Saturday December 13, 2008
I could not believe this day was finally here!!! This anniversary trip that I’d been planning and looking forward to since right after our honeymoon a year ago!!!
I must start out with describing the days leading up to it, for new readers. My best friend Elizabeth got married the night before we left. So needless to say we were EXHAUSTED. I also finished school and classes that week. The wedding was beautiful, and so much fun. I have a few pics from my camera, but I will def. share prof. ones eventually bc it was just so cool. Here’s a few…
Walking down the aisle…
Us standing up there, I’m 2nd from the left…
First dance
Her cake! She had red velvet cupcakes
The only picture I ended up with of DH and I, at the very end of the night.
Anyway. We didn’t get home that night from the wedding until almost midnight, and pretty much crashed. Thank goodness I had everything pretty much packed, except for a few last minute things we’d need the next morning. I was exhausted, I’d been at the church since 2 that afternoon and it had been SUCH a long week. I was READY TO GO!!!
I set the alarm for 5:30 the next morning, and thank goodness had no problem getting up! We were ready and had the car loaded fairly quickly. It was COLD…I took this as we left…
We had to make one stop, at the grocery store to get ice for the cooler since we were taking the rest of our anniversary layer of cake and some other drinks and stuff. While at the store I remembered we had forgotten the box w/the small Christmas tree I wanted to take, so we had to go back to get that. Finally, we were ready to go!
We made pretty good time, and didn’t make a stop until near Savannah just to use the restroom. I started getting really tired and grouchy, I think it was just exhaustion catching up w/me. I slept a little but not much. I brought my laptop and our converter w/me so I could plug it in and watched the new Disney planning dvd I got in the mail a day or two before. It was pretty much the same one though, they just added the Celebrations stuff in it.
We stopped again on the other side of Jacksonville, FL to use the restroom and DH put more gas in the car. We figured we could make it the rest of the way w/out stopping and we did! That’s pretty good, all the way to Disney (about 8 hrs) and just TWO STOPS!
As we got into Orlando we were deciding what to do. I had been wanting to try Sweet Tomatoes, a buffet I’d always heard about. We don’t have one anywhere near us, and I knew there was one in Orlando. I put it into the GPS and it looked like it would be very easy to find. So we decided to stop and eat, since I wasn’t sure we’d like the food court at All Star Sports, and we weren’t sure what we were going to do that night. Plus we didn’t stop for lunch anywhere, just had a few snacks in the car.
We had to get off on International Drive, and go over towards Kirkman Rd. I was kinda excited, bc DH has never seen Orlando at all except for Disney. I had no clue it would end up being such a NIGHTMARE. The GPS had us go the wrong way through an intersection, and we saw the restaurant but it was too late, so we had to get back on I-4, and then turn around and come back. We started to just say forget it, but wanted to try one more time. So back we went down International Drive, and into lane we needed. It only took about FIFTEEN MINUTES to get turned, bc it was just a horrible intersection and traffic was not moving. Ugh. Finally we get around to the other side and sat in traffic again. Crazy. We could have walked out of the car and over the median and in the front doors of the restaurant, it was just crazy over there trying to get in the parking lot. So we finally get there, and it was yummy. I love salad bars, and they had all kinds of stuff. Soups, bread, ice cream, and tons of salads. Mmmm. We filled our bellies and I was ready to get to my happy Disney place!
We waited FOREVER to get back out of that parking lot. It was just insanity. And to get back in the interstate it was all kinds of crazy so we ended up down by Universal Studios. Which would have been cool for DH to see, but he was just sick of the traffic and ready to get out of the car and be there. On top of that we were both just beyond tired…from the night before, getting up early, driving all day, everything. I’m usually in SUCH a good mood when we get there, but I was just ready to get some rest. Not to mention I’d been fighting a cold for a week or two, and I thought I was over it but my head was killing me and my throat and ears were hurting. NOT. GOOD.
Finally, almost 2 hours after we’d stopped, we were pulling up on this…
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was in my happy place finally!!!
We followed the signs to get to the All Star Resorts, and were finally there! Our home, for one night.
We checked in pretty quickly, and got all our information. There was one small issue that aggravated me. I had made the reservation before we got our Annual Passes, so when I called back to get the discount I had a credit to go back on my credit card for the extra I‘d paid before the discount. The guy checking me in said I’d have to come back the next day to get it credited back to my credit card, or we could use it as a credit at the resort for food, merchandise, etc. I knew we wouldn’t spend it that night, and didn’t understand why he couldn’t just do it that night? I told him we were leaving in the morning, but he said he had to leave the money there, and we’d have to come back before we checked out to get the credit issued. Whatever. We went back to the car and drove around to our building. We were way around near the edge of the All Star Music resort. There were a whole bunch of tents in the parking lot, vendor type stuff…from Pop Warner I was guessing?? I was a bit worried, but since we were only there one night I didn’t care too much. We got a few things out of the car and went off to find out room. It was WAAAAY down on the end of a long breezeway, near some woods….
We put our stuff inside, and the first thing we noticed, other than the small size of the room, was the STRONG smell of bleach and cleaner. Yuck. But at least it was clean? It was a fine room, just small. Growing up we always stayed at the values, but its been years since I have, and I guess I’ve gotten spoiled by staying deluxe and in our camper at the fort.
It was fairly cold that night, and I was just feeling worse and worse so DH made a few trips to bring our things in just for the night. We had talked about going to a park that night, just to see fireworks or something, but we were both feeling so bad and tired, we decided just to take it easy and not exhaust ourselves the first night. We thought we might go swimming or something, just hang out at the resort. We decided to go take a walk to the pool/lobby area and see what it was like. Pictures along the way…
There were people EVERYWHERE. Loud, noisy, crazy people. I don’t know if it was just being tired, and feeling bad, or what but I just did NOT have a good impression of the place. I had stayed there before and didn’t remember it being that way, but it just seemed dirty and trashy. And loud. I don’t know. I wasn’t feeling it. We went in and decided to go ahead and get a refillable mug since we’d be able to use it all week. We got some hot chocolate and walked around the store for awhile, and went and felt the pool water but it seemed really cold, and neither of us needed to increase our sick chances. So we just went back to the room to watch some tv and relax.
Pics of the pool on the way back…
Back at the room….
DH had a few drinks…
It wasn’t bad, but it just seemed SO small. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be up too early, so I called and asked for a late checkout, which was no problem at all. I took a long hot bath and took some cold medicine. When I got out of the tub, which was about 7:30, DH was already sound asleep. I couldn’t believe it was our first night in Disney and we were just ready for bed. I watched tv for a few minutes and then decided to just give in and SLEEP. I knew that I would thank myself later, and we still had the whole week. I was worried about getting sick, and knew that sleep would be the best thing for it. With dreams of the rest of the week and just a few worries, I went off to sleep in our tiny bed….
Next up: welcome HOME!
Your the second person whose TR I read who didn't like their value resort. It was the same thing too, loud, noisy, to overwhelming and just not fun! I've never stayed at a value and I'm willing to bet, given that review, I wouldn't like it either! Luckily, both you and the other person only stayed 1 night! It would stink to be stuck in that situation for a whole week!! 
So we just went the other way into Fantasyland. We went on Pooh first, because I was wearing my Pooh shirt. And it was the first thing we came too. I love the part towards the end when its supposed to be like you're floating in water. love it. Such a cute ride, and it cracks DH up which I enjoy.
Yay! I'm excited to catch up and read all about it so far 
