Wednesday April 18th Part III - Polyday
(OK, I slacked off for a few days so need to catch up. Here's a long post with lots of pics so bear with me!
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When 2pm came around and our time was up for the cabana rental, the kids were wiped out. DS fell asleep on me. We got everyone back to our room for a nice nap. Well everyone except for me that is. Like I said, I cant nap while Im at Disney. So I pulled out my iPad and sat in our patio while everyone snoozed away. I was making some plans for Fridays MK day and surfing the DIS when I noted that Charity, one of fellow DISer who was also staying at the Tahiti Longhouse was online. We improvised a DIS-meet in the lobby of our longhouse sharing stories and pictures. I was very happy to hear that her family was having as good as a time as ours. It was great to actually meet her since we had done a lot of the planning together online as both of our trips were over the exact same days and we were both staying at the Poly.
I returned to the room around 4:15pm and the kids were starting to stir. DFIL woke up saying he didnt feel like hed gotten much sleep. When I told him what time it was and that it was 2 hours later, he laughed he thought it was only about 10-15 minutes of nap he had gotten but he was so out, didnt realize what time it was. Once everyone regained their bearings, the kids wanted to go and play on the sandy beach. So we took them to the quiet one behind our longhouse.
There was only one gentleman there using the hammock and no one else. The first thing that DD and DS decides to do? Make sand-angels.
Im not a big sand person, and watching them fan their arms and legs spraying sand all over their body and hair was getting me a bit uncomfortable. But oh well. It wasnt my turn to give them their baths tonight. Lol. They loved it though and thats what matters. They raced their Grandpa on the beach by running at first.
Then they decided to pretend to be tortoises and got on their fours and started racing that way. DS decided he was going to be the hare, and popped up and ran way ahead and declared himself the winner of that race. The ferries were floating by in the background blowing their horns. This was one of those perfect moments at Disney.
The kids were getting a little hungry around 6:00pm so we strolled over to GCH and Captain Cooks to get them so food.
Some pics I took on our way to and at GCH
I cant remember what the kids had. DW and DFIL had flatbreads which were decent. I ordered the pork nachos which were good as well minus the pineapples. I love pineapples but maybe not so much in my cheesy nachos. While we were eating, DFIL and DW said they wished they could have seen the MSEP up closer. I told them that there was going to be one that night at 9pm and they both immediately said we should go! This sort of thing was the exact reason why I had an extra day with park hoppers for our passes flexibility especially being so close to MK.
After dinner, we headed out to the beach to catch the campfire so the kids could roast marshmallows. There were two CMs, one handing out marshmallows and roasting sticks, another one trying to start the fire in the pit. The one trying to start the fire was clearly not enjoying her day. She had some problems getting the fire going, and of course, whenever someones having trouble starting a fire (whether its a campfire or a BBQ grill), youre going to have people chiming in on what the best way to accomplish that is and give potentially unwanted advice. A 10-11 year old boy gave his two cents and she didnt even respond to it which I thought was a bit rude for Disney standards. In fact, she just flatly ignored everyone who wanted to talk and you could see the frustration on her face. I dont blame her, but it was such a contrast to all the CMs we interacted with all week that it just stood out.
The fire finally got started and a thousand spears with marshmallow tips were quickly criss-crossing each other over the fire. It was actually a pretty funny sight. I was actually surprised that no one got poked in the eye.
The kids took their marshmallow in one bite. Then they used their sticks to draw on the wet portion of the beach I believe DD drew a self portrait.
The sun was setting and the beach was glowing in yellow and orange reflections off the water. It was almost as beautiful as the sunrise.
At 7:30pm we walked over to the resort launch dock.
While we were waiting for the boat to arrive, the kids decided they were going to play hair salon with Grandpa as their customer. He sat down and the two of them worked on his hair. The whole scene reminded me of monkeys picking off fleas or nits from each other. We got on the boat and arrived at MK.
View from the boat
Of course, DS once again protested getting off the boat. This was our routine now. Every time we had to get off the monorail or a boat, it was a struggle because he wanted to ride some more!
Once we walked through the turnstile around 8:10pm, it was time to figure out where we were going find a spot to watch the parade. I didnt want to go down Main Street since we were not going to be staying for Wishes and trying to get out after MSEP would be very difficult. I had actually posted this question on the boards a few months back, and Robo (who else, right?) recommended finding a spot in front of the barbershop. So we did and it turned out to be the perfect choice. Its right next to those two large barn doors where the floats come out so were right at the beginning of the route. The area didnt really get filled until around 8:40pm. The entrance/exit to the Emporium was right behind us so DFIL popped in there to buy DS a Mickey hat and other souvenirs while we were waiting. The hoola hoops were being offered by a couple of CMs right in front of us which both kids participated while waiting.
After all said and done, the wait didnt feel long at all. And the final bonus of our location I could see a straight path towards the exit from where we were sitting.
Everyone really enjoyed the parade. Since I already took all of the pics I wanted during my solo tour a few nights before, I just sat there with the kids and watched it.
Pics from DFIL's camera
DFIL thought it was very very well done. I almost wanted to tell him that Spectromagic was even better but didnt want to put a damper in his experience. After the parade was over, we got back on the monorail and we were back in our room by 9:40pm. Isnt that incredible? Just being able to hop back and forth like that with in such a short period of time is what makes Poly and the other monorail resorts a very attractive place to stay. Everybody was in bed by 10pm getting ready for another packed day planned at AK.
Next Up: Breakfast with Safari Donald!
