We got an early morning call from Mickey, with Jingle Bells playing as I picked up the phone. Rick and I had a 7:45 a.m. tee time and wanted to be at the Palm/Magnolia club house by 7:15. I went down to Roaring Forks with our refillable mugs and got coffee and a couple croissants to bring back to the room. I paid for breakfast, to save a couple Gold Plan coupons for Tuesday's lunch.
It was a quick ride over to the Golf Area. We passed by Shades of Green which still seems to have a lot of work to go before its March reopening.
We checked in and got our rental clubs. I couldn't find my golf shoes before I left home, so I rented shoes too. The tee time and equipment rental was all included in the gold plan. We hit a few balls on the range and then headed for the first tee. I am not a good golfer and HATE golfing with people I don't know; it makes my bad game even worse! Remember Mike our instructor warning us about the round after lessons? It was true! It was pretty frustrating and we decided to make it a nine-hole event. I have all kinds of excuses--the lessons, rental clubs, different kind of grass than I'm used to, but they're just excuses. I'll be happy to wait for the Spring and go back to my local 9-hole course where I'm comfortable!
Rick was pretty tired when we went back to the room. He took a brief nap. Elsie was getting ready to spend the day at Epcot with her friend. We had priority seating at the Brown Derby for lunch so I harrassed Rick into getting up to go to MGM. On our way to the park we noticed signs that said both Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom were full! While we had no trouble getting into the MGM parking lot, that park was pretty crowded to. Rick was feeling pretty hungry so we checked to see if we could be seated early, and we could. Lunch was delicious. Rick had a shrimp appetizer and I had ravioli. For entrees, Rick had strip steak and I had a seared tuna cobb salad. The tuna was delicious! We skipped dessert.
After lunch we fought our way through the crowds. We stopped in to see Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, which we hadn't seen before. Rick was feeling even more tired, and the crowds were hard to deal with, so we went back to WL. I dropped Rick off to take a nap and then went by myself to Downtown Disney. I looked around at the shops in the Marketplace and managed not to buy anything. I went over to Goodings to pick up a few things we'd forgotten and headed back to see how Rick was doing.
Rick woke from his nap feeling better and up to our plans for the evening. We got into the car and headed for Epcot. We had reservations for the Candlelight Processional and were cutting it pretty close. The performance was at 5:00 and we were under Spaceship Earth at 4:45. We walked as fast as we could through the crowds toward the pavilion. We were thwarted in our efforts by a draw bridge! We made it into our seats just as the orchestra began to play.
We were very impressed by the performance; it was very touching and it was nice for us to see the meaning of Christmas acknowledged in such a magnificent way. Gary Sinese was the narrator who read from the Book of Luke. I thought it was unfortunate that there was no information about the high school choirs that were participating--they announced the names of the bands that marched before the parades--but I didn't see or hear what choirs were there. Maybe I missed it because we cut it so close! We ended up buying a CD so we could enjoy it again.
After the performance our dinner reservations were at Teppanyaki. This is a restaurant we eat at during every trip we make. The kids really like it. We met our daughter there, and her friend said hi to us. We invited him to join us for dinner but he declined. (I checked with the hostess and they were willing to add another person to our PS, but it didn't end up being necessary.) There were a couple surprises. Since we'd used our gold plan coupons for the Candlelight Processional package, we were limited to what we could choose on the menu. Lobster and tenderloin were not included. I was also surprised that we could choose either a shrimp appetizer, soup or salad. I thought soup and salad were usually included with the Teppanyaki dinner, but now they're a la carte. We all love the ginger salad dressing, so we all got salad for the appetizer. Rick got a shrimp and scallop entree, Elsie had chicken and shrimp and I had sirloin and shrimp. It was all good. We had ice cream for dessert.
After dinner we walked Elsie back to the International Gateway to meet up with her friend. We walked back to the front and stopped into the Art of Disney to see a piece that Elsie thought I had to have. It was a Mary Engelbriet picture with Mickey Mouse. I love Mary Engelbriet, and the piece was really cute, but I didn't really have a place for it. I also saw a cross stitch kit of Cinderella's castle with Tinkerbelle. It was nice, but again, not something that would fit anywhere in the house.
We went back to the room and relaxed. Elsie got back at about 12:45 a.m. We didn't bother to request a wake up call.
It was a quick ride over to the Golf Area. We passed by Shades of Green which still seems to have a lot of work to go before its March reopening.
We checked in and got our rental clubs. I couldn't find my golf shoes before I left home, so I rented shoes too. The tee time and equipment rental was all included in the gold plan. We hit a few balls on the range and then headed for the first tee. I am not a good golfer and HATE golfing with people I don't know; it makes my bad game even worse! Remember Mike our instructor warning us about the round after lessons? It was true! It was pretty frustrating and we decided to make it a nine-hole event. I have all kinds of excuses--the lessons, rental clubs, different kind of grass than I'm used to, but they're just excuses. I'll be happy to wait for the Spring and go back to my local 9-hole course where I'm comfortable!
Rick was pretty tired when we went back to the room. He took a brief nap. Elsie was getting ready to spend the day at Epcot with her friend. We had priority seating at the Brown Derby for lunch so I harrassed Rick into getting up to go to MGM. On our way to the park we noticed signs that said both Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom were full! While we had no trouble getting into the MGM parking lot, that park was pretty crowded to. Rick was feeling pretty hungry so we checked to see if we could be seated early, and we could. Lunch was delicious. Rick had a shrimp appetizer and I had ravioli. For entrees, Rick had strip steak and I had a seared tuna cobb salad. The tuna was delicious! We skipped dessert.
After lunch we fought our way through the crowds. We stopped in to see Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, which we hadn't seen before. Rick was feeling even more tired, and the crowds were hard to deal with, so we went back to WL. I dropped Rick off to take a nap and then went by myself to Downtown Disney. I looked around at the shops in the Marketplace and managed not to buy anything. I went over to Goodings to pick up a few things we'd forgotten and headed back to see how Rick was doing.
Rick woke from his nap feeling better and up to our plans for the evening. We got into the car and headed for Epcot. We had reservations for the Candlelight Processional and were cutting it pretty close. The performance was at 5:00 and we were under Spaceship Earth at 4:45. We walked as fast as we could through the crowds toward the pavilion. We were thwarted in our efforts by a draw bridge! We made it into our seats just as the orchestra began to play.
We were very impressed by the performance; it was very touching and it was nice for us to see the meaning of Christmas acknowledged in such a magnificent way. Gary Sinese was the narrator who read from the Book of Luke. I thought it was unfortunate that there was no information about the high school choirs that were participating--they announced the names of the bands that marched before the parades--but I didn't see or hear what choirs were there. Maybe I missed it because we cut it so close! We ended up buying a CD so we could enjoy it again.
After the performance our dinner reservations were at Teppanyaki. This is a restaurant we eat at during every trip we make. The kids really like it. We met our daughter there, and her friend said hi to us. We invited him to join us for dinner but he declined. (I checked with the hostess and they were willing to add another person to our PS, but it didn't end up being necessary.) There were a couple surprises. Since we'd used our gold plan coupons for the Candlelight Processional package, we were limited to what we could choose on the menu. Lobster and tenderloin were not included. I was also surprised that we could choose either a shrimp appetizer, soup or salad. I thought soup and salad were usually included with the Teppanyaki dinner, but now they're a la carte. We all love the ginger salad dressing, so we all got salad for the appetizer. Rick got a shrimp and scallop entree, Elsie had chicken and shrimp and I had sirloin and shrimp. It was all good. We had ice cream for dessert.
After dinner we walked Elsie back to the International Gateway to meet up with her friend. We walked back to the front and stopped into the Art of Disney to see a piece that Elsie thought I had to have. It was a Mary Engelbriet picture with Mickey Mouse. I love Mary Engelbriet, and the piece was really cute, but I didn't really have a place for it. I also saw a cross stitch kit of Cinderella's castle with Tinkerbelle. It was nice, but again, not something that would fit anywhere in the house.
We went back to the room and relaxed. Elsie got back at about 12:45 a.m. We didn't bother to request a wake up call.
