DAY 2 Monday, July 11
We started out the day with breakfast in the Kona Cafe where I
finally had my Tonga toast!! Great as usual. We headed out to the MK around 10:30 to spend a full day there. Our first stop was Adventureland and the Jungle Cruise which was packed so we otained FPs. My 2 DDs wanted to go on the Alladin ride but it too was very crowded so we decided to go on POC - whoo hoo!! As we left POC, my cousin called on his cell phone. Before we left NJ we knew that he too was going to be in WDW the same time as we were so we planned on meeting on this day. It turned out that he was right around the corner in front of the Jungle Cruise. After talking for a little while, my kids and his DD went on Alladin's Magic Carpets. We had to part company because we had a 1:10 PS for lunch at the Crystal Palace. We were seated around 1:25 where the food was good as usual. We were a little annoyed that it took around one hour after our seating for Pooh and Piglet to come by our table. At this point we were finished with lunch and only had drinks to keep us busy. Our server called over a CM in charge of character coordination and he said that due to the size of the restaurant, it takes about an hour for all of the characters to circulate. With that, Pooh and Piglet appeared to make the rounds in our direction.
After lunch we headed back to the room to organize some of our purchases and for me to take the kids in the pool. Meanwhile, my DW went to a few stores in the Poly to purchase a few items for the surprise buckets we were going to give the kids. She bought them some Mickey ear shovels, Mickey pretzels, and some candy. The sand buckets were then hiding for them under the sink.
We headed back to Fantasyland in the MK after the afternon cool down. Small World was absolutely packed with a line outside and Peter Pan had a 1 hour wait. The skies were threatening with a thunderstorm so we headed to Snow White that displayed a 30 min wait. It turned out to be only 15 minutes. With light rain, we bought some ponchos for the kids and traveled to the Country Bear Jamboree.
The kids were hungry and the rain became heavier so we opted to go back to the Poly, do some penny pressing, and grab a bite at the snack bar, Capt. Cooks. Regarding the Poly, I learned a few new things. For one, all of the stores on the first floor were gone, mostly replaced by one large store called the BouTiki, to which we bought a limited edition pin issued for the grand opening. The store was really divided between some Hawaiian and Lilo/Stitch themed merchandise and more casual wear with golf shirts. The closed stores were taken up by new rest rooms across from Capt. Cooks, and by a closed off area around the bend which I learned would be the new location of Capt. Cooks with an expanded menu. The snack bar is actually going to be closed fairly soon to accomplish the move. I can only hope that they improve the quality of the food on the menu and find a way to speed up the service. I complain about this place all the time because for a deluxe resort, the guests deserve better. My biggest food complaint is that all of their burgers are cooked to well done because they use a tractor feed broiler to cook both burgers and chicken and can't accomodate cooking preferences. Additionally, the grill closes at 11:00 pm, where I always noticed on my drink refill trips, long lines of people buying any old thing that was left over. Maybe the higher-ups in Disney have finally taken the hint.
After the kids were sleeping, I downloaded the digital camera photos taken during the day into the laptop, recharged the camera batteries, and jotted down some notes for the trip report. This was to be a common occurrence each and every night, sometimes getting to bed well after 1 am. On this night it was around 12:30am.