Well, this is embarrassing. It's been six months since our last trip home. Not sure what my excuse is for the delay. Sure, I've been busy, but who isn't. Anyway, yesterday, on Canada Day, we spontaneously booked another trip for January 27 to February 6, 2016 at CBR when we stumbled across a pretty decent room-only rate online. We also lucked out on getting Air Canada flights on points. So, now the waiting begins for a special offer that will really seal the deal. Last year, we used Play, Stay, Dine & Save, and it was awesome. Fingers crossed for a similar deal later this year, which we'll apply to our room reservation.
Anyway, let's go wayyyyyyyy back in time to January 2015. They were simpler times, before the explosion of selfie sticks and when the MK hub was still a maze of green plywood.
Here's the rather extensive (at least for me) pre-trip, if you're at all interested.
Author's note: I have a decent camera (Canon T3, Tamron 18-200mm) and I love taking a zillion pictures of everything from the headliners (Tree of Life, Cinderella Castle, etc.) down to the little details that so many guests rush right past. But, I'm REALLY bad at getting pictures of me/us. I tried a bit harder this trip, but it's still a bit of a challenge for me. I think I need a "How to get pictures of yourself at WDW" training course.
If you'd like to skip my rambling and just flip through my photos at your leisure, here's the link to my Flickr album for the trip.
So, if you happened to peruse my pre-trip, you'll know that it's usually just my mom and me who make the trek south to our heaven-on-earth home, aka Port Orleans Riverside. We absolutely love the relaxed, laid-back, sigh-your-worries-away atmosphere. The theming suits us perfectly, especially the mansions in Magnolia Bend. And, of course, our favourite feature is the water taxi service heading Downtown. I suppose this is the last report I'll write with the words Downtown Disney/DTD in it. I have very high hopes for Disney Springs, though.
Anyway, this time, we got such a good deal with PSDS (or at least we thought it was great!) that dad decided to jump on the bandwagon too. It was his fourth trip (I think), mom's fifth, and my fourth. When we first went way back in 2003 (?) and stayed at a Holiday Inn, we had no idea how obsessed we'd all become. Staying at POR a few years later -- on property!!! -- really sealed the deal. I've said it before and I'll say it til the day I die: as long as I'm physically and financially able, I want to return to WDW every single year, and will always stay on property. Very few of my friends and coworkers get it. They think I'm crazy, boring, and predictable. Every my two younger brothers just roll their eyes every time I book another trip. But thankfully, several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins have also caught the bug. Some of them went for their very first trip last March, and absolutely fell in love with the World. They've already booked their next trip for March 2016 at AoA and cannot wait to get back. I was talking to one of my aunts a few weeks ago, who told me that her one regret is that they waited this long to give Disney a try, and that she loved it so much, she wants to go back every year that she's able. I guess it runs in the family.
Here's the crew for this trip. We ran into these signs at AK and couldn't resists a selfie, considering we're from Prince Edward Island, where everyone who was born here is called Islanders. I was born here, so can call myself that. My parents, on the other hand, were born in New Brunswick and Ontario, so they'll forever be "from away," although I think they've assimilated well.
Santa (my amazing bf Colin) brought me a bunch of WDW-related books for Christmas this year, so I had quite a bit of reading to do during the month before our trip. I'm actually still reading "How to Be Like Walt," which is entirely awesome minus the random references to how Walt was like Jesus/God. The author just kind of stuck them in with no real link to anything else he was talking about. But, I still recommend it for the Disney enthusiast.
I guess that's enough of an intro. Now, forgive the lack of details, because I have a terrible memory and am working from some rather hastily-taken notes on my phone.
On Tuesday, January 21, we drove from our frigid, snow-buried home on beautiful-in-the-summer Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada, to the Halifax airport, where we stayed at the ALT airport hotel.
We had a terribly harsh winter this year. It was the worst that even the 90-year old neighbour could ever remember. Our local weatherman Boomer had a good time, at least:
Here's a little video of a path we shovelled across our front porch:
And here's a picture of the main road by my place. The plough ended up getting stuck and couldn't go any farther, so the road just ended. It took more than a week to get this road opened again. Red fox for scale:
We're still recovering from last winter's snowmageddon, and summer has been very late starting this year. But, enough about the snow.
If you ever for some reason need an airport hotel in Halifax, we HIGHLY recommend the ALT. It's connected to the departure terminal by a very short pedway, meaning that even in winter, you can jump into your shorts and flipflops when you wake up and saunter right onto the plane. They can include a week of parking at a reasonable rate ($80) in the room rate, which is convenient. It's also brand new, super clean, and has incredible beds. So, we stayed that night, and woke up for a disgustingly early Delta flight via Newark, getting us into MCO at 12:30pm. The flights were absolutely painless, and I kind of loved the in-flight wifi. We'd fly Delta again in a heartbeat.
Here's the sun rising over Newark on our approach:
And I couldn't resist an in-plane wifi selfie:
After landing, we quickly made our way to the DME via the fake-o-rail and walked right onto the bus for POR. The weather was BEAUTIFUL, especially compared to the snowy north. Seeing green grass and palm trees while having a warm breeze blowing is a damn fine welcome to Florida. Carl was our DME driver, and he was nice. Not overly enthusiastic, but efficient and friendly. Like everyone else, we really miss the old DME video. The new promotional one with Clarissa (or whatever her name is) is pretty cheesy, but at least it's still Disney-themed, I guess. Naturally, I grabbed the front seat so I could get this rather blurry shot:
IMG_2503 by Tom Ogden, on Flickr
And at that exact moment, as always, I got something in my eye. Both eyes, actually. They started to water and it was terribly embarrassing. Must have been my allergies. Despite the fact that I have eye issues every time I enter WDW on the DME, I do like the drive. It gives me time to digest the fact that I'm actually back home, in my paradise, and I can physically feel the weight of everyday life lifting off my shoulders.
We had done online check-in and and also called/faxed a couple room requests. We crossed our fingers for a royal room upgrade, which didn't happen, and honestly we didn't really expect. We did get into Acadian House (building 80), our favourite of the mansions in Magnolia Bend. Room 8401 with a garden view, which was lovely. Check-in was efficient, and we picked up our Magic Bands (which sadly cannot be shipped to Canada pre-trip). The view from the room certainly didn't match our 2014 view of the river, but for the amount of time we spend in the room, it really didn't make any difference.
We wandered over to the mill for some lunch. I got an absolutely massive Cajun turkey sandwich that was pretty good for QS, and a chocolate cupcake to kick the trip off right. No food pics just yet.
Up next, EPCOT!!!
Anyway, let's go wayyyyyyyy back in time to January 2015. They were simpler times, before the explosion of selfie sticks and when the MK hub was still a maze of green plywood.
Here's the rather extensive (at least for me) pre-trip, if you're at all interested.
Author's note: I have a decent camera (Canon T3, Tamron 18-200mm) and I love taking a zillion pictures of everything from the headliners (Tree of Life, Cinderella Castle, etc.) down to the little details that so many guests rush right past. But, I'm REALLY bad at getting pictures of me/us. I tried a bit harder this trip, but it's still a bit of a challenge for me. I think I need a "How to get pictures of yourself at WDW" training course.
If you'd like to skip my rambling and just flip through my photos at your leisure, here's the link to my Flickr album for the trip.
So, if you happened to peruse my pre-trip, you'll know that it's usually just my mom and me who make the trek south to our heaven-on-earth home, aka Port Orleans Riverside. We absolutely love the relaxed, laid-back, sigh-your-worries-away atmosphere. The theming suits us perfectly, especially the mansions in Magnolia Bend. And, of course, our favourite feature is the water taxi service heading Downtown. I suppose this is the last report I'll write with the words Downtown Disney/DTD in it. I have very high hopes for Disney Springs, though.
Anyway, this time, we got such a good deal with PSDS (or at least we thought it was great!) that dad decided to jump on the bandwagon too. It was his fourth trip (I think), mom's fifth, and my fourth. When we first went way back in 2003 (?) and stayed at a Holiday Inn, we had no idea how obsessed we'd all become. Staying at POR a few years later -- on property!!! -- really sealed the deal. I've said it before and I'll say it til the day I die: as long as I'm physically and financially able, I want to return to WDW every single year, and will always stay on property. Very few of my friends and coworkers get it. They think I'm crazy, boring, and predictable. Every my two younger brothers just roll their eyes every time I book another trip. But thankfully, several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins have also caught the bug. Some of them went for their very first trip last March, and absolutely fell in love with the World. They've already booked their next trip for March 2016 at AoA and cannot wait to get back. I was talking to one of my aunts a few weeks ago, who told me that her one regret is that they waited this long to give Disney a try, and that she loved it so much, she wants to go back every year that she's able. I guess it runs in the family.
Here's the crew for this trip. We ran into these signs at AK and couldn't resists a selfie, considering we're from Prince Edward Island, where everyone who was born here is called Islanders. I was born here, so can call myself that. My parents, on the other hand, were born in New Brunswick and Ontario, so they'll forever be "from away," although I think they've assimilated well.
Santa (my amazing bf Colin) brought me a bunch of WDW-related books for Christmas this year, so I had quite a bit of reading to do during the month before our trip. I'm actually still reading "How to Be Like Walt," which is entirely awesome minus the random references to how Walt was like Jesus/God. The author just kind of stuck them in with no real link to anything else he was talking about. But, I still recommend it for the Disney enthusiast.
I guess that's enough of an intro. Now, forgive the lack of details, because I have a terrible memory and am working from some rather hastily-taken notes on my phone.
On Tuesday, January 21, we drove from our frigid, snow-buried home on beautiful-in-the-summer Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada, to the Halifax airport, where we stayed at the ALT airport hotel.
We had a terribly harsh winter this year. It was the worst that even the 90-year old neighbour could ever remember. Our local weatherman Boomer had a good time, at least:
Here's a little video of a path we shovelled across our front porch:
And here's a picture of the main road by my place. The plough ended up getting stuck and couldn't go any farther, so the road just ended. It took more than a week to get this road opened again. Red fox for scale:
We're still recovering from last winter's snowmageddon, and summer has been very late starting this year. But, enough about the snow.
If you ever for some reason need an airport hotel in Halifax, we HIGHLY recommend the ALT. It's connected to the departure terminal by a very short pedway, meaning that even in winter, you can jump into your shorts and flipflops when you wake up and saunter right onto the plane. They can include a week of parking at a reasonable rate ($80) in the room rate, which is convenient. It's also brand new, super clean, and has incredible beds. So, we stayed that night, and woke up for a disgustingly early Delta flight via Newark, getting us into MCO at 12:30pm. The flights were absolutely painless, and I kind of loved the in-flight wifi. We'd fly Delta again in a heartbeat.
Here's the sun rising over Newark on our approach:
And I couldn't resist an in-plane wifi selfie:
After landing, we quickly made our way to the DME via the fake-o-rail and walked right onto the bus for POR. The weather was BEAUTIFUL, especially compared to the snowy north. Seeing green grass and palm trees while having a warm breeze blowing is a damn fine welcome to Florida. Carl was our DME driver, and he was nice. Not overly enthusiastic, but efficient and friendly. Like everyone else, we really miss the old DME video. The new promotional one with Clarissa (or whatever her name is) is pretty cheesy, but at least it's still Disney-themed, I guess. Naturally, I grabbed the front seat so I could get this rather blurry shot:
IMG_2503 by Tom Ogden, on FlickrAnd at that exact moment, as always, I got something in my eye. Both eyes, actually. They started to water and it was terribly embarrassing. Must have been my allergies. Despite the fact that I have eye issues every time I enter WDW on the DME, I do like the drive. It gives me time to digest the fact that I'm actually back home, in my paradise, and I can physically feel the weight of everyday life lifting off my shoulders.
We had done online check-in and and also called/faxed a couple room requests. We crossed our fingers for a royal room upgrade, which didn't happen, and honestly we didn't really expect. We did get into Acadian House (building 80), our favourite of the mansions in Magnolia Bend. Room 8401 with a garden view, which was lovely. Check-in was efficient, and we picked up our Magic Bands (which sadly cannot be shipped to Canada pre-trip). The view from the room certainly didn't match our 2014 view of the river, but for the amount of time we spend in the room, it really didn't make any difference.
We wandered over to the mill for some lunch. I got an absolutely massive Cajun turkey sandwich that was pretty good for QS, and a chocolate cupcake to kick the trip off right. No food pics just yet.
Up next, EPCOT!!!
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