Not a whole bunch of time right now, but I really want to get back on track, so let's see how fast I can type and think at the same time.
We are going to leave our dumbfounded fastpass less heroes right where they are right now, in a drizzling rain on the way out of HS. Now, let's backtrack here a bit, to the planning stage of the trip.
I am going to guess, that from all the readers here, only maybe two of you might agree with me on my thoughts coming up, and they might be Randy and D-Jay.
See a pattern already?
Our buy 4, get 3 free deal also comes with a 200 dollar gift card, that we are mainlly going to use of coarse on FOOD.
Now, how to break it down?
To me, the answer is very simple, get the most bang for the buck out of it.
Many people take the attitude that once they have the card in their hands, they are now playing with Disney's money. A lot of dumb gamblers take the same approach once they get up a bit in their betting, and it's wrong.
Once the money is won, it becomes officially yours, there is no such thing as " But I was betting with the house's money, so it didn't matter."
No, once you win it, it become's your money, just like the same "your money' that you made the bet with originally.
Follow?
So just because we have an extra 200 bucks from Disney to spend, no, not going to blow it all at Victoria and Albert's.
You know how I would have spent it?
20 counter service meals! Ten apiece, and I don't have to pull out my wallet for food for the rest of the trip!
Wanna guess how far that thought lasted in our conversation?
Diane saw it as a form of "free dining". So, as experienced as we both are in the art of compromise and since we both have black belts in the "Marital Arts", we both got a little of what we want.
Buffet meals are generally the cheapest, so using that tactic and the fact we could knock another table service restaurant off our list, we chose Cape May as one place. Then Biergarten joined in. We wish to knock down the untried list somemore and decided on Nine Dragons. With 3 tables services taken, I figured there should still be enough for two counter service meals left, and a split of a funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow.
You are probably thinking I'm crazy, I had my calculator our when I did all the adding at home, and believe it or not, it worked out in the end to leave us exactly 1.45 cents left over doing exactly the meals we mentioned above.
We also have a 15 dollar gift certificate for Planet Hollywood and ressies set for an our of pocket meal at T-Rex.
I still like my first idea better, no having to be at a certain place at a certain time, no "saving" yourself for the "real" meal.
Just lots of ribs at Flame Tree, chicken parmisagna at Riverside, jambalaya at French Quarter, and chili-cheese dogs at Cosmic Ray's when I want the back of the bus all to myself at the end of Wishes.
So, back to HS. It's about noon now, and the cold and the rain pretty much dampened my spirits, not to mention soaking my socks cuz my only comfortable shoes have cracks in the bottom of the soles, and it was time to change the schedule, go with the flow and play it by ear. Funny thing was, for every trip I usually make a small list of things I want to do, or see, that I always forget about. Remember how long it took us to finally see Devine?
One thing I wanted to do was have my picture taken somewhere in HS that we hardly ever are in the neighborhood of, supposedly it's the same style of lamp taht Gene Kelly swung around on in "Singin in the Rain."
I thought about it just before we left, but two problems; one is that I just don't feel like it right now, and two is that I'm not really sure where it is. And three is that because of the weather, I didn't even bring the camera with me.
The ironic part is that for that shot it would have been perfect today, It WAS raining. Probably just as well though, instead of "Singin' in the Rain", it would have looked more like "Moanin' in the Mist."
By the way, I have given this a lot of thought, and in my opinion, the single most impressive animatronic in all of DisneyWorld is the wicked witch in Great Movie Ride. For years we used to have debates on whether or not it is a live person or not.
Anybody else have their favorite animatronic?
We had take a tram to the front gate in the morning, but for some stupid reason I wanted to walk to the car now, so with umbrellas out we splashed our way back to the Santa Fe.
DId you know that it's a lot harder to find your car when the lot is full?
Honest.
Didn't miss a single puddle though.
In the room I changed socks and shoes, and we splashed our way out to the car again, time to use the certificate that came with the package for Planet Hollywood.
Once again the rain started up as soon as we parked so there wasn't much inclination to do much more than just go in and eat.
In our musings and bemusings about living down there and maybe working there, Diane has considered possibly getting a waitress job somewhere in Disney, she is an excellent waitress for a fine dining establishment up here, and at least in Disney you know the tables are going to be full.
Just not going to happen at Planet Hollywood though. Out of the ten different waitresses we saw, and on other trips as well, none were taller then 5'3, none looked older then 18, and I don't think there was a single one that weighed more then 105 pounds. She pointed out that her chest weighed more then most of the girls whole bodies, and I had to agree with her, though that wasn't exactly the word she used.
Personally, I think she's make a great "Mom" at Prime Time.
Then she could do what comes naturally.
Wait on people , not yell at them, geesh!
Whenever we have used the PH discount before we have ended up splitting appetizers, and they're ok, just not something to write home about. This time we both ordered burgers and fries. I thought it was better then expected, she agreed. Even though they aren't cheap, the whole thing cost and extra 14 bucks, including tip, which is fine by me.
And I still haven't cracked open the 200 dollar gift card yet!
The package also came with a 5 dollar merchandise Planet Hollywood card, and I think she used that to buy a toothpick. We were back to the resort by 3 o'clock, with no idea what to do with our time now.
And it was still raining.
After stopping in the food court/gift shop for a newspaper, we took a walk around all the food counters to see if anything was missed before, I had an idea that we might be hungry again later on tonight, and when you just hang around it seems you end up eating more then normal.
One thing I did see that a lot of people had ordered was a huge pizza.
We have both read about the pizzas in Disney, and from growing up in Chicago, we are both pretty picky when it comes to thin/pan/stuffed/doublestuffed or even in pie form, pizza.
But there's something about seeing a big open pizza box on a table, and everybody digging into it that makes you want to try it.
There was this one family sitting at a long table, with 2 huge boxes in front of them, not talking, just chowing down like it's the best thing in the world. I kept trying to get a good view of the main part still in the box, but everytime they opened it, they's close it right back up and just eat that one piece they took out, not even put in down first.
This is not helping me. I NEED to see the crust. I can' tell a lot about a pizza just by viewing the crust.
"Whatdoyathink, hon, can you tell?"
"Nope," she replied, "they keep closing the box on me."
"I know, how selfish!"
I started to walk away, but she had better thoughts, it was going to be a direct frontal approach.
I saw her walking over there, and was afraid she was going to grab the box and make a run with it.
In a way, that might have been a better choice.
"Excuse me, we were just wondering if the pizza here is any good."
Since she said, "we", and since they started looking around for the rest of "we", I figured that it might be prudent to go over and join her.
It turned out that Diane's "we', and their "we", were probably two different words. I think they thought she said "oui", because what followed was a mostly French couple of sentences, if it was a critique on the pizza, I have no idea. I nodded my head, trying not to laugh and started walking away mumbling thanks.
Did Smidgy take my lead?
Au contraire.
I must be rubbing off on her.
"Oh, so your from France?"
"Wow, that must have been SOME long flight to get here, so tell me, what part of France are you from?"
I looked at the guy, saw the little smirk and I could see what was coming. This time I did walk away just so I wouldn't be dumb by proxy, but I could stil hear the one word answer;
"Montreal".
I met her out by the smoking area, and she was still red. Turned out that they liked the pizza very much though, and later on that night we gave it a shot.
Oh brother, a shot would have been the humane thing. Apparently, when it comes to pizza they are easy to please up in Montreal. To me is was just your typical "air" pizza. Just like Domino's or Chuck E CHeese, with the inflated crust. The only thing it's good for is heartburn.
Tomorrow is tuesday, according to the weather channel, this is our forecast:
Tuesday; sunny and clear, high of 52
Wednsday; sunny, high 54
Thurday; sunny, high 55
Friday; sunny, high 64
I am not feeling the love or even being given the chance to get loose of Mr. Grumpy Gills. They keep pushing back the warm weather day by day. Tomorrow is also Magic Kingdom day, rope drop and all. Oh well, gotta grin and bear it.
After hanging around Pop yesterday, I did find out that there was ONE good thing about the room we were given.
It's like this;
If we were on the first floor, it would have been no problem to walk over to one of the smoking areas, and the second floor is also no problem, I don't mind one flight of stairs. But Pop has 4 floors with a stairway over by the lake side.
Anybody on the fourth floor used the elevator, no need to walk all the way down or up. There are also no corner rooms at the values, meaning no double windows, so the staircase side of the building is just that, a staircase and that's all that's over there. And, since the lake at Pop is just a "lookin at" lake, meaning that you can't swim, boat, canoe, fish, sail, or use it for anything but to look at, there is no reason again for anyone to use the stairs that lead down to it.
It made a great unauthorized smoking spot on the top floor, our of site of everybody, which was helpful when it's 35 degrees out and raining. I spent more time hiding in that Duncan Yo Yo then I ever did playing with one as a kid.
goodnight all, hopefully we're back on track now, and the chapters will come quicker then they have.
at the thought of me turning red while walking by - as a matter of fact the 2 time (different trip even!) we got thru the first FP taker, with a late fp - went all the way down that stupid long walkway - then you give your FP - and I truly thought all was well - I gave them the 3 fp and walk to the right, and he grabbed dh and said "ma'am, ma'am come back " I ignored him, then dh yelled, "sandy, he wont let me thru" so I turn around and started yelling ' YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME" we had a freakin medical emergency that's why we are 30 freakin min late! 
Well, I tried. I think I heard someone say, "Yeah, it'll probably break down again as soon as we get near the boarding station anyway." 
HAD to call you on this!!! sorry. you quadruple a post and tease us about dial up? tee hee!!! (of course, because of our ancient dial up, it took me about 20 minutes to post this!!!, and my slow computer makes me double post tons of times!) 
)
There are some mighty good CS things, though, like Tonga Toast and the breakfast pizza at Pop.
Sorry about that rain 
