Canadian Buffoon's Disney With a Teen Vacation - 08/13 - The Wrap

[goofymimi]

I'm back to read along, I missed the beginning, but I am caught up now..cant wait to hear all about your trip..I enjoyed the previous one..

 

[DISNEYMOON10121991]

Had trouble logging in yesterday- wanted to tell you how happy I was to start reading your TR!
Such an adventure in the airport. While still in Canada.
I got "da plane" reference - of course I was a 'youngster' on a "Fantasy Island"
Guesses:
247 minutes
You made your flight -Kay smiles and explains "yes the crazy man is taking me to Disney World but its okay by mom. He's the REAL kid if you really what to know"
You did not get top floor (don't know how many they have but if not it was 2nd floor)
Room was ready

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Sorry about that! I'll try to only do that 43% of half the time.

Did I ever tell you how much I like you?

Try this.
Me, Ruby, my Mom, my Dad, my Sister... all in one small car for two weeks straight.

There may have been times when things weren't all roses and sunshine.

Ugh no. When discussing this upcoming trip in march DH and I thought for a few moments to offer to have my parents drive down with us. It was decided that that would be a bad idea. We love each other but we need our space.

10am!! How does he manage that?!?!?
Doesn't a certain little Miss jump on his head?

Simple, Little MIss inherited DH's sleep patterns. She regularly sleeps till 10am. As I'm an early bird this means I get about an hour or two every morning of peace and quiet to myself.

Unfortunately, Kay never eats cereal.
I mean, how can you not like Frosted Flakes?

DH is like that.

I always try to do the very least.
I'm such a good person, don't you think?

Oh. No.
I had a camera bag that I carried on with me.
I'm not trusting breakable, expensive gear to the baboons in the bowels!

Whew! Smart thinking!

Good point. I wonder if those wheels are more centralized they don't catch as much?

The Spinners spin around (Like on a shopping cart) the two wheeled ones don't maybe that makes a difference?

And the sad part is, I actually thought that.
"Just wait. This will be the one time they ask for the letter.... nahhhh...."

Ah see you tempted Murphy!

 

[Thumper_Man]

My guess is 170 minutes.

 

[queenbetsey]

yep won the m&m's (won a tv last Friday from a local radio station way cooler prize I think) oh and the 15 minut guess is waiting for dme upon your arrival
oh and did I mention what a wonderful trip report this is yet????

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Okay lost my reply for the second time, but at least I have the correct profile pic now. "Strange things are happenin'."

Roh Roh Drama on the first leg of your trip already. I really hope your day got better.

I'm going to say you made your connection but were last on the plane.
At POP, you hot third floor but not pool view. Your room was not ready, and they forgot to text you when it was.
I'm going to say 332 gumballs.

 

[pkondz]

I'm gonna guess 256 minutes (I'm way off but I was never good at guessing games or math... Which is funny because I handle a fair amount of money now for work... Hmmmm)

Noted. And remind me to never ask you to make change for me.

You make a later one because you have to call Ruby to get verbal permission to take Kay down.

You get top floor but without the pool view and your room is ready when you get there.

Noted.

Finally I'm Canadian and us Canucks need to stick together so I get some points anyways yes?

Haha!

Also noted and I will take it under consideration.
You will be advised of the result in the next chapter...

Oh no! Drama already! It is never good to start a vacation off with drama. Too much unnecessary stress! Of course the one time you don't have the darn letter . . .

Yeah, I really could have done without that little bit of drama right off the hop.

Me -> I'm so happy! I'm so happy! I'm so.... crap!!!!!

I can't wait to hear more about how the trip goes. I am hoping someday I get to do a similar one on one trip with each of my boys. I have a feeling I will have some of the same challenges.

So you're waiting to see if this is a tale of parent/child bonding... or a cautionary tale.
Smart.

And to the TR!

Okay, for my guesses:
Gumball Guess: I think a total of 363 minutes. I have no rhyme or reason or logic to support that. But I am sticking to it.
Bonus Questions:
I don't think you are going to make this connection. Sorry. (Although, I guess there is no need to apologize since this happened in the past).

I'll take the apology... I get so few of them!
And your guesses are noted.

I do think you will make a later one the same day. (or maybe I am just hoping you will!).
I think you will have good luck with the room though! Top Floor and Ready when you (finally) arrive!!

Noted.

I was pretty sure I had checked in and commented,

Nope.
And I've been patiently waiting.
There's a few others that I'm patiently waiting for... but,
"Where's Tammie?" was a refrain.

I may resort to sending out some bat signals, but I'm hesitant to do so.
I'd hate to send someone a PM when they're thinking,
"Phew! I'm caught up and don't want to join any other TRs!"

Anyway...

to the TR!

and I am very sure I didn't change my profile picture - there are gremlins on the DIS I fear!

Apparently it was all over the place, not just you.
It's back now, I see.

Anyway, I'm here - now back to catching up. I see your contest and I am inspired to post more questions on my TR! You are so good at gaming - not that I think you're a player or anything.

Hey! I'm a playuh.... Does that mean I'm cool?

I've never been cool before.
Wait. There was that brief shining moment when I was in Grade 10...

A week, what am I supposed to do for that week, study, plant a tree, get a job...no I think I will just wait patiently in front of my computer.

Hope it doesn't feel too long for ya.

 

[pkondz]

I'm back to read along, I missed the beginning, but I am caught up now..cant wait to hear all about your trip..I enjoyed the previous one..

Hi mimi! Thanks for following me over here!
And to the TR!

Such an adventure in the airport. While still in Canada.

You, know, I read that and wondered...
While still in Toronto, I wonder if I was technically on US soil?
Like, isn't an Embassy that country's "soil"? So when I get to US customs,
I'm technically entering USA am I not?

Just trivia, still, made me think about it.

I got "da plane" reference - of course I was a 'youngster' on a "Fantasy Island"

It was such a good show.
Hard to believe how their lives diverged so much afterwards.

Guesses:
247 minutes
You made your flight -Kay smiles and explains "yes the crazy man is taking me to Disney World but its okay by mom. He's the REAL kid if you really what to know"
You did not get top floor (don't know how many they have but if not it was 2nd floor)
Room was ready

All noted.

And to the TR! Thanks for following me over from the last one!

 

[pkondz]

Ugh no. When discussing this upcoming trip in march DH and I thought for a few moments to offer to have my parents drive down with us. It was decided that that would be a bad idea. We love each other but we need our space.

I hear ya. I love my folks, but I don't want to be stuck with them for an extended stay.
They're your parents. You kinda feel obligated to do what they want to do.

And that ain't necessarily what I wanna do!

Simple, Little MIss inherited DH's sleep patterns. She regularly sleeps till 10am. As I'm an early bird this means I get about an hour or two every morning of peace and quiet to myself.

Nice.
When we had Elle, we were woken up every three hours for the first few weeks.
She continued to get up and cry in the night until she was three and a half years old!
Then we had Kay.
We brought her home from the hospital, prepared ourselves for a night of no sleep...
And then she slept from about 10pm to 6am! We thought she'd died!
Never had any problem with her sleeping in the night... well except when she got ear infections.
Those ain't fun.

The Spinners spin around (Like on a shopping cart) the two wheeled ones don't maybe that makes a difference?

Don't know. Could be. :

Ah see you tempted Murphy!

What the heck is that?!?!????

My guess is 170 minutes.

Noted.

yep won the m&m's (won a tv last Friday from a local radio station way cooler prize I think)

Nice! Congrats!

oh and the 15 minut guess is waiting for dme upon your arrival

Okay, got it.

oh and did I mention what a wonderful trip report this is yet????

That's irrelevant. You can never mention that too many times.

Okay lost my reply for the second time, but at least I have the correct profile pic now. "Strange things are happenin'."

Sucks about losing the reply.
Hope you didn't lose too much.

And yeah, I haven't looked elsewhere yet, but hopefully the DIS fixed whatever was going on.

Roh Roh Drama on the first leg of your trip already. I really hope your day got better.

I was going to post "How could it get worse!"
But then I thought... "You're on the no fly list." or "You're under arrest!"

I'm going to say you made your connection but were last on the plane.
At POP, you hot third floor but not pool view. Your room was not ready, and they forgot to text you when it was.
I'm going to say 332 gumballs.

Noted.

 

[orangecats2]

A package from Winterpeg came to my house yesterday. In it was a RCMP Moose! Hopefully he will get along with my other stuffed animals. So that's actually something you could win in Ponzi's contest too!
No letter? What were you thinking???
You got third floor in the 60's section facing the pool and of course your room was ready.
230 minutes total waiting for the bus.
I got that pesky tooth taken out this morning. Have two stitches were it was. Hopefully now I won't be in so much pain!
This weekend is our 7th anniversary and we want to eat at the Schnitzel House.

 

[Mrs T 2009]

Hi! i'm here!!
not going to be a lurky-lou this time

I'm going to guess you had to phone the wife for verbal recognition(in place of missing letter you seemed to need this time around), missed the connection because you couldn't get Ruby on the phone straight away, and took the next flight out..
The room was ready by the time you finally got there, and you were on the 2nd floor ( not the top, but a close second! haha)

Total transportation wait time:: 360 minutes- I'm probably way off, but I'm going with my gut/hunch


side note: I was hoping for a solo trip this fall before AP expired. I had a SMALL timeframe and found CHEAP roundtrip airfare, but dvc was all booked up, and my friends weren't going to be around that weekend to chauffeur me and let me crash on their couch dashed all my hopes, but realized I can try to plan a solo for next year sometime and go and now have more time and resources to figure it out! Still heartbreaking! haha my mommy time away has to wait!

 

[Kiotzu]

Hope it doesn't feel too long for ya.

Well some how I strayed from the computer and into class so it's speeding up a bit. I'm also going to take a stab at the contest. 273 Minutes.

Hope your back is doing better as well!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

What the heck is that?!?!????

Couldn't tell you exactly what they were holding, but seeing as the clip is from Mythbusters I'm going on the safe side and saying something they just blew up.

 

[ougrad86]

Well, not too far behind!!

I used to work at the airport too, and worked for a cargo airline. But we didn't fly out of that airport. I think our boss just liked the airport.

Best buy I ever made was economy Plus. Leg room and preferred boarding. Although I did not tell DH how much more I paid for that seat, but he was mighty happy with it.

I am guessing you make it through customs - not sure how, but you do - and that you waited 210 minutes , but I am a little fuzzy on how DME works since I never used it! I figure 5 full days...that is correct, right?

Really looking forward to your next chapter!

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Okay here is what happened...I had done a whole comment thing on this and then my computer crashed and when it came back on my whole reply was gone! So I just cried for about six hours and now I'm trying again! Only for you!

So my question for you is:
Do you feel lucky?

Hey I didn't know you did Mr Bean impressions!

How many minutes in TOTAL did we wait for Disney transportation this trip.
The total should include minutes waiting for DME, busses,
boats, monorails, rickshaws, whatever.
It does not... repeat NOT include travel time on said transportation.
Only the time waiting for it to show up.
Example: If we waited 15 minutes for a bus and then waited 2 minutes to board,
waited 3 minutes before it left and it took 25 minutes to get to destination...
The correct answer for that one trip would be 15 minutes. i.e. The wait time.

Wh....wha...what??

Got it?

Sure!
http://reactiongif.org/wp-content/uploads/GIF/2014/08/GIF-confused-huh-say-what-what-***-GIF.gif

Sucking up has been known to generate points...
excessive sucking up leads to deductions...

Excessive sucking leads to many problems

Speaking of which.... shall we begin??

Eh why not, we here now!

Ruby works in a building that is on airport property,
even though her job has nothing to do with the airport or airplanes.
Conversely, I do not work at the airport or on airport property
and my job has everything to do with airports and airplanes.
Go figure.

Well that makes all the sense!

They'll be responsible for changing my diapers when I'm old(er).
And senile(er).
And incontinent(er)

You say that like its a future event?

I was going to Disney World!

I was only slightly deflated... I'm going to Disney World!

Slightly deflated is okay!

(De plane! De plane! <ding> <ding>...
and you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Not a clue!

Don't forget to get your gumball... I mean, Disney Transportation Wait Time guesses in!

I'm going to go with 358 minutes because it seems like a perfectly random number!

Bonus questions!
It's no secret that we do get to Disney eventually.
Do we make our connection? Or do we make a later one?
Or do we get down the next day? Or something else?
What's your guess?

I think you miss your connection but you make a later one and get there really early the next day

You may recall that I told you I booked POP Preferred Pool View.
Kay's preference was the top floor, so that's what I asked for in the booking.
I didn't fax or phone in the request, just put it in when I booked.
What floor did we get? And was the room ready when we got there?

I think your room is ready but you didn't get your request and ended on the first floor cause that is nearly the same as what you wanted!

 

[MrsJamesPSullivan]

I've read your previous trip reports but don't believe I've commented as I usually find them when you're done or nearly so. This time I guess I'll be spending months reading along. But that's OK, I've got nothing better to do! Can't wait to see how you managed to sneak Kay into the country!

 

[Rozz]

Posting to say Hello! Gotta to go back and get caught up!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

LOVE your trip reports!! I caught the end of your last TR (and totally binge read through the whole thing! and then all of your others too) so I never commented. So yay for finding this one in the beginning! Can't wait to read all about this trip, although the suspense between updates may kill me!

The Contest!

How many minutes in TOTAL did we wait for Disney transportation this trip.

My guess is 323 total minutes

Bonus questions!

Do we make our connection? Or do we make a later one?
Or do we get down the next day? Or something else?
What's your guess?

YES! You make your connection.

You may recall that I told you I booked POP Preferred Pool View.
Kay's preference was the top floor, so that's what I asked for in the booking.
I didn't fax or phone in the request, just put it in when I booked.
What floor did we get? And was the room ready when we got there?

You get a room on the first floor but your room is ready when you get there.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Hmmm.... Lemme put it this way.
I did go to USA.gov which is your government's official website and... nothing.
But then a thought occurred. (It seldom happens, so it was quite noticeable.)
When you come to a Country drop down list or whatever...
do you search for "T" or "U"?

Depends on the web site.
I’ve actually encountered both methods.

I was gonna say something glib like "you're weird, dude"...
But I didn't want to overstate the obvious.

It’s not glib if it’s nothing more than an excepted fact

I once floated the idea of an RV past Ruby.
She actually recoiled in horror.

Oddly, I could very likely talk Tamara into it.
I just can’t afford it.

Sins of the Father

I ran out of gas! I got a flat tire! I didn’t have change for cab fare! I lost my tux at the cleaners! I locked my keys in the car! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!

Still waiting... maybe I shouldn't have said we'd wait...

Those that fall behind…
Are left behind

It’s written right there in The Code; plain as day.

So my question for you is:
Do you feel lucky?

Well, do ya’, Punk.


Actually, I wasn’t keeping track either; was it six shots or only five?

How many minutes in TOTAL did we wait for Disney transportation this trip.

Oh…
Minutes! That’s completely different, those are far less detrimental to one’s health when miscounted.

OK, I think I’ll go with something divisible by my lucky number and say: 221

Got it?

“Why a four year old child could understand this.
Run out and get me a four year old child…”

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lie down for a bit.
My head hurts.

Well, you did it to yourself.
You should’a just said something like: “The rules for the 40 points will be random and I ain’t ‘spainin’ them to any of ya’, so there… Pbbbfffft!”

Then only our heads would be hurting now, and knowing us, we’d still be stabing each other in the back to earn ’em.

(Note. Sucking up has been known to generate points...
excessive sucking up leads to deductions...)

Understood, oh wise and all seeing Grand Illustrious Poobah


but it truth, I’ve not yet seen you actually deduct any.
Threaten… yes. Deduct… not so sure about that one.
Might lead one to think that you just might enjoy all that flattery

What can you win?
I'm not telling you! Ha!

There! Now that’s more like it.
(you just forgot the: “Pbbbfffft!”)

Certainly not the writing.
Speaking of which.... shall we begin??

Oh, what the heck, I haven’t had a good beating in a while.
Have at it!

Full disclosure.
Kay did say that she wanted me to make all the plans and just tell her when and where.
But I do know her well enough that I was going to have to be verrrrrry flexible.

In this instance, contortionist level flexibility may well be what’s called for.
(and if no one calls for it in thirty days, it’s all yours)

I have a headache just remembering how I struggled with that.

A haddock? Well throw it back and see if you can’t catch something better.

they announced that Danny was, Yay!, the first hurricane of the season!

Naaaa… just the first overreaction of the season.

Still, gotta deal with the rain all week.

It’s Florida… you gott’a deal with rain pretty much every day.
(it just normally only lasts an hour or so).

Our flight wasn't until 3:40pm, but I had to drive Ruby to work.
Ruby works in a building that is on airport property,
even though her job has nothing to do with the airport or airplanes.
Conversely, I do not work at the airport or on airport property
and my job has everything to do with airports and airplanes.
Go figure.

Were it a government operation, that’d make perfect sense.

So I got up early and took her to work.

Score! $50 more bucks to spend at Disney
(give or take the exchange rate of course).

Gotta stay on the kids' good side, ya know.
They'll be responsible for changing my diapers when I'm old(er).
And senile(er).
And incontinent(er).

That’s a lot of Er.

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the house.
The plan was to make my absence as painless as possible for Ruby.
Afterwards, I gassed up her car.

So much for making things as painless as possible…

Put some fuel in it too.

Too little, too late…
It’s already uninhabitable

I then missed the turn off for the airport parking.
I had to go allllll the way around the airport to get back to square one
and the entrance to the parking lot.

May that not be a harbinger.

Oddly, she didn't seem amused when I mocked her and
told her I was going to Disney World while she was staying behind to work.

Oh, there's a big surprise. That's an incred--I think I'm gonna have a heart attack and die from not surprise!

So just on this leg of the trip alone, it saved me $50.

Another $50 bucks saved…
You’ve just about stashed away enough for something out of one of the gift shops.
Say… like a pen or maybe even a keychain.

I hate that feeling.
I've never, ever lost a bag...
but it's still rather disquieting to see them disappear like that.

I have…
It’s no less disquieting.

But don't tell Kay. Let's let her just assume that I'm brilliant, okay?

I’ll keep mum, but you know it’s a lost cause.

And it turns out she's right.
I am stupid.
Or at least I did something really stupid.

Of course you did. It’s a TR…
Haven’t read (or written) one yet where the author didn’t have to ‘fess up to somep’n

I answered each question patiently.
I could see that I was going to have trouble keeping my promise.

“Now I know why Tigers eat their young.”

We had some time and since neither of us drinks coffee,
we made a bee-line for Starbucks.

Makes perfect sense.
They don’t sell any actual coffee anyway

Milkshakes… yes, coffee… that’d be a nope.

We each got our favourite, a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino... double blended.
Vanilla, milk and ice. With whip cream... of course. No coffee.
mmmmmmmm...

I rest my case.
(Which is good, because we all know just how cranky a tired case can be)

We moseyed back over to our gate

What? No sashaying?

We sauntered over closer to the counter.

They then announced boarding for the high and mighty "Plus" seating guests.
La dee da... snobs.
(Yes, I had done it last four flights, but still...)

There’s always time to tear down the bourgeoisie
And that time is any time that you’re not included among them.

Am I ranting?

Rant away…
But it’s the airlines we should be ranting at.
They’re the ones that created this new law of the jungle-esk wasteland that has become air travel.
(well, their shareholders and the deregulation that was supposed to make everything so wonderful)

So we got in line.
moo.

Don’t be a sheep… I mean, cow… oh, never mind.

I pointed out to Kay how she could tell whether we were on a taxiway or a runway.
Why is this important?
It's not. But it's fun. So there.

Extra points for useless information.
It makes one appear “smart” when that truth is somewhat more tenuous.

(De plane! De plane! <ding> <ding>...
and you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.)

No, but I’m sure Mr Roarke could explain it to us
(as I’d have gotten up out of my chair, walked across the room, adjusted the rabbit ears and changed the channel by now).

Wait a second... this looks very familiar... did we even go anywhere?

The Twilight Zone, perchance?

Finally, we heard an announcement.
"For those passengers arriving from Victoria and Winnipeg, your bags have been delayed.
We apologize for the delay and hopefully we'll have them here as soon as possible."

Well, I’ll be… it is the Twilight Zone

Now you know the routine.
You ask a question like that and you'll get a robotic "Don't worry, you'll be fine" answer
which does absolutely nothing to alleviate your concern.
But not this time.
But I'm not sure if it was better.
Madison screwed up her face like she'd just bitten into a lemon and said "oooh."

I’ll give the kid credit for being honest at least.

Wonderfully, thankfully, she didn't ask questions or argue. She just nodded.

Good soldier.

At the top of the escalator we plopped them (upside down) on a conveyor belt
where they disappeared back from whence they'd come.

“A” conveyer belt? Not “the”, but “a”?
Hopefully it’s just my natural sense for disastrous occurrences kicking in here, but that description sounds just a might too ambiguous for a good outcome to be guaranteed.


May I be wrong here.

I have no idea why it was necessary to do that.
I get that it was because we were entering a new country, but...
I suppose it's to give us one more chance to fill the bags
with meats, fruit, live animals and all other manner of contraband.

I like it, so let’s go with that one.
It’s more entertaining that the bureaucratic one that occurred to me (and more sane as well)

Just to backtrack for a second, I keep a packing list on the computer.
So when it comes time to travel, I open it up,
make whatever changes I need to it, add or subtract items as I see fit,
and then I don't forget stuff.
Here's what the first few lines looked like:

Passports – (2) Kay, me
Kay’s letter

Letter?

Glance down at item number two on the list, "Kay's letter".

Yeah, that’s the one that caught my eye right off.
First I’d heard of that in relation to one’s own young’ens.

He became completely still (so did I), looked me square in the eye
like a jackal sizing up a particularly tasty hunk of flesh and said:
"You don't have a letter? I can't let her into the United States without a letter."

Wow… I’m just stunned here.
How naive, but this just never occurred to be a consideration.

Death began to play a concerto along my spine.
I started to sweat.
What the HECK (although I didn't use that word) was I going to do???

Yep, excellent description of how I’d have felt right about then.
And I wouldn’t have used that word either

Bonus questions!

I’m going to be a bit contrary here.
Due to the following line you tossed out earlier:

“(I had no idea, just how long it was going to turn out to be...)”

I think y’all had to take a later flight, but it was at least the same day.
(getting your bags rounded up might have been an adventure in this case as well).

And… may I not earn that particular point.​

As for the rest of it, you’d be due a victory or two so the room was available and it was on the top floor.

Good luck!

But remember, if you or any member of your IM team are captured or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.


.

 

[orangecats2]

I wrote something earlier and now it's gone!!!