Okay, here goes. Overall, my trip was really great, with a few minor exceptions (to be discussed later). I set a few goals for this trip, first to try a lot of the foods that have been talked about on the forums, and second to search out as many secrets and inside jokes as I could. I succeeded on both fronts, and will be sprinkling them throughout the trip report.
The first little incident happened about two weeks before we left. I was making sure that all of the tickets and everything were together when I took a close look at the flight times. It turns out that the airline made a rather spectacular mistake when scheduling our connecting flight on the way back home. The flight date should have read 05JUN05 (June 5, 2005). Instead, it read 05JAN06 (January 5, 2006). We were scheuled for a one-year layover! We called the airline, and after giving us a bit of grief, they straigthened it out, now with only a 2 hour layover.
The actual flight down was pretty uneventful, however. We were staying at the Wilderness Lodge, and it was wonderful! We'd gotten a great rate, though we were staying in the standard view (or GM/Ford view, as the CRO agent said). However, much to our surprise, the front desk upgraded us, not to a forest view, but to a pool view. Here's the view from our balcony:
Nice, eh?
I spent the rest of the day resort hopping and seeing about picking up my Disney Store comp tickets. I'd never been to either the Polynesian or Grand Floridian resorts, and only briefly in the Contemporary, so I took the water launch to the Contemporary and hopped on the resort monorail. I forgot my camera, so no pictures from the resorts. I did, however, locate the five-legged goat in the Contemporary (it's on the side of the mural that faces the monorail station) and a Hidden Mickey in Bout-tiki (on the back of the Tiki god that greets you as you enter through the main entrance. I was also quite impressed with the Grand Floridian. Then, I picked up my tickets from the Magic Kingdom guest relations and caught the water launch back to the Lodge. I took a few more pics of the Lodge before calling it a night.
Day 2 (Magic Kingdom) Coming Soon.
The first little incident happened about two weeks before we left. I was making sure that all of the tickets and everything were together when I took a close look at the flight times. It turns out that the airline made a rather spectacular mistake when scheduling our connecting flight on the way back home. The flight date should have read 05JUN05 (June 5, 2005). Instead, it read 05JAN06 (January 5, 2006). We were scheuled for a one-year layover! We called the airline, and after giving us a bit of grief, they straigthened it out, now with only a 2 hour layover.
The actual flight down was pretty uneventful, however. We were staying at the Wilderness Lodge, and it was wonderful! We'd gotten a great rate, though we were staying in the standard view (or GM/Ford view, as the CRO agent said). However, much to our surprise, the front desk upgraded us, not to a forest view, but to a pool view. Here's the view from our balcony:
Nice, eh?
I spent the rest of the day resort hopping and seeing about picking up my Disney Store comp tickets. I'd never been to either the Polynesian or Grand Floridian resorts, and only briefly in the Contemporary, so I took the water launch to the Contemporary and hopped on the resort monorail. I forgot my camera, so no pictures from the resorts. I did, however, locate the five-legged goat in the Contemporary (it's on the side of the mural that faces the monorail station) and a Hidden Mickey in Bout-tiki (on the back of the Tiki god that greets you as you enter through the main entrance. I was also quite impressed with the Grand Floridian. Then, I picked up my tickets from the Magic Kingdom guest relations and caught the water launch back to the Lodge. I took a few more pics of the Lodge before calling it a night.
Day 2 (Magic Kingdom) Coming Soon.
