The PARTEE Report
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Wondcat · 12-08-2001, 01:52 AM

The PARTEE Report
or
Pat and Richard's Twenty-seventh anniversay Excursion Extrordinaire

Date:
Friday 11/30/01 to Thursday 12/6/01

Adventurers:

Pat (Wondcat) First trip in 1980-sidetrip after DH won a trip to The Pine Isle Resort in Georgia for selling life insurance, stayed offproperty. Second trip 1992, also stayed offsite. Third trip, 2000, All Star Music-all trips with kids.

Richard (Golfguy) Also on aforementioned trips.

Resort/Hotel: Wilderness Lodge (originally PO French Quarter, then CB, but I whined and got WL for only $108.00 more!

Celebration: Our 25th, 26th & 27th wedding anniversaries rolled into one-first trip without kids (the "kids" are 22 and 25 now)On our 25th anniversary Mandy was getting married and we didn't plan anything and on our 26th Alissa was getting ready to graduate from college and we didn't plan anything, we felt that we were due for a treat.

Off we go into the wild blue....

Since our flight left at 7:10 am and we had the Airport shuttle picking us up at 4:10 am, there was no sense in me even trying to sleep. Richard went to catch a few winks and I finished packing and straightening up the house and trying to reasure the dogs that we would be coming back. After losing Choulie the week before, I wanted them to know that we wouldn't be staying away too. I had picked up her urn earlier that day and tried to explain to them that she was in it and that if I shook it they could still smell her.
Anyway, I went to wake up DH and got everything by the front door to take outside to the van that was picking us up. At 4:15am, I started to worry. Although our flight time had been changed I didn't change the shuttle time, somehow I knew that we would need that extra hour. It is a good thing that I didn't because at about 4:20am the phone rang. The shuttle driver couldn't find us, our street ends at one side of a main road and picks up again on the other side but doesn't connect, so we had to explain to him that he was on the wrong part of the street and tell him how to get here. He got here at about 4:30am and then drove like a bat out of Hell and we were at BWI airport by 5:00am. So, we dragged all of the luggage into the airport and as we were making our way through the line, a man and his wife lifted up the stantion and got in front of us. Richard was furious and wanted to say something to them, but I convinced him to keep his cool, considering the way things have been at airports lately and because the line wasn't very long anyway. While we were standing in line we noticed a very small woman loaded down with baggage. Come to find out, she was a Marine (as was Richard) who had just gotten her orders to California (where R also was stationed for a time)and she was carrying all of her possessions on her back. We felt very sorry for her and after a brief conversation with her and a Semper Fi from Richard and a Hoo Rah from her, we were on our way. After checking the luggage, we shuffled off, we made it through the checkpoints without a hitch and stopped for coffee and sat down to wait and wait and wait to leave. Finally, they called our flight and we were off. Off course, there was a storm brewing and we had a very turbulant flight. we were very grateful to get off the plane in sunny Florida. After picking up our bags we headed over to national to pick up our economy car and we were 'greeted' by a rather nasty woman. After talking to her for a few moments, she got a little nicer and even upgraded us to a larger model, a maroon Lancer ( I remembered not to get silver or white because everybody has silver and white. We had actually started to choose a green car, I don't remember the model, but then we realized that it was an economy car and picked the Lancer. Off we went to the World! We got to the Wilderness lodge with two tolls and no problems and were just astounded by the outside of the resort. Of course, we pulled up in front and our luggage was wisked away and we wisked along with it. With our mouths hanging open we took in the beautiful WL lodge. It is just huge log cabinish with green roofs and flags on top. Although we did park our own car it could have been parked for us. The lobby is a joy to behold. Rustic, rustic, rustic is all that I can say. Totem poles and support beams with intricately carved animals on them. Rows and rows of balcony with wooden rails decorated with white lights for Christmas. Everywhere you look there indian artifacts. One one side of the lobby is a bubbling spring under a bridge which flows outside under the walls into the pool where it flows out from a waterfall. Thewre are little seating arrangements all around and teepee chandeliers. The teepees are repeated on the Christmas tree that is in the center of the lobby. There are also trees of various sizes all over the lobby. After recovering from the awesome beauty of the lobby, there is a 50 foot Christmas tree in the center, swags and lights all over the log railings, we recovered enough to go up to the guest services desk. There was no line and I walked up to the CM, Clay, who said that I was in the guest services line and not the check in line and that there were people before me. Although, for the length of our stay, I never noticed a separation betwen the two. It seems that in the time it took for me to walk up to him, a line had formed. So, we went to the end of the line. We were only there a few minutes when we heard a familiar, may I help the next person, sure enough, it was Clay ( who had not helped anybody else while we stood there) and we walked over to him. While we were waiting for him to complete our information and issue our passes, room ticket etc, he told us that he had a room available with two queen beds. We had requested a king bed, but since it was so early in the day we decided to take the two queens (Clay made three) so that we wouldn't have to wait. It seemed that for the length our our stay waiting and queens would be two of the things that we came into contact with frequently. (no offense, it made our stay)The others being screaming children and car alarms. We received our vouchers for commerorative pins, 24 wishes and $1,500.00 in credit, which we made a pretty good dent in. After finishing up with Clay we took the elevator up to our room on the 5th floor. It was very nice, two beds, table and chairs, two sinks, tub with shower, our own private balcony and decorated in a very tasteful rustic fashion. Although Disney rooms are fine, I am always a little disapointed that the 'magic' doesn't continue into the rooms. Ours was decorated with animal carving on the dresser and armoire. The beds were nice, rustic looking beds and the patterns were Indian looking on the cutains and bedspreads. But I am always looking for that special something that just isn't there. I understand that you don't spend alot of time there, but I just wish it were more. We decided to unpack later since we had a lunch PS at Cinderella's Royal table and headed down to the dock to take the boat to the Magic Kingom.

Next, "I didn't know that Cinderella was French"

[ 07-18-2002, 08:59 PM: Message edited by: Wondcat ]

Elliot'sDragon · 12-08-2001, 08:14 AM

I can't wait to visit the lobby of WL when I get there. I have never seen it at Christmas time.

allysonh · 12-08-2001, 11:37 AM

Wondcat:

Wonderful report so far! Keep it coming!

Have a great day!

**Fortissimo** · 12-08-2001, 10:59 PM

More! We want more!

Wondcat · 12-09-2001, 03:08 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PARTEE Report
or
Pat and Richard's Twenty-seventh anniversay Excursion Extrordinaire
Date:
Friday 11/30/01 to Thursday 12/6/01

Adventurers:

Pat (Wondcat) First trip in 1980-sidetrip after DH won a trip to The Pine Isle Resort in Georgia for selling life insurance, stayed offproperty. Second trip 1992, also stayed offsite. Third trip, 2000, All Star Music-all trips with kids.

Richard (Golfguy) Also on aforementioned trips.

Resort/Hotel: Wilderness Lodge (originally PO French Quarter, then CB, but I whined and got WL for only $108.00 more!

Celebration: Our 25th, 26th & 27th wedding anniversaries rolled into one-first trip without kids (the "kids" are 22 and 25 now)On our 25th anniversary Mandy was getting married and we didn't plan anything and on our 26th Alissa was getting ready to graduate from college and we didn't plan anything, we felt that we were due for a treat.

I didn't know that Cinderella was French!

We walked down to the private pier at the Wilderness Lodge to catch the boat to the Magic Kingdom. We were enjoying the veiw and after a short wait we were on the boat and skimming across Bay Lake to the MK. It still boggles my mind to think that all of this was a swamp at one time and that Walt, Happy Birthday to him! had the imagination and foresight to plan all of this. What a man! We got To the castle slightly early for our 2:00pm ps and went to the podium to tell them that we were there. The CM there told us we had a little time and we went off on our first shopping excursion of the trip, the first of many, I might add. We went into the shop in the castle first, the first thing that I saw was the Tinker Belle tree topper that Minnievoice wanted to get for her sister for Christmas. She had been looking all over for it. They only had three, so I thought that I had better buy it then to avoid not being able to find it later. So I did and had it sent to the resort, what a great feature! We hit all of the little shops in the vicinity and we realized that it was almost 2:00, our PS time and hurried back over to the castle. We were taken into the grand hall to wait for a few minutes for our name to be called. There was a huge throne in the room and a even huger (not a real word) Christmas tree, soon our name was announced and we were allowed to climb the stairs to the Royal table. We were shown to our table and our server, Anasa came over. She was French and a little cool, but we figured that was how the French were to Americans in France and really we didn't care, we were at the castle in the world! I did notice that all of the cm's there had French accents and this puzzled me a little, was Cinderella French? We usually try to order our drinks first, then our appetizer, then our meal. So that everything doesn't come at once and we have time to enjoy everything. We have never really had a problem with this. So we ordered our drinks-coke for me, coffee for Richard, when she came back with our drinks, we ordered our appetizers, we ordered the corn and crab dip with Peta chips and the Balsamic vegetable salad and we planned to share. Anasa asked if that was all and we said yes and she left with our menus. A man, who was also French brought our food to the table and we dug in. We were just about finished with our appetizers and she still hadn't come back for our entree order and although it was lovely there, high ceilings stained glass windows,(I really can't see how there could possibly be an apartment anywhere up there, all that I could see was a balcony, but we had heard that Michael Jackson stayed there so it must be true, right? wrong!) we really didn't want to spend the day there. Plus, we were hungry, we hadn't had anything to eat since dinner the night before and it was really past lunchtime. After sitting there for a time, we finally got the attention of the man who had brought the appetizers and asked him to send the waitress over. She came over and asked us if there was a problem, I, as nicely as I could, said no that we just wanted to order our entrees. Well, lo and behold this must have been Anasa's twin sister because suddenly she became our best friend. Richard ordered the prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables and I ordered the BBQ boneless chicken breast with coleslaw and apple cake. She then became all smiles and brought us bread and butter and shortly after, our entrees, which were delicious. In fact this was the absolute best boneless chicken breast that I had ever had, the coleslaw was unlike any I have ever had and the apple cake was the perfect complement to both. While we were eating we discussed the fact that Anasa must have thought that we were crazy to make this PS if we were only going to order appetizers and nothing else and that we weren't worth her attention. When she finally realized that we were there for the full meal she changed completely. We had just about finished and Richard excused himself to use the facilities and she came over to clear. She asked if everything was alright and I said that is had been delicious! She then changed into a human being and asked where we were from and I told her Baltimore, Maryland and mentioned that we were celebrating our anniversary, she left with the dishes and Richard came back. She came back to ask if we wanted dessert and handed me a large oblong box and said this is for you for your anniversary. Well, I almost fell off my royal seat, I opened the box and inside were two wine glasses with the Cinderella's royal table crest and twisted steams and they were just beautiful and I told her so and thanked her profusely. We told her that we were stuffed and didn't want dessert and we paid the bill and left her a generous tip and made our way down the royal stairs, where we stopped to take a few photos and then we were out the door and back into the park. We spent about an hour there walking around just looking at everything when we realized that we were just exhausted. No sleep the night before, jet lag and we decided to go back to the fabulous WL and take a nap. Well, of course we had to wait for the boat and then when we got there we just had to walk around and explore and we just had to look in the gift shop and we stopped to have a drink at the pool bar, we met a couple from Boston who were very nice. She is even a Passporter friend, but I can't remember her logon name. She said that she reads more than she writes. So, we actually got into our room at about 6:00pm. Richard fell asleep first, I took a few minutes to write in my Passporter and I went to sleep too! When I woke up it was 11:00 and Richard was in the bathtub. We decided that we would go to DD and Pleasure Island for a while. That would have been fine, but we turned the wrong way on our way out of the lodge and got lost. We found out later that we were taking the 'back way' that was actually the recommeded way to go, but we didn't know that. We had been following the search lights to PL, but somehow went the wrong way and wound up on the main road. By now it was close to 1:00 and we didn't want to go to PL that late so we decided that we would go to the Denny's there and eat. We pulled into the parking lot and went in and we immediately seated by yet another flamboyant young man who talked our ears off. There were only two other tables being used, one by a group of young men from Canada who were jumping around and bumping and grinding to the music that was playing and another table occupied by some more young men who were either friends of our server or employees of the Denny's. We couldn't decide which, but they were all hilariously funny and we laughed the whole time that we were there. So Richard had a grand slam and I had a Rueben and we got directions from the nice young man and finally got back to the lodge. Of course since we had slept earlier we were not very tired, so we watched some tv, then forced ourselves to go back to sleep so that we wouldn't be repeating this all the next day. All in all a very full day for our first!

Next, "The Rehitchin' Ceremony, not!"

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: wondcat ]