ZellyB
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2010
- Messages
- 6,873
ALOHA, LOVELY POLY AND A COLD AND RAINY MORNING AT EPCOT
We'd gotten a text while at AK that our room at the Poly was ready. It was room 1802 which was in Rarotonga. We again got pretty lucky with catching a bus back to the Poly with a short wait when we left Animal Kingdom. A short time later, we arrived and asked the person at the valet desk how to get to Rarotonga. She pulled out a resort map and sent us off in the proper direction. Unfortunately, the Poly at night when you have no good idea of where you are going was a bit more difficult to navigate than we expected. HA! But, we did eventually stumble upon the entrance and found our room. We'd only had one request and that was for a king bed and it was granted!
We found the room to be quite spacious and we liked the little Polynesian touches. I'd say the room was getting a bit worn and in need of a refresh perhaps, but it was clean and well-maintained and we really enjoyed it.
I forgot to take a picture of our view, which was a standard view, but it was quite nice. It looked out the back of the longhouse onto one of the walking paths with plenty of palm trees in view.
We did head out to check out the Great Ceremonial House and get some cream for our morning coffee and managed to miss the entrance to GCH and proceeded to get ourselves hopeless lost on the grounds. What losers we are! But, it did give us a chance to look at the pool and beach area.
Eventually we found our way to discover that the side entrance to the GCH was literally across a path from the exit to our Longhouse. How we missed that I don't know! Anyway, we explored a bit and got ourselves some cream and bought some Entenmans powdered sugar donuts (I call those crack donuts, BTW, because I can't stop once I start eating them!) and we headed back to unpack and settle in for the night. We had a big day ahead at Epcot, the Expo and DHS!!The bed was quite comfortable and I set a wake-up call for 6:00 AM to give us plenty of time to get ready. I was pretty excited to use the wake-up service and get a call from Mickey. Well, the phone rang (LOUDLY) right on time and soon Mickey was YELLING at me that he'd, See me REAL SOON! I told Chris, "Why is Mickey yelling at me???" But, it certainly served to wake me up!!
Unfortunately, the weather had not improved for us overnight (we knew it wouldn't, but a girl can hope for some Disney weather magic can't she?). So, it was cold and raining.
Still, we were not deterred, so we layered up in sweatshirts and stocking caps and put our rain ponchos in our backpack and off we went. We headed for the monorail and went through a very short line for bag check and metal detectors and headed to the TTC. An easy switch to the Epcot line and we were arriving about 20 minutes before park open. Luckily the rain had stopped, so we went through bag check again (the guy directing us was saying, "Because you loved it once, you get to do it twice" 
and then got lined up for park opening. Our plan was to hit Test Track in standby, but as expected, TT was closed due to rain, so we headed for Soarin' instead!
The rain and cold had kept the rope drop crowd down, so we basically were able to walk right on. I love this ride so much and even though we were on the outer edges of the ride and got the distortion, it's still one of my favorites. Next up was Living with the Land which was still sporting some Christmas decor.
We headed next for Nemo and Friends for a quick ride there as well.
Clam shell Selfie!
It was pouring rain outside at this point, so we spent quite a bit of time enjoying the aquariums and watching the Dolphin training season.
We were getting hungry for lunch, so headed back to try out mobile ordering at Sunshine Seasons. It was a zoo in there and can I just say, mobile ordering is da bomb! So easy and we could just walk up and get our food and go sit down. Sweet!
We had a FP+ for Frozen Ever After and this was going to be our first time riding it. I was thankful for that FP because by this point the park was pretty crowded and the line for the ride was pretty long. We really enjoyed the ride. Very cute and well done. Look how excited we look?? HAHAHA
Once finished there we decided it was time to head out and over to the Expo, but it was also POURING at that moment. So, we hung out in a store for a short time before braving the walk back to the monorail. Luckily the rain started to let up and we did have ponchos so we only got a little wet. Back to the Poly and a quick stop in the room before heading out to find an expo bus. It took us a bit to figure out where to pick it up, but we did manage to get one eventually and headed for the Expo. I figured it would be a short and easy trip with maybe a bit of shopping before heading to DHS and our dinner reservations. BOY, was I wrong about that one!!
Next up: The Expo Madness and an evening at DHS.
We wandered over and finally found the end of the line and jumped in. Everyone around us was complaining about what a disorganized mess it was. And the line was ridiculously long!
Yikes!
