Kilted Yank's Sept. 2002 trip Pt. 2

[Kilted_Yank]

Susan, Bill, & Olivia do Disney, Sept. 2002

Adventurers: Susan, 40-something, wife, mom, director of touring operations, and my best pal. Bill, 38, husband, father, cook, kilted warrior. Olivia: Nearly 4, and as sweet as can be (when she isn’t being the spawn of the devil), Space Ranger-in-training.

Day three, 7 September, 2002: A little local flavor

We woke up shortly after 8 this morning. This is really great...
I could get used to doing this. I made a shopping list and headed off to Winn-Dixie to get some needed food items. If you have never been to the Winn-Dixie on SR 535/Apopka-Vineland Blvd, I suggest you give it a try. As much as I like Gooding’s, the prices at Winn-Dixie are exceptionally competitive. While shopping I bought soup, eggs milk, cheese, beer, Maple syrup, grapes, Orange juice etc.... the kind of stuff you’ll need for having some meals in your own home. I also bought a salmon fillet, as I was looking forward to doing some grilling while we were there.

Probably because of what I do for a living, I took note of the people around me this morning. Most of them were British. They seemed to be having quite a good time on their holiday from the snippets of conversation that I heard. I was pleased about this, as I enjoy it when people visit my country and have a good time.

I did take note that there were quite a few British products all
grouped together in one section... I suppose it makes sense to know who your customers are, eh? In this section, I saw two sorts of Branston Pickle, OXO boullion, different sorts of baked beans, Marmite, and other things from the UK... Unfortunately I didn’t see any Irn Bru.

After spendning a considerable sum of money, I went back to the
cabin and made ready to make lunch for Susan and Olivia, who were at the pool. When they didn’t return by the time I was done, I changed into swimming gear and walked over to the pool to take a dip myself. The walk from our cabin to the pool took all of nearly 60 seconds... talk about convenient! When I got to the pool, Susan and Olivia were just about to leave, but decided to stay awhile so daddy could have a dip in the pool. There weren’t many people around, and the weather was perfect, so we stayed for a bit, and I got to watch Olivia swim and frolic. This summer, Olivia spent most of her afternoons learning how to swim, and while I had seen her at lessons, seeing her play in the water with such confidence outside of the swim class setting, was just marvelous. My being there also gave Susan the opportunity to swim and float on her own =without having to watch the little one.

After our swim, we went back to the cabin and I made lunch. It
was really nice to have lunch in a well air-conditioned, unhurried fashion.

After our lunch, we changed and headed for the Fort Wilderness Marina. As soon as we got off of the resort bus, the skies opened in a downpour! Not fased (this is central florida in september, remember??), we walked on to the marina. It was time for me to experience the thrill of the wdw Watermouse. I have always wanted to try one of those things... they looked like such fun. Susan decided that piloting a watermouse didn’t particularly excite her, brought a book along so that she could relax on the beach while Olivia and I were gone. OK, so the young fellow at the marina gives me 2 minutes worth of
instructions and sends us on our way (after checking our life preservers).

I dedcided to see what this little baby could do, and as soon as
we cleared the dock, I opened it up! Thats right, baby! Don Johnson had better watch out, here comes Bill! Um..... er.... Guys? Did you tell me that this thing would be so slow? Where is the wind in my face... where is the long roostertail of water jetting from the rear of the boat? What I got instead of those things, was an engine that struggled valiantly, but could only do so much. I was a bummed when all of these teenaged girls went zipping by us as fast as kiss-my-hand. Well, it was then that it dawned on me. There was nothing wrong with the engine, no, not one thing. You see, these neat little boats just weren’t designed for men of... ahem... larger carriage. yours truly tends to forget how big he is. I weigh in at approx 275 lbs (on a good day) and the watermouse engines just weren’t designed to handle that (as well as Olivia’s weight).

Having said that, Olivia and I had a fine time zipping (as it were)
around the lake. We even went throught the channels and went out and paced the TTC/Bay Lake ferries. We stayed plenty far away, so as not to incur the wrath of the lake patrol (how cool would it be to drive on of those Boston Whaler boats?). Done with that, we were heading back to Fort Wilderness, when Olivia says: “Dad, I’m a little bored”... then it started to rain lightly. Good thing that our ride was nearly over... and so was the rain apparently, by the time we got back to the beach, the sun was shining.

Next on our list for the day, was to go to Downtown Disney. We
went to Once Upon a Toy, where Susan bought a “stuff-it-yourself” box of Mr Potatohead pieces. She also bought a Princess Jasmine hair brush and mirror set. I thought the store was nice, and could have spent a looot of money in there, but I was holding back, because our next stop was “World of Disney” Wooo Hoo! I have to tell you that as much as we go to wdw, I can barely get enough of that store.

OK, so we get to World of Disney, and I start to go into “open-your-wallet-and-spend-ALL-of-your-money” mode. I was able to resist the urge, but wound up buying a few small items anyway. It was enough just to be there.

Next was the new pin store, where there were several very intense looking middle aged men and women trading pins. Yikes! After a few minutes of browsing, we left. It was shortly after leaving this store that a middle aged British woman comes over to me and says: “I love your kilt... it’s brilliant! Are you wearing it properly?”

By this time, we were nearing the dinner hour, so we headed back to our cabin. We had boutght a roasted Chicken at the grocery store and made it, along with mashed potatoes, our dinner. After dinner (and clean-up) we had some family play time before Olivia went to bed around 9:45 (which is about an hour later than normal, but what the heck, we’re on vacation!).

Susan and I stayed up and talked for a while, until she conked out, around 1140. I followed her off to sleepyland shortly after midnight, having taken a little time to update my notes.

We had a great time today. We didn’t go to the parks, and we got out of the “house” a much later than usual, but it was lots of fun. If you have the time during your trip, I heartily recommend that you take the time to slow down a bit, and just enjoy what is around you.

Tomorrow: Blizzard Beach




Susan, Bill, & Olivia do Disney, Sept. 2002

Adventurers: Susan, 40-something, wife, mom, director of touring operations, and my best pal. Bill, 38, husband, father, cook, kilted warrior. Olivia: Nearly 4, Fearless, hardcore, water-baby.

Day four, 8 September, 2002: Blizzard Beach

Ahh! Another day of rising after 8 AM! A full eight hours of sleep!
I know it sounds silly for me to comment about this, but I must.
You see, normally I get up at 4:15 (Susan, around 4:45) on workdays. On the average weekend morning, Olivia bounds into our room at around 7 (or earlier), so sleeping until after 8 is a luxury I won’t enjoy again until the next time we go to WDW. I must give credit where due, and in this circumstance, credit for the long sleep has to go to the wonderfully effective curtains on the windows in our cabin. When I opened my eyes, the room was dark... really dark. I had to use the light on my watch to tell the time.

OK, up and out of bed. While Olvia played and spent some time with mommy, I made breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Olivia isn’t much for eggs, so she had a bowl of sliced peaches (and almost half of the bacon!). Brekkie finished, we gathered ourselves and headed out to Blizzard Beach.. We arrived in no time and I set out to buy Olivia’s annual waterpark pass, which, at $85.00, is a fair bargain if you plan to stay for a long trip, or plan on making multiple trips.

After entering the park and getting lockers and so forth, we set
off to make a base camp. We needed to find a place with sand so that Olivia could play with her sand bucket shovel. We set ourselves up near the wave pool and Susan went off to float in her beloved “Meltaway” Bay, while I hung out with O. She-who-must-be-obeyed soon tired of playing in the sand, stood up, dusted herself off and headed for the pool pausing to glance over her shoulder and say: “Let’s go find mommy, dad.” Without another word, nor a backward glance, she marched straight for the pool. I stopped her long enough to get her into her life-jacket (why do so few people put their little ones in these jackets???). We went out into the waves and bobbed about for a while with Susan, who is truly in her proper element when she is in a wave pool.

Later, we went on to the Ski Patrol area, where Olivia went on the raft slide several times before moving on to the slightly steeper straight slides. I think that since the slide was straight, and Olivia could see all the way from the top to the bottom may have scared her a bit, because she only wanted to try it twice. Ah well, hakuna matata, right? We’ll just move on to something else.

That something else turned out to be one of my favorite water-park activities... Castaway Creek. After getting our tubes, we made a full revolution of the circuit, getting out where we got in.
By this time the clouds had gathered and it began to rain. Hard.
We made our way back to where our towels and things were sitting and found them not to bad for the wear. When O and I left our area, I had covered everything with our towels. I was also careful to make sure that our books, including the notebook in which I took these notes, were inside of Susan’s plastic/rubber/synthetic pool bag. The only things that got were were out towels, and only one of them was fully soaked.

The rain, as you probably can imagine, didn’t last very long, and
as there was no lightning, the park continued to operate. Here
is something that I think I asked in last year’s report that I must
ask again: “When it rains, why do people at a water park run for
cover? After all, most of them are already wet, right? Well, anyway, the rain isn’t cold, there isn’t an lightning or wind, so we just carry on. When I was in the Marines, we called this “Infantry weather”.

We went to lunch at “LottaWatta Lodge” and used the time to spread out our towels in the now bright sun. After out bellies were full and our towels were dry (almost dry), Susan and Olivia went off to shower. It takes them a bit more time than it does for me, since Olivia’s hair needs tending, so after I was finished, I went back to the van so I could retrieve my kilt, which I put on in the parking lot. When I went back into the park, CM Sarah looks me up and down and said: “Oh, I love the look... where’d you get that?”

After a bit of shopping at the BB gift shop, we headed to the van
for our short drive over to Animal Kingdom. Olivia, bless her,
went to sleep immediately, and therefore (fortunately) missed out on one of life’s little cruelties. No sooner had we entered the
park when one of the park’s many species of birds, swooped down and snatched a beautiful blue butterfly in it’s beak, and made a meal of him. Oh yes, friends, the circle of life is a real thing, and sometimes, as brother butterfly found out, it isn’t always nice.

With Olivia snoozing comfortably, we headed for the Maharajah jungle trek. We love to do this, and always spend much of our time talking about how well-themed it is. The area of the jungle trek is supposed to resemble a ruined east asian temple/fortress. The Disney folks did themselves pruod with this re-creation.Our first stop on the trek was the bat enclosure. We have enjoyed this part of the trek since we first came here a few years ago. Something was different this time... there were coverings over the “windows” in the viewing area. I thought that this was unusual, so I asked the CM what was going on. He explained to me that they were introducing quite
a few new bats, and tht the window coverings helped the new bats earn where they were and weren’t allowed to go. We stayed and watched the bats fanning themselves in the sun for a while before we went on towards the Tiger enclosure. Wouldn’t you know it? It is now so sunny and hot, the tigers are all taking it easy in the shade, so there isn’t much to see.

After spending some time identifying exoctic birds, Susan went to
see some of the merchandise in one of the small shops at the end of the trek. When Susan shops in a place that I really don’t care for, I try to catch a few moments to catch up on my notes. As I am about to do this, I hear a voice say to me: “Excuse me, are you Bill J? It was Sammie G, who is a English chum from one of the Disney sites that I frequent! Sammie introduced me to her husband, Richard and son Theo and we chatted a bits about this and that. Sammie pointed out that she had just had lunch (or breakfast) the day before with Linda B, whom I met on our last wdw trip seveal months ago. Apparently, Linda B told Sammie that I was going to be out and about in the parks and that I would be sort of hard to miss. I wonder what she meant by that??? After parting company with Sammie and her family
(such nice people!), we stayed in Animal Kingdom, looking at this
and that, not leaving the park until it was closing time.

We weren’t quite done for the day, so we proceeded to Downtown Disney’s West Side. as soon as we got there we headed straight for the Virgin Megastore (don’t you love that place?) . I was looking for a particular CD by Tuck Andress and his wife Patti Cathcart (they record as “Tuck & Patti”), called “Chocolate Moment”. If any of you that read this, enjoy Jazz, you would do very well to give this CD a try... Patti has the most beautiful, smooth, and expressive voice, and is accompanied to perfection by Tuck, who is an honest-to-god
virtuoso guitarist. What makes them even better as a duo is that
in concert, they sound exactly like they do on their recordings.
No over-engineering for them! Surprisingly, they didn’t have
the cd in stock... I was very disappointed, but that’s how it goes.
Susan found and purchased the movie ANTZ on DVD as well as a collection of “Underdog” cartoons. OK, how many of you remember Underdog? Confess, I know some of you must remember!

After we finished at the West Side, we went to Perkiin’s for dinner, as it was a bit late for me to cook. we also made a stop at Gooding’s to pick up some small items, and while we were there, we saw Kim, a Gooding’s employee that we have seen and talked to over the last few years. She was looking well and it was good to talk to her.

By this time, all of us had just about had it, so we went back to
the cabin and had a quiet evening of reading, playing, note taking etc... before we all went to bed.

NEXT: Fish on The Barbie





Susan, Bill, & Olivia do Disney, Sept. 2002

Adventurers: Susan, 40-something, wife, mom, my best pal, food
critic. Bill, 38, husband, father, cook, kilted warrior. Olivia:
Nearly 4, Fearless, hardcore water-baby, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.

Day five, 9 September, 2002: Fish on The Barbie

Another day dawns, and after breakfast, we headed off to EPCOT. Crowds not being terribly heavy, we walked in from the parking lot. We were doing Future World today, and got started with The Land. We did Living With The Land first, and we enjoyed it as much as we have in the past. Next up was Food Rocks... this was a first for all of us, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Olivia enjoyed all of the singing and the colors etc... Susan and I were digging the music, which was right up our generational alley.

After Food Rocks, we went to the Living Seas. I don’t know about all of you, but going to the Living Seas always ptakes me to a calm place. Maybe it is the sound of the water, maybe it is the subdued lighting... I don’t know, but I really do like it. We looked at all of the fish in the aquarium, and saw the dolphins. We listened to the Manatee presentation, and we walked around while Olivia played with things. Now, at one point, I took a pause while S & O were playing, so that I could dope out how to work the new digital camera that Susan had given me for our anniversary (which was the fourth of July). I had taken photos with it before, and was looking forward to taking most of our pictures with it on this trip. We had even gone so far as to get on of those expensive memory cards, so that we could take mearly 200 photos without reloading (and brought the
requisite TON of batteries, too). for some reason, I couldn’t make
the bloody thing work! I pushed all of the buttons, in as many sequences as I could, but, no dice. Hmmmm!?! I decided
not to dwell on it, as we had both of Susan’s cameras with us.
S & O were finished, so we headed for the exit, where Susan was
accosted by a CM that wanted to a survey about conservation issues.

As soon as we were finished with the survey, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed announced that she was hungry, and wanted a cheeseburger. Now, you all know that EPCOT is really a burger and fries kind of place, but since the boss was hungry, we schlepped over to the American Adventure for lunch. Susan and Olivia had cheeseburgers and fries, while I sort of just picked at Olivias fries... I might add that they were quite tasty. Olivia, bless her heart, took off the top of her hamburger bun and proceeded to demolish her burger in short order. Before we left the nice, cool restaraunt, I needed to use the men’s and discovered a new thing. The ATM that is located on
the side of the restaraunt, near the rest rooms. I had no idea
that is was there, but, I’ll bear it in mind for the future.

As we were leaving the American Adventure, from across the World Showcase lagoon, we could hear Off Kilter piping up (literally) for their 1:30 show. We could hear them play as we went ‘round the world to Mexico. They played from 1:30 to shortly after 2 pm. I was glad to see that they are back to playing slightly longer sets once again.

We went around to Mexico where Susan and Olvia rode El Rio Del Tiempo. For reasons that I cannot fathom, Olivia loves that ride, and will ride it time after time (after time after time after time... Ughhh!).

I sat outside in the warm sun, watching people pass and taking
notes. A question came to my mind about the masked carnival characters at Italy. What is the name of the song that they do at the end of their show??? It is truly beautiful. It is in my head fairly often since the first time I heard it. Anyway... when my girls
returned, we decided to forego a margarita as it was way too early, and way too hot at that point. We decided to leave EPCOT, but before we did, we had to ride Spaceship Earth once again (woo hoo). That done, we headed for Blizzard Beach.

This was another first for us, as we had never done Blizzard beach or any other water park in the afternoon. The crowd was very light, which was nice, but the numbers of unholy sunburns was proportionate to the percentage of British visitors to the parks. OK, any of you that know me, know that I have high affection for our British cousins, but... please, good friends, use sunblock. I promise that you’ll still get a tan before you head home.

Susan headed of to the wave pool, while Olivia and I headed off
to Tyke’s Peak. We played for a long while until Olivia decided
it was slide time. I don’t know how many times she went on the
tube slide, but it was quite a few. After that, we went to play
in the sand for a while before joining Susan in the wave pool.

We left the park and headed off to the cabin early this evening,
because tonight was going to be just a litlle special. tonight,
your truly was going to do something that he enjoys... cook a large salmon fillet on the grill. I love to cook, but I love it even
more when I get to do something nice over a charcoal grill. Tonight I was going to try a recipe that I got from the Epicurious.com website: Cedar Planked Maple Salmon. Have any of you ever tried this? The first time I did it, it was marvelous.

****NOTE: What follows is a brief description of food preparation. If you really don’t care to read it, skip this section and scroll down to the next entry in bold type. Thank you.****

Because of how short we were for time just before our departure
from home, we didn’t have time to go out and get a plank, but Susan had brought some hickory smoking pellets, so we were in business. While I was preparing the glaze and waiting
for the charcoal to get just-so, I made a simple potato casserole
by dicing a few baking potatoes (skin on), and browning them in
a skillet. After browning the potatoes and drying them as best
I could with paper towels, I placed them in a 2 quart casserole
dish that I had sprayed with PAM. By the way, the dish was one
of those provided in the cabin. I mixed the potatoes with a can
of Dijon Cheddar sooup and some salt and pepper. I placed this
in a pre-heated 400 degree oven, and went back to the grill. The
charcoal was ready so I laid out the salmon on a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil (that had also been sprayed with PAM). I rubbed the salmon with a mixture of cayenne, black pepper, and a wee bit of garlic powder. I placed it on the grill with a few small pats of butter and covered all with a tent made of foil.

After about 5 minutes, I brushed the salmon with the maple syrup which had been reducing in a small saucepan, along with half a bunch of chooped scallions that I had sauteed earlier. I brushed the salmon approx. every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes until the salmon was done. To make a long story short, our salmon and casserole were mighty fine. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it was mmmm-mmmm good! It was so good, that I had to call my brother and tell him how good it was (My brother fancies himself the family chef, but I know different).

Cooking commentary over (for now).

The rest of the evening was spent watching TV, playing with Olivia (until her bedtime) and reading. Believe me when I tell you that it was a mighty fine day. I suppose this is the part where I tell you what time we all went to bed, but to be honest, I don’t remember and my notes don’t specify... I suppose it isn’t really important, is it?

Next: A new discovery!




Susan, Bill, & Olivia do Disney, Sept. 2002

Adventurers: Susan, 40-something, wife, mom, my best pal, sparkly-eyed woman-child. Bill, 38, husband, father, cook, kilted rollercoaster dude. Olivia: Nearly 4, Not sick at all!, Fearless, theme-park commando, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.

Day six, 10 September, 2002: A new discovery

The morning broke bright and clear, with the promise of another
grand day at Disney. We had a breakfast of cold cereal and soup
(hey, I like soup in the morning), and got dressed for our day
in the parks. I didn’t wear a kilt today... I wore shorts. This
turned out, later on, to be a really bad idea.

Today we were beginning with MGM, which, for some reason, Olivia refers to as “LGM” (we think it might be a reference to her love of Buzz Lightyear). Upon arrival, we headed for the “Playhouse Disney” show. I had been fully prepared to dislike this show, since it was taking the place of my beloved “Bear in the Bigh Blue House” show. Fortunately for me, I was pleasantly suprised. Susan and Olivia sat towards the front of the audience, while I sat in the back with the grandparents and dads that shouldn’t sit down for feear of not being able to get up again (with my knee and back
problems, I sort of fall into the latter category). Olivia really
enjoyed the show, particularly since Rolie Polie Olie is a current
favorite. Susan enjoyed the show too, I think. The show contained enough songs from Bear to make me happy, so it was a good experience for us all. This year proved to be no different than our last visit to the “Bear” show, in that it seemed like the adults knew more of the words to the songs than the kids did. Isn’t being a parent a wonderful thing? NOTE: While we were standing in line for the show, we met yet another
set of parents with a daughter in the three to five year old range
named Olivia. This makes the second set so far this trip... 1998
must have been a banner year for Olivia’s!

The next stop on our adventure was supposed to be “Voyage of The Little Mermaid”, but we had some time to kill before the show, so we decided that it was discoveryime. Before we started this trip, Susan and I promised to try some new things while we were here. I had decided that I was going to conquer my dislike of rollercoasters, by riding Rockin’ Rollercoaster... so that is where we went. There was virtually no wait, so I went inside and started the show. I really enjoyed the pre-ride theming so I was relaxed and looking
forward he the ride. When the doors opened and I got in the boarding chute, I was paired with a woman from Tennessee, who was also riding as a single. She was giggling to beat the band even while we waited. She explained that, while she really didn’t like ‘coasters, she liked this one but she laughed nonstop to control her nervousness.

We got in the car and she asked if it was alright if she grabbed
my arm if she got scared, and I assured her that i
t was just fine.... I didn’t bother to tell her that this was
going to be my first rollercoaster ride since I was in my late teens, that probably woud have made her more nervous. So we got in the car (not the front) and it moved to the starting point. I have to tell you that I was really enjoying the theming and I really didn’t know what was about to happen when I saw the sign that read: “Prepare to merge like you’ve never merged before” . Before I could say “Walk This Way” we blasted off into the tunnel!!! I held on to my harness for dear life, and my partner emitted a high, piercing, “Psycho” -like shriek that nearly burst my eardrums. Fortunately, I didn’t have time to think much about that as we launched into the first of our loops. I tell you, friends, I hadn’t remembered that this bloody thing was going to do loops... I didn’t enjoy it. So I held on like grim death, and tried to be as manly as I could about the whole thing until it was over.

My riding partner was still giggling like a 14 year old when we finished... I am so pleased that she enjoyed herself. I paused briefly in the shop to see how my picture had turned out... and then swiftly walked out of the shop when I saw how silly I looked. I walked out to where Susan and Olivia were waiting for me and said to Susan: “Never again... never again”

Having survived this, we went to see “Voyage of The Little Mermaid” and arrived in good time to get in to see the show. The show was fine as it always is, and the mist at the beggining is always a refreshing treat. Olivia enjoyed the show... we all did. Here I must ask a question: Do women that wear big straw sunhats not thinkg that they will block the view of others? I mean, you could take it off in the dark, cool theater, couldn’t you?

Anyway, after the show, it was time for lunch. I had promised Olivia that we could go to Pizza Planet for lunch, so off we went, to spend lots of money of really second (or even third) rate pizza. After lunch (most of which a certain three year old didn’tbother to eat) and a few games (most of which a three year old can’t play very well), we left the parks for the day.

Our next destination was the Florida Mall! We hadn’t been here
in a year or so, and boy! has it changed!? The expansion of the
mall is now complete, and the Florida Mall has gone upscale a bit.
I think that mall now has 253 shops in it, including the very exclusive (not to mention sterile) Bloomingdale’s. We took a brief walk through Bloomie’s and then hastily departed. I realise that this is going to sound quite plebian, but I must say that I feel as though I am among class enemies when I am in a store like that. We walked through quite a few stores in the mall, including the Disney Store, alas, Olivia missed all of this because she had konked out hard for a nap. She even slept through getting back in the van and driving to Border’s bookstore.

At Border’s we didn’t see any new titles that we needed to have, but we did see and purchase the new Tuck & Patti CD, called “Chocolate Moment” did I already mention that?. Olivia was still sleeping, so we proceeded to Target, which disappointed me. I thought it was going to be much bigger than it was. No matter, though. I don’t remember what time it was, but by this tume, we were done with our travels for the day. We collected ourselves and headed back to Fort Wilderness for dinner.

Tonight, I was revisiting a new favorite recipe called “beer can”
chicken... I won’t bore you with the details (if you want to hear
about it, email me), but, to make a long story short, it was great!
No, really.. it was. Trust me.

After dinner, it was time to play, read, watch TV, talk about our
day, etc... and then off to bed.

Tomorrow: Typhoon Lagoon

 

[KayleeUK]

Another great report Bill

 

[Minniespal]

Thanks for sharing - Wonderful, detailed reviews!!!!