Disney 2010: Day 2

I think I mentioned the noisy neighbors yesterday.  We ended up changing rooms. The noise started around 6am.  I was hearing so many adult voices (laughing, shouting, arguing, etc) that I was sure they were out in the hallway, until I peeked out there and saw no one.  I eventually figured out that it was the room across from us and the room next to us.  Neither room appeared to have kids in it — just totally inconsiderate adults.

Before we could head to the parks, we had to pack up all of our stuff.  By the time we got everything out to the bell desk to check out it was close to 10am; as we were leaving our room the noisemakers were still at it.  Epcot was our first stop. We got caught by one of the survey guys on the way in, but this survey was pretty cool.  He gave us a book to fill out with our impressions about certain attractions and then there was a $20 gift card waiting for us at the end of the day.  Sa-weet.

We didn’t have a lot of time before our 1:30 reservation at Akershus for the Princes lunch, but we decided to see how much we could pack into that time.  It ended up looking something like this:

• Fastpasses for Soarin’
• The Seas with Nemo and Friends
• Turtle Talk with Crush
• Soarin’
• Journey into Imagination with Figment

Not bad for less than 3 hours’ effort.

We got over to Norway about 20 minutes early and checked in; they were able to take us about 10 minutes later.  The lunch at Akershus was advertised as being “family style” buffet with entrees, but we really didn’t understand what that meant.  Here’s what it means:  you start your meal with selections from the buffet, pick an entree for lunch, and then your server brings a tray of desserts to your table for your party to share.  Between the two of us, we sampled the following from the buffet:  shrimp salad with garlic and dill, roasted salmon, peppered mackerel, clear herring, herring in tomato sauce, and some cheeses.  I had the salmon burger with hearty veggie soup for my entree, and John had the open-faced chicken sandwich with winter bisque.  Everything was really great, but we both loved the potato and fennel salad.  Very nice.

And then came the parade of princesses.  Belle had met us at the front door, and four more stopped by our table for photos.  A package of photos (1-8×10 and 4-4×6) is included in the price of your meal, so we have a really nice one to bring home.  The photo below is the one they took with my little point and click camera, and unfortunately it’s a bit blurry.  But the real one is very nice.

As the other four princesses (Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, and Ariel) were visiting, our dessert tray was delivered.  It had three selections:  a chocolate mousse cake, rice pudding with lingonberry sauce, and an apple tart with vanilla ice cream.   All three were unbelievable; we actually enjoyed this lunch more than Le Cellier the previous night.  Our server also brought me a birthday surprise.

After lunch we stopped by Mexico for another ride on the Grand Fiesta Tour boat ride and some window shopping.  I could spend way too much money in there on everything from blown glass to tequila-filled chocolates.  But we left with just this picture:

We had planned on heading to Hollywood Studios to ride a couple of things before Fantasmic that night, but Test Track was calling our names too loudly to just walk by.  And after riding it the first time, we decided that we really needed to ride it a second time — in the name of science for the Disney survey book, of course.  Then we turned in our book, collected our gift card and hit the bus to the Studios.

It had been cold and overcast all day, but it seemed to hit a new level of cold once we got to the studios.  We had two hours to burn before Fantasmic but discovered that the Fast passes for most attractions were already gone and there were long waits for some rides.  The sign board said 35 minutes for Toy Story Mania, but it’s been wrong before so we headed over….. and found the wait to be wrapped around the building and 85 minutes.  Whoa.  Neither of us had ever seen The Voyage of the Little Mermaid so we decided to check that out.  Wow, what a show.  We had 45 minutes til Fantasmic by the time we got out of it so we staked out some very cold seats at the theatre and shared some cotton candy and lots of laughs.  Seriously, I think that’s probably my most magical moment so far.

As we were leaving at the end of Fantasmic, a cast member stopped us and chatted us up about our birthday and anniversary buttons — then gave us Fastpasses for the Aerosmith coaster.  BONUS!!  We had been planning on catching a boat over to Epcot for fish ‘n chips then Illuminations, but were very willing to change our plans for a cool freebie  like this one.  Of course, between the time it took to get through the ride and the wait for the boat, there was no way we were going to make Epcot before closing so we got off at the Swan & Dolphin instead and went to DTD for fish ‘n chips at Cookes of Dublin.  Dinner was great, but the mini doughnuts we got for dessert were amazing.

By the time we got back to our room around 10:30, we were exhausted.  Unfortunately our bags hadn’t  been moved so we had to wait for a bellhop to bring them.  Moving was a good choice.  It was very quiet here last night, and we’re much closer to both the bus stop and to the other part of the resort (where our restaurant for Friday night is) than we were before.  Mousekeeping had left this cute little guy for us to find when we came in:

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