Florida 2020: Diary – Day 16

We slept in a little later than usual because EPCOT didn’t open until 10:00. We had time for a relaxing breakfast and my wife was able to join us because she didn’t have any morning meetings. Most days we had been up earlier and let her sleep in a few extra minutes before starting her workday.

We got prepared for the park for last time. We were at the EPCOT toll plaza early and they were already letting people through. We paid our parking pass and they waived us through. Then one of the parking attendants directed us to an exit. It was odd, but he waived us and the car in front of us that direction for some reason.

We unthinkingly followed the direction and were soon headed away from the park. Grrr. It took us a solid 10 minutes to get back to the toll plaza so we had wasted at least 15 minutes with the detour.

We made our way to Test Track to get that in before the lines go too long. We were further back than we had been when we went with my wife, but the line moved quickly. We then went to Soarin’ and Spaceship Earth. The boys were hungry and we went to get Fish and Chips in the UK. They weren’t fans of the meal. We then made our way to the American Pavillion and got our final Joffrey’s smoothie. Tomatico decided to try a different flavor which he said was good, but just not as good.

By this time the park was feeling VERY crowded. All the rides we would consider doing again had huge lines. Our feet were sore and we just didn’t have it in us to stick around, so we decided to go back to the hotel. It was time to bring our Disney trip to a close. We wouldn’t be coming back later in the day because we expected the crowds to get worse and there wasn’t an evening show or anything drawing us back.

New Years Eve Activities

We didn’t plan ahead very well for dinner. We got the idea to try one of the nearby Brazilian steakhouses, but when we started calling around they were either not open, or required reservations and were already full. We tried several restaurants near our hotel and few had space but not until much later in the evening.

In the end we split up. Tomatico and my wife went to a Mexican place and my youngest and I went to a Chili’s. Ironically, this is exactly what we did on New Years Eve in 2019 in Long Beach! It was more of a coincidence than a newly planned tradition.

Back at the hotel when we saw the hotel had a DJ and an outdoor kids New Year celebration with snacks, crafts, and a movie projected on the wall. The boys wanted to do it and in normal times it would be a great idea. But in COVID times people (not just kids) were running around without their masks yelling and screaming. It was outdoors and there was a breeze, but I just didn’t feel comfortable there so we didn’t stay long.

We went up to the room and watched some TV countdown shows. The boys wanted to stay up but they were too tired and fell sleep around 11pm. Around midnight we heard fireworks going off in the distance from a dozen different locations around Orlando. We stood out on the balcony for a few minutes enjoying them.

This was our last night in Florida as we would be heading home the next day. It was our last chance to enjoy the warm weather for awhile!