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Ground / Goofy's HUGE!
/ day 2 - epcot in the rain |
poohlover
Cast Member
Posts: 195
Registered: Sep 2002
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Posted 12-22-02 09:46 AM
The plan: take the boat to epcot, have a pastry in France, walk around world showcase, finish at the rose and crown, then off to Jelly Rolls for a raucus evening.
Actual:
I woke up a little early, kind of queasy, and decided to take a walk. There was no "do not disturb sign" in the room, so I was afraid the cleaning people would come and wake up Randy. In fact, I just had a feeling that there was nothing I could do to prevent it.
But I made game effort. I put the Usa today back in front of the door so it looked like it hadnt been disturbed and raced to the front desk to ask for a "do not disturb sign." They said they did not have them there but would call housekeeping to have them put one up immediately. Since I just knew they were gonna mess this up I even told her. "please make sure they just put it on the door and do not knock to let us know they have brought it" The CM laughed good naturedly at my concern.
I walked around the grounds on what was a beautiful coolish misty morning and got a pretzel and Gingerale at Hurricane Hannah's grill. I was their first customer of the day.
I sat and watched the birdies and called my office. The goal this time was for me to call in once in the morning and then check messages at night... and for them not to call me at all. It worked! This was my first real vacation from the office in years, usually we just took long weekends or combination legal conferences/pleasure trips. (By Friday Randy said I looked ten years younger. He was pretty amazed, people always think I am in my 20's anyway. I am 36, so Disney and a whole 8 days off must have really made me look young.)
Went to the gift store and dammit even though we had just been in downtown disney a few months earlier, they managed to have all new "must have" merchandise.
The plan was to hold off on buying anything that would clearly be available at Downtown Disney to our last day and use our AP discount. (This would be a mistake albeit a huge money and clutter saver).
I could not resist buying what I thought was a Grumpy puppet. Grumpy is Randy's favorite character. In fact Randy is grumpy. It was actually a golf club cover, but hey it works as a puppet so it is a puppet, isnt it?
I went back to the room and lo and behold there was a "do not disturb sign" on the door. I was impressed and surprised that my instinct was wrong. WRONGO. They put up the Do NOt Disturb sign AFTER they woke Randy up and HE told them we did not have one. He was a great sport about it.
Well it was time to be off to tour World Showcase. It was a little drizzly but everything looked all right. We got off the boat and the deluge started. This was definately not a day to tour the world. So we decided we would hang out in the Rose and Crown for a while and then tour future World, where at least we could spend large amounts of time in doors. I made mental adjustments to the "plan" and all the permutations this would cause with our scheduled ps's and such.
Off to Rose and Crown. I had really been looking forward to this meal, I love Fish and Chips and they were great here the last time. Randy was really looking forward to some Bass, but it was a little early so we were gonna see how it went. We ordered tea, I ordered the fish and chips and Randy, who had a sore throat said he would start with the lamb and barley soup and go from there. At that point we were looking forward to spending a long time just chillin at the Rose and Crown.
Randy had wisely used the rest room at the park entrance. I figured I would wait til we got to the restaurant. BIG MISTAKE. They normally have two stalls but one was not working. So there was a long wait for the one stall, which included mothers with kids in strollers. I decided to tough it out.
When I came back the tea had arrived. I had declined milk but had not realized there was no sweetener on the table, For some reason tea only tastes "right" to me with sweet and low. No problem the food came out quickly and I asked the lady who brought it to bring me some sweet and low and she cheerfully agreed. That was the last we saw of her, and, it would be a very long time before we saw our waiter again.
Randy quickly finished his soup which he said was excellent and he was going to order another bowl. My fish and chips were no where near as good as I remembered them.
Well I finished my food and we just sat there. Randy was out of water, and wanted more food, I had no sweet and low. Finally I went to the bar with Randy's glass and had the bartender fill it up and point me in the direction of the sweet and low. I told her what was going on and she asked what table we were at. I thought this would result in our waiter appearing. It did not.
At this point we were feeling trapped and I really had to go to the restroom, making me slightly irritable. When the waiter appeared I told him how upset I was, he quickly responded "Ill get the manager" and scooted off.
Then we were left alone again, still trapped. The waiter comes back and says "she is on her way." I said can we please just have the check so we can get out of here, and once again he just scooted off.
The Manager comes out and was lovely. We told her we just wanted to get the bill and get out of there so Randy could get more food and I could go to the restroom. She told us to just go and forget about the bill and offered to make us a ps somewhere else. I get the feeling that she was familiar with the problems and has been working on them.
It could happen anywhere.
But, it was not a good start to our day.
Well we knew how to improve it. Off to see Figment, whom Randy loved from childhood. My apologies to everyone who loves this attraction, but it sucked for these two adults. It just seemed to be thrown together. Randy left feeling very much like you can not go back and recapture your past magical experiences.
Some of the interactive activities at the exit were fun.
Then we went to the Land, where neither of us had ever been, and the day totally turned around. Since we got our house last year, I am totally in to gardening. The living with the land ride was great. Our only complaint was the ride went too fast through the agriculture section. No problem there is a backstage tour. This of course would require further adjustment to "the plan."
Food rocks was a very cute show, and I could not help but think about the characters as I made my food choices throughout the trip. (What would Pita Gabriel order?)
Next we were off to the "Wonders of Life" pavillion. I had heard that more people get sick from body wars then any other motion simulator ride so I warned Randy that it was probably a very jerky ride. In actuality it was smooth and comfortable. Randy figured out that people probably got seasick since it made it look like you were traveling through the bloodstream.
Next we enjoyed the "making of me" and one of my personal favorites "cranium command."
Now we were off to have dinner in France. This was an unplanned replacement for the Rose and Crown. I had only checked out chefs de France's lunch menu and was planning to have a crepe, which unfortunately was not on the dinner menu. Anyway the place was just lovely. Our server Cindy was from paris (but/and) could not have been sweeter. I actually felt like I hurt her feelings by not ordering dessert. Randy had lamb which was beautiful and delicious. I had lobster bisque and a salad. The bisque was very good... the salad nothing special.
We decided to get pastry at the patisserie rather than ordering dessert. However when we got out of their it was an absolute deluge and we lost the mood. We ran into the theater to see the French Movie unfortunately they had "technical problems" and it was not running.
Well we made it through the rain and got the boat to the boardwalk. We got to Jelly Rolls just as they were starting the show. Because the rain was so heavy the place never filled up so we got a lot of attention from the performers and had many requests filled. The audience especially enjoyed "the gambler" and "jessi's girl" (We are such geeks "the plan" had actually included a list of songs to request, but we came up with even more as the night went on.)
I got intoxicated for the first time in years, but Randy made sure I paced myself and I was hangover free the next day. A woman in front of us actually passed out on the table. When I pointed it out to the bartender he went to investigate. The very large men she was with (who she probably tried to keep up with) looked perfectly sober and walked her out, this made me a little uneasy, but she had regained some consciousness and they seemed like decent guys.
We probably had about 8 baskets of popcorn and had a grand time. We closed the place. We may have been drinking but did notice that they closed about 20 minutes early. By that time it had stopped raining and we had a lovely walk back to our hotel.
Like a little intoxicated tattle-tale, I whispered to a security guard that Randy was drunk, and he replied "Good for him. Isnt the point of vacation to have a great time?" It certainly is, and, despite the rain and initial dissapointments it was an awesome day.
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Tink *~*~*
Cast Member
Posts: 1066
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 12-22-02 10:57 AM
I know what you mean about the office calling on your vacation. I don't answer them any more - that's what voice mail is for!
Also, I've done the golf-club-cover-as-puppet thing too. When Lion King opened on Broadway, I took the two oldest niecelings to see it, and the youngest ones had to have compensatory presents. We got Tigger and Piglet "puppets" for them at the Disney Store next to the theater.
Tink *~*~*
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Ahnalira
Cast Member
Posts: 433
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 12-22-02 11:11 AM
Ooh, I remember that rain! Omigosh, you two are brave to make your way through it.
Ahnalira
Grace finds beauty everywhere. Grace is my best friend.
Meet The Our Laughing Place Travel Pixies
Everybody's got a Laughing Place... we'll help you find yours!
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Ajax
Cast Member
Posts: 1032
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 12-23-02 10:02 AM
Sounds like you've had better days at WDW, pooh. That's a shame about the 'Rose & Crown'. I've never dined there, but my wife has and enjoyed it. There's no excuse for poor service at those prices. Let's hope things improve on your next visit.
BTW, did you see the 2-foot-wide 'Hidden Mickey' in the lettuce beds on 'The Land' ride?
Did you see me at EPCOT on New Years Eve? I was wearing a yellow poncho...
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Crank
Administrator
Posts: 1957
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 12-23-02 11:41 AM
I know what you mean about the Rose and Crown!
My wife and I ate there for our anniversary dinner. I ordered some Yorkshire Pudding and you should have seen what they brought me!!
If that weren't bad enough, this "Yorkshire Pudding" gave me the "bubbles and squeeks" during the American Adventure!
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
BOYCOTT FRENCH TOAST, GERMAN SAUSAGE AND BELGIAN CHOCOLATES
Crank-->
All Content is © the Poster and is to be considered Intellectual Property. All Rights Reserved. Though Brilliant, Breathtaking and Extrememly Well Written the Content contained herein is Opinion and Opinion only.
ib4cruzn at charter dot net
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poohlover
Cast Member
Posts: 195
Registered: Sep 2002
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Posted 12-23-02 12:53 PM
That was our only unpleasant dining experience on the trip. Pretty much the theme of our trip was "you can't go back." Things we loved in the past werent so great. Other things were so much better than expected.
For example we went to Liberty Tree Tavern for the experience and easy entry into MVMCP. This time the food was delicious! They had changed chefs.
Update on my looking younger after vacation. I got carded yesterday! Randy actually asked the guy if he was kidding. The guy was kind of flirty so it might have been a come-on but my fiance was right there. I think the guy was high! But it still propped up this 36 year olds xmas spirit. By the way I was buying spiced rum for a gift, what minor buys that?
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Robey
Cast Member
Posts: 1023
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 12-23-02 07:33 PM
Brave folks!
I love your TR!
I always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody. --Lily Tomlin
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Common
Ground / Goofy's HUGE!
/ day 2 - epcot in the rain |
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