OUTPLAN-OUTPLAY-OUTLAST: a Sleepingbooty TR! New Princess trip update 4/2

[Sleepingbooty]

Alright, alright! but I have a good excuse! I've spent the last couple of days

APPLYING FOR COLLEGE!!

Yeppers, I'm going back to school, starting with Math for Idiots- how appropriate can THAT be? All this to start working toward an RN.

Yay!!! So excited for you! Can't wait to hear all about it!

I had the pleasure of getting caught up on your TR today.

Great job so far!

Love the photos and the story telling. And now with 2 trips, I know there will be many more udates to look forward to.

Thanks GB! First update comin' up....

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Princess Trip Report, part 1

Our flight on Southwest was leaving St. Louis at 6:25 am so we decided to leave for the airport at about 4:50am. This would put us in the terminal an hour before our flight. Yes, I know that they suggest two hours, but honestly, since American Airlines pulled out as a hub, Lambert Airport just isn’t that busy anymore. An hour to an hour and a half has always been plenty of time. What’s that? Do I hear dramatic music foreshadowing some kind of stressful event?

I knew we were in trouble right when we stepped through the automatic doors. The winding queue to check our bags was completely full. That, I’ve never seen. Oh well, we’ve got an hour to go, it ought to be fine. The line proceeded at a good pace, or maybe we were all just chatting excitedly so the time passed quickly. At one point, my aunt looked up and said, “Hey, isn’t that Steadman?!” Sure enough, checking his bags in the priority line was Oprah’s boyfriend, Steadman Graham! Okay, I didn’t see his I.D., but everyone around us agreed it was definitely him.

We checked our bags and then proceeded over to the security line. What?!?! This cannot be! The line completely filled the normal queue plus the queue had been expanded back and forth acrossed the entire length of the East terminal twice! OMGOMGOMG!!! We knew immediately that we would not get through this line in the 40 minutes or so that we had left before our flight took off, but what could we do? My stomach was in knots. As we looked around we could see several groups of women wearing tutus, tiaras, and Disney shirts – so we knew there were some marathoners in the same boat as us. We also saw Russ Carnahan (one of our congressmen) waiting in line. Steadman sped through the priority screening. Elitist snob.

When we finally made it up to the x-rays, we were ready. We grabbed our shoes and full out RAN for the gate. Of course, it was the very LAST gate. The clock I ran past said 6:37. Our flight had been scheduled to take off at 6:25. I ran faster. As we skidded to a halt at the gate, we could see the plane hadn’t left yet. The gate agent said there were still 25 people that hadn’t boarded. You can imagine the sense of relief that washed over me as I sat down to put on my shoes and wait for the rest of the girls. We even managed to find seats together. Well, not all of us, but two, two, and 1 in the row in front. The pilot waited a little bit longer, and the announced the last three names he was waiting for. He said he needed to take off as there were people on board who needed to make connecting flights. Phew! Man were we lucky!

The flight went quickly and uneventfully. Of course they ran out of coffee and had no potable water. And of course I had a screaming two year old kicking my chair, but that’s to be expected. The way I thought of it was, if they’d told me they’d hold the plane for me, but only if I was willing to sit in front of little Goober McKickerson, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat. Sign me up! Its like a free swedish massage through my seat! We landed in Orlando and headed straight for the Starbucks.

From the left: Me, Linda, Lynn, Flat Marcy, Katie, Dee (my mom)

Katie and Dee on the fake monorail

After our fun first fake monorail ride of the trip, we joined the heard queuing up for Magical Express. Our second bit of luck, our line was one of the shortest. We only waited about 10 minutes for our bus. But, we did have to make three stops before we got to POR. Three long stops. I guess there was another bus in the way under the port cochere at Beach Club, because our driver stopped short of it and waited there for about 10 minutes before he pulled forward to let off the Beach Club guests. Same thing at Yacht Club. Luckily the next stop at the Boardwalk didn’t take quite as long, but boy were we starting to get behind schedule!

I started to relax the minute we pulled into the Port Orleans driveway. I just love this place! The ‘down south’ vibe really suites me to a tee. By this time it was about 11:30, so naturally the lobby was jam-packed. I’d done online check-in the night before, so we got in that line. After a short wait, it was our turn. Well, although I’d already checked us in, they did not have our welcome packets ready. They were questioning me as though I’d gotten in the wrong line, but luckily I had the online check-in confirmation emails on my phone. They went ahead and took care of us, but it took quite a while. Lesson learned: if you do online check-in, do it at least 24 hours in advance. Then it took even longer when I asked if they were able to grant our request of connecting rooms. He was only able to get us close to each other in the same building – 36. Okay, no biggie.

But finally, we were headed off to the foodcourt to quell the rumblies in our tumblies. I asked, “Does everyone have their room keys?” Me: “check,” Katie: “check,” Lynn: “check,” Linda: “check,” Mom: “Who the heck is Rochelle Moreno??!!” Somehow, they’d given her the wrong Key to the World Card! We trudged back to check-in where it took another 10 or 15 minutes to straighten it out. The cast member who helped us was also able to get us connecting rooms. Our new rooms were 9927 and 9928 in the mansions. I’ve never stayed over there, so this would be a fun new experience for me. I hope.

Let’s try this again. We headed back down to the food court. This time, with cards that had our actual names on them. I didn’t appreciate the extra time it took to get it straightened out, but it did give us a good laugh. We started singing “It’s been a long journey, from Milan to Minsk, Rochelle Roche-elle.” Raise your hand if you remember that one.

We got our food and took it outside to eat on the deck. I couldn’t believe how amazing the weather was! We left snow in St.Louis that morning, and now we were sitting in 85 degree gorgeous sunshine!

Flat Marcy made an appearance at lunch. A little background: The impetus for this trip came from my cousins’ Katie and Marcy’s idea to run the Princess Half Marathon. They wanted the rest of us to run it with them. I wasn’t interested in running (well, I’m interested in it, but I don’t want to actually do it!), but I was definitely up for a girls-only Disney trip! We asked the rest of our female relatives and a few friends and were able to round up 8 people. One had to drop out right away, before we even did our deposit because she realized it just wouldn’t fit her budget. So now we had 7. Then, Cathy (a friend of my cousin Marcy who was going with us) asked some of her girl friends and ended up switching out of our room. I added a room for her and 3 of her friends. So now we had 6 relatives in our two rooms, plus 3 friends in another room. About a month ago, one of the girls in Cathy’s room had to drop out. So now we were 9. Then, Marcy, one of the original planners, realized she would not be able to go. Her 6 month old would not tolerate formula, so she could not leave him. We were all bummed out, but we knew she had to do what was best for the baby. She had already registered for the race, so unfortunately she could not get that money back.

So now we were 5 in two rooms, plus 3 of Marcy’s friends (we’d only met one of them) in another room. We decided that we would bring along a Flat Marcy to document the trip for her. Throughout the trip, I posted pics of Flat Marcy with captions on Facebook. Real Marcy had no idea what was coming! We had a lot of fun with it. Katie had decided not to run the race after all, so our original purpose for coming was gone, but that was okay. Cathy and her two friends in the other room were still running, so we figured we would cheer them on. Not that you need a REASON to come to Disney, but there you have it.

How's your chicken salad, Flat Marcy?

After lunch, we moseyed on over to our rooms to drop our bags and freshen up. Not only were they ready, but our luggage had been delivered already! Score!

Our building

Our room

Flat Marcy is exhausted already!

Flat Marcy rested for a few while we took turns in the little girls room and got our park bags ready.Then we were off to...

 

[Poolrat]

Great start!! i have had that dashfor the plane when I "thought" i had plenty of time and then .. well didn't.

I have also had that ME that follow another ME bus. What's up with that? Especially when there were seats on the other bus. Seems like they could have worked that better. Oh well.

Glad you made it and got to have lunch. Can't wait to see what you do next.

 

[All7OfUs]

I LOV'D the Mansions! I sure hope you did too!

OH! The DRAMA!! I'd have been pooping a ton of bricks! Remember that flight out of Crapistan WITHOUT our stamps? Totally reminded me of that! so when I say I get it, I DO!

YAY for a quick wait, but BOO for other resorts. When you're THAT close, you just want to GET THERE!

 

[glennbo123]

Oh, I hate that feeling when you're looking at the line at the check-in counter and/or security and then at your watch and wondering "can I make it?"

Anyway, I'm glad you made the plane and are checked-in and ready for some Disney fun.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Great start!! i have had that dashfor the plane when I "thought" i had plenty of time and then .. well didn't.

I have also had that ME that follow another ME bus. What's up with that? Especially when there were seats on the other bus. Seems like they could have worked that better. Oh well.

Glad you made it and got to have lunch. Can't wait to see what you do next.

I think it was a Mears bus, but it seems like there was room for two buses there, pull the heck forward! What made it more annoying is that we were already behind time wise obviously with the plane taking off late. Plus the bus driver had the volume turned up REALLY loud!

I LOV'D the Mansions! I sure hope you did too!

OH! The DRAMA!! I'd have been pooping a ton of bricks! Remember that flight out of Crapistan WITHOUT our stamps? Totally reminded me of that! so when I say I get it, I DO!

YAY for a quick wait, but BOO for other resorts. When you're THAT close, you just want to GET THERE!

I was trying very hard NOT to poop a ton of bricks. I didn't even want to think about what would happen if the plane had left. The next flight was full, and the one after it only had 4 open seats. We'd have been screwed. A short time after we were seated on the plane, a flight attendant came up and asked the women and her daughter that were sitting in front of us to leave. I guess they'd let her on as standby, but then more of the booked passengers showed up and she had to give up her seat. The little girl said, "Mommy, why can't we have our seats? Where's our seats?" in a sweet little lisp. It was so sad!

Oh yes, I do remember your Crapistan departure drama!

Oh, I hate that feeling when you're looking at the line at the check-in counter and/or security and then at your watch and wondering "can I make it?"

Anyway, I'm glad you made the plane and are checked-in and ready for some Disney fun.

The butterflies were spinning away in my stomach - I just knew we wouldn't make it, but we were praying their were enough people in the same boat that they'd have to hold the plane. Luckily, there were!

 

[PirateKate]

The mansions side of POR is so beautiful! The 85 degree weather sounds pretty good, too.

Glad you were able to make the flight! It's aggravating when there are unusually long lines in an airport.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

It was aggravating - especially because we could have saved ourselves the stress if we'd just gotten there 2 hours early as suggested. It was just so darn early already!

The mansions were beautiful! I'd kinda thought I might not like it as much since I'm a big fan of Alligator Bayou, and I really don't like change. But I loved it. Except that it was a really long walk to the main pool on Ole Man Island.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Episode 9: A Show About Nothing

That's right, nothing happens in this episode. Really. But if Seinfeld could stay on the air for 9 years under that premise, surely I can get away with it for one update, right? I'm going to break this day (day 4) up into three parts - not because I had so much to report, but because I took a lot of pictures. But just to warn ya, nothing happens in this first part (in case you're a channel flipper)....

Today would be our first day at Epcot. Our typical pattern is to get up early, hit the parks when they open, then head back after lunch (or before lunch and eat at the foodcourt) and spend a couple hours at the pool. Then we return to the park around 4 and do a table service dinner and stay to park closing. But this really doesn’t work well at Epcot. You really need to stay through the afternoon if you want to fit in as much of World Showcase as you can.

Since we’d had a long full day at Islands of Adventure the day before, we decided to sleep in today and not worry about when we would get to the park. I think we got up around 8 am. I moseyed out as soon as I was ready to snap a few resort pictures while everyone else was still getting ready.

The quiet pool right around the corner from our door

The beach directly behind our building

Looking to the left

Looking to the right

Cuz I know you really wanted a close up of that playset

Here they finally come!

And there they go

The eating area in between the foodcourt and pool

We went over to the foodcourt for a leisurely breakfast. Not sure what everyone else got today, but I probably had my chocolate croissant. I love those. Plus they're super healthy.

I took a couple pics of the pool on our way out and back to our rooms.

We stopped to look at the really large turtles that were swimming in the water.

Hmm, I remembered them being bigger than that

I must have thought this would look artsy

The little courtyard on the north side of our building

We changed, grabbed our pool stuff and books, then headed back to Old Port Royal and spent a couple hours at the pool.

We finally ran into some clients / friends of mine that I had booked the same week as us. We were even staying in the same section, Jamaica, but had yet to run into them. Our planned schedules were complete opposites so we knew the only chance we had to hook up would be at the pool. It was fun chatting with them and their friends who’d come over from Pop Century. I actually had another client there that week as well – Lucy’s best friend’s family. We kept texting and missing each other all week. It was midway through the trip before we figured out our rooms were directly facing each other! We saw them coming out of their room through our window and ran to the door to yell for them. Unfortunately, that was the only time we got to see them as well. Lesson learned: if you really want to meet up with someone at Disney, plan a time and place – playing it by ear rarely works!

 

[klacey1]

I loved looking at your pictures! CBR's food court is really cute-- I love the colors!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Yep, it was definitely a very cheery resort. I do wish they had better lighting at the food court though - it was always dusk in there!

 

[PirateKate]

I actually did want to see a close up of the playset! It's good to see exactly what they have that my boys will be big enough to play on in October.

That pool looks so beautiful. I think it's really nice to take a morning to relax and sleep in and go swimming.

 

[glennbo123]

It wasn't about nothing.....it was about walking around the resort to take some pictures, and having breakfast and hitting the pool. Nothing wrong with that! Sounds pretty good to me actually.

 

[JJBEAN]

I'm really enjoying your TR! I was interested in your visit to Islands of Adventure. Our oldest children (7 & 5) LOVE Harry Potter! We have only let them see the first two movies in the series. Do you think they would get much out of the Harry Potter Town at this age or would you wait until they are older? Also, did you just call the resort to reserve a towncar? I think I would prefer it to a taxi. Just trying to do some more planning for our next trip.
Can't wait to read more!

 

[All7OfUs]

I think it was a particularly lovely update in all respects! Your pictures are really pretty and what you didn't do was just dreamy! A leisurely walk around the resort and some much needed down time!! Nice work!

I agree, just "playing it by ear" rarely ends in a Meet!

 

[mom3sonstt]

Alright, alright! but I have a good excuse! I've spent the last couple of days

APPLYING FOR COLLEGE!!

Yeppers, I'm going back to school, starting with Math for Idiots- how appropriate can THAT be? All this to start working toward an RN.

After some of the amazing nurses I've dealt with the last couple weeks, without ever having really meeting you, I am confident that you will definitely fall into the amazing category. I had one who was efficient but lacked personality.....I would prefer less efficient (but obviously still competent) with a better personality. You have no shortage in the personality department, and a good personality is much more comforting and reassuring than a prim and proper by the books person. Trust me I was a wreck on a few occasions and a smiling nurse or tech could really turn things around!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

I actually did want to see a close up of the playset! It's good to see exactly what they have that my boys will be big enough to play on in October.

That pool looks so beautiful. I think it's really nice to take a morning to relax and sleep in and go swimming.

It really is a beautiful resort. I always thought I'd stay loyal to POR, but I would go back to CBR in a heartbeat.

The play structures are definitely a nice bonus - lots to do around the resort on non park days.

It wasn't about nothing.....it was about walking around the resort to take some pictures, and having breakfast and hitting the pool. Nothing wrong with that! Sounds pretty good to me actually.

Its funny, that would seem like plenty of activity for a non-WDW vacation, but when you're there, you expect to just GO GO GO all the time. It was nice to take a break.

 

[petals]

I'm so slow was looking for your trip report as you've been reading mine and never copped the link in your sig lol! Going back to read yours now

 

[petals]

Your girls are so pretty!
I love the fact that you went swimming or hot-tubbing at midnight
I think the saturday you were in Magic Kingdom your first day was a MNSSHP day we were there that day and all the wait times were really short because of the Halloween party. Halloween party was fab

I love the reaction to Harry Potter visit news. Poor Lucy thinking you were leaving already. Jenna looked very nervous on the Hippogriff coaster


I love your Snowpocalypse stories there as well. We had about two months snow on and off in November/December last year we even got a white Christmas and we had had snow January 2010 as well.. All this is odd as we don't normally have snow apparently because we're beside the sea. I think the last time we had snow that was only really light was about ten or twelve years ago. This time was really heavy. I loved it but I think I was the only one

 

[KatMark]

Flat Marcy rested for a few while we took turns in the little girls room and got our park bags ready.Then we were off to...[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]

I am way too far behind to comment on everything. But I love the pictures of the girls and the pool at CBR.

And I love the photo above of Flat Marcy.

I promise to keep up now.