Who: Joe (me) & Helen (my wife)
Day 1, 10/25/04
Plan: I fly from Chicago to Orlando and meet Helen, who's flying down from home. Pick up rental car, check in at BWI. Go to a park?
Actual: The sort of sad part of this trip is that I hadn't seen my wife in 28 days, 3 hours and 42 minutes--not that we were counting--and we actually have to meet up for a vacation in order to see one another. Needless to say, we have been looking forward to this (even more when we decided on WDW) for a long time.
Fortunately, I was able to get an early flight out of Midway, a joy because of my almighty loathing for O'Hare. The tradeoff was flying ATA instead of American, which is my usual preference. But, I'm happy to report my ATA experience was a good one and I'd have no problem flying their friendly skies in the future. I passed the time by taking a nap, since I didn't get much sleep last night.
Helen picked an AirTran flight, as it was the earliest. She had never flown with them, but also had no complaints about the experience. She got in around 9:30 and had to wait for me a little over an hour. She took care of the rental car and claimed her luggage. For some reason, Dollar didn't have the Dodge Stratus we requested and they gave her a Chrysler 300 instead. Not sure what prompted 2 classes in upgrade, but it is a nice car. To be honest, though, we really don't care about much in a rental car except that it's reasonably clean and has AC (at least in FL).
So, by the time I got there, we could go straight to the car since I didn't check anything. She brought most of my "Florida things" from home and it was a little weird, since I think the last time anyone packed for me was my mother when I was about 13.
We were definitely glad to see each other, since I don't think we've spent more than 3 days in a row together in the last 8 months. Keeping in mind what our country's military families have been enduring has helped us keep the situation in perspective, however. It's probably been harder on Helen than on me, since she's the one who's had to deal with most every little thing at home, in addition to a job that keeps her very busy. Nothing like a vacation at WDW to make you forget all this stuff!
We finally made it to Disney property a little after noon and our room at BWI wasn't going to be ready for about 45 minutes. We were pretty eager to get into it, but we were also really hungry. I hadn't eaten all day and Helen hardly ever eats, period. So, we decided to go forage for food.
Looking for something quick, we went over to the Beaches and Cream to go window and got a turkey sandwich for her, a wrap for me and shared a Diet Coke. We found a bench and ate near the Boardwalk. The food was just fine. By the time we finished and bought passes, our room was ready. We're on the second floor, back side, with a stunning view of a lot of trees and the conference center roof. It should be quiet, though.
We decided to just spend some time together in the room and head out later. Around 5, we finally felt inspired to go to EPCOT. We walked on through the WS to FW. There wasn't much of a crowd at Spaceship Earth, so we rode that. It was great fun. Then, I went over to ride Test Track. Helen doesn't really care for it, so I rode by myself in the single rider line. U of E was about ready to start, so we decided to do that, also.
By that point, it was getting close to FW closing time and a lot of people seemed to either be exiting the park or drifting toward WS. Since it appeared that TT and M:S were going to be staying open until 9 and the posted wait was only 15 minutes, I figured I'd finally try Mission: Space. It took a bit of coaxing, but I got Helen to try it, too. She's not one to get motion sickness, so I doubted that it would bother her if she followed the instructions.
Unfortunately, the smell of the stuff they use to clean up vomit was in the air once we got inside. Helen said, "If I get sick, you're carrying me back to the resort." While neither one of us were excessively impressed with the attraction, we were unaffected by the g-force or whatever causes people such problems. Anyway, I don't think it's going to top my list of favorite rides at WDW.
We started heading to WS and decided that food might be a good idea. I did want to try the Food & Wine kiosks, but we decided to just split a snack size fish and chips from the Yorkshire County Fish Shop this time. We really like wandering around the WS in the evening, so we did that for a while. Helen found some Hello Kitty items in Japan for her 2 year old granddaughter.
After that, she was ready to call it an evening, though I could've lasted at least long enough for IllumiNations. Usually, she's the one with the endless energy and I'm the more laid-back one. But, it had been a long day and we'll probably get up early tomorrow. On the way back, we stopped in France and picked up some dessert to take back to the room, raspberry schuss for me, peach tart for her.
We're both really liking the Nike Shoxx that my daughter convinced us to buy. She swore that not only would we be very stylish, we would also be able to walk around in them for days. She was right. It was a good day, just getting to spend time together and enjoy a little bit of WDW. Hopefully, we'll be energized and ready to tackle a park tomorrow. If not, that's OK, too. Maybe we'll hang around the pool. We definitely want to go to PI at least once, so we'll see if we can get that in, too.
Day 1, 10/25/04
Plan: I fly from Chicago to Orlando and meet Helen, who's flying down from home. Pick up rental car, check in at BWI. Go to a park?
Actual: The sort of sad part of this trip is that I hadn't seen my wife in 28 days, 3 hours and 42 minutes--not that we were counting--and we actually have to meet up for a vacation in order to see one another. Needless to say, we have been looking forward to this (even more when we decided on WDW) for a long time.
Fortunately, I was able to get an early flight out of Midway, a joy because of my almighty loathing for O'Hare. The tradeoff was flying ATA instead of American, which is my usual preference. But, I'm happy to report my ATA experience was a good one and I'd have no problem flying their friendly skies in the future. I passed the time by taking a nap, since I didn't get much sleep last night.
Helen picked an AirTran flight, as it was the earliest. She had never flown with them, but also had no complaints about the experience. She got in around 9:30 and had to wait for me a little over an hour. She took care of the rental car and claimed her luggage. For some reason, Dollar didn't have the Dodge Stratus we requested and they gave her a Chrysler 300 instead. Not sure what prompted 2 classes in upgrade, but it is a nice car. To be honest, though, we really don't care about much in a rental car except that it's reasonably clean and has AC (at least in FL).
So, by the time I got there, we could go straight to the car since I didn't check anything. She brought most of my "Florida things" from home and it was a little weird, since I think the last time anyone packed for me was my mother when I was about 13.
We were definitely glad to see each other, since I don't think we've spent more than 3 days in a row together in the last 8 months. Keeping in mind what our country's military families have been enduring has helped us keep the situation in perspective, however. It's probably been harder on Helen than on me, since she's the one who's had to deal with most every little thing at home, in addition to a job that keeps her very busy. Nothing like a vacation at WDW to make you forget all this stuff!
We finally made it to Disney property a little after noon and our room at BWI wasn't going to be ready for about 45 minutes. We were pretty eager to get into it, but we were also really hungry. I hadn't eaten all day and Helen hardly ever eats, period. So, we decided to go forage for food.
Looking for something quick, we went over to the Beaches and Cream to go window and got a turkey sandwich for her, a wrap for me and shared a Diet Coke. We found a bench and ate near the Boardwalk. The food was just fine. By the time we finished and bought passes, our room was ready. We're on the second floor, back side, with a stunning view of a lot of trees and the conference center roof. It should be quiet, though.
We decided to just spend some time together in the room and head out later. Around 5, we finally felt inspired to go to EPCOT. We walked on through the WS to FW. There wasn't much of a crowd at Spaceship Earth, so we rode that. It was great fun. Then, I went over to ride Test Track. Helen doesn't really care for it, so I rode by myself in the single rider line. U of E was about ready to start, so we decided to do that, also.
By that point, it was getting close to FW closing time and a lot of people seemed to either be exiting the park or drifting toward WS. Since it appeared that TT and M:S were going to be staying open until 9 and the posted wait was only 15 minutes, I figured I'd finally try Mission: Space. It took a bit of coaxing, but I got Helen to try it, too. She's not one to get motion sickness, so I doubted that it would bother her if she followed the instructions.
Unfortunately, the smell of the stuff they use to clean up vomit was in the air once we got inside. Helen said, "If I get sick, you're carrying me back to the resort." While neither one of us were excessively impressed with the attraction, we were unaffected by the g-force or whatever causes people such problems. Anyway, I don't think it's going to top my list of favorite rides at WDW.
We started heading to WS and decided that food might be a good idea. I did want to try the Food & Wine kiosks, but we decided to just split a snack size fish and chips from the Yorkshire County Fish Shop this time. We really like wandering around the WS in the evening, so we did that for a while. Helen found some Hello Kitty items in Japan for her 2 year old granddaughter.
After that, she was ready to call it an evening, though I could've lasted at least long enough for IllumiNations. Usually, she's the one with the endless energy and I'm the more laid-back one. But, it had been a long day and we'll probably get up early tomorrow. On the way back, we stopped in France and picked up some dessert to take back to the room, raspberry schuss for me, peach tart for her.
We're both really liking the Nike Shoxx that my daughter convinced us to buy. She swore that not only would we be very stylish, we would also be able to walk around in them for days. She was right. It was a good day, just getting to spend time together and enjoy a little bit of WDW. Hopefully, we'll be energized and ready to tackle a park tomorrow. If not, that's OK, too. Maybe we'll hang around the pool. We definitely want to go to PI at least once, so we'll see if we can get that in, too.
