Random real-life update before we begin that has absolutely nothing to do with this TR, except for the fact that it's about me:
For those of you that aren't already friends with me on Facebook, then you missed my new haircut.
Hair, before (circa around a week or two ago):
...and after!!
(The hair is going to be donated to Locks of Love.)
My hair in a ponytail.
(Why, yes, I am wearing a Tinkerbell t-shirt!
)
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We monorailed back to the TTC, and walked from there to the Polynesian, getting more and more familiar with the paths as the days went on. As we approached Tokelau (finally recognizing it AS Tokelau and not Tahiti!), we realized something.
We had wrongly assumed that the only doors into Tokelau was the one we had been using the whole time by the quiet pool, and the ones at the far end. Upon a closer (read: actual) look, we realized that there were actually 4 doors, one of which was right in front of us, meaning that we no longer had to walk around the entire building to get to the other door.
Well that only took us 4 days to figure out!
Pretty pleased with ourselves, we entered through the new elusive door, and went back to our room. Wingnut decided he wanted to take a shower before dinner, and so I went out to our little patio to call my parents and say hi (and tell them about all of our awesome adventures up to that point!
)
Looking straight ahead:
We chatted for awhile, and then they asked how we were enjoying the Polynesian. (My parents usually like to stay at the Swan or elsewhere in the Epcot resort area, like we do.)
Me: It's really nice, the resort itself is really pretty. Very confusing layout. And it's fun having the monorail nearby.
Them: Would you stay there again?
Pause.
In a word, no. In a slightly longer explanation...(and I was going to save this until further along in my TR, but this was a conversation we had that day, and I figured it was time for a resort opinion update. I'm just full of opinions!
)
The Polynesian is a very nice resort. It is. But it just really isn't "us," if that makes any sense. Transportation-wise, yes, it was very nice to have the monorail, especially to and from some of our dinners. And the convenient and excellent view of Wishes was awesome. But OH how I missed the International Gateway. And the Friendship boats. And getting to DHS via bus was a bit annoying for us too, since it is a favorite of Wingnut's. The decor, the flowers and other flora and fauna around were beautiful, and the beach was very nice, but I thought the buildings looked very boring, and everything was just so brown. Every single building was brown, and I know there's a point where color can make things cheesy, but this was just too much for my taste. The rooms were nice, but dark. If you didn't turn on every single light, the room was super-dark, especially early in the morning. I did like our little patio. Being close to Kona Cafe was fun, and it was cool smelling the food cooking for the luau in the afternoon.
(That was an incredibly long paragraph...moving on below to give you guys a break!)
Overall, I felt like I was
trying to love the Polynesian more than I was actually loving it. Wingnut says there were parts of the resort that he really liked, but overall, he would not stay there again. "I loved the setup of the entire place, it was really nifty. I liked the room. The bathroom was really nice. I liked the shops, very unique shops compared to the other places. The art gallery is cool, the restaurants in the resort are really nice."
(Yes, he did say nifty.
)
Towards the lake:
Zooming in on our destination for the evening:
Tonight was a new restaurant for us, one that I had heard many many wonderful things about from Mary Ellen and many others, and we were super-excited to try...California Grill!
All business-casual'ed up, we decided to make our way over to the Contemporary a little bit early. I wasn't exactly sure where the restaurant check-in was, plus my mom had asked for a pad of paper she had seen at the Contemporary on their last trip.
I'm not sure if the Tiki torches are always on, but they seemed to be on most of the times we saw them.
A monorail ride away, we were at the Contemporary, ready to eat!!