The PARTEE Report About This Page:

[Wondcat]

The PARTEE Report
or
Pat and Richard's Twenty-seventh anniversay Excursion Extrordinaire

Date:
Friday 11/30/01 to Thursday 12/6/01

Adventurers:

Pat (Wondcat) First trip in 1980-sidetrip after DH won a trip to The Pine Isle Resort in Georgia for selling life insurance, stayed offproperty. Second trip 1992, also stayed offsite. Third trip, 2000, All Star Music-all trips with kids.

Richard (Golfguy) Also on aforementioned trips.

Resort/Hotel: Wilderness Lodge (originally PO French Quarter, then CB, but I whined and got WL for only $108.00 more!

Celebration: Our 25th, 26th & 27th wedding anniversaries rolled into one-first trip without kids (the "kids" are 22 and 25 now)On our 25th anniversary Mandy was getting married and we didn't plan anything and on our 26th Alissa was getting ready to graduate from college and we didn't plan anything, we felt that we were due for a treat.

Off we go into the wild blue....

Since our flight left at 7:10 am and we had the Airport shuttle picking us up at 4:10 am, there was no sense in me even trying to sleep. Richard went to catch a few winks and I finished packing and straightening up the house and trying to reasure the dogs that we would be coming back. After losing Choulie the week before, I wanted them to know that we wouldn't be staying away too. I had picked up her urn earlier that day and tried to explain to them that she was in it and that if I shook it they could still smell her.
Anyway, I went to wake up DH and got everything by the front door to take outside to the van that was picking us up. At 4:15am, I started to worry. Although our flight time had been changed I didn't change the shuttle time, somehow I knew that we would need that extra hour. It is a good thing that I didn't because at about 4:20am the phone rang. The shuttle driver couldn't find us, our street ends at one side of a main road and picks up again on the other side but doesn't connect, so we had to explain to him that he was on the wrong part of the street and tell him how to get here. He got here at about 4:30am and then drove like a bat out of Hell and we were at BWI airport by 5:00am. So, we dragged all of the luggage into the airport and as we were making our way through the line, a man and his wife lifted up the stantion and got in front of us. Richard was furious and wanted to say something to them, but I convinced him to keep his cool, considering the way things have been at airports lately and because the line wasn't very long anyway. While we were standing in line we noticed a very small woman loaded down with baggage. Come to find out, she was a Marine (as was Richard) who had just gotten her orders to California (where R also was stationed for a time)and she was carrying all of her possessions on her back. We felt very sorry for her and after a brief conversation with her and a Semper Fi from Richard and a Hoo Rah from her, we were on our way. After checking the luggage, we shuffled off, we made it through the checkpoints without a hitch and stopped for coffee and sat down to wait and wait and wait to leave. Finally, they called our flight and we were off. Off course, there was a storm brewing and we had a very turbulant flight. we were very grateful to get off the plane in sunny Florida. After picking up our bags we headed over to national to pick up our economy car and we were 'greeted' by a rather nasty woman. After talking to her for a few moments, she got a little nicer and even upgraded us to a larger model, a maroon Lancer ( I remembered not to get silver or white because everybody has silver and white. We had actually started to choose a green car, I don't remember the model, but then we realized that it was an economy car and picked the Lancer. Off we went to the World! We got to the Wilderness lodge with two tolls and no problems and were just astounded by the outside of the resort. Of course, we pulled up in front and our luggage was wisked away and we wisked along with it. With our mouths hanging open we took in the beautiful WL lodge. It is just huge log cabinish with green roofs and flags on top. Although we did park our own car it could have been parked for us. The lobby is a joy to behold. Rustic, rustic, rustic is all that I can say. Totem poles and support beams with intricately carved animals on them. Rows and rows of balcony with wooden rails decorated with white lights for Christmas. Everywhere you look there indian artifacts. One one side of the lobby is a bubbling spring under a bridge which flows outside under the walls into the pool where it flows out from a waterfall. Thewre are little seating arrangements all around and teepee chandeliers. The teepees are repeated on the Christmas tree that is in the center of the lobby. There are also trees of various sizes all over the lobby. After recovering from the awesome beauty of the lobby, there is a 50 foot Christmas tree in the center, swags and lights all over the log railings, we recovered enough to go up to the guest services desk. There was no line and I walked up to the CM, Clay, who said that I was in the guest services line and not the check in line and that there were people before me. Although, for the length of our stay, I never noticed a separation betwen the two. It seems that in the time it took for me to walk up to him, a line had formed. So, we went to the end of the line. We were only there a few minutes when we heard a familiar, may I help the next person, sure enough, it was Clay ( who had not helped anybody else while we stood there) and we walked over to him. While we were waiting for him to complete our information and issue our passes, room ticket etc, he told us that he had a room available with two queen beds. We had requested a king bed, but since it was so early in the day we decided to take the two queens (Clay made three) so that we wouldn't have to wait. It seemed that for the length our our stay waiting and queens would be two of the things that we came into contact with frequently. (no offense, it made our stay)The others being screaming children and car alarms. We received our vouchers for commerorative pins, 24 wishes and $1,500.00 in credit, which we made a pretty good dent in. After finishing up with Clay we took the elevator up to our room on the 5th floor. It was very nice, two beds, table and chairs, two sinks, tub with shower, our own private balcony and decorated in a very tasteful rustic fashion. Although Disney rooms are fine, I am always a little disapointed that the 'magic' doesn't continue into the rooms. Ours was decorated with animal carving on the dresser and armoire. The beds were nice, rustic looking beds and the patterns were Indian looking on the cutains and bedspreads. But I am always looking for that special something that just isn't there. I understand that you don't spend alot of time there, but I just wish it were more. We decided to unpack later since we had a lunch PS at Cinderella's Royal table and headed down to the dock to take the boat to the Magic Kingom.

Next, "I didn't know that Cinderella was French"

[ 07-18-2002, 08:59 PM: Message edited by: Wondcat ]

[Elliot'sDragon]

I can't wait to visit the lobby of WL when I get there. I have never seen it at Christmas time.

[allysonh]

Wondcat:

Wonderful report so far! Keep it coming!

Have a great day!

[Fortissimo]

More! We want more!

[Wondcat]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PARTEE Report
or
Pat and Richard's Twenty-seventh anniversay Excursion Extrordinaire
Date:
Friday 11/30/01 to Thursday 12/6/01

Adventurers:

Pat (Wondcat) First trip in 1980-sidetrip after DH won a trip to The Pine Isle Resort in Georgia for selling life insurance, stayed offproperty. Second trip 1992, also stayed offsite. Third trip, 2000, All Star Music-all trips with kids.

Richard (Golfguy) Also on aforementioned trips.

Resort/Hotel: Wilderness Lodge (originally PO French Quarter, then CB, but I whined and got WL for only $108.00 more!

Celebration: Our 25th, 26th & 27th wedding anniversaries rolled into one-first trip without kids (the "kids" are 22 and 25 now)On our 25th anniversary Mandy was getting married and we didn't plan anything and on our 26th Alissa was getting ready to graduate from college and we didn't plan anything, we felt that we were due for a treat.

I didn't know that Cinderella was French!

We walked down to the private pier at the Wilderness Lodge to catch the boat to the Magic Kingdom. We were enjoying the veiw and after a short wait we were on the boat and skimming across Bay Lake to the MK. It still boggles my mind to think that all of this was a swamp at one time and that Walt, Happy Birthday to him! had the imagination and foresight to plan all of this. What a man! We got To the castle slightly early for our 2:00pm ps and went to the podium to tell them that we were there. The CM there told us we had a little time and we went off on our first shopping excursion of the trip, the first of many, I might add. We went into the shop in the castle first, the first thing that I saw was the Tinker Belle tree topper that Minnievoice wanted to get for her sister for Christmas. She had been looking all over for it. They only had three, so I thought that I had better buy it then to avoid not being able to find it later. So I did and had it sent to the resort, what a great feature! We hit all of the little shops in the vicinity and we realized that it was almost 2:00, our PS time and hurried back over to the castle. We were taken into the grand hall to wait for a few minutes for our name to be called. There was a huge throne in the room and a even huger (not a real word) Christmas tree, soon our name was announced and we were allowed to climb the stairs to the Royal table. We were shown to our table and our server, Anasa came over. She was French and a little cool, but we figured that was how the French were to Americans in France and really we didn't care, we were at the castle in the world! I did notice that all of the cm's there had French accents and this puzzled me a little, was Cinderella French? We usually try to order our drinks first, then our appetizer, then our meal. So that everything doesn't come at once and we have time to enjoy everything. We have never really had a problem with this. So we ordered our drinks-coke for me, coffee for Richard, when she came back with our drinks, we ordered our appetizers, we ordered the corn and crab dip with Peta chips and the Balsamic vegetable salad and we planned to share. Anasa asked if that was all and we said yes and she left with our menus. A man, who was also French brought our food to the table and we dug in. We were just about finished with our appetizers and she still hadn't come back for our entree order and although it was lovely there, high ceilings stained glass windows,(I really can't see how there could possibly be an apartment anywhere up there, all that I could see was a balcony, but we had heard that Michael Jackson stayed there so it must be true, right? wrong!) we really didn't want to spend the day there. Plus, we were hungry, we hadn't had anything to eat since dinner the night before and it was really past lunchtime. After sitting there for a time, we finally got the attention of the man who had brought the appetizers and asked him to send the waitress over. She came over and asked us if there was a problem, I, as nicely as I could, said no that we just wanted to order our entrees. Well, lo and behold this must have been Anasa's twin sister because suddenly she became our best friend. Richard ordered the prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables and I ordered the BBQ boneless chicken breast with coleslaw and apple cake. She then became all smiles and brought us bread and butter and shortly after, our entrees, which were delicious. In fact this was the absolute best boneless chicken breast that I had ever had, the coleslaw was unlike any I have ever had and the apple cake was the perfect complement to both. While we were eating we discussed the fact that Anasa must have thought that we were crazy to make this PS if we were only going to order appetizers and nothing else and that we weren't worth her attention. When she finally realized that we were there for the full meal she changed completely. We had just about finished and Richard excused himself to use the facilities and she came over to clear. She asked if everything was alright and I said that is had been delicious! She then changed into a human being and asked where we were from and I told her Baltimore, Maryland and mentioned that we were celebrating our anniversary, she left with the dishes and Richard came back. She came back to ask if we wanted dessert and handed me a large oblong box and said this is for you for your anniversary. Well, I almost fell off my royal seat, I opened the box and inside were two wine glasses with the Cinderella's royal table crest and twisted steams and they were just beautiful and I told her so and thanked her profusely. We told her that we were stuffed and didn't want dessert and we paid the bill and left her a generous tip and made our way down the royal stairs, where we stopped to take a few photos and then we were out the door and back into the park. We spent about an hour there walking around just looking at everything when we realized that we were just exhausted. No sleep the night before, jet lag and we decided to go back to the fabulous WL and take a nap. Well, of course we had to wait for the boat and then when we got there we just had to walk around and explore and we just had to look in the gift shop and we stopped to have a drink at the pool bar, we met a couple from Boston who were very nice. She is even a Passporter friend, but I can't remember her logon name. She said that she reads more than she writes. So, we actually got into our room at about 6:00pm. Richard fell asleep first, I took a few minutes to write in my Passporter and I went to sleep too! When I woke up it was 11:00 and Richard was in the bathtub. We decided that we would go to DD and Pleasure Island for a while. That would have been fine, but we turned the wrong way on our way out of the lodge and got lost. We found out later that we were taking the 'back way' that was actually the recommeded way to go, but we didn't know that. We had been following the search lights to PL, but somehow went the wrong way and wound up on the main road. By now it was close to 1:00 and we didn't want to go to PL that late so we decided that we would go to the Denny's there and eat. We pulled into the parking lot and went in and we immediately seated by yet another flamboyant young man who talked our ears off. There were only two other tables being used, one by a group of young men from Canada who were jumping around and bumping and grinding to the music that was playing and another table occupied by some more young men who were either friends of our server or employees of the Denny's. We couldn't decide which, but they were all hilariously funny and we laughed the whole time that we were there. So Richard had a grand slam and I had a Rueben and we got directions from the nice young man and finally got back to the lodge. Of course since we had slept earlier we were not very tired, so we watched some tv, then forced ourselves to go back to sleep so that we wouldn't be repeating this all the next day. All in all a very full day for our first!

Next, "The Rehitchin' Ceremony, not!"

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: wondcat ]

[tracyloveswdw]

After hearing your descriptions, I can't wait to go! We'll be at the WL 12/15 (instead of POR now)-only a few days away.

[maggy_1]

Wow ! what a trip report and it's a great souvenir the glasses from Cinderella table [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Can wait to read more

Chantal [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Wondcat]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PARTEE Report
or
Pat and Richard's Twenty-seventh anniversay Excursion Extrordinaire
Date:
Friday 11/30/01 to Thursday 12/6/01
Adventurers:

Pat (Wondcat) First trip in 1980-sidetrip after DH won a trip to The Pine Isle Resort in Georgia for selling life insurance, stayed offproperty. Second trip 1992, also stayed offsite. Third trip, 2000, All Star Music-all trips with kids.

Richard (Golfguy) Also on aforementioned trips.

Resort/Hotel: Wilderness Lodge (originally PO French Quarter, then CB, but I whined and got WL for only $108.00 more!

Celebration: Our 25th, 26th & 27th wedding anniversaries rolled into one-first trip without kids (the "kids" are 22 and 25 now)On our 25th anniversary Mandy was getting married and we didn't plan anything and on our 26th Alissa was getting ready to graduate from college and we didn't plan anything, we felt that we were due for a treat.

The 'Rehitchin ceremony", NOT!

When I planned this rehitchin' it was supposed to be a surprise. but the more I thought about it, I decided to tell Richard so that nothing would happen to make my plans go awry. The night before our trip I told him about the 'ceremony' and gave him his new ring and he said that it would be fun. I breathed a sigh of relief. I also knew that now I could just buy bride & groom ears and not have to smuggle them into the Garden Grill. Boy, was I the one in for a surprise! OK, so last night I reminded him of the the 'rehitchin' ceremony which will be known as the 'thing' from this point on because I am tired of typing 'rehitchin' ceremony'! The next morning Mickey woke us up bright and early, but Richard was already up and told me that he was playing golf at 11:30am and had to be there by 11:00am. I said, so you will be done and at Epcot by 2:00pm? and he said no, why? I said because we are doing the 'thing' at 2:00 and he said oh, no! I forgot, can you change it to about 5:00? I said I guess. We decided to go and have some breakfast at Whispering Canyon, we both had the egg breakfast, him-three, me-two and thank God he didn't ask for ketchup for his eggs(he eats it on scrambled, but he didn't have scrambled that day) because all of a sudden all of the Jed Clampett look-a-likes were yelling 'I need ketchup over here!" I know that the lady at the table that needed it was mortified! There were at least eight bottles of ketchup in varying hues at her table! The cm's were all carrying tray tables in one hand and thumping them on the floor and a bottle of ketchup in the other.
We decided to meet at 5:00 at Ice station cool and after we finished eating, he took off in the car to play golf at Magnolia. It was Saturday, so I took off to the dock to catch the boat. I wanted to go to the Contemporary to look around and then I would take the monorail to Epcot, or so I thought. There are two boats from the dock, one that goes to the Contemp. and one that goes to the MK. Being Saturday, I knew that the MK would be busy and expected boats to be coming on the regular schedule. A boat came for the MK and everybody got on it, it was me and an older couple left. A second boat came for the MK and we were still there. A huge crowd of people came and they were all going to the Comtemp. So the three of us let all of them go together and we waited and waited and waited. Finally another boat for the MK came and we decided to take it. I knew that I could take the monorail from there to the TTC and go to Epcot, but I was missing the Contemp. I thought that I would get there another time, but I didn't. I got off at the MK, took the monorail to TTC and then on to Epcot. By the time I got there it was 1:00pm. I went over to the Garden Grill at the land and explained to them that I was a golf widow today and could I make the 'thing' for 5:00? They were very nice and sympathetic and said yes of course come back at 5:00 and we will do it then. So off I went to 'do' the world. Since, I wouldn't be having lunch and we were doing the Murder Mystery dinner at 9:00pm, I decided to snack a little around the world and shop a lot, teach him to forget our wedding! I hit every store in the world showcase and I think I bought something in everyone of them. I had a pretzel in Norway and some Mousse in France and a Margarita in Mexico. I was going to try a Kakagori, I looked at them and they were just snowcones, so I decided to pass it up. I also looked at Beaver tails, but, it was just like fried dough and I was full of pretzel. At 4:00, I was at American Adventure and the parade was starting, I found a spot between two carts and stood there watching, the dreamcatcher bowed to me as did several of the puppets and it was all over too soon and I continued on my way. My cell phone rang and it was Richard and he said that he had three more holes to play, I said we must have timed it well, because I had three more countries to visit, he said he would call me when he got there. I finished up the countries and made my way to futureworld without doing any of the rides. I thought that we could do them later in the week. I headed into the Imagination station to have a photo taken with Pooh and the crew and my phone rang. DH was on the parking lot, but our connection was very bad. I told him where I was and that I would be at Ice station cool in a few minutes. I had my photos sent to the resort and started walking to our meeting place. He called again and said where are you?!!, I said that I was walking that way and would be there in a few minutes. He got mad and said you just said that you were at innovations, you must have passed it, how long can it take? I said no, I said I was at Imagination and hold your pants on. So he got mad and said meet me in the parking lot, I hung up and just as I was going past ISC I called him back and said OK now I am at ISC where the hell are you, so he turned around and came back. Now, if you will remember, we were supposed to do the 'thing' at 5:00, well, it was now 6:00 and I was fuming anyway! It had hit 80 that day and I was almost a puddle. He said come on I'm dying of thirst and I looked at him like he had two heads and said then go in Ice station cool and get a drink, DUH! So we did, we looked around for a few minutes and noticed that they don't have the Arabian t-shirt anymore, although it was the most interesting one, I can understand why. So, we left and started toward the parking lot. When we got there, I brought up the 'thing'. He stopped in his tracks and said oh, I'm sorry. I played golf with two Marines and we had such fun I lost track of time, we can do it later in the week. So much for romance! We headed back to the WL to change for dinner at the Grovesnor Murder Mystery, I was hot and sweaty and tired and ready to murder HIM!

Next, Just guess who the prime suspect was!

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: wondcat ]

[Elliot'sDragon]

Great Report. ROTF over the Denny encounter!

[wdwlovers]

Keep it coming! Love your report! Some day, missing "the thing" will be quite hilarious (if it isn't already) Cant wait to read more! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[minnievoice]

Mom, you crack me up!!!!!! Write more tonight!!!

[maggy_1]

Pat! ROTFL continue to write it's amasing and " the thing " do you get it or on next trip [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Waiting for more [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

Chantal [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Pat,

Sounds like our DH's should take a trip together! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Wondcat]

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PARTEE Report
or
Pat and Richard's Twenty-seventh anniversay Excursion Extrordinaire
Date:
Friday 11/30/01 to Thursday 12/6/01
Adventurers:
Pat (Wondcat) First trip in 1980-sidetrip after DH won a trip to The Pine Isle Resort in Georgia for selling life insurance, stayed offproperty. Second trip 1992, also stayed offsite. Third trip, 2000, All Star Music-all trips with kids.

Richard (Golfguy) Also on aforementioned trips.

Resort/Hotel: Wilderness Lodge (originally PO French Quarter, then CB, but I whined and got WL for only $108.00 more!

Celebration: Our 25th, 26th & 27th wedding anniversaries rolled into one-first trip without kids (the "kids" are 22 and 25 now)On our 25th anniversary Mandy was getting married and we didn't plan anything and on our 26th Alissa was getting ready to graduate from college and we didn't plan anything, we felt that we were due for a treat.

Just guess who the prime suspect was!

So, we changed our clothes and got in the Lancer and started out for the Grovesnor Hotel's Murder mystery dinner. We drove past it twice trying to figure out how to get into the parking lot, finally we got into the lot and parked and walked into the lobby. Although, this was not a Disney hotel, it is on Disney property and it's decorations were just as fabulous as any we had seen so far. They, in addition to the murder were having a large party there that night. we went upstairs to the dining room and they told us that they weren't seating anyone until 8:45, it was about 8:00. So we went into the bar for a drink. I had a Margarita, it only took me about 20 years to decide that this is my drink. It doesn't make me sick or hung over and I can drink about 4 before I get drunk! The large party was waiting in the bar to go into whatever room that they were waiting for and we talked to some of them. One of the men was originally from Maryland. Some one came in and asked if there were any prepaid diners there and we said yes we had prepaid and they sat us in a special spot to wait. When they finally let us into the dining room, we found out that we would be sitting with another couple, whose names were something like Betty and JimBob from God's country USA. Anyway, they were nice, but slightly boring. This was a buffet, so we went to get our salads and while we were eating them and talking to the couple from the country we heard some loud argueing. We looked over to where the noise was coming from and saw a very pretty blond girl in a little red dress and a big blond guy yelling at her! Well, the girl turned out to be a singer who sang with another guy there at the hotel. She was also part of the murder mystery show and this was how it began. So, while we were being introduced to The Doctor (Dr. Watson, remember this was Sherlock Holmes) the blond came over to our table and announced that she had lost an earring and laid one on our table. Of course, Richard being the helper of damsels in destress that he is, picked it up. Big mistake! Then he noticed that every few minutes a bright light flashed in his eyes. They were setting him up for the kill, literally! To make a long story short, he wound up being one of the suspects and had to stand in a lineup after the girl had been murdered. It was hilariously funny. There were a lot of dry jokes about President Clinton, Lorena Bobbit and that sort of thing. There was a table of women from David's bridals there and they were a hoot!
Finally they discovered who the murderer was, not Richard, but it was a lot of fun and we were there for about two hours. We left there and went to Downtown Disney and went into the Disney store and bought a few things and left there when they were closing and then went back to the WL and went to bed.
It's a good thing that they gave us the two queen beds, we have a california king at home and since Richard kept falling asleep before me, there was no way I was going to get him off of my side of the bed. I wound up sleeping in the other bed, I always thought that it was awful that Ozzie and Harriet and Ricky and Lucy had separate beds, but gosh it is great to spread out by yourself! It didn't last forever, because he is needy and missed me so we wound up sleeping in the bed that he started out in until I said that it was so hard that it was uncomfortable so then we switched to the other one. I sometimes wonder what housekeeping thinks! One day the mousekeeper didn't even take our tip envelope. They gave us plenty of soaps, shampoos, hand lotions and towels, but they never did do anything cute for us. I guess since we didn't have any toys or anything around, although I did have a christmas tree! I also found out that they only do turndown service for the concierge 7th floor and you need to put your room key into a slot in the elevator to get to it. So, we didn't even get to see it. Next, time I am going to stay there!

Next, "Please make that kid shut up!"or would you like some Gingerbread little boy?"

[ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: wondcat ]

[Wondcat]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PARTEE Report
or
Pat and Richard's Twenty-seventh anniversay Excursion Extrordinaire
Date:
Friday 11/30/01 to Thursday 12/6/01
Adventurers:
Pat (Wondcat) First trip in 1980-sidetrip after DH won a trip to The Pine Isle Resort in Georgia for selling life insurance, stayed offproperty. Second trip 1992, also stayed offsite. Third trip, 2000, All Star Music-all trips with kids.

Richard (Golfguy) Also on aforementioned trips.

Resort/Hotel: Wilderness Lodge (originally PO French Quarter, then CB, but I whined and got WL for only $108.00 more!

Celebration: Our 25th, 26th & 27th wedding anniversaries rolled into one-first trip without kids (the "kids" are 22 and 25 now)On our 25th anniversary Mandy was getting married and we didn't plan anything and on our 26th Alissa was getting ready to graduate from college and we didn't plan anything, we felt that we were due for a treat.

Please make that kid shut up! Or "would you like some Gingerbread, little boy?"

Since we were still feeling a little tired and I was beginning to suffer from the change of water there, we decided that we would sleep later the next morning. I don't know why it is that the water in Florida affects me, but I might as well have been in Mexico! I never drink frozen margaritas, whatever possessed me to drink them here? We had planned on going to AK, but we wound up sleeping later than we expected to and got a late start. But, what they heck, it was our vacation and it was Sunday! We knew that we would be up late tonight at MVMCP. So, after waking up and watching some TV and bathing and getting dressed we decided to stop in Roaring Forks for some brunch. I had a tuna sandwich and some grapes and Richard had a ham and cheese sandwich and some fruit and we walked around the grounds to see all of the things that we had missed earlier. With the beautiful beaches that are along bay Lake, it is such a shame that you can't swim in the water. The only reson that we can think of is aligators. You would think with a manmade lake, they could keep them out, net off a portion of the water or something. Anyway, I couldn't sit there very long without wanting to get wet so we didn't stay there long. Eventually we left to go to The Grand Floridian for Dinner at 1900 Park fare with Pooh and the gang. We were still taking the boat at this point and had a nice ride. We got off the boat and walked around the grounds for a little while since we were pretty early for our 5:15 ps. In the lobby of the GF they had a huge Gingerbread house made of real gingerbread that actually was a little shop that sold, of all things gingerbread. We didn't buy any but we did take photos of the house and of the 50 foot tree in the lobby. I don't know what it was with the trees there this year, they all had these huge oversized ornaments in them. This one had full size gilt mirrors hanging in it. At the WL, they had huge teepees in theirs. The hotel is of course, beautiful, but looks a little old even with the remodeling that was done last year. The pool is lovely though. I was so impressed with the WL lobby that it even overshadowed the GF. The WL lobby didn't have a big gingerbread house, I actually had to look for it, it was almost hidden under the tree. We discovered the gift shop and spent quite a bit of time and bucks in there. It was here that we saw the bride and groom mouse ears. Richard saw them first and asked me if I wanted them. I said that I had wanted them for the 'thing' and since we didn't do it there was so sense in buying them. He said well, we can do it another day, so we got them. I tried to talk him into wearing them, but he wouldn't go for it. They had some unique items in the shop that we hadn't seen anywhere else. We bought a chef's hat with Mickey on it for our daughter, the chef, some french flat sponges in the shape of Mickey that expand when wet and some candy that we hadn't seen anywhere else and then we left to go to dinner. We had planned to have dinner at Narcoosees, but the cm on the phone talked me into this. Once, again this was a buffet and nothing spectacular. The spectacular part is supposed to be the animals who just loved us for some reason. Tigger bounced over a number of time, he is Richard's favorite and I had a lot of fun with Eeyore, talking like him and tugging on his tail to make sure that it was securely 'nailed' on, ouch! Our cm, server, however was a gem! She gave us much attention and gave me my drinks without ice, because ice is made of water. Of course, no matter where we go, there is always a screaming child nearby. Even though I had been waterfree all day, I found the urgent need to go to the bathroom. There was a mother in there scolding her child, who was about three years old and telling him never to do that to her again! I can't imagine what this baby was doing but she was really furious! This child cried through the entire dinner, I don't now if he was upset or sick or afraid of the animals or what. But even the cm had had enough and they have alot of patience. I had commented to her on how wonderful the cold Strawberry soup was and while I was in the bathroom she brought a copy of the receipe to our table, complete with color and Mickey on it! We finally had had enough and left there and walked around the GF for awhile. Thn we headed back over to the MK for MVMCP. We have a lovely moonlite ride and got to the MK just in time for the opening of the party. We had our free christmas photo taken, I sure hope that it turns out well! We rode on Peter Pan and Snow White, but the line for Winnie the pooh was outrageous! So we decided to skip it. We headed over to do the Haunted mansion and I actually looked up and saw the hanging body and told Richard to look up. In fact I said it loud enough that everybody must have looked up, because that was all that they could talk about. We came out and stopped to listen to one of the storytellers and by then the parade was starting. WE saw the snow on main street, which is so cool. Then we watched the show in front of the castle and had some ice cream. While we were standing on the benches watching the show we saw the saddest thing. It was child on a stretcher type bed on wheels, who must have wanted to see the Magic Kingdom as a last wish or something, so sad. Before we knew it, Rudolph was coming out of Tinkerbelles window and the fireworks were going off all around us. It was quite a finish to our day and we boarded the boat to go back to the WL. Tomorow was my Keys to the Kingdom tour and Richard was going to the Golf Hall of Fame, so after entering some info in my Passporter, we went to bed.

Next, What the heck is a sensory tickle?

[ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: wondcat ]