Canadian Buffoon's Semi-EPIC Vacation - 10/29 - Link to new TR!

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your semi-epic ness

 

[pkondz]

Joining in! Can't wait to read more!

to the TR!
Grab a seat and join in on the conversation.

 

[pkondz]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your semi-epic ness

Well, hi there!
to the TR!

Next update coming
semi-soon.

 

[Kiotzu]

Oh!
So you're the one person
that eats oatmeal without
brown sugar... and likes it.

to the TR!

You mean the only sane person!

Hmmm... I thought it was fuel
prices.
And of course now that they're
back up (thanks carbon tax)
maybe they'll increase the fees! Yay!

Well yes, it was the fuel prices. Driven by high oil prices. Don't give them any ideas, they could be watching you.

Sure!

They are very cute!

I do them fairly often.


I'm spoiled.

I usually get the exit row seat so I usually am good for leg room which is the biggest thing for me.

In that case, have them all
at the same time.

It'll save time, later on.

6 kids at once, I am ambitious but not that ambitious.

I kept glancing at my watch.
Over and over.
The rest of the time I was
staring at the line,
willing it to move faster.

The time on the watch went
faster and the line went slower.

I think I got it backwards.

Hey, you made it. That is the most important thing.

And he didn't wake you???

He said we have seen a ton of signs, no need for one more.

I remember that about your dad.

It allowed me to see a lot of very cool places.

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Semi-ready to read some more! That was quite the travel day, now I'm glad I splurged on direct flights this year My dad is not a patient traveler!

 

[docsoliday1]

Seeing all this talk about oatmeal

1) Made me hungry.
2) Made me realize I'm firmly in the weirdo camp...I will eat it plain, although not typical
I prefer it with brown sugar it maple syrup and normally eat with a little milk also. Instant, normal, steel cut...like em all, but steel cut is the best.

 

[docsoliday1]

You mean the only sane person!



Well yes, it was the fuel prices. Driven by high oil prices. Don't give them any ideas, they could be watching you.



They are very cute!



I usually get the exit row seat so I usually am good for leg room which is the biggest thing for me.



6 kids at once, I am ambitious but not that ambitious.



Hey, you made it. That is the most important thing.



He said we have seen a ton of signs, no need for one more.





It allowed me to see a lot of very cool places.

Fuel prices...
It's like any other business...if they can figure out how to raise the prices and not lose customers, guaranteed they will. Look at Disney...I have a love hate relationship with them. They keep driving the prices up and up and as long as they can keep the parks packed (notice they admit more people now and sometimes hard to move?), They will. MNSSHP and MVMCP used to be low crowd levels and worth the additional money...now they're packing em in like sardines, so not nearly the good experience it was. Does Disney care? NOPE! They're making money hand over fist.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in, Andi and I are planning to stay at OKW in January. I am excited to hear what you thought!

I was on the Epic trip, didn’t get a chance to say hi then so

I travel with my daughter all the time, she is 19 and a vegetarian, can be challenging at times!

I don’t know how the girls can sleep on the plane, I wish I could. My daughter is lights out soon as we get situated and if not sleeping she has her massive headphones on canceling out everything her mom has to say

Kids don’t have them, haha!!

 

[Pluto0809]

She doesn't go lie down
again if you tell her to?

Of course not. If you ignore her she just drapes herself over your head in an attempt to suffocate you awake. Maybe she's got some cat in there somewhere?

I got the impression they were bringing
items back that they couldn't get there,
or were cheaper here?

That does make sense. We hosted some work colleagues of Jim's who were here from Hungary. They wanted to visit Walmart to buy stuff that was much cheaper over here.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I'm here! You thought you could hide from me, but I'm just going to have to disappoint you on that front. Again.

And... bonus! On this trip
you get two buffoons for
the price of one!

Yay?

About six or so months ago,
Elle came up to me with
a proposal:
"Dad. Elsa and I want to go
to Disneyworld. Can you come
too and show us around?"

Sure! My fee is $50/hour.

I laughed in her face
and told her to sink or swim!
Disney is prime life lesson
proving grounds.
Do your research!
Plan your ADRS, your FPs,
your touring plans, your...

No. Wait.
Oh! Right...
I want to go!
I quite happily agreed.

What a pushover! So easy.

Dang it! I keep getting
this wrong.
That didn't happen either.
I quite happily agreed once again.

Softy!

To avoid insurance penalties,
she decides to pay the cost
as opposed to putting in
an insurance claim.

Then it was:
"Dad. I don't think I can
afford to go. Too many expenses."

Well, look at that. A mature, adult decision. I'm proud of her.

"How about I pay for your
airline ticket (I had enough points
to cover us both), and you
room with me, so that won't
cost you anything and you
just pay for your park ticket
and food?"

Oh, my gosh. Now I'm wondering if it was all a setup.

It was a dark and stormy night.
The seas were angry, see?
Si!

I thought this was a Marvin the Martian TR, not Snoopy.

April 29th.
It snowed this morning.

That's just...wrong.

"I'm sorry, sir. But since
she's traveling on her own,
separate ticket, she'll have
to pay. There's nothing we
can do."

Yeah, yeah.
I paid the fee... grumbling all along.

Airlines suck.

The alarm woke me
at a very pleasant 1:30
in the morning.

Ugh. I wish I didn't know that feeling, but...yeah.

Kay (my youngest DD)
was going to drive us to the
airport, but she was out
with some friends, trying to
stay awake.
She'd said she'd be home
by 2am.

What could possibly go wrong?

Elle, it turned out, hadn't
gotten home until just after
midnight.

What could possibly go wrong?

Don't have kids, folks.
You heard it here first.

Great. Now you tell me.

I debated telling her that if
WestJet expected me to
"distribute the weight" then
they better not charge me
for Elle's bag.

I wisely kept my mouth shut.
"Yes sir! We'll refund that $30.
And now if you'll just pay the
$100 over-weight penalty?
Have a nice flight!"

Airlines suck.

Wait, you could have gone to Flin Flon?? This feels like a missed opportunity.

After 15 minutes, the line
opened and...
No bringing your pot
with you, folks!

So much for living in paradise.

As I was saying, it's good to
know all the ins and outs
and dos and don'ts at
your local airport.

Crackerjack operation you're running here.

"Yes it is." I replied.
And before he could ask;
"Feel free to do whatever
you need to it."

So he dropped it on the
floor and stomped it
with his booted feet.

Well, that'll learn ya.

No. Wait.
What he did was open it
up and remove a teensy
tiny pair of cuticle scissors.
"I just have to show this
to the X-Ray person." He said.

You never know. You could snip someone to death.

We were the first to board.
She looks happy about
her extra space, don't you think?

I'd say so. As long as she's not forced to sit next to some loser.

Or whatever. I have no idea.
All I know is I was not on a
plane piloted by Frank and Beans,
or Frank and Stein.

Man. What a missed opportunity!

De-icing! On April 30th!

Se explained that she thought it
would be a "good idea" to just not
go to bed since we had to leave
at 2:30am.

She'd gotten up for work at
5:30am the day before.
By now, she'd been up for
almost 24 hours.

Well, we know where she gets her brains from.

"We're seventeen minutes ahead
of schedule. So next time we're
late, we'll call it even."

I think Southwest uses that line, too.

Minutes were ticking by.
I knew we still had to go
through customs and our flight
was boarding in 50 minutes.
That might seem like a long time,
but...

Every minute was torture.

I can imagine. Especially for someone who likes to be early.

I looked for the button that said
"You already searched my bag"
but there wasn't one.
I just clicked on "No".

Ugh. There has to be a better way. Has to.

9:07
A group of six or so join someone
that's ahead of us. A small part
of me dies.

It's as bad as Disney World!

"Traveling with more than
$10,000 dollars?"

Once.
Just once.
I want to answer "Yes" to
that question.
But I am not an oil baron
(or a drug dealer. I saw the sign.)
so the answer is always "No".

No, but once I sell all this cannabis I have in my bag, I will!

And frankly... we have FPs
that just can't be missed.

There it is. That's the priority.

So... do we look more happy
that we made it? Or relieved?

I'm going with happy.

I watched Passengers (with Jennifer
Lawrence and Chris Pratt.)
Seen it before and liked it.

Haven't seen that one yet.

We arrived early, once again.
I'm really liking this whole
"early" thing.

Who else loves taking this
when they arrive in Florida?

That's when you know vacation is starting for real!

A word about my camera bag.
It's heavy.
It has a DSLR camera with
add on dual battery pack,
and five lenses of various sizes.
I stowed it in a compartment
above my head.
In hindsight, I wish I'd put it
over someone else's head.
Because about 5-10 minutes
after we got going, it fell out
of the overhead bin and landed
on my head before falling into
the aisle.
There was a collective
"oooohhhhh!!!" from the
seats behind me.

Yikes! That must have been painful. Thank goodness it hit you where it could do the least damage.

I suppose it's a good thing
it hit my head on the way down.
Probably saved me some repairs.
I can always replace the plate
in my head, but a good camera
isn't easy to find in Disney.

But now you pee your pants and forget your name for a half hour every time Ruby fires up the microwave.

I need to give a big
shout-out and an even
bigger "THANK YOU!"
to @docsoliday1.
When he heard Elle and I
were heading down,
he offered to rent his
DVC points to us.
So for what amounted to
about the same price as
a Value resort, we got to
stay at OKW instead.

Nice going, Doc!

She grabbed a map and
explained it thusly:
"We're here (circles Hospitality House)
and to get to your room, you just hop
on a resort shuttle and take it along
this road, past the pool, around the
bend, past Typhoon Lagoon, get on I-4,
follow that past Celebration, keep going
until you reach Tampa, get on a boat,
take the boat to a bigger boat, cruise
past St. Petersburg, transfer to an
even bigger ship, cruise out into
the Gulf of Mexico, past Havana,
cruise down past Central America,
go through the Panama Canal,
dock at Panama City, take a cab
out into the rainforest, get on a
burro and ride it into the mountains.
Stop there."

Man, Disney transportation has really taken a step back the last few years.

"That's where our room is?" I asked.

"No." She answered. "That's just the
resting point. The long part of the trip
is for the next day."

Okay...
Maybe I'm exaggerating just a touch.

Really? I didn't get that at all.

"How's this?" She asked.
It was less than a 2-minute walk away.

Even if it's the janitor's closet, we'll take it!

We popped over to Olivia's which was
pretty much empty at that time of day.

Never eaten there, but I've always heard good things about it.

Like the sound it makes
when a heavy camera bag
falls and hits you on the head.

Did you see it?

Surprised you got there in one piece, trusting such a shabby outfit.

 

[pkondz]

You mean the only sane person!

When it comes to the sanity club...
I'd say you're "In".

Well yes, it was the fuel prices. Driven by high oil prices. Don't give them any ideas, they could be watching you.

Whoops! Sorry!

I usually get the exit row seat so I usually am good for leg room which is the biggest thing for me.

That's what we did for
the flight from YYZ - MCO.

6 kids at once, I am ambitious but not that ambitious.

Hey, you made it. That is the most important thing.

A sigh of relief may have
escaped my lips.

He said we have seen a ton of signs, no need for one more.

It allowed me to see a lot of very cool places.

Traveled a lot with him?

 

[pkondz]

Semi-ready to read some more!

to the TR!
You're perfectly ready, then.

That was quite the travel day, now I'm glad I splurged on direct flights this year My dad is not a patient traveler!

Nice!
I'd love to do that.
I don't even know if it's
possible, so splurge or not
isn't an option.

 

[pkondz]

Seeing all this talk about oatmeal

1) Made me hungry.
2) Made me realize I'm firmly in the weirdo camp...I will eat it plain, although not typical
I prefer it with brown sugar it maple syrup and normally eat with a little milk also. Instant, normal, steel cut...like em all, but steel cut is the best.

Yep. You're a weirdo.

I won't eat it plain and...
I'm more used to... regular (?)
oatmeal and not steal cut.

Fuel prices...
It's like any other business...if they can figure out how to raise the prices and not lose customers, guaranteed they will. Look at Disney...I have a love hate relationship with them. They keep driving the prices up and up and as long as they can keep the parks packed (notice they admit more people now and sometimes hard to move?), They will. MNSSHP and MVMCP used to be low crowd levels and worth the additional money...now they're packing em in like sardines, so not nearly the good experience it was. Does Disney care? NOPE! They're making money hand over fist.

This.
Very much this.

What ever happened to making
a lot of money?
Why does it have to be an
obscene amount now?

 

[pkondz]

Joining in, Andi and I are planning to stay at OKW in January. I am excited to hear what you thought!

Caroline! Hi! to the TR!
I just this second subscribed
to your TR.
I'll get there soon, when I can.

I was on the Epic trip, didn’t get a chance to say hi then so

I only met a few of the epic ladies.
Maybe we'll meet some other time.

I travel with my daughter all the time, she is 19 and a vegetarian, can be challenging at times!

Yep.
I wanted some corn dog nuggets
from Casey's, but skipped it since
they don't have anything she'll eat.
We went over menus before we
even got to Disney.

I don’t know how the girls can sleep on the plane, I wish I could. My daughter is lights out soon as we get situated and if not sleeping she has her massive headphones on canceling out everything her mom has to say

Like a teen would listen to
what a parent has to say anyway!

Kids don’t have them, haha!!

 

[pkondz]

Of course not. If you ignore her she just drapes herself over your head in an attempt to suffocate you awake. Maybe she's got some cat in there somewhere?

Sounds like my Luna.
She stands on DWs chest.
That'll wake you up too.

That does make sense. We hosted some work colleagues of Jim's who were here from Hungary. They wanted to visit Walmart to buy stuff that was much cheaper over here.

 

[missjackiemcg]

And...
Did you see it?

I never see it even when I'm looking, so imagine my surprise when I actually noticed you have your own airline apparently

So glad you started this semi-Epic TR!! I get the feeling it was completely Epic. I'm sure you and your daughter made lots of wonderful memories together. I have traveled to WDW with just my Mom, but traveling with my Dad would be a totally different experience! I'm excited to read more!

 

[pkondz]

I'm here! You thought you could hide from me, but I'm just going to have to disappoint you on that front. Again.

Dang it!!!
I thought I got rid...

Uh...

I mean...


to the TR!

Yeah... That's it.

Yay?

Sure. Let's go with "Yay".

Sure! My fee is $50/hour.

Dang it! Should've thought of that.

What a pushover! So easy.

Uh, huh.
Like you aren't when your
little girl bats her eyes at you.

Deny it if you can!

Well, look at that. A mature, adult decision. I'm proud of her.

It happens.

Rarely... but it happens.
You'll see.

Eventually.

Oh, my gosh. Now I'm wondering if it was all a setup.

You're not the first to say that.

I thought this was a Marvin the Martian TR, not Snoopy.

Or Get Smart.
(Unless that's before your time.)

Airlines suck.

You noticed that did you?

Ugh. I wish I didn't know that feeling, but...yeah.

And recently, too!

What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing! Absolutely... oh... crap...

What could possibly go wrong?

Echo!

Great. Now you tell me.

Whoops! Sorry. I should've put something
out years ago.

Airlines suck.

Echo!

Wait, you could have gone to Flin Flon?? This feels like a missed opportunity.

Nah. I can go there anytime.
It's only a 480 mile drive.

So much for living in paradise.

Oh, no. You'll note it says you
can't take your pot out of the country.
You can take it anywhere you want
while you're in paradise.

Crackerjack operation you're running here.

Only the absolute best of mediocrity.

Well, that'll learn ya.

Ha. Joke's on them.
I put a broken phone in there,
so they didn't break nothing that
wasn't already broken.

You never know. You could snip someone to death.

It's been done.
Death by 1,000 cuts.

Cuticle scissors.

I'd say so. As long as she's not forced to sit next to some loser.

She wasn't the middle seat
was empty.


Hey!

Man. What a missed opportunity!

Tragic.

Well, we know where she gets her brains from.

Her mother.
She gets her bad sleep habits
from me, though.

I think Southwest uses that line, too.

Not surprised.
Both airlines have a similar
business model.

I can imagine. Especially for someone who likes to be early.

Wasn't happy.

Ugh. There has to be a better way. Has to.

You'd think.

Apparently not.

It's as bad as Disney World!

Worse, actually.
Here you couldn't stop
people from cutting.

No, but once I sell all this cannabis I have in my bag, I will!

Nope. It was only about
$8,000.

Uh...

I have no idea what you're
talking about.

There it is. That's the priority.

Well... yeah.

I'm going with happy.

Haven't seen that one yet.

Pretty good.
Not great...
But pretty good.

That's when you know vacation is starting for real!

Yes!!

Yikes! That must have been painful. Thank goodness it hit you where it could do the least damage.

I got nuttin'
When you're right, you're right.

But now you pee your pants and forget your name for a half hour every time Ruby fires up the microwave.

And the part in my hair
just doesn't look right.

Man, Disney transportation has really taken a step back the last few years.

But it gets you there eventually.

Really? I didn't get that at all.

Subtlety is all.

Even if it's the janitor's closet, we'll take it!

Pretty much.

Never eaten there, but I've always heard good things about it.

We liked it. I'd eat there again.

Surprised you got there in one piece, trusting such a shabby outfit.

 

[pkondz]

I never see it even when I'm looking, so imagine my surprise when I actually noticed you have your own airline apparently

You mean you don't?

Hi, Jackie!!
to the TR!

So glad you started this semi-Epic TR!! I get the feeling it was completely Epic.

I won't dispute that!

I'm sure you and your daughter made lots of wonderful memories together.

We did. It was the best
part of the trip.

I have traveled to WDW with just my Mom, but traveling with my Dad would be a totally different experience! I'm excited to read more!

I get that.
I've traveled with just one
family member or another...

And it's always completely different...
And it's always wonderful.

 

[vamassey1]

Which is why I put brown sugar
on oatmeal.

And butter!

Elle is graduating this spring
with her first degree.

Congrats to Elle!

"Dad. Elsa and I want to go
to Disneyworld. Can you come
too and show us around?"

Never turn down a trip to Disney.

"Dad. I don't think I can
afford to go. Too many expenses."

I've heard that one before.

"How about I pay for your
airline ticket (I had enough points
to cover us both), and you
room with me, so that won't
cost you anything and you
just pay for your park ticket
and food?"

Dad to the rescue!

April 30th
The alarm woke me
at a very pleasant 1:30
in the morning.
For a second, I couldn't
get my bearings.

Until you reminded yourself that you're going to Disney today. I hope that helped get you going.

She'd said she'd be home
by 2am.
(She was. Still didn't stop
me from imagining
(i.e. worrying) that she'd
fallen asleep and wouldn't
show up.)

I would have worried too.

Don't have kids, folks.
You heard it here first.

Too late.

Which really just means we could've
come a little later.

I would rather be too early than too late.

Elle looks happy and seeing no line makes me happy.

We were waved forward and
Elle placed her bag on the scale.
33lbs. Well under the 50lb limit.
I put mine on next... fairly sure
that it was going to be over.


Yep.
55lbs.

Something is wrong here. Why is your bag heavier?

Have you ever seen
a more empty airport
security area???

Never!

She looks so happy! What's she reading? My eyes aren't as good as they use to be.

Or whatever. I have no idea.
All I know is I was not on a
plane piloted by Frank and Beans,
or Frank and Stein.

Bitter, bitter disappointment.

I'm disappointed for you.

She'd gotten up for work at
5:30am the day before.
By now, she'd been up for
almost 24 hours.

Yep. She'd passed out.
Fast asleep.

I smiled and sat back.

Awwwwww.

We made it to our gate at 9:23.
They had started boarding...
but were still in the process.
Phew!

This whole part of your adventure has given me high anxiety. My heart is still pumping fast.

So... do we look more happy
that we made it? Or relieved?

Both!

Who else loves taking this
when they arrive in Florida?

I suppose it's a good thing
it hit my head on the way down.
Probably saved me some repairs.
I can always replace the plate
in my head, but a good camera
isn't easy to find in Disney.

Sorry for the knock on the head. It's a good thing it saved your camera.

I need to give a big
shout-out and an even
bigger "THANK YOU!"
to @docsoliday1.
When he heard Elle and I
were heading down,
he offered to rent his
DVC points to us.
So for what amounted to
about the same price as
a Value resort, we got to
stay at OKW instead.

@docsoliday1 to the rescue again!

About a week ago, I had used
Touringplans website to send
a room request to OKW.
I asked for a ground floor
and close to Hospitality House.

This will be my third trip using Touringplans but I've never used the room request service. This doesn't give me a lot of confidence in it.

I had my eye on the resort's restaurant
and had shared the menu with Elle.
She agreed that it sounded good.
Elle is pescatarian (she doesn't eat meat
but does eat fish) so making sure
the menu is okay with her is important.

My daughter in law is a pescatarian too. We have to be careful when we choice restaurants too. Luckily we all like seafood.

We split an order of
the crabcake,

I love crabcakes!

conch fritters,

We call these hushpuppies down here.

And...
Did you see it?

Yes I did!

 

[Kiotzu]

Fuel prices...
It's like any other business...if they can figure out how to raise the prices and not lose customers, guaranteed they will. Look at Disney...I have a love hate relationship with them. They keep driving the prices up and up and as long as they can keep the parks packed (notice they admit more people now and sometimes hard to move?), They will. MNSSHP and MVMCP used to be low crowd levels and worth the additional money...now they're packing em in like sardines, so not nearly the good experience it was. Does Disney care? NOPE! They're making money hand over fist.

Oh most definitely. We still need to drive so we pay. We still want to go to Disney so we will pay the prices!