We are so close to the beginning of our magical vacation now I am not even aware that I'm crying until my DH tells me to simmer down. The kids are asleep in the back and they won't wake up, they are missing all of it. Then I saw the signs for Pop Century, oh yeah, this vacation is on. So I scream at the kids "wake up now, your wasting my hard earned money, look at everything cause I paid for it." We approach the gates, give our names and show I.D the the gate keeper smiles and says "Welcome home." Is that not the best way to be greeted? I love it. It was at this particular moment the Ogre (aka DH) made his appearance. "not even in the gate and they are brainwashing us he hissed, it's creepy, like the Stepford wives, they want us to be Stepford tourists." He is so busy spewing nasty filth about my beloved Disney he doesn't follow directions that he was given at the gate and he got us lost...in the parking lot...lost. Men, can't live with them, can't shoot them. So I flip out on him. "Why are you being such a craphead, you are ruining my whole trip, and now that we're lost you are wasting precious minutes of my vacation." I knew we weren't lost, we were just in the wrong parking lot. So I single handedly redirected us into the correct place to be. I said "everyone is going in with me to check in." That was met with some grief, I caved when I saw Jims bed head and allowed him to stay in the van, I saw no need to scare people with that. As we walked up to classic hall the tension between Kent and I was so thick, he didn't even hold my hand, he always holds my hand.

Once we stepped into the lobby I had instant happiness, I was hoping Kent felt it too, but he parked his rear on a bench and didn't look at me, so I got in the long line for checkin.
Everyone around me was so happy and talking about their plans, one guy obviously had appointed himself the Disney know-it-all and was telling his fellow peeps why the dining plan was a waste of money for a second I questioned the Birnbaum book but only a second, I wish I would have written down some of the things he said, it was so ridiculous, I called Kent over to listen thinking this will put him in a better mood and it did, just the fact that the guy was so full of himself and then he anounced it was his first time there. So finally it's my turn, I step up to the desk and am greeted with a huge smile from the CM, all went smooth, then she told me that we had been upgraded to prefered location, I told her I paid for prefered location through my agent already, does this mean I get some cash back? Her eyes got huge

and her fingers began typing like a banchee, then she ever so cleverly goes "aahh, uh huh, yeah, there it is, no sorry, my mistake." I didn't care, I was at Disney! she gave us our info pack, our keys, and a map that she drew all over showing us where everything was, I should have informed her I could read a map and her putting circles all over it was not necessary, but I stayed quiet cause truth be told I just wanted to get movin and start vacationing. We go out to the van and head over to the 50's, all of us grab suit cases and we head up to our room on the 4th floor, we go in drop our bags on the bed and I step outside the door to take my first real look at Pop Century. I had one of those feelings that no words could describe, we were facing the pool and Lady was on our left, Tramp was across the courtyard.
I never want to leave,
I am going to stop the payments on my reality check and just live here forever. I loved the bright colors and the huge icons and the cool shaped pools and all the big phrases on the buildings, this place was brilliant, yay Disney, you did good! I went back into the room and we did the best we could to put things out of the way. I was ready to go when Kent said he was tired and wanted to stay there and we should go with out him, Cha! I don't think so, this is Disney, you can sleep at home, now let's go.
We decided to take the van, we thought it would be faster, we didn't realize we would have to park so far away then take a tram to catch the monorail to Magic Kingdom, it still wasn't so bad until everyone scrambled to get on the MR, it's like relax people, this isn't the only MR for the whole day. This guy was so close to me I could feel his breath on me, I kindly told him to back up an inch or two cause his steamy breath was scorching my hair. I don't know what part of that he didn't understand cause he didn't move. Once outside of MK we were ushered to the line to get our bags searched, thats when Kent had enough, "Sheeple, that's all we are, sheeple being herded from one place to the next." Looking back it was funny, but at that moment I shot him poison daggers from eyes. We got inside and it was a whole different world, nothing else mattered anymore, mortgage, car payments, deadlines, they do not exist at Disney. I always thought that once I visited Disney my attitude would be, did it, now I can die. But it wasn't like that at all. I could feel a molecular change in me, I am sure my molecules resemble little Mickey heads now. That is when the addiction began.
I saw Baloo greeting people so I bee lined for him, I told him he was my favorite character from the Jungle book and I"m sure it melted his heart cause he gave me the biggest bear hug ever, it didn't matter to me that he hugged everyone else, I could tell he like me best
see? Baloo was al about me.
I call this picture, CAN'T BREATHE
After that we saw pluto, I promised My doggies I would get his picture, so I headed over for that. I scratched his ears and he scratched my back, it was obvious I was his favorite.
By this time Jim was getting bored and yelled, "Ma, I want some rides, you can play with the puppets later." As we head over to POC I explain to him the difference between a puppet and a character, and to never embarrass me like that again, I raised you better than that. We really liked POC, the kids had been to
Disneyland with their father and wicked stepmother the summer before and according to them that was the best part of the whole trip, cause it was only 1 of the 2 rides they went on. Now I realize that is why they didn't care for Disney, it wasn't anything I had done wrong, it was their fathers fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really liked POC and was surprised to see it was exactly the same as the pirate ride at Europa Park in Germany. after POC we let Reese do some souvenir shopping, but Jim grew bored again, "Rides, NOW!" so we obliged him and headed over to splash mountain, on the way we passed Pecos Bill and stoped for lunch, it was $45.50 total for us 4 to eat there, I was keeping track to see if the dining plan would pay for itself.
Kent and I had decided to not ride SM, we found the best spots to get pictures of the kids, we said our apologies and made up from our earlier quarrel while we waited for the kids, we both took pics but I ended up buying the one the ride takes, I am a scrapbooker, so it's kind of the law for me. $20 for 2 5x7's wasn't too outrageous, and the pic was great.
I love it, it's so real, you can feel the excitement just by looking at them.
After that was PeterPan, I loved it, Kent and the kids said it was cool, I wanted to go on IASW but the kids refused and said that was the 2nd ride they went on in DL and it brought back bleh memories. I thought I would come back on my own later. We then stumbled upon Toon Town, I knew I would find characters here, we first went to Minnies house, such a darling little place,
I saw that Minnie was a quilter, I thought my mother would enjoy that so I took a picture of it for her, Jim was complaining about how bored he was and he wanted to do stuff, I told him we were doing stuff and he answers back, "This is a line ride, all you do is stand in line to look at stuff." Kent loved that and the rest of the trip the line rides became a big joke between the two of them. Reese and I went into the big tent and got in line to meet Goofy and Donald, the line was truckin too, but in walks Jim and he really wants more rides, I tried to ignore him, but he is relentless, "mom, mom, mom, momma, momma, ma, ma, mommy mommy, mother, mother mother, mama mama." I could have gone on ignoring him but I felt bad for those around me, and I put this on my list of things to come back to as I stepped out of line. I really played up the whole martyr bit, "I gave up Goofy for you dear JimmyJohn," He asks me "what's the big deal with wanting to hug the
puppets?" Again I have to explain that we don't call them puppets and from now on he had no choice but to pose with the characters for pictures. He said he would be in the pictures but not show his face. He wasn't playing around either. We wanted to go on Goofys Barnstormer, but we had ressies at Crystal Palace, so we headed over for our first character dining. we were seated right away and the drinks we ordered were there in minutes, I am not a huge fan of buffets, this place was o.k. I mostly ate fruit, I can't eat hot food when I am feeling over heated, and nothing really appealed to me anyway. I was there mostly to see Tigger, the air conditioning in there felt so good, I had forgotten how muggy Fl. could be, we were there about 10 minutes before Tigger made his way to us, he is so cool, it was obvious i was his favorite.
look at Jim, he's a nut case.
I told you he wasn't playing around
growing up Reese loved Piglet, she collected everthing that had Piglet on it, she doesn't collect any more but Piglet is still her favorite.
we finished up our meal and the bill was $120.00 in my opinion the dining plan is worth it, It feels like the meal is free because we are not handing over any cash except for a tip, and the tip is opptional since the DP includes gratuity, we just like to show our thanks for a good job. I know we do pay for the meals but I like the no worry hassle free way that the DP provides me.
We sat outside on the benches to let our food settle and just do some people watching. If people watching were an olympic sport Kent and I would take the gold medal for couples, we just love to watch and maybe make a few comments to eachother. This is when I noticed the
crocs, back then I didn't know they were crocs, I just called them a huge fashion crime and felt sorry for the victims, thoughts like "what would possess a person to put somthing so hideous on their feet? did they forget they were going out into public." I saw alot of kids with those roller shoes, they would do the run ahead thing then glide till the parents caught up, I had no thoughts on those just Huh! like a loogy there type thing, but my mind was on those crocs, ugly things, i had bought new sandals, I was wearing them that day, they gave me huge blisters, but I looked good. Now looking back, if I had a computer I would have been on the disboards and learned about the super comfort and blisterless days those horrific shoes could have provided me, when I think back to the agony my feet caused me and all I had to do was wear a pair of crocs, it's enough to just rot my socks off. Oh well, live and learn.
We finished up our game of look at the fudgies (that's what we call tourists, and no I was not a tourist, you need a fanny pack and straw hat to be a tourist) we headed over to ride BS, I think i rode it anyway, I remember sitting down and even taking pictures then next thing I know we all had to climb out so others could get in. I asked Kent if we moved at all, he said yeah for a quick second.
Because Jim covered his face for 99% of the pics I took, he has left me no choice but to include embarrasing pictures of him that I will post here and there. I told him he would regret it, and I wasn't playing around.
by now my crocless feet were killing me, we stopped into a store while I spent a house payment on post cards, I about died when the CM gave me my total, I even laughed at his "joke" but he was serious, I should tell you that I am a collector of useless worthless don't need it don't have room for it bargain finds. This was not a bargain, but I needed the postcards for my scrapbook, remember, it's the law? so I gave him the money and left the store still in shock, I told Reese that the neices and nephews weren't going to get t-shirts now, they can just tape their postcard to their chest.
(I kill myself sometimes)
On the way out Reese remebered that she left her sunglasses on the window cill at CP, so kent went back to get them and Reese and I went to take advantage of some can't pass it up photo opps, it's also in the scrapbook list of laws I must follow.
Had I known I was gonna be on T.V. I would have dressed up a bit.
This is my favorite, I even changed it to black and white for more authenticity.
Once we were done and went outside Kent was there with Reeses sunglasses, I threatened to put idiot strings on them if she lost them again. We made our way back to the van, doing everything in reverse this time, the MR was less crowded, I even got to sit down. we forgot which row the van was in so it took some time to find, I was ready to just take anything closely resembling the van but Kent found it and we all fell into it, I think my bones creaked abit. It was so easy to find MK we thought going back to PC would be a cinch, ugh! we kept going in circles, at one point kent was threatening to just head home to Pa, we took the unguided backlot tour, there was a sign that said character audtions here> so I learned somthing, not just anyone can be in a suit, you gotta work for it, I wonder if they start you out in a small roll and then you get promoted to bigger rolls, and I can picture perfectionist Petey just waiting for his shot at playing the big cheese, "Mickey". Every day he goes in and puts on his costume as one of the tweedles and says to himself "I am going to be the best tweedle dum there is, I will be the dumbest of all tweedles by golly."
we did make it back to PC and we were once again welcomed home by the gate keeper. Kent sighed, he knew there was no use in fighting it.
Next installment, EXTRA MAGIC HOURS IN MY BEDROOM SLIPPERS.