OK, we now embark on the great find a bus to Pleasure Island adventure. You see the parks do not have them. You need to get to a resort to get to Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island. Since we were in the front half of the park, we decided to take the Epcot monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We then found out they dont have DTD buses either. It was also deserted. Tink and I really hated this place. We were getting Animal Kingdom flashbacks I didnt want to wait another hour for a bus.
I find a man in purple pants (bus driver) and ask him. He tells us, nope you cant get there from here BUT you CAN walk to the Poly and take their bus to DTD. Now the question is how do you get to the Poly. He was nice enough to show me so I tagged along with the purple pants man, following him to the Poly and engaging him in endless chatter while Grumpy and Tink brought up the rear.
Im thinking that maybe the Boardwalk bus might have been faster but we are here and its our last dinner at Raglan Road. I know this place is new but I changed my dinner ressies from Flying Fish to here because I wanted to try it. First the restaurant is BEAUTIFUL, just gorgeous. All dark wood and cool hanging light fixtures and a wonderful bar. Our hostess starts to take us to our table, sees my lime green Mickey Head with PrincessAurora on it and goes nuts. She asks if I was at Akershus. I say "yes". It seems that her boyfriend was our server Kjetil. She said he was feeling a little down that day and we really made his day. He had been talking about us and how I offered to marry him and everything. OK, I'm guilty, can't blame a girl for tryin. I told her she was younger and prettier anyway. It was SUCH a small world. He was trying to find the DIS boards but couldn't so she gave me his email and I sent him the link when I got home. Hope he is still lurking or that he will join the cool kids and be part of our club!
As everyone got settled, I went to find JackSplat. I found him at the bar and said howdy! It was sooo cool to run into all these people. They started playing "Black Velvet Band" and as I was singing along under my breath could say that my groups version was better. In my spare time, I direct a group of Victorian singing *****s. We sing pub songs. This year we are planning a trip to Tombstone, AZ.
First we ordered drinks. Grumpy was grumping about the lack of selection! HELLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOO. It wasn't good enough that Guinness was on draft. It should have been on a hand pump. 7 English beers werent enough even though he was forced to drink Millers in most places because of a dearth of good beers in the parks. I told him if he wants 100 beers, go somewhere else. Ireland doesnt have that many.
Tink and I had a WONDERFUL cider that was darker and had a caramel flavor to it. Now here was the main downside. As lovely as this place is, it was VERY crowded, packed with kids and they were LOUD! This was the ONLY bad kid experience we had this trip. There was one table that gave a BABY metal KNIVES to bang together, flail around and I could hardly hear myself think. The "parents" just ignored this. Gee, lets spin that wheel of bad ideas again shall we? In addition to annoying everyone around them, the baby could have severely injured himself but do the parents care? Nope. Not at all. Maybe they figured that they had so many that if they lost one, oh well. Bad parenting really gets me.
Also my risotto dish with mushrooms and leeks were so bad that I think if Grumpy had tasted it, he would have buried it so deep in a diamond mine that it would never be found again.
Leek Anatomy 101: When cooking with leeks, you want to use the white part on the very bottom by the roots and a bit of the light green section but not too much. As the leek gets greener, it gets bitterer. Well this was the problem with my dish. It was too bitter and too overpowered by the leek. Blech.
Well due to my lack of food intake while drinking my cider I am getting a little buzzed. I get up to use the ladies room, got really confused by the Gaelic names on the doors and walk into the mens room. "hmmmmm, a line of drinking fountains - guess I am in the wrong place". Fortunately there were no occupants at the time BUT when I opened the door the urinals were right there directly in front of me so if anyone opened the door to enter the bathroom, people in the hall could see men standing there peeing - just saying.
I wanted to get some dessert like the bread and butter pudding but Grumpy declared that all the desserts sucked. Don't listen to Grumpy, he is grumpy. So to keep the peace, I didn't push the dessert issue.
It always seems that every time I come to the World my last dinner is always sub-par. I have no idea why this is. I thought this would be the one that broke the cycle. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Well now we head over to the Adventurers Club. Grumpy is all excited (yes excited) that I am going. This is really strange because usually I love the Adventurers Club, I live there but this trip I just havent been that interested. Well now Im thinking it will be better. I was wrong.
The characters are ALL DIFFERENT. I know that they change around but I have been going here since 1998 and have seen some characters all the time. Yes I know that you cant chain people to the club and make them work if they dont want to or they move or get a better job or are run over by a rhino. But its not the same and they arent as good. Especially disappointing is that the Hathaway Brown theyve had for forever isnt there! I finally see ONE familiar face. One actor up to par the others were OK but not he same caliber.
Now the leeks are attacking my stomach and I am feeling cursed by the last night in the World is always sub-par curse. Grumpy gets me some water because I am not into drinking sweet cocktails. I brought my left over leek risotto with me because even though it tastes like donkey, I cant waste food. This whole thing is just too much. All I want to do is get back to the Lodge and relax.
I check my watch and figure that after 2 hours, I have put in enough of an appearance. Tried it, found it wanting, going home now. Those dogs suck. I beg off and take my leave. Next trip Im going to skip AC altogether. There is so much to do that maybe Ill check out Jellyrolls.
I get on the bus and find that I am suck with the drunk marine guys and their wives. Great. One of the guys wanted to sing
badly. Not that he REALLY wanted to sing but that his singing was bad. Really bad. AND he was singing girly princess songs. I told him he could only sing Part of my world if he was dressed as Ariel. The ladies agreed with me. He stopped singing.
I get back at the Lodge for my last night. This is always so sad. I just hate this part. I ease my sorrows with a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich and a hot dog. It takes the bad leek taste out of my mouth. I call The Family (remember them) and set up a meeting time for tomorrow.
I decide to turn on the TV and watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics and wait until our team comes in to see what dorky hat they are wearing this year. U is so far down the alphabet that I dont know if I can stay awake. Albania, Canada (I think they are part of us technically because they are attached, only with socialized medicine and those Moose and you gotta love that song Blame Canada from the South Park Movie), Denmark, France (whatever Im still mad at them for the bad food), Germany, Jamaica (hey, it could happen), Norway (you know they are going to kick our donkey with their Hans Brinker skate magic and stuff), Sweden (its not just for adult films anymore thats the San Fernando Valley in LA yup we take all your stuff, even your porn), Switzerland, come on, come on Tanzania or something like that
.. Finally at the end of the group (nearly) comes us. The U S of A! YAY! People hate us because we are going to win a donkey load of medals. Get over it. Wonder why athletes from tiny countries are now training here? Yeah.
Now that I have insulted half the planet I can go to sleep. Tomorrow is our last day and its the Magic Kingdom.
Thanks for the grins! Just wanted to let you know that I have my TIVO set to record the Fred Willard show next Tuesday, can't wait. We have a similar festival here every October... official name is The Texas Renaissance Festival, but that's RenFest to us. ( 
I can't wait to read the rest of your report 
