We arrived at the Polynesian Resort about 4:00 on Monday. Since we had never stayed at the Polynesian before, we spent some time exploring the resort. We decided that any time we need a Hawaii “fix,” we’ll come over here! The hotel price is about the same and it’s about 11 hours closer and doesn’t entail airfare!
After exploring, we walked to the Ticket and Transportation Center and caught a ferryboat over to the Magic Kingdom (our room was in the Tahiti building so we were just steps from the Ticket and Transportation Center). We weren’t sure what to expect at the Magic Kingdom, since it was open until 11 PM, which is usually indicative of high occupancy. However, it wasn’t crowded at all. We headed to the Columbia Harbor House to get something to eat. After eating, we went to the Haunted Mansion where the sign said a 10-minute wait. However, it was more like 3 minutes. We got in a "Doom Buggy" and for the first time (at least for us) the ride stalled while we were in the staircase section of the mansion. It stayed stalled for about 10 minutes and then proceeded normally. When we got to the end, there was a tech type person at the control panel, so the ride computer must have “burped.”
After the Haunted Mansion, we headed over to Splash Mountain, where for the first time EVER, we walked right to the boarding area, right into a boat! Splash Mountain is so much fun and both of us wound up getting soaked! As we were getting off Splash, we heard the music from Spectromagic, so we stood and watched the parade (we STILL prefer the Main Street Electrical Parade). After the parade, we went over and rode Pirates of the Caribbean, again walking right onto a boat, in which we were the only passengers. After Pirates, we stopped and got Dole Pineapple Whip (YUM!) and then it was time for the “Wishes” Fireworks. We stood and watched it from near the Crystal Palace. As always, it was beautiful! After the fireworks, we headed for Tomorrowland. and rode Buzz Lightyear! For the FIRST time, I beat Dan!! When we got off, he wanted a rematch! Yes, he shellacked me the second time through and no, I didn’t let him win – we’re both too competitive for that! We then headed to the exit and took a launch back to the Polynesian where we promptly hit the sack and fell asleep immediately.
Day 2
When we got back to the Polynesian last night, we decided to have room service for breakfast. We made our selections and hung the menu on the door. We set the alarm for 8:30 since we ordered breakfast to be delivered between 9:30 and 10:00. We ordered the Tonga Toast which is a THICK slice of sourdough bread stuffed with sliced banana, dipped in egg, deep fried then rolled in cinnamon and sugar while warm. Dan ordered it with bacon and I had sausage. Breakfast was delivered at 9:25 and it definitely met our expectations (we’ve had the Tonga Toast before - even though we had never stayed at the Polynesian, we had eaten there). After breakfast, we hung out in the room until checkout at 11:00. We then drove over to the Contemporary fully anticipating being told it wasn’t check-in time yet and our room wasn’t ready. Our reservation was for a room in the tower facing Bay Lake. We gave the CM our name and she looked up the reservation and saw the room we had been assigned wasn’t ready. She then made a phone call and asked if there was another room available. She came back to us and said we had been upgraded to a room on the 11th floor, facing west overlooking the Magic Kingdom and Seven Seas Lagoon. What a view!! We’ve been taking pictures from the balcony all day! What a birthday treat! No, my birthday isn’t until tomorrow (Earth Day), but I’ll take the upgrade as an early birthday present!
Both of us were not ready to head to the parks yet, so we lay down and slept for an hour. After waking, we caught the monorail to EPCOT. Since we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, the first thing we did was go to the Electric Umbrella and had a light snack. We then walked around taking pictures of the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival taking pictures of the beautiful flowers and topiaries (we had been over for the opening day March 18th and could see the vast difference in the displays since then – much more in bloom and denser). Between the 2 of us, we took almost 300 pictures (gotta love digital photography – we took a total of 486 pics in the two days!). We stopped in France at the patisserie and had a bite to eat and then headed to the monorail to head back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel, we didn’t do much of anything but kick off our shoes and put our feet up for a little while. After 2 days of walking the parks, exploring hotels and other miscellaneous walking, our feet (and legs) are letting us know they aren’t used to this “abuse.” We still hadn’t had dinner, so about 8:30 we headed down to the Contempo Café and ate. By the time we finished, it was time for the electrical water pageant, which we could watch sail across Seven Seas Lagoon from our balcony. By the time it finished “sailing” by, it was time for “Wishes.” WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had seen it last night from the Crystal Palace perspective, but to watch it from our balcony on the 11th floor of the Contemporary was phenomenally indescribable – something neither one of us will soon forget! After the fireworks, we called it a day.
Day 3
My "alarm" this morning was Dan singing “Happy Birthday” to me. After getting packed, we headed over to Perkin’s in Lake Buena Vista for breakfast. We then went to EPCOT and got my birthday gift card (we have annual passes so the gift card option is a wonderful alternative to the free admission on your birthday promotion). We were both sad that our mini vacation was over, but knew we had to get home.
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