Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
A is for: Again?! Are you SURE?!
Hey there, Hi there, Ho There! It’s me again, ready to take you on another adventure in and around one of my favorite places to travel. It never gets old, never gets boring, and I never run out of things to find new- even during a time with so many pandemic changes. As we all know, every trip has its unique nuances, its ups and downs. This was filled with a few extra downs, but I’ll get to that in due time. First… let me introduce myself to those of you who might be new to my Trip Reports. For those of you who are Old Timers, WELCOME BACK!! Whether you're new to me or have been around a while, you're all friends!
I go by a lot of things and to most I’m Liesa. I’m sure behind my back at work I go by a few other names. I currently live in Salem, Oregon, but will be moving to Bowling Green, Kentucky in a few short weeks, because I just can’t “Oregon” anymore. I’ll leave that as that. The plan is to spend winters in Arizona in my big, fat giant 5th wheel while doing Travel Nursing Contracts where the sun shines, because that’s always better than being where the sun don’t shine. Obviously, I’m a nurse (because it’d be awkward to do Travel Nursing without being a nurse) and I work in a pretty fantastic Ambulatory Surgery Center in Pre- and Post-Op. In fact, it was voted Best Surgery Center in Oregon last year by Newsweek Magazine. I love Recovery Nursing because mostly I love not having to work weekends, nights, or holidays. Except I’ve chosen to work a lot of that too leading up to my move and throughout Covid in many other departments. What else was supposed to do with not much open and gobs of work available?!
I’m single with 5 great “kids” from 19-30, which makes me old as dirt. Oddly, I feel pretty good despite that and, while physically it hurts to get out of bed most mornings, I am on-top-of-my-game professionally and mentally. Except I can’t remember what I had for breakfast past 9 AM. I have 3 grandbabies and 1 more due in a couple of weeks.
What else can I tell you? Hmm, let’s see… since this is a Disney-loving gang I’ll throw out a few from my “Raindrops on Roses” List- Disney-style:
Favorite Park- Animal Kingdom
Favorite Ride- Changes like smoke at a campfire but love FOP, ToT, HM and BTMRR
Favorite Disney Restaurant- Dunno!! V&A’s? Nomad?
Favorite Snack- Peter Pan Float
Favorite Resort- Wilderness Lodge or Boardwalk
Favorite Character- Belle for her ability to see the good in someone despite… everything and her brains and logical approach to things and Tinkerbelle for her naughty side.
Favorite Collectibles- Tiki cups and resort coffee mugs
Favorite Ride- Changes like smoke at a campfire but love FOP, ToT, HM and BTMRR
Favorite Disney Restaurant- Dunno!! V&A’s? Nomad?
Favorite Snack- Peter Pan Float
Favorite Resort- Wilderness Lodge or Boardwalk
Favorite Character- Belle for her ability to see the good in someone despite… everything and her brains and logical approach to things and Tinkerbelle for her naughty side.
Favorite Collectibles- Tiki cups and resort coffee mugs
Other fun facts… I have taken and passed my Private Pilots FAA Exam and hope to someday get back into the cockpit to finish that endeavor up, I lived in rural Kazakhstan for almost 10 years with my family and can fluently speak Kazakh, a fairly useless language here and now, have been to all 50 States (I remember most of those travels about as well as I can remember to pack underwear for my trips or not), and I love to get out and practice photography now and then. I hope you can fully appreciate the enormity of that incredible use of run-on sentence.
Now… on to the business of this latest Trip Report. My method of Trip Reporting can be a bit different than others, and for a while now I’ve stuck with a "Topical Approach"- much like Calamine Lotion on an irritating mosquito bite. Once in a while, maybe a chapter will scratch your Disney-lovin’ itch. However, THIS time I’ve chosen to go back to a chronological style for sake of ease and because my creativity for writing is waning. The art of dropping a good cliffhanger is easier, as might the art of keeping a few good readers engaged and spellbound. (The level of the sarcasm is practically dripping from your screen, isn’t it?)
The idea for this trip came in early January, I think? Maybe? At some point I scheduled some major abdominal surgery and knew I’d be in for a long, probably painful recovery. I reasoned, like every hard-core Disney fan would do, “I can sit in my boring apartment and recover wasting my time surfing the internet for 4 weeks, or I can go to Disney World and do what I could as I was able. It doesn’t even matter if I was just there a few weeks ago!” While it was probably a dumb idea, I made plans and the details got firmed up. It wasn’t easy recruiting a couple of gals to travel with and split the costs. But I couldn’t have asked for better company for… the trip that was. In the end, my folks decided to join for a few nights as well, and that was really nice. In all likelihood, that is the last time they will be able to do Disney.
Marcia is a former neighbor who is still a very close friend. She is a fun-loving, wine-loving, travel-loving lady a bit older than me. She’d only been to Disney once a few years ago and was sick for most of her trip, so she wanted to go again and see it through my eyes. And as wonderful as she is, there were some adjustments I had to make, none too huge or trip-busting. I’ll get to those.
Karilynn ( @Malia78 )is a very close friend that I’ve traveled with for years. I love her to pieces and we seem to get along and travel together pretty well. Despite my farting in the room on occasion, I hope she’ll invite me to travel with her again in the future. (You sure you wanna cruise with me, Kari- staterooms are pretty small?) She isn’t on the DIS as much as she was, but if she’s so inclined, she can introduce herself a bit more.
My folks. What can I say? They are the best parents anyone could ever ask for and are still independent albeit a bit slower than they used to be. Heh, aren’t we all? The fact that they are truly amazing AND that they are slowing down BOTH played parts in the trip dynamics… but we’ll get to that.
Back to the trip basics:
I chose to get a Little Mermaid room at AoA, cuz “cheap”. I use that term as loosely as one uses “adult entertainment”. It’d be fine for a short week and plenty big enough. Kari could only be there for a few nights, sadly, due to work commitments, so after she left, the space would certainly be enough. I detest the walk to, well, anywhere from those rooms, but I wouldn’t have to!!! I rented a scooter!!! SAVED. MY. LIFE! Mom rented one too. Saved her life and probably made the trip even possible in the first place for her. Her knee replacement had failed (it was only about a year old) and she literally could barely walk. In the AoA room was only Marcia, Karilynn, and me. After the AoA “portion” of the trip, I moved us over to Coronado where my folks, Marcia, and I shared a bigger, nicer room. I’d never stayed there and wanted to check it off the bucket list. So, it was a split stay which I’m never opposed to. It’s like a Trip Twofer! But not like a BOGO.
I was there from April 20th- 27th, with various peoples and then Marcia and I left for the deserts of Tucson to visit some friends and to see my 5th wheel and I wanted to see for myself, prior to getting there this coming January, exactly what I’d bought and to take measurements of the walls, drawers, etc… Most importantly, I wanted to see what my Covid overtime paid for. Suffice to say, I can’t wait to enjoy my Winter Digs! Marcia and I spent 3 nights at the Casino del Sol Resort only because it is near the RV park and is easy access to the airport as well. Loads of stories from this portion, so I hope you’ll stick around for that.
And now, without further ado and drivelry, I present to you…
An Alphabetical, (Flower and) Garden Variety TR
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