GinnyFavers
Rescued Princess of Chickapin Hill
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
- Messages
- 994
Our 2007 Summer Family Vacation 
Who:
Wife and mom and daughter-in-law and writer of this trip report, Amanda, 40
Husband and step-dad and son, Joe, 36
Son, step-son and step-grandson, Miles, 8
Mom and step-grandmom and mother-in-law, Dee, 71
Where:
Rental house in Clermont off Hwy 27
When:
Friday, July 27 – Sunday, August 5, 2007
Day One
Friday, July 27
Joe and I have been going to Disney the past couple of years, just us, no kids, no parents, no grandparents, etc., first on dates and then to get engaged, and finally to celebrate our first wedding anniversary last May. After a long three years away from the parks, my wonderful son Miles is finally going back to Disney World, for our first big family vacation together! We decided nothing less than a full 10 day trip would do, as Miles hasn’t been since he was 5, and I wanted him to see and do it all. Early on in the planning, Joe was feeling just as bad that his mom hadn’t been invited along for the past years on our trips as I was about Miles not getting to go, so it seemed only fair that we pile everyone on and make it an extended family thing.
Joe’s mom Dee has not been the easiest new mother-in-law. She was frightened and upset at first that Joe was marrying someone who was divorced, unsure about her new relationship to my son, and sad that she now has to realize Joe really means it when he says he’s not having children of his own. We’ve been through what’s been a sometimes rocky year’s worth of major holidays together, and now the thought of doing a precious Disney vacation together seemed like potential disaster to me. I wasn’t sure going into it if this trip was going to be too difficult to enjoy, or if it would be barely tolerable. My expectations weren’t much over that. What actually ended up happening was a healthy bonding and growth experience for us all, for which I am really thankful. I think this trip was exactly what we needed to start creating new shared memories and experiences. Anyone who has been through the experience of building a new step-family, and dealing with new step-grandparents, I know you know where I’m coming from!
Joe and I worked together for many months ahead of time to plan for issues we thought might arise. We knew that Dee would want to do things she enjoys that were not going to be ideal vacation activities for Miles, like a lot of shopping, going out for drinks at various favorite resorts, and going to Catholic mass on Sunday mornings. We also knew that she would prefer for Joe to be with her at all times, and that Miles and I would feel hurt if Joe wasn’t able to tour with us at least half the time or a good part of each day, so there was some careful thinking to be done on how to handle Joe’s popularity. Also, Joe refuses to get up before noon on vacation or weekends unless absolutely necessary, so we had to talk that one through. Visiting Disney in the height of the summer, staying off site, if I was going to get Miles onto everything he wanted to see and do, I was going to have to be at the gates for park opening at least three or four times during the week.
We decided quickly that a rental house off property, with lots of bedrooms and space, and a two rental cars were a must. The second rental car was a life saver. Dee went to mass on Sundays (she loves Mary Queen of the Universe in Orlando), and most importantly, it freed me to get up early in the morning and go to park openings while Mr. Night Owl snoozed away every day until noon. I got him up for park opening once, for the Magic Kingdom on our first day – he promised he’d do that one with me - and we almost got to Typhoon Lagoon for opening on Friday, but I digress.
I bought and used the Tour Guide Mike service for this trip, and found it helpful. Since we were off-site, we never went to any park that had Extra Magic Hours that day, as suggested. Between getting to the parks early when possible, using FastPass, and Tour Guide Mike’s best park day advice, I feel like we got to do just about everything we wanted to, and the crowds and waits were far less than I had anticipated for a high summer vacation period. The only thing we got aced out of were the water parks, but that was because I tried to go in the late morning instead of at opening or in the late afternoon as suggested.
Well, enough planning, let’s go!
Joe and I have been flying into Orlando after work the past couple of years, for our trips, because Joe wants to wake up there and not waste a day traveling. But it means we never get in until midnight, and I didn’t think that would be a good idea with Miles. I talked him into flying in the middle of the day, instead, this time, and it was really nice to not feel so rushed, trying to race to the airport after work, and being tired all the next day because we didn’t get to sleep until 2 a.m.
We live in Harford County, MD, close to Joe’s job, and Dee lives an hour up the road in Wilmington, DE. We decided to fly out of Philadelphia instead of Baltimore, so Joe could cut Dee’s grass right before we left, and to save Dee the drive to and from our place. We got up around 8:30 a.m. and, having been totally packed the night before, needed only to stop at McDonald’s for breakfast and coffee for the drive up to Wilmington, and we were on our way! We got to Dee’s a little before 10:00 a.m. and had plenty of time to do our chores at her place before leaving for the 1:30 p.m. flight.
Joe hates checking bags and waiting for them upon arrival, so he had talked Dee into only packing one roll on bag, which she didn’t find comfortable at all, I think. Joe had his usual one roller bag, too, but this time I broke form and had stuff to check. Because I had my own rental car, it wasn’t going to hold them up if I had to wait at baggage claim, and I had packed a giant duffel bag full of full size new toiletries and other goodies that you can’t bring on, like scissors and nail clippers, that I planned on leaving in my new OwnersLocker.com storage locker in Orlando.
It’s a new service where you pay a fee for a 22" x 20" x 13" heavy duty purple plastic storage bin to be held in a climate controlled facility for you between trips to Orlando, then delivered and picked up to the resort of your choice. It’s brand new company, and because they are just taking their first clients and I was willing to take a chance with them, the owner offered to bring and pick up from our rental house this one time, something they can’t normally do. They are trying right now to secure a self service pick up and drop off point for people to visit, if they are cruising, staying with relatives, staying in a rental house, etc., hopefully they will have that going in the next month or two. I’ve been really really happy with their service so far! Joe and I are going back this year, and I can’t wait to have all that stuff waiting for me when we check in to our resort. You just pick up and drop off the locker at your bell services desk. Again, that’s www.ownerslocker.com.
Here’s what’s in our locker now:
Mickey rain ponchos
Joe's rain pants and rain shorts
Amanda’s crocs with their Disney jibbits
WDW fanny pack
Camelbak hydration pack
Beach towels
Pal Mickey and his little outfits and a caribeener to clip him to my pack
Personal mini fan on a string
AA Batteries
Nice scented candle & lighter
Scissors
Paper bowls, paper plates, plastic spoons, forks & knives
Cereal
Tupperware for leftovers
Coffee & coffee filters
Ziplocks in gallon, quart, and snack sizes
Spices for making spaghetti sauce when we stay somewhere with a kitchen
Wet wipes
Purell
Blister pads
Ear dry drops
Bodyglide antifriction stick (LOVE THIS STUFF)
Sunscreen for face and body
Antiperspirant
Massage oil
Bath pillow
Sugar scrub
Diamancel foot callous buffer (best pedicure product in the universe!)
Nail clippers
Moisturizer
Shampoo & conditioner
Ibuprofen
Rolaids
Tagamet
Sudafed
The Philadelphia airport is awful. The runways are too short, they have horrid delays because it’s laid out improperly and has more traffic than it can handle, it’s been under construction/renovation since I moved here and I’m sure long before then, the parking fees are higher than BWI by quite a lot ($17 versus $9 for the long term garage per day), it’s inconvenient to walk around in, ugly, and dirty. Today the power wasn’t working properly in our concourse, and it was hotter than hell in half of the waiting areas, the credit card machines didn’t work in any of the stores because their internet service was out, and the TSA attendant I went through was actively, aggressively, shaming and harassing passengers she felt she could bully. I am never flying out of there again, I’d rather go pick Dee up and bring her down to BWI than drive ten minutes from her house to fly out of Philly.
We got there too early, really, and had to wait around for an hour and a half before our plane left. Ate some nasty Burger King that people were in line for, shortly after we got ours, for up to half an hour (I’d rather starve), served by slow moving sullen employees amidst a whirlpool of spilled ketchup sticky counters exploded straw dispensers and empty napkin holders. We had to be there that early, however, because of our Southwest “A” and “B” boarding pass issues, which is mostly my husband’s thing.
Joe has to have a window seat when he flies. And he has to fly Southwest. Yes, I know, there are other options, but if you’re a man or you know one, you can’t tell me you/they don’t have your own weird “have to’s” that if you/they don’t get what you want, you/they freak out. I don’t know if it’s testosterone related, but it seems to be a universal man thing, the Grown-Man Freak-Out (GMFO). I’ll be nice and not call it a temper tantrum. Though that’s what my step-mother calls my father’s outbursts.
28 hours before our flight, Joe called me from work and said, don’t forget to check in for our flights so we don’t get aced out of our A boarding passes. 23 hours before our flight, I checked in online at Southwest.com and got… B boarding passes. All the “A” ones were already gone. In order to quell the oncoming GMFO I assured Joe that we could be at the gate up to two hours before our flight, so he could be FIRST in the B line, which he was. And, lo and behold, he got a window seat. I think it’s got to the point with Southwest where if you aren’t sitting at the computer waiting for the first few minutes or even seconds that your flight is available for check in, you don’t get an A anymore, especially not if people are connecting at your airport, because they would have been allowed to check in for both their first leg, and yours, together, sometimes many hours before your window of opportunity opens. I’ve never seen us not get a window as long as we were there in time to get into the first half of the B line, but it still makes Joe so nervous he’s no fun at all for the day before we fly if he doesn’t have that A.
On board, I let Dee sit next to him on one side of the plane and Miles and I took the other, to give Miles a look out the window, too. I should have made him sit in the middle because he barely looked out the window anyways. Instead, he was so excited about the trip, he squirmed and talked constantly the whole way. I think he was quiet for two 90 second pauses. I had brought two things for him to read, a kid’s guide to the parks, and a Star Wars graphic novel, but he couldn’t concentrate on them.
There was very bad turbulence the last twenty minutes, skirting around and through a major thunderstorm cell outside Orlando. Every time we fly here lately, we go through crappy weather and get a rocky ride. Joe and I had a flight last February that he and I both agreed was the most intense turbulence we’d ever experienced. There were a lot of people on the plane who I could tell were scared, though they really have no reason to be, with that particular issue. Applause broke out when we landed.
On the ground, Miles and I said goodbye to Joe and Dee for now, and went straight to the Crocs store in the Orlando aiport mall. After poo-poo’ing the reports of how wonderful Crocs are for touring the parks, I was willing to give them a try, because I’m just sick of my legs and feet hurting no matter what shoes I wear. I bought myself a pair of light lavender Cayman clogs and Miles picked out the same style in bright Kelly green, his favorite color. He wore his right out of the store and insisted they felt great. We paid a little more here than you can find Crocs for on the web, $36.95 I think for mine, not sure if Miles’ were cheaper, but it was worth it to have a salesperson help with sizing for this first purchase. I can tell you, they have absolutely revolutionized my ability to keep going for 12 and 13 hour days, and I LOVE them!!! I can’t believe I didn’t listen to other people and get these two years ago. Miles did have an issue with rubbing on the outside of one foot, probably the way he walks, but a thin pair of socks cleared that up for him, and I didn’t have any problems with rubbing or blisters at all. The key is to buy them a whole size up from your regular shoe size. I’ve since bought two more pairs for wearing to my job here at home, where I’m on my feet a good bit, and I adore them. I get them now at www.shoebuy.com, look for promotional codes first on the internet, there’s always one running, plus for “joining” for the first time as a “member” (i.e. signing up for emails) I got another % off bonus on my first purchase.
With Crocs in hand, we headed for baggage claim. I had a hard time talking Miles out of eating at the Chili’s right by the Crocs store, but I didn’t want our bags to get taken off and put somewhere weird as unclaimed. As long as we took to get down there, our bags still weren’t even on the carousel until a few minutes after we arrived. No wonder it makes Joe so impatient. 20 to 30 minutes seems an unacceptable amount of time to have to wait for your bags, to me, but it’s been so long since I checked anything, maybe I just don’t remember it’s always like that.
We walked over to the Alamo rental car area in the garage right there, and picked out a Jeep Liberty mini suv. For some reason, when I was booking my rental car, Alamo had a special on these mini suv’s where it was cheaper than the mid size sedan I’d normally get. I ended up not liking it much, it handled funny and the a/c controls were hard to figure out. It was comfortable for the times all of us were in it together, though that was only maybe four or five times the whole trip. I had booked this with my Southwest airlines Rapid Rewards number, with a code from Southwest, to get double rewards credit, and it was a good rate.
I was concerned because I have Quick Silver, where you register your driver’s license and other information in advance, with Alamo, and check in online, so you can skip the rental counter, but Southwest’s information on the double credit promotion said I had to go to the rental counter to give them my Rapid Rewards number. But my Rapid Rewards information is part of what I’ve got stored with Alamo via the Quick Silver service, so I took a chance they’d figure it out. I checked when we got home, and sure enough, Alamo had correctly credited my Southwest account with the double credits.
I prepaid for a tank of gas, figuring on a 10 day trip I could easily bring it back empty, and besides, there is NOWHERE anywhere near the airport in Orlando to get gas, making it a real hassle in my book. The prepay price was only $.05 more per gallon than local stores, so I figure it’s worth it, to not have to deal with gassing up on your last day. If you do decide to get gas on the way to the airport, by all means use the Hess stations on Disney property. You’ll see all the taxis and towncar drivers buying their gas there, which is all you need to know to understand the Disney Hess’s have the best prices in the area. They’re clean and have excellent shopettes, too. There’s one outside the Magic Kingdom on World Dr. and another outside the Boardwalk resort on East Buena Vista Dr., both of which we use regularly.
Miles and I were ready to eat dinner, it being around 5:00 p.m now, and I headed for the Cracker Barrel on west 192, which was right on the way to our rental house. There’s a Cracker Barrel right by my condo complex in Maryland, but frankly, the food there isn’t up to standards, and I was hoping that here in the south they would do a better job with southern food. I was correct! Miles got eggs and biscuits and gravy and I got a bunch of vegetables and catfish, and it was excellent. I was surprised that at dinner time the place was almost empty, and our server said the crowds don’t come in until after 7 pm every day. Good to know.
After dinner, we rushed to the rental house, because I was expecting the Owners Locker folks to bring my (empty for now) new locker between 6 and 6:30 pm. One of the owners, Brian, came himself and we got to talk for a few minutes. Very personable and professional guy, I could tell my things were going to be in good hands with their company.
I found our house on www.vrbo.com, a home called Hakuna Matata, located in the Orange Tree subdivision in Clermont. There was a lot of construction going on on Hwy. 27, but once that’s finished, and with the new “Western Way” entrance to Disney off 429 open now, it’s conveniently located. (We didn’t know about the Western Way gate until just a couple of days ago, so used the old Black Lake Rd-Sherberth Rd-Osceola Pkwy to get on and off property this trip, which avoids most of the worst traffic on west 192.) There’s a super Wal Mart just down 27, and a Winn Dixie, and two Publix supermarkets on 192, plus tons of other shops.
Our house was four bedrooms with a pool, hot tub, and three bathrooms. Joe and I took the master with a king bed and big tub (sadly wasn’t comfortable for two, really, as we found out later). There was a big glass walk in shower, which I liked a lot. Looking at the other rooms, I decided to steer Dee to the one of two queen bedrooms that had its own private bath, not wanting to subject her to Miles’ disgusting bathroom habits. He’s so nasty right now, he’s too old to let anyone help him, and too young not to be gross, getting poop on his fingers still sometimes and wiping on the entire toilet paper roll, forgetting to flush about 60% of the time, etc. I have to patrol him after each use, and I’m really hoping he improves this year, as I’ve about had it with him. Joe said he was pretty gross at that age, too, and that Miles will grow out of it in middle school when he starts caring if girls think he smells like a dirty butt. I use a lot of purell on him, that’s for sure.
Miles was a little disappointed, and so was I, that there was no gaming system like a PS2 to play with, and the “high speed internet” we were supposed to have was so slow it was impossible to play any of his favorite web based games on the computer in our living room. The game room in the garage turned out to be not air conditioned, and it was so hot out there, we never bothered to take out and set up the ping pong table (photos of the house had showed it assembled, by the way, which I didn’t appreciate it not being like that when we arrived) or use the foos ball table. Miles wasn’t too distraught, however, and neither was I, because heck we’re at Disney and we have our own pool! But I won’t be renting again from anyone who has that same management company. I still can't find their name, should have written it down, but I think I'd recognize it if I saw it again. Basically, I think any of the huge management companies are an issue, and I won't be renting off site without delving into who the owners use a little more thoroughly.
I had given Dee and Joe a list of groceries, and they were off buying those and park hoppers for Dee and Miles at Shades of Green. Joe is a Department of Defense civilian employee, so we get good rates on passes. You can buy them at your local MWR office, but the staff here at ours is either clueless or rude or both any time we try to deal with them, so we prefer the efficient and friendly people at Shades of Green. Dee was really looking forward to seeing the resort, too, having never been inside before.
While we waited for them, Miles and I hit our new private pool. Ahh! The water felt awesome. Sadly, even though we’d paid for pool heat, when I turned on the timer for the hot tub, it didn’t warm up much at all after the 20 minutes the brochure in our house said it would take. I figured it just wasn’t set to get hot, for some kind of fear of lawsuits reason. The pool was certainly a comfortable temperature, so it didn’t occur to me that maybe the heat wasn’t on or wasn’t working properly. Come to find out, over the next two days, that the power had gone off, and zeroed out the pool heat timer, probably the afternoon we arrived, from the big storm we’d flown through. Once we figured that out, after another power outage on Sunday, we called the management company and by Monday night I finally had a very hot hot tub available to me. But by then it was raining every day, and the pool heat had been off for so long, that the pool itself never did get up to a warm temperature again until near the end of our trip, which ticked Joe off because we were paying $20 a day for pool heat. I guess I could have called the house owner and tried to finagle some of the money back, but I feel like it was partly my fault for not calling right away on this first evening when the hot tub didn’t heat up right away.
There were some fun pool toys in the garage, and Miles and I had a great time floating around and goofing off for about an hour. At 9:30 p.m. I started to wonder what the hell had happened to Dee and Joe, as I’d expected them to be here around 8:00 p.m. and was wondering if they were lost. They were. Turns out, instead of going to eat at Steak & Shake off the Greeneway like Joe usually does, they’d gone straight to Shades of Green, and then from there to the absolute opposite side of Disney property from our rental house, to the Steak & Shake on South Apopka-Vineland Rd. Then from there, instead of shopping at the stores on Hwy 27 near our rental house, they’d gone on some wild goose chase up through Windermere looking for Tab, Joe’s favorite diet soft drink, and then Joe had decided without a map to look for a “short cut” over to Hwy 27 without having to go north to 50 and then west to Clermont town, or back through Disney property. So of course they ended up doing a big pointless loop that put them right back on west 192, but this time it was park closing time, and they were in a major traffic jam. The upshot was, they did about an hour and a half of extra driving. This kind of dinking around and lack of planning is one reason I was happy to have my own car on this trip, I can’t stand not being efficient and knowing where I’m going. They were no worse for the wear, but I would have been livid if I were stuck in the back of the car with them through all that.
We unpacked groceries, and Dee seemed a bit unsure about her room but finally settled in (hey, it’s free, can’t complain too much!), I got Miles to bed after he had to have a clinking mobile hung up in the vaulted ceiling near an air conditioning vent removed, and finally around 11:30 p.m., Joe and I had the first moments alone together today since we got out of bed this morning. Didn’t last long, because we needed to be up at 7:45 a.m. tomorrow morning for the park opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom at 9 a.m., so no movies, moonlight dips in the hot tub, or long romantic encounters tonight, chief. The bed was a bit uncomfortable, old mattress, and we kept getting thirsty and hot, but by 12:45 a.m. we’d figured out the fan and the a/c settings and had Gatorades on our bedside tables, and were both asleep.
Who:
Wife and mom and daughter-in-law and writer of this trip report, Amanda, 40
Husband and step-dad and son, Joe, 36
Son, step-son and step-grandson, Miles, 8
Mom and step-grandmom and mother-in-law, Dee, 71
Where:
Rental house in Clermont off Hwy 27
When:
Friday, July 27 – Sunday, August 5, 2007
Day One
Friday, July 27
Joe and I have been going to Disney the past couple of years, just us, no kids, no parents, no grandparents, etc., first on dates and then to get engaged, and finally to celebrate our first wedding anniversary last May. After a long three years away from the parks, my wonderful son Miles is finally going back to Disney World, for our first big family vacation together! We decided nothing less than a full 10 day trip would do, as Miles hasn’t been since he was 5, and I wanted him to see and do it all. Early on in the planning, Joe was feeling just as bad that his mom hadn’t been invited along for the past years on our trips as I was about Miles not getting to go, so it seemed only fair that we pile everyone on and make it an extended family thing.
Joe’s mom Dee has not been the easiest new mother-in-law. She was frightened and upset at first that Joe was marrying someone who was divorced, unsure about her new relationship to my son, and sad that she now has to realize Joe really means it when he says he’s not having children of his own. We’ve been through what’s been a sometimes rocky year’s worth of major holidays together, and now the thought of doing a precious Disney vacation together seemed like potential disaster to me. I wasn’t sure going into it if this trip was going to be too difficult to enjoy, or if it would be barely tolerable. My expectations weren’t much over that. What actually ended up happening was a healthy bonding and growth experience for us all, for which I am really thankful. I think this trip was exactly what we needed to start creating new shared memories and experiences. Anyone who has been through the experience of building a new step-family, and dealing with new step-grandparents, I know you know where I’m coming from!
Joe and I worked together for many months ahead of time to plan for issues we thought might arise. We knew that Dee would want to do things she enjoys that were not going to be ideal vacation activities for Miles, like a lot of shopping, going out for drinks at various favorite resorts, and going to Catholic mass on Sunday mornings. We also knew that she would prefer for Joe to be with her at all times, and that Miles and I would feel hurt if Joe wasn’t able to tour with us at least half the time or a good part of each day, so there was some careful thinking to be done on how to handle Joe’s popularity. Also, Joe refuses to get up before noon on vacation or weekends unless absolutely necessary, so we had to talk that one through. Visiting Disney in the height of the summer, staying off site, if I was going to get Miles onto everything he wanted to see and do, I was going to have to be at the gates for park opening at least three or four times during the week.
We decided quickly that a rental house off property, with lots of bedrooms and space, and a two rental cars were a must. The second rental car was a life saver. Dee went to mass on Sundays (she loves Mary Queen of the Universe in Orlando), and most importantly, it freed me to get up early in the morning and go to park openings while Mr. Night Owl snoozed away every day until noon. I got him up for park opening once, for the Magic Kingdom on our first day – he promised he’d do that one with me - and we almost got to Typhoon Lagoon for opening on Friday, but I digress.
I bought and used the Tour Guide Mike service for this trip, and found it helpful. Since we were off-site, we never went to any park that had Extra Magic Hours that day, as suggested. Between getting to the parks early when possible, using FastPass, and Tour Guide Mike’s best park day advice, I feel like we got to do just about everything we wanted to, and the crowds and waits were far less than I had anticipated for a high summer vacation period. The only thing we got aced out of were the water parks, but that was because I tried to go in the late morning instead of at opening or in the late afternoon as suggested.
Well, enough planning, let’s go!
Joe and I have been flying into Orlando after work the past couple of years, for our trips, because Joe wants to wake up there and not waste a day traveling. But it means we never get in until midnight, and I didn’t think that would be a good idea with Miles. I talked him into flying in the middle of the day, instead, this time, and it was really nice to not feel so rushed, trying to race to the airport after work, and being tired all the next day because we didn’t get to sleep until 2 a.m.
We live in Harford County, MD, close to Joe’s job, and Dee lives an hour up the road in Wilmington, DE. We decided to fly out of Philadelphia instead of Baltimore, so Joe could cut Dee’s grass right before we left, and to save Dee the drive to and from our place. We got up around 8:30 a.m. and, having been totally packed the night before, needed only to stop at McDonald’s for breakfast and coffee for the drive up to Wilmington, and we were on our way! We got to Dee’s a little before 10:00 a.m. and had plenty of time to do our chores at her place before leaving for the 1:30 p.m. flight.
Joe hates checking bags and waiting for them upon arrival, so he had talked Dee into only packing one roll on bag, which she didn’t find comfortable at all, I think. Joe had his usual one roller bag, too, but this time I broke form and had stuff to check. Because I had my own rental car, it wasn’t going to hold them up if I had to wait at baggage claim, and I had packed a giant duffel bag full of full size new toiletries and other goodies that you can’t bring on, like scissors and nail clippers, that I planned on leaving in my new OwnersLocker.com storage locker in Orlando.
It’s a new service where you pay a fee for a 22" x 20" x 13" heavy duty purple plastic storage bin to be held in a climate controlled facility for you between trips to Orlando, then delivered and picked up to the resort of your choice. It’s brand new company, and because they are just taking their first clients and I was willing to take a chance with them, the owner offered to bring and pick up from our rental house this one time, something they can’t normally do. They are trying right now to secure a self service pick up and drop off point for people to visit, if they are cruising, staying with relatives, staying in a rental house, etc., hopefully they will have that going in the next month or two. I’ve been really really happy with their service so far! Joe and I are going back this year, and I can’t wait to have all that stuff waiting for me when we check in to our resort. You just pick up and drop off the locker at your bell services desk. Again, that’s www.ownerslocker.com.
Here’s what’s in our locker now:
Mickey rain ponchos
Joe's rain pants and rain shorts
Amanda’s crocs with their Disney jibbits
WDW fanny pack
Camelbak hydration pack
Beach towels
Pal Mickey and his little outfits and a caribeener to clip him to my pack
Personal mini fan on a string
AA Batteries
Nice scented candle & lighter
Scissors
Paper bowls, paper plates, plastic spoons, forks & knives
Cereal
Tupperware for leftovers
Coffee & coffee filters
Ziplocks in gallon, quart, and snack sizes
Spices for making spaghetti sauce when we stay somewhere with a kitchen
Wet wipes
Purell
Blister pads
Ear dry drops
Bodyglide antifriction stick (LOVE THIS STUFF)
Sunscreen for face and body
Antiperspirant
Massage oil
Bath pillow
Sugar scrub
Diamancel foot callous buffer (best pedicure product in the universe!)
Nail clippers
Moisturizer
Shampoo & conditioner
Ibuprofen
Rolaids
Tagamet
Sudafed
The Philadelphia airport is awful. The runways are too short, they have horrid delays because it’s laid out improperly and has more traffic than it can handle, it’s been under construction/renovation since I moved here and I’m sure long before then, the parking fees are higher than BWI by quite a lot ($17 versus $9 for the long term garage per day), it’s inconvenient to walk around in, ugly, and dirty. Today the power wasn’t working properly in our concourse, and it was hotter than hell in half of the waiting areas, the credit card machines didn’t work in any of the stores because their internet service was out, and the TSA attendant I went through was actively, aggressively, shaming and harassing passengers she felt she could bully. I am never flying out of there again, I’d rather go pick Dee up and bring her down to BWI than drive ten minutes from her house to fly out of Philly.
We got there too early, really, and had to wait around for an hour and a half before our plane left. Ate some nasty Burger King that people were in line for, shortly after we got ours, for up to half an hour (I’d rather starve), served by slow moving sullen employees amidst a whirlpool of spilled ketchup sticky counters exploded straw dispensers and empty napkin holders. We had to be there that early, however, because of our Southwest “A” and “B” boarding pass issues, which is mostly my husband’s thing.
Joe has to have a window seat when he flies. And he has to fly Southwest. Yes, I know, there are other options, but if you’re a man or you know one, you can’t tell me you/they don’t have your own weird “have to’s” that if you/they don’t get what you want, you/they freak out. I don’t know if it’s testosterone related, but it seems to be a universal man thing, the Grown-Man Freak-Out (GMFO). I’ll be nice and not call it a temper tantrum. Though that’s what my step-mother calls my father’s outbursts.
28 hours before our flight, Joe called me from work and said, don’t forget to check in for our flights so we don’t get aced out of our A boarding passes. 23 hours before our flight, I checked in online at Southwest.com and got… B boarding passes. All the “A” ones were already gone. In order to quell the oncoming GMFO I assured Joe that we could be at the gate up to two hours before our flight, so he could be FIRST in the B line, which he was. And, lo and behold, he got a window seat. I think it’s got to the point with Southwest where if you aren’t sitting at the computer waiting for the first few minutes or even seconds that your flight is available for check in, you don’t get an A anymore, especially not if people are connecting at your airport, because they would have been allowed to check in for both their first leg, and yours, together, sometimes many hours before your window of opportunity opens. I’ve never seen us not get a window as long as we were there in time to get into the first half of the B line, but it still makes Joe so nervous he’s no fun at all for the day before we fly if he doesn’t have that A.
On board, I let Dee sit next to him on one side of the plane and Miles and I took the other, to give Miles a look out the window, too. I should have made him sit in the middle because he barely looked out the window anyways. Instead, he was so excited about the trip, he squirmed and talked constantly the whole way. I think he was quiet for two 90 second pauses. I had brought two things for him to read, a kid’s guide to the parks, and a Star Wars graphic novel, but he couldn’t concentrate on them.
There was very bad turbulence the last twenty minutes, skirting around and through a major thunderstorm cell outside Orlando. Every time we fly here lately, we go through crappy weather and get a rocky ride. Joe and I had a flight last February that he and I both agreed was the most intense turbulence we’d ever experienced. There were a lot of people on the plane who I could tell were scared, though they really have no reason to be, with that particular issue. Applause broke out when we landed.
On the ground, Miles and I said goodbye to Joe and Dee for now, and went straight to the Crocs store in the Orlando aiport mall. After poo-poo’ing the reports of how wonderful Crocs are for touring the parks, I was willing to give them a try, because I’m just sick of my legs and feet hurting no matter what shoes I wear. I bought myself a pair of light lavender Cayman clogs and Miles picked out the same style in bright Kelly green, his favorite color. He wore his right out of the store and insisted they felt great. We paid a little more here than you can find Crocs for on the web, $36.95 I think for mine, not sure if Miles’ were cheaper, but it was worth it to have a salesperson help with sizing for this first purchase. I can tell you, they have absolutely revolutionized my ability to keep going for 12 and 13 hour days, and I LOVE them!!! I can’t believe I didn’t listen to other people and get these two years ago. Miles did have an issue with rubbing on the outside of one foot, probably the way he walks, but a thin pair of socks cleared that up for him, and I didn’t have any problems with rubbing or blisters at all. The key is to buy them a whole size up from your regular shoe size. I’ve since bought two more pairs for wearing to my job here at home, where I’m on my feet a good bit, and I adore them. I get them now at www.shoebuy.com, look for promotional codes first on the internet, there’s always one running, plus for “joining” for the first time as a “member” (i.e. signing up for emails) I got another % off bonus on my first purchase.
With Crocs in hand, we headed for baggage claim. I had a hard time talking Miles out of eating at the Chili’s right by the Crocs store, but I didn’t want our bags to get taken off and put somewhere weird as unclaimed. As long as we took to get down there, our bags still weren’t even on the carousel until a few minutes after we arrived. No wonder it makes Joe so impatient. 20 to 30 minutes seems an unacceptable amount of time to have to wait for your bags, to me, but it’s been so long since I checked anything, maybe I just don’t remember it’s always like that.
We walked over to the Alamo rental car area in the garage right there, and picked out a Jeep Liberty mini suv. For some reason, when I was booking my rental car, Alamo had a special on these mini suv’s where it was cheaper than the mid size sedan I’d normally get. I ended up not liking it much, it handled funny and the a/c controls were hard to figure out. It was comfortable for the times all of us were in it together, though that was only maybe four or five times the whole trip. I had booked this with my Southwest airlines Rapid Rewards number, with a code from Southwest, to get double rewards credit, and it was a good rate.
I was concerned because I have Quick Silver, where you register your driver’s license and other information in advance, with Alamo, and check in online, so you can skip the rental counter, but Southwest’s information on the double credit promotion said I had to go to the rental counter to give them my Rapid Rewards number. But my Rapid Rewards information is part of what I’ve got stored with Alamo via the Quick Silver service, so I took a chance they’d figure it out. I checked when we got home, and sure enough, Alamo had correctly credited my Southwest account with the double credits.
I prepaid for a tank of gas, figuring on a 10 day trip I could easily bring it back empty, and besides, there is NOWHERE anywhere near the airport in Orlando to get gas, making it a real hassle in my book. The prepay price was only $.05 more per gallon than local stores, so I figure it’s worth it, to not have to deal with gassing up on your last day. If you do decide to get gas on the way to the airport, by all means use the Hess stations on Disney property. You’ll see all the taxis and towncar drivers buying their gas there, which is all you need to know to understand the Disney Hess’s have the best prices in the area. They’re clean and have excellent shopettes, too. There’s one outside the Magic Kingdom on World Dr. and another outside the Boardwalk resort on East Buena Vista Dr., both of which we use regularly.
Miles and I were ready to eat dinner, it being around 5:00 p.m now, and I headed for the Cracker Barrel on west 192, which was right on the way to our rental house. There’s a Cracker Barrel right by my condo complex in Maryland, but frankly, the food there isn’t up to standards, and I was hoping that here in the south they would do a better job with southern food. I was correct! Miles got eggs and biscuits and gravy and I got a bunch of vegetables and catfish, and it was excellent. I was surprised that at dinner time the place was almost empty, and our server said the crowds don’t come in until after 7 pm every day. Good to know.
After dinner, we rushed to the rental house, because I was expecting the Owners Locker folks to bring my (empty for now) new locker between 6 and 6:30 pm. One of the owners, Brian, came himself and we got to talk for a few minutes. Very personable and professional guy, I could tell my things were going to be in good hands with their company.
I found our house on www.vrbo.com, a home called Hakuna Matata, located in the Orange Tree subdivision in Clermont. There was a lot of construction going on on Hwy. 27, but once that’s finished, and with the new “Western Way” entrance to Disney off 429 open now, it’s conveniently located. (We didn’t know about the Western Way gate until just a couple of days ago, so used the old Black Lake Rd-Sherberth Rd-Osceola Pkwy to get on and off property this trip, which avoids most of the worst traffic on west 192.) There’s a super Wal Mart just down 27, and a Winn Dixie, and two Publix supermarkets on 192, plus tons of other shops.
Our house was four bedrooms with a pool, hot tub, and three bathrooms. Joe and I took the master with a king bed and big tub (sadly wasn’t comfortable for two, really, as we found out later). There was a big glass walk in shower, which I liked a lot. Looking at the other rooms, I decided to steer Dee to the one of two queen bedrooms that had its own private bath, not wanting to subject her to Miles’ disgusting bathroom habits. He’s so nasty right now, he’s too old to let anyone help him, and too young not to be gross, getting poop on his fingers still sometimes and wiping on the entire toilet paper roll, forgetting to flush about 60% of the time, etc. I have to patrol him after each use, and I’m really hoping he improves this year, as I’ve about had it with him. Joe said he was pretty gross at that age, too, and that Miles will grow out of it in middle school when he starts caring if girls think he smells like a dirty butt. I use a lot of purell on him, that’s for sure.
Miles was a little disappointed, and so was I, that there was no gaming system like a PS2 to play with, and the “high speed internet” we were supposed to have was so slow it was impossible to play any of his favorite web based games on the computer in our living room. The game room in the garage turned out to be not air conditioned, and it was so hot out there, we never bothered to take out and set up the ping pong table (photos of the house had showed it assembled, by the way, which I didn’t appreciate it not being like that when we arrived) or use the foos ball table. Miles wasn’t too distraught, however, and neither was I, because heck we’re at Disney and we have our own pool! But I won’t be renting again from anyone who has that same management company. I still can't find their name, should have written it down, but I think I'd recognize it if I saw it again. Basically, I think any of the huge management companies are an issue, and I won't be renting off site without delving into who the owners use a little more thoroughly.
I had given Dee and Joe a list of groceries, and they were off buying those and park hoppers for Dee and Miles at Shades of Green. Joe is a Department of Defense civilian employee, so we get good rates on passes. You can buy them at your local MWR office, but the staff here at ours is either clueless or rude or both any time we try to deal with them, so we prefer the efficient and friendly people at Shades of Green. Dee was really looking forward to seeing the resort, too, having never been inside before.
While we waited for them, Miles and I hit our new private pool. Ahh! The water felt awesome. Sadly, even though we’d paid for pool heat, when I turned on the timer for the hot tub, it didn’t warm up much at all after the 20 minutes the brochure in our house said it would take. I figured it just wasn’t set to get hot, for some kind of fear of lawsuits reason. The pool was certainly a comfortable temperature, so it didn’t occur to me that maybe the heat wasn’t on or wasn’t working properly. Come to find out, over the next two days, that the power had gone off, and zeroed out the pool heat timer, probably the afternoon we arrived, from the big storm we’d flown through. Once we figured that out, after another power outage on Sunday, we called the management company and by Monday night I finally had a very hot hot tub available to me. But by then it was raining every day, and the pool heat had been off for so long, that the pool itself never did get up to a warm temperature again until near the end of our trip, which ticked Joe off because we were paying $20 a day for pool heat. I guess I could have called the house owner and tried to finagle some of the money back, but I feel like it was partly my fault for not calling right away on this first evening when the hot tub didn’t heat up right away.
There were some fun pool toys in the garage, and Miles and I had a great time floating around and goofing off for about an hour. At 9:30 p.m. I started to wonder what the hell had happened to Dee and Joe, as I’d expected them to be here around 8:00 p.m. and was wondering if they were lost. They were. Turns out, instead of going to eat at Steak & Shake off the Greeneway like Joe usually does, they’d gone straight to Shades of Green, and then from there to the absolute opposite side of Disney property from our rental house, to the Steak & Shake on South Apopka-Vineland Rd. Then from there, instead of shopping at the stores on Hwy 27 near our rental house, they’d gone on some wild goose chase up through Windermere looking for Tab, Joe’s favorite diet soft drink, and then Joe had decided without a map to look for a “short cut” over to Hwy 27 without having to go north to 50 and then west to Clermont town, or back through Disney property. So of course they ended up doing a big pointless loop that put them right back on west 192, but this time it was park closing time, and they were in a major traffic jam. The upshot was, they did about an hour and a half of extra driving. This kind of dinking around and lack of planning is one reason I was happy to have my own car on this trip, I can’t stand not being efficient and knowing where I’m going. They were no worse for the wear, but I would have been livid if I were stuck in the back of the car with them through all that.
We unpacked groceries, and Dee seemed a bit unsure about her room but finally settled in (hey, it’s free, can’t complain too much!), I got Miles to bed after he had to have a clinking mobile hung up in the vaulted ceiling near an air conditioning vent removed, and finally around 11:30 p.m., Joe and I had the first moments alone together today since we got out of bed this morning. Didn’t last long, because we needed to be up at 7:45 a.m. tomorrow morning for the park opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom at 9 a.m., so no movies, moonlight dips in the hot tub, or long romantic encounters tonight, chief. The bed was a bit uncomfortable, old mattress, and we kept getting thirsty and hot, but by 12:45 a.m. we’d figured out the fan and the a/c settings and had Gatorades on our bedside tables, and were both asleep.
