I'm Going Away... FOREVER! Oh, Great! Could You Get Me a Sandwich?? - updated 5/4!

[dhorner233]

Looking forward to seeing more pictures!!

[ArieBella]

I've been perusing trip reports this afternoon and came across your "Escape from NY" TR which then led me here. I was truly sucked in by both and want the rest of this report!

I also must admit that hearing bits and pieces of your living on Long Island is making me nostalgic! Having done a more permanent NY escape myself by moving to FL two years ago, references to MacArthur Airport and apple picking makes me miss home. I could literally kill someone for some grilled corn!

I should probably go back and reread the snow portion of your last trip to remind myself its not so bad here considering its the end of January and my own DD is whining about the "cold" weather, which is a brisk 73!

[kimbo0569]

I'm so happy I found this TR, since I enjoyed your last one (and could feel your pain/frustration with the blizzard - I too live in NY and am just as happy the last two winters have been quite mild so far! )

[baseballmickey]

Originally Posted by amandaw

Isn't it a pain when life gets in the way of writing trip reports?

If only we could get paid by Disney for writing them!

I wish!!

Originally Posted by declansdad

Nice pictures. You have a cute family.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by eandesmom

Looking forward to it!

Thanks for hanging in there.

Originally Posted by dhorner233

Looking forward to seeing more pictures!!

They are coming, I promise.

Originally Posted by ArieBella

I've been perusing trip reports this afternoon and came across your "Escape from NY" TR which then led me here. I was truly sucked in by both and want the rest of this report!

I also must admit that hearing bits and pieces of your living on Long Island is making me nostalgic! Having done a more permanent NY escape myself by moving to FL two years ago, references to MacArthur Airport and apple picking makes me miss home. I could literally kill someone for some grilled corn!

I should probably go back and reread the snow portion of your last trip to remind myself its not so bad here considering its the end of January and my own DD is whining about the "cold" weather, which is a brisk 73!

Weclome aboard!! Glad you found it. We're all ready to get out of this cold and into some grilled corn weather ASAP.

Originally Posted by kimbo0569

I'm so happy I found this TR, since I enjoyed your last one (and could feel your pain/frustration with the blizzard - I too live in NY and am just as happy the last two winters have been quite mild so far! )

Welcome to the new TR! Thanks for reading. It's been cold lately, but we certainly haven't had any snow to talk about, which is good since Sandy really screwed us up. It would be nice to get through the rest of the winter without any major storms.

[kimbo0569]

Welcome to the new TR! Thanks for reading. It's been cold lately, but we certainly haven't had any snow to talk about, which is good since Sandy really screwed us up. It would be nice to get through the rest of the winter without any major storms.

Yeah, Sandy really did a number on NY/NJ. I have to say our area was not hit as badly or devastating as some others. We were in Hershey and literally came back the day before Sandy hit. I can deal with the cold.

[baseballmickey]

Last update we were still in the planning stages with few loose ends. Well, this TR has been dragging so I've made the decision to skip ahead to the actual trip. I'll get back to those loose ends as we go along.

When the summer began we started a countdown, and before we knew it, the big day was upon us.



We loaded the car and set out for the airport, exhaling a great big sigh of relief that there were hardly any clouds in the sky and certainly no sign of snow (even in July, the memory of our previous airport experience was hanging over us)

Our other concern that morning was whether or not my brother Tom would be there to meet us at the airport. He was traveling out to the airport via two trains and a cab that morning so that he could bring our car back to New Jersey with him. This was the arrangement we had made to solve a couple of our issues with the trip. We couldn't find a good price on the flight back from Orlando, nor could we find a good price on a rental car, and we also needed to get from WDW to Port Canaveral for the cruise. So... since the rest of my family was heading down a couple of days after we left and taking the auto train, we arranged to have them take our car down along with them. It seems complicated, but it actually worked out in a lot of ways. To our surprise, Tom was there waiting for us when we pulled up at the drop-off area. We unloaded and handed him the keys to my car and he was on his way.

One of the things I love about being able to fly out of a smaller airport is that checking our luggage was relatively painless and security was a breeze. This was despite the fact that they mistakenly thought I was with another family as I went through. Which might have been a good thing since that prevented me from having to go into the full body scanner.

We got through the whole process so quickly that it left us with A LOT of time to kill at the gate. We got some bagels and snacks and waited to board our plane. Jackson ran all around the terminal, while Lisa and I took turns chasing him. We hoped that it would help tire him out and that he would sleep during the flight as a result. Eventually, our plane arrived and it was time to go!





We opted to lap seat Jackson, and unfortunately he didn't sleep. Thankfully, he was pretty well behaved. Eventually, he did fall asleep, but that was when they announced that we were starting our descent into Orlando.

At the airport, we spotted the Disney Store and Bella got to say hello to her friend, Mickey.





and Goofy.



After taking a quick look through the store, we headed down to catch "The Magical Bus" as Bella had taken to calling it. For once, we had no trouble figuring out which side of the airport we had to be on and found the DME check-in with no problems. After a short wait, we were on the bus and headed to WDW!



I can still remember my first trip on the DME. We had a great driver and being able to watch the video was so cool. It was so much better than driving ourselves!! Since then, our DME experiences have been different. Sometimes, we haven't had the pleasant or funny driver to help entertain us. Other times, the video wasn't working at all. It's kind of like the Jungle Cruise now... It all depends on what skipper you get, who's in your boat, and it also helps if the animatronics are working that day.

This time, our driver was okay. No extra joking around. The video was also working on our bus, and we were surrounded by pleasant guests, some of which thought our kids (especially Jackson) were cute. I think they are too.



not sure what the face is about. Maybe he smells something??



Excited!! We're almost there!!

20 Minutes after departing the airport, we saw this:



And from that point, it was about another 20 minutes for the bus to stop at Poly, the Grand Floridian, and then drop us off at the Contemporary Resort!!

I can't say enough about the friendliness of the staff at CR when we got there. I was a little confused about where to check in since we were staying in Bay Lake Tower. Turns out, the check-in is inside the CR lobby. While on line to get our room keys, a CM chatted us up, gave the kids stickers, and made the wait go by a little more smoothly. Once we got our Keys to the World, we opted to walk over to BLT using the sidewalk as opposed to the bridge.



The walk was quick, but it was our first real chance to enjoy the Florida sun and air. Up the elevator to our room on the 8th floor of BLT.



Our room was a studio with "theme park view". We were worried that our view wouldn't be good, since we imagined that some rooms have better rooms than others. Well, I was pretty pleased with our view.






















My words can do no justice to how amazing it is to have that view. In some of the pics you can see a crane, that is where they were working on the Fantasyland Expansion at the time. We could hear a little bit of the music from MK from the balcony, especially during the Castle show. It was awesome that there was a show just then as we were staring in awe at the castle. I couldn't believe how close we were. I could have sat on the balcony and put my feet up and just stared out at the view the rest of the night.

However, we were hungry. So we got settled and went to get a bite to eat and perhaps do some other things around the resort on our first night in WDW.

[declansdad]

I guess that view is ok.






WOW!

[burly]

That is a spectacular view!

[baseballmickey]

Originally Posted by kimbo0569

Yeah, Sandy really did a number on NY/NJ. I have to say our area was not hit as badly or devastating as some others. We were in Hershey and literally came back the day before Sandy hit. I can deal with the cold.

glad to hear you were spared.

Originally Posted by declansdad

I guess that view is ok.






WOW!

Originally Posted by burly

That is a spectacular view!

I thought this part of the view was cool as well:



Looking to the left, I could see the top of the Wilderness Lodge AND I could see the Swan/Dolphin wayyyyyy off in the distance.

[eandesmom]

Oh I love seeing other resorts off in the distance like that! One of my favorite things about EE. GREAT view and a very smooth arrival so far

[dhorner233]

Wow! Great view! What kind of camera do you have?

[amandaw]

Yay! So glad y'all had an uneventful journey for this trip!

And WOW! what a view! I want to wake up to that every morning!

[afwdwfan]

Wow, still just arrival day???


Awesome view!!! I would love to have a room with a view like that sometime. It would make it much more enjoyable to just hang out in the room for while while everyone else napped.

[baseballmickey]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

Oh I love seeing other resorts off in the distance like that! One of my favorite things about EE. GREAT view and a very smooth arrival so far

Yeah, I love that about EE too. And unlike some other tall rides, EE gives you a chance to actually look around. But there's nothing like looking out your balcony at MK. This vacation couldn't be off to a better start!

Originally Posted by dhorner233

Wow! Great view! What kind of camera do you have?

Most of my pictures are taken with my Nikon D40. There will be occasionaly pictures taken with our phones (usually smaller) and my wife's point and shoot. Sadly, my D40 is on its last legs. I am in the market but not sure if I can afford to buy a new camera before our next trip this summer.

Originally Posted by amandaw

Yay! So glad y'all had an uneventful journey for this trip!

And WOW! what a view! I want to wake up to that every morning!

It was so great. We were only there 3 nights, but I must have "woken up" to that view about a dozen times!

Originally Posted by afwdwfan

Wow, still just arrival day???


Awesome view!!! I would love to have a room with a view like that sometime. It would make it much more enjoyable to just hang out in the room for while while everyone else napped.

The moment we walked out onto the balcony, we knew where we'd be for Wishes that night. Now I understand why Dave loves CR so much.

[baseballmickey]

It took two days to get dug out of the snow from "Nemo" and now the snow is melting away... It made for an interesting weekend, that's for sure. We got it worse than some, but not as bad as others here. I saw a figure here that my town got 20" of snow. Didn't seem that high to me, but the gusty winds made the snow drift in weird ways. Some pics of the house when I got home from work the afternoon following the storm:









Prior to getting home, I had been working an overnight shift in NYC. When I made my escape from the building, things around midtown Manhattan did not look bad at all. Sidewalks were already mostly clear. Traffic was moving well. The snow piles were not that high. Seemed to be just around 6 inches or so. Unfortunately for me, the trains were not running and I had to kill a few hours. I decided to get in my saturday workout* (more to follow on that) by walking around the city. I headed north and soon enough I was at Central Park. So I went in and walked around to help pass the time. I took some pics:





























The snow here was much deeper than I saw on the city streets.

So once I got home and got some of the sidewalk shoveled. Bella and Jackson came out to play. It had been a while since we had any real snowfall here. This was Jackson's first serious snow.


We bundled him up until he looked like something straight out of "A Christmas Story" He didn't like being in the snow, but he did enjoy knocking it off the bushes.


Bella was not afraid to get right in it.


So that was our Nemo adventure. I spent most of it shoveling and working. So, back to the workout part of the story. I walked close to 6 miles that morning up to central park and back to penn station. I was at the end of the first week of a running program. Why? A couple of reasons. One being this picture I took the morning we left for last year's vacation:



and then upon returning from our trip:



To understand the significance of this, we need to cue the Wayne's World Music and...

FLASHBACK!!!

Almost a year ago exactly we were in a similar situation. The trip was booked and a lot of the plans were made. Lisa and I were talking and we got it in our heads to lose weight for the trip. We made a pseudo-bet about who could lose more weight before the trip (biggest loser style using %). In March of last year I began my quest, weighing in a 240lbs at the time. I set myself a goal of reaching 200lbs by the time we left. As you saw above, not only did I hit that goal, but I only gained 3lbs during the vacation, which is pretty good. I did this all by watching my calories, with the help of the MyFitnessPal app on my phone. I hardly did any exercise outside of walking a little extra.

Lisa also lost weight, not that she had a lot to lose in my opinion, and she's been successful at keeping it off, unlike me.


so, a few weeks ago I weighed myself and saw that I had gained a little more than half of that weight back. ugh. I blame it mostly on Peanut Butter Cup season. (From Halloween through Easter they sell those larger cups in holiday shapes like pumpkins, trees, hearts and eggs). Anyway, I can't resist those things. Another culprit was soda. Last year, I dropped those from my diet to help lose the weight. After the vacation, they snuck back in.

As Whitesnake sang, "So here we are again." I've done it before, and I can do it again. Almost the same timeframe too, because I am setting the goal of losing the weight I gained back, and then some, by the time we leave for our next trip in July.

Oh yeah, that's right. Did I neglect to mention our next trip is booked??? We are booked at AKL and then Vero Beach this summer!!! We've also got our 2014 trip booked on the Fantasy!! And we know where we want to go in 2015. PLUS... there's this added bonus:

I told Lisa I wanted to RunDisney. She doesn't think I'll be able to do it. The gauntlet has been thrown, and if I can follow through on it, we'll be going down for Marathon Weekend next year. My goal is to run at least the half, but if all goes well, the full might be doable. So this year I've added exercise to my routine. We'll see how that goes. 1 week in and I've lost 3.5lbs.

This TR is in danger of becoming a PTR for our summer trip and the marathon trip. I would like to think I'll be finished with this TR before either of those happen. We will see.

That's the latest on life around here. I'll share more details about the plans for the upcoming trip as we go along, and I'll keep you updated on the weight loss/running progress. Right now I am registered to run/walk a 5K charity event with some DisDads in March, and then I am going to run a 5K in April for time. If that goes well, I'll move on to training for a 10K.

now back to the TR... I am off from work tonight, so I am hoping to finish up our first day for you all tonight.