Yes, yes it was... So I originally planned to go to Orlando to visit a few friends this summer all by myself. We had first planned a major reunion back around June/July; but it was cancelled. Ryan (Williams) took a job at a Beach, I took a near-full load of units for Summer School, Ryan (Bedford) needed to move out of his house, and many other things. It turned out to just be a really bad time for everyone. So, I purchased a ticket on my own for the week after I ended my Summer courses... and about mid-july or so things started to get crazy... I was talking to (Chris) Biggs one day and he mentioned he already was planning on being down that week I was there. Which worked out, cuz then we would each have someone to chill with. Ryan Williams had known about trip for a while, and after putting some thought into it he realized that he really needed, and wanted, a vacation. And once I had Ryan with me to try and put a trip together, all hell broke loose. We then started harassing (Ryan) Bedford that he had to come down and see us on this trip. And I started bugging Beau about coming down too. Biggs offered drive down with Beau to help each of them save money. Dee jumped on board too when she heard everyone was going down, since it'd been a year since she'd seen everyone. Joe (Lanza) was completely interested in going from the moment we mentioned it to him, and after some schedule checking he joined in too. My old roommate Dave joined too, since it'd been a year since he'd been to the parks. At that point it became a goal to see just how many more people we could convince to go last minute. Becky made it after talking to some people at work. Andy joined in and bought a ticket the same night he was invited (only a week prior to the trip). It turned out that Lauren (Perry) was already down in FL and would crash with us at the hotel. And Theresa joined us last minute too. She was pissed at me for not inviting her sooner than a week early.... SORRY THERESAAAAA! We also saw Aaron, Naidymar, Kelly, Chris, Amanda (Ryan), Jen (Chansley), Laurel and Kate of course, Pedro and Helen, Angel, Eddie, (Kevin) Tubbs, Rick, and a bunch more people that I know I'm forgetting to mention... The night I flew out I had to connect through Chicago... Yeah, I had to fly North before I flew South...what a pain. Anyway, my flight was delayed for two hours making my already two hour layover four hours. I met some really nice people there though. A guy and two girls who had just graduated high school and were flying to Florida to chill with a couple friends of theirs. Oddly enough I ran into them again a few days later at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. I finally landed at 2:30am. Ryan, Laurel, Joe, and Becky all met me at the Airport to pick me up. From there we went to IHOP to meet up with Biggs and Beau. It was great sitting there and talking with everyone again. Just laughing and laughing while we had a VERY early breakfast. From there we went to Pop Century where I had booked a couple rooms for everyone. The next morning Dave arrived at the hotel around 8 or so in the morning, we went swimming and walked around the complex. Pop Century is actually really nice, and even though it's one of the "budget" resorts on Disney property it doesn't have a "cheap" feel to it like All Star does. People started getting up and ready for the day around 9 I think. Kate came and met up with us and her, Becky, Me, and Dave all went to Access control (to check on Dave's ID) and then went to Property Control. After going back to the hotel we went to Magic Kingdom for the afternoon, got lunch and snacks. It pored for about 15 minutes while we were in line for Dumbo. Mid afternoon Ryan/Laurel went back to the hotel and crashed, the rest of us stayed and rode more rides. We even got to see Space Mountain with the lights on. After finally going back the hotel we tried to figure out what to do for dinner, but went swimming instead. We went to Cici's Pizza that night, because you can't beat All-You-Can-Eat pizza for $5. From there the group split up; half went to Jellyroll's and met up with Andy. The other half went to Ale House to visit Jen for her 22nd Birthday. I was in the Ale House group. Once there we also saw Amanda Ryan, who was working, and Rick who was in town for the week also. Dee came in that night and met up with us that night at the hotel when we got back. The next we originally planned to go to Typhoon after 2pm, to take advantage of the "Cast Member's get in for $10 bucks after 2pm" deal. Well, since most of us are ex-Blizzard guards we decided that going to Blizzard before Typhoon would be fun, especially since as ex-Bliz guards we'd get in for free. Well, once everyone else heard the new plan, they joined up to come too. Long story short, Nancy (who apparently was manager for the day) decided we couldn't get in... We should have waited til Scott was working. She was going to just let us in for the $10 price, which everyone was willing to pay. But halfway through that process she got all pissy and decided not to let us in at all.... WEIRRDDDDDDD. So, we left and went back to the hotel and swam there. And at 2pm went to Typhoon Lagoon as planned. The park was great, we saw Jen again since she was working, and also Courtney and Tubbs. We rode all the slides, caught some waves, and swam with the sharks. After a lap around the river Biggs and I left for the airport to pick up Theresa who had caught an early flight into Orlando. After getting her the three of us went to Chick-fil-A for lunch, one because I wanted to eat there, and two because apparently Biggs owed Theresa lunch there. Once back at the hotel everyone changed and got ready for a night at PI, which turned out to be a very long night. We all went to Friday's for dinner, and Jungle Jim's afterward. There we saw Pedro and Helen, Angel, Eric, and Kelly. The bouncer saw my VistaLay shirt and asked if I bought it on Ebay, haha. After Jungle Jim's we all went to PI. Everyone hit the Beach Club, and I went to say hi to my friends Suzie and Lea who were at 8trax. Aaron got there right as I was in line for the Beach Club. We went in and met up with everyone and after that we all went to Adventurer's Club. I don't think I can even begin to talk about what happened there. During the show Becky had to do a little maraca dance thing. Laurel and Kate got up on stage and had to do a booty shaking dance thing; and after that, not to be outdone, Joe got up to hit on one of the actresses who pulled him to the ground with her. After that he got up on stage and professed his love for her, hahaha it was great. The night still was long from over. We went to Motion's after that and met up with a bunch of other people and danced the night away. We all left around 1:45ish when the clubs all close. I spent a lot of the night, along with Beau, Theresa, and Dee, taking care of our friends who had a bit too much. Everything turned out fine, though the night was a little hectic. Tuesday started early, I didn't sleep much but wasn't tired at all. I spent the day relaxing and taking care of some things that needed to be taken care of. Becky, Beau, Lauren, and Biggs all left on their own and I spent most of the day with Joe. We had to change rooms that day, which made things a little crazy, but not bad. Bedford and Courtney drove in that day too. I don't recall if I actually went anywhere that day, I think I spent most of it at the hotel. I know that Dee/Theresa went to swim at The Swan with Andy. And Ryan slept most of the afternoon. We went swimming for a while before going back up to the room to get ready for another night out. Theresa wanted to straighten my hair.... so... she did. Everyone had been making jokes all week that I looked like Shaggy, so it only got worse with my hair straightened, hahaha. We went to Planet Hollywood for dinner that night. I ran into the people from the Chicago Airport there, it was weird. On the bus home that night we were all in the back joking around and laughing. The bus driver was great. Dee and Joe had been messing around (as a joke) and were saying "turn the lights off"; so when the driver turned them off, we cheered. He immediately them on, "AAWWWEEEE", then off again, and we cheered once more. Everyone pretty much got home and crashed since we were all pretty tired. Wednesday started late, the group had two different idea's of what to do that day. Some wanted to go the beach, the others the parks. I really didn't care who did what as long as everyone had fun. So we split into two groups; we all went to the parks and Beau, Becky, and Andy went the beach. We got to MGM and prior to doing anything we took two photos with the Kodak people. We went on Rockin' Roller Coaster where everyone was going to pretend to make out but the seats are too far apart. On Tower we all wore sunglasses and acted like secret service or something for the picture. While in I was buying ice cream some CP's saw my VistaLay tank top and started showing their friends, one guy actually went to the next store to get someone to tell. On our way out we stopped to buy the pictures we had done, and Joe ran into his old roommate he hasn't seen in like three years. Everyone went to Epcot after that, but for someone reason Aaron's ID wasn't working, even though it had just got him into MGM. The security guard was a dick and acting like Aaron was lying about being a Cast Member, and he kept Aaron's ID. So, we decided we'd just go around to the front and use a maingate ticket. But in order to get the front we had to either take a boat to MGM and bus back to Epcot, or a bus to Magic, Monorail or Boat to TTC, and then a Bus or Monorail to Epcot. Well, I talked Aaron and Naidymar into taking a little adventure and we went all the way to Magic. Once there I wanted to get the pineapple soft serve, since we'd come all that way. So we got ice cream and took a picture in front of the Castle since we knew no one would believe we went all the there. On the monorail ride to the TTC Naidymar mentioned she rarely ever had the chance to ride up front. So for the ride to Epcot I asked if we could ride up front; then let us. It was great you should have seen how happy she was. Aaron asked the driver all the weird questions that you wouldn't really ever ask, like "Have you ever hit a bird?". We got back to Epcot after being gone for about two hours. We all went on Mission Space, and then Spaceship Earth. After that we caught the Monorail to the TTC and walked to Polynesian for dinner. Becky decided not come to dinner, and a couple other people cancelled. So our reservation for 23 ended up only being 19. We were seated just in time for the start of the 10pm fireworks show - Wishes. Dinner was so much fun, the tab was huge though. We had our discount and two coupons to use too. Even after all that the waitress still walked with a $95 tip. When we left I said we needed to go to Magic to catch a bus, but no one believed me. So what happened, we walked to the TTC where everyone realized what I meant. So we caught a monorail back to Magic to be able to catch a bus back to our hotel. That night we went swimming again, but security kept walkin by. We decided we'd go back to the room just in case - after all it was 2am. We changed and then Aaron, Beau, Biggs, Theresa and I went to Perkins to sit and chat. Beau hadn't had much time to chill with us so I wanted to drag him out with us to talk. After that we took Aaron back to his new place and returned to the hotel...somewhere around 5am. Thursday was one lazy day, I think we got up around 10 or so. Laid around for a while and decided that shopping was the plan. All day we kept hearing about how hurricane Charley was headed right for us, we were hit with what was left of tropical storm Bonnie that morning. Beau, Becky, Lauren and a few others I think, went to the parks. And the rest of us went to the mall since Dee and Ryan wanted to hit up the Ron Jon shop there. I went home in Biggs' jeep with him and Dave; but Joe, Kate, Theresa, and Dee all went to a discount shop and bought "Florida Lifeguard" shirts... AND DIDN'T CALL ANY OF THE OTHER NINE LIFEGUARDS ON THE TRIP....am I bitter... no....not at all. That night we went to Downtown, with the intent to shop though it never happened. We all went to Wolfgang Puck-Express for dinner. The Express window is much better than the actual restaurant in my opinion. It was great, we met up with everyone else and sat in a little circle on the cement and ate. After dinner we went back to PI and hit up the comedy clubs, no dancing that night. I saw Suzie again, and we also ran into Jen among a few other people. Kelly met up with us to say bye that night too. Theresa's flight, that afternoon, had been pushed all the way to Monday due to the hurricane, and Dee rescheduled hers to stay the extra night too. Friday was busy. We had to be packed and out of the hotel by 11am that morning. Ryan's flight was 10am originally but Laurel changed his ticket to leave on Monday after the hurricane blew through. My flight was the next one, at 12pm. I was really hoping that mine would be cancelled too though I doubted that it would be. Dee was scheduled to fly out after me at 12:30pm. We packed up the rooms to make the 11am checkout. Aaron had come by at 8am to hang out for a bit a say goodbye. I told him to come by around 8 since we would all be there at that time. My alarm went off, but didn't make noise. My cell phone (which I use for my alarm) won't make an audible alarm if you have the ringer on vibrate, LAMEEEE. Anyway, I remember Becky waking up at like 4am to catch her shuttle to the airport. And the next thing I remember is Aaron climbing into bed and cuddling with me and Theresa. We all got packed up pretty quick, and were able to do the phone check out instead of waiting in the huge line. We packed up the car and said goodbye to the people who we could find. As Ryan, Laurel, Dee and I drove away Biggs, Beau, Joe, Lauren and Theresa all stood on the curb and waved as we left.... it was so depressing. I got to the airport and was waiting in line for about 15 minutes and only moved about 5 feet. I walked over to the computer and did the self check-in. Turned in my bags to the x-ray people, went through security, rushed to my terminal and gate and got there about 5 minutes before they started boarding. Both my flight and Dee's flight took off just fine. We missed Hurricane Charley by a couple hours. I got home and called to talk my friends who were in the middle of the hurricane at the time. They told me about how they were running around in the rain and taking pictures of themselves leaning into the wind. I wish I had stayed through the weekend with everyone instead of coming home. I had an awesome week though. It was great how many people all joined up to come on the trip, especially how many people came last minute. I slept a grand total of 27 hours during the trip; which is pretty funny considering how Ryan and I were saying we probably wouldn't be getting much sleep. I'll be back in October though... |