Two guys are out in the deep woods, hunting, when suddenly one guy collapses. His friend in a panic gets on his cell and calls for help:
"Please, you gotta help me, my buddy just collapsed while hunting on the trail and I think he's dead and I don't know what to do!"
"Now sir, please calm down. The first thing we have to do is make sure that he's dead."
"Allright, hold on," and he puts the phone down.
A few seconds later a shot rings out.
"Ok, now what?"
That's one of my favorite old jokes and I just threw it in because I don't think there is gonna be a lot of funny in the next couple chapters.
Our last night at Vero Beach, and I tried to take one more pool pic that looked better then it does now.
Friday morning and I'm already waiting for the dawn.
I'm excited about getting to the real Disney and can't wait to check out of this wonderful luxury hotel and transfer over to All Star Sports, the bottom of the barrel at Disney World.
Smidgy got up a little earlier than she hoped to , (I "accidentally" made a little too much noise when I brought in one of the luggage racks) and soon we were ready to take off.
One last look out the balcony;
and it's time to roll.
I drove for all of about 4 miles before she saw the Publix and I had to pull in so she could run in and get a few things.
Ten minutes later she comes out with a bag, and noodles.
No, I'm not talking Ramen, I mean those long styrofoam things that for some reason have become popular. They are 5 bucks a piece at Disney, 2 bucks at Publix.
A little after 11:30 we pulled into Sports and parked in the check in lot in front. And man, those tolls in Florida will wipe you out. Once you leave the interstate, be prepared to stop and pay.
A lot!
So, DVC points double on the weekend, that's why we are staying for only two nights at Sports, Sunday we check into Beach Club Villas.
Leading up to this trip, we have told each other constantly that it's not going to be like a typical Disney vacation. We have never been here in July, prided ourselves on being too smart for that, and yet here we are.
Don't expect to see everything and ride everything like we usually do, be smart with the fastpasses, take our time and leave when the park gets unmanagable.
These next couple days had more ups and downs the the Tower of Terror, it's just that the downs were a lot bigger drop.
And I believe the ride started at checkin with the zombie girl.
"Hi, we're checking in," and we gave her the information.
She starts beating up the terminal and, "Oh yes, here we go, got it."
As we move along in the process, Diane reminds her that it should say we requested a first floor pool view.
"Oh yes, I see that here, that won't be a problem."
I nodded, proud of myself.
We wanted the Home Run section because except for preferred Surf's Up, all the other areas suck. From what I read and heard, Disney only will try to honor two descriptions in a room request. Since the Surf's Up pool is a preferred area, that can only leave the Home Run section for a pool view.
And she says we'll get it.
But it's not ready yet, we'll call your cell when it is.
Uh huh, been there, done that.
Next she looks at the monitor, pulls out a resort map and circles the general area where our room is.
We both look at it, instead of the front of either building facing the pool, she circled the part of the T that sticks out behind facing the parking lot.
Now we both look at each other.
Huh?
I said "Excuse me, you said we were facing the pool and you've got us facing the parking lot on the map."
She looked back down at the map.
And looked, and looked.
I thought she had narcolepsy and had dozed off.
Finally she looked back up at us, and she did it again, just staring right through us.
It was as if some circuits had blown in her head, now she was a vegetable and it was all my fault.
I could tell Diane was getting creeped out too, she moved her head closer to the girl and said, "Hello?"
Suddenly she snaps out of it, looks at us and I almost expected her to do a Dory, "Can I help you?", but she looks back at the screen. Then she walks away, talks to someone else behind the counter who I assumed was the manager, and comes back and looks at the screen again.
Soon she pulls out another map, circles a part of it right in the front facing the pool and says, "Ok, here's probably what you were hoping for, but the only problem is it's ready now.
Again, HUH? That's a problem being ready now?
We didn't say anything except thanks, we'll deal with it and I'm looking around for the hidden cameras, they must have brought Candid Camera back and I never heard about it. It was like being in Bizzaro World in the old Superman comics where everything is backward.
Room 9101, told Smidgy it sounds like a corner room but I was having serious doubts that this key would work. Or if it did work we're going to walk in on a couple bumping uglies on the bed.
Before we pulled around, I told Diane that I wanted to check out the Surf's Up pool, just ot look at it, get more in the mood and see how crowded it was.
'
Being mid July, I have no doubt that all the Disney pools will be doing a stellar business.
By the way, there are 9 pools included at all the value resorts, and in my opinion, the Surf's Up pool is inarguably by far the prettiest and most inviting. It is surrounded by lots of the tallest palm trees i've ever seen, and the buildings that are next to it all have giant surfboards and sharks and waves with the staircases enclosed inside a wooden beach front shanty architecture, complete with lifesavers.
When we walked outside to get closer to the pool, once again we had to stop and look at each other.
HUH?
That's when I new for sure something was terribly wrong.
It was empty!
No wait, there's a kid just getting in now.
"Steve, what do you think is going on, they can't all be at the parks, can they?"'
" I have no idea, but we might as well get our stuff in the room and take advantage of it."
I was wondering if there was a code brown going on, but there wasn't anyone there to make the brown in the first place.
Back in the car we drove around and parked where we thought our room might be, then figured we might as well carry some stuff with us now, why make more trips then necessary. neccesary, neccessary; damn, I hate that word.
As we got out of the car and opened the back hatch, we both looked around and that's when what was happening should have hit me, but it didn't.
You could count how many cars were in the parking lot.
We have stayed at all the values many times and I know what these lots are supposed to look like.
With Diane leading the way cuz I'm so pokey carrying a couple of suitcases, and me behind with a heavy box of pop and booze, we followed the wall signs pointing the way to our room.
Rounding a turn that brought us to the front, adjacent to the pool, we could see up ahead a huge group of people standing in the walkwayin yellow shirts, they looked to be teenagers with a man giving them instructions.
They looked right at us, but none of them moved. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they were hoping we would stop at a room before we made it to them.
And now, unlike the Surf's Up pool, this pool is packed. I can hear a lot of yelling in jibberish, well to me it's jibberish, but I was sure they were all speaking some dialect of Spanish.
Finally as we got closer, Diane who's still in the front says loudly, "Excuse us."
By now I can see they are all wearing soccer uniforms and I would guess there age to be around 16, some maybe 17.
After Smidgy spoke again, "Excuse us", they all turned and looked at us this time. There were at least a dozen of them standing in the way, and then I saw the man lean forward and say something to them.
Now they all bunched together, trying to create a wall.
And I was ready to Friggin Explode!
We're certainly not going back the way we came from carrying all this crap, and the bushes on the left made it impossible to go around.
All they had to do was crowd into the recess where the doors are for a moment as we walked by.
Ok, I thought.
I told Diane, just stay behind me, I can tell our room is only four doors down from where they are.
Everybody is now looking at each other, and the "man" in charge of them now has a smirk on his face that made my blood boil.
I tossed the box up in the air a little bit to get a better grip, held it up a little higher and just started heading right into them at a fast pace, with Smidgy right behind.
I did enjoy the surprised look they had, two of them got nailed by the box before the rest of them started swearing I guess and moved to the side.
I was literally shaking when I put the room card in the door, and what do you know, it worked!
Once inside, we talked about it and neither one of us could believe what just happened. She immediately called the front desk and told them what happened.
Their response?
Ok, we'll send a security guard over to keep an eye on the area.
Going through all of them, I truly felt like Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea.
Now that we know where our room is, I realized this other lot would be a lot closer to unload from, and we went to move the car. This time we brought in the cooler from the other direction and our new bff were gone.
9101 was a corner room, right in the center of the building by the elevators, and right at the closest end of the pool near the Touchdown section, where the designated smoking area is. It would have been a great room if it wasn't for the neighbors.
After the unloading, we changed and went down to the main pool. After a bit, she realized she forgot the new noodles, and went back to get them.
At first I was going to go with her, didn't want her going alone, but she talked me out of it, "Nebo, this is Disney, nothing's going to happen."
And it didn't.
Well it didn't to her, I, on the other hand got warned and reprimanded.
I was still upset, and now I'm pissed because they have just ruined my mood and I"m at one of my favorite pools in all of DisneyWorld.
We were at a table at the end of the pool closest to our room, and there was a guy sitting a couple of tables away.
And I wanted a smoke.
No where near a smoking area, I grabbed my smokes and since there was nobody around for miles, I walked over to a solid wall of the main building, out of the sun and off the beaten path.
We have spent time at every resort on Disney property except Shades of Green and the hotels in DD. The only places we haven't actually stayed at are the Poly, GF, CR, SSR, OKW and the Swan. Stayed at all the others and I"m counting the Beach Club Villas as staying at the Yacht Club.
But I have never been stopped by an employee and yelled at for smoking in the wrong place.
Except at Sports.
Twice now.
Happened sitting at the Home Run pool back in Feb. of '08 while we were playing Yachtzee at a table one night when we had the pool to ourselves cuz it was about 50 degrees out. That time it was a guy on a Segway also.
Woman pulls up to me on her Segway, and politely reams me out for smoking where I'm not supposed to be. I didn't even bother telling her what we just went through, just nodded and walked away.
Smidgy came back with the noodles, no problem, no sign of them, but I just felt like crap, couldn't believe I was looking so forward to this.
And then I started thinking;
The new lot that we moved the Santa Fe to was even emptier then the first, as a matter of fact, it was completely empty, I swear I am not kidding, we were the only car in the lot.
And since those jerks knew that we were unloading a car....................
to be continued