Can a trip w/ friends make up for an unmagical trip with the BF?-Final Updates 12/30!

[tankgirl427]

Hi everyone!

Last year over Labor Day I took a trip with my BF. I ended the trip on a somewhat positive moment, but was not feeling the Disney magic sort of trip. So I started planning a trip with friends which I was sure would be an amazing trip. What started off as a trip of five almost ended up being a trip for two, but luckily one person found a way to make the trip happen. What happen to the other two people who dropped out? One was my friend, j, who neglected to actually keep track of his vacation days and make sure he had enough days to go on the trip. D'oh! The second was the BF of someone going, they broke up a month or two before the trip. Not dating? No invite to the party!

Now that, that's taken care of I should probably introduce those who made it and tell you our plans.

There's me:



I bought myself a voucher in April from Disney Store for an AP which I traded in this trip and found myself celebrating my annual pass. I love meeting characters and watching Disney movies and will randomly start a conversation with about anyone.

Then there's g:



He lives in FL about 40 minutes away from the world. I know his favorite ride is Test Track. He may join in to "voice" his opinion.

Finally there's b:



She lives in Seattle. She liked taking random pictures of signs.

The plan was for me to fly down on the 14th. My plane was to arrive at 10pm and I was spending the night at Pop, the next day was EMH at HS and I hoped to trade in my voucher and get a ride on TSM.

The day before leaving (or could be considered same day cause it was like 11pm - 12am) g decided he would drive down on Friday to get a head start on the trip. So I quickly added him to reservation and attempted to make sure he could check in.

The 15th we'd check out and check in to Wyndham Bonnet Creek for the week using b's timeshare and pick her up for the week of fun ahead of us.

So did this trip make up for last year?

 

[tankgirl427]

Table of Contents
Arrival Day!
First Day in Disney - Part 1
First Day in Disney - Part 2
First Day in Disney - Part 3
First Day in Disney - Part 4
First Day in Disney - Part 5
Our First Day in a Park - Part 1
Our First Day in a Park - Part 2
Our First Day in a Park - Part 3
Our First Day in a Park - Part 4
Day 2 - Part 1
Day 2 - Part 2
Day 2 - Part 3
Day 3 - Part 1
Day 3 - Part 2
Bonus Feature #1!
Day 3 - Part 3
Day 3 - Part 4
Day 3 - Part 5
Day 4 - Part 1
Quick Update
Day 4 - Part 2
Day 4 - Part 3
Bonus Feature #2!
Day 4 - Part 4
Day 5 - Part 1
Day 5 - Part 2
Day 5 - Part 3
Day 5 - Part 4
Bonus Feature #3!
Game Time!
Day 5 - Part 5
Day 5 - Part 6
Day 6 - Part 1
Day 6 - Part 2
Day 6 - Part 3
Day 6 - Part 4
Day 6 - Part 5
Day 6 - Part 6
Day 7 - Part 1
Where in the World Answers!
Cell Phone Photos
Disney Goodies!

 

[Joyciemc]

I'm here! Looking forward to reading about it... hope there was as much good as not-so-good!

 

[tankgirl427]

This week I got to fill in for the front desk of the main office. On the plus side the main office is closer to the airport. On the negative side, it is so not a sneaker and jeans sort of place which is what I like to wear on the plane. The night before we dropped my car off to get fixed, so the morning started with BF dropping me off at work with all my luggage. I took the elevator to the office and tucked my luggage away for the day and started on the process of adding g to the reservation for the night. I figured with him being 40 minutes away and my flight not arriving until 10pm, it might make sense to also fax and call Pop to make sure he could check in.

Around 4pm I changed to head out for the airport and I left around 4:15pm for my 7:05pm flight. I'm very paranoid about not making my flights or checking baggage or whatever could go wrong. If you read my PTR you would know I got to sit in the airport for awhile because my flight was delayed. It started off 45 minutes delayed and ended up almost 2 1/2 hours delayed! It was no fun, I could see our plane at the gate, but the problem was that our flight attendants were stuck taxing in New York trying to get to Boston. Grrrrrrr! In the meantime, g drove to Pop and was able to check in.

I have it written that we landed in MCO at 12:40am (now Saturday) and arrived at Pop from the ME at 2am. I had to pick up my luggage before trying to find my way there. I went to the check-in and asked if there is anyway I could check out later than 11am since I was just getting there. They were nice enough to extend check out to 12:30pm. Would we make it to EMH at HS tomorrow?

 

[tankgirl427]

I'm here! Looking forward to reading about it... hope there was as much good as not-so-good!

Hey Joyce, thanks for joining! I promise photos start with the first full day in Orlando, my brain was just not functioning much after work and wanting to be in Disney so badly!

 

[KatMark]

I'm here, friend. I'm off to bed now (not feeling well), but will come back tomorrow and catch up.

 

[annmarieda]

I hate the "hurry up and wait" thing that you normally have to do when going to the airport. The flight getting delayed..and getting delayed for that long would have made me crazy.

Glad you got to extend your checkout time!!!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I'm here!! Ugh, I hate that panicked feeling of racing through the airport just to sit and wait forever. Can't wait to read more!

 

[tankgirl427]

I'm here, friend. I'm off to bed now (not feeling well), but will come back tomorrow and catch up.

Good Morning Kathy. I'm sorry you aren't feeling well. I hope you start feeling better soon!

I hate the "hurry up and wait" thing that you normally have to do when going to the airport. The flight getting delayed..and getting delayed for that long would have made me crazy.

Glad you got to extend your checkout time!!!

I figured if they wouldn't, I'd still get 8 - 9 hours of sleep. If they did, then all the better for me!

I'm here!! Ugh, I hate that panicked feeling of racing through the airport just to sit and wait forever. Can't wait to read more!

I uploaded all the photos from day one last night so I'll be able to start on the 2nd day if work stays slow!

 

[tankgirl427]

When we left off, I had arrived at Pop at 2am. G was waiting for me to get off ME so we could start hanging out right away. It would have been nicer to start that about 3 hours earlier, but oh well.

We had a corner room in the 80's on the first floor. Not ideal to me, since I wanted to sleep in, but at least I had made it to Disney. So I did what any good Disney lover would do, let the Disney excitement take over my tired body and stay up to 3am talking about all the rides, characters, and food we looked forwarded to for the week ahead of us. Eventually g fell asleep and rather than talking to myself, I tried to sleep as well. By this point I figured missing out on EMH at HS wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, we should sleep in.

I woke up at 8am. So much for sleeping in! While trying to be somewhat quiet g woke up and we set out the plan for the morning. We would start off by heading to DTD to get breakfast and get our annual passes. Breakfast was a toss up between going to WL for the counter service waffle menu or WPE for some chocolate chip waffles. We got our stuff together and headed for DTD.

Where I feasted on this:

And I washed it down with some chocolate milk. Yeah.... I don't like chocolate that much.

g decided to go for this:

Smoked Bacon Pizza. He said it was amazing!

After we were done, we walked over to Guest Relations and got in like. Who would have thought that of al Guest Relations DTD would have a like at like 10:30am when the parks are open? I traded my voucher for a pass, got a TIW card, and g got set up with a seasonal pass.

After that was done, we headed back to Pop to pack up g's car and check out. Check out was relatively painless, we were waiting in a line and what looked like a manager took my card and printed out my bill and handed it to me, no credit card was on file, only there for 9 hours, what could I have charged?

After checking out we decided to do a walking tour of Pop since I never did last year.


I had my Hidden Mickey book on me which told me to look for this:

and this:

We kept walking around the buildings until I spotted the work on the Art of Animation building, I had to stop and take a bunch of pictures for my Dis friends!

And then I got distracted........

 

[tankgirl427]

What could have distracted me from my mission of recon on the Art of Animation resort?

Window Decorations!

Most awesome towel animal I've ever seen at Pop:

Another Window!

Phew! Now that was out of my system, back to my stealth recon mission.

Recon mission over we continued our way around Pop, where I stumbled upon these fine upstanding figures:

Then I decided we needed a photo with them and thought a trashcan looked like a good place to set up the camera with the selftimer with 10 seconds for me to book it back to the Potatoes. Right after the photo was taken a nice family stopped and took a photo of us with the Potatoes, so we'll go with that one.

After that it was time for more fun and games at Pop...............

 

[KatMark]

Okay...I'm now caught up. I remember reading about your plane being delayed and I was feeling frustrated right along with you. Those chocolate chip waffles are calling my name. And what better way to wash them down than with chocolate milk.

I really like teh art work on the Animation Building...it looks really cool. And love the photo of you and g with Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead.

 

[Joyciemc]

That bacon breakfast pizza looks amazing!

Thanks for the picture of the Art of Animation buildings... though being obsessed with abandoned places (theme parks and hotels especially!), I am a little sad to see the empty building shells go

 

[tankgirl427]

Okay...I'm now caught up. I remember reading about your plane being delayed and I was feeling frustrated right along with you. Those chocolate chip waffles are calling my name. And what better way to wash them down than with chocolate milk.

I really like teh art work on the Animation Building...it looks really cool. And love the photo of you and g with Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead.

The plane delay made for a very long start to the trip. I had been up since 6am Friday and worked almost a full day at work. I really can't wait to try out the waffle menu at WL. I'm not really a fan of pancakes, but I me some waffles!

That bacon breakfast pizza looks amazing!

Thanks for the picture of the Art of Animation buildings... though being obsessed with abandoned places (theme parks and hotels especially!), I am a little sad to see the empty building shells go

It was so werid to see buildings lookings new and fresh with paint and then right next door was like the shell of a never built hotel and I couldn't believe they went together. There is so much left to the first day.

 

[tankgirl427]

After meeting with the Potatoheads, I thought a game of Twister sounded like fun:

Ummm not that fun with one person and the spinner kept landing on the same thing over and over again.

Then I had to check out the Big Wheels:

And then it was time for a little Foosball action:

How big would you have to be to take the phone off the hook?

And of course, no tour of Pop is complete without a stop here:

Unfortunantly, Goofy's pop jets are closed. But we still had to check out to see if the car was real or not. BTW its real. Poor Corvette drives no more.

We then cut through the food court on our way to Everything Pop.

I stopped for a photo of the new Burrito Bar Menu

And then picked up some postcard stamps in Everything Pop which I still haven't used.

Next on our list was checking in at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek.

 

[annmarieda]

Wow, what a full day you already have had! I love all the pictures.

Chocolate and chocolate for breakfast.

The new resort looks like it is really coming along! I so want to stay there next!

And...so sad that the goofy jets are now closed. dd really likes things like that.

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Your breakfast looks like it was wonderfully chocolatey! It's sort of weird to see the Art of Animation as something cute and character-fied instead of just a creepy abandoned building across the lake!

 

[KatMark]

Love the rest of the photos of Pop. I don't know if I mentioned, but we have never been there so it is neat seeing all the photos.

 

[tankgirl427]

Wow, what a full day you already have had! I love all the pictures.

Chocolate and chocolate for breakfast.

The new resort looks like it is really coming along! I so want to stay there next!

And...so sad that the goofy jets are now closed. dd really likes things like that.

Please I don't think we were at 1pm yet by this point. I love the idea of having something like dessert for breakfast. Probably why I like the chocolate buffet here. If you ever visit Boston, we'll go! I remember you saying Zoe liked them, it was the first of many times you came up on the trip.

Your breakfast looks like it was wonderfully chocolatey! It's sort of weird to see the Art of Animation as something cute and character-fied instead of just a creepy abandoned building across the lake!

I've only found a couple items to ever been too chocolatey for me. Its a good thing I got good teeth otherwise I'd probably have a million cavities the way I eat. You'll see.

Love the rest of the photos of Pop. I don't know if I mentioned, but we have never been there so it is neat seeing all the photos.

I would have NEVER guessed you hadn't stayed there Miss I Love CSR. It's the first Disney hotel I can actually remember. I swear in the 80s we stayed at the Contemporary, but I'm the only one who remembers it. I'll have to find the photos from that trip when I go home at Thanksgiving. December's trip stays at Pop since its a budget minded trip and then January I get to try 2 resorts out!

Oh when I called to change our ME for December the lady on the phone said she had one person that was changing their resorts six times over their stay. SIX TIMES! She also mentioned it was a honeymoon or something, but still I would think you would get tired of unpacking everything and repacking.

 

[tankgirl427]

I left off saying we were going to check in to the Wyndham Bonnet Creek, but its not our first stop. A few days prior (and those who read my PTR know this) I talked to b and she agreed to get PH tickets. Well, since money seemed to be a big deal I figured we could get her tickets from UT. The only catch? It was too late to have it mailed and the local pick up closes at 4pm on Saturdays and wouldn't open back up until Monday and I had an early morning pre-park breakfast planned for Sunday at the Crystal Palace.

So after our tour of Pop, g and I got in the car and drove to some random UPS store so I could pick up her ticket. I paid for her ticket and I'll have to let her know at some point how much she owes me. Seems fine now, but just you wait. After picking up her ticket, we headed towards check in for Bonnet Creek, they say check in isn't until 4pm, but there was a chance we'd have our room ready.

We pulled in and I missed my second chance of the day to get the Main Gate photo. We checked in and were accosted at the parking desk, where we proceeded to circle that we had no money and I have no phone number. Our room wasn't ready yet, but they did tell me it was in Building 5 and a high floor. They would call me when the room was ready so we could get our keys. We walked around the entire lake, looking at each pool and slide and all the things to do there. We then decided we should make our Walmart grocery run for things for the week. While in Walmart, I got the call our room was ready and after getting EVERYTHING we needed we headed back.

This time I was ready for the Main Gate and got this photo. g was nice enough to try and drive in the center so I got a good shot.

And closer

Happy that I finally have the picture everyone wants, we continued on.

We got our map of the resort

Found a baggage cart and used it for the grocery haul and carried our bags in.

The Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen with our bags everywhere

Second bathroom

We had requested a HA room and I had never seen photos of one on Dis so I wanted to make sure I took photos of things that weren't like the other units. The door also had two eye holes to look through at different levels.

Next up, check out the balcony!