Day Four:
I awoke at 6:00 a.m. at the first sound of a shower next door. Couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to get up and dressed to have a look around the resort by myself. Took the video camera and filmed some of the resort before my wife and daughter woke up.
After I returned to the room everybody got up and we watched the sunrise together which was really nice. We ate our first breakfast at Whispering Canyon Café. My wife just had to ask for Ketchup. Luckily nobody else asked while we were there so we didn’t have to cart it all to the next table. The breakfast skillet was ok, not the best food, but definitely not the worst either.
Rode the boat from WL to MK and arrived just as the character caravan arrived and the train pulled into the station. The pre-opening bits started as we entered the security check tent. (More about those later). The security check only took a few minutes and by the time we were through the gates opened. Perfect timing. Lots of people. This worried me, but it turned out that a common theme throughout our trip was masses of people in the parks, but virtually no wait in lines for attractions. We pondered whether it just seemed more crowded than we were used to because this was our first trip with a child in tow and a stroller, but concluded that no, there were just a lot of people.
Lots of characters wandering around. The first character Jordan saw was ironically Cruella De Vil. She had been on a 101 Dalmatians kick lately and we’d been reading the story repeatedly. She told us before the trip that she didn’t want to see Cruella. So, of course, Cruella looks down into her stroller as we walked by and says “Have you seen my puppies?” Jordan was kind of quiet, but didn’t looked to thrilled with that interaction. Headed up Main Street toward the Castle. Didn’t get the gleeful reaction of the first sight of the Castle from Jordan that we expected, but she did comment on the Castle a few times while strolling up the Street. She did seem to warm up to the Castle quickly, but overall Jordan’s first morning in MK was rather surly. Not sure if Cruella De Vil put a damper on things, but it didn’t help. I think she was rather tired from the drive down and disoriented by the overwhelming introduction to the World. We went to the Pooh ride in Fantasyland first. This was to be Jordan’s first ride of any kind, other than a carousel at a zoo back in August. She was quite apprehensive when the ride started but by the time we started bouncing like Tigger she started enjoying herself.
We walked over to Toon Town Fair to find it didn’t open until 10:00 a.m.. Off to Dumbo. My wife took Jordan on Dumbo while I waited and taped it. She really liked Dumbo, but we figured out part of the surliness. Jordan wanted to see Mickey. King Mickey was her ultimate goal we soon learned. Since Toon Town Fair still wasn’t open we went to Small World. Jordan once again warmed up to the ride after being hesitant at first. She liked the music and I twitched through the whole ride. We stopped at one point in the ride, which was a nightmare from my perspective, but it was over in a few minutes.
Now, off to Toon Town Fair. We were the first to line up at the rope from the Fantasyland side. When the rope went down we rushed with every one else to the Judge’s Tent to pay homage to the King. Only waited about five minutes for Mickey. The funny thing is this is what my daughter was geared for, but she wasn’t smiling. Rather, as we stood waiting to get her picture with Mickey she had a fierce look of determination. This was a toddler on a mission. Her immediate destiny, as she perceived it was to hug Mickey Mouse. When it was her turn to step forward she ran and hugged Mickey tightly. She didn’t want to let go. When we got her to turn around for a picture she still wasn’t smiling. It was rather comical and I can’t wait to see our pictures, but the kid was just all business. This was serious business. Of course leaving Mickey wasn’t pretty. No screaming fit, but some whining and a little tear here and there and we were off to the train ride around the park over to Frontierland. Mom and Dad had to go see there favorite attraction: The Haunted Mansion.
We walked around Frontierland and sweltered in the heat. That day it got up to around 86 degrees. Rode HM. Jordan whimpered during the ride and wasn’t to thrilled with it. Live and learn. We later figured out that it wasn’t the content that bothered her, rather the darkness. After HM we trekked backup Main Street to the Monorail and headed to Epcot via the TTC for our lunch PS at San Angel Inn at Mexico.
Lunch at San Angel was perhaps the worst dining experience I’ve had at Disney. The waiter was inattentive and almost rude. The menu was seriously lacking. Jordan said she wanted a taco and the waiter told us they didn’t have tacos, that she could have a chicken quesadilla. He took our order and ten minutes later came back to confirm what I had ordered because he forgot. Then, we asked for some shredded cheese to top off Jordan’s quesadilla after the food finally came and he outright lied to us saying they had no shredded cheese. He was almost offended that we made a special request. Later, the waiter did come back with a small plate of shredded cheese without a word, proving he had lied to us earlier. He was focused on a large group next to us drinking lots of drinks and speaking his native tongue. The food we had was mediocre at best and the service was horrible. I was so offended I left no tip and vowed I would never return to San Angel to dine again.
After lunch we decided to redeem Mexico for ourselves by riding El Rio del Tiempo. By that time we were all very hot and tired and it was time to return to the Lodge for a break. Jordan fell asleep in her stroller and slept the entire bus ride back. We all napped in the room and cooled off for several hours before heading out again for the evening.
When we left for the evening the benefits of valet parking at WL began to show its value. We drove to Boardwalk for our PS at Spoodles. One thing we noticed upon walking into the entrance at Boardwalk with our stroller was the lack of any obvious signs showing you a handicap/stroller path to get down to the Boardwalk itself. Luckily we had been there before and knew there was an elevator as you turn right and go down the hall at the Boardwalk entrance.
Spoodles was not very crowded when we arrived. We were seated promptly and our waitress more than made up for our wretched waiter at San Angel earlier in the afternoon. The service was superb and the food fantastic as usual. At the end of the meal we asked for our complimentary Smoothie from the Disney Club card and the server even suggested we take it in a to-go cup with a lid to share with Jordan while we looked around the Boardwalk. It was a very thoughtful suggestion which was well appreciated.
We hopped back in the car and went shopping at Downtown Disney at World of Disney. Time to put the last vestiges of our Disney Club Card to good use. Spent way too much money and still had more shopping to do when we were through. After an hour of serious shopping we went back to the hotel. The Marketplace was absolutely packed. Again, I’d never seen so many people. We usually go in January when crowds are very light and I thought November was supposed to be similar.
Reviewing our first day at The World we made some observations:
Budget cuts are becoming apparent in some of the lack of attention to details. I had never seen cigarette butts on the ground at any of the parks, let alone a pile of melted gummi bears I almost stepped in. Further, we encountered several CMs that seemed to be rushed due to understaffing. The lighted Boardwalk sign at Boardwalk had the letter K burned out which really bothered me and our table at Spoodles was sticky and hadn’t been wiped down properly. All minor things you would expect somewhere else, but not Disney. But, the overall experience of our first day was magnificent as usual.
Our wait times were minimal: 10 minutes for Monorail, 15 minutes for a bus from Epcot to WL, 10 minutes for Dumbo and Haunted Mansion.
The worst part of our first day at The World was definitely the lunch at San Angel and the Rude Server. The best part of the day was Jordan getting over her early surliness later in the day and talking about Mickey, Cinderella Castle and riding Dumbo, as well as returning to WL and basking in its serenity and “homey” feel.
To be continued…
