Grumpygal's Solo Summer Sojourn (6/5 - 6/13) Last Day Finally Posted About This Page:

[kimdisneynut]

Thanks

Kim

[chezp]

I've just read all of day one and I'm impressed with how quickly you were able to get from the airport to checked into your room. What a great start to your vacation! I was impressed to see you were running to time before you left - will this last? [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

I'm wanting a Phillly Cheesesteak now! [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]

Enjoyed hearing about your preparations, commute and arrival. (BTW - what is a butterhorn?)

Can't wait to hear more! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[coffeechef]

Love your trip report. I had a great time on my solo trip last year. DO what you want , when you want. I thought about a solo this Summer, but now thinking taking all 3 nephews for a trip in July instead.
Can't wait to hear more as I am looking at early June to take My Goddaughter for Graduation gift next year.

[Grumpygal]

Tiki
A butterhorn is a dessert or breakfast food. I usually eat it for breakfast. It consists of a dough filled with a mixture of whipped egg whites, cinnamon, sugar and nuts. The filling is spread out over the dough and then cut into triangles and rolled up. Its topped with a sweet frosting. Big time yummy and small enough to take a bunch in a container on vacation with you. [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Originally posted by Grumpygal:
Tiki
A butterhorn is a dessert or breakfast food. I usually eat it for breakfast. It consists of a dough filled with a mixture of whipped egg whites, cinnamon, sugar and nuts. The filling is spread out over the dough and then cut into triangles and rolled up. Its topped with a sweet frosting. Big time yummy and small enough to take a bunch in a container on vacation with you. [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">UMMMM!! [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] I think I need to find some of these! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Next, please....

[Grumpygal]

June 6 Day 2 Part 1...The Adventure Begins

Today was my first full day here. I got up kind of early with a Mickey wake up call. At least this trip the phone didn’t scare the life out of me. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] I was kind of ready for it. I had stuff I wanted to do before I stepped foot into the MK so I figured I should get up early. And since it’s just me I usually get ready in a more leisurely fashion. After the wake up call I switched on the TV to check the weather; always the first thing I do when I’m on vacation so I don’t get caught unprepared. Then it’s on with the glasses and I grabbed my mug and headed for some coffee. That’s right – I have not yet done my hair, no make-up and still in my pajamas – but I wasn’t going to see any of these people again except for this week so what the hey. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] I got ready and munched on a couple of butterhorns for breakfast with my coffee and I was ready to go.

I left for the MK about an hour early since I had to exchange my AP voucher and I didn’t know how long it would take or what the lines would be like. I got there around 8:30 and went to the Guest Services window outside the MK and did the exchange in less than 5 minutes. There was no line whatsoever. There were two windows open and only one had guests at it so I was able to walk right up and make the exchange. The cast member there was quite nice and efficient. I got Minnie Mouse on the front of my AP. I am now a bona fide AP holder. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I didn’t think to ask for anything different but I’m happy with it anyway. So, I guess I didn’t need so much time as I thought this morning. So now what am I supposed to do with myself while I wait. I went through the turnstile and did the biometrics thing and waited in the courtyard for the official opening. The courtyard in front of the train station was pretty crowded, but I did find a little spot along the wall, in the shade no less, to perch on. While I waited for the park opening at 9 I read through my AP jacket. At least I could familiarize myself with that stuff. Many of the discounts I would later use – but more about those later.

I got to see the train roll into the station loaded with characters. This was only the second time I’ve seen this. Or at least I think so. I don’t remember seeing this that often. I decided not to wait today for pictures and headed toward Adventureland to get to Frontierland. I did forego my usual first run on Pirate of the Caribbean and wanted to head to the mountains first since there were a lot of people there already. We had to stop and wait for a couple of different rope drops – one right over the bridge at Adventureland and then another one right by Frontierland by the Country Bear Jamboree. That second stop was a new one for me. But they explained that it was easier to keep people from being trampled. It made me wonder if someone had gotten hurt recently and they had started this new procedure to keep that from happening again. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] So they finally let us go past the second rope and I was able to walk right onto Splash Mountain – literally. My log stopped right before the Laughing Place and I had memories of how I had gotten stuck for 20 minutes at Christmas time, but it wasn’t that bad at all; maybe only 5 minutes tops.

From there I went over to Big Thunder Mountain and checked the lines. The stand-by line said 15 minutes so I thought what the heck and went for it. The wait was in no way 15 minutes and I just walked right on this one too. So far my luck has been pretty good on my wait times although I’ve only done two attractions, an AP voucher exchange and a bus ride, but I’m hoping that this is a pretty good omen for things to come. After Big Thunder it was back to Pirates – which I again walked right onto. I decided to head over to Tomorrowland next but as I was passing Aladdin I saw that there was absolutely no wait so I did a quick turn on that one since it too was a walk-on. Since I was the only one in my carpet I sat in the front and made the carpet go up and down and I also reached my hand over the back so I could make the carpet tilt. Not the most comfortable ride, but you can still get the full feel of the ride that way.

Now it was finally on to Tomorrowland. I checked out wait times and Fast Pass times and grabbed a FP for Space Mountain and rode Buzz Lightyear where I got a score of 116,700. Not the worst score I’ve ever had but I’ve certainly done better. Since I still had some time before my FP I took a turn on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority – the first of what will turn out to be many. Then it was on to Space Mountain. I love using the FP. Its always kind of fun to just whisk past everyone in the stand-by line and get right on. As a solo traveler its even nicer because sometimes the call goes out for a party of one or two and I’m able to slip on even sooner. This happened a couple of times this trip and the first time was on Space Mountain. Not that I got to jump ahead too far, but every little bit counts. After I finished on Space Mountain – and its still as bumpy and jerky and I remember it, which explains why I don’t ride it very often but you have to do it at least once every trip – I checked other wait times around me. Everything was starting to accumulate lines. Argh! [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I haven’t really had to wait for anything yet and I was going to try to avoid lines for as long as I could.

I decided to take a little break from the attractions and do some shopping. I had some postcards to get signed by different characters to send back home. So I got some postcards and I managed to find Peter Pan and Wendy near the Exposition Hall. I got their signatures on the appropriate cards, then went back and did a little more browsing than shopping. I wanted to check out what some of my options were and what types of things were out there. I would do my bulk of the shopping at the World of Disney if I could since I could get a 10% discount with the AP. But it never hurts to look around and see what you have to choose from. I have to say that the hardest thing was not to over-shop for my niece. There are so many cute things for the little babies and infants that I could just keep buying for her, but I did manage to hold myself back. At least a little bit anyway. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] After doing more browsing through a lot of different shops I checked my watch and realized that it was time for my PassPorter meet. I did not want miss this so I was just hoping that they weren’t going to be early.

Coming soon: Day 2 Part 2...A PassPorter Afternoon

[DrDolphin]

I am also a Disney solo traveler. Of course, its cause I live 2 hours away and most of my Disney loving friends live at least 24 hrs away!!! More trip report please!!!

[luvnwdwgal]

Great start to your adventure! Looking forward to more!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[chezp]

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your Passporter meet!

[Mel & Richard]

Great start to your report! I can't wait for the rest. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]


Mel

[PS - I LUV WDW]

Great start to the report! Can't wait to hear about the Passporter meet.

[Grumpygal]

Day 2 Part 2...A PassPorter Afternoon

It turns out that TiggGrrrl (Jeannie & Shane) weren’t too early and waiting for me so I didn’t feel too bad about dawdling over my shopping. [img]graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] We met at the Plaza Pavilion, which is a place I hadn’t tried yet. So when we did finally meet up we got something to eat and found a table. I tried the individual cheese pizza, which was better than I had expected. I have to say that we sat there for quite a while and we chatted like old friends. If anyone had passed our table you never would have known that we had just met in person for the first time. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] And we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening together. So our next stop was to grab a FP for Buzz and then it was off to Cinderella’s Carousel so Shane could ride the horses. This one again had no real wait. So far my line waiting has still been kept to a minimum.

We still had time before our Buzz FP was up so we stopped in Toon Town. Now I have to say that I haven’t really spent much time in Toon Town since I had never traveled with a child before, but I really kind of liked it. I’ll call it a scouting trip for my niece, but its just as much fun for adults as it is for the kids. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] We went to the Hall of Fame and saw Belle, Suzy and Cinderella. I’ll have to remember that characters are often here and come back to catch some later in the trip. Next it was on to Buzz because our FP window had opened, but on the way there we saw that there was practically no wait for the Indy Cars. So we made a pit stop and rode those with basically no wait. It was maybe 10 minutes tops, but it didn’t even feel like that long. Then it was finally on to Buzz. We started to head towards the hub after Buzz, which is where we ended up laughing so hard we were probably practically crying. Why you may ask? [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Well, we start across the bridge from Tomorrowland and are probably about a quarter of the way across when the skies opened up and out of nowhere we got pelted – I’m talking total torrential downpour. There was no real warning for it. Maybe a few little drizzles and then whoosh – down it came. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] We just kind of looked at each other, Jeannie scooped Shane up and we both were pushing the stroller back toward Tomorrowland to grab some cover; the whole time laughing pretty hard. I was so wet I could wring out my hair and clothes by the time we took cover. We both had the appropriate rain gear with us, but no warning that we should probably get it out and get ready to put it on. A lot of good that did us. We had to wait the rain out for about ½ and hour, which even then wasn’t too bad. You could see the stream of people making their exodus out of the park because of the rain. A little rain caused the park to empty out pretty quick. After the rain let up for the most part, we stopped at Casey’s to get a hot dog for Shane. I know somewhere around this time we also stopped for ice cream. So I’ve now had my first Mickey Bar of the trip. Due to the emptying of the park we were able to walk right on to Aladdin with little wait. Then it was on to the train for a round trip around the MK.

After the train ride we left the park and hopped the monorail to Epcot. The first stop was Spaceship Earth, which had no wait. Another total walk-on, although it was still drizzling a little so I’m sure a lot of people had already left. Then it was on to the World Showcase where we picked up some food to munch on and sat there for a while. The rain was still coming down and we were too wet, hot and sticky from the humidity to wait for Illuminations so we headed out. Jeannie had parked at Epcot so we went to the car and she dropped me off at POR so I didn’t have to take the bus back. It was a great first day and I’m really glad I hooked up with Jeannie and Shane – it was a fun way to spend my first day there and its always fun to meet the people I chat with so often. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I got back to my room and found a light on. Not that it was a big issue, but I don’t remember leaving it on. Oh well, I can sometimes be forgetful that way. Well, then I looked at the bed and saw why the light was on. A package had been delivered to my room and been left on the second bed. It was a package from my parents and my sister and brother-in-law and niece. It was a nice wire basket in the shape of a Mickey head. It was filled with a small bag of pretzels, a box of cookies, a one-time use camera, an autograph book and pen and Mickey ears. I had to call home directly right away to thank them for it. It was just so thoughtful and I had tears in my eyes as I was digging through the basket. I’ll have to try to figure out a way to do something special for all of them when we go down next May. [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

The only bad thing about this day happened even later than that. After my first full day at Disney I was pretty beat so I went to bed fairly early by vacation standards. Well the people in the room next to me must have gotten their kids some drums. Because the next thing I know I am woken up out of a sound sleep at 11:00 at night to the pounding of drums. What’s with that? I wouldn’t care about it so much, except it was getting kind of late for that kind of noise. Luckily they didn’t go on for too long, otherwise I would not have been a very happy camper at all and I did get back to sleep fairly quickly. But let me tell you, as I was falling back asleep a little part of me was hoping to find an express checkout envelope on their door in the morning.

The weather today was…hot with rain in the afternoon and evening
The best thing today was…meeting Jeannie & Shane
The worst thing today was…being so wet from the rain
The funniest thing today was…getting pelted with rain that seemed to come out of nowhere
Today I tried…The Plaza Pavilion
And the result was…pretty good. I had the pizza and it was better than I thought it would be
The most magical moment today was…spending the afternoon and evening with Jeannie & Shane

Coming Soon: June 7 Day 3...I No Longer Travel Alone

[tikibird]

Sounds like you had an excellent day despite the rain - glad you were able to laugh that off with Jeannie and Shane. [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

Great installments - ready for the next one! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[PS - I LUV WDW]

Sounds like a great afternoon with Jeannie and Shane, except of course for the downpour. Thanks for the update!

Pam