Back in time

It’s after 10:30 and we have a ship to catch. The time situation is not at all desperate – assuming no other delays, we should be back in plenty of time. We'll possibly even make our “11:00 at the latest” Becky deadline, though we certainly have a decent excuse if we don’t. But we also don’t have much time to dawdle.

That doesn’t mean we can’t pause in the post-show area for a picture. Benjamin spots a race car adorned with Richard Petty’s name, and as a Cars fanatic he knows Petty is the voice of “The King” in that movie, so a photograph is a necessity.

After that, it’s back out into the cold outdoors for a brisk walk – brisk in temperature and in speed!

We’re through Future World and out the front gates pretty quickly, and up the ramp to the monorail station. A train pulls in at 10:45, and I allow myself to relax a bit once we’re under way.

Well, the boys and I say to each other, we didn’t get to ride our two rides; only about half of one. But we got an interesting story to tell in the bargain!

The train pulls into the monorail station, and we charge out the doors, down the ramp, and across the open area to the resort loop ramp. Monorail Pink is along fairly quickly. We ride one stop and get off at the Polynesian.

It’s 10:55. Made it! I’m anxious to get inside, but I take the time to turn and watch the monorail depart. We’ve ridden these trains more on this trip than on all my previous trips combined, and that was our last ride. For now, at least, I tell myself.

My cell phone rings as I enter the lobby, and sure enough, I spot Becky on her phone, calling to make sure we’re on our way. We quickly make eye contact, and she’s got one of those “do you realize what time it is” looks on her face, but she’s not at all irate – particularly as we give a quick summary of our adventure and how we’re grateful to be here now at all!

The lobby close to ‘Ohana is filled with families carrying day bags, all cruisers headed to the ship with us. Bob, Linda and Becky have snagged a set of seats, so we squeeze in together as best we can to get off of our feet.

As we wait, we share all of our “stranded on Test Track” adventure at Epcot with the others, while Becky, Bob & Linda tell us that they were able to do quite a bit at the Magic Kingdom. They were able to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventure, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan’s Flight. They also had more PhotoPass pictures taken in front of the castle, and Bob shows me on his camera that the PhotoPass photographer also took their picture with Bob’s camera!

They look cold.

It's pleasant conversation, but this part of the trip always requires a bit of mental adjustment for me… I mean, I’m still at Walt Disney World, but I have to sit and do nothing, at least until time to catch the bus to the cruise ship. I mean, I can turn around and see the Magic Kingdom out the window behind me. I want to go there! But I make myself sit and try to use the time to mentally shift gears and get into “cruise mode.”