[disney&byudad]

I guess it's time to get this puppy rolling. I'm finally home at a somewhat reasonable time tonight after 4 days of catching up back at work. So, on with the show......

The Cast:

Me (D&BYUdad)
DW (Lynnae)
DD2 (Leslie)
DSIL2 (Ricky)
DD3 (Shannon)
DSIL3 (Jake)

New Year's Eve:

I was able to wrap everything up at work and get home by 4:30 p.m. Boy, there's no better feeling than having EVERYTHING caught up when you leave on vacation! No worries about pending projects, reports or major things waiting your return. Great!

Our Jet Blue flight was scheduled to leave Long Beach at 9:20 p.m., so we hung out, watched some football and muched on snacks until it was time to go. Got to the airport, checked in, bought a book and still had plenty of time left.

We finally boarded, took off at 10:00 p.m. and were on our way to WDW! Got to ring in the New Year thanks to the Fox broadcast on Direct TV, took about 4 or 5 30-45 minute naps (I cannot sleep on red-eyes), and bingo we're landing in Boston. Although it was 6:30 a.m. in Beantown, it still felt like 3:30 a.m. west coast time. Still, we were hungry so we had breakfast at the Johnny Rocket's in Logan. I was dying for a cheeseburger, but all we could get was breakfast.

Our connecting flight to Orlando was scheduled to depart at 8:40 a.m., but was delayed until 10:40 a.m. due to mechanical issues. Not a bad thing as I was able to snag one of the cool rocking chairs near our gate and get a GOOD couple hours of sleep .

[disney&byudad]

Our flight got off at 10:40 a.m. and the excitement began to build. No, not THAT excitement, I'm talking about the ESPN broadcast of the Red Wing/Black Hawk hockey game from Wrigley Field that started about an hour and a half into the flight . Got to watch the first period and suddenly the plane began to descend and sure enough, here comes the announcement from the pilot about beginning our approach to Orlando, whoooo hooooo! Yep, now the excitement is REALLY beginning to build.

We landed shortly after 1:00 p.m. and Leslie got a phone call from Shannon. Ooops, I forgot to mention that Lynnae and I and Ricky and Leslie flew out of Long Beach and Jake and Shannon flew out of Phoenix (on Delta). Long, boring story as to why, won't bother you with it. Well, they had just landed in Atlanta and were awaiting their connection to Orlando.

Found DME (which was REALLY crowded), Leslie checked us in and we are the FIRST group in line for the Old Key West resort bus. Waited about 10 minutes and off we go! Check in was smooth, and we are in building 64!!! For those of you not familiar with OKW, that's not even a hop, skip and jump from the Hospitality House. More like a hop and sk.....

[disney&byudad]

A few pictures of our suite. The front door (oooooh, ahhhhhh).

[disney&byudad]

Okay that was a little sarcastic. But how about some real ooohs and ahhhs for our balcony view? I'll scan from left to right.

[disney&byudad]

Beside affording us a beautiful view, this also provided quite a few chuckles. Did you notice all the divot marks in the middle photo? Well, those are NOT for show!! When I first saw them, I thought it was Disney's idea of a little golf humor....that the groundskeeping crew probably made them. After all, you'd really have to shank a shot to get a ball to land there. Over the next few days, I realized that, indeed, real people hit real shots that really landed there. What was really entertaining, however, was the number of shots that landed in the water. One guy actually sculled a ball that struck halfway up the wooden supports around the green and rebounded past the fountain into the middle of the lake. Jake and I were on the floor on that one !!!

Now, of course, we viewed all this behind closed doors and semi-drawn blinds, comforted by the fact that WE weren't the ones out there trying to make that seemingly easy tee shot over that small pond onto that huge green. Ah, the joys of staying at OKW.

Oh, here's the KING size bed in the bedroom and the adjoining jacuzzi. No oooohs and ahhhhhhs on these pics folks, someone might get the wrong idea!

[cinderbella]

Originally Posted by disney&byudad

.

Oh, here's the KING size bed in the bedroom and the adjoining jacuzzi. No oooohs and ahhhhhhs on these pics folks, someone might get the wrong idea!

I can't help it....ohhhhh! Bella likey the big tub!

[disney&byudad]

After checking out our place, we walked over to see Leslie and Ricky's studio room (6420). While we were there, we got a call from Shannon and Jake that they were on the DME and almost to the resort.

We all walked over to the Hospitality House and just as we got there, the DME bus pulled up! Finally, everyone was here. We all cruised through the store, checked out Olivia's, walked over to buy our mugs and walked around the pool.

When we got back to the rooms, our luggage had arrived (well, all except Shannon and Jake's)! After taking a little rest and changing, it was time to head to EPCOT and our 7:30 dinner ressie at San Angell Inn.

As we walked through the gates and saw SE, Lynnae said, "You know, it's been over two years since we've been here, but it feels like it was just last week!" Yep, it was good to be home, again.

Dinner was fun (food good, service OK) and we got to ride the new boat ride with the three amigos (I miss the bazaar scene).

By this time, we were DONE. It had been a long day and a half. So we hopped the bus back to the resort. As we walked into our suite, we saw that Jake and Shannon's luggage had arrived.

A great start!

[disney&byudad]

Friday, Jan 2

We slept in late since we were all blitzed from the cross country journey. Our destination today was EPCOT again. We had a lunch reservation at the Biergarten and dinner at Marrakesh, so we planned on doing the whole day there.

As corny as it may seem, I love taking this picture whenever we go. It's kind of the traditional start to the fun to come!

[disney&byudad]

Since it's still the Christmas season, the decorations were all up.

[disney&byudad]

We sort of expected this day to still be pretty crowded since we thought those who were there for the holidays probably wouldn't start leaving until Saturday or Sunday.

But this is what we saw when we hit World Showcase.

[disney&byudad]

Ahhh, here we are! Just in time for lunch!

[LittleMissMagic]

Originally Posted by disney&byudad

As corny as it may seem, I love taking this picture whenever we go. It's kind of the traditional start to the fun to come!

Oh, I know.... I have so many pictures of Spaceship Earth. It's so photogenic!

[disney&byudad]

We got seated right away and were joined by a nice young couple from Nebraska. We had a great time getting to know them and, of course, enjoying all the wonderful food!

I had been looking forward to this since we decided to book the trip back in April. I love the Biergarten! I didn't take any food pictures on this trip (well, except for the last night, as you'll see), but let me tell you that the sausages, sauerkraut, cheese spaetzle, red cabbage, etc., etc. were outstanding. Plus, the entertainment was great!

[Dopey]

This is a fantastic report, keep going

[mickeysgirlz]

Can't wait to see and read more!