team weasel
Buddy of Buzz
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2006
- Messages
- 1,117
Congrats on 25 years! I will be celebrating 5 years of marriage (11 years together) in June.
25 years and we're still smiling!....Our Anniversary trip. (Chapter 4a is up on pg 3)
- Thread starter zdad
- Start date
Looking forward to the rest.
I have to comment on your avatar picture. I'm assuming that's you as a child. I knew without even looking at the date of your graduation that you were about my brothers' age. He had the same jacket in one of his family pictures! I'm pretty sure it was taken by Olan Mills.
Anyway, looking forward to more, and congratulations on 25 years!
I have to comment on your avatar picture. I'm assuming that's you as a child. I knew without even looking at the date of your graduation that you were about my brothers' age. He had the same jacket in one of his family pictures! I'm pretty sure it was taken by Olan Mills.
Anyway, looking forward to more, and congratulations on 25 years!
Chapter 2: “Welcome Home, a Surprise DIS Meet and Star of the Show”
Before we start…..I was a knucklehead and left my camera in our packed luggage. So, no pictures until Day 2. To satisfy the curious though, here is a picture of Zdad and Zmom. My how we have changed from the picture in post 1. (Look at the difference in Zmom’s hair !!).
Let’s see. We finally went to bed the night before at 2:15am, so of course we set our alarm for…….7:30am!! After all, we were heading for the Wilderness Lodge. We made ourselves beautiful (OK….Laurie made herself beautiful, I made myself acceptable), and headed for the grand hall. No check out desk necessary, since we were just there for the night. We hailed a cab and with a big grin on my face I said “Wilderness Lodge please.” In a few short minutes we were heading up Timberline Drive, and there she was, the icon of peacefulness….The Wilderness Lodge. Ah, I’m relaxed already. As we got out of the cab (a $14.50 trip from Pop Century to WL) the first attendant said “Welcome Home”. Of course I teared up and promptly gave her a big hug. We checked out bags with the valet and headed in. At 9am, the check in counter isn’t very busy so we walked right up, got our Keys to the Kingdom and headed for the castle. Our room wasn’t ready, but we didn’t expect it to be. A quick stop in Roaring Forks for a piece of fruit, and we were off to the boat dock.
As we got to the end of the dock, we could see the Magic Kingdom boat heading our way from Ft. Wilderness. What we failed to see right in front of our face was a DISer…one of some fame and notoriety to boot. It was none other than Princess Aurora. She was kind enough to see our LGMHs on our backpack, and quickly struck up a conversation. She had been there a few days at this point, touring the finer restaurants at WDW. Well what a fresh start to the trip. If only I didn’t pack my camera…DUH!.
The ride to the MK from WL is always fun for me. The anticipation builds as you cross the water bridge (BTW – do you know why Walt had the water bridge built?? He was touting his monorail as “the highway in the sky” and if he had built an overpass over the canal, it would have ruined the visual impact of the monorail. Therefore the water goes over the road, not the other way around.) When you finally move toward the mooring at the Magic Kingdom, the World is at your doorstep. Oh how cool. We motor in, and it’s still early so what first? You guessed it…Space Mountain. In true Disney veteran form, we did the Space Mountain Sprint. We walked right onto the ride…twice. At that point we got a fast pass for later in the day, and decided to try something new.
As we headed out of Tomorrowland, we saw the queue forming for the Laugh Factory, so we joined in. A casual 5 minute wait, and we head into the theater. We ended up about four rows back, right in the center. Great seat to see the show, I thought. Little did I know, I was about to BECOME the show. For those of you that have seen the show, I was singled out as “That Guy”, the audience member they project on the screen time and time again as Mike Wizowski tries to impress his boss Marge. I had to make 4 or 5 appearances on the jumbo-tron, always my funny and charming self. I should note at this point, that I wore my Virginia Tech baseball cap all week to honor my fallen Hokie brothers and sisters. The hat was in every camera shot during the show, and afterward, many people came up to offer their sympathies. In fact I was approached time and time again all week, even getting a hug once from an eldery lady. It was all really appreciated.
Well, we haven’t been at Disney World for 3 hours and we had a DIS Meet, two rides on Space Mountain and a starring role in the Laugh Factory. Can it get any better? Tune in this week end and find out.
Next: “Kona Romance, Fireworks, and the first call home.”
Before we start…..I was a knucklehead and left my camera in our packed luggage. So, no pictures until Day 2. To satisfy the curious though, here is a picture of Zdad and Zmom. My how we have changed from the picture in post 1. (Look at the difference in Zmom’s hair !!).
Let’s see. We finally went to bed the night before at 2:15am, so of course we set our alarm for…….7:30am!! After all, we were heading for the Wilderness Lodge. We made ourselves beautiful (OK….Laurie made herself beautiful, I made myself acceptable), and headed for the grand hall. No check out desk necessary, since we were just there for the night. We hailed a cab and with a big grin on my face I said “Wilderness Lodge please.” In a few short minutes we were heading up Timberline Drive, and there she was, the icon of peacefulness….The Wilderness Lodge. Ah, I’m relaxed already. As we got out of the cab (a $14.50 trip from Pop Century to WL) the first attendant said “Welcome Home”. Of course I teared up and promptly gave her a big hug. We checked out bags with the valet and headed in. At 9am, the check in counter isn’t very busy so we walked right up, got our Keys to the Kingdom and headed for the castle. Our room wasn’t ready, but we didn’t expect it to be. A quick stop in Roaring Forks for a piece of fruit, and we were off to the boat dock.
As we got to the end of the dock, we could see the Magic Kingdom boat heading our way from Ft. Wilderness. What we failed to see right in front of our face was a DISer…one of some fame and notoriety to boot. It was none other than Princess Aurora. She was kind enough to see our LGMHs on our backpack, and quickly struck up a conversation. She had been there a few days at this point, touring the finer restaurants at WDW. Well what a fresh start to the trip. If only I didn’t pack my camera…DUH!.
The ride to the MK from WL is always fun for me. The anticipation builds as you cross the water bridge (BTW – do you know why Walt had the water bridge built?? He was touting his monorail as “the highway in the sky” and if he had built an overpass over the canal, it would have ruined the visual impact of the monorail. Therefore the water goes over the road, not the other way around.) When you finally move toward the mooring at the Magic Kingdom, the World is at your doorstep. Oh how cool. We motor in, and it’s still early so what first? You guessed it…Space Mountain. In true Disney veteran form, we did the Space Mountain Sprint. We walked right onto the ride…twice. At that point we got a fast pass for later in the day, and decided to try something new.
As we headed out of Tomorrowland, we saw the queue forming for the Laugh Factory, so we joined in. A casual 5 minute wait, and we head into the theater. We ended up about four rows back, right in the center. Great seat to see the show, I thought. Little did I know, I was about to BECOME the show. For those of you that have seen the show, I was singled out as “That Guy”, the audience member they project on the screen time and time again as Mike Wizowski tries to impress his boss Marge. I had to make 4 or 5 appearances on the jumbo-tron, always my funny and charming self. I should note at this point, that I wore my Virginia Tech baseball cap all week to honor my fallen Hokie brothers and sisters. The hat was in every camera shot during the show, and afterward, many people came up to offer their sympathies. In fact I was approached time and time again all week, even getting a hug once from an eldery lady. It was all really appreciated.
Well, we haven’t been at Disney World for 3 hours and we had a DIS Meet, two rides on Space Mountain and a starring role in the Laugh Factory. Can it get any better? Tune in this week end and find out.
Next: “Kona Romance, Fireworks, and the first call home.”
Davidsmommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2006
- Messages
- 660
Gotta subscribe! Great start!!
Renee1061
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2006
- Messages
- 878
newholidayx2
<font color=green>Searching for the perfect tree<b
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2004
- Messages
- 7,875
great job zdad - keep it going
Chapter 3: Kona Romance, Fireworks, and the first call home.
We left off at the Laugh Factory. We were getting a bit hungry at this point, and lunch at the Magic Kingdom must be had at .Pecos Bills. So we wandered over towards Frontierland., via Pirates of the Caribbean. We had little or no wait there too (this has been a great day for queues so far). I liked the Jack Sparrow additions. Not too much of him, but where they used him they did it well. I thought that especially true where they are dunking the pirate and hes around the corner. Pecos Bills is great as usual. We both get cheeseburgers. Actually I had a grilled onion sandwich with meat dressing. I love the fixins bar at that place.
After lunch, we did Splash Mountain (Laurie was bone dry and I got soaked through !) BTMRR, and went over and used our fast pass for the 3rd Space Mountain of the day. Hey we did the Magic Kingdom Mountain triple play !!!! At this point the travel the night before began to catch up with us. We rode the WEDWAY (I wont call it the new name it will always be the WEDWAY to me), and headed back for the WL. We had to stop for a Mickey Bar on the way out, ten it was time for a nap.
Our room was ready, 1156, when we returned, and as we entered we noticed the King size bed. Thats nice until we saw the bathroom. It was a handicap room with the one unit bath. Shower sinks and toilet all in the same place. Well that would cramp our style a bit, so we called the front desk, and they were happy to move us. We ended up in room 3118. The room faced the Villas, about 5-6 rooms down from the walkway to the bus stop. It was very quiet, which we wanted, and as we found out later in the trip, very easy to get to and from. We were pleased with the room. We actually did nap until it was time for our first of 5 Anniversary Dinners.
Tonight it was Kona Café. Even though we had honeymooned at the Polynesian, it was a distant memory. Before the jaunt over to the Poly, we had a chance to meet up with LaraK and her family. Her daughter was quick to flash the Focker Watch signal and I replied in kind. This was Also the Hand off for Flora. It was our turn to tour with the saucy croc for a while. We all walked to the boats together, and headed off to different dining ADRs.
Here Flora gets ready for some park hopping.
We check in at Kona Café about 15 minutes early, and had a bout a 15 minute wait. The hostess was quick to wish us a Happy Anniversary. I asked for a quiet table and we got what I think was the best in the house. It was the booth in the back right hand corner as you look in to the café. The service was wonderful. Laurie had the Mahi-mahi, I had the Filet Mignon. Im not a big veggie eater, but the asparagus was even wonderful. I ordered the Apple Brown Betty for dessert, and I forget what Laurie had. Before our desserts came out, a little gift from the chef came out. They were some wonderful cream puffs. Check out the picture below.
Here is our Kona waiter with Flora....
Here is Flora trying to eat my Apple Brown Betty....
After dinner we took a stroll to the beach. It was just in time to see the electric light parade. Afterward. we made our first call back home to the boys. All was well, and nothing had burned down (at least not yet). At this point I realized I didnt have my timing right and we still had another ½ hour before Wishes. So we boarded the Poly launch and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. We watched wishes from near Caseys, which gave us a great view of Tink leaving the castle. After the fireworks, it was a late night Jungle Cruise, POTC, and BTMRR. At that point we were just worn out .and the were big things a happening tomorrow Morning
Coming up in Chapter 4 ..Race Car Mama and Pasquales Serenade
We left off at the Laugh Factory. We were getting a bit hungry at this point, and lunch at the Magic Kingdom must be had at .Pecos Bills. So we wandered over towards Frontierland., via Pirates of the Caribbean. We had little or no wait there too (this has been a great day for queues so far). I liked the Jack Sparrow additions. Not too much of him, but where they used him they did it well. I thought that especially true where they are dunking the pirate and hes around the corner. Pecos Bills is great as usual. We both get cheeseburgers. Actually I had a grilled onion sandwich with meat dressing. I love the fixins bar at that place.
After lunch, we did Splash Mountain (Laurie was bone dry and I got soaked through !) BTMRR, and went over and used our fast pass for the 3rd Space Mountain of the day. Hey we did the Magic Kingdom Mountain triple play !!!! At this point the travel the night before began to catch up with us. We rode the WEDWAY (I wont call it the new name it will always be the WEDWAY to me), and headed back for the WL. We had to stop for a Mickey Bar on the way out, ten it was time for a nap.
Our room was ready, 1156, when we returned, and as we entered we noticed the King size bed. Thats nice until we saw the bathroom. It was a handicap room with the one unit bath. Shower sinks and toilet all in the same place. Well that would cramp our style a bit, so we called the front desk, and they were happy to move us. We ended up in room 3118. The room faced the Villas, about 5-6 rooms down from the walkway to the bus stop. It was very quiet, which we wanted, and as we found out later in the trip, very easy to get to and from. We were pleased with the room. We actually did nap until it was time for our first of 5 Anniversary Dinners.
Tonight it was Kona Café. Even though we had honeymooned at the Polynesian, it was a distant memory. Before the jaunt over to the Poly, we had a chance to meet up with LaraK and her family. Her daughter was quick to flash the Focker Watch signal and I replied in kind. This was Also the Hand off for Flora. It was our turn to tour with the saucy croc for a while. We all walked to the boats together, and headed off to different dining ADRs.
Here Flora gets ready for some park hopping.
We check in at Kona Café about 15 minutes early, and had a bout a 15 minute wait. The hostess was quick to wish us a Happy Anniversary. I asked for a quiet table and we got what I think was the best in the house. It was the booth in the back right hand corner as you look in to the café. The service was wonderful. Laurie had the Mahi-mahi, I had the Filet Mignon. Im not a big veggie eater, but the asparagus was even wonderful. I ordered the Apple Brown Betty for dessert, and I forget what Laurie had. Before our desserts came out, a little gift from the chef came out. They were some wonderful cream puffs. Check out the picture below.
Here is our Kona waiter with Flora....
Here is Flora trying to eat my Apple Brown Betty....
After dinner we took a stroll to the beach. It was just in time to see the electric light parade. Afterward. we made our first call back home to the boys. All was well, and nothing had burned down (at least not yet). At this point I realized I didnt have my timing right and we still had another ½ hour before Wishes. So we boarded the Poly launch and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. We watched wishes from near Caseys, which gave us a great view of Tink leaving the castle. After the fireworks, it was a late night Jungle Cruise, POTC, and BTMRR. At that point we were just worn out .and the were big things a happening tomorrow Morning
Coming up in Chapter 4 ..Race Car Mama and Pasquales Serenade
Goofyluver
<marquee behavior=alternate><font color=red>Knock
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2006
- Messages
- 19,055
The best part of that installment was the cream puffs...YUM!
Lauralee131
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2005
- Messages
- 2,344
Glad I'm along for the ride on this one! Love the "Then and Now" pics of you and Zmom!
Can't wait for more!!
Can't wait for more!!
*MickeyFan*
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2006
- Messages
- 611
I can't wait for more of your report! I can't wait until DH and I can get away (hopefully in Jan) 
Keep up the good work! I wonder who got to meet the most DISers out of the group that was at the TFW meet. We should tally up and compare numbers. 
Keep up the good work! I wonder who got to meet the most DISers out of the group that was at the TFW meet. We should tally up and compare numbers. Awww... I clicked on page 3, hoping that there would be another installment, but no such luck. 
Anyway, this is a great trip report so far! You and your wife as so cute! And my condolences about VT. But I am glad that you were still able to enjoy Disney and get your mind off it! Can't wait for more!
Anyway, this is a great trip report so far! You and your wife as so cute! And my condolences about VT. But I am glad that you were still able to enjoy Disney and get your mind off it! Can't wait for more!
Ms. Heimlich
I'm a beautiful butterfly, too!
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2006
- Messages
- 875
I am loving your TR. DH and I are headed to WDW for our (lucky) 7th anniversary.
Loved Loved Loved the then and now pics!
Keep up the great work!
Ms. H
Loved Loved Loved the then and now pics!
Keep up the great work!
Ms. H
Sorry for the delay folks. Spending a lot of time in sweaty gyms with my 14 y.o. He was picked for a PA select wrestling team to go to Middle School Nationals over the Memorial Day weekend.
I promise to have the "Race Car mama" episode up by Thursday Night.....and your're going to love some of those pictures!!
In the meantime here is a picture of my 6'1" 205lb 14 year old......and a thumbnail of Race Car Mama herself !!
"Little JD"
Race Car Mama herself !
I promise to have the "Race Car mama" episode up by Thursday Night.....and your're going to love some of those pictures!!
In the meantime here is a picture of my 6'1" 205lb 14 year old......and a thumbnail of Race Car Mama herself !!
"Little JD"
Race Car Mama herself !
KathyRN137
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,882
I'm really enjoying your report, ZDad!
This whole Focker-Crocker-Watcher phenomenon is too much!!
And congrats on your son's achievement...
Kathy
This whole Focker-Crocker-Watcher phenomenon is too much!!
And congrats on your son's achievement...
Kathy
Blueyed Girl
HAKUNA MATATA!
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2006
- Messages
- 4,427
Great TR, subscribing! And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to you and ZMOM. 
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