We started out the day with haircuts so we look presentable for our trip.
then went and picked up the rental car.
We ended up getting a Hyundia (sp) Sonata and it's a pretty nice ride, had great pickup and the gas mileage is fantastic.
DW still had to take her final exam at 5pm and since her BFF backed out 2 days ago, the only choice I had for a nap was in the car while waiting for her. Eventhough she told me that she would be done by 6 I was doubtful.
well it turns out I only got a short nap as she was knocking on the window at 5:30. Time to hit the road.
DW took the first leg and we headed down I65 S. Our first stop was on the other side of Nashville at Starbucks to pick up white chocolate mochas. Before we got there we had to deal with the stop and go traffic caused by the Titans and Colts game
. There were a lot of people that missed the kick off believe me.
DW finally called it quits after driving for 7 1/2 hours and getting us to Jackson Georgia. Is it just me or does it seem strange to have a maximum security prison that close to a bunch of truck stops?
I took over the driving and DW tried to nap as we continued to head south. I drove until we reached the rest area just north of Gainsville where I stopped for a short nap. It was about 5:30am Friday and I'd been up since 8:00am Thursday morning.
After a quick recharging of our batteries, about 1 1/2hrs, we continued south, headed toward the travel plaza on the Florida turnpike to pick up our next white chocolate mochas. We arrived there to find that the Starbucks is no longer there.
even though their website still has it listed
.
Oh well, onward to
Walmart to pick up a few room provisions. You know, they say that good things come to those who wait, and wouldn't you know it, there's a Starbucks that sits right in front of Walmart.
We did the online checkin 10 days out saying that we should arrive by 10:30am and we pulled into the parking lot at Kidana Village at 10:15am. The place is gorgeous and the drums aren't nearly as annoying as I was afraid they would be after all of the negative posts we'd read on the Dis.
The lines in the lobby were quite long but it turns out that most of those people were checking OUT and headed to the airport or to the cruise ship. We got our welcome packet and room keys and of course, since we'd been up for so long, our room wasn't ready.
We decided to head over to Animal Kingdom to get our park tickets and we rode the bus, for the first time ever.
We headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey because I wanted to get my pic taken with Thumper so of course he wasn't out, his GF was though, and when we asked the CM with Miss Bunny she told us that Thumper would be out at 1pm. We made the rounds seeing Chip n Dale, Donald, Minnie and Santa Goofy before we decided it was time to eat lunch. We have the QSDP and we had passed Pizzafari on our way to Camp so we went there for pizza, salad and dessert. After refueling it was almost 1pm so we headed back to meet Thumper, arriving just before he came out. It was par for the course that there was NOT a photopass photographer with him so DW took the pics for me.
By this time we had expected to have gotten a text message saying that our room was ready, but of course it hadn't happened yet, so we decided to go to ITTBAB to kill a little more time. We both love this show, except for the hornet part (we both cheated by leaning forward)
We were really wanting to get into our room so we could freshen up before heading to the Merry Mixer so we headed back to Kidani to check on things. The nice lady at the desk told us that our room still wasn't ready so we climbed into the car and headed to the Contemporary. The Merry Mixer was in the Fantasia Ballroom in the convention center so we parked and headed inside.
OMG the line to get in wrapped all the way down the front of the convention center, around the corner and up the hallway to where the building ends and then back around the way we had come from.
The Mixer was held from 3:00-5:00, we arrived at 2:50 and didn't get into the ballroom until 3:15. Talk about organized chaos
The room was packed with people standing in several different lines for who knew what for. We were handed a ticket when we walked in and no one even asked to see our membership card or anything. We could have been anybody walking in off the street.
DeeVee Cee was there looking as lovely as ever. Mickey and Minnie were dressed in their holiday finest taking pictures with people (this line was the longest), and Goofy and Pluto were on the dance floor. It sounded more like a sail away party for
DCL than a party for
DVC. (this is not a complaint, just an observation) We stood in line and got our rice crispy treats and were standing in another line to put our raffle tickets in the box and pick up our calendar when DW FINALLY got the text message that our room was ready.
Ok when we first arrived at Kidani they were putting us in a room almost at the end of the building when we had asked to be closer to the pool so we asked if they had anything closer and Richard was able to accomodate us because we had arrived so early in the day. Our room number is 7945, we are half way between the Pumbaa and Rafiki elevators, on the top floor and have a great view of the savannah. There are animals outside our room almost all the time. The Tommies are so cute playing and chasing each other around, just like a bunch of little kids.
The room itself is breath taking, the attention to detail is amazing. The master bathroom is HUGE. DW and I can fit in the jacuzzi tub together, and the shower could hold at least 4 people at the same time. There's even a garbage disposal in the kitchen sink. We had planned on cooking the first 4 days of our stay but when BFF backed out we added on the QSDP instead so we won't be using the kitchen much this trip.
We unloaded the car, called bell services to bring up our Owner's Locker, and unpacked the bathroom stuff and the laptop, gotta stay connected, and wouldn't you know it, the internet wasn't working. After a quick call to the desk they gave us a number to tech support and they said that they would send someone to take a look at it.
We decided to drive over to Pop Century to have dinner. We both just love their Chicken Penne Alfredo and this is where the trip turns sour. When we tried to use our KTTW card to pay for dinner using the QSDP the cashier said that our cards had been inactivated. She called someone and told them what was happening and she was told that it was because we had changed rooms and would have to have it fixed at AKL.
By this time we had been up for almost 36 hours and were not only tired but hungry, so we headed back to Kidani. Richard, the same man that was here when we arrived this morning, was STILL here and when I explained to him what was going on and that I was not happy he was wonderful. He said that the people at Pop Century should have handled this problem, as these issues have been happening frequently since the new upgrades started, and he not only got us new KTTW cards that work, he put a $100 credit on our account to make up for the inconvenience.
So now we headed to the main house, Jambo, to have dinner at Mara. It was good but it wasn't what either of us wanted to eat. After dinner we came back to our room, took a shower, went to wind down watching a movie and couldn't find the dvd's we'd brought with us. We tore the room apart looking for it. We even went back to check in the car to see if it had somehow been taken back, but it was nowhere to be found. At this point we were about to call the front desk to report something missing from our room when I looked in the backpack 1 last time and found it. Talk about a long day. We passed out around 10ish with a 9am wake-up call.
If you have enjoyed day 1 hang around for the rest. Trust me, day 2 is even more magical.
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Luv the cat pics!
). Can't wait to read more and hope you'll be sharing some pics from the World, although I did love the kitty pics too!for our 1st stay at our new home - BLT!
