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We were up and actually out the door by 10 a.m. this morning (smile).
We parked at Epcot in the handicapped area in the very first row and
then took the monorail to TTC where we transferred to the resort
monorail, getting off at the Polynesian. And for the very first time
ever, we actually managed to make it down off of the top floor and see
the lobby of the Polynesian. Every other time that we had tried to
see the lobby, we had not be able either because of them working on
the monorail station at the Polynesian or because the elevators were
out of service. The flowers are absolutely gorgeous and it is a beautiful lobby. We
had stopped upstairs at the Kona Café to see if it was possible to get
a Koko Puff to share, but we were too early (see, there are advantages
to being late starters some of the time)(smile). We had talked to a
very nice woman at the TTC who had told us that there was a walking
path between the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian and that all we
had to do was go out the doors past the gift shop and follow the
signs. Which is what we did, although we didn't see very many signs
and I don't think we were supposed to walk right past the maintenance
areas the way we did (smile). It was getting more and more cloudy and just as we reached the grounds
of the Grand Floridian, it started to spit rain. My spouse moved
along quite quickly and we did get into the Grand Floridian just as
the rain started to get serious. It was beautiful with a gorgeous
tree, garlands and gingerbread house. There was a young child dressed
like Alice from Alice in Wonderland who was trying to fit herself onto
the back porch of the gingerbread house with her parent's
encouragement and she did finally manage to sit on the back steps
although she knocked over a chocolate Santa when she sat down. But
the parents got the picture they wanted and I understand now why there
are more and more "fences" around these structures to prevent people
from getting too close (sigh). We rode the elevator up a floor to get on the monorail and enjoyed the
view of the Christmas tree from up above. We then rode to the
Contemporary to finish up our monorail Christmas decorations. The
Contemporary will always have a special place in our hearts. During
our first trip to WDW with the kids back either 1990 or 1991, we had
booked a stay at the Caribbean Beach (which I believe had opened
recently) for four days (through our travel agent) and then for three
days at Cocoa Beach. The hotel at Cocoa Beach was horrible. Filthy,
smelled of natural gas, all kinds of bugs in the room and the
comparison with Caribbean Beach was not kind to this hotel. I started
crying when I saw the room and my spouse went to the phone and called
to see if we could get back into the Caribbean Beach. They didn't
have any room, but the Contemporary did. So we stayed the night at the Cocoa Beach hotel (with the lights on to
keep the bugs on the floor away), spent the day at the beach and then
arrived at the Contemporary lobby all sun and wind burned covered with
salt and sand, looking just awful. And they treated us as if we were
their most favored guests. No one acted like we shouldn't be there
and everyone was so helpful. We had a very nice room on the ground
floor of the garden wing which was wonderful. So, to this day I am
still very fond of the Contemporary Resort (smile), as I have very
nice memories of the resort and the staff. We wandered around and looked in the gift shops. I do wish the
Contemporary had a companion restroom somewhere, as it is the lack of
this that keeps us from spending more time at the resort eating and
shopping. Oh well, we got back on the monorail, switched to the Epcot
line and headed back to Epcot. It had stopped raining by now and the
sun was peeking out of the clouds. On our way into Epcot, my spouse
called WDW dining and got us a 1 p.m. PS at Akershus. We started to slowly move towards the World Showcase and met Randy
again, who was changing the batteries in his pins. We chatted for (too short!) of a time and then Marta (wearing another really, really
cool Tigger shirt) came and we needed to get going so we didn't miss
our PS. Oh, and Randy has a really cool cell phone with mouse ears!
And my spouse was very impressed with his way of attaching his pins.
We aren't big into pins (have purchased a total of three and probably
have another three that we've gotten free at various times) and so my
method of attaching the two I wear are to stop at the jewelry store
and have them give me a locking pin back (smile). But if I had more
pins, I'm sure my spouse would use Randy's system of attaching pins. Anyways, we headed off to Akershus for lunch. I've written previously
about what we thought of the changes from all buffet to a combination
buffet/entrée meal, so I won't repeat myself again (smile). My entrée
was the salmon and my spouse had the mushroom fettucini and the fried
meat with beets, onions and pickles ground up in it. We had two orders
of the Vikings favorites since we wanted more mashed rutabagas and I
made the mistake of asking my spouse to get me ONE piece of lefse. I
ended up with four pieces of lefse plus a couple of other things that
he thought I should want to eat. He explains his inability to ever
just get me one of anything on a buffet as being that it just doesn't
look right to have only one item on a plate! The cream of onion soup
was delicious and hot and we enjoyed the cold portion of the meal as
much as we always do. After leaving Akershus, we stopped at the First Aid Station for a bit
and then decided to go to see HISTA. We enjoyed the new pre-show,
although we do miss hearing "True Colors." After the 3D show, we went
to ride with Figment and it left us smiling. On complete and total
whim (especially since it looked like it was going to rain), my spouse
decided that we should go to the Studios and see if we could make it
there in time to hear Four for a Dollar. Believe it or not, it takes
us exactly 15 minutes from the hill heading down to the International
Gateway to the entrance at the Studios. I guess when he wants to go
in a hurry, we go in a hurry! (smile) We made it there in plenty of time for the show and I only got a
little bit damp. It blew and poured while we were in the theater
listening to Four for a Dollar, but wasn't raining very hard when we
left after the pre-show and did some shopping while waiting for the
next set of Four for a Dollar. By the time we finished at the Studios
it was raining, although not very hard. We headed on back to Epcot to
get the car and by the time we reached the car I was fairly chilled,
even though I had on my poncho. We stopped at the Vistana so that I
could get into dry clothes and were only a few minutes late picking up
Leesa for the Comedy Warehouse. The shows were excellent, and for the very first time we saw an all
female cast in the first show (Krista, Christine, Mary, Joy and Lisa).
We were all in hysterics when Matt and Mary came out in cow with udder
costumes with Rastafarian braids that "milked" themselves during the
porn scene (smile). Dropped Leesa off and were feeling just a bit sad because our trip was
almost over. I wrote up the notes at 1:22 a.m., and knew that we had
already started our last day and that tomorrow we were going to have
to get packed up and do a little bit of shopping that we had planned
to do on the night I got sick from Mission Space. To email, take out the word t-h-i-s from my email address. |
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CBR opened in the latter part of 1989. I stayed there in 1990 and 1991. |
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