Chapter 3: The Big Arrival
We bid a fond farewell to the Nickelodeon pool and went back to our room to pack. We threw our stuff together rather quickly and loaded ourselves up in the car. As we were leaving, Mr. Frick drove towards the lobby and I quizzed him on why in the world he was going that way. He gave me that look. The one he gives when I’ve said something flighty. I looked back at him and asked him ’why are you looking at me like that’ with my eyes. He said “Don’t you need to check us out?" Why yes, yes I do. How could I forget about something like that? Oh I know why, I was focused on getting my self over to my happy place. Sponge Bob was old news.
I hopped out of the car and entered the lobby. There were four families trying to check in. Tarter sauce. They were happy. They were talkative. They were interested in hearing all about what the Nick Suites had to offer. They put on armbands. They trimmed their armbands. They found their rooms on maps. They asked directions to the food court. They filed their taxes. They inquired about park tickets. I was about to absolutely lose it. I yelled over to the concierge lady who was doing nothing. Nada. Zip. I said "Is this where you check out?" I said it really loud so everyone there knew I needed to go. She smiled at me and said yes. I thought for sure someone would come up and let me sign and leave or that one of the families checking in would let me pass, but no. Actually, one front desk clerk left because she had to go to the bathroom. How dare she. It was torture to stand there and go through it all. After 25 minutes, it was my turn. I could have ran back to our room and checked out by phone 5 times in the time that it took me to check out in the lobby. Lesson learned.
I got back into our car and noticed the boys were getting sugared up on some gummy Crabby Patties. I heard the ’what took you so long’ ’we’ve been waiting forever’ yadda yadda blah blah. I expressed to the guys that I was frustrated too, but that all was good now. We were ready to roll on into the World! In five minutes we were passing through the gates that I love so much. Stitch yelled, “Mom! Put in my Mickey CD!” I was stunned for a minute. I realized he must have been reading LaLa’s and NicoleMarie’s trip reports when I wasn't around. I have been raising a bona fide Disney nerd and I didn’t even know it! He wanted theme music for his drive in. I was greatly impressed. I found the slot the Mickey’s Jams somethingoranother cd was in and pumped up the volume. Mickey was in da house and we were getting the party started. Mr. Frick was shaking his head at me because I was singing and sprouting some mouse ears. He just doesn't get it. But that is ok.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the excitement of pulling into a Disney resort for the first time for me. It is my favorite part of the trip and I was especially excited about staying at the Beach Club! We had only stayed on a Disney property two times before with one stay at the Poly and the last at POR. When we left last year, I knew an Epcot resort was going to be the place for us. I had a hard time choosing, but went with the BC for our first go round. I had booked a standard room with the hopes of an upgrade.
Mr. Frick got us checked in at the gates and we were handed our parking pass for the week. Right as we were about to pull through the gates, a ME bus blew by us. I yelled at my man to gun it because I had to beat those people in there. Like the rednecks we are, he floored it and we came to a screeching halt under the veranda and I jumped out before the car was completely stopped. I was a woman on a mission. I got stuck behind TWO busses of ME folks at POR last year, and it wasn’t going to happen to me again. I yelled at Mr. Frick to check in the luggage and for the kids to stay with their dad and I was gone.
I approached the empty check in desk, thankful that we didn’t take out a bell boy in my madness to get there first. I put on my sweet smile and approached a little old CM fellow who was ready to help me. I gave him my info and he welcomed me to the Beach Club. This was my year people. This was MY year for a room upgrade. Not a HappyHaunt upgrade, but a good upgrade. I have never gotten one, and I wanted one. Badly.
As Mr. CM Man was doing his thing, I said, “I really thought about upgrading to a water view when I made my reservations, but I didn’t. Now I am sad that I didn’t go ahead and do that. Would you have anything with a water view left?” He said that he would certainly check it out for me as he handed me the price chart of what my upgrade cost would be. Fish paste. It didn’t work. I stared at it for a minute pretending like I didn’t know what the price increase would be ($85 more/night). I bit my lip as I pretended to stew over the decision and said, “Well, I just don’t think I can do it this time. I will stick with the standard view, but I would like to be close to the Epcot entrance.” Big score there. Mr. CM had a great room right off a little path that would be about a four minute walk to Epcot. It wasn’t ready, so he gave us our keys to the best playground ever and a card with a number to call to check on our room status later.
I went back outside to find that the guys had followed the orders that I had barked at them. We went in the lobby of the Beach Club together and headed out the back doors to make our way to Epcot. What a beautiful scene it was to see the lake and the Boardwalk for the first time. I immediately fell in love with our home for the next five days. The boys ooohed and aaahed and Mr. Frick had visions of big screens in his head as he spotted the ESPN zone. All was good. All was golden.
Approximately 5 minutes later, we arrived at the International Gateway and we were through the gates. It was a ghost town. No one was there, and that made my man very, very happy. We rented a stroller and our two very excited boys hopped in. We had an ADR in China so we strolled on over. I can’t tell you how pleasant it was to be there with no crowds.
I found Snow White and had to get my picture with her as my first big Disney event of the trip.
She had a pimple that was covered up with make-up as thick as pancake batter and that kind of ruined the magic for me. Seriously, why I focused on that I will never know.
Nine Dragons had a total of nine people in there. LaLa had told me about the place a week before we left and I quickly added on an ADR because my boys love Chinese. We were seated and the fun began.
Yes, that would be my husband. With a chopstick up his nose. That must be how they do it at Bama. Notice how Stitch is trying to get away from him!!
We had that giddy first day of Disney vacation thing going on.
Our waitress was probably the sweetest person I have ever met. She grinned hugely the entire time. Especially when she didn’t really know what we were saying. Often after speaking to her, she would just stand there and grin for a good 3—5 seconds. I would grin back. And she would nod her head and grin some more and walk off. She was precious.
Thank you LaLa for the Nine Dragons reminder. It was great and we had the best time there. Did you know a little bird hangs out in the restaurant? I saw this tiny birdie hoping around our table and we all freaked out because he was so cute! I looked at our sweet grinning waitress across the room and pointed at the bird. She grinned and nodded yes, like it was old news. We had fun watching the little guy though.
Mr. Frick paid our bill for our free food and as we began to open the fortune cookies, he looked at Lil Frick and said “Let’s go ride Test Track”.
Now lemmetellya about Test Track. Lil Frick has been scared to death of it since he can remember. Last year he made it all the way up to the car and freaked out and wouldn’t ride. For a year now, he has been saying, with his chest pushed out proudly, that he was going to ride Test Track. For a year now, we have been ’going how fast Test Track goes’ so he can see what it feels like. For a year now, he has been talking about Test Track. Forty days before we were supposed to leave for Disney, we told the boys about the trip. I had them go on a scavenger hunt around the house and the last prize was a
MNSSHP ticket. As soon as Lil Frick opened it up and realized we were going, he said “I am NOT riding Test Track”.
We really didn’t know what he would do, but we made our way over to TT and we were all so jazzed about our first ride. I thought only three of us would be jazzed, but it turned out that the fourth was actually, surprisingly, jazzed as well. Will he ride it? Tune in next time!