It's Been Awhile
Some of you may or may not have wondered if I had fallen off the face of the Earth. The past month or so has been horribly stressful - I took some time-off to gather my thoughts and not say anything that I'd regret...
The failure of our first IUI cycle hit us hard. This was part of the reason that we decided to move our highly-anticipated vacation up to the week after Easter. We both knew the parks would be crowded, but we really needed a break from reality. Despite a few little hiccups on our trip, it was exactly what we needed.
The day after Easter, we got up bright and early to head to the airport for our flight. I was quite proud of myself as I didn't have the standard panic attack about flying. (Granted, I took an anxiety pill immediately after getting through security.) There were maybe 20 people on our flight, and we were two of the four people in First Class, so I was able to turn my brain off and spread out.
Upon landing in Orlando, we headed to baggage claim to pick up our bags. This is where our first hiccup appeared - only two of our three checked bags were there. After thirty minutes or so, we went to the AirTran offices in search of my suitcase filled with those important toiletries. They were unable to locate my bag (which also contained shoes, contacts, my CHI, etc...) and it turns out that they managed to lose somebody else's bag too. I'm not quite sure how that happens, with all of 20 people on a flight. Sigh...
We gave up and went to pick up our rental car before heading to the Ritz Carlton, where we were upgraded to a yellow Chevy Camaro SS. Sweet!!!! The Ritz was amazing, and I'm pretty certain that they would have wiped my butt had I asked them to do so! :-) We had amazing massages at the spa and then ate dinner before retiring to our room - where we found a hand-written anniversary card and chocolate-covered strawberries. Around 10:30 that night my bag was brought to our room. Thank God!
The next day we headed to AKL to check-in, and were pleasantly surprised that our room was ready when we arrived. We were even upgraded to a Savannah View room! Talk about perfect. Since the parks were crowded, we decided to head to the pool for a relaxing afternoon. We finally made it to EPCOT and had a lovely dinner at Teppan Edo in Japan. While the food was much better than the last time we ate here, the company was horrific! I swear, they most Unhappy Family in the World was sitting next to us. I don't think they ever cracked a smile, and I promise you they never spoke a word. They seemed so miserable that we were pretty certain the only time they had ever "let loose" was when their son (equally unhappy) was conceived. Wow! We headed back to our resort and had a drink at the bar before attempting something that we knew was impossible - we went to concierge to see if they could possibly get us into Be Our Guest. I mean, it's worth a try, right?!
The guy we spoke with at concierge, Jeff, was a complete jerk. He looked at us, laughed, and said NO WAY. He wouldn't even try. He then proceeded to tell us that we'd never be VIP or important to those who work at Disney. Really?! Everybody is "special" and 'important" in Disney. Get over yourself, ass. Needless to say, we were both irritated at the not-so-magical experience. So, we went back to the bar to vent to our awesome bartender, Joe. Neither one of us expected anything to become of this, and we really just wanted to vent about the jerk we had just encountered. Joe ended up bringing his manager, Heather, to speak to us. It was out of her hands, as she's in a different 'discipline' than Jeff was. She was, however, gracious enough to listen to us and tell us that is not how Disney works. She called us about 30 minutes later with the news that she had scored us a table at Be Our Guest. How's that for magical?!
On Wednesday morning we headed to Hollywood Studios early so that Chad could ride all those horrendous throw-up rides that I hate. Both of said rides had a two-hour wait, so he decided he wanted to try the new Star Tours before heading back to the pool. Let's just say that Star Tours was so intense that it made him nauseous. He said he was really glad I didn't go with him, because I most definitely would have been puking. Afterwards we went to the pool, and scored a walk-in reservation at O'hana. Let me just say that it was just as delicious as I remembered it being. It's probably one of our favorite meals.
On Thursday it absolutely poured. We were sopping wet walking through Magic Kingdom, even with the ponchos on. Our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest was definitely worth it though. It's an absolutely beautiful restaurant and the food was pretty good, too. It was definitely the best strip steak that I'd had. The cupcakes for dessert were beautiful, and tasted pretty good too.
We spent most of Friday afternoon at EPCOT before eating dinner at Rose & Crown. I was uncertain about eating here, but I will say that it was one of our favorite meals. Chad ordered this horrific sounding thing called a "Scotch Egg" which is basically a hardboiled egg, covered in sausage, rolled in breading and deep-fried, then covered with a mustard sauce. Sounds vile, huh?! WRONG! Delicious. I surprised myself on that one...
By Saturday my blisters were getting the best of me, so we relaxed at the pool until it was time for dinner at my beloved Coral Reef. Let's just say that it isn't as beloved as it once was. In the past, they've had this amazing teriyaki glazed salmon but that is no longer on the menu. Since the orange-ginger glazed salmon didn't sound very appetizing, I got the Sustainable Catch. This was a Sea Bass with Andouille Sausage on cheese grits with a creole-gumbo sauce. YUCK. YUCK. YUCK. Perhaps it's because living in Texas I've become a creole snob??? All I know is that I won't be going back there for quite awhile - and Chad is super happy about this.
Since I couldn't walk on Sunday, we had a very laid-back day and changed our dinner reservations from Akershus to Jiko. Seeing as we canceled less than twelve hours before our Akershus reservation we were prepared to pay for cancelling it. However the nice lady in concierge didn't charge us, stating that we just made a little princess VERY happy. This was unnecessary, but very appreciated. I wasn't overly excited about eating at Jiko. While I love AKL, I'm not really keen on the "African" food. We ordered a bottle of African wine and filets for dinner. The filets were delicious, albeit a bit salty for our liking. They came with some strange looking grain, which neither of us would try, and Brussels Sprouts. I was excited about the Brussels Sprouts until I put them in my mouth. YUCK. The only thing I ate at this meal was the filet. Thankfully, I think Chad was equally underwhelmed (though we will both admit that the steaks were perfectly cooked and tender). We requested a late check-out at the front desk, and headed to bed for the last time at our home away from home.
Turns out, we really didn't need the late check-out. We got everything packed up and drove around looking at condos for awhile before heading to the airport. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed 30 minutes. UGH! All we wanted to do was go home to our sweet boys that we'd missed so very much. We got lucky as the flight ended up not being delayed, and actually got home earlier than anticipated. The only drama we had this go-round was that one of the wheels broke off of my expensive suitcase. Story of my life. (Oh, I also did phenomenal with flying again - another trip without panic attacks!)
The boys were so excited to see us. Cappy seriously stopped and dropped his mouth when we walked in the door, and then started howling uncontrollably. It was so sweet. He wouldn't even let us eat our dinner. Unfortunately, as I had expected, he had a few accidents in our closet. I probably should have closed the closet door, but I knew that Willie would need to hide from his "brudder" so I left it open. Oh well...at least Cappy has secured the new carpet installation for me. :-) (Maybe he was just looking out for me afterall!)
Tuesday was a hectic day - neither of us wanted to unpack, partially because we had so much to do. We ended up buying Chad a new truck that afternoon, which he absolutely loves. (Honestly, I love it too!!!!!) I went to the grocery store and we had dinner at our very beloved and missed Center Court. Ah! Felt so good to be home again. Part of me was even looking forward to returning to work on Wednesday. (Until the alarm went off on Wednesday morning - then I asked myself why I wanted to go to work. Guess it's a good thing that I love my co-workers and patients.)
The failure of our first IUI cycle hit us hard. This was part of the reason that we decided to move our highly-anticipated vacation up to the week after Easter. We both knew the parks would be crowded, but we really needed a break from reality. Despite a few little hiccups on our trip, it was exactly what we needed.
The day after Easter, we got up bright and early to head to the airport for our flight. I was quite proud of myself as I didn't have the standard panic attack about flying. (Granted, I took an anxiety pill immediately after getting through security.) There were maybe 20 people on our flight, and we were two of the four people in First Class, so I was able to turn my brain off and spread out.
Upon landing in Orlando, we headed to baggage claim to pick up our bags. This is where our first hiccup appeared - only two of our three checked bags were there. After thirty minutes or so, we went to the AirTran offices in search of my suitcase filled with those important toiletries. They were unable to locate my bag (which also contained shoes, contacts, my CHI, etc...) and it turns out that they managed to lose somebody else's bag too. I'm not quite sure how that happens, with all of 20 people on a flight. Sigh...
We gave up and went to pick up our rental car before heading to the Ritz Carlton, where we were upgraded to a yellow Chevy Camaro SS. Sweet!!!! The Ritz was amazing, and I'm pretty certain that they would have wiped my butt had I asked them to do so! :-) We had amazing massages at the spa and then ate dinner before retiring to our room - where we found a hand-written anniversary card and chocolate-covered strawberries. Around 10:30 that night my bag was brought to our room. Thank God!
The next day we headed to AKL to check-in, and were pleasantly surprised that our room was ready when we arrived. We were even upgraded to a Savannah View room! Talk about perfect. Since the parks were crowded, we decided to head to the pool for a relaxing afternoon. We finally made it to EPCOT and had a lovely dinner at Teppan Edo in Japan. While the food was much better than the last time we ate here, the company was horrific! I swear, they most Unhappy Family in the World was sitting next to us. I don't think they ever cracked a smile, and I promise you they never spoke a word. They seemed so miserable that we were pretty certain the only time they had ever "let loose" was when their son (equally unhappy) was conceived. Wow! We headed back to our resort and had a drink at the bar before attempting something that we knew was impossible - we went to concierge to see if they could possibly get us into Be Our Guest. I mean, it's worth a try, right?!
The guy we spoke with at concierge, Jeff, was a complete jerk. He looked at us, laughed, and said NO WAY. He wouldn't even try. He then proceeded to tell us that we'd never be VIP or important to those who work at Disney. Really?! Everybody is "special" and 'important" in Disney. Get over yourself, ass. Needless to say, we were both irritated at the not-so-magical experience. So, we went back to the bar to vent to our awesome bartender, Joe. Neither one of us expected anything to become of this, and we really just wanted to vent about the jerk we had just encountered. Joe ended up bringing his manager, Heather, to speak to us. It was out of her hands, as she's in a different 'discipline' than Jeff was. She was, however, gracious enough to listen to us and tell us that is not how Disney works. She called us about 30 minutes later with the news that she had scored us a table at Be Our Guest. How's that for magical?!
On Wednesday morning we headed to Hollywood Studios early so that Chad could ride all those horrendous throw-up rides that I hate. Both of said rides had a two-hour wait, so he decided he wanted to try the new Star Tours before heading back to the pool. Let's just say that Star Tours was so intense that it made him nauseous. He said he was really glad I didn't go with him, because I most definitely would have been puking. Afterwards we went to the pool, and scored a walk-in reservation at O'hana. Let me just say that it was just as delicious as I remembered it being. It's probably one of our favorite meals.
On Thursday it absolutely poured. We were sopping wet walking through Magic Kingdom, even with the ponchos on. Our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest was definitely worth it though. It's an absolutely beautiful restaurant and the food was pretty good, too. It was definitely the best strip steak that I'd had. The cupcakes for dessert were beautiful, and tasted pretty good too.
We spent most of Friday afternoon at EPCOT before eating dinner at Rose & Crown. I was uncertain about eating here, but I will say that it was one of our favorite meals. Chad ordered this horrific sounding thing called a "Scotch Egg" which is basically a hardboiled egg, covered in sausage, rolled in breading and deep-fried, then covered with a mustard sauce. Sounds vile, huh?! WRONG! Delicious. I surprised myself on that one...
By Saturday my blisters were getting the best of me, so we relaxed at the pool until it was time for dinner at my beloved Coral Reef. Let's just say that it isn't as beloved as it once was. In the past, they've had this amazing teriyaki glazed salmon but that is no longer on the menu. Since the orange-ginger glazed salmon didn't sound very appetizing, I got the Sustainable Catch. This was a Sea Bass with Andouille Sausage on cheese grits with a creole-gumbo sauce. YUCK. YUCK. YUCK. Perhaps it's because living in Texas I've become a creole snob??? All I know is that I won't be going back there for quite awhile - and Chad is super happy about this.
Since I couldn't walk on Sunday, we had a very laid-back day and changed our dinner reservations from Akershus to Jiko. Seeing as we canceled less than twelve hours before our Akershus reservation we were prepared to pay for cancelling it. However the nice lady in concierge didn't charge us, stating that we just made a little princess VERY happy. This was unnecessary, but very appreciated. I wasn't overly excited about eating at Jiko. While I love AKL, I'm not really keen on the "African" food. We ordered a bottle of African wine and filets for dinner. The filets were delicious, albeit a bit salty for our liking. They came with some strange looking grain, which neither of us would try, and Brussels Sprouts. I was excited about the Brussels Sprouts until I put them in my mouth. YUCK. The only thing I ate at this meal was the filet. Thankfully, I think Chad was equally underwhelmed (though we will both admit that the steaks were perfectly cooked and tender). We requested a late check-out at the front desk, and headed to bed for the last time at our home away from home.
Turns out, we really didn't need the late check-out. We got everything packed up and drove around looking at condos for awhile before heading to the airport. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed 30 minutes. UGH! All we wanted to do was go home to our sweet boys that we'd missed so very much. We got lucky as the flight ended up not being delayed, and actually got home earlier than anticipated. The only drama we had this go-round was that one of the wheels broke off of my expensive suitcase. Story of my life. (Oh, I also did phenomenal with flying again - another trip without panic attacks!)
The boys were so excited to see us. Cappy seriously stopped and dropped his mouth when we walked in the door, and then started howling uncontrollably. It was so sweet. He wouldn't even let us eat our dinner. Unfortunately, as I had expected, he had a few accidents in our closet. I probably should have closed the closet door, but I knew that Willie would need to hide from his "brudder" so I left it open. Oh well...at least Cappy has secured the new carpet installation for me. :-) (Maybe he was just looking out for me afterall!)
Tuesday was a hectic day - neither of us wanted to unpack, partially because we had so much to do. We ended up buying Chad a new truck that afternoon, which he absolutely loves. (Honestly, I love it too!!!!!) I went to the grocery store and we had dinner at our very beloved and missed Center Court. Ah! Felt so good to be home again. Part of me was even looking forward to returning to work on Wednesday. (Until the alarm went off on Wednesday morning - then I asked myself why I wanted to go to work. Guess it's a good thing that I love my co-workers and patients.)
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