Lovebugs, midge flies, heat, but no rainouts!
Well got back from Disney yesterday - didn't see or hear from any TMIPers, but had a nice, peaceful time and took a lot of photos. ; It'll take me likely 3-4 days to sort through them all and upload.
The rains were constant in S Florida, and chances of rain seemed high for this trip, figuring on rain every day and a few rainout days...but surprisingly the only rain was on Thursday when I first arrived, very light rain for 30-40 minutes around 6pm or so...then nothing for Thu, Fri, or Sat...and one heavy burst of rain that came in Sunday around 3:30pm for about 30 minutes and clear after that. ; The first rain met me at MK on Thursday, and wasn't even enough to go hide from it or to even have to cover my camera. ; The Sunday rain was just as I was leaving DHS, and standing at the bus stop - which fortunately was covered...by the time the bus dropped me off at Contemporary and I grabbed a bite to eat, it was over.
Bugs, on the other hand, were out in FORCE! ; Lovebugs were very very thick this September - much more so than the May crop...they were omnipresent, even walking in the parks, and were very thick around the resort areas on the water. ; Sitting at the Contemporary bus stop meant being covered in a dozen of them...and nary a surface existed where you could lean on or grab without squishing a pair of mating bugs. ; I haven't seen them so thick in the park areas for many years - this seemed to be a pretty heavy crop this year. ; Worse still were the midge flies...positively the worst I've ever experienced of them. ; Anywhere near bodies of water after dusk and you were breathing them in. ; Stand anywhere near a light, and you were coated in them like feathers to a tarred person. ; So many corpses of them were lying on the walkway and rooftops at Contemporary and BLT that the ground actually looked black...the rains washed them into the drains to the point they clogged with corpses of tiny flies. ; They were stuck to every white surface - at the bus stop you couldn't touch the posts. ; Standing on the Contemporary boat dock for a night boat required pulling your shirt over your mouth to breathe air and not bugs.
Fortunately, they weren't in the parks themselves, and only came at night near the water, and the lovebugs I'm used to as a Floridian...so none of this caused me much grief. ; The parks were not overly crowded - lines weren't bad at all - most standby lines were 20 minutes or less, even for some of the popular rides like Soarin, Test Track, Space Mountain, etc. ; I was even able to eat at two Epcot restaurants for dinner without a reservation, and wait times of less than 30 minutes (Mexico waterfront, and Japan steakhouse).
Can't wait to start sorting photos - but first, gotta get caught up at work...I'll put in a few hours each evening to sorting, deleting, and cropping, and should be through them by Thu/Friday...then choose which ones to upload.
