Tabetha
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2004
- Messages
- 1,545
Cast:
Tabetha: Disney fan who came to the "World" late in life, and am now making up for it! This is my second trip on property, last year we stayed at Pop Century with my sister.
Greg: Disney fan that has been to the "World" pretty much every year for the last 15 years. Has seen it all, and is starting to see a little tarnish on the magic. Has been his lifelong dream to stay at the Polynesian.
We've been dating for over a year now, and this is our first "alone trip"!
02/15/05: Solo time, or, Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Stitch called bright and early this day, 8AM. Seconds later, theres a knock at the door wow, when you ask for 8-8:30 for breakfast delivery, they mean business. I leap out of bed and run to the door, hoping that the delivery dude wont be too off-put by my PJs. The table is still stacked with Valentines gifts, so we have the delivery dude place the tray on the spare bed. Too tired and mentally unprepared to find more singles, I apologetically hand the guy one dollar. Nice tip, Sleepy von Cheapenson. I know a tip and delivery charge is already built into the final total for breakfast, but I still feel guilty. I console myself by telling myself that he didn't have to set a table or anything, he just set the tray on a bed.
We ordered Walts Dollar Pancake Breakfast (if its good enough for Walt, its good enough for us!), an order of Island Potatoes (I love potatoes), and a pot of coffee. When we see how much food it is, were really glad that were sharing. When I read Dollar Pancake, I think small pancakes. Like, maybe silver dollar sized. Well, I guess Walts big dreams extended to his pancakes. These are huge, and come with a huge serving of scrambled eggs and ham. Greg makes mimosas with some of the leftover champagne and some orange juice left over from the Buffalo airport fiasco. We tuck into the food it is all awesome, the pancakes are appropriately fluffy, and the syrup is warmed, the eggs are, well, eggs, and the potatoes are delicious! Greg eats the ham, and apparently it's quite good. The breakfast, not surprisingly, is very filling. Even between the two of us, we leave a third of it behind.
Greg dresses, and gathers up his things for his golf game. Hes using two of his wishes for the round of golf, and another for deluxe club rental. There is a sleeve of golf balls in the gift basket, but he only takes one of them for the game. Apparently theyre very good balls, and he doesnt want to lose all of them. Hell play a few holes with the cheaper ones he brought from home, and see how is game is before playing with the good ball. I find this very cute. I dont get golf, and Im not one of those girlfriends who want to learn to play so we have something we can do together. Go, play your golf. Enjoy. Ill find something girly to do while youre gone. I send Greg off to Osprey Ridge, with a reminder to meet me for tea at the Garden View Lounge at the Grand Floridian when hes done. After Greg leaves, I get my things together for my day, and grab a Ft. Wilderness bus from the TTC. Im a-goin horseback riding!
I love all animals, but horses are right up there. Growing up, I had a horse for a while, but its been years since Ive had a chance to ride. I know that today wont offer any thrills or challenges, but thats not always what its about. I go in and pay for my ride and get in line for my horse. I get Bugsy, an easygoing, lazy fellow. After mounting up, they lead each horse and rider to the fence of the corral, and tie you up. Well, Bugsy liked putting his head down and looking around. At some point, he managed to break the tether rope, but that didnt seem to faze him. I dont think he even noticed, but I tighten up the reins a smidge, just in case. Eventually everyones all mounted up, and were off. The gal riding the line suggests that I give Bugsy slack in the reins, Youre riding him English. Busted. I learned to ride English, and it shows. I give Bugsy his head, and just sit back to enjoy the feeling of being in the saddle, and the sensation of the sun on my face and the fresh air in my lungs. Ive heard the ride is Boring and that theres nothing to look at. Well, if you consider nature Nothing, then I guess maybe youd agree. But I enjoyed the ride immensely. I even saw a couple of young deer feeding just off the path. I call to the little girl in front of me, who Id talked to in line earlier, and told her to look at the deer. Shes thrilled - I think were the only two who see them, since everyone else is chatting.
Finally the ride is over, and I am totally relaxed. I give Bugsy a scratch behind the ears as a thank you, and dismount.
Once at the bus stop, I realize that I dont really know what bus to take to get back to the TTC and/or the Poly. Eventually, after a few busses come and go, I ask a driver, and he tells me to get on. I take the bus to the boat launch, and take a boat to the Contemporary. I walk through the Contemporary, out of curiosity. Ick. Sorry to those who love it, but it reminds me of the big, impersonal concrete structures at my old university. Not pretty. And parts look really run down. Im glad to hear theyre renovating, because hey cant hurt! I hop on the monorail, grab my bathing suit, throw on my flip-flops and head to the Grand Floridian spa.
Once checked in, I take a quick shower, and wait for my first treatment. Im using one of my Wishes for a Sea Salt Scrub. I had this treatment last year, and loved it. Once again, it is a wonderful, relaxing treatment. Soon, Im tucked away in the Jacuzzi tub in the candle lit treatment room, listening to classical music, sipping cold water and letting my skin drink up the essential oils from the sea salt scrub. Its awesome. All too soon, its over, and I head back to the lounge to wait for my next treatment. I wonder if I should get dressed, since its only a pedicure. I opt for eating a banana instead. A moment later, Emelia comes to get me for my pedicure. I pick my polish colour, and get set up in my heating, massaging chair. Emelia gets to work on my feet, and I wish Id gotten dressed. Theres only so much a robe can cover, and although I manage to keep things under wraps, its not easy or relaxing when your aestheticians eye level is your crotcherooni. We all chat like girls in a beauty shop. Our topics of conversation range from health insurance to SuperSize Me and Fast Food Nation. Its a fun time, and when alls said and done, my feet look and feel great. All too soon, its time for me to leave, and after charging my pedicure to the room; I wander over to the Garden View Lounge for our rendezvous. I already know that Greg is going to be late, especially since I encouraged him not to rush, which is why I chose tea for our meet-up. I figured I could just go ahead and get started while I waited for him.
Much to my delight, there is a gathering of the Red Hat Society ladies at the tea room at the same time. This trip is the first time Id ever heard of them when we were at the Cracker Barrel in Buffalo, I had noticed a pin rack of Red Hat Society pins and brooches. I was instantly enchanted. What a fun group they seemed like! I learned that they all wear Red Hats, and purple dresses, but when its their birthday, the dress is reversed. Purple Hat, red dress. Well, two of them must have been having their birthday. There were a lot of them, and they seemed to be having so much fun, I almost wanted to go grab a red hat and pretend to be 50!
I order my tea (Buckingham tea) and ask for an extra egg sandwich in lieu of the chicken. I really like the egg salad ones, and the watercress one is better than I expected watercress to be. Id finished my sandwiches, and was just piling clotted cream on my scone as I see Greg enter the lobby. He sees me, and then ducks behind a pillar. He crosses the lobby in the same way by hiding behind various large items in the lobby, and I pretend to lose him every time. He joins me at the table, and also orders the Buckingham.
Greg is ebullient about his golf game. Apparently, it was, you guessed it, "awesome". He was paired with a couple of guys from New Jersey, and they got along great. Greg showed me his golf card. I dont understand the meaning of the various numbers, but I look at what he tells me to look at, and figure out that he did pretty well on the back nine. He used the Valentines Day ball on a couple of holes, and did really well on those! He was thrilled with everything from the smell of the air to the neat golf carts with GPS. Its so fun to see how happy he is. I tell him about my ride and spa treatments, and show him my prettified feet. We order strawberries and cream for our dessert, over the beautiful, but rich looking pastries. Theyre delicious.
We struck up a conversation with the pair sitting next to us a mother and grown man son combo. Theyve just driven up for the day to have tea and look for pins. This woman is a wealth of pin knowledge, and we learn a lot about pins, and the people who collect them. We finish our tea, say goodbye to the pin lady and her son, and head back to the Poly.
Originally wed planned to head to Blizzard Beach for the afternoon, but its much too late at this point. Were kind of at a loss. Animal Kingdom is EMH for the evening, so thats our choice. This is only my second time at AK, and the first time I wasnt really impressed. This time around is different though. Its much less crowded in the evening. We dash over to DinoLand and ride Primeval Whirl a couple of times in a row, and then ride Dinosaur. I find Dinosaur a little dull, frankly. Im not really sure what I had been expecting, but this ride didnt really wow me.
We wander around the virtually empty park for a bit longer. Not much was open, and we just enjoy the scenery. We notice a very pungent aroma in the air, and come to a bridge and discover the reason. The trees along one side of the river are thick and white with birds and, for lack of a better word, bird poop. I guess guano is a better word. Thick and white with birds and guano. Which means, Poop. Breathtaking for both reasons.
We decide to hightail it over to Downtown Disney for dinner with the thought of hitting Pleasure Island as well. Gregs only stipulation is that he doesnt want to eat at Wolfgang Pucks. Im not sure what he has against it, but he says it doesnt sound like thered be anything good there. I shrug, knowing that well be happy with Earl of Sandwich. He doesnt even know what Earl of Sandwich has to offer, but I already know hes going to order the meatball sub. We get in line, order an Antipasto Salad to share were really missing fresh fruit and veggies, I order a Caprese Sandwich and an Earls Grey Lemonade, and Greg orders the Cannonballs (meatball) sandwich and an iced tea. We devour the sandwiches and salad; theyre all incredibly delicious. Its a very reasonably priced meal, too, all things considered.
We head over to Pleasure Island. I notice signs saying that if youve purchased tickets prior to Feb 6th, you need to go to the ticket trolley to get valid PI passes. Were not sure if this applies to us, so we go just in case. They guy manning the booth doesnt seem to know much of anything. As part of our Dream Maker package, weve got Ultimate Parkhopper Passes, which include unlimited admission to PI, the water parks and Disney Quest. I know this for a fact. The doofus in the trolley says No. Admission to PI is not included. I tell him that it is. He says that it is not, in no uncertain terms. This guy is decidedly "un-awesome". He suggests that we go to Customer Relations if we have a problem with it. We do, and so we do. The customer relations guy says hes not sure what the trolley guy is talking about after swiping our cards, he sees that we have full admission to everything, its written in plain English on the screen. We thank him, and head over to DisneyQuest. We realized on our way over to Customer Relations that we'd left our ID's back in the room, so no PI for us tonight.
Fortunately the DisneyQuest is virtually empty. We look around for a bit, and it isnt until I sit down to play Crazy Taxi that Greg realizes that all the arcade games are included in your admission. He goes to play a couple of games, and we eventually head to ride the bumpercar-shootem-up game. Greg drives, and I load the gun and shoot. Its silly, and very fun.
We play all the various simulators, and build our own roller coaster, staying until closing. DisneyQuest is a fun way to spend a couple of hours, but I dont know that Id need to go there multiple times in one trip.
We take the bus back to the Poly, and before heading back to our room; we stop by Captain Cooks to buy some cereal, milk and fruit for breakfast. For good measure, I grab an Uncrustable. Mostly out of curiosity, and because theyre so cute.
We have another glass of champagne sure is taking us a while to get through that bottle! and fall fast asleep.
Day Zero: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=746706
Day One, Part One http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=747729
Day One, Part Two http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=748633
Day Two: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=750260
Tabetha: Disney fan who came to the "World" late in life, and am now making up for it! This is my second trip on property, last year we stayed at Pop Century with my sister.
Greg: Disney fan that has been to the "World" pretty much every year for the last 15 years. Has seen it all, and is starting to see a little tarnish on the magic. Has been his lifelong dream to stay at the Polynesian.
We've been dating for over a year now, and this is our first "alone trip"!
02/15/05: Solo time, or, Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Stitch called bright and early this day, 8AM. Seconds later, theres a knock at the door wow, when you ask for 8-8:30 for breakfast delivery, they mean business. I leap out of bed and run to the door, hoping that the delivery dude wont be too off-put by my PJs. The table is still stacked with Valentines gifts, so we have the delivery dude place the tray on the spare bed. Too tired and mentally unprepared to find more singles, I apologetically hand the guy one dollar. Nice tip, Sleepy von Cheapenson. I know a tip and delivery charge is already built into the final total for breakfast, but I still feel guilty. I console myself by telling myself that he didn't have to set a table or anything, he just set the tray on a bed.
We ordered Walts Dollar Pancake Breakfast (if its good enough for Walt, its good enough for us!), an order of Island Potatoes (I love potatoes), and a pot of coffee. When we see how much food it is, were really glad that were sharing. When I read Dollar Pancake, I think small pancakes. Like, maybe silver dollar sized. Well, I guess Walts big dreams extended to his pancakes. These are huge, and come with a huge serving of scrambled eggs and ham. Greg makes mimosas with some of the leftover champagne and some orange juice left over from the Buffalo airport fiasco. We tuck into the food it is all awesome, the pancakes are appropriately fluffy, and the syrup is warmed, the eggs are, well, eggs, and the potatoes are delicious! Greg eats the ham, and apparently it's quite good. The breakfast, not surprisingly, is very filling. Even between the two of us, we leave a third of it behind.
Greg dresses, and gathers up his things for his golf game. Hes using two of his wishes for the round of golf, and another for deluxe club rental. There is a sleeve of golf balls in the gift basket, but he only takes one of them for the game. Apparently theyre very good balls, and he doesnt want to lose all of them. Hell play a few holes with the cheaper ones he brought from home, and see how is game is before playing with the good ball. I find this very cute. I dont get golf, and Im not one of those girlfriends who want to learn to play so we have something we can do together. Go, play your golf. Enjoy. Ill find something girly to do while youre gone. I send Greg off to Osprey Ridge, with a reminder to meet me for tea at the Garden View Lounge at the Grand Floridian when hes done. After Greg leaves, I get my things together for my day, and grab a Ft. Wilderness bus from the TTC. Im a-goin horseback riding!
I love all animals, but horses are right up there. Growing up, I had a horse for a while, but its been years since Ive had a chance to ride. I know that today wont offer any thrills or challenges, but thats not always what its about. I go in and pay for my ride and get in line for my horse. I get Bugsy, an easygoing, lazy fellow. After mounting up, they lead each horse and rider to the fence of the corral, and tie you up. Well, Bugsy liked putting his head down and looking around. At some point, he managed to break the tether rope, but that didnt seem to faze him. I dont think he even noticed, but I tighten up the reins a smidge, just in case. Eventually everyones all mounted up, and were off. The gal riding the line suggests that I give Bugsy slack in the reins, Youre riding him English. Busted. I learned to ride English, and it shows. I give Bugsy his head, and just sit back to enjoy the feeling of being in the saddle, and the sensation of the sun on my face and the fresh air in my lungs. Ive heard the ride is Boring and that theres nothing to look at. Well, if you consider nature Nothing, then I guess maybe youd agree. But I enjoyed the ride immensely. I even saw a couple of young deer feeding just off the path. I call to the little girl in front of me, who Id talked to in line earlier, and told her to look at the deer. Shes thrilled - I think were the only two who see them, since everyone else is chatting.
Finally the ride is over, and I am totally relaxed. I give Bugsy a scratch behind the ears as a thank you, and dismount.
Once at the bus stop, I realize that I dont really know what bus to take to get back to the TTC and/or the Poly. Eventually, after a few busses come and go, I ask a driver, and he tells me to get on. I take the bus to the boat launch, and take a boat to the Contemporary. I walk through the Contemporary, out of curiosity. Ick. Sorry to those who love it, but it reminds me of the big, impersonal concrete structures at my old university. Not pretty. And parts look really run down. Im glad to hear theyre renovating, because hey cant hurt! I hop on the monorail, grab my bathing suit, throw on my flip-flops and head to the Grand Floridian spa.
Once checked in, I take a quick shower, and wait for my first treatment. Im using one of my Wishes for a Sea Salt Scrub. I had this treatment last year, and loved it. Once again, it is a wonderful, relaxing treatment. Soon, Im tucked away in the Jacuzzi tub in the candle lit treatment room, listening to classical music, sipping cold water and letting my skin drink up the essential oils from the sea salt scrub. Its awesome. All too soon, its over, and I head back to the lounge to wait for my next treatment. I wonder if I should get dressed, since its only a pedicure. I opt for eating a banana instead. A moment later, Emelia comes to get me for my pedicure. I pick my polish colour, and get set up in my heating, massaging chair. Emelia gets to work on my feet, and I wish Id gotten dressed. Theres only so much a robe can cover, and although I manage to keep things under wraps, its not easy or relaxing when your aestheticians eye level is your crotcherooni. We all chat like girls in a beauty shop. Our topics of conversation range from health insurance to SuperSize Me and Fast Food Nation. Its a fun time, and when alls said and done, my feet look and feel great. All too soon, its time for me to leave, and after charging my pedicure to the room; I wander over to the Garden View Lounge for our rendezvous. I already know that Greg is going to be late, especially since I encouraged him not to rush, which is why I chose tea for our meet-up. I figured I could just go ahead and get started while I waited for him.
Much to my delight, there is a gathering of the Red Hat Society ladies at the tea room at the same time. This trip is the first time Id ever heard of them when we were at the Cracker Barrel in Buffalo, I had noticed a pin rack of Red Hat Society pins and brooches. I was instantly enchanted. What a fun group they seemed like! I learned that they all wear Red Hats, and purple dresses, but when its their birthday, the dress is reversed. Purple Hat, red dress. Well, two of them must have been having their birthday. There were a lot of them, and they seemed to be having so much fun, I almost wanted to go grab a red hat and pretend to be 50!
I order my tea (Buckingham tea) and ask for an extra egg sandwich in lieu of the chicken. I really like the egg salad ones, and the watercress one is better than I expected watercress to be. Id finished my sandwiches, and was just piling clotted cream on my scone as I see Greg enter the lobby. He sees me, and then ducks behind a pillar. He crosses the lobby in the same way by hiding behind various large items in the lobby, and I pretend to lose him every time. He joins me at the table, and also orders the Buckingham.
Greg is ebullient about his golf game. Apparently, it was, you guessed it, "awesome". He was paired with a couple of guys from New Jersey, and they got along great. Greg showed me his golf card. I dont understand the meaning of the various numbers, but I look at what he tells me to look at, and figure out that he did pretty well on the back nine. He used the Valentines Day ball on a couple of holes, and did really well on those! He was thrilled with everything from the smell of the air to the neat golf carts with GPS. Its so fun to see how happy he is. I tell him about my ride and spa treatments, and show him my prettified feet. We order strawberries and cream for our dessert, over the beautiful, but rich looking pastries. Theyre delicious.
We struck up a conversation with the pair sitting next to us a mother and grown man son combo. Theyve just driven up for the day to have tea and look for pins. This woman is a wealth of pin knowledge, and we learn a lot about pins, and the people who collect them. We finish our tea, say goodbye to the pin lady and her son, and head back to the Poly.
Originally wed planned to head to Blizzard Beach for the afternoon, but its much too late at this point. Were kind of at a loss. Animal Kingdom is EMH for the evening, so thats our choice. This is only my second time at AK, and the first time I wasnt really impressed. This time around is different though. Its much less crowded in the evening. We dash over to DinoLand and ride Primeval Whirl a couple of times in a row, and then ride Dinosaur. I find Dinosaur a little dull, frankly. Im not really sure what I had been expecting, but this ride didnt really wow me.
We wander around the virtually empty park for a bit longer. Not much was open, and we just enjoy the scenery. We notice a very pungent aroma in the air, and come to a bridge and discover the reason. The trees along one side of the river are thick and white with birds and, for lack of a better word, bird poop. I guess guano is a better word. Thick and white with birds and guano. Which means, Poop. Breathtaking for both reasons.
We decide to hightail it over to Downtown Disney for dinner with the thought of hitting Pleasure Island as well. Gregs only stipulation is that he doesnt want to eat at Wolfgang Pucks. Im not sure what he has against it, but he says it doesnt sound like thered be anything good there. I shrug, knowing that well be happy with Earl of Sandwich. He doesnt even know what Earl of Sandwich has to offer, but I already know hes going to order the meatball sub. We get in line, order an Antipasto Salad to share were really missing fresh fruit and veggies, I order a Caprese Sandwich and an Earls Grey Lemonade, and Greg orders the Cannonballs (meatball) sandwich and an iced tea. We devour the sandwiches and salad; theyre all incredibly delicious. Its a very reasonably priced meal, too, all things considered.
We head over to Pleasure Island. I notice signs saying that if youve purchased tickets prior to Feb 6th, you need to go to the ticket trolley to get valid PI passes. Were not sure if this applies to us, so we go just in case. They guy manning the booth doesnt seem to know much of anything. As part of our Dream Maker package, weve got Ultimate Parkhopper Passes, which include unlimited admission to PI, the water parks and Disney Quest. I know this for a fact. The doofus in the trolley says No. Admission to PI is not included. I tell him that it is. He says that it is not, in no uncertain terms. This guy is decidedly "un-awesome". He suggests that we go to Customer Relations if we have a problem with it. We do, and so we do. The customer relations guy says hes not sure what the trolley guy is talking about after swiping our cards, he sees that we have full admission to everything, its written in plain English on the screen. We thank him, and head over to DisneyQuest. We realized on our way over to Customer Relations that we'd left our ID's back in the room, so no PI for us tonight.
Fortunately the DisneyQuest is virtually empty. We look around for a bit, and it isnt until I sit down to play Crazy Taxi that Greg realizes that all the arcade games are included in your admission. He goes to play a couple of games, and we eventually head to ride the bumpercar-shootem-up game. Greg drives, and I load the gun and shoot. Its silly, and very fun.
We play all the various simulators, and build our own roller coaster, staying until closing. DisneyQuest is a fun way to spend a couple of hours, but I dont know that Id need to go there multiple times in one trip.
We take the bus back to the Poly, and before heading back to our room; we stop by Captain Cooks to buy some cereal, milk and fruit for breakfast. For good measure, I grab an Uncrustable. Mostly out of curiosity, and because theyre so cute.
We have another glass of champagne sure is taking us a while to get through that bottle! and fall fast asleep.
Day Zero: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=746706
Day One, Part One http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=747729
Day One, Part Two http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=748633
Day Two: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=750260
and I am for sure experiencing de'ja vue now. I hope you have found my trip report and you will definitely agree. I believe we are "molded from the same clay" except you obviously got all the talent for writing! 
