WDW Update 1 - Mon.PM, 5/9/2005

G'day from Disney World, eh!! We left home in central MA Thursday night, hitting the road at 10:45pm. 10:30 Friday night found us patrolling the strip at Daytona Beach, and by 11 we'd settled on a Travelodge mini-suite location (Ocean Jewel or some such!) that we scored for about $53/night. We stayed there for Friday and Saturday overnights, giving us all day Saturday to rest up from the drive in Daytona. Slept nice and late, then played in the surf the afternoon and evening before going to bed early... a very nice transition day!!
Sunday morning hit Denny's for breakfast, one of The Momma's favorite restaurants, to start our Mother's Day, then headed SW down I-4 to Orlando. Checked into our Kissimmee hotel, the La Quinta Inn Lakeside, around 2pm Sunday afternoon, and such a deal... thanks to HotWire we scored this place for $29/night for the next 7 nights, and it really is as nice as its website makes it look! At least as nice and maybe even nicer I'd say than Disney's All-Star Resorts, where we'll be moving next weekend, though of course there are many perks involved with staying "on property" that we're looking forward to with that final part of our trip.

Once settled we set out for the 2-mile pilgrimage to the Magic Kingdom, and after pausing to pick up a Pal Mickey for C, we paid our respects to the Enchanted Tiki Room (Hail the Tiki!!). The Tiki Room ain't what it used to be, but Faith is Faith so respects must be paid. C liked it - and I don't hate it, I just miss the religious purity of the original rites there :-) and we left with some true Tiki blessings... tail feathers from one of the resident Tiki birds themselves! (Okay, it was from Iago, kind of an interloping Tiki bird, but a resident none the less!)

We also managed a couple of rides on Aladdin's Magic Carpets, another one C really enjoyed, and of course Pirates of the Caribbean which we all love.

As we didn't get to the park until after 4:30pm that was it for rides Sunday, but it was all bonus... our real reason for going to the MK Sunday was for The Momma's Mother's Day dinner, 7:50pm reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table, a fairly upscale restaurant inside Cinderella's Castle. We had a wonderful meal with a truly terrific server, Gustavo... truly terrific servers are not a rarity at WDW (Walt Disney World), but that doesn't make them any less appreciated. C had his pirate hat and sword ("swag") that he appropriated after the Pirates ride, and Gustavo made a great show of trying to take our order from several tables away when he noticed C was holding the toy sword at the dinner table.

The food was great, the service awesome (C even was able to eat there, and none of what he ate or drank was on the menu, it was all courtesy of "The Fairy Godmother"... according to Gustavo!). But the timing was perfect, as we'd hoped....

The nightly fireworks show, "Wishes", started at 9pm. Our 7:50 reservations had us leaving at precisely 9pm... the clock was just beginning to chime as we came out into the (closed-off) castle passageway. We walked down the (closed-off) front walk, were let through the rope that had closed it off just as the clock struck the final chime of 9, and able to sit down on the ground of the castle fore court at the very front of everyone as the show started... spectacular, and very special!! A beautiful ending to Mother's Day and our first WDW day.

Today (Monday) was Blizzard Beach day, probably C's favorite destination (and hence our second stop!). I've always liked the water parks here but it's much more exhausting with C, as we of course focus on activities for him and it takes a lot of management for water, food, sun... oh, and he can't swim, so safety! But we had an overall great afternoon (with a few crash and rest moments mixed in). After that it was over to Downtown Disney and dinner at another of C's favorite places, the Rainforest Cafe. A great dinner, then some early souvenir shopping before coming back to the hotel tonight.

So tomorrow I'm thinking it's my turn... EPCOT! But C now is announcing that he wants a day off... sigh! We certainly do need to build a few of those into our almost two-week long trip so if he still feels that way in the morning and The Momma agrees I likely won't worry about it, we've got time. But there's a Bass Ale waiting for me at the Rose and Crown pub, and some sake at the Matsunoma Lounge... well, it'll still be there Wednesday! And I haven't made it to the Adventurer's Club yet, a morning of sleeping late might make tomorrow a good night for that... it's all good!

Signing off for now... Hail the Tiki, and KUNGALOOSH!!