Chris and Jessica Johnson (Trip 2) - December 2004

Day Three- Sunday, December 26, 2004

Chris and I got up this morning around 10:30 or 11. Our original plan for the day was to meet up with Deb, Kayla, Annette and Kyle at the Yacht Club, so that Chris, Kayla and Kyle could rent water mice. I called Deb when we got up, and she said that it was too cold, so they'd be skipping the boating. We were disappointed, and then called Annette, who was up for it, so we got ready and headed out to the Yacht Club.

We left the car with the valet, and realized that Deb hadn't been crazy, it really WAS too cold to go boating. Chris and I headed up to Annette and Kyle's room, and we gave Annette her Christmas present. Chris had been reading over my shoulder one night, when Annette had mentioned in chat that she had always wanted an Easy Bake Oven as a child. So, Chris got her one for Christmas. She was completely surprised, because it was really the last thing anyone would have expected.

Since it was too cold for boating, we moved on to plan B for the day. Originally we were going to go boating, and then the guys were going to head to DisneyQuest, while the girls went to the Grand Floridian for tea. With boating out of the equation, the guys headed for DisneyQuest early, and Annette and I decided it was time for some outlet shopping.

Deb had given Annette directions, and we had no problem finding our way to the outlet. However, we couldn't get anywhere near it- traffic was really backed up. At this point we realized it was the day after Christmas, so this wasn't our smartest plan. Cars were literally parked on the grass and on the medians outside the outlet mall, and about the time we finally got close to the parking lot, we had to turn back, to make it to tea in time.

So, we went back and left the car at the Grand Floridian. We were a few minutes early, and so we headed in to check out the shops downstairs. In the one shop, Annette and I stopped to look at a few shirts- and she told me to guess the price of one. I guessed $50, and was wrong- it was $114! But- I got her, because there was a sweater, and it was on sale- she wasn't even close on the sale price, $179, let alone the $325 original price tag on it. Giggling, we headed out of the store to look for Deb and Kayla.

We found them as they were heading in the resort, and Deb handed me a chestnut and told me to try it. During the holidays, they roast chestnuts over an open fire outside the resort, and she'd gotten some on her way in. It was okay- I'd never had one, and will probably skip them in the future. We checked in for tea, and were told it would be a little while, so Annette and I had Deb and Kayla guess the prices on the shirts.

Then we settled down in a seating area, and I gave Deb her Christmas present. She'd told me earlier in December that Kayla was decorating their Christmas tree, and listening to the only holiday cd they had, so I'd gotten her a few more. Eventually it was time for our seating, and we headed in, and were seated on one of the little couch areas.

Deb, Annette and I all got the Buckingham Palace tea, while Kayla got the Mrs. Potts Tea for children. Kayla had the Magical Dark Tea, a tuna sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a ham and cheese sandwich, followed by pastries. Her mother had trained her well, and she went right for the chocolate covered strawberry!

I ordered peppermint tea, Deb got the black currant, and Annette went for raspberry tea. They brought out our tea, and then started with our tea sandwiches. Among the ones we had were an egg salad, a chicken salad with almonds, watercress and cucumber, a pear one, and instead of the normal salmon one, we had a shrimp salad sandwich. Deb likes to tease me, because I don't eat shrimp, so she got a kick out of watching me eat the sandwich. Along with the sandwiches, we got a miniature savory onion tart.

The next course was a scone and a jam tart, followed by our choice of pastries or strawberries and cream. Sometimes the strawberries don't look so healthy, but this time they looked good, so Annette and I both went for them, while Deb had the pastries.

All in all we spent an hour or so talking and laughing. After tea, we decided we'd do a Hidden Mickey hunt in some of the resorts for the afternoon. We had to meet up with everyone at the Poly for dinner around 8:30, so we had a few hours to kill.

Kayla took control of the Hidden Mickey book, and Deb was in charge of taking pictures. We headed outside to find the first one, on the weather vanes of the Grand Floridian. After we froze, we went back inside, and spotted some on the Gingerbread House in the lobby. We made a bit of a spectacle searching the Grand Piano for them, but they were no where to be found! So, we moved on to the next one, which was supposed to be on the luggage trolleys at Bell Services. We went back outside, where Deb got a picture of Richard, the door greeter, but no Hidden Mickey! It seems they've changed the style of the luggage carts.

So, we headed back inside, and went upstairs to catch the monorail. We headed over to the Contemporary for our next stop, and immediately hit the gift shops. We found a Mickey in the carpet in the stores on the left side of the Concourse, as well as some new antennae toppers. I picked up a Stitch one for Chris, along with a Nemo topper. We made Annette buy a monorail magnet (because Deb, Carla and I all have them), and then bought one for Joanie as well. Then we headed across the Concourse to the other shops, where we found some Mickey's on the trees above the displays.

Then we took the elevator up to the 8th floor, to find the Goat with 5 legs on the mural. Our next stop was on the 2nd floor, to see if they would let us check out the California Grill, as there is a Hidden Mickey inside. Understandably, they said they couldn't, as they were just too booked for dinner, but if we came back right as they opened another day, it would be no problem. So, we scrapped that idea, and took the escalator downstairs, and headed out the front of the hotel.

We walked across the valet area, and out into the courtyard in front of the hotel, to see if we could see the Hidden Mickey watch that's built into the landscaping. I'd seen it from our room when we stayed there in July, and had shown it to Deb on our visit for Earmarked. It's a bit harder to see when you're at ground level, but we showed it to Annette and Kayla, and after getting a picture, we headed back inside.

Then we headed out the back door, to find the Mickey build into the pavement out back. We found him, and Annette made a comment about having a picture of Kyle on a Mickey sculpture. Kayla climbed up, but kept sliding, because it's only about 2 inches wide, so I got in front of her to hold her up while Deb grabbed a picture. We then headed down to the dock, where we grabbed a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge.

I can't even begin to explain how cold it was outside that day, so we knew the boat wasn't a great idea. But, surprisingly, it wasn't too bad when we were out on the water, and we were soon at the Wilderness Lodge. We showed Kayla the bear at the Lodge, and then we headed down the pathway, to see if Deb and I could show Annette and Kayla the Mickey in the geyser. It was hard to see, since it was dark, so we quickly abandoned the idea in favor of going inside for hot chocolate.

We ducked inside, and headed to Roaring Forks, where we all got hot chocolate, and then made our way up to the Lobby. We stopped by the Territory Lounge, and found the Mickey's in the map, and in the Lounge, and then asked if we could look for the one in Artist Point. I'm sure many of the diners thought we were crazy, because we came in, stared at the mural, took a picture, and then left, but we didn't want to miss seeing this one.

Then we headed into the main lobby, where we found the Mickey in the fireplace, and the one behind the desk. We checked out the pin cart, as well as the gift shop, before reluctantly heading back out into the cold. On the way out, we stopped by the geyser again, because Deb's camera has a red light that you can use to sort of show what will be photographed, and using that, we were able to find the last of the Mickey's we needed at the Lodge.

We got on a boat back to the Contemporary, and about halfway over, I commented to Annette about how creepy I find dark water to be. When we were on our Wishes cruise during Mousefest, the driver had told us how they'd had to be dropped during parasailing, as part of their training, and had commented about how it was into dark water- and it just got me thinking about it on the ride over. Unfortunately, about a minute later, one of the Boston Whalers pulled up alongside us and told our driver to dock at the Contemporary.

That had been our plan all along, but it was strange, and Annette and I started to wonder if something was going wrong with the boat. We were very glad to get to the dock, and get off the boat- but as we were getting off, the CM on the Boston Whaler had tied up alongside us and was getting on the boat. We didn't waste any time getting off and heading back inside where it was warm!

We took the elevator back up to the 4th floor, and then the escalator up to the monorail. On the way up, I managed to spill the last sip of my hot chocolate down my white sweatshirt. No one was terribly surprised. So, we took the monorail back around to the Polynesian, where we got off and headed downstairs. We went out the back door, for our last outside Mickey, and headed over to the arcade, to find the one on the sign.

As we came back inside, we spotted Chris and Kyle going up the staircase on the opposite side of the lobby. I pulled out my cell phone, and called Chris, just as they hit the top of the stairs. They turned around and came back, and then we headed to the front doors, to find the Mickey in the floor tile. Here we met up with Rick, and then we all headed upstairs, to check out the shops.

There are supposed to be two Hidden Mickey's in the shops, but one isn't very hidden at all. We got pictures, and after checking out all the goodies in the shops, we made our way over to 'Ohana, to look for Joanie and Bob. They were there in just a few minutes, and so we checked in, and found some spots to wait to be seated.

We were seated, and our waitress came over to introduce herself and take our drink orders, and then that was pretty much the last we saw of her. Wishes started, and we were able to see most of the fireworks from where we were seated, and when it ended, we still were waiting for the appetizers. They finally came out, more than 20 minutes after we were seated, and at exactly the same time as they started bringing us different skewers of meat.

The meal pretty much continued as it started, with absolutely awful service. We were not able to get refills, and ended up with about 4 different people serving us throughout the night. To make matters worse, we watched our waitress serve the tables around us, while ignoring us.

The company was wonderful though, and we had a great time hanging out and chatting. After the meal, we headed over to Kona Cafe, to find the last Mickey we needed, and ended up getting pictures of the chocolate Lilo and Stitch they had on display. On our way downstairs, we spotted another Mickey, and then we spent a while hanging out and talking.

Eventually, it was time to leave, and we split up. Chris and I dropped Annette and Kyle off at the Grand Floridian, where she'd left the car, and then we headed back to Celebration, to settle in for our last night there.

When we arrived, we found that they'd come in and turned our room down while we were out. We settled in for the night, after packing up some of our stuff, and arranging for a late checkout. All too soon it was time for bed, and the end of another wonderful day.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4