DAY 3 – Saturday 2/11/12
Who: Sue (53), DVC member
SB (54), Husband
Plan: Magic Kingdom, Grand Floridian Café lunch, Top of World Lounge
Actual: I forgot to mention last night SB called to check on a friend of ours in CT who was having a medical issue and learned from the guy’s wife he does in fact have lung cancer. Unfortunately this man smoked heavily before we ever met him, and the docs say he’s not a candidate for chemo due to other lung issues over the years – not a good situation. Hopefully he & his wife can make their planned trip to Ft Myers the last half of March and if so SB will drive down to spend some time with them.
It rained pretty heavily for a short time last night. We couldn’t hear it at all but when I went out to the other room to get some cold water from the fridge I could see the living room window was wet. I went out onto the balcony off the bedroom and could barely see the lake. But, the good news is it had all passed and the sky was clear by morning.
We both slept well last night. He ended up falling asleep on the sleeper chair in the living room while watching tv and said it was comfortable. We were both up early and spent time just relaxing around the villa. I showered & made my cappuccino and cut a thin slice of the red velvet cupcake to go with it. The cupcake is pretty good! SB had the leftover chicken & steak, chips and a slice of cupcake for his breakfast.
Around 8:15 we decided to get moving, so SB showered & I finished getting ready. I was wearing capris with pockets so I decided to go “bagless” since I hate the stupid bag checks especially when hordes of people are arriving. We were out the door by 8:45 to walk to the Magic Kingdom.
It was cool but comfortable this morning, although as the day went on it got windier (cold wind). We arrived at the park just as the pre-show was ending up on the train station, so we had a bit of a back-up until the crowd dispersed. We headed first to Space Mountain, where I picked up fastpasses for 9:45-10:45. The first one blew out of the holder on the machine and I had to go chase it down in the wind! Once that was done SB suggested the People Mover, but I wanted to save that for a busier time (and warmer). So, he said he wanted to ride the race cars and we headed over there.
For whatever reason they only had 1 lane open, which seems pretty stupid. They weren’t still loading cars onto the track, either. The line was short but moved twice as slowly with only 1 lane operating. We split up and I was in the last car of a group while he was in the first car of the next group. A lady several cars up had trouble and she came walking back to get a cast member. The rest of us just sat there, since nobody can go around.
Finally they must have gotten her car started as the line ahead of me started moving. I went ahead a little and waited for SB so I could take his picture. My car was slow, as I had the accelerator on the floor and he was right on my tail. It looks like the Fantasyland expansion is really coming along – too bad the fence blocks most of the view!
After the speedway SB suggested the Tea Cups so we did that with no wait at all. He spun it for a while, then I took my turn at the wheel. We were a little dizzy getting off that thing, lol! Next was the Pooh attraction, with a very short wait. We bypassed the interactive play area. Since Snow White would be closing soon we did that one last time – it’s not a very good attraction by today’s standards but it’s a piece of WDW history.
The line was huge at Peter Pan’s Flight (as usual) so we skipped that and wandered into Liberty Square. SB isn’t thrilled with the Haunted Mansion, so we walked into Adventureland and rode Jungle Cruise with no wait at all. This was his first time and he got a kick out of it. Some of the jokes seemed new, too. From there we had a short wait for the Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride, which was fun but not worth any kind of wait!
At Pirates of the Caribbean they had both sides open and we walked right onto a boat. Once we’d done the small hill and were in the pirate battle scene most of us in the boat were surprised to get splashed pretty heavily. My hair was dripping down my neck for most of the ride after that! Normally that doesn’t happen, thank goodness. The family behind us talked through most of the ride, which is annoying.
Big Thunder was closed for refurbishment so we got a popcorn in Frontierland and ate that while slowly walking back over to Tomorrowland. It was 10:45 when we used the Space Mountain fastpasses, and were seated in the 2nd rocket. The standby line was really short, and a couple who entered that line when we entered the fastpass line ended up right behind us in the loading area.
The ride was fun – it felt a lot faster than 28 mph but I guess that’s because of the darkness! After this we finally rode People Mover, which was pretty chilly due to the wind! We were going to ride it twice but as we came back to the station decided it was too cold to go again. We walked down Main Street and saw the Grand Floridian boat arriving so we walked over to that dock. We wisely chose the sunny side of the boat and had a nice ride over to the resort. We had 30 minutes before our lunch reservation so SB sat in the lobby while I walked the path over to the Polynesian and back. The dvc construction is still in the land clearing stage, so not much worth photographing at this point.
When I got back to the resort I retrieved SB from the lobby and we checked in at the Grand Floridian Café. We had what I thought was a terrific table right by the window, until hordes of young kids who I think had gone on a pirate cruise were running wild out there. Of course the parents were too busy chatting with each other to pay attention most of the time. He had at least 5-6 different little kids at different times sticking their faces up against the window at our table, climbing & jumping off the bench outside the window, putting their hands all over the window, etc. It was getting ridiculous, but unfortunately I didn’t have a tazer gun.
Lunch itself was terrific, as usual. SB ordered the onion soup, which we both shared. He also had the Rueben and I had the seasonal greens salad. We were too full for dessert and wouldn’t have bothered here anyway since we still have half a cupcake and the other almond crusted cheesecake in the fridge! After lunch we went to the monorail station, where the monorail was arriving. Our monorail luck has been great this trip! The monorail was busy, so we stood until several people got off at the Magic Kingdom stop. A family boarded with 2 young boys in a double stroller. The boys wanted to stand but the mom kept telling them they had to either sit in the stroller or sit on the monorail seat. She did this repeatedly, and they of course just ignored her. Naturally, she did absolutely nothing – totally pathetic. She tried holding onto them when the train was moving, and they screamed and told her not to. The big lug of a dad just stood there clueless sucking on his lollipop (I swear I’m not making this stuff up, lol). So, the kids spent the ride standing, walking around, basically doing what they felt like doing despite mom’s repeated ineffective instructions. I wouldn’t take a kid to Disney if he wouldn’t do as he was told, but that’s just me I guess.
Back in the villa I pulled out our dining receipts to see whether this deluxe dining plan was a good idea or not. For the 2 of us for one night we paid $171.04. The meals plus snacks received were $246.46 but remember we have Tables in Wonderland. If we’d paid out of pocket but used Tables in Wonderland it would have cost $199.47. So, the “savings” was almost $28 but honestly we probably wouldn’t have bothered with the 4 snacks and wouldn’t have done the breakfast buffet. I didn’t count the $14.49 per mug because we really aren’t using them and I would NEVER have bought them!
After a short rest I decided to go for a more serious walk. I thought about riding over to Downtown Disney and walking through Saratoga Springs but really didn’t want to have to travel to start walking. SB decided to stay home and watch sports on tv, so I went downstairs and headed out the front door. I walked the path to the Magic Kingdom and looked for a way to get beyond the monorail station but didn’t see anything to make that possible. So, I turned around and walked back to Bay Lake Tower and took a lesson from the 2 recent cruise days where I walked 5 miles along the hallways. Bay Lake Tower is shaped like the letter “C” and each hallway is fairly long. I started on the ground floor walking from one end to the other, then climbed up a flight of stairs to the next floor and did that until I reached our villa on the 14th floor. The entire walk took 45 minutes, so I estimate I walked close to 3 miles.
SB just shook his head when he learned what I’d done, lol! We finished up the cupcake and he watched tv while I read the cruise message boards and updated the report. Around 4 I went down to the front desk to get our new parking pass since we’d be driving to Beach Club Villas in the morning and I think the pass in the car had yesterday for the expiration date (since it was from the reservation for the 1st night only). On the way back I filled up his mug with hot chocolate. Technically the mugs were to be used through midnight last night but since between the 2 of us we had ONE hot chocolate during that time Disney isn’t losing any money by me filling it up today.
Shortly before 5 we went downstairs to the lobby and upstairs to the Top of the World lounge. My room key did not say dvc member and the cast member explained that due to a glitch in the new system it only says that for the rest of the party but not for the person who booked. I checked SB’s card and sure enough it said dvc member. Hmmm, that’s not right, lol!! However, the cast member explained that the first several numbers on the card identifies us as dvc, so it doesn’t really matter that the words are missing.
Up in the lounge the bartender Mike remembered me from previous visits and welcomed me back. I told him Deb Wills had said hello, and we chatted a few minutes. SB selected the seating area closest to the basketball game and we ordered drinks. He had a 7 and 7, and I ordered the pinot grigio. Unfortunately they were “still out” of that. Huh??? A customer as big as Disney can’t get a wine delivery the next day?? The server said they’d been out for a few days now, which makes no sense to me. I chose the sauvignon blanc instead, which was fine but not as good at the pinot grigio.
SB & Sue at Top of the World Lounge
