"What's Your Problem?" Caught by loop and hook... (COMPLETED 4/20, post 426)

[Emma's Dad]

Hello all! Thank you for tuning in to my very first WDW trip report. For those who might be looking for a PTR, don't bother... I never got around to making one! I thought about making one... I really did... but procrastination reared it's ugly head and rendered me useless. My DW can testify to my distracted ways. I'll try to keep focused while I bring you this TR and I apologize in advance for the occasional delay in future installments. Now on to the formalities:

When? April 28th - May 5th, 2009

Where? On-site - Disney's Coronado Springs Resort

How? Round trip, non-stop flights with Southwest Airlines. Magical Express to resort.

Cast of characters:

Me(37): Don - Software engineer from Virginia Beach, VA. I love to spend time with my family and don't normally have much time for other hobbies outside of work. Most of my "extra" time is spent either on the computer catching up on the DISBoard (smiley) (or any other number of geeky-type computer activities), performing some sort of remodeling project for our house, or helping out with our local church. I'm not much of a writer (or even a reader), but I felt compelled to capture this trip in a TR to be a reminder of our wonderful visit this year. Seems as time goes on the memory doesn't store as much information as it used to... and this is a trip I do not want to forget. Oh... and I'm the Disney fanatic of the family


DW(39): Kathleen - My extraordinary, marvelous wife of 15 years and mother to our sweet daughter. We only dated for 3 months before we got married! She loves her job (stay-at-home mom) and enjoys watching her favorite afternoon soaps while updating her Facebook page on the laptop. Unlike me, she likes reading spoiler pages for the variety of shows she watches (Heroes, Lost, Fringe, etc). While not an eccentric fan of all things Disney, she has come to realize that there is something special about WDW. You will not find her in many pictures... fear of the camera! Her favorite character is Tinkerbell.




DD(6): We'll call her Sil (Short for Silvermist... her favorite fairy). Actually, I should nickname her Ariel for her red hair and ardor for singing. But, alas... she is forever in awe of Silvermist at this time in her life so I'll stick with Sil. Her favorite movie this week is HSM3 and she is soooo cute when she is signing and dancing along with the movie. Surprisingly, she is not much of a movie watcher and would rather spend her time watching Noggin all day long. The new Tinkerbell movie is a very close second. But I must say this, (this will help you understand the importance of a character meet later in the TR) for about 2 months before our trip Sil and I would occasionally watch old Donald Duck cartoons on YouTube. Sil is very much a daddy's girl and is the pride and joy in our lives.

Previous trips:

• DW and I visited WDW back in the 90's on two different occasions:
  1. First time was a 8 day land/sea package we "won" for a timeshare demonstration. We stayed off-site for the land portion and had credit cards stolen from the room! We found out about the credit card being stolen as we were standing at a shop in EPCOT and the card was declined while trying to buy a hat. That was not a good day! The CC company was good to us and reversed the charges (thankfully as this was our means for eating at the time!). The sea portion was not a good experience for my DW because our room was located right over the engine room. This was fine for me as I was in the Navy at the time and was used to loud ships! HAHA! She still declares that we will never go on another cruise.
  2. Stayed at the SOG when a friend of ours stayed at WL. DW and I were living in Port Charlotte, FL at the time and I was still in the Navy. This was a good weekend experience, but I don't remember much from that trip.
• Sil had her first WDW trip last year (exactly a year before). During that trip we had a great time staying at Pop Century Resort and had free dining. MIL came along with us for that trip. Unfortunately, we thought 6 days would be enough to see a lot of things, but we were sadly mistaken. I ended up running everyone ragged, renting a scooter for MIL, and in the end we really needed a vacation from the vacation.

Sooooo... based on last year's vacation, I was given strict orders to make this a more relaxing, enjoyable experience this year. I believe I accomplished the task, but I suppose you will need to read along and come to your own conclusion

This particular trip was not supposed to happen. It wasn't even a thought... until... the 4/3 deal was announced (This was back in December 2008). Oh, no. My DW will kill me if I approach the subject of going to WDW again so soon. Besides, she REALLY wants to go somewhere like the Grand Canyons or something exotic.So what do I do? Hehe... I make a spreadsheet . Not just a spreadsheet...I mean a SPREADSHEET. This baby had every scenario and pricing you could think of. How much for Poly for 7 nights with DSP? Wait... how about ASMu for 8 nights w/ hopping and QSDP? Seriously, I don't think I missed a scenario.I think I personally added about 20% more traffic to Disneys online reservation system. I spent probably about a week working on this thing when I finally gather enough courage to approach the issue with DW. The first conversation went something like this:

Me: "Honey, Have you seen the new commercials where Disney is offering 7 days for the price of 4?"
DW: "You are NOT thinking about going to WDW, are you?!?"
Me: "Ummmm... sort-of."
DW: "What do you mean, 'sort-of'?"
Me: "Let me show you something I've been working on."
DW: (Silence as she is looking at the SPREADSHEET)
DW: "You mean we could stay at a moderate resort for $xxxx.xx?"
Me: (Getting excited) "Oh, yeah! Let me show you what CSR looks like."
DW: "What's CSR?"

We didn't end up booking the vacation until the end of March... we were waiting for some financial things to come into place. But I sure am happy we got to do this trip (thanks to the SPREADSHEET... and the 4/3 deal)!

OK... this intro is long enough. Let's get this show on the road! Happy reading to ya'll!

Day 1, Part 1: Oh, no! I left it in the van!

Note: The pictures taken for this trip were mostly taken by yours truly. I am by no means a photographer, and the camera used to capture these moments is a Sony Cybershot W55 digital camera. I like it because it's small, quick to turn on, and takes pretty decent pictures (for my eyes anyway).

[Emma's Dad]

Here is your quick link to chapters:

Day 1, Part 1: "Oh, no! I left it in the van!"
Day 1, Part 2: "Where is everybody? I call Shotgun!"
Day 1, Part 3: "A little slice of heaven"
Day 1, Part 4: "I'm never doing ToT ever again!"
Day 2, Part 1: EPCOT - "Character Spot"
Day 2, Part 2: EPCOT - "Old guys rule!"
Day 2, Part 3: EPCOT - "Fairies, Butterflies, and Pixie Dust"
Day 2, Part 4: "Is that the Goodyear blimp?"
Day 3, Part 1: "Get me out of here... now!"
Day 3, Part 2: "Ahhhh... this is more like it"
Day 4, Part 1: "CHIP AND DALE!!!"
Day 4, Part 2: "I sure hope Sil is there!"
Day 5, Part 1: "Finally! TSM!"
Day 6, Part 1: "Our Journey Into Imagination"
Day 6, Part 2: "Finally Caught By Loop and Hook"
Day 6, Part 3: "Hang on Pooh! I'll save you!!"
Day 6, Part 4: "DD's first viewing of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth!"
Day 7, Part 1: "We're not in Disney World anymore, Toto..."
Day 7, Part 2: "Sharks!"
Day 7, Part 3: "Ummm... OK... Can we go back to Disney World now??"
Day 7, Part 4: "It's always nice to meet new friends"
Day 8: "The End"

[carissanboys]

I'm here! (And first I think!)

Will be back to actually read.

[Emma's Dad]

Originally Posted by carissanboys

I'm here! (And first I think!)

Will be back to actually read.

Yep... You are first! Thanks for reading (eventually)

[wild4dis]

I'm with you now...dont leave me in the van !! ; )

BTW, I have a DW who is a fan..but not a fanatic, so I have that same spreadsheet approach.....worked well for DVC !!!!

[carissanboys]

I find it funny how most of us on the Dis and who are married have a spouse who is a "fan, but not a fanatic." I'm always jealous of those couples who are both fanatics. But, if that were the case, I might have to fight my husband in order to do all of the planning (which is my favorite part).

Okay - I'm all caught up now! I got the bathrooms cleaned and my husband making pizza so I had a chance to read.

Your wife has good taste in TV shows - just had to add that. And I also spend a good portion of my time on Facebook. It is my social outlet.

Can't wait to hear all about it!

[Emma's Dad]

Originally Posted by wild4dis

I'm with you now...dont leave me in the van !! ; )

BTW, I have a DW who is a fan..but not a fanatic, so I have that same spreadsheet approach.....worked well for DVC !!!!

HAHA! I won't leave you in the van... promise! Interesting thing happened on the trip... DW had actually asked about DVC and how it worked.

Originally Posted by carissanboys

I find it funny how most of us on the Dis and who are married have a spouse who is a "fan, but not a fanatic." I'm always jealous of those couples who are both fanatics. But, if that were the case, I might have to fight my husband in order to do all of the planning (which is my favorite part).

Okay - I'm all caught up now! I got the bathrooms cleaned and my husband making pizza so I had a chance to read.

Your wife has good taste in TV shows - just had to add that. And I also spend a good portion of my time on Facebook. It is my social outlet.

Can't wait to hear all about it!

With each trip DW gets a little more into WDW... I'm waiting for the day she actually asks me when we're going back

DW says "thanks!" about the shows. She also says Hi!

Cool thing! I just added this thread to my FB account. Sweet!

[Disnewbie76]

Alrighty! more writing and less chatting!! :D just kidding...lol I'm along for the ride.

[Emma's Dad]

Originally Posted by Disnewbie76

Alrighty! more writing and less chatting!! :D just kidding...lol I'm along for the ride.

Hope you like to read! This is going to be a long one...

Your wish is my command

[nutz2notz]

I'm in.

Looking forward to your reports. '

[Emma's Dad]

4/28/2009
Special note: There are no pictures for this part of the TR. Sorry... I just plain forgot!

The alarm was set for 4:30 AM... or so I thought it was. So why, after wiping my eyes several times to get the crusties out, does it say 5:05 AM? OH NO! Panic mode. "Honey! Wake up! It's 5:05 AM and we gotta be at the airport by 6:00." Our flight is scheduled to depart at 6:55 AM, and it's about a 20 minute drive to the airport. MIL planned to be at our house to take us to the airport at 5:40-ish. OK... no problem... we can do this. We're going to Disney World!

So we get showered up, dressed, and have the bags ready to go by the door with just minutes before MIL shows up. After some last minute checks to make sure we have everything, we load the MIL's minivan and head to the airport. At this point, all was going well... traffic was moderate, and no accidents. Nice! We get to the airport right around 6:00 AM... we get out, give our hugs and goodbyes to MIL, and grab our stuff to head into the departures for Southwest Airlines.

Since we are flying Southwest, I had already spent my 10 minutes the day before waiting until the 24 hour mark arrived so I could print out our boarding passes. Playing the Southwest boarding lottery yielded us positions A15, A16, & A17! Sweet... we get to board before the families with small children!

We get to the Southwest check-in counter and check in 3 suitcases. "Excuse me, Sir", says the check in guy behind the counter. "This suitcase is a few pounds over 50 pounds." Hmmmm... DW's suitcase. Interesting. But the kind, professional calmly says, "You may want to even out the suitcases on your way back. Have a nice day." Whew! No extra fees today! Thanks, Southwest! You guys rock!

Let's get over to security! It's getting to be 6:15 AM now. Boarding should be starting at 6:35 AM... gotta get moving. So we get to the security checkpoint and there is no line. No problems getting through... UNTIL... "excuse me, Ma'am. We are going to need to test the container in this bag". She is referring to a spill-proof cup that we put DD's Carnation Instant Breakfast (CIB) in. DW had placed it in DD's brand new (for the trip) Fairy backpack. Inside the backpack included a fairy blanket and 3 stuffed animals (DD's favorites, of course). Well... I didn't know which cup DW had used and it just so happened to be the only one that leaks. Hence, when the backpack was opened, we find the drink (8 ozs of 2% milk with CIB) had leaked onto just about everything in the bag! We quickly remove everything from the bag and start drying everything while the Southwest agent is using a fancy chemical checking device to check for possible explosives. Fortunately, we found CIB to be non-explosive and we are now cleared from security. 6:25 AM... gotta run!

Running to the gate I'm going through my mental checklist again. Family... check. Backpack (VERY IMPORTANT! Has all required docs for resort, Magical Express, itinerary, camera stuff, etc. More on the mighty backpack later in the TR)... check. Checked luggage... check. Camera... check. What am I missing? Hold on! Wait! No... I didn't... did I? But I spent the last week getting it ready! I know I put it in the van! "Honey... did you grab the laptop bag?"... "No... you pulled all the bags out of the van," she says. I can literally feel the blood draining from my head and feel slightly faint. The laptop bag contains the laptop (naturally), the in-flight DVDs to be viewed on the 2 hour flight, headphones, and the cell phone chargers. Most of the bag was really just entertainment value except for the cell phone chargers (DW and I both brought our phones). The other purpose of the laptop was to transfer pictures of the memory cards in case we filled them and connect to the internet in case of a work "emergency" (or to check out DISBoard!). Oh well. By the time we got to the gate and after about the 20th time I said "I can't believe I forgot it!" I had already resigned myself to the fact that we can make the trip without it and life is going to be good. We called MIL just to make sure I didn't leave the bag anywhere else and she confirmed the bag is safe with her. Good job, Don... way to start the vacation.

We finally arrive at our gate at 6:30 AM. I know it's 6:30 AM, because I now have my cell phone in my hand waiting for a very important phone call. It's supposed to happen at 6:30. Allow me to explain... about 2 weeks before the trip I was outside pushing DD on the tree swing. I suddenly have this bright idea to whip out my cell phone and act like I'm receiving a phone call. I flip it open and answer... "Hello? Yes, this is he. Mickey! How the heck are you? Yes, we have 9 more days before we get there. Yes... Sil is excited to see you and can't wait to see Donald Duck, too. OK... I'll let her know! Bye!" DD was absolutely floored that the big cheese actually called to check on us! Her face lit up like the sky during Wishes! But then just as quickly as her face shined, she quickly put a worried look in it's place. "Daddy! You told Mickey we are going to be there in 9 days!". I said, "Yep!". And she replies, "But we are leaving in 8 days!! You HAVE to call Mickey back and let him know!!" She is about to be in tears at this point, and I am trying with all my might and will power not to burst into laughter (I thought she was playing with ME at this point). Well, I quickly call Mickey back and settle the misinformation. All is well.

Sooooo... After that phone call, I received daily requests from DD to call Mickey and let him know that we are still on track to visit him on the 28th. Then another bright idea hit me... I wonder if there are web sites out there that will call someone and sound like Mickey? Sure enough... Disney provides just the service... Disney's Enchanted Calls. After discussing with DW that this was going to cost $2.49 for a single call, we decide that Mickey was going to give DD a call the morning of the trip. Guess what time? Yep... 6:30 AM.

Finally... at 6:33 AM, my cell phone rings. It's THE phone call. I run through the process of accepting the call and put it to DD's ear... HAHA! You should have seen her face! (Yep... I was in such a sad state after the laptop incident I completely forgot the camera for the magical moment!) It was such a precious moment that I am still kicking myself for not capturing it. She was even talking back to Mickey. Ah... the magic... the innocence... and the believing. Now THIS is the way to start the trip!

Two minutes later the gate person is calling out for the "A" group to board. That's us! Wow... this is good timing. So we board and we are able to settle into the 737's second row with the three of us... DD at the window, DW in the middle, and yours truly taking the aisle. Orlando, here we come!

Next up... Does the flight leave on time? Should I have put the yellow stickers on the checked luggage? (Pics to be included this time!)

Day 1, Part 2: Where is everybody? I call Shotgun!

[MouseFan Down Under]

Loving your trip report!

You are a great writer...bring on the next chapter!

[Emma's Dad]

Originally Posted by MouseFan Down Under

Loving your trip report!

You are a great writer...bring on the next chapter!

Thank you for your kind words. I'm working on Day 1 Part 2 now... Stay tuned

[OhMari]

I should say, did you turn off your cell phones, since you were on vacation.
But I hope you found the tip, that resorts have cell phone charges. Many people leave their charges behind and the resorts started to keep them and they lend them out.

The start of your vacation was a little stressful, I hope you guys simmered down.

[carissanboys]

I'm glad you added some pictures in the first post. (You DID add those after I first read it, right? Or did I just completely miss them?)

Your daughter is adorable! Love the red hair.

Great start so far - great writing. Sounds like a crazy morning and beginning to the trip! Hope everything else started to go smoothly for you.