2BoysMum&Dad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
(Alternative Title The Im really only 37½ plus state tax Tour)
Evening of Sunday 6th February and whole of Monday 7th February 2005
The Cast
Chief trip organiser Me
Chauffeur Me
Trip destination research assistant Me
Financial backer and consultant Me
And finally, the holidaymakers Just Me!
As promised, I will now confess to what I got up to last night the evening of my birthday. I had decided my choice was Jellyrolls, Pleasure Island or CityWalk. But it was 10pm and I was tired and feeling particularly whimpish! But I had to pull myself together! It was my birthday and I was out here in Florida to celebrate (or commiserate to drown my sorrows!). Before I flew out to Florida, it was known (by many people) that there was a good chance I would visit Jellyrolls on the evening of 6th February. I was now feeling rather nervous! Tiredness, whimpishness and nervousness is not a good combination for me, so I chickened out of going there but vowed to go another night before flying home on Thursday. So, where else?
The Pop Century Resort has two bars, one by the pool and another one inside the main building. When I arrived back from the MGM park yesterday, I walked through the food court and out of the back of the building to get to my room. On the way through the food court, I witnessed a sight that was almost reminiscent of a British pub scene during the football World Cup. What seemed like hundreds of people were seated around tables and watching two oversized t.v. screens erected on the walls of the food court. At the outside bar by the pool, there were about three t.v. screens all showing the same thing. WOW, I am famous! The United States of America had decided to stage its biggest sporting event on 6th February to celebrate my 40th birthday, I felt very privileged! As I am sure you can imagine, I am not really a sports fan of any sort, but can get caught up with the atmosphere of things, especially when one of the teams was from Philadelphia which is where an English friend of ours lives. After dumping stuff in my room, I went down to the bar and bought an overly priced ######## (pina colada) and watched the end of the game on the t.v. screens at the pool bar. The other team were from New England and apparently the favourites to win. There was much excitement and talk around the resort that evening about the American Superbowl match and it was interesting to experience this different sort of atmosphere in a Disney resort. I did a spot of people watching for a while and enjoyed most of my drink before deciding to take it up to the room to savour while writing up my notes. So, not really a very exciting evening, but quite interesting all the same. I was now unsure whether I was still suffering from jetlag or just tired from trying to cram in a lot of stuff every day. Hit the pillow like a log.
Monday morning. Had breakfast in the Pop Century food court which consisted of a croissant, cream cheese, banana, apple Danish pastry and a hot chocolate (in my resort refillable mug). When finished, I took the mug back to the room and collected my Universal Studios ticket. The plan was to go shopping somewhere this morning and go to Universal Studios and/or Islands of Adventure in the afternoon. Last year we went to the Florida Mall which was great and very big! On that occasion, I was already suffering with saw feet and blisters and we had terrible trouble trying to find the guest services to collect a shopping voucher. I would love to visit there again without the pressure as we didnt really get the chance to have a proper look around. On this occasion, I decided to visit another high profile shopping mall to see how it compares. Mall at Millennia seems to get a lot of mention on the internet and Judith Chalmers had just done a little feature on it for a holiday programme when she visited Florida. I arrived at Mall at Millennia at 9.35am and the place was eerily quiet, only a few cars and very few people around. There was a chap tending the flower beds in the car park and he told me I could still get in through the main entrance and have a coffee at one of the coffee places, but the other shops wouldnt be open until 10am. I grabbed a mall directory and had a coffee and cake at Starbucks on the upper level. I had a wonder around most of the shopping centre and had a look in one of the shoe shops. They were selling those gel shoe inserts which are supposed to help relief sore feet, what a brilliant idea! Unfortunately, they didnt have any of the right size for me but he suggested I tried another shoe place downstairs. Luckily they had some and I headed off in the direction of the restrooms to try them out immediately! There were seats in the corridor and I hoped I wouldnt get arrested for cheesing the place out! Mall at Millennia is mostly full of designer clothes shops but also has some big name department stores around it too. It didnt have all the smaller shops I liked at the Florida Mall, you know all the gimmicky shops and toys shops! This place was quite nice for a browse but I didnt buy anything else.
Time to hit the road again and off to the Universal Studios area. This time I was parked in King Kong row 511 which is the car park ahead of you if you have the US park behind you. Why is it that theres always some clever kid deliberately walking on the wrong moving walkway? I must have seen several kids on separate occasions trying to keep up with his/her family who were on the correct walkway.
Oh well, they are kids I suppose!
I get to the information kiosk at the beginning of CityWalk when I realise I dont have my Universal Studios ticket with me! No panic, its in the car, but its still a pain and Ill be wasting ten minutes to get it. I decide to take advantage of the fact I need to go back to the car and get souvenirs for the boys first so I dont have to walk around the parks with them. They both wanted me to bring back a cuddly penguin and I spotted a lovely looking souvenir shop nearby selling stuffed animals, wooden bendy snakes and all sorts of interesting wildlife stuff. I got them each a wooden bendy snake and a stuffed penguin and took them back to the car. After retrieving the US ticket from the glove compartment, I set off back to the parks again.
I decide to do Islands of Adventure first as we got to see hardly any of it last time. Trevor did Dr Doom, we all did the Storm Force Accelatron and Piers and I did the Cat in the Hat ride. This time I was determined to walk all the way around and have a good look at everything, even if it meant I chickened out of most of it! This place has a reputation of only being good for high thrill rides. I dont think this is necessarily the case. There were quite a few things there I was prepared to do and lots of stuff to look at. Lots of places dotted around to spend your money and no lack of eating places around the park.
When I entered the park, I turned immediately right and headed round anti-clockwise. This was not a conscious decision, its just that I wanted to do Cat in the Hat first and thats to the right as you enter. This turned out to be a wise move as 90% of visitors were going clockwise. I think this is possibly because two of the parks headliners are nearer if you head clockwise. I hadnt picked up a park map, but this didnt particularly matter. I would just work my way around and have a good look at everything I saw. If necessary, I would ask the staff member at the entrance of anything what the ride was like if I was unsure. I had lunch in the Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous which is absolutely fascinating inside! I would highly recommend it if you have kids, lovely theming inside. I just had a pizza and a diet coke.
Further along, there was a talking fountain which surprised many people. I was trying to work out where the camera or hidden person was. A bit further around was Duelling Dragons. No description necessary and no need to say whether I went on this or not. Lets just say, it was fun to watch! A small distance round the corner was the Flying Unicorn. This is a rollercoaster but it actually looked nice and just my sort of rollercoaster (if there is such a thing!). There were no loops and it didnt last very long. The queue was short and I thought I should give it a go. Yes! I liked it. I think it was made for me! I can now proudly say I have done a rollercoaster! For some reason, I decided to time it, it lasted exactly 60 seconds. I could have easily done twice that long and debated whether to go on again. But I decided no, onward and round I must march!
There was a friendly looking chap standing at the entrance of the Jurassic Park River Adventure ride and I asked him would I like it?. Obviously, he doesnt know me and this was a bit of a stupid question, but asked in the right way with a stupid grin on my face and he knew I wanted a bit of information about it before I committed myself! He was very helpful and we ended up with a small crowd of people listening to him describe the ride. I know how to get the best out of people After his wonderful performance, I said I would have to give it some further thought as I really didnt like the look or sound of that final drop which (he said) he thought was the highest log flume drop in Florida (if not the world!). 
It was fun watching and hearing people scream as they drop down the inside of that tower!
I also chickened out of doing Dudley-Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls. I was getting rather thirsty and didnt bring a drink with me today so had a drink in a cafe in the Toon Lagoon area. Then off to the Marvel Super Hero Island area. I had a chat with the chap outside the Superman ride and asked him loads of questions about it before committing myself to going on it definitely. Before I came out to Florida this time, I was convinced I was going to give Superman a go, but as I got nearer, I felt very worried about the prospect! While I thought about it, I wandered off and had a look at Dr Doom, took some pictures and had a friendly chat with the chap standing at the entrance to this one. He was explaining how rides couldnt be built any taller than this and its unfortunate that in Florida they couldnt dig down to get the height either because of land type. I also wandered off towards the Hulk, had a good look at the people whizzing around on that and I had two goes on the Storm Force Accelatron, that wasnt busy at all. I then paid a visit to the restrooms before heading back nervously towards Spiderman. Then I decided to go for it! There was a nice chap and his son who entered the queue at the same time as me. It was great that there was virtually no queue, only a five minute wait. It was worth having a chat with this chap and his son while we waited as it meant sharing a vehicle with strangers nicer. I did it! I actually did Spiderman! I would happily do it again if I get the chance.
OK. Off to Universal Studios. No, I didnt do the Hulk! I arrived in Universal Studios at ten to five and was disappointed to see that the park would be closing at 6pm tonight. I would just have to see how much I could get done in just over an hour. First port of call had to be Shrek 4D. The queue was only three quarters the way along the front of the building and shortly after I joined, we were all inside. Great show as ever and love the pre-show show. My plan was to head straight for the Terminator, but I spotted there was virtually no queue for Jimmy Neutrons Nicktoon Blast, so I did that. This is quite fun. The seat blocks move in tune with the Jimmy Neurtron film and its quite fun. After coming out of Jimmy Neutron, I spot its now ten minutes too late for the Terminator so I decided to head straight back to Shrek as I see the queue is virtually non-existent again! I had to wait a whole ten minutes at the front of the building this time (O.M.G.!) and I get a seat in the front row in the middle, brilliant! It was now 6.20pm and the park was theoretically closed. But, being ultimately a money making place, they didnt mind people having a good look around the souvenir shops on the way out. I buy a Universal Studios t-shirt and a keyring.
Off through CityWalk and have a quick browse in a couple more shops without buying anything else. Head towards the car park and decide what I am going to do with the rest of my evening. It is now heading for 7pm and the evening is still young! Dare I risk Jellyrolls? Yes! So how am I going to do it? Do I drive and not drink or get a taxi? I decide to drive to Disneys Boardwalk myself. I have my Pop Century residents parking sign displayed on the dashboard and the car park barrier at the Boardwalk is raised for me. I turn left immediately and park in the corner, not far from where I parked on Friday night. I expect my car was rather worried I would leave it there again overnight!
This looks a lovely place to stay. I took this picture last Friday with my digital camera. I bought a disposable camera from one of the shops along the Boardwalk but none of the pictures came out particularly well.
I walked along the front and into Jellyrolls, paid the entrance fee, had a nice chat with the chaps on the desk and on the door. They had a new piano player in tonight who I could hear as I was standing there, he had only been on the job for a week. I went up to the bar on the left (there are two) and ordered a diet coke (very brave! ). The barman suggested I sat at a table in the middle of the area down below and the waitress would take orders of drinks from me and as I sat at the table, I was given a pile of napkins to write requests for songs if I so wished. I was a little hesitant and I didnt want to stand out particularly and planned to move discreetly to the bar area later. The way Jellyrolls works is that they have two grand pianos on stage and a couple of chaps who play songs requested by the punters. The punters should write down what they want on a napkin (and preferably a dollar bill!). Theres a large glass jar on each piano which hopefully will get filled up with money by the end of the evening.
When I arrived, there were very few people there, but I apparently need to hang around as it gets a lot more lively and fun later on in the evening. Unfortunately, I dont think I can hang around too long this evening, just cant stand the pace anymore, I am definitely getting too old!
Its fun to watch the banter between the two piano players and as the evening is still fairly young with few customers, they have to provide a few of their own ideas for songs. Like most events and clubs (probably), it takes a little while before the place warms up. I just have the one drink and decide to nip out for something to eat and watch Illuminations from the Boardwalk before re-entering Jellyrolls. When I entered the establishment, the back of my hand was stamped so I didnt have to pay to re-enter. I also arranged a tab with the barman and an imprint of my credit card was taken so I didnt have to pay immediately for each drink.
So I am now wandering off up the other end of the Boardwalk to find a quick bite to eat and decide where I am going to stand to watch illuminations. My attention is drawn to a display cabinet just inside the door of store displaying some lovely fudge! Bought a piece of butter pecan fudge and decided later that I should have bought a ton of the stuff to take home! I wasnt sure where the best place would be to watch Illuminations and couldnt even quite work out exactly where they would appear. I could make out the Epcot globe behind the villas opposite if I stood in the right place on the Boardwalk and then worked out that the fireworks would be at least a certain distance to the right. I had to make my way back towards Jellyrolls for the best view (I thought). In fact, the view wasnt that good and I would have done better up the very far end, further up beyond the Boardwalk buildings. Back into Jellyrolls and this time I decided to be a bit more adventurous and had a glass of white wine. I sat at the raised area with the bar behind me and felt a little less uncomfortable! The atmosphere was getting better as the venue was filling up, but I decided to leave before it was spotted I wasnt singing along to any of the songs with everyone else!! (Chicken!).
I headed up the other end of the Boardwalk again and bought a slice of pizza and a bottle of water from a hatch serving customers outside. Decided I needed this to help soak up the wine before driving back to Pop Century. I am not really a drinker and I can notice the difference after only one glass of wine.
When I arrived back at my room, there was a large plastic Disney bag hanging on my door, bit of a surprise! Then I spotted the red do not disturb notice which I had left in the card slot and my room had not been cleaned today totally my own fault! The bag contained a supply of clean towels which was nice of them. I was certainly never short of towels and flannels during this trip. It was now fairly late and I had some notes to write, see you tomorrow!
Evening of Sunday 6th February and whole of Monday 7th February 2005
The Cast
Chief trip organiser Me
Chauffeur Me
Trip destination research assistant Me
Financial backer and consultant Me
And finally, the holidaymakers Just Me!
As promised, I will now confess to what I got up to last night the evening of my birthday. I had decided my choice was Jellyrolls, Pleasure Island or CityWalk. But it was 10pm and I was tired and feeling particularly whimpish! But I had to pull myself together! It was my birthday and I was out here in Florida to celebrate (or commiserate to drown my sorrows!). Before I flew out to Florida, it was known (by many people) that there was a good chance I would visit Jellyrolls on the evening of 6th February. I was now feeling rather nervous! Tiredness, whimpishness and nervousness is not a good combination for me, so I chickened out of going there but vowed to go another night before flying home on Thursday. So, where else?
The Pop Century Resort has two bars, one by the pool and another one inside the main building. When I arrived back from the MGM park yesterday, I walked through the food court and out of the back of the building to get to my room. On the way through the food court, I witnessed a sight that was almost reminiscent of a British pub scene during the football World Cup. What seemed like hundreds of people were seated around tables and watching two oversized t.v. screens erected on the walls of the food court. At the outside bar by the pool, there were about three t.v. screens all showing the same thing. WOW, I am famous! The United States of America had decided to stage its biggest sporting event on 6th February to celebrate my 40th birthday, I felt very privileged! As I am sure you can imagine, I am not really a sports fan of any sort, but can get caught up with the atmosphere of things, especially when one of the teams was from Philadelphia which is where an English friend of ours lives. After dumping stuff in my room, I went down to the bar and bought an overly priced ######## (pina colada) and watched the end of the game on the t.v. screens at the pool bar. The other team were from New England and apparently the favourites to win. There was much excitement and talk around the resort that evening about the American Superbowl match and it was interesting to experience this different sort of atmosphere in a Disney resort. I did a spot of people watching for a while and enjoyed most of my drink before deciding to take it up to the room to savour while writing up my notes. So, not really a very exciting evening, but quite interesting all the same. I was now unsure whether I was still suffering from jetlag or just tired from trying to cram in a lot of stuff every day. Hit the pillow like a log.
Monday morning. Had breakfast in the Pop Century food court which consisted of a croissant, cream cheese, banana, apple Danish pastry and a hot chocolate (in my resort refillable mug). When finished, I took the mug back to the room and collected my Universal Studios ticket. The plan was to go shopping somewhere this morning and go to Universal Studios and/or Islands of Adventure in the afternoon. Last year we went to the Florida Mall which was great and very big! On that occasion, I was already suffering with saw feet and blisters and we had terrible trouble trying to find the guest services to collect a shopping voucher. I would love to visit there again without the pressure as we didnt really get the chance to have a proper look around. On this occasion, I decided to visit another high profile shopping mall to see how it compares. Mall at Millennia seems to get a lot of mention on the internet and Judith Chalmers had just done a little feature on it for a holiday programme when she visited Florida. I arrived at Mall at Millennia at 9.35am and the place was eerily quiet, only a few cars and very few people around. There was a chap tending the flower beds in the car park and he told me I could still get in through the main entrance and have a coffee at one of the coffee places, but the other shops wouldnt be open until 10am. I grabbed a mall directory and had a coffee and cake at Starbucks on the upper level. I had a wonder around most of the shopping centre and had a look in one of the shoe shops. They were selling those gel shoe inserts which are supposed to help relief sore feet, what a brilliant idea! Unfortunately, they didnt have any of the right size for me but he suggested I tried another shoe place downstairs. Luckily they had some and I headed off in the direction of the restrooms to try them out immediately! There were seats in the corridor and I hoped I wouldnt get arrested for cheesing the place out! Mall at Millennia is mostly full of designer clothes shops but also has some big name department stores around it too. It didnt have all the smaller shops I liked at the Florida Mall, you know all the gimmicky shops and toys shops! This place was quite nice for a browse but I didnt buy anything else.
Time to hit the road again and off to the Universal Studios area. This time I was parked in King Kong row 511 which is the car park ahead of you if you have the US park behind you. Why is it that theres always some clever kid deliberately walking on the wrong moving walkway? I must have seen several kids on separate occasions trying to keep up with his/her family who were on the correct walkway.
Oh well, they are kids I suppose!I get to the information kiosk at the beginning of CityWalk when I realise I dont have my Universal Studios ticket with me! No panic, its in the car, but its still a pain and Ill be wasting ten minutes to get it. I decide to take advantage of the fact I need to go back to the car and get souvenirs for the boys first so I dont have to walk around the parks with them. They both wanted me to bring back a cuddly penguin and I spotted a lovely looking souvenir shop nearby selling stuffed animals, wooden bendy snakes and all sorts of interesting wildlife stuff. I got them each a wooden bendy snake and a stuffed penguin and took them back to the car. After retrieving the US ticket from the glove compartment, I set off back to the parks again.
I decide to do Islands of Adventure first as we got to see hardly any of it last time. Trevor did Dr Doom, we all did the Storm Force Accelatron and Piers and I did the Cat in the Hat ride. This time I was determined to walk all the way around and have a good look at everything, even if it meant I chickened out of most of it! This place has a reputation of only being good for high thrill rides. I dont think this is necessarily the case. There were quite a few things there I was prepared to do and lots of stuff to look at. Lots of places dotted around to spend your money and no lack of eating places around the park.
When I entered the park, I turned immediately right and headed round anti-clockwise. This was not a conscious decision, its just that I wanted to do Cat in the Hat first and thats to the right as you enter. This turned out to be a wise move as 90% of visitors were going clockwise. I think this is possibly because two of the parks headliners are nearer if you head clockwise. I hadnt picked up a park map, but this didnt particularly matter. I would just work my way around and have a good look at everything I saw. If necessary, I would ask the staff member at the entrance of anything what the ride was like if I was unsure. I had lunch in the Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous which is absolutely fascinating inside! I would highly recommend it if you have kids, lovely theming inside. I just had a pizza and a diet coke.
Further along, there was a talking fountain which surprised many people. I was trying to work out where the camera or hidden person was. A bit further around was Duelling Dragons. No description necessary and no need to say whether I went on this or not. Lets just say, it was fun to watch! A small distance round the corner was the Flying Unicorn. This is a rollercoaster but it actually looked nice and just my sort of rollercoaster (if there is such a thing!). There were no loops and it didnt last very long. The queue was short and I thought I should give it a go. Yes! I liked it. I think it was made for me! I can now proudly say I have done a rollercoaster! For some reason, I decided to time it, it lasted exactly 60 seconds. I could have easily done twice that long and debated whether to go on again. But I decided no, onward and round I must march!
There was a friendly looking chap standing at the entrance of the Jurassic Park River Adventure ride and I asked him would I like it?. Obviously, he doesnt know me and this was a bit of a stupid question, but asked in the right way with a stupid grin on my face and he knew I wanted a bit of information about it before I committed myself! He was very helpful and we ended up with a small crowd of people listening to him describe the ride. I know how to get the best out of people
After his wonderful performance, I said I would have to give it some further thought as I really didnt like the look or sound of that final drop which (he said) he thought was the highest log flume drop in Florida (if not the world!). It was fun watching and hearing people scream as they drop down the inside of that tower!I also chickened out of doing Dudley-Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls. I was getting rather thirsty and didnt bring a drink with me today so had a drink in a cafe in the Toon Lagoon area. Then off to the Marvel Super Hero Island area. I had a chat with the chap outside the Superman ride and asked him loads of questions about it before committing myself to going on it definitely. Before I came out to Florida this time, I was convinced I was going to give Superman a go, but as I got nearer, I felt very worried about the prospect! While I thought about it, I wandered off and had a look at Dr Doom, took some pictures and had a friendly chat with the chap standing at the entrance to this one. He was explaining how rides couldnt be built any taller than this and its unfortunate that in Florida they couldnt dig down to get the height either because of land type. I also wandered off towards the Hulk, had a good look at the people whizzing around on that and I had two goes on the Storm Force Accelatron, that wasnt busy at all. I then paid a visit to the restrooms before heading back nervously towards Spiderman. Then I decided to go for it! There was a nice chap and his son who entered the queue at the same time as me. It was great that there was virtually no queue, only a five minute wait. It was worth having a chat with this chap and his son while we waited as it meant sharing a vehicle with strangers nicer. I did it! I actually did Spiderman! I would happily do it again if I get the chance.
OK. Off to Universal Studios. No, I didnt do the Hulk! I arrived in Universal Studios at ten to five and was disappointed to see that the park would be closing at 6pm tonight. I would just have to see how much I could get done in just over an hour. First port of call had to be Shrek 4D. The queue was only three quarters the way along the front of the building and shortly after I joined, we were all inside. Great show as ever and love the pre-show show. My plan was to head straight for the Terminator, but I spotted there was virtually no queue for Jimmy Neutrons Nicktoon Blast, so I did that. This is quite fun. The seat blocks move in tune with the Jimmy Neurtron film and its quite fun. After coming out of Jimmy Neutron, I spot its now ten minutes too late for the Terminator so I decided to head straight back to Shrek as I see the queue is virtually non-existent again! I had to wait a whole ten minutes at the front of the building this time (O.M.G.!) and I get a seat in the front row in the middle, brilliant! It was now 6.20pm and the park was theoretically closed. But, being ultimately a money making place, they didnt mind people having a good look around the souvenir shops on the way out. I buy a Universal Studios t-shirt and a keyring.
Off through CityWalk and have a quick browse in a couple more shops without buying anything else. Head towards the car park and decide what I am going to do with the rest of my evening. It is now heading for 7pm and the evening is still young! Dare I risk Jellyrolls? Yes! So how am I going to do it? Do I drive and not drink or get a taxi? I decide to drive to Disneys Boardwalk myself. I have my Pop Century residents parking sign displayed on the dashboard and the car park barrier at the Boardwalk is raised for me. I turn left immediately and park in the corner, not far from where I parked on Friday night. I expect my car was rather worried I would leave it there again overnight!
This looks a lovely place to stay. I took this picture last Friday with my digital camera. I bought a disposable camera from one of the shops along the Boardwalk but none of the pictures came out particularly well.
I walked along the front and into Jellyrolls, paid the entrance fee, had a nice chat with the chaps on the desk and on the door. They had a new piano player in tonight who I could hear as I was standing there, he had only been on the job for a week. I went up to the bar on the left (there are two) and ordered a diet coke (very brave!
). The barman suggested I sat at a table in the middle of the area down below and the waitress would take orders of drinks from me and as I sat at the table, I was given a pile of napkins to write requests for songs if I so wished. I was a little hesitant and I didnt want to stand out particularly and planned to move discreetly to the bar area later. The way Jellyrolls works is that they have two grand pianos on stage and a couple of chaps who play songs requested by the punters. The punters should write down what they want on a napkin (and preferably a dollar bill!). Theres a large glass jar on each piano which hopefully will get filled up with money by the end of the evening.When I arrived, there were very few people there, but I apparently need to hang around as it gets a lot more lively and fun later on in the evening. Unfortunately, I dont think I can hang around too long this evening, just cant stand the pace anymore, I am definitely getting too old!
Its fun to watch the banter between the two piano players and as the evening is still fairly young with few customers, they have to provide a few of their own ideas for songs. Like most events and clubs (probably), it takes a little while before the place warms up. I just have the one drink and decide to nip out for something to eat and watch Illuminations from the Boardwalk before re-entering Jellyrolls. When I entered the establishment, the back of my hand was stamped so I didnt have to pay to re-enter. I also arranged a tab with the barman and an imprint of my credit card was taken so I didnt have to pay immediately for each drink.
So I am now wandering off up the other end of the Boardwalk to find a quick bite to eat and decide where I am going to stand to watch illuminations. My attention is drawn to a display cabinet just inside the door of store displaying some lovely fudge! Bought a piece of butter pecan fudge and decided later that I should have bought a ton of the stuff to take home! I wasnt sure where the best place would be to watch Illuminations and couldnt even quite work out exactly where they would appear. I could make out the Epcot globe behind the villas opposite if I stood in the right place on the Boardwalk and then worked out that the fireworks would be at least a certain distance to the right. I had to make my way back towards Jellyrolls for the best view (I thought). In fact, the view wasnt that good and I would have done better up the very far end, further up beyond the Boardwalk buildings. Back into Jellyrolls and this time I decided to be a bit more adventurous and had a glass of white wine. I sat at the raised area with the bar behind me and felt a little less uncomfortable! The atmosphere was getting better as the venue was filling up, but I decided to leave before it was spotted I wasnt singing along to any of the songs with everyone else!! (Chicken!).
I headed up the other end of the Boardwalk again and bought a slice of pizza and a bottle of water from a hatch serving customers outside. Decided I needed this to help soak up the wine before driving back to Pop Century. I am not really a drinker and I can notice the difference after only one glass of wine.
When I arrived back at my room, there was a large plastic Disney bag hanging on my door, bit of a surprise! Then I spotted the red do not disturb notice which I had left in the card slot and my room had not been cleaned today totally my own fault! The bag contained a supply of clean towels which was nice of them. I was certainly never short of towels and flannels during this trip. It was now fairly late and I had some notes to write, see you tomorrow!
Don't blame you though seeing as you were going to US as well, you didn't want to get wet 
Jellyrolls sounds fun, I'll have to try it one day. Looking forward to more.
