Overview, Trip Down, and Check-in

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Participants:

Me -- Erin “Kerry” Blackwell, who has totally entered the digital age by lugging my PDA, 2 digital cameras (in case of problems which happened on one trip where every camera broke down on us), digital camcorder, and a laptop as a download station. What do I make all my trip notes on? A Hello Kitty pad of paper.

John Blackwell - beloved husband, orchestrator of the trip. John got me the PDA as a surprise gift for Christmas. It's packed full of WDW info from pocketDisney.com (Thank you again!) and pages that I compiled from around the net. He also got me as a present the Aqua Seas Tour dive into the Living Seas!!!!

Let's take a moment to list all the people we tried to "Magical Gather" with.

Kim and Dave Turberville: Kim and Dave are our WDW traveling buddies. We've made so many trips together, and last August, Kim and I did a weekend without the men (Dave had to work that weekend, John hates to fly) -- when the annual passholders had a preview weekend of Mission: Space. (By the way, interesting note on this. When other women found out the husbands weren't with us, we heard, "Good for you!". When men found out, we heard, "You left them home?!") Kim was promoted to manager of her department, and found she couldn't take vacation so shortly after her promotion. At the same time, Dave's manager suddenly quit, and his company wouldn't let anyone leave until they figured out how to straighten out his department.

Gerry Bognar: My sister Gerry was going to come until Christmas Day when little Robbie caused $1000 worth of damage playing with a firestarter match. (She was reaching to grab it, telling him to put it down immediately, when he suddenly lit it, got scared, and dropped it.)

Cathi Kauffmann: another of my sisters (I have six); she lamented how she hadn't been to Disney World since 1995 and how much she wanted to go. Later, when we asked her about confirming the plans, she said, "Oh, you were serious?"

We also had another couple coming at one point, but they broke up right before Christmas and that ended that.

I'm trying not to feel like a pariah.

I almost posted a note to the different Disney Internet groups asking if someone would be willing to have John and I join them so we'd have enough people to do the Animal Kingdom Sundown Safari. I figured, maybe someone is 2 people short and will jump at the chance. Or a bunch of us who are all only 2 or 3 people can band together. But I didn't because I didn't want people thinking I was mooching off their Magical Gatherings.

Transportation and accommodations:

We took the train down with a sleeping compartment: 9710, Cabin 6. From Philadelphia, 30^th street station (pictured on the left) to Orlando.

• We haven't taken the regular train since 1999, but have taken the auto train a few times.
  • Pros of regular vs. auto train:
  • the sleeping cabins are bigger with windows for the top bunk.
  • Less bouncing because the train is lighter and moves faster.
  • No driving to Virginia one way and from Sanford to Orlando the other.
  • Cons:
  • Bathrooms: the sleeping cars have a bathroom in the compartment, but not one for the whole car. These latter bathrooms are at the lounge. On the autotrain, you have 2 bathrooms per car and the stewards keep them very clean.
  • You have your car with you. Now, you don't need a car in Disney World; we've even prided ourselves on spending a whole vacation without having a car. But it is very convenient at times. For example: the trip to Downtown Disney is faster and a lot easier when you drive yourself. (We took my convertible one year. Oh that was sweet!)
  • The lounge and dining cars on the auto train are first class, top of the line. Very posh. Much nicer than the regular train.

We're staying at Pop Century! We wanted/needed to be more economical this trip (except for the train; we splurged), so staying at a new hotel at a fantastic rate added a little something to economizing.

Trip down:

I have finally learned an important lesson. If something goes wrong from the "perfect vacation" image in my head, remember: You are still on vacation! No more letting things get me down!

As first class passengers, we get to use the First Class Lounge in the Philadelphia train station. Gorgeous!! Chairs, couches, a snack area, internet stations, TVs... and a wonderful guy named Rich who takes care of everything.

We took the NJ transit train from near home to Philadelphia. No hassling with rush hour traffic!! Just smoothly (as smoothly as you can with 6 bags -- hey, they're not all big!!) get on this train and into the 30^th Street Station!

In the lounge, we immediately change the channel from CNN with the world news to a Friends rerun. Why? Because we are on vacation!!! We do not look at news until the trip is over!

Paul is our steward on the train and is very friendly, camera knowledgeable (as we figure out our new digital camera), and has some great stories. Like Rich and our ticket taker, he makes this a good experience.

One fellow passenger, a young woman, has the Fraggle Rock theme song as her phone tune!! We never found out her name and call her Fraggle between ourselves the whole trip. Nice woman!

We're so tired and stressed out from work that we collapse Thursday night, and it's so great that on Friday, still tired, we just flip down the bunks, and we both stretch out for nice naps!

To get the magic going when we're an hour from Orlando, I played my Zip A Dee Doo Dah tip of the day mp3 file. Oh, the joy!! That John doesn't share in since he had just fallen asleep.

I sleep soundly through the night, but John wakes up at one point in Virginia to see snow!

They have YooHoo on the train! Oh yeah!

At the last minute, I stuff Kale, my Disney teddy bear, into our overnight bag. In the lounge, John reaches into the bag for his glasses and says, "What the hell -- " and pulls out the bear and laughs. And he doesn't know about Simba Mickey and Animal Kingdom tourist Minnie in my suitcase. But I brought them as part of a plan! To fulfill my beanie need so I won't buy more (with the exception of a Diver Mickey to celebrate my AquaSeas tour). Yeah, right. Oh, and I want to have one of those window displays for our room that other Disnoids do with their beanies.

The train makes up some time, and our fear that we'll be an hour late getting into Orlando doesn't happen!

The PDA has a wallpaper of the Disney train, coming out of Toontown. I took the pic myself last June. The laptop has a picture I took in One Man's Dream in MGM: The Disney name with the words "It was all started by a mouse" and my Pal Mickey sitting next to all this. (See the photo)

When we reach Orlando, there's the driver for our taxi van waiting right for us, meeting us inside the station! With very little wait or fuss, they have us loaded and headed for Disney World! We ride with a family down for a cheerleading competition who are a lot of fun to talk with. It also gives us a view of International Drive with all its go-cart places etc. Now I know why our friends' teenage sons like this place better than Disney, but as we come from the Jersey shore area where this stuff abounds, I'm not so impressed. Still, it was interesting to see the famous tourist trap of International Drive.

Can I even begin to describe this other woman traveling on our train? I call her Pinky Sr. (after another annoying woman we met on the Animal Kingdom backstage tour, dressed in a hot pink nylon jumpsuit. We called her Pinky. This is new Pinky is older, hence the Senior).

It begins with her coming into the First Class Lounge where spotless comfort awaits you. She takes out a can of Lysol and sprays it all over everything. She then dumps her husband in a chair to make noises to himself while she hassles Rich.

She announced the train is late by 2 hours so Amtrak is giving us money for dinner. Rich confirms this; we're given $20 per person to eat. Our bill for the two of us: $10. But Rich won't hear of just paying the $10; he gives us the full $40. Pinky Sr. tells the whole lounge how she has horrible indigestion from eating string beans at the restaurant (where we all ate). She asks if anyone else had string beans (most of us did), and demands why don't we have indigestion. Later, I hear her tell a friend on her phone that she put hot sauce on her meat, and yet she still blames the string beans. She also tells us has she has battled cancer, gall bladder, and kidney disease, for which I'm honestly sorry to hear.

After we eat, we check back. Good thing. The train isn't 2 hours late; it's only a little late and is pulling into the station in 10 minutes.

On the train a little while later, we see her and her husband eating a full steak dinner in the dining car. She says, Aren't you sorry you ate at the station? I refrain from pointing out that she did too, but I do say no, because I liked my meal and I made a profit of $30.

Two cabins down, she keeps the whole car up late by announcing loudly how she wants a cabin on the other side of the train (because she's already seen this view on her last trip), spraying Lysol ‘til it chokes us all, and saying sleeping in a bunk will pull at her husband's heart and he's already had 2 surgeries for it.

At breakfast the next day, we think we'll have to share a table with her, but thankfully we don't.

She's quiet the rest of the trip; I think she stayed in the lounge car. And she nicely said goodbye to us, saying she hoped we had a great vacation. I immediately felt guilty for writing all the stuff up above.

The train is showing four movies: Pirates, Seabiscuit, Freaky Friday, and some teen film. The first 3 are 3 of the 5 DVDs we brought with us to watch.

OK, it's about 70, but it's not hot! It's cloudy so it's just comfortable. So why is our van driver pumping out the air conditioning at maximum?! I'm freezing! John says it feels good, that he's warm! I try to prove my point of view by sticking my ice cube hand down his back. But he sighs and says, "That's feels good!"

The woman taking our train tickets at check-in doesn't complain about the -- no lie -- 67.5 pounds of luggage we have. Honestly, I knew John and I were professional overpackers, but that's embarrassing! And we were still taking 2 overnight bags on the train with us! OK, 3.

We screw up both times at the dining car.

• Breakfast: they give us checks (bills) with all the menu options on them and a place for us to sign (all meals are included for first class passengers; we just sign the bills with our room number). Thinking we have to circle our choices and hand them to the server, we fill out the whole card only to find out we were just supposed to sign, and didn't fill them out correctly anyway!

• At lunch, in trying so hard not to fill them out again, we don't fill out anything. Including our signatures which means we walked out on the bill!! Our poor waitress had to track us down to get us to sign our bills.

I see a sign (that I've seen when we drive down) saying Jax Beaches. Jax -- wouldn't that be a great name for a dog? But I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't realize it was shorthand for Jacksonville.

It's so hard leaving the dogs and the kitty!!! I'm not a crazed, pet person that dresses them in fru fru things and serves them from china dishes. But I love my pets. This is the first trip in over a year where we won't have our popup camper. That means our dogs can't go. I actually did contact WDW through the suggestion form on their website, giving facts to support a pet friendly building in one hotel (one important fact that I made was how Universal Studios is ALL pet friendly. Something that's earning them a lot of praise.) I wasn't nasty and maybe that's why I not only got a personal reply in email, but a cast member called to discuss it with me. Which doesn't mean we'll be seeing a pet friendly hotel section anytime soon, but it's that kind of attention to a guest that means a lot to me and is part of the Disney experience.

We actually stop at the regular Sanford, Fla. station, going by our ol' friend, the Autotrain station (I can't get the camera out fast enough for a picture). It's so sad to see how rundown the regular Sanford station is!!

It's very cloudy in Florida, but we expected it. And it's warm! This is supposed to be the only non-sunny day. (Cross fingers!!!)

We pass a neighborhood that reminds me of the Golden Girls house, and I'm sad to think that it's torn down for the new stuntshow. Granted, the show itself has been off the air (not including syndication) for years! And I have tons of pictures of it. But still... Then I wondered, Why not auction off these famous "houses"?! Someone paid a mint for Julie Garland's shoes from Wizard of Oz; I know someone would pay another mint to put the Golden Girls facade on their house!

On the NJ transit train on the way to Philadelphia, this teenager, traveling alone with just a big purse, takes up the last large seats -- double benches facing each other -- that we were going to take for us and our luggage!! So we end up having to cram into a small seat and shoving our luggage behind the door.

This is aimed at people who are too eager to sue. You know who you are; a fly lands on your shirtsleeve and you want to sue God for creating flies. I once saw a parent encourage their child to climb a slippery, wet rock wall so (and this is a direct quote), "Then you'll fall and I can sue the park." (Hershey Park, not Disney). Because of people like you, Disney World couldn't listen to my suggestion for a House of Mouse restaurant. I had all sorts of details for them, and they contacted me and said they liked the idea, but couldn't take such suggestions since, if they built the restaurant, I could sue saying they stole my concept. Even if I signed a waiver for it, lawyers have been known to get around them. (Famous case with Paramount Picture and David Gerrold, the man who wrote the Tribble Star Trek episode. A fan sued saying Gerrold stole his story idea, even though the episode was written -- with legal, binding proof! -- before Gerrold ever met the fan. The fan won.) I glower at you for ruining my chance at actually going to the House of Mouse.

Mid-Friday morning, I get cramps. On vacation!! What the---!!!!!! If you're very young and don't know why this is a big bother, trust me -- in time, you will. Because you will either be getting these cramps or having to live with someone who does.

We meet two wonderful people in the dining car:

• At breakfast, we meet a business woman who has a vacation home in West Palm. She and I first share delay stories for airports after she hears we were delayed 40 mins. the night before. I tell her how Kim and I were delayed 2 and a half hours on our flight in August, and she says the worst for her was sleeping in a Boston airport overnight (on a bench) because the flight was delayed until morning. Flight stories brings up the fact that she was at the NY airport on 9-11, and saw the second plane go into the Twin Towers. Then later, saw them collapse. She told us how she was taken off her plane back to the airport, and then suddenly thrown out of the airport with everyone else. She paid a truck driver a couple hundred dollars to get her out of there (since no public transportation or cabs would get you into or out of the city).

• At lunch, we met a woman who was just visiting her family in the town where I was born and first grew up! We exchanged family names and promised to contact the family who still lives there to see if they know each other. We think her sister was one of my niece's teachers!

Our new digital camcorder is so lightweight! What a change it is from our old camera! Until John has the great idea (and seriously, it was a great idea) of getting a long lasting battery (8 hours). But the battery is BIG! So big, we can't put our eye to the viewfinder! So our lightweight 2 pound camera now has a 50 pound battery attached.

Our breakfast companion mentions she only stays in the Grand Floridian when she comes to Disney. Later, John asks her where she lives in New York. Yes, she does: on Park Avenue!! We look at each other and think, "Grand Floridian? No wonder!"

Paul, on Thursday night, talked about how Pinky Sr. was choking him with the Lysol spray. He smells the BenGay on my leg (my muscles were killing me) and mistakenly thinks it's her spray. "You see? Ligament!" I was too embarrassed to say that I was stinking things up, but I confessed the whole thing to John. We laughed. Although Paul really meant liniment for the smell, John calls me Ligament as a pet name the rest of the week.

(I sold things on e-Bay for awhile to generate souvenir money. Let's see how the number of souvenirs go down because I'm on my "budget" ):

Not really souvenirs, but we buy 2 books at the train station with the money Amtrak gave us. Even with dinner and these books, we still have a lot leftover.

Favorite pictures (click thumbnail for larger photo):

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Friday, January 9^th: Pop Century

We get everything we asked for in our room request! A corner room (not asked for but very much appreciated) in 70s Building A with a beautiful view of Hourglass Lake!! (Room #: 6260) We can see the Walt Disney World gateway on World Drive from our balcony!

Mickey soaps are back! Mickey soaps are back!! No more boring dispensers on the side of the shower wall! Real Mickey Mouse labeled shampoos and soaps are back in the hotels!! (At least, in Pop Century.)

The new hotel has a lot of features we like:

• The icons and their details on the buildings. Like the yoyo string sticking out, same with the a bit of 8 track tape.

• The "Bermashave" style signs coming in and out the main drive are a lot of fun.

• Improved lobby and coloring (also inside the rooms). Less garish and the displays from the different years are fun to look out. (My mom got those ice cube trays back in the 50s?! That means she had them for decades because I remember them as a kid!)

• Having the curtains overlap is a great idea! Prevents any gaps.

• We finally see the infamous Krissa on the WDW Tour channel! Infamous from our friends Kim and Dave who saw her in October. Even better, 2 of our favorite Adventurer's Club performers are in the MGM spot with her!! (Don't try keeping up with them, Krissa. I've seen their talent for improv and comedy blow the doors off the best!)

• The cast members in Pop Century's gift shop set up this trio of Mickeys! (See picture)

• Oh my god, the portions at the food court are HUGE!!! And I love the carton for my Chinese food!

• Also nice, we have more vegetarian selections at this food court than we have in some others.

• You can get into the Food Court without going through the gift shop; we heard you couldn't. Rear doors are available that go straight into the court, but we do like that the two are connected. Makes it easy for us to pick up the stuff we want on our way out. If you don't want to go through the whole store, you can exit out through the lobby.

OK, Krissa is nice. She's hip, she's cute, she's perky. And the logos designed for her spots are sharp. I like it all. But it's not the fun of Zip A Dee Doo Dah tip of the day with its jingle and origami. And it doesn't hold my interest the same way as the old spots. I do watch it because I still enjoy seeing the glimpses of the parks, but I don't see why the two Tour themes couldn't be combined!

While I love the Pop Century icons in the courtyards and staircases, I would like the buildings to be less garish, the way the lobby and rooms are.

As we wait to check-in, a cast member asks the woman in front of us, "You're running in the race, right?" John asks him as he greets us, "Aren't you going to ask me if I'm running?"

Continuing that theme, as John buys pasta and a roll, he tells the cast member at the register, "I need the carbs. I'm running on Sunday."

A Hidden Mickey is a Hidden Mickey whether made by Imagineers, Mother Nature, or coincidence. That's my mandate! I don't care what John says! ;)

Now some of these may be "legitimate" Hidden Mickeys, which is kind of a disappointment as I've gotten to like hunting down "rogue" ones!

Favorite pictures (click thumbnail for larger photo):

License plate frame of Jessica Rabbit with saying: I'm not bad. I just drive that way. I had to get this! Not only because I adore Roger and Jessica Rabbit, but for all the teasing John and I do over each other's driving.

I fell in love with a new logo: the Mickey hands fanned out to 4 park logos. Not sure what shirt to buy, I get the bookmark set with the 4 park logos.

Friday, January 9^th: Pleasure Island

Never noticed before: the speaker holes on some of the Pleasure Island booths are Mickey shaped.

Comedy Warehouse: great skit of making up songs based on titles suggested by audience. One -- "Rolling Into K-Mart" really gets us laughing when the comedians use this to make a song of a overweight wife always using a scooter to get around stores and eating at the K-Mart restaurant. She sang at the top of her lungs "I'm hungry! I'm thirsty! Skinny people, get out of my way!"

John gets on stage on the Comedy Warehouse!! I love when he cracks himself up filling the blank and the actor uses the snort of laughter for his nickname in the skit.

Adventurer's Club: Oh how I love this place! And we see a performer -- tonight doing the part of Graves -- that we haven't seen in a very long time. Tish, the maid, is also here and I tease John about his "girlfriend".

Adventurer's Club: The night's Samantha is wonderful with the kids there. Vinnie, who has charmed everyone, shows her his creation from "Create a Toy" in DisneyQuest: a dinosaur head, bear body, skeleton arm etc. Samantha tells him: "This is what happens to us in Nature when we eat too much Nutrisweet". Pamelia, for that night, also talks to Vinnie, quickly finding out that the little boy is a born performer. No matter from what direction she brings the microphone, he senses it peripherally and gets his mouth and body right to it so the whole club can hear him. As he gets excited, he bounces in his sneakers and Pamelia imitates him. She asks him where he's from and he says New York. She answers, "Of course you are. No one from South Carolina names their son Vinnie." Babylonia adds, "No, they name them Bubba".

Adventurer's Club: Pamelia sees a guy in his early 20s wearing a long black duster coat looking like some Matrix wannabee. She compliments him on it and in talking with him, she figures out he's "rebelling against the system". She laughs and remarks to Babylonia, "Oh, I remember when we were all like that. In five years, he'll be an accountant and wearing a 3 piece suit to the mall."

Adventurer's Club: I saw the most handsome man I have ever seen. This is what the phrase "Greek god" means -- until he walks. Then he becomes the most uncoordinated human being born to the planet.

While the songs portion is pretty good, the majority of the Comedy Warehouse show is lame. Painfully so.

PDA: In this case means (as what the rest of you regular Disney goers probably thought) Public Display of Affection. After all Walt Disney and his wife Lillian had a long, wonderful marriage. And yes, Virginia, married people do still enjoy displaying affection. Now, we're not talking trying to conceive babies in public! But since so much is discussed on the romance of WDW, here is my favorite romantic moment of each day:

Bus ride from Disney Marketplace to Pleasure Island stop. The trees have white twinkle lights, and we were alone on the darkened bus. Very sweet and tender to be sitting against each other and enjoying the night outside. (Wasn't THAT a long lead-in to "I smooched John on the bus"?)

This is about how my little computer helped us:

Showtimes for the Comedy Warehouse. So we didn't have to go all the way up to their sign to figure out when we wanted to go.

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