Part 8- December 8, 2001
Mickey must have decided to sleep in this morning, because my wakeup call never called! Oh well, even the mouse needs a vacation sometimes ;) I ended up waking up when housekeeping knocked at 9. It’s a good thing I never remembered Do Not Disturb signs, or I may have slept through my entire vacation! J I got dressed and called room service to order some Tonga Toast. “Eat Tonga Toast on balcony at Poly” has been on my Disney To Do list for as long as I can remember (Okay, since my first vacation at the Poly two years ago!) so it was an absolute must-do this trip that I was really looking forward to. The lady on the phone said my food would be up in 30-40 minutes, so I set to work packing up my things for yet another resort change, wrinkling my nose at the huge mass of dirty laudry I acquired, and making a note that simply said “Laundry!” on my To Do list. I really wanted to just stay at the Poly forever, but at least I was going to the Wilderness Lodge, my 2nd favorite! Big tip here- if you are switching resorts during your stay, save the best ones for last so you will be more excited about packing up to leave rather than dreading it ;) The first days of my trip I could care less if I was staying in a cardboard box, as long as it was on Disney property and had transportation! ;) So, yes, save the ambiance for when you’re ready to soak it in!
Despite Ms. Room Service Lady telling me that it would be 30-40 minutes, my food arrived in about 20. The lady who brough in my breakfast offered to set the table for me, but I said it was ok. After she left I decided I might as well really enjoy it, so I spread the table cloth out on the table, and set everything up so that I would have the beautiful view of my balcony, with Party Buddha sitting on top of the syrup as my centerpiece. I had the Tonga Toast, which was huge- probably three inches thick. If you haven’t tried this, it’s a banana stuffed French toast with cinnamon and sugar, and is even more sinfully delicious when you drown it in hot syrup. I was in heaven! It came with three strips of bacon (I believe you have a choice of bacon or sausage) and a slice of pineapple, and I also had a glass of milk, and a glass of water. The whole thing came to a total of $16.82, which included an 18% gratuity and a $3 trip charge. Finally, I opened the doors to the balcony so that I could have the fresh air coming in, and the sounds and smells of the Poly. It was such a Magical Moment, I tried to freeze the image in my memory. After I ate, I snapped several photos of my fantastic breakfast view. It was really one of those picture perfect moments!
Notice my fab new Party Buddha sitting on top of the syrup.
My view while I ate breakfast.
After breakfast, I had my bags picked up and sent over to the Wilderness Lodge while I set off for the MK via the monorail. (Oh how I love the Poly monorail!) I was really in the mood for the Haunted Mansion, so I went there first, but the line was huge. I got a fast pass and went to see the Country Bear Christmas show which was much better than the normal show, in my opinion. I loved the Christmas lights on the moose’s antler’s and the deer’s red nose! J After the show, I stopped at the little stand outside that sells all sorts of hats and picked up a pair of reindeer antler mouse ears to wear on our Christmas Deco tour that night. As cool as my new antlers were, they just didn’t seem right for the Haunted Mansion, so I stashed them in my backpack until later. Shopping complete, I still had about five minutes before my Fast Pass time, so I just sat on a bench and drank in the Frontierland atmosphere. While I was sitting there people watching, it was such a nice scene that I could just see Mickey and Minnie walking by holding hands. Wait a second, Mickey and Minnie WERE walking by holding hands!!!! After a moment of wondering if my Tonga Toast had been made with some sort of suspicious ingredients, I blinked a few times, but they were actually there! This is the second time in all my days I’ve ever seen The Mouse out roaming the streets, and certainly the first time I’ve seen the two together! I have no idea where they were going or why… one of the mysteries of the universe I suppose! J
Still a bit shocked from my mouse sighting, I was ready to take on the equally strange things in the Mansion. There must have been a big group in line or something when I had first been there, because now it was a total walk on. One fun thing about riding your favorite rides alone is that you get to ignore everyone around you and really drink in every detail of the ride. I took my time in the first room, watching the portrait of Master Gracey age, a detail that I think a lot of people walk right pass without ever noticing. In the Stretching Room, I was having a great time examining all the portraits on the wall, but unfortunately, a little boy next to me who was about 4 years old was not having such a great time. He began whimpering the minute we came in the room, and when the lights went out and the lightning flashed, he screamed at the top of his little lungs and began absolutely bawling. The poor boy couldn’t stop screaming- he was obviously absolutely terrified. I watched to see if his parents would take him out the “chicken exit”, but they drug him onto the ride with him!! Poor kid! If the stretching room terrified him that much, I’d hate to imagine how the rest of the ride went.
Being alone in my own Doom Buggy gave me the freedom to bounce and sing along to the music, basically making a complete fool of myself in front of the ghosts ;) As with ever time I ride, I kept my eyes peeled for little details I’d never seen before, and enjoyed remembering all the details Matt had told us about a few days before.
After promising Little Leota that I would, in fact, “Hurry back!” I decided that some of my beloved Pinnochio Village Haus French fries were in order, so it was off to Fantasyland! Much to my delight, the rope that had blocked access to the balcony a few days before was now gone! I got the Figaro Fries with cheese and bacon only (They usually have lettuce and tomato too), as well as a side of Ranch dressing to dip them in. I dashed up the stairs to my balcony, finding it empty (as it should be! Ha!). No sooner had I settled down with my fries and notebook to take down some notes, however, when the door opened and two people came out and sat at one of the tables! The nerve of people these days! ;) Next thing I knew, two MORE people came out! Alas, my private balcony was private no more. Lunch, by the way (Figaro Fries and water) came to a grand total of $3.27.
I was on my way out of the park when I realized I must have a picture of me in front of the castle with my reindeer antlers on, so I stopped to pose while one of the great Disney photographers snapped a few shots. This, however, left me with choices! It was only around 1:15. My pictures wouldn’t be ready until at least 2:15, so I’d have to kill at least an hour more in the park, or go on over to the WL and see if my room was ready yet. I decided to do some Main Street shopping, taking the opportunity to pick up some mouse ears for my friend Kelly’s two sons. Now, I may be wrong here, but isn’t it supposed to be $6 for the ears, and another $6 to get them embroidered with the names? Well, the nice lady who did the ears for me only charged me $12 total for the two pairs! So am I wrong here, or did she make a nice mistake in my favor?
Mouse ears now crossed off the To Buy list, I wandered down Main Street a little bit when I made the mistake of peeking in the door of the bakery. As usual, due to the fact that chocolate was within a mile radius, I was drawn in, and the next thing I knew, I was pointing at the most delicious looking piece of chocolatey cake that I had seen in a long time and asking the CM “Ooooooh! Whats THAT!?” She informed me that it was chocolate mousse cake, and a minute later, I was out the door carrying a piece of my very own, as well as a container of milk ($4.50 for cake, $1.49 for milk, $6.35 total).
I was now pondering where to eat. I really wanted to eat outside, so I went over to the little street that’s off to your right if you’re facing the castle (Center Street, I think?) and sat down on a bench by the silhouette portrait people. A girl looking at the portraits saw my cake and had to stop and ask what it was and where I got it- I’m telling you, Its good looking cake, people! J It tastes as good as it looks, but I only made it about halfway through, as I was still pretty full from breakfast and my fries. This beautiful half piece of chocolate cake was too wonderful to just throw away though, so I got a plastic shopping bag and carefully slipped the plate in, situated it in my backpack where the frosting would suffer minimal damaged, and crossed my fingers.
I noticed that a lot of people were already lining up for the parade, even though it wasn’t quite 2, so I assumed that the parade was at 3, and found a spot for myself. I was sitting there doing pretty much nothing for at least 20 20 minutes, and doing silly things to entertain myself like taking a picture of the shadow of my reindeer antlers on the trash can (I can only blame this on chocolate overload! ;) )
So I now have a lovely picture of a Main St. trash can in my collection of vacation photos J While I was sitting there, wondering how I would kill a whole hour in that spot before the parade, I heard a man ask a nearby CM what time the parade was, and the CM said 4:00! There was no way I was going to sit there for two hours, so I hopped up and went to see if my photo was ready yet. Even though I was about 20 minutes early, it was, and I bought a copy. Its funny to see all the Christmas theming while I’m standing there in a short sleeved shirt and sunglasses! (Which reminds me, due to the direction of the sun, I find it impossible to get a picture in front of the castle without either wearing sunglasses, or being all squinty-eyed! They need someone taking pictures over in Fantasyland on the other side of the castle where its in the shade, but I guess the lighting wouldn’t be as good)
I was more than ready to see my beloved lodge, so I hopped on the boat, carefully trying not to jostle my cake too much. A lot of people seemed to like my antlers, but I had to take them off when we started moving because had I not, the wind would have blown them right into the water! J I stopped at Forks first to get some water, very glad that I’d brought back my WL mug and was all ready to go as far as drinks were concerned! (I'll point out that I only used it for water, to avoid the great Refillable Mug debate!) I saw that they now also sell a smaller mug, with a bottom that would fit in a car cup holder, but it’s the same price as the big one. Personally, I like the big one so that you don’t have to keep going for refills as often! But if you had a car on property and were driving places, I can see how the cupholder sized one would have its benefits.
My next stop was check-in, where they told me my room wouldn’t be ready for another hour or so, and gave me a card with a number to call from one of the in-house phones to check back to see if it was ready. I took the elevator up to my favorite sitting area and collapsed into one of the comfortable chairs, where I dined on leftover cake (Only slightly smushed!) and caught up on my trip report notes. Unfortunatly, this must have been the last time I thought to write down notes that day, because this is where they end in my notebook! So, the rest of this is totally from memory, and may not be totally accurate ;-)
Around an hour later, I went in search of a phone to call to check on my room, and finally found one in the center of the lobby. However, there was a man talking on it, but there was another one across the room that I went to use. I found it funny when a man answered “Wilderness Lodge, Front desk!” when I was standing in full view of the front desk, and there were no men there ;) He gave me my room number (6010) and I was off on my journey to find it. I took the elevators near the check-in area up to the 6th floor, and started following signs. I walked, and walked, and walked.. and then I walked some more, and FINALLY came to 6010! I discovered on the way, however, that if I’d taken the elevators down by Roaring Forks (which I didn’t know existed at the time, heh) I’d have had almost no walk at all. I set my backpack off to the side and called for bell services to bring up my luggage, snapping a few pictures of the room while it was still clean while I waited. I went to check out my view, and much to my delight, if you turned your head and squinted just right, you could see the castle through the trees! I could also see a tiny bit of the lagoon, and a small pond next to the building. Not bad for a Woods view, considering that last time I had a woods view, it was more of a “roof of the 3rd floor and service road” view. I had a lot of time to kill before meeting the Passporter group at 8 for our Christmas Deco tour, so I decided to lounge around the room for a while and watch TV. Is it just me, or is MK really the most exhausting park, even if you don’t really do anything? I spent some time in my room, then wandered the resort for a while, taking a few photos. Finally, 8:00 rolled around, so I went down to the fireplace, our designated meeting spot for the tour. People I recognized started showing up in no time, and soon our group was all together. The tour was led by Passporter moderaters Nate and Michelle, and they had prepared a list of Christmas things for us to find to make our tour more interesting J Basically, our goal was to check out the MK resorts and all their Christmas decoration wonderfulicity! (Rule of trip reports: making up words is always good!) Our first order of business was to check out the WL, as we were already there. This wasn’t particularly thrilling for me, since I’d just been exploring the lodge a few hours earlier, but I joined up with Shannon and her mom to wander the resort and try to find the things on our list. The group reconvened 30-45 minutes later at the fireplace, where we regrouped and set off for the Contemporary via boat.
5-legged goat at the Contemporary
After the Contemporary, we checked out the Grand Floridian and Polynesian before calling it a night. Tip of the day: If you plan on writing a trip report, save all your receipts!! I stashed all of mine in the pockets of my passporter, and they came in SO handy for writing this report! For some reason, my notes of what I did today were very sparse, but looking over my receipts, I could see what I ate and bought when and where, which helped a lot to jog my memory of the day’s events- a total lifesaver!