BTW--You Scream Like A Girl! My First Trip Report

[CdnBuzzFan]

Welcome to my trip report. We are a family of 3. First, there’s me. Jessie. I’m a stay-at-home wife and mother to one. I work part time as well as volunteer at my son’s school, teach Sunday School and I love planning trips to Walt Disney World. Samuel is almost 11. He is a wonderful, smart, creative 10-year-old boy who loves me and makes me laugh. He also loves Disney, Lego and being outdoors. This is my husband, Vince. We’ve been married for 19 years. He’s is a great guy who is not quite as crazy about Disney as I am but willingly enables my addiction.




We are just back from our fourth trip to the World which was from September 9 – 16, 2012. Our first trip was in 2007. We went back in 2008 and again in 2010. This is my first trip report. Thanks for joining me. I hope you stick around until the end and I will try to keep you entertained.

 

[alwayspooh]

Congrats on your 1st Trip Report!

I'm here! Can't wait to read along and hear the adventures you have to share!

 

[Bethislucy]

Can't wait to see how the title comes into play.

 

[sjms71]

Jessie, so far so good . Can't wait to read and see more!

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

Congrats on your 1st Trip Report!

I'm here! Can't wait to read along and hear the adventures you have to share!

Thank you! I'm looking forward to writing it.

Can't wait to see how the title comes into play.

I'll try not to let you down. Thanks for joining.

Jessie, so far so good . Can't wait to read and see more!

I'm glad you're here, Stephanie. Thanks for your support.

 

[jecskc]

Joining in !! Love the title !!

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

I have never been a morning person but I had to be up at 2AM on our Travel Day. I actually managed to get to bed at 8:40pm the night before but kept getting up to do things I had forgotten. By 9pm I was in bed to stay. Unfortunately, it just so happened that I was not in bed to sleep. I woke up at 11:10 and again at 1:50. As tired as I was, all three of us managed to be backing out of the driveway at 3:00 on the dot.

The trip to the Park ‘n Fly lot was uneventful. Just a few minutes wait for the shuttle. We actually arrived at the airline kiosk about 20 minutes before it opened. Things actually moved smoothly from there to the Customs line where we had to wait about 15 minutes for that to open. And then, it happened…


I hate Travel Day. Travel Day is usually pretty stressful and frustrating for us. However, things were going unusually well up to this point. We had gotten out of the house on time and without anyone getting upset. Our wait times were reasonable and the people we encountered were friendly. It was a very unusual Travel Day for us. Right up until now!

Right before we left, I had popped an orange into my backpack to eat at the airport. Who knew that this innocent act would result in an international incident. I had forgotten all about my little orange when I was filling out my Declaration Form and ticked “No” in the box stating that I was not bringing fruit into the United States. Even if I had remembered, in my mind I was simply bringing a snack to eat in the Toronto airport which is NOT in the United States. However, the US Customs Official didn’t see it this way. We had to go to a room to ‘dispose’ of the orange and Vince’s boarding pass was flagged and coded. After we left this room, we were escorted to the front of the security line. After we each passed through the detectors, Samuel had his hands swabbed and Vince was patted down by a guy wearing gloves, scanned with the hand held scanner and then had to walk through an extra body scanner. Everything in his pockets was scrutinized carefully by two different people. In the confusion, stress and frustration, his boarding pass which had been taken from him a few minutes earlier was not returned and neither one of us noticed. Of course, panic set in for both for us once we realized we didn’t have it. We turned to head back to get it and as we did, a customs agent called out his name and handed it back to him. Thankfully!! As for me, the one who committed the offense, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happened! However I did have a very unhappy hubby on my hands for the rest of the morning.

 

[sjms71]

I have never been a morning person but I had to be up at 2AM on our Travel Day. I actually managed to get to bed at 8:40pm the night before but kept getting up to do things I had forgotten. By 9pm I was in bed to stay. Unfortunately, it just so happened that I was not in bed to sleep. I woke up at 11:10 and again at 1:50. As tired as I was, all three of us managed to be backing out of the driveway at 3:00 on the dot.

The trip to the Park ‘n Fly lot was uneventful. Just a few minutes wait for the shuttle. We actually arrived at the airline kiosk about 20 minutes before it opened. Things actually moved smoothly from there to the Customs line where we had to wait about 15 minutes for that to open. And then, it happened…


I hate Travel Day. Travel Day is usually pretty stressful and frustrating for us. However, things were going unusually well up to this point. We had gotten out of the house on time and without anyone getting upset. Our wait times were reasonable and the people we encountered were friendly. It was a very unusual Travel Day for us. Right up until now!

Right before we left, I had popped an orange into my backpack to eat at the airport. Who knew that this innocent act would result in an international incident. I had forgotten all about my little orange when I was filling out my Declaration Form and ticked “No” in the box stating that I was not bringing fruit into the United States. Even if I had remembered, in my mind I was simply bringing a snack to eat in the Toronto airport which is NOT in the United States. However, the US Customs Official didn’t see it this way. We had to go to a room to ‘dispose’ of the orange and Vince’s boarding pass was flagged and coded. After we left this room, we were escorted to the front of the security line. After we each passed through the detectors, Samuel had his hands swabbed and Vince was patted down by a guy wearing gloves, scanned with the hand held scanner and then had to walk through an extra body scanner. Everything in his pockets was scrutinized carefully by two different people. In the confusion, stress and frustration, his boarding pass which had been taken from him a few minutes earlier was not returned and neither one of us noticed. Of course, panic set in for both for us once we realized we didn’t have it. We turned to head back to get it and as we did, a customs agent called out his name and handed it back to him. Thankfully!! As for me, the one who committed the offense, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happened! However I did have a very unhappy hubby on my hands for the rest of the morning.

Oh no! Anxiously awaiting next update.............

 

[alwayspooh]

Omg over an orange, all that for 1 orange. Wow I have never been through customs, well I have never been out of the US but at least I know not to bring 1 piece of fruit through customs.

Hoping your trip got better once you got in the air!

 

[pwdebbie]

Another good reason to drive! I'm sorry you had to go through that, but I bet it won't happen again! Things get better from here on out, right?

 

[ladybug0506]

I can't believe there was so much fuss over an orange - ridiculous! Can't wait to read the rest of your report though!

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

Joining in !! Love the title !!

Hi and thanks for being here.

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

Oh no! Anxiously awaiting next update.............

Don't worry! There's more...!

Omg over an orange, all that for 1 orange. Wow I have never been through customs, well I have never been out of the US but at least I know not to bring 1 piece of fruit through customs.

Hoping your trip got better once you got in the air!

I know! It just didn't occur to me that I was entering the US while still in Toronto! Things could only improve, right?

Another good reason to drive! I'm sorry you had to go through that, but I bet it won't happen again! Things get better from here on out, right?

Umm, I'll still be flying; it's too far to drive. But from now on, I'll eat all of my fruit in the car on the WAY to the airport! And, yes, things got better. We had a great trip.

I can't believe there was so much fuss over an orange - ridiculous! Can't wait to read the rest of your report though!

Yup! One little orange. I'm glad I ate my banana in line before I got up to the customs window!

 

[jecskc]

OK ... so the orange was in YOUR bag ??? And your DH got the pat down ?? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

OK ... so the orange was in YOUR bag ??? And your DH got the pat down ?? That doesn't make any sense.

Yup! And DS got his hand's swabbed. I was waiting and wondering what they were going to do to me but I was practically ignored.

 

[jecskc]

Yup! And DS got his hand's swabbed. I was waiting and wondering what they were going to do to me but I was practically ignored.

I smell man logic .....

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

Luckily, our 2½ hour flight which left at 6:50 AM was fine. I had assumed that I would get a little sleep on the plane but I was too preoccupied with the possibility that I would snore or that my mouth would hang open so I couldn’t fall asleep. We made our way through the Orlando airport to the Magical Express area without getting lost (this time). We had to wait only a couple of minutes before boarding the bus to Pop Century. Resort check-in was a breeze and after spending a few minutes in the gift shop, we were in our room at 11:13 according to the alarm clock on the night stand. (-- which actually turned out to be 10 minutes fast.)

While we were in the check-in line the family behind us were trying to decide which park to spend the rest of the day in. I couldn’t do Disney like that. I actually start planning my itinerary the day I book. (Okay, before I book.) I can’t just ‘wing it’ at Disney.

Samuel turns 11 at the beginning of October and we are celebrating his birthday during our stay at Disney. He received a birthday button from the CM at the check-in counter and was thrilled that the CM’s and park guests kept saying Happy Birthday to him.

I had grabbed a muffin in the Toronto airport around 5am (AFTER we passed through customs!) and had a cereal bar on the plane but by the time we got to the resort, I was absolutely starving. I get migraines when I don’t eat and I was thinking one was on it’s way but fortunately I had brought Advil with me. I took one and managed to avoid the headache but I was feeling light headed and a little dizzy and had pains in my side so rather then get on a bus to Magic Kingdom and wait to eat after we got there, we decided to grab lunch at Everything Pop.

I should mention that we were on the Quick Service Dining Plan. We’ve found in the past that the regular dining plan is too much food for us so we didn’t upgrade to Table Service. One thing we did do, however, was decide to pay out of pocket for dinner at Óhana. Seven weeks before our trip I managed to get us booked on the Saturday of our visit with a 6:35pm reservation. I just couldn’t believe my luck with that one!

So back to lunch. DS (the most picky kid on the planet) ordered the 8-piece chicken nugget deal. I think he actually got 9 pieces. This came with fries, a drink and a dessert. These nuggets were made with all white meat and were very, very good. He couldn’t finish but DH didn’t let the rest go to waste and enjoyed the leftovers.




Vince had the meatball sandwich with cheese, a salad, a drink and dessert. He thought the salad was just OK but thoroughly enjoyed that sandwich.
I got the Chicken Mediterranean Flat bread. This was an unusual choice for me but I wanted to try something different and had heard on the board that this was an excellent meal. This is made with chicken, garlic, red peppers, artichoke hearts, onions and Feta cheese. It was very good and also very filling, too. However, I did find the Feta cheese to be a bit salty. Vince tried a piece and said it was good but that he was happier with his choice.




For dessert – cupcakes all around! I got this one.




It doesn’t actually have a name. Just the word ‘cupcake’ is all that appears on the shelf. It was good but there was nothing special about it. I could have whipped this up in my own kitchen with the help of Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker. The icing was really sweet and the cake was light, fluffy and there wasn’t much too it. (Oops! One of the pictures is upside down! )

Both Vince and Samuel got the Oreo Cookie Cupcake




Vince got the chocolate one and it was awesome! The icing was thick and creamy, not overly sweet. The cake was moist and dense and there was a little chocolate fudge surprise on the inside. He did find the oreo cookies to be soggy but he didn’t mind. Sam got the vanilla cupcake but couldn’t eat it. That will be his breakfast tomorrow. Hey, it’s Okay because we’re on vacation and it’s Disney!

Up next -- The Magic Kingdom (and a picture of a Dole Whip!!)

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

After lunch, I was starting to feel better and we were off to Magic Kingdom. Vince had forgotten to bring a hat so we searched a few gift shops looking for one. Once he found one he liked, he asked Samuel to take a picture of him with his new hat and his old wife. That’s me. On the left. Wearing the sweat jacket. In Florida!




We rode the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin about 4 times. Vince says this is his favourite Disney ride. He always scores 999,999 before the ride is over. After Buzz, Sam had his first solo flight on Goofy’s Barnstormer while I waited worriedly below for him. I still wasn’t feeling all that great and Vince doesn’t like roller coasters so when I asked him if he would like to ride by himself he said, “Awwwwee-sommmme”! Samuel is in the last car in the brown t-shirt.



After the Barnstormer, Vince and Samuel rode Dumbo and then the three of us walked over to adventure land to split a Dole Whip Pineapple float from Aloha Isle. Those things are just wonderful.

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

As promised... here it is! The Pineapple Dole Whip Float from Aloha Isle! These things are so amazing!



While we were eating the float, Sam was hunting for lizards. (I’m not sure what the name is for those things so I’ll just call them lizards). There's one in the photo of the greenish yellow leaves. Can you find him?




They are a huge distraction for him. Two years ago we lost him in Hollywood Studios because he stopped to try to catch one and we didn’t notice he wasn’t with us. I hate that feeling!

We walked around the park for a while and then decided to have supper at Cosmic Rays. Vince got the pulled pork sandwich with fries, the triple chocolate cake for dessert and a very large diet coke.




He thought the sauce on the sandwich was way too sweet but managed to eat everything. Except the cake -- Samuel devoured that. Samuel and I split the ½ chicken and ribs combo meal. We also got a large diet coke and the strawberry yogurt. DS enjoyed as much of the ribs as he possibly could. He also helped himself to the chicken leg. DH also had a rib. The chicken was just a tiny bit dry but a packet of ketchup took care of that. The mashed potatoes were very good and the beans were great. The yogurt was yogurt. What can I say about a tub of yogurt.

After dinner we headed back to the resort since we had been up since 2am. Sam had a dip in the pool and then everyone was in bed by 8:30. Vince and Sam were asleep within 5 minutes. I, however, laid awake for a couple of hours listening to the soothing sounds of Pop Century’s plumbing system, distant fireworks from somewhere and the snoring competition that was going on inside the room. At 9:30 a Cast Member banged (loudly) on the door looking for what he called ‘miss-delivered luggage’. Vince very politely told him, “no”, and got back into bed and went right back to sleep. Thankfully Samuel slept through the interruption. A big day at Hollywood Studios awaits!

I’m wearing my pedometer while I’m here and today it reads 17928 steps.

 

[pwdebbie]

17928 steps = how many miles for you? I always find it interesting to see how many miles people cover in a Disney day.

I think the lizards are anoles.