Laughs, Memories, Fun, Friends – with Cocktails! **NEW...Really! 7/25 p.7**

[Wonders10]

Yes, I know I already have a pre-TR in process. But another trip to the world has fallen into my laps. One that may be very different from the Mom’s Birthday Weekend at WDW.

PART 1

I have mentioned a few times on this board that I participated in the WDW College Program in 2002. May to January to be exact. It was the best. Ok, the job got boring after awhile, but overall I’d repeat the whole experience in a heartbeat.

If you were in the Wonders of Life at Epcot in 2002, you might have seen me:

And you might have heard me tell you to refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, video taping and flash photography. Enjoy your day of discovery at Epcot!

Here:

And Here:

While in the CP, I had 5 glorious roommates. HA! Yeah right. I had 2 glorious roommates and 3 girls that we weren’t exactly crying over at the end of our stay. One of my roommates was Amanda. The other one was Lesa. But Amanda is the reason for this trip so I’m not going to talk too much about Lesa. Unless pigs fly and she manages to figure out a way to get to Orlando.

Anyway, Amanda lives in Nebraska. I live in South Florida. Very far apart. So the last time I physically spent time with her was in April of 2005! 2 whole years ago! It was so fun, and I couldn’t wait for it to happen again. But life, school, work, finances got in the way and we just couldn’t make it happen.

Finally a few months ago, she called and left me the best voicemail ever!

“I just saw some great flights and was hoping to come May 17th!”

I was eating dinner while listening to the voicemail and I almost had to be heimliched.

Now if you have read my other trip report, you would know a few things about me. If you haven’t read it. Well get you hiney over there and catch up!

Anyway, you will know that I am a grad student. And that I have therapy patients during the day and classes at night. What you don’t know is that my schedule changes every semester meaning that I have no idea what my patient caseload will be for the Summer semester (beginning in May). This poses a problem for a few reasons.

1) What if I have patients over the time that she will be visiting?

2) I can’t cancel on Amanda because she will lose out on her flight costs.

3) Why is Sanjayeh still on American Idol?

So you can see the dilemma. To get the most for her buck, she will arrive on Thursday and leave on Monday. I tell her I will definitely be there Friday through Sunday. Maybe arrive earlier and/or stay longer depending on my schedule. Sounds good to her! Sounds good to me too!

She calls me to tell me her flight has been booked! Now we just have to book a hotel...which opens up a whole new can of worms…

Who doesn’t want to stay onsite?!?!

 

[DisneyJo]

Whooo hooo Shannon I'm first, this one sounds like fun and I know who doesn't want to stay onsite!

 

[punkin413]

3) Why is Sanjayeh still on American Idol?

i've been wondering the same thing myself!!!!

i'm on board! sounds great so far. you get to go to WDW twice in one year......lucky!

 

[PrincessV]

Dueling pre-trippies?? You are one serious DISer

Okay, I'm on board for this one, too

 

[Wonders10]

With the flight booked and the dates set, we must now decide on a hotel. I’m a hotel snob. Or at least a Disney Resort snob. I just have to stay onsite.

It doesn't have to be The Grand Floridian or The Yacht and Beach Club. It just has to start with "Disney's" and end with "Resort". (don't get me wrong I like those other places and would love to stay there but I don't have to do it all the time)

One would think that a former CM would also agree that staying onsite totally kicks offsite’s booty.

One would think, wouldn’t they?

One would be wrong.

She wants to stay off site! What the?

“But it’s cheaper”

But I will have to drive half the time which I hate, we will have to pay for parking, cabs for when we’ve had too many cocktails, and waste precious Disney time on stupid offsite hotel shuttles, and not be able to use EMH, and she would have to pay to get from the airport to the hotel! What was she thinking? Stay offsite?

Uh-uh. No Way. Not gonna happen.

She booked The Ho-Jo Maingate East. I looked it up online. It looks awesome! If you like cockroaches in your bed, drug dealers next door, and sleeping with one eye open.

(**no offense to anyone who has stayed here and liked it. These were actual complaints in actual reviews of the hotel**)

Uh-uh. No Way. Not gonna happen.

Now I understand Amanda is on a budget. Bless her heart. She is also in grad school, and co-owns 2 businesses. I get that. And despite how it may come across, I'm not exactly Donald Trump's next door neighbor. I'm a full time grad student and I don't work (or at least I don't get paid for it). You would think someone like Amanda would see all those added costs and time delays of staying offsite, but she didn't. I tried saying it in all my sneaky little ways without coming right out and saying "Listen, honey, we're staying onsite whether you like it or not". She wasn't smelling what I was cooking.

So...

I may have made up a little white lie to get us onsite. I may have told her that my mom really wanted us to stay onsite (used that whole overprotective mom excuse) and since my birthday is the following week (may 26 baby), and she knows how excited I am to see my friend (not a lie at all), that she will have us pay the Ho-Jo price and then "mom" will pay the difference in cost. When in reality, mom is not paying a dime. It’s all on me. And I am totally ok with it. My mom thought the little lie was pretty funny BTW. And mentioned just the other day that she actually is much happier knowing that we are staying onsite.

Apparently I have made it sound as though Amanda and I will be sippin' the sauce morning, noon and night for 3 days straight. When in reality, it will only be noon and night. We need to sleep in the morning Either way, It's a win-win-win!

So…

drumroll please…

Amanda and I are now booked for 4 nights at Pop Century in a standard room.

 

[sunlver]

Love the pre trip report..good reading

 

[DisneyJo]

She booked The Ho-Jo Maingate East. I looked it up online. It looks awesome! If you like cockroaches in your bed, drug dealers next door, and sleeping with one eye open.

"Listen, honey, we're staying onsite whether you like it or not". She wasn't smelling what I was cooking.

We need to sleep in the morning Either way, It's a win-win-win!

Hope she doesn't read the DIS

 

[Wonders10]

Hope she doesn't read the DIS

Funny you say that. 1) I wanted to ask her if she minded me posting pics of her on here and 2) I thought it would be fun for her to join the DIS and contribute a little bit perhaps. But then I realized that she may get a little mad at me about some of the things I said, even if they were all in jest. So mums the word!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Hey Shannon! I'm here, and I'm in! Hope I make an "appearance" in your trippie and you in mine! Great job so far! Less than a month and a half left now!

 

[Wonders10]

Hey Shannon! I'm here, and I'm in! Hope I make an "appearance" in your trippie and you in mine! Great job so far! Less than a month and a half left now!

Hey Lynda! Thanks for stopping by!

To everyone else (all, what 4 of you? ), I'm not not writing anything. It's just that I'm having a hard time planning and getting super excited about this until I know exactly what dates I'm arriving and leaving. But trust me when I say that it should get pretty good later on down the road.

 

[belle8306]

Great job on your trip report so far! You are one busy girl! I can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi out there!

Going on a cruise! I'm leaving tomorrow and will be back on Saturday so no updates. Once I get back I will find out my semester schedule sometime that week which means I'll know exactly when I'll be able to check in and when I'll have to check out.

Thanks for staying with me!

 

[punkin413]

Hi out there!

Going on a cruise! I'm leaving tomorrow and will be back on Saturday so no updates. Once I get back I will find out my semester schedule sometime that week which means I'll know exactly when I'll be able to check in and when I'll have to check out.

Thanks for staying with me!

have a great time!!!!!!

 

[DisneyGuy77]

Hey Shannon, love the trip report so far. Keep us posted.

 

[Wonders10]

Hey Shannon, love the trip report so far. Keep us posted.

Hey!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone!

I received my schedule today...the one that would make or break this trip. And devastate my friend if I ended up unable to go because of school.



I was praying everyday for no Friday clients.



That's it. Just Fridays off.



Well....(drumroll please).......


I have Fridays and Mondays off!

(ok, if you just read my other TR, this was a little anti-climactic)

So I can absolutely leave on Friday and come home on Monday without having to cancel anything. I do have an afternoon client that lets out at 4 on Thursdays so I'm debating if I want to leave after that or not. I have time to decide that.

Yay me!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Hi everyone!

I received my schedule today...the one that would make or break this trip. And devastate my friend if I ended up unable to go because of school.



I was praying everyday for no Friday clients.



That's it. Just Fridays off.



Well....(drumroll please).......


I have Fridays and Mondays off!

(ok, if you just read my other TR, this was a little anti-climactic)

So I can absolutely leave on Friday and come home on Monday without having to cancel anything. I do have an afternoon client that lets out at 4 on Thursdays so I'm debating if I want to leave after that or not. I have time to decide that.

Yay me!

That's great news Shannon!

So, are you going to make some more specific plans now? I wanna know how I can stalk...I mean see you while we are there!

 

[Wonders10]

That's great news Shannon!

So, are you going to make some more specific plans now? I wanna know how I can stalk...I mean see you while we are there!

I'm definitely going to try to make some specific plans, but it is hard planning with someone who is also a Disney control freak and who happens to live 2000 miles away from you. Maybe you could send me your itinerary since yours is probably a little more permanent than mine will be.

We both love Epcot so I know we'll spend a decent time there. We'll probably do House of Blues Sunday night because we loved it when we were CP's. We also want to do PI, but aren't sure what night. If I can get up there Thursday, we will definitely do it then since it is CM night. If not, I'm not so sure. And she requested (and I'm not objecting) to see Illuminations. So those are our night plans. I'm sure we'll be hitting all the parks as well.

To give you an idea of how we work together, which is very different from how I do Disney with my family...she was last down 2 years ago with some friends. I went up there for 3 days to visit. We managed to hit every single park in one day so we could hit all of our must sees. And we park hop - a lot! Or at least we did.

I will keep you (and everyone else) posted on what we're doing. I can't believe it is only 3 weeks away! I need some new clothes .

 

[lamagique]

Hey there. I was a CP last summer! So... a magical Disney point to you! Anyway, I'm subscribing... this looks like it'll be a fun one!

 

[Wonders10]

I've given up on giving each installment a part number. Between this TR and the other one I've got going, I can't keep up with that. Does anyone really care if this post is titled Part 3 or 254? I don't. I'll read it anyway.

My friend was finally able to get back to me. I was correct that she is super busy. Did I mention that she is also in grad school, co-owns a business and works there, and also runs another company? Talk about busy. God Bless her, I complain just being in grad school.

Anyway, she got back to me and gave me some of her must do's which I then compared with things I wanted to do, park hours, etc. to come up with a VERY tentative itinerary. Trust me it will change at some point - probably multiple times. But really, whose itinerary is ever complete the first time they write it?

Thursday May 17:
Amanda arrives around 1 and checks into Pop while I'm still at school with therapy clients til 4. If I decide to leave after school, we will do PI tonight.

Friday May 18:
Today we will do an assortment of parks followed by a night out on the town. We will probably go offsite, maybe Howl at the Moon or clubs in that area...any suggestions?

Saturday May 19:
We plan on having lunch somewhere in World Showcase (she has requested Mexico, Morrocco, or Canada and I have vetoed Morrocco since it was my least favorite) No ADR has been made so we'll see - I'm waiting on her to tell me if she wants lunch/dinner and what times. Anywho, we'll also be drinking around the world today! A wonderful past time which usually has me seeing double by the time I hit Germany (if you start in Mexico). Good times. We will watch Illuminations and then stay for EMH that night.

Sunday May 20:
Today will be another assortment of parks to get in our must sees. Tonight we will be going to House of Blues. Ladies' night baby! Losers that get there before 10 get free drinks (female losers that is). That is a title I'm willing to take for free cocktails.

Monday May 21:
Good-bye's. Her plane leaves early afternoon and I'll probably leave sometime early to mid-morning.

She specifically requested these rides:
Rock-N-Roller Coaster
ToT
Soarin'
Everest
Pirates
Haunted Mansion

I think that's it. Of course we will ride other rides, but those are things we absolutely have to do.

As for me, I'm pretty easy (going).

I go to the parks and ride the rides A LOT! So since she does not come nearly as often, I'm letting her make the bulk of the decisions. There is nothing in Disney that I don't want to do so we should be good. The thing I'm most looking forward to is going out, having a few drinks and dancing the night away. I hardly ever get a chance to do that anymore so it will be nice to just let loose.

Also, a friend of mine that I worked with at Epcot still lives in Orlando so he will try to join us at some point during the trip. Probably the Friday night we go downtown.

I almost forgot. Actually I did forget. My birthday is the 26th of May which is about a week after this trip will take place. Well as far as I'm concerned, that's close enough that I can celebrate it Disney-style. So one of those days, I'll get a birthday button and see what happens. I think the drinking around the world day is a good one. Is it true that you get a free drink in every country on your birthday? Of course, it's not my actual birthday, but is that true?

More updates on the way...it's only about 2 weeks away!