March 5-11, last AP trip! Through Day 1!

[WDWAurora]

The Cast:
Me-an overstressed college senior, Disney nut, who knows she's going to miss her wonderful boyfriend like CRAZY on this trip, but trying to make sure to get everything done before she goes
Grandmother-My mom's mom, 70ish, bad knee (can you believe she got HIT by a tractor trailer when she was a teenager? NUTS! TG for penicillin!), Disney nut, still thinks I'm 6 years old
Granddaddy-My mom's dad, 70ish, Disney nut, super nice guy who thinks we have to have him take care of us (as in he drives the whole way, carries our food at the counter service places, takes our trays, etc)

To say I had too much on my plate the week before we left was definitely an understatement. My boyfriend was in town the weekend before, so I got nothing productive accomplished. Sunday I had church and meetings all day, Monday I had class, work, and meetings till late, Tuesday more of the same, Wednesday a midterm, Thursday a midterm, and laundry and packing had to happen at some point. Finally on Monday night I stayed up until 2:30 to finish my laundry. It sat folded in my closet until Thursday, ready for the suitcase. Studying didn't allow me to pack until between my classes on Thursday. I had 5 hours to pack, run errands, and eat lunch. It was crazy. After class ended at 4, I drove the 4 and a half hours to my grandparents' hometown (20 minutes from my own) and bought a few books and visited with them at their house, then my parents left and we got a little bit of sleep. *sigh* WAY too early morning coming up, and I hadn't had more than 4 hours of sleep any night that week.


March 5th:
The 5am wakeup call still came as a shock, despite the fact I knew it was coming. I got up, gathered the things I'd unpacked for the night, and piled into the car. We pulled out right at 6am. Back to sleep for me! I tried to sleep most of the morning, but I couldn't get comfortable. I read some of my book that I'd been too tired to pick out, so when grandmother pointed at it, I just grabbed it and bought it. It was actually pretty good, The Cottage, you should read it. (*Note-I do not advocate judging the book by its cover, but I do advocate the eeny meeny miny mo method). By 12 we were in Brunswick, GA at Sonny's BBQ. We always stop here for lunch. It's good stuff. I tried the salad bar this time, and let me just say there's enough on it for me to be able to eat it seriously for every meal.

After lunch things started to go a little downhill. Traffic got worse. See, it was bike week in Daytona apparently, and apparently that means a lot of people on motorcycles want to use our road when we want to use it. RATS! It took us WAY longer, and we saw WAY too many motorcyclers stopped by the side of the road to "relieve themselves" without getting out of sight. I thought my grandmother was going to break her neck she doubled back so fast the first time! We finally arrived at our hotel on 192 at 5:45, when we usually arrive 1-2 hours earlier. Oh well, off to DTD!!

We minorly browsed through the stores during our search for dinner. We settled on Earl's for something new. It was really good! The Earl Grey Lemonade was...well, not that exciting IMHO, but fine. The sandwich was good, I had some kind of club.

After, we looked through all the shops, and I made my first purchase, one of those small back sacks that cinches at the top, with the Capture the Magic logo. At $18 (minus the AP discount) I thought it was a good deal, especially since I always carry a bag like that in the parks, and it was better than my old Target bag. After lots of browsing, we were pooped, and it was off to the hotel to get showers, sleep, and ready for the next day!!

Coming soon: Day 1, or Let's just eat dinner at 3, then we can sit 3 hours for the parade! Fun...umm...

 

[WDWAurora]

Day 1, Part 1:

I guess I should add that all three of us have been to WDW at least 30 times, probably more (you kinda stop counting after a while) and they've been more than I have (a few trips alone and with GM's sister and her niece). We're vets, so we try to do as much as we can, but don't stress if we miss stuff.

We got up and headed down to the hotel's continental breakfast. We've stayed here several times, but it always surprising me how it's ALL carbs. It's all cereal, bread, doughnuts, bagels, that kind of thing. Glad none of us are dieting! We parked, and did the tram, using the AAA parking so we weren't *all* the way to the end. It only moved us a few rows up. Pluto 11. Pluto 11. After that, we hopped in the car and headed straight for MK! After a quick trip on the monorail, we were there! It looked lonely without the Mickeys outside from January, but we got there just in time to see the park opening show. I love that! We did learn something though. DO NOT get in the right side banks of turnstiles and on the farthest left of those. After the show was over, TONS of people crowded in front of us. Didn't really get mad or anything, just learned a lesson. We headed straight for Splash Mountain and it was a total walkon. Did I mention weather was beautiful? I wore shorts and a tank top. LOVELY! We got a little wet, then headed to Thunder Mountain to dry off a bit. Now, GM can't ride Splash because she had knee surgery and the "logs" don't give her enough knee room. She did go on Thunder with us, and it was another walkon! Lovely! We went from there down through Adventureland, hitting Pirates on the way. We saved Tiki room for when it was hotter, and since the line at Jungle Cruise was HUGE, we waited on that one too. Straight to Space Mountain! GD and I hit this one alone too. Fairly quick line. I still don't like the holding area outside, but hey, what can they do, I doubt they planned that for FastPass. We grabbed GM off her bench and headed for Buzz Lightyear. Here my bloodpressure went up a little....This mom and her two kids went out of their way to push around us AFTER we were in the line part, only to make us have to stop and wait for them to collect Daddy later on before the line turned. If you're going to cut line, at LEAST have your party together. Oh well. We rode, and I did HORRIBLE. Oh well, maybe next time Space Cadet (what, I only got called that in middle school). Off to Cosmic Ray's for lunch!!

 

[ABCMom]

Thanks for sharing

 

[IloveDMB]

How nice, you and your grandparents! I remember bike week in Daytona, been in Florida twice during that time. Totally different experience!

 

[MandaMom]

Thanks for the trip report WDWAurora

MandaMom

 

[WDWAurora]

Day 1, Part 2:

Did I mention the hilarious CM at Pirates? I think I forgot. So, we found sunglasses in our seat, so I got his attention before we pulled out and handed them over to him. These were total aviator vintage-looking sunglasses. He puts them on and completely turns into this character from the 80s...he was too funny!!

Ok, back to where I actually was in the story. We went to Cosmic Ray's for lunch, and we all had soup and fries. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having mushrooms on the topping bar here and being able to put them into my cream of chicken soup. LOVELY! We ate outside and were able to see the Peter Pan vs. Captain Hook part of the Cinderella Surprise show. Fun stuff!! We headed into Fantasyland and grabbed FPs for Pooh. Still not a fan of this ride. I miss Mr. Toad. *sniffle* We went on and did Small World, Snow White, and Philharmagic. We skipped Peter Pan on this trip, despite our love for it. We just weren't in the mood to wait for it. I liked Philharmagic better this time, as we positioned ourselves better in the waiting room to avoid being crushed by the huge rush of people. This show is SO much fun, but much too short. I love the gift shop, which had tons of things my Donald-loving DBF would love...*sigh* I missed him this trip, so bad. *sigh* We headed over to Haunted Mansion next. We were SO dissapointed that the shop near the entrance to HM had been changed! We loved the little "home goods" store that was there before, and now it's more HM and other skull, etc. themed merchandise. Not a bad store, just not the original. Oh well. The ride was great as always, and when we came out I finally saw "the ring." I'm not impressed and I think it REALLY takes imagination to see a ring in that part of the walkway. Oh well. We wandered through the Christmas shop which is always so pleasant before heading over to El Pirata y El Perico for a (very) early dinner. I've wanted to try this place for a while, and it was open, but only until 4, so we gave it a shot. I liked it a lot, and had the beef empanadas, which were terrific. They came with beans and rice which lacked a little on the flavor side, but were still good. We shared chips and salsa, and overall it was a very pleasant meal. After dinner we explored a few shops on Main Street before heading up the steps to the train station. We took our seats for the parade around 5pm, with the parade starting at 8. A long wait, but it was already filling up up there! We got the last set of seats that were front row. I took several breaks to shop, grab snacks, and call the wonderful DBF while waiting. I sat next to a retired school principal (same as my dad) who was down there for a month with his parents. I really enjoyed talking to him as we waited for the parade to start. Unfortunately, when it did start the lady next to my grandfather let two kids get in front of her seat for the parade. It would have been fine, but they insisted upon standing up. We couldn't see well at all, but didn't want to punish the kids behind us by standing up. I was a little angry, since we'd been there so long and they just came up and took our view, but I did hold my tounge very well. These kids had a chair, so they could've sat with no problem. GRR....Oh well, end of my rant. We headed for Main Street and checked out some of the stores and I bought postcards to send to DBF and then we went into the street to watch the fireworks. I LOVE Wishes! I've seen it twice now, and I just think it's fabulous. We headed out and the line for the monorail was supershort, which was great. We hopped on and headed back to Pluto 11. We had a great first day and can't wait until Epcot tomorrow!