Part 6
Day 3, December 8, 2004
Sometimes you need a vacation from vacation. I had planned today to be my sit around and do nothing day, and I got off to a good start by snarling at Stitch when he called to wake me up at 9:30, and falling back asleep until 10:30. This wouldn’t have been such a bad idea if this weren’t the day I was checking out of WL, which I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to do by 11am. Oops? I threw my stuff into my suitcases, called bell services to transfer them over to PO-FQ, and then went down to catch a bus to Downtown Disney, where I planned to shop until I could transfer myself to FQ!
A parting shot of WL:
That reminds me, I have a question. You see up on the very top floor, there are those nifty little roof overhang things propped up by wooden columny things? (I am so good at describing things.) Are those the balconies of certain rooms, or just for decoration? Whatever they are, I want to go see them up close- they look cool!
My first stop in DD was the Christmas store, where I planned to pick up a few new ornaments. WARNING- The Christmas store is SCARY in December! It was so crowded in here you would think they were giving away free DVC memberships or something! I could barely turn around without whacking into someone! I decided that buying breakable pretty things could probably wait for a more opportune time. Like July.
A couple of photos from my short, brave time in the store:
I love the big tree in the center of the first room of the store. When I was little, my favorite thing to do was lay under the Christmas tree and look up into the lights. This oversized tree totally recreates that effect!
The fairy-themed room. It kind of reminded me of the “freshly caught Cornish pixies” from Harry Potter for some reason, probably because the fairies were blue.
Next was a new store selling Disney pet supplies (I can’t remember what it’s called). I had seen the cute dog toys and cat food bowls and such in the resort gift shops, and was kind of disappointed to find that the store didn’t carry a much wider range than what they sold in every other shop. I almost bought my cats the cute box of kitty treats, but they were $9, and knowing how picky cats are, I figured that they probably wouldn’t like them. I ended up getting a Cheshire cat toy that shakes when you pull it’s tail, because my cat Tallulah (see my icon) has a toy similar to it, and she loves to pull the string. Funniest items in the store? Perfume for cats and dogs, called “Oh my Cat” and “Oh My Dog”. Hah!
Since this was my big shopping day, I decided that now would be a good time for the big World of Disney shopping spree. AP holders are probably familiar with seeing stuff during your trip and saying “Ooh, I’ll get that at World of Disney later”, since we get a discount there! With my birthday just three days away, it was time to buy myself some presents!
I could easily spend a zillion dollars in World of Disney- I love this store! After lots and lots of shopping around, I ended up with a basket full of really cool stuff, including:
* A WDW Pillow (shown below on my sofa at home)
* A stuffed Dory that I’d had my eye on for days
* The cat food bowl from the new line of pet stuff.
* A WDW rollercoaster computer game. I actually haven’t played it yet, surprisingly! What’s wrong with me?
* The Animal Kingdom cd that has all of the Tree of Life music on it. Love it!
* A couple of the character-shaped pens to take to friends at home
* Two new antenna toppers- the Easter Bunny Mickey one, and Reindeer Mickey.
* A pair of Mickey head earrings. This was a HUGE victory- I had bought these earrings back in 2000 on my first trip- I love them because they’re really understated, not “HEY, LOOK! There’s a MOUSE on my EAR!”. However, being me, I lost one of my original pair years ago, and have been trying to find a new pair ever since, but for several years, they didn’t have the small size, only big ones! So, I was finally reunited with my Mickey earrings! (Um, I’ve lost one of the new ones since then.)
*A cute WDW magnet
Can you believe that those things added up to something like $120? Yeesh! Good thing I get 10% off!
I considered hiring a pack mule to carry my bags to the bus stop, but got distracted when I walked out the door and ran into Dan Murphy. Funny how you can run into someone you know in a place as big as WDW!
I somehow managed to get all my stuff to the bus stop, where I waited something like six hours for the PO-FQ bus. (Okay, twenty minutes. It was really hot today, so it seemed like a lot longer!) This was followed by the longest bus ride EVER- the bus stopped at Pleasure Island, Typhoon Lagoon, and then made four resort stops before dropping me off! Crazy!
It was about 2:45 when I checked in, and my room wasn’t ready yet. No big deal, rooms are supposed to be ready at 3, right? So the check-in lady gave me the little card with the phone # to call to check on my room status, assuring me that it should be ready any minute. I found a bench and called my mom to tell her about all the cool stuff I just got for my birthday, and to update her on my trip, and then called the number to check on my room, since it was now 3. Nope, not ready yet. Oh well, no problem, I’ll go check out the gift shop! I got a cute black WDW t-shirt here, but I’m convinced that the sizes are seriously screwed up. I usually wear a Large in shirts, XL if I want a looser fit, but the one I got fits pretty snuggly and it’s a 2XL! Weird! (and no, I didn't eat THAT many brownies at WL!)
Fifteen minutes or so of wandering around the gift shop and buying a shirt that seriously hurt my self esteem, I tried the room check number again. Nope, not ready yet! But it’s hot outside, and I’m starving, and carrying around six hundred pounds of stuff from World of Disney! I want my room!
Okay, I’ll go get food from the food court, eat, and then the room HAS to be ready, right?
The French Quarter food court kind of creeps me out. I mean, what’s up with those huge, scary faces up there?
I had about a ten minute wait for my pizza (are you sensing a trend with waiting today?), so once it was ready, I carried it out to a quiet little bench area outside so that I could escape the creepy faces, and wonder which one of those rooms was mine.
So, it’s now about four o’clock. I’ve shopped, I’ve eaten, I’ve decided which paint color combinations are the most flattering for the FQ exteriors, I’m ready for my room. I call up the number to check again (good thing I have a cell phone, all those runs to the pay phone would have driven me even nuttier!), and my room is….. still not ready! “They have until 5pm to get them ready”, the lady on the phone depressingly informs me. I am not having good first impressions of French Quarter! (I should point out here that I’ve stayed at PO-Riverside (aka Dixie Landings) several times, and I love it. I was hoping to have similar love for FQ, but so far, things aren’t looking up!)
I decided to spend some time wandering around the resort, and taking a few pictures. It’s so much smaller than Riverside, but bigger than I thought it was.
The area down near the Sassagoula river is really pretty!
I think the street names are cute, too! Here are two favorites:
Finally, a little after 4:30, I call again, and my room is ready! At last! I make my way to room 4248, and collapse on the bed, so happy to finally have somewhere to stretch out and relax in the air conditioning! I flipped through the TV channels, and ended up watching that chick who tries to be Samantha Brown for a while. Is it just me, or does she remind anyone else of those “Girls Gone Wild” commercials? I want my Zip A Dee Do Dah Tip Of The Day back! I miss the little bouncing origami Castle! It would also be really cool if WDW could work out some kind of a deal with Travel Channel so that they could show the episodes of Great Hotels featuring WDW resorts on the TV here, too! I’d so much rather have the real Samantha than this sad substitute!
So, let’s have a look around the room, shall we?
This is the painting on my wall. It reminds me of Magic Kingdom in a weird way.
One of the beds…
The fish on my bed…
And hey, what is this thing for?
Let’s open it up…
Hey! Is that a…
Fridge! Hooray! I love that Moderates are getting fridges now! It’s just big enough for a few essentials. (Weird that the moderates have fridges now, but WL still didn’t!)
Since I was doing the Wild By Design tour at Animal Kingdom tomorrow morning, I called guest services to find out when the first bus runs. That went a little like this:
“Hi, what time does the first bus to AK run in the morning?”
“8:00”
“Oh. Humm. I have a tour there at 8:15.”
“Oh! In all honesty, they start running at 7am, but we tell people 8 so that they aren’t all there early.”
Good thing I asked! I had actually been considering taking a taxi to get there in time, but turns out I don’t need to!
I had planned this as being a no park day, but after spending so much time sitting around, I was antsy to go somewhere, so I caught a bus to MGM.
I love the shop just inside the gates that sells all of the autographed movie posters and photos. Too bad I can’t actually afford any!
Oh Ray Park, you’re so pretty. Too bad he sells for $300!
I love all of the vintage billboards up along the streets! Makes it feel like old Hollywood. (Not that I was alive back then, but my dad was, so it’s nice to wander the streets thinking about what it was like for him to live in Hollywood during those days. I wish he were still around to share it with.)
I was planning to go check out the Osbourne lights, but the line to get in was MASSIVE, so I decided they could wait. I’m too scared of getting motion sick to ride Star Tours, but since I’m a big SW fan, I had to spend some time in the gift shop, where I picked up a R2D2 magnet for a friend, and a little Yoda and package of astronaut ice cream for me (I love that stuff!).
I have this weird habit of not actually *doing* anything at MGM. I seem to go in, wander around, and then leave. No idea why! It struck again, because this time I shopped around a little, saw the Indiana Jones show, did the Great Movie Ride and Muppets 3d, and I was out. More than I usually do, at least!
Back at PO-FQ, I grabbed dinner from the food court, and took it back to my room so that I could lay around eating and watching TV (The national pastime!)
The cheese quesadilla was something like $7, but good! It just felt so wrong to pay that much for one when I’m used to getting it at Taco Bell for $3!
Early to bed so that I can be up early for the Wild by Design Tour!