Up, down and all around...a trip we will NEVER forget - COMPLETE 1/19

[reelmom]

I'm in. Henry is adorable.

 

[marieNJkitty]

I can't wait for the rest of your TR! It sound like it will be very interesting! We had a great vacation! DD was almost a perfect angel. She slept through most of the dark rides and shows. DS had a few issues though. I am happy to be home after a long slippery snow covered drive last night! What a temperature change!

 

[Camster0307]

Hey Brook - I'm here! Haven't had time to read anything yet but just wanted to let you know I'm subscribing. So jealous you've started your TR already. I still have over 500 pix to get over onto photobucket -- and I need to think of a title for my TR! Hopefully I'll get it started within the next few days!

Sorry we never bumped into each other; I had my eye out for you guys! Glad to hear that you had a wonderful time!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Sounds like Davis should be working in WDW! And great to know Continental still serves food... that's a big differentiator!

 

[IluvXU]

Joining in... excited to hear about your trip and the WL.

 

[jaycns]

You are back!! Good to see you...sad for you to be back though I bet! Love the start! I cannot wait to see how your trip unfolded IRL as compared to the planning. How did you like WL? WELCOME HOME! I thought of you while you were at WDW and sent up good thoughts in your honor and hoped that you were having a load of fun!

 

[BellaSoleil]

I'm in! We are going to be staying at the Wilderness Lodge in January. Can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[Mocharilla]

We made our way though security-it was a bit of a hassle considering the sheer amount of STUFF we had with.

A baby. A stroller. A sippy of milk that must be examined separately. A laptop. A diaper bag. A back pack. A blankie. A camera bag. A backpack. 3 pairs of shoes.

Ugh.

987 bins later…

Oh, god. I can sympathize!!! Total pain in the butt, and more bins than I knew existed in the airport!

Great start!

 

[brookelizabeth]

So glad that Henry konked out after his visit with Davis and the extra M&Ms! I wish all flight attendents could be as wonderful as he was!

Let's get to Pop!

I wish all the flight attendants were as nice as him too. He truly was a GEM. A woman I encountered on our travels home was not so much...

Pop is coming up next!

I totally agree: planning is a lot of fun itself - you just need to stay prepared for the umplannable (I guess, that's not a real English word...). I am looking forward to your next PTR

That sounds fantastic! WL and CR are the only other deluxe resorts (besides AKL of course) which I could imagine to stay at. So I am really looking forward to all the pictures. I love pictures that show interesting features of the resort - I still remember the picture of you and the AKL letter box from your honneymoon, because it showed something of AKL that I had not seen before!

I had a feeling while planning everything that there would be no possible way we would stay on schedule, so I made sure to keep that in the back of my mind and just keep thinking "A perfect excuse to come back." when our plans took detours.

That's funny that you remember the pic with the letter box! I hope I have a few like that from WL too.

Wait a second!! You mean there are some airlines that still serve food??

Off to a great start! I can't wait to see all of your pictures.

Shocker, I know! I looked at DH with my jaw dropped when they announced they would be serving breakfast. Continential rocks!

Loving this so far !!!!

Thanks Diana!

Hey Brook!!!

OMG I didn't get here til the 2nd page!!! I REALLY need to increase my DIS time to 6hrs a day...at least... I just can't keep up!!!

I'm am intrigued at your possible TR titles.... and more than a little frightened

Can't wait to hear all the good stuff AND see all the PICS!!!!

Paula

I'm with ya on the DIS time! I haven't hardly caught up on any of my subscriptions and I know as soon as I get a bit caught up, I'll just end up behind again. I'll have the little Table of Contents links, so that makes it easier to read the TR - though the back and forth is sometimes fun to read!

Despite the bumps on our trip, we laughed about it all-it certainly made everything memorable! And there was LOTS of great stuff too!

They still serve food on airlines?! The trip was this year and not 10 years ago, right?! That just totally surprised me! And a helpful, friendly flight attendant... sounds like Continental is the way to go!!

What an early morning! Glad you made it on time, despite the slowdowns. Isn't that always the case when you're in a hurry? I bet you hit all red lights too!

I know it! I couldn't believe it either. Breakfast AND lunch. Continental is really, really great!

It is always the case...when I saw the elderly gentleman I just KNEW we would be behind him. I forgot to mention that the first bus at the Park & Fly was full too, so we had a small wait there as well. Thankfully it was a very small wait-a matter of minutes until a second bus pulled right up at our car.

Great start so far! Henry looks so cute on the flight - I don't believe for a minute that he was "ansy and a bit fussy"! And wow, Continental serves meals? Who knew?

I can't wait till you get there!

Oh and Henry learned how to SCREECH on this trip. I never knew that kind of sound could emit from my precious baby!

Pop is coming sooooooon!

I'm in. Henry is adorable.

Welcome! And thank you!

I can't wait for the rest of your TR! It sound like it will be very interesting! We had a great vacation! DD was almost a perfect angel. She slept through most of the dark rides and shows. DS had a few issues though. I am happy to be home after a long slippery snow covered drive last night! What a temperature change!

So glad to hear your DD was good! Henry had a few moments, but very few. I hope nothing too hard happened with your DS... ...I know it seems a child throws a tantrum at the worst moments...like in the middle of Stroller H-e-l-l in Fantasyland?? We don't have snow or ice here yet, but ugh-the temperature change is awful. Are you writing a TR?

Hey Brook - I'm here! Haven't had time to read anything yet but just wanted to let you know I'm subscribing. So jealous you've started your TR already. I still have over 500 pix to get over onto photobucket -- and I need to think of a title for my TR! Hopefully I'll get it started within the next few days!

Sorry we never bumped into each other; I had my eye out for you guys! Glad to hear that you had a wonderful time!

I'm slooooowly loading my pics as I write the TR. Otherwise I would never get around to it!! I'm looking forward to your TR-I hope your trip was awesome!

I was really bummed when I realized I had missed the DIS Meet. Though, coming up you'll see why my mind was completely pre-occupied... hopefully our paths will cross again in the future and we'll actually get to meet!

Sounds like Davis should be working in WDW! And great to know Continental still serves food... that's a big differentiator!

I totally agree-he should be working at WDW!!

Joining in... excited to hear about your trip and the WL.

Welcome-glad to see you!

You are back!! Good to see you...sad for you to be back though I bet! Love the start! I cannot wait to see how your trip unfolded IRL as compared to the planning. How did you like WL? WELCOME HOME! I thought of you while you were at WDW and sent up good thoughts in your honor and hoped that you were having a load of fun!

Thanks for the good thoughts Jay-they certainly reached us! We really had a great trip, even with the bumps we experienced. IRL it was very different to the plans, BUT, the plans really shaped the overall day and helped.

We LOVED WL! Loved every minute of it. Everytime we walked up to the resort I said outloud "I love it here." I just couldn't resist everytime. Every detail was perfect and lovely!

I'm in! We are going to be staying at the Wilderness Lodge in January. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Welcome!! WL is awesome!!!! We loved it. Lots of pics and details on it coming up soon.

Oh, god. I can sympathize!!! Total pain in the butt, and more bins than I knew existed in the airport!

Great start!

I know! I felt sorta bad for the people behind us and I think DH was a tad embarassed at how long we took, and how many bins we kept having to use, but well, that's life with a baby! Just think about those with twins or triplets.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Last I left you we were on our airport monorail ride. We smoothly made our way down to the ME area-Joe actually remembered exactly where to go from our 2006 trip. I was clueless. In 2006 when we arrived at the ME desk there was one CM working and you could hear your voice echo off the walls…which was the complete opposite of this arrival. The line stretched, and stretched, and stretched. Where was the end?! Oh, there it is, in Guam!

Despite the incredible length of the line, it moved very quickly. The desk was hopping with about a dozen sharply dressed CMs, eager to assist with a smile. We crossed the red carpet and entered our line, we were second in line! Woo-hoo!

Oh wait. That means we just missed a bus. Doh.

All well! We are in Orlando, in the ME line, the Disney magic is already filling the air!

As we waited for our bus to arrive I met a little boy in the next line. His name was Xander. "X-A-N-D-E-R." And his baby brother was Ryan. "R-Y-A-N." So cute. Xander also had a nifty Cars roller suitcase that had all other little boys green with envy I’m sure!

Our bus arrived after about 15 minutes and we skipped (okay, not really) out to the beautiful ME bus.

Only, it wasn’t an ME bus. It was plain yellow with big black letters saying “Mears” across the side.



As we boarded the bus, Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Feeling” filled our ears. What a lovely oh-so-Disney tune! Riiiight.

Let's go! Let's go!

Yea! We are in Disney! Not on a Disney bus, but close enough!

I love you my baby!

After that song the tunes selection did get better, “At Last” by Etta James and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper rocked us to the World because the Mears bus meant NO Disney video to welcome us. The driver was very friendly and shared some fun Disney facts with all the passengers so that was good.

Before we knew it, we were arriving at Pop Century! Naturally we were the last people off the bus with our 87 random items in tow. We thanked the driver with a nice tip and made our way into the Pop lobby.

I have seen pictures of Pop, but really, they don’t do the place justice! I was really surprised at how pretty the lobby was, it sorta glistens in a way and there are so many neat shadow boxes of different items from the decades that you can look through, enjoy and reminisce.

Glisteny, pretty Pop Century.

Cool shadow boxes.

More lobby with fun, funky flooring.

We are here! We are here! We are finally here!

Henry being a very good boy while waiting in line.

Joe loves "check-in counter" shots. So here is Pop's! The lady shown in line in the foreground was there checking in with sisters/girlfriends and all of them were wearing "Super Soap Weekend" t-shirts. A couple of them had husbands along. I had a feeling they would be visiting the ESPN Club quite often....sans wives!

We only had to wait in line a few minutes until our turn and the helpful and funny CM informed us our room was ready (yea!), gave us a map, and pointed us in the right direction...straight to the 50's!

Up next: Sayonara plans!

 

[Lady Lallie]

How did I not realize this had started? D'oh! I'm here now!

 

[Camster0307]

OMG Brook, that ME line!

We got there around 11am and it stretched down past all the rental car counters! Luckily, a CM saw me with Amanda in her wheelchair and pulled us out of the line. He wanted to make sure we didn't miss a wheelchair-accessible bus so he got us checked in right away. We were on a bus by 11:30. But the family in front of us said they had waited in line an hour and a half to check in!!!

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

You're there!! You're there!!

i can't wait unitl I can say that . . . Only 7 more weeks.

 

[thewesterberg]

You've landed!! And bummer about the Mears bus. But, really, you're on your way to Disney, I think an old jalopey wouldn't be the end of the world if it runs and is getting you to the World!

And isn't that Pop lobby fun?! That's one thing I wish we would have had more time to do, to simply wander around on the sparkly floor and look at all the shadow boxes!

And way to leave us with another cliffhanger! You don't write for soap operas, do you?!

 

[Mocharilla]

No Disney bus?! I hope we have a Disney bus! I want the video!!

50's is where we stayed! Where in the 50's were you? We had 2330 and 2331. Actually, we'd talked to TCKK before we left, and they were staying in Pop, and we found out after we both got back on our trip reports that she'd been, like one floor up and two rooms over from us.

 

[PNO4TE]

I'm in!

 

[CJsMom]

Oh yeah, I remember that scary ME line last December. DH took one look and almost hopped back on the plane! But I got through in about 15 mins. Glad you got through quick - too bad about the boring yellow Mears bus though! POP looks great, can't wait to see what happened to the plans!

 

[Donald is #1]

I'm on board!

OK, I must be very confused tonight, because I thought that I read you mentioned airline+food in the same sentence??

 

[RachelTori]

I'm here too!

 

[brookelizabeth]

How did I not realize this had started? D'oh! I'm here now!

Hello there! I had you in mind MUCH of the week, I have a ga-zillion light fixture pictures for you!!!!

OMG Brook, that ME line!

We got there around 11am and it stretched down past all the rental car counters! Luckily, a CM saw me with Amanda in her wheelchair and pulled us out of the line. He wanted to make sure we didn't miss a wheelchair-accessible bus so he got us checked in right away. We were on a bus by 11:30. But the family in front of us said they had waited in line an hour and a half to check in!!!

That is CRAZY! Our stretched just past the elevators, but it really only took about 15 minutes total-I bet they were short staffed earlier in the day and called in more people or something...I would have hailed a cab over waiting 1.5 hours. Ick! Joe overheard that the CMs were shocked at the amount of people that arrived that day, the previous days had been MUCH quieter.

That is so good of the CM to see you and pull you aside. Made for a very good magical beginning!

You're there!! You're there!!

i can't wait unitl I can say that . . . Only 7 more weeks.

7 weeks! That is going to fly by for you!

You've landed!! And bummer about the Mears bus. But, really, you're on your way to Disney, I think an old jalopey wouldn't be the end of the world if it runs and is getting you to the World!

And isn't that Pop lobby fun?! That's one thing I wish we would have had more time to do, to simply wander around on the sparkly floor and look at all the shadow boxes!

And way to leave us with another cliffhanger! You don't write for soap operas, do you?!

about the jalopey-but yes, as long as it gets me there, I don't care what it is! The driver really was funny, he made up for the lack of video. His favorite saying was "Woo-hoo!" and he had everyone echoing him before we even reached Pop.

I wish we had more time to enjoy the shadow boxes too-we did take a few minutes on our way out the next morning...but there is so much to look at, it's so fun!

And about the soap operas...NO WAY! I can't stand them!

No Disney bus?! I hope we have a Disney bus! I want the video!!

50's is where we stayed! Where in the 50's were you? We had 2330 and 2331. Actually, we'd talked to TCKK before we left, and they were staying in Pop, and we found out after we both got back on our trip reports that she'd been, like one floor up and two rooms over from us.

I wanted the video too! But, it was a good bus and got us there, so that was more important. Hopefully we will get the video next time.

We were in room

Probably pretty close to where you were!

I'm in!

Hellooooo there my fellow Jamborini!

Oh yeah, I remember that scary ME line last December. DH took one look and almost hopped back on the plane! But I got through in about 15 mins. Glad you got through quick - too bad about the boring yellow Mears bus though! POP looks great, can't wait to see what happened to the plans!

Pop was really neat! We were not expecting much, but were very impressed with the entire facility. We did have a hang-up while there (coming up in a couple installments), and I will say that I don't think I ever want to stay there again-that reason is coming up in a future installment too. BUT, that's just because of ME, not Pop. Pop was very fun!

I'm on board!

OK, I must be very confused tonight, because I thought that I read you mentioned airline+food in the same sentence??

I DID! Can you believe it?! And it was GOOD food.
In 2006 we flew Contiential to Israel and got good food as well, I figured this was just because it was an international flight, so I was very surprised and pleased!

I'm here too!

Hello there Jamborini! Thanks for joining in!