They Should Really Put a Bar in Here - Closing Thoughts - 4/1 - Page 2 - The DIS Discussion Forums

that's nice · 12-12-2012, 12:36 PM

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Originally Posted by FreezinRafiki

Will there be baby pictures in this TR?

Depends. Does Andy have any pictures of you?

jmwest · 12-12-2012, 12:49 PM

Count me in.

afwdwfan · 12-12-2012, 04:15 PM

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Originally Posted by MEK

I have to admit - It was the name that caught my attention! But then I clicked and realized I've seen your username around the boards quite a bit. So here I am with a sub!

Back to read!

Yes, we seem to roam several of the same TR's. I see a lot of familiar names, but it it always hard to add more to follow and still keep up with everyone!

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Originally Posted by MEK

Great start. You have me wondering about the "gluten free" fries. Where they really gluten free or just prepared really, really badly. I guess I'll have to stick around to find out.

And Kudos to you for traveling with two little kids. My DH and I are driving for the first time this summer. It should be interesting, to say the least. Our two nephews, 13 and 12, will be driving with us. I'm taking them as a buffer, just in case.

The fries, were indeed, gluten free. It seems to be more of a preparation issue in counter service restaurants, but we'll get to that later.

Good luck on the drive. We've always done it, and while I like flying if I travel by myself, it is so much easier to drive when we're all going somewhere.

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Originally Posted by Allieran3

Jumping in to read along!

Thanks for joining!

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Originally Posted by glennbo123

Jumping on board. Great title Andy!

Hi Glenn. I'm glad you approve.

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Originally Posted by Poolrat

Jumping in too. Any title with a bar in it has me hooked....

Is anybody else starting to get thirsty? It's 5 o'clock somehwere...

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Originally Posted by KatMark

I'm here...will catch up tomorrow. And we finally had "quiet" on Sunday night.

I'm glad you had a "quiet" night. I know it isn't the resort's fault, but I'm not sure we love your CSR as much as you do.

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Originally Posted by amandaw

I'm joining in! So glad y'all had a safe trip! And I can't wait to hear how fun it was, too!

We definitely had a lot of fun!

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Originally Posted by scott2997

checking in Andy......

Glad to have you here, Scott!

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Originally Posted by that's nice

Here! Team Tim REPRESENT!!!!

Now back to read.

Team Barry sucks!

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Originally Posted by Captain_Oblivious

I'm in and ready to crack wise on all of your adventures!

Sorry for the camera troubles. I guess crappy cell phone pictures are better than none at all.

I guess it's fair. It isn't like I don't make wise cracks about everything you post.

The crappy cell phone pics are better than nothing I guess. That's what all the Test Track pics were and some of them aren't too bad.

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Originally Posted by twokids0204

You need one of these

to go with that

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreezinRafiki

Will there be baby pictures in this TR?

Yes. Yes there will.

Quote:

Originally Posted by that's nice

Depends. Does Andy have any pictures of you?

Hey, I'm going to have a hard enough time keeping readers without having pictures of Barry to scare them all off.

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Originally Posted by jmwest

Count me in.

Good to have you here, Justin!

GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes · 12-12-2012, 09:52 PM

Hiding in plain sight I see.
That cunning plan to throw me off the trail didn’t work.

The price of that failure…
you’re now stuck with me as one of your loyal detractor… errr… I mean followers.

I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the story (and lobbing a few hand-grenades into the middle of the festivities when ever possible).

Nice job on the TT write up; very good information (just wish I could put it to good use in the near, but I digress). Your final design was, shall we say, interesting. It looked a little like a cross between a Tonka and a surrey (sans: the fringe on top), but you can’t argue with the final score.

Great start

KatMark · 12-12-2012, 10:19 PM

I'm back and caught up. Great intros. I'm so sorry to hear about the camera issues...that's awful...especially with the little ones, but I'm sure the phone pictures will give us the story.

afwdwfan · 12-13-2012, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes

Hiding in plain sight I see.
That cunning plan to throw me off the trail didn’t work.

Well, you're a couple days late. But you've always been a bit slow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes

The price of that failure…
you’re now stuck with me as one of your loyal detractor… errr… I mean followers.

I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the story (and lobbing a few hand-grenades into the middle of the festivities when ever possible).

I wouldn't expect anything less.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes

Nice job on the TT write up; very good information (just wish I could put it to good use in the near, but I digress). Your final design was, shall we say, interesting. It looked a little like a cross between a Tonka and a surrey (sans: the fringe on top), but you can’t argue with the final score.

Great start

Thanks!

I designed my vehicle to be a truck, and I guess that is what Chevrolet invisions the truck of the future to look like. When you looked at it from different angles, it definitely was a truck bed behind the cab. It actually didn't look quite so funny until I started putting the accessories on at the end. I'd have just left it a little more simple looking, but then I figured out that adding things increased the scores and the next thing you know I've got a wing on the back and pipes down the side.

I did stretch the frame width and length and drop the cab height a bit too when I designed it to improve capability, and I think that probably made it look a little bit funnier.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KatMark

I'm back and caught up. Great intros. I'm so sorry to hear about the camera issues...that's awful...especially with the little ones, but I'm sure the phone pictures will give us the story.

It was a shame to not have better pictures, but we did get some good ones of them having some fun and enjoying the characters. Most of the time we had our hands full and didn't have time to mess with getting a camera out anyway.

729tink · 12-13-2012, 09:57 AM

I'd like to follow along too if you don't mind!

wiigirl · 12-13-2012, 10:01 AM

In for this!

afwdwfan · 12-13-2012, 04:41 PM

I've been working on the first actual update today and should have it posted sometime tomorrow! Thanks to everyone for stopping by, it's about time to get this thing rolling.

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Originally Posted by 729tink

I'd like to follow along too if you don't mind!

I don't mind at all, thanks for stopping by!

Quote:

Originally Posted by wiigirl

In for this!

Glad to have you here!

afwdwfan · 12-14-2012, 10:02 AM

Check-In Day

Friday Nov 30, 10:30 PM

We always drive when we go to Disney World and this trip was no different. DW coaches cheerleading at a nearby high school, and she had a basketball game Friday night. I managed to leave work about an hour early so that I could get home and get a few hours of sleep before the drive. Once she got home at around 10:00 pm, I got up and got ready to leave. My parents and sisters were riding in another vehicle and would be making the drive with us, so I gave them a call to let them know we’d be ready to hit the road in about 20 minutes. BiL had some work obligations over the weekend, so he was going to be taking a flight scheduled to land in Orlando at 11 pm on Sunday.

We got on the road and had a nice drive and made really good time. As I had hoped, everyone slept in the cars, so we were about 5 hours from home before we finally had to make our first stop and get gas. We made it another 5 hours before stopping again for some breakfast. It was great that we had 2/3 of the drive out of the way before everyone started to wake up. We ended up stopping for breakfast at a Mc Donald’s somewhere south of Macon, GA. We took our time the rest of the way and made some stops to let DS get out and run around a few times, and we ended up getting to Coronado Springs by about 2:30 pm. My mom caught this picture of us driving past the famous sign… that’s kind of cool! Usually you end up with a picture of someone else’s car going under it.

We had done online check-in, so I went to that counter with my parents behind me and was working with the CM to get us all checked in. Well, the next thing I know, another CM calls my parents over to another station, and confusion ensues, since my CM had already started working on their check-in. Their CM didn’t realize that, and they didn’t share that information. I ended up running back and forth, talking to the CM they were with, and the one I was with and got everyone on the same page. By this time it was after 3, and I just wanted to get my room. The CM I dealt with was very nice, so I feel bad about being a little short, but I’d been up all night and wasn’t exactly the most cheerful person. She told me the room wasn’t ready and they’d text me when it was. I’m sure the look on my face expressed my displeasure, because before I could even open my mouth to say anything she said even though check-in time is 3, the room may not be ready until 5.

I wasn’t very happy, but I could have handled the situation a little better. At that point I was just done. I just took the documentation and walked away before she even went over the map and resort information. I know it wasn’t her fault and I shouldn’t have been upset, but I’d been up since 9:45 pm the night before and spent the entire drive behind the wheel. We had planned to be there right around 3pm, since we’d surely have a room by then since that is check-in time. All I wanted was to get settled in and take a nap and my patience was gone.

I knew at the time was that my room number started with 81—and I would figure out the rest later. My parents had no better luck with their room, but they got an Anniversary balloon and at least hung around long enough to get directions to their room. We were assigned adjacent rooms and they found out where we were supposed to go, so it was all good.

We decided to go get our mugs and check out El Centro a little bit. I got bored with walking around and decided to go have a seat at the fountain by the entrance. Finally a little bit after 4, I got the text that our room was ready. I was glad to see that our vehicles hadn’t been towed from the half hour check-in parking spots that we left them in for almost 2 hours.

We drove around to get to our building, and had to use our RFID room card at the gate to get through. I waved my card by the reader, tapped it on the reader, held my breath, crossed my fingers, closed my eyes, said several four letter words, and finally got the gate to open after probably 8 or 10 tries.

When we got to the room, I had to try it repeatedly there too. I’ve heard a lot of people say good things about the RFID keys, but they seemed rather inconsistent to me. I have a small wallet on a key chain that I carry when I’m going to the parks. There were times I could leave my card in the wallet and just wave it by the reader and it would open right away. Other times I’d stick it in front of the reader to no avail, then I’d take the card out or the wallet and tap it on the reader and move it all over the place in front of the reader before it would ever unlock. I guess in the end, I like the old magnetic readers better. They at least worked the same way every time.

I apologize for the lack of pictures of the room, but we were in no mood to take pictures at the time. I just wanted to get us settled in so that we could get ready for our evening plans. I made the 1.78 mile hike back and forth between the parking lot and our room several times to haul all of our stuff in. DW was in the room unpacking and keeping the kids occupied while I unloaded the car. I did find out that our double stroller can haul a lot of baby food, formula and luggage.

Our room was located in Cabanas 8A, room 8141. The room was very nice, and it had just enough space for all of our stuff and the pack n play. I did like the feature of the sliding doors near the sink area so that I could get ready in the morning without waking everyone else, but as I’ve seen others mention, they aren’t the best idea with a toddler around. DS was constantly opening and closing them all week. I really wish there was some kind of latch system on them to keep them either opened or closed. We were located in a nice little corner of the resort. We had a beautiful view right outside our front door and just a short little walk over to the Dig Site and the bridge to walk to El Centro. Well, that’s nice! At least we’re close to the pool and playground areas. I’m sure we’ll love this location…

There, that’s better. Just take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the scenery! We have a whole week of Disney magic ahead of us!

It was definitely a rough first few hours at the resort, and our tempers were all a bit short after the drive and lack of sleep. We had planned to get a short nap in before our evening plans, but the delay in getting into a room kind of killed that idea. Oh well, it’s nothing a nice refreshing shower can’t fix. It’s time to get cleaned up, change clothes and go enjoy our evening. We had some friends to meet for dinner!

KatMark · 12-14-2012, 10:28 AM

What an awesome picture of you driving under the arch. I love it.

Sorry check-in took so long (reminds me of our stay at OKW in September).

But you got a great room location, but I don't blame you for being upset after having no sleep. Trust me, I would not have remained as "calm" as youd id.

FreezinRafiki · 12-14-2012, 10:35 AM

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