Overdue and Overpacked III: A Tale of Two Cities ~Last Chapter~ 8/22 Page 33

[lisalonglash]

Wicked. In a good way. Love it!

 

[MomofCKJ]

I've read your past reports and happy to sign on for this one. I hate driving in the rain, glad you got there okay. And I can't believe you are going to, that other place! That is so....so.....well it's so something! And you *gasp* liked some things better?? I am so intrigued!

Allyson

 

[lexmelinda]

Good stuff, girl!

I love Mr. La's mix tape. It brought back lots of memories and I used to listen to some of that stuff on 8 track. NO REALLY! And I saw lots of concerts back in the day: The Rolling Stones, The Police, Talking Heads, U2, REM, ELO, Adam Ant (yes I did!) and INXS in concert. Ahh....those were the days.

I love me some RainX......so I'm with Mr. Lala on that one. I keep the RainX wipes in my car. No wipers unless necessary.

I love that you and DH kept the secret. You know DS has not known we were going to Disney for the last two years. Not til the poor kid saw the arches. Isn't it fun?

What an awesome rainbow! What a treat!

Alright....next stop Universal?

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

Late to this two chapter party. Real life. it's so overrated.

Elvis
...
When we hold him up and make him talk.

We do this too. Not with Elvis, but with our kitties. Because we're a loooong ways away from the Mississsip.

At first I was all like, "Yes! Other people DO do this."
Then I realized the other people were the LaLas.

Then I was just darn proud.

Feel free to catch up once you’ve removed the fork from your arm.

People may want to hide their forks. I'll readily admit I have a love for US too. It is not adulterous or traitorous to my Disney love, just different from it. You know, like how Hef loves each of his three best bunnies differently.
Disney is like Holly.
US is like Bridget.
South of the Border is like Kendra. Neat on the surface but obnoxious and dirty-ish as soon as you get too close.
Sorry, the BF was watching the Girls Next Door.

Moving on...

Because that’s what it’s all about. Cooler access.

Not the hokey pokey. Don't believe the hype.

Hang on. Need to take my left hand out.

I like to think of myself as a fairly laid back person. Things that ruffle others peoples’ feathers normally don’t even show up on my radar. But there are some things that are just supposed to happen or else the world will cease to exist.

Liar.

Not really.

See?

But I will get extremely anxious. My right leg will begin to shake. Violently. My left eye (NOLisaLopez) will twitch. Sporadically. My teeth will clench. Grindingly. My hands will raise in the air. Involuntarily. And I will begin to pull out my hair one strand at a time. Painfully.

They make meds for this. I'll FedEx some to you. I find highly-sugared-children, carsickness and lawyers are my triggers.

The man had made the ultimate “mix tape”

Can we clone him? (NODolly)

Ever since Katrina, they’ve been pretty scared of bad weather. Both of them, but especially the boy, look to the skies with extremely heavy hearts and praying lips when a bad storm rolls in and they are not able to breathe easy until it’s passed. And they realize that everything is okay. Once again.

It hurts my heart that any children have to think like this. God bless 'em.

There was a full on celebration complete with chair jumping and exclamations of never ending love.

NOTomCruise.

Alas, the days of Risky Business are long gone.

And as we finally ran out of the storm and were greeted with this beautiful vision that God created spanning the sky before us, we were reminded of His promise and His provision for us. And in that instant, it all came together. Like a flood. The storms, the rainbow, the long year behind us, the stresses, the new beginnings that lie before us on the road ahead. The unchartered territory just waiting to be experienced on the other side. We knew that everything would turn out exactly the way it was supposed to. We knew it would be great. Better than great, even. And we knew that this vacation, this time of family togetherness, would be a truly blessed one.

A blessed one indeed.

And with that, we smiled and left the stress behind us. Where it belonged. And we set off to find our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

This was real sweet LaLa. Real sweet.

I'm glad to be Back. In Black. On this Crazy Train. I know, I know, you're thinkin' 'That Tinkerbellarella, She's Like the Wind'. But really. I've been here all along.

Hangin' Tough.

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Her name was Lola...

Hey, that's my goldfish's name.

 

[Liz]

LaLa, I'm new to your TR's but found them through Zzub's. I started reading this one then went back and read all of your first. Today I spent 10 hours in the hospital with my daughter doing annual tests which are the worst day of the year for both of us. I printed out most of your 2nd trippie and took it with me. I have to say it made the time go by much quicker and instead of focusing on worrying I spent the day with the LaLa family in WDW! A lady in the waiting room was talking on her cell and said she hadn't brought anything to read. I so wanted to hand over a stack of LaLa papers and say "get to reading girl"! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us!!!

 

[LaLa]

I cannot believe that you passed this going 75mph on the interstate! Only in the South!

You mean Mel only throws her leg out the window when she's in our country?! Yet another reason to move up north.

And congrats on the new job! Even if you have to spend the entire day with Chappie.

Thanks, Yak. I plan on giving him some photography lessons to pass the time so it's all good.

Wicked. In a good way. Love it!

Thanks Lisalonglash!

I've read your past reports and happy to sign on for this one. I hate driving in the rain, glad you got there okay. And I can't believe you are going to, that other place! That is so....so.....well it's so something! And you *gasp* liked some things better?? I am so intrigued!

Allyson

It's something allright. We really did like some things better. And we were just as shocked as you are about it. Thanks for jumping on board for another one, MomofCKJ!

I love Mr. La's mix tape. It brought back lots of memories and I used to listen to some of that stuff on 8 track. NO REALLY! And I saw lots of concerts back in the day: The Rolling Stones, The Police, Talking Heads, U2, REM, ELO, Adam Ant (yes I did!) and INXS in concert. Ahh....those were the days.

I'm so jealous! The only concerts I ever went to were MC Hamma and Egyptian Lover and Friends. Forget the Stones, Police, and U2. I can't believe you went to see ELO. I LOVE me some ELO. Don't Bring Me Down is actually the song I've played the most in the last week or so. Brings back so many memories. You hear that baby and you just know it was made for a skating rink and a disco ball.

I love that you and DH kept the secret. You know DS has not known we were going to Disney for the last two years. Not til the poor kid saw the arches. Isn't it fun?

And I love that you haven't told your son he's going to Disney until you pass underneath the arches for the last two years. That's awesome, Lexmelinda. Mad props for keeping the secret and surprising him. And yes, it IS fun.

We do this too. Not with Elvis, but with our kitties. Because we're a loooong ways away from the Mississsip.

At first I was all like, "Yes! Other people DO do this."
Then I realized the other people were the LaLas.

Then I was just darn proud.

What fun is having a pet if you can't make it talk?

People may want to hide their forks. I'll readily admit I have a love for US too. It is not adulterous or traitorous to my Disney love, just different from it. You know, like how Hef loves each of his three best bunnies differently.
Disney is like Holly.
US is like Bridget.
South of the Border is like Kendra. Neat on the surface but obnoxious and dirty-ish as soon as you get too close.
Sorry, the BF was watching the Girls Next Door.

I don't have any idea what the Girls Next Door is but this made me laugh.

Liar.

What is it with people calling me a liar today? Ask ZZUB to show you the way to the Ignore scrapbook party already in progress. You gotta watch him though. He'll steal your cake.

LaLa, I'm new to your TR's but found them through Zzub's. I started reading this one then went back and read all of your first. Today I spent 10 hours in the hospital with my daughter doing annual tests which are the worst day of the year for both of us. I printed out most of your 2nd trippie and took it with me. I have to say it made the time go by much quicker and instead of focusing on worrying I spent the day with the LaLa family in WDW! A lady in the waiting room was talking on her cell and said she hadn't brought anything to read. I so wanted to hand over a stack of LaLa papers and say "get to reading girl"! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us!!!

Liz, what you wrote made me smile. I'm so glad something like a little trip report that I wrote was able to distract you from your worries and make the time go by faster for you while you and your daughter were in the hospital. I pray your tests results bring you really good news. I'm glad you found us, Liz. Even though it's obvious that you read that mess ZZUB turns out, I'm willing to overlook it. Thanks for posting.

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

I don't have any idea what the Girls Next Door is but this made me laugh.

It's a reality TV show about Hef and his three favorite "girlfriends" at the Playboy mansion. It's obnoxiously funny.

What is it with people calling me a liar today? Ask ZZUB to show you the way to the Ignore scrapbook party already in progress. You gotta watch him though. He'll steal your cake.

LaLa, I meant it with all the love in the world. And the World. And mainly because I'm totally borg with you on the control-freak-windshield-wipers-anxiety-ridden-use-them-in-the-rain thing.

If I comment on the size of your guns, will I be back in your good graces?

ZZUB can scrapbook, hm? I bet his scrapbook is full of non-pictures of his family. And the Schpup. And BGPC.

Seriously, though, no offense meant. By me. I can't speak for Z. He does pretty well speaking for himself.

 

[Frickles]

I mostly sat back and begged him to turn the windshield wipers on high instead of showing me how well the Rain X application he’d recently put on the windshield was working.

Ahhhh, this reminds me of the year my dad sprayed Pam cooking oil all over the front of our van before heading to Florida. The purpose was to keep the road bugs from sticking to the front. The result was a greasy ole Pam'd up windshield and 4700 more bugs stuck to the car than usual.

In fact, he will still bring up The Year We Made Great Time to me every now and then and my standard response without exception must be “That’s dang good time” or else he’ll chase me down the hall, hold me down and give me a wedgie.

Now this is just cute! Stuff like this just makes me want to hang out with the La's 'cause I know it would be fun.

That’s right. We done got ourselves a real bonified GPS, baby!

I am the Redneck GPS no more.

Yeah for the LaLa's!!!

I'm a Redneck ToothTunes. Lil Frick lost his so now I sing while he brushes his teeth. I crack up every time.

So we did the best we could by blotting the rain off our arms, legs and faces and headed out front to place our order and find a seat.

With our flip flops squeaking the whole way.

I am very familiar with that sound! Girl I am right there with y'all. I can smell the amonia in the bathroom and I can see your hair after blowdrying it with the hand dryer and my mouth is starting to water for some McD's french fries (which by the way, I have only had once since January thankyouverymuch)

DH joined in on the fun by adding “You must have to really be special to score tickets to something like that. Too bad we’re not going. But we’ll have to see if they’ve got a Shrek and Dunkey party at Universal. I’m sure it’ll be just as much fun.”

So ded.

And what is a Dunkey?

And as a parent, there’s not too many feelings better than having the opportunity to surprise your children with something they’ve been pining for. It made it all worth it.

So true girl. You know La, we've surprised our boys twice.... it made me so sad last week when we told them we were taking them somewhere special after lil Frick's baseball game, which happened to be on the night of his birthday. We were headed to the fair located in the parking lot of our Mall. They thought the 'somewhere special' comment was a dead ringer for 'We're going to Disney'. They were a tiny bit bummed. Same thing happened on Mother's Day. We were heading to Atlanta to let Lil Frick shop for his birthday and his brother told him we were really taking him to Disney for his birthday. The boy is as gullable as his momma....and yet again, he was so bummed. I have GOT to find the right pair of shoes and practice holding my mouth just right. Those surprises are AWESOME though.... it is a great feeling to give them that gift. Just the other day my oldest told one of his friends about how his Mom likes to surprise them with fun stuff. I think I vibrated. Your kids will never forget your sweet surprises.

And then off in the distance we spotted it.

It was vague and hard to make out at first but then as the minutes ticked by, the colors of the rainbow grew vivid and unmistakable. Besides the faces of our newborn babies, it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. It was huge. It spanned the sky starting on the right and seemed to roll and jump in front of our very eyes and then suddenly the end of the rainbow was visible on the left side as well.

The kids had only seen rainbows in pictures prior to this day. Never right in front of them. In full blown Technicolor. And as excited as they were about reaching our destination, I think they were even more excited about seeing that rainbow.

That beautiful, awe inspiring rainbow.

This past year has been a particularly stressful one for our family. Everyone is healthy and happy and we all still love each other dearly. But there were a lot of uncertainties and many more stresses than usual. Most of them tied to our jobs. To put it bluntly, it had been a pretty long year for both me and my husband. This spontaneous vacation was about getting away from it all for us. For just a few days. We were eagerly anticipating being able to put our stressors in a box and throw away the key for just a little while.

And as we finally ran out of the storm and were greeted with this beautiful vision that God created spanning the sky before us, we were reminded of His promise and His provision for us. And in that instant, it all came together. Like a flood. The storms, the rainbow, the long year behind us, the stresses, the new beginnings that lie before us on the road ahead. The unchartered territory just waiting to be experienced on the other side. We knew that everything would turn out exactly the way it was supposed to. We knew it would be great. Better than great, even. And we knew that this vacation, this time of family togetherness, would be a truly blessed one.

A blessed one indeed.

And with that, we smiled and left the stress behind us. Where it belonged. And we set off to find our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

You found the rainbow connection. I quoted all of this because it is so worth requoting. How sweet is that. Stress is a tough monster to conquer and it is awful what it can do to you, and it sure is good to get some relief from it. I'm so glad you guys were able to go! I don't think you would have been this excited pulling into Dollywood. Nope, no way.

AND, last of all.....CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NEW JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is wonderful!!!

Love ya La and I'm so glad you are back on this TR board!!!!!!!

 

[LaLa]

Seriously, though, no offense meant. By me. I can't speak for Z. He does pretty well speaking for himself.

None taken whatsoever, Tink. As for Z (I thought I was the only one you were on first syllable terms with), there's plenty of offense taken. But mostly on account of the smell.

If I comment on the size of your guns, will I be back in your good graces?

Not really. Although I have been known to pull out the big guns a time or two, my guns really aren't all that big. So I'd see right through it. My husband is the only one around here (well, besides ZZUB of course) with massive guns. And believe me, they are massive. Comment on those and I'm guessing you'll be in his good graces. Which is kind of the same thing as being in mine.

Ahhhh, this reminds me of the year my dad sprayed Pam cooking oil all over the front of our van before heading to Florida. The purpose was to keep the road bugs from sticking to the front. The result was a greasy ole Pam'd up windshield and 4700 more bugs stuck to the car than usual.

Frick, I'm DED over this. You sure we didn't have the same daddy? Because that so sounds like something he would do. One of DH's coworkers has been telling DH for years to spray some Pledge on the front of the van and it'll make it easier to wash the lovebugs off. We haven't tried it yet. Mainly because DH is worried it might mess up the paint job. But mostly because our friends and family already pick on him about being such a stickler for vehicle maintenance. If they caught him dusting the van, he'd never live it down.

So true girl. You know La, we've surprised our boys twice.... it made me so sad last week when we told them we were taking them somewhere special after lil Frick's baseball game, which happened to be on the night of his birthday. We were headed to the fair located in the parking lot of our Mall. They thought the 'somewhere special' comment was a dead ringer for 'We're going to Disney'. They were a tiny bit bummed. Same thing happened on Mother's Day. We were heading to Atlanta to let Lil Frick shop for his birthday and his brother told him we were really taking him to Disney for his birthday. The boy is as gullable as his momma....and yet again, he was so bummed. I have GOT to find the right pair of shoes and practice holding my mouth just right. Those surprises are AWESOME though.... it is a great feeling to give them that gift. Just the other day my oldest told one of his friends about how his Mom likes to surprise them with fun stuff. I think I vibrated. Your kids will never forget your sweet surprises.

Frick! Don't tell me that! Your poor kids sound just about as shell shocked as mine are. I've been surprising them with everything. Trips to the pool, checkouts, dental visits. They don't know whether they're coming or going at this point. I'm DED though at the thought of yall pulling into the pump fake fair in the mall parking lot and your boy going "No really. Where are we goin'?"

How sweet is it though that your kids brag to their friends about their Mama's sweet surprises? I know that made it all worth it.

I have trouble believing you don't have the right pair of shoes already in your closet though, woman. Maybe you just need to plus it, as Walt sad, and add some kickin' accessories this time.

 

[LaLa]

After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived in Orlando. And promptly made what would be the first of many changes to the itenerary. The formerly set in stone, not to be messed around with (NOJim), iron clad, don’t change it or else bad, horrible things might happen itinerary.

The one we were, little by little, beginning to throw out the window.

Figuratively. Not literally.

Because we give a hoot. We don't pollute.

The original plan had us checking into our hotel for the night, dropping off our bags and then heading out to grab some dinner nearby. But since we did not make dang good time and in fact made dang bad time, we were arriving much later than we thought we would be. Some might even say we were overdue. Some might not. Regardless, we took a walk on the wild side. We switched up the plan and decided to grab some (off property) dinner before we checked into our (off property) hotel.

Those are not words we’re very familiar with, by the way.

Off property.

We tend to think of ourselves as On Property People. OPP, if you will. That’s right. Naughty by Nature had it all wrong. When we go to Disney, we stay on property. We eat every meal on property. Once we arrive, we park our tails on property and we don’t dare venture outside the invisible border of Walt’s 47 square miles for the entire week. For nothin’. We have even come thisclose to disowning a certain member of our family, one who shall remain nameless, for driving us out of Disneyworld.

On prior trips. Not this one. Or the last one. But on the one before that.

In case anyone is confuzzled.

Unless you’ve been skimming (or falling asleep in an alcove that looks more like a lobby) as you attempt to follow along with this neverending pointless thread, you should already know we were doing things differently this year. And we’d often wondered if there was something on the other side of those arches that we were missing out on. Okay, not often. That may be stretching it a bit. We’re usually pretty darn content being so far removed from the traffic and the litter and the Ponderosa patrons who think nothing of farting their all you can eat sirloin steak farts in your face while your mouth is open. But we’ve wondered about it a time or two. Okay, once. We wondered about it once. Right before we left. And this was our chance to find out what else was out there. Had we been missing out on anything all this time? More importantly, would we be able to score a good meal for a fair price? Would we land a cheap hotel room without bed bugs or lice infestations? Would this paragraph ever end?

The answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

Because just as we put Ponderosa on Ignore and found ourselves a nice little Carrabba’s, the storm reared its ugly head again. DH let us out at the front door and headed off to the back forty to park the van. Because he’s a gentleman. But mostly because he’s still trying to make up for the time he drove us out of Disneyworld.

We showed up pretty late (in our world, that means after 6:00 because we’re all Del Boca Vista when it comes to dinner times) and I was worried we would have a long wait. But there was no reason to worry. We were seated within five minutes. Before we had time to turn around good, we were nestled in and feasting on some of the most delicious bread and herb dip man has ever seen fit to create. From our cozy table inside the safety of the restaurant, we looked out on the parking lot and watched palm trees sway in the wind. We observed leaves and small branches being strown around. We heard the howling of the wind. And we declared how glad we were that we were inside and not outside. On the road. Or in the middle of a theme park. God forbid a million times. But most importantly, we did some serious damage to our cute little plate o’ herbs. Not only did we clean the plate, we licked it. We licked the plate, we licked our fingers. We even licked the spillage off each other. And the people sitting at the table next to us. That’s how good it was. But that was just the beginning. As good as the bread may have been, the main course was even better. I chose the Chicken Parmesan and DH had some sort of Shrimp Scampi dish. They were both out of this world. In fact, it was so good that it’s possible it could have rivaled the best meal ever.

Well, maybe.

Back in the summer of 2001, I was traveling home from a business meeting in Washington when the plane I was on experienced a scare in mid air. A big scary scare in mid air. I won’t go into all the details but suffice it to say I firmly believe God intervened and is the only reason I’m here today. The meal I had that night in D.C. after we made it safely back to the hotel that the airline had booked for us will forever hold the title as the best meal of my life. The filet was downright divine. The au gratin potatoes tasted like heaven. The salad was so good it made me cry. Looking back, the food probably wasn’t all that great in reality. Removed from the circumstances. But after the experience we’d just been through, that meal was without a doubt the best thing I’d ever been blessed enough to raise to my mouth.

And it will forever be.

This meal may not have been as good as that. But it was pretty darn memorable in its own right. Both my husband and I agreed wholeheartedly that our meal that night at Carrabba’s was head and shoulders above a very high percentage of the meals we’d ever had on property at Disney. And MUCH cheaper, to boot. In fact, it would turn out to be the best meal we had of the entire trip. How 'bout that? Either it was that good or else we were just really hungry and really glad to be there. Kind of like that night in June 2001. Regardless of the reason, we were sufficiently impressed with our off property find.

After we finished licking the crumbs off the floor, we asked for a to-go box for the rest of the kids’ pizza. Because we ain’t about wasting food. Starving kids in Africa and all that. Also because we knew we would have a fridge in our room and our kids love them some cold pizza for breakfast. After the waitress boxed the pizza up and handed us our fancy schmancy doggie bag, we left the restaurant. All fat and sassy. And thankful to have stumbled upon the place.

Once we made it back out to the van, we drove around the general vicinity for a few minutes and found our hotel. Our one night hotel. The Hampton Inn, baby. This is the one that was booked at the last minute. DH had gone online and picked it out of a plethora of hotels based on guest reviews. It had ranked pretty high and we were anxious to see if it was really all that and a bag of chips.

But mostly, we were anxious to just get a hot shower and crash. Because that’s the one and only purpose of the one night hotel anyway.

We checked in. Grabbed our overnight bag, being careful not to forget our good pillers. And the 128 oz. bottle of Lysol spray, of course. As we made our way into the hotel, the storm was still showing off something fierce so I quietly reminded the kids how to count the seconds between the lightning flashes and the sound of the thunder in order to determine how far away it was. I’m not sure if it’s an accurate formula but I’ve always been told one second equals one mile. And normally, once they realize they’re five or so miles away from the action, it seems to ease their worries. Worries eased, we walked down the high falutin’ interior corridors of our hotel. We found our room. Opened the door. And were very pleasantly surprised for the second time of the evening.

The room was immaculate. There was lots of dark cherry wood and plenty of storage space, a small fridge, plasma TV, crisp, fluffy white down comforters covering two queen size to die for pillow top mattresses. More good pillers than you can shake a stick at. There was also a huge desk with a lit mirror that would work just fine for some one on one time with Estee Lauder in the a.m. Unlike my girl Frick, I wasn’t planning on taking one for the team. Plus there was the all important hard carpet.

Can’t forget that hard carpet.

The bathroom didn’t disappoint either. It was nice and roomy. Plus they even had curved shower rods. But above all of that, the room was clean. Clean as a dadgum whistle.

Which has never made any sense to me. Have you ever looked inside a whistle? Those things are saliva traps. Ain't nothing clean about that.

But the thing that really surprised us was the fact that we paid roughly what we would pay for a value resort for this room. Look, I’m all about being on property if we’re going to be staying all week. I love the convenience and the location benefits of staying on property. What we give up in room appointment is worth the trade off for what we gain when we step outside that hotel room door. But after that night, I can completely see the draw of staying off property. The room was pretty darn well appointed for a very low price point, considering where we were. All in all, it wasn’t too shabby. We were extremely pleased with our digs.

Once I got the kids bathed and sent them out to lounge in two of the most comfortable beds in all of Florida and fight their dad for the remote, I jumped in the shower (complete with wide lanes) and used as much hot water as I wanted. And then a little more for good measure. Because that’s how I roll it in a hotel. As I was drying off, I heard it through the door. It was faint at first. Barely audible. I stopped in mid dry and cocked my head to the side to get a better listen.

Surely it can’t be. Please tell me I’m not hearing what I think I’m hearing. Could it… possibly be?

Quick as a flash, I wrapped myself up in a big thirsty towel as big as the state of Texas and rounded the corner to confirm what I knew I already knew.

Oh snap! It’s Stacy.

For awhile now I’ve had a quasi love/hate relationship with the Top Seven Must Sees and its host. Mostly her braids bug me. Her voice annoys me. Her ears scare me. But mostly DH. Don’t even get me started on the whole lazy people on the lazy river thing. I’ve never understood why there’s only seven. The fact that they couldn’t round it up to ten bothers me. You can’t tell me there weren’t three more spotlight worthy attractions they could’ve picked. Within the boundaries of four freakin’ theme parks and a resort property the size of Manhattan.

But.

Watching the Top Seven Must Sees has become a tradition for us. Much like losing to State has become a tradition for Bama. It annoys the stew out of us yet we watch anyway. I wasn’t expecting to be able to pick up Stacy and the Top Seven show off Disney property but I must confess, I got downright giddy when I saw it. And so did the rest of my crew. Well, except for DH. When he saw it, his exact words were “Not Stacy! Anybody but Stacy! I thought they would’ve gotten rid of her and re-shot that thing years ago.”

As I stood there dripping water on the hard carpet, I shouted out an overexuberant “No doubt!” in agreement with my husband. I may have followed it with a combination “Pfffff”/eye roll/head bob. The gesture that expresses indignance and disgust with nary a word. But the fact of the matter is that it was all a façade to hide my true feelings. The ones that even I have trouble understanding. Because as I watched her ride Crush n Gusher and eat sushi in Japan, I secretly felt a little sad at the thought of not seeing Stacy and her Top Seven Must Sees on our TV anymore when we go on vacation. Even though I’ve got no love whatsoever for the braids. I realized that like most things at Disney, the repetition had made it familiar to me. And because of that, Stacy was now forever linked to the Land of Yellow in my mind. That night she was thrown into the big bucket of familiarity and nostalgia which screams Disney to me.

And I’m still not happy about it.

After we watched the show in its entirety (it’s like a train wreck, you just can’t look away), we (DH) flipped through the channels and we were shocked to find Universal had their own little station goin’ on.

Who knew? And it’s not just Universal that has a station. The greater Orlando area had a station too. Apparently everybody’s got a station these days. In vacation world, if you don’t have your own station, you better get back on the porch. And although there is only one Stacy (fortunately), others are doing their level best to keep up. With Tracy.

She may not be as annoying but she's close.

We watched for a little while and then flipped on over to the Six Flags station. After a half hour of the Dogpatch USA station and ten minutes of the Arby’s station starring the Oven Mitt Man, we called it a night.

Our plans for the first part of the next day were pretty flexible. Basically, they involved getting over to the Royal Pacific in enough time to check in, eat lunch and check out the place before heading off on an adventure that afternoon. So instead of getting a wake up call, we decided to just sleep until we woke up the next morning. We knew we wouldn’t sleep past the check out time because half of us (meaning the ones with the testosterone) have internal alarm clocks that go off at 6 each morning. The only question was: would their snooze button fail us?

After one of the best nights’ sleep in a hotel room ever, we awoke in our comfortable fluffy white beds to find the room dark as night. Still. At first glance, we thought it was before day break, but a quick check of the clock told us that it was 9 a.m. Perfect. We got up, fed the kids their cold pizza, got showered, changed and out of that baby pronto.

Because we had bigger fish to fry.

Before we could check into our resort though, we needed to made a little pit stop.

I had forgotten to pick up sunglasses for the kids before we left and I wasn’t about to look at a thousand vacation photos of myself smiling behind a big ole pair of shades while our children squinted into the sun. Again. Plus I needed to pick up a few other items as well. So we spied a Walgreen’s near the Universal entrance and whipped on in. All I can say about my shopping experience at Walgreen’s is that I was floored by all the cheap Disney stuff for sale in there. Floored! It was like browsing for Prada purses in Chinatown. Not that I've ever done that. Or know anyone who has.

When I first walked in the door, I ran smack dab into a display of Mickey ringer tees on sale. Two for twelve bucks. I just about fell out cold. Not because of the thought that you could buy a classically posed Mickey on the front of a ringer tee (yall know the shirts I’m talking about) for six bucks but because on closer inspection, Mickey looked a little more like Mikey, Mickey’s fifth cousin twice removed. Who lives in Yemen. And sports a glass eye. In fact, The Six Dollar Mouse looked NOTHING like the Mickey we all know and love. From far away, there was a slight resemblance, but up close it was a fabric farce. So I promptly bought one and dropped it in the mail to ZZUB. Because I’m cool like that. And I know how much he appreciates a bargain.

After I picked myself up off the floor, I grabbed some sunglasses for the kids. I got the girl a pair of cute pink "rock star" glasses, which I knew she would like, but was stumped about what to get the boy. Everything had characters on it and since I know he’s not down with that, I picked a pair that looked similar to a pair of Oakleys. With a virtually microscopic Spiderman head on the top right corner of the lens. It was barely even visible. At no more than roughly 2 cm wide, it was almost as good as gone (besides, it was the best choice of the lot) so I figured they might pass muster.

When I got out to the car, we put the van in drive (well, DH did) and I passed out the sunglasses. The girl was thrilled with hers and promptly put them on. Never to be taken off. The boy took one look at what I’d picked for him, stared at them for a second or two in disbelief and then threw them right back in my face.

Not really. I’m kidding.

Instead, he held them out for me to get a good look at and said “You’re not gonna catch a ten year old walking around in a pair of Spiderman glasses, I can tell you that.” Then he did the combination “Pffff” eye roll/head bob thing.

In other words, the boy was NOT DOWN WITH THE CHARACTER ACTION. So I spanked him really hard and forced him to wear them anyway. Along with the bunny suit Aunt Clara made for him for Christmas.

Actually I didn’t. But my husband and I did laugh (and feel a little sad at the same time) at the boy’s new found indignance at wearing a pair of sunglasses with a microscopic Spiderman on them.

When just a few years ago, he would’ve eaten them up.

Sigh.

With the Spiderman Sunglass Fiasco behind us, we moved onto the moment we’d been waiting for. We took a short spin across the street and drove straight onto Universal Orlando property.

Oh yeah baby! We'd finally arrived.

We were giddy as we drove. Maybe not full on giddy, but still. Giddy. We were really excited to be there and were anxious to see what adventures lay before us. On the other side.

As we drove underneath the "arches", the girl and I fake cried and pointed. And then we laughed at our stupid selves. Cause we're cool like that.

We pointed out the Universal busses...

Found our big honkin’ resort sign…

And finally, were surprised to find they even had the prerequisite guard gate…

As we pulled up toward the gate and were greeted with a very friendly “Aloha”, I took a good look around me. I think that was the moment that I realized this place was gonna be allright. It was beautiful there. Surprisingly beautiful. The landscaping was lush and thick and the theming was spot on. I don’t know what I expected. It’s not like I was expecting to stay in a dump. I knew it was going to be nice. I just wasn’t prepared to immediately like it so much, I suppose.

We decided to park our ride for the moment because A) the porte cochere was extremely crowded at the time and B) we weren’t sure when we’d be able to get in our room and C) we were okay with delaying the humiliation that goes hand in hand with unpacking our stuff in the presence of others for just a little while longer.

As we parked our overpacked ride and then walked across the street that separates the self parking area from the resort, we both immediately got a serious AKL vibe. We even said it to each other “I’m getting a serious AKL vibe.” From the outside, the resort seemed to be set up just like our beloved Animal Kingdom Lodge. The landscaping, the street dividing the resort from the parking lot, the walkover, it was a very weird feeling. Almost like déjà vu. But not really. As we walked up the small hill to the resort, I looked around me and breathed in. Deeply.

And made a flood of observations all at once.

The very first thing I noticed, besides the overwhelming lush beauty of the resort, was the fact that it smelled wonderful there. That was surprising. I can’t properly describe the smell. It was very similar to the one that permeates the AKL. The one we love so much. Well, when the poop pumping trucks aren’t around. It was similar, but slightly different. I suppose the best way to describe it is that it smelled like vacation. Wonderful, sweet vacation. The next thing I noticed was that you could hear the screams of fellow guests riding the Hulk and Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall off in the distance. They were screaming their heads off. And the fun they were having was infectious. It put a little skip in your step. The fact that you could hear them from the resort was pretty unexpected and is a testament to how much closer everything is in relation to the parks here. It’s not nearly as spread out as Disney and both parks can be reached by foot easily within about ten minutes. As we got closer we noticed the resort and the theming were top notch and very reminiscent of the Polynesian. It was very tropical and the vibe was extremely calming. Which is exactly what we were looking for. The last observation I made was that a huge number of guests seemed to be leaving on that day. Hence the backed up porte cochere. One look in the eyes of those vacationers told a complete tale. They were packing a raging case of Universalfreude.

Whatever that is.

We walked across the long bamboo bridge entryway, stopping along the way to take a picture or two.

Then we walked in through the front door and stopped dead in our tracks.

As we looked around, we caught eyes and smiled at each other. We may have even laughed at nothing and everything all at once. Needless to say, we were pretty dadgum impressed with the place and we just knew our time there was going to be good.

Right then and there, we did a whole lot of jumping up and down. We yelled “WHOOO HOOO WE’RE HERE!!!” and danced a jig. A backwards one.

But only in our minds. And to ourselves.

Because we were in a resort with interior corridors. And an orchid garden. And in those circumstances, we’re all about trying to exude some class.

And avoiding walking into the gas.

Sadly, we would be successful at neither.

Up Next: Lost and Found

 

[jcc0621]

Surely it can’t be. Please tell me I’m not hearing what I think I’m hearing. Could it… possibly be?

Quick as a flash, I wrapped myself up in a big thirsty towel as big as the state of Texas and rounded the corner to confirm what I knew I already knew.

Oh snap! It’s Stacy.

ACK

Instead, he held them out for me to get a good look at and said “You’re not gonna catch a ten year old walking around in a pair of Spiderman glasses, I can tell you that.” Then he did the combination “Pffff” eye roll/head bob thing.

In other words, the boy was NOT DOWN WITH THE CHARACTER ACTION. So I spanked him really hard and forced him to wear them anyway. Along with the bunny suit Aunt Clara made for him for Christmas.

But it's so PINK

Up Next: Lost and Found

Uh oh

 

[ZZUB]

Those are not words we’re very familiar with, by the way.

I imagine there are a lot of words you're not familiar with. Here now, a partial list:

Dictionary
Deoderant
Class
Couth
Toothbrush
Toilet paper
Winning Season
SEC Championship
Teeth
Dental floss
Indoor plumbing
Plumbing
Fresh vegetables
Pepsi
Diet Pepsi
Pepsi One
One Diet Pepsi
Dulcolax
Diploma
and Succint

On prior trips. Not this one. Or the last one. But on the one before that.

Hang on a second. I'm fully awake and I have no clue which trip you're talking about here. Was this the trip from 2005 or 2004? Is there some kind of key we can consult?

Would this paragraph ever end?

Your ability to sum up what so many of us are thinking is impressive.

The answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

As am I after I've had Mexican. Food that is.

They were both out of this world.

We get it; you stayed off-property. How many times are you going to tell us that?!

I’ve always been told one second equals one mile.

That's interesting. I'd always heard that 5,280 feet equals one mile. Must be the difference in our education.

Much like losing to State has become a tradition for Bama. It annoys the stew out of us yet we watch anyway.

If it annoys the stew out of you, can you imagine what it does to us? FYI: if something happening 2 years in a row makes a tradition, then you are ready to be a ZZUB.

So I promptly bought one and dropped it in the mail to ZZUB.

That was from you?! I thought my Aunt Barabara forgot to put a card in the box again.

Other than the fact I can't tell if you went to Disney World or Universal or Dollywood or all three, I'm enjoying your TR. It's vaguely reminiscent of a root canal I had a few years back.

And don't front, LaLa, we all know y'all tried to get into the Ponderosa but the line was out the door and you ended up at Carrabas on accident.

 

[praisehisname]

Now you've got me actually (gasp!) considering checking out Universal! That resort looks really nice!

Denise

 

[Backstage_Gal]

We tend to think of ourselves as On Property People. OPP, if you will. That’s right. Naughty by Nature had it all wrong. When we go to Disney, we stay on property. We eat every meal on property. Once we arrive, we park our tails on property and we don’t dare venture outside the invisible border of Walt’s 47 square miles for the entire week. For nothin’.

You were Disney Marketing Machine Dream People. :
"Come here, my Pretty, DO NOT LEAVE! Spend every last penny in the House of the Mouse."
Witness Disney's Magical Express. Free transportation, no need for a car, just stay ON PROPERTY!!! (where is that hypnosis smiley when you need it!?)

But no more! It's a sad, sad day for my 401K. Let's just hope it's not going to catch on

The last observation I made was that a huge number of guests seemed to be leaving on that day. Hence the backed up porte cochere. One look in the eyes of those vacationers told a complete tale. They were packing a raging case of Universalfreude.

Whatever that is.

Schadenfreude isenjoyment taken from the misfortune of someone else. So technically, YOU were having Universalfreude, if indeed you got enjoyment from them leaving. The people checking out just had misery. Sorry, being German, that just always slightly bugged me (see, I am typing this really small)
(NOZzub) However, I will accept and embrace it as a DIS term (as if I had a choice, LOL)



Fabulous report as always, Lala!!

 

[Tanya90210]

Can't hide from stacy

That resort looks gorgeous!!! Your GPS is wickid cool... I am hopin we get one before the trip as I hate being the "navigator" too...

Another fabu chapter LaLa

 

[Msslaydbug]

I have always been an on-Disney-property fan as well..... that's until we stay a Royal Pacific as well !!! We 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 and the pool was divine ! Your pictures brought back fond memories

 

[Liz]

Liz, what you wrote made me smile. I'm so glad something like a little trip report that I wrote was able to distract you from your worries and make the time go by faster for you while you and your daughter were in the hospital. I pray your tests results bring you really good news. I'm glad you found us, Liz. Even though it's obvious that you read that mess ZZUB turns out, I'm willing to overlook it. Thanks for posting.

Hi LaLa, unfortunately the test results were not what we hoped for so we'll be doing a repeat performance of the hospital stay a month from now. Don't suppose you could get this TR done by then so it can come with us?! (I know, not holding my breath or anything.) Just FYI, your #2 report ended up being 156 pages long after I copied it into Word, deleted the pics and combined lots (but not all by any means) of paragraphs! Enjoyed every second of your second!

Info on our situation can be found here if you are interested:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1822232

 

[lexmelinda]

Your installment just made me wanna rush right over to the Universal boards. It sounds great so far.

I could've done without the people farting their all you can eat steak at you when your mouth is open. But that made me snort-laugh a little.

And Stacy! Is there no escape?!

Where's that Hampton Inn? It looks like the rooms I've seen at the Contemporary! Nice.

 

[princessjv]

Another masterpiece in the making is amongst us. Glad to hear that there may be life outside of the back forty-seven. We just haven't mustard that courage to check it out yet. Glad someone has.

Hear that noise?



sssssssssss





Hear it? SSSSSSSS




Yep.




You sucked me in.