Nascfan
06-28-2008, 09:50 PM
Cast: Me - 42, Wife Kathy - 42, Daughter Lauren - 16
Dates - June 13 - June 21
I thought of the tag line about halfway through the trip, coinciding with the Castle Forcourt show and how many of my and my family's dreams came true this trip. Not from the Dream Squad, but our own personal dreams. In Walt Disney World, magic really does happen, and dreams really do come true.
Day 1 - Friday the thirteenth.
What were we thinking? Flying on Friday the thirteenth? Well, us and about everybody else in the United States it seemed. Haha!
We were up very early for the drive to Detroit and our 7:00 am flight. It sure does beat driving through the night to get down to Florida though. It took a lot of convincing to get Kathy on a plane, but since we booked flights in November, and with what happened to gas and flight prices since then, I look like a genius! She actually did very well for her first flight, convincing herself over and over on takeoff that we were just on a big, fast bus. SOMEONE (my dear brother-in-law) got hold of the flight crew and it was announced part way through the flight that this was for our 20th anniversary and my wife's first flight. So we got two bottles of wine and she got a certificate signed by the captain. It was a nice smooth flight.
The wait for the DME bus was pretty much non-existant and when we got to Pop, we were pleasantly surprised that they had a room ready for us! 50s building (jukebox) 2nd floor, Epcot (lakeish) side, room 2257 to be exact. Although it wasn't high enough to see the ball from there, we had "been there done that" on a previous trip and we found we REALLY like the 2nd floor, especially after a long day at the parks. That side of the resort is very quiet and peaceful, a bit of a welcome break from the hustle and bustle. We highly recommend it. We grabbed mugs, which are $12.49 each, I don't know who to contact at Intercot about the prices. I know Info Central has them at $11.99 and it's not a big difference, but want to let someone know. If a mod reads this, could you let the appropriate person know for me? They are a GREAT deal for us, no matter what. I think we probably filled up at least 40 times during the 9 days, no exaggeration. We then dropped off our carry-ons and headed for the bus to DTD for lunch at Earl of Sandwich and an afternoon of shopping.
At Earl, we split a Club and an Earl, which were both very good, although they could have used a touch more sauce, that's the only thing I'd say could be improved with that. After finding some treasures to purchase, and taking advantage of resort delivery (GREAT service), we went back to the room and bibbidy bobbidy boo, wouldn't you know it, our luggage had magically appeared! DME, the ONLY way to travel!
So we freshened up a bit and headed to Epcot for our first park. Aaaah, to be home and in the parks again, dream come true. :cloud9:
We stopped at Electric Umbrella for a light supper, split a hamburger meal between Kathy and myself while Lauren found her new favorite, the kids mac and cheese from there. We enjoyed some attractions including Imagination with Figment (cute - first time on that) and Living With The Land (also first time) and both those were walk-ons. In fact, Epcot was very uncharacteristically un-crowded for the summer, which I think we realized later would be because of SWW at Studios. We checked out Mousegears, rode both Mission Spaces, green with all three of us for Kathy. She enjoyed it, but said that was quite enough for her, no desire to do the Orange. Lauren and I were up for it though, so we got right back on and did the Orange. This was Lauren's first experience with it and she loved it! What a sensation when you blast off! What a ride! We took a spin in our test car on Test Track with minimal wait, and then hopped, skipped, and jumped over to Maelstrom. There was a little bit of a wait for this, but it gave us a chance to really look at and discover things in the mural. It was approaching Illuminations time and we didn't want to get caught in the crowd, although we could tell it was light as there were still spots right along the railing surrounding the lagoon. We walked onto Spaceship Earth, and were very pleased with the rehab. This would continue throughout the trip as we thought all the rehabs were very well done. The animatronics are very well done and lifelike, and they kept the integrity of Rome burning and such like that. We also really enjoyed "building your own future" as we descended back to earth. It was a neat thing to occupy the time for the "return trip".
We left the park just as Illuminations was getting warmed up so we beat the crowds back to the bus and collapsed happily, sleepily, into bed for our first night back "home".
Dates - June 13 - June 21
I thought of the tag line about halfway through the trip, coinciding with the Castle Forcourt show and how many of my and my family's dreams came true this trip. Not from the Dream Squad, but our own personal dreams. In Walt Disney World, magic really does happen, and dreams really do come true.
Day 1 - Friday the thirteenth.
What were we thinking? Flying on Friday the thirteenth? Well, us and about everybody else in the United States it seemed. Haha!
We were up very early for the drive to Detroit and our 7:00 am flight. It sure does beat driving through the night to get down to Florida though. It took a lot of convincing to get Kathy on a plane, but since we booked flights in November, and with what happened to gas and flight prices since then, I look like a genius! She actually did very well for her first flight, convincing herself over and over on takeoff that we were just on a big, fast bus. SOMEONE (my dear brother-in-law) got hold of the flight crew and it was announced part way through the flight that this was for our 20th anniversary and my wife's first flight. So we got two bottles of wine and she got a certificate signed by the captain. It was a nice smooth flight.
The wait for the DME bus was pretty much non-existant and when we got to Pop, we were pleasantly surprised that they had a room ready for us! 50s building (jukebox) 2nd floor, Epcot (lakeish) side, room 2257 to be exact. Although it wasn't high enough to see the ball from there, we had "been there done that" on a previous trip and we found we REALLY like the 2nd floor, especially after a long day at the parks. That side of the resort is very quiet and peaceful, a bit of a welcome break from the hustle and bustle. We highly recommend it. We grabbed mugs, which are $12.49 each, I don't know who to contact at Intercot about the prices. I know Info Central has them at $11.99 and it's not a big difference, but want to let someone know. If a mod reads this, could you let the appropriate person know for me? They are a GREAT deal for us, no matter what. I think we probably filled up at least 40 times during the 9 days, no exaggeration. We then dropped off our carry-ons and headed for the bus to DTD for lunch at Earl of Sandwich and an afternoon of shopping.
At Earl, we split a Club and an Earl, which were both very good, although they could have used a touch more sauce, that's the only thing I'd say could be improved with that. After finding some treasures to purchase, and taking advantage of resort delivery (GREAT service), we went back to the room and bibbidy bobbidy boo, wouldn't you know it, our luggage had magically appeared! DME, the ONLY way to travel!
So we freshened up a bit and headed to Epcot for our first park. Aaaah, to be home and in the parks again, dream come true. :cloud9:
We stopped at Electric Umbrella for a light supper, split a hamburger meal between Kathy and myself while Lauren found her new favorite, the kids mac and cheese from there. We enjoyed some attractions including Imagination with Figment (cute - first time on that) and Living With The Land (also first time) and both those were walk-ons. In fact, Epcot was very uncharacteristically un-crowded for the summer, which I think we realized later would be because of SWW at Studios. We checked out Mousegears, rode both Mission Spaces, green with all three of us for Kathy. She enjoyed it, but said that was quite enough for her, no desire to do the Orange. Lauren and I were up for it though, so we got right back on and did the Orange. This was Lauren's first experience with it and she loved it! What a sensation when you blast off! What a ride! We took a spin in our test car on Test Track with minimal wait, and then hopped, skipped, and jumped over to Maelstrom. There was a little bit of a wait for this, but it gave us a chance to really look at and discover things in the mural. It was approaching Illuminations time and we didn't want to get caught in the crowd, although we could tell it was light as there were still spots right along the railing surrounding the lagoon. We walked onto Spaceship Earth, and were very pleased with the rehab. This would continue throughout the trip as we thought all the rehabs were very well done. The animatronics are very well done and lifelike, and they kept the integrity of Rome burning and such like that. We also really enjoyed "building your own future" as we descended back to earth. It was a neat thing to occupy the time for the "return trip".
We left the park just as Illuminations was getting warmed up so we beat the crowds back to the bus and collapsed happily, sleepily, into bed for our first night back "home".