RebelHawk
42
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2004
- Messages
- 795
Day 1
We were going to follow Keith & Claire from Titusville as I didnt know the direct route from there to WDW. They told us we would be going thru some toll booths and they have the Fast Pass gadget so they would slow down for us on the other side and wait. Murphys Law of course kicked in from the beginning and the shortest toll booth line turned into the longest wait. Once we came out the other side there of course was no sign of our friends so I depressed the accelerator and attempted to find them. Less then ½ mile down the road I saw an exit sign that read Walt Disney World and without another thought I put on my turn signal and made the exit and resumed my pursuit.
I realized after 10 minutes at close to 100MPH (please dont yell at me as I got enough of that from my wife while I was driving) they either didnt take the exit we did or they were driving way to fast for me to gain on them. Our friends knew we were heading to the Boardwalk Hotel at WDW so we figured we would see them there. The quick 40 minute drive with not a single slow down saw us to the welcoming sign of Walt Disney World and we knew we were home!
Much to our surprise as we were about to drive under the welcoming sign to Disney I noticed a white Mercedes merging into the lane we were in and it was Keith & Claire who were waving and smiling almost as much as we were, the Disney magic had begun.
When we pulled up to the Boardwalk we were greeted with our favorite phrase in the world Welcome home!. To put icing on the cake we handed our luggage to the valet and told him we would be back at 4 PM to check in but then decided just out of curiosity we would check to see if our room was ready, and it was. We asked for a room overlooking the water but nothing was ready at the time so rather then wasting park time rechecking in we took room 2062 a the Boardwalk Villas. It over looked the Clown pool and that was the closest we got to the pool this trip. So by noon we were on our way to EPCOT to meet the rest of our friends at San Angel for a 1 PM lunch PS.
This was the first time we had been into the parks since they started using the biometric scanning so it took us a second to orient ourselves how to quickly do it but after that we were old hands (pun intended) at it. We slowly made our way over to Mexico in the World Showcase and everyone quickly agreed that this was the busiest January that we have seen on this our 6th annual (almost) trip.
Right before we went to check in for our PS of 8 I received a call from a friend who was at WDW for a conference that week and wanted to come meet us for lunch which pretty much canceled our PS because we were now going to be a party of 10. We only had to wait for about 30 minutes and we were finally seated at two four tops with a fifth chair seated on the end overlooking the canal which was very nice. After a nice meal and a little window shopping we were ready to begin our vacation in earnest.
As I guess everyone has been to EPCOT many times I will not go into to much detail with this trip other then I was disappointed that the Norway beer has been replaced with a Dutch one and the selection of masks in Italy has been almost halved.
Skipping to the dinner portion of our evening we had PS for the Rose & Crown at 7 PM which would allow us plenty of time to sit, eat and find a good spot for Illuminations that evening. I have always eaten the Fish & Chips when visiting the R&C but this time I decided to try something different so I ordered Steak & Prawns. The prawns were nice but nothing to write home about and the steak was something I would write home about to let everyone know not to order it. The steak was a little on the tough side and was the definition of bland. On the positive side my wife enjoyed Fish & Chips and was kind enough to share a few chips with me.
To finish the evening off we enjoyed Illuminations from the outcropping from the side of the international gateway bridge and huddled close together for warmth as the temperature was somewhere just north of freezing.
After seeing our friend Keith & Claire back to their car for their trip back to Titusville we said good night to the rest of our friends and promised to meet at 8:45AM the next morning to attack the next park.
We were going to follow Keith & Claire from Titusville as I didnt know the direct route from there to WDW. They told us we would be going thru some toll booths and they have the Fast Pass gadget so they would slow down for us on the other side and wait. Murphys Law of course kicked in from the beginning and the shortest toll booth line turned into the longest wait. Once we came out the other side there of course was no sign of our friends so I depressed the accelerator and attempted to find them. Less then ½ mile down the road I saw an exit sign that read Walt Disney World and without another thought I put on my turn signal and made the exit and resumed my pursuit.
I realized after 10 minutes at close to 100MPH (please dont yell at me as I got enough of that from my wife while I was driving) they either didnt take the exit we did or they were driving way to fast for me to gain on them. Our friends knew we were heading to the Boardwalk Hotel at WDW so we figured we would see them there. The quick 40 minute drive with not a single slow down saw us to the welcoming sign of Walt Disney World and we knew we were home!
Much to our surprise as we were about to drive under the welcoming sign to Disney I noticed a white Mercedes merging into the lane we were in and it was Keith & Claire who were waving and smiling almost as much as we were, the Disney magic had begun.
When we pulled up to the Boardwalk we were greeted with our favorite phrase in the world Welcome home!. To put icing on the cake we handed our luggage to the valet and told him we would be back at 4 PM to check in but then decided just out of curiosity we would check to see if our room was ready, and it was. We asked for a room overlooking the water but nothing was ready at the time so rather then wasting park time rechecking in we took room 2062 a the Boardwalk Villas. It over looked the Clown pool and that was the closest we got to the pool this trip. So by noon we were on our way to EPCOT to meet the rest of our friends at San Angel for a 1 PM lunch PS.
This was the first time we had been into the parks since they started using the biometric scanning so it took us a second to orient ourselves how to quickly do it but after that we were old hands (pun intended) at it. We slowly made our way over to Mexico in the World Showcase and everyone quickly agreed that this was the busiest January that we have seen on this our 6th annual (almost) trip.
Right before we went to check in for our PS of 8 I received a call from a friend who was at WDW for a conference that week and wanted to come meet us for lunch which pretty much canceled our PS because we were now going to be a party of 10. We only had to wait for about 30 minutes and we were finally seated at two four tops with a fifth chair seated on the end overlooking the canal which was very nice. After a nice meal and a little window shopping we were ready to begin our vacation in earnest.
As I guess everyone has been to EPCOT many times I will not go into to much detail with this trip other then I was disappointed that the Norway beer has been replaced with a Dutch one and the selection of masks in Italy has been almost halved.
Skipping to the dinner portion of our evening we had PS for the Rose & Crown at 7 PM which would allow us plenty of time to sit, eat and find a good spot for Illuminations that evening. I have always eaten the Fish & Chips when visiting the R&C but this time I decided to try something different so I ordered Steak & Prawns. The prawns were nice but nothing to write home about and the steak was something I would write home about to let everyone know not to order it. The steak was a little on the tough side and was the definition of bland. On the positive side my wife enjoyed Fish & Chips and was kind enough to share a few chips with me.
To finish the evening off we enjoyed Illuminations from the outcropping from the side of the international gateway bridge and huddled close together for warmth as the temperature was somewhere just north of freezing.
After seeing our friend Keith & Claire back to their car for their trip back to Titusville we said good night to the rest of our friends and promised to meet at 8:45AM the next morning to attack the next park.
