thumperbelle3
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2008
- Messages
- 252
Hakuna Matata!
We got off the plane and Mark changed into shorts. We took the monorail over to the Magical Express (ME). Check in took about 5 minutes. We got right on the Pop Century bus which was about a quarter full.
Ten minutes later we were on our way! Our bus driver was from Haiti and kind of hard to understand. I thought he said something about the death toll from hurricanes in Haiti was up to 500 people. Mark thought he said there were 500 people already checked in to Pop Century. We find it hard to understand anyone without a Midwest accent. I loved the ME bus! Here is a picture of us on it.
The video was great and we were both really excited. Mark passed the time by talking in his Mickey Mouse voice which has a slightly southern twang to it. He does the Mickey giggle pretty good. I also loved letting ME pick up our suitcase and having it delivered right to our room!
This might be a good time to bring up the Binder of Fun. Anyone who watched the Full House episode when the Tanner family went to WDW knows that Danny had the Clipboard of Fun. Well I made a binder. Some of you reading have probably already made one yourself. I included our itinerary, menus, maps, reservation information. I introduced Mark to it the night before we left. He laughed and said he was very thankful that I did all the planning. I knew we probably wouldnt use it that much but it was sort of my security blanket if you will.
It was just after 12 noon when we arrived at Pop Century.
What a cool resort this is. I used to think the OVERSIZED décor was kinda cheesy. That was before we actually saw it in real life. I loved it! All the bright colors and fun music. Now this is Disney. We walked into the lobby which was not that busy. We liked looking at the shadow boxes on the walls. Especially the 80s ones since thats the decade we grew up in. Guess what! Our room was ready! I was not expecting this at all. And we are staying in 50s building 1. I was really hoping to stay in the 50s or 60s so I was thrilled. We next went over to the concierge desk to get a print out of our ADRs and add two days to Marks 1 day MYW ticket. I had a non-expiring ticket with 4 days on it already. Mark was going to add 2 days to his making it a 3 day and then he would also use the 1 day ticket I had to purchase to get the free dining package. It cost him $145.90 for the 2 days. He used a Visa gift card from his bank for this. These are nice if you dont want to carry cash.
Then we headed to our room #1263. It took a little while for us to find it but of course once you do you never lose your way again right? Our room was at the end of building 1 on the second floor overlooking the bowling pin pool. How cool is that! There were trees blocking some of our view but it was a standard room and I thought that was pretty good. Here are a couple pics of the inside.
I was in shock of how smoothly everything was going so far. I at least expected to have to wait for something! We left our carry-on bags and grabbed our Keys to the World and headed out the door for some lunch.
We got off the plane and Mark changed into shorts. We took the monorail over to the Magical Express (ME). Check in took about 5 minutes. We got right on the Pop Century bus which was about a quarter full.
Ten minutes later we were on our way! Our bus driver was from Haiti and kind of hard to understand. I thought he said something about the death toll from hurricanes in Haiti was up to 500 people. Mark thought he said there were 500 people already checked in to Pop Century. We find it hard to understand anyone without a Midwest accent. I loved the ME bus! Here is a picture of us on it.
The video was great and we were both really excited. Mark passed the time by talking in his Mickey Mouse voice which has a slightly southern twang to it. He does the Mickey giggle pretty good. I also loved letting ME pick up our suitcase and having it delivered right to our room!
This might be a good time to bring up the Binder of Fun. Anyone who watched the Full House episode when the Tanner family went to WDW knows that Danny had the Clipboard of Fun. Well I made a binder. Some of you reading have probably already made one yourself. I included our itinerary, menus, maps, reservation information. I introduced Mark to it the night before we left. He laughed and said he was very thankful that I did all the planning. I knew we probably wouldnt use it that much but it was sort of my security blanket if you will.
It was just after 12 noon when we arrived at Pop Century.
What a cool resort this is. I used to think the OVERSIZED décor was kinda cheesy. That was before we actually saw it in real life. I loved it! All the bright colors and fun music. Now this is Disney. We walked into the lobby which was not that busy. We liked looking at the shadow boxes on the walls. Especially the 80s ones since thats the decade we grew up in. Guess what! Our room was ready! I was not expecting this at all. And we are staying in 50s building 1. I was really hoping to stay in the 50s or 60s so I was thrilled. We next went over to the concierge desk to get a print out of our ADRs and add two days to Marks 1 day MYW ticket. I had a non-expiring ticket with 4 days on it already. Mark was going to add 2 days to his making it a 3 day and then he would also use the 1 day ticket I had to purchase to get the free dining package. It cost him $145.90 for the 2 days. He used a Visa gift card from his bank for this. These are nice if you dont want to carry cash.
Then we headed to our room #1263. It took a little while for us to find it but of course once you do you never lose your way again right? Our room was at the end of building 1 on the second floor overlooking the bowling pin pool. How cool is that! There were trees blocking some of our view but it was a standard room and I thought that was pretty good. Here are a couple pics of the inside.
I was in shock of how smoothly everything was going so far. I at least expected to have to wait for something! We left our carry-on bags and grabbed our Keys to the World and headed out the door for some lunch.
We waited almost 20 minutes for the bus to DTD. It was 1:05pm when we left POP. We also found out that the buses are not running to PI because of construction. We would have to get off at West Side. I decided we should get off at Market Place instead because Im not familiar with West Side and we wanted to do some shopping. But lunch first! I had only eaten a 100 cal pack of Wheat Thins so far toady. Once we got to RR my stomach was eating itself. And the fact that the outside of the restaurant smelled funny didnt help. I dont really know what it was.
It kind of smelled like hot cooking oil or grease.
Mark ordered the Dundons Delight $7.99. Raspberry pavlova with vanilla pod ice cream, served on a raspberry and champagne consommé. He did not like this. The pavlova was too airy. When he cut it open it looked like the turkey from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. All dry and hollow. Maybe thats how it is supposed to be? And the consommé was so sweet it hurt. Needless to say Mark ate a lot of my bread pudding. Our total came to $52.63. But with Free Dining we only paid $19.50 (beer + tip).
The artist did a great job. It cost us $50.06. 
This was a competition and Mark won. He got par for the course 53 and I got 59. And we each got a free golf ball from the clubhouse.
Why is it that wgen it's the hottest it's the people that have forgotten about personal hygeine that are around.
so thay can usually be lived with.
But we must go on. Lots to see! I had wanted to hop on a friendship boat and ride around the lagoon but Mark was hungry again so we decided to leave Boardwalk and go all the way back to DTD. Sounds crazy but its kind of my tradition to go to Ghirardellis for ice cream. But first we had to take pictures in my favorite chairs. 
They looked really sweet. 
Mark said his had too much hot fudge. I said thats impossible. 
I was wide awake! My mind would not stop racing. Are we going to get there in time for rope drop? Are the crowds going to be crazy? Is it going to rain today? All these scenarios were popping into my head and I really just wanted to go back to sleep but as the old saying goes, Im too excited to sleep!
The ride took about 13 minutes. I thought that was pretty good.
subscribing 
So was the Sprite it was 32 oz. I never drink pop(thats what we call it in MI) so it was a lot for me. The French fries were really good to. Mark liked his food as far as I could tell. It looked really big too. We decided to save the carrot cake for later. 
I was laughing so hard I was crying. 
