Art the Greeter - a true Disney Treasure
We packed everything up, and planned to use the remote check-in desk to unload our bags and spend our last day over at the Magic Kingdom, and leave for the Airport straight from there.
Well, if we could actually check-in, we may have done that.
For whatever reason, the JetBlue system wouldn't print our boarding passes. Then after several attempts, it wouldn't even accept our info, saying that we had already checked in our maximum of three bags each - even though we only had one bag each. The girl working the desk had to call JetBlue and have them delete the check-in records for us, and ends up on hold - for 20 minutes! And when the JetBlue person came back on, she was surpised that she was still there! That's inspiring...they deleted the records, and we try and check in again - and it fails again. We give up, but that means we have to change our plans as I don't want to leave our luggage in the car to be stolen.
Instead, we bring the bags over to the valet service at the Beach Club for storage until we return. Then rather than eat up time riding in the car and back (since we already lost over half an hour now), we decide to walk back to Epcot (our 4th time in 5 days!).
Today is also the first time we actually see Art, the Greeter at the Beach Club. We first learned of him on the Travel Channel's Great Hotels show, and when we called DD#1 during the week she kept asking if we had seen him. DW went and and spoke with him and got his picture while I was dealing with our bags, and he was just as nice in person as he was on the show. He had disappeared by the time I had finished.Art the Greeter - a true Disney Treasure
Off to Epcot, we grabbed Fastpasses for Test Track again, and went over to Mission: SPACE, but this time to avoid another long wait, and since I hadn't done it before, we went through the Green Team side, where the ride doesn't spin. It was an OK experience that way, but I find the Orange Team more interesting in general.
Since we had time to kill before our Fastpass return, we went to Universe of Energy - it's a good place to get out of the heat, but if you've seen it all before, it holds little interest. Then we rode Test Track again.
From there we do another walk around the world, this time stopping for the first time in Liberty Tree Tavern for a couple of decent burgers and fries, and then it was time to head back to the Beach Club one last time. I had a feeling checking in at the JetBlue counter would be problematic given our existing problems, so I thought to head back a bit earlier than planned.
When we went in, Art was there again. We got our picture taken with him, and talked with him for a few minutes. I said that DD#1 had asked about him, and wanted to know if he still had the pin that Samantha Brown (from the TV show) had traded with him. He admitted he didn't (it wasn't a significant pin), but he was honored that a child would ask about him like that. He asked if we had an Anniversary pin, and we showed him the large pins we were given - he said not those, but he said he had one, but he apologized because it didn't have a box and he'd have to polish it, and asked us to wait.
He returned in a few minutes with a pin like the trading pins, which bore the words "Disney's Yacht Club Resort/Disney's Beach Club Resort" and "Happy Anniversary", with a picture of Mickey in a suit much like Art's, and Minnie in a wedding dress, holding hands. He apologized again for not having a box and explained that they don't make those pins any more. We thanked him profusely and told him we'd definitely stop by with the kids in December.
Then it was time to head to the airport.
I get so confused on the way out of WDW. My plan was to take the Beachline back to the car rental place, and thought I had left by the appropriate exit - but apparently not, so I ended up on I-4 north to catch the Beachline from there. Last year, I ended up in Celebration somehow and had to make a U-turn.
On the Beachline we hit heavy rain a couple times, so I was worried about delays, but it did not seem to affect the airport. We spotted the Hooters, made the next left, and dropped the car off. They quickly checked in the car, and the van was ready to roll so we hopped on and got to the terminal pretty quick.
We check in at the JetBlue counter, and of course the person says "So, you've already checked in?" A quick explanation and she had us checked in quicker than I expected. We hung out in the main lobby for a bit before going through security. Since I hadn't picked up anything for myself at the parks, I picked up a Grumpy shotglass at the Disney store right there. I managed to hook in to a hotspot with the laptop and check my e-mail.
We went through security and then to the gate. They have CRT or LCD panels for the flight information for the current flight at the gate. Our gate listed a flight to White Plains that boarding had closed - but they hadn't even begun boarding yet! Not sure why the info was wrong - as if they were on some sort of timer.
Eventually that flight cleared, but we got moved to another gate and our plane came in - "Bibbity Boppity Blue" - how appropriate! Even with the gate change, our flight left on time, and soon we were, alas, home.
Our one last adventure was locating our car. I snapped a picture with my mobile phone of the row and floor sign - but in looking at it, I couldn't make out the floor - it could have been a 3 or a 5 because the low resolution of the screen was "squishing" the image. Fortunately I was able to retrace our steps on the correct floor. 45 minutes later we were home...and planning our next trip.