Gabrielson - August 2006

Cast of characters: Marjorie (43), Gary (50) and Brynna (18)

August 11, 2006

Wow, long day yet again. We were up fairly early and off to McD's to pickup breakfast and then pickup Brynna at Vista at 8:30. Traffic sucked on the way to the Magic Kingdom but we finally got there, got a tram, got a monorail and after a quick bag search, were in the park. Met up at City Hall with our tour coordinator for our "Keys to the Kingdom" tour where we were given nametags, backstage pass lanyards, bottled water and a headset to listen to our guide, Sean. It definitely came in handy when we were in a throng of people and trying to hear him.

Our tour took almost 5 hours. We started out on Main Street and were offered many tidbits of information and secrets. We got on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Haunted Mansion, all with narration by our guide which was cool. We went backstage at Splash and saw the giant water reservoir. Saw the parade floats all ready to go out later in the day, for both parades. Had a nice relaxing lunch at Columbia Harbor House, it was included in our tour. We finally got down to the utilidors, and although it was very cool, they are very messy! Well, not exactly messy but it's definitely where the work goes on, as opposed to the "show" that happens up above. All in all I'm glad we took the tour, it was a lot of fun. We were even given a special "key" pin to commemorate our tour.

After we poked around the shops on Main Street a bit as Gary wanted to purchase "Edna" from the Incredibles so we did that. Then we finally got back to the car and popped back to the resort so Brynna could shower and Gary could have a swim. Then Brynna and I went to Walmart to load her up with groceries for the next few weeks. Got back to Vista, unloaded them, then went to pickup Gary. We went to Downtown Disney and saw Zoom at the AMC, followed by a quick dinner at the House of Blues. They make a mean blackened chicken burger.

Now we're back at our room and pretty much everything is packed up and ready to go. Tomorrow will be a flurry of heading to Cast Connections one last time. Then we'll go have lunch, take her to work, then head to the airport. Hopefully security won't be too much of a challenge...

August 12

Oh my, yesterday was a long day.

Up by 9 and packed everything up. Then headed over to the food court for some breakfast and it was pretty good too.

We then headed over to Property Control/Cast Connection again, and spent more money. This time Brynna was buying some things for her friends and I was on the hunt for a certain niece's birthday gift.

After being here for at least an hour we went back to Brynna's apartment. Then we went over to Bennigans for lunch, they have awesome burgers in pitas.

Then we drove Brynna to the studios and had to say goodbye. Of course, I started crying again but dried up fairly quickly after getting back on the road. Gary wanted to be at the airport as soon as possible in order to deal with all the security and lines. Well, there wasn't much of either thankfully. People were fully prepared by now not to travel with any liquids.

We spent a few hours reading before we got on our quick flight to Atlanta, and then read more while on it. We only had a 1.5 hour layover in Atlanta so we grabbed some food and drink and waited for our boarding call.

Landed, and waited forever for our luggage but finally got to pick up our vehicle and to our hotel, just after 1:30 am, pacific time, but I was still on Orlando time so it was after 4:30, I was exhausted! Went off to bed immediately and could only sleep about 6 hours. We're now heading out in a bit for breakfast, a bit of grocery shopping and then to find a ferry home. Oh my, the laundry!

Hope you enjoyed my trip report. Will try to do another for our trip in December!

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