April 16th, 1999 was my thirtieth birthday. I'm not usually one to make a big deal out of birthdays, even one so monumental as my thirtieth, but this one would be rather special in that it was the first day of my very first solo trip to Walt Disney World.
My ride to the airport (my father) dropped me off in front of the US Airways portion of the BWI terminal, and I made way groggy way back into the pier. I found my gate and waited until the gate counter opened, checked in, and again waited until I was called to board. The flight was uneventful and smooth; I landed in Orlando International Airport (MCO) at about 9:50 am. The first thing I did was head out to the rental car shuttle bus area; the Alamo bus pulled up after about ten minutes, and I got on along with a few other travellers. I hadn't realized when I booked the rental from Alamo just how far away from the airport thier facility was; the bus travelled a good ten minutes on the highway before we actually pulled up at the rental facility. Once there, I again had to go through the ritual of pulling my luggage out from the bus' rack, and eventually made my way to the rental counter, where I plunked down my reservation paper and went through all the normal paperwork associated with renting a car.
The car I wound up with was a brand-new 1999 Chevy Cavelier; it was so brand-new, in fact, that it had just 2 miles on the odometer when I drove it off the lot! But now I was moving under my own power. Using the excellent Rand-Mcnally Map Guide folding map I had bought, I had charted my course to Walt Disney World from the airport, and with only a few glances at it to refresh my memory, I arrived at my last landmark, the Crossroads shopping plaza, in about 25 minutes. My hotel was the Days Inn Lake Buena Vista, which Mapquest.com had told me was on the same street as the Crossroads, but about a mile or two farther north. But I couldn't find the place! I drove up and down a two-mile stretch of Apopka-Vineland Road twice before I decided to stop at the Crossroads to quiet the growling in my stomach. I got some breakfast in McDonalds, and then went over to the Disney store to browse a bit. I figured this would be a nice way of easing into the Disney experience. I bought a coupple of postcards, one for my nephew Greg, and one for my friend Frank, and then called home to let my Mom know that my plane had arrived safely. Despite the fact that today was my 30th birthday, my mother still worried about me whenever I was out of her sight, and being 900 miles away in the most Magical place on Earth certainly qualified!
Now it was time for a little of the pure stuff; Disney Magic from the source, at Downtown Disney. I still think of this place as The Village, because of it's former name, the Disney Village Marketplace. I spent several hours wandering around the various shops, buying very little (it was only the first day), and then decided to try DisneyQuest for the first time.
DisneyQuest is a wonderful 5-floor entertainment center, filled with arcade games, virtual-reality simultors, and simulator rides. When it first opened, it had worked on a ticket system, similar to the token system employed by many arcades around the country, but it had since switched to a flat rate, $25 per day, all-you-can-play. I forked over my money and played the various games for about 3 hours, non-stop, until fatigue got the better of me. Having been up and on the move since 4am, I needed a break. On the way out of DQ, however, I paused to look through the gift shop, buying a DisneyQuest 1oz silver coin for my collection.
I figured to take it easy for the rest of the day and begin my time in the parks tomorrow, so I decided to go to dinner at a non-Disney venue. During my journeys up and down Apopka-Vineland Road, I had spotted a Sizzler restaurant not far from the Days Inn. Sizzler no longer exists in Maryland, so it had been a couple of years since I had eaten in one. I used to go there with my parents almost every week until they all dried up and blew away, so I was in the mood to try it again. The food was pretty good; I got a steak and all-you-can-eat shrimp platter. The waitress was also very nice, although I did get a few strange looks from various people. I guess a single guy eating alone in a restaurant is a bit odd in a family tourism area.
Although it wasn't very late, I wanted to get to sleep early that night so I would be fresh and ready for the parks tomorrow. I made a stop at a Walgreens on the way back to the hotel to pick up a few snacks.
After I finished at Walgreens, I went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening watching TV and unpacking, settling into the place that would be my home for the next week. I turned in fairly early, eager for tomorrow to arrive. I had one worry; the Days Inn was located very close to I-4, and the road noise during the day had been pretty loud. But after 8pm, the noise dulled to a low whoosh, and was actually rather soothing. It muted some of the other normal sounds one hears in a hotel, and got me to sleep pretty quickly.