6) Would You Like Cheese With That.
It was a lovely sunny Sunday morning as we pulled up at the security gate at The Grand Floridian Hotel and told the guard that Mr W Pooh was expecting us. He asked our name and confirmed that Mr Pooh was indeed expecting us. The Grand Floridian looks like a really nice hotel. The lobby is sumptuous. We were early for our PS so we did some window shopping. Well you can't have enough windows can you. No, sorry, joke. What I mean is we looked in the windows of the shops they have there in the lobby. They were the kind of shops that don't have any prices on the articles displayed. There is a reason for this. If they put their prices on show they would have people at the window all day saying "What!" "How much!" and "No, that must be a misprint, there should be an extra zero on that ticket." Definitely a nice hotel though.
As we browsed, Hook, Smee, Pluto and Minnie appeared. A bonus as I have never seen these characters advertised for this brekkie. I thought that maybe it was part of the Character Caravan. The kids had lots of time for photos and autographs.
I sat in a huge armchair and watched how the other half was living. A limo disgorged some arriving guests whose luggage probably cost more than my holiday, or even the plane I came on and some other people, obviously on Concierge, were having their shoelaces re-woven while they nibbled on truffles. A man was complaining that he'd had to turn the page of his newspaper himself.
We checked in at the 1900 Park Fare rostrum and the greeter gave us a flashing vibrating bleeper that played a tune. No chance of us missing our table then. Mary Poppins was sitting in the restaurant foyer with some children colouring in pictures. Mary Poppins, who is a nanny, is colouring in pictures with kids. Simple. But brilliant. What else would she be doing? Disney are just so good with details. Park Fare is quite a big restaurant but the characters (Pooh, Tigger, Alice and Bert) seemed to be everywhere. We took maybe 45 minutes over breakfast and each character came to our table three times. They had lots of tables to visit but never appeared rushed. More disney magic I suppose. The kids, normally so noisy and talkative at home were a lot quieter whenever there were characters about. Maybe I should get a Buzz Lightyear costume or something so I can get peace to read the Sunday papers. I might look a bit odd in our village newsagents though.
The food was first class and there were lots of chefs and attendants keeping everything hot and fresh and the serving area clean and tidy. The kids particularly enjoyed the scrambled eggs with cheese. Have you noticed how much cheese Americans eat. All kinds of food will be served or offered with cheese. I like cheese but would not automatically think to serve it with a grilled chicken breast or a bacon sandwich. Once I was served shredded hot tuna with lettuce and it came wrapped in a processed cheese slice. And they have liquid cheese. In a tube. With a nozzle. I think this is designed to get cheese into hard to access places, like down the gullet of a trout or up the backside of a small bird.
As we left the hotel the boys hi-jacked a stretch for photos. This will no doubt earn them peer points later. We all piled in our car and as we had no clue how to get to I Drive and as it was Sunday we said three Hail Marys. Our prayers must have got through because we were soon walking around the Belz Mall.
Am I the only one or is Belz overrated? Sure jeans and trainers are cheap but is the rest of it particularly good value? There are designer outlet stores in England I am sure can compete on price and quality. Anyway who designs the non designer clothes? And what on Earth is a designer tee shirt? Here is the simplest of garments imaginable, a tube of cloth with two sleeves and yet it needs a designer. To do what, precisely. Ill tell you what. To design a logo. The only difference between all the different designer tee shirts is the logo. We dont need any more designer tee shirts. Why dont some of those designers go and design something useful like a new type of designer cheese or something.
AM I RANTING. I am ranting. Sorry. This report is supposed to be about the parks and stuff. Soooo off we went to Universal Studios for a few hours. Once again the Flex tickets allowing us to go to a park in non-commando mode. We went on Jaws, a bit dated but still great fun especially if you get an enthusiastic CM, and most of them are. Back to the Future, once the best ride in Orlando and still great fun. The Blues Brothers show which I love. And Hanna Barbera. There was a mix up between the CMs here about the numbers of wheelchairs and the numbers of FOTL guests and the doors to the preshow slammed shut just as we got inside, then when we went into the main theatre it was only a quarter full despite there being really long lines outside.
This had been our least rushed day so far and very welcome it was too. After some pool time we went to Sonnys Real Pit Bar-B-Q where we had ribs, Bar-B-Q beef and pork. Delicious. For dessert I ordered apple pie and ice cream. Hold the cheese I said
To be continued .
Ken
It was a lovely sunny Sunday morning as we pulled up at the security gate at The Grand Floridian Hotel and told the guard that Mr W Pooh was expecting us. He asked our name and confirmed that Mr Pooh was indeed expecting us. The Grand Floridian looks like a really nice hotel. The lobby is sumptuous. We were early for our PS so we did some window shopping. Well you can't have enough windows can you. No, sorry, joke. What I mean is we looked in the windows of the shops they have there in the lobby. They were the kind of shops that don't have any prices on the articles displayed. There is a reason for this. If they put their prices on show they would have people at the window all day saying "What!" "How much!" and "No, that must be a misprint, there should be an extra zero on that ticket." Definitely a nice hotel though.
As we browsed, Hook, Smee, Pluto and Minnie appeared. A bonus as I have never seen these characters advertised for this brekkie. I thought that maybe it was part of the Character Caravan. The kids had lots of time for photos and autographs.
I sat in a huge armchair and watched how the other half was living. A limo disgorged some arriving guests whose luggage probably cost more than my holiday, or even the plane I came on and some other people, obviously on Concierge, were having their shoelaces re-woven while they nibbled on truffles. A man was complaining that he'd had to turn the page of his newspaper himself.
We checked in at the 1900 Park Fare rostrum and the greeter gave us a flashing vibrating bleeper that played a tune. No chance of us missing our table then. Mary Poppins was sitting in the restaurant foyer with some children colouring in pictures. Mary Poppins, who is a nanny, is colouring in pictures with kids. Simple. But brilliant. What else would she be doing? Disney are just so good with details. Park Fare is quite a big restaurant but the characters (Pooh, Tigger, Alice and Bert) seemed to be everywhere. We took maybe 45 minutes over breakfast and each character came to our table three times. They had lots of tables to visit but never appeared rushed. More disney magic I suppose. The kids, normally so noisy and talkative at home were a lot quieter whenever there were characters about. Maybe I should get a Buzz Lightyear costume or something so I can get peace to read the Sunday papers. I might look a bit odd in our village newsagents though.
The food was first class and there were lots of chefs and attendants keeping everything hot and fresh and the serving area clean and tidy. The kids particularly enjoyed the scrambled eggs with cheese. Have you noticed how much cheese Americans eat. All kinds of food will be served or offered with cheese. I like cheese but would not automatically think to serve it with a grilled chicken breast or a bacon sandwich. Once I was served shredded hot tuna with lettuce and it came wrapped in a processed cheese slice. And they have liquid cheese. In a tube. With a nozzle. I think this is designed to get cheese into hard to access places, like down the gullet of a trout or up the backside of a small bird.
As we left the hotel the boys hi-jacked a stretch for photos. This will no doubt earn them peer points later. We all piled in our car and as we had no clue how to get to I Drive and as it was Sunday we said three Hail Marys. Our prayers must have got through because we were soon walking around the Belz Mall.
Am I the only one or is Belz overrated? Sure jeans and trainers are cheap but is the rest of it particularly good value? There are designer outlet stores in England I am sure can compete on price and quality. Anyway who designs the non designer clothes? And what on Earth is a designer tee shirt? Here is the simplest of garments imaginable, a tube of cloth with two sleeves and yet it needs a designer. To do what, precisely. Ill tell you what. To design a logo. The only difference between all the different designer tee shirts is the logo. We dont need any more designer tee shirts. Why dont some of those designers go and design something useful like a new type of designer cheese or something.
AM I RANTING. I am ranting. Sorry. This report is supposed to be about the parks and stuff. Soooo off we went to Universal Studios for a few hours. Once again the Flex tickets allowing us to go to a park in non-commando mode. We went on Jaws, a bit dated but still great fun especially if you get an enthusiastic CM, and most of them are. Back to the Future, once the best ride in Orlando and still great fun. The Blues Brothers show which I love. And Hanna Barbera. There was a mix up between the CMs here about the numbers of wheelchairs and the numbers of FOTL guests and the doors to the preshow slammed shut just as we got inside, then when we went into the main theatre it was only a quarter full despite there being really long lines outside.
This had been our least rushed day so far and very welcome it was too. After some pool time we went to Sonnys Real Pit Bar-B-Q where we had ribs, Bar-B-Q beef and pork. Delicious. For dessert I ordered apple pie and ice cream. Hold the cheese I said
To be continued .
Ken
I was going to pick out my favourite bits but there are too many of them 
