**The "Birthmasiversary" TR!**~ Dec.1-7, 2009 {Update 12/22: Magic Kingdom!}

[Elevationist]

It Only Took 29 Years to Finally Get to WDW on my Birthday
(And Who Knew That It Would Be With the Man of My Dreams!)

The Trip Report​

Soooo! Some of you know me and my story from my PTR. For those of you who are new to my thread, WELCOME! And here is a recap of who we are, etc...

THE DETAILS:

Who: Myself & the Boyfriend (Cast Details to follow!)
What: Our Magical Disney Getaway
When: December 1-7, 2009
Where: Coronado Springs Resort
Why: It's WDW, do you really need a reason to go?



THE CAST:

ME: Billie, 28 (turning 29 during our trip)
~ The obsessed one. WDW planning is my life, I have been told more times than I can count that I should be a Disney travel agent, but I've yet to find the right opportunity. I wish I could say I'm a lifelong WDW junkie, but sadly that's just not the case. I have memories my first trip when I was 5 years old, with my mother and father and grandmother. But coming from a family who doesn't vacation, I wasn't exposed to WDW again until I was 17 and a senior in high school. We came down for "Grad Night," but being thrill-seeking teenagers, Disney was boring and Universal was more fun. (I'm hanging my head in shame even as I type this! ) Fortunately, a year and a half later, a good friend who did have a love of Disney invited me to join her on a trip at the beginning of January 2000. And wouldn't you know it, I had the most amazing time, and I cried the night we left. I finally understood the magic, and I have been hooked ever since, returning as often as possible! Thanks to being hit by the bad economy, this will be my first trip "home" in three years, and I could not possibly be more excited.

DBF: Ron, 30
Ron and I have been together for a year now (more on that later). He's never been to WDW, only Disneyland, and is almost as excited for this trip as I am. He likes to kick back and let me do all the heavy planning, but is also happy to offer opinions when I send him links and ask him questions in regards to the trip. ("Honey, look at these two menus, pick a restaurant please!") In general, though, when I'm surfing the DIS, he's surfing car forums and what-not. Ahh, men! (P.S. - He doesn't have some great fondness for Johnnie Walker and wine coolers, he was just bartending at his grandfather's 80th birthday party! )

OUR STORY:

Our relationship has been anything but conventional, that's for sure. Just when I'd given up on ever finding the right guy, I found him on... where else?... the internet, of all places. We started talking and became friends in August of 2008, and I was instantly smitten. It took him a little longer to finally get on-board, though. Despite the impossibility of our situation, him living in California and me living in South Carolina (literally opposite ends of the country!), on Dec. 11th of that year we decided to be a couple. The real world meeting very soon followed, and now we travel back and forth as often as we can to spend time together. He's moving to South Carolina in the spring, but we have a couple more trips planned before then.

HOW THE TRIP CAME TO BE:

I've had a long-time love affair with Walt Disney World but due to feeling the effects of our nation's fractured economy, I have been unable to return "home" since 2006. He's a Disney fan (I knew he was "The One" when I saw that he has more Disney animated features in his DVD collection than I do!), and has been to Disneyland... but seeing WDW was a dream of his. So when discussing what to do with the trip we were planning for him to come see me in December for my birthday... the answer seemed obvious. And so the planning began, with me determined to show him why Walt Disney World is the most amazingly special and magical place in the world!

WHAT ARE WE CELEBRATING?:

That's the Disney question this year, isn't it? Well, to answer...

(1) Just being able to be together and hold each other and make the most out of every precious moment!
(2) My 29th Birthday, December 3rd!
(3) The anniversary of us being together for 1 year, December 11th!
(4) His first time at Walt Disney World!

 

[gellybean]

Am I really first?!?!




I can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

Just a little sidebar, I met my hubby online back in 03. It took us a few months to meet in person, he was living in Florida, I in Texas. About 9 mths later he moved to Texas and we were married in September of 04. Just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. So it can happen!!!! I'm living proof. Well.... our son is living proof!


Hope you had a fantastic Birthmasiversary!

 

[stich626]

It's so much fun taking first timers!! I hope you had a great trip! Cannot wait to hear all about it!

 

[Elevationist]

Dec. 1st, 2009
Travel/Arrival

So I finished all of my packing the night before, except for a few necessities for the morning.

So after having been up most of the night finishing packing and talking to Ron suring his layover in Dallas, I finally caught a bit of sleep. When I woke, it was time to get prettied up, then was off to Enterprise to pick up our rental car by 9am. (Which I forgot to take a picture of... DOH!)

That all went amazingly smooth, which I appreciated. It was my first time renting a car, and I was really pleased that everything went okay. They gave me a 2008 Kia Rio, which I quickly threw my bags in and started the 45 minute drive to the Savannah airport. It was just before 10am at this point, so I was right one schedule to meet Ron for his scheduled 11:10am arrival.

I got parked and made my way into the terminal. In the past, I've been able to talk ticket counter agents into issuing me a gate pass so that I could get through the security checkpoint and wait at the gate instead, but these guys weren't biting. So I gave up and made my way over to the area just outside of security to wait for him. I heard the announcement that his flight had arrived, and I started getting super antsy. Then I saw Ron walking down the concourse towards me, my heart pounding and I couldn't stop smiling. Finally he made it to me and we hugged so tightly and kissed and everything in the world felt right again. We hate being so far apart from each other.

We went down to baggage claim and grabbed his suitcase, then headed outside. On the way to the car, he wanted to stop for a cigarette. We found a nice little park bench by this fountain at the airport.

After he was done we made with the smoochies on that bench for a couple minutes, and snapped our first pic together for the trip!

Then off to the car we went. We quickly loaded his bags into the car, and and before we got out of the garage his phone rang. I thought it was his mom, but it turned out to be a friend that he works with. I couldn't help but laugh because this is what I heard on his end:

"Hey, whats up. Uh huh. Yeah. Man, I am in South Carolina with my girlfriend and we're on our way to Disney World, I am not talking to you about work right now. Yeah, bye."

LOLOL. =)

Ron also quickly noticed that the TPS light (I think that's what it's called) was on, so we stopped to put air in the tires since Enterprise clearly overlooked the fact that one of them was underinflated. DOH! Then we got a bite of lunch at Sonic (Ron loves Sonic and there aren't any near where he lives), then it was time to hit the road! We pulled onto I-95 a few minutes later and settled in for the 5-hour drive down Georgia's coast and on through Florida into Orlando.

Ron driving through Jacksonville...

As we got into the Orlando area, we started snapping pictures of billboards and roadsigns...

DVC billboards... By the end of the trip, Ron and I agreed that someday we WILL be members!

And then finally I saw it, the landmark I'd been searching for, the one that makes me cry every time...

Our first glimpse of Epcot, seeing Spaceship Earth in the distance...

Finally, we reached our destination and pulled into the gate of our home for the next week! (And right at 5pm, I should note!)

We parked the car and walked in through the front entrance. (I took more pictures of the lobby and such on our last day, but for now this is what you get... LOL)

We approached the Online Checkin desk, and everything went smooth. There was no line, and they had our folder with everything already prepared, including our Birthday and 1st Time buttons. We were assigned room #4151, in the Casitas 4. I has request something a bit closer to El Centro, but it wasn't out in the Ranchos section so I happily took it without complaint!

Then it was off to our room (again, pics coming later in the week). We had a spectacular first floor view overlooking the parking lot. We were, however, extremely close to Bus Stop #2, so I counted my blessings in that regard. The room was extremely comfortable, plenty of room for the two of us, and the bed was AMAZING. I wish every resort in WDW would upgrade to these beds and linens, as they are FAR nicer than most of the Deluxes bed which are in bad need a refurbishment.

So we dropped off our luggage and took off to the bus stop. It was 5:30pm now, and there was a 7pm MVMCP that night at Magic Kingdom. But we both very much wanted to go spend an hour there anyhow, just to see the castle and poke along Main Street and have that OMG WE'RE REALLY HERE feeling. =) So we caught a MK bus within just a few minutes, and we we on our way!

We made good time, walking through the turnstiles right at 6pm or so. We wandered into the park, and the sights and smells and sounds were so overwhelming. And just as we turn the corner and all of Main Street and Cinderella's Castle stood before us in all her glory...

We realized that something was happening. We had walked in just as the castle lighting ceremony was commencing. The Fairy Godmother was there, and she was talking to Cinderella about how to decorate the castle for the holidays.

Ron and I held each other close and watched as the castle magically lit up in so many sparkling icicles (again which I forgot to get a pic of because I was too caught up in the moment... you'll learn this is bad habit of mine). I sobbed like a baby and even Ron got choked up. I looked up at him at whispered "Magic." He nodded and kissed me. We couldn't have had a more magical start to our trip if I had planned it myself.



Next up... Drinks at the Outer Rim and dinner at Chef Mickey's!

 

[Elevationist]

Am I really first?!?!




I can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

Just a little sidebar, I met my hubby online back in 03. It took us a few months to meet in person, he was living in Florida, I in Texas. About 9 mths later he moved to Texas and we were married in September of 04. Just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. So it can happen!!!! I'm living proof. Well.... our son is living proof!


Hope you had a fantastic Birthmasiversary!

Yay! I loooove hearing online romance success stories! Welcome, and thank you for much for sharing!

Also, congrats on being first! Hehe!

It's so much fun taking first timers!! I hope you had a great trip! Cannot wait to hear all about it!

Welcome! We had an awesome trip, although not as picture heavy as I had hoped. LOL. I'm going to share all we did take, though!

 

[jenbear123]

I'm here! Just wanted to announce myself, will read when I get home!!!!

 

[Elevationist]

I'm here! Just wanted to announce myself, will read when I get home!!!!

*cheer!* Welcome, Jen! I need to get caught up on your report, too!

 

[caralyn817]

Love, Love, Love it so far. Can't wait for more!

 

[jenbear123]

Awwwwwww you love struck couple! I got shivers just reading that last part!!! I love the beds at Coronado. Too bad I didn't get longer to enjoy them I like your suitcases too. Their different than the typical black and red ones people always get. Can't wait for more!

 

[MomsOf2boys]

Howdy there neighbor... ... well sort of anyway I'm all caught up on your food report and your trip report and am ready for more now!

PS... I met my DP online as well.. 10 years and another lifetime ago

 

[floridascgirl]

I'm on board ready to read along.

 

[Elevationist]

Love, Love, Love it so far. Can't wait for more!

Yay yay yay! Welcome!

Awwwwwww you love struck couple! I got shivers just reading that last part!!! I love the beds at Coronado. Too bad I didn't get longer to enjoy them I like your suitcases too. Their different than the typical black and red ones people always get. Can't wait for more!

Hehe. We are disgustingly cute, aren't we?

Dude, then beds at Coronado are so much nicer than the Days Inn type beds at so many of the "deluxe" resorts. I wish they would refurb them all. The Contemporary got really nice beds and linens after it's refurbishment a couple years back, I don't see why they all don't have them by now.

LOL. My suitcases are borrowed. You would think that with all the traveling I do, I would have a proper set of luggage, but NOPE! I always plan to buy some, then end up allocating the money elsewhere in the trip planning and instead just using the luggage that my boss always lets me borrow, which is what you see in these photos. (Well, except for the pink laptop case... I've had that thing for years! ) However, I have every intention of buying myself a set before my trip to California in March, and I will stick to it this time! And no, I will NOT be getting anything black or red. It's important to me to be able to very easily recognize my bags coming down the carousel at the airport; or even more importantly for other people to recognize that it's definitely NOT their bag! Right now I have my eye on a very cute 4-peice set from Target, it's chocolate brown with baby pink trim.

Howdy there neighbor... ... well sort of anyway I'm all caught up on your food report and your trip report and am ready for more now!

PS... I met my DP online as well.. 10 years and another lifetime ago

Yay for more online romance success! Woo!

I just updated the dining report, by the way. So very happy that you're joining in and enjoying!

I'm on board ready to read along.

Wooo! Good to have you, and thank you for also sticking with my PTR to the end!

 

[MAJ RN]

I am in for your trip report. You and Ron look like a wonderful couple and what a wonderful love story. Can't wait to read more.


Melissa

 

[Elevationist]

Dec. 1st, 2009
Outer Rim Lounge/Chef Mickey's

One of my main goals in visiting the MK that first night was to find us some ears! We headed over to the hat shop, and I spotted exact what I was looking for... just a pair of traditional Minnie Mouse headband-style ears. I grabbed them up, them browsed with Ron. He wanted something, but nothing spoke to him.

So we checked out, then walked up Main Street a bit. We both getting a bit snacky as we'd not eaten anything since lunch, and the delicious smells wafting out of the Main Street Bakery lured us inside. I was more thirsty that anything, so I got a bottle of water and let Ron select a treat for us to share. He picked out a cheese danish, and we sat down inside to eat.

I only took a few bites, but it was definitely delicious!

As we exited, we realized that it was after 7pm and the Christmas party was underway, so we made our way to the exit. Something I forgot to mention in my first post, but was we walked around I was overwhelmed by the number of "Happy Birthday!"s I was getting. I think all the CMs are required to say it if they notice a button, LOL. Ron was like "Dang, nobody has even noticed my 1st Time button!" But... as we were mkaing our way out of the park, a gentleman CM did and gave him a big Welcome. It was pretty awesome! =)

So we went up the Resort Line ramp to the monorail, and waited in line for just a few minutes before hopping on. My excitement was darn near uncontainable, it was our first monorail ride of the trip! Here I was, smelling that familiar monorail scent (I think somebody here on the DIS described it as an old band-aid? ), hearing those familiar monorail sounds... the whoosing along the track, the whisk of the doors, that famous voiceover... "Please stand clear of the doors! Por favor mantenerse al lado de las puertas!"

We disembarked inside of the Contemporary, and after a quick bathroom break, proceeded to checking out the hotel and the shops. I've passed through this place on the monorail a hundred times, but never actually got off to look around. We browsed the shops for a while, then headed over to the Outer Rim Lounge. I'd learned of Glowtinis on these boards, and just KNEW that Ron and I had to try them. He has a thing for blue drinks, and I am a sucker for anything with a glow cube, LOL. Ron went up to the bar and ordered, while I grabbed us a cozy place to enjoy our drinks, cuddle, and soak up the atmoshpere while awaiting our ADR time at Chef Mickey's.

We snapped the following photo while waiting. We both look so tired and worn out already, but also so so happy.

(And ladies... If you get a moment, compare my hair in this photo with the one in the previous post, the one of Ron and I at the airport. See how in the first photo it was smooth straight and sleek, and this one it is insane crazy curly? This is what the humidity does to me. Only 10 hours later and my perfect salon hair-do was totally ruined! Oh well. Needless to say, I didn't bother trying to straighten it myself for the rest of the week, knowing it would be wasted effort. )

Our ADR was for 9pm, so at 8:30pm I went to the podium. They checked us in and gave us our beeper, and within just a few moments it light up. Of course, first they had us do the photo, and the CMs there were a hoot. And when they brought the photo around to our table later, Ron and I both looked good in it... But it was us posing with a statue of Chef Mickey. We just couldn't see spending money on it. If it had been a "real" character, we totally would have, but given what it was, we decided to pass.

After we were shown to our table, we were ready to get our eat on! I'll spare you all the food pics, but if you are interested, please feel free to pop by my Dining Report!

Just as we got back with our first round of plates, the characters showed up and started making their way around our section of the restaurant!

Goofy sorta bypassed Ron but came up and gave me a big hug!

Then the napkin twirling began, and Pluto ran up to me and made me join him!

Afterwards, he thanked us and hung around for photos!

Next came Minnie, which made me bounce around in my seat because I adore her!

But then next thing I know, she's off smoochin' on my man!!

Mickey followed her, and of course this was big excitement for Ron and I!

Donald stopped for a brief moment, and I insisted on getting a grumpy pic of him and Ron. Two peas in a pod, those two...

Before we left, Goofy was coming around again, so Ron grabbed him for a picture...

At some point during all the food and fun, our server (who was great) came out with a little birthday treat for me...

That made my night! I love love love cupcakes! They're my favorite! What a great first night surprise! (And it was delicious, too!)

After a very filling and fun meal, we made our way out. Ron stepped out onto the back terrace for a cigarette, and I joined him after a potty run. We had a lovely view of the Magic Kingdom, and were the only two people out there. We tried to take pictures, but they were pretty much blurry failsauce. Note for next time: GORILLAPOD FOR NIGHT PHOTOS!

I will share these last photos from the day with you anyhow, despite their cruddiness.

It was still a great way to end our night, before heading back to CSR and getting ready for our very early morning the next day.



Next up... 12/2: Rope Drop at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Elevationist]

I am in for your trip report. You and Ron look like a wonderful couple and what a wonderful love story. Can't wait to read more.


Melissa

Woo, join the party! Welcome!

 

[jenbear123]

Those pictures of MK at night didn't turn out bad at all! You're first day was awesome! Sounds like you got right into all the Disney fun right away. So glad you tried the glowtini. It's pricey but oh so yummy The bartender is good too

 

[Elevationist]

Those pictures of MK at night didn't turn out bad at all! You're first day was awesome! Sounds like you got right into all the Disney fun right away. So glad you tried the glowtini. It's pricey but oh so yummy The bartender is good too

They were so tasty! I'm glad we couldn't afford to keep getting more of them, because I could have easily gotten in trouble.

 

[MyMuse]

I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!

I didn't even realize that you started anothe rthread, but I'm here!

Sounds like you had a great first day!! YAY!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I just wanted to write and say that I'll be late but I"m subbing now!!!! All I'll be doing this weekend is catching up on sleep, getting my school kids gifts ready, and reading all the TR I missed!!!

 

[KatMark]

Okay....I found you and I'm here. I'm sorry I'm late. My computer crashed on Friday of last week and it still is not fixed. So I only get on when my son is not using his laptop (or doesn't have it with him). So glad I found you and great start to your report.