**Adding this in....I'm going to post scenic pic's in a larger size so you can see them better, and other pics smaller. I don't usually post all of them large because I tend to post a lot of pics and I notice that it sometimes slows down the loading of the pages.**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We got up and left Tallahassee around 5am and started our 4 hour drive to WDW. Today is the day!!!
It was so exciting, that Flat Jordan leaped right out of the bag and decided to start navigating the trip. When we got close, we came across those dreaded toll booths! Flat Jordan was not a fan of toll booths and neither were we!
When you reach the toll booths there is always that feeling of anticipation because you know you are SO CLOSE!! The last stretch almost seems unbearable but that's also around the time that you start passing through all of the orange tree's. I love the smell and the scenery during this time and just try to relax and take it all in. We are usually SUPER EXCITED by this point and just can't wait to see the "gate" to WDW.
After a few more miles, we see the exit and.....WE'RE THERE!!!!
I break out my inner WDW map but we don't need it. The fact that we were just there 2 months ago combined with all the wonderful signs Disney has, it was a breeze finding our way to Port Orleans Riverside.
I forgot to take any pictures inside the lobby of POR and I am kicking myself for it now. It's really pretty but I was too excited to think about pictures at that moment. There is always that short period between the car and the front desk that I can't breathe because I'm thinking "what if" they don't have our reservation information!!
But as always, this was not the case. We got our warm Disney welcome and check in was a breeze. In fact we experienced something we have NEVER experienced before.....our room was ready!!
We were given a map of the grounds and we headed back to the car to go find our room. I had requested the Magnolia Bend section and a top floor. We got both!
We were in Magnolia Bend building 35 which was Magnolia Terrace building. We paid for a "water view" which could be either a view of any of the waterways or a view of one of the pools. We got a view of the quiet pool by Magnolia Terrace. Our room number was 8733 and it was in a really nice location. We could walk out of our door to the left, head down the stairs, cross the pathway and the bridge to the main pool island was right there. SUPER NICE!! From there it is just a short, yet scenic walk around the main pool area to the main building which is where the food court restaurants, front desk, and marina are.
Here are a couple of pics of Magnolia Terrace which is in the Mansions section of POR. These pic's were taken from the carriage ride later this day so they are not super great since we were moving.
We parked the car and headed up to the room to do the dreaded check for bedbugs! After reading all that here on the DIS and other web sites before we left, we were paranoid. We got up there and checked the matresses on both beds, behind the head boards, where the carpet meets the wall (a web site said to check there too), and then we checked the armore drawers...all the cracks and underneath.......we found NOTHING!! In fact, we didn't even find any dust!! My only complaint about the room was that the tile floor in the sink/tub area was dirty. It sort of looked like someone walked on it with dirty shoes when it was still wet. Could have been the maid herself because it did smell like bleach so I'm pretty confident that she did attempt to clean it. This part never really was taken care of during our stay but the rest of the room was always in tip-top shape. We just made sure to wear flip flops or crocs while in there. It still sort of bugged me though, but we didn't let it ruin our trip.
We ran back down to the car and got the luggage. We parked it all, got our park bags ready and our lanyards and headed out to our first park....ANIMAL KINGDOM!!
We arrived at Animal Kingdom around 10:30am and headed straight over to Expedition Everest to grab some fast passes! We were to meet up with Winkers and family at 2:00pm this day. I used DS's ticket to get an extra fastpass so that me and Winkers could ride EE together with our Flat Jordans.
Once we had the fastpasses, we headed back toward Dinosaur to check out the wait time. 10 minutes!! SWEET!!! We did the child swap which the lady at the front had no idea how to do. She gave me the fast pass and told me to go through the fast pass line and for DH to wait in the gift shop at the end. I said "but, he want's to ride after me. How will he get on?" She said to hand the fast pass over to him when I'm done. I told her the people inside were going to take it from me. She told me they won't.
Whatever. I got tired of talking to her so I just walked off. I got to the next CM in line and guess what.....She wants to take the fast pass. DUH!!
I told her of the lady in the front. She lets me keep it but not without a 3 minute (i kid you not) lecture on how the baby swap works. I was trying to be nice but she really started irritating me. I politely said "thank you" and walked off again.
I really wanted to tell her to go outside and explain all this to the lady at the front. It's not like I stole the fast pass and misused it or something.
ANYWAY....I rode the ride, and it seemed to have some problems. There were many pauses and dark spots and it just wasn't working properly. It was still fun, just not as exciting or scary as usual. Next, DH took his turn. Since I still had the fast pass, his line experience was not as eventful as mine.
He said the same thing about the ride portion though. They must have been having some mechanical difficulties or something.
After this we headed over to Dinoland so DS could ride Triceratop Spin! Here are a few pics from the ride...
After the ride we just walked around checking out all of the games in the area. I snapped this pic on our way out...
Next up, A walk around Discovery Island with LOTS of pics.....
Stay tuned!
Glad you made it over!
First 2 installments are great. Flat Jordon in cracking me up
You're too funny about the cm's
