Rosemarie & Dale - August 2006

Cast Members – Pooh: Dale & Tig: Rosemarie (we were celebrating our 20th Friendship anniversary for this trip).

Preface – We are Florida season passholders & on the tail end of blackout season – we had planned this trip as a girls weekend originally, then after some digging (thru some stuff at my mom’s house – I realized that this August would be our 20th anniversary of being friends – an even bigger reason to celebrate!!) We had planned a ‘Hotel Hopping’ extravaganza for the weekend – exploring all the luxury & moderate hotels (it’s our fantasy – value resorts didn’t figure into it... if you’re going to Dream – Dream big - LOL).

Normally we do Un-birthday gifts to each other once a month – but decided to forgo the birthday and get ‘big’ anniversary presents (yes, I have a very understanding husband… LOL). I got Dale the Hamilton Collection Cinderella's Enchanted Journey Musical Carousel (she’d been lusting after it for quite a while and I knew she’d never buy it for herself). She got me …. (DRUM ROLL PLEASE ) a PIECE OF THE WORLD!!!! I now officially own 1 stock in the Walt Disney Company (I haven’t actually gotten it yet – she had it framed w/one of our quote engraved in it & that takes extra time) – but I did get a really cool ‘you’re gonna get this certificate’ from the company.

SO – now we jet off to Orlando. We did some pre-shopping at the Disney Outlets & ended up at Downtown Disney for dinner @ the Earl of Sandwich (a fav of ours). I picked up a few of the pins I had been lusting over & did some trading. We would up back at our offsite hotel around 11 and just went to bed (big day tomorrow).

I had made ADR’s months ago for O’Hana’s @ the Polynesian for breakfast. We were not disappointed. We got to the restaurant about 30 mins early & was seated w/in 5 mins. We hadn’t even had our picture taken yet & the pager went off (BTW – the pics were great $26.00 later). The menu consisted of fresh fruit plate, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, mickey waffles, & a biscuit, cokes, coffee & OJ to drink. Let me preface this with I am NOT a scrambled egg fan – but these were REALLY good. The whole breakfast was really nice & relaxing & we quickly fell in love w/this hotel. Characters were Lilo, Stitch, Mickey & Pluto. The breakfast w/tip came to about $40 (we have the Disney dining discount card – 20%). We were walking out of the restaurant – we ran into a mgr & ended up spending about 45 minutes just talking to him about ALL Kinds of Disney stuff (I ended up getting 3 CM only pins from him). He gave us a business card & I SOOOOO plan on keeping in touch w/him!! We did some shopping (and pin trading for me) around the rest of the resort – then went to the monorail to cruise over to the Grand Floridian.

I have already been to the GF (on our honeymoon I made husband suffer thru High Tea – see, told you he was understanding!!) so this was all new to Dale. We got to the landing and I was showing her the Mary Poppins topiary and realized that OMG the digital camera is gone!!! I had APPARENTLY put it down when I was pin trading @ the Poly. By now I’m completely freaking out and Dale is trying to calm me down (this was her camera & she’s the calm one). The monorail driver asked what was going on and I explained – he then picked up the phone @ the podium and tried to call the store I described (only to the get the answering machine – which aggravated him to no end). I am completely spazing by now because OMG he’s just wasting time!! I could jump on this waiting monorail and go back (told Dale to wait) – as I explain this – the driver just waves at me to wait – so I’m standing – still spazing – and now I’m really getting impatient (the driver is still on the phone) and I say – outloud – just wait here – I’ll go back & he can stay on the phone and if he gets anyone they can just hold it. He stops – looks at me and says – ma’am the monorail’s not going anywhere, I’m the driver! LOL. He then hangs up the phone disgusted (answering machine again) and tells us to come to the front of the monorail & so he can make sure we get there as quick as possible. OMG!! This is so cool (even w/the lost camera) – Dale’s never ridden in the front before. So he (after making EVERYONE in the monorail wait on us while he made the phone call) now zips thru the stops only waiting a couple minutes so that we can get back to the Poly ASAP. When he pulls into the station we thank him profusely and I go running back to the store (who by the way had our camera behind the counter & joked they took some pics for us – I think I could have kissed them). BY now Dale has caught up w/me (I was RUNNING) and we turn around and go back to the monorail. We met another really cool driver & they put us RIGHT back in the front of the monorail for our trip to the GF. We walked around, did some pin trading & got a Alice in Wonderland mug from the counter service there (I love Alice). And then hopped the monorail (AGAIN in the front!!) to get over to the Contemporary. We looked around the Contemp, did some pin trading & did some shopping then jumped back over to the Poly so that we could get our car and go to the Wilderness Lodge for our lunch at Whispering Canyon. Note - EVERY trip we made on the monorail this day - we ended up riding in the front - it ABSOLUTELY made the day. Everyone we talked w/drivers, security guards, etc were just fabulous!!

We got seated around 1:20 and got a nice and ‘quiet’ waitress – thinking we were safe from the screaming & carrying on. But nope – she ended up pulling us up to the front and made us do the hokey pokey in front of everyone. We were still a bit full from breakfast so we decided to split lunch/dessert & save some $$– a pulled pork sandwich & a cinnamon tortilla banana desert (this is REALLY good) – everything under $20. Although it was a nice lunch – it was not really our style – we don’t regret going – but will probably not be heading back.

We then headed out to tour the others – we went thru Port Orleans Riverside & French Quarter (taking the boat between the two); Beach Club Villas, Old Key West; Saratoga; and the Boardwalk. I did some more pin trading (notice a trend here?) It was EXCRUCIATINGLY hot on Saturday and we decided after the Boardwalk to go back to the hotel and take a shower & relax. We didn’t finish everything we had planned on looking at – because honestly we fell in love w/the Polynesian and nothing else compared!!

We ended up going to Café Tu’Tu Tango (International Drive) for dinner – a must if you’ve never been!! Did a bit more shopping & headed back to the hotel to crash (LONG HOT DAY).

Our last ADR was at Boma’s at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We held out hope that this one would change our mind on where else we could stay – other than the Polynesian (when we hit the lottery, or got an insurance settlement… etc.. etc). Breakfast was good & filling & just under $40 w/tax & tip. It was enjoyable – but I still have to say I like the Poly’s better. I had done the Grand Floridians Parke 1900 Fair (several months ago) and like that one much better than Boma’s too. We toured the hotel (did some more pin trading) and then headed back to the Poly to ‘make sure’ we hadn’t just imagined how cool it was yesterday. We walked around the beach & picked up a few souvies we had waited on the day before and sadly headed back to the car.

With heavy hearts we headed back to the ‘real world’ – jobs, kids, hubbys, etc. Traffic on I-4 & the turnpike was horrible - but we made it back w/out any major issuess. After I dropped Dale off at her house I began cooking a plan!! I called Disney and asked what the hotel cost would be for 2 nights at the Poly for after our Feb. 1st - 3 day cruise. I ended up (I’m STILL not sure how) talking hubby into staying there (along w/Pirate & Princess Party, the Spirit of Aloha Show & maybe the pirate cruise from the GF for son). I am SOOOOO excited now I am about to bust – which is good – cuz I’m back at work and real life has begun again – so the possibility of staying at the Poly for a couple nights MIGHT be able to keep me hanging on!!! I was planning on getting the lower priced room (don’t want to give hubby a heart attack) – I believe that is the garden view. Unless someone out there wants to give me a couple reasons why I should upgrade (any help to convince hubby….lol) I’d be glad to listen!!!

So – if you’ve managed to read this far – I would LOVE some tips – or things people unusually miss at the Poly. Also – does anyone know when the season passholder rates or the Florida Residents rates come out for 2007? The operator yesterday said he didn’t have them available – but I could change if the rate went down.

There ya go - it was a WONDERFUL & MAGICAL Disney weekend (even w/the camera incident!!).