Our “Big Trip”

March 22, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

Our recent sojourn down to Florida was, if you will, just an appetizer to our retirement road trip; what we call “Our Big Trip.” We’ve been talking about this for years, and actually figuring dates out once the decision was made that I was going to retire at the end of this past January. The time line in our minds was to leave sometime mid August, and to return, at the very latest, in time for Thanksgiving. Our plan was to drive west, seeing some of the great sights this country has, and to check them off our bucket list. This would be a Bucket List trip for us.

We started by collecting AAA Tour Books for most of the states. We also have added a couple of books with listing of things you absolutely must see across the United States. Some are wacky, like the World’s Largest Ball of String, but many are just not to be missed attractions. Susie has been going through the books taking notes, and the last two days we have both been working diligently on the tour books, and putting together a list of MUSTS for the trip. We also figured that places like Chicago or Detroit were close enough to the East Coast to be other shorter trips, and our intention is to concentrate on more of the Western United States. We figured to head west on a northern route, and return east on a more southern route, hopefully keeping summer weather with us for most of the journey. The first “must” we planned on hitting was Mount Rushmore, to satisfy Frank’s long desire to see it in person (too many viewings of North by Northwest).

While our plan is to basically wander in the general direction of the west coast, we understand that to stay in some places that are on the “Must List” of ours, we were going to need reservations. Three of those places are Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, and Monument Valley. We’ve read online that reservations at these 3 places need to be made months in advance, but figured that as we were 5-6 months out from our dates, we were still within the window of opportunity. Yesterday afternoon, we discovered that we didn’t have all the time in the world, and that our window of opportunity was about to slam shut! So our trip, that before yesterday was still kind of in the imaginary stage, just moved into the realm of reality! We discovered that there were very few availabilities left, and that if we wanted to stay on-site in these three places, we needed to act ASAP. Needing to make those reservations meant that we had to really look at the trip in earnest, decide what we really wanted to see, and forced us to actually come up with a timeline, while still leaving lots of open time to just check out neat looking things and places along the way.

Our “real” trip will commence with us leaving Long Island on Saturday August 21st. Our first reservations are for the nights of August 28th and 29th when we are booked at the Lake Hotel Sandpiper Lodge in Yellowstone Park. From there we have 2 open weeks, as our next booking is the nights of September 14th and 15th at the Yavapai Lodge in the Grand Canyon. Then, on Friday the 16th, we have one night booked at the View Hotel in Monument Valley. The only other defined part of our trip is the October 2nd to 16th two week period when we will be cruising on the Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston, Texas, and visiting with Kenny and Chris and their shipboard family. We still have lots of open space on our calendar to do the wandering part of this trip, and even if we have had enough, and just return home after the cruise, we will be gone 2 months! We always had a plan, but now we really have a plan and the trip is much more of a reality than it was just 24 hours ago!

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Final Florida Recap

March 19, 2016August 12, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 1 Comment

Okay…this is our last look at our Florida trip…kind of like our road trip by the numbers. You may find some of this interesting, but honestly we are doing this as much for us, as you, so that we remember some of this information when we next venture out on the open road.

Miles Driven:

The one way distance from our home on Long Island to Walt Disney World is 1,126 miles. During our 11 days on the road we drove a total of 2439 miles, so did a little less than 200 additional miles during our trip. Some of those miles were spent driving to and from restaurants on our way up and down, and some were used in Walt Disney World. We drove to Epcot, the Magic Kingdom (2 days), and our spring training game at ESPN World. Yes, we know that WDW has a great transportation system, but a number of years ago we waited forever with tired kids for a bus at one of the water parks, and frankly, it’s just easier to do it on our own. Also, since one of Frank’s retirement perks is free parking, all we waste is time!

Days to Florida:

“Lets Drive RightThrough!” Ah, no, thank you! Yes, you can indeed get to Florida in less than 24 hours by driving straight through, but this was supposed to be a fun trip, so we left on day one, and arrived on day three. We did the same thing on the way back. Our daily mileage averaged around 400 more or less. We didn’t set alarm clocks, we left when we left (usually sometime around 9AM), but always tried to stop between 4:30 and 5:30. A long time ago, when Susie was pregnant with our oldest Billy, we drove to the midwest, and her doctor told her to stop every hour or so and get out of the car and walk around. Since then, that has been our MO on the road. One of us will drive an hour and/or 100 miles, we will stop, hit the bathroom, and then the other will take over.

Gas:

Gas prices have really dropped lately, and that makes a road trip even more affordable. As we said in an earlier post, the Sonata got great mileage (we regularly saw numbers in the low to mid 30 miles per gallon), so we stopped for gas about once a day. The lowest price we saw was on the New Jersey Turnpike on the way down, where it was $1.57 a gallon for regular. As soon as we crossed the bridge and entered Delaware, gas prices jumped 30 cents or more a gallon. The next cheapest state was Georgia, where it was in the $1.80 range. Around Disney World the prices were high (of course), but Frank just read on the internet of gas stations close to the Orlando Airport that change $5 and change a gallon to screw those folks looking to return their rental car full! Even with Frank’s Cleaning product purchase, we didn’t come close to that!! We only spent $146.98 for the total trip for gas, and we just drove down to Ocean City on that last tank we got on the New Jersey Turnpike on the way home!

Motels:

So, its been a number of years since we’ve taken a trip like this, and frankly, before we left, how much nightly accommodations were going to cost us was something we had no idea about. There are also a lot of new chains out there. Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, etc., so the landscape has changed since the last time we did this. One great new tool is to join hotel’s chains “frequent flyers” programs, and then load their app on your phone. Many different named chains operate under the same corporate flag, so having a couple of these apps on your phone really gives you a lot of choices. We spent 4 nights on the road, and our hotel costs ran from a low of $69.49, to a high of $94.75 . A lesson we quickly learned, however, was that the extra $20 we spent on our more expensive nights made a huge difference. Save the $20, get old 1970s motel type accommodations. Spend the $20 and get nice, clean, modern rooms, and even a full free breakfast. Our opinion, save $20 somewhere else and enjoy the night…your next day depends on it! We spent a total of $329.13 for our on-the-road accommodations. Even with Frank’s 50% Disney Discount, our 5 days in WDW cost us $753.75….but we loved it!! Our total was $1082.88 for the entire 11 days.

Food:

We’ve already talked about what we did for our lunches, and truly think that having the cooler and food in the car with us, is by far the best solution for lunches on a road trip. It saves you money, it saves you time, and keeps the journey focused on moving forward. Occasionally, we’d take advantage of the hotel’s breakfast offerings, but most days we opted to just hit the road and start driving. We did in an Applebees and a Dave’s Famous BBQ, but the two best meals we had on the road were in local, non-chain restaurants. On our way down, in Darien Georgia, we had a wonderful fried shrimp dinner (a pound of shrimp each) for $73.49 at B&J’s Steak and Seafood (thanks Abe Gorin for the tip!). Then on the way back up, in Ridgeland, South Carolina, we had an incredible southern meal at Jasper’s Back Porch. We sat on the back porch, overlooking a lake, and had a soup to nuts meal for $85.78. We had a couple of very nice, and pricey dinners in Disney World (like Wolfgang Pucks at Disney Springs that cost us $205 including Frank’s discount), but our on-the-road meals ran between $60 and $85.

Wolfgang Puck’s at Disney Springs

Walt Disney World:

Okay, so Frank gets a discount on hotels, food, and merchandise thanks to his Disney Retiree status, but even with that, it is not a cheap place. Every night, we ended our day at our resort’s Jazz Club (the Scat Cat’s Club), and spent around $100 for drinks and appetizers (the appetizers was our dinner several nights!), but we loved ending the day this way, and after a couple of days, became “regulars” to Laura the waitress. Breakfasts were about $20-$25 per day, but we figured if we were going to walk our asses off, we needed some sustenance! These 5 days were really our only breakfast expenses. Lunches, drinks (at Epcot’s World Showcase) cost us too, as did purchases we made (sweatshirts, little things for the Grandkids, etc), but that was the price of admission if you will. Not something we’re gonna do every day or every year. We figure we spent around $390 for Misc items, and those ran from a car wash for the Sonata to laundry we did at the WDW resort.

Keeping Track of it All:

We are only able to report most of these figures, because of a great app Susie has on her phone, called Trip Wallet. It was a very easy way to keep track of the $$$ we spent on everything from gas, to hotels, to food. It cost around $1.99 at the Apple Store, and will get a lot more use going forward. Much better than a pad and a pen, and as it was on her phone, she always had it with her.

What it Cost us to Drive Round Trip to Florida:

Our gas for the trip cost $146.98, our 4 hotel nights on the road cost $329.13, and for 4 road night dinners we spent $296.10. Lunches we had in the car, made up from stuff we brought from home, so maybe $30. The only other expense related to driving our own car, was $9 we spent for a car wash on the way home because the car was covered with Florida tree pollen. So, our grand total was $811.21. We went up on the Jet Blue site, and we’re sure you could get a round trip flight cheaper, but just doing a dummy booking from JFK to Orlando for 2 people for 7 days in Florida came out to about $895. We did the same thing at the Hertz site, and their cheapest car for week came to about $307. As we said, you could probably get both cheaper, but that’s probably in the neighborhood of what we would have spent, so flying and renting would come to about $1200. We spent almost $400 less than that, and had a great road trip on top of some savings. A win/win situation we think!

So that’s it, our last look at our 11 days on the road that included 5 days at Walt Disney World, two Spring Training Mets’ games, and a visit with Frank’s cousin Jeanne and her husband Walt in Bare Foot Bay, Florida. See you on the road again, or on our next adventure real soon!

A Good Idea We’d Like to Share

March 15, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

One of the things that we did differently on this past trip, that we will probably do on every future road trip, had to do with our pillows. Frank has long complained about the fact that some hotels have great pillows, while others have the worst. Some are like a lump of concrete, some are as flat as a pancake, and occasionally, not to sound like Goldilocks, some are just right! In fact, a couple of years ago, Frank did find one of the 5 pillows on our king sized bed at the Rio in Vegas that was just right. The problem was that every night he had to figure out which one it was! Now, Sue is not as pillow conscious on the road, but as she does have pillow likes and dislikes, she agreed to Frank’s plan.

Now I know a lot of you do this, but the plan was to take 2 of our favorite pillows with us. That way, whatever we were thrown in terms of beds and pillow comfort, we always had our own pillows to ease our heads to sleep after a busy day. Well, it worked out incredibly well, and probably led to some of the best travel nights’ sleep we have ever had. Now, my thought was just that we’d throw the pillows into some kind of a bag, and throw it in the trunk of the car, but Sue came up with such an elegant and all encompassing solution, that we just had to share it with you.

Behold, Pillow Bag 101!

What we started with was a multi pocket duffle bag measuring approximately 26X15X12 inches.

The main compartment held our two pillows.

Below the pillows we stashed our PJs.

In one side pocket, Frank’s underwear lived.

While Sue’s were stored in the front pocket.

In the left side pocket was our toiletries bag.

And in the back pocket, our two Kindles.

Every night we’d grab this bag out of the trunk and in one place we had everything we needed for our stay. It made it so much easier than dragging in our big suitcase and rummaging through it, looking for what we needed. In fact, with the exception of the 5 nights we stayed in Disney World, the big suitcase lived in the trunk. It was easy enough to open the bag and exchange a shirt or pants and we never had to remove it from the Sonata’s trunk.

A simple but elegant solution to being on the road and staying in different motels nightly!

Looking Back

March 14, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

Now that our Florida trip is over, we have to get on the stick and start planning for our big USA trip that we hope to start in August. We’ve got Tour Books from the AAA, maps of all kinds, and we’re making lists of places we don’t want to miss. But before we get hot and heavy into research and planning for that trip, we figured it might be good to take a look back at our recently completed 11 day trip, and see what worked, and how that info can be transferred to our future road trips.

The first thing we clearly found out was that our Hyundai Sonata Limited is a great car for our travels. The car has a good sized trunk, so there is lots of room for all kinds of stuff that we wanted to have with us. From a case of water, to our large suitcase, to even an emergency jump starter, we had no shortage of space. The back seat is an added space benefit, and gave us a place for our cooler but also an easy place to throw sweatshirts and jackets. The front seats are very comfortable, it’s an easy car to drive, and has plenty of power to go as fast as you want on the Interstates. It also gets great gas mileage, so that every tank got 400 miles or better before we had to refill, meaning that even on travel days, we bought only one tank of gas a day. She will make a very good companion for us on our long trip!

We traveled with our GPS, even if we didn’t always follow her advice, as we were also following AAA Triptiks. There was a lot of “recalculating” done by her in the course of the week, and we still wonder if the couple of times we did follow her directions, she wasn’t getting back at us, as some directions seemed a little off. One thing that we did this trip was not mount the GPS on the windshield. Always seems like a reach to us to hit the buttons, and we’re not really thrilled that when it’s mounted on the windshield it blocks our view to the right. So Frank found this “sticky” pad for the dashboard. It mounted in a great place just above the radio, was easy to see and operate, and didn’t block our view. We will be getting a lot of use out of this!

Speaking about the radio, we were very happy to be able to listen to the same thing all up and down the coast courtesy of our Sirius/XM Satellite subscription. Considering that Frank made his living for 43 years working in AM radio, that may seem strange, but the radio landscape in America has changed, and the days of enjoying listening to multiple stations as you go up and down the coast is gone. Signals are weak and fading, all the radio stations tend to sound the same, and finding something you want to listen to can be a pain, so we were very happy to have the company of Jimmy Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville for the entire 11 days. We never changed the station!

And the last thing we got for this trip and we loved, was the new Coleman cooler we bought for the back seat. It was just the right size (45 quart) for all that we wanted to keep cold, had a drain in the back (and not a lot of coolers seem to have one these days), and wheels that made it easy to roll into our motel rooms. The one problem is that the telescoping handle (kind of like a rolling suitcase) does not lock into position, so if you are pulling it the handle is fine, but if you try to push it, the handle un-telescopes. It needs to lock into position, and we’ll be working on a solution to that issue down the road. We ordered a seat cover that is designed to go under a kid’s car seat, so the back seat was kept clean, and we strapped it in each morning with the seat belt and a bungie cord, and it was super stable. The cooler made it easy for us to do one of our favorite things, and that is have lunch along the way. Some days it was at a picnic table at a rest stop (once we were in warmer states), and other days it was in the front seat of our car, but either way we like this a lot better than buying lunch. Something that I guess we both did when we were on trips with our parents, something we did for the first time on our honeymoon, and definitely something we did with our three kids when they were growing up, and we were on the road.

So some successful items that enhanced our road trip and that we will definitely be using again in the summer, and for all our future travels, as this adventure of ours continues.

Our Trip is Over

March 13, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

Welcome home to the LIE

At 4:10 PM Daylight Savings Time, we pulled into our driveway in Mineola, and officially ended our 11 day road trip to Florida and back. It was a wonderful trip, as you know, if you have been following along, and while it’s good to be home, we’re both a little sad that it’s over! There was a lot of traffic today as we skirted Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, and got into the Philly/New York area, but it moved, so it wasn’t bad at all. Frankly, once we hit exit 11 on the NJ Turnpike, we were in familiar territory from 4 or 5 hundred weekend trips back from Ocean City, and we have had a lot worse traffic than we had today!

If you remember, our big plan today was a slight detour to Total Wine in Claymont, Delaware to see if the stories our friends told us about the great wine prices were true. Well, they were definitely true, as we saw and bought a lot of great deals! For example, we found 14 Hands Cabernet that Krissi and Kenny like for $8.97, when the best prices we find for that locally is $13.99. Also, their Red Blend for $7.47, when we think $9.99 is a good price here. It’s only about an hour and a half trip from Ocean City, so we definitely will be heading there again. I’d say we got about $400 of wine for $225! Thanks to our OC Family members Doc and Denise for telling us about it. Can we get you anything there?

So we pulled into the driveway, having traveled 2439.2 miles since we pulled out of the same driveway on Thursday morning, March 3rd. We had lots of fun along the way, loved being in Florida spring weather for a week, and verified that we do love road trips and all that’s involved in them. It’s fine to hop on a plane and rent a car at the other end, but there is something so connected about driving from place to place, sampling local customs, foods, and scenery, and the thrill of reaching your destination is great. Perhaps Frank has read John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charlie too many times, or perhaps Mr. Steinbeck was right when he talked about the wanderlust that exists in all Americans. Like those who went before us on the Oregon Trail, perhaps its our destiny as Americans to explore our country.

So, we are home, we are unpacked, we have started on our “Welcome Home” Martinis, and the Chinese food has been ordered and is on it’s way! What a wonderful way to end a wonderful vacation. Back to work tomorrow…well, yes and no…that means we have laundry to do, bills to pay, and need to get back to Ocean City! Great work, if you can get it!!

Last Night on the Road

March 13, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

Well, this is it…our last night on the road for our first big Retirement Adventure. Tonight finds us in an EconoLodge in Fredericksburg, VA. Today we traveled 488 miles from Ridgeland, South Carolina, through North Carolina, and into Virginia. We are now about 6 hours from getting home, and we probably could have done it today, but for the fact that we want to stop off at Total Wines and More in Delaware tomorrow before heading home.

So some highlights of today’s travels. In a rest area in North Carolina, we were approached by a man trying the “I lost my wallet and have no money. Can you give me some” scam. Sorry, but need we remind you that someone already bought the cleaning products (if you don’t know about that, see blog post https://rnewadventures.com/2016/03/06/day-three-wdw/). Then, as we got into Virginia and filled up with gas (it’s some 20 cents cheaper in Virginia as compared to North Carolina) we not only got a full tank of gas, BUT we also got the Sonata washed! It is now red again rather than the bilious green of Florida tree pollen it’s been for the last week!

Other than that, just another day on the road. We still like our lunches in the car, spending the day driving together, and our nightly hotel rituals as we unwind from the road! All in all, another good day! The only downside is that the temperature is going down (dropped almost 20 degrees from this morning to this evening), and as we get to the more urban area of the East Coast, traffic volume picks up! New Jersey tomorrow, so for all practical purposes, we will be home!

Our plan for tomorrow is to leave here about 9 AM, stop at Total Wine and More, and then get home to Mineola in the afternoon, in time for our living room couch, take out Chinese food, an extensive session with our DVR, including watching the last ever Downton Abbey and then sleep in our bed! Simple Pleasures…

On the Road Again

March 12, 2016March 12, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

So, just to update everyone, we are once again on the road heading north on I-95. As we write this, we are in a Quality Inn in Ridgeland, South Carolina. We left our home for 5 days, Disney’s Port Orleans, French Quarter, yesterday morning. Our first stop was Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie to watch our second NY Mets Spring Training game. Yesterday they played the St Louis Cardinals, and our seats just to the first base side of home plate, put us squarely in Cardinals’ territory, but the fans were nice, and we had a good time. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Mets won the game 7-2, so our Spring Training record is 1-1! It was fun to see the Mets play at their home Spring Training venue, but we have to admit that Disney does do it better (big surprise), as the stadium and everything else was better at the Braves Walt Disney World/ESPN home base.

Once we finally got out of the parking lot…no offense, but there were 6000 people there yesterday, about half of them left before the game was over, and we have less trouble getting out of Citifield when there are 40,000 fans in attendance…we headed up the coast, to visit with Frank’s cousin Jeanne and her husband Walt. Jeanne is the daughter of Frank’s Mom’s younger brother Bill, and she is just a couple of years older than him. But, because she grew up in Chicago and Frank in New York, they were not really close cousins. But, thanks to the Internet, they re-connected and continued a relationship that really hadn’t been active since Jeanne and Walt came to our wedding 36+ years ago. Honestly, we think the GPS was getting back at us for ignoring some of the directions she’d given us during the previous week, but eventually she did route us in the right direction, and we got to their house in Bare Foot Bay, Florida. Can you think a better name for a town in Florida? Sounds very Jimmy Buffettish to us, and a perfect name!

We had a great evening with them, just talking and exchanging ideas and thoughts, and had a great home cooked steak dinner, which is always nice in the middle of a road trip. We all sat around the dinner table talking way into the night, but with some drinks, and good food, and the feeling of family, it was a wonderful night. Frankly, we got up this morning, and just continued the gab fest, and didn’t leave till almost noon. It was a great visit (thanks Jeanne and Walt) and we can’t wait to see them again, but next time in Ocean City! That will be after they take their own road trip, as they are going to their home base in Connetecuit, via Texas and Route 66 starting in May.

So here we are, about 21 miles into South Carolina, and we figure about 12 hours from Mineola. We just had a really great Southern dinner on the back porch of restaurant just across the parking lot called Jasper’s Porch (now we can say we have had collard greens), and it was a great night. We will have a couple of vodkas now, as we watch a little TV, and then it will be off to bed. Tomorrow is another day, and we will travel through South and North Carolina, and up into Virginia. We figure one more night on the road, then it’s Chinese take out, Grey Goose Vodka, the last episode of Downton Abbey, and our couch in Mineola!

Its been a great trip, and we’ve relearned some things that we will definitely use again on our big road trip of the USA this summer. One thing we’ve definitely learned, we still love being together 24/7, and love car trips! Let the adventures continue!!!

5 Days in Walt Disney World

March 10, 2016March 10, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

So here we are. After 11 PM on our 5th and last night this go around in Florida’s Walt Disney World. So, let’s look back and analyze our trip.

First, where we stayed. This time around, it was Port Orleans, the French Quarter. This is what Disney calls a “Moderate” resort, and one of the smallest. The theme is the French Quarter of New Orleans, and we think they do a very good job with the building style and landscaping of making you believe you are in Louisiana, and not Florida. We have a corner king bedroom, which faces the Sassagoula River (Disney made of course), and the room is very comfortable, quiet, and in a great location. This is what is called a Disney Springs Resort because you can take a boat to Disney Springs (more on that in a bit), and is the sister resort to Port Orleans, Riverside, which is just a bit farther up river, but much bigger. The resort has a lovely pool, a very nice fast food restaurant, gift shop and other amenities. Because of our Disney Retiree benefits, our room is costing us about $150 a night, which is a great rate. We start every morning at the Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory (the fast food place) and have a nice breakfast for two for about $20. We have ended each of our 5 nights here at the Scat Cat’s Club, the “jazz” venue in the resort. There, for the last 4 nights, we have sat at the same table, had the same great waitress (thank you Laura for truly making us feel at home) had a variety of great drinks and “bar snacks” that we have used as dinner. The Mardi Gras Fritters are especially not to be missed if you like pimento cheese and pepper jelly! They also make a very good Long Island Iced Tea, our drink of choice the last two days! From Saturday through Tuesday, they have live music, and that has been a nice way to end the evening. I heard the bartender tonight tell someone that Port Orleans, the French Quarter, has the highest return visitor rate of any resort…from our experience, I can believe that.

So, night one, we took the boat ride to Disney Springs. This used to be called Downtown Disney, and on many of our visits has been many different things, but now it seems mostly to be a shopping and dining venue. We managed to get a 6:15 reservation at Wolfgang Pucks, and considered ourselves lucky because dinner reservations go very fast. Note for next visit…make those dining reservations as far out as you can, as the closer you get to your vacation, the less is to be had! We had a couple of drinks at the House of Blues before dinner, and then a wonderful dinner at Wolfgang’s with a great waitress, great service, wonderful ambiance, and superb food. It was a great night, but for the fact that we walked our asses off getting from the boat to the restaurant and back! More of that later.

On Sunday, we headed to Epcot with the plan to drink our way through the World Showcase. Let’s just say, we may be too old for that kind of a plan! We had a huge (too huge) lunch at the German Pavilion, including a gallon of beer for Frank! Other drinks we had at Mexico, China, and Japan. Epcot is one of the few places in WDW that booze flows, but the World Showcase also had a lot of wonderful ethnic food stalls that we will definitely try next time. As to rides, we had a Fast Pass for Test Track and got knocked around a bit, and went through Spaceship Earth twice….mostly because the first time we went through, our cart got stuck in German and we didn’t understand anything that was happening. Talk about a waste of a Fast Pass!

Oh, speaking about Fast Pass… great invention. Using the My Disney Experience web site, or the Walt Disney World iPhone app, we were able to schedule 3 rides each day that we basically got right in without waiting on line. You get an hour window, show up anytime during that hour, and get ushered into the ride. I mean 5 minutes from start to being on the ride…when the standby time may be 50 minutes! Great system. Once you use your 3 pre-programmed Fast Passes, you can go to kiosks in the parks and get more!

As children of the 50s, our favorite park by far is the Magic Kingdom. We are old enough to remember when that was all there was…even here in Florida! We love it, and both of us would list the Carousel of Progress and Haunted Mansion as our favorite rides. In two days at the Magic Kingdom, we saw all our favorites, including our top two, plus Pirates of the Caribbean, the Tiki Birds, It’s a Small World, the WED People Movers, Peter Pan’s Ride, and many others. Always fun to just walk around that park as so much is so familiar! We really liked something new to us, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, a neat 3D movie with some great effects, and taking in so much that is Disney Familiar! Another new attraction to us was, Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor where animation interacts with a live studio audience. Well done and very clever! What can we say…we are not roller coaster folks (well Frank ain’t), and we know what we like!

On Tuesday, we didn’t go to any parks, but something totally new for us. We went to ESPN World’s Champion Stadium, and watched out first ever Spring Training game! The Mets took on the Atlanta Braves, and although our beloved Mets lost, we got to see Matt Harvey pitch 3 innings, and experience Spring Training Baseball for the first time! Something different, and a lot of fun!

Now, as to food, we kept it simple. Our mornings were at our resort fast food venue. Nothing fancy, but a lot of choices and a good way to start the day. Our day in Epcot we ate at the Beirgarden in Germany. A very nice German buffet , with all the usual choices, but this was our third time there, and we think our last. There just was too much good looking small plate kind of food we saw, that we’d like to sample next time. In addition to our Saturday meal at Wolfgang Puck’s, we had one other reservation meal, and that was last night at Boatwright’s Dining Hall at our sister resort, Port Orleans Riverside. While not as elegant as Wofgang Puck’s, we had perhaps the best meal of our trip there! From soup to dessert, every course was excellent, and we enjoyed every part of it. With the exception of those 3 meals, everything else was either eaten on the fly in the parks, was a “Slaw Dog” at the ball game, or our nighttime snacks with drinks and music at the Scat Cat’s Club!

Oh, and we mentioned walking before…well, here are the totals for the last five days. Saturday (at Disney Springs) 4.08 miles, Sunday (Epcot) 4.67 miles, Monday (Magic Kingdom #1) 4.69 miles, Tuesday (baseball) only 2.7 miles, and the top of the heap, today (Magic Kingdom #2) 5.86 miles. So just know, if your are going to do Disney World under your own power, you are going to walk!

So that’s it, five wonderful nights in Walt Disney World. It may not be for everyone, but we loved it. We didn’t run constantly, chase all over the parks for rides, get there early and stay late, or do anything we didn’t want to do. In fact, every evening, we made sure we were back at our resort between 5 and 6, and enjoyed at least an hour or so on a bench on the beautiful green just outside our room, with a drink, and our books relaxing. It was our perfect trip, and I think that’s what everyone’s got to learn on vacation. Have the vacation YOU want, because when it’s all done and said, you are the only person who needs to be happy!!

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Walt Disney Company

March 8, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

So, as we say good-bye to our second full day at Walt Disney World, I have to admit that I am conflicted. On one hand, I have a strong hatred towards Disney/ABC, because 8 years ago, CEO Bob Iger (himself a product of the American Broadcasting Company), decided that ABC Radio was not a core business of the Disney Company. That started a chain of events that saw WABC and all the ABC O&O radio stations, as well as the ABC Radio Network, being sold to Citadel Broadcasting. After spending 2.7 Billion Dollars for us, Citadel ultimately went bankrupt, which then saw Cumulus Media “merging” with the bankrupt Citadel. That meant we now worked for Cumulus, a company run by two brothers who ultimately burdened Cumulus with so much debt, that the stock dropped to pennies, and is now in jeopardy of being delisted by the stock exchange. Can you say history being repeated? So, the last 8 years have not been kind to WABC, many of the people who were a part of our work family, and my personal sanity.

Now on the other hand, 8 years ago, when Disney decided to send the ABC Radio stations into oblivion, I had worked for the company long enough that I was able to “retire”. That meant that although I would continue to work for WABC for 8 more years, I was able to start collecting my ABC/NABET pension, and was considered on the books as an official Disney Retiree.

And what does that mean, you may ask. Well, it means that as a Disney Retiree, Susie and I have a lifetime Main Gate Pass.. That means that we can get 4 people into any of the parks around the world for free! Yes, I said for free! It also means that we can reserve a room at a Disney property for half off the going rate. Right now, we are staying the Port Orleans French Quarter for a rate that is comparable to staying at a Best Western on the side of an interstate anywhere else in Florida. But wait, I’m not done yet…as they like to say on infomercials. Then there are the discounts. At present, we get 35% off merchandise, which makes ridiculously priced Disney items reasonable (like a $49.99 sweat shirt really being $35) and 20% off food items at many restaurants. Sweet deal, huh?

So, as we go through the parks, see things at our resort, and once again realize how well Disney does most things relating to their customers, I am conflicted. Do I hate them for the last 8 years? For the jackasses that they saddled us with, for the rotten things that happened to so many friends, and for the joke they made my radio station into? That’s surely one way to go. Or, on the other hand, do I revel in the fact that I am a Disney Retiree, and have a lifetime of great memories to be made, thanks to the retiree benefits the Disney Company has bestowed on me by virtue of the fact that they bought the American Broadcasting Company?

Well, like the year that Bobbie died on Dallas, the TV show, only to comeback the next year (after working out a contract) and tell the viewers that the preceding season of the show was a looooong dream, my plan is to forget the last 8 years, and to play the part of a Disney/ABC retiree. If anyone asks me, I have just retired after working for 40 years for ABC. Citadel, Cumulus…what are they? Way back in 1976, I started working for the American Broadcasting Company, and as an official Disney/ABC retiree, I’m just going to figure that’s the company I retired from in 2016. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it! The last 8 years were just a bad dream sequence!

Our first full day at WDW….Epcot

March 6, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

So, our first night in Walt Disney World was wonderful. We love the Port Orleans French Quarter Resort, we have a great room, and we had an incredible first dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s Dining Room at Disney Springs. A peaceful boat ride to and from dinner, and a night cap in the resort jazz club listening to some New Orleans Saxaphone player, and it was the perfect day.

We slept great last night, got up this morning and discovered the room has a wonderful shower, and then it was off to breakfast…all in preparation for our first Disney Park of the trip…Epcot!

A number of years ago, when we were at Disney with the kids, we had a horrible experience waiting for the bus at Typhoon Lagoon to take us back to Fort Wilderness, and we vowed to never rely on the buses again. So we drove over, Frank showed his retiree pass for free parking, and in we went. We had one Fast Pass for this morning on the Test Track ride, and as it was our first time using Fast Pass with the Magic Band digital bracelets, we were amazed how easy and quickly we were on the ride. Then the ride started…oh boy did it start! Up and around a test track in an automated car up to speeds to 70 miles an hour, over bumps, around curves, up and down hills, until finally you stop…on a dime!! Great way to start the day!

Then, it was off to World Showcase where we had a lunch reservation at Biergarten Restaurant in Germany! Let us back up a bit, a give a little background before we continue. A number of years ago, we were in Disney with our friends Pat and Steve Grosskopf and Pat’s brother Jamie. It was our first time in years at Epcot, we were in the World Showcase, it was St. Patrick’s Day (and we were the only non-Irish of the group), and we hatched the plan to have a drink at every country in the World Showcase to celebrate St. Patrick, and a tradition was born!

So after the Test Track ride, we journeyed over the bridge, into the Epcot World Showcase, and ran smack into Mexico! As the saying goes, “When in Rome”, and since the first venue we came to was a little margarita stand, the first order of the day was a pair of flavorful, fruity margaritas! It was after noon, we were in Mexico, and the challenge had begun! Drink one in our World Showcase quest!

After a quick boat ride in the Mexico Pavilion with Donald Duck and friends, a brief visit to some of the shops of the pavilion, it was time to move on to our next country, China! By this time, it was well after noon, lunch crowds were starting to gather, so our drink line was a little longer. Never the less, we stood the test of line time, and achieved our goal! Two Mango Peach coolers with vodka were our “Chinese” drinks of choice! Not sure what made these drinks Chinese, but we bought them at the same stand folks were getting egg rolls, and rice, and the like, so Chinese they were! Country number two, drink number two of the day.

The hour of our lunch reservation was fast approaching, so off we headed to Germany and the Beer Garden! We’ve been there before, and they have a great buffet, with lots of German specialities, a German floor show, and did we mention, lots and lots of good German food? The great German food, and Frank’s drink choice were our downfall however. When in a German Beer Garden, what does one have to drink? Well, the answer for Frank was beer…a really, really big glass of beer! Sue, being the smarter of the two, also stayed in the German mode, but had a human sized glass of reisling, rather than a huge glass of beer! As the old commercial went, “I can’t believe I ate (and drank) the whole thing”!

So, with the gallon of beer as drink number 3 (it probably should have been 3,4,5,6,7,8,9, & 10), and due to the influence of a lot of sausage, sauerkraut, not to mention spaetzle, we realized we were probably about at the end of our liquid refreshment for the day, but fear not! As we walked around the rest of the World Showcase, what should we spot but the country of Japan, and an interesting little drink called a Plum Wine Slushy, served in a tall stem glass. How could we resist!

So, the count ends at a lowly 4, but we vow to return again someday, make better plans, and try again! Tomorrow it’s off to the Magic Kingdom where we already have Fast Passes to ride Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean! Sleep well…we know we will!

R New Adventures

Come with us as we journey through our next chapter

Month: March 2016