Thursday Sept 11: DAY BEFORE WE LEAVE
I run around all day trying to get the stuff organized for the kids and for my parents-in-law. My parents-in law are coming over tonight (they live 2 hours away). They will be babysitting the kids at our house so that DS7 can keep going to school. My Mom lives 5 min. away but she works full time. She will grab the kids some evenings and on the week-end so that my parents-in-law get a break. She will also bring DS4 to daycare. I get my hair done at the hairdressers, run to work, run home, make dinner for everyone, put the kids to bed and finally pack my bags. Go to sleep at midnight after finally finishing packing.
My flight is at 8:30 the next morning so we got to get up early to catch our flight.
Friday Sept 12: THE FLIGHT
My Mom comes to pick us up at 5:15 AM. It is raining and cold which makes me happy that we are leaving this yucky weather for a hot and sunny place! We are exhausted from going to bed so late and only have 4 hours sleep in us and I am nervous as usual before taking any flight.
We get to the airport, check-in, pass security and U.S. customs (in Montreal airport)... Finally now I start to relax. Everything is going well and we are running on schedule. Now I realize how fun it is to travel without the kids: no extra bags, no stroller to check in, no crying, screaming or fighting, yup, I can get used to this!
We shop around in the duty free and John gets himself a new perfume. Then we go hang out in the lounge and I decide to do early check-in at the POlynesian while I am waiting. It asked me again if I had any room request so I put Fiji and balcony (only allowed 2). I had requested Fiji Marina side, third floor when I made my booking previously. It was really easy to check in this way and will do it again in the future. We finally board and both fall asleep waiting for the plane to take off. As soon as it does we both enjoy watching "Iron Man 3" which we did not get to see at the Cinema. Usually we are both trying to entertain the kids and rarely have time to watch an entire movie. This was great!
We arrive at Orlando airport at 12:10, right on schedule! We proceed to Disney's Magical Express and we line up in the queue dedicated to the Polynesian, Contemporary and Wilderness Lodge. Well we wait no more than 2 min and our bus is ready. So we board and are excited to be on our way. My husband sleeps the whole way while I look t the scenery and watch the little cute video they play for us in the bus to get us all excited and pumped.
We arrive at the Polynesian and are greeted with "Alohas" and fake leis around our necks. The lush vegetation and cool waterfall at the entrance already put us in a tropical mood. At this point I am like a giddy little school girl. I am so excited to finally be staying at the Poly, I have a big dorky smile plastered across my face.
We walk in and are greeted by more happy employees at the reception. They first welcome us and congratulate us on our 10 year wedding anniversary .They ask us to wait there for a minute and they come back with a clear package with what seems to be flowers of some sort. They pull out a real lei made with fresh flowers for me and a "Ti Leaf" lei (braided greenery) for my husband. They told us they made these in honour of our anniversary and we were forced to kiss each other in front of everyone.
They then proceeded to give us our Magic Bands which I had requested a while back when I signed up for in "My Disney Experience" online. I had chosen the yellow band and my husband, the grey of course! They came in a cool box with our names written under each bracelet. It was exciting.
They also had given me my requested building, Fiji, but the room was on the opposite side of the marina in a king bed room looking at the Grand Floridian. I asked very politely if it was possible to get a room on the marina side instead. They told me it was no problem if I did not mind being in a queen room. There was none available yet so I had to wait a while for my room but we did not mind since we had not eaten lunch yet. We first walked around and took some pics and then headed to Captain Cooks for lunch.
At Captain Cooks I asked to speak to a manager for my allergies and lactose intolerance. She came out and helped me choose an allergen free dish. She seemed to confuse my lactose intolerance for an allergy so she would not serve me anything that might have had contact with dairy. I guess that it is better to be safe than sorry, but man, she went over board. She was cutting out things that did not even have dairy in them. Anyway it came down to two dishes and I chose the grilled chicken sandwich on gluten free bread (she insisted that I have this bread even after I told her that I am not gluten intolerant and that regular bread was fine) and steamed vegetables. I then proceeded to ask about the Pineapple Dole Whip which I know has no dairy in it. The manager informed me that the Pineapple Dole Whip was lactose free but not the vanilla dole whip which both come out of the same machine. She was concerned about cross contamination. I told her again that cross contamination is not a concern to me since it is only an intolerance. Again she seemed confused.
John ordered a Polynesian tossed salad.
Sorry no pics, completely forgot!
We sat outside and had our meals. I have to tell you that this was by far the worst meal we had on our entire trip. The chicken in my dish was rubbery and flavourless. The gluten free bread was hard like a brick. The steamed vegetables were reduced to mush.
John's salad was gross too. The leaves were wilted and watery and the salad dressing was just not good.
My dole whip however was amazing and I had managed to make a ginormous mountain in that little cup they provided so we both share it. At least that made up for our bad food.
We then got a text message from the front desk, alerting us that our room was ready. Since we already had our Magic bands on, it serves as our room key, so we just proceeded straight to our room. We had room 3317. WOW! The view was spectacular. We could see the marina, the volcano pool, the Grand Ceremonial house and the contemporary resort. Just Beautiful. I could not believe that we were paying for a standard room with this view. The room was spacious and clean and we loved the big bathroom with double sinks. Having only ever stayed at the moderate resorts before, this was a real treat!
Then went back out to the other side of the Fiji to explore the grounds. We had our own private beach with a view of the Grand FLoridian. We sat on a swing for awhile just looking out at the Bay and taking it all in. NOw this is the life!
Next dinner at Ohana'...
