You left WHAT in Jacksonville?! Where Walt's Dream Met Murphy's Law UPDATED 9/23 Ch 5

[Tigger822]

Chapter 1 -- Setting the Scene and Introducing Your Leads

DISCLAIMER: When you read this particular TR it will assist you to keep in mind that while the folks writing this are as much fans of the WDW experience as you are, we are still amateurs at the park, considering we only have two visits as a pair. Therefore, when the wonderment is expressed at something you have actually seen 85 times and is no big freaking deal to you, please bear our relative inexperience in mind and we will do our best to entertain. Thank you!

Good day, fellow DISBoarders! Allow me to introduce ourselves. I am Stitch727, otherwise known as Josh (age 38) and my DW, Lisa (35), is better known to some of you as Tigger822.

We live in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (don't ask me to pronounce it, I live here and I don't consider getting it right important). My DW is working her way up to sainthood by teaching a class of three- and four-year-olds in a preschool in (somewhat) nearby Brecksville, whilst I subsist by working as a file clerk in an accounting office for a telemarketing firm (I can't be making that up, I couldn't write a job that boring at gunpoint).

Lisa and I have been through some major hoops trying to get down to WDW. When we were planning on getting married, she wanted to hold the wedding down there, but 9/11, the tenets of marriage in the Catholic Church and various other factors conspired against that happening. Then, once the wedding got set up, she wanted us to honeymoon there, but simple financial trouble shot that down.

That was seven years ago. Only LAST YEAR (December 2008) did all the factors come together to allow us to go together. And my thick-headed frugality very nearly ruined that trip as well. Only through the generosity and stupidity of the Federal government (Stimulus I) and $631 I won from a game show did we gather the needed funds for the trip last time. On top of that, she had to convince me of the merits of the Disney dining plan or we would have been eating hamburgers and chicken nuggets the whole trip. That trip taught me never to question her wisdom in this particular area again.

Fair warning: I'll probably be referring to that trip last year as well... again, amateurs and first-time TR writers, don't hold that against us.

While Lisa has been to WDW on many occasions as well as growing up visiting Disneyland annually as a youngster, I had only ever been to any Disney park twice in my life (both WDW) and my last visit prior to 2008 had been the year Epcot opened. It took a little convincing and arm-twisting on Lisa's part to get me to a point where I wanted to go, but she swept me up in the planning (which wasn't that hard since I was working out paying for it). Once I went and realized the way I actually got to relax and escape reality (a constant goal for a cartoon- and videogame-lover such as myself), it was obvious that we had to find a way to make this an annual thing.

However, usually for more than one reason, even the simplest things are always an adventure for us...

Some Pics of that 2008 Trip as Unfortunatly the pics from this one don't start till we get to disney.

Hi Fellow Disers I know we have been away we had to cancel our 2010 trip to the world and it made me very sad to be on thew Disboards. How ever we have made plans to go in Nov 2011 Happy Dance We will have an update soon! Lisa and Josh
Chapter Links

Chapter 2 Getting there is much less than half the fun.
Chapter 3 Where Our Title Came From Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Chapter 4 To Rope Drop or Not to Rope Drop that is the Question?Part 1Part 2Part 2.5
Chapter 5 Even in the Future there is Murphy's Law

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Great start, joining your pary

 

[Tigger822]

Thanks! Nice to have visitors.
Lisa

 

[Tigger822]

Chapter 2 -- Getting There is Much Less Than Half the Fun

We had so much fun over our week last year that we were going to try and make this one last two weeks. Boy, does financial reality hurt when it slaps you in the face.

We wound up trimming down our reservations to 8 days, but thanks to Lisa's painstaking Disney scheduling skills and her accuracy with a bullwhip, we still got to hit every park at least once (most twice) as well as Downtown Disney with time to spare.

In all of Lisa's visits to the World, she had never gotten to see it at Christmastime. That's why she made the decision that our trip last year (and consequently this year) should be in early December, just after Thanksgiving. Once she showed me how much cheaper the rates were and how the crowds were usually lighter, the crowd-hating cheapskate she married signed on.

We drove down last year due to a number of personal factors and since none of those factors changed much over the past year, we decided to do it again this year. We had a brilliant plan -- we would drive to my parents in Gettysburg, PA for Thanksgiving, stuff ourselves silly Thursday, relax Friday and head out early Saturday morning. We would drive as far we possibly could, crash in a motel Saturday night and complete the trip and start our reservations Sunday. Last year's trip down was its own adventure (who knew Florida had a monsoon season?) but I've digressed enough on that subject already.

We had Thanksgiving this year with my step-brother and his family and we had a wonderful time. Trust me, I could have provided more than enough food porn from the spread they set out for us. On Friday, we made our preparations -- a cooler with sandwiches and Diet Coke, doing the laundry to provide us with enough clean clothes so as not to scare small children by running around the World naked -- you know the drill.

Around 7am Saturday, we took off. By 10 or 11 am we had gotten around the Wipeout-like obstacle course known as the DC Beltway and settled ourselves in on I-95 at a cruising speed of 75 miles per hour. After Virginia, we entered into the Carolinas.

Anyone from our corner of the universe who has driven this route will know how much fun this was. I would love to say, right here and now, that North and South Carolina are absolutely beautiful states with wonderful sights to offer the weary traveler. I would love to say that, but I can't, since pretty much all we saw of both states were trees blocking out everything else. It took three cans of Diet Coke to keep me from being bored to dreamland by nothing but thousands...and thousands...and thousands more TREES.

One fun break we did take in the Carolinas was at a huge outlet market called JR's in the middle of NC. This place was MASSIVE -- I needed to handcuff Lisa to me so we wouldn't get lost. They had practially EVERYTHING there and at huge discounts. We had seen signs for this place for miles and since it was more than halfway through NC, I figured it would make a good place for a toilet break. A five-minute toilet break turned into a good 45-minute exploring session. Fortunately, we had our finances all figured and knew we didn't have a whole lot of leeway for non-park expenditures, so we were able to logically (but not very easily) limit our spending to a $5 pair of sunglasses for me. Of course, the sunglasses served very little immediate purpose since within a couple of hours, the sun was behind the wall of trees.

After over 6 hours of touring the woodpecker's buffet, we got to Georgia which told me we had covered significantly more than half our trip and we were well over the hump. Good thing, too, become the hump we were over had been growing in my back the whole time. I was glad we were planning on stopping in Jacksonville that night, just over the Florida border, because I thought would have been turned into a question mark by the time we got to Disney and I had little interest in needing a wheelchair to enjoy the park.

Around 9pm, we reached the Red Roof Inn north of Jacksonville that serves the airport. Last year, we stopped at a Red Roof in Savannah and had a horrible experience, but this time went wonderfully -- a clean room, a quiet hotel, everything was great -- for about an hour. It was only then that I realized that after an hour's rest, my back was feeling just fine and I could just as easily have made the remaining three hours to Orlando that night. In the immortal words of that great philosopher Charlie Brown -- AAAAUUUGGHHHHH!!! However, we rationalized, we probably would have had a more difficult time finding both a room and a reasonable rate nearer to Orlando. This did embolden me, however, to attempt to make the trip all in one move next time.

Two chapters and I haven't even gotten to the park yet: boy, if you're still reading, I'm a better writer than I thought. Trust me, I swear the next stop is Disney property....

More Pics of 2008 (Sorry I don't have any Pics of this trip until We get to Disney)

 

[smidgy]

great start, and welcome!

I love the hump in the back reference!

in the future, know that rooms in kissimmee are cheap (esp if you stop at the florida welcome center and get those motel coupln books ) the motel 6, east gate : with coupn we have stayed there for $19 and $24!. there is a Mcdonalds in front, as well as a chinese buffet, and Old Town in across the street (as well as a pizza hut, burger king, etcc0) the next Am you take the sherbeth road back entrance to WDW and at at your resort as early as you like!

can't wait to hear what YOU forgot (hubby Nebo has a TR now where he forgot something imp.)

don't you just love christmas at disney?

 

[Tigger822]

Thanks for the advice and thanks for reading.
Now I have to figure out how to link this post to the first. Yeah!! DH knew how!!
Yes Christmas time is Wonderful!!
Lisa

 

[JacksLilWench]

Joining in! Can't wait to hear more

 

[MEK]

OK - the title pulled me right in. Off to a great start. I am so impressed that you got from somewhere in PA to Jacksonville in 14 hours. It took me almost that long to drive to the OBX a couple weekends ago (OK - I exaggerate, but it did take a heck of a long time)

I have never to Florida, but in case I ever do, thanks for the warning about the multitude of trees and boredom.

 

[Tigger822]

Joining in! Can't wait to hear more

Hi Thanks for reading

OK - the title pulled me right in. Off to a great start. I am so impressed that you got from somewhere in PA to Jacksonville in 14 hours. It took me almost that long to drive to the OBX a couple weekends ago (OK - I exaggerate, but it did take a heck of a long time)

I have never to Florida, but in case I ever do, thanks for the warning about the multitude of trees and boredom.

Hi Thanks for joining us

 

[RigLee]

Your title drew me in, I'm telling you, Murphys law is hard to break.
This trip report so far is interesting and fun to read, I can only imagine what it will be like once you start telling of your park adventures.

 

[Tigger822]

Your title drew me in, I'm telling you, Murphys law is hard to break.
This trip report so far is interesting and fun to read, I can only imagine what it will be like once you start telling of your park adventures.

Thanks! Yeah Murphys Law is great
adding another post today!

 

[Tigger822]

Sorry Life got in the way.
Had to go out of town.
New update next promise.
Lisa

 

[Tigger822]

Chapter 3 -- Where Our Title Came From

When last we left our intrepid heroes, we had stopped in Jacksonville at the Red Roof for the night. That morning, we were up and rolling by around 9am, stopping at Mickey D's for an on-the-road breakfast. Grease is a food group now, I think.

A touch over three hours later we cruised through those magic gates!

We headed for the Pop Century and got our room keys and all the things that came with it. Our room was ready early... I guess magic really can happen at Disney. The luster was lost, however, when we got a clearer picture of where we were on the grounds. We were in the 50's buildings, building 3, which was one nasty walk away from the main building (exercise before breakfast -- yippee) and a long unleisurely hike from the car with all our stuff -- well, ALMOST all our stuff. You'll hear about that later. We were also on the far corner of the building away from the elevators.
You'd think I would consider all this walking a warmup for the next week, but I was still not in my most positive mode yet.

After hauling our stuff up and getting quickly settled in, Lisa's plan was for us to spend the afternoon touring AK before our dinner reservations at 6 that night. She had wanted us to visit AK last year as well but we just didn't have the time, so I resolved that I would make the time for us there this trip. We headed back to the main building (ANOTHER long walk) to catch the bus.

It was during this walk that Lisa first noted how she didn't like the inner court design like we had last year at ASM. Our buildings featured Lady and the Tramp as well as the 50s motif, and had the bowling-pin shaped pool and all the extras as well as what looked like a doghouse, but there were so many trees blocking the view of pretty much all of it that there wasn't a good picture to be had!
Mine:

Not Mine:

See a difference. I have Pics of the hotel they just stink (too much greenery) so I borrowed so you would have a clearer view.

Inside:

Food Court:

We finished our hike, hopped on the bus and headed for AK.

As I stated before, Lisa had been here repeatedly but this was my first time there and frankly, I wasn't sure what I would get out of it. Normally, I avoid the outdoors -- my idea of roughing it means no cable -- but she recommended the park so I went along with it. On our way in, we met a Photopass man who took our picture

being very surprised at a present in our hands.

Also, we ran into PPers with Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and Meeko just outside the entrance and indulged.

As we entered, Lisa suggested we drop off our backpack and extras in a locker so we weren't hauling it all around. Imagine our surprise (or shock or disgust, whatever term you think fits) when we find out that the price for a locker is TWELVE DOLLARS, plus another five dollar deposit that they magnanimously give back to you when you return for your stuff. 12 bucks for a locker? I'll carry my stuff for that price, thanks.

I am going to split this post. Be back in a minute with more!

 

[Tigger822]

Ok more of chapter three.

Once inside the park, it was getting late for lunch and since I'm hypoglycemic, we figured we should eat first before jumping into anything too involved. Fortunately for us we happened quickly upon the Flame Tree BBQ,

which was perfect. I've found that chicken gets my sugar back up very nicely, so we each grabbed a barbecued half-chicken, waited until someone was getting up (it was crowded in there that day) and pounced. Law of the jungle -- seemed appropriate. I spent most of my lunch surrounded by wild birds -- the ducks just seemed to love me for some odd reason, even though I was eating one of their distant relatives.

One of our key goals was to score video of as many parades and fireworks shows as possible, so we planned to find a good spot for the Jammin Jingle Jungle Parade at 3:45. It was around 2:45 then, so we had a little time to kill (never say that phrase too loudly in a jungle BTW) and we saw the line for the Kilimanjaro Safaris. This sounded like fun -- I can live with the outdoors much more easily if somebody's driving me around in it -- so we jumped in line and were on in about 20 minutes.

This was actually quite enjoyable -- Lisa got her own pictures and I shot some VERY amateur video of the whole thing. It was a very interesting experience, and I might do it again next time so I can just watch the scenery and animals as opposed to trying to catch everything on video. When we came out we asked the CM by the entrance where was the best place to catch the parade. She pointed to the doors not twenty feet from where we were standing and said the parade comes out from there. We perched in our spots, Lisa (all 4'11" of her) in front of me and me shooting over her head. Again, surprisingly, I really enjoyed this parade, and if the rest of AK is like this, I think I'll want to take some more time here next trip.

Safari Pics:

Parade Pics:

We would have explored more, but our 6pm dinner reservations were at Planet Hollywood, so once the parade wrapped up and the crowd thinned, we started making our way back to the bus stops to make sure we would get there in time.

Stay tuned!!

 

[RigLee]

. I spent most of my lunch surrounded by wild birds -- the ducks just seemed to love me for some odd reason, even though I was eating one of their distant relatives.

Stay tuned!!

That is so funny. I always feel so bad when I am grilling chicken outside and my chickens are around (they're for eggs only, I don't eat my own chickens)

 

[MEK]

Glad you ended up enjoying AK. I wish I could see your pics but I am on a restricted computer. Will check back later tonight!

 

[jc040404]

I'm here!! Loving this so far, too! I love the pic of Stitch coming out of the present. I've never seen that one before anywhere! My boys would nuts over it. I think we need to try more WDW at Christmas after seeing this. Love the parade pics!!

Can't wait for more!!

 

[Tigger822]

I'm here!! Loving this so far, too! I love the pic of Stitch coming out of the present. I've never seen that one before anywhere! My boys would nuts over it. I think we need to try more WDW at Christmas after seeing this. Love the parade pics!!

Can't wait for more!!

Hi glad to see you!
The Present pic was in front of the Big Christmas tree at AK you have to ask for it. Not all the Photopass Photographers know how to do them for some reason?
I'm at work so I can't post any pics But I do hope to have another Update tonight, Maybe we'll even find out what was left in Jacksonville!!
Have a great Windsday Everybody!

Lisa:
Now I have to go catch up on some other trip reports.

 

[Tigger822]

Sorry everybody just got home from my mom's for my birthday dinner and unfortunately wont be home tomorrow until late I will have to update on Sat.
Lisa

 

[Tigger822]

Just before leaving, we stopped at the hat rack outside the entrance and goofed around with the headgear.

We also asked another CM if there was a faster way to get to DTD than bussing back to the hotel and waiting to catch a second bus. He suggested we take the bus to Saratoga Springs, then take the boat from there to DTD.

Not a bad idea. Not a good one either.

We had to hike all the way across Saratoga Springs, asking four or five different CM's which way to go until we finally got to the pier. At this point we were getting a little worried about getting there in time, but we figured if the boat took us right over, we would be fine. Except the boat headed the wrong way -- it went down and stopped at the Treehouse Villa pier where no one got on. Then we returned to the original pier, where we waited for no one -- until the second we were about to leave and then a bunch showed up. Our boat captain then told us that we would have to disembark to get any further into DTD, then we finally hauled around and headed for DTD. Nothing like nick-of-time action for two planners like us.


We just barely got to Planet Hollywood in time for our reservations, and even though the food took a while, the ambience there could take days to absorb. I love the movies (which is why I was so excited about getting the video camera for this trip) so I was just fine.

Then the food came. LA lasagna for me

and shrimp caesar salad for Lisa. Oh my stars and garters -- this was FANTASTIC. I was mmm'ing and oooh'ing with every bite. It filled me to the brim, but since we were on the dining plan, dessert was included, and I just couldn't refuse it -- that would have been both rude and stupid. Strawberry cheesecake -- oh gee, twist my arm. We boxed up our desserts and started the long and very full walk back to the bus stop.

Once back at PC, Lisa decided we should stop in the food court, fill our drink mugs and we could eat the desserts there before heading back to our room. Only once I finished my cheesecake did I realize the mistake I had made. I had definitely overeaten on that meal, but I figured, "Hey I'm on vacation. Besides, I can usually sleep this off."
Remember how I said earlier how we had ALMOST all our stuff?
Well, when we got back to the room, Lisa discovered that
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*






*






*






*
her purse and another item were not there (she had transferred much of her stuff to a smaller bag for walking around the parks). I trekked back to the car and it wasn't there either. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what had happened. We had only been in one other place that day.

We had left her purse







at the Red Roof Inn.






In Jacksonville.






Three hours away.






And we discovered this at almost 10pm.







I called the hotel back and asked if it had been found and they told me it had. I wanted to wait until tomorrow to go get it, but Lisa's carefully-laid plans involved us being at DHS at rope drop tomorrow. If we waited any longer, we ran the risk of losing it altogether. We trudged out to the car, put gas in the tank at $3.10 a gallon (if they're going to rob me at a gas station, can't they use a ski mask and a gun like everyone else?) and drove all the way back. We got to the Red Roof after midnight, picked up the purse, and drove back, my stomach kicking me for overeating earlier the whole way. Lisa insisted on coming with me -- she didn't think it was fair for just me to have to make the six hour trip alone.

We finally got back to PC around 3am, hiked all the way back to our rooms and crashed. Rope Drop the next day? Not gonna happen.