Orlando Happenings – Last weekend was the annual Disney trip. Some of The Wife’s coworkers do this marathon at Disney, and for the last few years, we have gone over to give her time to hang out with folks she normally only sees virtually. It’s also time for us to hit some of the Disney parks. This year, her boss, who is a dear friend to The Wife, was going to be flying in to Orlando from a conference out west. So, we offered to pick him up so he didn’t have to get a rideshare to the resort. At least that was the plan.

Thursday, The Wife and I packed up, ran a couple of errands, and went to Disney Springs to kill some time before Boss Of Wife (BOW) arrived. The Wife has been going back and forth on getting Magic Bands, so she wanted to see the selection there. I wanted to go to the Star Wars store to see if they had the Vader lightsaber because it wasn’t showing up on their online store. I was happy to find one in the case – and they had the pack with the blade and the stand. We had a pleasant walk around the complex and decided to head over to the airport early to beat commute traffic. That’s when the fun started. Anytime I have to go to an airport other than Tampa, it shows me how spoiled I am. Trying to find Orlando’s cell lot ended up with us in the economy lot. Then, BOW’s plane was delayed 90 minutes and there was even more uncertainty as to when he would actually get in. After going back and forth for a bit, he finally convinced us just to go to the hotel, and he would grab a rideshare to the resort. That going back and forth put us three minutes over the 10 minute grace period, and we had to hand over five bucks. Annoying, but that was on us. The transit back wasn’t bad traffic wise, but the GPS just wouldn’t find our resort. It would find the one next to it, but then default back to just finding Walt Disney World. Then, we had multiple instances of “take the next exit to your right” which would involve having the ability to swing across multiple lanes of solid traffic. Stress level increased. Then finding parking. Yeah, I was annoyed, tired, and stressed by the time we entered the hotel. We did end up meeting with BOW later that night to hash out plans and to hand over the shirts that The Wife made for him. She was pleasantly surprised when he showed up with a stuffed animal he picked up for her at the conference he’d attended. We finally crashed into bed much later than normal.

Friday’s events started with the adrenaline inducing sound of the smoke alarm going off. We learned that Derek cannot enjoy his normal scalding long showers without the steam causing issues. We managed to get things settled down, get dressed, grab a bite to eat before meeting up with BOW. From there, we hailed an Uber. Slight hilarity when we saw the same make, model, and color before we found our actual driver. Apparently, silver Toyota Siennas are popular. We were dropped off at Universal’s new Epic park. I was kind of meh when they asked if I wanted to go a few months ago. It was more, I’ll go if everyone else goes. We meet up with another Co-Worker of The Wife (CWW). At this point, we go through security. And of course, Derek takes forever because security gets antsy about my trauma shears. They take them and say I can pick them up after I leave. Then their sergeant proceeds to tell me that they have trained medical staff and paramedics, and yada yada yada. It was clearly his opinion that I didn’t need to have an IFAK while I was in his park. I kept polite and semi-obsiquious because I didn’t want to cause a scene, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking Dude, if I need a tourniquet, I’m not fucking waiting for your myriad of medical people. I need one RTFN. Which is why I keep that red bag in my backpack.

We made our way to the Harry Potter section, and I was very disappointed when we walked onto a facsimile of a Parisian street instead of Diagon Alley or something else. Before I could really get annoyed, we get herded into a hallway, which turned out to be a line for a ride. Of course, we didn’t realize it was a ride until we were well into it. It was just having to follow a mass of people that I originally thought was going deeper into the world. Anywhoo, we ended up on the Harry Potter and the Battle At The Ministry of Magic ride. Okay, it was neat seeing a bunch of stuff I’d seen in the movies, and the ride itself wasn’t bad. The storyline they were pushing made no fucking sense in canon, but the group enjoyed it well enough. From there we decided to go to the Super Mario world. Holy hell that was a very crowded and loud area. We did a look around, and then went to the “Dark World” section, which was based on old monster movies. BOW went on another ride while we rested. At that point, I was kinda done. Honestly, I wouldn’t go back to Epic unless there were strong extenuating circumstances.

Saturday we went to Magic Kingdom. What I knew is that The Wife had booked a breakfast buffet. What I didn’t know was that it was a Winnie the Pooh themed breakfast buffet. The food was excellent, and we got pictures with some of the characters. From there, we walked around the park. We did the Monsters Inc show in Tomorrowland and rode It’s a Small World. The Wife and her coworkers split the cost of a photo package where we could get photos taken at several areas. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend it. We got lots of really good photos, and the photographers are really good at making things amusing. We also got a lot of compliments on our shirts that The Wife made for the team.

We met up with another co-worker of The Wife who was running in the marathons (aka Running Co-Worker, RCW) and RCW’s husband. The plan was to go to Hollywood Studios. Since this blog post is already going to be long, suffice to say that RCW insisted that we needed to go one way to Hollywood Studios, and we all followed because she was the Disney veteran. It turned out not to be the case and we spent an extra half-hour getting to Hollywood Studios and required me going through security twice more. As we walked into Hollywood Studios, I was tired and my feet hurt. I just wanted to get to Galaxy’s Edge, see some neat stuff, and go back to the hotel. RCW sort of made up for the inconvenience by getting me on the Millennium Falcon ride. That was truly awesome. And we got some decent photos. Not as many as I would have liked, but a few.

Sunday was our EPCOT day. The Wife and I love walking through the World Showcase. We met up with the rest of our party at Space 220, which is a restaurant with the conceit that you are eating at a space station. The food was good, the atmospherics were interesting, and the conversation was excellent. The Wife and I had a plan to “eat around the world” instead of drink around the world, but lunch was good enough that we sort of, didn’t.

I did find a ceramic parrot in Mexico, which was cool because I couldn’t find one last year and thought they’d been discontinued. So, I now have a pair hanging in the home office. We skipped Norway because it’s less Norway and now Frozen with a taste of Norway. We introduced BOW and CWW to the China film that Disney’s been using for at least the last 40 years. BOW got a grapefruit beer in Germany that he said was surprisingly good. I’m not a big drinker, so I’m taking his word for it. Japan was the normal “go through the big store and get my supply of Kit Kats.” This year they had orange, a cinnamon roll, and I think a dark chocolate (haven’t opened it yet). They also had macha, but I hate macha. BOW also got a purple sake drink he said was good, but too sweet. The Wife and I also took CWW through the Kawaii display, and she really enjoyed that. By that time, we were all flagging, so we agreed to go through England/Britain before heading back to the hotel.

Monday morning, we agreed to take BOW to the airport so he wouldn’t have to spend money on an Uber. It wasn’t a bad drive over, but again, reminded me how much I prefer TIA’s layout. Anywhoo, then it was make the trip across the state. We’ve had worse traffic coming back, but it was still annoying. What was more annoying was coming back to find the home offices without power. First thought was a breaker decided to die since we had one flipped. Electricians came out. Not the breaker. They went into the home offices and unplugged everything and then went one-by-one to find out which one was causing the breaker to flip. Turned out to be an old power adapter to a dock we haven’t used in a while. It looked like there was some melting and was drawing enough power to flip the breaker. So, a quick fix.

TLDR – We had fun, but some of our planning did not stand up to the rigors of the real world. We need to have better checklists and planning for our trips. We still had a lot fun. I also much prefer dealing with Disney security instead of Universal. The Disney folks always seem either appreciative or understanding of why I have an IFAK, while the vibe I got from Universal Security was “only ones.”