catwood
Jun 7, 02, 3:58 pm
I do believe this marks the first "Gay" Trip Report. Please provide feedback.
5/30/02 US 355 F Class PHL-MCO
Well the day started out rather busy and I had hoped to go home before
getting to the airport, but it didn't happen. I left work about 3:30 and
headed to Avistar Airport Parking in Philly. I dropped my car off, didn't
even need to park it, and took the shuttle to the airport. I waited about
ten minutes in the Preferred/First Class line, checked in, and got my
upgrade cleared. After wandering around the airport for a bit, and getting
my traditional pretzel and italian ice I met up with Mike, Jeff, Scott, and
Roberto who were waiting at the gate from their Bedford to Philly Flight.
For this flight Mike and I were flying first class which was quite fun. We
got into our seat, Mike who was quite excited with his first time in First
class. Our initial excitement soon became dampened when our first delay was
due to something being wrong with the back lavatory, then the weather
started and increased our delay to two hours on the ground. Our flight
attendant, who really had a bad attitude, was being efficient and brought
everyone drinks and the snack basket in order to pacify the passengers who
had been on the runway for quite sometime. The flight originally scheduled
to leave at 5:45pm took off about 8pm. We were served an excellent dinner, I
had some very good creamy pasta with sundried tomatoes, and Mike had Cajun
chicken, both with salads, and I had a hot dinner roll. Very nice
presentation, with tablecloth and real glasses.
We arrived in Orlando about 10pm, got luggage, and headed to Avis. Avis
really was amazing and they explained to me that my very large Buick Lesabre
was waiting out in the garage. I was using a $25 off coupon and I was
skeptical that they could handle both this and express check-in, I was
amazed to find my little packet clearly noted that I had a $25 coupon. Good
job Avis!
We drove to the Coronado Springs Resort at Disney and got settled in, there
was a minor key issue, involving them having to bring us new keys, but
eventually we were all into our rooms. We quickly took the Disney bus to
"Pleasure Island" to meet my friend Ben, his boyfriend Adam, and other
friends in front of Mannequins. Ben got us in for $10 (good considering it
was closing in an hour) and we stayed until closing. It amazes me that
Disney can create such a good club right on property. Apparently the dance
floor also moves in a circle, but I was distracted with all the guys around
to notice that it wasn't spinning.
Friday
We slept in until about 11:30 and I got up and met Adam who works at the
Hotel to go to Lunch. We drove to subway, met Ben again and his friend Alex,
and at then Adam went back to work. Ben and Alex and I went to MGM studios
for the afternoon. We went on the following rides:
Rockin Rollercoaster - Nice ride, but I am not good at coasters.
Tower of Terror - Loved it, second time on it
Muppet Vision 3d - Also loved it, but I am a muppet fan anyway
Magical Movie Ride - A disney classic
I think we did a few other things, but were there for a few hours. I then headed back to the hotel with my friend Eric. I napped and we then went to beachball. http://www.beachball.com
This is an interesting event to say the least. Watermark entertainment rents out the entire Typhoon Lagoon theme park until 3am. It is swarming with people and quite a lot of fun, all of the rides are opening, the wave pool, etc. There is a huge dance area right in front of the wave pool and they had performers from cirque de soleil doing acrobatics. A couple observations: I didn’t drink enough, unlike a lot of the crowd I wasn’t on drugs, I have a bad habit of befriending really nice guys that are basically married, it could have been warmer weather. I definitely would repeat the event, even at $65 a ticket it was definitely fun. There was a $100 option I found out about afterward that allowed for an open bar, this will be the avenue I take next year, because it also included locker access, so it would have been a good deal.
Saturday
I got up early and Ben and Alex picked me up at the hotel. We parked at Epcot and made our way via the monorail to a very busy magic kingdom. The park was awash in red shirts, and who knew there were so many gay men and women that liked Disney (tongue in cheek).
Rides:
Space Mountain: Big Fan! I loved this ride, I liked the space theme along with the roller coaster
TTT Cart Ride: Boring, but fun to hangout with my friends
Pirates of the Caribbean: Old but still fun.
Haunted Mansion: A classic, but proves Disney could be updated
We had a good time watching the 100 year anniversary parade, some drag queen walked around and everyone cheered, it was quite fun. We also were a big fan of “Cody”, a Disney employee we wished were our own. We stayed until about 7 or so, then I followed with the usual nap. I then drove 5 of us to Parliament House
http://www.parliamenthouse.com/
Playing that night was Rupaul, so that was a good show, there was a foam party going on, and generally it was fun to hangout with everyone. The cover was $25, so much less then some of the parties that were going on, and overall quite fun.
Sunday.
Slept into about noon, then Mike and Scott and group went to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. We made it there about 2pm after getting lunch at Chilis. I absolutely loved Islands of Adventure, I think it is perhaps because I relate much better to comics and stories then I do with Disney characters. The first ride that we did was Spiderman, it was incredible. It’s a 3d ride and it really is cool, you feel like you are diving through buildings and racing around the city. After the group did it once, they went to the Incredible Hulk rollarcoaster, so I went in the “Single Riders” line and waited about 5 minutes and did the ride again. Worked out quite well.
Other rides:
Popeye Flume Ride: Very Soaked at the end
Jurassic Park : A great ride, very new
Dudley Dorights flume ride: Also great, a really big dip at the end
We were at the park for about 5 hours, it closed at seven, so not anywhere near enough time.
Later that night, a lot of people went to the closing party, some of my friends went out to eat, but I met up with Ben and gang and went back to Parliament house. There was no cover, and we watched adult film star Ashton Ryan do a little strip show on stage, I hung out with a few people I ran into from Philly and we stayed until about 2.
Monday:
The next day I got up about 9am and hung out until 11 or so packing and figuring out what our plan was before we left. We ended up walking around downtown Disney and Virgin Records before heading to the airport about 12:30. Avis amazingly checked the car right in, had the price correct, and we were off to the gate. Mike and I used the first class line, a few others the eticket machine. My friend Scott was supposed to be upgraded with me, but he got to the airport early without the certificates and he just decided to go back to coach. I asked around and no one felt like sitting upfront with me, mostly I think because they wanted to be social.
The flight left ontime, I was asleep before it took off, when I awoke the flight attendant brought me a nice glass of orange juice and some snack basket granola bars. It was nice and I was very groggy, I think by the time I had woken up we were landing. We arrived ontime, and I was able to call avistar from the moving sidewalk. I waited about 5 minutes and I was outside. Parking ended up costing $28 with the coupon I had which wasn’t bad for 5 days. I was off and home by 5pm.
Comments:
Disney was fun, and not too expensive
I was mad I didn’t see a friend from New Orleans, it was hard to get away
Next time I will stay at my friends apt in Buena Vista and rent a car by myself
I’d repeat beachball, but I also had a good time at P-house
For additional info:
http://www.gaydays.com
http://www.gayday.com
5/30/02 US 355 F Class PHL-MCO
Well the day started out rather busy and I had hoped to go home before
getting to the airport, but it didn't happen. I left work about 3:30 and
headed to Avistar Airport Parking in Philly. I dropped my car off, didn't
even need to park it, and took the shuttle to the airport. I waited about
ten minutes in the Preferred/First Class line, checked in, and got my
upgrade cleared. After wandering around the airport for a bit, and getting
my traditional pretzel and italian ice I met up with Mike, Jeff, Scott, and
Roberto who were waiting at the gate from their Bedford to Philly Flight.
For this flight Mike and I were flying first class which was quite fun. We
got into our seat, Mike who was quite excited with his first time in First
class. Our initial excitement soon became dampened when our first delay was
due to something being wrong with the back lavatory, then the weather
started and increased our delay to two hours on the ground. Our flight
attendant, who really had a bad attitude, was being efficient and brought
everyone drinks and the snack basket in order to pacify the passengers who
had been on the runway for quite sometime. The flight originally scheduled
to leave at 5:45pm took off about 8pm. We were served an excellent dinner, I
had some very good creamy pasta with sundried tomatoes, and Mike had Cajun
chicken, both with salads, and I had a hot dinner roll. Very nice
presentation, with tablecloth and real glasses.
We arrived in Orlando about 10pm, got luggage, and headed to Avis. Avis
really was amazing and they explained to me that my very large Buick Lesabre
was waiting out in the garage. I was using a $25 off coupon and I was
skeptical that they could handle both this and express check-in, I was
amazed to find my little packet clearly noted that I had a $25 coupon. Good
job Avis!
We drove to the Coronado Springs Resort at Disney and got settled in, there
was a minor key issue, involving them having to bring us new keys, but
eventually we were all into our rooms. We quickly took the Disney bus to
"Pleasure Island" to meet my friend Ben, his boyfriend Adam, and other
friends in front of Mannequins. Ben got us in for $10 (good considering it
was closing in an hour) and we stayed until closing. It amazes me that
Disney can create such a good club right on property. Apparently the dance
floor also moves in a circle, but I was distracted with all the guys around
to notice that it wasn't spinning.
Friday
We slept in until about 11:30 and I got up and met Adam who works at the
Hotel to go to Lunch. We drove to subway, met Ben again and his friend Alex,
and at then Adam went back to work. Ben and Alex and I went to MGM studios
for the afternoon. We went on the following rides:
Rockin Rollercoaster - Nice ride, but I am not good at coasters.
Tower of Terror - Loved it, second time on it
Muppet Vision 3d - Also loved it, but I am a muppet fan anyway
Magical Movie Ride - A disney classic
I think we did a few other things, but were there for a few hours. I then headed back to the hotel with my friend Eric. I napped and we then went to beachball. http://www.beachball.com
This is an interesting event to say the least. Watermark entertainment rents out the entire Typhoon Lagoon theme park until 3am. It is swarming with people and quite a lot of fun, all of the rides are opening, the wave pool, etc. There is a huge dance area right in front of the wave pool and they had performers from cirque de soleil doing acrobatics. A couple observations: I didn’t drink enough, unlike a lot of the crowd I wasn’t on drugs, I have a bad habit of befriending really nice guys that are basically married, it could have been warmer weather. I definitely would repeat the event, even at $65 a ticket it was definitely fun. There was a $100 option I found out about afterward that allowed for an open bar, this will be the avenue I take next year, because it also included locker access, so it would have been a good deal.
Saturday
I got up early and Ben and Alex picked me up at the hotel. We parked at Epcot and made our way via the monorail to a very busy magic kingdom. The park was awash in red shirts, and who knew there were so many gay men and women that liked Disney (tongue in cheek).
Rides:
Space Mountain: Big Fan! I loved this ride, I liked the space theme along with the roller coaster
TTT Cart Ride: Boring, but fun to hangout with my friends
Pirates of the Caribbean: Old but still fun.
Haunted Mansion: A classic, but proves Disney could be updated
We had a good time watching the 100 year anniversary parade, some drag queen walked around and everyone cheered, it was quite fun. We also were a big fan of “Cody”, a Disney employee we wished were our own. We stayed until about 7 or so, then I followed with the usual nap. I then drove 5 of us to Parliament House
http://www.parliamenthouse.com/
Playing that night was Rupaul, so that was a good show, there was a foam party going on, and generally it was fun to hangout with everyone. The cover was $25, so much less then some of the parties that were going on, and overall quite fun.
Sunday.
Slept into about noon, then Mike and Scott and group went to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. We made it there about 2pm after getting lunch at Chilis. I absolutely loved Islands of Adventure, I think it is perhaps because I relate much better to comics and stories then I do with Disney characters. The first ride that we did was Spiderman, it was incredible. It’s a 3d ride and it really is cool, you feel like you are diving through buildings and racing around the city. After the group did it once, they went to the Incredible Hulk rollarcoaster, so I went in the “Single Riders” line and waited about 5 minutes and did the ride again. Worked out quite well.
Other rides:
Popeye Flume Ride: Very Soaked at the end
Jurassic Park : A great ride, very new
Dudley Dorights flume ride: Also great, a really big dip at the end
We were at the park for about 5 hours, it closed at seven, so not anywhere near enough time.
Later that night, a lot of people went to the closing party, some of my friends went out to eat, but I met up with Ben and gang and went back to Parliament house. There was no cover, and we watched adult film star Ashton Ryan do a little strip show on stage, I hung out with a few people I ran into from Philly and we stayed until about 2.
Monday:
The next day I got up about 9am and hung out until 11 or so packing and figuring out what our plan was before we left. We ended up walking around downtown Disney and Virgin Records before heading to the airport about 12:30. Avis amazingly checked the car right in, had the price correct, and we were off to the gate. Mike and I used the first class line, a few others the eticket machine. My friend Scott was supposed to be upgraded with me, but he got to the airport early without the certificates and he just decided to go back to coach. I asked around and no one felt like sitting upfront with me, mostly I think because they wanted to be social.
The flight left ontime, I was asleep before it took off, when I awoke the flight attendant brought me a nice glass of orange juice and some snack basket granola bars. It was nice and I was very groggy, I think by the time I had woken up we were landing. We arrived ontime, and I was able to call avistar from the moving sidewalk. I waited about 5 minutes and I was outside. Parking ended up costing $28 with the coupon I had which wasn’t bad for 5 days. I was off and home by 5pm.
Comments:
Disney was fun, and not too expensive
I was mad I didn’t see a friend from New Orleans, it was hard to get away
Next time I will stay at my friends apt in Buena Vista and rent a car by myself
I’d repeat beachball, but I also had a good time at P-house
For additional info:
http://www.gaydays.com
http://www.gayday.com