At long last, I've started typing out my trip report. Our first day is a long one, but lots happened. I promise the rest of the days won't be so long! Hope you enjoy. Hopefully, I'll finish the report this weekend.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Woke up at 7:15am, couldn’t sleep anymore. Was too excited! We were back “home” and couldn’t wait to start my vacation routine. Started a load of laundry and started the dishwasher, had a bowl of cereal and hot chocolate out on our patio watching the palm trees and blue sky. It was a beautiful sunshine filled day and nice and warm too! Just what I needed! Hubby was still sleeping, so I was enjoying some me time while waiting for the pool to open at 8am.
Once I was at the pool, there was nobody there. While I was there, Mike was going to go to Target and get the few things we forgot the day before and look for some shorts. At the pool I met this very nice young man from Birmingham Alabama! He is my daughter’s age (20 yrs.) and I enjoyed talking with him very much and we actually chatted for over an hour, just talking about his stay in Florida and what he does back home and what we were going to see and do during our stay etc… He was called by his father to come in and pack and I thought I should get back to my condo too and get ready for the day.
Mike was just arriving as I was walking to our condo. He didn’t have a good morning. He got rear-ended in the Target parking lot by a drunk driver. Fortunately no damage to our truck. A man who witnessed the accident was actually a fireman and he went and took the keys away from the drunk driver and told Mike what to do. The police arrive and take care of everything. Then Mike tells me our credit card didn’t work! I knew everything was perfectly fine, so I call up our credit card company. Turns out, I should have put a travel notice on it. That’s all. That done and taken care of, we were ready to start our day.
Mike had bought me 2 Disney shirts while he was out. I must say that the sun I got in Myrtle Beach and this morning at the pool….I’m looking pretty good!!
Today, we plan to pick up our Disney tickets at will call and then do our long awaited resort tour off the monorail. We arrive at MK and get a tram right away – it was actually waiting for us! We pick up our tickets and didn’t wait in line for 5 minutes! Awesome!
Mike says let’s take the MK monorail – not the resort. He explained that he wants to find his sunglasses string. I thought nothing of it really; my memory was foggy and thought the gift shop was before the ticket takers! I know…..what I was thinking! I had hinted maybe we could go into the park today?????? But he said no, we start the parks tomorrow. I knew all this, heck; I was the one who planned the week! Once at MK and I realized my mistake about the gift shop and said well we have a beautiful day to take the ferry over to Wilderness Lodge and thought maybe we would do that one first. He agrees and says he would probably find his string for his sunglasses at one of the resorts. I turn around to face him and smile, but he is holding 2 Mickey Mouse park tickets in his hand and a mischievous grin. At first I wonder how he got those tickets out of my pack without me noticing and he says he didn’t. I’m confused. He then tells me that is also what he was up to this morning while he was out! I start to cry! He’s bringing me over to the ticket booth and I can’t focus! I can’t seem to stop taking my finger off the light and I’m crying (HAPPPY TEARS) and the CM asks me what’s going on???? She’s smiling at me but I’m sure she’s thinking this lady is crazy and could she please keep her finger on the light?????!!!! She asks me why I’m crying and I tell her what my husband has just done and even she melts!!! She helps me get through and wishes us a fantastic day and happy anniversary. I am still crying and I give him the biggest kiss and hug! We go underneath the train station and he says, just stop Jen and take it all in. So we stand there in Town Square and just soak it in. We are finally here and it’s a beautiful day! He asks me what I want to do first and I say we have to get anniversary pins from guest relations. My good friends from mouse planet told me so! We have this lovely young lady around my daughter's age roughly who serves us and I ask her for our anniversary pins, she asks us how many years? 25! I say. Now, I am still tearing up and she asks me why I’m crying and I proceed to tell her how sweet my husband is and we aren’t supposed to be here today and I’m just floored! Now even she is impressed with my husband! She then asks if we have plans for tonight and I literally say while looking up at Mike, I don’t know! Do we have plans for tonight?! Sniff sniff! Hee hee! He says no, no plans. She then asks for our ID’s and for me to fill in this sheet with our names and address etc. I have absolutely no idea why, but I do as I’m told….I’m a good girl. I see her looking over at us a couple of times and when she returns, she looks at the info and says “perfect” and then hands over 2 tickets for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party for that night!!!!!! Well…….I start crying all over again!! I my goodness! If I could have jumped over the counter and hugged her I would have! I wish I could remember her name!! We thanked her whole heartedly and profusely and she shooed us away and wished us a magical anniversary!
I hugged Mike again once we were outside! I decide I better go to the lady’s room and freshen up. I can’t go around crying all day!! Once I’ve rejoined Mike we start walking down Mainstreet and going into shops and chatting up CMs. It was fabulous. We also get fast passes for Mickey and Minnie and the Princesses! I was so excited that the CM at the fastpass booth remembered me when we arrived for our fastpass time! It was so magical. Our photos were fantastic and fun! We got quite a few pics with Mickey and Minnie! The princesses were wonderful. I didn’t feel funny going up to them without my kids! Belle and Cinderella were a dream really. They took their time with me just as they would for a child or a family! Wishing me happy anniversary and how I’ve already met my prince charming! Aurora didn’t chat with me but that’s okay, I had 2 wonderful experiences with Belle and Cinderella!
Once we were outside we bought our first Mickey Ice Cream bars of the week. We went up to the train station and had a seat and people watched and admired the castle! It was just perfect really. The sun shining down on us, we are still well….humbled by the generosity and genuine good wishes by the CMs and guests!
Next up….continue down Mainstreet. We went into the glass shop and looked around in there. I bought a beautiful glass necklace. We rode Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Country Bears! We then went for lunch at Pecos Bills. I was able to order a gluten free burger & fries!!! While we were there we were congratulated a lot on our anniversary. We ended up getting embarrassed there too (but we were warned by the CM there). The CM yelled out our names and asked everyone in the restaurant to yell out a big YA HOO for our 25th anniversary! It was fabulous!! The noise was amazing! Lunch was pretty good too! I love Disney World! It’s so easy for me to eat there. I could never order a gluten free burger here at home!
After lunch we went to Tom Sawyer’s Island for the first time. Our kids would have loved it! We always say we have to go there, but we always get side tracked and never make it. We really enjoyed ourselves! I got a kick out of watching Mike walk over the “barrel bridge”….it was pretty comical! We then headed over to Splash to use our FP’s! Loved it!.....as usual. We then boarded the train to head to the front of the park to get our Party bracelets and we rented a locker to put our camera (dead battery) and my broken hip bag and sunglasses. It was money well spent…nothing to carry or watch or worry about.
Haunted Mansion was next. The ghost at the end of the tour took our heads off and switched them around! Then Philharmagic and Snow White and Winnie the Pooh. We would see Beast’s castle way off in the back…can’t wait to see it in the daylight. We didn’t watch the first parade but the second. The crowd thins out by then. We did watch the Magic, Memories and You light show right up in front of the castle! All I can say is OH MY GOD!! Loved, loved, and loved it. It was absolutely awesome! I cried! Especially when Walt speaks at the end! We then walked down to our terrace to take a time out and get away from the crowd a bit. Nobody was down there. I lay against Mike on a bench and we talked about what we were blessed with today and what we did. We then went and had hot chocolate and cookies at Cosmic’s. They had gluten free cookies for me too and boy oh boy were they wonderful! And huge!!! Walked around some more and I was asked if I would like glitter in my hair…..Heck ya!!! I was glittered all up! We headed back to the castle and watched the stage show! We then walked up to the bakery on Mainstreet. Mike had a danish and I had veggies and dip. We then walked out to see the parade! Great view, right up front. We met a nice couple too and shared some laughs! Princess Tiana waved to me and wished us Happy Anniversary! How thrilling! I felt like a little kid!!!
We took our time leaving. It was a long day but so full of memories and magic, we felt tired but at the same time didn’t feel tired!! Ha ha
We took the monorail back to the TTA and again got a tram right away! Home we went. I took a shower to get the magic glitter out of my hair and we were in bed and lights out before 1am!!
WHAT A DAY!!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Up and out to the pool by 8am. Beautiful sunshine and warmth!! Swam and soaked and relaxed until 9:30am. Came back to condo for breakfast and shower. Today we have a reservation at the Biergarten at 2:40pm.
We stopped at Walgreens on the way; Mike’s knee is bothering him.
We parked at MK today and took the EPCOT monorail. Everything has been so easy so far. We haven’t had to wait more than a couple of minutes for trams, monorails it’s fantastic!
First up….Space Ship Earth! Only a 10 min. wait. Mike chose Portuguese for the language. Our pictures were hilarious. Mike looked so proud of himself and I look completely disgusted!!! Hilarious. I guess the pictures were taken when I realized he chose Portuguese!!! Ha ha. Anyways, when it came time to answer the questions, of course, we can’t understand anything so Mike randomly picks answers. We were laughing so much….it’s like this program knows Mike. Our video starts playing and it shows Mike and I skiing and he falls and breaks his arm. Our little robot fixes him all up and then follows Mike to make sure he doesn’t get hurt again!! In reality, Mike gets hurt quite often. that’s why I thought this was perfectly hilarious!
Then we went to Innoventions. We did Sum of all Thrills. Mike designed a bobsled track. If our daughter Kayla was with me, we would have turned it into a thrill for sure. But Mike’s not a big ride person so I left it to him to design. We really had no plan today, just winging it. We went into the aquarium, into some shops. Enjoyed a Mickey bar outside of Nemo. We finally rode Living with the Land. That was pretty cool actually. Walked over to the worlds, it had clouded over and was starting to sprinkle rain. Kept going though, and I thought darn, I left the ponchos at the condo. Had lunch at the Biergarten. Delicious! We sat with a family from Pittsburgh. One of the family members was 21 and she was in college for Hotel and Travel and was chatting with me. She said she was considering applying for the college program at Disney! I got so excited and encourage her whole heartedly. Imagine how that would look on a resume. You learned from the best place in the world! We enjoyed the show there. It moved me to tears how they invited all the children down and told the story of Silent Night. It was so quiet and soft. I missed my kids.
After lunch we wandered in the shops in Germany, then Italy, the American Pavilion. There we listened to the Voices of Liberty. Sat down on the floor and we were both blown away! They moved me to tears actually, surprise surprise. We went looking for their CD in the shop but they were sold out. Explored the pavilion, we hadn’t done that before either. I wanted to get pictures of the gingerbread house again. There we met a very nice CM at the door. We ended up talking with him for over 20 mins! During that conversation he encouraged us to see the Candlelight Procession. That show was about to start so he said good bye and we made it just in time. Unfortunately, it started to rain maybe 10 minutes into the show. I stuck it out, but it wasn’t stopping and I was feeling cold and Mike didn’t feel like getting soaked either. So we unhappily left. The CM at the rope saw my pout face and she pouted with me. We said we’d come back another day…..prepared with ponchos!! Ha ha
We explored more worlds to escape the rain. I bought another damned poncho….that makes 11 ponchos!!! Ugh! We explored China, Japan, France…there I got pictures with Aristocat Marie! England, the band there was incredible. We actually stood out in the rain and sang and I danced. What fun!
We eventually made it to Soarin’. We had got fastpasses earlier. We then decided to call it a day. I think the drive down and late night caught up to us.
Monorailed back to the TTA and again, tram was there already. We stopped in at Target for something to eat for supper and headed home. It was still raining.
I took a wonderful bath by candlelight and listened to the rain falling outside the window. Emailed everyone back home and fell asleep on the loveseat. We were both in bed by 11pm. It was a different day but maybe it’s because yesterday was pure magic in everyway. Plus we were tired.
We still met some wonderful people and had great memories and laughs.
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