Versus, The Trip That Never Shoulda Happened, Update 5/2, Done!

[mmeb144]

Yes, you have come at a good time. My daughter and I are writing a trip report together. She is 12, I'm 43. Her screenname is Tinkyellow. It's almost like we took different trips...

Chapter 1: Backstory

After reading trip reports for years, thank you to all the funny trip report writers out there, I want to attempt to write my own. It may not be funny, but at least it’s mine.

I just graduated from graduate school, with a Masters in Library Science (MLS). Yes, I’m a bona fide, real librarian. (Now, where’s my great paying job! ) I’ve been working hard on that degree. We went down to WDW at Christmas 2005 because that was the only thing keeping me going for that semester. I wanted to celebrate my MLS and my birthday, so off to WDW, again. Have I told you that I worked hard on that degree?

This trip started off as a week away for my DH and myself. As I thought about it, it didn’t seem fair to leave the kids home while celebrating my MLS and birthday. After all, they were very patient with me while I did all that school stuff. So, back in October, my DH and I told the kids that they got to go, too. They were extremely happy. My DS14 wanted to know if he would get spending money to buy a video game before going. Decisions, decisions. I just want to know how I could justify this vacation in the first place.

My DH lost his job back at the end of September. He hasn’t found one, yet. He’s had several interviews, but can’t seem to turn them into job offers. Could a lack of job lead to his depression flaring up, again? Maybe. Or, could the depression be keeping him from getting another job? Maybe. How do you tell someone to remember that the interviewers need them as much as they need the job? I’m a little frustrated.

My mom is less than supportive for taking this trip, too. Why did I even talk to her about this in the first place? Sometimes you just have to live dangerously.

I got a good discount for this trip. We stayed at POFQ. The tickets came with free park hopping and pluses. No DDP, but we may be able to eat cheaper without it. That remains to be seen.

My DD12 and I talked about writing a trip report. I told her that I’m afraid of her posting on my report. She writes weird stuff. I’m worried that she will ruin my reputation and establish her own. Hey, get your own report!

To recap, we have a party of 4 here, me, my DH, my DS14 and my DD12. Been to WDW a few times, but still like it lots. Been to POFQ once before, really had a good time.

Marie

 

[yellowtink]

Chapter One, Back story

Thank you for reading my mom’s trip report. Let’s get this straight first off. I’m right, she’s wrong, deal with it.
I hate roller coasters. I’m scared of the dark . My mom is always getting stressed out before we are off to WDW .
MY Cast:
Mom (Comando mom)
SD (Smart Dad)
AB (Annoying Brother)
Tink (me)

 

[NAB]

Thanks for taking the time to write a report.

I might skip the pre teen attitude part.

Carry on....

 

[NMAmy]

Well, THIS ought to be good. I'm looking forward to reading more!

BTW, yellowtink, I'm siding with your mom in all arguments. We 43 yo's with teenage dd's have to stick together,you know. It's Mom Law.

 

[mmeb144]

We 43 yo's with teenage dd's have to stick together,you know. It's Mom Law.

LOL

Marie

 

[mmeb144]

Our Cast:

Hagrid – Dad, DH
Tink - DD12
Pluto – DS14
mmeb144 – me

Can I remember all these goofy nicknames? Time will tell.

Chapter 2: Packing & Leaving

Friday night, the packing evening before the big trip, Hagrid gets the news that he has to schedule a job interview for the week that we are going to WDW. They can’t do the interview when he gets back, it has to be that week or no chance at the job. I came home Friday after work, to this lovely piece of news. Cancel my trip? No way! He e-mails the interviewer and asks her about a Monday interview. I reschedule his flight so that he flies out Monday evening, not Saturday morning. I even book the guy a towncar ride to MK for Monday night. (Don’t want him to miss too much of the P&P party! ) 2 hours and $200 shot to h***. Hagrid was really sad because he won’t be with us for the first 3 days of the trip. Tink was sad, too. Packing took forever that Friday night, because of the late start.

Back up again at 4:45 am. Time to get ready! For me. Got the kids & Hagrid up at 6ish. What’s up with the sleep thing?! Hagrid graciously took us to the airport. Hey, we “saved” parking fees for a couple days. We stopped at Krispy Kreme for breakfast. I lost my wallet! Actually, I tucked it in my jacket pocket and promptly forgot it was there. Stress! Even a free donut didn’t help. Finally found the stupid ID and was ready to move on. The plane left on time.

Ever done the Magical Express? Well, this was my first time with it. I really liked arriving at Orlando without having to do the luggage wrestle thing. We hopped off the plane. More like schlepped off the plane. What’s with everyone slowly walking off the plane? If we all ran, we’d be out of the airport and emptying our wallets at the various tourist traps fasters.

We found the Magical Express. We were directed to a line for our resort. We probably stood there about 5 minutes. Just long enough to case out the competition for check-in at the resort. I didn’t know that the bus was going to stop at a 2 resorts before we got to POFQ. We didn’t even get the in-bus movie! The GPS was on the fritz, so no movie for the happy holidayers, holidaers, whatever…

Marie

 

[VanniGirl]

This should be a great report - two versions at once!

Looking forward to the rest.

 

[yellowtink]

Thank you to all lwho like the pre-teen attitude if there are any out there. Your wish is not my command. The pre-teen attitude will be staying thank you very much.


Chapter 2, Magical Express

We are off the plane and we head toward the Magical Express line to go to our resort, POFQ. We are in the line. We wait and wait and wait, actually it was only like a 5 minute wait but when you are bored it seems so much longer. We finally board after an eternity. We are sitting down and the driver says that she can’t get the video to work, oh poor me. We go through all the stops and we were almost last.
As we walk into the resort AB, and I look around look at Mom and I ask if we can check out the arcade. We find it, the arcade, it rocks. It was weird, you have to put money in a machine to charge a card so you get points on the card. AB and I played games by ourselves, then we played air hockey. I knew it was going to happen AB won.
We get to the room to find out we have charging privileges on our card. I can’t decide if that is good thing or not, but thanks to Disunc we have them. I can’t say I’m happy about it and I can’t say I’m sad, I am in the middle.

 

[mmeb144]

The check-in went really quick. Our room was ready! It was in a quiet location. A corner room. first floor. As far as you can get from everything and still be in the resort. Well, you can’t have everything. I decided that before I complained, again, that I would at least check out the room. It was a whole 5 minutes leisurely walk from the check-in desk to our room. I forgot how small POFQ is. Our room was also a 10 minute walk to POR pool, too, but that information will come in handy for a later day’s trip report.

Tink, Pluto, and I took our carry-ons to the room. Nice! No luggage guys to tip. (Must be more cost effective on this trip.) Everyone liked the room, so we decided to stay here for the duration. I would have set up camp, but the kids were getting hungry. They didn’t want to eat at MK, they want food, NOW! So, we bought our refillable mugs and had lunch at the Floatworks.

Which was rather busy for being at a resort in the middle of the day. I had the chicken fingers and French fries and filled my mug for the first time of the trip. Cherry Coke in the fountain, sweet! Pluto warned me off the Vanilla Coke, it was nasty. Later that day, he said it tasted better. Went back to the room to drop off the mugs. No luggage, yet. Maybe I’m expecting too much for the luggage to be there within 2 hours…

We head over to MK. I got the birthday button. The CM wrote my name on it and asked if I wanted my name in Japanese, too. Of course! How cool! Several CMs commented on the Japanese characters during the week. I felt very special.

Marie

 

[photo_chick]

This is the first TR I have read that was ont finished.

AGGHHH the agony. What willl happen next? Will HAgrid get there ok? Will the job interview go well? HAving a DH myself who was out of work for a year I know that never leaves your mind. BTW... we went away to the beach for a week when he was out of work. Everyone thought we were insane too!

I need more!!!!!

 

[yellowtink]

There is a first time for everything.



We get setup. We are off to the MK. We saw a pre-parade show, it was a dance group, all ages. The song got old after a while. I got tired of AB asking if we can leave yet, again, and again. We got fast passes for Space Mountain, well, except for me, I don’t like roller coasters, I never knew that that would haunt me. We rode It’s a Small World, we entertained AB, not. We got in line for Space Mountain, we get to the front and it seems that I need a fast pass to go through and not ride the ride. We go back and get a fast pass for me and go through. We come out and decide to go back to the resort since it was an early morning, and I can’t get another fastpass till like seven o’clock. .
We get in the room and relax, well my mom does, and Z and I go back to the arcade. We decide that on the way back, we will get a snack, Beignets to be exact. We play more air hockey and go back. We then konk out and go to bed.

 

[mmeb144]

Yo, Tink!

Who is this "Z" person? Is that the same as AB?

Nice remembering about the beignets! Those tasted so good!

Marie

 

[yellowtink]

for that I ment AB I guess I didn't proofreaad well enough.

 

[jns]

Great report both of you

 

[photo_chick]

I did not like roller coasters either. Then when I was 14 my Dad bribed me He did not think I would go. Been a coaster junkie ever since.

 

[mmeb144]

photo_chick

I did not like roller coasters either. Then when I was 14 my Dad bribed me He did not think I would go. Been a coaster junkie ever since.

I've tried just about everything I can think of to get Tink to ride the more adventurous rides. No dice. I forced her on BTMR back when she was 5. She said she was not riding any more coasters, ever. I'm waiting on her to decide to try again. The key being that she wants to do it, not just me wanting her to.

Marie

 

[mmeb144]

Let the arguments begin! Pluto wants ride Space Mountain. Tink wants to ride Dumbo. Tink and I want to watch the parade. As we are standing there arguing, we hear music on Main Street. Loud music. “What I like about you” about 500 times. Short version, repeats about every 30 seconds. A dance troupe of about, I don’t know, say 1000 people of various ages, all performing the same dance step all… the… way… down… Main… Street. Would this ever end? Would the 3 o’clock parade ever start? Would my son stop hassling me about riding Space Mountain? Finally, we get to the end of the dancers. By now, Pluto wants to kill me, so let’s go get fast passes to Space Mountain, shall we? Tink thought it was a good idea, too. We only get 2 fast passes, since Tink won’t be riding.

We rode TTA, Buzz Lightyear, and It’s a Small World. Poor Pluto, such suffering. I wanted him to see the refurbed version of IASW. The clock at the beginning of the ride is really cool. Back in ’05, it was working great. All that movement, it looked so cool. It even told the right time. (How’s that for Disney Magic?) Fast forward to 2/2007, the entire clock is not moving. Huh? What’s up with that? Pluto had to settle for my brilliant description of the clock in action. “It really moves! Really!”

By now, it’s time to ride Space Mountain. Pluto and I go up to the fast pass CM to get in line, Tink will accompany us til we get to the ride and then wait at the exit. “Houston, we have a problem.” The fast pass CM says that Tink needs a fast pass, too. What? Why? She’s not riding. She’s terrified of roller coasters. The CM says that she can’t wait in line without a fast pass, he’ll even take one that won’t work for several hours. We go back to the fast pass machine and get a fast pass for her, then get in line. Pluto and I ride, Tink waits. Weirdly, I can’t wait to get home to tell the folks on the disboards about this new wrinkle in fast pass use.

We’re getting hungry by now, so, after having read all the good reviews about the Dole Whips, we head over to the Adventureland Veranda. I get 2 Dole Whip floats, one for me, one for Pluto. Umm, how do I say this, Pluto and I didn’t think they were all that. The Dole Whip float is ok, but not worth walking halfway across the park for. The ice cream shop would have worked great.

We decide to call it an evening, even though we were supposed to stay for Spectro and Wishes. I was beat, that late night and early morning had caught up with me. We went back to POFQ and found our luggage had arrived. Yay! We had supper at the Floatworks and got our room ready for the week. We were going to go to bed around 9, but then we heard a bunch of firework pops. Oh, yeah, Illuminations! We waited until they were over, then hit the hay.

As an aside, I had tendonitis in my left ankle. Still do, but at the time it was really flared up. My poor ankle looked so swollen by evening. I iced it down that night, which helped, but I kept the ice on too long and frostbit my ankle. The next morning, I got some cortisone cream from the resort store to help with the rash. It looked like it was going to be a long week for the ankle.

Marie

 

[Marion]

I'm really enjoying the report from two points of view! (even with the pre-teen attitude ) Can't wait to hear more!

 

[yellowtink]

My Dad is trying to get me to go on test track, I'm not buying it.

Tinkyellow

 

[yellowtink]

My Dad is trying to get me to go on test track, I'm not buying it.

Tinkyellow