Time for another trip report! I’ll be covering my 2022 WDW Marathon Weekend trip. Find all the posts in this report here. Onward!
Oh, the bittersweet saga that is the last day in Walt Disney World.
Some weeks ago I had thought to myself, maybe I’ll get up early the last day and do a strength workout. Luckily I came to my sense the night before and set my alarm to “sleep in” instead. I hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, dropped my bags at baggage check (which is at the old airline check-in desk for departures now for some reason?), and headed for the Skyliner.
The line this morning was long, possibly because I was running about 15 minutes behind compared to the previous day, but it moved quickly. Transfer to the Epcot line was quick too. Is anyone else vaguely bummed out when overhearing your gondola buddies planning the rest of their trip when you have to leave that afternoon?
Turns out that 15 minutes might have really made the difference. I made it into Epcot proper very quickly, but the line for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure was already backed up to the bridge.
(As a brief aside, I realize I had literally just been to Epcot yesterday, but I love a good Skyliner moment. Also I feel like Epcot is the best park for traveling alone? Discuss.)
I’d be willing to bet the Remy line would move well once it got going, but I didn’t feel like risking it. Rather, I set off in the opposite direction toward Norway with Frozen Ever After in my sights. I made it as far as Canada, which turned out to be the hold point for all us early birds until 9:30am on the dot.
A fair number of people peeled off for World Discovery attractions, while the rest of us all went straight for Frozen Ever After. I still wound up walking straight through the queue up until Wandering Oaken’s, and after that it was only maaaaybe 5 minutes’ wait. Not bad.
Man, the people in the back of the boat get shafted, don’t they?
Note that the line was getting long as I exited, though, so make sure you’re right there at the start of early entry if you want to make Frozen Ever After destination #1.
It was a chilly morning for Florida (and residents of Puerto Rico), and coffee seemed like a good next move. I ordered a caramel latte at a Joffrey’s stand and was amused when the cashier handed me a miniature bottle of caramel syrup. Starbucks never lets me DIY!
While I mixed up my custom latte I spent a few minutes convincing the folks next to me to try the WDW Marathon. Just doing my part to spread the gospel.
My next act to head over to The Land. On my way there I saw a CM in shorts and a big coat, blowing into his hands and hopping around. “It’s cold, man,” I said as I passed, and he fervently agreed. Told ya it was chilly.
You might guess I was headed for The Land to ride Soarin.’ Wrong! I was in it for Living with the Land. Calling me crazy-go-nuts-university-bonkers but I think I enjoy this simple little boat ride even more than the admittedly fun hang-gliding simulator. I love a good dark ride.
It was a good, busy trip, with lots of CMs out working in the greenhouses. I even saw someone in the lab at the end, if you can believe it.
There wasn’t much of a line for the Finding Nemo road over at The Seas, so I took a quick trip through there before whooshing off to World Showcase for the first Mariachi Cobre show of the day. One of the performers looked a ton like Ernesto de la Cruz to me, and when he greeted me after the show I told him so. He said it was the first he’d heard of it; hopefully he wasn’t offended to be cast as a villain? See, this is why I shouldn’t talk to people. 😆
After the show, I moseyed over to the China pavilion and killed some time in the Shanghai Disneyland exhibit before the movie there. Are they still planning to replace it? I rather like the one they have.
I had the two-days-post-marathon munchies at this point, a prime time to indulge in some festival food booths. Unfortunately for me, I was in Epcot on one of the 12 days a year when there is no festival. Drat. On the bright side, this was a good time to finally try out some barbecue at Regal Eagle!
Full disclosure: I think barbecue is… fine. I’ll eat it. It’s acceptable to pretty good, generally. But it’s not what I’d order as my last meal, and I don’t know a dang thing about regional specialties or whatever. I say this not in an attempt to hurt you but to explain why I eventually settled on the plant-based BBQ Jackfruit Burger. In my defense, I didn’t want anything too heavy but I did want garlic toast.
I must say, this surpassed my middling expectations. From looking at it, I was disappointed to see the garlic toast was burned. Jokes on me; it wasn’t too crunchy in the slightest! The jackfruit on top of the veggie burger mostly just tasted like barbecue sauce, but the texture was decent. The house-made pickles were good too, with a fresh cucumber taste. I enjoyed tipping them in the various regional sauces, especially the vinegar-based one. Sam Eagle, I endorse your product.
Everyone knows you need a drink to wash your barbecue down, so after consulting a bit with DisTwitter I elected to try a Tennessee Lemonade from the outside drinks stand offshoot of Regal Eagle.
The Tennessee Lemonade is essentially Minute Maid lemonade with Jack Daniels whiskey, and whatever you imagine that tastes like, you’re probably right. The menu claims some peach flavor as well, but I didn’t pick any up. A perfectly serviceable spiked drink but I think I’ll try the moonshine sour next time.
Since I was right there, I took a brief spin through the American Adventure show before continuing along World Showcase.
I wandered through the Mitsukoshi department store in Japan, home of my imaginary post-lottery-win shopping spree. As per usual, I picked up and put down like 87,000 things, lingering most longingly on these super-squishy plush dogs and polar bears. It helps to have totally maxed out your luggage, budgetarily speaking.
After forcibly extracting myself from the land of rising sun temptation, I kept my leisurely pace through the countries until I wound up back in Mexico. I ventured inside the pyramid for a spin on the boat ride and to poke around inside the shops. Did you know they have a glassblower back there? I thought that was only a Main Street thing.
I took in one more round of Mariachi Cobre for the road before making the sad walk back through the International Gateway and onto the Skyliner.
Back at Pop I inquired one more time at the desk about my hair towel and was given a QR code to report my lost item. I grabbed my bags, grabbed an Uber to the airport, and that, was that. But I kept my Minnie ears until I got home. You can take the girl out of Disney, etc.
And scene! Here ends the tale of my WDW Marathon Weekend trip. It was great and glorious and as always, I mourn its end. But the horizon is brighter than ever: in a mere month or so, I’ll be back for the Princess Half for the first time since the first time. I hope you enjoyed this trip report, because there’s only more coming!
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!
I think I enjoy Animal Kingdom solo the most, because I can take allllll the time I want to watch the animals and take photos and talk to CMs. Last time I was there alone I literally spent about 20 minutes talking to a cast member about the birds on the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and how he had named all of them when he started working there because none of them had names.
Oh, I totally feel you – DAK is my favorite park. But now that there’s a Skyliner I’m finding I’ve developed an allergy to buses. >D I should probably get over that!