klacey1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2008
- Messages
- 5,945
Hello everyone! I just returned from an event-filled, super tiring, and wonderfully fun seven-night vacation with my darling boyfriend, Zach. We're two twenty-somethings who live together in a suburb of NYC. Our trip was from August 24-31st and we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside with Free Dining. For more information about us and the planning of our trip, check out my PTR in my signature! Here's a picture of us from this trip:
The night before our trip went by in a blur-- it was a boring night of packing those last minute items. After I got home from work (definitely my least productive day of all time!), we grabbed our things and threw them in my car. We were staying at my dad's house in Bronx since he only lives twenty minutes from LaGuardia, where we were flying out of. After eating some dinner, we passed out-- we had to be up at 4:45 to catch our flight, so I wanted us to be well-rested. We always hit DTD, then a park right after we check-in at our resort!
My dad dropped us off in my car at LaGuardia around 5:40. We had just checked our bags (could do it at the no-line kiosks since I already paid for them and had our boarding passes), which literally took five minutes. As we were walking from the kiosk to the place where we left our bags, I got a phone call that made my stomach drop. Within the seven or so minutes that we had been at the airport, my dad has crashed my car. Drove the driver's side into a tree. He was rambling about how a guy jumped in front of him with no warning, etc. I couldn't believe this was happening on the first day of my vacation...
Zombie-like, I made my way to security, Zach comforting me all the while. I was just so upset. My father drives so erratically-- way too fast, never using his signal, reversing on on-ramps. Driving with him is downright scary. I had had my doubts about letting him drive my car, not to mention drive us to the airport, but...I should have listened.
I got a little teary in the security line-- just so frustrated that I paid all this money for a vacation and now it was going to be ruined because I was going to be thinking about my car the whole time. (Sidenote-- I'm not a horrible, materialistic person, I promise! It was only after I learned that my father nor no one else was hurt in the crash that I questioned the damage to my car. Due to me wanting to see if the damage was minimal enough not to go through insurancedidn't want my premium to go upand Hurricane Irene, my car is still not fixed, two weeks later. Fortunately, I take the train to work and we have Zach's car. We did have to postpone some Labor Day plans that were pretty long drives-- Zach's car isn't in the best of shape. The damage rang in around $5,700 and my father paid my deductible. I'm praying nothing goes up when I renew the insurance in December.)
After we went through security, I went to the bathroom to compose myself. I told myself that worrying would do nothing, and I couldn't resolve the issue until after vacation, so there was no sense in worrying. When I came out, Zach decided some OJ and coffee might make us feel better, so we settled on Au Bon Pain. This pop-up place was TINY! The path between the register and the pastry counter super narrow, and of course Zach filled his coffee cup to the brim. When we went up to pay, they told us that not only were they out of cup lids, but there was no place to drain some of the coffee out of the cup (??). Of course, someone bumped into Zach while he was walking in between the pastry counter and register and spilled steaming hot coffee all over his hand...
I gasped-- another hit to what was supposed to be our perfect vacation. Zach's hand was bright red and his finger blistered. Since he is completely selfless and knew how upset I already was, he totally downplayed his pain and insisted he only needed to run his hand under some hot pain. I pleaded him to try to find some Solercaine, but he insisted he was fine.
After all of that, we finally boarded our plane and had an uneventful, easy flight. Zach watched WW2 documentaries on his portable DVD player and I read some magazines.
We had a stopover in Akron, OH, so I got off the plane to stretch my legs and use a real bathroom. Not super exciting, but at least now I can add Ohio to the list of states that I've been to!
Finally, we landed in MCO. I was doing my best not to think about the car and just revel in the fact that I was at Disney! I have to admit, it was putting a damper on my arriving at MCO excitement, but we were still super jazzed to see the monorail!
We made our way down to Magical Express-- the counter was empty! I hoped this was a sign of crowds for the week ahead. We showed our tickets to the man at the podium, who waved us through to a line. I was just grabbing my camera to take a picture of the sign that listed the resorts we'd been stopping at when we were called to a bus. I couldn't believe how fast it was!
Our ride to WDW was short and peaceful. As usual, the video totally made me tear up!
Soon, we were passing under those wonderful gates...
The trip gets better from here on out, I promise! I hope you stick around to read about our adventures!
Chapter Links:
Getting there is half the fun (or not...)
Letting Disney work its magic
What inspired the trip title
Letting Epcot cheer us up
Stressful and fun morning in DHS!
Finishing up DHS!
Discovering a love for boat rides
Morning at Animal Kingdom!
Resort hopping and bus adventures
Leaving WDW Property!
Outside the Disney bubble
A change of plans
A perfect night
Last day
Stormy night
The night before our trip went by in a blur-- it was a boring night of packing those last minute items. After I got home from work (definitely my least productive day of all time!), we grabbed our things and threw them in my car. We were staying at my dad's house in Bronx since he only lives twenty minutes from LaGuardia, where we were flying out of. After eating some dinner, we passed out-- we had to be up at 4:45 to catch our flight, so I wanted us to be well-rested. We always hit DTD, then a park right after we check-in at our resort!
My dad dropped us off in my car at LaGuardia around 5:40. We had just checked our bags (could do it at the no-line kiosks since I already paid for them and had our boarding passes), which literally took five minutes. As we were walking from the kiosk to the place where we left our bags, I got a phone call that made my stomach drop. Within the seven or so minutes that we had been at the airport, my dad has crashed my car. Drove the driver's side into a tree. He was rambling about how a guy jumped in front of him with no warning, etc. I couldn't believe this was happening on the first day of my vacation...
Zombie-like, I made my way to security, Zach comforting me all the while. I was just so upset. My father drives so erratically-- way too fast, never using his signal, reversing on on-ramps. Driving with him is downright scary. I had had my doubts about letting him drive my car, not to mention drive us to the airport, but...I should have listened.
I got a little teary in the security line-- just so frustrated that I paid all this money for a vacation and now it was going to be ruined because I was going to be thinking about my car the whole time. (Sidenote-- I'm not a horrible, materialistic person, I promise! It was only after I learned that my father nor no one else was hurt in the crash that I questioned the damage to my car. Due to me wanting to see if the damage was minimal enough not to go through insurancedidn't want my premium to go upand Hurricane Irene, my car is still not fixed, two weeks later. Fortunately, I take the train to work and we have Zach's car. We did have to postpone some Labor Day plans that were pretty long drives-- Zach's car isn't in the best of shape. The damage rang in around $5,700 and my father paid my deductible. I'm praying nothing goes up when I renew the insurance in December.)
After we went through security, I went to the bathroom to compose myself. I told myself that worrying would do nothing, and I couldn't resolve the issue until after vacation, so there was no sense in worrying. When I came out, Zach decided some OJ and coffee might make us feel better, so we settled on Au Bon Pain. This pop-up place was TINY! The path between the register and the pastry counter super narrow, and of course Zach filled his coffee cup to the brim. When we went up to pay, they told us that not only were they out of cup lids, but there was no place to drain some of the coffee out of the cup (??). Of course, someone bumped into Zach while he was walking in between the pastry counter and register and spilled steaming hot coffee all over his hand...
I gasped-- another hit to what was supposed to be our perfect vacation. Zach's hand was bright red and his finger blistered. Since he is completely selfless and knew how upset I already was, he totally downplayed his pain and insisted he only needed to run his hand under some hot pain. I pleaded him to try to find some Solercaine, but he insisted he was fine.
After all of that, we finally boarded our plane and had an uneventful, easy flight. Zach watched WW2 documentaries on his portable DVD player and I read some magazines.
We had a stopover in Akron, OH, so I got off the plane to stretch my legs and use a real bathroom. Not super exciting, but at least now I can add Ohio to the list of states that I've been to!
Finally, we landed in MCO. I was doing my best not to think about the car and just revel in the fact that I was at Disney! I have to admit, it was putting a damper on my arriving at MCO excitement, but we were still super jazzed to see the monorail!
We made our way down to Magical Express-- the counter was empty! I hoped this was a sign of crowds for the week ahead. We showed our tickets to the man at the podium, who waved us through to a line. I was just grabbing my camera to take a picture of the sign that listed the resorts we'd been stopping at when we were called to a bus. I couldn't believe how fast it was!
Our ride to WDW was short and peaceful. As usual, the video totally made me tear up!
Soon, we were passing under those wonderful gates...
The trip gets better from here on out, I promise! I hope you stick around to read about our adventures!
Chapter Links:
Getting there is half the fun (or not...)
Letting Disney work its magic
What inspired the trip title
Letting Epcot cheer us up
Stressful and fun morning in DHS!
Finishing up DHS!
Discovering a love for boat rides
Morning at Animal Kingdom!
Resort hopping and bus adventures
Leaving WDW Property!
Outside the Disney bubble
A change of plans
A perfect night
Last day
Stormy night
you started!! Cannot believe what you had to deal with at the beginning of your vacation...the car and poor Zach's hand! I have every confidence things are going to look up! Can't wait to hear all about your trip hon!
What a bad way to start the vacation! But I'm glad to hear that things got so much better after that! Can't wait to read more! 
x
