Day 9 - Monday, January 20 - Final full day and final thoughts
It was our final full day which was pretty great timing because right after we left a cold front came through and I heard it was FREEZING down there. I was actually pretty happy for the cooler temps and to not hear anyone complain of the heat. We decided to finish out the trip at MK and even though it was crazy packed for MLK day, we managed to hit up a few rides before we met our friends for a monorail cocktail tour!
Sailed right on Pirates and waited a bit for the Jungle Cruise.
Y'all--can you believe one of these boats sank last week?!?!?!?
Carousel
Then we went over for lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Standard chicken nuggies and fried fish. It was good. We had the whole upstairs to ourselves which was DELIGHTFUL. After 9 days in Disney you really start to cherish moments when nobody is around lol.
Over to the tea cups and dumbo
We then popped over to Big Top Souvenirs
Y'all--can you believe this place caught fire?!?
And I guess Haunted Mansion was closed for a day or two? Seriously--what is happening down there? Bad juju must be. Need to burn a giant sage stick and walk it through the park.
Alice got a mickey rice krispie treat and Rowan ordered a blue slushie and a caramel apple. I guess he just needed MORE sugar lol. They cut it up for us behind the counter and we went outside to enjoy the sun and our treats. Then this guy showed up!
The crowds were really reaching a fevered pitch, so we decided to meet up with our NY friends that were in town for the dance competition as well as Steven and Renee for some drinks around the monorail. We started at Enchanted Rose which is actually a beautiful bar. I can appreciate how visually stunning the colors and fabrics are, and still feel like GF is an odd resort to house a B&B themed bar. I also loved Mizners so that adds to my somewhat negative feelings about it. I don't remember the cocktail I got here, but I remember it was tasty and strong and also very expensive lol.
Important note: The entire lounge isn't open or serving food until 5:00pm so seating can be limited in the part that is open (the green room that leads to the veranda and the main bar area)
We hopped on the monorail and went over for Palomas at Outer Rim lounge at the Contemporary. These were very good and very strong. Did not have the addition of sour mix as the one I had at Crews Cup. Feeling pretty buzzed, we went over to Poly for Lapu Lapus and some grub. We had a bunch of leftover kids meal credits so we took the kids outside for trivia and the guys went to Captain Cooks to grab a couple of pizzas-Hawaiian and Traditional as well as an order of the pulled pork nachos which were DELISH. I don't know if it was because I was tipsy or what, but all the food here tasted REALLY good lol. Our friends all wanted to go to Trader Sam's but at that point I realized that if I had one more cocktail I wasn't sure that I would be able to actually pack up our suitcases. We called an Uber and went back to the hotel to try and get ourselves all packed up for our 6am ride on the Tragical Express.
I went to BC Marketplace and burned through like 25 snack credits getting all kinds of candy and treats for people in the office and our neighbors for getting our mail.
The flight home was uneventful and we were home safely in NY Tuesday afternoon.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Ok, so I have had some time to reflect on this trip and although it was a really great one, I am not in a big rush to go back. Maybe it was because it was so busy...or maybe because the food was just not very good and the
DDP just didn't work for us? Usually I'm looking to book my next Disney vacation as soon as I get back. But this trip felt a little different. It was just way too crowded. I'm happy to wait for another few years for them to add more rides to spread out the hordes of people and hoping they up their restaurant game.
I say all this, but I'm sure that in 6 mo I will be back on the "I NEED TO GET BACK TO DISNEY" train.
Here's what I would do differently food-wise:
**I would NOT do the DDP
**I would only book ADR's for 2 sit down dinners and the California Grill Brunch. The rest of my meals would be in the lounges on my own schedule. Scott and I realized that we would be happy with a cheeseboard and a couple apps for dinners. Our kids are non-adventurous eaters, so kids menu food is fine for them and the lounges typically serve them. I would happily have paid out of pocket for the 2 ice creams/snacks a day my kids wanted.
**I would also make sure I had breakfast items (cereal, milk, fruit etc) and bottled waters delivered to the hotel. We wasted a ton of meals and snacks on pastries and granola bars.
I think this approach would have served us better as I did NOT enjoy rushing to make an ADR only to not enjoy my meal. I would rather just be on my own schedule. It might be the ages of my kids or just the way we eat that makes the difference for us. There were lots of last minute reservation options on
MDE when we needed them too.
Thanks to everyone for following along! I appreciate all the comments and kind words and I hope you all have a magical time on your next WDW vacation!