Unexpected Places for Magic-Jan. 31- Feb. 3, 2014 About This Page:

[Kelly66]

Title -Jan. 31- Feb. 3, 2014 - Unexpected Places for Magic
The Party
Kelly (myself) Seeking Sunshine -Former Trips w/ the family-WL-CL May-June 2013, YC Aug. 2012, Easter Poly 2007, Aug. AKL 2003, June YC (Post Card) 2000, Dec CBR 1996. The following solo trips: NAEYC Convention Nov 2011 AS, former CM (DCP 2010) ASMU before checking into CP Housing, Audition trip for DCP Pop Century Oct. 2009

The Journey Depart Jan 31 return Feb 3rd, Mears Motor Shuttle

The Lodging -Gaylord Palms
The Special Plans All I wanted was to see the sunshine, walk around outside in the fresh air and see that the sky is still blue somewhere.
TR Special Features- I will try to underline these Trip Report Special Features acronyms so that they don’t get confused with regular PassPorter Acronyms. Thanks for reading my trip report and sifting through all the boring information about my life and my family, but if you want to just jump to something that I feature I will try to start each of the following with a new paragraph, underlined, italics, and bold print.
DYKTWH-Did you know this was here? DH thinks that since I spend all my free time reading my PassPorter, reading other books about Walt Disney, looking at everything on line, (and since I know a bunch of CM’s and once was a CM) that I should know EVERYTHING there is to know about Disney World. However, he keeps hitting me with ‘Did you know this was here?’ Sometimes I did not- such as the creature hiding in the mural on the wall behind where the boats load for Maelstrom.
KQQ-Kel’s Queue Questions - Since I am a toddler/pre-school gymnastics teacher, I am always scoping out the next new talent. Ok I am just looking at Cute Kids (to meet Kel’s Cute Kid Quota). But as a result, sometimes I will comment on the queue-usually as it regards the kiddies. We all know that some queues are particularly fun in which to wait like HM or The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. However, we like to take note of what kind of materials line the queue -walls (that you could use to help support the weight of that pre-schooler on your hip) or ropes or just ribbons, and stroller parking and access.
AYP? -Are You Paranoid? If you want my Happy Place TR, you may not want to read these sections. I actually once lost a friend because I mentioned to her that her toddler should not be wearing a jacket with a string on the hood while playing on the jungle gym. Well ok well it was probably because I came up with lots of things like that. But I often think that it is wise to be prudent and avoid problems if possible. For example, I have never worried about leaving my laptop in the resort room, out of the safe, and never had a problem. But then I realized that my taxes (and thus my identity) are saved on the computer, so I am not taking the computer.
KHS- Kel’s Hydration Station. I am a water guru-and we are especially vigilant about hydrating at WDW-it is a different climate for us, we go in and out of AC, we get wet and can’t tell how much we are sweating, we walk much more than normal. I seem to think that drinking water helps everything-I have a muscle cramp (this is DH’s big sign that he needs water), I have a headache, I feel dizzy, woozy or queasy (I often drink water and have some trail mix too). As a gymnastics coach, I look for the following and then tell the student to get a drink of WATER: Are the ‘whites’ of the eyes grey or do the eyelids look saggy? Are the cheeks less than rosy (pale) after exertion? Are there dark circles under the eyes? Does the skin NOT look dewey or are they NOT sweating after exertion? Are the lips chapped?
Would you like to have more of a lecture about drinking water or would you like to hear about my strange but necessary park gear to help stay cool and not queasy? Read my trip report ‘No One’s Gloomy or Complaining’ post #4.
So I will mostly just put KHS when I refill my aluminum water bottle and say where I refilled it. I will try to refrain from lecturing about how soda and juice and ice cream cannot replace drinking WATER…..ooops I am lecturing again.
When hiking at home, my wonderful DH usually carries, or has us carry, 10 ounces of water per person, per hour, after the first hour. He assumes we can walk the first hour with no water. Now in reality we do NOT drink water based on our height or weight. DH who is 6’2” and 250 lbs. probably drinks 1/3 of the amount of water that I do. I am 4’ 9” and 140 lbs. Often he doesn’t drink as much when we hike because I become quite unpleasant if I am hot and not had enough water, much less that I am so fair skinned that I turn bright red when I get the least little bit hot. So he kind of ‘saves’ the water for me, and he has been known to give away water to the dogs instead of drinking it himself. However, he does do a great job of hydrating himself well before and after the walk. Now this formula is for hiking in NJ, so I would guess my water intake at WDW actually doubles the above formula.
HP-Happy Place-Life isn’t fair, but the neat thing about Disney is that they are able to create ‘Magic’ for their guests and don’t worry that ‘we will have to do that for everybody.' They do something extra and they call it Magic!!! When I give a particularly glowing critique about something or it is particularly happy or magical, I will put HP first so if you are tired of hearing about what was not so perfectly perfect about my trip, you can skip to these.
MM- Maintenance Madness. This is kind of an occupational hazard by osmosis. My Dad was in Heating & AC when I was growing up and my husband used to be a maintenance manager. So I can’t go anywhere without my husband telling me what needs to be fixed or what the OSHA regs are, or without noticing how well the HVAC system is working (and how well it is cleaned or maintained)

[MayraLR]

Signing in!

[Cam22]

Can't wait for all the details!

[Kelly66]

Pre-trip Planning- I had some friends come visit me in the summer and her flight went through Detroit. Her mother told her, ‘When you are in Detroit, don’t leave the airport.’ I was teasing saying, ‘what does she think you are going to do, get cab and go to a McDonald’s?' But then my parents, on their way back through Detroit had their flight canceled and had to spend the night in Detroit. They were quite pleased, and Delta took good care of them, getting them a card to buy food outside the airport, a hotel with a breakfast, and transportation to and from the airport. They had a lot of fun and felt quite safe. But I decided when booking my plans, not to go through Detroit, mainly because that first flight left at 6:00 AM and I would have to leave my house in NJ at 3:40 AM.
My goal was to use points for a hotel stay. I thought I was in the system using points to book the hotel. I left my screen open to wait to hear back about my husband to check our schedules. Then the next thing I know I am somehow paying for the whole trip instead of just one night and definitely not using points. I can no longer book with points because it is blacked out, and there is only one room left. But DH says, you are already so excited about the hotel, go ahead and stay there and just pay for it. How sweet.
AYP? So I booked it that way-apparently through orlando.com. I only know that because there was a charge from my credit card. But I thought I should at least connect the reservation with my Marriott points. I was unable to sync up the reservations online with my Marriott rewards number so I called that hotel with the number I found on the web, not with the phone number given to me in the confirmation email. The Gaylord Palms told me that there was no reservation for my name on that date and the confirmation number I had was invalid. Just to be sure, I asked, ‘So if I had come to the hotel thinking I had a reservation and given you this confirmation number I would have no place to stay?’ She said that was right, but seemed completely unconcerned that someone was booking rooms in their name and didn’t really care if people out there were being told they had reservations there for which they had paid when they really didn’t. I went back through orlando.com and canceled. At that time the Gaylord Palms was showing no vacancies so I expected to have to stay somewhere else or maybe even cancel my trip because the Disney Value Resorts were suddenly full as well.
I called my credit card and explained and they Disputed the charge and credited it back to me right away. The place that had booked it - through the confirmation email they had sent me, had it showed pending within three minutes but said it may take 3-6 weeks for the refund to go through.
HP? I guess it is good, but they did credit back the cancellation right away, but now we have two credits instead of one, so we still need to clear up that mess. But I tried again, and although I was not able to book with points, and it didn’t originally come up through marriott.com, when I put in the name of the hotel I was able to book the same dates for the Gaylord Palms. I paid for only one night. The first night was very expensive. I ended up paying $264.63 as a deposit instead of $795 up front for the whole trip. I think the other nights were quoted in the $190s plus a $20 per night recreation fee or something. That was supposed to be for transportation to the parks and ‘free’ bottled water.

[Cam22]

Gaylord Palms is a very nice resort. We got to stay there in October of 2009 when Luke had a business conference there. Hope you enjoyed it!

[Kelly66]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Gaylord Palms is a very nice resort. We got to stay there in October of 2009 when Luke had a business conference there. Hope you enjoyed it!

I loved it. There were a bunch of business travelers there. the conference rooms are extensive and look like a bunch of fun. Some are even right off of the Atrium. One morning a woman dressed in professional attire told me I was dressed like I was going to have more fun than she would that day. The place is MASSIVE. It took me almost the whole trip to get my bearing straight. It seems kind of like there are three main entrances and I kept getting confused between the entrance where the bus dropped me off and the entrance that my room overlooked.

[shazza]

Great start. The Gaylord Palms is quite a large place, but a nice hotel.

[HopeAnna79]

Wow! Thankful you caught that hotel reservation issue so quickly and that you only had to pay for one night. Sounds like this will be a fun trip.

[Kelly66]

Originally Posted by shazza

Great start. The Gaylord Palms is quite a large place, but a nice hotel.

The place is also a huge convention center as I found when I explored my first night there. I went looking for something to eat very late, past 10:30 PM. There is a sports bar and there were many people there and they were still serving. I peeked inside and saw that they had tables upstairs too. I thought it might be more quiet so I went up the stairs, but that section was closed. However I saw a sign that had an arrow pointing to the competition and a web address floridameets.com. Well I understand that runners call a competition a meet as well gymnasts, but I was putting together clues. I went back to the sports bar and sat down and checked out the website on my phone. There was a gymnastics meet at The Gaylord Palms the next day. I checked the weather and it was supposed to be overcast the whole day-no sunshine. The competition had several sessions all day long beginning with level 6 and going up to level ten. Now I had just started to work at a competitive club and the coach there is so awesome and brilliant. I have even been able to go to see the kids compete and I thought they competed level 6 or 7, so I was interested in seeing the competition. Level 10 is what people compete before they go to the Olympics. It is rare to find a meet that includes that high level of competition, so I was very excited about this. The website says that the door charge is $15 and I didn't know if that was the charge per session, but when I talked to my husband he said, even if it is, go ahead and go to all four sessions if there isn't going to be any sun. I was so excited. The website also said that the rate they had gotten was $175 per night (including the resort fee) and 50% off of parking which was regularly $15 per day. Also, quite interestingly the day that I had started in the morning and picked out the hotel and then waited until my husband checked his schedule and then they were full-that was the day that this website showed that they had 'changed the venue' from the Swan and Dolphin. Well if they had a block of rooms-maybe that explains why they were booked all of a sudden.
Oh and by the way-the host club for the meet is the place where Disney holds auditions when they are having gymnasts audition- Orlando Gymnastics.

[Kelly66]

Originally Posted by HopeAnna79

Wow! Thankful you caught that hotel reservation issue so quickly and that you only had to pay for one night. Sounds like this will be a fun trip.

Yes isn't it just Magical that I caught it? I was so grateful that I hadn't just shown up and not have anyplace to stay. The trip was short but sweet.

[Kelly66]

Winter has been brutal here. Snow, snow and more snow. The sky is white. The air is cold.
AYP? I usually walk the dogs in the cold, but not when there has been salt on the roads because our first dog ended up having a stroke an half of her face paralyzed possibly from licking the salt off of her paws.
HP- So I am thinking if it is cold in Orlando, at least I can walk around in the green atrium. I thought I had read somewhere that Orlando gets 360 days of sun a year. Can anyone correct or affirm that? Anyway, usually in Orlando, if it rains, it eventually quits at a point during the day and the sun shines. So even as I was imagining it being cold, I expected sun to be shining through the Atrium glass.

More Background-My husband humors my Disney obsession and we are going to AKL later this year, but I find I need to get out of the North East and go somewhere sunny before the end of March. Plus my daughter has been ill and I have been home taking care of her. DH is giving me this opportunity to have some happiness and sunshine. Since my daughter (who is 22 years old) is ill, either my husband or I have to be home with her. He was out of town and due back Wednesday, January 29th. He got stuck in Atlanta due to the snow. He said there must have been 25,000 people there that he could see. That did not count the people who had gone past security to claim their bags and then were unable to go anywhere. Every hotel was full, every restaurant in the airport left their doors open. The only thing that closed at the airport was the VIP lounge. What? Anyway. The deal was, I could not go to Disney if he was not able to make it home from Atlanta. He was able to make it back around 6 PM Thursday. But when Delta sent me an email on Thursday, saying it was time to check-in for my flight through Atlanta Friday morning, I called them and asked if I could change my plans and travel through Detroit instead. She was very excited at the idea. Hopefully that freed up a flight out for someone. I don’t understand how they catch up from something like that. Flights are already overbooked. How close to capacity of the whole airport are the flights running in and out of there? I think my husband had been there for something like 29 hours. That is a lot of people that have to get rebooked on flights.
Anyway, I decided that leaving at 3:40 AM and going through Detroit was better than getting to Atlanta and possibly being stuck there.

Day One, Friday, January 31, 2014 3:40 AM. I took my husband’s car mainly because it is older and would be sitting outside in the parking lot. He told me to go to Terminal B and park in short-term parking. I turned on the GPS and it had me going a different way than my husband’s directions. Before I got to the decision point, I heard on the radio that there was a problem on the road DH had told me to take. I drive a Chrysler 200 and the GPS apparently can take into account traffic information, so I was kind of driving blind and trusting the GPS. I drove the speed limit and made up about two minutes before the GPS was originally telling me I should get there.
Now my husband had just come back from Puerto Rico and was telling me that he would have been in trouble if he had checked his bag. He strongly advised me to carry-on my bag and not take a coat with me. I did this.
Getting out of the car to the airport wasn’t too bad. I had a knit kind of shawl thing and a sweatshirt. I had already put into my phone where my husband had told me to park in the notes section so when I parked I put in the section number where I parked and where I had put the parking ticket which was helpful on my return trip. I got to security and had to get out my bag of liquids. I had to struggle to decide what to take. I took his tiny size container of hair gel and a travel size bottle of mascara remover and the other regular stuff. But, silly me, I had zipped the liquids behind the cover inside the suitcase which proved to be a bad idea as I was trying to get it out right before security and my bra popped out of the suitcase. YIKES. I went through security wearing my socks. NJ Newark airport has one of those things where you stand on the yellow feet with your hands over your head and it spins around you. I was specially selected for additional screening. The people before me and the people after me did not get pat down. But TSA didn’t take too long to look at my bags. I carried my stuff away to the bench across the way and put on my shoes. When I got to the gate, I noticed a guy putting out chairs at tables in a little section in front of my gate.

[Cam22]

How neat to find out there was a gymnastic meet at Gaylord Palms while you were there. Good start to your travel day.

[Kelly66]

Day One, Friday, January 31, 2014 Continued - I went over and sat down at the gate but then remembered that I hadn’t called Discover credit card to let them know about my travel. I have found that Discover doesn’t like it when my husband and I are in different cities and we run the card at the exact same time. They will turn off the card and it will be denied at the next merchant. This is good though because that is how they found out that someone had created a mock-up of my brother-in-law’s card.
AYP? I didn’t want to take out my credit card and look at the number right there next to someone, so I went over to the tables feeling gratitude for the guy who was putting them out at 5:00 AM. I was hoping if they needed my card number that they would let me type it in instead of saying it out loud. I dialed the 1-800 number on the back of the card and it said that it was not an active number. So I just dialed 1-800-DISCOVER. They didn’t need me to give them my credit card number at all, but they did ask where I was going and thanked me for letting them know. I made sure to tell them that DH would still be in NJ. I mentioned to him about the other phone number, but he said it should work. I guess it is just too early for my brain to type in the number correctly.
HP-I had my ID out for getting on the plane, but they didn’t check it. They wanted to put my carry-on underneath the plane. This was just fine with me because I had a concern about being tall enough to get it up in the overhead compartment. They gave me a pink ticket and I took a quick look to be sure I remembered what the carry-on looks like. I got on the plane just fine.
I am very short and never have trouble with leg room on the plane, but DH had mentioned that the new Delta planes had very narrow seats. He is not kidding. WOW these things are too narrow for me. That is sure. I didn't see a single grown man who was as narrow as those seats. I got to Detroit and enjoyed a breakfast at Chili’s for $14.73. I got french toast and was served at my table. I asked for a to go cup for my coffee and she said yes, but didn’t bring it back before I decided to go.
AYP? There are birds flying around in the airport in Detroit. That makes me feel kind of creepy. We were all waiting for our flight and I decided to park myself in front of one of the planter boxes and stretch. I realized that the plants were fake. Hmmmm, I wonder if the birds are fake too. Are they just high-tech NSA drones masquerading as birds? Which is more creepy? That or live birds?
HP -Anyway, I did a bunch of stretching, looked out the window at the white sky and looked forward to seeing blue skies and sunshine in Orlando.
I suddenly remembered that online they had told me I didn’t have a seat assignment in Detroit, so I decided to check in with the desk wishing I had done so before I ate. She said, yes there is no seat 35 B on this flight, and she reassigned my seat. They made an announcement about needing people to sit in an exit row. One time they asked me about this and I said, ‘How tall is it?’ She ignored me and repeated the question. I asked her, ‘How big is the plane?’ She ignored me again and explained that she wanted to know if I would sit in an exit row. So I explained to her that if it is a small plane I would be able to do it, but since I am so short, if it is a large plane, I might have trouble reaching the top of the door, so she reassigned me. Apparently these exit row seats have extra leg room so my husband always volunteers for this. When they made this announcement many people went over to the desk. I was looking at this young buff guy saying to myself, ‘Hurry get over there, I want you at the exit row.’ The other guys who got there first were much older and less fit. Then they made an announcement that you had to check your carry-on items and get a pink ticket. I noticed that the buff guy had a pink ticket on his bag already and asked how he got it, and he said somebody came out to him and gave it to him. So I asked at the desk and they said to just get it when I got on the plane. It was quite some time before they got to my zone for boarding, so I should have known this was a huge plane. My husband can tell what kind of amenities the plane has by seeing what type of plane it is, but I don’t pay attention. When I finally got to board the plane and they took me to the side to give me my pink ticket, they told me to pick it up at baggage claim, not right after I got off the plane. This flight was on a giant international plane and I got to see the ‘business class’ section about which my husband talks when he travels. Wow-now that is swanky. They had seats that were at an angle, reclined all the way. They had little side tables and such.
So, I go onto my boring seat in coach which was still pretty swanky. The plane had something like seven seats in the middle and I don’t know how many-four -on each opposite sides over the aisles. The guy next to me had his iPhone and asked a question to the guy next to him about using airplane mode. He said that if your phone is in airplane mode you don’t have to turn off the phone when they tell you to turn off things. But the guy next to me had a wife on the plane sitting way far away and that was the only way he could communicate with her. The guy next to him explained that he wouldn’t be able to text in airplane mode. Then he and I figured out how to work the touch screen on the back of the seat in front of us.
The pilot explained to us that there had been some kind of emergency power issue which had been resolved, but they had to do paperwork. At one point we had taxi’d away from the gate and had to go back to take the paperwork back. I think we were on the plane, on the ground dealing with paperwork longer than it was supposed to take to actually get to Orlando. But we had this great little TV thing and I could pick from all sorts of movies, TV shows, games and such. The pilot came on again talking about paperwork. I wondered if he thought he was putting our minds at ease by mentioning paperwork.
I just kept thinking, ‘This will get better as soon as I get to Disney and have people treating me like a princess. I am not going to make a judgement about how things are going yet.’ I checked the weather and still showing no sun for my trip.
I watched The Fox & The Hound and a couple episodes of Dog with a Blog. I had never seen that Tv show before. I also watched a couple episodes of Psyche and I think the Big Bang Theory. We got in to Orlando three hours later than we were supposed to have gotten there. I went to the carousel as they instructed on the flight, and then thought about how I usually put a ribbon or something on my luggage so I can find it, but this bag didn’t even have my name on it or anything.
AYP? So I am thinking, what if I can’t find the luggage, how would I describe it? It doesn't have a tag with my name on it? Then I realized that it had a bottle of medication in it with my name on it, and thought maybe they would call the pharmacy and I could call them and be reunited with my luggage. I wanted to walk around to see what was on the other side so I walked in front of this person who was oh about 50 feet back from the belt, and I don’t know, I guess I got too close to his personal space or something and he screamed at me. It was kind of ridiculous, I didn’t touch him or something. It was like he was yelling at me for getting between him and the carousel. Strange. But I just apologized-twice because he was standing there doing his Yankee Dance waving his arms up and down. The number 29 baggage claim went very far. I had thought that was another separate belt over there but it was all part of the same circuit that kind of made the letter 'B'.
HP- Then I realized that since DH had just returned from Puerto Rico he had the red FDA stickers on the suitcase. I had thought about taking them off, but had never done it. Yipiee, this will make the suitcase easier to find. Oh there it is. Getting luggage is so much easier in Orlando than in Newark or the Greater New York Area. In NY everyone stands right next to the belt so you kind of have to jockey for position in oder to be able to get your luggage when you see it the first time. It becomes some kind of competition. But in Orlando everyone was standing back from the belt until they saw their luggage, so once you saw it you could just walk right up to the belt and get it easily. That made it very nice. Thank you polite people.

[lfredsbo]

Just signing in! Great start! How exciting that you can catch a gymnastics competition while there!

[Kelly66]

Day One Still Continued- I decided that I should follow the signs for ‘ground transportation.’ Mears motor shuttle was still ready for me. I went to the desk and she printed my tickets and explained my return trip. They were going to pick me up at the hotel at 4:20 AM which was highlighted on the return ticket she printed for me. Still trying to put a positive spin on things, I decided that was much later than 3:40 AM and would be a piece of cake. She directed me to a podium outside. She was very pleasant and gave me a buzzer and told me that she would try to get me out of there as soon as possible. I sat on the bench, happy with the warmth and actually happy with the humidity instead of the dry heat from the heaters. I looked at the sky which was white, just like Detroit and like NJ had been for months, not a spec of blue in the sky. So I just decided to focus on the palm trees. I checked the weather. Still no sun in the Orlando Forecast. I got in the Motor shuttle and struck up a conversation with a woman behind me. She was from New Jersey too but was going back for the Superbowl. Another pair of women came into the shuttle and told me that her daughter was going to be in a dance tournament. She asked why I was there and I said I just want sunshine. She checked the weather on her phone and said I would have sun on Monday. The woman in front of me has a dog like mine and we got to talk about that. It was a Mears Motor shuttle full of wonderful women. There was beginning to be Magic in Orlando.
I did notice as we were driving to Walt Disney World from the airport that there were huge stands of dead trees all throughout Orlando. I had remembered my husband mentioning Disney World in relation to a news story about a fungus affecting pine trees. Many of the trees I was seeing though, I thought were deciduous trees. They were dead trees with dead leaves still on them, not winterized trees with fallen leaves. I didn’t let that dampen my mood as we arrived at the Gaylord Palms. The woman with the daughter in the dance competition was staying there too. I guess the other people in the shuttle were going to different hotels.
As I entered, I was kind of looking up to see if I could see any sunshine. I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to look like some goofball who is gawking because I have never been to a nice hotel.’ You don’t see the Atrium or the trees when you first walk in, although it is very elegant. Someone greeted me happily and showed me the way to the check-in desk. I noticed a young woman whose parents were checking in who had the word ‘gymnast’ written down the leg on her pants…that looked like pajama pants to me. I thought, oh maybe she is in the dance competition and is also a gymnast. That will be nice if there are lots of cute kids around. One of the reviews I had read on Trip Advisor said there were a bunch of kids running around screaming. That sounded just swell to me. I said I had reservations and they found them right away. They asked if I wanted to spend and extra $40 a night to get a room with a balcony on the Atrium. I thought that the hotel was all booked, but I guess that was only the cheaper rooms. I asked what was the view of the other rooms and he said the parking lot. I said for $40 I would look at the parking lot. I thought that I could just go walk in the Atrium. Then he asked if I wanted a king bed or two queens, and I elected two queens. I did give them my Discover, but I don’t remember signing to acknowledge the rate as I usually do. He started to tell me how to get to my room, then he said oh you wanted two queen beds, so he reassigned the room. I was in 6106. He showed me the map and told me to take the St. Augustine elevators right there near the check-in desk to my room. He gave me a piece of paper that had the times for the shuttles to Walt Disney World, and showed me on the map how to get there. I couldn’t find the frequency of the shuttles online, but I had asked when I called. I got an answer like ‘various times’ So I asked how often did the shuttles to the park run. The answer I got was that it was different depending on who was at the hotel. So I asked if they ran all day and they said, it depends what kind of groups are there. Anyway, back to check-in -they told me that they have excellent service there and I should let them know if there was anyway they could help me.
I went up to my room which was a long walk from the elevator and changed and tried to make sure I could get the next shuttle to the parks, so I didn’t really do much else. I did open the cabinet under the Tv and saw that there was a fridge and a safe, but I didn’t open the fridge. I checked the little book that tells you about everything and they spent a lot of time telling me how wonderful their service is. I opened the drapes all the way and thought, maybe at some point in my trip there will be lots of sun shining in this window. I looked out and saw vast areas of dead trees and wondered who owned all that ‘empty’ property between here and WDW. The bathroom area had one of those lights behind it that give it a glowing light. There had been one of these at the Hilton in Times Square and I thought the light made me look so pretty, but this one wasn’t doing the same nice trick. I decided Mickey didn’t really care how I looked and I would go to The World as is.