KathyRN137
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,882
Ch. 48: `Ohana and Oh, How the Tables Have Turned!
I was temporarily dazed. I shook my head and I could hear Ed laughing on the other end of the phone. He had to know what my reaction was going to be.
“You are where??” I repeated in disbelief. Perhaps I had heard wrong.
“We’re at the Magic Kingdom bus stop; we should be there soon,” he repeated.
“You went to the Magic Kingdom after…”
Tricia straightened up and with a look of mock horror cried out, “They went to the Magic Kingdom without us?” I shushed her so I could hear.
“…and Billy kept saying he didn’t want to go swimming. Then he kept asking for Hall of Presidents, so I thought we’d go over and do a little Magic Kingdom, just us boys.”
Well!
After we hung up, I just nodded my head up and down. Oh how the tables had turned! “Huh-ho, huh-huh-ho!” I chortled as I went inside to get changed. Was I gonna bust his chops!
To think…he had been giving me such a hard time about not scheduling enough resort time! And then, when he had the chance to hang around and relax, what does he do? He chooses to go to one of the parks! Huh-huh-ho! This was gonna be rich!
I couldn’t wait for them to get “home” so I could start teasing Ed! As you may have suspected, he looked a bit sheepish as he described not being able to say “no” to Billy when he begged and pleaded for his favorite MK attractions. “I knew we wouldn’t be able to do them tonight and I didn’t want him asking for them over and over,” he rationalized. Yeah, that’s right, that’s the ticket!
Mmm-hmm! That was his story and he was stickin’ to it!
(I honestly didn’t mind that they went; I was just having so much fun giving a little bit back to my dear hubby!
I so rarely get the chance!)
What I did mind was that they hadn’t given themselves enough time to rest before we had to leave for dinner. As it turned out, they barely had enough time to freshen up. I was afraid we were cutting it much too close as we walked down to the dock to catch the Friendship.
Down along the dock:
It was a gentle, relaxing ride across Bay Lake. We had our sweatshirts with us, so we sat outside and enjoyed the cool breeze blowing over the calm blue water.
View of the WL as we pulled away:
Contemporary Resort (Gee, what's that construction going on over there??)
Fort Wilderness:
Sweet Boy!
Magic Kingdom!
We disembarked at the Magic Kingdom. “Don’t you worry,” I whispered. “We’ll be back!” We merged with a small number of guests who were leaving the park and we made our way slowly up the ramp to the monorail station. Ah, the monorail! Ed has always loved it! I try to work in at least one monorail ride on every trip so he can enjoy a little taste of it!
Five o’clock was fast approaching, but the next monorail was not! We waited about ten minutes and I was the only one who did not have a broad smile on his or her face as the next train pulled into the station and the doors swooshed open. We were going to be late!
I took a deep breath.... after all, this was supposed to be our day of relaxation... and I let it out slowly. We quietly glided through the towering atrium lobby of the Contemporary Resort and I listened as Ed murmured, “I still think this is so cool!” How he would love to stay here someday!
*Bay Lake Tower was just a rumor at that point in time. Now that the Contemporary has a DVC addition, Ed may someday get his wish!
The next stop was the Polynesian Resort. We entered into the second floor of the Great Ceremonial House and were instantly surrounded by dense tropical foliage and the sounds of water falling over lava rock. The rhythmic sounds of Hawaiian music filled the air. We were instantly transported to the South Pacific!
We were a tad late, but our ADR was for 5pm, the first available seating for dinner, so I was hoping it would be okay. There were an awful lot of other guests standing around with pager-thingys, so I felt relieved. It appeared as though they had not begun seating yet. I went to the podium to check in and receive our little toy and I went through my usual request for a table by a wall or a window for Billy’s sake. But here at `Ohana there was one more very important thing I wanted to request….
We needed to be seated as far away from this as we possibly could!
Ah yes, the 18 foot indoor fire pit where all those lovely skewers of meat were grilled! Sitting near this would not be good for the boy who is so fearful of fire he can’t even tolerate candles on his birthday cake!
As it turned out, there were plenty of tables available!
This was the view from my seat:
Same view later, once the torches had been lit:
How nice that the table for six could accommodate Jessica!
Our friendly waiter came over….Aloha!….and took our beverage order. Sorry, Dis-ers, no Lapu Lapu for Kathy. Remember, the MK was open ‘til midnight. If Kathy had a Lapu Lapu, Kathy would need a nap-u nap-u!
For starters, there was Welcome bread with honey butter (delish) and a green salad with honey-lime dressing. I was surprised that it was so good; I hadn’t expected to like it! What I also liked was that it hadn’t come smothered in raw onions the way some salads do. (Yuck!)
Once again, I must draw from the on-line menus to recall the specifics of the meal! If I were to rely on memory alone, it would just be one big blur of yummy-ness! There was a round of appetizers: Pork Dumplings topped with Pinapple Sweet ‘n Sour Sauce, and Honey-Coriander Chicken Wings. I was saving my appetite for the skewers, but Ed and Aunt Rae both said that these were very tasty.
Oooh! Hidden Mickey!
Tricia, as expected, turned up her nose at such exotic (!) offerings, and Billy came right out and asked for chicken nuggets and fries! Luckily, the waiter was able to put an order in for him, so don’t worry if you are thinking that your kids wouldn’t have anything to eat.
At some point an entertainer came out to play the ukulele and sing.
She called for all the kids to come to the center of the restaurant to race coconuts by pushing them with brooms, but neither Tricia nor Billy wanted to participate, so we just watched. But then....Conga Line!! You guessed it! Billy jumped up and started dancing to the music! Tricia took him up to get a maraca and they both danced around the room on the Conga Line with the other kids! Billy had a blast!
Sorry, it was rather dark in there and the pictures didn’t quite come out. But I did get a picture of them with the singer when she stopped by the table to say, Aloha!
Throughout the meal our waiters came ‘round with giant skewers of oak-fire grilled meat and shrimp, which he served by holding them over our plates and pushing the desired amount of food down with a knife. There was:
Asian Barbequed Pork Loin
Spicy Grilled Peel ‘n Eat Shrimp
Marinated Sirloin Steak
Mesquite Grilled Turkey
These were all so good and what was nice was that there was something for everyone to enjoy, even Tricia. We were given bowls of dipping sauces for the meats, but personally, I found them flavorful enough without them. But, I did think I it was wonderful to have a variety of options. They were:
House-made Peanut Sauce (*So watch out for allergies!)
Chimichuri Sauce
Pineapple Sweet and Sour Sauce
We also liked the side dish of Maui Scalloped Potatoes so much, we asked for a second bowl! (But unfortunately, I’ve read that these are no longer being served here.) The food was great, but I had also read about the awesome Bread Pudding a la mode with bananas and caramel sauce that was for dessert, so I planned wisely to leave a bit of room for that!
Hey, where did he come from? You get away from that, Stitch! Why don’t you go find Lilo, she must be around here somewhere!
Completely stuffed, we “paid” the check with our key card and stopped off for a not-so-quick restroom break before exiting the Poly. It had been a wonderful meal; the only regret I had was that we hadn’t arrived early enough to do a little exploring around this classic Disney resort. Ah well, there’s always next time!
Back out to the monorail…darn, someone else had already asked to sit up front with the driver. Oh well! Soon, we were whisking our way back toward the Magic Kingdom. I felt a sudden pang as I realized that this was it. This was to be our last night in Disney.
As we disembarked into the cool of the evening and slowly made our way toward the glittering lights I said a quick prayer. “Oh please, let this crazy roller coaster of a trip end with us up on a hill and not down in a valley!”
Kathy
I was temporarily dazed. I shook my head and I could hear Ed laughing on the other end of the phone. He had to know what my reaction was going to be.
“You are where??” I repeated in disbelief. Perhaps I had heard wrong.
“We’re at the Magic Kingdom bus stop; we should be there soon,” he repeated.
“You went to the Magic Kingdom after…”
Tricia straightened up and with a look of mock horror cried out, “They went to the Magic Kingdom without us?” I shushed her so I could hear.
“…and Billy kept saying he didn’t want to go swimming. Then he kept asking for Hall of Presidents, so I thought we’d go over and do a little Magic Kingdom, just us boys.”
Well!
After we hung up, I just nodded my head up and down. Oh how the tables had turned! “Huh-ho, huh-huh-ho!” I chortled as I went inside to get changed. Was I gonna bust his chops!
To think…he had been giving me such a hard time about not scheduling enough resort time! And then, when he had the chance to hang around and relax, what does he do? He chooses to go to one of the parks! Huh-huh-ho! This was gonna be rich! I couldn’t wait for them to get “home” so I could start teasing Ed! As you may have suspected, he looked a bit sheepish as he described not being able to say “no” to Billy when he begged and pleaded for his favorite MK attractions. “I knew we wouldn’t be able to do them tonight and I didn’t want him asking for them over and over,” he rationalized. Yeah, that’s right, that’s the ticket!
Mmm-hmm! That was his story and he was stickin’ to it!
(I honestly didn’t mind that they went; I was just having so much fun giving a little bit back to my dear hubby!
I so rarely get the chance!)What I did mind was that they hadn’t given themselves enough time to rest before we had to leave for dinner. As it turned out, they barely had enough time to freshen up. I was afraid we were cutting it much too close as we walked down to the dock to catch the Friendship.
Down along the dock:
It was a gentle, relaxing ride across Bay Lake. We had our sweatshirts with us, so we sat outside and enjoyed the cool breeze blowing over the calm blue water.
View of the WL as we pulled away:
Contemporary Resort (Gee, what's that construction going on over there??)
Fort Wilderness:
Sweet Boy!
Magic Kingdom!
We disembarked at the Magic Kingdom. “Don’t you worry,” I whispered. “We’ll be back!” We merged with a small number of guests who were leaving the park and we made our way slowly up the ramp to the monorail station. Ah, the monorail! Ed has always loved it! I try to work in at least one monorail ride on every trip so he can enjoy a little taste of it!
Five o’clock was fast approaching, but the next monorail was not! We waited about ten minutes and I was the only one who did not have a broad smile on his or her face as the next train pulled into the station and the doors swooshed open. We were going to be late!
I took a deep breath.... after all, this was supposed to be our day of relaxation... and I let it out slowly. We quietly glided through the towering atrium lobby of the Contemporary Resort and I listened as Ed murmured, “I still think this is so cool!” How he would love to stay here someday!
*Bay Lake Tower was just a rumor at that point in time. Now that the Contemporary has a DVC addition, Ed may someday get his wish!
The next stop was the Polynesian Resort. We entered into the second floor of the Great Ceremonial House and were instantly surrounded by dense tropical foliage and the sounds of water falling over lava rock. The rhythmic sounds of Hawaiian music filled the air. We were instantly transported to the South Pacific!
We were a tad late, but our ADR was for 5pm, the first available seating for dinner, so I was hoping it would be okay. There were an awful lot of other guests standing around with pager-thingys, so I felt relieved. It appeared as though they had not begun seating yet. I went to the podium to check in and receive our little toy and I went through my usual request for a table by a wall or a window for Billy’s sake. But here at `Ohana there was one more very important thing I wanted to request….
We needed to be seated as far away from this as we possibly could!
Ah yes, the 18 foot indoor fire pit where all those lovely skewers of meat were grilled! Sitting near this would not be good for the boy who is so fearful of fire he can’t even tolerate candles on his birthday cake!
As it turned out, there were plenty of tables available!
This was the view from my seat:
Same view later, once the torches had been lit:
How nice that the table for six could accommodate Jessica!
Our friendly waiter came over….Aloha!….and took our beverage order. Sorry, Dis-ers, no Lapu Lapu for Kathy. Remember, the MK was open ‘til midnight. If Kathy had a Lapu Lapu, Kathy would need a nap-u nap-u!
For starters, there was Welcome bread with honey butter (delish) and a green salad with honey-lime dressing. I was surprised that it was so good; I hadn’t expected to like it! What I also liked was that it hadn’t come smothered in raw onions the way some salads do. (Yuck!)
Once again, I must draw from the on-line menus to recall the specifics of the meal! If I were to rely on memory alone, it would just be one big blur of yummy-ness! There was a round of appetizers: Pork Dumplings topped with Pinapple Sweet ‘n Sour Sauce, and Honey-Coriander Chicken Wings. I was saving my appetite for the skewers, but Ed and Aunt Rae both said that these were very tasty.
Oooh! Hidden Mickey!
Tricia, as expected, turned up her nose at such exotic (!) offerings, and Billy came right out and asked for chicken nuggets and fries! Luckily, the waiter was able to put an order in for him, so don’t worry if you are thinking that your kids wouldn’t have anything to eat.
At some point an entertainer came out to play the ukulele and sing.
She called for all the kids to come to the center of the restaurant to race coconuts by pushing them with brooms, but neither Tricia nor Billy wanted to participate, so we just watched. But then....Conga Line!! You guessed it! Billy jumped up and started dancing to the music! Tricia took him up to get a maraca and they both danced around the room on the Conga Line with the other kids! Billy had a blast!
Sorry, it was rather dark in there and the pictures didn’t quite come out. But I did get a picture of them with the singer when she stopped by the table to say, Aloha!
Throughout the meal our waiters came ‘round with giant skewers of oak-fire grilled meat and shrimp, which he served by holding them over our plates and pushing the desired amount of food down with a knife. There was:
Asian Barbequed Pork Loin
Spicy Grilled Peel ‘n Eat Shrimp
Marinated Sirloin Steak
Mesquite Grilled Turkey
These were all so good and what was nice was that there was something for everyone to enjoy, even Tricia. We were given bowls of dipping sauces for the meats, but personally, I found them flavorful enough without them. But, I did think I it was wonderful to have a variety of options. They were:
House-made Peanut Sauce (*So watch out for allergies!)
Chimichuri Sauce
Pineapple Sweet and Sour Sauce
We also liked the side dish of Maui Scalloped Potatoes so much, we asked for a second bowl! (But unfortunately, I’ve read that these are no longer being served here.) The food was great, but I had also read about the awesome Bread Pudding a la mode with bananas and caramel sauce that was for dessert, so I planned wisely to leave a bit of room for that!
Hey, where did he come from? You get away from that, Stitch! Why don’t you go find Lilo, she must be around here somewhere!
Completely stuffed, we “paid” the check with our key card and stopped off for a not-so-quick restroom break before exiting the Poly. It had been a wonderful meal; the only regret I had was that we hadn’t arrived early enough to do a little exploring around this classic Disney resort. Ah well, there’s always next time!
Back out to the monorail…darn, someone else had already asked to sit up front with the driver. Oh well! Soon, we were whisking our way back toward the Magic Kingdom. I felt a sudden pang as I realized that this was it. This was to be our last night in Disney.
As we disembarked into the cool of the evening and slowly made our way toward the glittering lights I said a quick prayer. “Oh please, let this crazy roller coaster of a trip end with us up on a hill and not down in a valley!”
Kathy
(A great reason to be going during free dining! A 12 year old who only eats kids meals). I hope my girls have as much fun as your kids seemed to.
