nwdisgal
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2002
- Messages
- 2,120
Day 3 - What did I say about rising with the song birds and making the rope drop ? 
I look at the clock and it is 10:00 am. We're finally making it out of the hotel room at the Dolphin. The housekeepers must be getting tired of passing our room and seeing the Privacy Please sign posted until mid afternoon 
We put on our walking shows and head for Future World, then catch the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation section to MK. OMG! I look out towards the ferry boat and the monorail and there are just lines, lines of people everywhere. Spring Break has definately kicked in and we snoozed, so we lose. I am dreading these lines. I look at DH and suggest taking a detour to the Poly walkway to fortify myself with Kona Coffee at the coffee bar before heading to MK. We start trekking over to the Poly and DS, who is not one for a sidelined and spontaneous agenda, starts throwing a fit. "I want to take the boat!" he exclaims. I assure DS that there is a method to my madness, so he finally settles in to cruising the walkway at Poly towards the main building. I am tasting the fresh ground Kona espresso in my mind as we hit the entrance to the main building. Sadly, we bound upstairs to the coffee bar and it is 11:05 am with a sign posted that the coffee bar is only open until 11:00 am, and not a CM barista in sight. Now I am getting really witchy, like the evil witch in Snow White. As DS says, "The evil queen is looking into the mirror and experiencing madness!" When I have that special taste of coffee on my head, I just can't get rid of it!?!
I spy the monorail rolling into the Poly terminal, and only that is enough to distract me from my caffeine dilemma. We run for the train and make it. Suddenly, DS is seeing that this little side trip to the Poly is not a bad deal after all, because the rest of the crowd is still back at the Ticket and Transpotation Center waiting for the ferry, monorail to roll in and we're already on our way to MK....
We make it into MK and the place is pretty packed. We load onto the Disney World train to ride over to Frontierland Train Station and catch Splash Mountain. Fortunately, the weather has been off again, on again, and after a recent rain storm, not too many people have signed up for Splash. We have a 15 minute Standby wait for Splash Mountain. DH pulls our recycled rain parkas out of the Adidas backpack and we prepare for the plunge. Now I have to admit, I'm not much for thrill rides, and I literally feel a heart attack coming on with the first dark water, mini waterfall dip on Splash. It really gets my stomach, and I start doing deep breathing exercises, dreading that point in the ride where Brer Fox has the rabbit by the ears and you know your doomed. Worse yet, we finally go over the plunge, and even though I thought I had my eyes open, the official picture later reveals them quite closed. Then we come down for the splash and despite the whole rain parka thing the front of my face, the hair and the mascara (non-waterproof) that I applied this morning all get soaking wet - just in time to make an impression for a PS at CRT for lunch.
After Splash, we head over towards Fantasyland. We attempt to ride Small World, but the ride is out of service that day. We are moving within 20 minutes of our PS at CRT, so I head to the podium and give them our name. When I originally made the ressie, the CM told me to be sure and check in 20 minutes early, so I did. The gal handling the podium gives me a puzzled look when I tell her this, but checks us right in. There are tables available. We head into the lobby area, and low and behold there is both Belle and Mary Poppins to greet us. DS is totally excited because he is absolutely in love with Belle. We walk up for an autograph and DS immediately asks Belle where the Beast is at. I think he is secretly trying to muster up the courage to ask her to the third grade dance
DS is on his best behavior as I snap the photo of him and DD with Belle. Now I have to give you a bit of background on this. Before we left for our trip, DS pulls me aside one day and tells me a long held secret that was clearly bothering his conscious. "Mom, I have to tell you, last time we were at Disney World, I kicked Goofy." I recollect back to our last trip. DS was quite a bit younger - six years old to be exact, and he is on the high end of the autistic spectrum. Not that his disorder is an excuse, but social skills are still emerging. Even after years of therapy and intervention, I still expect the occasional slip up. The fact he once kicked Goofy doesn't completely disarm me, still I don't want a repeat performance in any case. It's wrong and he needs to know it. I had no idea that he'd kicked Goofy on our last trip (where the blazes was I - probably trying to figure out how the camera flash worked?) "You know, Son" I tell him, " We are going to see the characters on this next trip and I expect you to be nice to everyone. You are not going to kick any one, right? I mean, there are real life people in there in character costumes and kicking hurts them." DS looks at first surprised by my revealation, then the surprise turns to distress when I explain that there are people in those costumes that feel the pain of being kicked. "Mom, I'm sorry" he tells me "and I promise I won't kick." He has a really sad face, the type I can tell he truly feels in his heart. So I hold him to a promise of good behavior with the characters. Belle is our first interaction with a real character this trip, so I hold my breath, ready to pounce if DS so much as makes a move in the wrong direction. I breath a great sigh of relief when he takes a polite, respectful side by Belle and poses for the picture, as well behaved as any child could be.We go over to see Mary Poppins and he starts to shy away for some reason. DD tells him "But you love Mary Poppins." Finally, DS stands about an arm length away with a posed smile on his face. Mary Poppins is very patient with him and I don't go into details about any issues. He's polite with her, but much more stand offish than Belle.
After the pictures, we head up the stairs and hand the hostess our table assignment slip. She starts to direct us toward the window, and I get a fleeting glance of what a prime table assignment might look like, before the Seater realizes her mistake and corrects it. "Oh, you are over here..." she motions us to the table farthest in the corner, farther than any other table in the Universe. It is Table 1. Well, at least we're at CRT. I mean I wasn't going to get up at 2 am HST upteen days ago and fight the hotline at CRO to try and get us a breakfast ressie. When I secured this lunch PS about two weeks out from one of the busiest times on earth, I was feeling pretty special. We sit down, and for a moment, I look towards the window and resent the people who've been assigned window side seats and a table with a view. Then I realize, the castle itself is pretty special and how bad can it really be? Our waitress comes over and I instruct the kids, "Order whatever you want, including those smoothies in the keepsake Cinderella Glass Mug."
Our waitress has all sorts of suggestions for us, including a high recommendation for the prime rib. In my former life I once worked as a carver on a prime rib station at a buffet, so I shudder to myself with the word assocation. I love the concept of having dessert for the entree and there is this barbequed chicken perched on a savory apple cake that looks pretty enticing. I order it. DD orders the salmon club and the waitress gives her a nod of approval. I don't tell the waitress what my motive is, and when my dish comes, the first thing I do is dig into the apple cake, which is moist and its sweetness is a nice contrast to the spiciness of the barbeque sauce on the chicken breast. Very innovative, and I start composing my own at home meals in my head using a savory cake as an accompaniment. In culinary, they call it "Shopping the competition." Another thing that caught my eye was the waffle fries with the boursin cheese dip. The texture of the fries though turns out to be soft. I guess I was thinking that they were going to be crispy waffle fries which would be a good opposite to the creamy dip. Still the boursin dip is very tasty and I stuff myself thoroughly with waffle fries and dip. After our meal, our waitress comes back and summons us to try dessert. I have absolutely no room, but DH orders the key lime creme brule and the kids both have sundaes. The desserts come and DH digs into the creme brule and the first words out of his mouth are "Fabulous!" I put my spoon into his dessert for a taste and the first words out of my mouth are "I taste too much egg."
So there, DH and I arguing over the goodness or lack of this particular creme brulee. The waitress strolls by. "How's dessert?" I give her some standard, it's just great. She's tending a lot of tables, no need to bring her into the story of my anal retentive taste buds. (Fortunately, we go to Grand Floridian Cafe later in the trip and again order a key lime creme brulee and they redeem my confidence that a creme brulee can be flawless. ) Oh well... After filling ourselves at CRT we attempt to stumble on some rides. Mostly we do the Fantasyland stuff - the carousel, Snow White and DH and DS stand in line for Peter Pan. DD and I head over to World Showcase at Epcot to do some girls shopping.
As we head towards Epcot, I realize that we haven't done much of anyting today at MK. Well there is always tomorrow and that 7:00 am early entry
