Pop Century
We arrived for check in at Pop Century around 6 pm ( I believe ). Its a little fuzzy months late, although I do remember hubby trying to take a detour to one of the shops before check in. I believe he did hit an Office Depot, but I think I stayed in the car pouting ( yes, there was more then one grown kid in the car, and not just my own ). I of course wanted to check in and start my Disney experience. No shopping for this girl. Over the next few days you will notice a pattern of me trying to stay in the parks and hubby trying to hit the store's. We have learned to not make reservations for dinner our first night , only because no trip to Disney for us has ever gone completely smooth. So there wasn't any hurry to check in, I just wanted too.
Upon entering the gates to Pop, I knew I would immediately like it better then the All Star's. Don't get me wrong I like the All Star's and would go back in a heart beat. But the Pop looks more grown up to me, and later I would find even more reasons to like it. We parked the car and all tumbled out eager to stretch and find out where we would be located. I was keeping my fingers crossed because I had requested a lake view, on one of the top floors. So far I have never been disappointed with any of my Disney accommodations. But I had a feeling this trip may be a little different so I was not sure what to expect.
The Pop Century is very bright and there was a lot of people bustling around. There was even a large Christmas tree in the entrance to welcome you for the holiday's. Hubby and son ( the one's with the money ) headed for the nearest counter ( mind you, not the right one, but the one closest to the door's ). A very nice CM offered to help anyway, and within minutes he had pulled up our reservations. Yes, we we're in the 50's building, on the second floor and facing the lake !!! Now, I know I am at home. Of course as usual my family does not understand my excitement. Oh, and to top it off we even had connecting rooms. Made the stay a lot less claustrophobic.
After getting settled in the kids headed for the main building to get some food, and refillable mugs. Marc hit the outside world and later came back that night with a snack for us. That night before going to bed I saw fireworks from my balcony for the first time. Another reason to love Pop Century.
Tomorrow Port Saint Lucia
After a early wake up call from Stitch ( who has been reeking havoc at WDW ) we headed to Kissimmee for a quick breakfast and for a brief stop at the Outlet Mall before heading two hours away to my Aunt Jo's for visit. We originally had planned to spend the day before with her , but car troubles postponed our trip by a day. This was also the day we had planned to go to Downtown Disney and we even had PS reservations at our family's favorite restaurant Ohana's. None of these plans panned out in the end, and we ended up making new reservations for Ohana's for later in the week.
The van was still acting funny ( nothing new on one of our trips ). After arriving at my Aunt's home, Marc headed out immediately to fine someone to look at our van while wee we're in town. It was early in the day so we thought it would not be a problem. The kids tagged along so that they could hit the local mall. I spent the time with Aunt Jo looking at old family photograph's. We also made spaghetti and salad in preparation for the family's return. When it started to get late and they we're not back I started to worry. I finally called on the cell to check on them. Marc had not had any luck finding someone to work on the car. So he was getting parts to work on it himself. ( Thank goodness my husband was a mechanic at one time ). Eventually they made it back , but it took Marc until around 11 pm before he got the car going good again. We said our good-bye's to Aunt Jo ( after lots of picture taking ) and headed back to Orlando. We got into Pop late , excited to be hitting the parks in the morning.
Tomorrow.......Magic Kingdom !!!!!!!
Magic Kingdom
Yah!!! Today would be our first day hitting the parks. And first on the list was MK. The children went ahead of us on the bus that morning. Marc and I came in the van. After parking , we headed for the monorail ( I love riding the rail ). It was Surprise Morning at MK so we had to show our Resort ID in order to get through. We called the kids on the 2-Way radio's, they were still at the entrance waiting to get in. I'm not sure what ride they got on first , but we knew they were hitting Tommorowland first, so once we made it through the gates that is where we headed first. Of course after many trips to the world we pretty much know how to get around the park without a map ( the exceptionbeing AK and MGM which can be kind of tricky ). The kids were on a ride , so Marc and I hit the People Movers. This ride has been around a long time, but I love getting on it because you can get a birds eye view of the Tommorrowland area, and it is a s close as I will ever get to being on Space Mountain ( the ride actually goes through some of the areas and you can hear the people on the rides ). As we ended the ride , the kids called on the radios. We even saw them when we reaching the end of the ride. TJ and Trice had planned to ride Space Mountain , but it was not working at the time. Instead we got a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear and headed towards Fantasyland. The first thing I saw when we entered FL was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. We ran to each other and hugged like old friends. After some picture taking and autographs the girls convinced me to ride the Tea Cups for the first time. The line wa still not long so I agreed. We had a ball. Marc and TJ snapped pictures and video taped me and the girls screaming and laughing . We probably made the most noise that morning.
Surprisingly I was not to dizzy after getting off so we headed towards the Adventures of the Winnie Pooh. Quisha could never come to WDW without riding this ride, and Nicki is always looking for Eeyore ears to try out. We were still gaging whether or not Trice was enjoying her first trip to WDW , but so far she was at least smiling and laughing. TJ on the other hand was itching to get over to Epcot ( and Marc was probably dreaming of ways to hit the outlets ).
That morning we were able to hit several rides including our favorites ..... Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and The Haunted Mansion. Marc and I even got to spend time at Cinderella's castle early that morning shopping and taking picture's of the beautiful murals while the kids went to check out Stitch's Great Escape , a new attraction at WDW. I had no intention of leaving MK without seeing the Christmas parade so after a quick stop in the shops we settled down in our favorite spot to wait for the parade. TJ and Trice took off hoping to catch Space Mountain, but it was still down and the wait lines were crazy. Sadly they never made it back to ride SM and we also never made it back to see other areas of the MK park during this trip. After the parade we headed out of the park bound for my family's favorite park.......Epcot !
We rode the monorail over to Epcot. TJ was itching to get away from us, but we all hit the first couple of rides together as a group. No trip to Epcot for us would be the same without a stop at the Ice Coll Station. Now granted it doesn't have the same effect as it would in 90 plus degree weather, but its great for a free refreshment every time. Trice got to taste all of the great and not so great flavors. We horsed around In there for a while and then headed out to explore some more. The girls can never pass the kiosk with the hats so after a little hat testing and photo snapping we headed for the Imagination Pavilion. I had heard rumors that Figment was now available for autographs. I hoped to catch him after we rode Figment and saw Honey I shrunk the Audience . No luck, but we had a great time playing with all of the neat stuff at the pavilion. TJ was chomping at the bit to get over to World Showcase so we beat a path towards the lands. Mostly we passed by them all so that he could get to Japan. I snapped a few pictures and the girls even got to pose with the Living Statues. Little did we know that this would be the last performance we would get to see. Apparently Disney did not pick them up for a new contract. I will miss them a lot . They have become a highlight of our trips. The rest of the evening is a blur. The troops were getting hungry so we headed back to MK to pick up the van and head out of the parks for a quick meal. Tomorrow .....MGM.
