The Cast: Me, myself and I!! 19/20 year old obsessive trip planner and Disney addict. Lover of Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, the Poly, and camels. Turning 20 near the end of my first solo trip. Think you can keep all the characters straight?
When: December 1-13, 2002
Where: POR, DAKL, Poly, WL
Well, I should start off saying that it feels very odd to be starting this report, as I have been home less than 24 hours, and it still feels like I’ve woken up from a very long dream. Its hard to believe that 12 days could go so quickly, and be so much fun all at once.
Lets start with the basic background info, shall we? It mostly started last Christmas, sitting at home not doing all that much, and watching the Disney Christmas & New Years specials on TV. “I need to be at Disney World next Christmas”, I decided. After my last trip in May 2001, I was even more convinced that I needed to get back quickly. Over the course of the summer and fall, I finally decided upon December 1-13th for my trip, because I decided that I would rather be in WDW for my birthday (the 11th) than for Christmas, due to the huge difference in crowds and prices. Next came the time to talk mom into going with me. Unfortunately, this time I couldn’t talk her into going, so I tried several other friends, all of which could either not get off from work, or simply couldn’t afford it. I finally decided to go solo, and just meet up with anyone who might be vacationing at the same time, as well as my friends that live in Florida. Well, much to my luck, my trip fell right at the end of the DIS-con, and right during the Passporter Meet! Emails back and forth between Nate (Passporter moderator, occasional DIS’er, of NASTEE trip report fame) and I discovered that we would be in WDW at the same time- Hooray! And then my FL resident friends Katie, Kiki, and Rich all agreed to meet up with me, and at once I was alone no longer!
When I started planning the details, I was being torn in all different directions when it came to resorts. I’m obviously a huge Poly fan, but staying there for 12 nights is way more than I could afford. Port Orleans Riverside was the more financially sensible choice. Wilderness Lodge, my 2nd favorite was also calling me back, as well as the desire to check out the new Animal Kingdom Lodge. So what do you do when you can’t decide? Stay at all of them! :D After tons of time spent (at work, actually!) calculating and re-calculating resort costs and switching around dates, I finally came up with my resort plan!
Dec. 1-4 at Port Orleans Riverside (Which I still call Dixie Landings half the time)
Dec 5-6 at Animal Kingdom Lodge, savannah view (The only one I was willing to pay more for a view at)
Dec 7 at the Poly with a Garden View (or so I thought!)
Dec 8-12 at the Wilderness Lodge, Woods View
Thanks to the great folks at Dreams Unlimited and my handy dandy Annual Pass, I got some fantastic rates, and started paying the deposits in the fall, eventually securing my reservations at all 4 resorts.
Airfare ended up being almost as insane as resort planning. My plan was to use Priceline, to try to get a fare under $250. However, one day while I was surfing the net at work, I found a flight for $200 roundtrip (including tax and such) on Travelocity. It was a Bargain Buy, which meant I had one hour to get it if I was going to, and that it was non-refundable, non-transferable, and all those other non’s. I agonized over the decision for minutes before I finally did what any independent, about to go away for 2 weeks all alone woman would do: I called my mommy. I explained the situation, and mom gave me her famous advice “Well, its really up to you.” “Um, yeah, I know that mom, but what do YOU think?” “Whichever you think is best!”. Its reasons like this my mom never flourished in a career writing and advice column. I finally decided to go ahead and buy it, warning mom that if it didn’t work out, I would obviously place all the blame on her because she had made such a huge impact on my decision ;) Well, after I confirmed that I wanted it, I got the flight schedule, and found out that I would have a layover in DALLAS, which is just a little bit out of the way from Missouri to Florida. Luckily, I have a good friend in Dallas who agreed to meet me at the airport on my layover, which made that part much more bearable. The sad part, however, was that I wouldn’t be arriving in Orlando until midnight on the 1st, thus knocking out the whole first day of my trip. I whined, complained, and moaned for a while, and then basically decided I needed to get over it.
Everything was running smoothly until a little over 2 weeks before it was time to leave, when I started feeling really sick, and found out I had strep throat. “I don’t have time for this!” I whined to the nurses “I leave in 19 days!” A few days later, when I was starting to feel better, my wisdom tooth started hurting like crazy, so it was off to the dentist to get that one pulled. A few days before my trip, I also had to go see a throat specialist because I haven’t been able to swallow food very well in ages, and I really wanted to be able to eat at WDW. He gave me some medicine, and I was ready to go! However, all of this meant missing almost 2 weeks of work, which was a huge setback on my trip finances. At this point, however, nothing short of a huge natural disaster would have kept me from going, so I packed up my bags, and I was off!
Day 1: Planes, Trains, and Towncars!
Now anyone who has ever left for vacation in the evening can tell you that those hours between waking up and getting to the airport are absolutely crazy. Due to my flight not leaving until 6pm, I was able to sleep in until 10. I packed up all the last-minute things, ran to Wal-Mart for a few things I needed, and was nearly ready to go. I stopped at KFC for a pot pie on the way home, but as usual, they were out!
A little after 2pm, mom and I left for the airport, which is about an hour and a half away. We reminisced about how the last time we drove there, it was 4am, back when we had a 6am flight to catch in May. The drive was rather uneventful, and so now after checking in, the only matter of business was to kill about two hours. It was odd to see the camouflage-clad security walking around with such serious dispositions. I noticed how several people seemed a bit more tense than I’d seen before, and goodbye embraces seemed to last just a bit longer than usual.
Our airport is very small, so there is a serious lack of things to do while waiting for your flight; you have the one small gift shop or the café. We stopped in the café for a while, as I was now starving (the KFC on the way to the airport was out of pot pies, too!). Afterwards, a reporter from our local branch of ABC stopped me and asked if I was flying on TWA. It seems the last TWA flight was that night (I think they were bought out by another airline?), and they were trying to find someone on the last flight. I told her that I wasn’t, but I could pretend to be if she really wanted an interview! ;) Sadly, she declined, and so ended my chance at my 15 seconds of fame.
Around 5:30, I said goodbye to mom and passed through security. The whole idea of people not flying not being able to go to the gates gets on my nerves, but I guess its worth it. I didn’t beep going through the scanner, but they decided to randomly check me out with the little wand thingey anyway. I guess girls with two braids carrying Mickey mouse ears look very suspicious! Once they deemed me safe, I was off! I was surprisingly calm at this point, because it somehow still hadn’t sunk in that I was actually going to WDW.
A quick look around my gate area made it clear that my flight was not going to be full, and in fact, we ended up with just 9 of us on the flight. Granted it was just a little plane that held about 36 people, but it was still pretty shocking! When it was time to board, they made the announcement that they would begin boarding the Group 1 Passengers. Nobody moved. A minute later they announced that Group 2 could now board. Nobody moved, and the lady started laughing, saying that everyone else could board now, and our mass stampede of 9 was off! They gave us the option of sitting anywhere from row 8 back (out of 12 rows), so that they would have the weight in the back of the plane. One odd thing I observed was that out of 9 people on the plane, 6 got up to use the restroom during the flight. It seemed odd compared to the two or three people who get up on a normal flight, which made me conclude that people are just more comfortable when there aren’t many people around. (Hey, when you’re flying alone, you notice these things!) I did miss having someone on the plane with me to talk about the upcoming excitement-that’s half of the fun of going!
Around two hours later, we touched down in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. I now had a Quest: Get to my gate, Find Kelly, Catch plane (preferably in that order!) I was lucky enough to talk my friend Kelly, who happens to live within driving distance of the DFW airport into coming to meet me while I was there, so I was really looking forward to this layover! I hopped on the train that runs through the airport, which brought me to my gate in about 10 minutes. Two men were discussing the differences between American and German culture, and as they parted ways, I learned they were complete strangers. I can never help but wonder just how two people who happen to be sitting next to each other get on such random topics in a matter of minutes after meeting each other.
When I arrived at my gate, the flight was already boarding, but I turned around and saw Kelly outside the security area, so I went through the exit door to see her. We had to walk a little to get back to where I could go back to my gate, so we had a great time chatting the whole way. I really wanted to stay longer, but my plane was leaving in about 20 minutes, so I knew I had to leave. Upon arriving back at my gate, I found out I was the last one to board! I had to do the whole random security check thing, where the lady pulled everything out of my carryons, and then patted me down and checked me with the metal detector. I was suddenly struck with how funny it was to be standing there, “assuming the position” while I was being patted down by a complete stranger. I must have had an amused look on my face, because the lady at the desk looked at me with a smile, and I commented to her “Making friends at the airport!”, as the security lady ran the metal detector along my legs. Free at last, I ran to my plane, thrilled to be onboard at last. I broke out the book Kelly had brought me, and was perfectly happy for quite a while when I realized we had been sitting there for a really long time. About then, the captain came on and announced that the maintenance crew had found a minor problem when they were checking over the plane, and that we should be leaving within 3-5 minutes. I went back to my book, and before I knew it, they were announcing that it wasn’t really a minor problem, and that we would have to switch to another plane. I grabbed my purse and backpack, and followed the grumbling group to the next gate. I gave mom a quick call on my way, since I was supposed to call her when I got to FL, but with the delay, that would be after 2am. As I was putting my cell phone back in my purse, I noticed something wasn’t right. Upon closer inspection, I found out that my day planner wasn’t there! I stopped to check my backpack, and it wasn’t in there either! My mind searched for where I had last seen it, and I recalled the security woman who had checked my bags putting it back in my purse. I mentally scanned the contents: phone numbers, cash, credit cards, drivers license… Nearing the point of panic, I walked briskly back towards the first gate, and ran into a flight attendant I recognized on the way. I asked him if he was from the plane that was switching, and he confirmed that he was. I explained my problem, and he walked with me to the new gate and said that someone there would be able to help me. I met up with a nice lady there with whom I walked BACK to the original gate (they were 10 gates apart, if that gives you any idea how far I was walking each time! Great training for WDW!) She disappeared into the plane, and returned about 5 minutes later, triumphantly carrying my planner!!! I guess it had slipped out of my purse when it was “safely under the seat in front of me!”, and with all the confusion if leaving the plane, I hadn’t checked very well! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to get her name, or I would write the company commending her. All I know is that her hair was the color of cherry Kool-Aid. I thanked the lady profusely, and walked BACK to my new gate, where they were just about to begin boarding. While I was waiting to board, the lady in front of me said that they had just flown in to Dallas on the plane we had just left, so she was more than a little upset that there was something wrong with it! I observed that people in a nervous situation seem to be a lot nicer to each other, as there were smiles all around, and polite conversation between the group of strangers.
This plane, which held a little over 200 people, was only about half full, and I had the whole side of the row I was on (3 seats) all to myself. Upon takeoff, I had a beautiful view of the city, glowing beneath the light of the full moon. About two hours later, we landed in Orlando, an hour and a half later than our scheduled arrival time. I’ve seen few things more beautiful than the glow of the Christmas tree as we ascended the walkway from our gate, which was complimented by the neon pink glow of the monorail just beyond it. I was there. I slipped into the end seat on the familiar monorail, feeling like a seasoned traveler as I awaited the familiar voice of the “Monorail Man”. After the short ride to the bag claim area, I descended the escalator, and was greeted by the sight of a TTC driver holding a sign with my name. Wooohoo! J He never did introduce himself, and so I can’t remember his name (I think it started with A), but he waited with me at the bag claim, saying they were very used to flight delays as I told him about my adventures. We went outside, and I sat on a bench while he went off to get the cars. I felt ready to take on the World, but I didn’t really like being left alone in the middle of the night there outside the airport. I guess there’s really nothing he could have done to help it though. As we were driving towards Riverside, my brain drew a mental map of WDW, and I got this feeling that we were NOT in the right area. Assuming he knew what he was doing, I didn’t say anything, but couldn’t help but laugh to myself when he apologized a few minutes later, saying that he had taken the wrong exit and we had to turn around. The mistake didn’t really bother me, as I got to see a few familiar sites, but my driver really wasn’t all that talkative, and to top things off, about 15 minutes before we got to my resort, he pulled out his cell phone and talked to someone until we got there! I’ve heard tons of great accounts of TTC drivers that sounded like a lot of fun, so I guess I just didn’t luck out. I would probably use the company again, especially if I had a lot of luggage, or several people with me, but I think I should have just gone with Mears this time, and saved $50.
After all the delays, I finally arrived at Port Orleans Riverside at 3am. I checked in, and received a lovely White Glove Treatment fanny pack for paying with my American Express- very fashionable! ;) The CM who checked me in told me that a bellhop would meet me outside to take me to my room. When I got there, the poor guy was having quite a time loading a family’s 24235 bags from his golf cart to their Mears van. He looked pretty relieved to find that I only had two bags! It was great to get to chat with a guy who was so friendly and enthusiastic at 3am. He asked on the way to my room if I was there with the cheerleaders, which made me assume there was either a cheer contest or football sort of thing going on, which kind of worried me that things might get noisy or crowded. However, although I noticed quite a few high school aged people around, I never noticed any excess noise or anything, so big thanks to them for being nice enough to keep things under control! I’ve been at WDW during grad nights before and seen some really, really noisy & disrespectful groups of students, so this was a really nice surprise.
We arrived at Alligator Bayou Building 38 (the one right next to Acadian House, for those of you familiar with the resort), at room 3858. My first order of business was to take a ton of pictures, before I unpacked anything and made a huge mess. About 150 rolls of film later, I was ready for a shower! I turned the heater up so that I wouldn’t freeze when I got out, and boy was it stinky! I guess with the weather as good as it was, it hadn’t been used in a while, but I’m always cold! So there I was, all happy in the shower when it hit me: There was no soap or shampoo in my room!! I got this terrible mental image of my maid off somewhere, cackling with glee because she had snitched my precious shampoo. Now normally at this time I would have called housekeeping, but seeing that it was 4am, and I was already in the shower, that wasn’t really an option anymore! I washed my hair as well as I could without shampoo, and decided I’d deal with it tomorrow-that’s what baseball caps are for! It was about 4:30 when I crawled into bed and set my wakeup call for 10:30. Sleep just never lasts long enough…