a girls-only birthday weekend w/ the mouse! sept. '07 w/ pics! THE END!!! :(

[punkin413]

TR INDEX

DAY 1 - the drive down and check in - page 1, post 2
DAY 2, PART 1 - breakfast at kona and morning at MK - page 3, posts 31 & 32
DAY 2, PART 2 - more MK - page 4, post 55
DAY 2, PART 3 - dinner at crystal palace - page 5, post 75
DAY 2, PART 4 - spectromagic & wishes - page 7, post 92 and 93
DAY 3, PART 1 - morning and lunch at MGM - page 9, posts 133 & 134
DAY 3, PART 2 - afternoon at MGM (chip bites the dust!) - page 11, post 156
DAY 3, PART 3 - peep meet at 'ohana - page 12, post 168
DAY 3, PART 4 - fantasmic & MK evening EMH - page 13, posts 192 & 193
DAY 4, PART 1 - morning at AK - page 14, post 209
DAY 4, PART 2 - more AK - EE, lunch and dinosaur! - page 15, post 220
DAY 4, PART 3 - THE END!!!!!! page 16, posts 231 & 232

so......i'm finally starting on this TR!!! sorry to make you guys wait for something that's going to be so short. this installment will actually be kinda short because i thought i'd be off work today and, of course, they've called me in for a hearing this afternoon. figures!

if you're just now joining us, feel free to go check out my pre-TR for the scoopage! here's the link: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1531295

anyway, on to the TR.....

 

[punkin413]

after work on friday i got home around 1:00 and started getting everything ready to go. erin finally called me around 4:00 and told me she was leaving. it's so hard to wait on someone when you're going to disney world! we didn't actually get on the road until about 5:00 because we had to pack the car with her stuff and then get gas, but alas, we were off!

i drove the whole way because erin was on pain meds for her back. i didn't care though. for some reason driving long distances doesn't get to me when i'm on my way to disney! erin played rollercoaster tycoon for awhile and i drove through the torential downpours we had on the way. it was raining so hard i could barely see!! lexmelinda called me when i was stuck in friday evening traffic somewhere south of atlanta. she and her family were about an hour ahead of us on the road. we stopped at dairy queen somewhere south of macon to eat dinner, then back on the road. the rain finally stopped once we got into florida. i took the new highway 429 road to disney instead of going to orlando and it cut a good bit off the trip. i'm so glad i knew about it!

i had told erin about all the signs on the florida turnpike advertising disney tickets, but we couldn't see any of them because it was dark and they weren't lit up. what a rip off!

on the way down, tara texted me a couple of times updating me on her flights. her plane in atlanta was like 45 minuetes late. not fun!

somewhere around 12:30 we finally saw this.......

it's like the heavens were singing!!! i know the picture is awful, but it was 12:30 and we were DEAD, so i didn't have the energy to stop and take another one.

we made our way over to OKW with me pointing out things to erin the whole way.....oh, look, there's coronado springs. oh, and there's the tower of terror. oh, and there's the giant golf ball. i'm sure it was really annoying for erin!

i forgot to mention.....the whole way to florida erin was asking me about certain rides she'd heard about. every time i'd describe a ride, she'd say, "i'm not going on it." finally i figured out she was just kidding around with me. so that was her mantra for the rest of the trip. every time we'd say, "let's go do this," erin would say, "i'm not going on it." but don't worry......she was just being silly!

we got to old key west and went inside. i asked the guy at the front desk if i could use the bathroom and he said no. i never did understand that one. he said it was closed. okay.....whatever. i told him we were waiting on a DVC member that we were staying with to arrive from magical express. he told us to have a seat in the lobby. so we went over to the lobby and kinda of just collapsed. i started thinking that maybe i could get some of our ticket stuff taken care of and get erin's birthday button, so i went back up to the desk and rang the bell. a different CM came out and i told him the same thing i'd told the first guy. he said, "oh, if your name's on the reservation, you can check in. she doesn't need to be here." why didn't the first CM know this???

anyway, we checked in. they had my name spelled "don" on the room key, but oh well. when i asked to make sure the DDP was on our plan, he says, "no. it doesn't say anything here about it." so i told him i'd have tara come and straighten it out since she's the one who changed it. i called tara to let her know we'd gotten the room keys and everything and she said they were pulling into the resort, so we just waited for her. the bus pulled up a couple of minutes later and i saw tara for the first time! it was so nice to finally meet her in person! i didn't take any pictures because it was too late and my brain was fried.

we went inside to take care of the DDP problem and they said they could do nothing about it right then, that she had to call member services, get it straightened out and then come by the hotel lobby to pick up new cards. well, that wasn't going to work because we would be in MK before member services opened and we were NOT going to come all the way back to the hotel to get new cards in the middle of the day! we only had 2.5 days.....we couldn't spare any park time!

after much discussion, the CM told her to just pay for all our meals, keep the receipts and they'd reimburse us once they got the DDP put on our tickets. okay....done!

we made our way to the room and it was VERY close to the main building....just across the parking lot! here's a pic i took the day we left....2nd floor, far righthand corner.

and here's a pic of the main area where you get on the busses and where all the shops and lobby is....

we finally got all unpacked and settled in. we had the TV on the top 7 things in disney and erin was enthralled while tara and i could pretty much quote everything! here's erin checking out my nifty laminated itinerary. okay.....really she was making fun of it!

oh, and here's a little friend we had waiting on us in the room.....

erin decided to play rollercoaster tycoon before she went to sleep and about 5 minutes after laying down i heard her breathing become steady and i turned over to see her asleep with the computer on her chest, the screen shining in her face....i wish i would've had my camera! i finally went to sleep around 2:30. our alarm was set for 6:30 because we had an 8:10 ADR at kona cafe.

how will MK be on 4 hours of sleep????? come back to find out!

next installment: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=21127060&postcount=31

 

[lexmelinda]

YAY! It's officially a trip report!

I hear ya on the torrential rain! I put my flashers on and drove 30 mph for about 25 miles. And what about that SR-429! Why isn't anybody using it??? It's so convenient and practically deserted!

OKW looks wonderful! See that bench where the old lady is sitting in the picture. That's where Emily and I waited for DH to come pick us up last year when we took the OKW bus from DTD by mistake. I sat there and ate my WP Express lunch. I kept getting these why-is-she-eating-at-the-bus-stop looks from people. Heh.

I can't imagine MK on 4 hours sleep. You girls are younger than me!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Subscribing over here.

 

[Disneyolic]

I'm feeling déja vu here ....

 

[hcmommy]

Coming out of lurkdom to say Hi and subscribe. I've read your other reports and really enjoyed them but I don't think I ever commented, sorry! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[monymony3471]

I hate driving at night let alone while it's raining. Thank goodness you guys are alright.

 

[DisneyJo]

Great first installment, I can't believe they wouldn't let you use the toilet And how come one CM wouldn't sign you in then the next one did Good job you finally got settled

Wow only 4 hours sleep

 

[timandlesley]

Yeah! So glad you started it, can't wait for more Loved the "I'm not gonna ride it" comments

Lesley

 

[KatGarcia]

Subbing over here too! Love your TRs!

 

[IluvXU]

Girls trip! I can't wait to see what you can get jammed in 2.5 days... probably what it took us a week to do with a 4 year old and 17 month old.

 

[MeMom]

Our girls' trip starts tomorrow. This time tomorrow we will be on the road. I've never been so excited about a Halloween party in my life! I will look forward to catching up with your fun when we return. We were just at OKW this summer to eat lunch and roam around. Your picture made me want to be back there right now!

 

[Spartangirl]

Subbing in over here! I can't wait to find out about your day at MK with only 4 hours of sleep....ugg!

 

[Wonders10]

Hey Dawn...Great start!

I think the Disney sign pic is wonderful! There could never be a bad picture of those magical arches

Can't wait for the rest!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

I hate driving in rain at night!

I laughed out loud about Erin falling asleep with her computer on her chest!

Sounds like a good start...can't wait to hear the rest!

 

[HockeyKat]

Subscribing... and yes, yours have LOTS more detail than mine!!

 

[disneyeeyorefan]

subscribing

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Great start, Dawn! You gals must have alot of energy! I have trouble sitting in a chair and watching my grandbabies after only 4 hrs of sleep!

Erin must be like me! I usually fall asleep with the laptop on my chest while on the DIS

 

[dismom9761]

Hi Dawn I am here subbing but it is 4:00am so I will be back later to read...

 

[LMO429]

Hi! im made the move over looking forward to hearing more