Day 2:
We woke up in the bed that was still too small (am I dwelling too much on this fact) and made a quick phone call to once again confirm that our room requests would be met for the rest of the trip. Yes, she confirmed we would be in a king non-smoking, and at that point I really could care less how far we had to walk...as it turns out, we got Jazz anyway.
We both apologized for our mild freak outs the night before and NJ said show me the magic. FYI, I had been to disneyworld twice before, but not for the past 6 or 7 years. NJ had never been.
We decided Magic Kingdom had to be the first stop, so we got on the bus and headed there for our first day in the parks. Of course this was after having packed our things so they could be moved to a new room...I'm actually glad that happened the first night because the room was certainly well lived in by the time we were at the end of the week!
When we got to MK, we had absolutely no agenda. There were certain rides I wanted to do, but NJ had done no pre-planning, by design. He had no concern about doing or seeing everything, he just wanted to walk around and soak it all in, and jump into a line if the thing struck him. Well I had no problem with that philosophy, so we took it slow, headed up main street, took a right toward tomorrowland. The idea was to grab a fastpass for space mountain, then continue the walking and soaking it up philosophy. Well, on the way to space mountain, one of those things struck NJ, so we headed into the time machine, or whatever it's called. We actually really enjoyed it, so it turned out to be a good find 5 minutes before the show started. We got the fast pass for space mountain and then continued exploring. Given our late start we were already pretty hungry and decided to look for a lunch place. I remembered that Pecos Bill came recommended for burgers, definitely NJ's favorite food. So we continued our stroll until we came upon Pecos Bill and ordered up some burgers. They were ok, not quite Red Robin (again, I don't know if Red Robin is a regional thing or not, but excellent burgers!).
Continuing on our stroll, we saw Pirates had virtually no wait, so we hopped on and made the first of several souvenir purchases at the little gift shop at the exit of the ride. I got a little Mickey pirate snowglobe, and NJ got a shot glass (the first of probably 20 on this trip). This was also our first use of the room resort delivery, and it was probably our favorite feature about staying on site. Sure, a shot glass here or there is not a big deal to carry around, but why bother?! I think we probably had 12 packages or more delivered by the time our trip was over.
I honestly can't remember what order we did everything in...I know it didn't make any sense whatsoever from a rigid planner's perspective because we were walking back and forth the whole time...but anyway, we ended up getting and using fast passes for space mountain, buzz lightyear, and the haunted mansion. We also did the hall of presidents, the time thing, pirates, the railroad, the alien thing, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting. We wanted to do big thunder and splash mountain but they didn't work out. We figured we'd be back sometime later anyway, so we headed toward California Grill for our PS for dinner and fireworks.
We were very early, because we made a PS for 8:15 for the 10:00 fireworks. But we were tired of strolling the park and decided to just get a drink at the bar and go ahead and wait for our PS. We checked in, told them we were early and did want to go ahead an wait for the 8:15, even if there would be a short wait at that time. We were also informed that, despite everything I had ever read saying that they had no dress code, NJ's sleeveless shirt would not cut it and they made him put on a polo shirt. As we were leaving they gave the same story to a man coming in...NJ said to him, you got busted too, huh and they both were a little more comfortable with the situation.
So we sit at the bar, order a couple beers, and relax. About 7:45 we decide to go ahead and tell them we'd be ready for our table, they say sure and they'll seat us by the window for the fireworks. Well, window tables come and go and we still stand there, and finally about 8:45 after two more window tables come and go, I go to find out what the deal is. They honestly didn't know, but it seems they hadn't put our little reservation card in the shuffle and just missed us completely several times over. NJ was about to throw his 'rented' polo shirt in their faces, but we pleasantly waited for a table. They gave us the very next table, not anywhere near the fireworks! We told them we had been waiting so long specifically because of the fireworks and was there any other option. She found us a table where we could at least see out the window, although not right by it. Whatever, the magic had in fact found us that day and we let it go. However, NJ did decide that the changing colors on the castle was just wrong...castles (at least this one) should be white with blue tops, it should not be purple or green or orange! Well, I never said he wasn't opinionated.
Luckily the chefs redeemed the absolutely horrid hostesses and the meal as a whole turned out spectacular. We could see the fireworks and loved that they dimmed the lights and played the music in the restaurant. We had flatbread pizza appetizer, filet, and rhubarb tart for dessert. It was all spectacular! Thank god the food was good or I know we may have been forced to dwell on the mix up in our seating.
We hopped the monorail back to MK, bus to music, and saw about our room change. As promised, we had a king, non-smoking, in the Jazz building. Apparently the magic remained.
We woke up in the bed that was still too small (am I dwelling too much on this fact) and made a quick phone call to once again confirm that our room requests would be met for the rest of the trip. Yes, she confirmed we would be in a king non-smoking, and at that point I really could care less how far we had to walk...as it turns out, we got Jazz anyway.
We both apologized for our mild freak outs the night before and NJ said show me the magic. FYI, I had been to disneyworld twice before, but not for the past 6 or 7 years. NJ had never been.
We decided Magic Kingdom had to be the first stop, so we got on the bus and headed there for our first day in the parks. Of course this was after having packed our things so they could be moved to a new room...I'm actually glad that happened the first night because the room was certainly well lived in by the time we were at the end of the week!
When we got to MK, we had absolutely no agenda. There were certain rides I wanted to do, but NJ had done no pre-planning, by design. He had no concern about doing or seeing everything, he just wanted to walk around and soak it all in, and jump into a line if the thing struck him. Well I had no problem with that philosophy, so we took it slow, headed up main street, took a right toward tomorrowland. The idea was to grab a fastpass for space mountain, then continue the walking and soaking it up philosophy. Well, on the way to space mountain, one of those things struck NJ, so we headed into the time machine, or whatever it's called. We actually really enjoyed it, so it turned out to be a good find 5 minutes before the show started. We got the fast pass for space mountain and then continued exploring. Given our late start we were already pretty hungry and decided to look for a lunch place. I remembered that Pecos Bill came recommended for burgers, definitely NJ's favorite food. So we continued our stroll until we came upon Pecos Bill and ordered up some burgers. They were ok, not quite Red Robin (again, I don't know if Red Robin is a regional thing or not, but excellent burgers!).
Continuing on our stroll, we saw Pirates had virtually no wait, so we hopped on and made the first of several souvenir purchases at the little gift shop at the exit of the ride. I got a little Mickey pirate snowglobe, and NJ got a shot glass (the first of probably 20 on this trip). This was also our first use of the room resort delivery, and it was probably our favorite feature about staying on site. Sure, a shot glass here or there is not a big deal to carry around, but why bother?! I think we probably had 12 packages or more delivered by the time our trip was over.
I honestly can't remember what order we did everything in...I know it didn't make any sense whatsoever from a rigid planner's perspective because we were walking back and forth the whole time...but anyway, we ended up getting and using fast passes for space mountain, buzz lightyear, and the haunted mansion. We also did the hall of presidents, the time thing, pirates, the railroad, the alien thing, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting. We wanted to do big thunder and splash mountain but they didn't work out. We figured we'd be back sometime later anyway, so we headed toward California Grill for our PS for dinner and fireworks.
We were very early, because we made a PS for 8:15 for the 10:00 fireworks. But we were tired of strolling the park and decided to just get a drink at the bar and go ahead and wait for our PS. We checked in, told them we were early and did want to go ahead an wait for the 8:15, even if there would be a short wait at that time. We were also informed that, despite everything I had ever read saying that they had no dress code, NJ's sleeveless shirt would not cut it and they made him put on a polo shirt. As we were leaving they gave the same story to a man coming in...NJ said to him, you got busted too, huh and they both were a little more comfortable with the situation.
So we sit at the bar, order a couple beers, and relax. About 7:45 we decide to go ahead and tell them we'd be ready for our table, they say sure and they'll seat us by the window for the fireworks. Well, window tables come and go and we still stand there, and finally about 8:45 after two more window tables come and go, I go to find out what the deal is. They honestly didn't know, but it seems they hadn't put our little reservation card in the shuffle and just missed us completely several times over. NJ was about to throw his 'rented' polo shirt in their faces, but we pleasantly waited for a table. They gave us the very next table, not anywhere near the fireworks! We told them we had been waiting so long specifically because of the fireworks and was there any other option. She found us a table where we could at least see out the window, although not right by it. Whatever, the magic had in fact found us that day and we let it go. However, NJ did decide that the changing colors on the castle was just wrong...castles (at least this one) should be white with blue tops, it should not be purple or green or orange! Well, I never said he wasn't opinionated.
Luckily the chefs redeemed the absolutely horrid hostesses and the meal as a whole turned out spectacular. We could see the fireworks and loved that they dimmed the lights and played the music in the restaurant. We had flatbread pizza appetizer, filet, and rhubarb tart for dessert. It was all spectacular! Thank god the food was good or I know we may have been forced to dwell on the mix up in our seating.
We hopped the monorail back to MK, bus to music, and saw about our room change. As promised, we had a king, non-smoking, in the Jazz building. Apparently the magic remained.
