Well hey everyone!
Yup – we are back with another post chronicling our August 2023 Land and Sea trip. And not just any post, folks. This is the LAST post chronicling said trip. Which I know…
But guys, you can’t be that sad about it. I mean, it’s almost Christmas and we are still talking about a trip from late summer.
This has to end.
But to hopefully ease your troubled heart during this difficult time, here are some random shots of some of our Disney Christmas holiday decorations and what not.
Obvs squad a lot of Disney on our main tree as well.
OK. I mean, that’s not everything but we really have to get on with the post. Still though, did that help cheer you up at all?
No?
Oh well, whatever.
At least I got to Disneyflex for a bit. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
Anyways – enjoy the post!
Our 2023 Disney Land and Sea Extravaganza: Day 10
So not only was Day 10 sucktown on account of we were leaving Disney today, but we also had to start today off by climbing out of bed at the buttcrack of dawn to say yet another goodbye. Hannah unfortunately had to catch a VERY early morning flight so she had to leave at around 4AM. We woke up, said our sad goodbyes on account of we love Hannah and had all kinds of an awesome time with her this trip.
Myles walked her to the bus stop while the rest of us quickly found our way back to dreamland.
Only, of course, to wake up like 2 hours later.
Look at today though.
We had some business to attend to after all. I mean, yes, today was our last day at Walt Disney World but we actually still had a park day ahead of us. You see, when we bought our tickets, Disney was running a promotion where if we bought four days at the parks, it came to $99 a day.
Which, in this crazy time we live in, has become a deal.
So yeah, though. Today was our fourth day. And we were planning on visiting the Magic Kingdom one more time to close out the trip. Therefore, I was up early to shower, get ready, and try and secure a Virtual Queue for one more ride on Tron.
At 6:59 AM, I began refreshing my MyDisneyExperience app (if you need a refresher on wth I’m talking about, please click here). 7AM hit but there was no opportunity to join a queue. Which was odd.
Sooooo….I called Customer Support to see what I could do to iron things out. And well. The woman on the other end informed me my 4-day ticket was good for one visit at each of the parks. Which meant, in short, we were gonna be hitting Disney’s Animal Kingdom today.
Tron? More like Twrong.
I know. That looks weird. But just say it in your head. Twrong. It sounds like Tron. But it’s wrong because we aren’t riding it today. You see? Twrong.
Which, like…once we were told that had to be our plan? We were kind of excited about it. We were already on the fence about not visiting Animal Kingdom this trip and were worried we’d regret that decision. Plus, I mean, we were staying in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. So like, duh.
We had breakfast planned for today as well so in order to make sure we got on Avatar: Flight of Passage, we bought Individual Lightning Lanes for later in the day for me, Myles, and Owen.
It was gearing up to be all kinds of great today.
Breakfast today was in the Animal Kingdom Lodge lobby at Boma Flavors of Africa, which is an all-time favorite.
I love walking down to Boma on account of you start seeing – and smelling – the place long before you get to the front entrance. Oh. That must be why they named it that.
It’s like, you’re just walking along and then – BOMA! – it hits you.
Hrm. Oh nvm I guess Boma is Swahili for “an enclosure for cattle”?
Pfft. I see what you did there, Disney. Well played, but a little insulting.
Now please. It’s feeding time.
For those who haven’t been, Boma is a buffet and in my opinion, it may be the best buffet currently open at Walt Disney World. Check all this niceness out.
The buffet here is a good mix of African-inspired dishes and more standard breakfast fare. Which makes it a pretty great place to please a group with varied palates.
This place. It’s like, “buffet? more like buff-hey that’s a lot of food.”
Amirite?
But this right here is the piece de resistance. Behold the French Toast Bread Pudding.
This stuff lives in my heart rent-free.
But yeah. Lots of food you guys. So much food in fact that I had to do a two-plater on my first go-round.
Up there we have some Mixed Berry Yogurt Parfait and, of course, some French Toast Bread Pudding on the first plate and we have some Afritude Tots, Bacon, Biscuits and Gravy, Cheese Omelet, Deviled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, Carved Ham with a Mustard Sauce, and Turkey Bobotie (a South African dish with Turkey, Mushrooms, and Egg.
Honestly? Everything I just listed was delicious. If I had to pick a favorite besides the French Toast Pudding, I think hrm. I don’t know man. The Deviled Egg was nice but so was the Ham. And the Omelet. And the Bobotie.
You’ve asked me to pick a favorite. But I Afri-can’t.
We finished up with breakfast at a little past 8:00 and headed out to grab the bus to Animal Kingdom. And look – we were the kings of the bus.
It was gonna be a magical day.
We were at the park entrance by 8:30. At which point I tried, and failed, to take a funny picture using this pole and the park sign.
I tried. I really did. I thought it would be easy.
But it turned out to be more of a pain in the butt than I had anticipated.
Ahem.
Tree of Life, y’all.
Owen is PSYCHED.
A quick check of the wait times told us there was a relatively short wait to get on Expedition Everest so the boys and I made our way to Asia.
I mean. Not the actual continent.
Like, the Asia section of the park.
You guys are so silly.
I love walking through Animal Kingdom though. It’s like just these little bits of life everywhere you turn. Like oh ok there’s some monkeys there.
But I mean. Sorry monkeys. We can’t just hang around. We have a mountain to conquer.
Oh good. Owen looks much happier now. Must have been the monkeys.
When we got to Expedition Everest, it appeared the rumors were true. On account of 5-minute wait.
Aw yeti.
So being that this was basically a walk-on, my queue pictures suffered a bit. I got a few.
But I mean. I didn’t even get a pic of the dung.
I missed the dung, dude.
Anyway tho – we were making our way up the mountain by 8:50.
Lookit. So scurry.
And yeah, Everest continues to be an incredible attraction despite the Yeti still being stuck in his disco era.
After we hopped off our train, we walked over to meet Nickie at Kilimanjaro Safari.
On the way, this was pretty.
When we got to Kilimanjaro Safari, we were informed by the cast member at the entrance the ride was currently down. Which was a womp-a-domp at first but we decided to wait it out and see if it would open back up soon.
And within 5 minutes? It did. Which meant we had NO WAIT for the safari either.
Pfft. And I thought being the king of the bus was exciting.
And yeah. Settle in. Because here comes a SAFARI PHOTO DUMP!!!!
We all agreed this was one of the best safaris we’ve had. A lot of the animals got up pretty close to our vehicle.
So. Many. Animals.
And it didn’t stop there. After we exited the safari, we stopped off to say hi to this dude.
And these little cutie poos.
And though our Lightning Lane was approaching for Avatar: Flight of Passage, we couldn’t pass up this whole situation.
If you haven’t stopped to see these guys at Animal Kingdom, you otter next time.
I could honestly just stare at otters all day. I have an otter-diction.
But guys. The boys and I had somewhere to be. And that somewhere? Oh it’s just Pandora.
Pfft. You guys.
Seriously though.
Flight of Passage though, right? I mean the ride still gives me chills.
Plus, quick aside. Have you guys seen that GEICO commercial where the dude is taking the couple through the house with all the DIY stuff, like the murphy tub and the stair slide? This one?
I mean, that’s THIS guy right?
“…and, um, fly.”
After Flight of Passage, the boys and I met Nickie at one of our favorite hangs in Animal Kingdom – the Dawa Bar (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/animal-kingdom/dawa-bar/).
And look. Nickie had a beer there just waiting for me.
She’s like some sort of angel.
The two of us hung out and enjoyed our beers while Myles and Owen went off to ride DINOSAUR. Which Disney capitalizes for some reason.
And yeah, there is word DINOSAUR is going to be extinct soon so maybe we should have joined them.
But I mean. Beer.
When the boys got back, we made the plan to see Finding Nemo: the Big Blue and Beyond! before leaving the park for lunch.
So we made our way to the theat…DUG!
And Russell. Dug and Russell.
But right. Sorry. Got distracted. We made our way to the theater. Is what I was saying.
Did I mention it was hot out. I am re-mentioning this to explain the state of my shirt while we waited to enter the theater.
We were seated at around 11:50 and the show was to start at noon. Thankfully, we had candy.
I don’t know who was the bigger driving force behind these situations so I would just like to say thanks to both of you – Mike AND Ike. You guys have made my life a little bit brighter. I’m really glad you guys met each other.
Soon enough, the show began.
We actually hadn’t seen this show in a while. Definitely not since they updated it. And I dunno guys. I feel like this show gets a bad rap. I really like it. The songs. The sets. The puppets. It’s cool stuff.
Why’s everybody hating?
I think Festival of the Lion King is the superior Animal Kingdom show but I still dig me some Nemo.
After the show ended, it was time to head out. And say goodbye to the Disney parks for now.
Really really nice Animal Kingdom morning though. A perfect last day.
But the day was far from over. On account of it was time for lunch. We decided to have lunch back at Animal Kingdom Lodge at The Mara, which is AKL’s food court type situation but one of the better food court situations on property.
This is on account of it having not only good food but a pretty good variety of it. And we took full advantage of that variety.
On account of we got burgers and pizza.
For the most part.
Nickie ordered the Three Cheese Flatbread (Tomato Sauce with Mozzarella, Provolone, and Parmesan).
I went in for the Pepperoni Flatbread. And I made good use of the provided Crushed Red. Because I’m a pro you guys.
I know. Basic AF. But their flatbreads are really good here. So like, back off.
Owen doubled-down on basic by ordering the cheeseburger, which usually comes with toppings and spices, and asked for it completely plain. He basic’ed it all kinds of up.
Myles was the only one of us who opted for one of the more Mara-ish items, the Tamarind Barbecue Pork Sandwich (Tamarind-seasoned Barbecue Pulled Pork on a Brioche Bun with Kool Slaai (Coleslaw) topping on the side and served with French Fries).
Which I can confirm is a tasty sandwich.
But wait. There’s more.
We also got dessert.
The boys each got a cupcake. Neither of which I captured in a decent picture. Ending things with a bang here.
Nickie ordered the Carrot Cake Cheesecake Tart (Tart filled with Carrot Cake and Pineapple Jam topped with Vanilla Cheesecake).
And I got the Mickey Chocolate Chip Cookie. Which yeah, you’re probably thinking sounds kind of boring right?
Ha. You’re such an idiot for thinking that.
Look at this thing.
Soo good you guys.
OK so at the end of lunch, it was around 2:30PM. Our flight home was scheduled for around 5:30 so we decided to get our things from Bell Services and order up an Lyft to take us to the Orlando airport.
We were inside the airport at close to 3:30.
Which seemed a perfect time. I mean, obviously this airport was nightmare fuel as you can see from the picture above and also as you can expect from it literally always being a hellscape forever and throughout eternity. But we had two hours so we figured we wouldn’t have to wait too long after making it through security to get on the plane. You see, usually, we get to the airport really early but today we wanted to maximize our time at Walt Disney World. We did it, guys. We maximized.
He said forebodingly.
Because at around 4:15, we received a notice that our flight was delayed an hour and scheduled to leave at 6:30.
And when we checked in at the gate, the attendants hinted that it may end up being delayed even longer.
Sooooo…to Outback!
I mean, none of us were particularly hungry given lunch wasn’t all that long ago but this would get us a table, a place to get a couple snacks and drinks, and some outlets to charge.
We ordered a couple beers and sodas to drink and a Bloomin’ Onion and some Tendies and Fries to share.
Which were obvs good. I mean. It’s a Bloomin’ Onion.
And it ended up being a nice time hanging out in the airport Outback. We all got a chance to relax and talk about the trip and everything that was coming up, like Myles returning the Seton Hall for his sophomore year and Owen starting his junior year at high school.
And that chatting? It went on longer than we expected. On account of we got yet another notification that our flight was being further delayed and wouldn’t be taking off until 7:45.
Uh miss. More beers please.
The waitress was actually great. We told her about our flight and she said definitely not to rush and that we could hang there as long as we wanted.
But eventually, we decided to make our way to the gate. Well, first we stopped off at the candy cart. Because, I mean. They had Spree. Like for real Spree. None of that chewy nonsense.
Yeah man. The OG.
There were no empty seats but we found an open spot on the floor to set up camp while we waited to board.
Owen took advantage of our extra time to catch up on the remainder of his summer reading.
Ha. Nerd.
And we made use of the Disney quiz cards we got as a fish extender gift from the Pittmans.
Which I obvs squad killed at and which is obvs NOT nerdy. Stop.
We did eventually finally board our plane. See look. Here’s Nickie and I at 8:15PM. Nearly three hours after we were supposed to leave.
For the first hour and thirty-two minutes, I busied myself watching The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Which I actually really liked despite going in with super low expectations. I did miss the overblown Italian-American accents though. How am I supposed to even know they’re of Italian heritage if they don’t add an “ah” to the end of random words.
It’s-ah missing something.
See? I can say that. Because I’m Italian.
But yeah, I thought it was pretty well-done. And for sure, “Peaches” is a banger.
I mean, it wasn’t as good as…
But still, good.
After the movie ended, Owen and I played some trivia. And these questions? Tough as crud.
We also played a little poker. And as you can see, I was blessed with really great hands.
Our flight ended up landing in Boston at around 11:00PM. And I mean, I’m not bitter or anything but we were originally supposed to land at 8:30PM.
No though. Not bitter at all.
On account of this was an incredible trip, no? It was FULL of the things. From Boston to Disney to the Wish to the sea to Castaway Cay to Disney to Boston, we did a lot on this one. And I kind of can’t wait to do another cruise. Of course, it wouldnt have been half as magical as it was without everyone that joined us on this adventure. If my numbers are correct, we had 18 other people along for at least some part of this situation. And it was amazing. Thanks to all of you for making this trip as wonderful as it was. And obviously thanks to Myles, Owen, and Nickie for continuing to be not only my favorite travel partners but my favorite people. I am truly lucky to have found myself surrounded by such incredible people. Love you guys.
And thanks to all of you for following along. I know it took a while but we did it. And I told you we’d finish before the year was done. Which is good because we actually have another trip coming up in December I’ll be blogging. And while this trip is small in terms of days, it’s big in terms of the location, the company, and the reason for going. But I won’t spoil that just yet. Stay tuned!
Until then you guys – take care and enjoy this magical time of year.Last post – Day 9
WeHeartDisney 