After many grumblings about being disowned and many evil eyes, we were out the door by about 7:00. It was another beautiful morning, cool first thing with the promise of being sunny, clear and warm through the day. I won't mention the weather again - except for one small instance later - it was consistently perfect throughout the trip. We loaded ourselves into the Behemoth and hit the road. About 15 minutes later we were pulling into the Grand Floridian (GF) parking lot. The guard at the gate didn't give us any hastle, I assume they're used to folks coming in for early breakfast. We decided to valet park, and we all walked into the lobby.
Andie and I had been to the GF on our first trip to WDW. Back in those pre-All Star Resorts days, anyone staying at any on site hotel could use the pool of any other hotel. On the day that Andie and I went to the Magic Kingdom, we took off in the middle of the day and used the pool at GF. In hindsight we should have gone to the Polynesian (Poly.) So, anyway, Andie and I had already seen the lobby of the GF, but not for several years. The lobby, with it's high beamed ceiling and Victorian details, has a very high "wow" factor. There are stained glass skylights in the ceiling, and my dad & I speculated as to whether sunlight or artificial light was used to light them. We both concluded that they were artificially lit, which appeared to be confirmed by the fact that they seemed to be enclosed from the exterior.
We entered 1900 Park Faire, which is right in the lobby, for our breakfast. 1900 Park Faire is brightly decorated with a decidedly Victorian flair, albeit very colorful and whimsical. The back section of the restaurant is dominated by a large, brightly decorated calliope. As I suspected, the restaurant wasn't full when we first got there, although it was full by the time we left. The breakfast is served buffet style, with an assortment of standard breakfast fare that includes eggs, pancakes, Mickey waffles, cereal, breakfast meats, muffins, Danish and potatoes. There was also a special children's buffet built closer to the ground, and it had different eggs, a different kind of potato, and French toast sticks. I actually preferred some of the items on the children's buffet (especially the French toast sticks.) I don't recall the total cost of the meal. One thing we started doing was to alternate, between Andie & I And my parents, who paid for each meal, also alternating between "expensive" (dinner) meals and "cheap" (lunch or breakfast) meals. This made it a lot easier than worrying too much about who paid for what.
The characters at the breakfast were Snow White and Dopey, as well as Alice and, of course, her fellow brit and our hostess, Mary Poppins. The Mad Hatter was there as well, although he stayed out in the lobby and didn't come to the table. All in all we really enjoyed the meal. I have heard that the calliope is too loud, but it didn't bother us. We loved the surroundings, the characters were fun, and the food was good. A thumbs-up from us.
My mom & Dopey. That's Dopey on the right
Snow White
Alice
British invasion - Alice & Mary Poppins
Nat with Dopey
Charlotte with Dopey
A couple of mad-cap guys
Ridin' the 'rail
Our brick - honest
Anyway, I suggested "The Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh" (WtP) since it is a new ride and I knew that it would be crowded later in the morning. Just as we approached the castle from Main Street we could hear the opening music. We entered Fantasyland and got in line for WtP. Even first thing in the morning, the line was about 10 minutes.
I know that this attraction has attracted a lot of animosity because it replaced the perennial favorite "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". I've never really been a huge fan of Toad, and I think that WtP is a major improvement. Now, I'm not a big Pooh fan either - or I should say I'm not a big fan of what it has become. I think the 1st two Pooh shorts, as well as the classic stories, are absolutely charming. The new cartoons, however, are way too saccharine for my taste. The Pooh attraction, however, we all found absolutely terrific. I've read many positive comments about the "bouncing with Tigger" and "floating on the river" sequences, but Andie & I agreed that our favorite sequence was the "hefalumps and woozles" scene. The colors are simply amazing.
After WtP we walked over to Ariel's Grotto so the kids could get their pictures with the Little Mermaid. I wanted to have my picture taken with her as well, but when I suggested it I got a look from Andie that suggested I'd better not. It was either a look that said "watch it, buster" or "you're a silly nitwit", I'm not sure which. I suspect the latter.
My folks took a little break sitting in a covered eating area near Ariel's Grotto while Andie and I took the kids for a spin on the carousel. This is a must for us. Wherever we go, if there is a carousel, we ride it. It always amazes me that there never seems to be a long wait for a carousel. I can't imagine passing one by without taking the kids for a spin. They're such a simple pleasure.
Ariel invited me for a swim, but I had to decline
A tradition
Nat attempts to pull the sword...
As does Charlotte
After LotLK I suggested we leave Fantasyland, which was getting pretty crowded, and head to Tomorrowland. I knew my parents really wanted to see "Carousel of Progress" (CoP), which they hadn't seen in years, and I also thought we should check out "Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin" (BL), another new ride.
We decided to try our luck with BL first. This was our first experience with using a different part of the queue because of the wheelchairs. Yes, you do skip part of the line - but not much. It looked to me that it was done not so much to make the wait for people in wheelchairs shorter as much as to remove the necessity of making the whole queue area wheelchair accessible. Regardless, I for one wasn't in a huge hurry because I wanted to watch that cool Buzz Lightyear Animatronic in the queue area. The ride itself is very cute - although I agree with those who complain that if you pay attention to your shooting (during the ride you shoot a ray gun at targets), you miss much of the ride. Regardless, it's a bright, cheery, fun ride. In the end, Andie and my dad both got about 42,000 points. Nat got 11,000, beating out my mom, who got 7,000. I got - ahem - a little over 205,000. Yep. I'm the man. Well, OK, it was shear luck.
Next we headed to CoP. It was a lot of fun to see an attraction that we haven't seen in many years. CoP was originally in the World's Fair, then later moved to Disneyland. It was replaced - in the mid 70's if I recall - with "America Sings" and recently with "Innoventions". The ride has changed quite a bit, with new voices and a different finale. Still, it's a nostalgic trip.
After CoP we decided to leave MK. We returned the wheelchairs - there was actually a huge line of people showing up to get strollers, and I had to convince the CM to just let us drop them off. Since we had taken the monorail to the park, I suggested we take the boat back to GF. The boat driver was really funny - I don't recall his name or anything he said, I just remember he was funny.
On the ferry back to GF
On the ferry back to GF
After dropping my folks and the kids off at the room, Andie and I went to our MVCI presentation - correctly this time. We arrived about 11:45 and were soon greeted by a sales rep named Scott. He talked a bit about MVCI. When he asked if we were familiar with timeshares - or, to use the term preferred in the industry, "Vacation Ownership" - we told him that we already own at DVC. He went on to contrast MVCI with DVC, while not putting DVC down. This was smart on his part, and I'm sure they're told not to put down DVC to DVC owners because it would only lead to an adversarial situation in most cases. A few minutes into our talk we informed him that, although we'd be happy to listen to what he had to say and were actually interested in hearing about MVCI, there was no way we were going to make a purchase. He knew we were serious because we explained that we had just bought a new house and were in no position to make that kind of investment. Scott continued to be polite and answered our questions, but it was clear he had lost interest.
We returned to the room to find that the kids had not done any napping. Since they were up we took them to the pool instead while my folks stayed in the room and relaxed. We went back to the room, showered and dressed, and left for Epcot at about 5:15. This would have given us just about enough time to make our 6:10 PS reservation at the "Rose & Crown", except I made a wrong turn and went the wrong way down I4. I realized my mistake pretty quickly, though, and we only lost about 20 minutes as a result.
We parked pretty close to the entrance in the "Journey" section. Actually it was too close for the tram a bit more of a walk than we would have liked. This was really the only time that the handicap placard would have come in handy. We went to the wheelchair rental and got 2 chairs using the receipts from MK.
We took a cursory look at the "Leave a Legacy" sculpture as you enter Epcot. I have to say that most of the new things Disney has added to WDW since our last visit are great, while some aren't perfect but still have a positive overall impact. This "Leave a Legacy" thing is, in my opinion, one of the biggest duds I've seen Disney do. It is just ugly and useless. I really hope they replace after the Millennium Celebration. Also, if you figure they're about a third through the celebration, it must not be a hit with anyone because not nearly 1/3 of it is covered with photos. At the rate they're going it won't be 1/2 covered at the end of the celebration. Everyone in our party agreed that "Leave a Legacy" is a mess.
By the time we made it to the "Rose & Crown" (R&C) we were a few minutes late. Originally I made the reservations in hopes that we might be able to watch "IllumiNations - Reflections of Earth" from the R&C outside seating, but they didn't have any seatings available at the right time. Andie and I have been to R&C twice before and liked it, although we thought the food was only so-so and the main attraction of the restaurant was being able to view "IllumiNations". Still, we decided to keep the PS reservations, mainly because my dad really liked the idea of having supper at an English pub (he had a hankering for kidney pie.) There was a bit of a wait for our table, but we managed to suffer through with beer in hand (stout, in my case.)
Love that English beer
After dinner we decided to go to the France pavilion for dessert. When we got there the line was too long so we decided to skip it. The streets in the World Showcase (WS) were seemed really crowded and I remember thinking how surprised I was at the size of the crowds. As the week progressed we discovered that the crowds weren't that bad - it was just the WS, especially at night. First, Epcot is the center of the Millennium Celebration and is more crowded than usual. Second, having a parade twice nightly in the WS necessitates keeping the street clear for the parade and forcing the crowds to the side of the street, making it seem more crowded. ToN is a beautiful parade, but it plays hell on the crowds in the WS.
It was now about 8:30, and since we knew we'd have other opportunities to catch "IllumiNations", we decided to leave. I had everyone wait at the edge of the parking lot while I retrieved the Behemoth. It's a good thing we left early, because I had to drive the wrong way in the parking lot to get to them and I never would have made it if there were others driving at the same time. Anyway, I picked them up and we were home by 9:00. Andie and I had our usual chat on the porch, and we were all in bed by 10:15.