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Cinderella_68 · 09-21-2001, 12:10 AM

Unforgettable: Our first WDW Adventure
Cast:Me (Cinderella_68), 33
DH, 29
DD, 10
DS, 2
Nana, 55
Nephew, David, 8
Adventure Dates: 9-5-01 to 9-18-01

Day 1: Getting there is half the fun...or not

All of a sudden, I remember how it feels to be a kid, as I wake up this morning. Our 12:40PM departure can’t get here fast enough! (Note to self: next time, leave very early AM, and don’t listen to Nana when she wants a later departure.)
The suspense almost kills me, but thank goodness there is still plenty of packing to be finished which keeps me busy most of the morning. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] After my packing list has been checked and re-checked, we get it all into two large suitcases, everything split between the two, in case the airlines loses one of them. The kids have color books, crayons, CD’s, books, toys, snacks, earplanes, to keep them busy/comfortable, I have my new Danielle Steele book and my Passporter, and we are off to the airport!
Many times in the months prior to our trip, I have passed the Lindbergh Field Airport and thought with a smile that the day was approaching when we would be taking off from here, on to our highly anticipated first visit to WDW. Well, that day had arrived!
Arriving at the airport two hours before take-off, we checked in curbside, (not knowing that this would be one of the last days in which we’d have this luxury,) and headed to the gate. We had a snack at a deli near the gate, even though we were scheduled to have lunch and dinner service on the plane. You never know what kind of surprises they’ll throw at you on your little tray table. We took out a deck of cards and the two older kids and I played Go Fish. There was anxiety in my nephew’s eyes as time approached to board the plane. He had watched a documentary on television two weeks prior, about a flight that went down in Iowa in the 80’s. He had cried all that night, and up until a few days before the trip was adamant that he wasn’t going to go to WDW if it meant getting on a plane! I never did find out what changed his mind, but when the boarding call came, we were finally on our way!

Are we there, yet?

Our plane trip was uneventful. I knew that we would be in the air for over six hours, but knowing it and doing it are two different things. I just wanted to hurry up and get there! I managed to start my paperback and get to the good stuff before we arrived in Houston. The kids alternately napped and played with their toys and stuff. Lunch was interesting: cheeseburger in a baggie. Mom actually liked it…must have been the altitude affecting her taste buds or something. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Dinner was a cold chicken breast sandwich, which wasn’t as bad.
Once in Houston, we played musical gates, without the music. DD and nephew wanted a souvenir from Texas, and we pulled in late giving us about a half an hour in Houston. Their spending money was burning a hole in their pockets, so we high-tailed it for the gift shop and they quickly chose a nice magnet each and we made it back to the gate in time for boarding.

Quick, somebody pinch me!

It was close to 10:30PM when we made our final approach to Orlando. I was so excited I couldn’t sit still and peered over my DD and DS out the window. I couldn’t believe it, a year and a half of planning and we were really going to WDW!
The airport was surprisingly quiet as we disembarked the plane and headed to the baggage to look for our TTC driver. When we approached the monorail that would take us to the main building, I was so excited! It looked just like the one in Nate’s pictures. We MUST be here!
DD and I recognized the voice on the monorail as the one who narrates the train ride at Disneyland. We giggled as we exited and proceeded to the baggage claim where Luis was patiently waiting for us. We got our bags and Luis brought the van around and we were quickly on the road.
The temperature at 10:30PM worried me just a bit. It was very warm and muggy. Okay, I knew it was going to be warm and muggy, but if it was this warm, this late at night, how were we going to cope with daytime? I hoped that we wouldn’t melt like a Mickey bar the next day. (Like Mickey bars ever last long enough to have a chance to melt… [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] )
I can’t believe how many billboards there are down there! Luis wasn’t very talkative, and seemed a little annoyed when I reminded him that we needed a grocery stop. I hadn’t thought that maybe there wouldn’t be anything open at that time of night. Almost all of our grocery stores are open 24 hours, so I didn’t think that the ones in Orlando might not be open. He ended up taking us to Gooding’s at Crossroads Plaza. Boy, you guys weren’t kidding that it was expensive!! We ended up spending $30 for a cooler, which my husband said we could think of as an “investment.” O-kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…. (Note: it ended up being less expensive than a piece of luggage as we ended up packing it and checking it on the way back.) We ended up spending $100 on cereal, milk, fruit, pop tarts, bottled water, Pepsi, and the cooler. Yikes! Still, it would come out less expensive than eating out breakfast every day for all six of us, and we found out that getting up at 5 AM was harder than it seemed it should be when you are coming from Pacific time. Being able to do breakfast in 10 minutes helped our touring schedule on more than one occasion. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
We checked in quickly at Shades of Green. It looked just like the pictures I’d seen. We were here. We were really here! It still felt unreal, like some kind of dream. Maybe it was just the time change. Maybe it was because it was nearing midnight. I asked my DH to pinch me. He just laughed and gave me a hug.
We had requested two connecting rooms on the ground floor facing the Millpond Pool. Our requests were honored and we were very pleased with the rooms. We unpacked while watching the news, and saw that rain was expected for the next day. We had originally planned to go to a water park the next day, but decided to go to Animal Kingdom, instead. After arranging for a wake-up call, we wearily climbed into bed and fell asleep, ready to begin our adventure in earnest!

[ 09-21-2001: Message edited by: Cinderella_68 ]

09-21-2001, 12:10 AM	#2 (permalink)
Cinderella_68 Community Rank: Trekker Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: San Diego Posts: 1,036	Re: Unforgettable: Our First WDW Adventure 9/5-18 Unforgettable: Our first WDW Adventure Cast:Me (Cinderella_68), 33 DH, 29 DD, 10 DS, 2 Nana, 55 Nephew, David, 8 Adventure Dates: 9-5-01 to 9-18-01 Day 1: Getting there is half the fun...or not All of a sudden, I remember how it feels to be a kid, as I wake up this morning. Our 12:40PM departure can’t get here fast enough! (Note to self: next time, leave very early AM, and don’t listen to Nana when she wants a later departure.) The suspense almost kills me, but thank goodness there is still plenty of packing to be finished which keeps me busy most of the morning. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] After my packing list has been checked and re-checked, we get it all into two large suitcases, everything split between the two, in case the airlines loses one of them. The kids have color books, crayons, CD’s, books, toys, snacks, earplanes, to keep them busy/comfortable, I have my new Danielle Steele book and my Passporter, and we are off to the airport! Many times in the months prior to our trip, I have passed the Lindbergh Field Airport and thought with a smile that the day was approaching when we would be taking off from here, on to our highly anticipated first visit to WDW. Well, that day had arrived! Arriving at the airport two hours before take-off, we checked in curbside, (not knowing that this would be one of the last days in which we’d have this luxury,) and headed to the gate. We had a snack at a deli near the gate, even though we were scheduled to have lunch and dinner service on the plane. You never know what kind of surprises they’ll throw at you on your little tray table. We took out a deck of cards and the two older kids and I played Go Fish. There was anxiety in my nephew’s eyes as time approached to board the plane. He had watched a documentary on television two weeks prior, about a flight that went down in Iowa in the 80’s. He had cried all that night, and up until a few days before the trip was adamant that he wasn’t going to go to WDW if it meant getting on a plane! I never did find out what changed his mind, but when the boarding call came, we were finally on our way! Are we there, yet? Our plane trip was uneventful. I knew that we would be in the air for over six hours, but knowing it and doing it are two different things. I just wanted to hurry up and get there! I managed to start my paperback and get to the good stuff before we arrived in Houston. The kids alternately napped and played with their toys and stuff. Lunch was interesting: cheeseburger in a baggie. Mom actually liked it…must have been the altitude affecting her taste buds or something. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Dinner was a cold chicken breast sandwich, which wasn’t as bad. Once in Houston, we played musical gates, without the music. DD and nephew wanted a souvenir from Texas, and we pulled in late giving us about a half an hour in Houston. Their spending money was burning a hole in their pockets, so we high-tailed it for the gift shop and they quickly chose a nice magnet each and we made it back to the gate in time for boarding. Quick, somebody pinch me! It was close to 10:30PM when we made our final approach to Orlando. I was so excited I couldn’t sit still and peered over my DD and DS out the window. I couldn’t believe it, a year and a half of planning and we were really going to WDW! The airport was surprisingly quiet as we disembarked the plane and headed to the baggage to look for our TTC driver. When we approached the monorail that would take us to the main building, I was so excited! It looked just like the one in Nate’s pictures. We MUST be here! DD and I recognized the voice on the monorail as the one who narrates the train ride at Disneyland. We giggled as we exited and proceeded to the baggage claim where Luis was patiently waiting for us. We got our bags and Luis brought the van around and we were quickly on the road. The temperature at 10:30PM worried me just a bit. It was very warm and muggy. Okay, I knew it was going to be warm and muggy, but if it was this warm, this late at night, how were we going to cope with daytime? I hoped that we wouldn’t melt like a Mickey bar the next day. (Like Mickey bars ever last long enough to have a chance to melt… [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ) I can’t believe how many billboards there are down there! Luis wasn’t very talkative, and seemed a little annoyed when I reminded him that we needed a grocery stop. I hadn’t thought that maybe there wouldn’t be anything open at that time of night. Almost all of our grocery stores are open 24 hours, so I didn’t think that the ones in Orlando might not be open. He ended up taking us to Gooding’s at Crossroads Plaza. Boy, you guys weren’t kidding that it was expensive!! We ended up spending $30 for a cooler, which my husband said we could think of as an “investment.” O-kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…. (Note: it ended up being less expensive than a piece of luggage as we ended up packing it and checking it on the way back.) We ended up spending $100 on cereal, milk, fruit, pop tarts, bottled water, Pepsi, and the cooler. Yikes! Still, it would come out less expensive than eating out breakfast every day for all six of us, and we found out that getting up at 5 AM was harder than it seemed it should be when you are coming from Pacific time. Being able to do breakfast in 10 minutes helped our touring schedule on more than one occasion. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] We checked in quickly at Shades of Green. It looked just like the pictures I’d seen. We were here. We were really here! It still felt unreal, like some kind of dream. Maybe it was just the time change. Maybe it was because it was nearing midnight. I asked my DH to pinch me. He just laughed and gave me a hug. We had requested two connecting rooms on the ground floor facing the Millpond Pool. Our requests were honored and we were very pleased with the rooms. We unpacked while watching the news, and saw that rain was expected for the next day. We had originally planned to go to a water park the next day, but decided to go to Animal Kingdom, instead. After arranging for a wake-up call, we wearily climbed into bed and fell asleep, ready to begin our adventure in earnest! [ 09-21-2001: Message edited by: Cinderella_68 ]