OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure (Day 1 Photos posted--2003.12.29)

[Aerobics]

Note to DISers--I originally posted this report on the PassPorter website. I'm copying the text here, but I'm sure that some of the smilies and things won't translate well, so if you'd rather read a "pretty" version, you can find the original here ----> OD'in On The Magic

OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Prologue: "Where The Heck Are We Gonna Put Everybody?" and Other Pre-Trip Queries

Cast:
Nate (Aerobics): 27, Disney fanatic, all-around nut
John: 45, neophytic Disney traveller
A Whole Heavenly Host of PassPorterers and Mousefesters (AWHHoPaM--pronounced "Aw-WHOOP-am"): A big ol' buttload, er, boatload, of the friendliest, funniest, most bombin'est peeps you'll ever meet!

Dates:
November 21 - December 7, 2003

Lodging:
Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa at DTD (?)--November 21
Vacation Village at Parkway (RCI timeshare)--November 22-28
Radisson at Cocoa Beach--November 29
Disney Wonder Stateroom 6042--November 30 - December 4
Animal Kingdom Lodge--December 4 - December 7

Well, hy! [sic] I'm going to give a healthy attempt at actually completing a trip report this year, but have decided to employ a slightly different technique. This year, I'm just going to write until I feel "done", and call it a day--when writing the NASTEE, I developed this terrible habit of staying up 'til 3:26 a.m. just trying to churn out another edition.

I'm way too freakin' old for that kind of behavior. I'll leave that nonsense to all the 26 year olds out there!

John (my beautiful partner) and I met in mid-March, and have been happily seeing each other since then. Since I had planned this trip with the Cru Crew and Brant (Joe Carioca) in early 2003, I needed to figure out how to work John into at least part of the trip, since I couldn't bear the thought of being away from him for 17+ days.

(Don't you just hate it when newly-fallen lovebirds say crap like that? )

Originally, I was going to arrive in the Orlando area on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and stay in a 2-BR timeshare I had reserved through RCI--a lovely(?!?) little spot called the Villas at Fortune Place. Joanne, Tim, and the boys (and Joanne's mom, who sadly passed away not long before the trip) were to arrive on Monday evening, and we were going to spend the week together before heading over to Cape Canaveral to join in the Mousefest 2003 activities.

The addition of John's attendance on the trip posed a "where the heck are we gonna put everybody?" logistical issue, so I used another week from my timeshare to reserve a 1-BR for John and me, which really ended up working out better for everybody, as Brant ended up joining the Cru Crew at the Villas at Fortune Place on Wednesday evening, and I shudder to think how we would've slept 7 people comfortably (or even uncomfortably) in that condo.

As my time in the parks with John was limited, it worked out better for us to be in the 1-BR, which was located directly outside the Main Gate on 192, very close to Celebration, and no more than 5-10 minutes from any park gate--woo hoo! :waytogo:

As my handy-dandy PassPorter countdown clock crept down into single digits (days, that is, not years!), I began planning little surprises here and there, with the hopes that I'd be able to pull them off once we arrived. (Side note--I've read a gajillion reports by people who've surprised the bejeezus out of their partner/spouse/kids, and I had some serious envy issues. See?----> :envy: So, I thought that this was my one chance to do something right...for once. :goodluck: )

Financially, it made the most sense for John and me to fly down to Orlando on Friday (Nov 21), with his return trip scheduled for the following Friday a.m. As luck would have it, the Sunday before departure, I came down with a sore throat, and we all know what that means: That's right...everything was going so perfectly that it only seemed apropos that I catch myself a lil' cold just mere days before heading off on our adventure.

Frickin' frackin'...

Anywho, I coughed, hacked, and sniffled my way through the work week, delegating all that was delegable, and gleefully turning on my "Out of Office Assistant" at the end of day on Thursday--of course, I had really wanted the bounce-back message to say something like, "Thanks for your email! Unfortunately, I'm out of the office for the rest of my entire life--I'll reply to your email never. Have a nice day!"

Keeping in line with the currents, I completely lost my voice during my BodyPUMP class that night--I should've known better than to try to sing along with Christina ("Let's get DIRRTY!!!" :guitar: ).

Frickin' frackin'...

But, we were going to Florida, come hell or Halls medicine. Actually, I started taking Cold-Eeze and I did actually notice a slight decrease in the severity of my symptoms--the only downside to Cold-Eeze is that it leaves the most NAST (yes, NAST...it's my new word) taste in your mouth. You can't even get rid of it by brushing your teeth--in fact, it just exacerbates the whole problem.

With the alarm set for 5:30 a.m., we snuggled into bed, me with one of those Breathe-Right strip thingies on my nose...surprisingly, those are pretty effective, too.

As we drifted off to sleep (God, how I love NyQuil!), I thought about the next 17 days--would I be able to pull off the surprises, or would my nightmares become true and I'd trip right before the "Finish Line"?

Normally, I'd probably ask myself all sorts of other questions, too, but I was, after all, riding the NyQuil Express... :snore:

Next up: OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Day 1 (Part 1): "You Sneaky Little Booger"

 

[IloveDMB]

Hope everything goes okay! Can't wait to read what will happen.

 

[pixiechick]

Nate,

I'm a longtime fan of your reports!! Can't wait for more!

 

[Aerobics]

Note to DIS-ers: The link to the "pretty version" of this report can be found in the original post.

Ok, before I type up the next installment, I'd just like to go on the record by saying that, contrary to (what seems to be) popular opinion around here, I can totally wait until those Bon Jovi pics are posted! In fact, the tears will not be a-flowin' from mine own eyes if they just somehow all evaporated into that great digital microchip picture holder thingy in the sky...

Ahem.

OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Day 1 (Part 1, Subpart A): "You Sneaky Little Booger"

You ever have one of those nights where you're lying there in bed, dreamily drifting off to sleep, and, like, 3.6 seconds later, your alarm clock is goin' off? I was all, "Did I even fall asleep?", cuz' it sure didn't feel like it.

To steal a quote from a not-well-known comic, "I didn't know 5:30 came twice a day!" But, it was time to get them old bones movin', cuz even if it was butt-cold here in the nation's capital, we knew that, according to Weather.com at least, sunny skies and temps in the high 70s awaited us.

Talk about motivation!

Even though we all hail NyQuil (indeed!), it only did a mediocre job of knocking my weak butt out, as opposed to actually to helping alleviate any of my symptoms for the long haul. The cough had gotten worse, the sniffling had also gotten worse, and I had a nice little headache to boot. Oy.

Oh, well--there's always coffee. :slurp: Thank God(dess).

After we had both showered and finished packing up our toiletries--oh, wait. Pause.

How could I forget to mention this trip's FOO flavor?!? :headsmack:

For this trip, I chose Coconut Lime Verbena; and, believe it or not, I actually chose this flavor before I saw the whole FOO thread in which others had noted that they used the same foo. I wonder if the employees at WDW were all like, "Yo, who be smellin' like a lime-scented coconut?" (I sincerely doubt they'd recognize the "Verbena" scent--I have no idea what a Verbena even is).

Anyway, more on the Coco Lime Verb junx later, since, as you know, one does not Foo (should we capitalize it now?) until one has arrived at one's destination, right?

So, after we got all those thingies packed up, John was put in charge of scrambling some eggs and toasting toast (you know, real MANLY stuff! ), while I had to go move my (would-be-illegally parked as of 9:00 a.m.) car.

Unfortunately, I live on a block on the south side of Adams Morgan during which one can almost NEVER find parking at night, so if I do drive the night before, I usually have to park far away, and usually at something like a parking meter that will go into effect the next morning. Then, before I head to work, I have to go move my car from its spot with the hopes of finding something closer to home. In other words, city living can be a real pain in the tush sometimes.

I'm sure I ticked off the person coming up the street in the opposite direction, when, at 6:00 a.m., I made an illegal U-turn in the middle of the street so that I could sneak into a spot that had just been vacated only one block away (a true rarity!).

(I've gotten into arguments with other drivers for cutting me off with an illegal U-turn before, so shame on me for doing it, but I really wasn't in the mood to scour the depths of NW DC looking for a (legal) spot to park, y'know?!? Nonetheless, shame on me! :nono: )

We finished up breakfast quickly and got all of our stuff ready to drag down to the end of the block to catch a cab. My big suitcase (and if you want a description of just how BIG this mother is, you can ask Cruella--she certainly doesn't mince words around this topic! ) felt like it weighed over 100 pounds, but part of that was because I had placed 2 bottles of wine in it to bring with us--bad idea, we thought, and we ended up leaving them behind.

Ok, so the bag still weighs more than John and me combined, but at least I can now lift it up the 2 steps out of my apt.; from there, thankfully, I can just roll the thing. Whew!!!

After we had hailed a taxi, we had a rather uneventful ride to Reagan National airport, which is actually in Virginia, but *just* over the river. It was still a little too early for us to be caught in any kind of "real" traffic, although we were going against the city-bound commute.

At E Check-In, I found out that my big ol' honkin' bag weighed 63 lbs, 13 lbs over the NEW (as in 3 months ago) US Airways imposed limit. Now, I'm sure I've got this wrong, but I always thought that each traveler could bring with him/her luggage weighing up to 70 lbs IN TOTAL; apparently, now you are allowed to only have 2 bags (which I'm fine with), but each bag has to weigh less than 50 lbs.

But, doesn't that mean, then that you can essentially now bring 100 lbs. of stuff with no penalty? Eh--I wasn't feeling well enough to a) argue this, or b) try to remove 13+ lbs. of stuff from my suitcase, so I just paid the $25 fat @ss bag ("FAB") fee and called it quits.

Oh, except for National now got one of those luggage scanner thingies, so you have to take your checked baggage over to them now.

John had already checked in at another kiosk and was waiting for me when I finished up at the security scanner thing. Then, we heard over the PA, "John Hill--please return to the check-in. John Hill...".

So, he headed back over there, and a minute later returned...carrying my PassPorter!!! Eek! That thing had my passport, traveler's cheques, hotel plans, cruise documents...EVERYTHING that I needed for this trip.

I can't even begin to imagine what I would've done had I lost it (of course, when you carry that thing as much as I do, you probably can't go 19 seconds without pulling it out and opening it up for some reason or another). We never did figure out why they called him back for MY PassPorter, seeing as how my name was all over that thing, and his wasn't in there at all.

Hmmm.......

So, minor crisis averted, and we're on our way through security. No problems here this time--of course, I now basically disrobe before going through (no, I'm not an exhibitionist--get your head out of the gutter and back in the sewer where it belongs!); neither of us were sent to the "special" line (thankfully).

We picked up a copy of the Washington Post and a bottle of water, and John went to go buy a cup of tea, while I sat in the waiting area, basking in the morning sun streaming through the windows and anxiously anticipating our arrival in sunny Florida. The cold was getting worse by the second, so I started back on the Cold-Eeze lozenges--you can't even drink water without making a bitter face after a few of these guys, but, hey, it was either bad taste now, or bad cold for the rest of my trip, so I tried to suck it up as best I could.

When we were planning this trip, John came up with the idea that we should both sit in an aisle seat so that, if it turned out that one of us ended up in a row with only two seats filled (i.e., empty middle seat), we could somehow get the person in the window seat to trade places with one of us, so that we could have a row all to ourselves.

Well, you tell me the last time you've been on a flight that wasn't filled to capacity (and then some)? Next time, I'm just going to sit in the middle seat and let him have the aisle.

Our original plan of watching Finding Nemo on my laptop (I even went out and bought one of those headphones splitting things so that we could both listen) was not to be, but it turns out that John apparently didn't actually mean, "Yes, I'll watch Finding Nemo on the plane with you," when he said "Yes, I'll watch Finding Nemo on the plane with you."

What he meant was, "I'm telling you NOW that I'll watch Finding Nemo on the plane with you, but I expect that you'll have watched it so many times from the day that it comes out on DVD to the day that we fly down to FL that you won't want to watch it anymore, and then I can casually suggest that we watch Harry Potter II instead."

[Insert Cruella DeVil-like laugh here]

It's all good--*I* was very entertained in my aisle seat watching Finding Nemo, thank you very much. He wanted to read anyway, so everyone ended up happy.

As we began our descent into Orlando, a searing pain racked my left eyebrow. Oddly, I have a noticeable scar through my left eyebrow from a car accident from when I was 6 years old. The first thing I thought was, "I'm being cursed by Harry Potter himself for not watching his dumb movie!!!" I mean, doesn't he get some big ol' attitude in Order of the Phoenix?

The pain eventually subsided, but I was quickly popping some ibuprofen after landing.

While in the airport, we saw the cutest dog in a crate (or so my notes say). I wonder what it's like to fly as a pet--probably not a buttload of fun, I'd think.

We headed over to Avis to pick up our rental car--we had reserved an intermediate, with a coupon for a free two-class upgrade to Full-Size 4-door. We were also offered to upgrade to a convertible or compact SUV for an add'l $10/day, but we decided against it.

In the end, John really wanted something sporty (whereas I really wanted something that just worked)--the lady at the counter somehow convinced us that a Chevy Monte Carlo was indeed a sporty car, and that that was our best choice.

Not really knowing what a Monte Carlo looked like, we were like, "Ok, whatever." Oh my God--I hate the Monte Carlo, as of 11:32 a.m., 2003.11.21. (No offense to all the Monte Carlo owners out there, but I just couldn't get into its style.)

Now, once we were on the inside, though, we calmed down a little bit, as it was a rather nice, roomy car, and besides, we're just driving the stupid thing from the timeshare to the resort and back, right?

(Unfortunately, I have to go right now, so I can't even get to the "Sneaky Little Booger" part--hopefully, I'll get to it tomorrow!)

To be continued...

 

[Minniespal]

Thanx for sharing.

 

[Aerobics]

Now that everyone else has gotten into the insert-photos-into-your-trip-report craze (after seeing it done so masterfully by the likes of Tikibird, TimonTracy, WhoSEZ, and others), I am going to attempt to follow suit.

'Course, that would mean that I'd need to get my photos developed (I'm still in the dark ages and using a "regular" camera!) :help: But, thankfully, John had a digital camera and so, after this weekend, I should be able to start posting some of the photos from our trip, as well. Yay! :applause:

OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Day 1, Part 1 (Subpart B): "You Sneaky Little Booger"

All right, girl--you've spent all this time talking about these supposed "surprises"...get to the goods, sister!

(Did I just read your mind?) :umm:

Ok, so, here's the deal. When I booked our flights, I needed a place for us to stay on the night we arrived, as we weren't able to check-in to our timeshare until Saturday. Using Bidding For Travel, an *awesome* site chock-full o' info, I was able to snag us a one-night reservation at the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa at Downtown Disney for $70 through Priceline.

"Not too shabby", I thought at the time. Fast forward to a few days before departure, when upon receipt of my Premium Annual Pass voucher, my mind began contemplating the possibility of swinging a night at the Wilderness Lodge using my AP discount.

After determining that I could book a Woods View room for $139 (regular price--$250-ish), I then needed to figure out a way to get John *to* the Wilderness Lodge without him figuring out what was going on.

Knowing that the best resource for trip planning was right here on PassPorter.com, I knew where to go to get advice--and boy, did you guys deliver! DouglasE came up with a brilliant suggestion, and now all I had to do was execute it without error. :rofl: Yeah, like I could do that!!!

For those last few days, it was absolutely killing me not to say anything, but surprisingly, I was able to keep mum until we were in line at Avis, when John innocently inquired, "So what's first on our list?"

Pretending to think for a moment and looking at my watch (as if I didn't know exactly what time it was--I am a Virgo, after all), I said, "Well, it seems a little early to check-in. I thought that, since we had some extra time, we could go check out that resort I was telling you about...you know, the one that you saw on the DVD that you really liked."

"Please say, 'Yes'; please say, 'Yes'; please say, 'Yes'" (That last part was uttered only in my mind, of course.)

Thankfully, he agreed that that was a good idea, and so once we had climbed into our (barf) Monte Carlo (and I had gotten over the fact that we weren't driving a "cool" car, like the Alero or something), we were out of the airport and onto the toll road.

The first two tolls were fine, each one costing $1.00 and thankfully manned (womanned?) by an attendant. However, when we arrived at the toll booth at our exit towards the Magic Kingdom resorts, a minor amount of chaos ensued, as we realized that not only was the toll for only $0.25, but that neither of us had *ANY* change on us, and there was no toll booth attendant to help us poor, pathetic, change-less souls.

I got frantic as the line of cars behind began to double, and then triple (ok, so we went from 1 car behind us to 3 cars behind us), but still, it was stressful. We finally contemplated just driving through and accepting whatever horrible, vicious sentence that the FL judges would throw down at us, when, gleaming in the very bottom of my backpack was a single, solitary quarter.

Ahhhh---salvation! :thewave:

So, as we were approaching the Magic Kingdom toll booths, I kept saying to myself, "Don't tell them we're checking in; Don't tell them we're checking in; Don't tell them we're checking in...".

Of course, as we pull up, I hear myself saying, "Hi, we're checki...er, going to the Wilderness Lodge to, uh, have lunch and check it out." Whew! You ever have that happen where you tell yourself SO many times not to do/say something, that you can't help but do/say it? Case in point...

At the Wilderness Lodge check-in booth, I did a lot better, expecting that they'd give us the temporary parking pass (which was fine--I wanted to keep up the facade as long as possible, even if that meant getting a temp pass for the time being...). Interestingly, we weren't asked any questions at all by the toll booth attendant once I showed my Annual Pass voucher. Cool.

Since John's an architect, he was just raving about the Lodge from the second that we pulled up. We spent a bit of time outside so he could take some pictures; he has this thing about "approaching" a building from more than one angle, to get a feel for its "edges" (or something like that--I was still way too nervous to pay as much attention to him as I would have liked).

I was beyond thrilled when we walked through the front doors to see the gorgeous WL tree right in front of us; it truly felt like "coming home" to me. Within seconds, John was all over the lobby floor, taking photos from this angle and that angle; capturing details about the light fixtures, rail fixtures, floor fixtures (you might say he has a "fixture fixation"); and just basically appreciating the WL for all of its architectural beauty--which was really interesting to me because as a clueless non-architect, I never even noticed some of the structural elements that he quickly picked up on. Funny how you can feel like you've seen a place a hundred times and still see something "new" when presented with a different point of view.

Our tour took us through the lobby, out the side door and over to the Villas, where we spent some time in the little area in front of one of the fireplaces on the first floor. As we were sitting in the rocking chairs, I observed a sign behind John's head, describing an Inglenook.

As I'm reading the sign to myself, John says, "You know, these sorts of enclosures are referred to as 'Inglenooks', because they're...", and he goes into a detailed explanation of the purpose of an Inglenook and how they help to contain heat and stuff.

Of course, all of this info was right behind his head, but I didn't want to ruin it for him. :grin:

A quick tour of the Train Room (I'm sure it has a more elaborate name than that) followed; and then onto the Villas quiet pool. John's architecture firm does a fair amount of recreational facility work, including pools, so he's always interested in seeing the different designs. He was definitely impressed by both of the WL's pools, as well as their hot tubs.

(I personally don't think the WL main pool is big enough, and I somewhat dislike the horseshoe shape it has, as it makes it rather difficult to swim in any semblance of a "lap", but I suppose most people don't go to Disney World to swim laps, eh?)

Anyway, along the way, I took a few moments to point out a few hidden Mickeys (I still love the one on the pole on the south side of the main Lodge--let me see if I can find my photo of that one to upload...). I also took him out to the boat dock so that he could see the Contemporary, Bay Lake, and the surrounding areas.

As we headed back towards the Lodge, my heart started to beat a LOT faster--it was so strange, actually. I mean, it's not like I was about to be like, "Will you marry me?" or anything, yet I felt just as nervous as a schoolboy on a first date.

I took him on a slight detour over to Fire Rock Geyser, and seeing as how it was exactly 1:00 (and no, I'm not lying, and no, I didn't plan it that way--I swear that this part was completely coincidental...of course, it was the ONLY coincidental part of that day :yes: ). Anyway, so we wait for a few seconds, and sure enough, the geyser went off, just like clockwork.

By this time, a number of families had all convened around us to watch the geyser, and once it was over, John was like, "Ok...where to now?". I had actually planned, at this point, to spring the surprise on him, but I didn't want to do it in front of all of these people--how embarassing! :blushing:

So, I pretended like I just wanted to stand there for a minute on that little walkway, looking back at the Lodge and just "drinking it all in"--actually, I did (want to), so it wasn't TOO hard to pretend.

After a minute or so, everyone around us had dissipated, so I swallowed hard and said, "Wouldn't it be great to stay here sometime?"

"Sure--definitely!", was his reply.

"How about tonight?", I inquired.

He laughed...a little. And then just kinda looked at me, like

And with that, I opened up my PassPorter (which I had been strategically carrying with me the ENTIRE time) and pulled out the reservation document and handed it to him.

"Did you book us into this resort?!?", he asked increduously. "Looks like it," I said.

"Well, you sneaky little booger!", and with that, he leaned over and kissed me (remember how I feel about PDA (Public Displays of Affection)?), but it wasn't anything TOO blatant and/or inappropriate, so I just went with it. Oh, how I love making this guy happy!

This is what he looked like ----> :grin:

This is what I was doing on the inside ----> :woot:

This is what we wanted to do next ----> Oops, there's no emoticon for that...well, at least not on these boards.

So, we headed back to the lobby ("skipped back" might be more appropriate), grinning from ear to ear and anxious to check-in and get to work enjoying our afternoon at the Wilderness Lodge.

And it was now time for me to begin Phase 2 of my own attempt at Shock Your Man's Socks Off (SYMSO)...

Coming soon: OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Day 1 (Part 2): "You Don't Look 21"

 

[IloveDMB]

Oh how sweet you are! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Aerobics]

Considering that we seem to be the only company in the Washington, DC metropolitan area that isn't closing early, I figured I'd at least try to tap out another installment before heading off for the holidays. Happy reading! :read:

OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Day 1, Part 2 (Subpart A): "You Don't Look 21"

Ok--emotions are running high; I've pulled off the first surprise. Score! Now for Phase 2.

As we go line up to check-in, I realize that I need to do some more covert operations, and it will be substantially more difficult to conduct these operations with Mr. Man standing right there, so I casually suggest that John take some time to go explore the lobby, and maybe take some pictures from the different floors. :flash:

When he replies that he doesn't mind standing in line with me, I insist that he go explore, and that it's really no fun to stand in line. (Careful there, Natey--don't overplay your hand!) :jawdrop:

He relents, and not a moment too soon, as I was called up to the front desk mere moments after his departure. While at check-in, I reiterate my room request of a dormer balcony with a king size bed. More importantly, I checked on the status of the special Romance Basket that I had ordered from Gifts of a Lifetime, and had hoped to have delivered to our room while we were out to dinner later that night.

Thankfully, the Guest Services CM at WL with whom I had spoken earlier in the week had come through for me, and everything was going according to plan, which was for me to call down to the front desk when we were leaving for dinner to arrange the delivery of the goods (more on this later...).

Surprisingly, our room was ready, and we were good to go. Word! I hadn't realized until I was in the elevator that I had never showed my Annual Pass, nor had I been prompted to do so, which is kind of surprising, considering how frequently they remind you that you must do so when booking the rooms.

We were in room 6129, which indeed was a dormer balcony, with a king size bed, and here's the kicker--we had a Courtyard view...an intentional upgrade on the part of the WL check-in dude? I don't know--he didn't mention that it was Courtyard view (and I certainly wasn't complaining)--maybe the only king rooms with dormer balconies are Courtyard view? Eh, who knows (and who cares? :woot: )

One of the reasons I'm so fond of the dormer balconies, and have requested one every time I've stayed at the WL is because I find them to afford one much more privacy than the "open air" balconies. Sure, it's harder to sit out on your balcony and see down to the pool area, but since I tend to book Woods view rooms, that usually isn't a problem, anyway...

The only unfortunate part about our room was that we were in the last room facing straight out towards Bay Lake before the next "arm" of balconies that faced the pool area. Adult translation--This was to be a booty-free balcony, or else we'd have quite the array of spectators, considering that every balcony "past" ours could see directly onto ours without even having to lean over their own balcony.

(So much for Phase 4 of Shock Your Man's Socks Off, eh? )

Once we had done a cursory check of the room, we headed back out to the car to obtain our luggage (remember, we had come to the resort under the assumption that we were just "looking around", so all of our belongings were still out in the car).

Once back inside the room, as I was struggling to lift my titanic suitcase onto the suitcase holder thingy, I noticed that John had drawn the curtains and deadbolted the door. The next thing I knew, ...

[CENSORED--We are, after all, two lovebirds still in the honeymoon phase... :whistle: ]

Anywho, 8 hours later (ahem), we decided that we were actually hungry (imagine that!) and in the mood to swim, so we grabbed my WL mug (which I had secretly packed away deep in the recesses of my suitcase unbeknownst to John) and our towels and swimsuits, and headed down to Roaring Fork where we bought a turkey sandwich, yogurt (Two freakin' bucks for a yogurt?!? uch: ), and some Diet Coke.

After lunch, we headed over to the pool, where I got to look all cool laying out my Fantasmic! towel that I had purchased on my last trip to WDW. After laying out for a half-hour or so (and probably drifting off to sleep for about 19 seconds), we swam around in the pool for a little while before heading over to the hot tubs.

I don't know what it is about the hot tubs at the WDW resorts, but they always seem to have these mondo jets that usually end up blowing me completely off of my seat. Besides, I can't be in a hot tub for very long, or I start to get dizzy :dizzy: , so I ended up heading back to the lounge chairs to try to get in another wee nap before we were to head over to the Villas to work out.

I had a feeling that the fitness facilities at the resorts charge a daily fee to non-DVC members, but John just couldn't fathom that a resort charging as much as the WL would expect its patrons to pay extra to work out. So, we consulted the little guide thingy that accompanies the other reams of paper provided upon check-in, and could find no mention of a per visit fee, so we got dressed and headed over to the Villas.

Sure enough, they charge a $15 per person per day fee, which just isn't worth it, frankly. John expressed his displeasure to the desk clerk ("Well that sucks!" were his exact words, I believe. Hee hee!), and later told me that he was going to let management know that he didn't approve.

I tried to remind John that out of the ~10,000 people staying onsite at WDW, there were probably, oh, 3 people who placed "working out" at the top of their list of things to do while at WDW, but he couldn't be placated. Poor guy... out:

We still had a little while before our 6:20 dinner at Artist Point (which was also part of the surprise, although I did have to tell him at what time we had dinner reservations), so he tried to connect his camera to the TV so that we could view the pictures that he had taken up to that point, but, alas, he was unsuccessful. (You'll notice that he never asked me to try to help, because as you might have guessed, I'm just a major momo when it comes to stuff like that.)

While he goofed around with his toys, I hung out on the balcony, watching the patrons in the pool below. At one point, I noticed an extremely young child being sent down the slide solo (assisted by a push from his/her older sibling); thankfully, his/her father was waiting at the bottom to catch the hapless child. Hmmm...to each their own.

While John was in the shower, I called down to the front desk to arrange delivery of the much-anticipated Romance Basket, which I was assured would be delivered within the next 10 minutes. But, wait--that's not what I wanted!!! I wanted it delivered while we were at dinner...

After much deliberation, the CM on the other end of the line finally understood that I meant it to be a surprise when we RETURNED from dinner, not before we went to dinner. (Pat, I'd like to buy a brain...)

Of course, 2 minutes later, the phone rings--it's the same CM. He needs me to come down and show my photo ID verifying my age, since the basket contains alcohol (sparkling wine, to be exact), and they can't deliver it without age verification.

Naturally, at this exact moment, I hear John turning off the water in the shower, so I'm trying to speak as quietly and as quickly as possible with the CM, attempting to arrange a way for me to do this without John knowing what's up. We eventually agree that I'll sneak out of Artist Point right after we've been seated to head over to Guest Services to show them my ID. Oy.

Man, surprising people should NOT be this hard, I tell ya!

Thankfully, John didn't hear anything while I was on the phone and, as far as I could tell, everything was still ready to go.

Hey--they just told us we can go home! Yahoo! I'll have to finish this up later this week, hopefully on Friday! Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[IloveDMB]

Been waiting for the next installment. You are so romantic! Can't wait to read more.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ! Here it is, a nice quiet Christmas evening, and I flip over to the trip reports board, and what's here to greet me but a post from you! YAY!

Time to start reading!!

Miss ya lots! No more Disneying without me!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Okay, now that I'm caught up!

I'm so sorry to hear about Joanne's mom! I think she's the one I met a few years ago? Send my love to the Cru Crew!

...mental images of you singing along with Christina... Just promise me you'll never try the matching outfit?

I, of course, can NOT wait for the Bon Jovi pictures! In the mean time, I do have some lovely ones of you belly dancing in Epcot that could help to tide people over... I can't wait for pictures in general! I want to see this Swoon-worthy John!!!

I have to decide upon appropriate Foo for my upcoming trip! Thanks for the reminder!

You're making me miss the Lodge like crazy!! 40 more days, 40 more days....

Oh, the anticipation of waiting for the next part! Bring it on!

 

[Aerobics]

It's a good thing I came into the office today, seeing as how I'm the only freakin' person here! Guess it must be time for more trip reporting, eh? :woot:

OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Day 1, Part 2 (Subpart B): "You Don't Look 21"

Soon after the phone almost-drama, I was able to get in the shower to experience Coconut Lime Verbena for the first time. Hooray for CLV!!! What a fun scent for a trip--I'm glad that so many other people (*cough*MAGGIE*cough*) got so much enjoyment out of it.

While I was in the shower, I was trying to figure out a better way for me to go to Guest Services without John seeing me, outside of having to sneak out of Artist Point, which just seemed like a lot of work, honestly. As we were getting dressed, John mentioned that he wanted to head out to the car to get his blazer for dinner.

Divine intervention? Did I just get a "freebie" from the Big Gal upstairs? Thank you, thank you, thank you, Miss Thang!

So, as John headed outside to the car, I got in line for Guest Services behind the one other woman in line. Now, the CM on the phone told me that I could just walk up to the desk and tell any of the CMs what I was doing (i.e., proving my adult-ness), but I *really* hate it when people just walk up to the counter when I've been waiting patiently in line, and I didn't want to upset this woman in front of me by doing the same thing.

So, I thought that the least I could do was just ask her if she'd mind if I stepped up in front of her, and I told her why I needed to do this quickly (i.e., before John came back from the car); she was more than willing to oblige, and wished me luck with the surprise. Hooray for that lady! :hi:

A quick flash of my DC driver's license and all was good to go with the Romance Basket! Word! :woot:

Before we headed into Artist Point, we took a moment to stop in the Territory Lounge so that I could point out to John the Hidden Mickey on the ceiling. Only in WDW can you walk into a bar looking straight up at the ceiling, bumping into tables and chairs in the process, no doubt, and noone will give you a hard time.

In fact, the waitress tried to help point out the Hidden Mickey to us, but I knew that if I just stood there long enough (without falling over backwards), that we'd eventually find it...which we did, thankfully. She also took the time to show us the other Hidden Mickey right outside the bar's entrance. Such helpful people, those CMs!!!

We were seated right away, not near the windows, but that was ok. I hadn't requested it or anything, so no biggie. As our hostess was telling us that Stephanie would be with us momentarily, our waitress walked up and said, "Moment's up!". From that point, we knew we were in for a WONDERFUL meal...

Before I describe the meal, I need to take a moment to send out some major props to Deb Wills and her awesome reviews (Review #1; Review #2) of Artist Point, which were one of the main reasons that I chose this restaurant over the much-lauded California Grill (at the Contemporary). That, and because Steve (Dad2jbj) insisted that we go there and try the Berry Cobbler, or he'd never talk to me again!

Deb's site has so much awesome info on it--definitely use it when you're planning your next trip!

Our server, Stephanie, had that "touch"--I don't know how to describe it, but there are a select few number of servers out there that just know how to make you feel instantly comfortable and "cared for"...I can't think of a better way to say how she made us feel, but it was definitely welcome.

She recommended a few drinks for us as we perused the menu--we both agreed to Cosmopolitans (made with Grey Goose, of course). John was only slightly offended when Steph asked only me for ID. I usually take it in stride, but this time, I said, "Would a minor really know to order a Cosmo with Grey Goose, and not, like, Budweiser or something?"

But, her response softened me up instantly--"Well, you don't look 21." Have you ever wanted to hug your server?

Every few minutes she'd come back to check up on us, but never, at any time, did we feel rushed by her. In fact, we probably didn't even order our appetizers until we'd been there a good 30 minutes. She did try to convince us to purchase a bottle of wine for dinner, and she even let us try a little bit of her recommendation, which I can't read off of my notecard right now (I must've taken these notes AFTER we had drank all the wine :dine: ).

We both thought that the wine was excellent, but not worth the $74 for the bottle. Besides, we had both been turned on by the idea of the wine Cellar Flight, in which you could order any 3 glasses of wine (2.5 oz each, just enough to get a good feel for the wine) for $16.

Even though Stephanie strongly recommended the Smoky Portobello Soup with Roasted Shiitakes and Chive Oil, John and I both settled for salads (he, the Frisee Salad; me, the Field Greens with Goat Cheese Toast). Both were excellent, and just the right size to get us a little hungrier (isn't that the true purpose of an "appetizer"?). :hungry:

We each had our first flight of wine with our salads: John, a chardonnay; me, a riesling. Awesome combo of tastes to start off the meal. Incidentally, Steph brought out a small bowl of the Portobello soup for us to share, and she was correct--it was heavenly! (You might even say that it was YUM! :yummy: )

For our main courses, John ordered the signature Cedar Plank Roasted Wild Silver King Salmon, and I had the Hatfield Pork Chop. Both arrived at just the right amount of time *after* our appetizers; long enough that we had regained our appetite, but not too long that we had eaten 46 baskets of bread.

When the salmon is delivered to your table, one of the chefs from the kitchen walks out to your table *with* the cedar plank itself (and the salmon sizzling away on top of it), and says something along the lines of, "This is the cedar plank on which your salmon was grilled," and then someone appears from out of nowhere to place a plate in front of you on which the salmon is then set.

We thought it was a really cute presentation, but I must admit that we saw this poor guy come out and do the exact same thing probably 15 times during our meal. Talk about a redundant job!

Anyway, the food was simply magnificent. Coupled with the wines that Stephanie had suggested for us (darn, I wish I would've kept a copy of that wine list!) to complement our meals, I would definitely rank this meal on my top 3 EVER list...and we hadn't even gotten to dessert yet!

We were both pretty toasted before we had even ordered dessert, so naturally, Stephanie saw to it that we got more free stuff, including a visit from the Bartender Diva herself (we actually have a picture with her that I'll be uploading sometime very soon), whom we profusely praised for her wonderful Cosmos from earlier.

She then insisted that we try this dessert wine entitled Inniskillin, an icewine. Check out this great website all about Inniskillin icewine. This stuff was dang good..and it was indeed YUM! :grin:

After we had a few sips of our icewine, our cherry, er berry on top of the "sundae" which was our meal arrived--the famed Artist Point Cobbler. I tend not to be able to ever finish dessert (because I'm usually stuffed more fully than a blueberry), but we just couldn't keep away from this stuff. Definitely worth saving room for... :yes:

Somehow, 2 hours had passed from the moment we arrived 'til the time that we were handed our check. Stephanie also took a moment to show us a picture of her (drop-dead gorgeous) partner, who looked incredibly similar to Me'Shell Ndege'Ocello. We could tell how proud Stephanie was of her partner as she beamed while telling us all about her.

(It's always so nice to get to know people on a more personal level--the memory always seems to last longer, y'know? Thanks, Steph, for one of the best nights of our life! )

Dinner came to a jaw-dropping $165 (with tax and tip), but it was definitely worth every penny, as John and I experienced a wonderfully romantic, surprisingly unhurried, and completely peaceful meal to kick off our week-long WDW adventure. :waytogo: :waytogo: (That's "2 thumbs up"! )

We still had about an hour until the Electrical Water Parade, which I was hoping that we would be able to watch from the WL's beach, so I suggested that we head over to the Contemporary via water launch so that we could check out the architecture (John had always wanted to go inside that hotel), as well as spend a few minutes on the Observation Deck.

Eventually, a boat arrived and we made our way to the Contemporary, making a pitstop at Fort Wilderness first. As the boat sailed away from the WL towards Fort Wilderness, I tried to point out the "bear face" of the WL's lobby, but John wasn't seeing it (it's like one of those 3-D photos--if you just stare at it long enough... :dizzy: ).

Once we got to the Contemporary, we headed straight to the top floor to spend a few minutes on the Observation Deck, which seems like it's now open to the "regular" public again. Of course, it helps if you look like you know where you're going...

I can't really figure out why, but whenever I'm on the Contemporary's Observation Deck and I look up (not down), I get all tingly in my stomach and feet. It doesn't seem to happen when I look down, only up...

While the panoramic view from the ob deck is amazing, our one complaint is that the lights along the walkway are so blindingly bright that it's really difficult to get your eyes to adjust to the relative darkness of the rest of WDW. I mean, I know *why* the walkway has to be lit--I guess I just wish it didn't have to be lit in such a garish way...oh, well.

After spending a few minutes outside (and seeing the beginnings of the Elec Water Parade in front of the Polynesian), we headed back downstairs to the 4th floor, so that we could explore the main concourse a little bit.

I was tempted to purchase a Pal Mickey at the Fantasia store, but held off (for the time being)--part of my holding off was due to John's nonstop "pooh-pooh"ing of the whole notion of having to carry around a Mickey that never shuts up...man, some people just don't "get" this Disney-obsession thing, do they? :no:

As we boarded a Wilderness Lodge-bound boat, we realized that we were getting on the same boat that had taken us to the Contemporary before (so, it must've made one full round while we were in the Contemporary).

Oddly, some weird dude in an orange T-shirt, who had been on the boat when it first pulled up to the Wilderness Lodge, was still on it, in a different seat, though... :question: When we docked at the Wilderness Lodge, he still stayed on the boat.

I guess everyone has fun their own way while at WDW, eh?

By this time, it was getting very close to EWP time at WL--I could tell from John's behavior that he was less-than-ecstatic about the parade. The fact that all of the chairs out on the beach were wet with dew (since when does dew happen at night, or is that some kinda weird Floridian phenomenon?) didn't help matters.

We decided to bag watching the EWP from the beach and we headed back to our room. On the way to our room, John casually suggested that we could watch the parade from our balcony, but I thought that once he saw the Romance Basket, that we'd want to, um, engage in, um, other electric-ish things. :whistle:

As we opened the door to our room, I anxiously scanned the room to determine where they had placed the basket (that is, if they had delivered it at all). My eyes came to rest on a rather large basket sitting on the small table by the balcony door, and a wave of relief washed over my body.

I tried to dilly-dally at the door, taking a long time to close it, lock it, deadbolt it, re-lock it, etc., hoping that John would see the basket. Instead, he walked right by it, turned around to me, and said, "Do you hear music?"

Sure enough, the EWP had begun, so he wants to go out onto the balcony to watch it. In retrospect, that would've been fine--we could watch the parade on the balcony, and *then* he'd find the basket.

But, of course, my Virgo anal-retentive self couldn't keep the secret any longer. So, as he's trying to beckon me to come outside, I meekly pointed a finger in the direction of the table.

"C'mon--we're gonna miss the parade", John said, but I wouldn't budge.

"What's wrong with your finger?", he asked. (OK, this really isn't working!)

"Just follow my finger!", I answered, more forcefully than necessary. Of course, by now, any semblance of a "surprise" has been ruined by my obnoxious "instant gratification" complex.

Nonetheless, he was pleased to see the basket (damn right, he was!--did he have any idea how much I had to go through to get that stupid thing there without his finding out about it? :grin: ).

Ok, *NOW* we can watch the parade, which, after seeing how cheesy the EWP really is, made both of us thankful that we didn't sit out on the beach to watch it. Fortunately, from our balcony, we were able to see every float of the parade, except for the first few, which had the dragon--not like John would've done a backflip or anything had we ended up seeing all of the floats.

Back inside, we opened up the basket, which contained a bottle of sparkling wine, 2 Mickey-icon etched wine glasses, a box of chocolate truffles, and a very pretty candle. Of course, since we had each eaten and drank about half of our body weight at dinner, the thought of stomaching truffles and sparkling wine didn't strike either of us as very appealing.

So, since we had really had an awfully long first day (let's not forget that I was still significantly under the weather :sneeze: ), we decided to save the sparkling wine for another night.

We did however share a truffle (I know it sounds romantic, but had we each tried to eat our own truffle, we just might've died! ). After getting ready for bed, we lit our new candle, and just enjoyed lying in our king-size bed, blissfully wrapped up in each others' arms, ready to embark on our fantastical voyage (which is not to be confused with Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage", btw).

Although I hadn't brought any NyQuil to help me off to dreamland this time, the exhaustion of travelling, as well as having to deal with the anticipation of all of my surprises, left me physically drained, and it wasn't much longer before we had both drifted off to sleep... :snore:

And, soon to come: OD'in On The Magic--A 17-Day Adventure--Day 2, Part 1: A Partial Kitchen?!?

 

[IloveDMB]

I'm loving your trip reports! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Aerobics]

I finally got from John a CD with photos from our week together, so I'm now going to bare to all of you my complete lack of ability in uploading photos to the Internet--won't this be exciting?!?

Bear with me, ya'll, k? Don't be scarin' off the newbie, or I won't be comin' back to get better at this pic uploading thang!

This first photo is of some guy in a white shirt (whose name begins with an N and ends with an eight) staring up at the humongo fireplace (on which there is, indeed, a Hidden Mickey! Bonus! :applause: ):

John took this mega awesome photo of the waterfall in the courtyard. (Man, why can't *I* take kick-**** photos like this?):

This is a picture of the view from our balcony; the guy in the white shirt was *NOT* a permanent fixture on said balcony, BTW. Nice view of Bay Lake, tho, eh?

You have *NO* idea how long I had to hold this stupid pose to get this photo taken. (You might, however, notice how there is very little Cosmo left in that glass...one can only hold a martini glass to one's lips for so long before partaking of the goods contained therein, yaknowhaddamean?):

This photo is of the Bartender Diva who visited our table at the completion of our Cosmos. How cute is she? (Oh, and I know nobody's going to believe me, but John and I are REALLY just holding onto each other's chair arm...REALLY!!!):

This is my favoritest [sic] photo of us...EVER! Got my ice wine, got my berry cobbler, got my man...life is definitely good! (And just how adorable is John, anyway? ):

Of course, I had to finish this photo set with a photo of the woman who made this whole romantic night possible--Steph, our super server. Love ya, babe! We'll be back to see ya before too long!

So, do I pass the photo uploading test?

 

[Robinette]

Great photo's Nate and yes, John is adorable. I have to say, you kinda look like Jim Carey! Anyone ever tell you that?

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Yay, photos at last!!! You're so on the ball this time around!

John is a cutie! I'm all jealous of your good luck now!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Nate! You're killing me here! I have no life, I must live vicariously through your updates!

 

[Brat862]

Thanks. I really enjoyed your reports. It sounds like a great time. I always try to suprise my spouse but always seem to have it ruined somehow. need to take a lesson from you

I simply adored the Wilderness lodge. It is so beautiful. Not sure if you tried Whispering Canyon but I LOVED that place

 

[TeresaNJ]

Oh no, where are the rest of your reports? Are they not linked like the previous ones? I was so excited to see another trip report by you, Nate, I couldn't wait to read it. Guess I'll have to check out the PassPorter site to see if I can find it. Bye the way, YOU and John are both cuties.