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[Wondcat]

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 ]