Cal and Maggie Arrive

After we got back from Key West, Cal called to tell me that he and Maggie wanted to come down for Labor Day weekend. I was super excited to hear that and started talking to him about what we could do when they were here. Gainesville and Swamphead were definitely on the list as were pickleball and miniature golf. Cal ahd one suggestion that I wasn’t quite sure we could pull off. He and Maggie really wanted to go to the Food and Wine festival in Epcot as it opened that weekend. Since our annual passes were blacked out for those dates and it was a holiday weekend, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to add it to the list but told him that I will look into it right away.

Thankfully, I was able to resolve the issue easily. Because our Disney annual passes were up for renewal in July, I could upgrade them to the Sorcerer’s pass. That would allow us to go on all holidays except for Christmas and Thanksgiving. The cost difference would only be the price of one ticket to Epcot, so it was an easy decision. Next, I had to figure out where we were going to stay in Orlando. Meg offered to have us there, which I greatly appreciated, but I thought it would be better to stay closer to the park so we could get to Animal Kingdom first thing in the morning on Saturday. I looked around and found an Embassy Suites within 15 minutes of the park and as an added bonus, we had enough points to stay there for free.

I was happy that Doug was able to take today off.  He and I had a relaxing morning at home and then headed to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. We not only got our favorite pretzel for lunch, but we were also able to ride Toy story mania.  Afterward, we headed back to the hotel for their happy hour. It was kind of lame, but the best part was that Meg joined us while we were there and we were able to avoid a huge thunderstorm that came through.

Tonight, the three of us went to Epcot to check out the Food and Wine festival. We wanted to get some inside tips for our trip tomorrow with Cal and Maggie. They had some awesome food and for the first time ever I was able to find a dessert that I liked even better than the chocolate cake from Ireland from years ago. Of course it was another chocolate cake, but still very delicious.

We picked up Cal and Maggie at the airport at 10:30 happy that their flight had arrived on time and everybody was doing well. Maggie had been up since 4:30 in the morning, so none of us stayed up late. That was OK with me as we had plans to be at Animal Kingdom before the park opened at 8 AM tomorrow. Overall, it was a great day, and I look forward to a fantastic Labor Day weekend.