DAY2 (10/23/03) - I Keep Stopping

[PrincessTToo]

I slept in until 7:30 AM. After I finished getting ready and packing, I went downstairs to the Traders restaurant for the buffet breakfast. I can’t believe how good it was for the price. And the waitress was so nice.

After breakfast I checked out of the BW-LBV. I gave the woman at the front desk the book I had finished reading the night before. She was very grateful and it made me feel wonderful to do something nice for someone.

I thought I’d save some money so I took the DTD hotel bus to MGM and then the Friendship boat to the Swan. There was a very long line of people waiting at the Grosvenor so I had to slide my suitcase down under my feet to make room on the seat next to me. It worked out well because I had a great chat with the woman who sat next to me.

BTW: The Grosvenor is the next to the last stop for the DTD hotel buses going to the parks. So I think that sometimes it gets skipped when the buses are full.

I wasn’t able to check-in at the Swan because the huge nerd convention hadn’t finished checking out yet. (I can call them that because I am one.) The guy at the front desk gave me a blank room key and said to check back between 3:00 and 5:00 PM for my room number. He said I could leave my suitcase with the bell captain. The Bell captain gave me a numbered receipt for my suitcase.

I had gotten an Orlando Sentinel at the BW - LBW so I stopped by the lounge in the Swan and bought bottled water and then went outside to sit by the quiet pool. It was great to sit in the dappled sunlight reading my favorite newspaper and enjoying the quiet. There were only a couple of people around the pool.

After I finished the paper I took a peek at the Health Club. I couldn’t believe there was a woman in there walking on the treadmill. It was so beautiful outside and there are so many beautiful paths around the Boardwalk hotels. I just couldn’t imagine why she was inside walking on a treadmill.

So I took my own advice and started to walk around the hotels. I walked past the other pool and the play area. The kids there were having a blast. What a great idea to have a play pool and a quiet pool. I then walked by the Dolphin pool area and then back to the boat launch and caught the boat to Epcot. I just love the retirees who run the boats. What sweeties!

On my way through WS I overhead a Mom say to her kid:

“If we keep stopping we’re never going to get anything done today!”

I thought that was so funny that I stopped to write it down. It’s my new favorite WDW saying!

I then stopped at the pin station in Epcot and got an Annual Passholders pin. Then I went on SE. It was posted as a 10 minute wait but was really only two.

Next I stopped by Guest Relations to make dinner reservations for the Brown Derby. I wanted to time it so that I could have dinner and then go to Fantasmic. But the best I could get was a 6:50 PM reservation. The CM told me that I would have to pay to get into the park to go to dinner and then I pointed at the new pin that I was wearing and she said “oh, I guess that won’t be a problem.”

I then asked the CM at Guest Relations if I could bring my camera to the Dolphin tour that I had scheduled for Friday. She said she didn’t know. There was a long pause as I waited to see if she’d call somebody to find out. So after staring at each other for a few seconds I just said “well, I guess I’ll find out tomorrow”. She seemed satisfied with that answer so I left.

I stopped by Ice Station Cool for my favorite ginger ale and then went to The Living Seas. I skipped the movie and was glad I did because I got to see the manatees feeding. The manatees get big heads of lettuce and lots of individual lettuce leaves. They take the lettuce to the bottom of the pool to slowly eat it. I think the manatees are so adorable. I just want to give them a big hug. I found out the next day that hugging manatees is illegal. They are an endangered species and it’s illegal to interact with them. WDW runs a “rehabilitate and return to the wild” program for manatees so they aren’t even hand fed and all interaction with humans is very minimal.

I also stopped to watch the dolphins for a little while. I tried to tell them that I was going to be in the tank with them tomorrow but I don’t think my Dolphin is any better than my French.

Next I wandered over to The Land and stopped by Food Rocks. It’s one of my favorites.

I was hungry by then (maybe it was seeing Chubby Cheddar that did it) so I started to walk through the WS on my way to the ESPN club. I got sidetracked on the way and stopped to listen to the British Invasion for a little while. Once at the ESPN Club, I ordered my favorite veggie burger.

By the time I finished lunch it was 3:00 PM so I walked over to the Swan to see if I could check-in. I did and got room 694 which has two queen beds with a balcony that faces the courtyard to the boat launch. At night I could see the higher fireworks of Illuminations over the other wing of the Swan.

I decided to go to MGM to get in some rides before dinner. I took the boat over and found that the stand-by line was an 80 minute wait for ToT and FPs were already sold out. It looked like the right-hand elevators weren’t running. I then got a FP for RnRC and saw that B&B was not showing again for quite a while. So I headed for the Great Movie ride but I stopped along the way to watch the parade. I was able to stand on the brick border in front of the Brown Derby and got quite a good view. Then I realized I better go to the Great Movie Ride before the parade finished so I missed seeing Mickey and Minnie. I ended up timing it great because I got in the “cowboy” ride for the first time ever. I liked it better than the “gangster” ride. But I guess they really are pretty much the same.

Then I rode RnRC. Screaming and smiling the whole time. The ToT was still a 70 minute wait and I had missed B&B again so I decided to go find “The Making of the Haunted Mansion Movie”. I had to stop and ask directions from the CMs keeping guests out of the Art of Animation. I think the show runs about every 20 minutes so the lines look pretty intimidating. It was fun to see all the sets and costumes and stuff but it really was just a big promo for the movie.

Then I stopped by One Man’s Dream (it always makes me tear up) and finally caught B&B. By then it was almost time for my dinner reservation. So I went to the Brown Derby. I checked in at the front desk and was given a pager. I went outside to wait and ended up having a staring contest with a little kid in a stroller. I don’t generally stare at kids at WDW because parents sometimes get freaked out. But this kid loved it and his mother didn’t even look at me or the kid for that matter. I ended up playing games with him (he’d play with his shoe and I’d play with my shoe) and it helped pass the time. I didn’t get paged until 7:00 PM.

The restaurant was very crowded and I found out later that there was a bunch of people eating there who work at WDW. Don’t know if it was a meeting or what. I was the only “solo” there which made me a little self-conscious. I was even more self-conscious when one of the MGM “actors” stopped by my table to chat. He was the guy with the wild sunglasses and the rings and the smoking jacket and the dickie. At least I hope it was an actor!

I ordered Michelob Light, the mixed greens with blue cheese salad, the Thai noodle with coconut-crusted tofu (my favorite) and the Crème Brulee. I also had some hot tea with dessert. I don’t know if my DH’s liberal use of Scorned Woman hot sauce in our meals has scorched my taste buds but I thought the Thai noodles were very, very mild. They usually require two beers. This time I only had one.

It was 7:35 PM by the time I had finished dinner so I missed Fantasmic and I ended up just doing some shopping on the way out. I took the boat back to the Swan and then stayed up until 11:30 PM watching TV. The Swan also had the hyper-active Samantha Brown wannabe instead of Zippity-Doo-Dah.

I can’t believe I got hungry again after my big dinner but I ended up having pecans and Perrier from the mini-bar. What was I thinking???

 

[yecats]

What a great day. Enjoyed reading and thanks for sharing.

 

[Alice28]

Great report! thanks for posting!

 

[anne60]

Great report. First of all, you sound so much like my sister it's creepy....she is a vegetarian and the staring contest with the little kid is exactly something she would do!!! I am glad you are reporting on the food choices, as we are going to WDW in March with my sister and I would love to give her some recommendations for things to eat. I think 5 days of salads and pasta will get very boring!!! She does eat fish, so hopefully we will have some good meals.

 

[Brat862]

Thanks for the reporting. I keep saying one of these days I am going on a solo trip to wdw. Maybe when my kids are older I can. I would feel guilty about leaving them.