We didn’t do anything our last day except get ready to leave since our flight home was at 11:40 am. I could barely eat a single donut since I was nervous about the flight. On Thursday I paid extra for Early Bird Check-In in hopes we’d get on the plane sooner so I could get a seat closer to the wing. It worked out which helped with the turbulence. I also discovered the free wifi which included live TV and even better, real time stats of our flight. So every time the plane felt weird to me, I’d just check the page and see that the speed and/or altitude had changed which made me feel better. Also, our plane was slightly larger than the first one, plus there weren’t as many sharp turns until we were landing.
Even with all that, I have to say, I really do hate flying. It just makes me so anxious. I am worried about crashing even though I know statistically speaking that’s extremely unlikely. I just hate the lack of control. Plus I don’t trust that people know what they are doing. I’ve witnessed too many people throughout the years not caring about doing their job properly, and I find it hard to believe there aren’t at least a few pilots who fall into that category. After all, just over 50% of plane crashes have been attributed to pilot error.
Anyway, here’s some vacation stats:
Pounds gained: 0
Number of park days used: 3 (thanks to the Park Hopper option)
Amount budgeted for trip: $2313.66
Amount actually spent: $1968.52
Portion spent on accommodations: $732.38
Portion spent on food: $249.63
Portion spent on souvenirs: $38.68
Photos taken: 500
Photos worth keeping: Approximately 150
Videos taken: Approximately 37
Our food costs were kept down due to two things:
1) We bought bottled water and donuts when we arrived so we didn’t eat out for breakfast every day and didn’t have to buy any drinks in the parks. That saved a lot of money since a bottle of water is $2.75 at the parks. I’m glad Disney isn’t so stingy that they prevent you from being outside food and drinks to the parks.
2) The humidity killed our appetites so we typically only ate two meals a day. Proof: We weren’t out in the heat on Thursday and we ate more that day than the others.
I would really like to return to Disney again to explore the other resorts more. I think instead of waiting another ten years we’ll go back in five (or perhaps sooner if E would like to go there after he turns 18). I’m torn on whether we should fly or drive, though. For my anxiety, driving is definitely the way to go, but I like how much faster it is to get there by flying. I definitely want to spend more than four whole days next time, though, so we can visit the parks without having to hop around as much. Although if we go sooner than five years from now I’m not sure I’d bother with Animal Kingdom at all. Ironic considering my love of animals, right? It’s just rather boring compared to the other parks. We were supposed to spend a whole half a day there but after a couple hours the one day I was done with that park. I don’t even like Hollywood Studios all that much but I’m sure by the time we return they will have added more Star Wars stuff so we’ll have to check that out. I wish we could have gone on the teacups again at Magic Kingdom but there just wasn’t enough time.
I really loved staying on property due to how well-maintained everything was even though our resort was classified as a value resort. I say this because to hear some of the people on the Disney Facebook page talk, staying at a value resort is just horrible. Maybe they are just spoiled idiots, though. I’ve never stayed in a cleaner hotel room before. We saw people repainting the buildings all the time, too. As a result, nothing looked worn out. All the little lizards and snails around the property were cute too. The snails in particular really came out after all the rain we got on Friday. We saw really tiny ones, many of which were crushed due to people not paying attention and stepping on them, and huge ones too.
Getting to everything within the world of Disney or nearby was so quick and easy. Initially I wasn’t sure whether it was worth getting a rental car for more than a day but it definitely came in handy every day we were there. Since we were staying on property the parking at the parks was complimentary and we never waited more than a couple of minutes for a tram to the entrance or back to our car. We only took the bus to the Magic Kingdom the first day because it bypasses the Transportation Center and drops you right off at the park gate.
I’m bummed our vacation went by so quickly but now I really do understand the magic of Disney and I can’t wait to go back!