Ok, now that I have procrastinated away most of my slower winter-break days, I'll get started on the Amy/F1gment part of the trip report!
Day 1
We headed off to the airport at 3:30 a.m. ~ boy, was that early after having worked until a little after 8 the night before!
We left 20 degree weather and 3-4" of snow ~ bye-bye cold weather, we're going to
warm Florida! Or were we?!
I had been excited to try out my new computer on the plane since I had heard Delta was offering free wi-fi in December. Alas, it did not work
The only thing that made me feel better was the wi-fi was not working in
any part of the plane so at least I didn't feel singled out! Also, much to our chagrin we were surrounded on the plane by a group of about 7 or 8 folks who had a stack of free drink tickets. They were quite loud and obnoxious and much too old to be acting like over-excited teenagers
but I digress.
I was quite excited on this trip, not only because it had been 10 years since we last went to WDW, but because I actually spotted the WDW resort from the air
Yay!
We arrived to find the weather in the 50's and quite sunny ~ not bad, and we were sure it would get warmer, or would it?!
We had about a 40 minute wait for the Disney Express to the hotel. I was thrown a little when it pulled up as it was plastered with the Disney Cruise line insignia, but after waiting, we were ready to board whatever bus they told us to! This
was not our bus, but I thought Len might like the picture
The first music on the bus I heard was from Soarin' ~ ahhhh! A transplant from Cali that we were familiar with and also is one of my Mom's favorite attractions! I like Soarin' well enough to sort of forgive Disney for replacing one of my guilty pleasures ~ Food Rocks (which had replaced another of my favorites ~ Kitchen Kabaret!)
We got to the resort, had some difficulties with getting our room...wasn't the preferred option we had paid for, only had one bed, not the shower we needed for my Mom to be able to use safely...blah, blah, blah. From talking with others on this trip, hotel rooms seemed to be the thing that everyone struggled with
Anyhow, finally found a room that we would be able to spend one night in, and then we would have to move the next day, although we would still have to share a bed....grrrrr!
Our package included the quick service dining plan so we grabbed a quick sandwich at the food court and were introduced to our new "all-you-can-drink" mugs...ahhhh, nothing says refreshing like a nice cold Coca-Cola! I got a rice krispie treat for my dessert, but sadly it wasn't the same rice krispie treat I remembered
I'm glad someone had mentioned here on the forum that they were now made off property so I was at least somewhat prepared for the disappointment...sigh.
By this point I was itching to get into a park! My Mom was ready for bed! We compromised and she rested a little while I tried to work a little more on the room situation and upgrading our passes. We had 10 day passes with our package but no one seemed to be able to tell me how much more it would cost to buy the extra 3 days we would need to cover our entire stay. We struggled with maybe not going to the parks every day but that just made me very sad
To think we were on property and wouldn't be able to experience everything
I made calls, I checked with the concierge, I got 42 different responses to the same question of how much more 3 days would cost us. Finally I made an executive decision! Up and at 'em Momma, we were heading to the parks!
We decided on MGM...errr, Hollywood Studios. Headed over there, chatted with the CM at guest services and decided our best option for tickets was upgrading to annual passes. Bonus ~ we will have to return next year at least once to justify the extra expense
And we were into the park, finally! Mom was hungry and grabbed dinner at the Sunset Market. I checked out the wait times for Rock n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. They were both too long for my level of patience so I set off and took some photos. It still amazes me how different things can look just with a change of lighting!
We were able to get into the 8 pm viewing of Fantasmic. We couldn't have asked for better seating, dead center, Mickey section...awesome seats!
I played around with photographing the water screens and found it to be quite satisfying. I would learn later on in the trip, it only works well, however, when you are straight on to the screens
We left after Fantasmic ended and followed the crowds out...this was the beautiful Christmas tree HS had to offer outside the main gates
All in all, a good first day
And thanks for the compliment Jacca
