Some people are born great…
Some people achieve greatness…
Some people stand out in front of Port Orleans French Quarter like a couple of catfish with their mouths hanging open.
We’d be that last option.
After traffic jams, long trips, and what seemed like an eternity of months, we were finally standing in front of the hotel we had begun to have odd dreams about! It was new to both of us, but we slowly walked up to the lobby and check-in desk. Suddenly I turned to the boy.
“Honey?” I said very slowly, looking back at the car… which was now a million miles away. Or it at least seemed like it. We must have been walking very slowly. “Did you happen to grab your wallet? You know, with your ID? Since you’re the one with his name on the reservation?”
It was like a dawning of realization as he put a hand on his forehead. He looked back at the car, then in longingly at the check-in desk. You’d think we just crossed the desert by the look on our faces. We were in the resort now! Car? CAR?! You want us to go back to the car and not be doing it to get luggage out of it??
He headed towards the car and I headed towards the gift shop. So much to look at! I looked over the snow globes, the watches, the shirts, the plushies… all of it. I didn’t buy anything though, oh no. I didn’t have my room charging card yet!
I went back out to find the boy. No sight. No where. I looked at the check-in desk. No sight. No where. I looked back in the gift shop. Nada. Then back outside… where the heck WAS he? Suddenly I hear a throat clear. I turned around and saw him walking toward me with… a bag? In his hand? I thought I was supposed to be the shopping one!
I think being with me has released the boy’s inner shopping demons, personally. We all have them. It’s just a matter of how well you suppress them. Mine have me on a leash.
He came over to me and smiled mysteriously. “I bought you a little surprise…” he stated with a self satisfaction glow on his face. I bounced up and down a bit and giggled, grabbing for the bag like the antidote was in it. Ok. I don’t do well with surprises. The cat’s out of the bag… or in it if you have our kitten. In it willingly and thumping it while biting her tail. I have video proof. (PS – We do not practice animal cruelty; I swear she actually jumped in there on her own.)
He pulled the surprise out of the bag, it was a tiny Eeyore plush! Oh how I loved it! See, I call the boy “my Eeyore” and he loves it. So once he even got me a teddy bear (cause he’s also my teddy bear) dressed up like Eeyore. He’s a sap. Maple flows from him like money flows from my wrist in a specialty shop.
I loved it though, and hugged it as we entered the check in line. The line was relatively short, and we headed up to our cast member waiting to help us. Smooth check in, fast check in. He joked around with the boy about giving me charging privileges on the card. The boy commented that I'd kill him if he didn't give them to me and he was probably right. We finished up hopped into the concierge line to add the water park fun and more option to our tickets.
See, this was my idea. I wanted to go to Disney Quest. The boy has a slight water slide fetish. We played around with the idea of adding the water park fun and more back when we changed our reservation to French Quarter, but we didn’t think we’d have time. Now, I decided we were going to MAKE time!
Tickets done, room’s not quite ready yet. So it’s time to go to Downtown Disney while we wait!
We drive around the parking lot approximately 5 times looking for a good place by the water to park. Because if there’s water, there has to be a boat, right?? We finally find someplace and park. It feels good. The resort is just beautiful. Looking around we really get a good feel and take in deep breaths. We find the dock and we wait.
And we wait.
And um… wait.
I get my fanny pack on finally, after struggling with the tightness and looseness of it… and the boy takes a picture of me.
How joyously fun. I look like I’ve been in a car for 5 days! But hey, it’s ok… we’re at Disney! He’ll just die later.
So I get him on video camera saying something none to kind about his mother not answering the phone. I promise myself I’ll show it to him later, as he doesn’t realize I’m taping. That’ll teach him.
I take a picture of him.
He looks miraculously better than me. I swear my revenge later.
Our boat finally comes and we’re greeted to some jazz Christmas music and a very friendly boat driver. He talks to us about everything as we’re going down the river, including the tree houses, which are completely cool as anything. I would have gotten a picture of them, but part of me doubts that any unawares college cast member would appreciate me taking a picture of their messy home.
I know I wouldn’t. Who would want someone coming in and taking pictures of their house when it’s a total disaster? “Here, would you like to come and take a picture of my mess? I may be able to claim it as a natural disaster area if you do!”
We arrive in Downtown Disney a bit more knowledgeable (And I’m quite glad as he’s the only boat driver we had all week that did this) and very hungry. That’s what we forgot to do. Eat! We had forgotten to eat! Luckily, the Rainforest Café loomed in front of us like a giant pimple on the river. And my giant curiosity would not be satisfied until I heard monkeys oooing and aahing while I ate.
We walked over and I put my name in at the giant purple elephant. Which by the way scares the crap out of me. Elephants are not purple. And no amount of safaris that are being seated can convince me otherwise.
The wait was only 35 minutes so we decided that we would eat here. Neither of us are seafood lovers and as I said, my curiosity would not be satisfied until we ate here.
So we headed over to Goofy’s candy company. Any excuse for candy is a good one, and honestly, it was right there. Standing in front of us. With air conditioning.
Have I mentioned we’re from Northern Ohio? Where it’s currently around 10 degrees outside or at least feels that way? We were hot that first day and needed air conditioning stat (We will die in the summer if we ever go, FYI. If you see two giant puddles it’s me and the boy. Guaranteed). We headed in, looking around at the confusing counter of many candies.
Now I had heard about this make your own stuff before, but I had no idea how it was done. I grabbed a sheet for the boy and I and we filled stuff in. We both decided on rice krispie Mickey heads, mine dipped in milk chocolate with sprinkles and peanuts. His was dipped in white chocolate with butterfingers and peanut butter cups (and might I say, he’s a weirdo). We stood there. And stood there. There was no one hardly in the store, and we had no idea where to start this process. Finally after standing in approximately 5 different places making 5 different faces, someone took our slips of paper.
Then he saw it. The boy saw the jellybean logo.
“That is SO COOL! I have to take a picture of it!”
And take a picture of it he did.
They finished up with our treats and bagged them up for us. I grabbed a box of salt water taffy for my mom and sweet and sour candies for us and headed to the register with the treats. I handed her my shiny room card and beamed. The boy looked slightly worried. Little did he know this was going to be the start of a disaster, letting me have charging privileges on my card.
We headed back over to the Rainforest Café just in time for the parrot show. To neat by the way if you catch it. We have a budgie at home and I’ve always adored bigger birds so I was a bit entranced.
We walked around the gift shop for a little while and then we heard “Elizabeth safari of two, your table is ready”… I don’t know how I feel about being a two person safari. Doesn’t that just leave things more open for the lion to eat you?
We walked over to the scary unnatural purple elephant and got into our line. The saltwater tanks were certainly neat, but it seemed like we stood there forever waiting. Safari after safari passed us… I guess they were in the left lane. We unfortunately had a 75 year old near sided woman driving our table seeking safari vehicle.
When we were finally seated, we both got a smoothie, and nachos. I’d go into extreme detail, but I’ll save that for the dining report that will be done after this. Know what I can say though? Get the nachos. They are out of this world amazing! Best nachos we had on the entire trip! I ended up getting a burger and fries, the boy got a chicken sandwich. We both stuffed ourselves and took in the various rainstorms with the ornery monkey that resided above us.
The elephant had quite the large Santa hat on. I think this amused me far more than it should have.
We left waddling a bit, but I knew where I wanted to go.
We were going to the 28 Days of Christmas whether the boy liked it or not.
See, I’m a bit of a Christmas nut. We put our tree up a about a week and a half before Thanksgiving and it just came down a few days ago. I like to make the season last as long as possible… and a Disney Christmas shop?! Well heck that’s right up my alley!
We walked in and the place was hoppin! Seriously. It was probably the most people I had seen in one place since we had gotten there (Boy did I not know that would change!) and we carefully made our way around. I would put a few things in the basket and the boy would give me a look. “Please??” I’d say softly, with my lip jetted out a little bit. He’d bite his bottom lip slightly and say “Well if you think we need it…” he learned quickly, we need everything Disney. There is no wants. Everything’s a need.
We hopped over to the register, basket overflowing. The person at the register, well… he was slow. He was more than slow. He was agonizingly slow. We stood in that line for about 25 minutes. People were giving up hope and leaving the line. The boy gave up hope and waited for me outside. Advantage me! I stayed in that line because I am a stubborn mule and I wanted to check out. When he finally got to me he wrapped everything carefully (I remember saying to the boy “Well we’ll thank him when nothing’s broken.”) and hit total. Around 125 dollars later, I walked out, avoiding the “How much did it cost?” question with a suggestion to hit up The World of Disney.
I love this store. I just wish it wouldn’t have been as crowded as it was. It was extremely crowded, we could barely move. We made our way out of there and over to the
Lego store.
I am amazed at their building skills. As is the boy. We love the dinosaur and the serpent… we have to show everyone these pictures.
Again, the store was mobbed and we couldn’t really move around. We hopped over to Tails and bought some treats for his puppy back at his parents house and a collar charm and treats for devil kitten back home. And then I discovered something even better.
Resort. Delivery.
You mean I can buy things and not have to carry them around all day? Hot dog let’s go! Let’s do it! Send away! And let me pick up a few more things for you to send with it.
The boy drug me out of the store kicking and screaming (Or maybe not. Maybe he just drug me out with promises of more shopping. But either way, I was kicking and screaming even if it was on the inside, I swear) and told me to call the resort to find out what our room number was.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Um… there was no clock on the outside. I opened the phone up, it was off. I tried to turn it on. No luck. I looked at the boy in a panic. We were in the world a day, and my phone was dead. We’d have to go back to the resort.
Next chapter: We can play games at home you know. Shut up and paddle faster!
My DH and I went to WDW many times while we were both in college, partially using money from our financial aid because of knowing how to budget out money. I am glad you went and had a magical time. I cannot wait to read more!
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I shall continue for those that do...
My DH and I love Christmas as well. We actually have 2 trees now, one for our "regular" ornaments, and one for our Disney ornaments. We put our tree up at about the same time you did. I absolutely love Christmas. 
