The weekend in review...
Friday night we drove around so I could look at cameras before I finally ordered online the one I wanted. We had dinner with our friend Rand.
Saturday we got up and headed out to Orlando. Sought out the hotel we booked. First things first, you have to realize we had wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. It's a beautiful resort within Disney and it's just lovely. You can take a private ferry over to the Magic Kingdom in fact, it's that close. Well, I had been trying for about three weeks to find an availabilty (they were running an excellent FL Resident rate - this is one of their "Deluxe" resorts so they normally charge a lot for it, but the special was only $124) without any luck. So I scoured the net looking for something else (everyting was booked up all over WDW except for things that were WAY outside the range of acceptable price for a night's stay). Checked out expedia, and priceline and talked to people on my Disney LJ group. Came across the Doubletree Club Lake Buena Vista. Looked nice. Sounded like it was close by ("Located at the entrance of the Downtown Disney® Resort Area") and had a pretty good rate. We ended up booking a room (2 Queen beds with breakfast for two). Well, we get lost trying to find it. This should have been our first clue. When they say "at the entrance" they don't mean where you park for Downtown Disney, they mean outside the ROAD THAT LEADS to Downtown Disney; several miles away in fact. And when they said "breakfast for two" they actually meant "two coupons for food from the food court at the outlet mall down the road." Oh, I kid you not. The place wasn't the shabbiest I've been to in my life, but it sure had aspirations to be. We laughed - quite hard I have to say - at the very misleading nature of their website and way of advertising themselves. Let's just say we're never going to be even thinking of staying there again.
Besides that though, the rest of the weekend was good. On Saturday, after checking in, we headed over to MK. Did the usual - burgers at Pinocchio's Village Haus, Philharmagic, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, People Mover, etc. - and just generally had a nice day. We left about fifteen minutes before Wishes (the amazing fireworks display) though to avoid the crowds. Went back to the room, changed and headed over to Downtown Disney. We thought we might want to see a movie, or go to Pleasure Island but it was too late for a flick and dinner and we were too beat for dancing. Had an ok, but way overpriced meal at Rainforest Care at about midnight (nothing else was open by then except McDonalds) and then back to the room. Laughed about the state of the room and got some sleep. Ok, he got sleep, I laid there most of the night on the most uncomfortable excuse for a matress ever.
Sunday we got up and as we're getting reading, housekeeping knocked on our door. At 9am. We have the room until 11am. Told them we hadn't checked out yet. Sorry she said and left. About 20 minutes later, they knock again. Same thing. Then, about 15 minutes after that, again. Look people, you can have the damned room when we check out. Sheesh.
Headed over to Epcot. Got Fastpass for Test Track. Love that ride but it's always got the most absurd lines. And they always run out of Fastpasses. As it was, our time to come back was almost two hours from then. So we went and rode Imagination (*sniffle* I so miss the original ride) and watched the Canada film and got some breakfast (not from the outlet mall *laughs*). Then we waited about 30 minutes in the Fastpass line and got to finally ride Test Track. We meandered a bit after that, hit Spaceship Earth and then decided to go back over to MK. We had dinner reservations at Cinderella's Castle for 4pm and wanted to spend a little time over there. I was planning on just eating dessert but I was hungry (having not eaten much the night before at Rainforest and the fruit cup, while a tasty breakfast, wasn't enough for the entire day) and ended up getting the prime rib. It was fantastic. And then we got desert - a chocolate lava cake with raspberry and buttercream icecream. Oh. My. Goddess. It was unbelievably good. They even gave me a bundt cake with icing and mickey-ear sprinkles and a candle and sang to me. They even put ribbon and confetti on the table as well. It was just lovely.
Afterwards we rode some more rides, but I was wearing down. Really just beat. Two days out in the heat and sun, not a lot of sleep, walking around nonstop, etc. Just really was worn out. So we ended up heading home about 7:30pm (park closed at 9pm). Love took Monday off so after we both showered and got comfy, we watched some tv together. He even had an ice cream cake waiting for me at home and we had some of that. It was a really great weekend and a super nice birthday.
Monday we ran aroud a bit and watched The Last Sammurai on dvd. (I liked it. My Love loved it.) Tonight we have the next game of the Lightning playoffs and my friend Rand is coming by. My camera is in transit right now via FedEx and scheduled for delivery tomorrow. I can't wait. Of course I desperately need a memory card for it (Secure Digital) because it only comes with a 16mb one which is useless, and a second battery because it's a propritary rechargable so when I need to recharge, I won't have a camera. Also, the a/c adapter would be nice since it doesn't come with a plug. (good for file transfers to your computer so you're not running your batteries) All that's going to require some cash though so it'll have to wait. (about $65 at cosco for the SD card; about $30 for the battery; about $30 for the a/c plug)
Anyway, I'm at the temp job again. Same one. They keep calling me. Fine with me, it's easy and it pays well enough and I can definately use the extra cash. (Especially after a weekend at Disney! *laughs*) Though something here at this desk, or the chair, or something, utterly stinks of cigerette smoke. Fucking bleck. I can't get the scent out of my nose but I can't find what is the cause of the offence.
Well, I've been babbling for quite some time now. I'm not sure if I got around to everything I meant to blather about, but close enough. I want to publish this thing and move on for now. Ta everyone and thanks again for all your fab birthday wishes!
~ flowers bloom near Memory and Dream
at 5/18/2004 09:41:54 AM ~
~
