The Kansas/Texas 2005 Rendezvous at Disney World -UPDATE 11/20/05 About This Page:

[SharonK0527]

Lovin' this trip report so far!! Too funny!! Can't wait to hear the conclusion of the frizzy hair saga

[KrisLuvsDisney]

I am so ready to hear more!

More please....

[lonereb]

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I totally save the stickers too! Awesome report!

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[GoofyMom]

Hey! How the heck do you sign up for those free stickers?!! Er.... I mean, FABULOUS TR so far, Melanie!!

Can't wait to read the next installment!

[goofy4goofy]

I love a Melanie trip report!! They are always hysterical!!! More please!!!!!!

Kelly

[disneymom9092]

Just catching up. Great report so far. More please!

[katspjs]

Yoo Hoo Melanie, where are you?

[joyjoy]

Hi, Y'all,

I'm sorry about the delay - I had computer problems last weekend, then I've had jury duty this week. I promise I'll be updating very, very soon. Thank you for all your nice comments and I'm sorry I'm such a slacker.

[LanieLovesDisney]

You are, of course, my fave TR writer! Arkansas Melanie is the biggest fan of Texas Melanie. And Hey! Why haven't you written me! We've been worried about you!

[Caldercup]

As a fellow curly-top, I salute you!

Your TR is fabulous so far and I can't wait to read the next installment.

More, please!
Eileen

[SHEANA1226]

OMG Melanie!!! I was laughing so hard at the staightening iron!! I live in Houston too and have curly hair and I know your pain when the freakin' monsoon hits and you hair starts to frizz with the humidity that we never have here!!!

[joyjoy]

Trip Date: 9/3/05 - 9/10/05
Resort: Port Orleans Riverside
Disney Freaks Involved: Me (Melanie/joyjoy), My BF (Alex), my 19 y.o. daugter (Jordie), Alex's 15 y.o. daughter (Kira)
Reason for trip: It is time.

******************************************


Hello, Disney Darlings!

I'm back after an inexcusable delay. But let me make excuses anyway. As I said, I got picked for Jury Duty last week. THEN, I got throw-up sick for 3 days. I'm all better now so let's get crackin'!

When last we spoke, we had arrived at the airport. So happy. Here's what Jordie looked like while we were waiting for Alex and Kira:



(Ooh! Thank you PP friends for recommending Photobucket. That worked great!)

Anyway, doesn't she look happy? And how about these kids:



That would be Kira on the left, Alex in the middle and, oh geez, you could figure that out. Anyway. Let me interject a little info on my pics. I got a digital camera for Christmas and had planned on mastering it by our trip, but frankly, it scared me. So, the quality of my photos will improve depending on a few factors -

1) Alex is taking the pictures
2) I use the flash
3) Time progresses through the trip and I have more practice.

So forgive the crapitude of some of them, please.

We headed off in search of the CMs that supposedly were going to be so easy to find waving those big honkin' Mickey hands, since we'd used DME. Couldn't find them anywhere so we backtracked and found a very quiet, smartly dressed tour guide looking CM with a small DME tag on her jacket. She tells us to head down to level _____ <--- (DME level, can't remember. 1?), which we did and found......... a huge line. The line went pretty quickly though and everyone was quite nice. We headed for the bus line and got on the queue for PO-R. The CM there suggested that we not miss the carriage rides at PO-R, which got us, well, Kira, Jordie and me, quite excited. Soon we were outside and saw the buses.



Cool! Unfortunately, Disney's Magical Express soon scored a few Minus Magical Points as we were directed to the ugly yellow Mears bus. I know, I know. They are ALL owned and operated by Mears, but it's kind of like a five year old wanting the pink Dumbo, ya know? Anyway, we shamefully boarded the Non-Cool bus, but immediately perked up. It was totally disneyfied inside. So much so, we forgot about our embarassing yellowness. They have screens playing some of the Happiest Celebration on Earth (soon to be referred to as "Most Expensive Celebration on Earth) stuff and the ever helpful explanation on how to use a fastpass. Come ON, people. If you haven't figured it out by now, let's just agree that some people were meant to fastpass, others were not. Here's what it looked like inside the bus.



I was about to explode with excitement! We stopped first at Port Orleans- French Quarter, which was weird. This trip occurred literally days after Hurricane Katrina had hit, and we were just seeing the flooding in NOLA. I felt sorry for the people staying at French Quarter. There weren't very many of them and I silently wondered if people booked there changed their ressies to either Riverside or another Moderate resort. It just made one sad to think about it. Okay, and guilty.

Soon, Ol' Yeller pulled into the Port Orleans Riverside drop off. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! Oh, wait, berfore I start the yaying - our Mears driver was a freak. He talked the WHOLE way about the best way to see the parks. He talked about EMH and what a great idea it appeared to be, but actually his experience said to avoid like the plague those extra hours in the morning and at night, because BILLIONS of people were doing it and it defeated the purpose. "Do what I do!" he wisely recommended. And went on to talk about getting a late start, coming back for naps, etc. Whatever, Non-Disney employee. I happen to know that yes, there was some craziness over the summer with EMH, but this is the week after Labor Day and things are different now. We are far too lazy to get up for Early EMH, but try and stop us from riding ride after ride at MK on that night. Btw, I was right. More on that later.

So anyway, back to... YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! We're here! We head into the lobby and...... another giant line. *SIGH* Ah, well. Alex and I lined up and Kira and Jordie went to the foodcourt - RiverMillWorks and, no wait. RiverGrill and Sassagoula Store and, no. Omg, I could NOT remember the name of that food court the whole time we were there. River Something. Sassagoula something else. Good Lord, let me go look real quick. .........

Good grief, it's called Riverside Mill. How hard is that? Anyway, the cherubs headed over there to purchase $500 worth of refillable mugs. I swear these things go up a few bucks every year. Maybe not. So we waited in line with only our carry-on luggage (DME has our other stuff) and soon our Guest Services CM beckoned. She was earning her ears! And her name was Niecie! Like Niecie Nash on Clean House and Reno 911! I gleefully reported this to her, thinking for sure we'd be upgraded to a Castle view or something (No? Oh.) and she looked at me like I was nuts. Never heard of it. Oh, well. She went over the whole Dining Plan thing, which was FREEEEEEEEEEEE, btw, and where everything was and how our MYW tickets worked and I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where's our room?". Not really, I was nice. Then she gave us the news we'd been waiting to hear. "You're room is in the Magnolia Bend section of the resort." Say what you will about those faxes to the room coordinators not working, but it's worked for me for about 5 years now. We were in Oak Manor, which looked to be pretty close to the Main Building, and not far from a bus stop, which is all I asked for. Off we go! Now, "not far from the Main Building" is a different language at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort. It was miles. MILES. Okay, maybe not, but it was a hike. Down the path, across the bridge, through the woods, past grandmother's house, take the left fork in the road, catch a train, up the mountain.... you get the idea. However. The walk was lovely. Really. I was so happy to be there. We found Oak Manor and searched for 9053, which was on the first floor looking right out on the Sassagoula! Nice. Lemme see if I can find a pic -



That's what it looked like as we approached. We went into our room and it looked so nice! I wanted to be like those people (Hi ChezP! ) that take detailed photo after detailed photo of everything, so I started taking pics of the room before we trashed it. Here is the armoire with part of the dressing area:



Here is the sink area:



Here's the wallpaper border:



???????????? The wallpaper border? I know. That's stupid. But I was thinking about details, people.

Here's my attention starved child that feels the need to throw herself in front of every moving camera she sees:



So. Then we discovered something gross. The carpet was wet. Ick. And the blowdryer didn't work. Wait! You didn't think we were trying to blowdry the carpet or anything did you? Nahh, we just noticed both these things upon our inspection. I called Mousekeeping and reported the carpet issue and they first said we could change rooms, but I said we liked our room, so they said they'd send someone out to "dry the carpet". Okayyyyy. So we were starv...

OMG! You people are probably DYING to know about my hair, aren't you? I'm so sorry. It was still frizzy. Fortunately, Jordie had the Chi straightener in her carry-on, so I was FINALLY able to make myself presentable. We decided to not go to a park today - that we'd go eat and shop at DTD, come back to our dry carpet and suitcases (not that our suitcases were wet. You know what I mean) and get ready for our 8 pm ADR at Boma. Wait. Before that Kira, Jordie and I went to Fulton's General Store (never had any problem remembering THAT one ) to get sunscreen, which Kira had packed in the suitcase. We're going to need to practice this DME thing a little more. We suck.

Okay, I'm not sure what the limit is on photos per post, but surely I'm getting close. I'll be back shortly to tell you alllllll about Downtown Disney and lizards and Boma.

Thanks for reading!

[SHEANA1226]

Great update Melanie!!! I can't wait to see more pics!!

[KandJluvdisney]

great start so far - love your hair issue and glad you got it all straightened out - room looks fab
can't wait for more

[Jennifer2003]

Oh goodness...this is hilarious! Castle view!

I can't wait for more...and where is that frizzy hair picture?!?!?

Jennifer