Down Here All the Fish is Happy, as Off Through the Waves They Roll

Updates: Remember that magical moment I mentioned a few posts back about the girl named Princess and the birthday mustaches? Good news everyone! I acquired a picture.

Princess is the far left guest, and I am obviously the lumberjack.
We are twirling our mustaches. 

Yesterday, what I thought was going to be a day of laundry and cleaning turned into a day of the Board Walk and resorts. Amanda, Megan and I bused it to Epcot, where we zoomed through Future World and Canada, got stuck in the UK for a few minutes (I'd never seen it as a guest), and left the park via International Gateway, the second entrance to Epcot (today's trivia is that Epcot is the only park with two entrances). International Gateway leads to Disney's BoardWalk, the most adorable strip of shops and restaurants and an arcade and dance hall that you'll ever see. Anyone know of Cat Cora from Iron Chef America? That's where her restaurant is located.

Yay for BoardWalk! So much pretty!

The BoardWalk leads to surprise! the BoardWalk Inn. We were able to wander straight in and tour the lobby, hallways, porches and pool area. I'm pretty much in love.

A way better version of those doors in Labyrinth. You know the ones. 

Further along the BoardWalk, there's a fork with the Swan and Dolphin resorts to one side, and the Yacht and Beach Club to the other. We wandered to the right, the Yacht and Beach Club. It's gorgeous. Again, we were able to wander about the lobby and grounds. There's a restaurant there called Beaches & Cream which serves an ice cream monstrosity called the Kitchen Sink. I plan to conquer that at some point over the next ten months.

We met up with another Canadian, Jason, and decided to move along with our resort visits by booting back through Epcot and onto the monorail to the Polynesian, one of the original Walt Disney World Resort hotels. It's obviously Hawaiian themed.

The Polynseian's beach. And hammocks.
That I fell out of. It's fine. 

OH! Since an underlying theme here is my weakness for dairy, I should mention that the Polynesian has self-serve Dole Whip, which is pineapple and/or vanilla soft-serve deliciousness. From the Polynesian back to monorail into the Grand Floridian aka the Grand Daddy of pimped-out Disney resorts (I think they phrase it that way in the guidebooks). I want to live here. It's the most giant, decadent, detailed piece of architectural gorgeousness one would ever hope to witness. Fact: When we walked in, I got goosebumps, and not due to air-conditioning. Fact 2.0: An orchestra was playing Part of Your World in the lobby when we arrived. I must live there.

Why they call it the "Grand" Floridian.

Donald Duck detail in the main entrance way. 

Today I hit up Blizzard Beach for the second time in two months. It gets blocked out in the middle of June (cast can't go for free), so I'll have to get there at least once more in the near future. It was the first of many days of Jen's birthday celebration (tomorrow, Magic Kingdom). We went for park open and stayed til park close -  that's seven whole hours of (free) Blizzard Beachiness, people. Seven glorious hours of no sunburns and frequent rehydration, not to mention a few slides I hadn't done before, like the Downhill Double Dipper, a set of racing slides featuring a pretty solid drop, and Snow Stormers, another set of racing slides that are set up like slaloms and you take them on foam toboggans. Most importantly, multiple visits to Cast-Away Creek (the lazy river, ringing some bells). Oh but MOST importantly was this, the Sand Pail. It's a literal plastic sand pail filled with ice cream, fudge, caramel, whipped cream and sprinkles shaped like Mickey. It was amazing.

AMAZING. Not to be consumed solo.

TTFN,

Note: Water parks do have characters, but they don't behave like they do in parks. For examples, we saw Goofy twice today at Blizzard Beach. The second time, he was standing on a bridge over Cross-Country Creek and dumping buckets of water on riders. 

Thanks to: Angela, for her mail, and Mackenzie, who's coming to visit soon!