"Insert Snazzy Title Here" ** Grumpy & The Turkey's July 2007 Trip Report !

OK I think it's time to put an end to the humiliation that is this TR.
 
Why would you do that?
I am looking forward to coming chapters!! popcorn::
Don't leave us...
 
I know how you feel. :)
Over on my pre-trip I usually feel like i am talking to about 3 people. LOL They are very NICE 3 people, but still... :)
That's OK though, cause I know pre-trips can be kinda boring... how many times can I discuss shopping for toiletries and making a packing list and have it still be interesting?!?
Thanks for sticking with us! :hug:
 

Please keep going and don't worry about the replies. :thumbsup2

Instead look athow many people have viewed it. I'm sure a lot more then have replied! A lot of people are lurkers like me. We read and enjoy but don't always post. :confused3

And no, I haven't started packing yet. With temps here at home at 100 I need all my summer clothes for here. Can't put them in suitcases or I'd just keep pulling them out. :lmao:
 
Please keep going and don't worry about the replies. :thumbsup2

Instead look athow many people have viewed it. I'm sure a lot more then have replied! A lot of people are lurkers like me. We read and enjoy but don't always post. :confused3

And no, I haven't started packing yet. With temps here at home at 100 I need all my summer clothes for here. Can't put them in suitcases or I'd just keep pulling them out. :lmao:

Hey, you're right. Even if only a handful of people are reading, I'm having fun writing & remembering our trip anyway.
I actually started packing for our Halloween trip a week ago :lmao:

I know how you feel. :)
Over on my pre-trip I usually feel like i am talking to about 3 people. LOL They are very NICE 3 people, but still... :)
That's OK though, cause I know pre-trips can be kinda boring... how many times can I discuss shopping for toiletries and making a packing list and have it still be interesting?!?
Thanks for sticking with us! :hug:

I love pre trippies !! Planning and shopping is half the fun :)
 
Day 3, Part 2 : She took WHAT off in MAGIC KINGDOM?????

Before going to sleep we'd both agreed that we wanted to be back in MK around 6 and take some time to just walk around before our dinner at LTT.

When I woke up from my "nap" it was 5PM and I was alone in the room. No sight of Grumpy anywhere, no note, nada. Great, she was abducted by aliens again.
I went outside and checked the quiet pool - no Grumpy.
So I just got ready for dinner and waited. And waited. Surely the aliens know that we have an ADR for 7PM at LTT ??
Finally at 6.30 she walks in, and she's surprised that I was worried. She told me that she was going to the pool !
Guess we need to go through the whole "I can't hear you when I'm sleeping" explanation some day.

Anyway,she was at the Volcano pool. Didn't even occur to me to check there since it's filled with kids in the afternoon. She said it was empty & she even went down the slide. Sorry I missed this :( See, Grumpy has a history with slides. The first time she went on one, at some fancy hotel in Greece, she didn't think of getting wet first. Yep, she got stuck in the slide. We left her up there for a couple minutes, laughing our heads off, then my uncle had to go there, go down the slide himself and push her out.

I don't know how we made it to LTT on time but we did. Still had to wait a good 20mns to get seated though. While we were waiting, we saw a couple taking "our" table by the window and wondered where they'd put us - most of the tables at LTT are for larger parties.

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We were called & our hostess took us to a tiny table put in the middle of the room behind a pole. We weren't too thrilled as we were pretty much in everybody's way - servers, families and characters. We sure didn't have much room to move.

LTT is our favorite character meal and it didn't disappoint. Chip & Dale were going crazy, jumping from table to table stealing food, pretending to trip the servers. When I was going to take a pic of DM & Dale (or Chip), my memory card was full. I acted like I was going to cry & Dale ran to me and wiped my "tears" with his apron.

We enjoyed the food - DM ate mostly the meat, I ate only the sides. The salad at LTT is to DIE for!

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While DM was in the restrooms, Goofy came to visit again. Seeing that was alone at the table, he sat down, took one of the glasses and shook it with me. Everyone was watching and even though I hate being the center of attention, it was the highlight of our day. Adults rarely get one-on-one attention from the characters, but at LTT we never felt rushed or out of place at all.

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After LTT we wanted to do something "quiet" before using our Splash FPs. Liberty Belle Riverboat ? Why not.
There must have been 30 persons on that boat, tops. There isn't much sitting outside so DM & I sat on the floor with maybe 4 inches of space in front of us. Well would you believe that this woman and her 2 kids came and stood right in front of us????????? With all the empty space there was everywhere else, that's the spot they chose.
I said "Are you kidding me??" loudly and got ignored, of course.
Instead of getting angry and causing a scene we just got up and went somewhere else but it got me in a bad mood for the rest of the night.

Didn't help that the "ride" on Liberty Belle is a bore. Here's 20mns of my life I'm never getting back :(

DM wanted a smoke so we hunted for a smoking area. I remembered one not too far from Splash Mountain and we went there.
Then rode Splash with our FPs from this morning. NOT IN THE FRONT ROW!

After Splash it was well after 9 and we needed to get a spot for Wishes. Even though TGM said today was "green", he couldn't predict that there would be a dozen of Brazilian tour groups in the park. Green it was not.
I thought we could go through half of Fantasyland easily to get to Main Street but one area was roped off so we had to go all the way around. By the time we got there, the place was packed.

We could only find a spot to stand off to the side, and couldn't see much at all because of the trees.
It wasn't that great, although we did get an amazing view of Tinkerbell flying over us, which we didn't see last time.
Wishes is my favorite night time show, but this time all I wanted was for it to end so that we could move out of here. People kept walking in front of us on their way out of the park, we could only see the really high fireworks, and without the castle it's just not the same.

When it was over, I wanted out. Now. But I did the "wise" thing and waited a bit for the masses to exit. Well the masses weren't getting anywhere, either and when we decided to move we understood why. There were 3 or 4 huge Brazilian tour groups "counting heads" smack dab in the middle of Main Street !! Because THAT is the best spot to meet up, of course. They were holding hands in a circle and no one could go around them.

By then I was getting seriously ticked off. Normally crowds don't bother me that much but tonight I'd had it.
Grumpy spotted an empty bench on the side of the street, grabbed me and told me to sit down, wait, and shut up.
Works for me!

Spectro was only 15mns away, we were tired, our feet ached and so we decided to just stay here and wait. We didn't see much of Spectro at all, either, and I tried to take some pics but they all have some people's heads in them.

This is the only decent photo I have, and I don't even know what it is!!!

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So, we're sitting on our bench trying to see the parade, and all of a sudden, DM reaches over, grabs my backpack and crams something white in it. What the... ? What was this ?? She looks at me and cracks up. I have NO idea why so I look inside the bag and find...

......


......


OH NO SHE DIDN'T. She took her bra off right there on Main Street !!!!!
OMG I thought I was going to die from laughing so hard. It definitely helped with the bad moodiness but still I couldn't believe she had done that. Not to mention how did she pull it off without me even noticing ??? My mommy has magic bra removal powers.

We didn't bother waiting for the end of Spectro - couldn't see anything anyway. I made a stop at Main St confectionnery and bought a bag of pink cotton candy and a huge Mickey rice crispies treat to bring home (yea, that's gonna happen).

My feet were hurting so bad from all the trampling I just took my shoes off and walked barefoot all the way from Main Street to our room at the Poly. Hey, if she can take her bra off, I can flash my tootsies a bit.
Despite what some on this board think, Disney is still doing one heck of a good job keeping the place clean, because my feet weren't even dirty!


Except for LTT this wasn't the best night at all. Even during Christmas week I had never seen a mess like this at MK. That reminds me I need to work out a "regular" Wishes during our trip at Halloween, and have my butt parked in front of the castle by 8.

DM wasn't thrilled with our night either and said she had no desire to go to a park tomorrow. It was our last full day at the Poly and she wanted to stay & enjoy the resort. We were supposed to go to AK and don't have much to do there anyway, so I happily obliged.

We were so tired, I completly forgot to take the thing out of my backpack and give it back to its owner... it would come back and haunt us a few days later.
 
You are so funny and your mom...hilarious! I was totally laughing out loud at the vision of you walking in circles at the Poly and your mom watching you do it!!! Plus, the bra removal?:lmao:
I took a WDW with my mom in '93, but freakishly, I have very little memory of anything that happened. I had just graduated from college so it isn't like I was too young to remember...I think I may be blocking it out given that I bet she was driving me batty the whole time!!!
And...my next trip will be with my MIL:eek: !!! AARGH! Talk about being driven nuts...
Your pics are really great - I especially love the ones from Illuminations and the MK show.
 
I'm loving your trip report!! You two are hilarious! What a great vacation you shared. I'm trying so hard to get my own mother to join my DD and I next March over Easter. I know we would have a really great time. I just have to get her on the plane...

Can't wait to hear the rest!! :banana:
 
You are so funny and your mom...hilarious! I was totally laughing out loud at the vision of you walking in circles at the Poly and your mom watching you do it!!! Plus, the bra removal?:lmao:
I took a WDW with my mom in '93, but freakishly, I have very little memory of anything that happened. I had just graduated from college so it isn't like I was too young to remember...I think I may be blocking it out given that I bet she was driving me batty the whole time!!!
And...my next trip will be with my MIL:eek: !!! AARGH! Talk about being driven nuts...
Your pics are really great - I especially love the ones from Illuminations and the MK show.

Selective memory LOL !!! I'm lucky that Grumpy & I get along great on vacation. I think it may be due to the fact that my father refuses to go on a plane anymore, and she's scared of going on vacation by herself, so I'm her only option :) She has to behave!
Trip with MIL.. yikes! On the bright side, she'd give you a lot of material for a great TR! Plus if she annoys you too much, you can always tell her that Expedition Everest is just like Snow White at MK. ;)

I'm glad you enjoy the pics. I've had this new camera since November and just learning how to use it. They still have to go through Photoshop to look decent though! If you liked the photos from the Dreams Come True show you may enjoy this little video :



I'm loving your trip report!! You two are hilarious! What a great vacation you shared. I'm trying so hard to get my own mother to join my DD and I next March over Easter. I know we would have a really great time. I just have to get her on the plane...

Can't wait to hear the rest!! :banana:

You HAVE to get your mom there. You're right she will love it. I didn't expect my mom to love it that much and was floored when she asked if we could go back for Christmas. Maybe you can say that your DD wants her grandma to enjoy Disney with her ? Whatever you have to do.. I bet she'll be grateful after just a couple days at WDW.
 
Great update!:thumbsup2

My DH always laughs at me because I can take off my bra without taking off my shirt or pulling my arms inside the shirt. Of course, I only do this when we're at home! LOL!

I've heard the horror stories about the tour groups but haven't seen them. We did WDW in early August of 2005 and never saw any of them. I'm sorry they ruined your evening.
 
Day 4 - Lazy at the Poly


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I apologize in advance for this boring installment. We basically did nothing except swim, eat, do laundry and sleep that day!!!

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Another night spent choking and coughing my tonsils out. I wanted to give DM a chance to rest, so I ended up on the balcony at 3am. The Polynesian is so peaceful at night, I really enjoyed just looking at the view from our balcony and resting for a few hours outside.
Around 7, I came back in, literally passed out on my bed, and slept until noon when Grumpy woke me up.

She'd gone by herself to Captain Cook's for breakfast (I forgot to tell her about Tonga Toast and she only had a muffin :( )and then took a walk around the resort. She loves flowers and so she was in Heaven here at the Poly ! The rest of the time she spent at the quiet pool.

We had laundry to do and it just happens that Tokelau is close to the guest laundry, so instead of carrying all our dirty stuff to BWI, we went to the laundry room.
Our ADR at Kona was at 1pm so the idea was to start the laundry, go eat lunch, then come back & put it in the dryer.

I wasn't too thrilled about Kona, our dinner there in December had been so-so. Well I couldn't have been more wrong! We loved the lunch selections (I had the Kona Club and DM had the teriyaki steak salad).

A big party was seated next to us after we'd been there for about 15mns and were still working on our entrees. They didn't have enough space to sit and so we offered to move (there was an empty table on the other side) so that they could take our table and push it next to theirs.
The hostess was surprised that we offered - instead of being asked - and at first said it wasn't necessary, but then accepted and thanked us.
It was no big deal, we had 2 plates and 2 glasses to move and it took about 30 seconds. So I was really shocked when the manager came to our table and said that, to thank us, dessert was on the house ! :banana: popcorn::

And here I had planned to be a good girl and stick to my low-fat sandwich (that, and the giant bag of cotton candy waiting in the room!).
Seriously, though, we really appreciated the gesture and didn't expect it at all. Grumpy loved her chocolate macadamia torte and the coconut ice cream that came with it.

After lunch we went downstairs to the gift shop and purchased a few things. Until DM suddenly remembered about our laundry! OOPS! So we made our way back to the building. A lady gave us a nasty look when we took our stuff out of the machine - it had been there for almost 2 hours. Sorry :guilty:

DM took a nap and I started cleaning up my stuff. I was looking at my new AP with Tinkerbell on it when I remembered that you're supposed to sign the back of the ticket. So I turn it over and imagine my surprise when I see something like this :

ONE DAY NON HOP

What in the name of Buddha's pantyhose... ????????
No wonder that lady didn't ask me for my ID!!! She was too busy chatting with her pal instead of concentrating on what she was doing, and she gave me a one-day non hopper ticket instead of an annual pass !!! And now I had to make a FOURTH trip to Magic Kingdom's Guest Relations and have it changed again - not to mention take the risk of ending up with another Incredibly Ugly Incredibles ticket. Better do it now before I get too lazy to move, there'll still be time to swim later.

So I went. I explained that I was given one-day ticket instead of an AP, gave my ID card and waited for my new ticket, which I TRIPLE checked this time. No Incredibles, goody, it had Mickey on it. I can live with that.

I'm on my way back on the monorail and I see the sky literally turning gray. Huh hoh, not good. It was pouring by the time I reached the Poly and it kept on raining until well past 8PM, when we left for our ADR at 'Ohana. So much for spending the afternoon swimming or resting on the beach :(

This morning at the gift shop we'd bought flowers to wear in our hair at the restaurant. Grumpy had "dressed up" and worn a dress I bought her that looks a little hawaiian-ish. I had read a lot about this place and was especially looking forward to seeing Wishes from the restaurant. While I had read several reviews from guests who felt very rushed, I didn't think it would be a problem for us. We eat fast, plus there's only two of us, so servers usually forget about us.

HA!

We were in and out of the place in about 35mns. They serve all the courses together at 'Ohana - salad, wontons, shrimps, wings, meat and potatoes. We took a break from eating and the bus boy comes to our table, asking if we want MORE.
Now we're sitting at a table with 6 different kinds of food. No, we didn't want more. We could barely move our hands as it was. So we said, no thank you.

Next thing we know, we're staring at an empty table. The guy was the Speedy Gonzales of bus boys and had our table cleared before I could say HUH?

DM : Did you understand that he was going to do that ??
Me : NO WAY ! I wanted more salad!
DM : I didn't even finish my plate.I wanted more shrimps.What do we do, do we call him ba....

Plop. Dessert is now on the table, and so is the bill, approximately four and a half seconds after the rest of our food disappeared.
Fine. I'll eat the dessert, the evening is shot anyway. Wishes is still over half an hour away.

We pay and leave and we're both grumpy. We had time to go back to our room, change, and still made it to the beach before Wishes started.
It was beautiful and we really enjoyed it, but we were still talking about how disappointed we were in 'Ohana, especially when we compared it to the incredible service we had at Kona the same day.

Before going to sleep, my mom asked me to cancel our ADR for Spoodles the next evening, which surprised me since she loved the place and the food last time. We'd had a great meal there in January for her birthday, and she said she was worried that our fabulous server, Wayne, wouldn't be there and that we'd get disappointed like we had been tonight.
It made sense and I agreed.

Tomorrow we're switching resorts and going over to the Boardwalk Inn, where a big surprise is waiting for us!
 
Great update!:thumbsup2

My DH always laughs at me because I can take off my bra without taking off my shirt or pulling my arms inside the shirt. Of course, I only do this when we're at home! LOL!

I've heard the horror stories about the tour groups but haven't seen them. We did WDW in early August of 2005 and never saw any of them. I'm sorry they ruined your evening.

I wish DM would only do that at home ! She's done it at other places but at the MAGIC KINGDOM ?? Now she swears I'm only jealous because I can't do it. Please, I'd drop one of 'em before we reach the monorail. :rotfl2:

To be 100% honest the tour goups didn't ruin my night. I put myself in a bad mood for some reason and it wouldn't have made much difference if they had been there or not. Truth is, I inherited a good part of Grumpy's Grumpiness, but the tour groups are so easy to blame :)
 
Day 5 : Leaving the Poly :( and arriving at the Boardwalk :)

Today we're saying Goodbye to the Poly, and we're sooooo sad !!! We absolutely loved this resort, everything about it. We have many others WDW resorts we want to try, but this is the one that all others will be compared to.

We had finished packing the night before, and once we were ready I called Bell Services to come pick up our bags. By that time, we had 4 duffles and 2 carry-ons :rotfl: I didn't want to carry my huge laptop all day with me so I put it in the carry-on and hoped for the best.
Bell services showed up almost right away (it was only 8am so they were not very busy) and took our stuff.

Then we took the monorail to the TTC, switched, and headed to Epcot.
One thing I hate about Epcot (the only thing, really) is that the bus stops are soooooooo far from the entrance ! Not a huge problem when you're entering the park early in the morning & full of energy,but when it's time to leave and you spent hours walking around WS, that 10mn walk to the bus stop can kill ya.
So I was thrilled that we'd never have to deal with that on this trip.

We missed the park opening by about 10mns, but it still wasn't crowded. First things first, we need FPs for Soarin'. That took us about 20mns. Then, I wanted to try Test Track.

Grumpy wasn't too sure about trying this ride, and when I saw the look on her face when she was watching the cars speeding above us, I had a bad feeling. We chatted with this CM and asked him how scary it was, was it faster than Everest, did we go upside down... It sort of eased Grumpy's worries but not for long.

The wait time was supposed to be 20mns, but we walked straight in. :banana:

So we're in the little room where they're showing the video, and everyone is watching except Grumpy who's lingering by the door. When the video ended and we were supposed to go out, Grumpy grabbed my arm and said "Please, I don't wanna go!!!".
I swear she looked like someone had just stolen her puppy. What did she expect, that I'd force her into the car ? Geesh. I said don't ya worry you'll just take the chicken exit. But I want to do this thing, so just wait for me in the gift shop outside.
We find a CM and she says again "Please,I don't wanna go!" which made him laugh and he let her out. She looked sooo relieved it was hilarious.

That was my first time doing an attraction at WDW by myself and I almost chickened out myself, but after all, I am The Turkey, and turkeys don't chicken!!!

Turns out it wasn't that scary at all and I LOVED IT. Especially the cold room and the speeding part outside. Wow, it was awesome. I think if DM had been with me I would have freaked a lot more, but I didn't really dare to do that with five strangers around me :) Didn't scream, either, but that's because I had no voice left.
It was really fun and I'm glad I tried it. This one is going on my list of "must do every time"!

I met DM at the gift shop and we went to Journey Into Imagination. That ride had been down the one time we'd tried to go back in January and I thought the purple dinosaur was cute, so I really wanted to do it. Of course since we'd never been on it, and because we were still not over Small World, we did ask the CMs if there were any singing dolls in there. They looked at us like we were nuts so we didn't insist.

Oh boy. Oh boy,oh boy, oh boy. We should have known. The building was empty, and I mean EMPTY. NO ONE but us in the whole thing. I really hope that they don't take pics of you during this attraction because if they do, then they got about a zillion shots of my tonsils. I was yawning through the whole ride. Well, on the bright side Grumpy didn't chicken out on this one.

We still had about 10mns before we could use our Soarin' FPs so we went to Honey, I shrunk the audience. I'm deathly afraid of mice. My cats used to bring some in our house and several times I ended up hiding in the locked bathroom, calling my dad at work so that he would come and get rid of them.

Well, I'm glad to say that I wasn't scared AT ALL ! Not even a little bit. Everyone around me was yelling and Grumpy grabbed my arm and screamed bloody murder in my ear but I was just laughing.
Of course, it may be due to the fact that I had my MP3 player on,my feet up on the other seat, and was covering my eyes with my hands. But still. Not scared.

HISTA was nice. I wouldn't mind going back, and maybe even keep one eye open during the mice scene, if it wasn't for the 3-hour long Kodak commercial we had to go through before entering the theater. Fine, we'll buy Kodak, JUST LET US IN! :rolleyes:

It was finally time to use our Soarin' FPs. Actually since HISTA took a lot longer than planned, we only had 30mns before our ADR at Garden Grill. I took a couple mns to grab us a 2nd set of FPs and we entered the FP return line.
I have to say here that the only time the CM actually checked the time on our FP it was at Soarin'. We used expired FPs several times in MK but I wouldn't try it there, especially at peak season.

Since we didn't want to be in the 3rd row, we chose to wait until the next flight. I hate waiting in line but to me that's one of the very few things worth an extra wait at WDW. Soarin' is just better without 20 pairs of Crocs dangling in front of you.

I can't say enough how much I love this ride. :love: Without a doubt our fave in Epcot, and close to being our fave in all WDW. Even though by now my cough had turned into a full blown cold and I couldn't smell the orange trees or the pine trees (for some reason I could smell the ocean) it was still amazing.

We were over 20mns late for Garden Grill but it wasn't busy at all and we were seated almost immediately. This meal wasn't great, I hated the food except for the cheesy potatoes. I should have asked for the kid's food instead, there was one little girl at the next table enjoying her M&C and nuggets and it sure looked better than what I was eating. The dessert was good though, and character interaction was awesome.

A few shots of Grumpy with the characters :

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I just love when Pluto puts the book on his nose to sign autographs !!

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After lunch we used our 2nd set of FPs and went on Soarin' again. We were in the front row again and it was amazing as always.This time I did smell the pine trees and orange trees, and it was even better.

Then we decided to go check in at BWI. It was a little early but we'd just take a walk around the resort if our room wasn't ready.

We walked into World Showcase and then exited through the International Gateway. Had to wait about 15mns for a boat but it was no big deal.
We enjoyed the boat ride to the Boardwalk, it was a first time for us and I thought it was really nice, relaxing and definitely 300% better than taking a bus!!!


We'd seen BWI once before, an evening when we'd had dinner at Spoodles. This resort is just gorgeous. The attention to details is amazing. You think you just stepped out of a time machine and went back in the 30s.

I took a couple pics of the lobby :

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Once at BWI, we went at the front desk and checked in. We chatted with the CM, Hermie, told her about Grumpy chickening out on Test Track. She then said, with a huge grin on her face, "It's your lucky day!!!".

It was barely 2pm and I thought, awesome, our room is ready ! But that wasn't it. Hermie told us we'd been upgraded to CONCIERGE!

WOW. We'd gotten a great rate for BWI with my AP, and I didn't expect to be upgraded at all. Concierge is not something I would pay for, I love planning our trips and reading everything I can about WDW before we leave, so I don't see the need of concierge services. But I knew DM would like the "VIP" feeling of being in Concierge so I was really happy.

There was a little problem though, they had booked us in a king bed room. My mom's first name is unisex here, but it's very rarely used for females in the US. So it's not the first time that we were mistaken as a couple :scared: and given a king bed. Hermie said she'd find us a 2-bed room if we didn't mind waiting. No problem, that gave me some time to check out the gift shop. Which was, unfortunately, the sorriest excuse for a gift shop I've ever seen in WDW.

We got our cards (the Concierge cards are golden yellow instead of blue) and went to our room. I must say, I enjoyed the VIP feeling. Tingly.
Our room was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy at the end of the hall. It was a little smaller than our room at the Poly, but still really nice!

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Unlike the Poly though, the sinks are outside of the bathroom which I like better. Grumpy takes forever to shower and I need the mirror to put on my makeup!

I love the view from our balcony. We could see the quiet pool and the garden around it, and a lot of roofs too :) What can I say, I like roof views.

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Grumpy kept saying "Wow, I can't believe we are in CONCIERGE". Then, she plops down on her bed and asks "by the way, what's Concierge???".

Truth was, I didn't really know. Except that there was someone to help you make dining reservations (which I'd already done) and that there was some kind of lounge where we could get a snack and drinks during the day.
I don't know if there's any more to Concierge than that, but it seemed to satisfy Grumpy.

We were both beat. I don't require a lot of sleep, but I had slept maybe 8 hours in the last 4 days and it was starting to show. Grumpy hates MGM and didn't want to go, even for Fantasmic. We also decided not to go to AK the next day, it was just too hot. We knew there was a good chance we'd be back in October and so we'd do AK then.

Once we'd decided that, I called and changed several of our ADRs. Canceled Boma breakfast and got Cape May instead, for the next day, then canceled the other Cape May ressie we had. Also I changed our Sci-Fi ADR for lunch instead of dinner.

DM went to the pool and I tried to nap but couldn't. When Grumpy came back I sent her to the Concierge lounge for some drinks. Having the drinks in the lounge was really great since there is nowhere to refill your mugs at BWI. We'd have had to go to the Boardwalk Bakery to do that.
Plus, the lounge had Seagram ginger ale which is my favorite drink in the world and I can only get it in the US. Yummmmm. Grumpy was thrilled to see that she could get a glass of wine. She also got some raw veggies and dip to munch on.

That evening we took a walk on the Boardwalk (there was a guy doing a show but I didn't really pay attention). Had a slice of pizza at the Spoodles window - best pizza in WDW! Shopped at Sweet Sensations and went back to our room to sleep.

Or I shall say, TRY to sleep :sick:
 
That's terrific that you were upgraded to concierge level! We stayed at BWI in Jan.05. Only had a standard room but we loved the resort and loved the boardwalk at night with all the performers! :)
 
Day 6 : Shopping in Epcot

I don't remember much of that morning. It was another night of coughing, sneezing and choking. I felt bad for DM and for our neighbours so I ended up on the balcony around 3am, with the company of 2 boxes of tissues and a trash can.

This is our view from the balcony at night

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We had an ADR for Cape May that morning but I didn't feel good enough to go. It had taken me so long to fit that ADR in our itinerary before we left :(
Being sick at Disney really stinks.

Finally I got moving around noon. We took the boat in front of the resort and went to Epcot.

When we planned to go back in July, we thought about the heat and crowds and decided it wouldn't really matter. After all, we're not idiots or newbies. We weren't going to be walking around World Showcase at 2 in the afternoon!!!

Oops. That's exactly what we did :)

Our mission today was to SHOP (probably why I got out of bed in the first place). We'd bought pearls in Japan back in December and my grandmother didn't believe they were real or that they came from a real oyster.
So when her own pearl "died" (she got bleach on it) this spring, we told her we'd bring her one. WITH proof that it came from a real oyster.

So, that was one thing we wanted to buy. I also wanted "lucky cats" from China and Japan - thank you WDWPrincess for that idea! We also wanted to do Maelstrom and Gran Fiesta Tour, but that was it for rides.

Our first stop was Morocco where I looked at rugs to put in my room. Unfortunately they didn't look genuine at all. We've been to Tunisia several times and shopped in the souks there. While I did not expect to see the same prices I had hoped that the rugs would at least be handmade. They were not.
We didn't stay long in Morocco anyway because the place reeked of urine. Seriously, I could barely smell a thing that day but I can still remember how badly that place smelled.
It wasn't pleasant, and we had nothing to buy anyway, so we headed for Japan.

I called my sister to ask her if she wanted anything (she likes Japanese cartoons). Of course she wanted the ONE thing that they didn't have in the store, some hamster cartoon whose name I forgot.
I bought a Hello Kitty mirror for my grandmother and a bunch of tiny little lucky cats. Sorry, I forgot what each color is for but they give you a piece of paper with all the details. I gave some of the cats to a friend & gave her the paper so now I have no clue what mines are for :)

DM picked her pearl and I took a video of the whole thing to show my grandmother as PROOF !!! If any of you wonder how the pick a pearl works, this should help :



We picked a small silver setting and the total was about $55.
DM also wanted to buy some tiny Bonzai trees but she was told by the cashier that we wouldn't be able to take them home. Apparently it's not legal to bring in seeds to/from the US. Too bad, that would have made a really good gift for Grandmother #2.

We had an ADR at 9 Dragons for that night but I thought we could probably walk in now for lunch instead. So we went straight to China and didn't stop at the other countries on the way (we did most of the American pavillion on the last trip, and been to Germany & Italy wayyyy too often to have any interest in those).

Nine Dragons was pretty much empty and we were seated right away. DM & I both really enjoyed our lunch. She had a spicy thing made with noodles, shrimp and veggies, and I had the honey sesame chicken. Yum-my!!!
On the way out we canceled our ADR for that night. Though, honestly, I wouldn't have minded coming back. It was really good!

DM inside 9 Dragons. Is she sleeping???

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Off to the China shop we go. Ohh I am such a sucker for that kind of thing. I wanted to buy the whole shop. Every single silk lined box, every little knick knack. DM reminded me that we didn't have much space left, certainely not for a big jewelry box, so I only bought some more lucky cats.

DM wanted a little umbrella but she didn't like the ones in China, she wanted one from MK instead. We completly forgot to buy one, so it's on our list for next trip!

We took a break outside and this little guy came to visit. I bet locals are always amused when see us tourists stopping & taking pictures of geckos.
I was in Clearwater once waiting for a bus and I was so busy looking at a gecko (probably waiting for him to try & sell me insurance :rotfl2: ) that I didn't even realize the bus stopped right next to me. The driver honked and told me something like "Honey, if you stop and look at every gecko,you ain't never gonna get on a bus!" :lmao: :lmao:

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Our next stop was Maelstrom. Before we left I bought RideMax and Miss-Know-It-All me thought it was ridiculous that they advised me to get a FP for Maelstrom. Come on, everyone knows that this is a lousy attraction that no one goes to !!

Wait time : 30mns

SAY WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTT ?????

That's right folks. We waited longer for Maelstrom than we did for TEST TRACK. We could have gotten FPs, but we had nothing else to do but wait at this point, so we might as well queue.
The ride was cuter than I expected. Nothing I'm in a hurry to do again, but IMO not any worse than Pooh at MK. That drop was a nice surprise.
And yes, since it was dark, I did hold my mom's hand. :rolleyes1

In the store we found nothing to buy but I did take the mandatory "wearing Viking hat next to the giant troll" pic.

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Gran Fiesta Tour was a walk on and we really enjoyed the ride. I never did the older version of that one so I can't compare it, but I loved seeing Donald in there.
We saw the San Angel Inn from the boat and decided we'd have to try that restaurant soon.
I almost bought a sombrero but then realized that we didn't have space for it anywhere - except if I wore it on my head for the entire 14-hour trip back home.
Let's see hmmmmmmmm.. Nope.
Asta la vista!

We had finished our tour but I wanted to check the shop that's in Showcase Plaza.
I bought some Epcot postcards, a Stitch toy, a ponytail holder with little Mickey heads, some "magic" towels, Grumpy lip gloss for Grumpy, two charms for the charm bracelet that I don't have :rotfl: and what I thought was a pencil holder, but is actually a can cooler.
I was waiting to pay at the register when I saw DM look at a little bear. I'd seen it at the Polynesian shop and thought it'd be great for Grandmother #1, who collects bears, but I forgot to go back to the shop to buy it. It's the "My first bear" and it's super soft, wearing a green onesie and a little matching hat.
Grumpy left the shop, and I went to get the bear. Grumpy saw me doing that and came to ask why I was buying that. When I told her it was for Granny she said she was about to buy it herself. One Grumpy, one Turkey, one mind!


The lucky cats ! The 3 on right side are from China, the rest are from Japan :

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Silly stuff I bought at the Showcase Plaza shop :

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Stitch toy

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Gloss and pony holder

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Granny's bear (pic borrowed from eBay!) :guilty:

Glitter Stitch is feeling left out and want his pic shown as well, along with the Lilo & Stitch candy tin I bought at Samoa Snacks and the pencil holder/can cooler from Epcot

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It started to rain a little so we went back to International Gateway to catch the boat back to BWI.
By the time we got to BWI it was REALLY raining, the ponchos helped a little but we were still quite soaked.

So, we're going back to the Concierge floor, dripping, wearing plastic ponchos and carrying half a dozen shopping bags.
We both get our gold "Concierge" cards out, say "Good Evening" to the concierge who was sitting at the desk and DM goes to swipe her card when the concierge asks us if he can help us.
We answer - with a smile - that we're just going back to our room. He then asked for our name, looked on his list and said we were not on it. I gave him our room number and he did not answer, but he was still not letting us through.
And he's examining us with that condescending look on his face as if he's never seen anyone in Mickey ponchos before. :confused:

At that time a family came behind us, and the concierge transformed himself into a smiling, welcoming man. Chatting with the family, asking if the children had a good time. The lady from the family called him Pete and he called her by her first name as well.

I was fuming. Yes I do know that people come & steal from the Concierge, but we were both holding our Concierge cards in our hands. And yes we looked quite dreadful in our wet ponchos but he could simply have been polite with us. I don't think that's asking too much. :sad2:

It poured all the rest of the afternoon & evening, we decided that if by 7.30 it was still raining we wouldn't go back to Epcot for Illuminations. It didn't stop until well after 10, although we did hear Illuminations so they must have done anyway. It wasn't a good idea :sick: as I was already to wait for an hour in the rain. So we stayed in again that night and watched Zack & Cody and Hannah Montana on Disney channel.

DM went to the pool later once the raining stopped.

That was a pretty nice day except for the rain and the snotty concierge. Being in the heat at WS wasn't that bad and we really enjoyed Nine Dragons. Shopping, of course, is always fun :) Next time we go, we'll have to keep some space for our WS shopping. Most of the things I wanted to buy were too big to bring back :(

Tomorrow is MGM day, our first full day in that park... and probably the last.
 
Too bad the Concierge was a jerk. What the heck does he expect people to look like after they come in from the rain?:confused3
 
Too bad the Concierge was a jerk. What the heck does he expect people to look like after they come in from the rain?:confused3

Hey, you're still reading :banana: Thanks !!!
I don't know what was up his.... sorry, what was up with him. :rolleyes1
 


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