Before I get going on Day 2, I seem to have missed a couple critical items from the end of Day 1…
Day One – Postscript
Croc Report… The shoes, not the reptile. Today was the first WDW test for my new Mary Jane
Crocs. And they were FABULOUS!
Though tired, my feet were in no pain whatsoever. For comparison’s sake, I switched to cute leather and bead flips for dinner and exploring the resort. Within 30 minutes I was in some serious pain. I was beginning to think the MJ Crocs might be the gold standard of WDW touring shoes, but I still had two other pairs to test.
Hair Report… For those who missed it, there was much discussion on the Pre-Trippie about what to do with my hair. I’d cut a whole bunch off prior to the trip and wasn’t sure how I’d fare in The World when a cute ‘do now required a blow-out and flat iron each day.
Honestly, Day One was no test – I’d blown it out at home the night before we left. But it did pretty well, and still looked good after the ends getting wet in the pool. We’ll see what happens the next day, though…
Moving right along…
The Moon Made Me Do It
Day Two
Day two dawned fresh and pretty… but tinged with a sense of foreboding. I knew not why. Only that something was amiss.
And I don’t mean a missing Croc, either. Felicia had been “safely” secured in a box and left to the AKL front desk for transport to the next recipient’s hotel. Only time will tell if she ever made it…
But I had no time to dwell on what might be the problem – we needed to be in the car at 8am and I still needed to fit in a blow-out! After a lovely shower, I got to work.
Ionic travel dryer from home? Check.
Redken Heat Glide? Check.
Big barrel ceramic brush? Check.
I dried. And dried. And dried. And dried.
(Sound familiar? Anyone else reminiscing with me about the old Living Seas pre-show – It rained. And rained. And rained. And rained. The deluge. BWWOOOOMM.)
I sooo should have brought the only-slightly-larger regular drier and not this piece of garbage travel version. But I did get it done and, while not perfect, it wasn’t a bad ‘do.
Meanwhile, Gramma and Leo were getting cleaned up and dressed and we all headed down to the Mara for breakfast.
Readers of my previous reports will remember that I much prefer eating breakfast in the room. Saves money AND time. Nothing Fuzzy about that!
But it seemed silly to lug the food bag all the way up from the car for one night
(as opposed to, say, an 8lb. barbell???), so Mara it was for us.
And it was there that I realized just how
off things were for me. Couldn’t seem to find my way around. Couldn’t make simple decisions like what flavor bagel to buy. Everything was taking longer than I thought it ought. Leo kept bumping into things and generally seemed a tad hazy. Gramma reported she felt the same.
As she perused a section of newspaper left behind by a previous guest, Gramma recognized the problem: a full moon.
Go ahead and poo-poo me all you want. I’ve done my time in retail and banking and I’m here to tell ya’ – people are just plain WEIRD during full moons. Don’t even get me started on full moon Saturday nights.
The upside was we now knew what we were dealing with. The downside was that it did not bode well for the next day or so.
Sure enough, by the time we got ourselves out of the AKL and on the road to Coronado Springs, it was 8:30. Still, I wasn’t worried. We’d surely make it on a bus to MGM by 9:15, right?
I gave the nice CSR security man my name and he waved us in, telling me to take a left at the first Stop sign.
I never saw a Stop sign.
Until we were exiting the resort.
Back through the gates and past Mr. Nice Security Man. Again.
This time I took the first left. Which did NOT have a Stop sign. TFI.
Okay, now we’re in the registration lot and there’s no close place to park. Wait – are we leaving the car here? Should Gramma and Leo stay here while I check in, then move the car to wherever our room will be? I just could not think clearly at all. Eventually, I parked, crookedly, on the far left, leaving about 2 inches between my door and a CSR cart. Nice. And we all trudged into CSR. I suspect Gramma thought it unwise to leave me unsupervised at that point.
No one was in line ahead of me and I walked up to the poor CM who would be stuck with me that morning. Let’s call him Nigel.
Nigel went through the usual motions of check-in, while I reiterated my request that D and I be placed in connecting, or at least adjoining, rooms. Nigel was already on top of that and turned the map around to show me…. A building in the faaaaar back of the Ranchos section. About a million miles from civilization.
Me: Um, Nigel? I don’t want to be a pain, but is there
any way you could get us into the Cabanas instead? I’ve stayed here two times and never made it out of Casitas. I really, really had my heart set on Cabanas, if it’s in any way possible.
Nigel had to step into the back room for further discussion, but soon came back with a suit, who pushed some buttons, welcomed me back and POOF! D and I had, though not connecting, adjoining rooms in Cabanas. And. It got her a free upgrade to water view.
Things were looking up!
Maybe.
We knew our building, but not our room, so I moved the car over to the 8a parking area and we headed over to the conveniently nearby bus stop. Where we watched the busses come and go.
Magic Kingdom? Nope.
Epcot? Nope.
DTD? Nope.
After about 10 minutes, I pulled the old smoker routine. You know, soon as you light one up, the bus will show? Only I quit smoking years ago, (no comments LL!), so I pulled the sunscreen version and gave Leo and I a good coat of 30.
Still nothing. Our Mickey Mojo was really, really off.
Finally, our chariot arrived and we were off to MGM, only an hour off schedule.
Upon arrival at the turnstiles, neither my pass nor Leo’s would work. After several tries, the CM told me they’d been demagnetized and directed me toward Guest Services.
How on earth could they be demagnetized?? I’d been keeping them in a plastic badge holder attached to my lanyard.
Gramma blamed Felicia. See, I’d had Felicia attached with her little magnetic toes to my lanyard the previous day. But she’d never even been
close to the passes, let alone touching them.
As I stood there, stewing on the situation while the very nice CM issued me new passes, I realized my camera had been on top of my lanyard all day. And. The battery pack was on the bottom of the camera. Could that be the culprit? Just to be cautious, I attached the badge holder with our new passes to my pocket from there on out.
Continued in next post...
Hi V.....I am back and I am catching up...so glad I only had like 3 or 4 pages to read up on. Loved the update and the pics. That was such a wise decision to get out to the park for a while but them come back and rest and swim!! Great plan! I am so glad to hear a good report of Boma! We are going right after spending the day at AK. I can't wait to see the AKL too. I have never been to either. 
:
Hmmmm... may try to find a place to squeeze in another ADR somewhere! Where's my handy dandy itinerary...
