The Trip that Almost Didn't Happen! Completed Trip Report

[Mischa]

Date of trip: June 13 – 20, 2007

Cast of Characters: Two big kids at heart - DH and Me

Reason for trip: to celebrate 16 years of marriage, enjoy Star Wars Weekend and most importantly…a much needed vacation.

We had this trip planned since February and then had to cancel it in May because of so much going on; when my dad passed away June 2nd (after being in Hospice the past month), we decided to do the trip anyway because we just needed to get away (and where better to go than to the most magical place in the world?)

This was our 3rd trip to the World in a year – we are so blessed to have been able to visit 3 times since May 2006. Everything was so last minute (hence the title “The Trip that Almost Didn’t Happen!”) that we never got a chance to do a “pre-trip report”.

Resort: SSR – 1 bedroom (DVC members); Room 1614 at Congress Park.

On to the Report:

Day 1 (Wednesday): On Wednesday, June 13th, DH & I began our drive (from VA) to WDW. After some last minute errands and packing our car…we left home around 2:30 PM. We had an uneventful drive until we reached South Carolina when it began to rain (very hard!) We finally hit Manning, SC, around 10:00 PM and decided to stop; we found a Best Western and spent the night.

Day 2 (Thursday): The next morning (after having breakfast at Shoney’s) we were on our way to Disney. It was Disney or bust! The sun was shining and we again had an uneventful drive and only had traffic once we arrived in Orlando. We had apparently missed a rainstorm, and finally got to SSR (checked in and brought our bags to our room). By 6:00 PM we were at Lone Star having dinner.

After dinner we came back to SSR, parked our car, and hopped a bus to the Magic Kingdom. We watched Wishes and then SpectroMagic. It seems that the day we arrive at WDW we have gone over to MK to watch Wishes, so it’s become a tradition for us on our first night to watch Wishes. We were also lucky in that, that night was also EMH, so we were at MK until 2:00 AM. That was cool! After Wishes and SpectroMagic we went to Tomorrowland and saw the Monsters Inc., show. That has to be the funniest thing we’ve seen in a looooooong time! We loved the show and loved that it was interactive. That is definitely something we’ll go see again!

After Monster’s Inc., we went to Space Mountain. DH has wanted to go on it for ages, so he finally did it. I on the other hand have not wanted to go on it so I waited for DH. J Luckily it wasn’t a long wait! DH thought it was a really cool ride. Afterwards we walked around near the castle – it was so romantic! We took lots of pictures – the castle was so pretty changing colors. Magic Kingdom has to be my most favorite place in the world!

Day 3 (Friday): Got up early and headed to MGM for Star Wars Weekend! We got there at about 9:00 AM. Loved seeing the Storm Troopers at the entrance of MGM. They were hilarious! We also saw Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Lilo & Stitch too. We got our photos taken with them and got their autographs. DH had bought a Disney hat that he was using to for autographs. We were having a great time (even though it was soooo hot and humid). We were buying way too many Star Wars souvenirs! We watched the SWW parade that was cool (except for the woman who kept raising her arm or bending over just when I was trying to take a picture!) We also got to ride Star Tours, The Great Movie Ride, and the Backlot Tour.

One funny thing – while we were on Mickey Avenue walking out of Jabba’s Hut I almost bumped into Darth Sidius. I was in the middle (of the street) taking pictures of some Storm Troopers when I turned and there he was. Darth Sidius (and his red-clothed guards) were walking right at me and passed me. That was strange!

We decided to go back to SSR since we were both hot and tired and it was late in the afternoon. We went for a swim in the pool near Congress Park and then went out to dinner to Planet Hollywood at DTD. Since we were on the Dining Plan we had more food than we needed! I had the beef fajitas, DH had the bacon cheeseburger. We each had an appetizer and I had the blackened shrimp and DH had the potato skins. And of course we have dessert. The waitress was wonderful and said she’d count the Chocolate Shake DH got as a dessert, so all we had to do was pick one. We went with the Chocolate cake. Everything was great and yummy!! Then we walked around DTD for a bit (needed to walk off all that food!), but not having much sleep the past few nights and getting up early, we decided to call it a night and go back to our room and relax.

Day 4 (Saturday): Up (not so early) and out for breakfast (really don’t like SSR’s food) and then drove to Universal Studios. At Islands of Adventure - we saw Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, and Spiderman. Saw a cool water show and that was all. It was too crowded and hot and we really weren’t impressed with the place. Then we went over to Universal Studios and it was more of the same. We decided that we have become really spoiled by Disney! J No one can compare with Disney that is for absolute sure! So we decided to go back home to Disney and it was late anyway.

Day 5 (Sunday): On Saturday we realized that DH’s hat (that he had been using to get autographs on) was missing. Apparently he either left it in a store somewhere at MGM or someone took it out of his scooter when we weren’t looking. I guess someone needed it more than we did. We did contact Lost & Found and it wasn’t there. We didn’t think it would be since it had signatures from Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Stitch & Lilo. DH was heartbroken cause he had finally managed to get Stitch’s autograph and now the hat was gone. So Sunday morning we went back to MGM! We got there just in time for the SWW parade and had EXCELLENT seats and took some great photos. Then we were in search of characters. We managed to get Anakin’s photo & autograph, as well as Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Darth Vader was huge! But then again I’m only 5’1”. He was cool though!

We had tickets to see the Blue Man Group at Universal so we had to cut our MGM day short and head back to SSR to get ready. The Blue Man Group was great. We were in the poncho section (directly in front of the stage, 3rd row). It was a lot of fun!! Not sure why we needed ponchos – we never got wet or anything. Afterwards I wanted to go to the Shrek store and get a couple of gifts. (The Donkey & the cat are my 2 favorite characters from the Shrek series, so I had to go and purchase stuffed animals!)

Day 6 (Monday): Sea World! We were off to Sea World and it was a great day – Sunny and Hot! We saw the Shamu Show and Clyde & Seamore Show too. Those two Sea Lions are hilarious! We also saw the penguins, the sharks (I even fed a couple of the sharks), the dolphins, the rays, the manatees (boy were they huge!), and we saw the sea lions. They have to be my favorite! We even saw two baby sea lions. One was about a week old and the other was only an hour old! I also got to feed the sea lions. There was one sea lion that had cataracts (or something wrong it’s eyes) but we managed to feed him. Then another sea lion started tapping the water with his flipper and I said to him “ok you want food then you better catch it” and I threw the fish at him and he caught it in his mouth! Everyone around us clapped! It was almost as if we had rehearsed it! The birds around the sea lions are very aggressive and you’ve got to watch out for them – they will lunge for the fish as you throw it so you have to be careful how you throw it or you end up feeding the bird rather than the sea lion.

After that we were going to go see the Clyde & Seamore evening show but a storm was brewing. The park made an announcement saying to “seek shelter” and so we decided to head back home to SSR. It started to pour and lightning and thunder soon followed. We got to our room and watched TV and relaxed. Plus we had to pack since we were leaving the next day.

Day 7 (Tuesday): All packed and ready to get on the road. Well, not really! We would have rather stayed longer but we missed our furbabies and we have stuff to do this weekend, so we had no choice but to leave. Plus we’ve used up our points for this year! We began our drive after breakfast. We drove Interstate 4 towards Daytona and then took Route 1 (because DH wanted to see about fruit stands). We didn’t find any fruit stands but we did find “Hot Diggity Dogs” – a hot dog stand. It was too funny! Of course we took a photo of it!

Then we decided to find I-95 again and began our trek up I-95 (in the rain with lightning and thunder thrown in for good measure!). Around Jacksonville it cleared up but towards the west we could see this huge dark cloud and it seemed to be following us! We had clear skies through Georgia but when we got to South Carolina the dark cloud caught up to us and began to pour. We managed to keep moving along and slowly left the rain and the dark cloud as we entered South of the Border. Yes, we stopped at this tourist trap! We had to – we’d never been and now we can say “been there/done that (ain’t impressed!)” We spent the night in Lumberton, NC and the next day began our drive home. We arrived around 3:00 PM yesterday. Got our furbabies (who were very excited to see us) and we were very happy to see them too.

It was a great trip (way too short, but a lot of fun). We’re already planning a trip for next year and I can’t wait for my girls’ only trip this November. Come on November!!!