[DonaldDuck31]

Cast: Dec. 10th-Dec. 16th 2005 7 days and 6 nights of magical experiences !

Myself/Randy DH (46) Have been to Disneyland in 1989/My first ever trip to Disney World
My Wife/Angie DW (41) Has been to Disney World 4 times including this trip. Last trip for her was in 1987
My Stepson/Dave DS (22) Has been to Disney World 5 times including this trip. Last trip for him was in 2002
Our Daughter/Taylor DD (8) Her first ever trip to Disney World


Thursday December 8th. What do we do now ?...

Do you always wonder why or how certain events happen ? Why do some timed catastrophe's always seems to pick 'your' time for its intervention ? Sometimes it seems like Murphy's law, other times fickle finger of fate strikes. No matter how you phrase it, something always seems to happen to postpone, cancel, ruin, or otherwise devastate your to date perfectly executed vacation plans. Right ? What ? Never happens to you ? Oh, it happens. Too often for my liking. Oh well, it's my life and I still wouldn't trade it for the world. But just maybe I got the market cornered on Murphy. After all, I carry him around in my back pocket most of the time anyway...

Our first family vacation ever in almost 10 years of being together. No honeymoon, no yearly trips, nada, nothin'...Awe, we did stuff together all those years, but nothing on this grand of a scale, ever. About 3 years ago, DW decided it was high time for a family vacation to Disney World in Dec. 2005. We proceeded to refinance the house, get a little home improvement money to do some major repairs ourselves, opened an interest bearing account and 'voila, we started talking about other things besides the house. We started planning our dream vacation about year and half ago. At first it looked as though Menard's and Lowe's would suck that little nest egg dry, but we managed to re-model all of the floors, walls, 1/2 the basement, and most of the outside and more this past spring, summer and fall and still manage to keep our Disney 'hush' fund in good shape. I am married to an accountant, so it was easy for her to manipulate here and there and still manage what we needed to make our dream come true...I told you that story to tell you this story. It's been a long time coming to this part of the adventure. Thought the time would never pass fast enough most days. This past fall was the worst. From about Sept. on until late Nov., it was drudgery...

We managed to get through all of the fall array of birthdays. At least 12 maybe more. Heck, I don't really remember those birthdays to tell you the truth. I was starting to get my 'game face' on and getting into the 'zone' about 30 days before departure. Once Thanksgiving got here, it started to go by more quickly. DW's birthday was Dec. 1st, which was exactly 1 week prior to 'lift off', if you will. Might as well had been. I don't think I touched the ground from that day on until we got back home from the trip. Here's where the first part of my tale will make sense. The 8th of Dec. had finally arrived. DW had to work that day, but I was off, DS was working until about 3 pm, and DD was coming home from school about that time. I had everything packed and loaded into the trusty van, our steed, the Town & Country. Oh yeah, if you haven't figured it out by now, yes we are driving. All 1118 miles and 18 hours of it...one way. We didn't even consider flying. This is what we got ready for. This day and this drive, perfectly orchestrated in our plans to leave at 6 pm CST Dec. 8th, and drive as far south as we could go the first night. Our reservations were at the PC from 12/10 to 12/16 2005. We would drive half of it tonight, get a hotel room somewhere, and then hit the road early in the morning to drive the other half, stop outside the park and get another hotel room on Dec. 9th. Get up and be an hour or so away from our resort on Dec. 10th was the plan. I piddled around all day, just stoked to get started and get on the road. I must admit this day was crawling along awfully slow. Then 'it' happened. It started snowing. I turned on the weather channel again to see that the front that was supposed to go further north toward Chicago had dropped down over the central part of Illinois. It was about 2 pm about then. The next hour, I never saw so much snow fall in that short a period. By 5 pm, we had 6 inches on the ground and it wasn't supposed to stop until midnight or so. When DW finally got home, the look on her face was of pure devastation. I didn't have to say a word to her. I was feeling what she was feeling. It was enough to make us sick. She got in the door and settled. We were watching the weather channel together, hoping some sort of miracle would happen to stop the snow. No such miracle. It snowed all night long. The highways we were to take were 95-100% snow or ice covered. I wondered why this storm suddenly came more south than it was supposed to. Why today of all days ? The day we were leaving for Disney World for crying out loud. First vacation this family has seen in almost 10 years. After the shock wore off, it was time for an alternative plan. I got online and looked at the state highway website and weather websites. We determined that after midnight when the snow stopped, the road crews would be out and the highways would be safe enough to drive on early the next morning. When I mentioned early, I wasn't sure how early DW was thinking. Turns out it was real early. Like 2 am early. We were leaving at 4 am early.

Friday December 9th. Travel Time in the Town & Country...finally

Geez, I don't think anything is awake at these hours. The alarm went off at 2 am. Holy crap ! I can't believe I am going to be awake at this hour. The reason we were doing it crept into my head again and I got up and got some coffee and washed my face. I looked outside and was still white, all over. The plows had been out on the streets, but plenty of it remained on them. After waking up a bit further I woke DW up and got her a cup of coffee. We proceeded to get ourselves together along with the kids and surprisingly, we were all ready to go at 4 am. We were all very excited to finally get going and some of my passengers could go back to sleep in a while. After several checks of the van, house and person we seemed ready to go. Albeit about 10 hours delayed, we were finally on our way. See ya on the 18th neighborhood ! We all piled into our van and got ready to depart central Illinois for an adventure we hoped we'd never forget. When we got out of Bloomington-Normal, it was clear enough to drive, but slick in spots so I had to be careful. Along I-74, we seen at least 12 semi's that were jack-knifed on the median. Even when we got onto I-57, there were a ton of vehicles off-road. I felt as though I drove the best I ever had in my life under those conditions. The more we drove, the less snow and ice there was. I would say by the time we hit I-24 and Kentucky, it was clear sailing. We didn't spend a lot of time in Kentucky before we were in Tennessee. Tennessee is a beautiful state with awesome mountain tops lush with trees. We drove around Nashville on a bypass on our way to I-75 and Chattanooga. It was a nice ride the whole way. We visited a couple information centers along the way and found them very hospitable and informative. Very nice southern hospitality ! When we got to Chattanooga, thus began our longest leg of the trip. All the way from the NW corner of Georgia to almost the SE corner. We caught I-75 at about Dalton to start our 500 plus mile trek. We drove around Macon using the bypass and eventually Atlanta and Valdosta the same way. I think we finally got through Georgia at 10 pm Dec.9th. We just kept going until we hit Live Oak, Florida when we stopped for the night. We figured we were a couple hours away from Lake Buena Vista and we could take our time in the morning. Exhausted we pulled into a Scottish Inn and I stopped. I got out of the drivers side, and started toward the door, when I heard my DW get out on her side and hit the ground in a heap. I went to her to see if she was alright and what had happened, and she just said her legs were asleep and wouldn't work. Once we decided she was alright, we had a pretty good laugh. I had never seen her fall like that before. If the weather wasn't enough, she was going to try and break her body up in some way, miles and miles away from home. It was determined we were tired. We got us a room and hit the sack for the night.

Saturday December 10th. We're almost there...

We rose about 7 am and got around to finish the last leg of our trip. The particular place we stopped didn't have any restaurants to speak of, so we decided to drive up the road and see what we could find. We stopped after a while at Lake City, Florida to have breakfast and drink coffee at Shoney's. We used to have one of these back home, and after I acclimated myself to the restaurant, it occured to me I missed it too. We ate very well, too well. We had a great server with the southern charm and good personality. It was an enjoyable meal. After about an hour, we hit the road again for we hoped the last time before we see our hotel. Florida was another state that was nice to drive through. Billboards everywhere, good signs and great roads. We drove for about an hour and a half before we saw I-4 and the exit we needed. It was only about an hour away, and the excitement was building inside all of us. The night before seemed like a distant memory now. Illinois can have the snow for a while. We were on our way to go play together as a family no matter the weather. We were ready ! We paid a couple tolls on our way on I-4 and in no time, we were at the most wonderful site in the world. Disney time: 11:30 am on Dec. 10th. Destination: Pop Century and a week full of magic !

Next: Check-in time

[jo-jo]

I am so sorry about the weather problems. It was our fault. We live near Phila. and it NEVER snows in early Dec. Two years in early Dec we went to disney. Biggest snowfall we had the whole winter happened that week. Last month (no trip in 04), early dec. once again it snowed. For your sake I'll make sure our next trip is in July or something like that.

So what happens next??? We stayed at POP and really liked it.

[gingita]

Phew, I am glad the snow didn't completely cancel your trip! I am really enjoying your trip report and can't wait to hear the rest. I was at the Pop Century on the 14th and 15th. Perhaps I saw you and didn't even know it.

[hanwill]

ok- this is great... I have a word of advise. If you drive through Atlanta again, do not take the bypass- it usually takes longer. All of the semis are on the bypass... OK just so you know and you can get to WDW faster next time! Please continue with this awesome trip report... I hope that you had a great time!!!!

[lovemysons]

You are off to a great start!(I mean with the report, the trip itself sounds a bit hairy scary!) I love the details!

[DonaldDuck31]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I'm back to work today, so not sure how much I will be able to do. I will write some more this evening and hopefully post it as well. Sorry about no pictures, I am having problems re-sizing them and attaching them. I do have a link on my profile for anyone that would like to look at them. Guess the only kicker is you have to have a Yahoo I.D. to view them and then I have to invite you. There are 2 albums and about 500 or more pictures. Thank God for digital cameras ! They are in order, and some of what I am writing will make more sense...

[Erin]

Wow! You're quite the writer! I love what you've written so far :c)

Did you catch 1-4 in Deland?

[DonaldDuck31]

Originally Posted by Erin

Wow! You're quite the writer! I love what you've written so far :c)

Did you catch 1-4 in Deland?

Thank you. I do dabble with writing now and again. I haven't written for a while, but this is a special occasion.

I remember a sign that said Ocala and I-4. I was too busy looking around and staying where I was supposed to be. But, we weren't on it very long it didn't seem before we got to WDW. I love the sign that welcomes you there. Most beautiful sign I had ever seen ! Wish I could post it, dang it !

[Erin]

Those purple signs at WDW let me know I'm home. I love the whole enterance to WDW, too, though.

So cool :c)

Can't wait to read the rest!

[Maria]

Sorry about the start of your trip, glad you all made it there safe, can't wait to read more!

[Ready2Go]

Great job so far..more more more

[DonaldDuck31]

Hey, I finally have pics. up ! Big thanks to DayDreamer for the tips. They helped a lot. All of you been very helpful and friendly and it is appreciated. Now that I am a master of posting pics. I will post more with the next entry. Speaking of which, I must attend to my WordPad and get busy writing....

Pic. #1 is of DD at 4am in front of our house. Too bad you can't see the snow very well, but it's back there, trust me...
Pic. #2 is not a very flattering pic. to say the least. It's that of your author, aka DH. Could my eyes be any weirder ? I am not sure I was totally awake here, but Adrenalin was flowing majorly, dude
Pic. #3 is of DD sleeping somewhere in Tennesse. Check out the Pooh characters hat she's wearing. A gift from a previous Disney trip given to her by her older sister. Aaaawww... I love that child...
Pic. #4 is the most beautiful sign in Florida. Welcome to the celebration

P.S. I guess you will have to take a peek at the original post to view the pics. mentioned above...

[Maria]

Thanks for the pictures, love the one of DD sleeping, to cute. Keeping typing

[DonaldDuck31]

Are we there yet ? Cont. ll

Cast: Dec. 10th-Dec. 16th 2005 7 days and 6 nights of magical experiences !

Myself/Randy DH (46) Have been to Disneyland in 1989/My first ever trip to Disney World
My Wife/Angie DW (41) Has been to Disney World 4 times including this trip. Last trip for her was in 1987
My Stepson/Dave DS (22) Has been to Disney World 5 times including this trip. Last trip for him was in 2002
Our Daughter/Taylor DD (8) Her first ever trip to Disney World


Saturday December 10th. We have arrived for the celebration !

As we drove under the welcome sign, we all were very much caught up in the magic already. I was very impressed with all of the ‘purple’ signs with very clear directions. I understood that I wasn’t anywhere in the world I had ever been before. The landscaping, roads, buildings, everything was very beautiful. I learned right away that Disney didn’t do anything halfway. That would be a theme for me throughout the entire time I was a guest of theirs. I’ll add those tidbits later as I go along. We arrived at our resort, Pop Century about noon, which was about 3 hours before we had projected. Pretty good I’d say for how this adventure started. We were hoping that we could check in so we could go play in a theme park for a few hours. We hurriedly found a place to park and practically ran toward the doors. It was very busy with people and transit buses running here and there. My first thought was, this is the off season ? I was soon to learn that even though it was considered the off season, there were still more people than usual. We got inside and immediately saw signs on where you should be. We found our place and got into the line. There were about 20 people or so ahead of us, but it didn’t really matter much. We were on vacation for a whole week and we didn’t really have to anywhere, we were already there ! I was taking in everything I could, from the giant Christmas tree in the lobby, the décor, and most of all, clean, very clean. Another theme that will stay with me for our entire stay. I loved the decade based themes on the wall with various depictions of certain events, inventions, fads, music, and more based on that decade. I was amazed at how much of it I saw brought back memories, even some forgotten. I noticed the CM’s most of all. Every single one of them was helping guests in one way or another. The time quickly passed and it was our turn. Only then did I learn that it must be a privilege to be a CM at this special place. Richard was our concierge and immediately made his presence felt. There were no check-in problems, there were no problems with our package plans, and there were no hang-ups at all. We got all of the preliminary check-in things out of the way and this is where Richard stepped up and went beyond as far as I was concerned. Our vacation package included Magic Your Way, park hopper, dining plan but with only 1 sit down reservation made for a character meal. We needed 6 sit downs. total He busily began searching his computer for meals for us. At first it wasn’t looking so good. The first few searches came back booked and I was getting just a little nervous. Then it seemed like he found all kinds of places for meals. After a few minutes, we had sit downs meals for all 4 of us for the week. 4 of the 6 were character meals even. We were stoked again ! After profusely thanking Richard a few hundred times for his help and diligence. I also appreciated his sense of humor as well. He was pretty funny throughout the whole process. With first impressions being what they are, I was feeling pretty good about our choice and the atmosphere. This was going to be greater than great.

We were assigned to park in the 50’s parking lot which was very close to our room. There was a giant jukebox, a swimming pool that just happened to be shaped like a bowling pin. Even the stairs looked like bowling pins. I was born in 1959 and at this point I’m almost wetting myself taking all of this stuff in. It’s almost too much to describe. Wow ! We unloaded the van and found the elevators to our room 2435 on the 4th floor. The view on the balcony afforded me a great look at the EC, and what I think was the ToT. It was a great view. I was awestruck and never did think of taking pictures. {Mental note for next trip.} We found our room or apartment as DD put it, for the next week. I found the accommodations very nice and quaint. There was a towel made up to be Mickey on the sill. Nothing fancy, but still nice. Hey, all we are going to do here is sleep, clean up, and visit the dining area. The rest of the time we will be playing in a park somewhere. As we settled in putting things away from our trip, we started discussing what we would do first. DW wanted to see EC. So after a while we were off and running about 2 pm for our first theme park adventure.

Next: Epcot

1st Pic.: Pop entrance
2nd Pic.: Pop inside view
3rd Pic.: DW and DD posing...Do they look short, or is it me ?
4th Pic.: Cool Jukebox

[DayDreamer]

Great report and pics! Looks and sounds like you had a great time.