My Disney World Adventure :)
Hello everyone! :wave: I'm baaaaccckkkk! So, ready? Buckle your seatbelts because here we go!
Our story begins last Saturday, the 21st of July. Around 11, My family and I piled in the car and went to Costco where I procured a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (You can't fly without a good book!)
Around six o'clock that evening, my friend Kimmie (You guys know her as fairymulan441) arrived at my house. We finished some last minute packing while watching Cinderella 3.(Jacques and Gus rock my socks!!)
We finally got to sleep around 11, but our sleeping was, unfortunately, short lived. :alarm: We left for the airport around 4:45
The airport was an absolute nightmare. All of Southwest's computers were down, so it took us a half an hour just to check our bags. I felt so bad for the poor TSA guy there. He was working a machine all by himself, trying to deal with stupid people who were trying to stay with their luggage. I never thought anyone could thank me that earnestly for doing something like putting my suitcase down and leaving!
My parents walked us over to security and we went through. Kimmie and I are both minorly handicapped: I have to wear braces on both of my ankles, and Kimmie wears one on her knee. Apparently hers looked threatening, because she was pulled out of line and they wiped her brace down for explosives. She came out clean (obviously, and thankfully) and we finally made our way to the gate.
We got breakfast at a little cafe and then plopped ourselves down right at the front of the "A" line (I love Southwest) She opened up her novel and I opened up Harry Potter :read:(By this point I'd already read half).
We got onboard as scheduled but the computer problem had kept some people from getting through (This folks, is why you're supposed to arrive at the airport two hours early) We ended up leaving about a half an hour late while we waited for the stragglers.
Kimmie had never flown before, so she was pretty nervous. Statistically. flying is safer than driving in your car, but this was new so, whatever.
We finally touched down in Florida around 11 o'clock. :plane: After a few moments spent calling the folks back home to let them know we were alive, we started off for the Magical Express counter. We had a little bit of trouble finding it, but luckily, airport employees know what they're talking about..
We hopped on a Magical Express bus and headed "home" to the Pop Century Resort. We checked in and they had a room ready for us even though we were early (that made my day). We stayed in a "preferred room" in the 50s building, right near the lobby, #1134.
We got settled in (or as settled as was possible without our bags) and then hopped on a bus to Downtown Disney.
Between the World of Disney and Once Upon a Toy, I could easily spend every penny I've ever had. :spend: My friend's daughter is obsessed with My Little Ponies, so we hit the "make your own" my Little Pony area in Once Upon a Toy first. I had more fun making it than she'll have playing with it, I'm sure. I crammed so much stuff into that little box... at least 2 of each outfit, a working radio, a mirror... all kinds of good stuff. When I brought it up to the cash register, the cast member looked it over. "Go get another pony." he told me. I insisted that it wasn't possible to fit anything else at all in that box, but eventually I complied, and, lo and behold, he managed to cram another pony in! :jaw:
We finished all of our shopping around 4:30 and headed back to our room to freshen up before dinner. Thankfully, our luggage had been delivered (I wasn't too keen on having to wear an icky tee shirt to dinner)
We made it to Pleasure Island just in time for our reservations at Raglan Road. To anyone that's never eaten there, I would strongly recommend it! :thumbsup: Kimmie and I shared "Calamari City" for an appetizer, and were surprised to find that it was more vegetables than calamari. That didn't bother me though! The veggies were battered and fried the same way calamari would be... Who knew deep fried broccoli could be so tasty?
Kimmie had fish and chips and I had a sort of fancy shepard's pie, which was really good. For dessert I had Triple Pleasure, which was samplings of white chocolate mousse, chocolate mousse, and tiramisu. The tiramisu was absolutely fabulous! Kimmie had three berry pancetta shots, all three of which were filled with clotted cream. Our waitress, Devon, was so wonderful that not only did we tell her manager, we took a picture with her for our scrapbook!
That night, something terrible happened: Kimmie threw up. :sick: She told me she'd be okay, that it was just acid reflux because she ate all of that fired food and clotted cream. She said she'd be fine in the morning. How wrong she was.... (to be con'd below, as soon as I've finished dinner)
Day 2: MGM? Not Exactly...
Well, the nextmorning our wake-up call rang promptly at seven o'clock. I cheerfully answered, and we listened to Sticth and Mickey on speakerphone. I got up and got dressed qucikly and then Kimmie went to take a shower. We were all ready and just about to leave when she darted back into the bathroom and threw up again. So much for going to the park....
I went and bought her a bottle of Peptobismol, but it didn't really help. She spent the rest of the day worshipping the porcelian god...
I spent my day walking around taking pictures of the resort, for lack of anything better to do. I ended up with over fifty pictures just of our resort. :photo:
Kimmie had told me that she would definitely be feeling better by that evening, which she was, so she cleaned up a little bit and joined me in the food court. She had a small bowl of tomato soup, hoping that she'd be okay with it. It seemed promising for a quite a while, and I was getting over not being able to eat at the Sci-Fi (I had really been looking forward to that :( )
Anyways, all seemed well and good, and we were talking about how we'd make up for lost time. It felt really hopeful as we went to sleep, that we'd be up and in the parks the next morning...
Day 3: More disappointment
I woke up Tuesday morning with no semblance of exhaustion whatsoever. Already a day behind on my dream vacation, I was ready to go. I got up and dressed and I had my shoes on already, waiting by the door,determined not to lose another minute, when Kimmie announced she was not going.
That put me a little over the edge. We'd been planning this trip since we were little, but really planning it? I'd been working like a slave for almost a year to make it perfect; after all, Kimmie had never been on a real vacation before, let alone a vacation to Disney World.
I called my dad, nearly in tears, and told him that yet again w weren't going. He urged me to go to the conierge desk, explain what had happened, and ask if there was anyone they could hook me up with so that I could still go the parks without being alone. I declined though, part out of not wanting to be a burden, and a partially because I was worried about Kimmie. It turns out that it was a good thing I stayed, because she definitely needed a doctor.
I went down to the concierge desk and found out about a nearby clinic. I went back to the room and asked Kimmie for her health insurance card, and she got this look of terror on her face- She forgot to bring it!
Anyways, we called her mom to fax the card to the clinic. They had sent a van to bring us there and just as we were leaving the guy asked for her ID. She'd forgotten that in the room.
At this point, I was halfway between worrying about her and wanting to kill her. I ran back to the room and got it then ran back. Once we arrived, they almost refused to treat her because we're minors. They finally agreed and asked for her insurance. We told the it was faxed and the woman looked through the pile. Not there. So, we called Kimmie's mom and told her to do it again. The clinic's fax machine spat out a blank sheet of paper. So, Kimmie's mom had to drive to the library and fax it. Then it was at least another hour before a doctor saw Kimmie. The doctor was very nice and prescribed a pill for Kimmie, along with some strict dietary restrictions.
I spent the rest of the day in the room with Kimmie, and to be honest, I was still rather miserable. Everything was better though when my dad called and told me he was goign to save me: He booked tickets and would arrive at ten the following morning! :D
Day 4: Finally a good day!
I woke up Wednesday morning, happy to know that eventually, my dad would be there and no matter what, I was going to the Magic Kingdom! (For my "birthday" no less! Not my actual birthday, but since the trip was my birthday gift I pretty much picked a day :) )
Kimmie conceded that it was a good thing my father was coming because she still didn't feel well. So, I put the room in order as best I could (Dad's a neat-freak!) and just kinda hung out. I finished Harry Potter! It was really good, but I cried. Anyways...
Around ten Kimmie was feeling up to going. My dad had said he'd probably get to the hotel around 11:30, so there was no point in going and then coming back to meet him. Instead we went down and played in the arcade. I am the queen of Skee Ball, thank you very much.
Then my dad came and we finally left for the Magic Kingdom!
I was so excited that I ran ahead a few times, trying to get a peek at the castle, which annoyed my dad and Kimmie. My dad had just had hernia surgery three weeks ago, and since Kimmie was still a little off, they couldn't keep up with me and my adrenaline rush.
We hit Adventureland first, deeming it necessary to get on Pirates first and foremost. I have never waited so long to get on that ride! Last time we were there, we pretty much walked right on, and Pirates 2 was in theaters at the time. But nope, this was nuts, and there was a Brazilian tour group screaming out soemthing in Spanish that was getting on my nerves a bit (a CM finally asked them to stop).
Anyways, we rode the ride. The changes weren't nearly as drastic as everyone had made it out to be... nothing special. Then we got lunch (or rather, my dad and I did) at El Perico y El Parotta (Or however the heck you spell it). I was accosted by the kitchen staff when I went up to get my food. They saw the happy birthday button and off they went. It was a little embarassing, I'm not going to lie.
Then we went to the enchanted tiki room, which I love, though the original was way better than the new one.
After that we headed off for fantasyland. we stopped to get fastpasses for peter pan, and the cm was really nice. He wished me a happy birthday and gave me 3 fp without me scanning my ticket. It was great, becuase that way we were able to get them for the many adventures of winnie the pooh as well. they ended up being for about the same time too, so we basically got off of one and onto the next. We also saw Philharmagic which is my favorite! I could watch that ten times in a row and never get bored...
the only lousy luck that we ran into was on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. apparently, someone kept standing and not sitting down, so they would stop the ride, turn the lights on , railings would pop up and a CM would run by to tell someone to sit down. This happened three times, for no less than ten minutes apiece. It was awful. The worst part was that they erased our scores everytime, and I get rather competetive with that thing. (I still beat Kimmie and my Dad by a lot though)
We ate dinner at the Crystal Palace, which is my favorite. I got lots of extra attention from Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet thanks to my birthday pin. I also got a purple cupcake and a birthday card signed by the characters.
All in all, it was a pretty good day.
Day 6: MGM and another round at Magic Kingdom!
hello everybody! As promised, I'm back to finish, but before I start I want to answer Clotho's question. Yes, we are both minors, but we were permitted to check in as long as we had payment and indemnity release forms signed by our parents and notarized. Kind of a pain in the butt, but oh well....
Anyways... My dad and I, though still exhausted form the night before (which was in reality about five hours earlier that morning) headed off to MGM for morning EMH around 8:00. We arrived at about quarter after and, being EMH newbies, were very disappointed to find out that only four attractions were open, only two of which my dad could enjoy thanks to his recent surgery.
We had naively expected most, if not all, of the attractions to be open so that we could make the most of our hour. Wrong! We looked at the list of open attractions and decided on the Great Movie Ride, which is one of my favorites. So we walked over to the Chinese theater, taking about twenty pictures of the sorceror's hat on the way. (I love that hat :smickey:)
It turns out that even though it was one of the rides open for EMH it didn't open until 8:30... excuse me, but that is, IMHO kind of dumb. Oh well. I took as many pictures of the famous hand prints in the sidewalk as I could while we waited. (The pictures didn't come out too great, being as I'm rather exceedingly short and even holding the camera up high didn't always catch the whole square of cement. I did get Alan Alda's name, hands, and nose though, which made me happy! I <3 alan alda)
Anyways, we were waiting in line and 8:30 came... and went. "Technical difficulties." The cast member told us. "But it'll be open in another minute or two."
So we waited and it finally opened. We got on the first car and got all the way to the Tarzan scene when the car came to a halt. Stuck. For the third time so far in three days, we were stuck on a ride. (We had miserable luck this whole vacation) It wouldn't have been so bad, because our tour guide was very interesting, except that the scene didn't shut off. Tarzan continued to go back and forth through the air yelling like a deranged animal. It took almost fifteen minutes for us to get going again.
We finally got off of that and, after consulting the times guide, decided to go and see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which is one of my favorites, mostly because I wanted to be Ariel when I grew up. :blush: Still, the girl playing Ariel wasn't nearly as bad as the last one I saw and I had a pretty good time. (At least this one didn't forget the words to "part of your world")
then we went off to the Magic of Disney Animation, which is my favorite. That Mushu video in the beginning cracks me up (There's just something so funny about Mushu trying to explain where he came from... "You see when a mommy dragon and a daddy dragon really love each other..." haha)
But my favorite part is the animation academy. I will, by no means, pretend to be some great artist, but for some strange reason, my drawings seem to come out relatively well when I'm follwoing their instructions. This time we drew Pooh, which made me happy, because now I have a Pooh to go with the Tigger I drew last time! :pooh:
It was around this time that Kimmie showed up and we headed off to Star Tours. :yoda: That's my dad's and my favorite, but he couldn't ride it, so he contented himself with taking bunches of pictures of the surrounding area while Kimmie and I rode it.
Then we went to Lights, Motors, Action! which I was really revved up about (sorry, bad pun) because I'm a big time NASCAR fan. We had missed it when we visited last year, so the excitement had had plenty of time to build. All in all it was pretty good except that the hero car crashed and caused them to have to scrap about half of the show. That, and my dad missed the grand finale (if you call call five seconds of fire "grand") because he had his camcorder focused in on the director, who was still speaking. They didn't announce the finale or anything it just sort of happened and that was it. But oh well.
Then we stopped at Pizza Planet for lunch. It was ridiculously crowded in there, but I think it was because of the fact that the place is indoors and air conditioned.
Then we went and saw Indiana Jones, which I love. We got to sit up really close as well, which I'd never done before (my parents tend to favor the back)
After that we hit Muppet Vision 3D and I found the key under the mat, which made me happy. :kermit:
Then we got ice cream from Gertie and headed back to our hotel for a bit.
A short nap had me feeling much better as we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for dinner. Kimmie and I had reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table. We hadn't been able to add my dad, unfortunately, but he insisted we still go. He ate at Tony's instead.
The Royal Table was fun. We arrived about 15 minutes early and I'm glad we did. I, of course, took lots of pictures while we waited in the lobby. We were pretty excited actually. Originally we'd been told that we probably wouldn't see any characters there, but Cinderella was coming for photos! (our level of excitement over seeing a girl in a cinderella wig is pathetic i know, but oh well)
while we waited we befriended a little girl who spotted both kimmie's 1st visit pin and her birthday pin (this was kimmie's chosen day) we chatted away with her about all the cool things she was discovering in the parks (this was her first visit as well) until we were told to line up for cinderella.
she and her parents were finished before us and we were walking past them after our photo was taken when she reached out her hadn and stopped us. "how was you picture was it amazing?" She asked.
I laughed and crouched down next to her, explaining to her mom and dad that we'd spoken to her earlier. they were all very friendly and it turns out that it really is a small world- they live a few towns away from us!
Emma (the little girl) even suggested that we visit for a "play date" at some point. Then she asked me to sign her autograph book, which made me feel very special! I wrote her a relatively long note and made sure to give her my e-mail address. Kimmie signed my note as well and then I awarded Emma with a glow bracelet, one of the ones Kimmie and I had been saving for the fireworks.
the food was great! (Again, I must say, i absolutely love the dining plan) i had corn and crab soup, followed by cheese tortellini with florentine veggies, then chocolate cheesecake buckle. :eat: then there was a show! the fairy godmother came, along with perla and susie (the girl mice). Fairy godmother asked who was celebrating something and Kimmie was one of the many who raised a hand. FG got to her and asked her how old she was and Kimmie replied 18. Fairy Godmother turned to the room and said "Everybody say 'OOooohhh"
So, a big embarassing ooh went up around the room. later, Kimmie got a birthday card, "princess" certificate, and a cupcake.
Thenwe met up with my dad in Fantasyland and saw Philharmagic again and rode Winnie the Pooh (thankfully we didn't get stuck this time)
Then we headed over to tomorrowland and got Fps for BLSRS. We realized it was lamost time for Wishes, so we positioned ourselves on the bridge by the castle and watched from there. I think I was driving ppl nuts singing along, but I didn't really notice I was doing it. Wishes is my favorite :fworks:
Then we hopped on the TTA, followed by one more visit to CoP, another favorite of mine. Then we headed back. We were going to ride Peter Pan again but the wait was way too long. So, we decided to head over to Frontierland and catch the train back, but we got burned... it was done for the night. :(
So we walked back to the buses and went back to the hotel, our vacation basically done with, but enjoyed!
