Barbie's Aunt Sandy, Uncle Roger, cousin Jill and Jill's husband Zach rented a house in Ormond Beach, Florida for the month of April and invited us down to stay with them.
We took them up on the offer the last week of the month, staying there 1 night, followed by 3 nights at Disney's Coronado Springs with Jill, Zach, and friend Trevor, then back to the house for 4 more nights.
Friday, April 21st
The day started very early indeed, with a 2:30 am Rapid Rover Airport Shuttle pickup to get us to the Philadelphia International Airport for our 5:30 am flight to Tampa.
Let me tell you why we wound up in Tampa. I had a "senior moment" when I booked our flights for this trip waaaay back in December of 2016.
Somehow I confused Tampa as being on the east coast of Florida. Ormond Beach is north of Daytona. This whole thing is even more confounding as I collect maps and globes. Geography was one of my best subjects in school. I have been to every state in the United States of America. Heck, I have been to Busch Gardens IN TAMPA! Ridiculous.
I even remember the exact moment I realized my blunder. I was on a hayride through a Christmas light display at a farm. I was telling my friends about our plans when I said aloud we would fly into Tampa. That's when it hit me. Wrong coast.
I texted Zach, and we decided I should keep the inbound flight as Tampa and change my outgoing flight to Orlando.
Why keep our incoming flight to Tampa?
2 reasons. The Salvador Dali Museum and Cigar City Brewing.
Barbie, me, Jill and Zach in front of the Salvador Dali Museum.
After our visit to Tampa, we went across the state to the house at Ormond Beach.
Saturday, April 22nd
The whole family was up at 5a.m. to get ready to head to Walt Disney World. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Roger were just spending the one day, so we wanted to get to the Magic Kingdom as early as possible.
The ladies took one vehicle, while the guys went to pick up our friend and Zach's co-worker Trevor at his hotel by the Orlando airport.
The gals went to the Magic Kingdom while we checked into Coronado Springs. There was a bit of confusion around Trevor's room which made us arrive a bit later than anticipated to the MK.
Meanwhile, at the MK, Barbie was recognized by a friend from Facebook, I'm gonna say her name is Jan. No, wait, Jean. (Why am I pretending I don't know her name? I'll explain shortly.)
It was actually Jennifer! Hi Jennifer! Hi Chris!
What was I doing while Barbie was having fun. I was on the bus.
We finally arrived, grabbing a few quick pictures of the 4 of us, before meeting the girls at Gaston's Tavern.
Trevor, me, Zach and Uncle Roger
When we got there we ran into Jennifer and Chris! Sooo, it turns out I had met Jennifer and her husband back in 2015, at Star Wars Weekends, but, um, didn't remember. I felt awful, but it has now become our "thing."
The group split up again, with Zach, Trevor and me heading off to Big Thunder Mountain while the rest of the family headed off to explore more of Fantasyland, before we all met back up again.
Nick, Barbie, Uncle Roger, Aunt Sandy, Jill, Zach and Trevor
We went over to Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was down, so we headed to Epcot.
After grabbing a bite to eat at Yorkshire County Fish and Chips in the UK pavilion, who should we run into but my Disney Exchange Podcast co-host Lisa and her family! Aunt Sandy had very much looked forward to meeting Lisa, as she is a fan of the show.
We all met up with our other co-host, Dave, his wife Anne and daughter Dannielle, as well as a few of our listeners at Epcot's France Pavilion. You can hear about the meet up on Disney Exchange episodes 124 and 125.
me, Lisa and Dave
Dannielle, Anne and Barbie
After we said our goodbyes, we went to the American Adventure, followed by dinner at The Biergarten.
We headed back to the Magic Kingdom to ride Pirates before saying goodbye to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Roger for a couple of days before heading to the resort.
as someone who lives in tampa bay, I can say you made good choices with cigar city & the dali!
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