Friday February 4
No surprise here: We did not get up and at ‘em for the early entry. We took our time getting ready, and then DD and DH (who took the day off) went ahead to the VC. When they arrived a little before 10, it was reporting a 35 minute wait. It took them 22 minutes to get on the ride.
I left with them, but I’m kinda old. I only brought one pair of shoes (it was only supposed to be 2.5 days!!) and my feet, back, and shins are all killing me. I walked to the park like they did, but at a much more leisurely pace. On this trek, I must have look particularly helpful because at various times I was asked to take a group’s photo, how to get to Harry Potter but not the one with the rides (???), if VC would be too intense for the 8yo (probably), and why IOA was closing at 6pm (no idea).
I met DH and DD at the VC exit, and then DD and I jumped in line. The wait still said 35, but I figured it would be a lot longer since I saw a huge number of people jump in line quickly with the queue backing up to the bridge before the TMs could open the extended queue. We were doing okay until we got the dreaded “brief delay” announcement. It was down for about 15 minutes before the all clear, and we were thankful we didn’t get the extended delay announcement (like we got a few days earlier). With the delay, it was about 50 minutes.
We then decided to do Hagrid’s one last time, but, since it had a 55 minute wait, we opted to give the single rider line a whirl. It was okay. I’m not the biggest fan of Hagrid’s queue, so I didn’t mind skipping the majority of it. I guess there weren’t too many odd-numbered groups (i.e., the ones who need a single rider) because it took us 45 minutes to get through, and a good chunk of that line was in the sunshine. The early days of the trip had temps topping out at 72. But today it got up to 88! Yikes.
DD decided to do a little bit more magic in Hogsmeade. Not surprisingly, there were more people on Friday doing magic than earlier in the week. We then decided to pack it in.
Back at the resort, we changed into our swim things, brought down some leftovers for DD, and then ordered nachos from the Bula Bar for DH and me. As I was sitting there reveling the warmth, it dawned on me that I didn’t check in for our flight! I had set a timer and was in the VC line without my phone. Hubby just silenced the alarm. Oops. No sooner than I had checked in and seen that we were in group C that I got a text from SW. Our flight for Saturday morning: cancelled!
We had purposely moved our flight to Saturday figuring all the weather would be out of the way by then. Seems like that’s true, but the plane that was supposed to take us home wasn’t actually going to be at MCO.
So I jumped up and ran back to the room where I had better wifi, and I did what lucky people do when they need help: I called my mom. Between the two of us, we found another flight that would get us in at 8am on Sunday. I booked that. Then we saw one that got us in at midnight on Saturday, so I booked that. Then we saw one that got us in at 8pm on Saturday, so I booked that. Then I saw one that was nonstop and got in at 6. So I changed to that! Those seats didn’t come available until after check-in time, so we were in group C…again! But at least I got us on a flight. I definitely lost a few years in the process, and I made a mental note that I deserved a cocktail at dinner. Maybe two.
While I was playing
travel agent, DH and DD played in the pool. They said it was cold but refreshing. In other words, water that Dear Momma would not have gotten in.
After getting cleaned up, DD and DH went over to the Studios to go on Gringotts one last time. I took a few moments to collect myself, and then I took a boat over to join them. We then went on MiB 4 times. We tried to do better, but could only muster about 250K. Our express passes also did their expired trick again, but Tori at MiB just let us through every time (and tried to give us tips for increasing our score!). We then went over to Central Park to watched the Cinematic Spectacular. We had never seen it before, and thought it was enjoyable enough, though probably not necessary to watch again. DH and I got a kick out of the fact that the projections on the water are clearer than the TV screens we watched as kids.
We then went to dinner and I got my cocktail. Now that we aren’t leaving early in the morning, I’ve punted packing until the morning. DH and DD are planning to go back into IOA for a few final rides (for realsies this time).