UsBurchs Holiday Adventure - Nov 27-Dec 7, 2008 - Royal Plaza

[UsBurchs]

Travel Dates: Thurs November 27 (Thanksgiving) through Sun. December 27

Travel Methods: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (the train only at Magic Kindom, however)

Hotels: Residence Inn Cocoa Beach, Royal Plaza DT Disney

Cast of Characters and ages: Me (Anna) age 34, Hubby (Scott) age 37, Kiddo (Lucas) age 4, Nana age 61 and Opa age 61 (Scott's parents)

Disney Experience: Me - my first time at WDW was in 1990 when I was 16 with my parents and brother. I've been to Disneyland three times since 2001.
Hubby - he grew up in Southern CA and went to Disneyland countless times. Never been to WDW! He's a huge StarWars fan!
Son - been to Disneyland two times in his four years of life. He can't wait for WDW!
Nana - grew up in So. CA as well and went to Disneyland since it opened.
Opa grew up in Michigan but moved out to CA in his 20's and went to Disneyland several times. But Nana and Opa went to WDW with Scott's brother in early 2000's. Opa is a HUGE roller coaster fan (and he likes StarWars too).

Our Hopeful Itinerary:
Thurs Nov 27 - fly to Orlando from Seattle (Direct - yay!) Stay in Cocoa Beach
Friday Nov 28 - Kennedy Space Center with a Nasa Up Close Tour. Stay in Cocoa Beach
Saturday Nov 29 - The Beach, maybe a boat tour and we might get to see the Space Shuttle land! Stay in Cocoa Beach
Sunday Nov 30 - Drive to WDW - Drop off In-laws at hotel Royal Plaza to rest. The three Burchs go to Leesburg to visit my great aunt (94) and then return to WDW in afternoon. ADR: Raglan Road
Monday Dec 1 - Epcot Future World ADR: Coral Reef
Tuesday Dec 2 - Magic Kingdom ADR: Tony's Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party Night!
Wednesday Dec 3 - ADR: Chef Mickey's Epcot World Showcase
Thursday Dec 4 - Hollywood Studios ADR: none
Friday Dec 5 - Animal Kingdom ADR: Boma Opa might do Behind the Magic Tour
Saturday Dec 6 - Free choice day for all - I want to hit MK again and go see Grand Floridian decorations, etc. Maybe do Spectromagic that day.
Sunday Dec 7 - Fly home to Seattle

So, today is Tuesday Nov 25 and I'm trying to get a million things accomplished before our trip. We plan on heading down to my in-laws tomorrow night to spend the night there. On Thursday morning, a car will come to pick us up at 6:15am, so it's easier to just be at their house already.

I'm nervous, happy, excited, stressed - all sorts of things. I want the weather to be nice and to be healthy! Right now the weather says T-storms on Saturday down there and I have a sinus infecton that I'm taking meds for. I hope things improve! I'm pretty sure they will! :)

[RyansMom]

Have a wonderful trip! Looking forward to your trip report when you return! :)

[MrsGrumpy]

WooHoo!!!!
Anna's on her way to WDW! :)

Looking forward to reading all about it.

Yay!:D

[anniedg]

Looking forward to the report Anna! Your itinerary looks great - I hope you get to see the shuttle land, very cool :cool:
And hope the sinus infection is in check!

Have fun!!

[TinaMouse]

OK, Anna....You've set yourself up for a WONDERFUL trip. We'll just sit here and wait impatiently for you to post.....LOL!

[UsBurchs]

Ok, everyone! We're back! I'm going to have to edit all the writing I did this past week, before I post the report. I'll have to do one day per day. It got long winded, but I tried to include important details so everyone is well informed. Next time, I may not take so much time to write every night - it made me very tired the next day . . . zzzzzzzzzzz

I'm also trying to pick out the best photos. I'll try to post those soon too.

Until then, just know we had a FABULOUS time, the weather was wonderful (for the most part) and I can't wait to go back.

ok, so here's some teasers to get you interested . . .

Meeting MisDisney
Saturn V Rocket up close and personal
Manatee sighting!
My in-laws haninging on to trees
Happy Soarin' people
42 degree Christmas party
Meeting KJSPipe
Moments alone with Donald
My non-pooping kid
EVEREST! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The best pin collector moment I had
Med/rare hamburgers lead to more time off in Orlando . . . but not for me!

A TRIP REPORT . . . coming soon to a Mouseplanet page near you . . .

[MrsGrumpy]

Your teasers are working, Anna.

I'm "On Standby" waiting for more! ;)

[TinaMouse]

Wow--seems like quite the adventure. Looking forward to reading it upon my return. (YES!!!!)

[UsBurchs]

Wed Nov 26 - Day minus one - Getting ready and Nana & Opa’s house

Wednesday was like any other day, really, but we were packing and doing last minute cleaning in preparation for our trip TO FLORIDA!!!! I got most everything done before noon, which left the rest of the day to sit and wait . . . And wait . . . And wait! J On the way to get the mail, we ran into the neighbor kid who reminded us that he likes Goofy. Duely noted! His older brother is taking care of our cats and the fish while we are gone, so we’ll have to remember something for him, at least! Lucas kept asking, “how much longer until Daddy comes home?” Of course, our upstairs neighbors were being extra stompy and noisy, so I was really ready to go once Scott got home! I had already loaded the car with all our bags earlier, so as soon as Scott got arrived, we were pretty much set to go. We said our goodbyes to the kitties, set the thermostat, did one final run through and headed out to have dinner before getting to Nana and Opa’s house.

Dinner at Red Robin was nothing special, but seeing as how it’s our first official vacation meal, I’ll include our menu selections. I had the Blue Ribbon Burger and a chocolate shake, always lovely. Scott had the Western BBQ Burger and cherry Coke. Lucas had a corn dog, as usual and ate the breading off first, as usual.

After we were done with dinner, we headed off to Scott’s parents house. It was decided that it would be much easier if we were already at their house in the morning when the SUV guy came to pick us up. Ok, shout out to Starline Limo service! WOOO! J Anyway, we got there and set up the air bed, watched “Journey to the Center of the Earth” with my in-laws and went to bed. And I mean, went to bed - not necessarily to sleep. Ugh. I tossed and turned all night, thinking about stuff. Did I mention I had a sinus infection too? Yeah, that didn’t help either. There was sleep, off and on, but not much. I was quite envious of my husband’s soft, rhythmic breathing to my side, and my son’s breath-pop, on the bed above me. Stop worrying! Go to sleep!

[UsBurchs]

Thurs Nov 27 - Day ONE! - Getting there!

Of course, I was awake way before my alarm clock went off at 5:00 am. When it finally went off, I was relieved to get up and just go ahead with the day. I showered while Scott got Lucas dressed and Nana and Opa flitted around doing this and that. Opa had to finish some work before we left, so he got on the computer to do that. WORK? We’re leaving on vacation in 20 minutes! Whatever! At 6:15, Raj, our SUV driver arrived and we started loading up. Opa finally came down, having finished his work and stuffing his suitcase with the last odds and ends. Nana tells me as we are sitting in the SUV, “I’ve got a splitting head ache!’ Oh no! Not her too!

We got to the airport in no time. Not many people out on Thanksgiving morning, I guess. Fine by me! We unloaded our oodles of luggage, paid Raj, and headed to check the bags. Opa was a smart guy and did our web check in the night before, so we were pretty much set to go when we got there. Security was a bit iffy. Longish lines for so early, but it IS a holiday. Nana has two “bionic” hips, so they always stop her, but we’ve never had issues going through before. HA! This time, they had issues. I’m a penny smasher. I had a roll of quarters and my shiny pennies in my carryon and of course that brought up a red flag. And of course, it was in the bottom of my bag! Of course! They let me go through to a lady with my backpack and I watched as she pulled out all my stuff. Luckily, I’m a neat packer, so it wasn’t a big ordeal. She found my quarters, etc., ran my bag back through and we were on our way, just as Nana showed up from another line having been waved up and down with the wand.

We got to our gate and settled in for a while - bought water, used the potty, all that good stuff. As were standing there looking out the window, waiting for them to call our row, a pretty blond lady, in a Pirates of the Caribbean shirt, tapped me on the shoulder and asked “Are you Anna?” It was Adrienne (MisDisney)! We had been corresponding via Mouseplanet ever since we found out we were traveling on the same flight to Orlando, so it was pretty fun to meet another Mousepadder in person. Her daughter was adorable and so excited to be going on the trip.
As we boarded the airplane, the flight attendant, noticed Lucas. “Aren’t you so cute? Where are you going?” and Lucas replied, “Disney World!” with a big smile. My husband was pointing out the pilot while all this was happening. “Would you like to go sit in the cockpit, buddy?” WOW! What a start to a great vacation, let me tell you! Scott is a private pilot and Lucas has always loved airplanes, so this was the chance of a lifetime! Of course, the camera had to come out of the big-ol-bag. The pilot let Lucas wear his hat and pointed out all the controls. He was beaming! So cute and so fun! Thank you Alaska Airlines!

We finally got to our seats and settled in for the long flight ahead of us. Going up and my sinuses weren’t too bad. My Earplanes helped. Highly recommend those, people! As we took off, I said “Off we go!“ as in, Peter Pan as they head out the window - you know that part . . . My now totally-into-the-trip” hubby replied with his choir version of the music swelling “Woo woo woo woo woooooo!“ I loved it! We got our DigEplayer, which I had reserved ahead of time, bought three “Deli Packs” to eat for lunch later and Lucas watched “Space Chimps”. He liked it. Good preparation (sort of) for Kennedy Space Center! Hahahaha! The flight was a bit shaky, but we survived. Scott got to watch all but the last 15 minutes of the most current X-files movie before they came to collect our DigEplayer. Bummer! Nana and Opa did pretty well, too. Nana tried to sleep off her headache and Opa had good conversation with the guy next to him.

When we got off the plane, we took a photo with Adrienne (MisDisney) and her daughter, found our way to baggage claim and waited. Our plane had arrived about a half hour early, so they weren’t quite prepared for us! After we got the luggage, we headed to Avis and got our car - a rather small SUV. Opa used his best puzzle solving skills and managed to fit all our luggage and the stroller in the back. We were stuffed to the gills! Off we went to Cape Canaveral. I called my Great Aunt Connie on the way to remind her we were coming on Sunday and she was all excited. OOPS! We forgot about the tolls and had to scurry around to find $1.50.

We got to the Residence Inn around 7:00, checked in and immediately asked where was open for dinner (being Thanksgiving and all). The guy at the desk recommended Milliken’s Seafood Grill. Off we went! No unpacking yet - we were starving. Mind you, we’d only had a deli pack on the plane! Dinner was yummy! Nana and I split the crab cake dinner with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies. Opa had a kid-size spaghetti, sticking to his special jet-lag diet. Scott had mussels, most of which hadn’t opened and we had to send back. Luckily, he said the second batch tasted better. Well, ok then! Lucas had fish and chips, which was made with flounder, not cod like we are used to in Seattle. It was good - we all tried it! OH! And how can I forget the hushpuppies! They gave us hushpuppies before dinner instead of rolls like you sometimes get. They served them with cinnamon butter - YUMMY! The nice server liked Lucas and gave us more to take back with us to the hotel. This kid sure comes in handy!

We returned to the hotel and Scott and I headed to the mini-mart next door to get milk for Lucas. It was surprisingly cold outside! The thermometer said it was 48 degrees! Might as well be in Seattle! But we’re not, so I knew it was temporary (I thought!). Once we unpacked and settled in (winding down our child was quite a challenge!) we finally got to bed! Whew! What a day! :) On to Kennedy Space Center tomorrow and the “official” start of our vacation fun!

[MrsGrumpy]

Yay! What fun! Can't wait for more! :)

[ckmiles]

First post (hope I do this right)

What a well written recap. I am excited to read the next day!

[UsBurchs]

Fri Nov 28 - Day TWO - Kennedy Space Center

Well, jet lag didn’t seem to be much of an issue for us. That diet must have worked! I woke up exactly one minute before my alarm clock was due to go off at 6:30am. Weird! Opa said that’s when he wakes up on this diet. Ok, it works! We all got ready and went down stairs for breakfast at the hotel. It was nice - a good selection. As soon as that was done, we gathered our things and headed out. Scott SAID he entered Kennedy Space Center into his GPS that we brought. Um, no. We ended up not taking the route on the map (the shortest way) and followed “Ellen’s” directions (Magellan). Not good. We were way too north and had to turn around making our projected 9am arrival time more like 9:30. Ugh - I was a grumpy girl, but I tried to hold it in. Opa was driving and I didn’t want to stir the pot too much.

We got to Kennedy just in time to enter, have our tickets scanned, and scanned again until she just finally let us through, and headed directly to the line for our 10 am NASA Up Close Tour - a special tour that adds things “up close” that you don’t see on the regular tour. Scott was in heaven! We got to go right out to the launch pads and see where all the Apollo and Space Shuttle missions have launched from. Cool. Then we got to go REALLY close to the HUGE Vehicle Assembly Building where they keep the Space Shuttles - a Space Shuttle garage, if you will. :) We took a ton of photos, including one dorky tourist photo of Scott holding up the building. Ha ha ha . . . Anyway . . . Opa opted to stay in the bus as he was starting to wear thin. Already? After we saw the runway for the shuttle, we stopped at the Saturn V center to see that giant rocket. It would have been used for Apollo 18 if that had happened. It didn’t, so now it lives in a building for us to enjoy.

As we muddled around under the rocket, Lucas and I saw a place where they take your photo in front of green screen and put you in scenes related to NASA. We decided on the floating inside the Shuttle photo. Lucas was taken, then me, then we had to run around to find Scott to add to our floating family. He was a bit irritated at us for messing up his LONG video of his walk down the entire Saturn V rocket, but once he got the photo taken and we saw it, he was over it! We loved our photo and of course paid a huge sum of money for the darn thing. Vacation - saved money - might as well spend it.

After lunch under the rocket, it was back to the visitor’s center to see stuff. First the Space Shuttle section where Scott decided to do the Space Shuttle Experience while Nana and I took Lucas off to the play area and Opa sat down. Now, don’t get the wrong idea about Opa. He’s only 61 and very fit, he just likes to sit quietly by himself a lot. It’s good for all of us . . . Ahem . . . Believe me! :) Little did I know, this was nothing compared to how he would be the rest of the trip!

Scott and Opa both caught up with us at the play area and we poked around the Rocket Garden for a while, then more of the displays. Scott even posed for a shot with the Mercury astronauts - his biggest heroes! It was neat. The astronauts were not real, of course . . . All but John Glen are gone now. Bummer. One of Scott’s favorite movies is “The Right Stuff”. Good history lesson for anyone about to visit Kennedy! That, and “Apollo 13“.

We spent a long time in the gift shop. This is really Scott’s Disney World, so he did most of his souvenir shopping here. Lucas even spent some of his hard earned Dimes for Disney money on a set of little rockets, which he played with ALL night, making pretty realistic blast off noised. Pretty annoying too, after a while, but he was happy, so we were as well. Funny how that works!

On the way to the car, I decided I had better call the boat tour people we wanted to go with for Saturday and book our trip. Luckily, he had plenty of space and they even included appetizers from some local restaurant - which I didn’t catch the name of at the time. Good, that was set!

Off to the hotel again and Nana and Opa went to the front desk to get some menus to look at for dinner. They chose a great restaurant called Fishlips. We liked the name and the food sounded good so we decided to try it out. It was great! Nana and I each had crab cakes, again, and she had a wonderful Merlot from McManis in California, for any wine lovers out there. We all mmmmm’ed over it! Scott and Opa both had the garlic crab pasta and beers and Lucas enjoyed the shrimp bites, sort off. “Mom! The shrimp have coats on!” He meant the breading, which oddly enough, my kid doesn’t like. “So, take the coats off,” I told him. The others looked at me funny until I explained what he had said. OHHHH! We all had the apple crisp too. It was like looking in a mirror at the meals across he table. Kinda funny. Karen and I have had enough of crab cakes for a while, we decide. As we get up, we notice a little sign on the table advertising how they provide appetizers for the Saturday Space Coast Boat Tours . . . Oh yeah! THAT is the restaurant he told me about on the phone - THIS one! Fancy that!

Back to the hotel and we all settled in as I uploaded photos on the computer and sent out a quick e-mail to friends and family. It was a fun day! Kennedy Space Center was great and for anyone into to space history, do the Up Close tour. You see more stuff . . . And get a nifty book mark too! :)

Tomorrow is our boat ride . . . Hope we see manatees and dolphins!! I LOVE manatees and dolphins! And that really cute kid of mine, well, he’s decided he either wants to be a diver or an astronaut when he grows up. Or maybe a “astronaut diver”. They have those too - you just never know!

[kkmickey]

Fri Nov 28 - Day TWO - Kennedy Space Center

Well, jet lag didn’t seem to be much of an issue for us. That diet must have worked!

??? What diet are you talking about?

[MrsGrumpy]

Love the "shrimp coats"! :)

Sounds like a great day at KSC.

What is the diet that you and Opa did?

Can't wait to hear about Manatee day. :)

[UsBurchs]

Ah, yes. The diet. Guess I didn't explain that well. Opa travels quite a bit for business and has this book that explains how to re-set your internal clock with diet. It's this whole feast/fast - carbs/proteins thing that you follow starting usually two days ahead of your trip and continueing two days after you arrive. We kind of stuck to it, but Opa is vigilant and a bit OCD about it, really.

If anyone wants more information, I'll try to get the name of the book from him. We used it going to Europe and it truely helped!

[UsBurchs]

Sat Nov 29 - Day THREE - Cocoa Beach and a Boat Ride

After hardly any sleep again, I woke up and got ready while my sleeping boys did what could not do. All night, some guy in the room next to us would cough every few minutes and wake me up, if I had fallen asleep. I wasn’t very happy about getting so little sleep once again, but after we all headed down to breakfast, I felt a lot better. Once again, the weather looked perfect! I was so glad we lucked out yet another day!

We decided that since our boat trip was at 1:00, we would go explore the Cocoa Beach area a bit. Our first stop was the Ron Jon surf shop. Nana desperately needed sunglasses after having none the day before. She’d forgotten hers at home. We picked out a nice stylish pair for her - movie star! :) The beach was a block away, so we got a little shovel for Lucas and headed down to the Atlantic ocean. Scott (and Lucas, of course) had never been to the Atlantic, so this was pretty darn cool. We enjoyed the beach for about an hour and watched all the sand birds run in and out of the waves. Very cute! Nana finally convinced Lucas to go touch the water and once he did, he was stomping around on the wet beach like a happy puppy! He also decided to lay back in the dryer sand and make a sand angel resulting in a very sandy kid! But, he had fun.

We left the beach and took a drive farther down Cocoa Beach, then turned around and stopped at a Publix grocery store for some snacky -type food before we went to the boat. We ended up standing in the parking lot, eating out of the tailgate of our rental car. Fun times . . . After a quick trip back to the hotel to de-sand ourselves, we were off to Kelly Park, just across the river from our hotel.

The Space Coast Boat Tour boat, the Blue Dolphin, was docked and ready to welcome us aboard. I could tell this was going to be a fun trip. As we waited for everyone to board, I noticed the boat captain get off the boat and make a call on his cell phone. A second later, my phone rang (which is the Mickey Mouse Club theme song, in case you were wondering).

“Hello?”
“Hi, this is Space Coast Tours”
I looked up and said, “Hi - yeah, we’re right here.”
He looked back and I waved at him. He busted up laughing. Apparently, his wife forgot to mark us off the list as we boarded. Really, they had us down twice, for some reason and she had marked off one but not the other. All that waiting, and the extra party didn’t even exist. Everyone was laughing at what had happened. OK! Well, everyone’s here, lets go!

It was a VERY fun tour, and I highly recommend going if you are ever in the area. As we headed up the Banana River, the first mate (and captain’s wife) Michelle, handed out drinks and chips. But this was not to be our only snack! Oh no! There was more to come. We putted along, slowly, as not to disturb the manatees. Manatees? Where? Well, none yet. Maybe later. There were plenty of birds to see. Both brown and white pelicans, cormorants, ibis, egrets, heron, etc. We passed through the small locks, which compared to the Ballard locks in Seattle, was a very small operation! The boat stopped at Fishlips, the restaurant from the night before, and a couple men came out and handed them several trays of goodies for us to try. Delish! Hot wings, sandwiches, veggies. All very good.

On the way back we went past the Carnival Glory and the Disney Magic ships then through the locks once more. On the other side the captain suddenly slowed down and said, “folks! We have a manatee!” He drove up closer to the shore as this big, lumbering, potato of an animal came slowly up toward the boat. He stuck his little nostrils barely out of the water. I was so excited, I was shaking. A real wild manatee! Oh happy day! I tried taking photos, but not many did him justice. He slowly drifted away from us and we continued on our way.

At this point, we had already reached our two-hour tour, but Captain Mark said if no one objected, he’d like to continue our tour up the canal and see some dolphins. Why not? No one seemed to mind a bit. We had perfect weather, food, nice people to chat with. Life is good.

And then there they were! Dolphins! Happy day again! Of course, they were a bit far away, so all the photos I took are of teeny little dorsal fins sticking out of the water. There was even a mama and baby. THAT was neat to see. The water in that area of the Banana River is only 3-4 feet deep, so they never submerged very far. We saw a total of seven dolphins on the tour. Wonderful and unforgettable.

On the way back, Michelle handed us coupons for free appetizers at Fishlips. It was decided, by the family, that we would just have to go back. It was good, why not? After docking, we thanked everyone, tipped the first mate and her little grand daughters who helped out, and went to the playground for some Lucas time. He ran and ran and ran. He had been great on the boat and deserved some time to play. Lucas loved the tour too - of course, he loves marine life, so this was quite an experience for him.

The idea had been thrown out early in the day that maybe we could do some mini-golf, and since the light was staring to get low, we decided why not now. We had seen a Funtasia Mini Golf in Cocoa Beach that looked fun and got there about 5:00. After 18 holes of fun, we went to Fishlips for our appetizer dinner. Between all of us, we had: spinach artichoke dip, onion rings, peel-n-eat shrimp, wonton shrimp, nachos and some extra chips. Opa had a martini. Scott and Nana had beers and Lucas and I had smoothies. Half way through dinner, Lucas conked out on Scott’s lap. The poor kid was pooped! So were we, so we finished up and headed back to the hotel to pack for our next round of fun.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Walt Disney World, and a quick trip to visit my 94-year-old great-aunt. A day of transition, as Opa says. Busy day ahead!

[kkmickey]

Half way through dinner, Lucas conked out on Scott’s lap. The poor kid was pooped!

I was trying to read through this quickly, and at first I thought it said that Lucas had pooped halfway up Scott's lap! Ewwwww. So glad that wasn't the case! I will take a little time to read more slowly~ Thanks for the report, looking forward to the remaining days.

[UsBurchs]

I was trying to read through this quickly, and at first I thought it said that Lucas had pooped halfway up Scott's lap! Ewwwww. So glad that wasn't the case! I will take a little time to read more slowly~ Thanks for the report, looking forward to the remaining days.

OH! You will laugh when you read on to the other days and see just how close you actually are! There's a whole theme that carried on throughout the trip with that kid and his lack of toilet action. OY!

[cheshirecatgirl]

Good so far! I can't wait to hear the rest. That boat tour sounds really neat!

[anniedg]

What a fantastic start to the trip! I'm so glad KSC went so well. We've never been on the "up close" tour, it sounds great. I love Cocoa Beach, glad you had fun! Did you really get out of Ron Jon's with only buying one pair of sunglasses? :p I want to try the Banana River boat ride now too!! We did a boat tour of the Everglades in '07, dolphins, but no manatees :| Very, very cool that you got to see them.

Can't wait for more :D

[UsBurchs]

What a fantastic start to the trip! I'm so glad KSC went so well. We've never been on the "up close" tour, it sounds great. I love Cocoa Beach, glad you had fun! Did you really get out of Ron Jon's with only buying one pair of sunglasses? :p I want to try the Banana River boat ride now too!! We did a boat tour of the Everglades in '07, dolphins, but no manatees :| Very, very cool that you got to see them.

Can't wait for more :D

I highly recommend this boat tour! It's the Blue Dolphin with Space Coast Boat Tours. They were so nice and like I said, he took an extra hour for us. The locks took longer than expected and cut into our time. During the warmer months, you see more manatees, I guess. But it was very fun and if you go on a Saturday, you get the extra goodies from Fishlips too! :)

[UsBurchs]

Sun Nov 30 - Day FOUR - Transition Day

WARNING! The reports starting getting LONG from here. . ..

Well, I finally did it! I slept! YAY! I felt much better all day because of it too. My sinus infection even seemed to be gone for the most part. However, it wasn’t too easy falling asleep the night before. Coughing man and some lady decided to start fighting next door at about 10:00. They fought for about 10 minutes, swearing and cursing up a storm. Then it stopped. About 15 minutes later, they made up. Loudly. That’s all I have to say about that. :)

We woke up and got ready as usual, but instead of going downstairs for breakfast, Opa and Scott decided to go to Dunkin Donuts. Opa was in need of good coffee and had heard theirs is pretty good. He later said it was ok, but he still prefers Starbucks. We watched the news to see the weather. Not a good outlook. Storms were coming from the west and we were going to be driving right through it at about 3:00 that afternoon on the way back from my aunt’s. Oh well - can’t have perfect weather all the time. The hotel had already checked us out and put the bill under the door, so we were good to go.

OFF TO WALT DISNEY WORLD! YAY!!!

After loading up the car, stuffed to the brim, we drove to Orlando, having to scramble for toll money once again. It was different this time. 1.50, then .75 and another .75. My tummy was all upset because I get nervous during travel and it was all about timing this morning. We had to hit the hotel at 9:30, drop off Nana and Opa and then on to Leesburg and be there by 11:00 to visit my aunt. I didn’t have to worry because it all worked out fine!

We got to the entrance of Walt Disney World and I was beaming. Lucas said “It’s Disney World! This is so es-citing!” [exciting] The Royal Plaza was quite nice form the looks of the lobby. We had to go and I was a bit bummed. You’re here - now, go away for a while. But, I knew I’d be back soon enough. We left Nana and Opa to fend for themselves, but I had prepared them with a bunch of ideas and maps. They left their luggage at bell services and we kept ours in the car, just in case we needed anything.

Leesburg wasn’t that bad of a drive from Walt Disney World. About 45 minutes and I had time to stop at the grocery store and pick up some flowers on the way. The wind was really starting to pick up now and the humidity was rising as well. There goes my hair!

We got to their retirement community, found their little place and knocked on the door. I hadn’t seen my aunt in almost 20 years, so I was very excited to see this woman who had been like a grand-mother to me growing up. Hugs all around and we had a very nice visit and lunch with them. Lucas had a great time showing them his rockets and drew them pictures of rockets too. They got a real kick out of this little boy!

Then my phone rang. This time it was “Supercalifagilisticexpialidotious” so I knew it was Nana calling. She was freeking out about the rain storm they had just endured at Downtown Disney and had watched on the Weather Channel that there were tornado warnings out everywhere. Really? It was hardly raining where we were. So we turned on the TV and watched a bit. Not much to worry about. 10 minutes later the phone rang again. It was Nana, freeking out some more. She called one more time, right after that to tell us that they got to check into their room and it was really nice. Yeah, by the way . . . I laughed!

We finished up our visit with Aunt Connie and Uncle Jim and were on our way. This time to Walt Disney World for real! Yay! Scott was concerned about the ride back, but it hardly rained at all. We had missed the bad part and would have never known a storm had happened if Nana hadn’t kept calling. I rode back, writing on the computer and Lucas took a much needed nap. I was glad. He’d be good for the evening ahead!

On the way to the hotel, we stopped at Gooding’s grocery store for milk, juice, water and yogurt. $20! I could not believe it, but we needed it, so we paid. I guess they figure you will. OY. Once back at the hotel, we met Nana and Opa at the lobby. They took the car over to Goodings, while we checked in and sorted our things up in our room. They told us about the stormy adventure they had walking back to the hotel from DT Disney. Apparently, the wind was so strong at times that they had to stop and hold on to trees! WOW! I would have never known, based on what we’d seen up north a bit. They called us up to their suite when they got back. What a nice, BIG room. Ours was nice too. Very spacious with a nice twin pull-out for Lucas and a king for us. The bathroom was huge too, but when you sat at the toilet, you could see yourself in the mirror on the back of the door which was a bit bothersome, but we got used to it - sort of.

I visited the information desk at the hotel to ask about transportation after the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party on Tuesday. The rather clueless hotel people told me that they did not provide busses after special events - at least they hadn’t after the Halloween parties, so they ASSUMED it was the same. We’d have to take a bus back to DT Disney and walk. I was a bit irritated at this notion, but we’d have to deal when the time came.

We all headed to the Hilton to return the car to Avis and then continued on foot to DT Disney (just across the street). Boy was that neat! When I came so many years ago, all that was there was Pleasure Island! None of the shops existed yet. I was in Disney heaven, but I had to be good and wait to shop until after dinner. We walked the length of DT Disney and back to Raglan Road for our 6:00 ADR’s. They got us right in and we had a big booth toward the entrance. Really good food too! Opa and Scott each had a beer sampler, Nana had a beer, I had Coke and Lucas had juice. Then dinner came - Opa had ribs with horseradish potatoes, which he liked ok. Nana had “the best fish and chips ever!” Lucas also had the fish and chips and I forced him to eat some of my salad. Oh, Mom! Scott had the shepherd’s pie with a very yummy sauce and I had the “Goat’s Town” which was a battered piece of goat cheese with sweet onions and mushrooms inside. It was on top of field greens and a berry compote. It was delish! Reminded me of the chevre chaud salads I ate in France.

After dinner, we went to the World of Disney. Opa said, “Oh, this is going to be dangerous!” We all picked out pin lanyards and the two grand-parents returned to the hotel while Us Burchs shopped and looked. We got an autograph book for Lucas so we’d be ready in the morning to meet characters if we saw any right off the bat. One of the cast members stopped Lucas and asked if he wanted to play Tic-tac-toe, which he’s just learning, so we stopped a minute for him to play. He won one game and they gave him a little Magical Moments certificate. He thought that was pretty cool. So did we!

Lucas really wanted his Donald he had saved so long for, but the ones at World of Disney were all fuzzy and weird, so we went over to the toy store to look. OH! I also bought myself a cute ring and some swirly Mickey earrings with the Visa Rewards money I had earned. Kind of a treat for myself for planning this whole thing! :) It felt nice. We wandered around the toy store for a long time, picked out potato head parts and Lucas found a cute Donald that said Donald-ish things when you press his hands. He was so proud of his duck and handed the lady the money. She thought it was neat that he had saved for so long and congratulated him.

We made our way back to where we thought we could get on a bus back to our hotel. OOPS! Nope - those were only resort busses and ours was caught from the entire other end of DT Disney by Cirque du Soleil. Yeah, um, no. It was as much of a walk to get there as it was to get back to the hotel. We just hoofed it back, while Lucas loved his Donald, talking to him the whole way back about all the other buddies Donald would meet back at the hotel, like Pal Mickey!

When we got to our room, we sorted our stash, got our lanyards ready and put together our packs for the next day. Scott entered in our receipts and I did some writing on the computer then it was off to bed! Goodnight, Donald, Pal Mickey, Piggy and William (the other buddies). Lucas was out before we knew it!

[MrsGrumpy]

Sounds like another es-citing day! :)

So was it really that windy, or do Nana and Opa like to "add spices" to the story? LOL;)

[KJSJpipe]

Sounds like another es-citing day! :)

So was it really that windy, or do Nana and Opa like to "add spices" to the story? LOL;)

We were in Epcot that day, I can personnaly vouch for the wind!! The carts they sell souviners from were blowing around and it was raining sideways!! :eek:

Good report so far Anna, I am still working on mine...hopefully I will be done with it soon!
I think we will try to get back to NASA in the next few years, the boat trip sounds really fun!!