rgoble5972
Are we there yet?
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2001
- Messages
- 276
Day 5 - Wednesday 5/5/04
CAST
Robin/Me - 40; trip planner/recorded; 11th trip to WDW
Paula/Sister to Robin - 30; 5th trip to WDW
Try saying it again, without the whining. Or, A Mother and Daughter Tea.
The Plan: move to Polynesian; MK; tea at Grand Floridian; MK for Wishes
We were up at 7:30 this morning knowing we needed to get everything packed up to move to the Polynesian. I had Paula give me a 10 minute warning (10 minutes before she would be ready to go) so I could call bell services to come pick up our luggage. After I made the call, I left Paula in the room and went to the lobby to check out. When I got back to the room, bell services had already come and picked up our things, so we went out to valet to pick up our car, which had our luggage already placed inside.
We drove to the Polynesian and left our luggage with bell services while we went inside the Great Ceremonial House (GCH) to check in. I was surprised that they had rooms immediately available and the CM gave us our choice of the Tokelau or the Tahiti longhouse. We chose room 2948 in Tokelau with a view of the quiet pool.
We got our leis and then went back out to valet to get our luggage and be driven to our room. We had to wait a few minutes for a spare cart to take us to our room, but a nice cast member talked to us while we waited. Thats one of the reasons that I like the Polynesian so much, I love their cast members here. They have always been, without exception, the friendliest and most helpful out of all the places Ive stayed.
We dumped our stuff in the room, took a second for Paula to look around, and then headed straight back to the GCH to take the monorail to the MK.
Paula wanted her usual first ride of Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC). I said that we should probably pick up some Fast Passes for Philharmagic first so, since her feet had still not recovered from their blisters, I sent Paula on to Adventureland while I ran and got the Fast Passes and then met up with her outside of PotC.
As we were walking in to the ride, we overheard a snarkey mom behind us telling her child Try saying it again, without the whining. We couldnt help laughing because obviously the child couldnt do anything BUT whine since thats just how the mom talked--in a constant whine. There was another snarkey mom ahead of us in line who wouldnt let her kids touch anything.
I commented to Paula that it was ironic that she liked the MK best of all the parks given the way she feels about children (not a fan of the kids), since the concentration of children is definitely higher here than anywhere else. Paula laughed and said she was thoroughly convinced that WDW is not for kids! Actually, she relented and said that it wasnt the kids that bothered her, but the grumpy parents. How else are the kids going to learn to appreciate the magic of Disney if they cant touch it?
After our ride we looked through gift shop, stopping long enough for Paula to mail a coconut postcard to her husband. And when I say a coconut postcard I mean an actual coconut that she wrote a postcard on. It was really pretty neat. You pick out your coconut and take it to the cash register where the CM gives you a permanent marker to address the postcard and write your message. After youre finished you give the coconut back to the CM, pay for it, and then they mail it for you. We laughed at the vision of the mailman trying to fit the coconut into her small mailbox at home.
We took the long way to Philharmagic, stopping at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR) along the way to pick up another Fast Pass.
We had great timing with our Fast Passes at Philharmagic and were let in just as the show was about to start. It was Paulas first time to see it and she thought it was great.
It was now straight up noon and we were hungry and I was in need of a diet coke. Although, I told Paula that WDW was the only place in the world where I could go without my caffeine in the mornings. We stopped at Columbia Harbor House where Paula had the tuna sandwich with chips and a coke and I had the garden galley salad and a diet coke ($16.86).
After we got our table, I went to the Haunted Mansion (HM) to pick up a Fast Pass for later. There was only a 5 minute wait for the stand by line, so I backtracked and picked up a Fast Pass for Peter Pan instead before going back to join Paula for lunch.
We quickly ate our lunch and then went to the HM at 12:45. We decided that the clever folks in marketing need to make Madame Leota snow globes. They would be perfect since shes already in a crystal ball.
After the Haunted Mansion we went back to use our Fast Passes for BTMRR. Big Thunder Mountain is one of my favorite rides to use Fast Passes on during the day because the queue is out in the blazing sun on some kind of heat reflecting concrete. Its hot and miserable if you have to stand in line for any length of time.
Next we went to Tomorrow land to get a FP for Buzz Lightyear. Our Fast Pass window was not quite open yet so we took a zippy ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA), which is always a favorite. After our ride, we decided to get Fast Passes for Pooh instead of Buzz since the stand by line for Buzz was only 15 minutes and the line for Space Mountain (SpM) was only 10 minutes.
In Fantasyland, the stand by for Pooh was 40 minutes. We got Fast Passes but noticed, too late, that the return time was 3:55-4:55, which will conflict with our date for tea. Oh, well.
We used our Fast Passes for Peter Pan, and then headed back to Tomorrowland to see the Carousel of Progress (or PRO-gress for our British readersall three of you). Now it shames me to admit it but, as many times as Ive been to WDW, I have never seen the Carousel of Progress (CoP). I know, I know, thats grounds for having my Disney card taken away from me. So, I had informed Paula that we were going to see it this trip or die trying. Needless to say, Paula was not very fired up about sitting through it and had a bad attitude from the outset.
We sat quietly through the first scene with the man and his dog Rover. When we got to the next scene and discovered the same man and the same dog, only twenty years in the future, Paula exclaimed, Oh great! Rovers going to die. Thats a whippin!
Where is your Disney spirit? I hissed back at her. Walt wont kill the dog.
Sure enough, you can rest easy that Rover didnt die but was roughly 700 and something in dog years by the end of the presentation.
During the middle of the presentation, an eerie disembodied voice announced There is NO filming in the Carousel of Progress. Put the video camera down, like the great and powerful OZ. Im not sure who was taping the show but they must have stopped as there were no further incidents.
Can I just take a moment to say that Its a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow has been indelibly burned into my brain now. And I thought Canada, My Canada was persistent. Ha.
It was 2:30 by now, so it was time we left to go to tea. We left Tomorrowland and went to Main Street through the rose garden path by the Plaza. There were several baby rabbits out on the lawn eating grass.
We caught the monorail to Grand Floridian and arrived at the Garden View Lounge by 3:00. Dennis was our waiter and he recommended the Garden View Bouquet tea (a special blend created exclusively for the Garden View Lounge) instead of the usual Darjeeling that we always get. We took his advice and it was very good. Not being a big tea person, my criteria was that it must have been good because I didnt even have to put milk in mine like I usually do.
Reading the menu, we were amused by the statement that Tea is both calming and a stimulant. No kidding. I think Ive mentioned in the past how goofy I get after being hyped-up on about three cups of tea.
Paula and I both ordered the Buckingham Palace tea (which used to be the Tea for Two) which includes tea sandwiches, scones and a jam tart, and strawberries and cream or your choice of pastries, plus your tea, of course. They always bring you an assortment of sandwiches, each one on a different kind of bread. I wondered aloud to Paula, Who comes up with what sandwich goes on what bread? I know there are recommended wine pairings for some dishes, but are there actually *bread* pairings for egg salad? Who makes these choices? See, I told you tea did weird things to me.
Dennis was nice enough to bring us double scones in lieu of our jam tart for our second course, since the scones are our favorite part. At some point during the tea, the piano player in the lobby of the Grand Floridian began to play some tunes. Well, I say tunes but they all kind of sounded the same and we got quite tickled about the tuneless piano songs. I remarked that at least it was better than the last time we listened to him and he played the theme from Somewhere in Time, which is possibly the *worst* movie with the *saddest* theme song of all time. We had been so depressed that we couldnt even get up off the furniture and make our way to our room.
Well the words were barely out of my mouth before he actually started playing the blasted song. Nothing sadder than crying into your tea while they play the theme from Somewhere in Time. Actually, it was more like laughing so hard that we were crying, but thats beside the point. At one point I was laughing so hard that I actually snorted which prompted Paula to say Theres no snorting at tea!
By the time our last course of strawberries and cream arrived, we were both too full to do more than pick at it. Paula discreetly made a replica (not to scale) of the BTMRR with the cream from her dish of strawberries and cream. After our behavior, I dont think the Queen is going to be inviting us to tea anytime soon.
The only low spot during tea (for me anyway--Paula thought it was funny) was when our waiter made a comment about our Mother and Daughter tea. Aaarrrgh! I, being a mere 10 years older than Paula, was mortally offended at being taken for her mother, while Paula thought it was vastly amusing. I was quick to correct him and he was very apologetic, but the damage was done. Might as well give me a paper cut and pour some lemon juice in it while youre at it.
We were also amused by a lady at a table across from us who, I swear, never drew a breath for talking so much. The two people with her were hating their lives. I think at one point their teeth actually turned backwards in their heads and had eaten their brains. One of the ladys more memorable comments was, My husband always sneezes twice anytime he gets near peppermint. Or, if he only sneezes once, then he gets the hiccups. Im thinking Christmas time must be horrible for him.
After we had finished and before they could throw us out for laughing so much, we paid our bill ($37.28) and took the monorail back to the Polynesian.
Back at the room, I took our refillable mugs to Captain Cooks for some beverage. We then took some time to explore our location a little better. This was Paulas first time to stay at the Polynesian and my first time to be in Tokelau (Ive stayed in Samoa, Niue, and Raratonga). The Tokelau longhouse has nice, wide hallways and nice sitting areas/lobbies by the elevators on each floor. Even though we were on the second floor, our room had a balcony, which overlooked the quite pool. We decided that it was a great location.
We rested, updated notes, checked emails, etc. until around 6:45, then changed clothes to go back to the Magic Kingdom to watch the Wishes fireworks.
I was the first one of us through the security checkpoint. When Paula came next, the security guard commented that we both had the same purse (obviously a man--the purses are similar in color but definitely not the same purse). Are you sisters or something? he asked. When Paula said yes, he asked which one of us was older. After the beating my ego had taken at lunch, I stopped dead in my tracks at his comment, turned around, and went back and kissed him on the cheek. Thank goodness for Disney magic.
We went to Fantasyland first to check on the wait time for Pooh. The ride was out of Fast Passes and the stand by line was 40 minutes. No thanks. We went to Tomorrowland next and found only a 10 minute stand by for Buzz, which was really more like five.
On our first ride Paulas score was way higher than mine, prompting me to advance the theory that the first person in the car gets the better score since Paula always gets in first. Always being up for a scientific experiment, we put the theory to test by my getting in the car first on our second time around. Sure enough, I was high score this time with 381,000.
After the second ride, we walked over to Space Mountain only to see a wait time of 30 minutes. Not to be daunted, we went back to Buzz to continue our experiment, this time each taking their own car. This action resulted in both of our worst scores of the night. Oh well. So much for science.
By now it was 8:35 so we went to Main Street to get a spot for Wishes. We stood just south of the hub pretty much in the middle of the street and had a great view. I had seen the fireworks back in November, but this was Paulas first time to see them. She made it as far as Aladdin saying Genie, I wish for your freedom. before she started crying. Me? I cant much seem to make it past the first line of the song.
After the fireworks were over we sat on a bench and waited for the crowds to clear out a bit, and enjoyed watching the exiting masses. We saw 5 year old blonde girl dressed as Tinkerbelle dancing with her grandmother, and some very patient parents with a crying little girl, so our faith in the future generations was restored.
After a few minutes we started down Main Street but stopped again to watch the kiss goodnight before exiting the park. We made it on to the third monorail (counting the one that was pulling away from the station as we walked up. It was standing room only, but it wasnt long before we were back at the Polynesian.
Back at the PR, we went to Captain Cooks for some late dinner. We ordered 2 cheeseburgers and I went to get our mugs while Paula waited on food.
We were back to the room by 10:15. I went with Paula to the laundry so she could wash some socks and her jacket (as her jacket is white and she had apparently sat in something very red). All the machines were taken at first, but a guy came in shortly and took his clothes out of one. Paula and I got tickled because he kept on pulling out clothes and pulling out clothes like a magician pulling scarves out of a hat. I dont know how he got that many clothes stuffed in that one machine.
Paula was worried about the red stain coming out of her jacket but didnt have anything to treat the stain with. There was a bag on the counter that had a bottle of Shout sticking out of it. We asked around, but it didnt belong to anyone in the laundry, so we said we were going to borrow it just for one stain. Another man, upon hearing of our stain problems said we could borrow his Spray n Wash stick. More bonding of humanity at the laundry.
After we put the clothes in to wash, Paula went back to the room and I went to fill up my mug again.
We updated our notes, finished the laundry, and were to bed by 1:30.
CAST
Robin/Me - 40; trip planner/recorded; 11th trip to WDW
Paula/Sister to Robin - 30; 5th trip to WDW
Try saying it again, without the whining. Or, A Mother and Daughter Tea.
The Plan: move to Polynesian; MK; tea at Grand Floridian; MK for Wishes
We were up at 7:30 this morning knowing we needed to get everything packed up to move to the Polynesian. I had Paula give me a 10 minute warning (10 minutes before she would be ready to go) so I could call bell services to come pick up our luggage. After I made the call, I left Paula in the room and went to the lobby to check out. When I got back to the room, bell services had already come and picked up our things, so we went out to valet to pick up our car, which had our luggage already placed inside.
We drove to the Polynesian and left our luggage with bell services while we went inside the Great Ceremonial House (GCH) to check in. I was surprised that they had rooms immediately available and the CM gave us our choice of the Tokelau or the Tahiti longhouse. We chose room 2948 in Tokelau with a view of the quiet pool.
We got our leis and then went back out to valet to get our luggage and be driven to our room. We had to wait a few minutes for a spare cart to take us to our room, but a nice cast member talked to us while we waited. Thats one of the reasons that I like the Polynesian so much, I love their cast members here. They have always been, without exception, the friendliest and most helpful out of all the places Ive stayed.
We dumped our stuff in the room, took a second for Paula to look around, and then headed straight back to the GCH to take the monorail to the MK.
Paula wanted her usual first ride of Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC). I said that we should probably pick up some Fast Passes for Philharmagic first so, since her feet had still not recovered from their blisters, I sent Paula on to Adventureland while I ran and got the Fast Passes and then met up with her outside of PotC.
As we were walking in to the ride, we overheard a snarkey mom behind us telling her child Try saying it again, without the whining. We couldnt help laughing because obviously the child couldnt do anything BUT whine since thats just how the mom talked--in a constant whine. There was another snarkey mom ahead of us in line who wouldnt let her kids touch anything.
I commented to Paula that it was ironic that she liked the MK best of all the parks given the way she feels about children (not a fan of the kids), since the concentration of children is definitely higher here than anywhere else. Paula laughed and said she was thoroughly convinced that WDW is not for kids! Actually, she relented and said that it wasnt the kids that bothered her, but the grumpy parents. How else are the kids going to learn to appreciate the magic of Disney if they cant touch it?
After our ride we looked through gift shop, stopping long enough for Paula to mail a coconut postcard to her husband. And when I say a coconut postcard I mean an actual coconut that she wrote a postcard on. It was really pretty neat. You pick out your coconut and take it to the cash register where the CM gives you a permanent marker to address the postcard and write your message. After youre finished you give the coconut back to the CM, pay for it, and then they mail it for you. We laughed at the vision of the mailman trying to fit the coconut into her small mailbox at home.
We took the long way to Philharmagic, stopping at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR) along the way to pick up another Fast Pass.
We had great timing with our Fast Passes at Philharmagic and were let in just as the show was about to start. It was Paulas first time to see it and she thought it was great.
It was now straight up noon and we were hungry and I was in need of a diet coke. Although, I told Paula that WDW was the only place in the world where I could go without my caffeine in the mornings. We stopped at Columbia Harbor House where Paula had the tuna sandwich with chips and a coke and I had the garden galley salad and a diet coke ($16.86).
After we got our table, I went to the Haunted Mansion (HM) to pick up a Fast Pass for later. There was only a 5 minute wait for the stand by line, so I backtracked and picked up a Fast Pass for Peter Pan instead before going back to join Paula for lunch.
We quickly ate our lunch and then went to the HM at 12:45. We decided that the clever folks in marketing need to make Madame Leota snow globes. They would be perfect since shes already in a crystal ball.
After the Haunted Mansion we went back to use our Fast Passes for BTMRR. Big Thunder Mountain is one of my favorite rides to use Fast Passes on during the day because the queue is out in the blazing sun on some kind of heat reflecting concrete. Its hot and miserable if you have to stand in line for any length of time.
Next we went to Tomorrow land to get a FP for Buzz Lightyear. Our Fast Pass window was not quite open yet so we took a zippy ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA), which is always a favorite. After our ride, we decided to get Fast Passes for Pooh instead of Buzz since the stand by line for Buzz was only 15 minutes and the line for Space Mountain (SpM) was only 10 minutes.
In Fantasyland, the stand by for Pooh was 40 minutes. We got Fast Passes but noticed, too late, that the return time was 3:55-4:55, which will conflict with our date for tea. Oh, well.
We used our Fast Passes for Peter Pan, and then headed back to Tomorrowland to see the Carousel of Progress (or PRO-gress for our British readersall three of you). Now it shames me to admit it but, as many times as Ive been to WDW, I have never seen the Carousel of Progress (CoP). I know, I know, thats grounds for having my Disney card taken away from me. So, I had informed Paula that we were going to see it this trip or die trying. Needless to say, Paula was not very fired up about sitting through it and had a bad attitude from the outset.
We sat quietly through the first scene with the man and his dog Rover. When we got to the next scene and discovered the same man and the same dog, only twenty years in the future, Paula exclaimed, Oh great! Rovers going to die. Thats a whippin!
Where is your Disney spirit? I hissed back at her. Walt wont kill the dog.
Sure enough, you can rest easy that Rover didnt die but was roughly 700 and something in dog years by the end of the presentation.
During the middle of the presentation, an eerie disembodied voice announced There is NO filming in the Carousel of Progress. Put the video camera down, like the great and powerful OZ. Im not sure who was taping the show but they must have stopped as there were no further incidents.
Can I just take a moment to say that Its a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow has been indelibly burned into my brain now. And I thought Canada, My Canada was persistent. Ha.
It was 2:30 by now, so it was time we left to go to tea. We left Tomorrowland and went to Main Street through the rose garden path by the Plaza. There were several baby rabbits out on the lawn eating grass.
We caught the monorail to Grand Floridian and arrived at the Garden View Lounge by 3:00. Dennis was our waiter and he recommended the Garden View Bouquet tea (a special blend created exclusively for the Garden View Lounge) instead of the usual Darjeeling that we always get. We took his advice and it was very good. Not being a big tea person, my criteria was that it must have been good because I didnt even have to put milk in mine like I usually do.
Reading the menu, we were amused by the statement that Tea is both calming and a stimulant. No kidding. I think Ive mentioned in the past how goofy I get after being hyped-up on about three cups of tea.
Paula and I both ordered the Buckingham Palace tea (which used to be the Tea for Two) which includes tea sandwiches, scones and a jam tart, and strawberries and cream or your choice of pastries, plus your tea, of course. They always bring you an assortment of sandwiches, each one on a different kind of bread. I wondered aloud to Paula, Who comes up with what sandwich goes on what bread? I know there are recommended wine pairings for some dishes, but are there actually *bread* pairings for egg salad? Who makes these choices? See, I told you tea did weird things to me.
Dennis was nice enough to bring us double scones in lieu of our jam tart for our second course, since the scones are our favorite part. At some point during the tea, the piano player in the lobby of the Grand Floridian began to play some tunes. Well, I say tunes but they all kind of sounded the same and we got quite tickled about the tuneless piano songs. I remarked that at least it was better than the last time we listened to him and he played the theme from Somewhere in Time, which is possibly the *worst* movie with the *saddest* theme song of all time. We had been so depressed that we couldnt even get up off the furniture and make our way to our room.
Well the words were barely out of my mouth before he actually started playing the blasted song. Nothing sadder than crying into your tea while they play the theme from Somewhere in Time. Actually, it was more like laughing so hard that we were crying, but thats beside the point. At one point I was laughing so hard that I actually snorted which prompted Paula to say Theres no snorting at tea!
By the time our last course of strawberries and cream arrived, we were both too full to do more than pick at it. Paula discreetly made a replica (not to scale) of the BTMRR with the cream from her dish of strawberries and cream. After our behavior, I dont think the Queen is going to be inviting us to tea anytime soon.
The only low spot during tea (for me anyway--Paula thought it was funny) was when our waiter made a comment about our Mother and Daughter tea. Aaarrrgh! I, being a mere 10 years older than Paula, was mortally offended at being taken for her mother, while Paula thought it was vastly amusing. I was quick to correct him and he was very apologetic, but the damage was done. Might as well give me a paper cut and pour some lemon juice in it while youre at it.
We were also amused by a lady at a table across from us who, I swear, never drew a breath for talking so much. The two people with her were hating their lives. I think at one point their teeth actually turned backwards in their heads and had eaten their brains. One of the ladys more memorable comments was, My husband always sneezes twice anytime he gets near peppermint. Or, if he only sneezes once, then he gets the hiccups. Im thinking Christmas time must be horrible for him.
After we had finished and before they could throw us out for laughing so much, we paid our bill ($37.28) and took the monorail back to the Polynesian.
Back at the room, I took our refillable mugs to Captain Cooks for some beverage. We then took some time to explore our location a little better. This was Paulas first time to stay at the Polynesian and my first time to be in Tokelau (Ive stayed in Samoa, Niue, and Raratonga). The Tokelau longhouse has nice, wide hallways and nice sitting areas/lobbies by the elevators on each floor. Even though we were on the second floor, our room had a balcony, which overlooked the quite pool. We decided that it was a great location.
We rested, updated notes, checked emails, etc. until around 6:45, then changed clothes to go back to the Magic Kingdom to watch the Wishes fireworks.
I was the first one of us through the security checkpoint. When Paula came next, the security guard commented that we both had the same purse (obviously a man--the purses are similar in color but definitely not the same purse). Are you sisters or something? he asked. When Paula said yes, he asked which one of us was older. After the beating my ego had taken at lunch, I stopped dead in my tracks at his comment, turned around, and went back and kissed him on the cheek. Thank goodness for Disney magic.
We went to Fantasyland first to check on the wait time for Pooh. The ride was out of Fast Passes and the stand by line was 40 minutes. No thanks. We went to Tomorrowland next and found only a 10 minute stand by for Buzz, which was really more like five.
On our first ride Paulas score was way higher than mine, prompting me to advance the theory that the first person in the car gets the better score since Paula always gets in first. Always being up for a scientific experiment, we put the theory to test by my getting in the car first on our second time around. Sure enough, I was high score this time with 381,000.
After the second ride, we walked over to Space Mountain only to see a wait time of 30 minutes. Not to be daunted, we went back to Buzz to continue our experiment, this time each taking their own car. This action resulted in both of our worst scores of the night. Oh well. So much for science.
By now it was 8:35 so we went to Main Street to get a spot for Wishes. We stood just south of the hub pretty much in the middle of the street and had a great view. I had seen the fireworks back in November, but this was Paulas first time to see them. She made it as far as Aladdin saying Genie, I wish for your freedom. before she started crying. Me? I cant much seem to make it past the first line of the song.
After the fireworks were over we sat on a bench and waited for the crowds to clear out a bit, and enjoyed watching the exiting masses. We saw 5 year old blonde girl dressed as Tinkerbelle dancing with her grandmother, and some very patient parents with a crying little girl, so our faith in the future generations was restored.
After a few minutes we started down Main Street but stopped again to watch the kiss goodnight before exiting the park. We made it on to the third monorail (counting the one that was pulling away from the station as we walked up. It was standing room only, but it wasnt long before we were back at the Polynesian.
Back at the PR, we went to Captain Cooks for some late dinner. We ordered 2 cheeseburgers and I went to get our mugs while Paula waited on food.
We were back to the room by 10:15. I went with Paula to the laundry so she could wash some socks and her jacket (as her jacket is white and she had apparently sat in something very red). All the machines were taken at first, but a guy came in shortly and took his clothes out of one. Paula and I got tickled because he kept on pulling out clothes and pulling out clothes like a magician pulling scarves out of a hat. I dont know how he got that many clothes stuffed in that one machine.
Paula was worried about the red stain coming out of her jacket but didnt have anything to treat the stain with. There was a bag on the counter that had a bottle of Shout sticking out of it. We asked around, but it didnt belong to anyone in the laundry, so we said we were going to borrow it just for one stain. Another man, upon hearing of our stain problems said we could borrow his Spray n Wash stick. More bonding of humanity at the laundry.
After we put the clothes in to wash, Paula went back to the room and I went to fill up my mug again.
We updated our notes, finished the laundry, and were to bed by 1:30.
I've never seen those coconuts! I'm thinking that might be an awesome thing to do this trip! 
