Trip Reports
02-21-2007, 09:09 PM
Sheri Niklewski - October 2005 - Offsite
Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Personal car
Resort: Offsite
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: October didn't have a three-day weekend so she and her husband went to Walt Disney World for their own long weekend.
Sheri Niklewski -- October 2005 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite)
We had just been to Disney World for Labor Day, completing our 2005 run of three day weekends. I toyed with the idea of doing a quick weekend trip for the Food and Wine Festival since we missed it last year. There was one weekend in October that we didn’t have anything planned so I mentally decided to place that weekend on hold. I had no idea that our lives would be totally turned around in about three weeks.
The first thing to happen was Rich finally getting a permanent job for the first time in three years. He had been working on a contract basis for a textile laundry manufacturing company (where I used to work) for the last seven months. He ended up doing a lot of work in the purchasing department which is totally outside his normal field but he enjoyed it and was pretty good at it. When a new position became available, he was asked if he’d be interested in it. Not being born yesterday, he immediately accepted the job. The title is Item Unit Coordinator. Sounds strange but he’s going to be doing special projects and also trying to standardize all the pricing. For the first time since we moved to Atlanta, both of us are on somebody’s payroll.
The second thing is happen about a week later was our household expanded by two. Our trivia partner, Dawn, and her ten year old daughter were having some problems. Dawn had lost her apartment this summer and after that, lost her job as well. The two of them were living in a trailer on someone’s property. However, thanks to the ever growing area we live in, the owners decided to take the money from developers and run. Dawn and Nicole were literally going to be out on the street. We had entertained them during the hot summer days since their trailer wasn’t air conditioned. We had offered shelter to them during that time but Dawn didn’t want our help. But now she did. So Dawn and Nicole moved in. It’s been an adjustment since Rich and I have been used to it being just the two of us in the house. Things are fine but living with a ten year old girl and dealing with all those issues on a daily basis has been difficult. The nice thing is we have a built-in house and cat sitter.
So with all that going on, I made the reservations that were necessary. I knew we’d need a break and we did. I booked our normal Days Inn in Lake Park, Georgia just south of Valdosta for Friday night. Decent $49 rate. For Kissimmee, I used hotwire.com for our room. Since our focus is going to be Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival, we knew we’d just be sleeping at the hotel so we didn’t need anything special. I’ve had good success with hotwire but wanted to raise my standard from 2-1/2 star places to 3 star places. I managed to get a three star hotel for $47. Once I booked the rate and spent the money, I found it to be the Ramada Inn Gateway. It’s on the east side of I4 on Highway 192 but I’ll deal with that. We’re only going to make the trip from Disney World to the Ramada once anyway.
Once I did that, I got serious about the Festival. Allearsnet.com, of course, had the menu offerings the day after the Festival started. I printed it all out and then went through and highlighted everything I thought I would want to try. Rich actually looked at the list one night at a restaurant. He normally doesn’t pay attention to that sort of thing.
We’re doing this trip just because we can. We find our escape at Disney World. It is our Laughing Place and everyone needs one of those. So when people ask us why we go back time and time again, we reply “because we can”. And here we go.
Day One – Friday, October 14, 2005 – “The Day was Just a Draggin’”
Since we live north and east of downtown Atlanta and Disney World is south, we had to plan how to get there fairly carefully. We both work south of our house but still north of downtown. There was no way we wanted to drive back home after work only to turn around and go back the way we came. So we did the world a favor and decided to car pool for the day. If you’re not from this area, you have no idea how difficult that is during our rush traffic. I drove Rich to my work place (a 50 minute commute) and then he still had to go another half hour to get to his work. I was car less for the day and hated it. I like to get out at lunch but worked through that hour today.
Work was torture since all I wanted to do was go to Disney World. With working through lunch, I was anticipating leaving at 4:30 instead of my normal 5:30. Rich got the okay from his boss to head out at 4:30 and come back to pick me up. But around 4:00, his boss came by and said “I thought you were leaving”. Rich took him up on that offer and booked. I got the approval from my boss to leave whenever Rich got there. I don’t think he had a choice really. Right at 4:30, Rich showed up and we were heading out for fun.
I’ll give you a little commentary on Atlanta traffic. The day was beautiful. Cooler, sunny, and dry. So naturally, every key artery had a major wreck. We listened to the radio coverage and managed to avoid a lot of the trouble spots. One major interchange – I85 and I285 – is dubbed Spaghetti Junction since that’s what the whole thing looks like – a mound of spaghetti. We avoided that by taking an alternative route and then joining I285 after Spaghetti Junction. The only problem is the infamous Atlanta traffic lights. Which are not timed very well and have to be the longest reds on the entire planet. Most of the time, you are left to sit there through a couple of cycles of lights. It’s very frustrating but it’s a fact of life around here. We finally made it onto I285 and dealt with another fact of Atlanta traffic. Interstate merging is a foreign concept. At every exit/entrance ramp, we had to slow down and make sure the merging traffic was given Southern hospitality. No one seems to realize that the cars actually ON the interstate are supposed to maintain their speed. Nope, the merging traffic is given priority. I honestly think Atlanta traffic wouldn’t be so bad if we would just stop being so damn nice to each other.
We finally made it south of the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and I relaxed a bit. We made our almost traditional stop at the rest area outside of Macon. Mainly for Rich to get a Diet Coke. I picked up an orange soda myself. Again, Rich drove us the whole way today. I used the opportunity to grab a nap. I woke up when we came to a complete stop. We were almost to Valdosta and kind of anticipated this. There’s some major long term construction going on along I75. Basically to make each way three lanes which is sorely needed. We were spoiled in the past because we were going during holiday weekends when Georgia suspends all construction work. That wasn’t the case today. It took us 25 minutes to go a few miles. We were down to just one lane. It was a pain but something that is necessary. We’ll get this on the way home on Sunday too.
We had made some good time and arrived at the Days Inn around 9:00. I checked us in and we were given our usual room 102 (we always seem to end up in the back but right near the lobby). We unloaded the car and I had Rich check the TV situation. Last time we were here, we had a crappy older TV and didn’t get very good reception. We had the same crappy TV but good cable this time. The remote didn’t work but we could get around that. The reception was crucial since the NASCAR Busch race was on. We discussed dinner options and I wasn’t that hungry so Rich walked over to the neighboring McDonald’s and got some grease, I mean, burgers for us.
Then we just watched the horrible, horrible NASCAR Busch race at Charlotte. We’ve seen some nasty races but this one ranks right up there with all of them. Two red flag sessions. I swear every time we watch a NASCAR race at Disney World, it gets awful. Maybe NASCAR could just fly us to every race and then it would be a good, clean race. Rich took the opportunity to call The Kids (our son and daughter-in-law) and do a couple of changes in our fantasy NASCAR league. He talked to Chandra for quite a while. It’s great keeping in touch with our family. We watched the race in agony until Ryan Newman finally won the darn thing. But at least we weren’t at home and we weren’t at work. Lights out for me right after midnight and shortly after that (I think) for Rich.
Day Two – Saturday, October 15, 2005 – “Gus Gus Goose and Chip the Beaver”
I had set the alarm last night for 7:00 but was semi-awake at 3:00 AM. I don’t know what was going on next door but I could hear just the murmur of conversation in the room. I couldn’t make out the words but it was just a general buzz. Very aggravating. But they weren’t loud or anything. I made the best I could do and finally settled back down. We were in two double beds – we like to have our own space – so it was just me with “the problem”. But I felt well rested and then slept until the alarm went off. Pure bliss with our schedules and things happening in the past three weeks.
I actually almost bounded out of the bed and went for showering and getting ready. Rich was so not happy when I told him I was done. He said “why?” I had to laugh. I said “because big things are a doin’ today”. I can’t quite do a Mickey Mouse imitation but that’s the best I could do. Needless to say, my husband was NOT amused. But he got ready while I packed up the limited items we had. We loaded up the car and then walked up to the lobby to check out. Painless procedure and Rich grabbed some mini cinnamon rolls for the road. We actually were on the way out before 8:00.
Only to have Rich want to get gas before we got out of Georgia. It’s been the year of the Great Gas Crunch. It’s not as bad as back in the mid-1970’s with rationing but the prices are extreme. I thought Florida prices would be better than Georgia’s. So I told Rich to just continue on. Big mistake. Right after we crossed the Florida border, I saw the sign for the gas prices. Yikes! OK – back to saying to gas up right before leaving Georgia. Oh well, Elliott (our car, sorry – I name my cars) needed food so we had to suck it up and just do it.
Rich drove us until Elliott sang out that he wanted some gas. Gulp. $3.09/gallon. This was a BP station that I will probably never go to again. Just junky and horrible bathrooms and just not a nice place. The stop was further enhanced by having some sort of marathon going on so there was a cop car there and we had to watch out for the runners. At this stop Rich picked up more Diet Cokes (he was still Ofer for the prize tops on the 20 ouncers – it’s a common refrain on any trip of ours – my orange soda last night was also a loser). But we switched places in the car. He actually allowed me to drive! Rich just gets so bored being a passenger. I was about ready to go through the car roof with boredom so I was happy. The only consolation I gave to Rich was to leave the radio on for him. He found a great station – 98.5 in northern Florida. On the weekends, they do “whatever weekends”. They play so many different things. From Aerosmith to Abba to Billy Joel to Billy Idol to Elton John to ZZ Top. Well, you get the drift. Very nice station for the drive. Actually, I hate to say it but that’s what kept ME awake during the drive.
We got off the Turnpike at Route 27 as usual. I made the comment to Rich that my luck with the traffic lights on this road would probably be better than his. Here’s the official statistics. There are 13 lights from the Turnpike down to Highway 192. Including an RPL (Rich Person’s Light). That’s the first one and it’s new. For a golf course so that anytime anyone just comes down that road, the light on Route 27 turns red so the privileged don’t have to wait more than a second. I guess their Porsches and Mercedes Benzes brakes don’t work as well as a Toyota Camry’s. Anyway, I got that light thanks to some golfers finishing up from the nineteen hole. After that, I was 11 green and one red. Rich would have gotten 13 red. We did make a quick stop for a newspaper (gotta have that newspaper) and some beer for the room for Rich. We had made good time again and were cruising along Highway 192 by 11:00.
I thought the traffic wasn’t that bad so I didn’t bother to turn onto Black Lake Road to skirt around some of the bad areas. Mistake. We don’t know what was going on but people were pouring out of the road where Splendid China used to be (turns out to be a detour for construction). That made Highway 192 a parking lot. I did a typical Florida U turn and went back to take the back road to Osceola Parkway. The Ramada was on the other side of I4 so this was a good option for us. Did I really think I knew my way around here?
I used International Drive to hook back up with Highway 192, this time on the other side of I4. The only problem was while I knew the general location of where the Ramada was (HA!), I didn’t know whether to go right or left. I chose right and it wasn’t between International Drive and I4 so I did another Florida U turn and came back. I went all the way down past mile marker 10 before giving up, pulling into a parking lot, and calling the Ramada. By this time, I was very frustrated at myself for not going into expedia yesterday and printing out the directions and maps. I always do that but this time I didn’t. Fortunately, I had the reservation confirmation with the hotel phone number on it. I do like that hotwire will give all that information to you when they send you an email after you make your reservation.
I sweetly asked the nice lady if she could tell me what mile marker the Ramada was located at. She said between markers 5 & 6. Whaa?! That’s on the west side of I4, not this side! Where in the Sam Hill did I get the idea it was on the east side? I’m vowing to go back to the Ramada website and see just what their maps look like. I’m the navigator and the planner in the family and this kind of thing bugs me. Now I had to go back five miles on nasty Highway 192. After I ended the call (you never really hang up a cell phone, do you?), I muttered some very unfamily-like words. I was mad at myself more than anything. Rich just quietly asked if he should drive. I said more words that will never make it into a trip report and sat at a typical Florida traffic light for about five minutes (these are just as bad as Atlanta’s) and said more things about how stupid I was. That got me over my mood. There’s nothing like yelling at yourself to help you get over things.
Traffic going west wasn’t as bad as the traffic we encountered earlier (and there are lots of lights here too and I wasn’t that lucky this time) and we were finally at mile marker six. Silly me hadn’t asked the nice Ramada lady which side of Highway 192 they were on. As Rich said, there are so many business signs along here that it’s difficult to find the one you are looking for. I was concentrating on driving so Rich spotted the familiar Ramada red sign. On the left hand side. Then he said, “uh oh, I see another one on the right too”. Believe it or not, there are two Ramadas right across Highway 192 from each other. I thought ours had Maingate in the name so the one on the right fit that. I pulled into it and was so sorely disappointed. It was the same Ramada we stayed at last time I hotwired a hotel room down here. That was the cause of me upgrading to a three star this time. We both thought the accommodations were “OK” at best. When we pulled in, I checked the address on the building. Then I checked the confirmation. This was NOT our Ramada, thank goodness. We wanted the one on the other side.
For the record. The crappy Ramada was Ramada Inn Resort – Maingate and has a Reedy Creek Boulevard address. Our place was the Ramada Plaza Hotel - Inn Gateway and has a Highway 192 address. But you could throw a stone from one to the other and hit. Get exact, and I mean exact directions to your offsite hotel. I know this area very well even though I don’t live here (although sometimes it seems like I do) and I was so confused with the dueling Ramadas. Cue up the Deliverance music.
My driving frustration was not over yet. That’s a hint to anyone staying offsite. Highway 192 can be a bear. I made a right out of the creepy Ramada onto Highway 192. I had to make a left at the next light to get to the good Ramada. Five minutes later (seriously), I finally got to do that and was looking for the access road to get into the property. I couldn’t get to it since there was a median in the road. So I had to go and do yet another Florida U turn to come back. I finally pulled into the parking lot. I felt exhausted!
By this time, it was 11:30 and I was a little concerned. Sometimes the hotels in this area will not even let you check in before the official time. Some will let you check in and then have you come back for your room keys. That doesn’t bother me but I do get annoyed if I’m there and the room isn’t ready and I can’t handle the paperwork then. There was only one guy at the registration and he was helping an older gentleman who was having some sort of difficult problem. Behind him was someone who had almost run Rich over trying to get ahead of us - a guy clearly in a hurry. After a few minutes, when it was obvious that no one additional was going to man the registration desk, I chalked it up to my lousy luck of the morning and settled in to wait. The in a hurry guy turned into cell phone guy and started walking around the lobby. Rich and I had no idea what he wanted or if he needed help at the front desk or what. Cell phone guy then walks outside. We moved up to first in line. There was a mom and her daughters who were now second. Right as the older gentleman finishes up whatever problem he had, cell phone guy comes back in and wants to go in front of us! Fortunately, the registration guy said “may I help you folks” and gestured to Rich and me.
This Ramada will get high marks from both of us. The lobby was nice, there’s a restaurant and a deli on site. The staff (the two I encountered) were very nice and professional. We were told that we were a little early and my heart sank. But then we were told that there were rooms available but they were in the back of this rather large hotel campus. Rich and I both immediately said that was fine. We did not care about the location since we knew whenever we got back tonight, we’d be beat anyway. We were given room keys to 485 and actually were asked if we minded the second floor. Heck no. I prefer that to the first floor. The back buildings here are only two stories with no elevators. The main building has more stories than that. We didn’t stick around to check it out. We have some food, wine, and beer waiting for us. We were told to take this one slip of paper over to the guest service area “to complete your check in process”. It was the place where they sell not only Disney tickets but timeshare presentations. We skipped that little step and no one has thrown us out yet.
Rich drove us around to our room. We were the first room after a breezeway which made the unpacking very easy. The only downfall was we were right next to the ice machine. But I figured that wouldn’t be a problem since we’d be back later and we’d be tired and never hear it. I give the Ramada my prize for “The Hardest Door to Open”. The key worked fine but that door was heavy! Rich even had a hard time opening it. This was definitely an improvement over the crappy Ramada of last time. This room was very nice with two queen beds and three pillows. Just a much, much nicer feel to everything. And we had a refrigerator which I didn’t know about. Good – get those good ole American beers cooled down for after the Festival. To cleanse the palate, you know.
We took a short break in the room and I got my bags park ready. Rich would be carrying the denim bag and I had my small camera case. We debated taking the ponchos with us. After getting soaked several (many!) times with Florida storms, we tend to have some sort of protection with us. Rich looked out the window and said there were some clouds up there. That decided it. A cloud in Florida could mean rain. The ponchos went with us. Other than that, the day was absolutely beautiful. Probably mid-80s. A few clouds but nothing major (at that time). We headed out for fun shortly after noon.
Rich parked Elliott and got him situated for his long wait for us. Meaning we put the sunshade on him. I groaned when I realized Rich’s NASCAR twofer he just pulled on me. Rich and I just don’t like the same drivers. Gleefully, Rich donned his Ryan Newman ball cap for the day. Yeck, I had to look at that all day? And then I had to help him with the Kurt Busch sunshade. That’s when I told him our house was getting decorated in red number 8s and all the number 24 stuff I could find. He thought that was quite amusing.
On our walk to the International Gateway, I was secretly thinking that I’d love to do our normal and stop at the Boardwalk pizza window for a beverage and a sit down. That’s my “I’m here” moment. As we were crossing the bridge to the Boardwalk, Rich says “are we going in right away or can we stop for our usual?” The man made my day! I replied that I would be overjoyed with stopping. For that moment, I loved that man (later I wouldn’t). Rich wanted a slice of pizza but I deferred, wanting to be able to enjoy the selections inside. That was the start of the first downfall of the trip. But it didn’t happen yet. Rich was dismayed to find out the window had gone to bottle beer and not draft. He was disappointed but settled for a white wine with me. He also had a slice of pepperoni and determined that the sauce had more oregano in it this time and that made it better. My husband is a pizza connoisseur.
Earlier, there was an amusing incident with a mother and her two young adult daughters (I’m assuming the relationship). There was a Friendship boat at the Boardwalk dock waiting to go to Epcot. Those boats don’t sit around very long. The mom and the girls were just standing on the Boardwalk and not bothering to try and board the boat. The boat, needless to say, took off. The mom was so peeved that it hadn’t sat there longer and waited for them. I’m sure that skipper had ESP to know these three physically fit people didn’t want to take the five minute walk over to Epcot.
After our nice break (and I’m here!), we continued on foot to the International Gateway. Where a whole mob of people were waiting to buy tickets. We’ve never seen those booths that crowded. Should have given us a heads up. We got through the turn styles and then decided on a clockwise route for our adventure.
Before I go much further, there will be references to what we had to drink in this report. We enjoyed ourselves but paced out the drinking and the eating so that at no time were we ever enjoying ourselves too much. There were lots of people we saw who should have just said no or had some water or coffee or something but we weren’t two of them. Besides, what’s the point of the Festival if you are so completely wasted that you can’t do what you are supposed to do – sample everything. And I’ll try and remember everything we did. I’ll include prices too for reference sake.
The first booth was New Zealand but we passed since they didn’t have my mussels I liked two years ago. Rich was disappointed for me. We also passed up the Poland booth, which we should have visited since that’s our ancestral home (we consider ourselves Americans, not Polish-Americans since our parents were born here. That’s right, we’re mutts). The reason is the pierogies that are served are the regular Mrs. T’s you can get in the freezer section of your local grocery store. Rich was so severely disappointed in that experience two years ago that he was boycotting the Poland booth. Not even the nut bar could get him interested. I guess I have spoiled him quite a bit with my homemade pierogies based on a combination of my mother’s recipe and his mother’s teachings.
We veered off the Festival path and went into the Canada shop to see if the fifth Off Kilter CD was there. Nope. Well, we’ll just give all the money to the boys and buy it off their website (and I did the week we got home). Canada has a killer band and could make a fortune off all the CDs but if you just have two available, well, you snooze, you lose. I saw these little stuffed animals that were on sale. Rich really centered in on the goose. A Canada Goose. A stuffed Canada Goose. How often do you see that? Only $4.95. But then Rich, the ever loving nature lover, had to check out all the other stuffed critters. Then he noticed the goose’s name (on the rear end tag). Gus. Sealed the deal. Had to get one of these on the way out. Our almost King Cat’s name is Gus (after the mouse in Cinderella). I call him Gus Gus Goose all the time. It’s Destiny.
The Canada booth was up next and this is where we noticed just how long the lines were. It was lunchtime and people were HUNGRY! This is where the communication with Rich took a big nose dive. He had the pizza, I hadn’t. He was so concerned about me getting enough food that he became my mother. He knew I wanted the cheese soup but I didn’t want to stand in the line, figuring we’d come back later when it wasn’t a traditional meal time. That got him pouting a bit. Greece was up next but neither one of us likes that type of food so we just looked and walked on.
Then it was the Florida Shrimp booth. I love shrimp. I wasn’t too sure about the exact dishes here but the shrimp salad roll was very popular ($3.00). The only problem was the roll part. I’m not a huge bread eater. There was also sauteed shrimp with some stuff (lime and ginger chutney) for $4.25. Just didn’t look good. Kind of looked like the ocean had come on shore with the shrimp. I decided on the cold poached shrimp with cucumber slaw. I don’t like cucumber but there were two huge shrimp there for $4.00. The main reason for stopping here was to try the mango wine ($3.00). We had enjoyed the grapefruit wine here two years ago so wanted to try this. We took our purchases over to a shaded bench to enjoy.
I thought the shrimp was fairly good. It’s tough to mess up shrimp, especially cold shrimp. I gave Rich the tail section after I was done with the first one. I asked him what he thought. He said “ehh – tastes like the cucumber stuff”. I said I thought it was good because that cut down on the fishy taste. This was going to be a long Festival since we have such different tastes in food. The mango wine, while OK, took some time getting used to. Definitely an after dessert wine. We weren’t going to buy a bottle of this like we had with the grapefruit stuff.
After our break, we went down to the Festival Center which was in Innoventions. They had all the different wines that were offered at the Festival in bottles. There was one I was particularly interested in so I wanted to check it out. It’s the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee that I heard about from the Disney Cruise Line boards. It was here at the Festival and I was going to try it, lines or no lines. I found the bottle and it stayed on the shelf. $38.50! Yike! This is coming from a woman who normally drinks her wines out of a box so that’s the statement there. BTW – you can buy the wines by the bottle from each of the booths as well.
We thought about going for FastPasses to Soarin’ but decided against it. Why? As Rich put it, you have to take a hike to The Land and then once you get there, you have to take another hike just to get back to see if a FastPass return time is reasonable for you. We still hope Disney puts a wait time board just for Soarin’ right outside The Land pavilion. Or right inside the doors. Rich said something about Test Track but I pointed out that we hadn’t heard it zooming around at all. We deemed Mission:Space too far to walk too and besides, that’s not what we were here for. Back to the Festival!
We passed on the Tortilla Cocina booth. Mostly wraps which neither one of us cares for. Then Puerto Rico. Not a big hit food wise but Rich found his Beer of the Festival. A Cuccoo Bay Lemon Lager (12 ounces for $4.25). He had me try it and it didn’t taste like beer. It tasted like lemonade with a kick. I didn’t like it. He LOVED it. Yeck.
Mexico was up next and that’s where Rich’s quesadillas are. But the line for him was way too long. I chided him that I was worried he wasn’t getting enough to eat. He didn’t appreciate it. I called him Mom. And he really didn’t appreciate that. Thankfully, we continued on without incident. Scandinavia was up next and I was looking forward to the meatballs. But make that one meatball for $2.50 and a long line. Movin’ on. Ireland was a possibility for Rich with the flourless chocolate cake (I can’t eat a lot of chocolate since it gives me migraines). But he wasn’t in the mood this early for dessert. China was next and we were interested in the pot stickers but, again, the line was too long. We realized that if we really wanted anything, we’d have to suck it up and stand in line. We passed up South Africa and the traditional beef casserole just because we couldn’t identify what the casserole was. Every booth has a sample of what the dishes looked like and this just wasn’t something that appealed to us.
Onto Australia and we did the line. Shrimp on the Barbie, Mate! But I wanted the beef on the barbie. I just had shrimp. With this line, the people with credit purchases (including room charges) went to one line and the cash people (us) went to another. It was taking a longer time to process the credit purchases. After placing our order for two beef skewers, we were given laminated cards to indicate our items and then went up to the counter. Fairly efficient way to handle things. We definitely needed to sit down to eat our food so we walked towards the Germany pavilion. By this time, we had been here a couple of hours and only progressed from the International Gateway to the Germany pavilion with a quick drop down into Future World. A guy on a shaded bench told me he’d give me his seat for my food. I laughed and continued on where we scored a shaded picnic table on our overhang.
While we were sitting at the table, which was more than big enough for six people, two older women approached us and asked if they could join us. “Of course” we said. Most Americans would never do this but we don’t mind. The beef skewers were good but the sauce they were in left a bad aftertaste with me. Rich got more than one skewer of beef. I really need a drink after this so while I used the bathroom facilities in Germany, Rich went inside to the wine place, each of us thinking the lines would be shorter. We were wrong but had some interesting human sightings.
I joined Rich in line and he said the two women in front of him were quite, err, affectionate with each other. Personally, I don’t care but just like with any PDA, please do it discreetly and not in a crowded Germany wine shop at Disney World. We ended up talking to the two ladies and Rich gave them advice on what to order once they got up to the counter. I missed the PDA, though. Rich was amused.
All of us witnessed several groups who wanted the wine tastings (Germany provides these year round but they were especially popular today – go figure). These groups were in the category of “should have stopped several drinks ago”. They clearly weren’t interested in “tasting”. But the Cast members on the counter now had to move over to the “tastings”, leaving only one person to deal with slow moving line. It took forever. When we were finally helped, Rich ordered me a Kabernet and that was it. Dear man stood with me that whole time and he didn’t want anything! OK, he gained back those points he lost with the food worries.
After escaping Germany (their booth was crowded too), it was onto Italy where we saw more lines. Rich and I agreed again that the more “familiar” booths were packed – Germany, Italy, Mexico. Foreign foods but things Americans can identify with. I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t come to the Food & Wine Festival to hit the Italy booth for pepperoni pizza or baked ziti. We moved on.
And if Rich got his Beer of the Festival earlier, I got my Treat of the Festival at the next booth. The Champagne booth. That’s where the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee was for $6.00. I joined the line and Rich stood patiently waiting for me with my German wine. I didn’t want to be a two fisted drinker but I wasn’t passing up the opportunity. I ordered the champagne and then saw the wine wafers listed. I thought that would be good to cleanse my palate between the German wine and the champagne. I paid my $1.25 for the wafer and expected something like a lady finger. Nope. This sucker was about an 8 inch flat circle. And absolutely delicious. A perfect way to get ride of wine taste in your mouth. Pure heaven for me.
With my two drinks and the gigantic wafer, I needed to sit down. Rich was ready for some good American beer so we went to the Liberty Inn seating area. Rich went inside to make Mr. Busch happy after looking at Mr. Adams’ choices outside. We took a much needed break since we had been doing almost nothing but walking since noon. We both were having sore backs and sore brains from dodging the crowds. We had been here over three hours and only covered half of the World Showcase. The crowd level was higher than I expected. I had counted on the local crowd since it was a Saturday but this was more than anticipated. But we tried to deal with it.
We went into the American gift shop but didn’t see that much we couldn’t live without. The booths here were crowded as well. We were pretty much OK with food and drink so we decided to move on and relax for the rest of the day. Neither one of us expected to be taking this much time to go around World Showcase but we adjusted. Japan was up next and while sushi has its fans, it’s not in the Niklewski household. Then India which was fine with Rich but I’m the wimp when it comes to spices. We looked and kept walking. Morocco was next and that was OK but, again, the lines were so long. Spain was the same way. Nothing interested us in Turkey. We’re not really that picky but we had to deal with crowds, energy levels, and the general state of the guests at the Festival. People were really “getting into the spirit” by now.
France was the next booth and I heard the freedom snails calling. And they are still calling me. In retrospect, I should have just done the line and gotten the darn things. But I didn’t and I’ll regret it for quite a while. By now it was close to 5:00 and we had been here four hours to make one circle around World Showcase. Not quite the relaxing day we thought it would be. I suggested that maybe to go into Future World and actually do an attraction or two. Rich had mentioned Soarin’ earlier but neither one of us in our brittle mental state wanted to attempt. Seriously, trying to dodge all these people intently wanting food or wine or beer or whatever and not paying attention to anyone around them was tiring. I attempted to say “let’s do Spaceship Earth” but what came out of my mouth was “Universe of Energy”. Drat it. I like the whole presentation but not a repeater for me and we had just done this last year. But Rich likes it so that’s where we headed. That’s a heck of a long walk from World Showcase. I think we were up to ten miles or so. Even if we weren’t it sure seemed that way.
We walked right in for the start of the preshow. OK, this was turning out better. I like the whole Jeopardy premise. We like Ellen, we like Jamie Lee Curtis, Alex Trebek is a toss up. Can’t determine if he’s doing a parody of his smarmy self or not. However, Bill Nye the Science Guy is a total loser for me. So I just ignore his rumblings although the message is a good one. At least we were sitting down (head for the back seats in the left section – you’ll be right in the middle of everything but no one takes those rows thinking they won’t see enough). After we figured out what is the only source of energy that will never run out, we headed to see what FastPass options were available for either Test Track or Mission:Space. This was around 5:45 or so and we weren’t hopeful. Much to our surprise, FastPasses for Mission:Space were available for 6:15-7:15 so we grabbed those. Then we walked over to Test Track and while they had cars zipping along, the lines weren’t open yet but there were still gobs of people waiting to get in. Why?
We used the opportunity to peruse Mouse Gears but didn’t buy anything. Then Rich mentioned the Canadian cheese soup for me (still worried I didn’t get enough to eat but trust me, I had enough) and he also mentioned the lemon lager again. The line for the Canada booth was long but I got in it anyway. And got the soup. We got a stand up table (groan) somewhere up the line and stopped for a while. I had also picked up a Riesling to go with the soup. Rich headed out to Puerto Rico for his lemon lager while I enjoyed the soup. The crowd had REALLY picked up and we lucky to have a space at this table. It was right outside of Mexico so things were getting packed. I finished up the soup (seemed a bit spicier than the first time I had it – maybe I’m getting wimpier) and Rich returned with his beer and we waited and people watched until our Mission:Space window opened up.
Once we were in our time frame, we headed back to Mars. I expected a longer wait. It was about 6:45 and the entire queue lines were open. That shocked both of us. We don’t know why this was the case. Epcot was packed with the Food & Wine Festival but Mission:Space at 6:45 PM was a total walk on for stand by, FastPass and single riders. On a Saturday night. When we got into our queue (those FastPasses were so not needed), Rich asked the Cast Member where everyone was. The guy said “I don’t know but if you see them, tell them to come over, we’re bored”. We got into our assigned pod space and I was the Navigator. This has got to be the most boring job on the mission. I got to put us around the moon (big deal) and then into hypersleep (can everyone say, “yawn”?). Well, at least Gary Sinese was there. That’s good enough for me.
After we completed our mission, we headed for another walk around World Showcase. Our second one and we had been here for over six hours. We went by Test Track which still wasn’t open but still had the lines of people waiting to get in. I wanted to tell everyone that Mission:Space was a walk on and there was no indication that Test Track was even going to be functioning that night. Oh well, to each his own.
Our intent for our last walk around was just to see if any booth was a possibility. That didn’t happen as the Saturday night local/dinner crowd had arrived. Rich’s quesadillas and my freedom snails would definitely have to wait until next year (and we’re coming on a week night). We walked though the throngs of adults clearly enjoying the Festival. Rich remarked that the NASCAR Charlotte race was starting. That sounded great back in the comforts of our room and away from what appeared to be getting towards madness. I did want to see Illuminations but after walking around for almost seven hours, I needed a break.
We made it around to America and the performance of the Eat to the Beat concert series. We usually will try and catch these acts and have become fans of several of the bands (same with the Flower Power series in May/June). We had no idea who The Gap Band was but caught the end of their act. OK, there are a lot of people who do know The Gap Band and were singing along and really getting into it. If we weren’t so tired and had more time, maybe we could have caught the next session. They were pretty good but just no group we had ever listened to before. Good alternative for Disney World, though.
We made it around to the International Gateway and I mentioned the Gus Gus Goose to Rich again. We were both tired but the stuffed thing was so cute (and on sale, a rarity at Disney World) so we hiked to Canada and picked up not only Gus Gus Goose but Chip the Beaver (also on sale). Rich’s reasoning was that Gus needed to have a friend to travel with. Yes, the man is even kind to inanimate animal creatures.
Our Disney day done, we headed out and back to the car. Rich expressed an interest in going to New York Pizza World for something. I groaned. I mentioned the NASCAR Charlotte race and then he changed his mind to the pizza delivery back at the hotel. Whatever. I told him I was fine for food but wanted to stop at the Boardwalk Bakery for something either for later or for the morning. This is becoming a favorite thing for us to do. The Cast Members tonight though were not very thrilled to be there. Usually, there aren’t that many people in here getting pastries this late at night but things were packed from the Festival. I really couldn’t see the choices until we were right in front of the display and then the Cast Members were antsy to get us helped and out of there. Rich got his cinnamon slab, err, roll. I settled for an éclair. Those kind of got mushed into a bag for our takeout. Prices here are reasonable and the portions are pretty big.
Then back to Elliott and offsite. Our quick trip was over and while we were extremely tired, we were happy. We didn’t get everything done at the Festival we wanted but it was a nice break with everything going on in our lives. We were together. Back in the room, we chilled and watched the extremely awful Charlotte NASCAR race. I’m serious – every time we are at Disney World and NASCAR is on, the race is awful. This time it was blown tires all night long. Plus, three of my drivers all wrecked at the same time. I gave up and just read for a while. Then lights out after Jimmie Johnson came from no where to win the thing. I think everyone in NASCAR breathed a sigh of relief that stupid race was over.
Day Three – Sunday, October 16, 2005 – “Family and Headin’ Home”
We didn’t set the alarm but I knew I’d be up by 8:00 anyway and I was. The timing for the trip home was critical. We do weekly trivia at 6:30 and wanted to make that. But we also wanted to stop in Gainesville, Florida to see my sister and her family and pick up some of the stuffed olives they make. Sandy’s place is an easy jog off I75. We also had to think about who would be driving which legs of the trip. I did NOT want to drive through the construction in Valdosta. That kind of thing makes me crazy. I worked on the trip report and Rich got up around 8:30 or so. He tried to pressure me to going right away but I resisted and finished up what I was working on. I figured if we left by 10:00, we’d be fine. I did give in a bit and we were leaving the Ramada by 9:30.
Rich did the driving out on Route 27. I told him I’d monitor his red light luck. Or lack thereof. For the record, he was 7-6 but there were two lights that were red and changed to green after he slowed down. We deemed those tied. Once we left the turnpike and were on I75, I called Sandy (actually got Kelsey, her daughter) and said we’d be there in about an hour. The stops in at Sandy, which are becoming a habit now that she’s moved so close, really help to break up the drive for us.
We got to Sandy’s house after Rich had some very extreme Sunday morning drivers. Speed limit of 40 MPH but I guess no one wanted to go over 30. Getting to Sandy’s house is interesting because there’s a traffic rotary which is unusual. And no one in Florida (or at least Gainesville) knows what to do. The traffic in the circle has the right of way. Those merging into it should yield. That’s why everyone in the circle stopped to let those merging in. I think the Southern Georgia hospitality came a bit further south today. We finally made it to Sandy’s and saw Kelsey outside cleaning out the pool (well, come to think of it, she couldn’t be inside cleaning out the pool).
We had a nice, short visit with Sandy and her husband Rich and their kids Kelsey and Wesley. We also picked up a jar each of stuffed jalapeno olives, garlic olives, and a combo jalapeno/garlic one. We don’t like the stuff but the tailgaters at the Falcons games do. We’ll make a small profit and see if the demand is there for future sales. Tailgaters eat and drink just about anything. Our next game is a Monday Night one so these things will go fast.
We left Sandy’s around 12:30 and I figured we’d have a tight fit to get home for the 6:30 trivia night. I drove for this leg and wanted to switch off to Rich around Valdosta (about two hours away) so he could get us through the construction. We would need gas by that time and wanted it in Georgia with the lower prices. Not that low but lower than Florida. I pulled over at exit 18 and we filled Elliott up and switched drivers. I felt bad for making Rich go through the construction but it was better than him hearing me gripe and cuss for five miles.
We had to find the Falcons game on the radio and I have a complaint about south Georgia. Is there no station there that carries the Falcons? We had to depend on ESPN radio for a couple of hours. Agony for us season ticket holders. But we finally got a station in and listened to the nailbiter of an ending. Falcons won on a last minute field goal that at first missed and then the kicker got two defensive penalties to help him out and nailed it with seconds left on the clock. Not a pretty game but another win for the Falcons.
So we start north on I75. And continue north without a break in anything. I guess Georgia suspends all construction on Sundays too. Now I really felt bad because Rich didn’t want me driving through Atlanta either so he drove for all but two hours of the entire 15 hour round trip. We were home before 6:00 so we easily made the trivia trip. Have to have those priorities, you know.
And in Conclusion
This was a totally insane and last minute trip that worked out great. Both of us needed the break from our daily lives and Disney World certainly does that for us. Hotwiring the hotel worked nicely even with the mix up (for me) as to where the Ramada actually was. Atlanta traffic and the construction near Valdosta were pains but something we anticipated and just dealt with. As long as we can skirt around the crashes in Atlanta, we’re fine. A hint – never go through this area without a very detailed Atlanta map with you. Knowing that we could take Jimmy Carter Boulevard out to Stone Mountain Freeway and then get onto I285 was invaluable to avoid an accident on Spaghetti Junction.
We’ve been to Disney World at crowded times. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve. Rich remarked that this was the most packed we have ever seen. And it was. The Food and Wine Festival continues to be extremely popular and we anticipated that. I think that if we decide to do this next year, we’re going to change plans and get there much earlier on Saturday and then stay until Sunday early afternoon. That way, we can tour around without crowds before mid afternoon. Saturday evening is NOT the time to leisurely enjoy the Festival.
Would I do this again? You bet. With Rich working and having Dawn and Nicole at the house, Rich and I don’t get a lot of time alone together. This was a special trip and one that I will look back on with fondness. We broke free of all the conventional things and had fun. People think we’re crazy to do a short weekend trip but I at least came home and felt revitalized. Yes, I was tired but it was a good tired. By Tuesday, I had recovered and was thinking about planning our Christmas trip. Another quick one since neither one of us wants to take any more time off. Before that, though, we’ll be on the Disney Magic for a seven day cruise with Rich’s parents.
Sheri Niklewski
Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Personal car
Resort: Offsite
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: October didn't have a three-day weekend so she and her husband went to Walt Disney World for their own long weekend.
Sheri Niklewski -- October 2005 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite)
We had just been to Disney World for Labor Day, completing our 2005 run of three day weekends. I toyed with the idea of doing a quick weekend trip for the Food and Wine Festival since we missed it last year. There was one weekend in October that we didn’t have anything planned so I mentally decided to place that weekend on hold. I had no idea that our lives would be totally turned around in about three weeks.
The first thing to happen was Rich finally getting a permanent job for the first time in three years. He had been working on a contract basis for a textile laundry manufacturing company (where I used to work) for the last seven months. He ended up doing a lot of work in the purchasing department which is totally outside his normal field but he enjoyed it and was pretty good at it. When a new position became available, he was asked if he’d be interested in it. Not being born yesterday, he immediately accepted the job. The title is Item Unit Coordinator. Sounds strange but he’s going to be doing special projects and also trying to standardize all the pricing. For the first time since we moved to Atlanta, both of us are on somebody’s payroll.
The second thing is happen about a week later was our household expanded by two. Our trivia partner, Dawn, and her ten year old daughter were having some problems. Dawn had lost her apartment this summer and after that, lost her job as well. The two of them were living in a trailer on someone’s property. However, thanks to the ever growing area we live in, the owners decided to take the money from developers and run. Dawn and Nicole were literally going to be out on the street. We had entertained them during the hot summer days since their trailer wasn’t air conditioned. We had offered shelter to them during that time but Dawn didn’t want our help. But now she did. So Dawn and Nicole moved in. It’s been an adjustment since Rich and I have been used to it being just the two of us in the house. Things are fine but living with a ten year old girl and dealing with all those issues on a daily basis has been difficult. The nice thing is we have a built-in house and cat sitter.
So with all that going on, I made the reservations that were necessary. I knew we’d need a break and we did. I booked our normal Days Inn in Lake Park, Georgia just south of Valdosta for Friday night. Decent $49 rate. For Kissimmee, I used hotwire.com for our room. Since our focus is going to be Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival, we knew we’d just be sleeping at the hotel so we didn’t need anything special. I’ve had good success with hotwire but wanted to raise my standard from 2-1/2 star places to 3 star places. I managed to get a three star hotel for $47. Once I booked the rate and spent the money, I found it to be the Ramada Inn Gateway. It’s on the east side of I4 on Highway 192 but I’ll deal with that. We’re only going to make the trip from Disney World to the Ramada once anyway.
Once I did that, I got serious about the Festival. Allearsnet.com, of course, had the menu offerings the day after the Festival started. I printed it all out and then went through and highlighted everything I thought I would want to try. Rich actually looked at the list one night at a restaurant. He normally doesn’t pay attention to that sort of thing.
We’re doing this trip just because we can. We find our escape at Disney World. It is our Laughing Place and everyone needs one of those. So when people ask us why we go back time and time again, we reply “because we can”. And here we go.
Day One – Friday, October 14, 2005 – “The Day was Just a Draggin’”
Since we live north and east of downtown Atlanta and Disney World is south, we had to plan how to get there fairly carefully. We both work south of our house but still north of downtown. There was no way we wanted to drive back home after work only to turn around and go back the way we came. So we did the world a favor and decided to car pool for the day. If you’re not from this area, you have no idea how difficult that is during our rush traffic. I drove Rich to my work place (a 50 minute commute) and then he still had to go another half hour to get to his work. I was car less for the day and hated it. I like to get out at lunch but worked through that hour today.
Work was torture since all I wanted to do was go to Disney World. With working through lunch, I was anticipating leaving at 4:30 instead of my normal 5:30. Rich got the okay from his boss to head out at 4:30 and come back to pick me up. But around 4:00, his boss came by and said “I thought you were leaving”. Rich took him up on that offer and booked. I got the approval from my boss to leave whenever Rich got there. I don’t think he had a choice really. Right at 4:30, Rich showed up and we were heading out for fun.
I’ll give you a little commentary on Atlanta traffic. The day was beautiful. Cooler, sunny, and dry. So naturally, every key artery had a major wreck. We listened to the radio coverage and managed to avoid a lot of the trouble spots. One major interchange – I85 and I285 – is dubbed Spaghetti Junction since that’s what the whole thing looks like – a mound of spaghetti. We avoided that by taking an alternative route and then joining I285 after Spaghetti Junction. The only problem is the infamous Atlanta traffic lights. Which are not timed very well and have to be the longest reds on the entire planet. Most of the time, you are left to sit there through a couple of cycles of lights. It’s very frustrating but it’s a fact of life around here. We finally made it onto I285 and dealt with another fact of Atlanta traffic. Interstate merging is a foreign concept. At every exit/entrance ramp, we had to slow down and make sure the merging traffic was given Southern hospitality. No one seems to realize that the cars actually ON the interstate are supposed to maintain their speed. Nope, the merging traffic is given priority. I honestly think Atlanta traffic wouldn’t be so bad if we would just stop being so damn nice to each other.
We finally made it south of the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and I relaxed a bit. We made our almost traditional stop at the rest area outside of Macon. Mainly for Rich to get a Diet Coke. I picked up an orange soda myself. Again, Rich drove us the whole way today. I used the opportunity to grab a nap. I woke up when we came to a complete stop. We were almost to Valdosta and kind of anticipated this. There’s some major long term construction going on along I75. Basically to make each way three lanes which is sorely needed. We were spoiled in the past because we were going during holiday weekends when Georgia suspends all construction work. That wasn’t the case today. It took us 25 minutes to go a few miles. We were down to just one lane. It was a pain but something that is necessary. We’ll get this on the way home on Sunday too.
We had made some good time and arrived at the Days Inn around 9:00. I checked us in and we were given our usual room 102 (we always seem to end up in the back but right near the lobby). We unloaded the car and I had Rich check the TV situation. Last time we were here, we had a crappy older TV and didn’t get very good reception. We had the same crappy TV but good cable this time. The remote didn’t work but we could get around that. The reception was crucial since the NASCAR Busch race was on. We discussed dinner options and I wasn’t that hungry so Rich walked over to the neighboring McDonald’s and got some grease, I mean, burgers for us.
Then we just watched the horrible, horrible NASCAR Busch race at Charlotte. We’ve seen some nasty races but this one ranks right up there with all of them. Two red flag sessions. I swear every time we watch a NASCAR race at Disney World, it gets awful. Maybe NASCAR could just fly us to every race and then it would be a good, clean race. Rich took the opportunity to call The Kids (our son and daughter-in-law) and do a couple of changes in our fantasy NASCAR league. He talked to Chandra for quite a while. It’s great keeping in touch with our family. We watched the race in agony until Ryan Newman finally won the darn thing. But at least we weren’t at home and we weren’t at work. Lights out for me right after midnight and shortly after that (I think) for Rich.
Day Two – Saturday, October 15, 2005 – “Gus Gus Goose and Chip the Beaver”
I had set the alarm last night for 7:00 but was semi-awake at 3:00 AM. I don’t know what was going on next door but I could hear just the murmur of conversation in the room. I couldn’t make out the words but it was just a general buzz. Very aggravating. But they weren’t loud or anything. I made the best I could do and finally settled back down. We were in two double beds – we like to have our own space – so it was just me with “the problem”. But I felt well rested and then slept until the alarm went off. Pure bliss with our schedules and things happening in the past three weeks.
I actually almost bounded out of the bed and went for showering and getting ready. Rich was so not happy when I told him I was done. He said “why?” I had to laugh. I said “because big things are a doin’ today”. I can’t quite do a Mickey Mouse imitation but that’s the best I could do. Needless to say, my husband was NOT amused. But he got ready while I packed up the limited items we had. We loaded up the car and then walked up to the lobby to check out. Painless procedure and Rich grabbed some mini cinnamon rolls for the road. We actually were on the way out before 8:00.
Only to have Rich want to get gas before we got out of Georgia. It’s been the year of the Great Gas Crunch. It’s not as bad as back in the mid-1970’s with rationing but the prices are extreme. I thought Florida prices would be better than Georgia’s. So I told Rich to just continue on. Big mistake. Right after we crossed the Florida border, I saw the sign for the gas prices. Yikes! OK – back to saying to gas up right before leaving Georgia. Oh well, Elliott (our car, sorry – I name my cars) needed food so we had to suck it up and just do it.
Rich drove us until Elliott sang out that he wanted some gas. Gulp. $3.09/gallon. This was a BP station that I will probably never go to again. Just junky and horrible bathrooms and just not a nice place. The stop was further enhanced by having some sort of marathon going on so there was a cop car there and we had to watch out for the runners. At this stop Rich picked up more Diet Cokes (he was still Ofer for the prize tops on the 20 ouncers – it’s a common refrain on any trip of ours – my orange soda last night was also a loser). But we switched places in the car. He actually allowed me to drive! Rich just gets so bored being a passenger. I was about ready to go through the car roof with boredom so I was happy. The only consolation I gave to Rich was to leave the radio on for him. He found a great station – 98.5 in northern Florida. On the weekends, they do “whatever weekends”. They play so many different things. From Aerosmith to Abba to Billy Joel to Billy Idol to Elton John to ZZ Top. Well, you get the drift. Very nice station for the drive. Actually, I hate to say it but that’s what kept ME awake during the drive.
We got off the Turnpike at Route 27 as usual. I made the comment to Rich that my luck with the traffic lights on this road would probably be better than his. Here’s the official statistics. There are 13 lights from the Turnpike down to Highway 192. Including an RPL (Rich Person’s Light). That’s the first one and it’s new. For a golf course so that anytime anyone just comes down that road, the light on Route 27 turns red so the privileged don’t have to wait more than a second. I guess their Porsches and Mercedes Benzes brakes don’t work as well as a Toyota Camry’s. Anyway, I got that light thanks to some golfers finishing up from the nineteen hole. After that, I was 11 green and one red. Rich would have gotten 13 red. We did make a quick stop for a newspaper (gotta have that newspaper) and some beer for the room for Rich. We had made good time again and were cruising along Highway 192 by 11:00.
I thought the traffic wasn’t that bad so I didn’t bother to turn onto Black Lake Road to skirt around some of the bad areas. Mistake. We don’t know what was going on but people were pouring out of the road where Splendid China used to be (turns out to be a detour for construction). That made Highway 192 a parking lot. I did a typical Florida U turn and went back to take the back road to Osceola Parkway. The Ramada was on the other side of I4 so this was a good option for us. Did I really think I knew my way around here?
I used International Drive to hook back up with Highway 192, this time on the other side of I4. The only problem was while I knew the general location of where the Ramada was (HA!), I didn’t know whether to go right or left. I chose right and it wasn’t between International Drive and I4 so I did another Florida U turn and came back. I went all the way down past mile marker 10 before giving up, pulling into a parking lot, and calling the Ramada. By this time, I was very frustrated at myself for not going into expedia yesterday and printing out the directions and maps. I always do that but this time I didn’t. Fortunately, I had the reservation confirmation with the hotel phone number on it. I do like that hotwire will give all that information to you when they send you an email after you make your reservation.
I sweetly asked the nice lady if she could tell me what mile marker the Ramada was located at. She said between markers 5 & 6. Whaa?! That’s on the west side of I4, not this side! Where in the Sam Hill did I get the idea it was on the east side? I’m vowing to go back to the Ramada website and see just what their maps look like. I’m the navigator and the planner in the family and this kind of thing bugs me. Now I had to go back five miles on nasty Highway 192. After I ended the call (you never really hang up a cell phone, do you?), I muttered some very unfamily-like words. I was mad at myself more than anything. Rich just quietly asked if he should drive. I said more words that will never make it into a trip report and sat at a typical Florida traffic light for about five minutes (these are just as bad as Atlanta’s) and said more things about how stupid I was. That got me over my mood. There’s nothing like yelling at yourself to help you get over things.
Traffic going west wasn’t as bad as the traffic we encountered earlier (and there are lots of lights here too and I wasn’t that lucky this time) and we were finally at mile marker six. Silly me hadn’t asked the nice Ramada lady which side of Highway 192 they were on. As Rich said, there are so many business signs along here that it’s difficult to find the one you are looking for. I was concentrating on driving so Rich spotted the familiar Ramada red sign. On the left hand side. Then he said, “uh oh, I see another one on the right too”. Believe it or not, there are two Ramadas right across Highway 192 from each other. I thought ours had Maingate in the name so the one on the right fit that. I pulled into it and was so sorely disappointed. It was the same Ramada we stayed at last time I hotwired a hotel room down here. That was the cause of me upgrading to a three star this time. We both thought the accommodations were “OK” at best. When we pulled in, I checked the address on the building. Then I checked the confirmation. This was NOT our Ramada, thank goodness. We wanted the one on the other side.
For the record. The crappy Ramada was Ramada Inn Resort – Maingate and has a Reedy Creek Boulevard address. Our place was the Ramada Plaza Hotel - Inn Gateway and has a Highway 192 address. But you could throw a stone from one to the other and hit. Get exact, and I mean exact directions to your offsite hotel. I know this area very well even though I don’t live here (although sometimes it seems like I do) and I was so confused with the dueling Ramadas. Cue up the Deliverance music.
My driving frustration was not over yet. That’s a hint to anyone staying offsite. Highway 192 can be a bear. I made a right out of the creepy Ramada onto Highway 192. I had to make a left at the next light to get to the good Ramada. Five minutes later (seriously), I finally got to do that and was looking for the access road to get into the property. I couldn’t get to it since there was a median in the road. So I had to go and do yet another Florida U turn to come back. I finally pulled into the parking lot. I felt exhausted!
By this time, it was 11:30 and I was a little concerned. Sometimes the hotels in this area will not even let you check in before the official time. Some will let you check in and then have you come back for your room keys. That doesn’t bother me but I do get annoyed if I’m there and the room isn’t ready and I can’t handle the paperwork then. There was only one guy at the registration and he was helping an older gentleman who was having some sort of difficult problem. Behind him was someone who had almost run Rich over trying to get ahead of us - a guy clearly in a hurry. After a few minutes, when it was obvious that no one additional was going to man the registration desk, I chalked it up to my lousy luck of the morning and settled in to wait. The in a hurry guy turned into cell phone guy and started walking around the lobby. Rich and I had no idea what he wanted or if he needed help at the front desk or what. Cell phone guy then walks outside. We moved up to first in line. There was a mom and her daughters who were now second. Right as the older gentleman finishes up whatever problem he had, cell phone guy comes back in and wants to go in front of us! Fortunately, the registration guy said “may I help you folks” and gestured to Rich and me.
This Ramada will get high marks from both of us. The lobby was nice, there’s a restaurant and a deli on site. The staff (the two I encountered) were very nice and professional. We were told that we were a little early and my heart sank. But then we were told that there were rooms available but they were in the back of this rather large hotel campus. Rich and I both immediately said that was fine. We did not care about the location since we knew whenever we got back tonight, we’d be beat anyway. We were given room keys to 485 and actually were asked if we minded the second floor. Heck no. I prefer that to the first floor. The back buildings here are only two stories with no elevators. The main building has more stories than that. We didn’t stick around to check it out. We have some food, wine, and beer waiting for us. We were told to take this one slip of paper over to the guest service area “to complete your check in process”. It was the place where they sell not only Disney tickets but timeshare presentations. We skipped that little step and no one has thrown us out yet.
Rich drove us around to our room. We were the first room after a breezeway which made the unpacking very easy. The only downfall was we were right next to the ice machine. But I figured that wouldn’t be a problem since we’d be back later and we’d be tired and never hear it. I give the Ramada my prize for “The Hardest Door to Open”. The key worked fine but that door was heavy! Rich even had a hard time opening it. This was definitely an improvement over the crappy Ramada of last time. This room was very nice with two queen beds and three pillows. Just a much, much nicer feel to everything. And we had a refrigerator which I didn’t know about. Good – get those good ole American beers cooled down for after the Festival. To cleanse the palate, you know.
We took a short break in the room and I got my bags park ready. Rich would be carrying the denim bag and I had my small camera case. We debated taking the ponchos with us. After getting soaked several (many!) times with Florida storms, we tend to have some sort of protection with us. Rich looked out the window and said there were some clouds up there. That decided it. A cloud in Florida could mean rain. The ponchos went with us. Other than that, the day was absolutely beautiful. Probably mid-80s. A few clouds but nothing major (at that time). We headed out for fun shortly after noon.
Rich parked Elliott and got him situated for his long wait for us. Meaning we put the sunshade on him. I groaned when I realized Rich’s NASCAR twofer he just pulled on me. Rich and I just don’t like the same drivers. Gleefully, Rich donned his Ryan Newman ball cap for the day. Yeck, I had to look at that all day? And then I had to help him with the Kurt Busch sunshade. That’s when I told him our house was getting decorated in red number 8s and all the number 24 stuff I could find. He thought that was quite amusing.
On our walk to the International Gateway, I was secretly thinking that I’d love to do our normal and stop at the Boardwalk pizza window for a beverage and a sit down. That’s my “I’m here” moment. As we were crossing the bridge to the Boardwalk, Rich says “are we going in right away or can we stop for our usual?” The man made my day! I replied that I would be overjoyed with stopping. For that moment, I loved that man (later I wouldn’t). Rich wanted a slice of pizza but I deferred, wanting to be able to enjoy the selections inside. That was the start of the first downfall of the trip. But it didn’t happen yet. Rich was dismayed to find out the window had gone to bottle beer and not draft. He was disappointed but settled for a white wine with me. He also had a slice of pepperoni and determined that the sauce had more oregano in it this time and that made it better. My husband is a pizza connoisseur.
Earlier, there was an amusing incident with a mother and her two young adult daughters (I’m assuming the relationship). There was a Friendship boat at the Boardwalk dock waiting to go to Epcot. Those boats don’t sit around very long. The mom and the girls were just standing on the Boardwalk and not bothering to try and board the boat. The boat, needless to say, took off. The mom was so peeved that it hadn’t sat there longer and waited for them. I’m sure that skipper had ESP to know these three physically fit people didn’t want to take the five minute walk over to Epcot.
After our nice break (and I’m here!), we continued on foot to the International Gateway. Where a whole mob of people were waiting to buy tickets. We’ve never seen those booths that crowded. Should have given us a heads up. We got through the turn styles and then decided on a clockwise route for our adventure.
Before I go much further, there will be references to what we had to drink in this report. We enjoyed ourselves but paced out the drinking and the eating so that at no time were we ever enjoying ourselves too much. There were lots of people we saw who should have just said no or had some water or coffee or something but we weren’t two of them. Besides, what’s the point of the Festival if you are so completely wasted that you can’t do what you are supposed to do – sample everything. And I’ll try and remember everything we did. I’ll include prices too for reference sake.
The first booth was New Zealand but we passed since they didn’t have my mussels I liked two years ago. Rich was disappointed for me. We also passed up the Poland booth, which we should have visited since that’s our ancestral home (we consider ourselves Americans, not Polish-Americans since our parents were born here. That’s right, we’re mutts). The reason is the pierogies that are served are the regular Mrs. T’s you can get in the freezer section of your local grocery store. Rich was so severely disappointed in that experience two years ago that he was boycotting the Poland booth. Not even the nut bar could get him interested. I guess I have spoiled him quite a bit with my homemade pierogies based on a combination of my mother’s recipe and his mother’s teachings.
We veered off the Festival path and went into the Canada shop to see if the fifth Off Kilter CD was there. Nope. Well, we’ll just give all the money to the boys and buy it off their website (and I did the week we got home). Canada has a killer band and could make a fortune off all the CDs but if you just have two available, well, you snooze, you lose. I saw these little stuffed animals that were on sale. Rich really centered in on the goose. A Canada Goose. A stuffed Canada Goose. How often do you see that? Only $4.95. But then Rich, the ever loving nature lover, had to check out all the other stuffed critters. Then he noticed the goose’s name (on the rear end tag). Gus. Sealed the deal. Had to get one of these on the way out. Our almost King Cat’s name is Gus (after the mouse in Cinderella). I call him Gus Gus Goose all the time. It’s Destiny.
The Canada booth was up next and this is where we noticed just how long the lines were. It was lunchtime and people were HUNGRY! This is where the communication with Rich took a big nose dive. He had the pizza, I hadn’t. He was so concerned about me getting enough food that he became my mother. He knew I wanted the cheese soup but I didn’t want to stand in the line, figuring we’d come back later when it wasn’t a traditional meal time. That got him pouting a bit. Greece was up next but neither one of us likes that type of food so we just looked and walked on.
Then it was the Florida Shrimp booth. I love shrimp. I wasn’t too sure about the exact dishes here but the shrimp salad roll was very popular ($3.00). The only problem was the roll part. I’m not a huge bread eater. There was also sauteed shrimp with some stuff (lime and ginger chutney) for $4.25. Just didn’t look good. Kind of looked like the ocean had come on shore with the shrimp. I decided on the cold poached shrimp with cucumber slaw. I don’t like cucumber but there were two huge shrimp there for $4.00. The main reason for stopping here was to try the mango wine ($3.00). We had enjoyed the grapefruit wine here two years ago so wanted to try this. We took our purchases over to a shaded bench to enjoy.
I thought the shrimp was fairly good. It’s tough to mess up shrimp, especially cold shrimp. I gave Rich the tail section after I was done with the first one. I asked him what he thought. He said “ehh – tastes like the cucumber stuff”. I said I thought it was good because that cut down on the fishy taste. This was going to be a long Festival since we have such different tastes in food. The mango wine, while OK, took some time getting used to. Definitely an after dessert wine. We weren’t going to buy a bottle of this like we had with the grapefruit stuff.
After our break, we went down to the Festival Center which was in Innoventions. They had all the different wines that were offered at the Festival in bottles. There was one I was particularly interested in so I wanted to check it out. It’s the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee that I heard about from the Disney Cruise Line boards. It was here at the Festival and I was going to try it, lines or no lines. I found the bottle and it stayed on the shelf. $38.50! Yike! This is coming from a woman who normally drinks her wines out of a box so that’s the statement there. BTW – you can buy the wines by the bottle from each of the booths as well.
We thought about going for FastPasses to Soarin’ but decided against it. Why? As Rich put it, you have to take a hike to The Land and then once you get there, you have to take another hike just to get back to see if a FastPass return time is reasonable for you. We still hope Disney puts a wait time board just for Soarin’ right outside The Land pavilion. Or right inside the doors. Rich said something about Test Track but I pointed out that we hadn’t heard it zooming around at all. We deemed Mission:Space too far to walk too and besides, that’s not what we were here for. Back to the Festival!
We passed on the Tortilla Cocina booth. Mostly wraps which neither one of us cares for. Then Puerto Rico. Not a big hit food wise but Rich found his Beer of the Festival. A Cuccoo Bay Lemon Lager (12 ounces for $4.25). He had me try it and it didn’t taste like beer. It tasted like lemonade with a kick. I didn’t like it. He LOVED it. Yeck.
Mexico was up next and that’s where Rich’s quesadillas are. But the line for him was way too long. I chided him that I was worried he wasn’t getting enough to eat. He didn’t appreciate it. I called him Mom. And he really didn’t appreciate that. Thankfully, we continued on without incident. Scandinavia was up next and I was looking forward to the meatballs. But make that one meatball for $2.50 and a long line. Movin’ on. Ireland was a possibility for Rich with the flourless chocolate cake (I can’t eat a lot of chocolate since it gives me migraines). But he wasn’t in the mood this early for dessert. China was next and we were interested in the pot stickers but, again, the line was too long. We realized that if we really wanted anything, we’d have to suck it up and stand in line. We passed up South Africa and the traditional beef casserole just because we couldn’t identify what the casserole was. Every booth has a sample of what the dishes looked like and this just wasn’t something that appealed to us.
Onto Australia and we did the line. Shrimp on the Barbie, Mate! But I wanted the beef on the barbie. I just had shrimp. With this line, the people with credit purchases (including room charges) went to one line and the cash people (us) went to another. It was taking a longer time to process the credit purchases. After placing our order for two beef skewers, we were given laminated cards to indicate our items and then went up to the counter. Fairly efficient way to handle things. We definitely needed to sit down to eat our food so we walked towards the Germany pavilion. By this time, we had been here a couple of hours and only progressed from the International Gateway to the Germany pavilion with a quick drop down into Future World. A guy on a shaded bench told me he’d give me his seat for my food. I laughed and continued on where we scored a shaded picnic table on our overhang.
While we were sitting at the table, which was more than big enough for six people, two older women approached us and asked if they could join us. “Of course” we said. Most Americans would never do this but we don’t mind. The beef skewers were good but the sauce they were in left a bad aftertaste with me. Rich got more than one skewer of beef. I really need a drink after this so while I used the bathroom facilities in Germany, Rich went inside to the wine place, each of us thinking the lines would be shorter. We were wrong but had some interesting human sightings.
I joined Rich in line and he said the two women in front of him were quite, err, affectionate with each other. Personally, I don’t care but just like with any PDA, please do it discreetly and not in a crowded Germany wine shop at Disney World. We ended up talking to the two ladies and Rich gave them advice on what to order once they got up to the counter. I missed the PDA, though. Rich was amused.
All of us witnessed several groups who wanted the wine tastings (Germany provides these year round but they were especially popular today – go figure). These groups were in the category of “should have stopped several drinks ago”. They clearly weren’t interested in “tasting”. But the Cast members on the counter now had to move over to the “tastings”, leaving only one person to deal with slow moving line. It took forever. When we were finally helped, Rich ordered me a Kabernet and that was it. Dear man stood with me that whole time and he didn’t want anything! OK, he gained back those points he lost with the food worries.
After escaping Germany (their booth was crowded too), it was onto Italy where we saw more lines. Rich and I agreed again that the more “familiar” booths were packed – Germany, Italy, Mexico. Foreign foods but things Americans can identify with. I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t come to the Food & Wine Festival to hit the Italy booth for pepperoni pizza or baked ziti. We moved on.
And if Rich got his Beer of the Festival earlier, I got my Treat of the Festival at the next booth. The Champagne booth. That’s where the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee was for $6.00. I joined the line and Rich stood patiently waiting for me with my German wine. I didn’t want to be a two fisted drinker but I wasn’t passing up the opportunity. I ordered the champagne and then saw the wine wafers listed. I thought that would be good to cleanse my palate between the German wine and the champagne. I paid my $1.25 for the wafer and expected something like a lady finger. Nope. This sucker was about an 8 inch flat circle. And absolutely delicious. A perfect way to get ride of wine taste in your mouth. Pure heaven for me.
With my two drinks and the gigantic wafer, I needed to sit down. Rich was ready for some good American beer so we went to the Liberty Inn seating area. Rich went inside to make Mr. Busch happy after looking at Mr. Adams’ choices outside. We took a much needed break since we had been doing almost nothing but walking since noon. We both were having sore backs and sore brains from dodging the crowds. We had been here over three hours and only covered half of the World Showcase. The crowd level was higher than I expected. I had counted on the local crowd since it was a Saturday but this was more than anticipated. But we tried to deal with it.
We went into the American gift shop but didn’t see that much we couldn’t live without. The booths here were crowded as well. We were pretty much OK with food and drink so we decided to move on and relax for the rest of the day. Neither one of us expected to be taking this much time to go around World Showcase but we adjusted. Japan was up next and while sushi has its fans, it’s not in the Niklewski household. Then India which was fine with Rich but I’m the wimp when it comes to spices. We looked and kept walking. Morocco was next and that was OK but, again, the lines were so long. Spain was the same way. Nothing interested us in Turkey. We’re not really that picky but we had to deal with crowds, energy levels, and the general state of the guests at the Festival. People were really “getting into the spirit” by now.
France was the next booth and I heard the freedom snails calling. And they are still calling me. In retrospect, I should have just done the line and gotten the darn things. But I didn’t and I’ll regret it for quite a while. By now it was close to 5:00 and we had been here four hours to make one circle around World Showcase. Not quite the relaxing day we thought it would be. I suggested that maybe to go into Future World and actually do an attraction or two. Rich had mentioned Soarin’ earlier but neither one of us in our brittle mental state wanted to attempt. Seriously, trying to dodge all these people intently wanting food or wine or beer or whatever and not paying attention to anyone around them was tiring. I attempted to say “let’s do Spaceship Earth” but what came out of my mouth was “Universe of Energy”. Drat it. I like the whole presentation but not a repeater for me and we had just done this last year. But Rich likes it so that’s where we headed. That’s a heck of a long walk from World Showcase. I think we were up to ten miles or so. Even if we weren’t it sure seemed that way.
We walked right in for the start of the preshow. OK, this was turning out better. I like the whole Jeopardy premise. We like Ellen, we like Jamie Lee Curtis, Alex Trebek is a toss up. Can’t determine if he’s doing a parody of his smarmy self or not. However, Bill Nye the Science Guy is a total loser for me. So I just ignore his rumblings although the message is a good one. At least we were sitting down (head for the back seats in the left section – you’ll be right in the middle of everything but no one takes those rows thinking they won’t see enough). After we figured out what is the only source of energy that will never run out, we headed to see what FastPass options were available for either Test Track or Mission:Space. This was around 5:45 or so and we weren’t hopeful. Much to our surprise, FastPasses for Mission:Space were available for 6:15-7:15 so we grabbed those. Then we walked over to Test Track and while they had cars zipping along, the lines weren’t open yet but there were still gobs of people waiting to get in. Why?
We used the opportunity to peruse Mouse Gears but didn’t buy anything. Then Rich mentioned the Canadian cheese soup for me (still worried I didn’t get enough to eat but trust me, I had enough) and he also mentioned the lemon lager again. The line for the Canada booth was long but I got in it anyway. And got the soup. We got a stand up table (groan) somewhere up the line and stopped for a while. I had also picked up a Riesling to go with the soup. Rich headed out to Puerto Rico for his lemon lager while I enjoyed the soup. The crowd had REALLY picked up and we lucky to have a space at this table. It was right outside of Mexico so things were getting packed. I finished up the soup (seemed a bit spicier than the first time I had it – maybe I’m getting wimpier) and Rich returned with his beer and we waited and people watched until our Mission:Space window opened up.
Once we were in our time frame, we headed back to Mars. I expected a longer wait. It was about 6:45 and the entire queue lines were open. That shocked both of us. We don’t know why this was the case. Epcot was packed with the Food & Wine Festival but Mission:Space at 6:45 PM was a total walk on for stand by, FastPass and single riders. On a Saturday night. When we got into our queue (those FastPasses were so not needed), Rich asked the Cast Member where everyone was. The guy said “I don’t know but if you see them, tell them to come over, we’re bored”. We got into our assigned pod space and I was the Navigator. This has got to be the most boring job on the mission. I got to put us around the moon (big deal) and then into hypersleep (can everyone say, “yawn”?). Well, at least Gary Sinese was there. That’s good enough for me.
After we completed our mission, we headed for another walk around World Showcase. Our second one and we had been here for over six hours. We went by Test Track which still wasn’t open but still had the lines of people waiting to get in. I wanted to tell everyone that Mission:Space was a walk on and there was no indication that Test Track was even going to be functioning that night. Oh well, to each his own.
Our intent for our last walk around was just to see if any booth was a possibility. That didn’t happen as the Saturday night local/dinner crowd had arrived. Rich’s quesadillas and my freedom snails would definitely have to wait until next year (and we’re coming on a week night). We walked though the throngs of adults clearly enjoying the Festival. Rich remarked that the NASCAR Charlotte race was starting. That sounded great back in the comforts of our room and away from what appeared to be getting towards madness. I did want to see Illuminations but after walking around for almost seven hours, I needed a break.
We made it around to America and the performance of the Eat to the Beat concert series. We usually will try and catch these acts and have become fans of several of the bands (same with the Flower Power series in May/June). We had no idea who The Gap Band was but caught the end of their act. OK, there are a lot of people who do know The Gap Band and were singing along and really getting into it. If we weren’t so tired and had more time, maybe we could have caught the next session. They were pretty good but just no group we had ever listened to before. Good alternative for Disney World, though.
We made it around to the International Gateway and I mentioned the Gus Gus Goose to Rich again. We were both tired but the stuffed thing was so cute (and on sale, a rarity at Disney World) so we hiked to Canada and picked up not only Gus Gus Goose but Chip the Beaver (also on sale). Rich’s reasoning was that Gus needed to have a friend to travel with. Yes, the man is even kind to inanimate animal creatures.
Our Disney day done, we headed out and back to the car. Rich expressed an interest in going to New York Pizza World for something. I groaned. I mentioned the NASCAR Charlotte race and then he changed his mind to the pizza delivery back at the hotel. Whatever. I told him I was fine for food but wanted to stop at the Boardwalk Bakery for something either for later or for the morning. This is becoming a favorite thing for us to do. The Cast Members tonight though were not very thrilled to be there. Usually, there aren’t that many people in here getting pastries this late at night but things were packed from the Festival. I really couldn’t see the choices until we were right in front of the display and then the Cast Members were antsy to get us helped and out of there. Rich got his cinnamon slab, err, roll. I settled for an éclair. Those kind of got mushed into a bag for our takeout. Prices here are reasonable and the portions are pretty big.
Then back to Elliott and offsite. Our quick trip was over and while we were extremely tired, we were happy. We didn’t get everything done at the Festival we wanted but it was a nice break with everything going on in our lives. We were together. Back in the room, we chilled and watched the extremely awful Charlotte NASCAR race. I’m serious – every time we are at Disney World and NASCAR is on, the race is awful. This time it was blown tires all night long. Plus, three of my drivers all wrecked at the same time. I gave up and just read for a while. Then lights out after Jimmie Johnson came from no where to win the thing. I think everyone in NASCAR breathed a sigh of relief that stupid race was over.
Day Three – Sunday, October 16, 2005 – “Family and Headin’ Home”
We didn’t set the alarm but I knew I’d be up by 8:00 anyway and I was. The timing for the trip home was critical. We do weekly trivia at 6:30 and wanted to make that. But we also wanted to stop in Gainesville, Florida to see my sister and her family and pick up some of the stuffed olives they make. Sandy’s place is an easy jog off I75. We also had to think about who would be driving which legs of the trip. I did NOT want to drive through the construction in Valdosta. That kind of thing makes me crazy. I worked on the trip report and Rich got up around 8:30 or so. He tried to pressure me to going right away but I resisted and finished up what I was working on. I figured if we left by 10:00, we’d be fine. I did give in a bit and we were leaving the Ramada by 9:30.
Rich did the driving out on Route 27. I told him I’d monitor his red light luck. Or lack thereof. For the record, he was 7-6 but there were two lights that were red and changed to green after he slowed down. We deemed those tied. Once we left the turnpike and were on I75, I called Sandy (actually got Kelsey, her daughter) and said we’d be there in about an hour. The stops in at Sandy, which are becoming a habit now that she’s moved so close, really help to break up the drive for us.
We got to Sandy’s house after Rich had some very extreme Sunday morning drivers. Speed limit of 40 MPH but I guess no one wanted to go over 30. Getting to Sandy’s house is interesting because there’s a traffic rotary which is unusual. And no one in Florida (or at least Gainesville) knows what to do. The traffic in the circle has the right of way. Those merging into it should yield. That’s why everyone in the circle stopped to let those merging in. I think the Southern Georgia hospitality came a bit further south today. We finally made it to Sandy’s and saw Kelsey outside cleaning out the pool (well, come to think of it, she couldn’t be inside cleaning out the pool).
We had a nice, short visit with Sandy and her husband Rich and their kids Kelsey and Wesley. We also picked up a jar each of stuffed jalapeno olives, garlic olives, and a combo jalapeno/garlic one. We don’t like the stuff but the tailgaters at the Falcons games do. We’ll make a small profit and see if the demand is there for future sales. Tailgaters eat and drink just about anything. Our next game is a Monday Night one so these things will go fast.
We left Sandy’s around 12:30 and I figured we’d have a tight fit to get home for the 6:30 trivia night. I drove for this leg and wanted to switch off to Rich around Valdosta (about two hours away) so he could get us through the construction. We would need gas by that time and wanted it in Georgia with the lower prices. Not that low but lower than Florida. I pulled over at exit 18 and we filled Elliott up and switched drivers. I felt bad for making Rich go through the construction but it was better than him hearing me gripe and cuss for five miles.
We had to find the Falcons game on the radio and I have a complaint about south Georgia. Is there no station there that carries the Falcons? We had to depend on ESPN radio for a couple of hours. Agony for us season ticket holders. But we finally got a station in and listened to the nailbiter of an ending. Falcons won on a last minute field goal that at first missed and then the kicker got two defensive penalties to help him out and nailed it with seconds left on the clock. Not a pretty game but another win for the Falcons.
So we start north on I75. And continue north without a break in anything. I guess Georgia suspends all construction on Sundays too. Now I really felt bad because Rich didn’t want me driving through Atlanta either so he drove for all but two hours of the entire 15 hour round trip. We were home before 6:00 so we easily made the trivia trip. Have to have those priorities, you know.
And in Conclusion
This was a totally insane and last minute trip that worked out great. Both of us needed the break from our daily lives and Disney World certainly does that for us. Hotwiring the hotel worked nicely even with the mix up (for me) as to where the Ramada actually was. Atlanta traffic and the construction near Valdosta were pains but something we anticipated and just dealt with. As long as we can skirt around the crashes in Atlanta, we’re fine. A hint – never go through this area without a very detailed Atlanta map with you. Knowing that we could take Jimmy Carter Boulevard out to Stone Mountain Freeway and then get onto I285 was invaluable to avoid an accident on Spaghetti Junction.
We’ve been to Disney World at crowded times. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve. Rich remarked that this was the most packed we have ever seen. And it was. The Food and Wine Festival continues to be extremely popular and we anticipated that. I think that if we decide to do this next year, we’re going to change plans and get there much earlier on Saturday and then stay until Sunday early afternoon. That way, we can tour around without crowds before mid afternoon. Saturday evening is NOT the time to leisurely enjoy the Festival.
Would I do this again? You bet. With Rich working and having Dawn and Nicole at the house, Rich and I don’t get a lot of time alone together. This was a special trip and one that I will look back on with fondness. We broke free of all the conventional things and had fun. People think we’re crazy to do a short weekend trip but I at least came home and felt revitalized. Yes, I was tired but it was a good tired. By Tuesday, I had recovered and was thinking about planning our Christmas trip. Another quick one since neither one of us wants to take any more time off. Before that, though, we’ll be on the Disney Magic for a seven day cruise with Rich’s parents.
Sheri Niklewski