Disney Woman
Aching for a Disney Fix!
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2000
Cast:
Courtney, 24 Disney Addict and Planner Extraordinaire
Heather, 24 Along for the ride, because I needed someone to go with me
(Disclaimer: Heather is not a big whiny poopyhead, I just might portray her as such. She and I had a great time)
"Courtney, now that you've got a great job that pays a billion dollars a week, what are you going to do?"
"I'M GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!!!!!"
In March, I began thinking about a trip to the fabled Mecca of all Disney freaks, er, I mean enthusiasts; WALT DISNEY WORLD! I was originally going to take Whitney, but with her going off to college (sniff, sniff, my baby's all grown up), she could not plan that far in advance. So Heather started pointing out ever so delicately that I never took her anywhere, seeing as how I had gone on 3 trips to Disneyland and had taken and paid for Whitney.
Well, that started it. In March, I made tentative reservations for an 8-day stay at All Star Movies. Then, thinking about it, and the fact that I would probably not be in Florida again anytime soon, I added a 3-day cruise on the Disney Wonder! I was taking Heather, my twin sister, since Whitney (my little sister) had accompanied me all the times to Disneyland previously.
Wow, a total of 12 vacation days! I have never been on a vacation for that long in my life! And I was planning it all by myself! Heather is not the Disney freak that I am (I don't think anyone is), so it was up to me to find out all I could about this trip. Seeing as this would cost approximately half of Heather's annual salary, I wanted to make sure I got my money's worth!
So, here is the report for this 12-day odyssey! (The cruise trip report can be found on that respective board.)
We had the strangest TTC driver. Mike Gibson looked like he should driving the Sopranos in NY, not tourists in Florida. Also, he talked the entire way about the huge tips he's gotten, from all sorts of characters! Let's see, from my calculations, he had made more than my sister made all year from just 3 tips! We decided he was not familiar with the land of reality, and gave him $10 for a tip.
We arrived at the All Star Movies on 12-10 at around 9:15am. The bags go straight from the town car to the Luggage Services, to be delivered directly to our room when it is determined. I waited in line to check in, while Heather went and watched the Disney movie playing in the mini-theater in the lobby. This will form a pattern, as I am the one who handles all problems, reservations, inquiries, while H goes and sits on a bench. Hey, let the fat kid sit down once in a while!
We are in the Toy Story Section, on the 3rd floor, not near the elevators, but by the stairs (grumble), but it could have been worse; we could have been in The Love Bug Section! Our room will be ready by 4, and to call from any phone around 2:30pm to get the room #.
We brought a backpack to pack with all the park essentials, soda, snacks, ponchos, maps, etc. We never even opened that backpack. Heather had her bag that she bought in Nassau, slung across her body, and I had my survival waist pack, with 2 big pouches, 2 mesh smaller pockets, a water bottle holder, and 2 small side pockets. That was enough for everything I needed, except for extra soda.
So, after checking in, we head off to Animal Kingdom. We arrive around 10, and did the Safari (great), Jungle Trek (ok), TTBAB (awesome - love the tree of life!), and Kali River Rapids (disappointing). Had lunch at Rainforest Café with a portion of the $125 in Gift Certificates I earned online at Freeride and MyPoints.
We look around the store after lunch, but don't see anything we like yet. It's about 2:30, and we're pretty much done with AK (not knowing we missed Dinosaur), so we head back to see if our room is ready. Hooray, it is! Room 0956 in Toy Story bldg is a great spot; the only improvement is if it had been on the first floor instead of the 3rd. Oh, well, great view into Andy's Room at the end of the building.
We hit the sack for a few hours, and then wake up around 6 to go to Downtown Disney. We kind of skipped dinner, as we were still full from the large portions at Rainforest. We shopped in the Marketplace, getting some small things here and there, until we found the big'un, the shrine to Disney consumerism - THE WORLD OF DISNEY!! I was in heaven! We were lost in there for a good 2 hours, me grabbing everything in sight, Herher with her pencil and postcard. We finally go to the cash register, and I have everything shipped home. That, along with my 10% MKC discount, is actually $15 cheaper than paying sales tax for it.
Well, we ran into a little problem. Heather had just bought $40 of stuff, and put it on our KTTW (Key to the World). My total was about $700, and when they tried to ring it through, it came up as rejected. Well, after about ý hour of confusion, they tell us that there is a $500 limit on our charge privileges on the room charge card. Smart me, my actual credit card with the $2,000 limit is locked up in the safe in the room. We have to pay cash to get it under $450 (my charge + Heather's $40). We find out later that every time our room charges total $500, we have to call the resort to have them post the balance to my credit card. Make sense? They don't want people running up huge room charges, and then have no means of paying. A good idea, but rather inconvenient for me, the shopaholic.
So, we finally get back to the room, $750 lighter, but with nothing to show for it. When we got back to the room, there were bunches of balloons with autographed photos of the characters waiting for each of us! I told them when we checked in that Heather and I were celebrating our birthday. Hey, I didn't say it WAS our birthday, I just said we were celebrating it! We went to bed at 11, and got ready for our next fun filled day at Magic Kingdom!
Courtney
(Who, at 24 is having a 2nd childhood...at this rate I'll probably have a 3rd, 4th, 5th and maybe even 6th!)
Courtney, 24 Disney Addict and Planner Extraordinaire
Heather, 24 Along for the ride, because I needed someone to go with me
(Disclaimer: Heather is not a big whiny poopyhead, I just might portray her as such. She and I had a great time)
"Courtney, now that you've got a great job that pays a billion dollars a week, what are you going to do?"
"I'M GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!!!!!"
In March, I began thinking about a trip to the fabled Mecca of all Disney freaks, er, I mean enthusiasts; WALT DISNEY WORLD! I was originally going to take Whitney, but with her going off to college (sniff, sniff, my baby's all grown up), she could not plan that far in advance. So Heather started pointing out ever so delicately that I never took her anywhere, seeing as how I had gone on 3 trips to Disneyland and had taken and paid for Whitney.
Well, that started it. In March, I made tentative reservations for an 8-day stay at All Star Movies. Then, thinking about it, and the fact that I would probably not be in Florida again anytime soon, I added a 3-day cruise on the Disney Wonder! I was taking Heather, my twin sister, since Whitney (my little sister) had accompanied me all the times to Disneyland previously.
Wow, a total of 12 vacation days! I have never been on a vacation for that long in my life! And I was planning it all by myself! Heather is not the Disney freak that I am (I don't think anyone is), so it was up to me to find out all I could about this trip. Seeing as this would cost approximately half of Heather's annual salary, I wanted to make sure I got my money's worth!
So, here is the report for this 12-day odyssey! (The cruise trip report can be found on that respective board.)
We had the strangest TTC driver. Mike Gibson looked like he should driving the Sopranos in NY, not tourists in Florida. Also, he talked the entire way about the huge tips he's gotten, from all sorts of characters! Let's see, from my calculations, he had made more than my sister made all year from just 3 tips! We decided he was not familiar with the land of reality, and gave him $10 for a tip.
We arrived at the All Star Movies on 12-10 at around 9:15am. The bags go straight from the town car to the Luggage Services, to be delivered directly to our room when it is determined. I waited in line to check in, while Heather went and watched the Disney movie playing in the mini-theater in the lobby. This will form a pattern, as I am the one who handles all problems, reservations, inquiries, while H goes and sits on a bench. Hey, let the fat kid sit down once in a while!
We are in the Toy Story Section, on the 3rd floor, not near the elevators, but by the stairs (grumble), but it could have been worse; we could have been in The Love Bug Section! Our room will be ready by 4, and to call from any phone around 2:30pm to get the room #.
We brought a backpack to pack with all the park essentials, soda, snacks, ponchos, maps, etc. We never even opened that backpack. Heather had her bag that she bought in Nassau, slung across her body, and I had my survival waist pack, with 2 big pouches, 2 mesh smaller pockets, a water bottle holder, and 2 small side pockets. That was enough for everything I needed, except for extra soda.
So, after checking in, we head off to Animal Kingdom. We arrive around 10, and did the Safari (great), Jungle Trek (ok), TTBAB (awesome - love the tree of life!), and Kali River Rapids (disappointing). Had lunch at Rainforest Café with a portion of the $125 in Gift Certificates I earned online at Freeride and MyPoints.
We look around the store after lunch, but don't see anything we like yet. It's about 2:30, and we're pretty much done with AK (not knowing we missed Dinosaur), so we head back to see if our room is ready. Hooray, it is! Room 0956 in Toy Story bldg is a great spot; the only improvement is if it had been on the first floor instead of the 3rd. Oh, well, great view into Andy's Room at the end of the building.
We hit the sack for a few hours, and then wake up around 6 to go to Downtown Disney. We kind of skipped dinner, as we were still full from the large portions at Rainforest. We shopped in the Marketplace, getting some small things here and there, until we found the big'un, the shrine to Disney consumerism - THE WORLD OF DISNEY!! I was in heaven! We were lost in there for a good 2 hours, me grabbing everything in sight, Herher with her pencil and postcard. We finally go to the cash register, and I have everything shipped home. That, along with my 10% MKC discount, is actually $15 cheaper than paying sales tax for it.
Well, we ran into a little problem. Heather had just bought $40 of stuff, and put it on our KTTW (Key to the World). My total was about $700, and when they tried to ring it through, it came up as rejected. Well, after about ý hour of confusion, they tell us that there is a $500 limit on our charge privileges on the room charge card. Smart me, my actual credit card with the $2,000 limit is locked up in the safe in the room. We have to pay cash to get it under $450 (my charge + Heather's $40). We find out later that every time our room charges total $500, we have to call the resort to have them post the balance to my credit card. Make sense? They don't want people running up huge room charges, and then have no means of paying. A good idea, but rather inconvenient for me, the shopaholic.
So, we finally get back to the room, $750 lighter, but with nothing to show for it. When we got back to the room, there were bunches of balloons with autographed photos of the characters waiting for each of us! I told them when we checked in that Heather and I were celebrating our birthday. Hey, I didn't say it WAS our birthday, I just said we were celebrating it! We went to bed at 11, and got ready for our next fun filled day at Magic Kingdom!
Courtney
(Who, at 24 is having a 2nd childhood...at this rate I'll probably have a 3rd, 4th, 5th and maybe even 6th!)