Friday May 27, 2005

I woke about 8, went through my morning routines, finished packing, and loaded up my rental car with my luggage, before driving up to Melody Hall to check out. Check out, of course, only took a few minutes, which was a good thing, because I was getting more hungry with every passing minute. When I finished at the front desk, I went around the corner to the food court and got my old favorite, the Adult Breakfast Platter, which, despite it's name, was not X-rated.

When I finished with breakfast, I decided to take a few minutes to visit the other two All-Star resorts, both of which were just next door to Music, to pick up maps of the resorts for my collection. But as I went through the motions of my morning, I was getting more and more irritated by the collar of my shirt, which was being rubbed into my neck by my camera strap. So I stopped at the gift shop, picked up a new shirt - a gray and black T with a very nice embroidered Happiest Celebration on Earth logo on the chest - and changed in the lobby bathroom.

Much more comfortable, I headed off to Downtown Disney for some shopping.

At DD, I went to the Christmas shop and bought three Guest of Honor (GOH) badges for some of the kids at home, dropping them off to be engraved with the kids' names. While I was waiting, I wandered through the various Downtown Disney stores, bought a Powerade (since it was getting hot), and sat down next to the marina to drink and make notes.

After picking up the GOH badges, I decided to get some park time in before I left for the airport, so i hopped back into the car and drove to MGM.

MGM was this morning in the throes of another Star Wars Weekend, and as I walked through Mickey Avenue and the Star Tours area, I encountered heavy crowds. Star Tours itself had a stand-by line of over an hour, so I grabbed a FastPass and went to Backlot Express for a cheesburger lunch and to make some notes.

Lunch didn't take long, so my FastPass return was not yet up by the time I finished eating. To fill the time, I went to the Great Movie Ride one more time, and by the time that ride finished, my FP time for Star Tours had arrived.

The crowds were very heavy now, even more heavy than they had been last weekend, and since I only had a half-day today anyway, I decided, after I finished with Star Tours, to leave the park. I had another errand to run, anyway.

My destination was the Epcot resort area, where I parked at the Boardwalk. My object here was simple, and only took 20 minutes - to obtain resort maps from Boardwalk Inn and the Yacht and Beach Clubs. I found that, instead of asking at the check-in counter, which always had at least one or two Guests checking in, it was better to ask at the Guest Relations desk, which in Y&BC and Boardwalk each had at least two Cast Members standing around doing absolutely nothing. Of course, this was the slow part of the day when most Guests are out of the resorts, enjoying the parks; I'm sure that the Guest Relations CMs are much busier around dinner time and after the parks close.

Although I still had some time, I didn;t think I had enough to get into Epcot and enjoy any attractions before I had to leave for the airport, so instead I sat in the Beach Club's relaxing lobby to make some more trip notes and enjoy the air conditioning. At about 4pm, I went back out to my rental car, packed my utility belt and camera in my luggage, and headed off to the airport.

I arrived at MCO at about 4:45 and turned in my rental car without incident. Once I wheeled my huge American Tourister into the terminal, my spirits dropped as I saw the very long line at the SWA bag check counter, but they are nothing if not efficient at Orlando International Airport, and it took me only 10 minutes to get through that line and drop off my bag.

The security checkpoint line was even longer, stretching back out into the terminal. But I had been caught in long lines here before, and I knew that the TSA folks who work the lines are even more efficient than the bag check folks. The line, which would have taken an hour or more at my home airport, took only 15 minutes.

On the far side of the security checkpoint, I put my shoes back on, rode the tram to the sattelite building where the gates are located, and bought a magazine at a nearby gift shop, had dinner at McDonalds in the mini food court, and went to my gate at about 6:15 for my 6:45 flight. I sat on the floor in the B boarding group, made some trip notes, and was soon aboard the plane. We took off on time and arrived 5 minutes early at 8:55.

My Dad was waiting for me at baggage claim, but we had a long wait for the bags to come out onto the belt; BWI does not, apparently, practice efficiency as much as MCO.

I got home about 12, unpacked a little, and was asleep by 1am.