Ok, here's the first installment of my trippie (I actually cut and pasted from another Disney board I post on... hope you don't mind!
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Saturday, May 12
Cast: Me- 38, DH-41, DS- 12, DS- 7, turning 8 on the trip, and my DM- turning 60 on the trip
We all got up early this morning (4:00 am to be exact) after getting very little, if any, sleep. Reminds me of the commerical "I'm too excited to sleep"! My DM met us at 5:30 a.m. and we headed to Philadelphia for our 8:55 am flight. No problems at all on Air Tran. Flight left ahead of schedule and actually arrived 1/2 hour early at MCO. After using the potty and getting our bearings, we made it down to the ME line to a sea of people. My first thought was "Uh oh...this isn't going to be magical". The line moved extremely quickly, as there were a ton of CM's there to check people in. It was very well organized. We got checked in, and headed to the "red carpet" for the Pop Century line. We were the 2nd family in line, and in about 10-15 minutes, were ushered to our ME bus. The bus loaded quickly and we were on our way. We had a great driver, who gave us tips on sunscreen, water, etc. and dealing with the Florida heat. He kept telling the parents to enjoy the trip that we worked so hard to provide our children with....he was very kind!!
We arrived at Pop shortly after 1pm I think (I didn't keep track of time once I exited the plane!!)and check-in went smooth as butta... I remembered at that moment that our
AAA travel agent did make notes about us wanting to be in the 50's section, non-preferred. That is exactly where they put us. We were in the Tramp section, 4th floor, rooms 3445/3446, facing a courtyard with a slight view of the lake. Excellent location...quiet and super close to both the bowling pin pool and the Hippy Dippy Pool. Our rooms were ready for us, so we meandered outside and soaked in all the very cool sights on our way to our rooms. We unloaded the carry-ons and decided to head to the Magic Kingdom before our ADR at Chef Mickey's.
We got to the MK around 2:15-ish, and walked down to the Main Street bakery for a light lunch. The five of us split 2 CS credits. My DM and my DH split a tomato and mozzarella sandwich, which they said was very good. My DS12 and I split a ham and swiss, which was fine, and my DS8 had a chocolate bundt cake. Yeah, it's vacation. My DM, DS12 and I split the apple charlotte and it was very tasty. We all shared the drinks.
As we finished up lunch inside, we noticed that people were starting to line the street. 3:00 parade time. We walked up a bit and parked ourselves in front of the ice cream shop. My DS8 took turns doing hula hoops with a CM, and we got some castle photos of us from a Photopass Photog. We watched the parade, and then headed to Tomorrowland. We got right into the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, which we absolutely loved. They focus the camera on various audience members during the show, but they keep going back to one of them a few times...this one is known as "That Guy"....well, my DH was "that guy"! He was a good sport about it and really honed in on his acting skills from H.S. with all the faces he made! It was funny! (the next day, a guy on the bus recognized him by asking him "weren't you "that guy"??)...
After the show, we headed to Buzz Lightyear. Again, no wait time. DH smoked all of us as usual. We had a little more time to kill, so we did the People Mover (I refuse to call it anything else!) and then it was time to head out to the Contemporary for dinner with Chef Mickey.
We got to the CR with more time to kill, so we looked in the shops. We were surprised to see that some of the shops have closed (or consolidated) and the arcade is now there. DS8 made some pressed pennies, and we went to check in for dinner. We were buzzed quickly and had our photo done. Seated quickly too. Food was good. They had ribs on Saturday night, and they were very good. Parm. potatoes were good as always. Prime Rib was just ok. Desserts weren't as great as last time. Character interaction was fantastic though. They all came around 2 times while we were there. Too bad, no more Chip and Dale. Now Donald circulates (he used to just stay in the lobby). We got to do two rounds of the napkin twirl celebration, and then it was time to leave.
Our tradition for the past several trips has always been to leave Chef Mickeys, ride the monorail loop to the Magic Kingdom, and go in for Wishes. Well, my kids politely asked me if we could skip Wishes and just go back to the Pop and swim. Huh?? Break tradition?? Well, it's their trip too, so we headed to the MK to grab the bus back to Pop and spent the evening in the bowling pin pool. They LOVED it and were just so happy to swim again!(This swimming thing was a trend for the week too)(BTW, our luggage was "magically" in our rooms when we arrived back at Pop after dinner)...
Talked to some nice folks at the pool and gave some Disney advice (they requested!), and then up and off to bed relatively early to get some rest for the next day.
Up next: Day 2...Epcot for Mother's Day and DM's 60th birthday!!
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