It's now or never... a Pretrip!

[marivaid]

At this time in exactly one month I'll be picking up Jessi & Alex at the station !!

Things have been pretty hectic here. A week ago the store I work at got robbed. The director came in to open at 5am as usual and a bunch of guys jumped him, beat him up, took him straight to the safe and beat him up some more until he opened the door. Then they tied him up and left him there. They took about €15,000 - roughly $23,000.
What angers me most is they had a couple guns (I know it's common in the US but not here - I've never even seen a gun except on TV) and they beat him up anyway. Pretty bad too, head lacerations, broken ribs etc... The guy was complying and was probably scared enough as it was because of the gun. There was no need to beat him up too, but then again what do you expect from robbers ?
Anyway,we've had meetings all week about security and how if something like that happens we are to give the money immediately. We have more security guards now too. Since I work at the station, outside the main store, I'm more at risk so I now have my very own security guard complete with talkie walkie.

So far, the talkie walkie was used once : when the security guard got locked in the bathroom and I had to call inside for someone to let him out.
Boy, do I feel safer.


This weekend Grumpy & I made more shirts. We are NOT good at this. I've ruined at least 6 or 7 transfers, and 4 shirts. But we did manage to make 3 until we gave up. Anyway, we didn't have any more transfers. Or shirts. So we have to wait for our order to arrive to finish up. We're making 4 shirts each.

I had to change our first-day design a bit so I could cut around it more easily

The birthday one I haven't changed. We only have to make 2 more of these.

This one is for our Animal Kingdom morning, we're going to do it on dark brown shirts (when we get them!)

Jessi's PPP party shirt (Alex'll have the same, with a different quote)

Grumpy's PPP shirt (I was SHOCKED that she wanted to be a princess!!!)

I haven't decided if I want to be a pirate or a princess yet. I'm thinking of wearing Princess ears and an eyepatch, and make myself an "Undecided" T-Shirt. A little silly but hey that's me

 

[Hedy]

Ooh, that's scary about the robbery.

 

[DisneyTabby]

Things are geting so bad now a days. Keep yourself safe and since i work in a store too we are always told the same thing, give them what they want. Remember it's not your money and not worth your life. That's what insurance is for [if you have that there like us]. Love the shirts




HAPPY ST PATTYS DAY EVERYONE

 

[winkers]

That's scary! But I laughed about your one time needing to use the walkie talkie!

 

[winkers]

 

[marivaid]

Hi guys, less than 3 weeks to go ! At this point Grumpy & I are both saying we NEED to go or we'll go bonkers.

I decided to keep Job #2 after I come back from Disney. When I explained to them I was quitting on the 17th they asked me why, I told them, and they said I could still stay and just come back after Disney. The money's not bad, and I can save up for our next trip

Jessi & Alex can't wait to go. I sent them their bags, MP3 players and some of the shirts we've made (we still haven't managed to do the grey ones).
They were really happy and already started packing
I've got a bunch of Pirate stuff for them that I'll give before we leave.

I still got a few things to do. Buy our SeaWorld tickets - I saw they have a tour where you can touch a penguin, it's cheap at $18 but you need to check in by 10am and I'm not sure we'd make it.
I also need to find time to call the Coral Reef lady to see if we could get a sign for Alex's birthday. And I need to order her cake too, but we haven't decided yet which restaurant we want to do the cake at.
At first I wanted Chef Mickey's but there are so many desserts there already, I wonder if Coral Reef wouldn't be a better choice. Plus we could take it back with us to the resort, since we'll be at CSR and will have a fridge. Gotta make up my mind soon !

After Disney we're going to Ft Lauderdale for a few days. Getting there on the 25th. Well, who's doing a concert in Ft Lauderdale on April 26th ? Bon Jovi. I just CAN NOT be in the same town and not go. Of course all the good tickets are long gone but I got one from Tickets Now... three times the original cost but at least it won't be behind the stage (although it wouldn't exactly be torture to stare at Jon's butt for 2 hours ).

Well that's about it folks. I'm off to work again... sneaking in the latest Podcast !!!!

 

[Hedy]

16 days!

 

[mari360]

Great Pretrip report... It's a great thing what you guys are doing for your sister and GF.... I hope you have fun on your Trip...

 

[marivaid]

Today is April 7th. APRIL, right ? Spring. Technically.

This is what we woke up to this morning

CAN WE GO TO FLORIDA ALREADY????????????

 

[Hedy]

11 days!

 

[CPer'sMom]

Almost time to go!!

 

[DisneyTabby]

Almost there! Another trip report to look forward too We're right behind you too.

 

[marivaid]

Almost there! Another trip report to look forward too We're right behind you too.

When you arrive at WDW, we'll be landing in Paris. That's if I get on the plane back which I really REALLY don't want to do.

The snow's gone now (thank God) but we still have to pile on the sweaters and top em off with a duffle coat. I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!!

I need to start packing soon... Jessi & Alex are already packed, Grumpy's halfway done, but I haven't had a chance to even search for my american cell yet.

This week I've tried 4 times to get through to the cake / diver people at Coral Reef but I keep getting an answering machine. It's no use leaving my phone number they're not going to call me back in France... So, no cake.
I'll give it another try tonight but if it doesn't work then we'll just take care of it when we get there.

Eight days!!!!

 

[DisneyTabby]

Just think.... You can start planning another trip when you come back Like Christmas again That's what I did. It keeps me going.

 

[marivaid]

Gosh, guys, I can't believe we are leaving the day after tomorrow. Technically, tomorrow night after work.

Usually by this time, I'm packed and have every day of our trip planned to the minute. Well this time forget it. This work thing is taking a LOT of my time and although I don't get home that late, I'm so beat that I can't even think of planning or calling. So at this point I still have some ADRs to cancel, and I still haven't managed to get someone on the phone to order Alex's birthday cake.

Good thing we have a 9 hour flight... I can do some planning then.

Jessi & Alex will be getting on their train in a couple hours, and arriving tomorrow morning. I have their "pirate package" ready for them but decided to wait until tomorrow night to give it to them.
On that subject, I'd gotten a Pirate of the Caribbean messenger bag and when I got it, I showed it to Grumpy, and the stupid zipper broke !!! I tried to have it fixed but they needed a week to do it, and the cost would have been 30 euros !!!! I bought the bag for $8.99 on eBay
My dad had a great idea for once (I know, I'm mean) and he bought Velcro to put inside. So far it's holding on pretty good.

Here's what I got for them

The lunchbox is in case they want to bring back some goodies Alex has a thing for rice crispies treats. The autograph book is SO cute !! There's a wallet, some playing cards for the plane, travel journal, pen... a few other things.

Well I need to go over to AllEars and print the "At Large" section for Jessi.

In 48 hours we'll be landing in Miami!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hedy]

You're soo close! I love the POTC merchandise.

 

[DisneyTabby]

Love the pirate stuff. Have a safe and worry free trip. Can't wait to hear from you when you get back.

 

[marivaid]

Hey guys, here we all are in Ft Lauderdale, with only a couple days left before we have to go home.

I don't think I'll be doing a TR for this trip. At least not now. I can barely stand to THINK about it right now. Except for the first 2 mornings, the whole trip was a disaster. Jessi & Alex would never be ready on time, complained about the walking, we missed or canceled most of our reservations, and did less in a week than I did in 3 days back in December.Grumpy was Grumpy because she felt like she'd just thrown 2K out the window. There were a few fights, and a lot of door slamming.

On the bright side we absolutely loved Coronado Springs, had a great experience at Coral Reef, and I tried a couple new attractions. But that's about it. To say that the trip was a disappointment would be the understatement of the century.

 

[Hedy]

Hey guys, here we all are in Ft Lauderdale, with only a couple days left before we have to go home.

I don't think I'll be doing a TR for this trip. At least not now. I can barely stand to THINK about it right now. Except for the first 2 mornings, the whole trip was a disaster. Jessi & Alex would never be ready on time, complained about the walking, we missed or canceled most of our reservations, and did less in a week than I did in 3 days back in December.Grumpy was Grumpy because she felt like she'd just thrown 2K out the window. There were a few fights, and a lot of door slamming.

On the bright side we absolutely loved Coronado Springs, had a great experience at Coral Reef, and I tried a couple new attractions. But that's about it. To say that the trip was a disappointment would be the understatement of the century.

I'm so sorry.

 

[winkers]

Oh no! I'm so sorry! After all the planning you did!