Last Minute Getaway- (2nd of 4 reports) Day 1, 5/30/03
Attendees: Me & DH (Both 30, 2 Disney Trips in last 2 years, Last year's trip included a trip to USF).
From my previous post, this was a surprise trip. My DH wanted to go somewhere at the last minute, but didn't care where. I booked a trip on Hotwire for the PBH from Fri-Sun.
Had 45 min of sleep, jumped up, finished packing, showered and we were out the door by 5:40am. Had to run by work to email out my 3 projects that kept me up all night.
I still hadn't told DH where we were going, just that he should pack for warm weather and bring swim trunks. We made it to the airport parking by 6:10, waited a long time (it seemed) for a shuttle and were at the terminal at 6:30am. The self serve kiosks were down and we had to wait in line. While we were in line, I handed him our room key from our last trip from the PBH. He just sort of stared at it and then said I was completely nuts. It was said in a good hearted way. At least that was how I took it. He said that he was sure that it would be fun. (Yeah!) The line moved pretty good and we were at Starbucks at 6:45am (vacation tradition!!).
We picked up breakfast burritos on the way to the gate. When we got there, they were loading the plane?? It was almost 50 minutes before take-off. It was a big plane, but it seemed excessive. The engines wouldn't start on their own and they had to give the equivalent of a jump start with this apparatus they hooked to the plane. I thought it odd that no one was concerned that the engines wouldn't start on their own. Oh, well, I guess it was just me. As a result of the problem, we took off about 25 min late (not bad considering it was an ENGINE problem??). We landed about on time and luggage was quick. We picked up our car from National and we out of the airport by 11:30am.
After arriving at the hotel, we self parked and headed to the lobby for check-in. It was about 12pm and there were pretty many people checking in. They all seemed to know each other and seemed like some sort of a multigenerational convention. The line moved pretty fast, though. I gave the CM at the desk my Loews # as well as requested a West Wing room. He was very nice and told us that we had requested a non-smoking king. With hotwire, we were unable to specify a view or like. He then asked what welcome gift I would like. I asked for red wine and we were on our way to our room. It was a very long walk. We were at the very end of the west wing on the 3rd floor overlooking the beach pool. The room smelled very strongly of smoke and had a burn mark on the carpet. I called down to the front desk to confirm that we were supposed to be in a non-smoking room. They stated that this room was supposed to be n/s, but that not everyone adheres to rules. They gave us a new room # (on the 1st floor below where we were) and asked us to meet them there and they would switch keys, etc. The CM was waiting for us and made sure we were ok with the room. There was no view of the pool, other than lots of plants, but it smelled much better.
This room did not seem as nice as the one we staying in last year. We had a West Wing bay view last year with a mini-balcony. This time the room looked a little more worn and we did not have robes, which we loved last time. The bathroom was the same, which is to say it is awesome. Huge, nice toiletries, dual sink. Very nice.
We put some sunscreen on decided to hit the parks before lunch. We waited at the boat dock for 15 minutes and the sun was intense. There were lots of little kids waiting with us and they looked as if they were wilting in sun. There's not a lot of shade around the boat docks. It seemed as if the wait for the boats was much longer this trip. During our trip in Sept of last year, I seem to remember the boats stopping at HRH. While this seemed inconvenient at the time, there were more boats making the trip. This time we had a dedicated boat, but it always seemed to take forever. We usually walked and easily beat the boats, but it is a long walk. (And seemed to get longer as the weekend wore on and got hotter.)
At IOA, getting our APs from the kiosks was a breeze and we then went in to get our pictures taken at the Vacation Office. That took about 15 minutes as there were lots of people in there and the CMs were taking it pretty easy. They were very nice, though. The pictures turned out pretty bad, but I don't think it was a reflection of the CMs.
The park was pretty crowded and it seemed like a lot of high school trips. We have never been to the parks in summer, but figured we'd be OK with FOTL. We headed for Hulk (DH's favorite) and walked right on using FOTL. The stand-by line was about 45 minutes, I think. I don't know if I am getting old or what, but Hulk made me feel queasy and my head started to hurt. It did that the last time we were at IOA as well. I have always loved roller coasters and am at a loss. I think it's that G-Force sickness everyone has been talking about. I got it on RnR the last trip, too. I hope it's just a fluke!
We hit Spiderman (my favorite) using FOTL and again walked on. The standby line was 1 hr. It was great, as usual. After SM, we decided we were very hungry (it was like 1:30) and decided to head over to CW and hit Margaritaville. We ate there last year and really liked it. We sat on the patio and everyone around us had these platters of nachos that looked awesome. We decided to split nachos and cheeseburger in paradise and fries. It was all really good, but the service was a bit slow (especially since it was pretty late in the day). I also had a frozen blue margarita and it was great (and a great cure for a headache, right?). After lunch, I decided that 45 min. of sleep was not enough and we went back for naps. We slept until 6pm and then hit the pools. There weren't many people in the beach pool and we hung around there for a while. It was actually kind of chilly out, but not too cold to swim. We then decided to head over to the other pool with all of the cabanas. There was no one there other than a couple in the hot tub. We swam a bit and then got in the hot tub when the couple left. We swam until about 7:30pm
We went back to room and our wine still had not arrived. I called the front desk and they said that they deliver until 8:30 or so and that it should still be coming. We took showers and decided to head out for the evening. We checked out the Thirsty Fish by the boat dock downstairs, but there was no one there. PBH is like that. It can be pretty crowded occupancywise and you will never see anyone. Weird. Maybe because it is a lot of conventioneers??
The boat was at the dock and we took a really nice ride over there. I love how they play "Celebration" on the speakers. It does put you in a party mood!
After walking around, we went to Pat O'Brien's and used our 2 for 1 CW passes that we bought at the Concierge at the PBH (around $10 for the 2). We settled in and ordered 2 hurricanes, with real glasses you get to keep. I think they were $9 a piece. They were very good and packed a punch. The music of the dueling pianos was very good and we had fun singing along to a lot of 70s, 80s and 90s stuff. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I had another one (mistake) and DH had a beer. I started to believe that the one piano player looked like our CEO of our company and I wanted to get my picture taken with him. No matter how hard my DH tried to convince me that he, in fact, looked nothing like the CEO, I was steadfast--Thanks in part to the hurricanes. We had left the camera back at the room and I tried to force my DH to go buy a disposable. DH eventually threatened divorce and I eventually came back to my senses. (I think it was the fact that the piano player had a Tommy Bahama shirt just like our CEO. )
We stayed until past midnight and then went over to the Latin Quarter. This was probably not our scene as we don't really dance very much (or very well). We hightailed it out pretty quick in search of food. (We had not eaten since Margaritaville.) After talking with the information booth people, we ascertained that nothing was open. DH decided he wanted McDonald's and we walked back to the hotel, got the car and hit the drive through. I have no idea how DH found a McDonald's, but he seems to have pretty good radar for fast food. We ate it when we got back and it was pretty good. Went to bed about 2am.
Next- Day 2, US, IOA, Emeril's & Jiko
Attendees: Me & DH (Both 30, 2 Disney Trips in last 2 years, Last year's trip included a trip to USF).
From my previous post, this was a surprise trip. My DH wanted to go somewhere at the last minute, but didn't care where. I booked a trip on Hotwire for the PBH from Fri-Sun.
Had 45 min of sleep, jumped up, finished packing, showered and we were out the door by 5:40am. Had to run by work to email out my 3 projects that kept me up all night.
I still hadn't told DH where we were going, just that he should pack for warm weather and bring swim trunks. We made it to the airport parking by 6:10, waited a long time (it seemed) for a shuttle and were at the terminal at 6:30am. The self serve kiosks were down and we had to wait in line. While we were in line, I handed him our room key from our last trip from the PBH. He just sort of stared at it and then said I was completely nuts. It was said in a good hearted way. At least that was how I took it. He said that he was sure that it would be fun. (Yeah!) The line moved pretty good and we were at Starbucks at 6:45am (vacation tradition!!). We picked up breakfast burritos on the way to the gate. When we got there, they were loading the plane?? It was almost 50 minutes before take-off. It was a big plane, but it seemed excessive. The engines wouldn't start on their own and they had to give the equivalent of a jump start with this apparatus they hooked to the plane. I thought it odd that no one was concerned that the engines wouldn't start on their own. Oh, well, I guess it was just me. As a result of the problem, we took off about 25 min late (not bad considering it was an ENGINE problem??). We landed about on time and luggage was quick. We picked up our car from National and we out of the airport by 11:30am.
After arriving at the hotel, we self parked and headed to the lobby for check-in. It was about 12pm and there were pretty many people checking in. They all seemed to know each other and seemed like some sort of a multigenerational convention. The line moved pretty fast, though. I gave the CM at the desk my Loews # as well as requested a West Wing room. He was very nice and told us that we had requested a non-smoking king. With hotwire, we were unable to specify a view or like. He then asked what welcome gift I would like. I asked for red wine and we were on our way to our room. It was a very long walk. We were at the very end of the west wing on the 3rd floor overlooking the beach pool. The room smelled very strongly of smoke and had a burn mark on the carpet. I called down to the front desk to confirm that we were supposed to be in a non-smoking room. They stated that this room was supposed to be n/s, but that not everyone adheres to rules. They gave us a new room # (on the 1st floor below where we were) and asked us to meet them there and they would switch keys, etc. The CM was waiting for us and made sure we were ok with the room. There was no view of the pool, other than lots of plants, but it smelled much better.
This room did not seem as nice as the one we staying in last year. We had a West Wing bay view last year with a mini-balcony. This time the room looked a little more worn and we did not have robes, which we loved last time. The bathroom was the same, which is to say it is awesome. Huge, nice toiletries, dual sink. Very nice.
We put some sunscreen on decided to hit the parks before lunch. We waited at the boat dock for 15 minutes and the sun was intense. There were lots of little kids waiting with us and they looked as if they were wilting in sun. There's not a lot of shade around the boat docks. It seemed as if the wait for the boats was much longer this trip. During our trip in Sept of last year, I seem to remember the boats stopping at HRH. While this seemed inconvenient at the time, there were more boats making the trip. This time we had a dedicated boat, but it always seemed to take forever. We usually walked and easily beat the boats, but it is a long walk. (And seemed to get longer as the weekend wore on and got hotter.)
At IOA, getting our APs from the kiosks was a breeze and we then went in to get our pictures taken at the Vacation Office. That took about 15 minutes as there were lots of people in there and the CMs were taking it pretty easy. They were very nice, though. The pictures turned out pretty bad, but I don't think it was a reflection of the CMs.
The park was pretty crowded and it seemed like a lot of high school trips. We have never been to the parks in summer, but figured we'd be OK with FOTL. We headed for Hulk (DH's favorite) and walked right on using FOTL. The stand-by line was about 45 minutes, I think. I don't know if I am getting old or what, but Hulk made me feel queasy and my head started to hurt. It did that the last time we were at IOA as well. I have always loved roller coasters and am at a loss. I think it's that G-Force sickness everyone has been talking about. I got it on RnR the last trip, too. I hope it's just a fluke!
We hit Spiderman (my favorite) using FOTL and again walked on. The standby line was 1 hr. It was great, as usual. After SM, we decided we were very hungry (it was like 1:30) and decided to head over to CW and hit Margaritaville. We ate there last year and really liked it. We sat on the patio and everyone around us had these platters of nachos that looked awesome. We decided to split nachos and cheeseburger in paradise and fries. It was all really good, but the service was a bit slow (especially since it was pretty late in the day). I also had a frozen blue margarita and it was great (and a great cure for a headache, right?). After lunch, I decided that 45 min. of sleep was not enough and we went back for naps. We slept until 6pm and then hit the pools. There weren't many people in the beach pool and we hung around there for a while. It was actually kind of chilly out, but not too cold to swim. We then decided to head over to the other pool with all of the cabanas. There was no one there other than a couple in the hot tub. We swam a bit and then got in the hot tub when the couple left. We swam until about 7:30pm
We went back to room and our wine still had not arrived. I called the front desk and they said that they deliver until 8:30 or so and that it should still be coming. We took showers and decided to head out for the evening. We checked out the Thirsty Fish by the boat dock downstairs, but there was no one there. PBH is like that. It can be pretty crowded occupancywise and you will never see anyone. Weird. Maybe because it is a lot of conventioneers??
The boat was at the dock and we took a really nice ride over there. I love how they play "Celebration" on the speakers. It does put you in a party mood!
After walking around, we went to Pat O'Brien's and used our 2 for 1 CW passes that we bought at the Concierge at the PBH (around $10 for the 2). We settled in and ordered 2 hurricanes, with real glasses you get to keep. I think they were $9 a piece. They were very good and packed a punch. The music of the dueling pianos was very good and we had fun singing along to a lot of 70s, 80s and 90s stuff. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I had another one (mistake) and DH had a beer. I started to believe that the one piano player looked like our CEO of our company and I wanted to get my picture taken with him. No matter how hard my DH tried to convince me that he, in fact, looked nothing like the CEO, I was steadfast--Thanks in part to the hurricanes. We had left the camera back at the room and I tried to force my DH to go buy a disposable. DH eventually threatened divorce and I eventually came back to my senses. (I think it was the fact that the piano player had a Tommy Bahama shirt just like our CEO.
)We stayed until past midnight and then went over to the Latin Quarter. This was probably not our scene as we don't really dance very much (or very well). We hightailed it out pretty quick in search of food. (We had not eaten since Margaritaville.) After talking with the information booth people, we ascertained that nothing was open. DH decided he wanted McDonald's and we walked back to the hotel, got the car and hit the drive through. I have no idea how DH found a McDonald's, but he seems to have pretty good radar for fast food. We ate it when we got back and it was pretty good. Went to bed about 2am.
Next- Day 2, US, IOA, Emeril's & Jiko
