April 2013 - Our last hurrah! - Travel Day - Part 2

[Hannikins]

Now where were we? Oh yes we were on the magical express!

HURRAH!



Now we were officially on Disney property (the bus counts right?) the Minnie ears were back on!

The driver informed us that he would be stopping at 5 resorts, and our was the last one, bad times.



However we did get to see a few of the other resorts on the way

Port Orleans Riverside – Just as we remembered and it was nice to return
Wilderness Lodge – HUGE and very impressive
Old Key West – Nice but I was glad we weren’t staying there.

Then Saratoga Springs! – no idea why we didn’t stop at the mystery 4th resort but I wasn’t complaining.

We hopped off the bus and I left Adam to get the bags while I headed into the lobby.

I was welcomed home by the doorman and directed into the large grand reception and straight to a desk. I handed over all the necessities and we were checked in. The reception lady handed us a map and started to explain the various locations…

Cast Member: “We are here” (big marker circle in the middle) “and your room is here in the Grandstand area” (big circle to the far left) “to get there you ne…”

Me: “erm no”

Cast Member: blank stare

Me: “We’ve requested congress park, I know a high floor with a downtown Disney view is pushing it but we really don’t want to be right at the other end instead”

Adam looks puzzled by this whole exchange, I might as well have been speaking welsh.

The cast member makes a few calls, congress park is full… oh poo. The cast member asked if there was anywhere else we’d be “happy”. I asked her to check if there was anything in the paddock, the building next to congress park.

A Looooooooooooong telephone exchange occurred but by the end of it there was! One room left in fact, a 4th floor room, we’ll take it I said. My faith finally restored in the Disney magic :P

She advised we went to baggage services to get to our room but on consulting the map I suggested we walk and check out the view on the way.

Halfway across the bridge and I was regretting this decision! It was HOT!

We did eventually make it and were greeted by a lovely towel animal



It was our one and only since we kept forgetting to leave a tip daily! Oops!

We had a quick explore, Adam loved the fact we had a balcony to sit out on. But there was no time for that, we had places to be and my tummy was rumbling!

We dropped the baggage in the room and I dressed for the change in weather, that sounds rather organized doesn’t it? In fact I just removed my leggings Then we were off!

Adam decided he wanted to take some photos on the way so we took the ‘scenic’ route



Our room location was directly opposite the congress park bus stop so we walked towards it and through congress park to get to the downtown Disney walkway. From here you’re hit with a lovely view of the downtown Disney shoreline so direction wise you can’t go wrong, there are signs just in case though!

In less than 10 minutes we reached the marketplace and although it was probably my imagination I followed the smell of bacon wrapped meatloaf to wolfgang pucks express. This was to be our first Quick Service meal of the holiday!

I made a loose suggestion to Adam that we didn’t need to eat here if he preferred to go somewhere else but as he had no idea what was here I think I had the advantage Seeing pizza on the menu I don’t think he was to fussed!

There was a short queue, which gave me chance to look over the menu, although I knew exactly what I wanted.



Or did I? Now with the menu in front of me I wasn’t sure if I ‘FANCIED’ bacon wrapped meatloaf, maybe I wanted a turkey sandwich instead! Annoyingly the menu above the cashier doesn’t describe the items so I had to go outside to see what a ‘turkey sandwich’ included. Sounded good, until Adam convinced me American Turkey ‘wasn’t the same’…. So I was back with the meatloaf.

We placed our orders and took a seat in the conservatory section. The ‘inside’ bit looked like this



In a few minutes our food arrived.

For Adam a pepperoni pizza without mushrooms



The meatloaf for me



For desserts we shared the cheesecake and the crème brulee



Adam preferred the cheesecake while I preferred the brulee, which was probably for the best since after the first mouthful this lady was not for sharing!

I won’t go into huge detail on the food in this report, I know some of you aren’t bothered! Instead I’ll keep my analysis to the separate food report. Let just say the pizza was nice but the meatloaf was ‘underwhelming’

It’s worth mentioning that the drinks here are ‘ultimate’ so you can refill them as much as you like, in fact the wait staff are more than happy to do this for you to boost their tip ☺

The total came to $46.55 (including tax) and then we left a $5 tip.

That’s the first amount on the DDP deduction. I’m going to keep a running total so I can see how much the stay would have cost without it since I know people are interested to know that sort of thing

While we were eating look what came over.



A minion blimp! well done Universal for muscling in on Disney property

We were done and dusted by 7.30. In the trippies of sane normal people now is usually the point at which they start to wind down and head back for a good nights sleep, it is 12.30am to my body after all, however those of you that have read our NY trippie (if you haven’t, WHY NOT?!? :P) will know we are not normal people. Instead we view an early night on arrival day to be a pure waste…. so we headed out towards the bus stops, it was EMH at MK tonight!

On the way we just HAD to check out Goofy’s candy company to see what treats awaited us later in the holiday.



Mmmmmmmmmm TREATS!



Nom nom nom nom

[Hannikins]

We decided to catch the first bus heading for a monorail resort and the Grand Floridian arrived within minutes so we hopped on that.

As the monorail requires you to go up a level we took the obligatory photo on the balcony





I was hoping for a less drawn and disheveled one later in the holiday!

A monorail was arriving just as we arrived and it was lovely to hear the familiar tones of the recorded message. Looking at the clock in our first photopass pic we arrived at around 8.05pm.



I was part of a photopass share so I pretty much tried to get as many as I could on this trip

Now I hadn’t expected MK to be quiet tonight, during EMH it never is I don’t think. However I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so BUSY ☹



I shouldn’t have worried; they all seemed to be waiting on the parade so the ride wait times were not that bad.

We didn’t run straight for the rides, we took our time, soaking up the atmosphere and taking in everything from Main Street to the Castle. I don’t think any of the WDW parks are as magical as MK at night.





Now what ride to do first, our favourite of course!

Big Thunder Mountain. Ok so it’s not fast and it’s not ‘thrilling’ but it’s the most fun you can have in the dark at a Disney park, legally, in my opinon

It was miles away! I can’t understand how MK in Paris is supposed to be bigger than the MK at WDW, the walk to big thunder mountain there is tiny in comparison. I was exhausted by the time we arrived.

It’s recently had a refurb so the queuing area has had an update. As it was quiet I don’t think the ‘interactive’ bits were accessible but they had some lovely new signage





We rode this 4 or 5 times before deciding we’d ‘done it’ for the evening. Considering ourselves DLP Big thunder mountain vetrans having spent a whole evening reriding it back in 2010 the ‘bullet dodging’ bit was a nice surprise. I still prefer the DLP version though

[Hannikins]

We wandered through Frontierland into Adventureland and jumped onto Pirates. We miss the drops on this version, far to tame. I do like the added ‘tottie’ element here though, with Jack Sparrow popping up all over the place.

While dodging the spitting camels we noticed a fairy meet and greet which had popped up as part of the limited time magic event Disney are running this year.

“Lets do it while it’s quiet” said Adam

Surprised he was up for a character meet and greet, especially one which involved females ‘taking his arm’, I went along with it.

20 minutes later we emerged and I think he regretted his decision. It was like being in a room with 4 hannah montana’s he said with a shudder. I think this photo best sums up his ‘experience’



Look at the tortured pain in those eyes

They were VERY in character though, full of ‘energy’ let say

It didn’t help that apart from tinkerbell I hadn’t a clue who the others were! I’m guessing the one in blue/purple is supposed to be too cool for school but the rest were just hyper.

The conversation centred around my floral dress and how many flowers I’d had to pick to make it









As we emerged we caught part of fantaillusion, the good bit with the princesses, so I didn’t make Adam watch the rest. Instead we headed towards the jungle river cruise. We’ve never ridden this in the dark so thought it worthwhile.

We had a funny castmember on board but the real comedy came from a father and son, the Dad was playing along with gusto. The son couldn’t have looked more ashamed of him if he’d tried! The ride couldn’t have been over soon enough for him I don’t think!

We decided on one final ride before we headed off. Space Mountain was the ride of choice.

It had been closed on our last trip so we’d never been on a ‘lapbar’ version. It was brilliant! We loved it, feel less secure that the overhead bar on mission 2 in DLP so it was far more thrilling, we laughed the whole way round and even had a second go.

It was now 11.30pm so we decided now might be a sensible time to leave before the park closed at 12am. On the way out we grabbed a few photos











It was at this point that things went ever so slightly wrong…

Remember we are staying at SARATOGA SPRINGS! Let see now long it takes you veteran dibbers to notice our error (I’m blaming the lateness of the hour rather than blatant stupidity).

We left the park and saw that the queue for the Transportation and Ticketing Centre was huge. Not to worry says I, the resort monorail also stops there and there’s hardly any queue!

Not believing our luck we jumped on and soon arrived at our destination.

Now to find the resort buses….. but all the signs say “buses to car parks” or “Epcot”

Hmmm, puzzled me decided to ask. I found the nearest cast member

Me: “Excuse me, where can we get the bus to Saratoga Springs?”

Cast member: “Ermm, where have you come from?”

Me: “The Magic Kingdom”

Cast Member: “Ok well you can’t get resort buses from here, this is where guests who drive in come to. You’ll need to get the monorail back to a park and get a bus there”

Me: “oh….”

Cast Member: “The buses run until an hour after the park closes so you have 40 minutes if you go now”

Me: “oh….”

I thanked him and then legged it as best we could back to the monorail. I could have kicked myself. Not because we’d done it, easy mistake to make we reasoned, but because we’d on gone and bloomin done it BEFORE on our last trip!

We clearly don’t learn!

We arrived back to MK and then of course the bus area is bloomin obvious isn’t it. I just hadn’t looked to the left when we’d left the park! I’d just seen the huge monorail queue and become preoccupied with how to avoid it, sod whatever resort we ended up at! I don’t think it had helped that we’d arrived on the monorail via the Grand Floridian so hadn’t been to the bus depot yet.

The moral of the story? JUST DON’T DO IT!

We arrived and jumped on the bus waiting. Then we were off. The time was now 12.35.

We were staying in the paddock so we got off at the paddock thinking it wasn’t too far, it was far. It was around this point when Adam decided he NEEDED a cold drink…NOW. It’s worth noting that when we are both extremely tired we are both pretty grotty to be around.

I convinced Adam I’d seen one near the room so up we went in the lift, no drinks machine. It was ALL MY FAULT.

I tried the key on the door, nothing. I tried again, nothing. I tried again with lots of handle pulling and door banging, nothing.

Again ALL MY FAULT.

Completely disregarding the other guests we proceeded to have a ‘heated’ conversation about the fact we couldn’t get in, how the evening ‘excursion’ was ALL MY FAULT and how should Adam indeed eventually get his desparate hand on a drink, where he could shove it.

Although this was the least of our worries, we now had a looooooooooong trek to reception to work out why the key didn’t work, oh well, at least Adam could get his drink now…grrrrrr.

We left and started walking, hang on, we were in the last building, the one nearest the congress park bus stop, I remembered from checking in…

…. except that WASN’T the building we were leaving….

OOPS!

We started walking quickly toward our ACTUAL building, for two reasons really, one because I was anxious to get in the shower and two because we were being tailed by security, I kid you not!

‘security’ sounds worse than it was. In the US security usually means a big burly bloke with guns, but thankfully in Disney it meant an old bloke on a golf cart with a flash light. The real occupants of our fake room must have made a call to sort out the angry English couple trying to get in their room!

We tried our door again, it worked surprisingly. Adam was still moaning about his lack of drink, I think he was hoping we’d have to walk to reception so he could get one, however a cold (ish) glass of water and a steely stare from his charming wife (me obviously) seemed to convince him otherwise. Two showers later and we were ready for bed, at 1.30am. That’s my usual wake up time back home but ho hum here’s to an early morning start :P

NOM OF THE DAY

Not a huge amount to choose from today dispite it being epic in length! The clear winner has to be the Creme Brulee. Creamy, Sugary and just not big enough!



Spends Recap

Breakfast – nothing
Lunch - nothing
Dinner – $46.55 + $5 tip = $61.55

Total for the day = $61.55
Total out of pocket - $5
Total saving – $46.55

[Alyson]

Oh dear, almost busted by security on your first evening, very funny. I think you can put the whole incident down to sleep depravation.

Didn't you fit a great evening in, nothing but admiration for you both

Once again lovely photos

[Guest]

Wow! what a day! You really through your self straight into it!

[Melanie R]

Great start Hannah

Love the traditional first night "heated" conversation - great to know its not just us that has them

[twinkleshmoo]

Oh what shame that you had such a stressful end to a fab day. I take my hat off to you heading to a park as soon as you've arrived - that's impressive.

Looking forward to reading more! x

[Guest]

What a funny end to your evening! Great read, can't wait to read more :d

[mick]

What a long day glad you found the right room in the end

[LaurenYorkshir]

What a brilliant travel day and lovely pictures after all that travelling! I would love to get to mk on arrival day . Glad its not just me and Patrick that are a barrel of laughs when tired , we had a similar situayion on city walk day one ( minus the security )