Checkin and Day One of our WDW Vacation

LJ and Sonny set the alarm for 6:30, but we actually didn’t drag ourselves out of bed until 7:00. With the difference in time our bodies felt like it was 6. Once the reality of being just hours from Disney kicked in, we all started moving a bit faster.

I normally am ready pretty quickly in the mornings, but I admit that I gave in to peer pressure and put on a bit of makeup. I was glad I did once I started looking at pictures from that day.

You may remember that we pre-ordered our Photopass CD for a 20% savings. This turned Sonny & Brianne in to Photopass photographer stalkers. LJ and I would be in the middle of watching something and we would hear, “Photo Pass Photographer!” and be yanked along. I can’t complain too much. We managed to have 351 pictures on our CD when I ordered it at home. I can’t wait to share the ones from the Grand Floridian photo shoot. Stay tuned.

Uhhh…were was I? The Jameson Inn offered a nice continental breakfast with oatmeal, waffles, pastries, juice, coffee, and tea. The coffee left something to be desired, but overall the breakfast was nice. After everybody ate their fill, we checked out of the hotel and loaded up the truck.

When we stopped for gas at a service station across the street and I ran in to get what I hoped would be decent coffee. I pulled a cup from the stack and start pouring. I noticed as I was half-way done that the cup looked used. There were dried bits of something on the outside and inner rim of the cup. I should have stopped then, but I am a glutton for punishment and continued. I poured the coffee out, threw the cup away and tried again.

The coffee smelled delicious and I am almost to the finish line when I see something blackish-brown fall into the cup. I tried to keep the freak-out to a minimum, but since the clerk and I were talking at the time she saw my face. First thought that crossed my mind was… well…that. Don’t make me say it. Surely you were having the same thought. I suddenly lost my appetite for coffee and start looking for a place to dump the liquid. The cashier was curious about what fell in and tells me to pour it in the tray. She watches as I pour and………..(highlight to find out) it was a coffee bean!

What made Sonny upset is that I paid for the coffee, got in the truck, and then refused to drink the coffee. I noticed that he didn’t offer to drink it either.

Hopefully, this was not a preview of things to come.

Our first glimpse of the famous signs. Excuse the garbage on the windshield.

We arrived at the All-Star Movies for check-in around noon to a fairly short line. Already Brianne has her camera out taking pictures of the lobby. Watching her get excited over the murals, hidden Mickey’s, trivia questions that line the queue, and other neat things made me realize how much I have taken the details for granted. We could have taken pictures for a while, but soon it was our turn to check-in.

Betty was the cast member that waited on us and Sonny noticed that the CM next to her was also named Betty. Before long he had both ladies laughing and telling us stories about the mix-ups that are inevitable with two Betty’s working side-by-side. My husband has a way of making friends with people and these two cast members were no exception. You will see his magic at work several times on this trip.

When Betty pulled our reservation up on the computer she noted that our rooms were spread out, so she decided that she would get us rooms that connected. That sounded like a really nice idea and soon the changes were made, our rooms were ready, and we were on our way. We were assigned 101 Dalmatians, building 4, third floor, rooms 4942 & 4943.

The rooms didn’t look that far away, so Brianne and I decided to walk the short distance to our rooms while the guys parked the truck and started bringing the luggage. The All-Star Movies resort is beautiful and we had a blast taking pictures on the way to our rooms.

The first thing that we had to do was take pictures of the rooms before they got cluttered with our stuff. I won’t bore you with the pictures you have seen a million times, but I will show you what was waiting in both rooms.

Before and After some artful re-arranging by guess who?

Soon the guys arrived with our bags and we decided to take a few minutes to get organized before we left for Downtown Disney.

Everything was going great. I had just changed clothes when I hear someone fiddling with the door handle. The door opens and in walks the couple who had been standing in the check-in line behind us.

I don’t know who was more surprised! Thank goodness I had already gotten my clothes right. Sonny being the nice guy that he is offers to let them come in and we would get the whole thing straightened out. I don’t think that we look like a mass-murdering type of couple, but the other couple opted to return to the front desk instead.

When Sonny called the front desk and spoke with a CM he assured us that he could fix the problem quickly and painlessly. He would just cancel out the other couples KTW cards and we would be all set. Well that didn’t work like he had hoped. Our keys got canceled too. We were invited to come to the desk for replacement keys that were sure to work. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to have Brianne leave the connecting doors open. Upon arrival at our rooms the keys still didn’t work.

This time they sent a nice lady to our door on a Segway to correct the problem by re-keying the door. Again no dice!

Our fuel tanks were running low, so we would just have to deal with this situation after we had eaten. Our original plans had been to go to Downtown Disney and eat at Earl of Sandwich, but by this point everyone just wanted to eat now!