First, this is not a 'downer' or a rant, we went to WDW the first week in March this year as we have for 8 of the last 12 years, and we had a ball. We met up with old friends from these boards, Paul amd Priscilla, our stay at the BoardWalk was great as usual, the weather was great, at least in WDW, but that's a story for later, and we did ALMOST everything we wanted to do. So, why the title?
Let's start at the beginning. We flew out of Allentown PA for the first time since USAir abandoned their direct flights some years ago, on AirTran. The price was right and the smaller airport was closer to home and much less hectic than PHL, but the only flight to MCO left at 5 pm ish, so I used Credit Card reward points to book the Hyatt at MCO that night, free. We arrived on time, got a nice inside balcony room with a view of the peons scrambling to their flights, freshened up and hit the bar for Happy Hour (or 2).
The next morning I went to the Dollar kiosk using my Dollar Express card, we had an economy car for 8 days for $180, total, and once there I was upgraded (free) to an Impala. Life is good! We got to Publix quickly, got our grub, dropped the bags at BoardWalk and made DHS for rope drop. It was ESPN Weekend, we did our usual rides, then I went to the interactive area and drove some golfballs, the launch monitor says I topped out over 220 yards, not bad for a rusty Senior.
I forget the exact days, but we had ressies for Tokyo Dining during Illuminations, we saw that from our window seat, Ohanas for Wishes, ditto, and Le Cellier where we saw faux stone walls, but the food was great. Oh yeah, that night we caught Jose Feleciano at the Flower & Garden concert, he was better than I remember from my mis-spent youth.
Wifey did her garden thing, I had stroll and a cigar on the BW every morning around 7 am, all in all a perfect trip, except..
The morning of our next to last day I returned to our room after my morning walk to find wifey in the phone, the room phone, not the cell. It was our neighbor telling her that our neighborhood was under a flood watch, rain and winter snow-melt threatened to top a small stream nearby. This is a
yearly threat, rarely realized, and we've been in WDW for these in the past with no ill result, but the neighbor's brother works for the city and he said thay were closing the flood gates on our street as a precaution.
We went to MK as planned that day, but once inside we decided that we couldn't enjoy ourselves with that hanging over our heads, so I called AT from the benches to the left of the Main St entrance area, they got us a 2:20 flight that day, we decided to bolt. We got 6 great days of the 8 we planned, long story shot, the flood didn't happen, we were due to check out of BW the next morning and stay the day in WDW, going to the Marriott that night and as it happened, that day was a total rainout in Orlando, so we feel we didn't miss much.
As for the title of this post, despite the fact that we had a great time, I don't have any memories of this trip. No, not amnesia, when I see pics or videos I vividly recall the events, it's just that after such a trip I get spontaneous flashbacks of some fun thing or other, and that's not happening here. Also, there were a few items we were going to buy on the last day and we wanted to do that Tequilia flight at Mexico in WS, but there was no 'last day', we ran out on that.
Again, no complaints, in more than a dozen lengthy trips to WDW over the years this is the only one with even a minor glitch. We looked at going back between Christmas and NY this year, never been then and we both have that week off, but flights and rooms are outrageous and I noticed that this past holiday season it actually froze there some nights. I'll get that at home for free. We're looking at Food&Wine 2012 unless I hit the lottery or some such thing, so I won't be quite the fanatic DIS Boarder the next several months. I'm thinking I'll get the bug once Summer 2011 runs down here in Pa., and I wouldn't bet against our sneaking in something, last minute, next March, ya never know.
Bill From PA
Let's start at the beginning. We flew out of Allentown PA for the first time since USAir abandoned their direct flights some years ago, on AirTran. The price was right and the smaller airport was closer to home and much less hectic than PHL, but the only flight to MCO left at 5 pm ish, so I used Credit Card reward points to book the Hyatt at MCO that night, free. We arrived on time, got a nice inside balcony room with a view of the peons scrambling to their flights, freshened up and hit the bar for Happy Hour (or 2).
The next morning I went to the Dollar kiosk using my Dollar Express card, we had an economy car for 8 days for $180, total, and once there I was upgraded (free) to an Impala. Life is good! We got to Publix quickly, got our grub, dropped the bags at BoardWalk and made DHS for rope drop. It was ESPN Weekend, we did our usual rides, then I went to the interactive area and drove some golfballs, the launch monitor says I topped out over 220 yards, not bad for a rusty Senior.
I forget the exact days, but we had ressies for Tokyo Dining during Illuminations, we saw that from our window seat, Ohanas for Wishes, ditto, and Le Cellier where we saw faux stone walls, but the food was great. Oh yeah, that night we caught Jose Feleciano at the Flower & Garden concert, he was better than I remember from my mis-spent youth.
Wifey did her garden thing, I had stroll and a cigar on the BW every morning around 7 am, all in all a perfect trip, except..
The morning of our next to last day I returned to our room after my morning walk to find wifey in the phone, the room phone, not the cell. It was our neighbor telling her that our neighborhood was under a flood watch, rain and winter snow-melt threatened to top a small stream nearby. This is a
yearly threat, rarely realized, and we've been in WDW for these in the past with no ill result, but the neighbor's brother works for the city and he said thay were closing the flood gates on our street as a precaution.
We went to MK as planned that day, but once inside we decided that we couldn't enjoy ourselves with that hanging over our heads, so I called AT from the benches to the left of the Main St entrance area, they got us a 2:20 flight that day, we decided to bolt. We got 6 great days of the 8 we planned, long story shot, the flood didn't happen, we were due to check out of BW the next morning and stay the day in WDW, going to the Marriott that night and as it happened, that day was a total rainout in Orlando, so we feel we didn't miss much.
As for the title of this post, despite the fact that we had a great time, I don't have any memories of this trip. No, not amnesia, when I see pics or videos I vividly recall the events, it's just that after such a trip I get spontaneous flashbacks of some fun thing or other, and that's not happening here. Also, there were a few items we were going to buy on the last day and we wanted to do that Tequilia flight at Mexico in WS, but there was no 'last day', we ran out on that.
Again, no complaints, in more than a dozen lengthy trips to WDW over the years this is the only one with even a minor glitch. We looked at going back between Christmas and NY this year, never been then and we both have that week off, but flights and rooms are outrageous and I noticed that this past holiday season it actually froze there some nights. I'll get that at home for free. We're looking at Food&Wine 2012 unless I hit the lottery or some such thing, so I won't be quite the fanatic DIS Boarder the next several months. I'm thinking I'll get the bug once Summer 2011 runs down here in Pa., and I wouldn't bet against our sneaking in something, last minute, next March, ya never know.
Bill From PA
) 12 days....
