A Disney Parks Around the World Journey: Day 20 – The End

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway

Today I woke up at 6:45AM again so I’m definitely getting back on US time and on a more normal schedule. Everyone is still sleeping so I go to the gym to work out. I haven’t run since the beginning of the vacation as there just hasn’t been any time. I am pretty confident we’ve gotten our steps in so there is at least has been some exercise the last several weeks.

The gym here is very nice, spacious and has some huge floor to ceiling windows which lets in a ton of natural light which gives it a very airy feeling.

It was definitely one of the nicer hotel gyms with a reasonable number of cardio machines.

The weight training options were more limited, but it was still ample compared to a lot of other hotels. After a two week break from running, it felt great to get a good run in on the treadmill.

This morning, shortly after waking up, we got a notification that our flight out of LAX was delayed till 2:30PM from 1:40PM so this gave us even more time to relax. Unfortunately, this delay leaves us with just 36 minutes to connect in Charlotte. I’m not super worried as Charlotte is not too big of an airport and they tend to give a buffer on the arrival times, but if it get’s delayed much more it could be a serious problem.

We ask for a late checkout but the best they can give me is 11:30AM which is at least a little better than 11:00AM. Unfortunately, there is no loyalty system with Disney Hotels so there is no way to leverage any status to try and get a later checkout. With Marriott, we are allowed 4:00PM checkout due to our Titanium Status which is super nice, and came in real handy back in Miami when we were stuck there for a day after Air France denied our boarding. Kendall wakes up and I go fetch some breakfast while she wakes up Lucy and starts packing and getting ready for our trip home.

I go back to The Coffee House as that’s really our only quick service option at the hotel. I really enjoy walking around the hotel in the morning. It’s just so peaceful and pretty.

I really wish we had time to make use of the pool, as I know Lucy would have loved it.

I am pretty burnt on breakfasts at this point to be honest. I don’t typically eat breakfast at home and just have a protein shake every morning, so when I see a Core Power protein shake in the drink section I opt to buy one. Kendall sticks with a bagel and Lucy gets the same things as yesterday, 2 bowls of Fruit Loops and milk. That rings up at just over $29 USD. I really miss the prices in Japan. I then walk back to the Discovery Tower.

We finish packing, and chill in the room until it’s time to leave for the airport. We definitely wish we could stay here longer.

The hotel is beautiful and I would have liked to have explored it more.

We call our Uber and head to the airport right at 11:30 AM. Today we are flying out of LAX and not John Wayne so it’ll be a much longer drive.

There is thankfully no traffic, and we are at the airport in about 45 minutes.

We zip through security as the airport is pretty empty today. The TSA and regular lines have zero wait, but we take TSA precheck just so we don’t have to totally empty out our bags. The first Monday after Christmas Break is clearly not peak travel time. It only takes us 10 minutes from hitting the curb to get to our gate which in all honesty is quite possibly the fastest we have ever gotten to a gate in a large airport. None of our bags get pulled for the first time this vacation as well. At least toward the end some things going our way. We are totally going out with a bang.

At this point, we are basically in the clear for achieving what I would consider the greatest accomplishment of this vacation. While most would consider going to all 12 parks in one trip to be an incredible feat, I would argue that is still not our greatest achievement. That title goes to going around the world and doing it with just carryons. And not only did we go around the world with carryons, but we did it IN THE WINTER with TWO FEMALES while also going to 12 DISNEY PARKS.

Just one of those three obstacles would be enough for most people to need to check a bag. Since we did this in December, three of the parks were warmer weather, and three were in middle of winter. This creates many packing challenges unto itself. By virtue of Kendall and Lucy being female there are a variety of items and clothes that I, as a male just do not biologically require. On top of that, anyone that goes to Disney knows that they not only assault you with endless chances to buy souvenirs and other merch, but they also give you a large amount of free goodies ranging from magic wands, amenity kits, bags, cups, and other randomness and the temptation to bring all this home is huge as they do make nice souvenirs.

We consciously had to leave behind large amounts of free stuff at every stop. I have to give mad props to Kendall and Lucy for their extreme restraint in buying souvenirs, and also to Kendall’s absolutely insane packing skills. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure we’d make it out of Tokyo without buying another luggage as the combination of low prices along with the cuteness of items there just makes you want to buy so many things, but we made it.

Unfortunately, despite flying domestic first class for this flight there is no lounge access included, and there are no credit card lounges we can access in LAX so there is no lounge this time. They will provide a meal and snacks on the plane so we don’t need a full meal, so we buy some Dunkin’ Donuts just to tide us over till our flight.

I call the taxi company in our area and attempt to arrange a taxi for pick up at 12:30AM. They state to call later as they aren’t sure they’ll be able to send out a taxi due to the road conditions. We were definitely worried about that since yesterday day as we had already gotten 12 inches of snow and it was still coming down at home.

I check our Ring camera and our road seems to be doing well, but our road is traditionally one of the best in the area, so that is not the greatest measuring stick of the other roads.

I immediately start trying to come up with a back up plan on how to get home. Unfortunately, a pick up at zero dark thirty with 12 inches of snow on the ground doesn’t leave us with many options. We may have to just sleep at the airport till the roads get better. Either way there’s not much I can do about it now, so that’s a problem for later.

We are flying American Airlines today in Domestic First Class and so for the first time since our Delta flight to Miami we were back on a carrier that we have been on before. The flight boards on time with no further delays and we have seats 2A, 2C ,2D.

The seat is pretty spacious especially for a four hour flight so I can’t complain. After all the long hauls this trip, four hours seems like nothing.

I definitely have ample leg room.

We take off on time without any further delay. Shortly after takeoff they serve some nuts and a beverage.

They actually go ahead and give you an extra small shooter as well. I guess the flight attendants didn’t want to be bothered with you asking for a second drink.

Chicken enchiladas or stuffed bell peppers. Worst possible options for me.

Beggars can’t be choosers and as such I eat a reasonable amount of the chicken enchilada out of hunger. It was ok I guess. Anyone that knows me knows that as much as I like McDonald’s, I have the same level of disdain for Mexican food. Kendall and Lucy love Mexican and they definitely seemed to enjoy it. They did serve some Häagen-Dazs ice cream for dessert which was nice, but of course it was caramel flavored which is not exactly my favorite either.

It was at least better than the enchilada though. I really wish McDonalds would cater these plane meals. Fun fact, in the 1990s McDonalds did offer Happy Meals on select United flights. Sadly I never got to try one.

I rarely get a window seat these days as I normally prefer an aisle due to easy bathroom access or because Kendall and I take the middle and aisle on a long haul flight. I was sitting next to Lucy today and she wanted the aisle for the easy bathroom access. I miss the window seat as I love seeing the sky as it makes for some great photography especially around sunset or sunrise.

We land early with an hour to make our connection thankfully so we aren’t concerned with missing our connection. I call the taxi company right after landing and they state they can’t pick us up due to the roads. At this point, we have kinda resigned ourselves to likely being stuck at the airport overnight until the roads clear up and someone can come get us.

Shortly after landing as we are walking to our gate I get a notification of a delay of our flight till tomorrow morning, likely due to weather, but they never tell us the cause for the delay. Normally, I’d be kinda upset about this, but this was actually ideal as spending the night at Huntington Tri-State Airport is not exactly ideal.

I book a Residence Inn by the airport and we get a taxi. At this point all reasonable travel expenses are covered by our travel insurance policy so waiting 20-30 minutes for a shuttle is just not worth it as we are tired and just want to get to the hotel and sleep. If we had to pay for the taxi, we’d maybe weigh the cost vs time aspect but since it is on insurance’s bill at this point we opt for efficiency rather than cost savings.

We get to the Residence Inn and check in and schedule a cab for tomorrow morning as the shuttle is fully booked from 7:00-8:00 and we get to bed.

The end of our adventure will have to wait one more day.

Day 20, January 6th, 2025 Step Count – 9,057 Steps

Total Step Count – 328,179

Continue to the next day here.

Read about the previous day here.