Another rope drop day! Yes, every day should be rope drop day, but we had settled in to a more relaxed routine this trip.  So today we got up at 7:45, dressed quickly, and grabbed some breakfast bars on our way out the door. We drove to Hollywood Studios and were in line before 8:30.  It seemed fairly busy for a “1”

Beautiful morning.

day, but we managed to get to the front of the line at the turnstiles.  As with Epcot, there was no rope drop show, so around 8:37 they let us in, and we could walk as far as the Brown Derby before being stopped by a couple of Cast Members with a “rope.”  Promptly at 9, the CMs lead us on a fast-walk to Toy Story Mania!, which we walk onto. Neither of us do very well – maybe because it’s so early? Or so cold outside (42 degrees!)?

In any case, we grab FastPasses for later (with an 11:20 return time, an indication of the busy day as

BAZILLION.

well as the 5pm closing time for a special Pop Warner party) and then hop back into line. The line is advertised as 25 minutes, and then quickly jumps to 40. What should be an easy day in the Studios is suddenly taking a busier, more urgent turn. Luckily we’re again pulled out of line at the standby/FP line split, so our wait is only about 25 minutes. Again we don’t do very well, and we leave, dejectedly.

It’s now off to Starring Rolls for a mid-morning snack. CP has a chocolate chip muffin, me a blueberry, and we both have what we decided was surprisingly good drip coffee. For awhile we sit and people watch, and then decide it’s not worth it to wait around for our 11:20 FP return time. We figure our time is better spent going back to OKW, getting my grandparents, and trying to get some nice pictures of them before our Le Cellier lunch and Candelight Processional show. (The photos were to be part of a Christmas present from us to them.)  When we arrive back at our villa, we find my grandparents watching television, and my grandmother laying under a blanket. This doesn’t look good.  It’s then I’m told that they tried to call me to inform me that they wouldn’t be going to lunch or to the Candlelight Processional.

I admit, I’m a little annoyed. If I had known about this yesterday I could have cancelled; this was another part of our Christmas gift to my grandparents, and it certainly wouldn’t have been something CP and I would have chosen to do on our own.  At this point our best option is to attend lunch and the show ourselves and hope they don’t charge us for two cancellations.

Before heading to Epcot CP and I do some laundry and start thinking about how to re-pack for our move to the Polynesian the following day. We drive to Epcot around 12:15, and park in Discovery 13, not too far from the front, but we tram it in nevertheless – neither of us want a horrible foot problem like we both

DOMO.

experienced during our May trip.  After a quick stop at Club Cool for some liquid refreshment, we decide to do a full walk around the World Showcase before our Le Cellier lunch. We window shop in Mexico and the African Outpost, and we stop for a pretzel in Germany before heading to the American Adventure to look around. After poking around Japan and Morocco, we start to make our way to Le Cellier when I notice a commotion by the World Showplace. CHARACTERS!

Normally this wouldn’t be so exciting to me, but it was obviously new Cast Member character/handler training day, so a) there were many characters out and b) many of them were rare. We saw the Country Bears, Gepetto, Terk, Goofy and Max, Minnie Mouse, and CP’s favorite, Pluto. We of course jump in line to see Pluto, who is so sweet and highly interactive. It was really a wonderful moment, and a definite

Best friends.

highlight of the trip.

Elated, we head to LeCellier, and suddenly I hear the record scratch of doom in my mind. We’re informed upon check-in that they are running 35 minutes behind, and our wait ended up being significantly longer than that. When we’re finally seated we have Marina (Victoria, BC) as a server, and find her to be lovely, funny, and very informative. In spite of these positives, her service is beyond slow. Ten minutes after being seated we get glasses of water. Ten minutes after that, CP’s Unibroue beer flight and my glass of pinot noir arrive. Some time later we get our appetizers (both of us had the Canadian cheddar cheese soup, which indeed is as amazing as you’ve heard), and eventually we receive our entrees (we both had the filet, with cream cheese mashed potatoes instead of the mushroom risotto).

Our meal concluded with maple creme brulee for me, and double chocolate whiskey cake for CP. My creme brulee was kind of a disconcerting color, but both desserts are excellent. In fact, all of the food at Le Cellier was excellent, but the experience wasn’t as good as it could have been had our service been better, and our wait less long.  In fact, once Marina brought us our Candlelight Processional priority seating vouchers, she informed us that we really ought to dash to the theatre, since the show was about to start. When I’d made this lunch reservation, I’d planned on having at least an hour between lunch and the show.

la la la....

We dutifully followed instructions and headed to the American Gardens Theatre, where we found the priority seating line to extend all the way to the Morocco side of Japan! We joined the line, and soon it began to move toward the theatre. Our seats were decent but not great; we were off to the left and had a pillar obscuring part of our view of the stage.  I won’t mince words here: I know I’m in the minority, but I didn’t love the show. It was fairly underwhelming, actually.  While I love the idea of a Cast Member/local youth choir and a volunteer orchestra, the quality wasn’t professional. Isabella Rosselini is a lovely woman whose voice is easy to listen to, but I guess I didn’t realize that the celebrity narrator would only be reading Bible passages verbatim.

I think what added insult to injury for us is realizing that we could have gotten a better deal on our Le Cellier lunch if we hadn’t eaten there as part of a package. So unless you really love the Candlelight Processional and want to avoid waiting in the standby seating line, I wouldn’t rush to do a CP lunch/dinner package. For those of you keeping score at home, we didn’t end up being penalized for two no-shows, so I suppose there was a silver lining.

After waiting out the exiting crowds following the show, CP and I decided to do our Epcot shopping, which is normally a big part of our souvenir budget, but even more so this year because of Christmas.  We started in Italy to buy some chocolate for CP’s Italian parents, and then headed to Germany to purchase

Some of our purchases...

ornaments and some neat reusable shopping bags.  After deciding the recycled jewelry at the African Outpost really wasn’t my style we proceeded to Norway, where CP and I bought some amazing winter scarves from…Sweden. (Close enough?)  Feeling that we hadn’t punished our aching feet enough, we doubled back to Japan where we purchased (among other things) a large Totoro, some lucky owls and cats, and a cat calendar for CP’s office. All along the way we had been purchasing candy and chocolates for our cat sitter, and we finished that mission with stops in France and the U.K.

Exhausted, we headed to the front of the park and stopped for a drink at Club Cool (I wasn’t lying about my love for Mezzo Mix!).  We stopped to browse for pins, during which I managed to spill my remaining soda all over myself. After cleaning myself up we headed out to the tram and back to OKW for another installment of what I’ll call “the drama of indecision.”

We arrived back to our villa to find my grandfather in a bit of a tizzy. Apparently he had called the front desk to ask for a late-check out; they were flying home the next afternoon and he wanted to keep my sick grandmother as comfortable as possible, something they couldn’t do in Downtown Disney or in the airport. Whoever answered the phone – maybe someone earning her ears?- told my grandfather that they “didn’t do late-check out,” that there was “no such thing.” Well, OKW has a check-out time, so by definition wouldn’t asking for anything beyond that qualify as “late?” Why my grandfather didn’t push back a bit is beyond me, but when I found him he was dejected, stressed out, and kind of a handful.

Rolling my eyes just a bit, I donned my therapist voice and asked whether he might not want to call back and ask for a supervisor. Or, better, yet, I suggested we go down to the Hospitality House to resolve this in person.  Somewhat reluctantly, he agreed, and he and I headed to the Malibu to drive up to the front. As I suspected, a visit to a real person at the desk cleared up the problem, and we were told we could check-out at any time we wanted. We asked for a 2pm check-out, and I breathed a sigh of relief that this momentary crisis was over.

On the way out, I also remarked to my grandfather that we’d have an easy time getting them to the airport the next day because we could check their luggage in at OKW the next morning. This was something he didn’t know, and I also learned my grandmother didn’t know you could check luggage even if you don’t take the Magical Express to and/or from the airport. (Pro tip!)  This bit of additional good news seemed to lighten moods a bit, so after CP and I rehydrated following our marathon day, we did laundry and collapsed in bed around 10:30.