DAY 14 - THURSDAY 4TH JUNE
For the first
time this trip we decide to have a day relaxing and not going to
a park at any time. We have an 8.00pm ADR for The Wave restaurant
at the Contemporary tonight, so we have all day to enjoy some
downtime.
Not so for Susan and Grandma though, they decide to hit the Magic
Kingdom to do a few remaining rides they have not managed to fit
in up to yet. Grandma once again comes out tops in the energy and
enthusiasm stakes.
Me, Tam, India
and Georgia leave the room around 10.00am and get the bus to the
Magic Kingdom. From here we transfer to the little boat that runs
to the Polynesian.
A couple of cabanas are secured and we go about the task of
enjoying the sunshine for as long as we can. The weather forecast
is not looking too good today with an 80% chance of thunderstorms
from lunchtime onwards.
The pool at the Polynesian is very nice with a cool slide. I also really like the hammocks on the beach and some time is spent swinging lazily back and forth in these.
At 1.00pm it starts to rain and so we pack up our things and head into the Polynesian for lunch at the Kona Café. Between the 3 of us we split the honey coated chicken wings with mustard sauce, chicken in coconut and mango sauce and a fish taco. The food is accompanied by a couple of beers and Cokes for the girls. We all enjoy the food and the server is particularly good. The bill with 20% off for the Tables in Wonderland card is $59.
After lunch we
stroll past one of the shops and India spots a rather ugly statue
of a Tiki god.
‘Look’ she says ‘it’s Matt’.
Just around the
corner is another much happier looking statue.
‘Matt’s spotted the bar’.
We catch the monorail round to the Contemporary and walk outside to view Bay Lake Towers. This new DVC resort looks like a lovely addition to the resort range, it will be difficult to get a bad view with one side looking out over Bay Lake and the other side having views over the 7 Seas Lagoon and the Magic Kingdom.
Next we walk to the Magic Kingdom and catch the bus back to the Boardwalk. Tam and Georgia do their customary trick of falling asleep as soon as the bus pulls off.
A few additional passengers
Showered and
refreshed we leave the room for the Polynesian. We were
originally going to get a bus to the Magic Kingdom and a boat
across, but the skies are looking ominous again, so we get a
taxi.
This proves to be a wise move as we drive into a serious storm
with thunder and lightning crashing all around us. The taxi
driver follows a bus most of the way as the visibility is down to
just a few feet.
At the
Polynesian we meet up with Sharon and Evan. The idea is to have a
drink at the bar before moving on to Mizner’s at the Grand
Floridian. The problem is the lounge at the Polynesian is right
next door to ‘Ohana, so everybody sits there waiting for
their ADR’s. It’s never going to be relaxing, so we
give up on the idea and catch the monorail to the Grand
Floridian.
I have never seen the lobby so full of people as nearly every
seat is taken, I suppose it’s because of the bad weather.
Luckily Mizner’s is a lot quieter and we all sit down for
cocktails. These are not cheap (between $9 and $10) but I think
it’s worth it to sit down in a very pleasant lounge that is
a little more refined and relaxed than many other Disney lounges.
As an added bonus the band start to play just outside the
entrance.
I enjoy a Long
Island Iced Tea, which is a heck of a lot more potent than it
sounds.
We now do the Secret Mad Hatter gift swap. As you may recall, the
rules were that we pulled a name from a hat and had to buy a gift
for that person costing $4 to $6.
This is good fun and I had to buy a gift for Sharon, so I got her
a shot glass. I figure the gift ought to say something about the
giver and this way she’ll think of me every time she has a
shot of tequila – about 4 or 5 times a night I would think.
I won’t go into all the gifts, but Susan buys me a sort of press button that says ‘Oh boy’ in a Mickey voice whenever it’s used. I intend to place this by our beer fridge at home and operate it every time the fridge door is opened. I hope Mickey has got some throat lozenges handy; he’s going to need them.
Back on the
monorail and we move round to the Contemporary where there’s
no messing as we head straight to The Wave. I can immediately see
why Deb and Matt like this place so much, it has a proper bar
with seating all round plus a couple of semi-circular areas,
which are coolly lit for enjoying a pre-dinner drink.
Tam and I enjoy a glass of Chardonnay before our buzzer goes off
and our table is ready.
The main
restaurant is quite pleasant, if a little disappointing after the
spectacular bar area, but we are lucky enough to be in one of the
smaller side rooms.
As we sit down there are a couple of families with very young
children (3 or 4?) at the next tables and they are running around
being quite noisy. Luckily our 8.30pm ADR is quite late, so they
are just finishing up and leave soon afterwards. I really
don’t have anything against families in restaurants, after
all this is Walt Disney World, but sometimes it is nice to be
able to have an adult meal in a quieter environment.
The food here
gets a mixed reception from our party. Our starter of seared Ahi
Tuna and chicken egg rolls is nice, as is my beef tenderloin with
Boniato mash, but Tam says her chicken pot pie is far too salty.
Grandma has the pot pie too and says it’s fine for her. Mind
you, Grandma does like her salt. She usually applies salt to her
salt in order to increase the sodium chloride content.
I keep telling her ‘Look, you’re only 84, you’ll
die young if you keep using all that salt’. She’ll
probably expire at 120 and I’ll say ‘I told you
so’, if I’m still here of course.
Ahi tuna and chicken egg rolls
The desserts are well appreciated though. I can’t remember exactly how they are categorised, but Crisp and Crunchy is one. You get 3 little portions of different desserts in that category.
Partly due to
our late ADR, but also because it takes a while to work out who
owes what on the bill, we are the last out of the restaurant.
One thing we didn’t like here was that the main courses came
out before we had finished our appetizers. Our server seemed a
little embarrassed by this as well and apologised to us.
We take a taxi back to the Boardwalk and are in bed around midnight.