EsmeraldaX
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2003
- Messages
- 14,910
Happy pups, Happy feet and a very Happy Arrival!
Day 1:
My feet like me today and that will change in a few days, unbeknownst to them. But I'm getting ahead of myself lets go back to the beginning
We got up early to drop the pups off at the kennel down the street. Not that we slept much the night before, what with the excitement of a trip and everything. 8:00 AM came and there we were saying goodbye
To the dogs that is.
Our flight wouldn't be for a few hours. This was a new kennel for M. Dog & Dodger. This one has private outdoor runs attached to each kennel. They must have somehow sensed that, because they didn't even turn around and kiss us goodbye just followed the kennel employee to their suites and forgot all about the people who feed them Well fine! See if we bring you guys back any officially licensed WDW dog* merchandise! Who needs ya!
(*this is a lie of course, seeing as we have a rather large package full of dog stuff from Disney Tails arriving later this week spoiled brats for the price of a box full of dog stuff, a person can buy themselves a nice 50th anniversary snow globe did you know that? Yup. And what did I choose? Oy I need my head checked but I digress )
tick tock tick tock
Why does time go so slow when you are waiting for your last few hours before a flight?
And then, it was 10:00 am, and we were on the road, driving to Manchester Airport, tickets in hand. After a slight mishap at the ticket counter (we had no idea where to check in), we were going through security and after a slight mishap at security*, headed to our gates.
*Don't argue with them when they ask you to take off your shoes, they don't care if you "have this thing" about walking on cold, icky floors in socks and it will only serve to agitate them. I learned this the annoying way just smile, nod and follow the herd
At our gate, I proceeded to follow my usual pre-flight protocol which is to get myself a widdle bit tipsy. Now, before you all go thinking "My lord, this girls a lush!" let me explain. I have this fear of flying. Albeit, not as bad (or weird) as my fear of walking on communal airport floors in my socks, it's still not something that makes for a particularly pleasant flight.
So we hit the airport bar, and pretended we were on an episode of Wings and after yet one more mishap (really bad wine with gooky things floating in it) had enough Smirnoff Ices for me to be all fuzzy and ready for a nap. (read = 2 Smirnoff Ices, what can I say, I'm a lightweight )
Once on board, I began to realize why my dear brother was so willing to part with these free vouchers The plane was tiny. It's a good thing I was in a Smirnoff fog because otherwise, I think I would have had a serious panic attack. The plane reminded me of one of those Lego planes, only not as well held together. Yikes. They also took away our carry on and stowed it. Weird. I thought it was carry on because...oh never mind...
But the kicker was, we did not have a gate! We got to use the stairs (like on Arrested Development). Man! I didn't think they still even had those but there they were and so were we, and off to WDW we went
I slept through the flight. When we got to Washington to get our connecting flight, I was happy to see we actually had a gate. As much as I thought it would be fun, you know, to sashay down the stairs waving to the air traffic controllers like I was the Beatles coming to the USA, it was nice not having to walk down steps after being cramped on Squish Airlines. You bring yourself and we'll squish you! That should be their logo
I'm not saying which airline, in case anyone's flying it soon so don't ask!
The connecting flight was much better, which was good because we had no time to get a drink at this airport. They had WDW music
playing on one of the radio stations, which did rather negate the need for my 35 Counting Crows cds I brought with me
Then, before I could finish the whole rotation of music, we were in Orlando. Our towncar (Murray Hill, they're awesome) was there and to make it better, we were 30 minutes early! Yay!
The ride from MCO to AKL was quick and painless (except for Chris and the driver talking about bedbugs which left me freaked out for the rest of the trip) and there we were at AKL.
The time was about 5:15.
Checked in without incident. It was quick and the CMs were friendly and gave us a nice quiet room. We only had a standard view room, but honestly, I didn't mind. I was in love with a hotel, I realized. That can't be healthy.
Dear Dr. Phil I want to leave my boyfriend for a hotel? Is that normal? Can you help?
**ahem**
Anyway, we went to our room and magically transformed our appearance
from 2 people who'd just mourned the death of their houseplants that died in the frost the night before, to 2 people who were on vacation in a tropical locale. I was in shorts and a tank and Chris was in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. Now to find us some food before we hit the late night at MK!
We went to Boma but we could not get in. After finding out that all of the places in MK were booked solid, we were about to settle for the food court when the nice lady at the guest relations counter told us she had a table for two at Jiko 5 minutes from that moment.
Jiko is quite possibly the best food I have ever had. I don't even know how to describe in words how good the food there is. Everyone who goes to WDW should try it at least once. Our waiter was excellent and I loved learning about the different dishes. I wound up getting the chicken and Chris had some sort of beef ( I can't recall) and both were beyond delicious. Mmmmm those spices are amazing. I have to look for tamarind sauce around here. Anyone know where one can get some?
With full and very happy bellies we took a quick walk around the resort. We saw a ton of animals (well, probably more than a ton when you consider what your average mature male giraffe weighs ) and that was worth the price of admission alone. I really think that having zebras in ones backyard makes one a far more personable person and just generally tends to keep one in a better mood. Everyone should have a zebra in their backyard. Everyone.
Then we hopped on the bus to MK. Evening EMH is the greatest thing since Fastpass. We got on HM twice, Thunder Mountain 3X and pretty much everything in Adventureland. We also watched Wishes and just sort of took in the atmosphere. No rushing around this trip, that was our goal.
Will not .be commando .must resist urge to do everything .
Amongst the coolest things that happened was we met fellow DISer ironz in the line for Small World, (which by the way, looks great now!). Anyway, we were standing in line and she asked if I was EsmeraldaX and I said yes and she introduced herself and we rode the ride with her and talked. She was down for the marathon and I'm sure she did terrific! You go girl!
She was really cool. 
We ended the evening with a showing of Philharmagic. We left shortly before the park closed to resort guests for the night. What a day! We got back to our room, around midnight, and though my feet still thought me a kind person at this point, the rest of my various parts were a little annoyed with how much moving around we did that day, and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillows .
There is just no sleep like Disney World sleep...
More later!
ETA : DAY 2 is NOW up!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8682696#post8682696
~S
Day 1:
My feet like me today and that will change in a few days, unbeknownst to them. But I'm getting ahead of myself lets go back to the beginning
We got up early to drop the pups off at the kennel down the street. Not that we slept much the night before, what with the excitement of a trip and everything. 8:00 AM came and there we were saying goodbye
To the dogs that is.
Our flight wouldn't be for a few hours. This was a new kennel for M. Dog & Dodger. This one has private outdoor runs attached to each kennel. They must have somehow sensed that, because they didn't even turn around and kiss us goodbye just followed the kennel employee to their suites and forgot all about the people who feed them Well fine! See if we bring you guys back any officially licensed WDW dog* merchandise! Who needs ya!
(*this is a lie of course, seeing as we have a rather large package full of dog stuff from Disney Tails arriving later this week spoiled brats for the price of a box full of dog stuff, a person can buy themselves a nice 50th anniversary snow globe did you know that? Yup. And what did I choose? Oy I need my head checked but I digress )
tick tock tick tock
Why does time go so slow when you are waiting for your last few hours before a flight?
And then, it was 10:00 am, and we were on the road, driving to Manchester Airport, tickets in hand. After a slight mishap at the ticket counter (we had no idea where to check in), we were going through security and after a slight mishap at security*, headed to our gates.
*Don't argue with them when they ask you to take off your shoes, they don't care if you "have this thing" about walking on cold, icky floors in socks and it will only serve to agitate them. I learned this the annoying way just smile, nod and follow the herd
At our gate, I proceeded to follow my usual pre-flight protocol which is to get myself a widdle bit tipsy. Now, before you all go thinking "My lord, this girls a lush!" let me explain. I have this fear of flying. Albeit, not as bad (or weird) as my fear of walking on communal airport floors in my socks, it's still not something that makes for a particularly pleasant flight.
So we hit the airport bar, and pretended we were on an episode of Wings and after yet one more mishap (really bad wine with gooky things floating in it) had enough Smirnoff Ices for me to be all fuzzy and ready for a nap. (read = 2 Smirnoff Ices, what can I say, I'm a lightweight )
Once on board, I began to realize why my dear brother was so willing to part with these free vouchers The plane was tiny. It's a good thing I was in a Smirnoff fog because otherwise, I think I would have had a serious panic attack. The plane reminded me of one of those Lego planes, only not as well held together. Yikes. They also took away our carry on and stowed it. Weird. I thought it was carry on because...oh never mind...
But the kicker was, we did not have a gate! We got to use the stairs (like on Arrested Development). Man! I didn't think they still even had those but there they were and so were we, and off to WDW we went
I slept through the flight. When we got to Washington to get our connecting flight, I was happy to see we actually had a gate. As much as I thought it would be fun, you know, to sashay down the stairs waving to the air traffic controllers like I was the Beatles coming to the USA, it was nice not having to walk down steps after being cramped on Squish Airlines. You bring yourself and we'll squish you! That should be their logo
I'm not saying which airline, in case anyone's flying it soon so don't ask!
The connecting flight was much better, which was good because we had no time to get a drink at this airport. They had WDW music
playing on one of the radio stations, which did rather negate the need for my 35 Counting Crows cds I brought with me
Then, before I could finish the whole rotation of music, we were in Orlando. Our towncar (Murray Hill, they're awesome) was there and to make it better, we were 30 minutes early! Yay! The ride from MCO to AKL was quick and painless (except for Chris and the driver talking about bedbugs which left me freaked out for the rest of the trip) and there we were at AKL.
The time was about 5:15.
Checked in without incident. It was quick and the CMs were friendly and gave us a nice quiet room. We only had a standard view room, but honestly, I didn't mind. I was in love with a hotel, I realized. That can't be healthy.
Dear Dr. Phil I want to leave my boyfriend for a hotel? Is that normal? Can you help?
**ahem**
Anyway, we went to our room and magically transformed our appearance
from 2 people who'd just mourned the death of their houseplants that died in the frost the night before, to 2 people who were on vacation in a tropical locale. I was in shorts and a tank and Chris was in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. Now to find us some food before we hit the late night at MK!We went to Boma but we could not get in. After finding out that all of the places in MK were booked solid, we were about to settle for the food court when the nice lady at the guest relations counter told us she had a table for two at Jiko 5 minutes from that moment.
Jiko is quite possibly the best food I have ever had. I don't even know how to describe in words how good the food there is. Everyone who goes to WDW should try it at least once. Our waiter was excellent and I loved learning about the different dishes. I wound up getting the chicken and Chris had some sort of beef ( I can't recall) and both were beyond delicious. Mmmmm those spices are amazing. I have to look for tamarind sauce around here. Anyone know where one can get some?
With full and very happy bellies we took a quick walk around the resort. We saw a ton of animals (well, probably more than a ton when you consider what your average mature male giraffe weighs ) and that was worth the price of admission alone. I really think that having zebras in ones backyard makes one a far more personable person and just generally tends to keep one in a better mood. Everyone should have a zebra in their backyard. Everyone.
Then we hopped on the bus to MK. Evening EMH is the greatest thing since Fastpass. We got on HM twice, Thunder Mountain 3X and pretty much everything in Adventureland. We also watched Wishes and just sort of took in the atmosphere. No rushing around this trip, that was our goal.
Will not .be commando .must resist urge to do everything .
Amongst the coolest things that happened was we met fellow DISer ironz in the line for Small World, (which by the way, looks great now!). Anyway, we were standing in line and she asked if I was EsmeraldaX and I said yes and she introduced herself and we rode the ride with her and talked. She was down for the marathon and I'm sure she did terrific! You go girl!
She was really cool. We ended the evening with a showing of Philharmagic. We left shortly before the park closed to resort guests for the night. What a day! We got back to our room, around midnight, and though my feet still thought me a kind person at this point, the rest of my various parts were a little annoyed with how much moving around we did that day, and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillows .
There is just no sleep like Disney World sleep...
More later!
ETA : DAY 2 is NOW up!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8682696#post8682696
~S
Im so happy to be reading your trip report!! Can't wait for more and PICTURES!!! 
Can't wait to read the rest!! 
Enjoying your report!
