PrincessV
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2006
- Messages
- 14,472
Gramma, Leo and I took some time to enjoy our new Home before going our separate ways for the evening. Leo insisted on snacking outdoors, on the 98 degree balcony.
I busied myself getting outfits ready, spreading out my cosmetics and enjoying a couple cheesy tabloids, courtesy of LL. For the record, I believe Brangelina is doomed to failure. You heard it here first.
I also pondered the previous night at POR and the dramatic difference in my resort experience between there and SSR. Here’s what I came up with… Back when I first began my WDW resort stays – mid-1990’s – pretty much everything was new. Well, the places we could afford, anyway. I tried CBR, Dixie Landings, POFQ when it was just Pt. Orleans, CSR the year it opened, even All Star Music. And loved them all. Some more than others, but all had that special Disney triad: cleaner than clean, themed to the nth degree, and brimming with CM’s who LOVED their work. As I looked around my SSR studio, I realized this resort had the Disney triad… and the others have, sadly, lost some magic to plain old age. Strangely, it was a comforting thought. Because I’ve stayed at the refurbished CR and I’d seen the pictures of the new Poly rooms. And I know that old Disney magic can be brought back to long-neglected resorts. Maybe, just maybe, the suits will see fit to do the same with the moderates, too, someday. One can hope.
Or.
One can buy into a brand-spanking new DVC resort and enjoy it till the next brand-spanking new resort comes along!
Anyway, we all got showered and changed and I said goodbye to Gramma and Leo. They had a lovely evening at the Turf Club planned followed perhaps by some swimming at the Grandstand pool. Lauralee’s DH and son also had Turf Club reservations, so I told Gramma to be on the lookout – maybe the boys could get another swim in together before bed?
I stopped at my car to gather the lime green goody bags I’d put together for my imaginary-but-oh-so-special friends and walked to my bus stop feeling like a total idiot. The bags were much larger when open than I’d expected. I must’ve been a sight.
I didn’t even have a chance to sit down when a bus rounded the corner and it read…
MAGIC KINGDOM. I looked at my cell phone – 5:20.
Shoot. The plan was to be at the bus stop at 5:30 and get on the very first MK bus. If I got on now, I’d be early and LL might not be at her stop. If I waited for the next one, and LL was at her stop, we’d miss each other. What to do?????
Neurotic? Me? Never.
Rationality did take over in time for me to realize A. LL would notice if I weren’t on the bus, and B. if I got on now, and she wasn’t at her stop, I could just get off there and wait for her. Duh.
So I hopped on board, enjoyed the drive around my Home, and spied LL at her Congress Park stop…. carrying a bunch of bags, herself. I think we took up 4 seats between the two of us with all our extra baggage. She’d arrived at her stop moments before the bus pulled up, too.
We chatted our way to the MK, talking about who-knows-what, and chose the monorail for the final leg of our journey. As we walked up the ramp, we heard “ALL ABOARD!” and caught the monorail just before it departed.
Does anyone else take a deep breath and feel every stressor in life disappear when they enter the Poly? Happens every time for me. If DVC had a property there, I’d be in deep financial trouble.
We were early – NOT late! – but a table for two was conveniently waiting for us in the Tambu Lounge. With our plethora of bags arranged around our feet, we ordered drinks and caught up on each others’ lives since Dec. It’s funny how, even though we’d been PMing and chatting on threads for the previous eight months, we found so much more to talk about in person. I’m a writer by nature, and will almost always choose written communication over verbal, but there is just no substitute for sitting with a dear friend and letting the conversation flow. It was a terrific beginning to our festive night!
What happened next is a bit of a blur. I can’t remember which came first, but in rapid succession, the heavens opened and I saw a weather alert on the TV – a MAJOR storm was moving through. No joke – it looked like a bloody hurricane out there. Trees were bent over, rain was falling horizontally and sidewalks were flooding. All this we saw form the sanctity of the Tambu, beverages in-hand. We were pretty darned impressed with ourselves. Our mojo was ON – it was gonna be a GREAT night!
Then we thought about our poor friends, likely caught in the torrent outside our window. That can’t be good. LL talked to somebody on the phone and heard they all got caught in the storm and were making their way in to the Poly under Tracy’s ponchos and umbrellas. I was feeling badly that our mojo hadn’t extended to the entire group, but was pretty sure some pineappley goodness would fix things right up.
Tracy, Jo and S’late found us in the Tambu and I finally got to give S’late a hug! Our little group was complete and it was time to party. Like a rock star. Baybee.
***WARNING: The following information may include excessive use of hyperbole, gross errors in judgment, and numerous factual inconsistencies. Read at your own risk – management not responsible for injuries incurred in the reading of this report…
Kona Café. They never knew what hit them. Five semi-soaked, (3 by rain, 2 by booze), women invaded the family restaurant and one waiter, one bartender and one manager may never be the same.
First up – a round of Lapu Lapus, of course! What’s that? None for Jo?! That’s one smart lady, people. There was lots of catching up to do, but first some housekeeping. Toasts were made. To our Fellow Focker Watchers who couldn’t be there with us. To LisaDKG, who inadvertently brought Lapupalooza to fruition, (hope you don’t mind Lisa – we gave Kona your name as the responsible party). And to the Mactans, of whom Lapu was the fierce and mighty leader and without whom we’d not have this pineapple of grown-up goodness. “Cheers!” “Salute!” “Santé!” And. “I’M WATHCING YOU FOCKERS!” Heh heh.
Pictures were also taken for posterity (and blackmail):
Jo and S’late
Tracy and Lapu #1
My precious… we loves our precious…
The rest of dinner is somewhat hazy now. No, not so much due to Laputoxication, as to the fact that when a bunch of women get together and let loose, a lot happens all at once. I believe all of our recollections will be different, though we’ll likely remind each other of things we witnessed but have since forgotten. Here was my view…
~ We ordered appetizers and dinner. I had the crab cakes and they were DELICIOUS!
I also had the macadamia-crusted Mahi Mahi. It was… eehh. Not bad, but not exciting, either. There just wasn’t much going on, flavor-wise.
~ We also ordered more Lapus. One or two more rounds. I forget. But I do know they were starting to get out of control. Someone decided we shouldn’t let the server take any away so we could get a picture of all the empty pineapples. The only place to go was up, and we soon had Lapucondominiums sprouting up in the middle of the table.
~ S’late wowed me with her ability to tie a knot in a cherry stem with her tongue… and coaxed me into giving it a try myself. If anyone has photographic evidence of my attempts and abysmal failure, please burn them at once.
~ Discussion ensued about a variety of subjects including other people’s TR’s that we’ve enjoyed; the golfing that had occurred earlier in the day by Jo’s, T’s and LL’s husbands plus Waldo; year-round versus traditional schooling; accents from around the world; chewin’ tebacker; the relative merits of Crocs styles; and a bunch of other stuff that the tables surrounding us enjoyed as much as we did. I’m sure.
All this time, it rained. And. Rained. And rained. BWWWOOOM. The deluge. (shout out to the Living Seas, RIP)
And it occurred to us that it was getting late. And we were supposed to have been out on the beach to meet other Focker Watchers for the rest of Lapu Fest. It was time for V to worry again. Would they even come out in the rain? Would they all hate us if we couldn’t find them? The plan was to see the Electrical Water Pageant – would it be canceled due to rain? How much longer could I wait to visit the Ladies’ Room? 2-3 Lapus hold a lot of liquid. TFI.
Speaking of the Lapus… our awesome server asked if we’d like a third (fourth?) round. Yes, please! We knew we’d be heading down to the beach/lobby, but the beauty of the pineapple is its transportability.
Our server came back shortly…. empty-handed. It seems we’d run the bar out of pineapples. For real. Intelligent, resourceful women that we are, we had a solution: just refill our old pineapples!
Nope. No can-do. Wouldn’t be sanitary.
At some point, maybe at this one, the manager got involved. She came over to explain that it wasn’t just the Kona bar that was out of pineapples, we’d used up the ENTIRE Poly inventory! Seriously? They only keep eight pineapples on hand? For to make their signature drink?
But Happy-tohelp-you-please-take-your-party-elsewhere-super-manager-lady had an alternate plan: she’d have the bartender whip up another round in regular glasses and we were welcome to dump the contents into our own pineapples. Perfect!
When they came, we all ooood and aaaaahhd over the scrunchy, cute little tiki-faced glasses. Not so little, actually, but squatty and FUN! And that’s when our server mentioned that we were free to take them with us to the Tambu Lounge. And, after that, what happened to those glasses was none of his business. He said this several times. I’m a relatively honest gal, but I know when to take a hint – grab the tiki glasses and GO ladies!
And so it was that we all went home with 5lb. glass souvenirs. Did everyone get theirs home safely? Mine’s sitting on a shelf at work, reminding me of the fun we had that night.
And the fun continued. We waved to Castillo Mom, who was supposed to meet us at the beach, but wisely dumped that in favor of a late dinner with her family at Kona. Hi Lisa!
I really thought the rain had stopped and was all set to forge on out to the beach… nope. While considerably better than earlier, it was still raining pretty hard. Darn. I needed my once-or-twice-a-year cigarette and LL was ready for a smoke break, too. With memories of sneaking down to the on-campus pond in high-school, we huddled under umbrellas with T, just outside the Niuue longhouse. Didn’t it used to be smoking rooms? That was our rationale, anyway. Rebels.
During our break, Jo’s family came to retrieve her, so I got to see the girls again and meet David, her DH. What a fabulous family they make! Just lovely, lovely folks, all of them. Poor David’s impressions of us – all Lapu’d-up - however, probably weren’t so stellar. I’m just guessing here. Sorry David! I swear we’re all really nice, normal(ish) people most of the time!
For some reason, and this escapes me completely, we stayed outside, hanging out under the stairs at Raratonga. And Claire, another DISer, found us there, so the big Lapu Meet wasn’t a total wash! Here we are, in all our glory:
HUGE thanks to Jo for sharing her pic, as I never got any of the group!
The rain did eventually let up, and we made it over to the beach for Wishes, where we were completely silly and probably irritated the pulp out of the other fireworks-watchers. Wait – were there other fireworks-watchers?
Eventually, we all admitted that the coach was about to become a pumpkin and we really had to get back to our respective resorts. With hugs and warm wishes, Jo and family boarded a boat while T, LL, S’late and I took a bus to DTD, there to separate onto our resort buses.
Things moved quickly after that – the bus was packed and conversation was limited. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was acutely aware of my highly Lapu’d state, surrounded as we were by non-Lapuers. When we got to DTD, the SSR bus was there and LL and I took off. I wasn’t worried about goodbyes, as I thought we’d all be meeting up again the next morning for – gulp – Little Ones Extra magic Hour at the MK. So, without stopping for hugs, LL and I dove onto the SSR bus just before it pulled out.
My stop was first. LL and I made a plan to do the same bus routine the next morning, getting to our stops at 7:30 and catching the very first MK bus. With a last “Goodnight!” the bus took LL back to her room and I made my way back to Gramma and Leo.
I took my time, walking slowly and reviewing the night’s festivities. It amazed me then, as it still does today, that five women from very different worlds had found each other in cyber-space and discovered they had more in common than just Disney. Sure, it’s The Mouse that brought us together initially, but what I experienced with these amazing ladies was so much more than “I like Disney!”, “Hey, me too!” In their company, I felt warmth. Camaraderie. Respect. Concern. Appreciation. Support.
Friendship. I believe it to be called.
Gramma was still up, reading, when I got in. She said their night had been something of a bust – dinner was only so-so and they’d been rained out of any pool activities. They never saw Michael and Tony. Leo had been a tad obnoxious at dinner.
Oh well. Too bad. But it wasn’t getting me down. I was in my happy place, as I gleefully described the night to Gramma, showing her my prized tiki-glass. She nodded, smiling, and said she was glad I’d had a nice time. And I believe she was glad. No passive-aggressiveness that night.
I climbed into bed myself, thinking about how much fun was still ahead, as Leo got to play with his new buddies the next morning.
Next: Can you get a hang-over from pineapple juice?
I busied myself getting outfits ready, spreading out my cosmetics and enjoying a couple cheesy tabloids, courtesy of LL. For the record, I believe Brangelina is doomed to failure. You heard it here first.
I also pondered the previous night at POR and the dramatic difference in my resort experience between there and SSR. Here’s what I came up with… Back when I first began my WDW resort stays – mid-1990’s – pretty much everything was new. Well, the places we could afford, anyway. I tried CBR, Dixie Landings, POFQ when it was just Pt. Orleans, CSR the year it opened, even All Star Music. And loved them all. Some more than others, but all had that special Disney triad: cleaner than clean, themed to the nth degree, and brimming with CM’s who LOVED their work. As I looked around my SSR studio, I realized this resort had the Disney triad… and the others have, sadly, lost some magic to plain old age. Strangely, it was a comforting thought. Because I’ve stayed at the refurbished CR and I’d seen the pictures of the new Poly rooms. And I know that old Disney magic can be brought back to long-neglected resorts. Maybe, just maybe, the suits will see fit to do the same with the moderates, too, someday. One can hope.
Or.
One can buy into a brand-spanking new DVC resort and enjoy it till the next brand-spanking new resort comes along!
Anyway, we all got showered and changed and I said goodbye to Gramma and Leo. They had a lovely evening at the Turf Club planned followed perhaps by some swimming at the Grandstand pool. Lauralee’s DH and son also had Turf Club reservations, so I told Gramma to be on the lookout – maybe the boys could get another swim in together before bed?
I stopped at my car to gather the lime green goody bags I’d put together for my imaginary-but-oh-so-special friends and walked to my bus stop feeling like a total idiot. The bags were much larger when open than I’d expected. I must’ve been a sight.
I didn’t even have a chance to sit down when a bus rounded the corner and it read…
MAGIC KINGDOM. I looked at my cell phone – 5:20.
Shoot. The plan was to be at the bus stop at 5:30 and get on the very first MK bus. If I got on now, I’d be early and LL might not be at her stop. If I waited for the next one, and LL was at her stop, we’d miss each other. What to do?????
Neurotic? Me? Never.
Rationality did take over in time for me to realize A. LL would notice if I weren’t on the bus, and B. if I got on now, and she wasn’t at her stop, I could just get off there and wait for her. Duh.
So I hopped on board, enjoyed the drive around my Home, and spied LL at her Congress Park stop…. carrying a bunch of bags, herself. I think we took up 4 seats between the two of us with all our extra baggage. She’d arrived at her stop moments before the bus pulled up, too.
We chatted our way to the MK, talking about who-knows-what, and chose the monorail for the final leg of our journey. As we walked up the ramp, we heard “ALL ABOARD!” and caught the monorail just before it departed.
Does anyone else take a deep breath and feel every stressor in life disappear when they enter the Poly? Happens every time for me. If DVC had a property there, I’d be in deep financial trouble.
We were early – NOT late! – but a table for two was conveniently waiting for us in the Tambu Lounge. With our plethora of bags arranged around our feet, we ordered drinks and caught up on each others’ lives since Dec. It’s funny how, even though we’d been PMing and chatting on threads for the previous eight months, we found so much more to talk about in person. I’m a writer by nature, and will almost always choose written communication over verbal, but there is just no substitute for sitting with a dear friend and letting the conversation flow. It was a terrific beginning to our festive night!
What happened next is a bit of a blur. I can’t remember which came first, but in rapid succession, the heavens opened and I saw a weather alert on the TV – a MAJOR storm was moving through. No joke – it looked like a bloody hurricane out there. Trees were bent over, rain was falling horizontally and sidewalks were flooding. All this we saw form the sanctity of the Tambu, beverages in-hand. We were pretty darned impressed with ourselves. Our mojo was ON – it was gonna be a GREAT night!
Then we thought about our poor friends, likely caught in the torrent outside our window. That can’t be good. LL talked to somebody on the phone and heard they all got caught in the storm and were making their way in to the Poly under Tracy’s ponchos and umbrellas. I was feeling badly that our mojo hadn’t extended to the entire group, but was pretty sure some pineappley goodness would fix things right up.
Tracy, Jo and S’late found us in the Tambu and I finally got to give S’late a hug! Our little group was complete and it was time to party. Like a rock star. Baybee.
***WARNING: The following information may include excessive use of hyperbole, gross errors in judgment, and numerous factual inconsistencies. Read at your own risk – management not responsible for injuries incurred in the reading of this report…
Kona Café. They never knew what hit them. Five semi-soaked, (3 by rain, 2 by booze), women invaded the family restaurant and one waiter, one bartender and one manager may never be the same.
First up – a round of Lapu Lapus, of course! What’s that? None for Jo?! That’s one smart lady, people. There was lots of catching up to do, but first some housekeeping. Toasts were made. To our Fellow Focker Watchers who couldn’t be there with us. To LisaDKG, who inadvertently brought Lapupalooza to fruition, (hope you don’t mind Lisa – we gave Kona your name as the responsible party). And to the Mactans, of whom Lapu was the fierce and mighty leader and without whom we’d not have this pineapple of grown-up goodness. “Cheers!” “Salute!” “Santé!” And. “I’M WATHCING YOU FOCKERS!” Heh heh.
Pictures were also taken for posterity (and blackmail):
Jo and S’late
Tracy and Lapu #1
My precious… we loves our precious…
The rest of dinner is somewhat hazy now. No, not so much due to Laputoxication, as to the fact that when a bunch of women get together and let loose, a lot happens all at once. I believe all of our recollections will be different, though we’ll likely remind each other of things we witnessed but have since forgotten. Here was my view…
~ We ordered appetizers and dinner. I had the crab cakes and they were DELICIOUS!
I also had the macadamia-crusted Mahi Mahi. It was… eehh. Not bad, but not exciting, either. There just wasn’t much going on, flavor-wise.
~ We also ordered more Lapus. One or two more rounds. I forget. But I do know they were starting to get out of control. Someone decided we shouldn’t let the server take any away so we could get a picture of all the empty pineapples. The only place to go was up, and we soon had Lapucondominiums sprouting up in the middle of the table.
~ S’late wowed me with her ability to tie a knot in a cherry stem with her tongue… and coaxed me into giving it a try myself. If anyone has photographic evidence of my attempts and abysmal failure, please burn them at once.
~ Discussion ensued about a variety of subjects including other people’s TR’s that we’ve enjoyed; the golfing that had occurred earlier in the day by Jo’s, T’s and LL’s husbands plus Waldo; year-round versus traditional schooling; accents from around the world; chewin’ tebacker; the relative merits of Crocs styles; and a bunch of other stuff that the tables surrounding us enjoyed as much as we did. I’m sure.
All this time, it rained. And. Rained. And rained. BWWWOOOM. The deluge. (shout out to the Living Seas, RIP)
And it occurred to us that it was getting late. And we were supposed to have been out on the beach to meet other Focker Watchers for the rest of Lapu Fest. It was time for V to worry again. Would they even come out in the rain? Would they all hate us if we couldn’t find them? The plan was to see the Electrical Water Pageant – would it be canceled due to rain? How much longer could I wait to visit the Ladies’ Room? 2-3 Lapus hold a lot of liquid. TFI.
Speaking of the Lapus… our awesome server asked if we’d like a third (fourth?) round. Yes, please! We knew we’d be heading down to the beach/lobby, but the beauty of the pineapple is its transportability.
Our server came back shortly…. empty-handed. It seems we’d run the bar out of pineapples. For real. Intelligent, resourceful women that we are, we had a solution: just refill our old pineapples!
Nope. No can-do. Wouldn’t be sanitary.
At some point, maybe at this one, the manager got involved. She came over to explain that it wasn’t just the Kona bar that was out of pineapples, we’d used up the ENTIRE Poly inventory! Seriously? They only keep eight pineapples on hand? For to make their signature drink?
But Happy-tohelp-you-please-take-your-party-elsewhere-super-manager-lady had an alternate plan: she’d have the bartender whip up another round in regular glasses and we were welcome to dump the contents into our own pineapples. Perfect!
When they came, we all ooood and aaaaahhd over the scrunchy, cute little tiki-faced glasses. Not so little, actually, but squatty and FUN! And that’s when our server mentioned that we were free to take them with us to the Tambu Lounge. And, after that, what happened to those glasses was none of his business. He said this several times. I’m a relatively honest gal, but I know when to take a hint – grab the tiki glasses and GO ladies!
And so it was that we all went home with 5lb. glass souvenirs. Did everyone get theirs home safely? Mine’s sitting on a shelf at work, reminding me of the fun we had that night.
And the fun continued. We waved to Castillo Mom, who was supposed to meet us at the beach, but wisely dumped that in favor of a late dinner with her family at Kona. Hi Lisa!
I really thought the rain had stopped and was all set to forge on out to the beach… nope. While considerably better than earlier, it was still raining pretty hard. Darn. I needed my once-or-twice-a-year cigarette and LL was ready for a smoke break, too. With memories of sneaking down to the on-campus pond in high-school, we huddled under umbrellas with T, just outside the Niuue longhouse. Didn’t it used to be smoking rooms? That was our rationale, anyway. Rebels.
During our break, Jo’s family came to retrieve her, so I got to see the girls again and meet David, her DH. What a fabulous family they make! Just lovely, lovely folks, all of them. Poor David’s impressions of us – all Lapu’d-up - however, probably weren’t so stellar. I’m just guessing here. Sorry David! I swear we’re all really nice, normal(ish) people most of the time!
For some reason, and this escapes me completely, we stayed outside, hanging out under the stairs at Raratonga. And Claire, another DISer, found us there, so the big Lapu Meet wasn’t a total wash! Here we are, in all our glory:
HUGE thanks to Jo for sharing her pic, as I never got any of the group!
The rain did eventually let up, and we made it over to the beach for Wishes, where we were completely silly and probably irritated the pulp out of the other fireworks-watchers. Wait – were there other fireworks-watchers?
Eventually, we all admitted that the coach was about to become a pumpkin and we really had to get back to our respective resorts. With hugs and warm wishes, Jo and family boarded a boat while T, LL, S’late and I took a bus to DTD, there to separate onto our resort buses.
Things moved quickly after that – the bus was packed and conversation was limited. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was acutely aware of my highly Lapu’d state, surrounded as we were by non-Lapuers. When we got to DTD, the SSR bus was there and LL and I took off. I wasn’t worried about goodbyes, as I thought we’d all be meeting up again the next morning for – gulp – Little Ones Extra magic Hour at the MK. So, without stopping for hugs, LL and I dove onto the SSR bus just before it pulled out.
My stop was first. LL and I made a plan to do the same bus routine the next morning, getting to our stops at 7:30 and catching the very first MK bus. With a last “Goodnight!” the bus took LL back to her room and I made my way back to Gramma and Leo.
I took my time, walking slowly and reviewing the night’s festivities. It amazed me then, as it still does today, that five women from very different worlds had found each other in cyber-space and discovered they had more in common than just Disney. Sure, it’s The Mouse that brought us together initially, but what I experienced with these amazing ladies was so much more than “I like Disney!”, “Hey, me too!” In their company, I felt warmth. Camaraderie. Respect. Concern. Appreciation. Support.
Friendship. I believe it to be called.
Gramma was still up, reading, when I got in. She said their night had been something of a bust – dinner was only so-so and they’d been rained out of any pool activities. They never saw Michael and Tony. Leo had been a tad obnoxious at dinner.
Oh well. Too bad. But it wasn’t getting me down. I was in my happy place, as I gleefully described the night to Gramma, showing her my prized tiki-glass. She nodded, smiling, and said she was glad I’d had a nice time. And I believe she was glad. No passive-aggressiveness that night.
I climbed into bed myself, thinking about how much fun was still ahead, as Leo got to play with his new buddies the next morning.
Next: Can you get a hang-over from pineapple juice?
wishing we had been.
I felt like I was "home" when we arrived. OH to dream about DVC at the Poly! 
:
I do agree with sharkB8, wish I was there.
I had to drink alot to get that bad boy and someone just comes up and snatches it! 
Sounds like you ladies completely shocked the staff at Kona -- you used ALL of the pineapples !! 
I'm sorry LL!
