Since DH had an early morning tee time at the Magnolia Golf Course, today was to be a Girls morning for me and The Big at MK. I had made an 8:05 a.m. ADR at Crystal Palace (with the characters from Pooh) and, after that, my plan was to have no plan and just go with the flow.
Well, I hate to be negative, but Im just going to go ahead and say it: I will never set foot in Crystal Palace again. First of all, check in was hectic (CP definitely needs to take some suggestions from Cindys). Second, upon getting seated, I inquired with our waiter when we could expect the characters. He told me to get our food now and they would be to our table soon. So, we rushed to the buffet and quickly sat back down. We finally saw Pooh and Eeyore after about 30 minutes. Since we had not yet seen Piglet and Tigger I asked our waiter when we could expect them and he said he would try and get them back to us. Whaaaat? Since it took us all of about a minute to get our food, I didnt quite understand how we missed them the first time, but I wasnt about to argue with the man. Piglet did eventually make it back to us but we never did see Tigger.
The character visits just seem so random at Crystal Palace it just seems like there should be a better system. Also, my sweet Big also managed to dump an entire parfait glass of syrup on her, so she ended up a sticky mess by the time we left. The one positive is that the food was really good, but certainly not good enough to deal with the craziness.
After leaving CP, my dilemma was whether or not to run back to the Poly and change The Bigs clothes (yes, the syrup was literally all over her) or simply to try and buy some clothes for her at MK. Since The Big wanted to ride Barnstormer, I decided to just try and find something at MK for her to change into. Since Toon Town didnt open until 10:00 a.m., we bided our time riding the Teacups, the Speedway, and Pooh, and finally The Bigs crème de la crème: Barnstormer. Her enthusiasm for this coaster hadnt diminished one bit, and it was so fun to be able to share that with her. Again and again. I finally dragged her off the thing and managed to snap a few of Mickeys and Minnies houses before getting back on the Barnstormer again.
Finally, I convinced her that there are other fun things to do, and we rode the Haunted Mansion (which she loved) and BTMR. We also found Pirates of the Caribbean while searching for a bathroom, which was very cool. The Big actually loved Pirates as well, even though, technically, its a water ride and even though she got splashed a bit (thats a toddler for ya).
By this time, I was sure that DH should be wrapping up his golf game, and, since I had yet to find any suitable replacement clothes, we headed toward the monorail. I was craving a nap, so The Big and I snuggled ourselves into bed and drifted into dreamland. Unfortunately for MY nap, DH chose this point to return from golfing.
To all of those golfers out there, DH was very impressed with the Magnolia. He said it was the longest course hed ever played and that it was the most beautiful, but that the greens were over-watered. Whatever that means. Since I was still groggy, my dear DH decided that he was going to do a load of laundry while I napped. I had evidently managed to disregard the fact that it was going to be in the 80s all week, and it was clear that we were running out of shorts.
Fortunately, I was able to pick my nap up right back up where I left off.
We were doing soo well. But now...
Does it help that my heart *really* belongs to the Broncos? Not that they have a chance in the world until they get a new quarterback, but... Now, about Soarin', I'll admit that perhaps I blamed it for being all out of FastPasses when we visited?? I just thought that we'd breeze in to Epcot for EMH and roll right along to everything we wanted. Now I know the error of my ways! 
I didn't realize you could check in for the cruise from your Disney hotel. Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to hear the cruise part of your report!
Just for good measure, I'll throw in a 
too! 
- totally agree with you on that one.
... Don't say Big Dig to a Bostonian!
is my ultimate fave. I know this sounds silly, but I could care less about the food...I've always thought the character interaction was great. I do agree though, that you have to be careful about the characters, or you can miss them very easily. Usually when we go, we try and spot what area they are in before we hit the buffet, and then go from there.
