I think the Thanksgiving crowds have started. Downtown was annoyingly crowded. I'm heading back to the hotel to meet Alex now.

Bus Roulette was a poor choice. Am still on the bus & feeling bus sick. Ugh.

Couldn't decide where to head first today, so I played 'disney bus roulette'. Got on the first bus that came. Downtown Disney!

Friday Recap

Friday was a loooong day! I was up relatively early posting my pictures and my recap and made it "on the road" by about 10am. I went to Animal Kingdom first. I rode Expedition Everest first. The standby line said that it would take about 20 minutes, but I think it took less than 10. No Single Rider line on that one. Luckily I didn't need it. After Everest, I walked over to Africa where I was going to try and get on the Kilimanjaro Safari, but it was already after 11 and the standby line said 40 minutes and I wanted to be back to Epcot by 12:15 or so to meet Alex, so I skipped it. I spent a few minutes watching a "Crazy Limbo-Dance Troupe" in Africa - even shot a little video, but it's still uploading so I'll have to link to that later. ;) I went to "Dinoland USA" and rode Dinosaur. As you can see from my mobile post below, the loud large dino near the end of the ride still manages to freak me out every time. After wandering around for a bit, I headed back to the Swan and met Alex for lunch.

Alex and I strolled over to Epcot and had sushi in Japan for lunch. Epcot is our favorite park because there's so much strolling and eating and drinking to be done. ;) After Alex returned to the conference, I relaxed in France for a bit, made some dinner reservations at Guest Services, checked out the Imagination Pavilion and then headed over to the Magic Kingdom.

I got into Main Street just in time to watch the end of "Mickey's Dreams Come True" Parade. I took a few pictures and then headed back to Frontier Land. I rode Splash Mountain with the two old guy Muppets that usually sit in the balcony. Well, not really, but it was just me and two old men in the boat. I sat in the very front of the "log boat" and the two old men shared the very back seat. "We sat back here so that you'd keep us from getting wet! Oh ho ho ho!" After we went down the big drop and I got pretty well sprayed, they laughed again. "You did your job - we didn't get wet! Oh ho ho!" I got a kick out of them. :) I wanted to do the Haunted Mansion next, but didn't want to wait in the line (20 minutes) so I went to Fantasy Land and saw Mickey's PhilharMagic. Still my favorite thing in all the "world". Alex called me to let me know that he was done with his conference for the day, so I hopped on a monorail and met him in Epcot.

Alex, of course, was waiting for me in a pub. The Rose and Crown pub in "England". We each had a Guinness and then strolled over to the International Gateway exit and crossed the Boardwalk area then took the path to Disney Studios. We got to the studios around 6pm when everyone was piling into the "Hollywood Bowl" to watch Fantasmic. We weren't interested, so we went on Tower of Terror. Still my 2nd favorite thing in all the "world". ;) We went over to Streets of America after that to see the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. I was impressed. Alex was Grinchy. I took some pics and some videos and then we walked back to the Swan to get ready for dinner.

Alex was very excited for dinner because I'd gotten us reservations at the Yachtsman Steakhouse in the Yacht Club. He'd heard that it used to be one of Michael Eisner's favorite restaurants on property and that the steaks were phenomenal. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its reputation. I mean, it was OK, but frankly I've liked my filet better at Outback. My appetizer was really good - a tomato salad - and the rolls with butter and roasted garlic were pretty good. Oh, and my mashed potatoes were very good. But my steak. Meh. Alex felt the same way. We skipped dessert and headed over to Epcot for their Evening Extra Magic hours.

We took our time strolling through Epcot which had very few guests. We had our picture taken in front of a giant Christmas tree (will link to that later) and then rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends. That wasn't open the last time we were here and I was very excited to ride it because I'd heard it was pretty cool. Again, I was slightly disappointed. I felt there should have been more of a cohesive story to the ride. Instead, it was sort of a bunch of scenes. Still pretty cool that they successfully projected the digital fish seamlessly onto the tanks of a real aquarium. We were going to ride Soarin' next, but there were no more fast passes and the standby line was 30 minutes and all I could think of was last year when the sign said 20 minutes and we were in line for over an hour and Alex was VERY grumpy, so we just left.

We finally made it to Jellyroll's last night. We've been so tired every previous night but last night we fought the sleepiness and boy were we happy we did! It's really one of our favorite bars in the world. It's just too much fun to sing along and it's amazing that the "piano men" know just about ANY song you request. I'm fond of requesting super cheesey music - stuff that Adam would call a "gay guilty pleasure" song - so I requested Journey, "Separate Ways". The one guy did it and he was amazing. I was afraid that he wasn't going to do it at first because he referred to it as "Obscure Journey" but I think he really enjoyed doing that song. We had an awesome time and didn't get to bed until around 2am. Consequently, Alex is dragging today but he's only got a 1/2 day at his conference and we won't be back to Disney for a loooooooong time so I just told him to suck it up. ;)

OK. Well, it's my last "full day" here so I have to get out to the parks!!!

How impatient am I? I won't wait 20 minutes to see the Haunted Mansion.

I swear, I was just on Splash Mountain with the two old guys from the Muppets.

I know it's fake, but the big love dino in the Dinosaur ride makes me scream every time.

I just saw a woman walk by with her young son. 'This Cafe Mocha is horrible.' she told him. WTF lady. Ease up lady & have fun.

Expedition Everest makes me dizzy. But it's AWESOME.

It's 60 degrees and people are at the blizzard beach water park. Insanity.

Thursday at the World

Yesterday was my first time visiting a Disney park on my own and it was a unique experience. Kids stared at me. "Where is her mom? Or her kids?" Ride operators were slightly surprised when I'd say I was a party of one. I had no one with me to hug when the "Disney" got to me. There were some benefits, though. I went to the Disney Studios first, and because I was a single rider, got right to the front of the line on Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster. That ride reminded me how old I am, though, because I had a headache coming off of it. (Waaaaa! I'm OLD!) I rode Tower of Terror a couple of times and then saw the Beauty and the Beast Stage Show, something that Alex would have never gone to see with me. I saw the Indiana Jones Stunt show and then bypassed Star Tours because apparently I'm old and jerky rides give me headaches. (Waaaaa! I'm OLD!) I didn't have to wait by the bathrooms. I didn't have to eat when I wasn't hungry. I didn't have to buy lunch, in fact, because I brought some ready made tuna salad in a can with crackers and that was my very cheap lunch. ;)

I did meet Alex during his lunch break from the conference and strolled around the boardwalk with him, which was very nice. :)

After that, I strolled through Epcot, where I saw Off Kilter, a Celtic Rock act (who were nowhere near as good as ETH, GMT, 7N or GB, but still fun) and had the most expensive Guinness in the land. I headed over to the Magic Kingdom, where I saw Mickey's PhilharMagic, which is my favorite thing in all of Disney World. I rode It's a Small World after that because apparently I'm a sadist or something. I never have to go on the ride again. Alex met me in the park then, since his conference was over for the day and we saw the 6pm show of Wishes, then went to the Grand Floridian where we had dinner at Citrico's. Our meal was fabulous! I'd read mixed reviews on Citrico's and was a little apprehensive about making reservations there, but we had great service and excellent food. Yay!

After dinner, we went back to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party. We had a great time riding the rides with no lines, enjoying complimentary hot cocoa and sugar cookies, watching the Special Holiday Wishes Fireworks show and the Christmas Parade. Well, I had a great time watching the parade while someone grinched it up next to me. ;) We headed back to our hotel around 11:30 where we totally crashed.

Today, I'm off to the Animal Kingdom in the morning, then back to meet Alex for lunch on the Boardwalk, and then I think I'll either go back to Disney Studios for a bit (Tower of Terror is my 2nd favorite thing in all of Disney World) or go back to Epcot. And I'm off!! :)

I just paid $7.25 for one can of Guinness in the world showcase. Dear Lord.

I have to admit that I was freaked out riding Tower of Terror alone.

We're Here!

Alex and I arrived in Florida yesterday afternoon after a very easy trip here via Southwest air. That was the first time that either of us have flown Southwest. We booked through SW b/c the airfare was SO cheap and because it was a direct flight from ALB to MCO. I was a little nervous about the "no seat assignment" thing but it worked out fine. You're assigned a boarding group (A, B, or C) and a number within that group based on the time that you check in. Alex checked in about an hour ahead of me on Tuesday and was A51. I was stuck in a meeting and by the time I checked in, I was B9. There were about 100 ppl on our flight and 137 seats, so it worked out fine. We were in a row of three, Alex had the window, I had the middle, and no one filled the aisle seat (thank God). Going home, we'll need to try and check in 24 hrs in advance again so that we end up in an early boarding group. It'll be more difficult as I'm pretty sure that around 8pm on Saturday we'll be out at one of the parks or something, but you can check in via your mobile phone and I set alarms for us to remember so we should be all set. Isn't technology great? :)

Our room at the Walt Disney World Swan is very nice. And what makes it extremely nice is that it's paid for by Alex's company. Booyah! ;) I've posted my pictures from yesterday here. We were in our room by about 4:30pm (after arriving 20 minutes early at MCO around 2:40pm). Our bags were out very quick and we hopped in a cab (also paid for by Alex's company) and had no issues checking in. I joined the Starwood Preferred Guest (or something like that) rewards program, so we should be earning about 2000 points for this stay. Sweet. We were upgraded for free by the very sweet girl at the front desk who was from the Syracuse area originally and whose ex-fiance is from Clifton Park. Random fact. She put us on the top floor of the hotel (12) on the "preferred guest floor" and gave us a Disney Studios view room. We can see the Tower of Terror from our room and at night, if we're in the room, we'll be able to see Fantasmic, the fireworks display. Very cool!



We didn't hit any of the parks yesterday because that would have been a waste of a day on a ticket, so we went to Downtown Disney where I hit Guest Services to pick up my Disney Rewards card from my Disney Visa. I'll use that today to purchase my park tickets (which will be more than completely covered by my rewards card - score!). After walking around Downtown Disney for a while, we caught a bus back to the Boardwalk and wondered around for a bit before going to dinner at the Flying Fish. We were going to go to Jellyrolls (the dueling piano bar) afterwards, but we were both very full and tired, so we just walked back to our hotel and went to sleep.

I think that I'll either walk to Disney Studios or Epcot today since both are so close. Alex is already at his conference - it started at 7am today. I woke up hella early at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm going to have to come back to the room and nap at some point today. We're going to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" tonight at the Magic Kingdom and want to hit Jellyrolls later on. :)

No Buy....

I was just peeking at the Disney Boards as we're leaving for our "almost free" trip the day after tomorrow and am excited. I'm feeling guilty about going on the trip because I'll be away from work when I have 3 new people in my dept and we're totally strapped for cash. BUT, I really, really, really, really, really need the break for my mental health and because Alex's company is paying for the transportation to/from the airport, his airfare, the hotel room, and his half of the meals all I need to pay for was my airline ticket (very cheap on Southwest) and my part of the meals. My park tickets are more than completely covered with Disney dollars earned on my Disney Visa this past year. We both know that this will be our last vacation for a very, very, very long time so since we're already committed to going and since it will be just about the cheapest vacation ever I'm going to try and just enjoy it.

Anyway... On the Disney Boards, there is a Budget Board which I've been visiting and "listening in" on the strapped for cash ppl out there to see how they deal with budgeting and saving. They apparently do a thread every month called "No Buy (month)". Here are the details:

No Buy November (with a twist!)



The Game Plan: Everyone sets their own lists of essentials and exemptions. Think carefully over the month and try to plan ahead. For example, if you know you have a birthday coming up and need to buy a present, or if your Disney trip is coming up, list the trip period as an exemption. Remember that Thanksgiving and the Holidays are coming, but if you plan them in, you will save yourself from impulse buying. Everyone sets their own rules.

The Goal: To become aware of everyday spending habits and save a little money. Or, as I think of it, to end the $100 detergent habit. What's $100 detergent? It's when you run in Target or Wal-mart for laundry detergent and end up spending $100. Now, you may use everything you bought and it may fit into your budget structure, but if you are in a saving mode, did you really need it at that time? Or is it a money leak?

Posting: Try to post your progress every Monday. I found that the more often I posted, the more it kept me honest and the more I thought about it while I was in dangerous situations. If you need/want to post more often, that's up to you. We love lots of posts!

The Twist: With Thanksgiving coming up and with us all having a lot of exemptions to deal with, we are going to try and add a little gratitude to our posts. This can be as simple as mentioning that someone opened a door for you, thankfulness that a loved one is in your life, or the mother of all Black Friday snags that will save you big bucks come December!

Take the next couple of days to get your lists together! In the mean time, if you haven't checked us out before, try reading through the No Buy October thread. We'd love to have you along as a participant or even just for support.

We're too late to do this for November, but I'm going to ask Alex to try this with me. We really need to start making some drastic changes if we're ever going to get out of our "debt-hole" that we've dug for ourselves. The last week in particular has been incredibly tough in the "debt related field" and I've been really, really depressed. I'm so afraid that we're never going to be able to afford a house or start a family. I know that sounds really dramatic but that's where I'm at right now.

OK. Hold back the tears, Ali. You're at work. Breathe. Enjoy the next week. Things will be better some day.