50th Birthday in Disney World

In the near future, I'll be going to Disney World for my 50th birthday trip.

Sadly, Jack won't be there, because he's in college.  And Tim will be there only part of the time. I'm making him go home early, because I don't like leaving the cats for long periods.  I insisted that one of his gifts to me be that he relieve me of leaving-the-cats stress.

We left the cats last May for a family trip, and it wasn't a fully successful experience.

I want to save these future experiences...experiments...for when we want to go on trips with all three of us.

Anyway, so I'll be having two nights with Tim at Animal Kingdom Lodge and then five nights by myself at the Beach Club.

We're not going to do any park days while at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Don't worry.  It's fine with Tim.  Out of the three of us, he's the one who most advocates for less park time and more resort time.

My rule for our AKL day is to not leave the resort. I mean as long as there's not some kind of emergency.  (obviously).  I just want to relax and bond with the resort.

I had the idea of us eating at Jinko, Boma, and/or Saana.  Then I was looking for reservations and realized I missed that boat.  Oops.

Boma is a possibility if we want to eat at 9 pm.  I hesitate with Boma, though. I mean even if we can get a better meal time.  I dread the after-meal fullness feelings more than I look forward to eating the food.

So, we shall be probably getting to know Mara very well in those few days.

We'll also look out for last minute reservations to Jinko and Saana.

For my Beach Club Days....

I planned to do four days at the park.  Two days at Epcot, one day at Magic Kingdom, and one day at Hollywood Studios.

This will be the second time I'm skipping Animal Kingdom!  I feel a little guilty about that.  I do love the park but mostly for Everest.  And I'm not sure I feel up to that.  

Plus I have an aversion to Pandora.

Anyway...now I've decided to actually do only three days.  My main reason for subtracting a day is to punish Disney for their relentless price-increases.  I was reading about how Disney is going to keep increasing prices, because us consumers keep paying and enabling them.

Also, I realized that there is no true savings between three and four days.  There's a certain point that if you go enough days, you might as well add a day, because that extra day will be very cheap.  But this doesn't work with three days vs five days.  

 Now my plan is one day at Epcot, one day at Hollywood Studios, and one day at Magic Kingdom.

I was on the fence about buying Genie+ for Magic Kingdom.  Now I'm pretty sure I'll buy it.  And I might also buy the lightening pass thing for Rise of the Resistance.

Or should I buy Genie+ for Hollywood Studios?  I can stand in line for Rise of the Resistance and then use Genie for Toy Story and Mickey Mouse.  

I plan to wake up early and get there for rope drop.  I don't plan to stay until closing.  I don't like being out at night, because I sometimes feel unwell at night.  

I don't plan to eat at any restaurants.  I'm just going to eat counter service and snacks.  I'm bringing Beyond Meat jerky for any lacking protein. 

There are overwhelming food choices at Epcot but much less so if you're a vegetarian who doesn't like anything related to mayonnaise...even if it's a plant-based version.  I've decided I'm going to do most of my eating at Kringla Bakeri Og cafe.  I love that place. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do on my non-park day.

If it's bad weather or I'm lazy, I might just hang out at Epcot resort area.  

Otherwise, I might go to the Magic Kingdom resort area.  It seems a bit of a hassle, though—bus; then monorail; then bus again to get back.  

I don't love Downtown Disney. But maybe if I go at my own pace, I might like it.

No...just thinking about it makes me feel blah.

I wouldn't mind doing a tour via the gondolas—Riveria, Caribbean Beach Resort, Pop Century, and Art of Animation.  But Tim and I had a bad experience where we were almost stranded.  

The same can happen with the Monorails, though.  

BUT if the monorails break down, I can take a bus to Hollywood Studios and then walk back to the Beach Club.

Although...when Tim and I got stranded, it was after a late night event.  A lot of things were closed, and we were exhausted.  The cast member wanted us to take a bus to Downtown Disney and then take another bus to the Beach Club.  Late at night, that sounded like a disaster.   If I'm doing this in the afternoon, it might be more of an adventure.  

Anyway, here is a list of rides I plan to go on.

Magic Kingdom: 

The Haunted Mansion

It's a Small World

Pirates of the Caribbean

Splash Mountain

Carousel of Progress 

Epcot

Soarin

Spaceship Earth

Living with the Land (maybe 3 times.  I always love this ride.  But now I'm into gardening, so I might love it even more)

I might do Frozen if I'm in the mood for a long line.  Sometimes I am.  

Hollywood Studios

Rise of the Resistance 

Star Tours

Toy Story Mania

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

I'm not very worried about being lonely in the parks; though I think there are certain areas that will make me miss Tim and Jack a lot.  But I've wandered around the parks alone many times. So that doesn't seem like it will feel unusual to me.  

What might be lonely is returning to the hotel alone.  But I did spend a fair bit of nights alone, at home, in 2021-2022.  I don't remember being very lonely.  

I did have the cats.

I'll probably need to go out and befriend a duck or something.  

Or one of the tiny little lizards. 

* * *

Although this is my birthday trip, it's also a we-need-to-use-our-points trip.

We had a lot this year, because of not traveling during the pandemic.

Tim is actually going back to Disney for his own solo trip next year.

And if we are unable to arrange a family trip for all three of us in 2023.  OR if we have points leftover, I might end up taking a 51st birthday trip.  

 

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy to talk to our dearly-departed loved (or hated!!!??) ones with the Internet?   The Dead are Online