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Introduction
I've been to WDW 9 others times in the past. Several trips were pretty elaborate. A few were the "economy" versions. In order to go to WDW, I once I hitched a ride with a friend whom was visiting his sisters in Jacksonville, and once I traveled to WDW from Pittsburgh completely alone. But this trip was a 2-1/2 years in the planning, pull out all the stops, total WDW experience-extravaganza.
Why was this trip so special? Well there were several reasons. First, it was sort of a last ditch effort on my part to convert my non-WDW-loving hubby into a partner who could share in the magic and wonder I felt about this incredible place. You'll have to read the entire saga to find out if I succeeded ;-) Second, at the very first second I conceived the idea of cruising on the Disney Magic, I began a healthy lifestyle calculated to transform me from a 198 pound overweight Internet potato into a lean mean touring machine. I am proud to say that I came very close to achieving that goal. At 131 pounds, I'm still a few pounds from my ultimate goal of 120 pounds, but my health has vastly improved and my touring energy was through the roof on this trip. Have a look at my before and after photos
Besides the improvements in my weight and health, planning this trip was life enhancing in other respects. I began reading RADP and made some friends (Charlotte, Jane, DC Deb, you all know who you are). I joined the DisneyDieters and made even more friends. I started a few Disney mailing lists of my own, DisneyDeserted, DisneyDepressed and TheMouseForLess. I attended the 3rd Annual RADP Holiday Meet. Last but certainly not least, I spent some cherished time on this trip with some of my new Internet friends, Laurie and hubby Don, Carol, Barbara and Joe. In addition I will be meeting up with some other RADP and DDer friends when I attend the 4th Annual Holiday RADP Meet this December.
Finally, I'd like to mention that there were a few problems planning this trip from the very onset. Originally, my husband (Joe, age 51), my sister (Mary, age 39), Mary's boyfriend (Jimmie, age 44), my granddaughter and I (Binnie, age 49), were all booked on the Disney Magic cruise portion of the trip. My dear friends Johnny and Gail were to join us on the WDW portion of the trip, which we had extended from 3 days to 5 days. Our original cruise date was set for June 8, 1998. As many of you have probably already guessed, the cruise line canceled that cruise because the completion of the Disney Magic was behind schedule. How do you tell a 6-year-old that the trip to WDW for which she has been waiting for 1-1/2 years has been canceled? Obviously I couldn't. So we rescheduled our cruise for June 7, 1999, and Joe, Johnny, Gail, my granddaughter and I went to WDW for 5 days in June of 1998 as originally planned. The cruise the following year would now include only Joe, Jimmie, Mary and me. We also extended the WDW portion of our stay to 7 days, and planning for the trip-of-a-lifetime began anew.
Day 1: Monday, June 7, 1999 --
Disney Institute and Victoria & Albert's
At 4:15 AM we got out of bed and began getting ready for our "trip-of-a-lifetime." Joe and I would be spending 2 romantic days alone at WDW before my sister Mary Beth and her boyfriend Jimmie joined us on Wednesday, June 9. At 5:30 AM my sister-in-law Laura arrived to take us to the Pittsburgh
International Airport. We did curbside check-in, and then found a sit-down restaurant for breakfast. We were both too anxious to make decisions at this point so we ordered two of the restaurant's breakfast specials which, consisted of scrambled eggs, home fries, Canadian bacon and toast. The
total cost was $15 plus a tip, and it really wasn't very good. That didn't dampen my spirits any though. I think you could have served me cardboard and I wouldn't have minded too much. I was just soooo excited to be finally on my way. The cruise line managed to get us booked on a direct flight
to Florida, but unfortunately our seats weren't next to each other. Since this was to be only a two-hour flight, I thought I could handle it. We arrived at our departure gate at 7:00 AM., and the nice lady at the check-in podium switched our seats from 5D and 6D to 6A and 6B. Yes! We would be
sitting together after all. By 9:00 AM we were already half way to Orlando. I finished up my orange juice, and pulled out my journal to begin recording notes for my trip report. Joe asked me what I was doing, and when I explained I was keeping a record for a trip report I intended to write, he
inquired in a completely rhetorical but teasing manner, "does it say O.J. good, husband bad"? I had to laugh because I knew he was referring to the 3 or 4 times I had chastised him that morning for moving so slowly. I told him that now the entire Internet would know why my pet name for him was "Molasses." Next I pulled out the first of the 16 itinerary note cards I had so carefully prepared --the one containing our flight information-- and disposed of it. Joe just rolled his eyes, signifying his disbelief at being married to such a Disney fanatic.
We arrived at Orlando International Airport at 10:20 AM right on schedule and expected, as our cruise line literature had described, to be met "at our arrival gate" by a Disney Cruise Line representative. There was none in sight! I marched to the nearest phone and called the DCL "800" number to find out what to do next. I was told that the DCL representative would be "where all of the gates converged near the airport shuttle." That's *not* what was stated on page 62 of our Disney Magic Passport! Sure enough, she was there holding up her Disney Cruise Line sign. In a matter of 5 minutes a rather large crowd of cruise line guests had gathered around her, so she marched us down to where we would be boarding the buses to take us to WDW. As we proceeded through the airport strangers with beads in their hair called out, "you're going to have a great time," as we passed by.
We were the first ones dropped off at our resort, Port Orleans. Check-in was a snap thanks to a very helpful and competent CM named Casey. She made sure that we would have adjoining rooms with Jimmie and Mary Beth, even though they wouldn't be arriving until Wednesday. She even sold us our E-tickets for Friday night, and Jimmie and Mary's E-tickets too. Best of all, our room was ready for us at 11:30 AM. Joe and I had time to relax in our room, which had a lovely courtyard view, before heading over to our class at the Disney Institute.
As I previously mentioned, Joe is *not* a park person. In an effort to find more at WDW that would appeal to him, I decided that a class on wine pairing might be just the ticket to "ease" him into our 7-day park stay. We arrived at the Institute at 1:30 PM via a free taxi cab ride, and took a leisurely stroll over to Studio 9 where our culinary program "Wine, Wonders, and Song" was scheduled to take place. I'm not sure if after the course was completed we were any more proficient at wine selection, but we enjoyed 4 glasses of wonderful wine and a lovely meal prepared before us consisting of lemon & herb roasted Cornish hens, risotto with wild mushrooms and flat bread. The whole experience could only be described as a thoroughly entertaining afternoon. A little giddy from the wine, we held hands, and made our way back to our resort feeling as if we were off to a fabulous start.
We now had about 5 hours to kill before our 9:30 PM seating at Victoria and Albert's. Joe decided to nap while I took a stroll around the resort and wrote in my journal. After buying 2 of the refillable
mugs at the food court, I checked back at the room at 6:00 PM to discover that our luggage still had not arrived. Knowing that I had at least another hour before we would have to start getting ready for
our dinner reservations, I hadn't begun to panic--yet. At 6:30 PM I was beginning to get a little edgy so I called Bell Services to inquire about the luggage. They said that it still had not arrived
from the cruise line, but they would send it to our room immediately when it did. At 7 PM I decided that I would take a walk down to the cruise line desk to see if they could help me locate our luggage
before we missed our V&A seating. The nice lady at the desk walked back to Bell Services to check on our luggage personally. I could tell by the expression on her face as she came back through the door
that the news wasn't good. She said that the cruise line luggage had indeed arrived, but ours wasn't among them. Yikes! Now it was time to panic! The cruise line representative said that she would call
the airline immediately to see if they could find our luggage. US Airway said they didn't have our luggage. I asked her, "What now"? She said she didn't know since this had never happened while she was
on duty. Great! Since I had recently lost weight, I had an entire new wardrobe in those suitcases including 4 very beautiful new dresses that I painstakingly shopped for hours to find exactly the right one for each of the 4 occasions to which they would be worn. I asked if I could use her phone to call our room and inform Joe of the situation. Joe answered the phone, and then asked me to hold on for a moment since there was someone knocking at our room door. He then returned to the phone and declared in an unmistakable "you've got to get a grip" tone that our luggage had arrived. The cruise representative looked very relieved, albeit confused, as did I. I thanked her for her help, and then explained that I needed to hurry since we now had very little time to shower, dress and make it over to the Grand Floridian. She said that the cruise line would be happy to pay for a cab so that we would have more time to get ready.
 Joe and I arrived at the Grand Floridian with a half an hour to spare and enjoyed a drink while lounging in the main lobby. Two women
I didn't know were kind enough to compliment my dress, and I was beginning to feel as if Cinderella's Fairy Godmother had waved her magic wand over me. At 9:30 PM we were seated at our table, and for the next
3 hours Joe and I made our way through seven exceptional courses including wine pairings. Fittingly, the elegant room contained less than a dozen, spaciously positioned, white linen covered, candlelit tables.
In the middle of the room was a large marble pedal stool crowned with a huge arrangement of gorgeous fresh flowers. In addition to Joe and I, there were only 4 other couples dining that evening. The harpist was
divine and played quite a few of my favorite songs including selections from Phantom of the Opera. The conversation was engaging, and the laughter and wine both flowed. Joe and I agreed that the Chardonnay was the best glass of wine we had ever had, and the German Kona coffee maker placed on our table was the oddest thing that we had ever seen. I'm still not quite sure how it worked. Miraculously, we both managed to clean our plates of all seven courses including dessert, and were rewarded with a sinful truffle-like confection. After the meal our butler, Albert, presented me with a long stem rose, and Joe and I were given our personalized menus printed with our names and the date as a keepsake. Our maid, Victoria, graciously agreed to take our picture. The total bill for the most wonderfully romantic meal we had ever experienced was $367 including tax and a 20% tip.
I guess all the wine I had consumed this day made me a little tipsy because as I waited in front of the Grand Floridian for our cab, a giant beetle-looking bug came crawling towards me, and I simply swatted it away with the bloom of my long stem rose. Normally I'd have been standing on the bench screaming when accosted by a critter of that size.
While it would appear that our evening ended on a perfect note, later that night revealed a slightly different story. Joe and I were both more stuffed than we had ever been in our entire lives, and unfortunately after tossing and turning half the night, we gave in and got up and dug the Zantac out of our suitcase. The following morning found us both feeling still very full upon awakening.
.......to be continued......
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