Well, that contended sleep didn’t last long. Seriously, Disney – mowing the grass at 4:30 a.m.? I will say that this luckily didn’t happen again during our stay at OKW, but it was a serious annoyance on our first morning, and a risk you take staying at a resort located on a golf course.
Up for good around 8:30, ate breakfast and dressed by 10:15. This morning the four of us would be going to the Magic Kingdom, and I made a group decision to take the bus – the MK is the one park where I think it’s easier to take the bus than to drive, park, take the tram to the TTC, take the boat/monorail to the MK, and enter. Of course we had to wait for a bus, make many stops in OKW before leaving, and we had to load a scooter, so it wasn’t exactly the fastest bus ride in history to the MK.
She's very shy.
Undaunted, we disembarked and headed down Main Street U.S.A, stopping to take some photos as we went. It was at that moment I realized this was Day 1 of Christmas parade taping. Luckily today’s taping was mainly in front of the Castle, so traffic on MSUSA wasn’t really impeded. As we walked, we even stumbled upon a proposal – as you might expect, the lucky lady said yes.
She said yes.
We wandered up to watch the taping of one of the stage shows, and then headed to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, one of the few rides my grandfather will tolerate. We next headed to Frontierland, where we deposited my GF on a bench while the three of us rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Trying to find things to do that my GF would enjoy, we hopped on the train to take a slow ride back to Main Street. Our circle tour stopped in the old Toontown for a bit to refill the train with water, something I hadn’t experienced. We disembarked on
A beautiful day in Adventureland.
Main Street and spent some time browsing the stores before our lunch at the Plaza.
The Plaza is a first-day lunch tradition every time CP and I visit WDW, so I was excited to bring my grandparents along. They are not exactly adventurous eaters, and I thought the fare and the prices would be appealing. My GF ordered the tuna salad sandwich, my GM the reuben, CP the club sandwich, and me the grilled chicken sandwich. My GF and I both made the mistake of ordering the house-made potato chips, which sounded great but in reality were terrible, greasy and soggy and completely unappealing. This is something I normally would brush off, but not my GF – when our server asked how things were, he wasn’t shy about communicating his feelings about the lackluster chips. Suddenly this became a “situation,” and the server promised to send over the manager. Really? For…chips?
I was starting to get a bit nervous. Now my grandfather was being very well-behaved, but things were starting to feel a bit out of proportion for the situation. Before I could develop an exit strategy, however, the manager appeared and asked what the problem was. My grandfather explained, and the manager – without missing a beat – replied by saying “Yep, those chips are terrible. I’ve always hated them.” Hello! He went on to explain that although he’d been advocating for their removal for years, guests keep requesting them and thus they stay. But he was sympathetic, my grandfather was mollified, and soon we had a delicious brownie sundae to split. Problem solved.
After lunch, we headed out of the MK and to the monorail. We were headed to the Grand Floridian to check out the Christmas decorations, part of my planned circle-tour of all the deluxe resorts. The GF decorations were AMAZING. From the moment we left the monorail I was in awe. Poinsettias everywhere. Beautiful wreaths and trees and lights. This was in addition to the normal fresh flowers that adorn the GF lobby. The gingerbread house was even more amazing in person than it was in pictures, and CP and I picked up some chocolate-covered Mickey gingerbreads on the way out.
Satisfied and tired, we headed back to the bus (another slow loading bus because of scooters) for our return trip to OKW. On the bus I watched a mother with her teenage son, who was in a wheelchair. I couldn’t stop watching these two, because it was just so clear how much this mother loved her son. It was one of those special moments where I teared up a bit, thankful they could visit a place like WDW together. #yesI’masap.
Safely back in our villa we freshened up and all headed out to the Malibu for a quick run to Target and Starbucks. CP had a less-than-stellar experience with some local youths in the Target parking lot; while it’s a bit too unsettling to post the details in a trip report, suffice it to say this would be the last time we’ll ever visit the Target on 192. We returned to OKW, and I believe the grandparents watched some tv while CP and I took naps. We all grazed for dinner that night (apples and peanut butter, yogurt, soup, and wine), watched Jeopardy together (which featured an appropriate Walt Disney category), and then around 7:15 CP, my grandmother and I headed out in the Malibu to Hollywood Studios. It was time to see some Christmas lights!
Thanks to our late arrival we secured a parking spot in Stage 38, close enough that we could walk to the entrance. I instantly loved the decorations at DHS – they were understated, but really fit the vibe of early 20th century Hollywood. Since I was aiming to hit the Osborne lights right around the time the park closed, we had a little time to kill and thus headed to the Tower of Terror. This is hands-down my grandmother’s favorite ride, and hands-down CP’s least favorite, so she was happy to wait for us at the exit. Although the sign promised a short wait, the line was deceptively long. We also ended up in line behind a group of angsty teens who were angry at their mom for making them miss Fantasmic (seriously ladies, just go with the flow and leave your mom alone!) At the fork in the line the teens went left so we went right, and suddenly peace prevailed over the land.
The drop sequence on our ride wasn’t spectacular, but we had enthusiastic riders with us so that was good. We rejoined CP and hoofed it over to the Streets of America backlot, glimpsing some of the Obsborne Lights on the horizon as we walked. Nothing, however, would prepare me for what we would experience when we entered the backlot. The lights were truly jaw-dropping. We stood to take it all in, and then slowly wandered through the light displays, watching the happily dancing people – even the Cast Members were happy and dancing! Best of all, the Streets weren’t crowded at all. Even my grandmother was wowed, and that’s saying something for someone like her.
Unfortunately, CP and I could not find the purple cat, so we vowed to make a return trip. We left the Streets of America around 8:50, had an easy exit from the Studios, drove back to OKW for wine and gingerbread, showers and sleep.
Nerds in Wonderland 