Thoughts on a Disney World Vacation: Part 5: Slowing Down And Melting Down?

Since I am an early riser, the fact that I got up around 7:30 is saying that I slept in late!  (At home I'm usually up by 4:30 on weekdays and by 6 on weekends.  Of course "back home" I'm in bed by 9:30 or so and at WDW the night before it was after midnight when I closed my eyes.)  Got myself dressed and went down to the lounge for breakfast.  Because of the setup of the Poly, allergy/special breakfasts have to be ordered and brought over.  In the past (at the Contemporary), I had just gone to the lounge staff and they had provided me with the day's egg-free treat (usually muffins); here I was asked what I wanted and when I wanted it, which was pretty cool.  I was provided with egg free pancakes and bacon.  Delicious (salivating just remembering it), but way too much food.  I found a table (not easy) in the lounge and grabbed a glass of juice (Poly has POG juice, but not in the morning; only afternoons and evenings which I don't understand) and then had a cup of coffee (mocha latte).

By the time I got back, hubby was up and he went down to get something to eat.  The kid slept on.  Clearly he is getting into that teen/tween sleep mode.  (And it is quite obvious that he is NOT a morning person!  Getting him out of bed in the morning is NEVER a pleasure.)  I woke him after nine and brought him some breakfast in bed (muffins and juice.)

We finally got our act together (remember, I'm the one who wants to get up and go) and took the bus to DHS.  Didn't have too much planned as we had covered most of what we wanted to do.  (We are NOT Tower of Terror people and while hubby and I would have done Rock N Roller Coaster, our son was now off of the whole roller coaster experience so we passed on that too.)  We did Star Tours again and took in One Man's Dream, but other than that, we just wandered and shopped.  (There were a couple of melt downs too...the boy was not a happy camper and neither was I with his attitude.)  We ended up buying him a new hat and me a watch.  I didn't bring one thinking that I could handle a week without seeing how my phone has a clock, but I admit it, I wimped out.  I couldn't stand NOT having a watch on my wrist.  (Someone told me you could get a watch insert into your magic band, but I never saw it.  Think that would be an awesome idea).  The purchases took a while as I was trying to use my Visa discount, but the items were in two different stores and...trust me it is too confusing to get into and took 4 separate people to figure out how to do it.  (And I'm still not sure it was done properly!)

New hat on my son's head (and his old one on mine) and watch on my wrist, we were ready to head over to the 50s Prime Time for lunch.  Like the Sci Fi Dine In, this is not just a meal but an experience.    Even with an ADR waits here can be long; thankfully it was not too bad while we were there.  We were called to the table within 10-15 minutes and taken care of by Cousin Chris.  (He was definitely into the role.)  He loaded us up with drinks and presented me with a belated birthday gift.  While I had been shopping, so had the boys who secretly bought me a pair of earrings I had admired.  Chris delivered it to the table with a glowing Ariel (little mermaid) with flair and style.  All melt downs and bad feelings melted away.  I had the signature pot roast (which I have made at home, but never tastes quite so good).  My husband got yelled out for putting his elbows on the table and my son was forced fed a green bean. (An awesome moment if there ever was one!) It was a great meal and ended with us sharing a special egg free brownie.  Great meal and great experience is why we always try to go to the 50s Prime Time despite the fact that the wait to get in can be LONG.

 After lunch we headed out of the park and took the boat over to Epcot.  This can be a long ride (and it was), but is pleasant if you get out of the sun and the boat is not too crowded.  When we finally arrived, we wandered through Great Britain (it was really hot at this point) and Canada before taking solace in the cool (literally) O Canada. 

We made one last stop to do Living with the Land before we decided to head back to the hotel when I got a message from my friend Amber who is a chef at Disney.  She was hoping she would see us at her "new" (at least to us) location, Trattoria al Forno.  We had no plans to eat there, but really wanted to see Amber and try out this new location (since we had loved it back in the day when it was Spoodles.  We still mourn the passing of the Blue Spoodle, which I do my best to recreate every once in a while.  It's not exactly right, but it is good.)  So as we made our way out of the park, I cancelled our lunch reservation for the next day at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. (I really wanted to go back and get some bar-b-que, but my husband was never a big fan of the place.) Then I tried to get an ADR for Trattoria, but the app kept freezing up.   

We headed out, stopping only briefly in Gateway Gifts to purchase the toy tram that my son had "conned" us into buying and taking the monorail back to the TTC.

 From there we walked to the Poly. (Definitely a perk of the resort; both monorail lines are easily accessible.) The boys went up to the room to relax while spoke to someone in concierge about getting a ressie for the next night.  She was able to do so with ease, and early in the evening, as I had wanted.  (Since I figured we'd be passing up lunch, I wanted an early dinner.) 

Headed upstairs, and stopped in the lounge as the evening's offerings were being put out.  I got a glass of wine and Chef Gene presented me with a plate of pulled pork and rice to enjoy.  We planned dinner at the Kona Cafe, but after eating the plate that Chef Gene had prepared, I knew I wasn't going to want to eat again. 

It actually worked out really well.  The three of us went to the Kona and were seated.  I told our server I wouldn't be eating and hubby wasn't that hungry so he just ordered appetizers.  All this meant it would be a quick meal, which was perfect as earlier in the week my cousin who lives in the area contacted me and asked if we would like to get together.  (Note:  She was very sweet about it too.  She said she realized that we were on vacation and she didn't want to take away from "our vacation time.”)  Tonight worked for her, her sister, and her two ADORABLE little girls and I had told her to meet us by the Kona Cafe.  They all arrived before the food did, so I just excused myself and took them all over to the lounge where we could catch up.  (I hadn't met her girls before.)  The girls had snacks and watched tv while the adults chatted away.  The boys joined us not too long afterwards so it was a great hour or so to spend with family that we rarely get to see.  PLUS the electrical water pageant came by while they were there (sans the crocodile float...guess it was too soon!)  It was a lovely evening and I was so glad we were all able to get together!  (Who knows when we'll see each other again?) 

After they left, the kid and I decided to head back over to MK.  (Hubby felt like he was coming down with something and wanted to stay back and rest.  Spoiler alert:  We both got colds while we were there.  Meanwhile, the kid kept going strong!)  It was an Extra Magic Hour night at MK and it was pretty crowded.  (What do you expect at the end of June?)  I secured a FP+ for Pooh (the only one I could get for the evening; after that no FP+s were available).  The two of us enjoyed the Peoplemover/TTA (because you can never do that too many times), Pooh (while the fireworks were going off), the Haunted Mansion and IaSW.  We did want to do more, but the wait time for most of the attractions was long (we were going to try PotC, but we bailed on the 20+ minute wait after hanging around for 10 or so minutes with no real movement). 

We arrived back at the room a little after midnight.  Exhausted, but glad that we had spent some additional time at the Magic Kingdom.