Never Say Never .Atleast I Thought I’d Never!

[Pikester]

Good afternoon!

I've been working on my next installment but have run into a bit of a snag. For some reason Photobucket has been working pretty stinky for me this past week. I try to long in and a page pops up showing me I've lost a connection or I'm logged in and trying to edit my pics and it shows me a window that says "the picture is no longer available". Not sure what the problem is but I hope it fixes itself soon. Oh and don't expect me to fix it as I have no clue what I am doing to begin with.

So, please be patient and I will keep working on it.

 

[Pikester]

November 28, 2009

This day was our second travel day before we get to Walt Disney World. I did the same thing I did on our first day with the keeping track of our progress by writing things down in my journal. Not a lot of exciting stuff other then the fact that we are getting closer and closer to Disney!

5:30AM: We got up and got ready to head out from our hotel in St. George, South Carolina.

6:00AM: Stopped at McDonalds so that the guys could get some breakfast and I could get a cup of hot tea.

6:22AM: On the road again.

7:37AM: Welcome to Georgia! We’re almost there.

9:05AM: Still in Georgia. Lots of construction with narrow lanes. I think there are permanent marks in the armrests of my van.

9:16AM: Welcome to Florida! Getting closer.

9:30AM: Stopped at the Florida Welcome Station. We all had yummy OJ and checked out the brochures. (For you Tkers out there this is where we got our picture taken)

11:12AM: Almost to Daytona Beach where we will be stopping for lunch.

11:45AM: Ate lunch at Wendy’s which was located by Daytona Beach. We could see the ocean from the window in the dining area. One really strange thing happened here. After we ordered our food, Nathan started walking to the table that Tyler was already sitting at and a very scruffy looking man was trying to talk to Nathan has he walked by on his way to sit with his brother. I quickly got over there and the man really wanted to see Nathan’s hat and then he wanted to trade hats with him and almost put his nasty hat on Nathan’s head! I think the guy was homeless and probably spent part of his day at the Wendy’s. He was friendly enough but please stay the heck away from my kid. Nathan did a good job staying away from him and not listening to the man when he kept asking to see his hat. We talked about strangers after that and I told Nathan that he had done a good job.

12:30PM: Daytona Beach! Enjoyed the sun and the sand. The temp was 65 degrees and so wonderful. There also were a lot of fancy refurbished cars in the area, some even taking a ride down the beach. Found out once we got home that Daytona Speedway was hosting The Annual Daytona Beach Turkey Run Car show. The Daytona strip was packed with people, cars and construction.

Tyler (12) and Nathan (8)

2:01PM: Back on the road from our little side trip to Daytona Beach and we are now headed to Orlando. Hoping to check into our hotel around 3:30PM. We are staying at a Super 8 in Kissimmee for the night and then it will be off to Pop Century in the morning.

3:11PM: Checking into the Super 8 Kissimmee

4:12PM: All checked in and have our luggage in the room. Brian took the boys to the pool and I’m relaxing in the room. We plan on heading out to get something to eat around 5PM. This Super 8 was very nice!

5PMish: Had dinner at Cracker Barrel which was very, very, very yummy!

After dinner we went to Orange World (Tkers, we had our picture taken here) Since the night was still young we decided to go check out one of the miniature golf courses at Disney World. We decided to try Disney’s Fantasia Gardens near the Swan Resort. It was OK. We had to stop keeping score because the kids were getting frustrated that it was taking so many putts to get the ball in the hole. Once we did that we all had a better time. I will say that I didn’t find it any better then any other themed mini golf course I’ve played. I actually like the Pirate Cove type ones better.

8:58PM: Getting ready for bed. Tomorrow is the big day……………………..

Magic Kingdom!!!!
(After we check into Pop)​

　
　
　

 

[longing2Batdisney]

great day at the beach!!! can't wait until the POP check in...I was just pricing out the POP for a possible trip in May instead of NOv 2010...but, I'm sure we are still doing Nov...gotta dream

love Cracker Barrel one of our all time favs...and now that Waffle House here in LA has no smoking we really like it there too! DH loves Waffle House but I could never stand the smoke!

Have a great Christmas!!

 

[DL55]

I prefer not to keep score either...since DH plays golf and can putt better.
I chuckled at the precise times. Enjoyed the pictures.

 

[JOCAmom]

Finally got a chance to catch up reading here. I am loving your trip report so far. We've seen so many of the same sights since we are from PA and always drive down too. Even thought South of the Border is totally cheesy, we always have to stop and see Pedro. He's like long lost family.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Pikester]

great day at the beach!!! can't wait until the POP check in...I was just pricing out the POP for a possible trip in May instead of NOv 2010...but, I'm sure we are still doing Nov...gotta dream

love Cracker Barrel one of our all time favs...and now that Waffle House here in LA has no smoking we really like it there too! DH loves Waffle House but I could never stand the smoke!

Have a great Christmas!!

NH went Smoke Free not long ago but all ready it's hard to remember what it was like to eat a meal while others were smoking.

We love POP! We've often thought about upgrading to a Mod but they are so spread out. I love being able to just walk to Classic Hall to fill up my mug. I also love all the big icons.

 

[Pikester]

I prefer not to keep score either...since DH plays golf and can putt better.
I chuckled at the precise times. Enjoyed the pictures.

I figured that while we are drivng it's all about what time it will be when we stop to eat or what time it will be when we stop to get gas. Why not write it down that way to share with my DIS friends.

 

[Pikester]

Finally got a chance to catch up reading here. I am loving your trip report so far. We've seen so many of the same sights since we are from PA and always drive down too. Even thought South of the Border is totally cheesy, we always have to stop and see Pedro. He's like long lost family.

Can't wait to read more.

We wanted to stop last year but didn't have the time. We actually built in time to stop on the way home. Stay tuned to find out if we actually did or not.

 

[Pikester]

Kids are on vacation next week so I'll try to get the next installment posted then.

 

[M&N]

Hey---Just catching up. I think it's good to make note of the times you get to certain places. It's good for future references to help out fellow travelers or for your next trip.
I hope Photobucket is working. I haven't tried it since I've been back.
Keep it coming...

 

[Pikester]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope nobody partied to hard last night. I stayed up to watch the ball drop with the kids, DH went to bed, and we did a little dance to welcome in the new year. I should say that DS8 and I did but DS12 fell asleep on the couch. I woke him up at 5 minutes to 12 but he fell asleep again and I didn't realize until after the ball had dropped. Boy was he mad when I woke him up again to tell him he had missed it.

 

[Pikester]

November 29, 2009

This is it, Magic Kingdom Day! But first we need to check in at Pop Century so we can get our Keys to the Kingdom. Since I was way excited I was up about 5:30AM getting ready with DH and the kids following not far behind. We got DS12’s air mattress flattened (DS12 kicks and elbows like you wouldn’t believe! Because of this we made the choice to bring an air mattress and sleeping bag for him to use during the trip), the sleeping bag rolled up, suitcases loaded back into the van and we went on the search for something to eat for breakfast. We checked out the continental breakfast that the Super 8 had but it just didn’t interest us. We found ourselves a Dunkin Donuts (which did not have hot tea! WTH, I need my hot tea! Since I was desperate I had a coffee.) and the kids and DH got donuts or a breakfast sandwich. Once we finished we were on our way to check in at Pop.

It was about 7:30AM, probably a little earlier then that, and we found ourselves standing at the On-line check in window at Pop Century.

I can’t believe we are here! Woohoo! And even better, our room is ready! We can actually have our luggage in our room before we head to MK.



When DH made our original reservation he made the following requests:


60’s Playdoh building
4th floor
Fireworks view


What we got was:
50’s Lady building
4th floor
Pool view


We asked the CM checking us in if there were any rooms available that fit our requests and she was able to find out that there were 2 rooms that met two of our requirements (4th Floor, Fireworks) but they would not be available until after 3PM. We thanked her for checking and decided to keep what we had been given. So once we got the rest of our paper work and our “Keys” we headed back to our van to find a parking space close to our room.


Driving around we saw the signs saying that we could park along the curb in the “luggage drop off zone” which made getting our stuff out of the van and to the room much easier. We all grabbed a bag and headed to the elevator which took us to the 4th floor. We stepped out of the elevator. Took a right, a left, another left, a right and then down the corridor till we were standing in front of room 1465.

View from our room


We entered and just tried to get everything in the room so that we wouldn’t be hauling it around in the van with us. We decided to wait until we got back later to unpack and get things hung up and stored away for our stay. I grabbed my park bag and anything else that we wanted to take with us for our MK day and off we went to try to make park opening.



Before we left on our trip DH decided to purchase a TomTom. We borrowed one from his Dad for the trip we took last year and loved it! Once he started playing with the TomTom and researched stuff that you could download onto it he found a website called Mousesavers that has a downloadable program for driving around Disney property. Using this we made quick work of getting ourselves to the TTC and then on the Monorail to MK.

We ended up getting off the monorail, through bag check and through the turnstiles as everyone began entering the park.

We made it just as the ropes were being dropped!

We had already made the plan for DH to head over to Space Mountain to get FP for later while I took the boys over to Thunder Mountain. We used the restroom and waited for DH to meet up with us so we could ride TM together.

Now this is where I realized that I did not write down detailed descriptions of our 1st day at Magic Kingdom. I did list the rides that we went on with a number of how many times we went on them.
Thunder Mtn: 2
Splash Mtn: 2
Pirates of the Caribbean: 1
Space Mtn: 1
TTA: 1
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor: 1

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin: 1

It’s A Small World: 1
Jungle Cruise: 1

Mickey’s PhilharMagic: 1

We headed back to the hotel around 4PM to get some dinner at Pop’s Classic Hall and walked around Everything Pop to check out the merchandise that we would look at over and over again through out our trip. DH took the boys swimming and I gave my Mom a call to let her know that we had made it and what we had done for that day. I also spent some time getting our stuff unpacked and arranged to how we wanted it. I also got stuff ready for the next day and spent a little bit of time near the pool watching the kids swim.

That was it. I had so much fun that day that I didn’t keep track of it. I did much better keeping track of our 2nd MK day.
Next up:

Epcot Day!
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*You may notice that my pictures are bigger then before. I got sick of dealing with Photobucket while trying to resize everything so I'm just posting the size that they are. I should have just done that to begin with. Pooh. ​

　
　
　

　
**My DH wanted me to add in here that he loved eating at the Columbia Harbour House. We were able to use the seating upstairs and it was so quiet. So if you decided to try the CHH please remember ther seating upstairs.　

 

[mariezp]

Very nice Pikester! Looks like everything went according to plan on the first day.
Wish I could say that we saw the park early in the morning when the crowds were low but no such luck. Everyone looks like they are having fun! Can't wait for more!



Great minds must think alike because I was thinking I just might try to get my trip report started today.... we will see.

 

[Sukie]

Great job. It is nice to see some of the new places and rides that you had visited. That Nathan what a cutie. Tyler too (I hope he is not to embarrassed that I posted this).

Can't wait for the next installment.

 

[OhMari]

Bump to the front.

 

[OhMari]

Bumping again.

 

[Pikester]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for finding this OhMari! You Rock!

 

[M&N]

I've never seen the park that empty...now get to work with the rest of this...

 

[longing2Batdisney]

SHE FOUND YOU!!!
now for the rest of the story!!!!

Connie

just read your first MK update--great pictures...I too was resizing photos and just gave up...alot of the followers I had said they preferred it in the larger form anywho! thanks! for the pictures of the POP looks like that is where we are leaning toward!

 

[Pikester]

I'm very glad to see that those who've subscribed are getting the updates still.

I am working on the next installment and hope to have it done for this weekend.