Rajah
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 1999
- Messages
- 9,633
Cast:
Rajah/Tammi -- As usual, trip report writer and trip planner
VonDrake/Michael -- Rajah's DH, whose conference is our excuse for the trip this time
Guest Cast:
Art -- our CM friend, pin-fanatic, and all around cool guy
Marsha and Tom -- aka Mackey Mouse and her DH from the DIS
Carol, Jen, and Kristin -- aka CarolAnnK and her daughters from the DIS
"Aaron" -- another solo IOA guest
Dates: Feb 28 through Mar 4, 2001
Destination: WDW, and for Rajah, USF and IOA as well
Name: "Swimsuit edition" -- keep reading to find out why, though one tip: always take your swimsuit, even if you don't think you'll want it
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I tried to talk Michael into not going in to work today since he always has trouble slipping away mid afternoon to come home on the day we leave, but he wasn't able to take the day off. In fact, he had to be up and in much earlier than usual. This meant he was for once up before I was, and out the door when I was getting up (8:30). Still not that early, but for someone used to not rolling in until 11 or so, those two hours are very precious.
I went into work and tried, I really tried, to concentrate. My intention was to stay until 12:45, which would put me on an hour barrier for my time which is what I must be on to use time away hours, but by 11:30 I decided it was useless and I'd leave at 11:45 -- another hour barrier. I had enough time away built up between comp time and actual time away hours that I could afford one hour more of time away, so I started packing up. I gave Michael a call since he intended to leave at noon as well, and we decided to split our pre-trip 'duties' -- I'd go by the store and bank (bank in the store) and he would pick up some lunch for us on his way home.
So, off I went to stop at the grocery store right next to home. I was originally going for some coffee singles for Michael and to pick up our traveling money, but that list grew to half a dozen items including some bottled water. By the time I got home, it was about 12:45, and Michael finally came in the door at 1:15 -- as predicted, he wasn't able to get out the door when planned. But, he wasn't too late this time
We ate our lunch, then since I was almost fully packed (note: opting to leave my swimsuit home this time since I never use it) and rather tired, I curled up on the couch for what I intended to be about a two hour nap -- that would leave me with 30-45 minutes before my parents came to pick us up. Next thing I know, though, it's 4pm and my parents are calling to say they're on their way and stopping to get gas now.
So I rushed around like a chicken with its head cut off to finish up the last minute tiny details before we left, and my parents arrived. Though we'd intended to leave around 4 or 4:15, we didn't actually get out the door until 4:30. Still early enough to not be late for our plane, though, so though my mom was worried (she always worries about being late to catch a plane) Michael, my dad, and I weren't.
My dad dropped us off at the airport around 5:30 and went to park while Michael and I checked our bags. I at first thought we'd have to check them separately since we had differing return flights, but the guy behind the curb-side check-in counter said no, we could check them together this time since we were going out on the same flight and obviously together. He wasn't able to get us seats together, however, so he said we'd have to check in at the gate itself to have one seat reassigned so we could sit together instead of 2 rows apart.
Normally, our plane left from one of the C gates -- I forget the number right now, but all previous times it's been one of two gates. This time, we were leaving from D-10. So we passed through the metal detectors (me having the digital camera hand-checked) and finished up with all of that about the time my dad caught up with us. So we looked around for the D terminal, then started on the hike half-way around the airport. D was the international terminal, and it was almost a 20 minute walk to get from where we were to where we needed to be
Finally, with our tongues hanging out, we arrived at our new destination and looked at the counter. No one there. We'd intended to get dinner before boarding, but this lengthy walk threw a wrench in our plans. I was very grateful for my parents' presence, though, because they kindly backtracked to pick up some food for us while we waited for someone to get to the gate so I could get my seat changed to be with Michael.
When my parents arrived with our usual (pizza and pasta from a nearby Pizza Inn), we had about five minutes if that before the lady finally arrived at the counter and I was able to get my seat changed. We ended up in row 30, but the lady did try to get us two seats together closer to the front of the plane.
We didn't have quite enough time to finish eating before they started a boarding call, but it was pretty close. Plus, this was a flight with a sandwich on board anyway, so it worked out okay.
As we were walking up to our seats, the lady on the row behind us asked if there were just two of us and if we had the two seats we were about to take. We said yes, and she asked if we'd trade with her husband and son so the family could stay together. They were about 5 rows up. No problem, we'll take the other seats. Made no difference to us
As we were settling in, I kept hearing snippets of what sounded kinda like German. I took German in high school and college, and am always curious as to how much I've forgotten, so I tried to catch a word or two of what they were saying. But I couldn't understand any of it, so I decided it had to be Dutch or something similar instead -- I know I haven't forgotten *that* much
Our plane ended up leaving a little late, first because the tow line they tried using to pull/guide the plane out was broken, and then because there was traffic behind us. But once we finally got out and into the air, it was one of the smoothest flights to Orlando we've had yet. Our sandwiches this time were decent chicken salad sandwiches -- but I missed the chicken ceasar ones from the last time. I read while Michael dozed and watched the world go by, and finally we landed about 10 minutes early.
However, those ten minutes were easily made up by more non-plane technical problems
This time, the boarding ramp was having difficulty getting lined up to the plane, and we all stood/sat there on the plane for at least 10 minutes before anyone was able to get off. Minor delay only, though, and this time we didn't have anyone waiting for us.
Off we went to pick up our luggage, then on the hunt to find the rental counter for National. I knew we could go straight to the Emerald Aisle, but I had no idea where that was so figured I'd just ask at the counter. So we followed the signs to the rental cars, then the more specific ones to National, and just as we were approaching the counter we noticed a big sign at the entrance to the waiting line that directed guests to the Emerald Aisle.
Great! No line for us! So off we went following the directions and found our way across the street and onto the second floor of the parking garage. The way was well marked, as were the rows. We found the Aisle cars and looked around, and finally decided on a mulberry/maroon Buick Regal. The keys were in the car, and our luggage fit nicely in the trunk. I was very glad that my parents and I had decided to go with renting a car when we went to Disneyland in January, as that gave us at least some idea of how to work the Emerald Aisle. As I was the Emerald Aisle member and the only one of the two of us to be 25 (the rental age -- Michael's just a few months short), I drove. What a nice car!! I might consider getting one of these the next time I need a new car!
We followed the signs out of the parking garage, then stopped at the checkout gate and got everything taken care of. I explained to the guy in the booth that this was my first time renting so could he please explain the procedure. He very patiently did so, and offered us a rental agreement receipt with the instructions that usually you have to ask for it. Then he told us about the full-tank option, which we opted not to take. That's where you don't have to return the car with a full tank, but you pay for a full tank of gas. Even if you just go 5 miles and it only requires a top-off, you get charged for a full tank of gas. We decided that definitely wasn't a good deal, so just asked for directions to the Beeline.
He told us the Beeline was 528 and gave us directions, as well as directions to the nearest gas station on the way back (both of which we promptly forgot ). But thankfully, the way out from the airport is well marked, and knowing our destination was 528 helped. There were signs to Disneyworld that would have taken us another way, but we really wanted to go by way of the Beeline (I'm more comfortable on toll roads than on normal freeways) so we didn't follow the Disneyworld directions. Instead, we followed the 528 and Universal directions until we got on the road.
Once we made it to the Beeline, it was a clean shot to Disneyworld. Toll was $1.25 between two toll booths, but we were ready for it and sailed right through. I was glad I'd been paying at least some attention in the past when we'd been riding with Tiffany Towncar, though, because I could recognize we were going in the right direction. As I drove, Michael had fun playing with all the buttons on the dash His favorite were the temperature controls, including passenger-specific ones which were nice since I always like it colder than he does.
When we pulled onto Disney property, we toyed with which of three ways to go. One, the shortest, we'd never been on that we knew of and were afraid we'd get lost on, especially in the dark. So, at this time of night, the first route was out. The second way was in front of the Swan and Dolphin and was the route we were most familiar with, but wasn't marked for Animal Kingdom. However, I *knew* I could find my way from that road to some signs for Animal Kingdom, and it was shorter than the route indicated by the initial signs from the freeway. That was the third way -- to follow the signs Disney had out. We opted for the Epcot route (Buena Vista??)
We waved to Caribbean Beach as we drove past, and made note of how to get into the Swan and Dolphin (where we'd be coming tomorrow) as well as the Fantasia Gardens mini-golf, looked longingly at Coronado Springs (I want to stay there one of these days, the only one of the moderates I have yet to try) and finally found our way easily to the All Stars. The guard at the gate let us through to check in and gave us directions to Music.
We cringed as we drove past Sports. Neither of us are sports fans, and the giant footballs and coke cups were rather garish to us. And Calypso looked a little dubious to our tastes as we drove up to the check-in counter of Music. This was completely different than the resorts we were used to, and at first look we weren't sure we liked it. Some of it, we *knew* we didn't like.
I must say it felt somewhat strange approaching a check-in counter with our own car and parking in the parking lot instead of having someone else drop us off curb-side and being greeted by the bell hops. But it was nice as well, knowing we'd have our own car this time for transportation. So off we went to check in, and ended up standing in line for nearly 20 minutes (as usual, felt like 30+) as we waited and waited for the three groups in front of us to finish up. In the meantime we looked around, listened to the music, and again shook our heads. Give us our moderates or deluxes any day. Well, any day we can afford them, anyway
Finally, it was our turn to check in, and we were given the Jazz building, as requested, with a non-smoking room #2552. The CM recognized we'd been to WDW before by some of our comments and such, so we had a faster check-in than usual since she didn't go through some of the introductory pieces. Just gave us what we needed, told us where we needed to go, then let us go on our way. I appreciated that. And she verbally made note of the fact that we knew what we were doing, which is why she didn't go over the basics. So it wasn't just her shirking on her duty
We drove around to the Jazz parking lot, where I took a picture of the silhouette of the Jazz player, then found our way to our room and got some more pictures and settled in. Then, as is tradition, we left to go look around a bit. 20 pictures later, I realized I had the camera on the wrong setting On a card that normally holds 250 or so pictures, I only had room for 40 more and I knew I would run out fast, so we had to backtrack to take some pictures.
In all our exploring and picture taking, we visited both pools (liked the guitar pool better) and Calypso, Jazz, Rock, Country, and the Broadway buildings. We spent the most time at Rock, since Michael was fascinated by the giant guitars. I probably should have gotten us a room there instead of in Jazz, but oh well. Our room was good enough for one night.
On our backtracking to retake the pictures on the proper setting, Michael deserted me to return to the room. He was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to go to bed, and it always takes him longer to get ready morning or night than it does me. I didn't mind, so I got a picture of him at the giant guitars again (this time on the right setting) then continued on my quest to retake pictures. There were only two that I lost: the one from the parking lot (which I was able to get from a different angle instead), and one of the bright spotlamps steaming as water from the sprinklers evaporated on contact. By the time I got back to the lamps, the sprinklers were off in that area.
There was also one other picture I missed because I wasn't fast enough, and that was of two cotton-tail bunnies running across the lawn from Broadway to Jazz I tried to find them again, but two dark-coated bunnies in the dark moving through bushes and grass can get lost easily, plus I didn't want to scare them so I didn't really look *too* hard.
Pictures recaptured, I returned to the room and bed.
Go to Day 1
-Rajah
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cdrtrisal@aol.com
(Links will return when I find a new place to host the sites)
Rajah/Tammi -- As usual, trip report writer and trip planner
VonDrake/Michael -- Rajah's DH, whose conference is our excuse for the trip this time
Guest Cast:
Art -- our CM friend, pin-fanatic, and all around cool guy
Marsha and Tom -- aka Mackey Mouse and her DH from the DIS
Carol, Jen, and Kristin -- aka CarolAnnK and her daughters from the DIS
"Aaron" -- another solo IOA guest
Dates: Feb 28 through Mar 4, 2001
Destination: WDW, and for Rajah, USF and IOA as well
Name: "Swimsuit edition" -- keep reading to find out why, though one tip: always take your swimsuit, even if you don't think you'll want it
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I tried to talk Michael into not going in to work today since he always has trouble slipping away mid afternoon to come home on the day we leave, but he wasn't able to take the day off. In fact, he had to be up and in much earlier than usual. This meant he was for once up before I was, and out the door when I was getting up (8:30). Still not that early, but for someone used to not rolling in until 11 or so, those two hours are very precious.
I went into work and tried, I really tried, to concentrate. My intention was to stay until 12:45, which would put me on an hour barrier for my time which is what I must be on to use time away hours, but by 11:30 I decided it was useless and I'd leave at 11:45 -- another hour barrier. I had enough time away built up between comp time and actual time away hours that I could afford one hour more of time away, so I started packing up. I gave Michael a call since he intended to leave at noon as well, and we decided to split our pre-trip 'duties' -- I'd go by the store and bank (bank in the store) and he would pick up some lunch for us on his way home.
So, off I went to stop at the grocery store right next to home. I was originally going for some coffee singles for Michael and to pick up our traveling money, but that list grew to half a dozen items including some bottled water. By the time I got home, it was about 12:45, and Michael finally came in the door at 1:15 -- as predicted, he wasn't able to get out the door when planned. But, he wasn't too late this time
We ate our lunch, then since I was almost fully packed (note: opting to leave my swimsuit home this time since I never use it) and rather tired, I curled up on the couch for what I intended to be about a two hour nap -- that would leave me with 30-45 minutes before my parents came to pick us up. Next thing I know, though, it's 4pm and my parents are calling to say they're on their way and stopping to get gas now.
So I rushed around like a chicken with its head cut off to finish up the last minute tiny details before we left, and my parents arrived. Though we'd intended to leave around 4 or 4:15, we didn't actually get out the door until 4:30. Still early enough to not be late for our plane, though, so though my mom was worried (she always worries about being late to catch a plane) Michael, my dad, and I weren't.
My dad dropped us off at the airport around 5:30 and went to park while Michael and I checked our bags. I at first thought we'd have to check them separately since we had differing return flights, but the guy behind the curb-side check-in counter said no, we could check them together this time since we were going out on the same flight and obviously together. He wasn't able to get us seats together, however, so he said we'd have to check in at the gate itself to have one seat reassigned so we could sit together instead of 2 rows apart.
Normally, our plane left from one of the C gates -- I forget the number right now, but all previous times it's been one of two gates. This time, we were leaving from D-10. So we passed through the metal detectors (me having the digital camera hand-checked) and finished up with all of that about the time my dad caught up with us. So we looked around for the D terminal, then started on the hike half-way around the airport. D was the international terminal, and it was almost a 20 minute walk to get from where we were to where we needed to be
Finally, with our tongues hanging out, we arrived at our new destination and looked at the counter. No one there. We'd intended to get dinner before boarding, but this lengthy walk threw a wrench in our plans. I was very grateful for my parents' presence, though, because they kindly backtracked to pick up some food for us while we waited for someone to get to the gate so I could get my seat changed to be with Michael.
When my parents arrived with our usual (pizza and pasta from a nearby Pizza Inn), we had about five minutes if that before the lady finally arrived at the counter and I was able to get my seat changed. We ended up in row 30, but the lady did try to get us two seats together closer to the front of the plane.
We didn't have quite enough time to finish eating before they started a boarding call, but it was pretty close. Plus, this was a flight with a sandwich on board anyway, so it worked out okay.
As we were walking up to our seats, the lady on the row behind us asked if there were just two of us and if we had the two seats we were about to take. We said yes, and she asked if we'd trade with her husband and son so the family could stay together. They were about 5 rows up. No problem, we'll take the other seats. Made no difference to us
As we were settling in, I kept hearing snippets of what sounded kinda like German. I took German in high school and college, and am always curious as to how much I've forgotten, so I tried to catch a word or two of what they were saying. But I couldn't understand any of it, so I decided it had to be Dutch or something similar instead -- I know I haven't forgotten *that* much
Our plane ended up leaving a little late, first because the tow line they tried using to pull/guide the plane out was broken, and then because there was traffic behind us. But once we finally got out and into the air, it was one of the smoothest flights to Orlando we've had yet. Our sandwiches this time were decent chicken salad sandwiches -- but I missed the chicken ceasar ones from the last time. I read while Michael dozed and watched the world go by, and finally we landed about 10 minutes early.
However, those ten minutes were easily made up by more non-plane technical problems
This time, the boarding ramp was having difficulty getting lined up to the plane, and we all stood/sat there on the plane for at least 10 minutes before anyone was able to get off. Minor delay only, though, and this time we didn't have anyone waiting for us.Off we went to pick up our luggage, then on the hunt to find the rental counter for National. I knew we could go straight to the Emerald Aisle, but I had no idea where that was so figured I'd just ask at the counter. So we followed the signs to the rental cars, then the more specific ones to National, and just as we were approaching the counter we noticed a big sign at the entrance to the waiting line that directed guests to the Emerald Aisle.
Great! No line for us! So off we went following the directions and found our way across the street and onto the second floor of the parking garage. The way was well marked, as were the rows. We found the Aisle cars and looked around, and finally decided on a mulberry/maroon Buick Regal. The keys were in the car, and our luggage fit nicely in the trunk. I was very glad that my parents and I had decided to go with renting a car when we went to Disneyland in January, as that gave us at least some idea of how to work the Emerald Aisle. As I was the Emerald Aisle member and the only one of the two of us to be 25 (the rental age -- Michael's just a few months short), I drove. What a nice car!! I might consider getting one of these the next time I need a new car!
We followed the signs out of the parking garage, then stopped at the checkout gate and got everything taken care of. I explained to the guy in the booth that this was my first time renting so could he please explain the procedure. He very patiently did so, and offered us a rental agreement receipt with the instructions that usually you have to ask for it. Then he told us about the full-tank option, which we opted not to take. That's where you don't have to return the car with a full tank, but you pay for a full tank of gas. Even if you just go 5 miles and it only requires a top-off, you get charged for a full tank of gas. We decided that definitely wasn't a good deal, so just asked for directions to the Beeline.
He told us the Beeline was 528 and gave us directions, as well as directions to the nearest gas station on the way back (both of which we promptly forgot
). But thankfully, the way out from the airport is well marked, and knowing our destination was 528 helped. There were signs to Disneyworld that would have taken us another way, but we really wanted to go by way of the Beeline (I'm more comfortable on toll roads than on normal freeways) so we didn't follow the Disneyworld directions. Instead, we followed the 528 and Universal directions until we got on the road.Once we made it to the Beeline, it was a clean shot to Disneyworld. Toll was $1.25 between two toll booths, but we were ready for it and sailed right through. I was glad I'd been paying at least some attention in the past when we'd been riding with Tiffany Towncar, though, because I could recognize we were going in the right direction. As I drove, Michael had fun playing with all the buttons on the dash
His favorite were the temperature controls, including passenger-specific ones which were nice since I always like it colder than he does.When we pulled onto Disney property, we toyed with which of three ways to go. One, the shortest, we'd never been on that we knew of and were afraid we'd get lost on, especially in the dark. So, at this time of night, the first route was out. The second way was in front of the Swan and Dolphin and was the route we were most familiar with, but wasn't marked for Animal Kingdom. However, I *knew* I could find my way from that road to some signs for Animal Kingdom, and it was shorter than the route indicated by the initial signs from the freeway. That was the third way -- to follow the signs Disney had out. We opted for the Epcot route (Buena Vista??)
We waved to Caribbean Beach as we drove past, and made note of how to get into the Swan and Dolphin (where we'd be coming tomorrow) as well as the Fantasia Gardens mini-golf, looked longingly at Coronado Springs (I want to stay there one of these days, the only one of the moderates I have yet to try) and finally found our way easily to the All Stars. The guard at the gate let us through to check in and gave us directions to Music.
We cringed as we drove past Sports. Neither of us are sports fans, and the giant footballs and coke cups were rather garish to us. And Calypso looked a little dubious to our tastes as we drove up to the check-in counter of Music. This was completely different than the resorts we were used to, and at first look we weren't sure we liked it. Some of it, we *knew* we didn't like.
I must say it felt somewhat strange approaching a check-in counter with our own car and parking in the parking lot instead of having someone else drop us off curb-side and being greeted by the bell hops. But it was nice as well, knowing we'd have our own car this time for transportation. So off we went to check in, and ended up standing in line for nearly 20 minutes (as usual, felt like 30+) as we waited and waited for the three groups in front of us to finish up. In the meantime we looked around, listened to the music, and again shook our heads. Give us our moderates or deluxes any day. Well, any day we can afford them, anyway
Finally, it was our turn to check in, and we were given the Jazz building, as requested, with a non-smoking room #2552. The CM recognized we'd been to WDW before by some of our comments and such, so we had a faster check-in than usual since she didn't go through some of the introductory pieces. Just gave us what we needed, told us where we needed to go, then let us go on our way. I appreciated that. And she verbally made note of the fact that we knew what we were doing, which is why she didn't go over the basics. So it wasn't just her shirking on her duty
We drove around to the Jazz parking lot, where I took a picture of the silhouette of the Jazz player, then found our way to our room and got some more pictures and settled in. Then, as is tradition, we left to go look around a bit. 20 pictures later, I realized I had the camera on the wrong setting
On a card that normally holds 250 or so pictures, I only had room for 40 more and I knew I would run out fast, so we had to backtrack to take some pictures.In all our exploring and picture taking, we visited both pools (liked the guitar pool better) and Calypso, Jazz, Rock, Country, and the Broadway buildings. We spent the most time at Rock, since Michael was fascinated by the giant guitars. I probably should have gotten us a room there instead of in Jazz, but oh well. Our room was good enough for one night.
On our backtracking to retake the pictures on the proper setting, Michael deserted me to return to the room. He was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to go to bed, and it always takes him longer to get ready morning or night than it does me. I didn't mind, so I got a picture of him at the giant guitars again (this time on the right setting) then continued on my quest to retake pictures. There were only two that I lost: the one from the parking lot (which I was able to get from a different angle instead), and one of the bright spotlamps steaming as water from the sprinklers evaporated on contact. By the time I got back to the lamps, the sprinklers were off in that area.
There was also one other picture I missed because I wasn't fast enough, and that was of two cotton-tail bunnies running across the lawn from Broadway to Jazz
I tried to find them again, but two dark-coated bunnies in the dark moving through bushes and grass can get lost easily, plus I didn't want to scare them so I didn't really look *too* hard.Pictures recaptured, I returned to the room and bed.
Go to Day 1
-Rajah
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cdrtrisal@aol.com
(Links will return when I find a new place to host the sites)
