So how did we start down this path of no return?
This path of betrayal
this path of
of
least resistance
Well really its that last one that held the most sway, but before we get to that we need to back up a bit and see the events that led up to theses questionable actions (a luxury that most espionage stories will wait until the second or third book before divulging). Well start with the cast of players.
Introducing, the faces that go with the names listed down there in my signature.
The girl on the left there is that wonderful lady with the questionable sanity that I mentioned back in the opening shot of this dissertation. Tamara is the rock that keeps me from either floating off or sinking to unimaginable depths. Twenty-two years shes been at the job and if you ask me shes in need of a raise in salary. Lacking the wherewithal to accomplish that
I try to at least spoil her rotten when ever possible.
The guy in the middle is Max; our only youngen, a fairly talented musician, and sometimes a rather serious fella. Here let me illustrate the last bit there. Back when he was about four-ish age wise he asked me when hed be grown up. My answer went along the lines of: Well, according to the law of the land youll be considered an adult when you turn eighteen, but youll actually be a grown-up once the most important thing in you life is not yourself. Max puzzled on this for just a moment and then with his head slightly hung and slowly shaking back and forth replied under his breath: years and years and years
Well he has finally met at least one of those requirements anyway and that fact (along with those choir robes hes sporting are part of the reason for this trip but Ill come back to that in a moment.
Using the Theory of Least Astonishment, the last guy on the right there should ought to be me. Sadly
this as a confirmation of that theory. That would most certainly be myself and if there were any way to make it so yall could un-see that, Id do so. With both technical and budgetary restraints preventing that possibility however, Im afraid this is the image yall are going to be stuck with for the time being.
OK, so whos the other guy in that first awesome picture?
A good question
Thats Toncy
a very unique fellow with a fairly unique name (a very old Scottish family name to be precise). He and Max have been good friends since about the second grade. Interestingly, his family had to move across town a good while back and although the two boys have been attending a completely different set of schools ever since, theyve remained good friends and still frequently pal around. Toncy has also appeared in a number of our family expeditions including a prior trip to a place familiar to all of us
And Ill elaborate a bit more on that shortly as well.
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what you really, really want
As I said a moment ago, our son has recently reached the age where he is legally considered to be an adult. As you might also suspect, he has also just recently graduated from high school. These two facts were what originally prompted us to offer him some type of potential once in a lifetime experience. There were several things that came to mind in our house that could fit this bill and some included travel and some even excluded our tagging along. All were discussed and not much that crossed his mind was completely ruled out at first, but the overall cost did have limits. Try as he might to think of something different, what he wanted
really, really wanted
was to go back here
Well not exactly there
that happens to be in front of the gingerbread house that is set up annually in the lobby of the Grand Floridian. It wasnt specifically the GF that he was on about; it was WDW in general. That picture just happens to date from the last time that we were actually able to venture inside a Disney park
December of 2010.
A trip you can read about in my first attempt at TR writing
(assuming you really, really want to)
Youre writing a TR? Really?
(Christmas at POR, 2010)
Now we had been on property one other time since then.
In 2011 we first spent several days in the Caribbean aboard the Disney Dream
and then followed that up with a couple more days spent at the WL
A trip recounted in my other existing Disney TR
(Bonus Features and all
)
Experiment-627
(A Caribbean Double with a Wilderness Chaser)
but in that instance we didnt have enough extra bucks to swing any park tickets. So when it came to partaking of the magic and memories that those venues had to offer
well
lets just say: its been a while. And that
getting back into the parks
that was what Max really wanted to do. And he even wanted us there as well (which is good because we also really, really wanted to go back). But then he also wanted to have someone else his own age to share the experience with.
As youve already heard, this is something we had done before on occasion
Thats from way back in early 2008
(just before the bottom fell out of everything)
So Max was hopping we could pull this off one more time. Like I said a bit ago, Toncy and Max have been good buds for a long while. And the big guy is a very fine kid. But he also comes from a family that just doesnt have the resources to be doing a lot of extra traveling and certainly not to be partaking of something quite as extravagant as a trek down to Orlando any time soon. That fact is one of the reasons we have invited him along on several of our journeys including a junket up to Williamsburg and several hops over to the SC shore. With all this in mind, we looked at the wallet situation and decided that it was at least possible. We might not be able to travel for quite some time afterward, but there were a number of factors that would be making that true in either case, so the decision was made. We would be conducting a full on Disney invasion as a foursome.
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Come to the Dark Side
Oh wait!
Thats already a Disney property.
How about if we looked at it from a more universal point of view
The dark side indeed
Heres where that least resistance part of the story comes into play.
Ive been to Universal studios twice but have not been back in a long time
a long time
Max has also seen it twice but not always with us in tow.
That first experience was all the way back in 2004 (also the last time I was there)
(and I was actually sick as a dog that day, but thats a different story)
The second appearance was via a junior high band trip (without us obviously). Toncy on the other hand had not been and that was another of the factors that would lead us down this path. Additionally there was the fact that we were traveling with two
not just one, but two
eighteen-year old ummmm
boys. While both of them love the Disney emersion
they also like the slightly more high action
in your face
pin you back in the seat type of rides that are prevalent at slightly different types of amusement parks. The kind of thing that the folks at Universal use to hang warning signs on stating that you were about to board a Dynamically Aggressive ride experience (Ive been fond of that odd phrase ever since). Anyway, this collection of circumstances led my much better half to start doing some research. The result of that work led us to discover a pretty good deal on a couple days worth of Universal Studios version of a Park Hopper.
It was as simple as that
we were turned by nothing more then a childs whim and a good deal.
Such a low price to set for ones Disney Sole.
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Logistics
Part of the way that we had planed to make this trip fiscally feasible (and thus make our treasonous act possible), was to stay off-site. Thats something else wed not done since before Max was born. We found a place just to the southwest of Walts Wonderland and even researched the best covert route into and out of The World from that point
The infamous Sherberth escape route
Well, we didnt want to be noticed by the regulars every time we were making our way to or form the bad-lands, now did we?
But then the folks at Disney must have sensed a disturbance in the Force because they unleashed one of their more dreaded weapons
No
no that one
Im mean the one that looks more like this
Weer talking pin number here.
Now with much sorrow and sadness, Ive had to toss out several of these little jewels since we returned from our grand Caribbean cruse. This time however, we had to stop and consider the implications. What they were offering included possible room-only discounts of up to 30% at one of the moderates (which now put them in our reach). Then you can add in the additional perks that come with staying on site. Wed have less space and with four adults (two of them now also being growed men that really didnt want to be sharing a bed
queen size or otherwise) that space thing was fairly important. But once wed crunched the numbers it was determined that for fairly minor difference, we could Plus the Experience (as Walt use to say) and camp out at a Moderate Resort for the entire week wed planned to be there. We discussed it with the boys and quickly arrived at an amicable solution to the space problem. From there it was just a mater of canceling one reservation, and booking another (which with a Disney Visa in hand also came with extra points and six month no-interest to pay off the balance).
That works for me.
Next stop, this place
And Ill obviously be talking a good deal more about that later on in the proceedings.
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Crossing the Rubicon
There are those moments when every thing changes
where a die is cast
That point at which the action taken cannot be undone and the consequences can neither be avoided nor altered. Here is one of those times
But unlike Creasers crossing, this crossing was a joyous occasion and marked the beginning of new adventures to come. As a member of the music department, Max had already been through three graduation ceremonies prior to this. He was just sitting up front and off to the side with rest of the band talking care of the required live musical needs of the occasion. This time, it was his fellow underclassmen pulling that duty and he was now amongst that sea of black robes and scarlet hoods
Nice shot of the back of the back of his head there, eh?
At least he knows that the cover comes off when the colors are presented.
A few speeches and 70% of the alphabet later and our youngen strode confidently away from the stage. In his left hand; that all important embossed black book and its notarized parchment contents which signified that it was now time for him to go out and get a job (or continue on with his schooling as the case may be).
Ok
I wont accost yall any farther with that little bit of our family story, but it was the last major event that needed to occur before we could get this part of the story under way. Just two week later we were loading everyone and everything that would be bound for Florida into the car.
As it turns out I had to work that Friday before the beginning of our trip (just couldnt get out of it). However, we also wanted to get to Disney as early as possible. Early enough to be able to enjoy a bit of park time and maybe some other side adventure as well. From our home its an eight-hour drive at best to the Happiest Place on Earth (and flying wasnt an option). That timing would have us getting in pretty late in the day if we were to leave that Saturday morning. To cut the drive down a might we left right after I got home from work on the day before with the intention of knocking out better then half that distance up front.
And so away we went
First stop
a Red-Box so that the boys could rent a couple of DVDs for the tip down. After that, it was a chance to finally make a
left hand turn onto the interstate headed toward Disney.
Alea iacta est
That image is actually from a prior TR and since Ive discussed the wondrous and fascinating drive via the US interstates of the southeast coast in that little missive, theres no sense in inflicting it upon you again here. But if you feel some need to flog yourself for some unnamed prior transgression
well, then you probably need some serious therapy
but Ill oblige you with a link to it anyway
Experiment-627 - Chapter-3/Part-2: Interstate Blues
As we were getting under way, the local traffic report informed us that there was trouble brewing ahead. So we figured wed go ahead and make an early dinner stop to give things some time to clear up. That meant it was time to patronize one of the Southeasts finer burger chains
Now thats a mighty good sloppy burger right there.
If youve never tried 5 Guys
you need to. If there just arent any handy to you then hunt one down the next time youre headed toward Fla (theres actually one on International Dr. right near that other amusement park that shall remain nameless
for now).
After dinner it was back on the highway with our fingers crossed that all was well by now. Once I passed exit-77 it became quickly apparent that this was not the case. To make matters worse the only viable escape route was now in my rearview mirror. Earlier in the day a truck had run off the road up the way a bit and it took the local CSI folks all day to inspect the site. This meant that the clean up effort didnt start until rush hour had set in. On top of that we were in a spot of the highway that was squeezing down from four lanes to two and then encountering the wreck site. It would have been forty miles out of my way to go around and I shoulda done it, but nooooo
I had to pass the last exit and take my chances.
An ID-10-T Error of historic proportion, that was.
When we finally got past the problem the boys had actually finished watching their first movie. This put us way behind schedule to say the least. As such it was mightily late when we finally got to our intended stopover spot
an Embassy Suites near the GA/FL boarder. It had been an arduous drive, but the room was nicely done and there was plenty of space for us to all spread out a bit and get some much needed sack time. Tomorrow wed once again be walking on hallowed ground, but for now, shut-eye was the prescription for what ailed us.
Well, what ailed me at least.
Next up: The Port, the Castle and the Quest
