Easter w/ a Teen at the Polynesian About This Page:

[Kelly66]

Easter with a Teen at the Poly

- Our Party (DH-41 recovering commando park enthusiast,
DD-16 avid reader and never in a hurry to grow up,
Myself 40 journey enthusiast & perpetual planner)
Prior trips to WDW-CBR ‘96 before Christmas w/ then 4 yo DD,
YC (rate from a post card) August 2000 with the most wonderful Mother-in-law in the world,
AKL June 2002 savannah view
- Our Journey (departure date Saturday, March 31, 2007, return date Friday, April 6,2007, method of travel –airline from White Plains-Westchester Airport.)
- Our Lodging (Since this will be one of our last family trips on the school schedule, we reserved the Poly at the regular rates to try to buck the crowds with great transportation options. I have always dreamed of staying at the Polynesian. Even though we could have stayed at any of the resorts this year, I picked the Polynesian. My husband says it is because that is the view from which the old “Wonderful World of Disney” show was always shot on TV when we were young. The only thing I have heard that is negative about it is that it seems to be dated and stuck in the 70’s-perfect for this trip for me- so I can be a kid again!)
- Our Special Plans (We are trying the Disney Dining plan and our first time at full service Restaurants in the parks for dinners. I am hoping that it will be like a little ‘down time’ to help extend our park touring since there will be EMH both morning and evening for everyday we are there. Special things you planned to do or that happened during your trip - parasailing, Hoop-Dee-Doo, manicure & pedicure at Grand Floridian)


ADR’s- I arranged our ADR’s around the evening EMH.
Saturday-‘Ohana’s 7:45 hoping to catch wishes and the electrical water pageant out the window,
Sunday- Crystal Palace 7:30, (Spectromagic is at 9:00 PM)
Monday- No ADR’s but reservations for parasailing
Tuesday-Restaurant Marakesh, (6:30 –We will try to get there to catch a free tour at 5:00 PM)
Wednesday- Mama Melrose Restaurant Italiano-Fantasmic Dinner Package 5:20 PM I wanted it later so we could take a nap during the day, but the CM said if it was any later we would miss Fantasmic-then he said the early show may be canceled,
Thursday-Hoop-Dee-Doo Originally we had 5:00 PM and were supposed to arrive at 4:30. We wanted to go to DQ that day and I thought that wouldn’t give us enough time there since it may not open until 11:30 AM and we don’t have a car. For the 7:15 show there weren’t any seats available for that one that I could use DDP. So I switched from category 2 (in the back on the main floor) to category 3 (to the left or the right in the balcony). I thought this might be good because it might be a little less hectic around our table. We will see. Originally I heard it was supposed to be a maximum crowd level that day so I figured being out of the park may be a blessing, but after reading everyone’s description of DQ I really felt we needed more time there.
Friday- (our Check-out day) for only my daughter and me for breakfast at Kona Cafe.


Afternoon Breaks- Saturday- shop, nosh & beverage tasting around the World Showcase,-pressed pennies & pin trading
Sunday- Water Park or mini-golf,
Monday- Parasailing,
Tuesday-Water Park or mini-golf,
(Wednesday we have early ADR at MGM for the Fantasmic Dinner package)
Thursday-Disney Quest,
Friday-manicure at the Grand Floridian

“If you can make it there, You’ll make it anywhere” –this is my ‘subtitle’

Everyone uses cute titles, but I thought the title of the thread could be about when where and who and this could be my subtitle. I have done my share of bargain hunting, but didn’t get any discounts for this trip. Two years ago we moved from the south to NYC, and haven’t really had a ‘vacation’ outside of camping and NYC house hunting trips since then. Since this will be one of our last family trips that we will have to schedule around the school calendar, we decided to go all out and have the Disney Dream trip we have always wanted. We “…picked the best time to come to Disney World ….The Year of a Million Dreams.” Ok I watched the Disney Planning Videos one too many times in my lifetime. My daughter loves her high school in NY. My husband loves the job but not the 2 hr. commute twice a day, and me……well I am glad my family is happy…and I need a vacation!!! We have found that my husband’s plant is closing down in a year and a half so this will also be the LAST vacation for a couple of years so I want to milk all the fun out of it that I can. The one discount program I did do was to use my Disney Dream Reward Dollars and the 6 months no interest on the Disney Visa card. I had ordered the Disney Dream Rewards card in January, and by Feb 14th when the balance of my trip was due, I called Disney and gave them the number off of my Disney Dream Rewards card and told them how much to take off of that and put the rest on my Disney Rewards Visa card. We had racked up lots of Disney Reward Dollars because when my husband was living in Manhattan and we were still living in SC, we put his apartment on the card.
NYC Disney Store – Before we went to see Tarzan on Broadway using discounted tickets from Disney Visa (for more info on that see my post: http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/office-budgeting-reward-programs/119101-disney-visas-tarzan-broadway.html) , we visited the Disney Store on a Sunday evening. It was relatively crowded. If you haven’t been, there are very nice restroom/lounges in the bottom floor (Below ground level) and some WDW brochures. PIN CENTRAL –is amazing! I don’t remember this from prior trips; perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention. They have full size and mini carrying cases, even little booklet size cases for just a few pins. I thought perhaps I might find some unique NYC pins to trade, but I had no idea there would be such a HUGE selection! I bought one with Donald duck in front of the Brooklyn bridge with a ‘for sale’ sign on it, and a NYC blue Lanyard with Velcro emergency release-I hope this soothes my husband’s fears about wearing something around one’s neck. I still only plan on Pin Trading at WS on our first half day there. My daughter wanted to put the two pins I got her on her book-bag before we go to WDW. Of course my instinct is to say no because I am afraid she will loose them, but they are for fun too, so I let her. Before she even left one of my pins (Figment) that I let her use fell off, so she left it at home. However, the pin of Scrooge went off to school on the book-bag.
My Silly Countdown – see my post http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/porch-introductions-countdowns-farewells/119246-my-silly-countdown.html

Pre-Trip Planning – I read my Passporter-I colored in the cute little boxes in the fold-out page in front of the attractions that were Fastpass-in gold, blue for evening EMH, Red for morning EMH, and Green for anytime EMH. I laminated old PP maps. I have bought two Passporter Deluxe Binders. One has the book in it, and one is FILLED with our Passpockets, travel arrangements, the contents of the e-book that I wanted to print. Fun things about the e-book in addition to typing in it –you can add notes –I added one different colored note for each thing I was to carry on the plane and typed into it what I wanted to pack in it. Daily plans printed from Disney online My Vacation see my post at http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/using-your-passporter-tips-answers/118146-deluxe-pp-disneys-intineraries.html
Ok, I confess, I got so excited that I went around town buying up everything Disney I could find. I bought a Disney Days tear of daily calendar. I bought a color and paint set from the pharmacy. It has a cute little paint pallet with a Mickey glove in the middle, and two fanny-pack sized coloring books. I went to a Bodega (see I am acclimating to the whole New York thing) and got a 4 pack of Winnie-the-Pooh tiny spiral notebooks for a dollar, and a metal case of twelve colored pencils. Yes you read it right-my DD is 16 – all the coloring things are for ME! I get to be a kid again at Disney World!
Websites I used: I filled a three ring binder with info I printed off of the internet remembering to footnote what site and where ….most of the time. http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/ has entertainment times and I checked that during president’s week because that was when the park hours were closest to when I was going to be there. Unfortunately, it looks like, no matter what are the park hours, the entertainment at WS is only going between 11 AM or noon and 5 or 6 PM. This is unfortunate because I wasn’t really planning on being in the park during those times. I liked tikiman’s site for info on the Polynesian. http://tikiman2001.homestead.com/aloha.html
I went to Disney MY Vacation at Disney online, and ordered the customized maps. I especially marked as my favorites ALL the entertainment in EPCOT and they so nicely listed them each under the proper pavilion. The other few favorites I marked were The Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast Stage show (my DD’s request as she is studying Drama this year), Figment’s Journey Into Imagination and The Carousel of Progress. There were so few favorites that they even suggested some for me! Using the My Vacation details and “plan your days” I did a ride by ride minute by minute plan of every ride we were to ride under “Plan your days”. I printed it and selected the A5 size from the drop down menu of printing preferences and cut it and hole punched it to fit into my Deluxe Passporter. In the notes section I typed how long the ride would take using the information from my Passporter 2007. I made the assumption that I would not have to stand in line at all just to have an idea of what I wanted to ride next in case that happened. Then I added my reservation number to the plans and that messed it up and I could not get back to print out the day by day plans. I wrote to Disney online and they said they found a problem with the program and try back ‘later.’ I have been trying back and have been unable to fix it, so I might have to redo it.
I had somehow gotten to the motion videos, but could not figure out how to get back. So I went to my Disney Insider Newsletter and clicked on any of the things under video and it took me there. Then I went to the white bar with blue letters near the top of the page and went to theme parks. This gave me the videos for theme parks and I added many of the WDW ones to my playlist. These have great music of course, behind the scenes tours, fabulous images of topographical scenes of the parks and even some scenes inside the attractions. Of course it has updates and previews of the new attractions I had not seen yet, and Gears Behind the Ears are cute inside looks at attractions and movies..

Of course the most helpful site I used was the Passporter Message Boards.
In my Passpockets I put character play sets that I printed out from Disney’s Magic Artist online character Gallery- don’t forget to use the slider on the right to slide down to see more character selections. I also printed some awards and bookmarks from School Fun and Storybooks, word searches And connect the dots from fun & games. You can print in color or black and white (select B&W before you print) The play sets act as a different host(ess) for each day.
I went to the local library and got two new other guide books to supplement the notes I took mostly from the Passporter on 3” X 5” index cards that I punched one hole in the corner and tied them together with a red ribbon with white Minnie polka-dots. I had already over the years started several index cards for all the ‘old’ rides. So all I had to do on index cards were the new rides from since the last time we visited. I used an old program that I had from the Mickey Mouse print CD to make ‘mailing labels’ that said Fastpass or Extra Magic Hours and put them on the respective cards. I bought a rubber stamp of Mickey Mouse stamps and put a stamp of a Mickey profile on the cards that interact with Pal Mickey. I laminated these cards and then used little round stickers (like you use for price tags for a garage sale) and put on it the time I wanted to be at that attraction-these have always peeled right off the laminated cards for me when I wanted to change the times.
Yes I know it sounds like I have more time than I know what to do with, but I have a total of ONE friend here after two years. I have lived in many new places (including upstate New York) over the years and have always made friends easily, but dogs and their people aside, I have found it very difficult to make friends here. The best thing is that I know that Mickey will still give me a hug when he sees me. Plus, just like the last time I lived in NY, I tend to get the winter blues, and Disney being the Happiest Place on Earth……well, need I say more?
MY Strange but necessary Park gear- Body electric Fanny pack- www.bodyelectrictv.com is no longer available apparently, but it is the best ever amusement park gear-maybe we can talk her into carrying it again.
A silk shirt that buttons down the front-I tend to get hot then cold then hot then cold, and this is great to keep me warm and cool, and best yet it’s so lightweight that I can just stuff it into my fanny pack when I don’t want to wear it (of course when I put it on it’s all wrinkled, but Mickey still loves me),
Spree and Everlasting Gobstopper Jawbreaker Midgets- for some reason we find these snacks to help us with minor motion sickness so we pop a few in our mouth before we go on any such ride which may induce motion sickness and it is helpful.
Trail mix-I was having ‘panic attack’ –like symptoms –which BTW are quite similar to heat exhaustion –and I thought it was due to all the sprinting from ride to ride in the heat. Someone once asked me if I get the ‘panic attacks’ when I hike and I said no. What do I do differently? I take trail mix on hikes and munch-so now I just take trail mix to the parks as well. Believe it or not it helps. Only once-at a non-Disney park have I ever gotten any kind of, “You can’t bring food into the parks.” I usually just take in a snack size ziplock bag-it’s definitely not enough to keep me from buying any food in the parks. Before I could protest, another employee (remember it was not a Disney park) said, “That little bit is ok. They mean food like entire meals.”
Bottle strap – I was introduced to this fascinating object with the purchase of my first Passporter. It is truly an ingenious invention. You can use any size bottle-water or Gatorade- by sliding the loop. I have only ever seen these for sale one other place and that was the zoo in Columbia, SC, so I bought like five of them. I have one that is decorated like a peacock, a giraffe, a zebra and two like a snake. They just sit right there on my shoulder and next to me on the rides and have never interfered. Plus-big bonus-they don’t go around your neck-a concern I have with the Lanyards and safety. I can’t emphasize enough that if you are going to dart around the park zigzagging at a New York walking pace of 4 mph –YOU MUST STAY HYDRATED!!!!! Please excuse me for yelling-it’s the mom in me since I am used to talking to a teenager-they tend to have selective hearing. Water and or Gatorade bottle.
Autograph Book & a thick Sharpie- I found a small ‘journal’ at the Hallmark store that says “Dream” on the front and has quotes about keeping dreams alive on every other page, and “Dream Everyday” on the facing page. I decided this was perfect for my autograph book for this Year of A Million Dreams. I like getting an autograph as a fun way to interact with the characters. I later found you could buy autograph books at the NYC Disney Store near the check-out counter both upstairs & downstairs. I found some neat pastel colored Sharpies. I started writing some WDW ‘dream’ quotes into the book to see if it would bleed through the pages when writing with the Sharpie. I used my favorite lines from Carousel of Progress. “Man has a Dream and that’s the start……” It did bleed through making the page behind it useless for autographs. I am thinking about putting pictures of me with the Characters behind the page that bleeds through and having the characters sign the other page, but the book is very thick, so I might just see what happens. I marked some of my favorite quotes with some flags, to perhaps have the characters sign there.
Spiral Notebooks- I have one little notebook for each park and I am going to try to use it to take notes on queues. So I will only have to carry one per park. I guess I will also need a regular pen as opposed to a sharpie.
Dry socks in a ziplock bag for happy feet.
An extra ziplock sandwich bag for the park map-to keep it from getting wet on the water rides. I have been know to take this one for taking back a cookie or something else left over from a meal.
Glasses Strap –When I try to ride with my glasses on a coaster and they tell me to take off my glasses, I just lift up my hair and show them my glasses strap. I don’t need corrective lenses anymore, but I love wearing my sunglasses so I can see the views from the top. I have found that the string kind does NOT keep my glasses from falling off, but the ‘waterproof’ stretchy kind always has. Thanks to bradK on this board I found the name of this kind of glasses strap is “Croakies” http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/planning-your-adventure-your-plans/116440-adventure-gear-glasses-strap.html Caldercup replies: I have bought those straps from Disney World (at the shop just to the left of the entrance to the train station outside the MK park) in the past…” There were other helpful replies. Thank you everyone.
Small size sunscreen- I am in search of one that is less than 2 oz. so I can carry it onto the plane. I find that the FL sun is quite a bit more intense than in the North, even when I was living in SC, spending the whole day outside having so much fun I needed to reapply sunscreen often.

[MickeyMAC]

Great start to your trip report. Can't wait to read more. You are super organized!

[mattnkatsmum]

Thanks for such a great start to your trip report. I love all the tips.

Keep em comin'

[saremca]

Wow, you are SO organized! You have a great start here. I am eagerly awaiting more!

[Suzie]

I think this has to be the most elaborate planning I have ever read on these boards!
Have a great trip!
Suzie

[Colexis Mom]

Great start and plans More please

[JaimeandChad]

Wow! What a great start and you are right. Mickey will ALWAYS guve you a hug! Can't wait to see how all your planning turned out!

[Kelly66]

Our Journey – Our flight out of White Plains is at 6:30 AM, so we will arrive at 5:00 AM to give us time to get through security. I have a carry-on that is a new suitcase that I bought especially for the trip. In it of course I have my Passporter.
We left the house around 4:15 am and arrived about 4:40. My husband dropped us off with the luggage, and by the time he had parked the car, the line was long behind us. There were lots and lots of yellow straps with red Mickeys for the Magical Express on them. The line for Air Tran was the longest and the slowest moving as they were sharing a terminal with another airline. They also requested for someone to offer to miss the flight because it was overbooked. I didn’t hear anything else about it after that. We got checked in and got our bags checked all the way through to Orlando, but could not get boarding passes for going out of Atlanta. We waited in line for security, and as usual I was ‘randomly’ selected to have my bag searched. She told me not to touch the bag or any of the contents, She opened my make-up case and searched through it and took out my tubes of mascara and put them in my quart size ziplock bag (yes mascara is a liquid), but she couldn’t find what she was looking for. Apparently the M&M’s mini’s tube of quarters & pennies for the pressed pennies worried them. So I told her it was in the middle zippered compartment. No the other middle-the one between the inside and outside. It is inside another zippered compartment in there. No not the elastic compartment on the other side. No the other other side. This was all very hard to do without touching the bag as she could not find the zipper. She asked what it was and I told her and she opened it up and looked at the first couple sets of pennies and quarters and messed them up and got them out of order, so not the shiniest ones aren’t on the top. Then she put everything back in the bag in the wrong places and got my shawl stuck in the zipper. That’s what I get for having red hair and taking my quarters for pressing pennies on my carry-on. Well I guess I would rather be safe on the plane so I always give myself plenty of time to be ‘randomly’ checked. I have only had one time since 9/11 that I haven’t been ‘randomly’ checked.
When we got to Atlanta and tried to check in the Air Tran attendant made a face, but didn’t say anything. They when she gave us our boarding passes it seems we had been upgraded to business class. This was fabulous! Two arm rests per seat, lots of leg room, special snacks. What fun! Arriving in Orlando was just as good. We used the map inside the magical express booklet and found our way to the first floor where there was a guy with a sign pointing the way to the Magical Express check-in point and walked right on to the bus for our resort. Nice comfortable seats, a screen that would show a Disney ‘commercial’ and let you know what was in store for you. The seats were comfortable. The bus was very cool.
I had patiently waited until then to put on my lanyard with my trading pins. My family laughed at me. I was just proud I had waited until I got on the Disney Bus and didn’t do it the second we landed in Orlando. We were supposed to land at 10:42 AM but landed at 10:30 AM and were at the Poly by 11:30 AM.
We went inside and were received with leis. Got in a short line for check-in and my daughter went to look in the gift shop. The woman checking us in was so totally thrilled and amazed that she had a clean room ready for us to check-in. My first thought was-oh no this puts a wrench in my plans. We received a folder that she went through and explained all the info-the map….. We got a room in Fiji. She said there were no bad rooms there; they all had a great view. We paid for a garden view room. We didn’t have a view of the castle, but had to walk past a great view of it from the end of the marina every time we went anywhere. Not only did we overlook the marina, but the beautiful sail was usually parked right outside our window during the day. When it wasn’t I got excited and said, “Oh someone must be sailing!” We didn’t have anything to unpack, but we put our valuables in the safe (locks with a 4 digit numerical code that you create) and dropped off our carry-on luggage and off we went walking to the TTC to go to EPCOT.
Our Plan was to go to World Showcase to travel around the world. Our first trip we walked at a break-neck pace around the lagoon hugging the rail with my DD on DH shoulders and then he said, “We’ve done it all!”
The goal today is to really experience the World Showcase like we never have before. We are going around counter clockwise so that our adventure culminates in some of the rides in the WS.
In 2002 I had bought a purse at the Mexico Pavilion, that I thought was expensive at the time, but I have been using it ever since. It is perfect because it has two outside pockets that can even hold a water bottle! So shopping is on the agenda for a new purse either at Italy or Mexico. I usually carry only a fanny pack at the park, but since I have made so many note cards for WS, I am planning to carry my purse through WS as well.

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update We've had that happen to us at security with the pressed pennies. We've learned to take them out before going thru security and just putting them in one of the bins, and then putting them back in the carry on after security

It sounds like you got a great room in Fiji! We stayed in that building in August, but overlooked the Wedding Pavillion

More please

[disneydani]

Great start! How cool that the room was ready on the early side! Lovin' your super organized and detailed report!

[KandJluvdisney]

great updates Kelly
you are super organized- and I thought that I was bad - though I can relate to only having 1 friend
hurry back with more please

[LLaffinPlace]

What a great start! I am excited to be reading about your stay at the Polynesian because we are staying there for the first time in a few weeks!

Looking forward to the next update!

[mattnkatsmum]

Sounds like you got a great room at the Poly.

I'm eager to hear about your experiences at the WS. I always plan to take a relaxed approach around the countries, but never seem to manage it.

[Kelly66]

One last pre-planning note before I begin our adventure. I didn’t want to wear my good watch to WDW, so in the place I usually keep it I put my charm bracelet-with the Roman Coliseum and a Giraffe from the San Diego Zoo. At 4 AM I do remember picking it up and thinking-I am going to have to take it off to go through security, so I THOUGHT, I had put it in the zipper compartment of my purse, but I haven’t seen it since then. Send me some Pixie dust to find it here at home.
Our First Half Day –Saturday, March 31(planned time) real time
(12:00) 12:30 Canada We decided you have to walk up into the ‘mountains’ to view the waterfall, and sure enough it was at the back. It’s nice. We went inside the store and my hubby made note of the price of the maple syrup. My daughter said she had always wanted a dream catcher. There were nice things to see in the store, but even if you don’t like to shop you can have fun in the World Showcase. The merchandise is at eye level and the added atmosphere is high up in the rafters, the ceilings and sometimes on the floor. My daughter was still shopping and I was anxious to move on so I occupied myself with getting pressed pennies. From this board I got the idea of using the M&M mini’s container to hold the quarters and pennies for the pressed pennies. I didn’t realize until the day before I left that there were at least two sizes one short and one longer. The longer one held 28 sets. I like to use the older pennies for the machines that still have a crank handle because they punch harder – If you haven’t seen these before you have to turn the handle to your selection BEFORE you put in your money and then turn the crank handle again. I like the newer (>1991) pennies for the newer machines where you just press a button to make your selection.

12:45 (12:15 , 3:50 United Kingdom- [FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']United Kingdom Pin Cart[/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'] - World Showcase) [/FONT]We were planning on using a bunch of dining snacks and counter service coupons to nosh in the World Showcase. We talked about getting fish and chips, but since my DD wouldn’t try it and we wanted to split everything, we decided against it. We went searching for the hedge maze and saw Mary Poppins. We found a little garden with a very very very short hedge maze. My daughter said, I can see how this would be fun if you were a toddler. It was very empty almost devoid of people back there. We decided to pick one shop to look in.
I think we went into a shop called the Crown & Crest (I got that name by re-reading the descriptions in my 97 Birnbaum’s Guide. It has much more detailed descriptions than the current version.) When you see the fireplace don’t forget to look up! We were coming from the back of the pavilion toward the lagoon and winding our way around the corner, we looked to our left before we went out the door on our right. It was a neat very elaborate display, I wish I could describe it better, but you will have to go see.
My family decided not to see the WS Players (12:20 World Showcase Players-live comedy show 25 min show)
1:00 Now we were ahead of schedule (1:05) France – We didn’t see Impressions de France. My family just didn’t feel like seeing a show. I never did see the Eiffel Tower. I was too busy looking for the painter’s canvas as we went across the bridge- I think there were 2 bridges. We went into the Boulangerie Patisserie and asked what could count as a table service meal. The answer was a drink and two pastries. We got a petite quiche and a peach tart to all split. She did ask me if I wanted it warmed, but I said no. I should have said yes, it was much richer than I expected and it would have been better. It was a lot of food. It wasn’t a muffin size petite quiche and wasn’t a pie size, kind of in between. I was starving, but I couldn’t even eat more than half of it. As we walked out there were some ‘sidewalk tables’ (full) on our right and a building on our left. We headed into the building, and my daughter got all nervous and said, “Don’t you know that is just a shop?”, but it DID have tables inside. See teenagers don’t REALLY know everything! The pastry was amazingly delicious.
(1:25 Serveur Amusant-comical waiter20 min show) Didn’t see it
Morocco –[FONT='Arial Narrow','sans-serif']We are skipping this Pavilion today. We have reservations at Restaurant Marakesh later in the week [/FONT]
(1:55 Matsuriza-taiko Drummers show 15 min & 1:35 Honobono Minwa-Japanese Storyteller length of show 20 min) didn’t see it
1:30 Japan- (I have heard that this lounge (Matsu No Ma) has a great view of the WS so we were going to try to get a drink) We weren’t thirsty at all as we still had our drink from France, and didn’t feel like sitting around so we went on. We shopped and my daughter was particularly interested in getting a book about drawing. We found it! We asked to have it delivered to our resort. We filled out the information-my husband asked me if I remembered the room number and I did! (2320) So then we didn’t have to carry it around. Again-merchandise is eye level and neat ‘atmosphere’ things are on the floor and up high. I asked about a pressed penny machine and was told there is one (w/ Japan written on it) at the pavilion at the entrance way into WS and I think they said on the way out the ‘back door’ the International Gateway.
My DH bugs me because I don’t like Japanese food so the plan was to get one counter service meal and split it, and I was game to try. We looked at the menu and went into the Yakitori house-stood in line, but after a minute my DH decided it didn’t smell good. He wasn’t feeling well anyway, so we went back outside. We looked at the fish in the pond, and my DD said they were the kind that would grow to whatever size pond where they lived. They were pretty big, but she said if they were in a little bowl they would be little. So I said that if they were put in the Lagoon, they would be the size of Bruce from Fining Nemo.
USA Pavilion – we are going to skip this pavilion to experience it during EPCOT”s evening EMH, but we never got back to it. My husband says he knows all about America. We did see the fife and Drum corps-I think that was it -briefly. They were in period garb and doing a little marching demonstration in the hot sun. I asked my husband wasn’t he glad his hair wasn’t that long? The men had long grey hair in braids. On to Italy!

[JaimeandChad]

Great trip so far! Can't wait for more!!!