A Mid-Winter Getaway ~ My First PTR!! ~ 4/13: TR update - pg. 8

Hey guys! Well, we are home. The trip was great, and we all had a lot of fun. We are sad that it is over, but it's nice to be home (especially after our disaster of a day yesterday at the airport :headache:). I'm glad that Sarah was able to keep you all updated a bit on what was going on while we were gone. But now I can't wait to share all the details with you! I'll try to start my TR as soon as possible. :goodvibes
 
Looking forward to reading! Aww, it stinks that there was an issue at the airport!
 
Maybe you could start your TR today since you are done with school...hehe Now you're all set to go again in December, right? ;)

Ugh, I am so glad I didn't have to go through all that stuff at the airport. :headache:
 
I'll probably start the TR tomorrow. Today I wrote up some notes about each day, so now I have to start putting it together. So stay tuned! :cool1:
 
I'll probably start the TR tomorrow. Today I wrote up some notes about each day, so now I have to start putting it together. So stay tuned! :cool1:

YAY! :banana:

You know what would be cool, if we do go in Dec. we could do a report together. hehe :)
 
Okay readers, here we go! The start of my very first TR! :cool1:

Day 1: Saturday, January 24, 2010

After months of waiting, the day of our departure finally arrived. We had a very early flight out of Milwaukee (7:35 am), so we were up by 4:00 am. We all got ready quickly, and were out the door by 5:00 am. The ride to the airport was quick, because it was early and there was practically no traffic. We dropped off our car at the place where it would be parked for the week, and then rode the company’s shuttle to the terminal. We made our way to the AirTran counter and got in line. My dad had already checked in online the night before, so we just had to pay our baggage fees and get the tags for our bags. While we were waiting in line, I just had to look around to see if I saw anybody else with Magical Express baggage tags. This is something that my sisters and I always enjoy doing when we go to Disney World. This time, I saw a family with tags for I think the Wilderness Lodge, but I can’t remember for sure. And there was also a couple who got in line behind us who were headed to Port Orleans Riverside.

Paying our fees and getting our tags did not take too long, so we were soon on our way to the gate. We passed through security, which took a bit longer than I was expecting considering it was a Sunday in January and it was very early. But it still did not take too long (about 15 minutes), and before long we had arrived at our gate. It was now a little past 6:00 am, so we had about an hour and a half before our flight was scheduled to leave. I was hungry because I had not eaten anything at home, so I stopped at an Alterra in the gate area and got a tropical smoothie to hold me over for a while. It was really good!

At about 7:00, the plane started to board. We all got boarded quickly, and before long, we were on our way! It would now be just a couple of hours until we were in Florida!!

Coming up next: Arrival in Orlando and Magical Express!

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I'm sorry that this update is so short and boring and that there are no pictures. But I promise that it will get more exciting! :goodvibes
 
Ahhh, I love those early mornings at the airport. :goodvibes So exciting!
 
I don't want to hijack Claire's report, but while we wait for the next update, I will add something about our first day that illustrates how low the crowds were at times.

When we returned to the Boardwalk about 8 PM after spending a few hours at DHS, I decided to take a quick walk over to Epcot while Claire and her Mom got settled in the room. I mainly wanted to check out what the crowd was like. I went right to The Land and saw that the posted wait time for Soarin' was 25 minutes. But, it didn't look that busy so I walked up the standby line all the way to the spot where the standby and fastpass lines come together. Well, there were about 10 people there, meaning that those people were going to be entering for the next boarding. I think it's safe to say that they were going to get on and off the ride in 15-20 minutes.

I then walked over to the Mission Space/Test Track side and both rides had posted wait times of 5 minutes; in other words, virtual walk ons.

So, if I had been inclined to, I probably could have done all 3 of those rides in less than an hour. On my way out of the International Gateway at about 8:30, I could see that it wouldn't have been hard to find a decent spot for Illuminations.
 
Still waiting for more from Claire, but here's another comment about crowds.

On Monday, our first full day, we started at MK. I'll let Claire describe what we did that morning, but when we left the park at about 1 PM, I checked the ride board, and there were no significant waits for anything. I think the longest waits on the board were about 20-30 minutes for Dumbo and Peter Pan, and evrything else, including Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, etc. were 5-15 minutes.

The crowds that day may have been affected by some heavy rain that came through between about 6:30 and 7:30 AM, but between the radar and the weather forecasters it was easy to see that the rain would be gone before 8 AM and that the sun would be out within a few hours. As it turned out (and as the weather forecasts had predicted) once the sun came out later in the morning, it stayed out for the rest of the week.
 
The next update is finally ready! I’m sorry it’s been so long since the first one. I am really terrible at this. But thanks for being so patient. I'm sorry that this post still has no pictures, but I promise they're coming!

Day 1: Sunday, January 24, 2010 – Part 2

After about two and a half hours, we were arriving in Orlando. Our plane landed pretty much right on time, a little after 11:00 am. I was anxious to get out of the airport and to Disney World, but because we were all hungry, we decided that our first stop would be the food court to grab some lunch. I was looking forward to getting some Chick-fil-A (if you’ve read Sarah’s trip reports, you know where I got the idea!), but to our disappointment it wasn’t open! That didn’t come as a complete shock, though, because while we were still at the airport in Milwaukee, my Mom had mentioned that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. There used to be one at a mall near us, and apparently it wasn’t open on Sundays. I guess it’s a Southern thing. So sure enough, when we got to the food court, we noticed that while every other place was open, Chick-fil-A was completely dark. What a bummer! Since it was prime lunch time, the lines for all the other restaurants were pretty long, so we decided to bypass the food court and just grab some snacks at a newsstand to hold us over until we could get something else. Then, we took our food and headed down to the Magical Express check-in. We didn’t have to wait in the line since we were already checked in, so we immediately got to enter the line. We did not have to wait in line for longer than 30 seconds before we were taken outside and loaded onto a bus. We were pretty much the last ones on the bus, so before long, we were on our way to the World!

Before making it to the Boardwalk, the Magical Express bus stopped at Port Orleans – Riverside. It was funny, because the couple that got in line behind us at the airline check-in in Milwaukee were on the same ME bus as us. This is where they, along with a lot of other people, got off. I have never see Port Orleans before, so while I don’t think I’d ever be interested in staying there, it was cool to see a little part of another resort. While we were in the bus stopped at PO, we took this time to call Sarah at home and let her know that we had made it to Florida.

Before long, the bus was back on the road and on its way to the Boardwalk. I was so excited to finally get there. When we got there, we got off the bus and immediately went into the lobby to check in. The cast member at the desk gave us our room packet, which included a little surprise. My Dad had informed the people when making the reservation that we were celebrating my graduation, so we each got a pin that said “I’m Celebrating.” Anyway, our room was unfortunately not ready at this time, so we had some waiting to do. We decided to check our bags that we had carried on the plane into the bell services people, and then head out to the Boardwalk.

Our first stop on the Boardwalk was lunch, because the snacks we got at the airport did not fill me up! We decided to eat at this little pizza stand near the ESPN Club that sold individual slices of pizza. I got a piece of pepperoni, and it was sooo good! While were eating, it started to drizzle a little bit, but fortunately it did not last too long. That was good, because we had a lot more exploring to do!!

Coming up next: Exploring the Boardwalk
 
So, the mister and I were talking last night.For the past several years we've been escaping to South Beach in February for some sun
 

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