Thursday, November 21, 2013

Day 1 - Getting There

The first day was all about travelling but that was the start of the excitement as it was Ethan's first time flying.
  • 12:30 pm - Pick Ethan up at school, come home and have lunch
  • 1:30 pm - Pack everything up and drive to airport
  • 2:00 pm - Arrive at airport and park, drop off luggage, Ethan has a snack and finishes his soy milk since we can't carry any of it on the plane due to crazy rules (I spent some time looking for smaller containers but he just drank it instead)
  • 3:00 pm - Go through security and I missed some "liquids" (it was a new container of a creme) which they confiscated - oh well, at least we got everything else checked in and security scanned OK.  Go through US border security and they ask me about a letter of consent from Ethan's mother.  Uh-oh - didn't think of that - good thing it wasn't a hard rule - or the trip could have been over before it started.
  • Wait "patiently" for plane 
  • 4:30 pm - Board the plane
  • 5:00 pm - Take-off - bound for Florida - Ethan loves looking out the window and the feeling of flying.  He gets a kick out of tracking the plane's altitude and progress on the in-flight entertainment system.  He watches Turbo and I watch "The Heat" - that was hilarious 
  • 8:00 pm - arrive in Florida to considerably warmer weather than what we left behind - look all over for the Disney Magical Express bus only to realize it was in a different terminal, so we trek on over there and hop on the bus to our resort.
  • 8:30 pm - how well Disney plans for everything and how well organized they are starts to show already.  They have a "DME TV" - Disney Magical Express TV to keep kiddies (and adults) occupied while doing the half hour bus ride to Walt Disney World.   I start getting a feel for how much this is not the same place it was 37 years ago.
  • 9:00 pm - arrive at Pop Century Resort and check in - get instructions for the "My Disney Experience" and "Magic Band+" and "FastPass+" - and, I'm a technical guy, but I'm a little overwhelmed at this point of how everything is linked.  My credit card, my room key, my attraction reservations all linked to the personalized band on my arm - this I gotta see.
  • 9:15 pm - check out our 50's inspired room - the room is pretty much your standard hotel room with a little bit of theme - which is OK since we are just going to be using it for sleeping.  The resort is nice with 2 pools and the "Pop Century" theme is carried around with things like a giant Rubik's cube in the 80's wing and names like "Hippity Dippity Pool" in the 60's area.   The room seems to be in a pretty quiet section of the resort and not too far from the main building.  Call home and tell them we made it and Ethan tells mom how cool the flight was.
  • 9:30 pm - start farting around with the "My Disney Experience" app on my phone as this is how you need to use the "FastPass+" system.  The "old" way was you'd get a park ticket and have to go to the FastPass distribution kiosks near the attractions and get one of those - but with these Magic Bands, you just make the reservations for things using their app and then it's linked to the band for when you arrive at your scheduled time.  This sounds great, but I need some "reservation number" which I have no clue what it is.  Momentary panic as I had already made plans assuming I had access to FastPass - but that's not the case when you have FastPass+.  Too hungry to figure it out right now though.
  • 10:00 pm - go grab dinner and get introduced to the Disney premium on food.  At least it tastes good but it's pricey for what you get.
  • 10:30 pm - back to concierge to get my reservation number and they hook me up and I'm all set to go for reserving FastPass+'s
  • 10:45 pm - back to room and re-jig plan for Magic Kingdom for tomorrow using new FastPass+ planning system and the Lines app
  • 11:00 pm - lights out - flip on the TV to find the first 10 channels Disney branded channels and a good chunk of the rest of the channels (maybe even all) Disney Media channels (ABC, A&E etc.) - no John Stewart - how will I be able to track what Rob Ford is up to?  Set the alarm for 7 am - it's going to be an early start.
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