TCKK Family August 2008 Trip Report Part 2

[TCKK]

Day 2:

Our hotel the first night was in Valdosta, Georgia about 16 miles north of the Florida border. We got up, ate a continental breakfast at the hotel and crossed the Florida border about 7:50am.

Here’s a picture of the Welcome to Florida sign

Yeah, we’re really in Florida. We hit the Florida Welcome Center just a few minutes before 8:00 and took the obligatory pictures.

They open at 8:00am and start serving orange and grapefruit juice right away. I just don’t feel like I’m in Florida until I get the free cup of juice. I did that with my family when I was a little girl and now we do it with our girls. I just love family traditions, don’t you?

Here are some other pictures we took at the Welcome Center.

That’s all for tonight. I need to get some sleep. Will we ever make it to Pop and what will we do first?

Cathy

 

[pooksma]

Love the Welcome Centre pics. This is something we've never gotten to see.

I have to see those HUGE juice dispensers in person. Wow!

 

[heaven2dc]

This should be a fun report! Am hoping your check-in at Pop went smoothly - keep us posted!!

 

[willwriteforears]

What a cool tradition to get orange juice at the welcome center! My friends and I never made it to a welcome center since we flew in--we might have made a point if we'd known about the free OJ!

Looking forward to the arrival at POP!

 

[TCKK]

And how lovely I know they are, too. But, alas, I am at school, and all I can see are those darned red X boxes.

I shall look forward to seeing them when I get home.


Tennessee does have some loveliness to it. I don't see much of it other than my well-traveled triangle of home-school-church. I keep saying I'm going to do a weekend trip to Gatlinburg in the fall, because it is beautiful, but then I think about all the money, and I'd rather spend it on Disney trips. One day, when I'm tired of Disney, I will do that. I d like to shop up there at all the neat shops!

We love Tennessee. If I didn't live in Ohio, Tennessee or North Carolina would probably be my second choice.

TCKK......It's a small world when you can get online and meet up with some one who actually knows where Middletown, Ohio is.
We now live near the "old" Middletown Hospital.Both my husband and I are born and raised here also.I grew up around the Sherman School area on Sherman Street, husband grew up on Bexley Drive.
Be waiting to read more.
I hope you enjoyed your Bible study meeting it is always a good way to start any day.

Yes it is a small world. DH read this and says he knows right where you're talking about. Glad you're here reading and hopefully there will be another update tonight. Bible study was last night and it was awesome!

Love the Welcome Centre pics. This is something we've never gotten to see.

I have to see those HUGE juice dispensers in person. Wow!

And it's really good juice too. If you guys ever drive down (and I think I remember your DH saying something about doing that sometime) you really must stop there. It's a fun tradition we love doing.

This should be a fun report! Am hoping your check-in at Pop went smoothly - keep us posted!!

Welcome to our report. I hope you enjoy it.

What a cool tradition to get orange juice at the welcome center! My friends and I never made it to a welcome center since we flew in--we might have made a point if we'd known about the free OJ!

Looking forward to the arrival at POP!

Hopefully I can get to the arrival at Pop tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

I'm on lunch break and my times almost over. I guess I better get back to work. Have a blessed day everyone!!

Cathy

 

[micandminforever]

The pictures from the Tenn. and Fla. welcome centers were great. DH and I stopped at the Tenn. center just last week coming back to Ga. from Kentucky. I never thought about taking a picture. It is a tradition of my DH and I to take a picture at the Fla. center. We took one on the way to Disney World on our Honeymoon, so since then on every trip to Disney. We have change just alittle over the years.

 

[vdarrell]

When our boys were little we always drove to Florida and stopped at the Welcome Center it was a tradition for us to.Now as we are older and the boys are older we fly so we miss the "free" orange juice.

 

[momminnie]

I had to laugh when I saw pictures at the welcome centers. I also have pictures at them. We have been to Disney about 6 times I think. Welcome center pictures each time. My Mom lives in Tenn. so we go there at least 2 times a year. I'm not always in the pictures,I have to be the photog. Looking forward to reading about your trip.

 

[tinkjess3]

I am excited to hear all about your trip!!! I lived in Lebanon from the age of 2 up until I got married two years ago! We are in Maineville now! Cant wait for more!

 

[TCKK]

Finally we saw this sign!

And this one!

And this one!

And then we were there!

We arrived at Pop Century around 11:15am. Here are some pictures from the registration area of Pop.

We checked in and got our room right away. We had requested the 50’s section and we got it. We were in the building directly behind the Juke Box in room 2434. We went and checked out our room and then went back to Classic Hall and had some lunch.

Lunch was great. Later in the report I’ll show some pictures of the Food Court area. But for now, here’s what we had for lunch. Everyone loved their choices.

I had the Chicken Penne Pasta

DH had Chicken Mediterranean Flatbread

Kerri had Cheese Pizza

and Kelli had Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Next we went to a Dollar Store to get 2 balloons for the room to keep the air conditioner running. We had read here on the DIS that the air conditioners have motion detectors and that if you put a balloon in the room with a fan there will be enough movement to fool the sensors. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but our room was always cool when we came back after being away for hours. Anyway, we came back then and unpacked the van and got the room all set up. We hung a shower curtain between the room and the sink area, which gave us a really nice dressing area, which really helps when you have teenage girls.

After this the girls and I went swimming in the Bowling Pin Pool and later we headed to one of the parks. Will put this in the next report.

Cathy

 

[TCKK]

The pictures from the Tenn. and Fla. welcome centers were great. DH and I stopped at the Tenn. center just last week coming back to Ga. from Kentucky. I never thought about taking a picture. It is a tradition of my DH and I to take a picture at the Fla. center. We took one on the way to Disney World on our Honeymoon, so since then on every trip to Disney. We have change just alittle over the years.

We do the Florida one every trip. We've got pictures there since the girls were 3 and 6, the first time we took them to WDW. They've changed a lot too.

When our boys were little we always drove to Florida and stopped at the Welcome Center it was a tradition for us to.Now as we are older and the boys are older we fly so we miss the "free" orange juice.

Traditions can be a lot of fun.

I had to laugh when I saw pictures at the welcome centers. I also have pictures at them. We have been to Disney about 6 times I think. Welcome center pictures each time. My Mom lives in Tenn. so we go there at least 2 times a year. I'm not always in the pictures,I have to be the photog. Looking forward to reading about your trip.

Most of the time I'm the photographer too, but I determined this trip I was going to be in some of the pictures too. The girls have always tried to get me to be in the pictures, but usually I resist. Not this time. I decided I wanted proof that I was there too.

I am excited to hear all about your trip!!! I lived in Lebanon from the age of 2 up until I got married two years ago! We are in Maineville now! Cant wait for more!

Welcome former Lebanon person. I've lived in or around Lebanon, Morrow or Middletown all my life. I love it. I've worked in Lebanon for the past 32 years. I think it's a pretty neat town. Welcome to our report and I hope you enjoy it.

Cathy

 

[Nicole786]

Thanks for the POP pics, i'll be staying there in december!

 

[declansdad]

I have read about the balloon trick before, but I honestly don't remember ever coming back to the room and not having it cool.

 

[MeMom]

What a great feeling it is to drive under that magical arch! Did you know you can see it from the top of the Roger Rabbit building?

We were in the jukebox building last summer - just to the left of the jukebox (if looking at it from the pool) on the ground floor. We were just a few steps away from the pool.

The food looks good. My boys get that penne pasta about three times on every trip.

Looking forward to more soon!

 

[pooksma]

I'm with your DH- love that flatbread.

You are making me want to stay at POP again already!

 

[willwriteforears]

Nice pictures of POP! The food looks good--I think I'd have a hard time choosing between the parmesan crusted chicken and the flat bread!

Looking forward to more!

 

[TCKK]

Thanks for the POP pics, i'll be staying there in december!

You're welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay there as much as we did.

I have read about the balloon trick before, but I honestly don't remember ever coming back to the room and not having it cool.

I don't know if it made a difference either, but it sure didn't hurt anything. The room was definitely cool each day.

What a great feeling it is to drive under that magical arch! Did you know you can see it from the top of the Roger Rabbit building?

We were in the jukebox building last summer - just to the left of the jukebox (if looking at it from the pool) on the ground floor. We were just a few steps away from the pool.

The food looks good. My boys get that penne pasta about three times on every trip.

Looking forward to more soon!

Yes, the last time we stayed at Pop I saw that sign from there. We were quite a bit farther from the pool in the building directly behind the jukebox, plus we were on the 4th floor, but with the elevator, that was no problem at all and it was very quiet back there. We didn't have much view because of all the trees, but that's ok, we didn't mind at all since we didn't stay in the room that much anyway. The penne pasta was very good. I think I had it twice this time and probably 3 or 4 times when we were there 2 years ago. Hope to post more either tonight or tomorrow.

I'm with your DH- love that flatbread.

You are making me want to stay at POP again already!

He loved that flatbread and so did my youngest DD. I never tried it though. Oh well, there's always next time, I hope.

Nice pictures of POP! The food looks good--I think I'd have a hard time choosing between the parmesan crusted chicken and the flat bread!

Looking forward to more!

They're both good and I must say their portion sizes are very generous. If you walk away hungry, it's not POP's fault. Hoping to post more tonight or maybe tomorrow.

Cathy

 

[TCKK]

I wound up the last post with us at the pool, but I forgot about these pictures I took while we were there.

Ok. Now on to the first park of our trip. We headed to the buses around 5:00 and arrived at DHS at 5:20pm.

When we first got there, this was going by, so I took a quick pic.

Then I just took random shots of the main street there. There were very few times I was without my camera in my hand while we were in the parks. If you get bored seeing the pictures, let me know. I took around 1,000, but I promise not to put all of them on here.

As you can see below we’re heading towards ToT and RnRC. We ended up riding RnRC first. In fact, we didn’t do ToT until later in the week.

Here are the girls and I (remember I’m the photographer) waiting in line for RnRC. DH doesn’t do coasters. The last time he road one was a stand-up coaster at Kings Island and he prayed to God, if you let me get off this alive, I’ll never ride another one. God answered his prayer and he’s stayed true to his promise.

Ah finally inside where it’s cool

I just realized that those are the neck or strings and frets of a guitar. Man, Disney has such neat detail in their decorations.

I didn’t take any pictures of the actual ride. I was too nervous. I love riding them, but they scare me to death. I’m always afraid for some reason, I’ll be the one whose shoulder harness doesn’t work and I’ll fall out. I know, it’s crazy, but that’s still the way I feel. Anyway, the girls and I loved this ride. But as it turned out, this was the only time we rode it this trip. We just never made it back there.

After that we were hungry and went to the ABC Commissary for dinner.
Tracy, Kerri and I had the Cuban Sandwich. It was really good.

And Kelli had the Ugly Betty Cheeseburger. She didn’t know until she started eating it that it was a veggie burger. She didn’t like it at all and said it was too dry.

I'll continue shortly.

Cathy

 

[TCKK]

Next, we rode the Great Movie Ride. Here are some pictures from the queue area.

Here goes the ride now. I was able to get a couple pictures, but now many turned out very well because I didn’t use flash.

After this we decided to take a quick tour of some of the shops. I didn’t buy anything and I can’t remember if they did or not. Mostly we just browsed and I took a couple photos.

Kelli’s favorite character

After this, we realized Kelli was feeling pretty bad. She had a bad headache. So we left and headed back to Pop. DH and Kelli stayed in the room and Kerri and I went swimming again. Then we all hit the sack so we could be up and at it again in the morning. Thankfully Kelli was fine in the morning.

Next up will be our first morning in MK.

Cathy

 

[MeMom]

I wound up the last post with us at the pool, but I forgot about these pictures I took while we were there.

Cathy

This was about what it was every day when we were there, as well. It's been just as hot here, though.

Sorry to hear you had a sick girl, but I'm glad it didn't last long.

Nice GMR pictures!