Pop Goes the James Gang!

[bobbi565]

It's 6:40 AM, my luggage is in the car, I'm showered, dressed, and breakfasted and impatiently awaiting the appropriate time to wake my boys for the last leg of our trip from Columbia, MD to Walt Disney World! What better way to pass the time than to start my trip report? Here are the cast of characters:

me - 47 yo middle school language arts teacher and compulsive planner
DH - 48 yo journalist who's a big kid at heart but a grizzly bear when crossed
DS - 9 yo little funny man, quirky kid with a touch of sensory integration disorder, which makes life interesting

This will be our second visit to the World as a family, the first one taking place during spring break of 2010. We flew then and stayed at Pop, which we loved. We did three out of four theme parks and Downtown Disney. We definitely plan on hitting Epcot this time, so I'm really excited to see DS's reaction to that. DH decided it would be good to have our car with us this time, and since all three of us are quite accustomed to long road trips (DS was terrified of flying until he was 8), we tackled the journey in our trusty Honda Odyssey, covering most of the miles by stopping in Jacksonville today, and finishing up the less than three hours to go this morning.

We will be at Pop through Wednesday night. Thursday morning we will check out and drive to LEGOLAND. DS is a LEGO fanatic, and he is totally unaware of this part of the plan, so I'm excited to see how surprised he will be. Thursday night we will stay at the former Clarion in Celebration (it's been rennovated and changed into a Comfort Inn, I believe), then back to the World to hit the park of our choice Friday morning until early afternoon before beginning the trip home, stopping in Savannah then finishing the journey on Saturday.

We have lunch at Sci Fi Drive In, a favorite of DH's and mine, tomorrow and character breakfast at Chef Mickey's on Tuesday. Stay tuned for the details and lots of pics, as I'm a bit of a mommarazzi!

 

[bobbi565]

We were up an at ‘em by 8:30 AM. It was smooth sailing to Orlando, and my heart went all a ‘flutter when I saw that magical gateway!

Check in at Pop was smooth and easy. The boys scoped out the gift shop while I took care of business including placing a large collection of gift cards on our account that inspired the admiration of the cast member checking us in. When we made our reservations, we told our family members that we wanted Disney gift cards for all birthday, anniversary, and other gift giving occasions. They were quite generous!

Once we were checked in, we were able to head to our room early, 352 in ‘70s building 10, where DS and I put on our swim gear and headed out to the pool.

DH came out with us, but headed into Classics Hall to get some lunch. At 12:00, Petals bar opened, and I treated myself to a Hula Hoop cocktail, a heavenly concoction of Malibu rum, Crème de banana, melon liquer, pineapple juice, and grenadine…yum! After finishing his lunch, DH, who’s not much of a pool guy, decided to head back to the room to do some unpacking and get us set up on the much touted “free wifi” that Disney has now made available in the resorts.

DS and I remained at the pool where the poolside hostess began a game of “What’s in Your Beach Bag?”, a scavenger hunt for teams. DS and I teamed up and were given a laminated piece of paper with the number 7 on it. As the cast member announced items such as a flip flop, sunscreen, a cell phone. a park map, etc., we needed to show her the item and our number to score points. The first to produce the item would get extra points. The team with the most points won. Well, it was pretty much me running around getting items while DS went back to playing in the pool. We did pretty well, but only came in second. It was a lot of fun anyway, and by the time we finished, we were ready to head back to the room and hit a park.

When we got back to the room, DH was haggling with tech support about the wifi that did not appear to be accessible. They weren’t able to give him a quick and easy answer, nor were they willing to give him an actual phone number other than #56 from your room phone. He told us to go ahead without him, as tech support was going to call him back in 10 minutes. I told him I’d take DS to the playground for a while and then he’d hopefully be through.

Fifteen minutes later DS and I returned to the room as DH was concluding his call with tech support. They were still unable to connect him to the wifi and still unwilling to give him an actual phone number, but he gave them his cell phone number, and they promised to call him there. We ran to catch the bus for Epcot which was waiting at the stop. As we got ready to board, I realized I didn’t have my phone. “Just get on the bus,” DH advised after some consideration. Once we found our seats, DH took out his phone and saw that he had missed the all important call from tech support. “I’m going to have to turn around and go back to the room when we get to Epcot,” he announced.

“Well then, I’m going back, too,” I told him. “I don’t want to be without my phone if we’re separated.” I apologized to DS for the delay, and reboarded a bus back to POP immediately upon arriving at Epcot. After running back to the room and grabbing my phone, DS and I were able to hop right back on the next Epcot bus as soon as we returned to the bus stop.

Soon we were entering Epcot and boarding Spaceship Earth. On our trip to WDW two years ago, we never made it to Epcot, so this was all new to DS. He really enjoyed Spaceship Earth, especially the little video they do at the end of the ride. It was a good thing I went back for my phone, too because as we were getting ready to get off the ride, I got a text from DH informing us that his computer business had been resolved, and he was on his way!

We returned to the entrance and took advantage of a Disney photographer to get some pics while we waited.

As soon as DH arrived, we snapped a couple more and boarded Spaceship Earth again!

Next, we checked out some of the games in Project Tomorrow and headed out to Innovations. DS really enjoyed the T. Rowe Price piggy bank game.

We continued on to The Land, where the wait for Soarin’ was about and hour and FastPass was all gone. Since DS and I were starting to get hungry, DH volunteered to wait on line while we got a bite to eat, and then we rejoined him. DH and I rode Soarin’ way back in ’99, but we’d forgotten how amazing it was. The three of us were in awe of the ride, and swore to return again for another go.

Our next move was to cross over the bridge to the World Showcase. We let DS decide which direction to go, and he chose to start with Mexico. We went in the pyramid, did a little shopping, took the boat ride and headed over to Norway.

We rode the Maelstrom and perused the gift shop, then as we started toward China the skies began to get very dark, and the winds picked up.

We decided to head toward the exit. As we did, we saw many of the vendors packing up and covering their carts. While a good number of guests had the same idea as us, many chose to continue their tour of the park. Bad idea! Just as we boarded the bus, the skies opened up, and a torrential downpour began. We headed back to Classics Hall and ran in through the gift shop. We sat down to a snack, then the boys decided to hit the arcade. At this point, the rain had eased up enough that I volunteered to run back to the room, get the car keys, and grab the rain ponchos and umbrellas that were still in the car (duh!). When I returned, the boys were very excited that DS had his the jackpot on one of the prize wheel machines in the arcade, and it was in the process of printing out 2500 tickets! The rain didn’t dampen our spirits that evening, and after selecting a large red bear, we returned to our room and prepared for another exciting day!