Leaving Disney World - October 2021
I did not mention this when writing about our time at Epcot, but we ended the night with a semi-upset child because she didn’t spend her gift card money from her Nannie. See Nannie gave all the girls a gift card since it is so rare they all go to Disney World (at the same time that is). Melody had been so torn on what to get, and she never found anything she loved. We didn’t really have time to go to the Creations Shop in Epcot at the end of our night. And Disney Springs sounded miserable that late too. So we told Melody we would go to Disney Springs when the opened. So that we did.
We had hoped to leave Disney in general early. But it just never happens when we drive. It is way too hard on us. So we slept in and we took our time leaving. We arrived at Disney Springs around 10:15 am. We had one goal, The World of Disney. We thought for sure they would have something Melody could spend her $50 on. After parking and getting through security, we made it in the store around 10:30 am. It took Melody a good 30-45 minutes to decide on something. She didn’t want to spend all of her money and just could not decide. Finally she agreed to get a Tinkerbell and Raya Barbie style doll. It was crazy in there. I wished I had taken a picture, but it was chaos with the 50th anniversary merchandise. We did mobile check out and got out of there!
Originally I had planned to eat at Chicken Guy!, but it was now around 11:20, and we were afraid of the lines with the crowds how they were. So we ended up driving over to the McDonald’s on property. Brad had never been there, and they had updated it majorly since I last visited it. We ordered at the kiosk. For such a big store, it is really small on the inside. I was really surprised honestly. It was also pretty dead.
We finished up and got on the road around noon Orlando time. We were driving to Memphis because we had plans to attend the Ole Miss game that weekend. But the drive was just too much. We ended up booking a room at the Comfort Inn in Prattville, AL. Brad had points from a work trip he recently took. So it was a free stay. We did stop and get dinner on the way in however. We made it to town around 7:15 or so. After dinner, we checked into our room. It was actually a really nice hotel and a great location. I highly recommend it. It was nice having the couch even though we really did not use it other than storing our things. We brought up most of our stuff to keep from making our car a visible target. There was a nice workspace and decent sized bathroom.
We took advantage of the free breakfast the next morning. There was not a huge offering, but it did at least appease Melody and Brad. I used a Starbucks gift card and got us coffee and me a biscuit on the way out. The drive to Memphis at this point was not very bad. While we do NOT love driving, the amount of money it saves us is a big incentive to take Disney trips sometimes.
