Heading for side B, level 1, Wingnut and I headed onto our first monorail ride of the trip (not on the Highway of the Sky quite yet...) and quickly made our way to the Magical Express check in area.
My handy dandy packet in tow, we were quickly checked in and pointed to our line, which I believe was 4. Or 5. Definitely not 1.
We waited for around 10 minutes, during which I started to regret my decision to not stop at the bathroom when we first landed in lieu of wanting to get to Disney as quickly as humanly possible. But we were then on the bus, only waiting a few minutes more before we pulled away.
(I swear that the bathroom comment wasn't any sort of foreshadowing, I just remember it being notable that I passed up a bathroom trip. Hey, I drink a lot of water.
)
Wingnut then FINALLY permitted our first picture of the trip. (We had been travelling for HOURS already, Wingnut! I had to have missed at least 2 or 3 memorable vacation moments!)
Oh yeah, the sweater had been taken off while we were in the Magical Express line. We were in Orlando now! Feel the warmth!!
The bus driver then announced the order of the resorts we would be stopping at, starting with...
THE POLYNESIAN!!!!
(Yeah, I cheered and danced. A little. Quietly.)
And then we (well, they by then) were going to stop at a bunch of other resorts that I believe included the Grand Floridian, but I was really not paying attention to our route anymore at that point.
The usual bus video then played, and right before it started, I promised Wingnut that I wouldn't cry like the last time we were on the Magical Express bus and the video was playing and I was a slight mess.
But then the game changed entirely, and all bets were off.
SINCE WHEN DID THEY START PLAYING THE CLIPS OF "SURPRISE YOU'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD" AT THE BEGINNING OF THAT???
I can never ever ever ever see one of those without tearing up. I have no idea why. I blame the music. And not the fact that I'm a big ol' emotional sap.
Sunglasses on. I'm all about the subtlety.
Pretty soon, we were seeing this.
Then this.
THEN THIS.
If you can't tell from my photo angle, we were pretty close to the front of the bus. The second row, in fact. I had purposely chosen it to get off the bus in the speediest fashion possible.
Wingnut and I actually have a system for disembarking the Magical Express bus, devised on our last trip. The second the bus parks, I shoot out of the bus like a cannon and powerwalk past any friendly greeter right to the check-in counter. Wingnut stands in my cloud of Wile-E-Coyote-style dust, retrieves the bags, and tips the ME driver. And then catches up with me eventually.
At least, that's what I assume he does. Once I take off, I don't look back.
We pulled into the Polynesian, where I didn't take any pictures of this moment because I was reconfirming the plan with Wingnut. Ok, he agreed.
Perfect.
Our bus pulled up behind another ME bus (to this day I'm still not positive if they were departing or arriving), and we were stuck not being able to disembark because of giant palm fronds blocking the entire right half of the bus.
Stupid atmosphere.
I used the opportunity to stretch my calves.
FINALLY (after around 3 agonizing minutes of waiting), the first bus left, and we pulled up.
(Important story detail: I'm in the window seat. Wingnut is in the aisle.)
IMMEDIATELY, practically everyone on the bus stands up to leave.
Wingnut stays sitting.
The entire population of a small country is now filling the aisle of the bus, waiting to get out. I'm poised in my seat, waiting for Wingnut to stand up.
Wingnut stays sitting.
The doors open. People who weren't even on our bus start leaving the bus, all walking towards the Polynesian.
I stand up, but it does absolutely no good, because my path to get up is blocked by a certain Wingnut.
(I appreciate the fact that you are a very chivalrous person, honey, but not at times like these!)
"WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET UP NOW????" I glared at him.
"What, and knock over all of these people?"
OH SURE, MAKE ME LOOK LIKE THE BAD PERSON HERE.
Finally, after every single person within a 500 foot radius had gotten off the bus, FINALLY Wingnut stood up.
I flew off the bus and started walking as quickly as I could into the Polynesian. Don't worry, there weren't any greeters in the vicinity that I knocked over with my gale force wind tunnel.
I steeled myself for the sight of the lines at the desk.
Amazingly, shockingly, there was absolutely no line to check in.
I went right up to the counter (of course, I had done Online Check-In!) and started checking in. Wingnut arrived soon after.
Our CM started off by giving us leis, which I unfortunately did not take a picture of Wingnut wearing, but I will reassure you that he did wear it all the way to our room (which was a lot longer than I had pegged him for, actually)
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Speaking of our room...
CM: Okay, your room is ready now, it's #.
Wingnut: Okay, great!
Me: Which longhouse is that in???
Through my researching of the Polynesian, there was one longhouse that I had in mind that I thought would be perfect for us to stay in. Tokelau. The central location between the GCH and the TTC, and it's also a bit newer. But Wingnut and I had agreed to leave our longhouse decision up to the Tikis, wherever we were placed would be great.
So, of course, to weigh my odds on the end of maximum potential disappointment, I started chanting "Tokelau. Tokelau. Tokelau." in my head, hoping that we would be placed there. But anywhere would be okay. "Tokelau. Tokelau."
CM: It's in Tokelau.
I was pretty elated at that point, Wingnut didn't really know what it meant, but was happy that our room was ready. Map of the resort in hand, leis around our necks, we were off in the direction of Tokelau!
"This was the longhouse I wanted to stay in" I said, bouncing around with excitement.
"Good. Grumpypants." he replied, raising his eyebrow in my direction.
Again, he's always making me look like the bad one here...
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I will admit, I don't think the chips are anything amazing, but they certainly aren't terrible! (And even though I don't really like them that much, I have to get them every time!)
). And the Claymation Christmas episode! We keep meaning to catch up (and I guess it's easier now since it's "on break") but haven't gotten there yet!
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First of all, because I'm thrilled that you were able to get there that much more quickly, but because I'm also hoping that the bus always goes in that order! 
You ARE the bad one....Did you forget to read the memo? 
Oh dear, I've been in those shoes before because DH is also very chivalrous and let's about 1,000 people go by before we can get out of our aisle. I suppose it's not the worst thing having a considerate man even though I secretly contemplated kicking him in the shin to get my point across...
