Baltimore/Washington International Airport, or BWI, is only about 20 minutes from my house. Then it was another 5 minutes to get up the terminal road to the departures area. I jumped out of my truck, said goodbye to my dad and thanked him for driving me in so early, and stood in the short line at the Southwest Airlines counter to check my enormous suitcase, which I had bought just for this trip. My laptop and camera bags clutched firmly to my side, I went for the security checkpoint.
I had been dreading the lines at the security checkpoint for months. Tales of horror, or random security sweeps and shoe checks, of broken laptops and ruined film, swirled around my head, but tips from my friends in the DisneyNation Clubhouse had prepared me well for the process. I was pleasantly surprised; the lines moved steadily, the security personnel all seemed to know what they were doing, and I saw no passengers gumming up the works. I did see a couple of passengers pulled out of line for the wanding and shoe checks, but they were cooperative and seemed to get throught the indignity of it all rather well.
My camera bag and laptop bag went through the x-ray machine with no difficulty, my laptop itself went through in a plastic bin, and my Ziploc bag of film (23 rolls, in case you were wondering) got hand-inspected with no fuss as soon as I asked. I didn't even have to tell anyone that I had high-speed film in there.
Boarding the plane, using Southwest's "cattle-call" style proceedure, actually took less time than I had experienced in the past on US Airways, and our wheels left the ground at 8:02am, 3 minutes early. The flight was uneventful, with some minor turbulence, and we touched down in Orlando at about 10:15.
I had about a 15 minute wait till the luggage started spewing forth on the baggage claim belt, then it was off to the parking garage to rent my car. I was renting from National for the first time, and I was also using the Emeral Club to get Emerald Aisle service. The Emerald Aisle had slim pickings that morning. The one PT Cruiser there was locked, so I wound up with a silver Mitsubishi Galant with 4225 miles on the odometer. Check out was brief, and I hit the road for Walt Disney World.
It only rained fror about 20 minutes, slacking off to a light drizzle as I approached All-Star Sports. Having stayed at All-Star Music in the past, I was prepared for the standard check-in proceedure; Guests have to show ID to enter the gates, park in the Check-In parking lot, and walk into the main buiding to find the check-in counter. My Cast Member was quick, polite, and most importantly, friendly. Initially she told me that my room wasn't ready, but when I asked if it was too late to request a specific building, and asked for something in Bldg 8 or 9, halfway between the parking lot and the main building, I was given Room 9130, Bldg 9, first floor. This was right next to the parking lot, on a very quiet end of the building, and was exactly what I had hoped for. I dropped my luggage off, unpacked my camera and park-hopping stuff, and headed out for Disney MGM Studios. I entered the park almost exactly at 12pm.
At this point I wanted to make a few trip notes. And at this point I realized that my trusty notebook was 900 miles away in the pocket of my trusty leather jacket, hanging on the back of my bedroom door. After calling myself a few choice names, I went searching for a notebook; the best I could find was a standard character autograph book. These blue books can be found all over Disney property, in every gift shop, no matter how small. It was a little large for my purposes, but I grabbed one in Mickey's of Hollywood anyway and jotted down my notes for the morning.
Then I got a Mickey bar and made my way slowly around to Star Tours while I ate. I arrived to find the FastPass machines for ST down, making for a 25 minute stand-by line. I waited and rode; I think Star Tours gets better with every repitition.
After ST, I rode the Great Movie Ride, threading my way through the ugly and unwelcome gift shop under the Sorcerers Hat (know to many on the internet as the BAH) and waiting in a short 15 minute queue. I like the hat, but it's in precicely the worst place in the whole park.
Then it was off to the Magic of Disney Animation, another classic (which has been updated a bit over the years) that I love. Animation is not a quick attraction, but it's fun and educational, with Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite making an excellent team.
When I finished with Animation, I figured I'd ride Star Tours again, and found that even with FP still down, there was no wait. I walked right into a Starspeeder. Afterward I walked right into Muppetvision 3D.
It was raining hard. I made my way through the park gates, holding my Mickey poncho with both hands to prevent the wind from blowing it around, and had to stop when I got to the ticket windows. Because of the storm, the parking lot trams weren't running, so lots of people were waiting out the worst of the rain under the canopy between ticket windows. I stood there until about 4:45, when the trams began running again, and got into my rental Galant and drove to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was scheduled to have dinner with several Clubhouse friends at Boma that evening, and I didn't want to be late. As it turned out, I was early; the rain continued to slack off during the drive from MGM to AKL, finally turning back into bright sunshine as I drove up the curving entry road to the resort.
While we were eating, another Clubhouse friend came in with her family, Nanci Rosetti (Tink1, also of Magical Journeys fame). I was very happy to finally meet Nanci face-to-face as well, having previously only spoken to her on the phone. I had expected to meet her tomorrow on board the Disney Wonder, but the extra surprise was just another piece of Magic to be had on any Disney vacation.
And the Magic didn't end there; Nanci had booked an Illuminations cruise that night, and invited Jean, Lisa, Diane, and me to join her! Naturally, I jumped at the chance. We were to meet at the Yacht Club marina at 8pm, but I wanted to go back to ASSp to pick up some high-speed film for the occasion, so I jumped into the Galant and sped back (obeying the clearly posted legal speed limits the whole way, of course!), but I spent a few minutes at the resort snapping off the 15 shots left on my current roll of 400-speed film. I wanted to have a fresh roll of 1600-speed in the camera for the Illuminations cruise.
With such a wonderful group of people, the cruise turned out to be a highlight of my vacation. We had a terrific time, not only watching Illuminations, but tooling around the Epcot-area waterways on a comfortable, open-air pontoon boat, piloted by Captain Aron, who along with Captain Jeff of the next boat over, kept us all in stitches (or was it pain) with a Bad Joke contest.
After the cruise, I gave Mike a lift back to his hotel to save him the cab fare (getting lost on the way; Mike is unused to navigating himself around the WDW/Lake Buena Vista area). Then I ran over to a Walgreens I knew of to drop off the two rolls of film I had shot that day, and it was back to ASSp for some much-needed rest.
Walk Miles: 7.9