Not So Brilliant Ideas Part 2

Saturday, November 26

We're up earlier than I expected.

I find one of the chains on my necklace has somehow gotten zipped into the zipper of my jewelry bag. Even more strangely, the chain (which is very thin and delicate) does not break as we get the zipper open. And, even odder, I find another chain not caught in the zipper has broken AND all the chains are tangled together. I take some time untangling chains but don't get the caught chain completely untangled before giving up. I should have taken this as an omen - it's going to be that sort of trip.

We call about the shuttle back to the airport. We can't get on 9:00 shuttle. We might be able to get on 9:30 shuttle but they probably don't have enough room for our bags on the 9:30 shuttle. (I'm used to larger hotel shuttles - these are smallish vans with no luggage racks - these hold 8-10 passengers and whatever they can get stuffed into back of van for luggage).

We checkout and request a taxi. The driver of a town car pulls up a few minutes later. He'll charge us a flat $12.00 to go back to airport. We are quickly there and Gene tips generously. We head to Magical Express line which is the quickest we have ever gotten into line, on a bus, and on our way. I get text at 9:30 am that our room is not ready and Disney will text again when it is.

We arrive at the resort (Saratoga Springs) and have ourbags held. We take boat to Disney Springs and head to Earl of Sandwich for an early lunch.

There is a display of Christmas trees there called the Trail of Trees so we walk through that. The themed trees pretty cool. It "snows" every few minutes. After, we wander around Disney Springs but don't go into the new Downtown section. We purchase a couple of things in World of Disney. I keep an eye out for x-mas gifts but am not successful. I take pics of holiday cards as my sister-in-law wanted some and couldn't find any on her trip earlier in the year so I text the pics to her.

We're tired of walking so sit at the outside bar at Jock Lindsey's Hangar bar and have drinks. We still haven't received a text regarding our room assignment. My sister-in-law texts and ask we buy 2 boxes of the holiday cards she has selected so we go back to World of Disney to buy those and look around more while at it. There' still no text about room so we take the boat back to Saratoga Springs and go to pool to hang out there for an hour or so. It is now just about 4 and we still haven't gotten our room assignment.

We go to front desk and the person says room is not ready - do we have a preference to location etc. I say I have made no requests for room. He says you should get a text in about 30 seconds with your room number. Yay!! We are back in the Grandstand section - one building over from where we stayed on our last trip but on the second floor this time. We go to bell services, retrieve our bags and get a golf cart ride to room.

We unpack. We have fastpasses for Soarin in an hour or so but decide not to go to Epcot so we cancel our fastpasses. Instead, we decide to go to Surf and Turf for dinner, arriving just about opening ,and ask to sit outside. We do and have nice view across water towards the La Nouba building. We each have prime rib for dinner - not fantastic, but good.

After dinner, we walk to the Congress Springs section and head over to the water to see the new drone show. Pretty cool. We decide to see Trail of Trees lit up so take the walkway back to Downtown Springs. It's nice to see all the lights. On the way back, we stop and pick up some coke, and snacks and go back to our room.

Getting ready to take tubby, I realise, I left my book on the plane (It's going to be that sort of trip) so we walk back to buy a new book to read while I'm in tubby.

Tubby and to bed.