Smokin’ Hot Fun with the CLQ and the Louisiana Crew Updated 10/5 COMPLETE! About This Page:

[belleandmaddysmom]

Welcome Jill!
I am so glad that you had a great time with wonderful friends and your beautiful family! Can't wait to hear what you can remember about your trip!

[nconover]

Whew! took me a while to get through this and I thought I missed the whole report. I love you guy's banter back and forth and Eileen you sooo made me miss Disney even more. Oh man, I can't plan another trip fast enough. Can't wait to hear in detail well as much detail as you can remember anyway about your trip Jill.

[Jillybean]

Thursday, June 4 Day One

Despite the pure craziness otherwise known as "our life" (i.e. Thom’s whacky traveling schedule, my brother’s wedding at our house and Maddie's visit to the ER for a bonk on the head ) leading up to this trip, we were actually packed and ready fairly early the night before departure.

Once the girls were in bed, I was even able to make myself a celebratory margarita and relax. This is when I heard my phone beeping and realized that I had missed a call. The voice message (which I believe is the first one that I’ve ever actually received . . . or rather shall I say heard ) was from Karen and Eileen wishing us safe travels. I immediately called Karen back and after a few attempts, she had all three of us on the phone. We laughed and chatted in only that giddy way you can when you know that you’ll be seeing each other soon!

After saying goodbye (for the time being ) to them, I decided to go ahead and take a shower since I’m still not brave enough to take one on the train. I was all clean and tucked into bed by 10 p.m. I must add that the major reason for all of this efficiency this evening was because our cable, internet and phone were all out . . . so there was no tv, no computer or no calls on our landline. It seemed like a hassle at the time, but was probably a blessing in hindsight.

I slept hard for 2 and ½ hours before the alarm announced that it was time to go to Disney (in reality it just beeped as normal but it did seem to be a happier beep than the “time to go to work” beep )! Before I could even get out of bed, I noticed that something wasn’t quite right. That’s when I swallowed and realized with a heavy heart that my throat was sore - - a sure sign that sinus problems were on the way. I used to think that Disney caused me to have sinus infections because the last two June trips have ended in one, but this year I finally realized that “June” is what causes my sinus issues. June just happens to coincide with Disney in our family!

Oh well, if I know nothing else, I know how to handle sinus problems so I just tried to forget about it for now. I quickly threw on my clothes while Thom woke up the girls. They were as excited as could be that the day had finally arrived. To look at them, you would think they had just been asleep for 10 hours because they were raring to go! Maddie had the official duty of pulling off the last link in the chain and I finally remembered to take a picture of her once we all made it downstairs.

I'm pretty sure that she still has chocolate on her face from earlier that evening.



All of our excitement must have rubbed off on poor Ralphie because we had the feeling that he thought he was coming too. Ralphie’s one and only Disney experience was spent at the Epcot kennel during Hurricane Jeanne so we assured him that he wasn’t quite the Disney fan we were and would be happier at home.

We arrived at the train station by 1 a.m. which gave Thom plenty of time to pick up our tickets and have our bags checked (with 4 bags to check we looked like we were headed off for a month-long expedition so we weren’t taking a chance at getting to the station too late to check our bags like we did last October). There is not much to do at the Amtrak station so we just chatted and watched the clock. While I had time, I also popped a couple of Advil for my throat. Maddie and I had just finished flipping through a complimentary copy of the Amtrak magazine when an announcement was made that the train was arriving – and it was 15 minutes early!

Thom and I had also been noticing that the train we would be taking home was showing as over an hour late for being due in Columbia. This was not good news because Thom had to catch a 7:30 a.m. flight in Charlotte (1 and ½ hours away) the morning we returned (he goofed on which day we were returning). If the train was running late the morning of our return, he could miss his flight.

Anyhoo . . . enough about the end of the trip . . . back to the beginning. When we were told where to stand to board the sleeper cars, we realized that they must switch the cars around every so often because this time we went left instead of right. When the train pulled up, we were in the very last car on the train - - we were caboosing it, baby!



We piled into our sleeper car like the old pros we are. Our attendant even brought us extra pillows and blankets so that we could make a cozy bed for Mary Devall in the storage compartment. Before the train even left the station, we were snug in our beds and ready to fall back asleep. I was bunking with Maddie on the bottom bed and she wanted to sleep on the outside, so I had to make sure that she wasn’t going to fall through the crack between the bed and the lavatory before I could peacefully sleep.

Sleep finally did come, but it seemed like only minutes later when I felt Maddie crawling to the end of the bed and peeking out the window. The lengthy stop in Jacksonville always wakes her. This time I also heard Mary Devall moving about and then I heard Thom say “People, it’s only 7:30! Go back to sleep!” Yeah, that’s going to happen.

We lolled around in bed for a few more minutes and then gradually we got ourselves presentable and headed to the dining car. The sign outside our car pointed to the dining car being to the left, but I knew we were the last car so couldn’t imagine that was right. Sure enough, when Mary Devall and I peeked our heads around to the left all you saw were tracks outside of the car door. Guess we go right. The dining car ended up being only one car away so we didn’t have to stumble through too many hallways.

We were seated right away and were all apparently in a French toast frame of mind because that’s what we all ordered. With a sleeper car, you get three free meals and the servers are always great about suggesting that the girls split an adult meal so that we don’t have to pay extra. The food was great and we all ate like farm hands. And I drank enough coffee to keep me going for the rest of the day. Of course, my little coffee fiend, Maddie, took a good many sips herself.

My family is still in love with eating on the train. It’s such an adventure for all us and it’s especially exciting when you still have your entire trip in front of you. Sitting in that dining car - - listening to the sound of little girls’ laughter, chatting and watching the world go by - - is one of my fondest memories of each and every trip.



Continued in next post . . .

[Jillybean]

Once we were full of food and coffee, we returned to our room. The beds had not been converted back to a sofa, so Thom and I figured out how to do it ourselves. Yay us!

Both girls went back up on the top bunk to play “Ella” which is their game where Maddie is Ella, the dog, and Mary Devall is the dog trainer. While they played, Thom did a little work while I read the paper. Then came time for the big fun when Thom attempts to take a shower in the teeny tiny bathroom. I consider him very brave to even try this especially when I handed him a hand towel to dry off with instead of a regular towel (I spotted the bath towels about a minute later).

The girls stayed up on the top bunk until we reached Winter Park (okay, we told them that they couldn’t come down until we reached Winter Park ) which is our signal that we’re only about 15 minutes away.

The reflection of Maddie watching the world go by (and waiting for Winter Park ).



Before we knew it, the familiar landmarks were coming into sight and we had pulled up to the station. I finally thought to get a picture of our train once we were off!



Our Happy Limo driver, Daniel, had called about the time that we hit Winter Park, so he knew that we were close. A man who looked suspiciously like a town car driver passed us as we were headed to pick up our checked luggage, so I called Daniel back to see if he was at the station already. He asked me where I was and then said “I think you’re looking right at me.” Indeed, he was the man who appeared to be a town car driver.

My first thought was “Oh my!” This was one seriously good looking man. He could have starred right beside Al Pacino in the Godfather. To top it off, he was also extremely efficient. He ran for his Suburban and pulled it in the space closest to the luggage pick up and then began loading our carryon bags and the girls and myself. By the time that Thom had the luggage, we were ready to go. Thom went to look in his laptop bag for his charger and Daniel took one look at his phone and said that he had a charger for it up front. Talk about service.

Within minutes of pulling up to the station, we were on our way to the Beach Club. Daniel wasn’t exactly chatty, but he was still nice to look at from my view from the back seat. The girls became very quiet sitting on their cushy seats and Maddie actually laid her head down in my lap. Thom was on the phone for work the entire trip so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride (and the view ). As soon as I saw the WDW gates, I sat Maddie up and pointed out where we were! Although tired, they were so excited to see those gates again!

Good looking Daniel was soon depositing us at the Beach Club. Good looking Daniel! Thom stayed behind to handle the luggage while the girls and I bee bopped our way inside. A CM stopped us on the way to greet us and led us right up to the check-in desk. I was thrilled when she immediately told me that our room was ready and handed me our check-in folder. I had done the online check-in and it worked without a hitch for us!

The CM called over a bellman that I immediately recognized. He took one look at me and said “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” I started laughing and told him that I was just here in December and I remembered him from then too. Probably had nothing to do with my crazy companions, I’m sure!

Lo took off outside with Thom to find our luggage while the girls and I headed in the direction of BCV. I simply could not pass yet another old friend from December without getting a picture.



By the time that we finished our photo session, Thom had caught up with us. When we got outside, we noticed that Lo was actually moving quicker than we were. When I pointed out Lo, Mary Devall yelled out “Hey luggage!”

Lo let out a big laugh and waved to us. We knew right away that our room was at the far end of the property when Lo suggested that we cut through the pool area. We took the single elevator up to the fourth floor and then the girls ran ahead to find our room.

When I opened the door and walked into the room, I immediately saw that the long walk was definitely worth the view. This is what awaited us.



When Lo saw it, he took note of the room number and said that he was going to tell people to ask for this room if they wanted a great view. I couldn’t help but smile as he just stood there and checked out the view with us. Spaceship Earth was dead on, but we could also see the tops of the Land and Canada. If you looked down from our balcony, you could see water and a road but I didn’t plan on looking down much.

We said goodbye to Lo and then checked out our room a bit. Monica and Macy had planned on being at DHS that morning, so I gave her a call to see if they were still there and wanted us to come over. Monica confirmed that they were at DHS watching B&B - - the music in the background kind of gave it away too.

Thom repacked the backpack and we were soon headed out the door on our way to the boat dock. Dark clouds were rolling in, so luckily a boat was waiting when we reached the dock. It actually started raining while we were on the boat, but it ended as soon as we reached DHS.

Up next . . . seeing old friends and making new friends

[lauren-roxy]

Glad you have arrived safely at Disney!!! We are definitely going to have to take the train sometime, I know my kids would love it!! Can't wait to read more and see more photos of those adorable girls!!

[bfth]

Great report thus far.

As always, I can't wait to read more!

[goofysdtr]

Too bad you didn't think to take a picture of Good looking Daniel! That would've been a great addition to the TR.

What a fabulous view! Could you see Illuminations from there? I can just picture you watching with a glass of wine.

[clio]

Glad you made it to Disney the view from your room is amazing. Can't wait to read more.
Liz

[disney_duke]

Love the train ride. What a grand way to arrive at WDW, and with Good Looking Daniel to boot. Great start!

[Tiggerbelle]

Oh yea, you've started!! After all the teasers, I can't wait to hear the details. The train sounds like such a great adventure getting there. Now the best part starts!

[PrincessSharon]

You've started! Love seeing those big smiles on Maddie's and Mary Devall's faces. I will have to give you some stealth photo taking lessons so next time we aren't deprived of pictures of good looking Daniel.

[vfair]

So glad you have started your report! I always love hearing about your train rides.

[MontiMouse]

WhooHooo! I have been waiting for you to start your report. I had to laugh when I read about Mary Devall's sleeping arrangement though! I now remember her telling me about that shortly after you guys arrived in DHS. I think it went something like this:
Me: Mary Devall, how was the train ride?
MD: Great, I got to sleep in the storage compartment!
Me: They made you sleep in the storage compartment!
MD: (giggling) Yes but I liked it.

Glad your train trip and arrival at the Beach Club went smoothly. You did have a great view from your room!

Can't wait to hear more (even though I pretty much know what is gonna happen in the next few installments)!

[mousestruck]

So glad you started, Jill! That train adventure looks like so much fun. What an exciting way to begin a WDW trip. Too bad you didn't snap a shot of that good-looking Daniel. (I must admit that you have me curious! ) Glad you had an awesome room with a view, and hope your sore throat is feeling better.

[mcc0313]

What a great start to the TR Jill...love seeing the girls having so much fun on the train. had to laugh when you said Thom was taking a shower - from your pictures Thom looks quite tall and I have seen those showers poor guy, I am sure he does not have any room to move at all.

Love the view from your room...I can tell you are all on Disney energy now, as you were out of the room and heading off to DHS almost as soon as you got there. Can't wait to hear more.