Saturday, October 20th

Saw this in front of check in door

I usually sleep really well before a trip, mostly from sheer exhaustion between work and getting ready. This trip's night before sleep was nothing like that. I slept well from 9-1 a.m. and then just could not lay there anymore. I got up and went downstairs, checked emails and laid on the couch with Cassie. Did you know there is NOTHING on TV at 2 in the morning? Next thing I know, I hear Joe rustling around upstairs and he was up...yes...too excited to sleep! You'd think this was our first time at Disney!

My goal was to leave the house at 4 and that is exactly when we did.  Jake offered to drive us down so we wouldn't have to leave the car there. As we approached the airport, it started to rain. I was worried about him getting home in an unfamiliar area. Of course, he was fine and texted me when he got home and he and Cassie went back to bed.

We left on time and with the exception of a crying toddler for the first 45 minutes of the flight..make that SCREAMING toddler, it was not a bad flight. I know it was the ears that were hurting her because mine felt a little funny too.  We had a flight attendant that was an absolute hoot! I cannot even remember half the things she said, she sang lullabyes to us when the lights went out..you get the picture. I even thanked her when I got off the plane. She really made it a fun flight!  With the sun rising in the East, we were on the left side of the plane, we had to keep our window shade closed but when I opened it, it made for some beautiful pictures of the day getting started! Unfortunately, they are on the tablet!

We made our way down to Magical Express and were told which line to get in to. There were hardly any people at all in our line and we boarded in no time; although we sat there for about 15 minutes waiting for a few more. Luckily, we were the first resort stop and were 2 of the 4 people getting off at OKW.  I texted Darla that we were on our way.

Looking towards Olivias

Perfect day for Olivia's Porch

Once we got to OKW, Darla called and said she was heading over from their offsite hotel and we were already checked in. She said we were in Bldg 13 so we headed over there to wait for her to pull in. It wasn't even 10 minutes and there she was!!

Turtle Krawl

Trumbo Ferry

 We decided to head over to Magic Kingdom to see if anything was happening at the new Fantasy Land expansion (it was, just not for us).  We came upon a ridiculously crowded Magic Kingdom and it was at this point that I remembered that I FORGOT Joe's AP voucher! Thank goodness, Darla had suggested taking a picture of the voucher the other day, which I did and sure enough,, I pulled it up and got in the LONG Guest Services line and they issued him an AP from the picture on my phone. We caught up with Darla and Deb on the rockers near Tony's.

Beautiful day on Main Street USA!!

Our goal was to get some lunch so even though the park was summer-level crowded, we really did not care. We made our way back to Columbia Harbor House and even though there was a line, it moved quickly and of course, no one knows to use both sides here, so I was able to walk up pretty quick. I got my usual tuna sandwich, Joe got shrimp. We got the last table in the overlook upstairs.

Seven Dwarves Mine Ride

We headed out after lunch to checkout the new Fantasyland expansion and I could see alot of people walking around. I walked past a CM, Deb and Joe did as well. Then I heard, where is your bracelet and as Darla walked thru, I realized it was a cast preview.  We did not get to see much of it from there, maybe another day.

had to zoom in for this one

Joe wanted ice cream, so we walked over to the soft serve ice cream stand for him to get his cone. At this point, Darla and Deb walked back to Main Street as Deb wanted to get something from the ice cream parlor.  I realized, somewhere along the way I had dropped my sunglasses so I bought a cute new pair in the Storybook Circus store that just opened. I am actually glad I lost my old ones as I like these much better! Joe and I looked at all the kids getting soaked and were glad that we had no little ones! They sure were having fun though!  We hopped on the train and made our way around to the Main Street Station and decided to get some popcorn. Walking over to the confectionary, I noticed some Main Street streetmosphere characters and asked if I could "shoot" them (in the photographic sense), lol.  They all laughed and I got a few pictures.  While in the confectionary, admiring all the goodies, Darla texted me that they were back at the rockers just around the corner.  We met up there and decided to go back to wait on our room to be ready.

Taken from the bus stop

We sat around in Papa's Den waiting for the room, which was not ready for what seemed like forever! Darla had asked and they were "working on it". We were discussing dinner and realized the Whispering Canyon dinner was maybe not the best idea, priced at $32.99. No one can possibly eat enough food to make that worth it...we discussed possible alternatives and common sense won out...we headed to Orlando Ale House and would get our groceries afterwards. This really was a great idea since we needed to get some breakfast food and it is best to all go together to be sure everyone got what they wanted/needed. So once or room was finally ready, that is what we did.

Taken from our back porch!

View from our porch..errr...darla's porch!

Joe watching the golfers

Our kitchen/living room area

Our room

our kitchen

master bath

Living area

taken from our porch, getting a fish dinner

whoever sees it first, gets it!

I could feel myself starting to drag, having been up since 1:30 or so, so we put the food away and came back to our luggage having been delivered. We had seen them loading up a cart as we left for dinner and I thought I had seen my bag on there; sure enough, here it was.  I put all the food away and I unpacked...OKW just has so much space! Oh how I have missed this resort! Still my all time favorite DVC!

We are pretty set to have our breakfasts in the room. Tomorrow, Joe and I will go to mass at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine and then meet up with Darla and Deb later in the parks. Can I just say, it is WONDERFUL being here! The weather is perfect, warm sun and breeze and crystal clear skies. It is so funny that Darla and I are here typing up our reports a few feet away from each other, lol.

Darla's famous porch