February 08, 2024- The final and most ultimate adventure of my DCP
Waking up tired but ecstatic I made my way to the bus stop. One last early morning flamingo bus ride, on my way to a behind the scenes tour of the Jungle Cruise...
That's how my day was supposed to get started.
The night before however, the learning team had contacted me with unfortunate news that program participants cannot attend any activities on departure day. They expressed remorse as there was no exception that could be made.
With spots for Discover Disney's being ridiculously hard to claim, and Jungle Cruise being one of my fave attractions I was rightfully bummed.
But then this cool dude (see photo) had a genius idea.
On my DCP departure day he would allow me to drag him around Disney. The next day I would allow him to drag me around Florida for birdwatching.
With that a deal was made.🤝
Throughout my DCP I became more and more of a believer that everything out of one's control happens for a reason.
I had waited last minute to return my 'tower-of-terror' high of costumes (it was terrifying how many costumes I had). Right away I realized how hard it would have been to partake in the Jungle Cruise Discover Disney AND return my costumes, pick up my signed diplomas, AND check out of Flamingo all before 10 a.m. Yes, missing the Jungle cruise tour was a heartbreaking bummer. BUT I am thankful I was successfully able to take care of final logistics. And I had the ultimate adventure with my dad, creating memories that will last me a lifetime.
After returning my costumes and picking up my 'Mousters' I left for the learning team to sign, my Ultimate DCP adventure was officially off! Beginning with my departure from my home for the last 6 months.
Our first stop was Disney's Animal Kingdom (DAK) my 'home' as a Park Greeter. At DAK I said farewell to the Tree of life and met Moana!
We had discovered that in order to make a new virtual cue we had to redeem the first virtual cue. Since riding Guardians and Tron has been a dream of mine since park hopping all day came back, today's main mission was to finally do so. Meaning our next stop had to be E.P.C.O.T!
Then we had to RUN over to MK catching the monorail in order to make it in time to snag a Tron virtual cue!... We actually ended up making it early so we had time to meet a character while we waited for the 1 p.m. cue to drop! I decided on meeting Tigger and Pooh!
My interaction with Pooh and Tigger was the 'sweetest'. They enacted a graduation ceremony for me, even rolling up a piece of paper to act as a diploma. Then for the first time in my life, Pooh decided to walk with me!!!
In the words of Pooh "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."
We worked up quite an appetite so it was time for lunch. Being near Valentine's day Disney was offering limited edition sweets. Including a spiked Dole Whip I simply had to try! So it was back to the monorail and off to the Polynesian resort 😅
Afterwards, I still had some must-do's at E.P.C.O.T like FINALLY meeting my favorite character and finishing my 'F-ARTS' quest from January.
Our Tron cue still wasn't called. But we figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if we could go early in order to be able to see Fantasmic too. Besides we had activities to do at MK like Hall of Presidents!
Sadly we couldn't move up our cue BUT we discovered Fantasmic was miraculously having 2 showings that night! So we quickly got a mobile order of a treat and SPRINTED over to catch a bus. Luckily we made it in just a nick of time!
Fantasmic was amazing as always! The perfect show to start and end to my time working for the mouse. Although I missed riding TOT, we still got some good farewell shots! Can you tell my favorite part of these photos?😅 (*hint I'm not actually wearing makeup)
Dad was swept but he is also a trooper and and helped make my Tron+Guardians dreams come true by hopping back on a bus for our third visit to MK that day!
And.... WE DID IT! After attempting this challenge two other times I successfully rode Tron and Guardians in the same day!!🙌
Then we of course needed some Final 'Final Farewell' shots
Love all of this!! However the true “genius” was the mom behind the scenes who told dad to do whatever his little girl wanted that day! 😂
A great ending!!
The mastermind behind the scenes 🤓
No comment though to say my better half always has to TRY to one up the truly heroic !
It was hard work doing a day with Brizee at Disney but the wife has gotten me i to shape to endure the craziness!!
Gurllll why you acting so cray cray?
What a “sweet” interaction you had with Pooh! 🍯
Definitely a highlight of my entire program 🥹
Omg what a rollercoaster of a day (haha literally) 😂 Days like these are always so much fun. Despite not getting to do jungle cruise, you still accomplished so much! 💜