SO MYLES IS IN THE DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM YOU GUYS: POST 5 (MAGIC KINGDOM! EPCOT! LAST DAY!!)

Aw hey you guys.

I guess I still write blog posts. 

Who knew?

And this one? It’s the last one in the whole Myles did the DCP little mini-series thing I did which is something of which I don’t have an official thing to call it. 

I like that though. Nice ring to it.

And this one is the last post in that series, you guys. Which like…yeah…

…but to also like, live in reality, we are also like 5 months out from when we actually went on this trip. 

Myles is now back at actual college, not like fantasy college, Owen has now started his senior year, and House of the Dragon has gone through an entire disappointing second season since I started writing this series. 

…

Spoiler alert.

Annnnyway. Yeah. It’s been a while since a post but you guys – this post is LEGIT. Like 21 Google Doc pages of Legit. And yeah, it covers basically one day but we do A LOT on account of today? Today we are…

..

Hoppers.

Today we are hoppers. Park hoppers. Keep up.

But anyway yeah. 21 pages. So settle in. 

Visiting Myles during his time in the DCP: Day 3

So right, today was an actual honest-to-goodness bonafide park day. Which meant no sleeping in you guys.

We were up today at like 6:30ish so all four of us could get ready for fun.

You guys ready for fun?

That’s the spirit!

After all of us finished up getting all ready and what not, we hopped in the golf cart and drove down to the dock to grab the ferry. 

But before that? Coffee. Obvs squad.

We parked our cart and walked into I-don’t-know-what-they-call-Trail’s-End-now to order up some coffees. And I don’t know why man. But this coffee cup gives me all the feels. 

Do people still say that? All the feels? 

EH whatever. YOLO, amirite?

Oooh look a hidden (question mark) Mickey!

At around 7:45 or so, the ferry showed up! Which was ferry cool. 

I know I mentioned in the last post how much I love being on the ferry at night, but it is a pretty calming experience in the morning as well.

Lookit. Look how calmed we were.

You might say we were ferry calm. 

OK. 

I’ll stop. 

And the ferry made pretty good time, because by 8:15, we were walking right down the middle of Main Street USA.

Yup, we were visiting the  Magic Kingdom! 

Look, I have the castle to prove it. 

We were using the now-defunct always-terrible Genie+ today but we didn’t have a ride scheduled for a little bit so the boys and I walked over to Tomorrowland.

Which is way cooler than Todayland. Which is literally just like a bench in the middle of a sidewalk where you just scroll TikTok and complain about the price of groceries.

Super well-themed tho.

The park hadn’t officially opened so people were all kinds of lined up to get in. Including us. WE were lined up. We were people!

Once we were let in, we made a straight line to Space Mountain. But.

BUT.

BUTTTT.

Of COURSE it was down. No Space Mountain for us.

Space Mountain? More like like Space Mount-ain’t

Soooez. We made our way over to meet Nickie at the 100-Acre Wood. 

We rode The Many Adventures of WInnie-the-Pooh. Is what I am saying to you now. 

After we disembarked our snug little hunny pot, the boys and I had our first Genie+ reservation to hit. So we quickly made our way over to Fronteirland. On the way, I snapped this pic to show what a beautiful day it was out there.

And I am glad I did since, for some reason, Disney is putting yet more Cars-themed attractions in and they will be taking away the Rivers of America and my beloved Tom Sawyer Island. But at least we will have more Cars, right?

Everyone loves Cars?

Hello?

Anyway, onto the next attraction – Big Thunder Mountain!

Big Thunder Mountain? More like Big Thunder Mount-is.

Nailed it.

Look at us. Bringing the thunder.

Big Thunder though. Tops, man. 

Next up? Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. We were excited since this would be our first time rid…

Damn. 

“Sorry folks, Ride’s closed. The alligator out front should have told you.”

Kidding. I kid. We knew it wasn’t open yet you guys.

But it was def getting close.

And oh hey – another attraction that’s going away. The Fronteirland Shootin’ Arcade.

I know neither the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, nor the Shootin’ Arcade were the biggest crowd magnets. So I get it. But that was kind of what made them so nice though, no? I mean, those little simple respites from the crowds are so needed sometimes and it bums me out to see them go. 

Also a bummer? The Country Bears were closed down as they were in the middle of being updated for their new show. But eh, at least we saw Big Al. 

We then met back up with Nickie over at Sleepy Hollow Refreshments for a quick snack.

They unfortunately had removed my favorite menu item – the sweet and spicy chicken waffle – so I split a Mickey Waffle with Berries and Cream with Nickie.

Which was still, like, yumtown population: me.

Since we love ourselves, we stopped off after our little snack to take some castle selfies. 

We had another Genie+ scheduled for a little bit from now in Adventureland – Arrrr you curious which one it is? – but it wasn’t quite time yet so we stopped in at one of my favorites. 

LOVE ME some Tiki Room.

And as we exited the Tiki Room into the bright Florida sunshine, it was time for our next Genie+ reservation. 

Remember when I asked “Arrrr you curious which one it is?” earlier? Welp, get ready because that question is about to pay off in high-larious fashion.

Yeah guys. Pirates. NOW you get it.

I take like so many pictures on Pirates of the Caribbean every time we ride it. I dunno. I’m a basic buccaneer that way I guess.

I bet you thought the castle selfies were all done, huh?

You’re so stupid. We legit love ourselves.

Oof. We are at 5 pages at this point in Google Sheets. And it’s only like 10:30 in the morning. We did like A LOT today.

And that pic? It was taken on the way back. To the future. 

We were going back to Tomorrowland you guys. Is what I am saying.

First stop? The most accurately named ride in all of Walt Disney World.

I mean, right? No other ride does so exactly what it says like the PeopleMover. 

Like check it out.

We were people.

And we were 100% moving. 

Who says Disney doesn’t deliver on its promises?

Hm? Oh. Everyone? Cool.

Next up was a quick little jaunt over to Storybook Circus. Because Dumbo.

These two. I can’t even. 

Once we exited Dumbo. That is, once we finished the dispachydermbarkment process, we….

Wait a tick.

Dispachydermbarkment is a word? I’m not seeing any sort of autocorrect or red squiggly line. Nope. No definition showing up anywhere. Yet, obviously someone somewhere thinks this is a perfect word to describe the process of disembarking an elephant. Thanks brilliant stranger!

Annnnnnyway.

After we dispachydermbarked (oh THAT was identified as not being a word? The past tense? weird), the boys and I wanted to use our Genie+ for Space Mountain since we also had a Virtual Queue coming up for Tron LIghtcycle Run, which was also like nearby Space Mountain. 

Nickie, meanwhile, was in the mood for a sit-down, long lunch. 

However, with the plans we had for the rest of the day, we couldn’t do both. 

Soez.

Nickie broke off from the group and jumped on the Walt Disney World Railroad.

While we…

…Nope. Not yet. It was close to our time to ride but not quite yet. So we decided on a much more exciting option.

Yup. Have you ever ridden in a regular car and thought, “yeah this is exciting but imagine if this car went a lot slower, took no effort to steer, and went in a basic circle while you inhaled what must be hazardous gas fumes”? 

Welp, you’re in luck. Because that pretty much is an apt description of the Tomorrowland Speedway.

Actually this attraction? This one belongs in TodayLand.

These guys are excited.

Vvvroooommmmm.

Oh those extra v’s? Those are obviously for the Deep V I was sporting today.

While we were “racing” around the track, Nickie had settled into a lunch at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant.

And OK, FINALLY it was time to ride Space Mountain.

Which was obviously awesome. It’s Space Mountain you guys. 

Also, for our on-ride photo? We looked the other way. On PURPOSE!! 

Oh us. We’re so hilarious.

For her lunch at Tony’s, Nickie opted for the Chicken Parmesan (Lightly-breaded Chicken Breast baked in Tony’s Marinara Sauce and Mozzarella served with Spaghetti).

Which she assured me was delicious stuff. 

And being that she was sitting outside, she had a great view of the Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade. 

For me and the boys? It was time.

Yeah well. Whatever. Still a fun ride. 

The issue though is how long it takes to actually get on the ride when you have a virtual queue. We got in line at around noon..

…and we didn’t actually board until 1:00.

Which I mean. That’s tough for a two-minute ride based on a movie no one really cares that much about. Fun no doubt, but an hour is rough.

Virtual queue as in it virtually takes forever.

Meanwhile….

Yeah, Nickie was legit living life. 

But I mean, the boys and I had to eat too. But being that we had traveled to the far reaches of space, inside a video game, and um…by car? We didn’t have time for a long lunch. We opted to grab something quick at Casey’s Corner. 

We all ordered the Mini Corn Dogs with a side of Fries.

Maybe it’s not gourmet, but still. It’s delicious. 

After lunch, we met back up with Nickie and headed out of the park. 

But fear not, gentle readers. On account of we still had some park time ahead.

But, a quick caveat. This wasn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows. You see, Myles was scheduled to work today at EPCOT, but he had been trying all morning to see if he could get someone to cover his shift. 

He didn’t. 

Which sucked.

Obviously. 

But eh, dude’s gotta work. Thankfully, he worked at EPCOT so we all headed over there together with a plan to hang for a bit before he had to start work and then meet back up when his shift was over. 

To EPCOT!

We arrived at the park at around 2:15.

And you guys. It was Flower & Garden Festival time, which meant lots of food booths and lots of topiaries. 

Like this one. From that movie that came out last year. I wanna say it was called Dreams?

Ha, kidding. I kid. I know it was Wish. But honestly? I do sometimes forget that is a movie that exists.

Hey guys, let’s take a picture with…Julie I wanna say?

Pfft, you know I love you Asha.

But Asha? Not the hottest girl in school. Nope, that title goes to…

Duh.

Also though. I mean. These are some handsome fellas.

Next up was an experience totally new to most of us, except for Myles on account of he was now living at Disney. 

Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana. 

Which is, like, a descriptive name if not all that exciting. 

I kind of dug the attraction though. Lots of interactive elements. 

And the whole thing was just super pretty.

It’s so cool how it also sits in such a way that you also have a view of Spaceship Earth from the area. 

Plus, I mean. 

Breathtaking.

And like I said, it was Flower & Garden so there were legit topiaries everywhere.

I wasn’t lion.

I think the boys took off to grab some food from one of the booths maybe? Because my next set of pictures are of just Nickie and I with such a good boy.

Speaking of good boys…it’s Figment you guys.

But yeah, Flower & Garden isn’t all flowers and what not. I mentioned the food booths. And now, it was our turn to visit one – Brunchcot, over near the Test Track area.

 And we opted for the Fried Cinnamon Roll Bites with cream cheese frosting and candied bacon.

Which of course it was good. Did you not read the description?

Next stop in our adventure was going to be a little dip into World Showcase so we made the walk over to the entrance. And on the way? Pretty.

Mexico was our stop for a few reasons. I mean, for one – that’s really the only way to start in World Showcase. Only savages start off in Canada.

Secondly? Myles was assigned to work in Mexico today and his shift start time was coming up. So we were walking him to his job. At EPCOT. 

Thirdly, we were also meeting up with our friend Jill, who was also vacationing at Walt Disney World! Yay for friends you guys!

And lastly, we wanted to visit La Cava del Tequila for a new drink on the menu.

The drink I was looking forward to trying was one inspired by one of our favorite Disney YouTubers, Paging Mr. Morrow. 

The Paging Mr Morrow Old-Fashioned was not only inspired by someone we love watching, but it also actually sounded delicious. Thing was made with Straight Rye Whiskey, Peanut Butter Banana Liqueur, and slow dripped through Japanese Rice. 

So I was excited to belly up to the bar and order my Paging Mr. Morrow Old-Fashioned. 

Only to find out they were sold out of it. 

At 3PM.

Frikkin Disney adults.

Ah well. Nickie and Jill ordered a couple Pina Coladas.

And I went in for the tried-and-true Avocado Margarita.

We had a Genie+ scheduled for Soarin’ Around the World coming up in a few minutes, so I left it up to Owen as to whether we should make the mad dash over to the Land Pavilion or just keep exploring World Showcase. He of course opted to make the move. 

We were at Soarin’ by just before 4PM. 

Let’s go soar. Around the world.

Which is basically the name of the ride you guys.

After we exited Soarin’, I mean can you actually say you visited the Land Pavilion if you haven’t ridden Living WIth the Land?

I mean, yes. You can actually totally say it. You can say you visited the Land even if you haven’t ridden LIving With the Land. 

But you can’t say you lived with it. 

All that looking at things that would eventually become food made us want things that had already become food. Which was good timing since it was time to head back into World Showcase to meet Nickie for dinner. 

I know. It was only like 5:00. Dinner that early was a little…

…

…

Goofy. It was goofy.

So right. We were heading to meet Nickie for dinner. But we also decided to stop on the way for a little snack to tide us over until we reached her.

It was gonna be like ten whole minutes you guys.

So Owen and I stopped off at the Honey Bee-Stro Flower & Garden food booth for a quick bite.

We split a Chicken and Waffle (Crispy chicken and a honey sweet cornbread waffle with whipped honey butter and spicy honey) and a Copperpoint Brewing Co. Bee’s Squeeze Blonde Ale.

Ha, just kidding. Owen wasn’t interested in the chicken and waffles. 

Ha, just kidding. We split the chicken and waffles.

Ha, just kidding. I hate like 7/8 of the chicken and waffles and he had a bite. He was fine with it.

Ha, just kidding. He wasn’t fine with it and I ended up feeling a little guilty about it later.

Ha, just kidding. I didn’t feel guilty.

But this thing was real good you guys. The chicken was nice and crispy and the mixture of the sweet and spicy with the waffle and the honey. Love. It.

The blonde wasn’t half bad either. 

Ale. Blonde Ale. 

Ahem. 

Owen and I were back in World Showcase by 5:15. 

Let’s make our way over to meet Nickie!

Dinner tonight was in France. It was 5:30, but dinner was at 6:00. So what in the world could we do to pass the ti…

AH right. Great idea!

NIckie and I ordered some frozen happiness from Les Vins des Chefs de France.

So beautiful.

Slushies. I went with the Grand Marnier and Nickie went for the Absolut Citron. 

These things are like EPCOT classics you guys. I typically prefer the Grand Marnier but you can’t go wrong with either of them. 

So good.

And soon enough? It was 6:00!

Dinner tonight was at Chefs de France. 

A favorite. 

We were seated pretty quickly.

Owen was très excité.

Which, of course he was. Because we are in the midst of planning his graduation trip to Paris and Disneyland Paris. 

And no. We CANNOT adopt you. 

As with most meals (yes including breakfast), I started this one off with a Grey Goose martini…dirty? 

Soiled? 

I love the bread service at Chefs on account of they bring you little baguettes. Because French. 

Nickie started off with some French Onion Soup. And I can attest from previous experience this is a great French Onion Soup. 

I typically go in for the escargot as an appetizer here but I wasn’t all that hungry today so I was just gonna stick to a main. 

I want you to remember that comment.

“I wasn’t all that hungry.”

Foreshadowing.

Speaking of mains, though. Owen ordered the Boeuf Bourguignon, linguine (Braised beef in Cabernet, bacon lardons, pearl onions, carrots, pasta).

Nickie went with the Salade aux lardons et croûtons (Selected greens, house vinaigrette dressing, bacon, tomatoes, croutons).

Right so. Remember when I said I wasn’t all that hungry? No? Look I said it right here…

Doy you.

Well, I wasn’t. But for some reason I thought the Plateau de fromages et charcuteries (Imported cheeses, charcuteries, house made bread) would be a light meal. 

Yeah, I was wrong. 

VERY wrong. 

Look at that friggin thing. All for me. 

Oh also. BTW. I ordered extra bread to go with it. 

Oh my stomach and my brain? They’re not on speaking terms.

It WAS good. I’ll say that. 

But what is my deal?

For dessert, I got.

Ha NAHHH.

But I did order a cappuccino. 

Because we still had some fun ahead of us. 

Yeah, we are at 16 pages in a Google doc right now. I tend to ramble. 

Once again, though, Chefs did not disappoint. 

After dinner, the plan was to make our way back over to Mexico to check in with Myles and find a spot for the nighttime spectacular. 

Along the way, you know we passed some topiaries. 

Topiaries? More like top-notch-iaries. 

Amirite?

We arrived at Mexico at around 7:30PM and Myles was busy custodianing. So the three of us quickly hopped on the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros.

Let’s go find Donald, folks.

Oh there he is. Pfft, that was easy.

Look there he is again. 

Wait. That blindfolded child is gonna hit him with a stick!

Donald…DUCK!!

Get it? Because he’s gonna be violently beaten. 

Man though. I do love me a DIsney World boat ride. 

So relaxing and boat-y.

And thankfully, at the end? Donald was up on stage with Jose and Panchito, safe and sound. 

After we exited the ride, we spotted Myles in action!

Well “action” was a stretch. Most of what you saw Myles sweeping up there was still there when he was finished. So I think his sweeping was mainly for show. 

Still though. He WAS official. 

He’s the coolest.

We left Myles to his sweeping at around 8PM and tried to maybe slip in a ride on Frozen Ever After, which was showing a shorter wait. Like 15 minutes y’all. 

But once we got in the queue, it quickly became apparent that posted wait was NOT accurate. And we were kind of at a time where we should start looking for a spot for the fireworks. Especially on account of this was going to be our first time seeing Luminous, the Symphony of Us. 

And based on that dramatic of a name, this was a show we needed to see. 

No Frozen Ever After for us. We were gonna have to just…

Disney, you better fix that wait time situation.

Or….

Elsa.

Oh yeah. I went there. 

Myles told us he had a pretty good spot picked out just outside the Mexico pavilion where he could also join us from time to time while he was working so we walked back to a spot just to the right of the pavilion. 

And of course I got a beer.

How I roll.

And yeah, as Luminous was getting ready to start, Myles came out and joined us for pretty much the entire show. 

Hey Myles, working hard? Or hardly working?

I literally can’t stop being hilarious.

But it was cool he could join us. Plus, while we were waiting, some dude came up to take a picture with Myles. Like literally dude thought he was Mickey-level.

That was kind of amazing. 

You go Myles.

On with the show!

Myles was right. This was a pretty legit spot. I mean, we were in back of the crowd but still had a good view of both the fountains and the fireworks. AND we had a table for my beer. Wins all around.

Kind of love Luminous you guys. No cap. I mean, it wasn’t Illuminations. Nothing will ever be Illuminations again and I just have to live with that. But Luminous hit a lot of notes. It had pretty spectacular fireworks, a good amount of DIsney to it, and I mean there is a whole section about death.

Yup. Legit whole section about it. 

After the show was over, Myles had to go help close up so the three of us made our way out of the park. And look at how pretty with the Spaceship Earth.

It’s crazy how long we lived without lights on Spaceship Earth.

Like, how did we get by?

Myles was going to be taking a special cast member bus back to meet us at Fort Wilderness and we didn’t want to have to wait for a normal person bus, especially since Fort Wilderness is so complicated and what not. So we ordered up a Minnie Van for ourselves.

And they played us cartoons. 

Oh wait. CAR-toons? 

I get it, universe.

And then like, we were back at our resort at around 10:15 or so…just about the same time Myles arrived, which worked out. 

When we got back to the cabin, we packed up our things, spent a little more QT with Myles and went to bed. 

Our flight was pretty early the next day, you see.

And like, that’s kind of it you guys. I mean, we went to bed, woke up at like 4 in the morning, drove to the airport, returned the car, flew home. 

Myles ended up spending the morning at Fort Wilderness since we had the room until 11.

I figured I probably didn’t have enough material to put together a whole blog post about the next day. Especially since all I have is a picture of my coffee and breakfast sandwich from Starbucks at the airport.

Really, how many pages could I get out of just that one picture?

Five? 

Not even worth it.

But yeah, that was the trip. It was great getting a quick trip in with the fam and obviously it was great seeing Myles since we hadn’t in so long. And I don’t know, it just felt like a pretty blessed couple days with the whole weight of looking for a job off my shoulders. It just felt really good. 

And now, we have so much to look forward to on the blog y’all. Turks and Caicos. North Conway. France. Alaska. I mean, lots coming down the road. 

But for now, take care everyone.

See you real soon!

Last Post – Post 4!