"It smells like strawberries, no I really mean it!".... a January 2013 TR (DAY 1 up)

[DisneyLifer87]

"It smells like STRAWBERRIES. No, really, I mean it!!!"

Welcome to my second trip report to be completed and numerous to be attempted! I'm feeling optimistic about this one though. If you know me welcome to the insanity! For those of you that do not, a resounding WELCOME and I hope you're ready for the crazy. We have been home about a week now from our Disney World adventure and a lot as happened to delay the start of this report. But I'm here now so let's get on with the show!!!!

Cast of Characters

This was a trip just for DH and myself like it usually is. Our fourth time traveling to the World together and unfortunately a break is going to happen between this one and the next. For those from my PTR you know a bit about me and DH, but for those who do not I'll give a quick run down.

Me: Meg or Lifer on the DIS. I'm a 25 year old sales associate for Verizon Wireless and also a full-time student working on my licensure for teaching high school English. I start student teaching in 3 weeks!
DH: Matt. 24 year old who unfortunately just got laid off yesterday so we will have to see what happens in the days to come.

The Details
January 19th - 26th, 2013 (Saturday to Saturday)
We stayed at the Pop Century Resort in the 60's with park hopper tickets and the dining plan. I do not have food pictures, however I will review each place we visited!

ADR reviews: - in order of appearance, look for the GREEN text -
Earl of Sandwich (dinner)
Flame Tree BBQ (lunch)
Le Cellier Steakhouse (dinner)
Backlot Express (lunch)
50's PrimeTime Cafe (dinner)
Yorkshire County Fish Stand (lunch)
La Cantina de San Angel (lunch)
Coral Reef (dinner)
Casey's Corner (lunch)
'Ohana (dinner)
Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe (lunch)
Be Our Guest (dinner)
Katsura Grill (lunch)
Kouzzina (dinner)

Welcome to all and I hope you enjoy hearing about our trip!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Table of Contents

Day One - We head back to the World!

 

[wiigirl]

In for this....cant wait to hear more!

 

[MEK]

In in! You certainly have a great list of ADRs. Welcome Back! Hope you had a great time.

Sorry to hear about your DH getting laid off. I hope he is able to find a new job quickly!

 

[shalom]

I'm here. So sorry to hear about your DH. Hubby's job has been up in the air since last summer, which is better than outright losing the job but OTOH makes it tough to plan anything. *sigh*

Hope he finds a new job soon!

I didn't take food pictures, either, except for a cupcake. Not sure what happened, there.

 

[DisneyLifer87]

In for this....cant wait to hear more!

In in! You certainly have a great list of ADRs. Welcome Back! Hope you had a great time.

Sorry to hear about your DH getting laid off. I hope he is able to find a new job quickly!

I'm here. So sorry to hear about your DH. Hubby's job has been up in the air since last summer, which is better than outright losing the job but OTOH makes it tough to plan anything. *sigh*

Hope he finds a new job soon!

I didn't take food pictures, either, except for a cupcake. Not sure what happened, there.

DH did have an interview today so we are hopeful that will turn out for the better. I'm working on the first post as we speak and we will hit the ground running. Glad to have readers

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Day One (1/19/13) - Heading to the world!
--The Journey--
For our first day we had a little bit of a later flight. I woke DH around 8:00am so we could finish up some last minute morning packing and preparations. I double checked our flight was on time, which it was, and we left the house around 9:30am right on time.
We headed to my mother's house where we were going to leave the cars for the week, as well as hitch a ride to the airport. We transfered luggage to her car and headed for Minneapolis with surprisingly little traffic. The whole security check was fast and the airport was really quiet for a Saturday afternoon. DH and I were through everything by 11:30am and began wondering what to do for the next hour and a half before take off. We grabbed some lunch at Taco Bell (great dining already.. right? ) and then headed to our terminal where I did some homework before take off.
The flight itself was smooth and we landed as scheduled by 5:00pm. We got right onto a ME bus and rode off to our happy place.

.... now I did not take ANY pictures this night because I was tired and we were moving around way too much. However, I will continue on with the evening...

--We're HERE!!--
We checked in at Pop Century and found that we were in the 60's building which made me happy. But then I learned we had a ground level as requested (!!) and it was NOT facing the pool (!!!) so I was happy from the get go. We detoured through the food court to get our complimentary mugs (I didn't know till then that they were included on the DDP). They are the same designs from 2011 which is sad, but I got a pink one (I had a black at home) and DH got a blue one since he lost the blue one we got in 2011. We found our room, dropped off our stuff and just headed out. The weather was a little chilly with the sun down (mid 50's) but we had just come from Minnesota so it was a heat wave in comparison to the 19 degrees we had left. Still sweatshirt weather by far.

--Downtown Disney--
We waited for a bus from Pop with a lot of other people. I mean... a lot. I seriously hoped this was not a sign of bad things to come. DH told me it was Saturday night and people were probably just looking for diner like we were - it was 7:00pm roughly anyway. So off we went (standing). And when we got to Downtown Disney?.....

......

Just wall to wall people. I had never in all of my years seen it this insane! DH and I didn't even know what to do, but we knew we needed food. We headed to Earl of Sandwich and waited 35 min eek for some food. Granted, we had never been and we were starving so dirt would have been appetizing, but let's do a little review:

Earl of Sandwich
Again, I apologize for the lack of food pictures. And for some reason on this evening I forgot to keep the receipt so I'm even lacking on prices! I swear this is the only missing one! I got a lot better!
DH and I both ordered the Earl's Club which was fantastic. The bread was very soft and the bacon had a lot of flavor. Zero complaints from this department. I ordered my side of red potato salad and DH got a dessert, the chocolate mousse. We used the dining plan and paid nothing out of pocket, but I think the total was around $25 with drinks.

Rating: 5/5 stars. We'd do this again if we were in DD and needed a meal. It's a great use of QS credits.

--DisneyQuest--
After DD we did wander over to DisneyQuest to check it out. Really, I don't get it. We only spent about an hour here playing Fix it Felix and PacMan. We did ride the virtual Pirates of the Caribbean which was fun, but nothing too special. It was crowded here and we were tired, so by 10pm we left and headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately the night ended here after some luggage unpacking, but it was nice to be home again.

I feel bad for the lack of photos in this post, so I will give you a sneak peak of what day two shall bring:

 

[DisneyLifer87]

I'm so sorry to have abandoned this, but unfortunately I may not be back for some time. This is a cry for patience and support while I try to work through life and put this on an unfortunate back burner.

Monday evening I came home from work around 4:30pm. I walked into the house and saw Simba looking at me waiting for dinner like he does. I laughed, said hi, and moved on looking for Alex. I walked into the bedroom and I heard his little mew so I called him because I couldn't see him. That small mew had evolved into an agonizing howl that broke my heart. I found Alex in the corner of the bedroom behind our box fan, hunched over and howling in pain. I put my hands on him to figure out the issue only to find he was as cold as ice. I rushed to the vet, terrified.

After countless tests and thousands of dollars, as well as a 2 minute flatline and resuscitation to bring Alex back from beyond, we found that our little baby had a heart murmer and heart disease. He had suffered a heart failure. Words cannot describe the pain and agony that attacks your heart when you hear that your 10 month old kitten will not live to see his 1st birthday.
We left him overnight at the vet and they were able to stabilize him. We brought him home on medication to keep fluid from building around his heart and the vet felt positive that he would have a few good months in him left to live a normal, happy life.

.... she was wrong. This evening my husband came home from work to find Alex panting and crying on the floor. We rushed once more to the ER and found that his heart had failed yet again. We've left him overnight once more and the vet feels there is a good chance they can stabilize him once more for us to bring him home tomorrow. However, he has a different medical treatment plan that should make him comfortable... but only for a few weeks. We have decided we will bring him home, love him, and let him enjoy happiness. His next vet trip will be his last, but he has not been happy in the last week and we hope he can have one more memory of happiness before we must let him go.

It's the most difficult thing letting go of a baby we just brought into our life especially so unexpectedly and so soon after letting go of our Nala bug. But, DH and I are trying to find acceptance and prepare to love him while we have him. As it is, this trip report is delayed while we work through this.

 

[shalom]

I'm so sorry. There's no good way to lose a kitten, but I hope there's time and health enough for some more good memories yet.

I think you've got your priorities in order, and will be here waiting if you decide to continue.