The crew and I arrived at Pop
Century in no time at all. Other than the screech that I let out at the top of
my lungs when we passed under the Disney World signs and scaring the crap out of
everyone in the van, the drive there went well.
I pulled up to the front door and the bellman came to collect our luggage. I
wasn’t giving up the luggage just yet, we needed to change our clothes or
die from the heat so I asked him where I
could park while I checked in.
Later, after I checked us in, I had to find the guy to ask him where the van
was.
Our rooms weren’t ready when we checked in. I hadn’t expected them to be, so no
disappointment there. I asked the front desk if they could put my passporter in
the safe until we got back from the park.
(Note* I just discovered that not everyone knows what a passporter is. It is the
ultimate Disney organizer. It has pockets for each day of your trip, phone
numbers for anything you could ever need, maps of the parks plus helpful tips
and tricks.
www.passporter.com I don’t know the people of passporter; I am not a
passporter salesperson. I just like to pass on information about products I
like.)
My passporter was completely full, a little heavy and contained absolutely
everything in regards to our trip. I couldn’t take the chance of losing my
passporter.
Lose the crew or the van, the trip continues on. Lose the passporter; everything
comes to a screeching halt. It was the key to the magic. It literally contained
the entire trip.
You could almost hear a dial tone coming out of the front desk guys open mouth
as he stood there staring at be with a blank expression. I now knew what I had
put the Alamo girl through.
It wasn’t a good look for anyone.
He was totally confused about putting anything in a safe and had to ask the girl
next to him about it, who in turn, needed to get the manager.
Is it a value resort because nobody who stays there has anything of value?
I finally got someone who knew about a safe box they could put my passporter in.
It had two keys needed to open it and I was instructed
several times not to lose my key or we
wouldn’t be able to open it. “Do NOT lose this
key!” was repeated many times.
They ended up losing the entire box.
I didn't know that until later.
Bea and Em eventually ended up standing next to me wearing the proper attire for
Florida heat, shorts and t-shirts while I received my lecture on the danger of
losing the key.
This day and our last day, unfortunately, would be the ONLY days we could wear
such an outfit.
Before I surrendered my passporter to the manager (to get lost) I took our AP
vouchers from one of the pockets. I have never had AP’s before; I was feeling
pretty special about them. I even felt the need to deepen my voice and say to
the manager “Oh, just a moment, I need our AP vouchers.
Thankyouverymuch.”
Just wanted to make sure he knew he was dealing with an AP holder. Making sure
he knew I had access to Disney World everyday for an entire year. That’s right,
me, the ‘pizza boy’ from Maine. Step aside please, AP holder in the room.
Can you imagine if I owned DVC? There really would be no living with me.
I was puffed up with pride over my AP vouchers for about a second and ½. The
manager asked if I knew where to turn the vouchers into actual AP’s.
It felt like a trick question.
So I opened my mouth and stared at him. I was getting really good at that.
He was a very nice man actually. His advice was to go to Downtown Disney to
exchange them. He said it would be much faster than doing it at the parks.
I didn't fool him, he knew an AP virgin when he saw one.
The girls and I went back outside to find the bellman and exchange information
as to the whereabouts of the van for 11 pieces of luggage.
“Careful with that one, it has a pillow in it.” Del, thinking he was funny, told
the bellman.
Love ya, mean it. Shut up.
After shedding many layers of clothes, we were ready to go to Downtown Disney
and become actual AP holders. I am a Disney dork, I was excited about this.
I think this was the only time we didn't lose the van. From where we parked and
walked straight we came across the Lego Lizard in the pond. Del thought if he
started doing crude things in the pictures, I wouldn’t be able to put them on
the Dis.
Which he is right, I couldn’t put many pictures there last year.
Welcome to the Lodge, honey.
Love ya, mean it.
(Insert picture of lizard here)
(Insert peeing in bush picture here)
Exchanging our AP vouchers for real AP’s was fast and easy. Using the AP’s
became a problem for Del. All you have to do is, at the admission gate; you
slide your AP in the slot and place your fingers in the machine.
Em could do it for crying out loud.
I don’t know why, but each time he put his fingers in the slot, it wouldn’t
recognize him. He would then try squeezing his fingers together really hard
making his face turn beet red. I guess he thought that only people with the
strongest fingers was allow admission to the parks.
We had a quick bite to eat while we were there and finally,
finally we were going to the Magic
Kingdom for a few hours before the Illuminations party in Epcot.
I still hadn’t realized just how little sleep I was running on.
Love Ya / Mean It and BadShoe.com Pins
Tony, Delaney, Connor -
Love Ya / Mean It
Robin & Del, Kimball & Bennet (aka Delswife & Scuba Steve, Zurgswife
& Zurg) are
proud to announce two unique limited edition trading pins to
benefit research to help find cures for Juvenile Diabetes and
Muscular Dystrophy.
We love going to Disney World and writing
funny trip reports, after all it is how we became friends.
We care just as much or more about helping these two great causes. All the
profits from pin sales will go to JDRF
and MDA because, well, Robin thought it would be a fun idea.
So if you enjoy the trip reports
please chip in and buy a pin or two. Pins are $10.00 each including shipping and
handling (North America.) Send an email to pins@badshoe.com
with how many pins you would like and we will get the pins rolling. The BadShoe.com pins have sold out. Existing orders are being filled but
we can't take anymore BadShoe.com pin orders, sorry. There still Love Ya /
Mean it Pins (there were more to start.)
If you feel inspired click
either MDA or JDRF's logo or both and make additional contributions.
