Two Chips and a Dip (The Appetizer Trip) Nov 30 thru Dec 5, 2007 - With Final Thoughts - COMPLETE - Updated 2/21 About This Page:

[Sue M.]

Oh evil one, we're all waiting! Where's the TR? And about those mugs.......
Sue M.

[JaimeandChad]

Today right?

[Caldercup]

Somehow.... after doing all the laundry before we left for the trip AND washing all the boys clothes at the CBR facilities the night before they left, I came home to a veritable mountain of dirty laundry.

I'm desperately trying to get through it today, but it does give me time to write. I'm working on the first installment right now...

Eileen

[mestitch]

Yea!!! I'm waiting!!!!

[Caldercup]

The Day Before We Left

On, November 29th, I was madly making calls as I drove to my dentist appointment to have my post-root canal temporary crown put in (oy, that bill is gonna hurt!) One call was to get an “emergency” appointment with my hair stylist to take care of the crazy head of damaged hair I’d not managed to cut the past six months. (Seriously, my schedule has been nuts!!) She was willing to stay late to squeeze me in! The next call was to return a message from my boss – good news! A client had another writing gig for me (which, of course, set my brain in motion figuring out how to spend that money in Disney this coming June. ) The next was to Calder’s school to notify the ChildWatch program that he’d been excused from school and would miss three days.

I had just put my cell phone down when it rang. It was Bob and he was calling from the side of the road. His car had died.

Ugh… not what we needed. Luckily, he was very close to work, so one of his buddies came and jumped the car and they took it to his mechanic. A nice chunk of change later and the alternator was fixed and the car was running again.

In case you’re keeping a tally, we’ve now blown serious money on the dog, my teeth, and Bob’s car. Now we were headed to a family vacation, followed by a girls only vacation and Christmas was looming around the corner. I may have to sell my home to pay for all of this.

Anyway, my temporary crown was done quickly and painlessly. (I LOVE my dentist.) I stopped at the bank and cashed my dad’s check and got out extra money to give my stylist an extra big tip for squeezing me in. Then I raced home to finish the laundry, clean the house, print out my packing list and finish up the last few items on my To Do list, including checking us in for the AirTran flight. Easy peasy – logged in EXACTLY 24 hours before the flight and got three seats together without a problem. Wait… row 13? Isn’t that the bulkhead?! OMGosh… Bob would hate that! I tried to change the seats online, but the system wouldn’t let me. Ugh… I’d potentially made a huge mistake that would affect my tall husband’s comfort.

I dropped Calder at Tae Kwon Do practice and raced to my hair appointment. Phew... that felt good getting all that dry and damaged summer hair off of my neck. I picked Calder up and came home to work some magic on my roots and gray hairs.

Since we would basically leave right after Calder got home from school, everything had to be packed and ready to go before we went to bed that night. I was still madly organizing and arranging things in the boys’ luggage at 1AM and decided that I’d just have to throw my stuff together the next day.

I collapsed into bed and, luckily, conked out almost immediately.

The Day We Left

Now, I love my dogs – absolutely adore them – but they are noisy little buggers sometimes. If they’re not clicking their way back and forth across our hardwood floors, they’re shoving their cold noses under the blankets to let me know that they want their breakfast... even if the sun isn’t up yet. This morning, Treelo woke me by having a coughing fit right by my head. At 5AM...

My first thought (after the naughty words I telepathically sent to Treelo) was... I'll be in Disney tonight!! I was awake NOW!! So, after letting the dogs out, I dragged myself to my computer and did a last few things for Mousefest that you’ll see when Karen starts her trip report. I heard Calder’s alarm go off at 6:40 and he came out to mock me for being awake already. When he went into our bedroom to greet his dad, I heard him say, “Dad! It’s 6:40! What are you still doing in bed?!” Ooops. Bob had overslept and I was too far down the hallway to notice that he wasn’t in the shower. Calder came racing down the hallway to drag on clothes so he could try to make the bus. Even though I stopped doing my stuff and helped him in every way I could, Calder missed the bus and Bob had to hustle to get himself ready so he could get Calder to school in time.

I had an hour before I had to leave for work so I dashed around the house cleaning anything our dog sitters might see, moving the gerbil's cage to the kitchen and setting up all the pet food, medications and instructions. I then attempted to start packing my own bags, but had to give up and take a shower when I ran out of time.

Work was crazy and I had a ton of stuff to finish up before I could leave. All hope of getting out early was shot to bits when I found out that we were hiring someone who’d been a contractor for a long while – that was as pile of paperwork to get through and I was 15 minutes late getting out.

I managed to change out of my work clothes and get everything packed up before my dad arrived at 3:30 to take us to the airport. He and Calder muscled all but Bob’s bag into the car before Bob got home at 3:35 to finish the last of his packing and changing. Amazingly, we were on the road by 3:40 – a miracle!!

There wasn’t too much traffic and we were at the airport by 4:30. Luckily, the agent checking in our luggage was able to reseat us together, but we were now at the back of the plane. We headed up to the terminal and had a decent dinner at the bistro near our gate. Bob was in a lousy mood because things at work had suddenly blown up in his face and he was saddled with more and still more work to do. (What he didn’t tell me was that his “December off” had crumbled to dust and he was faced with going to work the day after he got back, even though I wasn’t there to keep things running at home!)

The gate agents announced that there would be a small delay as they prepped the plane that had just arrived, but that they hoped to make up the time in the air. Sure enough, once we were on board, we were delighted to find that they were able to zoom through the skies to Florida. We were also delighted to find that the flight had emptied out when passengers had hopped to earlier flights. I zonked out almost immediately, Calder played Nintendo and Bob pulled out his laptop to take care of some unfinished work. The flight was quiet and smooth, but, unfortunately, both Calder and a little baby had problems dealing with the changes in air pressure as we descended to Orlando. The baby screamed and screamed and Calder grimaced and groaned as he gripped his ear.

Once on the ground, things got better and Calder was his chipper self again. There was a little confusion on my part as we landed at a gate I didn’t recognize and had to do some reconnaissance to get us over to the right area for Disney’s Magical Express. I checked my watch and it was 8:25PM – the time our flight was supposed to land. DME check-in went fast and they were able to fix the misinformation about my return from Wilderness Lodge on the 10th. (They had me returning with Bob and Calder on the 5th and I wanted to make sure they had it right!) We walked up to the waiting area and were immediately escorted to a bus. By 9 we were driving!

I called Karen and was excitedly chatting so intently that I missed seeing the WDW arches.

By 9:25, we were pulling up to the Caribbean Beach Resort. Since we were seated at the back of a full bus, we were at the end of the line to check-in. It was only a 15 minute wait, but we were greeted warmly and told that all of our requests had been granted. (Well, they hadn’t granted my request to move us to Port Orleans French Quarter, but that wasn’t the Cast Member’s fault so I didn’t complain! ) We were located in the Aruba “island” of the resort in room 5527. A quick peek at the map made it seem like we were far from everything except the bus – which turned out to be incorrect. It was a little far from the main pool, but close to everything else.

We waited for an internal bus to take us from the Customs House to our “island” and managed to catch the higher fireworks of Illuminations’ finale over the trees. Man… Epcot is C.L.O.S.E to CBR!! The bus showed up as the last fireworks died off and we hopped on. Ugh…it was oppressively hot with no PA system so the bus driver had to shout the stops and the guests passed that information to each other.

We found our room easily. Very nice! It was a tad larger than the standard room at the Port Orleans resorts… but I still had trouble warming up to it totally. (More on my reactions to the resort later.) I realized then that the camera was in our checked-luggage... so no pics of the room before we settled in and made it our own.

Up next: Bob falls in love and starts to cry...

[mestitch]

Yea!! I am so glad you have started!! Your preparation day and departure day made me tired!! I can't wait to read more!!!

[Caldercup]

November 30th - Day 1 / part 2

Our DME bags wouldn’t get to the room for a bit, but I’d packed our swim stuff in a carry-on bag so we decided to head to the main building and get something to eat before soaking away our cares in the hot tubs! But, first I called Mousekeeping to ask that they send over an extra blanket and a couple of pillows. Yikes… they were so full up that weekend that they had no extra pillows. I told them I’d wait until the next day to request them.

We walked over to the main building and the pool brought back memories of our honeymoon in 1990.

We first stopped in the gift shop to pick up items for breakfast the next few days (Entenmann's cinnamon rolls and bagels) and found that there was a problem with our charging privileges on the room key cards. We had to walk over to the concierge desk to get a manager type to come and override the system and we thought that had taken care of the problem.

Nope!

When we picked up our meal at the counter service area, we had the same trouble again. Luckily this CM said he’d call the IT guys and have them resolve it permanently. Way to go, Jose! He took care of it and we never had a problem again!

Calder devoured his plain hot dog and Bob and I loved our food (a hot dog Chicago style for Bob and a grilled chicken sandwich for me), especially as the CBR food court has a decent fixin’s bar! We were also pleasantly surprised to see that the drink machines had Minute Maid Apple Juice available for use with our spankin’ new Year of a Million Dreams re-fillable resort mug. Keeping our fingers crossed that we wouldn’t repeat mattnkatsmum’s error of sharing a resort mug while “diseased,” we took a chance and drank refill after refill of apple juice from the same mug. (Luckily, we were spared any problems and both guys stayed healthy during the trip, despite my bad cold.)

Before we headed out to the hot tub, Calder rinsed out the mug and filled it with hot chocolate.

The hot tub was a little hard to find and in a weird spot smack in the middle of the pool area (literally in a bend of the pool with no chairs or hooks to hang your towels or belongings.) We all sank into the hot water with a groan of delight, especially Calder who is rather peeved that our local YMCA has a regulation that excludes those under 16 from using the hot tub. I looked over at Bob who had slid over to the side where a water fall ran over some rocks and into the hot tub. As his glasses fogged up, I saw his shoulders go slack while his mouth curved into a joyous smile. “It’s a HOT waterfall,” he sighed. He tucked his head under the hot water to hide his tears of joy.

While we sat there, another guest came in. He was a rather hairy fellow – or rather, he was a rather hairy fellow everywhere but where it counts. Not to be catty, but he had the worst wig on his head -- and, after years in the theatre, I've seen my fair share of bad wigs! This one might’ve been mistaken for a flattened cat or a skanky bearskin rug. It made it very hard for me to look at him straight on without getting the giggles. Bob was blissfully unaware of this because his glasses were still fogged from him new best friend, the HOT waterfall. I chatted with this fellow and did my best not to guffaw when he scratched one side of his head and the wig skittered across his scalp. (Thank goodness that Calder was able to contain himself too!) He wanted advice about the water parks – as he was taking his girlfriend to one of them the next day and didn’t know much about them.

After a half hour or so, we finally said goodbye to Bad Wig Hair Guy and got ourselves dried off. We headed back over the bridge to Aruba and, walking hand-in-hand with my most darling husband (while Calder ran ahead of us to stick his feet in the sand of the beach) was so wonderfully romantic. My heart started thawing a little towards CBR, but it hadn’t won me over completely.

Back in the room, I was saddened to see that, at 11:45, our bags still weren’t in our room. I sent Calder for a shower and jotted down a few notes. Calder was ready to collapse and I tucked him under the covers while Bob took a shower. (With the luggage not there yet, Calder’s air mattress wasn’t available – a fact I had failed to calculate when I decided to send everything through DME.)

At midnight (3 and a half hours after we landed), I called luggage services to ask when they thought our stuff would arrive. After having an unhelpful person put me into an aggravating phone menu loop, I called luggage services directly and had a helpful CM who offered to go and check on our bags. She discovered that a truck just pulled up and they hoped to have our things to us in about an hour. Ugh! That means 1AM at this point! Luckily, someone knocked on our door within 15 minutes and we got the air mattress blown up in moments – Calder went out cold as Bob and I quickly unpacked. We stumbled into bed a few minutes later and I heard him snoring away within seconds.

I, on the other hand, sat there staring at the ceiling for the next couple of hours.

Up next: The Four Stages of a Family Vacation defined….

[KrisLuvsDisney]

Excellent report so far, Eileen

I always look forward to your reports! I can't wait to read about the antics of the CLT later on too!

[Colexis Mom]

Great updates Eileen Gosh you guys were busy before you left....sounds like you could all use this vacation!! And too funny about bad wig hair guy Glad the luggage finally arrived!! More please

[JaimeandChad]

Yay you started! When you described your heart thawing I immediately thought of the Grinch "who's heart grew three sizes that day." I think I have been watching too many Christmas movies

[Lemap760]

Great updates. That hot waterfall sounds delightful.

[DrDolphin]

Great updates - and about Bad Wig man!!!

[disneydani]

Hope you have lots and lots and lots of laundry...gotta keep this TR flowing!
Wow, that was one majorly long and crazy day bit it ended on the best note~ you are now inside the bubble~!
Glad you arrived safely and you were able to relax a bit in the hot tub despite having to restrain yourself from bursting out into laughter!

Keep it comin', please!

danielle

[Hugmonster]

Makes me think we might do Carryons this weekend thou

[lauren-roxy]

Great start Eileen!!! Too funny about the Wig-Man!!