Florida Holidays 2002 – Day 4

[Guest]

drink.  AKA This is the first time I have seen THAT in a restaurant.

If anyone is a little baffled by the AKA comment – do not worry; all will become clear.

Well, the day dawned – yup, you guessed Bright and Sunny – excellent news indeed, actually supposed to be 79F according to the weather chap but it was that heat at 8.30 when we went for breakfast! – and once we had our fill of Toon Disney and the Weather Channel (nice how things remain constant&#33. after having a late rise we went to the Food Court for our breakfast and daily coffee in our mugs.  

We had a visit to Typhoon Lagoon on the cards today which was another first.  Come to think of it, everything we have done so far – Character Breakfasts, Disney Quest – were firsts so I began to notice a common thread here.  

Last year when we were here, we only did Blizzard Beach as a water park – the other two were closed – so we were looking forward to going here.  After breakfast, we made our way to the bus and before long we arrived at the park and went through the obligatory security check – a cursory check of the rucksacks and bum bags and from there we went in the park and found our stake.  Well, when I say that we made straight for the Typhoon Lagoon itself and nabbed ourselves a couple of lilos.  

I am not one for sitting in the sun but TC is a Sun Worshipper of the highest order – so I left her be after a little while and went on an explore of the park.  And what better way to do this than grab a rubber ring and drift round the whole park on the Castaway Creek – one of my ideas of Heaven.  And it was so nice to be adrift in a gently rocking ring with the sun above me and not very many people around me and that is when I found what I was looking for – one of their boats!  Perfick!!!  So, lazing in the boat, stretched fully out with me head resting on the back end and me feet traising in the water, I thought ahhh lovely.

From there – it was a shame to leave, but I had an appointment with the Storm Slides and Humunga Kowabunga which I was determined to keep – I headed towards the first of my appointments.  Storm Slides.  Now, I saw the signs and I followed the signs but could I find the Storm Slides?  Could I?  Nope, no sign.  So I retraced my steps and then saw – hidden away so I could not see it – another sign saying the Storm Slides were this way.  Well, as Tracy always says, I walk around with my eyes shut 90% of the time so that is my excuse why I missed it. .  

So, up I went and decided to go down them one after the other.  .

Wowee, they are such good fun – all three are decidedly different with their own character – and I felt ready to tackle the Humunga Kowabunga, after hearing that it was quite rough.  

Well, I was expecting a water slide a la Summit Plummit so once it was my turn to approach the launch pad, I was a little apprehensive.  I sat in the gushing water and on the word from the attendant, I let myself fly and shot down the slide.  

Hmmm, not what I was expecting at all.  It was good but not half as intense as SP is.  Anyway, tenderly ( ha ha ha) I made my way back to Tracy and spent as much time as I dared lazing in the sun – I do tend to burn quite easily so I have to be careful – and relaxed while Tracy went in to the Wave Pool.  It was about this time that the waves were beginning to come every 90 seconds.  Out came the camcorder and I started to film the waves coming in – a la Titanic.  

It was an impressive site – and when Tracy came out soaking wet from head to foot and grinning like a Cheshire Cat – even her cap was soaking!!! – I had to have some of that for myself.  Tracy did tell me to keep a hold of the cap because the waves come in with such a force, if you do not hold it, you will lose it.  

Bearing that in mind, I decided to give it a whirl.  In the water went I – minus the camcorder – and then the wave came.  Well, it swamped me and yup, you guessed, lost me cap – even though I was holding it to me head.  I emerged sputtering water like a beached whale and foundering like a loon and finally spotted me cap floating away in the water.

On checking the time, we decided to wander round the park together and eventually we came across the Shark Reef and decided to give this a whirl as we were doing DC on the Sunday (more on this in a future TR) and Tracy had not snorkelled before. So, armed with the required equipment, we got in the water and snorkelled our way around the water – a wonderful experience and one to be done more than once.  

So, after going around a second time, we decided that time was getting on so we left Typhoon Lagoon and headed back to the hotel room and change for the evening meal – we had made a PS for the Garden Grill in Epcot (another first&#33.

We got the bus to Epcot and wandered slowly around the park to the Garden Grill, camcorder in hand and got some footage of the park and the monorail and got to the restaurant at the time of our PS – 6.45pm.

Now, we had not been here before and to be honest I was unsure what to expect. I knew the floor revolved and the scenery changed as we were eating and I knew of the character interaction as well, but other than that, I did not have a clue what to expect.

Well, the first thing I would like to say is the theming is superb; the second thing is the food is plentiful – I did not know it was an all-you-can-eat buffet – and the third thing is the inside is breath-taking.  

This is also where the AKA comes in.  I have seen a few things in a restaurant in my time but I have never seen a house before!!!  As the meal progressed – more of the meal itself coming up – and the floor revolved, I could not believe my eyes when a house came into view!!!  Impressive.

Anyway, back to the meal.

We sat down and the waitress came round and took our drink order and left a colouring pad and some crayons and left us while we – admittedly – spent some time colouring in Mickey in his farmyard.

The food came round soon after that and we were told by our waitress that if we wanted to have some more to let her know.

She left us, we started to eat.  And then the fun started.

First visitor to our table was Chip and Dale.  Out came the camera and the two posed with Tracy while I took their photos.  Then came Pluto and another photo was duly taken.  Then came the big cheese – Mickey himself – and another photo was taken.  Then we carried on eating.  But not for long.

Dale came back and began to interact some more with Tracy – petting her hand and the like and then started to interact with the table next to us, then disappeared again.  Only to come again with Pluto in hand and began to torment the poor dog mercilessly – much to our delight and it seemed the more we were laughing at them, the more poor Pluto got tormented.  

However, soon Dale got bored and decided to make some more mischief with us so he got hold of the towel holder on the table next to us and began to bang on the table with it.  He soon got bored with that so looked around for something else he could play with.  Then his eyes came across the crayons.  He picked up the holder – in the shape of a wheelbarrow – and looked at them and began to bang on the table with this.  He got told off by a waitress at this so he waited for the waitress to leave and them emptied the contents over the table.  He then did a runner, leaving the young lad to take the blame!!!

Well, Tracy and I were in kinks with what had happened, naturally.  The waitress came back, took one look and started shaking her finger at Dale – as if she were telling him off – and tidied up the mess.

We had finished eating by this time and were stuffed to the gills so we decided to head back for the bus.  Walking down, I mentioned it would be nice to do Spaceship Earth – if it was not closed; it was past closing time for the Future World by this time – so we decided, if it was, we would go on as a nice end to the day.

We wandered down and as we were walking down, we saw someone walk up and enter the globe – excellent stuff, it was open.

We went in – this has to be our fave attraction at Epcot and spent the whole ride just relaxing and lettig our food digest and once we were on the bus heading back to the hotel, we could feel our eyes getting really heavy – for all this was a relaxing day and we had done nothing strenuous at all – both of us were shattered.

Once back in the hotel, we got our hot chocolates and then put telly on for our nighttime visit to Toon Disney and sleepville.

Tomorrow – ANOTHER first (I cannot cope with all these firsts) Islands of Adventure; or lead me to those coasters!!!!

[Guest]

Sounds like a great day Pete, I didn't know Garden Grill was all you can eat buffet either, character interaction sounds brill there!

Deb

[ANGEL]

yes GG is one I've not tried either Pete...yet!!! . Sounds great.

Typhoon Lagoon is great too isn't it? The first time we went I didnt realise how powerful those waves were and Becky and I got knocked off our feet... scrambled round to find her, scared in case she was upset, but she was just sat there laughing her head off! .

Sound slike you both had a wonderful day .  .

[Carole]

What a smashing day. It doesn't get any better than that. .

I loved Garden Grill. Any meal with Chip and Dale is going to be a scream.

[AlisonB]

Another great day! You just gotta love those waves in Typhoon Lagoon!

[Guest]

What a fun packed day
Water parks are my  DS's favorites
.

[Tartan Tigger]

Another great day Pete. I love the waves at Typhoon Lagoon.

[CarolynU]

Have never been to the Garden Grill, but after your report it sounds tempting. Carolyn .  .

[BONZO]

TL - Brilliant isn't it!

We just love the snorkelling in the Shark Encounter reef bit - even both DDs did it last year.

The Garden Grill always comes up trumps - great character intervention etc!

Off for the next one!