Double parks, double exhaustion.

Another day gone by, another park, but this is the first day when I have felt exhausted. I was tired after my long MK stretch, and I was tired on the late nights and early mornings. But this evening, I am just exhausted.

Right down to my bones. I thought I was dehydrated at first, but after half a bottle of water I had to pee. After another half I had to pee again. So I thought maybe I was hungry. But I threw out half the meal I bought. Maybe I'm just tired... But I've had nine+ hours of sleep the past two nights.

I think I just miss home. I haven't been homesick in a while, and I thought the facetiming my family would make it stay away longer than a week and a half. Sigh.

But today I saw the Beach Club. And not having them here really sucks.

I slept in this morning until 11am or so, which was wonderful :) I got up and got ready for the day: I had a plan! I picked up my main gate passes (to let my family into the parks) from the service desk and caught a bus to Hollywood Studios. I jumped into the single riders line at the Rockin' Roller Coaster and was on the thing in less than 5 minutes. The regular line was over an hour wait time! It was a much shorter ride than I remember, but I was terrified last time ;)

The upside down and corkscrews were so much fun I jumped right back into single riders line as soon as I was done. 10 minutes later, I was done again :) single riders are put into seats on a need-spaces-filled basis, and the second time around I was placed next to a girl whose mom and brother were in the seats in front of us. Her mom does not like roller coasters, and just as we were about to take off, the girl told me she hadn't told her mom that it went upside down ;) She was not impressed with her daughter when it finished!

The second time was more fun than the first, and I would have gone again, but the Beauty and the Beast play was about to start :) I ran to the theatre and quickly found a seat. The place was packed, but I found a spot on the end only three rows back :) it's a very well done show!! There were some key pieces missing, which we would expect from a 25 minute summary stage production of a movie, but it was still wonderful. (And by key pieces I mean only the pieces a fan would really care about... The ballroom scene was done after the transformation, for example. It was still very good though.)

After the play, I left HS and took a boat towards the Yacht and Beach Clubs. I got off at the Swan and Dolphin was walked to the Boardwalk, seeing the Beach Club across the water :) I window shopped for a bit as I made my way over the bridge and to our resort :) I got a milkshake at the ice cream cafe-thing by the pool and stuck my head into Cape May. It was weird to not have my family with me, again.

Now THAT's a milkshake.

I followed the pathway to Epcot and entered through the back gates. Epcot is the only park with two sets of gates and the back gates are usually what my family uses to enter the park :) I wanted to check out the line for Soarin' and maybe grab a fast pass while I waited for Natalie to finish work and meet me for Illuminations. But, when I got there, the fast passes were already gone for the day, and the wait was 90 minutes. Yeah, I don't think so.

So, I dallied for a few minutes, went on Living with the Land, the Seas with Nemo, and hung around the aquarium for a while. The aquarium at Epcot is actually one of the biggest in North America. So big, you can put the Epcot ball in it with room to spare! I watch the dolphins for a while and took some pictures of the manatees. But the exhaustion jut hit me like a wave. And I knew that illuminations wasn't for another three hours.

I decided it wasn't worth it. Going home, talking to my family and getting to bed early was a better idea.

So, I messaged Natalie (I hope she got it in time!!) and headed home. I hit a snag though, I don't know how to get home from Epcot when I'm there at a guest!! I'm not allowed backstage, which is where my bus leaves from! There must be a door I'm allowed to use, but I don't know where it is.

So, I hopped on the monorail (chosen because it was arriving as I was deciding between it and a bus) and went to the MK parking lot, also known as the TTC, or Ticket and Transportation Center. I knew there was a cast bus that left from there, but I didn't know where from. So after lots of help from friendly Disney employees and asking a random stranger who was sitting where I was told to wait if they were a College Programmer, I got on a bus home. The nice thing was that my complex was the first stop after the TTC so it was an uneventful trip home. I wrote most of this post while waiting at the bus stop, actually ;)

So now I will try to contact my family, and hit the sack early. I have to wok tomorrow, so hopefully that goes well. Emily's sister is here for two weeks, so I will be able to go to sleep and wake up when I please without worrying about disturbing someone else :) hopefully I can kick this exhaustion before it gets out if hand! Goodnight :)