August 12 - On our way back home

Oh my, yesterday was a long day.

Up by 9 and packed everything up. Then headed over to the food court for some breakfast and it was pretty good too.

We then headed over to Property Control/Cast Connection again, and spent more money. This time Brynna was buying some things for her friends and I was on the hunt for a certain niece's birthday gift.

After being here for at least an hour we went back to Brynna's apartment so she could get her James Blunt tickets which she did. Then we went over to Bennigans for lunch, they have awesome burgers in pitas and I ate, french fries! Yes I know bad, bad me.

Then we drove Brynna to the studios and had to say goodbye. Of course, I started crying again but dried up fairly quickly after getting back on the road. Gary wanted to be at the airport as soon as possible in order to deal with all the security and lines. Well, there wasn't much of either thankfully. People were fully prepared by now not to travel with any liquids.

We spent a few hours reading before we got on our quick flight to Atlanta, and then read more while on it. We only had a 1.5 hour layover in Atlanta so we grabbed some food and drink and waited for our boarding call. We were on a much smaller plane to Seattle, with 3 on each side which meant we actually had a stranger sitting with us which makes it difficult when having to get up to use the facilities. Oh well, he turned out to be very nice, Gary spoke to him the last hour of the 5 hour flight.

We watched Sixth Sense on our own dvd player and enjoyed a snack pack from Delta.

Landed, and waited forever for our luggage but finally got to pick up our vehicle and to our hotel, just after 1:30 am, pacific time, but I was still on Orlando time so it was after 4:30, I was exhausted! Went off to bed immediately and could only sleep about 6 hours. We're at the Hilton Garden Inn in Renton right now, free internet! Heading out in a bit for breakfast, a bit of grocery shopping and then to find a ferry home. Oh my, the laundry!

August 11 - Keys to the Kingdom

Wow, long day yet again. We were up fairly early and off to McD's to pickup breakfast and then pickup Brynna at Vista at 8:30. Traffic sucked on the way to the Magic Kingdom but we finally got there, got a tram, got a monorail and after a quick bag search, were in the park. Met up at City Hall with our tour coordinator for our “Keys to the Kingdom” tour where we were given nametags, backstage pass lanyards, bottled water and a headset to listen to our guide, Sean. It definitely came in handy when we were in a throng of people and trying to hear him.
Our tour took almost 5 hours. We started out on Main Street and were offered many tidbits of information and secrets. We got on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Haunted Mansion, all with narration by our guide which was cool. We went backstage at Splash and saw the giant water reservoir. Saw the parade floats all ready to go out later in the day, for both parades. Had a nice relaxing lunch at Columbia Harbour House, it was included in our tour. We finally got down to the utilidors, and although it was very cool, they are very messy! Well, not exactly messy but it's definitely where the work goes on, as opposed to the “show” that happens up above. All in all I'm glad we took the tour, it was a lot of fun. We were even given a special “key” pin to commemorate our tour.

After we poked around the shops on Main Street a bit as Gary wanted to purchase “Edna” from the Incredibles so we did that. Then we finally got back to the car and popped back to the resort so Brynna could shower and Gary could have a swim. Then Brynna and I went to Walmart to load her up with groceries for the next few weeks. Got back to Vista, unloaded them, then went to pickup Gary. We had decided against our trip the Hard Rock, perhaps we'll do that in December. Instead we went to Downtown Disney and saw Zoom, followed by a quick dinner at the House of Blues. They make a mean blackened chicken burger.

Now we're back at our room and pretty much everything is packed up and ready to go. Tomorrow will be a flurry of heading to Cast Connections one last time. Then Brynna wants to get back to her place to purchase tickets for James Blunt at 1 pm. Then we'll go have lunch, take her to work, then head to the airport. Hopefully security won't be too much of a challenge...

August 10 - Typhoon Lagoon & MGM

Ah, a lovely day to spend wet. We took off for Typhoon Lagoon around 8:30 and managed to get in on early magic hours ahead of the mad dash. Found a place to plunk our towels and then headed out to the lazy river; who wants to walk when you can ride? After half a loop, we got off and went over to Crush'n Gusher, a water slide roller coaster. Well it was fun and especially more fun if you managed to stop your bum from dragging on the bumps! We did two different runs then my legs didn't want to go up the stairs again.

From there we tried a few of the normal type Storm Slides. They were most fun as well. Then onto the family raft ride, then a single raft ride. Back to the lazy river to get back to our starting point and then we headed out to the wave pool. Well, what a good way to learn how to ride waves, if you got the rhythm. It took me a bit, plus several dunkings before I managed to get it right. Then after a while a huge surf wave came out and just about threw me to the bottom, gotta learn how to ride those things too! We went to our chairs and dried off a bit and then decided 3 hours at a waterpark was plenty.

Went back to the room and showered then headed out to one of the outlet malls we hadn't been to in Orlando. Got a few more Disney souvenirs and tried to find some shoes I really wanted but had no luck with my size, rats. Also had a bit of lunch too.

Got back to the room and had a bit of a rest, watched lots of news about the terrorist plane plot and decided what we were going to be able to bring in our carryons on Saturday.
We left the room around 6:30 and went to MGM with the thoughts of riding coaster one more time and then going over to the Magic Kingdom for fireworks and food. Well, one of Brynna's co-workers, Jimmy, gave us several rider switch passes so we ended up on coaster 3 times for me and 2 times for Gary (he'd had enough). It was fun spotting Brynna at the different positions, even took a photo of her. She was most excited that she'd seen Joey Fatone, checked his harness twice! (Member of N'Sync). Brynna also gave us a pass for Tower of Terror which we did do and then we left the park around 9. Decided we didn't want to rush over to MK so we went to Downtown Disney instead and tried Earl of Sandwich for a late meal. Yum, they have the best sandwiches, definitely worth trying another time. We then walked around DD for a bit, then headed back to the room for some much needed sleep!

August 9 - 20 years of wedded bliss! and Epcot

Hey, it's our 20th wedding anniversary! I think we spent it fairly nicely too.

We actually had a bit of a sleep-in, my wakeup call was set for 9:15. I got ready and the others slowly woke up. Then we headed to Boatwrights, here at our resort for breakfast. Brynna and I had been looking forward to banana-stuffed french toast for quite a while and this was our chance to get it. It was soooooo good. When we were done, we went back to the room and packed up most of Brynna's stuff as she's spending tonight at her apartment. She works very late tonite and has a “graduation” ceremony/picnic tomorrow when she'll received her grad ears. No, parents are not allowed, it's only for the participants.

Once we dropped her off, we came back to our resort and had a lovely swim in the very warm water. It was again a very hot and rainless day. I think it peaked around 95 again and I have a red face and chest to prove it. We then had to change quickly and sped off to Epcot as we had a reservation for the Coral Reef. Firstly though, we went to Guest Relations and picked up our “Congratulations” buttons in honour of our anniversary. We were treated so nicely by everybody in the park because of them too. We went to the Living Seas and checked out all the fishies, then we went to the restaurant. There they seated us tankside, as previously requested and gave us personalized menus wishing us a happy anniversary. That was really nice. So we ordered awesome martinis and a wonderful meal which included shrimp for Gary and a reuben sandwich for me. All that and cheesecake too! Not long after we had been seated we were approached by a diver with a Happy Anniversary Gary banner that I had requested a few weeks ago. It was so neat, the diver kept throwing rockes up from the aquarium floor to simulate confetti.

After rolling out of there, we walked through Innoventions, sent a few email postcards and then proceeded to walk around World Showcase. Big mistake, it was way too hot, and it was well after 5:30 by then. The sun never goes away! We walked around as quickly as we could, popping in and out of various shops to get some air conditioning. Listened to a Beatles tribute band for a bit, they were very good and we did see “O Canada” the circlevision movie at the Canada pavillion. It's outdated but great scenery and of course I applauded when they showed Vancouver/Vancouver Island.

We decided it was then time to get the heck out of the oven and went to leave the park. Before we did though, we did “Leave a Legacy” where they take a photo of you which then gets engraved on a plaque with many other people's “legacy” and they are then displayed on these large stone monuments. So next time we're back at Epcot, we'll be able to find our anniversary photo.

Got back to the room around 8ish and just decided to veg again. The heat just takes it all out of you so we needed to recharge. Now I'm off to grab a bite to eat as it's been a few hours since our lunch at Epcot.

August 8 - MK

Magic Kingdom or bust! It somehow doesn't feel you're actually at WDW until you've visited the Magic Kingdom and we waited 5 days to do it! We took off very early, hoping to take advantage of the early magic hour. We arrived at the gates just as they were opening, amid a flourish of ceremony and Mickey too. We did Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan and Small World all before 9. The rope drop wasn't until 9 for Adventureland & Frontierland. We waited and sweated, it was freaking warm out this morning, until they dropped the rope. We picked up fastpasses for Splash Mountain then got in line right away and it didn't take too long to get ourselves a little bit wet. We went directly on to Big Thunder Mt. Railway and it was still a walk-on at that point. From there we did Pirates of the Caribbean which was way cool with the new Cpt. Jack Sparrow additions. Once we got outside we noticed they were doing the new Pirates training with some children. The fellow who played Cpt. Jack was awesome, looked and sounded just like the real thing. He was quite funny as well.

After that we had a small snack while watching Cinderellabration from the side of the castle, then went to Haunted Mansion. Called Brynna and arranged to meet at El Pirata for lunch. Then Gary and I used our fastpasses for Splash again and we were put in the front row. We got sooooooo wet, it was great! My hair was as wet as when I washed it this morning so I looked like a drowned rat for the next hour or so.

Met up with Brynna, had nummy taco salads for lunch and then did a wee bit of shopping on our way out of the park. We dropped Gary off at the resort and headed for Downtown Disney, World of Disney to be more specific. We had a few items on our list to deal with and managed to do that in fairly good time. Once back to the resort we picked up Gary and went over to the French Quarter side of the resort and had dinner at their food court. In keeping with the New Orleans theme, Gary and I had jambalaya followed by beignets, very nummy.

Had to drop Brynna off at MGM at 6:00, then we decided to go to Downtown Disney and check out Disney Quest. Did a few rides in there and then went to the theatre to see My Super Ex-Girlfriend. It was quite cute and funny. After we headed out to WalMart and picked up a few more groceries and more importantly, moleskin for my blisters!

It's now 12:26 am and we're going to pick up Brynna in another couple of minutes. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day, I hope.

See ya!

August 7 - MGM & AK

A much slower-paced day, but still very busy.

We started out dropping Brynna off at MGM cast entry about 7:20 am and then parked our vehicle. Had to wait in line until the gates opened at 7:50 and then we were waiting at rope drop until 8. Naveen, Brynna's friend, was one of the “droppers” but we didn't get a chance to talk with him then as he was quite far away from us.

We went straight to RRC and got fastpasses for later on. Then we went on the ride, hoping to spot Brynna somewhere. Once we got to load we introduced ourselves to Naveen and took a spin on the coaster. Found Brynna at unload where she gave us a pass to Tower, unfortunately Gary was thinking it would make him ill so we never did get to do it today. We then went and rode the coaster again, just for fun!

From then we meandered around the shops, sat on a bench for a bit, had a mid-morning snack and had our picture taken with Mickey & Pluto! Did Sounds Dangerous, a show where you're in the dark for about 7minutes, listening to headphones. Then we went to see Millionaire which was most fun. I actually was No. 5 at one point in the fastest fingers (in an audience of over 300). Following that we did the Backlot Tour, Muppet 3-D Movie, had lunch at the ABC Commissary (cuban sandwiches, yum) and then did One Man's Dream (about Walt Disney). By then it was time to pick up Brynna. I decided to ride coaster by myself as Gary didn't want to and texted Brynna that I was in the pre-show. By the time I reached load she showed up and rode with me which was cool.

Gary left the park on the bus, back to the resort for some rest, but Brynna and I went shopping! We went to Company D at Disney U to purchase a special sweatshirt for Brynna and passes for the Jefferys, then to property control where they sell damaged merchandise and then Cast Connections where they sell discounted merchandise. We managed to spend a bit of money on several items which was way cool. Got back to the resort to refresh ourselves momentarily and then we all went to Animal Kingdom for extra magic hours. We managed to ride the Safari, Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur (Brynna and I kept our eyes closed most of the time). Then we had another great meal at Flame Tree BBQ. We were all pretty tired at that point and decided it was time to come home and do laundry and maybe a movie.

Tata for now.....


Link for new photos http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l317/madge62/

August 6 - Epcot

Oh my achy feet. Seems like we were walking so much today but I forgot the pedometer so I can't calculate how many kms I actually walked, I'm sure it was in the thousands.

Gary and I woke up early again and went to Epcot this morning, to take advantage of early magic hours, meaning 8 instead of 9. Got our fastpasses for Soarin' then did the ride itself. This is a way cool ride and great way to see lots of California, we could even smell oranges in the orange groves! It's a flight simulator and we were all in “hang gliders”. Then we did Spaceship Earth, a nice relaxing trip through time and we of course enjoyed the air conditioning as well. Then off to Test Track to pick up fastpasses for later when Brynna was with us. Unfortunately she was having an off morning with an upset tummy so Gary and I let her sleep on. We had a mid-morning snack and then we meandered around the grounds of Epcot for a while, took a few pictures and enjoyed a small breeze while sitting on a bench.
We left Epcot and returned to the resort where I dropped off Gary and picked up Brynna. We were off to the outlet malls. I purchased a better walking sandal that hopefully won't give me any more blisters. I also got some capris and a t-shirt and Brynna grabbed a few tank tops and some discount books. We weren't very enthusiastic shoppers. Wait til I get to World of Disney though!

Once we were back to Port Orleans, we freshened up, picked up Gary and went back to Epcot. We proceeded to use our fastpasses from this morning to do Soarin' with Brynna this time. Then we decided to go over to Norway and ride their Maelstrom log ride to kill some time before our dinner reservation.

We had dinner at San Angel Inn at the Mexico pavillion. It's a really cool, dark restaurant overlooking a small stream and there's a small volcano at the back of the room. Gary and I had great margs and we all had really good food for dinner, some sort of platter with an amazing steak on it as well. We were so full after we could barely move. But we did. Moved our wobbly bodies over to Test Track where we managed to use the fastpasses from this morning as well. Fun ride, except for the bedhead hair you get after tearing around the track outside.
Brynna wanted to get back early to go to bed (I know, really odd) as she has an early shift in the morning. We brought her back and then caught a boat to Downtown Disney. Gary had spied some dvds he wanted at Virgin last night so we walked over to the get them. It was still so hot this evening, it was hard to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. It did get cooler though but not much. We grabbed a bus back to the resort where it's now time to catch some zzzzzs as we're all getting up with Brynna, dropping her off at MGM and then enjoying that park til she's off. At least that's the plan.

Til tomorrow..........

August 5 - Animal Kingdom & MGM

Our first park day was a fairly busy one. Gary and I took off for Animal Kingdom, it was on early magic hours meaning it opened at 8 for resort guests. We got our vouchers redeemed for annual passes and quickly walked to Expedition Everest in Asia. After getting fastpasses and tucking them away, we got in line for the coaster. Wow, it was too fun. Lots of twists, turns, backwards travelling, in the dark, and a yeti! He was fairly creepy too. Once we got off, we headed to for Kali River Rapids as we were sweating like you wouldn't believe and it was only 9:15! Got drenched and I mean wet. Nothing stayed dry but it was like having your own personal air conditioning for awhile. Then back to Everest to use our fastpasses for yet another ride. Then we did the Safari, always a favourite, even saw Simba!

You may wonder where Brynna was during this. Well, sleeping of course. We had arranged to meet up but she was having trouble getting a few more days off so she had to go to MGM and try. We did meet up for lunch at Flame Tree BBQ where I had a real good chicken salad. From there we left the park, had to pick up some stuff at the drugstore, then went back for a rest at the resort. Gary and I walked around a bit and then he had a swim, while Brynna met up with a few friends and went to Epcot. I then proceeded to snooze for a bit while Gary was working on the computer. He woke me up for this incredible rainstorm, never seen rain like it! And being from BC, that's strange. Brynna came in shortly after and we got ready to go to dinner. Ended up at Downtown Disney for Wolfgang Puck's Express Cafe where we had nummy pizza.

We tried to get standby tickets for La Nouba but there weren't any decent cheap ones so we'll try again later. Instead we got in the car and went to MGM. Brynna “backdoored” us onto Coaster so we bypassed the lines totally. That was fun! Met her friend Meredith too. Then we headed to Tower of Terror and got on pretty quickly, it was almost 10 and the park was gearing down to close. Love that ride, I think it might be my favourite. After that we went to Fantasmic which was an awesome light, water, laser show. I very much enjoyed it and the music. Once that was done we got the car and headed back to the resort and more sleep. Think we're doing Epcot tomorrow.

Won't be blogging until we get internet again in a few days and I'll post more photos then.

Ciao!

We've arrived!

First of all, we had a rather lengthy travel down to Seattle on Thursday starting with the Coho ferry to Port Angeles. After which we then took a wrong turnoff, then were stuck while a bridge had to open, then the traffic through Tacoma was horrible, we finally got to the Seatac area. Did some window shopping at Southcenter Mall (just wasn't the same without Brynna), purchased some necessities at Target (why are there always necessities when you think you're all packed?) and had a light meal before we got to the airport. There we passed the time by watching “Spanglish” on our portable DVD player.

Why do I book red-eye flights? I detest acting like a zombie the next day and I'm sure I was to some extent yesterday. I managed to get some shut-eye, about 3 hours worth and then we arrived on time in Atlanta with a 3-hour layover. Had a Starbucks latte and then some McD's breakfast before we completed watching “Spanglish”. Unfortunately our plane was delayed by a half-hour but our actual flying time had decreased a half-hour to 1 hour, 1 minute. Got into Orlando and attempted to pick up our luggage. After waiting for at least an hour, watching luggage circle around and around, headed over to Delta's baggage service and lo and behold, found our luggage waiting there for us. Guess it caught an earlier flight!

Picked up the rental car next, Chevy Cobalt, in burnt orange. Love it! Especially love it because it's really easy to pick out in parking lots!

After a few twists and turns, we found Brynna's Vista Way apartment complex and had to go through a lot of security stuff before we were allowed to visit the grounds. Apparently we have to do this every 3 days in order to remain on the list. It was so awesome to see Brynna as she walked to the security booth. I gave her a big hug and of course the tears started flowing. I've missed her so much! We went to her apartment to get her stuff to take to our resort and it's your typical 6 girls living in a dorm type of place, messy! Brynna says she's given up trying to keep it tidy cause the others aren't helping out much.

Then we were off to Port Orleans. Wonderful resort, love the theming and the grounds. Lovely room, we look out into a courtyard with a fountain and out front is the Sassagoula River. We have a really nice quiet pool near our room as well, mostly adults as the kids like the main pool with the slide.

We headed off shopping, poor Gary. Brynna dragged me around this enormous mall, Florida Mall, and we hit all the stores she was interested in. Only purchased her a few books and a pair of capris, I think I got off lightly! As the store didn't have the “gadget” she was hoping to purchase (some small personal DVR recorder) we had to go to ANOTHER mall, Millenia Mall and we found it there. She's been saving her money all summer to buy this thing. Following that, we went to Wal-Mart to stock up on beverages, snacks and breakfast food. Back to the resort to drop it all off and then out again to have dinner at Raglan Road, Pleasure Island. We had a fairly decent meal (I had roasted chicken, fried potatoes & onions, very Irish), took a quick turn around PI (horrible construction going on) and then headed back to the resort for some much needed sleep. Although I don't think I was too zombie-like today, I did have periods of great tiredness, then I'd get an adrenalin rush!

Link to photos http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l317/madge62/