My Whirlwind Disney Trip...

Hello, everyone! I apologize for the intermittent (and then non-existent) blogging. As you can probably tell from My "Apologies and Promises" post, there has been some drama and crisis in my world. Thankfully things are much much better since I started taking my meds and I expect that they will continue to get better and better from here. Thanks for all your patience and love during this trying time. :)

So let me tell you about my trip to Florida to go see Mickey Mouse! I worked like a Trojan to get my work wrapped up so I could leave for a few days. We also celebrated a good friend's 40th on Saturday night before I left...partied late and got to ride in a limo, woohoo! Happy birthday Zaber!!

My flight left at 10:40 last Sunday so we had me to the airport by 9:00 just to be sure I would have plenty of time to get through security. As it turned out, security wasn't nearly as scary or time-consuming as we anticipated and I ended up having about an hour to kill in the freezing ass cold waiting area of the airport. I was all bundly and got to talk to my girl on the phone while I waited, so it was a good and happy thing. :)

The Sperm Donor and Ms. Thang were the ones that came and got me at the airport and I was glad they hadn't brought the whole gang. I had rolled out of bed, thrown on traveling clothes and gone to the airport thinking I was going to sleep on the plane. I did get to nap a little during the flight but not enough and I was hungry, tired, and fairly delirious by the time I arrived in Florida. They fed me and got me to my room so I could get a shower and change clothes. Then the drama hit...

I had packed my favorite Zippo in my check-in bag so that I would have it on the trip (it was my birthday present from my girl). I got to Florida and had a nasty-gram in my bag saying that the TSA had stolen my lighter for the safety and security of the passengers on the plane. I freaked right out, called B and cried on him for a minute, and then started calling D/FW airport trying to get my lighter back. A series of phone calls and two hours later, here's what I found out:

* You can travel with a Zippo if you check the lighter into your bag and purchase the TSA approved carrying case from the Zippo website to put it in.
*The TSA is the one that goes through your bags but lighters are considered hazardous materials and must be removed from your bag by an airline employee.
*No one at D/FW airport knows where the hazardous material waste goes once it's gone from the check-in station.

After several hours of this bullshit, B graciously volunteered to run back to the airport to see if he could retrieve the lighter for me. He found out that once an item is confiscated from your bag, it becomes property of the FAA and cannot be retrieved no matter who you beg or offer to pay. My favorite lighter was stolen by the US Government because I'm a dumbass and didn't check into the regulations more closely before leaving town and I'm still fucking sad about it. :-(

Thankfully that was the only dramatic thing that happened while I was gone so I guess it's good that we got that out of the way right at the start. Lil Bro (who had been visiting a friend's grandparents when I arrived in town) reappeared and we got his stuff moved into our room. We met two of Ms. Thang's sons for dinner and ate Japanese hibachi-style food which was quite good. Then we went to a pool hall and drank ourselves rather silly before heading back to the hotel for bed. (I love a family event that includes social lubricant, it always makes things much easier.)

The next morning we got up relatively early and headed toward Disney. Since we started in Tampa, we had almost a two hour drive (with the Sperm Donor's law abiding ways...I could have made that road trip much shorter) to the hotel in Orlando. We left one of the sons in Tampa because he had to be back to work on Monday but we kept the other one with us for our Disney adventure. We got checked into the hotel and finally made it to the Magic Kingdom with about 4.5 hours to do all the required things before the park closed. I have never in my life done a theme park so quickly! We had our game plan before we entered the gate and power walked between rides to make sure we hit all the essentials...thankfully there were no lines or it wouldn't have been doable.

The Sperm Donor decided to be a fourth with Lil Bro, Ms. Thang's kid and me so we hit the ground running. We started on the Pirates of the Carribean ride which has recently been updated to include Jack Sparrow a couple of times throughout. I was relieved that they didn't change the basic ride, they only slightly altered a couple of the familiar scenes to include him. :) We did some shopping at the pirate gift shop at the end of the ride (Side note to The Cap'n - as is tradition, I have a little pirate prize for you the next time I see you!) and then power walked onto the next thing. We tried to ride the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad but it was temporarily closed so we ended up getting FastPasses instead and moved on to Tom Sawyer Island. We ran around there and then caught the raft back to main land to power walk to the Haunted Mansion. No matter what, this is my all-time favorite Disney attraction and when I die I want to come live there in that house. I find it curious that they haven't updated it to reflect the movie, but I guess that it wasn't as much of a box office success and I'm sure the wheels of change turn slowly in the Disney universe. Whatever the reason, it was still a great ride and will now and forever be my favorite. We ran from there to the Peter Pan ride for B but the wait was an hour so we moved on. I promised B a rain check for a Disney trip so that we can ride it together. We had to ride It's a Small World since it was Lil Bro's maiden voyage to Disney and everyone should have to have that song stuck in their head at least once in their life. We left there to head back and catch Thunder Mountain which was very fun and made Ms. Thang's son happy to be on a thrill ride. From there we hauled ass to Tomorrowland to do the Buzz Lightyear ride/video game. Ms. Thang's son whooped everyone's ass by scoring more than the other three of us together on the game, doh! The super crazy part is that the guy hasn't even seen Toy Story...how is that even possible?? We ended the day on Space Mountain which was every bit as good as I remember it being. I love a roller coaster. :)

We collected our purchases at package pick-up which is one of my favorite things about shopping at Disney. When you buy anything in any of the gift shops, you can have your bags sent to the front gate to wait for you so you don't have to haul them around the park. Brilliant! From there we went back to the hotel to change and head back to Downtown Disney for dinner. We shopped at the largest Disney store in the known universe and got some little things for people...I swear this place is truly the Wally World of Disney stores and is totally overwhelming in size! We ended up eating at the Irish Pub for dinner and I must say the fish and chips were quite good. The original plan was to drink in the bars at Pleasure Island but in the interim since my last trip, Florida went non-smoking indoors. It was in the 40s outside and too damned cold to try and smoke out there so we saved the money, hit the liquor store and went back to the hotel to drink there.

Ms. Thang's son and I ended up staying up til well after 2 am talking and doing the getting to know ya thing. Honestly, I really like all of her kids which bodes well for me wanting to spend more time with them. Next time I'm in So Cal, I'm definitely giving this guy a call to go have drinks! :)

Tuesday morning we got up early to go do the Disney/MGM park. I was uber grateful that we didn't have a bunch of things that we were morally obligated to do at this park so the day was a little more leisurely. The Sperm Donor was planning to leave the park during the late afternoon/early evening to get me to the airport for a 6:30 flight home.

My first order of business was going to the Villain Store and spending about my entire trip budget on items from inside. I have no idea why, but they classify Nightmare Before Christmas in with the villain stuff and there are certain items that are only sold on Disney property - danger, Will Robinson! ;-) Thankfully, my selection was narrowed way down by the size of B and I so it was easier to decide what to buy. From there we went to do family activities because Ms. Thang's eldest, his wife, and two kids were meeting us at this park. We took group pictures outside of the Narnia ride in front of a snow scene. We all went as a group to see the Muppet 3D show, which was totally badass! The Breeder Family, the Sperm Donor and Ms. Thang all had lunch tickets to meet some of the characters, so the three "kids" headed off for fun and adventure. We discovered the Aerosmith Rockin Roller Coaster and geeked in a big way. Zero to 60 mph in 3 seconds at the start of this bad boy and Aerosmith music blaring during an indoor roller coaster...bad fucking ass!! There were no lines in the park so we were able to ride it three times in a row. By the third time, we had figured out where they take the roller coaster photo and we all decided to do the rock hands and scream during the pic. Here's the end result:




We split the exhorbitant hard copy rate between the three of us and got an 8 x 10 for the Sperm Donor and Ms. Thang. They scanned the image so we'd all have a copy of it, cool huh? We hung with the folks for a few hours and then went back and rode the roller coaster one last time before I had to leave for the airport. Man, what a great ride that thing is! :)

I hopped on a flight home and went back to work bright and early the next morning. Here are the pix from the trip:

Disney Trip! :)

Love you guys, I'm going to bed now...

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