12 Days at Disney Feb 2018 Trip Report - Day 12 (and 13!)
If the title has you stumped, well, we weren't expecting an additional day to be added to our travels either! More on that later, though.
It was Valentine's Day! I had bought my husband some chocolates earlier in the trip so gave those to him now, and we had enough time to start our day at the Magic Kingdom and do a little before it was time to go. We packed up our things, said goodbye to the tiki birds and weeki wachee mermaids in our lovely room, and were at the airline check in at our resort by 8 AM. Because we were flying Delta, we were able to check in at the resort so that once at the airport all we had to do was go through security, so that's nice. We turned our luggage over to the airline (yes, right at the resort!), and left our carry-ons with Bell Services while we explored the park one last time.
It was a cool morning and crowds were actually light, and we made it to the Magic Kingdom by opening. We were at rope drop in time for the castle show, and then we headed via Liberty Square to Peter Pan which was about a 15 min wait at rope drop. The queue for this ride has almost gotten to the point where it is better than the ride itself.
After Peter Pan, we had our first FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. My daughter had not been on it before on her last trip as she wasn't tall enough then, so this was a first and she LOVED it. We then had to debate whether this or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was better. I think we agreed we actually like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad best. So, my daughter was learning she loves coasters. When I was a kid, I did not love coasters. But in a weird twist of the natural order of things, it seems like as I get older, I enjoy coasters more and more, as long as I take a dramamine first!
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Then, we went to Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, and used our second FastPass for Buzz Lightyear around 10:30. While in Tomorrowland, the daughter really wanted to go on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority again, so we did, skipping our third and final FastPass which was to be for Enchanted Tales With Belle. I'm glad we did the TTA again, though. It's nothing to write home about but for some reason, the TTA is one of my Disney happy places, so I get it.
Then, we made our sad way down Main Street, picked up some last packs of Sorcerers cards (for souvenirs), and got some final snacks (popcorn for the daughter, Mickey bars for the adults).
On a monorail, with a monorail in the background, wearing my monorail Magic Band
We took the monorail back to the Polynesian and collected our carry-ons from Bell Services, grabbed a muffing and some noodles from Captain Cook's and waited for the Tragical Express. Oh, and we gave away "balloony" to an arriving family. The Tragical Express arrived at about 12:50, and we were at teh airport with plenty of time. Our flight pulled away from the gate on time, and then just stopped.
You know this is not good. Unless they are actively de-icing your place (and I don't think you pull away from the gate for that), it's not good when you just stop on the tarmac. Now, about this time, I had earned a reputation as "bad luck". In two previous trips in a row, a leg of the flight had been canceled, and here we were again. We were getting used to this.
But you know where this is going. Our flight was indeed canceled and then it was a mad dash to a very unmarked customer service desk to figure out the next flight. We gave up on trying to find this desk nobody could find, and just called customer service, and were told the next flight was early the next morning. There's more to it than that, including our bags somehow flying to our home even when we couldn't, but that's boring stuff and not why you are here. Suffice it to say, having checked our bags and also having gate checked the majority of our carry-ons, we had very little on us. Our stuff was going home but we weren't. Weird how that works.
So we spoke to the people down in baggage, and hearing of our plight, they did give us little survival kits that had like a travel comb, toothbrush and paste, lotion, floss, and some other weird stuff. Delta put us up at a Holiday Inn which was mostly under construction and I believe was only being used for airline purposes such as this because of the state it was in. There were PVC pipes just laying around in the hall, and a hole in our bathroom wall. But there was also a bed, a pullout couch, and a keurig, so it would be better than the airport floor.
Another sign that the hotel was "sort of closed" was when we tried to order room service but the phone just rang and rang, so we finally went down to the hotel restaurant to see if we could get some food. We were the only ones there, but they served us nevertheless, and actually were really nice. Upon learning that I really like it when I get lemons with my water, they gave us more to go cups with more beverages to take back up to our room, which I thought was really sweet.
This is what Florida looks like at 3:00 AM or so, from a mostly empty hotel
Anyway, although we had to get up at 2:45 AM the next day (I mean, can it really be called "the next day" when it's the middle of the night?), our flights the next morning were absolutely fine. Had a little scare with bags when we went to Baggage Services to go claim them as we thought they'd arrived the night before. My daughter's bag was there, but not ours. But then the person there informed us they were coming on the carousel, and we were finally reunited with all our belongings. Ended up back home by 10:30 AM.
All in all, despite that last flight situation, it was a nice trip. One thing I like about Walt Disney World at this point is that I don't really feel the need anymore to rush around and "get things done". As you can see from many of our days, there was a lot of just wandering and exploring, and I think that's when some of the important magic happens.
I hope you enjoyed this trip report. We have another one coming very soon! Until next time...
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