What sort of foolishness would you like to see?-The end 9/27

[blue_river]

I'm subscribing! I followed you over from JoJo's PTR

When do you leave?

 

[Hedy]

I polished up my pennies last night-I now swear by Bar Keeper's friend. I've started packing-one thing I learned on my Universal trip was that I should have my park bag ready to go, and stick it in my backpack.

Five days! Three and a half more work days!

I've been playing the "where is the family now" game all day.

 

[Hedy]

I'm subscribing! I followed you over from JoJo's PTR

When do you leave?

Late Thursday-I get in midnight Friday-welcome!

Glad to hear everyone arrived safely. Hope you have a great trip!

Thanks!

Sweetie, you have the best memory EVER. Her stepmother is ALREADY emailing me about the graduation party. In MAY. It's going to be a long, expensive year, I think.

What day are you leaving? I'm so excited for you!

I leave late Thursday night!

YAH!!!!!!!!!! Glad they made it okay!

Thanks!

 

[Hedy]

I'm trying not to freak out about Fay. It looks like I'll miss it, and even if the parks are closed, it sounds like WDW has some good contingency plans in place for everyone else.

 

[MomofCKJ]

I'm right there with you flying down Th and watching Fay. Just really hoping there aren't bad delays as a result of cancelled flights on Tues/Wed.

Have a great trip!

Allyson

 

[Hedy]

I'm still watching Fay nervously-the weather dude just said she was heading towards Orlando. I'm also at the irrational worry part of packing-at work I was worrying about my Secret Clinical and earplugs-which were packed in my bagalinni and backpack, respectively.

Only 1.5 works days left-and I leave the day after tomorrow!

 

[MeMom]

I'm still watching Fay nervously-the weather dude just said she was heading towards Orlando. I'm also at the irrational worry part of packing-at work I was worrying about my Secret Clinical and earplugs-which were packed in my bagalinni and backpack, respectively.

Only 1.5 works days left-and I leave the day after tomorrow!

We'll hope for the best for you weather-wise. Have an awesome trip!

 

[Hedy]

Checked out Steve Soars' site today. I think I'll see if the boys want to see HSM at 4:35, but it looks like we'll miss LMA (can't say I'm disappointed).

 

[abbybeth]

Hey Heather - sorry I've been MIA - I hope you have a great trip and that Fay cooperates!

 

[Hedy]

Sakes alive, it's tomorrow! I'm nearly all packed! I'm A16 on my Southwest flight! Looks like Fay is behaving herself. At present, it looks like we'll be going to TL on Friday-they're planning on not getting an early start, which gives me time to get my tye-dyed cheesecake and frozen coke. They seem to be having a good time, Mickey said the crowds were pretty thin at the MK, most likely due to Fay. I've confirmed with Tiffany, so now I just need to make it through work.

ETA-Mamakat got one of those Mission Space e-mails from Ferdie-his head was all over the place.

 

[teruterubouzu]

I enjoyed your last trip report, but never commented so thought I should this time around. Have a great and safe trip! I'm looking forward to reading about your adventures.

 

[ArielSRL]

Hope you are having a great time and that Fay did not spoil any fun!

 

[Hedy]

I'm home! Battling a case of the Disney flu, but home! Had a great time!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Welcome Back!! Can't wait to hear all about it. I hope Fay didn't ruin too many of your plans.

 

[DisneyMom5]

Hi Hedy! I decided I should return the love and follow your report link from my Hicks report. I'll catch up eventually.

 

[Hedy]

Preface:
Please excuse the lack of pictures I was (understandably, I hope) focusing on taking pictures of the boys. I’ll probably blur out some faces or give them Groucho Marx glasses in Photobucket in a picture or two.

So, for nearly six months, the plan had been: go to work, have Mom take me to PVD, and go on my merry way. Then about two weeks ago, an appointment opened up and my MD’s office so I headed out of work as a half day. When the change first happened, I had thought about switching to an earlier flight, but decided that I didn’t want to take the risk of getting delayed. I got home early from my MD appointment, and commented to my mother that I could have taken the earlier flight, but it was too late. As I’d have to pay full fare, I didn’t want to switch. However after heming and hawing for a couple of minutes, I decided to call SWA, figuring the worst they could say was no. I popped onto their website while I was on hold, and saw that due to Fay, you could change your reservations through Sunday at no cost (at noon it had been through the day before). W00t! An SWA agent changed my ticket to the 6:30 flight, I got my boarding pass (B22, which I didn’t think was horrible given I was checking in 3 hours before my flight), called Tiffany to change my arrival, said goodbye to my cats and I was off to PVD.

Now, my mother and I joke that we are cursed when I go to the airport-every time we go to Logan early in the morning when I’m traveling alone, there’s an issue getting there. Fortunately, there were no such issues getting to PVD that afternoon. As Mom and I were saying our goodbyes, she pointed out a family with two parents, and two daughters-one with a Tinkerbell backpack and suitcase, and one with a HSM backpack and suitcase. Mom commented that she was pretty sure they’d be on my flight. I headed on into the security line, my 311 bag and contact stuff ready. I took off my shoes, and went through the screening ok. I saw my backpack go back and forth, and I wondered what was going on. I was then pulled aside-apparently my stuffing my Bagalinni into my backpack made it hard to see everything in the bag. Either that, or watermelon gummies and HSM snackmix are the new tools of Al-Queda. Anyway, I repacked my backpack (the pull thing on the zipper had popped off in the car) and found my gate. I then grabbed a quick linner at TGI Fridays of fried green beans, and a berry margarita. I waited, and as I was waiting by my gate, a young woman came around asking if anyone was willing to take a survey. I debated saying “Girlfriend, how do you think I paid for this trip?” but instead I just politely agreed to take it. If you ask me, it wasn’t a very good survey-the reasons for flying out of PVD did not include the fact that Southwest doesn’t fly out of Logan.

The A group was called-I was amused to see that the Tink and HSM family was on my flight. The A group boarded, and then I lined up with the B group. Despite being in the B group, I got an aisle seat-ironically with the dad and HSM girl. I listened to Podcasts, read the Skymall catalog, and checked my watch every 5 minutes. We had to put on our seatbelts at one point due to turbulence, but it wasn’t horrible. We were warned that landing would be bad, but I’ve had worse. However, once we were landed, taxiing kind of stank-you know when you’re driving in the rain, and you can feel how slippery the road is? Imagine that on a plane. We landed safely. I rode the fake monorail to the baggage claim…and there was a guy with a sign saying “Lastname Heather.” My driver was very nice, and the Towncar was very comfortable. We drove under the purple arch, and pulled up to Pop Century. I got out, and headed into the check in line. It was pretty slow, but not unreasonable-there was one family who was tying up one CM, which made it longer. I headed towards Everything Pop-I grabbed my tye-dye cheesecake and my frozen Coke, and sat down. I was a little awkward navigating Everything Pop, as I had my rolling suitcase with me. I really get what people mean about the “energy” of Pop, it was much more exciting than either Port Orleans resort (Mom commented that the picture of the Everything Pop looked like Vegas). The tye-dye cheesecake was very good, the frozen Coke was kind of blah. I called Minnie to let them know I had arrived, and I headed out into the rain to find my room.

I was in a room in the 90’s building, despite requesting 50’s. I headed out in the rain. I passed the 50’s and 60’s buildings, past the 70’s where a little girl was dancing in the disco lights. It amused me that I was passing past mom’s youth, then onto Jack, Sally, Mickey, and Minnie’s, then finally on to mine. FWIW, I felt the Pop building were well labeled and lit (it occasionally comes up on the Resorts board when newbies are looking into a solo trip). My room overlooked the computer pool. I had a towel animal waiting for me. I loved this poster with all the Disney movies of the 90’s-and the themed wallpaper. The room was smaller than a moderate room, but it would be doable for two people, and clean. I went to bed.

I took this picture to annoy the people who were whining about pictures of half eaten food-LOL.

Is there anyone my age whose first cellphone didn’t look like this?

 

[Hedy]

Hi Hedy! I decided I should return the love and follow your report link from my Hicks report. I'll catch up eventually.

Welcome! Don't take this the wrong way, but at one point in AK, we were doing a head count, and I thought "I have no idea how DisneyMom5/Sarah kept track of her party.

Welcome Back!! Can't wait to hear all about it. I hope Fay didn't ruin too many of your plans.

Some rain, but we didn't melt.

Hope you are having a great time and that Fay did not spoil any fun!

Not too bad.

I enjoyed your last trip report, but never commented so thought I should this time around. Have a great and safe trip! I'm looking forward to reading about your adventures.

Welcome!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Glad to hear you made it there uneventfully. I think the rooms at Pop are very do-able for 2, but I don't think I would want to stay there with the boys. The energy is fun, but I don't have much to compare it to since before April I hadn't stayed on-site since I was a teenager, and I don't even remember at which resort we stayed...

 

[Hedy]

So I got to sleep. And then I woke up. And then I went back to sleep. And I woke up. I showered, coated my hair with leave-in conditioner (in case we went to Typhoon Lagoon) and put it in a sloppy bun so it would dry more slowly. I packed up, and headed towards Classic Hall for breakfast. I started taking the parking lot route I’d heard about from Marina, but there kept on being groups of people loading up their rental cars, so I swung around the Big Wheel building and headed to Classic Hall. FWIW, I really like the chains at the Pop bus stop, and I like how Pop’s DME is separate from the rest of the fray. I went over to the grab and go area (I thought the food court was a lot nicer than either POR/FQ’s) and had some apples with caramel, and an orange juice. I stopped in Everything Pop to do some souvenir shopping (hey, after all the medical bills I’d put on my Disney Visa, I was getting myself something fun). I picked up a thing of different holiday antenna toppers, a new Disney cat bowl for Oscar, and a dirty/clean dishwasher thing for my mom (we’d talked about getting one in December but didn’t). The one thing I was hoping to get this trip, but couldn’t were black Minnie janes (I really want purple, but they only come in girl’s sizes)-everyplace I saw only had pink. As I sat in Everything Pop, I thought I saw one of Lessa (Lifelong_Dreamer)’s brother doing a mug refilling dash, but I didn’t think he’d be amused by being greeted by “Alek or Erich?”

What, no Heather was born?

I wandered Pop some more, and it was finally time to call Minnie’s cell phone. I called and left a message. Mickey called me back, they weren’t sure what was going on as Jack and Sally were still asleep, I decoded to check into the Dolphin. I grabbed a cab (things I don’t get about Disney-owned WDW resorts-why are cabs just waiting at values and moderates, but they have to be called at deluxes?). We drove to the Dolphin (I saw signs and stuff at WDW I’d never seen before this trip-like the light up PI/Planet Hollywood sign-I wonder what’s happening to that. I realized this was because, duh, I wasn’t staying in a DTD area resort). The cab was only around $7, which I didn’t think was bad at all. I got out of the cab.

Now, I like to think I’m not that snobby or high maintenance, but I expect that if I show up at a hotel with luggage, and there are three bell people standing around gabbing, one should come over and least offer to help me with my bags. No one did. I checked in, my room wasn’t ready yet, obviously. I put in a request for an Epcot view (hoping it would keep me out of the forth floor lattices of doom). I strolled around the Dolphin. Hot tip-Daisy’s Garden, the WDW store there, was dead every time I went in there-if you need an empty gift shop, check there out. I picked up a Cheshire Cat toy for Belle. Minnie called, they were discussing what they wanted to do. They decoded on Epcot, so I said I’d meet them at International Gateway. It was pouring, and I started to walk towards International Gateway, but I decided to take the boat once I got to the Boardwalk. I got to International Gateway. I waited. I stared at a lot of large groups, then finally, I saw them. I borrowed a page from my father’s book and began wildly waving my arms above my head. We met up. It was decided that we wanted to get FP’s for Test Track, so Jack and Mickey did the running while we headed to SSE. As we were giving our passes to them, I said (to identify my park pass) “I’m the three day Cinderella.” Jack told me to get over myself .

It’s really cool how empty WS is before it opens-it was dead. Jack announced he wanted to go to the “soccer shop” in the UK. We headed towards SSE. Minnie prompted Ferdie to tell me about his surprise dinner, which was at the Coral Reef (interestingly, they did not remember it from <I>Full House</I>. “There was a cahd that said ‘Happy Birthday Ferdie.’” “Who gave you the card?” I asked. “The waiter. And then there was one for Mordie, and his said ‘Welcome to Disney Word, Mordie.’” “And what else was there?” Prompted Minnie. “And then there was a diver, and he had cahds that said ‘Happy Birthday, Ferdie’ and ‘Welcome to Disney World, Mordie’ and he threw up the shells.” We were now in the queue for SSE, Jack and Mickey arrived with our TT FP’s. We began to break ourselves into groups, I was riding with Ferdie. “And they take your picture, and then you see yourself in the future!” Mordie asked if I’d seen the new SSE, I told him that I had seen it partly done, but I wasn’t a fan. Jack told me the stary about how he thought he was clever for finding a thing of those Nightmare Before Christmas pins that were the “set of 10” in a box-he thought he was getting a set of 10 in one box, but didn’t. However, he did get a pin of Jack and Sally holding a pumpkin that is going on their Christmas tree. Mordie pointed out that he was wrong and it was right on the box. We were at the boarding area, would I like SSE better this time?

 

[DisneyMom5]

Welcome! Don't take this the wrong way, but at one point in AK, we were doing a head count, and I thought "I have no idea how DisneyMom5/Sarah kept track of her party.

Some rain, but we didn't melt.


Not too bad.

Welcome!

Wow, you thought of me at WDW??? Wow. That's amazing. LOL
I NEVER take stuff like that the wrong way.
We ARE a force to reckon with, and a bit of a freak show. It's amazing we haven't lost more than we have. LOL

Oh, and nice update!