Well hey everyone!! It’s time for yet another post about our September 2025 Empty Nest trip thing where we actually had like three trips in one.
And yeah, I am STILL writing about this.
I can’t believe it’s been like 8 months since this trip happened and I am still writing about this thing. 8 months. To put things in perspective – we went on this vacation when the boys started college in the fall and like, they’re both going to be home within the next couple weeks.
But we are nearing the end. This latest post focuses on beginning of the third and final phase of this tripstravaganza situation. And the next post will most likely wrap things up, honestly. So like, it’s kind of sad when you think about it right? The fact that it’s almost over?
Seriously? These intros are really disheartening sometimes.
Let’s just get on with it.
Our 12-Day Empty Nest Extravaganza Trip: Day 9
As you might or might not recall from my Day 8 post, we were up drinking in the Green Cabin Room late.
Well, not late. The Green Cabin Room closed at 10PM. So like Disney’s Vero Beach late.
And that had me wanting to sleep in a bit. But.
BUT.
BUTTTTT.
Nickie was up and out the door at like 6:45 AM on account of there was a naturalist down on the beach doing some sea turtle stuff. Which seemed kind of weird to me. I mean, I get the whole “wanting to see sea turtles” thing but I don’t understand why the person had to be naked.
…
…
Oh. That’s not what a naturalist is? A naturalist is a person who specializes in the study of natural history, observing plants, animals, and ecosystems in their natural habitats?
Got it.
Anyway though, she met with the rest of the sea turtlers down on the boardwalk.
And yeah, I mean it DID look like a nice day out there.
Unforch, there weren’t any actual turtles on the beach today. Wait. Hold on. Were there not? I feel like looking at this picture a little more closely…
Cowabunga. Amirite?
But seriously, there actually were not any actual turtles on the beach today…
OK, that’s enough.
…
…
OK fine. Go ahead. But just one more.
Ha wow. Really made that one count, huh?
Anyway. No actual turtles, but the naturalist did point out a nest and some sea turtle tracks that led to the water.
So that’s pretty cool, right? And like I said, it really was a beautiful day out there.
She was back in the room by around 7:30, at which point I dragged myself out of bed to get showered and packed since we were going to be leaving Disney’s Vero Beach today to head to our next destination. But don’t go crying your eyes out just yet. We still have a few hours of fun here.
First order of business was breakfast. And today we were having breakfast at Wind & Waves Grill, which is off the main lobby.
We were seated at a table at around 8:30. And of course I started things off with some black coffee.
And for my main, I went with the Biscuit Sandwich Duo (A Chicken Biscuit with Cheddar and Sausage Gravy and a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit).
And it’s offered with a side of Grits, Home Fries, or Fruit. I ended up going with grits on account of I really love grits. Plus, it’s a rule that if you order them you can quote the character Flo from the Linda Lavin classic Alice.
I know what you’re thinking. And yeah, she did also play Mrs. Deagle from Gremlins.
But yeah, both the biscuits and grits were delicious. And like, not overly filling either. Which was exactly what I was looking for today.
Nickie went with a Mickey Waffle and Sausage. Which, duh. Of course it was good.
Making a food Mickey-shaped instantly makes it taste better. That’s science.
A real good breakfast at Wind & Waves for sure. And while we could have, at this point, headed out, we just weren’t ready to say goodbye to this magical place just yet. So off to the pool we went.
And as we were grabbing towels, check this out.
Yeah, I don’t know if I mentioned it before but I was the waterslide champion on Day 8. And as you can see, the impressive time of Mr. Incredible (translation: me) was on display for all to see. And to marvel at.
The legends are true.
I’ve already commented on how beautiful today was. But look how much more beautiful-er it got.
Rawr-Town. Population: Nickie.
We spent some time in the pool, splishin and a splashin and what not, but we (as per usual) eventually found ourselves in the hot tub. Which obviously turned this hot tub into a hot AF tub.
We finally though. Unfortunately though. Depressingly though.
Had to leave.
At around 11:15AM, we got out, dried off, and changed into our non-hot-tub clothes. We were in our rental car and on the road by around 11:45. As evidenced by this photo of the road at around 11:45.
And yes. Yes, we were going to Walt Disney World today. But patience, gentle readers. We have one stop to make before we get there. And that stop, while not Walt Disney World itself, was in Stepford Celebration Florida, Disney’s planned community.
We were heading there to meet up with our friends, the Hills.
…
…
Just do it already.
And I know. It has been a while since we’ve made that joke, huh? It’s just been far too long since the Hills have been on this blog, right? Right!
But yeah, today was a Sunday. So we were meeting the Hills at the Celebration Town Tavern, a Boston-leaning bar in town, to catch the Patriots game.
And today wasn’t just A Patriots game. Today was THE FIRST Patriots game of the season. Oh and for further information I am sure you, who came to this blog most likely by accident but maybe also looking for things related to Disney, care about – they were playing the Oakland Raiders today.
Let’s see how they do. Gee, I hope they win!
When we arrived, the Hills weren’t there yet so we grabbed a table near the bar. Here’s a look at the menu:
While we were waiting for the Hills to arrive, we started off with some Cheeseburger Sliders.
As in the mini version of a cheeseburger.
They were good though. They were all “slider? How about you slide into my mouth and then slide down into my stomach?”
Amirite?
Nickie ordered the grilled chicken for her main.
And I got some pretty delicious clam chowder. Which they call “chowdah” because Boston stereotypes.
But it WAS real good chowder. Like, I enjoyed. Much.
And hey look – the Patriots are tied.
Anyone’s game, right?
And just so you know we aren’t lying about actually having friends, the Hills (Eric, Missy, and Livi) did show up. Look see. These are the Hills. And they choose to be friends with us.
We hung out for a bit, had some beers, watched some football.
And like, I don’t want to say we enjoyed some football. On account of the Patriots did lose to the Raiders 13-20. Awful stuff. But hey, they did go on to the Super Bowl this season.
Which they also lost.
But still. Drake Maye.
After we finished up with lunch, we looked around the Celebration Town Tavern for a little bit. Like I said, it was a Boston bar so there was a lot of Bostonish paraphernalia to see. Like this wicked trophy…
Or these pissah knick-knacks.
We ended up saying our goodbyes to the Celebration Town Tavern and the Hills…
OK. Enough now.
But we did say our goodbyes at around 3:45. It was so nice seeing them for at least a little bit and yeah, the Patriots didn’t win but we were all winners today. Because friendship.
And hey. Look where we were at 4:00PM-ish.
Yup, we were gonna be at Walt Disney World for the next few days. And like, for me? It wasn’t all play. I was actually here for work. Yeah, told you I had a job.
Specifically, I was here for the DDAC – the Disney Data & Analytics Conference. On account of I am a nerd.
The conference didn’t officially start until tomorrow but I had to come in a night early so I could get there in the morning to get the booth set up and what not. The DDAC was being held at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, which meant we could check another Disney resort off the list.
We checked in and made our way up to our room. Come take a look at it with me, won’t you?
I don’t know if I have enough pictures to do a full room tour but here’s a quick look at the situation.
Yeah, pretty nice room though. But the reason I didn’t really have enough pictures for a full tour was that we kind of wanted to get going on account of we had a couple days worth of “After 4PM” tickets for this trip (offered to conference attendees for a discount) and today we were visiting EPCOT!!!
We made it to the parking lot by 5PM. We were in the Rocket lot.
Which, like. I mean, is it even possible to park in a theme park lot without quoting this scene from The Simpsons?
Within a few short minutes, the hottest girl in school came into view.
And an hour and a half later, it was right in front of us.
Hahaha kidding. I’m such a kidder. It was like three minutes. Like I said, we were moving fast through check-in and getting settled in the room because we had that After 4PM ticket we wanted to use. I also had an Individual Lightning Lane set up for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind that I had to get to.
And I put the “Individual” in Individual Lightning Lane on account of Nickie does not do roller coasters so much. So hey, let’s go guardian the galaxy.
Man, I love me some Cosmic Rewind.
And hey, great news. No one yelled “alcoholics” during this scene this time around.
We are really evolving as a theme park-going society.
And I can’t fully remember what song I got this time around, but eh let’s say it was “September”. What? Are you gonna prove me wrong?
Nickie had already made it over to World Showcase, but while I was in Future World, I did want to check out the new Test Track. And since Test Track is a great use case for Single Rider, I continued to live that solo EPCOT life. Like a friggin boss.
I got into line at about 5:55 and was through and ready to get into my car by 6:10.
Test Track Single Rider is LEGIT.
And yeah – the new Test Track was deffo an improvement over the last iteration. Especially this whole scene right before you head outside.
I don’t really know what’s going on here. I wasn’t listening that closely. But pretty.
You know what else is pretty? This. This is pretty.
You see, it was the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival so I mean. I kind of was obligated to get something from a food booth. And thankfully, one called The Fry Basket was like right outside Test Track. And they were offering a Fry Flight.
And in that Fry Flight, we had:
- Sea Salt-Malt Vinegar Fries
- Truffle-Parmesan Fries with black garlic-truffle aïoli
- Sweet Potato Casserole Fries with cinnamon-sugar, candied pecans, and marshmallow cream
Yah, and they were all good honestly. I think if I had to pick a favorite, I would go with the Truffle-Parmesan Fries but for real tho? I loved em all. I was a real Fry Guy today. Hey, remember the Fry Guys who used the be the Fry Goblins and then became the Fry Kids after they were the Fry Guys? Remember the 80’s?
Oh right also – on my way to meet up with Nickie, I had these pins made up for us.
Because now it’s our time. It’s our time. Down here.
So yeah I met up with Nickie over in Mexico at around 6:45PM.
And I know I say this every time, but Mexico is the coolest pavilion on account of it makes it outside, but inside.
While usually our first stop in Mexico would be at La Cava del Tequila for an Avocado Margarita, today we went straight on back to hop on the Gran Fiesta Tour.
Which, for those that don’t know, is a boat ride at the back of the Mexico pavilion that has sort of like “Temu Small World” vibes and the storyline is Donald legit cannot stop partying in Mexico and we have to find him.
It’s good times and I love a Disney boat ride.
Spoiler alert though. We do find Donald and he joins Jose and Panchito and Panchito’s guns on stage.
After we exited our boat, we made our way out of Mexico and over to the next country in the Showcase – Norway. To ride The Maelstrom Frozen Ever After!
We entered the queue at around 7:00. And this is a pretty fun little queue situation.
The queue was made even more entertaining by the mom behind us continuously telling her daughter to stop eating the chains separating the lines. Kid must have had an iron deficiency.
Amirite?
And we were on the attraction by around 7:30.
Frozen Ever After is a lot like Gran Fiesta Tour in that it is a boat ride featuring beloved characters.
But a lot less like Gran Fiesta Tour in that none of the characters brandishes a firearm during the finale. However, the projection-mapped faces on Anna and Elsa were much more terrifying.
The good news is they have since switched the figures in this ride over to more standard audio-animatronics. The bad news? Still no guns.
When we exited the attraction, it was about 7:45PM and the sky outside was literally like, “look at me. I am kind of breathtaking.”
Speaking of breathtaking…
Hubba-hubba.
But yeah, a gorgeous situation in the World Showcase tonight.
For dinner, neither of us were super hungry. Nickie wasn’t feeling all that great and I just ate three helpings of French Fries. So we decided to get something kind of small over at the Lotus Blossom Café in China.
I ordered the Pork Egg Rolls and a Diet Coke.
While Nickie ordered a Water and some White Rice for herself.
And sure. It was fine, I suppose. It was a couple Egg Rolls and White Rice. The French Laundry this wasn’t, but it was all we really needed at that point.
But still, the setting was pretty nice.
And since Nickie wasn’t feeling all that great tonight, we decided to call it a night at that point. But as we were leaving EPCOT, I found it once again hard to imagine we lived in a time when Spaceship Earth didn’t light up at night.
Forget AI. THIS is one of the greatest technological advancements of the last decade.
So yeah, kind of an early low-key night tonight. But hey, back at the room I was still able to enjoy a Sun Cruiser while watching the Bills-Ravens game before dozing off.
So yeah you guys – Day 9 was kind of a lot, huh? Like, we were in Walt Disney World today. Wild. Tomorrow, on Day 10, my conference starts but that doesn’t mean we don’t find some time for fun. We still have another park to visit AND more friends to see!
So I’ll see you guys then!!
Last post – Day 8!!!
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