Hey all! I am starting to get antsy. Disney antsy. 28 days out from my trip. You know what I mean? How you look at the clock on your work computer and realize its like 3PM and youve spent the entire day online looking at Le Cellier entrees trying to figure out what youll order. Eek.
So I thought I would do a trip report of our Decemeber, 2008 trip to relive the memories and get a daily Disney fix in. Hope you dont mind that its in my April pre-trip report section. There will be intermittent April plansdont worry!
Ed and I headed down the world December 12th-17th, 2008. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. This was the first time we drove, now living in NC, and the drive was around 8.5-9 hours. It wasnt bad and we saved a TON from not flying. We will do this for trips longer than say 4 days because it is just worth it!
Day One, Part One
On December 12th, a Friday, we had planned to leave at 5:00AM. At 4:00AM my eyes popped open. On any other normal day I would have whined, pouted and complained of burning eyes. On this day---Disney Day
I was up as if I had just slept for 12 hours! I looked over at Ed expecting that he would be zonked out next to me but the excitement had the best of him as well. He peeked one eye open at me and laughed. We were headed to the World!
I jumped in the shower and we got together our last minute things. My heart was beating so hard I thought it would pop straight out of my chest. I was so excited. It is funny that I get this way every single time. Its like a new adventure even though we have crossed under that magical Walt Disney World sign many times before.
Where do we go?
OHHHHH
Leaving early is key. It was around 10:30AM before we realized we had been driving so long. We filled our iPods with WDW Today podcasts (it was before we knew about BOGP!) which helped the drive. By 11:00AM my stomach was screaming for some food. WellI take that back. It was screaming for the Pecos Bills fixin bar and a dole whip
..but we were just in Georgia.
We stopped to get gas and my obsession with our new camera started. Its a Panasonic Lumix TZ5 if anyone is in the market. I love it!
We stopped at Chick Fil A.
Chicken nuggets and chicken sammies in hand we were back on I-95. In just a little over an hour we found ourselves crossing the Florida border.
And the battle began. Because I wanted juice. In the worst way. Free juice at that.
Ed lets stop for juice! I practically screamed.
No its a waste of 10 minutes, they may not even have any.
I raised an eyebrow. 10 minutes? I wait longer than that for a bus back to the resort after Illuminations sweetie.
But
youve driven to Florida before. I havent! (Wow even in your twenties 6 hours in a car can make you pretty pouty
)
Needless to say there was no juice that trip. Nadda. Zilch.
In planning for our April trip Ed smiled at me and said
And well stop for juice.
I played the card ALL women must play in this type of situation and said, Hmmm...I dont even want it any more.
He may have won the battle.
But Ill win the war.
Were here!
Our little GPS spouting out directions, we navigated our way to
The resort was gorgeous on this December day. It was a little chilly but the sky was clear and we were HERE.
Check in?
We parked our car like a speed racer and ran inside the lobby. We were unfortunately greeted with this unmoving catastrophe.
We didnt mind! The line moved slow, Ill admit. But when we reached the desk we got a loving warm lady who acknowledged my request to be close to the lobby, the main bus stop and the food courts. POR is bigbut we have always gotten these requests!
We were placed into a lovely room in Oak Manor so we drove our car over towards our room and got out to enjoy everything POR. Its such a gorgeous resort. The grounds make me just want to sit outside with a good book and some tea. The rooms are definitely moderate but I would dare say the grounds are deluxe. Although we will probably never stay here again, (darn DVC!), I will miss the gorgeous mornings at POR.
We arrived at our room which was in a fantastic location. That picture above with the staircase
we were just two doors to the left on the ground floor.
The room was nice but would never get a good cleaning during our stay. Our mousekeeper, despite tips in designed envelopes didnt like us very much! The last time we stayed at POR our mousekeeper was top notch! Just depends I suppose.
We lugged 29048032894,28492432,0929324 pieces of luggage and things we had packed in the car to the room and then looked at each other. What now?
In all fairness--this was more expensive but I have never worked on something so fast and user-friendly. 
And I got a free printer with it so now we have a color printer! My Disney Trip Binder is going to get spruced up for sure!
We're getting an iMac bc I'm going to use it for graphic designing and Michael will use it for video editing...and we already have 2 PC laptops. WE CAN'T WAIT! We should get our return this week, and then the compter should come in soon after that! I'm excited for you!
And I can't wait to report back about Beauty and the Beast! 
hehehe I LOVE IT!
I have a cousin that's staying at POR Mansions for his honeymoon in June...I'll have to tell him how pretty it is!
