Disney: Delicious innards on a sandwich of Panic! A Sept. '11 TR [Completed; Feb. 28]

[teekathepony]

Oh no, I'm sorry about the dizziness! I know what you mean though. When we visited Paris last year, I experienced exactly the same thing due to jet lag and exhaustion. You're right, it's the weirdest feeling ever and it's indescribable!

Good looking out deciding not to run for any buses the whole trip. As a whole, I think that's wise. It's not really worth it, right? Another bus will come to pick you up.

Mmmm, Earl of Sandwich. Love it!

Such a weird feeling indeed, and kind of scary actually! I couldn't figure out where to put my feet down
We rarely had anything to rush for and I just figure that if I'm on vacation, I'm taking it easy lol!

I felt the same about our first Disney bus - I was excited to be getting on it!

Yay on getting the Cinderella Castle! We saw it and think I would love to get it one day but may have to wait for a while.

Oh no on feeling dizzy and disorientated - I hope you felt better the next day.

Oh on my first (recent) trip I'll never forget how exciting getting on my first Disney bus was! It doesn't diminish much though, my first bus of each trip is sill awfully awesome.

That's too bad, that you felt so dizzy! I hope a good night's sleep was all you needed!

It was indeed, apparently my body is a whiny little kid that takes a tantrum when tired or hungry.

 

[teekathepony]

I'd like to wish all my Canadian friends a very happy Thanksgiving today. May you all be blessed with lots to be thankful for!

And for the American readers, have some pie on our behalf today, and I'll be back next month to wish you well and be jealous of your holiday.

I took a few pictures of my first Thanksgiving, which was yesterday with my parents.

Spinach salad with warm maple dressing... mmmm

Our pretty table!

I forgot to take more once the food was put out. We had roast chicken, since I'm allergic to turkey, along with mashed potatoes, carrots, turnips, cranberry sauce and gravy. Corn was cooked, but we forgot to serve it!
For dessert we had apple pie -- the very first one I ever made myself without my mother's help!
I am headed to my in-laws' today for my second Thanksgiving dinner in a couple of minutes. She's making a turkey, so it will be a meal of side dishes for me!

So if you're celebrating today, enjoy!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Happy Thanksgiving Wendy!

Your meal and table set up look amazing!

Have a great second meal today.

 

[kokotg]

Hi--it's your close neighbor at Pop checking in .

Hope you felt better the next day and got fabulous new rooms!

 

[jenbear123]

Gobble Gobble! Or in your case....cluck cluck (that is the sound a chicken makes right? )

 

[teekathepony]

Happy Thanksgiving Wendy!

Your meal and table set up look amazing!

Have a great second meal today.

Thanks Tanz!

Hi--it's your close neighbor at Pop checking in .

Hope you felt better the next day and got fabulous new rooms!

Welcome! I felt much better from then on thank goodness!

Gobble Gobble! Or in your case....cluck cluck (that is the sound a chicken makes right? )

Buck buck buck BUGAWK! lmao, something like that!

 

[teekathepony]

I awoke refreshed and completely awake and not the least bit dizzy. The only problem was that it was 5am! Even in my home time zone that’s early. So I lay there playing with my phone and making notes about the day before, but I got bored quick and woke Johnny to tell him that I was going to go for a walk around the resort. I quickly and quietly got dressed, threw my camera, cell phone, book and the refill mugs in my bag and off I went. Wow, it was still very dark! I decided to keep to the well-lit areas until the sun came up a little more. I wandered around and took the long way to Everything Pop. It was almost 6:00 so I headed to get some hot chocolate and find somewhere to sit with my book.

I got my hot chocolate and started to wander toward Hour Glass Lake. I had in mind that I wanted to see the progress on the new Art of Animation buildings. I walked there by way of the Hippie Dippy pool and took a few pictures of the completely empty pool deck as I did.

It was at this point that I kicked myself for only bringing my little point and shoot camera and leaving my SLR in the room! But I did the best I could.

I wandered to the Generation Gap Bridge and took a look at the new resort but it was too dark to see much. I took pictures of Pop instead:

Then I found a bench and started to read a little.

A few minutes later I felt like someone was staring at me. It was such a creepy feeling in the early morning darkness that I jumped. Looking around, I spotted a cute little bunny staring at me and wondering, no doubt, if I had any breakfast to share. I searched my bag for a granola bar or something but alas, I was foodless. Sorry little bunny, I have nothing for you!

It was 7:30 and I was feeling restless. I took one last walk over the bridge and got this:

... the only picture I got the whole trip and it's blurry!

I slowly made my way back to Everything Pop where the crowd had increased a little. I refilled both mugs with hot chocolate and made my way back to our room the long way, around Memory Lane.

Having been awake so early, I was raring to go by the time I got back to our room with hot chocolate. I woke Johnny and we started to get ready for the day. His mother called us to tell us that she went to the check in desk to change to our next room and although her new room wasn’t ready yet, she was given her key to the world. We decided to go do the same.

“Hi,” I said to the CM at the check in desk. I am always the one who explains things, Johnny trips on his tongue. “We’d like to check out of one reservation and into another.” I gave her a quick explanation about our situation as she pecked away at her keyboard. It didn’t take long at all.

“Happy Anniversary” she said as she handed over two anniversary pins along with our keys to the world “All set, but your new room isn’t ready yet. If you put your luggage by your window I’ll have them pick it up and store it, then deliver it when your new room is ready.”

Knowing that she would say that, we had already done it and we told her that it was ready.

“Oh wait,” she said with one more glance at her monitor “your room is ready now. Number 7251.”

My mind raced… 7251? But that was only 7 rooms from where we already were! I could have cried. I had high hopes of moving much closer. Luckily Johnny was thinking rationally.

“We’ll just take our own luggage down then” he said. The CM smiled and said we were all set and she gave us an envelope. She told us to have a magical stay as we headed back to our rooms.

On the way I opened the envelope.

“Cool!” I said “A free photobook! ‘Magic Your Way Plus Disney’s Photo Book and Dining Package; Disney’s PhotoPass PhotoBook Voucher. This voucher good for One (1) Disney’s Photo Book*’”

I didn’t know anything about this voucher so I was pretty excited.

We got back to our old room and opened the door. To our disappointment, our luggage was already gone! Those luggage services people are quick. We went to my in-laws’ room but their luggage had not been picked up yet! How strange. We went down the hall to our new room expecting our luggage but no, unfortunately it was not there. It was most likely on its way to storage. We had a good look around our new room. Despite being still as far as you could get, the room itself was great. It was a handicap accessible room with a king bed. I took exactly one picture of the room! What’s wrong with me? I’m a horrible Diser.

That's it, that's all I got! And it was a few days into the trip. I'll learn. Next trip.
We got a great surprise though – a free fridge!

I put my DIS sign in the window and we called Johnny’s parents to come look at our new room. We thought if we waited just a little while we might see our luggage delivered before we left for a park. It sounded like good logic, but we had thoroughly explored the new room and still no luggage. Oh well, we stored the in-laws’ luggage in our new room and headed to the bus stop.

Here's a picture to show you where we were staying and the route we ended up finding was best:

Next chapter: Finally into the meat of our trip! Our first park! Which would it be?

 

[MEK]

I love the pictures you took of POP in the early morning. Even with a point and shot the came out really well. I love the early morning at the resorts. I think its really the coolest part of the day. Everything is so still and motionless and you can really just inhale the magic.

Congrats on your king sized bed! Aren't they the best? I had one at POFQ one stay and it was fabulous! Makes the whole room look different and cooler!

 

[kokotg]

Yay--you got the king bed! We had the bonus fridge a couple of times at Pop; it's really nice.

Looking at your map, I can see why it took us so long to get to Classic Hall the time we cut through the 70's. Guess I should have looked at a map while I was there!

We spotted a couple of Pop bunnies, too--I don't remember seeing any other years (but maybe we were out at the right times more this year). I'm sure he didn't mind that you didn't have anything to feed him; he had plenty of grass to munch on

 

[jenbear123]

Hey, I think we had a room in the same area the first time we stayed at Pop Century. We found a good short cut, like you did, through the parking lot. Many times we found ourselves running for a bus though I love the early morning shots around the resort. Very pretty.

 

[TanzUnited99]

I love that you wondered around Pop so early in the morning! What a great thing to do

Your pics look fine to me and I love how at Disney World you can see a squirrel and bunny at every turn - miss not seeing them in the UK

Yay on getting a King bed!

 

[teekathepony]

I love the pictures you took of POP in the early morning. Even with a point and shot the came out really well. I love the early morning at the resorts. I think its really the coolest part of the day. Everything is so still and motionless and you can really just inhale the magic.

Congrats on your king sized bed! Aren't they the best? I had one at POFQ one stay and it was fabulous! Makes the whole room look different and cooler!

I loved my early morning stroll. Usually I'm too tired! But in a busy place like Disney, I felt like I had the whole resort to myself that morning.
Oh that King bed was fantastic. So much room!

Yay--you got the king bed! We had the bonus fridge a couple of times at Pop; it's really nice.

Looking at your map, I can see why it took us so long to get to Classic Hall the time we cut through the 70's. Guess I should have looked at a map while I was there!

We spotted a couple of Pop bunnies, too--I don't remember seeing any other years (but maybe we were out at the right times more this year). I'm sure he didn't mind that you didn't have anything to feed him; he had plenty of grass to munch on

We tried the 70's route too, hahaha, we did a few different ones before we found this one. My S-FIL still wasn't convinced it was the best but the rest of us were so that's the way we went!

Hey, I think we had a room in the same area the first time we stayed at Pop Century. We found a good short cut, like you did, through the parking lot. Many times we found ourselves running for a bus though I love the early morning shots around the resort. Very pretty.

Thank you! It was a pain being that far away at first. If we'd had a vehicle it would have been great, so close to the parking lot! But we managed, and even lost some weight with all the walking!

I love that you wondered around Pop so early in the morning! What a great thing to do

Your pics look fine to me and I love how at Disney World you can see a squirrel and bunny at every turn - miss not seeing them in the UK

Yay on getting a King bed!

It was very relaxing that morning. Loved listening to the birds!
I live in the absolute wilderness so I see squirrels all the time, (no bunnies though! I do miss that about WDW! )

 

[BerrysGirl]

I'm following you over from my TR
What a peaceful start to your first full Disney day! Those pictures are awesome.

I know you were bummed with your location but based on your map you were near the giant Roger Rabbit statue? I would looove to walk past that every day :

 

[IheartDDuck]

Early riser! That's soooo not me. I will never have those kinds of pictures. I could take a picture of my bed!

First park. Hmmmmm. Magic Kingdom!

 

[teekathepony]

I'm following you over from my TR
What a peaceful start to your first full Disney day! Those pictures are awesome.

I know you were bummed with your location but based on your map you were near the giant Roger Rabbit statue? I would looove to walk past that every day :

Hi!! Welcome!
We were close to Roger Rabbit but we never walked by him, we went in the other direction with a view of nothing but parked cars. Although granted it was fun picking out all the different license plates!

Early riser! That's soooo not me. I will never have those kinds of pictures. I could take a picture of my bed!

First park. Hmmmmm. Magic Kingdom!

Only on the first morning!
Guess noted... but I'm not telling yet!

 

[mousescrapper]

sorry your room wasn't any closer to the main area...but at least you have the king bed and the nice bonus voucher...I made a Disney photopass book twice now, they are really nice

looking forward to hearing about the first park day

 

[teekathepony]

sorry your room wasn't any closer to the main area...but at least you have the king bed and the nice bonus voucher...I made a Disney photopass book twice now, they are really nice

looking forward to hearing about the first park day

I'm so glad to know the books are really nice! I've done photobooks before but not from Disney. I love them! Mine was shipped two days ago, can't wait till it gets here!

 

[teekathepony]

We were all anxious to get going. Our new keys to the world were burning in our pockets. This was a freebie morning! We weren’t even supposed to be here yet! It almost felt sneaky. So what to do with our extra time?

We decided that since our very last day was supposed to be an Epcot day, but it had been partially reassigned to MK for the 40th celebrations, that we would go to Epcot this fine morning and get done as much as we could.
We almost ran to the bust stop and eagerly waited for the bus. There weren’t many people in line since we were leaving a little late (roughly 10:30 if my memory serves me). The bus came without much wait and we were off!

The in-laws on the bus.

Johnny and I!

We got to Epcot and stopped for a few minutes to take some Photopass pictures and our own too.

Is this the first group picture? I think so. Intro: L - R Kevin (my step-father in law) Monique (my mother in law) Me, Johnny (DH)

"I love EPCOT Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!"


We decided to head straight for The Land to get a Soarin’ fastpass and then figure things out from there. We did just that and our fp return time was between 12:30-1:30pm. We decided to do Living with the Land since we were right there and the wait was only about 5 minutes. Everyone really enjoyed themselves, even though I usually wait until later in the day to do this ride as it offers a nice time off your feet. We hopped off with energy to spare and decided to run to The Seas with Nemo and friends.

The posted wait time was only 10 minutes, but it was essentially a walk on by the time we got through the long (but wonderful!) queue line. I love this queue, it’s so beautiful. We got in our clams and found Nemo.

We spent some time in The Seas checking out all the fish (and I made my wish list for when we get a salt water tank running!) and of course watching the dolphins. That passed enough time that it was now 12:00. We were hungry so it was perfect timing for some lunch before our Soarin’ fp were ready!

We went to Sunshine Seasons. I’d never eaten here before! Mostly the different counters and slightly different cuisine intimidated me, but Johnny hates trying new things so he never wanted to try SS before. I convinced him this year and we were happy we did! I had the sweet and sour chicken with rice.

It was really tasty, but I did find that by the end of my plate I got sick of it. Johnny had a turkey sandwich and was disappointed with the turkey roll. He hates processed turkey but he never learns! Every sandwich In Disney has processed turkey! He said it was ok.

For my dessert I got the amazing strawberry shortcake! It was phenomenal. I can now understand the hype!

Johnny had the apple… dumpling? Turnover? Gosh… what was it called? You know, the little apple dessert. He loved it!

We relaxed over lunch and when we were finished eating it was 1:15 – time to ride Soarin!
We got in the Fastpass line and waited approximately 20 minutes (the stand-by wait was something like 60 minutes, so we didn’t do too bad). We requested row 1 and were told to go to concourse 3, row 1! YAY!

This was Johnny’s parents’ first time on Soarin! In February when they were there the wait was too long and they only had 3 days to do 4 parks, so they skipped it. They both really really enjoyed it, and it would ultimately be a favourite ride of the whole trip! Johnny’s mother did get a little nervous thinking she would slip out of her seat. I noticed the film looked dirty and was often too distracted by the black blobs to enjoy the show.

We headed to Test Track to grab some fastpasses as the standby line was fairly long and the fp return time was not too far away. We then headed to Mission Space! Green team had no wait (and I get motion sick and my MIL has vertigo!) so despite Johnny’s wanting to go orange, we kept it low key.

We had fun! I love this ride but I get so nervous when they close the simulator... it's a small space! I'm claustrophobic but if I concentrate on the screen in front of me it's all good.

We had a little time to go before our TT fp time, plus we were all feeling hot and tired so we went to Ellen's Energy Adventure. We had a great time off our feet and really enjoyed the ride too. Then we went to Spaceship Earth! I love this ride so much. Unfortunately when we got off, our pictures were nowhere to be found and we were running late for our fastpasses for Test Track.

We decided to try SE another time to send our photos home, and we headed to Test Track! With our fps we waited roughly 15 minutes. We had a blast and my in-laws loved it! (Another first for them).

When we got out of TT I got a text from my cousin Melissa -- she and Ron were at Pop Century just getting ready to check in! We headed out of Epcot and to the busses to get back to meet the rest of our team!

Next: Melissa's room, passing time, first Dismeet and dinner at the Boardwalk!

 

[kokotg]

Hooray for freebie days! We always try to have at least one day when we don't have plans in advance and we can do whatever sounds good. Epcot's my favorite, too

You got some great group pictures in front of SE!

We missed Universe of Energy this year ...it's the first year we haven't done it, and it makes me kind of sad. I love Ellen. And Bill Nye! and dinosaurs are nice, too.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Well, I figured I was wrong about the park you went to, but what can you do?

I love Epcot! I loved that park even when I was a kid. I'm glad that you enjoyed the strawberry shortcake at SS. It's amazing!