McGoofy
09-11-2008, 10:19 AM
The cast:
McGoofy, DH, and DS
Dates...supposed to have been 9/4-9/6/08, then almost got cancelled, then ended up being 9/3-9/6/08.
Here is our nutty story:
My DH and I had a trip for 2 planned just to zip down to WDW really quickly for Night of Joy weekend. DS had school and was going to stay with friends of ours while we were gone. The NOJ weekend was a random trip that just became a possibility not too long ago, and a family trip that we have planned a long time ago falls on its heels in just a few weeks. DS knows that trip is coming up, so he wasn't too disappointed about mom and dad scooting down to WDW for a couple of days.
Originally, we were going to leave on Thursday after dropping DS off at school and then head down to the world. Then ole Hurricane Hanna threatened to blow into our town. As a nurse at a hospital, I am required to be on a disaster team every year. I got a phone call from the boss at work on Tuesday saying that we were going to go into disaster mode probably Thursday and that I was on Team "A" and was expected to be there. That means we have to be there until the storm is over and it is safe for Team B to come in and relieve us. So who knows how long that I would be stuck at the hospital. DH and I started making plans to have to cancel everything. He even called Disney and asked about refunds since we were under the 5 day mark. Disney was so accomodating. They told us that if it was because of an emergency disaster mode, they would gladly refund our deposits as well as the money we spent on NOJ tickets. That made me feel a little better. By Wednesday, it wasn't looking too threatening and that it may not even hit Charleston, SC, so I called my boss and she told me just to go ahead and go through with my plans, and if need be, I could come back on Saturday night as part of Team B. I was okay with that. Now at this point, they were saying that Charleston County schools were going to be closed on Friday due to the storm. We figured it was bad parenting skills to still leave DS with friends with a potential storm brewing into town. So we just decided at that point to take DS with us. With all of the storm nonsense going on, DH said on Wednesday afternoon, "Do you just want to leave now?" Ummm....do you really need to twist my arm to go to WDW??? :-) Not to mention, I didn't want to give anybody at the hospital a chance to change thier mind and call me into work! So by 2:30pm, we had the car loaded, picked DS up from school and asked him if he wanted to go to WDW. DS just got this bewildered look on his face. DH told him that we changed our plans and that he was going with us, plus we were leaving right then, a whole day early. I think he was grinning from ear to ear for a few hours down the road as it was a complete surprise! We got to Orlando about 10pm and stayed at a Fairfield Inn near Downtown Disney. We checked into Wilderness Lodge the next day. Would you believe they upgraded us from a standard view room to a lake view room?! We could see the WL boats going to MK/Ft. Wilderness from our room! Later, we went into the parks. First, we went to Animal Kingdom. There wasn't a soul there!!! I have a photo of us walking toward Dinoland, and I think DS is the only person in the picture as you look down the entire path. The standby wait time at Expedition Everest was 5 minutes!! (less than that I think once we got in the line.) We covered everything we wanted to do at AK in half a day. Then we went over to MK--same thing--no crowds. I have a pic of DS giving a thumbs up because there was nobody there when we got over to Tomorrowland. We rode Space Mountain a few times in row because the wait was only about 5 minutes in the standby line. I also have a picture of Big Thunder where DS is the only one on the train. He was sitting in front of us, and one other couple was sitting behind us. Crazy!! We seriously covered everything we wanted to do by 3pm. I was just blown away at the fact that there was hardly anybody at the parks. We came back to WL for a swim. After that, DH and I decided to keep our reservation for 2 at Artist's Point. We left DS in our WL room with pizza and a cell phone. He was quite excited to stay in the room and watch the Disney Channel. After dinner, we collected our child and went to Downtown Disney. This was our first and only chance ever that we had to enjoy Pleasure Island before it closes. Friday night we did go to Night of Joy. We really enjoyed that. The concerts were really good. Saturday morning, we went back to DHS to ride a few rides and enjoy a peanut butter and jelly milkshake before heading home. This was absolutely one whirlwind of a trip!
Click here for PICS of our days at empty parks: (http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566649395ZyWCVv)
We covered 4 parks and Downtown Disney in just 2 1/2 days thanks to the low park attendance! I could get used to that!:mickey:
McGoofy, DH, and DS
Dates...supposed to have been 9/4-9/6/08, then almost got cancelled, then ended up being 9/3-9/6/08.
Here is our nutty story:
My DH and I had a trip for 2 planned just to zip down to WDW really quickly for Night of Joy weekend. DS had school and was going to stay with friends of ours while we were gone. The NOJ weekend was a random trip that just became a possibility not too long ago, and a family trip that we have planned a long time ago falls on its heels in just a few weeks. DS knows that trip is coming up, so he wasn't too disappointed about mom and dad scooting down to WDW for a couple of days.
Originally, we were going to leave on Thursday after dropping DS off at school and then head down to the world. Then ole Hurricane Hanna threatened to blow into our town. As a nurse at a hospital, I am required to be on a disaster team every year. I got a phone call from the boss at work on Tuesday saying that we were going to go into disaster mode probably Thursday and that I was on Team "A" and was expected to be there. That means we have to be there until the storm is over and it is safe for Team B to come in and relieve us. So who knows how long that I would be stuck at the hospital. DH and I started making plans to have to cancel everything. He even called Disney and asked about refunds since we were under the 5 day mark. Disney was so accomodating. They told us that if it was because of an emergency disaster mode, they would gladly refund our deposits as well as the money we spent on NOJ tickets. That made me feel a little better. By Wednesday, it wasn't looking too threatening and that it may not even hit Charleston, SC, so I called my boss and she told me just to go ahead and go through with my plans, and if need be, I could come back on Saturday night as part of Team B. I was okay with that. Now at this point, they were saying that Charleston County schools were going to be closed on Friday due to the storm. We figured it was bad parenting skills to still leave DS with friends with a potential storm brewing into town. So we just decided at that point to take DS with us. With all of the storm nonsense going on, DH said on Wednesday afternoon, "Do you just want to leave now?" Ummm....do you really need to twist my arm to go to WDW??? :-) Not to mention, I didn't want to give anybody at the hospital a chance to change thier mind and call me into work! So by 2:30pm, we had the car loaded, picked DS up from school and asked him if he wanted to go to WDW. DS just got this bewildered look on his face. DH told him that we changed our plans and that he was going with us, plus we were leaving right then, a whole day early. I think he was grinning from ear to ear for a few hours down the road as it was a complete surprise! We got to Orlando about 10pm and stayed at a Fairfield Inn near Downtown Disney. We checked into Wilderness Lodge the next day. Would you believe they upgraded us from a standard view room to a lake view room?! We could see the WL boats going to MK/Ft. Wilderness from our room! Later, we went into the parks. First, we went to Animal Kingdom. There wasn't a soul there!!! I have a photo of us walking toward Dinoland, and I think DS is the only person in the picture as you look down the entire path. The standby wait time at Expedition Everest was 5 minutes!! (less than that I think once we got in the line.) We covered everything we wanted to do at AK in half a day. Then we went over to MK--same thing--no crowds. I have a pic of DS giving a thumbs up because there was nobody there when we got over to Tomorrowland. We rode Space Mountain a few times in row because the wait was only about 5 minutes in the standby line. I also have a picture of Big Thunder where DS is the only one on the train. He was sitting in front of us, and one other couple was sitting behind us. Crazy!! We seriously covered everything we wanted to do by 3pm. I was just blown away at the fact that there was hardly anybody at the parks. We came back to WL for a swim. After that, DH and I decided to keep our reservation for 2 at Artist's Point. We left DS in our WL room with pizza and a cell phone. He was quite excited to stay in the room and watch the Disney Channel. After dinner, we collected our child and went to Downtown Disney. This was our first and only chance ever that we had to enjoy Pleasure Island before it closes. Friday night we did go to Night of Joy. We really enjoyed that. The concerts were really good. Saturday morning, we went back to DHS to ride a few rides and enjoy a peanut butter and jelly milkshake before heading home. This was absolutely one whirlwind of a trip!
Click here for PICS of our days at empty parks: (http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566649395ZyWCVv)
We covered 4 parks and Downtown Disney in just 2 1/2 days thanks to the low park attendance! I could get used to that!:mickey: