The Amazing, The Incredible, yadda yadda you know the rest by now!
Cast: Ro, DH, DD, and Dad
Saturday morning, I was up again promptly at 7 thanks to the tinkling cups and happy children in the lounge outside our door. I'd actually been awake a few times during the night and was dragging a little, there was a very unhappy baby in the room next door (poor thing sounded like it was in pain: my mommy senses told me it was the sound of a kid with an earache; hope the poor thing felt better later!!!)
My family kept on sleeping and I again took the phone off the hook so that the wake up call wouldn't disturb them. Headed out to the lounge, had some coffee and pastry and chatted with some lovely people. I was thrilled to meet a couple from California who were there for a conference and had never been to WDW before, I answered some of their questions and found out that the wife was a teacher who taught her 7th graders to quilt for charity, an incredible coincedence because I had just wrapped up a seven month project administrating a group of volunteers who made blankets and hats for kids with cancer, and we raised children's books to go with them. In fact it was amazing, I met several people on this trip who did a lot of charity work, even a mother-daughter team from Wales! So nice to see how many folks are interested in doing what they can for others.
When the family awoke, they had a few snacks and we headed out to the Contemporary. As usual, the staff at Chef Mickey ran the show with precision. I was just a little disappointed in the food this time compared to our past several visits (It's a must for us every trip, at least once: last trip we did it twice.) The food just wasn't as good this time as it was at the Princess breakfast, but it was still good. I learned though the hard way about going on a weekend morning: it was a zoo. Packed with locals and the characters seemed very rushed. It was nothing like the interactions we've had on previous trips. Our waitress had too many tables and it was very hard to get her attention. The worst moment came when I poured the cream into my coffee and...it curdled. Not in a minor way, either. Majorly. It took me at least twenty minutes to get her attention, get a new cup and more cream. By then my food was stone cold.
Our pictures turned out great and I loved what they did this year: instead of the two 5X7's of the family, 2 of the characters, two magnets in the set, this year we got two of the family, none of the characters, a magnet, a double sided key chain and six extra wallets! Those are great for grandparents! I couldn't believe how much dd had grown in a year when I compared last years picture to this years, she's getting so big, so fast. It's scary.
I did get to have a mini stickey mickey! I wanted a big one, from Concourse Steakhouse, which I didn't get to fit into this trip, but that's okay, there's always next time.
After breakfast I asked everyone what they wanted to do, and we settled on heading out to the Studios. We took the bus, and after stops at Poly and GF we were on our way to the studios. I was chatting away with a lady who had a brand new baby, she was sitting in the seat next to where my wheelchair was strapped in.
Suddenly my Dad got a really nervous expression on his face, and he moved to the back of the bus. I asked what was wrong, and he didn't answer. He picked up a pack of cigarettes that was left on a seat, and he opened the pack. It was brand new, had packaging we didn't recognize (they weren't domestic in origin) and my dad started taking them out. I asked what he was doing and he said "I'm making sure it's real." That's when I realized what he meant and my stomach sank. "People don't generally leave brand new packs of cigarettes sitting on a bus seat." After inspecting them and being satisfied that they did indeed contain tobacco, he held onto them until we got to the Studios, at which point he very adamately told the driver that he should be aware of foreign objects left on his bus, because of the 'times we're living in." The driver should have seen them when he was strapping my wheelchair in and investigated. He is responsible for the safety of those on his bus, Dad said.
The driver didn't seem to get what he was saying, and my Dad was so upset I suggested he talk to a security guard on the way in. He did so, and the guard was practically rolling his eyes, obviously complacent, saying "We're very well trained to notice anything out of the ordinary, Sir." Dad said he was sure the guards were, but suggested they should extend that training to their bus drivers, and the guard said he would let the appropriate people know.
Speaking on other security issues, I was glad to see that at the Studios and at Epcot they actually looked in bags with a flashlight and poked around in them: I still believe the MK security should be more thorough though. Basically once you unzipped your bag there, they just peeked in, no flashlight, then said "have a nice day." I could've had anything in my sunglasses case and they wouldn't have known it. They really need to be on top of that.
On to less serious stuff! It was a gorgeous day, overcast and breezy, perfect for parks DD wanted to go on Star Tours for the first time, so Dad and I waited in the gift shop while she and DH rode. She loved it! We did the pictures where you superimpose your face over Star wars characters. One of DH and I as Han and Leia and one of DD as Leia. I choked when I found out the price of them, 35 dollars for either two small or one large photo in a frame, (THUD!) but Dh and DD loved them so much, we got them. Also got a couple neat flashy lightsabre keychains for gifts, then went on our way.
DH wanted to see Millionaire for the first time, so we headed in. The studio was FREEZING! The lights and music were so neat, soon we were all settled into our seats and waiting for it to begin. Since we'd never been there we didn't know how it worked, and since I always stunk at the fastest-finger round thing when we played along at home, I knew I'd never get anywhere. We had fun playing along and answering the questions along with the players, though. Each player in the game got up to 16,000 (I think the first guy got up to 32 but I'm not sure) then when they showed the top ten in the audience at the end, Dh was in first and I was in second place! We were surprised considering the studio is packed and the host said it holds about 650 people. We were bummed that they were out of time, DH really wanted to play and I thought he'd do really well! The CM's encouraged us to come back for the next show, but we had other things to do. We headed off to Mermaid to fulfill a promise to DD.
We got into the inside queue area and in front of us was a group of several people, and apparently two counselors, from an adult special needs program. All of the special needs folks looked sweaty and tired, and then a few moments into the wait, one of them just threw up all over the floor with no warning. We were stuck next to her cause people had crowded my chair from behind but I told DH I don't care who is behind us, we're leaving!
DD was already starting to get queasy and we finally made our way out. Told CM's about the mess and they headed in to investigate. After that we were all out of the mood for the show and decided to skip it. I wondered if they had made sure that she'd been drinking enough water, the way she looked so pale and waxy I thought she might be dehydrated
Trying to shake that experience off, we went to the Great Movie Ride (I looked for Jeremy so I could tell him there were 2700 people in our party *lol* but he wasn't there.) DD barely remembered the ride from last year and it was a big hit, esp. Tarzan. Had her cover her eyes during Alien. I still love that ride and almost fell over when we had a female gangster: that was my dream job when I wanted to transfer to the studios in 1989 and they told me that there would "never be a female gangster." Never say never, I guess! It was cool.
We did some shopping, and I could tell Dad was getting tired. The sky was starting to threaten rain, so we decided we would try to take the boat down to the boardwalk and check out the ESPN shop, which DH really wanted to investigate for Baseball Tonight merchandise.
We got to the boat dock, spent a few moments feeding the very cute ducks, (glad to see the duck population is safe as long as there is WDW! LOL) and then the sky just completely opened up. Wind whipped very hard and it rained sideways. By the time the boat arrived, we were soaked through. Got onto the boat and I was so cold I was shivering, DH rubbed my arms (bless his heart!) to try to keep me warm and by the time two stops had gone by, I'd had enough of the boat. It was still raining so I realized the Boardwalk was out for now.
I wanted to warm up and get a cup of coffee in the worst way, so we stopped at the Yacht club and when we got into the lobby, it was totally deserted. I didn't even see any front desk CM's! I'd never been there before, and it was very proper looking and formal (the pool looked cool though!). We finally found a lifeguard (who had no clue at ALL) in a hallway and asked her where I could get coffee, she said "I don't know." I asked if there were any restaurants at the end of the hallway and she said yes, we went down there and it was the Yachtsman steakhouse, which was closed. Frustrated, freezing, and tired, I said "Lets just get a cab and go back to the GF." which is just what we did. It costed 11.00 to take a cab (van) from there to GF and it was worth every penny. Back at SL we had hot coffee, a shower, and rested.
Our PS at Ohana wasn't until 8:20 but DD had her heart on a grass skirt, so we headed over a bit early and wandered the shops. DD amused folks by hula-ing in the waiting area for Ohana (great home movies LOL) and we got to meet the lovely DisneyKim and her fiance, just briefly. Again I apologize Kim, as you saw DD was quite a bit to keep track of LOL. Your ring is gorgeous and I wish you and Jim every happiness!
The food at Ohana, what can I say other than WOW!!! I was worried when I saw the platter that dd wouldn't eat anything, but then she tasted a wonton and that was it! I had to stop her from eating the entire bowl and getting a tummy ache. She loved them, and the pineapple, and esp. the coconut races and hula-hooping which went on f o r e v e r, I felt bad for DH who volunteered to take her over so I could eat, his food was cold by the time he got back but they brought more. I was surprised how badly the events inturrupted the meal, but the food was so incredible that I didn't really care LOL.
Dad and I had quite a deep, emotional conversation while DD and DH were off to the races, it was wonderful to hear him expressing things that he never would have before his health 'event' two years ago. He's much more sentimental now and we got to share some very precious moments that I will cherish forever. A very, very special evening for me.
We were far away from the window to see FITS but they told us we could scoot up to an empty table, so we did and we enjoyed the show. Great place to view it!!! After the show we had dessert (I had the chocolate mousse and shared it, it was delicious) and coffee while we waited for our food to settle a bit. We all agreed it had been the most incredible meal of our trip so far.
Stuffed to the absolutely inth degree, we waddled (well, I rolled, they waddled LOL) back to the monorail and back to the GF. It had been a very full, fun, and interesting day. Biggest surprise to me was how much they've done at the Studios, we all decided we definitely wanted to spend more time there before we left if we could.
DH and I packed all our stuff up (including our ever-growing herd of shopping bags!) we wanted to have it all ready in the morning for our room change to Royal Palm. They told us that we could stay in the room until the one at RP was ready, though later they rescinded that with no explanation and moved it up to a 1pm check out which puzzled me, but it all worked out timing wise, more on that soon.
It was almost 10 but DD wanted so badly to go swimming that we said okay. DH and I changed and the three of us headed to the quiet pool. There was a large group of middle aged men by the side of the pool, who we soon realized had had more than a few. They were smoking cigars and talking boisterously, and after a few moments I became aware that they were a bit too interested in my daughter. I told her that we were going to go in a few minutes, and she fussed about it, but I looked at DH and he realized that I was serious and had a reason. We found out moments later, when the pool filled with more rowdy people, that they had all been guests at the wedding we'd seen earlier in the day: and they were all very apparently toasted. A guys was throwing his girlfriend up into the air and into the water with no regard for who or what she'd land on, the cigar club was getting so annoying that the few other families in the pool with children decided to up and leave too, so we finally told DD that was it and we left. Our swim lasted only about 20 minutes, and she was disappointed, but we promised her more later. I think that GF should have someone paying attention to that pool at night, if not a life guard than at least have security walk past every so often to moniter what is going on.
The bride was even in the pool and said "Boy am I glad that's all over!" and said how much pressure the wedding planning had been! I thought back to my own wedding which was at a little chapel in Kissimmee with a lunch at the GF cafe after, and was grateful we'd done it 'our way' and enjoyed every moment.
The wedding party was checking out in the morning, so relieved that maybe other evenings at the pool would be better, we went back to SL, and slept like logs. My spa appointment wasn't until 10, so I planned some extra sleep in the AM, and so did the guys. Happy, tired and excited all at once, I fell asleep wondering what could have been if they hadn't run out of time at Millionaire and DH had gotten to be on it!
Coming soon: Day 4: A quiet, solitary, reflective morning, my first ever spa experience, moving to Royal Palm, California Grill, Illuminations, and the lowest point of the trip for me...
Cast: Ro, DH, DD, and Dad
Saturday morning, I was up again promptly at 7 thanks to the tinkling cups and happy children in the lounge outside our door. I'd actually been awake a few times during the night and was dragging a little, there was a very unhappy baby in the room next door (poor thing sounded like it was in pain: my mommy senses told me it was the sound of a kid with an earache; hope the poor thing felt better later!!!)
My family kept on sleeping and I again took the phone off the hook so that the wake up call wouldn't disturb them. Headed out to the lounge, had some coffee and pastry and chatted with some lovely people. I was thrilled to meet a couple from California who were there for a conference and had never been to WDW before, I answered some of their questions and found out that the wife was a teacher who taught her 7th graders to quilt for charity, an incredible coincedence because I had just wrapped up a seven month project administrating a group of volunteers who made blankets and hats for kids with cancer, and we raised children's books to go with them. In fact it was amazing, I met several people on this trip who did a lot of charity work, even a mother-daughter team from Wales! So nice to see how many folks are interested in doing what they can for others.
When the family awoke, they had a few snacks and we headed out to the Contemporary. As usual, the staff at Chef Mickey ran the show with precision. I was just a little disappointed in the food this time compared to our past several visits (It's a must for us every trip, at least once: last trip we did it twice.) The food just wasn't as good this time as it was at the Princess breakfast, but it was still good. I learned though the hard way about going on a weekend morning: it was a zoo. Packed with locals and the characters seemed very rushed. It was nothing like the interactions we've had on previous trips. Our waitress had too many tables and it was very hard to get her attention. The worst moment came when I poured the cream into my coffee and...it curdled. Not in a minor way, either. Majorly. It took me at least twenty minutes to get her attention, get a new cup and more cream. By then my food was stone cold.
Our pictures turned out great and I loved what they did this year: instead of the two 5X7's of the family, 2 of the characters, two magnets in the set, this year we got two of the family, none of the characters, a magnet, a double sided key chain and six extra wallets! Those are great for grandparents! I couldn't believe how much dd had grown in a year when I compared last years picture to this years, she's getting so big, so fast. It's scary.
I did get to have a mini stickey mickey! I wanted a big one, from Concourse Steakhouse, which I didn't get to fit into this trip, but that's okay, there's always next time.
After breakfast I asked everyone what they wanted to do, and we settled on heading out to the Studios. We took the bus, and after stops at Poly and GF we were on our way to the studios. I was chatting away with a lady who had a brand new baby, she was sitting in the seat next to where my wheelchair was strapped in.
Suddenly my Dad got a really nervous expression on his face, and he moved to the back of the bus. I asked what was wrong, and he didn't answer. He picked up a pack of cigarettes that was left on a seat, and he opened the pack. It was brand new, had packaging we didn't recognize (they weren't domestic in origin) and my dad started taking them out. I asked what he was doing and he said "I'm making sure it's real." That's when I realized what he meant and my stomach sank. "People don't generally leave brand new packs of cigarettes sitting on a bus seat." After inspecting them and being satisfied that they did indeed contain tobacco, he held onto them until we got to the Studios, at which point he very adamately told the driver that he should be aware of foreign objects left on his bus, because of the 'times we're living in." The driver should have seen them when he was strapping my wheelchair in and investigated. He is responsible for the safety of those on his bus, Dad said.
The driver didn't seem to get what he was saying, and my Dad was so upset I suggested he talk to a security guard on the way in. He did so, and the guard was practically rolling his eyes, obviously complacent, saying "We're very well trained to notice anything out of the ordinary, Sir." Dad said he was sure the guards were, but suggested they should extend that training to their bus drivers, and the guard said he would let the appropriate people know.
Speaking on other security issues, I was glad to see that at the Studios and at Epcot they actually looked in bags with a flashlight and poked around in them: I still believe the MK security should be more thorough though. Basically once you unzipped your bag there, they just peeked in, no flashlight, then said "have a nice day." I could've had anything in my sunglasses case and they wouldn't have known it. They really need to be on top of that.
On to less serious stuff! It was a gorgeous day, overcast and breezy, perfect for parks DD wanted to go on Star Tours for the first time, so Dad and I waited in the gift shop while she and DH rode. She loved it! We did the pictures where you superimpose your face over Star wars characters. One of DH and I as Han and Leia and one of DD as Leia. I choked when I found out the price of them, 35 dollars for either two small or one large photo in a frame, (THUD!) but Dh and DD loved them so much, we got them. Also got a couple neat flashy lightsabre keychains for gifts, then went on our way.
DH wanted to see Millionaire for the first time, so we headed in. The studio was FREEZING! The lights and music were so neat, soon we were all settled into our seats and waiting for it to begin. Since we'd never been there we didn't know how it worked, and since I always stunk at the fastest-finger round thing when we played along at home, I knew I'd never get anywhere. We had fun playing along and answering the questions along with the players, though. Each player in the game got up to 16,000 (I think the first guy got up to 32 but I'm not sure) then when they showed the top ten in the audience at the end, Dh was in first and I was in second place! We were surprised considering the studio is packed and the host said it holds about 650 people. We were bummed that they were out of time, DH really wanted to play and I thought he'd do really well! The CM's encouraged us to come back for the next show, but we had other things to do. We headed off to Mermaid to fulfill a promise to DD.
We got into the inside queue area and in front of us was a group of several people, and apparently two counselors, from an adult special needs program. All of the special needs folks looked sweaty and tired, and then a few moments into the wait, one of them just threw up all over the floor with no warning. We were stuck next to her cause people had crowded my chair from behind but I told DH I don't care who is behind us, we're leaving!
DD was already starting to get queasy and we finally made our way out. Told CM's about the mess and they headed in to investigate. After that we were all out of the mood for the show and decided to skip it. I wondered if they had made sure that she'd been drinking enough water, the way she looked so pale and waxy I thought she might be dehydrated
Trying to shake that experience off, we went to the Great Movie Ride (I looked for Jeremy so I could tell him there were 2700 people in our party *lol* but he wasn't there.) DD barely remembered the ride from last year and it was a big hit, esp. Tarzan. Had her cover her eyes during Alien. I still love that ride and almost fell over when we had a female gangster: that was my dream job when I wanted to transfer to the studios in 1989 and they told me that there would "never be a female gangster." Never say never, I guess! It was cool.
We did some shopping, and I could tell Dad was getting tired. The sky was starting to threaten rain, so we decided we would try to take the boat down to the boardwalk and check out the ESPN shop, which DH really wanted to investigate for Baseball Tonight merchandise.
We got to the boat dock, spent a few moments feeding the very cute ducks, (glad to see the duck population is safe as long as there is WDW! LOL) and then the sky just completely opened up. Wind whipped very hard and it rained sideways. By the time the boat arrived, we were soaked through. Got onto the boat and I was so cold I was shivering, DH rubbed my arms (bless his heart!) to try to keep me warm and by the time two stops had gone by, I'd had enough of the boat. It was still raining so I realized the Boardwalk was out for now.
I wanted to warm up and get a cup of coffee in the worst way, so we stopped at the Yacht club and when we got into the lobby, it was totally deserted. I didn't even see any front desk CM's! I'd never been there before, and it was very proper looking and formal (the pool looked cool though!). We finally found a lifeguard (who had no clue at ALL) in a hallway and asked her where I could get coffee, she said "I don't know." I asked if there were any restaurants at the end of the hallway and she said yes, we went down there and it was the Yachtsman steakhouse, which was closed. Frustrated, freezing, and tired, I said "Lets just get a cab and go back to the GF." which is just what we did. It costed 11.00 to take a cab (van) from there to GF and it was worth every penny. Back at SL we had hot coffee, a shower, and rested.
Our PS at Ohana wasn't until 8:20 but DD had her heart on a grass skirt, so we headed over a bit early and wandered the shops. DD amused folks by hula-ing in the waiting area for Ohana (great home movies LOL) and we got to meet the lovely DisneyKim and her fiance, just briefly. Again I apologize Kim, as you saw DD was quite a bit to keep track of LOL. Your ring is gorgeous and I wish you and Jim every happiness!
The food at Ohana, what can I say other than WOW!!! I was worried when I saw the platter that dd wouldn't eat anything, but then she tasted a wonton and that was it! I had to stop her from eating the entire bowl and getting a tummy ache. She loved them, and the pineapple, and esp. the coconut races and hula-hooping which went on f o r e v e r, I felt bad for DH who volunteered to take her over so I could eat, his food was cold by the time he got back but they brought more. I was surprised how badly the events inturrupted the meal, but the food was so incredible that I didn't really care LOL.
Dad and I had quite a deep, emotional conversation while DD and DH were off to the races, it was wonderful to hear him expressing things that he never would have before his health 'event' two years ago. He's much more sentimental now and we got to share some very precious moments that I will cherish forever. A very, very special evening for me.
We were far away from the window to see FITS but they told us we could scoot up to an empty table, so we did and we enjoyed the show. Great place to view it!!! After the show we had dessert (I had the chocolate mousse and shared it, it was delicious) and coffee while we waited for our food to settle a bit. We all agreed it had been the most incredible meal of our trip so far.
Stuffed to the absolutely inth degree, we waddled (well, I rolled, they waddled LOL) back to the monorail and back to the GF. It had been a very full, fun, and interesting day. Biggest surprise to me was how much they've done at the Studios, we all decided we definitely wanted to spend more time there before we left if we could.
DH and I packed all our stuff up (including our ever-growing herd of shopping bags!) we wanted to have it all ready in the morning for our room change to Royal Palm. They told us that we could stay in the room until the one at RP was ready, though later they rescinded that with no explanation and moved it up to a 1pm check out which puzzled me, but it all worked out timing wise, more on that soon.
It was almost 10 but DD wanted so badly to go swimming that we said okay. DH and I changed and the three of us headed to the quiet pool. There was a large group of middle aged men by the side of the pool, who we soon realized had had more than a few. They were smoking cigars and talking boisterously, and after a few moments I became aware that they were a bit too interested in my daughter. I told her that we were going to go in a few minutes, and she fussed about it, but I looked at DH and he realized that I was serious and had a reason. We found out moments later, when the pool filled with more rowdy people, that they had all been guests at the wedding we'd seen earlier in the day: and they were all very apparently toasted. A guys was throwing his girlfriend up into the air and into the water with no regard for who or what she'd land on, the cigar club was getting so annoying that the few other families in the pool with children decided to up and leave too, so we finally told DD that was it and we left. Our swim lasted only about 20 minutes, and she was disappointed, but we promised her more later. I think that GF should have someone paying attention to that pool at night, if not a life guard than at least have security walk past every so often to moniter what is going on.
The bride was even in the pool and said "Boy am I glad that's all over!" and said how much pressure the wedding planning had been! I thought back to my own wedding which was at a little chapel in Kissimmee with a lunch at the GF cafe after, and was grateful we'd done it 'our way' and enjoyed every moment.
The wedding party was checking out in the morning, so relieved that maybe other evenings at the pool would be better, we went back to SL, and slept like logs. My spa appointment wasn't until 10, so I planned some extra sleep in the AM, and so did the guys. Happy, tired and excited all at once, I fell asleep wondering what could have been if they hadn't run out of time at Millionaire and DH had gotten to be on it!
Coming soon: Day 4: A quiet, solitary, reflective morning, my first ever spa experience, moving to Royal Palm, California Grill, Illuminations, and the lowest point of the trip for me...
I think it's great that you truly appreciate him!!
