Introduction
Cast: Me- 33YO WDW nut
Mikey- 44 YO, one of my best friends for the last 15 years
Mike Jr.- Mikeys 21 YO son
Adam- Mikeys 18 YO son
Christy- Mike Jr.s 18 YO girlfriend
A little back story prior to the actual trip report, I am in the middle of a somewhat amicable divorce and I was supposed to be taking my three kids, ages 8, 4, and 2, and my DM to WDW for Thanksgiving, but my soon to be EXW decided to not allow me to take the kids just about two weeks ago. I was very disappointed
and really wrestled with the idea of going without the kids, I was afraid that I would spend the entire trip missing them and not enjoying myself. I even went as far as posting a thread on the community boards to ask other DISers their opinion as to whether I should go. After getting a ton of support from some great folks, I decided to go ahead with the trip a week earlier than planned, this way I could still spend Thanksgiving week with my children.
It was tough convincing Mikey to go with, he had only been to WDW one time before, and he and his family only spent about three hours at the MK before they decided it was to crowded and they left never to return. Mikey has been more like a big brother to me than a friend for many years (we usually introduce each other as brothers), I really dont think I would have been able to convince him on my own. However his two sons from his first marriage live in Naples, FL, when they agreed to meet us he gave in. He does not get much time with them, so he thought he could put up with the whole WDW mess in order to get the time with his boys.
Day 1 Thursday November 19th
Ordinarily I dont spend a lot of time talking about our travel to and from WDW in my reports, honestly I dont care to read other peoples details of the drive to the airport, and plane flights, etc.. I do have to talk about our flight, because the highlight of my entire trip happened on the flight from Houston to Orlando. I ended up in the middle seat (yuck!) with Mikey on the window. On the aisle was a father from College Station, and his wife and two daughters were across the aisle. Mikey spent the first hour visiting and we kept to ourselves for the most part. I was explaining Pal Mickey to him, and I pulled it out of my carry-on to demonstrate one of Mickeys terrible jokes. I noticed this caught the attention of youngest daughter across the aisle. I offered PM to her to play with, and you should have seen her eyes light up! As she played with PM I asked her father how old she and her sister were. I guessed that they were 6 and 4. He told me that 10 and 6 and that they were both disabled and that the 6 YO only weighed 21 lbs and had severe scoliosis. She had just had a feeding tube inserted into her stomach so that they could get her weight to above 30 lbs so she could surgery to correct the scoliosis. After hearing all of this I finally took a good look at both girls, and it just broke my heart.
The six YO was soooooo tiny. I think she is smaller than my 2YO and I know she was much smaller than my 4YO. She played with PM the entire flight and there was just no way I could take him back from her, so I made her promise to share him with her sister and always carry him while in the parks. She was hugging him so tightly as they left, I though she was going to squeeze his little head off! The look in her eyes as her parents put her in her wheelchair made the entire trip worth it for me. I am tearing up again just remembering it, dangit. Grown men arent supposed cry like this, LOL.
We did have a couple of good laughs on the plane though. Mikey kept referring to himself as my childrens replacements, and when we were landing, I jokingly told him that I had reserved the room for one adult and three kids. At this point he says how am I going to pass for your 8YO son? My answer just talk to one of the CMs that should do the trick. Anywhoo, our Tiffany Towncar driver was waiting for us in the bag claim and before we knew it we where checked into the BWV. We were starving so we stopped in to the Big River Brew House for beers
and a snack. The bartender was great, but I would not recommend the chips and salsa. Tasted like they just poured them out of the bag and jar. Guess we are kind of spoiled in Houston, we have so many good Mexican restaraunts. After the stop on the Boardwalk, we decided to try our own version of the monorail drink-a-thon starting at the Contemporary Resort. After a beer
at the CR we headed via monrail to the Poly were we had PSs for Ohanas for dinner. For those who want to know the Tambu Lounge is still closed for refurb, but they have a temporary bar set up next to it. A lapu-lapu for me, a beer for Mikey
and after about 10 minutes we are seated right in front of the windows dead center with Cindys castle. Wishes will be starting in about thirty minutes, so we are thrilled with our table. We get our appetizers right away, but wait almost thirty minutes (we made several requests) for any of the meat skewers to come around. It was a bummer to wait that long, but seeing Wishes more than made up for it. It was great being able to sit in a relaxed atmosphere and enjoy the fireworks, although seeing them on Main St is much more impressive. After finishing dinner, we grab a bus to DTD. We stop at Cirque de Soleil to pickup our tickets for tomorrow nights La Nouba, and run into House of Blues to get a beer
(anyone see a pattern forming here?). The place is packed, and we spot one open table on the patio. Just as Mikey and I try to sit down, two other gentlemen try to sit down at the same time. We all laugh and agree to share the table. Our new friends, Scott and Daryl, are members of the US Army and are in Orlando for a conference of Apache helicopter pilots. They will both be returning to Iraq/Afganistan shortly for their third tours there. Upon learning this Mikey and I offer to give them a tour of PI, but only if they allow us to buy their admission and drinks, our way of saying thanks for serving the good ole US of A. They reluctantly agree, they were not very comfortable with idea of us paying their way, but we talked them into it. We decided to start at the Adventurers Club, I am not sure if that was a good idea or not, because we never left the AC until last call. So much for a tour of PI. Oh well, we had a great time getting to know our new friends and many, many laughs. The highlight was having one of the bartenders lower Mikeys barstool and his reaction. What in the hell is happening here was his quote I believe. Loud enough for the entire bar to hear, LOL. Of course, this draws attention to him and all of the full time Adventurers begin to really razz him about his stool problem. And I dont mean barstool problem. We finally made it back to the room about 1:30 am, a little buzzed and very tired. What a great day, the highlights of which were the great folks that we met on the airplane, at PI, and everywhere else in between. As Mikey falls asleep he lets me know that he has decided that maybe WDW is not so bad after all. Mission accomplished in less than one day! Kongaloosh!
Up next Day Two at Disney Studios and how we manage to get invited to the CM only preview of the Osborne Lights.
Cast: Me- 33YO WDW nut
Mikey- 44 YO, one of my best friends for the last 15 years
Mike Jr.- Mikeys 21 YO son
Adam- Mikeys 18 YO son
Christy- Mike Jr.s 18 YO girlfriend
A little back story prior to the actual trip report, I am in the middle of a somewhat amicable divorce and I was supposed to be taking my three kids, ages 8, 4, and 2, and my DM to WDW for Thanksgiving, but my soon to be EXW decided to not allow me to take the kids just about two weeks ago. I was very disappointed

It was tough convincing Mikey to go with, he had only been to WDW one time before, and he and his family only spent about three hours at the MK before they decided it was to crowded and they left never to return. Mikey has been more like a big brother to me than a friend for many years (we usually introduce each other as brothers), I really dont think I would have been able to convince him on my own. However his two sons from his first marriage live in Naples, FL, when they agreed to meet us he gave in. He does not get much time with them, so he thought he could put up with the whole WDW mess in order to get the time with his boys.
Day 1 Thursday November 19th
Ordinarily I dont spend a lot of time talking about our travel to and from WDW in my reports, honestly I dont care to read other peoples details of the drive to the airport, and plane flights, etc.. I do have to talk about our flight, because the highlight of my entire trip happened on the flight from Houston to Orlando. I ended up in the middle seat (yuck!) with Mikey on the window. On the aisle was a father from College Station, and his wife and two daughters were across the aisle. Mikey spent the first hour visiting and we kept to ourselves for the most part. I was explaining Pal Mickey to him, and I pulled it out of my carry-on to demonstrate one of Mickeys terrible jokes. I noticed this caught the attention of youngest daughter across the aisle. I offered PM to her to play with, and you should have seen her eyes light up! As she played with PM I asked her father how old she and her sister were. I guessed that they were 6 and 4. He told me that 10 and 6 and that they were both disabled and that the 6 YO only weighed 21 lbs and had severe scoliosis. She had just had a feeding tube inserted into her stomach so that they could get her weight to above 30 lbs so she could surgery to correct the scoliosis. After hearing all of this I finally took a good look at both girls, and it just broke my heart.


We did have a couple of good laughs on the plane though. Mikey kept referring to himself as my childrens replacements, and when we were landing, I jokingly told him that I had reserved the room for one adult and three kids. At this point he says how am I going to pass for your 8YO son? My answer just talk to one of the CMs that should do the trick. Anywhoo, our Tiffany Towncar driver was waiting for us in the bag claim and before we knew it we where checked into the BWV. We were starving so we stopped in to the Big River Brew House for beers




Up next Day Two at Disney Studios and how we manage to get invited to the CM only preview of the Osborne Lights.