The Freeman Disney Christmas - THREAD 1 OF 2 - Days 1-7 Updated 2/23 About This Page:

[Annabel]

<font color="purple"> Dates: December 16th – 30th

Adventurers:

Annabel – Me, the narrator – Age 31 and still not grown up. Total Disneyaholic and music buff. Nervous flyer and chief planner. Now a fully fledged member of the Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri fanclub!

Andy aka Hubby – Age 34 and still not grown up. Loves WDW and Florida, converted by yours truly. Chief Coors Light drinker, loves coasters.

Resort/Hotel: Pop Century/Portofino Bay/Contemporary Tower Concierge

Celebration – it’s Christmas!

Apologies for the time it's taken me to get started Let's get on with the show

Thursday 16 December 04

Instead of trying to stay up all night so I’d sleep on the plane, I actually went to bed at a reasonable hour as I was exhausted, as was hubby. We were up early just to make sure we’d packed everything. As we’d used the Virgin Twilight Check-in the day before, we had an easy morning of it. We eventually left at 9am. We took the tram to East Croydon train station, then took the Gatwick Express to the airport. We were in the Airport and through security by 10am and our flight was due to leave at 12.30.

We shopped around a bit – Andy bought cigarettes for himself and we bought some perfume/aftershave in the Duty Free shop. I treated myself to Mario Kart Super Circuit for my Gameboy Advance SP and bought magazines, water and diet coke. I also bought a new wrist purse from Next as it was easier than lugging round a big purse or handbag and I could fit my passes, driving licence and dollars inside comfortably.

Our gate was announced about 11.30. It was apparently the furthest gate and would take approximately 30 minutes to get there – I don’t think it was even was 10 minute walk. We got to the gate and as usual, loads of people stood round by the gate hoping to get on first – even though you are called by row. They first called for families with children under 2 and others who needed assistance. The Virgin reps turned away many people and told them to wait their turn. Other people were being reprimanded for taking small suitcases on as hand luggage and were given smaller bags to decant their stuff in to so it could go in the hold! By the way, I didn’t realise until we checked in on the Wednesday that regardless of whether you are traveling in economy, premium economy or first class you are allowed 2 cases weighing no more than 32kg each – that’s 64kg per person in your party, how mad is that? It’s worth bearing in mind for the future. You are only allowed 1 bag of hand luggage of about 6kg each – handbags are excluded.

Anyway, back to our story! Take off was ok. It didn’t take me long to settle, surprisingly enough. I must pat myself on the back here as I think I did really well flying this time. I didn’t panic at all which is most unusual. We had 1 rough patch of bad turbulence and the seatbelt sign was put on for about 10-15 minutes but I kept my calm by talking to myself (as you do!) and telling myself that this was the worst it was going to get and I’d be fine. It worked that’s for sure. The film choice was good – and I was pleased that we had 2 Disney films woohoo! The films were:

Shark Tale
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Without a Paddle
Ella Enchanted
Manchurian Candidate
Bourne Supremacy
Anchorman
Spider-Man 2
Toy Story
The Little Mermaid

You also had your usual mix of comedy channels, kids stuff and audio channels.

I watched Toy Story, the Little Mermaid and Ella Enchanted. The meal was served about an hour and a half in to the flight. By this time, my stomach was feeling a bit battered and was doing a very good washing machine impression. The smell of the food made me feel so nauseous that I couldn’t eat a thing, despite being hungry. The choices were beef, Christmas dinner and vegetarian pasta. I handed back my Christmas dinner as I couldn’t face it and the stewardess asked me if I was ok. I explained how nauseous I was feeling and she recommended I drink some ginger ale to settle my stomach as this always worked for her. The ginger ale worked wonders! It was just as well I kept back the cheese and crackers from meal as I ate them later – hubby also left me his cheese and crackers in exchange for my bread roll.

The first 3 hours really dragged by. I fell asleep watching the Little Mermaid – I was amazed that I actually managed a whole hour’s sleep. The flight was uneventful. All in all, we had a good flight. My one complaint was the lack of drinks and snack service. They came round twice with water and orange juice. No wine was offered with the meal. They never came round with the snack trolley either. After about 5 hours, we were offered Ben &amp; Jerry’s ice cream, which I was asleep for (although hubby did keep some ice cream for me) and about an hour from landing we were offered a snack – ham and cheese or egg mayonnaise sandwiches, which came with a mince pie.

Landing was smooth and we landed 5 minutes early, despite taking off about 20 minutes late! We were off the plane first and straight into the immigration hall. The queues weren’t too bad really, I think we queued for about 10 minutes. Once through, we picked up our luggage which came very quickly before going through and dumping it again to get the monorail to the other part of the airport. A monorail was waiting. We then queued for about 15 minutes to get through the hand luggage x-ray scanners. It was then off to pick up our luggage again. Our luggage and bags were searched and the 2 officers were very chatty. Finally, we were free to pick up the car. The Alamo queue was huge and we were grateful that we’d filled out for a quick pick up priority card, it came in very handy!

I stayed at the side with our luggage while hubby sorted out the car. When he was finished, we dragged the luggage to get the car. I asked if hubby knew what bay we were in, and he said yes but he wouldn’t tell me anything which I thought was a bit odd. We walked past loads of cars and ended up in the SUV section. I thought hubby was lost. He turned to me with a big grin and said take your pick! He had upgraded and got a great deal on the SUV, I was thrilled. We chose a lovely Grand Cherokee Jeep. I loved it, it was great being up higher than normal.

the only photo we took of our Jeep

From landing to leaving MCO in our rental was an hour and a quarter which I thought was excellent. It was dark by the time we let the airport but thankfully we knew where we were going. By this time, I was absolutely starving so we got off at Sandlake Road and headed straight for….drumroll please…. Chilis! Oh it was soooo needed! We had a basketful of boneless shanghai wings, then swiftly devoured another. I had my favourite chipotle and blue cheese bacon burger and hubby had the Old Timer which is basically a cheeseburger. How we ate all that I do not know – all I know is that it went down very very wel!

Back in our jeep, we headed to Pop Century. We passed the Quality Inn International on International Drive and it had a lovely Christmas display outside by the back entrance. It wasn’t long until we were driving under my most favourite sign in the world – I was home I spotted the lit-up rubiks cube of the 80s section and dissolved into tears. By the time we’d pulled up to park the car near Classics Hall, I was blubbing like a newborn. Oh dear.

It was nearing 8pm. I noticed that all the statues to the side of the Classics Hall entrance were back up, except the 70s – I guess it couldn’t be repaired.

As we walked into Classics Hall, we spotted the 2 huge wreaths on the wall and hugest Christmas tree. It was so lovely and Christmassy in there, I loved it.

how gorgeous!

there were 2 of these!

There was hardly any queue at check-in

We were seen to very quickly. We requested the 70s building but even better, we were given the 50s – result! We’d booked our room through the Disneyworld.co.uk website and didn’t realise that included with our room booking were 2 tickets to either the Wide World of Sports or a round each of mini golf at either Fantasia Gardens or Winter Summerland.

We made our way to the 50s section and parked up. We dragged our luggage up to the 3rd floor in building C. We got to our room, put the key in the door, opened the door and EEK, there was already somebody’s bags on the beds! Hmm, ok. We definitely had the right room. Hubby left me and the luggage outside the room while he went back to the check-in desk. While I was waiting, another family came along to the room next door and the same thing happened to them. It turned out that the 2 rooms had belonged to a big family that had requested 3 rooms together but had ended up with 2 next to each other and 1 on another floor altogether. They were waiting to be moved, so I guess that the rooms had been marked available and we’d drawn the short straw!

5 minutes later, hubby came back with new keys for a room on the ground floor. We were now in room 3152. We were really lucky with this room. It’s right by the 60s pool and laundry as well as the 50s pool. It takes about a minute to walk to Classics Hall and the food court, which is a result in my book. It was an ideal location so we were very happy as you can imagine.

the 50s stairwell

the bowling pin pool

We dumped our luggage and headed for the Classic Concoctions bar so hubby could have some Coors Light and I could have a frozen strawberry daiquiri. Oh yum! After our one drink, we headed back to our room. Lights out by 10pm.

Annabel </font>

[TroianRae]

YEAH, Annabel's back...............and she's off to a GREAT beginning on her TR!!!
LOVE your pictures!!

[mom2my4dwarfs]

Great start! Can't wait for the next installment.

[DopeyGirl]

GREAT start!!! Glad to see you back too!!!

Nice touch there with Andy upgrading to an SUV!!! (and it was a nice one at that!!! )

Looking forward to lots more!!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Annabel Love the car

Hurry back with more

[simbarel]

Anz--Even though DH disagrees, I consider Pop Century "home" as well. On our last trip it was the beacon in the storm, and I'm so jealous you got to catch the Christmas theme. I'm already hooked to the rest of your adventures! Glad to see you back. Oh, and nice car!

[BritDisFan]

Chili's already! You two didn't waste any time .

A great start I can't wait to read all about your adventures.

Karen

[DrDolphin]

Great start! Every time I see a Chili's I can't help but think of you and Andy!!!

Can't wait to read more!!

[JoanW]

In Tara's car yesterday we all talked about you and the famous Boneless Shanghai Wings. So glad to see you started your report!

[Jillybean]

So glad that you started! I love your new sig picture!

The pictures of Pop Century are great!

More please!

Jill

[MegglesMom]

Ohmigosh, those pics of Pop Century are great! It totally makes me feel 'home'!

[lvstitch]

Yeah! I've been waiting for your report. Hurry back!

[karmic]

Graet start! So glad you started your report! You've been missed! Looking forward to more!

[Annabel]

Friday 17th December

<font color="purple"> We were up at 6am so we showered and dressed. I’d woken up with some sharp stabbing pains in my head so took some ibuprofen We then headed off for our first morning ritual (after locating the jeep – we’d walked right past it and ended up about 7 rows in the wrong direction!). First up, breakfast at Denny’s on the 192. Hubby had his favourite corned beef hash platter and I had the French toast slam. Mmm! Breakfast was $17 plus tip. Next stop – Walmart! We were there 2 hours and spent $174! We bought a 3ft Christmas tree, Christmas lights, a case for my Gameboy Advance and games, toiletries, beer, a DVD, some magazines, a Christmas t-shirt for hubby, a strappy top for me, a cooler and some cheetos, to mention a few items. Considering we had a full trolley, it was well worth the money.

Next up was the Florida Mall so I could shop at Old Navy I was after some Christmas trousers for MVMCP that night. I bought 2 Christmassy long sleeve tops and a pair of green Christmas trousers. I also bought a fluffy pink jumper. Amazingly, it was all on sale and it only cost me $38! There was also a big sale at the Disney store – a lot of the beanies were buy one get one free. I bought a huge Stitch dressed as an angel and a big Roo, plus some half price mini tree beanies for our Christmas tree. We stopped for lunch at the Food Court and chose Sbarro – ham and pineapple pizza and stuffed meat and sausage pizza between us.

By now, my headache had worsened loads and I was feeling very unwell It had now turned into a migraine. We drove back to Pop Century and went straight back to the room. By the time we got back, I could barely see and was holding my head constantly. It was only 1pm. I took some ibuprofen and paracetamol and fell asleep. I slept soundly until nearly 5pm. Andy had fallen asleep too and we realized that we’d missed a meet we’d arranged for 2.30pm at Magic Kingdom. My head was still thumping and I felt terrible. I rested a while longer and I wasn’t sure if we’d make it to Magic Kingdom at al. I didn’t want to miss MVMCP so we headed to MK anyway as we had a PS for 6pm at the Liberty Tree Tavern. We’d have dinner and then see how I felt.

We got to MK via the Disney bus and we were in very quickly and were given our wristbands. We walked through Main Street USA and I was a wreck as usual - especially when I caught my first glimpse of the castle.

We saw the tree lighting ceremony which was really lovely. Normally I would’ve enjoyed the carols but my head still felt like it was going to explode. We walked past the Partners Statue (after a few photos) and headed straight for Liberty Square.

There was a huge line to check in for PS’s but we were seen reasonably quickly. We only had a 5 minute wait until we were called and were taken to our table. Our server took one look at my lanyard and said “I can see you’re Disney fans.” We requested our drinks and were brought our salad with strawberry dressing and hot bread rolls with whipped butter, all very tasty.

Chip and Dale came round while we were picking at the food so we got our photos taken.



Next, it was time for our main course – turkey, flank steak, ham, cornbread stuffing, mash potato, carrots, macaroni cheese and turkey gravy. It was all delicious, I just love the food here.

what was left!

We had visits from Goofy, Pluto and Minnie.





Minnie was rather taken with hubby and she kept stroking his head, it was so funny.

I don't care what Minnie thinks, I'm not sharing!

Our server bought us some more turkey and flank steak. We ate a little more dinner before deciding to give up. We did manage to save a little room for that lovely apple cobbler and ice cream, oh and the Christmas tree shaped cookies. Total cost for our meal was $42. We left our server a good tip as he was excellent with the drinks and food. By the end of the meal, I was still feeling rotten and I took 2 more ibuprofen and paracetamol. Hubby asked me if I wanted to stay for the party and I didn’t want to miss it so I suggested we stay put and see how I felt.

On the way out, I went to the toilet and while queuing, I struck up a conversation with a mum and daughter about pins. They raved about my limited edition Stitch cast member pin and they gave me some great advice on where to get pins, websites etc. We bid our farewells outside where hubby was waiting for me.

Coming in part 2 - I make a fool of myself on Pirates of the Caribbean! And do we make it to the end of the Party?

Annabel </font>

[Diz]

What a long day! It sounds like you handled the trip wonderfully! Congrats on the Jeep. It looks like it was a great upgrade - lots of room and comfortable!

I really liked POP when I stayed there Jan. 2004. It was a fun resort! I was with the bowling pins on floor 4. It sounds like your second room location was perfect!

Can't wait to read more!