Hedonists on Holiday: Departure Day, Days 1, 2, & 3

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I tried to post ON our departure day, but you know how the boards have been kicking posts out as duplicates? Yep. Eight or nine times. I just gave up. But I will try to recall exactly how it went.

"Every day comes with it's own surprises."

Friday, October 14 -
DH gets up to go to work about 2 AM. I can't sleep, so I get up from 3 AM - 4 AM. I go back to bed and am completely groggy when the alarm goes off at 6:10. UGH.

I get DS up and ready for school. We are out of coffee. I figure I'll hit Starbucks on the way to work. I usually drink 3-4 cups each morning, so no coffee is significant. After I drop DS at school I decide to go into work a little early instead of stopping for coffee. BIG mistake. I should have gone to Starbucks!

I get to work and my boss has forgotten I need to leave at 1:30! We manage to work it out, but there is some serious tension. My boss leaves for work.

I need to get my little charges (I am a nanny) off to preschool QUICKLY so I can finish up my last minute stuff while they are occupied. The four year old is mad that her parents have already gone to work so she throws a raging fit. I manage to get her off to school anyway.

I rush home to put the ME tags on the luggage, print the boarding passes, and pay some online bills. The Foley's website won't let me into my account. GRR. Decide to cut my losses and mail the damn thing. Cat decides to start projectile vomiting. I rush over to catch the vomit with some newspaper. Cat is old - about 16 - and continues to vomit. I lock her in the bathroom and call my mother. Tell her she will probably have to take the cat to the vet. Call DH to see how his day is. Tell him about my boss forgetting I have to leave. Tell him about the cat.

I leave the cat in the bathroom and go run some errands for my boss. I never got any coffee. I settle for a 20 oz. Pepsi. When I come back the bathroom is a mess, so I clean it quickly and stick a bowl of water in the bathroom for the cat so she won't dehydrate. I cross my fingers that the other cat doesn't need to get to the litter box in the bathroom. I call the vet. He can see her at 2:30. I call DH to tell him he needs to take the cat to the vet at 2:30, I will figure out how to get DS from school at 3:00.

I pick up the little ones and we go pick up their grandma. Luckily grandma is in town and has agreed to look after my small friends so I can leave! I get the kids down for nap. ALMOST out the door when I realize a can of soda has exploded all over the inside of the fridge. But it is the bar fridge, not the big one. Grandma and I decide this can be a housekeeper problem because I have to go get DS from school. I am hoping I have time to change clothes before the flight. If not, at the very least I hope there isn't cat vomit anywhere on me.

I arrive to pick up DS. His teacher tells me he failed a Social Studies test that he knew was coming. Great. DS comes out and informs me that he never got his work from his math teacher to complete during the trip and she is gone for the day. Grr. My head feels like there is an axe in it. I would like to think it is the lack of caffeine, but I suspect it isn't. We rush home so I can print some math worksheets from a website for DS. I change clothes while they are printing.

My mom arrives to ride to the airport with us. She is taking my car home with her so it isn't sitting at the airport. DH tells me AGAIN how we have too much luggage and it won't all go in the car. He makes it fit anyway.

The vet has decided to keep the cat overnight. I leave a check for my mom and give her directions to the vet's office. We leave the house on time, though I am SURE I have forgotten something. I just don't know what it might be. That feeling nags me for days.

We get to the airport without incident. We eat an overpriced dinner at the airport (if you have never dined with your carry-on luggage you should do it once, just for the experience) and board our flight. We arrive in Orlando and get off the plane at 10:50 PM.

Next installment:
Magical Express to Pop Century and Day 1.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

was actually pretty smooth. At this point in the trip I was keeping meticulous notes. We deplaned at 10:50 PM, we checked in at the ME desk at 11:04 PM (which was tricky because the airport is deserted that time of night). No problems. We boarded the bus (a DCL bus, not an ME bus) at 11:19 and departed at 11:22. Our bus was going to Pop, Coronado Springs, and ASMu, in that order. We arrived at Pop at 11:55 PM.

I should have requested something more specific for our room. All I asked for was "non-smoking, two double beds". In January we were in room 6336 in the 70's (Mickey phone). It was lovely. This time we were in 7215 in the 80's (Roger Rabbit). It is about 600 miles from Classic Hall with no direct route. It was 2nd floor, third room from the end. I was certain this would be bad. I asked if we could move. Only to a smoking room. We keep the room and prepare for the worst. My biggest worry was noise because there would be people on ALL sides of us - above, below, beside, diagonal, you name it!

We get our "keys to the world" all loaded up with our dining plan, and we get our $25 Disney Dollars for booking through AAA in January. Good thing they remembered because I had forgotten. It would have been horrible to miss out on Disney Dollars!

The room looks pretty clean, but we wipe it down with Clorox wipes as soon as we enter. I set the wake-up call (at DS's request) and we are in bed by about 12:30 AM. Saturday will be MGM!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

so this is taking far longer than it should! Bear with me.

Saturday, October 15 MGM UG crowd level "7"

The wake-up call comes at 5:30, but I am already awake. I have horrible "hotel insomnia" so I am awake almost all night, every night. But I will say it was very quiet! Except for the occasional toilet flush it was completely quiet.

DS listens to the wake up call and reports that it is the same one from January. We have a message that our luggage is waiting for us. The message was from 2:08 AM, so our bags were about 2 hours behind us. We called for the bags and the guy said they would be to the room in 15 minutes. This is truly remarkable when you consider how FAR that room is from everything else at the resort. Perhaps they used a chopper to bring it? Anyway, it really was there in about 15 minutes. All four bags. Which was good because I realized I had packed all of my shoes except the ones I wore on the plane and my flip flops, neither of which were good candidates for the parks.

We had breakfast at the Pop food court using our spiffy new cards loaded with dining credits. (For complete restaurant reviews please see the thread on the Restaurant forum. Of course at this point I have only finished TS reviews. CS to follow.) From there we hopped a bus to MGM.

It is important to note that I am a park commando on top of being an insomniac. Even with only that deplorable Nescafe crap for coffee I can hit the park at opening and make it through EMH with no problem. DH and DS missed that gene somehow. DH doesn't like to walk. DS is apparently leaning that way. As the week progresses this will become an increasingly hot topic, but on Day 1 it isn't an issue yet.

I was a little worried about crowds since our only other experience was in January. We were pleasantly surprised. We arrived at MGM around opening (we never quite managed the rope drop thing) and it wasn't crowded at all. We went on Great Movie Ride (one of DS's favorites), took the Backlot tour, played WWTBAM, saw the Mermaid show. I am a huge fan of Bear in the Big Blue House but one look at the line to get inside convinced me that I am too old for Bear and we should keep moving! Things were generally walk on up to about a 10 minute wait. The exception was ToT (60 min. wait at 2:15 PM) and RnRC (30 min. wait at 2:15 PM). DS rode ToT in January and hated it, but he wanted to try again. We grabbed Fast Passes and went to stand in the line for RnRC. None of us rode RnRC in January, but DS was SURE he wanted to ride it this time. I have a bad back so I waited with DS & DH but took the chicken exit. DS is 9, but he is small. Just barely 52" and maybe 60 lbs. When he got off of RnRC he looked funny and he wouldn't speak. We got a snack outside and sat for awhile, but he was not himself. Of course it was time for our ToT FP's but we elected to skip it. DS got his photo with Sorcerer Mickey, we rode Star Tours, we watched the parade. Dinner was FDP at Hollywood & Vine. The reserved section for Fantasmic is next to the section where we sat in January. We sat near the top and made a hasty exit after the show. It wasn't as windy this time so the water screens were better. We debated about going over to MK for Spectro but we decided not to push ourselves. It's a vacation and all that sort of thing. So back to Pop for an "early" night.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Another early morning, breakfast at Pop food court, and off to AK. Today the UG estimates crowds at "5". We will only be at AK in the morning because we need to nap before MNSSHP.

DS wants to start in Dino Land. It is pretty empty. We walk on Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and Triceratop Spin. The only show we have ever seen at AK is FOTLK, but none of the shows start very early. We head over to get FP's for the safari. We walk along the Pangani trail, then we stop in some of the shops. DS has decided to do pins this trip, so he is ooking at pins in the shops as well as trading. We purchased locking backs at MGM so none of his pins would get lost, but that meant it was a pain to try to trade them. Oh, well. He trades a CM for a very cool Malificent pin. He finds a little Safari Mickey in the shop and buys it. It is a few inches high with magnetic hands and feet. Remember this, because at Epcot on Monday it becomes relevant.

Even with FP the wait for the safari is in the neighborhood of 20 minutes. We finish the safari and decide to head back to Pop. I wanted to have lunch at Tusker House, but it would have taken too long. (I know it is CS, but for some reason it made sense at the time.) We decide to grab a burger at Pop and eat in the room. It was a long wait for a bus. We went out to the bus stop at AK about 1:00 and it was easily after 1:30 when we got back to Pop. We got our lunch and hiked back to the room. Mousekeeping hadn't been there yet, but they arrived shortly thereafter. We all had short naps, then we got ready for MNSSHP. Our ADR for dinner was at 5:10 at CP so we wanted to be on the bus for MK by about 4:30. DS had a pirate costume but started out in shorts and a T-shirt. We put his costume in the backpack and headed to MK.

 

[MazdaUK]

I'm really enjoying your report!

if you have never dined with your carry-on luggage you should do it once, just for the experience

I hate doing that! - But there's no option really. Top hates of travelling:

dining with your bags and coats all around you

Waiting at the gate to get on the plane while vereyone pushes like its going to leave without them

Sitting on the plane for half an hour, getting hotter and hotter, waiting to get off because someone has parked a luggage trolley across the gate (it happened to me TWICE)

Next part soon please!

 

[Minniespal]

I'm really enjoying reading your reports ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The real joy in dining at the airport was that the restaurant is having some sort of remodel. So the tables are CRAMMED together with aisles more narrow than the ones on the plane. A move of more than 2 inches in any direction resulted in bumping into someone at another table. There were 2 televisions, blaring music, and a line of people stretching down the terminal waiting for a seat. Lovely.

We had a table for four. DH and I both had rolling cases that we shoved under the table (sort of) then we piled the backpacks and my purse in the spare chair. When we finally made our way over to the gate we noticed there was a message on my cell phone from my mom. Even at maximum volume we couldn't hear the phone ringing over the din! Good thing it wasn't the automated notification service calling to say our flight was departing early! Next time we will opt for fast food instead of table service at the airport. The food quality was about the same, anyway!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

After dinner at Crystal Palace we headed out in search of the Tiki fountains and the other DISers who were supposed to be there. Unfortunately we got sidetracked. The candy stations were open even though it was only about 6:15. The CM's were beckoning to us! They wanted to put candy in our bags! WE got some candy and put DS into his costume. Since we put it over his shorts it was a pretty quick process. We rode Pirates, got our picture taken (the line wasn't that long but it was HOT in there so it seemed like it took a long time), and headed in the direction of HM at DS's request. I am not that familiar with the layout of MK, so as we were passing through Liberty Square I realized people were lining up for the parade. Then I realized if we were going to see the Headless Horseman that we better get a seat! We sat in front of the Christmas shop - it was perfect. The horseman came by, CM's with candy, then the parade. I LOVED the parade! And that song! We must have that song! "BOO to you! Happy Halloween!" It was terrific! After the parade we hit HM where a ghost was on the lawn telling of her unfortunate demise after falling through the railing in the ballroom. Sure enough, there is a big broken place in the banister! Very cool. From there we headed for Toon Town to see what characters we could find. Queen of Hearts and Malificent were out, but those were the only villains we found. I saw on the map later that they were in front of the castle. Oops.

We watched the fireworks from the entrance of Toon Town, then went on the Treat Trail around the back over to Tomorrowland. Beware - there are mosquitos back there. We rode Buzz, then DS said he was tired and wanted to go back to the hotel! But it wasn't even 10:30! I asked him if he wanted to have a snack. Nope. I asked him if he wanted to take his costume off so he would be more comfortable. Nope. He wanted to leave. Right then and there. The voices in my head were shrieking "You paid over $100 for those tickets and he wants to LEAVE?!" but I bit my tongue and we left. Right through the middle of the second parade. We paused momentarily to look at the T-shirts but we decided not to buy them. Never saw the pins, and of course missed out on the ONE chance we would have had to purchase one. Grr. So we left MK and headed for a bus back to Pop.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Monday was EE for Epcot. I wasn't completely bent on being there at 8 AM, but I decided we could shoot for 8 AM anyway. I wasn't hungry, so DH and DS ate at the Pop food court and I had "coffee". We got to Epcot somewhere around 8 AM. DS has to use the restroom. DS is on a mission to use EVERY restroom he passes. Every day. DH has a similar mission. He has to use any and all restrooms DS uses AND those that DS misses. I stand outside the restrooms and count the people passing us. 110 people go by before my family emerges from the restroom. I am dying. We are WASTING TIME. We go to the turnstiles and DS puts his card in. Nope. No dice. A CM comes over and proceeds to bend the card, rub it on her sleeve, and re-insert the card. Nope. "Access denied." I start to get annoyed. The CM continues to shove his card into the machine (with the mag stripe UP, not DOWN, like on the diagram). She is also continuing to bend it, which is making me feel like I am going to jump out of my skin. I am certain she will just wave him through. Nope. She calls another CM. "Access denied." What the hell is that? They tell us his card is de-magnetized. They send a CM off to get him a temporary card. We are forced to stand there. I am in agony. We are wasting MORE time! CM brings us a little cardboard thing and tells us we'll have to replace his regular card at the resort. Great. It is not until later in the day that it dawns on us. Magnetic Mickey from AK has deactivated DS's key to the world! I tell DS he is forbidden to buy anything else magnetic, and Mickey is to stay FAR away from our room keys!

We head over to Soarin'. WE get FP's and then get in the stand by line. The wait is posted as 20 minutes but it wasn't that long. We get third row, and the feet are distracting like everybody says they are. We all like the ride. We ride "Living with the Land" because the whole pavilion was closed in January so we have never seen any of the things inside. The greenhouses are pretty cool. We get off and go back to Soarin' with our FP's. Third row again. Drat.

Now I am hungry since I skipped breakfast. We go to Sunshine Seasons where I get a danish and a cappucino. OK, I ORDER a cappucino. What I GET is a cup filled less than halfway with some frothy Nescafe. The girl who hands it to me is making cinnamon rolls. Her gloves are DRIPPING with frosting. The half full cup is instantly super-glued to my hand. Now I am mad twice over because the cup is darn near empty AND it is permanently attached to my hand. Grr. I find DH and we go through the cashier. She glances at the cup and charges me for regular coffee. Ah, vindication! I pry the cup off my hand, wrap a napkin around it, and eat my apple danish. Very tasty. We leave the Land and go to Spaceship Earth. I have to drink the last of my not-really-cappucino before we can get on. But it is very hot. We decide to rent a locker first, then ride. After that we see Terk and Timon over by the Leave a Legacy walls. We decide to go get FP's for TT, then head over to "Nosh Around the World with Mr. Disney".

 

[my3princes]

Great report, sorry you had so many frustrations. I wish we had met you while we were there. We arrived on 10/14 and were also placed in the 80's building 2nd floor until I complained forever and the miraculously found us a room in the 50's building, 1st floor, lake view. If I hadn't complained we probably would have been neighbors.

Deb

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I am sorry we missed you! I can't wait to read your report - I saw that you posted it. It has been a crazy week back at home - wish I was still at Disney!!

I HATED our room location, but just because of how FAR it was from everything. It was clean, it was quiet, there was nothing at all wrong with it. When we checked in they told us the resort was full but I could keep checking back to see if we could move. What I wanted was 4th floor on the end farthest from the elevator where there wouldn't be anybody above us or anybody walking past the room. By the time we got all the luggage in the room it would have been a monumental task to try to move so we just stayed put. If it would have been noisy or dirty or anything I would have insisted that they move us. It was a pain to walk all the way back there every night but there wasn't anything bad about the actual room. Mousekeeping left us TONS of towels every day. I don't think they wanted to have to make the trip back there if we needed extras!

So although we entertained thoughts of hijacking a CM's Segway it really wasn't as bad as it could have been!

 

[MazdaUK]

DS said he was tired and wanted to go back to the hotel!

We had that a few times - OK we hadn't paid $100 for a special event, but we had flown a very long way to be there but DS(5) couldn't keep awake long enough for Spectro or Wishes - except on the evenings when we were tired and he miraculously stayed awake til 9.00!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I just spent 45 minutes writing up the Epcot report and with my finger on "submit" the computer crashed!! My trip report is cursed!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We met up with Mr. Disney, his partner Kevin, ncbyrne and her DH, goofygreb and her DH, BriarRosie, and Nancyin IL. Poohpcgirl stopped by to say she couldn't join us because her little guy wasn't feeling well.

While we were all getting acquainted DH went to call the vet. The vet wants to keep the cat at least until Wednesday. We are a little concerned about the mounting costs of round-the-clock medical care but we aren't in a position to argue. Now DH is grumpy.

Originally there were several families wiht kids planning to nosh, but DS ended up being the only kid in attendance. He got bored very quickly. Bored DS, grumpy DH. Not shaping up to be a good day for me!

We noshed counter clockwise starting at the FL shrimp booth. Reviews to be posted on Restaurant forum eventually!

I really enjoyed meeting everyone - it was a terrific group! DH took DS off to shop in the Japan pavilion so that made him marginally happy. When they returned DH and goofygreb's DH discovered they have the same job, so they were chatting for quite awhile. Mr. Disney had a plane to catch so we wrapped things up around 1 PM. DS was dying to go use his FP for TT, so we said good-bye to our DIS friends and headed for TT. It was about this time that DH announced we needed to have lunch. Excuse me? I have been eating samples for the past 2 hours and we're supposed to have LUNCH? Could this be because DH was getting all testy about using snack credits and refused to have more than ONE sample the whole time? Grrrr.

Fine. He wants lunch, we'll have lunch. We start to trek from TT over to Morocco, which is where DH wants to eat. We pause briefly so I can take a picture of DS in front of a banner. I have the disposable camera - it takes a fraction of a second to snap a pic and move on. DH has his mammoth artifact, the Canon camera from high school. He decides he wants to take a pic of DS and me together. This is the beginning of what I call "lens loathing".

DS and I stand in front of the banner, smiling. DH fiddles with the lens. People are stacking up waiting to cross in front of us. I motion them across, feeling slightly embarrassed. DH scowls. He fiddles some more. More people stack up. DH grimaces and motions them across. I am not smiling now. I am completely irritated and ready to fling the camera into the lagoon. I refuse to continue to stand there. Just as I am about to start shouting at DH I hear CLICK! A picture is worth a thousand words. The words that come to mind aren't appropriate for this board, but it is obvious in the picture.

We go to Tangierine Cafe in Morocco for lunch. This is where I realize that how good the food is has a direct correlation to how hungry you are. It took FOREVER to get our food, and I wasn't thrilled with it. After lunch we hike back to the front of FW to get our things from the locker, then back to International Gateway to make the trek to Yacht Club for dinner. Yes, dinner. We have an ADR at 5:45 but DH insisted on lunch so now we are all stuffed and grouchy. We miss the boat from International Gateway. I have no clue how far it is to Yacht Club but I decide we should walk. It is farther than I bargained for!

We find the marina where our IllumiNations cruise will depart, then we go inside to find the restaurant. We were meeting s.and.s and his parents for dinner, then we were all meeting up with Beccabooey and her new DH for the cruise. It was our day for DIS meets!

We had a wonderful dinner with our new frineds from the UK. I think DS would very much like to have s.and.s's dad for a grandpa! They got on quite well!

After dinner we headed to the marina where we found Beccabooey with no trouble. Captain Chris had us underway in no time, and we had a very enjoyable cruise before we docked for IllumiNations. We missed the show in January so this was our first time. We really liked it, despite debris falling on us! At least it wasn't flaming debris!

After the show Captain Chris brought us back to the marina. We decided to catch a cab back to Pop instead of trying to work out how to get back by Disney transport. Cab fare was $8 + tip, which was probably one of our best expenditures all week! We were back to Pop shortly after 10 PM.

Day 4 is Magic Kingdom!!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[my3princes]

Great report. I can't wait to read more. Too bad we didn't meet up, I'm sure your son would have had fun with my 3 boys.

Deb