Tag: Disney World

Disney World at Last

We’ve made it to the Disney World resort. We took a detour to visit the ocean in Daytona Beach, but we are at the hotel now. We won’t be able to check in for a while though.

The kids are in the air. We will head to the airport to pick them up shortly. The epic road trip (part 1) is over. Time to start the epic vacation!

Nine Minutes to Go

I am probably going to jinx things, but there are nine minutes left in my work day before the start of two whole weeks of vacation. I don’t know if I can hang on for the final nine, now eight minutes.

My clothes are all packed but I still have to pack my camera gear and my food/drink stuff and all of the toiletries and phone/watch/ear pod chargers. There’s still a ton of stuff to take care of. The punchline here is that we’re not leaving for three days so… maybe I’m actually WAY ahead of the pace.

The further punchline is that Jen is upstairs packing her clothes too. I think we’re both a little excited for this trip. Six minutes to go.

The last vacation we took was in February of 2020 when Harry, Jen, and I went to Disney World for Harry’s school vacation week. That trip wasn’t really planned. It was just a last minute idea that Jen had so we just jetted off like crazy people. We all know what happened when we got home… Covid… that prick. We’ve been more or less locked down ever since and have been afraid to do any traveling or any anything, really. We were supposed to go to Disney World for Harry’s high school graduation in June of 2021. That got postponed to June of 2022 and then re-postponed to January of 2023… next week. I don’t think anything shy of an asteroid colliding with our house would keep us away this time. Enough is enough. Let’s freakin’ gooooooo.

Three minutes left. All quiet on the Western front.

Two minutes left………

The Last Work Day Before Vacation

It’s Friday. Tomorrow is New Years Eve. Monday is New Years Day (celebrated). Tuesday is the first day of my two week vacation. That means that I am officially on vacation at 5:30pm today. Nine hours and 13 minutes from now.

I haven’t started packing yet, but I have done some pre-pack preparations. We have a dining room table full of toiletries that are ready to pack. Last night I went to a department store and bought three pairs of jeans. I’ve been buying new clothes every 5-6 weeks or so, and it was about time anyway. The new jeans are, shockingly, TWO sizes smaller than last month’s jeans. I’m not sure, but I think my waist size is 16 inches smaller than it was a year ago? something like that. I really cannot believe it.

This morning I wrote up a packing list that (hopefully) is ridiculously thorough so that I don’t forget anything. It was so over the top that Jen actually suggested I drop a few items because they were overkill. That’s okay with me.

Plans for the weekend are mostly up in the air. The kids are with Dad for New Years Eve, but they said they would come over for a visit in the afternoon. I am so happy about that. I was thinking maybe we could sneak out to the city after they leave and pretend we are not afraid of Covid and stuff like that. The temperature is supposed to be super warm, but it’s also supposed to rain all day and night. So much for that plan. I want to visit both of my parents before we leave. I need to do a little more travel supply shopping, but mostly just for protein supplement stuff. The kids are coming to our house on Monday before we leave. Actually, when we leave sort of depends on when they get here. We want to spend a little time with them at home before the chaos commences. There’s also a little NHL Winter Classic game happening at 2:00pm that includes the Boston Bruins and Fenway Park. If we’re home, I’m watching. If we’re on the road, I’m listening on the radio.

Jen and I just added our Disney passes to our Apple Wallets so that we can use our phones and watches in place of the Magic Bands we used on the last couple of Disney trips. That’s pretty cool. We’re both hoping we can leave all of our various cards behind and do anything we need to do through Apple Wallet via Apple Pay and what not. It’s time to embrace the future!

I punched into work a smidge early today, just to get a jump on stuff on my last day. At this point I am eight hours and 35 minutes away from my two week, epic vacation. May today be a quiet day at work while still managing to not drag. Fingers crossed on that. Happy Last Work Day Before Vacation, everyone!

Everything is in Flux

We are booked to fly to Disney World on Wednesday January 4th and to fly home on Thursday January 12th.

Two of the four of us likely will keep those flight reservations. The other two? Probably not. It’s still all up in the air right now, but it looks like Jen and I will be driving to Florida, probably leaving on the evening of January 2nd in an attempt to both get South of New York City by the end of that night, and to get to the Orlando, FL airport in time to meet the kids when they land. The reason is medical and I am not going to mention it because it is minor overall, but it is just safer to not fly.

Coming home, the flight is in the late evening. Jen and I will probably leave in the morning, possibly after spending a little time at a park though equally possible we will just leave from the hotel, and take two days to drive home. The kids will get home on the 12th and we’ll get home on the 14th or maybe 15th if we dawdle.

It’s going to be insane, but we’ve done it before and it will be a fun addition to our already epic trip. Just think of all the extra film photos! Wow!

In less chaotic news, we are supposed to head to Norwood tonight to pick up the car we bought for Bellana two days ago. The hope is that we will leave as soon as I punch out of work. I am going to need to bring a protein bar or two with me and have them for dinner on the drive. I thought we were going to have to stop at Dad’s on the way back, but maybe now we have to stop at a grocery store instead? I don’t know yet. We probably won’t know until it happens. Once it’s done though, our brief experiment with being a one car household will end.

It’s been a crazy few days here in our house. It’s going to be a crazy next 2-3 weeks too. I am so freakin’ ready to go to Florida. I would leave right now if I could. After last night with the cat and all of the other shit that’s gone down I just want to get the hell out of here for a couple of weeks. I want to crawl into a hole and hide. Granted, I want to take the bathroom scale and a film camera and my new mirrorless camera into the hole with me, but the idea still stands.

Let’s Freakin’ Go.

Oh, Ya Big Baby

I was going to go out shooting some film this morning, but after I finished my morning faux joggin’ I completely wussed out. Why? I just don’t wanna go out in the cold. You big baby.

I did something to my shoulder today and I have no idea what. It hurts. Why? I didn’t do anything to deserve it, other than being 51 years old when stuff just randomly starts breaking down.

We’re supposed to get a huge storm sometime tomorrow, I think. I don’t know if it’s rain or snow or both. It might mess up some plans for the weekend, but I can’t tell one way or another yet. I hate snow. I really, really hate snow.

The kids are coming home this weekend. Bellana’s car is dead so we will be selling her (“selling”) one of ours. I want to get it tuned up for her. There’s a software recall and I have an appointment to get that done on Saturday. I want to get an oil change too, and have the tires checked. They should be fine but let’s make sure. The other car needs an oil change too and the wiper blades are falling off. So this weekend’s theme is kids and cars, to start with at least.

Did I mention that I’ve lost 200 pounds since January? I was on cloud nine all day long yesterday. I still am. I even went to the facebook to gloat a little. People are asking for before/after pics. I might give the people what they want. I gloated on post.news too. I was the first person on that network to use the hash tag #GastricBypass, but a few fellow surgical survivors said hello. That made me happy.

We are 20 days away from leaving for Florida. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to travel for the first time in almost three years. I can’t wait to spend two whole weeks with the kids. I can’t wait to experience Disney World with the love of my life once again. Did I ever mention that my original plan for proposing to Jen involved the World Showcase at Epcot? In the end I did it at home because I just couldn’t wait anymore, but we did reenact the proposal I had in mind when we took a trip there with Larry and Nawal a few weeks later. Also, and this is very important, I can’t wait to be warm. I know it is not going to be scorching, but it is going to be a whole hell of a lot warmer there than it is here.

I feel like I should have 100 other things to write about this morning, but I’m drawing blanks left and right. My shoulder is really bugging me. I think I pulled a muscle or something. It’s annoying the crap out of me. I’ll get over it, someday. Mostly I’m just really happy that I don’t have to drive into the office today. I am working from home for the rest of this week and the first three days next week. I have to go in next Thursday but hopefully that will only be for half of the day. Starting next month though (after I get back from Florida) we will be going into the office on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday for the foreseeable future. That’s seriously depressing, but I’ll rise above it, somehow.

Okay. I am going to finish my breakfast and then spend half an hour or so gazing longingly at my weight tracking spreadsheet. Specifically the Total Since the First Check In cell where the number is over 200. Ah, what a thing that is.

Disney’s Star Wars Themed Hotel

They call it Galactic Starcruiser. It’s a hotel that is supposed to be a 100% Star Wars immersion experience. It’s at Disney World in Orlanda, FL and it opens for reals on March 1st.

Given that I am one of the world’s biggest (literally and figuratively), and possibly most insufferable, Star Wars fanatics, is this something I want to do? We’re hoping to go to Disney in January, do I want to experience this?

I don’t know. Really, I don’t know.

I just read this CNET article that spells out the whole deal. The events seems cool, though the price is insulting. The price is high enough that it ends the discussion. I don’t want to pay that much money for two nights in a hotel. Let’s take money out of the discussion though. What then? I still don’t know.

The immersive experience seems very regimented. Your meals are scheduled, your events are scheduled, your trip to Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios is scheduled. I guess I am curious about how that works. Will the Rise of the Resistance ride shut down while the Galactic Starcruiser guests have their turn? Will Smugglers Run then also shut down for the hotel guests? Are all of the hotel guests going to bus over to Hollywood Studios together? What if the family in the room next to yours are douchebags? Do you have to spend the whole two days with them? What if I need to take a piss during one of the scheduled events? Do I have to hold it?

I think the scheduled nature of it is my biggest source of hesitation (after the money, of course). If I am on vacation with my family, am I going to want to spend two days on someone else’s clock?

As stated earlier, the money is a deal breaker. I don’t want to go at that price. For everything else, I think I’d like to hold off until the 10-20 million Disney YouTube channels are able to release their post-March 1st experiences (looking at you, Tim Tracker and Disney Food Blog. Come through for me!) before I decide if I am missing out on anything or not.

For now though, let’s leave it at May the Force be With You.

As the World Continues to Fall Apart

When did Disney World become my personal Covid canary in the coalmine? I don’t know, but what I do know is that they have reinstituted their indoor mask requirement regardless of vaccination status.

Yippee. Why is this necessary? Because half the people in this country are fucking garbage who have no concern for their fellow citizens. That’s why. They make up 100 fake reasons for not getting vaccinated that all boil down to a simple I-don’t-wanna-be-inconvenienced. Fuck them. Fuck them in their eye and then fuck them in their other eye.*

Today is my parents’ 54th anniversary. My sister was able to take my mother in to the rehab hospital to see my father. I’m sure that helped both of their mental states. You know what else would help their mental states? Everyone getting vaccinated and stop being little spoiled fucking brats.

I wasn’t planning on writing a pissed off post about the slime living in my country. I’m just feeling angry about it all. Angry enough that I completely forgot what I was planning to write about.

Get the fucking vaccine, you fucking mental midgets.

*Thank you to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for that little nugget from their musical, The Book of Mormon. Sometimes a phrase just fits the occasion, you know?

SundaySundaySunday

We’re going to see Bellana for a bit today. It’s like Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, back in December when Covid-19 ruined the traditional extended family Christmas we talked about having a Christmas party in July. Literally Christmas in July. I don’t know if that’s going to happen as we planned it, but I’m still game if everyone else is.

HoHoHo in the sunshine and all that? It could work. We can look back on it as a test drive if we ever find ourselves spending Christmas in Australia.

It could happen, right?

Harry’s not getting the standard graduation party, but we are going to take him back to Disney at some point. We have a date in mind which means we also have a date when we can actually buy tickets for the dates we want to go. There is an entry on our family calendar right now that marks the date when we can first book the dates we want to go… I want to find a way to celebrate that date as a sort of screw you to Covid-19. The ‘Rona messed up Harry’s last two school years and we need to go as overboard as humanly possible on the corrective overreacting. If that means celebrating the day we buy tickets then let’s do it!

I’m trying to write this while watching an episode of Community and my concentration is all over the place. Can you tell or does this post read like it was written by someone with Changnesia?