2) The Best laid Plans
Are you one of those people who spend hours, days, and weeks on the Dis Boards planning your next trip? Me too. Are you one of those people who reads six guide books over and over? Me too. Are you one of those people who with the clever use of spreadsheets, slide rules and a few archaic trigonometry laws can draw up a meticulously detailed plan covering your families movements for the whole trip? Me too. Are you one of those people who leave that same plan on the kitchen table 4000 miles away? Me too!!!.
I was up at five, Babs shortly after. We were both pleased that we had decided to rent the house rather than hotel rooms/suite. (Good tips from these boards, thanks to UK Debs) We were able to shower have coffee and watch the local news without waking the rest of the gang. They were up by 6.30 and at 7.30 we were at breakfast. Western Sizzlin' is one of those pay before you eat buffets. We paid $27 for all 5 of us. The waitress asked for our drinks order. "Coffee" I said "Coffee" Babs said "Coffee" Rachel said following suit. "Weellll hunnay yous a little short fer cawfee" said the waitress thus giving Rachel her nickname for the holiday. 'Shorty'
While Babs took Rachel in search of something a 5 year old would recognise as food I waited for the coffee and cut the two boys loose. They are only 8 and 10 and I probably should have told them that when at a buffet it's not compulsory to sample everything. When they returned Connors plate had some quite original and unusual fusions ( I think thats it - fusions) and Daniels had a pile of food Red Rum couldn't have jumped over even if he was feeling pretty fit that day. Well we managed to eat everything between us. I hate seeing wasted food at a buffet. Why put it on the plate if you aren't going to eat it.
We got the news about the admission price increase on the Saturday. Disney raised prices on Sunday and we flew Tuesday. We had been quoted good prices weeks ago by Ticketmaninc and our plan was to collect and pay for the tickets Tuesday pm. or real early Wednesday, with a back up plan of using Maple Leaf tickets who come well reccommended on these boards. It hadn't seemed necessary to pay in advance so why take the risk. At 8.00 am Wednesday Ticketmaninc was closed so plan B then. Everyone here speaks well of Omar at Maple Leaf but even Omar gets a day off, so I spoke to his dad. I told him I had been E-mailed prices before the price increase and what can you do. He split the differeence with me, I think ??? Anyway I paid $220 adult 5 day hopper,$182 child 5 day hopper. $165.95 4 park flex adult and $132.50 4 park flex child. Did I do good? I dunno. Maybe if I'd had my plan... Anyway if Omar is nicer than his dad then he must be a pretty nice guy. Omar,if you ever want to take a holiday your business is in good hands. And if you need tickets...
We pulled into Pluto, Pluto, Pluto rows 20 something to blah. What did I care. It was the kids' job to remember where we parked. And woe betide you my lad if... We walked down Main St. and the look on their faces. It was one of those 'I wish I had a camera' moments. It was only later that I realised I had had a camera. Doh. Connor's jaw dropped open and was to remain like that for the rest of the holiday. Handy when we needed to shovel food into him. We headed for Splash and when we got to the Pecos Bill corner there was no one else in sight. Not a single person. In front or behind. For a second I thought we must have inadvertently crossed a rope. A CM, John came walking toward us and engaged the kids like they do. The 3 Kids just stared back thinking who is this strange adult who talks to kids without giving them an instruction. He told them all about Splash and we went straight on. We went round 3 times without getting out of the boat, then to BTMR (twice). Next we did Pirates, Jungle Cruise (Connor drove the boat) Snow White, Pooh, Peter Pan and Buzz. Buzz was a first for me. Great fun.We refuelled at Cosmic Rays. Me and the boys went on Space - our first queue, 5 minutes - and we all had a little ride on that transit thingy. It started to rain so we went into Country Bears and the Horseshoe Saloon Revue. The singing sherrif asked Connor his name. Connor just coloured up and took a drink of coke. "Slurp!" said the sherrif to the audience "Your name is Slurp!" Well it is now we all thought. We wandered about a bit and caught the WDW Railroad to Toon Town. Babs took the kids round the two houses and I took a break. I was sat near that Donald Duck Boat thing and right opposite me are Hook and the Queen of Hearts looking for kids. That's how quiet it was. Characters couldn't find kids. I went over and posed with the Queen just to give her something to do. Nobody was there to take a picture so we just posed for a while. I wondered aloud why a queen would have to make her own tarts. She just kind of shrugged. I imagined the CM around the dinner table that night" Yeah on his own. Just stood there with his arm around me. Weird. Handsome guy though...
Even with the park closing we caught the fist monorail. When it left no one was waiting for the next one. The kids did a good job remembering where the car was so we pumped the Montego Bay co-ordinates into the Kia and went home.
I remembered that the long lost plan had Darryls on the list for dinner, so we headed there at about 8.00pm. Darryls on I192 was closed. We could have gone anywhere but I had Darryls in my head now so we headed for the one on I Drive. Well, the stupid car must have misunderstood me and we ended up at DTD. Oh well Planet Hollywood it is then. We were led to our table and as our server approached I said "Hi How you doin', I'm Ken, this is Barbara, Daniel, Connor and Rachel. We'll be your customers this evening". Becky the server had a good laugh brought our drinks and the food followed. The food was OK but we all agreed we wouldn't go back.
And so to bed
To be continued...
Are you one of those people who spend hours, days, and weeks on the Dis Boards planning your next trip? Me too. Are you one of those people who reads six guide books over and over? Me too. Are you one of those people who with the clever use of spreadsheets, slide rules and a few archaic trigonometry laws can draw up a meticulously detailed plan covering your families movements for the whole trip? Me too. Are you one of those people who leave that same plan on the kitchen table 4000 miles away? Me too!!!.
I was up at five, Babs shortly after. We were both pleased that we had decided to rent the house rather than hotel rooms/suite. (Good tips from these boards, thanks to UK Debs) We were able to shower have coffee and watch the local news without waking the rest of the gang. They were up by 6.30 and at 7.30 we were at breakfast. Western Sizzlin' is one of those pay before you eat buffets. We paid $27 for all 5 of us. The waitress asked for our drinks order. "Coffee" I said "Coffee" Babs said "Coffee" Rachel said following suit. "Weellll hunnay yous a little short fer cawfee" said the waitress thus giving Rachel her nickname for the holiday. 'Shorty'
While Babs took Rachel in search of something a 5 year old would recognise as food I waited for the coffee and cut the two boys loose. They are only 8 and 10 and I probably should have told them that when at a buffet it's not compulsory to sample everything. When they returned Connors plate had some quite original and unusual fusions ( I think thats it - fusions) and Daniels had a pile of food Red Rum couldn't have jumped over even if he was feeling pretty fit that day. Well we managed to eat everything between us. I hate seeing wasted food at a buffet. Why put it on the plate if you aren't going to eat it.
We got the news about the admission price increase on the Saturday. Disney raised prices on Sunday and we flew Tuesday. We had been quoted good prices weeks ago by Ticketmaninc and our plan was to collect and pay for the tickets Tuesday pm. or real early Wednesday, with a back up plan of using Maple Leaf tickets who come well reccommended on these boards. It hadn't seemed necessary to pay in advance so why take the risk. At 8.00 am Wednesday Ticketmaninc was closed so plan B then. Everyone here speaks well of Omar at Maple Leaf but even Omar gets a day off, so I spoke to his dad. I told him I had been E-mailed prices before the price increase and what can you do. He split the differeence with me, I think ??? Anyway I paid $220 adult 5 day hopper,$182 child 5 day hopper. $165.95 4 park flex adult and $132.50 4 park flex child. Did I do good? I dunno. Maybe if I'd had my plan... Anyway if Omar is nicer than his dad then he must be a pretty nice guy. Omar,if you ever want to take a holiday your business is in good hands. And if you need tickets...
We pulled into Pluto, Pluto, Pluto rows 20 something to blah. What did I care. It was the kids' job to remember where we parked. And woe betide you my lad if... We walked down Main St. and the look on their faces. It was one of those 'I wish I had a camera' moments. It was only later that I realised I had had a camera. Doh. Connor's jaw dropped open and was to remain like that for the rest of the holiday. Handy when we needed to shovel food into him. We headed for Splash and when we got to the Pecos Bill corner there was no one else in sight. Not a single person. In front or behind. For a second I thought we must have inadvertently crossed a rope. A CM, John came walking toward us and engaged the kids like they do. The 3 Kids just stared back thinking who is this strange adult who talks to kids without giving them an instruction. He told them all about Splash and we went straight on. We went round 3 times without getting out of the boat, then to BTMR (twice). Next we did Pirates, Jungle Cruise (Connor drove the boat) Snow White, Pooh, Peter Pan and Buzz. Buzz was a first for me. Great fun.We refuelled at Cosmic Rays. Me and the boys went on Space - our first queue, 5 minutes - and we all had a little ride on that transit thingy. It started to rain so we went into Country Bears and the Horseshoe Saloon Revue. The singing sherrif asked Connor his name. Connor just coloured up and took a drink of coke. "Slurp!" said the sherrif to the audience "Your name is Slurp!" Well it is now we all thought. We wandered about a bit and caught the WDW Railroad to Toon Town. Babs took the kids round the two houses and I took a break. I was sat near that Donald Duck Boat thing and right opposite me are Hook and the Queen of Hearts looking for kids. That's how quiet it was. Characters couldn't find kids. I went over and posed with the Queen just to give her something to do. Nobody was there to take a picture so we just posed for a while. I wondered aloud why a queen would have to make her own tarts. She just kind of shrugged. I imagined the CM around the dinner table that night" Yeah on his own. Just stood there with his arm around me. Weird. Handsome guy though...
Even with the park closing we caught the fist monorail. When it left no one was waiting for the next one. The kids did a good job remembering where the car was so we pumped the Montego Bay co-ordinates into the Kia and went home.
I remembered that the long lost plan had Darryls on the list for dinner, so we headed there at about 8.00pm. Darryls on I192 was closed. We could have gone anywhere but I had Darryls in my head now so we headed for the one on I Drive. Well, the stupid car must have misunderstood me and we ended up at DTD. Oh well Planet Hollywood it is then. We were led to our table and as our server approached I said "Hi How you doin', I'm Ken, this is Barbara, Daniel, Connor and Rachel. We'll be your customers this evening". Becky the server had a good laugh brought our drinks and the food followed. The food was OK but we all agreed we wouldn't go back.
And so to bed
To be continued...
