednesday, April 30: I’d made reservations for both meals and attractions for this first day of our vacation not anticipating I’d still be a bit under the weather. Fortunately, I had anticipated that we’d not be getting an early start so our first scheduled event was brunch at one of the hotels. After that, we made our way to the Magic Kingdom. A couple hours into our park day, I tripped and fell hard making my way around the carousel to find a horse to ride. I was a lot embarrassed and just a little injured, but not anything that kept me from touring the park. My right knee was tender though manageable and my left chest would bloom some impressive bruises over the next week; it could have been way worse. Between the rides I’d reserved ahead of time, the ones I reserved as we freed up selections by using the first three, and doing standby for ones that didn’t need reservations due to shorter lines, we kept ourselves entertained. We got a rare treat when Space Mountain was down during our ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which meant we got to see it with the lights on inside as we passed through on the TTA. We ended the day with the fireworks show, though we didn’t invest any time in finding a good spot to watch but rather stopped at the first fairly decent place we came across on our way out after our last ride. Attraction count = 15: Treehouse, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, Pooh, Caroussel, Small World, Tron, TTA, Space Mountain, Buzz, Tiana’s, Little Mermaid, Pirates, Jungle Cruise. (Maybe it was 16 attractions … I think we also did Carousel of Progress but my pictures aren’t definitive about that and it might have been later in the trip that I’m remembering; I wasn’t taking notes at this point.)

 
Thursday, May 1: A more relaxed day, with just one scheduled event. Walked over and had breakfast in the hotel’s food court, then bussed over to Animal Kingdom in time for that one scheduled event, a Lighting Lane Single Pass for Flight of Passage. We took our time wandering the park after that, looking for shorter lines and noticing details and stopping for frosty treats when we got too hot (well, when I got too hot). Got lucky with baby animals, seeing the little giraffe, the little tiger, and a little owl. We also happened upon the afterparty for a gorilla’s third birthday. We could have hopped to another park after Animal Kingdom closed, but decided a relaxing evening was the better choice this time. Attraction count = 5: Flight of Passage, Navi River, Safari, Africa trail, Dinosaur, Asia trail.

 
Friday, May 2: Another late breakfast at the hotel’s food court, then off to Epcot for the day. The Flower & Garden Festival was in full swing, so we did a fair few of those features, including the butterfly garden. We opted to leave the park before the nighttime show in favor of watching what fireworks we could see from the little beach at our hotel and turning in early. Attraction count = 4. Remy (in the single rider line), Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land (aka I’m a Tiny Little Seed), Seas.

 
Saturday, May 3: Busy day. Checked out of one hotel, had buffet brunch at another, checked in to our new hotel (also on Disney property), then drove over to Sea World, got frustrated with Sea World but did see some animals and the concert that drew us over there was good (it happened to come up after we’d already planned to be in Orlando at that time). Attraction count = unknown: did not ride any roller coasters due to lack of interest in standing in long lines for the possibility of feeling ill after and never saw any non-roller coaster rides and not sure what any of the animal exhibits/shows are called that we did see.

 
Sunday, May 4: Brunch at one of the hotels, then left Disney property to get the oil changed in our car because it needed to be done before the upcoming long days of driving part of our trip. Followed that with some shopping at one of the outlet malls in Orlando before rolling up to Epcot around four in the afternoon (ah, the joys of having an annual pass and not having to be efficient with our park time). Did a few attractions (Rio del Tiempo, Frozen, China movie, France movie) but mostly just wandered and snacked (and got a walk up for dinner in China) until finding a place to watch the lagoon show at the end of the day.

 

*****
On this date in 2011 through 2024: No journal entries
2010: Goal Wednesday, 5.19
2009: Slip Up Socks
2008: 442 of 1027
2005 through 2007: No entries
2004: QuiltCon 2
2003: Wacky Weekend
2002: A Brief History of Me and Weight