Day 5 – 11/8/2014: Part 21
Epcot is a pretty big place. From Japan, the buses were practically as far as far as you could be. Instead I decided to take a different route. I exited via the International Gateway and took a Friendship boat to Hollywood Studios where I caught a bus back to Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was kind of a round about way of getting there and it probably took me about an hour to get back; but I certainly didn’t feel like walking all the way through the park.
– passing by the Yacht Club on the Friendship boat
– hello DHS!
While I was gone Moms had explored some more of the resort and found another view of the Savanna she really wanted to show me. It was an external staircase near our room that had a good view of the animals. I took a break for a while before we headed out for the evening.
– Moms view
Moms is a big Pandora Jewelry fan. They happened to be starting a line of Pandora Disney charms and were having a launch event during our trip. She really wanted to go check out the new Pandora store at Downtown Disney before we headed to dinner. The Food & Wine half-marathon was going to be running tomorrow and Disney had started to close some of the roads that night. We chose to take the bus instead of getting lost with road closures. We got to Downtown Disney and headed to the Pandora store. The Pandora store is in the Marketplace Co-Op. It reminded me of Harrod’s or Selfridge’s if you’ve been to London. A group of separate stores in one building, and they aren’t separated by walls. You can move freely, but buy your stuff at whoever sells it.
Moms bought a couple charms and we checked out some of the other stores in the building. One store had some home goods we hadn’t seen before. Salt & pepper shakers that look like the various Disney park trash cans, plates with the attraction posters on them. Some really cool stuff and we wanted to buy a lot. We only bought a couple things; and I’m still kicking myself for not getting that vintage Disneyland sign, but I’ve seen it at DLR so there’s still a chance. We didn’t have anything else we were dying to do in Downtown Disney other than kill some time. We had a late ADR for Ohana so we got a pretzel to tide us over for now. We wandered in and out of some stores before going back to the bus. We had a brief wait before a bus came, but it filled up when we were next. Luckily though another bus to the Poly was right behind it.
– salt & pepper shakers we bought a set of
– didn’t buy these plates but I did get the one in the background that has the old Disneyland park map on it
We stayed at the Poly on our previous trip and loved it. It was our first choice for this trip, but was incredibly expensive. On that trip Moms discovered Ohana when we were checking out the resort and wanted to eat there. Of course it was all booked up though. Ever since then it’s been one of our main reasons to get back to WDW. I found this ADR before we had even really planned a trip.
We arrived and the Poly was still under refurb at the time. It was pretty sad to see the hotel in that shape. It didn’t have the vibe we loved so much. We checked in and got a buzzer, but they told us they were running behind. We walked out to the boat dock and the Electric Water Pageant was starting right after we got there. We stayed to watch that before going back to wait. Our ADR was for 9:00PM, which is a terrible time for an ADR at Ohana. The reason is that people stay and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks after they eat. So with our 9:00 ADR we didn’t get seated until 10:00. By the time food came I was too hungry to take pictures. Maybe we had overhyped the place after wanting to eat there for a couple years; maybe it was having to wait an extra hour to eat; maybe it was the woman at the table next to us who was talking very loudly during the entire meal; or maybe the food just wasn’t that good. After all this time though we were disappointed with Ohana. I did really like the steak though, and the bread pudding was amazing and I wish we had saved some room for that. I’d be willing to give it another try, but I don’t think Moms would.
– Grand Floridian
– Electric Water Pageant
– I think the Lapu Lapu was the only thing that made the wait bearable
– I had recovered enough to take a picture of the amazing bread pudding.
By now it was around 11:30 and we had to figure out a way from hotel to hotel. The biggest weakness in Disney transportation. We took the monorail to MK, then a bus to AKL. The bus ride took even longer since they couldn’t go the direct route due to the closed roads. We ended up on a road that took us behind Animal Kingdom. It reminded me of Jurassic Park going that way. We got back to the room and zonked out for the night.