We woke up the next morning to the voice of good old Captain Gus, reminding us of the debarkation procedure. We were back in Port Canaveral....blech. Oh wait, we're going back to Disney World!!!!! ZOOOOOOOOOM!
We got ready and said goodbye to our beautiful stateroom and verandah.
Good morning, Florida!
We had been told that if we wanted breakfast, it was served at 6:45 AM....ummmm no thanks. We slept in a little more and we figured we'd eat once we were back at WDW. Besides, we had packed snacks just in case.
We got together all our carry-on luggage, packed up our PJ's, and waved goodbye to our stateroom. We went downstairs through the Atrium and said goodbye to all the CM's, went through the tunnel, and into the terminal. We were then directed downstairs to claim our luggage. The night before, we were given two green tags with a picture of Tinkerbell on them and were told to put them on our large bags that were left out in the hallway....this was to find the general area where our bags would be when we got off the ship. We found baggage claim, found the Tinkerbell section, and a CM was there to help us find our bags after we told him our stateroom number. Then we wheeled our stuff out past a border protection guy who looked over our passports and declaration forms, and we were free! Once outside, there were tons of Magical Express buses taking people back to WDW. A CM asked us where we were going, and we said Wilderness Lodge. The CM directed us to a big white van, not a ME bus. Hmmm. Maybe they were full? Maybe we were the only people going to WL? Anyway, another group of people joined us and we were off. The ride was nice, and we were back to the World in what seemed like a flash. The van stopped first at Yacht Club to drop off the other group in the van, then continued on towards the Magic Kingdom resort area...
We're back!!
We pulled up to Wilderness Lodge and we hopped out and dragged all our luggage inside.
This place was GORGEOUS.
We went up to check in, got our KTTW cards, and the nice CM gave us another set of Happily Ever After buttons. However our room wasn't ready yet, so we decided to leave our bags with the front desk and go eat breakfast, since we were starving. Chris turned around and somehow his suitcase had left a big black streak on the floor. It was then that we discovered that one of the wheels on his bag was broken. UGH. The CM's told us not to worry about the streak, and that it would come up easily. We decided to eat breakfast at Whispering Canyon. Chris was really anxious to show me this restaurant, and we didn't have an ADR for it until Thursday morning, the morning we were going to leave. He was happy that they had plenty of room for us to eat there earlier than planned.
I was still really sleepy since I had nodded off a bit on the van ride, but our waitress's personality woke me up pretty quick. She was too funny! I immediately saw someone at another table ask for ketchup. KEEEEEEEEETTTTTCHHUUUUUUUUUUPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chris and I both ordered waffles and coffee....YUM. We also took our time and stayed there until around 10:30 because we figured it would be awhile until our room would be ready. Apparently, the last time Chris had stayed at WLV with his family, they were placed in a room that was at the VEEERRRRRYYYY ENNNNNDDDDDD of the villas and it took them forever and a day to get to a bus. So this time he made sure that he requested a room closer to transportation.
After our lovely meal, we walked around and took in the surroundings.
We went into the Mercantile store, and I bought the best pajamas ever!!! I will show you that picture a bit later.
We sat in the lobby for awhile, then we went outside and sat down at the tables near Roaring Fork and I took some pictures.
I had just checked into Wilderness Lodge on Foursquare when I got a text from a friend who said that another friend of ours, whose study abroad group I assisted with while I was living in France, was working there in the College program. No sooner did I get this text, than my friend came out the door looking for us...she was working at Roaring Fork! IIIIIT'S A SMALLLL WORLD AAAAFTER AALLLLL... ok enough of that.
We sat and chatted with her for a little while, but then she had to get back to work, so we ventured over past the pool and to the villas to explore a little bit.
We went into the small lobby and tossed our stuff down on one of the comfy sofas, and we took some pictures. This lobby is also a great place to find Hidden Mickeys. We found a bunch of them, since Chris had gotten the Hidden Mickey clue sheet at the front desk.
Can you find the Hidden Mickeys by the elevator?