Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Disney Trip Report: Day 1

I don't promise to get all of them done, let alone done in this
detail, but here's a start!

Day 1

Woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. Alarm was set for
4:15 anyways to get hubby up and moving, so I just got up and futzed
around on the computer for a while. Posted on FB that I was up,
excited and ready to go. Had a good friend who works nights respond
with a WTF? What are you up for at this time of night and why are you
so happy about it? *GRIN*

Getting to the airport was quick, easy and painless. Checkin was the
same. Had a quick laugh when I saw security unpacking the bag we'd
checked that was full of very squished pillows. I hope they had fun
stuffing them back in! We had boarding passes A60 and B1 so we
settled in for the wait, and I finally had a little breakfast there.
I was a little nervous leaving Brian behind as I boarded (I'd been
assigned the A60 pass) and hoped he'd make it okay having to talk
himself onto the plane without my "helping hand" behind his back
pushing him onwards. Got on the plane and was astounded to find the
exit row still unoccupied. SCORE! Waited through family boarding,
and then Brian came through like a champ. He was also thrilled with
the seats. We knew it was a full flight, so he opted for the middle
seat and I took the window. The flight was generically boring,
except for getting to fly alongside the tropical storm. That was neat
to look at but even as far off as we were it did cause some
turbulence. Brian looked a little green but did okay. He declared he
preferred that to flying over the hurricane last year! We landed 35
minutes early in Orlando! Off the plane and on the DME bus before we
even were supposed to land!

We'd done the online advance checkin, so once the DME bus got to the
hotel I left Brian to grab our carryon bags from the bottom of the bus
and I hotfooted it to the check-in lines. I managed to be first off
our bus into the line and was happy later when I saw the 30+ people
behind me just for online check-in by the time I was called. Our
package was ready for pickup, they'd honoured our request for a top
floor 50's room, and though there was a slight mixup over the fridge,
it was easily and quickly sorted out. Best part was our room was
already ready for us. I wouldn't have to haul the giant laptop bag to
the park and stash my laptop in a hot locker all day. Wohoo! We
found our room and wow had we lucked out. One room closer to the
front and we'd have been in the "preferred" (and thus more expensive)
rooms. Colour me happy! Ditched our stuff, applied an extra coat of
sunscreen and we were off to the Magic Kingdom!


Arrived at the gates to the Magic Kingdom at 10:45am! Plan at first
was to just hit our favourites, adjusting depending on lines. Hopped
the steam train over to Frontierland. Wait for Splash Mountain was 20
mins, so we grabbed FP's for BTMRR and headed to get wet. After
getting mildly splashed (but the wait was longer than we wanted to go
around again) we headed for PotC, over to Aloha Isle for a Dole Whip
and off on a Jungle Cruise. Our FP's were now ready, so off to BTMRR
grabbing FP's for Splash Mountain on the way. By now it was ~1pm and
we were getting hungry, and I think this was the day we tried Pecos
Bill's. I wish I'd realized when ordering that we could "make our
own" taco salads, I'd have ordered that! I had a burger which was
only so-so, Brian had the pulled pork and enjoyed it. After sitting
down to eat lunch, the early morning hit us both and we crashed. So
back to the room for us and a no guilt nap (for Brian at least) in the
AC.

We were back up and running by about 4:30 and headed back to the MK.
Used the earlier FP's for Splash Mountain to get wet then headed for
the Haunted Mansion, grabbing BTMRR FP's for later.

We were hungry for dinner, so off to Cosmic Rays for Chicken and Ribs,
our favourite meal in the MK. Discover that TTC was still down for
repairs despite being supposed to reopen today. Oh well, we've
another 10 days left! During dinner, the skies opened up and it
poured as only South Florida can. Except that unlike in past years,
it kept pouring! Did some shopping in the stores around Cosmic Rays
and rode Buzz Lightyear. My blaster was broken, but Brian's score was
respectable. After about 90 mins of pouring down rain we decided to
just head back early and call it a night. We had plenty more time to
do it all and see it all. I worked VERY hard this trip to overcome my
Type A go-go-go personality and slow down and take things as they
come. Off to the hotel by bus, during which, of course, it stopped
raining. So a quick dip in the pool (in which I actually got *cold*)
and off to bed.

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