A Pirate looks at 30
Day 1 - 1st ride of the day comes early!
Cast:
Darren aka ktulu aka darrrrren - me, 29 (30 on Aug 11), and I'm a pirate, arrrrr
Jill - my wife, 26, not a pirate, but the best wife in the world!
The alarm goes off, it's 5am. Who in their right mind is up this early. Arrr me needs caffeine. Me wife dresses and heads to get breakfast at Whataburger. Mmmm...taquitos! We pack the final things, get dressed. Tammy, my wife's boss and friend arrives at 5:45 to pick us up. Jill gets back with breakfast, we all eat quickly. The car gets packed with our stuff, next stop DFW Airport.
We arrive without incident. Unload the car, say bye to Tammy (bye Tammy!) and head on in. E-ticket, the way to go. Get to the counter, get boarding passes, check luggage. Turn, look at the line for security. I have just met the people who are not in their right mind, it's around 6:15am, and the line is long. Arrrrr. I turn and look the other way to the other security line, it's short. We head there. As I wait, and wait, and wait for the guy in front of me to practically finish undressing, we finally make it through with no problems, we're clear and apparently my clever idea of not dressing like a pirate was a good thing!
We board the plane and the first ride of the day is about to begin. Take off is nice, bye Dallas! Ah, I settle in for a nice comfortable flight, until the person in front of me puts their seat back, I counter with putting my seat back, and it's domino, all the seats go back. Nothing like a really dry crumbly cookie for a snack and what amounts to a shot of ginger ale for the trip. Then it happens. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Captain, please return to your seats and put on your seatbelts, flight attendants, please take your seats." Suddenly we're hitting some pretty bad turbulence. I mean dropping, coming out of your seat turbulence. I'm at the window with my GPS, wings are still attached and we're not losing altitude, so I enjoy the ride. Jill squeezes my hand, I assure her we're fine. The rest of the plane is screaming, babies crying, dogs and cats getting along. Finally it gets smoother and soon we're on final to MCO. Landing is smooth, Pilot apologizes and said it he thought it'd be smoother to come in over Tampa or something. On the way out, I tell him he made up for it on the landing. Yes, I'm one of those smart alecks from coach, remember, I'm a pirate, arrrrr.
Tiffany Towncar is there with a sign, she knows where our baggage is coming out of, which is good because Jill and I were not paying attention! My bag comes out, it's all still there and we wait. Getting a place on the baggage claim conveyor is like jockeying for position during Spectro. Everyone has a spot they want to claim as their own, there is someone trying to take over that spot, and it seems that personal space is not an issue for some people who do not seem to be from any where around here, and when I say here, I mean the United States. Their accents, use of a foreign language and body odor give it away. I'm not saying that all foreigners smell, and God knows we have our fair share of smelly people, but the odor that around me was bad. I move. And again, I wait. Jill's bag must be one of the last ones out. Later we find out it was hand inspected, which explains why it was one of the last bags out. First bag on the plane, last bag out. Sorta like boarding coach, unless ye be a Pirate, arrr!
We have a nice rainy drive. Now, at this point I'm not really feeling the effects of the Disney magic. We pass under the WDW sign, we're here. Still not feeling it. Hey look, the Wilderness Lodge sign. My brain quickly switches to vacation mode - Disney World setting and it hits me. We drive up and see the lodge, and wow. This is impressive. We unload the car and head inside.
One word for this hotel. Amazing. All of the pictures I have seen does not do this place any justice. Jill drags me over to check in, I run into two families, one giant pole and trip over a stroller on the way. Who can expect me to pay any attention to where I am walking with all this to look at. Oh yeah, I'll be here for a week, I should probably pay attention! Jacki checks us in. She sees we're there celebrating my 30th, and asks if we want to upgrade to concierge, for a price. $70 is the offer, Jill and I throw each other looks of sure, why not, Jacki counters with $50 pending approval from her manager. We would have said yes at $70, but it's a heck yeah at $50! She squares away the paper work, give us keys and takes us to the elevator. We go on up. We skip off the elevator like two little kids and head to our room which is, uh...room number. We don't know! Okay, I get first dibs on the couch, Jill has to sleep in one of the chairs. We steal some towels and blankets from a housekeeping cart and settle in. I head on over to the snack bar in my boxers, you honestly don't expect me to relax in my clothes do you?
Okay, not really. While waiting to ask the concierge what our room number is, our luggage arrives. Cool, we'll just follow that! We get to our room, number 7102. Now, we have a view of the villas, we could have had a lagoon/pool view, but we wanted a king sized bed. The room is a little small, but very well themed. We like it. At this point we're starving. We get some snacks, talk to Randall at the concierge desk and head to...EPCOT!
We take the bus to Epcot. On the way we noticed it was raining, so we were happy we took our Coleman ponchos with us. We decide once we're there that we need to put on our ponchos, so out they come. Jill has hers on in no time, I fumble with mine until I find out it's defective. The armhole on one side is one big long slit, so it's open. Jill ties it, I look like a fool. A FOOL AT DISNEY WORLD! We go in. No crowds thanks to the rain, we hit spaceship earth first, less than a 5 min wait. The soundtrack messes up during the ride, we don't care, we're at Disney World! After that we play around and try to make a phone call using the family phone. No good, we leave. We walk around and hit Ice Station Cool. I've been waiting for this, all the reports I read, the fun that was had trying the different flavors. Wow, it's cold, where is the snow though? We walk through a plastic barrier and it snows on us. Wow, it's cold. Finally we make it all the way through and we're in soda fountain heaven. It's free, little tiny cups, and all the free soda we can drink using them! I attack the machine like I've just come through the Sahara desert without anything to drink for 6 days, 23 hours and 45 minutes. A nice CM tells us to mix two together, and it's really good. It becomes my drink of choice there.
I did try the Beverly, as did my wife. Whoever came up with that should be commended. It is the perfect flavor and after taste, IF it was some sort of liquid medication.
Off we go, Test Track is closed due to rain, yet people are waiting. There are no more fast passes so we decide to do it on a different day, BECAUSE IT'S DAY ONE BABY! We head over to mission space. It's open, yay. The line is short, so we go on. The wait is maybe 10 minutes before we're actually on the ride. I've been assigned the commander, a nice old lady and her grand daughter are the pilot and navigator and my wife is the engineer. We board, I start giving commands, the old lady tells me to shut up and we break out into an all out cussing match, my wife and I vs. old lady and granddaughter (about 5-6). The granddaughter wins the cussing match and we're ready for take off.
Okay, again, that didn't happen. We're all happily strapped in. Doors close, controls come forward, roll for take off and we're off. I of course push all the buttons at the right times, after all I am a trained pirate, thus fully capable of handling my assigned duties aboard this spacecraft. We all do a great job and make it to mars safely, but I really don't think that nice old lady was really following the instructions on which way to pull the joystick, otherwise the landing would have been without incident. We exit the ride and Jill says, that was fun, but you get to ride it alone from now on. Translation: I feel ill, and it's your fault. We look at the cool things in the shop and head to the World Showcase.
First thing, we need drinks. We get margaritas in Mexico. I know, it's so cliche'. These are quite tasty, and on near empty stomachs, potent! We stop in China for eggrolls, now we're both about done with our drinks at this point, and feeling pretty good. Jill proceeds to tell me she needs just about everything she sees in the shops in China. We head out from there, heading toward Germany. In the crystal shops, I have to tell her not to touch anything. Nothing is broke and we continue on. For lunch we stopped in Japan, our favorite land. We decide on the Yakitori house and enjoy it. I felt like I was in Japan with all of the Japanese people around me. It was nice, not too expensive and we both enjoyed our food. We spent about 3000 yen for lunch.
After that, we continued our tour of the world showcase. In England we went around the hedge maze. People thought we were crazy, but it was fun. Then we decided to head back to the Lodge, get some snacks and relax. Yes, there was a lack of interesting things between Japan and the exit, see the alcohol wore off at that point and we were just checking things out, soaking it all in, taking in the sights, come on, you get the idea!
After relaxing we headed to Downtown Disney. We shopped some, looked at the small changes (such as the lack of lego figures outside) and had dinner at, are you ready? You sure? Positive? You really don't want to know. Okay, maybe you do, but really, do you care? I know some of you might. I can tell you this, it's not too bad, reasonably priced. Do I make a game out of it? Do I offer some sort of fantastic prize? Do I keep you at the edge of your seats? Fine, we ate at McDonalds. I know, all the build up, with a big let down. Now, why eat at McDonalds while at WDW? It was right there, and cheap
After we ate, we did a bit more shopping and headed back to the lodge for some much needed sleep.
Next report: Day 2 - Plans change, concierge becomes a hero.
Day 1 - 1st ride of the day comes early!
Cast:
Darren aka ktulu aka darrrrren - me, 29 (30 on Aug 11), and I'm a pirate, arrrrr
Jill - my wife, 26, not a pirate, but the best wife in the world!
The alarm goes off, it's 5am. Who in their right mind is up this early. Arrr me needs caffeine. Me wife dresses and heads to get breakfast at Whataburger. Mmmm...taquitos! We pack the final things, get dressed. Tammy, my wife's boss and friend arrives at 5:45 to pick us up. Jill gets back with breakfast, we all eat quickly. The car gets packed with our stuff, next stop DFW Airport.
We arrive without incident. Unload the car, say bye to Tammy (bye Tammy!) and head on in. E-ticket, the way to go. Get to the counter, get boarding passes, check luggage. Turn, look at the line for security. I have just met the people who are not in their right mind, it's around 6:15am, and the line is long. Arrrrr. I turn and look the other way to the other security line, it's short. We head there. As I wait, and wait, and wait for the guy in front of me to practically finish undressing, we finally make it through with no problems, we're clear and apparently my clever idea of not dressing like a pirate was a good thing!
We board the plane and the first ride of the day is about to begin. Take off is nice, bye Dallas! Ah, I settle in for a nice comfortable flight, until the person in front of me puts their seat back, I counter with putting my seat back, and it's domino, all the seats go back. Nothing like a really dry crumbly cookie for a snack and what amounts to a shot of ginger ale for the trip. Then it happens. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Captain, please return to your seats and put on your seatbelts, flight attendants, please take your seats." Suddenly we're hitting some pretty bad turbulence. I mean dropping, coming out of your seat turbulence. I'm at the window with my GPS, wings are still attached and we're not losing altitude, so I enjoy the ride. Jill squeezes my hand, I assure her we're fine. The rest of the plane is screaming, babies crying, dogs and cats getting along. Finally it gets smoother and soon we're on final to MCO. Landing is smooth, Pilot apologizes and said it he thought it'd be smoother to come in over Tampa or something. On the way out, I tell him he made up for it on the landing. Yes, I'm one of those smart alecks from coach, remember, I'm a pirate, arrrrr.
Tiffany Towncar is there with a sign, she knows where our baggage is coming out of, which is good because Jill and I were not paying attention! My bag comes out, it's all still there and we wait. Getting a place on the baggage claim conveyor is like jockeying for position during Spectro. Everyone has a spot they want to claim as their own, there is someone trying to take over that spot, and it seems that personal space is not an issue for some people who do not seem to be from any where around here, and when I say here, I mean the United States. Their accents, use of a foreign language and body odor give it away. I'm not saying that all foreigners smell, and God knows we have our fair share of smelly people, but the odor that around me was bad. I move. And again, I wait. Jill's bag must be one of the last ones out. Later we find out it was hand inspected, which explains why it was one of the last bags out. First bag on the plane, last bag out. Sorta like boarding coach, unless ye be a Pirate, arrr!
We have a nice rainy drive. Now, at this point I'm not really feeling the effects of the Disney magic. We pass under the WDW sign, we're here. Still not feeling it. Hey look, the Wilderness Lodge sign. My brain quickly switches to vacation mode - Disney World setting and it hits me. We drive up and see the lodge, and wow. This is impressive. We unload the car and head inside.
One word for this hotel. Amazing. All of the pictures I have seen does not do this place any justice. Jill drags me over to check in, I run into two families, one giant pole and trip over a stroller on the way. Who can expect me to pay any attention to where I am walking with all this to look at. Oh yeah, I'll be here for a week, I should probably pay attention! Jacki checks us in. She sees we're there celebrating my 30th, and asks if we want to upgrade to concierge, for a price. $70 is the offer, Jill and I throw each other looks of sure, why not, Jacki counters with $50 pending approval from her manager. We would have said yes at $70, but it's a heck yeah at $50! She squares away the paper work, give us keys and takes us to the elevator. We go on up. We skip off the elevator like two little kids and head to our room which is, uh...room number. We don't know! Okay, I get first dibs on the couch, Jill has to sleep in one of the chairs. We steal some towels and blankets from a housekeeping cart and settle in. I head on over to the snack bar in my boxers, you honestly don't expect me to relax in my clothes do you?
Okay, not really. While waiting to ask the concierge what our room number is, our luggage arrives. Cool, we'll just follow that! We get to our room, number 7102. Now, we have a view of the villas, we could have had a lagoon/pool view, but we wanted a king sized bed. The room is a little small, but very well themed. We like it. At this point we're starving. We get some snacks, talk to Randall at the concierge desk and head to...EPCOT!
We take the bus to Epcot. On the way we noticed it was raining, so we were happy we took our Coleman ponchos with us. We decide once we're there that we need to put on our ponchos, so out they come. Jill has hers on in no time, I fumble with mine until I find out it's defective. The armhole on one side is one big long slit, so it's open. Jill ties it, I look like a fool. A FOOL AT DISNEY WORLD! We go in. No crowds thanks to the rain, we hit spaceship earth first, less than a 5 min wait. The soundtrack messes up during the ride, we don't care, we're at Disney World! After that we play around and try to make a phone call using the family phone. No good, we leave. We walk around and hit Ice Station Cool. I've been waiting for this, all the reports I read, the fun that was had trying the different flavors. Wow, it's cold, where is the snow though? We walk through a plastic barrier and it snows on us. Wow, it's cold. Finally we make it all the way through and we're in soda fountain heaven. It's free, little tiny cups, and all the free soda we can drink using them! I attack the machine like I've just come through the Sahara desert without anything to drink for 6 days, 23 hours and 45 minutes. A nice CM tells us to mix two together, and it's really good. It becomes my drink of choice there.
I did try the Beverly, as did my wife. Whoever came up with that should be commended. It is the perfect flavor and after taste, IF it was some sort of liquid medication.
Off we go, Test Track is closed due to rain, yet people are waiting. There are no more fast passes so we decide to do it on a different day, BECAUSE IT'S DAY ONE BABY! We head over to mission space. It's open, yay. The line is short, so we go on. The wait is maybe 10 minutes before we're actually on the ride. I've been assigned the commander, a nice old lady and her grand daughter are the pilot and navigator and my wife is the engineer. We board, I start giving commands, the old lady tells me to shut up and we break out into an all out cussing match, my wife and I vs. old lady and granddaughter (about 5-6). The granddaughter wins the cussing match and we're ready for take off.
Okay, again, that didn't happen. We're all happily strapped in. Doors close, controls come forward, roll for take off and we're off. I of course push all the buttons at the right times, after all I am a trained pirate, thus fully capable of handling my assigned duties aboard this spacecraft. We all do a great job and make it to mars safely, but I really don't think that nice old lady was really following the instructions on which way to pull the joystick, otherwise the landing would have been without incident. We exit the ride and Jill says, that was fun, but you get to ride it alone from now on. Translation: I feel ill, and it's your fault. We look at the cool things in the shop and head to the World Showcase.
First thing, we need drinks. We get margaritas in Mexico. I know, it's so cliche'. These are quite tasty, and on near empty stomachs, potent! We stop in China for eggrolls, now we're both about done with our drinks at this point, and feeling pretty good. Jill proceeds to tell me she needs just about everything she sees in the shops in China. We head out from there, heading toward Germany. In the crystal shops, I have to tell her not to touch anything. Nothing is broke and we continue on. For lunch we stopped in Japan, our favorite land. We decide on the Yakitori house and enjoy it. I felt like I was in Japan with all of the Japanese people around me. It was nice, not too expensive and we both enjoyed our food. We spent about 3000 yen for lunch.
After that, we continued our tour of the world showcase. In England we went around the hedge maze. People thought we were crazy, but it was fun. Then we decided to head back to the Lodge, get some snacks and relax. Yes, there was a lack of interesting things between Japan and the exit, see the alcohol wore off at that point and we were just checking things out, soaking it all in, taking in the sights, come on, you get the idea!
After relaxing we headed to Downtown Disney. We shopped some, looked at the small changes (such as the lack of lego figures outside) and had dinner at, are you ready? You sure? Positive? You really don't want to know. Okay, maybe you do, but really, do you care? I know some of you might. I can tell you this, it's not too bad, reasonably priced. Do I make a game out of it? Do I offer some sort of fantastic prize? Do I keep you at the edge of your seats? Fine, we ate at McDonalds. I know, all the build up, with a big let down. Now, why eat at McDonalds while at WDW? It was right there, and cheap
After we ate, we did a bit more shopping and headed back to the lodge for some much needed sleep.
Next report: Day 2 - Plans change, concierge becomes a hero.
