Could that Reservation be under a different name??? My 50th Birthday @ Disney !

[eeyoresnr]

OK, so here I am... going to attempt my first trip report. I have done 2 PTR but never a TR so I'm gonna give it a shot...

We will start off with the cast..
First there is me, my name is Vickie and I live in NW Florida with my awesome husband of 8 years Danny

Then of course there is Danny, a Firefighter/Paramedic

we also have 2 wonderful kids (though they did not attend this trip)

Daniel is 10 years old and lives about 70 miles from us in Southern Alabama

And then there is Stephanie...she is 25 and the biggest Eeyore fan you will ever find! She has an Eeyore collection of well over 600!

 

[eeyoresnr]

A little more about us... I was born and grew up just down the road from Disneyland, so I went to DL regulary growing up and as an adult. In 1999 I moved to Florida where I met my husband
Danny was born an 'Army brat' and grew up traveling...he has lived in Germany, (and all their vacations were in Europe while they were there) and Kentucky, Alabama, and finally to Florida in the 80's. Other than Busch Gardens and Sea World danny had never been to an amusement park.
So when we got married in Jan 2003 his co-workers suggested we go to WDW for our honeymoon. Our first trip was Feb 2003 and I think we only went for 3 nights... as you can see by my signature, the rest is history...

We took Daniel and Stephanie (and her boyfriend Josh) in April of this year for Stephs 25th Birthday in April. This was suppose to be our only trip this year as I lost my job in Feb and except for a short stint as a census worker til April I have not found work yet. Our area was (is) one of the areas hard hit by the oil spill in the Gulf and the tourists chose to go elasewhere this past summer

But, after we reurned from our April trip, Danny suggested we go back for a few days by ourselves before it got to hot and before our passes expired... so we went back for 4 nights (or was it 5) in May... our passes expired the 10th, so we stayed til the 10th. When we had been there just 2 1/2 weeks earlier the weather was perfect, mid to upper 70's and lower 80's and 50's and 60's at night, but our May trip was miserable record high temps in the mid to upper 90's...but we just spent more day time at the pools and had fun at the parks early morning and after the sun went down.

Then when Disney came out with the pay monthly for passes we decided to go ahead and get more. We also got the full pass (in the past we always did the seasonal but this way I would be able to go for my 50th birthday(which falls in the Dec blackout dates)
so I started planning our Dec trip and while I was doing so I came across a DISer who had points at OKW that needed to be used before Sept 30th and since we had never been in the fall we went for 8 days the last week of Sept too...
so as you can see we are hooked.
now on to this trip....

 

[eeyoresnr]

First let me start by saying, even though our trip was paid for and a lot of it non-refundable we almost didn't go....the week before we were suppose to leave, our oldest dog "Dixie" a 16 year old Pit Bull started having seizures and got worse by the day, to the point she could not stand on her own, so on Monday Dec 13th we made the very painful descision to have her put to sleep
this is Dixie, and this section is in her memory

RIP sweet girl...we miss you every day...

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

 

[eeyoresnr]

The alarm clock went off at 3:30am but I changed it til 4...it had been a tough week and sleep was not coming easy for either of us, so I figured another half hour wasn't gonna make a lot of difference. Besides, we are planning on going to any parks today anyways, so I went back to sleep for a bit longer. At 4 am I got up, got showered and packed the rest of my stuff (meds, contacts case etc) and got Danny up. While he was showering I packed my pillows and blanket in a rolling duffle. (I have always taken my own pillows and my blanket). After Danny was ready we carried the rest out to the truck and got the lunch meats and cheese out of the fridge and put them in the ice chest. We were on the road a couple minutes before 5am

this pic was at 6:28 am

this one was 4 minutes later

we stopped at about 9am at a McDonalds and had breakfast. I did not take any pictures here.

We got a call about 11am (we lose an hour fron Central Time to East Coast Time) the call was from Danny's friend Shaun (see PTR for details) wanting to know where we are? They were leaving for Disney at that time....

we saw this sign at 11:22 am

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Hey, Vicki! I found your TPR the other day (from your post on KatMark's/Kathy's TR) and decided to sign on to see if you would do a TR - yeah!

I am so sorry your Dixie passed. Our doglets are family members too - they just walk right into your heart. I hope it wasn't too hard on your other beautiful seet one, there enxt to Dixie.

Looking forward to your first TR - it is going to be terrific fun!! Thanks for taking us along.

woohoo: I'm first!!!)

 

[eeyoresnr]

Hey, Vicki! I found your TPR the other day (from your post on KatMark's/Kathy's TR) and decided to sign on to see if you would do a TR - yeah!

I am so sorry your Dixie passed. Our doglets are family members too - they just walk right into your heart. I hope it wasn't too hard on your other beautiful seet one, there enxt to Dixie.

Looking forward to your first TR - it is going to be terrific fun!! Thanks for taking us along.

woohoo: I'm first!!!)

hi, and thanks for coming on over... hopefully a few more will jump in as time goes on... thanks for your kind words about Dixie. The dog in the picture with her was Cookie; we lost her in Sept of 2008. Her and Dixie had been together since 2000 and Dixie mourned her for quite a while. Now they are up there together running laps and chasing each other in a never ending yard I'm sure.

 

[eeyoresnr]

so when I last left off we had arrived at Disney. We headed over to the Hess station near BWI and filled up with gas. From there we headed to All Star Sports, where we would stay for 1 night... so Danny parks the truck and as we started to get out he asked if I had our reservation paperwork. I told him it was in the binder, but that in all our trips we had never needed it... but I reached back in and pulled it out and stuck it in my pocket...

we walked inside...the line was about 7 people long. The online check in only had 1 person in it, but I had tried without any luck for over a week to do online checkin and it kept telling me to try again later
our line moved quickly and we were greeted by a lady CM. We told her we were checking in and Danny gave her his ID. She typed it in, then retyped it and yet a third time then with a strange look on her face she asked the words you never want to hear, especially on the first day of your vacation...
"Could that reservation be under a different name?"
uhm, no. she typed some more... "are you 'sure' it's not under a different name?" NO! so I pulled out my paper and gave it to her. She typed some more and after a few LONG seconds she says, "here it is" sigh of relief from both Danny and myself. So she tells us our room is ready, shows it to us on the map, gives us our packet and starts to send us on our way, when she says "wait" walks to the counter at the back and takes a rose out of a vase and brings it back to give to me.
I only took one picture of the lobby (which is unusual for me)

so we head back to the car and drive around to our parking lot. Grabbed a few things to carry with us and headed for the room. We were in the baseball section, room 8162, which is right next to the pool.
I pulled out a key and slid it through the door... it flashed red swiped it again, red... what the heck? Pulled out the other key slid it through and it was green... so we walked in. the room was nice. the last time we stayed at AS Sports was our very first trip in '03 and I couldn't remember much about it. I like the new colors better.

I'm going to jump to next post so I don't get too many pics on any one....

 

[eeyoresnr]

a few more pics of our room
Danny thinks I'm silly for posting pics of the bathroom, but I told him people want to see everything, so here it is

the carpet

this was taken from our doorway

to be continued below...

 

[eeyoresnr]

so we are in our room and Danny brings in all the luggage, and then uses the restroom. As he came out I went to sort the cards and give his to him.... this is when I noticed it didn't have his name on it the other one had my name on it. I laughed, well this explains why this key wouldn't work; it's not yours... he asked what I was atlking about and I showed him. It a ladies name on it that I could not pronounce. So he called the front desk and explained it to them. They told him he could walk back down to the lobby and have it replaced... or they would send someone over to our room. that was a no brainer, wait in line again, or wait for them to come to you.
so we waited... about 10 minutes later the same CM that had checked us in, showed up with Danny's key. we aksed if that was a reprint or the original? She didn't answer but had a puzzled look as to why it would matter, so I explained we had the Dining Plan on it and if they had given someone his card they could use it for meals. She says "oh, no, that won't be a problema nd if it is just came back to the desk and we will take care of it" she told us to enjoy our stay and left.
I'm thinkingfor real? I f I go to eat and they tell me I have no credits left I'm NOT gonna be happy.
as it turned out we had no problems with it...

so we walked down to the food court and grabbed our free refill mugs since they came with our QSDP. The total was $29.49
and then just looked around a bit

 

[taylor91]

Hi from the Uk
I have just stumbled across your trip report and i'm loving it so far. So many lovely photos... it looks so sunny... compared to here at the moment where it is raining and freezing
I'm sorry to hear about your dog, but at least you can be in comfort that she is pain free now and in a happy place with her friend
Looking forward to finding out what you got up to

 

[eeyoresnr]

we walked back to the room and decided to go do our off site shpping and get it done today... we usually go to The Disney Store at the Mall and to a couple of the Disney character wherehouses. Our goal is to find more Eeyore's for Stephanie, which is getting harder and harder to do since she has so many.
And today was no different... Danny found a Christmas Eeyore at the Disney Store and since they were buy one get one free I got a Pajama Mickey and we picked up a couple wash cloths as stocking stuffers for the kids

we had no luck at all at the other stores and didn't buy anything, so we headed back to the resort to decide where we would eat dinner

up next... dinner at Mara and meeting up with Shaun, Jaime and the kids at DTD

 

[eeyoresnr]

Hi from the Uk
I have just stumbled across your trip report and i'm loving it so far. So many lovely photos... it looks so sunny... compared to here at the moment where it is raining and freezing
I'm sorry to hear about your dog, but at least you can be in comfort that she is pain free now and in a happy place with her friend
Looking forward to finding out what you got up to

thanks for joining! the weather was nice our first day...it was in the low 70's
thank you for your kind words about Dixie

it is cold here in Florida right now too, low tonight is 32 but tomorrow is 26 brrrrr

 

[eeyoresnr]

so we decided on Mara for dinner. We headed over there about 6pm. Danny ordered the pepperoni flatbread and I had the half chicken. I had a coke and he had orange soda; for desert I had zebra domes and Danny had the cheesecake. Our total would have been $30.83. We sat outside at the tables and ate. (we figured we better enjoy the mild temps while we could as it was suppose to get cold in a couple days....and it did!)
before we left we got another cheesecake and zebra domes to take with us on our snack credit. total here would have been $7.67. I didn't take pictures of the food, I rarely do. Usually I forget to and when I do remember Danny thinks I'm silly.

On our way back through the resort we checked out the gift shop, and again bought nothing.

I took a couple pics in the lobby. I didn't take many as it was very crowded and I have lots from our other stays there.

hidden Mickey @ Mara

 

[eeyoresnr]

so next we headed for DTD to meet up with Shaun and his family. They had arrived about 5:30 and were staying at the Best Western DTD for their first 3 nights. Like us, these days were added after they had made the initial reservation. So after finding a parking space (not an easy task a week before Christmas) we called Shaun and made our way to them. Danny and Shaun had a beer and Jaime took the kids to the Lego store to look around and build something. We left them for awhile so they could eat and we did some shopping. We found Stephanie another Eeyore (ok, Danny found it) this one was a pajama Eeyore at World Of Disney. it was $24.95 and we got $2.50 off for being passholders so cost with tax was $23.91. we checked out a few more stores and told Shaun and family we would get up with them in the next few days, and made our way back to the resort for the night.

here are a few pics from DTD

 

[eeyoresnr]

 

[eeyoresnr]

after we returned to our room I decided I wanted some hot chocolate, so we walked down to the food court with our mugs and I got hot chocolate in both mine and Danny's. yum

we watched the news and called for a wake up call and ended the day.... the beds were very comfortable and we got a good nights sleep.

next up....day 2.... Magic Kingdom and a new hotel

 

[eeyoresnr]

day 2... Friday, December 17th

we weren't in any hurry this morning so we ended up sleeping in til about 8:45. I jumped in the shower first and while Danny was in there I finished closing up the suitcases and had them ready to take to the car when he was done. After we loaded the truck we walked back to the food court and I got a cup of coffee in my mug. Danny had soda (not sure what kind) I took a few more picture and we left for Magic Kingdom.

last picture I took before we left the room. the clock was about 20 minutes fast

our room was on the bottom floor to the right of the second bat

we don't usually stay at values anymore...just too crowded but we both agree we liked our night here

 

[eeyoresnr]

we arrived at the MK sign at 11:00... we have always taken the bus in the past, so driving to the parks each day was new for us, but we had agreed to try it this trip.

we parked in Minnie 42 and took the tram. This is fun for me because it reminds me of Disneyland.

the weather was nice today, about 77 for the high so we wore shorts. sadly this was the only day we were able to do this.

we took the resort monorail to the MK as there was no line. A CM offered to take our pic

 

[eeyoresnr]

by now it was about 11:30 and Main Street was kinda busy so we darted into a store and made our way down Main Street this way. We stopped here and there, just looking.

when we got to the bakery we decided to use our other snack credit and get a couple cinnamon rolls. I had coffee with mine, Danny had chocolate milk.

the line was long, all the way out the door but it moved pretty fast. Danny was getting napkins and I was looking to see if a table would clear when a CM came up to me and said, I will clean this table for you. It didn't have any chairs and she asked how many I needed. I told her 2 and she found 2 for us and we sat and ate our rolls. They were really good. I have always seens pics of them here on the boards but we had never tried them. As we were finishing up, I noticed a mother and her daughter looking for a table and I told them they could have ours.

When we walked outside the horse trolly stopped and we watched this little skit.

afterwards we made our way towards the Jungle Cruise
on the way we saw Ariel

the Jungle Cruise line was 20 minutes so we grabbed a FP and went on the train

after the train we went on Pirates...we were at the back of our boat; a lady in the front took flash pictures all the way through the ride. I'm not talking 3 or 4.... it was more like 30 or 40 and I was a bit irritated, so when the ride ended she was still getting out of the boat when I walked past her so I stopped and said "thank you for ruining the ride for the rest of us with your flash" she just looked away. I don't usually say anything to people but today i made an exception

 

[ddstratton]

You know, I don't think I've ever run across pictures from All Star Sports. It's kinda cool! I am enjoying your report so far - your pictures are great!