Things have been such a whirlwind since returning from our trip that I haven't had the time to sit down and write about it.
We were originally scheduled to arrive in Orlando Saturday, Sept. 4. On Thursday the coverage about Frances was all I could watch wondering if we were going to make it down there, should we go, should we postpone. I called Airtran and they were letting passengers change their flights with no penalty. At this time they hadn't cancelled any. So I call Disney to inquire about a room for Friday. They could accommodate pretty much anywhere. I chose to stay the first night at the ASMO instead of the Poly due to costs. An extra night at the Poly plus food etc would cost me over 500 bucks. I called Airtran back and changed the flight to Friday, Sept. 3.
Our flight arrived at 10:30am on Friday right before the airport was closing. I thought it was amazing that this monster storm was approaching and you wouldn't know by the current weather. We had terrible luck with Tiffany Towncar. Our driver was 45 mins. late and when she did arrive she refused to help us with our luggage. This might be standard procedure but when I made the ressie I was told that the driver would take care of everything and the company I used last year took care of our luggage. So I told the driver to forget it and we got a skycap and he took us to the Mears.
Mears took awhile to get there and we had to wait for a long time at the airport because the bus driver said he wanted to wait and make sure no one got left at the airport. It wasn't too bad. They sent a Disney Cruise Line bus which was very comfy and played movies for the kids.
After a few stops, we were at ASMO. It was very nice. Our room was in the Toy Story area. We were on the Buzz side. I found the room to be decent and clean it could have stood a few repairs on the furniture and a little updating though. My girls got a big kick out of Andy's room. Our room was ready immediately so we got in and changed into our swim suits. The pool was a good size and the girls loved the Sorcer Mickey squirting water. They also liked the Polar kiddie area.
The food court was large and in my opinion much, much cleaner than the CBR (last year's trip) However, the choice of entrees was better at the CBR. I was a bit taken back of the number of people hanging out at the pool bar. In all my trips to Disney I've never seen that many people at a bar. Hey to each thier own, but they were getting pretty rowdy at night. I guess it was prehurricane celebration.
Friday evening we went to DTD to look around. We didn't feel the need to get an extra day of park tickets. It was so wonderful! Hardly anyone was there, you could really enjoy looking in all of shops without pushing and crowding. The girls liked being able to get out of the strollers and enjoy the shops as well. I would never think of letting them out of the strollers last year it was so crowded. They played at the playground outside of the Lego Store.
We didn't have to wait long for a bus to return to ASMO. When we got back, the food court was jam packed with guests stocking up on food and buying coolers. The ice machiens couldn't keep up with the demand so people were in the food court at the refill station using their mugs to shovel ice in their coolers. I asked someone what was going on and she said they were told to get the coolers and food because as of that night they would be secluded in the room until further notice.
I stopped at the front desk to make sure we would be able to move to the Poly in the AM to start our vacation package and at first they said we wouldn't be able to. I called the Poly desk from our room and they said we could come in the morning but to get there ASAP as the sheriff would be ordering cars off the road. Disney could not transport us so we had to call a cab. It was going to be 13.00 so we booked the cab. We packed our stuff up right away and called the baggage area to have them store our bags. He seemed a little put out by this.
We got up at 5am and threw ourselves together to move over to the Poly. When we got down to check out Disney decided they could transport us so we didn't have to take the cab afterall. That was nice of them.
Saturday we arrived at the Poly. I had never stayed at that resort before so I was very excited. It was beautiful. Because we checked in so early in the morning there was no waiting, but we didn't get the usual aloha greeting as I had been reading. Actually we didn't even get the flower leis until I asked for them afterward. A bellman drove us over to our building and carried our luggage up to our room. The rooms were made available immediately with the approaching storm.
We were in Tokelau, 3rd floor. We had GV and our view was fabulous! We could see the GF, lagoon, CR, and if the palm tree wasn't in the way we would have been able to see the castle. Pleasant surprise though, we lucked out and got a sort of LV for GV price. If you went two doors down from our room there was an observation deck that you could see the castle directly. The room was very large and nice.
The weather was beautiful Saturday. The parks were closed in preparation for the hurricane but the pools were open. They had activities for the kids in the GCH. Arts and crafts and coloring. There were acrobats from AK performing, and a musician from AK. We ate at O'hana for breakfast. No wait, but there had been alot of cancellations. There were no characters though. The food was standard breakfast food. We asked to be seated so we could see the Castle. Wasn't a problem as we were the only people in the restaurant. Much to our delight Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Baloo were in the GCH all day. They really interacted with the kids.
The volcano pool was terrific a little small for a delux resort in my opinion but still nice. We didn't stay there long though because the winds started to pick up and we were getting pelted by the sand from the beach. It felt like glass cutting your skin. We moved over to the quiet pool. Did you know the ducks swim in that pool and don't get out when people get in? I was amazed and kinda grossed out at the same time...ha.
About 3:30pm the first of the storm started coming through. There was a little lightening and very, very dark clouds. So we got out of the pool and went back to the room. There was a message on the voice mail that as of that evening everything was closing up. They had boxed dinners, breakfast, and lunches available for 5.00/ea. I went over to the GCH and bought us each one. It wasn't bad food. The dinner/lunch came with a sub sandwich, chips, bottled water, piece of fruit and a cookie or brownie. The breakfast came with a couple pieces of the pineapple bread, juice, bottled water, a piece of fruit. I had also brought some snacks in the suitcase so we were prepared.
It stormed the rest of the evening and throughout the night. We were in our rooms for a full 24 hours. I sat out on the balcony and video taped alot of the storm. Where the building was sitting the wind would come behind the building longways and then split down the sides. So you could sit on the balcony and watch the wind go right by you. We played cards and read. The girls played with some figurine sets I had bought them the previous day. They played Disney movies continuously throughout the day. We watched Brother Bear, Nemo, Return to Neverland, 101 Dalmations live version over and over again. We had to share the TV time though. My mom and I would watch one hour of hurricane coverage and then the kids would get the TV for another hour. Ha!
We had breakfast ressies Sunday morning for Crystal Palace. Of course all ressies were cancelled that day. Around 4:30pm Sunday they put another message on the phone saying O'hana would be open for a buffet, but to please stagger it out. We went to eat around 6pm. It was still a little rainy and very windy. They served the same menu as usual but it was buffet style. Actually I'm told there was more on the buffet than the usual fare. The food was excellent. The chicken was to DIE for! They didn't have the kids activites due to the circumstances.
Monday morning MK and EPCOT were open at 10am. The other parks stayed closed. We had scored ressies at Cindy's on Friday afternoon when we arrived due to the cancellations. The monorail was closed due to storm damage so they had busses run to the MK from the Poly. Cindy's was great. Again, standard breakfast fare. The girls wore their Cinderella crowns. We saw Cinderella, Aladdin and Alice. The only thing I didn't like was the seating was really close together so it was hard to maneuver to get good pictures without holding the characters up.
It rained off and on the morning but by afternoon it was sunny. It was still windy but that made it nice. The park was dead! We rode everything (some things several times) in just a few hours. It's a Small World was closed, The Jungle Cruise was closed, and I think it was Tom Sawyer's Island that was closed also. We were so full from breakfast and we still had PS for Chef Mickey's so we didn't get any lunch.
We went back to the room (the resort monorail was running by that time) late in the afternoon, rested for a little while and then got ready to go to Chef Mickey's. It was fabulous of course. That has to be one of our favorite restaurants, a must do each trip.
Tuesday we went to EPCOT. We caught breakfast at Captain Cooks at the resort. EPCOT was dead as well. We pretty much did everything you can do there. My girls are not big enough to ride mission space or the test track. We started to move toward the World Showcase because I convinced my mother to eat in Mexico (she hates mexican food). She ordered off the kids menu. I was disappointed. The food was fair to okay. You did get alot for the price though. I've had authentic Mexican food and this was not it. It was more like South American in my opinion. The pop tasted really, really gross. It had carbonation but something was not right. We asked for new, and it was gross also so we just got water. They took the pop off of our bill. The atmosphere was nice. They had a live band there singing Selena songs in Spanish so we were dancing and having a great time.
We headed back to the Poly to get ready for our PS at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We walked to the transportation and ticket center and caught a bus there. The Wilderness Lodge is beautful I might add. Not sure if it is the flavor I would like, but it is impressive. We didn't have to wait long for our table. There was alot of activity going on, but our waiter was a big dud. We enjoyed watching the other tables though. The food was fantastic! The portions were unbelieveable. We kept eating, and eating and it didn't look like we were making a dent in the platter. We found the ribs to be a little tough, but the chicken and pulled pork was great. The salad had an apple vinigerette dressing that was delicious. My mom got a big kick out of the whole ketchup thing. The girls didn't want to eat, they were more interested in the Lincoln logs at the entrance. The hostess told us to go ahead and eat they would make sure they didn't wander off. It was nice to have an adult meal for a change. The waiter boxed up some food for them in case they changed their minds later. Afterward we shopped in the store at the Lodge. We were going to check out the pool area, but decided against it as the girls were getting very tired.
Wednesday we went to AK early. It was so hot that day. Everytime I want to go to AK it is blazing that particular day. We wanted to spend more time there as we didn't do much there last year, but the heat was too much. We watched Lion King (it was closed last year) and went to Camp Minnie and Mickey to meet the characters. Pocohantas was closed so we didn't get to see her. We at at Pizzafari for lunch. It was really good pizza and reasonable prices. The restaurant was very large and not crowded at all. The girls can't ride anything in the AK they are too little so we left to take a swim break. After the swim break we headed over to MGM to catch the Beauty and the Beast show. Again, it was so hot that day we rode the Great Movie Ride and called it a day. We had ressies at O'hana but since we ate there for breakfast and dinner earlier during the week we cancelled the ressies. We went swimming again and watched Wishes from the beach. I would recommend watching it in the park once and then catching it at the resort the other times. We couldn't hear the music so it was just kinda like any other firework show. The water parade came by beforehand and it was nice. We were told it was only half the size as before because some of it was destroyed with Hurricane Charley.
Thursday morning we headed back to EPCOT to the Princess Storybook breakfast, another favorite. The girls wore their Princess dresses we got at the Disney store. Mariah wore Belle and Emily wore Sleeping Beauty. When we passed CM's on the way to the breakfast they would bow and say "good morning princesses" they really got a big kick out of that! We didn't tour the World Showcase as the girls didn't like it much last year so we went back to the resort. They had notified us that tickets for Night of Joy were on sale at a discounted rate of 14.00 for resort guests so we bought those. We went to the MK and rode some rides before the Night of Joy started. We took the boat from the Poly and it was a thousand times faster than the monorail and it lets you off right at the front gate practically. Wished we'd thought of that earlier.
Again, MK was not crowded at all. It started raining that evening and pretty much rained all evening. We saw a few groups play (the ones indoors). We wanted to stay for Michael W. Smith but his was outside and at 11pm so we left, waterlogged and all.
Friday we decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon. We headed back to have time to get ready for the Luau. On the way back our bus broke down and we had to get out in the grass on the side of the road to switch busses. I got eaten alive by fire ants!! along with a few other passengers. The disturbing thing was we told the bus driver that the bus was now infested with fire ants and he didn't really seem to care, just dropped us off and went on. We went to the luau and had a really great time. The food was...well...for the price not okay, but it was good. The beginning of the show was entertaining but a little hokey. They called the girls up on stage twice to hula dance. After the show we went to EPCOT to see Illuminations. I have been trying to see this show the last three times I've been and something or other has come up. It was amazing! We had a little mishap on the monorail on the way over though. The driver didn't keep the doors open longer than 30 seconds and started to close the doors and Mariah and I as we were getting out. Then he yelled at us instead of apologizing to us. Transportation was not on our good side this day. We went shopping in the Mousegears shop in EPCOT. I love that store, other than the Disney Store at DTD I think this has the best selection. The girls fell asleep during the shopping trip so we headed back.
Saturday morning we requested a late check out. They granted until 1pm. We swam in the morning and then went to get our stuff together. I was laying on the hammock by the volcano pool taking it all in. Other than the hurricane (which wasn't too awful bad) this has been a fabulous vacation. I'm talking to my husband on the cell telling him that I'm relaxing on a hammock on a beach overlooking the Cinderella's castle and hating to leave. He then says...we'll go in December when it's not hot!!!! Whohooo!!! I wasn't as sad to go knowing we'd be back in a few months.
We ate at Kona Cafe for lunch. We didn't particularly care for the menu items. The kids menu was pretty standard, my mother ordered the Asain BBQ sandwich and she didn't like it at all. I ordered a chicken sandwich. It was excellent but the chips on the side were different, I didn't care for them. The waitress asked if there was anything wrong with my mom's sandwich and she said not at all, I just don't care for it, so they took it off the bill. I thought that was nice.
We checked out of the room and waited in the lobby for pick up from Mears. The girls made flower bracelets and colored. There was a lady playing a ukelele in the lobby and teaching the kids how to dance with the ball thingys on the colored ropes.
And then we had to leave. My dream to stay at the Poly had come true. It truely is a beautiful resort. I felt like I had been transported to the South Pacific all the while being so close to the MK.
This December we are going to the GF. We had booked the Poly but my husband needs high speed internet access so we switched. I was disappointed that I wouldn't be returning to the Poly but come on...the GF is nothing to shake a stick at. Besides it will have more of a christmas feel to it. I am slowly but surely getting to experience different resorts at WDW and plan on continuing the tradition.
Thanks for reading!
We were originally scheduled to arrive in Orlando Saturday, Sept. 4. On Thursday the coverage about Frances was all I could watch wondering if we were going to make it down there, should we go, should we postpone. I called Airtran and they were letting passengers change their flights with no penalty. At this time they hadn't cancelled any. So I call Disney to inquire about a room for Friday. They could accommodate pretty much anywhere. I chose to stay the first night at the ASMO instead of the Poly due to costs. An extra night at the Poly plus food etc would cost me over 500 bucks. I called Airtran back and changed the flight to Friday, Sept. 3.
Our flight arrived at 10:30am on Friday right before the airport was closing. I thought it was amazing that this monster storm was approaching and you wouldn't know by the current weather. We had terrible luck with Tiffany Towncar. Our driver was 45 mins. late and when she did arrive she refused to help us with our luggage. This might be standard procedure but when I made the ressie I was told that the driver would take care of everything and the company I used last year took care of our luggage. So I told the driver to forget it and we got a skycap and he took us to the Mears.
Mears took awhile to get there and we had to wait for a long time at the airport because the bus driver said he wanted to wait and make sure no one got left at the airport. It wasn't too bad. They sent a Disney Cruise Line bus which was very comfy and played movies for the kids.
After a few stops, we were at ASMO. It was very nice. Our room was in the Toy Story area. We were on the Buzz side. I found the room to be decent and clean it could have stood a few repairs on the furniture and a little updating though. My girls got a big kick out of Andy's room. Our room was ready immediately so we got in and changed into our swim suits. The pool was a good size and the girls loved the Sorcer Mickey squirting water. They also liked the Polar kiddie area.
The food court was large and in my opinion much, much cleaner than the CBR (last year's trip) However, the choice of entrees was better at the CBR. I was a bit taken back of the number of people hanging out at the pool bar. In all my trips to Disney I've never seen that many people at a bar. Hey to each thier own, but they were getting pretty rowdy at night. I guess it was prehurricane celebration.
Friday evening we went to DTD to look around. We didn't feel the need to get an extra day of park tickets. It was so wonderful! Hardly anyone was there, you could really enjoy looking in all of shops without pushing and crowding. The girls liked being able to get out of the strollers and enjoy the shops as well. I would never think of letting them out of the strollers last year it was so crowded. They played at the playground outside of the Lego Store.
We didn't have to wait long for a bus to return to ASMO. When we got back, the food court was jam packed with guests stocking up on food and buying coolers. The ice machiens couldn't keep up with the demand so people were in the food court at the refill station using their mugs to shovel ice in their coolers. I asked someone what was going on and she said they were told to get the coolers and food because as of that night they would be secluded in the room until further notice.
I stopped at the front desk to make sure we would be able to move to the Poly in the AM to start our vacation package and at first they said we wouldn't be able to. I called the Poly desk from our room and they said we could come in the morning but to get there ASAP as the sheriff would be ordering cars off the road. Disney could not transport us so we had to call a cab. It was going to be 13.00 so we booked the cab. We packed our stuff up right away and called the baggage area to have them store our bags. He seemed a little put out by this.
We got up at 5am and threw ourselves together to move over to the Poly. When we got down to check out Disney decided they could transport us so we didn't have to take the cab afterall. That was nice of them.
Saturday we arrived at the Poly. I had never stayed at that resort before so I was very excited. It was beautiful. Because we checked in so early in the morning there was no waiting, but we didn't get the usual aloha greeting as I had been reading. Actually we didn't even get the flower leis until I asked for them afterward. A bellman drove us over to our building and carried our luggage up to our room. The rooms were made available immediately with the approaching storm.
We were in Tokelau, 3rd floor. We had GV and our view was fabulous! We could see the GF, lagoon, CR, and if the palm tree wasn't in the way we would have been able to see the castle. Pleasant surprise though, we lucked out and got a sort of LV for GV price. If you went two doors down from our room there was an observation deck that you could see the castle directly. The room was very large and nice.
The weather was beautiful Saturday. The parks were closed in preparation for the hurricane but the pools were open. They had activities for the kids in the GCH. Arts and crafts and coloring. There were acrobats from AK performing, and a musician from AK. We ate at O'hana for breakfast. No wait, but there had been alot of cancellations. There were no characters though. The food was standard breakfast food. We asked to be seated so we could see the Castle. Wasn't a problem as we were the only people in the restaurant. Much to our delight Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Baloo were in the GCH all day. They really interacted with the kids.
The volcano pool was terrific a little small for a delux resort in my opinion but still nice. We didn't stay there long though because the winds started to pick up and we were getting pelted by the sand from the beach. It felt like glass cutting your skin. We moved over to the quiet pool. Did you know the ducks swim in that pool and don't get out when people get in? I was amazed and kinda grossed out at the same time...ha.
About 3:30pm the first of the storm started coming through. There was a little lightening and very, very dark clouds. So we got out of the pool and went back to the room. There was a message on the voice mail that as of that evening everything was closing up. They had boxed dinners, breakfast, and lunches available for 5.00/ea. I went over to the GCH and bought us each one. It wasn't bad food. The dinner/lunch came with a sub sandwich, chips, bottled water, piece of fruit and a cookie or brownie. The breakfast came with a couple pieces of the pineapple bread, juice, bottled water, a piece of fruit. I had also brought some snacks in the suitcase so we were prepared.
It stormed the rest of the evening and throughout the night. We were in our rooms for a full 24 hours. I sat out on the balcony and video taped alot of the storm. Where the building was sitting the wind would come behind the building longways and then split down the sides. So you could sit on the balcony and watch the wind go right by you. We played cards and read. The girls played with some figurine sets I had bought them the previous day. They played Disney movies continuously throughout the day. We watched Brother Bear, Nemo, Return to Neverland, 101 Dalmations live version over and over again. We had to share the TV time though. My mom and I would watch one hour of hurricane coverage and then the kids would get the TV for another hour. Ha!
We had breakfast ressies Sunday morning for Crystal Palace. Of course all ressies were cancelled that day. Around 4:30pm Sunday they put another message on the phone saying O'hana would be open for a buffet, but to please stagger it out. We went to eat around 6pm. It was still a little rainy and very windy. They served the same menu as usual but it was buffet style. Actually I'm told there was more on the buffet than the usual fare. The food was excellent. The chicken was to DIE for! They didn't have the kids activites due to the circumstances.
Monday morning MK and EPCOT were open at 10am. The other parks stayed closed. We had scored ressies at Cindy's on Friday afternoon when we arrived due to the cancellations. The monorail was closed due to storm damage so they had busses run to the MK from the Poly. Cindy's was great. Again, standard breakfast fare. The girls wore their Cinderella crowns. We saw Cinderella, Aladdin and Alice. The only thing I didn't like was the seating was really close together so it was hard to maneuver to get good pictures without holding the characters up.
It rained off and on the morning but by afternoon it was sunny. It was still windy but that made it nice. The park was dead! We rode everything (some things several times) in just a few hours. It's a Small World was closed, The Jungle Cruise was closed, and I think it was Tom Sawyer's Island that was closed also. We were so full from breakfast and we still had PS for Chef Mickey's so we didn't get any lunch.
We went back to the room (the resort monorail was running by that time) late in the afternoon, rested for a little while and then got ready to go to Chef Mickey's. It was fabulous of course. That has to be one of our favorite restaurants, a must do each trip.
Tuesday we went to EPCOT. We caught breakfast at Captain Cooks at the resort. EPCOT was dead as well. We pretty much did everything you can do there. My girls are not big enough to ride mission space or the test track. We started to move toward the World Showcase because I convinced my mother to eat in Mexico (she hates mexican food). She ordered off the kids menu. I was disappointed. The food was fair to okay. You did get alot for the price though. I've had authentic Mexican food and this was not it. It was more like South American in my opinion. The pop tasted really, really gross. It had carbonation but something was not right. We asked for new, and it was gross also so we just got water. They took the pop off of our bill. The atmosphere was nice. They had a live band there singing Selena songs in Spanish so we were dancing and having a great time.
We headed back to the Poly to get ready for our PS at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We walked to the transportation and ticket center and caught a bus there. The Wilderness Lodge is beautful I might add. Not sure if it is the flavor I would like, but it is impressive. We didn't have to wait long for our table. There was alot of activity going on, but our waiter was a big dud. We enjoyed watching the other tables though. The food was fantastic! The portions were unbelieveable. We kept eating, and eating and it didn't look like we were making a dent in the platter. We found the ribs to be a little tough, but the chicken and pulled pork was great. The salad had an apple vinigerette dressing that was delicious. My mom got a big kick out of the whole ketchup thing. The girls didn't want to eat, they were more interested in the Lincoln logs at the entrance. The hostess told us to go ahead and eat they would make sure they didn't wander off. It was nice to have an adult meal for a change. The waiter boxed up some food for them in case they changed their minds later. Afterward we shopped in the store at the Lodge. We were going to check out the pool area, but decided against it as the girls were getting very tired.
Wednesday we went to AK early. It was so hot that day. Everytime I want to go to AK it is blazing that particular day. We wanted to spend more time there as we didn't do much there last year, but the heat was too much. We watched Lion King (it was closed last year) and went to Camp Minnie and Mickey to meet the characters. Pocohantas was closed so we didn't get to see her. We at at Pizzafari for lunch. It was really good pizza and reasonable prices. The restaurant was very large and not crowded at all. The girls can't ride anything in the AK they are too little so we left to take a swim break. After the swim break we headed over to MGM to catch the Beauty and the Beast show. Again, it was so hot that day we rode the Great Movie Ride and called it a day. We had ressies at O'hana but since we ate there for breakfast and dinner earlier during the week we cancelled the ressies. We went swimming again and watched Wishes from the beach. I would recommend watching it in the park once and then catching it at the resort the other times. We couldn't hear the music so it was just kinda like any other firework show. The water parade came by beforehand and it was nice. We were told it was only half the size as before because some of it was destroyed with Hurricane Charley.
Thursday morning we headed back to EPCOT to the Princess Storybook breakfast, another favorite. The girls wore their Princess dresses we got at the Disney store. Mariah wore Belle and Emily wore Sleeping Beauty. When we passed CM's on the way to the breakfast they would bow and say "good morning princesses" they really got a big kick out of that! We didn't tour the World Showcase as the girls didn't like it much last year so we went back to the resort. They had notified us that tickets for Night of Joy were on sale at a discounted rate of 14.00 for resort guests so we bought those. We went to the MK and rode some rides before the Night of Joy started. We took the boat from the Poly and it was a thousand times faster than the monorail and it lets you off right at the front gate practically. Wished we'd thought of that earlier.
Again, MK was not crowded at all. It started raining that evening and pretty much rained all evening. We saw a few groups play (the ones indoors). We wanted to stay for Michael W. Smith but his was outside and at 11pm so we left, waterlogged and all.
Friday we decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon. We headed back to have time to get ready for the Luau. On the way back our bus broke down and we had to get out in the grass on the side of the road to switch busses. I got eaten alive by fire ants!! along with a few other passengers. The disturbing thing was we told the bus driver that the bus was now infested with fire ants and he didn't really seem to care, just dropped us off and went on. We went to the luau and had a really great time. The food was...well...for the price not okay, but it was good. The beginning of the show was entertaining but a little hokey. They called the girls up on stage twice to hula dance. After the show we went to EPCOT to see Illuminations. I have been trying to see this show the last three times I've been and something or other has come up. It was amazing! We had a little mishap on the monorail on the way over though. The driver didn't keep the doors open longer than 30 seconds and started to close the doors and Mariah and I as we were getting out. Then he yelled at us instead of apologizing to us. Transportation was not on our good side this day. We went shopping in the Mousegears shop in EPCOT. I love that store, other than the Disney Store at DTD I think this has the best selection. The girls fell asleep during the shopping trip so we headed back.
Saturday morning we requested a late check out. They granted until 1pm. We swam in the morning and then went to get our stuff together. I was laying on the hammock by the volcano pool taking it all in. Other than the hurricane (which wasn't too awful bad) this has been a fabulous vacation. I'm talking to my husband on the cell telling him that I'm relaxing on a hammock on a beach overlooking the Cinderella's castle and hating to leave. He then says...we'll go in December when it's not hot!!!! Whohooo!!! I wasn't as sad to go knowing we'd be back in a few months.
We ate at Kona Cafe for lunch. We didn't particularly care for the menu items. The kids menu was pretty standard, my mother ordered the Asain BBQ sandwich and she didn't like it at all. I ordered a chicken sandwich. It was excellent but the chips on the side were different, I didn't care for them. The waitress asked if there was anything wrong with my mom's sandwich and she said not at all, I just don't care for it, so they took it off the bill. I thought that was nice.
We checked out of the room and waited in the lobby for pick up from Mears. The girls made flower bracelets and colored. There was a lady playing a ukelele in the lobby and teaching the kids how to dance with the ball thingys on the colored ropes.
And then we had to leave. My dream to stay at the Poly had come true. It truely is a beautiful resort. I felt like I had been transported to the South Pacific all the while being so close to the MK.
This December we are going to the GF. We had booked the Poly but my husband needs high speed internet access so we switched. I was disappointed that I wouldn't be returning to the Poly but come on...the GF is nothing to shake a stick at. Besides it will have more of a christmas feel to it. I am slowly but surely getting to experience different resorts at WDW and plan on continuing the tradition.
Thanks for reading!
