allie5
<font color=blue>WARNING! DHL men should be cautio
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2002
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Part 5 Animal Kingdom.
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Saturday December 11th 2004
Today marked a one time only event in the holiday Neil was up first. He was also quite constructive in the wee hours, fitting together our Wal-Mart fibre optic Chrissy tree (tacky, moi???) and hanging up the paper chains Jessie had made the night before. The fake palm tree in the lounge was now resplendent with Mickey baubles too.
The rest of us appear at about 6.30 and massage Neils ego with suitably wondrous gasps of amazement (mine had NOTHING whatsoever to do with the decorations, just the fact he was up first
). Kids are now happy that the Villa resembles the inside of Santas Grotto and that we are positively brimming with Christmas Cheer in here now!
Do a quick breakfast of toast I am in the role of Very Strict School Marm this morning, shouting I want us on that safari at 9am SHARP.
The MENSA members amongst you may have correctly deduced we are scheduling Animal Kingdom for todays entertainment.
Animal Kingdom is but a stones throw (well, possibly if you are Geoff Capes) from the Villa so we are there in a flash. Only a few other souls out and about so early, and we park on the front row again. Its only a short stroll to the entrance where we all admire the wonderful Christmas Tree decorated with animals. It does make our Wal-Mart one look a tad feeble I have to say!
Im just a little peeved that I cant show off this morning. Because there was absolutely no queue at all to enter AK, I couldnt sweep everyone in via the Rainforest Café and then bask in the adulation of being so darn clued up on all things Disney. Ah well, I will save tip that for another time!
I will just add that those fools on the Weather Channel tricked us into wearing T-shirts and shorts again today. Oh yes, Mr Smarmy American Weather Person, you may well have expected temperatures in the 70s, but the reality was quite different, wasnt it?
I think he was a plant by Disney to get everyone to go dressed for sweltering temperatures then sting us all for sweatshirts and fleeces when the mercury failed to creep out of the 50s all day.
Needless to say, we are all frozen before we have even reached the turnstiles! We decide to alter the schedule a little, and instead of heading en masse to the Safari, we would do the Lion King first. Being so cold, maybe Disney would stick a few coins in the meter and turn the heating up a bit in the theatre?!
Meander round the shops to keep warm for awhile. Buy Jessie a new autograph book. Seeing as we have had the blue one for 3 years on the trot, its nice to see Disney has at last managed to come up with something new this time. We get the Disney Princess one that has slots for photos as well. Very nice, but I think it should be complemented by a boys one, with possibly a Toy Story theme?? Hands up those who think I should work for Disney Merchandising?
I decide to nip into Guest Services to double check that Wishes was still set for 7pm on the night of our Cruise. The park hours seemed to be changing daily and I didnt want us to miss the Fireworks. The CM had no clue what a Speciality Cruise was however, and an amusing 10 minutes was had with me trying to explain that such a thing DID exist. Im sure he thought I was completely mad, but I wasnt giving up. May I borrow your phone? I ask. He slides it towards me warily, probably thinking Im going to call the UK or Auntie Kylie and Cousin Ralf in Australia. I reassure him I am only phoning WDW-PLAY and he can watch me dial if likes (he does as well, cheeky blighter!!).
Things dont improve much when Im connected to WDW-PLAY. Another CM who doesnt seem to believe that there is a cruise to see Wishes.
You mean the ILLUMINATIONS speciality cruise? From the Yacht & Beach Club? NO I MEAN THE ONE FROM THE POLY WHERE WE SEE WISHES for the gadzillionth time. Finally, the CM finds it on her computer. Where the confusion lies, is that our boat is not based at the Poly, it will be coming in from Fort Wilderness (this turns out to be important, but not till about part 12, so you will have long forgotten this by then).
After much ado about nothing, I am told that Wishes is still scheduled for 7pm on the 15th and to stick with our time of 6:15 at the Poly. She advises me to call again the day before to make sure it is STILL 7pm. Groan. That means another one of these phone calls!
By now, the Lion King show wasnt far away from starting, so we made our way over to Camp Mickey Minnie, avoiding the lure of Lilo and Stitch doing a photo shoot en route. Those of us in the know, realise that they are just meant to stop the gullible from reaching their destination! Surprisingly, there isnt much of a line for the Lion King. It seems as if everyone has headed straight for the Safaris this morning.
Once in the theatre we are seated in Giraffe. Spend an amusing few moments describing to Jessie what noise a Giraffe makes. A task best left to the CMs I think! Well, everyone enjoys this show. Daniel sits totally transfixed and claps his little heart out in all the right spots. He loves anything musical and this is heaven for him. Jessie enjoys it too, though last year she was asked to take part (she wouldnt) and was terrified that she would be made to join in this year! Even Nanny Sylvie can be heard humming I just cant wait to be King many hours after the show has ended!
On leaving the show (and yes, I believe Mr Eisner must have allowed a few quarters to be fed into the meter, because it was quite toasty in there) the temperature seems to have crept up a degree or so. I can tell because my hands arent blue and Nanny Sylvie isnt wearing her scarf (the only one of us not to believe those pesky US weathermen). Having found a closed pinecone in the garden at the Villa this morning, Nanny KNEW it was going to be cold and nipped back in for warm stuff. Tomorrow, we shall not be using Bay News 9s Doppler 100 Radar to predict what attire to adorn ourselves with, oh no. We have Nanny Sylvie and some pinecones.
Where was I? Oh, yes, we leave the Lion King and spot all the characters out in their respective character meeting points. Strangely, very few people seemed to have noticed, hence there was barely any wait for all the characters. We met Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all decked out in Christmas togs! It was a close call with Goofy, as we got there, he left, but the CM said he would be back in two minutes. Goofy is dressed as Santa and has presents all round a big chair. As soon as Goofy vacated his chair, Daniel made a break for it. I ran to retrieve him, but the CM said he was fine and to let him stay! Daniel sat like there with a massive smile on his face till Goofy returned. I think he was quite disappointed that no-one wanted his autograph and a picture!
It was here I picked up my Disney Photo Pass. For those of you that dont know about this, you can now get a plastic credit card style card from any WDW photographer. Every time you get a picture done, you hand them the card. You can either view your pictures at the end of the day in the park, or retrieve them from the internet, up to 30 days later. This is a pretty neat idea and worked very well. The inherently dishonest can also pinch the photos from the website without one piece of silver changing hands. Please note that author is not advocating such behaviour, she is merely pointing out the facts.
Brief Interlude #2. Disney Photos. When I checked my photos online when I got home, I was a little disappointed that the Official pictures were in the main, pretty poor. They rarely caught the kids full face, over 80% were of the backs of their heads! The ones I took myself generally came out vastly superior to those the WDW photographers took. Ahem, OK, maybe Disney Merchandising can live without me, but WDW Photography definitely needs me. I did order a couple from home, (shipping is a reasonable $6 for international) but only those where I hadnt taken any myself for various reasons.
Next we head down to the Kilimanjaro Safaris. The brief rise in temperature was exactly that brief. Nanny Sylvie had put her scarf back on and the kids were whinging they were cold. A brisk walk then, that would warm everyone up! At the Safaris in record time! Board showed a ten minute wait so on we went. There was no line as such, just the time it took to walk round the twisty path to the entrance.
Being so chilly, we didnt really expect to see very much, but were quite surprised that a lot of the animals were quite active (they were probably so cold they HAD to move or be frozen to their rocks). We saw hippos, elephants, giraffes, Zebras, antelope, gazelle, ostriches, flamingos, cheetahs, the lions (asleep for a change!) and did something I bet NONE of you have ever done, we saved Big Red and Little Red! Hoorah for us!
Its still bright and deceptively sunny, but there is now mega whinging from all corners about cold, hunger and the lack of sit down restaurants at Animal Kingdom (well, that last moan was my own I really think this park needs one good restaurant in the Africa or Asia section). We looked briefly at the Tusker House menu, but the kids meals were nothing ours would eat (only healthy options like fruit and vegetables, no fries or chicken strips). Because it was so chilly, Flame Tree BBQ wasnt an option either (the majority of us were in shorts and Ts and the thought of nibbling on hot food al freso was not appealing in the slightest).
In the end we had deliberated so much we had walked right back to the front of the park. Through natural selection, the only choice left was the Rainforest Café. Not one of my favourite eating places in recent years (though it was faberoony in the olden days). Neil parked the stroller and I went in to see how long the wait was. I am instructed to go and wait by that rope so optimistically assume that lunch is fairly imminent. This wasnt the case as us and another 10 families behind are just left here. Daniel plays Olympic Gymnast on the ropes and Jessie makes friends with the other kids in the queue.
We are all getting pretty disgruntled after 25 minutes, especially as we can see the restaurant is practically empty. After plotting a Mutiny that would make Mr Christian quite proud, a Rainforest person decides it would be in his best interests to seat us. Finally we are at our table in the Gorilla Room. Now, I may have mentioned it was cold outside today. Well, the Rainforest Café was colder inside than it was outside, it was FREEZING. I had to go and buy the kids sweaters it was that cold. Even that hardy Mr Scott of the Antartic would have admitted defeat in here today. I did mention it to the server, but the temperature didnt improve whilst we were sitting there.
The food was mediocre and the main course turned up whilst we were still eating the appetiser, which always annoys me no end. For those of you who are interested, we had the Awesome Appetiser to start which had an assortment of stuff on it ..calamari, quesiladas, chicken etc (that wasnt too bad). Kids had the usual, mum had pot roast and Neil and I had a combo of ribs and chicken. Ribs were tough and the chicken was over cooked. The bill was $125 which was outrageous for the food we had. I vow NEVER to return again.
Leave here and find that the sun has now gone, so what little warmth there had been had gone as well. It is really too cold to do much more (Neil and I still dont have sweaters) so we decide to leave. We do explore that first bit of AK (the bit you tear through at 80mph en route to the Safari in the morning!!) and that was quite nice. The kids enjoy the parrots and like looking into the enclosures to see what they can spot. Buy Jessie some Mickey Binoculars in the shop and take a few more pictures of the Christmas Tree.
Chip and Dale are doing a photo shoot by the tree so we get in line for that. Unfortunately, the family in front spoil it for us and those behind by taking about 100 pictures. Child #1 with Chip, Child #1 with Dale, then Chip AND Dale, Child #2 with Chip, then Dale, then with Child 1 Child 2 AND Chip & Dale this continues in every possible combination of 4 kids, 2 parents, 2 grandparents and assorted aunties and uncles. The CM tries her best to hurry them along, but they werent having any of it. The only reason they stopped taking pictures was because the characters left. Incredibly selfish in my opinion, but there you go.
Not a great deal done here today, I grant you, but we shall be back! Decide to head over to Celebration to find out what evenings they do the Snowfall and carol service as this is something we are all keen to do. Its really overcast by the time we reach Celebration and even colder! Allow Nanny Sylvie a short visit to her Favourite Shop On Earth the Doll and Teddy Bear store on Main St. We know that even a short visit here pays handsomely in Baby Sitting rewards, so even manage to look happy when Nanny buys another hideous doll for her collection (Is it just me who finds porcelain dolls the creepiest thing on the planet?).
Find out that the snowfall is nightly at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm every night till Christmas Eve, so we will pencil that in for an evening very soon.
Back to the villa by 4.30pm and rustle up the kids something moderately healthy (chicken, rice and broccoli). Dunk them both in the bath and put Daniel to bed at 6.30pm. He is now quite happy with his room and settles nicely. Jessie isnt far behind as the jet lag hasnt quite gone yet.
Neil and I are once again allowed out see, told you that little trip to Celebration would pay dividends!
Nothing booked tonight, we are just going to head up I-Drive and see where we fancy stopping. Tune Nanny Sylvie into HGTV and another edition of Extreme Makeovers (breaking news is that she has now managed to find this at home on one of our Sky channels and is pretty much a permanent resident these days as her house doesnt have Sky!).
The only disadvantage we find about staying in a villa is the time it can take to get anywhere! Its not too bad to get to Disney, but I-Drive is a good 45 minute drive away. We head up to Belz and check out what used to be our favourite restaurant in Orlando, Bill Wongs. It was the highlight of our dining way back when it was just the two of us! I know Chinese Buffets dont have a great reputation, but this one was always different. The food was prepared in an open kitchen in front of you, and was always hot and fresh. The place was jam packed from lunch till closing. It was very popular with locals too, and sometimes we would wait 40 minutes for a table. How things change. I had read on various internet boards that it had gone down hill and last year we noticed a drop in standards. When we drove past tonight it was like a shadow of its former self, only 3 cars in the lot and just one big empty restaurant. Tumbleweeds were literally blowing across the lot! We didnt even stop as it looked so bad.
We both still fancy a Chinese meal, so after a brief stop at the Reebok outlet to buy Neil a fleece (the weather HAD to be cold for Neil to resort to buying a fleece!) we made our way back down I-Drive. We are wary about the other Chinese buffets so decide on the Ming Court which is somewhere we have never eaten, but always gets good reviews.
Our meal at the Ming Court was less than successful. We ordered a starter than consisted of 1 tiny spring roll, the size of a triple A battery, a pancake filled with cream cheese (hmmm, HOW Oriental) a single prawn wonton with a couple of fibres of an unidentifiable piece of meat beside it. Had either one of us had sneezed, the entire dish would have shot the length of the restaurant and landed on an unsuspecting car navigating I-Drive. Awful and they charged $9 for it!!
The main course was Sweet and Sour Chicken, bourbon chicken and special fried rice. Rice was OK but the chicken was very poor quality and the sauces were heavy and sticky. Totally gross and the worst meal of the holiday. 1/10.
We leave disgusted that it had cost more than Boma the night before and the quality was about a million times poorer. Neil decides we should eat at more Disney restaurants from now on! Hoorah!
Back home, showered and in bed by 10pm.
Tomorrow: EPCOT.
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Saturday December 11th 2004
Today marked a one time only event in the holiday Neil was up first. He was also quite constructive in the wee hours, fitting together our Wal-Mart fibre optic Chrissy tree (tacky, moi???) and hanging up the paper chains Jessie had made the night before. The fake palm tree in the lounge was now resplendent with Mickey baubles too.
The rest of us appear at about 6.30 and massage Neils ego with suitably wondrous gasps of amazement (mine had NOTHING whatsoever to do with the decorations, just the fact he was up first
). Kids are now happy that the Villa resembles the inside of Santas Grotto and that we are positively brimming with Christmas Cheer in here now! Do a quick breakfast of toast I am in the role of Very Strict School Marm this morning, shouting I want us on that safari at 9am SHARP.
The MENSA members amongst you may have correctly deduced we are scheduling Animal Kingdom for todays entertainment.
Animal Kingdom is but a stones throw (well, possibly if you are Geoff Capes) from the Villa so we are there in a flash. Only a few other souls out and about so early, and we park on the front row again. Its only a short stroll to the entrance where we all admire the wonderful Christmas Tree decorated with animals. It does make our Wal-Mart one look a tad feeble I have to say!
Im just a little peeved that I cant show off this morning. Because there was absolutely no queue at all to enter AK, I couldnt sweep everyone in via the Rainforest Café and then bask in the adulation of being so darn clued up on all things Disney. Ah well, I will save tip that for another time!
I will just add that those fools on the Weather Channel tricked us into wearing T-shirts and shorts again today. Oh yes, Mr Smarmy American Weather Person, you may well have expected temperatures in the 70s, but the reality was quite different, wasnt it?
I think he was a plant by Disney to get everyone to go dressed for sweltering temperatures then sting us all for sweatshirts and fleeces when the mercury failed to creep out of the 50s all day.
Needless to say, we are all frozen before we have even reached the turnstiles! We decide to alter the schedule a little, and instead of heading en masse to the Safari, we would do the Lion King first. Being so cold, maybe Disney would stick a few coins in the meter and turn the heating up a bit in the theatre?!
Meander round the shops to keep warm for awhile. Buy Jessie a new autograph book. Seeing as we have had the blue one for 3 years on the trot, its nice to see Disney has at last managed to come up with something new this time. We get the Disney Princess one that has slots for photos as well. Very nice, but I think it should be complemented by a boys one, with possibly a Toy Story theme?? Hands up those who think I should work for Disney Merchandising?
I decide to nip into Guest Services to double check that Wishes was still set for 7pm on the night of our Cruise. The park hours seemed to be changing daily and I didnt want us to miss the Fireworks. The CM had no clue what a Speciality Cruise was however, and an amusing 10 minutes was had with me trying to explain that such a thing DID exist. Im sure he thought I was completely mad, but I wasnt giving up. May I borrow your phone? I ask. He slides it towards me warily, probably thinking Im going to call the UK or Auntie Kylie and Cousin Ralf in Australia. I reassure him I am only phoning WDW-PLAY and he can watch me dial if likes (he does as well, cheeky blighter!!).
Things dont improve much when Im connected to WDW-PLAY. Another CM who doesnt seem to believe that there is a cruise to see Wishes.
You mean the ILLUMINATIONS speciality cruise? From the Yacht & Beach Club? NO I MEAN THE ONE FROM THE POLY WHERE WE SEE WISHES for the gadzillionth time. Finally, the CM finds it on her computer. Where the confusion lies, is that our boat is not based at the Poly, it will be coming in from Fort Wilderness (this turns out to be important, but not till about part 12, so you will have long forgotten this by then
).After much ado about nothing, I am told that Wishes is still scheduled for 7pm on the 15th and to stick with our time of 6:15 at the Poly. She advises me to call again the day before to make sure it is STILL 7pm. Groan. That means another one of these phone calls!
By now, the Lion King show wasnt far away from starting, so we made our way over to Camp Mickey Minnie, avoiding the lure of Lilo and Stitch doing a photo shoot en route. Those of us in the know, realise that they are just meant to stop the gullible from reaching their destination! Surprisingly, there isnt much of a line for the Lion King. It seems as if everyone has headed straight for the Safaris this morning.
Once in the theatre we are seated in Giraffe. Spend an amusing few moments describing to Jessie what noise a Giraffe makes. A task best left to the CMs I think! Well, everyone enjoys this show. Daniel sits totally transfixed and claps his little heart out in all the right spots. He loves anything musical and this is heaven for him. Jessie enjoys it too, though last year she was asked to take part (she wouldnt) and was terrified that she would be made to join in this year! Even Nanny Sylvie can be heard humming I just cant wait to be King many hours after the show has ended!
On leaving the show (and yes, I believe Mr Eisner must have allowed a few quarters to be fed into the meter, because it was quite toasty in there) the temperature seems to have crept up a degree or so. I can tell because my hands arent blue and Nanny Sylvie isnt wearing her scarf (the only one of us not to believe those pesky US weathermen). Having found a closed pinecone in the garden at the Villa this morning, Nanny KNEW it was going to be cold and nipped back in for warm stuff. Tomorrow, we shall not be using Bay News 9s Doppler 100 Radar to predict what attire to adorn ourselves with, oh no. We have Nanny Sylvie and some pinecones.
Where was I? Oh, yes, we leave the Lion King and spot all the characters out in their respective character meeting points. Strangely, very few people seemed to have noticed, hence there was barely any wait for all the characters. We met Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all decked out in Christmas togs! It was a close call with Goofy, as we got there, he left, but the CM said he would be back in two minutes. Goofy is dressed as Santa and has presents all round a big chair. As soon as Goofy vacated his chair, Daniel made a break for it. I ran to retrieve him, but the CM said he was fine and to let him stay! Daniel sat like there with a massive smile on his face till Goofy returned. I think he was quite disappointed that no-one wanted his autograph and a picture!
It was here I picked up my Disney Photo Pass. For those of you that dont know about this, you can now get a plastic credit card style card from any WDW photographer. Every time you get a picture done, you hand them the card. You can either view your pictures at the end of the day in the park, or retrieve them from the internet, up to 30 days later. This is a pretty neat idea and worked very well. The inherently dishonest can also pinch the photos from the website without one piece of silver changing hands. Please note that author is not advocating such behaviour, she is merely pointing out the facts
.Brief Interlude #2. Disney Photos. When I checked my photos online when I got home, I was a little disappointed that the Official pictures were in the main, pretty poor. They rarely caught the kids full face, over 80% were of the backs of their heads! The ones I took myself generally came out vastly superior to those the WDW photographers took. Ahem, OK, maybe Disney Merchandising can live without me, but WDW Photography definitely needs me
. I did order a couple from home, (shipping is a reasonable $6 for international) but only those where I hadnt taken any myself for various reasons.Next we head down to the Kilimanjaro Safaris. The brief rise in temperature was exactly that brief. Nanny Sylvie had put her scarf back on and the kids were whinging they were cold. A brisk walk then, that would warm everyone up! At the Safaris in record time! Board showed a ten minute wait so on we went. There was no line as such, just the time it took to walk round the twisty path to the entrance.
Being so chilly, we didnt really expect to see very much, but were quite surprised that a lot of the animals were quite active (they were probably so cold they HAD to move or be frozen to their rocks
). We saw hippos, elephants, giraffes, Zebras, antelope, gazelle, ostriches, flamingos, cheetahs, the lions (asleep for a change!) and did something I bet NONE of you have ever done, we saved Big Red and Little Red! Hoorah for us!Its still bright and deceptively sunny, but there is now mega whinging from all corners about cold, hunger and the lack of sit down restaurants at Animal Kingdom (well, that last moan was my own I really think this park needs one good restaurant in the Africa or Asia section). We looked briefly at the Tusker House menu, but the kids meals were nothing ours would eat (only healthy options like fruit and vegetables, no fries or chicken strips
). Because it was so chilly, Flame Tree BBQ wasnt an option either (the majority of us were in shorts and Ts and the thought of nibbling on hot food al freso was not appealing in the slightest).In the end we had deliberated so much we had walked right back to the front of the park. Through natural selection, the only choice left was the Rainforest Café. Not one of my favourite eating places in recent years (though it was faberoony in the olden days). Neil parked the stroller and I went in to see how long the wait was. I am instructed to go and wait by that rope so optimistically assume that lunch is fairly imminent. This wasnt the case as us and another 10 families behind are just left here. Daniel plays Olympic Gymnast on the ropes and Jessie makes friends with the other kids in the queue.
We are all getting pretty disgruntled after 25 minutes, especially as we can see the restaurant is practically empty. After plotting a Mutiny that would make Mr Christian quite proud, a Rainforest person decides it would be in his best interests to seat us. Finally we are at our table in the Gorilla Room. Now, I may have mentioned it was cold outside today. Well, the Rainforest Café was colder inside than it was outside, it was FREEZING. I had to go and buy the kids sweaters it was that cold. Even that hardy Mr Scott of the Antartic would have admitted defeat in here today. I did mention it to the server, but the temperature didnt improve whilst we were sitting there.
The food was mediocre and the main course turned up whilst we were still eating the appetiser, which always annoys me no end. For those of you who are interested, we had the Awesome Appetiser to start which had an assortment of stuff on it ..calamari, quesiladas, chicken etc (that wasnt too bad). Kids had the usual, mum had pot roast and Neil and I had a combo of ribs and chicken. Ribs were tough and the chicken was over cooked. The bill was $125 which was outrageous for the food we had. I vow NEVER to return again.
Leave here and find that the sun has now gone, so what little warmth there had been had gone as well. It is really too cold to do much more (Neil and I still dont have sweaters) so we decide to leave. We do explore that first bit of AK (the bit you tear through at 80mph en route to the Safari in the morning!!) and that was quite nice. The kids enjoy the parrots and like looking into the enclosures to see what they can spot. Buy Jessie some Mickey Binoculars in the shop and take a few more pictures of the Christmas Tree.
Chip and Dale are doing a photo shoot by the tree so we get in line for that. Unfortunately, the family in front spoil it for us and those behind by taking about 100 pictures. Child #1 with Chip, Child #1 with Dale, then Chip AND Dale, Child #2 with Chip, then Dale, then with Child 1 Child 2 AND Chip & Dale this continues in every possible combination of 4 kids, 2 parents, 2 grandparents and assorted aunties and uncles. The CM tries her best to hurry them along, but they werent having any of it. The only reason they stopped taking pictures was because the characters left. Incredibly selfish in my opinion, but there you go.
Not a great deal done here today, I grant you, but we shall be back! Decide to head over to Celebration to find out what evenings they do the Snowfall and carol service as this is something we are all keen to do. Its really overcast by the time we reach Celebration and even colder! Allow Nanny Sylvie a short visit to her Favourite Shop On Earth the Doll and Teddy Bear store on Main St. We know that even a short visit here pays handsomely in Baby Sitting rewards, so even manage to look happy when Nanny buys another hideous doll for her collection
(Is it just me who finds porcelain dolls the creepiest thing on the planet?).Find out that the snowfall is nightly at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm every night till Christmas Eve, so we will pencil that in for an evening very soon.
Back to the villa by 4.30pm and rustle up the kids something moderately healthy (chicken, rice and broccoli). Dunk them both in the bath and put Daniel to bed at 6.30pm. He is now quite happy with his room and settles nicely. Jessie isnt far behind as the jet lag hasnt quite gone yet.
Neil and I are once again allowed out see, told you that little trip to Celebration would pay dividends!
Nothing booked tonight, we are just going to head up I-Drive and see where we fancy stopping. Tune Nanny Sylvie into HGTV and another edition of Extreme Makeovers (breaking news is that she has now managed to find this at home on one of our Sky channels and is pretty much a permanent resident these days as her house doesnt have Sky!).
The only disadvantage we find about staying in a villa is the time it can take to get anywhere! Its not too bad to get to Disney, but I-Drive is a good 45 minute drive away. We head up to Belz and check out what used to be our favourite restaurant in Orlando, Bill Wongs. It was the highlight of our dining way back when it was just the two of us! I know Chinese Buffets dont have a great reputation, but this one was always different. The food was prepared in an open kitchen in front of you, and was always hot and fresh. The place was jam packed from lunch till closing. It was very popular with locals too, and sometimes we would wait 40 minutes for a table. How things change. I had read on various internet boards that it had gone down hill and last year we noticed a drop in standards. When we drove past tonight it was like a shadow of its former self, only 3 cars in the lot and just one big empty restaurant. Tumbleweeds were literally blowing across the lot! We didnt even stop as it looked so bad.
We both still fancy a Chinese meal, so after a brief stop at the Reebok outlet to buy Neil a fleece (the weather HAD to be cold for Neil to resort to buying a fleece!) we made our way back down I-Drive. We are wary about the other Chinese buffets so decide on the Ming Court which is somewhere we have never eaten, but always gets good reviews.
Our meal at the Ming Court was less than successful. We ordered a starter than consisted of 1 tiny spring roll, the size of a triple A battery, a pancake filled with cream cheese (hmmm, HOW Oriental) a single prawn wonton with a couple of fibres of an unidentifiable piece of meat beside it. Had either one of us had sneezed, the entire dish would have shot the length of the restaurant and landed on an unsuspecting car navigating I-Drive. Awful and they charged $9 for it!!
The main course was Sweet and Sour Chicken, bourbon chicken and special fried rice. Rice was OK but the chicken was very poor quality and the sauces were heavy and sticky. Totally gross and the worst meal of the holiday. 1/10.
We leave disgusted that it had cost more than Boma the night before and the quality was about a million times poorer. Neil decides we should eat at more Disney restaurants from now on! Hoorah!
Back home, showered and in bed by 10pm.
Tomorrow: EPCOT.
I still haven't been to Celebration, I should really make time to visit. 
