DAY 5 – Monday 7/04/22
Who: Sue (63), DVC Member

Plan: Possibly Gideons, Drive to Gainesville

Actual: Last night I noticed the Electrical Water Pageant floats were hanging out in the lake off my balcony, which was a very strange spot for them. I don’t know what’s going on – that’s really strange. At 8:45 my phone rang – it was Mary
Jane from MouseOwners. She’d realized she gave me the wrong phone number and had taken a brief nap that turned into 4 hours – she’d just woken up. She also got “my” room – overlooking the Contemporary & marina, lol! She asked if it was too
late to come over, and I gave her my room number.

She arrived shortly – I had no idea if she was 20 or 80 and it turned out she was close my age (perhaps younger since her son is 7 years younger than mine). I poured her a glass of wine and we went out to the balcony. Eventually the Electrical Water
Pageant moved away – to where I had no idea. It should have been at GF at 8:35, Poly at 8:45, then to Wilderness Lodge by now.

Promptly at 9:20 the fireworks started and these were so much better than the mediocre fireworks they call Enchanted. The sky was full of fireworks, as opposed to having one or two shot up. In the distance we saw fireworks from at least 4 other places �
�� all off in the distance so not really impressive from here. I took several pictures on my phone and posted several to Facebook.

After the fireworks we hung out on the balcony for a bit and then went down to the sky bridge around 10. We could see Electrical Water Pageant ending over at Fort Wilderness and it arrived here about 2 minutes late. When it started I was thrilled to
see the whole thing! What had been missing the last couple nights here was the entire first set of 7 floats – the dragon, turtle & octopus. I have no idea what happened but glad they fixed it.

When it ended we headed back to the elevators – hopefully our trips will overlap again at some point. I returned to my studio and finished the flourless chocolate cake and updated the report. I wasn’t tired so I stayed up for a while watching the
90 Day Fiance pillow talk show to see what I’d missed after Mary Jane arrived.

This morning I was up around 5:15, made my cappuccino and brought it back to bed. It’s the most humid morning of the trip, with both glass doors pretty much covered with fog. Around 7:30 I got up and made breakfast – egg, slice of bacon & English
muffin again. I’d bought the English muffins at Publix and really liked them. Thomas’ come in a package of 6 and are over $4 per pack. I got the sour dough Greenwise ones in the bakery – package of 5 for $2.19 and I liked them so much better than
Thomas’ version. Sometimes the big brands aren’t best <g>.

I finished packing and hung out in the studio until it was time to leave. Before leaving I checked out via the app. I did learn that last night they allowed up to 499 guests staying at Bay Lake Tower to use the observation deck to watch the fireworks.
I imagine they’ll do the same tonight. Had I known about it maybe I would have gone up there (for the sound track) but it was really nice just stepping out onto the balcony and having a seat!

I left the studio around 8:45 and drove over to Disney Springs to park in the Orange garage. There was a heavy police presence around the Magic Kingdom area (traffic patrol) and elsewhere while on Disney property. Since I had time I decided to fill the
gas tank across from Disney Springs. After that I parked in the garage and walked over to Gideon’s, where the line had formed but wasn’t very long. It was 9:11. Unfortunately, it was broiling hot and my spot was not shaded at all. I sat on the
wall and did some reading but before long it was just really uncomfortable. I’d left my umbrella and bottle of water in the car. A younger couple was ahead of me and she went off to the donut store, asking if I or the 2 women behind me wanted
anything. I should have thought to ask for water, lol – but we all said no thank you.

There was some shade up close to the building that used to be Mannequins (now Morimoto Asia), so I left my bag on the wall where I could see it and went to stand in the shade. The other 2 women behind me did the same. The young couple offered to hold
our place in line if we wanted to go across the street to more shade but we were fine. Thankfully about 5 minutes before 10 they opened up and let a whole bunch of us inside to the air conditioning. I got the orange pecan chocolate chip cookie for
myself, coffee cake cookie for Holli and a cookies & cream for SB. I walked back to the garage, got in the car, and was outside on the road by 10:09 to begin the drive home.

The drive was easy, with no significant traffic. The indicator lights started coming back on, so I’ll take it in to be checked later this week or early the following week. After unloading the car and quickly unpacking I went over to the office for a
couple hours and now I’m back home finishing up the report & doing some relaxing before starting a very busy 4-day work week tomorrow.

Overall this was a really great trip (ignoring the car crap and heat/humidity/rain) and I enjoyed being in this location for this holiday weekend. If I can get it again next year at 7 months I’ll probably repeat it. I especially liked Steakhouse 71
and Enchanted Rose, and next year the Top of the World lounge will also be open. The Boathouse was also great, but that’s a place I can easily go to on almost any trip – in fact we’ll probably be there in October.

For the benefit of the readers not on FaceBook I sent most of the photos to an album on Shutterfly. If you saw them on FaceBook during the trip, you’ve seen them all – there’s nothing else. They can be found at https://link.shutterfly.com/
0Pu1NYyyorb

There’s only 58 days until the next trip – another relaxing resort stay at Jambo House on club level. Holli will be there the first 3 nights and Chris’ family will be there the last 3 nights – so we have 1 night in the middle where we all
overlap. I was lucky enough to get the DVC event Moonlight Magic at Animal Kingdom for arrival night (8/31) and I’m looking forward to that!
Sue/WDW1972

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