Poppets and Stupid Monkeys Poly. Holiday B-Day Trip *PICS*

[fairycat]

The cast is simple

Poppet (me)- a silly Disney lover who has visited WDW twice before for day trips to Epcot and MK but has gone every year of her life to DL and has had a AP for 6 years. And the Birthday girl (ok today is my offical B-day but the beginning of the month worked better for the trip ).

Taken at Epcot

Stupid Monkey (DH)- Not as into Disney but loves me so sucks it up in the planning stage and ends up having fun once we get going. He grew up between CA and FL and went to the parks but not nearly as often as my family did.

Note: the above names came from a pirate themed party were we had to go by famous Pirate names historical and popular, we went with POTC. They were so funny it seems they have stuck with friends and DH's little brother.

The plan: Our plan was quite different then the one most people have since we would be visiting WDW then heading towards Cocoa Beach to visit family (my Inlaws). So we would not have as long of a trip as I would have liked, but as they say better then nothing right hehehe!

Dates: October 7-10th we were especially going for the food and wine festival. But we acutally left California on the 6th and left Florida the 13th.

 

[fairycat]

Our original plans and what came to fruitation were vastly different, but so is the way of life, some of it was for the good some of it not.

Day 1 at WDW: After the red-eye we took from L.A. we hit the airport early in the morning and headed to the check in to the Magical Express, the line moved quickly and we headed to our Resort line. The line was short and the wait was not too bad before we got on the bus. We did find it very funny that the video shown on the Bus included some desert shots of the Disney Gang getting together to travel to WDW, those shots were filmed less then 15 minutes from our house, so it felt like home

The bus ride felt long but that might have been excitement to just get to the fabulous Polyenisan hotel!!!! We were lucky to be the first stop and there we were the coolest hotel!! There was a little construction going at the front but I didn't care I was happy to be there. I gushed over the lobby and headed over to the front desk, we waited less then 5 mins for check in, and afterwards were able to quickly get someone from Concierge to change or ADR's for the night since we wouldn't be able to do Citricos. We found out one of the front desk CM's had lived and worked in our area (small world ) and better yet that we had been UPGRADED!!!!!!!!! Our Garden view was now a park view on the lake. I do think I didn't get a card for my birthday though because I was honest that it didn't actually happen till later in the month, but we got spoiled plenty in the end!

Our room as we expected was not ready so we dropped of most of our carry on luggage and decided to catch a bus to MGM. Originally we had planned to hit Epcot or MK day one but BIL and S.M. decided that we should go to the Universal Haunt that night So we went to the smaller park that day. Not my fav. plan but what can you do

We also shortly had found out one of our first bad news issues, the battery of my brand new just bought for this trip kick butt SLR camera was almost dead, and guess what I forgot, yup you guessed it my charger that comes in play later.

Outside water fall;

Inside the Lobby:

Inside Lobby:

continued later....

 

[fairycat]

Day one cont...

So after dropping our bags we had our first experience with the LOVELY Disney Bus system. I will say here and now so I can move on after this the bus system really needs an overhaul. Too many CM's have NO IDEA how they work. We learned that in order to get correct information on using WDW transportaion of any sort you need to ask two CM's because every time it seemed the first gave us completely inaccurate information. This happened about 4 times.

S.M. and I could not figure out why the buslines don't have designated roads for their own use to avoid regular traffic. It makes sense when the buses are so important to making people want to stay at the resorts. We also felt that it was ridiculous that they don't have communication with guests or stops. We traveled into resorts that did not need the bus nor did anyone on the bus to then travel to the resort everyone on the bus was heading. If they had a simple call system at the stops they would know when guests need the bus or not to re-arrange their paths to be more efficiant and faster.

The worst issue was in dealing with buses to DTD (a place we went alot) and the water parks not only did we have to stop at DTD to get to the waterparks (no one got on or off), but also stopped at Pleasure Island (in our whole trip we never saw anyone get on or off at this stop before 5pm) where twice we also had to deal with driver shift changes (a bit frustrating with a bus filled with 8+ families with little kids who just want to get to the water parks). The worst was the driver that took over 20 mins to adjust things on the bus (after we had already sat for 15 mins) and then almost hit another bus because he didn't look where he was going

We felt the buses might be ok for those not on a tight schedule but for those of us on one they are terrible over all. We will rent a car or better does any one rest motor scooters/bikes??? This also made our decision to stay at a monorail hotel a god send. Monorails are my best friend I love them and could hug their efficiency. GO MONORAILS!!!!!!!!!

Ok enough prattling. We took the bus to MGM used our fancy tickets (no finger scans at DL so this baby is high tech.) we entered the park and thought hummm... its like home but all wrong We are from California and I see that this park is very similar to DCA but for those who said DCA is better I sadly have to agree. The lay out is very odd and we found ourselves going in circles (but that also could have been the exhaustion catching up with us, plane sleep is not real sleep especially losing three hours). This was also the only day we actually had rain which was not terrible and didn't last very long.

We rode the Great Movie Ride which was interesting, had to take a picture in front of Grohman's (funny I noticed the entrance is flat unlike the real theater hehe!) Then realised we were starving, our last meal had been plane pretzels. So we decided to try and get into Sci-Fi, we walked in around 1pm and were able to get a table . It was a lot of fun, my whole food report is located in my sig. line if your interested. I am so glad we were able to do it!

After lunch we walked around saw a few things and then headed over to RnR, sadly we were so tired we couldn't begin to face a 90 min line or even a 60min one for Tower of Terror, something I would regret the whole trip since we never made it back And I so wanted to ride these, especially ToT since I heard MGM's was way cooler then DCA's and I like that one a lot. Next trip we will not miss it!!!!!!!

As we left we asked about the boat we had seen and if it would take us to DTD. We were told it would, so we sat and waited for the boat, got on the VERY slow moving boat to find out NO the boat does not take you to DTD. We got off at Boardwalk and looked quickly in their shops and then waited for the bus at Boardwalk. The reason our very tired selves were going to DTD was because we realised walking by the beautiful pools we both forgot our swimsuits

We made it to DTD found almost the same exact suits as we had found at the two resorts we had already looked at (note if you forget your suits we found that the water parks had the best selection), but we both found something that would work for the trip. With our new suits it was time for some nap time at the hotel.

 

[fairycat]

More Day One:

So we headed back to our Poly home and remind you first we knew we had been upgraded but OMG!!! When we made the reservation we paid for a garden view, I made the orignal but due to some switching S.M. talked to them about our preference I was new to the boards then and told S.M. to ask for Tolkeau but S.M. miss understood and asked for the "T" one, that ended up with us in Tahati and let me tell you I am so not complaining about the mistake. We felt the walk to anywhere on property was no big deal and we were thrilled to have found that the TTC was almost in our backyard!

The only issue you might find with this room was the boat noise if you are napping or have kids early to bed, but I grew used to it and loved the fact we felt in the middle of things.

This was our day time view:

From the right the MK boat

Straight Ahead

To see the castle you had to scout a smidge since a palm tree was blocking it but space mountain looked so cool and you could see the castle on almost all the deck I was just THRILLED

I loved the room, I loved the resort and I will continue to squee through this report about how much I loved the Polynesian!!

We took a good nap, had some snacks, changed and waited for BIL to pick us up for our night at Universal Haunt.

We got to Universal only did one haunted house, it was OK, we did two of the shows Bill and Ted and Rocky Horror Picture Show both were fun! Rode a few things and learned some of the people at Universal were just MEAN. And their no purse or bag rule on MIB was just silly. But whatever overall it was fun but I wish I had been at WDW that night.

 

[Avivasmom]

What gorgeous shots from the Poly!

Great report so far...I better make sure I bring my charger for my DSLR. Going to write myself a note!

 

[fairycat]

Day Two:

Well we had planned an early rise but between our late arrival back to the hotel the night before, jet lag and still getting the hang of the time difference we did not actually leave our room till after 10am. We decided to do AK since we had a ADR for Victoria and Alberts that night. We hopped on the Bus and headed to the park.

When we got off the bus we decided we might want to pick up something to eat and when we saw coffee cart outside we went over and found out REAL COFFEE! Better yet it was espresso yum. So we had a nice latte and grabed a danish (ok but a bit too sweet for me). So coffee snobs be on the look out for this stop no Nescaffe here They also had ice coffee too.

We entered the park I got lots of "Happy Birthday's" and headed to the camera shop. While helpful sadly they didn't have anything that would work for my camera battery and I was getting nervous I had been looking forward to the safari for well... as long as I knew it exsisted. I wanted animal pictures darnit! So we figured we would be stingy and save up the charge until we got on the safari.

In the mean time we walked around the park and saw some cool sites including one that never was properly explained to us a giant African Vulture (we were told his species of vulture can have up to a 17 foot wing span ) in with a Kangaroo it was cool to see but very odd. We wondered if it was to keep the kangaroo on his toes

We saw a Dream team member as we got in line for the Safari but sadly not meant for us, we later saw them give a little paper slip to some one but never were sure what happened. Oh well.

Now our first day it had rained and was warm but not unbareable but having grown up in Southern California Humidity is not something I am that use to and not as high as this was. At first I thought no problem but some where in line with all the body heat and the humidity I had to go take a quick breather and get some water. S.M. stayed in line and a nice CM let me take the FP line back to get to him. For the most part that was the only time the weather really got me down but it was still warm and I think next time we would go a little later in the year to miss some of the humidity and heat.

Once we got on the Safari I was so excited I got out my camera and was ready to go!!!!

The camera did die in the middle of the safari but I was having so much fun I didn't even care. I had watched one of the behind the scenes shows on AK and instead of feeling it ruined the experience knowing all the secrets instead it was more fun. All the animals were amazing! It was so much fun, if the line had been shorter I would have rode it several times.

After the Safari we started to walk down many of the animal paths, we had a great conversation with the CM at the Meercat display (though we saw no Meercats haha!) we learned a lot about the birds since I was curious about them (note only some of the birds have their wings clipped many actually can fly as they wish but tend to stay at the park for all the free food). He was really interesting and taught us to really talk to more of the CM's by the animals many of them were very interesting but he was one of the best all day.

We then took the train out to the conservation building which was very interesting. And just missed the obvious give out of Dream Ears since everyone leaving the station had them. No luck for us but we were having fun.

Next we hit some rides EE is GREAT!! It is a well designed ride that while slow at the start really builds up into a fun ride. We hit PW and were not as amused as S.M.'s arm got squished by the side of the ride, it was funny riding it with Japanese teens who didn't speak english, we all just laughed and screamed (both in fun and pain), and decided we would not do that again. This late in the day we almost walked on all these rides and next hit Dinosaur. I thought the themeing was rather funny and loved the obvious nod to Jurassic park with out having to pay the license . The ride was fun, but I agree with many if I had not been on Indiana Jones I probably would have liked the themeing a bit more, but it seemed a bit chaotic. Overall though it was fun!

Next it was back to DTD to try and find a charger, we had heard that Virgin might be helpful, sadly if we had, had an Olypus or Nikkon Camera we would have been good, but not for my Canon. They were nice to let us try it there but they had a huge issue getting the returned item back onto our room card (if you think you might have to return something don't use a room key) after about 15 mins they just gave us cash back. S.M. in his techy geniusness came up with a plan in this time to "tweak" another charger, which in the end worked. YEAH to my guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After we spent a ton of time at Virgin we no longer had time to check out Disney Quest (which was another thing we sadly were not able to ever get to do) So we hoped on the bus and headed home to the Poly to get ready for our swanky V&A dinner.


That morning I decided to write a little thank you note to our mousekeeper and drew some little pictures on it to add with our tip (forgot to do those fancy cute envelopes I find around here). I left the note and tip in the bathroom right near were she had left note with her name. When we got back to our fresh and clean room, I went into the bathroom and found a lovely new friend!!!!!!

Is it not the cutest? I was thrilled since I never got a birthday card or anything in the room (didn't expect it neccesarily but it would have been nice, but who cares I got a BUNNY!). I also love bunnies.

Anyway after I squeed merrily about my bunny, we started to get ready for our dinner. I wore a long asian style velvet dress (note velvet is not the best in Florida but I survived), and S.M. did end up wearing his black dress kilt with a nice mandarian collared jacket (sadly no pictures as we were charging the battery ). We took the monorail over to the Grand Floridan and were a little early for our 9:15pm ADR. The hotel is very nice but I have to say the Poly is much more "US".

Our dinner review is in my sig. line if you are interested. After dinner and a whole lot of wine, we took the monorail back to the Poly, dropped off my rose, our left overs and changed our clothes and headed over to DTD. Sadly since the bus took so long we got there a bit late, but got in for a few dances and drinks at 8-trax's it was ok, but felt a little old for us and a but cramped. But our quick visit really made us want to come back for the Adventures Club.

Day Three is next with LOTS of pictures from a newly charged phone and tons of fun!!!

 

[fairycat]

Not sure if any one is even reading this but thought I would add a few more fun pictures

A few more from the safari

Later in the park after shaking the battery

 

[Mayl]

Great shots.. Must have been hot wearing all black though.. better lady then me

 

[fairycat]

Great shots.. Must have been hot wearing all black though.. better lady then me

My title does not lie I am the "Modern Disney Princess in Black" I was fine in the black, but the tank tops sure helped. But the wool hair pieces I wore most days were a little harder Yes if you saw a lady with Very odd pigtails at the parks it was probably me. I am very use to the black though.

Anyway I hope to get more up on this review since I loved our day at Epcot, but I am off for my belated Birthday at Disneyland, with the fires it had to wait a few days.