Finally, vacation is almost over - day six and we are ready to go home!
We started out the day at Epcot - early of course. We packed all of our stuff on Wednesday night so that we wouldn't have much to do before leaving for Epcot. We had to drag all of our luggage to the trading post, and check our bags so that when we returned from Epcot, the Magical Express would whisk us off to the airport. Surprisingly, checking the bags wasn't as horrible as I expected. It was relatively quick and painless...
Off to Epcot! We had reservations at Arkershus for yet another princess breakfast. I was a little nervous about this one because the restaurant specializes in Norwegian food. The buffet had lots of very different choices...Loganberry (maybe it's lichonberry??) yogart, herring, lox, and lots of other things that I didn't care to try....Thankfully, they bring eggs, sausage and potatoes to the table, family style. The highlight, of course, is not the food, it's the princesses. Liv got to meet Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel, and Belle. Once again, she LOVED meeting her favorite princesses! She hugged each one and smiled cheesily for the pictures that I snapped, but I know she couldn't help it because she was just THAT excited!
In typical Florida fashion, it was blazing hot again. Once breakfast was over, Olivia and I checked out Finding Nemo. Super cute, slow moving, animated ride...should be okay one would think...Ummm - no...In typical Olivia fashion, she cried during the ride and even refused to walk around the aquarium afterwards to look at all the sea life. Sometimes I just don't understand that girl! She can spend hours looking at goldfish at Petsmart, but she wants nothing to do with dolphins, manitee, and exotic fish. Oh well - I'm used to it by now, so I didn't even try to force it...
We did go to the character spot and Liv got her picture taken with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald. She was thrilled, especially when one of the characters gives her a kiss! Surprisingly, meeting the characters and getting their autographs was one of her favorite things to do at Disney. I guess we should have concentrated more on getting our autograph books signed. Oh well, there's always next time!
Now it was time to head back to Ft. Wilderness and then back to Michigan. We got back to Ft. Wilderness and had about an hour and a half to spare before heading off to the airport. We had something ridiculous like 13 snack and 7 meal credits left and no time to spend them. We ended buying slurpess and a bunch of cookies at the Trading Post to at least use up our snack credits. Because our resort had no quick service restaurants, we left 7 meal credits unused....That was the biggest reason I would never stay at Ft Wilderness again - no quick service restaurants....If you are hungry, you have to head to one of the parks or Downtown Disney.
We got all of our carryone bags that they were storing for us, (our luggage was already headed to the airport...), and waited for the Magical Express to pick us up. While we were waiting, the girls were running around having fun. I'm not sure if Olivia is just really clumsy or if she can't walk well in tennis shoes, but she fell, face first into the cement for the third time in three days. This time, she had a bloody lip. I freaked out when she fell, because I saw it happening and couldn't react fast enough to save her. When I ran to get her, all I saw was blood all over her face, so she freaked out, which in turn scared me even more, and at first I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I was afraid she knocked out a tooth or something, but after further review, thankfully, her tooth just hit her lip. We got an ice pack and I cuddled her until the bus came. By the time we boarded the Magical Express, she seemed good as new. Of course, our resort was the first of four stops on the way to the airport...Oh well, at least the bus was airconditioned.
We finally arrived at the airport, and then had to trek through the airport hauling all of our carryon bags. Keep in mind, the airline charges $15 per checked bag each way, so we had already paid $30 for our one suitcase, so I carried on way more than I would have liked. I had to haul 2 carryon suitcases with wheels, Olivia's backpack, my purse, camera bag, and the stroller. Oh yeah, plus I had to keep track of a very tired four year old in an extremely large and crowded airport...Getting around the airport had to be one of the worst parts of the trip. I can't believe that I am saying this, but I think if we go back to Disney I would rather drive 24 hours in the car with 3 small children, than deal with hauling them and all their stuff through a gargantuan airport. (I could change my mind between now and then, but as of right now, I'm voting for driving!). We finally made it to our gate and Heather and I decided to try to grab something to eat quickly. We rushed to Burger King, and by the time we got back to the gate, our plane was boarding, so we quickly loaded up the kids and all of our gear and headed toward the plane. As we were boarding the plane, Liv was pulling her wheeled backpack and I was hauling everything else, she fell again, this time getting rug burn on her arms and her already battered knees. She was crying, and there were people behind us, and my hands were full...I felt so helpless, but there was no room to stop without holding up the entire plane, so she had to get up and keep walking toward the plane, dragging her little backpack. After we boarded the plane, it got even worse! We got to our seats, and Olivia and my seats were across the aisle from each other. Liv's seat was next to Heather and Kiara, and mine was across the aisle next to a stranger. Livvy was still crying from the fall and she was having no part of sitting across from me. She was so upset - there was no way I was not going to sit next to my baby. I just lost it, and threw my bag on my seat and announced that she would just sit on my lap because I was not sitting across from her. Thankfully, two really nice woman two rows up offered to trade seats with us, probably in an effort to stop me from having a nervous breakdown. Whatever the reason, I was eternally grateful for their empathy, and gladly accepted their trade. Liv's skinned knees and elbows were okay - nothing that a kiss from mommy and a boo boo band won't fix. We settled in for our flight home, anxious to see daddy and the twins!
When we arrived in Detroit, the trek from our plane to the parking lot felt like it took days instead of an hour. Olivia learned how to manuever the people movers (moving sidewalks...whatever they're called...), only after falling several times as she got on and off. Finally, her method of getting on them was to step on and then fall to her butt and ride until I forced her to stand so that she wouldn't get hurt at the end. We survived it, so I guess that's all that mattered.
All the girls fell asleep in the van on the way back home, completely exhausted from a whirlwind vacation. We were all so happy to get home!
No more solo trips for Liv and I! Six days was way too long to be away from daddy and the sisters!
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