Late Trip Report - 02 of 12

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Who's Going:

Me, Bob, 54 yo. Lives in Phoenix, AZ and has been going to WDW
since the Big Four-Oh (1994).
DVC Member since 1997.
Staying at Old Key West Resort in a 1-bedroom from 17-28 Jan 2009.

*** Rather late submitting this, but here it is. Bob ***

Woke up at 0300, yes, that's no typo. My SuperShuttle pickup is betwixt 0410 and 0425. Took care of the morning chores, got the last minute items packed and said good-bye to my wife, Tina. Alas, she was dead asleep and stayed that way. I stepped outside at 0415 and SuperShuttle was just arriving. Perfect Timing. Got to the airport (PHX), checked throughSecurity and only waited about 30 minutes before boarding. Mostly full flight to Atlanta (ATL). Pulled away from the gate on time at 0600 and rollout at about 0615. Great start so far. I'll be taking a nap while listening to some soothing music along the way.

Time passes...

Landed at ATL on 7L at 1111 local time and at the gate A12 at 1120. Departure gate is A02 so I don't have to use the underground trains between terminals. There are 6 terminals here and they average about 0.4 miles long. Wow! Last year I flew through ATL, I had to walk from one end to almost the other end. This time the distance between the gates wasn't so bad. At one shop, I picked up an Atlanta shot glass for my collection of places I've visited. Also picked up a CinnaBun. I have a "Customer Service Minute" for the next meeting I attend at work. When I got my bun, they didn't include a fork nor a knife and did not mention where to find them. I didn't discover the missing utensils until I got to my gate. So a trek back to the store to find out they were off to one side next to a different snack shop. Had the bun and broke out my Discover Magazine and learned a bunch of interesting stuff or stuff to look up on the web later.

Hope they can get boarded in 30 minutes. This is a (Delta) 767-200, a widebody and has 48 rows, mostly of 7 seats across in a 2-3-2 configuration. The overhead bins on the sides look small but I was able to get my backpack in there without any problems. There are also bins for the center seats but they look about as big as the crisper drawer in a refrigerator. The monitors in the gate said this was a full flight. I'm in the next to LAST row but against a bulkhead (the center section goes back one more row) but I can still recline. The back of the seat does recline a bit but the sitting part of the seat slides forward a bit also to allow for some more reclining.

I was able to see the equipment they use to load the luggage container onto the plane. They have multiple "thingys" that spin in different directions to move the containers in or out as well as spin them around so they'll be in the correct configuration within the plane. I just saw someone close one of the crisper drawers center overhead bins and it actually rises up during the closing process. At the moment, there are 7 empty seats back here and one of the crew just counted them. If he has folks on standby, I hope he leaves the seat next to me empty. The center area just got filled in as well as my "spare" seat (nuts). Pushed out of the gate at 1351 (close enuf). Looks like some clouds are moving in. Nothing rain-like or stormy, just a layer of them. Taking off on 27R. Rollout at 1408. Garsh... There's a lot of green on the ground here at Atlanta. Just broke through the clouds and started our turn to the SSE and there was a thin layer of cloud about the main layer and seeing whip by at a stones throw distance was way cool. Now to nap again.

More time passes...

Touchdown at Orlando (MCO) at 1511 and at gate 75 at 1517. I wanted to find out the runway ID that we landed on and the stew suggested I ask the copilot in the cockpit. So I stuck my nose in there (cool!), admired how a 767 looks from the cockpit and he told me the takeoff and landing runways. Exiting the wing of the terminal, there is a large projected underwater scene complete with fishes and some Text (Orlando International Airport) and when you pass in front of it of if you stand there and act like you're poking the "water", the scene distorts like real water was being disturbed. Cool! (All this "Cool" is a harbinger of problems later today.)

Earlier during the first leg of the flight, I realized I had forgotten to put the Disney Magic Express tag on my checked in bag. So I'll have to get the bag and bring it with me to DME check-in. It seemed that the walk to DME check-in was further than I had remembered it previously. Well, after a couple minutes in line, Cynthia (Jamaica) got me checked in. She also told me if I forget to put the tag on the bag to just come to the check-in, give them the claim check and they can still get it and bring it to the room later. Upon stepping outside I discovered that they *had* moved check-in to the far side of the building.

On the bus, the video talked about the new "Toy Story Mania" which I had forgotten about. Have to hit that at least once this trip. Also, since I'm here for so long, I'll have to hit more of the shows, even the "kiddie" types of shows. Will also have to contact Ricardo (from Bogata Columbia) at the Yachtsmans Steak House to set up a rez when he is working. Oh yes... The video carefully did *NOT* mention the existance of Pleasure Island (Boo Hiss).

Suparkorn (Bankok Thailand) checked me at at Old Key West (OKW) resort where I also paid for the Disney Dining Plan). Then I spoke with Lu (Coventry R.I.) and got the 10 day Park Hopper added to the room card. Rodrigo (Columbia) brought me to my room. It's on the second floor of building 19 and he brought up both bags at the same time like he was carrying up a small bag. I was impressed. I'm a literal stones-toss, hardly even a throw, from the Millers Road bus stop. This is the first time I've spent at this bus stop area.

I'm still very disappointed OKW still charges for Internet access while other sites do not. I'm getting unpacked and set up and have noticed a lot of bus noise in the living room. I just glanced out the window from the table and could plainly see the bus stop!

It's now 1920 and I've decided to go to the Christmas Store at Down Town Disney (DTD) to get "'09" embroidered on my MM Propeller Hat. I've stripped off Mickey, the propeller and all the pins since they can't embroider anything with all that stuff on. Walked to the bus stop and I might add, It's Darned Cold at the bus stop. I may need my sweat jacket so I'll have something to cover my ears if this keeps up. I've also noticed that there is a lot of non-OKW traffic noise here. I'm realizing that building-19 is at the NW corner fo the property and close to 2 busy roads just on the other side of some bushes. Didn't take too long to get a DTD bus here. The bus is taking the backward route so it will be a few more minutes before we get there.

Got to "Days of Christmas" and Jason didn't give me any hassles about putting new embroidery on an old hat. You see, there have been a couple embroiderers who felt they shouldn't have to do that. Mind you, I'm still paying the $8 and change for each years addition. After the paperwork was filled out, I took it to Henrique (whose name I correctly pronounced (he made comment on that fact)) to pay for it. We started talking about DVC and I talked about the plusses and minuses and he sounded interested enough about it, I gave him one of my referral cards. Perhaps he'll use it if he buys in. Who Knows?

I walked around a bit to kill time before the hat is done. Boy, it's so crowded here you'd think it was a Saturday Night. Wait a minute... It *IS* a Saturday Night. Looked around for a place to grab some good calories but the lines were too long. Stopped off at the Pin store and didn't find anything new with Professor Ludwig von Drake so I stepped out to the Pin Traders. One of them had a slew of the small monorail pins. He said he had all the color monorails and could cut me a deal. Told him I could afford a couple so we went in to select a pin to trade (a $13 snow globe pin), I paid for it and got the pins from him. This makes 4 colors (black, gold, purple and red) that I have now. Went to Goofys Candy shop and picked up a bag of MM pretzels and 2 Earl Gray tea bags for a couple mornings at the room. After about an hour, the hat was done, waited for a bus for a bit and got back to the Hospitality House for a sandwich and perhaps a movie.

None of the available movies interested me so I got a cheeseburger and frys but had to wait over a half hour in very cold weather for an Internal Shuttle to get back to the room. Heated, Eated and got ready for bed.


Bºoºb Bass
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