December 2014: A Holday Park Extravaganza: Day 1

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 I was done taking pictures at the Polynesian, it was off to the Red Roof...err...the Grand Floridian. 

 

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.

December 2014: A Holiday Park Extravaganza: a Pretrip

This trip has been on the to-do list for years. I wanted to see how the various central Florida theme parks did Christmas. But, between school schedules and family schedules, nothing quite jived. I did get to spend a crazy day bouncing around Disney checking out decorations a few years ago, on a trip to visit my grandparents at Christmas time. I ALMOST got to see some of the other parks last year, but that trip got canceled (which led to my weekend getaway in April 2014 to WDW, because I had an airfare credit that needed using).

So, this year, my school district was kind enough to give us two full weeks off for Christmas break, because of the timing of the holidays. But my family (including mom who works in a different school district), didn’t have free time until RIGHT before Christmas. Since there would be no family obligations, and I had the time, and I had looked at the calendar and (rightly) figured that it would be a long time before I had another opportunity like this, I went ahead and booked a trip to Florida for December 20-24. As soon as the trip was booked, I set about trying to figure out how to cram as many holiday festivities into one trip as possible. It would be a solo trip, so I could do exactly what I wanted.

The trip was booked in May, the day that Southwest tickets went on sale for Christmas, so I had months to plan. I also moved out of my mom’s house and in with my boyfriend during that time. Admittedly, given the new, greater expenses of not living at home, I started to question my decision to go on this trip, but, the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that this trip needed to be taken. I was especially convinced when my Magic Band arrived during our 5 day power outage that we endured over Thanksgiving weekend thanks to snow. Yeah, a trip to Florida was exactly what I needed.

The plans got made, and revised as time went on. I think the only thing that really remained consistent was the hotels I was staying at. I was going to be hopping around a lot, to maximize hotel benefits, and also to keep some rewards accounts active. The plan was for me to stay at Art of Animation at Disney 12/20. Then I would move to the Hilton Garden Inn at Sea World from 12/21-12/23. My last night would be at the Drury Inn and Suites, which is kind of near Universal. That one was to keep my rewards account active.

Eventually, the week before Christmas arrived, and I hurried to finish my holiday preparations. The cookies got made, the presents got wrapped, and the suitcase was packed. Believe it or not, my suitcase was packed TWO nights before departure. Since the forecast was for highs of 75 at the warmest (with some days in the upper 60s), I only packed capris and t-shirts. I didn’t think I’d need shorts on this trip.

Friday 12/19 was a crazy day at work, as we went through our holiday routine of craft stations and caroling at the elementary school. It really makes for a nice day, but it also makes for a tiring day. After work, I went home, had dinner with Nick, and then he drove me to my mom’s house. Nick and I live about 40 minutes from Manchester airport. Mom lives 10-15 minutes from the airport. With a very early morning flight, it was a no-brainer for me to stay with her. Since I’d be flying in midday on Christmas Eve, Nick would be able to pick me up at the airport, so there was no reason for me to leave my car at mom’s.

Once at mom’s we chatted for quite awhile before Nick headed home. While chatting, I couldn’t help but notice that swallowing was getting more difficult. I convinced myself that it was just from too much talking and singing with the kiddos at work, and went to bed, excited for my trip.

A Made in America Roadtrip: The End

Days 4 and 5: Saturday 6/27/15 and Sunday 6/28/15

Time to start heading north. I actually slept until almost 7. I was pretty proud of myself. Everyone was moving pretty slow this morning, but we were up and out and in the car by 9. We considered stopping somewhere for breakfast, but there was nothing really on our way, so we ended up just munching on leftover half-eaten whoopie pies, and some granola bars and trail mix. It’s vacation!

It was raining, but traffic was minimal, so before we knew it, we were in Easton, PA. We easily found the Crayola Experience, and a few minutes later found a parking garage across the street. We walked over to Crayola, taking pictures along the way.

Once in Crayola, we found chaos. I know it was a Saturday, and it was raining, but it was kind of like the entire world had descended on Crayola. And with tile floor and a hard surface ceiling, there was nothing dampening the sound at all. Lines were long, so we passed our time in line waiting or tickets by, what else?, taking pictures.

The line moved faster than we expected and eventually we were buying our tickets. Important note, if you are a AAA member, you save $3 off an adult ticket with your AAA card. Every little bit helps.

Once we had our tickets, we had to get in a second line to go through bag check and actually enter. Because there were so many people, we had to walk through the store and back out into the entrance to join the line. It was pretty nuts.

After we’d gone through security, we decided to start at the top floor, to see if we could actually accomplish a couple of activities. Crayola is now 4 floors. The first floor is ticketing, a store, and a cafe. The 2nd-4th floors have LOTS of different activity things. (And FYI, a Crayola Experience just opened in Orlando. From the looks of it, they’ve put everything from the PA location into the Orlando location, in 2 floors. I’m hoping they’re very large floors.) The idea, as best as I could tell, was to show us a ton of different things that can be done with crayons.

So we hiked to the 4th floor. And we encountered a line, but it was short. And most of the noise seemed to be coming from the 2 story playground that started on the 3rd floor, so it was little more bearable.

Our first activity was drip art. While we waited in the short line, we were given 2 crayons. We had our choice of 2 colors. When it was our turn, we went to these machines that have a drawer underneath, and a shifter next to them. You stick a piece of round paper in the drawer, and then put one crayon in the machine. The paper starts spinning instantly and you use the shifter to change the speed of the spinning. You then repeat this process with the second crayon on the same paper (so pick colors that look good together!). The finished product was pretty cool.

From here, we moved on to Melt and Mold. Again, we waited in just a brief line. Here we were directed to choose one crayon color, and then we were directed to choose between 3 different shapes (dinosaur, ring, Crayola dude), to have our crayon melted and molded into. Kim and I both chose the Crayola dude. I’m not entirely sure what Kathy and Hannah chose. This was a 4 minute process, and all we actually had to do was load the crayon in the melter and close the door. The result was kind of cool.

After our new crayon figures had been created, it was on to Meltdown. This is an area where you paint with crayon wax. It’s harder than it looks, because the wax hardens very quickly. We had fun with it. 

Done with the 4th floor activities, we wove through the now LONG lines, and made our way down to the 3rd floor via a semi hidden staircase. This place needed a different name. Instead of being called the Crayola Experience, it should have been the Crayola Zoo. Seriously...don’t go on a rainy Saturday.

The third floor contained the playground, which was pure chaos. It also had more activities. We bypassed the watercolor painting, although we did stop to check out the really cool dryers they had (that looked a lot like those ovens they put the sandwiches through at Earl of Sandwich), to dry kids’ painting creations. Good thinking! We did make a stop at “Puzzle it”, where we made our own puzzles by drawing within a box and then putting the paper through a die-cut machine. That was kind of nifty. Then it was on to Doodle in the Dark, where they have a little dance video game thing where kids can move within a box and cause a virtual crayon to move. Hannah enjoyed that. They also had backlit doodle boards on the wall, which reminded me a lot of one I had as a kid that I can’t remember the name of. But it was a black board that you doodled on with fluorescent colored markers, and it was backlit. We all doodled a bit.

The last section of the third floor was Water Works, which we bypassed. I think it was essentially a giant water table that you float a boat down. The line was miles long, and Kim and I both work with special ed kids. We can play with sensory tables (water, rice, etc) whenever we want…

We got to the second floor just in time to go into the little “theater” for Crayon Factory, a show about how crayons are made. It incorporates video from the factory, some virtual crayons that the kids all loved (We definitely live in a digital world!), and a Crayola employee showing the process step by step. The entire show was roughly 15 minutes. It’s certainly nothing like a factory tour would be, but it was neat to see, and I learned something. At the end of the show, everyone got a free crayon. Yes...singular.

We exited into more chaos...err...Wrap it Up. This station requires one of the tokens that they give you when you buy your ticket. They give two tokens per person. They have multiple color crayon dispensers and you get to customize your own label. Then the machine spits out your label and your crayon, and you wrap the label on the crayon.

Once we’d all obtained our custom crayons, we moved on down the hall to Modeling Madness, where you obtain a packet of Model Magic from a vending machine with your remaining token, and then you can play with it. We all obtained our packets, and continued moving. I figure I can bring it in to work for my kids to play with…

By this point Kim and I were basically done. It was just TOO crowded. Most of the rest of the stations involved coloring or digitizing coloring pages. She and I wandered while Hannah and Kathy did a bit more, and we eventually ended up down in the store, stopping for pictures along the way.

 

It was amazing how peaceful the store was compared to the rest of the building, even though it opens into the entrance area. The store is filled with Crayola stuff plus souvenirs. I bought a few things to use at school that I hadn’t seen before.

Once we’d all finished shopping, we headed out. We discovered a line at the entrance, outside the building, and an employee standing there with a walkie talkie doing crowd control. Seems that Crayola had reached its official capacity, and they were holding everyone outside until some people left. I was not very surprised to see that.

Overall, Crayola was pretty cool, even as a group of adults. There was plenty to do. It’s not a place I’d have to go back to multiple times without kids, but going once was fun. That being said, do NOT go on a rainy Saturday!

We found the car and drove out of Easton, watching for places to eat along the way. Shortly after getting on I-78, we found a sign for Panera, so we stopped there for lunch. It wasn’t the most competent Panera staff that I’ve encountered, but 3 of the 4 of us were content with our lunch.

After lunch, we finished the drive to Connecticut. It rained, basically the whole way. We all came to love the Google Maps app on my phone. We used it for our GPS for the trip, and we were so happy with how it redirected us as the rain created more and more accidents. Once we reached Connecticut, we had to take a different route than we had intended, but it saved us over an hour according to Google Maps.

We dropped Hannah and Kathy off and visited with them for a few more minutes before heading back to Nick’s grandparents’ house. Kim and I were both completely exhausted, so there was no way we were finishing the drive to NH. We visited for a bit with them, and Nick’s grandfather made us all grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, which was perfect for a rainy night. After some more chatting, we crashed hard. I know I had no trouble sleeping that night.

The next morning was fairly lazy. Nick’s grandfather made pancakes for breakfast and we all just visited for quite awhile. Kim and I finally got on the road about 11:30. It was a surprisingly easy trip back to NH. The rain had passed through more quickly than originally forecast, so the worst we encountered was a bit of drizzle, which was significantly better than the weather we had driven through the day before. Traffic was also surprisingly not bad for a Sunday. Including stops for gas for the car, we made it home in just over 3 hours. 

All in all it was a great trip, and I'm very glad I went. Everything other than Chocolate World was a new experience for me, and it was all a lot of fun, and very interesting. Of course, now the road trip bug has actually worsened, so I'm trying to find more excuses for road trips!