What Time is the 4 o'clock Rain? -- Updates 11/2-4 -- Tim's surprise and Marco&Recap

[lovegrumpy]

Love your reports.

 

[KatMark]

For the early morning start and the coffee stop. Uneventful flight is the way to go!!!!!

Thank you, Pat.

You landed, you got the luggage and the car---- LETS GO!!

I agree...let's go! Can we go back?

Not a bad start so far! A few slow-downs isn't so bad! Did you see that they are closing the Wetzel's Pretzels in DTD and turning it into a Starbucks? I'm a Dunkin Donuts girl, myself, but the whole Starbucks thing gets me excited for you!

Ali, I'll take those slow downs as they were so minor. I heard they were putting one in DTD, but I didn't know where. I never see anyone at that Wetzel Pretzel so that might be a good spot.

I don't really like Midway either. I feel like I always fly into there when I go to Chicago. The security line is terrible there!!!!

Rachel, in truth, we've had good luck with security...but that could be because we take very early flights. But I still prefer O'Hare.

Hurray for on time planes and coffee!!! mark always looks so happy and excited!!!

Nice new ticker....

Mark always is happy and excited when it's Mickey/Nicki time.

I like my new ticker too...it's two trips in a row I will see you.

Off to a great start! You raised Andy right - he knows the priority! Coffee first, of course!

Tammie, thanks for being here. Andy is a good boy; when he picked us up from the airport on our return, he knew automatically to stop at Starbucks.

Sweet son to get you to the airport. I have one of those, too. Well, Drew would do it if I asked, but Trent volunteers to get up super early in the morning and take us.

We have great sons, Caren.

Yay for a smooth flight.
Yep, we can tell you are excited!

Thank you.

We have a car.



Let's do this!

I say that because the weekend is upon us, and I will have some DIS time. I look forward to driving under the Disney arch with ya!

I'm going to finish responses and then do an update after I cook dinner for Andy, Des and hubby.

OH my i totally forgot about that very obnoxious BEAST! she was mean!


Kathy you and Mark win the CUTEST couple award of the YEAR!!!

Cutest couple? Hmmm...I'm thinking maybe oldest couple.

Thank you for the PM! I finally made it over to start reading!!

I'm not far into it yet so your timing is perfect.

Looks like you had a smooth start to your arrival day! That's always so great!

Excited to read more!!

A smooth flight and early arrival is a great way to start.

Great start!!! Funny, all those sites appear very familiar! Can't wait to hear what you did next.

Linda, welcome back. It's funny how it does look familiar, isn't it?

 

[KatMark]

Kathy, I'm sorry to hear about your brother. You all are in my prayers (and I do believe in the power of prayer!)

Thank you, Bob.

Sorry I am so late!

Finally getting time to catch up on my DISing

Love the introduction, so many lovely family photos

Little Cookie is adorable

Linda, no worries...we've just gotten started. I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. She is our princess and I believe she is adorable too.

Argh - love, love, love the excitement of travel day - counting down the days before we can get that feeling again

When do you go? Do you have a PTR that I should be reading?

So sorry to hear about your brother, Kathy.

Thank you.

Hope they can fix him up completely. Thinking of the family who will be doing the donating of the heart he gets, too, in whatever situation they will be dealing with.

Thank you; it's been years of medical issues and he just can never catch a break.

A fresh new AP!
Mine expires in October, and I plan to get a new one at Christmas. I am hoping to get December, March, summer, and October trips out of it.

WOO HOO for getting a new one at Christmas. I was going to wait until December, but because I renewed within 30 days of the current one expiring, we saved $90 (that buys my TIW card when we get there in December). Do you have an idea of when in summer? We are going late May/early June--the girls and I that is.

Great update! You were the first person I thought of when they put Starbucks at Epcot and the MK LOL....both you and my daughter are thrilled!

Thank you, Queen. Your daughter and I have very good taste in coffee.

So sorry to hear about your brother, but I am glad that they did not put him through that procedure unnecessarily.

Thank you.

 

[KatMark]

Midway is lacking just a bit. I only fly out of there when it's absolutely necessary.

Yay! Arriving is so fun. I love the arrival to the airport, because it's the beginning of the trip. The excitement just gets you.

We only fly out of there when we get a really good deal on the airfare.

It's like you are three years ago and so giddy.

Here, finally. LOL
No pics of the muffin or coffee. I am done reading. lol
Smooth flights are the best.
Okay ready for more.

Hi, Scott...thanks for coming by. Nope, but I did get the bagel. Smooth flights are the best, and more will be coming up after dinner.

Uneventful flights are always a great thing!!! The first time I flew through Midway I thought it was wonderful, but the second time not so much. So glad arrival went smoothly, and the faux monorail is a pretty good thing........at least until you can hit the real one at WDW!

Thank you; truthfully, I'll take the faux monorail any day...at least it doesn't stall for 10, 15, 20 minutes or 90 minutes. UGH!
Thoughts and prayers for your brother.

Thank you very much.

for renewing your APs!

I never thought I'd have an AP, and now I've renewed it.

Thoughts and prayers for your brother!

Thank you very much, Ali.

Can't wait to hear all about this trip!!! Sending good thoughts for your brother!

Thank you very much...I appreciate it.

I am really let to this one. Getting ready for church and will catch up later. Just wanted to say I am here.

Thank you for being here; hope you've had a good Sunday.

prayers for your brother Kathy

Thanks, Lisa.

Okay, girl! Jumping in even though I don't know a soul. (except for the Pickles if they are here - sorry I didn't read through all the pages, just your intro) I know. I am bad. Very very bad. I saw most of your posts on Facebook and it looked like you were having the time of your lives. Can't wait to follow along.

Tracy, we are all friends here, and we are delighted to have you join us. We really had a great trip.

As always, prayers for your brother, Kat.

Thank you so much.

So sorry to read about your brother! Praying for you all!

Thanks very much.

Hooray! to renewing APs, though!!

So much fun...I am so excited about it.

Great news! I couldn't believe that they would drop one of the original sports.

Jill in CO

Jill, I never understood the decision to begin with; my wrestling family is extremely pleased with the end results.

Well, good for the wrestling news!

We are thrilled. Wrestling has been a part of my family since my baby brother wrestled in high school; then our youngest son started in fourth grade and is now a college coach. There is no tougher sport in the world.

Sorry about your brother's health troubles. Praying they find a heart for him.

Thank you so much.

 

[KatMark]

Love your reports.

and thank you.

 

[KatMark]

So I left you with us having picked up our rental car after a little bit of a wait and heading to our happy place.

We were on the road and saw some of my favorite trees:



Then we saw this:



And then we finally saw this:



We were here.

We followed the signs and before you know it, we were pulling in here:



We parked the car for check-in parking and I went to check us in while Mark walked around and took a few pictures for my DIS friends:













Our room was not ready, but it was only 1:30, so I wasn't surprised. I did ask them to doublecheck that they had my correct phone number for the text message due to the previous problems with receiving our text message that our room was ready.

Since the room wasn't ready and we were hungry, we decided to head to DTD for some lunch. So we got back in the car and headed over there.

We get this picture every year:



Our intent was to go to Earl of Sandwich for dinner, but the line was wound around four times. Nope...too hungry to wait for that. So we headed here:



Mark had not eaten here yet (we ate at the Wolfgang when it first opened over at the West End), so he was excited to try this.

We ordered our food and found a table:



We had a dinner ADR for 7 p.m., so we didn't want to eat too much, but we were hungry as I said.

My Chicken Tenders (very good!):



Mark's turkey sandwich:



Lunch was very good and hit the spot. Since we were right there, we stopped in the Christmas shop and I took a few pictures there:







And then we stopped in one more store so Mark could give all of my DIS friends just what they expect in a KatMark trip report.





Mark decided I needed a photo with a



Our browsing done, we decided to head back to OKW and hope we'd get our text soon. So, do we get a text soon and, if so, where is our room?

 

[jedijill]

Yay for finally getting on property! Love WPE...great food and a good value for a CS. It just wouldn't be a Katmark report without hat pics!

Jill in CO

 

[jenseib]

I am so glad the flight was smooth and easy.
Yay for renewing your AP's! thats always a good thing.

Looks like a yummy lunch and a good start.

 

[IheartDDuck]

It always comes down to that when you have to go Downtown and eat, doesn't it? Yup we wanted to eat at Earl of Sandwich NOPE! Lines too long.

I do love WPE though. I'm never disappointed when we eat there.

Hat pictures!

 

[GrammyJudy]

I love dtd...and the Xmas shop makes me anxious for our Dec trip. We have never stayed at okw but my brother in law who owns dvc at belt like okw the best so maybe sometime.

 

[Poolrat]

You are on property!!!!!!

Sorry Earl's line was too long. Good choice on WGE- just watch the peas...

I hope you get a text and your room is ready soon.

I almost hate to say it but OKW was the one place I got a text while still on I-4 about 30 minutes away from Disney.


Oh Kathy, I am so sorry to hear about your brother. I do hope his wait on the transplant list is a short one, and the right heart becomes available soon. :

 

[Simba22]

Yay for hat pics!

Lunch at WPE looks yummy! I do love me some chicken strips!

When we stayed there, we were in building 14 and it was a great location! But I think you said once upon a time that you like the Turtle Pond area so I'm guessing you requested a room in that area...

 

[DMGeurts]

Loved the update Kathy! I sure hope you got a text this time and also a nice room location... Tell Mark I love the hats!!!

D~

 

[KatMark]

So we left DTD, and as we were driving, I got our text. Our room was ready!

We knew when we checked in that we were in Building 14. The great guy I rent our points from had requested for us to be close to the Hospitality House this trip. This was not a deal breaker for us because we really, really like the Turtle Pond area and we had a car this entire trip and would be using it most of the time to get to the parks.

I looked at my text and saw that it was 3:45 and our room was ready. We were in Room 1432. And I thought...oh oh...Mark's not going to be happy. That room is on the 3rd floor and there are NO elevators. We had three suitcases, my carry on bag and my computer. Thankfully, we didn't shop this trip as we had ordered from Garden Grocer when we didn't think we'd have the car the whole time so at least they would be bringing the water, pop, etc. We started unpacking the car and made two trips up to our room.

I present you our location and room:



















After Bell Services came with our Garden Grocer order, we unpacked our bags and both took a shower before we headed to our first park and our first ADR.

We were headed here:



We got on the tram (Mark's first ride on a tram since they added the doors):



After reaching the TTC, we noticed that we had just missed the ferry boat and so we went to the monorail, much to my displeasure. Luckily, we only stopped once for a brief time and we were arriving at our destination.



We stopped for a photopass picture (I'll have to post those later...we are waiting on one more person to do their edits and then our group leader can order the CD and make the copies). But like any good DISer, I took a picture of my PP card:



And had our first view of the Castle:



We looked in some windows:





Up next, our ADR and a few rides before we call it a night.

 

[Millie12591]

Ms. Kat!!! I finally got my hiney over here!!


The trip sounds like it's starting off well!!

Sorry your airport doesn't have a Starbucks, I thought it was like airport law or something that you have to have a Starbucks in order to be thought of as a real airport.

So nice to have a car, I learned that with Ms. Jill. It's so nice to be in a car and not waiting on the bus. Although, I'm very grateful for being able to use the buses on property, especially when we can't fit in the cost of a rental car.

I sure hope they send you a text this time!! Hoping your room local is a good one.

Heeeey, you didn't get your yummy drink that you normally get when you're in DTD. Too early?

Glad you enjoyed WGPE, and there were no peas to sully your meals. Huh, Pat?

 

[IheartDDuck]

You're all cracking on the updates my friend!

Yay that your room was ready! I hate the wait. I've actually typically been pretty lucky that our rooms are ready. This year they weren't, so we had to do the waiting game.

Magic Kingdom! Great first park.

 

[Simba22]

We knew when we checked in that we were in Building 14. The great guy I rent our points from had requested for us to be close to the Hospitality House this trip. This was not a deal breaker for us because we really, really like the Turtle Pond area and we had a car this entire trip and would be using it most of the time to get to the parks.

Ha! What a coinky-dink! Building 14 is a GREAT spot! My sister was on the 3rd floor when we stayed...I can't remember the room number though!

 

[jenseib]

Yay for the magic Kingdom!!!!!! That is a great first park

 

[MaryAz]

Hurray for the room being ready on time!! Yummy WPE!! Whooo Hooo Mk!!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

How nice that your room was ready before you had to go to your ADR!
When we stayed at OKW, we had just left to go to Epcot and got the text. We turned around and unloaded!
I want to say our room was 1532 or something near there.

We love WPE!

Ooh, where are we having dinner?