A Flawless Beginning

     Sometimes when things go so well at the beginning of a trip, you tend to feel disaster is right around the corner.  So far, things could not be going any better for us here!   Here I sit on our wonderful porch overlooking the 7th hole (the island hole) in the early hours of our second day, and I'm sure we have landed in heaven.

     We flew out of Detroit Metro on Northwest Airlines at 7:05AM.  At least 1/2 a year ago, we purchased our E-tickets online for the entire family including Deb's Mom.  On the morning of the 28th, we printed out our boarding passes for each of us.  This is something new that Northwest just started and it works GREAT!  We parked at an off-site lot and were immediately shuttled to the front of the Northwest terminal.  Checked our bags with the Sky-cap and proceeded to our gate.  We stopped and got a couple Cinnabons and a cup of coffee, but we never had time to finish before we boarded our plane.  The adults only need to show their drivers license and give them our pre-printed tickets to get on.  We never waited in any check-in lines and we had already selected our seats online!  It's just an amazing system.  We took off right on time, and with a strong tailwind, we landed in Orlando 20 minutes ahead of schedule!  In a little less than 2 hours we are here!!  Believe me, for folks that usually drive down in 2 days, this is very cool.  We got our luggage and picked up our minivan at Dollar Rental.  We got spectacular rates on our flights and our car rentals online.  Ahh, the real beauty of the internet.  And we thought it was just for chatting and reading trip reports :)

     We got over to Disney's Old Key West Resort around 10:30AM.  Our room was not ready, of course, so we put our suits on and swam and sunned up at the main pool.  Deb bought drinks and fries for the girls at the Gurgling Suitcase.  It's sunny and in the mid 80's with just a bit of humidity....perfect!  Deb's Mom purchased a 5 day Hopper pass, so we didn't plan on going to a park right away.

     Since Deb and I purchased the last 100 points at Disney's Boardwalk resort earlier this week (sorry folks), we needed to make a little trip over to the Disney Vacation Club offices for our closing.  The Rep. at the DVC desk made arraignments to have a van pick us up at 12:30 and take us over there.  We let Deb's Mom and the girls stay at the pool and enjoy the afternoon.  There was a little glitch in our day when I had forgotten my wallet and license at OKW and had to get a ride back to get it but, it was a minor inconvenience, and not worth mentioning (but I just did, so there ya go).  The closing was quick and painless.  Deb got a new DVC tote and a couple of pins from our guide before we left.  Oops, I wasn't suppose to tell anyone...oh well.

     We returned to OKW and Deb's Mom (who relocated out of the sun) and decided to have lunch/dinner off-site at Burger King.  After lunch, we stopped at Gooding for some groceries, then returned to get our room number.  It was ready at 4:00PM as promised and we had all our request met.  6313 is a beautiful 2 bedroom, 1st floor until overlooking the 7th hole which is surrounded by water.  These buildings are part of the newer units completed last year.  We are right across the street from the Hospitality House, General Store and main pool.  Our bus stop is in front of the main lobby.  This couldn't get any better for us!!  It has become my favorite location here at Old Key West (I say that every trip).

     A view of the 7th hole.  A big group of ducks come up every time I go out on the porch for a hand out.  The golfers drive right past our room on their way to the 8th.  

    We got settled in and unpacked before meeting up with Deb's sister and going over to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom.  We took a bus over there from OKW and got in line to enter the park at 7:00PM.

As you approach the Magic Kingdom huge, floating ghosts and jack-o-lanterns greet you in the machine created fog.  Family pictures are taken at several locations through the park free of charge.  Amanda hoops it up with the live Dj's at the dancing parties.

     The party was fun and the kids had a riot.  We did Space Mountain, Buzzlightyear, Teacups, Carousel and the Haunted Mansion between all the dance parties and shows.  The fireworks were fantastic, with a panorama of pyrotechnics encircling the entire park!  We caught the parade as we were heading out.  We are all very tired tonight!  We came home and fell into bed.  So far, this has been a perfect vacation.

Rich and Deb's Disney Trip Page

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