Well, this is my first attempt at a trip report. It may be long, don't feel compelled to read it. Hopefully I can get the pictures to embed, if not, they'll be a bunch of random pics at the end! My Disney trip definitely started out under a gray cloud. A few days before my go-to-Disney-Day, I woke up with a horrible sinus infection. A quick trip to the doctor got rid of the sinus pain, however, I was left with a pretty bad cough. I was determined not to let the germs get the better of me, so I packed up enough meds to drug a horse (better living through chemistry), and prepared to head off to the House of Mouse. And then the other shoe dropped. Furlough. Government shuts down the Tuesday before I'm scheduled to leave. No paychecks for anyone!! Well, this certainly put a wrinkle in my plans. Although my trip was paid for, including the dining plan, I had a lot of guilt as to whether or not I should be spending the money to go to the World. I mean, the logical side of my brain says "they can't keep the gov't shut down forever" while the emotional side of my brains is screaming "unemployment!!". Guilt, guilt, guilt. What to do??!! I realized in the end that I wasn't getting any money back if I cancelled, so I would just watch my discretionary spending, but damn it, I'm going to Disney World!! And so off I went on a sunny Thursday morning.
My flight was PACKED but fairly uneventful. There was a family with a little kid seated in the row behind me and the kid kept kicking the seats. The kid's Mom thought it was cute; those of use who kept getting whacked in the back of our seats, not so much. We had a great flight attendant who spoke to the parents about the behavior and asked them to keep their son from kicking our seats and the rest of the flight went smoothly. Landed on time and off I went to the Magical Express!! Checked in with my Magic Band and we were on our way!!!
Check in at POR was super easy. Only complaint was that I didn't get my glow in the dark 2013 Magic Band accessory, but I went back later and a CM made sure I got one (so make sure you ask for one, if you aren't offered one!!). My room was ready, so I stashed my carry-on and packed my bag for the park. Next order of business, camera pick up!! I decided to rent a camera from Kingdom Cameras for this trip. A Canon SL1 or something like that. Kingdom Cameras was awesome. I met the representative in the lobby and got a quick tutorial on how the camera works. Pretty sweet little camera and I ended up taking almost a thousand pictures. My friends and family are tired of seeing every moment of my Disney vacation on Facebook!! 
Magic Kingdom was on the agenda for the rest of the afternoon. I got into the park around 130 and immediately noticed that there were NO crowds!! I was shocked. I knew a lot of schools were on fall break, plus it was a race weekend and F&W fest, so I assumed the parks would be full. Nope. It was lovely and I was on a mission. After the obligatory pictures in front of the castle, I took a left and headed into Adventureland. I decided to test out the camera with some action shots of the birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room. POTC was next on the list, followed by BTMRR. Walked on to both of them. AWESOME!! After I got off BTMRR, I only had 10 minutes before my FP+ to Splash Mountain, so I headed over to wait. It was like waiting for water to boil, the minutes just ticked by SO slowly. I chatted up the CM checking the FPs and she gave me the tip that the FP+ usually activate 5 minutes before your scheduled time. Hopped on Splash Mountain, which seemed to be experiencing some issues, as the ride stopped and restarted several times. Even still, I live that ride, I think the animations are awesome and it's refreshing to get a little splash on a hot October afternoon.
After Adventureland, I headed over to the Haunted Mansion. Just like Splash Mountain, it also was experiencing a lot of stops and starts. It's really hard to get into the flow of the ride when it's so hurky jerky. And there seemed to be something wrong with the hitchhiking ghosts as well. You could see the ghosts, but you didn't see your reflection with the ghost in the car. Very odd. I hit up the Country Bear Jamboree and headed into Mickey's Philharmagic. While I was waiting in line, my phone started ringing. It was my mom, calling to tell me she had been in a car accident and needed the AAA number to tow her car, as her front axel was broken and it wasn't driveable. She was very upset and I had to quick jump out of line to chat with her and get her the number she needed. As this was happening, I was texting with my sisters as to who was going to pick her up and help her out. We got everything worked out and she was okay, just mad at herself (she ended up with the ticket) - only damage was to her vehicle.
Once I felt certain that Mom was in good hands, I continued making my way around the park and ended up in the new Fantasyland. I spent a LOT of time here. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies, so I loved Gaston's Tavern and Beast's Castle. Took tons of pics. I had a FP+ for Under the Sea, which is one of my new favorite rides. I sang the entire time. They did a really good job telling the story of the Little Mermaid in this ride. If you haven't ridden it, it's worth the wait. Quite awesome. I rode it twice. I had about an hour after Under the Sea, so I waited at Ariel's Grotto. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what I was waiting for, I thought you walked through Ariel's home. Imagine my surprise when I walked in and there's Ariel herself!! What a great character interaction. We had a long chat. She looked at my ear piercing (I have a cartilage piercing) and asked me if a fisherman speared me. She told me I need to swim faster. I told her I was a slow swimmer, but a fast runner. We had a lovely chat and in the end, she agreed to teach me to swim and I'd teach her to run, once she got her legs. What a deal!!
After Ariel's Grotto, I had a few minutes to kill before my next FP+ so I headed back to Mickey's Philharmagic. Fortunately, no accidents or disruptions this time! It was then time for my last FP+ for this trip, which was Enchanted Tales with Belle. Cute, but definitely geared to little kids and as an adult, kind of hard to get into. Would see it again if the line was short, but not sure I'd waste a FP+ on it.
Time to head out of the park and to my ADR at Boma. Got to AKL early and spent some time exploring the resort. Got a good look at the Savannah and saw giraffes having their dinner, some zebras, and a few other animals. Very excited to stay here in November!! Now regretting that I didn't reserve a Savannah view (I went cheap and just got a standard view room) but it looks like we'll still have an opportunity to see some animals. Headed into Victoria Falls to wait for my pager to go off. I met a very nice couple who just got off a Disney cruise. The wife recommended the Habanero Margarita - YUM, although I wish it had been spicier to clear my sinuses!! Finally my pager went off. Boma was delish and I love the CMs walking around playing the African drums. At one point, there was a full blown conga line going. The chicken and the olive hummus were my favorite dishes. And of course, the Zebra domes. I ate 2. I was SO full and when my server came back to check on me, I mentioned that I wished I'd skipped the Tusker beer that I'd tried so maybe I could have forced down another Zebra Dome. My awesome server Allison winked at me and suggested I go get another plate full of Zebra Domes. When I got back to the table, there was a to-go cup waiting for me. I stuffed the Zebra Domes in the cup and took 'em with me!! (BTW, if you put them in sideways, bottom to bottom, you can fit 6 Zebra Domes in 3 layers of 2. In case you ever need this info). Sadly when I got back to POR I discovered that I still had an "out of order" fridge in my room so I tried to ice the domes in the ice bucket, but they didn't last too long. 
Read a bit, took a ton of cold medicine, and then off to bed to prepare for day 2!!
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I'm also running the W&D half with my Husband. It's our first half so we're pretty excited about it 
Hopefully you're feeling better for that run!
