Joe (me)/Helen (my wife)
BWI
Day 3, Oct. 27
The only concrete activity in our plans for today was to go to MK and eat at Crystal Palace. While we were making our PS yesterday evening, we were able to arrange one for 8:45 am at CP. So far, we haven't made a trip to WDW without eating at CP. It was somewhat of a drag to get up early, but it was nice to be out and about when things were a little less hectic than they become later in the morning.
We rode the bus over to the MK and were permitted to go on through for our PS. There were already plenty of people waiting for rope drop. At CP, we just had to wait for a few minutes to be seated. When the weather is pleasant, sitting on CP's porch/veranda is very enjoyable. Breakfast was good, but I didn't make H let me take her picture with the characters. They did stop by, but we just shook their hands briefly (Tigger insisted on hugging H) and let them go on to the families with children.
After we left, we headed to Tomorrowland, where we got Fastpasses for Space Mountain. While we waited, we rode Buzz and TTA (twice). Both of us like TTA and I wonder why there's rarely a line. It's not exactly thrilling, but it's interesting to see Tomorrowland from that perspective and it's kind of relaxing. At Space Mountain, we were on board with our Fastpasses within 5 minutes. I get a strong sense from watching people's reactions to the Fastpass line, that a lot of them don't really understand how it works and that they can use it.
Our next destination was BTMRR. We had to wait about 20 minutes, but it didn't seem that long. Neither one of us wanted to get wet, so we skipped Splash. HoP was starting soon and we went on in there. It seems like the movie is shorter and less tedious than the last time I was here, but my mind could be playing tricks on me. Or, maybe this time I'm just happier and more appreciative of being able to be here with my wife instead of working.
We weren't hot to trot to ride anything else and decided to make our way out of the park. There wasn't much wait at Pirates, but I couldn't convince H to ride. She really dislikes that one. I told her we could just make out and ignore the ride, but she was afraid we might traumatize small children, so we decided to save that for the room. We weren't the least bit hungry, but we did have to get Dole Whips. While we ate them, we watched a whole parade of interesting folks traipse through Adventureland. It takes all kinds of people to make a world.
Since we weren't in any hurry, we took some time to look around in the Main Street stores. Didn't end up buying anything, though. Just for the heck of it, we rode the monorail to Epcot and walked through the park to BWI. Who knows, it may have been faster than the bus. While we were there, we went ahead and rode Spaceship Earth again. H wanted to ride Living with the Land, since she couldn't remember anything from the other time we did it. After that, we proceeded through the park without further delay.
Back at BWI, we spent the afternoon by the pool. Later, H took a short nap while I worked on the trip report. I did continue to stick to my vow not to do anything related to my job while on vacation. I called my daughter at school to let her know how things were going. She has actually been at WDW several times since she was here on H's and my last trip 3.5 years ago. Her first year of college is keeping her pretty busy, but she's planning on coming with my sister's family in January. H and I may come too, work schedules permitting.
We cleaned up again before heading out for the evening. Since we weren't in the mood for the parks, we drove over to the marketplace. After spending a long time looking through all the stores and buying some things we had sent back to the room, we went over and put our name in at Rainforest. It was about 30 minutes before we were called, but it went by pretty quickly as we looked through the store and people watched.
To be honest, we should probably have gone back to the resort and gone to one of the nice, quiet restaurants there. We were more in the mood for that sort of thing. But, it's not like we didn't know what we were getting into with Rainforest. We shared a chicken pizza and a piece of key lime pie. It was good and the service was fine, but we were glad to escape by the end of the meal.
When we were finished, it was getting late. We thought about going to CW, but decided to see a movie instead. We picked Cellular and I'm pretty sure I'll have bruises on my hand tomorrow from H clutching it. I liked it more than I thought, in spite of the tension. I wasn't familiar with the lead actor, but Kim Basinger did a good job.
H passed out almost as soon as we got back to BWI, while I finished yesterday's and today's reports. We'll probably go to AK on Thursday, but if we may decide to just hang around the resort again.
BWI
Day 3, Oct. 27
The only concrete activity in our plans for today was to go to MK and eat at Crystal Palace. While we were making our PS yesterday evening, we were able to arrange one for 8:45 am at CP. So far, we haven't made a trip to WDW without eating at CP. It was somewhat of a drag to get up early, but it was nice to be out and about when things were a little less hectic than they become later in the morning.
We rode the bus over to the MK and were permitted to go on through for our PS. There were already plenty of people waiting for rope drop. At CP, we just had to wait for a few minutes to be seated. When the weather is pleasant, sitting on CP's porch/veranda is very enjoyable. Breakfast was good, but I didn't make H let me take her picture with the characters. They did stop by, but we just shook their hands briefly (Tigger insisted on hugging H) and let them go on to the families with children.
After we left, we headed to Tomorrowland, where we got Fastpasses for Space Mountain. While we waited, we rode Buzz and TTA (twice). Both of us like TTA and I wonder why there's rarely a line. It's not exactly thrilling, but it's interesting to see Tomorrowland from that perspective and it's kind of relaxing. At Space Mountain, we were on board with our Fastpasses within 5 minutes. I get a strong sense from watching people's reactions to the Fastpass line, that a lot of them don't really understand how it works and that they can use it.
Our next destination was BTMRR. We had to wait about 20 minutes, but it didn't seem that long. Neither one of us wanted to get wet, so we skipped Splash. HoP was starting soon and we went on in there. It seems like the movie is shorter and less tedious than the last time I was here, but my mind could be playing tricks on me. Or, maybe this time I'm just happier and more appreciative of being able to be here with my wife instead of working.
We weren't hot to trot to ride anything else and decided to make our way out of the park. There wasn't much wait at Pirates, but I couldn't convince H to ride. She really dislikes that one. I told her we could just make out and ignore the ride, but she was afraid we might traumatize small children, so we decided to save that for the room. We weren't the least bit hungry, but we did have to get Dole Whips. While we ate them, we watched a whole parade of interesting folks traipse through Adventureland. It takes all kinds of people to make a world.
Since we weren't in any hurry, we took some time to look around in the Main Street stores. Didn't end up buying anything, though. Just for the heck of it, we rode the monorail to Epcot and walked through the park to BWI. Who knows, it may have been faster than the bus. While we were there, we went ahead and rode Spaceship Earth again. H wanted to ride Living with the Land, since she couldn't remember anything from the other time we did it. After that, we proceeded through the park without further delay.
Back at BWI, we spent the afternoon by the pool. Later, H took a short nap while I worked on the trip report. I did continue to stick to my vow not to do anything related to my job while on vacation. I called my daughter at school to let her know how things were going. She has actually been at WDW several times since she was here on H's and my last trip 3.5 years ago. Her first year of college is keeping her pretty busy, but she's planning on coming with my sister's family in January. H and I may come too, work schedules permitting.
We cleaned up again before heading out for the evening. Since we weren't in the mood for the parks, we drove over to the marketplace. After spending a long time looking through all the stores and buying some things we had sent back to the room, we went over and put our name in at Rainforest. It was about 30 minutes before we were called, but it went by pretty quickly as we looked through the store and people watched.
To be honest, we should probably have gone back to the resort and gone to one of the nice, quiet restaurants there. We were more in the mood for that sort of thing. But, it's not like we didn't know what we were getting into with Rainforest. We shared a chicken pizza and a piece of key lime pie. It was good and the service was fine, but we were glad to escape by the end of the meal.
When we were finished, it was getting late. We thought about going to CW, but decided to see a movie instead. We picked Cellular and I'm pretty sure I'll have bruises on my hand tomorrow from H clutching it. I liked it more than I thought, in spite of the tension. I wasn't familiar with the lead actor, but Kim Basinger did a good job.
H passed out almost as soon as we got back to BWI, while I finished yesterday's and today's reports. We'll probably go to AK on Thursday, but if we may decide to just hang around the resort again.
