[CeltiaCat]

Okay, this one may be a little-bit-late...:whistle: but as there's been some discussion recently about September visits, and the fact that we're both kinda new to this DC community, I thought that it might be appropriate to post our trip report from last year's September Florida Foray....

It's quite long, so I'll post each day as a reply to this thread...hope this is okay! :)

Enjoy,
CeltiaCat

[CeltiaCat]

Cast:

Rona Arkley aka CeltiaCat, 31, main trip reporter; 6th visit to WDW. Previous short trips in Summer 79 (off site), Summer 84 (off site) . Fortnight long trips in July 89 (off site & Polynesian), October 93 (off site) and September 99 (Coronado Springs).

Gareth Burge aka CowboyMickey, 31, husband of Rona; 3rd visit to WDW. Previous trips in October 93 (off site) and September 99 (Coronado Springs), each of two weeks.

Purpose:

To relax. Yes, that’s right, a nice relaxing vacation. Park Commandos may wish to stop reading and back away right now.

Planning:

Warning, this is longish so skip ahead to my next post to get to the actual trip report.

Well, this started in January ‘02 as soon as we got home from our previous vacation. We needed something to look forward to, to cheer us up through the long, dark, wet Scottish winter.

“Where” in general was easily decided, we both felt it was time for a nice trip to see Mickey again. Which resort took a little longer – our initial thoughts were to spend a week at Coronado Springs followed by a week in a Savannah view room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. However, I (chief suitcase packer) simply couldn’t be bothered with having to repack half way through the trip – I do enough of that when we go on busy, active, multi-centre trips – so two full weeks at CS won out. Plus, I do not really like water very much, so my idea of a good swimming pool is a nice, empty one that I can have all to myself. I think the idea of a fun pool for kids to splash in and quiet pools for those of us less confident in the water is a brilliant way to keep everyone happy. Therefore, the lack of quiet pools at the AKL counted against it.

“When” – well, we normally go on vacation over the Christmas & New Year breaks, to get away from the long, dark midwinter we get here in Scotland and to eke out our vacation allowance with the public holidays at that time of year. However, neither of us had any wish to face the WDW holiday season crowds. So, we decided to go in September again - it is generally quiet and allows us to be there for Gareth’s birthday. The main disadvantage is that September is in hurricane season. While hurricanes rarely cause a problem at WDW, during our ’99 trip, Hurricane Floyd managed to shut most of the parks on Gareth’s birthday. In the end, we decided that the chances of another hurricane coming so close were fairly minimal, so the middle two weeks of September it was.

“How” was next – we picked up several British package holiday brochures to browse through. Now, it’s been a long time since we booked a vacation through a standard brochure, and this reminded us why. They were so inflexible and there were all sorts of nonsense conditions attached, depending on the brochure. Some wouldn’t allow you to change hotels, compulsory purchase of the Ultimate Park Hopper was now a common feature when staying at a Disney resort, etc. Even a certain well known travel agent that (used to) pride themselves in “flexible packages” was now enforcing the UPH and refused to unpackage it. We weren’t interested in the UPH as it contains features (such as the water parks and Pleasure Island) we wouldn’t use, so we just wanted basic annual passports which meet our needs better. We also quickly dismissed the idea of charter flights – up front, they seemed cheaper than scheduled flights but the luggage allowance was not enough for us (I am genetically incapable of “travelling light”). Having decide on the dates we wanted to travel, I was just about to go ahead and book the flights and hotel direct when Gareth contacted the same travel agent (North America Travel Services, based in Leeds) that had put together our most recent vacation. They were more than happy to book us exactly what we wanted, without any compulsory ticket purchase. I couldn’t do any better than them on price, so once I had confirmed all the pet sitting arrangements, we booked through them instead.

Much reading of trip reports and menus then followed, as we counted down the months to our trip. Some friends, Emma & Gordon, were taking Gordon’s kids to Orlando in July, so we had someone to share the anticipation of the trip with. Nearer the time, we also booked Tiffany Town Car for the airport transfer, made reservations at Discovery Cove for Gareth’s birthday and booked a single night at the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport for the outward trip.

[CeltiaCat]

This post has the preparation and travelling days, skip ahead to the next post to get to the first full WDW day.

Saturday 7th September

This turned out to be fairly relaxed for a preparation day, as I had panicked about lack of time a few weeks before and had therefore packed the suitcases the previous weekend. Also, my parents (who were bird sitting our budgie and canary, Tasha and Kea) had told me not to worry about packing up the bird supplies or doing any last minute chores in the house, they would deal with all that once we were off to the airport. With only the hand luggage and the overnight things remained to be packed, today’s real challenge was to get the cats to their accommodation. While it is a lovely, cuddly, friendly boarding cattery, the 15-minute car ride there is simply not something the cats enjoy.

The cats sussed that something was up when they weren’t allowed out for morning playtime in the back garden and then my parents, who were helping me get the three of them to the cattery, turned up. Drusilla (the nervous cat) had to be removed from the back of her wardrobe (no, we don’t keep her there, it’s just her favourite hiding place), but apart from that, they were remarkably easy to get into their cat baskets, and no skin/blood was lost this time. Just as well, considering I still have a scar from wrestling Dru into her basket last December. The journey to the cattery was as bad as usual with Willow (our alpha cat) and Dru howling in concern all the way, with Darla (the curiosity cat) curled up very quietly with a very worried expression on her face.

The cattery was very quiet so they were back in the nice corner chalet they’ve had previously, with views of the woods (and birds) on two sides. Willow was straight out of her basket, recognised where she was and started to voice her complaints (we think she’s part something pedigree, we’re not exactly sure what, but something very vocal anyway). Darla had to be tipped out of her basket, which is very unusual for such a curious little cat. She took one look around and headed into Dru’s basket to hide with her sister. They weren’t for leaving it, so I had to leave that basket behind in their chalet for them. Which all left me feeling like the worst cat-slave I mean, cat owner, in the world, even though the logical bit of my brain was pointing out that they were just upset from the car trip. Anyway, all the forms were signed, including a release slip to allow my parents to pick them up at the end of their stay, or earlier, if Dru refused to settle.

With that trauma over, and me still feeling guilty, it was back home to finish packing my hand luggage. Gareth had packed all the cameras, the lap top and all the associated chargers and cables while I had been out cat wrangling so there was really very little left to do.

Mid afternoon, my parents dropped back over to give us a lift up to the airport. My mum stayed behind at the house to get the birds ready for their “vacation” (or so we thought) and my dad drove us the 35 miles or so to the airport. As we had an early flight, we were staying overnight at the Holiday Inn directly opposite the airport terminal. We arrived around 4:30, and were stuck behind a large party of wedding guests who were checking in. Eventually, the queue died down, we got our keys and got settled into our room. Given the early start in front of us the next morning, we didn’t do much that evening – we ordered dinner from room service then had an early night.

Sunday 8th September

The alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning. After a quick cup of tea to help us wake up, we were out of the room just after 10 past 5. Checkout was incredibly slow – the person in front of us had some sort of problem with his bill, and there was only one staff member on duty. Having finally checked out, we crossed the road to the terminal building (passing some of the wedding guests, who were still partying outside the hotel, even though it was cold and raining) and headed for the British Airways desks.

There was no queue at all at the BA check in so we were quickly rid of our baggage and got our boarding passes for both flights. They opened the gate for our flight down to Gatwick fairly quickly, so we headed through security and waited at the gate. The flight was about 25 minutes late in leaving. Breakfast was the usual – a sort of mushroom omelette for the veggie option, and scrambled egg, sausage and watery bacon for Gareth.

Despite our flight leaving late, we were still in Gatwick in plenty of time. Gatwick was the usual wandering about experience. When you are following the flight connections signs, it feels like you are wandering across half the airport, only to end up a few gates away from the one you landed at. There were lots of cheerful WDW posters around the waiting areas.

While waiting for our flight to Orlando to be called, we did some shopping at the duty free shops and picked up some speakers for Gareth’s mini disc player, so we could both listen to the same music in the room, rather than each of us sitting with headphones on.

Our flight was finally called and we were glad to see extra metal detectors had been installed before the gate – a sensible precaution given that some of the restaurants in the waiting lounge use metal cutlery. Overall, this extra check didn’t cause any delay as we were being allowed to board as soon as we reached the gate to speed things up so the flight left on time. For a while during boarding, we thought we might get a spare seat beside us but there were a lot of business travellers and the flight was full.

The most obvious features of the flight are that it was long and cramped. Other relevant points: my veggie meal of a pasta bake was fine but Gareth was distinctly unimpressed by his chicken goujons (think a kid’s meal of chicken strips…). There was a fairly wide selection of films, including Spiderman, Panic Room and About a Boy. There was some very severe turbulence over the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, bad enough that the First Officer came on the radio to explain what was causing it and to assure us that planes ahead of us indicated it calm down in about 15 minutes. On the plus side, a tail wind across the Atlantic helped cut down the flight time by about 20 minutes. As usual, BA did not hand out the immigration and customs landing cards till we were nearly there, so there was the usual rush to fill them out.

Upon landing, we got through immigration quite quickly. We collected our luggage and were happy to see it had all arrived. It was very easy to spot – as well as the usual rainbow coloured luggage straps, the bags had accumulated an impressive set of kitty paw marks while lying in the spare room for the week before we left. We passed through agriculture inspection and then had to hand our luggage back for it to be transported over to the other terminal. Before we could even get to the trams over to the other terminal, there were further security checks and metal detectors. In all, we went through metal detectors 4 times on the journey between Glasgow and Orlando. We eventually made it to the other part of the airport, where Sohail from Tiffany Town Car was waiting. We were reunited with our luggage (again) and waited outside while he went to collect the car. It was very warm – walking out from the air conditioned terminal to the outside world felt like walking into an oven.

The car arrived quite quickly and we were soon on our way. The first topic of conversation was what time we wanted to be picked up for the return trip – given the extent of the security checks to even get out of the airport, we opted for a 2 o’clock pickup for our 5:30 flight. We stopped at a Kash and Karry to get munchies and drinks for the room. We had also been dispatched on a mission to get packet chicken noodle soup for Emma as she had developed quite a fondness for it during her trip earlier in the year. We also picked up some kitty toys as a new toy always helps the cats to forgive us for going away. All in all, our shopping trip came to about $80, significantly cheaper than the same amount would have cost in the UK.

Then we were back in the car and on our way to Coronado Springs. The traffic seemed very light and we were soon pulling into Disney property. The first recognisable landmark that we were close to Coronado Springs was Spaceship Earth. I quickly averted my eyes to avoid The Blots (better known to most as the Swan and Dolphin, but the first thing I exclaimed on seeing them for the first time was “Whoever let them build those blots on the landscape should be sacked!” and they have just been referred to as The Blots ever since). Only a few minutes later, we were pulling into Coronado Springs at last.

We paid Sohail and bid him farewell, as he thought he would be moving back to Atlanta before our return trip. We left our luggage with Bell Services while we went to check in (yes, the two carrier bags of chicken soup caused a bit of amusement).

There was no queue at check in so we were soon being checked in by a cast member who was “earning her ears” and was working under supervision. She was very efficient and we quickly had our room keys. We were delighted to see that we were in the Cabanas again. We had already booked a water view room but had intended faxing the room assignor with our wish-list in the hope of some of at least some of them being met (non-smoking, in a quiet location in the Cabanas, corner view room if possible but our most important wish was that we NOT be able to see The Blots from our room). However, we simply ran out of time as we both had busy weeks at work before leaving.

Bell Services quickly got us to our room and all I can say is that the room assignor must have been telepathic. We were in room 9643, building 9B, which met our requirements exactly, right down to the corner view. To say that we were happy when we walked in and realised this was an understatement. It was also staggering distance from Bus Stop 1, but because it was upper floor and looking out towards the water at the side of the resort rather than the main lagoon, it felt very peaceful.

We quickly changed for the pool (I had packed some swimming stuff in our overnight case so it would be easy to find when we arrived). First we headed to the main pool where there were margaritas waiting with our names on them. Gareth tried the “Red, White and Blue” one while I had a more normal one on the rocks, not being a fan of the slushy style of margarita. Finally sitting by the pool, under the warm Florida sun, drinking margaritas, rainy old Glasgow seemed like years ago, though we had just been there that morning – we were both very aware that we were grinning like idiots. After relaxing at the dig site for a while, we went to the Cabanas quiet pool for some swimming. After spending all day cramped in an economy seat, it felt quite wonderful to get into the calm, cool water. We stayed at the pool till sunset, just relaxing. After changing back at the room, we went to the Pepper Market for some food. Gareth had a plate of nachos and I just got a side order of french fries. We wandered into Panchitos, purchased our first souvenir of the trip (a new T-shirt) then headed back to our room to crash out. It was now about 10pm and we had been up for 22.5 hours (including the 5 hour time difference), so we were quickly asleep.

[CeltiaCat]

Monday 9th September:
Weather: Hot, sunny & dry
Crowds: non-existent

We were awake about 6ish and had a slow morning, just unpacking all the stuff and trying to arrange it so the room remained half tidy. As I did this, I realised that I had succeeded in packing Gareth’s birthday cards from everyone else, but had managed to leave his card from me & all the pets at home. Doh!!!! Breakfast was coffee and cookies (as it would be most mornings) while we unpacked.

About 9:30, we decided to head out to Epcot and wandered out to the bus stop. Upon arriving at Epcot, there were no queues so we were able to walk straight up to a ticket booth. I noticed that the annual passports were not listed in the list of available tickets – I’m sure they were in ’99, but buying them was quick and easy. We were soon through security and through the park gates.

Now, I had forgotten all about the “tombstones” (i.e., the Leave a Legacy stones). Yet again, I was struck by how they look like some sort of sombre memorial to the victims of a mass disaster. Given the number of blank stones, I guess a lot of other people must think so too.

Gareth stopped to take some photos of Spaceship Earth while I found somewhere to sit down and wait for him. This would be fairly typical behaviour for the whole trip – Gareth photographing something while I sat around people watching. We then went for a snack at the Fountain View bakery – Gareth had a bagel & cream cheese and apple juice and just orange juice for me. Disney’s hopeful sparrows were in attendance throughout, both inside & outside the café.

After that, we headed for Test Track. The fast pass and single rider lines were closed because there was so little of a queue the standby line was just a walk on even though it claimed to be a 15 minute wait.

After Test Track, Gareth drooled over some of the big American 4 x 4’s and we tried not to get depressed about how little they cost compared to UK prices. Then we headed out to World Showcase, past the disused Odyssey restaurant – it has been closed for years now, it is long past time they did something permanent with this area. We noticed that the flamingos were no longer there as we passed into World Showcase. Looking round the lagoon, we could see that there appeared to be rehab work going on in Norway, Italy and Canada.

Our first stop was Mexico – the art exhibit at the front of the pavilions was of wood carvings from Oaxaca. The pavilion was extremely quiet. Compared to ’99, it seemed that one of the pavilion shops (Artisans de Mexico???) was now closed though some of the merchandise seemed to be available at one of the “market stalls”. There was no queue at all for the River of Time so we went on it – it was running with many of the boats empty. The posted menu for the San Angel Inn was very vegetarian unfriendly but we enquired and it turned out that they do still have a separate vegetarian menu, it is just a lot smaller than it used to be. There are now just two choices, a main course salad or a combination plate of bean & vegetable enchiladas. However, that was fine by me anyway so we made a priority seating for 1 o’clock then wandered out to walk further round World Showcase. We only spent a little time in Norway as the Maelstrom was closed, and the shop is not too appealing – woollen sweaters are just not the sort of thing I think about buying when it is 90 and humid.

While we were walking past China, an child acrobat troupe were just starting a performance so we stopped to watch them. Gareth went off to the side to answer a call from his mother while we were watching – it turns out that Glasgow has had two inches of rain over the past 2 days.

We then went on towards Germany. We were struck by how exceptionally light the crowds were – it was almost our very own theme park. As we approached Germany, Snow White and Dopey appeared so we were the first to have our pictures taken with them. We browsed through the shops then headed back towards Mexico for our PS. As we passed back through Germany, Snow White was still outside but Dopey had been sent back to work in the mines….

We were back in Mexico in plenty of time for our PS, but we could easily have got a table as a walk up – it was still very quiet. I had the vegetarian combination platter and Gareth had the chilies en nogado, (poblano chillies stuffed with pork and dried fruit in a walnut cream sauce. It certainly got rave reviews from him, including the highest possible praise for the sauce – it was almost as good as a cheese sauce.) The San Angel margaritas were excellent so we had seconds, intending to leave the parks early afternoon for some rest/pool time anyway.

After lunch, we browsed through the stalls again and noted a couple of items to potentially purchase. We then headed towards the American Adventure in time to see the Voices of Liberty. The first thing we noticed on entering the pavilion was the World Trade Centre flag. The VoL were excellent and they ended with the National Anthem for which even some of the wheelchair bound guests struggled to their feet for – a sharp contrast to the apathy that greets the British National Dirge. They came round to speak to the crowd afterwards – we were asked which was our favourite Disney character – I was apparently the first person all year to answer Thumper, which would explain the appalling lack of Thumper merchandise. It took Gareth a while to decide – it used to be Goofy, then it was Scar, and now he wasn’t sure.

After the American Adventure, we did some T-shirt/present shopping in the pavilion shop and decided just to carry the stuff with us as we were going straight back to hotel. Except that Epcot kept stopping us. A brief cool-down stop in France for ice cream and a soda turned into a long stop as a performance of “Cyranose de Bergerac” started up nearby. After that, we set off again, determined to get to the pool. But as we were passing Canada, Off Kilter were starting a performance. I had read so many rave reviews of them, that we just had to stop. Gareth was so impressed that a further stop was then required at the Canadian gift stand to purchase their CDs. But after that, we headed out through the rose walkway (the roses didn’t look too happy about the heat) and made it to the bus stop without further distraction. By this time, we were going against the crowd as other parks were closing and people heading into Epcot instead. So much for leaving early afternoon – it was almost 6 o’ clock. After getting back to the resort, we then headed to the pool which was reasonably quiet. We enjoyed some quiet swimming then headed back to the room at sunset. However, after such a large lunch, neither of us was hungry enough to justify going out for anything eat, so we just had some munchies in the room and generally vegged out. Our long day before was catching up with us, so we had an early night.

[CeltiaCat]

Tuesday 10th September

Weather: Hot, sunny & dry
Crowds: non-existent

We headed out to the Magic Kingdom just after 9. Main Street was quite quiet and we headed out through Liberty Square. Although it was early, it was already so hot that getting soaked on Splash Mountain already seemed like a good idea, even to me, and I’m not that fond of water. Splash Mountain was a walk on, as was Big Thunder Mountain which we did next. The loaders here were too busy chatting to do their jobs and there was a brief delay as 3 girls who had squeezed onto one bench had to get out and go into a different car.

We then stopped at the base of Splash Mountain to look at the soaked people and the herons and egret that were taking advantage of the landscaping, briefly chatting with a new Disney security guard. We then went in search of some orange juice, but precious little was open in this part of the park at this time. We were about to go on Pirates of the Caribbean when it closed with “technical difficulties” so we did a bit of shopping instead. The Sunshine Tree Terrace was now open, so the good intentions of getting some orange juice turned into Citrus Swirls instead. By that time, PoC had reopened, so we went on that. We then did some more shopping in Frontierland and I was sorely tempted by a green, polar fleece, Wilderness Lodge blanket, which would be just perfect to put on the kitties’ bean bag in our living room. However, Gareth pointed out I was guilt-shopping as I was still feeling bad about “abandoning” them, so I put it back down.

It was nearing 12 and a show was about to start at the Diamond Horseshoe review, so we went there for lunch. Very good show: the compere himself, a cowboy singer (who was great with his ‘posse’ of kids, and a magician- and of course Jingles on the piano). After lunch, we bought wedding ears for some friends who were getting married in October and had them shipped back to our room. The cast member had to be talked through the process by us as he’d never done a resort ship before. We caught the 1 o’clock show at the Hall of Presidents, and bought quite a bit of Stars and Stripes merchandise in the shop there. We then decided to head back out of the park to go to the pool as it was very hot. As we passed the castle, we caught the end of the Cinderella show. Before leaving the park, we did some more shopping on Main St. We didn’t manage to find any Thumper T-shirts for me but did find a Mickey BBQ set for Gareth.

We headed out of the park and back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours at the Cabana’s quiet pool before getting changed for dinner. We decided on the Kona Café at the Polynesian, so we caught the bus to Epcot then took the monorail to the TTC and walked to the Great Ceremonial House from there, enjoying the lovely gardens. Dinner was excellent. We started with margaritas while we decided. I had the salad followed by the vegetarian spring rolls & Gareth had the Pot Stickers followed by the grouper, and then followed by the remains of my dinner (this would be fairly typical throughout our trip). For dessert, I had the banana crème brulee and Gareth had the white chocolate cheesecake and coffee.

We took the bus to Downtown Disney. All 3 of the monorail resorts seemed to share just one bus, and the bus was almost full already. Unfortunately, a large number of them appeared to be convention attendees who had been enjoying their expense accounts and had reached that stage of drunkenness where you think that everything you have to say is terribly funny, witty and simply MUST be shared with everyone in the vicinity, no matter how inappropriate. Several of the ladies had also decided to marinate in perfume, which wouldn’t have been so bad if it was a pleasant smell but it made me think about my cats’ litter trays ….Well, their behaviour wasn’t really a problem for us, but there were some sleepy children on the bus who appeared to have been woken up by the racket – their parents were not looking too pleased, especially as the tone of conversation was not entirely appropriate for such young ears. We got to DD and didn’t have to wait too long for a bus back to the hotel. Despite staying at a convention resort ourselves, this bus trip was the only slightly negative experience we had with conventioneers.

Upon getting back to the hotel, we got margaritas to go at Franciscos. As the weather was now somewhat fresher, we sat on one of the hammocks by the water to drink them before heading back to our room for the night.

[CeltiaCat]

Wednesday 11th September

Weather: Hot, grey skies, showers in evening
Crowds: non-existent

We were awoken early by what sounded like a herd of stampeding elephants outside the room, but was probably just some children from a nearby room running up and down the corridor.

We left our room just after 9 and took the bus to Epcot. At least, that’s what it said on the bus. Much to everyone’s surprise, including the driver’s, we ended up at MGM, as the driver had been so busy reflecting on the commemoration of the September 11th attacks that we ended up in the wrong parking lot. He quickly realised his mistake and drove to Epcot instead. The bag checks were notably more thorough than on previous days. As we entered the park, Disney survey people were looking for foreign guests with access to the internet to take part in a survey once they got home so we gave our email address.

Spaceship Earth was a walk on so we did that first. After that, some light rain had started so we wandered round Mouse Gear (still no Thumper T-shirts), where I got some US Flag Mickey Mouse socks, then into the Art of Disney. Gareth got upset at the stupid UK import laws which mean that Disney no longer ships advance-purchase DVDs to the UK anymore, as the import laws are just too complex and prohibitive. A cast member in the store recognised our West of Scotland accents as she had worked in Glasgow and still had friends living in my original home town of Paisley. We wandered into Ice Station Cool and tried the various drinks, including the notorious Beverly from Italy. Fizzy cough syrup is the best I could describe it as.

World Showcase was now opened so we wandered round the shops in Canada and I got a pewter cat ornament as a present for my mother. Gareth found some jalapeno flavoured potato chips – jalapeno is not really a flavour I associate with Canada. It was getting near noon, when a minute’s silence would be observed. We felt the USA pavillion seemed the most appropriate place to be so we headed there. Many people seemed to have thought the same thing, including some Disney “suits”. Quite a few TV crews there as well. About 5 minutes before midday, some members of the Fife & Drums corps marched out carrying the flag. The President’s address was played round the park, followed by a brief silence, interrupted only by some children who were too young to understand what was going on. The Fife & Drum corps ended the silence, then marched back into the pavilion with the flag. Everyone slowly dispersed back around the park.

After that, we went for lunch at the Tangierine café in Morroco. They were having some problems with their till – it was not swiping cards properly which was causing significant delays. We paid cash to speed things up. I had the vegetarian platter (cous cous, tabbouleh, olives, lentil salad, houmous and bread) and a glass of red wine and Gareth had the chicken shawarma sandwich, french fries and a Bud. My lunch was nice, but Gareth wasn’t too impressed with his. After lunch, we wandered round the Morrocan pavilion for a while. We then headed over to France and looked around. Impressions de France was closed for renovations, as was one of the shops. Belle was walking around the pavilion, greeting children. We then headed on to the UK pavilion and wandered around the gardens there and looked at the butterfly hatchery, but none of the cocoons showed signs of opening any time soon. Tigger, Eyore, Piglet & Mary Poppins were in the (very quiet) pavilion.

It was extremely hot, so we headed for the air conditioning of “O Canada”. Following that, we headed for the further air conditioning of Ellen’s Energy adventure. We had a look at the still-being-built Mission Space attraction, but there wasn’t much to see. After this we went to Innovations East and had a wander round, but couldn’t find any further info on the Mission Space attraction. Passed the Astronaut entrance exam with 100% flying colours (of course!). It was now mid-afternoon and time for a break from the parks. It was still grey and showery so not ideal swimming weather.

Instead, we decided to go look at the Animal Kingdom lodge. We had a bus to ourselves on the way over. Walking up from the bus stop to the main entrance, I was surprised to see what appeared to be a Days Inn sign/billboard very visible through the trees – I had no idea that we were that close to a “non-property” area or road. I’m still not sure exactly what it was, but I thought it spoiled the magic of approaching an African lodge a little bit – some taller screen trees would hide it though, so perhaps in a few years it will be hidden. The lobby of the lodge was very impressive. At this time of day, there were very few animals on the savannah – a few birds, some gazelles and a couple of giraffes in the distance. Looking around, it became very obvious that not all savannah view rooms are created equal – some of them seemed to have views of vaguely disguised equipment areas with rather beat up landscaping rather than the full savannah – I’d have been very disappointed to pay for a savannah view room and end up with a view of what seemed to be a very large air conditioning unit as well. The rooms at the ends of the trails must have beautiful views though.

We had drinks at the pool bar to cool down and watched a bunch of lifeguards training. We then checked out the menus at Boma & Jiko then headed back to the bus stop. All in all, I thought this was a very beautiful resort, but it still doesn’t replace the Wilderness Lodge nor the Polynesian as my favourite Deluxe resorts. As Gareth rightly pointed out though, I have no emotional links to Africa, whereas Yosemite National Park, Hawaii and the Polynesian itself all have happy memories for me. So, I’m biased to start off with.

An Animal Kingdom bus was waiting and again we were the only passengers, and chatted to the driver for the journey. When it dropped us off, a Coronado Springs bus pulled in straight behind it, so we were quickly back in our room. The message waiting indicated that our packages from yesterday had arrived at Panchitos. Gareth went to get them – unsurprisingly, the wedding ears hadn’t made it yet (they would arrive the next day).

We decided to go to Le Cellier for dinner. By the time we got to Epcot, it was quite wet so the ponchos were put on. Even so, we were fairly damp by the time we got to Canada. The wait was said to be 20 – 25 mins, but was only about 10. Gareth had the cheddar cheese soup followed by the salmon and I had the field greens followed by the sweet potato ravioli, with a bottle of Ravenswood zinfandel to accompany our meal. There was a long wait between starters and entrees, but we weren’t in a rush, so it was no big deal. Gareth’s side order was wrong so there was a wait for that to get fixed. At the next table to us, we became aware of some diners with a whole bunch of “to do” lists and checklists, ticking off what they had seen that day. We suspected they might be first-timers. When we left, the weather was dry and much fresher, so we decided to wait for Illuminations after all. We got what we thought was a prime spot exactly opposite the American pavilion, and it probably would have been if the wind wasn’t blowing towards us so we got covered in a significant amount of ash from the fireworks. After Illuminations, we got talking to a couple of off-duty cast members who were standing near us, Jen & James from Rockin Roller coaster. We all eventually realised that the park was emptying around us, so decided we had better leave. We were back at the room for just after 10, and fell asleep very quickly.

[CeltiaCat]

Thursday 12th September

Weather: Warm, grey skies, heavy rain in evening
Crowds: light, mostly British

Today we had a long lie and just caught up with the diary in the room. The forecast was for rain, so our plans were for going to downtown Disney & the cinema, but when we left, the weather was pleasant – warm and not too muggy – so we decided to go to MGM. I had problems with my annual pass, as the biometric scanner was “wobbling” for lack of a better description – the old way of doing APs might have taken longer to issue, but was a lot better in use than these silly finger scans.

We headed down Sunset Boulevard and went on Tower of Terror, which was a walk on. I’m sure there’s a nice view from the top – I don’t know as I’ve never managed to have my eyes opened long enough. In the picture we had from the last time, it didn’t look like I was having a good time and this trip confirmed that I wasn’t.

Gareth then went on Rockin Roller coaster, again a walk-on. It was now about 11:30 so we went for an early lunch at the Sunset Ranch market area. G had chicken strips & fries and I had a veggie burger and fries. After lunch, we wandered through the shops (still no Thumper T-shirts) then headed for the Great Movie Ride. Alice, Mulan, Hercules and the evil Queen from Snow White were out – Gareth was very unimpressed by some British guy who went up to Mulan and, in front of a bunch of young children, asked <read with bad Dick Van Dyke cockney accent> “Ooo you sposed to be then???” Sposed??? Sposed?????? Pu-lease. Just because he didn’t know who Mulan was, was there really a need to suggest in front of a group of kids that she might not be the real one????

I dragged Gareth away, and we headed for the Great Movie Ride, which was also a walk on. After that, we went to Sounds Dangerous – not as good as what it could have been, but useful for a break from the heat. We wandered round the Muppet/Star Tours area of the park and went into some of the shops, but it was getting hotter, muggier and brief lines were starting to appear (not to mention that there seemed to be very high numbers of our fellow Brits around today. Unfortunately, it was predominately the very small percentage of our fellow countrypersons whose speciality seems to be embarrasing our nation in front of the rest of the world through their ignorant behaviour), so we headed back to Coronado Springs for a couple of hours swimming. A brief rain shower ended that, so we got ready to go to Downtown Disney for dinner followed by Signs at the cinema. As we got to DD, the heavens completely opened. We took shelter in the World of Disney and searched for a Thumper T-shirt. No luck. We asked a cast member who confirmed that the range of characters on T-shirts was pretty much limited to the same characters over & over (mostly Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Grumpy and the Pooh lot).

The rain wasn’t getting any better so we got the umbrella out and made a run for the House of Blues. Gareth had the corn chowder followed by the Elwood chicken burger; I had the spinach & artichoke dip followed by the goats cheese, pepper and olive pizza. Both of these were on the starters menu but were huge – one would have been enough. The service had the opposite fault from the previous evening, with the entrees arriving before the starters were finished.

After dinner, we abandoned the idea of the cinema as I was still soaked from the rain. DD was also getting extremely busy so we headed back to the hotel and an early night.

[CeltiaCat]

Friday 13th September

Weather: Hot, variable skies, scattered showers in evening
Crowds: non-existent

We woke up to the news that FL police had stopped 2 cars on I-75 (about 200 miles south of here) and sniffer dogs have confirmed that explosives are or were on board. The cars ran a tollbooth, and the car owners had been overheard talking about an attack to take place today – Gareth watched TV for a while but there was no further news really (and it would all turn out to be a false alarm anyway) so we fairly quickly headed out to the Animal Kingdom and walked straight onto the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride. We noted that the ‘spiel’ hasn’t changed since the last visit. The animals seem quite sleepy in this hot weather.

After the safari we wandered through the Pangani Forest Trail, interesting as ever – again the animals seemed to be quite docile in the heat. The meerkats in particular were doing very good impressions of our cat Drusilla, just lying full stretched on their backs in the blazing sun – I guess they like the idea of having no predators to worry about.

We then wandered through some shops, picked us some T-shirts and some packaway shorts. We stopped off in Pizzafari for lunch, where Gareth had the mesquite chicken salad and a Safari lager. I had a cheese pizza and a coke.

At this point Gareth noted that the battery in the digital still camera was reading as dead and this was the only day he had managed to forget to bring a spare one. We decided to head back to the hotel for a break and to pick up a spare battery. The chance to cool down was appreciated as the Animal Kingdom is still very hot, although there appears to be more shade this time, with 3 more years worth of bush and tree growth to help provide shade.

After this brief stop, we headed back out to the Animal Kingdom, and did the “It’s Tough To Be A Bug” show – still scary if you don’t like bugs – this was another walk-in show. After that we crossed from Discovery Island into Asia, and noted a girl who had fallen and cut her shoulder badly, most likely on one of the metal ‘taxis’ that are a part of the theming on the bridge. There was a lot of blood on the ground, but Cast Members were looking after her and directing the crowds accordingly.

We walked along the Maharaja jungle trek – the animals appeared less sleepy, and the tigers were getting agitated as it was obviously approaching feeding time – the looked like our cats when we go to the cat food cupboard.

As we were still hot and sweaty from our various treks, we went on the Kali Rapids rafting ride (walk-on) and got completely drenched. Yes, I don’t like water, but it was so hot that even I enjoyed the chance to cool off. As the park was now approaching closing, and the Jammin’ Jungle Parade was now in full swing, the CMs at the ride were letting us stay on – in all we lasted 4 rounds, by the end of which we were soaked and ended up buying a new towel at the exit to the ride (Disney doesn’t miss a trick when it comes to the placement of appropriate shops!). As we were making our way out of the park, CMs were actually encouraging and ‘touting’ to get people on the rides, it was so quiet.

Today, we noticed quite a few people in ‘inappropriate’ clothing – jeans, sweaters, etc, including one English chap in a full shirt, tie and suit. I don’t know how they lasted in the heat.

Once we’d showered and changed back in the hotel, we headed off to Downtown Disney and waited for half an hour for an outside table at Wolfgang Pucks, and were finally seated near a very noisy corporate table obviously drinking their way through an expense account and generally having a great time. But unlike the convention crowd from earlier in the week, they all seemed to remember they were in a public place, and their behaviour and conversation stayed within the bounds of good taste. Gareth had the bruschetta followed by the seared tuna, then banana split. I had a veggie pasta dish, followed by a trio of crème brulées.

We took bus back to Coronado Springs from the shopping area and were soon asleep.

[CeltiaCat]

Saturday, 14th September

Weather: Hot, blue skies, thunder in late afternoon, showers in evening
Crowds: non-existent during day; busy in evening

We started off in MGM this morning, with our first visit being to the animation tour. They were heavily pushing Treasure Planet and there appeared to be some work going on for “Bears”. Gareth noticed a cell in production of a truck stuck in mud/water…interesting to see if it appears in a future film.

We then spent some time in the Animation Gallery where I continued to sigh over several Bambi items. My favourite was still “Deer to my Heart”, a scene of Bambi and his mother in the thicket. However, I recalled from my ’99 trip that Disney’s quote to ship this to Scotland was quite prohibitive. I enquired again, and it still was. This was very frustrating, as over the years we have sent quite a few things back to Scotland from the Warner Brothers galleries at very reasonable shipping costs, including sending one quite heavy item all the way home from Hawaii. Anyway, it was far too large to pack in our luggage, so we settled for getting some much smaller items as gifts. As I’d cleverly left Gareth’s birthday card at home, I picked up a postcard of Tinkerbell pouting instead. The expression on Tink’s face was exactly the one Willow wears when she doesn’t get her own way.

We then went to the One Man’s Dream exhibit and film, which was very enjoyable. It was now lunchtime so we headed to Mama Melrose’s. Gareth had cheese baked in a tomato sauce followed by a spicy Italian sausage pasta, I had the tomato & mozzarella salad followed by the eggplant parmesan.

After lunch, we did the Backlot tour which was now designed around the movie Pearl Harbour – the whole thing now appears to be sponsored by Michael Bay Productions. Again, it was now very hot so we headed back to Coronado Springs for some pool time, though this was cut short when a huge thundercloud came in, finally bringing heavy rain.

In the evening, we headed out to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks. As they were only running on Saturdays, it was very busy and there was a short queue to get in. We had a quick meal at the Columbia Harbour House (fish strips for Gareth, vegetarian chilli for me). After dinner, we went for a walk through Fantasyland then out into TomorrowLand. Our original plan was to find an area near the old Swan Boat docks to watch the fireworks. However, we were all shooed away from here as Disney were roping the area off for what appeared to be an engagement package.

We found a spot further over towards Main Street and caught the end of the parade. There were some very over tired children around whose parents kept asking if they wanted to go home. They nearly made it, but they gave out about 15 minutes before the fireworks started and asked to go home. There were also some very annoying adults around, who kept clambering over or under the ropes to get to the engagement area, on the pretence that they thought the ropes indicated a designated smoking area. I think the Cast Members were getting a bit fed up of continually sending them back.

Anyway, the fireworks were pretty though Tinkerbell didn’t seem to fly tonight. Afterwards, we waited till the crowds died down then headed to the bus stop. There were huge queues almost everywhere but the Coronado Springs stop. We were straight onto a bus and back at the resort quickly.

[CeltiaCat]

Sunday, 15th September

Weather: Hot, blue skies, clouding over in evening
Crowds: n/a

This was a non-Disney day but I’ve included a description anyway for the benefit on anyone thinking about a trip to Discovery Cove. Those wanting to get back to the WDW commentary, skip ahead to my next post.

Today was Gareth’s birthday so we had booked the Dolpin Swim Experience package at Discovery Cove. Now, while I like dolphins, I did have two slight reservations about this park:

1) I was feeling somewhat guilty about the fairness of keeping dolphins in captivity and “forcing” them to swim with humans. Before going, we watched our friends’ video of their trip. From this, it did look like the dolphins were doing what they felt like rather than being forced, so that was some reassurance.

2) It’s a water park and I just don’t like water that much. Therefore, I expected to spend a lot of time just sitting on the beach so I took a book.

We got a taxi there which cost just over $20 and arrived shortly after 9. The roads were very quiet on the way over.

There was high security evident at check in. While we waited in the check in queue, staff were out with various cute critters to keep people amused as they waited to get in. However, my patience was being sorely tried by family behind us. There was a spoiled brat of a teenager (another fellow Brit, I regret to say) who kept whining and moaning and questioning why she had to queue, surely they must be standing in the “wrong” queue since they had booked (hmm, just like everyone else given that it’s a reservations only park…) Now, I can show a bit of tolerance for anyone whose temper frays after a long day in the heat – I’m FAR from being sweetness and light myself after a long, hot, tiring day, but it was barely past 9, still a pleasant temperature, the queue was being well managed but she was already in full brat mode. I think her parents had already tuned her whining out completely as they were just muttering the occasional yes or no back at her, rather than answering her properly. She was so convinced that she was somehow entitled to strut right to the front of the queue and her parents weren’t doing anything to correct this impression. I just got so fed up that I turned round and strung together some polite words to explain to her what the queue was for. At least she shut up once her questions had been answered.

The queue actually moved very quickly and we were very impressed by how slick and efficient the check in process was. Within a few minutes, our photos had been taken and were printed on sturdy plastic passes that would serve as charge cards for the day. Far sturdier than our Annual Passes which are made of flimsy cardboard and were already dog-eared after getting drenched on Kali River Rapids. Disney could learn a lot from this system. British visitors beware – photo ids are required to check in, not something typically needed in the UK. Gareth had not brought any, but my photo driving license was enough for both of us.

We were grouped into small groups for our orientation of the park. We were most surprised to hear Ayrshire accents right behind us as we waited – standing there was a couple from one of the villages just a 5 minute drive from our home in Ayr. And the lady even worked in a hotel that’s just two minutes from our house. It truly is a small world, but what makes it all even stranger is that we keep having these kind of experiences on vacation.

Anyway, our “free” photos were taken, we picked up our bags of gear and we were given our orientation of the park and told where to go to get changed and pick up our life vests. Naturally, we all promptly got lost on our way to the changing rooms. We eventually found our way to the right place then headed to the beach to “bag” loungers with some shade – Gordon and Emma had visited in July and warned us about the overall lack of shade. I tied my sarong to my chair to make it easy to find among the sea of identical ones, then we settled down with drinks and nachos and waited for our dolphin “experience” time.

It ticked around and we headed over to our cabana for the 15 minute briefing. Before being allowed into the water, they checked we had only the allowable jewellery (I left my jewellery in the hotel safe today – although wedding rings are allowed, I didn’t want to risk mine in a deep lagoon of water).

We were in a group with a family with two girls, about 8 or 10, and a brother and sister of similar age who were doing the swim on their own. These kids were the complete opposite of little Miss Whiney back in the queue and were just bubbling over with enthusiasm. There were two trainers – one out in the deep water and one in the shallow and our dolphin, Dixie, alternated between the two areas, or sometimes swam away to do her own thing for a while. Each group got time out in the deep water while the trainer in the shallow water described the next “behaviour” (some of which were uncomfortably like tricks) to the rest of the group. Overall, though, the dolphins did seem to be doing what they felt like – sometimes they would occasionally swim off to socialise with the other dolphins and everyone just had to wait for them to finish up with their dolphin chit chat. The trainers would try to attract their attention, but in the end, they came back when they felt like it, which was fine by me.

Out in the deep water, the behaviours and the interaction seemed much more natural than the shallow water ones, not really surprising, I guess. While I was there in the deep water, it felt like I was on the dolphin’s turf now and was there to amuse her, rather than the more show-like behaviours in the shallow water. Although I’m not a strong swimmer, the deep water wasn’t a problem – in fact, my biggest problem was staying under the water – with the flotation vest on, I kept floating out of the water.

I asked how old Dixie was and was impressed to learn she was in her late 20s. I figured she must have been one of the first to be born in captivity over in the original Sea World park since the Orlando one didn’t open to the mid 70s. The father of the two little girls in our group must have been thinking along the same lines because he asked where she came from. The standard response to this question is “Just over the road in Sea World Orlando!!!!!”. He then pressed the issue given her age and Dixie miraculously lost over a decade in age as the second trainer suddenly insisted she was only 17! I’d like to know her secret…. All in all, I found this a bit silly – why not just admit that all those years ago, the original dolphins obviously came from the wild somehow. This whole “spin” did make me feel a bit cynical.

Very quickly, the dolphin “experience” was over. Now, the slick marketing really kicked in. Immediately, we were taken to see the photos and the packages (varying in both price and level of tackiness) were described to us – we opted for a video (we chose to keep it in NTSC format rather than have it converted to PAL, as our VCR can play NTSC anyway and we thought the quality would deteriorate in the conversion) and a CD of photos, which we picked using their display screen. All in all, it was very slick marketing and a good use of technology, which we are fairly immune to, but beware if travelling with kids – those around us seemed to want everything, from photos to snow globes.

After choosing our photos, we headed back to the beach area briefly to reapply some sun screen. While doing this, I noticed that the dolphins had a lot of free time during the day – there were three different lagoon areas and only one seemed to be in use at any one time. They also seemed to have a lot of space, compared to the dolphin pools I remembered from Sea World.

We then headed to the Lazy River area of the park, which is the non-fish area (nothing will persuade me to get in the water with fish) that I thought I’d be able to swim in. WRONG! The theming of the river is very well done and it is a rough, jagged but as such, it is intended for snorkelling, not swimming. You have to be able to put your face in the water and look where you’re going, which isn’t going to be something I’ll be doing any time this century. After several nasty bumps and scrapes, I had to get out of the water to check I wasn’t bleeding. After that, I gave up and went back to sit on the beach, to read my book and watch the “off duty” dolphins frolicking out in the lagoon, which was a very pleasant sight.

After a while, Gareth came back to collect our water proof camera then headed away to swim in the fish pool. When he came back, he was starting to do his “Lobster Man” impression. Even though he had been reapplying the dolphin-friendly sunscreen, it wasn’t durable enough for the length of time he was spending in the water.

We went for our “gourmet” lunch (their description, not mine) – well, it was fine for a quick lunch but nothing exciting. It was definitely more cafeteria than California Grill. There were several veggie selections and I had the veggie pasta dish. The veggies in this were definitely frozen rather than fresh. Gareth had a passable chicken stir fry.

After lunch, we went for a walk around the aviaries. These were very beautiful but could do with more seating – I’ve always found that you will see a LOT more birds if you sit quietly and watch than you will while ambling along. It was very hot and none of the Reeves Muntjacks (miniature Asian deer) seemed to be around. While I was just standing waiting for Gareth to take some photos, I got the distinct feeling of being watched – I became aware that I was standing beside a small gap in the bushes and on closer inspection, it was actually an entrance to a fairly well concealed shady area where the deer could rest away from people and out of the sun – one of them was in there, just staring out at me. If you were just walking past, you wouldn’t notice the entrance. I quietly pointed her out to Gareth, then we left her to rest peacefully in the shade.

After the aviary, we headed back to the beach. However, the sun was now very high in the sky and there was precious little shade – the umbrellas were covering only a very small area of the loungers now and the white sand was reflecting the sun. Even with more sunscreen, I felt like I was burning to a crisp, and headed back to the shade of the restrooms to cool down, then went to get changed. LobsterMan, I mean Gareth, gave up not long afterwards too, as were many other people. This park does have shady areas and it has plenty of cool areas. What it lacks is places that are both shady and cool. The restrooms are one of the few places to meet both criteria, but you don’t spend that sort of money to sit in the restroom all afternoon.

We went to pick up our video and pictures – the staff were very careful to check that you had the correct items. Again, we were very impressed by the slickness of the operation, it was all very smart and efficient.

We then headed to the front desk to call a cab. While we were waiting, we were surveyed as to what we thought. Overall, our feedback was that it was a lovely park, well run, and that we probably would be back, but not until there is more shade. Until then, I feel it is a half-day park for those of us who burn easily. Listening to other guests who were being surveyed, the lack of shade did seem to be the biggest criticism. However, it has to be kept in mind that Discovery Cove is a fairly new park. My first visits to Epcot, MGM and the Animal Kingdom where all within a few years of them opening, and I thought they were lacking in outdoor shade initially too.

Other impressions: we were impressed by Discovery Cove’s ticketing system and thought it really showed up Disney’s annual passport system. If you have impressionable youngsters or are easily swayed by slick marketing, you could find yourself spending a fortune on merchandising here, so keep that in mind if you are planning a trip. The animals seemed very well treated, their environments looked pleasant and the dolphins could have swum away from us at any point if they were unhappy, there was certainly no “forcing” going on. All in all, I did enjoy this park even though I don’t like water. Gareth, who does like water, also really enjoyed the swimming with rays and snorkelling among the fish. We both had a good time.

Our taxi arrived quickly and we were soon back at Coronado Springs. It was still very hot so we headed to the Cabana’s pool for a very long swim to cool down. Today, we really noticed and appreciated the pleasant, shady areas available here.

We hadn’t made any dinner plans as we were unsure what the food would be like at Discovery Cove. However, a proper meal was definitely what we were both looking for and we decided to head back to our old favourite, the Kona Café. We took the bus to Epcot then the monorail to the TTC. It was delayed about 10 minutes by traffic problems.

When we got to the Polynesian, we were quickly seated and had the same waitress as our earlier trip. She made quite a few comments about Gareth’s significant sunburn. Gareth had the wings followed by the mahi mahi and I had the Kona salad and the cheese ravioli. We had a nice bottle of Berringer to accompany it.

Afterwards, we headed back to Coronado Springs via Downtown Disney. Our driver on the way to DD was definitely English born and seemed to have the entire Disney transportation system memorised – he spent most of the drive giving out directions to a large group on board who all wanted to do different things that evening. When we got to DD, there was a CS bus waiting, so we were soon back at our room.

[CeltiaCat]

Monday, 16th September

Weather: Hot, blue skies, huge thunderstorm in evening
Crowds: non-existent

We had a long lie this morning. When we finally got up, we decided to head to Epcot. All the way over, we were listening to the bus driver tell a family at the front of the bus how much better Islands of Adventure is than the Disney parks. Hmmmm. Does Disney know their employees are doing this?

Anyway, we got to Epcot and headed over to the Land. First we watched the “Circle of Life” film. During this, I became aware of someone talking to his son throughout this, telling them to pay attention to this, remember that point, etc. I turned round to glower, but stopped when I realised that the guy was on his own and was having a conversation with an empty chair where he thought his “son” was. How sad.

After this, we did the Living with the Land boat ride, which was pretty much another walk on. Then we browsed round the shop and booked the “Behind the Seeds” tour for after lunch. We had a quick lunch from the food court – a vegetable lasagne for me and a chicken fajita potato for Gareth.

After lunch, we headed back to the Green Thumb Emporium to wait for the start of the tour. It was very interesting, but hot (well, it would be in a greenhouse, wouldn’t it…) – there were water coolers provided along the way though. The first thing that caught my attention as we went out the back of the pavilion was what seemed to be one of the submarines from the old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at the Magic Kingdom. And I immediately showed my age by asking if that’s what it was. It was, and our tour guide had no idea how or why it had ended up sitting out behind the Land’s greenhouses. Anyway, that tour started with a description of the bio pest control, then moved onto looking at the various hydroponic and tower growing systems used in the greenhouses, then went into the aquaculture areas to look at the fish and gators. Gareth was particularly interested in the tower growing systems as they would be useful for maximising space in our very small greenhouse at home.

After the tour, we headed into Food Rocks simply to cool down. Afterwards, we headed out towards World Showcase. The day was getting very hot and oppressive so we stopped off for drinks at the Rose and Crown. We decided to head out via the International Gateway, browse the shops at the Boardwalk then head back to the pool. Well, it was so humid by the time we got to the Boardwalk that I was skipping from one cool, air-conditioned doorway to the next while Gareth took some photos and video. We stopped off in the sweet shop to pick up some Jelly Bellys (and to enjoy the air conditioning) before giving up and heading to the bus stop. We headed back to CS via the Animal Kingdom. I went to cool off by the quiet pool and Gareth spent some time photographing the resort before joining me.

Anyway, tonight was Gareth’s “official” birthday dinner (because his real birthday was hurricaned-off in ’99, we celebrated it the next day) and we were going to the California Grill. We took the bus to Epcot and the monorail to the TTC. By now, the mugginess and heat of the day had turned into a huge thunderstorm and we got soaked just transferring to the hotel monorail. We were like the proverbial drowned rats by the time we got to the Grill. We were seated after about 15 minutes, which gave us time to dry off a little. Gareth had the tomatoes to start, followed by the steak and the butterscotch crème brulee. I had the tomato soup followed by the vegetable extravaganza, which was huge, so I just had a pear liqueur instead of desert. Dinner was accompanied by a Kunde 1999 zinfandel and a most spectacular lightning show. It seemed as though several storms had converged over the area and were just not moving. Anyway, nature’s impressive lightshow gave me the idea that it would be a lot more civilised to watch Saturday’s MK fireworks from here so on the way out, we inquired about a PS. However, no suitable times were available – they were either too early or way too late. The hostess advised us to try our luck as a walk up on Saturday evening in case anything became available.

It was now fairly late so we took a taxi back to Coronado Springs ($14), got some margaritas at Franciscos then headed back to our room for the night.

[CeltiaCat]

Tuesday, 17th September

Weather: Hot, blue skies, rain & thunder in evening
Crowds: n/a

We decided to head to Downtown Disney to do some gift shopping today. We also picked up quite a few gifts for ourselves, including (at last!) a Thumper T-shirt for me. The Christmas shop has an embroidery station and one of the designs offered is of Thumper and Bambi. So, I was happy.

After shopping, we had a quick lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express at the market place. The server here made quite a big issue of pointing out that I had only ordered a macaroni cheese (which is listed a side order). However, it was more than enough for me, especially at lunchtime.

After lunch,