Johnson - December 2005

Day One & Two Thursday, December 22 & 23, 2005

As usual, Chris and I had planned to spend our Christmas holidays at Disney. Despite the crowds, we've found that it's much less stressful to go there, and just soak in the atmosphere than it would be to head back north and do the family thing. Plus, with it being half the driving time as a trip back north, we can go for just a night or two. This year we'd planned a longer than normal trip to start out with, and then closer to the end added a night at both ends.

Chris was scheduled to work from 7-3 on Thursday, and then he'd be free for the holidays, so we opted to head down that night, rather than getting up early the next day and driving down. Our official trip reservations didn't start until the 23rd, so I did what we normally do, and checked with our new favorite first night place, a Comfort Inn off-site. For $50, tax included, we had a King bed room for the night.

Chris got home from work and instead of packing and heading out- he was exhausted. The previous night he'd worked 3-11 pm, then gone back in for 7 am, so we took a little nap, and then packed up and headed out about 3 hours behind schedule. In any event, the trip was fairly quiet, and soon we were on our way to Christmas in the World!

We got to the Comfort Inn around 1 am, and after checking in and unpacking the essentials (which are quite a lot!) Chris headed back out to hit Taco Bell. It turns out he just made it in time, and he was soon back with a quesadilla and some tacos. After eating, I did a little bit of work, and we watched tv while settling in for the night.

I woke up somewhere in the wee hours- with a pounding migraine. Now, as some of you will remember, about a year ago, I'd gone on a trip without my migraine meds, and while most people would have taken that as a lesson learned the hard way, I'm a bit more stubborn. Of course, I'd forgotten to pack the needed meds. I tried for a few hours to settle in and fall back to sleep, but it just wasn't happening. Eventually, I poked Chris in the side long enough that he woke up, and I shipped him off to Walgreen's with a list of things I needed. Sudafed, Excedrin Migraine, Afrin, and oh yeah, honey? I forgot my lip balm.

He returned in a short while with a bag of meds, and another of breakfast food- so after dosing myself with every possible medication, I ate my egg McMuffin, and settled in. Luckily we'd gotten a late checkout, and by the time we had to get up, the pain had more or less subsided, and we were on our way with the crisis resovled.

We loaded the car back up, and then set out for the Dolphin. I love the Dolphin- I love it more than I love the Swan, which is quite a bit. It's one of my favorite places to stay on property, and really one of my overall favorite hotels ever. They're ugly- I don't dispute that, but I love the beds, and I really love the service we've gotten there, they just feel like home to me. So, I was excited to pull up outside, and I ran ahead of Chris to get us checked in, while he dealt with the luggage and the car.

There was virtually no line, so I was soon checked into a room on the 7th floor. It wasn't quite the view I'd hoped for, but, no biggie, I'd only reserved a standard view anyway. I did put Chris's credit card down on the room, so he had to come back and show his license. I met him in the entryway, and after flashing his id at the front desk, we saw our luggage on a cart at the bell stand. Chris ran over to tell them our room number, and in the end, we headed upstairs with the bellman and all our stuff.

We got to the 7th floor- found the room, and I put the key in the door. And . . . nothing. I try it again, and . . . nothing. Hmm- this isn't good. So, I whip out the other key, put it into the door, and . . . still nothing. The bellman says- That's weird, it's a yellow light. He pulls out his master key, puts it in the door, and . . . nothing. So, he pulls out his cell phone and calls the front desk to see if the room has been assigned, and they say yes, to the Johnsons, about 10 minutes ago. He explains that he's standing there with us, and we can't get in. After hanging up, he tells us that a yellow light, which is what we kept getting, means that the door is locked from the inside, with the deadbolt. So, he takes his master key, and goes down to the room next door, and lets himself in. We can hear him inside, talking away (we figured on his cell phone), and when he re-emerged, he announces that someone must have left the connecting doors open, because whoever was in the room next to ours had decided they had a suite, and expanded into our room. But, not to worry- he had a new room number for us!

So, we get back on the elevator, and go up to the 14th Floor- where the elevator cheerfully announces it's the Club Level! Off the elevator, we make our way to the room, and magically, the door opens with the master key. The bellman explained that he wasn't able to get us Club Lounge privileges, but they did upgrade the view. I pull open the curtains, and he helpfully adds that it might be a better one if they'd wash the windows. No matter, we were overlooking the big fountain on the back side of the Dolphin (it has quite a lot of algae in it!). Happily, I began to unpack while Chris headed down to get our new room keys. At the desk, he asks how much it would be to upgrade to get the Lounge privileges, and they told him $75 per night. It wasn't that important, so he declined, and the CM headed to the back to see if she could do a free upgrade. Because the room itself was an upgrade, she wasn't able to, but she did give us 2500 Starwood points, which, in the end, is even better.

Chris returned, and I was settled at the desk, doing a bit of work. I think I spent about an hour there, before we packed things up to head to the park. We checked out the gift shop before making our way out to the boat dock, where we took a boat to the International Gateway. We had to buy new APs and then, we were on our way into the park! Our first stop was the gift shop, to borrow a pair of scissors. Remember how I said I'm not one to learn a lesson quite so easily? Well, I'd gotten new shoes, the most adorable sneakers in the world, the day before the trip. So, what's a girl to do? I put them on, and by the time we hit the lobby, I had blisters on both heels. Still- they were cute, and, being me, I really didn't have other shoes to wear, so I slapped on some moleskin and kept going.

After bandaging my wounds, we ventured out, down through the World Showcase and into Futureworld. We really did wander quite a bit before ending up at the Gallery, where I decided not to buy a new cross stitch just yet. Then we hit the pin shop, where we found a new set of Stitch pins that were too cute not to have. From there, we wandered back into the World Showcase, taking the long way around, past Mexico, and back to the International Gateway.

My head had still been hurting a little, and I was growing increasingly nauseous, so I wanted to lay down before dinner. We got back to the room, and I flipped through the channels, before curling up on my side and falling asleep. Chris woke me in time to get ready for dinner, and still queasy, we set off for Downtown Disney. We parked at the West Side, and wandered in to find Wolfgang Puck's.

We were meeting the Forresters as well as Joanie and Bob for dinner that night in the Dining Room, the upstairs portion of Wolfgang Puck's. It was a new restaurant for us, and after going to Emeril's at CityWalk, we were anxious to try WP. After everyone arrived, and we had the rounds of hugs and hellos, we headed in to check in. For the Dining Room, you check in at the podium at the bottom of the stairs. The hostess made a phone call to let them know we were on our way up, and after climbing the stairs, we were greeted, and ushered to a table in the bar area, while we waited for our table to be ready.

We all decided to hold off on drinks until we were seated, so we spent the time talking and catching up, and after about 5 minutes, we were all seated. Our servers came out and introduced themselves, and we quickly settled in and ordered. I have to admit, I don't remember a whole lot about the meal- I know what I ordered, and that the service was kind of snotty. I really wanted to like this one, but, all things considered, it's not someplace I'll be in a hurry to get back to.

I ended up skipping an appetizer, for the entrée I got the Char-Broiled Filet Mignon- roasted squash, sautéed spinach, and grilled Portobello with port wine veal sauce. It was good- not the best, but not bad either. I'd perked up a bit by dessert time, so I opted for the "For Chocolate Lovers" it consisted of triple chocolate mousse tower, chewy fudge brownie, chocolate gelato and chocolate phantom cookie. All were good, though I'm still not entirely sure why I opted for it, since I don't really care for chocolate.

After the meal, we headed outside and decided that it was time to call it a night. The Forresters headed off in one direction, and we took Joanie and Bob with us, dropping them off at the Polynesian before heading back to the Dolphin. After Chris and I got settled in, I got to work, and a few hours later, we were both up and still hungry, so Chris ran down to Tubby's and got us cheeseburgers. They're huge! I picked at half of it, and then settled in for some sleep.

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