Tuesday May 6th:
I woke up to the sound of intermittent buzzing in my left ear. The bedroom was very dark and I lay there feeling disorientated. The LED display told me it was stupid o' clock so why, exactly, was I flippin' well awake?! I felt under my pillow and fished out my phone - sure enough I had a text message! It was DH informing me of his arrival at Gatwick - gee, thanks sweetie! As I settled back down the phone buzzed again - he was through security and in the Clubhouse. What does he want? A round of applause?? Tersely I pressed the 'off' button and snuggled down for some serious shuteye...
Later, much later, I turned the phone back on and waded through the text messages that took me, step-by-step, through his progress airside. Actually it was more about the lack of it, as his flight was delayed. However, by the time I sat quaffing coffee, he'd taken off and was no doubt in in-flight entertainment ecstasy. Using a complicated sum, I secretly guestimated his time of arrival and worked out we had several hours before we needed to be back in the room. So I asked Sophie if she fancied a little retail reconnaissance?! The sight of her shuffling speedily into the shower room gave me my answer and I adjourned to the en-suite to prepare my face for the day...
We caught the boat to the Magic Kingdom and picked up a bus to the Dolphin from there so we could collect the hire car. I had pre-booked an intermediate SUV but this was not available so the Alamo lady upgraded me to a 7 seater minibus!!! What????!!! Now I know we like to shop but
purlease!!! TBH I nearly fainted - I was still an inexperienced Orlando driver and the phrase "minibus" greatly exacerbated my already knee-knocking nervousness. I imagined my tiny self, barely able to peer over the steering wheel of something akin to the Mystery Machine, enormous back end careering wildly out of control!!! But enough of my body hang ups... Anyway, I initialled the form in the appropriate places with shaking hands, took possession of the keys and waited for the valet to bring the monster truck around to the front of the hotel...
Except it wasn't a monster truck - or even what I would consider a minibus! It was just a Toyota people carrier that hugged the road (no careering back ends here) and was a pleasure to drive!
So we were soon on the road and decided to head straight for the nearby Premium Outlets. OK, can I just take a few moments to wax lyrical about the excellent Orlando map created by Steve Munns?! I can? Excellent!!! The tourist map is quite simply inspired genius and I wish they were available for all my hoilday destinations. I only discovered his website earlier this year and it really enhanced our pre-holiday planning - let alone the actual in-situ driving experience. Buy one you won't regret it... Anyway, off we went. Before many minutes had elapsed, we were parked and limbering up for what I like to call 'The Outlet Mall Marathon'! Now I've found the Premium Outlet stores a hit and miss affair in the past but this time they definitely didn't disappoint! Sophie and I had a wonderful time and, as the hours passed, so our collection of shopping bags grew. And grew...
My favourite store on this occasion was the Gap outlet where I found a pair of lightweight cropped trousers that were very much my sort of thing - so I bought a pair in every colour! They also had a pretty broderie anglaise top which I nabbed in several colours. That was the good shopping. On a less successful scale, I'm ashamed to say I completely bottled it in the Fendi store. Despite falling deeply and passionately in lust with a dainty little red baguette bag that I knew to be an absolute bargain, I came over all cowardly in the credit card department and slunk out out the shop with just the assistant's business card in my clammy hands! Needless to say, I deeply regret it now but, ah well, there's always next time...
When we could shop no more, Sophie and I staggered to the car and headed back towards WDW. But hang on a moment - is that a large CVS drug store I see before me??? It was so we decided to stop and stock up on huge pots of generic drugs!!! We spent ages in here. I don't really know why but I do recall buying a twin pack of microwaveable frozen savoury croissants and bottle of Pinot Grigio for less than $3!!!
Meanwhile I kept surreptitiously checking my phone to see if there was any news from DH. I was browsing the antacids when I received word that he was through immigration and about to board the Magical Express at MCO. I knew it was now time for us to return to the Villas and rounded up Sophie and our small trolley of delights. Checking out took a little while as we had (somehow) bought a ridiculous amount of stuff! Oh well, at least I now had a Sonicaire toothbrush charger and hot air brush to put in my Owners Locker...
Burdened with our billion bags, we made it back to the room. Knowing who's arrival was now imminent, I was beside myself with excitement and had a couple of mad moments where I leapt around the living room!!! Fortunately my family are used to what they describe as my 'high-on-life' outbursts and Sophie didn't think there was anything out of the ordinary going on. She sat on the sofa, reading so I decided to try and follow her calming example. It wasn't easy so imagine my relief when, after I'd read the same paragraph for the tenth time, there came a knock at the door?! Thank goodness!!! "Who on earth's that?" hissed Sophie, irritably. I gave a confused shrug before gesticulating for to her to go and find out...
She looked through the peephole but couldn't see anything and cautiously opened the door... "I thought you'd need a couple of extra refillable mugs!" came her father's deep booming voice!!! And there he stood in the doorway, laden with luggage and a cheeky grin on his much-loved familiar face. He proffered the afore-mentioned mugs to our darling daughter who remained rooted to the spot. She seemed momentarily stunned before launching herself at DH and starting the supersonic squealing I had previously predicted!!! Richard dropped his cases and hugged us both as we were jumping around in the doorway. Realising we were making an exhibition of ourselves (so, what's new?!) I dragged DH and his baggage into the room. Sophie couldn't stop asking us questions: Did I know? When did we plan this?? How long ago had we planned this??? And so on. I answered her more pressing questions before asking Richard if he felt up to keeping our Kona Cafe ADR? He said he felt fine - apparently he'd glugged a a fair few glasses of wine with his lunch on the plane and then slept for around 5 hours! Mmm, classy... We headed down to the pier and caught a boat to the Contemporary so we could hop on the resort monorail to the Polynesian. This took somewhat longer than I'd anticipated and we had no time for a cocktail in the Tambu Lounge but had to immediately check in at the restaurant. We were given a pager and had just started walking to the shop when it went off. For some reason, it felt v-e-r-y cold in Kona Cafe which doesn't make for a convivial setting and the meal was the least enjoyable on-site experience I have had in ages! In hindsight I wish we'd opted for Ohana's but hey, it's easy to be oh-so wise after the event... Anyway, we ate up and tried a fruity cocktail or two before heading down to the lobby and catching a cab back to the hotel. Overall this was a bittersweet experience for me as I have long held the Polynesian Resort in high esteem and always appreciate any opportunity to spend time in it's environs. Tonight, however, I was less enchanted with the place - it just seemed so busy, noisy and cavernous! I was very happy to return to the more tranquil atmosphere of the Villas at Wilderness Lodge where Sophie rustled up a trio of White Russians and we settled down for a pre-bedtime discussion of what to do tomorrow... Cocktail Count = 9...