Adventure by Disney - Day 1 - Oklahoma City to Philadelphia

Friday, October 10, 2008 – Day 1 – OKC, Philadelphia

Cast: Eve (myself), Seth (DH), Amina (aged 11), Rhys (aged 9), Deb (Mimi) and Ron (Papa)

It was the closest call we’ve ever had at the airport. We left the house by 4:30 am for our 7:10 am flight from OKC – we were pros by now, or so we thought. The drive down to the airport is just over 1 ½ hours but when we arrived at the off-airport parking facility, we waited and waited and waited some more for the shuttle. We finally boarded the shuttle just as 2 other cars pulled up to valet park and the driver crammed their suitcases in as well. The Delta ticket counter was the last stop in the terminal so at the first stop, I got off the shuttle and just walked down to the Delta ticket counter to check us in. It was 26 minutes before our flight and the check-in kiosk would not let me check our luggage in because we were outside of the “30 minute window”. The woman at the kiosk was very unhelpful suggesting that the only way we would be able to get to Philadelphia was to book another flight. I got in line and waited just as the rest of the family arrived with all of our luggage in tow.

The 2 women in front of me were in the same predicament but they apparently had a change in their flight time and were on our 7:10 am flight instead of 7:25. Their luggage was checked in and, fortunately, the gentleman at the ticket counter checked our baggage in as well. We lucked out and hurried through inspection and walked right on to the plane.

Our trip to Philadelphia was otherwise unremarkable. After arriving at the Philadelphia airport, we made our way down to the baggage claim area and waited for our luggage. We were in such a rush to board the airplane in OKC that I was worried about our luggage making it with us to PA but felt much better when I saw at least 4 of our bags being off-loaded from the plane before our connection in Atlanta. Our Adventures by Disney rep, Maria, found us at baggage claim and warmly welcomed us to Philly introducing herself to each of us. From there, Maria, our driver, Gary, and a tour agent whisked our luggage away to the shuttle. We met another couple – Richard and Susan, who had also been on our flight. We picked up a few more passengers along the way to the shuttle.

Once we boarded, Maria again welcomed us and stopped to take pictures of us on the bus….”no, not the bus, the DELUXE MOTOR COACH”, she corrected herself. Maria would be staying behind at the airport to greet other Adventurers and sent us on our way with our shuttle driver but not before reminding us that all tips had been “taken care of“ by ABD. Along the way to the hotel, the driver pointed out a few sights to us including the USS United States, the USS New Jersey, aquarium, football stadium, baseball stadium, and the building gargoyles that had been used in the movie “Ghostbusters”.

We arrived at the Hyatt Regency right on the waterfront and gathered in the lobby to meet our other ABD guide, Milca. Again, Milca emphasized that all of our gratuities had already been taken care of and also told us about her “rules”: we were allowed to touch our luggage as much as we wanted to while in our hotel room, but once our luggage left our hotel room, they were HERS. Touching our luggage after leaving our hotel rooms would be a no-no. We were to leave a credit card number with the front desk for incidentals but we were otherwise already checked in.

Ron and Deb were in room 1113 while we and the kids were in room 1112. It was a room with 2 double beds, flat screen TV, good sized bathroom, and nice view of the river front. I only wished our beds were bigger. I had packed our suitcases the night before and split up our clothing and items into different bags “just to be safe”. In retrospect, I should have just packed one suitcase per person and divided them up by days in large gallon baggies as I had done in the past. We’ve never travelled as a family before where we would be packing and unpacking every couple of days. I’m sure there would have been a smarter way to pack all of our things in a more organized manner.

When we went upstairs, our room was not quite ready so Seth and I went down to the Concierge to try and make dinner reservations for tomorrow night but waited for quite a while for our turn so we went back upstairs. By this time, our luggage had arrived and our room was ready. There were many gifts from ABD on the desk – cooldannas, personal battery operated fans, another ABD bag (more like a duffle bag), pens, a can of body cooling mist, and ABD luggage tags. We quickly gathered our things and went out to find someplace to get a bite to eat. By this time, it was almost 3 pm.

We walked across the street from the hotel and made our way to Chestnut Street where we decided to eat at a restaurant called Rotten Ralph’s. We just thought the name was really funny.

We made our way up the winding staircase and the waitress acted almost surprised that there were 6 of us to be seated. I ordered an eggplant, broccoli rabe sandwich but liked Amina’s Philly Cheese steak better. My sandwich was really just eggplant parmesan (breaded) on a hoagie with cheese and broccoli rabe. The broccoli rabe gave the sandwich a bitter, strange taste. The waitress was awful - disappearing after serving our food, not filling up our water glasses, forgetting to bring mustard, and messing up Ron’s order. I had intended to leave a very small tip but was dismayed that an 18% tip had already been added on to our bill. Fortunately, lunch was on Disney as we used our Disney Visa Check Card to pay for lunch.

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and the kids quickly put on their swimsuits to go swimming while I worked out on the elliptical machine in the fitness center. It was after 4:15 by the time we got to the fitness center/pool so I only worked out for about 20 minutes before taking the kids back upstairs and getting ready for our 5:15 ABD orientation.

We met the rest of our ABD group on the 3rd floor and were served drinks, wine, beer, fruit, cheese, crackers, and coffee/tea. We also received our ABD lanyards with our first pin – the official ABD pin. Maria and Milca gave us more instructions after making introductions. There were 40 on our tour – 10 were children with the youngest being 6 years old. Milca made it a point to describe what the Disney Photopass system was and that pictures she took would be for sale at the end of our tour. She also assured everyone that she would be more than happy to take our cameras and take pictures for us if we wanted. This was different than what I had read on the DIS boards regarding picture taking. We were also reminded that each day of our tour, we would have a specific theme and special word of the day. Today, our theme was “We the People” and the word of the day was “Constitution”. Each family was also given a list of everyone on our tour.

Maria then went around the room and asked each person to describe their reasons for being on the Spirit of America tour. Most of the kids were most looking forward to the water park at the Great Wolf Lodge but Rhys surprised me when he said that he was very interested in seeing the White House. The Guides passed out special pins to several people in our group who were repeat Adventurers – one family having done the Hawaii adventure, another couple having done the Quest for the West, and a third couple who had gone to Costa Rica. Then we were given a piece of paper to fill out things like what we were most looking forward to on our trip, what our favorite Disney ride/event was, which Disney movie/TV show we wanted to star in, etc. We were then to go around the room and find other Adventurers who had been in the Armed Forces, been to all 50 states, liked to ride bikes, had dressed up as a pilgrim before, etc. Of course, afterwards, Milca collected everyone’s sheet to read. That’s so “Disney-like” to be constantly surveying the guests. We were also quizzed on the theme for the day (We the People) and the word of the day (Constitution).

We met in the lobby and followed Milca with the ABD sign then walked as a group the short distance to the City Tavern at about 6:30.

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Each family stopped to pose in front of the restaurant on the steps for a picture. As promised, Milca was more than happy to take a picture with our own cameras.

We then walked around to the back of the restaurant where we were seated outside at 2 long tables.

The weather was nice for eating outside but I put on my jacket because it was just a teeny bit chilly and I felt as though I was being eaten up by the insects. Our servers introduced themselves and gave us a quick run down of the menu. We were served 3 types of bread – a white bread, dark bread made of cornmeal and molasses, and a small biscuit that they called a “Thomas Jefferson sweet potato biscuit”. They were all very good.

I also had a glass of Merlot with dinner. We were served a hearts of romaine salad and then chose from a selection of entrees. I had the filet of salmon with buerre blanc sauce which was some of the best salmon that I’ve ever had. It was served over a bed of mashed potatoes. While we ate our salads, Benjamin Franklin told a few stories and then posed for pictures with each family.

I was unimpressed with the way he hurried everyone along while taking pictures. I guess I was expecting dinner with Benjamin Franklin to be more interesting but his time with us was very brief – he left before we had even been served our drinks. During dinner, our guides passed around a menu for a later meal that we would be having and we each put our name by our entrée and dessert selection. A great idea, in my opinion, as oftentimes it’s just downright painful to watch Rhys trying to decide what he wants at mealtime.

Our guides then had 2 of our Junior Adventurers pass out our pin for the day – a We the People pin with Goofy riding a horse. Then the JA’s went to the back courtyard to pose for pictures that would be a part of a “surprise” in the morning. For dessert, we were served warm apple cobbler with a walnut and oatmeal crumb topping.

We made our way back to the hotel and the kids were asleep in no time. We had met a gentleman who was a family medicine physician in Iowa and a couple who were travelling with ABD for the first time (and alone) with their 4 grandchildren. It was lights out just before 10 pm.