Paul. *shudder*

We left off finishing up our tasty meal at The Plaza, eating nearly every bit, and we were back out on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom.

We had decided before even going into The Plaza that we'd head out of the park after lunch to get in some swimming. The weather was perfect and.........we had access to Stormalong Bay at the Beach Club even thoug we were staying at the Boardwalk!!! For those of you who might not know, Stormalong Bay is an AWESOME pool, complete with sand bottom, lazy river and waterslide, located at the Beach and Yacht Club Resort...which is very close to the Boardwalk.  It is strictly for guests of that resort ONLY.  They check ID and give wrist bands for access.  The Clown slide (George, as I like to call him) at the Boardwalk was under refurb, which allowed us access to Stormalong Bay. Both Joe and I were eager to check-it out since we haven't ever stayed at the Yacht or Beach Club, and I knew Henry was going to loooooooove the sand area.  That boys loves to dig!

We slowly made our way back down Main Street. Part of me didn't want to leave, but I knew Joe was READY for swim, sand, and sun.





We ran into the Dapper Dan's and watched their show for a few minutes. They are so fun to watch, incredible talent!



Video: The Dapper Dan's (48 seconds)

Gotta get a balloon picture!


So far we have been able to make it out of the parks without buying one...so far...


Bye Magic Kingdom! See you later tonight!

We were out of the gates and on a bus before 1:30.

Back at the Boardwalk I noticed the totally creepy clown chair that they have in the lobby was pulled away and facing the fireplace:



But what made it weird was...


He has a name!!!!!! LOL!   I so want to know the history and story behind this chair.

In the room we put Henry down for a nap and I went off to the Hess Station (gas station) to pick up some things we wanted for the stay. I had no idea what to really expect over at Hess because I couldn't find ANY info on the internet about the selection other than simple things like "big variety of chips."

Well...there is a reason for that.

Chips is about all they have!  We were hoping for string cheese, yogurt, maybe some hot dogs to grill out with, fresh fruit and/or veggies. They really don't have anything for perishables/cold items. We always bring the non-perishables from home, so Hess wasn't much help for us. I ended up with apples, bananas, water, milk and soda.

I did document my trip, for those that it matters to. Hess can be an easy stop for some snacks, water and cheap snacks for your room if you want to avoid the delivery fees of GardenGrocer.com or WeGoShop.com.




WDW only has Chase ATMs, this might be useful for someone to avoid a charge...


Lots of random stuff. You could make spaghetti (without meat), Mac & Cheese and PB&J...wait, they were out of peanut butter. You could make jelly sandwiches.  Or Spam ones.


You might have spied the coffee. The 8-12 type filters are the ones you use in a Villa, but for the regular hotel rooms you need the 4 cup ones.




Some single-size cereals and full box too.


I know this matters to a lot of people!






Trail mix type stuff on the end.




Only Coke products. And no, they don't sell gum!  You won't find Pepsi or gum on Disney property.




Handy stuff!




The only fruit in the entire joint.  Boring Red Delicious apples and green bananas.






Single-serving type and 1/2 Gallons were all they had.  The 1/2 Gallons were actually cheaper at the Boardwalk hotel store than at Hess!


Single serving size only.


Half & Half

Overall, here is what I put in my notes: Hess is a lot smaller than I had imagined. They have a LOT of various chips and a few "healthy" choices like pita and veggies chips. The only fruit they had were bananas and Red Delicious apples. Boring. No veggies, not even a bag of baby carrots. They sold hot dog buns, but no hot dogs. No string cheese or cups of yogurt. 1/2 gallon of milk was $3.09, $0.15 cheaper at the Boardwalk, which was surprising. Soda was on sale, and the worker told me about that, so I got 2-12 packs for just over the price of one. A gallon of water is $1.99. A few toiletry items, feminine products, diapers, wipes, toilet paper, tooth care, hair stuff. Candy bars and other candy-typical gas stations stuff. There was a section for hot food, but the displays were empty while I was in there. One was for hot breakfast sandwiches. There was a coffee bar area too, and they did have a roller cooker of hot dogs. The only juice they had was single-serving style. A lot of things didn't have price tags.

It was kinda strange to see the Cast Members that work at Disney...in costume...pumping gas and purchasing items. Kinda like a "real world" slap in the face.

So, while we were hoping for a bit more of the cooler-type items, we knew it was a gamble relying on it and not getting a grocery delivery. We ended up just purchasing a few things from the Boardwalk shop, which really isn't all that much more than your average NYC grocery store.


Pretty boring update, apart from Creepy Paul. Sorry about that! But...next time...Stormalong Bay baby!

Disney Cruise Money!

As you all know by now I am a Travel Agent.  It doesn't pay a ton, but it's a nice little side-income.  We have decided to use some of the money I earn to put directly into our travel fund.  We recently put $100 in, so I was able to update my thermometer finally!  YAY!

We did cash in about $35 worth of change, but are using the money in another needed area....hopefully more "extra money" will be rolling in soon!

The Big Apple

We left off in this trip report as we had left the Winnie the Pooh queue, without riding the ride! and made our way toward Main Street USA, we had a 12:20 dining reservation at The Plaza.


Those trees were in bloom all over property - sooooo beautiful!

We made a pit stop at the Sword in the Stone to try and flex our muscles.


A Disney friend of mine, Shannan, always has her family pose with the Castle in the background here and I finally remembered to do it too! I love how it looks!


Try as we may, that sword would not budge!


We hung a left and went around the Castle...



And on Main Street we saw the omnibus again!

The driver was off and greeting people, Henry said his hello and got to see the vehicle up close.





And we finally reached our destination. We checked in about 15 minutes early and just hung around outside.










Artsy-fartsy shot by Joe.

Joe took Henry to the bathrooms for a quick change (and I must interject - I'm SO happy we are done with diapers now!!!) and just before they got back this lady showed up.



And we were called in, sat, seated and ordered before 12:25!


Our view - we were at a corner table.


Picture of the new napkins...and me. LOL!



Henry had ordered the peanut butter & jelly sandwich with grapes and bananas...but we asked for apples instead of grapes and this is what we got:


WOW!  That's a whole lotta apple!  I was expecting a little baggie of apple slices! It came before all the rest of our food and was actually quite nice to munch on while we waited.

Joe ordered:

Grilled Chicken Sandwich - grilled chicken breast topped with shaved ham and Swiss cheese served on a flour-dusted Kaiser.

Henry's:

Which still came with the grapes! The little fruit boy loved it! And was THRILLED with the Mickey Head PB&J. He inhaled it all.

Mine:

Turkey Sandwich - smoked turkey, bacon, lettuce, vine ripened tomato and mayonnaise on toasted multi-grain bread...but mine had no mayo and instead a side of BBQ.

Part way through our meal the same Main Street Citizen came in and made a big fuss over a woman having her birthday and we all sung to her.



And did we save room for dessert?

Of course!

We all shared:

Strawberry ice cream with pineapple topping and just a "touch" of whipped cream. HA! Sounds pretty sweet? IT WAS! Whoa! The pineapple was a bit much for me, I expected fresh, but got the kind of jelly pineapple stuff. It wasn't bad, but just too much for me. We chose pineapple because that was H's favorite. And even though, it was sweet, we didn't have a problem finishing it off!

Our whole bill only came to $40 - so truly not that much more than a quick service restaurant. The Plaza is a great deal when you are paying out of pocket!

Everything was delicious and we enjoyed our meal here immensely. The service was superb!

Organization

I'm trying to organize this blog a bit since it covers Disney World trips, tips, deals, information PLUS our lives in NYC and just family stuff too.  Sure, I could make another blog about just Disney stuff, but then I have another one to keep updated!

I eventually will separate out all the Disney stuff (or most of it) into another page linked to this blog, but as for now I just made a few new "labels":

disney world feb/march 2011 (my current trip report)
disney info and tips
disney deals

Plus, I have the generic disney world label if you want to see it all.

In the life zone we have:

NYC
NYC moments
money
astoria (our neighborhood in Queens)
life
Henry
blogging
apartment living
work
moving

So there you have it.  It feels good to get a bit more cleaned up! :-)

Winnie the Queue

Onward with the February / March report of our Disney World trip.

We left off just as we headed over to Winnie the Pooh and Henry was crawling into the tree. As you may, or may not know, the Winnie the Pooh ride at Disney World just recently received this new queue.  Previously it was just your basic metal pole "switchback" type - boring!  Now check it out...






Inside the tree. I read that Piglet will be able to talk with you in here eventually.


Henry and a buddy he made.

We eventually pried him out of the tree and continued on...






Trees blocking off Tigger's Bounce Spot. I don't think they will ever open this...which is shame, but I get it. Inside are little bouncy pads for adults and kids to jump on.  "Word on the street" is that the lawyers saw a giant safety concern here and it has never been opened.  I wonder if they will refurb it to something a bit safer? I also wonder how in the world it passed through if it now has a safety issue after being built? Or is there an entirely different reason it's blocked off and I am misinformed? Who knows.


I stuck my camera through the trees to see the bounce pads!

Once we got past here it was like a wonderland. Henry was OFF! He bounced from area to area, having a BLAST. We played in the queue for a good 45 minutes and we had to peeeeeeel him outta there!




Rabbits Garden - you and a friend pump that lever in front up and down and the water would rain down on them so the vegetables would "grow" (get taller) and make a "growing sound" - I have no idea how to explain the sound! It was cute! But only the pumpkins worked at the time.


Watering


Pumping and growing!


Musical vegetables! This was fun! The radishes were pretty tough-they will last through kids banging on them. Henry couldn't even make them squeak - you had to basically punch them.


Similar to the radishes, but you could squeeze them easier.


Watermelon drums.








This was a very cute area. Gophers would pop out of the holes...at first I had no idea how it was happening, it seemed very random.


And they talk some chittery gopher chat when they pop up too.




Ah-ha! Those pads in front of the gophers! You jump on them and they pop up. The more you jump, the more they appear! It was a blast! You can also see the queue line to the left. The play area is right when you first walk into the queue, then it sorta flows into a normal switch-back queue, with a few added extras.


Pulling gopher out of his hole - this was REALLY hard! That grown adult man was having a very hard time doing it! Noooo way a kid could.




But kids have fun "helping" their Daddy!


"Tomatoes". You turned a wheel and they would pop all over the place. This was a favorite of Henry's!

Video: A very shaky video of the above tomato poppers. (21 seconds) I was also playing while filming.  He he.


Looking back from the gopher area.

After we played with the gophers a bit more...and the tomato poppers...and the music fruit and vegetables...Joe realized we now didn't have enough time to actually ride the ride before our lunch reservation! LOL!  We had played too long!  All well!

We made our way out of the entrance, grabbed some FastPasses to return to the ride later, and headed toward The Plaza Restaurant!

Up Next: The Big Apple.