Disney Through Another's Eyes (updated 2/1) Day 2/Part 2.

[camelotcats]

Hey, anyone who met Paula Deen and makes sweet scrapbooks is on MY shortlist.

No need to amend. I didn't amend my PTR when I thought Jordan was the only one reading.

 

[jkCT]

I'm here! I'm here! Usually lurking but thought I'd say hello. Can't wait to read your report and see the pictures!

Jen

 

[jordanyosh]

Sounds like you had a great time. Hope your friends had a good time too.

Lot of pix...

I'll hang in there w/ you....

Another trip planned? With kids I take it.

 

[desiab]

Hey, anyone who met Paula Deen and makes sweet scrapbooks is on MY shortlist.

No need to amend. I didn't amend my PTR when I thought Jordan was the only one reading.

I am planning the mother of all scrapbooks for this trip. DH is not sweating too much because I won't spend nearly as much doing it digitally.

I'm here! I'm here! Usually lurking but thought I'd say hello. Can't wait to read your report and see the pictures!

Jen

Hey Jen, I am glad that you came out of lurkdom for my trip report. I can't compete with reports on the caliber of Jordy's but I still have fun.

Sounds like you had a great time. Hope your friends had a good time too.

Lot of pix...

I'll hang in there w/ you....

Another trip planned? With kids I take it.

Yes, we are going back the end of May. The only way to get clearance to take the adults only trip was to promise to take the kiddos and my IL's. I have already started planning for that trip and jotting notes for my pre-trip report!

 

[tammy]

Welcome home, I have been thinking about you. I am so glad to hear you had a great trip.

 

[desiab]

Welcome home, I have been thinking about you. I am so glad to hear you had a great trip.

Hey Tammy!

Glad to "see" you here. We had a great trip. I just think that I over did it during the week and now I am paying for it.

 

[desiab]

For the first time ever, the night before our Disney vacation I slept like a baby. That normally never happens. I usually lie awake making mental lists of all the things I forgot to pack or of the bills I need to remember to pay. The only thing that I can figure is that the “Skittles” worked. Whatever the reason I woke up feeling pretty rested and EXCITED!

The kid’ss winter break ended the same day as we were scheduled to leave, so the first order of business was to get them up and on the bus. That task completed I worked on getting the princess fed and ready for her play date with Auntie.

Sonny had loaded up most of the luggage on Wed night and opted to go to work for part of the day. That left me to run the last minute errands—bank, electric bill, water bill, etc. No big! I am leaving for WDW today!

Stopped to grab a quick bite to eat at McDonald’s and happily informed all who would listen that I was on my way to WDW today. I am sure that I was annoying the H&*$ out of everyone I met, but I was having fun. That’s all that matters right?!

It wasn’t long before I got a call from LJ and Brianne that they had completed their errands and were headed to my house.

Small aside—My IL’s went to WDW with us last May and fell more in love than ever. So for the last few months my MIL has been teasing that if something should happen to Brianne before the trip, she would happily take her place.

This almost came in the play when they were putting their stuff in the SUV. Brianne slipped but managed to catch herself just before falling backwards out of the back of the Excursion. That would have been a horrible end to all these months of planning.

When we went to pick Sonny up at work we had a bit of fun with his bosses and the Excursion.

​

​

Once we got on the road about 1 pm I popped in the WDW planning DVD. Looking back I wish that we had stepped it up a bit and left sooner, but what can you do? I confess that in all of the planning I did for this trip, it never crossed my mind to order the planning DVD for LJ and Brianne. Don’t worry I flogged myself.

The ride was uneventful. We talked, read, watched a movie, listened to XM, ate plenty of snacks and slept.

We did make it to the Florida welcome center in time to get our OJ. LJ and Brianne, the poor dears, had never gotten their free sample of juice!

​

​

​

After our juice the guys decided they needed massages in the chairs. The FL welcome center has hit a gold mine with this idea.

​

​

​

Excuse the crazy expression on my face. I set the self timer and then ran.

​

​

One of my favorite shots!​

Our plan had been to drive at least to Ocala the first night, but Sonny started getting tired around LakeCity. We started looking for a room for the night and the first place we spotted that looked really nice was a Country Inn & Suites. The rate quoted for the night was a reasonable $89, so I gave the clerk my information. When she asked for a credit card, I requested to pay for the room in cash. The hotel clerk informed me that the room had to be secured with a credit card because of the duvets.

Hotel clerk lady say what?

She went on to explain that the rooms had recently gone through a renovation. Several guests in the past had damaged the new duvets, so they were required to get a credit card deposit of $100. After checkout the housekeeper would survey the duvet and if it was acceptable the front desk would authorize a refund that would take 3-5 days to hit my card.

I’d like to think that I was classy and gracious as I told her no thanks and walked out. Brianne agreed that it seemed an unfair policy and she didn’t want to stay either.

It took us several hotels before we found a vacancy, but finally scored an AAA rate at the Jameson Inn. The room was nice and clean, so we settled in for the night.

Up next... Check-in at All Star Movies

 

[jordanyosh]

Nice update.

I like the picture in front of the Florida sign--friends having fun......

deposit for a duvet cover? what are people doing to the duvet covers? No thank you....

 

[desiab]

deposit for a duvet cover? what are people doing to the duvet covers? No thank you....

That's the thought that kept running through our minds too.

 

[tammy]

More, more, more.....Great update. Thanks for sharing.

 

[desiab]

LJ and Sonny set the alarm for 6:30, but we actually didn’t drag ourselves out of bed until 7:00. With the difference in time our bodies felt like it was 6. Once the reality of being just hours from Disney kicked in, we all started moving a bit faster.

I normally am ready pretty quickly in the mornings, but I admit that I gave in to peer pressure and put on a bit of makeup. I was glad I did once I started looking at pictures from that day.

You may remember that we pre-ordered our Photopass CD for a 20% savings. This turned Sonny & Brianne in to Photopass photographer stalkers. LJ and I would be in the middle of watching something and we would hear, “Photo Pass Photographer!” and be yanked along. I can’t complain too much. We managed to have 351 pictures on our CD when I ordered it at home. I can’t wait to share the ones from the Grand Floridian photo shoot. Stay tuned.

Uhhh…were was I? The Jameson Inn offered a nice continental breakfast with oatmeal, waffles, pastries, juice, coffee, and tea. The coffee left something to be desired, but overall the breakfast was nice. After everybody ate their fill, we checked out of the hotel and loaded up the truck.

*picture courtesy of Brianne

When we stopped for gas at a service station across the street and I ran in to get what I hoped would be decent coffee. I pulled a cup from the stack and start pouring. I noticed as I was half-way done that the cup looked used. There were dried bits of something on the outside and inner rim of the cup. I should have stopped then, but I am a glutton for punishment and continued. I poured the coffee out, threw the cup away and tried again.

The coffee smelled delicious and I am almost to the finish line when I see something blackish-brown fall into the cup. I tried to keep the freak-out to a minimum, but since the clerk and I were talking at the time she saw my face. First thought that crossed my mind was… well…that. Don’t make me say it. Surely you were having the same thought. I suddenly lost my appetite for coffee and start looking for a place to dump the liquid. The cashier was curious about what fell in and tells me to pour it in the tray. She watches as I pour and……….. it was a coffee bean!(Highlight the space after the dots to find out what it was!) What made Sonny upset is that I paid for the coffee, got in the truck, and then refused to drink the coffee. I noticed that he didn’t offer to drink it either.

Hopefully, this was not a preview of things to come.

Our first glimpse of the famous sign. Excuse the garbage on the windshield.

We arrived at the All-Star Movies for check-in around noon to a fairly short line. Already Brianne has her camera out taking pictures of the lobby. Watching her get excited over the murals, hidden Mickey’s, trivia questions that line the queue, and other neat things made me realize how much I have taken the details for granted. We could have taken pictures for a while, but soon it was our turn to check-in.

*pictures by Brianne

Betty was the cast member that waited on us and Sonny noticed that the CM next to her was also named Betty. Before long he had both ladies laughing and telling us stories about the mix-ups that are inevitable with two Betty’s working side-by-side. My husband has a way of making friends with people and these two cast members were no exception. You will see his magic at work several times on this trip.

When Betty pulled our reservation up on the computer she noted that our rooms were spread out, so she decided that she would get us rooms that connected. That sounded like a really nice idea and soon the changes were made, our rooms were ready, and we were on our way. We were assigned 101 Dalmatians, building 4, third floor, rooms 4942 & 4943.

The rooms didn’t look that far away, so Brianne and I decided to walk the short distance to our rooms while the guys parked the truck and started bringing the luggage. The All-Star Movies resort is beautiful and we had a blast taking pictures on the way to our rooms.

The first thing that we had to do was take pictures of the rooms before they got cluttered with our stuff. I won’t bore you with the pictures you have seen a million times, but I will show you what was waiting in both rooms.

Before & After some artful re-arranging by guess who.

Soon the guys arrived with our bags and we decided to take a few minutes to get organized before we left for Downtown Disney.

Everything was going great. I had just changed clothes when I hear someone fiddling with the door handle. The door opens and in walks the couple who had been standing in the check-in line behind us.

I don’t know who was more surprised! Thank goodness I had already gotten my clothes right. Sonny being the nice guy that he is offers to let them come in and we would get the whole thing straightened out. I don’t think that we look like a mass-murdering type of couple, but the other couple opted to return to the front desk instead.

When Sonny called the front desk and spoke with a CM he assured us that he could fix the problem quickly and painlessly. He would just cancel out the other couples KTW cards and we would be all set. Well that didn’t work like he had hoped. Our keys got canceled too. We were invited to come to the desk for replacement keys that were sure to work. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to have Brianne leave the connecting doors open. Upon arrival at our rooms the keys still didn’t work.

This time they sent a nice lady to our door on a Segway to correct the problem by re-keying the door. Again no dice!

Our fuel tanks were running low, so we would just have to deal with this situation after we had eaten. Our original plans had been to go to Downtown Disney and eat at Earl of Sandwich, but by this point everyone just wanted to eat now!

*Excuse the crazy pictures. Some of them just wanted to be bigger despite my efforts to resize them.

 

[jordanyosh]

These pix are making me excited...

I'm glad it was only a coffee bean and not a bug.

 

[camelotcats]

EEEWWW on the used coffee cup!

WE've had similar problems at otehr hotels with two people in the same room. *sigh*

Sounds like a pretty good start, tho!

 

[tammy]

Mardesia,

You are so funny. That coffee story was hilarious. Thank God it was only a coffee bean. I didn't know what to expect when I was highlighting the text.

Great update. Thanks for sharing.

 

[desiab]

These pix are making me excited...

I'm glad it was only a coffee bean and not a bug.

I keep going back and looking at all of the pictures we took and I am getting excited again myself.

EEEWWW on the used coffee cup!

WE've had similar problems at other hotels with two people in the same room. *sigh*

Sounds like a pretty good start, tho!

I was kind of freaky to me. What if the same thing happens when we aren't in the room?

Mardesia,

You are so funny. That coffee story was hilarious. Thank God it was only a coffee bean. I didn't know what to expect when I was highlighting the text.

Great update. Thanks for sharing.

I was thanking him myself that it wasn't a "friend".

 

[desiab]

First—more pictures around the All Star Movies Resort.

*pictures by Brianne

If you revisit the itinerary I posted months ago you will note that we were planning to check in and then head to Downtown Disney to have lunch at Earl of Sandwich. We didn’t follow today’s plan at all. I should know by now that the itinerary is just a loose plan -- subject to change at any moment. This trip the plans sometimes seem to change minute by minute, but we still had a great time.

Everyone agreed that the best thing to do was to just head to the food court and eat quickly.

I don’t know about you but I actually like the hustle and bustle of the All-Star Movies food court. I don’t always like their prices, but I know what to expect. Brianne and LJ on the other hand got sticker shock. Even after months of reading, planning, and chatting the reality of the prices were completely different. They were also surprised by the generous portions. No surprises on either front for me and yet I still ordered too much food.

The crowds in the food court were sparse, so we had no problem finding a table. As we approached the table I saw Brianne open her camera case. LJ reached for his food. Brianne had already been briefed about my addiction to food porn, so she knew the drill. LJ was totally in the dark and was a bit befuddled when his hand got slapped for starting to eat.

“I said my prayer!” he exclaimed as he nursed the effected hand.

Sonny laughed at the newbie mistake and calmly told him the offense he had committed. “You can’t eat anything without taking a picture first.”

Picture taking freak say what?

It took a sec to get LJ to register what Sonny told him and I don’t think he every got to a point where he understood my need to take pictures of everything that we eat. At this point Sonny just takes it in stride. It is the least of my addictions and quirks.

My Corn Chowder

My side salad(that someone else ate) and Sonny’s Philly Cheese steak

LJ and Brianne’s Food

We enjoyed our lunches and moved back to the room.

After checking our keys again to see if they actually worked we decided to exchange anniversary gifts with LJ and Brianne. Our personal couple gifts were going to be exchanged later in the week.

Our gift from LJ and Brianne:

I love the way that they wrapped our gift. She kept apologizing and we kept laughing. Inside was Yankee Candles, Godiva hot chocolate, peppermints, Dove chocolates, two coffee mugs, and a big fat Visa gift card!

The card they got us was too cute.

LJ and Brianne’s gift from us:

I posted most of the stuff that was in their gift bag, but I will do a quick recap. There were pajamas for LJ, a robe for Brianne, wine, chocolates, a calendar, aromatherapy candles, a set of personalized Minnie mouse gloves and hat for Brianne, and anniversary pins that we picked up on our last trip.

After the gifts were opened and thank you's were exchanged we plotted out our next course of action. We originally had planned to go to Downtown Disney, but the plans were further changed when Brianne suggested that we go to Epcot and start our tour of the World Showcase. Epcot is my favorite park, so it didn’t take long to convince me. The guys wanted to do whatever was necessary to make us happy, so they went along with no complaints.

So this is an example of things changing minute by minute. We were in the truck headed toward Epcot when Sonny suggests that we head to the Boardwalk to visit with a CM friend. Then we could go into Epcot through the International Gateway.

Up next: The Boardwalk & Epcot through another’s eyes.

 

[disneykibbes5]

I am really enjoying your trip report. can't wait to read more.

 

[desiab]

I am really enjoying your trip report. can't wait to read more.

Thank you. My writing style isn't great, but hopefully the pictures will make up for that.

 

[desiab]

This part of the day will be shown mostly through the eyes of the camera.

Sonny was tuckered out from all of the driving.

Sonny and LJ were so happy to be in Disney that they decided to do a dance. I wish that I had thought to record this bit because they had Brianne and I rolling.

Brianne and LJ going through the gates for the first time.

More pictures continued in the next post.

 

[desiab]

The belly dancer outside the Moroccan pavilion:

Even more pictures continued in the next post.