WDW With The Girls

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. In keeping with tradition, I will detail our latest Florida trip.

We had long wanted to bring our grand-nieces along for their first trip to Florida. Hang out on the beach, see the sights, a day or two at Disney to round it out. We would drive down, but logistics dictated two cars would be best, bringing the kid's mother along as well, and her fiancé. We were waiting until the youngest girl was old enough to actually experience the trip and remember it. This was the year: she is five-and-a-half.

Then our plans got pre-empted; the fiancé's family decided it was a good idea, and arranged a trip for an extended group, getting a good rate that included a flight down, stay at a Disney resort, and 8-day ticket package. This was out of our price range, so we scheduled a trip for the same time, stayed at our usual resort in Kissimmee, and got a two-day ticket to WDW intending to meet at the Magic Kingdom.

The trip down was uneventful; it was early May, and the traffic was relatively light. Being after Spring Break, the venues were not over-crowded. We timed our arrival for the same day as the family, and since they were delayed actually beat them there. They hit the Hollywood Studios the first day, and then we joined them at the Magic Kingdom. Because we intended to do it over two days, we could take our time and not rush from attraction to attraction. We skipped a day while they went to Sea World and we lounged around, and then met them again. The girls had appointments for a Princess Dinner, and brought dresses with them for the occasion. We went back with them to their resort and Sue splashed around with them in the pool

while I lounged. We visited the Disney Marketplace, where the fiancé was captivated by the bacon-wrapped steak at Wolfgang Puck's. The last full day, Friday, they wanted to go back to the Magic Kingdom, and Sue was easily persuaded; we got our ticket extended. The last day, when they were to leave in late afternoon, we went to the resort again and joined them in a water-taxi ride back to the Marketplace. After seeing them off, we left ourselves, and had another uneventful trip home.

For the week, the weather cooperated; until the day before last, it was sunny and dry; then a bit more humid. The last day saw typical central Florida weather: hot, muggy, and afternoon thundershowers.

Overall, a good time was had by all. The girls enjoyed themselves, we had a good time, and at least as far as we were concerned there was a minimum of typical family vacation fuss. The girl's mother was a bit frazzled, but that's the way it goes.

Yes, Again

Our long-weekend road trip to Florida for Uncle Hal's service didn't count, of course, vacation-wise (although Someone insisted on a swing through Orlando and the Disney Marketplace on the way home from that). No, the vacation came in the last week of July, 2010. And why would anyone in their right mind go to Florida in July? To ask the question is to provide the answer.

After a day with cousin Paula in Boynton Beach, we went to the Radisson in Kissimee again, staying several days. It was rather hot, of course, but overall we enjoyed ourselves.

This blog is turning into a chronicle of Florida journeys. I'm really just trying to catch up. Our 2011 trek took place in late September/early October, since our 2010 trip at that time worked out so well. Still fairly hot without being blistering, and not crowded at all: too soon after the beginning of the school year for anyone to vacation. Again at the Radisson, this time staying five days with a great rate. We endured a vacation-club presentation to get a 50% discount on Disney tickets, and went to the Magic Kingdom again. It rained in the afternoon, but sporadically enough that we were able to avoid the worst showers. The park closed at 7:00 PM in order to open again for Mickey's Halloween Party, which cost an additional arm and leg. Needless to say, we didn't stay for it.

Other than those showers, the weather was cooperative, with a big storm rolling in only as we left Saturday morning and staying with us to Jacksonville. The rest of the trip was smooth sailing.

I bought myself a new camera, a Canon EOS DSLR, that I am very pleased with. I have to get the hang of the auto-focus, but otherwise it's great. I find that I literally can't give away my old film SLR, a Canon AE-1 Program. It's still working fine, with a good 70-210 zoom, but it's been overtaken by the digital revolution.

We returned home to find in my email pictures from a friend's Italy trip. This couple previously had gone to Hawaii and San Francisco. Maybe we can get some variety in our holidays. I really would like to sit out next year and build our funds, so we are not living on spaghetti for months after every vacation. We really want to bring the grand-nieces and their mother with us to Florida; the youngest will be five-and-a-half in summer 2013, and that's a good age to have and remember experiences.

The Big Apple

The last time I was in NYC, it was to see the tree at Rockefeller Center with Susan. The trip was notable because I managed to hit the Lincoln Tunnel: it was sunny, and as we exited the tunnel I was swapping to my prescription sunglasses. A tire brushed the Jersey barrier which was fastened down with protruding spikes, which kind of ruins the point of a Jersey barrier: it ripped a hole in my tire and I had to change it while squeezed onto the shoulder.

That was in the mid-Nineties. No further visits to see What Rudy Hath Wrought, until Sue expressed a desire to see the famed Disney Store in Times Square, surely a magnificence that  exceeded the massive one at Disney World. We picked a weekend with two criteria: she had to be off that weekend, and it had to be between storms. As it happened, it started snowing as we left the city, but that's neither here nor there.

Sue was underwhelmed by the whole experience. Back in the days before I drove, I used the Port Authority Bus Terminal a lot, Greyhounding from New London and catching the locals to home in NJ. Or I'd take the Amtrak to/from New London, and walk between the PABT and Penn Station. Sometimes I'd stroll around for a bit. So, I had the basic area down; it's the easy section of town, with everything clustered together and the avenues and streets in the basic grid. We drove from Connecticut, stopping for brunch at 10:00 AM. Sue wasn't really hungry, but I knew if we waited and she had a pretzel or something in the city, she wouldn't want dinner. Her two goals were to see the Disney Store, and have a meal in a Real New York Deli. If she could have convinced me to drive to Brooklyn or Coney Island (the "old country" of her parents) we would have gone there for dinner.

We took the Lincoln Tunnel to the PABT, avoiding any hard objects at the sides of the road, and parked there at about 1:00 PM: it was easiest, and I wasn't going to drive in circles to save a few bucks.

Out into the streets: they were pretty clear, snow-wise, except for piles of slush at every corner. I was impressed at the absence of the X-rated shops, and the pedestrian sections of the square. So, okay, points for improvements. It was still crowded, and I hate crowds, but we worked our way north, pausing to snap photos of the New Year's ball. We went right past the Disney store: the facade is impressive from across the street, but the entrance itself is just a pair of doors, and we didn't notice the signs above our heads. We went up 7th Avenue and finally cut across to Broadway and back, asking Elmo and SpongeBob for directions outside the M&M store. From that side of the street we could see our goal.

The Disney Store was Not Too Much.

Narrow, filled with standard Disney stuff. The employees were standard-issue nice and friendly. Sue had expected more from the website descriptions and the wide-angle photos. She (after much waffling) got a NYC-themed Disney T-shirt. I explained how expensive Times Square real estate was, but she was still disappointed. We then schlepped up to F.A.O. Schwartz, which was quite a bit bigger, and looked around. It was then getting dark, and we headed back to the Carnegie and Stage Delis. Sue checked out the menus (I had previewed them from home, and warned her how large the sandwiches were, and expensive) and, as predicted, decided she wasn't that hungry and it was too much to spend. We saw down a side street one of the Famous Famiglia pizzerias which for reasons unknown had a branch in Maitland, FL, in the plaza next to where I was living in the late 80s, and also in Groton, CT, since under new management. I was tempted...

Arriving back at the Port Authority, it was getting cold and flurrying, and Sue wanted to leave. It was after 5:00 PM, and it cost us $28.00 (!!!!) for parking. I had thought of going up an avenue to the Cross-Bronx for the sight-seeing, but decided, nah, just get out of there through NJ. Sue wanted the scenic route, though, so off we went. The scenery was mainly rows of cars buried in snow from the plows-- evidence of how you don't need a car in NYC, and also of how valuable a parking spot is. We finally made it to Connecticut, where we had a late dinner in West Haven and on to home.

Verdict: bleah. She wants to go to Coney Island when the weather is nicer to visit relatives, but otherwise Sue is unimpressed with the glamour of the Big City. Fine by me.

Florida, Take Two

We left on a Friday evening, last weekend in September. Same drive routine, but we first went to Boynton Beach this time to visit my uncle. We stayed, reluctantly, at a Holiday Inn Express; our last experience with them, in Albany about 2001, was not a good one. They have vastly improved: this one was very nice, and the free breakfast was decent as these things go. We'd stay there again.

My uncle is getting old. Very old. He tries to stay active but he is not as vigorous as he'd like to be. We first came upon him as he was working in the yard and he looked like hell, exhausted. He was much better when we met him next day for lunch.

On (or up) to Orlando. We stayed at the Radisson Resort Orlando-Celebration, which is just the other side of I-4 from the 192 Disney World entrance. Our history with hotels is spotty: we like Hampton Inns, and Sue is rather picky otherwise. We have stayed at various places she disliked, and picking anyplace is a crapshoot. This place she liked: likes so much, in fact, that she wants to go back there.

The season helped: it was still hot, but being September-October not too many tourists were around; the hotel was not close to full. We just hung around one of the pools, tried a drink or two from the pool-side bar, and just bummed around the area. A visit to the Disney Marketplace was enough to satisfy Sue's Mickey jones. We were ready to leave for home, and Sue hadn't actually been *in* the pool yet; she went in finally the morning we checked out. They have a waterfall, and a small waterslide, and Sue went down it several times. When I tell this to people that know her, they refuse to believe it; luckily I have photographic proof.

We swung by Daytona Beach on the way north, got a bit of sun and some Wally Wings and so to home. A much better experience this time around.

Pop Century

I wasn't expecting much; I figured it would be clean, reasonable, and without too many frills. Boy, was I right. We had come to expect certain amenities: in-room coffee-maker, Internet, refrigerator (for my drugs). None of that here. Well, they did have Internet, for a steep fee. I kept my drugs in my insulated lunchbox with ice. For coffee, off to the cafeteria. It was a basic, bed-shower-TV motel, with a vague 80's motif: wall art and linen had images of old toys and movies and such. The complex is divided in to decades: 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. We had a huge Mickey Mouse phone outside our room; opposite was a giant Big Wheels trike. Under construction between was a super-sized foos-ball court. One of the three pools was shaped like a computer (in the 90s section). I was not too impressed, but then I must maintain my cynical air at all times.

The cafeteria was bleah. It was basically a food court, with uninspiring selections at a high price (surprise!). I watched them make an omlette from fresh eggs, and it still was bland and rubbery. The bacon cheeseburger wasn't up to McDonald's standards. And so on. And the stupid drinks-- go and figure out the stupid coffee dispenser. Nothing at Disney, I exclaimed in frustration, can be simple: not content with just a nozzle with a flip-handle, it has to be some pressure-driven thing where the delivery lags the handle by a few seconds. Flip-- nothing. Flip-- nothing. Flip and hold, hold, hold: finally it starts pouring. Let go: it's still pouring! Arrrgh!

We did the Magic Kingdom; due to the season and the weather, it wasn't too busy and we didn't have any monster lines. We don't do the thrill rides, so the Haunted Mansion and Small World got our business. We were in line with a British family; I'll bet they were happy to get out of the soggy United Kingdom to Sunny Florida!

The drive home was uneventful (we stage from Jacksonville and do the rest in one shot, getting home at about 3:00AM), although again it rained most of the way. The next day, Memorial Day, was actually nice and I was able to cut the grass. Yahoo. Altogether, a fairly disappointing trip. So, we went back again!

Wet 'N Not-So-Wild

We took a trip to Florida in April 2009.

I have relatives there, and as a kid made regular summer trips with my father to visit everyone, staying with my grandparents in Hialeah (a Miami suburb). I routinely got a severe sunburn in the first visit to the beach. If I wasn't smart enough to learn to protect myself, I now wonder why my father wasn't, either. I resignedly await my melanoma.

While in the Navy, I was stationed in Orlando for two and a half years. I hated it. It's hot, it's flat, it's boring. I went to the beach maybe four times while I was there, and to Epcot once when a friend visited. I was very happy to go back to New London and to sea duty again.

Then I married. Where did Sue want to go on our honeymoon? You guessed it-- Disney World. After that we went regularly-- while in the service, and for three years after, I was able to use the military resort at Disney, Shades of Green-- and now we stay with my uncle in Boynton Beach. We drive from Connecticut, because I like to, and we have friends and relatives everywhere from Kingsland, GA (just north of the Florida border) to Hollywood (just north of Miami). Flying down and then putting those miles on a rental doesn't seem as much fun.

So, in 2008 we didn't go: saving money. In 2009, we had enough saved up, and were able to realize Sue's ambition: staying at a Disney resort again. We lost access to Shades of Green in 2000, and since then stayed outside the park, when we stayed there at all. We didn't go to the theme parks every year; just going to the "no admission" Disney Village / Marketplace was enough to satisfy Sue most of the time. This time, we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom; it had been a while. We made reservations at one of the "value" resorts, Pop Century.

We usually will start our vacation on Friday, so that we can leave Thursday evening and get a head start. We drive six hours plus traffic to just south of Washington, DC. that night. This gets us past all the traffic in one shot. The next day it's an easy twelve hours or so to Jacksonville. This time the trip down was okay; we were able to go a bit early, 1:00 PM, to overnight at a reasonable hour, and Friday stayed in Jacksonville. We visited with a friend in Fernandina Beach, who was my neighbor in both Orlando and Groton.

The next morning, we drove to Daytona Beach where we hoped to visit my cousin, and stay overnight Saturday while waiting for our check-in time at Disney on Sunday. My cousin was not available: something had come up. Fine, we can go to the beach instead; or not, since it was about to rain. Oh, yeah, the rain: it rained when we left. It rained all the way down the coast. And now it was raining in Daytona Beach. And then Sue was hit by a bug that took her down for the count. The hotel let us check in before 3 PM, and she went to bed and stayed there. I was ready to take her to the emergency room to be looked at. I was thinking we'd have to cancel our reservations and just go back home, she was so bad, and wouldn't she be disappointed.

Little did I reckon with her ambition: she'd crawl out of her deathbed to get to Disney, and in truth she felt better in the morning with a solid 18 hours of sleep. Off we went to the resort.