Day 1: Saturday December 20, 2014
I think the alarm went off around 4:45. When it went off, I realized I might have been wrong about that swallowing issue the night before. It had only gotten worse. Being an SLP, I have some experience looking at tonsils. A quick check of those revealed some seriously swollen tonsils. CRAP.
There was no way I wasn’t going on this trip, and this isn’t the first time my tonsils have been a little bigger than they should be. I double checked the Advil supply (and dosed myself with some) and got ready. Mom and I were in the car by 5:15, and at the airport around 5:30.
I fully expected a long line. After all, it’s the Saturday before Christmas, and by my standards, a 7 am flight is like the middle of the day. Instead, the check-in line was a breeze, and this turned out to be the quickest check-in ever. Even the security line was brief. Sweet!
My first stop before finding my gate was one of the little kiosks to get a bottle of water. No way was I traveling without that with these tonsils! Then I found my gate and waited impatiently for boarding to begin. I may not be feeling the best, but I’m still on my way to Disney!
Boarding began around 6:30. I ended up in about the 2nd row, seated with a couple of ladies who had taken the aisle and middle seat. When I see a window seat open, and there are clean people sitting in the aisle or window seat, I always ask if it’s free. It was. They looked almost hesitant to offer it to me, but I’m used to that. My appearance is 28 going on 14. I made sure to use my best manners (where’s that eye roll smiley?), and as they sat back down after letting me into the window seat, I heard them commenting about how polite I was. Heather: 1. Old ladies: 0.
Once she realized I wasn’t the rude teen type, the lady in the middle seat started chatting with me. It was actually a pretty good conversation. We chatted until we reached 10,000 feet, when she pulled out a Kindle to read. I pulled out my iPad for music and my own Kindle app...and promptly fell asleep.
The flight was spent alternating between reading a few pages of my book and sleeping for a few minutes, until I woke myself up because I couldn’t breathe. Evidently the nose was stuffed up too. Hmm...perhaps despite the tonsils, this will turn into a regular cold.
The flight landed in Orlando a few minutes early. It was in the mid 60s and sunny. Woohoo! We taxied to the gate, and I joined the stampede off. We ALL were excited to see the sun. Did I mention that Thanksgiving had been messed with by a foot of snow and massive power outage? Sun and warmth right before Christmas? YES PLEASE!
Because of all my hotel and park hopping, I was renting a car, so I had to go collect my luggage. I made the trek to baggage claim, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, I had my suitcase. I then went down to level one, where I walked ALL the way to the end of the hallway to find Dollar. Because I had signed up for Dollar Express, I was able to follow the signs right outside to the garage. I found my name on the board, found the car I’d been assigned, and was on my way within minutes, in a little red Nissan Sentra.
The drive over to Art of Animation was fairly easy, and pretty soon I was at the check-in counter. The girl was friendly, and got on the phone to figure out my room assignment. Apparently they put a lot of stock in your room requests now, and I’d just done online check in the day before, so they hadn’t actually assigned me a room yet. Oops?
Within a few minutes, a room was assigned to me, but it wasn’t ready yet. However, the girl showed me what building I would be in and where to park, so I was able to leave my car near where the room would be. I walked back outside and realized quickly that the forecast was wrong. It was already quite warm. I should have packed shorts.
Once back at the car, I did the backpack shuffle, putting park necessities into my park backpack, and securing everything else in the trunk, BEFORE I moved my car to where it would actually be parked. I also re-dosed with the Advil. It was clear that would be an every 4 hour ritual for a bit. Then I drove over to the lot closer to my building in the Little Mermaid section. As I was driving to that parking lot, I got the text that my room was ready.
Since the room had become ready, I hauled my stuff up to the room. Then it was off to the main building for a refillable mug for all my hotel decoration hopping, and to catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom. I’d explored the exterior of Art of Animation on a previous trip (Feb 2014), so I didn’t need to do any picture taking. Been there, done that.
The bus to the Magic Kingdom came a few minutes after I arrived at the bus stop and we all piled on. The ride to the park was uneventful, and pretty soon, we had arrived. It was midday by now, so there was no real line at the posts that used to be called turnstiles, and pretty soon, I was in the park and taking pictures of the decorations. By the way, I miss the garland.
Since I hadn’t really eaten anything, I decided lunch should be the first order of business. I walked over to Columbia Harbor House. I got chicken fingers, and walked upstairs to find a table. This proved to be difficult, but eventually, a family signaled to me that they were leaving, and I grabbed their table before anyone else could. I felt a little guilty sitting solo at a table for 4, but there were no other tables available.
Once lunch was finished, I decided it was time for a ride on the People Mover. I put my feet up and relaxed, enjoying having flip flops on my feet. All too soon the ride was over, and I rejoined the masses down on ground level. I made my way to Adventureland, where I stopped at Aloha Isle for a pineapple float. Have I mentioned that it was hot and my throat hurt?
Next stop was Frontierland. I grew up watching the Christmas parade on TV, but have never gotten to see it in person, and it was highest on my must-do list. I had a Fastpass for the parade viewing area on Main Street, but I really prefer to watch parades in Frontierland. There’s a bit more shade, and a LOT less people. So I found a spot very early, and changed that fastpass before the window for using it opened. I passed the time enjoying my pineapple float and following the UNH football game on Twitter and facebook. They were playing Illinois State in the FCS semifinals, at UNH. That game didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped, but at that point in the day, they were doing well.
The parade started eventually, and, no surprise, my personal space bubble was seriously invaded by a whole lot of people who didn’t speak English that insisted on either standing on top of me (last I checked, I’m short, but I’m not invisible), or trying to stick their selfie sticks over the top of me. That being said, after so many years of watching the parade on TV, it was the highlight of my trip to finally see those wooden soldiers march.
Once the parade was done, I headed back into Adventureland. I was in serious need of water, between the tonsils and the heat. I hopped around between lines and kiosks, and finally managed to get a bottle of water. I was a little too close to passing out, but thankfully, recovered without that happening. Yeah, this should be a fun trip.
My next fastpass was at 4:10, so I rehydrated and got some more Advil into the system. Yes, I probably should not have been in the parks, but beyond that, I really was pretty asymptomatic. I did decide that I was not going to push myself overly hard, which I know shocks everyone familiar with my style of vacationing.
As soon as the clock hit 4:10, I hopped into line for the Jingle Jungle Cruise. The focus of this trip was really to see as much Christmas stuff as possible. Everything else would be here when I visited the grandparents an hour from here in February. And my annual pass would still be valid.
I was on a boat within 10 minutes of stepping in line. I quickly decided that the Christmas version is way better than the regular Jungle Cruise. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Once the cruise was over, I headed out of the park. It was time to see some resort decorations. First up: the monorail tour! A monorail came along quickly, and pretty soon I was checking out the decorations at the Contemporary.
The Contemporary was a short stop for me. The Polynesian was a longer stop. They had just unveiled the new lobby the day before.
Once done at the Grand Floridian, I hopped back on the monorail. Everything was working in my favor in terms of timing, so I hopped on a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge, to see the decorations there. As we were cruising across Seven Seas Lagoon, I looked back toward the Magic Kingdom just in time to see the castle icicle lights come on. What a cool vantage point!
About that time, the guy in front of me turned around and said he thought it would be cool if the whole boat sang Christmas carols. I laughed and said I was a little caroled out after the previous day at work. His family also seemed to be brushing off the idea, so he let it go for a few minutes. Then he convinced them to be singing when we pulled up to the dock. He then convinced me and the people behind me to do the same. Turns out he’s an elementary school music teacher.
So, we pulled up to the dock singing Jingle Bells. And I was glad we did. Sometimes it really is the little things. My first stop at the Wilderness Lodge was Roaring Fork, where I got a sandwich for dinner. The Advil was working for the time being, so might as well take advantage and get real food in me right?
After dinner, I did some picture taking around the lodge.
Then I hopped on a bus back to the Magic Kingdom. I had more fast passes to use!
When I got to the Magic Kingdom, I walked back to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, taking some pictures along the way.
I’d ridden for the first time during the day in August. I wanted to see if it was any better at night. My fastpass window had already opened, so I was able to get right in line. I walked straight through.
Seven Dwarfs IS much better at night, but it’s still not worthy of the long waits it posts. Ride it if you can get a fastpass. If not, just skip it. Now that I’ve ridden a couple times, I’m done with using a fastpass for it even.
From here I headed toward Haunted Mansion. I had to wait about 10 minutes for my fastpass window to open up. This is the fastpass I had swapped to while waiting for the parade.
Once I’d escaped the ghosts, I headed for Main Street. I’m not a fan of the regular Wishes fireworks, but I really wanted to see the holiday version. Somehow, I found a spot along a patch of fence in the Hub area. It wasn’t the best view, but I was mostly out of traffic, and had something to lean against. The day and the germs were catching up with me. Thankfully, I only had to wait about 15 minutes before the fireworks started. They were amazing and absolutely worth waiting for! SO much better than regular Wishes.
Once Wishes was done, I took a few pictures of the castle.
After that, I joined the masses trying to exit the park. The area around the hub was complete gridlock, but once I made it past there, I was able to easily exit through the stores. I made it to the bus stop and thankfully, a bus came along quickly, and I was able to get a seat on it. I actually fell asleep on the ride to the hotel, which is not like me at all. I was very glad I had decided to park the rental car, and use Disney transportation.
Once back at the hotel, I stopped off at the food court to fill my mug with Sprite, so that I would have a drink if I needed it in the night and took some pictures in the lobby.
Then I hiked over to my room, where I took the world’s fastest shower and crawled into bed. It was a long night of tossing and turning, complete with chills and having to redose with Advil in the middle of the night because of the tonsils. I definitely wondered how this vacation was going to turn out.
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