Doug Arrives!

Today I hit the 30,000 step mark for the first time this vacation.  We did so by first walking to Hollywood Studios for it’s 9 a.m. opening.  We were glad to be able to ride Toy Story Mania without much wait.  Cam and Meg then took a turn on Rock N Roller Coaster.  I decided to skip it so that I was ready for our next adventure - Twilight Tower of Terror.  It was just as exciting as always with lots of drops and darkness.  We rode The Great Movie Ride and ate lunch at Rizzo’s Pizzeria next.  Rizzo’s replaced Pizza Planet, and we really liked it.  Cam and I delivered a rebel spy on Star Tours before walking back to The Boardwalk.  Meg was waiting for us there as she decided to skip out on the ride.

We next went to Typhoon Lagoon.  The weather was cooler than yesterday as it had rained this morning.  Because of this the crowd was light.  We were able to ride their new family raft ride twice plus the water coaster - Crush and Gusher.  The lazy river wasn’t quite as fun as Blizzard Beach’s, but the wave pool more than made up for that.

After the water park we caught a bus to Disney Springs.  We found out that Disney Quest would be closing in July, so we wanted to check it out one last time.  Cam didn’t remember it from previous trips.  We had fun and spent more time there than we thought that we would.  Once we were finished we grabbed some dinner and spent some quality time shopping.  Everyone found something that they wanted and a few gifts for friends and family members.  Cam was proud of his purchase at the Lego store - a Lego chess set.

We had checked with Doug several times during the day.  His flight was delayed from Midway multiple times and we were afraid that he wasn’t going to make it tonight.  The weather had not been very cooperative today and yesterday with high winds.  There were a lot of flights that had been cancelled.  Just getting to the airport was challenging as Doug said that the winds were so strong that several semis had been overturned.

I was glad to see that he had taken off by the time we left the shops.  He would be about an hour and a half late, but at least he would make it.  We changed our plans a little bit because of his schedule, but were still able to make it to Illuminations at EPCOT.  Meg and Cam headed to Test Track after the fireworks show while I walked back to The Boardwalk to let Doug into our room.  I was able to meet him with a Sam Adams and saved a few desserts for him before the lounge closed.  EPCOT was open until 11 p.m. for extra magic hours which we took full advantage of.  Cam and Meg met us at Norway, so we could all ride Frozen.  Doug stopped in Germany for a grapefruit beer and German pretzels along the way.  Somehow we ended up with five pretzels and everyone was able to fill up before the ride started.