So our honeymoon is almost over. All we have left is the trip home. Rolling out of bed at 4a was tough. We were picked up by another unprofessional driver in an Econoline van. He put our luggage on the first bench seat and put us in the 2nd bench so that we were about 10 feet away from him. Odd. It was already about 120% humidity and there was no air in the van. Jon asked him to turn it on a little and he turned it on high - and left it that way for the 30 minute drive. Then we arrive at the airport and Jon pulls out his credit card, as we'd established with the last driver that we could pay that way. And he looked at us like we were nuts. The office isn't open right now, I can't call in your credit card. Can we call it in later? How am I supposed to get paid? I need to get paid now. After a few minutes of this banter, I turned to Jon and told him to just fork over some cash and be done. Argh! Never using this driving service again.
So we drag our bags inside and grab an open kiosk to check in. Only the computer can't find us. Not by swiping my credit card, not my confirmation number, not by flight number, not by city of final destination . . . OK, it's 5a and I'm pissed. We get sent to another line to wait for a woman to check us in. First she asks for my confirmation number, so I reach into my bag for my planner and she says, can I have your ID? So then I open the wallet in my hand and she's staring at me like, hurry it up. Which do you want?? Five minutes of no talking and she wants our bags. I had two carry-ons, one checked. Jon has one carry-on, two checked. But one of his checked is a duffel with our dirty clothes. So the lady says, it's $25 for the second bag. I turned to Jon and said, that's ridiculous. Just carry the duffel on. Jon says no, and the lady, who has now had our IDs, both military, for at least 5 minutes says, I'm going to comp it because he's military. Now you're going to comp it? It's not like you just found out he's military! Are you charging us or not? Now I'm exhausted and really steamed. We're supposed to drag our bags around the corner and drop them off at one of the old-school scanners in the lobby. So we take our bags to the scanner and it's roped off with the world's giantest pile of checked bags I've ever seen. There are a few agents behind the ropes wiping the bags down with those cloths that tell you if they're contaminated with bomb materials. And one lady is yelling, drop your bag and keep moving, over and over. OMG! My blood is boiling.
We make it to the gate area and, as I've just bought my Northwest Club membership, we head for the Delta Crown Room to spend the extra hour+. I haven't gotten my card in the mail yet, so I show the woman my purchase receipt. And she insists on calling the Northwest Club to confirm my membership. What is up with people second guessing me today? Finally we get checked in and I wander off to a lonely corner, pull out my mP3 player and put on Joshua Radin. A few minutes with my coffee and my chill music and I'm finally calmed down. And I've found a new Southern glamour magazine in the Crown Room that is hilarious. I read twice that hairnets are good accessories!
We make it to LAX and we have to get a shuttle bus to the commuter terminal. The saddest terminal I've ever seen in my life. It's the size of our apartment, all of the gates are the same number, and the jet way is one of those plastic tunnels you can buy for kids for $20. We figure out where to get the shuttle bus, and the doors out to the runway are roped off, there's a chair with no one in it and that's it. It's in between two other doors. After standing there for 15 minutes and getting no one to pay any attention to us, Jon checks with one of the 6 gate agents 10 feet away from us. Oh, the bus comes every fifteen minutes. Just wait there. A few more people gather, we wait, and wait, and wait. 45 minutes goes by! Finally our bus driver arrives, speaking about 4 works of English. He tells us to wait there and disappears. Another 15 minutes go by and he's just gone! Finally I see him escorting a young woman off of the plane at the next gate. He walks her to the desk agent, stands with her for a while. OK, come on! It's been an hour, our plane is supposed to leave in 15 minutes and there are now a good 10 of us staring at the bus driver 15 feet away. A gate agent across the desk from him comes on the PA system, turns to face us, and starts talking. We can't hear a word she's saying. We're all making we-can't-hear-you sign language, but she ignores us. So I walk over to say, excuse me, we can't hear you. What did you say? And she repeats the whole message about flight number yada yada . . . she's not talking to me, she's repeating her announcement. Thanks, lady. And when she finishes, I say, yeah, good. We've been waiting for an hour. The bus driver is about 1 foot from me and hears everything. And I storm away.
We make it to our ghetto gate, get in line to board, and the woman takes one look at our tickets, printed on Delta paper, and tells us to go see the gate agent. Um, OK. So the gate agent looks at our tickets (it's an American Eagle flight), says Oooh, and throws our tickets away. Then she prints another set of identical tickets, on American Eagle paper, and hands them over. Literally, exactly the same!! Whatever. Finally on the 10 foot by 4 foot plane and we're out, asleep. For the full 35 minute flight to San Diego.
Wait, it's not over yet! We have to sit on the plane for about 10 minutes before we can get off. And our windows overlook the baggage unload area. A woman is standing at the bottom of the conveyor belt grabbing the bags as they come down and tossing them on a truck. Our bags are there! After the insanity in Orlando, we weren't sure if our luggage would be arriving. Meanwhile, the lady is missing about every 3rd bag, letting them drop 3 feet to the pavement. Good thing we have nothing breakable in there!
We finally get off, grab our bags and head out to the curb to get the shuttle bus to long term parking. Because we came into the commuter terminal, we have to call to request a pick up. But I've never waited for more than 10 minutes, so I'm not worried. Well, 30 minutes later, Jon calls back. The same Hertz driver came by about 15 times and as we were the only two waiting, he didn't even bother to stop. He knew us well. FINALLY our shuttle shows up. We get to our car. And on the way there, we pass 2 other shuttles and then see 3 parked in the long term lot with drivers sitting on them, waiting for people. And no one could come pick us up??
So we finally make it home, and there's an envelope stuffed into our door. Remember the rent check craziness? I open the envelope and it's our rent check. Apparently the second time around, Jon forgot to add the extra $50 to the $1800 and the office wouldn't take our check. There's a letter included telling us we have 3 days to pay our rent or be evicted. And there's a message on our answering machine. OK, it's now June 8th. I know they have our cell phone numbers on file because I had to complete an extra form with them and I kept a copy. Did they call them? No. Did they take any action? No. OMG. I hate our management. I send Jon down with a 3rd rent check and he tells the property manager that we have cell phones and in the future, she should call us on them. Come on, lady!
Meanwhile, I've started the laundry, changed into comfy clothes and am completely collapsed on the couch, where I remain for rest of the day. Ahh, it's nice to be home.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Day 6
Saturday, June 7th
Jon and I are out of underwear. Multiple showers and wardrobe changes have impacted our stores. Or drawers. Ha ha! I rolled out, gathered up a few things and headed to the laundry room. It was pleasant, actually, reading my book and enjoying my iced coffee while waiting for the dryer to ding. After getting a few things clean, we packed up our bags a bit and then headed out to MGM.
Our first stop? Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, at Jon's insistent request. But wait - what's going on? There are Star Wars signs everywhere and everyone is dressed in a Star Wars costume. It's one of 6 Star Wars weekends! Cast members are making appearances and signing books and autographs, characters are having picture opps, kids are getting lessons in how to be effective Jedi warriors with their lightsabers, Disney characters are wandering around in Star Wars costumes (imagine Donald as a storm trooper) . . . it was insane and a lot of fun! We saw Darth Mal stare down a 6 year old boy and lots of lightsaber battles. R2D2 even rolled by. And could not forget about his lightsaber. We grabbed lunch and then walked over to the Star Tours gift shop and checked out the line. No, Jon didn't want to make a lightsaber. Are you sure? Yes.
So we checked out the Back Lot Tour. Big disappointment. The line winds through a big prop warehouse that was actually really cool, but there was no one in line and they just ushered us right through. We were seated in literally the very last seat of the loooong tram. They've big time cut out stuff from the ride. You used to go through a neighborhood of house fronts from TV shows. That's no more. And the narrator was about a 1/4 mile ahead of us so we were never looking at what he was talking about. Then we went into Catastrophe Canyon where things blow up and there's a flash flood. The water splashing at us wasn't bad. But because we were in the last seat, the water that had collected on the roof rolled down into the seat as they were rocking us back and forth. Result? Soaked, and I mean soaked, butt. Jon called it swamp butt. Completely. I spent the next two hours waddling, trying to keep my wet butt cheeks from rubbing together. I was pissed. Won't be doing that ride again. Try as we might to find some shorts to buy for me to replace my wet capris, the only thing available was sweatpants shorts. In 95 degree heat, it wasn't appealing. I'd rather be wet. But a run punch with an LED ice cube and a pretzel made me feel much better.
We did learn, however, a cool thing about Davy Jones in the Pirates trilogy. The guy who plays him, Bill Nye (from Shawn of the Dead and Love Actually fame) didn't have to wear insane make-up with tentacles all over. Little sensors were placed on various places on his face to measure his movements and then the entire tentacle face was created later through computer imaging. Cool.
We trudged our wet butts over to the new 4D Toy Story ride. The line was 60 minutes long and no Fast Passes are available on Star Wars weekends. But the area was pretty cool. Barrels of monkeys hanging over the street, the cute little Pixar lamp on top of the lamp posts, you get the idea. I guess you get 3D glasses and shoot at enemy invaders. Could be fun. So instead we headed to check out the car show. It's all stunt driving and was actually amazing. There was a lot of backward driving and stunts - and it turns out they had rebuilt the interior of one of the cars so that the driver was actually sitting in the trunk facing out the back. After another walk-by of the lightsaber line (Jon passed, again) we went to the Brown Derby for our dinner reservations. Sadly, the pretzels had put us over the top and we weren't too hungry. But we choked down some of the great food and got our tickets to Fantasmic. Our three course meal came with preferred seating for the water and laser show at sunset. I've seen it, though Jon hasn't, and it's a pretty cool show. But we were both exhausted and ambivalent.
We decided to wander a bit, try to kill some time (we still had about 3 hours before the show started) and see if we'd get a second wind. Another walk by the Toy Story ride gave similar results. So we walked to the Star Tours store one last time. During dinner, Jon had decided a self-built lightsaber would be cooler than an Indiana Jones hat. Especially since they don't sell whips. So we hopped on line with a million obnoxious little boys and their parents. Two poor girls were patiently helping each kid individually decide which handle, which color, which everything as he put his weapon together. Finally it was Jon's turn. And some short chubby lady grabbed her three boys and shoved them in front of Jon and grabbed one of the women by the arm and told her they were next. I spoke up and said, no, I think you're wrong. So Jon got some one on one attention, which I stuck my camera in short chubbo's face to take pictures of Jon. I couldn't stop laughing! And boy was he pleased.
After a little more wandering around, we finally decided we had to go. We were tired and not excited about hanging around the park for another 2 hours. On the way out, we stopped a young couple from Great Britain and handed off our preferred tickets. They were pretty excited and we were ready to end out trip. Our ridiculously ghetto bus showed up a few minutes later and after a change to bathing suits, we went down to the pool for a dip and a beer. Ah, the perfect ending.
While I was in the shower rinsing off, I heard some odd noises coming from the bedroom. When I walked out there, Jon was in his pjs swinging his noise-making lightsaber around "fighting the bad guys." Yup, it's time to go home.
Jon and I are out of underwear. Multiple showers and wardrobe changes have impacted our stores. Or drawers. Ha ha! I rolled out, gathered up a few things and headed to the laundry room. It was pleasant, actually, reading my book and enjoying my iced coffee while waiting for the dryer to ding. After getting a few things clean, we packed up our bags a bit and then headed out to MGM.
Our first stop? Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, at Jon's insistent request. But wait - what's going on? There are Star Wars signs everywhere and everyone is dressed in a Star Wars costume. It's one of 6 Star Wars weekends! Cast members are making appearances and signing books and autographs, characters are having picture opps, kids are getting lessons in how to be effective Jedi warriors with their lightsabers, Disney characters are wandering around in Star Wars costumes (imagine Donald as a storm trooper) . . . it was insane and a lot of fun! We saw Darth Mal stare down a 6 year old boy and lots of lightsaber battles. R2D2 even rolled by. And could not forget about his lightsaber. We grabbed lunch and then walked over to the Star Tours gift shop and checked out the line. No, Jon didn't want to make a lightsaber. Are you sure? Yes.
So we checked out the Back Lot Tour. Big disappointment. The line winds through a big prop warehouse that was actually really cool, but there was no one in line and they just ushered us right through. We were seated in literally the very last seat of the loooong tram. They've big time cut out stuff from the ride. You used to go through a neighborhood of house fronts from TV shows. That's no more. And the narrator was about a 1/4 mile ahead of us so we were never looking at what he was talking about. Then we went into Catastrophe Canyon where things blow up and there's a flash flood. The water splashing at us wasn't bad. But because we were in the last seat, the water that had collected on the roof rolled down into the seat as they were rocking us back and forth. Result? Soaked, and I mean soaked, butt. Jon called it swamp butt. Completely. I spent the next two hours waddling, trying to keep my wet butt cheeks from rubbing together. I was pissed. Won't be doing that ride again. Try as we might to find some shorts to buy for me to replace my wet capris, the only thing available was sweatpants shorts. In 95 degree heat, it wasn't appealing. I'd rather be wet. But a run punch with an LED ice cube and a pretzel made me feel much better.
We did learn, however, a cool thing about Davy Jones in the Pirates trilogy. The guy who plays him, Bill Nye (from Shawn of the Dead and Love Actually fame) didn't have to wear insane make-up with tentacles all over. Little sensors were placed on various places on his face to measure his movements and then the entire tentacle face was created later through computer imaging. Cool.
We trudged our wet butts over to the new 4D Toy Story ride. The line was 60 minutes long and no Fast Passes are available on Star Wars weekends. But the area was pretty cool. Barrels of monkeys hanging over the street, the cute little Pixar lamp on top of the lamp posts, you get the idea. I guess you get 3D glasses and shoot at enemy invaders. Could be fun. So instead we headed to check out the car show. It's all stunt driving and was actually amazing. There was a lot of backward driving and stunts - and it turns out they had rebuilt the interior of one of the cars so that the driver was actually sitting in the trunk facing out the back. After another walk-by of the lightsaber line (Jon passed, again) we went to the Brown Derby for our dinner reservations. Sadly, the pretzels had put us over the top and we weren't too hungry. But we choked down some of the great food and got our tickets to Fantasmic. Our three course meal came with preferred seating for the water and laser show at sunset. I've seen it, though Jon hasn't, and it's a pretty cool show. But we were both exhausted and ambivalent.
We decided to wander a bit, try to kill some time (we still had about 3 hours before the show started) and see if we'd get a second wind. Another walk by the Toy Story ride gave similar results. So we walked to the Star Tours store one last time. During dinner, Jon had decided a self-built lightsaber would be cooler than an Indiana Jones hat. Especially since they don't sell whips. So we hopped on line with a million obnoxious little boys and their parents. Two poor girls were patiently helping each kid individually decide which handle, which color, which everything as he put his weapon together. Finally it was Jon's turn. And some short chubby lady grabbed her three boys and shoved them in front of Jon and grabbed one of the women by the arm and told her they were next. I spoke up and said, no, I think you're wrong. So Jon got some one on one attention, which I stuck my camera in short chubbo's face to take pictures of Jon. I couldn't stop laughing! And boy was he pleased.
After a little more wandering around, we finally decided we had to go. We were tired and not excited about hanging around the park for another 2 hours. On the way out, we stopped a young couple from Great Britain and handed off our preferred tickets. They were pretty excited and we were ready to end out trip. Our ridiculously ghetto bus showed up a few minutes later and after a change to bathing suits, we went down to the pool for a dip and a beer. Ah, the perfect ending.
While I was in the shower rinsing off, I heard some odd noises coming from the bedroom. When I walked out there, Jon was in his pjs swinging his noise-making lightsaber around "fighting the bad guys." Yup, it's time to go home.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Day 5
Friday, June 6th
Today started in reverse of Thursday. We had to check out of Animal Kingdom Lodge and head back to Shades of Green to check back in. Crazy? Yes.
We took full advantage of our awesome room and view, slept late and took lots of pictures of the animals strutting around. The best was when one of the giraffes walked over to a tree where a large herd animal was hanging out (I totally can't remember what - a cow like thing maybe?) and the giraffe pulled off a branch and dropped it on the ground for her friend. And then kept on munching.
After waiting eight years for the bellhop to get our luggage and check it for the day, we hopped the bus for Epcot and ran to England for our lunch reservations. I ordered a cider with a shot of currant liquor and yum! I ordered a ploughman's lunch (cheeses, meats and bread) and Jon got a shepherd's pie. How come we don't have more things named for occupations? A dancer's snack (water and a ciggy), a hippie's lunch (all vegan), etc. Anyway, back to lunch. We also ordered cream of mushrooms - literally mushrooms sauteed in garlic and cream. OMG, it was to die for! We were licking the plate. One our way out, we split another pint in a souvenir plastic Rose and Crown pint glass. And we made our way to a few more countries.
In America, there were president action figures. Hilarious! If you pushed a button on them, they would speak their well-known phrases. I really wanted to get the Ronald Regan for my dad. We picked up a Disney cookbook in Canada that has a lot of the great foods from the parks. Definitely excited to try it out!
After a few hours at Epcot, we exhausted everything we wanted to do and made our way back to the Lodge to pick up our luggage and move over to Shades. After a shower, we made out way to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner. Tonight's fare is Pacific Northwest. Buffalo, salmon, berry cobbler, pinots . . . That basically sums up our amazing meal. I also had a cream of mushroom soup. Lots of cream and mushrooms that day! Yum!! And we tried an ice wine from Canada. An ice wine is made by leaving the grapes on the vine through the first frost and them harvesting them. They have lots of sugar in them and don't yield as much juice, so the wine is very expensive and packaged in very thing bottles. It's really thick, very dark yellow and really sweet. Good!
After stuffing ourselves to bursting, we trashed our plans to go to Magic Kingdom for the evening hours and headed back to the hotel for a nap. Ah, food coma! We dragged ourselves out of bed at 9p and headed for the Contemporary hotel, which is next door to the Magic Kingdom. We made our way to the bar on the top floor of the building and snagged a table right next to the window. Fireworks would start in a few! The music that's played in the park was piped into the restaurant so that we could hear and see the show. Pretty awesome! We had a great view of the park and could even see Tinkerbell fly from the castle.
On our way to the Magic Kingdom after the fireworks, we stopped in the Contemporary's gift shop and found - you'll never guess - a Pirates-theme Game of Life. Are you kidding?! How on earth are the Pirates a good example of life and how to get married and buy a house? Hilarious! I sort of wanted to buy it just to see what it was like. Maybe you won life by stealing booty from a bunch of ships and collecting mistresses and pet parrots.
Our evening in the Magic Kingdom was great. We started at the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, a new attraction. To collect our laughs to power the city of Monstropolis, Mike opened a comedy club. You file into a big theater with bench seats and little table tops with small lamps in front of you. The "stage" is a screen and the show is all animated. But it's interactive. So to start our the show, Mike, the Monster of Ceremonies, shines a light on a few people and calls them out. An ugly guy, a girl dressed as a princess, a guy (Jon) who will stand up and dance (which he did and was hilarious!). Then monsters come on, do a few jokes and move on. You could also text in your fave joke and Mike's nephew came out and thanked the contributors by name and read them. It was really great! Definitely a highlight of the rides.
We finished up our list of musts and called it a night, all the while searching for some carbs to tide us over till breakfast the next day.
Today started in reverse of Thursday. We had to check out of Animal Kingdom Lodge and head back to Shades of Green to check back in. Crazy? Yes.
We took full advantage of our awesome room and view, slept late and took lots of pictures of the animals strutting around. The best was when one of the giraffes walked over to a tree where a large herd animal was hanging out (I totally can't remember what - a cow like thing maybe?) and the giraffe pulled off a branch and dropped it on the ground for her friend. And then kept on munching.
After waiting eight years for the bellhop to get our luggage and check it for the day, we hopped the bus for Epcot and ran to England for our lunch reservations. I ordered a cider with a shot of currant liquor and yum! I ordered a ploughman's lunch (cheeses, meats and bread) and Jon got a shepherd's pie. How come we don't have more things named for occupations? A dancer's snack (water and a ciggy), a hippie's lunch (all vegan), etc. Anyway, back to lunch. We also ordered cream of mushrooms - literally mushrooms sauteed in garlic and cream. OMG, it was to die for! We were licking the plate. One our way out, we split another pint in a souvenir plastic Rose and Crown pint glass. And we made our way to a few more countries.
In America, there were president action figures. Hilarious! If you pushed a button on them, they would speak their well-known phrases. I really wanted to get the Ronald Regan for my dad. We picked up a Disney cookbook in Canada that has a lot of the great foods from the parks. Definitely excited to try it out!
After a few hours at Epcot, we exhausted everything we wanted to do and made our way back to the Lodge to pick up our luggage and move over to Shades. After a shower, we made out way to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner. Tonight's fare is Pacific Northwest. Buffalo, salmon, berry cobbler, pinots . . . That basically sums up our amazing meal. I also had a cream of mushroom soup. Lots of cream and mushrooms that day! Yum!! And we tried an ice wine from Canada. An ice wine is made by leaving the grapes on the vine through the first frost and them harvesting them. They have lots of sugar in them and don't yield as much juice, so the wine is very expensive and packaged in very thing bottles. It's really thick, very dark yellow and really sweet. Good!
After stuffing ourselves to bursting, we trashed our plans to go to Magic Kingdom for the evening hours and headed back to the hotel for a nap. Ah, food coma! We dragged ourselves out of bed at 9p and headed for the Contemporary hotel, which is next door to the Magic Kingdom. We made our way to the bar on the top floor of the building and snagged a table right next to the window. Fireworks would start in a few! The music that's played in the park was piped into the restaurant so that we could hear and see the show. Pretty awesome! We had a great view of the park and could even see Tinkerbell fly from the castle.
On our way to the Magic Kingdom after the fireworks, we stopped in the Contemporary's gift shop and found - you'll never guess - a Pirates-theme Game of Life. Are you kidding?! How on earth are the Pirates a good example of life and how to get married and buy a house? Hilarious! I sort of wanted to buy it just to see what it was like. Maybe you won life by stealing booty from a bunch of ships and collecting mistresses and pet parrots.
Our evening in the Magic Kingdom was great. We started at the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, a new attraction. To collect our laughs to power the city of Monstropolis, Mike opened a comedy club. You file into a big theater with bench seats and little table tops with small lamps in front of you. The "stage" is a screen and the show is all animated. But it's interactive. So to start our the show, Mike, the Monster of Ceremonies, shines a light on a few people and calls them out. An ugly guy, a girl dressed as a princess, a guy (Jon) who will stand up and dance (which he did and was hilarious!). Then monsters come on, do a few jokes and move on. You could also text in your fave joke and Mike's nephew came out and thanked the contributors by name and read them. It was really great! Definitely a highlight of the rides.
We finished up our list of musts and called it a night, all the while searching for some carbs to tide us over till breakfast the next day.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Day 4
Thursday, June 5th
Tonight our hotel is sold out. So we have to change hotels. We're headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for one night before transferring back to the Shades of Green. So we rolled out of bed around 9:30a, finished throwing things into bags, and headed out to the front of the hotel and asked for a taxi. So we sat and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . Finally a bell boy came over and said that the cab had gotten confused and went to the Lodge to take us to the Shades of Green. So we waited some more.
Meanwhile, we're hanging out on a bench trying not to sweat when a group of old ladies and one woman with Down's Syndrome come over and sit on our bench. So we scooted over and made some room. As we were scooting, my sunglasses fell off the top of my head and disappeared. I hopped up to grab them from under the bench - and they weren't there. I looked all around where we were sitting - nothing. Our bench was up against a railing that had stairs and a waterfall underneath it. I looked over and couldn't spot them, so I walked down the stairs and scoured the floor underneath, the water, the fake rocks - nada. Jon switched places with me and searched down low while I searched the bench area. Gone. After a good 10 minutes of searching, we decided they'd been picked up and were not coming back. Jon was annoyed that I'd lost another pair of sunglasses.
The cab pulls up and we load ourselves in. As we hop into the backseat, I look over at Jon - and he's wearing two pairs of sunglasses. One on his head and one on his shirt. I was flummoxed. Turns out the second they hit the ground, some guy picked them up and turned them into lost and found. (Did he not notice the two idiots searching all over for them?) When one of the bell boys noticed we were looking for something - after 10 minutes - he made my glasses appear just as we were getting into the cab. Geez!
Head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge, check in (get the first 2 digits of our room number and have to call for the last two later) and then hop on the bus for Magic Kingdom. True Disney, here we come! We actually had a great day. Our Disney Without Kids book told us to head to Fantasyland during the 3p parade to get right on some of the "kiddie" rides. But by this time, we're both hungry. So before we can do anything, we have to eat. There's a pavilion in Tomorrowland that serves burgers and chicken sandwiches, nothing special. But what I love about the pavilion is their condiments. In keeping with the futuristic theme, the mayo is blue. What can be better than that? So we head there, and much to my disappointment, the pavilion is a now a dinner-only noodle restaurant. What? Well, no worries, there's another place right around the corner. So we fight our way over there, hop in line, get our chicken sandwiches, and then head to the condiments table. And there's no blue mayo. :( What a disappointment! So now I have to eat a plain old chicken sandwich.
We run through Fantasyland, grab some Fast Passes, and head to Pirates. And it's closed. Come on! It was closed in Disneyland while we were there in December. And now it's closed for 2 weeks of renovations. Jon was pissed. I talked him into an A/C break at Hall of Presidents before hitting up the newly revamped Haunted Mansion. By this time, it's close to parade hour and our Fast Passes are ready. So we hit up Mickey's Philharmagic, an awesome 3D movie complete with bubbles, air puffs as champagne bottles explode, and the smell of apple pie. Awesome! Then we wander over to Peter Pan, my favorite Fantasyland ride because you fly through the ride in a boat, looking down on the scenes from the movie. And then It's a Small World was a no-wait, so we hopped right on. Neither of us had been on that ride in years and it was fun! Definitely updated.
Thoroughly satiated with Disney magic, we headed out for our afternoon break. We walked right in front of the parade the whole way out and got to enjoy Mickey and his dancing brooms. After a shower, we took the bus back to Magic Kingdom where we transferred to a boat to cross the Seven Seas Lagoon toward the Polynesian. Tonight, it's luau night!
We picked up a couple of beers, again brewed by Bud specifically for the Polynesian (fruity lagers) and were led to our seats. And OMG, amazing food! Fresh pineapple, pineapple-coconut sweet bread, salad, ribs, grilled chicken, and lava cakes. Jon's one requirement for the night was to drink out of a coconut. I laughed at his ludicrous desire - until I saw a coconut on the drinks menu! So we both ordered our rum punch and drank it out of coconuts that were carved to look like monkey heads. The show was way cheesy, but did get into the traditional dances at the very end. We snuck out a few minutes early to make it back to the Lodge for our night time excitement.
Jon had read that every night from 9-11 there was animal watching with night vision goggles. We found our way out to the look out and stood in line while the (incredibly patient) zookeeper answered questions and pointed out sleeping animals to the guests. A woman in front of us had her husband and 4 or 5 year old daughter in tow. When it was daughter's turn, the girl took the several thousand dollar goggles in hand and mom lifted her up on top of dad's shoulders. OMG! The zookeeper didn't even blink. Jon and I were dying. We got our turn and found some lumps and bumps. We handed off the NVGs to a couple of guys behind us, all the while listening to their convo with the zookeeper. She was telling them that the animals in the savanna around the hotel are free to go to their pens at night, but most like to hang out outside, except the giraffes. And all of the horticulture was taken care of at night. The planters would take a few zookeepers with them in their truck and have them be look outs while they were working. She said for the most part it wasn't a big deal, but because the animals didn't have to go home, it could get dangerous if someone decided to check things out. So they'd have to give the planters a warning and everyone would hop back in the truck. We're listening and waiting to look again when a woman wanders up with several kids. She puts one kid up on the fence (um, wild animals a few feet away), looks around, and then says loudly, "Are we supposed to have special glasses for this?" No lady, just by standing on this look out, you have special night vision. And that's when we left . . .
Tonight our hotel is sold out. So we have to change hotels. We're headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for one night before transferring back to the Shades of Green. So we rolled out of bed around 9:30a, finished throwing things into bags, and headed out to the front of the hotel and asked for a taxi. So we sat and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . Finally a bell boy came over and said that the cab had gotten confused and went to the Lodge to take us to the Shades of Green. So we waited some more.
Meanwhile, we're hanging out on a bench trying not to sweat when a group of old ladies and one woman with Down's Syndrome come over and sit on our bench. So we scooted over and made some room. As we were scooting, my sunglasses fell off the top of my head and disappeared. I hopped up to grab them from under the bench - and they weren't there. I looked all around where we were sitting - nothing. Our bench was up against a railing that had stairs and a waterfall underneath it. I looked over and couldn't spot them, so I walked down the stairs and scoured the floor underneath, the water, the fake rocks - nada. Jon switched places with me and searched down low while I searched the bench area. Gone. After a good 10 minutes of searching, we decided they'd been picked up and were not coming back. Jon was annoyed that I'd lost another pair of sunglasses.
The cab pulls up and we load ourselves in. As we hop into the backseat, I look over at Jon - and he's wearing two pairs of sunglasses. One on his head and one on his shirt. I was flummoxed. Turns out the second they hit the ground, some guy picked them up and turned them into lost and found. (Did he not notice the two idiots searching all over for them?) When one of the bell boys noticed we were looking for something - after 10 minutes - he made my glasses appear just as we were getting into the cab. Geez!
Head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge, check in (get the first 2 digits of our room number and have to call for the last two later) and then hop on the bus for Magic Kingdom. True Disney, here we come! We actually had a great day. Our Disney Without Kids book told us to head to Fantasyland during the 3p parade to get right on some of the "kiddie" rides. But by this time, we're both hungry. So before we can do anything, we have to eat. There's a pavilion in Tomorrowland that serves burgers and chicken sandwiches, nothing special. But what I love about the pavilion is their condiments. In keeping with the futuristic theme, the mayo is blue. What can be better than that? So we head there, and much to my disappointment, the pavilion is a now a dinner-only noodle restaurant. What? Well, no worries, there's another place right around the corner. So we fight our way over there, hop in line, get our chicken sandwiches, and then head to the condiments table. And there's no blue mayo. :( What a disappointment! So now I have to eat a plain old chicken sandwich.
We run through Fantasyland, grab some Fast Passes, and head to Pirates. And it's closed. Come on! It was closed in Disneyland while we were there in December. And now it's closed for 2 weeks of renovations. Jon was pissed. I talked him into an A/C break at Hall of Presidents before hitting up the newly revamped Haunted Mansion. By this time, it's close to parade hour and our Fast Passes are ready. So we hit up Mickey's Philharmagic, an awesome 3D movie complete with bubbles, air puffs as champagne bottles explode, and the smell of apple pie. Awesome! Then we wander over to Peter Pan, my favorite Fantasyland ride because you fly through the ride in a boat, looking down on the scenes from the movie. And then It's a Small World was a no-wait, so we hopped right on. Neither of us had been on that ride in years and it was fun! Definitely updated.
Thoroughly satiated with Disney magic, we headed out for our afternoon break. We walked right in front of the parade the whole way out and got to enjoy Mickey and his dancing brooms. After a shower, we took the bus back to Magic Kingdom where we transferred to a boat to cross the Seven Seas Lagoon toward the Polynesian. Tonight, it's luau night!
We picked up a couple of beers, again brewed by Bud specifically for the Polynesian (fruity lagers) and were led to our seats. And OMG, amazing food! Fresh pineapple, pineapple-coconut sweet bread, salad, ribs, grilled chicken, and lava cakes. Jon's one requirement for the night was to drink out of a coconut. I laughed at his ludicrous desire - until I saw a coconut on the drinks menu! So we both ordered our rum punch and drank it out of coconuts that were carved to look like monkey heads. The show was way cheesy, but did get into the traditional dances at the very end. We snuck out a few minutes early to make it back to the Lodge for our night time excitement.
Jon had read that every night from 9-11 there was animal watching with night vision goggles. We found our way out to the look out and stood in line while the (incredibly patient) zookeeper answered questions and pointed out sleeping animals to the guests. A woman in front of us had her husband and 4 or 5 year old daughter in tow. When it was daughter's turn, the girl took the several thousand dollar goggles in hand and mom lifted her up on top of dad's shoulders. OMG! The zookeeper didn't even blink. Jon and I were dying. We got our turn and found some lumps and bumps. We handed off the NVGs to a couple of guys behind us, all the while listening to their convo with the zookeeper. She was telling them that the animals in the savanna around the hotel are free to go to their pens at night, but most like to hang out outside, except the giraffes. And all of the horticulture was taken care of at night. The planters would take a few zookeepers with them in their truck and have them be look outs while they were working. She said for the most part it wasn't a big deal, but because the animals didn't have to go home, it could get dangerous if someone decided to check things out. So they'd have to give the planters a warning and everyone would hop back in the truck. We're listening and waiting to look again when a woman wanders up with several kids. She puts one kid up on the fence (um, wild animals a few feet away), looks around, and then says loudly, "Are we supposed to have special glasses for this?" No lady, just by standing on this look out, you have special night vision. And that's when we left . . .
Monday, June 16, 2008
Day 3
Wednesday, June 4th
We tried again to roll out early, but it didn't work. We had decided to head over to Animal Kingdom to start out the day. We had dinner reservations at the Animal Kingdom Lodge early that evening and we debated back and forth all day about whether or not to go back to our hotel, get showered up, and head back toward Animal Kingdom. I was in favor of showering; Jon was not.
The first thing we had to take care of were new sunglasses. Mine had completely disappeared the day before. Not a clue where they went. I replaced the cheap Banana pair with a cheap Mickey pair. I had only a few things on my list for the day: The new Expedition Everest, a roller coaster through a broken mine shaft while the yeti chases you, Dinosaur, the thrill ride through prehistoric times that's dark and loud and lots of scary beasts jump out at you, the Safari, and maybe the Nemo and Lion King musical shows. Of all the parks, Animal Kingdom is my least favorite. I don't think Jon understood that I was totally not excited about going there.
So we fought the kids to get to the Kilimanjaro Safari upon our arrival. The line was insanely long, so we grabbed a Fast Pass. I was already drenched with sweat and annoyed by the constant stroller dodging. I quickly got grumpy. Jon suggested a train ride as a "fun" alternative. I wasn't too excited with the idea, but it was something to do while sitting down. So we rode the 5 minute train to one stop and immediately hopped back on and rode it back to the main station. Since we had a bit of a wait before the safari, I suggested getting something to drink. Jon found a bar on the map and we headed that way. We grabbed stools and ordered up some Safari Amber, a beer brewed specially for Animal Kingdom by Budweiser. A nice brewski with a fan blowing on us and I was all smiles again for our safari. After checking out all of the animals (it's really a pretty cool ride - we even saw real ostrich eggs!) we headed back to the bar for a second beer. Ah, what a nice trip! Disney sans kids . . .
We overheard some girls next to us complaining about Expedition Everest being shut down. We decided to walk past it and check things out on our way to Dinosaur. Up and running, but a looooong line. So we grabbed a Fast Pass and kept walking. We made it to Dinosaur for a 20 minute wait. Not bad! And since it's mostly indoors, A/C! Then we walked back to Everest and decided to chance the 30 minute wait. Just after hopping on line, the time changed. I saw a 5 on the end and assumed they'd upped it to 45 minutes. But as we got closer to the sign, it really read 15 minutes! Nice. Awesome line, incidentally. Interesting imitation pagodas and gear shops. Pretty cool ride, too. You head up and up into the mountain and the yeti (in animated form) jumps out. The track literally flips over and thereby changes directions. And then you head backward, in the complete dark. A few more times of that, with an animatronic yeti, and it's a lot of fun.
So we had hit up the stuff we wanted to and didn't quite have time to get back to our hotel to shower up. So we headed over to Animal Kingdom to hang out before our reservations. Pretty cool hotel. It is literally surrounded by savannas where animals wander free. The mostly harmless kind - gazelles, giraffes, birds, etc. We finally got our table, lately all sweaty and looking pretty hit up, and had a truly amazing dinner. Jiko, the restaurant, has the largest collection of South African wines in the US. And I love a good pinotage! We had a tomato, onion and cucumber salad with a watermelon vinaigrette. Jon had amazing ribs that were cooked in a coffee-brown sugar marinade. My chicken was delicious and the lemon curd dessert was unbelievable. Two hours later, we wandered back to our hotel. After a shower and short TV break, we were out again.
This time we hit up the newly renamed Hollywood Studios. MGM, as I will insist on calling it, was open until 1a. We planned to hit up the big stuff: The Great Movie Ride, Hollywood Tower of Terror, Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster and The Muppet 4D Spectacular. So we pretty much walked right on to The Great Movie Ride. Awesome. We had grabbed Fast Passes for Tower of Terror. We still had some time to kill, so we wandered over to the Muppets. On the way, Jon found the Star Tours gift shop that included a special "make your own light saber" section. Jon eyed it and eyed it and finally passed on making one. But he didn't forget it . . .
Then we headed over to Tower of Terror, hopped in the short line and were about 5 minutes from boarding when I suddenly got really dizzy. And then nauseated. I had hit the exhausted wall. I felt badly, but I asked if we could leave. We got to the front, were assigned seats in the broken elevator, and asked for a pass. So we were escorted through the creepy basement to a separate elevator, that was run by a super creepy tall, skinny guy in an old hotel porter's uniform. He let us out on the ground floor, where we stopped for some shopping. We bought the Mickey version of Clue - only available at the Disney parks. Yes! We can't wait to play. And then we made our way home and collapsed, agreeing that a late morning was fine.
We tried again to roll out early, but it didn't work. We had decided to head over to Animal Kingdom to start out the day. We had dinner reservations at the Animal Kingdom Lodge early that evening and we debated back and forth all day about whether or not to go back to our hotel, get showered up, and head back toward Animal Kingdom. I was in favor of showering; Jon was not.
The first thing we had to take care of were new sunglasses. Mine had completely disappeared the day before. Not a clue where they went. I replaced the cheap Banana pair with a cheap Mickey pair. I had only a few things on my list for the day: The new Expedition Everest, a roller coaster through a broken mine shaft while the yeti chases you, Dinosaur, the thrill ride through prehistoric times that's dark and loud and lots of scary beasts jump out at you, the Safari, and maybe the Nemo and Lion King musical shows. Of all the parks, Animal Kingdom is my least favorite. I don't think Jon understood that I was totally not excited about going there.
So we fought the kids to get to the Kilimanjaro Safari upon our arrival. The line was insanely long, so we grabbed a Fast Pass. I was already drenched with sweat and annoyed by the constant stroller dodging. I quickly got grumpy. Jon suggested a train ride as a "fun" alternative. I wasn't too excited with the idea, but it was something to do while sitting down. So we rode the 5 minute train to one stop and immediately hopped back on and rode it back to the main station. Since we had a bit of a wait before the safari, I suggested getting something to drink. Jon found a bar on the map and we headed that way. We grabbed stools and ordered up some Safari Amber, a beer brewed specially for Animal Kingdom by Budweiser. A nice brewski with a fan blowing on us and I was all smiles again for our safari. After checking out all of the animals (it's really a pretty cool ride - we even saw real ostrich eggs!) we headed back to the bar for a second beer. Ah, what a nice trip! Disney sans kids . . .
We overheard some girls next to us complaining about Expedition Everest being shut down. We decided to walk past it and check things out on our way to Dinosaur. Up and running, but a looooong line. So we grabbed a Fast Pass and kept walking. We made it to Dinosaur for a 20 minute wait. Not bad! And since it's mostly indoors, A/C! Then we walked back to Everest and decided to chance the 30 minute wait. Just after hopping on line, the time changed. I saw a 5 on the end and assumed they'd upped it to 45 minutes. But as we got closer to the sign, it really read 15 minutes! Nice. Awesome line, incidentally. Interesting imitation pagodas and gear shops. Pretty cool ride, too. You head up and up into the mountain and the yeti (in animated form) jumps out. The track literally flips over and thereby changes directions. And then you head backward, in the complete dark. A few more times of that, with an animatronic yeti, and it's a lot of fun.
So we had hit up the stuff we wanted to and didn't quite have time to get back to our hotel to shower up. So we headed over to Animal Kingdom to hang out before our reservations. Pretty cool hotel. It is literally surrounded by savannas where animals wander free. The mostly harmless kind - gazelles, giraffes, birds, etc. We finally got our table, lately all sweaty and looking pretty hit up, and had a truly amazing dinner. Jiko, the restaurant, has the largest collection of South African wines in the US. And I love a good pinotage! We had a tomato, onion and cucumber salad with a watermelon vinaigrette. Jon had amazing ribs that were cooked in a coffee-brown sugar marinade. My chicken was delicious and the lemon curd dessert was unbelievable. Two hours later, we wandered back to our hotel. After a shower and short TV break, we were out again.
This time we hit up the newly renamed Hollywood Studios. MGM, as I will insist on calling it, was open until 1a. We planned to hit up the big stuff: The Great Movie Ride, Hollywood Tower of Terror, Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster and The Muppet 4D Spectacular. So we pretty much walked right on to The Great Movie Ride. Awesome. We had grabbed Fast Passes for Tower of Terror. We still had some time to kill, so we wandered over to the Muppets. On the way, Jon found the Star Tours gift shop that included a special "make your own light saber" section. Jon eyed it and eyed it and finally passed on making one. But he didn't forget it . . .
Then we headed over to Tower of Terror, hopped in the short line and were about 5 minutes from boarding when I suddenly got really dizzy. And then nauseated. I had hit the exhausted wall. I felt badly, but I asked if we could leave. We got to the front, were assigned seats in the broken elevator, and asked for a pass. So we were escorted through the creepy basement to a separate elevator, that was run by a super creepy tall, skinny guy in an old hotel porter's uniform. He let us out on the ground floor, where we stopped for some shopping. We bought the Mickey version of Clue - only available at the Disney parks. Yes! We can't wait to play. And then we made our way home and collapsed, agreeing that a late morning was fine.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Day 2
Tuesday. Our first day in the parks. We decided on Monday night before completely collapsing that we'd head to Epcot in the morning. So we set the alarm for 8a and laid out our clothes and got ready to go.
We slept through the alarm - twice! OK, so we're still definitely on Pacific time. We finally got out the door and decided to walk across the street to the Polynesian and pick up the monorail, instead of waiting for the bus at our hotel that would just take us to a different monorail station. So after a good 10 minute walk, we check our the pretty cool main building in the dingy looking (from the outside) hotel and get in line for the monorail. We're both dripping with sweat waiting for it to come. After watching a little boy walk up next to me and start spitting off the platform while his parents completely ignored him on their cell phones, the attendance announced that the monorail was running really slowly. Anyone headed to Epcot should walk to the Transportation Center and pick it up there. Damn, we should have just waited for the bus. So off we go on another 10 minute hike . . .
We finally get to Epcot and are headed to the Test Track and Mission: Space to get fast passes. Well lucky us - Mission: Space has a 10 minute way. Shit. Jon convinces me to get on the most intense line and I start freaking out. First ride of the day, first ride of the week, and it has to be a scary one! I'm hyperventilating the whole way in, sit down in my Commander position, and get ready to be spun around in a giant centrifuge. And it was awesome! But now I need something tamer . . .
Thankfully our next stop was Germany where we had lunch reservations at the Biergarten. A buffet lunch complete with entertainment seemed like a nice, relaxing thing to do. While we were waiting to be seated, we each bought a beer. And had just enough time to taste it before being led it. So we down the beers while we sit at the table and eat "schnitzel with noodles." We actually did and it was great! Seriously, good good food. Meanwhile we order another round of drinks and are now thoroughly sloshed by the time the band comes on. We participated in a chanting toast that included 1,2, and 3 in German, some other words, and then "hoy, hoy, hoy!" before drinking some beer. Ah, we're feeling good. We commemorated our lunch with a beer stein Christmas ornament. Now it's time for some more rides.
We hit up the margarita stand in Mexico before heading off for the Energy ride hosted by Ellen and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Definitely better when you're drunk! We wandered back through the countries and decided to head over to MGM Studios for a few hours before coming back to Epcot to finish up the day. We walked to the boat to wait and after 5 minutes of melting, we decided we were just too tired. So we headed to this awesome 50's diner just outside the back gate in the Beach Club resort and had the world's largest ice cream sundae. After refilling, we headed back into the park. While wandering through France, we each got a glass of bubbly. Fully satiated, hot and hung over, we got caught in a rain storm in China. We got some dinner and watched it pour for at least half an hour. Finally too tired to hold my head up any longer, I insisted we buy important umbrellas (not kidding!) and walk back through the park to head on home. After dragging our exhausted bodies back to the room, we realized we were both a little hungry. So we wandered down to the bar/grill by the pool, ordered onion rings and grilled cheese and then, finally, collapsed. Ah, a good first day.
We slept through the alarm - twice! OK, so we're still definitely on Pacific time. We finally got out the door and decided to walk across the street to the Polynesian and pick up the monorail, instead of waiting for the bus at our hotel that would just take us to a different monorail station. So after a good 10 minute walk, we check our the pretty cool main building in the dingy looking (from the outside) hotel and get in line for the monorail. We're both dripping with sweat waiting for it to come. After watching a little boy walk up next to me and start spitting off the platform while his parents completely ignored him on their cell phones, the attendance announced that the monorail was running really slowly. Anyone headed to Epcot should walk to the Transportation Center and pick it up there. Damn, we should have just waited for the bus. So off we go on another 10 minute hike . . .
We finally get to Epcot and are headed to the Test Track and Mission: Space to get fast passes. Well lucky us - Mission: Space has a 10 minute way. Shit. Jon convinces me to get on the most intense line and I start freaking out. First ride of the day, first ride of the week, and it has to be a scary one! I'm hyperventilating the whole way in, sit down in my Commander position, and get ready to be spun around in a giant centrifuge. And it was awesome! But now I need something tamer . . .
Thankfully our next stop was Germany where we had lunch reservations at the Biergarten. A buffet lunch complete with entertainment seemed like a nice, relaxing thing to do. While we were waiting to be seated, we each bought a beer. And had just enough time to taste it before being led it. So we down the beers while we sit at the table and eat "schnitzel with noodles." We actually did and it was great! Seriously, good good food. Meanwhile we order another round of drinks and are now thoroughly sloshed by the time the band comes on. We participated in a chanting toast that included 1,2, and 3 in German, some other words, and then "hoy, hoy, hoy!" before drinking some beer. Ah, we're feeling good. We commemorated our lunch with a beer stein Christmas ornament. Now it's time for some more rides.
We hit up the margarita stand in Mexico before heading off for the Energy ride hosted by Ellen and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Definitely better when you're drunk! We wandered back through the countries and decided to head over to MGM Studios for a few hours before coming back to Epcot to finish up the day. We walked to the boat to wait and after 5 minutes of melting, we decided we were just too tired. So we headed to this awesome 50's diner just outside the back gate in the Beach Club resort and had the world's largest ice cream sundae. After refilling, we headed back into the park. While wandering through France, we each got a glass of bubbly. Fully satiated, hot and hung over, we got caught in a rain storm in China. We got some dinner and watched it pour for at least half an hour. Finally too tired to hold my head up any longer, I insisted we buy important umbrellas (not kidding!) and walk back through the park to head on home. After dragging our exhausted bodies back to the room, we realized we were both a little hungry. So we wandered down to the bar/grill by the pool, ordered onion rings and grilled cheese and then, finally, collapsed. Ah, a good first day.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Honeymoon
First entry in the honeymoon week blog. Jon and I went to Disney World for a week to eat well, be completely entertained and come back completely exhausted. All three were accomplished.
Day 1: Our flight was out at 6:30a. Add in a 45 minute drive to the airport, parking at long term parking and shuttling to the commuter terminal and you get a wake up time of 3:30a. Yeah.
Rewind one day. I wanted to get some things checked off of my work list before leaving, namely a million and one thank you notes and reports entered into the database on the meetings I'd had over the last month. I spent all of Sunday working. Thankfully I'd packed a week before (excited!), so I didn't have to stress. My pile of mail grew and grew on the counter as the day wore on. After 4 hours of writing the date (June 1) on the top of the notes, I realized it was rent day. So I asked Jon to take care of the rent. I saw him get out the checkbook, steal an envelope off of my desk and I stopped paying attention. And I worked for 4 more hours on writing thank notes.
That evening, Jon asked me to follow him to the car dealer so he could drop off his car for a tune up while we were gone. On the way there, I stopped at the UPS store, to which I have a key for after hours entry, and dropped the mail in the outgoing box.
Jump forward to June 2nd at 4:30 a.m. We're loading up the car and finishing our last minute chores before locking up. I asked Jon if he had taken care of the rent, just to be sure, and he said, yes, he had put it on the pile of mail. Um, hold up. You didn't walk it down to the drop box in the next building over? It wasn't labeled, no stamps. You have to be kidding me. Does that sound like "taking care of the rent?!" Shit. It's now sitting in the outgoing box at the UPS store.
4:55a: I run to the drop box and put a new rent check in it. Then, we drive to the UPS store on the way to the airport. The mailbox is a 3.5 foot box on wheels with a locked back. While Jon flipped it upside down and shook, I stuck my hand in the opening pulling out every envelope I could reach until I got the rent check. We flipped the box upright, refilled it with the real mail and hand shredded the old rent check. I think we broke 14 federal laws and it was all probably caught on tape. Way to start the vacay . . .
The flights were relatively uneventful. I had called our hotel a few days earlier, The Shades of Green, a military hotel on Disney property, and asked for a shuttle rec. They gave me the number to Fleetwood Limousine, so I had made a reservation. The guy told me to call when we landed and they'd tell us where to meet our driver. So we land, I call, the guy says, call me back when you get your luggage. OK . . . We trek down to baggage pick up. We haven't even gotten to the luggage level when my cell phone starts ringing. It's the limo service guy - have you gotten your bags yet? Um, chill out my friend. I'll call you. So we wait and wait, the usual. Finally get our bags and call the guy. He says our driver is sitting in a holding lot and will pull up momentarily at a certain marked parking spot. OK. So we haul our stuff down a floor, find the limo pick up point and wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. I call back the limo guy and he says, hmm, he'll call our driver and call me back. Another 5 minutes goes by and he calls back and says, "Hi, it's me," when I answer the phone. I didn't realize we knew each other. Oh, she's not actually at the airport, but left when we said we had our bags. It'll be a few more minutes. OK, so we've now been waiting for about 45 minutes. And it's a steam bath outside.
Finally, our limo pulls up and a large middle-aged black woman gets out wearing a white, ribbed long sleeve tee with lacing up the front, too tight pants and hair sticking in every direction. The first thing she says is, "Am I too late?" and started laughing. She pops the trunk and watches us toss our bags in, then hops in and blasts the A/C as high as it will go. She starts talking, in almost understandable English, and doesn't stop. I tune out, Jon tries to be polite. We both get quiet (we've been up since 3:30a) and stare out the window about halfway into the ride. And the driver says, "I'm bored. I need to be entertained. You're not talking to me enough." Are you serious?! Wow, good recommendation Shades of Green.
We finally get into our room and talk about going to downtown Disney for dinner, make it to the lobby and decide we're starving and have to eat now. So we ate a nice Italian meal in the hotel, crawled into bed and called it our first night.
Don't worry, there's more to come!
Day 1: Our flight was out at 6:30a. Add in a 45 minute drive to the airport, parking at long term parking and shuttling to the commuter terminal and you get a wake up time of 3:30a. Yeah.
Rewind one day. I wanted to get some things checked off of my work list before leaving, namely a million and one thank you notes and reports entered into the database on the meetings I'd had over the last month. I spent all of Sunday working. Thankfully I'd packed a week before (excited!), so I didn't have to stress. My pile of mail grew and grew on the counter as the day wore on. After 4 hours of writing the date (June 1) on the top of the notes, I realized it was rent day. So I asked Jon to take care of the rent. I saw him get out the checkbook, steal an envelope off of my desk and I stopped paying attention. And I worked for 4 more hours on writing thank notes.
That evening, Jon asked me to follow him to the car dealer so he could drop off his car for a tune up while we were gone. On the way there, I stopped at the UPS store, to which I have a key for after hours entry, and dropped the mail in the outgoing box.
Jump forward to June 2nd at 4:30 a.m. We're loading up the car and finishing our last minute chores before locking up. I asked Jon if he had taken care of the rent, just to be sure, and he said, yes, he had put it on the pile of mail. Um, hold up. You didn't walk it down to the drop box in the next building over? It wasn't labeled, no stamps. You have to be kidding me. Does that sound like "taking care of the rent?!" Shit. It's now sitting in the outgoing box at the UPS store.
4:55a: I run to the drop box and put a new rent check in it. Then, we drive to the UPS store on the way to the airport. The mailbox is a 3.5 foot box on wheels with a locked back. While Jon flipped it upside down and shook, I stuck my hand in the opening pulling out every envelope I could reach until I got the rent check. We flipped the box upright, refilled it with the real mail and hand shredded the old rent check. I think we broke 14 federal laws and it was all probably caught on tape. Way to start the vacay . . .
The flights were relatively uneventful. I had called our hotel a few days earlier, The Shades of Green, a military hotel on Disney property, and asked for a shuttle rec. They gave me the number to Fleetwood Limousine, so I had made a reservation. The guy told me to call when we landed and they'd tell us where to meet our driver. So we land, I call, the guy says, call me back when you get your luggage. OK . . . We trek down to baggage pick up. We haven't even gotten to the luggage level when my cell phone starts ringing. It's the limo service guy - have you gotten your bags yet? Um, chill out my friend. I'll call you. So we wait and wait, the usual. Finally get our bags and call the guy. He says our driver is sitting in a holding lot and will pull up momentarily at a certain marked parking spot. OK. So we haul our stuff down a floor, find the limo pick up point and wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. I call back the limo guy and he says, hmm, he'll call our driver and call me back. Another 5 minutes goes by and he calls back and says, "Hi, it's me," when I answer the phone. I didn't realize we knew each other. Oh, she's not actually at the airport, but left when we said we had our bags. It'll be a few more minutes. OK, so we've now been waiting for about 45 minutes. And it's a steam bath outside.
Finally, our limo pulls up and a large middle-aged black woman gets out wearing a white, ribbed long sleeve tee with lacing up the front, too tight pants and hair sticking in every direction. The first thing she says is, "Am I too late?" and started laughing. She pops the trunk and watches us toss our bags in, then hops in and blasts the A/C as high as it will go. She starts talking, in almost understandable English, and doesn't stop. I tune out, Jon tries to be polite. We both get quiet (we've been up since 3:30a) and stare out the window about halfway into the ride. And the driver says, "I'm bored. I need to be entertained. You're not talking to me enough." Are you serious?! Wow, good recommendation Shades of Green.
We finally get into our room and talk about going to downtown Disney for dinner, make it to the lobby and decide we're starving and have to eat now. So we ate a nice Italian meal in the hotel, crawled into bed and called it our first night.
Don't worry, there's more to come!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
