[Dana]

Ok here it is. I'll do my best to focus on postive and not sound like a ranting lunatic..lol We did experience more magic than we ever had, but with that magic was some serious pooh-pooh..lol

Cast
me - 33
DD - 13

Day one - August 28th

We woke up at 2:30am. We had no problems falling asleep the night before believe it or not. I think me working myself to death the weeks leading up to this trip helped with that. The car was packed the night before, so I only had to get dressed and leave. We stopped at the Wawa and grabbed something to eat on the way to the airport and were on the road by 3:40am. We arrived at the Atlantic City airport in no time (45minutes) and go a nice parking spot in the B-section. DD and I lugged all our suitcases to the airport main building from the parking lot and checked in. They didn't open security up until 5:10, so we were waiting in their lobby area for quite awhile. We got through security with no issues and were by our gate in no time.

While waiting at our gate, we saw a friend of my DD's from school. They were also heading to WDW...as was everyone else on this direct flight to Orlando..lol The plane boarded at 6:15 and departed exactly on time at 6:45am. We arrived in Orlando 20minutes before schedule...very cool way to start the trip. We took the monorail car thingy to the baggage claim area to find our Quicksilver driver only to notice he hadn't arrived yet. No biggie as our flight was early. We headed over to baggage claim and got our bags. Our driver arrived just as I got all the bags. He helped me get them down to the car area and went and got the car as we waitied on the sidewalk. He loaded us up and we were quickly on our way. I called Deb and HB on the way to tell them we arrived right after I called DBF and my DAd to tell them the same thing...so cute they worry..lol

On the way to WDW, we stopped to get our groceries. I grabbed two cases or water and a 12 pack of lemonade for my DD. We arrived at POFQ at about 10:00. The bell service guy helped me get my luggage to their storage area and for some reason refused my tip and informed me that tips should be given to the person who drops my bags to me at the room...I have never heard that one before. After checking out suitcases, we headed into the check-in area after paying the town car driver and setting our pick-up time for the 4th. We decided on 12:30pm for my 2:05pm flight.

The check-in area was not crowded in the least and we were seen in about 5minutes. I checked in and asked for a first floor room. I was told the room wouldn't be ready until lunch time and that the first floor would be no problem. Sara and I went over to the food court and grabbed something to eat. They were serving breakfast, so we just got some eggs and stuff and ate. Work called me while I was eating to tell me the coverage that I shceduled back out and my second assistant was stuck working open to close.. unreal..grr Figures. I worked all my days off covering a store so my guys would be covered for my vacation. Amazing how people are. Feeling a bit cranky and guilty my guys were getting beat up on hours, I went over to the check in area to see if I would get lucky and my room would be ready a bit early. It wasn't and I told the CM that I was going to head to the parks. I asked them what time I should be back and was told 1pm would be the latest my room would be ready. I then asked to store my money in the security box area and then went to the luggage area and left my carry-on bags with my other luggage.

We stood at the bus stop for only a few minutes before the MGM bus pulled in. From that point, it took us another 30minutes to finally get to MGM...each stop at POR took forever. The driver would sit there in idle waiting to see if anyone else was going to walk up...holy cannoli...JUST GO! After getting to MGM (finally), we headed over to the security area. This was also another forever and a day project. My God people, if you have a back pack with eight thousand zippers, have them UNZIPPED BEFORE you get to the security area. They need a back pack line. Sorry back pack carriers, but for goodness sake, think ahead. After finally getting through that mess, we got the ticket line only to be in back of the moron family. The Moron family could not figure out how to get their tickets through the slot...I was waiitng for Ashton to jump out and tell me I was being punked. The CM finally came around and helped them...

Once through that, we headed right for RNR as if there was any other place would we head. The wait time was 60minutes and the fast pass time wasn't until our ADR time at O'hanna. We decided to give the single-rider line a try and ended up beating the system sorta. We got through the initial are together and were lined up in different rows, but for the same car. Somehow, I wasn't able to get on the car in time...: and fancy this..DD missed it too :....we just paired up at that time and went on the next car together. I, Dana, manipulated the system. I think this is what set the tone for the rest of the trip. I think the karma Gods were getting me back for this minor infraction and my greedy need to ride RnR first thing as soon as I get there.

When we got done with RnR, we hit the Villian shop as usual and noticed that is was almost 12:30 by the time we got done playing in there. We shopped our way toward the exit (I love the MGM shops) and headed over to bus atop 14 ALLLLLLLL the way at the end for the bus back to the FQ. The bus was there and DD ran to hold it while I speed walked my way over to it. We were back there by 1pm. Instead of going back over to check in where the line was HUGE, we went into the gift shop to look around. WAtching a bunch of people head to rooms with luggage in tow, we assumed the rooms were done. We headed over to check-in again and got miss. sour puss the CM with a chip on her shoulder and was told "check in is 3pm...not a minute before". I was just a bit put off by her and responded with "I was told to be back here for 1pm. I wouldn't have left the parks if I knew the check-in wasn't until 3pm"....she said "The room will not be ready until 3pm".

I admit it. I was seriously annoyed with this woman. I kinda snatched the call card out of her hand that she handed me to call and check on my room. I was so angry that I walked over to building one where the initial CM told me I would be assigned to see if they were still cleaning these rooms. The CM told me that she was done all the first floor rooms where I was suppose to be assigned. I stalked back to my DD who was sitting on a bench to embarrased to walk over there with me. I sat on the bench and called the number and was told the room wasn't finished again. I sat on that bench fuming as I watched family after family walk by me checking in and getting their room...

I walked over to the bar and sat there. I ordered a coors light and got my DD a virgin Pina colada. I hung out chatting with the bartender who just happened to be from NJ for three beers and called back for the room....still not done. It was now just shy of 3pm and I was PO-ED! I had my DD call back the number at 3pm and she was told that the room should be ready before 5pm....ok that's it. I walked over to the check-in area to demand my room when the CM told me it was ready. I got my money from their security area and headed over to my room. At this time, a lady came out and handed me a bag and told me it was waiting for me. I had no idea what it could be, so I opened right then and there. It was little pirate treasure boxes for me, nutty and bear, and llama....LIMS left them for us when she was there. What a sweet jesture and what a way to make me smile after a not so good first day.

We then headed over to the room. We were on the first floor in building one with a full river view. We had room 1129. It wasn't very close to the main building, but hardly far either. It was quiet and peaceful and we had a little bench near our area to sit and watch the boats...very nice. I was smart enough to ask about the smoking sections when I initially checked in. I was told that even though the little bench near my room wasn't a smoking section, I was able to smoke there as long as I cleaned up after myself. Very nice. The smoking areas, for the record, are everywhere and easy to find at that resort for those who were wondering.

At this time, I received my second call from work and was informed that thye can't find the deposit from my last shift....WHAT?>? I told them what time it was taken, who took it and to call me back when they found it. I then called my boss. I did not want him thinking that I took it...he laughed at me and told me to go have fun and he would take care of it.....this is exaclty what I didn't need my first day on vacation.

We got in the room and were pleased at how clean it was and we found a towell animal on our TV. I called for the luggage and it arrived in minutes. We unpacked, showered and changed for dinner. At about 4:15, we headed down to the taxi area and took a cab over to the Polynesian for our dinner at O'hanna. We were seriously early, but checked in anyway. Were were seated in minutes and were pleased to find out they gave us a big table meant for a party of 4. I don't know how many of you are a party of two, but those of you who are know that the tables for two are TINY and it's hard to find room for your dinner plate with all the stuff they lay out on your table. We had an excellent server named Stephanie who informed us that her babysitter works at our resort. Her husband also works for disney...very cool. The food and service was excellent. We were so happy that our old favorite was like it used to be and not the so-so place it was in October. I am thrilled I gave them another shot. It was an excellent meal.

After stuffing our faces, we waddled out of O'hanna's and made our way to the downstairs gift shop. We love this surf shop filled with Roxy and billabong merchandise. I bought DD a tank top and tried talking myself into this sundress I really wanted, but decided to wait on it. We cabbed it right back to FQ where we just jumped into PJ's and settled in for the night. In my room waiting was two pirate baskets from the WDW floral shop from bear and nutty. I called them to thank them....what a nice surprise. See what I mean by 50% perfect and 50%..pooh?
I think we were sound asleep by 10pm...easily. We were so tired.

Pictures and day two soon to follow.

[Dopey]

yay, you're working on your report. I am so

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by Dana

Work called me while I was eating to tell me the coverage that I shceduled back out and my second assistant was stuck working open to close.. unreal..grr Figures. I worked all my days off covering a store so my guys would be covered for my vacation. Amazing how people are.

I know this is a weird place to interject but I just don't get why work would bother you on vaca? What were ya gonna do, get back on the plane and go fix the situation. I feel bad, that was a TOTAL unneccesary interupption to the beginning of your trip! Gosh, leave you alone... you're in WDW!

[dac921]

What a wonderful surprise for you and Sara... sounds like day one was alright, I am hoping that day 2 is a little better... I understand about work calling you while on vacation, I ALWAYS get the VP from heck calling me no matter where I am. She has called MY CELL, while in Bermuda, Virginia, Ohio, Harrisburg, Orlando, all the time, and most of the time she just wants to know what I am doing...

Smile kiddo

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by Dana

My God people, if you have a back pack with eight thousand zippers, have them UNZIPPED BEFORE you get to the security area. They need a back pack line. Sorry back pack carriers, but for goodness sake, think ahead. After finally getting through that mess, we got the ticket line only to be in back of the moron family. The Moron family could not figure out how to get their tickets through the slot...I was waiitng for Ashton to jump out and tell me I was being punked. The CM finally came around and helped them...

This was DEFINATELY a reaccuring theme during our "Girl Trip" . The WORST offender was trying to get into the gates of the MK (I think we might have been standing in the rain to boot) and a woman could NOT figure out the "finger scanner" machine. She put her PINKY on the pad, then her RING FINGER, middle finger..... it took FOREVER, Val was ready to take her index finger for her and put it on the pad. THEN she was putting the actual ticket in upside down or something. No, and here was the best part.. the CM tried to intervene and let me through while the lady was finding her brain. WELL, the LADY TRIED GOING THROUGH THE TURNSTILE ON MY SWIPE!!!! aye, aye, aye!

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by Dana

O'hanna. We were seriously early, but checked in anyway. Were were seated in minutes and were pleased to find out they gave us a big table meant for a party of 4. I don't know how many of you are a party of two, but those of you who are know that the tables for two are TINY and it's hard to find room for your dinner plate with all the stuff they lay out on your table.

hahaha, Daniel used to get so caustrophobic in those little O'hana 2 party tables b/c they ALWAYS dump all of the courses at once on our little table and we couldn't even move our forks without knocking something over. Glad you had a comfy spot and a good meal.

[WishUponAStar]

Lovely surprises from limsy, doughnut & HB!! How very sweet!!

[Dopey]

ummmm, where did she go?

[Dana]

Day two - August 28th

Today was EMH for Epcot. I was up and the third person in line at Epcot by 7:15am. We had a stalker family through-out our entire stay. (I am joking..we just seemed to head to the same parks every day). It was their first trip to WDW and I of course used this as an excuse to show off. I forced my touring plans down their throats and told them how to get on everything twice before 9am and how to fast pass the good ones..lol

We waited for the official open for EMH and ran toward Soarin. We did Soarin twice (front row both times) and then fast-passed it for later. After Soarin, we headed downstairs and had breakfast in Seasons. After breakfast we went over and did Nemo. I am still no all that impressed with this ride, but it's a nice air conditioned break from the heat..lol We caught up with nutty and the bear after using our fast passes. (we grabbed another fast pass for soarin immediately after riding again) We did nemo a second time with them and then took pics of them in Bruce. We decided on meeting at the MK for 5pm after the security check-in before the ticket area as I had their P&P party tickets in my room. After nemo, nutty and HB went to do turtle talk and me and DD ran to Rose and Crown to see about a cake for dinner at the Rose and crown. Llama had been calling for over a week and still had not received a phone call back from the cake people, so when she called me that day in Epcot, I told her I would go over there and do it instead of her having to keep calling. It just didn't make sense for her to do that when I was there. I had my ADR number, but never noticed that the date was wrong. (More to come on the messed up ADrs later)

I was told at the Rose and crown podium that they were unable to order me a cake. I was told to get my concierge desk to do it...okey dokey then. After this, we did the shops from Rose and crown back to Canada and headed over to mouse gears. We got emergency socks at this time. My sketcher crocs that I thought were disney worthy had my feet blistered and bleeding. To think I just got done mocking someone that morning for wearing crocs and socks...I am a believer now..lol We headed back toward the entrance and made our way back to FQ. AGain the bus was there and my DD ran to hold it for us. We never had a problem leaving a park with transportation...the bus was just always there. WE just had issues getting to them..lol

Once back at FQ, we grabbed some lunch from the food court and headed to the room to eat. After lunch, we took a small nap. This was a thing for us almost every afternoon. I am not a nap person at all, but the heat just wiped me out and I felt so much better after a snooze in the air condition every afternoon for about an hour or so. After a nap, we got up and got showers and put on our pirate's PJs and headed over to the MK. On the way to the busses, we saw the stlalker family (again it's a joke) and they thanked me for my plans as they were able to get on everything they wanted multiple times. They asked me which park I was heading to the next day and when I told them AK, they wanted to know how to get on everything..lol They were going there too...lol We got some serious strange looks heading over there, but decided to play it up and "ARGH" at everyone who looked at us weird..lol

After getting to the MK, we headed to the main shop on main street and got some pirate gear to compliment our owfits. My DD got a pirate hat, gun and sword. I wore the pirate hat that came in my pirate basket nutty and the bear sent me and bought a gun to shoot at random people. WE headed back to the entrance around 5pm to find nutty and bear in their full pirate gear. WE got them their tickets and screamed a bunch of "argggghhhhs" at the pirate cms who ate it up..lol When we all entered the park, I decided that it would be cool to bow to all the princesses that we saw. Every time a little girl would pass in princess attire, I would scream "ahoy! BOw to the princesssssssss" My band of pirates would scream "princess" and bow..lol We did this at random all night and the little princesses ate it up as did their parents who were unsure if we were guests or part of the show in some cases.

We headed over to Tomorrow land and rode buzz light year. I beat DD, but spared her the "in your face" vistory dance. We then headed over to Cosmic rays and grabbed some dinner.

After eating and riding POTC, we headed over to the Jafar show near Jungle cruise. We had to wait just a bit and then watched the 7:50pm show. After the show, Jafar gave us a private meet and we all took pictures. There was a guy dressed as one of the English guys from pirates and we went back and forth about who was controller of the seas and I left him with a sinister "don't walk the street alone" commment....I followed with a "Jafar give me a call some time and we can take over the world".,....I was in character that night..lol The band of pirates I was hanging with (DD, HB and nutty) were also in character and we had a total blast. WE headed over to my favorite fireworks spot (the smoking section near the ice-cream place) and watched M&M fireworks display. I never thought I would say this, but it beats the snot out of Hallowishes and I Hallowishes. Directly after Hallowishes, I trotted over to the closest curb and secured a spot for all four of us. After making sure everyone was settled, I went over to Casey's and grabbed drinks for us and we sat and waited for the parade. The parade was fantastic, but this is where the Halloween part is better. Nothing beats that Halloween parade in my opinion...I love that parade. The shovel guys and that song just make it the best. I was very surprised with my reaction to Tinkerbell. I thought it was going to bother me, but I hae to admit that she was perfect....tinkerbell in every way. I liked it, but still don't want her in a meet and greet. I like her high above the float still seeming fairy like and small...magical even.

After the parade, we headed over to do Splash Mountain I think. Here's where my memory isn't serving me well. I do remember getting completely soaked and being slightly put off by it. Most of you know I hate getting wet..lol We seperated around 11pm or so. Bear and nutty went to find characters and me and DD headed back to the resort. WE had breakfast at Breakfastsaurus at 8am and I wanted to get some rest.

Thankfully the FQ bus was there waiting again for us and we were back at our resort quickly. WE got showered and changed and went right to sleep.

A pretty magical day in every way. I did check my concierge desk about the cake and they gave me the cake hotline number that llama was having no sucess with...I was not so hopeful about my cake surprise at that time. I can't see why they couldn't call and help me, but that's ok. Here is one more opportunity for me to see that my ADrs were wrong, but I never thought to have WDW print them for me. I always check them and always type them out at home....never occured to me they weren't right.

Still haven't resized my pics...getting there guys. I'll try and get some more done tomorrow before my memories get jumbled together.

[MissDisney]

Originally Posted by Dana

The Moron family could not figure out how to get their tickets through the slot...I was waiitng for Ashton to jump out and tell me I was being punked.

I would have paid the big bucks to see this going down!!! LOL... too funny...

And I agree with Wish! What does your boss expect you to do? Fly back for a few hours and take care of it???

Originally Posted by Dana

We headed over to Tomorrow land and rode buzz light year. I beat DD, but spared her the "in your face" victory dance.

You are a very thoughtful mom!!! Glad Day #2 was so magical!!!

[MJD]

Sounds good so far, can't wait to hear more....

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by Dana

We got emergency socks at this time. My sketcher crocs that I thought were disney worthy had my feet blistered and bleeding. To think I just got done mocking someone that morning for wearing crocs and socks...I am a believer now..lol

Oh no!!! OUCH!!! I HAVE TO wear little socklets with ALL of my Crocs. I don't wear the cayman style but I have the mary-janes & the ballet flats. I got these little nude socklets from Target and they are DEFINATELY a must for me. Something ALWAYS finds a way to rub my feet the wrong way. Jen SWORE that she really didn't notice I was wearing socks with them until I asked so I guess these are less noticeable than traditional socks.

[Soundgod]

A couple quick comments.
It doesn't matter what way of the 4 possible ways you insert your ticket. Upside down or right to left, makes no difference. Matter of fact, many times if it doesn't read face up, it will read face down.
How come you did a taxi direct to Poly? With POFQ having it's own bus direct to the MK, you could have hopped the monorail or a resort launch, especially after dinner. Them $20 cab rides add up real fast, I know. I got jammed at the Contemporary trying to get to DTD on time and HAD to take a cab..

[WDW Rules]

Oh good, you've started your TR. I've been waiting for this ever since you left. Good reading so far. Can't wait for the pictures to start.

[mousemom]

Wow Dana, I am sorry you had such a bad expierence at FQ, We just went in the begining of Aug. and it was great. I know you are trying to find the positives in your trip. I am glad that you handled yourself well even through all the bad stuff. Glad that you are back safe and sound. By the way, I love your story about your "stalkers",ha ha ha. Glad your home and giving us you TR "FINALLY"!