Two Disney Dorks Celebrate 5 Years of Wedded Bliss!-UPDATED 9/3! The Final Wrap-Up :(

[winkers]

Welcome home! I can't wait to hear all about your trip! Any cryptic messages from mousekeeping?

 

[DisneyJo]

Welcome back Lynda, can't wait to hear all about it and see your awesome photos

 

[UtahMama]

Welcome Home, Lynda!!!!!!!


Well? We're waiting!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Have a great time and safe travels!!

can't wait to hear all about it...

Thank you!

I've been checking your itinerary everyday to see what you're up too....I am super jealous!! Hope the weather has been good to you!

Well, I think we stuck relatively close to the itinerary I posted. I have to try to get this TR out fast since the next trip is gonna sneak right up on us!

Don't mind me, just running amuck and being jealous

Hope you are injury free and having a wonderful time!!!!

Aw, so there was running-amuck taking place in my absence!

No injuries! And we had a great time, but you'll have to stay tuned for more details!

I'm jealous that she's meeting up with a lot of the same VMK playing friends, many of whom I haven't met yet!

Oh! Man, word travels fast! Are you referring to the flick we saw?

Other readers: That meet wasn't even planned ahead of time. Just decided to do it while we were there, courtesy of our local friend, Jill. That is how quickly news travels in the VMK/DIS community. More on that later!

I hope you are having a great time! Your Peeps miss you!!!

I was!

amuck, amuck, amuck, amuck, amuck!

HeeHee, more amuck-running!

Lynda-
I hope you & Josh had a wonderful time in WDW! I can't wait to hear all about it! I'm sending good thoughts for a safe journey home today! I hope the fires weren't too much of a problem for you on your drive each way...

Welcome Home Lynda!!!

​

Take care,
Michelle

P.S. Just think, only four months until you get to go back to WDW!

Less than 4 months now! It is gonna fly by too! Our summers always do unfortunately, but at least we'll be heading back to WDW and meeting some Peeps! As for the fires, well...stay tuned. I can't give everything away, now can I? But I will say we didn't have to take any detours.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Welcome Back!!!!

Thanks! And look how soon you leave for your trip! WOO HOOTY! Have fun!

Welcome home! I can't wait to hear all about your trip! Any cryptic messages from mousekeeping?

No, no messages from mousekeeping, but they will make an appearance in the TR!

Welcome back Lynda, can't wait to hear all about it and see your awesome photos

Thank you! I can't wait to tell you all about it! And I got a few photos that I am pretty pleased with.

Welcome Home, Lynda!!!!!!!


Well? We're waiting!

Thank you! Well, keep waiting! J/K! I really want to post ASAP! I am just trying to figure out when I can get this thing started. I think I will be able to finish uploading pics tonight. And I should be able to get some more laundry done too. Perhaps I can start writing. The first installment shouldn't be too long since it's just our trip down and first partial day. Like I said above, I have to get Kracken! (I know, bad pun, but I Pirates!) I really don't have that long to get this TR done, especially if I am going to write one for the September trip! I have the concert this weekend, two weddings (one I'm photographing and one I'm partially photographing), a trip to Cedar Point, a likely trip to Shaumberg to see the AKL villas & meet some Peeps, and likely at least one day trip to Six Flags this summer!

 

[BriarRosie]

Oh! Man, word travels fast! Are you referring to the flick we saw?

Other readers: That meet wasn't even planned ahead of time. Just decided to do it while we were there, courtesy of our local friend, Jill. That is how quickly news travels in the VMK/DIS community. More on that later!

LOL yes. I was referring to that little pirate movie you saw.
And about Jill. The girl got worried when I wasn't signed on to MSN for
TWO WHOLE DAYS! So she called AND text messaged me to see if I
was ok!

I'm looking forward to hearing about this trippie!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

LOL yes. I was referring to that little pirate movie you saw.
And about Jill. The girl got worried when I wasn't signed on to MSN for
TWO WHOLE DAYS! So she called AND text messaged me to see if I
was ok!

I'm looking forward to hearing about this trippie!

, well I'm glad Jill got a hold of you! She just called me today because she was at MGM trying to get a Star Wars pin we asked her to pick up. Her voicemail said she was calling from the "big hat".

Can't wait to tell ya all about it!

 

[Eventer98]

What a tease! I saw you had posted and was hoping for the first installment. I guess I can forgive!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

What a tease! I saw you had posted and was hoping for the first installment. I guess I can forgive!

Well, I had planned to get that posted tonight. I got all of our photopass pictures edited and ordered our CD, and I have all the pictures uploaded to the website. I have even started writing. BUT I went to look for the PassPorter and couldn't find it. Then FIL and SMIL showed up to have me take their picture for their church bulletin. Then DH called and said the PassPorter is out in the van. Anyway, it is getting late, and I will have to finish it up tomorrow...which I WILL! I am anxious to share!

 

[AnnNan]

So glad to have you back - looking forward to installment number 1!

 

[DISNEYDUET]

Welcome back Lynda!!! DH and I were so bummed about not being able to go to AC on Saturday night! We had a pretty rocky week and by Sat. all we wanted to do was have a quiet dinner and relax. I will not go into detail because it is Friday and it is going to be a good day. No need to bring down the mood. But if I ever get a wild hair and decided to invite anyone else to go on vacation with us just smack me!!

 

[spongemommie05]

welcome back lynda ! waiting patiently for tr love ya

 

[lexmelinda]

Lynda! The pictures are spectacular as I expected they would be! I looked at all 40,000! I see a new siggie pic in there and you ARE really blond! I like!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Sory I didn't get posted last night. Our internet was down, and today we have the concert. I'll post the 1st installment tomorrow. I don't want the natives getting restless.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

So, on the 17th, I was leaving work at noon. DH was picking me up, and we were hitting the road. It had been quite warm here for at least a week consistently, if not longer. And I had packed my DVC tote bag with two outfits (a pair of capris and t-shirt and a pair of shorts and t-shirt) – one to change into at work before leaving and one to change into the next morning after our stop in Marietta, GA. (We always pack overnight bags so we don’t have to haul everything in when we stop for the night on the way down.) Well, naturally it was about 65 degrees, if that, on the day we were leaving. I figured it would be warmer when we got further south so no big deal. I’d just wear the capris instead of the shorts, and I should be fine by the time we stopped somewhere. I couldn’t wait until noon! I had been going into work an hour early all week to make up time, but I had managed to get in extra early a day or two, so I only had to be there a half hour early on the 17th. It was a tiring morning though! I had a lot to do to make sure things were in order before I left, and I had a meeting at 11, and the person leading it was very long-winded. I started to worry a bit, but it got over with about 15 minutes to spare! At noon, I clocked out and quickly changed before heading downstairs and out the door! DH was waiting right outside, and we were on our way after driving through Mickey D’s for some lunch. We plugged in the iPods and drove to Marietta without incident, arriving around 10:00 pm. We ordered pizza in the hotel room and hit the hay. We had to get up EARLY the next morning to get on the road so we could get to Disney! And we wanted to have plenty of time in case we ran into any smoke from the wildfires.

We were up at 7am the next morning and out the door at 7:20. We hit the road and stopped on the other side of Atlanta for breakfast. I had been wanting to try McDonald’s cinnamon melts, so we found one and drove through. We placed our order and pulled up to the window where we were informed that they were out of cinnamon melts, and the girl asked if I wanted something else. I wanted to yell, “No! I have been on a ‘diet’ for nearly 6 months now, and I have never had cinnamon melts, and I have been thinking about having them on this trip for at least a week now! Make me some cinnamon melts woman! ” I refrained from saying that though. Instead, I ordered an egg mcmuffin, and while we were waiting (a REALLY LONG time!) DH said we could stop when we saw another McDonald’s and get me some cinnamon melts (Thanks Dear! )…which we did. And they were…just OK. I was expecting them to be gooier. Oh well. We on a far more important mission – to get to Disney! And we drove on. We had some snacks from our food box, listened to our iPods, and I read a special issue of People to DH about past American Idol contestants and “where are they now?” It really killed a lot of time! And we learned that “scat girl” who auditioned a few years ago is a skipper on the Jungle Cruise at WDW! When we started approaching the turnpike, DH handed me the SunPass and told me to read the instructions. There really weren’t any instructions. I couldn’t even find anything saying how to turn it on , so I assumed that it was just ON. I stuck it to the window (It comes with handy dandy little suction cups. ), and I read what the different lights and sounds meant. We approached our first toll. We headed for the SunPass Only lane, and DH slowed down to the 25mph limit (once I pointed it out to him! ). We got two beeps and a green light – success! We were pretty entertained by all this – I guess anything to pass the time. We made it through the other tolls smoothly as well, and we made EXCELLENT time! We arrived about an hour ahead of schedule and saw those arches! I did not have a camera out – sorry folks, but our windshield was covered in love bugs anyway, so it would not have been pretty anyway. We went straight to OKW to check in. While we were doing so, DH asked if we had gotten our room requests (a building close to the Hospitality House or a water view). We had not, but the CM said he could move us to a water view room. Cool! We also got a print-out of all our ADRs because we knew we had made a couple of changes that were not corrected in the PassPorter. DH also obtained anniversary buttons for us!

We headed over to our room…on the second floor. This is when DH remembered that OKW doesn’t have elevators! It was quite secluded, which was cool – only 2 rooms at the top of the staircase. We made 3 trips getting most of the stuff into the room and decided that we would get the rest when we returned from dinner. We checked out the room. (I forgot to take pics before we messed it up, so then I didn’t do it at all! Oops!) The room was OK. It was definitely different than the studios at the other DVC resorts. The kitchenette was opposite the closet in a ‘hall’ leading to the bathroom, which included the sink, toilet, and shower. There were two beds instead of one bed and a sofa bed, and one bed was taller than the other (weird ). The ‘water view’ was mostly of a large palm tree just off our balcony, and if you peeked through the palm fronds at the ground beyond it, you could see what used to be a water hazard, but was somewhat dried up from the lack of rain, so it was mostly sand and muck. The TV was also smaller than the ones at the other DVC resorts and sat atop a dresser instead of in an armoire. We chose the shorter bed to sleep on and unpacked. I had taken my shoes off and noticed that the carpet was damp. We are assuming it had been recently shampooed considering the strong cleaner smell when we first came in the room. I don’t mind clean, so that’s no big deal. And we knew the room would be different. (We had seen floor plans.) We want to try out all the DVC resorts (all the resorts, actually), so this was a learning experience for us. The room was perfectly sufficient – just not what we were used to, and we were still deciding how we felt about it.

We got ready, donned our anniversary buttons, and headed over to the Wilderness Lodge. From there, we were taking the boat over to MK for a little bit before dinner at Artist Point. We valet parked the van, telling the valet we are DVC members. (It’s free to valet park at DVC resorts for DVC members. ) We strolled through the beautiful lobby and out past the pool to the boat dock. We grabbed the next boat over to MK, and after cashing in those annual pass vouchers for brand-spankin’-new APs , we were under the train station and in my happy place! We had no plan so we moseyed. It was so nice! We shopped a bit, checked out VMK Central on Main Street and picked up our quests to fill out as well as a new outfit for Pal Mickey. They make a pirate outfit for him now! Yo Ho! We purchased all the new DVC and Annual Passholder exclusive pins they had at the jewelry store, and we headed accross to Casey's for a snack because we realized that we were in such a hurry to get there that we had forgotten to eat lunch! And dinner wasn't until 8:30. We each had some corn dog nuggets and sat outside looking at the castle while we munched. This was great! I MK!

We decided to head over to Pirates to see if there was a wait. It was 5 minutes! I'll take it! I just LOVE Pirates! We rode and headed over to Tomorrowland to check out Laugh Floor Comedy Club. It was still under construction the last time we were there. There was also about a 5-10 minute wait there. We did it too! It was cute. They kept picking on this one guy, which was pretty funny...

 

[Disneyfreak92]

After that, we headed on back to Wilderness Lodge to enjoy the lobby for a bit before dinner. We took the boat back and went to the gift shop. We looked around, and DH rubbed Humphrey's nose for a good trip.

Then we checked in at Artist Point early. We hit the pin cart in the lobby while we waited, and I found a new Disney Conservation pin and we purchased it. DH looked at the pin book there for trading. Then we just sat on one of the couches enjoying the view until we were tazed.

We were seated at a window table with a view of the pool and given menus with “Happy Anniversary” printed on them. How sweet! This was an out of pocket meal for us, so we ordered one appetizer, A Selection of Artisan Cheeses with riesling-poached raisins, dried cranberries and walnut toast, and we decided on the Raspberry Rapids (a pina colada-ish drink with raspberry) for a pre-dinner drink. We each got one, and WOW! These are GOOD! You can’t tell from DH’s face, but I messed up the first pic, in which he was happily sipping.

For dinner we both had the Grilled Buffalo Sirloin Steak with sweet potato-hazelnut gratin and sweet onion jam, which was good. And for dessert, we shared the Coffee Two Ways (Mochaccino bread pudding and vanilla latte creme brulee) , which I highly recommend, even if it isn’t your anniversary and you don’t get two candles in it.

Following dinner, we claimed our van from valet and headed back to the hotel to settle in for the night.

Next time, the happy couple heads to Epcot to dine with royalty, fly over California, and see the world.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Hey Mods! Could someone pretty please move me over to the trip report board now that I have posted my first installment? TIA!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi Lynda! Great 1st installment. That first day in Disney is always so great - I wish they could bottle that feeling.

So all of this was on Friday night, right? Let's see, we were at Epcot that night? Did you get stuck in any of the rain that night? We did - but I'll save it for my TR

 

[Eventer98]

Great to see your first installment!! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[BriarRosie]

I loved your first installment! Josh looks to be zoning out while drinking his sissy drink. I the buffalo steak! I'm going to Artist Point in October, and you can be sure I'm getting that, too.