Pre-Trip 2 Broke Guys (and a dog!) and $200 French Fries?! multiple short trips

Who:

Tony:

Wait, a little more recent, please (but remember the blue tufted sofa for later.)

"Hidden Mickey" ears behind me? It's actually a wall mural with ocean waves.

Brian:

That picture of him is 8 years old, but still adorbs.

...and sometimes Kylie:

60 pounds of German Shepherd/Chow Chow love & anxiety. She is as old as that picture of Brian, and also adorbs!

 

[PacNWTigger]

I hope you guys have a wonderful time!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

So glad it’s not red! Could have been a little bigger, though. Brian is going to have to squeeze in.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

This was a comfy ride, and check out what the Mustang does at night:

It projects an image of a Mustang on the ground!

And Kylie does her “room approval” dance.

I swear I went looking for the treadmill when we checked in at 11pm, but this location doesn’t have one!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Incidentally, one of Kylie's vaccines had expired. Thanks to BFPC for letting me know on the phone when I booked, and thanks to Banfield for taking her literally on a moment's notice to get her shots and give me a nice printout of all of them. I was told the hotel would also want to see that.

Now, we booked so late that I totally forgot to do online check-in. Just woke up bolt upright at 7am and grabbed the laptop. I was able to link my reservation (it's weird, it shows one canceled res and one new one for the same room) and I keep getting an error message when I try to check in. Ack!

ETA: Called in and they said it was just too late, stop trying, go to the hotel and they can hold my bags until the room is ready. D'oh!

 

[Gurt]

This is amazing

 

[PacNWTigger]

Kricket and Jaeger are wishing Kylie a fun day at Disney Doggie Day Care! I'm wishing you guys all sorts of other kinds of Disney fun!!

 

[MinnieM123]

View attachment 309884
Kricket and Jaeger are wishing Kylie a fun day at Disney Doggie Day Care! I'm wishing you guys all sorts of other kinds of Disney fun!!

Oh, what CUTE dogs!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

In this episode of Lost, we flashback to the final morning of Jeff’s bachelor party in Orlando just after Easter:

We walked a couple of blocks to the pop-up restaurant, which we loved, and was way better than that place at DS.

I even compared dishes:

Oh, yes I did. This time the fries were with pork. I. Had. To. Order. This.

Plus, this:

I remember this being so delicious, I had two. (Hic’) I believe it was a cucumber vodka with elderflower. Yum. Mee.

It was brunch, so it was OK.

(Will refer back to the young lady seen just beyond my glass.)

Our very fun waitress brought the table a round of shots called a purring (cat.) I remarked that I had never had one of those, so she brought me a double ( as if I was the only one at the table .) I don’t know how observant she was LOL.

That’s her, cut off on the left. The gentleman just behind her was our waiter. My glass is bigger than all the others.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Just after the food came, one of the phones at the table started blowing up. It was the owner of the rental. We had to be out… NOW!

There was nothing in the paperwork that specified a check out time. Now, I would’ve assumed it was somewhere around 11 or 12, but I was not in charge. The person who booked everything said not to worry about it (before we left the house to eat.)

So Jeff, I, and the girl just beyond my glass ran back to the house. I was not taking any chances of getting our car keys or my laptop or my bottle of Jager locked in there. The girl really, really wanted to take a shower. We thought they would be reasonable. They were not. They would not let her take a shower. I took everything of ours and Jeff’s and put them into our car and we went back to finish our meal, and let the next shift go back to the house and quickly grab their things. What an uncool sendoff!

That is an actual sofa from the living room, which pretty much matches the sofa upon which I sat circa 1974 in the first pic on this thread!

Coming up: Tu valu, or not Tu valu...that is the question!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Here we arrive at an intersection.

After finishing brunch and hurriedly throwing our things into our vehicles, we said our goodbyes to the Atlanta crew. They headed north, and we headed...to the Disney Boardwalk (and - spoiler alert - our other Atlanta crew.)

Our fancy lunch or dinner was out of the question after fry-gate at DS ate up too many Chase points. But @Tuvalu and I had been having back-channel discussions about meeting up again on this trip, hopefully for more than just a quick pic this time (and before I was sloshed...wait, did I mention the two martinis and giant shot of - cat?)

She and Em were staying at POFQ and had a res at B&C. I figured I could go to the Boardwalk, buy some essential records at the general store, and enjoy a nice meetup with the ladies.

But I had to torment Tu first.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Honestly, whenever we drive to WDW, our last day involves tension between stretching out our time vs. getting home in good time - especially when the pup didn’t come up with us. We almost always make plans for a morning park hop, or a lunch, or what have you - and we almost always end up getting on the road early instead. (If you leave at the wrong time, the 3 hour drive turns into 4 or 5, and your special lunch is on the Turnpike.)

We did go to the Boardwalk. (Hey, that was work.)

But mission accomplished!

We carry all the Disney picture discs at both record stores, and have folks collecting them one at a time. Most we can now get from our distributors at great pricing (which wasn’t always the case) but these attraction-specific records were only available at WDW, not even on the Shop Parks app. I stocked up.

And two things happened that I didn’t realize until we were back in the car: 1) the cashier must have noticed the yellow AP card in my money clip, because she gave me the discount. (The card was expired and I did not ask for it!) and 2) I handed her my Chase Disney Visa to pay instead of my Chase Rewards card - so I paid in $$ instead of points, and stranded about $200 in points on the card (for now.). All good - got my fix, and my customers will be happy. (Flash forward: the HM’s sold out right away. The Pirates are still on the shelves!)

I touched base with ‘lu and they were back at the resort, and graciously invited us over.

On the way in, Brian was attacked.

Or is the gator just whispering: “Seriously, the same shirt, bro?”

 

[Tony the Tigger]

And then:

Most of you have seen this pic in Tuvalu’s TR. (I thought Brian took one of just me and Tu at some point, but I can’t find it on either phone, and my brain is getting Swiss-cheesed in my mid-life transition.)

This was such a nice time, and we almost didn’t make it. After the Boardwalk, as much as we wanted to visit, we were pretty beat. In the meanwhile, the Puppysitter had been torturing us with tales of how upset Kylie had been during this trip - gnawing on herself, acting blah, etc.

I texted Tuvalu a and said I didn’t think we could make it. She said she was sad but she understood. Oh, of course we went! And I was so glad we did. We had some drinks and a nice chat (I told her and Em the stories that finally ended up in this TR.) It really was a nice visit, we appreciated that. Thanks, WDWMAGIC!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Also, ‘lu made fun of me for looking at the horse pole thingies and wondering where i had seen those before. (NOLA, duh!)

In the gift shop, this reminded me of someone here:

And thanks to the morning/afternoon of drinks, Brian got to drive all the way home.

We still made good time. Kylie was initially very excited to see us - lots of kisses, and she rarely does kisses.

In about ten minutes, she remembered she was mad at us.

Up next: Jeff’s wedding, and another tangential Disney moment - and a missed opportunity.

 

[SSH]

Honestly, whenever we drive to WDW, our last day involves tension between stretching out our time vs. getting home in good time - especially when the pup didn’t come up with us. We almost always make plans for a morning park hop, or a lunch, or what have you - and we almost always end up getting on the road early instead. (If you leave at the wrong time, the 3 hour drive turns into 4 or 5, and your special lunch is on the Turnpike.)

This is too funny. I do the exact same thing every trip. I always plan for am park time or a leisurely lunch. Then start thinking about rush hr on sfla end and how nice it would be to get home earlier and relax, check on the cats. So inevitably we cut our last day short 9 trips out of 10. Once in a while (like when I could only score a FOP FP that last morning) we stay.

 

[MinnieM123]

Lovely photo of Minnie Mouse by the way!

Oh, I laughed over Kylie's reaction!! Yah, she'll be ticked off at you for a while.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

This is too funny. I do the exact same thing every trip. I always plan for am park time or a leisurely lunch. Then start thinking about rush hr on sfla end and how nice it would be to get home earlier and relax, check on the cats. So inevitably we cut our last day short 9 trips out of 10. Once in a while (like when I could only score a FOP FP that last morning) we stay.

We did that also! Except I think it was for 7DMT.

We are all ridiculous LOL.

Honestly, it's not just about getting home - I hate being stranded without a room. I hate public bathrooms, etc. I'd really like a short nap before driving home if we stay late into the afternoon.

There was a Red Roof we used to go to (no longer in existence) where we could bring Kylie. They would let us pay like $25 to check out at 6PM instead of 11AM, so we could go do things, come back and chill a bit, and then leave - after rush hour.

 

[Tuvalu]

This one?

 

[Tony the Tigger]

This one?

View attachment 312574

There it is! See, I did remember something correctly.

 

[Pat Di]

Hi Tony, I have been enjoying this trip report so much I wanted to read your previous one from last year. I was blown away! It was the most entertaining, touching, romantic, informative, and wonderful trip report I have ever read! Plus Kylie! I devoured the entire report in one afternoon. I hope you continue to have many Disney adventures, and that you continue to write about them. Also, Happy 2018 Anniversary! Thanks, Pat

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Hi Tony, I have been enjoying this trip report so much I wanted to read your previous one from last year. I was blown away! It was the most entertaining, touching, romantic, informative, and wonderful trip report I have ever read! Plus Kylie! I devoured the entire report in one afternoon. I hope you continue to have many Disney adventures, and that you continue to write about them. Also, Happy 2018 Anniversary! Thanks, Pat

Wow! Thank you, @Pat Di ! I'm glad you enjoyed it and impressed that you read it in one afternoon! (I have a Tuvalu report to catch up on that will take me weeks!)