Five Days of Dreams Come True

[irisbud]

Wow, did we ever have a fabulous trip, a trip that I can’t wait to relive while I’m sitting here typing away. Please bear with me, as this is my very first trip report. Also, the pictures are not as numerous as they should have been, nor are they of any quality whatsoever. I borrowed my sister’s digital camera (I am not a picture taking type of person) and bought myself a brand new memory card just for this trip, which was chosen for me by the folks at Best Buy. I know it was the right card for the camera, which sis also verified when I called her to tell her my woes which you will read about later, but it did not work. A very nice CM at Epcot’s camera center told me that the card must have a scratch on it causing it to be uncooperative and inoperable. She also told me that they didn’t sell this kind of memory card anywhere in “The World”. I did buy a few disposable cameras, but the quality is not as good as I would have liked, and the pictures were obviously fewer as the cost of the cameras was so high. Anyway, enough of my only tale of any kind of misery, which was more annoyance than anything… On with the show!

CAST:

Me: 24, lover of all things Disney. I had only been twice prior to this trip. One time I cannot remember as I was too young. My memories of that trip include giggling as my dad ran down a concourse in Atlanta trying to catch our connecting flight and standing in a dark room with lots of flashing lights. My Dad insists I had a great time, though, and I’ll take his word for it. After all, he is the one who apparently rode the teacup ride with me over and over and over again. My second trip was in July of 2002. How foolish we were. It was just my Dad and I. We stayed at the beautiful Grand Floridian for three nights and four days, the last day being the Fourth of July! We had no plan; we had no knowledge of what was in store for us (remember, it had been 16+ years since our last trip, which I don’t remember anyway). Basically, we had no clue. We walked around and sweltered and walked some more. The only rides we rode were a couple at Epcot and AK, and a few on an E-Ticket night at MK. We gave up battling the relentless crowds and did not go to MGM at all. I was ready to go back now, ready to try it all again.

BF: 43, has never been to Disney before but knows his dad loved it and wanted to take BF and his siblings but passed away before he could. He was mildly interested in trip before leaving but not overly excited. He had no clue as to what Disney is all about and was an unwilling subject when I tried to educate him. He could not understand that Disney is not just for kids, but humored me because I was so excited and because he was curious. He was mostly interested because we were staying concierge level and he could get free alcohol. I figured I would take that.

I went to Clearwater (The all suite Marriot hotel is great, BTW if you're every staying in that area) with a friend of mine and her two daughters in early March of 2006. I enjoyed our trip, especially the day that we went to Busch Gardens in Tampa, and found myself thinking about how much BF would have liked the theme park. I pondered that perhaps he and I should go down there together. If we were going to do a theme park though, we were going to do the biggest and best, the mother of them all…Walt Disney World.
As soon as I got home from Clearwater, I was clicking away on my computer, trying to find what would work for us. We would have to stay on the property, of course, not only for that magic that is a WDW resort, but for the more practical issue of transportation costs. With Magical Express service to top off the in park service, I saw no need for us to rent a car of any type, and considered this a real money and time saver. We have no children and are able bodied, so using Disney’s “free” transportation system would be on no major concern to us.
Alright. I had decided we were defiantly staying on site, but where to stay? Not a value. I have nothing against them personally; they are just not for me. After spending all day through the general “loudness” of the parks, I want to return someplace a little more subdued. Moderate, then? None of them looked like just the right place to me. Besides, I suppose that I am just a deluxe kind of girl. My BF and I are in a business that requires us to travel a great deal. We spend 2-3 months, or more, per year living out of suitcases in hotel rooms; usually low end ones to save our customers money. There is nothing novel about staying in a hotel for either one of us. If we were going to go on vacation, I was going to be sure we knew we were on vacation. (As though being in Disney would leave us with any doubt that we were, in fact, on vacation.) At least, this is what I told myself to rationalize my decision to open my wallet wider and wider.
I started with a more modest budget in mind. Four nights and five days would be great, and spending around $2500 for it all would be right down the cheapest side of my ally. I rubbed my hands together, bit my lower lip, and began scrolling through hotels and reviews, trying to discern the merits and pitfalls of each of Disney’s deluxe resorts and in the process discover which one was going to be right for us. After a quick search, I concluded that Animal Kingdom Lodge would be a great place for us (BF's childhood dream was to be a lion trainer in Africa after watching "Born Free"). Standard view would suit us well enough, I supposed at the time. I figured that I would pay for what we could live with, hope for an upgrade, but not let it ruin our trip if one was not in order.
Our package was booked, our hotel chosen, our flights selected. Somehow, through a convoluted series of events, I would up finding the DIS boards. I tried a couple of other discussion forums, but was not as happy with any of them as I was with this board. I made this my new “home” and opened my mind to suggestions. I wanted to have a fabulous trip this time. It looked as though my new found friends were in 100% agreement that in order to do this I would have to plan. I learned that I should look at some different sites with menus and room photos on them. I learned the importance of 180 days. I learned that at AKL you could partake in the Sunrise Safari should you choose to stay on club level. A beast was born.
I tried to fight away the urge to further open my wallet. I was under my budget, under! That was great, that was fabulous, that was fantastic. That was all about to change. I read through reviews. AKL’s Kilimanjaro Club was wonderful, and so was the Sunrise Safari. It was a must do. It had made the trip. You got "free" snacks and drinks in the concierge lounge. You got personalized service and someone to make all of your arrangements for you. No, I told myself. The budget. I picked up the phone and pulled the Disney reservation number up on my call list. The budget! I punched talk and listened to the music on hold. The budget! My practical side was begging for the mercy of reason. The budget was a good one. The side of me that was doing the talking, however, felt that stretching the budget a little wouldn’t hurt, not when it could have a Sunrise Safari in return. I was talking to a CM at last, my heart relieved that it had been able to hold out in the arduous battle with my head. To hell with the budget I thought as the CM greeted me, maniacal laughter that only I could hear ringing in my ears. I asked about upgrading to concierge before I could change my mind. Nothing was available aside from a one bedroom suite. My heart sank as my head did a little dance and asked who was laughing now. I upgraded to Savannah view instead, determined to salvage something.
I thought on it for a few days, the thought of concierge still ringing fresh in my mind. I looked at more pictures, becoming steadily more dissatisfied with the room décor in the standard rooms. The primaries they were adorned with looked quite loud next the more muted tones of the concierge rooms. I frowned, and then boldly opened some pictures of the one bedroom suites. They were beautiful rooms. I could see my practical side rolling its eyes and preparing for the Battle of the Budget and knowing it would lose much as it always did when it came to such skirmishes. My mind was made up, I would have that suite. It was even more subdued than the concierge rooms, and it would be mine. I called and got through right away, not thinking twice as I booked it.
I was satisfied for a while, giving the wonderful Don and Juanita at ALK’s IPO all of my requests, which they met handily. I was planning out my strategy (“making battle plans”, my BF said). As I looked at transportation times and realized that the only Disney Transport option would be busses I began to think longingly of the Grand Floridian and its easy access to MK and Epcot via the monorail. Hmm…a standard room in RPC would actually cost slight less per night than the AKL 1 BR suite. I decided that because of the Sunrise Safari, and because of the fact that I was uncertain that BF would love the GF as I did we would do a split stay, the first two nights at GF and the last two at AKL. I called and booked that. The budget was just gone…
I made some ADR changes and planned some more. I paid our trip off early and waited impatiently for our documents. I bought zip lock bags and new tennis shoes that we would have a few weeks to break in. I bought ponchos and a first aid kit just for blisters. I got a new fanny pack, a memory card for sis’s camera and some SPF 50 sun block (I burn easily). I signed up to do pay it forward and had three takers.
I packed on Friday, and we were to leave on Sunday, at 4 AM. My carryon bag would also be my park bag so we could head over to MK immediately after checking in. I wrote my ADRS on index cards. I made a list of my PIF address. I went over the plan. I was ready.

 

[OhMari]

I think planning is half the fun of actually going on the trip. Are you there yet?

 

[mlill]

Awesome! This is the TR I've been waiting for! Thanks for taking the time to post! Great start!

Happy Holidays!
-Michelle

 

[irisbud]

DAY 1:

It had finally arrived! After months of meticulous planning, our vacation was finally here. I didn’t even need the alarm clock to wake me up at two thirty in the morning; I had hardly been able to sleep at all from the excitement. I work my BF up and turned on the coffee pot, hoping to get and keep him moving. For once, I was not annoyed that we had to be up early for what was already an ungodly hour just because of him. I have no need to drink an entire pot of coffee in the morning before I get moving. I do not have to spend an hour and a half lumbering around the house trying to get my body moving. In fact, I had already taken a shower the night before for the sole purpose of avoiding such lengths. I was all packed and I had all of his things ready for him except for his shower stuff, which he was taking his sweet time getting to. Didn’t he know we were going to Disney World? If he can’t wake up bright eyed for that…

At last we were ready to be on the road at about 4AM, which was right on schedule. We live about one hour from the airport, and our flight was scheduled to depart at 6:30. Plenty of time. My dad was snoring away in the backseat, as he had come with us in order to take my car home from the airport so that he could use it for the week instead of driving his giant diesel truck to and from work every morning. He also didn’t want me having to pay over $50 in parking tickets, and he had to collect me and BF's fur baby Petey and take him for a weeklong sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

We arrived at the airport with no trouble, my dad driving off as soon as the bags hit the ground. We bypassed the e-ticket machine, preferring to get our passes the old fashioned way. Actually, BF didn’t care. I however, have had nothing but trouble with the evil e-ticket machine of annoyance and doom, thus I refuse to touch it. The line was already building at 5 AM, and in it I saw plenty of yellow Magical Express tags. I searched fruitlessly for LGMHs but found none. I was getting excited.

We checked in for our flight with no trouble and headed over to security, where I forgot to take my phone out of my pocket (it was 5:30 AM!) and got verbally assaulted by the metal detector lady. I apologized as she glared beadily and demanded my boarding pass, which BF (who had already gotten through) had ended up with. I told her as much and she continued to glare, refusing to take the boarding pass from him and not allowing him to give it to me until the kindly old man helping people to fill their bins before the x-ray machines intervened for me with a wink in my direction. At last we were through!

We located our gate, and then BF decided it was time for some breakfast from his favorite fast food stop for such a meal: Burger King. He loaded two sausage, egg and cheese croissants and a large bottle of water on his tray. I chose just an egg and cheese, not really wanting anything but knowing it would get to me later if I didn’t have something now. The cloying smell of Cinnabun and the sickening smell of greasy meat were getting to me so early in the morning. I choked down my sandwich and milk as fast as I could, trying to hurry BF up with an impatient glare so that we could head over to our gate.

Our flight began boarding at 6:10, so we didn’t have long to wait. We were in the fifth group to board as our seats were near the front of coach. When I had originally booked the flight through Disney, they had us all the way in the back on the three seat side of the aisle. I decided immediately that this would not do and had us moved as close to the front as possible, on the two person side of the aisle. I read for a while, hardly able to concentrate through my excitement. BF did crosswords from a book I had brought along for him and declared them too easy. It seemed as though we had been sitting in the jet way a long time. BF said twenty five minutes.

A voice came over the intercom at last, telling us that there was a slight technical difficulty but nothing to worry about. I think it was ice in the injector on one of the engines. We sat for about 15-20 more minutes and at last he announced that we would be underway. When he gave the temperature in Orlando, which was in the 70’s, everyone cheered. It was in the teens in St. Louis.

Our flight was uneventful and encountered no more problems in the air. As we were lowering altitude for landing, a lady towards the back started getting scared as the landing gear dropped and the flaps shifted, etc. A nice man sitting near her was explaining everything that was going on to her. Anytime there was a new sound she would gasp “Oh Lawd!” At last as we were landing someone said something about the alligators that might be living in the little ponds next to the runway. “There are alligators here? Oh Lawd!” She sounded as though she were going to faint. I think she was very happy when the plane stopped moving and we could disembark!

We took the tram to the main terminal and headed down to the Magical Express check in at around 10:30. Everything was easy to find and ran very smoothly. We didn’t have to wait at all, as there was a nice tour type bus with cushy red seats boarding for all of the Magic Kingdom resorts already. Most of the people on board were for Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian. There were no Contemporary patrons, and we were the only guests for the Grand Floridian.

Our bus driver pulled out very slowly and jerkily, and then headed onto the highway, where she continued to be passed by everyone. My BF made a comment, and I said that perhaps Disney insisted they drive this slowly, though we didn’t even seem to be at the speed limit. I got a triumphant look from him as that theory was soon crushed by a convoy of ME busses speeding past us towards their respective resorts. No big deal, I told him, we would be there in no time.

At last we entered Disney property and some people cheered quietly. You could feel a ripple of excitement running through the bus. Let the magic begin! I started pointing things out to BF, such as Spaceship Earth, the monorail, the Swan and Dolphin, the gateway to MGM, the sign the wished us well as we left Disney property… WHAT!?! Where were we going? A new wave of grumbling and tension came rolling down the aisle.

“Maybe she’s taking us the super secret back way?” someone joked nervously.

“How could she have missed all of the giant signs that say Magic Kingdom?” another wondered aloud. A couple of children started to wiggle impatiently.

At last we rolled to a stop, which wasn’t too difficult considering our speed to begin with, and made a u-turn somewhere down the highway. The whole bus clapped and whistled when we returned to the property, and from that point on people were yelling out the directions on the signs.

We went through the gates of Wilderness Lodge first, dropping off a few patrons. This is a beautiful resort, and the DVC part is huge! I liked the little topiaries out front and got a warm feeling from the outside alone. It amazed me how good of a job the Imagineers had done convincing us that we had left Orlando behind entirely. I don’t think I would mind staying here sometime.

Since we had no Contemporary guests on board, our next stop was the Poly. I love the grounds of this resort, but have never been overly impressed by the outside of the buildings. After the recent refurbishment, however, the insides of the rooms look beautiful in all of the pictures I have seen here on DIS. Most of the bus left here, quickly, I noted as though trying to flee.

I was positively shivering as we crept along at a snail’s pace towards the Grand Floridian. My BF wanted to know how much longer, and I told him just a moment and we would be there at last. By this time it was noon, and he was anxious to try out some food in the Concierge Lounge. I was starting to get hungry myself.

We were met at a podium outside by a nice CM (I am terrible with names, and I feel horrible about it. I had planned on bringing a small notebook along for the trip to write these things down, but I forgot. I did write down our events every night on note paper we got at the GF, but the names had already disappeared by the end of each day.) who took us up to the third floor of the main building so that we could check into the Royal Palm Club.

The resort was every bit as beautiful as I remembered. The soaring lobby with its chandeliers and stained glass ceilings, the giant Christmas tree and gingerbread house, the Grand Staircase, the easy eloquence of it all. It seems so light and airy to me, easily beautiful, as though it knows it doesn’t have to try. I remember being awed on our last trip as we drove up to the resort, that time at night, and saw it softly glowing. To me, this is what Disney is supposed to be.

We got off of the elevator and stepped over to a desk where Mejay was waiting for us (I remembered a name!) She checked us in painlessly and informed us that our room was not yet ready. She told us how the tickets worked, showed us how to use our keys in the elevator, and took us for a tour around the lounge on the fourth floor. She left us there to refresh ourselves, telling us that we would be getting a call as soon as our room was ready.

The lounge was very bright and comfortable. You could hear the sounds of the lobby below, but they sounded somehow muted as they rose four stories through the air. There was a large seating area with couches and arm chairs in the middle of the room, as well as a TV and a couple of fresh flower arrangements. On the walls were some racks with an assortment of the nation’s most popular newspapers. Near the windows were small tables with padded chairs clustered around them.

I was anxious for a drink and grabbed a glass of iced tea while BF gobbled down crackers with assorted dips. I tried a little of the spinach and found it quite good. I repacked the park bag, which I had used as a carryon and tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for him to finish. As he headed back for seconds, I reminded him that we had a two o’clock lunch reservation in Magic Kingdom, and it was 12:30 now. He wisley put his dishes on the tray provided so we could leave.

We took the elevator to the second floor and headed towards the monorail station. The line was backed up all the way into the building, which I thought didn’t bode well for crowd levels. I smeared on some sun block as we waited. We got onto the second train that pulled up after our arrival, squishing into a car and waiting for the familiar mantra “Please stand clear of the doors”. We waited...and waited...and waited. It seemed that the train ahead of us was experiencing technical difficulties. We decided that it must be us, but a couple in the car with us disagreed and proclaimed that it was them. They said that they had waited that morning for over an hour for a bus at Caribbean Bach, only to have some problems after boarding.

About ten minutes later, we were underway! Then we stopped again out over seven seas lagoon. A collective moan rang out, but it turned out that this time we were only waiting for traffic clearance. At last we pulled into the Magic Kingdom station, the doors opened, and we stepped out onto the platform at 1:10.

It was time to let the magic begin!

 

[irisbud]

DAY 1 Part II:

Remember that the last time I was at Magic Kingdom was over the Fourth of July. I remembered huge lines to get through bag check and the turnstiles, even when almost all of them were open. Imagine my surprise when I was able to breeze through bag check and traipse through the turnstiles. We walked right onto Main Street USA, which meant that the taping of the Christmas Parade must have wrapped up on Saturday. Consulting our map (yes, we moved to the side of the sidewalk), we headed off in the direction of Frontierland, wending our way through the knots of people that had gathered to watch the Family Fun Day Parade in progress.

BF afforded the castle a cursory glance, as he was determined to find Liberty Tree Tavern before doing anything else. I suppose he thought it might run away if we didn’t locate it immediately. After all, we only had forty-five minutes until our two o’clock lunch ADR. After he was satisfied that the map we had packed along in my park bag was indeed correct, we stepped into the Hall of Presidents, which had just started a show that we had just missed. We looked around at the artifacts, paintings, and memorabilia. I think that the quality of the reproductions of the Presidential portraits was the beginning of my BFs being impressed with Disney and the amount of detail and attention that they put into everything. I asked him if he wanted to wait for the next showing, but he looked at his watch and frowned, worried that we would miss our lunch.

I had made a vow that my plans would be very, very loose on this trip and that I would not argue with him. I smiled and told him that he might be right and we headed back out into MK. We wandered down the street, pausing to run through a couple of shops where we bought nothing. We came out of the backside of one store and ended up in Adventureland. The first thing we stumbled upon there was the Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management. My BF decided that we should sit through this show. I smiled and agreed, not bothering to wonder aloud why we had to skip HoP due to time constraints, but had a few minutes to try out ETR. We sat through the preshow and entered the theater where I must say we were less than impressed. Perhaps part of our dislike was caused by the fact that we had chosen poor seats and had a direct view up Yago’s tail feathers. All in all, we found this show fairly cheesy, and thought that the avian animatronics involved were not nearly of the quality of those found elsewhere throughout the resort. * ½ of 5.

After the show, we headed over to LTT at about 1:50 and checked in, admiring the lobby with its gigantic fireplace and soaking up the colonial atmosphere. We were seated at around 2:00, at a table for four near the front and next to a window, after watching them turn several walk-ins away. We were starving by the time we sat down, and couldn’t wait to order. Since we were not on the Dining Plan, we were able to order as much or as little as we wanted. We decided that we would share the fried cheese appetizer. I had the pot roast, while BF had a cheese/bacon/mushroom burger. We each had iced tea to drink. The fried cheese was nice and tasty and not too greasy. It was also perfect for us as it had a combination of cheese sticks (for me) and cheese curds (for BF). The tea was nice and fresh, and tasted real instead of instant. My pot roast was fabulous, made especially so by the crispy fried onions on top. My BF thought his burger and fries were really good. I really wanted to try the butter grilled pound cake that I had heard so much about on DIS, but I was simply stuffed. I think that this was a good restaurant for us to start with, as BF wasn’t overly dismayed by the price, though he did comment on the lack of choices, which was a recurring theme throughout all of the restaurants. We spent a little over $40 including the tip on this meal. ***1/2 of 5.

After leaving LTT we headed over to BTMRR and walked right on. I had never ridden this ride before, and had a great time on it. I really enjoyed the little details on here, especially the scene with the miner by the stream. I really love roller coasters and found this one fun even though it didn’t do anything at all extreme compared to most that I had been on. It does have a lot of steeply banked turns and a few drops. For a roller coaster that does not go upside down it ran really smoothly. BF enjoyed this one as well. He had never really been on a roller coaster before, as his last trip to a theme park of any kind was 35 years in the past. **** Of 5.

The Share a Dream Come True Parade was in progress when we departed from BTMRR. Though I wanted to watch, BF’s eyes glazed over at the suggestion and he began to look at the map, which he was now keeping in his pocket, impatiently. Taking a hint, I suggested that we ride the train over to Mickey’s Toon Town Fair and do some of the rides in Tomorrowland before returning to the GF and checking in. I frowned when I looked at the time on my phone (just after 3PM) and saw that they still hadn’t called. We were going to save Splash for later in case we got too wet (I had never been, so was unsure) as we had no room to go back to yet.

We took the train, which had just pulled into the platform when we reached the top, and I was surprised that all of the details, such as a Native American village and some wildlife, that had been erected at the trackside. I thought the train was nice and relaxing, and far preferred it to walking across MK.

After disembarking from the train, we walked down the pathway to Tomorrowland and headed for Space Mountain. We decided to forego Fast Passes, as the Standby line was marked at fifteen minutes, which it probably would have been had the ride not broken down. We decided to wait it out, though, as BF liked the queue area. The little windows with the moving stars in them were actually making me sick, but I smiled gamely and we stayed. Our total wait was only about forty minutes with the breakdown. BF took the front seat and I crammed myself into the second. I rode this ride on my last visit, but sat in the front, and don’t remember having a problem with it. Apparently, the back seats are not for me! I have very long legs and could barely fold myself into the seat even though I am quite thin. I felt like my knees were up to ears and was uncomfortable the entire ride. BF didn’t like it either. We found it really jerky, and kept thinking we were going to be hit in the head by the support structure, even though we both knew this was irrational. It didn’t scare me in the slightest, nor did it do anything for my adrenalin wise. I was simply physically uncomfortable the whole time. This was BF’s least favorite ride of the entire trip. * Of 5.

We walked over to the Carousel of Progress and went right on. We both really enjoyed this, though the song did get a little annoying after a while, but in a cute, happy sort of way. This was BF’s first real view of Disney’s animatronics and he was fascinated. The detail in this was very good as well, we both thought. I loved the scene at the end with the oven. **** Of 5.

We still had not heard back from the GF, so we decided that, as it was approaching 5 o’clock, we would head back after a round on Buzz. Surely our room had to be ready by now. Besides, I was carrying a lot of extra stuff from our flight around in my backpack, and my shoulders and head were starting to hurt. We rode Buzz with a ten minute wait since we were right there. We both stunk at it. BF and I tied at 8400 points a piece. We had a lot of fun on this ride, though, and like the bright, arcadey feel of it. *** Of 5.

We walked back to the front of the park, which is the first time that I tried to take a picture of the MK Christmas tree, which had just been lit, and the castle, which had just started to turn colors. BF thought this was cool and wanted a photo. The camera could not format the card and kept shutting itself out. We decided to get it fixed later as my head was starting to pound.

We headed down Main Street, which looked almost deserted, stepped right on a waiting monorail into a nearly empty car, got off at GF and rode up to the third floor. We went over to the first available concierge desk and asked about our room. The CM looked up the number on her computer and said “Oh my goodness!”

The best was yet to come!

 

[KSBelle]

Can't wait to hear more!!!

 

[momofdbsdc]

Great so far!!! Can't wait to hear the rest!

 

[irisbud]

DAY 1 PART III

“Oh my goodness,” the dark haired CM kept mumbling under her breath as her fingers pecked away on the keyboard. I could feel a sort of excited energy emanating from her, and felt an urge to start bouncing in my seat. Instead, I edged closer to the desk, waiting on pins and needles.

“You just booked a standard room?” she asked, her voice sounding as though she were ready to burst at the seams.

“Yes,” I said, hearing the unmistakable higher pitch that it always takes on when I get excited. Inside my mind was pumping its proverbial fist in the air. Score! I had a castle view! A deluxe room, or maybe even a honeymoon room, which would guarantee my king bed. One of those octagon shaped turret rooms would be nice…wait, I was getting ahead of my self, getting greedy. Just being here in Grand Floridian’s Royal Palm Club was nice. Any room would do.

“Just let me double check…” She hovered over her screen a little longer as though unable to believe what she was seeing, but in a good way. “Okay, then,” she smiled in a warm way, “I think I will show you to your room!” She stood up and started down the hall with a slight bounce to her step. We turned to the right just past the concierge desks and continued a short ways down the carpeted hallway into an area where it opened up in front of another elevator. There was a great deal of room here, almost a circular area with a small Christmas tree on a white table and a little seating area with padded chairs. In its own private section of wall was a set of white double doors with a brass placard that were guarded on either side by small potted palms.

The CM (another name I forgot, and I never saw her again…this one I’ll attribute to the excitement in an effort to make my poor, abysmal memory feel better) walked over to the doors and I nearly fainted. Whatever was behind those doors had to be good. It had its own private section of hallway, for goodness sake! “Welcome,” she said, just as I was reading the placard on the door, “to room 4311, the Roy Disney Suite!”

“Oh my God,” I said, feeling slightly faint and hoping that this was not the cruelest of all jokes ever played on me, or a wonderful dream that I would too soon wake up from.

She opened the door onto one of the most beautiful rooms that I had ever seen and showed us around. The foyer of the suite is green marble with a sort of salmon accent. The marble ends at two large pillars. There is a huge gilt framed mirror to the right side of the doors as you enter. Beneath the mirror is a wrought iron type marble top table with a small statue of a polo player on top. I think that there was a framed print of some sort to the left, and perhaps a potted plant. From the very beginning, I was totally blown away!

I can honestly say that I have never before seen someone so excited about my good fortune. She proclaimed that this was a great way for her to end her day, and left us to enjoy!

For those of you that want to know what the suite looked like in as much detail as I can remember, read the next giant paragraph and follow the link to some truly terrible pictures I took. If not, skip ahead past the picture link!

The suite is divided into three separate sections: the living area is in the center, with the foyer, a coat closet, a huge half bath with a marble counter, a marble topped wet bar with a fabulous coffee pot, a glass topped dining table with a fresh flower arrangement consisting mostly of red roses on top surrounded by six lattice back chairs with padded seats that have hidden Mickeys on them, a desk/work area with a huge wooden desk, great desk lamp, old fashioned type globe and another lattice back chair, and the sitting/TV area with has a flat screen TV and DVD player inside the huge wooden armoire. The armoire has shelves on either side of its center that are behind glass doors. On these shelves are several personal type effects, including china plates and pictures. Above the armoire is a crossed pair of old fashioned polo mallets. There are a couple of shelves in the room with some painted china knickknacks on them. Great wooden end tables with china based painted lamps on them are set in the corners between a green couch with huge throw pillows and the two very comfortable arm chairs that flank it. There is a beautiful coffee table that is painted on top in front of the couch with another arrangement of flowers, this time some sort of white lilies with small purple flowers and greenery. There is a chaise next to the armoire and near the exit to the balcony that is through flowered curtains and lace sheers. The chaise has a standing lamp behind it, a two-tier end table next to it, a huge throw pillow, and an ottoman that doubles as a hidden Mickey. The whole room has a Bose sound system. The children’s room is through a lace curtained door to the left as you enter. This area has its own full bath with a hair dryer, double sink, toilet, and tub/shower combination, an ample hall closet with full length mirrors and two fabulous robes inside, and a large room with two twin sized sleigh beds with dark spreads, two large pillow and two small pillows a piece, an armoire with a Mickey head lamp and a fresh flower arrangement that houses another TV, and a reading area with chairs. (Sorry, we don't have kids so I didn't spend much time in there other than to take a look around and order breakfast one morning) The master suite is to the right through another lace curtained doorway. This side has a huge walk in closet with two sets of clothes racks, two fabulous robes, a clothes steamer, a dresser, and a large mirror in a carved frame, a HUGE marble bathroom with a double sink set in a marble counter top beneath a GIANT mirror, hairdryer, clothes hamper, Jacuzzi tub, heat lamp above the tub, a print of the Crystal Palace above the tub, a full length mirror on the back of the door, a TV, a separate room for a marble shower big enough for a family with a marble seat and clear glass doors and the toilet. There is another heat lamp in here and a set of six of the fluffiest bath towels ever. I counted and in this bathroom alone there were ten bath towels, eight hand towels, and six wash cloths! The room also had great shampoos and conditioners, huge bars of soap, body lotion, and a great mint foot lotion that was very refreshing. In the hallway, there are several pictures of Roy Disney, and a writing desk with potted plants on either side. The bedroom had a huge, heavenly king size bed covered in a heavy floral spread and super soft sheets with four large pillows for reading and watching TV, and four soft pillows for sleeping. The bed has a two-poster headboard with a small floral curtained canopy. There are two reading lamps above the bed. The wooden night stands each have a painted china based lamp on them. There is a large painting next to the bed, and smaller ones above each nightstand. To the left of the bed on an angled wall is another painting above a pink and green striped floral pattern love seat with two throw pillows. There is a dark wood coffee table with delicate spiral carved legs in front of this love seat that has yet another arrangement of fresh flowers upon it. Near the entrance to the balcony is a round footstool in a floral print. There is another shelf full of china knickknacks near the large desk. There is a mirror over the desk (which also has spiral legs) that is flanked by heavy carved plate holders on either side that have pink and white china plates, jars and boxes. There is a china box on the desk, a china based lamp and another lattice backed chair. An armoire that matches the one in the living room though without the side shelves houses another TV. There are potted plants on either side. The whole suite had sculpted ivory carpet throughout, along with crown and baseboard molding. The ceiling also extends out from the walls for about a foot before raising another foot in the center. All of the lights are on dimmers as well as switches. The air conditioner works great! All of the rooms have direct access to a full, shared balcony with four chairs that overlooks the quiet pool and hot tub area, as well as the nearby garden. The Walt Disney Suite is directly above, and, I am told is laid out the exact same but is decorated differently.

Roy Disney Suite


After a few minutes to get over our shock and awe, we went to the concierge lounge and snacked on some skewered meat, a sort of fruit salad, cheese and crackers and some iced tea. It was official; I was now in love with RPC! I think my BF was becoming a Disney convert as well.

We decided that since Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours until 11, we would go ahead and head back over. It was almost eight when we arrived, so we stood in line to receive our purple wrist bands. Almost everything was a walk on!

We headed over to Adventureland to do the Jungle Cruise and walked right on. We were in a great mood now. Somehow, we had forgotten that we had each enjoyed less than five hours of sleep the night before and had been going non stop for about 18 hours at this point! We even laughed at some of the corny jokes told by our Pilot, Rachel (another name I remember! That’s two, go me!) 3 of 5.

Next we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean, which we also walked on. This was one of our favorite rides of the entire trip. The special effects and animatronics inside were absolutely fabulous. It was really hard to tell that those were not people! We gave this a well deserved 5 of 5.

As we were leaving, we saw the very last fireworks from Wishes. That was when I remembered that I had wanted to watch Spectromagic tonight! Oh well…

We headed over to the Haunted Mansion and walked on it as well. My BF was disappointed as he thought that it would at least be a little scary, but I still like it. I think the effects are really neat and know that it is supposed to be what it is. He gave it 1 ½ of 5, I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Next we decided to try out Peter Pan’s Flight, which we did have to wait 15 minutes for. I thought this ride could maybe use a rehab, but I liked the flying boat and a lot of the scenes inside. 2 ½ - 3 of 5

We were able to walk right into Mickey’s Philharmagic next. This was my favorite 3-D show of the entire trip. I thought it was great and loved the way that they integrated so many of my favorite movies. 5 of 5.

After that we went over to Stitch’s Great Escape. First, we had to wait for almost twenty minutes as the ride was having “technical difficulties”. When we got into the preshow, I was happy to see that they still have the cute little alien guy in the test tube; I have his stuffed animal on my bed (his curved body shap makes him a great neck pillow)! This was where my joy ended. We both absolutely despised this attraction, and nearly puked at the smelly part. The hot air was going too far!!! 0 of 5! The worst thing of the entire trip!

We decided that after that we were about done. It was 10:15 by now, so we decided we would go ahead and do Splash and walked right on. What a cute, fun ride. We were amazed at how long it was, and I LOVED looking out over MK during the drop. I really loved that I barely got wet at all! 4 ½ of 5.

We headed back towards the monorail and went back to our suite, still unable to believe that this had happened to us. I was hungry for something sweet, and private dining was no longer serving dessert, so I headed to Gasparilla’s (sp?), GF’s quick service restaurant, and got a piece of chocolate cake for about four dollars. The cake was okay, but BF had to eat the icing, as it was too thick and fudgy for me.

By this time it was about 11:30, and since we had been up for 20 hours straight at this time, we decided to crawl into our fabulous bed and call it a night. No matter what happened, it was already a great trip, and it was only day one!

 

[KSBelle]

AWESOME

 

[Mrs.Reese]

GO YOU

 

[KatGarcia]

How awesome for you!!!! Sounds like one heck of a trip! Can't wait for more!!!!

 

[irisbud]

Sorry for the delay. I just started a new job and it is taking up valuable time that could better be spent DISing and writing this Trip Report!

DAY 2:

I stretched and yawned, rolling over and wondering what time it was. The sun was peeking underneath the drapes, and I felt so warm and comfortable that it was a conceivable notion, at that point, that I might never get up. I don’t know that I had ever slept better than I did in that wonderful bed. I sat up slightly, leaning over to look at the clock on the bedside table. 8:00. Our long day before considered, I thought that that was just fine. In fact, I didn’t feel tired at all. Must be more of that famous Disney magic!

I put on one of those wonderful robes that had been so thoughtfully stashed in the closet for us and headed out to the dining room area of the suite to make some hot tea for myself and coffee for BF. I still couldn’t believe that this magical upgrade had actually happened to us. I thought that this was one of those things that people only read about, not one that would ever actually happen.

The coffee pot was great. It heated the water for my tea, and afterwards made the coffee. Instead of letting the liquids drip out into a pot or cup, however, it stored them inside, keeping them nice and hot. I took my cup and stepped out on to the balcony, watching the day that had already long since started for many come to life around me.

After finishing my cup, I headed into the giant shower, turning on the overhead heat lamp. Though it took me a moment to figure out the water, the results were heavenly. Water pressure! A steady, regulated temperature! Anyone who travels a lot for any reason, as I do, knows the immense value of these seemingly simple things.

I got dressed and finished cleaning up while watching one of the resorts channels on the bathroom TV. The program of choice was the top seven must sees at Disney world. I thought it very convenient that there was one in each of the theme parks, each of the water parks, and one in Downtown Disney.

By the time I was ready, BF decided it was time for him to prepare for the day ahead as well. After he headed into the bathroom, I took my key and headed out the door, intending to get a park map and stop by M. Mouse Mercantile on the second floor of the Grand Floridian and purchase a hat for each of us. As I walked down the hall towards the concierge desks, I noted all of the cute little wicker baskets full of linens sitting outside of each door. I also noticed all of the Do Not Disturb signs on these doors. This should have triggered something in my mind, but it unfortunately did not.

I grabbed a map for Epcot, which was, as of the day before, BF’s park of choice for the day, and headed to the store. The choice of hats here was very limited, and I didn’t really see anything either of us would like. I looked around some more, planning on picking out postcards for Pay it Forward, but there were no postcards at all in here! Oh well…

Upon reentering the room several minutes later (I stopped to look over the balcony and down onto the lobby, with it’s magnificent Christmas tree and fabulous gingerbread house, the smell of which was very lightly wafting onto the air, filled with the giddy feeling that being in WDW always gives me) I encountered a ticked off BF.

"I told you how to work the shower,” I said, trying to guess at what his problem could possibly be. I had packed for this trip, so I knew he wasn’t missing anything. He hadn’t been grumpy before I left…

“Where were you?”

“I went to go get a map,” I said, leaving out my failed retail trip and my sightseeing detour.

“The Housekeeping people came in here!”

I decided that that was not a good time to point out that they were called “Mousekeeping” and simply replied “So?”

“I was in the shower! I was just getting out when they came into the bathroom!” He stopped and glared accusingly at me for a moment, as though I had been planning this all along. Yes, of course it was my sudden, sinister desire to ruin his vacation with rouge voyeur Mousekeepers Disney knew nothing about…

“Oh,” I said. It was all I could think of.

“I had the door to the shower part shut. I heard them come in the front door. There must have been two of them, because I thought I heard you talking to one, and telling them to leave. One came in the other part of the bathroom, and I told them to leave.”

“Oh,” I said again, stupidly, “Sorry.” Note to self: use Do not Disturb sign.

Since he then seemed mollified for whatever reason, I put out one of my premade Mousekeeping envelopes, picked up my park bag (just the fanny pack this time, thank goodness. I should have listened about getting a backpack with good shoulder straps…) and we got in the elevator across from our room, riding it up one floor to the lounge, where a great breakfast spread had been provided. BF selected meats, cheeses and some fruit. I had a few muffins with a cheese Danish sort of filling (yum!) and some other pastries. The lounge really had a great selection for breakfast, and was busy but not overly crowded. We were still able to get a window table even though it was nearing 9:30 by this point.

Feeling fortified, we headed down a floor to the concierge desks. I asked about a place to get my sis’s camera looked at, and was told that my best bet would be one of the camera centers in the parks. The CM asked where we were headed, and when we told him Epcot, he gave us good directions to their camera center. We then headed down another floor and over to the monorail station. This time, there were no delays. The cars were practically empty! We rode over to the TTC, got off, walked down and back up on the other side and rode over to Epcot. I was still amazed at how empty the parks were. I remembered lines way down the ramps just to get on the monorail during our previous visit.

At last the train made its little circle through Futureworld, and we were there!

 

[irisbud]

DAY 2 PART II

After quickly passing through bag check and the turnstiles, we headed over to the camera center at around 10:30, following the great directions that the CM in RPC had given us. I thought about sending BF to Soarin’ to get FPs, but was afraid he would get lost so I didn’t mention it. While the CM in the camera center examined my sis’s camera, sis actually called me. I explained the problem to her, and she was bewildered. She said that she had never had the camera do that before. We concluded that the problem must be with the card, as did the CM. Unfortunately, they did not sell that card. She called around, but could not find anywhere in “the world” that they do. Oh well, I smell an excuse for another trip… (Obviously it doesn’t take much!)

Slightly put out, we headed to Spaceship Earth, which had about a three minute wait. I had never been on this attraction before, and I found it really interesting, as did BF. It did get stuck for a few minutes, and I thought that between the flashing lights surrounding us and our backwards position, I was going to end up with a killer migraine. Luckily, we were moving again within just a couple of minutes. We rated this with a 3 ½ of 5.

Walking out of SE, we headed into Innovations East for a quick stroll. I really wanted to build one of the robots at plastic works, but BF pointed out the inconvenience of carrying it all day, as I had not brought my back pack. Maybe later… We looked at a few of the exhibits, and then passed into the House of Tomorrow, after waiting about ten minutes. We actually thought about getting out of line, but we waited it out as we were trapped in the queue. After going in, I wished we would have left. Though some of the things that we were shown were interesting, most of the tour seemed like one long drawn out infomercial to me. My BF thought this merited 2 of 5, which was more generous than my 1 of 5.

We passed up Universe of Energy because of its length (there was no line, but I was reluctant to spend 45 minutes in a single attraction so early in our tour of Epcot). Looking at our map, we decided to do Mission: Space. We chose the green team, mostly because there was a slight line for the orange team and the green side was a walk on. I was SO glad that we did not do the more extreme version, as I got a little motion sick. I’m not sure I could have handled the other version. BF wanted to try the other side and I told him to go ahead, but he didn’t want to wait in line. Even with my motion sickness issues, I would have to rate this experience with 4 ½ of 5.

Next we headed over to Test Track, which had a one hour wait posted. This was the first time we got FP’s. Our return time was in about an hour, so BF suggested that we just wait in line. I patiently explained to him how FP worked, and how much better it would be to spend that hour taking in other attractions than it would be to wait in line for Test Track.

At last I managed to convince him, and we crossed Future World to ride Soarin’, which I was afraid would be accumulating a wait by this time. I was right. The posted wait was an hour, but we decided to just go ahead and wait this one out, as it didn’t LOOK that long, and we didn’t feel like traipsing back and forth across the park all day trying to work the FPs. It just wasn’t crowded enough to be really worth it. The queue area is a little deceptive, and really opportunist for line cutters, but our wait was only around forty minutes. We both thought this ride was really neat and well done, but it made us both slightly uncomfortable, me because of a fear of heights, BF because he felt like it was going really fast. I loved the orange smell! The visual effects were really cool, but because of our discomfort, we gave this a 3 ½ of 5.

Since we were already in the building, we decided to head over to Living with the Land. Luckily, we were one of the first to leave Soarin’, as it seemed like most of the people who had ridden with us had the same idea as we did! We only had about a five minute wait, during which we could smell the food court, which actually smelled GOOD to me (I usually hate CS smell, because I hate the smell of grease!). We both thought this was a really interesting experience, and were truly amazed by some of the technology being used. It was also very relaxing! 3 of 5.

By then, our time had come up to use our TT FPs, so we headed back over and rode. There were things on this ride that I had forgotten about; one in particular made my heart jump! We both thought that this was an awesome experience, and gave it a 4 ½ of 5.

Next we headed over to the Living Seas, mostly because I wanted to see Turtle Talk with Crush. Somehow, my tiny brain got confused and we ended up walking on the Nemo ride, which is REALLY boring for two adults without children, though we were glad that the moving walkway for this attraction seemed to move at a slightly slower rate than some of the other moving walkways we had thus far encountered. I was forever misjudging my speed on them. We gave this a 1 of 5.

After we exited, I saw the line for Crush. We entered the theater after about a five minute wait. This was really cool, and must use some amazing technology. Crush was really good to, none of the kids left crying because he hadn’t picked them, and he answered a lot of questions. During the middle of the show, a baby started to cry and just continued on and on. Crush finally asked “which little dude was speaking dolphin!” I thought that was a good way to handle the little interruption and keep people from getting angry at the poor woman holding the baby. 5 of 5.

After leaving Crush, we walked around the aquarium for a few minutes. I really liked the pair of manatees, and was surprised at how many people were diving in the tank.

We were growing hungry and tired by this time, but were determined to hold out as we only had two attractions left in Future World that we really wanted to see: Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and Journey into your Imagination.

We decided to do Honey, I Shrunk the Audience first. It turned out that a show had just started, so we had to wait about twenty minutes for the next one. During the preshow, a little girl near us turned to her daddy and said very seriously “I don’t want to go on this if it’s going to shrink my clothes because I just got them and mommy will be mad.” She was so cute! My BF’s seat or something malfunctioned, so he didn’t feel some of the special effects and wondered why people were squealing. We gave this a 3 of 5.

Our last ride before we left the park was Journey into your Imagination with Figment. We walked right on this ride, and I thought the Figment was adorable, but wondered, all in good fun, what the obsession with foul smells is at Disney? 3 ½ of 5.

By this time, it was nearly 3:45. We hopped right on the monorail and head back for a snack at the concerge lounge to tide us over before dinner at Kona!

 

[Bee]

 

[yearbook50]

I'm enjoying this.

You were so lucky. I once stayed in one of the turret rooms and it was lovely. I can only imagine how the Roy Disney Suite is.

 

[irisbud]

Thank you all so much for your kind responses! I'm sorry to be so slow. Darn that real life for getting in the way! I hope you are enjoying reading a fraction of as much as I am enjoying writing. I'm remembering things I had forgotten even with notes as I go!

Have a great day!

DAY 2 PART III

After leaving the monorail (we were already growing tired of walking up and down those ramps to switch trains at the TTC), we headed straight to the fourth floor lounge at the GF to grab snacks. It was just after four o’clock at this point, and I knew that they should still be serving tea. I LOVE tea. I would have loved to go the afternoon tea in the Gardenview Lounge at the Grand, but I thought that that might just be pushing BF a little too far. I supposed I would just have to settle for this.

BF was disappointed that they didn’t have any meat out, but I didn’t care. There in a warmer were those golden scones I had heard so much about here on the DIS. I grabbed the tongs and pulled out two or three, cutting them open and spreading a delicious cream they had sitting nearby over them. Thinking my plate needed more color, I added a couple of little fruit tarts that had a sort of custard in the bottom and were topped with blackberry, strawberry and kiwi! YUM! I set this down on a nearby table, and headed over to make tea.

If you love tea, you have to try the GVL tea at the GF, as I was told that this is the same tea that was being served in the concierge lounge at the GF. It was simply called “T”. I chose an Earl Grey (my favorite) that was infused with lavender. The tea was still large leaf, and came in little silk bags with a white silk ribbon as a dipping string. I let it steep, added sugar and cream (my daddy is from England, what can I say) and took it over to our table, where I enjoyed the best cup of tea I had ever had. Maybe it helped that I was in the best, most magical place on earth.

We headed back to the room after that and sprawled out on the furniture to watch some TV before we took a walk over to the Poly. I loved that chaise lounge, and adding the ottoman to the end made it just the perfect length for me. I couldn’t see the TV from where I was sitting, but that was perfectly fine with me, as I have never been a big TV fan, and BF always has unconditional control of the remote. I swear that that man knows just what I will hate most on TV and finds it every time. I was a little tired anyway, and spent about an hour or so lightly dozing in the sunlight that was streaming through the sheers and onto my resting place.

Finally, I decided to get up, change my shirt and comb my hair. My hair is crazy thick and frizzy, so I didn’t dare wash and blow dry it with so little time left before dinner. I needed to be ready in about ten minutes. I figured that should give me just enough time to get the pony tail poof out of it, put on just the slightest bit of makeup, and go. Everything decided to cooperate for once, and at 5:45, we were walking out the door of the suite.

At this point, BF decided that he didn’t want to walk over to the Poly, but I insisted, as I planned on making it to the beach in time to watch Wishes and hear the sound piped in. It really is an easy walk, and I believe it took us less time than it would have to ride the monorail all of the way around. We saw a wedding just starting, the guests in all of their finery still arriving. I thought of what a magical moment that would be, to be married in the wedding pavilion while Wishes was going off over Cinderella Castle in the background. Beautiful.

We arrived at a beach at last, and settled down onto a swing. I told BF that I didn’t think that this was the RIGHT beach, as sound was supposed to be funneled in, but I heard no speakers. BF said that the fireworks would start soon, so we should just sit there. We watched the fireworks and there was no sound, so I still think we were looking for a beach actually within the cluster of buildings that comprise the Poly, rather than on its outskirts, but I could be wrong. A couple of others were watching with us. I thought it was a beautiful show, but I do wish I could have heard the sound, especially as I never did get to see the show the proper way. Another trip, perhaps…

After Wishes ended, we headed into the Poly’s Great Ceremonial House for our 6:35 reservation at Kona. When we checked in, the CM noted that I had an allergy to mustard, and told us it would be about a five minute wait, remarking that our pagers would work anywhere on the second floor. We were still tired from our marathon morning at Epcot, so we simply leaned over the railing, trying to spot the tropical village made of edible goodies that we had seen on a WDW Holiday food network special. It was no where to be found.

Our pagers went off quickly, and we were lead to a nice table for four in a quiet back corner near the coffee bar. I breathed a sigh of relief when we stopped here, as we had passed many tables for two in the center of the restaurant which would have left us elbow-to-elbow with other diners. Our server came over quickly and brought drinks. I told BF that the sticky wings were a huge hit here on DIS (I pointedly ignored him rolling his eyes). When our server returned, he ordered those and the filet, while I chose the macadamia mahi mahi, something I had been dying to try ever since I heard about it.

Our poor server was terrified that she might feed me something with mustard in it, so she had the chef come out to confirm that everything I had ordered would be fine, and none of the desserts would be off limits. He offered to put the mustard drizzle for BF’s sticky wings on the side so that I could try them if I so desired, but I despise chicken wings in any flavor or form, so I tactfully (I hope) declined (by tactfully, I mean that I didn’t openly gag or make faces of overt disgust)…

A plate of bread came out right away. I loved the parmesan addition to the oil, and I thought it made the bread really tasty. As I ate, I realized just how ravenous I was, and devoured nearly the entire loaf of bread (BF only wanted one piece, as he had his sticky wings to worry about). Our server finally returned with wet naps (BF hates messy food) and the rest of our food. What can I say except wonderful! BF’s filet was cooked to perfection and the seasoning was fabulous (I stole a bite). The baby asparagus spears that served as an accompaniment looked mouth watering. My mahi mahi was heavenly. I gave BF one (tiny) bite, and he was impressed as well. I topped my meal off with a Kilauea torte, while BF declined dessert. This was great too. I was so impressed with this place for the price (about $70 including tip). This was far and away our favorite meal of the trip.

We waddled out the door and onto the monorail, then off the monorail again and up to the CL for BF to have a drink. He tried just a taste of a couple of things, while I had a glass of kaluah (sp?) and milk. I also tried a few mini desserts… (Some fruit tarts and little pastries…so much for being full). We sat in the lounge for a while, enjoying the orchestra and the general ambiance, me beginning to feel that tug that told me we were heading towards the end. I wished that we could stay here for the rest of our trip rather than moving to Animal Kingdom Lodge, but reminded myself how foolish a wish this was. I am sure that if we were there longer we wouldn’t be enjoying the beautiful room I never wanted to give up. Though I love the magic of Disney, my practical side told me that the room must have been empty for the two days we were booked for, lucky for us. Still, I DO believe in Pixie Dust and felt oh so blessed to have had this happen to us.

Finally satiated, we headed back to the room, where we took turns soaking in the Jacuzzi tub, I with a good book and BF with the TV in there. After the parks, it felt like pure heaven, especially having the jets on your feet then later slathering them with the provided mint foot lotion after getting out and wrapping up in one of those great robes. Feeling fully refreshed, I decided to step out on the balcony into the still fairly warm night air and watch the resort falling asleep around me while BF turned on the TV.

It hit me at that moment, standing there on the balcony with that lush robe wrapped tightly around my still warm from the bath skin and just the smallest of breezes blowing through the slight chill of the night air just how wonderful all of this was. I wished it could always be like this. I then looked to my side and there was no one there to share it with me. I continued to watch people coming and going for a moment, but it had suddenly lost its appeal. Slowly, I turned around and pushed my way back through the curtains and into the bedroom where the TV was blaring and my BF was undoubtedly flipping through all of the channels he knew I hated most. I smiled and flopped down to watch with him anyway, feeling home at last.

 

[irisbud]

DAY 3 PART I

I rolled over and stretched, looking at the clock on the bedside table. Eight AM. I was amazed that I was awake now, having been so exhausted the night before, but I supposed that it was just the effects of this fabulous bed and a good soak in the tub last night. I got up, tightening the robe around me and made some tea and coffee, wishing that today weren’t our day to check out of our fabulous room. Again, I reminded myself that our good fortune probably would not have transpired had we booked a longer stay. I thought about heading up to the concierge lounge and grabbing some breakfast that we could just eat in the room in order to be able to enjoy it a little longer, but then a better idea struck me: How about ordering some room service? I couldn’t live without a Mickey waffle!

The lady on the other end of the phone kindly took my order, and told me the wait would be about fifteen minutes. I wondered if BF would even be up by that time, but decided not to worry about it. I knew that, as soon as the food was out, he would come lumbering into the living room, suddenly woken from hibernation by the smell of the western omelet I had ordered for him.

Every time that I have ever ordered room service before at a hotel, it has been given to me on a tray at the door, and I have I signed for it right there, then been left to fend for myself as far as serving it. I was in for a real surprise this time.

There was a knock on the door about twelve minutes after my phone call had taken place. BF, who had just woken up and was sitting on the couch in his sleeping clothes mumbled something barely intelligible that sounded vaguely like “tell them to go away.” He looked angry, and I supposed he was still wounded by the mousekeeping incident the day before.

“It’s all right," I told him, and I headed to the door, robe tightly cinched around me. I was just going to get this tray…

I opened the door, and a man with a huge smile came in, greeting me with a “good morning, Miss *****”, pushing a cart that had silver domed platters on top, along with our morning newspaper. He walked into the dining room, took the paper over to BF and said “Your paper, Mr. *****” (Let me say here that I was impressed. Even though I know that our names are on the reservation, BF and I obviously do not share the same last name [YET] and the CM got both of them right. If you guessed, however, that my abysmal memory failed to note his name, you would be right.)

He then spread out a white table cloth on our table, put the platters out, added a small, wrapped bowl of bananas that I had ordered with my waffle, and asked me very earnestly and enthusiastically if he could unwrap our breakfast for us. “Go ahead,” I said, actually beaming now. Everyone should wake up and encounter someone this happy first thing in the morning. He lifted off all of the lids and unwrapped my bananas. He then pulled out a chair for me, which I was happy to sit down in. He added some little jars of condiments, such as catsup and syrup to the table along with mini salt and pepper shakers. Last, he placed some white linen napkins with silverware perfectly folded into them. I signed for everything (he got a big tip for starting my day off great) and after he left BF finally decided to join me.

We, well at least I (BF was mumbling something about intruders, but said he was glad to have a good breakfast) really enjoyed this experience, and the food was great too. My waffle was cooked perfectly, and the bananas were just right ripe-wise. BF said his omelet was very good and not at all greasy, and the home fries were a good sized portion. This meal came to about 35, including the tip, a price I would be glad to pay again. 4 of 5.

After eating, I got ready for the day ahead, already missing our beautiful suite. I called bell services after both of us were ready (just after 10) and asked them to come and get our luggage for the move over to AKL. It took only a few minutes for them to get there and give us our luggage ticket.

Having no other reasons to stay, and not wanting to cause a scene by being forcibly dragged out kicking and screaming, we left our beautiful room behind and walked down to the CL one last time where we said good bye to all of the CMs, but especially our favorite CM, Mejay, who had already helped make our trip so special.

Sighing, we rode the elevator down to the first floor where we stopped and took some pictures that didn’t turn out and headed out to the bus stop where a bus to MGM (today’s destination) was already waiting. We climbed aboard, my heart a little heavy. I had never stayed anywhere on WDW property EXCEPT the GF, and didn’t know what I would think of AKL. BF actually gave me a sort of reassuring smile and told me that he was really having a nice time so far. Feeling fait from shock, I stared out the window as we headed to the park I had never yet been to, MGM.

 

[loralie]

I would be sad leaving that wonderful suite too. I can't wait to hear how you liked AKL. Thanks for sharing.

Loralie

 

[irisbud]

DAY 3 PART II

We headed straight into MGM and went right for the Tower of Terror, which I had promised to try, though I was dreading it. Did I mention that one of my biggest fears is elevators? I knew that this wasn’t really a traditional elevator, but still having a whole ride designed around the concept of a falling, out-of-control elevator did do a little damage to my psyche. I really like the queue area for this ride, though we didn’t get to look around for long as the wait was less than two minutes. We boarded our car, my heart pumping furiously and my breathing getting more and more labored as the experience went on. Okay, I did it and I don’t need to do it again. It made we slightly ill and just wasn’t the type of thing I enjoy. I can see why it would be a favorite of many, though. I gave this 2 of 5, while BF gave it 3 ½ of 5.

Next we hopped over to the Rockin Roller Coaster, which I neglected to tell BF took place in the dark, as he had so hated Space Mountain. This was something I was looking forward to, as I truly love roller coasters, the bigger and scarier the better (I haven’t got to do a lot of the really terrifying ones, but I did brave Shiekra at Busch Gardens early this spring, which is a really cool drop coaster!). I knew that this and EE are supposed to be the best of the coasters to a coaster fan that WDW has to offer, so I was excited! I really loved this, and am truly grateful to the guy behind us who so kindly suggested that we put our heads back against the headrest at the takeoff, as I think we might have gotten whiplash had we not. Even BF liked this, his first upside down coaster ever, and thought that the dark just wasn’t the same as it was in SM, and that the track seemed “less rickety”. 4 of 5.

I really wanted to see the Beauty and the Beast show, as this is my favorite Disney movie, but we still had about forty-five minutes before the next performance, so we thought about doing GMR or ST, but were waylaid by a very entertaining group of street performers and one less than enthusiastic child chosen from the surrounding audience. By the time we were through watching them (they were quite good) it was only fifteen minutes until BatB, so we headed back to the theater to sit through 10 minutes of preshow and a special chorus of “Happy Birthday” to a chosen audience member. The preshow was entertaining enough, so we gave it 2 ½ of 5. If you haven’t seen the BatB show, it is really very good. The costumes are great, and though a good deal of the story is left out, I thought that they did a very nice job of condensing the show to run in the allotted time. It was akin to reading a good book then seeing it as a movie. Still entertaining and interesting, but perhaps missing some of its depth. Even so, we gave this a 4 1/2 of 5.

Somehow, without planning this out, we managed to have a whole lineup of shows just waiting for us to see in rapid fire succession should we hurry from one to the next. Starting soon after the end of BatB was the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. There were still some seats left towards the front and center which we headed into, though I thought after looking at our time sheets again that this may prove to be a mistake. Even so, we waited about 5 minutes as they picked members of the audience to participate, and then the show began. This was really good and an exciting show that both my BF and I enjoyed. I thought the way that they moved the scenery around was interesting as well. The performers are excellent at their jobs. Don’t miss this! 4 of 5.

I was right about our seating being somewhat of a mistake. Though we had a great view of the show, getting out of the crammed stadium took a little longer than I had bargained for. Looking at the time schedule, I saw that it was unlikely that we would make it to the very beginning of Lights, Motor, Action, but I did not want to wait more than 2 hours for the next showing. We raced over to the entrance, BF trying to stop in the middle of the road and read the map despite my prodding and urging. Sorry to anyone we may have caused to trip over us! We made it to the entrance and missed maybe a minute of the show, as the sound was just starting up while we were through the gates and heading for the stairs. Wow! Front row seats again, almost in the center, just a little to the right when you are sitting down! I wonder why no one is sitting here… Oh, I didn’t want to get WET!!! Even so, this show was interesting, and the stunt drivers are really good. I think, however, it would be horrible to sit out from under the awning in the heat of summer, especially with all of the pyrotechnics. We gave this 3 of 5.

Now that we had finished up all of the stage shows we wanted to see (BF flat out refused Voyage of the Little Mermaid, even though this is my 2nd favorite Disney movie. He said one princess show was enough) we headed over to Muppet vision 3-D. We had a 5-10 minute wait for the show ahead of us to finish, but I didn’t mind because the preshow was very entertaining (and not one giant Kodak commercial). I loved this, and thought it was great fun. I really liked to see the kids around me reaching for all of the “floating” objects. We need more shows like the Muppets now! 4 of 5.

After this, we headed over to Star Tours, which was about a two minute wait. I HATED this ride. Of course, I missed most of it because I had to hide my head behind BF’s shoulder to keep from getting violently ill. This made me MUCH sicker that M:S at Epcot, but BF thought that it made have been at least partly due to the fact that the inside of the ride vehicle was stiflingly hot, instead of quite chilly as M:S had been. He was made a little sick to, but at least he wasn’t green like me. (I did manage to hold it in) I give this 0 of 5. BF gave it 2 ½ of 5.

Now that I was feeling gross, we made our way up to the Great Movie Ride while the afternoon parade was going on (I thought about watching, but decided I was too ill to really enjoy it. I just wanted to go back to the hotel, but BF insisted that we do at least one more ride, even though we were going to be coming back to finish up here tomorrow.) There must have been some sort of break down, because the line was moving right along then suddenly stopped, leaving us with a 25 minute wait, during which I was getting progressively crabbier. At last we were on, and though I enjoyed it I couldn’t wait to leave, as I was still feeling slightly queasy. 2 ½ of 5.

We headed out of the park and to our bus stop at around 4:30, where we waited almost 30 minutes for a bus. At last one showed up and we made the long journey over to Animal Kingdom Lodge which, as you are pulling in, is every bit as beautiful as it looks in pictures.

 

[irisbud]

DAY 3 PART III

We headed up to the regular check in desks and told them that we were concierge guests. A nice man took our luggage to our room (5285, one of 5 one bedroom suites at AKL) for us, telling us all about his son, who had just started working for Disney, and about how he had been with the company for over 20 years. He gave us our keys, and told us to feel free to go up to the concierge lounge at any time we wanted and have a credit card linked to our keys. I looked around the room, and saw that we had been given all of our requests: the savannah view, the rounded balcony and non-smoking. There was even a Christmas tree in the living room area of our suite. Towel animal bunnies were waiting for us in the bathroom. It was a beautiful room (of course none of the pictures came out). I really liked that the sheers in the bedroom had animals in the lace. We spent a few minutes looking out over the savannah were we saw some pens, a few birds, a giraffe and two of those cows with long horns, and then headed to the Concierge Lounge for a snack.

I checked in while BF loaded up (I reminded him we had an ADR at Boma in less than an hour and ½). When I went over to the table, I was disappointed to see that there was absolutely nothing out that I would eat. All of the crackers and cheese were gone, I don’t really like fried chicken tenders and the shrimp had mustard sauce on them. I drank a glass of juice (which was good) and looked around. The lounge here seemed a lot smaller than the one at RPC, and was much darker. Also the CMs were right there in the lounge, whereas in RPC they were on the floor below. The tables were a lot more crowded here, and there was a lot more noise. There was also no where to put our dirty dishes when we were through (there was a tray in RPC), and I felt really trashy leaving them out on the table even though we were told to do this by the CM manning the desks. I told myself to quit being so negative, and decided that I would feel much better after getting some food in me, as I was actually starting to feel light headed at this point.

We headed down to Boma about 15 minutes before our 6 PM ADR and were seated almost immediately at a table for four slightly off the beaten path. Our server came over and brought out the chef when she saw my allergy marked on the ticket. They were very good about this. The chef took my BF and I up to the buffet and showed us everything that I could and could not have, and where it was located (I, as a rule, won’t eat anything to the immediate right or left of a food I cannot have on a buffet, because people sometimes accidentally use the same tongs or spoons to serve themselves from different pans). It was a good thing they did this, because while I could eat most of what they had, they were a few things that looked innocuous which I would have tried had I not been given a warning. Dinner was alright, but nothing special. My BF had really been looking for a very ethnic type experience, and this wasn’t it (even knowing that it was “Americanized” I must say that I was a little disappointed). We thought the restaurant was VERY loud. To us this was “okay”. 3 of 5.

After dinner, we jumped on the bus over to Epcot to do some of World Showcase and see Illuminations. It was about 7:45 when we arrived. We started with Mexico and walked on El Rio de Tiempo. 3 of 5. It would be really cool to eat in the Mexican restaurant here if you enjoyed Mexican food at all (we don’t). The background with the volcano is gorgeous.

Next we headed to Norway and rode Maelstrom with a 10 minute wait. The man directly in front of me got soaked. A little hokey, but still fun. 3 of 5.

Reflections of China was just starting when we arrived in the China Pavilion, but a very nice CM ushered us inside just after the doors closed. The film was interesting, but it made us both feel slightly queasy. 2 of 5.

We continued walking through the countries, but it was very dark out and too difficult to see. We stopped by Germany to view the train set, and walked through some of the other back areas such as Italy, but the details were lost to the night. We decided that, since we had a lunch ADR at LeCellier the next day we could head back to view the pavilions in the daylight, and probably get a lot more out of it.

At around 9, we decided that we should try and find a spot to view Illuminations from. We finally stopped just past the Japanese arch as you are going clockwise around WS. This is a good place with minimal tree blockage. BF kept arguing with me, because he insisted that the show would take place over Spaceship Earth. He wandered off grumbling for a while while I enjoyed the sounds of the Candlelight Processional drifting along the lakeshore. At last he returned, and I stepped in behind him to wait, hoping he would block some of the very cold wind coming off of the lake. Illuminations was great as always, though the globe did malfunction at first and would not spin as it was supposed to. 5 of 5.

We exited Epcot through the International Gateway and headed over to Beach Club to see the gingerbread carousel, as BF LOVES the artistry of carousels. This was really beautiful and well worth making a special trip to see. We then took a bus to MK (it was a MVMCP night) to get a bus back to AKL. Unfortunately, the only other family on the bus was staying at the Poly, and the bus driver decided that she would just drop us all off there for some reason. All we had to do was ride the monorail to MK then, but I was exhausted and BF was getting EXTREMELY crabby at this point. I almost groaned when the monorail went past the GF…we could have been “home” by now…

We got off at MK and caught a bus to AKL after a 10 minute wait. I just wanted to take a nap, but there was a very loud lady on board who had to spend the entire ride announcing to her entire party and anyone who would listen (I didn’t want to, there just wasn’t any choice) about what a great mother she was and about how wonderfully she had planned this trip for her family.

By the time we got off the bus, I just wanted to fall into bed, but we still had a long hike down the dark, somewhat creepy hallway back to our room. I looked out the windows on the way, seeing some sleeping animals, and was happy when we got back to the room and I could join them in dreamland.