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Tuesday, October 11, 2005 – Day Five – Soarin’ Again,
Home Again
We slept in until 7:00 and took our time getting showered, dressed
and packed. We walked out to the BW and decided on breakfast at
Spoodles. I had the eggs/bacon/sausage breakfast while Barb had
pancakes. Coffee for me, tea for Barb. We used the DDE card for
20% off – for maybe the last time this trip?
Anticipating the heat and humidity, as well as the fact we’d
be returning to much colder weather tonight, we stored a change
of clothes, sweatshirt, and jacket in two of the outside pockets
on our suitcases. We rolled our bags down to Bell Services for
storage and then headed over to Epcot.
We walked to the IG and made our way through Security and the
turnstiles (damned MYW tickets). Barb wanted another ride on Soarin’ so
we walked down to the Land, found a 50-minute standby and picked
up FPs for 1:15 . To kill some time we decided to hit Honey, I
Shrunk the Audience and walked directly into the pre-show. We got
to watch the entire thing and all I can say is “Please bring
back True Colors”. We enjoyed HISTA – we always do – and
then decided on a ride on Journey Into (Your?) Imagination. I think
this was my 3 rd ride on this and, quite possibly, my last.
We spent a few minutes in ImageWorks and then headed to Innoventions.
We sent a picture postcard home (which I still haven’t received
a week later). We saw a show starting for the Ultimate Home Theater
and decided to go in. It hasn’t changed much since we last
saw it in 2003. I remember, at that time, being in awe of the system
shown at the end but, this time, not so much. I may have become
jaded since we upgraded to wide-screen HDTV but I didn’t
think the video was as good as I have at home. Is their equipment
aging? It seems so. I will give them a slight edge on their audio
system however.
We felt like a coffee so we went to the Fountainview and found
they were serving only Nescafe. Didn’t they used to offer
a premium brew of some kind? We passed on the coffee and walked
out, past SE, to the front of the park. This is where we verified
that the ‘10’ topiary is for the 10 th anniversary
of the F&W festival.
They had a very nice floral and signage display so I snapped
a few photos. I was trying to get Barb to pose for one with the
F&W displays and SE in the background. A very nice CM, one
of the WDW photographers, kindly offered to use my camera for a
pose with both of us. It’s a very nice photo.
It was time for our Soarin’ FPs so we walked to the Land
and rode with about a 10-minute wait. This time we were in the
left-most vehicle, bottom row. Moving left to right does change
your perspective in several of the scenes. I also noticed more
of an urge to lift my feet (although I didn’t) when seated
in the bottom row.
Time to head out of Epcot so we strolled as leisurely as possible
to the IG, doing our best not to work up a sweat. We decided on
the ESPN Club for a late lunch and literally had our choice of
tables. There were maybe 6 other people in the place – a
far cry from Sunday. We settled in and I had a roast beef sandwich
with an iced tea. Barb went for a turkey club wrap and Diet Coke.
She ate half the sandwich and asked to have the rest boxed, thinking
she’d eat it on the flight. She wound up tossing it at the
airport.
Back to the BW where we sat and read for a bit in the lobby.
I shot the last few photos to finish the roll in the camera. At
4:00 , I went outside and retrieved our bags. I grabbed a pair
of pants out of the outside pocket and used a Men’s room
stall to change out of my shorts. We also retrieved a jacket and
sweatshirt to use once we landed in Albany .
Carlos showed up 10-minutes early, at 4:20 , and we had a smooth
ride to the airport. It’s interesting that all the Town Car
drivers I’ve had use I4 and the Beeline to and from the airport
rather than the Greenway. I would expect more traffic but I’ve
never had a problem – and we’ve been on it during traditional
rush-hour periods ( 8-8:30AM and 4-5:30 PM ). We checked our bags
at the SkyCap counter and were inside and through Security in 10
minutes. We stopped at Seattle ’s Best for coffees – really
just to kill some time, and then made our way to the gate.
Our flight left a few minutes late but was uneventful (as I prefer
my flights to be) and we touched down right on time at 9:05 PM
. As we made our way to Baggage Claim we found Stephen there waiting
for us. Our luggage came off quickly and we were home before 10:00
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Summary - It was a very nice, albeit fairly
short, trip. We went into it thinking that we weren’t going
to spend a lot of time with attractions and we didn’t. We
only visited the MK for a couple of hours and two attractions.
That may be a record – and one I plan on correcting during
our next visit.
The weather was hot and humid and generally uncomfortable – I
was glad I brought enough extra shirts. If it had been a longer
trip, we probably would have spent more time at the pool.
The California Grill was very nice and someplace we’d definitely
go to again. Now we’re just looking forward to our next trip
in February.
Post Script – I’m writing this on October 18, 2005
and am pleased to announce that, today at 1:39 AM , our daughter
Michelle delivered William Michael into the world - our first grandchild.
He came in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and is destined to be another Disney
fanatic. His Mom and I have already discussed his first trip in
December 2006 or January 2007.
Thanks for reading.
If you have a comment or question, feel free to email me at srusso@nycap.rr.com.
Please put ‘Trip Report’ in the subject line or risk
being washed away with the spam.
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