Trip Report: Day 5

Tuesday, January 18th 2010. 0830. WDW, FL.

We all kind of woke up slowly, drank some coffee, and finished packing our stuff. By 1000 or so, we were ready to say goodbye to our little villa in Saratoga. But we'll be back! We grabbed all of our suitcases and carry-ons, and souvenir suitcases (yep..) and went up to the main building to check into our flights/check our baggage (Disney is awesome). Then we took one last boat ride over to Downtown Disney. Of course on this, our last day, the weather was sunny, 78 degrees, and just plain gorgeous. Bang head against wall now. We did NOT want to go home, where an ice storm had just caused a 2 hour delay for the Government and school closings in Fairfax County... We ate lunch at Earl of Sandwich, shopped around The World of Disney, and bought WAY too many souvenirs.

Tired Shoppers

Here's a list of what Joey and I bought, as far as I can remember:

-Light Up Cinderella Castle from the Christmas Store (I was not given a
choice as to whether I wanted this or not.)
-Disney boxers for Joey (it's a tradition!)
-Disney necktie for Joey (it's a pattern so you can only see the Mickeys
if you look closely! So sneaky!)
-Mickey-roni. Yep, Mickey shaped pasta.
-Kitchen towels
-Fluffy Princess Aurora pen. Be jeal, it writes in sparkly pink ink...
-Golf Jacket, Golf Shirt (Joey)
-Present for my BFF Steph who's expecting a little girl in June!
-Various other presents for some pals back home
-Commemorative/decorative Disney Plate for our chotchkey cabinet.

Ummmm... I'm sure there is more but that's all I can remember at the moment. We met up outside the store with A Love and Warner, who each had HUGE bags full of stuff as well. We walked down towards Pleasure Island, and stopped at Paradiso 37 for one last pitcher of beer. We sat outside and basked in the sunlight until it was time to get back on the boat to go catch the Magical Express.  

I'm On a Boat!

The trip back to the airport on Magical Express is SO DEPRESSING. All the characters come on the tv screen and sing really slowly, "Now it's time, to say goodbye...... to all our company. M-I-C, See ya real soon!, K-E-Y, Why, because we like you!, M-O-U-S-E".  SO. SAD.

No! You're going the wrong way!

We got to the airport super early and headed off to our gates to await the flight home to the bitter cold. When we landed at Dulles I could feel the cold air coming into the plane, and I decided it was time to change out of my flip flops.

We had such a great trip, with amazing friends. The best part about coming home from a Disney Vacation is that you get to immediately start planning the next one!!!!! And Disney offers so many more vacations and
destinations other than Orlando...

Where will we go next????? Taking suggestions!

Til next time,

SG

Trip Report: Day 4

Monday, January 17th 2010. 0900? WDW, FL.

We slept in the next morning. When we woke up, Warner was gone. And it was pouring rain. Suddenly, the door opened, and there was Warner, with a huge bag of breakfast platters. "I felt bad, so I bought breakfast. I don't know why I feel bad though..." We filled him in on the night's events ("What happened after China?") and ate our delicious food, while waiting for the rain to let up. I'm talking monsoon rain. And thunder and lightning.

Usually in Florida the rain lets up after downpouring for a few minutes. I guess today it decided to downpour for hours. Finally, we admitted defeat and donned our ponchos to head over to EPCOT. We only had 3 ponchos, and Warner stated that "ponchos are a sign of weakness" and that he would buy one when we got to the park. Big. Mistake.

Poncho Pals

We were all soaked through on the walk to the bus stop... But we trekked on anyway so we could do the rest of EPCOT that isn't the World Showcase.

Rides we rode in EPCOT:
Soarin' (Twice!)
Mission Space (NASA Flight Simulator. Ugghhhh)
The Seas with Nemo and Friends (In this biiiig bluuuue worlllld)
Spaceship Earth
(Test Track was closed due to the rain. Sad.)

A Love being eaten by a Shark!

After a few hours, a lunch break, and feeling my uggs squish every time I took a step, we all decided we needed to go home and change before our dinner reservations that evening. So we went back to Saratoga Springs, put on some warm clothes and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... took deliciously awesome naps.  (Really exciting, I know. But hey, we were on VACATION. We are allowed to relax!)

When we woke up from our naps, we all kind of hung out, looked over the pictures we'd taken so far, and slowly started getting ready for dinner (our last night). Disney Vacations always go TOO QUICKLY!!!  The rain had stopped THANK GOD and so we were able to venture out sans ponchos (but I shoved them into my backpack because I did NOT want to be caught in the rain without one!). We rode the bus back to EPCOT and first headed over to Soarin' to use our fastpasses. I love that ride. I highly recommend riding it more than once, and always ask to be in the front row! Then we walked over to Coral Reef for our dinner

reservations.

The rain finally stopped!

Coral Reef is an awesome restaurant that I've discussed before in this blog, where you sit next to a HUGE fish tank (?) (I don't think "tank" is the right word, since the entire EPCOT ball can fit inside it with room to spare) and eat your dinner while watching various fish, sharks, sea turtles, sting rays, etc. swim around. We enjoyed another delicious dinner, had a bottle of champagne (thanks, A Love!) and some free desserts to finish off the trip.


View from our dinner table






Champagne

We were exhausted, happy, full, and sad that our trip had to come to an end the next day. We decided to just go back to the hotel to start packing our things so we could take advantage of the time we had left in the morning.

EPCOT Ball at Night

Only one more day to go! :(

~SG

Trip Report: Day 3

Sunday, January 16th 2010. 0830. WDW, FL.

Today kind of happened in two parts. Part A was me going to support the Masonettes at Nationals. Part B was the rest of the crew going to Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney. I'll start with Part A and then go back in time :)

Part A:

I woke up early, got ready, donned my "Mason Dance Team" tee shirt, and cabbed it over to Wide World of Sports to meet up with the family, friends, and alumni (we had QUITE the cheering section!) who were there to cheer for Mason. They were competing in the Pom division and the routine looked REALLY good in practice. Their goal was top 3 and they had worked so hard! I love catching up with my Masonettes alumni. We were like a family during college- we spent more time with each other than we did at home, especially over winter break (what's that?). We watched all the teams in our division, cheered REALLY LOUD for Mason, and then we had a few hours to kill. Good thing we got to watch some amazing dances while we were there. We ate a lot of stadium type food, (I passed on the beer....for now) and took some funny pictures. I did some fouettes in the hall, ya know, the usual...

Masonette Alumni showing our serious pom skillz

Hours passed (I won't bore you with the dance details) and suddenly, it was time for awards. I don't get nervous when I compete, I get nervous for awards. It is SO NERVE WRACKING!!! They sit you on the stage and go from last to first, it's awful. There were 10 teams in the final competition. As they went from 10 down to 4, we DIDN'T HEAR OUR NAME, this was HUGE!!! Mason was awarded 3rd place (nationally) in Division 1 Pom. This is humungous for Mason- previous best was 5th (my year! Woop!) and we had never medaled. I am SO PROUD that I was part of the building blocks for this team to get 3rd place in a national competition. The alumni were jumping up and down like we were when Mason won the game vs. UCONN in '06. It was that kind of moment. But enough about me....

2010-2011 Masonettes with their Medals and 3rd Place Trophy!

Part B:
Obviously I wasn't there for this part so I am going to do my best. From what I know, they woke up eventually and headed to Hollywood Studios, where the crowds were horrendous.

The Crew without me at Hollywood Studios

They got a fast pass for Tower of Terror and saw the Muppets 3D movie. (One of my faves!) Their Tower of Terror experience was hilarious. Warner bought the pictures and subsequently left them on a Disney Bus... thank goodness for awesome Lost and Found!

Tower of Terror

I'm glad I didn't have to go on this ride... it is a free fall drop and while it IS a Disney ride, it's still my least favorite due to the anxiety I suffer while waiting in line and up until the very second before we fall. After that, they decided HS was too crowded, and they headed over to Downtown Disney. They were stalling because I had strictly instructed them NOT to go to EPCOT without me. See tonight we were scheduled to go Around the World... and, just in case you don't know, Around the World is a drinking adventure where the participants have a drink (or 2) in each "Country" in EPCOT's World Showcase. There are 13 countries. It's a lot harder than it sounds. Trust me.

Anyway, they went to Downtown Disney, got some lunch, and did some window shopping. By this time, my extremely impatient husband wanted to get the show on the road, so they went to EPCOT (but promised me they wouldn't drink a drop!). They rode Spaceship Earth while they waited, and Peyton and Casey went to Mexico to have a few beers. They missed the memo about not drinking. This was the beginning of the end.

AROUND THE WORLD

I finally arrived at EPCOT with my Masonette and XO pal, Krystle, in tow and we met up with the crew and Krystle's fiancé, Robert, who had met up with the boys in EPCOT. It was FINALLY time to start the festivities. We took a "before" picture of us in our jerseys, and I met a very drunk woman who latched onto my wrist and wouldn't let go. It was terrifying.

Before...

Then we went into Mexico and started the fun with a shot of tequila and a Dos Equis.

Let the games begin!

By the time we arrived in Canada (country #2) it was clear that Pasey (Peyton + Casey) had had quite a few beers. We worried they wouldn't make it! In Canada, we drank our Moosehead and found a hidden Mickey in one of the totem poles.

Joey pointing out the hidden Mickey...

Next stop? The UK! We all drank cider from the Rose and Crown, and I had a good time calling the phone booths and watching confused children answer the phones when they rang. In France we got Grand Marnier slushies- orangely delicious. By Morocco, it was clear that we needed to eat some dinner. Luckily Morocco has the most amazing food EVER. I always get the Shawarma Lamb Platter. It's effing amazing. This was also the time when Peyton and Casey left. I guess they underestimated how difficult it is to drink around the world! Japan was our next stop and here is where we lost the boys. Krystle, A Love and I decided to wait for some of our Masonette friends, so we sat down under a tree and had a long conversation about ???.

Celebrating with Masonettes Alum

Since this post is getting long and boring, I'll finish up with:

Joey and Warner made it all the way around the world, drinking in every country. We (the girls) met up with them in Mexico after sake bombs, turkey legs, bud light, etc. We ended our night in Mexico with some light-up goodies, lots of tequila shots, and some margaritas.

End of the night, back in Mexico!

Joey, Warner and A Love left ahead of me to go home while I hung out with my girls for a bit longer. So I had a nice relaxing walk out of EPCOT at the end of the night with my margarita in one hand and wearing my light up Mickey bopper ears. I must've looked SO cool when I ran into my friend Amanda and her Mom...

When I arrived home to Saratoga, I was greeted by A Love and Joey who were waiting for me outside the room. We decided to let Warner sleep it off..... so we went to the hottub and probably scarred this little kid for life. Except his Dad seemed to think it was funny that 3 drunk people were hanging out in the hottub with his 13 year old kid. Whatever.

The day was over, Mason got 3rd, Joey made it around the world, again, and Warner did not pass out in a bush. I'd say that was a pretty successful Day 3.

~SG

Trip Report: Day 2

Saturday, January 15th 2010. 0730. WDW, FL.

Alarm went off. I hopped in the shower and Joey was up and at 'em. Then we remembered our two guests asleep in the other room... "Um... if you want to go to Rope Drop then you better get moving! We need to leave at 8:15!" That caused some mild panic. While we missed Rope Drop (no Disney park can simply "open", there has to be a big production!) we did make it into MK by 9:05AM. And we basically had the park to ourselves. We stopped first to take some pictures in front of the castle avec crane. A Love is going to help edit this thing out. SRSLY WDW?!

Crastle

Then we went on a gazillion rides. Ok 12 rides. By 2pm. In Disney World, that is AMAZING. And we stopped several times for lunch , bathroom breaks, photo ops, etc.

Here's a list of the rides we did in Magic Kingdom!

It's a Small World
Tea Cups
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Peter Pan's Flight
Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tom Sawyer Island
Philharmagic
Whinnie the Pooh
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Carousel of Progress

A Love and Joey on the Tea Cups!

Around 2:30, we headed down Main Street through the shops. We took our time, shopped a bit, took some more pics, and I mailed a post card to a family from my message boards. ("Dear Zach and Emma, We cannot wait to see you at the end of February for Zach's 10th birthday trip! Love, Mickey, Minnie and the gang!") Totally going to make their day. It's called being a "Fairy God-Mailer". Judge me if you must...

Ball and Chain joke. Funny.

Then we hopped the monorail to the Polynesian resort for an afternoon break. We posted up at the lounge area of Ohana's bar, and got some interesting tropical drinks to kick back and relax with. By this time, we had each missed a call from our friend Peyton, who was trying to "surprise" us by showing up in Florida... except we know him too well ;)

This is called a Lapu Lapu

\

Enter Peyton and Casey.

Peyton: 25, Going to Baghdad in a few weeks for civilian contract work, likes beer, cooking, and often threatens to put Doc in the microwave.

Casey: 22, USMC, Likes running, trying on thrift store wedding dresses, and hates Mexico.

We headed over to the Kona Café sushi bar to eat some delicious dinner. There was an incident with wasabi. A huge chunk of it. It's on video, don't worry. We enjoyed our dinner and the four of us headed off to MK for the parade and P/C went back to their hotel to put on some warmer clothes. The weather was nice, (MUCH nicer than it was in DC) but it wasn't exactly "warm" either.

Purple Castle- Can't see the crane at night!

We posted up at a nice spot to the right of the castle on the circle under a light post for the parade/fireworks. Joey and I were extremely disappointed that the parade was no longer "Spectromagic" and now, "Disney's Magical Light Parade" or something equally lame. The song sounded like the worst video game theme music ever and we were sooo mad. Luckily Wishes didn't disappoint, and we all linked arms and A Love cried, and it was very magical indeed. Then we sang the song for the rest of the trip.

We boarded the bus back to Saratoga Springs. What a long day.

...But it wasn't over. We decided we were going to meet some friends at Downtown Disney later. The College Cheer/Dance National Championship also happened to be that weekend at WDW, and I had lots of Masonette alumni friends in town to help cheer the team to victory! We got home and brewed a pot of coffee. Somehow we got on the subject of Mandy Moore's song, "Candy"...and the rest was history. There was a bottle of Jack, a dance party, a run through the sprinklers, and a Mickey Jackson montage. We were ready to go!

Mickey Jackson...

We arrived at House of Blues and got a table outside and some huge beers. Peyton and Casey met us there and there were some shots taken as well. We moved inside to order some snacks and that's when the rest of the crew arrived!! There was crazy dancing, singing, eating, drinking, and all around fun. On our way home that evening there MAY have been a photo shoot on the putting green...



House of Blues



Late Night Photo Shoot...

We finally made it home and collapsed into bed. WHAT. A. DAY.

Headline of the Day

We interrupt this 2011 Disney Trip Report to bring you this fascinating news brief:

What is H.O.T.D.?
Any stupid, pointless, or completely unbelieveable (that. REALLY. happened.) news story headline that I come across while checking numerous news sites at work or at home <- yep, my life is super lame now.

I've been debating doing this because I don't want to seem insensitive and/or like I am making fun of people in the news when I post their ridiculous headlines.  But I decided to say screw it because, yes, I AM insensitive and making fun of them and if you don't like it then you can find another blog to read, yes?

I figured I'd start off on the Entertainment side of the house to keep it light.

Today's H.O.T.D. is:

"Halle Berry's ex engaged to Prince's ex"

REALLY! Is that where we have to go these days???? Why do I care if two irrelevant people's exes are marrying each other!!??

Don't worry, there will be more fun HOTD's. I am sure of it. Because I have zero faith in humanity and believe that the press has a sense of humor.

Have a good weekend and I'll be back with the next part of our trip report on Monday!

~SG

Trip Report: Day 1

Thursday January 13th 2010. 2100. Fairfax, VA.

Doc was already in Woodbridge for a long winter's nap. Or is that a long

winter's spoiling?

A Love and Warner showed up with their huge suitcases. A Love came
bearing gifts.

We opened our presents to find: AROUND THE WORLD DRINKING
JERSEYS!!!!!!!!

We watched Aladdin and The Lion King, had a few beers, and went to
sleep.

Friday January 14th 2010. 0400. Fairfax, VA.

The alarm went off WAY too early. Ugh. We started to wake up, I paid a bunch of bills, and the CABS AH HEAAAHHHH at 5am. We struggled to get A Love's enormously oversized suitcase into the cab, along with our suitcases, carry-ons, and Mickey ears.

We arrived at the airport, went through security, and A Love almost lost her ID. Disaster was averted when sharp-eyes (moi) saw the ID on the floor by the put-your-shoes-back-on area. We said goodbye to A Love and headed to our respective gates. I wish she could've flown with us, but frequent flyer miles are a plus too. Me, Joey, and Warner headed to the gate and the boys stopped for some breakfast. I'm a nervous flyer, so I
ate like half of the Five Guys (yes, they do breakfast) sandwich Joey bought me. And Warner ate an entire Chipotle Burrito. At 6am.




















We boarded the plane and had an uneventful flight to Orlando.  When we landed, the sun was shining. It was approximately 9am, and 50 degrees or so. Not awful. Joey, Warner and I hopped on the Magical Express and headed through the arch into Disney World. Sigh. We're here!

We checked into our resort- Saratoga Springs, and saw our awesome room-a 1 bedroom suite complete with whirlpool bathtub, view of the 18th hole, and full kitchen. Thanks, Grandmom Giachetti! Then it was time to head to Animal Kingdom to start our day. A Love's plane had landed and she was on her way. She'd meet us there. The bus FINALLY arrived, we hopped on, and I was STARVING. First stop at AK? Pizzafari. I loaded up on cheese pizza, Caesar salad, and breadsticks- And no diet soda here- an ice cold coca cola. A Love called us from a pay phone- her iPhone died due to too many Angry Birds... we finally found her, and we were complete! It was time to hit the rides!

We started with DINOSAUR! One of Joey's classic favorites.

I was too cheap to actually BUY the photo...

Other AK Rides we did:

It's Tough to Be a Bug

Kilimanjaro Safaris

Expedition Everest

The Festival of the Lion King 

From AK, we headed to the Contemporary Resort for our dinner reservations at The Garden Grill. While waiting for dinner, we grabbed some delicious concoctions and headed out to the walkway to look out
over Disney World. It was a beautiful view, minus the stupid crane hovering over Cinderella's Castle (Really?! WHY?!!!). It was also a bit chilly but we didn't mind. We took some pictures and enjoyed our drinks until our pager lit up like a Christmas tree on the 4th of July.

Our buttons say "Happily Ever After"

Our server? Completely magical. He recommended the most AMAZING sushi appetizer, along with the other 4 appetizers we ate, and entrees that were to die for. THEN we ordered dessert, and we get a bonus chocolate cake due to our recent marriage (Disney knows everything). 

We were GOING to go over to Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks, but as we ran to the monorail (I hurt my big toe) and watched the minutes tick away, we realized we didn't have enough time. That and it was FREEZING COLD. We almost froze to death while waiting for the bus to take us home. We called it a night and fell asleep by 9:30.

We had a GREAT first day in Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Stay tuned for Day 2, coming soon!

~SG