mackeysmom
Let's Go Mets!
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2003
- Messages
- 1,030
Cousins take on the World - Day One 12/6 - The day the cousins beat Mother Nature
Cast of Characters:
Laura (me) - age 34 (sister to Am and and cousin to Annmarie)
Annmarie - age 32 (cousin to Laura and Am)
Annmarie - age 38 (sister to Laura and cousin to Annmarie - to avoid confusion will be called Am)
5:00 a.m. came very quickly. I immediately called Jet Blue and (after being on hold for about 15 minutes) was told that our flight and Am's flight were still scheduled to leave on-time. As I made my way out of my bedroom to wake Annmarie up, I peeked out the window. There was well over a foot of snow on the ground, and it appeared to be sleeting. I also saw a pair of headlights at the foot of the driveway -- our car service was already there!! That was a good sign. I woke Annmarie up, and I called Am. Everything was falling into place.
A few minutes before six, Annmarie and I headed off to the airport in a stretch limo (we were supposed to get a Towncar, but the limo had been garaged and had no snow on it - yay for us!!). We slipped and swerved our way to JFK airport. As always, check-in was smooth and were were set to pre-board at 7:50 for our 8:20 flight to Orlando.
After getting a quick bite to eat, we settled into the seats at Gate 10 and waited. A quick look out the window showed that "phase two" of the storm was starting to pick up. It was announced that our plane (which was coming in from Rochester" was slightly delayed, and our departure time was changed to 9:00. That's fine - as long as we are at MGM by 2:00 for our Prime Time 50's lunch PS.
More and more flights began to be cancelled. Still our flight (as well as Am's) were still scheduled. It was finally announced that our plane was due in from Rochester at 9:45. They promised a quick turn-around, and hoped to have us boarding by 10:05.
In the meantime, Am showed up. She was starting to get worried, because the snow and ice were getting heavier.
At about 10:00, they started boarding. We said goodbye to Am and made her promise to let us know if she got out of JFK. Once on board, they told us that we had to be de-iced. That took about half and hour, and we took off at about 10:40. The flight was non-eventful - except for the man seated next to Annmarie. During the flight, he appeared to have no concept to the fact that he was sitting next to somebody. Poor Annmarie was nudged, and banged into, and kicked repeatedly. At one point, he even whacked her in the face with his headset. Oh well, we were off to Disneyworld
We landed at about 1:10. Eduardo from Tiffany Town Car was waiting for us. We made our way over to the baggage claim. My bag was the first to come out, but Annmarie's was nowhere in sight. Finally (after what seemed like an eternity), Annmarie's bag made its way out. Eduardo got the car and we were ready to go.
On the way, we passed the new Pop Century resort from the highway. We had been hoping to have a chance to check it out, but we would be leaving one day before the official opening. Eduardo was very friendly, and was raving about the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Boy was he right!!
Annmarie and I were both stunned when we pulled onto the property. It was absolutely gorgeous from the outside - we couldn't wait to get in. We said our goodbyes to Eduardo and made our into the lobby. The first thing we noticed was the huge Christmas tree in the center of the lobby. We didn't dawdle too much, as it was 1:45 and we were still determined to make our 2:00 PS.
Check in was a breeze - we were booked in room 3453, in the Uzima Savannah on Zebra Trail. We took a quick look onto the savannah and saw ...... birds. We hurried to our room, dropped off our luggage, and ran to the bus. The bus to MGM came within seconds and we were on our way. We arrived at MGM and ran to the Prime Time 50's. It was 2:07 - not bad, huh?
We were seated within 5 minutes, and had Adriana from Argentina as our server. (Just an f.y.i. - Annmarie has posted full restaurant reports with all of the details - food, service, price, etc.) After lunch, we made our way to the Great Movie Ride. As we strolled past the giant hat, it was hard to imagine that a few hours ago we were in jeopardy of not making it here. We both checked our voice-messages, but didn't hear from Am. (I called JetBlue and found out that her flight finally took off at about 2:00 p.m.)
The GMR had a 25 minute wait-time posted. I actually was a true 25 minute wait (the longest wait we would have for the next week.) We noticed that they had added a few scenes to the clips you watch while waiting. We boarded and got the gangster scene. The driver and "gangster" were both very good and really got into it.
After that, we went to catch the Beauty and the Beast show. We saw 4 for a Dollar perform - they sang Christmas carols - they were great. Annmarie had run over to get FastPasses for Tower of Terror, but they weren't distributing them. She tried for Rock 'N Roller Coaster, but they were done for the day. After B&TB, we walked over to TOT. There was no wait and we rode it twice. We got two different combinations - I can't remember exactly what they were, but we got some pretty serious "air-time" on the second. It was great.
We decided to make our way back to the hotel. Once in our room, we checked out the savannah again .... more birds. Annmarie called home (I should mention that she called home 6 times that day - baby Nicole was fine, it was Annmarie who was a wreck!!) Still no word from Am - I guess she had no use for us once she reached her destination!!
We made our way down to Boma and were seated within 5 minutes of our PS. Dinner was great - check out Annmarie's reports for details.
We learned that the Magic Kingdom was open until 11:00 that night, so we decided to hop a bus, but first we had to go back to the room to get our coats. It was cold out. The bus to MK came within a few minutes - however it took a while to board. A bus had broken down at the bus stop, so our driver had to park away from the curb. Because of this, a passenger in a wheel-chair was unable to access the lift. The bus driver attempted to back-up, but was blocked by another bus. A would-be passenger stepped in and directed our bus driver. Finally we all boarded, but realized that we were now blocked by the tow-truck for the broken down bus. After a bit of maneuvering, we were finally on our way to the MK.
We arrived a little after 9:00. People were lining up on Main Street for Wishes. We knew that we'd be seeing Wishes later on in the week, so we took this opportunity to get on some rides. We road Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, The Haunted Mansion (we finally remembered to look for Master Gracey in the stretch room) and Winnie-the Pooh - all with no wait. It was a few minutes before 11:00, and we ran to Space Mountain only to find it closed for the night. We made our way down Main Street, and on the way to the bus-stop we checked out some of the 75 Mickey statues.
Once back at the hotel we settled in for a good night's sleep, but not before Annmarie somehow got her leg caught in the bathroom door!! It had been a long day
Overall thoughts -
The AKL is amazing. We had very high expectations, and they were met ten-fold.
Boma was great - I recommend it to anybody.
Stay tuned for Day Two -- will we ever hear from Am, how many times will Annmarie call home, will we ever see anything but birds from our Savannah????
Cast of Characters:
Laura (me) - age 34 (sister to Am and and cousin to Annmarie)
Annmarie - age 32 (cousin to Laura and Am)
Annmarie - age 38 (sister to Laura and cousin to Annmarie - to avoid confusion will be called Am)
5:00 a.m. came very quickly. I immediately called Jet Blue and (after being on hold for about 15 minutes) was told that our flight and Am's flight were still scheduled to leave on-time. As I made my way out of my bedroom to wake Annmarie up, I peeked out the window. There was well over a foot of snow on the ground, and it appeared to be sleeting. I also saw a pair of headlights at the foot of the driveway -- our car service was already there!! That was a good sign. I woke Annmarie up, and I called Am. Everything was falling into place.
A few minutes before six, Annmarie and I headed off to the airport in a stretch limo (we were supposed to get a Towncar, but the limo had been garaged and had no snow on it - yay for us!!). We slipped and swerved our way to JFK airport. As always, check-in was smooth and were were set to pre-board at 7:50 for our 8:20 flight to Orlando.
After getting a quick bite to eat, we settled into the seats at Gate 10 and waited. A quick look out the window showed that "phase two" of the storm was starting to pick up. It was announced that our plane (which was coming in from Rochester" was slightly delayed, and our departure time was changed to 9:00. That's fine - as long as we are at MGM by 2:00 for our Prime Time 50's lunch PS.
More and more flights began to be cancelled. Still our flight (as well as Am's) were still scheduled. It was finally announced that our plane was due in from Rochester at 9:45. They promised a quick turn-around, and hoped to have us boarding by 10:05.
In the meantime, Am showed up. She was starting to get worried, because the snow and ice were getting heavier.
At about 10:00, they started boarding. We said goodbye to Am and made her promise to let us know if she got out of JFK. Once on board, they told us that we had to be de-iced. That took about half and hour, and we took off at about 10:40. The flight was non-eventful - except for the man seated next to Annmarie. During the flight, he appeared to have no concept to the fact that he was sitting next to somebody. Poor Annmarie was nudged, and banged into, and kicked repeatedly. At one point, he even whacked her in the face with his headset. Oh well, we were off to Disneyworld
We landed at about 1:10. Eduardo from Tiffany Town Car was waiting for us. We made our way over to the baggage claim. My bag was the first to come out, but Annmarie's was nowhere in sight. Finally (after what seemed like an eternity), Annmarie's bag made its way out. Eduardo got the car and we were ready to go.
On the way, we passed the new Pop Century resort from the highway. We had been hoping to have a chance to check it out, but we would be leaving one day before the official opening. Eduardo was very friendly, and was raving about the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Boy was he right!!
Annmarie and I were both stunned when we pulled onto the property. It was absolutely gorgeous from the outside - we couldn't wait to get in. We said our goodbyes to Eduardo and made our into the lobby. The first thing we noticed was the huge Christmas tree in the center of the lobby. We didn't dawdle too much, as it was 1:45 and we were still determined to make our 2:00 PS.
Check in was a breeze - we were booked in room 3453, in the Uzima Savannah on Zebra Trail. We took a quick look onto the savannah and saw ...... birds. We hurried to our room, dropped off our luggage, and ran to the bus. The bus to MGM came within seconds and we were on our way. We arrived at MGM and ran to the Prime Time 50's. It was 2:07 - not bad, huh?
We were seated within 5 minutes, and had Adriana from Argentina as our server. (Just an f.y.i. - Annmarie has posted full restaurant reports with all of the details - food, service, price, etc.) After lunch, we made our way to the Great Movie Ride. As we strolled past the giant hat, it was hard to imagine that a few hours ago we were in jeopardy of not making it here. We both checked our voice-messages, but didn't hear from Am. (I called JetBlue and found out that her flight finally took off at about 2:00 p.m.)
The GMR had a 25 minute wait-time posted. I actually was a true 25 minute wait (the longest wait we would have for the next week.) We noticed that they had added a few scenes to the clips you watch while waiting. We boarded and got the gangster scene. The driver and "gangster" were both very good and really got into it.
After that, we went to catch the Beauty and the Beast show. We saw 4 for a Dollar perform - they sang Christmas carols - they were great. Annmarie had run over to get FastPasses for Tower of Terror, but they weren't distributing them. She tried for Rock 'N Roller Coaster, but they were done for the day. After B&TB, we walked over to TOT. There was no wait and we rode it twice. We got two different combinations - I can't remember exactly what they were, but we got some pretty serious "air-time" on the second. It was great.
We decided to make our way back to the hotel. Once in our room, we checked out the savannah again .... more birds. Annmarie called home (I should mention that she called home 6 times that day - baby Nicole was fine, it was Annmarie who was a wreck!!) Still no word from Am - I guess she had no use for us once she reached her destination!!
We made our way down to Boma and were seated within 5 minutes of our PS. Dinner was great - check out Annmarie's reports for details.
We learned that the Magic Kingdom was open until 11:00 that night, so we decided to hop a bus, but first we had to go back to the room to get our coats. It was cold out. The bus to MK came within a few minutes - however it took a while to board. A bus had broken down at the bus stop, so our driver had to park away from the curb. Because of this, a passenger in a wheel-chair was unable to access the lift. The bus driver attempted to back-up, but was blocked by another bus. A would-be passenger stepped in and directed our bus driver. Finally we all boarded, but realized that we were now blocked by the tow-truck for the broken down bus. After a bit of maneuvering, we were finally on our way to the MK.
We arrived a little after 9:00. People were lining up on Main Street for Wishes. We knew that we'd be seeing Wishes later on in the week, so we took this opportunity to get on some rides. We road Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, The Haunted Mansion (we finally remembered to look for Master Gracey in the stretch room) and Winnie-the Pooh - all with no wait. It was a few minutes before 11:00, and we ran to Space Mountain only to find it closed for the night. We made our way down Main Street, and on the way to the bus-stop we checked out some of the 75 Mickey statues.
Once back at the hotel we settled in for a good night's sleep, but not before Annmarie somehow got her leg caught in the bathroom door!! It had been a long day
Overall thoughts -
The AKL is amazing. We had very high expectations, and they were met ten-fold.
Boma was great - I recommend it to anybody.
Stay tuned for Day Two -- will we ever hear from Am, how many times will Annmarie call home, will we ever see anything but birds from our Savannah????
