Keane and PiC's December 2009 Florida Trip - Part 5
Keane
Part 5 - A pool morning, a date with Blondes, Venice Island...
One more time:
>Who: Me (Keane). PiC (Partner In Crime). And a cast of thousands.
>What: 2009 Winter Vacation.
>Where: Florida. Kidani Village, Disney World; and Inn at the Beach, Venice Island.
>When: Dec 2 through Dec 13.
>Why: Because we *like* you. Em. Oh. You. Ess. Eee.
Dec 9. A date with blondes.
We're actually woken by Mousekeeping, who says she'll come back later.
I get up, read my mail, and reply to a couple of Usenet posts before
we go to the Mara for breakfast. It's going to be 85 and mostly
sunny, the nicest day we're going to have, so instead of going to a
theme park, we're going to hang out by the pool.
At Mara, get breakfast, and decide to bring something back to Kidani
for later. PiC chooses a yogurt parfait, I choose zebra domes. Quiz
time! Which is the smarter choice? HAhahahaha...
We get back to the room, I get my laptop and a book, and PiC picks up
Steve's book to read. Uh-oh. Has PiC drunk the kool-aid too? :-)
(I have a picture of her reading the book, but she says if I ever
publish the picture, she'll never speak to me again. I'm not sure if
it's because of the way she looks in the picture, or that I have proof
she was reading Russo's book. However, it is good to know that I have
something that will make her stop talking to me, should the need ever
arise...)
I find they have WiFi here at the pool but they want to charge me
another $9.95. They want my KTTK card number, but they don't do the
lookup to see if I've paid for internet access in my room. Forget it.
So, PiC is reading Steve's book, and I'm typing this trip report by
the pool. How sad is that.
I have a plan for tonight too. PiC is questioning why I have so many
plans for someone who doesn't plan trips. You know, I have that
picture of her reading Russo's book...
We're having dinner at Cape May tonight with BYPT Jenny, and her
current captive helper, Jeanette.
Jenny originally wanted to see the room at Kidani, and I promised I'd
put all the dirty underwear away before they came over. So we had
some work to do...
About 30 minutes after getting back from the pool, Jenny calls and her
party has arrived and is ready to start her WDW Vacation. She now
wants to meet at Cape May, so PiC and I decide to go on over to the
Beach Club and just look at the different resorts around Crescent
Lake.
A couple minutes later, Jenny calls back and wants to see the studio.
Women? Blondes? Of course, I *never* stereotype...
I take a quick look at a map, and it's just a short trip up Osceola
Parkway to All-Stars, and take the quick drive over. I show the guard
my Kidani room card, and he doesn't care and waves me through.
Now Movies is the only All-Stars I haven't stayed at, so I drive right
past the front of the resort, where I'm supposed to pick up Jenny and
Jeanette. I go into the temporary lot, turn around, and make the
correct turn, and pick up a couple of women like the dirty old man I
am. We're back to Osceola Parkway, where I find instead of a normal
intersection, it's a complete cloverleaf, and find myself heading in
the wrong direction. Way to impress the ladies...
I'm still only gone from Kidani for about 15 minutes. Jenny has
brought us Peaceful Pastures soap (I hope she wasn't trying to tell me
something), I supply a couple of pictures. We talk and watch the
animals for a while, take a couple of pictures, and take off to Beach
Club.
Discussing ways to get there from Kidani. I originally thought a bus
to DHS, then the boat back, but there's a Animal Kingdom bus right
there when we get to the bus stop. So Animal Kingdom it is!
We get to Animal Kingdom, and literally right across the bus station
is a bus to the Swan, Dolphin, Yacht Club, Beach Club and Boardwalk.
I point out to PiC the place we go under the waterway the boat takes.
Only at Disney. We get to Beach Club at 5PM, waaay faster than I
thought we would. That's okay, I spend some time taking video and
pictures of the Gingerbread/Chocolate displays. PiC and I pick up
some gingerbread from... The Gingerbread House, of course!
As I'm taking pictures of the carousel, I overhear a couple saying
they couldn't find the hidden Mickey�s, so I point a few of them out,
and give them a whole new perspective. No, the little figure of
Mickey isn't a hidden Mickey...
Dinner at Cape May is way fun, if a little messy. You start with the
stuff you have to work for, like the crab legs, then move onto stuff
you can just eat. Good food (Mahi Mahi, Roast Beef, steamed clams,
muscles, pastas, salads, etc.), odd conversation, and more food and
desert. Flan. It was a little more pudding like and less like the
egg custard they have around here, but that doesn't mean it was
bad... PiC and I decided we would do it again...
We part ways, we go out to beach and I take some pics and video of the
Boardwalk at night. Coincidentally, they're starting up the movie on
the beach (which is at the pool at Kidani and Jambo). Snow Dogs.
James Coburn. A long way from playing the knife guy in The
Magnificent Seven. So instead of going to Epcot, we end up watching a
movie on the beach. Well, yeah, it's a predictable and stupid in
places, but it has it's laughs and it's mindless entertainment on the
beach overlooking the Boardwalk at night... And neither one of us has
seen it. What's the problem here?
The problem arises when we go to leave. It's 9:00pm, and none of the
boats go to the Studios anymore. Going to Epcot means PiC has to use
a day just to get across Epcot. So the only choices are to Downtown
Disney or Magic Kingdom. The <bleep> with it. There's a Taxi right
at the bus stop, and we hop in and ride (in admittedly more comfort
than a bus, :-)) back to Kidani.
It's then she realizes she no longer has the bag that had the
gingerbread, and is convinced she left it in the bathroom at the Beach
Club. She calls, and is somehow transferred to the Grand Floridian,
back to the Beach Club, to lost and found, and when nobody answers,
she's transferred to housekeeping...
Say Goodnight, Gracie. They're gone...
===================================================================
Dec 10. Venice Island.
Before I get to this, I have to say it's 73 degrees here right now.
In Chicago, you can remove the '7', with a wind-chill in the negative
high-upper teens.
Does anyone from Florida want to adopt me? I'll be a good kid.
Honest. I even promise to get a job...
Anyway, time to pack up and go!
There's a nice little sunrise over the Sunset Savanna this morning.
I put out a call to RADP, if anyone's going to the Beach Club, I need
a favor. Something about Gingerbread... :-)
Pack the room. It was very sad taking down the Christmas decorations.
Not only am I leaving WDW, but it's like I'm killing Christmas at the
same time. This turns out not to be true, and by the time I leave
Venice Island, I'm ready to call it a year on Christmas Carols.
Three trips to the car. On the last trip down, PiC gets a call. A
heating pipe burst over her desk, and floods out everything. Could
this be that Disney Karma I talk about?
We decide to go to the Mara for breakfast. There was talk about doing
Boma for breakfast, but we're not hungry enough after stuffing
ourselves at Cape May last night. As we're eating, it starts to
drizzle. We're done with breakfast, and get to the car. For laughs,
we decide to take a trip to Beach Club, and see if they have the
gingerbread cookies.
She goes to the front desk and she asks, and the front desk calls lost
& found. No one answers, so they call housekeeping, and housekeeping
transfers the call back to...The Front Desk! So it's not only Disney
giving PiC the run-around, it's Disney giving Disney the run-around.
Disney is willing to replace the cookies, but we won't be there when
the Gingerbread House is open. So they offer to refund the money, but
we have to go back to AKL to get it done. PiC chalks it up to a
lesson learned...
While I'm waiting for PiC in the car in front of Beach Club, it begins
to rain. Hard. We're off property on I-4, and it start POURING! I
find it doesn't matter if I'm leaving Disneyworld via the Turnpike or
I-4, it's depressing. I pass the Mouse power pole, and once again, I
say goodbye to the World...
It's just past noon, when we get to Venice. We check in, and the room
is ready. It's a nice place. We have one of two rooms that has a
balcony that overlooks the gulf. They're tiny rooms, but we don't
need a lot of room. The room is probably half the size of the Studio
at Kidani. Still, the room is clean, with all the amenities I'd want,
check-in was pleasant, and (real) free coffee is always offered in the
lobby.
There's a problem with my HSIA. I get a very strong wireless signal,
but I can't get to a name server. The front desk isn't helpful.
We take a look at the local propaganda, and decide to eat at Gold Rush
BBQ. Problem is, it's not really BBQ. The meat is slow cooked, but
it's not hard-wood smoked. They claim it's hickory smoked, but
there's no smoke line or very smoky flavor. Food is okay, but I'm
disappointed. On the other hand, it's Florida. How many hardwood
trees do I see around here?
On the way, we notice the local public bus system is named "SCAT". I
refrain from further comment. (Sarasota County Area Transit. I
forgot to ask the locals if it describes the service as well... Crap.
I commented.) They also have some interesting trees in the median.
They're Banyan trees, a strangler fig. They're quite old, and quite
large.
Do some window shopping along the main streets. Typical shops, with a
more real estate offices than you'd think could be supported in a
small place like this. You might think Disney's shops have become
cheezy, but come on over here and take a look... Everything from a
Christmas tree that blows fake snow out of the top so it looks
like...snow is falling on the Christmas tree (which was actually
pretty cool), to shells, shark's teeth, alligator heads and everything
else you'd think you'd find in a tourist trap on the ocean... There's
even a shop with everything Mermaid. I like places like this. About
once every couple of years...
Walk the beach and collect some shells, take pictures of the sea
birds. After walking around WDW for a week, walking on sand is a joy
(not.) Still, walking on a near deserted beach on the Gulf has it's
moments. It isn't sunny, but then too it's not raining. The sun is
setting, but there're to many clouds. It turns out to be a crappy
sunset, but with some cool cloud patterns. PiC comments as she
watches me stop the camera down, making the sunset look way better
than it actually does. She stopped believing in photos as evidence a
looong time ago...
We get back to the room, and I have limited connectivity. Look up
some restaurants in Venice, and try a local pizza joint named Scamotz.
I've actually found pretty good pizza in Florida, but it takes 50
minutes to get a medium thin crust, which should have taken 15 minutes
on the outside. Worse, they only has Sinatra tunes on. Not that I
have a problem with Frank, but it was wall-to-wall Sinatra for the
hour we were there. Is there a problem with Tony? Dean? Alice?
We get back to the hotel, and I have mail from Steve, and the great
gingerbread adventure II begins...
End Keane and PiC's December 2009 Florida Trip - Part 5
--
When stars are born, They possess a gift or two,
One of them is this, They have the power to make a wish come true...
-- Wishes
Visit my site: http://keanespics.com
Steve Russo
news:h01ti5h46656dqejt...@4ax.com...
> We get back to the room, I get my laptop and a book, and PiC picks up
> Steve's book to read. Uh-oh. Has PiC drunk the kool-aid too? :-)
> (I have a picture of her reading the book, but she says if I ever
> publish the picture, she'll never speak to me again. I'm not sure if
> it's because of the way she looks in the picture, or that I have proof
> she was reading Russo's book. However, it is good to know that I have
> something that will make her stop talking to me, should the need ever
> arise...)
Glad to be of service... and I want a copy of that photo.
Enjoying the report so far, especially the parts that I'm in ;-)
Rudeney
>
> I find they have WiFi here at the pool but they want to charge me
> another $9.95. They want my KTTK card number, but they don't do the
> lookup to see if I've paid for internet access in my room. Forget it.
A smartphone would solve that problem! ;-)
> We're having dinner at Cape May tonight with BYPT Jenny, and her
> current captive helper, Jeanette.
>
> Jenny originally wanted to see the room at Kidani, and I promised I'd
> put all the dirty underwear away before they came over. So we had
> some work to do...
>
> About 30 minutes after getting back from the pool, Jenny calls and her
> party has arrived and is ready to start her WDW Vacation. She now
> wants to meet at Cape May, so PiC and I decide to go on over to the
> Beach Club and just look at the different resorts around Crescent
> Lake.
>
> A couple minutes later, Jenny calls back and wants to see the studio.
>
> Women? Blondes? Of course, I *never* stereotype...
I think you're going to pay for that one, Keane. Blaming it on the
chemo will only go so far.
> Do some window shopping along the main streets. Typical shops, with a
> more real estate offices than you'd think could be supported in a
> small place like this. You might think Disney's shops have become
> cheezy, but come on over here and take a look... Everything from a
> Christmas tree that blows fake snow out of the top so it looks
> like...snow is falling on the Christmas tree (which was actually
> pretty cool),
Now that does sound pretty cool!
> to shells, shark's teeth, alligator heads and everything
> else you'd think you'd find in a tourist trap on the ocean... There's
> even a shop with everything Mermaid. I like places like this. About
> once every couple of years...
Oh, we visit them in Destin many times a year. Even the nice places
have at least one small table of "beach kitsch". Just the same way that
very nook and cranny at WDW has cheap plastic trinkets, it's just part
of the overall ambiance.
--
- RODNEY
Next WDW Vacation?
Who knows!
Need to know more about RADP (rec.arts.disney.parks)?
Keane
wrote:
>Keane wrote:
>> Women? Blondes? Of course, I *never* stereotype...
>
>I think you're going to pay for that one, Keane. Blaming it on the
>chemo will only go so far.
Have to catch me first...
>> to shells, shark's teeth, alligator heads and everything
>> else you'd think you'd find in a tourist trap on the ocean... There's
>> even a shop with everything Mermaid. I like places like this. About
>> once every couple of years...
>
>Oh, we visit them in Destin many times a year. Even the nice places
>have at least one small table of "beach kitsch". Just the same way that
>very nook and cranny at WDW has cheap plastic trinkets, it's just part
>of the overall ambiance.
Yeah, but it makes me laugh, that I can find the same sort of
jun...trinkets in Venice, Florida, that I can at a Florida Citrus
Outlet on I-75 near Georgia.
But you're right. Americana just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't
for all the cheezy crap they make in China... ;-)
Keane