Anc96
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2005
- Messages
- 986
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Ok.. I'm jealous.
I'm reading all of these wonderful trip reports.... all the fun, all the humor, all the praise (including mine) from all the fellow Dis'ers.
So I think.. We had fun! I'm humorous! I want some praise!
Then I think of how much I LMBO at Hucifer's TR, and I love Cynderella's writing style and pics of her ADORABLE kids (and her DH's butt (not sure I've seen his face yet)... and I think, I didn't make $3600 like Horsegirl, and I don't have endearing "sidenotes" as DisUnc. And I think some more.. I don't know if I can do this. I don't do trip reports... never have. I have no special writing talents... I don't have $3600 (I spend 17 days in the Mutherland.. I'm BROKE), And I have no side-notes... so should I try this?
Ok.. I'll try. But I didn't take any notes.. and I've been back 26 days (according to my ticker), so I'll do my best to document our time there.
Hopefully I'll finish what I start... so here I go...
I guess Ill start before the beginning.
There is only Myself.. Ill call myself BB cause, well thats my name!
And my DD9 Ill call her DD. Thats not her name, but its easy and it rhymes with mine
Our adventure started July 6th 2006, and ended exactly 17 days after.
We dont usually vacation this late. Our vacation always starts in June. Early June every other year, and late June on the off years. But trying to keep costs down a bit we chose to wait until after value season started for the Deluxe resorts, which this year was July 5th. So July 6th it was . And I started planning from there.
We were supposed to be staying 10 nights at AKL and 6 nights at WL .. but lack of AP rates for those resorts this year had me cut it down to 4 nights off property, and 6 nights at each AKL and then WL. I dont like having my plans change after reservations are already made, but the $700+ savings for changing those 4 nights was substantial for us.. so the change was made.
I like non-stop flights, and I like them cheap! The best price was at the Philly Airport flying Airtran (I have since learned of another airline that flies out of a town about 30 minutes from me for cheap.. I will be trying that next year (thanks DISUNC
).
I have this belief that if you vacation for 17 days, you should experience the vacation for 17 days. That means getting an early flight out, and a late flight back.
I chose a 7:00am flight. I was told by my DDs daddy that Philly is about 2hrs 15 minutes from me, so getting to the airport at an acceptable time had me waking up before I ever got to bed. I didn't want THAT early a flight!
Let me just say that when I made plane reservations I had already made my car reservations (I made them in early April). I knew I would get there early and made the pickup for 11am, knowing being early for pickup would be fine, only a slight chance I'd have to wait for a car. Being late is not a good idea though.
I did consider making a later flight (I think the next one was 10 or 10:30am), but I would have needed to change my car reservations. Even though its only by a few hours.. its a change. It would have taken my total from the $370 (total after all fees and taxes) I had it booked at.. to over $550 !!. The prices went way up!! I didnt need sleep that bad! And, I figured DD and I could sleep in the car on the way to the airport. I booked the nice early flight.
Its the 6th now, morning comes but you cant tell cause, HEY, its only 2:30 am!
I had planned on getting any 'last minutes' together, then waking DD at about 3 or so. If we left by 3:30 that should be fine. I was saying goodbye on the Disboard (apparently an important last minutes that needed to be done) and noticed that the pouring down rain didnt seem to be slowing down. It had been raining here in NE PA so badly, there was serious flooding everywhere. The rain hadnt been so bad the past couple of days, but now here it was again.. raining on my Disney parade. Thats ok though cause I checked weather.com and they said the rain would stop before 4:00am down in Philly so we wouldnt have long until it stopped. I mean its weather.com! It KNOWS weather!
But, I am cautious and decided to leave early. I dont have to worry about waking DD cause she never went to sleep either! She told me how do you expect a kid to sleep when were going Disney?!! Ok.. point taken. So I have her go downstairs and wake her daddy up (Ill just call him daddy). Hes here because hes going to drive us to the airport and me and DD can both get some sleep on the way!
I hear him dragging his self up the stairs, confused. No particular reason why.. hes just usually confused. I throw the carry-ons to him and tell him to put them in the truck. The carry-ons soar passed his blank looking stare and thud onto the landing (did I pack anything breakable in there? Thank goodness my camera is over my shoulder!) So he turns and looks down the stairs at the carry-ons like what was that? Its not like I tossed them at him unexpectedly I said catch, he grunted, which I took to mean ok, so I threw them to him.
I leave him staring bewilderedly at the carry-ons while I run to the kitchen to grab breakfasty things for the truck ride. Some yogurts, a zip-lock of cheerios, bananas and Gatorade.
DD is hugging the pets as if shell never see them again, carefully explaining to Ella
(our large black lab) that we are only going on vacation and shell call to talk to her every night (which she did). Ella was watching her with huge, very dark soulful eyes as if she understood every word. But knowing my poor dogs lack of intelligence, she was probably wondering if DD was gonna give her a treat! Abby, the cat,
looked disinterested (do cats have another expression?), but curled around DDs legs like she knew she was leaving for a while (cats are smart.. especially ours. Abby got Ellas brain rations). Lastly she went to say goodbye to Snuggles (the extremely large guinea pig
), who squeaks ... umm affectionately (I guess 
).
I get back to the stairs happy to see that both DDs daddy and our carry-ons have vanished. We go out the front door and I am not happy to see Daddy asleep in the drivers seat (snoring and drooling) and the hatch in the back still opened. Im sure he was just trying to catch us some fresh rain water for the ride down in case we ran out of Gatorade, but Id prefer our luggage NOT get wet!
So much for sleeping on the way down. DDs all settled in her seat, buckled up and excited, talking a mile a minute and I open the drivers door and let the rain fall on daddys face. No sign of life. So I have to shake him a bit to wake him and get his butt over to the passenger side. On his way over he says Im ok, Ill drive as he goes right to the passenger side, gets in, and is asleep before Im buckled up. I dont think it was a serious offer <insert sarcasm here>.
So, off we go. Its barely 3am its POURING! Philly had had a LOT of flooding in the days before so Im not sure if that would hinder our travels.
The drive there was very uneventful DD had a yogurt and half a banana then finally fell asleep in less than half an hour Daddy never woke up until we were almost there (I had helped him a bit there). I played some CDs and watched the road. I didnt worry too much about the rain, I knew once we got going for a while, it would stop. Weather.com told me so.
They lied
It POURED IN TORRENTS the whole way there. At one point I pulled over under an overpass (or would that be an underpass hmmm). I started out again and I followed a tractor trailer keeping distance, but staying close enough so I could follow his lights. I prayed he didnt run off the road cause Id follow him right over.
Philly is not so hard to get to.. I know that. Pretty much straight.. But I dont really know the way. Ive never driven there without someone else in the car knowing where we were going and in this case the all knowing one is snoring with his head bouncing off the window next to me. I know were kind of close so I wake him. He opens his eyes, finds a more comfy position, closes his eyes, and promptly starts snoring again. I try to remember how much I was once in love with this man and how amazing I used to find him he now amazes me in a totally different way.
HEY! I call his name and put the tone in it he starts waking again.. hes heard this tone before. I do it again for pure effect. Now hes finally awake. He scoots up in his seat a bit.. looks around and announces its raining. Damn Im glad I woke him for that. I hadnt noticed.
It goes like this:
Daddy: Where are we?
Me: I dont know, thats why I woke you up.
Daddy: How am I supposed to know?
Me: You know how to get to the airport Ive never driven here before.
Daddy: How far are we from Philly?
Me: I dont know.. I cant see the signs too well, I couldnt figure out why until you pointed out that its raining.
*Now Im pulling over to the side of the road. I dont want to get lost and chance missing our flight. Its now 5:05. I think we have more to go than just the usual 10-15 minutes because of the weather slowing me down a lot.*
Daddy: What are you doing?
Me: Pulling over until we know where we are.
Daddy: Why?
Me: So we dont get lost
Daddy (sarcastic): seems like we already are lost
I didnt say a word time passes.
Daddy: what time is it?
Me: 5:05
Daddy: well we should be there any minute, its only a bit over 2 hours from home.
Me: Not really. Have you noticed the weather?
Daddy: Start driving Ill keep a look out for 95
Me: Oh well we had just gotten on that before I woke you up
Daddy: Why didnt you tell me that?
Me: I wasnt sure if we were supposed to be on that, and, you didnt ask!
Quiet.
Me: You were supposed to drive because I didnt know how to get there. And, I was the one up all night, remember?
Daddy: Just stay on this youll see signs for the airport.
Me: thats ALL I wanted to know.
DD slept quietly and looked very beautiful too!
We got the airport about 15 minutes later so I dont think its really 2.15 minutes from my house since we made it there in only 2.5 hours. I really did go slooow!
Drove right up to the Airtran spot, unloaded, and DD hugged daddy goodbye. She reassured him she would call every night to talk to the pets. Daddy says and me? DD oh yea, you too daddy. Now she really does adore her daddy, but when it comes to those pets she has a one track mind. Daddy and I grunt our goodbyes he wishes us a safe flight (only cause his daughters on it Im sure) and we enter the airport.
As usual, no problems at check in got our passes, checked our luggage and off to our gate.
* Note to all Disers, crocs have metal in them. I took my crocs off and put them in the basket check, DD walked through the detector with hers on BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. She was told to put them in the basket, she did, and she was no longer considered terrorist material. It was now just before 6:00, we had plenty of time. I found myself some cappuccino, DD some hot cocoa, found a comfy spot and nodded in and out of consciousness until departure.
The flight was completely uneventful. I cant even remember it! I know the plane was a bit smaller than what Im used to flying with Airtran, it left on time, it got there early and thats it. Oh, and I didnt sleep.
Next Installment.. we're in Orlando!
Coming.. soon-ish.
Next Installments: Linked... Just Click on the page number below!
Page1, Post #11
Page 2, Post #21
Page 3, Post #40
Page 4, Post #50
Page 5, Post #74... Update from 8/23
Page 6, Post #84... Last Update 8/26
Page 7, Post #97... Last Update 9/01
Page 8, Post #116... Last Update 9/04
Page 8, Post #119... Last Update 9/04
Page 9, Post #123... Last Updated 9/04
Ok.. I'm jealous.
I'm reading all of these wonderful trip reports.... all the fun, all the humor, all the praise (including mine) from all the fellow Dis'ers.
So I think.. We had fun! I'm humorous! I want some praise!
Then I think of how much I LMBO at Hucifer's TR, and I love Cynderella's writing style and pics of her ADORABLE kids (and her DH's butt (not sure I've seen his face yet)... and I think, I didn't make $3600 like Horsegirl, and I don't have endearing "sidenotes" as DisUnc. And I think some more.. I don't know if I can do this. I don't do trip reports... never have. I have no special writing talents... I don't have $3600 (I spend 17 days in the Mutherland.. I'm BROKE), And I have no side-notes... so should I try this?
Ok.. I'll try. But I didn't take any notes.. and I've been back 26 days (according to my ticker), so I'll do my best to document our time there.
Hopefully I'll finish what I start... so here I go...
I guess Ill start before the beginning.
There is only Myself.. Ill call myself BB cause, well thats my name!
And my DD9 Ill call her DD. Thats not her name, but its easy and it rhymes with mine
Our adventure started July 6th 2006, and ended exactly 17 days after.
We dont usually vacation this late. Our vacation always starts in June. Early June every other year, and late June on the off years. But trying to keep costs down a bit we chose to wait until after value season started for the Deluxe resorts, which this year was July 5th. So July 6th it was . And I started planning from there.
We were supposed to be staying 10 nights at AKL and 6 nights at WL .. but lack of AP rates for those resorts this year had me cut it down to 4 nights off property, and 6 nights at each AKL and then WL. I dont like having my plans change after reservations are already made, but the $700+ savings for changing those 4 nights was substantial for us.. so the change was made.
I like non-stop flights, and I like them cheap! The best price was at the Philly Airport flying Airtran (I have since learned of another airline that flies out of a town about 30 minutes from me for cheap.. I will be trying that next year (thanks DISUNC
).I have this belief that if you vacation for 17 days, you should experience the vacation for 17 days. That means getting an early flight out, and a late flight back.
I chose a 7:00am flight. I was told by my DDs daddy that Philly is about 2hrs 15 minutes from me, so getting to the airport at an acceptable time had me waking up before I ever got to bed. I didn't want THAT early a flight!
Let me just say that when I made plane reservations I had already made my car reservations (I made them in early April). I knew I would get there early and made the pickup for 11am, knowing being early for pickup would be fine, only a slight chance I'd have to wait for a car. Being late is not a good idea though.
I did consider making a later flight (I think the next one was 10 or 10:30am), but I would have needed to change my car reservations. Even though its only by a few hours.. its a change. It would have taken my total from the $370 (total after all fees and taxes) I had it booked at.. to over $550 !!. The prices went way up!! I didnt need sleep that bad! And, I figured DD and I could sleep in the car on the way to the airport. I booked the nice early flight.
Its the 6th now, morning comes but you cant tell cause, HEY, its only 2:30 am!
I had planned on getting any 'last minutes' together, then waking DD at about 3 or so. If we left by 3:30 that should be fine. I was saying goodbye on the Disboard (apparently an important last minutes that needed to be done) and noticed that the pouring down rain didnt seem to be slowing down. It had been raining here in NE PA so badly, there was serious flooding everywhere. The rain hadnt been so bad the past couple of days, but now here it was again.. raining on my Disney parade. Thats ok though cause I checked weather.com and they said the rain would stop before 4:00am down in Philly so we wouldnt have long until it stopped. I mean its weather.com! It KNOWS weather!
But, I am cautious and decided to leave early. I dont have to worry about waking DD cause she never went to sleep either! She told me how do you expect a kid to sleep when were going Disney?!! Ok.. point taken. So I have her go downstairs and wake her daddy up (Ill just call him daddy). Hes here because hes going to drive us to the airport and me and DD can both get some sleep on the way!
I hear him dragging his self up the stairs, confused. No particular reason why.. hes just usually confused. I throw the carry-ons to him and tell him to put them in the truck. The carry-ons soar passed his blank looking stare and thud onto the landing (did I pack anything breakable in there? Thank goodness my camera is over my shoulder!) So he turns and looks down the stairs at the carry-ons like what was that? Its not like I tossed them at him unexpectedly I said catch, he grunted, which I took to mean ok, so I threw them to him.
I leave him staring bewilderedly at the carry-ons while I run to the kitchen to grab breakfasty things for the truck ride. Some yogurts, a zip-lock of cheerios, bananas and Gatorade.
DD is hugging the pets as if shell never see them again, carefully explaining to Ella
).I get back to the stairs happy to see that both DDs daddy and our carry-ons have vanished. We go out the front door and I am not happy to see Daddy asleep in the drivers seat (snoring and drooling) and the hatch in the back still opened. Im sure he was just trying to catch us some fresh rain water for the ride down in case we ran out of Gatorade, but Id prefer our luggage NOT get wet!
So much for sleeping on the way down. DDs all settled in her seat, buckled up and excited, talking a mile a minute and I open the drivers door and let the rain fall on daddys face. No sign of life. So I have to shake him a bit to wake him and get his butt over to the passenger side. On his way over he says Im ok, Ill drive as he goes right to the passenger side, gets in, and is asleep before Im buckled up. I dont think it was a serious offer <insert sarcasm here>.
So, off we go. Its barely 3am its POURING! Philly had had a LOT of flooding in the days before so Im not sure if that would hinder our travels.
The drive there was very uneventful DD had a yogurt and half a banana then finally fell asleep in less than half an hour Daddy never woke up until we were almost there (I had helped him a bit there). I played some CDs and watched the road. I didnt worry too much about the rain, I knew once we got going for a while, it would stop. Weather.com told me so.
They lied
It POURED IN TORRENTS the whole way there. At one point I pulled over under an overpass (or would that be an underpass hmmm). I started out again and I followed a tractor trailer keeping distance, but staying close enough so I could follow his lights. I prayed he didnt run off the road cause Id follow him right over.
Philly is not so hard to get to.. I know that. Pretty much straight.. But I dont really know the way. Ive never driven there without someone else in the car knowing where we were going and in this case the all knowing one is snoring with his head bouncing off the window next to me. I know were kind of close so I wake him. He opens his eyes, finds a more comfy position, closes his eyes, and promptly starts snoring again. I try to remember how much I was once in love with this man and how amazing I used to find him he now amazes me in a totally different way.
HEY! I call his name and put the tone in it he starts waking again.. hes heard this tone before. I do it again for pure effect. Now hes finally awake. He scoots up in his seat a bit.. looks around and announces its raining. Damn Im glad I woke him for that. I hadnt noticed.
It goes like this:
Daddy: Where are we?
Me: I dont know, thats why I woke you up.
Daddy: How am I supposed to know?
Me: You know how to get to the airport Ive never driven here before.
Daddy: How far are we from Philly?
Me: I dont know.. I cant see the signs too well, I couldnt figure out why until you pointed out that its raining.
*Now Im pulling over to the side of the road. I dont want to get lost and chance missing our flight. Its now 5:05. I think we have more to go than just the usual 10-15 minutes because of the weather slowing me down a lot.*
Daddy: What are you doing?
Me: Pulling over until we know where we are.
Daddy: Why?
Me: So we dont get lost
Daddy (sarcastic): seems like we already are lost
I didnt say a word time passes.
Daddy: what time is it?
Me: 5:05
Daddy: well we should be there any minute, its only a bit over 2 hours from home.
Me: Not really. Have you noticed the weather?
Daddy: Start driving Ill keep a look out for 95
Me: Oh well we had just gotten on that before I woke you up
Daddy: Why didnt you tell me that?
Me: I wasnt sure if we were supposed to be on that, and, you didnt ask!
Quiet.
Me: You were supposed to drive because I didnt know how to get there. And, I was the one up all night, remember?
Daddy: Just stay on this youll see signs for the airport.
Me: thats ALL I wanted to know.
DD slept quietly and looked very beautiful too!
We got the airport about 15 minutes later so I dont think its really 2.15 minutes from my house since we made it there in only 2.5 hours. I really did go slooow!
Drove right up to the Airtran spot, unloaded, and DD hugged daddy goodbye. She reassured him she would call every night to talk to the pets. Daddy says and me? DD oh yea, you too daddy. Now she really does adore her daddy, but when it comes to those pets she has a one track mind. Daddy and I grunt our goodbyes he wishes us a safe flight (only cause his daughters on it Im sure) and we enter the airport.
As usual, no problems at check in got our passes, checked our luggage and off to our gate.
* Note to all Disers, crocs have metal in them. I took my crocs off and put them in the basket check, DD walked through the detector with hers on BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. She was told to put them in the basket, she did, and she was no longer considered terrorist material. It was now just before 6:00, we had plenty of time. I found myself some cappuccino, DD some hot cocoa, found a comfy spot and nodded in and out of consciousness until departure.
The flight was completely uneventful. I cant even remember it! I know the plane was a bit smaller than what Im used to flying with Airtran, it left on time, it got there early and thats it. Oh, and I didnt sleep.
Next Installment.. we're in Orlando!
Coming.. soon-ish.
Oh well, hones the writing skills, I guess, to read good TRs.
I can't wait to read more. Wow, 17 days! I envy you being there that long. We've never been there for more then 8 days.
)
... a couple of tables nearby already seemed to be stealing glances our way. Let them look
. DD was having fun!
You did good! 
the dolphins and stingrays at San Diego Sea World, even if I've never been to the one in Orlando (hey, in 7 days, we never even made it off of Disney property!) You must have had a lot of fun!! Jealousy!
