Day 1 – Wednesday 1 Dec 2004
I worked a half day, while Scott took the day off. He was still recovering from a cold, so the extra sleep was needed. I got home around 11:30 & Scott had the truck packed and ready to go! I changed clothes and off we went. We ate lunch on the way down to the airport in Indianapolis. The weather was clear (after about a week of rain) and windy! Chilly, too – in the mid 40’s. I wore my Eeyore varsity jacket & Scott had his Coca-Cola jacket. We hoped we wouldn’t need them once we got to Florida.
We dropped the truck off at Indy Park, Ride & Fly & got right on a shuttle bus. There was a HUGE check-in line at the ATA gate, but it moved pretty quickly. We checked in at a self-serve kiosk, but had a little trouble getting someone’s attention to get the luggage taken care of. The security line was also long, but moved quickly too. Note to self: pack the coins for pressed pennies in the carry on, as it makes a big black splotch on the X ray machine & the bag checkers will want to look thru your carry-on
We still had about an hour and a half before our flight, so I read a magazine or two and people-watched, while Scott played with his new toy - a Game Boy Advanced. The flight was about 2/3 full (a first for our Florida trips, I think. We had seats A & B – the person in C moved to another row, so I scooted over to the aisle seat so we had some breathing room. The flight was quite smooth, with just a bit of turbulence a few times.
Landed on time in Orlando and got our luggage fairly quickly – only 2 bags. Our carryons were Scott’s laptop, the camera bag & my bag stuffed with the Passporter, our toiletries & some misc reading material, as well as the aforementioned coins.
The sweatshirts & jackets got put away pretty quickly, as it was short sleeve weather. Called Happy Limo for our pickup and within about 5 min he was out in the loading area. Our driver was also from the Midwest and friendly without being overly-talkative. We’d scheduled a 15 min grocery stop & were a little concerned that it might not be enough time. We were back at the limo in 5 min with our breakfast stuff & snacks for the week.
We arrived at the hotel around 7:15 and got checked in with little delay. The POFQ lobby is gorgeous – especially decorated for Christmas! They had a couple of trees in the lobby, and lots of garland (with Mardi Gras masks!) and poinsettias. Our room was 3307: building 3, third floor. Quite close to the main building, yet nice & quiet. There was a family with small children next door, but we only heard them a few times & not too late/early. A bit of a change from All Stars & Pop – even considering this is slow season.
The room was nicely decorated with the New Orleans theme. The tub & tile floor looked to be original; a bit worn, but nice & clean. Mousekeeping did a great job during our stay – a peacock washcloth animal came to visit us after the first day.
The refrigerator was the large dorm sized kind in its own cabinet - enough room for a gallon of milk & quart of OJ, as well as space on an upper rack and the door. Make sure to check the temp if you use the fridge; we ended up freezing our OJ.
The dresser was quite large, and the bench and shelf offered lots of storage & display space. We hung our Santa hats (Mickey, Tigger and Jack) on the pegs & put Mr Potatohead with his Christmas accessories on the shelf. He was joined by a couple of his Christmas pals later in the week: Mickey, Goofy and Figment! Make sure to look for the hidden Mickeys in the bedspread – I found seven of them.
After unpacking, we walked over to the dock to catch a launch to Downtown Disney – another plus for staying at this resort. The particular boat we rode had a very noisy engine! We passed what used to be the Treehouse Villas; one of the captains told us the students in the college program use them – a shame they aren’t still available for guests.
We had a late dinner at Earl of Sandwich – it had just opened when we were last here in May and the word’s apparently gotten around as the line was quite long. It moved fairly quickly tho – Scott got a meatball sub and I tried the All American. They’re quite good & definitely recommended. We did a little shopping, but were getting a little tired, so we got back on the boat for the resort. The lights for DTD look so pretty across the lagoon; unfortunately, we kept forgetting to bring the camera along. Make a note for next time. We could see the fireworks for Illuminations over the trees; we never did make it over to Epcot for that show; I kind of wanted to see the holiday version, but we had lots of other things to do.
We looked around a little at the gift shop, and bought our mugs. I also got some beignets – they were pretty good, but I’m not a big fan of powdered sugar. After the first of several long days, we got to bed around 10:45. My trusty pedometer got quite a workout this week: today’s step total was 8649 = about 3.4 miles.