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Days 1 & 2
Cast of Characters : Me (Tiffany), age 31
Well, I'm home! Whew, what a trip!! A little history – this was an unplanned trip back to Orlando so I could sit for the Florida
teacher certification exams. We'll be moving back to Florida in July after three years overseas, and I plan on going back into
teaching. So, I need to get my certificate!! The least expensive flight back to the US needed to be for five days or longer, so I
decided to spend some time at WDW during the "down time" when I wasn't studying for or taking the exams. We couldn't afford to
bring DH & the kids along (especially since we're saving for a big family WDW vacation in November), so I ended up on my first SOLO
trip to WDW!! The trip started off really horribly, but it ended up being a nice time. My flight out of Iceland got delayed over an
hour, there were bad headwinds that held us up further, and they made me check my carry-on piece of luggage (I specifically only took
a limited number of items so I could just carry on one piece and not have to check anything). Even though I had a nice two hour layover
planned between my Baltimore flight and my Orlando flight, the delays & baggage claim/customs check ate that up and I missed my
flight from Baltimore to Orlando. It was the last flight of the day, too, so I ended up stranded in Baltimore overnight. Airtran
was able to get me on a flight out at 6:30 the next morning and Icelandair paid for me to stay at the Holiday Inn near the airport,
so though it was very stressful it still turned out OK. I was supposed to have a Your Ride towncar pick me up at the Orlando
airport that night t 10:30 PM, so I called them at 8:30 PM and let them know my change in schedule as soon as I had rebooked with
Airtran and knew my new flight information. They assured me there wouldn't be any problem, they'd inform the driver not to pick me up
that night, and they'd have someone waiting for me at baggage claim the next day in Orlando. I took the airport shuttle to the Holiday
Inn (very nice – if anybody's staying in Baltimore near the airport I can definitely recommend it!!), checked in, made arrangements for
a 4:30 AM wake-up call, and collapsed. So much for being in Orlando by that night!!
I got up bright and early the next morning and caught the shuttle back to the airport (they were there to pick me up in less
than five minutes – very impressive!). The flight on Airtran was GREAT!! Their flight crew both on the ground and in the air were a
pleasure to deal with, and they had a great sense of humor! I felt like I was already at Disney World – it seems the Pixie Dust was
already starting. Unfortunately, when I arrived in Orlando around 12:30 PM (via Atlanta), and there was nobody from Your Ride waiting
for me!! After waiting around 15 minutes or so, I just got a rental car. I'd already had a reservation with Alamo to get a car the next
day to drive to my exam, picking it up on WDW property and returning it the following day, also on WDW property. They were very
accommodating about changing my reservation to extend to my entire trip and to change the pick-up and drop-off to the airport. So,
after choosing my car and getting my suitcase stashed in the trunk, I was FINALLY in sunny Florida on my way to Disney World!!
The directions to Walt Disney World, and more specifically to Pop Century, were very easy to follow. Check-in went smoothly,
then I grabbed a burger and fries (and my refillable mug) at Everything Pop food court and headed out to find my room. The room
was cute – the typical Disney value resort set-up – and very clean. After scarfing down the sandwich while watching the Top Seven Best
Attractions on Disney TV, I called my DH to let him know I arrived OK, called an online friend to set up a get-together later on that
weekend, then headed out to go check out the campus where my test would be held on Saturday. It was in Sanford about 50 miles away in
an area of heavy construction, so I wanted to drive it first *before* the exam to make sure the Mapquest directions were correct
and to time it. I got back to the hotel around 7:30 PM, grabbed a chef salad and a mini bottle of Pinot Grigio from the food court,
and headed back to my room to eat dinner and watch Survivor. Around 9 PM I got a phone call in my room. It was Bob form
Your Ride, wanting to know why I wasn't at the airport at 10:30 Wednesday night when he came to pick me up. I explained about my
delayed flight and how I'd called them at 8:30 that night to let them know and change my arrival time to the next day. I also told
him that I was forced to rent a car since no one was there to pick me up at the airport the next day as promised. He apologized and
said he'd check into the matter. About ten minutes later he called back and asked what phone number I called to cancel & reschedule my
pick-up – he wanted to be sure I had called the right place. I read him the number I'd used and assured him that I had indeed called
Your Ride and that the person answering the phone recognized my name on his reservation list and confirmed that he'd made the appropriate
arrangements, even reading the information back to me. Bob apologized again – it seems the guy answering the phone that night
swore he hadn't received a phone call from me. In Bob's words, "He's obviously trying to cover his, well, you know…"
Needless to say, I don't think I'd be able to recommend Your Ride to other travelers.
By 9:30 I was wiped out and decided to go to bed. That went great till the family next door came home at midnight and decided to
bathe the kids before bed. The running water first woke me up, but that was nothing compared to the banging of plastic tub toys against
the spigot in the bathtub that reverberated right through the pipes in the wall behind my headboard. Then the parents decided to curb
this annoying behavior by yelling and threatening the kids, which got them screaming and crying. ::sigh:: Aren't family trips
supposed to be fun??? Oh, well…
High Point : Finally getting to Orlando!
Low Point : Being stuck overnight in Baltimore no towncar to pick me up
Day 3
Since my delayed flight cost me a day, this was going to be my one and only park day. I decided to hit MGM because, though I've
been to WDW over a dozen times, I've never been to MGM! I wanted to check out Tower of Terror before our family trip in November because
my 4-year-old DD is determined to ride the "scary elevator" and I wanted to make sure she could handle it. Still not adjusted to the
time zone, I was wide awake by 4:30 AM. I spent a couple of hours studying for my exams, then decided to get up and start my day.
After showering and getting dressed, I headed for Everything Pop food court to fill up my mug with coffee and get some Mickey Head
waffles!! The coffee was indeed the nasty Nescafe that I'd read about, but I was able to mask the bitter taste with the flavored
creamers they provide. I ordered the waffle kids meal for only $3.59, which included two mini Mickey Head waffles and two pieces of
bacon. It was plenty enough for me, and I plan on splitting one between my two kids when we go back – one mini waffle and one slice
of bacon each will be plenty for them first thing in the morning. I headed back to my room to drop off my mug and grab my water bottle,
then I set out for the busses. I arrived at the bus stop around 8 AM, and by 8:15 I was on my way to MGM.
There were very few people when I arrived about 20 minutes later, and most of them were visiting with Timon, Winnie the Pooh,
and Minnie, who were hanging around outside. I had heard about the R&R / TOT rush, so I found a spot at a turnstile to the far right
and waited. At around 8:50 they let us in (I didn't see any sort of opening ceremony – does MGM have one??), and I beelined it own
Sunset Blvd with everyone else heading for the two big thrill rides. There was a rope across Sunset Blvd with a few CM's
patrolling it. Goodness. You would have thought we were in a race for a million dollars or something!! People were stretching,
jockeying for position, and making grand plans ("I'll head over and grab FP's for R&R. You get in the standby line for TOT, and I'll
meet you there. Hmm, maybe we should send grandma off to get Star Tours FP's…") When they dropped the rope, the CM's made everyone
walk *behind* them in an orderly fashion. I grabbed my R&R FP and was in the standby line for TOT by 9:05. WOW!! I fell in love with
that ride. The ambiance is great, and the random drops make every trip a new one. When I got of my FP window for R&R was already
there, so I grabbed a FP to TOT and headed over to R&R. I'm an absolute roller coaster junkie, but I have to say I wasn't terribly
impressed with R&R. Then again, I'm not all that impressed with Space Mountain, either. I think the WDW parks are the best
amusement parks in Florida for overall ambiance and family fun, but Busch Gardens Tampa still wins the best/most/fastest roller coasters
award in my book. The first four seconds of R&R are absolutely amazing, but after that it's pretty much another Space Mountain. It
was nice to do it once, but TOT so blew me away that I didn't bother to ride R&R again that day. My TOT FP window was up, so I jumped
back in line for ride #2. All in all, I ended up on TOT five times – the first time in the standby line, and the other four with FP's
throughout the day.
After hitting the two biggies, I headed out to explore the rest of the park. I jumped on the Great Movie Ride without any wait at
all. It was very cute! I'd been told some parts (the gangster, the Alien scene) might be too intense for small children, but there
was nothing in it that would have bothered my 4 and 6 year olds. Once out of there, strolled past Echo lake to get to Star Tours. It
had a bit of a wait, so I grabbed a FP and went to watch Muppet 3- D. What a cute movie!! I still can't get over how real the WDW 3-D
movies appear. My Star Tours FP window was open, so I hopped on. It was a simulator ride similar to Body Wars, and it was a lot of
fun. My kids will definitely enjoy that one. I then went in search of the Backlot Tour. That was a little tricky because it's not
marked on the park map!! I wandered around on Mickey Avenue till I finally found it. It was fun and informative. I almost volunteered
to be in the presentation. After I saw how WET they got, though, I'm glad I didn't. After that I had a little time to kill before my
late lunch PS at Sci Fi, so I went to see Walt, One Man's Dream. Of course, I was blubbering like a baby by the time I left. I used
another FP for TOT, grabbed one to use after lunch, then went to Sci Fi Dine-In. I'm glad I had a PS because they were turning away
people who didn't, or giving them the option to come back at 2:45 (it was 1:30 at the time). After about a ten minute wait, I was
seated. The restaurant is really a fun place to eat, and the clips are hilarious. The food was average. You can read my review (to be
posted soon) for more detail. I enjoyed trying it once, but I won't go back till I've had a chance to try out some of the other
restaurants at MGM. Michael, my server, was absolutely wonderful and didn't make me feel funny at all to be dining alone. I
was "hitchhiking" in the back seat of a family of four, and he kept telling me they were picking up my tab. Luckily, they thought the
joking was funny, too, and went along with it (though they didn't actually pick up my tab – darn!).
After lunch I went on my fourth TOT ride (can you tell I like this one??) and grabbed a FP for ride number five. While I waited
for my FP window, I decided to go watch Little Mermaid. My plan had been to do all of the rides before lunch, then watch all of the
shows after lunch. After I got out of Little Mermaid, there was a bit of a lull between the next showings of Indiana Jones or
Millionaire, so I decided to look around in the shops for a while. By the time I'd gone through all of the shops, my FP window for TOT
was open again, so I jumped on. When I got off it was around 4:45, so I thought I'd grab a caramel apple and find a parade spot, then
try to catch Indiana Jones and Millionaire before the first showing of Fantasmic. Well, while standing in line for the caramel apple my
jet lag caught up with me and I realized I was totally wiped out! Since I had my exams the next day (which were my main reason for
flying 5000 miles around the globe in the first place), I decided just to call it a day. I nibbled my caramel apple while heading for
the bus line. I got my hand stamped in case I caught a second wind and decided to head back later for Fantasmic. While riding the bus
back to Pop Century I rested a bit and decided I wasn't tired enough for a nap but too tired to go back to MGM, so I chose to go to DTD
and look in the shops.
It was a Friday evening, so the shops were bustling. I had Kelloggs certificates for pins, so I went to the pin trading store
first to pick them up. The manager told me I got the last two in the store! I don't know if she meant she was just out for the day,
or if they were out for good!! I also did some pin trading with the CM's. This was my first time trading. My kids have pins and
lanyards, and when I left on my trip they each gave me three pins and asked me to trade them for pins they'd like. Kierstin had
specifically requested one with Timon on in, and Logan wanted Stitch. I was able to get Stitch from a CM at the pin store, as
well as a Lilo for Kierstin, but no luck with Timon. They warned me it would be a hard one to find. I believed them – I'd been casually
checking CM's lanyards at MGM while I was there and hadn't seen any. They also told me about the pn trading in the Villain's Room
at World of Disney, which was starting in just a few minutes, so I headed over there. A CM brings out a book of pins, and everyone
gets to make two trades. When I got there, I was seventh in line. The CM opened the book, and there on one of the pages was a Pumba
and Timon pin!! I sent p a silent prayer that none of the six people in front of me would claim it. The Pixie Dust was flowing,
and the pin was still available when it was my turn! I also found a pin for the Gargoyles cartoon. My son had only seen it once or
twice when we still lived in America, but he became absolutely enamored by the real things when we visited Paris several months
ago, so I knew he'd love that pin. After doing my trading, I picked up some postcards for the Pixie Postcard Program, wandered through
some stores, then grabbed a cold sandwich at Earl of Sandwich and headed back to Pop Century to turn in for the night.
The family next door made another midnight appearance, but this time they managed to get the kids in bed and watching cartoons
after just a small amount of screaming, so I drifted back to sleep to the muffled sound of The Little Mermaid coming through the wall…
High Points : Tower of Terror five times(!!!), and getting a Timon pin for Kierstin
Low Points : getting tired before seeing Fantasmic, the family next door again!
Days 4 & 5
Now that the fun part of my trip was over, it was time for the work part. The day of my exams had arrived. I was up at 5 AM, did
some studying, then got ready. I wanted to leave by 6:30 AM. I had to check in at 8:30 at the test site, and it had taken me about an
hour and a half to get there when I drove it a few days earlier. I though I'd better give myself an extra hour of wiggle room, just in
case there was an accident or construction detour or something. I ran down to Everything Pop to get my mug of nasty Nescafe, pick up a
pastry for breakfast, and grab a sandwich to throw in my mini cooler for my lunch break between exams. I was successful with the coffee
and pastry, but they didn't have the cold sandwiches and salads out yet. I noticed they had little packets of peanut butter and jelly
sitting out with the other condiments, so I grabbed a croissant from the pastry area and decided just to do pb&j for lunch. I also
grabbed a banana. The positive side is that both breakfast *and* lunch together ended up costing me $6.50 total. I noticed they also
had slices of white, whole wheat, and tye-dye marble bread for sale in the pastry area, so I made a mental note that all of the pb&j
fixings were readily available and inexpensive for when I come back with the kids in November.
I was on the road by 6:30 and at my test site a little before 8 AM. I was glad I came early, because they were starting
construction on a railroad at 8 AM that was going to divert traffic on a long detour, but luckily I got by before they started the
work. I did a little studying, then headed for the exams. They were just as bad as I feared, but by 2:30 I was finished and OUT OF
THERE!! I only had another 24 hours in Orlando, and I was going to enjoy it! On my way back to WDW I decided to swing into the Belz
outlet and check out the Disney outlets. I managed to locate Character Premier (or something like that) rather quickly with the
help from directions I got on Deb Will's site. I'm glad I went! I'd been looking for long sleeved shirts for my kids, since it never
gets warm enough to wear t-shirts here in Iceland, but I'd been unable to find anything other than extremely overpriced sweatshirts
on-property. At the outlet I scored long sleeved t-shirts for both kids and myself (Minnie playing baseball for DD, Mickey & Pluto
skateboarding for DS, and a surfboard Mickey, Goofy, and Donald for myself) for $30 for all three. That's less than ONE sweatshirt
would have cost me onsite! I'll definitely be going back to the outlets on my next trip.
I headed back to Pop Century and decided I had time to do a load of laundry (and hang out at the Hippy Dippy pool while it
washed) before my 8PM PS at Artist's Pointe for my final WDW dinner. I threw the clothes in the washer, grabbed a fruity
tropical drink from the Petal Bar, and found a beach chair to sit in and soak up the last of the Florida sun. After the laundry was
done, I dressed for dinner and headed out. It had been so warm I didn't think I'd need a jacket, so I set out in just my short
sleeved shirt and jeans. I took the bus to MK, then hopped on a launch headed for WL. By this time the sun was starting to set, and
there was quite a breeze on the water. I was FREEZING! I couldn't wait to get into the restaurant. I had a nice, quiet dinner (the
buffalo steak is amazing), then looked around the resort a bit. I'd originally planned to head over to the Poly to grab a Lapu Lapu that
I'd heard so much about and find a place to watch Wishes, but I was just so cold and tired that I didn't have the energy. So, I boarded
the launch back to MK so I could catch a bus back to Pop Century. The Pixie Dust was flowing, though. Halfway across the lagoon we
passed the Electric Light Parade! It was so much fun to watch, and the kids on the launch were mesmerized. I will definitely make sure
I bring my own kids down to see it when we visit in November. I arrived at MK, waited forever for a bus to Pop Century, and climbed
on board. Just as the bus was pulling out, Wishes started. I could see it almost the entire ride back to MK. There were only a couple
of places where trees or tunnels blocked my view. It was so beautiful, I can't wait to see it in the park!! I got back around
10PM and blissfully fell asleep.
The next morning Mickey woke me up at 7AM, and it was time to pack up. I had plans to meet friends at 1900 Park Fare for their
daughter's birthday brunch before heading back to the airport. So, I got packed and realized my Express Checkout wasn't hanging on my
door, so I went to the lobby to check out. It was quick and painless, and I was on my way to DTD by 9:15. I browsed for a while
till shops opened, then I went to the scrapbook store to mail my Pixie Dust Postcards. I picked up pressed penny books for my kids
at World of Disney and pressed a couple of pennies for each of them to get it started. At 10:15 I headed down to the Grand Floridian to
meet my friends for brunch. I have to say, getting to the GF is a bit of a task, and parking is an even bigger one. If I'd known it
would be that daunting I'd probably have paid the $6 or whatever to valet park. After I parked at what seemed to be the opposite side
of Kissimmee, I finally made my way to the hotel. It is absolutely breathtaking! My friends and I had a great time at the brunch.
Mary Poppins & Bert were there, along with Alice in Wonderland and Pooh & Eyore. Alice was absolutely darling – she had so much fun
with the two little girls at our table! The food was standard buffet fare, but they also had an omelet station that was very
nice. After saying farewell to my friends, I headed back to the Orlando airport. Luckily, my return trip was blissfully
uneventful. When I got off the plane, DH said "So, did that scratch your Disney itch?" I said, "No way! It just pumps me up more to
plan our November trip!!" He just sighed and shook his head.
High Point : sharing in a little girl's birthday brunch with Mary
Poppins, seeing the Electric Light Parade
Low Point : forgetting my jacket and freezing, having to come home!!
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