WDW Poly Princess
Needs a Disney Fix
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2000
- Messages
- 4,873
Day 2, Part 1- WL and E-Night!
Oh my, what can I say? WL is fabulous! We stopped at Roaring Forks before we even checked in to get our refillable mugs. They had 2 different sizes, but we obviously wanted the big ones!
Theyre a sort of cream color with the Wilderness Lodge logo, and teal tops and handles. Theyre now next to my Polynesian mugs in my kitchen ;-) We stopped for a minute to ooh and ahh at the amazing lobby, and then hopped in line to check in. The poor CM had to call us two or three times before we stopped looking around and paid attention to her, but she reassured us that everyone did that. Low and behold, the woman behind us also had to be called several times because she was too busy looking around ;-) I had read in my PassPorter (LOOOOVE that guidebook! Its my WDW Bible!) that rooms on the 5th or 6th floor on the north side had the great MK view, so I noted those on my request when I booked through Dreams, but forgot to fax my room request to the Lodge! We ended up on the 6th floor, which was great, and I asked the CM checking us in if it was facing the MK, and she said it was! I told her that was exactly what I had hoped for, and she replied Really? Most people want to face the pool! I thought that was kind of odd, because I though most people would want MK view! The <i>really</i> strange part was that our room number was 6097... and our room number the year before on the Disney Magic was 6098! I was tempted to ask if we could have 6098, but decided not to ;-) When we got up to the 6th floor, we had trouble finding our room, so a CM who happened to be up there showed us the way. It seems we had just missed our turn, and our room was really close to the elevator! One of the first things I did was step outside to see the view, which contrary to what the CM at the desk had told me, was NOT a Magic Kingdom view! It overlooked the outside of another part of the building, part of the roof of the lobby, and a little bit of parking lot. It wasnt all that bad, but kind of a disappointment when I had been assured we had a MK view! When I walked back in the room, I saw that rather than two queen beds, we had one queen, and a bunk bed! You would imagine that with the reservation for 2 adults, they wouldnt give us a bunk bed room! However, since Im eternally about 5 years old, I claimed the top bunk and let mom have the queen bed. We started to get situated in our room, when I realized we hadnt taken any pictures yet, so I yelled WAIT!, surprising myself as much as mom ;-) We ALWAYS end up completely messing up our rooms before we get a chance to take pictures, so the pictures always show clothes and stuff everywhere, and this time I was determined to get good ones! So, mom was forbidden from touching her suitcase until I was finished taking pictures and videotaping, which was easy, because she was so tired 
Theres a great part on our video where mom is sitting at the table with her head down, and you hear her mumble Hi, this is our room at the wilderness lodge. I asked her to actually say it with her head UP, so she raised it, and VERY quickly said Hi, thisisourroomatthewildernesslodge! And put her head back down. Poor mom ;-) I KNOW I snapped several pictures of the room in its still-clean state, but I somehow lost that roll of film! 
It had lots of WL pictures, and I havent seen it since! So, um, if you were at the WL in May, and happened to find a red roll of Agfa film, you know where to find me 
Oh! I forgot to mention that out our front door, we had a fabulous view of the lobby! It was so nice to step outside and be greeted by that great WL music (I still dont know what the music is, but if they sold a cd of it, I would buy it!)
Mom wanted a nap (What good WDW-touring person DOESNT?) and I wanted to go see the Lodge, so I grabbed my camera, notebook, and mug of soda and went downstairs. By the fireplace, there were two brown leather sofas that looked so darn inviting, I decided to lay on one for a while and catch up on my trip notes. While I was writing, I noticed a wedding party consisting of a bride, groom, flower girl, and ring bearer (all still in wedding clothes!) taking pictures in the lobby! I assumed that they had just gotten married over at the wedding pavilion, and was really tempted to try to secretly take a picture of them, but decided against it ;-) However, when I DID decide to take a few pictures from my comfortable resting place, the batteries on my camera were dead! I had *almost* bought new ones before the trip, but thought What are the chances of my batteries dying while im gone? Well, I should have, because for 2 new batteries, it cost me $19.08! I believe its about $6 for two of them at home! In my shock over the price, I walked out of the gift shop, leaving my mug behind! Luckily, a CM came out and brought it to me! Whew! I happily reunited myself with the couch by the fire, and wrote notes in my notebook, including a big underlined I could live here! I really think that if I didnt leave that spot for the rest of the trip, I would have still been happy!
After some time had passed, I decided to pick up a Hidden Mickey list from the front desk (and stuck it in my backpack with plans to search later) and then went upstairs to wake mom up. We had to stop at the front desk to get our E-Night cards, and put them on moms Disney credit card. Oddly enough, the computer told the CM taking care of us that she had to call to get an approval, and it was only $25! She called, and got it taken care of, but she said it was really odd that they required authorization! Straaaaange! We wanted to see the Wedding Pavilion, so we took a boat to the MK, with intentions to take the monorail to the Poly, and then walk from there to the Pavilion. However, once I reached my home, the Polynesian, I absolutely had to stop by Captain Cooks for some french fries. Sadly, the Poly people didnt roll out the red carpet when I got there. Imagine, ignoring the return of your own princess!!!
I still dont know what it is that makes them different from normal fries, but I love them ! I think its just because they remind me so much of the Poly By the time we finished our fries, it was almost 7pm, so we decided to skip the Wedding Pavilion and GF, and go on over to the Magic Kingdom. As soon as we got in, we hopped in the line by town hall to exchange our card-thingeys for e-night bracelets. Now, we werent quite sure how it worked at the time, and to tell you the truth, we STILL arent sure. Do they close up all the rides, and then re-open the ones for e-night to the e-night people? Or do they keep everything open and just let people with bracelets in after a certain time? We really werent sure, so we just sat around and watched the castle change colors for quite a while ;-) Im pretty sure we did something in between the time we went in MK and the time we sat, but I dont remember what!!
Eventually, we saw people going into Tomorrowland, so we assumed we could go. Our first ride was Buzz Lightyear which, you guessed it, we had never done before! ;-) The ride went by so quickly and I was so concentrated on shooting things that I honesty dont remember much about it!!! I remembered the tip about holding the trigger down, and ended up beating mom with a score of 69700 to 3700! Her gun thingy MUST have been broken!! We planned a rematch for later, but never got to it! Next time!
We decided to see the Timekeeper next, but as much as we searched, we could NOT find it! Looking back, I really dont know WHY we didnt ask a CM! Finally giving up our search, we decided to try the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which was a fun way to relax for a while! We got a sneak peek inside of Space Mountain, which was fun because weve never ridden it. (I tend to mess up my back on roller coasters, but I swear Im going to ride it next time! Ill just pack lots of Tylenol!)
The next item on our list was the Country Bear Jamboree, but as we passed by the castle, I realized it would probably be a great time for pictures by the Partners Statue, since there was hardly anyone around. We went over, and were surprised to see Chip and Dale standing there, with only two people in line to see them! I hopped in, and got a picture with them, and a kiss from Chip ;-) The CM told us that Minnie was just a few feet over, so we dashed over to see her! I only had to wait in line about two minutes before I got to her! Woohoo ;-) I got a picture, and remembered to get my autograph book out this time. I always felt a little silly asking for autographs, as Im probably the same age as whoever is inside that suit, but hey, not acting your age is what Disney vacations are for! Towards the castle were Pluto, Goofy, and The Mouse Himself! My autograph book is basically a small Pooh photo album, that I had put index cards in for the characters to sign. I printed or cut out pictures and pasted them to some, and then slid them in where the pictures would normally go. When I got to Goofy, I slid out his card, and gave it to him with the book underneath, but he turned it around and tried to sign on the plastic over Pluto! I dont know if he was trying to act Goofy, or if he really just couldnt see very well and Pluto looked like Goofy! When I told him he was signing the wrong one, he looked at it, then accidentally dropped my book and pen! We got them back, and he signed the autograph, and gestured for me to sit down for a picture. I sat next to him, and right before mom took the picture, he swung his legs up so he was almost sitting in my lap! It was the cutest thing! As I walked off, the CM told me You have to watch out for Goofy after dark! He gets a little frisky! Pluto was nearby, so I hopped in line for him, and he was *very* excited to see his picture in my book! He pointed at it and jumped up and down- too cute Mickey was the only one left, but there was quite a line for him (although nothing compared to what you would see during the day!) I think that these character interactions alone were worth the price of E-Night! When else can you see Chip, Dale, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto all in less than about 15 minutes?? It was great!
Afterwards, we went back to our plan and went to see the Country Bear Jamboree. There were a total of about 10 people there for the show!! One lady was talking (loudly) on her cell phone while the CM was telling us about the show, so I missed most of what the CM said I have nothing against cell phones.. I use mine ALL the time, but people really need to be more courteous of when and where they use them! We sat in the middle of the theater, and mom even managed to stay awake! The show reminded me of my 4th birthday party at a pizza place... I think it was called Show-Biz pizza? Anyway, they had bears that looked a lot like the Country Bears there (It was the Chuck-e-Cheese of about 20 years ago ;-) )and those things scared me so much we had to leave! Thankfully, I seem to be over my bear-o-phobia ;-) I loved the song All the guys who turn me on turn me down, and Big Als lovely rendition of Blood on the Saddle. We had fun there, but I dont think its something we need to revisit very often Its one of those Gotta see it at least once, but not every time things.
Having seen most of the things we really wanted to see (except im not sure why we didnt go ride Haunted Mansion again! What would be better than HM at night? Gheez, what were we thinking!?) we decided we HAD to ride Splash, and then we would leave (We had purposely saved it for last so we wouldn't have to walk around in the chilly night all wet). The ride was just as much fun at night, and we didnt even get wet in the beginning (when you pass someone else splashing down) this time! We got a tiny bit wet at the end, but nothing compared to what we had been getting!
We walked by Haunted Mansion on our way out(well, not really on our way, but..) so I could get a cool HM at night photo, but it was way too dark and just wouldnt have worked out (Again, WHY didnt we go ride it??) As we passed back by the castle, we saw Minnie dancing with a little girl right in front of it-- it looked almost like one of those Disney commercials- it was so precious! I tried to take a picture, but it didnt come out very well. It was just so magical We shopped in the Emporium a little on our way out, and then called it a night. As the boats had stopped running long ago, we took the monorail to the TTC, and then the Boone Bus back to the lodge. It took me a while to get the whole WL bus system down, but I finally figured out it was easiest to take the Boone bus TO the lodge, and the Crockett FROM the lodge. Back at the lodge, I was starving as usual, and picked up a turkey sandwich that came with grapes and a strawberry to take up to the room. I sat up on my top bunk, and having completely lost my mind to exhaustion, made the strawberry (which was cut in half..) talk.. Hi, Im Straw! Ill be your berry tonight! It was REALLY amusing at the time. Oh, what lack of sleep and over-exertion can do to your mind!! I think I finally collapsed a few minutes later, probably to dream of talking strawberries dancing with Minnie inside of Splash Mountain.
UP next, Day 3 Part 1! "They have CAMELS!"
Oh my, what can I say? WL is fabulous! We stopped at Roaring Forks before we even checked in to get our refillable mugs. They had 2 different sizes, but we obviously wanted the big ones!
Theyre a sort of cream color with the Wilderness Lodge logo, and teal tops and handles. Theyre now next to my Polynesian mugs in my kitchen ;-) We stopped for a minute to ooh and ahh at the amazing lobby, and then hopped in line to check in. The poor CM had to call us two or three times before we stopped looking around and paid attention to her, but she reassured us that everyone did that. Low and behold, the woman behind us also had to be called several times because she was too busy looking around ;-) I had read in my PassPorter (LOOOOVE that guidebook! Its my WDW Bible!) that rooms on the 5th or 6th floor on the north side had the great MK view, so I noted those on my request when I booked through Dreams, but forgot to fax my room request to the Lodge! We ended up on the 6th floor, which was great, and I asked the CM checking us in if it was facing the MK, and she said it was! I told her that was exactly what I had hoped for, and she replied Really? Most people want to face the pool! I thought that was kind of odd, because I though most people would want MK view! The <i>really</i> strange part was that our room number was 6097... and our room number the year before on the Disney Magic was 6098! I was tempted to ask if we could have 6098, but decided not to ;-) When we got up to the 6th floor, we had trouble finding our room, so a CM who happened to be up there showed us the way. It seems we had just missed our turn, and our room was really close to the elevator! One of the first things I did was step outside to see the view, which contrary to what the CM at the desk had told me, was NOT a Magic Kingdom view! It overlooked the outside of another part of the building, part of the roof of the lobby, and a little bit of parking lot. It wasnt all that bad, but kind of a disappointment when I had been assured we had a MK view! When I walked back in the room, I saw that rather than two queen beds, we had one queen, and a bunk bed! You would imagine that with the reservation for 2 adults, they wouldnt give us a bunk bed room! However, since Im eternally about 5 years old, I claimed the top bunk and let mom have the queen bed. We started to get situated in our room, when I realized we hadnt taken any pictures yet, so I yelled WAIT!, surprising myself as much as mom ;-) We ALWAYS end up completely messing up our rooms before we get a chance to take pictures, so the pictures always show clothes and stuff everywhere, and this time I was determined to get good ones! So, mom was forbidden from touching her suitcase until I was finished taking pictures and videotaping, which was easy, because she was so tired Theres a great part on our video where mom is sitting at the table with her head down, and you hear her mumble Hi, this is our room at the wilderness lodge. I asked her to actually say it with her head UP, so she raised it, and VERY quickly said Hi, thisisourroomatthewildernesslodge! And put her head back down. Poor mom ;-) I KNOW I snapped several pictures of the room in its still-clean state, but I somehow lost that roll of film! It had lots of WL pictures, and I havent seen it since! So, um, if you were at the WL in May, and happened to find a red roll of Agfa film, you know where to find me Oh! I forgot to mention that out our front door, we had a fabulous view of the lobby! It was so nice to step outside and be greeted by that great WL music (I still dont know what the music is, but if they sold a cd of it, I would buy it!)
Mom wanted a nap (What good WDW-touring person DOESNT?) and I wanted to go see the Lodge, so I grabbed my camera, notebook, and mug of soda and went downstairs. By the fireplace, there were two brown leather sofas that looked so darn inviting, I decided to lay on one for a while and catch up on my trip notes. While I was writing, I noticed a wedding party consisting of a bride, groom, flower girl, and ring bearer (all still in wedding clothes!) taking pictures in the lobby! I assumed that they had just gotten married over at the wedding pavilion, and was really tempted to try to secretly take a picture of them, but decided against it ;-) However, when I DID decide to take a few pictures from my comfortable resting place, the batteries on my camera were dead! I had *almost* bought new ones before the trip, but thought What are the chances of my batteries dying while im gone? Well, I should have, because for 2 new batteries, it cost me $19.08! I believe its about $6 for two of them at home! In my shock over the price, I walked out of the gift shop, leaving my mug behind! Luckily, a CM came out and brought it to me! Whew! I happily reunited myself with the couch by the fire, and wrote notes in my notebook, including a big underlined I could live here! I really think that if I didnt leave that spot for the rest of the trip, I would have still been happy!
After some time had passed, I decided to pick up a Hidden Mickey list from the front desk (and stuck it in my backpack with plans to search later) and then went upstairs to wake mom up. We had to stop at the front desk to get our E-Night cards, and put them on moms Disney credit card. Oddly enough, the computer told the CM taking care of us that she had to call to get an approval, and it was only $25! She called, and got it taken care of, but she said it was really odd that they required authorization! Straaaaange! We wanted to see the Wedding Pavilion, so we took a boat to the MK, with intentions to take the monorail to the Poly, and then walk from there to the Pavilion. However, once I reached my home, the Polynesian, I absolutely had to stop by Captain Cooks for some french fries. Sadly, the Poly people didnt roll out the red carpet when I got there. Imagine, ignoring the return of your own princess!!!
I still dont know what it is that makes them different from normal fries, but I love them ! I think its just because they remind me so much of the Poly By the time we finished our fries, it was almost 7pm, so we decided to skip the Wedding Pavilion and GF, and go on over to the Magic Kingdom. As soon as we got in, we hopped in the line by town hall to exchange our card-thingeys for e-night bracelets. Now, we werent quite sure how it worked at the time, and to tell you the truth, we STILL arent sure. Do they close up all the rides, and then re-open the ones for e-night to the e-night people? Or do they keep everything open and just let people with bracelets in after a certain time? We really werent sure, so we just sat around and watched the castle change colors for quite a while ;-) Im pretty sure we did something in between the time we went in MK and the time we sat, but I dont remember what!! Eventually, we saw people going into Tomorrowland, so we assumed we could go. Our first ride was Buzz Lightyear which, you guessed it, we had never done before! ;-) The ride went by so quickly and I was so concentrated on shooting things that I honesty dont remember much about it!!! I remembered the tip about holding the trigger down, and ended up beating mom with a score of 69700 to 3700! Her gun thingy MUST have been broken!! We planned a rematch for later, but never got to it! Next time!
We decided to see the Timekeeper next, but as much as we searched, we could NOT find it! Looking back, I really dont know WHY we didnt ask a CM! Finally giving up our search, we decided to try the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which was a fun way to relax for a while! We got a sneak peek inside of Space Mountain, which was fun because weve never ridden it. (I tend to mess up my back on roller coasters, but I swear Im going to ride it next time! Ill just pack lots of Tylenol!)
The next item on our list was the Country Bear Jamboree, but as we passed by the castle, I realized it would probably be a great time for pictures by the Partners Statue, since there was hardly anyone around. We went over, and were surprised to see Chip and Dale standing there, with only two people in line to see them! I hopped in, and got a picture with them, and a kiss from Chip ;-) The CM told us that Minnie was just a few feet over, so we dashed over to see her! I only had to wait in line about two minutes before I got to her! Woohoo ;-) I got a picture, and remembered to get my autograph book out this time. I always felt a little silly asking for autographs, as Im probably the same age as whoever is inside that suit, but hey, not acting your age is what Disney vacations are for! Towards the castle were Pluto, Goofy, and The Mouse Himself! My autograph book is basically a small Pooh photo album, that I had put index cards in for the characters to sign. I printed or cut out pictures and pasted them to some, and then slid them in where the pictures would normally go. When I got to Goofy, I slid out his card, and gave it to him with the book underneath, but he turned it around and tried to sign on the plastic over Pluto! I dont know if he was trying to act Goofy, or if he really just couldnt see very well and Pluto looked like Goofy! When I told him he was signing the wrong one, he looked at it, then accidentally dropped my book and pen! We got them back, and he signed the autograph, and gestured for me to sit down for a picture. I sat next to him, and right before mom took the picture, he swung his legs up so he was almost sitting in my lap! It was the cutest thing!
As I walked off, the CM told me You have to watch out for Goofy after dark! He gets a little frisky! Pluto was nearby, so I hopped in line for him, and he was *very* excited to see his picture in my book! He pointed at it and jumped up and down- too cute Mickey was the only one left, but there was quite a line for him (although nothing compared to what you would see during the day!) I think that these character interactions alone were worth the price of E-Night! When else can you see Chip, Dale, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto all in less than about 15 minutes?? It was great! Afterwards, we went back to our plan and went to see the Country Bear Jamboree. There were a total of about 10 people there for the show!! One lady was talking (loudly) on her cell phone while the CM was telling us about the show, so I missed most of what the CM said
I have nothing against cell phones.. I use mine ALL the time, but people really need to be more courteous of when and where they use them! We sat in the middle of the theater, and mom even managed to stay awake! The show reminded me of my 4th birthday party at a pizza place... I think it was called Show-Biz pizza? Anyway, they had bears that looked a lot like the Country Bears there (It was the Chuck-e-Cheese of about 20 years ago ;-) )and those things scared me so much we had to leave! Thankfully, I seem to be over my bear-o-phobia ;-) I loved the song All the guys who turn me on turn me down, and Big Als lovely rendition of Blood on the Saddle. We had fun there, but I dont think its something we need to revisit very often Its one of those Gotta see it at least once, but not every time things.Having seen most of the things we really wanted to see (except im not sure why we didnt go ride Haunted Mansion again! What would be better than HM at night? Gheez, what were we thinking!?) we decided we HAD to ride Splash, and then we would leave (We had purposely saved it for last so we wouldn't have to walk around in the chilly night all wet). The ride was just as much fun at night, and we didnt even get wet in the beginning (when you pass someone else splashing down) this time! We got a tiny bit wet at the end, but nothing compared to what we had been getting!
We walked by Haunted Mansion on our way out(well, not really on our way, but..) so I could get a cool HM at night photo, but it was way too dark and just wouldnt have worked out (Again, WHY didnt we go ride it??) As we passed back by the castle, we saw Minnie dancing with a little girl right in front of it-- it looked almost like one of those Disney commercials- it was so precious! I tried to take a picture, but it didnt come out very well. It was just so magical
We shopped in the Emporium a little on our way out, and then called it a night. As the boats had stopped running long ago, we took the monorail to the TTC, and then the Boone Bus back to the lodge. It took me a while to get the whole WL bus system down, but I finally figured out it was easiest to take the Boone bus TO the lodge, and the Crockett FROM the lodge. Back at the lodge, I was starving as usual, and picked up a turkey sandwich that came with grapes and a strawberry to take up to the room. I sat up on my top bunk, and having completely lost my mind to exhaustion, made the strawberry (which was cut in half..) talk.. Hi, Im Straw! Ill be your berry tonight! It was REALLY amusing at the time. Oh, what lack of sleep and over-exertion can do to your mind!! I think I finally collapsed a few minutes later, probably to dream of talking strawberries dancing with Minnie inside of Splash Mountain. UP next, Day 3 Part 1! "They have CAMELS!"
