Brian and Devri: Our Own Eden: 15th Anniversary Trip Part 1: Flying to Florida and Epcot

On December 28, 2023 (after a quick stop at the mall for new jeans and a smaller water bottle for Brian), Mom and Taryn dropped us off at the Idaho Falls Airport, we got some lunch, and then finally boarded our plane for Dallas. We were so excited to finally be heading out for some serious relaxation after a fairly stressful December.

I loved flying over the Tetons (even if my window was really scratched up and I couldn't see very well). We read books, watched movies, at snacks, and relished not having to worry about kids. We also loved that since it was a smaller plane, I got a window seat, Brian got his aisle seat, and we got to sit next to each other. Before too long, we landed in Dallas.

When I was first booking our flights, we were between booking with Delta and American Airlines. American Airlines had a better outbound flight to Orlando, and a really ideal flight out of Miami on our way home, so we went with American Airlines. About a month or two after booking, American Airlines let us know that they canceled both legs of the flight that we booked them for. So, instead of departing early morning on the 28th, our new flight was in the afternoon (which meant we would be getting into Orlando at 10pm instead of 6 pm.) They also canceled our earlier flight on the day of disembarkation, which meant that we couldn't make it back to Idaho Falls the day we got off our cruise and instead needed to stay overnight in Phoenix to avoid any red-eye flights. At that point, the Delta flights had doubled and we were stuck with American.

So, we were quite disappointed and frustrated when we arrived at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport to get a text that our second leg to Orland had been delayed another hour. And then another hour. And then another hour. Not only did our flight from Dallas keep getting delayed, but they kept changing the gates as well, and not to any gates that were near each other. No, that would be too nice. Instead, they were in completely different terminals from the last one. So, we'd get take the train to get to the A terminal, and as soon as we got off the train, we got an alert that now the train was departing from Terminal C (or something like that.) After this happened the second time, we played Disney Main Street music and pretended that we were on the Monorail instead of the airport train in Dallas. This helped immensely.

Since we had so much time to kill, we ate dinner at an actual sit-down Mexican restaurant, which was delicious. Obviously, we also used the restroom a couple of times, and I found this sketchy outlet in one of the bathrooms. I have so many questions, mainly why is there a nail or screw in the grounding hole? I was half afraid that I was going to be electrocuted while I was washing my hands.

We finally got onto our plane, but our seats were right in front of a middle restroom, and it smelled like urine the entire flight, at least in my seat. Thankfully, I had a pack of gum that I could sniff. The entire time.

Finally, we began our descent into Orlando.

It seemed to take forever for the airport shuttle to arrive, and it was already really late in the evening. I think we finally made it to our hotel and into bed between 1 am and 2 pm.

The next morning, we tried to rope drop Epcot from the World Showcase gate. We had our Uber drop us off in front of Hollywood Studios and then we took the Skyliner from there to the resort that would connect us to the Skyliner that would drop us off in front of the World Showcase gate. The first half of that plan went off without a hitch, but when we were switching to the next Skyliner route, they closed it down, made us take the Skyliner back to Hollywood Studios, and then the Ferry/boat to entrance. I was trying really hard not to be grumpy about missing the rope drop (and throwing off our plans to get in line for the Ratatouille ride before it got insanely long.)

Not long after arriving in the park, our group for the virtual queue of the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind got called up. We made our way through London,

got closer to the Iconic Globe,

and played around with the Lenses in the Disney World App while we waited in line .

Brian decided to find out who his inner Princess is. It's Cinderella. Now we know.

The whole premise behind the ride is that the planet of Zandar was reaching out to the residents of earth to teach them more about Zandar (to fit in with the whole Epcot educational theme). The queue was really fun with exhibits teaching us about life in Zandar.

The ride itself was a lot of fun with a really cool soundtrack. The ride vehicles spin on the track so it's kind of like Space Mountain on steroids. It was a lot of fun.

We decided to ride Test Track as single riders since it would be faster than waiting in the actual line, which it was. Brian rode with a car full of ladies. After the ride, they were laughing at their picture and said, "The only one that looks good is that guy!" We got a kick out of that.

We had lunch reservations at the Biergarten restaurant in Germany because I wanted to try the schnitzel. I confess to not feeling super great during this trip, and I hope that's why I wasn't super impressed with any of the food I ate. It was a buffet, which was also a bit disappointing, but that meant I could load up on veggies.

The best part of lunch was when the polka band came and performed. I convinced Brian to go down on the dance floor and dance with me. We got there too late to waltz, but we tried our best at the polka until we got too out of breath to continue. We had so much fun; it was one of my favorite parts of the day.

After lunch, we headed over to Norway.

We had fast passes to ride the Frozen ride. It was nice riding it without the plastic barriers that they had up during Covid.

We checked out the building/temple to the Norse gods, and we couldn't resist giving our best impression of one of them.

Finally, we just needed to ride Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. It was one of the big reasons we decided to got to Epcot in the first place, and we decided that we would bite the bullet and wait in line. And wait we did. We read to each other from The Imagineering Story while we waited.

We also made friends with a mom who was holding the line for her family. Her husband and two of her kids kept bouncing in and out of line. At one point, she needed a charge for her iPhone, so I let her use my magnetic charger while we waited. At one point in our nearly four hour wait in line (not even exaggerating), her husband brought us a couple of chocolate croissants to say thank you for the charge, which was incredibly generous. After 3 hours or more, we finally made it inside the building, and things got a little more visually interesting. It was fun to be on the rooftops of Paris.

We parted ways with our new friends as we finally got to go on the ride. It was cute, but it made me feel pretty sick. I will not ever wait in the line that long again for it, but I had a good time waiting with Brian. We got a park photographer to take our pictures after we got out.