I've been putting this off long enough, so I guess it's time for a trip report from my March 2020 adventure. I need to start by saying that I've never been less prepared for a Disney trip. And that's all due to a little medical adventure I had about a week before I was scheduled to start.
I was at work, overseeing a video conference in the 150 seat auditorium where I usually work. About an hour into the event I started having some chest pains. I've had this before, and it always goes away in an hour or so. So I just ignored it. Then I started getting dizzy. I told my co-workers over the communication headset that I was feeling lousy, and if it got worse someone would need to come back to the control room and take over for me. One of them contacted my boss, who contacted the onsite nurse, who then called paramedics and an ambulance. I was still downplaying the whole thing, and was going to refuse any serious treatment. But then the paramedics hooked me up and found that I was running a heart rate of 180, so I gave in and let them take me out on a gurney. I stayed 1 night in the hospital, and while they medicated the problems away (high heart rate and afib, which basically means the heart isn't beating properly), they never did come up with a cause as to why this happened. But they started me on blood thinners, high cholesterol meds, high blood sugar meds - I'm now taking 8 different perscription drugs every day! The problem hasn't repeated, but the combination of new drugs and the total stoppage of any exercise before a WDW trip left me totally worn out right at the start. And by the end of my first 1/2 a day I was completely pooped, and my funky right foot and increasingly bad left knee had me wobbling around like a really old person. So from a physical standpoint, this wasn't the greatest of trips.
Enough of all that bummer stuff! Thursday March 12 was the beginning of this trip. A nice flight on American and a decent rental car from Payless (with XM Radio!) and it was off on the Greenway to the World. Hotel this time was the Art of Animation Resort, a nice value resort but nothing special (at least not for me). First stop - Epcot -
I had a FP+ for Spaceship Earth which worked out nicely. I had time to stop at the new Epcot Experience display in the Oddyssey (very well done!), and then a FP+ for Frozen. Time now to hoof it up to the American pavilion for some tunes from the Voices of Liberty, enjoying the smokey meat smell from the new Smokehouse -
This was one of the rare times when The American Adventure didn't start right after the VoL, but instead had a wait of about 30 minutes. I didn't feel like waiting, and knew I could see the show later in the trip (which as events unfolded didn't happen), so I started the trek back down the west side, stopping as always in the France wine kiosk for a tasty glass -
Dinner this first night was at the Coral Reef, starting with the shrimp appetizer -
... and a pretty good steak from a seafood restaurant -
Time for some tasty martinis from the Rose & Crown, and then outside for my 2nd time ever seeing Epcot Forever. I didn't have the energy to do my standard walk around the World Showcase, so I just sat down in front of the Canada pavilion and waited for the crowd to thin out before schlumping out to my car and back to the hotel. A decent but tiring first day.
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