Our vacation was magical and wondrous and far too short, as all of my Walt Disney World vacations are. I hope you’ll forgive me for not doing a countdown to the trip, but I’m rather weird about giving vacation dates out on the blog. I’m not afraid that we’ll be robbed (renter’s insurance!) but I’m afraid an evil being will call Disney and cancel our reservations. So yeah…the internet knows my name, where I work, and roundabout where I live, but not when I’m going on vacation. (Unless the evil being follows me on Twitter.) I need help, apparently.

Anyway, rather than do a huge trip report, I’ll highlight the quirky bits over the next week or so.

As we did in 2007, we stayed in All Star Music. It’s fun and gives us great bang for the buck. We requested a king-bed room in Jazz Inn. We got a room with 2 full beds in Broadway.

I can deal with the giant top hats, gloves, and canes. What I couldn’t deal with was this – the wallpaper in the bathroom:

Yes, Virginia, this is the view from the throne. If you’re a guy, you see the same thing, but behind the tank.

There are references to Beale and Bourbon Streets. I have to assume that the portraits of the artists are VERY general representations because getting permission to put peoples’ likenesses on wallpaper must be a nightmare.

Anyway, the guy at the bottom left is a Sinatra type. There’s a Motown girl band and a Ray Charles-esque gentleman.

The one that creeped me out he most is on the second row, at the right, next to the jukebox. That has to be Buddy Holly. I do not need Buddy Holly staring at me while I pee.

“I’m watching you, Peggy Sue,
While you sit there on the loo…”

The most puzzling one is the top row, second after the piano keys. Who is that? We called him/her “Smudge” through the trip but could never really pinpoint it. We have it narrowed down to either 1990′s Madonna or Billy Idol. With a goodly part of their head blown off by an angry fan.

Any idea who that can be?

Lunchtime!

Our server brought little dishes for us to share our onion rings.
Complete with ketchup!

Dreams have been odd too.

LG: I had a weird dream last night. (member of our WoW guild) became addicted to prescription meds and poker.

WM: I dreamt that the piano player from High School Musical blew up the high school right before prom.

LG: …

Today we are spending the morning in Disney Hollywood Studios and tonight in Epcot.

Having a blast! Wish you were here!

Which is freaking $75! That’s a lot if antenna toppers!

We started at animal kingdom, lunched at Epcot and finished at the Magic kingdom.

Observations:

Lunch at the Rose and Crown – the food was great but the waitress stopped caring after the appetizer. Drinks were not refilled and plates were left on the table even though dessert came.

And seriously, Rose and Crown, I said it’d be his birthday when I made the reservation weeks ago. I said it at the check in stand. We told the waitress. And he was wearing the birthday pin. Could you have thought to put a candle in the dessert? Grrrr.

We got to Animal Kingdom 15 minutes before park opening and it was great. We ride Kali River Rapids 2x in a row first thing. And I can’t believe people still don’t use fastpass!

I liked the rehab to the first half of spaceship earth in epcot. I think they cheaped out on the 2nd half. I’ve seen Jib Jab movies and touch screens don’t impress me any more.

Wishes, the fireworks show at the magic kingdom still makes me weep like an orphan. It’s gorgeous.

And I still love Small World. Sue me.

Tomorrow: Disney Studios and Epcot.

Dog update: Ollie is carrying his toys everywhere and Max is peeing in everything.

But…guh. It casts a small shadow on my trip to know they’ll be there. Because I’m genetically predisposed to worry, here is an incomplete list of the things that have been dancing through my mind. This is mostly so I can see how dumb I’m being.

• They will be lonely without us.
• They will be frightened and think we’re never coming back.
• They will be cold.
• They will be hot.
• They will be afraid of the flappy doorway that will let them go outside and play
• One of them will lick the Frontline spot on the other, get poisoned and die.
• There’s a sadistic employee there who loves kicking dogs.
• They will go on a hunger strike.
• There won’t be a “double” available (‘though we reserved one) so they’ll get split up into separate pens and they’ll be doubly lonely and doubly scared.
• Ollie’s groomer will call the SPCA on us because his “thumbnails” are starting to curl back on themselves and his fur is matted under his front legs.
• The place will burn down.

Seeing that list makes me want to crawl into a hole. It’s also why WM gave me a Mother’s Day card from the pets this year.

Taken 3/16/09 – Cocoa, Florida – Twister Airboat Rides

10:50am – leave home
10:54am – fill up gas tank. 10.2 gallons at $2.85 a gallon is $29.17
10:57am – stop at WaWa for $4.40 worth of coffee and snacks
11:05am – hit the road
2:00pm – stop at the Connecticut Welcome Station for liquid intake and outflow
4:42pm – STILL IN CONNECTICUT…there were 8 mile long bumper to bumper delays all through the state. Am despondent. Stop at another rest center for outflow and leg-stretching
7:04pm – arrive at hotel EIGHT hours later, for a trip that Google said would take about 5.5 hours.

Oh well. The hotel is nice, and the bed is comfy, so I don’t care.

Travel observations:

• North Jersey smells bad. If you think Jersey is stinky and ugly, I implore you to take a trip to South Jersey. We have trees and parks and beaches that don’t smell like feet.
• Seven years later, the NYC skyline is still unfamiliar to me since the WTC isn’t there. Eff you, bin Laden and eff Bush for losing sight of that goal.
• I hate driving over bridges. I realized that as I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the George Washington Bridge. I did wave a quick hello to Dr. Dave and Ani while I was praying the bridge wouldn’t collapse from under me.
• The autumn foliage was gorgeous, which is what kept me from cutting myself while I was idling in Connecticut. I’m talking “scene on a 1000 piece puzzle” pretty – especially when I was stopped over rivers.
• Every state has a welcome sign. Massachusetts’ sign had a turkey on it.
• The logo for the Massachusetts Turnpike is a pilgrim hat.
• I saw at least 2 signs in Massachusetts welcoming home the troops. Classy!

In retrospect, I should have gone to the BlogHer in Washington DC since it’s much closer. But I get to add Connecticut and Massachusetts to my paltry list of states I’ve visited.

Tomorrow’s the conference Please somebody please talk to me tomorrow. and Sunday is the ride home. Which I’m SURE will be shorter. I’m off Monday to recuperate.

So I’m lounging by the pool, the hot tub, eating lots of food, and am doing a wee bit of sightseeing. Later tonight, a few of us will go to the Orange County fair which is mere blocks away. Might swing by the beach this afternoon as well.

Pictures forthcoming. Must go laze about now.