After we finished raisin the roof and managed to roll our tongues back up in our heads, we found our way to the check in line. Within just a few short minutes, we were spouting out our information to the clerk behind the desk.
After she bid us Aloha.
They have fancy computers there too, by the way. Along with employees who speak little to no English. In other words, we felt right at home.
At some point, we may have asked if there was any possibility that we could get an upgraded room. Twice. Softly at first and then very loudly. With hand gestures. Plural. At some point we may have crashed and burned. Once. With a return hand gesture. Singular. Apparently they were all out of free upgrades that day. Spring Break and all that. We would be getting the room we actually paid for this time. Dangit! Gotta hate when that happens. She was very polite and helpful though. She had us checked in lickity split and handed us our information packet and our card keys. Those cool as all get out card keys would become absolutely GOLDEN to us later in the parks.
All Ill say about it now is the privileges afforded resort key card holders in the parks were HUGE and made the stay there well worth it. Well, that and the cookies. More on that later.
The room wasnt ready but she took our cell phone number and said they would call us when it was. Then she did something weve never witnessed upon check in at any Disney resort. She gave the kids a free gift.
Say what?!
I know thats what youre saying right now in your head. Because it was what I said in my head when she did it. Along with a few other things. Too numerous to mention.
Who knew the kids got a free gift when you checked into the Royal Pacific Resort? Not us. The only thing they ever got at Disney was a boatload of stickers. Stickers that somehow find themselves stuck to the girls daybed (and the girls dolls daybed) six months after we get home. All by themselves. Talk about bringing a piece of the magic home with you.
But not here. No. Here, they get Mack Daddy Magna Doodles, baby. The kind with the belt clip. Thats right. They were big time. And the kids were hugely impressed.
Well, the girl was. The boy wasnt as easily impressed. He was still fuming about the Spiderman glasses and was too busy thinking his prenager (which is, in his words, a cross between a preteen and a teenager, and applies to all boys who have reached the ripe old age of ten, or so he says) thoughts to be impressed with a Magna Doodle suitable for wearing on his belt buckle. Just like his little sister was doing.
And his mom.
After we finished oohing and ahhing over the free gifts, we were handed a voucher and directed to the concierge desk across the way to pick up our tickets for the theme parks.
We got in line, made it up to the front (in short order) and were given our length of stay tickets. Easy as pie. After we had our business sitchated, we turned and walked away. All happy and stuff. But then I remembered that I needed to make some reservations for our meals. So I walked to the next concierge booth (the one with no line: which would end up being a running theme on this trip) while the kids and DH had a seat in the lobby and before you know it, Mrs. First Day on the Job and Still Going Through Training was on the phone, booking a couple of meals for us. It really was that fast and easy. There was no need to book anything 18000 days out. No need to change and rechange, think and rethink. NOpeteandrepeat. This Universal thing might just be allright.
As I was standing there waiting for confirmation that we were good to go, a gentleman walked up, wanting to know some information on a certain meal at Disneyworld. My ears immediately perk up. He foolishly asked the other conciege attendant about it. Well call her Miss I Only Know About Meals at Universal and Then Im Not Even Sure About Those. Sadly, she didnt have the first clue about the name of a certain character dinner.
Hosted by Cinderella.
At the Grand Floridian.
I tried to hold back, giving her time to be the hero. But it was all just too much for me to take. If I held it another second, I wouldve literally burst at the seams. If I had seams.
1900 Park Fare!
I blurted out.
Much louder than I probably should have. And faster than the speed of light. Or the speed of sound. Minus the five second rule. And then I dropped my eyes. Sheepishly. As I kicked the floor with my toe.
Then I proceeded to give him a short little information download on the setup of the restaurant, price per person, typical menu selections, mine and my husbands personal preferences, cost and detailed description of the slipper dessert, a typical traffic flow pattern of the characters rotation within the dining room, our own personal tip on how to distinguish Suzy from Perla, an exact transcript of our most recent conversation with the Fairy Godmother, along with the approximate salt and butter content of each individual dish on the buffet.
All movement in the room ceased as everyone turned to look at (and mock) the idiot whose Disney geek knows no bounds.
After he recovered the ability to speak, he thanked me. And then ran way. Quickly. Never to be seen again.
NOmydignity.
After I managed to scare everyone in the room, we decided it was time for lunch.
Because freaking people out works up quite the appetite.
We ran down a list of restaurants at the resort and DH suggested we head out by the pool to check out Bula Bar and Grill. The man had his flip flops on and he was ready for some casual poolside dining. Because he was on vacation, dangit. A relaxing one at that. So we walked across the cavernous, marble floored lobby to a massive set of stairs on the opposite end of the building. We descended the stairs and walked outside. Again, we were blown away with the beauty of the grounds. I was sufficiently impressed. For the second time of the day. I flat out didnt expect the place to be that pretty. As I walked around with my mouth open and the kids squealed at the sight of the pool, DH smiled like a little kid and kept saying in a semi high pitched voice, I told you! I told you!
First of all, I dont remember him telling me anything. But thats his go to answer when somethings either A) exceeded my expectations or B) not lived up to my expectations. Either way, he comes out looking like a rose with superior knowledge. Just waiting to be spilled on somebody.
We walked out to the pool and I snapped a few shots.
All I can say is this pool was one bad mamma jamma. It had a zero entry point, which is awesome for little ones. And prenagers. The ship is a cool as all get out water play feature. Before our trip was over, the kids would spend umpteen million hours manning those water guns, running underneath the steady streams of water and being blown away by a monstrous blast of pool water three feet in diameter. In other words, this pool was the bomb diggity in their eyes.
It doesnt hurt that you can see parts of Islands of Adventure in the background. And hear the infectious sound of fun in surround sound.
As the kids and I took in the place, DH found a table for us. The tables were a nice size, complete with a huge umbrella for shade. We took a look at the menu, which I conveniently took a picture of.
It was the first official meal of vacation. Youll have to forgive me if I got a little snap happy with the camera. My habit of taking pictures of anything and everything while were on vacation is something that I (unfortunately) passed onto our children on this trip. Every time we went to a restaurant and we were served, theyd hold out their greasy little hands for the camera. In order to take a picture of their food. No, the apple does not fall far from the tree.
And no, thats not what the boy ate for lunch. We actually try to make them eat something besides ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard. Occasionally. Along with the boys sandwich, they brought out a condiment tray. For him and him alone. Hed never been given a condiment tray before. Much less one all to himself. It made him downright giddy to have such all encompassing power over so many condiments. They were his and his alone to partake of at his will. Certainly that moment is so special it deserves to be etched onto a memory card.
Along with 999 of its closest friends.
After we ate, we sat around and talked for awhile. This is always the point where were the most excited on our trips. The point where weve just checked in and were checking out our resort. The point where were as far away from the end of our vacation as we can get and still be there. The days ahead are full of possibilities and the promise of fun yet to come. We had a good meal that day but we had an even better time sitting around that teak table underneath an oversized umbrella pouring over our maps and information packet together. Thinking. Planning. Anticipating. Laughing. And making Redneck Mickey stickers.
As we were wrapping it up, we struck up a conversation with the family sitting next to us. Because thats what we do when were on vacation. We meet people. We like getting to know just a little bit about them and trading stories for a few minutes. What brought them there, what theyve experienced so far, that kind of thing. We found out they were from Florida and had season passes to Universal. We talked for a pretty good while and within that time, they shared several tips with us. Normally at Disney, this is the time where my eyes glaze over because I usually already know every piece of Disney knowledge random strangers lay on us there. Yes, I know about Fastpass. And yes, I know its free. But this time we were able to glean some pretty useful knowledge from the family we met on our first day of vacation. We were the rookies here. Not them. That was a weird feeling. But it was the first day of vacation so it was all good.
After we bid farewell to the family, the wife hesitated for a moment. She stepped away and then turned back. She acted like she wanted to tell me something else but was feeling a little shy about it. So I cut to the chase. I motioned her over and told her to spill it and spill it quick, sista. He eyes darted left and right nervously as she bent down and whispered in my ear If you like to people watch, theres NO BETTER PLACE to people watch than in these theme parks. Youre gonna see ALL KINDS of people out there.
And then she gave me a knowing smile. Combined with the head nod. And winked at me.
I studied her face for a moment and then blurted out Obviously youve never ridden a Disney bus. Sound the bell, schools in, sucka.
I said it not so much to her but more in my head and to myself.
While I did the Hamma.
As our new friends hurried off to sit on a park bench and take in the tourists, we took a stroll around the resort to get our bearings. We checked out the water taxi platform and came very close to heading into one of the parks for a few hours. But we had plans later and knew we needed to stay close to the resort in order to get unpacked as soon as our room was ready if we were to be able to stick to our cool as all get out plan for the evening. So we walked back up to the resort and checked out the gift shop. As we walked in, I realized I was missing something.
It was the information folder.
The same one that contained, among other things, all of our paperwork from our confirmation and check in. And although I couldnt be sure, there was a possibility that our credit card number was on some of that paperwork. More than likely it wasnt, but there was no way for me to be certain. And Orlando aint the place to have that floating around. So we backtracked and located the table wed left just a few short minutes before. We were disappointed to find the table had already been cleared without the first hint that wed ever been there. Dagnabbit! You can never get bad service when you need it. So DH approached our waiter and explained the situation. In hand gestures. Because of the whole language barrier thing. The guy goes in the kitchen and within a minute or so, returns with our information packet. And a very sheepish look on his face. God bless him. We both thank him profusely and DH hands it to me.
I notice it immediately.
It was wet. In spots. I wasnt expecting that. Upon closer inspection, there seemed to be stains of some sort on the outside. And the inside. Basically all over. They were scattered stains. As opposed to isolated stains. Stains that smelled a little like ginger dressing.
Me: Hey. Wanna know something funny?
DH: What?
Me: This packets wet. Kind of. Its a little bit wet. Why do you think that is?
DH: Because it was in the garbage, La.
Me: WHAT?!!!!!!!!
I immediately straighten out my entire hand and drop it like its hot.
Then run and jump in the pool. Because it was the closest source of chlorine available.
Regular garbage is one thing. Thats bad enough. But Orlando garbage is something else entirely. There aint a
bit of telling what lurks underneath the surface in that mess. But how cool was our waiter to go look in the garbage for a packet of info? Even though it was completely and utterly disgusting, I was still impressed.
And disgusted.
More impressed than disgusted though. Okay, who am I kidding? Im LaLa. Germ freak extraordinaire. I was way more disgusted than impressed. Which is why I picked it up with a really big leaf and held it at arms length the entire walk over to the gift shop. With my hazards on. I scored a small bag from the clerk (along with a really funny puzzled stare) and found a quiet place to weed through the contents and throw out what couldnt be salvaged and shuffle anything else that I didnt want to throw away right then into the bag. With the leaf. Then I washed up in the bathroom and bathed my entire body in antibacterial gel.
Three times. Then once again. For good measure.
And yes, I still have nightmares about it. Bad ones. The kind that produce a really funny (after the fact) bloodcurdling scream/yodel. Which never fails to scare the pants off my husband at three a.m. when he hears the signature scream/yodel pierce the quiet darkness of the night. Three inches away from what used to be his eardrum.
Yet the man still loves me. Go figure.
Properly bagged and sanitized, we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the arcade and were plunged headfirst into civilization when we encountered a new fangled contraption. The likes of which wed never seen before.
Would anyone like to tell me when video games got too good for quarters? And are the days of tokens gone already? Say it aint so!
After the kids took turns taking their parents to air hockey school, we went to check on our room and get a new information packet. Humming the theme to Miracle all the way.
It was getting to be that time. We needed to get a move on. After inquiring as to the status of our dang room, we were informed that it still wasnt ready. But we were told that another room just like the one wed been assigned was ready at that point.
Aloha? Well take it already.
We were given the room number, told the dude at the desk Mahalo and then hauled butt up to the 5th floor to find our room.
The worst picture Ive ever taken of a bathroom. But it was so big I had a hard time taking a good shot from the right angle. You get the idea.
And in the interest of fairness, heres the other half
Curved shower rods. Two shower heads. And plenty of handles. In case we fall and cant get up.
It was nice. Really nice.
The rooms were probably about the size of a moderate. Maybe just a tad bigger. Which was fine for the four of us for a few nights. Say that five times really fast. The storage space was sufficient, the queen beds were incredibly comfortable, the bathroom was HUGE (with cool as all get out light fixtures: dimmer ones) but even better than that, there was a lei waiting in the room for us. The girl squealed when she saw it. Funny how something so little can just scream vacation to us. She immediately threw it around her neck and paraded around the room, doing her best version of Lilo. Pre stinkin tuna discussion.
DH wasnt left out of the celebration either. He danced around the room and jumped on the beds when he spotted this little sweetheart.
Im not a huge coffee drinker but my husband is. So this little one cup Keurig coffee maker was perfect for him. Plus there were tons of cute little Emeril coffee pods provided.
BAM!
He was pumped.
Once wed finished jumping on the beds, carving LaLa wuz here in the furniture and unpacking, we gave the double shower heads and dimmer switches (LOVE the dimmer switches in the bathroom!) a workout and got dressed and fixed up lickity split.
The official version (meaning what we had told the kids) was that we were going somewhere to eat that night. Somewhere really good. And somewhere really cool. They had no idea how cool the night would actually end up being.
Once we were nice and clean, we discreetly grabbed our backpack, camcorder, camera and kids and headed out to the car. On our way to the mystery destination. At this point the kids didnt really think anything was up. They were just happy to be there. They were Oblivious and Clueless once again.
As we inched through Orlando traffic and the pouring rain (which was a HUGE thorn in my side considering our plans for the evening), we spotted a billboard along the way to our destination. The boy was the first one to spot it. Because he is his fathers son.
The boy: Ooooh, look. Its the Pirate and Princess Party.
The girl: I wish we could win tickets to that.
The boy: Yeah. Me too. Itd be cool to meet Jack SPA-rrow
Me: Yeah, its too bad about that. Oh well. Maybe next year.
And then my husband and I turned to face each other and we giggled. As I cranked up some sweet Disney Toons. Specifically, the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. It was the perfect tune to get us pumped about our night. In more ways than one.
And no, apparently you dont need to win tickets to the Pirate and Princess Party to be able to go. All you have to do is fork out some cash and they will, amazingly, let you in.
And thats exactly what we did.
As we made our way toward Walts World, the kids were really getting antsy as they tried to guess our destination. I just knew that since we were in Orlando, they would figure it out well before we got there. But they were completely oblivious and my husband and I couldnt believe it. Here we are knocking on Mickeys front door and they honestly had no clue where we were headed. The curious smiles never left their faces as they guessed everything from Medieval Times to Sea World and everything in between.
But not ONCE did they ever guess we were taking them here
Yes, I know. Its quite possibly the worst picture Ive ever taken of the arches. The weather was back with a vengeance and if I said we werent hugely concerned about how the night would turn out, Id be lying. But a rainy day (or night) in Disney is better than a sunny day at home. So in the end, it didnt matter whether it was raining or the sun was shining. We had four tickets to the Pirate and Princess Party and dangit, we were determined to have some fun. Rain or no rain.
When the kids saw the arches and realized they were actually going to the House of Mouse instead of Arbys, they went NUTS. It was ridiculous. There was a lot of pointing and squealing and seat dancing and high pitched screaming. Mostly from me. And them. They squealed and my husband and I guffawed. Which is different than just a regular laugh. It was a very, very cool moment filled with a huge swell of happiness and a ton of excited anticipation.
It was a moment I wont soon forget.
As we took turns laughing and yelling Smack me three times, were in Disneyworld! along with other variations of the phrase, we saw it. And the girl shrieked and pointed.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Up next: Magic, Music and Monsoon
Even MY Walgreens - nearly 2 hours away from WDW - is swimming in faux-Disney apparrel.
JK, but seriously, I'm holding off on the Universal jaunt until DS is tall enough to do most of the rides...and currently he's 3...albeit a very tall three year old...doom is impending. 
that place !! If it was closer I might choose to stay there and drive to Disney <gasp!> . We like the onsite perks of it as well 
