Chapter Two
In which our heroine finds herself sans room, mais ,avec slushies.
Our driver pulled up and our bags were unloaded. My first impressions of the YC were: wow. Its really a gorgeous building, all grey and white and lovely all over.
The first thing you see when you walk into the lobby is a gorgeous (and HUGE) globe. Mike snapped a picture of his favorite location (guess where his family is from?) as we walked by.
(on a side note, we learned for sure his family is going to take us to France, England and Scotland next year
..SO excited!)
A CM greeted us at the front door, Mychael, and she told us the check in at CL was busy, did we want to check in downstairs or wait in the lounge upstairs until things quieted down?
We decided to get the full CL experience, so up the elevator we went to the 5th floor! The CL desks were really busy, but the lounge was super quiet and relaxing. Mychael (who I loved, btw
) pointed out all the features of the lounge, and told us we MUST try the homemade chips and dip.
She left us alone for a few minutes and I had my first impressions of the lounge. I was initially shocked at how small it seemed, though perhaps the number of rooms (or lack thereof) on the 5th floor accurately matched the size of the lounge. The fridge was always stocked with beer and sodas (some really good beer, too) and I will say the chips are amazing, but the dip wasnt a favorite of ours. It was a chipotle ranch
I am beginning to suspect I dont care for too much chipotle pepper (unless of course it happens to be in deviled eggs
.
).
(it does seem a bit small, but we never lacked a table when we wanted one
)
While Mychael was gone, we chatted about the trip and how excited we were to finally be in Disney! Mike got a coffee and I had a diet coke, I was super happy as I am not a Pepsi girl, and all most all the theme parks I know of carry only Pepsi products. See? I knew I loved Disney for a reason!
Then we looked over at the TV and saw this:
(oh yeah, THIS is why I am on vacation, to escape the 24/7 media on a slow news day
.)
This was followed by a story about a 10 year old kid who had an exercise video out. Yeah, slow news day.
Mychael came in and handed us Happy Anniversary pins with our names on them! How awesome!!!
(Unfortunately the markers were not sweat proof
. Nor rain proof, so my name didnt last too long
.such cute handwriting though, I had to share!)
Then she told us we could check in. The check in process was painless, but I wouldnt say its any better on CL than in the lobby. Wait, it kind of is, they have chairs you can sit at in CL while you check in.
They didnt have a king bed for us and our room was not ready, so we just got our KTTW cards (sing it with me now
.
I got a golden tiiiiicket
) and decided to head over to Epcot for lunch. They said they would text my phone when the room was ready. We decided a walk would be nice and left the back of the hotel.
(our room was 5219, If you look at the right hand side of the pic, the third room in with the triangle on top, that was our balcony. Good view, IMHO from our room all the way down to the BC.)
We also passed under the flying jib slide:
(I will ride this, darn it
. I will!)
I remembered immediately why we got a room at an Epcot resort, the walk was about eight minutes, at a nice leisurely pace, and the entrance at International Gateway was super quiet at 11 on a Saturday
. We stood for a moment on the bridge leading over to France and soaked it in
then we made our way over to watch street performers put on a juggling / balancing act that was quite entertaining. There werent any mimes. Thank goodness, because Mimes scare me almost as much as clowns. I love you Disney for your mime-free environment.
I had my first character encounter / acting like a two year old
moment in France as well. I saw Marie from Aristrocats and screamed out Marie!!!! Yeah, sorry, internal voice becoming external
. Blah blah blah
..At that moment, btw, my phone went off to let us know our room was ready.
We decided to just stay in Epcot until after our lunch at Tokyo Dining, and as we turned to make our way to the Japanese pavilion I saw it.
Oh yes.
There in front of me was the fabled kiosk that sold Grey Goose Slushies! I squeaked. Did a little dance. I wont lie, I made a fool out of myself and probably scared the poor French boy who was working there.
But, just a swipe of the Room Key later, I had THIS in my hand:
(trust me to try and make a picture of an alcoholic drink artsy
)
Unfortunately my bliss was short lived, for, not two seconds later, Mike had it in HIS hand:
(my husband is a real man, martini glasses do not scare him. Sadly, neither do those aviator shades
)
Obviously, it might not have been the right idea to share the drink because OMG its amazing
.as witnessed by my super smiley face when I finally got it back from him:
(yes, my friends, that is the face of giddy.)
After we argued over the last sip (ironically right in front of the line waiting to take pictures with Bell and Beast
um
.yeah, no comparison there
.
) we made our way over to Japan, where our story will continue momentarily
.
(Be warned, pretty soon you guys are going to need recaps
Previously on Jens TR
.)
to the TR! How exciting to plan a trip to WDW when all the holiday lights are out. One of these years I'm going to do it....one of these years....
... I will have to get BOTH this trip!!!
x
Welcome, and I hope you enjoy the rest!
