the Never say "Never" Trip Report - COMPLETE!! **Updated 11/24** About This Page:

[Princess_Wantabe]

The Never say “Never” Trip Report

1st let me do a little quick background on how I came to the title of this TR. In a nut shell (because he’s a nut ) my DH stated very firmly that he’d never do Disney again!
No ifs, ands or buts…no Disney. Well, that led to a little sneakiness on my part and the result is that his name is included in this TR If you feel the need for the full elaboration of my DHs transformation back to “the Disney-side” than please feel free to update yourself with my pre-TR…found here.

Now onward with the show!

Our cast of characters for our “Never,Never” trip includes:
Myself – Sherri, age 41
DH – Steve, age 43
DD – Amanda, age 16, again
DD – Kristen, age 14

The When: August 24th – 31st
The Where: POR (with the free dining )

Our vacation started really at 3:30pm on Friday…that’s when I got off work As far as I was concerned, I was on ‘Disney time’ meaning I was already thinking about what I’d be doing if I were in Disney right then. It’s also about the time I started to really, really stress out I don’t like packing for vacation, and I hate trying to get everyone else to pack, so when no one has any interest in packing for vacation it sends me over the edge…let the stress begin

By Friday night I was pretty much packed…everyone else…not so much
Saturday came, I went off to have my hair done (can’t have Mickey seeing the roots ), then I found myself running all kinds of last minute “must-have” errands. I got home later in the afternoon and still no luggage packed. Mind you, we have an early flight on Sunday (7am) which means we have to leave the house around 4:30am! No time in the morning for packing So, seeing no luggage packed set me off a little, which had everyone scrambling for their underwear

After a little takeout pizza for dinner (hey, I’m on vacation…I don’t cook on vacation!”) we all tried to finish our packing and went to bed early-ish.

The alarm when off a lot faster than expected and a quick peek showed it to be 3:30am (traitorous clock!). My pre-programmed coffee pot helped get me out of bed at that time

Getting the girls up that early was easier than I expected, and soon we were loading our car


(yes…we pack light )


And headed for BDL Our plan was for Steve to drop us off (along with our few pieces of luggage ) at the curbside check in for SW then park the car at the airport parking lot and shuttle back. Easy-peasy, and it was…no problems with check in or getting rid of our bags…other than Kristen decided she needed her belt. Yes, the belt that was packed away So before any bags disappeared from our site I had to open her bag and go fishing for the leather There was also the small factor that I remembered I had our suntan lotion in our carryon bag (our BIG bottles of suntan lotion!). So I also had to stuff that into a bag before they disappeared from our site. It was almost comical…here was the skycap ready to take our bags and me digging thru the luggage and stuffing stuff into the luggage right on the curb Oh well, I’m sure they’ve seen worse (at least that’s what I keep telling myself )

Steve showed up pretty quickly from his shuttle and soon we were off to visit the TSA

With no problems with security we had a good hour to kill. With McDonalds being pretty much the only counter service open, we headed there for breakfast...the coffee was good

Then we played the waiting game. Luckily, I was able to score A18, A20, A22 and A24 for our boarding passes with SW so we wouldn’t have too long to wait before claiming our seats!

Here’s the happy clan waiting patiently to board…


our plane!



Our flight was perfect, no problems with loading/unloading/near-death experiences…overall a great flight. I would definitely do SW again


Up next, walking the red carpet in Orlando…

[B.M.]

Off to a great start!

[tammyd_rn]

Great start. Looking forward to more.

[mcc0313]

Great start...looking forward to hearing more.

[bsblady01]

more please

[DyanKJ130]

Great start!! (I can't see your pictures though ) Can't wait to hear more

[chezp]

Great start.

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Sherri!!

[bgdiznee]

Great start! So how did you get your DH back on the Disney side? Hire one of those intervention teams?LOL

[I live with a 'Stitch'!]

Sherri! I just got done reading your entire pre-TR and now I can't wait to hear all about your trip! Sounds like fun. Hope your husband is a true convert now!

[Princess_Wantabe]

Up next, walking the red carpet in Orlando…

I don’t care how many times we’ve gone to Florida, nothing beats that 1st ride in Orlando…you know the one I’m talking about…the airport monorail When the kids were younger this was one of their favorite 1st rides to Disney…and we always remind them of that (we live to embarrass them…its fun )

Anyway…after riding our 1st ride, we quickly made our way to the escalators for our journey to the DME counter. Here’s where we lost Kristen. She hates escalators and no matter how crowded the elevator area is (which it was) she refuses to ride an escalator. (goes way back to when her shoe-laces got stuck between the steps) So we were headed for the escalator before realizing she wasn’t getting on and no amount of prodding on our part could get her to step foot on those shoe-lace eating steps even though she didn’t have on shoes with shoe-laces She ended up saying she’d ride the elevators to the 1st floor and meet us (the elevators were right next to the escalators…too bad they didn’t have regular steps, she would have used those instead!) After waiting a little bit for Kristen, I got ants in the pants and told Steve to collect his daughter…I’d head for the check in and get the ball a’rollin’. And I walked, and walked and walked down that long corridor toward DME…if I didn’t know it was there, I would have thought I was lost But I finally made it only to find a really long line which surprisingly moved very quickly I was soon checked in for our boarding and went to collect my crew

I don’t know if age has caused me to be forgetful, but I don’t remember having an actual ‘red carpet’ to walk toward the bus on I could be wrong (stranger things have happened ) so if this is new, I it…if its always been there…well, I need to be more observant in the future (or I need more Disney trips so I can remember the little things )

We were luckily the 1st in line for POR and I had high hopes of getting on a bus really soon…and about 30 minutes later I was still thinking “we’ll be on that bus soon!” The lines all around us came and went a couple of times before they finally loaded our bus. Not the best start but the worst of this was listening to the guy behind us grumble and complain the whole time. In the beginning of the ‘wait’ my DH gave out one “OMG”…not loud, just a little under his breath…but shortly after that the guy behind us started and wouldn’t STOP and he was very loud All four of us were facing forward, trying not to make eye contact with the guy…we didn’t want to be brought into his grumblings. At one point he complained how he should just go rent a car…I really wanted to turn around and point out where that Alamo counter was Needless to say I was VERY happy to hear he was staying at POFQ and not POR

Soon we were on our bus (with Mr.Grumpy pants sitting in the back ) and heading toward our resort!

Here’s a few pictures from the bus...

(Steve & I...Kristen's view)


My view of the girls (Kristen showing Amanda the pictures she’s taken so far…she was borrowing our old digital camera for this trip so I’ll give her credit on the photos I post from “her” camera )


(self-portrait taken by Kristen)


Good news was the only people on the bus were for POFQ and POR…no stops needed for OKW or Saratoga Springs

1st stop was POFQ and only a few people got off here. “bye-bye, Mr Grumpy pants”

Next stop...POR!


The lobby was packed (which I kinda expected that early in the morning) and the girls parked it while Steve & I headed for check in. I must say, they did a very excellent job of moving the line fairly quickly. We were at the counter in no time at all

Here’s a few pictures from Kristen’s camera of the waiting area.



The good news was our room was ready…bad news, it wasn’t what I requested I had requested buildings 14 or 15 in Alligator Bayou (close to the coffee in the morning ) what we were given was building 37 (one the the farthest buildings from the coffee ). Even though this wasn’t my ideal location, I kept my mouth shut. I wanted a room so I took it, smiled and said “great news!”

So off we went to find our room…what a long walk that was The directions they gave us at check in were the longest possible directions (we later found a short cut).

Finally we found our building



Not the best view

but I didn’t pay extra for a view
Good news was the bus stop was right behind our building

We quickly dropped our stuff, grabbed some stuff for the parks and headed out

I believe it was around 12pm by the time we were heading toward…EPCOT! We lucked out and the bus came shortly after we arrived at the bus stop

Up next…we’re at Disney…let’s do lunch!

[KMB733]

Great start, can't wait to find out how it ends!

[mousestruck]

Terrific start! Sorry about your DME delay and that you didn't get your resort room request, but sounds like you took it all with a grain of salt. Can't wait to hear more about your adventures!

[mcc0313]

I can totally sympathize with your daughter about escalators - I hate them. While I have ridden them here and there I would rather climb a mountain on my knees then take the escalator up (my fear came from being 9 months pregnant and this guy getting a cart stuck and me throwing the kids over the railing (we were close to the bottom) - no worse for the wear except for some pretty cut up knees) but I can't stand them and don't even like when the kids go on them (you can imagine their pouts as I have them climbing stairs with suitcases...

Glad your room was ready....sorry you had a long walk though for your coffee (I love POR and always requst AB 14 or 15 as well....but some of those other buildings are quite the walk )

Can't wait to hear all about Epcot...

[B.M.]

Great start!
Hurry back with more!