So long, Caribbean Beach, we hardly knew ye.
Smidgy is right, that's the problem with short split stays, you end up suffering the
"death of departure" many times in one trip.
Ok, but is there a flip side?
Yes.
You get to experience the joy and excitement of checking in, also, more than just once, and yes, checking in is always exciting.
It's the unknown, the X- Factor, you never know what your are going to get!
But it doesn't mean I want to leave though!
By 8 that morning, we still hadn't gotten an eviction notice.
Smidgy called on it:
I listened to the conversation from my end:
"Hello, my husband is very upset and wan'ts to know why we haven't gotten an eviction notice, we check out today."
"Uh huh, Oh, I see, yes, ok, no, that makes sense, that's good news, I'll tell my hubby, thank you, good bye."
As that went on, it was sounding better and better;
By then I was jumping out of my shoes:
"What, are they comping us the room cuz the pool was closed that one morning? Or because the Yellow Shirt was so loud, or because....."
"Will you stop? "
I stopped.
"They didn't send us up a new bill because nothing has changed, we didn't charge anything on the room card."
"Oh."
The imagination giveth, Smidgy taketh away.
This time we didn't call for help with the buggage, we now had gravity on our side and I planned on using it so we did it ourselves.
Again though, man, feels like we just checked in. Didn't we just check in? Got a corner room, how can that be 3 days ago?
Friday, September 9th
As we pull away from our beloved CBR, now I'm getting a bit excited, we have never stayed on a Monorail Resort before, and when it comes to renting points, BLT is about the most expensive resort there is.
Ok, I can do this, I can act like a rich snob, really.
( Poor Slob, Rich Snob
Sounds like it should be a TV miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain.)
Right, hey moron, you're exhaust went out, rembember?
That'll make a great first impression, providing the guard house and bellhops and concierge are all big Nascar members.
Now, this drive is new for us.
We drive a lot more now on our own than we used to, but around the Magic Kingdom is not on our route list that we like to drive to. What's the point? You can't park at MK anyway so you still have to take another form of transportation so this route for us is kind of new.
Smidgy has it in her head that it is going to be virtually impossible to find the Contemporary on our own, and it looks like it.
She's got the Atlas opened on her lap, some local maps also open, the maps that came with our CBR welcome package are also open on her lap. The Farmer's Almanac, satellite photos of the area, topographical charts, geological surveys, written quotes and directions from Ponce De Leon himself,
"Go to the second light and make a left," and Balboa's phone number on speed dial.
They made us stop at the Magic Kingdom toll plaza anyway so I asked him, he told us to follow the green line.
Okay!
I pulled away, I looked, we both said at once, "What green line?"
There was a blue line, you think that's it? Maybe he's colorblind?
We went under the water bridge, I kept bearing to the right and we lucked into pulling up at the Contemporary gaurd house.
(every time you go to the Magic Kingdom you pass under a bridge that isn't railroad tracks or a road, but contains water instead. It's the causeway that connects 7 Seas lagoon with Bay Lake and many of the big ferry boats cross it.)
Pulling up to the guardhouse I coasted to save everyone's ears, I gave the guy my license again which again he checked on some ledger and we were moving agian.
They say more accidents are caused by people talking on cell phones, or reading texts, or writing texts, or fiddling with their I Pad, I Pod, or I Pud.
You'll never catch me doing anything stupid like that.
I groped around behind me and found the camera, I just had to take a picture from back here where we are now, I can't believe we are finally, after all these years of coming, going to stay at a Monorail Resort!
Once again I tried to coast to a stop in front but a guy in a uniform was on us in a second asking us our name, I just said Nebo,. He then told us to move the car back a bit and park over there, up against the wall. (all you guys out there, feel free to mentally add in what normally comes after "up against the wall.")
We hadn't even gotten the doors closed when a new guy comes up to us in a nice suit and tie;
"Steve and Diane?"
Wow, they are good!
"Yes," I said, "I'm Steve."
Diane groaned.
He then led us inside to another guy with a suit and tie standing behind a counter. There was not waiting in line, waiting for the next available teller, HE was waiting for us!
Well, at least so it appeared.
Suit number one left and now we are dealing with a very friendly check-er-in-er guy, but he was no Brian.
He told us our room is ready, fourth floor, center, facing the lake.
Sounds great, doesn't it?
We rejected it and asked him what else he had.
We had come over here and snuck in last December, so we had a pretty good idea of the layout.
BLT is a horseshoe shape, facing the lake.
So, the center is as far from the lake as you can get, plus the fourth floor in my mind wasn't going to be high enough to clear all the stuff in between the room and the lake.
He said he'll also have a room on the 15th floor out on the western wing but it's not ready yet.
At first Smidgy was skeptical of it, but I thought it would be just one of the best you could get, so I talked her into accepting it.
We were all checked in, everything went as smooth as can be, even our Keys to the World card says DVC Member on them, and Smidgy had to go and open a can of worms.
She asked the guy if the monorail is shutting down tonight and tomorrow at 8 since the Magic Kingdom closes both nights at 7 for Night of Joy.
This has been a much debated topic for the last few months here on the Dis ever since Disney said they are shutting down the monorails an hour after official closing.
( If Epcot closes at nine, and you stay till midnight for EMH you can take the monorail back to the TTC, but now you have to transfer to a resort bus, even if yiou are staying at the Polly or GF of CR.
But this guy didn't know, so he went and got a guy with an even
more expensive suit to come out and play.
He never even heard of it, either.
More people are called.
Soon, there's a bunch of them back there huddling and finally our original guy says, "Yes, the monorail is only going to run one hour past closing time at Mk tonight and tomorrow.
It always amazes us how little the cast members themselves seem to know about day to day operations.
And you know what?
I don't believe them! Not this time.
Not for a hard ticketed event, you can't just unplug a major transportation option on them without having a major RIOT!
We grab our stuff and turn away, "Remember, we'll call you when your room is ready."
We pulled up over at the Tower and started getting out, once again, all we need for the pool.
Then I stopped.
I just stood there.
"What are you doing, are you ok?"
"I'm fine", I told her, "There's no point in gathering all our nuts for the winter when that phone is going to ring any second to inform us our room is ready." And I looked at her purse.
Would you believe it, with me, and then her, staring at the purse that contains the cell phone,,,,,,,
nothing happened!
I set up the Cosmos for a chance to make a spectacularly grand entrance,,,,,, and it dropped the ball!
I grabbed a few things, what I really needed was already in my pocket and my suit is already on acting as underwear beneath my shorts so I didn't need much.
I grabbed Uncle John and told him we're going for a walk, he didn't mind.
To get into the main lobby at BLT, you HAVE to have a BLT key card, no other way works to get inside. This is a gated, sealed, violators will be violated, prosecutors will be shot, friendly, community.
Unless you do what we did last December and just follow somebody else inside when they open the doors.
I was all set to proudly use my new key card, but nope, no need, big group just going inside, now.
"You will have to use your key card to open the doors that lead out to the gorgeous Bay Lake Tower Pool."
That's what he told us.
I pushed the door open and we went back outside, just now we are on the inside of the horseshoe, the pool is directly ahead.
Just a little bit outside, I paused, and looked back up at the rooms above where we just came out from, specifically, the 4th floor rooms.
Yep, I had no doubt that we made the right decision, trees and stuff would definately block a long range view of anything.
At this moment in time, it's probably almost 11 o'clock now, and I could not believe how crowded the pool already is. Hmm, wonder if it's because the MK closes so early tonight that nobody really wan'ts to waste a day pass on it?
Made sense to me.
Ok, then why the heck aren't they all at Epcot? It's EMH there tonight?
Cuz they are waiting to go when it's EMH?
That's the thing with Disney, you can't help but try to figure everything out there, and when you feel like you are getting close, it just slips away again.
Smidgy brought our new mugs with and went to fill them up, I found some decent loungers WITH a table with umbrella aournd the back, near the slide.
Her sunburn is hurting her a bit so she should sit more at a table. When she came back with the mugs, she really wanted to stretch out in a lunger for awhile, and even got out the glop.
We seldom use glop, especially me, but it can come in handy now and then for us,,, like right now.
I'm not sure what she's got, SPF 30 I think, but I was glad to see she was putting some on herself.
I, to this day, have never understood people that will spread glop all over themselves and then go sit in the sun!
That's like putting on your winter coat to go sit in a sauna. But I was glad to see Smidgy doing it.
"Would you mind putting some on my back and shoulders?"
Who, me?
Great, now I have to get all slimy too, who invented this crap?
Funny how your views change when now it's your hand that has the slime on it.
Ok, need to slip in a couple pics here:
from the pool area;
Here we have the kiddy area shaped in a not so hidden Mickey.
As we sat there talking, we both agreed on a couple of observations we both made separately.
First thing was, man, was it loud here!
It was totally an acoustic thing going on with the shape of the tower and where the pool was "funneled" into the end of the megaphone. If the Yellow Jackets come here too, we're doomed!
The second thing we noticed didn't apply to only here, it also included CBR, but we have never, ever, no nay never, no more..........sorry
we have never, ever, seen as many foreigners as we have this trip, and I am not talking tour groups.
This observation held true for the duration of the trip, also.
Today at BLT, there are many hispanic families around us, but over the trip, we ran into many Indian or Pakistani's, many English groups and a few Germans. (we always tried to keep them separated, as Mr. Faulty would wish.
OH MAN, I JUST HAD THAT LITTLE LIGHT BULB go off in my head. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it.
It really did seem strange, though, this is supposed to be one of the deadest times of the year, but maybe other countries have time off now.
I went over to find the fill a mug station, it's only open from 11 till 7, otherwise, you have to go over to the Contempo cafe at the Contemporary.
I got back to the tabel with my mug.
"So", she said, "You really think we made the right choice concernig the room?"
"I do." I replied.
"Wait, let me change that answer!" "The last time I said those words it got me in all kinds of trouble!"
"Yes, I think we did make the right choice."
She wasn't amused.
" Well, I'm about to find out because our room is now ready and I have to go SEE!"
I let her go, I was totally content to just sit there with Uncle John, for awhile.
I had about a half hour now by myself and I wanted to just relax and read but once again, I was too antsy, I had to get up and wander and just look around.
The beach area here was not inviting at all, it was very narrow with lots of weeds growing up through the sand all over, it looked more like a marsh, even though there were some chairs in a row set up.
Smidgy came back all excited, "You were right, our view is incredible!"
We are in room 8509, 15th floor, the Top of the World Lounge is on the 16th!
Then we figured it was time to try the slide, it's one of Diseny's larger ones.
She went first, I followed, and just like at Vero Beach, it was brutal.
Like Vero Beach, it too was spiral shaped, and just like that one, it seemed like it was put together in segments, with a rib/seam holding the segments together.
Every time you passed over them, it felt like it was going to cut into my shoulderblades and back.
I guess Diane let out a loud "OWWW", when she hit the water cuz the life guard came over and asked her is she was allright.
And that was the last time we went down that slide,
don't they bother anybody else?
Back at our spot I noticed again that the love bugs are out in full force for this trip, they seem to be most active May and September.
They don't bite, they don't sting, they don't carry malaria, all they want to do is land on you and make you crazy.
But who needs love bugs when you have.....
Yellow Jackets!
I thought it was loud down here before?
HA!
After about 15 minutes of her yelling Smidgy said she's gonna call bell services and meet somebody by the car and get our stuff brought up.
She left.
I looked around at this high rise, state of the art building with it's shiny chrome and aluminum trimwork everywhere, and wondered what was going on over at Old Port Royale tonight.
Then I thought of my bathroom bag out in the car and thought maybe I should go and get that myself so I left too.
We all got to the Santa Fe about the same time, I grabbed my bag and that was it because I've still got all the pool stuff I'm carrying.
By the way, the noodles we bought on the July trip leaving Vero Beach that got me in trouble at Stormalong Bay last year?
Even though we brought them with, I think they made it down to a pool once this entire trip,,,, our very first day at the Martinique pool.
sorry, Dominique pool.
I got up before them, and we did have a great view.
Standing on the balcony, looking almost directly down:
hmm,,, maybe chrome and aluminum and glass isn't all bad.
now, straight across from us:
That little white ball off to the left is Spaceship Earth.
Actually, this one is probably more straight across from us.
We could see Spaceship Earth off in the distance, and went out on the balcony to watch Illuminations one night but it was so far away it seemed more like you were watching a bunch of fireflies tie one on.
night night
)
(uh oh)
Not knocking your new home for the next few days, but it's never appealed to me. I'm more of a CSR, POR, AKL or CBR girl. Although I've only ever stayed at CSR and POP. 
