This past week was my 26th vacation to WDW, and it was a complete disaster. :lol: I will attempt to put a coherent trip report together while still recovering emotionally.
My sister and I both had pretty horrible things going on in our lives over the past year and a half. In an effort to get away from the gloom and doom, our parents decided to take both of our families to Disney World for Thanksgiving 2011. They paid for all the airfare, hotels, tickets, etc. and our only job was to show up and have a good time. My sister's family and my parents live in upstate NY and I live in southern California. We were all very excited about the trip, and spent the last 6 months planning and obsessing. We were spending Thursday through Sunday at Pop Century and then moving to Fort Wilderness to go camping through Thanksgiving.
So here's who came ("the cast" or whatever it's supposed to be called in these things):
*Jerry - my dad
*Nancy - my mom
Cali - my sister
Gabe - my sister's husband
Sierra (5) - my niece
Jeffery (2) - my nephew
*Zachary (7 months) - my nephew
*Laura - me
*James - my boyfriend and best friend, also a forum member (NemoRocks)
Dylan (10) - my son
Abby (8) - my daughter
The asterisks signify the lucky people who did NOT end up with gastroenteritis on the trip.
I told my dad I'd contribute to the expense of the trip by purchasing an annual pass for myself and using it for discounts. I already had a Premium Annual Pass to Disneyland, so it was only $275 to upgrade to the Premier Passport. A couple days before departure, James and I went up to Disneyland to take care of the upgrade. While there we also did some shopping, rode Star Tours, and watched the holiday fireworks, which was nice.
Random note: the photography in this trip report will be pretty diverse. I did carry around my SLR a few times, but I just wasn't in a photography mood and didn't bring any extra lenses or anything and didn't feel like messing with camera settings. I guess I'm at the point where I've been to Disney so many times I've already photographed everything there is to photograph and now I'm just "meh" about the whole thing and didn't want to put any effort into it. I just wanted to enjoy myself and not worry about impressing the internet when I got home. So about 1/3 of the pictures in this report will be from my SLR. Shortly before the trip James bought a new compact digital camera, and honestly, it's a piece of crap and takes godawful pictures. So another 1/3 of the pictures will be what I was able to salvage from his memory card. And lastly, I had an iPhone on me, and when I didn't have my SLR and wanted a picture of something I used the phone. So the last 1/3 will be those kind of pictures. James might have more pictures from his iPhone too and he can add them later if he so desires.
Anyway, so the day before the trip I got my email to check in for the flights and discovered a lovely surprise. Though we had booked our flights back in May and had reserved 4 seats together, they decided to give our seats away for whatever reason and scattered us around the plane. They put me and my 10 year old in one part of the plane, James in another part, and my 8 year old in another part! Oh boy, was I ever furious. We just had to hope people would be kind enough to switch seats with us.
For me, James, Dylan, and Abby, vacation officially began at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night (Nov 16th). We headed up the road to BJ's Brewhouse for dinner, before continuing on to San Diego to spend the night.
(Abby at BJ's)
We stayed at the "Vagabond Inn," which was surprisingly nice for a cheap motel. We tried to sleep at much as possible before the alarm went off at 4 a.m. We made it out the door around 5:15 and parked in the off-site airport parking lot we always park in, which requires a shuttle bus over to the airport. That was a disaster. The bus driver stopped to pick up every single person in the lot, whether they fit in the bus or not. And of course every single person had about 3 suitcases that had to be brought in and put in the storage rack, which took forever, and there was no room for anyone to move. It must have taken us a good 45 minutes just to leave the parking lot, and then another 15 minutes just to get everyone who was getting out at Terminal 1 and their luggage out of the bus. By the time we got to the Delta terminal, we were VERY late.
We then rushed through the airport and waited half an hour through the massive security line. We finally made it up to the front of the line with about 15 minutes to go before our flight left. Just as we were starting to put our carry-ons on the belt, 5 self-important members of a flight crew felt they were entitled to cut in front of us in the line, which delayed us another 10 minutes. We even told them, "hey, we're about to miss our flight!" and they just shrugged and smiled and continued to shove their way ahead of us. Jerks.
We made it to the plane just in time, and thankfully some people were willing to switch seats so my 8 year old would not be sitting alone. James and the kids were all able to sit together while I sat in a middle seat on the other side of the aisle between 2 strangers. I was angry that I didn't get to talk to or spend time with my family throughout the 4 hour flight, but I couldn't think of anyone to scream at, so I just kept my nasty thoughts of hatred of Delta to myself. :lookaroun (Really though, this seems to have been an isolated incident. I almost always fly Delta and have never had a problem except this one time.) I kept myself amused by watching this very drunk, low-class woman across the aisle order beer after beer (at 7 in the morning). One flight attendant would tell her "sorry, you've had enough", so she'd wait for another unsuspecting attendant to come by and order another one. The poor man sitting beside her looked horrified.
During a very rushed Atlanta layover we quickly grabbed some Chik Fil A to eat on the plane and immediately boarded the flight to Orlando. We actually got to sit together in the original seats we had booked (imagine that). We touched down in Orlando around 4 p.m., having lost 3 hours of the day from crossing time zones. The Magical Express line was soooooo long.
After a grueling 60 second wait, we boarded the bus to Pop Century.
I was all like, "hey I'm gonna take a million annoying instagram pictures during the trip!"
But then I forgot I said that so that was the only one I took. :lookaroun
Yay, vacation!
We made it
Our room was easy to find. Everyone else in the group had arrived a few hours earlier than us, and my mother had decorated all the doors.
The bag on the door was filled with coloring books, crayons, candy, and other fun stuff. We then headed over to the other rooms where everyone else was and said hello. My mother handed us our refillable mugs from the free dining plan and some delicious Mickey Mouse cake pops that she had made.
My sister and I both had pretty horrible things going on in our lives over the past year and a half. In an effort to get away from the gloom and doom, our parents decided to take both of our families to Disney World for Thanksgiving 2011. They paid for all the airfare, hotels, tickets, etc. and our only job was to show up and have a good time. My sister's family and my parents live in upstate NY and I live in southern California. We were all very excited about the trip, and spent the last 6 months planning and obsessing. We were spending Thursday through Sunday at Pop Century and then moving to Fort Wilderness to go camping through Thanksgiving.
So here's who came ("the cast" or whatever it's supposed to be called in these things):
*Jerry - my dad
*Nancy - my mom
Cali - my sister
Gabe - my sister's husband
Sierra (5) - my niece
Jeffery (2) - my nephew
*Zachary (7 months) - my nephew
*Laura - me
*James - my boyfriend and best friend, also a forum member (NemoRocks)
Dylan (10) - my son
Abby (8) - my daughter
The asterisks signify the lucky people who did NOT end up with gastroenteritis on the trip.
I told my dad I'd contribute to the expense of the trip by purchasing an annual pass for myself and using it for discounts. I already had a Premium Annual Pass to Disneyland, so it was only $275 to upgrade to the Premier Passport. A couple days before departure, James and I went up to Disneyland to take care of the upgrade. While there we also did some shopping, rode Star Tours, and watched the holiday fireworks, which was nice.
Random note: the photography in this trip report will be pretty diverse. I did carry around my SLR a few times, but I just wasn't in a photography mood and didn't bring any extra lenses or anything and didn't feel like messing with camera settings. I guess I'm at the point where I've been to Disney so many times I've already photographed everything there is to photograph and now I'm just "meh" about the whole thing and didn't want to put any effort into it. I just wanted to enjoy myself and not worry about impressing the internet when I got home. So about 1/3 of the pictures in this report will be from my SLR. Shortly before the trip James bought a new compact digital camera, and honestly, it's a piece of crap and takes godawful pictures. So another 1/3 of the pictures will be what I was able to salvage from his memory card. And lastly, I had an iPhone on me, and when I didn't have my SLR and wanted a picture of something I used the phone. So the last 1/3 will be those kind of pictures. James might have more pictures from his iPhone too and he can add them later if he so desires.
Anyway, so the day before the trip I got my email to check in for the flights and discovered a lovely surprise. Though we had booked our flights back in May and had reserved 4 seats together, they decided to give our seats away for whatever reason and scattered us around the plane. They put me and my 10 year old in one part of the plane, James in another part, and my 8 year old in another part! Oh boy, was I ever furious. We just had to hope people would be kind enough to switch seats with us.
For me, James, Dylan, and Abby, vacation officially began at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night (Nov 16th). We headed up the road to BJ's Brewhouse for dinner, before continuing on to San Diego to spend the night.
(Abby at BJ's)
We stayed at the "Vagabond Inn," which was surprisingly nice for a cheap motel. We tried to sleep at much as possible before the alarm went off at 4 a.m. We made it out the door around 5:15 and parked in the off-site airport parking lot we always park in, which requires a shuttle bus over to the airport. That was a disaster. The bus driver stopped to pick up every single person in the lot, whether they fit in the bus or not. And of course every single person had about 3 suitcases that had to be brought in and put in the storage rack, which took forever, and there was no room for anyone to move. It must have taken us a good 45 minutes just to leave the parking lot, and then another 15 minutes just to get everyone who was getting out at Terminal 1 and their luggage out of the bus. By the time we got to the Delta terminal, we were VERY late.
We then rushed through the airport and waited half an hour through the massive security line. We finally made it up to the front of the line with about 15 minutes to go before our flight left. Just as we were starting to put our carry-ons on the belt, 5 self-important members of a flight crew felt they were entitled to cut in front of us in the line, which delayed us another 10 minutes. We even told them, "hey, we're about to miss our flight!" and they just shrugged and smiled and continued to shove their way ahead of us. Jerks.
We made it to the plane just in time, and thankfully some people were willing to switch seats so my 8 year old would not be sitting alone. James and the kids were all able to sit together while I sat in a middle seat on the other side of the aisle between 2 strangers. I was angry that I didn't get to talk to or spend time with my family throughout the 4 hour flight, but I couldn't think of anyone to scream at, so I just kept my nasty thoughts of hatred of Delta to myself. :lookaroun (Really though, this seems to have been an isolated incident. I almost always fly Delta and have never had a problem except this one time.) I kept myself amused by watching this very drunk, low-class woman across the aisle order beer after beer (at 7 in the morning). One flight attendant would tell her "sorry, you've had enough", so she'd wait for another unsuspecting attendant to come by and order another one. The poor man sitting beside her looked horrified.
During a very rushed Atlanta layover we quickly grabbed some Chik Fil A to eat on the plane and immediately boarded the flight to Orlando. We actually got to sit together in the original seats we had booked (imagine that). We touched down in Orlando around 4 p.m., having lost 3 hours of the day from crossing time zones. The Magical Express line was soooooo long.
After a grueling 60 second wait, we boarded the bus to Pop Century.
I was all like, "hey I'm gonna take a million annoying instagram pictures during the trip!"
But then I forgot I said that so that was the only one I took. :lookaroun
Yay, vacation!
We made it
Our room was easy to find. Everyone else in the group had arrived a few hours earlier than us, and my mother had decorated all the doors.
The bag on the door was filled with coloring books, crayons, candy, and other fun stuff. We then headed over to the other rooms where everyone else was and said hello. My mother handed us our refillable mugs from the free dining plan and some delicious Mickey Mouse cake pops that she had made.
