How the Other Half Lives ~ Updated 10/22: I Forgot Something!

[TheDreamsComeTrue]

Oh, you like cute Bailey pictures? Check this out (her cutest puppy picture--from the day we met her):

Too cute!

 

[Dugette]

I didn't know it was that uncommon so I had to look it up when you asked. It is actually British origin. Not surprising, we have a few more british expressions and words that are used here than would be used in the US. For example, when I grew up we sat on a "chesterfield" in the "front room" rather than on a sofa in the living room. We ate "chips" rather than fries but we still called a bag of chips "chips" rather than crisps as the british would. We are starting to lose these expressions though.

Huh, interesting. Still don't know what the expression means, though!

Oh NO, The noise would freak me out! I hope we don't get connecting rooms at POR!!

I know we've had connecting rooms before, but this is the first time it was really a problem.

Yahoo DUG!!!!! that's awesome. There is one thing I'm not understanding though. How does this translate into staying the whole time at the Poly rather than the split stay with CSR? Did I miss something or will this be revealed in time?

You haven't missed a thing. This trip keeps changing as we go along...

I'm so happy that I had an update to read when I signed on today!!! I'm going to have to try one of those cream cheese pretzels in Aug.
Congratulations on the room in Hawaii!!!! Can't wait to see the pics! Good thing that the kids didn't break in. That is one thing that I try to be conscious about when staying in a hotel, keeping my kids voices at a normal INSIDE voice. It's just being courteous to those who may be there without children or older children who sleep in. Plus who knows how many people have late flights!

Yes, have a cream cheese pretzel for me! Pics of Hawaii building coming up...hopefully tonight! Thanks for the inside voices! We try to do that (with ourselves) too. When we got in early that morning, we tried to be really quiet, since we figured the room next door was sleeping. Who knew what would soon happen?

A little late but I had to jump in I work at the MSP airport so I'm guessing you had to go to the C World Club across the connector from G16.. It sure does make a difference sitting in there versus the gate area esp so late at night...

Can't wait to read the rest of your TR

I love all the Minnesotans on here! I'll take your word for it on the airport locations. Sounds about right to me. We realized that we took the long way to the Sky Club on the way there, since we found the connector on the way back. Sky Club was SOOOOOOO much better than sitting at the gate!

subscribing!

really enjoyed your updates so far.. very touching about seeing that photo of Dug's grandparents in Epcot

and you mentioned you listen to WDW Today podcast? I love that show! (one of many I listen to in the car on my commutes back & forth to work )

Emma x

Thanks for coming over! I still can't believe we took sleigh rides at the same time on the same night! I'll have to watch my video and see if you're in it!

We love the WDW Today podcast! We found out about it by reading the Unofficial Guide and have been hooked on it ever since. Great during commutes and sometimes I listen on my iPod at work.

Too cute!

I love that picture!

 

[Dugette]

After enjoying the Grand Floridian's decorations, it was time to make our way over to the Poly. In all of our trips, we’d never had the chance to walk the lakeside path between the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to do so.

The walk was very nice. We walked by the wedding pavilion, which had apparently hosted a wedding this day:

You may have caught a glimpse of another cool thing in the last video: a beachside wedding rehearsal. As we approached the beach adjacent to the Poly, we saw a tuxedo hanging from a palm tree! I wish we’d had the camera ready for that—so unique! Just past the tuxedo-rack-palm-tree was an in-progress wedding rehearsal, complete with violin music. Very cool!

Once we arrived at the Poly, we were very hungry. Our “breakfast” of taco hot dog and cream cheese pretzel just wasn’t enough, I guess! Since Dug’s back was hurting, he went and claimed a table outside of Captain Cook’s. I went in and obtained our food.

If you’ve been reading along all year, you may remember that we had planned to have the Aloha Pork Sandwich back in January, but changed our minds and had a flatbread instead. So, now, nearly a year later, we finally got that Aloha Pork Sandwich! It came with the yummy Poly chips. And, of course, I piled high the make-your-own-Dole-Whip! Here are the goodies:

I joined Dug outside at our table. There were ducks eating Poly chips off the ground (Donald and Daisy!) We enjoyed our lunch. Everything was very good and hit the spot.

After lunch, we headed to the front desk to check in. It was probably about 1:30pm. Turns out that the “rush” they put on the room hadn’t made any difference yet. Still not ready. However, they were able to give us our keys so that we could go hang out in the Club Lounge. They just couldn’t tell us which room was ours yet. Then we got our keys. They were golden! I had no idea there were different colors of KTTW.

We made our way over to the Hawaii building, passing the pretty Poly scenery on the way:

When we arrived at the Hawaii building, we had to take a shot of, “I can’t believe they gave us these golden keys for this building!! What were they thinking?!”:

Looking through the lounge doors:

Would our keys really work?

Yes!!!

Inside the main door were three staffed concierge stations. We headed up the stairs one level to the lounge. This was the view that greeted us:

We didn’t take a lot of pictures at that time, so here are some lounge pictures we took on our last day. Looking out from the food area:

Looking into the food area. During the normal service times, those windows in the back are open and full of yummy food:

Here is the side of the kitchen area, with the free pop, coffee, hot chocolate, etc.:

There was an additional seating area on the third floor that overlooked the main area. Here’s a couple of shots of that:

Looking out from the third floor:

My favorite feature was these little fans on the main level. They slowly swayed back and forth:

Continued in next post…

 

[DisneyDreamerMN]

Just have to say I am so jealous of those gold keys!

 

[Dugette]

There were a lot of tiki guys:

It was mid-afternoon snack-time in the lounge when we arrived. We grabbed some various munchies:

We also had the first of many, many glasses of the famous Poly juice. At Kona, it’s called Lilikoi Juice, in the Club Lounge it’s Guava Orange Passion Fruit Juice:

We grabbed some comfy seats up by the window. There was a Christmas tree in the lounge:

Here’s the view from our seats:

The lounge was pretty quiet, which was nice, as we were pretty tired. After declaring on video, “I think our trip report is going to have ‘lounge’ in the title…at least for the first day!”, we semi-napped.

We were waiting for the text message that told us our room was ready. We wanted to nap in the room before we had to head out again for dinner. Time was ticking away…

Finally, right before 3pm, we decided to go downstairs and ask the concierge if our room was ready. The concierge actually went to check. When she returned, she informed us that they had just finished with it. Then, fittingly enough, we received the text message that the room was ready!

We got room 3533. We took the elevator up to the third floor and held our breath…would we have a theme park view or a garden view???

Theme park view was on the left…and our room was on the right. That was just fine with us, though. We’d already overdosed on pixie dust…and there was more to come. Plus, this room was just a few doors down from the lounge entrance. Handy!

Even though we’d initially been told that our luggage would be waiting for us, it wasn’t. The concierge said that a bellman would delivery it soon. We decided to take a quick catnap while we waited for it. Dug hopped into the bed and was out. I stretched out in the chair/ottoman, which was quite comfy. We hadn’t checked for bedbugs yet (as we always do), so I didn’t want to get into a bed. (Don’t worry, it all checked out fine later).

The room was almost exactly like our previous room, except with a balcony and a much nicer view. We didn’t take pictures at that time, but again, here are some that we took on our last day:

Nice private balcony behind the palm trees:

Since this was from the last day, you can see the stash of toiletries that got built up:

There were robes (to be modeled later):

This safe will be the topic of a future story:

We ended up taking a 20 minute nap before the luggage arrived. When the bellman arrived, we realized that all of our cash for tips was buried deep within the luggage. We hadn’t thought there would be occasion for a tip now, as the luggage was supposed to be waiting in the room for us (we’d left a tip with the luggage in our previous room). So, we felt bad letting the bellman go without a tip. But it was going to take some digging to get to our cash.

We had an ADR for an early dinner at the Garden Grill, as part of our Candlelight Processional Package. Even though we had eaten recently, we got ready and headed out to Epcot. In the elevator, guess who we ran into? The bellman! And now we had cash, so we tipped him and explained that the cash was in our luggage. I think he was much happier with us after that!

Up next: Our first ever character meal!

 

[Dugette]

Just have to say I am so jealous of those gold keys!

We felt so cool having them!

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

Wow, what an amazing TR so far.....I can't beleive the amazing upgrade, that was a Pixie Dust OD!

 

[A&Bmama]

Huh, interesting. Still don't know what the expression means, though!

Oh yeah, you asked that too didn't you. I use it to express surprise or exasperation, or as a substitute for taking the lord's name in vain.

In all of our trips, we’d never had the chance to walk the lakeside path between the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to do so.The walk was very nice.

I think it must be a very good feeling indeed to be walking from the GF to the Poly to check-in for your club level room!

If you’ve been reading along all year, you may remember that we had planned to have the Aloha Pork Sandwich back in January, but changed our minds and had a flatbread instead. So, now, nearly a year later, we finally got that Aloha Pork Sandwich! It came with the yummy Poly chips. And, of course, I piled high the make-your-own-Dole-Whip! Here are the goodies:

That food looks good! Well, except the dole whip, I just didn't take to the dole whips. I don't think I am going to make it to Captain Cooks though.

They were golden!

Do you save your KTTW cards as a souvenir? I bet you still have those ones, right?

Would our keys really work?

Yes!!!

We grabbed some comfy seats up by the window. There was a Christmas tree in the lounge:

The lounge looks awesome! Looks like a nice place to spend some relaxation time.

The room was almost exactly like our previous room, except with a balcony and a much nicer view. We didn’t take pictures at that time, but again, here are some that we took on our last day:

Nice private balcony behind the palm trees:

That looks like a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning or to relax with a beverage in the evening.

This safe will be the topic of a future story:

I love the teasers. Now I am wonder what could have possibly happend with the safe?

We ended up taking a 20 minute nap before the luggage arrived. When the bellman arrived, we realized that all of our cash for tips was buried deep within the luggage.

Oops, a bit of an awkward moment.

In the elevator, guess who we ran into? The bellman! And now we had cash, so we tipped him and explained that the cash was in our luggage. I think he was much happier with us after that!

Nice recovery!

 

[Nermel9]

Love the pics of the Poly! Don't you feel so special with those golden keys? I loved having mine when we were on our Disneymoon (we were upgraded to Club Level...first and last time that will happen, I'm sure ) I felt SO cool having to use it in the elevator to have access to the top floor!

I can't believe you can just have Dole Whips whenever you want at the Poly...I need to stay there someday!!!

 

[TheDreamsComeTrue]

Loving the pictures of the Polynesian! It's so cool that you got the gold card! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Seriously, self serve dole whips? What gets better than that? Oh yeah, concierge level at the Poly!

I would be in complete awe if I had a yellow key in my hand. I love the fact that they have the Poly juice self serve. I love that stuff.

 

[Dugette]

Wow, what an amazing TR so far.....I can't beleive the amazing upgrade, that was a Pixie Dust OD!

Thanks! Yes, definite pixie dust OD!

Oh yeah, you asked that too didn't you. I use it to express surprise or exasperation, or as a substitute for taking the lord's name in vain.

Oh, okay. Thanks, I learned something new today!

Do you save your KTTW cards as a souvenir? I bet you still have those ones, right?

Because we're such pack-rats, we definitely have KTTW from all of our trips. It's not so much that we keep them for souvenirs as that we just don't get around to throwing them out. I'm not sure if I'll remember to mention all the instances in the TR, but we were issued different golden keys several more times during this trip. There was a system upgrade going on while we were there and lots of glitches that ended up with us getting new keys printed. So, point is, I'm sure we still have the last set of keys.

That looks like a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning or to relax with a beverage in the evening.

We were generally in and out of there pretty quick in the mornings, but you will definitely see some evening beverages and relaxation in the lounge!

I love the teasers. Now I am wonder what could have possibly happend with the safe?

Here's a hint: one of the ways to lock it is to use your room key to open/close it. See a previous answer to figure out how this was an issue...

Love the pics of the Poly! Don't you feel so special with those golden keys?

It totally makes you feel special. Nice touch that they do that!

I loved having mine when we were on our Disneymoon (we were upgraded to Club Level...first and last time that will happen, I'm sure ) I felt SO cool having to use it in the elevator to have access to the top floor!

That's awesome! Where were you staying on your Disneymoon? (I guess I should add that TR to my reading list!)

I can't believe you can just have Dole Whips whenever you want at the Poly...I need to stay there someday!!!

I wish we'd taken advantage of that more than we did! 24 hours/day...you could have one in the middle of the night! Definitely stay there one day, you'll love it!

Loving the pictures of the Polynesian! It's so cool that you got the gold card! Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks! I'm sure we'll have a few more Poly pics later on.

Seriously, self serve dole whips? What gets better than that? Oh yeah, concierge level at the Poly!

I would be in complete awe if I had a yellow key in my hand. I love the fact that they have the Poly juice self serve. I love that stuff.

It was all pretty surreal. The first day, we kept wondering if we had just imagined everything after our lack of sleep. That juice was great! They also have it for breakfast at Boma, by the way. There it's "Frunch". Yummy!

 

[jc040404]

I think we'd be doing quite a bit of "lounging around" there. What an awesome place to end your year! Everything looks wonderful. Nice that your ran into the same person in the elevator. I wonder what he thought when you gave a tip there. I'm sure it did make him a little happier with you. Your room looks sooo nice! Love it!!

Can't wait to hear about your first ever character meal! Kids or not, I can't believe you've never done one!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

oooooh the elusive Gold Card. Man you are living in the lap of luxury on this trip! And self serve Dole Whip? How did I never know about this???

 

[mtmbyck]

I remember getting upgraded to concierge level one night on a business trip and thought how cool that was. Can't imagine a whole vacation of it - AT DISNEY!

 

[Dugette]

I think we'd be doing quite a bit of "lounging around" there. What an awesome place to end your year! Everything looks wonderful. Nice that your ran into the same person in the elevator. I wonder what he thought when you gave a tip there. I'm sure it did make him a little happier with you. Your room looks sooo nice! Love it!!

Can't wait to hear about your first ever character meal! Kids or not, I can't believe you've never done one!

We'll definitely spend some more time in that lounge. Although, not as much at once as we did that afternoon.

We were lucky we ran into the bellman in the elevator. We'd gotten the cash and brought it along, just in case we saw him.

We always kinda thought we'd save character meals until we had kids. But Garden Grill was one of the lower tier of Candlelight Processional choices and I'd seen a TR that made it look pretty good, so we decided to try it. And we'll also have a Crystal Palace breakfast this trip too...just to get into the MK before it opens!

oooooh the elusive Gold Card. Man you are living in the lap of luxury on this trip! And self serve Dole Whip? How did I never know about this???

We totally were living in the lap of luxury on this trip. It was kinda ridiculous (in a good way)! Stop by Captain Cook's anytime (open 24 hours) for some Dole Whip! You can make it as big as you want.

I remember getting upgraded to concierge level one night on a business trip and thought how cool that was. Can't imagine a whole vacation of it - AT DISNEY!

I knew it happened sometimes (concierge upgrades), but never really thought it would happen to us. And on such a long trip! It was wonderful pixie dust!

 

[lmillercrew]

I LOVE that passion fruit juice!!! I drank it all the time in Hawaii last year. It's the best!
The views out of the concierge lounge were lovely! You guys sure were lucky.

 

[aprilisis]

I just found your TR today- I'm loving it! Subscribing...

 

[Dugette]

I LOVE that passion fruit juice!!! I drank it all the time in Hawaii last year. It's the best!
The views out of the concierge lounge were lovely! You guys sure were lucky.

Yes, I wish I had some of that juice right now! We were very lucky on this trip! I'm sure we'll have some more pics of the lounge and views later.

I just found your TR today- I'm loving it! Subscribing...

I'm so glad you are enjoying!


Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated. Life's been busy, I guess. I'll try to get a new update up this weekend, though! This is like the longest first day ever!

 

[Dugette]

We headed out of the Poly, “refreshed” from our 20-minute nap. Took the nice, short little stroll along the path from the Poly to the TTC. So convenient to be able to walk over there! From the TTC, we caught the Epcot monorail and we were soon strolling into Future World.

It seemed strange to walk into the Land pavilion and not make a bee-line for Soarin’! Instead, we checked into the Garden Grill and waited a few minutes to be seated. We requested one of the half-moon booths, per advice I’d seen on the Dis. We got our request! These booths provide good views as the restaurant turns and they also provide private space for character interactions.

We sat down with our menus to decide on drinks. Dug got a Pomegranate Lemonade:

I think I got orange juice. Dale wasted no time getting to our table:

Soon, the bread and salad arrived:

I really enjoyed the salad, knowing that it was made up of fresh ingredients grown in the Land pavilion!

Soon, Farmer Mickey arrived:

Next up were the main courses:

Before we even had a chance to dish them up, Chip was at our table:

We enjoyed our food, probably the beef and the mashed potatoes the most. We weren’t as hungry as one should be for a meal like this, since we’d had a weird eating schedule that day, but we managed to enjoy some of everything (except I didn’t have any fish since I generally avoid fish/seafood).

The next character appearance was Pluto:

A view in front of us at some point in our rotation:

Soon, Dale was back for more fun with us:

Another view from the table:

Then Chip returned and plopped down next to me:

At some point, when we were passing the prairie fire scene in Living with the Land, Mickey returned. Dug told him, in a panic, that the prairie was on fire! Mickey looked and was also concerned!

Soon, our delicious apple cobbler dessert arrived:

And Pluto came back for more hugging:

We enjoyed our experience at the Garden Grill. The food was good, but didn’t blow us away. Although, I wished I’d been a bit hungrier with all that food available with unlimited portions. The view was unique. I enjoyed the changes of scenery. It was well-timed, as our meal lasted one full rotation. And the character interaction was great. In those booths, you really can’t see anyone coming, so they kind-of sneak up on you. They do come around often, though! At least twice for each character, and I feel like Dale may have come around a third time. It’s not something we’d make a point to do every trip, but I also wouldn’t be opposed to going back again someday.

Right at the end of our meal, we noticed a CM explaining a Hidden Mickey to some people. He said that it was a profile. Apparently, it’s somewhere in this wall area, but we sure can’t find it. Can any of you?:

If so, let me know!

We left the Garden Grill and started making our way over to World Showcase for the Candlelight Processional.

Up next: The Candlelight Processional, another gingerbread house (and a hilarious picture!), tiny Christmas decorations, and caramel!