Chapter 68
M-I-C-See Ya Real Soon…

Previous Post | Next Post
Table of Contents

(Originally posted January 20, 2013)

Not necessarily having too much success choking back our tears, we found and boarded our bus back to Riverside. The ride went pretty quickly, and soon we were back at the main building of our resort yet again.

Obviously, we were without a room by this point, but we still had about an hour to kill before our trip back aboard the Tragical Express. We went to the Riverside Mill and asked for some water cups, then we took those to the porch outside the lobby and sat in the rocking chairs there for a while.

We watched the Downtown Disney-bound boat pulling away and wished that was the transport we were waiting for.

I tried to take as many pictures around the main building as possible before we had to leave.

Alas, as always seems to be the case, the slower you want time to move in a situation like this, the quicker it seems to fly by. Soon it was time to retrieve our luggage and catch our Magical Express back to the airport.

These looks of sadness say it all.

Our bus pulled up and we got onboard. I think we got a Cruise Line bus this time. There was actually a terrible moment during which I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the Magical Express vouchers. I tore apart my backpack looking for them, and then, of course, they turned out to be in the most obvious place possible. The sadness was obviously affecting my ability to focus.

Our driver warned us that traffic was going to be a nightmare getting off property this afternoon because there was a brush fire burning right outside the Disney World gates. When he mentioned it, of course, we then noticed how strongly it began smelling of smoke the closer we got. I snapped a picture as we drove back under the archway leading out into the real world.

We could all but see flames when we passed the site of the fire. It was so hazy.

Once we passed the fire, traffic cleared up immediately, which was a bit of a relief because our driver had been asking if anyone was cutting it close to make their flights on time. Once we were on our way, the farewell Magical Express video started playing.

We wished at the time that we, like Mickey, were heading from WDW straight to Disneyland.

As we pulled up to MCO, I had to take a picture of the bus driver’s name plate. His name was Rockland Steel. How fake does that sound??

Once we arrived at the drop-off, we unloaded and grabbed our bags.

While we were happy to check our bags on the way to Florida and have them magically appear in our room, we decided to carry them on for the trip home—it’s best not to have to deal with baggage claim in NYC late at night when we knew we’d just want to be getting home.

We headed into the airport, and since we didn’t need to deal with the check-in desk at all, we decided to go for an early dinner. Our go-to at MCO is always Chick-fil-A.

This was an extra-special treat when we were living in NYC because there aren’t any Chick-fil-A’s there, so this was our only chance to have it in the near future. We had been foiled by this restaurant on our last trip out of MCO because we hadn’t realized that it was Sunday when we were flying (and Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays), so we were extra excited to get it.

It was only about 5:00, and we had eaten our lunch only a couple hours before, so we decided to only order one set of nuggets and fries to split.

Once we finished that set of nuggets, however, we were still hungry so we decided to get another set. Sure, NOW the food wall comes tumbling down!

After dinner, we headed over to the EarPort to do some last-minute shopping.

Of course, we had to take a picture with Snow White.

Since we had never successfully found a bowl at one of the other parks similar to the one we bought from Animal Kingdom, we were still in the market for another Disney cereal bowl. While it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, Tracy decided on this children’s bowl. We were excited because it featured Duffy at least!

We also decided that we weren’t really attached to the photo album we had bought on our first night. It was the 2012-specific one, but it really wasn’t that exciting. When we saw another one we decided we much preferred, we wondered if we could exchange it. Since we had our receipt from the Emporium, we were allowed to do an even exchange, so here’s the photo album we ended up with.

Our purchases complete, it was time to bid farewell to the last piece of Disney at the airport.

We got through security and boarded the fake monorail. No one even told us to mantengase alejado de las puertas, so we knew we officially weren’t in Disney anymore.

Of course, when we got to our gate, we came to find that our flight was delayed indefinitely. Apparently there was fog at La Guardia. The departure time just kept getting pushed further back. This has actually happened every time Tracy and I have returned from Disney World together. As a result, we end up spending extra hours at MCO which could have been spent at Disney instead!!

By this point, neither of us was feeling that great. I didn’t know if I was getting sick now too, and Tracy still wasn’t doing great. We decided to get a tea from Starbucks to do our best to fight whatever was attacking our systems. I got one last piece of Disney-esque magic when the barista told me my tea was free. She had a voucher for a free tea that she said she was never going to use as she worked at Starbucks.

I brought our tea back to the gate, and we opened up our Disney potato chips that we had saved from lunch.

Free dining was still serving us well even at the airport.

Suddenly, without much warning, our flight went from being delayed another hour to boarding. Apparently, if we didn’t board right then, our flight would have had to be canceled until the morning because La Guardia closes at midnight. Somehow the pilot was able to pull some strings and get us clearance to go. Thank goodness. I don’t know how we would have survived having to sleep at the gate.

Tracy and I boarded and took our last picture of the trip—a nice family portrait with Duffy.

Once onboard, everything went very smoothly. The flight felt pretty short, especially because we both slept for a good portion of it. We arrived in New York well after midnight—I guess LGA had to stay open until we got there once we were in-flight. Though we had originally planned to try to take the bus/subway home, it was way too late for that plan. Instead, we splurged for a cab and made it back home just after 1:00am.

This magical trip of a lifetime had officially come to an end.

Previous Post | Next Post
Table of Contents