My journal entry for Day 5 starts, “Well, today didn’t turn out quite like I’d expected.”
The plan was not grand – just to spend the morning splashing around at Stormalong Bay, the afternoon on the DVC tour, and the evening at Hollywood Studios. I guess I was sort of hoping to replicate the first day of our honeymoon, when we had so much fun at SAB, capped by a lovely lunch at Beaches & Cream.
But when we woke up, DH said he felt funny and disappeared into the restroom. While he was recovering, I blathered motivational things and wrung my hands for a bit until I finally thought of something useful I could do – free laundry!
One wash load later, DH said he was feeling better, and we decided to stick to the plan. One-third of Stormalong Bay was undergoing a rehab, but we were probably better off not doing the slide or the whirlpool that day anyway.
FUTURE enjoyment?! But I want enjoyment NOW!!!
We floated in the lazy river, cruised like crocodiles just below the surface on the fringes of the sandy beach, and spent a little time in the one open Jacuzzi. DH said he felt pretty good.
By 11:30 I was starving and had my heart set on a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake at Beaches & Cream. We got out of the pool and were drying off when DH had another “episode” right there by the lounge chairs... and in the bushes.... The poor guy was so embarrassed, and the CM who was checking wristbands at the gate came running over to see if he was OK. I was actually really touched by her concern – I’ve been with someone in a similar situation before, and usually the employees who come running up don’t give a hoot about you, they just want to hustle you out of the public eye ASAP. She seemed genuinely concerned about his welfare and not at all concerned about the rapidly withering bushes. She offered to go get us first aid, water bottles, etc., but DH just wanted to get the heck out of there.
Of course, now, he said, he felt much better, and he even said he’d accompany me to Beaches & Cream – talk about fortitude!
So, I felt kinda weird making him sit there while I ate my cheeseburger, fries and a frosty peanut butter-chocolate milkshake, but I’d also really been looking forward to them, so I guiltily scarfed them down.
After (my) lunch, we went back to the room and DH took a nap. I finished up the laundry and puttered around the room until he told me I shouldn’t feel like I had to stick around, and to go walk around or do something. I was kinda going stir-crazy. So I grabbed the camera and went out to get shots of nearby Disney wedding and reception locations.
Shipwreck Beach
Hurricane Hanna’s
As I got farther from the Beach Club, I got a little bolder. Maybe I could go just a little farther and duck inside Epcot, I thought. I could go to the perfume shop in France – I never like to drag DH in there, so I’d be doing him a favor. (Side note: DH just phoned and told me a woman in the bank was wearing “the perfume from France” and when he got a whiff he was suddenly back in Epcot! Which means I must have, at some point, inflicted the perfume shop on him....)
Well, of course, once I got inside Epcot, I couldn’t just stop at the France Pavilion!
Oooh, and maybe I could take a picture of the infamous high wall at the Morocco Dessert Party locations!
I shoulda stuck a kid in the shot to give it some much-needed scale!
I got as far as Italy (they had perfume there – it was legit!) before I started feeling really guilty about being in Epcot without DH and turned around. As I passed through America, whom should I spot but honeymooners Lacey & Eric! They were waiting to get a picture with Perla (Suzy?), but every time one group left her, another would swoop over in front of them. We had a nice chat about their wedding and what they’d been up to since, and then I took a pic of them with the giant mouse before releasing them to enjoy the rest of their honeymoon. For some reason it didn’t occur to me to get their contact info. I just sort of assumed I’d see them again, and it turns out I was right!
As I passed the pin cart in America, I thought sadly of how DH would be magnetically attracted to it were he with me, and suddenly I found myself doing the unthinkable: I bought my first pin! But it wasn’t for me, so don’t get the wrong idea. I wanted to cheer DH up with a souvenir.
As I was browsing, who should turn up but Lacey & Eric (this time
they were doing the stalking!), and I discovered the Eric started pin collecting around the same time as DH. We talked about how, like DH, he was afraid to trade with real people and only approached CMs. And how they both pretty much collect like kids, looking for appealing designs rather than limited-edition or rare stuff. I picked out one of the few Wall*E pins I could find, and Eric approved!
It started getting on toward 2pm, and the DVC van was supposed to pick us up at 3pm. Originally, we were gonna have them pick us up from the DVC booth at American Adventure because then we would have gotten a ride backstage! But we chose the front of the Beach Club once we saw DH wasn’t gonna be leaving the resort much that day.
Here’s our deal with the Disney Vacation Club tour (I’m hoping this will help explain why I behaved like such a bad wife): We had this card from Jennifaerie & Rob’s AK Lodge room that said we’d get a $100 gift card for taking the tour. (Eventually we got one at Wilderness Lodge too, so I gave one to Lacey & Eric, who were experiencing a decided lack of honeymoon freebies!) Well, I’m never one to turn down free money, but this time I became almost obsessed by the idea because our $125 in Sunshine Rewards gift cards had not arrived in time for our trip, and I’d been counting on them to help us out. So here was a chance to make up for part of that.
Well, when I got back to the room, DH was still a little woozy. But I was intent on doing the DVC tour, so we called and pushed it back to the last time slot that still qualified for the gift cards. He did think he should probably eat something, so I ran down to the BCV market and got him a banana and crackers and applesauce on the recommendation of a nurse at
Disneyland. That’s right, this has happened to us before at Disney, and the kindly nurse there taught us the “BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce & Toast)” trick for knowing what to eat.
(That experience was a doozy because the Grand Californian wouldn’t give us a late checkout, so we got turned out of our room. Poor DH wobbled from bench to bench around Disneyland until it was time for our reservation at Club 33, where he promptly tossed his cookies in the wastebasket. So, really, once you’ve lost your lunch in the hallowed lobby of Club 33, nothing else fazes you.)
After DH had a little bite to eat, we took a nice, easy stroll to the front of the Beach Club and waited for the DVC van to come get us. Nobody else was waiting, so we had a private ride over to Saratoga Springs Resort. It’s the one Disney resort I’ve never been to, just cuz I’ve never been interested in the theme. But it was a lot less like a bland condo complex than I’d imagined, and I’ll bet if you get a room with a view of Downtown Disney, it’s pretty neat at night. (I have no pictures.)
The DVC preview center is very impressive. At Disneyland, all we have is part of a converted office shared with Disneyland’s tiny Weddings department and a veritable trailer converted to look like a Saratoga Springs room (OK, I think they’ve since added a Grand Californian Villas model). So it was a treat to see a real, free-standing building with soaring ceilings and attractive conversational groupings of sofas and chairs.
Just behind the reception desk is the room where you can help yourself to watery lemonade and a picked-over assortment of Pepperidge Farm cookies. The murals have a neat light-up pixie dust effect that couldn’t be captured by our aging workhorse of a camera.
Sorry the pix are so bad today – DH was out of commission as trip photographer!
DH collapsed on a sofa while I ran around taking crummy pictures.
Eventually our guide came out and gave us the intro spiel, which turned into a kind of elaborate game of showing us how much she already knew about Mr. & Mrs. Lurkyloo. We’d taken the tour at Disneyland almost 2 years ago (once again, because they dangled a $100 gift card in front of us!), and they must’ve still had all our details on file. But I couldn’t figure out how she knew we’d been married at Epcot in Morocco. I mean, it couldn’t be because I blab about it all over the Internets and in person to anyone who’ll listen! (DH thinks I prolly opened my big yap during the Disneyland tour).
When she asked how much we knew about DVC, I let her know that I’d just edited a book on DVC for PassPorter, so she got to skip the basics of the sales pitch. The next step was to tour the models, which we were actually pretty excited about. I was dying to see the Treehouse Villas and the new Bay Lake Tower. We’d already stayed in Animal Kingdom Villas, but they were only converted hotel rooms, so I was interested in the model of the regular DVC rooms too.
We got outside and were headed toward the model building when DH paused and asked where the nearest restroom was. As our guide started to point waaaaay back toward the preview center, he turned away and lost his lunch right in front of our guide!!! (Fortunately I’d made him bring a shopping bag this time...)
Understandably, she freaked. She was like, “I’ll get the van!” and ran to a door in the side of the building where the models are, hollering into her walkie talkie. When she opened the door, I saw half a dozen official-looking DVC CMs in some kind of secret operations center, walking around with clipboards and headsets. They all kind of huddled around her and tried to figure out what to do. Meanwhile, DH is outside waving perkily and saying “It’s OK – now I feel GREAT!”
The poor woman kept saying “I just don’t feel comfortable continuing this tour!” and we, with visions of 100 clams slipping through our grasp, kept assuring her “No, it’s OK! He feels great now! He hasn’t felt this good all day! [DH does a few one-armed pushups in the background] Please, can we see the models? Pleeeeeeeeeease?!”
And I don't know why, but I love El Pollo Loco's watery macaroni and cheese. It isn't even as good as Mickeyroni, but I always get it.....
I'll be watching.... 
again. 
But, did you get free ice cream 
