gellybean
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
- Messages
- 1,056
Well.... what's the first thing you do after getting off an airplane?
Bathroom break!
Except the women's was closed for cleaning. It was nearly midnight afterall.
Well there were 4 people that could use a women's restroom to 2 that could use the men's... I'm counting Dash twice here.
Mr. I just wanted to use that one and let the four women's restroom users to just use the family restroom. I didn't want to put 4 people in the family restroom or wait for each of us to take a turn....I knew there was another restroom down before the escalator.... so.... I kept walking. I offered to wait for Mr. I but he declined.
Sure enough... another restroom.... but this time the mens was closed. Mr. I decided to be a stubborn you know what and not use the family restroom either. Even though it was just one person and not 4 people. I don't get it. I didn't then, I still don't. But whatever. It made me mad. Which made me madder... because I don't like being mad on vacation. We all stalked off to the mini-monorail and had to wait for the same train to make it's way back. They were only running one.
We made our way down to the baggage claim and waited. And waited. We got 3 of our 5 total pieces including the car seat.... but were missing 2.
And the baggage belt stopped. No luggage.
Which really made no sense that 3 of 5 would make it.
Mr. I decided to walk around and sure enough it was stopped on the other side of the baggage claim. I thought they ran them around more then once but apparently not.
Baggage claimed, we made our way to the airport. Thankfully Jack Jack was feeling independant. He walked, sans monkey and insisted that FGM hold his hand. He wanted nothing to do with me. I pushed the stroller with the carseat balanced on top, Dash started out with our medium one but switched out for my mom's little one eventually and Mr. I had our two big ones. I had done this recently enough to remember how it works, so over to the elevator we went. Back up to level 3 terminal A, a brief stop for Mr. I to use the facilties.
Then we made our way across the airport main area, stoping to take some pictures
Empty MCO
Happy to be there!!
Earport store was all locked down.
Another picture request by Dash
down to level 1 on terminal B and allll the way down to Magical Express counter. Every time I make this walk I end up looking behind me at some point to make sure I'm going the right way because if feels soooooooo far down there.
Luggage parade
We finally make it to the ME counter. I park everyone and the bags over by the red carpet area, but there's no one standing there. So I run over (after carefully watching where I step to avoid any rogue luggage waiting to trip me
) and get in a very short line at the counter, they check our vouchers, ask where we're going and right it down on a post it note. (not kidding!) She directs us to the lady at the end of the line by the automatic doors. We start to go into the queue area and are waved around it all and bypass the lines totally. There is a bus waiting for us and the driver is sitting on a bench outside. We're the first family on.
Excited boys! Jack Jack was soooooooooo happy to be on a "Big Bus" !
Tried to get a more serious pic...
I'm prepared to wait. and wait. About five minutes pass and another family gets on, from an international flight that's always early morning arrival.
The lady from the counter walked out to the bus driver and handed him the sticky note with our destinations on it.
We only had to wait about 15 mins before we pulled off! 
The driver hops on and we're informed it'll be 45 mins and that we are lucky that we only have 2 stops because it can take up to an hour and half to get through all the stops this late at night. The other family is staying at Saratoga, our first stop then we'll be going to the Poly.
The bus trip was quick. Ended up being less than 30 mins to get to SS. We got to watch the ME video and then right after we dropped off the first family, a second video came on. Just a little Donald Duck cartoon. I don't ever remember this coming on before... which means a) I was really tired and delusional or b) it's something he let play since it was a longer trip than normal.
The boys laughed. And laughed. Jackson got tickled. He would laugh this fake loud boisterous laugh that was so put on. But we all laughed at him and he'd laugh some more. We had a little moment of Disney magic already.
We drove the back roads by Fort Wilderness to get over to Poly. This was when we passed the Golden Oaks Entry that I posted about on the PTR. Luxury living on Disney property! Don't I wish!!! OMG! Lovely lovely homes, all kinds of architecture options, and for the bargain basement starting price of 1.5 million.
Google it if you're interested in drooling and dreaming!
Mr. I looked it up on his phone that night and then I looked it up the next day. Gotta love having smartphones with you in Disney.
We arrived at the Poly after a few sightings of deer. I didn't have the heart to tell the bus driver that slowing down to look at deer wasn't necessary for us since we are from the Deer Capital of the World...
but it was sweet of him to try to let us see them on the sides of the road
Poly was pretty empty. They were washing down the outside walk ways when we arrived at nearly 2am.
The bell hop met us and took our luggage for us, managed to fit everything on his car including the carseat! Love their spatial relations skills.
We walked into the lobby after trying to take some really dark pics.
There was one lone CM standing at the desk and we were greeted with the soon to be family Aloha! I had online checked in just for kicks and it didn't take long for him to print our KTTW cards. He gave us all leis and sent us on our way.
I'll be honest... I was too tired and hungry to truly try to soak up the Poly when we arrived. I barely remembered to take ANY pictures at all much less the tons I normally take upon arrival. It was a lot different arriving so late. I was still really happy to be there even if it was a tad surreal at that point.
We decided since the kids weren't in mid meltdown that we'd head to Captain Cooks on the way to the room instead of sending someone back.
On our way to Captain Cook's
Our options were limited to the cold case, but thankfully there were two Turkey Clubs left. They were huge so we figured we could share and the kids love grapes so the grapes that came in the sandwich boxes were a plus. We grabbed a yogurt, bag of Cheetos, and a brownie for Mr. I. I had to grab my first Dole Whip. 2am or not, it was calling me! I did everything short of stroking it and calling it "my precious".
I also grabbed my first chocolate dipped Mickey shaped Rice Crispie treat!
We got bottled water and a coke to share and headed to our room. We spent like $46 dollars on a cold case dinner but we were hungry and didn't care at that point.
Our room location was fabulous! We left Captain Cooks, crossed the bridge to the right of the main pathway, looked at the cute little ducks floating around and were at our building in seconds. We had a few issues with the key card access to the building... but we finally got it to work.
Our room was the first room on the right, right after the elevator and vending room. The bell hop was waiting for us at the door. WOOPS! Sorry !! We didn't even think that they'd deliver the luggage before we called from the room! Felt bad for the guy.
He walked us in, unloaded the cart, showed us where the lights were etc and left promptly.
The room is huge and I love the extra sleeping room! The bathroom was only one sink but that wasn't an issue for us this trip. It would have been nice to have a separate water closet from the vanity but it never became an issue. The low ceilings date it a bit as does the smell. But it was still the Poly and we were so happy to be staying there!
Our one towel animal
We settled in with food. The Turkey Club on multrigrain bread was REALLY good! I was surprised because it was a cold case sandwich but it was yummy! Mr. I and I shared one, and FGM and the boy shared one. It was so big it was cut into 3 sections. So that worked out well. I ate my Dole Whip and just soaked it all up. Left my Mickey krispy treat on the desk area for the next day.
After we were done eating, I went ahead and unpacked while the kids unwound aka jumped on the bed with some Disney Channel.
At one point they turned on the iHome radio and danced it out.
I got us all unpacked into the drawers... the shoes on the shoe shelf in one of the closets. Pushed the daybad down an inch or so to squeeze an empty suitcase between the daybed and tv stand, and got two empty suitcases in the non-safe closet. Used the Disney store re-usable shopping bags for laundry! Worked great! Hung up the shirts that needed hanging up.
We moved the chair closer to the bed so that if Jack Jack rolled off the bed he wouldn't roll far. We parked the stroller next to the window. Checked out our patio view... which was of ferns and bushes.
We finally turned in around 3am. Set the alarm for 11am. The boys crashed. Mom crashed on the daybed with her ear plugs in. Mr. I crashed.
I laid there.
And laid there.
The sheets drove me nuts. They were stiff and itchy and not like I remembered the ones from AKL. Everytime you turned over, which for me was often that first night, they were noisey.
Honestly, looking back now, I think I was just overly tired and overstimulated and things were just magnified.
I finally dosed off I think around 4:30 am. It was the last time I remember seeing on the clock.
The alarm clock went off at 7am.
The boys must have turned the alarm on in all their button pushing the night before.
I was the only one that even heard it. I turned it off immediately and turned back over to go back to sleep.... and nothing.
I could not go back to sleep. I tried for about an hour before I finally gave up and got up at 8am Florida time.
I decided if there was ever a place I could function on 3.5 hours of sleep it was my happy place. The thought occured to me that I could slip out of the room and do whatever I wanted. The whole World was my Oyster. And this would allow everyone else to sleep as much as they could, something else that was in my benefit!
I left a note for mom and then decided I should tell her in case she didn't think to look for a note in the dark hotel room. I knew she'd be up before Mr. I would so I whispered to her that I was off to explore and would be back before the wake up call rang. And off I went.
Up Next: Where would I go?? Would I regret not staying in bed to sleep? What's for breakfast? Would I be able to wake everyone up for lunch? Would we like Kona Cafe?
STAY TUNED!!!
Bathroom break!
Except the women's was closed for cleaning. It was nearly midnight afterall.
Well there were 4 people that could use a women's restroom to 2 that could use the men's... I'm counting Dash twice here.
Mr. I just wanted to use that one and let the four women's restroom users to just use the family restroom. I didn't want to put 4 people in the family restroom or wait for each of us to take a turn....I knew there was another restroom down before the escalator.... so.... I kept walking. I offered to wait for Mr. I but he declined.Sure enough... another restroom.... but this time the mens was closed. Mr. I decided to be a stubborn you know what and not use the family restroom either. Even though it was just one person and not 4 people. I don't get it. I didn't then, I still don't. But whatever. It made me mad. Which made me madder... because I don't like being mad on vacation. We all stalked off to the mini-monorail and had to wait for the same train to make it's way back. They were only running one.
We made our way down to the baggage claim and waited. And waited. We got 3 of our 5 total pieces including the car seat.... but were missing 2.
And the baggage belt stopped. No luggage.
Which really made no sense that 3 of 5 would make it.
Mr. I decided to walk around and sure enough it was stopped on the other side of the baggage claim. I thought they ran them around more then once but apparently not.
Baggage claimed, we made our way to the airport. Thankfully Jack Jack was feeling independant. He walked, sans monkey and insisted that FGM hold his hand. He wanted nothing to do with me. I pushed the stroller with the carseat balanced on top, Dash started out with our medium one but switched out for my mom's little one eventually and Mr. I had our two big ones. I had done this recently enough to remember how it works, so over to the elevator we went. Back up to level 3 terminal A, a brief stop for Mr. I to use the facilties.
Then we made our way across the airport main area, stoping to take some pictures
Empty MCO
Happy to be there!!
Earport store was all locked down.
Another picture request by Dash
down to level 1 on terminal B and allll the way down to Magical Express counter. Every time I make this walk I end up looking behind me at some point to make sure I'm going the right way because if feels soooooooo far down there.
Luggage parade
We finally make it to the ME counter. I park everyone and the bags over by the red carpet area, but there's no one standing there. So I run over (after carefully watching where I step to avoid any rogue luggage waiting to trip me
) and get in a very short line at the counter, they check our vouchers, ask where we're going and right it down on a post it note. (not kidding!) She directs us to the lady at the end of the line by the automatic doors. We start to go into the queue area and are waved around it all and bypass the lines totally. There is a bus waiting for us and the driver is sitting on a bench outside. We're the first family on.
Excited boys! Jack Jack was soooooooooo happy to be on a "Big Bus" !
Tried to get a more serious pic...
I'm prepared to wait. and wait. About five minutes pass and another family gets on, from an international flight that's always early morning arrival.
The lady from the counter walked out to the bus driver and handed him the sticky note with our destinations on it.
We only had to wait about 15 mins before we pulled off! The driver hops on and we're informed it'll be 45 mins and that we are lucky that we only have 2 stops because it can take up to an hour and half to get through all the stops this late at night. The other family is staying at Saratoga, our first stop then we'll be going to the Poly.
The bus trip was quick. Ended up being less than 30 mins to get to SS. We got to watch the ME video and then right after we dropped off the first family, a second video came on. Just a little Donald Duck cartoon. I don't ever remember this coming on before... which means a) I was really tired and delusional or b) it's something he let play since it was a longer trip than normal.
The boys laughed. And laughed. Jackson got tickled. He would laugh this fake loud boisterous laugh that was so put on. But we all laughed at him and he'd laugh some more. We had a little moment of Disney magic already.
We drove the back roads by Fort Wilderness to get over to Poly. This was when we passed the Golden Oaks Entry that I posted about on the PTR. Luxury living on Disney property! Don't I wish!!! OMG! Lovely lovely homes, all kinds of architecture options, and for the bargain basement starting price of 1.5 million.
Google it if you're interested in drooling and dreaming!
Mr. I looked it up on his phone that night and then I looked it up the next day. Gotta love having smartphones with you in Disney.
We arrived at the Poly after a few sightings of deer. I didn't have the heart to tell the bus driver that slowing down to look at deer wasn't necessary for us since we are from the Deer Capital of the World...
but it was sweet of him to try to let us see them on the sides of the roadPoly was pretty empty. They were washing down the outside walk ways when we arrived at nearly 2am.
The bell hop met us and took our luggage for us, managed to fit everything on his car including the carseat! Love their spatial relations skills.
We walked into the lobby after trying to take some really dark pics.
There was one lone CM standing at the desk and we were greeted with the soon to be family Aloha! I had online checked in just for kicks and it didn't take long for him to print our KTTW cards. He gave us all leis and sent us on our way.
I'll be honest... I was too tired and hungry to truly try to soak up the Poly when we arrived. I barely remembered to take ANY pictures at all much less the tons I normally take upon arrival. It was a lot different arriving so late. I was still really happy to be there even if it was a tad surreal at that point.
We decided since the kids weren't in mid meltdown that we'd head to Captain Cooks on the way to the room instead of sending someone back.
On our way to Captain Cook's
Our options were limited to the cold case, but thankfully there were two Turkey Clubs left. They were huge so we figured we could share and the kids love grapes so the grapes that came in the sandwich boxes were a plus. We grabbed a yogurt, bag of Cheetos, and a brownie for Mr. I. I had to grab my first Dole Whip. 2am or not, it was calling me! I did everything short of stroking it and calling it "my precious".
I also grabbed my first chocolate dipped Mickey shaped Rice Crispie treat!
We got bottled water and a coke to share and headed to our room. We spent like $46 dollars on a cold case dinner but we were hungry and didn't care at that point.
Our room location was fabulous! We left Captain Cooks, crossed the bridge to the right of the main pathway, looked at the cute little ducks floating around and were at our building in seconds. We had a few issues with the key card access to the building... but we finally got it to work.
Our room was the first room on the right, right after the elevator and vending room. The bell hop was waiting for us at the door. WOOPS! Sorry !! We didn't even think that they'd deliver the luggage before we called from the room! Felt bad for the guy.
He walked us in, unloaded the cart, showed us where the lights were etc and left promptly.
The room is huge and I love the extra sleeping room! The bathroom was only one sink but that wasn't an issue for us this trip. It would have been nice to have a separate water closet from the vanity but it never became an issue. The low ceilings date it a bit as does the smell. But it was still the Poly and we were so happy to be staying there!
Our one towel animal
We settled in with food. The Turkey Club on multrigrain bread was REALLY good! I was surprised because it was a cold case sandwich but it was yummy! Mr. I and I shared one, and FGM and the boy shared one. It was so big it was cut into 3 sections. So that worked out well. I ate my Dole Whip and just soaked it all up. Left my Mickey krispy treat on the desk area for the next day.
After we were done eating, I went ahead and unpacked while the kids unwound aka jumped on the bed with some Disney Channel.
At one point they turned on the iHome radio and danced it out.
I got us all unpacked into the drawers... the shoes on the shoe shelf in one of the closets. Pushed the daybad down an inch or so to squeeze an empty suitcase between the daybed and tv stand, and got two empty suitcases in the non-safe closet. Used the Disney store re-usable shopping bags for laundry! Worked great! Hung up the shirts that needed hanging up.
We moved the chair closer to the bed so that if Jack Jack rolled off the bed he wouldn't roll far. We parked the stroller next to the window. Checked out our patio view... which was of ferns and bushes.
We finally turned in around 3am. Set the alarm for 11am. The boys crashed. Mom crashed on the daybed with her ear plugs in. Mr. I crashed.
I laid there.
And laid there.
The sheets drove me nuts. They were stiff and itchy and not like I remembered the ones from AKL. Everytime you turned over, which for me was often that first night, they were noisey.
Honestly, looking back now, I think I was just overly tired and overstimulated and things were just magnified.
I finally dosed off I think around 4:30 am. It was the last time I remember seeing on the clock.
The alarm clock went off at 7am.
The boys must have turned the alarm on in all their button pushing the night before.
I was the only one that even heard it. I turned it off immediately and turned back over to go back to sleep.... and nothing.
I could not go back to sleep. I tried for about an hour before I finally gave up and got up at 8am Florida time.
I decided if there was ever a place I could function on 3.5 hours of sleep it was my happy place. The thought occured to me that I could slip out of the room and do whatever I wanted. The whole World was my Oyster. And this would allow everyone else to sleep as much as they could, something else that was in my benefit!
I left a note for mom and then decided I should tell her in case she didn't think to look for a note in the dark hotel room. I knew she'd be up before Mr. I would so I whispered to her that I was off to explore and would be back before the wake up call rang. And off I went.
Up Next: Where would I go?? Would I regret not staying in bed to sleep? What's for breakfast? Would I be able to wake everyone up for lunch? Would we like Kona Cafe?
STAY TUNED!!!
Great start to the TR. I like the "yeehaw" story at the airport - too cute. I'm jealous that you get to stay at the Poly.
Wow!! So glad you weren't dealing with meltdowns.
for my first Dole Whip!! 
Empty MCO was EERIE! The over tired thing strikes me often but Disney is the best place to have it hit! 
