Disney World 2018: Part 9 (All dressed up with nowhere to go)

Saturday was supposed to be our departure day.

Yep, car trouble. 

I have a great idea for a new button: Disney World has a Car Care Center. Ask me how I know.

It was just a stressful day but being stuck at Disney World isn't so bad, right? The hardest part was not knowing if we were going to be able to leave on Saturday as planned (and if we couldn't, how were we going to get all of our stuff - it was all on the car). We hoped the mechanic would be able to get the car in gear and we could get on the road. We weren't in a hurry to get home but we eventually needed to get there. And while all of that was going on, Phillip was working with the fine folks at Pop Century to put a hold on a room just in case we needed to stay another night (this took a lot longer than I thought it would).

Shout out to Phillip for handling the car situation and the room situation. It was an all day process. And to make matters worse, he was dealing with tooth pain. Like major tooth pain. He was popping ibuprofen like it was candy. But he powered through and I could not be more thankful.

Silver lining, everyone was super nice. The people at the Car Care Center, the rental company (they gave us an awesome deal), the taxi driver, the people at Pop Century... they were all sympathetic, helpful and easy to work with (exactly what you would hope for in this type of situation).

Another silver lining, we have a Disney Visa credit card and less than two weeks before our trip, I redeemed $300 worth of points (which I didn't think we would need, so almost didn't do). We were able to pay for our room and meals with that rewards card (we had 2 meals and 6 snacks left on our meal plan that we were able to use on Saturday so that helped too).

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While Phillip was dealing with the car, the girls and I walked over to Art of Animation to pick up a paintbrush pen that Ellen wanted to purchase. #priorities

Construction is underway for the new gondola system they are putting in.

After our walk, I took the girls swimming. 

It was pretty clear we needed to get professional car help at this point. 

Good thing our car broke down because if not, I wouldn't have pictures of a refurbished room at Pop Century to share. Ha!

Granted, this is not the actual room we stayed in all week, but it's very similar.

I was very impressed with the bathroom.

Bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash were very conveniently mounted on the shower wall. (Phillip doesn't like the smell of the Disney products so he used the toiletries that we had brought instead. #diva)

Lots of storage options

Big TV

If you need two beds like we do, you simply move the chairs and pull down the Murphy bed. The table collapses becoming part of the base.

With pillows

Comfortable queen size beds

If I had known we would be staying an extra night, we probably would have spent more time at Epcot on Friday. But I like Disney Springs, so no real complaint here.

I really enjoyed our meal at D-Luxe Burger. Highly recommend. 

We grabbed a cupcake at Sprinkles after dinner and then went to see Solo. Were we crazy to think Lilly would like it? Or at least sit through it? She and I ended up leaving. We stopped in DisneyStyle on our way to the bus. Loved it. I'll take one of everything.

What might have been...

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Sunday, May 27th

Our official departure day.

We came to Orlando in a 2010 Nissan Murano and left in a 2018 Nissan Rogue. It was a brand new car which was nice, but it was a tight fit. The girls were especially cramped.

Phillip is not a fan of the Cracker Barrel but that is where we ended up stopping for lunch. (We had Panera for dinner. Another restaurant Phillip doesn't care for but I had a gift card so he took one for the team.)

Long trip but we made it home safely.

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Fast forward about a week. Phillip and our good friend Thomas left here at 3:00 in the morning on Saturday, June 2nd. They drove to Orlando in another rental (we did not get a good deal this time). They got our car ($$$), turned in the rental and drove back to Thompsons Station. They got home a little after 1:00 a.m. Crazy. They had plans to stop and spend the night on their way back, but they decided to keep on driving. 

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Next Up: One last Disney post