Disney Trip of Two Young at Heart

[Angelrose]

Disney Trip of Two Young at Heart 2006


At first we weren’t sure we were going to make to WDW this year at all. Then my DH said why don’t we forget about renting a car and just take the money and stay at the Poly. It will be so much more relaxing that way. I couldn’t believe my ears. Before I knew it we were booked at the Poly ( Garden View) from the 11th of December to the 18th. We would fly back home on the 19th. I got a very good price for plane fare at Spirit. Only $69 each, one way. That was much cheaper than we usually got. Maybe it was because of the dates. We usually fly down the first week in December. Now we are going a week later.

The cast: DH Ron 71. The light of my life and has the patience of a saint and a wicked sense of humor. He needs it for putting up with me for 40 years of marriage.

Me. Mary, 61, the planner who starts the countdown clock as soon as we get back from our previous trip, and a warped sense of humor.

We have gone to Disney World every year since 1982 except for two years. Once when our budget wouldn’t allow, and once because of DH serious illness from a tick bite. We first started going for the usual two weeks with our son, then age 11. Then after he was in college and couldn’t come with us, we decided to stay an extra day and then an extra two days. Finally our vacation was for 17 days. We were younger then. Now 9 days is all we can manage. This year I will have to use a wheel chair. I had a problem with my anti inflammatory giving me tummy problems, so I had to stop. I have no cartilage left in my left ankle, so it is very painful to walk. I can manage short distances, but not walking around WDW all day.

We started our journey on December 11th at 3am. Of course I didn’t sleep much the night before anyway. Our son going above and beyond, came to pick us up to be at Atlantic City airport by 5am. Why do they call it Atlantic City airport when it is in Pomona?? We checked in and got past security with only one minor thing. I had to put my cane through the scanner and I am a little unsteady without it so I touched the security thing you walk through. Well my heavens, you would have thought I was going to blow up the Pope. DON’T TOUCH THE SCANNER. Scared the whatziz out of me. So I had to back up and limp through. I made it. DH made it without any problems. We had plenty of time so we got a bottle of water and sat down to wait. We saw a glorious sunrise through the windows and before you knew it, we were boarding our plane. I had made sandwiches for us which we ate on the plane. Our flight was smooth and we got to MCO ahead of time. Our limo driver from Tiffany was waiting for us at baggage. She helped us with our bags and we were off to Publix for our grocery stop. It was a different one than we used to go to when we were driving. We picked up a few things and asked our driver if she would mind stopping at a Hess Station so I could pick up the Hess truck for our DS. We were lucky because they only had 8 left so I’m glad we stopped. Next stop…..the Polynesian. I was so excited. This was the first time since the 80’s since we stayed there. We drove in and stopped at the advance check in. The CM was very nice and gave us our room number and building. We were in Tahiti. I couldn’t believe our room was ready. I asked if there was any chance of a free upgrade but they were full. No problem I was just thrilled to be there. She gave us our leis and our pamphlet. I mentioned that it was our 40th anniversary and she gave us each a Happy Anniversary button with Mickey and Minnie on it. I gave one to DH and we started off to find our building which was at the ends of the earth. Any further and we would have fallen off. We were a short distance away from the TATC. We finally got there and found our room which was on the 3rd floor at the end of a very long hallway. I should have requested a room closer to the Great Ceremonial house. Oh well, next time. Our room was beautiful and had a view of some palm trees. We were never there except to sleep so the view didn’t matter. Two queen beds and bathtub long enough to lay down in, a spacious clothes closet, a refrigerator in another little cabinet and another closet with a safe, ironing board and iron. We got our luggage delivered and went off to get my annual pass and DH’s 9 day pass at Magic Kingdom. I was hoping to see Scoop’s pin talk at 1pm, since the internet showed that it was scheduled. We got there, but no Scoop. So I did the next best thing. I bought pins. I am a pin collector and I do trade with the CM. It was about 2pm so we went to Epcot. I badly needed a wheelchair. We rented one for length of stay and off to Club cool for some free soda. I love the lemonade from Israel. We headed to pin central and I bought more pins. Sensing a trend here??

World showcase was our next stop. We stopped in Mexico for a ride on the River of Time. I know it’s hokey, but I love it. It’s the last time I will ever see this ride as they are redoing it starting in January. We stopped in China next. They have so many beautiful things. Last year I had gotten an enamel pill box with an angel on it. I was hoping to get another one for my cousin, but no luck. I did pick up one with a red dragon on it. We walked around to America and got in line for the Candlelight with Chapman as narrator. He was very good and we enjoyed it immensely.

It had been a long day and were both getting tired so we headed out and for the perfect end we rode SE. We went back to the Poly and since we were both a bit chilly we stopped at Captain Cooks and bought a mug and got some hot chocolate. Boy did that hit the spot. We went out on the dock to see the water pageant at 9. I love this. It’s so cute. When we got back to our room there was an autographed picture of Mickey and Minnie wishing us a Happy 40th anniversary. That was so sweet. By the time I totaled up the days charges and put away my pins I was exhausted. I finally made it to bed by midnight. Boy are those beds comfy. We have king size beds at home so we’re not used to queen sized beds and I thought for sure one of us would go THUD in the middle of the night. We didn’t. I don’t think either of us moved all night.

 

[Angelrose]

Day 2 Tuesday 12/12

We had breakfast at Captain Cooks. We shared an scrambled egg platter. Since it was EMH at Epcot we decided to go and see if we could get a ride on Soarin. There was no wait in the FP line and we got on the front row. OMG was that amazing! At first I was hanging on for dear life. Where did I think I was going?? We loved it so much we got fast passes and rode it again after our ride on Living with the Land. I find that so interesting. We had lunch at Seasons. We shared a grilled veggie Cuban and a strawberry mousse. We love the Voices of Liberty so that was our next stop. If you are in a wheelchair and our going to see the American Adventure, they take you upstairs so that after you hear the VOL you can go right in to the theater. I’ve seen this show so many times and I still find it so inspiring.

I wanted to see Cranium Command. This is the last we will see it because they are closing down the Met Life pavilion in January. I really hate to see it go.

DH is my entertainment director and he decreed it was time for MGM. We took the launch over. This was the first time we had done that. It’s about a half hour ride and very relaxing. We went to see the Muppets. I still love that show after all these years. I wanted to see B&B, but there were no shows today. Tower of Terror was next. DH took me all the way in, in the wheelchair and then took the exit. The sudden drops aren’t good for him, so I rode alone. I don’t know how many drops there were, but I laughed the whole time. When I got out, DH was waiting for me. As I was about to get in the chair, two young men came up to me that were on the ride with me. The shook my hand and told me I was great! LOL Isn’t that funny? I guess they thought that since I am older and handicapped I would be scared or faint or something. Hey, I may be old, but I ain’t dead. As we walked out we saw one of the street performers. We knew him from the former Diamond Horseshoe show. His name here is Jack Diamond and he’s a talent agent. He does all kinds of card tricks and is very funny. After his show we chatted for a while. It was so good to see him again. On the way to the Great Movie ride we saw Mary Poppins and Cruella. I had to get their pictures and autographs. Cruella was so funny. She asked if that puppy belonged to me, meaning DH. We got on the GMR and the girl who played the bank robber was, to put it kindly, sucky. I could have done a better bank robber hobbling around with my cane. OK done bad mouthing the poor girl. It was time to head into Fantasmic. We got there around 5:30 for the 7pm show. Wheelchairs have a great view on the top row. It kept threatening to rain, but it didn’t. However the wind was blowing the spray all the way to the top. It was still a wonderful show. After that we saw the Osbourne lights. They have added so many more lights and effects with music and are just so beautiful. We headed out to the buses and only waited about 5 minutes for our bus. DH went back to the room for our mug and we had our hot chocolate. Then off to dreamland.

 

[tampaguys]

What an awesome story. I'm glad you two had such a magical time on your 40th. Congratulations!

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

Day 3 Wednesday 12/13

Breakfast at CC. I love the new touch screen ordering. Skies look threatening, but hoping for the best. It’s MK morning. Side note….The MK wheelchair I got was terrible. I’m sure it was defective. You had to get in sideways. Then if it somehow closes up while you’re on a ride, you have to sit in it to open it up. UMMMMMMMM I don’t think so. Finally a CM who was very skinny worked his was in it to open it up. Now I can go on HM.

Forgot to say that I saw Delores at the front gate and got a hug. A few years ago we were always the first ones in line for the MK and I would bug her to pick me to open the kingdom since I was only 3 ½ years old. For some reason she didn’t buy it. But everyday I would say PICK ME, PICK ME. One day, another CM asked to speak with DH. I continued to bug poor Delores. When DH came back I asked what she wanted. He said she only wanted to know how long we were going to be there. Delores came back with the wands and the certificates to give to the family opening the kingdom. She said, here, why don’t you hold this wand? So I waved it around. Then she handed me the certificates and told me to look inside. There was my name and our town. I was flabbergasted. I kept saying, “How?, How?” How did she know where we came from? She said it was Magic. We were going to open the kingdom that day. I was so surprised. We had such fun and it FINALLY dawned on me, that that was what DH was telling the other CM. Not too bright here. Now every year, I have to get my hug from Delores.

On Main Street we saw Dean and I got another hug and we chatted for a few minutes. We had met Dean a few years back when he chose us to be Grand Marshals for the parade. Now every year I have to stop and see him. We got in line for POC and only had a 20 minute wait. We enjoyed seeing Captain Jack Sparrow in there. Now I get to do all the kiddie rides. We did Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan (my favorite) and Small World. Yes, I Really do love this ride. It was starting to drizzle a bit so we ducked into the Country Bears. I really miss the Christmas Bears. Don’t think I will go back to see the Country bears again. We had lunch at CHH. We just had a bowl of soup each. I got the clam chowder and DH had the veggie chili. We are meeting our niece tonight for dinner at Kona. We broke down and bought two ponchos because it was starting to rain pretty hard. We decided to go back to the room for a nice nap. When we got up we took the monorail over to the GF. They had a band playing and we just sat and enjoyed listening and people watch.

It was about 5pm and time to get back to the Poly to meet our niece. I sat down and was looking one way and sure enough, she snuck up behind me. Big hugs all around. It was so good to see her again. We checked in at Kona and were seated immediately. I had the crab cake appetizer for my entre. DH had the sticky rice, grilled veggies and DN had the macadamia nut encrusted chicken breast. The crab cakes were out of this world. DN gave me a taste of the chicken which was delicious and so moist. I even tried DH sticky rice and grilled veggies. Everything was so good. How wonderful was our meal and great company. DN and I had the white chocolate cheese cake for dessert. YUM! I couldn’t finish mine and DH graciously agreed to finish it for me. DN had never seen the GF so we walked over there and gave her the tour. At 8m we went to the wedding pavilion where we watched Wishes from the picture spot. What a view. The fireworks were amazing. As we were walking out, they turned off the lights. HMMMMM was that a subtle hint? The gates were locked. Good thing we could open them. Can you imagine the headlines?? Three guests were found sleeping in the wedding pavilion last night. Locked in for the night. We walked back to the Poly dock to watch the water pageant that DN had never seen. After that my ankle was really bothering me, so we said our goodbyes and walked back to our room. A wonderful end to the day.

 

[Angelrose]

Day 4 Thursday 12/14

Showers this morning, but they stopped around 9am. We had breakfast as usual at CC. Now I said that I liked the touch screens for ordering, but it does have it’s limits. You can change from bacon to sausage and vice versa in the breakfast platter, but if you don’t want any meat at all there is a problem. You have to take your receipt to the cashier and she does it from her register. To day we got someone who had no clue how to do it. She called someone over twice and we STILL got bacon. I can’t tell you how many times we told her NO meat., just extra eggs. Finally they fixed it at the kitchen.

After breakfast we took the bus to downtown Disney. I got a Santa Goofy for my DIL and a Santa Tigger for DS and lots of Mr. Potato Head parts for me. We looked in most of the stores just window shopping. I was getting a bit tired so we got a couple of sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich. DH got the tuna melt and I got the chicken Florentine, which is grilled chicken and cream of spinach. It was just 11am so we caught the bus back to the Poly and ate our delicious sandwiches at CC. We could both use a nap. This afternoon we went to the Magic Kingdom. I felt so bad for DH who had to push me up those loooooooong ramps up to the monorail. You know what he said? He said, “Angels don’t weigh much”. Isn’t that the sweetest thing you ever heard? And don’t I have the best, most wonderful husband in the whole world?

My DIL helped me make my autograph book. She is very artistic and does “stamping” as her hobby. She makes beautiful greeting cards, thank you notes, invitations, etc. Now my autograph book was mostly empty so we went off to Toontown and the Hall of Fame. The line for the Princesses was 50 minutes long, so I got in line for Daisy, Aurora and Chip and Dale. Next I got Minnie, Pluto and Goofy who proceeded to polish DH bald head with his ears. LOL We left Toontown and got Pooh and Tigger and while waiting in line for Donald, he left and Scrooge McDuck came out. He only comes out for Holidays so we were lucky. It had started to rain so we donned our ponchos (ahhhhhh the smell of plastic) and went back to CC for a snack. We took the monorail to the GF and listened to an a cappela choir. We were also entertained by a 3 year old little girl who was dancing to the band and then doing perfect somersaults. Her mom said she takes gym classes. At 3!! We were very close to the huge gingerbread house and the aroma was getting to me. Of course, I had to buy a gingerbread man.

We went back to the Poly dock to watch the water pageant and Christmas Wishes. Good thing we still had our ponchos because it started to rain again. We stayed until the end and went back to our room for the night.

 

[Angelrose]

[img[http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b6cc06b3127cce804f31999f5900000015100Bbs27hu1Ysa[/img]

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

Day 5 Friday 12/15

Mostly cloudy today. We started our day as usual with breakfast at CC. We took the path to the GF. It’s such a beautiful walk in the morning. We caught the housekeeping crew marching in formation with their parasols to start their day’s work. We just enjoyed the lobby until time for the MK to open. Today is going to be totally for autographs. We got Ariel at her grotto and then Belle, Cinderella and Snow White at Toontown. We found Brer Fox in Frontiertown. Next over to POC and to to see Captain Hook and Smee and then over to wait for Peter Pan and Wendy. They were a fun couple.

We were starving by then. We lunched at CHH. I got a wonderful chicken salad with pineapple and pecans. DH had his usual half a tuna sandwich and bowl of veggie chili. The meal was wonderful, but the flies at WDW were terrible this day.

Next we went over to Aladdin’s magic carpets and got Aladdin and the Genie. It was 1:30 and I was getting tired and I know DH was getting tired from pushing me around all day. Nap time at the Poly.

I did some good pin trading with CM again today. I got quite a few hidden Mickeys too. We took the monorail over to Epcot and found Donald in Mexico and got his autograph. When we got to France there were a few ladies with kids waiting for Beast. They had been told he would come out at 5:30. Well, 5:30 came and went and no Beast. Finally one woman went searching and finally found him inside the perfume store with Belle in her blue dress and Sleeping Beauty on the other side. DH wanted to get another picture of me with Aurora. Belle signed for Beast because his paws are too big. The handler told us they move Beast inside when it gets dark because he can’t see. I’ve done so well getting autographs and pictures.

We backtracked to Germany and I picked up 5 little wooden tree ornaments. One is an Irish snowman, a reindeer, a Santa, a snowman with a red hat and a snowman in a plane, that was the very last one of it’s kind. It was time for the holiday story teller. She told us how Christmas is celebrated in Germany, and how many of our traditions and songs originated in Germany. Then she told us how the Nutcracker story was written in Germany. She asked if any of us ever dreamed of having a nutcracker come to life. Then she asked us all to close our eyes and imagine a nutcracker come to life. Then she told us to open our eyes and there he was. I got my picture taken with him. That was fun.

It was starting to get crowded. Funny thing, when I could walk, crowds didn’t bother me that much. But being in a wheelchair, I was starting to get VERY scared. Weird. We finally made it to the lighted arches and we stopped to watch and listen. We never get tired of that. Since it was EMH tonight and it was close to 8pm, we grabbed the monorail back to the Poly. We stopped in our room to drop off our purchases and picked up our mug. It was time to watch the water pageant and the Christmas party Wishes. They were magnificent as usual. The people at the party, must have gotten suffocated from the smoke. There wasn’t any real breeze and the clouds were low anyway. It just settled right down on the MK. We filled our mug with hot chocolate and then headed back to our room. Goodnight all.

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

 

[Angelrose]

Think that is all for tonight. I will post more pictures and more of the trip report tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.

 

[MomofCKJ]

Oh such great pictures! You look like you had a ball! Congrats on 40 years too! What an accomplishment! We just celebrated 12 and I hope when we are at 40 we are at WDW having as much fun as you did!

Allyson

 

[LoveWDW]

What a wonderful travel report! Thank you very much. I am thorougly enjoying it! And I love the pictures!

 

[Silly Girl]

Great trip report!! Love your photos. You look so happy! Where did you get that "Tink's Gym" t-shirt. I love it and think I need one.