[llama]

So....

I ACTUALLY slept in! I set the alarm for 5 a.m. and it didn't go off. The first thing I heard was Emily saying "aren't you getting up?" 5:15!!! No time for fancy make-up and stuff. But we were out of the house by 5:45 and on our way to the airport. Fortunately we're only 15 minutes from the airport, so we were there in no time. Neil dropped us ("us" being Emily, Jeremy and myself - he would join us the next day) off. The morning was cold, still and clear. Thankfully we didn't have any snow to contend with. Check through was easy and we were soon on our way to Chicago. We arrived early, for once and found our gate (which they immediately changed to ANOTHER gate) and discovered that there would be a 1/2 hour delay - no biggie. This was the first time that Jeremy (Em's fiance) had ever had a vacation! His first plane ride, his first time out of the country. It made me realize what spoiled brats my kids were. So, it was fun to see his reactions. Mostly - he couldn't believe the noise of the airport! But he was a little disappointed to discover that Americans looked just like us. (I don't know what he was expecting - Elvis Impersonators, maybe). So we settled in for a bit of a wait. Finally they announced boarding and we all dutifully got up. Well, we waited, and waited, and waited. Then they announced that because the plane wasn't full, they'd decided to wait for a flight from Pittsburgh, so they could stuff 24 Super Bowl headed Pittsburghians? Pittsburghites? Pittsburghers? on the plane. Lovely. No one was too happy about that and we had to wait another 45 minutes for yellow helmut-wearing, towel-bearing fans to arrived. We expected the worst, but they were very well-behaved (albeit very YELLOW) - and so we were on our way. The pilot outdid himself and got us to Orlando in just over 2 hours. Kudos Captain.

This was the first time I'd ever used ME when arriving. We got our luggage (I like to have it with me) and found the ME with no problems. A nice ME lady waved us on and we were once more in the arms of the Mouse! Jeremy got his first look at palm trees. Then remarked that other than the palm trees "it looked just like home". Which is the truth - maybe that's why I feel at home in Central Florida. Take away the palms and the landscape is almost identical to home (albeit the 3 feet of snow in the winter). SSR was the first stop. Easy check-in with a lovely CM from Manchester, England (so naturally she wanted to know what was happening on Coronation Street), a stop at the concierge to buy Em & Jer's parkhoppers, a ride with bell services to our suite and we were "home". I had requested either The Grandstand or Congress Park and we got CP- the closest villa to the Marketplace AND on the first floor - Perfect! I think Jer had visions of a hotel room with roll-away cots - so when we opened the door to the 2 bedroom suite he was absolutely blown away! I had ordered some groceries from WDW and they were all put away for us. The fruit making smiley faces with oranges and bananas.

By this time it was about 6 p.m. We headed over to the Marketplace to get some dinner. Rainforest Cafe is not my favourite place, but Emily wanted Jeremy to "experience" it. Thanks to our membership card (a special offer from years ago), we were seated right away. The food, as always, was ok - not great - but ok. I just had a cheeseburger, Jeremy had a pizza and Emily had a shrimp platter. The noise, as always, was deafening - but it was fun to watch Jer's face at the apes screaming, the elephants trumpeting, etc. After dinner we looked around the shop and the kids bought sweatshirts (RF is still the best place for bargains at WDW.) It's a good thing they bought them - because it was COLD!! We kinda hit the wall then and decided to head back. Emily put in a wake-up call, making sure Jer answered. (come to think of it, I never did ask him who woke him up), and we went to bed.

End of first day. I have pictures - they will come.

[DisneyTeacher]

What a wonderful start to your trip. I love hearing about first timers, it sounds like he's going to fit in to this Disney family just fine.

[lovemysons]

Oh goody! I am looking forward to this trip report. Except, I am a little concerned about the possums.

[llama]

Originally Posted by lovemysons

Oh goody! I am looking forward to this trip report. Except, I am a little concerned about the possums.

As well you should be.

[llama]

Originally Posted by DisneyTeacher

What a wonderful start to your trip. I love hearing about first timers, it sounds like he's going to fit in to this Disney family just fine.

Oh, he's converted. Just a couple of minutes ago he said "Next time...."

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by llama

Oh, he's converted. Just a couple of minutes ago he said "Next time...."

YEA! What a nice test to do BEFORE they get married, had he not loved it he would be out.

[Experiment6-2-6]

Originally Posted by llama

So.... But he was a little disappointed to discover that Americans looked just like us. (I don't know what he was expecting - Elvis Impersonators, maybe).

Hey!

[MissDisney]

I would have probably dropped dead of a heart attack about the alarm clock thing. OMG! Nice touch about the RFC membership card!

[Dopey]

It has started.....yay

[llama]

Originally Posted by DisneyTeacher

YEA! What a nice test to do BEFORE they get married, had he not loved it he would be out.

Yes - unfortunately I would have had to insist that they break it off, if he didn't like it. We kept telling him "come on Jer...come join us on the Dark Side".

[llama]

Originally Posted by Dopey

It has started.....yay

It has begun.

[llama]

Originally Posted by MissDisney

I would have probably dropped dead of a heart attack about the alarm clock thing. OMG! Nice touch about the RFC membership card!

Yeah - that card has come in handy. We were once there for Neil's birthday and they offered it at half-price. We've used it a lot - and afterward I found out we could have used it at the T-Rex Restaurant too. I wish we had chosen to go there, at least once. Next time.

[llama]

Originally Posted by Experiment6-2-6

Hey!

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by llama

Yes - unfortunately I would have had to insist that they break it off, if he didn't like it. We kept telling him "come on Jer...come join us on the Dark Side".

Well your daughter would have totally understood the need to let him go had he not seen the light. I feel so much better knowing he passed and they can move forward with the wedding plans.

[llama]

So...

We had a 8 o'clock ressie for Kona Cafe, so we were up and ready to go. Man it was cold!! But we persevered. We took the bus to the MK and the bus driver told us to just stay on the bus and he'd drive us over to the Poly. That was nice of him! I love the Poly - I love anything tropical (hint Voldy & Experiment). We headed up to Kona and we were early, but they sat us right away. We've always started our vacation with breakfast at Kona and I love the place. This time, though, I was rather disappointed. I swear our waiter was from another planet. We had to ask him for cutlery, coffee, cream, everything...my scrambled eggs were watery and runny - not up to Kona regular standards. Anyway - we finished breakfast and headed to the monorail to take it to the MK. Jeremy was more excited about the monorail than anything else - and he loved his first ride.

We got to the MK just after it opened. I then realized that we really had to stop and smell the roses, so to speak - because Jeremy was completely blown away. So we stood on Main Street and listened to the Main Street entertainers, took a good look at the Castle and then headed to Tomorrowland. Buzz was our first ride and Jeremy loved it! Then we headed to Space Mountain - which blew him away. He kept saying "A roller-coaster INSIDE a building?" The Speedway was next and they had a ball bumping into me - which was specifically NOT ALLOWED but they did it anyway. Well, what can I say - we did almost all of MK (the Haunted Mansion was down and Mickey's Philharmagic was being refurbished) and he loved it all. Donut would have been proud - Splash Mountain was his ABSOLUTE favourite. We just had a great time and Emily and I saw everything through his eyes. The park was really uncrowded, so we had just about completed everything by early afternoon. So we decided to take the monorail over to Epcot. Jeremy + Monorail = We had a hard time getting him off it.