Orlando Riviera Extravaganza - Nov 2022 - Day 7
AKA: The one with the impending storm
Weather started out beautiful but it began to rain on and off by late morning. It was our last day at Walt Disney World, and we'd done just about everything we wanted to already, so we decided to take it a little bit slower and say a proper goodbye to our resort, and then a proper goodbye to the Magic Kingdom. We started our day by checking our bags with Bell Services, and getting a coffee at La Petite Cafe. By around 8 AM, we were ready to get on a bus to the Magic Kingdom, but when we saw the line, there were already 3 ECVs waiting, so that meant at least one bus would come and go, if not two, before we could get there.
When Disney gives you lemons, you make lemonade. We decided on the spur of the moment that we didn't really have ambitious plans for the Magic Kingdom anyway, and why not take a leisurely route there that was a bit less stressful than waiting for two buses. Aside, any excuse to ride the skyliner was good for us. We proceeded to "hack" the Disney transportation system (if by hack we mean take a very scenic route). We first got on the skyliner to the Caribbean Beach Resort, then Disney Hollywood Studios. From there, we waited for any bus going to a Magic Kingdom area resort from which we could either walk or take a boat to the park itself. The one that arrived was the Wilderness Lodge Bus, and that was fun since I hadn't visited that resort in a while. Then, we took a look around that resort, and got on the boat launch to the Magic Kingdom. Altogether, this scenic route took 1 hour and 36 minutes, but that was ok for us on this day since we weren't in a hurry and we like a good explore.
Wilderness Lodge lobby
Our Experience with Extended Experience Lightning Lanes
An Extended Experience Lightning Lane is a replacement Lightning Lane pass Disney offers when a ride you had a Lightning Lane for goes down. It allows you to ride any other ride from a list during the window in which you were going to ride the ride that is down. And it doesn't sound amazing on the surface, but it is.
That morning, at 7AM, I had done my usual lightning lane booking. I grabbed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for 10:15 AM. At around 8 AM, when the park opened, I got a push notification that there was a problem with my lightning lane from the Genie+ app. I took a look and it indicated the ride was down and that I'd been issued an extended experience lightning lane.
The app lists the experiences you can use your lightning lane for, and you don't have to choose the moment it's issued. You can wait until the window opens and just scan in to one of the rides listed to use it. So, excellent, I had that.
But wait, there's more! Not only did I get issued an extended experience lightning lane, but they also re-opened my booking window since there had been a problem with my first booking, meaning I didn't have to wait two hours or use the first lightning lane to get another. I could get a new one right that minute. And for some reason, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was available again for 11:05, so I grabbed it. It was like having two lightning lanes for the price of one.
Then, at 10:00 AM, two hours after park opening and after I'd made my initial selections, I used the two-hour rule to make my next selection, which was for Splash Mountain. I consider the overall experience to be a really positive one.
I now had three lightning lanes by the time we arrived at the park, so we decided to head to the Haunted Mansion to use our extended experience lightning lane. We hadn't had the chance to ride it yet, probably would have done without it, but it was nice to be able to see it this way since it had been drawing long lines all week.
The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World
After this, despite the fact that I still had lightning lanes for Big Thunder Mountain at 11:05, and Splash early in the afternoon, in my pocket, we didn't ride any other rides. One reason was the new Big Thunder Mountain time was too close to our ADR at the Plaza restaurant at 11:25, so we decided to instead use that time to make our leisurely way to the Plaza.
I had grabbed that ADR two days prior, when, sitting at Yak and Yeti, we realized that on our last day, since we had checked out of our room, we would need a quiet place to retreat to midday. We'd never eaten at the Plaza, so I grabbed it.
It is a tiny place, and clearly the draw here is shakes and sundaes, neither of which I could indulge in. Outside of that, it had diner style food, which was perfectly fine. And it was a nice place to rest, especially since the timing was right to watch the weather turn unpredictable as sunny skies gave way to bands of rain, then sun again, then rain again. I had a plaza burger (removed it from the bun), and Mom had tomato soup, crab cakes, and banana bread pudding.
The Plaza restaurant
I still hankered for something sweet after eating my burger, so I decided to try the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor, having read on forums that they had sugar free ice cream. I saw it on their menu and waited in the line to order it, only to get to the front of the line and be told they didn't have it that day. The server tried to entice me into a fat free sorbet, but that's not the same as sugar free, so I had to leave empty handed. So sad.
About this time, our lightning lane for Splash was opening up, and so were the skies on and off, so we decided we would rather get to the monorail and do the monorail loop and be out of the rain. I was sad I couldn't say a final goodbye to Splash Mountain before it becomes Tiana's Bayou Adventure, but by the time we boarded a monorail, a very heavy band of rain came, so we would've been soaked, and not just from Splash Mountain itself. Soaked without a room to return to and change into dry clothes is not something you want to be.
On the way out of the Magic Kingdom, the Dapper Dans came out and sang some Christmas songs by the flagpole to very light crowds.
Dapper Dans (and some of the last sunny skies we'll see at Walt Disney World)
Given our resort of choice this time, and our dining choices, we had to go out of our way to ride the monorail, and this was our chance, so we took the resort loop. We stopped at the Grand Floridian to shop at the Basin store there (I think we have a Basin problem), and see the gingerbread house. I'm glad we did. I don't think I've seen a gingerbread house there quite as beautiful as this one was. It had the ear-idescent 50th color scheme going on, and so much detail.
Major close-up on the Grand Floridian gingerbread house. I just loved the detail in this year's house. How many hidden Mickeys can you find?
Then, we continued to the Transportation and Ticket Center and transferred to the EPCOT monorail. It was raining hard and I still remembered the old way of transferring where you have to come all the way down the one line's ramp, walk across the TTC, and then go up the EPCOT monorail ramp, but a change had been made to the layout and now those going to EPCOT could just walk across the same platform. Fantastic! So many people were standing there, though, and Cast Members had to keep telling people that "Yes, it's raining, but if you aren't in line to board, you need to leave the platform" because it being that crowded was likely a safety issue.
The monorail to EPCOT allowed us a glimpse of the Moana construction, which was interesting. And because it was now 2:00 or so, we were able to "park hop" into EPCOT to make our way through it and to the skyliner back to the Riviera an our luggage. We didn't really stop anywhere in EPCOT. Despite the drizzle, it was still crowded, especially World Showcase, so we just went directly through.
Back the Riviera, we needed to wait for my mom's ECV pick up, which was scheduled to be around 4:00, before we could leave Disney, and we had at least an hour, so we went down to Bar Riva again and had some drinks. Mom had a Mediterranean Wave again, and I tried a Frose (dicy, on keto, but I was stressed about the storm coming and decided a little risk was ok). After drinks, we headed back up the lobby, and sat on one of the little balconies off the lobby for a bit while waiting for ECV pick up. It came on time, in the rain, and then we got our luggage from Bell Services and called a Lyft which showed up quickly.
We took this to our VRBO. At about the same time, I was getting texts from my husband that he and daughter had arrived at MCO and were on their way as well. My mind had already turned to groceries. With a storm coming, I worried that the shelves at the stores would already be empty at this late hour, and I really just wanted to get there, drop my bags off, and run to the store to get whatever I could for us to eat off of for the next two days while sheltering.
The smaller pool complex at Vista Cay resort, where we'd be spending the rest of our vacation
Our VRBO was at Vista Cay resort, which we thought was nice. It was quiet, had a couple very nice pools, and was pretty inexpensive for the unit you got. We had a two bedroom, two bath unit, which was the perfect amount of room. It was a 5 minute walk to Publix (which we made very good use of), there were a few restaurants nearby, and it was about a mile to the Orlando Convention Center. My mom and I arrived at the VRBO while the rest of my family was still at the baggage claim, so we got our umbrellas and headed over to the Publix in the rain. I made use mostly of convenience food, got a bottle of wine, some muffins, a cheese tray, a meat tray, some lunchmeat, bread, a veggie tray, and a fruit tray. By the time we arrived back, soaked and weighed down with groceries, my husband and daughter were there and settling in.
The four of us walked in the drizzle (ponchos and umbrellas were employed) to Beth's Burger Bar, which was over in the same shopping center as the Publix, for some dinner. The burgers were great (better than the one I had earlier that day at the Plaza).
Then, we returned to the VRBO where we found the Bob Ross channel, no kidding, and watched it with a ton of commentary. At about this time, I was getting notifications on my phone that Universal was closing the next day, Disney was closing the next day, and MCO was closing at 4:00 the next day. Mom's flight was scheduled for 2:00, so there was some worry, but the idea was as long as Lyft or Uber was running, she could come back to our VRBO if needed.
The Disney portion of this trip report is over. The next few days we deal with Hurricane Nicole, go to the Orlando Premium Outlets, and spend a couple days at Universal. I'll try to combine those in the next post and keep it a little more brief since I know you're here to read about Disney, but maybe parts of that are of interest. Until next time...
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