WDW - Thursday 5/19

Thursday was to be our check-out and go home day.

But it wasn't... by Tuesday we had decided to stay an extra day. Unfortunately there was no more room in the inn... our hotel didn't have availability to stay the extra night, so we transferred over to the All-Star Music resort, right next door, for our one last stand. Despite a brief snafu with our new room (they checked us into a room that hadn't been cleaned, so we were moved to a better location) this was painless; C & I spent a couple of hours at the new hotel pool while The Momma caught a nap. Then we went to Epcot for our last night; Epcot was open until midnight for guests staying in WDW hotels that day so we got there around 5pm and stayed through closing. I rode Mission: Space once more at 11:45pm, coming out right at midnight.

C spent a few minutes running through a fountain and we started to head out...

...When we realized we had left a bag in the Mission: Space play area. (I'd bought a neat new nicely Bismo-themed Tiki shirt that day; it'll show up for its first public appearance at Shore Leave in July!) We went back over but found it had already been turned into Lost & Found so we had to wait for it at Guest Relations in the middle of the park. It took quite a while to get there (apparently someone collects all this stuff from different areas and brings it back there) so by the time we were leaving it was about 1am.

Leaving Epcot at 1am... sweet!! We were certainly about the last ones out of the park; they'd even asked what gate we would leave through so they could keep it open for us. There were about half a dozen not completely happy looking cast members waiting for us as we finally strolled out... a fine way to end our vacation! We were on the road around noon Friday afternoon.

So that's about it, if you've stayed with me through this lengthy trip (and with many details not even mentioned here of course). As good a vacation as we've had and it has left us all in a fine mood. It did us all a lot of good, and C actually showed a lot of much improved independence and personal initiative during the trip, a developmental improvement we greatly welcome. We're already back to the grind at work, at home, at the various doctor offices and at homeschool, but with many warm memories that has us all smilin'. Hail the Tiki!!