Kristen's October 2012 F&W Trip ** **

Hello from Walt Disney World!

I've made it here in one piece, exhausted but in one piece. The flight was uneventful, just like you want a flight to be. So was my Magical Express ride. I've spent the past hour taking room pictures, unpacking, and I think I'm about to take a nap. I didn't really get much sleep last night from all of the excitement.

It's warm and humid with really strong winds, but the sun is trying to shine through the haze. Hoorah for Disney!

On my way to my room I stopped at Landscape of Flavors and grabbed a Chicken Caesar wrap and a krispie treat. Neither is really hitting the spot at the moment. I actually tossed most of the wrap in the garbage. But Ohana is for dinner tonight!

I touched base with my traveling companion around 11am, and he hadn't left the hotel in Jacksonville yet. Not to sure where he is right now.

I was not quite prepared for how tiny a value resort room is. We have a standard in the Little Mermaid Wing, I would not do more than two adults and one small child in here. It's kind of cramped for my taste. However everything is bright and new which is wonderful. Room Pics...

We're about as far away from the check in desk as one can possibly be, on the very end of the Mermaid Building next to Hourglass Lake. Doorway looking out towards Flippin' Fins Pool... I'm regretting not packing my swim suit.

Two Hidden Mickeys in the Shower... Do you see them?

Dinner was at 'Ohana Tonight and was absolutely amazing. For some reason I forgot to get pictures of the skewers of meat. The dessert that is three little squares is a spiced jasmine infused cheesecake that our server went to get me from the Kona Cafe' Pastry Chef. It was sugar free and so, so, unique and delicious.

Everything is going really well so far, great service, cute room, amazing food. I 'm home.

We came back to our room right after dinner, we're both pretty tired. First we stopped off to grab some in room snacks at Landscape of Flavors. There are lots of healthy snack options in the grab and go case, which made us happy after stuffing ourselves at dinner.

We're just going to kick back and watch some TV and relax before tackling the weekend!

Tomorrow is a Magic Kingdom day. I get to meet Dee & Jan! Whoo hoo!

Nikki, If I get down there tomorrow I will check it out. We are so far away from the main building we're almost in Pop Century! LOL!!

I am *so* exhausted, I don't really have the energy to write tonight. Here are just a couple of photos from today to tide you allover.

I love this shot from Adventureland. I just find this guy really really funny. My biggest problem today was trying to get people out of my shots. When I was young I was taught that it's rude to walk in front of someone taking a picture. Today was *CRAZY* I have more shots that I had to trash because some guy walked into my frame. Do people think they don't need manners at Disney?

I am obsessed with George Washington's Beer Mug. It's been at least 35 years since I had been in Hall of Presidents, and I'm so glad that we went in today. Who knew that they had an actual Beer Mug that belonged to the First President? We spent almost 3 hours in Liberty Square alone. I've taken over 600 pictures and it's just Day 2

WDWFG Meet-Up! Left to right, Dee Dee, Becks, Me & Jan. What great ladies, this was so much fun and I'm so happy that I had the chance to meet them. We'll have to set up more of these!

Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. We thought it was just okay, it wasn't bad, just nothing I couldn't make at home. We liked Ohana much much better. It made for a pretty picture though, didn't it?

Tomorrow we're heading to Epcot.

No, the pot roast is just for lunch now. We both thought that if we hadn't been on free dining that we would have been upset about paying the price for LTT dinner. However since it was free, it was ok and we couldn't really complain. Our server was really nice, plus it was air conditioned and we were sitting down. All big pluses at that point during the day. We were pretty exhausted at that point.

I found Becks and Dee Dee. Dee Dee knew what Jan looked like from meeting her earlier in the week. She had grabbed a table for all of us. Dee Dee's ears are a fantastic give away to who she is!! She and I had also texted each other our pictures in the morning so that we knew what we were wearing. It was so cool to get to meet up with them, absolutely one of the highlights of my trip. My traveling companion was having an issue with the heat and humidity at that point and didn't feel well, so I parked him in some air conditioning with bottles of water while I went to meet the girls.

Right after dinner we rode on the Haunted Mansion and once they again treated me poorly as a person with mobility issues. That's 3 times now, and I complained to the supervisor who was pretty upset with her staff. She said that since they changed the queue last year they get about a half dozen disabled people a day complaining. I tried to be very friendly, but I'm really tired of trying to ride the Haunted Mansion and there always being a problem. I just don't understand what's so difficult about getting it right there. On the bright side, I managed not to fall getting off this time! I was pretty proud of that. After that we meandered to the front of the park, because we had to be out at 7pm. Then we just headed back to Art of Animation. All of the boats were not running to the hotels because of the strong winds we were having from Hurricane Sandy.

I grabbed a cocktail at the pool bar before going back to the room. This is a Poolside Plunge. My favorite Tropical Mojitos have been taken off all of the Disney cocktail menus, so I'm trying lots of new drinks this trip. This one is Bacardi Razz, something else, and Lemonade, pretty tasty.

Kris, let me try and go change my flickr settings. I had some issues while uploading last night.

Okay, I reauthorized permissions for the photos, and put new tags into the code. Hopefully that will work and you can see the pictures. I need to run right now or I'll miss breakfast with the Princesses!

If anyone else is having trouble, please let me know and I'll try again to fix it as soon as I have a little time.

Here's a link to my full photostream

Have a great day!

PS> Just saw that the Ohana pictures are gone too. I'll try and fix those when I get back tonight. Can everyone see the rest of them?

I am crazy exhausted. I just added another 200+ pictures to my full photostream from Epcot today. There's another 100 still to go.

We started the morning with the Akershus Breakfast which was really good, lots of character interaction and we weren't rushed one bit. Just 1 table service credit for great food and you even get a souvenir picture that's covered in the cost of the meal. We hit some food booths, ran into Becks, who was stalking Lou Mongello most of the day. It was awesome to see him again. We did a little shopping, more eating, lots of drinking. We went back to the room early because I was not feeling great and we've been chilling out for the past two hours. But at the moment I'm ready for sleep.

I did want to make mention of how much I absolutely love our housekeeper. She's left me towel animals every day, made a little bow with the end of the toilet paper roll, left the bedspreads off of the beds for us (because they're bulking to be and difficult to sleep under) we've gotten extra tolietries without asking too. I've been crazy happy with the service she's given us. This is a really great hotel, and I would come back, though I would really need a room in the Nemo section. It's a Looooooooooooooong walk back to our room at night.

Epcot, UK, in the store on the right side of the street that leads into the pavilion, next to all of the "Keep Calm and Carry On" gear. It's pretty fantastic isn't it? So glad that you love the Christmas pics too!

We slept in this morning and ditched our Whispering Canyon reservation. I'm going to need an ECV today, three days of walking has taken it's toll. I'm really unbalanced this trip and keep toppling over. I swear to God that it's not the booze. But there has been a LOT of booze.

We're going to start off at the Magic Kingdom today, and head back to Epcot later. We have Rose & Crown Dinner reservations that are early enough I know that I can make it to them. Plus with the ECV I'll have more stamina to make it through. I think Becks, her family and I are headed to Hollywood Studios after dinner for Fantasmic!
Okay, I'm out the door!