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Trip Reports!

We have made a lot of friends on the internet, on a number of boards. Unfortunately not all our good friends are welcome everywhere. That raises a dilemma: where to post trip reports where all our friends can enjoy them?

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Outwit, Outplay, Out walk
(Originally posted on the Lodgeboards.com)


I’m your host Jeff Roast and I’ll be telling our story. Our Survivors will have to outwit, outplay and out walk to become the champions. Each episode will feature challenges (or Challanges as the President spells them, and if the President of these United States doesn’t care about spelling, why should I?) and rewards.

Every few days, the tribe will speak and someone will get an earful and be tossed off the island.

Our story starts on Friday at lunch. The kids have a half day so we are off to the airport at 1:00 pm. That's just the kind of strict disciplinarian parents this tribe has. No leaving school early, even on a half day! OK you can skip the whole next week for a trip to Disney and they couldn't possibly care less but damn it your not missing a second on that Friday!

[An Official note from an Official Lodgeboards.com Moderator: We* will not condone any lengthy thread digressions about taking kids out of school. This board is about fun and we* think taking a week off school to go to Disney is officially fun. We* will not have this reality shoe err… show distracted with such folly. Unless of course RMD disagrees in which case we* agree with him even if he’s wrong.
*(a word that here means I, in an Imperially Regal kind of a way)]


Our Southwest flight is delayed about an hour but shows up exactly when they said it would. Having had more than my share of layovers at Hartsfield in Atlanta I’m just as happy to wait for the plane and go direct.

The flight is the first opportunity for the survivors to test their skills. Southwest uses the line’m up and heard the cattle on board seat assignment method. There are a lot of other passengers in the heard grazing around the cattle shoot. Kim gets in line early. She has a plan and a stroller.

[Another Official note from a the same Official Lodgeboards.com Moderator: We* will not condone any lengthy threads digressions about kids being too old for strollers. This board is about fun and we* think taking a stroller to carry all our junk around Disney officially make more time for fun. We* have no idea what we* will do when we* don't have a kid to put in the stroller we* us to schlep all our stuff on. Beside it (the stroller) is integral to Kim's "Plan."  We* will not have this reality shoe err… show distracted with such silly conversations. Unless of course RMD disagrees in which case we* still agree with him even if he’s wrong again.
*(a word that here means I, in an Imperially Regal kind of a way)]


Southwest has been know to take gate check strollers as early boarding, (I think they like to get them into the plane early so they can shut the hatch shut and push the plane back.) The cattle rustler at the gate sees the stroller and the Zurg tribe are sent down the shoot early resulting in a third row seats!

Schwing!

I like Southwest. They load up and push back from the gate faster than anyone. OK there isn’t much in the way of amenities but the point of an airline is to get you there and they do that great. On the flight the tribe plays a little musical chairs with kids up and down for the blue room (pilot speak for the lavatory.)

Connor likes the little bag of honey roasted peanuts. (Little being the operative word.) The flight attendant passes by and asks if everything is OK. Connor asks for another bag. It seems Connor has won the game of blue room seat shuffle and it was a reward challenge.

Sonal our flight attendant gives him a bag of peanuts. Not a little bag, a huge bag jammed full of the little bags of peanuts. At camp the tribe will be able to live on this bag of nuts for days.

Sonal wins the first BadShoe ThankShoe pin of the trip.
(note the bag of bags of peanuts in Connor's hand)


MCO (that’s pilot talk for Orlando’s airport, impressed with all this aviator jargon aren’t ya?) was no problem. We got the luggage and are in the rental car in no time. This should be the Amazing Race not Survivor.

The price of this rental van has been falling for weeks. Every time there was a favorable change, Kim would:
- Book a new car.
- Call her girl friend Robin to tell her about the new rate.
- After she had a new confirm in hand and Robin was notified of the rate change, Kim would cancel the prior reservation.

She did this some where between six and a hlaf dozen times.

The car companies spent a small fortune on data processing and cancellations, Sprint made a bundle on cell calls but damn it all Kim and Robin got the best rental rates available. Rumor has it the rental car place got revenge by giving Robin car that was camouflaged by an invisibility cloaked or something but we’ll let her tell that story (and it's gonna be funny.)

The Zurg Tribe headed straight for temporary camp at Pop Century. They were spending a night at the Casino of Disney World before checking into Boardwalk. This saves Friday night DVC points and gives them a turn at the roulette wheel.

First Kim headed for the check in desk and Zurg took the kids to the food court for dinner. Connor was a little late for food and insulin but not a lot. Zurg pulled out a needle and give’m a shot, looking like some kind of a pusher giving kids needles but what the heck.

Pop Century has a great food court. The guys who run the Epcot resorts should check it out. Yeah Beach club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk et al are fancy pants resorts with sit down joints but man they need a feeding place like this; quick, decent food, Disney prices. (Sing it with me Meatloaf fans, ‘...two out of three ain’t bad.’) On the Boardwalk Mickey would make a buck ok two or three bucks, guest could saves time, win -win.

Kelley and I worked it all out. Put it in the Atlantic Dance Hall or someplace on the Boardwalk like the old DVC sales place. Theme it to a beach surf shop combine it with a retail place with surf / beach merchandise that appeals to teens, Quicksilver, Hobie, (Mickey surf shirts for fat old guys link me….)

Make it so you have to go through the retail space to get to the food. Play beach tunes that the teens parents like (beach boys, old Bruce etc) so they will hang around and spend their money on the food and retail merchandise teens like; burgers, dogs, fries, Philly cheese steaks, soda with self serve refillable cups, sell over prices groceries, pretty much just clone the Pop Century place (but IMHO have a better beer selection.)

There are two things my kids like about Pop, climbing on the giant period art peices and the casino. One of the life guards tried to vote Connor off the island for climbing (they did have a lot of no climbing signs that were not there the week the place opened.)


Delaney hit big at the roulette wheel in the arcade and that won her an immunity idol in the form of plastic arcade junk.

It was our first day at camp so there was no tribal council (other than to decide to go to MK the next day.)

Text and Photos Copyright © 2004, Bennet Dunlap





 


Love Ya / Mean It and BadShoe.com Pins

Tony, Delaney, Connor - Love Ya / Mean It

Robin & Del, Kimball & Bennet (aka Delswife & Scuba Steve, Zurgswife & Zurg) are proud to announce two unique limited edition trading pins to benefit research to help find cures for Juvenile Diabetes and Muscular Dystrophy.

We love going to Disney World and writing funny trip reports, after all it is how we became friends.  We care just as much or more about helping these two great causes. All the profits from pin sales will go to JDRF and MDA because, well, Robin thought it would be a fun idea.

So if you enjoy the trip reports please chip in and buy a pin or two. Pins are $10.00 each including shipping and handling (North America.) Send an email to pins@badshoe.com with how many pins you would like and we will get the pins rolling. The BadShoe.com pins have sold out. Existing orders are being filled but we can't take anymore BadShoe.com pin orders, sorry. There still Love Ya /  Mean it Pins (there were more to start.) 

If you feel inspired click either MDA or JDRF's logo or both and make additional contributions.