Thank you, Mony!
Please start working on them for planning the next trip and report.
I don't think that would be classified "work" on our part, our problem is more a matter of logistics and statistics.
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So, where were we?
Oh yes, we were flying low over the Macho Grande, when the right engine burst into flames. Knowing there was only 2 parachutes for the 3 of us, I de,,,,,,,,Oh wait, that was another stupid dream I had last night.
Damn, if I can only stay asleep long enough to finish one of these dreams I might have something.
Ok, we WERE flying low over Orlando, MCO in particular and it seemed like we were stuck in a holding pattern.
Then we were going down and I knew this time this was it.
No problem, I'm up to the challenge.
I guided the plane safely to ground, mentally.
(Allright, everything is go, pull up 2000 ft., steer 15 degrees to port, no, not enough, another 5 degrees, There! Now, pull back 80 knots, ailerons down, that's it, rudder TDC, fine,,,,ok, coming in, ready to hit the brake......)
"So, are you going to want a smoke before we go to Magical Express?"
"Please woman, not now, can I finish landing the plane first?"
I believe I got a lot of funny looks for that comment but I didn't care, I was almost finished.
There, touch down! I started pushing the brake pedal, we slowed, then taxi'd up to the gate.
I leaned back with a big smile on my face.
"Never even felt it hit the ground, did you?"
Diane grabbed her carrion, I grabbed my combo bag of useless artifacts and extremely important drugs and we left the plane.
I write carrion for Smidgy because she has this idea that some foods can last forever, and it would be a sin to leave them behind.
She brought a bag of pretzels that were opened, finally, on the July trip. I say "finally" because they originally made their debut on the April trip but never were noticed and ended up on the cutting room floor. And I swear she is still bringing some Slim Jims that enjoyed their first trip to Disney when we stayed at Dixie Landings!
She wonders why I never have snacks in the room.
Right now I didn't care, I was just happy that the plane was on the ground, and not too far into it.
We hopped on the monorail to the main part of MCO, then we screwed up a bit.
Probably more my fault then hers, normally she is always leading no matter where we go, but for some reason I ended up in front this time.
I started walking and she was behind me, following. I figured if I was going in the wrong direction she's let me have it, I mean let me know, but she was quiet.
Well, by the time we got it straight how to get down to level one, we had kind of circled a bit but eventually we were at Magical Express. There was no time for a smoke, I just opened my pack and shoved some tobacco up my nose to smell it and we got in line with a couple of hundred of our closest friends. THey have changed this from the last time, no need to go up to the counter now, just get in line, a guy checks your paperwork along the way and re-directs you to another line.
We got in a line that said, Pop Century, Caribbean Beach and All Stars.
WHat? Holy Cow that has to be a huge bus!
Further down the line forked again, and the All Stars went their own separate way so it was down to just us an CBR.
We sat with our carry ons on our lap, if you have to wait for the bus driver to dole out the luggage at the end of the ride you can kiss any good rooms goodbye if all these folks get in front of you in line.
Finally, a huge cheer erupts from the riders as we pass the magic gates into the land of the purple signs, but we pulled up at CBR first.
Less thenn half get off the bus.
Ok, the check in line is gonna get ugly, no time for a smoke when we pull up either. Yes, this is going against my grain, but I can see what must be done. Heck, I've waited this long,,,,,,,I can do it!
Since we were one of the first off the bus, there was only a couple people in line when we dashed in. Then we were at the counter.
This part is very important to us since we hope to have a continuing reservation, we have 4 days of room only, no park tickets, then we get the tickets along with the free dining, so it would be really helpfull and time saving if we got a room we liked in the first place so we didn't have to switch.
We had requested building 9, it's in the eighties section closest to the food court, and we asked for ground floor, facing the computer pool.
At the counter we were met by a woman who looked familiar to me in a vague sense, finally, we were assigned a room.
It wasn't ready, it was in building 7, with a direct on view of the parking lot. I think a room in Trinidad South would have been closer to our food court. We rejected it.
"Sorry, that's what comes up. " we were told.
Un uh. You're not trying, and I told her so.
That's when it occurred to me who she reminded me of, Roz, from Monsters, Inc., only not as warm and cuddly.
She had a fourth floor room in building nine,,,,,we rejected that as well, not for 11 days, uh uh, no way.
Then she tried to say that's all she's got but I cut her short:
"Excuse me, see all these people in line behind me that just got off the bus? I happen to know that you are going to have rooms for them so knock it off, this is our 18th trip to Disney, and at the end of this stay we will have spent 41 days at Pop Century, which is probably more than you have worked here so do you want to be the one that sends us to stay from now on at Universal?
Roz grunted and walked away in the back, then came back out.
I have a pretty good idea how they work things at check in,,,, each station has x amount of rooms to give out, they don't overlap so two tellers can't give out the same room, so if the one you are at doesn't have the room you want, chances are she just has to get it from another teller, or station.
But Roz was still being difficult, that's what she does, and tried to give us a room on the fourth floor in building 7 facing the parking lot again. THis was even worse than the first room she tried to give us.
I said "No, get a manager."
Roz snorted, looked at the computer again and said, "Well, all I have left is a ground floor room facing the pool in building 7."
Smidgy and I couldn't believe it, we glanced at each other, laughed, and both said, ok, fine, we'll take it.
Ok, it was across the pool from where we wanted to be, but much better then the alternatives.
The room wasn't ready yet, that was ok, never expected it to be but she circled an approximate area that the room was and that would be just fine.
I signed what I had to sign, then made a beeline for the smoking area by the main pool.
Smidgy came out and picked out some lawn chairs by the pool for us to make as our home fort untill the room was ready, then she went into the bathroom that's right there to change while I watched the fort.
She came out, now it's my turn and I'm really dreading this part, men are not quick changers like women can be.
I'm wearing jeans, socks, shoes, t-shirt, regular shirt, jacket, and all i want on is my swim suit right now. How to do this simply is a major undertaking for any man.
(ok, I can leave my jacket, take off my shoes, put my socks in my shoes, take the suit out of my carry-on, wait, do I want to walk around in the men's bathroom barefoot? No, grab the flip flops from the carry-on,
But wait, I still have the pills in my pants pocket, need to transfer them to my suit pocket cuz soon as I step outof the bathroom I'm swallowingbaby,Ideservethis.,,,,,,,,,
Whilst in the bathroom taking care of this insurmountable chore it ocurred to me to tell Smidgy to put the damn phone in her bag with the ringer off! I remember Vero Beach and Beach Club when as soon as we got to the pool our room was ready.
It was 75 degrees on this Sunday, the time is now 12:30 when I walked out of the john in my suit and clipclops, stopped at the drinking fountain and took my celebratory vikes. No, I didn't really need them at this juncture, wasn't really hurting too much at all but like I said, "celebratory", the plane didn't crash and we are getting a half way desent room.
Then I turned the corner to where our chairs are and there sits Smidgy, the phone to her ear.
"No, NO, NO! Crap!"
"Room's ready."
I was too late.
I know, I know, just ignore it you say, but no, you can't ignore "room's ready."
It will gnaw at you, eat at you, you will wonder, it wil in a sense, drive you crazy until you know where the exact, room, is. ]
Well, it certainly will Smidgy.
I got a half an hour there before she started to shake, the tremors set in, I could see it happening and it wasn't pretty.
She's like the poker player that just folded his hand instead of calling, even though he believes he could have won the pot. "I Gotta KNOW!"
She said she was going to take a walk, just a short walk, see the sights, stretch her legs, maybe, just maybe, if her walk took her there, check out the room.
Well, she caught me just as the painkillers were kicking in, I acquiessed and we started to try to gather up all our stuff. This was no easy matter now, we had both shed too many layers and this crap won't fit in the carry-ons, not to mention that we now have our mugs filled with pop, but we made it.
Man, what a long walk it was too, and we knew the best way to go.
Room 7162, it was the second room from the end, right by a Rubik's Cube, right in front of the end of the Computer Pool.
We unloaded, sat by the 'puter pool for a while but neither of us went in, then they delivered our luggage and we finished unpacking and putting stuff away.
By this time it was already getting dark, amazing how quickly that happens in December so we had a drink in the room, then made ones in the plastic cups they give you and made our way down to the lake to walk along Memory Lane, and have a smoke. From here we are going to get something to eat at the food court, that's why the plastic cups.
I even remembered to bring the camera.
There was a smoking area not far at all from the Potatoe Heads, and in the dusk this was a great shot so I pulled it out, hit the power button on top, and,,,,,,,,nothing happened.
After repeated efforts had the same result, I remembered I just changed the batteries before we left home, so I took them out, made sure they were in right and tried again with the same results.
I had a problem once before getting the batteries it seemed to seat properly, so I repeatedly took them out and put them back in. Nothing.
Ok, time to give up on it for now, worry about it later, but with me that means worry about it now, try to fix it later.
Then we got our first shock from the food court.
They always had reasonable burgers and fries there, from a regular burger under 7 bucks to a bacon, cheeseburger at some goofy price like 7.39.
Now? The signs say only angus burgers at 8.29, there are no "regular" burgers on the menu anymore.
Diane got one, said it didn't taste any different, I got a hot dog with fries. We were going to try to eat cheaply here until we were on the dining plan, and this was basically the best we could do.
And the whole, entire time I kept thinking about the camera.
What if it's broke? Maybe the x-rays at the airport?
Who knows?
Back in our room I made myself another drink and we sat by the pool for a bit, only now with jackets on cuz it was gettin a tad chilly. Finally I told her I couldn't take it anymore and had to find out about the camera, I HAD TO KNOW!
When you are tired, a little cranky, little drunk, suffering from jet lag,,,,all of the above,,,,,, this is not a good time to work on something like a camera.
I knew this.
But I HAD TO KNOW!
I had an eight pack of new batteries, I replaced them all, hundreds of times. I saw exactly how the connecting, sliding plate worked on the bottom, I used a little screwdriver to pry up the contact points.
And then I pried to hard.
Sproing!
The cover plate went flying, along with the contact, sliding thingy inside of it, both in opposite directions. With Smidgy's help we found them both, but how to re-connect them? It also seemed as if the cover plate was now broken, seemed to be missing a tab but after another half hour of work with eyes that weren't seeing squat anymore, I figured out how it all went together and how it should work.
I grabbed two new batteries from the 8 pack, carefully placed them inside, slid the lid shut and hit the power button.
Nothing!
And I wondered, what now? Not like I can drive to the nearest Wallmart for a new camera, and I'm sure they'll bend you over the coals even at Downtown Disney. Diane suggested buying a single use camera but that only holds 27 pictures, plus you then have to pay for the film to be devoleped, and at Disney, even those cameras cost ten bucks, at least. Turned out to be 12 bucks.
I was not happy when I went to bed that night, not knowing what I should do.
But part of me kept wondering if maybe it's just the "type" of battery I bought, it wasn't a name brand and even though they were the right size, double A, they just looked funny to me.
And no, there's nothing I find funny about batteries.
Or the fact that our last trip in quite a while may be spent without any pictures, this was unacceptable.
Next morning I was awake early.
I first went outside for a smoke and saw a couple of workers getting into postion it seemed to clean the pool. It didn't seem like there was really anything to clean but within minutes they had fired up two generators that each sound like 60's Harley's without any baffles or mufflers.
Then I grabbed our mugs to go get coffee for me, tea for her and the Sentinel, for us.
And to see if I could buy just a couple of batteries, just two, that way I will KNOW, cheaply.
Got the coffee, got the tea, got the paper, but had to ask where the batteries were.
And all they had were 4 packs for the "cheap" price of 10 bucks a pack!
Crap, crap, crap! I don't want to spend ten bucks just to check out a possible theory.
I declined.
"Hey, can I buy these and if they don't work can I bring them back and get my money back?"
The guy gave me a "What, are you stupid?" look.
Ok, we're going to Downtown Disney today, maybe they Will have a decent, cheap camera there for sale.
Ha, how naive the desperate become!
Since pool guys were working on the computer pool, I checked out the Hippy Dippy Pool but their cousins were giving the same treatment to this pool, as well.
Back at "our" pool, they were going gung ho on it now, right outside our room and hearing aids or no hearing aids, I couldn't believe how loud those engines were powerwashing the deck.
We came out just before ten and that's pretty much when they finished up. Grabbed a table right in front of our room and some loungers in front of that, seemed like we had it all just then, but the solstace got the better or us.
At this time of year, the sun is so low in the south, even in Florida that you will be chased by shadows almost all day long. The sun was right behind our building, most of the day, and as it slowly traveled across the sky, got lower and lower behind building 7.
We moved our lounge chairs.
20 minutes later, we had to move them again.
And again, it was almost comical how fast the shadows moved, it was like they had a vendetta against us.
By only 2 in the afternoon the only sun by this pool was on the opposite side, building nine, like we requested.
We called it quits, went in and changed for Downtown Disney and Planet Hollywood to use our voucher but got in a couple of quick drinks before we left.
And yes, I fiddled with the damn camara a few more times, I still had no answers on how to solve this dilemma cheaply. It's a 2 year old Kodak Easy Share digital, only 7 mega pixels, but it was just fine for us, my guess would be that a replacement down in Disney would cost about 160, where the Walgreens by my house has an 11 pixel same type camera for 79 bucks!
Well, we're going to find out.
Downtown DIsney, do your magic!
Caught my father-in-law right in the forehead one year with the toy.....the subject comes up every year now
Though I am there generally once/year to visit family (big family - I'm one of 7 kids).
J/K LY MI
But this means you and I could fly together since we like the different seats.
