*Marty_Mouse_House*
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2004
- Messages
- 60
Vacationers:
Husband - early 40s
Self - early 40s (college sweethearts, married 20 years)
Son - 15
Beagle - 9
Active Cat - 3
Saturday, June 5, 2004
We arrived back at the Dolphin at about a quarter to 12:00.
The employee at the front desk had warned me earlier that if we checked out after 12:00 "there would be an additional charge." We didn't know what that meant or even if they would let us use our room key after the 12:00 mark. We opened the room and the key still did work, so we hurried around packing up. I presented myself to the front desk at 3 minutes till 12:00, keys in hand.
A big part of the ambience of the Dolphin to me is their swimming pool. There are 2 big pools, with a huge waterfall feature and a really nice slide. There's lots of chairs, free towels and games going on for the kids on the pool deck. There's a nice snack bar too. I was really disappointed that we hadn't used the pool yet. I suggested that we put on our bathing suits and head over to the pool for awhile and eat our Pizza Planet pizza there. My husband wasn't as wild about the idea - he really wanted to get checked into the Contemporary early and maybe have a chance to request a room closest to the Magic Kingdom sidewalk. After I said that it would only be for an hour or so, everybody agreed.
Finally, we made it over to the pool, sat down and ate slightly cold pizza. I checked my pedometer - 12,000 steps already (6 miles). We had fun for awhile until a storm blew up and closed the pool. We then changed in the pool restrooms. We continued our journey over to the Contemporary.
We approached the guard gate. "We're checking in," my husband said. The guard asked for our name and then typed it up in his computer before he would let us through. He didn't give us a parking pass, that would come when we checked in. There was no line at the front desk so a cast member took us right away. She was extremely friendly and smiley and explained that she was a college student working there for the summer. A full-time cast member was standing nearby and keeping an eye on things. I asked if an upgrade would be possible and she deferred to the full-time cast member. "It looks like you've already been upgraded from a parking lot view to a lake view," he said. Then we requested a room closest to the Magic Kingdom sidewalk. He disappeared to the back and came back and said he put us in Room 7155 - North Wing. In addition, he said that it was on the first floor and we would have a little patio to sit out on. They gave us our 3 miniature golf passes, we stocked up on brochures and went to check out the food court. Well, I must say, I was a little disappointed with the food court situation. You walk past the check in desk, turn left, walk down to a little basement like area next to the arcade and there it is. All they had was a few little things in a refrigerator (many of which were suspiciously close to their expiration date) and a small window to order hot items. I knew right then that I would only be eating there in case of an emergency and that I wouldn't be making any leisurely strolls to the food court to stock up on refillable drinks as everybody does at All-Star or Port Orleans.
We parked the car outside the far left entrance into the 2nd spot and fell into the North Wing door. We discovered that our room was just down the hall to the left. This was cause for celebration as we had never parked this close to our room at a Disney resort before. The boys unpacked the car (which in my mind was no hardship due to proximity) but after 8 cases of drinks and snacks, luggage, and the Contour Cloud, etc. they may have had a different idea. The room was very spacious. There was a sofa with a big table in front which came in handy for eating or using the laptop. There were 2 beds, a big closet, and a sliding door to the patio. The view was very scenic with a white sandy beach and part of the lake. To the left were the tennis courts. Some big trees were situated near the beach area and underneath the trees were several big black vultures with their wings spread out to cool off. My son was fascinated by this. Every hour or so the parasail boat would drive by on the lake and people would be parasailing behind. It looked like a lot of fun, but they seemed awfully high up! The bathroom was nice in that it was separated into a toilet and counter/mirror area with a door to close it off as well as a separate sink/mirror and shower area so that a couple of people could use the bathroom at the same time. The toiletry basket contained the essentials including real "shampoo" which said it was a shampoo/conditioner combo but it didn't do much for acting as a conditioner on my hair. The housekeeping staff seemed to dole this out very sparingly as well. In addition, I noticed a hang tag on the towel rack that stated if a towel was still hanging on the towel rack, they assumed that you were going to reuse this towel another day and they would not replace it. I don't know what they did with the sheet situation as I know in the past, some Disney resorts kept the same sheets on your bed day after day. The decor, carpet and bedding were in bright colors, but the size of the room made this less noticeable. I knew that I would be out on the patio a lot which had 2 chairs and a table and was not closed off with your neighbor's patio furnished the same. All in all, we were very pleased with the size of the room, the layout of the bathroom, the proximity to the car, the closeness of the MK sidewalk, the first floor patio area, the view, and being able to use the monorail. We already knew that we would definitely like to stay here again. And we hadn't even checked out the pool yet!
We walked through the North Wing building and came across the ice machine and drink machines further down the hall. We continued through the building and a door led you outside down a short covered sidewalk to a door in the food court. We were on our way to the monorail to Epcot.
After changing over at the Ticket and Transportation Center we arrived at Epcot. I especially wanted to take advantage of the Flower and Garden Festival as this was the last weekend. The topiaries and landscaping were really beautiful and I was prepared to take lots of pictures. The first ride we did here was the golf ball ride (Spaceship Earth) which my son and I enjoy but my husband thinks is a little too long. Then we did an attraction that none of us had ever done before - the House of Tommorow in Innoventions. It was sponsored by Whirlpool and they had several rooms furnished with appliances and technology of the present and near future. I thought it was interesting, especially the bathtub with the big t.v. in it. My son like the keypad door lock. While we were going through Innoventions we made a video card by HP and sent it to my brother. My son was excited about doing Mission Space ever since we had seen it being built. We walked past and was surprised to see that there was only a 15 minute wait. DS knew that he was definitely doing it and with only a 15 minute wait, DH figured he would do it too. I was taking a wait and see attitude. I plopped down on the wall and waited. I started reading the warning signs - "Even experienced astronauts experience motion sickness and disorientation," etc. etc. They emerged. Our son was excited but came out and said, "Mom, you could never do that ride in a million years." My husband was looking a little green and was eyeing the shrubbery nearby. He said that during the ride (while his face was being peeled back) he thought he was going to have an aneurysm. That clinched it for me- I knew I wouldn't do it. I had heard from a cast member that when they first opened the ride, they sped you up to 4 Gs but they toned it down to its present level of 2.5 Gs. Maybe if they cut the spinning part out of it completely, I might go on it (maybe schedule the ride for 2-3 hours a day with no spinning?) It sounds like a good idea to me.
Then we got fast passes to Test Track and a bonus was printed on the bottom of the fast passes to the Honey I Shrunk The Audience show. I wanted to make sure I saw the Flower and Garden events so we decided to forego that for now in order to walk over the walkway to view the pretty plantings. The Canada walkway was landscaped beautifully as well. We got pretzels ($2.89 each) and ice cream in Germany and then settled down to listen to the British Invasion band in United Kingdom. They were fabulous as usual, and did a lot of the Beatle's early stuff. Then we hurried over to the American Pavilion to hear the Lovin' Spoonful ("What A Day For A Daydream"). They had a good show, were funny in between songs and did all of the old favorites.
We made our way to the Mexico boat ride Rio de Tiempo (always no line) and during one of the scenes of the girls dancing around, I thought I saw a body part being kind of bare. When I mentioned this to the fellas, they had missed it so of course we had to circle around and get right back on the Mexico boat ride again. My husband didn't see what I was talking about, but my teenage son did! We would end up riding the Mexico boat ride a few more times during the trip! My husband called it the "Rio de Bote" for the rest of the trip!
We were making our way back to Test Track and had a few minutes before the fast passes were good. Our son decided he would ride Mission Space again. After he left we went inside the building and they had more video card kiosks set up (free) so we sent out some cute video cards where they superimpose your picture on a space scene. DS soon emerged and came out green this time. What happened was he was set up to ride with 3 other people and the 3 other people chickened out at the last minute. He was riding in his compartment alone so he felt obligated to work the controls of some of the other stations. This was a big mistake. You are supposed to keep your head back and not be moving around a lot and working other controls, etc.
This ruined the ride for the rest of this vacation. Only time will tell if he will ever get back on it or not.
The Test Track is one of my favorite rides and I was looking forward to it. It was great as usual, but seemed slightly more bumpy to me this time. Due to our advancing years, this was the start of every ride seeming bumpier, faster, or wilder. We headed out of the park and back to the monorail station.
--------------------------
Previous Trips: 30 plus trips in 30 years
Since being married we have stayed at: Fort Wilderness Campground, Fort Wilderness Cabins, Yacht club, Caribbean Beach, Polynesian, Beach Club, Dolphin and Swan, All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, Port Orleans Riverside, Contemporary Resort
Husband - early 40s
Self - early 40s (college sweethearts, married 20 years)
Son - 15
Beagle - 9
Active Cat - 3
Saturday, June 5, 2004
We arrived back at the Dolphin at about a quarter to 12:00.
The employee at the front desk had warned me earlier that if we checked out after 12:00 "there would be an additional charge." We didn't know what that meant or even if they would let us use our room key after the 12:00 mark. We opened the room and the key still did work, so we hurried around packing up. I presented myself to the front desk at 3 minutes till 12:00, keys in hand.
A big part of the ambience of the Dolphin to me is their swimming pool. There are 2 big pools, with a huge waterfall feature and a really nice slide. There's lots of chairs, free towels and games going on for the kids on the pool deck. There's a nice snack bar too. I was really disappointed that we hadn't used the pool yet. I suggested that we put on our bathing suits and head over to the pool for awhile and eat our Pizza Planet pizza there. My husband wasn't as wild about the idea - he really wanted to get checked into the Contemporary early and maybe have a chance to request a room closest to the Magic Kingdom sidewalk. After I said that it would only be for an hour or so, everybody agreed.
Finally, we made it over to the pool, sat down and ate slightly cold pizza. I checked my pedometer - 12,000 steps already (6 miles). We had fun for awhile until a storm blew up and closed the pool. We then changed in the pool restrooms. We continued our journey over to the Contemporary.
We approached the guard gate. "We're checking in," my husband said. The guard asked for our name and then typed it up in his computer before he would let us through. He didn't give us a parking pass, that would come when we checked in. There was no line at the front desk so a cast member took us right away. She was extremely friendly and smiley and explained that she was a college student working there for the summer. A full-time cast member was standing nearby and keeping an eye on things. I asked if an upgrade would be possible and she deferred to the full-time cast member. "It looks like you've already been upgraded from a parking lot view to a lake view," he said. Then we requested a room closest to the Magic Kingdom sidewalk. He disappeared to the back and came back and said he put us in Room 7155 - North Wing. In addition, he said that it was on the first floor and we would have a little patio to sit out on. They gave us our 3 miniature golf passes, we stocked up on brochures and went to check out the food court. Well, I must say, I was a little disappointed with the food court situation. You walk past the check in desk, turn left, walk down to a little basement like area next to the arcade and there it is. All they had was a few little things in a refrigerator (many of which were suspiciously close to their expiration date) and a small window to order hot items. I knew right then that I would only be eating there in case of an emergency and that I wouldn't be making any leisurely strolls to the food court to stock up on refillable drinks as everybody does at All-Star or Port Orleans.
We parked the car outside the far left entrance into the 2nd spot and fell into the North Wing door. We discovered that our room was just down the hall to the left. This was cause for celebration as we had never parked this close to our room at a Disney resort before. The boys unpacked the car (which in my mind was no hardship due to proximity) but after 8 cases of drinks and snacks, luggage, and the Contour Cloud, etc. they may have had a different idea. The room was very spacious. There was a sofa with a big table in front which came in handy for eating or using the laptop. There were 2 beds, a big closet, and a sliding door to the patio. The view was very scenic with a white sandy beach and part of the lake. To the left were the tennis courts. Some big trees were situated near the beach area and underneath the trees were several big black vultures with their wings spread out to cool off. My son was fascinated by this. Every hour or so the parasail boat would drive by on the lake and people would be parasailing behind. It looked like a lot of fun, but they seemed awfully high up! The bathroom was nice in that it was separated into a toilet and counter/mirror area with a door to close it off as well as a separate sink/mirror and shower area so that a couple of people could use the bathroom at the same time. The toiletry basket contained the essentials including real "shampoo" which said it was a shampoo/conditioner combo but it didn't do much for acting as a conditioner on my hair. The housekeeping staff seemed to dole this out very sparingly as well. In addition, I noticed a hang tag on the towel rack that stated if a towel was still hanging on the towel rack, they assumed that you were going to reuse this towel another day and they would not replace it. I don't know what they did with the sheet situation as I know in the past, some Disney resorts kept the same sheets on your bed day after day. The decor, carpet and bedding were in bright colors, but the size of the room made this less noticeable. I knew that I would be out on the patio a lot which had 2 chairs and a table and was not closed off with your neighbor's patio furnished the same. All in all, we were very pleased with the size of the room, the layout of the bathroom, the proximity to the car, the closeness of the MK sidewalk, the first floor patio area, the view, and being able to use the monorail. We already knew that we would definitely like to stay here again. And we hadn't even checked out the pool yet!
We walked through the North Wing building and came across the ice machine and drink machines further down the hall. We continued through the building and a door led you outside down a short covered sidewalk to a door in the food court. We were on our way to the monorail to Epcot.
After changing over at the Ticket and Transportation Center we arrived at Epcot. I especially wanted to take advantage of the Flower and Garden Festival as this was the last weekend. The topiaries and landscaping were really beautiful and I was prepared to take lots of pictures. The first ride we did here was the golf ball ride (Spaceship Earth) which my son and I enjoy but my husband thinks is a little too long. Then we did an attraction that none of us had ever done before - the House of Tommorow in Innoventions. It was sponsored by Whirlpool and they had several rooms furnished with appliances and technology of the present and near future. I thought it was interesting, especially the bathtub with the big t.v. in it. My son like the keypad door lock. While we were going through Innoventions we made a video card by HP and sent it to my brother. My son was excited about doing Mission Space ever since we had seen it being built. We walked past and was surprised to see that there was only a 15 minute wait. DS knew that he was definitely doing it and with only a 15 minute wait, DH figured he would do it too. I was taking a wait and see attitude. I plopped down on the wall and waited. I started reading the warning signs - "Even experienced astronauts experience motion sickness and disorientation," etc. etc. They emerged. Our son was excited but came out and said, "Mom, you could never do that ride in a million years." My husband was looking a little green and was eyeing the shrubbery nearby. He said that during the ride (while his face was being peeled back) he thought he was going to have an aneurysm. That clinched it for me- I knew I wouldn't do it. I had heard from a cast member that when they first opened the ride, they sped you up to 4 Gs but they toned it down to its present level of 2.5 Gs. Maybe if they cut the spinning part out of it completely, I might go on it (maybe schedule the ride for 2-3 hours a day with no spinning?) It sounds like a good idea to me.
Then we got fast passes to Test Track and a bonus was printed on the bottom of the fast passes to the Honey I Shrunk The Audience show. I wanted to make sure I saw the Flower and Garden events so we decided to forego that for now in order to walk over the walkway to view the pretty plantings. The Canada walkway was landscaped beautifully as well. We got pretzels ($2.89 each) and ice cream in Germany and then settled down to listen to the British Invasion band in United Kingdom. They were fabulous as usual, and did a lot of the Beatle's early stuff. Then we hurried over to the American Pavilion to hear the Lovin' Spoonful ("What A Day For A Daydream"). They had a good show, were funny in between songs and did all of the old favorites.
We made our way to the Mexico boat ride Rio de Tiempo (always no line) and during one of the scenes of the girls dancing around, I thought I saw a body part being kind of bare. When I mentioned this to the fellas, they had missed it so of course we had to circle around and get right back on the Mexico boat ride again. My husband didn't see what I was talking about, but my teenage son did! We would end up riding the Mexico boat ride a few more times during the trip! My husband called it the "Rio de Bote" for the rest of the trip!
We were making our way back to Test Track and had a few minutes before the fast passes were good. Our son decided he would ride Mission Space again. After he left we went inside the building and they had more video card kiosks set up (free) so we sent out some cute video cards where they superimpose your picture on a space scene. DS soon emerged and came out green this time. What happened was he was set up to ride with 3 other people and the 3 other people chickened out at the last minute. He was riding in his compartment alone so he felt obligated to work the controls of some of the other stations. This was a big mistake. You are supposed to keep your head back and not be moving around a lot and working other controls, etc.
This ruined the ride for the rest of this vacation. Only time will tell if he will ever get back on it or not.
The Test Track is one of my favorite rides and I was looking forward to it. It was great as usual, but seemed slightly more bumpy to me this time. Due to our advancing years, this was the start of every ride seeming bumpier, faster, or wilder. We headed out of the park and back to the monorail station.
--------------------------
Previous Trips: 30 plus trips in 30 years
Since being married we have stayed at: Fort Wilderness Campground, Fort Wilderness Cabins, Yacht club, Caribbean Beach, Polynesian, Beach Club, Dolphin and Swan, All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, Port Orleans Riverside, Contemporary Resort
