The Hopping Mad Easter Tour - 2004 - Part 6

[BONZO]

Shaun - 40 something ‘If it’s high fat, high sugar I’ll eat it’
Alison - 30 something 'If it’s not Atkins I won’t eat it’
Alexandra - 10 ‘Can we play mini-golf? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?’
Laura - 8 'If I’m tall enough I’ll ride it'


Thursday 1st April 2004


So, here I am sitting writing my trip report notes at lunchtime in the room going "stir crazy" – why?
It was a very rocky night last night (so Alison tells me! – LOL) as Laura was sick a few times and needed a lot of TLC. No alarm had been set so we all managed to get some extra sleep in. I woke up early but dozed on and off but went over to the food court at about 08:45 to join in with fellow "mug men" to get coffees.
The girls eventually woke up naturally at about 09:30 and Laura looked better for it but this turned out to be far from the truth. We decided to go to Golden Corral for breakfast and straight onto Epcot to do World Showcase only. By the time we got to Golden Corral Laura was sick again so we had to revise plans very quickly. We drove through the MacDonald’s Drive Thru for breakfast items and ate them in the car.
I felt that Alison needed a break so I dropped her and Alexandra off at Epcot while I drove back to Pop so that Laura could get some sleep. It was a very strange feeling having no navigator or lookout on board and went a very odd route back to Pop via MK! Alison and Alexandra said they would make their own way back via bus to Pop when they had finished.

Alison’s bit: –
Straight into Epcot and picked up FP for Test Track which we didn’t use in the end as the return time was too far away and went on to do World Showcase anti-clockwise starting in Mexico. We took a leisurely couple of hours doing the Kidcot funstops in each area including watching the entertainment and doing the rides. It felt really odd being just the two of us - I kept looking behind me to see where Laura was! We finished back in Future world at about 1:30 and stopped for lunch in the Electric Umbrella.

Alexandra: Chicken tenders and fries
Alison: Bacon double Cheeseburger and fries (1/2 a bun and no fries)
Diet Coke to share

Approx $14

Afterwards we did Spaceship Earth on the way out and headed out to the Bus Stop. The Pop bus stop was miles away! We didn’t have too long to wait until we caught the bus back and arrived back in the room at about 2:45 by which time Laura was waking up after about 3 hours solid sleep.

Shaun’s bit: -
I sat in the room drinking beer and eating crisps and whiled away the time reading The New York Times. It had some interesting articles including The Organoleptic Hops Transducer aka Randall the Enamel Animal!
It’s about squeezing beer through hops to increase the flavour.
Apparently all is revealed at beeradvocate or dogfish/bargame.cfm

We all decided to chill out this afternoon – well it was only mid 70‘s today! And Alexandra had a swim while the rest of us sat around getting some fresh air and Alison did some laundry. Back to the room at about 5:30 after Laura had a multi coloured piece of toast as she’d decided she was starving! (This is what the toast looked like - but this pic was taken at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom)



Laura said that she felt so much better so we decided to risk going to a restaurant. We got dressed and decided to check out the B-Line Diner at The Peabody Hotel.
The Peabody was very swish and gave a good first impression. We made our way to the restaurant and parked up at the bar overlooking the chefs preparing the food. There was very little atmosphere here although we were pretty early which may explain it. There was little to no interaction with us by the chefs - even though we were the only customers at the counter, which we were a bit surprised at. The girls tried to chat to the chefs - but no reaction.



The food was good and the portions huge but we wouldn’t hurry back.

Alison: Thai stir fry and side salad
Kids: Kids burgers and fries (Laura ate about ½ of hers, which was quite good as she’d been ill!)
Me: Adult burger and fries
1 beer
4 soft drinks
2 coffees

Total $63

We handed over a $100 TC and the (miserable) server dallied giving us change, I suspect she was looking for a HUGE tip, but we sat it out and left the usual percentage tip. (As an aside here, what we usually do is to work out 15% then round it up to the nearest dollar. That was for good service, we left more for very good service, slightly less for poor service).

On the way back we stopped in at Downtown Disney for the girls to buy more pins etc and for us to get postcards etc. Arrived back at Pop at about 8:45 and we went back to the room via the food court as we’d been promising Alexandra a piece of the tie dyed cheesecake that she had been going on about and to buy Alison a piece of the low carb cheesecake they had on offer. We took the goodies back to the room so that Laura could go to bed while we pigged out. She fell asleep really quickly and Alexandra and Alison tucked in to their desserts. I felt obliged to join them by drinking Sam Adams and eating another 1lb or so of peanuts!


After that Alison packed ready for the next day - we were moving to Coronado Springs! Woo hoo! Bed by about 10.30pm.

Weather - bright, sunny but a bit on the cool side for swimming.

Plan for tomorrow: Move to Coronado Springs, then Typhoon Lagoon for the day.

[Mike]

Glad to read the wee one's recovered now! ...and respect for the Saint Shaun bit too... not sure I could have waved Heather and DS or DD off to Epcot without much gnashing of teeth! (MK...no problem, MGM or AK... probably, but Epcot?.. nah! )

Those colours in the cake and the bread make my teeth hurt just looking at them! Wonder what the 'e-number' content is like?

Have already made a note not to bother with the B-Line Diner at any future stage!

Great reports folks..keep 'em coming!

[Michelle]

What did that cheescake taste like? It looks so sickly

I cant wait to hear what you thought of CSR, we were impressed with the resort.

Great to hear Laura's on the mend.

[TinkTatoo]

LOL Shaun - great report, glad Laura was feeling better.

Are you sure the photo of the multi coloured toast wasn't taken AFTER she had been sick

[Guest]

That bread and cheescake look amazing..never seen anything like that before...did it taste the same as non-coloured bread and cheesecake. Feel very sorry for poor Laura, it is horrible to feel sick and ill and especially on your holiday...poor wee thing. Hope she's turned the corner for the next installment.
By the way, I was wondering whether you found it a pain to have to keep packing and unpacking with your changes in accomodation, or did it not bother you. I only ask as I find unpacking and especially packing up again really tedious when I only have to do it once...which is why we have only gone for one
accomodation during our 2 weeks, and I have noticed that lots of dibbers seem to go for odd nights to different hotels... maybe the benefits outweigh the inconvenience!

[AlisonB]

Actually the unpacking wasn't too bad. We unpacked fully at each of our three main stops (Pop, CSR and the villa) and lived out of cases on our other three stops as they were only for one or two nights each.

I got pretty efficient at packing/unpacking eventually! We only had two cases anyway, and all we took were shorts and t shirts really.

[AlisonB]

The cheesecake was a bit sickly! It tasted different to UK cheesecake - and there is no biscuit base either!If you closed your eyes you didn't know the bread or the cheesecake was dyed though!

[Guest]

Kid's like the look of that bread, I prefer the cheescake!

[Guest]

Good to hear Laura was feeling a bit better later in the day. Wow what bright colourings on the cheesecake!
Claire

[Tartan Tigger]

Glad Laura was feeling better. I have to ask how on earth you got to sleep that night after eating the tie dyed cheesecake, did the e-numbers not make you high?