First of all let me apologize to anyone who may be reading this post. I know it's been over 12 days since the creation of this blog and my first post. I have been waiting for an appropriate subject for my first "real" post. Well today I finally have one. Hope you enjoy it.
The sign at the top of this post is the one Paula and I were very happy to see 6 months ago today after driving to Walt Disney World. I've been working on my detailed and lengthy trip report ever since we got back.
Because today is the 6th month anniversary of our arrival day I'm going to post the first day of my trip report on this blog. I'll be posting reports on the subsequent days of our vacation once I get them transcripted onto the computer from their current hand written form. That may take some time but I will post them all. Anyway, here is the report of our arrival day beginning with our crossing the state line from Georgia to Florida.
Ron's 50th Birthday
Disney Trip Report
Day 1: September 6, 2010
The Journey & Arrival
Rain, sheets of rain. That's what we encountered as we drove down the Florida turnpike. From what I remembered this type of weather was typical for any afternoon in the Sunshine state. The glare of the sky and effects of the water spray from the tires made driving a bit slow. This was the opposite of what I remember seeing in a cartoon as a kid. In the world of animation it may be rainy driving through Tennessee and Georgia once you see the "Welcome to Florida" sign the sun's supposed to pop out automatically and the birds start happily singing a welcome song to all weary travelers. Oh well, hope this isn't a sign of what the week's weather is going to be like.
Although I was tired from the long drive crossing the state line and driving in Florida for the time and getting closer to Disney World gave me a new burst of energy.
Our GPS guided us down I-4 and toward our hotel: Pop Century. It's a Disney owned resort themed with the pop culture of the decades of the 50s thru the 90s.
My excitement continued to build as we turned right off of highway 535 onto Hotel Plaza Boulevard and under the “Disney World” entrance sign. We stopped at a traffic light and saw the ESPN Wide World of Sports sign to our left and the Pop Century sign on the right. We turned right onto North Buena Vista Drive. We were finally there.
We showed our driver’s licenses to at the guard at the security gate and headed into the resort. As we drove up the driveway we saw signs on the side of the road proclaiming the amenities of the resort such as color TV and air conditioned rooms.
The rain slowed but didn’t stop as we parked in front of the resort’s main building, aptly named “Everything Pop.” It’s a common area for all the resorts buildings that includes the registration desk, gift shop/store, food court, and arcade.
We stood in line at for the check-in desk for less than 10 minutes. A young girl named Melissa, who wore a name badge that read “earning my ears”. That’s Disney terms for being a trainee. We were given our room keys and a map directing us to our room, 1453 in the 50s building.
We drove to the 50s parking lot and found our room. I was so excited I couldn’t believe I was actually at Disney World again. It was so surreal. I was overwhelmed and almost teary eyed. We found our room and I put in the card key. It was a special moment to be in a Disney hotel room again.
We unloaded our suitcases and hauled them to the elevator and then to the room. We unpacked and put away our clothes and stocked our rented small refrigerator with Powerade Zero. Then we sat on the bed and reviewed the resort information we’d been given. This included how to use our free dining plan.
We were tired but hungry. So we took the elevator to the ground floor and walked through the breezeway toward the interior of the resort. We were headed toward Everything Pop building and the food court.
I was still in a state of unbelief about being there. But that’s when I experienced my first of many magical Disney moments. Just as we stepped out of the breezeway into the area of the bowling pin shaped pool we found ourselves standing next to the 40 ft. high statue of the character Lady from “Lady and the Tramp.” Across the way next to the 60’s building was the equally tall statue of the Tramp.
At the far end of the bowling pin pool was a 4 story high table top jukebox. Just like the kind that used to adorn the counters and booths of diners all over the country.
In the night under the lights we were fully emerged in the World of Disney and we hadn’t been there an hour.
In Everything Pop we got ourselves something to eat. We used our free dining plan. We found out that with each meal we get an entrée, a desert and a drink. We also got a free refillable 8 oz plastic refillable mug. It gave us access to the soda fountain and coffee bar in the food court for the length of our stay.
We browsed through the resort store getting ideas of the types of souvenirs we might want to buy during our stay. I looked at shirts, water balls, and mouse ears hats. I really wanted to wear a mouse ears hat when we went to the Magic Kingdom but I ended up chickening out.
I took a lot of pictures of the shadow boxes full of 20th century pop culture memorabilia. They hung on the wall in the building’s lobby across from the check-in desk.
Tired from our long day we walked back to our room taking pictures of the buildings and the giant pop culture icons along the way.
We’d been given a handicap accessible room; although we didn’t request it. I believe that the young lady who checked us in saw my leg brace and graciously gave us a handicap access room The only difference in the room was the hand rails in the shower and the special adjustable massaging shower head. Taking showers with that special shower head made soothed our aching muscles and helped us relax after a long day in “The World”. It was one of the little amenities that helped us enjoy our vacation.
I reviewed our plans for going to Universal Studios theme park the next day. Our visits to the 4 Disney Parks wouldn’t start until Wednesday. I don’t recall specifically but I’ll almost certain I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Because after a 19 hour day; driving close to 800 miles, we closed our eyes nestled deep in the heart of Walt Disney World.
