*You Know Who* is headed back to the World

Wow...there's a surprise! Justin's headed back to Disney World!

Yep...counting down the days...and just realized that I'm just a bit more than a week away. I'll head up next Friday (Sep 5) after work (hopefully cut out of work an hour or two early to beat rush hour out of Palm Beach), and staying through Tuesday morning (Sep 9) at Old Key West. I'll check out of OKW, and into the Hilton across from Marketplace, where I'll be Tuesday and Wednesday in a conference and back home Wed night...so probably no time for any Disney those two days. But I've got all of Sat, Sun, and Mon to enjoy.

Next trips currently booked are Dec 11 through 15 for Mousefest, and the last weekend in January for a 5-day with the fam.

So, in case anyone from TMIP is up there...let me know. I'll be on my usual solo laid-back chill tour - no plans, no schedules, and absolutely positively NO rope drops!

 

Dina and I have NEVER made it even close to a rope drop!!
Have fun.
We are thinking of changing our yearly summer trip from August to September to get less crowds. Let us know how it is

 

Craig,

Nancy and I typically go the timeframe that Justin is there and have always found the crowds to be quite non-existent.

Granted, the parks close a tad earlier but we always get a ton done.

Justin,

We are also going to be there between Sept 5-9. We'll be staying at Animal Kingdom. This was a surprise birthday gift from my wife.

I don't think we'll be as laid back as you. I think rope drops are in our future

 

Well, I'll be keeping an eye out for ya then! Though my schedule doesn't start until later in the day, I'm sure we'll still be in the parks around the same afternoon hours. If you're in AK park, check the tables behind the Dawa bar if you're walking by to see if I'm there having a Blue Oasis. Or in Epcot, check the smoking spot behind the pond at the China pavilion if you happen to be walking by - I don't smoke, but I like to grab a Margarita at Mexico and head over to that shady peaceful spot to drink, relax, and watch baby frogs hop around. You might just find me when you're walking past!

 

I'll keep an eye out for you Justin. This is an experiment for us to see if we can have as much fun on a 4 day trip as we do on a 12 and still feel like we got stuff done

 

We love the Dawa Bar!
This time I still got my favorite Tusker beer.
Dina got "lost on safari" (two kinds of rum and coke),
but we didn't stay, nope, we went and had another great lunch at the tusker house!!

 

I made myself familiar with Tusker's lunch last month - I hadn't been there since the refurb. Big difference! What a selection of yummy stuff they had - including one of my favorite things...meat. Lots and lots of meat...of all varieties! Gotta love a place with lots of meat. And the salads, breads (love the cornbread) and desserts were great too (love that they had baklavah along with the usual cookies and such).

I'll be going to Tusker alot more...that's for sure.

 

tusker house is AWESOME! i love the place since the refurb. food is delicious - a little bit of boma inside the park.

 

Exactly...that's a good description...a little bit of Boma.

I can't wait to get there - even despite the extreme heat that isn't going away yet...and now the hurricane that may end up heading Florida's way (Hannah) - I'm already feeling my Old Key West studio getaway, temp set to 65 on the wall gauge, walkin' over to the boat dock for a peaceful cruise to Marketplace, dinner on the Rainforest patio while the sun sets, then popping over to Polynesian for fireworks from the beach.

I'm wanting to do a little more resort hopping this trip - there's a few I haven't visited yet this year (Poly, Grand Floridian) and a few I always love strolling through (Wilderness Lodge, AK Lodge, French Quarter). Oh, and a little boat ride to Fort Wilderness for a rest on the Trail's End porch is always good for the soul!

 

Just three more days! Hope you don't have any issues with Hanna, Ray...I may have to adjust my drive time forward or back a bit if she decides to come ashore in Florida - otherwise it might just be a rainy drive up. Assuming you're flying up - you should be OK if Hanna keeps tracking up towards Georgia.

And now I have to keep an eye on Ike, who might be coming to Florida around Tues/Wed next week - just when I'm trying to get back home. Of course, it could come towards Orlando, or towards my home down in S. Fla...or turn off and go somewhere completely different. I guess if it ended up coming to Florida next Wednesday, I might just have to call work and tell them I can't make it back due to the storm...end book myself another 3 or 4 days at Disney until it all passes!

 

Looks like Hanna hooked a bit to the east and may miss the Florida coast completely. Let's hope it maintains that track

 

So far, so good! Hanna's staying far out to sea on most of the tracks...so we're looking good.

Ike on the other hand is looking more ominous today...tracking on the 5-day all over Florida's peninsula, and already a Cat 3! Somebody tell Ike Tina's not in Florida next week!

 

LOL, good one Justin!

 

Well Hanna ended up being annoying anyway, even without coming ashore here. Starting 2am last night, it started raining hard. As of my commute to work this morning, which involved 45 minutes of waterskiing through a waterfall, it's still raining. Sitting here at work, it's raining. And from the look of the local weather radar, it's going to be raining for a while. 5 inches fell between 2am and 8am...plenty more today. And Hanna is being kind enough to escort me all the way up to Disney this afternoon when I wrap up at work! Isn't that nice of her!? Looks like the 2 1/2 hour drive to Disney just became the 4 hour drive to Disney.

I really can't wait to get up there now. I'll try to check in here before I leave...but if not, everyone have a great weekend, and I'll be back in here next Thursday!

 

I'm back in town (actually yesterday, but had to head right to work these two days!)...and in case anyone wants to know...

The parks were EM-PUH-TEEEEE! Haven't seen it quite that quiet in September before...I know it's an off season, but it was more quiet than usual. No complaints from me...I was able to hit every ride I wanted to hit with no wait longer than 10 minutes. Some, like Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, TTA, Kilimanjaro Safari, and Spaceship Earth had no lines at all - I walked directly onto the ride cars. The longest wait was Soarin...just under 10 minutes, standby, no fastpass.

It was hotter than *insert the hottest thing you can think of*...but plenty of A/C stop, and frozen drinks, tackled that problem.

Didn't get rained on at the parks, but did get rain both driving up and driving home, which was a blessing since the lovebugs are in season and don't fly in the rain!

Anyway...have to go through the photos this weekend and sort and upload them...haven't had any time since returning to do anything but work and sleep. TGIF!

 

Justin,

I did look for you at all the places you told me you liked to sit and relax, but never spotted you.

It never rained because we bought me an expensive Gore-Tex rain coat in preparation for Hanna and I wore it tied around my waist every day because it was too bulky to put in my camera bag. So I had a really sweaty backside.

I agree with your assessment about how quiet it was. We usually go at this time and it was noticeably quieter this year

 

I tried keeping my eyes peeled for you too - we probably hit different parks on different days. I did hit just about every one of my 'usuals' - I was at the China garden for about 30 minutes enjoying a Mango Margarita from Mexico, and hung at Dawa bar for 30-40 minutes at the table behind the bar, having a few pina coladas to cool off around mid-day.

Next time, December for Mousefest. You making it up for it this year?

 

My making it to MouseFest is totally dependant of if my wife can get the time off from work. Since she's an ER nurse with middle-of-the-road seniority, it really comes down to if the more senior people want the time off.

If she cannot go, then we'll negotiate if I can go solo