one_cat
Jack, you have debauched my sloth.
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
- Messages
- 1,223
3rd Annual Anniversary trip.
Cast:
Me ¡V Software Developer and Dad to two 3yo twins.
DW ¡V Domestic Engineer and Mommy to two 3 yo twins.
Dates: May 3 ¡V 10, 2003 Saturday ¡V Saturday.
Background:
For the third time in three years we will be enjoying our wedding anniversary at Walt Disney World. I started this tradition as kind of a surprise trip for my wife for our seventh wedding anniversary, we enjoyed it so much that over the years we have extended our stay every year and this vacation has become a tradition. In March, we were planning a ski vacation but we cancelled and rented out our timeshare instead. To make up for that we extended our WDW vacation from 5 days to 7. Our original plans called for Friday to Friday but alas either I screwed up or the airline screwed up and we ended up with both flights on Saturdays. Luckily DVC was able to change our dates so we didn¡¦t have a problem. However we would have flown out earlier if we¡¦d know we were leaving on a Saturday. As soon as two weeks prior, after experiencing some unexpected expenses, we seriously thought about canceling, eating our point and airline ticket losses and saving the money. Life can throw some nasty surprises and we have struggled as we have learned to live our life on a budget, a serious change from years past when money seemed to grow on trees. Obviously we decided to vacation as planned, gritting our teeth as we bought our AP passes (the point of no return) and flew to Disney World. That said, I¡¦m glad we did. It has been probably the best Disney vacation we have ever taken.
May 2. Friday. The night before
About half way through my packing (yes, I packed the night before, not the day of as I bragged on the DIS.) I decided to take one last look at our airline itinerary and felt a cold hand on my stomach. Our connection in Orlando was going to be a very close call. We only had a 35 minute layover in Charlotte. After getting advice to ¡§be ready to run¡¨ from the DIS I broke out in a cold sweat. So I called the airline. Over the years I¡¦ve talked to nice airline representatives and not so nice ones. This woman definitely one of the nice ones. She calmed me down and told me that it would take us less than 10 minutes to walk from one gate to another in that airport, even if the gates are in different concourses. Then we spent half an hour discussing job situations, airline woes, vacation places and various other topics. She had just been recalled by US Air and was totally excited to be working again. With reps like her I will definitely fly US Air again. I went to bed with no worries ready to go to WDW.
Saturday morning my sister drove us to the airport after loaning me her new digital camera. Even though I brought our old film type camera with us all the pictures we snapped this time were of the digital variety. The nicest thing about that was that the camera was so much smaller and the pictures came out great. We arrived duly 2 hours in advance, breezed through security and were ready to board the airplane with one hour and 55 minutes to spare. Here I must say something about airport security. The new federal employees at airport security have been ragged on by the news however I must say that I think the federal takeover is the best thing that could ever have happened to them. This is the first time going through airport security that I haven¡¦t felt like an uncaught criminal. (Take off your shoes, take off your belt, is that really striped underwear?) They were very professional and very thorough, but at the same time they were courteous, smiling, laughing and very pleasant. I don¡¦t think you have to be Kojak to be effective in a security role. I made a point of complimenting their work and got a double take in return, apparently they don¡¦t get too many compliments. Our flights were smooth and soon we were in sunny ¡V and hot ¡V Orlando. Our connection in Charlotte worked out just the way the airline said it would, they hadn¡¦t even started loading the plane by the time we got to the gate. In Orlando, the towncar driver was waiting for us at baggage claim just as promised, a very nice change from our last two trips. (We have switched towncar companies and are no longer using Tiffany.) The driver was pleasant, we got our store stop ¡V ¡§take all the time you need,¡¨ and we enjoyed our drive. Hey, it¡¦s Florida and we are on Vacation. The only downside was that the driver insisted on playing Fantasia II in the van. We are talking the video here. He said it would get us in the ¡§mood.¡¨ We were already in the mood so we didn¡¦t abject. Soon we were at the Boardwalk.
At check in, we got the biggest surprise of our vacation. ¡§You guys have been upgraded.¡¨ I thought back to all those posts I¡¦ve seen on the DVC board. ¡§Q: Has anyone every been upgraded? A: Never heard of an upgrade.¡¨ I wasn¡¦t about to make an issue of it.. We opened the door to our room and our chins hit the floor. Upgrade, no. It was an UPGRADE. We had ordered a standard view studio. (Studio overlooking the parking lot) When we opened the door we realized we had a 1 bedroom preferred on the first floor with a walkout to the quiet pool. We are talking buco points here. For 10 minutes all we could do was stare at our beautiful room. We¡¦ve stayed in two bedrooms a couple of times, but that was with our kids and we never really got to enjoy it. Wow, to have a living room, kitchen, Jacuzzi bathtub in a room all to ourselves. That is luxury. Now we were bummed that we would have to switch to a preferred view studio on Wednesday with a view of the boardwalk, something we had been looking forward to before. º
We unpacked and were off to the parks. We brought our AP vouchers to the Epcot back gate and got a not quite so pleasant surprise. Apparently, the Disney store we bought the vouchers from had not put them in the system correctly. The CM could not find them. Thank God we had brought our receipt. She entered new ones, gave us a new receipt and gave us our APs. This took about 20 minutes. I shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn¡¦t had our receipt. Note to self: Buy Annual Passes at WDW from now on since there is no benefit to buying APs ahead of time and the chance of a heart-attack your first day at WDW is greatly diminished. We¡¦ll buy hoppers from the Disney store since those have a discount. I apologized to the people waiting patiently behind us and we entered Epcot. Someday I will develop the ability to describe the feeling I get when I walk into a Disney park on a warm sunny day for the first time in a year. What a glorious feeling. We headed right to UK and bought Fish and Chips. Yummy. We then decided to do the following: follow the path around the lake, do Spaceship Earth, then go back to our room. Well as all best laid plans go, you know the drill. We stopped to watch the Living Statue. Hilarious as always. It¡¦s interesting to see how the show begins. This time the statue just stood ¡V a statue ¡V for a good 5 minutes until people had gotten the idea that that is all there was, in fact some people were leaving. People were taking pictures of the statue but seriously the audience was getting a bit bored. She might as well have been stone. 3 grade-school girls posed in front of the statue when, suddenly, she ¡§moved.¡¨ They screamed, and one little girl almost broke into tears, it was a total crack-up. After that the show got fun as she took hats, insisted on kisses from the older gentlemen, and even pulled a hair out of the head of a bald guy. Point: bring your video camera when you tour ¡V I had left mine in our room.
We recommenced walking. I pointed out Maelstrom to Wendy. She couldn¡¦t remember ever riding it though she had about 4 years ago so we got in line. So much for our plans. LOL By the time we had finished fighting trolls and learning about Norway it was too late to see Spaceship earth. In Mexico, we bought margaritas. I bought strawberry and Wendy bought lime. Wendy liked hers but mine was so salty I ended up throwing it away. So much for starting a margarita tradition. As we walked through Canada Illuminations was beginning so we watched the fireworks. Another thing Wendy couldn¡¦t remember seeing, though she has. Nothing can cap a day at Epcot like watching illuminations. With our heads in the clouds and feeling the brotherhood of our fellow travelers on this third planet from the sun as we walked, we headed back to our room on the first floor with a walkout to the pool. We put on our suits and jumped in the hot tub to put a final cap on our day.
Tomorrow was Sunday and since we were still getting into vacation mode we decided to just wake up when we woke so we didn¡¦t set an alarm clock. Nitey Nite.
Cast:
Me ¡V Software Developer and Dad to two 3yo twins.
DW ¡V Domestic Engineer and Mommy to two 3 yo twins.
Dates: May 3 ¡V 10, 2003 Saturday ¡V Saturday.
Background:
For the third time in three years we will be enjoying our wedding anniversary at Walt Disney World. I started this tradition as kind of a surprise trip for my wife for our seventh wedding anniversary, we enjoyed it so much that over the years we have extended our stay every year and this vacation has become a tradition. In March, we were planning a ski vacation but we cancelled and rented out our timeshare instead. To make up for that we extended our WDW vacation from 5 days to 7. Our original plans called for Friday to Friday but alas either I screwed up or the airline screwed up and we ended up with both flights on Saturdays. Luckily DVC was able to change our dates so we didn¡¦t have a problem. However we would have flown out earlier if we¡¦d know we were leaving on a Saturday. As soon as two weeks prior, after experiencing some unexpected expenses, we seriously thought about canceling, eating our point and airline ticket losses and saving the money. Life can throw some nasty surprises and we have struggled as we have learned to live our life on a budget, a serious change from years past when money seemed to grow on trees. Obviously we decided to vacation as planned, gritting our teeth as we bought our AP passes (the point of no return) and flew to Disney World. That said, I¡¦m glad we did. It has been probably the best Disney vacation we have ever taken.
May 2. Friday. The night before
About half way through my packing (yes, I packed the night before, not the day of as I bragged on the DIS.) I decided to take one last look at our airline itinerary and felt a cold hand on my stomach. Our connection in Orlando was going to be a very close call. We only had a 35 minute layover in Charlotte. After getting advice to ¡§be ready to run¡¨ from the DIS I broke out in a cold sweat. So I called the airline. Over the years I¡¦ve talked to nice airline representatives and not so nice ones. This woman definitely one of the nice ones. She calmed me down and told me that it would take us less than 10 minutes to walk from one gate to another in that airport, even if the gates are in different concourses. Then we spent half an hour discussing job situations, airline woes, vacation places and various other topics. She had just been recalled by US Air and was totally excited to be working again. With reps like her I will definitely fly US Air again. I went to bed with no worries ready to go to WDW.
Saturday morning my sister drove us to the airport after loaning me her new digital camera. Even though I brought our old film type camera with us all the pictures we snapped this time were of the digital variety. The nicest thing about that was that the camera was so much smaller and the pictures came out great. We arrived duly 2 hours in advance, breezed through security and were ready to board the airplane with one hour and 55 minutes to spare. Here I must say something about airport security. The new federal employees at airport security have been ragged on by the news however I must say that I think the federal takeover is the best thing that could ever have happened to them. This is the first time going through airport security that I haven¡¦t felt like an uncaught criminal. (Take off your shoes, take off your belt, is that really striped underwear?) They were very professional and very thorough, but at the same time they were courteous, smiling, laughing and very pleasant. I don¡¦t think you have to be Kojak to be effective in a security role. I made a point of complimenting their work and got a double take in return, apparently they don¡¦t get too many compliments. Our flights were smooth and soon we were in sunny ¡V and hot ¡V Orlando. Our connection in Charlotte worked out just the way the airline said it would, they hadn¡¦t even started loading the plane by the time we got to the gate. In Orlando, the towncar driver was waiting for us at baggage claim just as promised, a very nice change from our last two trips. (We have switched towncar companies and are no longer using Tiffany.) The driver was pleasant, we got our store stop ¡V ¡§take all the time you need,¡¨ and we enjoyed our drive. Hey, it¡¦s Florida and we are on Vacation. The only downside was that the driver insisted on playing Fantasia II in the van. We are talking the video here. He said it would get us in the ¡§mood.¡¨ We were already in the mood so we didn¡¦t abject. Soon we were at the Boardwalk.
At check in, we got the biggest surprise of our vacation. ¡§You guys have been upgraded.¡¨ I thought back to all those posts I¡¦ve seen on the DVC board. ¡§Q: Has anyone every been upgraded? A: Never heard of an upgrade.¡¨ I wasn¡¦t about to make an issue of it.. We opened the door to our room and our chins hit the floor. Upgrade, no. It was an UPGRADE. We had ordered a standard view studio. (Studio overlooking the parking lot) When we opened the door we realized we had a 1 bedroom preferred on the first floor with a walkout to the quiet pool. We are talking buco points here. For 10 minutes all we could do was stare at our beautiful room. We¡¦ve stayed in two bedrooms a couple of times, but that was with our kids and we never really got to enjoy it. Wow, to have a living room, kitchen, Jacuzzi bathtub in a room all to ourselves. That is luxury. Now we were bummed that we would have to switch to a preferred view studio on Wednesday with a view of the boardwalk, something we had been looking forward to before. º
We unpacked and were off to the parks. We brought our AP vouchers to the Epcot back gate and got a not quite so pleasant surprise. Apparently, the Disney store we bought the vouchers from had not put them in the system correctly. The CM could not find them. Thank God we had brought our receipt. She entered new ones, gave us a new receipt and gave us our APs. This took about 20 minutes. I shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn¡¦t had our receipt. Note to self: Buy Annual Passes at WDW from now on since there is no benefit to buying APs ahead of time and the chance of a heart-attack your first day at WDW is greatly diminished. We¡¦ll buy hoppers from the Disney store since those have a discount. I apologized to the people waiting patiently behind us and we entered Epcot. Someday I will develop the ability to describe the feeling I get when I walk into a Disney park on a warm sunny day for the first time in a year. What a glorious feeling. We headed right to UK and bought Fish and Chips. Yummy. We then decided to do the following: follow the path around the lake, do Spaceship Earth, then go back to our room. Well as all best laid plans go, you know the drill. We stopped to watch the Living Statue. Hilarious as always. It¡¦s interesting to see how the show begins. This time the statue just stood ¡V a statue ¡V for a good 5 minutes until people had gotten the idea that that is all there was, in fact some people were leaving. People were taking pictures of the statue but seriously the audience was getting a bit bored. She might as well have been stone. 3 grade-school girls posed in front of the statue when, suddenly, she ¡§moved.¡¨ They screamed, and one little girl almost broke into tears, it was a total crack-up. After that the show got fun as she took hats, insisted on kisses from the older gentlemen, and even pulled a hair out of the head of a bald guy. Point: bring your video camera when you tour ¡V I had left mine in our room.
We recommenced walking. I pointed out Maelstrom to Wendy. She couldn¡¦t remember ever riding it though she had about 4 years ago so we got in line. So much for our plans. LOL By the time we had finished fighting trolls and learning about Norway it was too late to see Spaceship earth. In Mexico, we bought margaritas. I bought strawberry and Wendy bought lime. Wendy liked hers but mine was so salty I ended up throwing it away. So much for starting a margarita tradition. As we walked through Canada Illuminations was beginning so we watched the fireworks. Another thing Wendy couldn¡¦t remember seeing, though she has. Nothing can cap a day at Epcot like watching illuminations. With our heads in the clouds and feeling the brotherhood of our fellow travelers on this third planet from the sun as we walked, we headed back to our room on the first floor with a walkout to the pool. We put on our suits and jumped in the hot tub to put a final cap on our day.
Tomorrow was Sunday and since we were still getting into vacation mode we decided to just wake up when we woke so we didn¡¦t set an alarm clock. Nitey Nite.
