dlpmikki
12-12-2008, 06:22 PM
Sunday 7th December
We go to the Studios. We have been warned it will be busy and it is. We have a mission – pictures with Bolt and Mittens. We have not yet seen the film but someone in the line explains it and Mikki concludes Mittens is the intelligent one. That makes sense. When we get to the front, Mittens seems to like me. We then notice Mickey Mouse has a short line, so we get more pictures with him. We are all wearing name badges today and it is fun for the humans to be greeted by name.
We drive to the Pop Century resort. We have never walked round the whole resort. We have lunch in the food court and then walk round taking lots of nice pictures – and some without me in them. Pop Century may be a “value” resort but there is no shortage of imagination in the theming.
In the evening we are having dinner with friends at Kona Café at the Polynesian Resort. We take the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the resort monorail. The monorail is full to capacity as the cast are clearing the crowds from the Kingdom as closing time (and the Christmas Party) approaches. The Polynesian is also busy – we guess mostly with people wanting/waiting to go to Ohana. My humans think how very different it is from when they stayed here in 1991.
Dinner is good but our friends miss the Filet Mignon that they remember as being better than at Le Cellier. Mikki has shrimp and scallop and Andrew a coconut almond chicken. After dinner, we go down to the beach to watch the Holiday Wishes fireworks. They are quite spectacular (again).
Monday 8th December
Mikki plays tennis again in the morning and then we go to Epcot. It is about 11am by we get there and the line for me to get pictures with characters is already long.
We go to Mission Space, which is advertising a 10 minute wait. It would have been but some unexpected technical problems delay us a little. There are only 3 people in our capsule and I get to sit in the Commander’s seat. All goes well.
It is now about lunchtime and we take a boat to the Studios. After checking there is no availability at Mama Melrose, my humans settle for their favourite pulled pork sandwiches.
Our aim now is some photos with a little magic. We heard you can get pictures sitting on a bench where they come back with Mickey or Minnie sitting next to you. We checked this yesterday and were told they do it on Hollywood Boulevard just before the parade. We start asking about 2.00pm and quickly find Vicki, a very helpful photopass photographer who says she can do them for us. She poses us for pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Stitch. By the evening, we can see them online with the “added magic”. The one with Minnie Mouse is especially good.
We return to Old Key West for a short rest then set off by car to explore some more Christmas decorations. We go to Animal Kingdom Lodge. My humans think the lobby here is even more impressive at night than in the daytime. They have a large Christmas tree and a photopass photographer with special lights to take your portraits in front of it.
We stop off at West Side – mostly because we have not visited it yet this trip. They don’t seem to have anything special for Christmas yet.
Finally, we visit Saratoga Springs. Mikki has been looking for a DVC Member sweatshirt she liked the look of but OKW did not have in the size she was looking for. She tries a couple of size options on at Saratoga. She will think about this some more.
The humans eat at Artist’s Palette. Mikki orders a cheeseburger flatbread and Andrew an asian chicken salad. Mikki reports the flatbread as like a burger without he bun (that’s a compliment, by the way). It is much better than the flatbreads they had at Pop Century (for one thing, the bread is flat) and does not cost a lot more. Andrew likes his salad too: a great mix of tastes and textures.
Tuesday 9th December
Mikki has her last tennis session with her coach at 7.30am! As the forecast is warm, she goes straight on to “Aquatica” to make use of the annual pass she bought in April.
Although it was warm, it can not have been warm enough for most people. As far as Mikki could judge, all the few guests were British! She had “Roos Rapids” to herself and rode twice: once without a lifejacket and once with (the experience is different – but either sounds pretty awful to me). People were surprised she left after quite a short time –but that’s one point of annual passes.
When Mikki is back, we get ready for the DVC Annual Meeting. We get busses to Downtown and then to the Boardwalk. We have little wait for either so are quite early. There is free coffee and chocolate (and a chance for pictures – but I am not there, I have sent Travelling Beanie, my “stunt kitten”).
We were last at one of these meetings 5 years ago – when there were separate meetings for each resort. Then, it was in the same room and I don’t remember the audience being much smaller. The formal meting today wasn’t much longer but there were a lot more presentations afterwards. One was of some new “Disney Nature” films that sounded quite interesting. Mikki thought the actual animal pictures seemed familiar and then the credits came up. It is a collaboration with the BBC.
Highlight of the afternoon was the appearance of Mickey and Minnie. They were here for less than a minute. Low point for my humans was probably having to listen to “Deevee” on a video they avoided watching on U-Tube.
After the meeting, my party went back into Epcot looking for somewhere to eat. There were no walk-ins at any of the restaurants and they ended up at “Electric Umbrella”. It’s perfectly fine as a standard fast food eatery. It’s just that my humans can’t go there without getting sentimental about something called the Stargate Café and the breakfasts there. But that was in a distant past, a time to which the mind of man runneth not (before I was with them).
After eating, my party wandered to France where they had a glass of wine and met John from “Owners’ Locker”. Mikki had met him last week but wanted to prove to him that there really was an Andrew too.
We go to the Studios. We have been warned it will be busy and it is. We have a mission – pictures with Bolt and Mittens. We have not yet seen the film but someone in the line explains it and Mikki concludes Mittens is the intelligent one. That makes sense. When we get to the front, Mittens seems to like me. We then notice Mickey Mouse has a short line, so we get more pictures with him. We are all wearing name badges today and it is fun for the humans to be greeted by name.
We drive to the Pop Century resort. We have never walked round the whole resort. We have lunch in the food court and then walk round taking lots of nice pictures – and some without me in them. Pop Century may be a “value” resort but there is no shortage of imagination in the theming.
In the evening we are having dinner with friends at Kona Café at the Polynesian Resort. We take the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the resort monorail. The monorail is full to capacity as the cast are clearing the crowds from the Kingdom as closing time (and the Christmas Party) approaches. The Polynesian is also busy – we guess mostly with people wanting/waiting to go to Ohana. My humans think how very different it is from when they stayed here in 1991.
Dinner is good but our friends miss the Filet Mignon that they remember as being better than at Le Cellier. Mikki has shrimp and scallop and Andrew a coconut almond chicken. After dinner, we go down to the beach to watch the Holiday Wishes fireworks. They are quite spectacular (again).
Monday 8th December
Mikki plays tennis again in the morning and then we go to Epcot. It is about 11am by we get there and the line for me to get pictures with characters is already long.
We go to Mission Space, which is advertising a 10 minute wait. It would have been but some unexpected technical problems delay us a little. There are only 3 people in our capsule and I get to sit in the Commander’s seat. All goes well.
It is now about lunchtime and we take a boat to the Studios. After checking there is no availability at Mama Melrose, my humans settle for their favourite pulled pork sandwiches.
Our aim now is some photos with a little magic. We heard you can get pictures sitting on a bench where they come back with Mickey or Minnie sitting next to you. We checked this yesterday and were told they do it on Hollywood Boulevard just before the parade. We start asking about 2.00pm and quickly find Vicki, a very helpful photopass photographer who says she can do them for us. She poses us for pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Stitch. By the evening, we can see them online with the “added magic”. The one with Minnie Mouse is especially good.
We return to Old Key West for a short rest then set off by car to explore some more Christmas decorations. We go to Animal Kingdom Lodge. My humans think the lobby here is even more impressive at night than in the daytime. They have a large Christmas tree and a photopass photographer with special lights to take your portraits in front of it.
We stop off at West Side – mostly because we have not visited it yet this trip. They don’t seem to have anything special for Christmas yet.
Finally, we visit Saratoga Springs. Mikki has been looking for a DVC Member sweatshirt she liked the look of but OKW did not have in the size she was looking for. She tries a couple of size options on at Saratoga. She will think about this some more.
The humans eat at Artist’s Palette. Mikki orders a cheeseburger flatbread and Andrew an asian chicken salad. Mikki reports the flatbread as like a burger without he bun (that’s a compliment, by the way). It is much better than the flatbreads they had at Pop Century (for one thing, the bread is flat) and does not cost a lot more. Andrew likes his salad too: a great mix of tastes and textures.
Tuesday 9th December
Mikki has her last tennis session with her coach at 7.30am! As the forecast is warm, she goes straight on to “Aquatica” to make use of the annual pass she bought in April.
Although it was warm, it can not have been warm enough for most people. As far as Mikki could judge, all the few guests were British! She had “Roos Rapids” to herself and rode twice: once without a lifejacket and once with (the experience is different – but either sounds pretty awful to me). People were surprised she left after quite a short time –but that’s one point of annual passes.
When Mikki is back, we get ready for the DVC Annual Meeting. We get busses to Downtown and then to the Boardwalk. We have little wait for either so are quite early. There is free coffee and chocolate (and a chance for pictures – but I am not there, I have sent Travelling Beanie, my “stunt kitten”).
We were last at one of these meetings 5 years ago – when there were separate meetings for each resort. Then, it was in the same room and I don’t remember the audience being much smaller. The formal meting today wasn’t much longer but there were a lot more presentations afterwards. One was of some new “Disney Nature” films that sounded quite interesting. Mikki thought the actual animal pictures seemed familiar and then the credits came up. It is a collaboration with the BBC.
Highlight of the afternoon was the appearance of Mickey and Minnie. They were here for less than a minute. Low point for my humans was probably having to listen to “Deevee” on a video they avoided watching on U-Tube.
After the meeting, my party went back into Epcot looking for somewhere to eat. There were no walk-ins at any of the restaurants and they ended up at “Electric Umbrella”. It’s perfectly fine as a standard fast food eatery. It’s just that my humans can’t go there without getting sentimental about something called the Stargate Café and the breakfasts there. But that was in a distant past, a time to which the mind of man runneth not (before I was with them).
After eating, my party wandered to France where they had a glass of wine and met John from “Owners’ Locker”. Mikki had met him last week but wanted to prove to him that there really was an Andrew too.