Hide the Rum. A trip report. New! 6/19!

[tink38]

In just a few short hours we are heading to the Happiest Place on Earth!

For those of you who don’t know me, allow me to provide a little background. We haven’t been to WDW since June of 2005. We planned to revisit in 2006 but the unthinkable happened. Katrina. You see, I am from New Orleans. Our house was not too badly damaged, but my husband worked at one of the hotels in the French Quarter. He would have had to take a pay cut and we were barely surviving on his and my salary as it was. We made a very difficult decision to relocate to Mississippi. I was able to stay with my company and move to a parallel position here. He found a job paying more than what he was making back home, and we were also able to buy a beautiful new home very close to my son’s new school. We are truly blessed.

Excuse me. I think I need a moment.

Okay. I’m good now. I’d discovered the DIS way before the 2005 trip, but I usually hung out on the Community Board. Then one day I discovered the joys of reading trip reports. I started out with Delswife. She got me addicted. Along the way I discovered many more great trip reporters on the DIS. Then the Maelstrom struck. Blame Mel Happyhaunt. Somehow a band of merry and mischievous Vikings was born from her reports, and we are still very close friends to this day. But that’s another story for another time.

Lets get to the facts, ma’am.

The krewe:
Me – Tink, the planner and copilot.
DH – Dick(y), Richard, whatever you want to call him – The pilot. Loves all things Disney, as do I
DS – Richard – 12 year old who is too smart for his own good. This tends to get him in trouble with the copilot. A LOT. Thrill ride seeker.
DN – Bailey – also 12 – 11 weeks older than Richard. Very shy and sweet. Loves her Nanny (me) to death. Also a thrill ride seeker.

We are staying at Pop Century. Now don’t get me started on resorts. I’m never in my room unless I’m sleeping or showering, so I don’t really care where I stay. Plus. If I can squeeze another trip out of it by staying at a value resort, I’m for sure going to do it. I DID book a preferred room, if it makes you feel any better.

There will be MUCH more to come, but you’ll have to wait. Because I’m goin’ to DISNEY, baybee!

 

[Dizmom0923]

Can't wait to here your trip report. I will be waiting patiently for yall to come back. I am from New Orleans and I live in Metairie now. We have moved quite a bit since Katrina. Wishing I was in another state, things will never be the same.

Have a great trip!!!!!

 

[tink38]

Chapter 1. The last day of work. And the drive to see the Mouse.

My last day of work was miserable, as last days usually go. I asked Richard to load the ice chest (cooler, for you yankees) before we left. He decided to do this by throwing the Diet Cokes in. While he was standing above said ice chest. Needless to say, he will be repainting the ceiling this weekend. I was sure I was going to have a coronary before we even made it to the car.

Road food.

(I just got a new MAC. I'll figure out how to put pics on here tomorrow.)



We decided to try and drive at least 3 1/2 hours the first night. We drove 4 1/2 because there was a softball tournament in Birmingham. We wound up at a Days Inn about 1/2 hour south of Birmingham. The Poly, it wasn’t, but it was clean and there were no roaches. I quickly adopted a “shoes on at all times” rule, though!

Here is Rich, doing his Plutopants impression.

And Dick, getting ready for some ZZZ's. Sorry if the nakey man pic offends anyone!

We took a couple of pals to keep Plutopants company. (Hi, Mel!)

I guess I should mention now, before I get to posting pics, that Dick forgot to pack his hanging shirts. He had TWO shirts to wear for the whole trip! Yes. I did laundry. Twice. TYVM.

Up next - I smell smoke!
_________________

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Have fun, Tink, look me up if you get a chance, LOL.

I don't have any rum but I have a bit of brandy I can hide from you.... and lots of wine!

 

[tink38]

Chapter 2. "I smell smoke!"

I was up at 5:15am the next morning. Needless to say, I was "too excited to sleep"! We made it to Gainesville in 5-6 hours. We passed the time by listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the way. I'd already read it, but my "men" had not. I would do this again in a heartbeat. While Richard is by nature a very good car traveler, this worked like a charm We never heard a peep out of hi. Some other rather unplasant noises, yes, but no peeps. Wait. Maybe it was me that did that. Never you mind about that.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn. It was immaculate. The "men" went to Perkins for dinner and brought me a club sandwich back to the room. I was having a beauty/girlie night. I won't fill you in on the deets, but lets just say that hair removal and washing was involved and leave it at that, shall we?

The free breakfast buffet was yummy. We were out of there by 8am to get Bailey from the airport. Good thing, too.

Up next: MCO. THe REAL Expedition Everest.

_________________

 

[tink38]

Yes, Marita. Please hide the wine.

 

[GeorgiaAristocat]

Tink ~ looking forward to your (mis)adventures!

 

[Magic2000]

Looking forward to reading more! Hope you have a great trip!!!!!

By the way, we're from St. Tammany Parish (I live in Bush - right outside of Covington). I don't even want to think about Katrina anymore! We've taken a few trips to Disney to try to forget!

In fact, we'll be back in just over 3 weeks! Can't wait!!! And, we're staying at Pop Century too!!

Again, have a great trip!!!!!!!!

 

[WheatThins]

Hello Tink:

I sure hope you have a GREAT time. I'm looking forward to your report. This oughta be good.

Wheat Thins

 

[myrsfmly]

Thanks for your report so far! I can't wait to read more!

 

[tink38]

Chapter 3 - MCO: The REAL Expedition Everest.

It's been 2 weeks since I've been home and the horror of MCO is still etched in my mind. Some highlights for you to peruse:

1. It took me one HOUR to get through security to get DN off her fight. I had my ID and my pass with me. That was it.

2. There was a 5 year old behind me in line. She'd left her "My Little Pony" horse at the Disney store. She realised this 1 minute into the line thing. She proceeded to cry/stomp/scream, and snot for the entire hour. All the while the parental units chastised her because they "told her not to take it out of the bag". Mom got the stupid pony at the last minute, therefore reinforcing bad behavior for a solid hour. Sweet.

3. The guy in front of me thought it was a great idea to eat BBQ before he got on the plane. At 10:30am. GROSS.

4.The guy behind me was a tad peeved that we had to change lines one hour into the security line. He also decided it was a good idea to express his unhappiness. He was still at security when I returned with Bailey over an hour later.

Sooooo. Finally. I have Bails in my grasp and we are on our way!!!

The plan was to go to AK and ride EE, but I didn't have high hopes. I was right. I have to tell you this right now. I planned a lot of things for this trip because of DN and DS. I knew they wouldn't work out, but it would be fine. I am a park hopper pro. I roll like that. Hit a wall and I move on. It's all good.

We hit the wall at AK. No problem. We didn't get there until 2pm, so we headed over to the BW where we had ADR's for Spoodles.

We had some time so we decided to rent a Surrey Bike. OMG. Talk about feel the burn.

Here. Look.

Yeah. I know. I look LOVELY. Shut up.

Rich drove.

And we saw this. And I want to stay there. Badly.

(I'll have to add the pics when I get home tonight. I can't access photobucket from work. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

 

[tink38]

Chapter 3 continued. Spoodles and EMH at MK!

After the surrey ride we headed to Spoodles for our ADR. We had about 2 glasses of wine worths wait. Richard and Bailey went to the arcade. I was excited about this trip because both of them are almost 13. I thought a bit of alone time would be great for them. My sister thought otherwise.

She told me that Bails would be terrified without me and desperately needed to be near me at all times. My sister has never left Bails alone. EVER. Needless to say, she did very well. I love my Bails. She is the greatest godchild ever known to man or woman. (Yes. That was foreshadowing. )

Dinner at Spoodles was great. I tried this solely upon the recommendations of of one of my bestest friends, Sheridac, who took pics of her food on her TR. We ate this:

And this

The Maelstrommer Mascot was there. He had a bit of wine. Plutopants himself.

While at Spoodles, we learned that the EMH that night was at MK Until 2AM!

Hello? We were there. Like white on rice, baybee.

We were able to do EVERYTHING that we wanted to do at Mk and we stayed until 2am. I think I went to sleep at about 3am.

One interesting note. And there should be an interesting note to every day, dontcha know?

It was almost closing time and the line for Splash MTN was nil. We were walking down and a family was walking out. All we heard was,"Oh, yeah? Well feel MY butt!!!" It killed us. DED. For the rest of the week that was our go-to quote. Two years before it was Breeenda! Come back!!!

More on that later.

 

[drebert]

Bumpity Bump!

I am in the adventure with ya sis!

" If you like pina coladas. And gettin' caught in the rain........."

 

[jcc0621]

THis sounds like it's gonna be a good one

Glad to hear you and your family were able to recoup after Katrina. Some and from Philly

 

[1000thhappyhaunt]

Really!!!!

What ARE you thinking?!!!!


Heh heh.

Hey there! Tinkaroo.

Just wanted to say: I'm in for this ride.


And: Go girl!!!


Cheers, Melly

 

[tink38]

Aww. Thanks, guys!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Tink, glad you finally posted an update.
You have great stamina, 2 am on travel day? Persish the thought!

I'll check back later for the pics, don't forget now!

 

[DreaGirl]

I'm in! DH refuses to ride any type of water ride. Maybe if I were to go around telling him to "feel my butt" he might think differently.

 

[byoung]

Thanks for reporting.

 

[tink38]

Chapter 4. Epicot and the battle for my stomach.

5/28
Epicot day.

We started off in Future World and did everything we needed to do, including riding Gary.

We walked on THREE times with no wait. We chose to ride Orange. More intense, for the novices out there. So. We were in the standby line and they announced that the Green (less intense) side was, umm, broken. There was an outrage. Made Brenda look calm. Oh, yes. I need to tell you about her. In a sec.



Okay. Now's a good time as any, I guess.

When we went in 2003, I think, It was just the 3 of us. Me, Dick, and Richard. Dick was there for a convention. He'd meet up with us in the afternoon at the parks.

One day we were at MK and had just finished lunch at Columbia Harbor House. A family of three like us had just exited the HM. Apparently the mom's name was Brenda and she wasn't happy. Not one bite.

I feel her pain now. Her son was about 12, as is Richard today.

Apparently the child wanted to do something that Brenda did not. Brenda did not take this well. She basically pitched a fit and stormed off. Fanny pack in tow. On the fanny,mind you. Brenda's DH was not pleased. He was in a panic, in fact.

He started out with, "Breeenda, stop." It quickly escalated to, "Breeenda! Come back! Breenda! Breenda!" He told the child to, "STAY HERE."

Not a wise move, IMHO. Poor Brenda. She was in Frontierland by the time he caught up with her. Yes. We watched the whole thing. Family dynamics are so much fun.

We ate lunch at the Electric Umbrella. It was neither good nor bad. I suspect that I may change my opinion if I wasn't so hungry at the time.

After lunch, we went to Club Cool, or whatever it's name is.

The Beverly pics speak for themselves.

Look.