Cape Cod. Oh it looks quaint and peaceful all right, but lurking underneath the pleasant façade is an insidious compulsion that has gripped the hearts and minds of all its inhabitants, whipping them into a frenzy of mass consumption, and its name is… DUFFY!!!!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this particular mania, let me tell you the story that was told to me: Duffy is a rather generic-looking stuffed bear that Disney introduced at Walt Disney World a few years back. It flopped wildly. Nobody wanted a Disney character they'd never heard of who looked like any other, cheaper teddy bear (except for the hidden Mickey in his face, of course). Well, in a masterstroke of marketing genius, somebody shipped all the surplus Duffys to Japan and came up with an elaborate back story that explained Duffy was the personification of Minnie's love for Mickey, whom Minnie sends with Mickey when he goes away on trips. Voila! The Japanese ADORE Duffy. They buy him in all sizes and clothe him in all manner of adorable outfits. He hangs around their necks or pokes out of their purses or is simply carried all over the parks and even downtown Tokyo. In January, Disney introduced Duffy's girlfriend, Shelly Mae, and she set a new Disney record for number of units moved in a day. So now all of Cape Cod appears to be devoted to Duffy, Shelly Mae, their wardrobes, their accessories, and the collecting of these. There's even a walkaround Duffy who—despite the fact that he's modeled on a character that is already a stuffed animal—looks almost nothing like him.
The scene in the Duffy giftshop was reminiscent of the one at the candy shop on my first night in Tokyo
Disneyland, and we couldn't get outta there fast enough. Unfortunately, we never ended up spending much time in Cape Cod cuz there was nothing to do there besides Duffy.
Off to Port Discovery!
After getting burned by Raging Spirits, we decided to take the advice of the many people whose description of Aquatopia was basically "like Autopia, but even more boring." If it hadn't been raining for most of our trip, and if the wait had ever been less than 45 minutes, we prolly would have tried it.
Too bad nobody warned us about Stormrider.
Actually, I didn't think it was that bad, but Patrick HATED it. It's a motion simulator ride kind of like, oh, Star Wars meets Soarin'? There's the usual lame excuse to put a bunch of civilians in faux jeopardy on some harebrained expedition that would instantly be scuttled by lawyers and/or government regulatory boards in the real world, and then everything goes predictably wrong and then suddenly it's over. I was just left scratching my head, and I don't think I would have been any more clued even in if I spoke Japanese!
From Port Discovery we took the tunnel back to Mysterious Island.
I was getting hungry, so we decided to try the Gyoza Buns everybody always talks about. The line was, amazingly, not terribly long, and we were excited to learn that the cart took credit cards.
I dunno. I like gyoza, but these had some herb or spice in them that I don't like—like bay leaves or something.
By this time, the rain and the freezing cold and the no jacket were starting to catch up with me, as evidenced by this photo…
… but fortunately, it was approaching check-in time at Hotel MiraCosta, when we would be reunited with our coats!
This time, our key cards worked a few minutes before 4:30pm. We had what Disney calls a Porto Paradiso Side Superior Room Harbor View. The room was laid out identically to the one at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, but with a shorter hall. The shower room also wasn't quite as nice, but MiraCosta is 7 years older.
Please excuse all the flaming orbs of light in all these pictures—I had to monkey with the contrast in Photobucket to get the rest of the room to show up!
More soon-to-be-stolen toiletries!
I will never need to buy slippers again…
And more free fruit!
Spa price list
