Hall's Family Vacation and Matthew's 9th birthday trip report #1 About This Page:

[piratelady]

Players: Me(Necie), DH(Glen), DS22(Josh), DS8(Matthew), and DSis(Ginny)

Well, here we go, Saturday, June 3--We got up about 7 and finished packing and get loaded up. We head to my sister's, Ginny, about 9:45. With her things packed in the car we run on over to Mom's next door to say goodbye. DS22, Josh has already gone over to set up one of Matthew's birthday presents that we feel we just don't have the room to pack all the way to Orlando and back.

As we enter the living room, Josh is sitting playing an electric guitar. Matthew walks in looking puzzled. You must know the backstory: Josh is a self-taught guitarist and drummer to which his little brother readily follows in his footsteps. Matthew is on his second acoustic guitar and wants an electric sooooo very bad. DH says he must first learn to play his other one before he can get an electric. We tell him that this is one of his birthday presents and he is almost speachless. His shaking hands go up to his mouth and he looks from one to another of us. He sits down and tries to play and forgets all about WDW. After some time we pry him away from his present and leave for our long journey.
Josh takes the first leg of the driving and makes it all the way through Mobile, about 6 hrs. I took over from there. The plan was to drive until we couldn't and spend the night somewhere close to Orlando. That way we could get some sleep then check in to our hotel then hit the parks for the day. All went well until we hit Pennsecola. Road work turned a 15 mile trip into 2 hrs. My leg cramped so badly from putting on the breaks. We finally made it to Ocala at nearly midnight. After stopping at 4 places with no vacancies, a man came up to our car and told us about a Sleep Inn down the road about 10 miles. When we reached there we were able to check in and get a bath and some rest.

Sunday morning we are up and off to WDW!! We make it to Port Orleans French Quarter in about an hour. Our check in only takes about 15 min. Both times we stayed at POP it took about 45 min. We left our luggage to be picked up later and headed to MGM for our first day of fun. We were quite pleased that there was not a very large crowd and were able to ride most everything we wanted. We had a 5 p.m. ressie at the Sci Fi. As we were being seated DH received a call from his brother who was feeding our dog, Stitch, for us. It seems that Stitch, who had been ill for a few days before we left had died during the night. Now we had the task of telling Matthew his dog had died, or keeping it from him the whole week. We chose to keep it from him as long as possible.
It is good we had familiarized ourselves with the menus, because there was very little light and we could hardly read our menus. Ginny, Josh and I chose the Spiniach Artichoke Dip which was good, but not great. DH chose Onion Rings and DS8 choose carrot sticks. They seemed to enjoy them. For an entree Matthew had Chicken Tenders which he deemed the best he ever had (as he did each plate of chicken tenders for the whole trip.)
Glen and Josh had the Steak and said it was okay, but a little tough. Ginny and I both had the Vegetable Potato Bake, which neither of us cared for. We all loved our deserts though. I had the Chocolate Tart which was to die for and the others had the Happiest Celebration Cheesecake which was also very good and beautiful.
After dinner we headed back to our rooms to check in and unpack our things. Our rooms were wonderful! They were very roomy and beautifully decorated. When rested and unpacked we headed to Magic Kingdom for a late night of riding and fun. We were again able to ride all we cared to ride and returned to our rooms exhusted and ready for a bath and bed. More to come on day 2
Necie

[christiejay]

Great start! We had major problems driving through Pensacola last year - sorry it hasn't gotten any better. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

So glad you liked your rooms - I really want to stay at the French Quarter on our next trip. Looking forward to more of your report.

[eff051102]

I'm glad you finally made it to WDW. Sorry about your dog...I hope your son is doing ok.

KJ

[Colexis Mom]

I’m so sorry about your dog [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grouphug.gif[/img] How awful! I’m glad you finally made it there, although your meal at Sci Fi doesn’t sound like it was all that great!

Hurry back with more!

[bsblady01]

more please

[Happymommy]

I am so sorry about your dog. Can't wait to read more.

[gwugirl03]

How sad to hear about Stitch! Great start to your TR though!

[jimmymac]

Great report so far. Sorry about Stitch

[PrincessSharon]

Great start! So sorry to hear about your dog. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grouphug.gif[/img] Looking forward to more.

[DScottRN]

Sorry to hear about your dog, I Love my animals and to lose one is to lose a member of your family. I hope the trip was still fun. Enjoyed part one.

[FanOfMickey]

Great start to your trip report!! Sorry to hear about your dog though [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[lauren-roxy]

So sorry about your dog. Great start to your trip!! Can't wait to read more!!