The First Trip Do-Over Day 1-Travel and Check In

Thanks all for the well wishes about the trip. Overall it went VERY well. While I don't think I have a complete convert I think he'd be willing to go every few years instead of never again! Just to refresh you on the cast of characters:

JanetMegan-Me, 38 (man when on earth did I turn 38?) Long time Disney Lover. Probably 50 trips to WDW.

LVP-My very long time boyfriend-52, former US Marine, not really a Disney guy. Only Disney movie he has ever seen is Up. Only one trip to WDW.

We left home about 7am on Saturday the 24th of October from about an hour North of Atlanta. After 1 pee stop (too much coffee), 1 gas stop and 1 very sketchy lunch at a Taco Bell we arrived to the Wilderness Lodge at about 2:15 ish (very good time). Bell services helped us unload (ALL) our stuff. The nice thing about driving is bringing what you want, including our own beer, wine etc. So we had quite the load. We even brought our own pillows from home

I had done online check in but since our first night was a room-only reservation with a Standard Room and the rest of the trip was a 6 night package in a Courtyard view room I was concerned about having to move so I went ahead to the desk to inquire. Turns out I was right to ask. They actually had put us in a VERY nice Courtyard view room on the 6th Floor (Room 6119) and said we could stay there for our entire trip but it had two queen beds :( So sad. We really wanted a King. It's just what we are used to and also it just gives you more room in the room. So they said they just didn't have a King for that night that the whole resort was sold out but if we wanted to check out in the morning and change rooms we could move to a King Courtyard on the 4th floor. I said that would be fine.

We went on up to room 6119 and the view was amazing, I felt bad we were going to have to move. We then waited a LONG time for our bags. Maybe 40 mins? I know they were busy but I would have grabbed a couple myself if I had known it would take that long. We quickly changed and headed to the pool. It was pretty busy with it being a Saturday afternoon but we snagged a couple chairs from two different places and moved them together and hung out, people watching and having some cocktails from home. I went down the slide About 5:30 we headed back to the room to change and then we grabbed some to-go cups we had brought with us and walked down to the boat dock for a ride over to Fort Wilderness. Just FYI you can bring alcoholic drinks on the boats, but not the buses.

We boated on over to Fort Wilderness and I was anxious to show Leslie around since he is big into camping and had never been there. It was very busy over there (I'm guessing lots of people we gathered for the second Hoop-Dee-Doo of the night.) We grabbed a couple drinks from the to-go window at the Tavern and walked around a couple of the loops to check out decorations. We also stopped at the trading post so I could check out the pins. Then we hopped on one of the "interior" bus routes to explore a bit more of the campground and also hit the other trading post for more pins.

We headed back to the Trail's End Buffet at 8:15 for our 8:30 dinner ADR. I can tell you this place is not the sleepy little restaurant I remember (and enjoyed!) They have taken most of the seating from the Tavern and turned it into buffet seating. It was mobbed. We waited a bit past our ADR time and were given a table basically in the Tavern, a long way from the buffet which would not normally have been a big deal but they kept running out of food on the buffet line and we were so far away we couldn't see when they would bring more. We waited quite awhile for chicken, even longer for beef. I don't know. For $65 including tip it just wasn't great. I'm glad we went over there to explore but I might opt for a pizza as a first night meal next time.

We finished up and hopped a boat back. We caught the Electrical Water Pageant from the Ft. Wilderness Dock and then we were lucky to catch Wishes on the boat ride back via the Contemporary. A nice bonus. We turned in (to our two Queen beds, separately how romantic huh?) and that was it.

Coming up tomorrow, checking out, checking in and Epcot!