Chapter 8 – Moving Day! Wilderness Lodge, Here We Come!
I don’t know WHAT I was thinking but I had set up a 10:30 ADR at Ohana for this morning. I had two teenagers. I’d had little sleep. And we were moving today which meant I had to roust the girls up and get ‘em going.
The girls knew I was angry when they got back last night and, bless their hearts, they had scurried quietly around the room, packing as much as they could. We all slept in a bit, I decided to skip Stitch and the gang, and after the requisite primping by the girls, we were ready to leave right at the stroke of 11:00. Sheesh.
Caitlin always has packing issues. I don’t know why I thought moving twice during our trip would be “fun.” She’d called me from New Mexico when I was on my way to Florida and whined, “I don’t have enough room in my suitcase.” Since I am quite familiar with her suitcase, I knew it was plenty big for a one week trip.
Me: Here’s what you do. Go in your suitcase and remove 15 shirts. That should leave you with at least 10. You’re only going for 8 days.
Cait: How did you know how many shirts I had?
Me: I’ve helped you pack before. Plus I’m a psychic. So, don’t do anything bad because I’ll KNOW.
The girls helped us tote everything downstairs to the front drive. I told the valet we needed a taxi to go to the Wilderness Lodge and he found one for us. It was a town car and it was the driver’s second day. I think he’d been expecting a fare to the airport so I’m sure we were a disappointment. He got in the car and said, “Okay, so WHERE is the Wilderness Lodge?” Huh? You’re asking me? I never drive here; I’ve only been to the WL on the bus.
I told him it was by the MK and then he and I watched for signs. I was a bit relieved when we went under the big gate. Yaaaa Hoooo!!! We were getting in a Wilderness Lodge mood although Alex is forbidden from speaking with an American accent of any kind. Do you remember Hugh Grant from that movie Mickey Blueeyes? That’s how Alex’s American accent sounds.
We arrived and dropped our luggage with bell services. I headed for check-in and there was not a soul around. Check-in was quick and efficient and our room was ready! Woo hoo! Things were looking up. The CM kept telling me, “Your room is right by the flag.” I had no clue what he was talking about. When I looked at him blankly, he said, “The AMERICAN flag.” Oh. Well, then. I felt like I was in an I Spy book and began to scan the lobby, searching desperately. Turns out—directly over the spring, is an American flag. It’s small—just regular flag size. We were on the 4th floor just down the hall from the flag. Which was not the best landmark, believe me.
I was starving at this point and had originally planned on checking in and proceeding directly to Roaring Forks so I was happy that the room was ready but a bit discombobulated that I wouldn’t get to eat. Because I had to check out our room!
We’d paid for a courtyard view. Mr. Patriotic American Flag Direction Man had told me earlier that we had “an awesome view!” I was a bit unsure because my last awesome view had included a big lattice. I was hoping he was more dependable, being so patriotic and all.
As we entered room 4067, I saw this on the bed and it just tickled me. Although I had to explain to Alex what it was. Duh. Welcome to the Mouse House, my friend. We are now officially in a Disney hotel.
And here are some pictures of the room itself:
A close-up of the headboard:
We were in a corner which was okay but included a big view of green rooftop.
But if you looked OVER the rooftop or concentrated slightly to your right, it was pretty. Prettier than our lattice.
And having the corner room meant that our balcony was twice the length of the other ones. Although part of it was enclosed—it did still feel kind of roomy. Just as a comparison, though, the balconies at the Dolphin are bigger. But I still liked it.
After I was done exploring, we sat down to wait for bell services to bring our luggage. Mr. Patriotic had told me he’d be up in just a few minutes. I stayed as long as I could but I REALLY had to eat. We just got ready to leave the room when there was a knock on the door. Thank goodness! We got the luggage in the room and left.
Just a side note here: I know that the Swan/Dolphin will transfer luggage but, for me, it was really worth the peace of mind to get a taxi. Otherwise, I’d have been worried about our luggage all day. So, for less than 20 bucks, I didn’t have to worry about that.
We did take a spin around the 4th floor to visit all the little cozy nooks on our floor:
I loved these places—we also had a balcony right down the hall. Unfortunately, since we were only there for 2 nights, we didn’t really get to take advantage of them but they were nice.
We went down to Roaring Forks. Alex got a cheeseburger and fries and I got the chicken nuggets and fries. I got ONE refillable mug. This didn’t seem to cause me as much angst as it did my fellow TR writer, Kay. Alex doesn’t drink pop. We bought real coffee on our grocery stop and he was very happy to just drink coffee from the room. He did buy a cup of coffee in Roaring Forks and drank it but said it was not the best.
After lunch, we took a stroll around the pool and then I looked around the Mercantile for a freezer mug for
MICKEYSMOMMY. No dice, pal. We don’t use freezers here in the wilderness, apparently.
We headed back up to the room to dump the mug and collect what we needed. I was finally going to the Magic Kingdom! I don’t know about you, but it never feels like I’ve really arrived at WDW until I make it to the MK.
I called the girls and told them we had a room and the room number and, oh, yeah, we won’t be there and you don’t have a key. They didn’t care—they were having fun at MGM and would meet up with us this afternoon.
We took the boat over (the view from the boat
and as we got off the boat, we were bombarded with people. It was so crowded. Alex made a comment that if the girls weren’t going to hang around with us anyway, maybe we should just go in the off-season by ourselves. He’s spoiled; we’ve always gone in the off-season before but now that Caitlin was in high school, it just wasn’t possible anymore.
As we arrived, we found that everything had a line. Even It’s a Small World had a 30 minute wait. We decided to give Philharmagic a try—it’s one of my favorites. There was about a 45 minute wait but we had a saxophone band to entertain us which was fun.
I have a GREAT picture of Alex leaning against a poster so that, unbeknownst to him, the word HADES appears just above his head. I’m having trouble downloading it so I may try to add it later. Philharmagic was great, as always, I was sitting next to a little girl who was reaching out toward the screen with her hands. So sweet.
We came out of Philharmagic into wall to wall people. As much as I wanted to be in the MK, I just didn’t want to have to fight these crowds in this heat. We did some shopping on the way out—and I looked for a freezer mug for
MICKEYSMOMMY. Again, no dice, pal.
We took a relaxing boat ride back to the Wilderness Lodge. Oh, one difference between these boats and the Friend Ships is that they play Disney music. Very quietly but it's there. Alex couldn't hear it over the noise of the motors but I heard my Disney Remix tape with Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride and I Wanna Be Like You. I loved it--I played that cd all the time before our trip to get me in the Disney mood.
As we were getting off the boat, I realized that the geyser was about to blow. I ran up to it, dragging Alex by the hand, forgetting I was fully dressed and there was a pretty stiff wind blowing at the time.
You guessed it—I got drenched. I tried to get out of the line of fire but Alex was having fun and refused to move. Nerd. He doesn’t have curly hair issues like I do. Humidity and curly hair just do not work well together. Then if it gets wet—all bets are off.
We went back to the room and sat on the balcony, enjoying the breeze, until the girls came back for dinner.
Up Next: Chapter 9 – Dinner at Whispering Canyon, Pardners, and Wishes, too!
I know what you mean about the fortune x 2 for mac and cheese, over here in our family we usually pay about $10 for 2 tablespoons of the disgusting cheesy concoction
God forbid they actually shared a meal!! I'm glad you and Cait were able to talk it out and could enjoy the rest of the trip... I think
Looking forward to the rest
It's nice to know that Caitlin didn't rely on her stair pushing tactics to win the arguement!
Just kidding
I hope they get better for you! too funny about the geyser
Can't wait for more!
I hope I don't lose power
we've got a major, major storm here in the northeast!
